BunkBlog

The movies for today were Dark City and Solaris (new version). Dark City was dark. Go figure. It reminded me of Metropolis and Blade Runner, in the stygian depths of the city as well as the anachronistic set design. Why do so many movies set in the future make everyone and everything look like it belongs in 1947? At least Dark City explained why. Good movie, if you are into mind-bending science fiction mystery movies. Great movie, if you are into great set design and cinematography.

Solaris, on the other hand, tries to be mind-bending but ends up telegraphing every move a mile ahead. I’ve not read the Lem book on which it’s based, but I’m betting it’s not as simple as the movie. Clooney’s wife is dead, he goes to a magical planet and his wife appears with no memory except of him. Anyone else see that she is a physical figment of his imagination? Maybe the planet made her. Ya think? The cinematography is fantastic in Solaris, as well, but the story is just a little flat.

Neither of these movies, despite being science fiction, had much in the way of special effects. The planet in Solaris was supposed to be impressive, but it just looked like a plasma lamp to me. The morphing city in Dark City was very cool, though.

Although the job was slated to be “two and a half” days and it has now been three full days, they’ll be back in the morning for a few more things. Polishing the bathroom floor, gluing the rubber strip down on the doorsill, and driving me insane.

One of the guys did put the toilet back on for me, for 30 bucks. What a great scam. And, I have to hit the hardware store for some silicone to put the new kitchen sink in. The old kitchen sink remains on my porch, so I guess my request that they dispose of it was a waste of breath. Into the trash can it goes. I think it’ll fit.

In good news, it looks nice. The tile is not nearly as dark as I had feared, and now I’m trying to figure out when we should get the backsplash done in the kitchen. At least that won’t require gutting two rooms of the house for a week. Time to pull the fridge stuff out of the coolers and pretend I’m a grownup again. Joy.

Something you don’t want to hear just after someone removes your toilet from the bathroom: Who’s going to put that back on for you, Mr. B____?

Well, hell, here I figured the guys that took it off would be the obvious choice. One more thing that the chuckleheads at Lowe’s need to perhaps discuss with people before the job starts?

I’m sure everyone is just anxious with concern over the tiledudes progress today. I’m happy to say that it went well. They repaired the floor after the plumber left it full of holes, got the tile done for the countertop and the kitchen floor, and are ready to hit the bathroom floor tomorrow. Still no grout to finish the tile with, which makes me a bit nervous. And, I hope they don’t find a pipe hiding under the floor in the bathroom. There’s no access under the house. We wouldn’t even know if they hit something unless it was a huge gusher, until weeks from now. I don’t relish the idea of ripping up a brand-new floor to fix 50 year-old plumbing.

This afternoon’s film was The Dreamers, a film by Bernardo Bertolucci that didn’t have subtitles. It’s Bertolucci’s homage to the New Wave of French cinema, and boy does it show. It’s got sex, smoking, incest, smoking, Chairman Mao, firebombs, movies, riots, smoking, drinking, and sex. Holy crap was there a lot of smoking. Set in 1968, this is hardly surprising I guess; still, lots of smoking.

It was a film filled with a great deal of fantastic imagery, wonderful music, and the kind of dialog you wish you participated in during real life. Wonderfully hallucinogenic movie, but it seemed to have an unfinished ending.

Oh, and for the women – there’s male full-frontal nudity. Explains the NC17 rating.

I know, I could be doing my homework. Sue me.

It’s been raining all afternoon. I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t wash the cars this past weekend like I had briefly considered. Hope it’s enough to make the pecan tree produce good. We’ll see what we see.

If I ever get another cat, it won’t be black. Holly disappears into the shadow when she wants to, and then reappears when I step or sit on her. Dopey thing just stares at me when a boot starts to crush her little empty head, too. No self-preservation instinct apparently.

Since I’ve got nothing better to do than hang around and watch DVDs while the tile dudes are putting together the kitchen, that’s what I’m doing. This morning was Mystic River. There’s a messed up movie. (spoilers after the cut)
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Is it really bad that every time I see a police car trying to hide and catch people (most recently the 25 mph speed trap at the local college), I immediately think of the lyrics to the 1987 Dragnet movie?

bq. Hey there copper, Mr. Crime Stopper, what is wrong with what we’re doing? We just like to dance in our goatskin pants around this ancient ruin.

In the process of laying the subfloor, just about to start putting the tile down, the tile guys punctured a pipe where no pipe should have been. You know where this is going, don’t you? Pieces of cement backboard have been ripped up, a plumber called, and another multi-hundred dollar charge is added to my floor. Oh, and since the water has to be turned off to get it fixed, no bathroom or kitchen a day earlier than expected.

I sure hope this shit gets done by Wednesday, or I’ll have a really long day at work on Friday. FMITGA.

Edit: The plumber only cost 75 bucks, plus I had to buy a drywall repair kit for another five dollars to fix the wall he had to cut in order to get to the breach. It’s never easy.

The tile guys are done removing the kitchen sink, there is like NO food left in the fridge and the microwave and oven are out of the question until the place is reassembled. It’s not my fault that I’m eating at San Angelo Burger Company – I have no choice. 😆

Now, I’m not a handyman, but I assume when someone sets up a date for an installation it’s because all the materials are on hand and they are ready to work. Turns out, the grout is not in. And the nice fellas ask me about this, as if I knew. Nope. I didn’t know there was anything amiss, but thanks for making me worry. They tell me the grout I ordered was not in stock and it should be in by Wednesday. Listen, fellas, I didn’t order grout. I picked out tile. All the other stuff (backing boards and adhesives and grouts) are left up to the people who know this stuff. I’m just paying for it, don’t expect me to know anything at all about bisquit colored grout versus white grout. How the hell do I know this shit? I want tile.

Damn, I hope the grout shows up by Wednesday. That would be the day that I can expect them to have everything done, I’m told. We’ll see.

I really wish I had a camera. The fridge, stove and new sink are in the den; the microwave is on the kitchen table; and the old sink is on the front porch. Tomorrow, I’m told to expect no toilet all day. Fun.

The tile guys have arrived, right on time (even a few minutes early). This is a week that I wish we had two digital cameras, since it’s in the Netherlands right now. I hope this process is quick, but I’ve been told it will be two days or maybe three. Not that I want to go to work this week, but there are things I need to do there. Fortunately, I don’t have to do them until Thursday. Lucky that.

Ya gotta love Kurt Vonnegut quotes.

bq. Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.
Kurt Vonnegut, “Cold Turkey”, In These Times, May 10, 2004

Cats are insane. If a dog is hungry, he’ll slap his food bowl around, making a horrendous noise and letting you know what he wants. If a dog wants to go to the bathroom, he’ll paw at the door and whine.

Now, contrast that with cat behavior. If a cat wants to eat, she’ll do nothing or mewl at some random location, generally nowhere near her food bowl. What the heck?

I’ve got two cats temporarily, instead of the usual one. With one cat, we went through one can of “good” cat food daily, plus a half-bowl of dry food. With two cats, we go through about three cans of the wet food every day. And they still get in my face. My mother-in-law claims her cat doesn’t eat much. That is definitely untrue. Little beggar takes over Holly’s food bowl now.

So, after making sure they have food, water, and a clean place to poop, they still want to mewl at me and imply that I’ve forgotten some important part of their logistal support. Cats are crazy.

Came up with another new design for the shops – Some mornings it’s just not worth chewing through the leather straps. I think it’s funny.

This version of Snake is just way too addictive. Bad, crack-like game.

OK, got a few more clips, a little better-looking since I spent some time playing with gamma corrections on them.

Why is it that I have suddenly begun seeing Ready.gov commercials on television every ten damned minutes? They have been on often enough that I noticed them in the past year, but not so often that I was annoyed by them. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the Democratic Convention or anything. Nope. This administration has never used its executive offices for campaign propaganda purposes before.

Went to go see The Bourne Supremacy today, after mowing the lawn and doing laundry (I’m not a complete “bear with furniture”). I should know better than to see a movie on opening weekend at 4 pm. *Packed* theater, just packed.

Could they have used a steadicam once in a while in that movie? Geez, I thought cinema verite had died out years ago. With that aside, though, it was a really good movie. Not as good as the first one, but pretty darned good. I think it taps into the rugged individualist streak in the western psyche – we think one man with the right training can do anything, beat anyone. It sure makes for good film, anyway.

I just love that line from the movie.

Just a couple quick and dirty animations. I’ll try to get something better later…