A Little of Everything and a Lot of Nothing

The Girl's parents were in town this weekend, so we had a lot of "family time" - not bad. Here are the things I did between scamming free meals from her family:

Films:
About Last Night
I Tivoed this a few months back on a whim after I read that this film was an adaptation of the David Mamet play 'Sexual Perversity in Chicago'. I love Mamet's writing, so I figured that I'd give it a shot.
Turns out, I'd seen the movie a looooong time ago, and have since (apparently) subconsciously modeled every relationship I've had on that one (except I tend to date the bitchy roommate type). There's something terribly disconcerting in realizing that your entire romantic history could relate directly to a cheesy 80's movie scripted by Mamet, and starring the likes of Rob Lowe and Jim Belushi.
Well, I'm sure it's just a coincidence.
No, huh?
Dammit.
Dogville
I really like the films of Lars von Trier, but I had some serious reservations about this one. Everyone I had talked to had either LOVED it or HATED it, plus a bunch of anti-american labels had been slapped on this picture by various critics. I Tivoed it and let it sit for a few months before I took the plunge.
Saturday night I had fallen asleep on the couch while watching the World Series, and I woke up a few hours later at 4AM. As you all know, there isn't shit on at 4AM Sunday morning, therefore it was a perfect time to watch a 3 hour long indie-pic staged like a play on a minimal set. Woo-hoo!
At first the bare-bones set was distracting, but after a few scenes, it seemed natural. It was like watching an excellently staged play that I could pause (Hey, everyone stop! I've got to pee again. Thanks).
This was an absolutely incredible movie. See it if you get the chance.
If you don't get a chance to see it, you should, at least, remember the lesson of the story; Poor people are scum, and should be eradicated at all costs (I think that was the moral).

Bicycle:
I finished putting together my new bike, and took it out on the town for the first time this weekend.
The thing with DC is, if you purchase a bicycle it will get stolen if you lock it to anything for longer than 7 minutes. After furnishing half of the degenerates in the DC metro region with sweet-ass retro cruiser bikes, I promised myself that I wouldn't buy another bicycle as long as I lived in this shithole.
Well, I saw a special on Ben's Bargains for a beach-cruiser that cost $80 shipped. I went for it. It was a breeze to assemble, and the biggest chore was stripping off all of the gay-ass decals that it was plastered with. Now, I'm cruising in style (until some hood-rat swipes this one).

Best Buy CD Hunt:
I've become spoiled with the abundant availability of diverse music over the internets (see: the long tail theory).
We stopped by the Best Buy in Wheaton on the way to meet up with The Girl's family up in Olney, MD. I had a list of 7 CDs and 1 DVD that I wanted to pick up, they had (drumroll) none of the items I was looking for. Here's what I wanted:
1) The Proposition DVD
2) Childish Things - James McMurtry
3) Ege Bamyasi - Can
4) The Avalanche: Outtakes & Extras from the Illinois Album - Sufjan Stevens
5) Complete MGM Recordings - Lee Hazlewood
6) All Things to All People - Carpark North
7) The Internationale/Live and Dubious - Billy Bragg
8) Love Their Country - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
Okay, I realize that that's a pretty eclectic list, but most of those are considered "mainstream" releases. I expected BB to have, at least, one of those. In fact, they only had a designated space for two of those artists on the shelves (Sufjan Stevens & Me First and the Gimme Gimmes).
Bah.

Sports:
World Series - I realized this weekend that I just don't give a shit.
I do, however, think that Ronnie Belliard looks like a retarded kid on a swing set every time he goes up to bat and that Scott Spiezio's chin looks like a stripper's crotch, so I guess that I'm pulling for D-Town just so those jokers won't win. Bunch 'o' Pujols.
Football - My heart is still racing from last Monday's Bears game, so everything this week was anticlimactic. The highlight of the day was definitely watching Joe's face as the Bucs nailed the 63 yard field goal to defeat his beloved Eagles.
The Redskins' season is DEAD. Even as tight as the NFC East division is shaping up to be, there is no fucking way the Skins can clench a playoff spot with their upcoming schedule. On the plus side; from here on out, I should be able to get as many free tickets as I want to see Jason Campbell blossom as an NFL quarterback. Gotta love those fair weather fans.

I have a few more things that I was gonna throw on here, but (for the sake of brevity) I've decided to do separate posts on blog updates, my new MP3 player, and a couple of announcements. Look for 'em later this week.