Monthly Archives: February 2010

Ant Music

Last night I watched Big Love. Very edgy. A few surprises and a severed limb. Yikes! Luke Askew and Sandy Martin are two of the creepiest and enigmatic characters on TV, playing Hollis and Selma Green.

I really liked it a lot, surprised by not really that Entertainment Weekly thought it was over the top. I rely on Entertainment Weekly for Lost info, not Big Love so I didn’t pay it much attention.

After that I watched How to Make it in America. I watched it last week with Bill, and last night I watched it alone. To tell you the truth, I didn’t like it very much this time. I do enjoy Entourage and this is quite similar to it, but overall, I am tired of watching straight boys running around trying to be cool, trying to get laid.

Really boring. Haven’t we seen enough of this?

I know I have.

Bill came home after a very long rehearsal, lot’s of backstage drama happening. I guess things might have been going too smoothly when they started rehearsing a few weeks ago. Crazy dreams about hanging out with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, which was probably brought on after watching the Changeling the other night.

I also watched The Ricky Gervais Show last night and I didn’t like it. I just don’t get Ricky Gervais. He’s funny enough in scripted things but on his own, improvising or ad libbing I just don’t get it.

Today I watched Hellboy. I watched part of Hellboy 2 the other night and decided to watch the first part. It was pretty good. A lot of fun, a good comic book movie. I returned the movies I got from the library the other day and I took out Hellboy 2, Judgment at Nuremberg and Titanic.

I was compelled to watch Titanic since I visited the exhibition yesterday. I’m pretty sure my niece Corinne watched it when she got home. I did my part and watched it a little while ago. I’ve see it before and watching it again I found myself heading towards West Side Story territory.

That means that I might have watched it a few times, but I sometimes think that Tony and Maria will escape the ghetto, and now I found myself hoping that Jack and Rose make it alright. We know how both stories end. Both are top notch movies though.

The news on TV right now is about the Hoboken Fake Patrick’s Day parade. It’s generally a mess, a lot of amateur drinkers coming to town, partying, vomiting and pissing all over the place. Now if you get caught with public intoxication it will cost you a $2000 fine and community service.

Corinne is coming to Hoboken for the day, not to visit me, but to hang out with friends. She’s smart and will be taking the train and she knows enough not to be publicly intoxicated.

A big storm has been forecast for the rest of the week. I got a call from Greg Stevens, asking for my assistance with moving things in his office as well as packing up a computer to ship to his home in Arizona.

Of course I said I would help him, I could use some of that extra cheddar. It’s either Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the weather. I’m looking forward to it, and once again I am grateful to Greg Stevens.

Other than that I still have Passing Strange and Old Boy on DVD to watch, as well as the other movies. Bill is at rehearsal again and I have no plans at all really.

And I’m cool with that. And I’m cool like that.

Twist and Shout

So nice to sit down in a comfortable chair, he wrote after coming back from spending a good part of the day with his sister in law and his niece. The three of them had gotten together after a plan was hatched a couple of weeks ago.

The niece had texted him about meeting up on February 21, which is today, to visit the exhibition of Titanic artifacts. His niece loved the movie Titanic and wanted to see the exhibition before it closed.

So today was the day and it was a lot of fun, if looking at the effects of a disaster could be called fun. Actually the fun was in spending the time together. It was crowded a bit. Who knew so many people would still be interested in such a thing almost 100 years later?

We had all met up in Hoboken at a Dunkin Donuts by the Path train. We sat and drank coffee and chatted for about an hour. Some catching up had to be done. Soon enough though, we were on the Path train headed to 33rd Street, where we then walked up to 44th Street, in the old New York Times building.

When I was first asked about going I explained that it might have been too pricey, but the niece insisted on paying and that she wanted to see me so she made it so. As we entered we were given cards with various passengers and crew and instructed to check at the end to see who survived and who didn’t.

I was a third class passenger from Ireland traveling with the missus. I had a pretty good idea how it was going to turn out. My sister in law and my niece were first class passengers, boarding in Southampton, England.

A few tools, and mechanical things from the ill fated ship were on display. As we continued on through the exhibition the items got more personal, clothes, hats, and personal effects were on display as were coins, change purses, personal correspondence. As was a piece of an iceberg that we were encouraged to touch.

It could have been macabre but it really wasn’t, it was quite tasteful. We were also encouraged to touch some brace that was used to hold the ship together. Everything was arranged in air tight, climate controlled boxes except for the iceberg and brace.

There was even a replica of the staircase which features prominently in the movie. My niece and I were photographed on it We got to the end of the exhibition, and my outcome was assured.

White Star Line passenger Mr. John Bourke, accompanied by his wife Catherine, his sister Mary and a group of passengers from County Mayo boarded the Titanic in Queenstown, Ireland, perished at sea when the ship sank.

Dishes and cutlery recovered from the ocean floor were displayed relatively intact in sand. The crate carrying them disintegrated from the pressure of being 2 miles down as well as worn away by salt and the currents.

After that we opted to leave, rather than pay for green screen photos, or shots of my niece and I on the fabled stairway. We were trying to do things on the cheap you see.

Then the three of us were hungry and we walked over to the midtown branch of John’s Pizza. I’ve eaten there a few times with Bill and I pointed out to my sister in law and niece that the restaurant used to be a church. Stained glass ceiling and windows still intact.

We left sated and I reassured them that whatever we ate, we would walk off, as we headed back to the Path train.

It was all well and good and I had a most excellent time, spending the day with Elaine and Corinne.

Corinne

Corinne

Elaine & Corinne

Elaine & Corinne

The meeting of the sunglasses

The meeting of the sunglasses

Corinne & me

Corinne & me

Me & Elaine

Me & Elaine