I’ve been in Cleve­land less than 48 hours and I’m head­ing off for a New Year’s in Canada. Even­tu­ally I’ll have a cou­ple of reg­u­lar weeks to estab­lish some sort of rou­tine, but until then it is party time, excellent.

Well, I’m back in Cleve­land after a few days in Indi­ana. Three Christ­mas gifts I’m excited about include my new sweet-​ass pots and pans set, my iron­ing board, and my sub­scrip­tion to Paste [it comes with a comp CD every month!] The top Christ­mas moment was on Box­ing Day when I came into the fam­ily room dur­ing the afternoon […]

A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion Spine #252: John Cas­savetes’ Faces. I think, maybe, that the cor­rect reac­tion [at least in terms of the reac­tion Cas­savetes was aim­ing for] to Faces is sup­posed to be loathing. It is a long, tor­tur­ous jour­ney through the dark­est parts of mar­ried adult life, and there are no […]

I did a cheap hack of this YouTube Word­Press plu­gin to make it func­tion like a sub­scrip­tion to my vid feed. I’m sure there is a bet­ter way to hack it, but until I have a chance to sit down and exam­ine it, the result on the side­bar will have to do. I’m cur­rently redesign­ing from scratch, but the intended […]

A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion Spine #251: John Cas­savetes’ Shad­ows. I said I was dread­ing the Cas­savetes films that I was going to have to watch as a part of my some­what manic deter­mi­na­tion to watch all of the films in the Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion, so, of course, I ordered the two I’ve already seen from the […]

I signed up for a mem­ber­ship at the gym two blocks from my work­place yes­ter­day and got up at 5:30am this morn­ing and rode the 23 in for my first work­out. I feel like I’m in the worst shape of my life, and I likely am, so I made sure to take it easy. There is a room where they have […]

I’ve been uti­liz­ing YouTube more often lately. I took some video at Poetry at the Lit the other night and below is a vid I took of The Ex at the Grog Shop on Sat­ur­day. You can watch all of my vids here. I just need to find a YouTube ver­sion of the Flickr RSS plu­gin for WordPress.

I love my new job. I work with a great and diverse group of folks. an Uzbeki, a Russ­ian, an Indian, a Brit, and a 1^st-​generation Amer­i­can whose par­ents came from Pales­tine. The work is also great. My bosses also have their act together, pro­gres­sive skill-​building ini­tia­tives and just a gen­eral under­stand­ing that when employ­ees are treated like peo­ple they work […]

At first, a hip sway a bough bend­ing in the wind reit­er­a­tion. Fish­mar­ket lovers wrapped in clas­si­fieds fin­ger­nail col­lar­bone leg slide naked, up past our bed­times. Our laugh­ter has sticky fin­gers and a sud­den sun­rise. When I look at her I feel like a man. That old crutch called objec­tify. Still, when she talks I lis­ten— as if words mean more when she […]

A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion Spine #51: Terry Gilliam’s Brazil. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen this film and this time it gave me the creepy crawlies. This is satire done right, and the fact that after 20 years real­ity has nearly caught up with its pre­science is what makes me feel so […]

A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion Spine #110: Jacques Tati’s M. Hulot’s Hol­i­day. I have a the­ory that the qual­ity of a country’s com­edy is inversely pro­por­tion­ate to the qual­ity of its cui­sine. Thus, the genius of Monty Python and the hor­rid dish known as Toad in the Hole have the same sort of relationship […]

You can pre­vent a match or can­dle wick from exces­sively smok­ing if you con­tinue to blow on it after the flame has gone out. This mes­sage was brought to you by the Ex-​Altar Boy Soci­ety for the Pre­ven­tion of Exces­sively Smok­ing Matches and Candle Wicks.

A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion Spine #16: Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samu­rai III: Duel at Gan­ryu Island. Unin­ten­tional Mifu­né­fest con­cludes with Samu­rai III: Duel at Gan­ryu Island. Most folks say that this is the best of the three films, and I have to agree at least in terms of plot and char­ac­ter­i­za­tion. I think that Samurai […]

A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion Spine #15: Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samu­rai II: Duel at Ichi­joji Tem­ple. Unin­ten­tional Mifu­né­fest con­tin­ues with the cre­pus­cu­larly spec­tac­u­lar Samu­rai II: Duel at Ichi­joji Tem­ple. Even as a mid­dle por­tion of a tril­ogy this film is strong enough to stand on its own. The lack of firm res­o­lu­tion might have been […]

That, my friends, is it. No more shop­ping until I see some cro­cuses. Although I do wish I could wrap a bit more. I’m finally get­ting pretty good at it. I think I’d bet­ter mail my Christ­mas cards this week­end, too. And start gloat­ing to the peo­ple who haven’t even started yet. Which is what this post is for.

My new job is awe­some, but it keeps me busier than a mon­key restau­rant. I’ve also had meet­ings every night this week, and I have to leave in about 20 min­utes and go to another one, and then go watch Parts and Labor this evening at Pat’s. Last night was The Cleve­land Foun­da­tion hol­i­day party for Neigh­bor­hood Connections […]

I cel­e­brated Repeal Day at the Vel­vet Tango Room yes­ter­day with a Rusty Nail, a bou­quet of Bour­bon Daisies and some com­pli­men­tary sushi from Ginza.

The first day at my new gig was pretty much as I expected, lots of meet­ing peo­ple and paper­work, but I did get to start out on some mock-​up designs for one of our clients. The only bad thing that hap­pened was the RTA. I’d had luck in the past with it, but that was only taking […]

A part of this view­ing list: Cri­te­rion Col­lec­tion Spine #52: Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo. You might know the remake of this film bet­ter than Yojimbo itself. Clint East­wood and Ser­gio Leone retold it as A Fist­ful of Dol­lars. I’ve not actu­ally seen A Fist­ful of Dol­lars, but this is the sec­ond time I’ve seen Yojimbo. While the film […]

Just as I was get­ting bored yes­ter­day Rafeeq called me up because he needed a ride to Cracker Park to pick up some shoes. Rafeeq is good for me because he helps me loosen and lighten up. So we got valet park­ing for my car, which, if you’ve seen my car, is hilar­i­ous. We got his kicks […]

I don’t know what’s up lately, but I’ve been hit­ting a wall at about 8:30 every night. Last night I stopped for some deep-​fried tacos from Big Guy’s and a few brews from Hotz’s and was back home in time to toss in Yojimbo. I had every inten­tion of going to The Lit after this, but then I started going […]