Ninja Assassin!

This movie is a 100 lb box of awesome! There are a few minutes of unnecessary talkiness, there's more CG blood than I care for, and I think that ninjas are not really hiding properly when they engage in street battles in the middle of traffic, but other than that I think this movie delivers about everything one might reasonably expect in a movie about ninjas: frenetic combat, over the top violence, and stealthy assassins who blend into the shadows of the night. The plot is spare, but straightforward, because you really aren't coming to see this movie because of the plot. The characters, other than the central character are not developed to speak of, but you aren't coming to see this movie because of the character development. You're coming to see a lot of badass ninja action, and Ninja Assassin delivers in spades for almost all of its 99 minute runtime.

Wolfmother

I love Wolfmother. They are a proto-metal band that escaped from the 1970s into the 21st century to bring us an amalgamation of Led Zepellin and Black Sabbath, with a tiny bit of Deep Purple. Truly the essence of metal resides in these scions of Ozzy, Jimmy Page, etc. Tonight I got to rock out with them at the Fox Theater in Oaktown and it was glorious. I forgot to bring my camera (which AFAIK is still permitted at the Fox when not explicitly forbidden), but it was ok because I was happier to just rock and not worry about composing shots, etc.

2012

The earth's core is being boiled by mutating neutrinos. You can drive from LA to Yellowstone in a day. Oliver Platt makes a convincing bad guy. Roland Emmerich can blow me. Do not see this abysmal piece of shit. It is easily the worst movie I've seen in 2009. I tried to avoid it, but I was talked into wasting two hours and thirty-eight minutes of my life that I will never get back again.

Here, watch this trailer instead. Had that movie been made instead, I would feel a lot better about having seen it.

Rock N Roll Advice

If the lead singer of the band you came to see tells you and the whole audience that you "are a fucking asshole," maybe You're Doing It Wrong.

What A Week

This past week has been something else:

• The rather expensive sewer upgrade took almost a week to finish (as compared to the estimated 2 days) and left a lot of detritus (I resisted referring to it as crap, as that might give the wrong impression.) in the front yard.


• Apparently getting an instrument cluster for 1997 Jetta is a nearly impossible. I ended up getting a used one, which they can't change the odometer on and for some reason insists there's a problem with the airbag (unlikely).


• Had to say goodbye to several friends at work who got let go as part of a large scale layoff at my company.

These times be shite. Hope things pick up from here.

Where Christmas Is Going

Into a hole in the ground. Frickin' pipes have backed up on me for the last time. I saw the roots invading our sewer line on a camera screen. About half the pipe is blocked. The camera actually cleared out the backup, but when I asked the guy if it was ok to use the bathroom, he said yeah, but I might not want to use too much toilet paper. So hopefully in a couple of days I will have a cleanout port in the front yard and the roots under the sidewalk will become the city's problem.

Halloween Weekend

Friday: Went to the city to see Kevin Smith talk. He's a funny, if somewhat random guy. I was impressed to see him spend an hour going afield on a question, only to round back and actually answer said question eventually.

Saturday: Sleeping in, errand running, then hung out with Doug and Catherine for a while at their place. Noelle dressed up as Sexy Maid and I pulled out my Space Ghost costume. Then headed up to Redwood estates, where Bev and Spence and Esther and Kevin live. Hung out at their community's Halloween party for a while. Bev and Spence won best couples costume award for their Where the Wild Things Are costumes (Doug was also dressed as Max at their thing, popular costume this year). Noelle has pictures. Then we headed up to Bev and Spence's place, where I had never been before and socialized some more. Split around 2 or 3. I forget which. Daylight savings time ended. Watched Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Slept.

Sunday: Lazy day with limited objectives. Spent a fair amount of time driving around looking for Halloween paraphernalia that was discounted. Had a delicious dinner at Morton's (too much food!) and then went to see Where the Wild Things Are, which I would probably not recommend for children. Kinda sad. Then went home and watched Halloween movies (Donnie Darko and The Nightmare Before Christmas) before turning in.

This morning: Trying to figure out why Safari has developed Alzheimer's. Eventually ended up upgrading to 3.2.3 from 3.2.1 and the lockups so far <knock on wood> seem to have passed.