Monday, June 25, 2007
I am not to be trusted...
... with money. In one single move today, with an action of such awesomeness that it is matched only by the glory of its excess, I have committed myself financially for several months to paying for an addition to my stereo.
For those of you that do not know my condition of "audio nervosa," I am forever on a quest to increase the quality of music reproduction (and video watching) in my house. Several years ago I started putting together a phenomenal stereo, and today I feel like I've finally gone from "absurd" to "re-goddamn-dickulus."
The events of today. I was searching for a desk when my journey took me through a couple stores in Scottsdale. Eventually my mom called and gave me a recommendation for a store called Storables up in North Scottsdale by the old office. I found an amazing desk and was elated to get it loaded up into my blazer so I could get it home. It occurred to me that I haven't been to Sounds Like Music in many, many months. Sounds like music was the audio store that used to provide me with audio-equipment-based jerk off fantasies. If you had the money, you could easily spend $80K+ in world-class audio. For examples: Linn, B&W Speakers, Dynaudio, Audioquest, etc. The list goes on for a while. Anyway, several months ago they were bought out by a Texas company called the Home Theater Group, and are in the process of changing their inventory around for different brands. The guy that usually helped me out has apparently quit a few months ago and some new kid was fielding my questions. As a joke I asked him what the going price was for a pair of speakers I've had my eyes on for quite some time. Thinking I knew the price, because I have oggled them for so long, I was not prepared for the answer. In an attempt to get rid of them, because Home Theater Group does not carry my brand, they were close to 60% off. My jaw wordlessly fell open, as my penis electrically stood up. Surely the universe had guided me here on this day for this deal. These speakers are actively sold elsewhere, and to think of them going on sale at this rate is absurd. Dizzily I walked around the store and noticed that they were also clearing out their subwoofers. Once again, I asked about the going rate on a subwoofer that I believed to be completely unaffordable. Once again, I was astonished to find they were also purging this brand and the same insane discount applied. This was like a 2-for-1 deal like I had never heard. It was a deal that I was utterly conflicted about. I got my senses about me, and realized what was before me, and I acted. I will never, ever get a chance like this again.... so I leaped. I exercised carte blanche power for the first time today, and I have very little remorse. Make that none.
I am listening to sound in a new dimension. Heidi swung by for a while because she called me and got most of the details via the phone. She had to come over to behold my folly/wonder. I am quite sure she came in one of my chairs while listening to an array of CDs. DVDs have a new auditory quality that previously was only available in the theater.
Perhaps this is me embracing Phil's attitude of (paraphrasing): The road to the tower of knowledge is paved in excess. This is the kind of glorious excess that I think people appreciate. Either way, I have consigned a very large portion of my income to audio payments for quite some time. At least I'll have tunes in the meantime.
For those of you that do not know my condition of "audio nervosa," I am forever on a quest to increase the quality of music reproduction (and video watching) in my house. Several years ago I started putting together a phenomenal stereo, and today I feel like I've finally gone from "absurd" to "re-goddamn-dickulus."
The events of today. I was searching for a desk when my journey took me through a couple stores in Scottsdale. Eventually my mom called and gave me a recommendation for a store called Storables up in North Scottsdale by the old office. I found an amazing desk and was elated to get it loaded up into my blazer so I could get it home. It occurred to me that I haven't been to Sounds Like Music in many, many months. Sounds like music was the audio store that used to provide me with audio-equipment-based jerk off fantasies. If you had the money, you could easily spend $80K+ in world-class audio. For examples: Linn, B&W Speakers, Dynaudio, Audioquest, etc. The list goes on for a while. Anyway, several months ago they were bought out by a Texas company called the Home Theater Group, and are in the process of changing their inventory around for different brands. The guy that usually helped me out has apparently quit a few months ago and some new kid was fielding my questions. As a joke I asked him what the going price was for a pair of speakers I've had my eyes on for quite some time. Thinking I knew the price, because I have oggled them for so long, I was not prepared for the answer. In an attempt to get rid of them, because Home Theater Group does not carry my brand, they were close to 60% off. My jaw wordlessly fell open, as my penis electrically stood up. Surely the universe had guided me here on this day for this deal. These speakers are actively sold elsewhere, and to think of them going on sale at this rate is absurd. Dizzily I walked around the store and noticed that they were also clearing out their subwoofers. Once again, I asked about the going rate on a subwoofer that I believed to be completely unaffordable. Once again, I was astonished to find they were also purging this brand and the same insane discount applied. This was like a 2-for-1 deal like I had never heard. It was a deal that I was utterly conflicted about. I got my senses about me, and realized what was before me, and I acted. I will never, ever get a chance like this again.... so I leaped. I exercised carte blanche power for the first time today, and I have very little remorse. Make that none.
I am listening to sound in a new dimension. Heidi swung by for a while because she called me and got most of the details via the phone. She had to come over to behold my folly/wonder. I am quite sure she came in one of my chairs while listening to an array of CDs. DVDs have a new auditory quality that previously was only available in the theater.
Perhaps this is me embracing Phil's attitude of (paraphrasing): The road to the tower of knowledge is paved in excess. This is the kind of glorious excess that I think people appreciate. Either way, I have consigned a very large portion of my income to audio payments for quite some time. At least I'll have tunes in the meantime.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Review #1
Shark Skinned Man and Peach Hip Girl sucked pretty horribly. Their clever "matching" algorithm said I would really enjoy it because I loved:
The thing I don't understand is tonight's movie really had nothing in common with ANY of those. Maybe a tiny bit of Lock Stock, but nothing substantial with Princess Mononoke except for possibly that they might both be in Japanese, which strikes me as terrible matching point. Just to let you know how boring this movie was (even though it's marked thriller), I got to about 35-40 minutes in, activated fast forward, and just sped-read the subtitles for the remainder in a few minutes.
Chris awards this movie 1 out of 5 stars.
Spirited Away
The Royal Tenenbaums
Kung Fu Hustle
The Professional
Princess Mononoke
Rushmore
Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
Arrested Development: Season 1
The thing I don't understand is tonight's movie really had nothing in common with ANY of those. Maybe a tiny bit of Lock Stock, but nothing substantial with Princess Mononoke except for possibly that they might both be in Japanese, which strikes me as terrible matching point. Just to let you know how boring this movie was (even though it's marked thriller), I got to about 35-40 minutes in, activated fast forward, and just sped-read the subtitles for the remainder in a few minutes.
Chris awards this movie 1 out of 5 stars.
Labels: movies
Movie madness
It finally happened. I got caught by the Netflix bug. After spending years working around people with accounts, and Phil finally getting one himself, I decided that it was finally time for me to jump on the train as well.
Now that I am officially signed up I can see why so many people like this service. Particularly the movies they think I will enjoy. Phil put it best, "it's like they know what movies I own." After providing a couple seed values they pretty much started listing off movies that I own on their recommendation list. Recommendations coupled with the ability to rate a movie on any page of their site creates a unique user experience to say the least. For instance, I would not say that I am a thorough movie buff, but having rated a couple hundred movies off the top of my head I might start to change that perception.
The one thing I have truly enjoyed so far is the ease with which I'm gaining access to obscure movies. Phil's first arrival was Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance. I'm not going to go into the details, but suffice it to say, it is the truest definition of an art house movie I can think of. Think an hour and a half of orchestral music put to a video montage juxtaposing hot dog production, public mass transit, and day-to-day monotony. It's worth the investment of time.
Tuesday night we wanted movie #2, Shortbus. I remember when this was released something like two years ago and how much I wanted to see it. Clearly, I did not understand the scope of that movie, otherwise I would have kicked my ass for not seeing it. This is an oversimplification, but think of a movie told through de-eroticized sex, miscommunication, and social awkwardness. I believe I was reading on IMDB that it was a movie about people reclaiming their sexuality after it had been bruised in some way. Either way, the tag line of the movie is "voyeurism is participation." Not that I make snap judgments, but I really don't need to be friends with people who don't like Shortbus.
My first movie arrives today: Shark Skinned Man and Peach Hipped Girl. I am rapt with anticipation. Also, all of this movie talk just furthers my need to have a movie-night at my house on a weekly basis. I think I should really, really get the ball rolling on that.
If you wanna be my Netflix friend, you should click here.
Now that I am officially signed up I can see why so many people like this service. Particularly the movies they think I will enjoy. Phil put it best, "it's like they know what movies I own." After providing a couple seed values they pretty much started listing off movies that I own on their recommendation list. Recommendations coupled with the ability to rate a movie on any page of their site creates a unique user experience to say the least. For instance, I would not say that I am a thorough movie buff, but having rated a couple hundred movies off the top of my head I might start to change that perception.
The one thing I have truly enjoyed so far is the ease with which I'm gaining access to obscure movies. Phil's first arrival was Koyaanisqatsi: Life out of Balance. I'm not going to go into the details, but suffice it to say, it is the truest definition of an art house movie I can think of. Think an hour and a half of orchestral music put to a video montage juxtaposing hot dog production, public mass transit, and day-to-day monotony. It's worth the investment of time.
Tuesday night we wanted movie #2, Shortbus. I remember when this was released something like two years ago and how much I wanted to see it. Clearly, I did not understand the scope of that movie, otherwise I would have kicked my ass for not seeing it. This is an oversimplification, but think of a movie told through de-eroticized sex, miscommunication, and social awkwardness. I believe I was reading on IMDB that it was a movie about people reclaiming their sexuality after it had been bruised in some way. Either way, the tag line of the movie is "voyeurism is participation." Not that I make snap judgments, but I really don't need to be friends with people who don't like Shortbus.
My first movie arrives today: Shark Skinned Man and Peach Hipped Girl. I am rapt with anticipation. Also, all of this movie talk just furthers my need to have a movie-night at my house on a weekly basis. I think I should really, really get the ball rolling on that.
If you wanna be my Netflix friend, you should click here.
Labels: movies
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Me thing?
Phil has suggested that maybe this is one of those "me" things that other people don't do. Does anyone else use a shop vac in place of a regular vacuum for cleaning their personal space? It strikes me as much more efficient and handy than a silly up-right vacuum. Then again, the guys are coming back later this afternoon to finish my cork floors...so, perhaps I'm not the best gauge for my own behaviors.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Great Stories Abound
The last two weeks have seen some pretty great story-telling activities.
Last Exile (DVD): I finally finished watching it. About a year or two ago a friend burned me a copy of the entire series on DVD, and I dutifully placed it on the shelf. Then, about three weeks ago I had one of my occasional anime cravings and recalled that I had this interesting series just sort of hanging around. I started watching it from the beginning again, not that it mattered since I only got through the first two episodes last time, and by episode four I was absolutely hooked. I proceeded to watch all 26 episodes in three days. It may very well just be my opinion, but I thought the whole thing was astoundingly good.
Legend of Zelda- Twilight Princess (Wii): We return to the land of Hyrule where all the usual characters are engaged in their usual stop-ganon-from-getting-the-triforce antics. This time Hyrule has been plunged into "twilight," a neat air-filled-with-black-squares-and-light-bloom-around-everything situation. It's probably one of the most interesting Zelda games available, and also one of the least intuitive. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but my idiot friends agree that a lot of the game mechanics are somewhat non-obvious and a lot of time is spent floundering figuring out what to really do. Either way, it's still some pretty captivating game play, especially on the Wii. I can't malign it too much, I've already sank some 20 hours into it.
Kafka on the Shore (Book): Heidi periodically gives me reading assignments, and to refuse them is to take my life into my own hands. Twice now she has asked me if I have finished it, and twice I've had to tell her no, which implies twice she's asked me that if I truly valued our friendship why I would not have already read it. Well, I finally read it. The first 150 pages didn't intrigue me, but from page 151 (approximate) to the end I was ensnared. She was absolutely right, the book is brilliant and it is like reading a dream. Haruki Murakami takes you on a pretty crazy adventure that comes across as so matter-of-fact that you can't help but believe it's all really happening. Spirits, sex, genderless characters, self-referencing metaphors, and time bending- it's all there. Great read. Chris gives it 5 stars. Next on the list is One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Meeting the parents (Real life): In a surprising development that caught me off guard, I met Phil's parents over the weekend. They were evidently traveling through Arizona and decided to have dinner with their son, when it was decided that I would join them all for brunch the next day. The following morning, Phil and I arrived at their hotel and went on what can only be described as a "road trip" to get food that was really just down the street. After faulty directions, twists, turns, and needing gas, we arrived for a supremely nice buffet at the Tempe Buttes. I am going to assume for the time being that I made a good impression since we were all laughing and having a good time. The bottomless mimosas definitely made the whole experience more enjoyable for me. Yes, I was somewhat tipsy while getting to know my boyfriend's parents for the first time.
Last Exile (DVD): I finally finished watching it. About a year or two ago a friend burned me a copy of the entire series on DVD, and I dutifully placed it on the shelf. Then, about three weeks ago I had one of my occasional anime cravings and recalled that I had this interesting series just sort of hanging around. I started watching it from the beginning again, not that it mattered since I only got through the first two episodes last time, and by episode four I was absolutely hooked. I proceeded to watch all 26 episodes in three days. It may very well just be my opinion, but I thought the whole thing was astoundingly good.
Legend of Zelda- Twilight Princess (Wii): We return to the land of Hyrule where all the usual characters are engaged in their usual stop-ganon-from-getting-the-triforce antics. This time Hyrule has been plunged into "twilight," a neat air-filled-with-black-squares-and-light-bloom-around-everything situation. It's probably one of the most interesting Zelda games available, and also one of the least intuitive. Maybe I'm just an idiot, but my idiot friends agree that a lot of the game mechanics are somewhat non-obvious and a lot of time is spent floundering figuring out what to really do. Either way, it's still some pretty captivating game play, especially on the Wii. I can't malign it too much, I've already sank some 20 hours into it.
Kafka on the Shore (Book): Heidi periodically gives me reading assignments, and to refuse them is to take my life into my own hands. Twice now she has asked me if I have finished it, and twice I've had to tell her no, which implies twice she's asked me that if I truly valued our friendship why I would not have already read it. Well, I finally read it. The first 150 pages didn't intrigue me, but from page 151 (approximate) to the end I was ensnared. She was absolutely right, the book is brilliant and it is like reading a dream. Haruki Murakami takes you on a pretty crazy adventure that comes across as so matter-of-fact that you can't help but believe it's all really happening. Spirits, sex, genderless characters, self-referencing metaphors, and time bending- it's all there. Great read. Chris gives it 5 stars. Next on the list is One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Meeting the parents (Real life): In a surprising development that caught me off guard, I met Phil's parents over the weekend. They were evidently traveling through Arizona and decided to have dinner with their son, when it was decided that I would join them all for brunch the next day. The following morning, Phil and I arrived at their hotel and went on what can only be described as a "road trip" to get food that was really just down the street. After faulty directions, twists, turns, and needing gas, we arrived for a supremely nice buffet at the Tempe Buttes. I am going to assume for the time being that I made a good impression since we were all laughing and having a good time. The bottomless mimosas definitely made the whole experience more enjoyable for me. Yes, I was somewhat tipsy while getting to know my boyfriend's parents for the first time.
