December 30, 2003 - 10:44 PM

Puzzling Over Some Lists

Perhaps it's time to do some random Year-End Lists. Perhaps it's not.

Favorite album purchases this year:
1)Anne Heaton- Black Notebook
2)Erin McKeown- Grand
3)Kim Fox- Return to Planet Earth
4)The Like- I Like the Like and ...and the Like
5)Aterciopelados- Gozo Poderoso
6)Vienna Teng- Waking Hour
I think I only purchased a dozen cds this year, which is quite unusual for me. Between 20 and 40 is the norm. My funding for recorded music has been redirected towards DVDs and live concerts, I reckon. Oh, I heard on NPR today that funding for the arts has been cut 90% for next year in California, and that in Missouri it was cut 100%! Mississippi was lucky to get a 130% increase.

Favorite movies watched for the first time this year:
1) Lost in Translation
2) The Seven Samurai
3) Kill Bill Vol 1
4) X-Men 2
5) LOTR: Return of the King
6) Dr. Strangelove
7) Elf
8) Finding Nemo - Right now, my least favorite of the Pixar films; mostly because of the unlikably whiny Marlin, as voiced by Albert Brooks. It's not that I hate Albert Brooks with a fiery vengeance (hello Mark); I actually enjoyed Defending Your Life, which he wrote and directed and starred in. Hmm...now that I think about it, maybe it was Meryl Streep who made that movie tolerable. Not that she has particular swaying powers over me, either, since Death Becomes Her leaves a bad taste in my mouth, despite her presence as well as Bruce Willis and Robert Zemeckis. Oh, wait, it has Goldie Hawn in it. That explains it. Now HER I do deplore.

Where was I? Oh, Finding Nemo, right. Fun movie, too much Albert Brooks, not enough Allison Janney or Stephen Root and Vicki Lewis (put those two together with Dave Foley from A Bug's Life, and you have a veritable NewsRadio reunion over there at Pixar. Speaking of which, the NewsRadio DVD set has been postponed from it's scheduled February release because the creator, Paul Simms, has convinced Columbia to include extras that he can provide, which should make for a much more filling treat)

Favorite DVD purchases:
1) Homicide: Life on the Streets Season 3 (I've stopped the episode analysis at the request of some readers)
2) Farscape: Season 2
3) West Wing: Season 1 (thanks Phil)
4) Out of Sight (hey, Albert Brooks again!)
5) A Few Good Men
6) Buffy: Season 3 (thanks Soph)

Favorite Drunken Moments:
1) Philip and Jen's Wedding reception
2) Getting Drunky and Funky at O'brien's Pub
3) Tomorrow Night (ha HA!)

*******

Nick was kind enough to pick me up from the shuttle depot in Van Nuys yesterday. Damnable Van Nuys Flyaway shuttle service for LAX was late like a bastard at the airport, and I ended up waiting outside the terminal for 40 minutes, hopping around and stamping my feet to keep warm, before the first bus showed up. My mock mini-victory yelp was squelched by the gloved hand of the driver, briskly waving back and forth at us through the windshield, telling us that we couldn't board because they were full up on passengers. He then opened the door and yarbled something at us that might have been an explanation; the jabbing of his thumb over his shoulder seemed to indicate that another bus would be coming behind him shortly. Or that we should hitchhike our way to wherever we needed to go. I'm not sure which.

Five Ten Fifteen Twenty Twenty-Five minutes passed, and the second bus finally appeared. Early, I guess, if you were going by the service's information booth that says a transport leaves every half hour from the airport. Late, if you were going by the hungry asian boy's impatient internal clock.

Traffic was light heading north on the 405, and we made it to the shuttle stop much more quickly than I had anticipated. Nick showed up 5 minutes later, and after he took me to my apartment to drop off my bags and check my mail, we went out for Sushi. Heavenly sushi. It was fresh, with no fishy smell or taste, and man, it went down like butter. Iroha Sushi on Ventura blvd, a few driveways to the west of the Coldwater Canyon intersection in Studio City. Check it out.

The rest of the night was spent doing a jigsaw puzzle at Nick's apartment. It sounds sad, I know, but it was fun. I got a great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction putting the pieces together, much like when I do a crossword or solve a math problem. The logical processes of organization and elimination combined with the occasional sprees of golden-touch luck, where every single piece that I picked up automatically fit where I first placed it, had my mind swirling in a focused delerium. The cogitative centers of my brain were pleasuring each other every time a succession of pieces were thwapped into place. Nick and I were so engrossed, we didn't realize how late it was until the clock was past 2 AM, which meant I had been up for 24 hours (with about 3 hours of napping on the plane ride from Baltimore). Loginess hit me, and even though we had a few small patches to finish, we called it a night and Nick drove me home.

Now Listening To : Aterciopelados- Gozo Poderoso
Random Thought : I got to sleep on Miss Piggy bedsheets at home. Now it's back to my boring old sheets. Bah.

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