Chocolates on the pillows of hell.

Tonight's viewing pleasure--1408. Based on a Stephen King story, 1408 follows one nasty hour in the life of writer Mike Enslin (crap, hope I got the last name correct). Mike wrote one meaningful novel then his daughter died and he lost faith in everything but himself. Now, he goes to allegedly haunted locales to see what he can see. What he does or doesn't experience gives him the stuff of his recent collection of books. He receives a strange postcard from a hotel in NYC advising him to not stay in room 1408.

Wonder what he's going to do.

John Cusack, easily one of the most under appreciated actors of my generation, completely and convincingly carries the movie on his shoulders. Once he gets settled in the hotel room, he is, for the most part, the only person we see for the bulk of the film. We follow along as he tries to logically explain away what is going on before him. What could fall into melodrama or just plain silliness with a lessor actor becomes melancholy and funny in his hands. He reacts the way most of us would react. Sometimes he's pissed, sometimes he's trying to shrug it off with a snarky comment, sometimes he just gets desperate.

The key to his character is not only his daughter's death, but also his relationship with his father. We only get a bit of insight into this second relationship, but I thought it was one of the more disturbing moments. Through his daughter's passing, Mike has given up on God and his wife. He doesn't believe in ghosts because he's never seen them. He doesn't believe in God, because no good God would have taken his child away from him.

Most of the scares are either the old fashioned bump in the night variety or are more insidiously creepy (like the use of a Carpenter's tune that suddenly blares from a clock radio at any given moment). Unlike alot of today's horror, 1408 stays away from the gore-ography or torture porn. It's more about watching someone losing their grip than it is about watching someone losing their limb.

There are a couple of mis-steps. I thought the "ghost" effect didn't really jive with the rest of the movie. I also thought the movie wrapped up a little too neatly. The "twist" moment didn't quite flow, but I got the point they were making so it was okay.

Cusack completely rocked. There is a scene late in the film that almost had me in tears. I love this man. I recommend this movie on the strength of John's performance and as a nice respite from the sometimes storyless gore that gads about quite often these days.

Not much else to report this week. Had a great dinner with Jackie on Monday evening. Work has been busy thanks to Jinn being in Vegas (still haven't heard from her yet). I'm thinking of checking out Die Hard 4 tomorrow. Please don't let me down, please don't let me down, please don't let me down...

Oh, quick work related thingie. There was an update posted today about an unnamed store where the music manager and two head cashiers were caught doing bad, bad things. Bad things to the tune of almost $3000 if I remember correctly. Made me wonder what actually happened to the hobbit. Guess I may never know.

I haven't decided what the new quote is going to be, but here's the source for the current "buttocks" quote. It's a line from Waiting For Guffman. I'm surprised Laura didn't get this one.

Wonky Bits

Here are a couple of random things since I've done such a poor job of updating this week.

David Tennant (to left) is here because I just recently re-watched Doctor Who series 2 in preparation for series 3 starting on July 6. As I usually do when I find an actor or actress I like, I am now in complete jonesing mode for Mr. Tennant. Luckily, I have a BBC mini-series to tide me over. He is lovely--seriously kick ass hair too.

As evidenced above, I have recently been reminded that this blog is a lot like my junior high diary. Lists of favorite things and mentions of cute guys I will never speak to. I will be 13 forever.

There are two strange signs that I see about my hometown these days.

First--on the window to a local bar--"Closed Due To Divorce"

Second--a handmade sign in someone's yard--"Clowns For Hire"

Ewwww....

A customer recently came into the store wanting to return a book for which they had the receipt. They were told they could get a store credit, but we could not put the money back on their credit card. They got horked over this option. The reason we couldn't credit back the card? The book had been purchased in 2005!! Proof again that the idea of the "customer is always right" is a load of crap and should be seriously re-thought.

Uber came into the back today and noticed we'd gotten in some bookbags. We recently put the old style on sale in order to make way for the new design. The less than scientific poll that has been taken in back has revealed that the majority of those asked think the bags look like poo. They weigh a ton even before you get books inside them. There is a big green triangle that says the name of the company on it. It looks like a burlap sack and a military bag had nasty sex and this thing was created. Even better, it costs $30.

Uber asked if I knew who designed the new bag.

I said, "Someone who should have taken more design classes?"

He didn't laugh.

I then asked who designed the bag.

It was our CEO.

Nice.

WATCH IT:

If you missed the Star Wars themed Robot Chicken on Cartoon Network this past Sunday, you should definitely check out adultswim.com to see the clips that made up the show. Anyone with any sort of love or appreciation of Star Wars will find much of it hilarious. I especially liked the Emperor's Phone Call bit and the bit involving Boba Fett and Han Solo.

David Bowie makes it sound nice.

I hate change. I don't do well when it happens. I like to have things planned out (something most of you already know about me, esp. in regards to hanging out). This past Mon. one of my receiving peeps let me know that he had finally decided when he was going to move.

It was almost a year ago that he'd announced he was leaving. I had pretty much figured it wasn't ever going to happen and he was going to die at the store like the rest of us.

He told me the date and my second thought was---oh shit, that's going to mess up my vacation. Yes, that's me. Always thinking of others. After taking an evening to cool down, I'd come up with a way to still take part of what's left of my vacation. Then, the good karma I generated by going back for lemonade made its way back to myself. One of our shelvers who does a real good job would like the position. SWEET! She'll be super easy to train because I don't have to dick around with all the company mumbo jumbo crap like you have to with a newbie. She's already here (no two week notice to another job needed) and she already knows the cart system which is half the battle to getting receiving! Now, I just need to tell my boss what's up and the world will have been righted.

More importantly, I don't have to interview anyone.

Not much else has been going on. I'm waiting for something good to come into the theaters. The weekend was freakin' hot so I did nothing but sit in front of the fan and either read or re-watch season two of Dr. Who. Summer sucks.

Couldn't think of a pic today so I went to my default of Mr. Reznor. I'd just read that on AOL Music they had a poll asking who the Sexiest Single Male Musicians were and Trent came in at #17. He was above John Mayer (take that pretty boy!) and below Lil Wayne (I had no idea either...). I'm not sure, but I think he was the only guy over the age of 30 on the list.

No one guessed the quote so here's where "I'm a concerned prude with a lot of time on my hands." comes from--Ned Flanders, The Simpsons.

I think at least one of you will know the new one.

WATCH IT:

The summer season has started (The Closer, The 4400, Ghost Hunters...yeah!) and I'm going to suggest checking out The Power Of Art on PBS. Hosted by the amazing Simon Schama (sp) who brought us the doc series History Of Britain, Power Of Art spends each episode looking at one specific work and giving us the history of the work and the artist. Schama knows how to make history dynamic and relevant and he does the same with art. I'm not a Picasso fan, yet the episode I saw on him was interesting and compelling. Support PBS and check this out on Mondays--refer to local listings for times.

LISTEN TO IT:

Nine Inch Nails--Something I Can Never Have (off of the Still release) a somber song full of enough longing to make The Cure and The Smiths jealous, this features just Trent, a piano and some dude on a barely there guitar...gives me the chills.

READ IT:

There's a great article in the latest issue of Wired that talks about how the lead singer of Linkin Park was stalked via email. I won't give it away, but I will say the matter almost became one of national security.

Mind Meld

I have the power to control deer.

Maybe. The other day I was driving home from work on the interstate. I spotted a deer about 200 yards-ish ahead of me looking like a college student ready to bolt across the street to get to last call. I pointed my finger at him and said "you better turn around and go home buddy." Apparently his name was Buddy and he could hear me over the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club cd I had going. He turned and ran back into the trees rather than right into my car. I promise to use my gift for good and not evil. Unless you cross me.

Reason To Hate People #325: People who don't come prepared when they get to the post office.

I stood in line at the post office, which is rare considering I live in a small town. There were two people in front of me. The first woman had a poorly taped box that I could tell weighed a few pounds since she struggled to get it up onto the counter. She hadn't labeled the box. She hadn't even bought a label or , here's a thought, just wrote the address neatly on a decent sized piece of paper and taped it securely to the box. She asked if the box was okay to send. It was. She then handed the worker the labels she wanted to buy, but he told her he could give her one for free. After some rummaging, he returned with the label and she filled it out. She did not move aside to do this. Bitch.

Anyway, she fills it out and the p.o. worker sticks it on the box. She says she wants it there by Friday. He tells her what her shipping options are and that only express can guarantee that it will get there on Friday. He then has to figure out how much that will cost.

By now, I'm already on the verge of being late for work if I don't leave soon. He tells her it will cost about $50. Even though she'd made a big deal about when it had to be there--which required him going over the options 2 or 3 times, this is too much for her. He sets up Priority mail and delivery confirmation and she finally also asks for some stamps. She pays and sorta moves to the side to affix her stamps to her letters.

Then, rather than walk the approximately 4-5 STEPS to get to the slots the letters would go in, she reaches across the woman being waited on to toss her letters onto the back part of the counter so the p.o. worker can take care of them. People. Sometimes. Suck.

Second lady wants some stamps, but she wants "pretty" ones. As we've just recently upped the price, there are only a couple of stamps available and they don't meet her aesthetic requirements. P.O. guy has to go dig thru the freakin' safe till he finds some old ones she likes. The kicker was the fact that she didn't buy any $.02 stamps right then because she had some so she was going to have to go home and get them then return to the post office to mail her crap.

Guess what...I was late to work.

WATCH IT:

I got nothing right now. Unless you count watching about 8 hours of Kidnapped. The series got dumped after 5 eps, but the rest were online and then it was released on DVD. I was not disappointed. I still think they should have given this one a better shot. The final ep felt rushed, but considering they were essentially condensing an entire half season into one show you have to forgive them.

New summer stuff starts this weekend so maybe we'll get lucky. My last Netflix rental was Marie Antoinette (sp) which was not bad for the first hour or so then I just wanted something...anything...to happen. Very pretty to look at but I fast forwarded thru the second half of the film.

LISTEN TO IT: Guilty Pleasure Edition

I will now confess something to you. I sorta like Christina Agullara (er, however you spell her last name). I don't own anything of hers, but I always listen to Genie In A Bottle whenever it comes on. Please don't dis-own me.

READ IT:

You know how I said I was going to start Half Blood Prince. Well, it hasn't happened yet. Perhaps I should log off and go do that now.

Finally, big WOO-HOO's to Laura who correctly guessed that the phrase was from Meatballs. I was expecting Teresa to mention this, but perhaps she's actually been working as opposed to reading this mess. Oh, well. As you can see, I've put up a new one. Have fun.

Another One Bites The Dust...er, Snow

Okay, you can't see it that well, but up there is the art work for the Deluxe Edition of Deathly Hallows. We'll get to it in a second.

First though, I have to bit a fond farewell to Matt. Matt works at the store and is leaving for more mountainous pastures (is that an oxymoron?) in Colorado. Matt has always rocked and it's been great having him around. I think I have now lost all the folks I talk about Lost with (and in Matt's case Alias when it was on). Guess that just means even more talking to myself. Anyway, Matt and I and a former co-worker had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Bruce Campbell a few years back and I remember the day fondly. The last time I had that much fun in Springfield was at Alison's wedding. Matt will definitely be missed, but I'm glad he's venturing out to a place that will probably provide him with many happy times.

Now, art work. The Today show debuted the deluxe cover and it appears that Harry and Co. are on a dragon. He also seems to be wearing something similar to what he has on in the regular cover. Is he en route to the Gladiator-esque building or coming away from it? Also, if that's Ron, his hair seems to be a bit less red. Mmmmm...

Finally, I've taken to changing out the little blurb that's at the top of the page under the name of the blog. If you can tell me where I got the blurb from, do one of those comment thingies. I don't know that I'll have prizes, but you will have my respect and a shout out. The last one--"a bee bit my bottom now my bottom is big" was a line from the Simpsons. I KNOW at least one of you will recognize the latest line.

Crap, it's 1:10 am...bedtime. Nighty night.

Lurv in the 21st Century

As I close out my vacation, I got the chance to go see a couple of movies I want to tell you about.

First, Knocked Up. Brought to us by the seriously funny Judd Apatow (sp?) who was the genius behind Freaks And Geeks and most recently, The 40 Year Old Virgin. The premise is pretty straight forward. One night stand ends up in pregnancy. The laughs are plenty, revolving around everything from bodily function jokes and sex to losing your youth and becoming a responsible adult. Seth Rogan, who plays Ben, is given the chance to broaden his style acting-wise. He's always done a good job at playing the somewhat obnoxious best buddy, but now we get to see him take his character from being a pot smoking slacker to someone vulnerable looking for a real relationship. I know Katherine Heigel (sp) more from her time on Roswell than Grey's Anatomy. She has a solid sense of comedic timing and she convinces you that her character would fall in love with Ben at some point. I thought the argument scenes were really well done--rarely has the word "fuck" been used in such a realistic manner in my book. All the supporting characters are full and believable (and many of them harken back to the Freaks & Geeks days) and really freakin' funny. This is a great adult movie that actually had me a little teary eyed at the end.

Second up is Waitress. Adrienne Shelley (sp--I gotta remember to look this stuff up) made her writing and directing debut with this low budget charmer about a waitress in a pie shop who is less than thrilled when she becomes pregnant. This is the summer of unplanned pregnancies I guess. (FYI--a couple of you may know Shelley from her roles in various Hal Hartley movies.)Anyway, our waitress is married to an abusive lout and really, really does not feel the maternal instinct. Most of the laughs stem from her less than traditional enthusiasm over the pending birth. She ends up having an affair with her doctor, the fabulously lovely Nathan Fillion. Even though they are both married, you sort of root for them to be together because her hubby is such a dick. Ultimately, even though she spends the whole film not wanting the baby, Kerri Russell's character changes her mind the instant she sees her new daughter. I was a little disappointed that the transformation would occur so quickly, but I guess you have to forgive Shelley for wanting the end the movie on the sweet side of its bittersweet tone. Russell is great. She makes us really feel for her character. Andy Griffith has a funny role as a cranky old man that you know is going to end up being a sweetly by the end, but that's okay.

Sadly, Adrienne Shelley was killed shortly before the movie debuted at Sundance so she wasn't able to enjoy the success of the film. And, sadly, we won't get the chance to see her grow as a director.

It's back to work tomorrow, which I am less than thrilled about. But, there are bills to be paid and the usual adult responsibilities to deal with. Can't wait.

Paper cups full of yellow happiness

Today I decided to go out for a walk. Firstly, because it was quite nice outside and secondly, because I've been doing a lot of reading during my vacation (aka: sitting on my ass) so I know I'm going to be hurting when I go back to work if I don't make blood flow through my body at some point. I was about half a block away from my house when I saw two young girls and their lemonade stand. All I had on me was my house key and my walkman. That's right. You heard me. I have yet to get an iPod. Anyway, I smiled as I went by, but felt bad that I couldn't make a purchase. When I got to my apartment, I grabbed some change, took off my headphones and walked back to their little table.
It was funny. They saw me coming back and I could tell the wondered what the hell was going on. I said hello and told them I didn't have any money the first time I went by, but I really wanted some lemonade so I came back. They were both very polite and sweet. One girl held out the glass jar for me to put my money into while the other asked if I wanted a full glass. I answered, yes please and got the usual papercup of yellow happiness. I said thank you and told them I hoped they had a good sales day.
As I walked home, I thought about how my sister and I had tried once to have a lemonade stand when we lived in the country. The only people who came were our neighbors, even though we tried waving down a couple of semis that drove by. I have to admit that going back for the lemonade put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. You gotta love it when the littlest things bring the nicest results.

As a side note, just read that the DVD for Lost season 3 is scheduled (right now anyway) to come out on Dec. 11. Ugly Betty is set for Aug. 21. I know you are all scrambling for your calendars as we speak...er, write.

Get The Young Ones First

I've been putting off watching this movie for some time now. I kept bumping it down on my Netflix list. But, since I'm in the midst of vacation and would have the time to really process the flick, I figured I should watch it now.

If you don't already know the gist of this movie, Jesus Camp is about a woman who runs a ministry of Evangelicals called Kids On Fire. Her aim to is minister to born again Christians at a young age. She says (to paraphrase) it isn't indoctrination, it is faith. She also says that she is not going after the children politically, but if you watch the movie there seems to be nothing further from the truth. We follow several children as they go to her camp that was held since 2002 up in North Dakota. Ironically, it was held at a place called Devil's Lake. You can't make this stuff up.

The youth minister pulls no punches in her attempts to lead her flock. This is not a stupid woman. She tells us that kids today need to be visually stimulated. She searches through the toy departments at stores looking for items she can use to preach to the kids. The sermons employ music, video, and high drama to put forth her message. Like all good propaganda, it is made to entice, motivate, and play on one's fears. The first sermon we see at the camp closes with her telling the kids she senses that there are some children there that say one thing when they are in church and others when they are at school or out in public. She calls these kids hypocrites. She says "we can't have phonies in the Army of Christ."

Don't get me wrong. One of the major issues I have with organized religion is it's almost inherent hypocrisy. (Note: these are just my opinions here, I could be completely wrong and be on my way to hell for all I know) But, it was really disturbing to see this woman accusing kids as young as pre-schoolers of not having complete devotion to the Lord. In a bit of a ludicrous moment, she holds up her bottled water and asks the kids to come forward so that their disbelief may be washed away by the water of the saviour.

Before the kids arrive at the camp, she goes around (seemingly without irony) and prays over everything from the seats to the equipment. She asks God to bless the Power Point presentations! Apparently, the Devil likes to make mischief by screwing with the weather, knocking out the power, and ruining the graphs needed to put forth the message. This woman is insane. More frightening, she is completely devoted to her cause.

Towards the end of the camp, the group pulls out a life size cut out of George W. and lays hands on the cut out! They pray and lapse into speaking in tongues. I felt like I was watching old footage of Jonestown at different moments. The highlight was the big end of camp finale which revolved around telling kids why abortion was wrong. Imagine, all this and go-carts too.

The kids make for an interesting bunch. One girl, Rachel, is very,very sweet. She is so joyous about going to church and really getting into the sermon. She mentions she's thinking of being someone who does nails so she can sit down with people and spread the word of God while working on their hands. She prays when she's bowling and asks God to help her ball get to where it needs to go. You can't help but think, that in less extreme hands she would turn out to be a really good person. And, she might do so anyway. But.

She goes up to people on her own to ask if they know God. She is doing her best to spread the word. In a really funny scene during the end credits, she and another couple of kids are walking around and they come upon a group of three older black men sitting in a park. She very sweetly asks one man "if you were to die today, where do you think you would go?" He answers confidently, "Heaven." She asks, "Are you sure?" He sort of chuckles and says, "Yes." She doesn't really know what to say to that so she and her friends say good bye and walk away. As they are leaving, she turns to her friend, and without sarcasm says "I think they're Muslims." Ha!

Levi is home schooled and wants to be a preacher. He gets to talk to Ted Haggard after a sermon when he and his family go to Colorado Springs. Ted asks him if he is a good preacher and the kid says that people seem to be paying attention to him. Ted then asks if people listen because of his content or because he's a kid. Ted suggests, somewhat jokingly, that the boy ride that kid thing till he's 30 and by then the content will catch up. There is a lot of slime in Haggard's appearance and I guess we shouldn't be surprised. About 2 months after the movie came out, Haggard admitted to buying meth from a guy and being gay (although he says he didn't have sex with the guy who sold him the meth). Not that long ago, Haggard claimed he had been "cured" of his homosexuality by something like a week of intense prayer, etc. Sure.

Oh, the home schooling stuff scared the crap out of me. Just gotta say.

The documentary is really interesting and depending on your views, disturbing. I certainly was aware that beliefs like this exist, but it is another thing to see a collective consciousness rise up in front of your eyes. I've watched my fair share of doc's and it felt like the directors just let their subjects talk and be as they are. I didn't get the feeling that there was an overt manipulation of the piece through creative editing. To be honest, the only way to not alter the piece would be to release all of the footage, but that's not really possible. Editing is always going to happen, but I got the sense that the directors and editor did stay true to the piece and what was presented to them through the interviews, etc.

This film is definitely worth seeing and talking about. As a side note, a bit after the film was released in theaters, the camp grounds used by the group were ransacked. Due to the damage, the people that own the land couldn't let it out so currently the camp has no home. The filmmakers have stated they feel bad about what happened to the camp.