Watched: Dune

On DVD, over the weekend. Here's what I learned:

• Spice is life.
• But water is also life.
• He who controls the spice, controls the universe.
• He who controls the spice also BECOMES the center of the universe.
• The spice is the center of the universe.
• The worms are spice, and spice is the worms.
• He who controls the spice controls the worms.
• Thus, he who controls the worms becomes the center of the universe and also controls it.
• Intrusive, redundant voice overs do not make characters three dimensional or interesting.
• The sleeper must awaken.
• Fear is the mind-killer.
• Mood is a thing for cattle and love-play, not fighting.
• Relevant to the last point: Sir Patrick Stewart looks his best (which is to say: exactly the same as he has looked for the past three decades) when leading an army into battle with a silly laser gun in one arm and a pug in the other.
• Paul Atreides, aka Paul Muad'Dib, aka Usul aka the Kwisatz Haderach has the worst hair on Arakis (aka Dune, aka the desert planet, thanks movie, for reiterating these stupid points about 80 times but never bothering to explain other basic plot points) and possibly the worst hair in the universe.
• If you can destroy a thing, you can control a thing. Thus, the worms must be destroyed. Or controlled. Or harnessed and ridden like steeds into battle. Like they say, sometimes a cigar is just a simultaneously phallic and vaginal desert monster that can be used to smush your enemies.
• Tiny magical imp children are creepy as hell.

And this was just the short, 2hr 17min version!

Autumn in Austin

The first time it rained in what felt like a month, back in early October. I was strangely thrilled by it and took a picture on my way into work.

This is the lizard who lives in my room. I call him Alfred the Gecko. He's a classy fellow, keeps to himself, very respectful. Sometimes I catch him napping on the floorboard or on my umbrella, but mostly he hides himself away.

I must have made a big enough deal out of missing New Jersey/North Eastern Autumn because in rapid succession my mom sent me a beautiful stained glass leaf and Joanna sent me an amazing collection of pressed leaves, nestled in the pages of the book American Heritage: Men of Charlie Russell's World. It was quite the page turner.

Also, yes: I have an Avatar poster. It was a present from Kathleen, and even if it weren't, I would still not apologize for it. I don't care how dumb you thought that movie was, it was still fucking awesome.

This didn't have any serious bearing upon my Autumn, except for immediately making me want to cry then vomit.

Parade on Halloween for los muertos.

Local bar, the depot, which actually is part train. It's nifty.

We had a pumkin carving contest at work. My group did the guillotine in the last picture. The black pumpkin was probably my favorite though, it was the Pumpkin Ba-Bomb. The box is hiding the bottle of Jaeger, and yes, people did start doing Jaeger Ba-bombs at the first office party I ever attended. It's an interesting workplace.

Window display during October at the El Interior, a store across the street from my house.

Dear Netflix: Really? Are you sure that's how you want to categorize that?

Some new posters! Also, beer.

Canoeing with Kathleen on Lake Austin. It was gorgeous.

Austin Botanical/Dinosaur Garden.

My new headphones! With houndstooth. I plan to ONLY wear them while drinking tea, listening to Beethoven, and wearing my monocle, of course.

Thanksgiving feast. Since Kathleen is a vegetarian I made myself an adorable Cornish Game Hen, and we had a veggie casserole, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, cheese and bread, carrots, pistachios, salty roasted red peppers, and hummus. We got cappuccino goat milk and Ben Jerry's PB Cup ice cream for desert. It was the best Thanksgiving meal I've ever prepared, partly because it is the only Thanksgiving meal I've ever prepared and partly because as you can see from my blurry, shitty phone photography, it was quite the spread.

That's it for now.

You'll be worth your weight in gold, you'll be worth your weight in sorrow, baby...

...Though you won't know why.

P.S. Lack of updates = been watching all four seasons of Friday Night Lights and although a lot of my reluctance to do so before now was due to people telling me I had to watch this amazing show, well... you have got to watch this show. Such good television.

Watched: Natural Born Killers

Hyperviolent self-referential, multi-medium pastiche. Both an obvious dissection of the American Psychopath and a slightly more layered look at the modern relationship. Power = Love = Sex = Violence --> when violence is easily perpetrated & love and sex are readily available, power wanes. Restrictions demand creativity. Rules demand flagrant disobedience on principle, because we don't know what a monster is until we see one. Same goes for heroes. Either one needs something to destroy or it will destroy itself. Silly outdated gender norms are silly, silly; Mallory is tougher than Micky could ever be. What does it take to understand what's happening around you when your only frame of reference is what you've seen on tv? Maybe this is its own kind of understanding, purity through rejection of reality. I wouldn't know: I'm just the one enjoying watching this stuff happen.

Watched: Community

I love Community so much. I really only started watching a couple of weeks ago, but I raced through season one (which I bought, yes BOUGHT on Amazon instant play) in a couple of days. It's hilarious, it's sweet, it's full of awesome pop cultural references for me to subtly let people know I picked up on, and also it's got Joel McHale and Joel McHale's biceps.

Yep. That would make the show really good already. But then it goes above and beyond, and adds touches like this. Which makes it brilliant.

Without further ado, screenshots taken on Hulu of Abed's Robocop POV shots:

"Current Synopsis: Britta, Shirley and Annie make Abed into one of the girls, with zero repercussions. Jeff, Pierce, and Troy learn about either basketball or remote toys.

Memos: Record Cougartown, Troy's Birthday in 14 Days."

"Current Synopsis: Britta, Shirley and Annie make Abed into one of the girls which backfires; Jeff and Troy discover a relaxation secret, confuses and frustrates Pierce.

Memos: Get Rudolph for XMAS, Make Blanket Fort."

"Final Synopsis: Abed discovers his inner "mean girl"; Jeff and Troy embrace Zenlike Spirituality when they uncover a secret trampoline campus; Pierce lands in the hospital.

Memos: Book Starburns for T&A in the AM?, Sell Study Group on Paintball Sequel."

That last one killed me. Well, that and, "Nice. Who taught you how to be a juice box?"

Watched: Deconstructing Harry

Okay. Here's the thing. While this was funny, Woody Allen's endless navel-gazing really gets on my nerves. It's not I don't think he makes good films, it's just that after a certain point I don't enjoy watching them. This is one of those. It had funny moments but overall I just did not enjoy the stunt casting, the endless discussions about who this one guy is supposed to be, or the general focus of the film. Meh.

P.S. Get it? Focus? BECAUSE OF THE PICT- forget it.

Corgis

If you need me, I'll just be watching this on loop for the rest of my life.