The bi-monthly update...

I think I may very well be the world’s worst blogger. My apologies to the two of you. Anyway, a rundown of what’s been happening down this way

- I got salaried. It’s nice. Somehow, I wound up keeping the same job I’ve had since my sophomore year of college, but now instead of doing the tour guide thing that I was doing, I’m doing their accounting, managing the marketing mailings, and slapping together an outline (slowly but surely) of the next project. So now they’re paying me enough to justify working me like a dog J and also giving me insurance, paid vacations, all the good stuff. I like the work and the people well enough that I have no problem putting off my eventual westward movement another year or three.

- I saw some movies. Since we all know I’ll never actually get around to writing full reviews for them, here’s the minis:

o American Gangster: Meh. Decent enough, but nothing hugely special. Denzel is basically playing the same guy he’s been playing for the last fifteen years, and Russell Crowe is better in 3:10 to Yuma.

o No Country for Old Men: Tied in my head for best movie of the year thus far with the aforementioned 3:10 to Yuma. Josh Brolin is great, Tommy Lee Jones is great, Javier Bardem is goddamned scary. I expect one Oscar nom to be thrown at the Coens for Best Adapted Screenplay, but I fear Brolin and Bardem might cancel each other out for acting nominations. It’s a shame. Jones might have a shot at a supporting nod, though.

o Rape of Europa: I saw this awhile back at the Coolidge, but in light of Pear Harbor Day yesterday, I feel it warrants mentioning. This is a documentary about what happened to what the Nazis referred to as “Degenerate Art” during their conquest of Europe – anything owned or produced by Jews, and spoils of war from Russia, Poland and any of the other countries affected by the European theater of World War II. It also talks a bit about the US concerns for art once they came into the war – it’s a scary thing when you’re talking about carpet-bombing cities in Italy that are home to some of the greatest sculpted, painted, and architectural masterpieces in the world. The military established a group called the Monuments Men, one of whom would be attached to the very first units to enter a city after Allied bombings. It was their job to see what could be done to preserve or rescue the priceless pieces of art that were at risk because of the attacks. Amazing stories, all around. The sheer volume of cultural wealth that was unearthed during and after the war – and the amount that is still missing – is staggering. It’s well worth a look. Check out RapeofEuropa.com for more information, and to see if it is playing near you.

- Another cheap plug – a buddy I went to college with is now appearing in a web series. It’s a fun little story about a group of friends at a fictional college. He plays Shucks, and it’s well worth a look. They just posted their second episode over at Fivetosix.com

- On the Sox front, this Santana trade rumor crap is not really what I wanted this off-season. I was kind of looking forward to people clamoring after our players, and Theo completely shutting them down. I was hoping for a deal to lose Coco and Lugo to get a new shortstop, but that’s not happening. The big thing that bothers me about the Santana rumors is that Jacoby Ellsbury is involved in them now. Lester, I didn’t really have a problem with. Good kid, decent pitcher, great story, but we’re kind of loaded at the front end for next year (Beckett, Schilling, Dice-K, Wakefield, the possibility of Buccholz), and I would gladly slide Buccholz into the bullpen for a year while Santana tears it up. But I don’t want to lose Ellsbury AND Lester. That strikes me as too much. From the looks of things now, that’s not going to happen anyway. I kind of feel like if there was a deal to be worked out there, it would have happened by now. It sounds like the Twins would have been willing if both Ellsbury and Lester were available, but Theo said no way to that – so far. Hopefully it’ll stay that way.

- For the first time, everyone in my family is coming down to my brother’s place in Cambridge for Christmas. It’s an idea that sprung up from my other brother, because he and his wife are going to be down here to see her family for Christmas, and wouldn’t it be easier if we all did so we could all be together? It’s cool, cause it saves on travel costs (Jay and I aren’t taking the bus up north, nor trying to lug any packages to or from), and it slims down on the number of people who are present. The last few years have been a little nuts – don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy having the entire extended step-family around, cause there’s lots of cute kids who seem to get cuter each year, but I wouldn’t mind cutting down and slowing down a little bit, either. Besides, we have the cutest of the cute (my niece), so we win. At some point in the next week or so, I’ll head out to Cambridge to help Jay lug a tree back to his house and get it into a stand. In the meantime, I still haven’t gotten my mini tree set up at home, because we have a cat now, and I’m pretty sure she’d tear that thing to shreds if we didn’t do something to prevent it. I’m gonna get some of that spray cats don’t like the smell of, and douse the damn thing.

I got a Zune! For FREE! I had an RCA Lyra, which held 4 gigs, and was pretty decent, if a little underimpressive. But a few months back, Microsoft started club.live.com, which is a very badly-veiled advertisement for their new search engine. Thing is, you play the games on there, earn tickets, and then cash them in for schwag. I was saving up for one of the Xbox 360 Pro bundles, but they pulled it off the site. That made me mad. So I cashed in all the points I had, and nabbed a 30 gig Zune. Naturally, they have recently put the Xbox back up as a prize, but since they’re not shipping any till April or so, I’m not too upset. The Zune is pretty sweet. A hefty firmware upgrade after I got it added all the wireless capabilities… the sound quality is good, I’ve been downloading some silly video podcasts… and I have my entire music and picture library on the damn thing, and it only takes up 4.32 gigs! I’m a happy camper.

Yeah… that just about covers the last few months. I got a year older in October… didn’t really notice. I think I’ve past that point where birthdays begin to lose some meaning – I’m not gunning for gifts, and I’m past the point where there are friends constantly around who want to celebrate by drowning our livers. It was low-key and nice. Much like the rest of my life right now. I can handle it.

Till next time… whenever that might be…