Beth's Contradictory Brain

This and That

Wow, the weather has been really great this week. We rode the motorcycle to run errands yesterday and I got a little sunburned on my arms. I'm glad spring is here, but I must admit I'm not always happy to hear the birds so early in the morning!

We still don't have a definite date for the movers picking up our stuff. We decided to use the military movers because although it'll take a little longer, it's less of a hassle. We do know we've got at least until next Friday in Austin. Which is good, we're packing pretty darn slowly!

But, we're also eating well and having some fun.

Last night I played in another big tournament of poker here in town. It was the top 75 or so players from the past two or three months that I've been playing with. I barely made the cut! So I was happy to make it to the final sixteen players. I would have liked to have won, the prize was a 42 inch tv, but oh well. At least a girl won the whole thing! It's been a lot of fun playing here in Austin, and I've met a lot of cool people. I'm going to miss it! Hopefully, I've gotten my game good enough to maybe play for some $$ at the casino up in Kansas City sometimes.

The Packing Starts

We made it safely back to Austin. I'm pretty sure we're here for eleven days.

The only good thing about packing is that it makes you clean and organize everything.

I've always known my Nerdstar has a fetish for things like lotion and lip balm and soap and shampoos. Last night we got a look at just how serious it is. I gathered up 24 partially used bottles of lotion and 12 things of lip balm. That's at least a two year supply of both.

Then just to make last night a little more fun and interesting. We're watching the women's NCAA tourney - SIC EM BEARS!! - and Little Man comes prancing thru the house with a big, live bird in his mouth! It wasn't dead, but I think it was too in shock to fly, so we've had it in a big cage overnight and will see if it's doing better today.

Impressed

My poor Nerdstar. Even though it was her birthday, she had to get up for a 6 a.m. PT test - a two mile run, push ups and sit ups. Ugh! We thought, well, at least it'll be over and done with and we'll have all day to hang out and get other stuff done.

Her orders came in yesterday evening, so about 10 a.m. she went to her office to pick them up and work out when she had to be back at work after the move and such. Six hours later she's finally finished with all the negotiating and paperwork. She'd been talking with her commander about being living off post and receiving housing pay. Technically she's a single soldier and they don't have that choice. She explained that she's not some young soldier just out of basic, she's in her thirties and has a house full of stuff and 3 pets. (You know, because she can't exactly mention me.) Her commander had said getting the housing pay wouldn't be a problem because it'll come out of his budget and not the overall Fort Leavenworth budget. Well, it didn't end up being that simple. Nothing with the military is ever simple.

Long story kinda short, many strings were pulled and for the first time ever, a single soldier was approved for housing assistance here. It'll cover about 95% of our rent.

After all that, we still had to make it to the apartments to fill out the paperwork and pay the deposit. Fortunately that was hassle free. We even made it to the post office just in time to get a PO box before they closed.

She has to be back at work April 11. We still have to work out the details of movers, but a friend of ours said that arranging it all ourselves and being reimbursed should be an option.

Fun stuff.

North Korea

Since viewing the poorly made documentary on North Korean refugees trying to make it to China and in China, I've also seen a much better made documentary on the same subject - including some of the exact same shots as the other film - on the Times Discovery Channel. I've also read a couple of articles online about North Korea since then.

To say it's a complicated problem might be an understatement - the human problem, not even the nuclear one. (After watching these documentaries, I'm personally not convinced that NK has the capability to produce nukes, or use them if they do.)

The documentary on the TDC was heartbreaking. The people spoke of the prevalent starvation and the horrible torture prisons for those trying to leave NK. There are widespread reports of cannibalism.

Both documentaries dealt with China's stand on considering the immigrants illegal aliens instead of political refuges. They showed how utterly ineffective the UN has been in getting China to change this stance. It's hard to fault China, though, when I know the U.S. isn't always the best when it comes to granting refugee status. But that doesn't make it any less frustrating to watch when North Koreans risk their lives, actually make it to China, and then be rounded up and sent right back to North Korea and certain torture if not death.

In the DTC documentary, there was a segment on the children in NK who live in the capital and are well educated, well fed, and well indoctrinated. A lot of them were probably ten or eleven. I was so sad for them. I believe in the next ten or so years their country will collapse. They'll be young adults and won't see it coming and will be devastated.

On the brighter side, I've read an article online about how the cell phone towers in China close to the NK border are allowing an influx of cell phones and services into NK. For the first time people are able to contact friends and relatives in South Korea. And, with the advent of dvd players, all the old VCRs are also making their way into NK along with a flood of videos of South Korean soap operas. For the first time people in NK are actually getting to glimpse the reality of the world outside of NK and therefore the reality of life inside NK.

As we're seeing time and again in oppressed countries, a small taste and vision of freedom goes a long ways.

The New York Times has a story today about that.

In interview after interview, they spoke of the huge shift in perspective they experienced upon entering China. "When I lived in Korea, I never thought my leaders were bad," said one woman in her 50's, a farmer who had brought her grown daughter to Yanji recently from her home not far from the other side of the border for treatment of an intestinal ailment. "When I got here, I learned that Chinese can travel wherever they want in the world as long as they have the money. I learned that South Korea is far richer, even than China."

Asked how they felt now, after having seen some of the outside world, each person interviewed said his or her illusions about North Korea had been shattered. "There is no way I can believe my government again," said one person who had been in China only a few weeks. "They spend all their time celebrating the leaders. There is one thing I have understood in China, and that is, as long as there is no freedom, we will never get richer."

Thank God technology can make the difference when threats and diplomacy can't.

It Starts

My flights to KS today were nice. Although, I went from sunny and in the 70s to drizzly and in the 40s - not a fair trade! Ramen dog is back at the kennel, the cats have the run of the house.

It's nice to be with my Nerdstar!!

The next two weeks are going to be insane. She still doesn't have official orders. Without them she can't talk to housing to arrange the move. Well, she did "talk" to housing, and found out that in addition to needing actual orders, the office of housing she has to go thru is in San Antonio. Uh, ok. She also found out that the basic procedure is the army guys come and get all your stuff and transfer it to a warehouse in the city you're transfering to, then you go and arrange with that warehouse for it to be delivered to your actual place of residence. What isn't said, but can pretty much be inferred, is that there could be several days between when all of our belongings would be picked up in Austin and the time they'd be at our new place up here. Yes, they would pay for your hotel stay if necessary - but that doesn't begin to address what we do with the pets. Ramen wouldn't be a problem really, God knows he's used to traveling and hotels. But the cats - omg. They're going to be pissed enough when they see the boxes starting to be packed. Then we're going to have to keep them indoors a few days before moving, then put them in a big crate. I can't imagine trying to keep two cats happy in a hotel room for two or three or four nights.

So, tomorrow we go sign a lease on an apartment, after guestimating a date for our actual arrival. Tomorrow is also Nerdstar's b-day, so I'm sure we'll do a nice dinner and I can give her her present.

Saturday we drive to Dallas to see my family and do birthdays and Easter. We can't wait to see Zach! Although, he's going to be mad at us because Ramen isn't with us.

Monday we head back to Austin and pick up the dog from the kennel and my car from the airport and begin to pack and organize and plan.

We're not even sure when she'll get an appointment with the housing office in San Antonio to get any of the information we need. We're keeping open the option to just go ahead and pay for moving everything ourselves, just to avoid all the headaches and stress.

The next two weeks will be crazy, but at least we know they're going to be crazy, hopefully that'll help our patience levels!

Winding Down

I think the weight of the last year and a half is finally starting to lift. Two more days of this long, hard separation. Thursday afternoon I fly up to Kansas. Friday we're set to sign a lease on an apartment. I guess that's the beginning of the next phase of our lives together.

I used to be someone who was obsessed with making sense of the past and how it lead to the here and now. Maybe these past two years have cured me of that. Because really, I pretty much just want them behind me.

Yes, there are a couple of good things to come out of this time in my life. But honestly, for the most part, it sucked, and I sucked. At least I don't have any delusions about my strengths, my weaknesses were much more evident.

Hmmm... this sounds like the late night rambling that it is.

My point is more that I'm hopeful this move truly marks a new start for the both of us.

SXSW Film Festival 6

I ended my film festival viewings with two more films yesterday. I'm so glad I decided to stick around for the second one.

Love Comes to the Executioner is the most original film I've seen, maybe ever. Memento was also very original. (just to give you my point of reference) I've literally never seen anything like this film. It's going to be billed as a dark comedy, but it's not that dark. It's just hysterical in a smart, sick sort of way. I wish I could find the screenplay online, because it has some of the best lines I've ever heard in a film. I have a feeling if it gets distribution, and I can't imagine it won't, it'll be a cult classic and be quoted along the lines of Office Space.

Jonathan Tucker plays the newly graduated guy hoping to land a job teaching Latin. Before going for a teaching interview, he goes to visit his mother in some small, run down town who's main business is the prison where his brother is on death row and his father has already been executed. Jeremy Renner, the guy who was in Dahmer plays his brother. Christene Ebersole is fantastic as their ex porn film star mother. And Ginnifer Goodwin plays the girlfriend.

The plot is pretty simple, although not entirely predictable, it really is the dialogue that makes this movie so unique. The main cast really pull off their quirky characters.

If you see this movie playing anywhere, I'd definitely recommend seeing it.

The other film was Kissing On The Mouth. It was written, filmed, directed and acted by four film school grad friends. It felt a bit self-indulgent to me. Three of the four were at the screening for a Q&A afterwards. It was weird after watching the sex sceens to see the actors in person.

The film opens with Ellen and her ex boyfriend kissing on the sofa and then having sex. Ellen's roommate, Patrick is doing a project interviewing people about life and relationships, so we hear the interviews as voiceovers and learn about Ellen and her ex's relationship. Other than the various sex sceens, the rest of the film is conversations between the four characters.

It was interesting to watch, but it wasn't great. It felt more like watching someone's home movies than a film, it felt a little voyeuristic. They did some unique things with the camera work that made it more a little more interesting.

In the Q&A they talked about how they wanted to "reclaim our bodies" from the extremes of porn and hollywood, and so they filmed more realistic sex. Two of the four have been dating for five years (not the two having most of the sex in the film), the other two are now dating. They all worked regular full time jobs while making the film.

SXSW Film Festival 5

Once again I saw two more films tonight, both documentaries.

The first was Occupation Dreamland. I'd heard from others who had already seen it that it was good, that it wasn't biased. It bascially follows nine or ten Army Rangers who were in Falluja before the Marines took over. They were right that it wasn't biased, but I think it might have been more interesting if it had been. It was a little interesting hearing what the soldiers had to say, but not very. The camera crew goes with them on patrol, we see them going into Iraqi homes at night and looking for weapons and such, we see them talking with Iraqi's during the day, kind of doing PR work. And while it's good that nothing "exciting" - like soldiers or Iraqis getting killed - happens, the film just seemed flat. You get the sense of increased frustration on the part of the soldiers, but there just isn't enough of any sort of context to make any part of the film matter.

Gunner Palace is showing here in Austin. Nerdstar and I are going to go see it when we're back here week after next. I hope it's better.

The second film tonight was The Aggressives. It was much more interesting. The film maker follows the lives of six inner-city, minority lesbians who define themselves as Aggressives. The best I can tell they're young lesbians who like looking masculine, but don't want to be a man. He documents their lives over five years, and that amount of time allows us to see that really, their lives aren't that different than any other inner-city minority youth. They struggle with jail time, family, jobs, dating. The film maker was there and gave us even more current updates on the young women. One had joined the Army, and even though she spoke about knowing being deployed overseas was possible, she actually went AWOL instead of going to Iraq. One had gotten it together and was doing well in college. One who had been in jail for dealing drugs, at the end of the film was working construction and seemed to be doing well, but he told us she was back to selling drugs.

The film maker is a young white guy who does casting and such. He saw one of the girls on the street in New York City, thought she was a really good looking guy and was going to get him into modeling. He did end up getting HER into modeling. Then he met some of the other girls and got to know them and hang out with them. He talked after the film about how there were literally no white people in this environment. He talked about how these young women, although lesbians, really don't want to be lumped in with white lesbians and their politics.

He said the film got picked up for distribution. I'd highly recommend it.

SXSW Film Festival 4

Last week was all sunshine and temps in the high 70s. I thought, man, I'm really not ready for it to get hot and stay hot. Stupid me! This week it's back to cold and raining, which does nothing for my snot and cough problems.

I did go see another film today. I ended up skipping the ones I had on my schedule for yesterday, there's a good chance I can catch the two I really wanted to see in the next couple of days.

There was a short film before the documentary feature this afternoon called Freaks Like Me. It was really neat. A few years ago in Barcelona there was a gathering of 7000 people from all of the world's religions. I don't know why it was a short film and not a full length documentary, because it was interesting. About 3/4ths of it was a very articulate Jewish Rabbi speaking with a small group of people. I wish I could describe it. It did remind me that if my faith isn't making me more kind and patient and less fearful, then it's probably not faith at all.

The documentary feature was Giving It All Away. It was about the life and philanthropy of Sir Roy McKenzie and his father JR in New Zealand. It was a little longer and slower than I would have liked. But New Zealand is certainly a beautiful place. I do generally enjoy personal histories like this one. It's always encouraging to see the difference one man, or one family can really make in their country.

I couldn't help but wonder if anyone will ever make a documentary about Bill Gates' philanthropy in sixty or so years.

Life as a military wife continues

Just the existance of this article in the Army Times is heartening. Gays in the military: It’s a question of liberty

As I stated a few times while Nerdstar was in Iraq, I really never thought I'd end up being a military wife. We talked sometimes about her being gay and in the Army, but it just wasn't an issue. We both planned on her being out of the military altogether this coming May. Then this opportunity to do linguist work came thru and is just too good to pass up.

We've talked about how our relationship and her new career choice might intersect. Hell, we try to just imagine life in Kansas as a couple. Maybe we'll both have to be a little less "out." It's hard for me to really know or imagine how life will be up there. Maybe we're both being naive and optimistic, but we don't see any major changes to the way we live our lives. She's not one to really share a lot of life's details with co-workers anyway. Me, well, to know me at all is to know my life story. Neither of us are the type to put up rainbow stickers and be advocates. But we also haven't ever been in a situation where anyone cared that we were a couple.

I'm not being very coherent in this post. It's something I think we're just planning on seeing how it goes. I know a lot of the time that everyone plays don't ask/don't tell, not just the military.

Anyway. One more week of this suck-ass life of being apart.

Misfit

In The Grace Lee Project, a couple of the Grace Lee's are Christians, one is a pastor's wife. It's always interesting getting the reaction of typically liberal audiences to such people/characters. It got me to thinking a little bit about being a misfit.

I'm a Christian who can't stand to set foot in a church.
I'm a lesbian who generally loathes pride parades and gay bars.
I'm a motorcycle rider who's a little scared walking into biker bars.
I'm a military wife who technically isn't.

And so on. Most of the time I'm totally unaware of just how diverse my life is. I look and feel like the girl next door, the pudgy one, not the fantasy one.

Relieved

After the film I went to get some lunch at a little Taiwanese cafe. There were three young Iowa City hipsters wearing their film festival badges in there. The girl of the trio had a smaller versions of Nerdstar's army "man bag" and on it she had a "Nuke Free Zone" button.

I'm so relieved to know that her little bag is nuke free.

SXSW Film Festival 3

Last night I watched an Australian film, Somersault. It wasn't as dramatic as Lila, but it was good. The cinematagraphy was nice. In the opening this young girl starts to make out with her mother's boyfriend right after her mother leaves for work. Of course, the mother comes back for whatever reason and catches them, leading the girl to run away to a resort/ski town. What's neat about the film is that the girl is neither good nor bad. She's just a girl getting by. It's a character driven film, not an action driven one, as a lot of foreign films tend to be. Which is why I like them. It's also interesting to see their approach to sex and nudity.

I stayed for part of Layer Cake, but it just wasn't original enough to finish. It was a lot like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and whatever the second film by Guy Ritchie just like it.

This morning I went to see The Grace Lee Project. It was my favorite so far. Living with Nerdstar for six years enabled me to enjoy it. Growing up in the midwest, Grace Lee didn't realize just how common a name she had until she moved to California. The film grew out of her curiosity about herself, her name and all the other women with her name. It was very well made and amusing. She was there for a Q&A after the film. She's just begun the process of showing it at festivals and isn't sure if or when it'll get distribution.

SXSW Film Festival 2

I went to see two more films last night. The first, Dust to Glory, was really, really good. It's by the same director who did Step Into Liquid. The camera work on Dust was amazing. There were some shots in the first twenty minutes or so that felt like an Imax film. The music, the editing, the story arch, all of it was fantastic. The director and producer were there for another Q&A, he was a nice, fun guy. I'm pretty sure he said it'd be in theaters by the end of April, I'd recommend going to see it.

The second film was Lila Says, a French film. It's set in a small neighborhood in France and the story teller is a 19 year old Arab guy, Chimo, who's afraid his life is going nowhere. He lives with his divorced mother and hangs out with three close friends. Then he meets Lila. She's a sexy young girl who teases him with a lot of overly sexual conversations. The story told from Chimo's point of view is a nice story of how someone can impact your life for the better. If the film had been made from Lila's point of view it would be a cautionary tale. She's an innocent girl who plays a dangerous game with her words. For the actor playing Chimo, it's apparently his first film, I wouldn't have guessed that, he was great. The actress playing Lila has been in several other French movies, she was really good in this, too.

SXSW Film Festival 1

Tonight was the start of this year's SXSW Film Festival. Last year I did tons of volunteer work and received an all entry pass to the Interactive and Film Festivals. This year I just paid the $58 and got the film pass. It only allows entry into films, not the panels and such, but that's ok with me. The only downside is that I can stand in line for an hour, but anyone with a badge (they cost more) can walk up and go in ahead of us poor pass people. I don't think it's going to be that much of a problem. I'm not planning on going to the bigger events. Although, I am going to have to try again for the film I wanted to see at midnight tonight.

I got to see two films this evening at the Alamo Draft House downtown.

First up was My Big Fat Indepenent Movie. It was great. It took all the cool indie films of the past ten years or so and mixed them all together, films like Pulp Fiction, Memento, The Good Girl, Amelie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and a ton of others. It was brilliant.

After the screening the director, producer and four or five cast members were there for a Q&A. They said they shot the film in 18 days and for just under $1 million. Paget Brewster was there. Nerdstar and I like her in Huff, so that was cool. The great thing about these screenings is you can walk up and talk to the film people after the Q&A, so I did. Paget had talked about how no one watches Showtime or Huff and that she loves The L Word. So I told her we love Huff and hate The L Word. It was cool, we spent the next seven minutes or so talking about the shows and why Nerdstar wasn't with me and all sorts of random things like we were old friends catching up. I tried calling Nerdstar but she didn't answer, so Paget left her a voicemail - how cool is that? I'm sure the film will get picked up for distribution. At the very least it'll be out on dvd by the end of the year.

The second film was Seoul Train, a documentary about refugees leaving North Korea for China and the hardships they face. It was ok, but it wasn't great. One of the directors was there and did a short Q&A. She said they live in some small community in Vail, Colorado and wanted to "make a difference" so they thought making a documentary was the best way to reach a wide audience and wanted a subject that was timely and not really being covered. I think their lack of experience and personal passion for the subject was evident. I'd be very interested in learning more about North Korean refugees, but this film just wasn't deep enough.

The Move

We're getting closer to an exact date for "THE MOVE" and it all seems weird and surreal. Nerdstar's current set of orders ends on her birthday, the 25th. (hint, hint) I'm going to fly up there again so we can sign a lease and open a bank account. Then we'll drive to Dallas for Easter, which is my birthday. (hint, hint) Then we'll have 10 to 14 days to pack everything up and get settled into our new place.

I've actually already packed two boxes of books and set aside another box full to donate to the library. I'm very slowly getting things organized and throwing things away. I've got a list of things to get done, like getting the vet records, giving notice on our current lease, canceling our renters insurance, etc. I'll get a lot of that done next week.

It's sort of a long transition time, but I think we're both more than ready for this period of being apart so much to end.

Under the general anxiety we both feel is a lot of optimism for this new start.

In unrelated news... Sic Em Lady Bears! Both games in the Big 12's women's basketball tournament were great tonight. Baylor managed to beat Tech and UT lost a game they started up by 17 points to KSU.

Grrr

Michele has an important update about the Bunny Suicide site I linked the other day. Not sure who runs the site linked the other day, won't guess as to why they didn't credit the original work.

If you thought they were as cool as Nerdstar and I did, check out Andy Riley's books one and two on Amazon.

Ani

One of the biggest transformations my life has been thru a started when a friend and I went up to her workplace one night to check out this new thing called the internet. She worked for National Instruments and had top of the line pc and mac on her desk. We tried doing searches for things we were intersted in, but the web pages were either incomplete or nonexistant. I wasn't impressed.

Then, she explained chat rooms to me. Like the decision to move to Austin, there's no way to know just how different my life would be if she hadn't told me about them. I was too poor to buy a new computer, this was in my plasma donating days. But, this guy I was working with at a temp job had a computer he had built and would sell to me for $100. I think it cost another $30 for a modem. Of course, next came the free AOL cd and I was off and running.

Losing my religion, finding other lesbians online and the total upheavel both brought happened as I was getting close to turning 30.

One of the younger lesbians I met in a chatroom sent me a mix tape (it wasn't even a cd, it was a cassette) that had three Ani songs on it. I'm pretty sure two of them were Shameless and the live version of Overlap. I was hooked. Within two or three weeks I had at least five of her cds. I'd never heard anyone like her. Her voice and her guitar - wow.

My newfound love of Ani was the bridge into the most intense relationships I've ever had. We were both searching for our own place in the world, our own strength. Her impact on me was like a tornado blowing thru. It took a few years to sort out the remains, to sort out what was really me, and what was just debris.

Living in Clip is still the best cd I've ever heard. I didn't know it would be the turning point in her music it turned out to be. Somewhere between the fame, getting older, getting married and then divorced, her music started reflecting more resignation than fight. Then 9/11 happened and my political views went one way, and her's went the other.

I wrote just about this time last year that I got to hear Ani speak at SXSW and I got to show her my "Joyful Girl" tattoo and tell her I think she's gotten vague. Even though she hadn't been my hero for a few years, it was still really emotional to actually talk to her and hug her - to reflect on all the online chats she'd been playing in the background thru, all the lyrics bantered back and forth between the tornado and I.

I keep checking out her new cds to see if she's found her strength, her joy again. And maybe she's getting closer. But I'm not hearing it yet on Knuckle Down.

"you want me
to tell you a story
but i am weary
of entertaining
i'll have more to say when i'm happy
'course, then i'll have less to sing"

Here's hoping she finds happiness soon.

Rainy Sunday

You can blame my lack of posting on the weather. I don't know who made Austin a rain forrest, but they really should have at least sent out notices first! I don't think we've seen the sun all week. And cold and wet naturally leads to sickness.

Worse than being sick is missing my girl. One week down, three more to go and that should be the end of all this being apart madness. I think even Ramen is getting depressed, he spends most of his time in bed.

Thanfully Michele finds fantastic entertaining links so I don't have to. These two will be even better if you run across this Monday morning at work!

Bunny Suicides

BadDay Studio - Motivation

Smiles

This article is about the difference in types of smiles, particularly British vs. American. But it was the last two paragraphs that really caught my attention.

The power behind the smile may also be more potent than anybody has previously realised: Keltner recently released a study of photographs of women in college yearbooks dating back to the 1960s in which he separated the Duchenne smilers from the artfully posed.

Researchers then tracked the women down and found that those who had smiled most happily at college overwhelmingly tended to have had the happiest lives since they had graduated. “It’s a virtuous circle,” Keltner concluded. “Happy smiley people cheer others up around them, which in turn makes them more stable and less prone to depression or divorce than those who faked it in their yearbooks.”

The topic of humor and making people laugh has still been wandering around my brain.

I don't think anyone would call me a "happy smiley person". Smart and serious are adjectives more commonly used. But for as long as I can remember, one thing I've always enjoyed more than anything else is making other people laugh. I wasn't the class clown, but those two or three people sitting next to me in class, from elementary school thru college, they always told me at the end of the class how much more fun I had made it, or how funny I was.

So much of my humor and trying to entertain others stems simply from the fact that I'm so easily bored and my brain very early on learned how to entertain itself. Naturally, if I'm bored I assume those in close proximity to me are as well, so I simply have to share my self amusing thoughts with them. No, this never went over well with teachers and professors, or even bosses holding meetings.

Last Sunday night my fight from Denver to Austin was delayed about thirty minutes. I had my ipod on, but when a lady sat down next to me and asked if I was going to Austin, I turned it down and we started talking. I spent the next fifteen or so minutes making her laugh with silly observations about the airline trying to find a temporary crew to help us board the plane because our "real" crew was delayed, or about life in Austin, or my pets. Making her laugh, and hopefully making her delay just a little easier, was something that made me happy.

No real point here, just some thoughts.

Alamo Draft House and Movies

Over the weekend, Nerdstar and I were talking about which four or five things in Austin we'd take with us to Kansas if we could. Central Market, Zilker Park, CoCo's, and Alamo Draft House were on both our lists.

Alamo Draft House started as a little movie theater down town that serves beer, wine and food while you watch the movie. Now it's about to open it's fourth location. No, serving food isn't a totally unique thing, but the movies and specials they show are! They show really old cartoons, videos of cheesy singers from the 50s and 60s, and clips from even cheesier Japanese films starting at least 30 minutes before the previews. They have screenings of Spike and Mike's Sick and Twisted Animation. They host Harry Knowles annual Butt-Numb-a-Thon. They do Buffy singalongs and Muppet Movie singalongs. It's just a great place for movie lovers.

The Austin Film Society is showing a series of Takashi Miike films on Tuesday nights at Alamo. Nerdstar and I had seen a trailer (I have no idea when or where) for Audition and thought it looked cool and creepy. Then I got the email from AFS about the screening and because I'm a member I get in for free. Figured I might as well check it out.

There was so much hype about the film I wasn't sure what to expect. AFS was treating it like an NC17 film. I was on the phone with Nerdstar before heading out to see it and was wondering how it would compare to something like Swimming With Sharks or even some of the killings in The Sopranos.

This review on IMDB seems about right to me. I was expecting a lot more torture and creepiness so I felt a little let down on that aspect, but I think overall it was a well made character film.

We also watched 2LDK before Nerdstar headed back up to Kansas. It was a fun, sick little film! And the special feature on the dvd about making the film is pretty cool, too.

It's nice to see creative film making coming from Japan.

One of those nights

Tonight is one of those nights where my soul longs for so much, and my heart wishes for so much, and I ache inside. My mind searches and searches for answers to unanswerable riddles. And there just aren't the right words to put it into.