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Monday, February 22, 2010

Flicks: Shutter Island (No Spoilers)



Admittedly, I see a lot of movies. And while I like to critic and over analyze things, I feel I have a talent for taking things at face value. I like funny movies if they are hilarious, zombie movies if they make me jump, and action movies if people get to majorly jackin'. In other words, you'll never hear me hate on Die Hard With A Vengeance because the plot was unrealistic. Got me?

That said, I saw the above trailer for Shutter Island sometime last year (I think before Terminator: Salvation) and was instantly intrigued. That said, I've spent quite some time in eager anticipation for this movie to drop. Problem was, I wasn't sure what to expect... Whatever it was, I was thoroughly satisfied.

Scorsese and DiCaprio (the latter of whom I used to unabashedly hate on) have created another masterpiece here. A real cutting edge thriller where no one - including the viewer - can trust what they see or hear. The messages here center on sense of reality, trust, and the fragility of the human mind. In laymen's terms, this movie's a real mind-fuck (if you're looking for the definition of mind-fuck, see Requiem For A Dream) but also pulls together some brilliant acting, visual imagery, and an impressively appropriate score to create massive suspense at every plot twist.

What I once highly anticipated I now highly recommend. Spend the ten bucks and get freaked out. Shutter Island. One.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Debauchery: Birffday Weekend - Part 2

I know, it's been a week since I posted the first half of this "dualogy" but I really had to do some research to find out what the hell all happened on Saturday... I'll continue with the chapter structure.

Friday Night? No Thank You
So after partying from 8 PM Thursday till 7 AM Friday, I woke up at 11 AM - yes, Friday - got fresh and headed out. What can I say, I go hard... Besides, who cares about significant sleep when there's a Tour of Italy waiting for you at Olive Garden? What a breakfast! Then I hit the multiplex (as my friend from Yamhill calls any theatre with more than one screen) and peeped Book of Eli. Now I'm not a very religious man, but this here is a movie worth seeing. The messages are so deep... and the twist at the end? Ridiculous. I'd blog on it but I hate writing spoilers.By that night my phone was going nuts, but I wasn't going anywhere. Me and the fam stayed in and played Mario Brothers Wii all night, and when everyone else bowed out, I played Modern Warfare till 5 AM. Now that's how you spend a birthday.

"It's mutha fuckin Tony Touch!"
My Saturday officially started around noon. Exactly why I refuse to indulge in sleep I have no idea. Maybe it's because my stomach starts grumbling and I know that there's always mad food in my fridge? Anyway, I spent the day eating, texting, blogging about Modern Warfare 2 (see earlier post), ironing clothes and randomly yelling out "IT'S MUTHA FUCKIN TONY TOUCH!!!" as his songs streamed through my speakers. You see, I've been a fan of Tony Touch since I was knee high to a grasshopper, and he was Djing at the Crown Room that night, so there was no way I was going to miss it.

Hennessy Privilege with a Rum and Coke Chaser
Around 7, the homie Term (twitter.com/terminill) hit me up to ask if I was pre-funking. I was like, "Am I?"What promptly followed was an invite to la casa de G. Will (twitter.com/goodwill85) where I showed up around 8 with a liter of Coke & Bacardi Dark solution. We listened to rather irritating Bay Area music which G. Will insisted upon, then hit the road so we could hit the LIQ in the Pearl District before it closed at 10. I had no idea that there was a liquor store in the Pearl open till 10 so I was super-pumped already! What's hilarious is that they run it like a club, and they have bouncers and everything!! We scooped some Henny Priv (yeah the good stuff), and I commenced to drinking that while using my Rum and Coke as a chaser. Tasted great at the time... but probably not the best idea in the long run.

The Crown
Anyhow, we arrived at the Crown Room before 10:30 but still got charged to enter. False advertisement always brings a sour taste to my mouth but I was really not going to let five bones ruin my spirit... Especially not with a half a pint of Henny in me! Besides, in case you don't know, the best bartender in Portland (possibly on Earth) works at the Crown Room, and she pours me triple shots of Henny - for the price of one - for no apparent reason. (I wonder if Christina has a Twitter-page... Hmmm...) Everyone and they mama showed up; far too many people to mention by name and I damn near lost my mind. I kicked it in the VIP, danced on the stage and the floor, lightweight hated on Epp for getting to rock his set (just playing, it's all love) and bought a LOT of drinks. Not with my money though, people seem to know that Christina does me good at the bar *pause* so they often volunteer to buy my drink if I'll order theirs. Needless to say, this works for me just fine.

I Run This Town Tonight
By midnight I was pretty hammered, and I'm not sure but I think I still owe DJ Fatboy (twitter.com/DJFatboy) a drink cuz it was his birthday. Sorry bro, I get ADHD when I drink and I can't stand still. At one point, I was outside (no, I don't smoke, I just need clean, non-funky oxygen every here and there) and ran into Annie (twitter.com/urbanannie) standing in line with her friends. Not really sure how or why this worked, but I yanked her and her friends out of the line and debo'd them into the side door, free of charge. I just remember yelling at the bouncer, "Do you know who this is?? You can't have celebrities standing in line in the rain!!!" Wow, I got 3 girls in the club for free and couldn't even do that for myself. Crazy. Later on my best dude Will showed up late - exactly when I'm not sure - but I was very happy to see him and gave him a hug like I hadn't seen him in ten years. Didn't see him again that night... or maybe I did and I just don't remember.

"Where is Mutha Fuckin Tony Touch???"
At this point, I was really diggin the spinning that Doc Adam was doing, and was fully accustomed to the fact that DJ Ronin Roc yells the lyrics to every song in the microphone... But I still had one drunken question, "WHERE THE HELL IS MUTHA FUCKIN TONY TOUCH?!?!?" Soon after loudly repeating this phrase several times, the man himself walked in the door, and I hardly recognized him. The skinny Puerto Rican kid from my pre-teen years is now approaching 40 and easily tops 200. He got busy on the ones and twos, and as I got drunker, I often forgot he was there and continued to complain that he hadn't shown up yet. Oh boy. Around 2 AM, a friend of mine - who came solely to wish me a happy birthday but whom I'd dipped on countless times already - notified me that she was leaving. Amazingly, I did realize at this point that I was beyond faded, and had her drop me off.

The Hangover
The next day, I woke up at 11... I was still drunk so I went back to sleep and got up at 3 PM. This is where I realized that the Rum and Coke chaser (some of which might still be in Arriana'a car) was not such a great idea. Sunday was certainly the lower end of my sin-curve weekend.. I'd say never again, but I'd just be lying to you. And we all know I keep it 100... Hollerrrrr.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Debauchery: Birffday Weekend - Part 1

So as you've probably picked up on, last weekend - more specifically, Friday - was my birthday. By no means did I reach any major milestone, but I figured that turning twenty-nine on the 29th will only happen once in my life, so I might as well live it up!

My initial plan was to go super hard from Thursday night till Saturday night, but as I'm realizing, recovery times are getting longer and longer as I approach the magical age of thirty. So, graphically speaking, my levels of debauchery - if charted - looked more like a sin wave than a standard deviation curve... (I know I just lost some of you with that one, but it's cool. You'll be back.) I could probably write a novella based on my escapades this weekend, but that would probably get me in trouble with various people and probably a few government entities... That said, I'll take the other path and break this up into a a few quick sections.

The Dookie Show - And no, I'm not talking about Tony Ozier's Dookie Jam, I'm talking about a show I rocked that had a boo boo crowd. Thursday night at Berbati's reminded me why NO ONE ROCKS AT BERBATI'S ANYMORE. First of all, it was an all ages show... Seemingly only because half of the artist's girlfriends were under 21. So, put immature hip-hop fans downtown with immature rap-and-leave artists and watch what happens. The attendance started off thin, but gradually started to fill in. At one point, the event had enough people that it could actually be called a crowd, then some kid started arguing with a homeless guy outside (why anyone inside a warm venue would engage in an altercation with a hobo outside in the cold is completely beyond me) and the crowd dissipated. The promoter also broke the too many rappers rule, and by the time I hit the stage people were pretty tired of live acts. I managed to rock the 20 or so people left in the building, but... Come on son? Twenty people?!?!

Funny note: I have a friend who always dates chunky girls (says they pay like they weigh), and I ran into one of his ex's and she looked GREAT. I complimented her on her physical transformation - just to be nice, really - and now she's after me. Damn my swag...

Midnight - Escaping Berbati's arond 11 was a good look. Fortunately the bartender there did pour nice glasses of Henn, so I was good and buzzed by the time I left. So I dipped up to the Candlelight Cafe where I knew a few of my friends were getting drunk and dancing wildly to a cover band. More Hennessy ensued, and I was rather surprised when people started texting, calling, FaceBooking & Tweeting me at 10 till. It was then that I realized that my watch was running slow (gotta get that battery changed now) but more importantly, I remembered how many friends I do have. I also got a really nice call from my bro, and that was the highlight of my night.

Bom Bom Di Whopna!!! - So when my friends at the Candlelight got silly drunk (one girl started freestyling and another recorded it on her phone - can you say blackmail???) I decided to part ways and see what else was going down. Got a clue from a friend that it was going down at the Crown Room, so I headed that way. When I got there it was reggae night, and the place was packed! The friend who'd texted me wasn't there though, and then I got a text saying the crew had just left. So as I was about to leave, I ran into Leigh Feldman (if you don't know, you should really, really ask somebody) and he was kind enough to buy me a Hennessy.

Now I'm not sure what it was, but that Hennessy had me on one... I remember a random but really cute white girl dancing way to close and almost falling on or away from me a few times. I danced with her out of pity (and for safety sake) but then she started trying to make out with me... And, umm, I'm good. I quickly vanished and reappeared and within minutes she'd found a new victim. Thank God. Nonetheless, the house DJ there (whose name I never remember but whose Jesus-like beard I can never forget) really did his thing. The music was fresh and the crowd was fun. So around 2 AM I was set to leave and go home. Then I got a text, and the debauchery continued... I recall being lost amidst waterfront condos, getting angry, being calmed down, and getting home after the sun came up. Whoa.

TO BE CONTINUED...