Saturday, February 23, 2008
-Hey hey, all I am back with my weekly rambling. Life has been all over the place lately. At least I got my tax returns back so huzzah!
-So other the other two movie theaters in town, the Carmike 10 and Columbia 4, finally reacted to the new River 12 Cinema's ticket pricing structure. The River 12 opened with pricing of $6.50 night shows and $4.50 matinees, along with senior specials for matinees on Tues, Wends, and Thurs for $3. The Columbia 4 and Carmike 10 had tix going for $8.50 night shows and $6.50 matinees when they opened. Not even two months after the R12 theater has been open, Carmike finally has responded. They Carmike 10 lowered its ticket pricing to exactly match the River 12 prices, along with the senior specials(which made my dad ecstatic!). That is awesome, no $8.50 night tix, just a week before I found out of the new prices, I saw Uwe Boll's latest disasterpiece, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, for $8.50. Damn!
Speaking of the Columbia 4 (which is also owned by Carmike) they didn't price match along with Carmike 10, they officially went to becoming a discount theater showing movies that have been out for a couple months, where all day and night showing are a $1. Yes one freaking dollar, amazing! And y'know what was one of their first movies they showed when going to a $1?......that's right....goddam Dungeon Siege!!! Oh well, my dad said he saw it and to my surprise really, really, liked it. Regardless, I am happy as hell we got $1 movies back in Grand Forks, it's been a over 7 years since we have when the old Plaza Twin in the Grand Cities mall closed down in 2000. I use to spend many insanely hot summer afternoons at the movie theater for just $2 as a way to cool off, now I can do it again, with a slightly larger choice.
-So the cool thing about River Cinema 12 is that when they opened they said they would use one of the screens for indie films, and they got around to delivering. Yesterday they opened, Danger From Within, a film shot entirely in Grand Forks. So being one to support locally made films, I saw it with my dad and brother after enjoying some delicious poultry at the Sacred Hear fish fry. Took me a little while to get use to the low-budget nature of it, but I expected that going in, and once I got past the lack of fancy-cinematography and special effects I am use to in your big box office blockbusters, I dug the film. It's a mystery-thriller, kind of like Da Vinci Code in a way where these collectors are trying to decipher some long lost 2000 year old documents. I liked it, and the director was there selling DVDs at the theater too, and I saw a few of the actors in the crowd and got a chance to say "bravo" to them.
-Speaking of indy films, my friend and director of the short film I appeared in last year (linked to in my last blog), Ryan, was in town and was able to hang out with him for a little while last night. He brought over Culdcept Saga, and did an awesome job showing me the ropes of that game. I played the demo before, and I knew of the old PS2 game that was a hybrid of Magic and Monopoly, but there are a lot more little intricacies of the game than that, and Ryan did an awesome job filling me in on all the minitua of Culdcept and helped me through a full round against the computer. After that we played some co-op in Conflict: Denied Ops in 360 that Ryan brought over. It's a typical military third person shooter, nothing too spectuacular, but still pretty fun, we played through the first two missions and blew up a lot of crap with a tank. Was an allright game, and hope I get a chance to finish it with him.
-Well I missed out on the Guitar Hero 3 tournament on Thursday due to outstanding circumstances I'll detail later. I only had a little time to make it there and was hoping I could be one of the first people to play, but I a good 20 people registered ahead of me so I decided to hold off until next week, which is the last week of qualifying. In the meantime I have been practicing by going through Guitar Hero 3 career on Hard difficulty, I am on my fifth tier of songs, and to my shock have not failed a song once so far, but I am dreading the boss battle with Slash since that was a pain and a half on medium. Since Guitar Hero songs seem to be a hair more difficult on similar difficulties compared to Rock Band, I think I will try to knock out Rock Band's guitar career on Expert if I manage to beat Guitar Hero 3 on hard. My fingers are getting ready to get the beating of their life.
-So for my podcast I felt like adding a new feature. MC Wilson had a great feature on his podcast called the backlog box where they would pick one game from their collection at random that they have barely played and slipped into their backlog of games they've been wanting to play for awhile. I hated to blatantly rip off the idea, but I've been wanting to do it for awhile as Chris and I both are guilty of mass-consuming too many games and barely starting them. So we both made lists of our games from PSone era on up of games we haven't even touched, or only put X amount of hours into and have been meaning to go back and finish. For that game that is picked, we will play it for 2-3 hours and discuss it on out next show. My list totaled a whopping 130, yes 130 games. I randomly numbered them and had Chris pick a number which resulted in my first game of the backlog being the GBA game, Metroid Fusion. I bought this game a good 4 or 5 years ago, and haven't started it, and I actually got it loaded up now and ready to play as soon as I wrap up this blog. Make sure to stay tuned to my latest podcast to hear all about it.
-So I finished Batista's Book (by the way,I wrote a review for Chris Jericho's book on Ryan's site, I'll try and post it here in a few days) a few days ago. To my surprise it is a pretty damn good read. Reminded me a lot about Ric Flair's book where he doesn't hold anything back and is pretty blunt about talking crap about people like Bubba Ray Dudley. He has many good road stories, and I think so far has one of the most interesting reads about his adolescent years than any of the other wrestler books I read. I was expecting this to be a quick, rush-job book that left me wanting more since Batista has only been in the business for 6 years. But he covers those six years pretty well. I'll try and get a full review up for Ryan soon, and post it here also. Next book I started reading Chuck Palahniuk's Rant. Just over 50 pages in, and it is told in "oral biography" style with "interviews" from Buster "Rant" Casey's entourage of family,friends and foes.
-So I'm three episodes into the new Lost season (thank you abc.com for your free HD Streams!), and am intrigued as always at the developments. Some parts were a little irritating, but more I think about it I can see where they're coming from. For example, why are the Scientists being all vague when questioned about them coming to rescue them, and why are Jack & co. being so acceptive of their vagueness? "Are you hear to rescue us, or kill us?" "I'll let you know." Gimme a break! But of course we all know how the Lost writers love to answer one tiny question and raise 20 others an episode with only maybe a handful of those bound to get adressed, most likely 2 or 3 seasons later. The part where Locke has Ben at gunpoint and asks what I always wanted to know is, what the deal is with the Black Smoke Creature, and Ben simply responds "I don't know" I interepereted as the writers saying "we had no idea what we were doing when we wrote the monster into the show, we just know monsters=ratings, and only have him appear once or twice a season when we need to kill off characters" If the Lost writers somehow manage to explain the origin of the black smoke monster and make the least bit of sense out of it, I'll be amazed.
-Not to end things on a down note, but the aforementioned circumstances above had to deal with the man my mom has been with for 14 years, Louie, passing away last Wendesday. He had kidney failure, and was in the hospital the past couple of weeks, and was day to day on his progress, somedays good sometimes bad, unfortunately he didn't make it. I feel so bad for her, she has lost so many people over the past five years, which include two brothers, sister in law, and her dad. On Thursday Bob got the family together and put on a meal so we can all be with her and support her. That was very kind of him. I wouldn't say I was that close with Louie, but I got along with him fine. When I was still growing up for several summers we would spend them on his farm and that's when I saw him most. He was always all business, and since I was bored out of my mind at the farm, I helped him out a few times shoveling grain bins and moving parts around. Last few years I barely saw him as he stayed out mostly at his farm, just a few times in passing.
I did get a chance to see him a couple weeks ago at the hospital to wish him well and had a chance to have an actual conversation with him for the first time in years. It was good catching up with him about life and jobs and job shenanigans and everything. He looked like he was getting better, and the whole time I thought he would be out of the hospitals within days as mom was optimistic his kidneys would work again, but I guess things just didn't go his way. I am happy though I got a chance to talk to him one last time though, I remember when I stopped at the hospital too I just kind of did it unannounced without letting my mom know and had no idea how they would receive visitors, I was just in the area and felt like I should visit and send my well wishes. I am glad I did now, it felt like I made peace with him looking back. Louie's sons asked me to be a paulbearer and to do one of the readings at the funeral next week which I am honored to. RIP Louie, I'll see you down the road, someplace else.
-Out
-So other the other two movie theaters in town, the Carmike 10 and Columbia 4, finally reacted to the new River 12 Cinema's ticket pricing structure. The River 12 opened with pricing of $6.50 night shows and $4.50 matinees, along with senior specials for matinees on Tues, Wends, and Thurs for $3. The Columbia 4 and Carmike 10 had tix going for $8.50 night shows and $6.50 matinees when they opened. Not even two months after the R12 theater has been open, Carmike finally has responded. They Carmike 10 lowered its ticket pricing to exactly match the River 12 prices, along with the senior specials(which made my dad ecstatic!). That is awesome, no $8.50 night tix, just a week before I found out of the new prices, I saw Uwe Boll's latest disasterpiece, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, for $8.50. Damn!
Speaking of the Columbia 4 (which is also owned by Carmike) they didn't price match along with Carmike 10, they officially went to becoming a discount theater showing movies that have been out for a couple months, where all day and night showing are a $1. Yes one freaking dollar, amazing! And y'know what was one of their first movies they showed when going to a $1?......that's right....goddam Dungeon Siege!!! Oh well, my dad said he saw it and to my surprise really, really, liked it. Regardless, I am happy as hell we got $1 movies back in Grand Forks, it's been a over 7 years since we have when the old Plaza Twin in the Grand Cities mall closed down in 2000. I use to spend many insanely hot summer afternoons at the movie theater for just $2 as a way to cool off, now I can do it again, with a slightly larger choice.
-So the cool thing about River Cinema 12 is that when they opened they said they would use one of the screens for indie films, and they got around to delivering. Yesterday they opened, Danger From Within, a film shot entirely in Grand Forks. So being one to support locally made films, I saw it with my dad and brother after enjoying some delicious poultry at the Sacred Hear fish fry. Took me a little while to get use to the low-budget nature of it, but I expected that going in, and once I got past the lack of fancy-cinematography and special effects I am use to in your big box office blockbusters, I dug the film. It's a mystery-thriller, kind of like Da Vinci Code in a way where these collectors are trying to decipher some long lost 2000 year old documents. I liked it, and the director was there selling DVDs at the theater too, and I saw a few of the actors in the crowd and got a chance to say "bravo" to them.
-Speaking of indy films, my friend and director of the short film I appeared in last year (linked to in my last blog), Ryan, was in town and was able to hang out with him for a little while last night. He brought over Culdcept Saga, and did an awesome job showing me the ropes of that game. I played the demo before, and I knew of the old PS2 game that was a hybrid of Magic and Monopoly, but there are a lot more little intricacies of the game than that, and Ryan did an awesome job filling me in on all the minitua of Culdcept and helped me through a full round against the computer. After that we played some co-op in Conflict: Denied Ops in 360 that Ryan brought over. It's a typical military third person shooter, nothing too spectuacular, but still pretty fun, we played through the first two missions and blew up a lot of crap with a tank. Was an allright game, and hope I get a chance to finish it with him.
-Well I missed out on the Guitar Hero 3 tournament on Thursday due to outstanding circumstances I'll detail later. I only had a little time to make it there and was hoping I could be one of the first people to play, but I a good 20 people registered ahead of me so I decided to hold off until next week, which is the last week of qualifying. In the meantime I have been practicing by going through Guitar Hero 3 career on Hard difficulty, I am on my fifth tier of songs, and to my shock have not failed a song once so far, but I am dreading the boss battle with Slash since that was a pain and a half on medium. Since Guitar Hero songs seem to be a hair more difficult on similar difficulties compared to Rock Band, I think I will try to knock out Rock Band's guitar career on Expert if I manage to beat Guitar Hero 3 on hard. My fingers are getting ready to get the beating of their life.
-So for my podcast I felt like adding a new feature. MC Wilson had a great feature on his podcast called the backlog box where they would pick one game from their collection at random that they have barely played and slipped into their backlog of games they've been wanting to play for awhile. I hated to blatantly rip off the idea, but I've been wanting to do it for awhile as Chris and I both are guilty of mass-consuming too many games and barely starting them. So we both made lists of our games from PSone era on up of games we haven't even touched, or only put X amount of hours into and have been meaning to go back and finish. For that game that is picked, we will play it for 2-3 hours and discuss it on out next show. My list totaled a whopping 130, yes 130 games. I randomly numbered them and had Chris pick a number which resulted in my first game of the backlog being the GBA game, Metroid Fusion. I bought this game a good 4 or 5 years ago, and haven't started it, and I actually got it loaded up now and ready to play as soon as I wrap up this blog. Make sure to stay tuned to my latest podcast to hear all about it.
-So I finished Batista's Book (by the way,I wrote a review for Chris Jericho's book on Ryan's site, I'll try and post it here in a few days) a few days ago. To my surprise it is a pretty damn good read. Reminded me a lot about Ric Flair's book where he doesn't hold anything back and is pretty blunt about talking crap about people like Bubba Ray Dudley. He has many good road stories, and I think so far has one of the most interesting reads about his adolescent years than any of the other wrestler books I read. I was expecting this to be a quick, rush-job book that left me wanting more since Batista has only been in the business for 6 years. But he covers those six years pretty well. I'll try and get a full review up for Ryan soon, and post it here also. Next book I started reading Chuck Palahniuk's Rant. Just over 50 pages in, and it is told in "oral biography" style with "interviews" from Buster "Rant" Casey's entourage of family,friends and foes.
-So I'm three episodes into the new Lost season (thank you abc.com for your free HD Streams!), and am intrigued as always at the developments. Some parts were a little irritating, but more I think about it I can see where they're coming from. For example, why are the Scientists being all vague when questioned about them coming to rescue them, and why are Jack & co. being so acceptive of their vagueness? "Are you hear to rescue us, or kill us?" "I'll let you know." Gimme a break! But of course we all know how the Lost writers love to answer one tiny question and raise 20 others an episode with only maybe a handful of those bound to get adressed, most likely 2 or 3 seasons later. The part where Locke has Ben at gunpoint and asks what I always wanted to know is, what the deal is with the Black Smoke Creature, and Ben simply responds "I don't know" I interepereted as the writers saying "we had no idea what we were doing when we wrote the monster into the show, we just know monsters=ratings, and only have him appear once or twice a season when we need to kill off characters" If the Lost writers somehow manage to explain the origin of the black smoke monster and make the least bit of sense out of it, I'll be amazed.
-Not to end things on a down note, but the aforementioned circumstances above had to deal with the man my mom has been with for 14 years, Louie, passing away last Wendesday. He had kidney failure, and was in the hospital the past couple of weeks, and was day to day on his progress, somedays good sometimes bad, unfortunately he didn't make it. I feel so bad for her, she has lost so many people over the past five years, which include two brothers, sister in law, and her dad. On Thursday Bob got the family together and put on a meal so we can all be with her and support her. That was very kind of him. I wouldn't say I was that close with Louie, but I got along with him fine. When I was still growing up for several summers we would spend them on his farm and that's when I saw him most. He was always all business, and since I was bored out of my mind at the farm, I helped him out a few times shoveling grain bins and moving parts around. Last few years I barely saw him as he stayed out mostly at his farm, just a few times in passing.
I did get a chance to see him a couple weeks ago at the hospital to wish him well and had a chance to have an actual conversation with him for the first time in years. It was good catching up with him about life and jobs and job shenanigans and everything. He looked like he was getting better, and the whole time I thought he would be out of the hospitals within days as mom was optimistic his kidneys would work again, but I guess things just didn't go his way. I am happy though I got a chance to talk to him one last time though, I remember when I stopped at the hospital too I just kind of did it unannounced without letting my mom know and had no idea how they would receive visitors, I was just in the area and felt like I should visit and send my well wishes. I am glad I did now, it felt like I made peace with him looking back. Louie's sons asked me to be a paulbearer and to do one of the readings at the funeral next week which I am honored to. RIP Louie, I'll see you down the road, someplace else.
-Out
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