No one likes New Hampshire Man.
So on Thursday night I had sort of a livejournal convention. After Marisa and I checked out the apartments of Sara and Becky in Boston, we all four had dinner with Jeff, Chris, Ethan, Andrew, and Kristin. Plus Amanda. What a loser normal human being, actually.
Then we all had ice cream and we some went to a bar and we four walked back to Sara & Becky's neighborhood and we Mar and I slept on Sara's sweet futon (thanks Sara!) and continued on the next day to Bar Harbor.
Because I am dating a professional magazine writer-editor, our room at the inn in Bar Harbor was free, which means we spent a bunch of money on seafood all weekend, starting with Friday night. Then we went to an improv show, but my total improv life experiences have consisted of (1.) a couple of student shows at Wesleyan, (2.) countless free ASSSSSCAT performances at UCB by real-life professionals, and (3.) a handful of graduation-and-subsequent shows by friends who are generally quite funny. So Improv Acadia: pretty good, but I live in a place with way more improv comedy shows than I'd ever need/care to see, as well as a really good one with free weekly shows, and as such I'm a snob and probably wouldn't go back. I sound too negative, though. It was fun.
On Saturday we went to Acadia National Park which is amazing and beautiful and I'll develop those photos soon. We drove up a mountain, climbed on rocks, hiked a little, walked around a pond, went to a beach, and then I climbed on some more rocks near the ocean. That was all in this park. So we spent like six hours there.
Then I sort of made Marisa drive me to the next town over, Ellsworth. Ellsworth is a perfectly crappy-looking town that we drove through on the way to Bar Harbor; it's one of those towns where the outskirts are made up mostly of ugly motels and wannabe attractions trying to trick tourists into thinking they've already arrived in the next town over (in this case Bar Harbor), and the inskirts are made up mostly of shopping plazas. Why, you might ask, would one visit Ellsworth when one is staying in Bar Harbor, for free?
Well, Bar Harbor's main movie theater is an art deco place that sounded way cool and I thought would be playing Red Eye (I checked the listings, of course), which I was totally up for seeing again just to check out a cool art deco theater. But when we got there it turned out to be playing Four Brothers and March of the Penguins and I didn't fancy seeing either of those again. Plus, Transporter 2 came out this weekend. If I were running an art deco theater, I would definitely play Transporter 2. Oh well. So Marisa agreed to take me to Ellsworth to see The Other T2, because having already gone out to dinner and gone to the improv show and seen the movies playing at the art deco place, we had more or less exhausted Bar Harbor nightlife. (Also, this would not be an issue if I lived closer to Rob or Jeff, who both saw the first one at approximately the same time that I did on its opening day in October 2002, despite living in the same disparate metropolitan areas we do now.)
Anyway, as far as I can tell, Transporter 2 is every bit as good as The Transporter and I'm really not sure if I can give a more convincing, detailed, or eloquent review than that. Oh, the ambition of some of the stunts obviously sometimes exceeded the actual budget, but the fight scenes ruled, Jason Statham rules, etc.
Also, speaking of making Marisa take me to the movies, on Wednesday night, before we left, we went to see The Constant Gardener, which is sort of a good movie on some basic levels like acting and photography, but shockingly overrated. The plot is circular and sort of inconsequential, but it's dressed up as a "story" type of movie, so even though everything that happens seems sort of inevitable, it's gussied up in a way that makes it seem like something else will happen. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are both fine, I just felt like I was missing the part of the movie that makes it, as some have called it, a "masterpiece" (!) -- I wish it were! City of God was way better.
On Sunday we went on a boat and saw a bald eagle eating a seagull.
On Monday we (and by "we" I mean "Marisa") drove nine hours and now I am back in Westchester not so much wanting to go back to work tomorrow.
Some statistics and charts.
Number of seafood-related meals consumed by Jesse, Thursday 9/1 - Monday 9/5: 4
Servings of ice cream consumed by Jesse, Thursday 9/1 - Monday 9/5: 5
Amount spent on Legos: $1.05, so now I have a Lego Spielberg to direct my Lego Yoda (which is a keychain, which Sara gave me).
Years during which I have heard the song "Beer" by Reel Big Fish the most times:
1. 1997
2. 1998
3. 2005
Amount grossed by Transporter 2 over Labor Day weekend: Like $20 million. I think my Transporter Trilogy dreams are staying alive.
Then we all had ice cream and we some went to a bar and we four walked back to Sara & Becky's neighborhood and we Mar and I slept on Sara's sweet futon (thanks Sara!) and continued on the next day to Bar Harbor.
Because I am dating a professional magazine writer-editor, our room at the inn in Bar Harbor was free, which means we spent a bunch of money on seafood all weekend, starting with Friday night. Then we went to an improv show, but my total improv life experiences have consisted of (1.) a couple of student shows at Wesleyan, (2.) countless free ASSSSSCAT performances at UCB by real-life professionals, and (3.) a handful of graduation-and-subsequent shows by friends who are generally quite funny. So Improv Acadia: pretty good, but I live in a place with way more improv comedy shows than I'd ever need/care to see, as well as a really good one with free weekly shows, and as such I'm a snob and probably wouldn't go back. I sound too negative, though. It was fun.
On Saturday we went to Acadia National Park which is amazing and beautiful and I'll develop those photos soon. We drove up a mountain, climbed on rocks, hiked a little, walked around a pond, went to a beach, and then I climbed on some more rocks near the ocean. That was all in this park. So we spent like six hours there.
Then I sort of made Marisa drive me to the next town over, Ellsworth. Ellsworth is a perfectly crappy-looking town that we drove through on the way to Bar Harbor; it's one of those towns where the outskirts are made up mostly of ugly motels and wannabe attractions trying to trick tourists into thinking they've already arrived in the next town over (in this case Bar Harbor), and the inskirts are made up mostly of shopping plazas. Why, you might ask, would one visit Ellsworth when one is staying in Bar Harbor, for free?
Well, Bar Harbor's main movie theater is an art deco place that sounded way cool and I thought would be playing Red Eye (I checked the listings, of course), which I was totally up for seeing again just to check out a cool art deco theater. But when we got there it turned out to be playing Four Brothers and March of the Penguins and I didn't fancy seeing either of those again. Plus, Transporter 2 came out this weekend. If I were running an art deco theater, I would definitely play Transporter 2. Oh well. So Marisa agreed to take me to Ellsworth to see The Other T2, because having already gone out to dinner and gone to the improv show and seen the movies playing at the art deco place, we had more or less exhausted Bar Harbor nightlife. (Also, this would not be an issue if I lived closer to Rob or Jeff, who both saw the first one at approximately the same time that I did on its opening day in October 2002, despite living in the same disparate metropolitan areas we do now.)
Anyway, as far as I can tell, Transporter 2 is every bit as good as The Transporter and I'm really not sure if I can give a more convincing, detailed, or eloquent review than that. Oh, the ambition of some of the stunts obviously sometimes exceeded the actual budget, but the fight scenes ruled, Jason Statham rules, etc.
Also, speaking of making Marisa take me to the movies, on Wednesday night, before we left, we went to see The Constant Gardener, which is sort of a good movie on some basic levels like acting and photography, but shockingly overrated. The plot is circular and sort of inconsequential, but it's dressed up as a "story" type of movie, so even though everything that happens seems sort of inevitable, it's gussied up in a way that makes it seem like something else will happen. Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are both fine, I just felt like I was missing the part of the movie that makes it, as some have called it, a "masterpiece" (!) -- I wish it were! City of God was way better.
On Sunday we went on a boat and saw a bald eagle eating a seagull.
On Monday we (and by "we" I mean "Marisa") drove nine hours and now I am back in Westchester not so much wanting to go back to work tomorrow.
Some statistics and charts.
Number of seafood-related meals consumed by Jesse, Thursday 9/1 - Monday 9/5: 4
Servings of ice cream consumed by Jesse, Thursday 9/1 - Monday 9/5: 5
Amount spent on Legos: $1.05, so now I have a Lego Spielberg to direct my Lego Yoda (which is a keychain, which Sara gave me).
Years during which I have heard the song "Beer" by Reel Big Fish the most times:
1. 1997
2. 1998
3. 2005
Amount grossed by Transporter 2 over Labor Day weekend: Like $20 million. I think my Transporter Trilogy dreams are staying alive.