so long.

I've decided to shut this blog down. I haven't been using this site for what I originally set out to and it's become a secondary Facebook wall of sorts. So because of that redundancy I'm going to remove it. Thanks for stopping by!

EDIT:


My Facebook...

loved this animation.

Germans in the Woods from Rauch Brothers on Vimeo.

via Drawn. (link at right)

out again for the weekend.

Doing that. Except I couldn't watch the video because I just can't watch that kind of stuff. I just searched for a bad best man toast and posted it (the inclusion of the keyboard cat helped verify that it would be awful). Stuff like that has always made me cringe. That's a post for a different day though.

I'm excited to be the best man for one of the greatest men I know.

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The question is whether or not I have to move to Philly for awhile by the way...

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happy halloween.

I don't know why this is the first time I've seen/heard this, but it's as good as indie rock Halloween benefit songs get right?



Also, DO NOT forget to get the FREE Tim Fite Halloween EP which is available for free/available on Halloween only at timfite.com!!! (same as the last two years which will likely also be available)

Here's the guest post I did for Volume Knob last year for Tim Fite's free Ding, Dong, DITCH! EP.

bon cop, bad cop

Laying off the pretentious movies for awhile, I found Bon Cop, Bad Cop in the Netflix queue and threw it on. I was more amused at the title than anything and didn't expect to make it through even when I saw how highly rated it was by Netflix users. Surprisingly it was good. I posted on Twitter that it's the best action/comedy I've seen since Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (though admittedly I don't watch many action movies and may be forgetting some obvious choices).

Since I couldn't find a full English trailer, I'll just explain that the movie involves a murder case where the body is found half in Quebec and half in Toronto. As cliche as the miss matched detective partnership is (as parodied best in Last Action Hero) knowing so little about French and English speaking Canadian relations it was easy to ignore the cookie cutter scenario.

The best awkward cop partnership since Black Cop White Cop.

The movie doesn't avoid cliches in any way (there is even a scene in which they stumble upon a marijuana warehouse that catches on fire and leaves them high... I know right?) but the dialogue is clever, the jokes are funny and the setting is interesting. I'd almost think the movie was a parody of similar American movies such as Lethal Weapon 2 or Die Hard 3 (thanks Wikipedia for the examples) were it not for the obvious pokes at Canadian culture. The muder(s) are all hockey motivated.

It's a fun, straightforward movie and I definitely recommend it. I don't know of any other Canadian movies (MarkMark and I tried to come up with some but could only think of American movies with Canadian actors set in Canada like Strange Brew) so I'd say this is my favorite.

the north/clyborn redline becomes the istop: inside baseball.

[Image and article source]

CTA station inside baseball:

4 million dollars for the renovation of the North and Clyborn station is not going to mean as much as you might think. The improvements will likely only be cosmetic in nature. The current escalators at the station are perhaps the most narrow escalators in existence. In order for these escalators to be brought to code, the entire pit dimension s would have to be altered. In other words, there would have to be extensive structural demolition and rebuilding meaning big holes from street level. 4 mil isn't going to do that.

Elevators and ADA compliance? No chance.

Basically what you're looking at is some cosmetic improvements and some crack injection (water proofing) and maybe some new lighting more conformed to the other stations. Hopefully this 4m is a portion of a bigger project. I genuinely hope this is the case as the station is in more need of renovation than any other I've seen, and while I'm not particularly interested in working on one of these stations again (though at this point I could be convinced), it would be good to see more money being put into Chicago public transit in general.

I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth, as I am a huge proponent of and money going to transit, I just think the speculation is overly optimistic.

found my limit with jean-luc godard.

I give up. I feel like I should finish this one but I can't. I thought Breathless and Une Femme est une Femme were great but Pierrot le Fou has passed the boundaries of my pretension.

Maybe I'll try to get through it another time.

orba squara - the trouble with flying - love and iphone damage.

After following a link to listen to the full Swell Season album (which wasn't for me) I discovered Spinner.com and it's full album 'listening parties'. After losing interest in the Swell Season and the new Awesome New Republic (sorry Julie, the new one just didn't strike me) I gave Obra Squara a shot. So far (50% through), I'm really enjoying it. The only song that's been weak was New Guitar which drops a lot of the instrumentation and sounds a bit too college-folk for me.

I could see myself checking back with this site each Tuesday. Listening to full albums before buying is a practice I should really adopt.



I didn't know that Apple had beaten me to Obra Squara until I went to get a video for this post. For what it's worth, a(nother) broken iPhone is the reason I won't be buying this album anytime soon. That's some flimsy irony or something.

away for the weekend.

... doing that.

"is this a tragedy or a comedy... either way it's a masterpiece."

It would be difficult for me to really recommend Une Femme est une Femme (A Woman is a Woman) to anyone in particular. It's a strange film for sure. It's all conflict with questionable resolution. There is no fourth wall as the film seemingly takes itself very lightly with the characters speaking into the camera, consistent breaks from realism, and even the inclusion of slapstick and sight gags. The actual subject of the film is, in contrast, a serious argument and struggle between the leads.

Taken as a whole I think the movie is a bit unpleasant featuring loathsome characters with selfish motivations. Broken down scene to scene, however, I thought the characters were genuine in their confusion and that their spiteful actions and reactions were nearly endearing. I really loved the movie for it's unique moments of insight into relationships of late twenties couples. Despite being made in 1961, I found the late-20s characters to be very parallel with problems many people (including myself) encounter at the same age today.

(aside: In Les Parapluies de Cherburg the problems of marriage and pregnancy were between nineteen year old characters which doesn't translate to expectations in 2009.)

From what I understand from the (rather annoying) trailer below, much of the dialogue was improvised. While I am not fluent enough to know if the subtitles were written more eloquently than what was spoken, but I find it hard to believe that there was not a line-by-line script. It certainly didn't feel like a Best in Show or Curb Your Enthusiasm.

There are some brilliant moments in this film.

a new blog i'm into.

This morning MarkMark was scrolling through www.drawn.ca and it caught my eye. It's a really great illustration and animation blog and I definitely recommend checking it out. I've added the link on the right panel. I'll definitely be checking into this one every week or so.

killing time and keeping entertained during the job hunt.

Hunting for work on a daily basis is a serious grind. In the time that I've been sitting in front of these screens (below) I have left some strange things on the streaming NetFlix screen while searching, emailing, writing, and blogging on this screen. With all of this additional time and limited items available to instant streaming, I've half-watched some strange stuff. Currently the documentary above is playing.

the gloriously nerdy set up in our living room.

I have streamed several seasons of Law and Order, documentaries on every subject imaginable, terrible TV shows that I find hilarious anyway, and every single episode of The Avengers. I am more than ready to take on this new job armed with more trivial knowledge than one man should ever posses.