The Nineteenth Day of Christmas: Wrapping

Work ended up closing today due to what I suppose are icy conditions outside, but not before I'd already showered and dressed at 5 AM. No big deal, really. It gave me time to finish up a project I was working on, watch this week's episode of Top Chef, and wrap some Christmas presents.

I'd been putting off the wrapping until I had some free time (i.e. vacation). So, I popped in the score to Twilight (some Carter Burwell always makes me think of snow - probably because I first really noticed his work in the movie Fargo) and am now in the process of wrapping.

I'll wrap until it's time to brave the ice and get a hair cut and catch a matinee of Yes Man.

The Eighteenth Day of Christmas: Stories

Today was the day to pull out my Christmas stories. Last year I started my collection with It Ate Billy on Christmas by Roman Dirge. Here's the back cover blurb:

"It would have been a Christmas like any other for little Lumi and her horrible, terrible, obnoxious, awful bully of a brother Billy. But then a funny little monster appeared and ate Billy right up! Lumi knows it's not really a good thing to let a monster eat your brother, but she can't help but notice that things are, in fact, much nicer now that he's gone. Now that things are looking up a little in her world, Lumi has to decide what to do with her new little monster friend, and - more importantly - what she's going to feed him..."

Sounds Christmasy, don't it?

This year I added The Lump of Coal by Lemony Snicket. It's a cute little strange story about a lump of coal and miracles. From the back and inside cover flaps:

"Miracles can happen, even to those who are small, flammable, and dressed all in black. This is a story about a lump of coal who can think, talk, and move itself around. Is there a more charming holiday tale to behold? Probably, but Lemony Snicket has not written one."

Don't get too concerned about me. I still love me the classic stories like Charlie Brown, the Grinch, and Rudolph, but we need some new blood every once and awhile.

The Seventeenth Day of Christmas: Splurge

I just couldn't pass up this amazingly slick looking, over-sized art book at the comic book shop today. In its sleek black slipcase, with a gold foil Rocketeer etched on the front, it was simply too irresistible.

The Life & Art of Dave Stevens: Brush With Passion features over a hundred pages of art and stories. I don't know if even have a single comic drawn by Stevens, but his style - a puply, 50's pin-up girl blend - has surely influenced many of my favorite comic artists today. I know I loved the Rocketeer movie that came out in the early 90's, and this is my chance to see where that all came from.

I love art books, and interviews with artists. I'll never be as good - or even an eighth as good - but I love seeing sketches and reading about inspirations and influences. It makes me feel creative. And that's a wonderful feeling.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to include a picture of The Rocketeer....

The Sixteenth Day of Christmas: Dr. Horrible

I am so glad I stumbled upon this wonderful little piece of news today: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog comes to DVD, exclusively through Amazon.com, this Friday.

I started watching this 3 part web musical this summer. As (bad) luck would have it, the thing started the same time as RAGBRAI, and I was only able to catch the first two - wonderful - parts. I've been waiting for the DVD release since I first heard mention of the musical. It is written by Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly - television series in my top five of all-time.

Needless to say, I've already order the CD, and pre-ordered the DVD. I simply can't wait. ORDER TODAY!

(There's even a sing-along commentary track to the musical...how genius, and awesome, and totally worth the price - $9.99 - of the DVD.)

The Fifteenth Day of Christmas: My Nuts

It was the coldest day we've had since last winter.

...now, I'm not normally one that wears a jacket - just never have been....

And today I paid for it. I froze on the short walk from the parking lot into work. With windchills 10 below, I should have known better. A dude's gotta be careful just wearing khakis - he's likely to freeze his nuts off on a day like today.

Late for Atonement

I may be late to the party, but Atonement is a fantastic film.

It is tragic, brutal, and beautiful. There are very few perfect films out there...but this is one of them for me. Everything about it was great: the music, the costumes, the locations, the acting, but especially the impressively staged Steadicam one-shot sequence of the desolation and destruction at the Dunkirk evacuation during WWII.

Just...perfect.

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.