Command Station

Been at my new place of employment (Valley Morning Star) for about 2 months now... finally got around to taking some pictures of my work area. My desk is situated between two very talented guys in charge of graphics & layout. I don't exactly have a view to speak of... I sorta face the photo room in the heart of the Editorial department... It's however a million times better than the cubical I had while up in Detroit.

This here is a picture of my neighbor's (Shawn) work area. Aside his layout work... he writes a comic book column for the news paper.

.rollie.

Foggy Morning

While commuting to work this morning... I ran into something I rarely had to contend with while I lived in Detroit, morning fog. Thankfully, my morning commute is around 15 til' 8 (A.M.) so it wasn't as bad for me as it was for a few of my co-workers whom had a hard time seeing anything 2 feet in front of their cars.

Gift of the Year: Guitar Magnets

Prior to being with Kathie, I never had a proper stocking which would be filled with little holiday goodies and stocking stuffer treats. This XMas, my better half surprised me with little Gibson Guitar magnets for the fridge! Like any obsessive music nut, I had to rush over to the fridge and figure out what proper order to place them.

Prior to receiving my geetar magnets... the only things I had up were my Pez magnets.

While trying to figure out which guitars and pez should be on the freezer/fridge doors.... I stopped for a second and thought how cool it would be to adorn the pez figures with guitars across their bodies.


I never admit publicly how much time I spent, trying to figure out what Pez should wear what Gibson, but believe me when I tell you that I spent more time on this project than I did shaving carefully this morning.

If all goes well, I hope to secure these Kiss Magnets to outfit my fridge completely!

TeXmas

Life's been incredibly hectic for me in recent weeks. Like many around the globe, I spent the weekend celebrating Christmas with loved ones in San Antonio. It was a particulary special for me because I got to spend it with my better half Katheryn & her family. It wasn't my first Christmas away from home... but it was the first time that I had spent it with another family because of a relationship. Thankfully, I had the pleasure of meeting Katheryn's Father & Step Mum the previous month... so none of the weirdness that comes with "first impressions" was present.

Wish I could report that the break was without trouble... Prior to my drive up to Kathie's, took my car in for a last minute inspection to have a noise looked at. The problem wasn't resolved until last night, so I had to arrange a last minute car rental (PT Cruiser) on Friday afternoon before my drive up to San Antonio.

If that wasn't bad enough, two gifts I ordered online, in early December, did not arrive at my new home address. I was able to do some last minute sprinting with Kathie to find identical items at brick'n mortar stores on Chrismas Eve (a.k.a. the shittiest day to be at a store) so all crisis were everted....

Things settled down quite a bit after the morning last minute shopping scramble...

After that, Katheryn and I thought it would be a good idea to start a little tradition so we took the little ones to go see the Cronicles of Narnia... much to my surprise, I enjoyed it verily.

All in all Christmas was very good to me and all of my loved ones. I made it a point to make it very special for Kathie this Christmas and the best gift I got was to see her as happy as she was Christmas morning.

I've returned back to the Valley and got my car (Margot) back...

If all goes well, I'll make it a point to blog daily.

best,
Rollie

Holiday Gifts: Part 2

Last week I put together a short list of must get Holiday/Birthday items for friends/family/and loved ones to check out... in the event they couldn't figure out what to get me for said occasion.

The list was really helpful for a few and I was asked privately to possibly put together a few more items together for the site.

here goes....

1.) Nintendo DS / MarioKart Bundle : A very special someone is going to ring my hide out for even making this public... but in recent months the DS has begun to churn out incredible titles for the DS. I could honestly see myself quite entertained with the system and packaged game for quite some time... but a few other titles that I think are must haves with this: Nintendogs, Animal Crossing:Wild World and Advance Wars Dual Strike.

2.) DVD's.... I don't get around to purchasing to many DVD's these days because of netflix, but a few films that I would love to own are:

I Heart Huckabees
Shawn of the Dead

Happy Endings Indeed

Just finished watching the star studded Happy Endings, dug it verily and wanted to give it a quick review...

The film has a few (4 to be exact) story lines that all intertwine when a character(Lisa Kudrow... yes that Lisa) seeks to find out who her son is (after giving it up for abortion 19 years ago), who happens to be gay but wants to try and hide his sexuality from his adoptive parent(Tom Arnold)... Said son has a crush on his Gay employer (Steve Coogan) who happens to be the half brother of Lisa Kudrow.

edit: The gay kid whom I mistook as Kudrow's kid - is not her son. That turned out to be a red-head who looked alot like Steve...

What Steve Coogan's character doesn't know is, is that the employed kid (Kudrow's son) is HIS SON.

edit: yeah... this too is off. I should really let films finish before I comment on them. oops.

His identity isn't revealed to her until she swindles the information from a Film student who is doing a independent documentary to try and get an AFI scholarship.

this checks out. there's a few other storylines that I left out but that was intentional.

I think I got all that right...

Anyhoo... seek it out. It rocks wang.

.Resaca City Rollie.

First Holiday Gift Scare

Today was a bit of a strange day for me... for the first time ever in my relatively short life, I became a little worried that I wouldn't be able to come through on a gift that a loved one really wanted for the Holidays. The hard to find item this year was a copy of Animal Crossing - Wild World for the Nintendo DS.

The game was released in the US last Tuesday, but many stores (Best Buy, Walmart, Target, Etc.) reported to me that they never received a copy or they had already sold all of their copies. I tried securing the game online... but stocks were reportedly FRESH OUT through the web.


This is where the panic began to set in.

I sorta felt part helpless and a failure all at once. A really shitty feeling to have all at once.

Luckily, I saw an EB Games on my way home... stopped in and was able to secure the LAST copy they had on hand!

.rCr.

Deep Throat

By admission, I know very little about pornography. It's not because I'm morally above it... It just doesn't particularly do it for me. Over the years, I've learned enough about pornography to get me through crude discussions amongst friends/strangers... and while that may be enough for many, I got around to renting the recently released documentary Inside Deep Throat.

I don't recall what possessed me to put the film into my Netflix que but check out this tag line.

It was filmed in 6 days for 25 thousand dollars.

The government didn't want you to see it.

It was banned in 23 states. It has grossed over 600 million dollars.

And it is the most profitable film in motion picture history.

(highly doubt this)

What I learned in the documentary - The government took convicted an actor/artist for the first (and possibly only) time ever in the History of the United States. - Deep Throat the movie had ties with the Mob. - "Deep Throat" had no connection with hidden source nickname in the Watergate scandal.

The documentary surpassed all of my expectations. Highly recommend it to anyone who reads this blog. Be warned: It has footage of Linda Lovelace showcasing her talents...

.Resaca City Rollie.

I may be going mad... but.

While driving around today, I think I noticed something rather strange in the new Honda Civic. I'm pretty sure that the car's stereo volume lowers gently when one brakes to slow the car.

I know this sounds silly... but I'm pretty sure that the volume goes down a little bit. It doesn't reflect it on the volume level (if its at 10, it will read 10) but I can totally hear it go down in volume!

bizarre.



Noticed another thing... I can't help but feel like Darth Vader inside a Tie Fighter when driving this car at night. The instrument panels are soooo dope.

.resaca city rollie.

The 8th, Lennon and I

In the past 25 years... a December 8th hasn't gone by without the mention of the John Lennon's death. It's a very strange day that many people commemorate... seeing that a.) John was British and b.) the Beatles had been defunct for almost a decade...

I guess it says a lot about the longevity of the Fab 4. Sharing my birthday with his untimely death has been a little strange over the years... On my 3rd birthday, I remember my mom (only 20 at the time) shedding many tears over the news that Lennon had been murdered in nYc. My introduction to the Beatles came at the heels of his death... strangely, I find myself being more of a George Harrison fan than Lennon.

If all goes as planned, I hope to have lunch at the NY Deli tomorrow in downtown Harlingen, where the owner has a small shrine to 4 mopped toped of Liverpool.

.rCr.

Holiday/Birthday: Gift Guide for the "Me"

I've been described by some loved ones as being "difficult" to shop for... so on the eve of my 28th birthday (16 or so days till the festival of lights) I've decided to put together a little gift guide to help loved ones out this year.

I've never put one of these together before... so I'll start the list with some unthinkable items.

1.) Scooter : Vespa Grand Turismo or a Stella. While the likelihood of me getting one of these is bad at best... I'll contend that there's a small possiblity that a crazed philanthropist reads my blog.

2.) iPod 5th Gen - While the iPod Mini I received last Xmas keeps all of my portable MP3 needs in check... the idea of taking video on the go is tempting for me not to put it on the Gift Guide. I watch a pretty good number of Vlogs and nothing would make that experience better than having a 5th Gen iPod.

3.) The complete collection - Calvin & Hobbes. - Honestly... if there was one thing that I would really like to have off this list, it would be this one. If you don't get this for me, get it for someone you love.

4.) Punk Planet has put out 2 books that I'd very much like to add to my personal library. The first 100 posters, 134 Squirrels is a book on my favorite screen print artist - J. Ryan. They also put out an interesting novel called Hairstyles of the Dammed that I'd like to check out...

5.)Ramone Teddy Bears - ran across these awesome little bears last week while flipping through my sisters Urban Outfitters holiday catalog. Don't really know where I'd keep the bears... but i think they'd look pretty sweet on my new desk @ work.

Hello Kitty Must Die

I'm going to take a little heat for this entry... Just yesterday I met up with a friend for coffee after work. Right before she paid the barista, she turned to me and asked what I thought of her leather Hello Kitty wallet.

Admittedly, it looked a lot better than I thought it would... but my little rant today isn't about my friends Hello Kitty wallet.

My rant this evening is Hello kitties partnership with Fender guitars. In recent years, Hello Kitty has stopped at nothing to put their branding on anything electronic. They've made BoomBoxes, Television Sets, CD & MP3 players... I've seen several aftermath car accessories that range from steering wheel covers to pillow head rests.

At the end of the day, these items don't upset me in any way because I could care less about people who like to own Pink items with kitties on them.

I draw the line however when Hello Kitty/Fender tries to lure tenures into buying a pink guitar & riot girrrl overtones. I can't remember the last time I saw something this disingenuous.

It's cheep and opportunistic.

Death to all Pink Kitties.
.rCr.

Lords of Dogtown

About 2 years or so ago I caught the wonderful documentary called "Dogtown and Z boys" by Sony Pictures Classics... A fabulous motion picture documenting a talented group of kids that changed the way the world of Skateboarding.

Just recently Sony Pictures Classics relased a motion picture called "Lords of Dogtown", baised directly on the docmentary they put out in 2002. The film was directed by a Rio Grande Valley local - Catherine Hardwick. Picked it up over the weekend and thought I'd share my thoughts on the film.

The film follows the general story line that was presented in the Dogtown documentary.... all of it checks out and that was made possible because of Stacy Peralta (skater featured in the film) involvement on the flim. (according to the IMDB, he's credited as a Writter)

While the story lines checked out nicely, some of the performances were yawnsome. Heath Ledger turned in his best interpretation of Val Kilmer doing Jim Morrison. I don't know how close he was to playing the part of "Skip"... but it was still Kilmerrisonesque. Victor Rasuk (of Rasing Victor Vargus fame) played the part of Tony Alva... but he seemed to fall sort for some reason.

*Best* performance of the film goes to Emile Hirsch (Girl Next Door, Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys), an actor that I think could fall into the same trappings of Leonardo DeCaprio if not careful
... he played the part of "Jay" in the film. He was the most troubled of the Z boys and of all the parts to play, possibly the toughest to portray.

Despite the solid performance the film is shitty at best when compared to the documentary. If pressed to pick between Rocking or Sucking Wang?

I have to say that this DVD Sucks Wang.

.Resaca City Rollie.

Margot

Been away from the 'puter in recent days... lots of stuff goin' on for me in South Texas. Biggest bit of news, after a few weeks of private dileberation... I made the decision yesterday to trade in my car (Pontiac Vibe) for the new 2006 Honda Civic EX.

Debated the idea of getting various cars... (Lexus 350 IS, Accura TL, Audi A4) but I couldn't find a dealer within a 5 hour DRIVE. While I wouldn't expect anything to go wrong with any of the cars mentioned above, the idea of having to have my car towed to central Texas in the event of having something go wrong... just didn't sit all that well with me. But enough about that...


What I did get: The new Honda Civic EX. The car is an absolute firecracker. I drove it around yesterday for about a hundred miles or so... getting myself a little more aquainted with my new purcahse. Inital thoughts: The speaker set up is pretty weak... but the sound system allows you to hook up an iPod directly. A big plus for me... seeing how I drive up twice a month to San Antonio ( a 4 hour drive). Another big plus, the car is set to deliver 40 Miles per gallon on the tank. This too will come handy, given my many commutes to central Texas.

The cockpit is pretty cool . It's kinda like sitting inside a Tie-Fighter. The steering is absolutely amazing. I took the car out on 3 test runs and everytime I got out of the car... the only thing I could think about was how great the steering was. After a few hours with the car... I've decived to christen her "Margot". There's something about her that reminds me of the character Margot Tenenbaum... so I've decided to go with that.


.resaca city rollie.