The missing month

Okay... I haven't been in foreign lands fighting tyranny or oppression, in the ICU with the plague, working on the world's next great opera, finding the cure to any of the many diseases that ail mankind, nor have I been island hopping in the South Pacific. What have I been? ...unmotivated and lazy. Today, I am home from work, sick. I find this the opportune moment to play catch-up. In an organized fashion, I'll do a 5-week recap.



February 16th marked 6 months with my fantastic girlfriend. This and a weather-related belated Valentine's Day were celebrated by a fine dining experience at Tavern on the Hill. Unless you are from this area, I don't expect you to have much of a clue as to this locale. The food was delicious and the atmosphere pleasant.

On Feb. 24, I saw The Number 23. All in all, I liked it. ...intriguing, thoughtful, dramatic, deemed to be worthwhile entertainment. It wasn't Secret Window, but I found it very interesting.

On Feb. 26, I took the F-bird to Firestone Complete Auto Care for a wiper blade. I left with a new wiper blade and a cracked windshield. To this day, the cause is unknown to me, but the glass has been replaced, and I can see the Harrisburg traffic clearly through a scratch and crack-free pane.

As Spring appeared to be rapidly approaching, plans were made and carried out to go skiing on March 10th. Being my first time in two years, I was grateful to finally get back out there. The snow was a little wet, but at least there wasn't any ice. Spring, however, must have found it still a little brisk outside and retreated for the time being. I am anticipatory of signs of its emergence in two days.


Thursday, March 15th, marked the day that I began awaiting the release of 300 onto DVD. This film proves that knowing the ending ahead of time does not necessarily spoil a movie. This is the film adaptation of Frank Miller's graphic novel of the same name. Some feel that it is actually about 90% historically accurate in its depiction of the Battle of Thermopylae. The gist: King Leonidas and 300 Spartans ally with several hundred other Greeks to oppose Xerxes' Persian army of more than 100,000 troops, including the infamous Immortals. Our elite group of heroes are, of course, destined to fall. However, there must first be character building, plot thickening, gathering of the audiences' allegiance, and much bloodshed, naturally. I loved it and don't really care about all the people who think they are the victims of the director's agenda. ...it's against Bush, or Iran, or gays, or the disabled, or whomever has a complex and a desire for attention. Bull! It's historically inspired art; enjoy it. There must be something appealing here; 300 had the 3rd best grossing weekend ever for an R-rated movie and was #1 at the box office after weekend two.

..for your entertainment

Ok, sure. I'm a slacker. Read this, have a snicker, and patiently wait for me to post something of substance.

Mike the Headless Chicken

Fare thee well, Cleveland

As I look back on the past four months, it seems the time has passed quite quickly. I won’t mind not living in a hotel anymore, but I’ll miss some of the people met and friends made. I’m not getting choked up about it; have no fear. I very much anticipate my return home to see my girlfriend, family, friends, and former co-workers. …this list being closely followed by the ability to venture outside into cold weather that is not substantially worsened by blasts of Canadian air that move at Mach 1 over Lake Erie.


Appropriately, as Cleveland is the home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, one of my last activities here was to see a show at the House of Blues. I met some friends for dinner and the Matt Wertz show. Not knowing the setup, I entered the main entrance at dinner time only to find myself amidst a crowd of gothic, Cradle of Filth fans. It would be fair to say, that I didn’t contribute to the homogeneity. I asked an employee and found my way to the dining area. Matt ate there as well and mingled around while waiting for service. I can’t say that I was star-struck as I had never seen or heard of him before. It was still a move of magnanimity (or at least friendliness) on his part.


The opening act was the best. Jon McLaughlin, a piano-playing, singer, performed just a couple songs and made way for the Alternate Routes. They were a motley bunch, for sure. Lead singer: an acoustic guitar playing, mid 20’s-ish average Joe; fairly normal seeming with the exception that he admitted to finding out an old flame got engaged via some snooping on Facebook. Rhythm guitar/ keyboard player: think Chris Kattan with longer blonde hair and punk, plastic frame glasses, who sips conspicuously at his glass of red wine. Lead guitar: a Brit-poser who looked like he was a nearly 40 relative of Bob Dylan; talented none-the-less. Bass aka Ginger: Shaun White hair, eyes that nearly touched in the middle, and a sense of style that called for cowboy boots, tight jeans, a black leather jacket, and a scarf… I thought he stumbled into our area from the neighboring death metal concert. Drums: buzz cut, glasses, and an occasional blank cross-eyed gaze. Some of the music sounded fine, but the best part was the fodder provided for commentary. …interesting… Matt Wertz took the stage an hour and a half after the show began. 11 pm is already past my bedtime. He was ok. One particular tune, accompanied by the disco ball, made me feel like I should be a roller rink (with a 12 year-old girlfriend – thanks Jackscolon). Some of us left early as the interest in sleep increased, and the value added by each song waned in comparison.


Additionally, I was at one point credited (or blamed) for perhaps single-handedly bringing back the beard. That being said, it will surely be vacant from my countenance in the foreseeable future.

Weekend in Sports

Yep, that's 7 in a row and 55 total

First of all, Tiger won the Buick Invitational. He overtook and/or stayed out of reach of a few "young guns" who had one or fewer tour wins. Everyone talked about the great opportunity it was to be playing or competing closely with Tiger. One commentator's response to this attitude was this: "It's (playing with Tiger) like singing along at a Stones concert. You feel like you're part of it, but no one else notices." Also, until I read about Andrew Buckle's Sunday behavior, I didn't realize that smoking was permitted on tour. Maybe I've just been living under a rock. That or they never televise such things...

Secondly, Roger Federer won the Australian Open. I'm not really a fan of his, but I can certainly appreciate his talent. I like Roddick, more so now that Agassi is gone. Much to my dismay, I forgot to watch the Federer vs. Roddick match after work on Thursday. After learning of the 4-6, 0-6, 2-6 loss suffered by Andy, I figured maybe it was better that I hadn't seen it.

An evening well-spent: V for Outstanding

V for Vendetta

"Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you, and you may call me V."
-V’s introduction to Evey


I feel that I can hardly do any justice to this film. However, I’d just like to say that it was amazing. With monologues like the one above, the creativeness and way with words of the writer virtually demand respect and surely spark my envy. V for Vendetta has it all: replete with drama, action, suspense, and hints of romance and comedy. Shakespeare is worked into the dialogue, and the caliber of original writing is, as already mentioned, superb. Thanks to the Wachowski brothers, there are definite hints of the Matrix in the stylized action scenes. These scenes are not the foundation on which the movie is built but rather a complement to the already solid plot. Another Matrix tie-in would be Hugo Weaving. On this occasion, though, he is not the rigid Agent Smith but the vindictive anarchist, V. His face is never seen, but the voice is unmistakable, despite being more emotive than his prior character, Smith. There is even a scene which is reminiscent of sped-up chase sequences from Benny Hill and the Keystone Kops. This is a short-lived glimpse at humor in a movie based upon the uprising of a people against tyranny while being lead by a vigilante donning a Fawkes mask.

I’ll leave you with this poem based on the Gunpowder Plot, a key part of the history involved in film’s story line.

Remember, remember
the 5th of November,
the gunpowder, treason and plot;
I know of no reason
why the gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.

DrMLKJr Day, Strip Malls, and my car.

Let’s take a journey…shall we? This account is a factual review of my holiday weekend. I’ll choose to focus much more so on the holiday than the weekend.

Saturday and Sunday were very typical. Activities included going to the mall, watching TV, attending church, cooking, eating, and sleeping.


Yesterday, as many of you know, was recognized as a holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. The gov had the day off. …but not me. That is to say, I wasn’t at work, but it certainly was no vacation. The bird, in all of her glory, needed a water pump. It’s a time consuming repair, but it’s mostly covered under the warranty. I figured my day off would be the ideal time to have this done, thus resulting in the least inconvenience. Ha! There’s a strip mall a mile from the shop. I thought I could kill a few hours there until I was “go for launch”. I was dropped off at a coffee shop at about 8:45 am. There, as I nursed my beverage for the next 30 minutes, I read part of the Cliff’s Notes for All the King’s Men. Not much can be said for the plot, as my brief time committed to the subject was merely enough to be introduced to the main characters and the setting. I replaced the pamphlet taken from the bookshelf and made my way down the side walk. I took note of movie show times and continued forth to Circuit City. However, CC doesn’t open until 10 and it was still a half hour until then. I went to the neighboring grocery store and read magazines until I was assured that I would be granted access to CC. As per usual, I bought nothing. I stuck to meandering and looking at things of interest for about an hour. At this point I revisited the AMC theatre for the 11:20 showing of The Pursuit of Happyness.

It’s the predictable, heart-warming, inspirational, pursue your dreams, rags to riches story that I suspected, but it did burn up nearly 2 hours for less than the price of a rental at Blockbuster. Following that, about an hour was devoted to ambling through TJMaxx, talking on the phone with my girlfriend, and negotiating and setting up future service with Comcast. Why you say?

…duh. My 2:30 lunchtime was spent at Applebee’s where I can now say with conviction, “Don’t order the blackened Tilapia sandwich.” I generally like the seasoning/cooking style associated with “blackened”, but that generalization failed this go-round. (I could make a much better tuna sandwich at home.) I then returned to the CC and further perused everything from my first trip. There are only so many times you want to play the motocross-esque demo on PS3 or the same 4 holes on Tiger Woods 07 for XBOX 360. This amusement fatigue also extends to looking at TVs, radar detectors, notebook computers, CDs, DVDs, and the Bose surround sound station. I then proceeded to Lowe’s for the remaining hour of my day. I am not yet excitable by carpet swatches or bathroom fixtures. Thus, it was quite boring. Exhaustion took over, and I sat down until it was time to get a ride back to the shop. An employee picked me up at 6ish. What a wonderful way to spend 10 hours on a holiday. Aren’t you jealous?

Despite the time I was able to pass by drafting this at work, I'm tired now. Good bye.

The Holiday Report

What to do in Eastern New Los Santa Harrisontonburgvillefieldcesteria...

Harrisburg… can it be, this is the city which I see?

I spent the past week and a half in and around the not-so-blooming metropoleis of Allentown and Harrisburg PA. It was filled with the usual holiday hecticness that comes from visiting a familiar area for a brief time. There were people to visit, Church services to attend, parties at which to make an appearance, and quality time to spend with those to whom I am closest. Failing to make the to-do list was watching the Strawberry drop at Strawberry Square in downtown H-burg.

A few things of note:

• Ice skating isn’t what it used to be. When you are 9 years old and all you want to do is weave between adults doing Mach 1 in an endless oval, the 2 hours allotted for public-skate is barely enough. However, at the feeble age of 23, I find that the activity is more a romantic setting for conversation, a mild challenge, some physical activity, and an opportunity to get cold and thirsty. After an hour of this, you and your date will have a tired right leg (assuming the typical counter-clockwise loop) and the desire to go elsewhere to sit down and warm up. May I suggest skiing or, if you must, snowboarding. Albeit not as economical, the lifts provide some repose for chit chat and more exhilaration exists during the descent. If weather and/ or location decrease the feasibility of said activity, I can’t help you. Or maybe I’m just tired of thinking about it…

• Thing of note #2 – I have no idea what it was.

• Here’s an impromptu #3 – Rocky MMMCXCVII or something like that was ok. I liked the first 4. The latest, not greatest, had one major problem. I couldn’t look at Rocky as a character. I could not see him as the portrayal of a retired boxer turned restaurateur. I saw the man on the screen as Sylvester Stallone, dressed down and with an accent that is not quite his own. It was mildly interesting with a feel-good conclusion.
  

Upon my return to Cleveland, I found that I would have an extra day of vacation. The gov was in mourning on the day of its recently deceased 38th President, Gerald Ford. That’s not super exciting, just worthy of rubbing in everyone’s face.