New this, new that & Grindhouse

New This

I got a new bag to carry things in today. One of them there "professional" things to replace the backpack which has seen me through travels on three continents, several years of commuting to work on the bus, two years of graduate school and countless hikes and walks to the store.

Considering all that, the backpack is still in *great* shape -- and thus will not be retired from the hikes, the walks or the traveling -- but it's not what I want to be carrying in to my intership site or to whatever else my future therapist-self will be doing.

So I went and picked me up something where retro meets modern, more a briefcase than a bag, but still rather cute. It's brown with pink piping and pink lining, and it has some nifty shit inside it, too. Very handy. Wonderful for travel, too, particularly the inevitable conference somewhere. (The Third World is still a backpack place for me.)

It's new; it's cute; and I won't look like I'm slumming when I go to the office, which will be a first. (There are so many ways in which I never quite fit into the corporate world. Thankfully!)

Anyway, not much more to say about that. Just happy to have solved my bag dilemma.

New That

Your UCM is yet again in a state of reconstruction. It is part of an ongoing renovation process that seems to have started a year or so ago, but only got into full swing back in the beginning of February. Man alive, people! This one is going to take a while to jell, so I think I'll wait until it's a little more solidified before I start writing about it.

If the blog entries get banal or a bit spotty over the next couple weeks, be patient with me.

In the meantime, let me talk a little about sex and violence:

Gindhouse

You know, I love Quentin Tarrantino. He is a master of absurd, high energy, violent comedies with lots of girl flesh. (Ummmm-ma Thurman, anyone?) His contribution to Grindhouse was all about sexy ladies who KICK ASS! And the first part of the film, directed by the other guy, had that one-legged girl with the big old gun attached to her stump, too.

There were also plenty of short-shorts and long, lingering shots of lovely girl butt. Highly amusing. Especially when the girls with the lovely butts start KICKING ASS!

The series of trailers that start the film and then come on at "intermission" between the two films-within-the-film are a RIOT. One of them contained a shot that was so absurd and vulgar and gnarly (to the extent that it was funny) that I actually emitted a loud scream/gasp/gross-out/laughing noise that made people throughout the theater start laughing.

The Good Witch, who invited me to see the film with her because Cartman would not attend it, leaned over and asked, "Was that the first time for you?"

I'm not sure if she was talking about the first time I ever witnessed such a scene or the first time I screamed out loud in a theater at a point where *no one else* did. Whatever the case, the answer is yes.

What an amusing film. Totally made to be seen on the big screen, mind you. This is not for the DVD player at home. The whole business seems to require the self-referential experience of being *in* the theater and watching these absurd films play out, especially with their "missing reels," grainy and jumpy footage and previews of coming attractions. Viewed at home, I think most of that stuff will lose its impact.

So if you've been thinking about Grindhouse, go to the cinema.

That is all. I work early manana, so I bid you all a good night.