Back in the Sun / The Patriots Are Nobody

The Beck and I are reunited with the SW, having survived a 2:30 AM MST wakeup and an 8 hour plane trek from the splendid iPAbode in Rochester, NY, to our own sun-streaked abode in Az. (note that SW stands for "Sparkle & Wrigley" and "Southwest"). It is, natch, good to be home, though we definitely had a fun holiday in NY. A quick account of the past couple days:

For obvious reasons, we went to World Hair on Thursday. This happened somewhere between the viewing of several episodes of "Flight of the Conchords" and "Aliens in America." FOTC is an HBO show about two New Zealand indie rockers living in NYC; they essentially play parody-rock of multiple genres and incorporate their songs/music videos as skits in the middle of a fairly typical inept-young-males narrative. The songs are really funny / good, and I would give the show aspect something in the B-range; maybe it's just because I watched them in marathon fashion, but I found the humor somewhat repetitive. AiA is a surprisingly sensitive show about a Midwestern family that takes in a Pakistani exchange student; hilarity ensues. This show was more sentimental and clever than the previews indicated; I was pleasantly surprised. Thus ends the vacuous review portion of the post.

Clearly I'm lying - after waiting for a skipped Greg (nay, Jason) to get his haircut, and after coffee with Meghan and Greg*, we went to see Juno with the iPFam. Juno is straight-up indie fare, rife with snappy, witty dialog, emotional content, hipster-alterna clothes, attitudes, and Belle & Sebastian tunes. The lead actress nailed it, though this was simultaneously impressive and rendered the movie a self-conscious star vehicle. So, a good overall movie, and right up my alley. By far the highlight was the character portrayal by Jason Bateman; the entire dynamic between him and Juno saved the film from a stereotypical suburbanite indictment. There were a lot of problems - the dialog felt terribly forced in a no-one speaks that constructedly that fast; it was clearly written. Plus the pace of dialog died off roughly halfway through the film. The romance between Juno and Michael Cera did not occur on-screen enough to deliver the emotional impact it intended. Actually, a lot of the movie didn't occur on-screen enough; a huge chunk of the relationship and narrative felt under-developed. Blah blah etc. All of that said, still a very good movie; funny, enjoyable, and at least emotionally touching (though man, that pan-out guitar duet ending was PAINFUL, and not in a Yo La Tengo kinda way).

* (I used one of my go-to lines at the coffee shop. There was a small child screaming that he wanted water at the table located about 18 inches behind me. I said "Desire is the root of all suffering!" in response. I feel this comment stands as metaphor for my existence nicely: accomplishes nothing, but makes you laugh**).

** (Of course, my joke of the week was when Beck said that she "spread word about the book Lamb like gospel!" Lamb is a Christopher Moore novel about an apocryphal text by Biff, Christ's childhood pal. It's fantastic - funny and spiritual. I said "Beck, you're the Jesus Jesus!" This is funny, in a constant iPodJesus joke environment).

After the movie, we went to a restaurant called Lentos in Rachachachachacha for which I was ridiculed for the entire day due to my non-vegetarian leanings. Thankfully, the food I had was super-delicious. We were there celebrating Margie's birthday; I look forward to my birthday celebration in early February.

MG headed out on Friday morning. They had a thoroughly-mentioned adventure en route to iPHome, involving car accidents, AAA and hotel bartenders, so they needed to get back to Boston to start taking care of things. PLUS their cat Simon (see reference here) has been very ill for the past couple of weeks, so they needed to get back in to take care of him (not only to, ha, make plans for Nigel) (their other cat). An update on that front is that beck, supervet, correctly recommended that they check Simon for pyelonephritis, so hopefully some abx will be able to help the little kitty. Great as always to see MG; hope their universe becomes more orderly in the near future.

Beck and I spent the bulk of Friday lounging, reading, playing pool (Beck crushed my self-image by beating me at nine-ball TWICE), and, especially for Beck, sleeping. We eventually roused ourselves enough to eat dinner, and were visited by a very serious Liz:

Not really. Liz (aka she who saved Xmas) brought Lilly, her new lab puppy, over for a kitchen-wide romp.


There are a few more cute shots of the pup over at flickr; just click any of the above pics and navigate. We would be remiss if we showcased Lilly without giving the current CBS canine matriarch a shoutout, so here's a few snaps of the Hollister:


That brought us to early early Saturday, a plane ride, an afternoon run for me (first since my contused thigh, yah!), a nap for Beck, and a settling in to watch a very exciting Pats win. 16-0! The Pats are perfect. I am nobody. Therefore, I am the Pats. I think that's how it goes.

(Really, fun to watch, but the Pats clearly have some chinks in ye olde armor. I would like to see the 19-0 phenomenon come to fruition, but I don't know if I'll be able to bear the coming storm of willtheywon'tthey. Exciting time for the NFL, for better or otherwise).

SO welcome home to the collective nyetverse - more commentary / posting in the coming hours. Today, it's football and the first dose of Ultimate in the past week and a half. Here's hoping for survival.