Tales Of Brave Ulysses

I have made a new enemy here on Guam, and he absolutely hates me. He hates me with a passion. For three days in a row, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, he physically attacked me. Luckily he’s only about 10 inches long.

I’m going back in the water tonight and I am actually dreading it. Maybe I should swim with a net so I can catch the little bugger…

Lot’s of people were talking about the first murder of the year, a woman whose body was found at the Sella Bay overlook on Thursday, a day after she disappeared in Tamuning. A man was arrested yesterday in connection with the murder. He was a former employee of the woman, and apparently owed her a lot of money. Sad really that she was killed over something as trivial as money.

Sorry for the quietude dude. Been crazy busy and frankly the real world is much more engaging than this digital solipsism.

Anyways, here’s a bit o’ stuff about the warm temperatures back in the States lately. Global warming sucks.

If you read this blog, and you like it; then go drop what you are doing and go see Children of Men right now. It is a powerful movie, one that goes a lot deeper than the usual suspense thriller or dystopian futuristic movie. I’m not going to go into praising it; plenty of people around the interweb more skilled in versification than I have done so already. But I have to say it was really cool. The scene where Theo (not an accidental name, by the way) pays a visit to the upper class enclave is just haunting. First time I’ve ever heard King Crimson in a movie score before too. And there was a goddamn Pigs on the Wing hanging over the Thames at the end of the scene. Now that’s my kind of dystopia. It is a bleak, harrowing movie that I need to see again.

Well I can’t say this is a real surprise. It’s not like everybody saw this coming for the last couple years. Looks slick and sexy.

I’ll stick with my Treo 650 for now thank you very much. It works well good enough. At least up in town; the coverage sucks down by my house and in southern Guam. Which kind of negates the purpose of the phone. Guess I need to relocate to Tamuning. Probably part of the reason I’ve been sleeping in my car so much lately…

Don’t laugh; this is me at work. It’s becoming ridiculous.

Pictures from C&K on Friday night:

All photos by Dianne.

Caught some of tonight’s Cecilio & Kapono concert at the Hyatt Regency ballroom. It was excellent, much like the other two shows I’ve seen before. I almost didn’t go because I am so jammed up at work right now, but I caught about an hour and a half of the show before I needed to head back to the office. Which is where I am sitting right now, waiting for a couple jobs to finish before the midnight cutoff when the batch jobs start running. And I’ll probably be here tomorrow too, and Sunday if I can’t finish some of these things off. But at least C & K was a good time tonight. I heeded the advice for those around me and went to the concert even though I wanted to stay at work and fume through the night. I guess I have a martyr complex that makes me want to do this shit. Anyway by the time I left I was ready to go. The seats in the ballroom were uncomfortable as hell and my butt was sore after a couple hours of sitting.

Here’s an interesting MSN article on the pre-Minoan Cycladic culture of the Greek Islands. They made statuary that is stunningly modern, a style of sculpture that influenced Henry Moore and Pablo Picasso.

Cool stuff.

I might as well get into the swing of things for 2007 with an actual link to a story I read last weekend. Seems rising waters in the Bay of Bengal inundated the island of Lohachara, once home to 10000 people. Yeah, that global warming sure bites if you happen to live in low lying coastal areas. Or if you live in the polar regions, where things are heating up rapidly.

Time for me to drive home in my nice big SUV, crank up my air conditioner and live the good life.

I promised a listing of memorable movies, books and music from the past year. So here’s ten movies I found interesting or enjoyable.

1. Akeelah and the Bee – Yeah, I think it was that good. An uplifting and enjoyable movie about spelling bees and kids learning valuable life lessons. Nothing wrong with that.
   
2. Casino Royale – Finally a gritty, nastier Bond. It was a little too long, but it certainly kicked ass. After years with the effete Remington Steele guy, the new Bond actually looked like he could do some serious harm to people.
   
3. The Proposition – A grisly and gripping drama of the Australian outback.
   
4. Borat – Man, an ass whooping on America. He pretty much skewers everyone and everything about America in this picture. And that bare ass wrestling scene made me almost piss my pants it was so funny.
   
5. The Fountain – Pretty much incomprehensible to most folks, and it ultimately sucked, but I did enjoy most of it and the ideas it broached.
   
6. The Illusionist – A mystery, a romance, and magical, murderous plot. I found this movie completely enjoyable, much like a good heist film. I knew what would happen, but it was cool watching it all come together by the end.
   
7. Dave Chapelle’s Block Party – Dave Chapelle is cool. This documentary/concert movie is cool. The music is cool. I wish I was that cool.
   
8. An Inconvenient Truth – So the world’s melting. Al Gore makes his case over and over again.

Whoops. That ain’t ten movies. Guess it wasn’t exactly a banner year for films. And I didn’t go to very many movies this year.

And of course a list that needs no introduction, the crummiest movies I saw all year:

1. The DaVinci Code – zzzzzzz
   
2. X-Men III – Loud, stupid, summertime sequel crap.
   
3. The Fountain – yeah I know I said it was good. But the end really sucked, especially when all the creamy white goo spurted from the tree of life. That was just ridiculous.
   
4. V for Vendetta – pendantic, and far too self important for an action movie.
   
5. Inside Man – I’m starting to loathe Denzel Washington as much as Tom Cruise and Nick Cage.
   
6. Crank – this just sucked. Absolutely the worst film I actually paid to see all year.

I seriously think this is every movie I saw this year, including a couple I caught on DVD because they never made it to Guam.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.

I hope your 2006 was happy and fruitful and warmest wishes for a wonderful and prosperous 2007!

Here’s to the bright New Year
And a fond farewell to the old;
Here’s to the things that are yet to come
And to the memories that we hold.