cerulean.

'hick's orchard' • 7X10" • watercolor on paper

what an amazing bright, spring weekend, eh? (except, perhaps, if you live in minnesota or wisconsin.)

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i got my hands in the dirt and wrangled some early weeds. adam mowed the lawn for the first time this year. we grilled our saturday night dinner and i finally think i (may have) mastered a vegetarian "meat" sauce for loaded veggie dogs. we finally watched '7 psychopaths' which i think is my current favorite movie. it reminded me of 'reservoir dogs' although not quite as violent.

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we have a very exciting vacation planned for the end of this month. i plan to take full advantage of the time to relax as i have a couple big projects planned for june. 

more on june to come!

seriously. find it. watch it.

adam and i watched the human experience last night; which i can honestly say is the most humbling documentary i have seen in a long time. or maybe the most humbling film i have ever seen. it was hard to keep it together through certain portions of the film. it's heartbreaking and overwhelmingly inspiring at the same time.
just when you think you can choke back tears, the soundtrack rips you apart.
please...find it & watch it.

earthlings.

"as long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battlefields"  leo tolstoy



for those who thought that food, inc. was a movie that everyone should watch, i would challenge that earthlings is twice as enlightening.  i suspect that earthlings didn't get as much attention as food, inc. because it is difficult to watch and shakes the curtain of ignorance; whether you don't know or don't want to know.

earthlings is an intellectual and comprehensive look at the five ways animals have come to serve mankind; as pets, food, clothing, entertainment and as test subjects.

(you can watch the entire movie from the website and it's available via netflix)

serendipitous.

in the effort of chugging though our gigantic netflix queue, we watched how to draw a bunny, a documentary by john w. walter about pop artist, ray johnson. 
while i am most interested in abstract expressionism, the pop art movement is closely linked by place and evolution. 
i have to admit that i had never heard of ray johnson, and don't recall his work ever being discussed in my art school days.  it seems his art was largely overlooked until after his mysterious death, which the movie suggests was yet another piece of his artwork.  i am perpetually fascinated by the new york art scene beginning in the 1940's and the tragic end to so many of it's artists.
less morbidly interesting is the fact that he is considered the "father of mail art".  how apropos considering my current project of postcards!

paradoxical.

we recently watched halloween II, written and directed by rob zombie.  it was vividly graphic, disturbing and filled with violent death scenes.  rob zombie has a way of creating movies that make you feel like you may have accidentally picked up a snuff film.  halloween II was also haunting, in an artful sense with beautiful scene compositions and soundtrack selections.  while the critics lambasted the movie, i liked it.

i am a really big horror movie fan.  i prefer terror and gore, with a strong preference for zombies and slashers.  i always find it paradoxical that i enjoy these movies; especially as i empathize with and work to avoid the suffering of others.  it seems like going out of my way to watch fictional people get killed in terrible and traumatic ways is somehow...wrong. 
i do not feel that watching and enjoying horror movies makes me depraved.  but after watching something as unsettling as a rob zombie film, i can't help but wonder if something is seriously off in my head.  lots of research has gone into the reasons why we enjoy experiencing uncomfortable emotions triggered by movies and literature, those same emotions we avoid in "real life".  the general consensus is that we get to feel the "rush" without any true danger, leading to an emotional catharsis.
ultimately it's just entertainment, right?  enjoying horror movies isn't any different than someone choosing a drama that leaves you crying and heartbroken.
personally, i'd rather be scared than sad.  which is why i refuse to watch certain movies (marley and me), and can't wait to see others (the crazies).
anybody else like me, or do you avoid horror movies?

now that you mention wormholes...

have you seen the movie, Donnie Darko?
yeah...i know that it was released almost a decade ago, but i'm not so up to date on my movies, okay?
but more to the point, you should watch Donnie Darko...that is if you haven't already.  it's a mind puzzle, although you won't really know it until the very end when it totally drops a bomb on you.  unless you're Stephen Hawking it'll take you a half second, or if you're like me it'll take some internet searching to get a clue.
sorta reminds me of how i felt after watching Primer.

south of the mason dixon line.

we just got back from our annual trip to Virginia Beach. oddly enough, i am not a really beach-y person. i burn pretty easily and prefer temperatures around 72 degrees. i did get a bit of sunburn even with SPF 45, but i fared a bit better than adam. he managed to sunburn his inner thighs (honestly there isn't a lurid explanation) which is understandably uncomfortable. it could have been worse considering he almost used Icy Hot instead of a similarly blue colored sunburn lotion as a pain reliever.
we drove down in the CR-V because it's still cheaper than flying. plus, you can't really get a feeling for distance and place if you don't drive. Stephen King's, Cell was our driving entertainment (what is up with that ending?!?!). we stopped at Shucker's Pier 13 in Dover, DE on the way down. i don't eat seafood, but they had grilled vegetable and cheese sandwiches and the food was cheap. the atmosphere was odd to say the least, topped off by what could only be explained as significant blood splatter on the inside of the women's bathroom stall door. on the way back home we stopped at the Dog House in New Castle, DE per the recommendation of Roadfood.com. again, i dined like a true vegetarian on the cheese fries (which were stellar), but adam got two of their famous foot long chili dogs. you can't get that on a plane!
we also ate well while in vb; mary's, captain george's, croc's, not to mention karen's home cooking, but i could go on forever about food...
i got to spend some good QT with my father; riding bicycles, chilling on the beach and staying up until all hours drinking and talking. adam partook a bit too heavily of the drinking part, but recovered enough to go to First Landing State Park the next day to check out the cypress swamps and ospreys.
to break up the trip back we got a hotel room in Paramus, NJ. at the hotel we watched 30 Days of Night, an incredibly creepy and disturbing flick which seemed pretty appropriate for our overall NJ experience. there is little to say about Paramus, except that there is a lot of shopping. and there's the atrocious Route 17. what is the urban planning logic behind this road? what is up with the u-turns?? why does this road inspire such hate???
anyway, before departing for home we stopped at IKEA and bought what seemed like enough to furnish a small apartment. we then went to CAMPMOR, where we got a new Ruffwear backpack and boots for crosbi (the dog).
an all around good time...thanks to dad and karen for their hospitality and to russell for watching the "kids"!

big shoes to fill & memories to live up to.

don't eff with kim.

enough to send any man into the fetal position.

so we finally watched teeth last night. you may recall that i referenced to the trailer in an earlier post.

i admit i had sort of forgotten about the movie until we stumbled across it on the movies-on-demand feature (a rip off mind you, but sometimes i'm just too impatient to wait for things to pop up at the library).

94 minutes later, with adam defensively holding his crotch, my mind was flooded with old-school feminist theory. i will spare you all of this, so that you can continue reading (and not be turned off to the movie).

overall, i really liked it. was she a heroine, a villain or a vigilante? severed penises? an attack dog named 'mother'? it could be analyzed into the ground for sure. i do think the movie was a bit harsh on the heterosexual male stereotyping; but straight guys don't get challenged enough anyway.

so if you want to have a fun time, watch this with your favorite male friend (he doesn't even need to be straight...) and watch his facial expressions (and the movie too...).

hit and run.

while perusing the NPR site, i ran across this article for the movie stuck.



what's wild is that it's based on a true story...
loosely based i hope...who would do that?

vagina dentata.

seriously...
check out the trailer for 'teeth'.

a little less caffeine. a little more psychotropics.

last night we watched starbucking; a documentary about winter. he's a guy who is obsessed (heavy emphasis on the obsession part) with going to every starbucks on the planet.
the documentary is not what i expected. adam laughed his ass off, but i thought it was kind of sad. in my non-professional opinion, this guy is mentally ill. (he does makes reference to having taken psych meds in the past)
but, then again, drinking upwards of 100+ ounces of coffee daily would make anyone crazy.
winter has his own website where he posts his logs and pictures of every location he's been to.
i guess i shouldn't be surprised that he has been to our local store.

into the wild.

after having read, and loved, the jon krakauer book back in college, i have finally seen sean penn's version of the story.
something about christopher mccandless' self-proclaimed adventure has always been very magnetic to me. i realize that his motivations for 'leaving society' were not pure, and possibly self-centered and naive, but his act of extracting himself is something i admit to daydreaming about. certainly, backpacking accomplishes this for me, but in a much more tempered sense.
i should note that i loved the movie. it was beautiful and (i feel) well casted. i believe that sean penn was able to capture the paradox of christopher mccandless' journey. the fact that he shot the movie totally on location is evident and invaluable.

these people are my heroes.

i recently watched mclibel.  its about helen steel and dave morris,  who decided to stand up to a super-huge, transnational corporation and stick to their guns.  they were up against money and lawyers and the didn't back down.  

in a world where big business is often more important than regular ol' people, these brave folks remind us that the truth will come out on top.

mcdonald's is still selling us garbage disguised as nutritious food, but maybe they don't take the general public as complete morons anymore.

hmmmmppppff.

as usual, michael moore has made another piece of successful propaganda. it just happens that i agree with what he has to say.

i work in and around the health care industry and struggle to assist very ill people to negotiate it. it is not set up to help you. i can give hundreds of examples of how the health care industry makes accessing care difficult or impossible. i wouldn't have a job if it were easy.

WAD

World AIDS Day is december 1st.

things you can do:

1) get tested. has it been over a year? don't assume that your doctor automatically completes this screen. in the US you have to sign a release to have it done.
today you can know your results in 20 minutes and often you don't need to give any blood. testers can now take an oral swab.

2) be educated. know your risk behaviors and be proud of how you protect yourself. make changes if you can. talk to friends and partners.

3) reach out. find a local AIDS service organization and volunteer. give money if you can't give time. is there a world aids day demonstration in your area? go out and see what's going on.

4) stay informed. look outside your own life and know how this disease is ravaging others in your country and around the world.

5) watch a movie:

i KNEW it!

jim gaffigan was the guy in the car during the 'meow' scene in super troopers.
thank you, IMDb.

it'll make you think twice about the next janitor you see

thanks to my brother for tipping me off to this movie and the story of henry darger.

in the realms of the unreal puts together pieces from henry's life. it shows the progression of his artwork and writing.

it's hard not to wonder if he was mentally ill or autistic or a pedophile or just a really lonely guy.

the movie itself is pretty good, although i'm not sure i agree with the 'monty-pythonesque' animations of the paintings. i would like to have the opportunity to see the paintings in real life.

primer. (a movie)

this movie made me feel a bit like i was riding on a train trying to focus on the flowers as they passed by. which is to say i was mostly lost. but it was a great movie. it was like a puzzle that you try to figure out for many days afterwards. then you finally give up and start searching the internet (or imdb as i did).

i probably need to watch it again. about fourteen more times.