May 12, 2009

I'm Listening To... #1



Those were the days...R.I.P. dnbscene.com.

May 11, 2009

I've Found The (Mani)cure!

For the longest time, I've been promising myself that I'd return to The Ten Spot and get a manicure. Understand that it's been more than one year since the last time I did that...actually, my last manicure was on March 22nd of last year! Talk about anticipation...

Yesterday evening, after returning home from church, I finally booked my comeback appointment using their new online booking system. I missed having the opportunity to seduce the receptionist, but this new system not only allows you to pick a service and the date thereof, but also the person who will be doing the procedure. In light of that, congratulations *** - I just made your day.

Besides, I can always seduce the receptionist on the day of my appointment. Two for the price of one! ;-)

Special Delivery

This morning was pretty mundane; I spent time with God and took my shower as I usually do. However, as I stepped out of the shower, someone knocked on my door. It turned out to be a mailman with a package for my mom, and he couldn't wait for me to moisturize and put on my undies. I told him I'd be right over...

There was no way I was going to answer the door in my birthday suit, so I wrapped a towel around myself and proceeded to the door. Upon opening it, I said, "You'd better hope this doesn't fall off."

That mailman probably didn't want to risk seeing what he shouldn't have seen, even though I was covered. He ended up dropping the mail on my floor before leaving.

Your tax dollars at work...

Set Phasers To Stunning

I was going to see Earth for the second time, but that plan got scuttlebutted. I didn't wake up early enough to do what I needed to do before attempting to catch the 10:30 a.m. screening. That's okay, though - I ended up watching Star Trek and it turned out to be worth every penny of the six-dollar admission price. This is one movie which probably benefits from IMAX, but I honestly didn't miss it at all.

I also didn't miss the recently-implemented Enhanced Ticket Experience (ETX) which, upon a casual glance, looks like AMC's answer to IMAX. It seems as if only the Yonge-Dundas location offers this feature, which includes a "20% larger floor-to-ceiling screen, 11-channel surround sound with 57,000 watts of power, and 8.8 million pixels providing 4X the resolution of HD" (quoted from AMC's movie listings). It also offers a two-dollar surcharge because there's always a catch. I'm offhandedly inclined to think that IMAX comes out on top, but you can see what IMAX offers for yourself.

In any event, I plan to see Star Trek again, likely in ETX for comparison's sake. I hope it's solid; AMC's Yonge-Dundas location may very well be screening Transformers 2, and I was definitely looking forward to seeing that in IMAX!

May 8, 2009

In Defense Of The Jonas Brothers

I like the Jonas Brothers' music...well, from A Little Bit Longer onward. That statement alone is enough to make me lose a lot of cred in some readers' eyes, but I don't care.

I'm male and almost thirty years old, so I'm way outside of their demographic. A few years ago, I wouldn't have given them the time of day, neither. Every time a song like "When You Look Me In The Eyes" came on, I'd cringe. I used to dismiss them as a band that tween girls go ga-ga for; the story should have been over at that point.

Around the release of the aforementioned third album, I checked out "Burnin' Up," the lead single. Thanks in large part to the melody and the fact that "Kiss"-era Prince influenced the song, I ended up actually liking it. However, it wasn't until I heard "Lovebug," with its genius structuring (saving the rockout until close to the end) and tap dancing in the second verse, that I started to admit that the JBs just might sneak their way into my CD collection.

As of late 2008, they did - and they'll probably do it again with the release of Lines, Vines And Trying Times in a few months. "Paranoid" is the lead single this time around; I heard it yesterday and it sounds as if the JBs may have been influenced by The Killers and Weezer. Lyrically, it could signal a shift away from the romance-centred lyrics of their third album, although it devotes a few lines to taking shots at an ex. I bet the music press will be all over them, perhaps wondering if Taylor Swift or Miley Cyrus is the intended target.

In any event, this is one album I look forward to checking out.

May 7, 2009

The Art Of Doing Nothing (Part 2)

Up to this afternoon, I was planning to go to the gym and do strength training on my back. I even packed my gym bag with deodorant and a fresh pair of underwear, although I would have needed to take a shaker cup and some protein powder, as well.

I had lunch around 2:00 p.m. after playing N for two hours straight (I'm currently trying to get past episode 37). After this, I took what should have been a short nap on my living room sofa.

The key phrase here is "should have been."

Besides getting up once to "take care of business" (i.e. take a piss), I didn't get up again until 7:00 p.m. in order to eat dinner. Now that I'm unemployed, working out on Fridays is an option and I plan to do this tomorrow...if I don't take another "short nap."

For those of you wondering where part one is, it's not here. Kristen Gale, the owner of The Ten Spot and blogger behind Dating Myself, wrote a blog entry where she explained the art:
It’s a little motto I think I made up, that I try to live by when confronted with a situation that can go one of two ways – either escalate or descalate (I made that word up – it’s a verb and means the opposite of escalate).
You could say that I descalated this situation...for five hours.