Lots of Rats

I actually wrote this blog on Tues., but blogger wasn't playing nice and rather than get uploaded it disappeared into the ether.

Rat Number One: Ratatouille.

The tale is a classic one. Misfit looks for his niche and struggles along the way, gets some help from new friends, has a set back but returns to the winning side. You can't be a good underdog (or rat) story. Remy is easily the cutest rat you've ever seen. In fact, most of the rats look pretty good. The whole freakin' movie looks pretty good when you get down to it.

I've never had a supreme burning desire to go to Paris, but after the scene where Remy first looks out on the city at night, I was ready to board a plane. It looked spectacular. And, it looked real. There is a second scene later in the movie that is a shot of a city street. The way the sunlight hits the buildings is so warm and "true" you would swear you were looking at a live shot and not CGI.

That's the way Pixar films work. Watching one of them reminds me of reading Shakespeare. If you haven't read the Bard in awhile, it takes a bit to recall the vocab, the flow, the beat of the words. Once you do, it's as if you've been hearing this language all your life. It becomes familiar and real. Pixar does the same thing, but visually. At first, you know you are watching a cartoon, but then you begin to recognize the language, the context, and the ebb of the film and suddenly everything is real and true. You become a part of the world and it's only when a character appears that is done in a more "cartoon-y" style do you remember it is animation.

The film was lovely to look at, funny, and even made me tear up at one point. It is enjoyable for both kids and adults. Plus, the short at the beginning was a riot. Be sure and check this out on the big screen to really be able to appreciate its beauty.

Rat Number Two:

Can you believe Scooter got to scoot? Notice how the Prez made the announcement 1) on the day an appellate court said Scoot couldn't put off his jail time and 2) in a press release on one of the laziest newsgathering weeks of the year so he wouldn't have to face any questions. The Prez claims the punishment was too severe. Apparently some dumb ass heiress is a bigger threat than the man who had the ear of the VP and was within earshot of the P. Impede an investigation into the leaking of the name of a spy who served this country, possibly at risk to their own life, in order to protect the rest of us...no biggie. Our intellegence community doesn't matter that much anyway. Not as much as covering one's own ass after behaving like a 5 year old on the playground.

Rat Number Three:

The other day I was tossing boxes into the cardboard specific dumpster only to discover some loser had tossed in plastic bags, books, and what appeared to be a decent sized counter top sample. After a few minutes of using the F-word, I was poked and prodded around till I got out the counter top and most of the bags. I wasn't able to reach all of the books.

Just a bit of advice, if you are a big enough dickweed to toss your flippin garbage where it doesn't go, don't be stupid enough to toss out pieces of mail with your name on it. You just never know what might happen.

Well, I can tell you what happens. The pissed off person who has to clean up your mess will find an unwrapped copy of Penthouse, shake it till the subscription card falls out, fill out the card with your information and ask to be billed later.

The card is sitting in my car right now. I haven't decided if I will be the bigger person and not mail it. On Tues. I was involved with three different phone calls trying to get the dumpster picked up. We have to pay extra if non-cardboard items are inside. I think sending the card out will depend on how I feel when I get up tomorrow morning. And considering I'm not a morning person, the outlook is not good.

Here's a bit of a kicker. The ass wank in question--he's a doctor here in town. Classy.

LISTEN TO IT:

Green Day--Waiting. Easily my favorite Green Day song. Off of the Warning cd, I'm not sure if this was written from the perspective of a young person starting their adult life, or if you can claim it as your own and make it about getting your moment in the sun. Either way I always feel a bit of comfort and hope when I hear this tune.

READ IT:

Chuck Klosterman IV--Chuck is a pop culture/music writer who has several books out and writes for mags such as Esquire, Spin, and others that I can't remember. I just recently started reading him last year when I got a free copy of Killing Yourself To Live. I thought it was funny, but sometimes he spent too much time talking about himself. This book is a collection of stories he's written over the past decade and I'm finding I'm really enjoying it. I'm probably projecting here, but if I was a better writer, was a guy and really liked Whitesnake, I think I could be Chuck. He has a sense of humor very similar to my own and who doesn't enjoy indirect ego pumping via reading something you think you could have written.