The 30th
Sundays are usually pretty boring but today (and this weekend actually) I hardly spent any time in the house wondering why I even bothered getting out of bed. Luke and Kyle joined me and Nathan down at the art café where I had this awesome smoked ham sandwich. We went to Spinnakers after that and hung out for a bit and then out on the break where this historic re-enactment from the day before was still sort of going on. They had a bunch of tents set up, actors in period dress and some old boats. We mostly just sat around in the sun behind them throwing rocks in the water or at the gravel barge. I'm sure all of the tourists sitting outside at The Deckhouse were envious of us and wished they could be as cool as we were.
After that we hung out in the yacht club's lounge, enjoying the air conditioning and cheap, frosted mugs of beer…or a free Pepsi. Before I went in, a little kid asked if I was a pirate. I told him that I was indeed a pirate.
After supper, Nathan, Sharon, Laine, Luke and me all went out to Nathan's cottage at Union Corner. It was a perfect night to be out there and the bugs weren't bad at all. While the four of them were all out swimming, I waded up to my knees in the warm, murky water and fired rocks out into the water with my sling shot because I'm an eleven-year-old or something.
I drove to Day's Corner with Luke to get a big Michael's pizza then we all roasted marshmallows by the fire and I lit a few fireworks by the cliff. It was pretty sweet to get out of this house and spend the evening out there. The cottage and the beach should be taken advantage of as much as possible before the summer's over.
I just need to stock up on some more fireworks and I'll be content.
The 29th
Today started at 10am for me. I woke up and went to some yard sales with Kyle and Nathan but didn't find anything worth buying. We did go to one where Grampa Jones was selling an overpriced guitar and an autoharp. In case you don't know, Grampa Jones is the character this old guy plays on the annual Kinsmen Xmas Appeal in which he dawns a straw hat, a fake mustache, and poorly lip- and banjo-syncs to some old timey mountain song called Good Ol' Mountain Dew.
We headed to The Cup as usual and then I went to McCallum's Point with Sharon and Laine to spend the afternoon at the shore. It was a super nice day and I even waded up to my knees in the warm water. We walked along the shore and sandbars and hung out on the wave break leading out to the lighthouse. People were there with theirs dogs and I saw a kid bawling after he got hit in the face with a baseball.
After that, the three of us and Nathan all gathered at Laine's to have a BBQ and sit around the fire. I ate burgers and S'mores. I ate too many roasted marshmallows. Laine's friend Greg showed up for a while and Neil hung out for a bit too. I saw some shooting stars, we went through the graveyard, played at the French school's playground, and then I ate some more roasted marshmallows.
Between being over-exposed to sunshine and sitting in front of a smokey fire for way too long, I'm about ready to pass out. I think I'll go do that now.
The 28th
I need to find a way to increase my reading speed and retention level but I feel like most of the self-help magic out there is a bunch of hokum. Maybe not. After doing a bit of reading on the subject online I think I found a few tips to help me maybe read faster so I'm going to give it a shot and see what happens. Perhaps I'll be able to only be six months behind in my magazine subscriptions instead of two years.
I'm listening to the song Seeing Stars by Winter Equinox. It's so good. I wish they hadn't broken up. Oh, and The Queue…I'd like to see them play that live again.
The 27th
I drove up to Charlottetown and spent the afternoon over at Kira and Ryan's before we hit Value Village, Churchill Arms and then City Cinema to see The Proposition. I'm always sort of on the fence with westerns. I like them but not just in general like I do with sci-fi for instance. I can watch a lame or ridiculous sci-fi flick no problem but if a western isn't that great I usually can't sit through it. That wasn't the case with this movie.
It had a great cast and story, and Nick Cave did a fantastic job with the script and the soundtrack. I couldn't get over how cool the music was, a nice blend of traditional and weird modern that fit really well together.
There were so many great shots of Australian landscapes too and the overall look was so dry, filthy, dusty and full of flies that it truly gave you the feeling that this was the Wild...err South captured on film. It makes me want to go rent all of the great westerns I haven't seen or watched in a long time.
The 26th
The last couple of days for dinner I made this recipe I found on a card at Sobeys. I don't remember what it's called but it's basically portobello mushrooms breaded in crumbs and parmesan, pan fried and topped with pasta sauce. It's kind of like chicken parmesan and unbelievably good in the same sort of way. But what isn't good when it's breaded and fried?
I noticed my Mini-Wheats seem to be extra frosted which is awesome.
I'm seriously considering either buying a toaster oven or using my Choice Rewards to order one. The idea of using the entire oven to warm something up for ten minutes seems kind of like a ridiculous waste of propane. I also miss the option of choosing between toaster or toaster oven.
The concept of weighing the options, pros and cons of toaster vs. toaster oven suddenly made me feel a bit guilty. Having to make such a trivial decision on how to toast my bagel seems pretty decadent in the grand scheme of things.
The 23rd
M. Night Shyamalan is one of my favourite modern directors and I've really enjoyed all of his films whether or not they were box office hits or flops. I've really been looking forward to Lady In The Water but after seeing it I was sort of let down even though I did enjoy it. It's my least favourite of his films but it was still good.
The whole concept of it being a bedtime story of sorts gives it this corniness but I understand what he was trying to do. It was like an exercise of suspending your disbelief more than usual and just enjoying the movie in that it remains an adult fairy tale in way.
What made it more than just some corny story was his directing, the performances and the way he approached the material. Paul Giamatti was great as always and he really did make the movie. There was a very nice mix of comedy and drama and some really thoughtful cinematography.
I just hope his next film is of the same calibre as his earlier films. I don't mean it needs to have a surprise ending or even need to be scary, just something that sits a lot better and grabs your attention.
The 20th
I have nothing interesting to write about. I went to trivia today and that's all I did other than working for a bit and eating much. I went for a bit of a bike ride after I got home and it was pretty dead everywhere I went. I sat on the rocks down by the Silver Fox. I thought about how creepy it would have been if a shark swam by and started thrashing around or if a squid was creeping around at the edge of the rocks. Then I biked home and ate leftover macaroni and cheese.
The 19th
It's the middle of July and tonight was the first time I had been to the beach for a fire this year. I usually take photos of the first beach fire night of the season but I forgot to bring a camera though.
Kira, Ryan, Krystal, Sarah, Kyle and Luke and I went out to Thunder Cove and it was a perfect night for a fire. I made a fire that stayed lit, roasted many marshmallows, lit some sparklers, fired off a cap gun, and burnt my fingers. Some of the others went swimming and, as we were leaving, we all saw what initially seemed like a fiery sailboat which turned out to be the rising moon.
Hopefully people will be up for going again this weekend and this time I'll try to bring a ton of firewood and maybe something to cook on the fire. Not my fingers this time though.
The 16th
Muggy. It's too bloody muggy. I went to a family picnic at Green Park today and it was less muggy by the shore but it was still too humid for my liking. I didn't actually eat until I was sore today which may be a first for one of those picnics. I did eat lots of dessert though but that was the whole reason for going.
I passed out for two hours after I got home. When I eventually woke up it felt like I was getting up at 7am. I hate it when I oversleep in the evening and feel screwed up all night because of it. I'm probably not going to sleep until 7am now so maybe I should just try staying up until tomorrow night. I'm sure that will fix all of my sleeping schedule issues from now on.
We watched the last two episodes of The Prisoner tonight. This is probably the second time I've seen them and they still make very little sense. Entertaining but messed up.
Be seeing you.
The 15th
I drove up to Charlottetown tonight with Nathan and just barely made it in time to see The Notorious Bettie Page at City Cinema. I don't know much about her other than what I've read in the past on a few sites or heard in interviews about the movie but I definitely had no idea she had so many bad things happen to her or that she was so religious. I just found it so strange that someone like her could still seem like such a sweet and care-free person after everything she went through.
The movie only really touched on a few things in her past to give you some idea of how she got to where she was and then focused on her modelling career and the affect she had on American culture. It didn't go much into her life after all of the uproar in the courts over the material she was involved in though.
It's crazy what caused a scandal fifty years ago. After watching the footage they shot or the photo sessions, everything just seemed fairly silly and innocent from her end. It wasn't so innocent, I suppose, on the other end but all she wanted to do was make a living making images that people enjoyed.
I couldn't get over how perfectly cast Gretchen Mol was for the role. She doesn't look like Bettie but once she got into the wig and character she really pulled it off. They were really able to capture the spirit of what Bettie had done based on the photos and video I've seen before.
Afterwards, we joined some people down at The Churchill Arms to see Saddle River play. Tammy was there with Heidi, Jill was there with Jill and then James' Jill showed up. Many Jills there were. The band sounded great and it was good to hang out with some people in a spot like that instead of moping around the house on a Saturday night.
The 14th
Some randomness:
Last night I sat on a bench along the boardwalk and watched half a dozen blue herons gathered along the shore. They were sort of freaked out by me and, in a way, I was sort of freaked out by them. They have a huge wingspan and these little stick-like bodies. They would sail in silently and land in the water. They walk in such an alien way. One was spear fishing with his beak.
Be careful when placing The Original Celebrated Curiously Strong Cinnamon Altoids in your mouth; breathing in the cinnamon dust is a bad idea.
I just listened to part of an interview on Brave New Waves and this guy who samples new hip hop music to make his own music was talking about the last two hip hip stations in his city being swept under the Clear Channel umbrella. He was recording eight hours of hip hop radio to sample from and now their playlist consists of a set of seven or eight songs that repeat each hour interspersed with twenty minutes of advertising. There are so many things wrong with that that I don't know where to begin complaining. Commercial radio is for chumps.
I made chocolate chip banana bread tonight.
I saw a huge raccoon crossing the street this evening.
Michael's Pizza is always best if you eat in and order the 8" combo special.
The 13th
I did something tonight I thought I never would; I attended a wrestling event. I can't stand wrestling but I figured I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see some really crappy wrestling. We saw the posters around town and the wrestlers looked so lame that there was no way this couldn't be entertaining. And entertaining it was. Probably the best ten bucks I've ever spent…probably.
It was held at the rink (of course) in the Cahill Stadium. I hadn't been there in years and took advantage of the canteen and got some canteen fries. As I sat there eating my fries with Nathan, Neil and his little brother Wade, I took a look around to see what the whole setup was. Maybe 60 seats, 50 taken, a ring that was half the size of a regular wrestling ring, an old guy tightening the turnbuckles and testing the ropes that looked like he'd been doing this for years and that's all he has ever done. Well, that and drinking.
There was a merch counter and working it was some gal wearing high heels, a super-super short skirt and, to class it up, a tank top with the Mainstream Wrestling logo on it. Next to her was an old guy with a beer gut wearing dirty jeans. It was a nice contrast. Apparently they were selling a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition video for some reason along with Spider-Man stickers.
The reason for the Spider-Man stickers relates precisely to the main reason I wanted to attend the event: to see Spider-Man who purportedly "slings webs". I had to sit through a couple of matches before Spidey made his appearance though. There were maybe seven wrestlers in total fighting in these matches. One guy looked like a very out-of-shape Jaws-era Richard Dreyfuss who called himself "CN Power". I made him aware of this fact too by shouting it at him. He was a "bad" guy in a very crappy and unflattering outfit.
Another villain was "The Lumberjack": some tattooed, bald guy with a big, red beard wearing a black Speedo. He yelled at people a lot. Then there was the wrestler with the most classic name: "The Maritime Menace". He also wore an unbecoming outfit over his doughy physique along with a very ill-fitting wrestling mask. He had the words "You Shut Your Mouth" on his ass because apparently that's his tag line and it belongs on his ass.
The "good" guys are never as interesting. There was some local guy in camo pants who looked like he could kick all of their asses at once, some athletic type whose name I can't remember, a newfie missing some teeth going by the handle of "2 Dam Hyp", and a skinny dude named "X-Ray" Kyle Kruze who also had his catch phrase on his ass which was "Hind Sight". Cleverness did abound. Turns out though (and I'm pretty sure of this) that X-Ray was the guy who stamped my hand at the door and Spider-Man!
This guy's costume consisted of a Spider-Man mask, some glossy pants and shirt that looked like painted garbage bags. He was the spry one with all the cool moves but the one move I was waiting for was the webslinging. I had a couple of ideas of what the webslinging might have consisted of but what actually happened was much lamer than I had guessed. After grabbing something from under the ring, he played possum while he prepared himself for his finishing move. Just as his opponent was about to jump him OUT CAME THE WEBS! Except they weren't anything close to webs at all. In fact, it was a rainbow display consisting of a handful of multi-coloured party streamers that shot forth to stun and dazzle the villain, giving Spidey the upper hand that would secure his victory.
Other gimmicks included 2 Dam Hyp tossing a garbage bin full of Dollorama kitchen utensils into the ring and using those against The Lumberjack, and sometimes the other way around. Lots of tin pans that make lots of noise but do absolutely no harm, some degradation in the form of spanking of the bottom with spatulas, and some forehead stabbing with a BBQ fork that drew "blood". Oh, and let's not forget the canteloupe he rolled across the ring like a bowling ball to strike The Lumberjack in the nads as he sat dazed in the corner.
The whole time I sat there enjoying every minute because I got to cheer and jeer, boo and yell out sometimes clever but mostly annoying and lame comments to insult the wrestlers. I'm going to be so hoarse tomorrow but I don't care. Neil kept feeding lines to Wade for him to shout at the wrestlers and it was priceless.
Sitting next to me for most of the evening was Victor. You might remember Victor from one of my previous posts. He's the fellow with Down Syndrome and a fu manchu mustache I wrote about a few years ago who greeted me in the street one afternoon wearing fake plastic fangs and pretending to be a vampire. He mostly repeated things I had just yelled and gave me high fives but quite often he'd engage the wrestlers in little shouting matches and make fun of them. Other times he'd randomly flip them the bird or, when giving them the finger wasn't enough, he'd emulate some actually famous wrestler's moves that were fairly suggestive in nature.
There was an intermission where they tried to sell merch and signed autographs. For five dollars you were allowed to hop into the ring and pose with Spider-Man for a Polaroid photo. I debated it for a long time thinking that maybe it would be the best five dollars I ever spent after the best ten dollars I ever spent to get in but Trevor McKinnon beat me to it. It was hilarious to see him standing next to the lamest Spider-Man ever in the history of man. Trevor was giving the Devil Sign next to Spidey with his fingers to his palms, shooting webs that don't exist.
The main event consisted of a tag team free-for-all aptly named a "Summerside Street Fight". Even by Summerside standards, it wasn't a street fight. This was a lot of fists hitting air, bad guy cowardice, and a triumphant victory by 2 Dam Hyp and an injured Local Guy who had previously been attacked with his own crutch.
I wish I had photos or video of this whole thing because it was honestly some of the most fun I've had in a long time. Next time they come back I'm definitely going again. Maybe Honky Tonk Man of WWF fame will show up because he's apparently part of this Mainstream Wrestling "federation". He could break out his patented Shake, Rattle and Roll move on The Maritime Menace. Wow. From WWF's Hulk Hogan and Rowdy Roddy Piper to a fat guy from "parts unknown" but more likely Dartmouth.
The 11th
I went to the Cup with Nathan for lunch and a tourist couple came in and sat behind us. The woman had this sun hat on with a gigantic brim that looked extremely foolish to me. But what do I know about fashion anyway?
Um, anyway…within twenty seconds I knew that if I had to spend more than ten minutes with her I'd go completely mental. If I were married to her, she'd have been buried in the woods very early on in the relationship. She's the type of person that can't let more than two seconds of silence pass before she opens her mouth to fill some perceived conversational void. It would be better for everyone if she'd just shut her twittering pie hole because the stuff she yammers on and on with is so frustratingly annoying that I'd rather sit in akward silence with someone than have her talk about the colour of the ceiling.
Perfect example: both of them have menus and she feels the need to read off all of the items and tell her husband that they do, in fact, have hamburgers and salads and sandwiches, and what types and how good they sound. If that were me, listening to her prattling away, I'd be screaming at her, "I KNOW THEY HAVE FUCKING SALADS! I CAN SEE THEM HERE ON THE MENU, THE SAME MENU THAT YOU'RE LOOKING AT, THE MENU THAT I'M HOLDING IN MY HANDS, THE MENU THAT I MYSELF AM READING! AND I DON'T CARE IF YOU THINK THE BURGUNDY PAINT LOOKS NICE WITH THE DÉCOR. SHUP UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!"
But, hey, that's just me.
The 9th
A whole bunch of us met in groups at the cinema (I think I'm going to start using that word from now on) to see Pirates of the Caribbean. It was fun to watch and the concept for the pirates in this one was really cool but I don't ever need to see it again because once you see all of the cool parts you don't really need to see them twice. There was a lot of really thin humour and gags, and basically the film was a whole bunch of snakes and runnin'.
Snakes and runnin' is a term I learned from Charles for certain movies that would all most certainly fall into the action genre. I believe his sister Heather once replied to the question of "Did you like Indiana Jones?" with "No, it was all…snakes and running." I may have the story wrong and will need to get it straight from Charles for the finer details.
The 8th
Luke's home from Calgary for a month or so and he invited a bunch of us to his parents' place to have a BBQ and hang out by the pool. It was a pretty hot day but it was so nice to get out of the house and relax over there. Rex was all shaved down and he looks like a soft, fuzzy puppy even though he's ten years old.
I ate a whole bunch and got really full, as was to be expected. Melissa, Laine and I roasted some marshmallows over the fire that Sue was gracious enough to light. Ryan, Luke and Laine went swimming later on and I basically just sat around chatting with Sue and Nathan while The Beatles and Dylan played all night.
The 6th
I won't say that trivia is the highlight of my week because it's not but it is one of the only things I do to get out of the house and try and have some fun. I'm getting tired of it though because it's just too loud and I found it to be sort of stressful tonight because of the noise and everyone talking so much. I just can't hear a gawdamn thing and it sort of limits the fun when you can't hear the questions and have to keep asking everyone what was said.
Also, The Heritage sucks. I have lots of reasons to support this claim but here's another one for the list: there were five—count 'em—five nails sticking out of the edge of the booth we were sitting in tonight. The head of one of these nails decided to take a small chunk out of my leg when I sat down and then the bleeding began.
It wasn't bleeding terribly bad but it's fucking unbelievable that someone could be allowed to do such a shitty job hammering shit together in that place. Actually…it's not unbelievable at all. How do you miss five nails sticking out over a quarter inch each in a row?
All Denton did when I mentioned it to him and showed him the blood on my leg was go get a hammer, pound them in and ask if I needed a Band-Aid. How about before you ask if I want something to help stop my leg from bleeding you say, "Sorry about that. Sorry I did such a shitty job putting this place together and was too blind and/or uncaring to hammer in some thin, sharp nails that anyone could have sliced their leg open on."
But you know what would make me feel a whole lot better? Go get a fucking air hockey table! And don't let idiots spill beer on it either. I'll fax you the rest of my demands tomorrow.
The 2nd
Nathan, Laine and I went over to Tyler and Melissa's for brunch today. Lots of salty meats and eggs were had along with some crappy potato pancakes I made. We hung out there most of the day and then we went to see Superman Returns.
Amazing poster? Yes.
Great movie? Another yes. I really enjoyed it and wasn't disappointed at all so chances are I'll go see it again soon. It's so fun to see Superman be Superman. Even though I find the character too invicible and his powers to be far too broad, I still enjoy seeing him do all of his Superman stuff. And they did a great job with the flying, special effects, the saving of the world and whatnot. Even the intro credits made me happy.
Routh and Spacey were pretty much channeling Reeve and Hackman which is fine because that's pretty much the way it should be. Bryan Singer knows how to make superhero movies for sure and hopefully he'll do the next Superman movie too.
I ended up hanging out over at Mark's parents' place later on. I watched this Spanish movie called The Sea Inside with him, Rhonda and her friend Jenn. It was about a quadrapelic man who wants the right to have someone end his life. It wasn't a big courtroom drama or anything, it pretty much dealt entirely with him and his family members and the morality of it all. The script was great and the story was really well told but, man, was it depressing.
We took a break at one point to watch the thunder storm out over the harbour. Huge bolts of lightning and an insane amount of rain. It passed pretty quickly though so we finished off the movie and, surprise, it got even more depressing. It's kind of tough to shake the feeling a really heavy, dramatic movie like that leaves you with unless, of course, you have…KITTIES!
Mark has been looking after five kittens in Fredericton for the humane society I think, and he brought them home with him. They were running around like mad in the basement so it didn't take long to shake the movie's heaviness with cuddly ten-week told kittens tumbling around and chasing toys.
One liked to have Mark drag him around on his back across the bed for some reason. It was weird but he loved it. They were all just crazy bundles of fuzzy energy. Another one was this skinny little runt that wobbled around and ran like some gangly, drunken freak. It made no sense but it was fun to watch him run around with no apparent depth perception or coordination of his legs and head.
Mark heads back to Freddytown tomorrow and then he's off to Laysan Island in the middle of the Pacific again for 3 months to do bird research. Meanwhile, I'll stay home and live in my little office sheltered from the sun and other elements and bird crap.
The 1st
Canada Day pretty much sucked. Happy birthday, Canada. I hope your big day was more exciting than mine. It started out to be a super nice day and then turned to total shit weather-wise. Really windy and cool with tons of rain then it was fine. Repeat a few times then stay crappy so that the fireworks are cancelled. Yee-haw.
I went over to my parents' place to hang out with the dogs while everyone was out and watch some Looney Tunes but in the two minutes it took me to walk there a huge downpour started. Despite my best efforts to hide under a tree to wait it out, I still got soaked. Plus I vaguely remember hearing some advice about not standing under a tree when there's thunder and lightning.