Whoah! Yeah!

"...Kickstart my heart/Hope it never stops..."

I went out with the family to celebrate a relative's birthday in Plainfield, IL. I don't know if you've ever been to Plainfield, Il but let me tell you, all that's there is a plain field! Nothin' to visit but cornfields, dirt bikes extravaganzas, cookie-cutter housing that looks like it's begging to be hit by a tornado just to make things look a ltitle different block-to-block. and the local quickie meth lab where Habib is not welcomed to run the shop but Gunther is!

The activity chosen to commemorate the occasion was the Skate West Skating Rink. Going to the skating rink as an adult is different than going as a kid. I remember going there to skate to songs like "Who Shakes the Best", "Baby Got Back", and the all-time favorite "Mama Said Knock You Out"...you know, clean, wholesome family-oriented music. I remember watching my best friend racing other kids in the speed skating competition, and being just as cut-throat as the rest of the kids when taking the corners. My friend was so vicious he would cut kids off in the corner and cause them to fall down just to get trampled by all the other skaters behind them. One night my friend and I hit the rink and the fast skate came around. I was much to slow with my "Mondoblades" on (they were "Mondo" cuz they weighed like 50 lbs. a piece and went about as fast as a guy who took a "Mondo" hit) so I sat this one out. I'm glad I did. The race starts and the kids are vying for position in the first lap. Come the second lap, my friend cuts off another kid, which he's done plenty of times before. Well, this time, apparently this kid was taught all the virtues of speed skating like control, speed, stride, and cornering...but he wasn't taught the minor convenience of stopping himself! In a hunched over position, this kid, with the crown of his head, went head-first into the purple concrete wall! He collapsed immediately.

Time slowed down at this moment. Everything became surreal. The music faded out in the background. The disco ball turned ever so slowly, and the crowd fell silent. It stayed that way for what felt like an eternity...until I bust out laughing hysterically onto the floor. Everyone turns around in slow motion and looks at me in disbelief.

Once the ambulances left the rink, we found out that the kid had broken his collarbone and wouldn't be able to do much of anything for a while. My friend and I bailed at the sound of that news never to return to that rink...until the next week when we returned to pick up girls.

"Whoah...Yeah...Ba ba ba ba ba baby!"

Currently listening : Dr. Feelgood By Mötley Crüe Release date: By 08 April, 2003

Conflicts of Interest

Lots of cool opportunities have been presenting themselves to me lately, but I'm having a hard time juggling all of them. If I get offered a chance to do an improv show, I have a conflict with a play I'm rehearsing for. If a movie op comes up, I've gotta be out from work for 9-10 days straight shooting for it. If a rock/jam gig pops its head, I can't cuz I've got class on the same day and time. If I want to go do some standup, I don't have any new material to go cuz I'm doing a bunch of other crap! If...then...else...goto...error!

I'm grateful for the opportunities I've created for myself. I need to now create them at times that don't conflict!

Currently listening : Mezmerize By System of a Down Release date: By 17 May, 2005

Interesting Bit of BS

I was watching Penn and Teller's BS show on-demand from the local cable company and they had an episode where the speak on manners and etiquete. There are people out there that claim that there is more rudeness in America than there ever was in our entire existence, and that can be measured by our lack of use/knowledge in proper etiquete.

There interesting part was how they portrayed that there are a lot of people and companies out there going on control-freak binges with other people or employees. For example, they had some guy walking around downtown Chicago complaining the entire time about everything! He considered it rude for people to use their cellphones while walking. He didn't like how cars would turn without signaling their intention even though they were in a turn-only lane. He didn't even like couriers double parking to deliver packages because they blocked traffic. He felt that if eveyrone followed his rules, then rudeness would exponentially be reduced in the world. He claimed that there should be a "Rudeness Police" correcting peoples behaviour in the world. I find that rude as he's not honoring my sense of individuality! CALL THE RUDENESS POLICE, ARREST HIM, AND READ HIM MY RIGHTS!

They cut to a montage of different articles of employees being fired for having matieral on personal blogs or pictures on websites. One guy got fired because his company disapproved of the matieral in his stand-up comedy routine! When that got mentioned, I thought, "I wonder what my company would do? I have a personal blog and I do stand-up comedy...good thing I don't do jokes about managers and projects...cuz those types of jokes do kill...literally...I mean, they get so boring sometimes that they kill people sitting their in their sleep..."

Basically, I kind of understand both sides of the table. An employee can be thought to represent a company at any given time, hence, should act in the comany's best interest. However, employees are people first and are granted the right of individuality first and foremost. If it was agreed upon in an employee handbook or business conduct guidelines that no matter what someone is doing that they represent their company and can be fired for their activities in their personal life that are completely legal, then I find it acceptable at the very most (I don't like the thought but hard to argue the point if it's been agreed upon). Since companies are slow to adopt new technology into their bcg's, it's almost arbitrary how they deem employee behavior out in the real world.

Well, I better go peruse through the employee handbook and see what parts of my act may get me in trouble...

The Soul Plane Should've Crashed and Burned

I saw most of Soul Plane yesterday while I took a break from recording a new song. It was billed as the black version remake of the great movie classic Airplane! Oh boy...was it ever. Every single black stereotype was exploited in the movie,e.g., Popeyes Fried Chicken being served in the "low class" section of the plane, black male models with extremely large packages hitting on women, the in-flight safety video being shot like and set to Destiny's Child's Survivor, the white family with the cross-over, hip-hop son that knows all the jargon, and the husband that gets to know black culture throughout the movie. Now, I like making fun of stereotypes and exploit them to my own use a ttimes, but, this movie didn't have anything else going for it. All the acting was awful, the dialogue was far-fetched and felt forced, and the idea of having a hip-hop club in the upper deck of a 747 killed it for me. I would like to think there is a movie that is worse than this one...but I can't .

Currently watching : Soul Plane (Unrated Mile High Edition) Release date: By 07 September, 2004

Kryptonite to the Movie Watching Experience

I went to go see Superman Returns this weekend. Superman is faster than a speeding bullet, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, and be mistaken for birds and planes. However, he is unable to have enough dialogue to thwart the whispering diatribes of a gaggle of 14 year old girls watching a movie together.

These girls apparently couldn't adhere to the finer rules of watching movies like:
1. Turning off your cellphone during the movie (or at least putting it on vibrate)
2. Avoiding text messgaing their friend sitting next to them in the theater. When they all have T-Mobile Sidekicks, it's like a portable plasma screen in a darken theater.
3. Shutting the fawk up during the movie and just enjoying it for what it was.

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SPOILER ALERT

If you haven't seen the movie and don't want to know what happens, continue reading from LESSON LEARNED?!

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During the scenes where there was a lot of silence in the dialogue, I heard these girls whisper loudly stuff like:

During the scene where Superman is hospitalized after saving Metropolis:
"I THINK THAT BOY IS SUPERMAN'S SON..."
"SHE WHISPERED TO SUPERMAN THAT SHE LOVES HIM"

When Superman is standing over his son in Lois' house with a loving look on his face:
"OOH! WHAT A CREEP! I'D BE CREEPED OUT IF A GUY WAS STANDING OVER ME."

During the entire movie whenever Superman was featured:
"OH MY GAWD! HE IS SOOOOOOO CUTE!"


I was annoyed because the sound system in the theater couldn't drown out these comments. I make comments during a film myself but I really try to keep others in mind when I make them cuz they spent the same $9.50 I did. So, I shushed these girls a few times in vain and got them to be quiet for brief periods of time.

LESSON LEARNED?!

Basically, I've learned that if you REALLY want to watch a movie, pick a movie and a theater that caters to the type of audience you think is conducive to your style of movie watching. SR is a kids movie (I used the term kid loosely as in kids in their traditional sense and obnoxious adults that have no regard for other people's movie watching experiences) and I should thought of that before going. The best time to go see a kids movie is when they're all at school...but, I guess I have to work, huh?

Currently listening : Sweatsuit By Nelly Release date: By 22 November, 2005

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