I’m sitting in the cafe car that’s attached to the Amtrak train taking me to New York. I haven’t been there since January when I got to enjoy -12 celcius temperatures. Brrr. OktoberNight is waiting to meet up with me at the Empire State building. I thought I’d make attempt number two to update. Attempt number one was lost in a tragic ‘Please click here to reboot your computer’ accident.


I saw a couple films recently. “Garden State” starrin Zach Branff and featuring the adorable Natalie Portman. The guy wrote, directed and starred — the triple threat. It was very quirky cool and funny and emotional and three-dimensional and character driven. Me likey. If you’re a guy with a girlfriend or you’re dating someone and want to pull on those special hard-to-reach heartstrings then see this film. If you’re a girl and need to get weepy then see this film. If you’d rather have your eyes plucked out than see a chick flick then DON’T see this film. Loved the music. I will be adding this to my DVD collection when it comes out fo sho.


I need more coffee. We have another movie and a DVD review for Wonder Woman coming up (like you will notice that I’m gonna pause here).


When I arrived in Houston this past Friday night there was no pausing between going to the Texas Cattle steak house and then driving across the road to the Willowbrook 24 to catch “Alien vs Predator.” This film was a servicable summer popcorn flick. Flat character development and poorly filmed action sequences, it was still somewhat thrilling to see two genre films intermix. “Freddy vs Jason” of last year was the first pairing that seemed to go well together. I can think of some other pairings I’d love to see. Doc Brown vs The Wizard (of Oz). Star Wars vs Star Trek (in fact many fan scripts were written and published on Usenet about this in the 80s and early 90s). Matt Damon vs Mark Wahlberg (two Bostonians are better than one), Kevin Smith vs Richard Linkleter (sp?), and last but not least, Men in Black versus The Agents of The Matrix versus The Blues Brothers. Nothing better than a bunch of dudes in black suits and sunglasses fighting each other. I’d put 50 bucks down on the Blues Brothers if it came down to it. So to sum up… Alien vs Predator is a one time see. If the DVD is super cheap and has lots of deleted stuff, I *may* get it. Maybe.


My quick Wonder Woman dvd review can be summed up quickly: Where the f— is disc 2? I have *two* disc threes. What kind of sick joke was that? The receipt is long gone and I didn’t notice this b.s. until just two days ago. Dammit! I want to know what happens to Wonder Girl? Part one of that episode was on disc 1. I suspect I may have to beg Best Buy to give me a replacement disc sans receipt, or else I may have to buy another copy and then switch them out. Ugh. I hate confrontation. Natalie Portman, however, I like, but you already knew that.


I’m now in Newark Penn Station one stop prior to NYC. My other highlight this past weekend was picking up my DeLorean with its brand new high performance mod engine. The sucker is quick and nimble — nothing like when I first got it. I am still super paranoid about overheating although the car sat still in 95+ degree traffic for a long while on Saturday. I should relax more. The A/C in the car hasn’t had a a charge since early 2000 so it’s still a bit stuffy in there if you aren’t moving. I will post exact numbers when I have them, but my HP increase went up from around 130 to just about 200. That’s a lot, trust me. I have some plans for all my BTTF props when I return on Labor Day weekend. I hate waiting. Anyone want to race a DeLorean? See me after class.


I had another classic Old Grumpy Guy answers the landline moment on Saturday. More about that on my return trip. We are pullinh into NY Penn right now. Ciao.


Whew! I made it back here to Penn Station with three minutes before the train left. Nice. We did the tourist thing at the Empire State building even though our tickets were stamped with this unhappy face icon labeled ‘zero visibility.’ It was nice to be up there again and the view was definitely better than their forewarned visibility of zero. I picked up a King Kong shot glass and coffee mug from the gift shop. My freakin’ camera battery died so I didn’t get more than a few photos. Oktober’s also died at the exact same time. Conspiracy? We headed out from there to find two Benihanas off 56th. One closed up at 2:30 while the other (located at 47 W. 56th St.) kept their doors open until 4. We both had The Happy Meal. No, McDonald’s was not involved. Just before we hit Benihana we’d headed to Oktober’s sister’s apartment where we picked up the battery charger and left our heaviest bags. I got a couple of early birthday presents: the book “microserfs” and this funky cool glasses. I only own three wine glasses and a mug in Philly, so this is a landmark gift. Seeing as how I had so much stuff now, I left all my bags. We met up with her sister at work and then headed out to the improv at Chicago City Limits on 1105 First Avenue. We killed some time across the street (410 E. 61st St.) at Bed, Bath and Beyond where I bought a 9 volt battery. Is this too much info? We enter the improv at 7:45 and were entertained for about two hours. We then hit up a Mexican restaurant where I ordered something that sounded Mexican — only it turned out to be beef stew. Foiled again trying to get the good Mexican food. After we finished up I hopped in a taxi and made it back here with only seconds to spare before the train left. The next train was at 3 AM. Yikes.


More later. Gotta get ready for The Work. Working on a Saturday? Yeah. Sunday, too. Gotta catch up. I attend a Prince concert on Sunday night with some friends I have here in Philly, so I’ll get back with you on how that went.