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What James Knows

Ramblings of a 20-Something

James Knows…DVDs: Flash Gordon (1980)Yesterday

Holy crap. I loved the shit out of this movie. From the insane power ballad soundtrack (provided by mother fucking QUEEN!!!) to the elaborate costumes and set designs to the cheesy special effects, Flash Gordon had me from start to finish. This was my first viewing of this sci-fi cult classic and my one regret is that I didn’t see it sooner. This is the type of film that I would have eaten up as a kid right up there with Ghostbusters.

You’ve got star football player Flash Gordon (Sam J. Jones) and star…travel agent Dale (a girl) (Melody Anderson) who get caught up in Dr. Hans Zarkov’s plans to confront an alien menace that no one knows about but him. This alien turns out to be the Emperor Ming (Max von Sydow) who causes Armageddon level destruction on planets just for fun. Upon learning of this, Flash leads a revolution against the Emperor to free the people of the planet Mongo and save Dale and planet Earth. Plus, he does it

James Knows…DVDs: Martian Child (2007)Yesterday

On the surface, Martian Child is a total sappy family flick. In a way, that’s all it is, but somehow it has a little bit more to it. That extra bit speaks directly to anyone that’s ever felt left out or alone in life even if only for a little while.

Martian Child is the story of writer David Gordon (John Cusack), a self-proclaimed outcast who is looking for some sort of meaning in his life after the death of his wife. This meaning comes in the form of Dennis (Bobby Coleman), a boy in need of a home and some sanity. See, Dennis thinks he’s from Mars. As a result, he stays in a large cardboard box to stay out of the harsh sunlight that would burn his skin. He also wears a belt that consists of several batteries taped together to hold him down in Earth’s weaker gravity. David sees a bit of himself in Dennis. The two help each other in the film and obviously end up together after a big swell of music and a hug.

That’s the sappy part I was telling you about. It’s not all like that though. David and Dennis are basically outsiders. They don’t really have anyone else that they can relate to, but they find each other. I found that I became so wrapped up in the lives of these two characters that I just really wanted them to be together and to become a family. Havin

Goodbye Long Weekend. We Had Fun. See You Next Time. (11/30/2008)Yesterday

I wake up around 8 and I’m back in the apartment. With the weekend mostly over, I’m not really sure what else to do today. I get up and update the blog and what not. I also enjoy some waffles with some white chocolate peanut butter for breakfast. Tasty.

Monica continues analyzing the budget and wants to take care of that. I busy myself with watching The Purple Rose of Cairo in the living room. I liked most of the movie, but the ending sort of left me hanging. It wasn’t what I expected and I kind of understand what Woody Allen was trying to do with it, but it doesn’t help matters that it’s a pain in the ass.

After the movie, Monica and I head over to Pizza Hut for lunch. This particular location seems to only ever have three people working there and it’s always the same three people. There’s the black guy, the short woman with the hairy mole on her face and the person who’s gender we cannot figure out. Seriously, we’ve been to this Pizza Hut quite a few times and we’ve only ever seen these three people and we still can’t figure out if that one person is a guy or a girl. We get our food and ch

Post-Black Friday Relaxation Time (11/29/2008)November 30

I’m up around 8 or 9. I’m still in my parents’ house. Once I manage to drag myself downstairs, I find some cinnamon buns waiting for me. My Mom is the best. I eat and check email and whatnot. After a quick shower, I play some Super Mario 64 to kill time before my haircut appointment.

I head down to Desired Angles and see Paula. As I’ve mentioned in previous blog entries, she’s been cutting my hair for over 10 years. We chat for a bit and my hair no longer looks like that of a game show host.

When I get back to the house, my Mom is preparing everyone for our Christmas photo. I’m asked to shave so I don’t look skeevy in the picture. There’s a reason that I only shave twice a week. If I try to do it more often, I end up cutting my face up like crazy. I manage to stop the bleeding eventually, but I occasionally looked like the Heath Ledger’s Joker with the blood and water streaming down my face. Why so serious indeed. Once my brother wrangles the cat into the picture, we manage to get a few shots in without it clawing anyone’s eyes out.

Monica and I head back to the apartment. We unpack and go through our stuff. I’ve got a bunch of DVDs to open up and sort through so I go through that while we finish up the second season of X-Files

In Brightest Day, In Blackest Friday (11/28/2008)November 29

The alarm clock in my phone plays it’s strange jingle at 4:30 AM and I’m awake and in my parents’ house. I feel like I just got to sleep though. The grogginess and stiffness slowly give way to excitement as the adrenaline kicks in. It’s Black Friday and it’s still dark outside. Time to buy some DVDs. Oh, and some gifts and stuff too.

Monica and I head out around 4:45. We make the following video on the way.

We arrive in Middletown just after 5. Most of the stores have just opened including our first stop, Circuit City. There’s a line out the door and along the sidewalk. It seems that they’re only letting a handful of people in at a time. While we’re cold outside, this is a good move. We were stuck in the store for about 2 hours a couple years ago due to poor line management. It was near impossible to move and I wanted to punch something by the time we got out.

Fortunately, the line was moving and the people nearby were friendly. There’s a strange comradery this early in the morning on Black Friday. It’s like everyone just understands that we’re all in this together so there’s a bit of cheer throughout the entire group. Monica and I kept ourselves entertained while the line moved. Kushal actually gave me a call while we were waiting. It seems that he was on his way to do some shopping in Boston and wanted to check in with us. Kushal accompanied Monica and I during our first Black Friday trip four years ago. I also spotted this display for Christmas decorations outside of the Price Chopper while waiting in line.

Teehee. Kissing Balls.

We finally get into the store after waiting for almost 45 minutes. We had originally planned to have Monica stand on line while I run around the store and grab the stuff we wanted. We didn’t have to do this because the lines were rather small. I snatched up a few DVDs, most notably the first season of Mad Men. The trip out today is successful on that alone as that was the one DVD that I absolutely had to have today. I also picked up a few seasons of Friends, completing the series for me, and a handful of movies. I paid and then we were off.

Our next stop was across the street at Kohl’s. We were looking for one thing and found it. Unfortunately the line was wrapped completely around the store which had been opened for 2 hours now. Screw that. We’ll find it elsewhere. We run out of Kohl’s and hit up Staples real quick. We find something there and then head around the corner to Wal-Mart which has always been a good stop for me in Black Fridays past. They had some $2 DVDs, but most of them were the $3 DVDs that I picked up last year. I found a few that I’d buy, but nothing I had to have and certainly nothing that I wanted to wait in line for. Feeling slightly discouraged, we left Wal-Mart without anyone being trampled.

The next stop was Best Buy. I grabbed a few more movies and some more TV season sets including the last season of Seinfeld, the second season of Prison Break and the third season of House. Not a bad haul. We make it out of the store pretty quickly and then head into the mall.

I grab seasons 5 and 6 of Monk at Target. They had some cheap movies that I was interested in, but they only had the full screen editions. No thanks. Monica and I pick up a couple other things and then make a quick swing through the mall. A stop in Borders turns up some pretty good finds including She’s Having a Baby, Mommie Dearest and the first season of Dexter.

We completed our trip with Borders and then head out. By this point I was starving since I had nothing to eat all day but some water and a piece of gum. It was 9 AM and here’s a recap video.

Monica and I head over to the Monroe Diner for our traditional post-Black Friday shopping breakfast. My alertness was dying down by the time I finished my cheese omelette. As a result, I was ready to pass out by the time we got back to my parents’ house. We nap for a few hours.

We get up around 1 or 2. I play some Super Mario 64 to kill time. Some leftovers are had for a late lunch. Monica and I watch a couple episodes of X-Files and then head over to Joey’s Cafe in Washingtonville to see the Neon Glow Worms play.

The band went on at around 9 or so. I had found a crappy YouTube video of a song by them but that did not do the band justice. Holy crap. These guys are awesome. They played a few songs and the small cafe was pumping. People got really into it. I brought my camera and managed to record one of the songs. Unfortunately due to poor lighting, you can’t really tell what’s going on. The audio’s pretty good though.

The first set was followed by a pretty crappy comedian. I use the term loosely because the guy was anything but funny. After his 20 minutes of audio torture which included playing with the band’s keyboard and attempting to sing a song about cat AIDS, the Neon Glow Worms returned for some more tunes. The second set was even better than the first with some songs that shook the entire building. I again recorded a song, but the same thing happened with the lighting.