Inglourious Basterds. Hot. Hot. Hot.

I ended up watching Inglourious Basterds after picking up Marie from Laguardia Airport. Going into the movie, the only thing I remember was that I did like a trailer for it; the one where Brad Pitt had the smug look on his face, telling his troops that they were gonna kill Nazis.

Well the movie surpassed all expectations. Quentin Tarantino is one hell of a storyteller, and even saying that, this might be his best movie yet. Once again, the characters are so fleshed out; the Nazi Colonel and the French movie theater owner were my absolute favorites. There are 5 Chapters to the movie, and each Chapter was utterly crucial. Of course, all the homages and references Tarantino makes to old movies (Dirty Dozen, Reservoir Dogs, etc.) were tasteful and did not detract one bit from the story.

It was also cool seeing Daniel Bruehl from Goodbye Lenin (amazing German movie) as one of the lead characters. And I also recognized that the bar owner in one of the scenes was a doctor in another German movie Downfall (Der Untergang). Diane Kruger, Brad Pitt, and Michael Myers performed well. And of course, B.J. Novak. You can't go wrong with B.J. Novak.

There's talk of the Nazi Colonel (Christoph Waltz) perhaps getting an academy award for his performance; I 100% agree. The Colonel's performance is mesmerizing, to put it mildly. He's cunning, resourceful, an opportunist, and evil and communicates this in 3 languages. Sooo good. Also his mannerisms are pretty amazing too.

Conclusion: Best Quentin Tarantino movie yet. Best film of the year so far. And I'm most likely going to see the movie again in the theatres. It was that awesome.

Observations about myself. August 2009.

I started drinking coffee last week (hazelnut cappuccino to be exact), and have found out that I need it more than ever to stay alert at work. The fruitful beginnings of a dependence is what you can say. The downside is that once the caffeine is diffused through my bloodstream, I have this nervous energy in my system. It seems as if my body is warning me that the apocalypse is coming and that we are all doomed . I don’t like this feeling, but it’s the trade-off for not falling asleep at work.

Conclusion: GO APOCALYPSE!

I think I’m a suspender type of guy. Once I learn how to actually wear them correctly.

CONCLUSION: look up how to put on suspenders at youtube.

I treasure female companionship more than male companionship on the whole, although sometimes when I’m with a super close male friend of mine, like Greg Fine, then I’m really 100% suffused with being in that moment with that particular male friend.

CONCLUSION: hang out with Greg and family once again.

I need to start running again, for my body’s sake. Especially if I want to run a marathon in two years. I need that feeling of being healthy again.

CONCLUSION: start simple run this weekend: 1-2 miles only.

I really enjoyed playing and singing with Rachel Zamstein. She is an unbelievably talented musician in all aspects, and in a way I feel like we’ve been spiritual friends in past lives. Like maybe she was a knight in the middle ages, and I was her stable boy.

CONCLUSION: play and create more shenanigans with Rachel.

I wish I had ½ half the ingenuity and talent of my friend Nick Jenkins. The dude is brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.

CONCLUSION: Snatch Nick Jenkin’s genius if it happens to accidently spill out of his head. Claim innocence for snatching said genius.


I like the fact that at work, I’m known as the ‘go to guy if you don’t want to waste your food’. My co-worker Tina just asked me “I want just how you much food you can eat in a day. I’m going to buy a bunch of food, and just keep feeding you the whole day.” I replied “I welcome the opportunity and the challenge”.

CONCLUSION: keep up my splendid reputation.

Fri,Feb. 20 - Back to the Future II is a LIE. Where the hell is my hoverboard?

And my flying car that runs on fusion? and the mini Dominoes pizza that you put in the dehydrator? None of this is true. I guess we still have 6 more years until all of this transpires, but I'm not holding my breath for these predictions to happen.

However, I am excited about one prediction that will happen:

SINGULARITY.

The singularity is near.


Singularity, according to Singularityhub.com, is

"The point in mankind’s future when we will transcend current intellectual and biological limitations and initiate an intelligence and information explosion beyond imagining. "


Basically, singularity will possibly be the most important event ever to happen to humankind, and it's supposed to happen around or before 2050. By then, advances in technology, nanotechnology, and computers will make it possible to eradicate all diseases, and prolong human life considerably. Also, most human beings by that time will have some sort of biotechnological advancement implanted in their body, that the majority of us would actually be classified as being android than 100% human being.

I personally welcome it. As long as human beings still have free will, and not controlled by some diabolical superintelligent machine, then i'm down with it. I ain't down with Terminator 2.

And I do want to live forever. I read somewhere that advancements might go a thousandfold within the next 50 years, that computers might have the possibility of mapping out and downloading consciousness. So basically, we can never die. All we'd have to do is find an exterior machine/body where our consciousness will be able to control.

I'm totally cool with that. I want to be like 5,000 years old and still kicking it and songwriting it and kissing beautiful ladies and traveling through space. I'd be known as the Ancient One. That's so badass.

Feb. 19 - Demetri Martin LIVE at The Bowery Ball Room = AWESOME.

He even made a joke about using the word awesome, which I’m sure he’ll be using on his show soon.

Casey and I went, and basically for an hour and 15 minutes we received the revelation of Demetri’s Genius. Like genius with a capital G. He’s that good.

My favorite part of the show was when he read out these fliers he made. But all of the show was really witty and clever. Pretty much Martin’s bonafide m.o.

It seemed like he was trying out new material, because he brought a tape recorder, and whenever a joke didn’t do as well, he took his recorder and said something to the effect of “note to self: do not do suicide joke. Not as funny live as it seems in bedroom.” He also plays this vintage Casio keyboard (I think it’s an SK 1) , and sings his jokes while he does it.

Favorite joke of the night, which Casey and I agreed : “The number of balls juggled by a man is inverse proportional to the number of girls who want to juggle that man’s balls.” Once he said that, Casey and I looked at each other, and said “Kaler!!!” in reference to our friend Josh Kaler, guitar player/drummer for Slow Runner, and professional juggler.

Ah, Kaler. We miss you, you bastard.

I’ve been a fan of Demetri ever since I saw that comedy central special of him a couple of years ago. It was an honor to watch him perform live. I think my brain had an orgasm.

Wed. Feb 18th - First Potluck of 2009!

Was a good time had by all. It happened three weeks ago, so I can’t promise that my memory will be 100% accurate…but I’ll try my best.

Cast of characters:

Laura B
Dave and Isabelle
Jannes
Karin and Riki
Laura’s male friend, the actor
Laura’s cat



I got the invite from Marie, who got it from Dave and Isabelle. I went over Laura B’s place at Sunnyside. Dave answered the door, and when I entered, everyone was around a table, playing a card game.

Not sure what the card game was called, so here’s the gist: You have 7 cards, all with nouns. The player in charge picks up two cards in the center of the table, which are adjectives, and you and your opponents try to pick the card in your stack that best matches the description of the adjectives. The player in charge then picks the noun card he thinks fits the best with the adjective cards, and whomever card that player picks, the person who put that specific card down is the winner.

I was thrown right into the game while Laura got me a glass of wine. It was around then that I was introduced to everyone. It was nice seeing Jannes from Berlin again; he gave me a card with his band’s myspace info on it. Dave and Isabelle were there too, solid and happy to be there. I met Laura’s friend, the Actor, though I do not remember his name. He seemed like a gentle guy, and I believe went to college with her at Charleston. Then I got to meet Karin and Riki, who both taught and traveled with Laura in Thailand. Besides having awesome names, they were really nice, and told me a little bit about their adventures there (something about elephants, if I remember correctly) …and about the food. Oh my God, I love Thai food. Karin and RIki were staying with Laura for a few months.

I brought 2 bags of Terra Chips, which were happily consumed by everyone, especially Karin. Most of the other guests had already eaten, so there was a plate of fancy crackers, brie and a bagel pizza waiting for me. Of course I ate everything…because you never turn down a food offer from the host. Ever.

For some reason, Karin kept winning (approximately 4 out of every 6 tries), which was starting to bug me, since I ended up not winning a game the whole night. But I got over it, especially after she told a funny story regarding her dad. Oh, and Laura’s cat was there, and everyone else was petting her, except for me. But somehow I wasn’t feeling allergic, which usually never happens. I wonder if her cat is hypoallergenic, if there is such a thing as hypoallergenic cats.

After Isabelle and Dave left, I spent another half an hour hanging. Laura had her laptop open, so we showed each other youtube videos (my God, has we all gone geeky?) I of course showed them the 1st part of Food Party.. Then Jannes showed us an animated video of this kid who recorded John Lennon with a tape recorder back in the late 60’s; it was a little long-winded (Lennon can yap for a ridiculous amount of time) but did have its pretty moments.

All in all, it was a good time. I do believe that we might have a tea party in a couple of weeks, and perhaps do a blind tea taste test, to see if if my company’s tea is better than the tea Karin buys. Stay tuned…

Wrestling With The Wrestler

I saw the Wrestler with Marie and her friends Terri and Emily, and Bill. At the Landmark Theatre on E. Houston, after spending a couple of hours at the progressive book store near Rockwoods.

The Wrestler is a great film, and deserves all the accolades it’s been getting. Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei were heartbreakingly honest in their performances.
The only weak link of the story is the daughter-dad relationship between Mickey and Evan Rachel Wood; although still good performances in both parts, it felt nauseatingly Hollywood cliché, and was trying to do too much in those minutes. But other than that glitch, it is a great film.

I couldn’t help thinking while watching the Wrestler, about the song The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel. Especially these lines, which I will try to cull from memory:

“I am leaving, I am leaving/ but the fighter still remains.”

I wonder if the Soderbergh and the screenwriter were inspired by this song, sing a lot of the song’s gist seems to course through The Wrestler. Don’t know.

Tues. Feb. 17. I am a Cookiemonster.

Chomp chomp chomp.

My co-worker Mary had a whole roll of these Girl Scout Cookies that she put on top of her cubicle for everyone to eat. I first took 3 cookies,
then 15 minutes later when she was at her desk, I asked her if I could take a few more cookies (about 5). She said she doesn’t eat them because they’re bad for you. Oh well.

Then 20 minutes later I went back to her desk and asked if I can take a few more. She laughed, and said to go ahead. So I took 3 more.
She said I was a cookie monster.

Yes I am.

Finally, an hour later there was still 6 cookies left in the roll. And she wasn’t at her desk, so I took the whole thing.

I love it when I get free food at my workplace. I get the same feeling like when I was a 5 year old kid, stealing Topps football cards from Pathmark supermarket, even though I had no interest in football. It’s like I stick it to the man.