Not Quite A Spending Spree
Posted on | January 31, 2006 at 8:54 pm | 8 Comments
Random Odds and Ends:
Saw The Matador this weekend. Pretty entertaining and funny, and no big technical problems at the theater and no rudeness to speak of, even though it was a fairly full showing. One thing that I didn’t get is that Pierce Brosnan’s character, the burned-out hitman, is supposedly really attractive to the opposite sex. Yet he seemed really sleazy and low-rent. So, are you women really turned on by the sight of this aging, chest-hair sprouting, emotionally-needy assassin dude? James Bond he was not.
Also, part of the movie takes place in Denver, though there wasn’t much in the way of location shooting. There was a DIA scene, which looked like it was really filmed in DIA but with some stuff moved around. There was an exterior shot that looked more like L.A. than Denver. And in a traffic report on the radio, the announcer mentioned a traffic jam at “6th Avenue & Lincoln”, which kind of works, but then also said something about “Highway 685″, which does not exist. (There is a Highway 285 though.) It’s like they only did half their homework.
Got the She Wants Revenge CD today (see Sue’s blog entry). Haven’t listened to it yet, but I did rip it to iTunes and it’s one of those annoying discs that has a bunch of four second silent tracks at the end before a Hidden Track. 66 tracks in all. I thought that kind of thing went out in the 90s. And Music Collector won’t catalog it because it isn’t even in freedb yet, probably because no one wanted to type in all those track titles. Doubly annoying.
Also bought the DVD of The Aristocrats, which InfK will be happy to hear. I probably wouldn’t have bothered, but it looks like there are a lot of interesting extras, including some of the comedians telling the vulgar title joke in its entirety. BTW, I’ve been really good with my DVD purchases the last year or so, only buying things I know I will watch repeatedly. Besides, I’m out of room to store them. And eventually I’ll have to replace them all with whatever HighDef DVD format wins out in the long run. Though I think I’ve learned my lesson about buying anything I’m even slightly interested in, just in order to have enough stuff to watch in the format. Hopefully learned my lesson, anyway.
I still have not compiled my list of the best albums of 2005, nor have I put together a best-of compilation CD. Believe it or not, I’m still listening to stuff, and still finding new stuff from last year that I really like. I realize I have to draw the line somewhere, but I was never very good at drawing.
Got a new Motorola RAZR phone – my first new cell phone in two years. Renewed my contract with Cingular (which I got stuck with when they merged with AT&T Wireless). Now I’m all digital, GSM, though I don’t notice that much difference reception-wise etc. from my old analog phone/service. This is however my first phone with a camera, and the thinness of it is very cool.
I don’t have much comment on the Academy Award ™ nominations, since there weren’t a lot of surprises there. I have yet to see Capote or Brokeback Mountain. and though Crash, Munich, and Good Night, And Good Luck were all decent movies, I’m not sure any of them were The Best. But then again, my three favorite movies of the year were Batman Begins (which did get one nomination for cinematography, which was cool), Sin City (shutout) and Serenity (also shutout). So I’m probably not real in tune with the Academy. Oscars, I wish I could quit you. Though it will be fun to Jon Stewart host the show.
Latre.
Comments
8 Responses to “Not Quite A Spending Spree”
January 31st, 2006 @ 11:56 pm
Well, it’s not as if I get a cut of sales for Aristocrats, I just know a couple of the people involved and I’m happy about its success. I don’t even plan to buy the DVD myself; the wife’s boss has it on her Netflix list so we’ll get to borrow it soon enough, and eventually the editor of the film will finish his work on an upcoming National Lampoon radio series and get back to a project we’re hoping to put together, at which point I can probably scam a freebie… I am looking forward to the extra features! Studio pressure is to make shorter films these days, which can be shown more often per day – so they had to cut out a LOT of good stuff. Stanhope’s version rated its own featurette.
Speaking of Aristocrats-related people, Sarah Silverman’s “Jesus is Magic” made $1.2 million in the box office, I read. Pretty impressive for something that probably cost $50k to produce…
February 1st, 2006 @ 4:39 am
I’m still hearing records that might have been contenders for the best-of list if I’d heard them sooner. Latest: The High Dials.
February 1st, 2006 @ 9:56 am
I hear you on the list thing, though I’m hoping to work on it this week while I’m on vacation. I’ll save you a spot for the She Wants Revenge show tonight at the Larimer, I know how much you’ve been looking forward to going.
February 1st, 2006 @ 11:47 am
66 tracks? All I can say is, at least it wasn’t 69. Heh heh.
February 1st, 2006 @ 2:59 pm
I think you bought it cuz of the cover. Anyway: I often end up manually typing things into Music Collector – sometimes I’ll even submit it to freedb (but only*after* proofreading – grrrr but I hate people who submit stuff w/o proofing it).
February 1st, 2006 @ 3:02 pm
I did end up typing the whole thing and submitting it to freedb (after proofreading it, of course – and it was a good thing I did, since I caught an error). So hopefully that will help other people. I noticed it was pretty messed up in CDDB (or whatever iTunes uses). Someone tried to be funny with the names of the 4-second tracks.
Alan, have a good time at the show!
February 2nd, 2006 @ 3:14 am
Well, I’d like to think I’m not a hatah, and I had an insane fun time at the bar, but there was absolutely no need for SWR to be physically present considering their actual contribution to the night. When a band is halfway through their set before you realize they’re playing instead of the DJ…
February 2nd, 2006 @ 8:07 am
Well, I guess I’m doubly glad I didn’t go then. Not that there was ever really a chance on a School Night. I don’t know how you young kids do it.