Sunsets #5

8/30/14 (Marta's Wedding)

9/20/14 (Beanpole's Bday)

Goodbye DQ

I first met Drennen doing a bit on Alex's talk show at iO El Show. The guests that week were two burlesque dancers. Drennen and I took turns interviewing them, vying for the co-host position. I think I won, I remember feeling good about that because Drennen was a rising star at that point, I was jealous of his talent and the recognition he was getting. Like many people who, over time, became my good friends I didn't like Drennen at first.

A couple months after that we got put on a team together at CIC, 1941. The team never really gelled. We probably only had a handful of good shows in the year we were together. But it was a great group of people and I got to know and befriend Drennen. After rehearsals James and I would go over to Drennen's and watch a movie James hadn't seen.  We did movie night every week for a year then once a month for the last two and a half.

DQ is a great friend: loyal, considerate, kind. He's great to talk movies or music with, great to gossip and talk comedy with. I coached him briefly on the short-lived JaJaJa but our collaborative efforts were never what defined our friendship. As a friend Drennen always made time for me, we always stayed connected even with stretches of time without talking or hanging out. He has a laid-back, casual, hip, mischievous smartass type energy I'll sorely miss.

With all the people moving over the past months I know DQ's exodus will hit me hard as the weeks go by. Hopefully his will mark the end of this parade of friends Chicago departures.

Couples Costume

Last week Nicole and I got in a little dust up about Halloween. She's a big fan of dressing up and I am not. I told her I was willing to dress up, knowing it was important to her, then never followed up. Over the past couple weeks she has suggested a number of different couples costumes all of which I lightly dismissed. Last Friday we were talking about Halloween and I, having simmered for a while, burst out "You know, I don't want to do this. Dressing up isn't my thing." She got upset, I got upset.

After talking to Jimmy about compromises, about what they look like, about the difference between passively acquiescing and engaging with enthusiasm, I apologized. When people talk about relationships compromise is a watchword. For a while I thought it was about alternating. You pick the movie, I pick the movie. We go to meet your friends, we go to meet my friends. But what I discovered is that it's about doing something you don't want to do, not only that but doing it without any reticence or foot-dragging or negativity. Doing something you don't want to do with such enthusiasm you actually enjoy it. That something you didn't want to do turns into something you're glad you did.

Nicole made a Wayne's World hat before we went out. I was Wayne, she was Stacey. We both had fun.

Graffiti 141

 

Some bizarre comment on advertising or clueless ploy to get city denizens to drink more water?

"In the United States, the advertising and public relations industry is huge. Back in the more honest days, they called it propaganda. Now the term doesn’t sound nice, so it’s not used anymore, but it’s basically a huge propaganda system...His first great success was to induce women to smoke. In the 1920s, women didn’t smoke. So here’s this big population which was not buying cigarettes, so he paid young models to march down New York City’s Fifth Avenue holding cigarettes. His message to women was, 'You want to be cool like a model? You should smoke a cigarette.' How many millions of corpses did that create? I’d hate to calculate it. But it was considered an enormous success." -Noam Chomsky

"There are two sayings that are familiar in every news room across the country: 1) sex sells; 2) if it bleeds it leads." -Armstrong Williams

'John Wick' A Review

John Wick is a revenge action movie about a retired hitman whose car is stolen and dog is killed. John Wick(Keanu Reeves) is a fearsome hitman for the Russian mob nicknamed "The Boogeyman". When he got the news of his wife's illness he retired. As the movie opens she has just died, her parting gift to him a beagle pup, something for him to love. After the funeral at a gas station Wick's '69 Mustang catches the attention of young buck Russian mobster Iosef who subsequently breaks into Wick's apartment steals the car, kills the dog, and roughs up Wick. Wick comes out of retirement intent on taking Iosef's life. There is a lot of collateral damage.

In the wake of the success of Taken this type of movie has been made and remade a number of times in the last five years. This incarnation doesn't offer anything new in regards to narrative but does provide some originality in the fight choreography and in the performance from Reeves.

Although not quite innovative the gun play and hand-to-hand combat is unique. Intriguing in its specificity and realism. Different enough to rise(slightly) above other action flick fare. Reeves seems to be following in the footsteps of Nicholas Cage, not only in his choice of roles but in his method of performance. Reeves gives Wick 100% commitment, plays him with menace and a bizarre psychotic glee. At one point tied to a chair before he is tortured he shouts "YEAH I'D SAY I'M BACK!"

Sufficiently entertaining, containing absolutely no surprises.

Rent It.

Mental Health Day

I stayed up late reading.
An engrossing SciFi paperback.
Called into work this morning.
Too tired to commute.
Slept till noon.
Luxuriated in a late breakfast.
Watched Tall Tale on VHS.
Drank lots of coffee.
Ventured out to Barnes & Noble.
Bought The Slow Regard Of Silent Things.
Paid half price to see Keanu Reeves seek revenge.
Waited patiently for my loves return.
Flirted, fought, and snuggled. All in fun.
Indulged in a frozen pizza,
splayed out on our IKEA couch.
What freedom in such idleness.

Goodbye Timmy

Another Chicagoan fleeing to the coast.
Timmy, the bad-backed bird-man.
Trumpeting his percentage of Cherokee blood.
I'll miss the parade of cops, bosses, and put-upon husbands you played.
Those times you were inappropriately Asian or mentally impaired.
Your mugging, your thirst for the audiences laughter.
You taught me a lot about crowd control. And response.
About going for broke.
About over-the-top.
About yelling to get myself heard.
Sometimes a scene calls for steamrolling force.
You were always game to bear the brunt of my Nagging Wife.
Or receive the tirades from my Bad Cop.
Always loudly denouncing your guilt or sexual inadequacy.
You fired me countless times.
Played my principal even more.
And had Bitchy Friend down to a science.
But always and forever a tried and true collaborator.
Generous, kind, and challenging.
Goodbye my friend.
May the sun filled slopes and valleys of that dreamscape called LA
Never mar your sickly and translucent skin.