All Growns Up

Just a quick one tonight...

I'd like to give a shout out to my sister Briana. She just graduated college!

Congrats Sister.

A Holiday Movie List

Hey Folks-

Briana's boyfriend, Drew, posted his movie Top 5 lists on a different website, and it seemed like a fun type thing to do, so I'm gonna post my own.

So in any case, Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or whatever you do or don't celebrate.

Oh...and Thanks Drew for giving me a fun thing I write on a lazy day. (The categories are his...mostly.)

Top 5 Comedies:

1. It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
2. Wedding Crashers
3. Anchorman: the Legend Of Ron Burgundy
4. Bowfinger
5. Groundhog Day

Top 5 Drama's:

1. Unforgiven
2. Children of Men
3. American Beauty
4. Goodfellas
5. Road to Perdition

Top 5 Horror:

1. The Shining
2. The Exorcist
3. Dimensia 13
4. Halloween (original)
5. Scream

Top 5 Sci-Fi:

1. Back to the Future
2. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
3. Unbreakable
4. Dark City
5. A Clockwork Orange

Top 5 Disney ( I can't help but think Drew put this in here JUST to get me to respond):

1. Peter Pan
2. The Lion King
3. The Little Mermaid
4. Hercules
5. Fantasia

Top 5 Foreign:

1. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2. The Seven Samurai
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. 8 1/2
5. Ran

Top 5 Romance (chick flicks, but without the bad connotations):

1. Almost Famous
2. The Notebook
3. Sleepless in Seattle
4. Jerry McGuire
5. Pretty Woman

Top 5 Documentaries:

1. American Movie
2. The Thin Blue Line
3. Grizzly Man
4. When We Were Kings
5. Hoop Dreams

Top 5 Action (New Category)
1. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade
2. Pirates of the Caribbean
3. The Dark Knight
4. Raiders of the Lost Ark
5. Kill Bill vol. 1

Top 5 Fantasy (New Category)
1. The Lord of the Rings; The Two Towers
2. Ghostbusters
3. Pan's Labyrinth
4. The Princess Bride
5. The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King

Top 5 War Movies (New Category)
1. Braveheart
2. Full Metal Jacket
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Saving Private Ryan
5. Tropic Thunder

Top 5 Sports Movies (new Category)
1. Cool Runnings
2. Rudy
3. Hoosiers
4. Rocky IV
5. Seabiscuit

Top 5 Steve Martin Movies: (Kinda random, Drew)

1. Bowfinger
2. Three Amigos
3. The Spanish Prisoner
4. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
5. L.A. Story

Top 5 Directors:

1. Kubrick
2. Scorsese
3. Coen Brothers
4. Wes Anderson
5. Spielberg

Top 5 Christmas Movies

1) Christmas Vacation
2) The Family Stone
3) A Christmas Story
4) Miracle on 34th Street
5) It's a Wonderful Life

Top 5 All Time Favorites (This is really impossible. Seriously)

1. Peter Pan
2. Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade
3. Unforgiven
4. Unbreakable
5. The Lion King

Merry Christmas Everybody!

The Rome Blog

Hey Folks-

So... one of the reasons it's taken me over a week to discuss my trip to Rome is that the whole thing happened so fast and was over so fast and yet I saw so, so much. It's taken me a bit of time to process it, and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure that I've processed it fully just yet.

Still... I've been slacking on blog entries, and the trip to Rome was a big part of the reason why. Also, it was cool and I have lots of stuff to tell you... In no particular order or coherance:

-- Do everything you can to sleep on the plane. Seriously. The 6 hour time change will fuck you up. My flight departed around 5:30PM on Thursday and I got in around 8 AM on Friday. It's very disconcerting to skip night time altogether. It was light out when the plane took off, they had the shades closed on the plane, and when we got into Italy it was light out. Basically it was like living in Alaska. And I was so, soooo tired by around 5 in the afternoon. I ended up sleeping from 5PM to 7:30AM on Saturday. Just sayin'... be prepared.

-- Traffic is awesome. See, the thing is, in America we're soft. We're cushy. We follow the rules. Not so much in Italy. First off, there are very very few big cars. I drive a 4-door Honda Accord and my car would not fit into most parking spaces. I don't recall seeing a single SUV. Most of the cars around the place are like those little Smart Cars. Tiny. And there are all of these Vespas and Vespa-like scooters. And they're insane. The scooters zip around all willy nilly. The cars park on the curbs and they smack into eachother to make more room places. The buses (of the public transportation variety) are apparently allowed to do whatever they want. There was at least one instance of me being completely ignored by a bus that decided not to stop. Oh... And the best thing about the traffic? There's an unspoken agreement between pedestrians and traffic where the pedestrian will be allowed to cross any street at any time as long as they can get themselves across said street without being plowed down by the totally un-slowed oncoming cars. It's great because nobody waits. Everyone has full accountability.

-- The most amazing single thing I saw? St. Peter's Basilica. It's at The Vatican, which is awesome in itself. St Peter's is the largest church I've ever seen, and not by a little. It's effing HUGE. Like... I've been to some pretty large churches in my time that would literally fit INSIDE St. Peter's. So really, just the scope of the structure itself is incredible. If you add to that the dozens and dozens of priceless statues. The paintings. The mummified remains of popes. (that's right). The place is this crazy combination of pure majesty of faith (even if you're not particularly spiritual) and artistry and kinda creepy pack-rattedness (I mean... dead popes... right there.) I didn't even get to see the museum (Sistine Chapel) because it was closed the Sunday I was there. It's almost worth it to me to go back to Rome just to finish seeing the Vatican.

-- The strangest thing? The ruins near the Pantheon (another totally amazing place) where all of these cats live. Dozens of them. It's adorable and fun and cool and there are tons of cats.

-- I may be the only person who could go to Rome, one of the World's capitals of Cuisine, and LOSE weight. I lost 7 pounds in the 3 days I was there. The main reason is that since my surgery I still have a pretty difficult time eating things like bread and meats and pasta. That makes eating almost anything in Italy pretty difficult. I'm not saying I didn't try. I had some good melon on my first day. The mixed cheese plate included some of the best parmesan cheese I've ever had. I had some pretty rockin' gnocchi. Still... it was rough. And kinda torturous. Fucking pizzas were everywhere. Yes... pizzas were literally having sex with each other. It was crazy.

-- While hostels are cool and very inexpensive... they are not to be entirely trusted. On my first night, someone parted me with about 30 Euros while I slept. On the other hand, I met some really cool folks and I learned the rules of Crickett and taught an Australian girl the rules of Baseball. A true demonstration of diplomacy. (though Crickett is nearly incomprehensible)

-- I think my favorite single thing was this little fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps. I know it's kinda weird, with everything in this amazing city splayed out for all to see, but this little fountain of a boat that has sprung a leak just has so much character and grace and whimsy. It makes me feel like there was a sense of humor, even back when all of these masters were creating these incredible works of art. Occasionally they just wanted to make a boat. I love that fountain.

-- There's something really cool about being in a place that has seen so much. If you're in America and something is "old" it's like... 150 years old. In Rome it's like... 2500 years old. That thing has this huge historical footprint. And everything there is like that. I love that you can walk down the street and end up passing some little fresco on the wall of some building that's 500 years old. I love that these little churches or buildings have been standing for longer than the world even knew America (AS A LAND MASS) existed.

-- Lastly for this blog, I think it's really pretty amazing to see the power of the Catholic Church demonstrated for you in such definitive ways. I mean the organization, not the religion. The best example I can give is the Pantheon and the aforementioned ruins with the cats. The original structures were built around the same time. Within a hundred years or so...and one of the structures was sort of commandeered by the Catholic church and one wasn't. Can you guess which building is still standing and in perfect, pristine condition and which one is...well... a ruins? You see that kind of thing EVERYWHERE. Secular structures are falling down. Churches from the same time period are perfect. It's very interesting.

(In case you wondered... that's a Pope.... from the 1600s.)

-- Oh... for real the last thing... Flying Business Class is pretty effing awesome.

In any case, I had an awesome time. It was so cool to see my sister having such an amazing experience and really taking the reins in a pretty material way. She was the one leading, and that's for sure. She had that shit on lock. And I only embarassed us once or twice with me sad attempts at even the most basic Italian.

Week 10 Football Picks (Rome Edition)

Hey Folks-

So here's the quickest football picks you'll ever see. I'm writing this from Briana's apartment in Rome, and I don't want to monopolize her computer. In any case, here we go...

Thursday:

Denver @ Cleveland

PICK: BRONCOS (I have to forfeit this one though, since the game already happened)

Sunday

New Orleans @ Atlanta

PICK: FALCONS

Tennesee @ Chicago

PICK: TITANS

Jacksonville @ Detroit

PICK: JAGUARS

Seattle @ Miami

PICK: SEAHAWKS **

Green Bay @ Minnesota

PICK: VIKINGS

Buffalo @ New England

PICK: PATRIOTS **

St Louis @ New York Jets

PICK: JETS **

Baltimore @ Houston

PICK: TEXANS

Carolina @ Oakland

PICK: PANTHERS **

Indianapolis @ Pittsburgh

PICK: COLTS **

Kansas City @ San Diego

PICK: CHARGERS **

New York Giants @ Philadelphia

PICK: GIANTS **

San Francisco @ Arizona

PICK: CARDINALS

Note.. any pick with a "**" next to it was selected by my sister, Briana. Let's see how she does.

Il Mio Italiano è Orribile.

Hey Folks-

So, I think I mentioned in a previous blog that Briana, my sister, is going to Italy for 4 months. She's leaving a week from Monday. I'm gonna miss her.

Anywhooo... She had a going-away party the other night at the homestead, and I told her that I had a few ideas of gifts that she could bring back for me. Being the thoughtful brother that I am, I tried to come up with things that would certainly get her arrested for taking into the airport. Even if they ended up being totally innocent.

So, in honor of Briana's awesome upcoming adventure, I give you:

The Top 5 Gifts Suspicious Enough to Get Briana Questioned and or Arrested.


1) This one is double awesome... She could get arrested just procuring the gift in the first place... I want her to take a heavy duty file and collect some good white powdery dust from the Collosseum. Then she should take the white "pillar powder" and put it in a zip lock bag in her carry-on.

2) A small Italian child. I don't know what the purpose of this would be, but Briana's a little weird, and it's the thought that counts.

3) One of those monkey's with the hats that dances to the hurdy gurdy. I don't need the hurdy gurdy itself.

4) A crucifix from the Vatican. Not like... from the gift shop(pe) but an actual one. Like...from the Pope's private crib.

5) *Courtesy of Briana's boyfriend Drew... She could bring me back a "bowling ball candle". Just picture that going through the x-ray machine... Allow me to provide a visual:

In any case, Buona fortuna Briana. I'll miss you.

To Tattoo or Not to Tattoo

I kinda love that title.

In any case, Hey Folks!

I have been notoriously bad about gifts for my sister for her birthday or for Christmas or whatever. It's not that I don't love her, because I definitely do, but money's sometimes tight, or I don't see her right on the day or basically other bad excuses.

Well, when she turned 18, I told her that I would purchase her a tattoo, and that I would get a matching one. She really liked that idea, and so we planned on it. It's now 2 years later. I finally have a little bit of money, or at least...enough money to purchase completely frivolous things like tattoos. So, about a week ago, I told her that it was time, and we got together to talk about what we'd like to get. (It not necessarily having to match, but at least be cohesively themed.) We got together on Sunday and talked it over. After some discussion about initials or horses or some such, we came upon the idea of Koi fish.

Why Koi Fish? Well... A number of reasons I guess. We both liked the idea of doing a traditional type tattoo, and Koi are pretty traditional. Some people would say that "Traditional" in this case is code for "Common", and maybe there are a lot of Koi tattoos around, but we also really liked the symbolism of the Koi. It represents perseverance, family, loyalty...those kinds of fun things. I mean... I'll be honest, there hasn't been a lot that she and I have had to "persevere" over together, though we all have stuff individually, right? Still... "Family" and "Loyalty" are good things. Plus, there's a huge amount of variation that can go into a Koi fish, which gives us a modicum of individuality within our cohesive theme.

So anyway, I have a friend from my Starbucks days named Sarah, and she dates a REALLY good tattoo artist. He's a good dude too, so I figured I may as well give him my business. It's kinda hard to argue with the "nice and extremely talented" combination. So tonight Briana (sister) and I (and her boyfriend Drew) went out to Milford to meet up with Jake (the artist) and talk to him about placement, price, and style. After talking for a bit, I settled on a black, blue, and white fish (the colors that, when in Koi form, represent the 'masculine') and Briana chose something a little softer with Reds and Pinks (feminine).

I gotta tell you... I'm really excited. We don't have our appointment for a couple of weeks. (Jake is both busy and not often there), but I think it's gonna be pretty awesome.

I hope Briana likes her 18th birthday present... 2 years late.

Didn't really have that much to say tonight, so you're stuck with the details of my tattoo preparation. My bad.

Below is a drawing by Chris Garver from Miami Ink. It's...a Koi Fish.