I'm having trouble getting back into my gym routine at GHFC.  I like going to classes so I have a definite time to be there and a definite time to leave.   Also, I think classes push one harder than they can do themselves.  Do any of you GHFC members want to be my gym buddy in addition to being my regular buddy?  I only require that we do our workouts in the afternoons or evenings during the week (ie, after work, so nothing earlier than 4:30).  All the class schedules for all the GHFC gyms can be found here: http://www.ghfc.com/classes/.  I like spin classes and I would consider myself intermediate to expert at both step and low impact aerobics.  I'm also down for doing muscle conditioning classes if that's your preference (I used to take abs and glutes classes all the time).  Also, if someone doesn't want to do classes but wants to get into doing the circuit or using the machines there or something, I'll be willing to give it a try if that's your preference.  I figure if I can just get into the habit of going with someone(s) once or twice a week at least, I can fill in the other days by myself....

Other than this, life is well.  Married life is not much different from not married life, since we were already living together.  It's nice to have committed to sharing our future adventures, though!  The weekly movie club has gotten off to a good start, too.  The group has already seen a few really good movies.  I'm woefully behind regarding music, but I have a list of things I definitely want to listen to soon.  Plans for our summer honeymoon trip are slowly coalescing, and we very much look forward to seeing some of our friends that we haven't seen in a long time.

I want to update this more, but I find myself gravitating toward Facebook more nowadays.  There are so many people there!  I'll try to be better about it, I promise.

I know, I haven't posted in awhile.  I have a really good excuse this time.  I got married on the 14th... glengarry and I are finally no longer living in sin after four years.  You can see some sweet pics at my Facebook site, and I'll reveal more as they become available.  Needless to say, it was a beautiful affair, pretty small, and at a B&B at Cedar Key, which is where Lee and I had our first full-day date.  This date is covered way back in my LJ, but I'm not going to bother trying to link to that here, you can go look for it yourself.

I'm not going to go over every detail of what's been going on, but here's a rundown of at least the most recent events:

--Saw the Fellini classic 8 1/2 tonight.  If you're a movie fan, it's absolutely required watching, since so many cool contemporary directors have cribbed from this movie.  Really a great film.
--I Love You, Man:  not a classic, but very funny.  Can probably be rented.
--As some of you know, I've been smarting because Morrissey canceled his Florida shows and doesn't appear to be rescheduling.  As I mourn for that, I've taken solace in enjoying the new Franz Ferdinand album.  It was really a grower, and now I think it may be the strongest of their three albums (though I doubt they will ever top the cold opening of their debut album).
--I just stumbled across an article about Lil Jon remixing new wave classics, and so I had to download it.  Here's the link, it's Rockbox Volume 2: http://www.feelthefusion.com/clients/liljon/mixtapes/.  Do it, you know you want to.
--On a more political note, Amendment 1 isn't going to pass!  Thanks to all my local friends for going out and voting down this hateful legislation.  

Lee and I went to go see Spring Awakening for the second time in under a year just today, in Tampa.  This time, we took my parents--it was a delayed 60th birthday gift for my mother.  Before going to the matinee, we met in Ybor City and went to this restaurant, which I would now highly recommend for anyone who likes Greek food (it also made up for the fact that we couldn't stop in Tarpon Springs for dinner).  After that, we drove over to the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center.  It was at this point something that could have caused a real problem became an incredible gain for me and Lee. 

It transpired that I unexpectedly had two more tickets than I needed.  One of them I knew was available a few days before, because my brother-in-law, Toby, could not get off of work--I did try to see if someone would take that one, to no avail.  We still thought that my sister, Jana, would come.  However, she came down with a horrible bug and had to pull out at the last minute.  I of course was bummed because I'd paid for the tickets, and without going into details, it's not cheap to partake in the theater.  Jana and Toby were going to pay me back for what I was out, but we had hoped to be able to sell the tickets to someone there, because who wants to pay a bunch of money for something they couldn't even enjoy?  Our problems were compounded by the fact that the show was not sold out, so selling the tickets wasn't going to happen--people would rather go to the box office and use their plastic than shell out a bunch of cash to some stranger. 

After awhile, my father ended up going to the ticket booth and telling the woman there the truth--that we were taking them out for a special day, and that his daughter and son-and-law couldn't make it, and could they do anything to help?  The upshot was a massive win--they gave me a gift certificate for the face value of the two tickets.  So, now Lee and I can go to the theater again sometime, there's no expiration date, so we can go whenever they have a show that strikes our fancy.  As Lee's never been to see one of the great mega-musicals of the 80s, such as Phantom, Les Miz, or Miss Saigon, I'd like to hold out until one of them tours again, since it's been many many years since I've seen them staged.

I was also well pleased that my folks enjoyed the show.  I have a habit of overhyping things I love to the point where someone else would not be able to enjoy them nearly as much as they might have otherwise.  Either I didn't do that in this case, or the show really is just that good.  For Lee and I, the visceral experience of seeing it last March couldn't be dupicated, but it was still a joy to see again.

***

Speaking of shows--Morrissey is touring again, and as usual, playing a ton of dates in Florida, which is awesome.  He's playing March 1 in Orlando, March 3 in St. Pete, and March 4 in Jax.  I'm thinking the St. Pete show will be the best, but I haven't bought any tickets.  If anyone who reads this is interested in going with and prefers one date over the others, let me know.  If you even have a passing interest in Moz and have never seen him live, I strongly suggest doing it at least once.

***

Capsule movie review of Benjamin Button:  It seems, in talking with people who have seen it and reading reviews of this, there are two camps.  One camp feels it is a profound meditation on life and death, and it moved them deeply.  The other camp considers it to be a technical achievement, beautifully made and acted, but a film easier to admire than truly love.  I fall into the second camp.  I enjoyed watching it, it was never boring, I loved every performance in it, but except for the last 20 minutes or so, I wasn't deeply moved by the movie.  And do not bother seeing it if you can't stand Brad Pitt.  He's in almost every frame of the film.  Perhaps I would be best off leaving it with a sentiment from Roger Ebert's review that I wholeheartedly agree with: "There was another film this year that isn't in the 'top five [probable Oscar contenders for this year],' or listed among the front-runners at all, and it's a profound consideration of the process of living and aging. That's Charlie Kaufman's  'Synecdoche, New York.' It will be viewed and valued decades from now. You mark my words."

You know, I feel that I'm a lot more cranky about this year's Oscar bait than last year's.  I guess I'm really hoping that The Dark Knight can make that late rally and get a best movie nomination.  It's not too late, Academy!

It's truly been a month since I posted.  You know, I keep saying I'm going to write in this thing more often, then I don't do it.  I should make it a new year's resolution or something.  I mean, those sometimes work--for instance, after just two short decades, I stopped biting my nails by having them done every three weeks.  Anyway, a few things that have happened:

I got a promotion, effective January 2.  I will be Assistant Director and Assistant Editor-in-Chief.  As far as I can tell, this means that I'll be doing what I was doing before, only I have to go to more meetings and my boss is more likely to say "well, that's YOUR job now."  The best part?  The first week and a half of the promotion, no work!  We get an extra week off because they're replacing the carpets on the first floor of the press building, and they have to do an asbestos abatement as a result.  So I have off from Christmas Day until January 11.  Pretty sweet.

Less than three months until the wedding!  Though I get stressed out about the planning from time to time, things are slipping into place.  I finally started the gift registry, the buffet menu is nearing completion, I've picked out a DJ, retromorphosis will be taking our photos, and the address list is almost finalized.  I'll post the wedding website link when it's ready.

Somewhere along the way, we lost our digital camera.  This sucks, because I've wanted to take photos lately.  Anyone have a recommendation for a reasonably priced camera?  I don't need frills, but I do need reliability.

We're just a week and a half away from going to see Spring Awakening again, this time at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center with my family.  Spring Awakening was the best entertainment I experienced this year (yes, better than Wall*E), so I'm delighted to be able to go see it again.

Oscar season has begun in earnest, which means a likely uptick in movie-related posts from me.  I try my hardest to post short reviews of the ones most likely to be in the hunt, but I'm not always good about it.  Anyway, I'll start what's sure to be a semi-regular series in the next few months right here, with my short review of Slumdog Millionaire.  First of all, I recently finished reading the book upon which it is VERY LOOSELY based, Q&A, so my impression of the movie is a bit clouded by that.  I thought the film was very good, even lovable at times for what it was, but the plot wasn't as good as the book; they took a lot of liberties, some of them unnecessary.  The acting was excellent--Dev Patel as the oldest version of the protagonist was a standout, and Irrfan Khan was there to lend a bit of Bollywood luster to the proceedings.   I wonder if they tried to get Sharukh Khan to play the game presenter--that would have been more verite, seeing as he hosts the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire--but the guy who did play him was good as well.  The movie was also beautifully shot, though I thought the saturated colors and you-are-there camera angles owed a lot to movies like the far superior City of God--another movie about slum life that is unlikely to be surpassed anytime soon.  I also thought it could have been more joyful.  There is something about the journey of the book's protagonist that was more magical than the movie's protagonist.  Anyway, I say go see it, especially if you don't get as much India in your movie diet as you should, but don't expect the sorts of wonders the reviewers are espousing.

I guess I should go; I am still at work and was just taking a break from year-end stuff.

I've already weighed in with the majority of my opinions about the Twilight moive ongloriouseahorse andvicariance 's LJs, but I thought I should do my own review here (I do plan to restate some of those opinions in my comments here).  I haven't written up a movie in awhile anyway.  First off, I've never posted this here, but I have read all the books and enjoyed them.  They provide a great amount of visceral charm, as they examine a sort of primal post-feminist desire to have a hot guy protect you at the expense of almost everything.  Even so, I worry for the fate of our teenage men, as they must now convince women they want to date that they're worthy of love even though they can't be as awesome and beautiful as the object of lusty fantasy that is Edward Cullen.

This brings me to something about the audience of the movie that was most interesting to me.  We went at midnight on Thursday, there were a lot of young girls there.  Anything overtly or implicitly sexual or at all erotic in the movie was met with audible tittering.  They were clearly all feeling something, but they weren't quite sure what to make of it.

But on to the movie:

( This contains spoilers... )
OK, I'm in DC and I'm exhausted from my train trip (more on that another time), so I'll end it here.  Looking forward to comments!

In less than 12 hours I'm on a plane to Chicago for a few days of work.  I'll be back just in time for the Election Nite party at my house (detour to Mills's tonight for veggie chili, natch... but will have to leave early for packing).  I'm taking a comp day on the 5th (as I will be hungover either from celebrating or crippling depression), and then I'm in work on the 6th, 7th, and 10th.  The 11th is a holiday, then I'm in the office on the 12th just in time to leave for Nashville on the 13th.  Lee and I will be there until the 16th, then I'm off again on the afternoon of the 21st, when I take my much-anticipated train trip to DC, leaving from beautiful downtown Palatka.  I'll be there by early Saturday morning, and will stay until the afternoon of the 25th.  I should be back in Florida by the morning of the 26th, and will take that day off and then head to Thanksgiving maybe that afternoon, maybe the day of.  December 1 will mark the return to normalcy.

I think I counted 8 total days in the office next month.  Not to mention various meetings eating into my work time and the work Thanksgiving potluck on the 20th.

No wonder I generally consider every November to be a total wasteland when it comes to work.

Burning questions:

Will I or won't I be convinced that going to see Twilight at midnight on the 20th will be a good idea?  I mean, how can I go to see it without Millsy?  I really can't.   Either I go then or convince him to see it a second time once I get back from DC.
When will I get to see the other good movies coming out in November (it does seem probable that we'll go to see Quantum of Solace in Nashville, but who knows)?  If I can't, how will I be competitive for my own Oscar party?
Will any wedding planning be able to happen in the midst of all this?

To all of this I say: blargh.

Anyway, as the subject line says, nice knowing you all.

 Lee and I have decided to undertake a reading project.  I have agreed to read one of his favorite mega-long books, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.  He will be reading one of my favorite mega-long books, The Stand by Stephen King.  Even though he'll be able to devote a fraction of the time to reading than I will due to his schoolwork, we both think he'll finish first.  Also, I'm hampered by the fact that the book is just too big and heavy to bring on the bus for my commute (besides, I'm still 200 pages away from finishing my "bus read," Crime and Punishment).

This has led me to wonder if anyone else I know might be interested in a book exchange program along these lines.  We lend each other a book we think the other might like at the same time and have a conversation about the two books once we were both done.  If you read this and might be intrigued, let me know (of course--some of you who read this already have some of my books, so maybe I would just get one from you).

***

The other day I was talking to Ryan about what happens when a band or artist makes an album that is so good that all their other subsequent work pales in comparison.  I came up with a few examples off the top of my head, but was wondering if others would chime in.

1.  The first one I always think of is Violator by Depeche Mode.  One of the best top-to-bottom albums I've ever heard, for sure, and they definitely haven't done anything nearly as good in the 18 years since it came out.
2.  I find it hard to make a case that anything Nine Inch Nails produced after The Downward Spiral was as good as that album.
3.  I often wonder if The Smiths would have made an album as good as The Queen Is Dead had they lasted longer.  We only have one album produced after that one, Strangeways, Here We Come, and while it's good (one can certainly put a song like "Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me" in the top-10 best Smiths songs ever), it's not even in the same league as its predecessor.
4.  I wonder if time will prove that Modest Mouse might become hugely popular, but they'll never make an album as lovely as The Moon and Antarctica.

My thoughts can only cover bands that I care enough about to be able to examine them in the context of their entire ouevre, and a great many bands I like can't be said to have produced a whole album that was so classic as to render their future work noticably inferior.  Any other takers on this question?

Random bitz:

I picked out my wedding dress this weekend.  It is very cool.  I would post a photo, but since the groom reads my LJ and I'd at least like him to be surprised, no go for posting it here.

Gacked link from gaiaturtle 's journal, as many of my friends will appreciate this (apparently it's making the rounds through parts of the LJiverse):  http://somehedgehog.livejournal.com/245807.html

New TV season roundup:
--Life on Mars: Best new show
--Fringe: A lot of potential in the premise, I hope it lives up to it
--True Blood: Best new entertaining/trashy/campy show (incidentally, these three are the only new shows I picked up this fall, so no opinions on the other new arrivals)
--The Office/My Name is Earl: Funny as evar
--Heroes: Massively dissapointing these first few weeks, hope it picks up
--Dexter: Still taking risks
--Ugly Betty: Too bad viewership is going down, it's sudsier than ever
I'm also keeping up with some other shows like ER, Chuck, Pushing Daisies, etc but not much to report on those.

For those of you not on Facebook (or that I haven't friended on FB for some reason), we're having an election night party.  It's going to be a lot of fun, including Punditspeak Bingo and betting on total number of seats for each party!  (OK, it sounds kind of nerdy when I put it that way, but I assure you it will be fun).  If you want to come and were not invited via that method, let me know; we'll either add you to the FB invite or I'll just add you to our projected guest list.

More to come this fall, including Oscar contender roundups (as those movies finally start coming out here).

 As Jews all over the world, myself included, prepare to celebrate our new year next week, I thought I'd share this funny link.

http://defamer.com/5054850/dreamworks-assistant-thinks-rosh-hashanah-is-newest-hollywood-power-broker

An interesting piece of news via the A.V. club--Eoin Colfer will be writing a fully authorized sixth book in Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series. More here: http://www.avclub.com/content/newswire/children_s_author_to_finish

I'm familiar with Colfer's work; as some might know, I read young adult novels from time to time, and I own all the books in his Artemis Fowl series.  He seems to have enough of an absurdist/fanciful sensibility to make me feel confident that he can at least do right by the material.  Anyone else have an opinion?