Roast Chicken, Densho Otoko, Usual Suspects, and a relaxing weekend

(22:55:55 CDT)

Roast Chicken, Densho Otoko, Usual Suspects, and a relaxing weekend

After Brewfest on Friday (review-like thing should be coming back as my next post, likely tomorrow morning) I was exhausted. One of those nights where I recall leaving a venue, recall a few key moments afterward (such as a "tattoo artist" hitting on Sarah because of her tattoo), and then have no real memory of anything once home was achieved. Sometime, I passed out and good.

Ran errands on Saturday, some of which were fun and some of which were necessities. Went to the Mac Store to pick up an Airport Express. Completely busy and overrun with people wanting to touch the iPad. Thought it was kind of cool that dude was able to check me out from his hand-held device. Saved some time since there was a line of people asking questions at the "genius bar" or whatever they call the thing. I was less thrilled when he told me to "plug the big phone line into the AE." Sigh. I do like Mac products, but I find it best to talk as little as possible to their employees. After that, swung over to Barnes & Noble to try and pick up some Scott Pilgrim titles but they were sold out. Also no sign of Palahniuk's book: Tell-All. That was a bust, and Sarah and I left the overly busy Bridge Street.

Also out on that trip, stopped by and picked up some movies from MovieStop. First time I have done that in awhile. After watching Dagon the other day, was in the mood for some more Gordon and got Bride of Reanimator. From the horror section, also got Maximum Overdrive. Then, more in the line of Sarah's tastes, I picked up Tokyo Sonata and Densho Otoko (more on this in a moment). Finally, got the The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

I mentioned Densho Otoko because it is an interesting story. You can read the Wikipedia entry about the Train_man's background but it breaks down like this: in 2004, a BBS in Japan was lit up with the postings of a guy who became known as Train_man. Supposedly he had intervened and saved this attractive woman from a drunken accoster. He mentions it on the board, and after some prodding ends up asking her out. Despite his bumbling attempts, he kind of hits it off with her and eventually gets quite a bit of confidence. A few weeks later, some inappropriate comments were posted about him having sex with her, and he stopped talking about it so the outcome of the relationship was never known. End of story.

It might all be nothing more than an Internet prank, some sort of meta-fiction, or just a lonely guy who wanted to pretend to be the hero. The movie takes an overall happy approach to it, cutting out a lot of the awkwardness and troubles the couple went through, while maintaining just enough to keep the tension kind of high. I don't want to spoil anything, or much, but the movie kind of concludes with a little bit of doubt, I guess you could call it, and what might be one of the most off-putting emotional climaxes out there. I've also seen most of the TV version, which is longer, and more stressful but arguably more accurate to the level of stress and tension Train_man was going through. I ended up skipping a few episodes because I couldn't take it. It was too real, Roy, to quote The IT Crowd. If you like seeing geeks in love, or were the sort whose tongue fell off every time you tried to ask someone out, it might be a movie you would enjoy. Sarah giggled through a lot of it, and then nearly freaked out when it started going awry, so it does have some emotional punch, even if it is overall staged as "cute" and "light".

Another movie off my long-ignored stack of movies to watch was Usual Suspects. I liked it. Makes me want to play a heist RPG, but probably a lower-level one. College students who didn't get into grad school or something, trying to put their various skills to use for their first gig. That kind of thing. I have to say that the movie does over-delight in its own cleverness, but it fits well into that packet of clever movies that came out in the mid-90s and early naughts (movies like Seven, Fight Club, Memento, and so forth). I had an idea of where it was going almost from the beginning, so ironically now that the twists and such are spoiled I might like it more since I don't have to put up with that feeling of "Oh yeah, here it comes". Good movies and books lift out of their plot twists and, as some of noted, become better once you have the tension of the unknown out of the way. All of those other movies I have listed above are excellent movies even though I know how they end, and I have rewatched them several times.

Wish I could say that I had more exciting news than movie commentary, but about the best I can come up with is that I roasted a chicken today and it was awesome. Really awesome. Not a hard recipe to do, by the way, once you get past the pulling out the giblets and handling five pounds of dead bird. After that, it's mostly just put in the oven and bake. Mmmm...bake....

Ok, time for me to close out some more virtual reference tickets, jam to some music with my headphones on (Jolie Holland, perhaps), read some Scott Pilgrim and Doctor Who, and then get some sleep. Considering I have not been conscious for more than about eight consecutive hours since Friday night, you would think that I would be ready to not sleep, but nope, that is not the case.

Si Vales, Valeo

file under Me in 2010
and Media (Densho Otoko)

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