zrath

So I went to see "Star Trek" on Thursday Night.
I went home after work to change and grab some dinner. My plan to zoom down the 405 to get to The Bridge Cinema Delux
speedily was dashed by bumper to bumper traffic, so I took surface streets instead. I got to the theater with plenty
of time to spare. Besides, since this was an IMAX screening, my seat was reserved.
After parking the (St)Ranger, I meandered over to the Nordstrom Rack near the theater. I once found a pair of strange
Nikes for $10 there, Nikes that looked like they were made of soft-serve ice cream. I still have them.
So I checked the men's shoe section for possible deals and found plenty of shoes my size, though the prices were
not what I was accustomed to pay at Ross. Most of the shoes my size seemed to be Nikes and $49.95 a pair.
Since I usually pay anywhere from $15 to $35 for similar shoes at Ross, I passed.
I went into The Bridge Cinema Delux and walked to the appropriate IMAX screening room. I took my seat and relaxed.
The sound system was playing a medley of Star Trek music: "ST: TNG" (it was played thrice), "ST: First Contact"
(one of my favorites), "ST: DS9" (still sucky), and "ST: Voyager" (also one of my favorites, it's majestic!).
With 10 minutes to go before the 9pm showtime, the screening room looked mostly empty. The room seemed 75% full when
I ordered my ticket online. Looks like everybody was going to show up late. And sure enough, they did. The show didn't
start until 9:15pm, and the theater was 90% full by that time. No trailers, no commercials, right into the movie! :D

IMAX theaters are not really designed for viewing feature-length motion pictures. The center section is roughly
60 seats wide, without a single walkway in the middle. Try as I might I could not contain myself, and at about the
45 minutes mark, I had to GO! Since there's not much in the way of legroom, the 25 or so people between me and the
walkway had to stand up, and I'm sure that every single one of them despised me at that very moment.
When I returned, I did not even bother going back to my original seat. I grabbed an empty one on the D Aisle,
the one with the East/West walkway. Plenty of legroom there! :)
As for the movie itself, it was fun. The casting was pretty good, especially Karl Urban as "Bones" McCoy.
Poor guy's been stuck in mostly crappy mostly mindless actioners, it's nice to see him with something to work with.
Kirk, Uhura, Spock, Chekov, Scotty, Sulu, Pike, good job all around.
However, I have a few words for Mr. J.J. Abrams:
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, MAN, PULL THE CAMERA BACK A LITTLE!!!
I don't need to count the razor stubbles on people's faces! And I don't need their chins in my lap!
You may not know this, but traditionally, the filmmakers who have done EXTREME close-ups on actors' and actresses'
faces have done so to hide the fact that there's very little or no set behind them. This was obviously not the case.
Also, I'd like to see the ships clearly! Especially when there's stuff going on like pew-pew-ing and missile-ing.
I couldn't even tell who was firing what from where! Everything was blurry and shot too close.
Yes, you got some good general shots of the Kelvin, the Enterprise and the Vorlon/Shadow/Romulan ship. But I still
don't know what the Vorlon/Shadow/Romulan missiles look like, or what the other Federation ships look like.
It's like "Cloverfield" all over again: there's something cool and exciting over here but no, look at this rock!
I'm in this sci-fi jive for the ships, Mr. Abrams, and you have disappointed me.
Just make sure you move the camera back a tad in the sequel(s).

Friday: went to work, got paid, went to the bank, went to Ralph's for lunch and beverages for home.
Called some people, left messages. Found out from

coyoteseven that the annual So-Cal FurBQue was Saturday.
And he found out about it from a friend, so way to advertize the event properly, you FurBQue disorganizers! :D
Went home from work, worked on some eBay stuff, watched "Day The Earth Stood Still" retread. It was not very good.
Stayed online until 3am, then went to bed.

Saturday: SLEPT!!! Got up at 1pm, took care of verious things, then headed down to Orange County for the FurBQue.
The weather was particularly outstanding for a BBQ: sunny, not too warm, with a nice breeze blowing.
I drove all the way down to Orange with the windows down (the FurBQue is held at the Irvine Regional Park, which is
not in Irvine but in Orange. Go figure. It's a public park with a zoo and miniature train ride and stuff.)
I stopped at a Ralphs 5 minutes away from the Park and called

doodlesthegreat to check on needed supplies.
Picked up what was needed: ice, burger patties, sliced cheese and a case of bottled water, then went to the Park.
I had no trouble finding the FurBQue, there was a very hard-to-miss purple moose fursuit in attendance.
In addition to Doodles, I also saw Stego, Vircoo, Iron Badger, Ken Pick, Chythar, and the usual gang of idiots.
Burgers and hot dogs and polish sausages and whole corns and pineapples were grilled and consumed.
Ken Tiger brought an assortment of offbeat bottled sodas and I tried a few.
The first one was Sprecher Cherry Cola (bottom of the page), and it was more cherry than cola. I have to admit that
the cherry actually tasted like cherry, not like some bad cherry medicine substitute. Not much cola taste though.
Then I tried some insane banana thing that tasted like every fake banana candy ever. It was GHASTLY!
Finally, I tried a pink soda made by Waialua Soda Works in Hawaii. The label said the drink was "Lilikoi" flavored.
I had no idea what that was, but I tried it anyway. It was exotic and delicious and it reminded me of the tropical
vacations that my parents had taken me on when I was little Kzinten. My taste buds were in ecstasy...
(I looked up "Lilikoi" when I got home that night. Turns out it's passion fruit. No wonder it was so dang tasty!)
Waialua also makes a mango soda and I really wanna try it. I guess a roadtrip to BevMo is in my future.
We stayed in the Park until 8pm and I was one of the last ones to leave, helping with clean-up a bit.
I took the long drive home, traffic was very fluid. Once home, I relaxed with a nice chilled bottle of Lemon Perrier
and a couple of Season 4 (New) Doctor Who episodes. And I built a Lego set from 2002, one I always wanted to own.

Sunday: not much happened that day. I slept in then went online. I watched the first 4 episodes of "Dollhouse" and
I have to say that I am now intrigued. Later, I watched a French crime film from the '60s, "Le Cercle Rouge".
Eventhough it was a caper movie, which I love, I found it to be rather dull and slow.

Monday: slept in, but not much. Took some time out to remember my great great grandfather, Papa Roux, who fought
in WWI and survived the Battle Of Verdun. And my great aunt Camille who was in the Résistance during WWII. She may
not have been in uniform, but she did her duty nonetheless. I'm not sure where she is nowadays. I would have to go
through my one of my aunts to find out where she is and we're not talking. Damn it, I'll contact them anyway.
Ran some errands and was surprised at how much stuff is actually open on Memorial Day, and normal hours too!
Had a late lunch from Tito's Tacos, and found some Pepsi Throwback at a local AM-PM to wash it down. Good times!
Ran some more errands then went home and packed some eBay stuff for shipping the next day.
Watched an obscure Sam Raimi film that a colleague lent me a DVD of. It's "Crime Wave" from 1985 and it's a lot like
a human cartoon. Slapstick humor, wacky sound effects, wild takes, 3 Stooges humor, a script by the Coen Brothers.
More about it in a future Netflixing post.

Tuesday: back to work! Glanced at the L.A. Times headlines and saw that the California Supreme Court upheld
Proposition 8 (boooooo!) but allowed the same-sex couples already married to remain so (yeaaaaa!).
Like they used to shout in French workers' protests: "Ce n'est qu'un début, continuons le combat!"
(This is but the start, let's continue the fight!)

Hope y'all had a great Memorial Day Weekend.