Movie note: Into the Blue

THREE STARS

As expected, thin plot and pretty people.

So shock!

I still cannot believe they say the s-word on MTV's Skins!

Were you really born a genetic woman?

From the cover of Rolling Stone magazine as the queen bee of Laguna Beach to ... a lackluster interviewee on RuPaul's Drag Race. I think someone's nearing the end of her fifteen minutes.

The longest short week

Why do the short work weeks always feel like the longest? I guess with 7:00am meetings and doing work after getting home, it was bound to feel like this.

T-shirt tiiiiiiiiiiiiiime

Since I didn't have work today (Happy birthday, Mr. President!), it seemed like a good idea to go out on a Sunday night. Puppy and I met DJ Mother Nature and one of his Brazilian friends at the cabaret lounge act that DJ Mother Nature supports every week. It was the usual: bald man singing standards and making terrible jokes, us drinking beverages and giggling at the other patrons.

Fortunately, a "one time only" gay disco was happening upstairs, so DJ Mother Nature and I decided to check it out. It was my first "dance dance dance all night" type of event since moving to Boston, so I was interested to see what it would be like.

The space was pretty neat, and the DJ was one of my favorites, so I had high hopes. It quickly filled up, but one thing I noticed was that the clientele leaned more toward Jersey Shore reject than circuit queen. Maybe I've just been out of the scene for so long, but I really didn't expect to see so many horrible Affliction t-shirts!

The party's theme was "Miami" or something equally nonsensical, and there was a fat Samoan aerialist who was twisting and turning, while suspended from the ceiling on a piece of purple fabric. He reminded me of the homeless Samoan guy who hangs out on Castro Street in San Francisco - only this guy was wearing much less clothing. Not necessarily a good thing.

Other entertainment included four guys in ill-fitting wetsuits with electronic piping. I think it was supposed to reference TRON, but it just looked kind of looney.

Overall, the music was good and it was relatively easy to get drinks, so that was nice. I think I only saw one crazily wild-eyed nutjob, but all the gorilla juiceheads were too much! And strangely, only a handful of people took off their shirts, even when the dancefloor got crazy-crowded.

I decided to leave early because I got bored and didn't want to be stuck in the coat check line when it shut down, so maybe things took a turn for the better after I left at 1am, but I'm not so sure.

Movie note: Wonderland

TWO STARS

This apparently isn't one of those movies where you can fall asleep at the beginning and expect to understand everything that's going on. Also, this is a true story?

Wool brunch

It's Sunday in the middle of a three-day weekend. So, you'd expect me to take the day off from work and enjoy the time off. Thanks to my job, however, I've become one of the retail industry voices on wool and animal welfare - at least to a group of Australian wool farmers who are trying to promote their progressive farming practices. And when the CEO of an organization representing a group of Australian farmers is in Boston for only seven hours, it's only polite for me to make time for him.

Thus, I trekked down to South Station, met this fellow when he arrived, and went to a nearby restaurant to discuss sheep. During the course of our conversation, it became clear that he added a Boston stop only to meet me, so I'm glad I didn't blow him off like I wanted to!

In the end, it was a good conversation, I got a free brunch and a nice bottle of Australian wine, so it was time well spent. I just wish he could have made his trip during business hours.

John Daly dinner

IronWoman was in town for some smartypants event, which became the catalyst for a wonderful dinner college swim team reunion! Puppy spent all day cooking and cleaning, preparing a delicious dinner of Tuscan chicken and mushroom risotto for the occasion.

Flabs, Jillian and their husbands also came for dinner, leaving their kiddos at home with sitters. An adult evening! With adult beverages! Puppy had concocted a lemonade/iced tea/vodka drink which is apparently called a John Daly. And after several dozen glasses, it became a much boozier dinner than anticipated.

Surprisingly, I wasn't very hungover this morning, but even if I had been, it would have been worth it. Last night was a nice visit and great to see IronWoman while she was in town.

I shall need a typewriter and an abacus

You can imagine how I felt this morning when I arrived at work and realized that I had forgotten my computer at home! I was paralyzed for a second. Do I go home and retrieve it? But I had a 9am meeting I couldn't miss, so I just headed into the office.

I found someone else's old laptop and logged into my account, but couldn't get much to work. No printer. No e-mail. It was basically a non-starter.

Finally, after an hour with IT, I was up-and-running and I could begin my day! At 1:30pm. I thought "the cloud" was going to fix all this.

Tony/Tony, Michelle/Michelle, Cassie/Cadie

And here is the post where I admit that I've been watching the US version of Skins on MTV.

I'm still conflicted, mostly because I love the UK original so much. Whereas the original is engaging and effortless, the MTV version is interesting and forced. The US actors are not nearly as good as their UK peers and the storylines, although similar, diverge enough to keep me wondering what will happen next.

I'll admit it was pretty boring at first, but the "Cadie" episode drew me in. Maybe it's because Cadie is the parallel to Cassie, one of my favorite characters from the original, or maybe my standards have finally devolved far enough for me to enjoy it, but whatever the reason, I guess I'm hooked for the rest of the season.

It's also been kind of shocking to hear the kids say "shit" and "fuck" and to see bare bottoms on MTV. And I don't think I realized this was even going on until the second or third episode!

Hopefully, if this continues, it will be further refined, because a lesser version of Effy certainly won't be able to carry season 3.

All the single ladies

Yesterday I had a lunch meeting with a consultant in a fairly empty pan-Asian restaurant. Our server was a frumpy-ish, middle-aged woman who clearly thought she had better things to do than her job.

It was obvious that our lunch was focused on a workplace discussion, since we were throwing around words like "executives," "factories" and "ridiculous." Our server, however, insisted on foisting the day's Hallmark holiday on us and greeted us by saying, "Happy Valentine's Day!" with a big frown on her face. "I guess when you're single like us," she continued, "you have to work on Valentine's."

I guess I missed the memo. Who knew I was free to take yesterday off?

Movie note: All Over the Guy

TWO STARS

I think I'm too old for this type of movie about twentysomethings in unrealistic relationships. Also, maybe I should stop watching movies where everyone has answering machines.

Tea time

Another indication that I'm getting old? I spent yesterday afternoon with a good friend at her suburban home having tea and cookies! I will concede that she has a 1-year old to take care of and that she is 8.5 months pregnant with twins (Man, she is huge!), but wow, my weekends are not like they used to be.

Queen Titania and her sparkly fairies

Puppy, DJ Mother Nature and I went to Cambridge last night to see "The Donkey Show," a disco spectacular based very loosely on A Midsummer Night's Dream.

It featured a bunch of scantily clad boys and girls, covered in glitter, a bunch of cross-dressing, some references to drugs, dancing and yelling. It was very difficult to follow the plot, especially since the actors jumped and danced through the audience.

But the plot was beside the point - really, people were there just to drink and dance and have a good time. Interestingly, the audience was mostly composed of middle-aged folks who were sweating to the oldies. And after the show ended, and the event turned into a disco dance extravaganza, it sort of felt like we were at a wedding. A wedding where the bride was getting married for the second or third time.

Token panda

My employer sponsored a table at a regional human resources diversity celebration last night, and thanks to my Asian-ness, I was invited along. As expected, I got to hang out with the HR folks at our table, representing as the only non-white individual!

Some people might be offended by invitations based on ethnicity, or having to be the token minority, but I usually enjoy a free meal. Even if it's the typical hotel banquet fare of a wilted salad, rubbery breast of chicken and dry pastry. But I wish I'd known that last night's event would not include any wine! There was a cash bar upon arrival, but once we were all ushered into the main ballroom, it was H2O all the way.

Good thing the event was a 10-minute walk from my home.

Celeb sighting: Oh here go how come

Puppy and I just finished dim sum with my parents and Lil' Bro Panda!!!!'s future in-laws. As we exited the building, a short Asian man wearing a plunging v-neck t-shirt and a scowl on his face entered. For a moment, I thought he was a friend of mine from San Francisco and I smiled at him. He looked back at me, scowled some more, and I realized I don't know him at all!

It was Calvin, a contestant on the recent season of The Fashion Show! he was the season villain who had to be subtitled because he was difficult to understand. Furthermore, he was difficult to understand because he put words together in nonsensical strings.

Why do you go by Mr. Rings?

Robyn's opening act was a tall, skinny blonde boy from Toronto with the stage name Diamond Rings. I'd recently read a favorable review of his music, but I didn't make the connection until he actually took the stage.

He put on a pretty good performance and has a surprisingly low voice for a kid who wore stretchy gold pants and blue eye shadow! Afterward, he stood by his merchandise table, waiting to engage fans and to sign posters. After the three or so people approached him, professed their admiration and took photos with the young man (including DJ Mother Nature), he just stood there by himself, so I figured I should talk to him.

Turns out his name is John and the Diamond Rings monicker has something to do with the Toronto Blue Jays. I asked him why he went by the name "Mr. Rings," which didn't seem to go over so well. And when he described an upcoming music video that features him in drag, gobbling a pizza, I suggested he should have been eating poutine.

After entertaining a few more of my ludicrous questions, he excused himself politely to "get a lamp" for his table. We thought he was just exiting the conversation, but minutes later, he did return with a lamp!

Stilettos and broken bottles

Last night, Puppy, DJ Mother Nature and I stuffed our faces with Mexican food and went to see Robyn perform at the House of Blues. As a teen, I did enjoy the catchy "Show Me Love" of which she is probably horridly embarrased.

She put on a great show - jumping around and flailing her arms about frenetically. And all while wearing some Timberlands with three-inch platforms! She is a truly small little pixie!

And for me, it was notable that I ran into two whole people that I knew!

Movie note: Born Into Brothels

FOUR STARS

These kids sure do take good photos! Too bad their parents are such whores.

Boating through Boston

I took another work-from-home day today because of this storm that has 2/3 of the country experiencing snow, sleet, ice, rain and other nasty weather occurrences. There has been a major storm each week since I've returned to Boston from California and it is not pretty.

There are mountains of snow everywhere, and today the snow turned to sleet, then freezing rain, then regular rain. I dared to leave the house in order to retrieve my car, so I had to walk down several blocks to the garage where I kept it (my usual garage, across the street, was full!). At each intersection, I basically gave up trying to leap over the puddles. It was futile. I just stepped into the oceans and sacrificed the bottoms of my jeans to the elements. Fortunately, I had my water-proof boots on.