Slight Return

I know I know. Out of the loop. Sorry.

LA was a travel pain in the ass. Not quite a nightmare getting there, but tense. Traffic, flight delays, etc., but we got there and proceeded to get no sleep at all. Such is life. However, we ate well, and spent some time with some good people like Irene's mom, the Councilwoman, The CEO (who we had breakfast with next to Diane Keaton), The Cramps, and of course my fave comic writer on the planet. The trip was way too short and we need to re-consider this whole "fly by back to New York at 7am on Thanksgiving and go right to the family dinner" thing. If I have my way, we will do Thanksgiving with the left coast family and Christmas with the right coast family. But honestly, wherever #1 nephew is at is where I want to be.

This is Irene's busiest time of the year, she having 2 jobs, and by nature of what I do, it becomes my quietest. Well, not yet actually, as all my colleagues who I usually travel to Japan to see are actually coming here to NY tomorrow. And while I like these guys a lot, and enjoy working with them, it's always more fun when I travel to THEM as opposed to them coming here. But until then, your hero has been catching up with family while also making the trek up to the councilwoman's hometown in Westchester to spend some time with the bassist himself. There we had an enjoyable evening where we went through tunes both new and old and I got him to to give me feedback on some recent demos and remixes and finaly to lend some of the magic to what might be the HF hidden album track. He also has a dog that loves me in ways I can't describe. And that love is mutual (short of the humping) Anyway, we had some sushi, we played some music, we had a few laughs, and we watched some of Alien 3 on his sick ass home theatre system. Man that was comfortable, I could have fallen asleep on the couch but the screen is about the size of my apartment. Sick stuff.

Anyhow, technical problems have plagued me since I have returned also. At first, I thought the IPod had died, so I ordered a new one (at a sick price, thanks Evan), only to go to Charles' that night have my M-Audo device not work because something was wrong with the firewire port. Or so I thought. A trip to Apple yesterday morning told me that there was nothing wrong with this relatively new computer, yes it was the ipod and the sound problems I had were because my M-Audio Firewire software was crashing against the new version of Live. One simple driver download solved all my problems, made me a happy boy, got my creative juices flowing and then I watched...

ROB B HOOD: the new Jackie Chan "steals a baby" movie, which, in all honestly, did not suck!! It's not a classic by any means, but a solid mix of action, comedy, faux gayness, cheese, and the genius of Louis Koo, my myspace friend (go see, he posted), as Jackie's partner in crime. The Twin The Looks Like Irene is in it too, and Irene's boyfriend, Daniel Wu has a cameo, but the best was seeing Yuen Biao (shame on you if you don't know who this is) finally again onscreen with Jackie and showing some moves as well. He is a sorely missed presence. I wish Sammo had popped in for this, or at least a cameo, but such is life, and honestly, Louis Koo is hysterical in this. While the ending dragged a bit, it was nice being in Jackie World for a bit and not yelling at the screen (go back and check last year's review of THE MYTH, which is an honest to god piece of shit). Jackie works best with Benny Chan (who directed the very good New Police Story) and should keep trying new ideas with him. God knows what jackie is gonna do next in HK (his next films are RUSH HOUR 3 and the movie with Jet LI, which sounds kinda wack, but who the fuck knows). I'm gearing up in the next year to get #1 nephew into this world of cinema, after I have fully educated him on the great sport of pro wrestling.

And after watching the movie, I went to Brooklyn and ate with the family. I am still full. Now I will be lazy while Irene sleeps and play Raw Vs Smackdown 2007 while counting the moments till my new ipod arrives.

F