Merry Christmas to everyone out there…hope you’re having a good one!
Life
General ramblings connected to my personal life and activities.
Lorelei Mackenzie Markin
I just got word from one of my closest friends that she had her baby this morning! Congratulations both to Miranda and her daughter, Lorelei Mackenzie Markin, both of whom are doing wonderfully well, I’m told.
Now that’s a Christmas present!
Congratulations Kevin and Emily!
I’m really not supposed to be doing stuff like this at work, but I wanted to put this up as soon as I heard.
I just got a visit from my dad, and it seems that my little brother (not that little anymore, he’s 24, but he’s still my little brother) proposed to his girlfriend Emily last night on Winter Solstice — and she accepted! The marriage won’t be for a couple of years, as Emily is going into the Peace Corps for two years, but I understand that they’ll be getting married once she gets back. Wow…. So, congratulations to my bro, Kevin Hanscom, and his lady love, Emily Shroyer — I’m looking forward to the wedding.
So…does this mean I might be an uncle in three years or so? ;)
Mononoke, eye candy, and John Doe
Well, seeing as how my life has one very happy coincidence that payday and video release day both happen on the same day every week…Tuesdays are my usual day to go out and get movies. Picked up quite the trio today, too. Here’s the scoop:
Princess Mononoke: A very impressive anime film that was released in Japan in ’97, and just hit the U.S. this year. I’ve never been very big into anime — I enjoy it, but there’s very little of it that I pick up — but even without seeing it, the unanimous good reviews that Mononoke got were enough to get me to add it to my collection. I just got done watching it, and was quite impressed — a good choice for my third anime DVD. Breathtaking animation, a very well-written story, and if you choose the English dub, a great translation by none other than Neil Gaiman. Well worth it, I’d say.
The Cell: Okay, okay, so if you take the time to really study it, it’s not that great of a movie — a contrived and predictable plot, with acting that occasionally has a tendency to push the limits of medocrity. However, for someone like me who’s always been fascinated with movie effects and visual work that veers towards the darker side (H.R. Giger and Dali are two of my favorite artists) and good audio mixing, this movie is an absolute treat to watch. Visually astounding every time you enter the dreamscapes of the characters, and an aural experience that is as much a treat for the ears as the visuals are for the eyes. Now, if only that much creativity had been put into the plot….
Se7en: While David Fincher is one of my favorite contemporary directors (he’s the director of Se7en, The Game, and Fight Club), I’d yet to pick up this movie, as the only edition out until today was a early “flipper” disc — the movie broke in the middle, and you had to flip the DVD to the second side to finish the movie. Well, thank goodness for New Line, because today marked the release of an incredibly extensive 2-disc special edition of Se7en — disc 1 for the movie and four commentary tracks, and disc 2 for a ton of supplementary material. This one will take hours and hours for me to go through — just the kind of release I like!
So, that’s it for this week. Between those three, and working my way through season 2 of the X-Files, I’ve got enough to keep me a couch potato for days lined up. Too bad I’ve got this silly thing called a job to get in the way…ah, well — since it’s the job that lets me indulge my movie collection, I guess I shouldn’t whine too much, eh?
Back again
Okay…back again, new and improved. Or something like that.
Got in (late…damn airlines) from my vacation last night, and am currently enjoying my last actual unscheduled day, as far as I know. I may not be on the schedule at Suncoast this weekend, but this being the Christmas shopping season, I’m not betting on that, and just working on the assumption that this is my last “day of rest.”
Vacation was great. Saw tons of family, got to hit some clubs in the states (man, does Anchorage bite!), hung out with some friends who’ve already made it down to Seattle, and generally had a very nice time. I am so looking forward to moving out of state next year — didn’t really want to come back from Seattle, but somehow I didn’t really think that either my jobs or my roommates would appreciate me just disappearing like that. Damn responsibility…when did I have to grow up?
In any case, I’m about to head out and pick up the X-Files Season 2 DVD set and spend the evening vegging in alien land. What fun, what fun!
Quick update from Seattle
I’m actually still in the midst of my vacation, but while sitting here at a friends house checking e-mail, I figured I might as well take the opportunity to get a little updating done here. If nothing else, just to get something changing on here to assure people that I am alive, and have survived my travels so far.
I’ve stripped out the last of the manual updates from this mainpage…from now on, all updates and archives of old posts should be handled by this CGI script — assuming I’ve got it set up correctly.
Which may be a pretty big assumption…we’ll see.
In any case, I’m back in town this Thursday, so things should start getting back up to speed sometime around then. See you all soon….
Vacation time
I get a vacation! :D
I’m going to be gone for the next three weeks, so updates to the site are going to be sporadic at best. If I can get a chance to get to a ‘puter and do things like check mail and check the site, I will, I just have no idea whether I will or when.
For the curious, this is a big family trip to go see the relatives. I’ll be in Florida for about the next week visiting my grandparents on my mother’s side, after that a week in Indiana visiting my grandmother on dad’s side, and then we’ll be in Seattle for a little under a week before we come back to Alaska. I should be back up here around the 14th of December, so life should return to normal around then…at least as normal as it ever gets.
So, until then….
Parallax1
Went out to catch Parallax1‘s show tonight. Very cool, they’re a great bunch, and keep doing very interesting stuff with their music.
Not much other than that…stayed up to late chatting at VI again. Ah, well — one more day of work at Suncoast, and then I’m officially on vacation for the next three weeks. It’s about time!
[From Usenet 8.7.95 2300]
[Note: This was originally a post to the rec.music.industrial Usenet newsgroup. I’m including it here for completeness. Originally archived here.]
In article <3vt1c9$...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, mtra...@aol.com (MTRACKS) wrote:
Keep up with the latest releases from major artists month by month on one digitally mastered cd.
Modern Tracks provides alternative/modern rock/industrial music for club jocks, mobile jocks, radio, musicians and clubs. Artists like Thrill Kill Kult, White Zombie, Cranberries and more
email us for info mtra…@aol.com
Okay…I bit. So, what’s the deal? Doing an alternative/industrial all-ages club up here in Anchorage, but it can be hard to get new stuff…. Thing is, some of the stuff you had mentioned in an earlier post wasn’t all that new, wasn’t sure if I should reply or not.
- all good girls – die warzau – have this on the WaxTrax “Afterburn” sampler
- hit n run holiday – thrill kill kult – Flintstones soundtrack…
- language of reality – die krupps (clouser rmx) – this caught my eye…would this be the Charlie Clouser working with nine inch nails now? He does do good work…
- out comes the evil – lords of acid – good track, but “Voodoo-U”‘s been out for a while…
Anyway, am interested in more info, at least…
[From Usenet: 1.2.95 0448]
[Note: This was originally a post to the alt.music.nin Usenet newsgroup. I’m including it here for completeness. Originally archived here.]
In article <Pine.SOL.3.91.941230104329.13446A-100000@gladstone>, MC Death <mcde...@gladstone.uoregon.edu> wrote:
Ah, yeah! Memories of spending 13 years living in the Great Frozen Wasteland! At least you’ve had the likes of Def Leppard, Yngwie Malmasteen/Quiet Riot, The Scorpions, and The Fixx grace the presence of the Sullivan Arena! :) Shit, up in Fairbanks, we’ve had George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers, Blue Oyster Cult, Styx, and Night Ranger in my days!
Oh Woody, don’t complain too much! You’ve at least got Bytet there (Bob is way cool!) :)
M.C.Death, who is still surprised that Vanilla Ice almost played Squarebanks back in 1991, but alas, the show got cancelled… :)
True, Bytet is quite fun…as is Fsunjibleableje (if you ever caught them…great early Einsturzende Neubauten type industrial). The Critter’s concert was pretty good, too…even a guest appearance by Stone Gossard. Yay. Anyway…back to my frozen little newsreader…