After watching In Bruges I was thinking about other hitmen films that I have seen and how nearly every hitman film is about how the hitman/men get out of the business (rarely ever alive). Jerry and Tom starring Joe Mantenga and Sam Rockwell is a dark comedy, savvy and enjoyable but never letting go of it’s bitter edge. The film showcases Jerry (Rockwell) through time from his discovery that his bosses at the used car dealership he works for aren’t just used car dealers, through his apprenticeship with Tom “on the job”, to his coming into his own in the profession. The script takes place through the down moments, centering on the mundane conversations happening before, after, or even during the job between Jerry and Tom and sometimes their victims and their bosses (some great cameos from William H. Macy, Ted Danson, Maury Chaykin, and Charles Durning). Writer Rick Cleveland went on to work on the West Wing, Six Feet Under and Mad Men, which gives you a sense of the strength of his dialogue. Director and character actor Saul Rubinek shows some decent directing chops, but most impressive were his scene transitions, in which the camera pans to the side or up, seamlessly moving from one scene/set to the next without a cut. The weakest aspect of the film is the score, brash free jazz which is grating and overbearing.
15/03/2009
04/03/2009
[...about me #62] three me’s
Greg
Craig
Yes, my name is Graig, it sounds like one of the above only spelled like the other. Why is that so hard for people. I had a teacher in grade school who would circle my name in red pen with an “SP” beside it in my journal we were keeping for class. When I went up and asked him about it, he told me I was spelling my name wrong.
People often verbally call me Craig. I stopped noticing this sometime around high school. Others started correcting people for me, which was awfully nice of them, but truly I just don’t hear it most of the time anymore.
When I give my name verbally, people with write it “Greg”, but if I give them some identification they’ll correct it to “Craig” when they input or re-write it. How insensitive. That’s my cross, I must bear it.
I’ve never personally me another “Graig”, but I know people who have, or have met people with relatives spelled that way, which makes me feel a little less alone in the world somehow.
[...i ate #62] Amoxicillin
Mmm, antibiotics.
But apparently I taking someone else’s prescription. These belong to Craig Kent.
He operates ceekent.com
Anyway,
This will be the fourth or fifth time in the past 8 years that I’ve had to take antibiotics. That seems like too much to me, give from ages 14 to 25 I don’t remember taking them once.
[...consumed all new #62, 63] sick day
I could barely keep my eyes open all day today. I could barely get out of bed, pushing going to the bathroom to the breaking point of my screaming bladder and really getting any food for myself solely because I needed to take my antibiotics with food.
Armed with a pillow under my head, blankets over my body and a laptop with a wifi connection, I proceeded to entertain my weary head with comedy. At this stage, aside from YouTube, the Comedy Network is my go-to place on-line to find things to entertain myself with. With my eyelids drooping, “watching” episodes of the Daily Show, Colbert Report, Comedy Central Presents (Patton Oswalt, Mitch Hedburg, Mike Birbiglia) and the Root of all Evil allow me to get a bit of shut-eye without actually falling asleep. I thought about watching some South Park and Stella episodes, but I wasn’t into being engaged by stories or having to pay attention especially if I dozed off.
Once I sort of aroze from my dizzy-from-coughing drowsiness and ear-throbbing fever, I cruised the web for 15 minutes looking for other sources of entertainment. I checked out Teletoon and it yielded paltry results in the video department (though I did notice they’re playing two of the Futurama direct-to-video movies later this month) and then tried Adult Swim, who still insist on blocking non-US viewers from observing their wares. A link from AS drew me over to CollegeHumor.com where I half-watched a tremendous number of short little “found” videos (like a girl screwing up a balance beam routine) and some sketch videos, and then I got wrapped up in CollegeHumor’s Amir and Streeter’s Prank War, watching them shame one another in elaborate practical jokes, which after watching 7 of them, I have to think are in some ways not real or otherwise are far too cruel. Apparently College Humor now has their own MTV show.
[...learned #62] pop
Waking up at 6:30 am to a throbbing ear, I ventured quickly to the internet to suss out what actually happens during an inner ear infection (Acute otitis media). For the most part they state that they go away on their own within a week but can be painful throughout the duration. A cold can cause a small tube that connects the ear to the throat to swell. It can block up if swelled enough, trapping fluid or mucous inside the ear, allowing germs to grow and infection to occur. Occasionally the swelling can cause the eardrum to rupture, allowing for fluid to escape. This apparently is normal and the eardrum will repair itself. Ear infections of this sort happen to children more often because they have shorter tubes.
My eardrum burst Monday morning, and seeped for the full day, the pressure and pain not alleviating. My parents forced me to go to the doctors (saying that I should get it checked out before flying back to Toronto on Tuesday). We wound up in emerg since the clinics in town were either full or closed, and there the doctor, upon looking in my ear said “Yuck.” He also stated that since the eardrum had already broke that I could fly, since the pressure wouldn’t build up as the ruptured ear could equalize itself. Of course, he said, it could be painful with the fluid moving about, and it was at times.
Having fluid in the ear and a ruptured eardrum is like listening to things through a blown speaker. Everything is muffled, with occasional clicks and pops. Another day later and the ear has not stopped seeping. The doctor gave me some oral antibiotics (for my sinus infection) and antibiotic eardrops which will hopefully ease the infection and allow me to hear normally soonish.