Sunday night, I got a text from one of my dearest friends. He's now an animator. He says, "Hey, remember that little side project you put together when you were in broadcast school? I think I'd like to animate it. Do you still have the audio?"
Well, I couldn't find the audio, but I did find this. I remember scrapping the side project and turning this in for that assignment.
This was for production class. The assignment was, as I recall, "Go nuts and do whatever you want. You just need to hit these three criteria to show that you've picked up this particular set of skills." And we were off.
Now, we had a guest speaker recently who referred to our production instructor as "the Yoda of production," so we were giving him a hard time about that. This was also around the same time that the original trilogy had finally hit DVD for the first time, and so I was watching it quite a bit.
And then it hit me: I would me and some Yoda clips together and set it up like I was asking my instructor for help with the project.
We didn't have the tech to rip audio from DVDs, so I grabbed the audio the old-fashioned way. I checked out a portable audio recorder from our equipment stores, took it home for the weekend, ran the audio outputs from my DVD player into the portable audio recorder and grabbed the clips that way. I grabbed the Yoda clips I wanted to use. I also grabbed the ambient sound from several establishing shots. I figured it would be easier to use that to fill in the gaps, rather than try to build my own Dagobah soundscape.
For the first half -- where I try to record something and it comes out all messed up -- I just took my voice over and threw about a dozen different effects on it to get it as messed up as possible. The creepy "seven days" was voiced by one of my classmates who I grabbed in the hallway.
Piece it all together in CoolEdit (the forerunner to Adobe Audition) and voila! Assignment done!
The class got a charge out of it. The instructor loved it. At the end of class, he pulls me aside and says, "Do you mind if I play that for future classes? Because you do illustrate some common problems, and I think it would be useful." I said, "Sure, why not?"
I reached out to that instructor about two or three years ago for a little help, and he said, "Oh, by the way, I still play that Yoda thing for the class." So if you came up through NAIT's RTA program in the last 10-12 years and you heard that...yeah, that was me.
Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly ramble about I movie I own. Today, we get to the surprisingly controversial Ghostbusters reboot. This is in my notes at October 30, 2016.
Rockin' and rollin' again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, where I blog about one of the movies I've recently re-watched in a desperate attempt to give my life purpose. Today, we roll out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. This is in my notes at October 10, 2016.
Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my blog about movies I own. Today, we tackle the latest chapter in the X-Men franchise, X-Men Apocalypse. This originally appeared in my notes at October 6, 2016.
Well, I've been mostly separated from my computer as I've been off on vacation over the past week. Well, not completely separated...I maxed out my data plan on Friday night, thus not allowing me to share all the cool stuff that was popping up online over the weekend. So rather than flood my Twitter feed with a bunch of day-old news, I figured I'd just make a big list of everything here at the blog!
Of course, most of the news was coming out of D23, the official Disney convention that Disney puts on, as they went over their upcoming slates. Things kicked off on Friday night with the most anticipated trailer of the evening that wasn't Star Wars or Marvel...the first trailer for A Wrinkle in Time.
Oscar-nominated director Ava DuVernay brings the legendary YA sci-fi novel to the big screen, with an all-star cast. Young Meg Murray's father unlocks the secrets of the tesseract (not the Marvel McGuffin) to traverse time and space, but gets captured by something evil along the way. Now, Meg must go on a quest to save her father, and is guided along the way by three celestial beings: Mrs. Which (Oprah Winfrey), Mrs. Whatsit (Reese Witherspoon), and Mrs. Who (Mindy Kailing).
I'm not too familiar with the book...all I really know was a friend in college cited it as one of her favourites growing up, and the last time they attempted an adaptation was a really crappy TV movie in 2003. But this trailer has me intrigued. It comes out March 9, so lots of time to check out the book at my local library.
Also on the live-action side that caught my eye was Disney has officially begun production on their live-action remake of Dumbo, from director Tim Burton. How are they bringing it to live action? More humans, of course! Humans barely figured into the original, but now we've got Colin Farrell as Dumbo's trainer, Danny DeVito as the circus owner, and Michael Keaton and Eva Green as the ones who teach Dumbo how to fly.
I was about to give this a pass until I saw Keaton in the cast. Tim Burton and Michael Keaton, together again since Batman Returns in 1992. If they bring the wacky like they did in Beetlejuice, this just might be worth a watch. Disney's aiming this one for a Spring 2019 release.
Over on the animated side, not much new. Incredibles 2, Toy Story 4, and Frozen 2 are all on track. One of the show-stoppers was the first footage from Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2. The plot: when Sugar Crush, Vanellope's game, starts crashing, threatening Vanellope and all the denizens of Sugar Crush, it's up to Ralph and Vanellope to venture onto the Internet to get the parts to fix the game (i.e. download a patch).
The sequence shown was a very meta one, where Ralph and Vanellope stumble upon the Disney website and we get cameos by every Disney princess ever. And yes, every Disney princess has their original voice actress, because that's how Disney rolls. Wreck-It Ralph 2 comes November 2018.
Meanwhile, over at my beloved Pixar, they gave updates on Coco (this November), Incredibles 2 (next summer) and Toy Story 4 (Summer 2019). And then...what comes next.
What comes next is a very personal story from Monsters University director Dan Scanlon. Scanlon opened his presentation by explaining that his father died when he was very young, and as such, he never knew his father. He only knows his father's voice thanks to a cassette tape of a family gathering that a relative gave him, in which his father utters just two words: "Hi" and "Bye." From that inspiration, Scanlon came up with this.
Set in a world populated with magical creatures -- fairies, elves, trolls, "anything painted on the side of a van in the 1970s" according to Scanlon -- these creatures actually abandoned magic long ago and embraced technology. Two elf children who lost their father when they were very young decide to gather up what magic remains in the world to see if they can use it to spend one last day with their father. Sounds like it could be an emotional gut punch. No release date as of yet.
Meanwhile, over on the Star Wars side, we got a new behind-the-scenes glimpse for The Last Jedi.
Nothing really to add...still looking awesome. Still can't wait. The other big news was the Star Wars Land now under construction at Disneyland and Walt Disney World has an official name: Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
And on the Marvel side, they showed the first footage from Avengers: Infinity War, and apparently, it's amaze-balls. Thanos using the Infinity Gauntlet to literally pull down the heavens upon our heroes. Nothing official has shown up online yet....just wait until after this weekend and the San Diego Comic Con.
And that's everything that caught my eye from D23.
Over in non-Disney news, we have the Thirteenth Doctor on Doctor Who!
Jodie Whittaker is playing #13, and we have our first female Doctor.
I won't get into all the hate going on right now about how women can't be Doctors. Let's be honest, they've been toying with doing this since the show's heyday in the 1980s, and with the phenomenal response to Missy (the Doctor's arch-enemy the Master, regenerated into a woman, in case you haven't been watching lately), you knew this was happening.
If anything, the comments I'm reading online are saying that a lot of people wandered away from the show during the Peter Capaldi era, and that this is the creative shot-in-the-arm to bring them back to the franchise.
And don't forget, we're getting a whole new creative team behind the scenes when #13 takes the stage next year. I think there are very interesting times ahead, and it's going to be good.
We'll get our first look at #13 in action in the Christmas special, airing on Christmas!
So where was I the past week that I've got to play catch-up like this? I was on vacation!
I started things off by watching Spider-Man Homecoming. Loved it! The core theme was definitely people in suits, and whether it's the suit that makes the hero or not. We've got Iron Man, who's Spider-Man's idol, and he's constantly trying to impress. I loved that they turned the Vulture into a kind of "dark Tony Stark," and rather than just a pair of wings, his costume is his own Iron Man-esque suit that he's made from scavenged parts...a very literal reworking of his name and gimmick. And in the centre of it all is Peter Parker, with a hi-tech Spider-Man suit that he's been given, trying to find his place as a hero.
Tom Holland is great. He brings the youthful exuberance that a high school aged Spider-Man needs. And it's just nice to see Spider-Man in the Marvel universe where he belongs.
I'll write an official review on the main site in the days ahead. But...3.5 Nibs.
And then I was off to the family reunion, down south, just outside of Red Deer. It was a lot of fun, and good seeing so many family members again.
The drive home was nice. Normally, to get from the Red Deer area to Westlock, I just head straight north on Highway 2, using the Anthony Henday Drive to circle around Edmonton. Normally, I go around the west side. But, now that the Henday is complete, I decided to mix things up and go around the east side.
The east side of Edmonton is where Edmonton's oil refineries are, and it was quite the site. Storm clouds were rolling through, so things were dark. I don't know if it was smoke from the fires in BC, or just the exhaust from the refineries, but there was this orange haze in the air. And it was dark enough that all the refineries were lit up. I find a strange beauty in industrial sites at night...just these metal frames, all aglow with their safety lights. And all enshrouded in an orange haze...it was like being on Cybertron.
I was tempted to pull over and take a picture, but probably not a good idea on a busy freeway like the Henday.
Anyway, I'm about rambled out and I'm getting tired of writing. Time to head back to work!
Fishing in the Discount Bin time, where I blog about a movie I own and have recently re-watched. A frequent problem is how do I tackle a film I have loved since childhood, have constantly blogged about over the years, and don't know what more to say? It's a problem I ran into on September 18, 2016, when I watched and wrote about The Transformers: The Movie.
We just keep rolling along on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my testament to how little a life I have by watching a lot of movies AND blogging about them! Today, we get to Marvel's biggest movie of last year, Captain America: Civil War. I put this in my notes at September 18, 2016.
Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, as I blog about one of the many DVDs I own. I'm now picking apart the 2000 animated film Titan A.E.. This is in my notes at September 10, 2016.
Yup, that's pretty much all that's in this blog post. No other grand adventures in the city. It's starting to be the busy time of year for us radio folk, with every weekend full of festivals and fairs that we're live on location from. So, no time for lollygagging on my day off! It was just go see the movie I wanted to see then come back home!
Although, I really haven't done a true lollygagging day in a while, all the way down to West Edmonton Mall. Last one was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 back at the start of May. I think I'll have to make the effort for Spider-Man: Homecoming, though. I've seen every Spider-Man film at the Scotiabank Theatre in West Edmonton Mall. Hell, I've been watching Spider-Man films there back when it was Silver City. So I must maintain the tradition!
But until then, Cars 3. I love Pixar. Always try to make it out to their films. But the Cars franchise has always felt a little...phoned in to me. It lacks that trademark heart that's made Pixar famous. I put down Cars as "good, but not great." Cars 2 was the first film that made me say, "No thank you," to a Pixar film. Skipped it in theatres, but I still bought the Blu-Ray because I couldn't have a gap in my collection. Watched it and...yeah. It was worth skipping.
But that first teaser for Cars 3 where our hero, Lightening McQueen, gets trashed in an accident had me go, "Ooo. Interesting." And so I went to see Cars 3.
Cars 3 has something in common with another Pixar sequel, Monsters University. They both get into the topic of the death of dreams. I liked Monsters University because it captures that melancholy moment in our lives when we realize that, no matter how hard we work or how much effort we put in, we just may not achieve our dreams. Cars 3 tackles the question, "Where do we go once we've peaked? What do we do when the dream starts coming to an end?"
Lightening McQueen has been the king of the raceway for about a decade now. But one by one, he sees his compatriots begin to retire as the next generation of racers begin nipping at their bumpers. When McQueen attempts a desperate move to defeat a cocky upstart named Jackson Storm, it leads to the wreck that we see in the teaser.
After spending the off-season sulking, McQueen decides he'll retire on his own terms, and sets out to get his mojo back. His new sponsor sets him up in one of the most state-of-the-art training centres in the league, and McQueen gets to work with his new trainer, Cruz Ramirez. Frustrated at his slow progress under Cruz's statistics-based training regime, McQueen decides to hit the road for some old school training. With Cruz in tow, and the first race of the season coming up quick, can McQueen and Cruz get McQueen back in fighting shape to take down Storm?
This has got to be one of Pixar's most photo-realistic films. I swear, some of the backgrounds look just like live-action pictures. But, Pixar always brings it in the animation game. Voice acting is solid, as usual. Cristela Alonzo voices Cruz Ramirez, and brings enough joy to the role to show that she's passionate about the sport, and just not another Queen of Numbers. Nathan Fillion is good, too, using his natural charm for a slightly darker purpose as Sterling, McQueen's new sponsor.
And for those who didn't like Larry the Cable Guy's Mater the Tow Truck, and really didn't like Mater taking centre stage in Cars 2, will be relieved to know that Mater is back to being the comedic sidekick. In fact, his role is so reduced, I'd almost call it an extended cameo.
But...it's still Cars. The plot is rather predictable, and as I did see the big twist coming, I like the fact that at least they tried.
Cars 3 finally has some of that heart that Pixar is known for. Not much, but there's a little peaking through. I liked it. 3 Nibs. Full review at the website.
Oh, and as is the Pixar way, it started with a short film. Lou is about a sentient lost and found box at a school playground, and his efforts to make sure everything gets back to their rightful owners. And then Lou has to do battle with a bully who steals stuff. It's really cute, and honestly, has a lot more heart than Cars 3.
Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly ramble about my recent re-watching of one of my DVDs. Or Blu-Rays. Or VHS tapes. Pretty much any movie I own. Anyway, this time, we're taking a look at the newer director's cut of The Iron Giant. This is in my notes at September 10, 2016.
Alright! Last week, I went to the city to see Wonder Woman. I've been putting off all week sitting down and writing my usual "I went to the city and saw a movie and did stuff!" blog entry. But now, I've got some time set aside on Sunday night, so let's do this.
Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, as I ramble about one of the many movies I own on Blu-Ray. Gotta revisit the classics with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This is in my notes at September 8, 2016.
Fishing in the Discount Bin just keeps rolling along, as I blog about one of the many DVDs, Blu-Rays, and the odd VHS that I still own. We round out in the initial Pokemon trilogy with Pokemon 3 The Movie. This is in my notes at September 7, 2016.
Just some random thoughts I had as I was drifting off to sleep last night, and they're a little too long to tweet.
Firstly, I can't believe how excited I'm getting for Spider-Man Homecoming. The film's composer, Michael Giacchino, posted this to his Twitter feed a few weeks ago. I've listened to it hundreds of times, and it always makes me smile.
Have you ever heard the classic Spider-Man theme sound so grand and epic?
Some 20 years ago, when I first discovered the Internet on a late night in Augustana's computer lab, the first thing I typed into a search engine was "Spider-Man Movie," and I just started reading every bit of news I could. For those who don't know the history, back in the 1990s, the movie rights to Spider-Man were stuck in a legal quagmire. It looked like a film that would never be made. But finally, in the year 2000, the complainants were whittled down to just Sony and Marvel, who settled out-of-court, thus paving the way for Spider-Man to hit theatres in 2002.
So, yeah. I'll never not get excited for a Spider-Man film, because I'll never forget those days where it seemed like a legal impossibility.
That being said, it always easy to look back with disappointment. With my excitement building, I popped The Amazing Spider-Maninto my Blu-Ray player last night and watched a bit of it. After five minutes, my frustration started boiling to the surface again. The Amazing Spider-Man films represent everything that's wrong with Hollywood's "gotta build a franchise" mentality. Those films are just so overstuffed. The entire attitude is, "Let's throw everything at the wall and see what pays off later."
When The Amazing Spider-Man was first announced, reaction was, "We'll be fine with it, as long as you don't rehash the origin story." And what did they do? They rehashed the origin story. If they skipped the origin story...if they cut out that "mystery of Peter Parker's parents" BS...if they cut all that out and just focused on a proper "Spider-Man vs. the Lizard" story, it probably would have been a much more decent Spider-Man movie.
Same with its sequel. For some reason, they decided to resurrect "the mystery of Peter Parker's parents" and tried again to make that work. They awkwardly shoehorned in the Green Goblin just so they could work in the death of Gwen Stacey. If they cut all that out and just focused on a proper "Spider-Man vs. Electro" story, it would have been a much more decent Spider-Man movie.
For what seemed like an impossibility for so long, we really are lucky to have so much to complain about.
The Mummyhits theatres this Friday, and with it, we get the launch of Universal's "Dark Universe," their attempt to create a new cinematic universe out of their classic monsters. I'm on the fence about going to see The Mummy, as the Universal Monsters are a franchise I've always been indifferent towards. Plus, I'm not so sure if I can commit myself to another cinematic universe. I'll probably give it a few weeks, see what the reviews are like, and then check it out.
But, with that cinematic universe, things seem to be progressing nicely. It was announced a few weeks ago that the second film will be a remake of The Bride of Frankenstein, from director Bill Condon, who just gave us Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast. That's slated for Valentine's Day 2019. With that came the announcement that Johnny Depp has joined the Dark Universe as the Invisible Man, and Javier Bardem is on board as Frankenstein's Monster.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one where people are scratching their heads, as the Hunchback has never been portrayed as a monster. But then, as I was drifting off to sleep last night, I had a thought. Igor, Dr. Frankenstein's long-suffering assistant, has long been portrayed as a hunchback. What if they're turning The Hunchback of Notre Dame into Igor's tragic backstory? I mean, the original novel ends with the Hunchback being buried alive next to his beloved Esmeralda. What if Dr. Frankenstein rescued Igor during one of his grave-robbing expeditions to get parts for his Monster, and took him in? I guess we'll know for sure if/when we get to that chapter in the cinematic universe.
And then there's the Phantom of the Opera. I don't know...I've got a little bit of bitterness towards the Phantom. Back when I was a kid, the Broadway musical of The Phantom of the Opera was still new and a very big deal. The Canadian touring show had just launched, and it's only Alberta stop was going to be in Calgary.
Now, back in Entwistle School, the Grade 9 class always gets to go on a massive year-end class trip called the Grade 9 Farewell. When I was in Grade 8, the Grade 9 Farewell was going to be down to Calgary to see The Phantom of the Opera. A few students pulled out, so the teacher in charge, Mr. Twerdoclib, decided to hold an essay contest among the Grade 8 students to fill those empty seats.
I entered. I lost.
Don't get me wrong. I deserved to lose. I wrote the whole thing in the backseat of my family's car coming back from a weekend trip in Red Deer. My bitterness stems from how Mr. Twerdoclib informed me as to how I lost. One day, he pulls me out of my nice, comfy science class, brings me into his Grade 9 English class, puts me at the front of the room, and proceeds to dress me down as to how lame my essay was. It was the kind of public humiliation that my 13-year old self never really got over.
I learned two things from that incident. Firstly, the winning essay was about comparing various branches of the federal government to positions on a baseball team. I thought to myself, "Huh. Teachers really like this 'comparison' thing." So I used that as the formula in every essay I wrote for the rest of my academic career and aced everything.
The second: Mr. Twerdoclib is a dick.
Anyway, I see the latest touring show for The Phantom of the Opera hits Edmonton next month. Maybe I'll go. Get some closure.
Still boppin' along on Fishing in the Discount Bin, watching movies and blogging about them. I seem to have hit a run of Pokemon movies, as I'm looking at Pokemon the Movie 2000 this week. This is in my notes at September 4, 2016.
Here's an old thing I made while cleaning out my hard drive, so I thought I'd share it with the world.
A few years back, one of my dearest friends was nearing her 30th birthday. She had read the statistic that, if a woman is unmarried by the age of 30, she may as well be dead, because that's how sharply her marriage prospects drop off. With that in mind, for her 30th birthday party, she decided to throw herself a funeral. She asked all her friends to submit eulogies, and her boyfriend was going to read them. (And if you're worried about her marital status, her boyfriend put a ring on it a few months later.)
I was sad that I couldn't be there, because, at the time, she was in the magical, faraway land of Scotland, and I was a broke young man at his very first radio gig in the equally magical, but not as faraway, land of Athabasca. As I sat down one afternoon to write it, it occurred to me: I work in radio. I have the set-up to record stuff. Why don't I record myself saying it, and send her boyfriend the MP3?
And, as a firm believer in the power of production, I decided to raid my collection of film scores and put in some appropriate music.
I didn't get her reaction until a year later. She was back in the country when my 30th birthday rolled around, and decided to pop in for the party. According to her, my eulogy was definitely the highlight. It was getting a little monotonous, as most of her friends just jotted down a sentence or two that boiled down to, "She's my friend and now she's dead and I'm sad." Then her boyfriend stood up and said, "And we've got one last one here, that comes to us all the way from Canada," and he hit play, and the room was enraptured. She even says that one of her friends instantly fell in love with me, and is waiting to greet me with a kiss should I ever find myself in Edinburgh. (In my dreams, it's Karen Gillan.)
Anyway, I found it gathering dust on my hard drive, so I thought I'd dust it off and post it online.
For those curious, the music:
"Leaving Home" from Superman, composed by John Williams
"To the Stars" from Dragonheart, composed by Randy Edelman
"Jupiter, the Bringer of Jolity," from The Planets, composed by Gustav Holst
"Augustus Gloop" from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, composed by Danny Elfman
"Happy Birthday," written and performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic
"Remains of the Day" from Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, composed by Danny Elfman
Here we go again on Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly rant about one of the movies I own. It's time we touched upon one of my guiltiest of guilty pleasures, the Pokemon animation franchise. We kick things off with Pokemon: The First Movie. This is in my notes at September 3, 2016.
Here we go with Fishing in the Discount Bin, my weekly ramble about one of the many movies I own. I'm taking a look at Daredevil again, because I just got the director's cut out of a discount bin. This was originally in my notes at August 27, 2016.
A couple of weeks ago, I was out driving my car to work, when I rounded a corner, and it made a strange grinding noise. It sounded a lot like when my car scrapes the bottom on an unplowed, and since we'd had a late April snowstorm, I wrote it off as the snow. But as the days went by, and the snow melted, the grinding noise didn't go away with the snow. I started to get worried. So, I finally sucked it up and got my car into the shop. According to the mechanic, my front brake pads had completely worn away, and the grinding noise was the brakes grinding into the rotors. $600 to get the brakes done. But, it was very important that I had to get it done by May 6.
I needed my car in tip-top shape to hit the city and see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.
*sigh* It's becoming more and more important to see these Marvel movies on opening weekend, because by Monday morning, the Internet is full of spoiler-filled articles dissecting every Easter egg and explaining the post-credit sequences. In case you haven't heard yet, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 has a record-setting five post-credit sequences, so be sure to stick around for all of them.
I quite enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Just like the first film, what blew my mind the most was the music choices. I mean, we're so conditioned to hearing the Jerry Goldsmith trumpets whenever a spaceship pulls into orbit around a planet. But here, we hear My Sweet Lord and damn it, it works.
I also like that this one is a lot more character-based. There's not as many big action sequences as it instead focuses on Peter Quill/Star-Lord as he meets his long lost father Ego, Gamora heading towards a reckoning of sorts with her sister Nebula, Drax opening up to Ego's consort Mantis, and Rocket and Yondu just being badasses. And Baby Groot occasionally popping up to be adorable.
I also liked that Guardians of the Galaxy is still set in a remote corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, far removed from Earth. That means it gets to be more of a direct sequel to Guardians of the Galaxy rather than having to worry about acknowledging Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man, Captain America: Civil War, Doctor Strange, and whatever else came out since that last one that I seem to be forgetting.
If I have to dig up one quibble, it would have to be your standard sequelitis. Being the second film, it lacks the freshness that made the first one such an unexpected treat.
And then, heading home, I decided to break out of my culinary norm. Some folks around the office were asking about a new fast casual place popping up in power centres across the land called Mucho Burrito, and if anyone had tried it yet. Since I knew of a power centre that contained one on my drive home, I decided to try Mucho Burrito for supper.
My initial impression of Mucho Burrito is that it's very much like Taco del Mar, just a touch more upscale. (i.e., fancier decor, more topping options, they serve booze.) But it's pretty much the same. You place your order the clerk, they make it all right in front of you, asking what toppings you'd like as you go along. As has become my way in these new franchises that I try, I asked the clerk what I should try for my first time. She recommended I go with their standard beef burrito.
Honestly, I found it a bit bland, but I blame myself. This being my first time, I decided to take it easy on the options. But next time, I'll probably go for the medium salsa instead of the mild, and maybe not drown it in every sauce because I want to try everything. I do like shrimp, and I see one of their meat options is Cajun shrimp. So I'll probably keep heading back to try a few more options before making a final judgement.
And that was my trip into the city last week. As I headed home, I went back to fretting about my car, and what more needed to be done. While my car was up on the hoist, the mechanic did say my tires are on their last legs, and that it's time to get some new ones. I've been worried about the tires and pricing out a new set for about a year now, so it's finally time to pull the trigger. I think I've found a set I like that works within my budget, and if the Fates are with me, I'll be getting them next week. And as for the budget, it turns out paying for things is easy if you don't mind going back in debt. Finally paid off my car in 2015, and I've had this lovely two year streak of being debt-free. Oh, well. Desperate times and all that.
For the most part, I think I'm doing a good job of this being a grown-up. And it means I can go see my silly superhero movies whenever I want.
Time to go Fishing in the Discount Bin again, as I watch and reflect upon one of the many movies I own. This time up, it's Steve Martin's classic 1980s romantic comedy Roxanne. This is in my notes at August 22, 2016.
