Live high, live mighty, live righteously

Listening to: Jukebox the Ghost, "Hold It In."The Midwest may be devoid of natural disasters like earthquakes or wildfires but it can be extremely difficult to fly in at times. Try going through Chicago sometime during the winter. You're pretty much guaranteed a delay. I'd been getting so used to the short commute between San Diego and San Francisco that flying to Michigan this past weekend seemed really far away. When we landed, we sat on the...

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

It wasn't going to be hard for T2 to make tons of money. Just do what every big budget sequel does. More money, more characters, more action, bigger explosions. In that respect, Transformers pretty much covered it all. Shia Labeouf didn't exactly reach for new heights and that was fine, Megan Fox was given ten times more "I'm sexy, stare at me" scenes, and Optimus Prime was twenty times more kick-ass than last time.Any Autobot not named Optimus...

Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

Where were you when Michael Jackson passed away?A McDonald's six minutes away from Detroit airport. We were fueling up while waiting for Hong's flight to arrive. Eric got a call from Anna telling him that MJ was headed to the hospital. A few minutes later, we saw on the CNN ticker that he passed while in transit. Mega mix of his hits ensues. Michael Jackson song titles play a prominent role in the best man's speech at the wedding I was at over...

A Love Lost

"For most of us love is largely a matter of shared mortgage payments, evenings curled up on the couch in front of a video, or maybe a night in a hotel for an anniversary. But Cristina Nehring has a different idea. Her ardent polemic, 'A Vindication of Love,' puts forward a darker, more demanding vision of love. This is not, it should be said right away, a book without ambition: the subtitle is 'Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century,' though it is not exactly romance Nehring is writing about, but a more difficult, vital image of passion...

Mistoffelees

Listening to: Mika, "Billy Brown." They're importing all these British singers and this guy never got over here? I can't stop listening to his (eclecticly) catchy album. When I heard this track I instantly loved it, and I couldn't figure out why. Then it hit me that it reminded me of Cats. I know, too much information.To be honest, the real reason I got hooked on Mika was because of this amazing wedding video my friend showed me. Now, I'm nowhere...

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting

Listening to: Death Cab for Cutie, "Cath..." Apparently this song was inspired by Wuthering Heights. I whipped through half of the book yesterday when I was supposed to be writing. But it was for a good cause because book club is on Sunday.So for the past seven weeks I've been taking this class on Tuesdays, "The Comedy of Life, Death, & Art" over at Kearny Street Workshop. Here's the blurb that sucked me in:"Life doesn't try to be funny;...

The Money Line

Listening to: Bishop Allen, "The News From Your Bed." This song is just happy happy. I dare you to listen and not bop your head.The big question people usually ask about being a writer is, "So, how much do you make?" Except for a fortunate few, that answer is usually "not enough." Then again, how much would you want to be paid to do something you love? And to have a publishing house print and promote your work? You'd probably pay them to do it...

Tumbleweeding

I've been kind of failing at blogging. My goal was to blog every other day starting in June -- and there's been so much happening -- but I've pretty much failed in keeping to my schedule. I have, however, been Tumblr-ing a lot. I noticed awhile back that everyone seemed to have a side Tumblr and I couldn't figure out why they'd choose to do over just posting on their Blogger or Word Press. Now I (kind of) get it. Even though the basic idea of...

Food, Inc (2009)

As I munched on super buttered popcorn and fought the urge to fall asleep, I wondered if corn was my top one food item because I like it or if, as the movie informed me, everything is made out of corn so I'm forced to love it.Actually, the movie didn't inform me as much as it did re-tell me. I mean, if you've read Fast Food Nation, or Omnivore's Dilemma, you know everything Food, Inc. has to tell you. In fact, the movie feels like it should have...

Up (2009)

There's been ten total Pixar movies and the last few have underwhelmed me. Cars was whatever, Ratatouille was terrible, and only half of Wall-E was amazing. But maybe that's setting the bar too high. Not everything can be a Monsters, Inc. or A Bug's Life. Having said that, Up was definitely worth watching (especially in 3D) but also nothing exceedingly memorable.My theory is that Pixar movies with humans featured prominently ruins it. I'd prefer...

Wonder Emporium

Here's an interview with Susie (boygirlparty) over at Pikaland. Susie's already like famous and everywhere but this interview has so many great pictures of her stuff I had to link to it. Plus there's a prominent photo of one of my favorite pieces of hers: the hedgehog playing the piano. I like walking into stores, finding her stuff, and saying (loudly), "Oh I know her! Isn't she great!" Then I kind of strut away.I've seen Susie paint on her tiny...

Geek Limbo

Fantasy writer David Eddings passed away yesterday. It's only fitting then, that tonight, totally unexpectedly, I found myself geeking it out with a friend, both of us peeling back additional layers of geek/dorkdom as I sipped on my water and he downed a non-Belgian beer. We had started off at a safe place. Magic the Gathering. Dorky, but semi-mainstream (relatively). Then we dug a little deeper to talk of roleplaying games and Dungeons and...