Monday Monday

(now you sing the background la laaa, la la la laaa) Can't help that day. . . .

Good Weekend. I accomplished a reasonable amount of Lux work last week, so I made it a Me Weekend and worked on my own RC stuff. AK reminded me that I have a "Hobby Business" (that means it doesn't really make money), so if I stop doing the hobby then what's the point? So I finally painted the idea I've been wanting to paint since "Cars" came out in the Summer. . .

Many thanks to Reno Rob for Photoshop help with the masks, since Disney made it real hard to find high-res graphics of the car's distinguishing features. Oh, and if Disney calls, this is "Fighting McSpleen", I don't know what movie they're talking about, nobody saw me do anything and they can't prove a thing. The body is on top of my spec-racing Tamiya TT-01, which I spent Sunday rebuilding. It's my plan to race this "fun" class at my local track this winter, while travelling to farther-away tracks 2 weekends a month for indoor off-road racing. I did the "serious" on-road carpet racing last year and found it more expensive than fun.

AK did many of the Kid Things this weekend and I'm very grateful, especially Max's football stuff. Watching the games is hard enough for me (see previous post regarding lostness and son-father alienation), but then it rained for the whole game AND my lovely little introvert had to socialize with grownups at a pizza parlor! I'm sorry I had to miss the kids' Primary Program but Lux had to deliver bodies to get paid for bodies.

X-Mas Lux is going to try and supplement the family's X-Mas Fund this year, since I'm not buying any new cars or racing any new classes this winter. I've got a freelance copy writing job and that's a small contribution to family finances, but it's earmarked for some boring bills or something. I'm very much looking forward to making a real, immediate and gratifying financial contribution :).

Film I can't begin to go over the films I haven't reviewed here! Some Highlights:

Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind: I'd tried to watch this awhile ago and was completely unsuccessful. It gets muddy in the middle and you have to have faith in the film, I learned, and apparently I didn't have that faith before. But this time I stuck it out and found it to be a really nice film. I found it strange that this was directed by frenchman Michel Gondry. See, I love my Spike Jonze music video collection. I love his videos, the music he does them for, and his whole schtick (his old girlfriend Sophia Coppola is pretty too). I was reminded recently that he'd directed a feature film: "Adaptation", and upon making the connection remembered that I did not enjoy that film at all. Strange how I can love his videos so much and not like his feature film. Well, I'd also Netflixed a collection of Michel Gondry music videos from the same people who did my Spike Jonze collection. He is known for the White Stripes Lego video and while I do give him credit for being generally original, I can't say I dug the videos in general. Partly his music choices I'm sure, but still the videos were a little, I don't know, French or something. Here we are again, I didn't like his videos but loved his feature film!

Other Mainstream "Independent" Films Netflix keeps recommending to me all of these Pseudo Quirky films where successful actors get to "stretch" and really act in independent-like films (which of course are not independent at all, just given smaller budgets than the usual box office slag). Happy Endings: Wonderful. Quiet and long, but a stellar performance by Lisa Kudrow and humor that you have to look for just like in real life. Winter Passing: Just as sad as I'd thought it would be when I read the synopsis Netflix kept showing me. I was right to skip it. I like Zooey Deschanel, but not this much. Closer: Character study of two different couples that was obviously a play but somehow still works as a movie using the original play-like scene structure. If you like the deep, ugly sexual dynamics of addictive relationships you'll dig this. I don't, I didn't. I was impressed by Julia Roberts a couple of times, and speculated that it's strange she somehow/somewhere got the "Beautiful Leading Lady" tag. Because she's not beautiful, and she can really act when the script calls for it unlike a lot of the People Magazine subjects.

Added to my Superhero collection with the X-Men trilogy. I knew I'd seen one before, but apparently I've seen 2. They're fun like comic books are fun, and hey there's THREE of them so I can get some painting done. Also picked up The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Why isn't Brendan Frasier a bigger star? I have always liked that guy. He started as the cro magnon in a Bill & Ted rip off, then took off with real roles like "School Ties", then something bad must've happened because he popped up in George of The Jungle and as Dudley Dooright?

What The Bleep I saw this in theatres 2 years ago and thought it was interesting. Regardless of the theme, I liked watching Marlee Matlin and there is a hilarious wedding scene with CGI hormones all over the place. I rented it so I could show AK the wedding scene & took an interest in the subject matter. The film carried weight, it seemed, because of what appeared to be legitimate scientific experts' testimony. Well it turns out that this film was greatly maligned by the real Physicists of the world as Granola Woo Woo Hogwash Claptrap. A couple of the featured Physicists in the film claim their words were taken completely out of context to serve the theme of the film ("quantum physics proves we create our own reality"), which they do not agree with at all. Still , Netflix this one for the wedding scene. You'll never forget animated hormones singing "Addicted to Love" in their own music video!

Thumbsucker Yeah, whatever. But, if, when I get to the netherworld, and AK's not there yet, and Emma Thompson is already taken, I may have to get my 'Nando on and swoop hard on Tilda Swinton. She was the evil queen in Narnia, also in this movie, and I could look at her for 2 hours no problem.

Stardate: Beenonmyassallmorning Thirty. . . Must get back to my lexan, liquid mask, vinyl & paint! Speaking of, here is some shameless self-promotion.