Mike Leigh’s Naked

So, so good. I love movies.

Building Service Worker

I’m on break right now from a school program I’m in. It’s called the Building Service Worker program.

I had the opportunity to take this free school program, so here I am. It’s three weeks long and I’ll be leaving with three new certificates to put onto my resume. A lot of it basically could be narrowed down to “cleaning school” but there’s food handling and First Aid certificates in there too, and my résumé needs the bells and whistles. I’ve sent out so many at this point and I’ve been ignored every single person.

I worked with an outfit called Trauma Scene Clean Up for about three months but the work seems to have dried up. It was great work. I like to think it isn’t over and that I’ll soon be getting calls to get out there again. The money’s good, I like my coworkers, and I like helping people.

I don’t know where I’ll be at the end of this program but they have a job placement at the end so I’ll most likely have a steady job. I’ll try to avoid night jobs and being severely underpaid, but otherwise I’ll be happy to be back out of the house and bringing home a paycheck.

2012 in Movies:

1. Silent Running
2. Treasure Island
3. 21 Up
4. The Descendants
5. The Artist
6. The Hitcher
7. The Good German
8. Which Way Home
9. The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
10. 28 Up
11. The Trotsky
12. The Snow Walker
13. The Skin I Live In
14. Harlan County, USA
15. A Little Bit Zombie
16. Rundskop
17. Rango
18. Food, Inc
19. To Sir with Love
20. Blood Wedding
21. Deadball
22. Klovn
23. Victoria Film Festival Animated Shorts
24. The Guard
25. Life Above All
26. All About Eve
27. Troll Hunter
28. Temple Grandin
29. Harry and Tonto
30. The Big Sleep
31. Higher Ground
32. 35 Up
33. 42 Up
34. Girl in the Cafe
35. Fahrenheit 451
36. Not Without My Daughter
37. 49 Up
38. Sneakers
39. Irreconcilable Differences
40. Maltese Falcon
41. Tabloid
42. Deep water
43. The limey
44. The Losers
45. Seven Year Itch
46. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About his Father
47. OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
48. A Cabin in the Woods
49. Muppet Treasure Island
50. Divided We Fall
51. Remember the Titans
52. Sita Sings the Blues
53. Conviction
54. Chungking Express
55. Get Low
56. Jurassic Park
57. My Neighbor Totoro
58. The Naked Kiss
59. The Gods Must be Crazy
60. The Last Picture Show
61. The Wind that Shakes the Barley
62. On the Waterfront
63. Being Elmo
64. Avengers
65. This American Life LIVE
66. Cedar Rapids
67. Citizen Ruth
68. Primer
69. Cassandra’s Dream
70. Phone Booth
71. Cronos
72. Atomic Submarine
73. Straw Dogs
74. Conspiracy Theory
75. 16 Blocks
76. The Big Chill
77. They Live
78. MacGruber
79. Defending Your Life
80. Ladyhawke
81. Edge of Seventeen
82. 21 Jump Street
83. Hannah and her Sisters
84. Sex Lies and Videotape
85. Jaws
86. Hangover 2
87. Invention of Lying
88. The Crying Game
89. Transformers 3
90. Face in the Crowd
91. Summer Hours
92. The Change Up
93. The Illusionist
94. Persepolis
95. Spaceballs
96. Schindler’s List
97. Blow Out
98. The Band’s Visit
99. Captain America: The First Avenger
100. Away We Go
101. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligary
102. The Miracle Worker
103. Tiny Furniture
104. If a Tree Falls
105. Fanny and Alexander
106. The Night Porter
107. Nothing in Common
108. The Way Back
109. The Sitter
110. Magic Mike
111. A Portrait of Maurice Sendak
112. Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
113. Moonrise Kingdom
114. McCabe & Mrs. Miller
115. The Elephant Man
116. Brief Encounter
117. Quiz Show
118. Dark Knight Rises
119. George Washington
120. Chronicle
121. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
122. Woody Allen doc
123. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
124. Some Kind of Wonderful
125. Project Nim
126. The Intouchables
127. Invincible
128. The Grey
129. Radio
130. Jennifer’s Body
131. Rocky
132. Children of Heaven
133. Paris Je’taime
134. Paul
135. J. Edgar
136. Beats Rhymes and Life
137. Brian’s Song
138. The Goonies
139. Young Adult
140. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
141. Thor
142. Senna
143. Butch Cassidy and Sundance
144. The Public Enemy
145. Spellbound
146. Capturing the Friedmans
147. Warrior
148. My Dinner with Andre
149. Hello, Dolly!
150. The Interrupters
151. Amazing Spider-Man
152. Total Recall
153. Bigger than Life
154. Arsenal
155. Shadows in Paradise
156. Mission impossible Ghost Protocol
157. Wanderlust
158. We Bought a Zoo
159. Biutiful
160. Blue Valentine
161. Goon
162. Monsieur Lahzar
163. Hugo
164. 30 Minutes or Less
165. Jeff, Who lives at home
166. Attack the Block
167. Beginners
168. Contraband
169. Happy
170. Frozen River
171. Secret World of Arriety
172. Tin Tin
173. Action Jackson
174. Cinema Verite
175. The Messenger
176. American Graffiti
177. Summer Wars
178. Mean Streets
179. Unstoppable
180. John Carter
181. Welcome to the Rileys
182. Rum Diary
183. Source Code
184. Looper
185. Argo
186. Like Crazy
187. Pressure Cooker
188. My Beautiful Laundrette
189. Do Deca Pentathlon
190. The Bank Job
191. Bill Cunningham: New York
192. Sunshine Cleaning
193. The Mechanic
194. Repo Men
195. Weekend
196. I’ve Loved you So Long
197. Masculin Feminin
198. Brave
199. Shelter
200. The Wrong Guy
201. The Jerk
202. Into the Abyss
203. Pirates
204. Public Speaking
205. The King of Comedy
206. Margaret
207. Don’t be Afraid of the Dark
208. 11:14
209. Harold and Kumar Christmas
210. Shane
211. Revanche
212. Folk Art Found Me
213. A Woman, A Gun, and A Noodle Shop
214. The Promotion
215. The New World
216. The Phantom Carriage
217. Rampart
218. Submarine
219. The Color of Money
220. The Celluloid Closet
221. Chico y Rita
222. Our Idiot Brother
223. Django Unchained
224. Silver Linings Playbook
225. The Future
226. Toast
227. Bernie
228. Page Eight

Bold = Watched without Beth

Quiz Show

I felt like I hadn’t seen this logo in years.

dreamy future nazi

shooter

Currently Making Me Very Happy While I Study:

One Year + One Month

This spot, Beth’s parents’ backyard, was where we got married a year and a month ago.

The Miracle Worker

Sometimes a Movie Doesn’t Bother You

The Change-Up didn’t bother me, and I laughed a few times despite myself.

not that annoying

Life this Week:

and this:

The Library & Life with Mr. Dangerous

This is about as good as a book trailer gets:

Life with Mr. Dangerous marked my return to reading non-Walking Dead comics a few weeks ago. I’ve had a library card for some time now and I’ve used it exclusively for downloading audiobooks to listen to on my iPod at work and on very long drives. Some of those audiobooks have brought me great pleasure (The Devil All the Time, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, The Strain Trilogy, Ready Player One), but a recent visit to a comic shop for Christmas and wife-birthday shopping left me a bit sad. I’d stopped buying comics a couple of years ago because I could no longer afford them. I was taking chances, buying things I wound up not liking. I was wasting money and space in my little rented room. Actually, that comic shop visit left me really sad. I missed comics.

Enter: The Library. I had mistaken the charm of reading comics for the charm of buying them, I guess– that slight serotonin squirt that happens as the pasty comic shop clerk runs your card. “$42.50 for 12 comics. I guess I’m really doing this.”

I’ve finally decided to start using my local library(ies) and all of the benefits that come with having a library card. My first borrow was Life with Mr. Dangerous, a book I’d spied at the comic shop just before Beth’s birthday when I went to get her the latest Walking Dead trade.

by Paul Hornschemeier

I carried around Mr. Dangerous for a few days before cracking it, as if the anticipation were too much. Finally, when I found myself onboard a BC Ferry headed toward Beth, I began reading it. I loved it.

Sure, there were parts that I didn’t really get. There were dream sequences that kind of lost me. Subtlety has never been my strong suit, so anything author Paul Hornschemeier tried to get across to me through them was lost on me. Still, I loved it. CBR has great scans from the book, all containing bits that I loved. All reminding me, as I see them again, that I need to read more slowly. I’d missed the bit with the cat reaching across the table on page 26, all while Amy’s love life takes another nose-dive. Mr. Dangerous reminded me of Adrian Tomine and Daniel Clowes, only slightly less grotesque than the latter. I felt about as good about it as I did Ghost World, a book that I loved.

Having enjoyed my first foray into library comic  book reading, I looked at getting more graphic novels and trade paperbacks. Then there was a snow storm and I got snowed into my house. That night I lost my mind on the library’s website and checked out twenty-five more books, six of which were at the library tonight. I feel pretty silly about the whole thing and doubt I’ll even be able to finish this first batch of six, but I’ll have a good time and spend a little less time in front of my laptop’s brightly lit monitor.