Thursday, October 21, 2004

Fast Food and Theater

We rented Super Size Me this weekend...it was definitely the weekend of documentaries. We were both impressed. I was particularly blown away and outraged by much of it, and it surely made me want to eradicate McDonalds from my diet completely, not only on a nutritional level but an ethical & corporate one too. Not an easy feat, but I think worth it. Today I had a salad for lunch, and my liver rejoices...huzzah!

Last night we went to see a play 'The Number 14' compliments of tickets from Jen, who we also got to see and that was a special treat too! The play was absolutely brilliant, an inspired piece of genius. I love theater and all its possibilities...it's something I wish I were more involved in. For sure it's another thing to pursue and conjure up ideas for. I'm fascinated by too many things.
...much better than being bored though. I don't think the word is in my vocabulary these days.

Also yesterday got to meet a guy who worked on Lord of the Rings. Isn't life diverse and wonderful...such glorious opportunities abound. If I could only get more sleep. Heheh. Suppose I'll have to get used to that for years down the road.

Back to work...


Monday, October 18, 2004

mini break

Today is the last day of our little 4-day mini-vacation, which for us means sitting around the house doin' our own thing. Thursday night after work we stayed in the romantic suite at the Coast Plaza hotel in downtown Vancouver...complete with champagne & strawberries and a full room serviced breakfast the next morning. The room was on the 29th floor and had a jacuzzi tub right there in the room, with a swivel TV so we could watch Survivor in the tub. The view was amazing, though a bit foggy so the mountains were not readily visible. Friday we went shopping downtown and returned home to just chill out, watch 'Joan of Arcadia' as usual, Jay got to sew...unwinding is happy. Saturday Jay went to Stella's to quilt all day, so I stayed home with my animation table and worked on the film, which is mostly what I've been doing all weekend.

Last night we watched Farenheit 911, which I watched with a somewhat suspicious eye in terms of 100% of its facts, but accepted the majority of it as an un-doctored document of what's going on with the war and such. It certainly didn't make me feel any better about it. The atrocities that the American soldiers were committing against the Iraqis made me ashamed to be an American, and motivated me to fill in my Canadian citizenship paperwork. Not that it was the determining factor necessarily, as if I did it out of spite, as I have been procrastinating with it and planned on doing it this weekend anyway. That just added some fuel to the fire. I've always been proud of my nationality and I'm not planning on cutting it off all together, unless the government decides to do it for me.

Friday, October 08, 2004

Queensryche show

just saw queensryche with mike tonight...great show! this was my 4th time seeing them within 13 years, and the 2nd time getting to see them play 'Mindcrime' in its entirety. The first time was in 1991 (10th grade)...second in 1995....third in 1998. All of those times, the members of the band were head-crushing size, as I was faaaaarrrr awaayyyy from the stage in these big arenas. This time, I was only but 10 feet away from them. Very surreal. When they opened up with 'The Whisper' off Rage for Order, and Geoff Tate stepped out in his red & black outfit, looking debonair and creepy as usual, I was speechless.....like I said before, they're like old friends up close and personal, playing the soundtrack to much of my life. And they sounded incredible, even better than I thought they would. I do miss Chris DeGarmo though...he also had quite the stage presence; the new guitar guy seemed out of place, but his playing was adequate.

The first set was made up of the following songs, in something close to this order, from what I can remember: The Whisper, Empire, Another Rainy Night, Open, Take Hold of the Flame, Jet City Woman, When the Rain Comes, Last Time in Paris, The Lady Wore Black, and Silent Lucidity. (no songs from Promised Land, unfortunately...)

The second set, of course, was the good ol' Operation Mindcrime show, with some added twists and theatrics...live actors and more video footage, and an extra "Mary-suicide" scene which filled a gap in the original story and was quite chilling to watch. After seeing this show in a huge arena setting, it was a little strange seeing it played on a small stage that close, but it brought back lots of memories and was still as powerful as ever. I found it amusing to watch the crowd, which was full of hard-core fans, bouncing and singing along to the songs and going absolutely bug-nuts. It's not really a 'sing-along-with-Mitch' kind of record! It's extremely dark and scary! More of a 'thinking' album that looks at the underbelly of society and exposes the darkness of a bizarre crime story, and shakes you up to think 'something's going on, what should we do about it?' Oh well, I guess when you're drunk enough everything's a party. :)

While part of me felt like I was enjoying a nostalgia trip back to high school, which would afterwards be left behind in order for me to come back to being almost-30, another larger part of me continues to carry the torch of my love for this band into my present and future. Viva la Ryche, and good night folks. Tomorrow is another work day.