Beer I drank in Seattle

Anchor Brewing -- Our Special Ale Black Raven Brewing -- Wisdom Seeker Black Raven Brewing --Trickster IPA Boundary Bay Brewery -- Boundary Bay IPA Caldera Brewing -- Dry Hop Red Chuckanut Brewery -- Vienna Lager Elysian Brewing -- The Immortal IPA Fremont Brewing -- Interurban IPA High Water Brewing -- Hop Logic Mikkeller -- Beer Geek Brunch Weasel Naked City Brewery - Brute Force IPA Pfriem Family Brewers - Pfriem CDA Port Townsend Brewing - Port Townsend Amber Scheldebrouwerij -The Perfect Crime Hollow Point Schooner Exact Brewing -- Hoppy the Woodsman Upright Brewing -- Five (#5)

Steve and World War Z

So, rented a movie last night.  Kind of a ritual when I'm home: rent a movie, make dinner, and we all sit down and watch.  But last night was particularly entertaining for the following reasons. *I have not exaggerated any of this*

• Steve asked "What are we watching?" as I put the disc in.  I replied "World War Z, the new Brad Pitt movie."
• A trailer started playing for the new Scorcese film which isn't even in theaters yet and Steve said "Ah, this looks good.  It has DiCaprio in it.  Should be good.  Is this what we're watching?"  I replied, "No, that's just a trailer."
• Steve then said "Oh, so are we watching the Django movie?  I think we've seen that."  To which I responded, "No, we are about to watch a movie called World War Z.  It has Brad Pitt in it."
• After the trailers were finally over I pressed the PLAY button and, as anyone who has seen a movie in the past 10 years knows, several production company logos began to come onscreen.  One came up called PLAN B and Steve immediately said out loud..."Plan B.  Is that what this movie is called?"  I said, "No, that's just a production company logo."
• Steve then said, "Look at the imagination that goes into these things.  Wow.  You know what I like about creative people?  The way they can just..."   I waited about 45 seconds before finishing his sentence.  "...imagine things before they create it?"  "Yes!  I've always admired that."
• Finally the movie begins and it starts with a montage of news reports about a virus and strange behavior, etc.  But of course my mom and Steve are talking over all of this (even though the captions are on as well).  Then, about 5 minutes into the movie, some crazy shit starts to go down.  Brad Pitt and his family are stuck in the middle of it.  People are turning into zombies and shit goes wild.  To which Steve says "what the heck is happening here?".  To which my mom answers, "I think it's just mass hysteria".  Mass hysteria.  People are biting each other and turning into the undead and so far my mom and Steve think it's just mass hysteria.
• I calmly turn to my mom and ask "did you hear the news reports talking about a virus that's spreading?"  Steve answers, "oh, so it's a virus?".  Finally I simply say to both of them..."THEY'RE ZOMBIES."
• Once my parents were back on track and able to follow the complex plot, there were only a few more minor incidents.  Like my mom asking "How do you kill a zombie?" and Steve wondering why people don't just run away.  
• Sidenote: The other night I rented Now You See Me and ten minutes into the movie...TEN MINUTES...Steve asks "Who's in this movie.  What is it about?"  

SYTYCD - Early Favorites

I was just about to sit down to watch the Vegas callbacks (so exciting) but realized I never put my running list of favorites from the audition round out. I intended to cull further and include video links, but that ain't gonna happen (and besides, if it were anything other than dance, reader-Julie (as opposed to listmaker-Julie) probably wouldn't watch a video anyway).

Faves:

• Jade Zuberi - animation
• Mackenzie Dustman* - contemporary
• Jennifer Jones* - jazz
• Tommy Tibball* - contemporary
• Jennie Begley - contemporary
• Anthony Savoy* - contemporary (the one who gracefully accepted being sent to choreography even though they fully intended to send him straight to Vegas, duh, they were just showing what humility looks like)
• Kate Kapshandy* - ballroom (the one with the long face and long blonde ponytail who's a national champion of some sort(s))
• Caleb Brauner - contemporary (bowtie guy)
• Jasmine Harper* - contemporary (Cyrus's ex gf)
• Jenna Johnson - ballroom (danced with the 17 year-old guy)

* Predict Top 20

Also great:

• Amy Yakima - contemporary
• Alex Kessinger - contemporary
• Misha & Merilla - ballroom
• Jason Kidd - white guy breaker
• Alexis Juliano - tap (with a half shirt and a bellyring to "Mr. Bojangles" but pretty impressive nonetheless) (but also: it is pretty hard for a tap dancer to do well in, say, ballroom)

Wow, what a boring list except for me to look back and see how wrong I am. I'm pretty sure there are about 50 great dancers who've gotten no airtime yet.

Salted Caramel Challenge

Some of my coworkers and I have become a bit obsessed with salted caramel ice cream. It's really hard to get the right balance of salty and sweet (and burnt, if you like that, which apparently [spoiler alert] not everyone does). So we decided to have a little taste test today. Of course I made a spreadsheet.

THE CONTENDERS:
1. Talenti Sea Salt Caramel Gelato

2. Beth Marie's Salty Dog

3. Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream Salty Caramel

WHAT HAPPENED:

1. I Scooped (I knew too much for it to be a blind taste test myself, so I volunteered).

2. I said, "It's happening, people. Into the conference room. Bring water and a pen."


3. I handed out the score sheets.

4. Much to my chagrin, Tommy videoed the whole thing.


5. We tasted. We mmmmmed. We wrote.

6. We discussed our opinions, and we had a winner.

THE RESULTS (and I finally get around to an actual list)

1. Talenti
2. Jeni's
3. Beth Marie's

You can see that my fave did not win, but we all kind of liked all of them anyway. Actually, Tommy said Jeni's was his favorite, too, but he voted Talenti as #1 because he thought it had the most salty + caramely flavor. Boo.

Movies I Watched at Home in 2013, List #2

Following up on this list, I have continued to watch movies at home although with much less frequency in the past couple of months. Keeping up with things though, here is the list with some comments and pointless grades.

•  Annie Hall - A; It had been a while since I watched this so I watched it again during TCMs Oscar movie run. As good as ever. 
• Grand Hotel - A-; It was delightful and Joan Crawford was amazing and it's funny how movies made in the early 30s can somehow seem more edgy and interesting and modern that most of the junk getting made these days.
• Woman of the Year - B+; I didn't love this but out of all the romantic comedies in the world, I'll take this one over all but about 3 (not counting screwball comedies of course). Again, movies were just a lot more clever back then.
• To Be or Not to Be - A+; I've loved the Mel Brooks remake since high school, and I've long thought it was one of the funniest comedies of the 80s, or ever. I would have thought most of the *war humor* came from the mind of Mel Brooks, but that's not the case. It is amazing that in this movie that was released in 1942, there could be this many bold jokes and that it is so incredibly good and played so well. Ernst Lubitsch is a genius. Jack Benny is perfect. Carole Lombard is (as everyone (should) knows) one of the funniest women ever. Robert Stack is hot. This is a masterpiece (I said it!).
• Murder, My Sweet (aka Farewell, My Lovely) - B+; At first I kinda thought this was sloppy and dull but then I realized that it was exactly what a Philip Marlowe movie should be. It seems to me he is kind of a jerk and maybe not even good at his job. This movie makes that pretty clear, and after it was over I liked it better for it.  (I would be interested in other opinions on this.)
• The Man in the White Suit - B+; All I remember is it didn't make a lot of sense and was weird. I think I wrote down B+ because it was a movie from 1951 that didn't make a lot of sense and was weird.
• The Narrow Margin - B; I don't remember a whole lot about it which probably means I was sleepy when I watched it or it could just mean I was bored. But the B says I must have liked it. I suppose I should watch it again.*
• The Strange Love of Martha Ivers - C; Boy, do I love Barbara Stanwyck, but I did not love this. She can take some credit for a better grade. It was too long and there was quite a bit of "who cares?" happening but the end was satisfying.
• Witness for the Prosecution - B+; Going back through these now I see a theme with these movies all being something different than expected (twists!). This was pretty good and I might be giving higher grades again than I should simply for the ladies. This time, Marlene Dietrich.
• Sweet Bird of Youth - B+; I guess I wasn't giving out grades just for the ladies because Geraldine Page gets an A+ for this and Paul Newman - I don't know if I even know how good his acting was but who cares  - is also A+. Indeed. I am excited to watch this one several more times. 
• Hannibal - F. What the fuck. I can't believe this many people that I like could be involved in something I hate this much. For the record, Gary Oldman is my favorite actor EVER. He actually did a pretty awesome job in this but being good at something shitty is not something I am prone to give high praise to (especially when the character is that grody). Every single thing in or related to this movie is inexplicable. The only good character was that mob lady that got killed in the first five minutes. Bummer. 
• Nowhere to Go - D-; It took me four tries to get through this movie. It's so, so, so, so boring and so poorly made. It really deserves an F but I won't do it because I want Hannibal to stand alone in this list. So a D-, because Maggie Smith is in it, and because some of the shots are really remarkably pretty (but utterly without purpose (other than "hey, this will be a cool shot" apparently).  There will be a whole list (!) dedicated to this movie in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!

Side note: as I type this I am watching a marathon of Arrested Development and would like to add, Hooray!

*Edited to add: I just remembered the whole thing in a wave and I did like it, but I really hated the main character. Kudos to the women, natch.

Resume Interests

Interests of a University of Texas Accounting Student I am about to interview

•  Automobiles 
• Nonprofit Organizations

I'm Going to Give You Two Words and a Phrase

• Clips
• Glue
• A suspension of disbelief

(When asked about "the level of Soviet wig technology in 1981" in this interview, Joel Fields, one of the executive producers of The Americans, said "I'm going to give you two words and a phrase: 'clips,' 'glue' and 'a suspension of disbelief.' And you can arrange those three however you like.")

Reasons I love 1st Wave (XM 33)

Heavy rotations of:

• New Order
• Blondie
• Billy Idol
• INXS

 Reason I don't:

• Any rotation of Wang Chung

Saturday Highlights As of 2:30 PM

Late wake-up
Coffee
Someone Cleaned the Leaves Off My Patio
Leggings as Pants (inside only)
Royal Blue Pimento Cheese on Sweetish Hill Sourdough (toasted)
Real Ale Devi's Backbone

Ah...Summer...

Yep.  It's that awesome time of year when a bunch of crappy and not-so-crappy movies come to a theater near you!  Here now is my list of summer movies I'm most looking forward to in order of release...

• Iron Man 3 - IM2 sucked.  But this time around we have Shane Black writing and directing (he wrote and directed Kiss Kiss Bang Bang for those of you who don't know) and I think it's exactly what the franchise needs.  Everything looks amazing in the trailers so my expectations are pretty high and I might also be high when I watch it.  Just saying.
• Star Trek Into Darkness - I just re-watched Star Trek last night in preparation for this one.  Two words: Sherlock Holmes.
• Fast and Furious 6 - I didn't see parts 4 or 5 but I might go back and watch them just so I have something to do.
• Hangover III - I am not at all looking forward to this stupid piece of shit but since I saw the first two I guess I'll round it out.
• After Earth - I might see this one just to find out what the stupid twist is at the end (my guess? they land on earth before humans thinking it's after humans)
• Now You See Me - If you haven't seen the trailer for this one watch it now.  I'm super excited about it.  I like turtles.  I mean, magic.
• The Internship - Now that I'm officially a comedy writer (see Bar Olympics) I feel I may be a little more judgmental than I used to be but this looks very unfunny.
• Man of Steel - Um, YES.
• World War Z - I don't know much about this one other than it has Brad Pitt and zombies and while I'm totally zombied out after watching The Walking Dead I bet this will be a nice summer surprise.
• The Heat - This looks pretty funny.
• White House Down - Didn't this just come out under a different name?
• Pacific Rim - Monsters.
• The Wolverine - I feel like this has been made already too.  Under the same name.  But I'll see it again.
• Two Guns - Denzel and Marky Mark?  I'm in.
• Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters - Thanks to P. Jenks I am looking forward to this more than any other movie this summer.

Johnny Cash's To-Do List

Challenge accepted: Perfect Casts - OTTOMH

This is pretty difficult. Bear with me as I'm gonna go long as I do this off the top of my head....OTTOMH (a new list genre!). Some of these will be pretty obvious.

Champion:  (Personal favorite, most obvious, but try to prove me wrong)  What's Up, Doc?

Any movie that introduced Madeline Kahn to the world would make this list, but as Eunice Burns? And give Barbra Streisand those lines and that hat? And then add Austin Pendleton, Kenneth Mars, Randy Quaid, and Boss Hogg, and the guy who plays Judge Maxwell, and even your head waiter, Rudy? And, uh, ahem, Ryan O'Neal?  Perfect.

Here's a list of 21(!) movies (sorry, couldn't stop), in no particular order (after 1 & 2), that I can't think of a character I'd recast:

1. Casablanca
2. Harold and Maude
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. The Fabulous Baker Boys
5. Gosford Park
6. The Grifters
7. Anatomy of a Murder
8. Out of Sight
9. Jackie Brown
10. Tootsie
11. The Big Lebowski
12. Passion Fish
13. A Mighty Wind
14. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
15. American Splendor
16. Nine to Five
17. Notorious
18. Murder by Death
19. Jaws
20. Bull Durham
21. Ghost World
 
Looking forward to comments!

Blame Canada?

In the spirit of Boxcar's questionable list, here is my own. I found a befuddling piece of paper in the middle of several pages of notes I took at a conference in Chicago two years ago. The page contains only these words, and they are listed along the left margin in the vertical center of the page.

washroom
project
process
Dundas
serviette
expropriation
mullet

I can only guess that I was watching a Canadian speaker and making note of Canadian pronunciations and...hairstyles?

More *Parks & Recreation* Lists

Tonight's episode "Swing Vote" was full of lists, so many lists!  And other great moments. like a double thumbs up from Chris and a double thumbs up from Tom.

The lists are after the jump --- spoiler alert!

Sometimes jazz does indeed suck

Some of you like to make fun of me for listening to jazz. Sometimes I get defensive, and I say to you, "No, please listen to this. It is so good. You will like it." Sometimes I say, "Holy shit. You people are right. Jazz sucks."

To prove your point, I offer the list of what I (to date) consider the worst songs I have ever heard, or at least the worst songs I have ever heard on the XM radio station, Real Jazz (XM67).

In posting this list, I am also saying, "Please listen to these."

(Just like I begged you to eat that gross thing that one time. And listen to the whole thing! But do not listen to all three in one sitting.)

1. Farmer's Market  by King Pleasure & Annie Ross Listen!
2. You've Got to Have Freedom by Pharaoh Sanders Listen!
3. Twisted by Lambert & Hendricks & Ross  Listen!

Haha. Please note: I've had these saved on my Shazam tags, one of them for weeks. I just noticed, just now, that Ross is a repeat offender. I hate her.

The Worst Parts About Today's Training

1. It was media training.
2. Which involved mock on-camera interviews.
3. In high def.
4. In front of my coworkers and board members.
5. Though my eyes looked superblue, my lips were flesh colored, and oh-em-gee do my eyes always blink one at a time/twitch like that?
6. I said, "Bleah" and went for a do-over.
7. Which was the only time I smiled.
8. Immediate post-interview critiques!
9. While watching/pausing the playback.
10. My deodorant was not up for the challenge.

Boxcar's Top Five Remakes of All Time (LIST CHALLENGE)

So, here we are.  Yep.  This is me inspiring all of you to start making lists.  I am going to start with remakes because I realized tonight that ******** is a fucking amazing movie (let alone, remake) and it got me thinking...what if I challenged everyone to make their own top 5 list of WHATEVER GENRE you want?  Julie, I want to know your top 5 dance movies.  Austen, I want to know your top 5 movies that make you crave hot dogs.  Whatever.  Just do it.  And not in comments.  Comments are for all of you (me) to shit all over whatever I (you) say.  So without further ado, my top 5 remakes.  In order.  Yeah, that's right.

5. The Departed

Based on Infernal Affairs, The Departed truly departs from the original material and is updated brilliantly for modern (American) audiences.  Sure they made a few minor changes but overall Martin Scorsese delivered a beautiful, gritty crime drama that has yet to be rivaled in terms of acting and writing.  Well, that's not true but bare with me.


4. The Thomas Crown Affair

This isn't a perfect movie.  In fact, after watching you will be left scratching your head asking "how did he possibly steal that last painting?"  But I don't care.  It's stylish and creative and the final scene has Nina Simone singing Sinner Man.  What else can you ask for?  Oh yeah, and Rene Russo shows her tits.  You're welcome Austen.
3. Last Man Standing

What?  Am I on crack?  Answer, yes.  In truth this is not a very good movie but I had to, HAD TO, include it based on one simple fact: THIS WAS WRITTEN BY DASHIELLE HAMMETT!!!!  DAMMITT!!  The reason I am so bothered by this is the fact that Red Harvest is one of my favorite books ever written and it has been adapted several times yet nobody has given it credit.  Isn't that weird?  First of all, it was adapted as YOJIMBO.  Then it was adapted as A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, and finally, LAST MAN STANDING.  And yes, both Yojimbo and Fistful of Dollars are better than Last Man Standing but I just wanted to have a voice, dammit.  Besides, it's a really fun movie with a lot of shooting so it remains #3.
2. 3:10 to Yuma

This movie is fucking awesome.  I'm not saying it's the best western ever made (although it just may make my top 5) and I'm not saying it's the best action movie, but it's DEFINITELY the 2nd best remake ever made.  If you want to know why, watch the original.  If you can stay awake.  I did stay awake and I even saw it before the remake but this was INCREDIBLY well done.  My only complaint (and the more I think about it the more I don't think it's a complaint) is that Russell Crowe and Christian Bale could have switched parts and made it maybe better.  So good.
1. Ocean's 11

This is a great fucking movie.  A great buddy movie.  A great heist movie.  A great comedy.  A great action movie.  But what REALLY makes it great is that it is LIGHT YEARS better than the original.  I have seen the original.  For real.  And I really really liked it.  I especially like the ending.  But as far as comparing originals to remakes this one takes the cake.  And it doesn't hurt that it's the best casted movie I've ever seen (uh oh, did I just make Porn Jenkins start his list?).

The only characters in "Top of the Lake" that I might want to spend more than 5 minutes with are

1. Caroline Platt
2. Little Shane 

 Please note that Little Shane is only included to make this a list rather than just a sentence.

Commercials That Suck

1. This piece of shit seems to play during every sporting event I watch.  If I had money I would open a chase account just to close it.

2. I have never wanted to punch a fake person more than this guy.  And all of his fake stupid friends.  And really?  They're ALL drinking corona at a fancy bar in New York on a rainy day?  And who doesn't want a tray of olives with their Corona?

3. If you haven't seen this one I apologize for introducing it to you.  But I shouldn't have to suffer alone.  Whoever came up with this idea should be dangled outside of a high window and forced to listen to this for hours.  And are we supposed to believe that the really good-looking couple rehearsed this or just coincidentally both came up with same idea to sing the same song and use the same app? I don't understand.

 4.This makes me angry because Allstate already has good funny commercials with Dennis Duffy.  So why annoy us with this crap?

5.This one makes my blood boil.  Not only because it says NOTHING about the product (other than you can snap it and dance with it) but every new dancing group of assholes is worst than the last.

Movie titles/ Character names?

While flipping through my notebook today as I get ready to write I came across this little gem I must have written two years ago or so.  I do not remember it at all.  Good thing I wrote it down:

White

White

Black

Blue

Benton           Hard boiled

Love

French Kiss

Mann

Gray

Brown

And then came

Winter             Fredric?

                 The Long Winter

                 Winter’s Chase

Hard Winter

Somer

Summer

Boss's Password Post-It

Went drop something off on her desk. Couldn't help but notice.

• jetset
• fabulous
• fabulous01
• powerlady
• powerbroker
• happylife
• moneymaker

Reasons why P. Jenks is one of my favorite people on this planet

• He makes me laugh.  And not in a "he's very funny" kind of way but he ALWAYS makes me laugh even when he's not here.  He's always in my head.  Everything I watch or listen to or see makes me think about what he would think or say and that makes me laugh.  That's rare.
• He has supported me and everyone else in everything I/they do.  That's not to mean that others don't, just that he has.  I can't speak for him publicly but as far as I know he has always supported me in my pursuit of writing and considering how smart he is I take that as high compliment.
• Movies are my life and he has taught me more about movies than anyone else (including myself).  As many of you know I have a horrible memory yet I can vividly recall almost every movie outing we have done together including random movies on cable hungover and his insight has always made me smarter. 
• And speaking of smarter, he is the smartest person I know.  I am constantly amazed at his trivial knowledge but more importantly, his recent (past 10 years or so) open-mindedness has propelled him into a new level of intelligence that is unparalleled.  And he read one of my scripts before I woke up and gave me incredible insight (considering it took me ten years to write I found that impressive).
• He has great taste.  I guess that's a personal opinion but I think anyone reading can agree that P. Jenks has probably lent more to the cause of "all of us being smarter and having better taste in things" than anybody else in this list.  If you disagree or are hurt by that statement I apologize.  But I like to think that I have good taste and P. Jenks is directly responsible for most of that.
• Everyone loves him.  Everyone.  I know that he, sometimes, feels like that's not true but I've never known another human being to be so likeable and understanding and funny and smart.  Personally I can't stand most people and won't waste the energy having a conversation with them but he always does and he truly sees the best in people and I am in awe of that.
• He can make the most boring afternoon memorable.
• When I think about our group (this being one of them)...he is, without question, the glue.  I guess I should have just said "he is the glue".
• Nobody else on this planet makes me feel like I'm part of something special and that life is just one giant inside joke between us.  I see it in movies (poorly done) and tv shows but with P. Jenks, it's real. And I think he has that with a lot of people and normally I would be jealous but that just makes me love him that much more.
• When we first started getting to know each other I went to the grocery store with him because he had to go re-buy all of his groceries (because he accidentally left without them and instead of just going back and admitting it he chose to re-pay for everything).  I have never forgotten that and it has become a fond memory.
• He is, most likely, not happy that I mentioned the above incident.  Fitting.  Yet I'm pretty sure everyone in this group either knows about it or can see it happening.
• When he came to visit me in California he made an impact on all of my friends and, more importantly, made me feel better about living here with one sentence.  One sentence.  That's impressive.
• He loves his family more than anything else in the world.
• When we first met and became besties I never thought I would be able to bring all of my friends together (Jim, Ryan, etc) but he made it happen.  Again.  Glue.
• He makes me want to read more.
• He has eyes in the back of his head.
• Someday I think he will get to live out his dream of producing movies.  With me.

30 days of list anything

I have hit a wall.  It's not something I'm used to.  And, by the way, it's not "writer's block", I've never had that and I don't believe it exists.  No, this is just merely I haven't written anything since Bar Olympics. So, I decided in order to get myself back into writing mode I am going to post a blog every day for the next 30 days.  Now that I got that out of the way, consider this my intro:

• I had a long week of work
• I came home and had a few drinks
• Midnight Run was on cable
• I started thinking about my list anything list of Action Comedies...
• That led me to thinking about writing again
• That led me to thinking about this blog
• That led me to thinking about how I wish I posted more often
• And here we go...

Ron Swanson's medical history

Another list from Parks and Recreation (episode "Animal Control")

Spoiler alert! .... list after the jump .....

Twitter List

Kate Rose‏@KateRoseMe

My friend found this list on an airplane. This is good stuff. pic.twitter.com/059BtYUxk8

https://twitter.com/KateRoseMe/status/320662739410378752

Movies I Watched at Home in 2013, List #1

I've decided to watch a lot of movies this year, like, you know, a project. So far, I have been pretty successful (thanks mostly to Turner Classic Movies 31 Days of Oscar). I decided I would list everything I've watched in 2013, in chronological order, with a comment or two and a meaningless grade. There are not a lot of things below B, but I figure if I even bother watching it, it's got to be starting on the right side of the curve, you know?

I won't include things like The Bourne Supremacy, My Cousin Vinny, or The Tree of Life -- all of which I've watched repeatedly in the past two months -- or other movies that I happen to catch on TV. Below is a list of movies I've watched with intent, in most cases for the first time.

• Apocalypse Now - A+; Holy shit.
• Rosemary's Baby - B+; It really made me want to watch Manhattan Murder Mystery.
• Midnight Cowboy - A; Much better than I expected. A story of a relationship over a brief period of time, which I always like. 
• Brokeback Mountain - B; Not as good as I expected. A story of a relationship over the years, which I usually don't like. 
• Bernie - B, All those brilliant townsfolk stole the show.
• Wanderlust - A-; This will be underrated forever. 
• Another Year - A-; That couple is so gracious and smug and real. And that poor woman.
• The New World - B; Everything that people hated about The Tree of Life (that I loved), I kind of hated in this movie. Wish I had seen it in a theater. 
• Carnage - B; I vote for Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet. 
• Birdemic - A+/F; Holy shit. 
• Melvin and Howard - B+; This is one time I wish I had bothered watching a preview or read a synopsis beforehand. It was hard watching this while readjusting my screwy, unfounded expectations.
• Do the Right Thing - B+; Please stop yelling, Lil Gus Fring.
• In America - A-; omg bawling.
• Damsels in Distress - A-; Adam Brody should have won awards for this. To say nothing of Greta Gerwig. I <3 Whit Stillman so much, 4ever.
• The Savages - B; Not as good as it thinks it is, but still good. Reminded me why I originally thought PSH was a genius. 
• The Maltese Falcon - A-; I love Peter Lorre. What a weirdo.
• Casablanca - A+; It's still so good.... the set-up, the story, the characters, the duality in every one of them.
• A Nun's Story - C+; Holy moly it is so, so long. But Peter Finch is kinda sexy, and Audrey Hepburn really is a great actress. 
• The Triplets of Belleville - A; Next time Jon and I talk about movies with "Bad Ass Women"  we will have to include Madame Souza. And the triplets of Belleville for that matter. 
• Wait Until Dark - B+; Way better than it has any right to be, if you give in and roll with it. Alan Arkin is fantastic. And Audrey Hepburn really is a great actress. 
• The Night of the Iguana - A; <<APPLAUSE!!!!!>>
• Billy Budd - B; Disappointing. It was all a little too black and white. 
• Rachel, Rachel - B+; Oh, Rachel, Rachel, Rachel... 
• The Deer Hunter - A; In the first hour absolutely nothing happened and it made the rest of the movie all the more tragic. Wow.
• Wild Strawberries - A; So profound, so delightful. What a combo! 
• Days of Wine and Roses - C+; A rare instance of "exactly what I expected."  
• Auntie Mame - B; This would have been really good if it had any plot whatsoever, or character development instead of just *character!* in new situations. Actually it would have made a good season of TV. Superkudos to the art director/set designer.
• Baby Doll - A; This was the most pleasant surprise so far. I loved this movie. Carroll Baker is so sexy. Eli Wallach is so sexy, strangely. The scene on the porch swing should be talked about more. Karl Malden is so John C. Reilly. 
• The Informer - A-; Pretty effective for as over-the-top and 1935-y as it is. 
• Splendor in the Grass - D; Boo. The melodrama. Every character is a caricature. I would have liked more of her mom, who might have maybe had some nuance. Horrible.
• Alice Adams - B-; A better version of every bad girl-with-dreams movie made in my lifetime.
• The Magnificent Ambersons - B; This has been called a masterpiece but I don't get it. It is kind of a mess and really boring. Who cares about these people? Maybe as an allegory. 
• An American in Paris - C+; Oh man I love Gene Kelly. Otherwise I hate this.
• Gigi - B; Much better than An American in Paris. I now also love Louis Jordan.
• Blow Up - A-; I need to watch this like 5 more times.
• Stagecoach - A; Bravo! There are a lot of characters, and every character matters, and the interactions between each character matters. And then there are the Cavalry and the Apaches to keep things interesting if you don't care about things like characters. 
• A Place in the Sun - A-; About halfway through I was giving this an F in my head because I saw where it was going and I hated it. Then it went exactly there and I liked it anyway. Well done!  Montgomery Clift, yowza. Elizabeth Taylor, stunning, and excellent at fainting. Poor, frumpy Shelley Winters. I bet her clothes were actually in black and white.
• Mrs. Miniver - B; Super hokey but I enjoyed it. I found being beaten over the head fairly effective. But it's 2013 so oh well. 
• Kitty Foyle - D; Boring, insulting, dumb. I give it a D instead of an F only because it made me like the guy that you are supposed to hate and I am giving it the benefit of the doubt that this was cleverness on someone's part and not just a mistake. 
• She Wore a Yellow Ribbon - B; Why is Ben Johnson so good in everything? I kind of just watched the whole movie to see what awesome thing he would do next. 
• Anatomy of a Murder - A-; Panties!  This was way better than it should have been, thanks to the writing and all the actors - Jimmy Stewart, and George C Scott, and Lee Remick, and Ben Gazzara, and Murray Hamilton and sexy, awesome Eve Arden. Is she the inspiration for Joan Holloway? She has to be! 
• The Lavender Hill Mob - B+; This probably would have been a huge hit with me if I saw it in 1951.
• The Train - B; I think there were 2 A+ movies here that each got half-made and so it isn't as good as it should be. But I really liked it. Burt Lancaster deserves a special award for sliding down that ladder, getting shot on the bridge, and hammering out all those railroad ties. I thought the cinematography was A+++, from the very first shot on. 
• Ball of Fire - A-; Considering my favorite movie ever is What's Up, Doc?, it's pretty ridiculous I just now watched this. Check it out and count the homages. With that fancy word I will conclude this nonsense. 

Questionable Weekend Hugs

1. Gary
2. Joe
3. Matt

Citizens Communications

Aka my guaranteed lunch break during every city council meeting (although this means I missed a spectacular ouster of council regular RR (see below) by the Mayor two weeks ago). Here's what's on the agenda this week.

• Allen Roddy - Balcones rock cliff
• Will McLeod - 1.) Abolish Capital Metro 2.) The City of Austin is not complying with ADA 3.) Time Warner/TBD
• Jane Gonzalez-Castillo - Civil Rights case against Jimmy Clay Golf Course
• Linda Greene -  Ways to deal with the Hexafluorsilicic Acid added to our air water supply
• Paul Robbins - City Issues
• Joseph Iley - Taxi Cab issues
• Carlos León - 1.) Chemtrails continued 2.) Más truth 3.) Repent 4.) Read the Word 5.) Seek God
• Ronnie Reeferseed - Peace, freedom, fluoride and the kill-grid

New Year Shuffle

I drove back to Austin today. After my audiobook wrapped up, I decided to test my 2013 luck by selecting Shuffle on my iPod. PJenkins and Boxcar can attest to the hit-or-miss nature of my iPod (I pretty much never got rid of a CD I've ever owned, and I think I imported most of them into iTunes, which is synced to my iPod Classic, Julio). Here are the artists my iPod served up until I finally, finally skipped a song. No cheating, I promise.

• Alabama Shakes
• Rhianna
• Sting
• Willie Nelson
• Leonard Cohen
• Jack Ingram
• The Decemberists
• Beck
• Nina Simone
• Robinella & the CC String Band
• Miranda Lambert
• Jay Farrar
• The Kinks
• Ray Price
• Arlo Guthrie
• Frank Sinatra
• Sandi Patty 

Bonus list: Beverages Consumed on Said Drive

• Water, sparking, orange, LaCroix
• Water, tap in Dasani bottole
• Water, Vitamin, Zero, lemon
• Water, sparkling, lemo, Ozarka