Weekend Update! With Shoes!

So Friday The 13th turned out to be memorable for only two things: 1) I got paid, and 2) psycho weather.
The sibling made good on his promise to stay away so I had the whole of Friday night to myself.
I did a couple of loads of much-needed laundry (ooh aah) and watched two more episodes of "Battlestar Galacticangst".
Come on people, it wouldn't kill you to crack a smile once in a while! Holy frak!!
I was amused to see a certain character get garrotted by a killer wielding a modified Key-Bak, the very same identical model
I have used to hold my keys for about 20 years. Heck, we used to sell the things in the family clothing store back in France.
They were fairly popular and we were the only ones in town, possibly the whole country, who carried the dang things!
These things are awesome and I don't know why more people don't carry them.
What's funnier is that I have jokingly threatened to garrotte people with my own Key-Bak before!
Never expected to see anyone actually do it though!

On Saturday, I rented the "Tractor" (Ford Explorer 4-door stickshift) from Guns & Roses (not the actual business name),
as they didn't have anything smaller and more reasonable (like a Buick or a Camry). I ostensibly got it to run some errands
requiring transportation of bulk items (try hauling two cases of bottled water on the MTA, I dare ya!) plus I figured the sibling
would probably have something suddenly come up that would require a vehicle.
(Finding the correct tense for the above sentence turned to be quite difficult...)
Sure enough, he got a last-minute gig at The Angeleno, the rechristened cynlidrical Holiday Inn hotel tower that sits at the
intersection of the world-famous 405 freeway and the equally world-famous Sunset "I'm ready for my close-up" Boulevard.
And we needed to transport his whole sound system to The Parteehouse in Hollywood before that, so voila! Perfect.
We had lunch at California Chicken Cafe on Melrose, then hit the Ross on Venice Blvd. to see what we could find.
I got lucky with shoes again! Last time I was there, I found the Nike Blacktrons, as I call them (black Nike Shox Flight
with yellow trim, same colors as the classic Lego Blacktron space line). This time, DJ Bro found me a pair of seriously
outlandish Reebok (RBK) Pump 2.0 sneakers. In 15. For $30. Woa. I tried them on, they fit, I bought 'em.
As I've mentioned before, it's hard to find shoes my size at reasonable prices, so when I see some, I grab 'em!
That said, I think I'm covered now, shoe-wise. I have 7 pairs! I won't need to buy another pair for quite a while.
Pants and shirts are more what I need, especially pants.

Later that evening, I was trying to find a picture of the RBK shoes to show people on FurryMuck. The lovely and talented
kibbles pointed me in the direction of Zappos.com, an online shoe store with "every shoe EVAR",
or damn close to it (except for Nike)! And sure enough, I found the shoes, and here they are!
I paid less than a third of that currently listed price, so happy dance!!


In his LJ, a certain bunny (porsupah) recently linked to a business article announcing the buyout and
subsequent liquidation and upcoming demise of the entire Tower Records chain. This is a bit of a shame. I have spent
many fistfuls of dollars at the world-famous Sunset Strip store and the closed-for-a-while-now Westwood location.
I've always enjoyed going to the Sunset store and I guess I'm going to miss it.
Saturday Night, I stopped by the Marina Del Rey Tower to see what this liquidation sale was all about.
I walked away empty-handed and slightly irked. Let me tell you why.
The prices of all the items have been changed. Everything is now marked at Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (or MSRP).
There are signs indicating what level of discount is applied to said prices, depending on item type:
DVDs are 15% off, mainstream/rock/pop CDs are 15%, Techno CDs are 20%, Videogames are 20%.
This sucks. Again, let me tell you why.
"X-Men: The Last Stand" on DVD was priced $29.99. This is, of course, complete bullshit. That's the suggested retail price.
NOBODY sells it for that price! So we take 15% off, and we get, what, $26 give or take?
NOBODY sells it for that price either! Best Buy wants $19.99 for it. I bought it Sunday at Gameplay for $14.95.
So DVDs are right out. Videogames? Same thing. Music CDs? $18.99 and up, unless it's a small label that charges less.
So anyway, as it stands right now, the Tower Liquidation Sale is not interesting.
I guess we need to wait maybe a month before we start seeing some REAL bargains.


Sunday was more mellow. Pascal and I had lunch at Souplantation (OMG pumpkin/cranberry minimuffins!!!!), then we ran the
errands I couldn't do Saturday (water and OJ at Smartypants And Banal, food at Trader Joe's). We stopped at Gameplay to
pick up "X-Men: The Last Stand" on DVD. $14.95! Best price in town. This is the place on Venice Boulevard that I've mentioned
several times, the one that undersells Beast Buy on DVDs and also carries tons of videogames. They're located about halfway
between Overland and Sepulveda on Venice. Give 'em your business if you're in the area! They're independent and good people!
We got home and the sibling conked out on my futon while I read some backlogged e-mail.
Then we watched "X-Men III". And that was pretty much it...


My downloads refreshed yesterday! And eMusic came through with a wacky little 5-track EP that put a smile on my face:
Secret Mommy's "Hawaii 5.0" (that's "five point oh", not "five oh").
Imagine if you will "Aphex Twin's Looney Tunes Hawaiian Holiday".
5 short little tracks of almost music, broken beats and mangled noises sampling Hawaii's culture and experience.
It's like a musical Hawaiian Punch to the face! Aloha!


In her LJ, the incomparable gen linked to an amusing Comic Relief 1999 (UK Edition) "Dr. Who" parody on YouTube.
Rowan Atkinson plays The Doctor (at first, anyway...), and Jonathan Pryce is his arch-nemesis, The Master.
Part 1 is here.
Part 2 is here.
"Could I be tied to a different chair?"


Ladies and gentlemen! Introducing the Official 2006 Eric Blumrich Halloween Costume!
(Link courtesy of the beer-guzzling and skirt-wearing mharpold8)


And that's all for zis time!
Au revoir mes amis!