To be fair (and in keeping with the sleep theme), I must have been very tired while watching this movie. I watched it in two installments, and each time I fell asleep. Perhaps director Louis Bruñuel's style is just so comfortable and friendly that it lulled me to dreamland. Actually, his style is a very flowy and familiar one, with moments of surprise (which were what woke me up). In this rambling yet carefully composed film, a group of six middle-class friends try to sit down to a meal together, only to be prevented by one excuse or another--sometimes a simple thing like a confusion of dates, and others a little more complex, like being interrupted by military exercises.

I've not seen any other work by Bruñuel, but some refer to him in the school of surrealism. I can see that influence here, although the film itself does not feel very surreal. It's exaggerated and contains some dream sequences and visions of storytelling, but it all feels like it makes sense with his themes in playing with this class of people.

I enjoyed how the movie began casually and gave no hints of the more extreme scenes to follow. The special effects of the soldier's story were completely unexpected, but very cool, and I like how they seemed grotesque but also funny in light of the soldier's manner of sitting down at tea to tell his story and then leave. I wasn't sure how to take the movie as a whole when watching it, because it kept going in different directions, but I'm sure with a second viewing, I'd be laughing a lot more. Even now, looking back, the absurdity of each situation (especially the man hiding under the table from soldiers who is discovered when he reaches up from under the table cloth to grab some food) makes me smile.

I'm not sure there's much of a message so much as a general commentary going on here, and was somewhat confused by the repeated scenes of the friends walking down the street in silence, but the movie was entertaining, funny, weird, and definitely a new experience. Glad I caught it on TiVo.

I didn't have an extremely exciting weekend, especially because I slept through a lot of it.

On Friday Amy was nice enough to give me a ride to my parents' place (remember I locked myself out) after we picked up food and had lunch with Ryan. I finally had Chick-fil-a, which is all the rage around the university these days since one just opened where Krispy Kreme once stood. It was chicken, all right! I'm not sure why everyone's obsessed with it, but the food was good. After I got dropped off at my folks' house, I borrowed my dad's car to go run errands. Finally got my wedding dress boxed. Jenny and I used the buy-one get-one coupon at Jamba Juice for dinner, and then Ric picked me up. I think I might have boxed a few items before Ric and I decided to take a nap... which lasted until noon the next day. I probably slept for about 15 hours.

Saturday I picked up my sister and headed out to the South Coast Repertory to see Hamlet. More thoughts on that later, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend that anyone seek this production out. I came back and had a yummy aromatic shrimp dinner with Ric at China Cottage. We split the shrimp instead of getting two dishes, and the lady there was surprised: "What, no beef today?" I guess we're pretty predictable. They gave us a bunch of free stuff to eat too. Wohoo! We also went out to see Evan Almighty, which deserves a little more credit than the critics have been giving it.

Sunday we went to church and hung out with the Andersons and their drooling wonder, Emily. Afterwards, we ran around town buying moving items at Lowe's and U-Haul. I intended to do a lot of packing, but I fell asleep, into a deep, deep sleep, for about four hours. I think it's a medication I'm on that's making this happen. Anyway, four hours later, I woke up and finished my book, packed a couple of boxes, and went to hang out with Ric's family for spaghetti dinner and laundry. When we got back home, I packed while we watched more Lost episodes. And yes, I was able to go to sleep no problem at bedtime.

Up this week: A whole lotta nothing! I'm hoping to get a lot more packing done. I'm making pretty good progress. And score! IT just got a load of computers in and is giving away Dell boxes, so I'm coming home with a ton of them today.

Last but not least, even though I don't think he's reading: Happy Birthday, Dan! We hope you and J9 have fun celebrating your birthdays this week. We wish we could be there with you and miss you terribly. Life out here just isn't the same without the Danine. (p.s. the Robert Jordan book I just finished--I know, your favorite, Dan--had a character named Danine in it.)

A couple of weeks ago, right after jury duty concluded, I took a (long) drive out to Riverside for the event of the night: Morrissey playing yet another of his odd venue choices - the Riverside Municipal Auditorium. Yo was staying at the Mission Inn, so I met up with him and his roommate at the hotel. If you haven't seen or heard of this place, it's impressive. We relaxed in the hotel room for a while (or at least I did, because the back was bad that day) and watched some of the disappointing Stanley Cup Final Game. I think Ric and I were the only people rooting against the Ducks that day. Jenny joined us and we all had dinner at one of the Mission Inn's restaurants, a pretty cool Mexican place that was outdoors and heated by firepits. Good food and good fun.

We all walked over to the auditorium after dinner, which only took a few minutes. Getting in, however, took quite a while. We made it just in time, because the intro was starting right as we located our seats! Yo and Dwayne sat in one section while Jenny and I sat in another. I had a great view of a post, so I spent most of the night sitting on the ledge, peeking around it.

The venue was a very cool older mission-style building, and the stage was decorated with three huge, identical banners with a photo of James Dean. The gong was in place, and Morrissey entered with his bandmates (who all dressed alike). The show was good, but short. The merchandise table had tshirts that said it was a Best Of tour, so we were pleased to hear all sorts of hits from Morrissey and the Smiths, although the second half of the show seemed a lot like his tour for Ringleader of the Tormentors. My favorites were Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want, Life is a Pigsty, and You're Gonna Need Someone on Your Side (which was a huge highlight for me--I once spent about six months listening to Your Arsenal while I went out walking, and YGNSOYS is one of my fun favorites).

After the show, we went walking to find a bar that Yo remembered. We got directions from a scary drugged-up kid who was sitting on the sidewalk, and spent a while there. I had a long drive, so I took off around 11:45 and headed home. Worst drive ever, by the way. First I couldn't find the freeway entrance, and then when I did it was closed, so I had to find another, and then figured out that I went a different way than I meant to, and was upset when the whole freeway shut down because of an accident (no detours available), and then my exchange to another freeway was closed off. I made it to a gas station with 5 miles left on the tank. Yikes.

Anyway, it was an eventful night and a fun one for the most part, and thanks to Yo for being so generous! One of these days you'll let me pay.

Palestine by Joe Sacco

I added about 15 more pictures to the gallery from what was saved on Stephanie's computer. Once I can access the rest, I will post pictures of Samuel's and Galilee's families.

Also, enjoy the new captions. Mostly benign, but you might get one or two chuckles.

Sorry folks, I don't really have an excuse this time. I guess I've just been busy, keeping myself occupied and trying to find some gainful employment. Summer school has kept me quite busy since I have assignments due so frequently, but that is almost done. Here's what I've done since my birthday party a week ago:

• Went to Universal Studios. I got a free ticket in the mail, so that was sweet.
• Took a test and did a bunch of homework.
• Tried to sell my laptop on ebay but the winner of the auction turned out to be a scammer from Nigeria. Nice try, pal.
• Saw The Princess Bride out under the stars at the L.A. Film Fest.
• Watched a bunch of DVDs. Top picks included LolliLove, Run Ronnie Run, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and Lady Vengeance.
• Went to San Onofre State Beach with a bunch of folks. It was great. Probably the first time I've spent all day at the beach in ages.
• Saw Evan Almighty with a bunch of friends yesterday. It was pretty funny, better than I expected.
• Continued the Alias marathon with Phil and Janelle after a long hiatus. We're now back on pace to finish before summer's over. Hopefully.

Whew! Yeah, lots of things going on. This week is pretty busy too. I'm going to Disneyland tonight with some folks to say goodbye to some friends who are moving out of state. Wednesday it's back to the L.A. Film Festival for a screening of "Once More With Feeling," the musical Buffy episode. I'm really excited for that. Thursday is our big Ann Lynn show at U.C. Irvine. Check out our Events Page for all the details on that. Hope everyone else is doing all right, having a good summer and all that good stuff.