The Terror @ Gary's House

My first Indy Films Buffs movie for 2012 was The Terror. Gary was the host with the most as always. This "movie" stars Boris Karloff as the Baron and a really young Jack Nicholson as Andre, a French soldier. Never mind the fact that he never speaks French. Nicholson is really young and quite svelte. So young, in fact, he doesn't have that Nicholson drawl we know and love. Not much of a plot, but the acting pretty much hits the mark. For me, the gem in all of this was Dick Miller who played Stefan, the man servant. He was constantly reminded of his position by everyone else in the movie. His odd body movements and facial expressions kept my eyes on him in every scene. He reminded me of a Marty Feldman Lite. His crowbar idea became a huge hit; everyone had to have one.

Nothing Says Merry Christmas Like Slade

Merry Christmas Everybody - Slade

Sigmund and the Inflamatory Bowel Syndromes

Turns out, Sigmund got so bad he had to stay at the vet's office for two days. He had an ultra sound one day and an endoscopy the next day . Good news! He does not have lymphosarcoma - he has inflammatory bowel syndrome, which Dr. Murphy suspected all along. He gets prednisone in his ears twice a day (for 8 weeks) and he eats only hypo-allergenic dry food (for the rest of his life).

There were early signs - he was only able to eat Royal Canin's gastro intestinal canned food for quite some time. Everything else made him vomit.

Whew on that one!

Week in Review - 12-5 thru 12-11 - Sigmund is Sick

Can't seem to get Sigmund over whatever it is he has. If he eats anything other than Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal food, he vomits. But...he won't eat anything. He's been to vet several times - X-ray, blood work, urine test....nothing. There was a very tiny beginnings of a kidney stone, that may be making him mashy. He went outside yesterday afternoon and sat on the deck railing for a while, which I took to be a good sign.

Interviews this week - Scale Computing, indigo biosystems, and IU Health.

Friday night was Member Appreciation Night at the Indianapolis Art Center. Dan Cooper arranged for everyone in our Sketching Safari class to have up to three drawings on the wall @ the Indianapolis Art Center for a few weeks this month. Cool to pretend to be an artist, but it's really just pretending. I have a long way to go, but I am really excited about drawing again. Dan made the video below that contains some of the highlights of the Member Appreciation Night. Warning: this video contains a female cutting a couch in two with a chain saw, a transvestite lip syncing Christmas songs, and Gloria Fischer dancing.



Saturday night I met ex-work peeps @ Rock Bottom for drinkies. There was some sort of basketball game on the plethora of telly screens that most folks were looking at. Not a sports fan, I was clueless and really couldn't have cared less. I realized the highest score (say that like you're an alien) was switching between teams. Oh...it's IU vs Kentucky 0h...I see. I was watching when Christian Watford made his shot. The place went wild.

Off to the side there were 3 younger, slightly scruffy dudes drinking beer. Most dudes were dressed in ties and button up shirts. Their girlfriends no doubt dressed them. They looked like they belonged in Bloomington (non-City slicker area) than at the young Republican in training facility. I noticed large plastic things on the ground near them....are they Occupy Indy folks in for a drink? After a bit, one of the guys put on his tent. Yes, he opened up the tent and climbed inside. He'd written comments on the side in marker that I couldn't completely make out - something about Dick Cheney. I just squealed with delight. Some tie wearing dude got angry and everyone moved back to make way for the ensuing fist fight. I loved it! Talk about bringing out the animal in me...but alas...the tent-guys were asked to leave.

Melancholia

I saw Melancholia last night at Keystone and can't get some of the images out of my head. This is the latest from Lars von Trier of Breaking the Waves fame.

The film opens with very luminous images of what may be scenes from Justine's dreams. She's being dragged back by long sinuous vines in her wedding gown. She's slogging though a bog carrying a child. After about 10 minutes of dream imagery, we see Justine in a rather large stretch lim0 with her new husband on the way to the her sister Claire's rather large country estate house for the wedding reception and she is so happy! The limo is so large that the driver has trouble navigating the narrow twisting road to the country estate. An attack aimed at the wealthy? Things quickly devolve as Justine's clearly mad and clearly self-absorbed family display their true colors at the extremely expensive reception. Justine can't quit catching the star Antares out of the corner of her eye. The star disappears and the reason for the disappearance - the telluric rogue planet Melancholia, long hidden by the sun, has eclipsed it. Ahh...will it crash into the earth or pass by...that is the question.

I love the look of a movie shot mostly with hand held cameras; it's a much more pleasing style to me. I could not take my eyes off of Charlotte Gainsbourg. She reminds me of a young Patti Smith in some ways. I couldn't stop looking at her character in the Science of Sleep either.

My only complaints - I wanted to see much of Udo Kier as the wedding planner. Oh my goodness, what a delightful character! I wanted to see less of Justine in the wedding dress.

The nude scene of Justine by the river:



Reminded me of Javier Pinion's work:

Come to Trader Joes' Often? What's Your Sign?

Earlier in the week, I stopped by Trader Joe's in a mid afternoon-ish time frame, to pick up a few of my favorite things; Roasted Plantain Chips, Sesame Sticks, and the Lightly Salted Crunchy Green Beans. As soon as I walked in the door, I knew something wasn't right. The female shoppers seemed to be a bit over dressed to shop @ Trader Joe's. These females were sporting knee high boots, short, sassy jackets, and lots of jewelry. They also seemed to have spent a lot of time on their hair. Not only were these females talking to each other, the females who worked in the store were walking up and chatting with these models-in-training. Kind of like handmaidens cooing around a princess. Lots of smiling and giggling. Everyone seemed to know everyone - except of course me.

I noticed this really tall guy with a slight bed-head walking and talking with one of the shopping models. Ahh...they must be together - Nope - he had just stopped to chat and was moving on the next one. WTF??? It was like some sort of Trader Joe's Speed Dating event. I stopped shopping and decided to watch the show. One gal in a red velvet jacket seemed to be posing as she decided which jar of salsa to buy. I looked around for the camera. The TallGuy worked his way though the store, telling mini stories and laughing with the store-model of the moment. He tells the caller on his cell phone to, "Bring your dancing shoes."

By now, I'm standing in line watching the final moments of TJ Speed Dating Hour wind down, when I hear the TallGuy sharing some travel story to the really short guy behind him in line. He looks over at me and I can just read his mind - "I wouldn't be caught taking out the trash in that outfit."

Kats that inspire - Fred Shuttlesworth

Fred Shuttlesworth was a pioneer in the civil rights movement who convinced Martin Luther King Jr. to come to Birmingham. He was jailed, had his house bombed, and was beaten up by a mob, but he never backed down.