Slumdog Millionaire

We actually saw this over a week ago. I decided to take a day off, a Friday, simply because I felt like I hadn't really had a winter vacation due to the three of us being sick. We took one of the gift cards we received from my parents and had lunch at Chili's (after dropping off Lorelei at my Mom & Dad's) and another gift card for the tickets at AMC.

Lunch was good. Had a pretty good burger with the thickest bacon slices I think I've ever seen.

Slumdog Millionaire? It's pretty good. But for fuck's sake, it's not worth all the insufferable hype it's getting. It's basically just a Frank Capra feel-good flick set in India. That's about all you need to know. I found the constant flashbacks (part of the framing device for the film's plot) annoying and quite frankly over-directed. In fact, through the middle, oh, 60-70% of the film I was just bored.

Now the Academy nominations are out and I find that not only has it recieved 10 nominations, but The Dark Knight is shut out Best Picture and worst of all, 2 Slumdog songs and NO Bruce Springsteen? Fuck you Academy. It's rare that I fall in love from a song from any movie, but I had to have Springsteen's The Wrestler as soon as it showed up on iTunes. Which was before the film was released anywhere! I loved it just from the trailer. And the Academy in it's infinite wisdom shuns Bruce in favor of two songs from Slumdog Millionaire?

Let me say it again.

Fuck you Academy.

Oh, and Slumdog Millionaire is overrated.

Requiescat In Pace, Taylor

Just over a week ago, our friend Taylor passed away at the age of 36.

I knew Taylor from OWBN. First as a Brujah of checkered past named Angel, then the Toreador "Messiah of Metal" named Warren Peace. He was a great roleplayer, but more than anything, he was just a great guy.

He always seemed to be in a good mood, though I know that can't be true. He always had a kind word or an amusing (or even downright hilarious) story to be told. He also had a unique talent for telling jokes, stories or just comments that could be the most crude and awful, but somehow no one was ever offended and in fact they always made us all laugh.

I remember the time he got Shawna, prissy elementary school teacher, to turn red with embarrassment when he "entranced" her character with his ass. I remember the time we talked about vampires in movies, in particular Twilight. I remember geeking out about wrestling with him. His Toreador was the John Morrison to my PC's (Johnny Chang) Miz. We were the first holders of the OWBN Anarch Tag Team Championship belts, though I'm not sure that we'll go forward with that anymore.

It's a shame in so many ways that he's no longer here.

May his memory live longer in our hearts and minds than he did here on earth.

The Wrestler

We managed to sneak out of the house Friday afternoon to go see The Wrestler. Went up to the Laemmle in Pasadena after having lunch at Barney's Beanery. Good food by the way.

The Wrestler is a beautiful, moving film. It is also easily the most heartbreaking film I have ever seen.

Once the opening credits finish (well done by the way), the heartbreak begins. It's just tragic to see this washed-up, broken down wreck of a man unable to give up on wrestling. He just can't move on, because it's the one place where everything makes sense to him, it's the one place where his soul can't be hurt though his body is battered. For that, you can't blame him. But you also see how it's stunted every other part of his life.

Mickey Rourke just disappears into the role of Randy "the Ram" Robinson. At no point was I thinking about the actor, I just saw The Ram. Part of that was the very smart choice to film at real Combat Zone Wrestling and Ring of Honor events and have real wrestlers interacting with The Ram and not just in the ring. When you see the Necro Butcher or Ron Killings or Frankie Kazarian hanging out with The Ram and treating him like one of the guys, it's not Mickey Rourke they are hanging out with backstage, it's Randy "The Ram" Robinson, wrestling legend.

Gotta give a shout out to Marissa Tomei too. Great work as the aging stripper, totally afraid of human contact but desperately wanting it. And hotter than a lot of girls half her age.

I loved the ending. Perfectly done. The last few minutes are utterly heartrending and when the screen goes black, it makes sense. The screen stays dark as Bruce Springsteen's song comes on and stays that way for something like 30 seconds or more, forcing you to listen to the lyrics of the song specially written for Mickey and the film. Unusual, but highly effective.

Beautiful film. Mandatory watching for any fan, present or former, of wrestling. And just incredible work by Rourke, Tomei and Darren Aronofsky.

Happy New Year!

Well, it's been a mess in the Jameson house.

The holiday vacation seemed to come late again this year, and the few days leading up to Christmas were just too hectic, like normal. The three days of Christmas (yes, that's what I said) went well and I think everyone got good presents and had a good time. Then both Lorelei and I got sick. She got a cold, I got some sort of stomach flu. Let's just say it was a disgusting as you might imagine. I'm better, but by now, Lorelei's cold has stuck around and morphed into an ear infection and now today, Amanda has the stomach flu. Great way to ring in the new year!

The Christmas lights came out cool. I think I entertained a lot of the neighborhood.

Probably won't get to see The Wrestler tomorrow if Amanda is still sick. Oh well. Like I said, it's been a mess in the Jameson house. Puking baby, puking daddy, puking mommy all in the last week. Oh joy. It's almost like I haven't really had a vacation at all.

Survived Thanksgiving

Well, that was a long weekend.

Wednesday was chaos. A half day at work, but we had to do things like hit the market, take Lorelei for her Thanksgiving and Christmas studio portraits and then go get charcoal so I could smoke the turkeys. And it turned out that Barbecue's Galore were being sh!t heads and closed at 4pm...I got there a bit after 5. Luckily, I knew that the nearby BevMo had lump hardwood charcoal (no damn briquettes for me) but that added an easy half hour to the day.

Thanksgiving Day involved smoking up over 30 pounds of turkey. A bit of work and stress, but everyone loved it. I think I'm totally stuck for years to come smoking up the turkeys for Thanksgiving, no matter if it's the in-laws or my own parents. Had to drive back and forth a lot though, because Amanda needed stuff from the market and to deliver the pies to her mom and dad and we accidentally left Lorelei's dresses from the photo-shoot at JC Penny's...we had to buy new tights and shoes and we were stressed that the beautiful dresses, especially the Christmas one, were gone forever. And that would have totally sucked to be blunt.

Jim Paladino came over for dinner by the way. He's got no family and it really does him good to come over to ours. He ate like there was no tomorrow. He's a good guy.

Black Friday was another zoo. We left the house about 10 and didn't make it back until after dark. We did manage to get some good stuff on pretty good sales, but man, I'm just not sure it's worth it.

Oh yeah, I managed to get sick Thursday night. Been sick all weekend long; didn't even leave the house for a moment on Saturday. I did manage to get them up, about 90%, on Sunday. Still need a few more extension cords and a few more strings of lights to really round things out. But they are dancing to the music as I type this. I'll try to see if I can't get a few moments or two of video posted.

But we survived. And now it's on to Christmas!

No work today!

It's sort of surreal. Because of the Triangle Complex fires, which aren't that far away, I don't have to work today.

It's a combination of the awful air quality and the fact that Walnut High School is being used as an evacuation center I think. Technically, it's a student free day and by taking the day off I'm using a personal day. But it's not like I don't have something like 40+ sub days anyway.

It's just a bit odd. Mentally I was set to work today. And now I'm not really sure what to do. I guess just enjoy it!

Barack Doomed to Failure

We now know who will be our 44th President. And I think he's doomed to failure.

Quite simply, he's become the Black Messiah, the Great Left Hope, the man charged with changing the entire world. He's supposed to give us Universal Healthcare, lower taxes, get us out of Iraq and Afghanistan by summer, kill the coal industry, save the environment and oh yeah, rescue our economy.

He just can't do it. It's not that he's a bad guy or incapable or anything. I didn't vote for him, but he deserves a chance now that he's elected. But the expectations and hopes surrounding him are just way too high. No one could do everything Obama is supposed to do. There's just no way he can do it all. And he's being expected to do it all.

But he's become the Messiah of the Left and of African-Americans. I saw a t-shirt the other day at the mall for sale. It had his head, his bust, on the foreground. In the background was the presidential seal. Okay. But the way it was put together had it looking like he had a freakin' halo! The presidential seal had been turned into (accidentally or not) a halo for our president-elect!

I almost feel bad for the guy. I just honestly believe he's doomed to failure.