Mullet Madness or Day off!

I watched "Hard Target" last night with Erin. Not having seen the thing in a while, it was a pleasant surprise to see Van Damme sporting the world's greatest mullet. Seriously, it was HUGE. During all the patented John Woo slow motion scenes, the back was flying like crazy. There is so much horribly awful yet awesomely kick ass dialogue in that movie... It's kick ass, in a terrible sort of way. Highly recommended!
Tomorrow will be my first day off in 10 days! I'm looking forward to being able to have some time to myself, at least for the day part. In the evening, Erin and I are going to try to check out Derek's fringe play "The Drunken Finger Reveals Itself." I hear good things!

Fringe Festival or No More Overnights!

I checked out Jay and Tyler's group The Steve Breadstone Experience's play "Heaven's to Betsy" last night at the Fringe Festival and was happily amused. It should please the critics a little more this year, as they toned down the poo jokes and made the whole thing a coherent story. I recommend checking it out, and not just because you can see me in my track suit in the background during the courtroom scene!

Here's the remaining showtimes:

The MTC Warehouse
140 Rupert Ave

Sat, July 23 11:45 PM
Tue, July 26 12:00 PM
Thu, July 28 9:30 PM
Fri, July 29 6:00 PM

In other news, I no longer have to work the crappy overnight shift at work! At least for the next 2 weeks. That means I'll be able to actually do things on the weekend again!

2 Movies in 2 Days or Bargain Books!

So Erin and I have seen 2 flicks in the past few days, one of which was good. They were "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Wedding Crashers." As strange as it might sound, I thought "Wedding Crashers" was FAR superior. It was funny and did what it set out to do, entertain. Even with the Hollywood ending where the Owen Wilson character goes all gushy and stalkery over the girl that leaves him that would never happen in real life. Most girls don't dig it when dudes go crazy like that... in fact they find it sad and pathetic.
Speaking of sad and pathetic, Tim Burton's take on the Roald Dahl book was craptacular. He let his creepy father issues seep into the story and really threw off the source material's genius. Why in the world did we need to know about Wonka's dentist daddy? All those scenes did was serve to break up the momentum and detract from an otherwise visually pleasing movie. Johnny Depp did not eclipse Gene Wilder as the chocolate maker in my opinion, but he did have an interesting take on the character. I would have to say that Tim Burton has grown stale and almost a parody of himself, as he hasn't really made a good movie since "Ed Wood" and keeps on focusing on his poppa's lack of love. GET OVER IT TIM!
On the plus side, I got a 4.99$ bargain copy of Bob Zmuda's biography of Andy Kaufman at McNally before the show!

All Weirded Out or Civilization 3 Overdose!

This past week has been a blur mixed up with a daze. I've been working an 11pm till 4 am shift at work and that has really messed up my normally perfect sense of time and space. Going to bed at 4:30am and waking up at 1pm is odd enough, but when you factor in an inordinate amount of time spent playing Civilization 3 you get where I'm at right now... which I think is Sunday... ??? Last night I helped Jay out with his radio show on CKUW, Rock 'n Roll Damnation. Well, helped is a tad of an overstatement as the only contribution I made apart from some semi-dynamic banter was to get Jay to play 3 "shit-rock" songs in a row. For the curious, they were: Judas Priest "Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days", Pat Benatar "Shadows of the Night", and the coup de grace, Alice Cooper "Die For You." For the uninitiated, shit rock is a type of metal that was prevalent in the late 80's usually consisting of slower openings and rockin' loud choruses. Think Def Leopard, Skid Row, etc. For my money, the best shit rock album ever is "Hey Stoopid" by Alice Cooper featuring such lyrical gems as "I'm dangerous like a razorback, deadly like a heart attack" and "I'm hungry for love but I don't want pizza." Pure F'n Gold!
On the way back to Jay's place, it was a shock to find Assiniboine avenue flooded with about 3 feet of water. There was not only no access to the area, but also no power as lightning seemed to have felled some trees and/or power lines. A total blackness with the moon reflecting off water-logged streets... and me without a camera! Seriously, it was awesome.

But here it is again! 

It's not that easy to get lightning on film... 

Crazy Storm or Zeus's rage

Last night we had the craziest thunderstorm that I've seen in a long while. Right after I dropped Erin off at home, the rain started coming down in what could only be called sheets. It was so thick and hard that I couldn't see out of my front windshield at all, even with the wipers on full blast. I had to drive super slow to avoid any incidents. It was nuts! Then there was the lightning. It was so rapid and heavy that the sky was essentially lit up for the whole storm. Zeus must've been in a foul mood or something, but damn was it purrrrrrty!

Concert Mayhem! or Long Day

Well today was a long day. I worked from 11-7:30 which was most notable for the forgetting of my lunch and the fact that I finally feel somewhat comfortable working in the new classification. After the paying time came the fun time!
Lee and I had tickets to see "A Flock of Seagulls" but checked out Best Buy and CD Plus first. Lee continued his insurance claim spending spree while I grabbed Meteos for the DS and "The Vanity Project" CD (Stephen Page of BNL's solo project). I'll fill you in on both when I get to them.
The concert was odd. The opening act, "The Multiple Partners" were awesome. They had a unique Devo-ish thing going on complete with light up goggles and nutso sound effects. There were some cool lyrics like "North Dakota is really Southern Manitoba....let's take it back!" and "We don't think you think we're very sexy." All in all, they were worth the price of admission. In fact, both of us picked up there CD! This makes the second time that an opening act at the Collective has blown us away (the first being Sekiden way back when).
When A Flock of Seagulls came on, they were greeted warmly. The first couple of songs were good stuff, all synth poppy and whatnot, but then the singer made the cardinal mistake of a nostalgia band; promising to play new material. They even did a redo of "I Ran," which while ok, was NOT the original. The crazy thing about the show was that every time the lead singer stepped away from the keyboard to take a guitar and do the new stuff, people would leave, but when he went back to the keyboard to play the old stuff, more people would come in! It was like he had some sort of dial on the thing to control the crowd! Ending their set with the ORIGINAL "I Ran" had the crowd rocking and the encore of two old tunes totally floored the place. I was happy because they played all of the 3 songs of theirs I knew. The final verdict on the concert was a solid B because all the old stuff rocked hardcore, but the new stuff stank up the place. It wasn't terrible music or anything, just bland guitar rock... not what a new wave revival audience wants to see!

The entrance fee to a bizarre show. 

The opening act that blew us away! 

A Change of Look or Flip Flop

I decided to alter my hair recently as I was growing tired of the longish doo I was sporting. It's been about 2 years since I decided to grow my coif out and about 8 months since it become a mean shade of red. Summer is a particularly bad time for the long hair what with the sweating and all, it also doesn't help that I do manual labour outside... The sweat causes my hair to poof out, which is annoying. My overall shower time was higher on average, so that just sealed the deal! While I was thinking about going green or blue this time, the stylist sold me on the bleached look. All in all, I'm happy about the transformation.
The past few days of training in Express has seen my mood about the job go from apprehension to dislike, to acceptance, to hatred, and back to acceptance again. While parts of the position are annoying (dealing with people, writing out bills) other parts are appealing (less tiring, less lifting/sweating). It's not like I'll be in there permanently, just for the really peak times (a bit of summer and possibly xmas). I'll get to go back to the more comfortable platform soon enough, so I might as well get some extra bread while I can.

And here's the new me! Much less hair to worry about! 

Here's what I was sporting pre-yesterday. 

Drive In "Magic" or Spielberg Loses It

So last night we went to the Drive In to see a double feature of "War of the Worlds" and "The Longest Yard." By we, I mean Erin, Lee, Meghan, Jay, and I. I got to use my dad's car, which was slightly roomier for the excursion. Even so, it was a tad cramped for the folks in the backseat, but no one seemed to get too upset.
The first thing to mention is that the "new" car feature of having the headlights stay on for two minutes after turning the car off is horribly out of place at a drive in. The people in front of us were right pissed that our lights kept shining at them. I was trying to avoid having the windows down (to keep the mosquito's out) and would periodically run the car to get the windows defogged... that plan didn't last long due to the fact that there was no way to NOT have the headlights come on. In the end, we had to just roll down the windows and deal with the bugs, which admittedly, were not as bad as they could have been.
The Drive in has also become the place for 16 year old couples to go it seems, as that was the ENTIRE audience. Seriously, we were far and away the oldest people there... although it WAS a Sunday night. Apart from that, the place was just as I remembered it... dingy, old, and retro in all the ways that modern man has forgot or long since improved upon. Oh yeah, in the bathroom, there was a sign that said "Washrooms use well water, please do not drink." I guess folks in Headingly have a habit of drinking out of toilets and sinks or something...
Anyway, on to the movies. "War of the Worlds" was ass. And not good looking girl ass, but ugly 400 pound, crotch fat, crack stained ass. There were numerous plot holes, unlikeable characters (especially the two kids... I WANTED them to die), far too many "end of the world" movie cliches, a WAY too abrupt ending, and crazy Tom Cruise. Lee has already mentioned the faults, so I will save myself from the typing, but needless to say I agree with his recommendation to avoid the movie.
"The Longest Yard," on the other hand, was actually quite good... at least for a summer movie. It was fairly funny and entertaining and hit all the right notes for a non-offensive good time. I wouldn't say that it was a filmic masterpiece or anything, but definitely a pleasant little diversion. I would have to say that Kevin Nash, Goldberg, and Steve Austin were each entertaining in their roles with particular praise to Nash and the scene about his nipples. While there were some issues with the movie, I had a good time... although how much of that was the fact that the first movie sucked soo much, I'm not sure.

Canada Day or New Job (Sort of)

Well, Canada Day has come and gone, and I celebrated it in the typical Winnipeg tradition, visiting places that offer things for free. Erin and I first went to the zoo (which was free) where we saw tigers and monkeys and lemurs (oh my!), missed the lions, and were briefly rained on. We then attended a BBQ at my brothers place were good food was eaten (including amazing mango cheesecake from Double D's) and ended it off with a trip to Osbourne village to see Meghan's band "The Quifs" and a visit to the forks for the fireworks. All in all, we did a ton of walking as finding a parking spot at free events in this city is an exercise in futility.
I start a new job this week at Greyhound. Instead of Platform Loader, I will now be an Express Agent. Basically the guys who give and take the actual packages from the customers rather than the guys who physically load and unload the buses. It's a 60 cent raise and will provide more hours, at least for the summer... I'm not sure what'll happen in the fall. It'll be nice to try something new, that and make more money!
We're going to the drive in tonight! Yay for 1950's teen make out spots!