King Kong, Relief, Music, Sports

First off, I must say that I watched King Kong and thought that it was fantastic.

All the actors did a great job, and the animators/sfx crew at WETA did an amazing job with Kong. Much like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, most of the performance comes from the eyes. So warm and brown one minute, the next a frightening fury of dialated black. Adrien Brody: sigh, Thomas Kretschmann: you have gorgeous eyes, sigh; Jaime Bell: getting to be quite the strapping young lad, and his American accent was really good; Jack Black...oh Jack Black, you play such a good asshole, Andy Serkis: amazing character actor. While I'm not always a fan of Naomi Watts (there's just something that irritates me about her...alas, she picks great roles and it's not her acting I dislike), she really did a good job in the movie. Granted she was required to look beautiful 99.9% of the time (and she did -- good job with the lighting and make up, guys...her genes don't hurt either) but I can only imagine what it was like working on a blue/green screen set with no tangible physical presence in front of you. How exactly are you supposed to act with a nonexistant 25 foot gorilla "voiced" by Andy Serkis?

While the movie was long (approx 3 hours), I think that it was worth it. My ass might not have thought so, but my movie-going brain sure did. The action scenes were amazing, especially those on Skull Island with the die-no-saurs. Hopefully I'm not hyping the movie up for anyone. It's always best to go in with low(er) expectations so you're not disappointed in the end...and that's basically what I did. I was really excited to see the movie, but was hoping for good, not great. Kudos, Peter Jackson. You've proven your critics wrong and remade King Kong your way. (Directing, writing, and producing one the greatest trilogies of all time and winning 11 Oscars on one picture alone doesn't hurt either). I'm sure that gorillas and zoos around the world are going to be sending you free zoo-doo to use as fertilizer around your personal Bag End hobbit hole in NZ. That or free lifetime memberships and merchandise.

The only drawback to the movie was the guy sitting next to Candace. Such an asshole. If you're gonna talk about people, speak softly so that only the person next to you can hear. Not the entire theater. I don't need to know your seating preferences (no, not behind anyone with a cap or hat on...no, not behind the fat guy), your gastrointestinal issues (I felt it go down to my stomach and thought shit, this is gonna be a brick), your comments as you people watch (oh, he's going for the whole garage band rocker mullet), nor do I need to hear how good your food was (my vegan cookie was AMAZING, the sandwhich was GREAT) and he apparently smelled when he moved. Thank God I wasn't the one sitting next to him. May I recommend deodorant, lessons in speaking with an indoor voice, and therapy for your friends? God I can be such a bitch...

The catering business is complete and over. I am so relieved everything went well and that my aunt was quite satisfied. Running around town with sleep deprivation all week trying to organize/create this party...or so much as I could create within a week...I was compensated more than sufficiently. Like my mom said, she wanted to give me money but needed me to work for it. Couldn't just give it to me...I had to organize a party for 60-75 of which 50 prolly showed up and ate the least amount of food possible. We ended up having a ton of leftovers, but thankfully people chose to take food home. I still have chocolate chip cookies, fruit, and cheese leftover if anyone wants some. We sang, listened to CDs, chatted, ate, drank, made merry, I stressed and constantly ran around making sure everything was in order, finally collapsing after being in heels for the better part of 10 hours.

It was an interesting and fairly grood experience, and party planning is really pretty fun if you have good communication with your employer, enjoy multi-tasking, and can take the heat. Not to mention lack of sleep. So if someone asked whether I would do it again, I would say yes. But please, for the love of God, give me more notice than 5 days...and tell me specifically what you want from me.

I've been listening to a great deal of Michael Buble lately. Not to mention Mana, Carlos Vives, Ritmo Latino (a podcast I subscribe to), WARM 106.9 and various Christmas compilations. Alas my father has not yet gotten a tree (yeah, I'm a little bitter) but hopefully we get one this weekend. I'm getting back into the holiday spirit, and hopefully will be for awhile. Christmas is my favorite holiday, after all.

Has anyone else been paying attention the NFL? In particular the NFC West? I sure have, and boy, the Seahawks are fucking HOT this year. Everyone's been doing a damn fine job. Hasselbeck's been throwing the ball well to our recievers and Shaun Alexander...rush them yards! Josh Brown, I love you as our kicker. You can make 50 yd plus field goals...fantabulous. Lofa Tatupu, not only is your name fun to say, but you've been doing a great job at LB. Keep your eyes on the prize...err, ball. Unfortunately I haven't been to a game this year, but maybe I can convince my uncle to let me go to a playoff game with him. It's great to see the Hawks (actually, any Seattle team) do so well when it's been so long since we've had good football seasons (discounting last year...stupid Green Bay). On an NFL side note, if the Colts make it 19-0...man, I dunno what I'd do. Drink in celebration?

Haven't been to a Sonics game yet this season, but my hopes are up. Bitter, party of one? Sometimes, mostly sometimes...granted, the Sonics aren't doing the best right now, but I'd like to see Danny Fortson's flagrants/ejections/suspensions/bad mouthing/fouling in person. Up front and center, thank you very much. Interesting that he's supposedly a good Christian boy. For the love of God Howie, poney up some money and get us a decent center! And please, can we at least win ONE game against Golden State? I for one certainly don't understand their hold over the Sonics. Enlighten me if you will.

Looks like the M's got Carl Everett from the White Sox. I'm hoping he'll be able to add a nice catalyst to last year's lackluster team. Quality player? Not exactly. Remember his first homer off Jaime in which he proceeded to spit, grab his crotch, AND get fined? Now Jaime's a teammate. I'd like to be in the locker room when those two meet. I'm also hoping that off-season deals include some good pitching, but also don't involve a certain Jeremy Reed. I would hate to part with him. Bavasi, get her done. We signed Moyer for another year, but I dunno if he's got it in him. He's 43...with a lot of experience and wisdom to pass onto players such as hotshot Felix Hernandez, but dude, you should know when to quit, right? The first ever World Baseball Classic should be interesting to watch. IOC picks ballroom dancing over baseball. Bah. Not to say that ballroom dancing isn't a tough competition in and of itself, but dude. It's baseball!
I love the Huskies and all I can say is Go Dawgs Go! Best start in what, 36 years? 8-0 baby, keep it up! Adam Morrison may be the best player in the country (haha, we beat Gonzaga), but he's no Dawg. ;)