Excitement amid the blah

Since it's illegal for it to snow anymore, winter is a series of gray drizzle wind gust days. Blah and blah. Luckily the TV Gods are delivering new episodes of Battlestar Galactica beginning Friday.

K and I are very very excited about this. Smalliville is on the midseason hiatus, along with most everything else we watch, so the only tv to watch is BG. If you haven't been watching this series you must rent/buy the dvd's and check it out. It's fantastical.

Here's the lowdown on that Gutter and Grave book I promised. (I know the guy who has the blog about Plasma tv's has been waiting for this, along with the rest of the fans.)

It was good.

I know, I know, that's not much of a review, but it's what I felt. It was fun crimewave of a read. It was hard boiled enough, the chicks were femme fataley enough, the mystery was convoluted enough, and the distance from the Gutter to the Grave was just about right. I just got my new shipment from Hard Case and haven't had the chance to read any others. My problem right now is that I have too many things to read.
Reading HOUR of the DRAGON, the only novel length Conan story by R.E.Howard.
I got the two Conan movies yesterday. I have not seen them, though many parts have been spoiled for me on the elementary school playground by kids whose parents were either a little more lax in their viewing allowances or had that mythical thing known as CABLE TV.
More later on this.

Oh, forgot last time, that we saw FANTASTIC FOUR. It was, to be fair, what it was. It sucked and it was ok at the same time. How's that for a review. I was glad that we saw it on dvd. I think I would have strongly disliked it in the theatre. At home, it's kind of a charming goof ball cheese fest. I won't get into the Dr. Doom take and etc; many a blog has probably addressed this. I will say that it was a not bad hour and a half.

Tonight we may finally see KING KONG. How exciting. And, today is new comic day. How exciting.

love
reggie

New Year

We started out the New Y ear hear at ranch Williams nursing a hangover, playing video games and having a moviethon.
Xmas brought us some fun stuff. Even though they weren't technically for xmas we got a pair of Nintendo DS machines. We got each other games for Xmas, and then had to buy a second one because K wants to play Animal Crossing Wild World and I want to play Mario and Luigi Partners in Time. Yesterday we spent the ENTIRE day in BED, each with a DS. Good times. On to the
MOVIETHON
Several movies over the past few days, some borrowed from friend N, some from the shelf, and some from Hollywood Video (none from netflix because they didn't have our 123 selections in and we got some slow foreign and arthouse stuff from the queue (mine) which didn't fit our moods).
Here's what we got
Young Frankenstein
Super Troopers
These were pretty good for funniness. I thought YF was a bit disappointing mostly because everyone who's seen it always talks about how funny it was. But it was good. Sharp eyes (not mine) discovered two actors with recurring roles on Malcolm in the Middle.
Super Troopers was what you would expect but funnier. Enjoyable enough that I rented
Puddle Cruisers
which quite prominently advertises it is made by the Broken Lizard guys who made ST. Well, it turns out, though a new release, to be their first out of college movie which bites super ass. Really. Not being mean. I wanted to have a few hungover laughs. I thought perhaps I'd found some guys who make stupid comedies I could enjoy. Oh well. FYI: the director recently helmed the Dukes of Hazzard movie which I have not seen and will not comment on.
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
escaped my radar for 21 years, but I finally watched the thing. We discovered a gift certificate left over from Wedding and used that fifty bucks to pick up the box set.
I enjoyed it. There were a few disappointments, but overall a great little adventure. We also watched
IJ and the Last Crusade
which I remember vaguely from it's theatrical release. I enjoyed that one too. They sure start those movies out with a bang don't they? That's one thing I've been admiring in the stories of Robert Howard, about whom/which more later.
Dark Water
looked to be a competent spooker, and disappointed a bit, being not much spooky, but was indeed competent. I didn't enjoy it as much as the last spooker we watched, Skeleton Key, which was, somehow, not quite as competent. Oh well. I didn't realize going in it was an adapted Japaspooker, ala Ring, etc. But was not surprised to note that in the credits. It certainly has that Japaspooker feel; the little kid, the isolation, etc.
Must Love Dogs
was the romantic comedy choice. It's about older folks, something like my age!! Egads!! Blah, blah, divorce, cute kids, cute dogs, wise old fathers spouting wisdom and Keats poetry, John Cusack. I believe a rather formulaic, somewhat slow, mildly charming entry in the Romantic Comedy canon. Enter at your own risk gentlemen.
Escape From New York,
which I'm rather excited about, we have not seen yet. K claims to have seen it recently, and often overall, and to prefer . . . From L.A. . I'll get to it tonight or tomorrow.

Also recently Forty Year Old Virgin, which I thought was funny.
Mr and Mrs Smith, which isn't funny, and sucks overall.
Brothers Grimm which is disapointing. Just doesn't click.

XMAS was good. K was on call for work, and had to go the hospital with clients, so I ventured to the northern wastelands to visit my tee totaling Mother, hungover as hell after the inlaw good times of the 24th, on XMAS day alone. I had many hungover epihpanies listening to the radio which I will spare the reader and myself.
Here are the coolest things from Xmas:
I got
a Boos Board cutting board from the inlaws. We also got a pasta thing for the kitchen aid blender. It's not the roller. It's basically the food grinder with an attatchment that pushes pasta out in pasta shapes. For instance, spaghetti.
Books!!
Robert E. Howard
Lost tales of samarkand
boxing stories
Got a book about Lovecraft, Against the World, Against Life, by Michel Houellebecq.
all these from K, as well as
Sherlock Holmes, the annotated novels.
I used money from Mama to purchase it's companion, the two volume annotated short stories. If you haven't seen these books folks, they are a wonder to behold. They are giant, 7 or 8 pound hb's with dust jackets, and slip cases, amply illustrated and annotated, perfect for whiling away a Sunday afternoon in the den with a spot of tea or a snoot of brandy. Yum and Yum.
Boxing Stories has been a very pleasant surprise. I popped this on the Amazon wish list as sort of a Howard completist thing, but I've been reading it and loving it.
It's funny. Apparently Howard has a lot of humorous stories, more so than straight adventure fantasy, but they are harder to track down, of course. The funny boxing ones tell the exploits of sailor Steve Costigan and his bulldog MIke. Steve's a tramp of a boxer, a real man's man type, who wanders from exotic port to exotic port fighting in the ring and elsewhere. Get it!!
That's enough for now.
Oh, we also watched Princess Bride, one of K's favorites and a knowing stocking stuffer from yrs truly. I enjoyed it. A touching little movie, not marred by the presence of Billy Crystal.

Happy New year.