zrath

Well, it's been an interesting week...

Monday: Urrrrrrrr, I did something bureaucratic and time-consuming, but I can't remember what.
Oh well!

Tuesday: I went to my local EDD office to get some info on my unemployment benefits claim.
My one-year claim ended on July 25th, and there's still money in it, and I'm still unemployed.
So I was wondering what was gonna happen. Do I file another claim? Does the extension kick in?
Instead of spending a long time trying to get through on the phone, I figured I'd go to the office.
I tried the website but the info was simply not there.
Anyway, I get to the office, and it's a pale shadow of what it was 3 years ago.
It's basically a reception area and a bank of computers for people to browse job listings.
No one at the office has access to claim information any more.
They made me wait my turn to use a phone to call the EDD office in Sacramento.
What. The. Frak.
And when I got through to a living human being, she basically took my information down and told me
somebody would be in touch within the next 10 days. (!!!!!!!!)
WHAT. THE. FRAK.
It's, like, nobody has access to the information! Not even the people who work there!
What manner of complete insanity is this!?!??
ZRATH SMASH!!!

Once home, I found an e-mail from slipdragon that he received the money I sent him. He's moving soon and he was
selling a bunch of stuff. Of particular interest to me was a large plastic tub full of Lego.
We're talking about 45 POUNDS of high-tech ABS goodness! According to him, the tub contains all the
Classic Space sets from 1979 to the mid-80's. That's pretty incredible in itself, but there's more!
Early Star Wars sets like the X-Wing, B-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing and TIE Advanced, along with a Cloud City
playset and this Millenium Falcon. I only have the tiny Mini Falcon, so that's totally awesome!
I've seen a photo of the tub, I could see bits of partly assembled sets that match the description.
He mentioned that he was missing a lot of instructions, but thanks to the massive Lego Internet presence,
finding scanned instructions and complete part inventories is easy as cake, and piece of pie. :)
My plan for this tub is to sort everything and rebuild as many sets as possible. Some will go on eBay
and some will stay in my permanent collection. I have a lot of Classic Space stuff already, so all the
duplicates are headed for the auction block. I'm hoping to fill some of the holes in my collection.
This will be a long-lasting project, I've got my work cut out for me. But I'm not complaining! :D

That night, I watched Disc 1 of "Torchwood: Children of Earth", with the first three episodes.
Hummmmmm, wow. What's with the alien that looks like the missile silo creature from original "Half Life"?
It's much smaller of course, but still. I was dreading how this was going to end.


Wednesday: The driver's side power window on the F(n)ord (St)Ranger, which had been acting up for a month,
finally decided it wouldn't go down anymore. No amount of pushing on the door could coax it to lower.
So I called Joe The Mechanic, who's familiar with the patient, and made an appointment for the next day.
I completed my errands for the day with the driver's side window up, the passenger side window down,
and the climate control on full. The air conditioning doesn't work, so it was blowing in outside air.
Driver's side window stuck in up position + no A/C + L.A. summer = DEATH! Well, sort of...
Netflix e-mailed me to let me know that Disc 2 of "Torchwood: Children of Earth" was en route.


Thursday: I was up bright and early at 08:00. I stopped at McDo for a couple of Sausage McMuffins and
arrived at Joe's at 09:00. They opened the driver's side door panel and started diagnosing the problem.
Turns out the motor was dead and needed to be replaced. Joe called around and found one, but it wouldn't
be there until the next day. So they rigged my window to stay up, despite them having removed the motor
and the bracket and everything else, and sent me on my way.
Once I got home, I found an e-mail from Slip with the shipping confirmation number for the Lego tub. W00T!!
Said tub is scheduled for delivery early next week. Excellent! I gotta make sure I'm home to get it.
I also found Disc 2 of "Torchwood: Children of Earth", with the last 2 episodes, in my mailbox.
I watched it that night and found myself wishing harm on the writer/producer, RTD, aka Russell T. Davis.
I am so glad this man is no longer involved with "Doctor Who".
However, Auntie Sue (selenesue) told me that Season 4 of "Torchwood" is already planned.
Well, golly, there's NOT MUCH LEFT of Torchwood after "Children of Earth"! What's going to happen?
I went to bed at 02:00, slightly angry. Argh.


Friday: Up bright and early at 08:00 and at Joe's at 09:00.
The motor was scheduled to arrive by UPS at 10:30, so I chilled and read the current issue of Car & Driver.
I also browsed Popular Mechanics and saw a blurb about the new Nerf gun coming out in September.
It looks like a WWII submachine gun and uses a 35-dart drum magazine. Check it out.
The forward grip slides back and forth. If you cycle the grip back and forth once, pressing the trigger
shoots one dart. If you keep the trigger down and cycle the grip repeatedly, you get rapid fire.
I had an old Edison Giocattoli toy submachine that worked the same way, it shot little rubber shells.
Can you believe I originally bought it at Toys'R'Us in the '80s? How things change...

The motor arrived at 11:00, and upon opening the box, it was discovered that it was the wrong part.
But of course!!! Story of my life! They sent the passenger side window motor, an exact mirror image.
Time to go home? Yes! Because the new part wouldn't get here in time to be installed. OH BOY!!

I had promised girlfmkitty that I would help her move boxes today, so I rang her up once I got home.
Since no one from the EDD had contacted me yet, I filed a new claim on the website. Can't hurt, I guess.
After getting some late lunch (those McDo McMuffins are made of lead, I swear!), I went over to her old pad
to load up the (St)Ranger. We made two trips in total and got a lot done. Her new place is a couple of
blocks from my default Trader Joe's, amusingly enough. Plenty of stuff in walking distance too.
I got home early enough to be able to put some items up for auction on eBay. Click here to see my auctions.
I've got some of them newfangled Lego Star Wars minifigures like Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma and stuff.
By the way, if anyone local has something they want to eBay, but can't do it for whatever reason, I'm
willing to help out. I have a digital camera, I know shipping, and I can do write-ups. Just let me know.
I didn't get a call from Joe The Mechanic, so I had no idea if the right motor had come in or not.


Saturday: Joe called me up at 09:00 to let me know the right motor was there. I rolled out of bed,
prepped, and got there at 10:00 sharp. They put the motor in, put everything back together and voila!
I gave Joe all my cash and he let me pay the rest of the bill later. He's such a cool guy!
I got home at around 13:00 and called GirlKitty to tell her I was ready to help with the actual big move.
After grabbing some lunch stuff from Ralphs, I went to her new pad to greet the fridge delivery people
while she and Auntie Sue went back to the old place to pack more stuff and supervise the movers.
I ate lunch, read my Car & Driver and laughed at the pathetic usable range of the all-electric Mini E.
The rest of the day was taken up with moving stuff to the new apartment, unloading everything, stacking
boxes willy-nilly, and trying to figure out where to have dinner. Dinah's Family Restaurant won out.
3 of the 5 of us had chicken fried steak, myself included. We don't why. :D
After dinner, there was one final load of stuff to grab at the old apartment. To my surprise, everything
fit in the back of (St)Ranger. Everybody's ass was draggin' while we unloaded the truck at the new place.
Finally, I was done! I went home and immediately showered, checked e-mail and stuff, then went to bed.
It was almost 03:00.


Sunday: I stayed in bed until 14:00! Woooooooooh!
To my surprise, I was not nearly as sore as I thought I would be.
I had a late lunch at In-N-Out, then did some grocery shopping, then put up some more stuff on eBay.
Then I relaxed and watched "Taken", with Liam Neeson. OMG what a kick-ass little film!
Neeson's daughter goes to Paris and promptly gets kidnapped by white slavers. He's a retired agent,
like an older version of Michael Westen from "Burn Notice", and he goes to Paris to get her back.
The film is cowritten by Luc Besson and contains at least two scenes that made me go "F*CK!" out loud.
It's less than 90 minutes but it's jampacked with ass-kicking goodness and action-packed action! :D
The Kzin says "check it out"!

And it took me two hours to type this, and it doubled in size and picked up several links in the process.
I think it's time for beeeeeeeeeed!
Bonne nuit!

Post 2: Electric Boogaloo!

Still trying to keep it short and sweet, but man it's hard!
With this post, I am effectively completely caught up on Netflixing! Le yea!
However, there's some Homeflixing to talk about (Homeflixing involves DVDs we actually own).
That will have to wait.
In the meantime, open the door, sit in the seat, turn the key and go!!!


Hollywoodland 2006 - Did the Man Of Steel pull the trigger? Or was he helped?
I like Ben Affleck. I think he is a good actor and he simply needs to get better parts. Thankfully, this IS a better part.
George Reeves, Superman, the Man Of Steel, one of Hollywood's great mysteries. Did he or didn't he? We don't know.
The film also stars Adrian Brody as private dick Louis Simo, hired by Reeves' mom to investigate her son's death. Diane Lane
plays Toni Mannix, wife of Eddie Mannix (Bob Hoskins), with whom George Reeves is intimately involved (Toni, not Eddie :)
The film uses flashbacks to show key parts of Reeves' life, all seamlessly blended with the detective's investigation.
You're presented with three possible versions of what could have happened and left to make up your own mind.
I enjoyed this one. It's well done, very interesting. I've always been fascinated by Superman and those who've played him.

Tideland (2006) - "New one from Terry Gilliam puts Kzin to sleep! News at 11!"
So, you know, I've seen a lot of Terry Gilliam films. I love some of them and I like the rest, but this one?
This one's a toughie. I just didn't care for it at all. It was creepy, it was messed up, and yet somehow boring.
I turned it off halfway through. And if you know me, that's a pretty strong statement. I tend to watch things to the end.

Without A Paddle (2004) - Why does Matthew Lillard look so much like the guy who plays Tom Paris on "ST: Voyager"?
Yes, this is the pseudo-Deliverance comedy flick with Seth "Lil' Buddy" Green, Tom Paris and that other guy.
One of my brother's buddies recommended it to him, so we rented it. It was actually pretty funny, though it's not
"Harold And Kumar Go To White Castle" funny. Three childhood friends reunite after the death of their friend and decide
to go on the camping trip planned by the deceased. Their goal is noble: find D.B. Cooper's treasure, somewhere in Oregon.
Or is it Washington? Can't tell, it's all GREEN!! (:plays the banjo)

Flushed Away (2006) - "I find everyone's pain amusing, except my own. I'm French!"
Oh noez! It's an all-star cast!! Hugh Jackman! Kate Winslet! Ian McKellen! Jean Reno! Bill Nighy! Andy Serkis!
That's it boys, we blew the budget on the celebrity voices, we can't afford anything else! Have the screenplay done by
that mailroom clerk, and we'll get some bewildered tribesmen in New Guinea to do the animation. What? There's money left?
Huzzah! Let's make the movie in England! With computers! Because water sucks in stop-motion.
I watched this last night, and it was funny as hell. There are some really clever gags and some dastardly puns.
Also, lots of visual references. When Roddy the rat is picking an outfit, he vacillates between a Bond tuxedo and a yellow
and blue Wolverine outfit (Roddy is of course voiced bu Hugh Jackman). Roddy's human owner has a stuffed lion modeled on
the one from "Madagascar" and several plush rabbits that look like the ones from "W&G: Curse Of The Were-Rabbit".
During the freezer sequence, one of the victims is a Han Solo rat. A cockroach reads "La Métamorphose" by Franz Kafka.
This is definitely freeze-frame heaven. There is a lot of nutcracking in this movie though, must be an English thing.
Also one gratuitous French Surrender joke (must have been put in for the American audience).
Hmmm, I just realized yet another reason why "Top Secret" (with Val Kilmer) rocks: no cheap-shot French Surrender jokes.
Eventhough French Resistance guys are a major part of the plot, there ain't a single French Surrender joke in the whole film.
Anyway, clever (mostly), funny (very), well-done, English, must be an Aardman film!
Another winner from the House Of Wallace & Gromit.

Color Me Kubrick (2005) - Who knew Stanley Kubrick was this faaaaaabulous?!?
Based on the true story of Alan Conway, two-bit gay con-man who impersonated Stanley Kubrick in the late '90s.
Thi was made by people who actually worked with Kubrick: Brian Cook (director) - assistant director on "The Shining", "Barry
Lyndon" and "Eyes Wide Shut". Anthony Frewin (screenplay) - Stanley Kubrick's assistant from "2001: A Space Odyssey" onwards.
At times, it feels like a Kubrick film. Also, it uses music from Kubrick films. It's more Kubrick than Kubrick! :D
John Malkovich plays the title role and does a bang-up job, as they say. Amusing little film for mature audience.
Produced by Europa Corp and ubiquitous French dude Luc Besson.

Ned Kelly (2003) - Like "Deadwood" with different accents and cursing
The classic story of a man done wrong who only seeks justice in the face of injustice and a crooked system. Heath Ledger,
Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush star, which means that most of my female readers have probably already seen this film. :)
Yes, the sibling and I do like our westerns and that includes Australian ones. Though the Australian westerns seem bleaker
because of those damned English lording over everything. Goddamned Pommie bastards...

The Guardian (2006)
"Your wife left you. Your best friend is dead. You sound like a country song. If you had a dog, he'd be run over by now."
And the country song would be about Ben Randall (Kevin Kostner), veteran rescue swimmer in the US Coast Guard.
His wife has left him. His best friend died in front of him when a wave slapped their Seahawk out of the sky during a rescue
in stormy seas. His superior send him to the academy to teach and work through his tough time. Enter the young turk swim
champ (Ashton Kutcher, and he can act!) who's gonna knock over all the records. But he has a dark past! Oh noez!!
Yeah, it's a little cliche and stuff, but it's interesting to see the Coast Guard rescue squads in action.
The film is certainly more interesting than "Ladder 49", which was, among other things, dull.
And hey, Clancy Brown is in it! Not a life-changing film by any means, but of interest to sea movie fans.

Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (1980) - What if they made three movies and only released two?
In a world where Richard Donner was helming both "Superman" and "Superman II", the schedule started to slip, so a big push
was made to finish "Superman" and release it. By the time the movie came out, Donner and the Salkinds (who financed and
produced the films) were no longer talking. The Salkinds brought in funny-guy Richard Lester to reshoot part of "II", and
what came out in the theaters (and on home video) was an amalgam of Donner and Lester footage, edited to Lester's (and the
Salkinds') taste. Meanwhile, Donner's "Superman II" sat around in the vault.
Now, that film has been rebuilt and edited to Donner's taste and is now out on DVD for millions of Superman fans to enjoy.
The start and end points of the film are the same as "Lesterman II", but the road between the two takes many different turns.
For example, the Fortress Of Solitude scenes feature Jor-El only. His wife is nowhere to be found.
I don't want to say anything else as it would fall into the realm of spoilers. Just rent it and discover it for yourself.
I think, overall, I prefer "Donnerman II". I prefer the pacing and mood as compared to "Lesterman II".

Dark Portals: The Chronicles of Vidocq (2006) - aka "Vidocq" (2001), aka "La Cité De WTF?!?"
So my good friend trailer_spot once told me that a "rather dodgy" "Vidocq" film was released in France a while back.
I filed that datum for later use and went about my business. Last week, I happened to be at Best Buy, browsing the DVDs,
and I came across a strange title with a mirrormasked hooded figure on the cover. It looked a bit like one of the humanoid
robots from "The Black Hole", the ones that ran the Cygnus. I looked at the title and locked onto one word: "Vidocq".
Sure enough, this was a domestic release of the French film Trailer Spot had warned me about, saddled with a ridiculous
nonsensical name ("Dark Portals"? What portals?!!? Are you on crack, Lionsgate?). As soon as I got home, I looked it up on
Netflix and placed it in my queue. Vidocq is a popular and real character from after The French Revolution. I used to watch
a TV show of his exploits on French TV in the '70s. Vidocq was played quite effectively by Claude Brasseur.
Eugène-François Vidocq was a petty thief in his youth who spent a couple of years in the Revolutionary Army, then deserted
and pursued a life of crime. He was caught and sent to "le bagne" (think penitentiary, except 10 times worth). One week
after his arrival, he escaped! He was arrested a year later and sentenced to another bagne. He escaped that one the next
year, gaining himself some major respect from the criminal element. And yet, he turned his talents to fighting crime.
He was first an informant for the Paris Police, then in 1811 was put in charge of the new "Brigade De Sureté", an outfit
specialized in undercover work and staffed with ex-cons. Some decried his methods as unsound but he got the job done.
"La Sureté" continues to this day as "la Police Nationale", which I guess would be equivalent to the US Marshalls.
Vidocq was fired and rehired twice during his 17 years at the Sureté. He eventually resigned and opened a paper mill.
Which means he also published books. That business failed, so he opened the first private investigation firm in France.
This is where the movie comes in: Vidocq as private investigator, portrayed by Gérard Depardieu.
The film opens with Vidocq in hot pursuit of a mysterious hooded figure with a reflective mask through a massive gunpowder
and cannon factory. He corners the figure and they do battle, but the figure fights rather well and seems to possess
strange abilities, like disappearing inside its cape and hood. Or calling forth flocks of birds. Seriously weird stuff!
Vidocq falls to his death, his partner at the firm starts drinking heavily and a young writer claiming to be Vidocq's
biographer shows up and seems determined to find out who the mysterious figure is.
Any way you look at it, it's a weird film. Some of the themes don't reflect the kind of things that Vidocq usually had to
deal with. The movie uses a lot of extreme close-ups and overhead shots, which my brother feels are tricks to save money
on sets and locations by not showing them. Some of the colors are bizarre and the film does at time ressemble a comicbook.
We watched it in French and it was a bit hard to follow. I have no idea how good the English dubbing is.
This is what happens when Frenchies take drugs and watch "Brotherhood Of The Wolf" one time too many. :)

Viva Maria! (1965) and Bandidas (2006) - What a difference 41 years make! Or does it?
In this corner, "Viva Maria!", an amusing French western (yes!) shot in Mexico and set in 1907, starring two French
bombshells: Brigitte Bardot (aka B.B.) and Jeanne Moreau. Both women are named "Maria" but they couldn't be more different!
Maria-Bardot is a tomboy, daughter of an Irish terrorist, always blowing shit up with Daddy. After he dies, she goes on the
run and meets up with Maria-Moreau, a cabaret performer in a stereotypical traveling circus. The troupe gets mixed-up in the
local revolution and hilarity ensues! Also stars a youthful and dashing George Hamilton. The film's sense of humor definitely
includes a healthy dose of slapstick, and you sometimes feel like you're watching a live-action "Lucky Luke" comicbook.
("Lucky Luke" being a Far West-flavored, very popular classic of the French graphic novel world)
And really, it's hilarious to watch a hot French blonde berating and shaming an entire Mexican village, in French!!
So, 41 years later, Luc Besson's production company (Europa Corp) resurrects the concept with two Latino bombshells!
Okay, one Latino bombshell (Salma Hayek) and one Spanish bombshell (Penélope Cruz). Dueling accents ahoy!!
The story is a little different: Maria (Cruz) is a poor farmer's daughter whose father is killed by land-grabbing American
railroad thugs, Sara (Hayek) is a privileged daughter of a local noble who deals with the same land-grabbing American
railroad thugs and meets an untimely death. Circumstances bring them together and they start robbing banks to steal all the
Americans' money. It's a fun action flick with a good solid supporting cast: Dwight Yoakam as creepy bad guy, Steve Zahn as
clumsy but sharp early CSI cop, Sam Shepard as kick-ass veteran gunfighter, and one of the most amazingly-trained horse you
will ever see, definitely a passing homage to Lucky Luke's trusty and talented mount: Jolly Jumper.
Aie caramba! Las Bandidas son muy caliente!!
Looking at the two movies, "Viva Maria!" seems more mature, yet possesses a more innocent and child-like sense of humor.
Whereas "Bandidas" seems more immature and more entertaining. The intended audiences were quite different.
It's an interesting contrast. Neither film is "better", they're just different.


"And I'm spent..."