I spent last weekend in Las Vegas, which is not something I thought I would ever do, but I did and I survived and now I am here to tell you all the tale.
I went to Vegas to hang out with various people I knew who were going at the same time, and to see the weird Vegas sights. I had a good time, but I have no real desire to visit the place again. There are too many other interesting places I haven’t seen.
I did not have any Hunter S. Thompson-level inspiration, though. I did not even have any Joe Bob Briggs-level inspiration. I can only offer you some bits and pieces of observations.
even weddings aren’t sacred
I’ve told the story about how my family behaves at funerals. I swore we were normally quite polite in public. But I’m not sure that’s true anymore.
My mom likes to make phone calls when she’s in the car and someone else is driving. She’s bored, I guess, so she uses the time productively. Somehow the times when my mom is riding and phoning always seem to coincide with the times when I am watching a movie on DVD, or eating, or doing something else that I don’t really want interrupted.
She called on Saturday night when we were watching Shattered Glass to tell me that she and my dad were on the way home from a wedding reception. It is not always easy to get my mom off the phone quickly, and other people were waiting to watch the end of the movie too, so I may have been a little brusque. To assuage my guilt, I called my parents’ house as soon as the movie ended.
Desperado (1995)
Desperado: 1995, dir. Robert Rodriguez. Seen on DVD (May 12).
We rented a DVD with El Mariachi on one side and Desperado (its sequel) on the other, and my boyfriend saw the movies before I did. He told me I might as well skip Desperado, it was terrible. I believe his summary was “Robert Rodriguez trying to be Jerry Bruckheimer in Mexico.”
El Mariachi (1992)
El Mariachi: 1992, dir. Robert Rodriguez. Seen on DVD (May 8).
I remember Robert Rodriguez making El Mariachi when I was in grad school at UT. Everyone thought he was going to be the Next Big Thing. And he made El Mariachi for what, $7,000?
Memento (2000)
Memento: 2000, dir. Christopher Nolan. Seen on DVD (April 21).
It’s been about a month since I saw Memento and I am truly sorry I hadn’t written about the movie earlier. I couldn’t write about it immediately after seeing it because it was intense and I wanted to think a little about what I’d seen. Now I’ve maybe waited too long.
satanica pandemonium (cranial)
Hello, I’m Jette, and this is my headache.
This particular headache has been lurking at the base of my sinuses for several days now. It comes and goes, but it never entirely disappears. Even when I don’t have an full-blown headache, I can feel the potential for one right between my eyes.
Perhaps I should name it and cultivate it as a pet.
summer film squealing
Y’all just excuse me a minute while I jump up and down and make little squeaky happy noises.
Because the Paramount Theatre summer film schedule is out, and despite a sad lack of Peckinpah movies, this is some of the best film programming they have done in years. I am very pleased at the number of movies they are showing that are currently not available on DVD (and are damn hard to find even on VHS). I am also pleased at the films they are showing that need a big theater screen or a large audience, in order to truly shine.
Sweet and Lowdown (1999)
Sweet and Lowdown: 1999, dir. Woody Allen. Seen on DVD (April 14).
Do I have to write anything about Sweet and Lowdown other than to say that I didn’t like this movie at all, it was a real disappointment, and a huge waste of my time?
Okay. I’ll be brief.
Once upon a time, I liked Woody Allen films. But after seeing Hollywood Ending, I gave up. Then I heard he had made some small, entertaining films like he had done back in the day of Take the Money and Run, and that Sweet and Lowdown was an entertaining film along those lines.
epilogue: the ottomans
This week the city did the big yearly junk collection for our neighborhood. Or as the city calls it, the Bulky Collection. You can put nearly anything in your front yard except for cardboard, dead cats, or small children, and they will pick it up.
It was fascinating to drive around the neighborhood early on Sunday evening and see the sorts of things the neighbors had put in their front yards: a broken ice-cream maker, some old charcoal grills, sofas, chairs, mattresses, washing machines, porch swings, a broken bike rack, and wood in all shapes and colors. Seeing all these sofas in front of people’s houses reminded me of King of the Hill.
On Sunday night, we put out a wicker sofa and chair with broken legs and seats, and a wooden rack for plants.
clicking and sparking and hugging and … (part four)
I meant to write one entry about how I don’t believe in love in first sight. I don’t believe in a big audible click when you meet someone, or your gaze locking with someone else’s and sparks flying. Hell, I don’t even believe that witty repartee leads to romance, although actually that’s one I had to work on a little bit. (See what happens when you watch too many movies?)
I meant to write one entry and then I meant to write a two-part entry and now here we are, on Part Four of what I dubbed the Schmoop Saga. How and where do you end a story like this? This is real life and there are no tidy endings, no places to fade out comfortably to a black screen and stirring music. I made my original point. Two people met and talked about blogging applications and social software and high thread-count sheets and had no idea they might go on an Actual Date, let alone live together within six months of said date.
Continue reading clicking and sparking and hugging and … (part four)