Jamie and I just finished watching a documentary called Home Movie.  For those of you who enjoy docs like Trekkies and Okie Noodling, you'll definitely want to check this one out.

As I type this, I'm listening to the Garden State soundtrack, which Coop was kind of enough to send me, as it was sold out already in these parts.  I forgot to mention a couple of celebrity sightings from the ArcLight the other night when we saw Garden State.  When we arrived, there was some special screening for Shaun of the Dead, and there were several zombies walking around outside.  Inside was a tall, balding, blond comedian whose name I don't know.  I'll have to do some research.  After the movie, as we peered out across the lobby from upstairs, I spotted David Carradine.  I couldn't think of his name fast enough, and so I pointed him out as “Bill” from Kill Bill, fortunately out of his earshot.  Then, as we hung around talking in the parking garage, the diminutive Giovanni Ribisi walked by.  Actually, by the time I finished typing this, I'm now listening to The Postal Service.

I saw Monster's Ball a while back, and I can't say that it struck me as an Oscar-worthy performance.  Now, every time I see a Catwoman trailer, or pretty much anything involving Halle Berry, I can't believe that she's an Oscar winner.  I think it would haunt me if I ever won an Oscar, by some bizarre chance (very bizarre since I'm not an actor).  I'd be up there accepting my trophy, all the while thinking that it put me in the same class as Halle Berry.  Something I wouldn't be proud of.  So, to untaint the Oscar, I say we recall Berry's award.

We finally got to go see Garden State last night.  It's an artsy-indie film, written, directed and acted by Zach Braff from Scrubs.  I don't think it's been released beyond NY and LA yet, but will this weekend.  Now, I'm reviewing it, so if you haven't seen it, and don't like to be tainted, skip the rest of this. 

Here's some text to distract you from the real content, in case your eyes skip ahead and you really don't want to be tainted.

I thought it was really good--well-acted, beautifully composed, and emotionally provocative.  It is not a comedy, but there are definitely some funny parts.  The reason it isn't a comedy is probably because there are at least as many sad parts.  I was somewhat surprised that Jamie loved it.  There are a lot of ways that you could say it's depressing, but it's not without hope.  I think all of these things--funny, sad, depressing, hopeful--help to make it seem more real.  For me, it was a reminder of how people misconstrue what a successful life is all about.  It made me sad, because of the people I know that never made it out of that world.  I'll probably see it again.  The soundtrack is excellent.  It came out yesterday, I think, and it's already sold out.

(Fixed spelling of provocative from procative.  Left this note so that Mark's comment would make sense.)

This one's dedicated to Don Kersting!

We always have time to blog whenever nothing is going on.  Then, when we have exciting news, we don't have the time.  Ben & Jamie Dudley were supposed to be coming out to visit the 4th-11th.  Jamie was supposed to be working non-stop through the 3rd.  I got a call a couple of weeks ago from Ben who broke the news that they had just bought a house and were going to close on it and move into it instead of coming out to Cali.  What a jerk.  Since Jamie was super-busy, I decided to keep it on the down-low, and plan a little anniversary extravaganza surprise.  We had already gotten the hook up from Toni for tix to the Crowder/Mercy Me/Smitty concert in San Diego.  Jamie already knew that we were going to meet her parents, Marianne, and Jeff at the Prado for our annual dinner there before the show.  She also knew that we would be heading back up to LA on the 4th to get ready for Ben & Jamie's arrival that night.  Instead, we went to dinner and the show, which was a lot of fun.  The adults stayed out front for most of the show, but us kiddos hung back in the bus and Tiki Lounge with the band.  It was a good time of roasting forbidden marshmallows and sausage on a stick while catching up on the stories of Waco and the road.

After the show, instead of heading back to Fallbrook, we went to the W in downtown San Diego.  It was a very relaxing hotel with all the amenities.  Jamie awoke the next morning to huevos rancheros in the room.  We walked down to the GasLamp district and checked out Urban Outfitters and the Z Gallerie.  I was tempted to get a t-shirt at Urban that said, “Everybody loves a Jewish boy”, mostly because I thought it might help me to get ahead in Hollywood.  I resisted.  We grabbed some lunch at Hennessey's, a pub frequented by Jeff, where I got a chili dog and a Guinness.  Mmmm.  We got back to the hotel in time for Jamie's appointment at the spa, which she'll have to blog about.  I headed up to the “Beach”, which is a sandy area on the roof of the hotel where I spent my time reading “The Bourne Identity”.  It's nothing like the movies.  (The same can be said of “Bourne Supremacy”).  That night, we ate at the hotel restaurant Rice, which was nice, though my meal of prosciutto wrapped salmon left something to be desired.  We headed back up to our room, where we had cookies and milk delivered to our room, while we watched The Last Samurai.  We checked out the next morning and headed up to Jamie's folks' house where we have been lounging about until today.  I may fill in some of those days activities, but not now.  Back off.

And with a mighty flourish, Clinton enters the room.

Just finished updating to a new version of dasblog.  I'm not sure if you'll notice any differences on your end.  I am thinking of giving the ol' blog another visual facelift.  Any suggestions?

UPDATE: What's different in the new version.

I came across Zach Braff's Garden State blog tonight.  Pretty cool, methinks.  And boom...it's in the blogroll.  We bought our tickets for The Village today.  Will report.

Back in NYC, I had heard about www.homestarrunner.com through the grapevine.  I checked it out and enjoyed it muchly, especially the Strongbad emails.  Then, I promptly forgot about it.  When my niece and nephew were here, they rekindled an interest, and I've been watching a lot of the email bits that I had missed.  I came across this one that made me laugh non-stop.

Tonight at Taco Tuesday Wednesday, Doug sported this fine shirt.  It blew my mind.  He didn't make it; he bought it.  If it had said 'Taco Tuesday Wednesday' I would have thought that I had passed through the nexus of the universe.  That would have been even crazier than doing the robot in the midst of ancient ruins.

I just watched Bill O'Reilly and Michael Moore debate a few issues.  I found it interesting that Moore only agreed to do the show if O'Reilly agreed not to edit the interview.  Why do you suppose Moore didn't extend the same courtesy to President Bush in his not-a-documentary?  Moore clearly understands how grossly you can take a person's words out of context if you want to make them look bad by doing some clever editing.  In the end, Moore's disdain for Bush, no matter what the rational evidence, came through crystal clear without any editing tricks being pulled on him.  Surprisingly, Ben Affleck had a very reasonable discussion with O'Reilly at the beginning of the show.