Once in a lifetime, twice in a week

When Sarah and I went to Texas for Christmas, the presents that her dad and step mom had ordered for me hadn't arrived yet. So, rather humorously, I ended up opening a bunch of boxes filled with printed out pictures of the presents I was supposed to be receiving. One of the upswings of this ended up manifesting itself earlier this week when my presents finally arrived at our place in Seattle.

Christmas 2.0!

So, a lot of this week ended up being dedicated to watching some of the many movies I they got me. First up, and as part of our Bond-A-Thon (still kinky!), we watched Casino Royale. Now, months and months ago, I rambled about Casino Royale, so I wont spend too much time on it now. But, I will mention that it's been interesting revisiting this movie, after having watched the better portion of the Bond library over the last year. The movie stands out almost more for its differences than its similarities to previous Bond films.

It really makes me interested in what the next film will be like. Especially since it been rumored to be a direct sequel spinning out of the events at the end of Casino Royale. Oh, and as a side note, they've announced the title of the new Bond film: Quantum of Solace. (Source)

The title apparently has people grousing because it's "too wordy" or something. But, I'm all for it, since it's apparently the title of a James Bond short written by Ian Flemming.

Oh, and this appears to be a poster for it.

Next up on our little film-fest was the Irish romantic-musical Once. Once was one of the first films we saw after getting back from our trip, and it was the film that convinced me that I'm becoming a big blubbering goof in my old age. Even though it’s technically a musical, it's the type of film where the music actually makes sense in the context of the story, as it follows two young musician/songwriters as they meet, record an album together and flirt with the idea of falling in love.

And, I almost burst into tears in the movie theater when I first saw it.

Truth be told, if I heard the music out of the context of the film, I'd probably consider it to earnest for my tastes. I tend to recoil at singer-songwriter types. But, early in the film, there is a scene in a piano shop where the two lead characters sit down and try playing a song together. This scene, in my opinion, is one of the most pitch-perfect scenes I've seen in a while. It's deceptively simple, but is such a great layered scene that hits all the right notes (pun partially intended). Plus, the ending is pretty perfect too. It could have been botched in so many ways, but it’s simple and effective.

"Hmmmm," the lead characters of Once ponder with Irish accents, "How can we make Tyler cry in public?"

After that, I needed a testosterone-fix. And, for that we put in 300 for two solid hours of Spartans chopping Persians up.

...actually, thinking about it more, watching a bunch of well-oiled, nearly naked men might not be the BEST way to reassert my manliness.

Sarah and I both saw this originally in Hobart, Tasmania during our trip. And, while it didn’t surprise me that I liked it because of its comic book roots, stylized action scenes and painterly scenery; I was surprised how much Sarah liked it. Usually she has a limit to the number of arms and legs she can stand seeing chopped off in slow motion before she throws in the towel on a movie. But, somehow this movie managed to wallow in its violence, macho-posturing, almost deliberately anti-PC morality AND still get Sarah's seal of approval.

In addition to those movies (and another I'll save to talk about after we get around to watching it), I also got Talking Head's Once in a Lifetime box set. Now, I've been obsessed with David Byrne and Talking Heads for a number of years now, and as a result, I already have most of their CDs, as well as a good share of Byrnes's solo releases. But, this package (which also contains a DVD of a number of their videos) is just a little too nice to pass up.

Aw! A baby with puppies. Actually, this cover to the box set is deceptively innocent.

Plus, it's another excuse for me to revisit their songs for the umpteenth time.

It is actually really interesting to hear the better part of their catalogue in just a sitting or two. The three CDs are arranged in a rough chronological order, so it's also allowed me to start an internal debate with myself about whether I like their early stuff, middle of their career stuff or later songs better. Hmmmmm.

Oh, and it was fun to throw the CDs in and dance around our apartment when I came home in a hyperactive mood on Friday night.

"Dance, Tyler! I command it!"

The night before my Talking Heads dance party, Sarah and I went to Zeitoon. Now, I have to confess a sympathy for underdog restaurants. Y'know, those restaurants that you can just tell are going to go out of business. And, Zeitoon definitely appears to be an underdog of the highest caliber.

For weeks now, Sarah and I have walked passed it on our way home from work. And every time it has been nearly entirely empty. Occasionally, it might have a one of two patrons, but never enough to it could possibly be paying the bills on its downtown Belltown location. But, finally, on Thursday night, Sarah and I decided to take pity on it, and give it a try.

And, honestly, it’s quite good. If I were to complain, it would be that the prices might be a tad high. And by a "tad" I mean that if they knock a dollar off their entrees, I would probably consider their prices to be "reasonable." Also, their menu doesn't do their dishes any favors. What are casually described as "wraps" are actually expertly stuff, light and crispy pitas filled perfectly with delicious ingredients. Good stuff, and the owner was almost friendly to a fault.

If you're in our neighborhood, and want some Middle Eastern cuisine, I'd recommend them without hesitation. Do a good thing! Support the underdog*!

Oh, and I discovered a magazine this weeks that seems to live up to its title: Good. Actually, the full title of Good magazine is "Good: Media for people who give a damn." I initially discovered Good through a design site where it received an award from AIGA for its design and layout, but it's fascinating forward thinking angle on politics, the environment and culture has proven to be interesting reading for my daily streetcar rides to work.

Finally, my weekly comic rundown:

X-men #207 - This issue brings the massive Messah CompleX crossover event to a heady and dramatic close. And, now that the storyline is over, I will say that I think it was possibly the strongest X-title related crossover event in years, if not ever. Sure, at points it was uneven. And honestly, the entire storyline basically boiled down to mutants beating the tar out of each other for 13 issues... but really, that's pretty much all it takes to keep me entertained apparently.

Good stuff, with long term ramifications for the series involved. And, while Sarah will no longer have to listen to me babble about "Messiah CompleX Messiah CompleX Messiah CompleX," she's now stuck listening to me speculate about what will happen in the various X-titles going forward.

Astonising X-men #24 - And, while X-men #207 proves how little it takes to keep me excited about the X-men, Astonishing proves how little it takes to loose my interest. At one point, Buffy creator Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-men seemed like the most exciting title in the line up. But, fast forward over three years, and less than two dozen issues, and this title has basically sidelined itself. I'm not one to generally complain about delays in a title's shipping schedule, but this is seriously struggling to seem relevant when it's so obviously lost all relationship to the rest of the titles. Taken on its own, the issue isn't bad, but I still find myself unable to truly care, and just looking forward to Ellis taking over the title.

The Umbrella Aademy #5 - If someone told me, before I left on my trip, that one of the best title's I would be reading when I came back would be written by the lead singer of My Chemical Romance, I wouldn't have believed it. But, honestly, he's Dark Horse miniseries about a dysfunctional family of superheroes is one of the most interesting and unique things I've read in a monthly format in some time now. It doesn't hurt that he's ably backed up by artist Gabriel Ba (of Casanova fame), and cover artist/mastermind James Jean. Consistently interesting and entertaining stuff.

A private academy of disfunctional superhero children! A man with a gorilla body and human head! The Eiffel Tower! Sing me up!

Finally, today Sarah and I made a run to the CD shop and ended up picking up a bunch of CDs. But, since I've barely given them more than one listen, and because this entry has turned into a rambling mammoth, I'll call it a night.

Talk to you in a couple of days, when I hopefully put up the results of my Commuter Cam Project.

*Side Note: Speaking of underdogs, Sarah and I went to Olympia on Saturday to visit a couple of friends. While we were down there, we caught the Evergreen College women’s Basketball team play. And while they sadly lost to Southern Oregon, and while I didn’t attend Evergreen, I still feel like I should say “Go Geoducks!”

And the winner of the phallic mascot award goes too....

Another week at the Office, Dance into the FIRE!, and Marvelous comics.

Over roughly a week and a half, Sarah and I managed to blaze our way through the first three seasons of the Office. This probably set some sort of new land speed record for us when it comes to watching TV on DVD. Actually, the majority of episodes we watched through the Netflix View-On-Demand, but toward the end of the third season, we finally got fed up with it buffering and crashing on us, and I made the two block hike to rent the final couple disks from the neighborhood video store. So, by accident, we ended up supporting a local small business, I suppose.

At least that's how I'm validating spending close to $8 on DVD rentals when we already have a Netflix subscription.

As far as the actual show goes, I feel it actually probably peaked somewhere toward the end of the second season, or beginning of the third. But, even at its weakest, it managed to be more entertaining that most TV fair. Oh, and it actually worth renting the DVDs because there is an amazing number of deleted scenes for each episode. Like, five to 15 minutes of deleted scenes. And most of them are as entertaining as what made the final cut, so its like getting several bonus episodes per disk.

In addition to our Office-athon, we also continued our long running Bond-athon (a name which sounds a lot kinkier that it actually is). This weeks Bond film was probably the flabbiest of the franchises history, in more ways than one: View to Kill.

NOTE: The woman on the right it the better actress.

In it, an aging Roger Moore snowboards, demolishes a tiny French car, gets it on with Grace Jones and tries to stop an ex-Soviet super-soldier from flooding Silicon Valley to corner the market on microchips. If you want to see old men engage in slow-motion fisticuffs this is your Bond film. And, probably the two only truly redeeming aspects of this film are Christopher Walken's scene stealing performance as Max "Raht ahn shed-jehw-ahl" Zorin, and Duran Duran's kick-ass theme song:

Dance into the FIRE!!
The fatal sounds of broken dreams!
Dance into the Fire!
It's a view... to a kill!!

I'll probably be singing that song to myself for the next few weeks.

Significantly less flabby was the film we saw at Belltown's Big Picture. First it has to be noted that the Big Picture is one of Seattle's fine smaller cinemas, which is notable for both its atmospheric lobby, and the fact that you can bring a beer, glass of wine or mixed drink into the theater with you.

Juno: In which George Micheal get's Kitty Pryde pregnant.

The film we saw, Juno, was a movie that -going in- I knew that I would enjoy it, since it fell into the category of "quirky indie picture" and that's generally a fairly safe bet for me. That said, I was actually still pleasantly surprised by it. I think, as much as I like quirky and whimsical pictures of the Wes Anderson variety, I do have to admit that part of me is starting to get frustrated with their reluctance to embrace what seems like a true emotion... instead relying on cute gimmicks and coy gestures. Luckily, I think this is a case where the director and actors weren't afraid to see beyond the wittier-than-thou script, and allow the characters to breath and feel a bit. All in all, it ended up being an excellent picture.

The following morning it was off to my parents to work on making our batch of 2007 wine. Last year, before departing on our trip, Sarah and I started making wine with a family friend. And, this year, my dad got in on the scene too, setting up a small wine making room in the crawlspace below my parent’s house. This weekend’s task involved constructing a stand for our new oak wine barrel, and transferring the wine into it.

...And having four people packed into a tiny room trying to give each other directions.

...And cleaning out carboys with a hose in the backyard in near freezing weather.

...And sipping a lot of young wine from small mason jars.

Ah, the romance of winemaking.

Speaking of romance, I read the comic book Marvels last night, which allowed me to romantize my roll as a comic book collector. Marvels, produced not surprisingly by Marvel Comics, is the ultimate love letter to their superhero universe. Written by Kurt Busiek and painted by the much-lauded (and almost equally derided) Alex Ross, tells the story of the early Marvel universe from the standpoint of an everyday man on the street, photographer Phil Sheldon.

Though Sheldon's eyes we see the arrival of the first "Marvels": Namor the Submariner and the original Human Torch, the proliferation of heroes through WWII and beyond, the rise of the "mutant menace" (as depicted in the various X-titles), the threat of the world coming to an end with the arrival of Galactus and finally the life and death Spiderman's first love, Gwen Stacy.

Possibly the most realistic depiction of a giant, purple-helmeted man attempting to eat New York.

And, while its entertaining just to see this famous comic book events depicted from the viewpoint of a normal person living in New York, in their photorealistic glory; the main appeal of this book was something that I wasn't expecting: The entire tale works as a analogy for a comic fans relationship with superhero comics. Sheldon's opinion on the Marvels mirrors the average comic fans progression from youthful optimism and wonder, to broadening exploration of social themes and ideas, to frustration with the entire "establishment" and never-ending nature of superhero stories... to finally a personal sort of resignation and finale.

It might sound geeky to the lay person, but to someone who has been reading comics for more years than I can count, it's pretty cool.

And, speaking of comics, I might as well quickly mention what I picked up this week from Zanadu.

New X-men #46 - This was the second to last issue of the Messiah CompleX storyline, and the last issue of New X-men (although, supposedly, the title will be reborn as "Young X-men"). This issue definitely didn't drop the ball in either department, offering up some pretty whole sale carnage and chaos. In addition, there was a plot twist about halfway through this issue that tied one of the subplots into the main storyline and managed to entertain me. If I had one complaint it was that there are 40 or more characters involved in the final battle, and while artist Humberto Ramos tries to keep up... he can't quite manage it.

New Exiles - While I only really had one complaint about this weeks New X-men, I have to say that New Exiles gave me plenty to complain about. In fact, I'm not even really sure why I even gave it a try. The writer, Chris Claremont, helped define the X-Universe back in the day, but these days seems to be fixated on exploring his pet themes of strong women, mild bondage, mind control and "focusing the sum totality of our power" in the most incoherent and uninteresting manners possible. To this end, he's gutted the old Exiles title (which was basically the X-version of Quantum Leap) and turning it into a book about (you guessed it) strong women, mild bondage, mind control and "focusing the sum totality of our power." Ugh.

The Order #6 and The Immortal Iron Fist #12 - Neither of these are titles I usually pick up, but decided to check out because their writer, Matt Fraction, is going to be the writer of the new Young X-men series I mentioned above. In addition, he also writes the Image series Casanova which -if I haven't already mentioned on this blog- I'll definitely have to ramble about next time a new issue is released. Fraction seems to have a mind chock-full of entertainingly out-there concepts, and I was interested in seeing how he handled the Marvel Universe. Of the two titles, the kung-fu series Iron Fist is probably the more entertaining. I wasn't always able to follow up what was going on (the story was in part 5 of 6), but it had the right level of energy and quirky details. The Order, while also a strong title involving the formation of a new California based superhero team, was entertaining but probably drug down a bit by the solid by not particularly dynamic art of Barry Kitson.

Finally, in addition to all that, I also finished reading MW by Osamu Tezuka. Tezuka's Buddha series is one of my all time favorite mangas. So, when Vertical started releasing other comics by Tezuka, I figured it was worth picking them up. MW, the first of the titles I read, was... how should I say it... interesting. The story is about two young boys who are the only survivors when a biological weapon called MW is leaked on an island killing the entire population. When they grow up, one becomes a Catholic priest, and the other becomes an amoral killer obsessed with tracking down the people responsible for the cover up. And the priest and killer are secretly lovers. And the priest wants to stop the killer from trying to wipe out mankind. And the killer is from a family of kabuki dancers and tends to dress up like the women he's recently killed.

So, yeah, definitely different and at times fairly surreal. Probably the thing that makes it the most unnerving is the Tezuka's cartoony art. Tezuka is the creator of the cult series Astro Boy, and his characters look like 1940's cartoon characters, which puts the style at odds with the themes and storyline. But, not in a bad way. I'll be interested to read his other two book (which I also got as Christmas presents) and see how they compare to this and Buddha.

Pop Quiz! Is this a picture of A) The cross-dressing, sociopathic lead character of MW who is attempting to aquire a biological weapon to wipe out mankind or B) Astro Boy?

Week in Review: Office life, secret agents, football players, sushi and the Hulk

And now for something completely different...

Admittedly, General Admission has always been a bit of mixed bag. But, now that I've returned to the 9 to 5 life, it’s become increasingly apparent that I won't be able to make regular entries during the week. So, instead what I think I'm going to try it to post a sort of Week in Review every Sunday, where I will go into detail about things I've seen, done and watched over the last week.

Plus, maybe subject you all to some comic reviews.

Anyhow, most of our evenings this week have been spent either watching the Office or James Bond movies. Sarah and I were both huge fans of the British version of the Office, so I have to admit that we've been dragging our feet when it comes to watching the American version, but after Sarah watched a couple episodes during business trips, she became convinced it was worth watching through Netflix's On Demand service.

And, you know what? It's awarsome.


The humor is a little more broad than in the British version, but with more episodes behind it, the characters have been given an increased chance to breath and be fully realized. And, frankly, there are some sequences that are true genius: Jim doing his "Jets vs Sharks" finger snaps behind Michael's back, in "The Fight." Dwight barfing on his car windshield in "The Injury" (trust me, its funny). Or the subtly heartbreaking ending of the Halloween episode, with Michael giving out candy to Trick or Treaters.

In fact, its bits like the last one that really are the hook of the series. For every hilarious sequence, or awkward conversation, there's a scene that makes you feel for the characters. Michael may be a jerk, and Dwight a creep... but you still feel for them.

But, you all probably know this already, since everyone else in America has been watching the Office for over two years now. But, if we keep watching episodes at the rate we are, we should be caught up with everyone else by this time next week. Or, maybe by the end of tonight.

But, in addition to our Office-athon, we've also been indulging in our movie equivalent of comfort food: James Bond. Last year, Sarah's mom bought me two of the James Bond box sets, and this year, I got the other two box sets... completing our collection.

This weeks Bond films included From Russia With Love and Die Another Day. Watching these two, more or less back to back, was an interesting experience because we basically went from the second Bond film ever made, to the second most recent film. And the differences between the two were as interesting as the similarities.


In From Russia With Love you could see them still developing all those things that would become clichés and standard tropes of the later films: Q's gadgets. Bond's sexism. The trademark villains. Plus, the series hadn't quite developed the kitsch factor that would define the later Connery films and most of Moore's Bond films. Oh, plus it takes place in Istanbul and it gave me another opportunity to wax wistfully about how much I love Istanbul.

But, probably the most noticeable difference is with Bond himself. In the earlier film, despite his training, he's still almost a believable character. Sure, he's a trained secret agent, but he hasn't yet taken on the superhuman qualities that defined later day Bond, as witness in Brosnan using a parachute and cockpit lid to wind surf a wave created by an iceberg cleaved free of the mainland by a laser shooting satellite in Die Another Day. It's a world of difference... and watching the two you can see how much Casino Royale has gone back to Bond's roots.

Personally, though, I have difficulty picking a favorite Bond era. Most people skew towards the older or newer Bonds. Usually the older Bonds. But, honestly, I think they all have strengths and weaknesses. And I enjoy them all. Even the frumpy Dalton films.

And, from "frumpy" we shift gears to "grumpy."

Sadly, as you probably all know, the Seahawks are out of the playoffs. After what was an amazing first four minutes, the rest of the game became increasingly difficult to watch... partially because it was difficult to watch the Seahawks game slowly unravel, and partially because the ever increasing snowfall just made it hard to even see the players.

Still, while I'm a Johnny-Come-Lately with the ‘Hawks this year, I've enjoyed the last couple of weeks shouting and cheering with friends, taking ski-shots, eating my friend JJ's amazing five-meat chili, and taking the edge off yesterdays loss by appreciating Todd's excellently grilled steaks... which continue to reinforce my belief in the value of buying your food at local butchers and farmers markets, as opposed to chain grocery stores. I mean, these steaks were just so far above and beyond anything you could get at Safeway.

On the subject of food, after attending an ex-corkers Last Day of Work Party, me, Sarah and a couple of friends made our way over to Umi Sake House. Now, Umi might not be the most traditional or authentic sushi restaurant, but it’s definitely become a favorite of ours. I'm pretty new to the world of sushi (and seafood in general), but I have to admit I'm pretty surprised by how much I've enjoyed everything I've had there. For example, I've never had sushi that was fried tempura style, and I don't think it's "true" sushi... but its good!

Finally, I'm going to quickly mention the comics I picked up this week. In my last entry, I mentioned the big X-crossover, the Messiah CompleX. Well, it's dutifully soldiering toward its climax. This week’s X-Factor #27 is the third from last in the crossover event, and it's far from my favorite. The art by Scot Eaton is fairly blah, and Peter David's writing is oddly stiff. But, what the issue did do well is get me excited for the final two chapters! I think, from here on out, we are moving into the storylines final battle... or battles. And, we are beginning to get the feeling that we are moving into the Grand Finale, and that some of the storylines are getting wrapped up.

In addition to X-Factor, I decided to check out the new Hulk series by Jeff Leob and Ed McGuiness. While Sarah and I were traveling, the Hulk had it's own major crossover called World War Hulk in which -I believe- the Hulk and a group of aliens tried to take over the Earth, which sadly I missed. I mean, the Hulk and aliens trying to take on the World!! It had to have been entertaining! But, with that story behind us, this new series marks a new direction for the Hulk as a character. And, while the concept of the newer, redder (and gun totting?!) Hulk is interesting, and the art was stunning... the issue seemed, well, slight.


I mean, a series about the incredible Hulk doesn't need to be cerebral. And I'm not one to usually complain about "decompression" (comics that tell stories more through the art than the writing, leading to less dense stories), but I was still left feeling like this first issue might have needed a little more meat to it. I might check out the second issue, just to see if it picks up, but I can't say I was particularly awed. Hulk Smash!

Anyhow, on to next week!