Rasberry Twizzlers

The weekend wasn't very eventful, but there's a few things I'll mention:

1) Yummies' Red Rasberry Licorice: There's a town right outside the NH state line called Kittery, Maine that has a shitload of stores, outlets, and restaurants all in a row (why all the sudden in Maine? Because it's not sales-tax-free like NH). One of the stores is this mini candy warehouse called "Yummies," and goddamn if it isn't one of the coolest little places around. All the candy -- all types -- is packaged in these clear plastic bags, and stacked like sheet rock in big vertical bins. This no frills presentation was really endearing to me. But, more than that, it sold Red Rasberry Licorice Twists, and it was love at first sight. I'm eating them right now and I'm in heaven. Mmmm...oh YES! They're even better raw! <--- "Critic" reference.

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2) Devil's Offspring: On Friday I experienced another milestone in my home-renting journey: My first insect problem. While I was pulling weeds in the backyard, I noticed a few big black bees flying around the deck. They looked like bumblebees except they were shiny and not fuzzy. A couple of them darted in my direction a few times, and being the incredibly cowardly wimp that I am, I finished what I was doing and hurried back into the house. I spent the next five minutes waving non-existent bugs out of my hair, and then decided one hour outside had been enough. On Saturday I went out again and surveyed the activity around my deck. And under the railing there were two little, finger-tip sized holes, with the sawdust from the holes scattered right below them. And just as I was looking at it, a big giant black bee flew out! Motherfucker!! (i said). These godamn things were burrowing into my godamn deck, godamnit! SoI thought they must be hornets or something, because bees don't do this. Bees build hives and shit, and they're black and YELLOW, not black and BLACK. So I got my hands on some hornet & wasp spray, but when I looked at the pictures on the can, I didn't really see anything that looked like what was destroying my deck. So I did some research online and came across a species of bee called a Carpenter Bee. And what do they do? They build nests in wooden fixtures (decks, furniture, homes, trees), by digging finger-tip-size holes into the outersurface of the wood and creating long narrow passageways in the direction of the grain. Jackpot, that was them. Thankfully, they're not known to be aggressive, even less than your average honeybee. Well, the males are aggressive, but they don't have stingers; and eventhough the females have stingers, they're not aggressive. That was a relief. Plus since I caught it in the early stages, I wasn't really dealing with an infestation. So on Sunday when my parents visited, we bought some Wood Insect Chemical mix from Home Depot, waiting until the sun went down to spray the holes (In the interest of full disclosure, my dad did the spraying). We saw only one bee crawl out, sickly from the spray. I'm not sure if that was a good sign or a bad sign. Since I didn't get home til later today I don't know for sure how many were killed or what, but I'm gonna spray again tomorrow, and end this menace. Fuckers.

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3) "Cinderella Man:" Yes, it's Oscar bait. Yes, it's kinda cheesy. And yes, there are no complexities whatsoever. But damn if it isn't GOOD. Crowe nails his part each and every second. The diverse performances this guy has given in the past decade -- "LA Confidential," "The Insider," "Gladiator," "Beautiful Mind", and now this -- point to the simple truth that he is a character actor taking on lead actor parts. And as much as I want him to take on more parts -- cool supporting parts, more ensemble work -- when I think about how Sean Penn has spread himself so thin lately, I think Crowe has got a good thing going. The fact that he doesn't have another film in produciton (at least not on imdb), indicates that he's taking his sweet time with his career. I like that. His performance in "Cinderella Man" is really effin good, but it's not so astonishing that it guarantees him awards. So it won't be Crowe overkill for the rest of the year. Giamatti is good as Crowe's trainer, too; his bug eyes are very expressive, and he's just an entertaining actor. Craig Bierko, who plays the villainous Max Baer, surprised me. Most people probably remember him as the jazz musician on "Sex and the City," but he's never really made an impression. Until now. I think he just extended his career another 3 years. Very physical screen presence, and his portrayl definitely made the final fight betwen him and Braddock a lot more involving. What a final fight, btw. Forgive me if this sounds blasphemous, and you know I'm the last person who would ever say this, but Howard's fight scenes are technically almost on par with Scoresese's "Raging Bull" and are even better than Michael Mann's in "Ali," although it's pretty obvious that he's stolen from both. But still, the choreography and camerawork never confuses or misses a step. It's very fluid. It's shocking to me that this is the same cinematographer that worked on "Any Given Sunday," which had the most confusing sports camerawork in movie history. I guess that says something about Oliver Stone. Kudos to the editors in these scenes as well. All in a all, very effective drama work by all involved. 3.5/5.

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4) "Family Guy" highlights:

Stewie: "Your anguish sustains me!"

1980's "Fixing stuff up" montage.

Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" as sung by Quagmire: "It goes on and on and on giggety giggety goo!"

Joe, who's paralyzed, getting smashed like a guitar.

"Hey, Ethan Hawke! Why don't you go star in another awful Richard Linklater movie!"

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shit, why can't i get "Don't Stop Believing" on kazaa? There's no way I'm paying for it.