Rants

One Outa Two Ain’t Bad

We got 8 minutes into Identity and turned it off. The secret to making a good serial killer movie is to either make the audience care for a) the killer or b) the victims, and in this short time we could tell we didn’t care for, nor would we ever care for, either.

Next up was Le Cercle Rouge and it was definitely anti-Hollywood. The pacing is deliberate and the dialog sparse, but maybe a just bit too much, at around the 2 hour mark I missed an important plot twist (possibly during one of the several 2 seconds naps I took) and when the bang, bang shoot-’em up ending happened I’m not sure exactly what took place. All in all a good movie, but don’t run right out to Blockbuster and get it.

I have such high hopes when I read the critical reviews about these films and then when I get them home and start watching them I wonder WTF was I thinking. After rereading the sleeve blurb on the last movie I have at home, Better Luck Tomorrow I’m not so sure I want to watch it anymore either.

Is That A Snack? Gonna Share?

Every morning for nearly all our married life, my wife packs up my lunch for me. It usually consists of a fresh made sandwich, a soda, some cookies in a plastic sandwich bag, a few ounces of carrots in a sandwich bag, half an apple cut up in slices in a sandwich bag, some raisins or maybe grapes in a plastic sandwich bag and a snack pudding. I kind of graze all day, grabbing a plastic sandwich bag of something every couple of hours. I’m a lucky guy.

Donna recently changed purses, replacing an old one with something a little smaller. She used to keep all her make-up stuff in a see-thru case on one side of the old purse for easy access. Donna would take it out and “fix her face” as I drove us to work each day. The see-thru thing was a little too big for the new purse and not wanting to lose the ability to see what she had, Donna put the make-up stuff in a plastic sandwich bag. Now, each morning on the commute when she pulls out that sandwich bag, I, having been conditioned like Pavlov’s dog from years of snacking from those same types of bags, don’t think lipstick, but cookies, etc. I don’t have to see it, just hearing that faint rustling sound and I wonder if she will share some of that food with me.

Bye-Bye Miata Magazine

Today marked the end of an Era. Actually, the end was a few months ago, this is more like the beginning, but it is the end for me.

When I bought my first Miata back in 1989, I did so without the knowledge that this car is more than just a transportation module, but it is a way of life. About a month after buying it a magazine showed up in my mail, a magazine devoted entirely to my new little roadster. It contained columns, how-to articles, travel articles, pictures, letters to the editor and ads for parts. Because I waited so long to take delivery (108 days) this was actually issue #2. I immediately subscribed (by joining the Miata Club of America) and ordered back issue #1. It started out as a quarterly and grew to a bi-monthly about 5 years back. I have every issue stacked neatly in the base of my nightstand. It is great to look back occasionally, like looking at your kids photos from when they were in each grade of school.

Several years back the Miata Club of America folded because of accounting improprieties by the founder and president. The magazine soldiered on with out the support and database of the MCA. Then later, Mazda the corporation stepped in and formed a company backed club, the Miata Owners Club. The magazine found some support. Then less than a year later Mazda closed the Club. Again the magazine lost money and another database. Like the last time, word of mouth (or more appropriately word of electrons, email) saved the day by contacting subscribers so that they could still receive the magazine, now once again fully independent. A couple of times through this, I considered not renewing, I was tiring of it all, the net had replaced most of functions provided by the mag, but in a show of support for the poor publisher (mainly one woman and her family) I continued.

With dwindling subscribers and without the backing of a nationwide Club the magazine was facing hard times last year. A decision was made to embrace the corporate zoom-zoom strategy and now cater to not just Miatas, but all of Mazda?s “sports” cars including the new RX-8 and the new 3 and 6 models…

Today I got my first issue (of how many more I don’t know) and I can now break clean. I was barely hanging on when it was just Miatas, but I don’t care one wit for the other cars. I wish them luck with their new direction, but I’m doubling back on the old road. I may do like I do for the X-Files, every other month on the 15th, I’ll break out an old issue and read it, working my way back up to the end.

Naqoyqatsi

For tonight’s internet pleasure I present one movie review and two links (one profoundly disturbing and and one profoundly narcasisitic.)

We watched Naqoyqatsi this afternoon and I was disappointed. Read the review of the fellow on the IMDB site, as he said it better than I could. I really loved Koyaanisqatsi when I saw it on a PBS station in the middle 80’s. I had a VHS copy of the movie, but it disappeared somewhere during a move. When it was finally released on DVD in 2002 I immediately bought a copy. It came packaged with the second movie of the trilogy, Powaqqatsi, which I had never seen. The first movie is still the best. The time-lapse photography is really thought provoking, making you look at everyday life in a new manner. Rent Koyaanisqatsi, if you like it watch the second one too, but leave #3, Naqoyqatsi alone. It is a shame because even though I don’t like the movie I feel compelled to buy it to complete the set…

I found this in a May of 2002 archive of one of my regular blog reads, The Neurotic Fishbowl: Spiderman. =8O

This one is from a current post of another regular read, Missives Anonymous: Fontifier

Where Has All The Glamour Gone?

Today’s Photo Friday challenge is Glamour and I had a very hard time coming up with a picture for it.

Tonight we made a little outing to the local mall and I brought along my camera figuring I’d snap a glamorous mannequin in one of the stores or in their window. Nope. Couldn’t find a single one, at least not a complete one anyway. A few waist up things with no heads and a couple of full bodied ones, again with no head. How glamorous is a neck stump? Not very.

My back up plan was to head into the book store and snap a pic of the magazine Glamour, but they don’t carry it or it was either sold out.

I ended up with a nebulous challenge filler, using definition #3 and an old Miata photo.

I remember when we first moved to Aiken 15 years ago, everyone was so excited as they were just breaking ground on our very own mall. No more driving all the way over to Augusta, GA. After a year and a half of watching the building get constructed, it opened with much fanfare and a 65% occupancy rate. All the stores we names of stores you would see in any mall (although in some cases, 2/3 scale of a regular mall stores because we are a smaller market.) They all had big bold neon signs and marble store fronts with shiny glass and brass. Marble tile floors and bright lighting. It was a glamorous place to shop.

Over the years the place filled up to near capacity with stores, but somewhere along the way shoppers tastes changed. Malls became passe, the strip mall, anchored by Targets and Old Navy stores experienced a renaissance. The malls occupancy rates fell. The unthinkable happened and an anchor store left. Then another. In an effort to survive they cut rents and now former cart merchants moved in the abandoned store fronts. Gone were the nice signs, replaced with hastily created canvas banners. Store with names you never heard of moved in. The occupancy rate is approaching 65% again.

It is not so glamorous to shop in the mall anymore. The once hallowed halls of upscale commercialism is now becoming a giant Wal-Mart where the departments are separated with walls instead of aisles.

TV Life Is Good

It’s sweeps month. TV is fresher: 4 weeks of first run Friends. TV is livelier: famous guest stars like Danny Devito pop up on Friends. TV is sexier: Danny Devito plays a stripper at Phoebe?s bachelorette party on Friends. I don’t watch Friends, but I get to see promos for the show on one I do. Sweeps means I get to see fresh episodes of West Wing.

The title of this post was intended as sarcasm, but who am I to judge? And really, what is more believable, Phoebe becoming aroused with a naked Danny Devito or Tony Zeigler, presidential aide single handedly brokering the salvation of Social Security?

WalFuckingMart

I know I brought this on my self, I’ll never learn, etc. but we made a shopping trip to Wal-Mart tonight. We need a bathroom scale and one of those triangular pillows for sitting up in bed. First stop Target, they had scales, but no pillow. I suggested Wal-Mart because they are just the type of store to have those pillows. Plus it was Tuesday at 9 PM, it shouldn’t be to crowded. So we put the scale back and headed up the street to Wally World.

The store was not crowded. Wal-Mart HQ must know that this is an off night for shoppers, so they restock. We nearly got run over twice by associates hauling goods out to the shelves on carts. We couldn’t find the pillow here either. A woman swore they had some just yesterday, but they weren’t where there were, so they were gone. Picked out a scale and headed for the checkouts. They were manned as if there was nobody in the store. This is one of those big ol’ Supercenters with like 35 checkout lanes, two were open. Each line was 6 deep with people with full carts. No express lanes were open. After 5 minutes of standing and steaming, I told Donna, “Just put it down, we’ll go back to Target.”

Sorry, Wally World you just lost $34.95 +tax, Target got it.