Hindsight

Wait for it on video or watch it for free. Nothing too fantastic, unless the idea of instant, deep-freeze will put you on the edge of your seat. I had the fortune of watching it for free (work/group noon outing).

It’s not a terrible film. But I thought about all that money spent on the visual effects and how all that money could have been distributed to produce other films that would have been more fantastic efforts. You know?

Epic disaster films and love stories together are hard to believe (especially on this film’s scale) and, well, I’m not really compelled. The greatest moment in this film is its opening - I’m a sucker for a good score and the opening orchestration was quite nice. I’ll have to hunt the track down.

Watch “Man on Fire” instead. Or maybe “Shrek 2″ (I finally saw the first one on DVD this week).

Monday. May 10th.

Walt Disney Concert Hall.
Performing: Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale

Conducted by: Miguel Harth-Bedoya

Composed by: Nobuo Uematsu

Final Fantasy Concert Program. Autographed: Nobuo Uematsu (Composer). Yoshitaka Amano (Illustrator). Hironobu Sakaguchi (Executive Producer). James Arnold Taylor (English Voice Actor: Tidus).

Los Angeles to Encinitas: Midnight to 2am.

It was a privilege to be in the presence of Uematsu, Amano, Sakaguchi-san and Mr. Taylor after the concert (even if for just a signature and the chance to say “thank you”). Because this was something personal, an experience matured since childhood, the signatures are for keeps.

Imagine listening to some of your favorite music and finally having the chance to say hello to that artist. I grew up playing Final Fantasy games. So for me, this was an amazing thing. It was, for lack of a better term, surreal. The whole thing.

Hearing the music live was amazing. Fantastic. And, even though I sat alone during the concert, the music put me in the company of memories. Memories of the past, some I hadn’t recalled until the songs came along.

Collective chuckles by the audience as the Chocobo theme came into play. Collective and intense applause when certain melodies were recognized. Again, fantastic.

I hope this happens again in the future.

Very, very special thanks go to my friend and former coworkers who gave me the chance to attend the concert and follow them through the evening.

I had to keep reminding myself that this film was not directed by Kevin Costner in the sense of storyline. This man carries a journal and narrates shortly as the film goes on. There is a character in the village who dislikes but later respects the foreigner that has been captured. No, this is an Edward Zwick film. I have always enjoyed watching Glory. But “The Last Samurai” is not Glory.

Maybe this is an unfair comparison. I nitpick at details. How does Tom Cruise’s character pick up Japanese in one season like that? Amazing.

Allow me to criticize things. I still enjoyed watching it. Hence, entertainment.

Palomar Airport is stationed right behind the studio at which I work. From my desk I can look out the window and see planes landing frequently.

Yesterday I arrived at work at half past two, afternoon; I was pulling a late shift until 3am. So my work hours were adjusted accordingly. Thankfully, some of us were told to go home at six (our usual, non-crunch time).

As I walked to my car, this time in a far lot, I noticed a “flying fortress” sort readying for take off. This week has been a landing zone for them, apparently.

It’s nice to see planes other than the usual Cessnas using the ‘port.

Wednesday the 28th marked the beginning of my “five day holiday”. Translation: not only do I not work Wednesday through Friday, but I actually don’t show up on Saturday and Sunday either. Working on the weekends has become something of the norm the last two months, be it Saturday or Sunday. Or both.

Five days is, without a doubt, not enough time to recover from a project that sucked the life out of me for two months. But it’s been a good breather.

Thursday was grand. I had a very important thing ™ to do in the afternoon and I met up with my friend in L.A. The yakitori-ya (Yakitori Shop) we went to had pretty bad service, but the Asahi and Umeshu toned things a bit. Soon after we hit a pub where I drank far too much. Enough to have a mild hangover the next day. I don’t remember having a hangover since last year. I’m not looking to practice it up again, though.

Thursday night was a good time.

On Friday I had a choice between “Kill Bill Vol. 2″ or “Man on Fire“. I decided to see something that neither I nor my friend had seen, so we went with the latter.

I will say that “Man on Fire” is a glutton for style. But I will also say that it does have substance. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely a huge tease and playground for optical effects, creative use of subtitling, so on and so forth. The intensity of the film reminded me of “Training Day”. Denzel Washington is perfect for the role, Dakota Fanning is fair and Marc Anthony… tried his best. Still, when all you’re really paying attention to is Denzel anyway, the rest gets some forgiveness.

It’s jarring how the film works. At times it throws frenetic images. Quick cuts and images overlapping each other at ludicrous speed. At others it becomes the slow, serious film. I saw myself trying to acclimate to the scizophrenia of style. In the end, though, I looked over to Kevin and said “That was good.”

I’ve figured myself out a little bit in terms of watching film. It has to do with the human element. You could well have the worst film ever. But if the the film has a good number of moving, emotionally convincing moments, I’m just ready to be sold. I’ve got to work on filtering that out and being more subjective with film as a whole, otherwise I will go nowhere with it.

Later Friday evening I met with more friends, had Chinese food and tagged along with them to a Starbucks. There I had my grande latte with five sugar packets (I like it sweet apparently). They chatted it up and sometimes I partook in the conversation. At other times I simply stared at my cup or tried to keep my head above troubles/misery. I was comfortable just being around them.

It’s Saturday evening now. I came back to Encinitas last night after coffee. Last weeks auctions yielded a decent amount. The timing could not be better: now that overtime at work is stabilizing to humane hours, the paycheck will get smaller. Auctioning is a decent and paced exercise for me. I don’t have a positive feedback rating of 238 for nothing.

What you just saw are all the packages I put together this morning and afternoon. What I thought would take just the morning hours worked its way into the afternoon as I wrangled other items for sale. At the same time, bidders who just won their auctions were sending me payments. So I was multitasking. Swap Meet in the Master Bedroom.

eBay can be quite an addictive chore. When bidders send me their payments, I find myself getting the items they won and packaging them with the best of care. I don’t slab crunk together and send it out. I want that woman in Natchitoches, Louisiana to enjoy her “The Pandora Directive & Tex Murphy: Overseer” PC CD-ROM, even if it’s a collector’s item for the shelf.

I am happy to know that Heather in Columbus, Ohio will be playing my neglected copy of Super Mario World for Game Boy Advance. Or that Harry will be the proud owner of a like new Sega Genesis system. Revision 3.

Yes, I somehow have a heart for the practice. Thank god for eBay.

I am not far from destroying the debt from one [of several] credit cards. Small steps, sir. Small steps.

I still have tomorrow, Sunday, before resuming the work deal. I am hoping to finally wrap up “My First DVD” project. This evening, iTunes is locked onto “Groove Salad” and I have no plans on changing stations for quite a bit.