July 25, 2005

Okay. Before I begin with my account of LebowskiFest, a few notes about the site.

The big thing is that I finally have put up several new galleries of pictures, including the birth of Alex Rae, five generations of Maria's family, Maria's mom and Scott in a DCI event, and, of course, the LebowskiFest pictures. So if it's pictures you've been wanting to see, there are now more than a few up there for your perusing pleasure.

Also, my life in general apart from this weekend has been good. Busy, but good. I've been doing three tons of training related to my new job at Wilson Central High School. The training itself is less than thrilling, but it's cool to be starting somewhere new. Somewhat nervewracking, but cool. Turns out that I won't have my own room, so much as a cart...and I haven't officially gotten my final copy of my schedule yet...and the kids start on Wednesday...so, yeah. Life is awfully exciting...*laugh* But it's going well, and I'm not too stressed yet. (Of course, part of the reason I'm working so hard on the site today is the realization that I won't have much time to do anything else with it this week, since I'm going to be insanely busy. But oh well.) Still, with a half day Wednesday and classes getting rolling on Monday, it's going to be getting nuts around here...

Which made it good that we had this weekend to relax and enjoy Lebowskifest.

Friday afternoon, once Maria got home, we got in the car and drove up to Louisville, Kentucky, site of the festival. Friday night was the opening concert and movie showing; Saturday was the carnival and main event at the bowling alley. Given that we got started so late, we knew we were going to miss a good deal of the concert. The band was They Might Be Giants, and although we were interested to see them, the idea of getting food seemed slightly more important. So we made a stop at the Old Spaghetti Factory, where we ate last year (and my wife discovered the joys of Lambrusco, on which she got quickly drunk last year). This year didn't go quite as well, as my wife explained on her site:

Oh! Another exciting thing that happened this weekend... we decided to go to the Old Spaghettie Factory for dinner on Friday night before we went to the concert. Well, I'm just sitting there minding my own business when our waitor comes and trips over me and spills a coke all over me and breaks the glass next to me with shatter glass landing on the back of my shirt. Fun times.... he offered me a free cheesecake which I turned down because I just wanted to get out of there, but he didn't even offer to comp my dinner or anything. Then, that night, I had to help Josh peel skin off his foot so I could get in with tweezers and pull out a small chunk of glass from the cup the shattered. It was an exciting weekend as you can see.

So, yeah. That was something. But onward to the concert we went, where we at least caught the last half hour or so of the Giants (who were quite enjoyable). Then, we hung out until the movie screening. As we waited, we got a couple of treats...the first was the winner of "Lebowski Idol", a pasty white video-game critic who rapped "The Humpty Dance". It was pretty brilliant.

Then, to introduce the movie, JAMES HOOSIER. Who, you ask? He played Liam, the silent partner of the bowling pederast Jesus (played by John Turturro). Liam, as it turned out, was COMPLETELY drunk, and we worried about him falling off the stage. He screamed some lines from the movie, seemed to be in a great mood, and even tried to recreate the famous ball-cleaning scene from the movie (here's a bad, blurry picture).

Afterwards, the movie began. It's still a great movie, no matter how many times I've seen it, and I laugh every time. I even notice new things (never noticed the Dude trying to paint a toe-like thing with White-out near the end of the movie before) still as I watch it. The crowd this year was a little weaker than last, with less crowd chanting along, but a little more interaction. (My favorite: at one point, the sound gave out, prompting a man to scream "How will we know what happens?")

That was about it for that night. We headed to the hotel, crashed, and got up the next morning. Given that nothing started until late afternoon, we decided to spend the day at Six Flags, which was a block from the hotel. Again, not as fun as last year, due in no small part to the greater heat and larger crowd. Mostly, it was an okay day, with one notable exception. Again, I turn you over to my wife, with another quote lifted from her site:

So, just a word of advice. If you ever go to Six Flags, you can wear a bathing suit on all rides except the water rides. I know, I know... It was extremely hot on Saturday when we got to the park, which was across the street from our hotel. They have a water park inside the main park, so we took a bag with towels, bathing suits, and a change of clothes. When we got there, we got a locker at the water park for the bag and I changed into my bathing suit top, which covers me entirely like a spaghetti strap T would. I was wearing my khaki shorts with it, so I was not in my bathing suit persay. Anyways, we went on rides most of the day and no one said a word to me. We decided to go on the Penguin ride, which is the round boats that take you down a river (like the Grizzly River Rampage at the old Opryland). Anyways, we stand in line for an hour for this freaking ride and we get to the front and I was informed that I had to be wearing a shirt to ride. However, the girl right in front of us was wearing a spaghetti strap T with her bra hanging out and they didn't say a word to her. So, the guys stood there at the front while I ran back to the lockers to get my shirt. I arrived back at the lockers to find that the computer to get into our locker was broken and they were in the middle of replacing computer parts. So, I went back to the ride to explain to no avail. They did say that once I got my shirt though, we could come up through the exit way and get right on, which we eventually did. I have decided that I need to remember to ask them next time what their definition of a shirt is. Because my definition is something that covers you up entirely and doesn't have abdominal skin showing. Whatever... I'll probably never go on that ride again though... I was extremely pissed off about it all.

It was a fairly irritating experience. Still, the day went on, and we left the park headed for the Lebowski carnival and the main festivities held at the bowling alley...

The carnival was about the same as last year. There were games, including the Marmot fling, the Coffee Mug Fling, and the Ringer Toss (which, sadly, we made it out too late to compete in). Otherwise, it was a quiet crowd...although, we did see the first of our costumes...

A note, here, about the costumes at Lebowski Fest. After about the first year, I think everyone realized that coming as the Dude, or Walter, or even Jesus, was just going to be overdone. After all, it was the obvious thing to do. So, as the years have gone by, the costumes have gotten stranger. Last year, my favorites were the two who came as 8-year olds, and the pair of Moses and Sandy Koufax. (Honestly, these make more sense if you've seen the movie enough to be able to recite it). This year, though, the costumes got even weirder...I'm not sure my words can do them justice. You're probably better off checking out the photo gallery, but here's a partial list: a toe, a Ralph's card, dancers, the Eagles, camelfuckers, a jerkoff manual, a million clams, pancakes, bowling pins, valkeries...and it goes on. Just check out the pictures, honestly.

So, into the festivities we go. Mainly, it was a time to people watch, as we got there far too late to actually get a lane (obviously, it fills up quickly). So we watched. I took a lot of my costume pictures, and we watched the spectacle unfold.

Somewhere along the way, we had two very cool celebrity encounters. First, we actually met James Hoosier (Liam, again). He was an incredibly nice guy, and even after taking a picture with us, held a long and fun conversation with us. He was probably still a bit trashed (based on the sheer number of bottles at his table), but he was a very down-to-earth guy, telling us about how he used to be a cop in nearby White House, Tennessee, about how he ended up in the movie by chance after picking up a flyer, and how he was just so humbled by the attention. A very nice, very genuine guy, who you could tell simply enjoyed being there and loved every second of it.

After Liam, we wandered on and met (again--we met him last year) Jeff Dowd. For those of you who don't know, Jeff Dowd is the real-life inspiration for the Dude. He's a movie producer, and the kind of guy who can always be counted on to show up at a film festival. The Coen brothers love him, and he became the Dude as the movie was written.

Dowd is a fun guy. The years of drugs have clearly taken a toll on him, but he's a heavyweight when it comes to partying, and is very capable of lasting all day and all night on a diet of beer and drugs. He's got a good sense of humor, but he's also very approachable and very friendly. Here's the best part of the story: We were telling Dowd about how we had come last year, and brought a friend of ours (Jim), but he couldn't come this year, as he was in training in the desert (Jim is in the Marines). We were going to ask him to record a message on my camera for him, but before we could even ask, Dowd asked "Does he have a cell phone?"

We answered that, yes, he did. Dowd immediately said, "Well, call him--I want to talk to him!"

Jim, unfortunately (or fortunately?), wasn't around to take the call. So Dowd left a long voice mail about what a great time we were having, and how he was a sack of crap for not being there. Then he wandered over to women standing around the bar, and told them to say something to Jim. She said, "hi." (Dowd took the phone back and said, "Yes, we are!")

It was a very cool gesture, and completely made Jim's day. So yay Jeff Dowd.

The rest of the evening was quite enjoyable, on every level. We stayed for the various contests, including farthest traveled (the people from London and Paris were beaten by someone from JORDAN!), hardest traveled (a long story involving 26 hours in a car, chemical spills, fog, and nothing to eat but beef jerky), and the costume contests (some pictures of the winners are in the gallery). Following those, the winners of the costume categories had a bowl off for a grand prize (a poster signed by 9 cast members of the movie, as well as Dowd)...sadly, every single person bowled a gutterball on the first time out. (Forgiveness can be given to the guy with the camel strapped to his crotch.) However, the second time, one man made it through--well, a man and a beast...that's right, the camelfuckers won the prize!

With the contests ended, we headed to the hotel bar for the afterparty...not much to see there, just lots of White Russians and relaxation. (Just me and Adam for this one; Maria had already hit the bed.) The only noteworthy piece: a man whose shirt front read "What would Jesus do?", and the back reading "Eight year olds, dude", complete with Turturro picture. Brilliant.

With that, the Festival drew to a close for another year. We came back to Nashville, saddened to be leaving but having had a good time.

Anyways, check out the photo gallery from the Fest, or any of the other new galleries as well.

With the long saga completed, I'm outta here--have a good week...

July 19, 2005

So I'm slightly overdue for my weekly update. C'est la vie, you know?

For the time being, I'm actually unemployed...although you wouldn't know it, from how much of today I spent in long, dull, uninteresting training meetings. I'm not sure which was worse: the two hour insurance meeting, or the 45 minute training on e-mail usage. *shudder* Either way, not quite how I wanted to spend my last official day of freedom...on the other hand, I'm not spending the day with a bunch of foul-mouthed, sex-obsessed delinquents, either, so it's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?

All in all, the week is a promising one. I'm going to see my good friend Ryan tomorrow night; he's a stand-up comic, and he and some buddies have gotten themselves a slot at Zanies, the local major comedy club. So good for them! Go see them, and give them your money, if you're in the area; they're funny guys, and deserve the support. I'm definitely looking forward to it; we've enjoyed Ryan every time we've seen him, but it's been far too long since we last saw his act.

And this weekend: L E B O W S K I   F E S T. Need any more be said about a festival dedicated to the greatest movie of all time? (Okay, maybe not the greatest...but certainly the funniest.) Not to mention some time at Six Flags in Louisville...it'll be me, Maria, and Adam (because Jim is all "ooh, look at me, I'm dedicated to my country and my duty", so he can't go, and Adam's significant other Meghann is...well, I think she's just too cool to hang out with us. Or hates us. Or something like that. Oh well. We like her, even if her lack of attendance places her among the damned.)

What else? Oh, the past week...well, one thing: I did get to read the new Harry Potter book, and despite my irritation at having the ending ruined for me, the book was quite good. Not a lot of events, but a lot of character stuff, and a satisfying setup for book 7. So that was fun.

Actually, read a few books this weekend...which reminds me that I wanted to share this video clip with you all. I just finished reading a book called The Black Angel, by an Irish author named John Connolly (the man featured in the video clip). Over the course of the book, the story of an ossuary (graveyard) named Sedlec comes up. Sedlec is an old monastery in the Czech Republic, and one where there were a great number of bones laying around. They came up with a most unique solution to the clutter, and the video clip details that for you. It's a fairly bizarre thing...somewhere between chilling and beautiful. Check it out--it's definitely something you won't forget anytime soon.

Other news...my last week at TLC went fairly well, overall. The kids were sad to see me go, but I doubt they'll miss me too much after a week or so. Still, a lot of them said goodbye; some, who got Friday off, even made a special trip back to school to say their farewells, so that was something nice...and a lot of them made a special trip by my room to say their fond farewells, and genuinely seemed sad that I'd be going. So, while I don't know that they'll remember me two months from now, at least I feel like I'll be missed by some of them quite a bit...makes me feel less like I wasted all my time there, you know?

So, I'll miss my kids out there...they cracked me up a lot. (On my last day, they all offered to come beat up my new students if they treated me badly...*smile*) But, the peace and quiet will be a nice change, I have to say.

Anyways, enough updating...have yourselves a good week, and I'll talk to all of you later...

July 15, 2005

I'm aware that I owe a pretty good update for this week: notes about my last week at TLC, things like that. And we'll get to that, but probably not tonight. Tonight, I'm tired, and really just want to rant for a minute.

You may not be aware of this, since it's only been on EVERY NEWS STATION IN THE COUNTRY (good thing there's nothing important going on, like Karl Rove or London or anything), but the new Harry Potter book comes out tomorrow. Now, I like the HP books quite a bit. I've been reading them since the third one came out, and have really been getting into the set. So, yeah, I'm pretty excited about the new one. And to make it as good as possible, I've been avoiding learning anything about the book whatsoever, by avoiding anything that might even hint at giving something away.

Now, there's a set of forums I visit on the web frequently, known as the Something Awful forums (not linked to tonight, for reasons that will become obvious shortly). I like the forums: funny people, good senses of humor, some intelligent discussion, and generally good behavior.

Which made it all the more surprising that someone today, at the top of the entry page to the site, posted in big letters not only the name of the person that dies in the new HP book, but also who kills them, as well as the identity of the "Half-blood prince" of the title.

When did people get to be such dicks? It seems to me that a little bit of decency wouldn't kill people. Great, you read the book first; why ruin it for everyone? I realize that there's still a whole book to enjoy, and lots of details to savor...but a big chunk of the book has been spoiled for me, with less than 12 hours to go till its release. And that has really just pissed me off tonight. It doesn't seem like that would be so hard to do, respecting people and being nice...but I guess it is.

I'm still pretty ticked about having the book ruined for me...but a night at the movies (the extremely surreal but quite enjoyable Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) have mostly gotten my mind off of it.

When I'm reading it tomorrow, though, I may change my mind.

July 10, 2005

Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday to me,
Happy birthday dear meeeeeeee...
Happy birthday to me.

I feel better now.

I'm 25 today. Kind of weird to think about, although apparently it's weirder for my mom, who has been threatening to disown me for a week now, saying that she simply can't go around telling everyone she has a 25-year old son. (Fair enough, mom.)

Don't have much planned for the day, as far as I know; after church this morning, I'm hoping to go check out the double feature at the Belcourt; they're showing Citizen Kane and Casablanca in a "Greatest Movie of all Time" contest. I've seen Kane several times, but never seen Casablanca all the way through; besides, seeing both on the big screen is something too good to pass up. Beyond that, though, not much planned for the day...

...which is okay, because I had a really great day yesterday. My wife has apparently been organizing a surprise party for the last week. She woke up early and went to set everything up while I slept in, then took me to see Bewitched while everyone arrived at the party, which was at her grandmother's house (her grandmother having a pool).

So we drive around to the back of the house, and there's a ton of people there: both my sets of parents, my friends Adam, Will, Ryan, his wife Allison, Kelly, Becky, Tammy and her daughter Lexi, James (whose website I can't link to in good conscience), and probably someone else who is escaping me this morning and who I'll hear from in an irritated tone pretty soon. So apologies in advance for anyone I'm forgetting.

It was a really great day, though, and really made my weekend. We grilled out, drank some beers, had some cookie cake (mmm...cookie cake), and just goofed around, including a very anarchic game of Catchphrase (honestly, I still can't believe that I got "studio" from James singing "Stu-Stu"). Loved seeing my parents, loved seeing all my friends (especially some people like Becky and Kelly, who I hadn't seen in forever), and really just had a blast. Got some cool stuff, too: Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut, The Aviator, Sideways, the new books from Nick Hornby and John Connolly...

...but the big present, the one that will affect all my readers: my mom and Kevin chipped in to get my DSL for a year!

WHOO!

Thanks muchly, muchly, muchly to them for that...maybe we'll start doing some fancier stuff on this site (Ryan and I are considering, after some events at the party yesterday, starting a video section of Maria saying dirty words...), but we'll see what happens...

So, anyways, thanks to everyone who came. It really made my day, and my weekend, and was just a blast in every way. So many, many thanks, and thanks as well for all the gifts. I didn't get to share my appreciation as much yesterday in the chaos, but thanks to everyone.

All right; I'm wrapping this up...just think: one week left at TLC...man, am I ready for it to be done...otherwise, have a good week!

July 5, 2005

I know, I know. I’m quite behind on my updating...apologies for that, I guess. Mainly I just haven’t felt all that much like updating this blog as of late. It’s not that interesting things haven’t been going on...it’s more that I haven’t felt like sitting here and typing about everything. But, since my entire class seems to have been escorted up front (I think as a reward for good behavior), I have a few minutes of peace and quiet, and thought I’d take the chance to fire up MS Word and type some thoughts for uploading later tonight...

So it’s been a pretty eventful week, I guess. Tuesday night, my friend Rodney came into town. Rodney was the unofficial fifth member of our unholy quintet in high school, and a really good friend. Over the years, we haven’t stayed in as good touch as we’d both like; I did at least get to see him for my bachelor party/wedding, but our plan of getting everyone together once a month lasted, well, exactly one month...

So all of that made me pretty happy when Rodney called me last Sunday and said that he was coming through town Tuesday, and would I mind letting him crash at my house for the night? (Rodney’s a published author in the world of Role Playing Games (RPGs), and was heading to a conference up north.) Not a problem...we didn’t do too much; got some dinner, hung out, talked till late, and just basically caught up on stuff (everything from personal life to (shock) movies), but it was a nice time to get to see him. We don’t get to see each other often enough, so that was nice.

Moving on: the only highlight of Wednesday (and I use the word “highlight” loosely) was my follow-up dentist appointment, in which it turned out I’d been doing my job, and my teeth were doing well...however, since my wife decided to go to Shelbyville to see our new niece, I got to use the evening to go see a movie, and since my oh-so-squeamish wife wasn’t in attendance, it seemed like the perfect night to go see Land of the Dead, which was all kinds of awesome; not truly a pure horror movie, but a survival horror piece, with some scathing political commentary, as well as scads and scads of gore. Quite wonderful.

Thursday was an okay day, mainly because the kids had midterms, which made it a half day. I managed to get everything done for the weekend that day, allowing me to take Friday off to prepare for...

The Memphis Trip.

Every 4th of July, Kevin’s (my stepfather) family has their family reunion in Memphis. I’ve always been reluctant to go, mainly because I don’t know most of the family, and my favorites (Kevin’s brother and wife) rarely make it. So I’ve never been that excited about going; but, I figured since I had gotten married, it made sense that we should go this year, let everyone meet my wonderful wife (she being the new addition to their family and all).

But, here’s the thing: it actually turned out to be a pretty fun weekend. Part of that is that we didn’t linger overly long at the family reunion itself; long enough to see everyone, meet most everyone, and swim in the pool for a while with the kids. But we left there, and spent most of the weekend with Kevin’s Aunt Jerry and her new husband, Frank. (Now, technically, Jerry’s not part of the Glenn family anymore; she divorced Kevin’s uncle, and remarried; still, she’s so beloved that we decided to spend some time with her this weekend.)

We had a really great time (yes, mom, I’m being honest). Jerry is a great lady; very sweet, very giving, very kind at all times. And we got to see some of Memphis; we walked around the Peabody (the fancy hotel with the ducks), strolled down Beale street (packed, but not horribly so), had some good ribs at a place called Rendezvous (I know, it sounds like a strip club), and basically just got to see the town. (An odd post script: this morning, while getting ready for work, I was flipping around and came across The Firm on HBO. I came in as they met everyone at the firm at a picnic on top of the Peabody, then strolled down Beale street. Very cool to see places I had been two days before; what’s more, the tumblers who are working Beale street in the movie are still there today (although much older), so I even saw people who were in the movie. Interesting...well, to me, at least.)

Past that: a big load of nothing yesterday; kind of sad, as it was the one year anniversary of our engagement. (Just think...a year ago, I wasn’t engaged, I was working at New Horizons, and living in a cruddy apartment; a year later, I’ve been engaged AND married, I left New Horizons and have already left a SECOND job, and I’ve moved into a house. Craziness.) We both kind of wanted to do something special, but just couldn’t come up with much original to do. Okay, though; we saw a movie, relaxed, and enjoyed the last day off.

This week? Not much...all I’m saying: two weeks left here at TLC. Thank God.

OH! Almost forgot the coolest thing of the week. Sunday, when I got home, I had my tape of Live 8 all ready to go. 6 hours into MTV’s coverage, there they were:

PINK FUCKING FLOYD.

The guys looked pretty rough; the years haven’t been kind to them. But, god, they played as good as ever; they smiled, laughed, and even looked (dare I say it?) like a band again. Four songs long ("Breathe", "Money", "Wish You Were Here", and the BRILLIANT closing choice: "Comfortably Numb"), and it was spectacular in every way.

Well, every way but one. FUCK YOU MTV. Why?

• For talking over the middle section of "Comfortably Numb" (and what’s worse: talking about how great Pink Floyd is; if they’re so great, WHY ARE YOU TALKING OVER THEM????)
  
  
• For cutting off David Gilmour’s brilliant guitar solo that closes the song
  
  
• For keeping me from seeing the band hug on stage (something I NEVER thought I’d see)
  
  
• In short, for cutting short the best part of all umpteen million hours of Live 8.

God, I wish I’d been watching the streaming cast (of course, I wasn’t home for it); as it is, I loved what I saw, but hated what I missed. (A brief, but wonderful postscript to this: on my way home today, the local classic rock station played the entire Floyd set from Live 8, including the entire version of Comfortably Numb, complete with stunning closing guitar solo. Absolutely breathtaking.)

Still, for as brief as it was, it was spectacular.