The Fourteenth Day of Christmas: Leverage

Leverage is the type of show you enjoy to watch. It doesn't attempt to be high drama, even though it does boast an Academy Award-winning actor in the lead - Timothy Hutton, who I last enjoyed in the all-too-short-lived series, Kidnapped. The show is slick, cool, even funny.

It's basically a team of thieves led by a damaged, ace ex-insurance investigator ripping off the bad guys in a very hip, actiony, Robin Hoodian way. The show airs Tuesday nights on TNT.

There's a line in the show that sums this series up: "That's twenty pounds of crazy in a five pound bag."

Mucho Music

I've been listening to a lot of music lately. It must just be the mix of great CD purchases and my mood - Christmas time always makes me feel the music.

The two CD's I've been listening to constantly are Kanye West's 808s and Heartbreak and The Hotel Cafe presents Winter Songs, a Christmas CD sold at Target (and online), featuring quite a few outstanding new and traditional holiday tracks by female singers. Both CD's are excellent and couldn't be more highly recommended. "Love Lockdown," "Paranoid," and "Robocop" are the three repeated tracks on 808s I can't listen to enough. "Winter Song," "The Heartache Can Wait," "Maybe Next Year (The X-Mas Song)," and "Frosty the Snowman" are some of my new holiday must-plays.

In fact, it was "Winter Song," that led to some happy connections. Earlier this week I managed to catch the neat - cute - little animated music video for the song. It was just what I needed; it started my day off with a smile. Then a couple of nights ago I caught a live performance of the song by Sara Bareilles and Ingrid Michaelson on The Tonight Show (such a tiny little guitar). Again, it was just fantastic. So great in fact, that I had to rush out and pick up Ingrid's CD, Be OK.

It is that CD - Be Ok - which I'm listening to at this minute. And it is great singer-songwriter, piano/guitar, fun music.

That is not to say that all in music land has been grand. Two recent recommendations disappointed me. It's not that Break Up the Concrete by The Pretenders and The '59 Sound by The Gaslight Anthem are bad CD's - they are good, but just not as good as I expected from the recommendations. It happens. I'm just glad that I'm not without music that makes me happy.

Oh, and Paramore has a new CD/DVD, The Final RIOT!, out now, which is also quite good.

(Did I ever go link crazy in this post?...still, the links to the music video and The Tonight Show appearance are worth the click.)

The Thirteenth Day of Christmas: War

There are 13 days until Christmas (including today). I've decided to spend my time leading up to Christmas getting in the spirit - the spirit of war.

(Don't ask - it doesn't really make sense, nor does it need to.)

So, here are the war-related movies and series I'll be watching each night leading up to Christmas Day:

December 13: The Patriot
December 14: Enemy at the Gates and Atonement
December 15: Band of Brothers - Part 1
December 16: Band of Brothers - Part 2
December 17: Band of Brothers - Part 3
December 18: Band of Brothers - Part 4
December 19: Band of Brothers - Part 5
December 20: Band of Brothers - Part 6
December 21: Band of Brothers - Part 7 and The Last Samurai
December 22: Band of Brothers - Part 8
December 23: Band of Brothers - Part 9
December 24: Band of Brothers - Part 10
December 25: A Very Long Engagement

The Twelfth Day of Christmas: Origins

I went and saw The Day the Earth Stood Still tonight. It was okay. Nothing great, but just your good old-fashioned B movie with stuff getting destroyed, bad people dying, and the good guys surviving.

What made the theater-going experience worth it was the trailer for X-Men Origins: Wolverine.


Wow.

And I mean that: w-o-w.

Maybe it's just because I'm such a comic book nerd and recognized so many characters from the X-Men universe, but color me impressed. I particularly enjoyed Wolverine flying from a car, through the air, up into an oncoming, attacking helicopter. The shot is framed so widely that he's just a tiny thing (with claws) attacking a beast of chopper in slow-motiony action goodness.

I can't wait until May 1, 2009.

The Eleventh Day of Christmas: Space Gas

I have a fascination with brand new gas stations. I don't know exactly what it is - or why - but I love stopping at newly opened stations.

Tonight on the way to my second job, I stopped at a newly-opened Kum & Go station for some gas. It was...awesome. The pumps were new and the paint was fresh and sparkling like tiny diamonds. These things looked like space-age ATM machines. Clear digital displays and the bluest-of-sky-blue lights illuminated your selected gasoline grade. Even the stickers were placed perfectly, not a single one crooked or peeling or popping with air bubbles.

It was such a quiet, perfect night I even heard the tiny whir of the machine printing as it spat out my receipt.

I could have sat at the pump for at least an hour just staring at its perfection.

(Holy bejeezus, am I easily amused and excited.)

The Tenth Day of Christmas: 250th Post

Wow. Two hundred and fifty posts on the blog since I started it about a year and a half ago.

My first post seems like such a long time ago. I think (look) back to my life then, and while it's not much different from what it is now, it is different in some major ways.

I do spend a lot of time thinking about the past. And that's kind of depressing. Looking to the past is just inherently depressing, I think. It's the future I should be thinking about. What will my life be like a year and a half from now? And more than just wonder about it, I should be going out of my way to make sure the next year and a half is better (different) than my life now.

Okay. So maybe I'm thinking too much on what should be just another Wednesday - new comic book day - night.

The Ninth Day of Christmas: Cookie Walk

Holy holy crap! There was this amazing thing at work today: a cookie walk.

As I understand it (because I'm still in a bit of shock about this whole thing) people bring cookies - and by cookies I mean a crap ton of all different kinds of cookies, brownies, and candies, and you - I - get to walk from table to table just loading up an entire container of whatever I want. It felt a little like stealing, but...awesomer.

I even got to wear a plastic glove to keep my germies to myself.

Cookie walks = awesome.

The Eighth Day of Christmas: The Ocho

Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story is such a funny movie. "ESPN 8 - The Ocho." HA!

That's not to say that I watched the movie tonight. Anytime I hear the number 8, I think of this. Proof positive that movies have ruined/influenced/dominated my life.

Still, I won't stop them.

The Seventh Day of Christmas: Fringe

Whoa, did I ever waste a day. Sleeping until noon doesn't give you nearly as much time if you were planning on waking at 5 AM. Ah well, there was still enough time that I got some of my work done and still managed to catch up on some shows on the DVR.

The show I caught up on was Fringe. I was 4 episodes off of being current, and I managed to knock them all out today. This show has entertained/intrigued me since the start. And it's only gotten better. There's a good chemistry between the cast members and just enough weird science and on-going mystery to really draw you in. It's also nice to watch a show that's just a bit longer than than the normal 42-44 minutes. This show has right around 50 minutes an episode running time, and while that may not seem like much, to someone like me who watches so much television, I do notice the difference.

I recommend you catch up on Fringe - Tuesday nights on Fox - so that when it returns in January with new episodes you are ready to go. It's worth the viewing.

The Sixth Day of Christmas: In Da Hood

I've spent most of my day chillin' in my hoodie. It's fantastic. My normally cold home has been getting the best of me lately. So, last night after watching Punisher: War Zone, I bought some new slippers, a hooded sweatshirt, and some lounging around pants (and while they may look like sweat pants, they aren't - I don't do sweat pants). I also bought another jacket. And a work shirt/jacket thing in anticipation of some tree-killing I have coming up.

All in all, it's been a comfortable day. Comics, movies, TV, books...ahhh, this is a weekend.

The Fifth Day of Christmas: Ruined Christmas

My day started off so well - I woke up with time to get around at a leisurely pace, ate some awesome little donuts...things were going great.

And then I listened to this message from my mom telling me that my family would be celebrating Christmas on the 21st. Not Christmas morning like we've done for the past 27 years. The fucking 21st.

I'm not normally a person who rocks boats, but this really irks me. So much so that it was all I could think about - ruining my mood, my great morning, my day, and my entire Christmas spirit.

The Fourth Day of Christmas: Frustration

There's no feeling like that feeling you get when you put all of your effort into something - or helping someone - and it (they) falls apart (do nothing to help themselves). I suppose that's why they invented the word: frustration.

Still, understanding the concept of frustration does little to alleviate the...frustration.

If I didn't love this time of year so much I might have said - humbug.

The Third Day of Christmas: Music

Today was the day I began rockin' the holiday tunes.

I never start before Thanksgiving, and thanks to my new-found love of honeyhoney, I'm a few days late with the Jingle Bell-ing.

Still, better late than never, getting those chestnuts roasting and those sleigh bells ringing: ting ting ting-a-ling ting.

(I'm also loving some great scores by some of my favorite composers: Danny Elfman, Milk; Carter Burwell, Burn After Reading; and Bear McCreary, Eureka and Rest Stop: Don't Look Back.)

The Second Day of Christmas: Non-Stop Reading

It's been awhile since I've plowed through an entire book in one day, let alone one night, let alone a few hours.

Ah, the joys of reading children's books.

It's actually not a bad little series I'm reading: The 39 Clues. The second book in the series, The 39 Clues: One False Note, came out today. The series is basically National Treasure-lite. Clues, mystery, action, suspense, double-crossing back-stabbing families...pretty good stuff.

And oh so Christmas-y.

The First Day of Christmas: Rushed

I got a little too used to not having to do anything or be anywhere over my short vacation. So used to nothing, that I was almost late to work today. It's a good thing I live as close as I do.

I didn't hear either of my two alarms, or my cell phone alarm. I was out and lucky to wake at all.

So, of course, I was rushed all day long. Worked all night. And I will be damn sure that I'm in bed at a decent time tonight.

Hmph. Vacation.