Movie review of Vanilla Sky

I enjoyed Vanilla Sky (Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz) far more than I expected to. I thought it would be much more non-linear, ''artsy'', and hard to follow -- but it wasn't. (Tuesdays is the $1.95 day at the local video rental place; I like watching DVDs while I fold laundry; and I'd heard good things about Vanilla Sky.)

Entertaining; enjoyable; made me think (but thankfully, not during the movie!). A minor flash of nudity, and a moderate amount of the F-word (for those that keep track of those things - e.g. for watching it with youngsters). Also: two or three pretty darned explicit references to some soxual practices (yikes).

Good ending (note: I hate ambiguous endings; this one was only mildly ambiguous). A bit sad (IMO, anyhow). And -- curiously -- the character made a different path than what I would have.

It was good enough that I now need to go search out the Spanish movie upon which this version was based.

Also: the main character is named David -- so if you, too, are named ''David'', you might be amused to have Tom Cruise playing a rich and powerful version of yourself.


Sorry I'm being a bit oblique -- but there's a few twists in it, which I don't want to spoil.


(Today's photo has nothing to do with this post. My dad sent it to me, I liked it, and I thought I'd share.) :)


--GG

Building and hearing

Two fairly unrelated things:


1) After about two weeks of not working on it -- due to my parents and my brother staying with us -- tonight I made some more late-night progress on a small wheelbarrow and garden tool shed I've been building out of scrap lumber. Since moving in two(?) years ago, our wheelbarrow, shovels, rakes, etc. have just been leaning against the side of the house, under the eaves. But, I didn't think that was enough protection: hence, the mini-shed.

Good stuff; therapeutic; I like building things, as it engages the mind, the hands, and I can see the progress I make -- incremental though it may be.


2) Tonight I got to try out the wireless headphones I bought on Thursday. (Unpacked them Friday night -- but they batteries needed to be charged for 24 hours prior to the first use.) Works well. Tempted to buy a second set, so I can drive one set of headphones with one transmission unit -- for if and when I ever record folks in my home studio (which isn't yet set up, and won't be for quite some time...).


--GG

Did guitar, did their lives

Two components to this blog entry:


1) Brought out the electric guitar for the first time in I don't know how long. Got to use a somewhat-recently-bought guitar and amp for the first time since I picked it up at the pawn shop, as well as (for the first time!) three effects pedals The Lady gave me about a year ago. Had a good time; need to do that stuff more often.

The Girl also got to play (in a four-year-old kind of way), and I got some wonderful video footage of her strumming enthusiastically (and atonally) while singing and strutting. Good stuff for the beginning or ending of a music video, if she ever becomes a rock star.


2) Idly wondered what happened to all those people from high school and college who were nice people, but not close friends (and thus, not in contact with). Imagined myself at eighty, wondering the same thing -- how people's lives turned out -- and not knowing which of those folks were still alive, or where their lives were at (rich, poor? happy, sad?).


--GG

Death of a salesman

It seems like -- similar to the mountaineer's credo of ''Don't look down'' -- the secret to survival as a sales person is to concentrate on the successes, not the failures and rejections.

Thus, I think I may have yanked Dumbo's magic feather a few weeks ago when I observed to a salesguy at a mall kiosk that most people **didn't** stop to talk to him, when he tried his opening line. (He worked at a place that sold somewhat overpriced beauty treatments made out of sea salt, or walnut shavings from Portuguese chipmunks, or some-such.)

I suspect that I made him think -- because when I was in the mall a few days later, the kiosk was unstaffed. It was like that for a few weeks -- until last week, when they have a replacement.

Oops. Sorry, guy.


--GG

Good zombie board game

Sunday night my brother and I played ''Last Night on Earth'', a zombie board game which he mail- ordered back in Dec. or January, but hadn't yet had a chance to play. (For a review, see here.)

Pretty fun -- although (IMO) not **quite** as fun as the rave online review suggest.

On the other hand: we played once on Sunday night (me = heroes; brother = zombies), and twice on Monday night (once with me & brother-in-law = heroes, brother = zombies; and once with me = zombies, bro & bro-in-law = heroes) -- and will probably play again tonight. So...

Once you understand the rules, a game takes about an hour and a half. Maybe a touch longer.


US$50, according to the website (plus maybe S&H). For 2-6 players -- so potentially good for a small party. If you're at all into board games, it's worth it. (And, no, you don't have to be into zombie movies...)


--GG

Move recommendation for Fight Club

Tuesdays at the local video rental place -- right next to The Girl's daycare centre -- are the cheap days. So, once in a while I pick up a week-long rental for two bucks, and watch bits and pieces of it as I have time.

This last Tuesday, I rented Fight Club. Rented it for the architecture: the run-down Victorian mansion that Tyler rents.

Movie was surprisingly good. Even though I knew the "twist" ending (due to the Wikipedia summary - which is where I found out about the architecture), I still enjoyed it.

Misc. comments: brief nudities, frequent cussing, weird violence; but good dialogue; fairly nihlistic; may appeal to males more than females.


And the architecture was indeed good. :) Would be good to live in a house like that -- or, have a friend with that house.


--GG