Weekend fun
Not much posting from me lately. Before Thursday, I was in the middle of a Hannukah special -- working eight nights straight. And I serious was working for the weekend, for two great reasons:
1. It's a three-day weekend, Thursday through Saturday.
2. Rosemary will be here for all of it.
And so she was. It was a great weekend, and we got to do a bunch of things we hadn't done before. She got here Thursday, and soon we headed out to Meriden Mall nearby to check out a Torrid there. I found this dress off the sale rack, and we found some earrings and shoes (from Payless) to go with it.
Here's the finished product for springtime fun, with more shots on Flickr:
Friday we spent the day in Massachusetts with my friend miashell, and later met up with her wife Aimee and their friend Mike. Highlights: Michelle showing us where she got married at Mount Tom park in Holyoke, taking Rosemary to Webs yarn store, and checking out cool shops and good food in Northampton, Mass. I haven't been in a place like Northampton since my days in Harvard Square. It was nice to see a place full of fun stores and culture things and good food. And to walk downstairs into a cellar of a record store. We went to Faces, which is full of random, college-y kitschy stuff as well as nice home stuff. At local record store Turn It Up! I bought a replacement copy of David Bowie's "Reality," and "Talladega Nights" on DVD -- all for $16.
And I did something I love to do but don't do enough of: buying books. At Booklink in Northampton I bought "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson, about the last man in a world where vampires have taken over. And in West Hartford the next day at Bookworm I bought "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson.
We ate a lot of food on this trip. Thursday at J. Timothy's Taverne in nearby Plainville, which dates back to the 1780s. Friday we had burgers and stuff at Samuel's Tavern in Springfield with Michelle, Aimee and Mike, and Saturday in West Hartford Center we had a delicious, incredibly fragrant dinner at Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan. I had some beef kebabs with scallions ground into the freshest beef, and I followed that with some great meat dumplings with yogurt, mint and 75 other ingredients that made for so much flavor. The leftovers made my refrigerator smell so good. So much food, and a bit of a splurge since my diet has been a lot more spartan recently. Also, I had beer for the first time in weeks. We even got food for the dog from Three Dog Bakery in West Hartford. Yes, I went to a bakery for dogs with my girlfriend, and at least I don't think my balls shrank.
And as usual, we went to the movies. This time we saw "300" and "Grindhouse."
"300" was a big dumb movie with great action, but lacking camera-wise. It was great to stay so faithful to Frank Miller's art, but I just felt like it could have been shot better than it was. Instead it just felt like an overblown video game. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but Guillermo del Toro did a much better job of the movie-looking-like-a-video-game in "Blade II" than this movie in Zach Snyder's hands.) Gerard Butler was very good, if you can call that acting. Frank Miller roles don't require acting as much as being. Loved it. And I don't give a fuck about all the so-called analysis of the story or movie, from queer to racial to political to whatever. It's a big, loud action comic book, plain and simple, that's what I went there for, and that's what I got. And yes, it's a ton of super-buff dudes running around in nothing and fighting all the time, so if you like that, you'll like this movie. I'm glad Michelle and Rosemary could share the common ground of ogling while perusing yarn at Webs.
"Grindhouse": It's worth it just to say you went and withstood a 3-hour intentional crapfest, especially if you don't leave to pee. Robert Rodriguez's movie "Planet Terror" was a real kick to the head with lots of action and camp and gore. And Rose McGowan with a gun for a leg. And zombies. In short, it was excellent. Tarantino's "Death Proof," however, was bogged down in way too much go-nowhere dialogue to set up what was a fantastic final act. But Kurt Russell was brilliant. The trailers are what makes the experience totally worth it, especially Eli Roth's particularly sick one. I'll never look at a turkey the same way again.
So all in all, a very fun weekend. Not only did I get to see Rosemary, not only did I see movies and eat at new restaurants and all that, but I also got to hang out with friends and introduce them to Rosemary. And it was nice to wake up and not be the only person there again. I miss that most of all.
1. It's a three-day weekend, Thursday through Saturday.
2. Rosemary will be here for all of it.
And so she was. It was a great weekend, and we got to do a bunch of things we hadn't done before. She got here Thursday, and soon we headed out to Meriden Mall nearby to check out a Torrid there. I found this dress off the sale rack, and we found some earrings and shoes (from Payless) to go with it.
Here's the finished product for springtime fun, with more shots on Flickr:
Friday we spent the day in Massachusetts with my friend miashell, and later met up with her wife Aimee and their friend Mike. Highlights: Michelle showing us where she got married at Mount Tom park in Holyoke, taking Rosemary to Webs yarn store, and checking out cool shops and good food in Northampton, Mass. I haven't been in a place like Northampton since my days in Harvard Square. It was nice to see a place full of fun stores and culture things and good food. And to walk downstairs into a cellar of a record store. We went to Faces, which is full of random, college-y kitschy stuff as well as nice home stuff. At local record store Turn It Up! I bought a replacement copy of David Bowie's "Reality," and "Talladega Nights" on DVD -- all for $16.
And I did something I love to do but don't do enough of: buying books. At Booklink in Northampton I bought "I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson, about the last man in a world where vampires have taken over. And in West Hartford the next day at Bookworm I bought "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson.
We ate a lot of food on this trip. Thursday at J. Timothy's Taverne in nearby Plainville, which dates back to the 1780s. Friday we had burgers and stuff at Samuel's Tavern in Springfield with Michelle, Aimee and Mike, and Saturday in West Hartford Center we had a delicious, incredibly fragrant dinner at Shish Kebab House of Afghanistan. I had some beef kebabs with scallions ground into the freshest beef, and I followed that with some great meat dumplings with yogurt, mint and 75 other ingredients that made for so much flavor. The leftovers made my refrigerator smell so good. So much food, and a bit of a splurge since my diet has been a lot more spartan recently. Also, I had beer for the first time in weeks. We even got food for the dog from Three Dog Bakery in West Hartford. Yes, I went to a bakery for dogs with my girlfriend, and at least I don't think my balls shrank.
And as usual, we went to the movies. This time we saw "300" and "Grindhouse."
"300" was a big dumb movie with great action, but lacking camera-wise. It was great to stay so faithful to Frank Miller's art, but I just felt like it could have been shot better than it was. Instead it just felt like an overblown video game. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, but Guillermo del Toro did a much better job of the movie-looking-like-a-video-game in "Blade II" than this movie in Zach Snyder's hands.) Gerard Butler was very good, if you can call that acting. Frank Miller roles don't require acting as much as being. Loved it. And I don't give a fuck about all the so-called analysis of the story or movie, from queer to racial to political to whatever. It's a big, loud action comic book, plain and simple, that's what I went there for, and that's what I got. And yes, it's a ton of super-buff dudes running around in nothing and fighting all the time, so if you like that, you'll like this movie. I'm glad Michelle and Rosemary could share the common ground of ogling while perusing yarn at Webs.
"Grindhouse": It's worth it just to say you went and withstood a 3-hour intentional crapfest, especially if you don't leave to pee. Robert Rodriguez's movie "Planet Terror" was a real kick to the head with lots of action and camp and gore. And Rose McGowan with a gun for a leg. And zombies. In short, it was excellent. Tarantino's "Death Proof," however, was bogged down in way too much go-nowhere dialogue to set up what was a fantastic final act. But Kurt Russell was brilliant. The trailers are what makes the experience totally worth it, especially Eli Roth's particularly sick one. I'll never look at a turkey the same way again.
So all in all, a very fun weekend. Not only did I get to see Rosemary, not only did I see movies and eat at new restaurants and all that, but I also got to hang out with friends and introduce them to Rosemary. And it was nice to wake up and not be the only person there again. I miss that most of all.