Stuck at home

Doctors orders were to keep my knee elevated as much as possible for 3 to 5 days. So to entertain ourselves over the weekend we rented a bunch of movies. Here are some quick thoughts of our choices.

The Ballad of Jack and Rose
A strange little movie, not sure how to describe it. Daniel Day Lewis was superb.

Scoop
The best Woody Allen movie in a very longtime. Allen was especially good, as was Ian McShane playing s a ghost.

Black Dahlia
This was a really bad movie with horrible writing. Brian De Palma has lost it as a director.

For Your Consideration
I had high hopes for this film, due to the fact that I loved this ensembles in other films: Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show, and A Mighty Wind. I enjoyed this movie and it had its moments of classic humor, but it was my least favorite film from these creators.

The Holiday
This was Jessie's choice. Involved two separate story lines. On involved Kate Winslet and Jack Black, which had it's funny moments. The other story line involved Cameron Diaz and Jude Law, which would of been okay except for Diaz. It is beyond me why she continues to get work, she is a horrible actress.

Vicodin ramblings

"Is it over?", I asked groggily, "Yep, your surgery went great", replied Judy the post-op nurse. Earlier this year I tore my right interior meniscus while snowboarding. Today I had that fixed along with another tear that the surgeon found while scoping my knee. The surgery was performed at the University of Washington Surgery Pavilion. The doctors, nurses, and staff all rocked.



During pre-op I think I met the most arrogant doctor that has every lived. He was my Anesthesiologist for my operation. Usually I am very turned off by the outward display of arrogance in people, especially doctors. But there was something comforting with this doctor's arrogance. This was my third surgery on my knees and for some reason I was hesitant to go under anesthesia this time around, but once he started talking to me I felt a lot more comfortable. His absolute confidence translated into the confidence I needed to go under. Funny story about him, as he was putting in the IV into my hand he asked if he was hurting me. "Nope.", I said. Once he finished inserting the needle and taping up the hand he whispered to himself, "I'm on today!"



Another reason I was hesitant to go under anesthesia, was that in my two previous surgeries I woke up feeling like I was hit by a Mac truck. This time I popped out of the haze within an hour, which was nice for a change.



All things considered, I feel great today. Most likely it is the narcotics that I'm consuming. It is a night and day difference from my last surgeries. The picture embedded within this post were taken during my surgery. I have no idea what they are, but I thought it might be cool to share the view from inside my knee.

Sweet!

Font geekery

When do you know that your a typography geek? When you look forward to an entire documentary film about a font. According to the films website, "Helvetica is a feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. It looks at the proliferation of one typeface (which will celebrate its 50th birthday in 2007) as part of a larger conversation about the way type affects our lives. The film is an exploration of urban spaces in major cities and the type that inhabits them, and a fluid discussion with renowned designers about their work, the creative process, and the choices and aesthetics behind their use of type. "

Art and rain

Today Jess and I headed over to the Olympic Sculpture Park on the waterfront in downtown Seattle. I was really hoping to shoot some pictures during our walk through the park, but as soon as we arrived it started to rain. The picture above, of a retaining wall, was one of the only pictures I managed to get before the deluge began. After thinking about it, it was kind of nice to just walk around the park without thinking about what the next photograph would be. Sometimes when you get locked in looking through the view finder, you miss other things that go on around you. Towards the end of the park, there were a bunch of trees right on the water. In one of the trees was a solitary bald eagle. He just sat there, ignoring all the people watching him, while at the same time checking out the all the public art surrounding him. This was the first bald eagle I have ever seen in person and it was really cool to see one so close. I apologize for the poor picture quality of the eagle, it was raining very hard at that point and I took the picture very quickly.

Upriver

"Never get out of the boat. Absolutely goddamn right. Unless you were goin' all the way"
Captain Benjamin L. Willard, Apocalypse Now

Lately I have been thinking about taking my art into a new direction. I have been in a creative rut for a while now. Originally I studied photography, but received my B.F.A. in Motion Graphics, and now I work as a graphic designer. Individually each discipline has never produced the results I have been looking for. Combining them with other disciplines, such as video, sound, sculpture, and installation, could potentially result in provoking and intriguing art; a digital post modern fusion. So far the search for this fusion has been mainly confined to my head and I have yet to produce anything of substance, but I have reached a fork in the river. It is time to take the images in my mind and make them reality. Updates of my progress will follow.

West from Montezuma's Well

Check out more at Flickr.

Aquaman's girlfriend

On Tuesday, my wife and I were flying out of Phoenix returning home to Seattle after a week visiting my in-laws. As we were waiting at our gate, I noticed a woman repeatedly walking by us talking on her cell phone. She seemed very familiar. As she was on her way back to her seat, I finally recognized her. It was Mandy Moore. She recently played herself as Vincent Chase's/Aquaman's girlfriend in season two of Entourage, which I happen to be a big fan of. My sighting was confirmed when some young girls asked for her autograph.

Circulatory system

More at Flickr.

The odd Mexican restaurant

A couple nights ago we met some friends for dinner. They recommend a Mexican restaurant near Sedona. As my wife, father in-law, mother in-law and myself drove to meet our friends, my mother in-law recounted a rumor she had heard about the restaurant. A friend of a friend had heard that restaurant was a front for a drug cartel. We all laughed, made some jokes and even told our friends after they arrived.

As soon as we walked into the place we were all thinking, "Maybe that rumor is not so far out." There was this huge guy who looked straight out of The Sopranos sitting at the bar. "Well, I guess you won't be closing as soon as you thought," he said grumpily to the owner or manger while never taking his eyes off us. The rest of the "patrons" at the bar where equally as shady looking and seemed just as displeased to see customers as the Mafioso guy. Once we got to the dining room all was relatively normal. Two couples were already dining when we arrived.

As we were leaving, things got a little strange. We ended up closing out the restaurant. I noticed as the other two couples were leaving they were exiting out a different door. We chose to exit the same way we came in. We chose poorly. As we entered the bar area there were at least 20 more people standing around and they were not holding drinks in their hands. They were just standing there staring at us as we walked out. There were even more people standing outside the door as we exited outside staring at us. Once we passed them, they went in and the doors were immediately locked. As we were standing outside saying our goodbyes, black curtains were being hung in all the windows. We continued to talk, commenting to ourselves at the oddness of all this. Two people opened a side door, stood in the door and watched us. That is when it became apparent that maybe it was time to go. Food and service were excellent, but I would only recommend going during daylight hours.

Where are the home runs when you need them?

On Friday we went down to Phoenix to see a Seattle Mariners Spring Training game. Right before the fifth inning started I heard my wife's seat announced on the PA system for some contest. The PA system at this place absolute sucked. I heard the seat information clear, "Section 115, Row C, Seat 14", Then all I heard was some garbled static and noise. This sort of thing went on the whole game, "Now batting for your Seattle Mariners...something unintelligible." No one but myself heard the message. My wife does not generally get very excited for these things and and once I told she was like, "we'll check it after the game." But my mother law, who came to game also, said "Don't you want to check!? You should really check. Give me your ticket, I'll check for you." One thing you need to realize about my mother in-law, she frequents her local gambling establishment quite a bit. Her casino gives away free stuff all the time and she takes part in their giveaways fairly religiously. So once she realized that her daughter might win something for free she jumped to action like a five year old at Christmas. We waited for about fifteen minutes and when she returned, "If any player hits a home run in this inning you'll win a new car." Cool right? Not single home run was hit until the ninth inning. But it sure was fun thinking we might win car for those six at bats.

Veins of wood

Tree at Montezuma's Castle. See more at Flickr.

Zodiac

See this movie. It has been a while since I have seen such a well crafted film. Great performances from Ruffalo and Gyllenhaal. Superb art direction and cinematography. Se7en and Fight Club really cemented Fincher as one of my favorite directors. It was nice to see him return to form after the stumble of Panic Room.

"Meh, but the salad was good."

Since our trip began we have partaken in our usual travel habit of eating out for every meal. So today at lunch it occurred to us that we have all been getting side salads with our entrees. The post eating question of "How was your meal?", has usually been answered with "Meh, but the salad was good." That pretty much sums up our feelings on the quality of cuisine so far, "But the salad was good."

Always check the date on your passport!

Yesterday my wife and I flew to Phoenix, AZ to visit the in-laws. We ended up having some problems with our tickets, so as we waited in line to straighten things out I began to take notice of the group in front of us. From the look of their passports they where heading back to China. They seemed really stressed out, were constantly getting out of line to check the departure TV's and kept looking at their tickets nervously. Their day was about to get really shitty. As they got up to the ticket counter they hand over their passports to the ticket agent and she says to one of them, "Mame your passport has expired and I cannot let you on this flight." They all try to disagree. "I'm sorry but your passport expired on March 5th. I cannot let you on this flight." I will never forget the look of disbelief on their faces as they walked away.

The security line was very entertaining. A woman standing in line dropped her laptop. Laptop case, battery and screen went their separate ways across the floor. We were then "profiled selected" for special screening. Which consisted of a watch where you put your hands buddy pat down, a search through our bags using wands with toilet paper attached to the ends, and a conversation with the TSA agent about the Red Sox after he saw my Sox hat in my bag. "That Dice-K sure looks good!", said the TSA agent, who's name tag did not match the name he gave us. We're the the security risk?.

We make it to the gate. Board the plane. Sit in our seats and sigh in relif of making it on time. the plane then precedes to taxi onto the runway and stop. "Ladies and gentlemen...pause....we will delayed at the end of the runway for 40 minutes due to weather in San Francisco. Sorry about the delay." An entertaining morning.

The beginning

So I have decided to give this blogging thing a try. I'm not really sure what direction this is going to go. My entries will probally be very random and disjointed. My mind is sort of scattered and I think this blog will reflect that. So prepare yourself, this may be a bumpy ride.