oneirophrenia | The Great Fun

On a much lighter note, this weekend in aKron with

arvin and Nicole was Massive Fun(tm).

I arrived in good time on Thursday, the first day of the New Year, and got the whole shebang started off right: we consumed some most excellent Indian grub in Cleve Land, and then went to see Lost in Translation at the Cedar Lee theatre, a lovely old theatre that unfortunately has the smallest movie screens I have ever seen. Nonetheless, the film rocked my ass entirely. ARvin had seen it twice already, and though thanks to his description of the film I was pretty sure I would like the film--I mean, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson...how bad can it be?--I didn't honestly think it would impress me so much. I'd seen The Virgin Suicides and was mildly impressed by it--a good movie, but certainly nothing revolutionary--so I figured that I'd probably like Lost in Translation about as much. WRONG! It wiped the floor with my ass. First of all, Bill Murray is a seriously funny guy, and to see him in such an understated yet hysterical role was just amazing. Second...Scarlett Johansson. I believe I am now obsessed with her. Any movie that opens with a nice, prolonged shot of her lovely butt is bound to be good, but thankfully she is also a hell of an actress. So put her and Peter Venkemann together in a great movie about existential crisis in Japan and you've got a winner in my book.

After the movie, we tooled around Cleve Land a bit, looking for open clubs or places to perhaps rock it out a bit...but most places were closed, and those that were open were more of the frat-boy date-rape arena nature, so...we just went back to aRvin's and then he and I watched Ichi the Killer.

The highpoint of Friday was a long evening at Bill's place in Wadsworth. I'll tell you, aRvin is one hell of a synth wizard: that boy can shape sounds and create new audio textures like no other. We worked on one song that I swear is the best work he has ever done: clanging noises, skittery dancebeats, weird noises....Holy crap. Nothing short of impressive. I sincerely hope he finishes this one soon, because I totally want a copy of it.

Saturday, aRvin and Nicole took me to their hair-stylist in downtown aKron and got me a new doo. Nothing too radical, mind you, but quite fresh nonetheless and a good bit different than what I'm used to. That really made me feel great, as though I'm starting the new year off with an entirely new persona. Other than that, I spent a ton of money on CDs, books, comics, toys...the usual. I finally got the comic series Fort, about good ol' Charles Fort and his interdimensional alien buddy, as well as Caitlin Kiernan's new book, Low Red Moon, for which there will very likely be a new soundtrack. Then, that night, we ended up back at aRvin's place just watching Wild Zero, a completely cheesy but eminently lovable Japanese zombie/rock-n'-roll movie for which there is a most excellent drinking game. Let's put it this way: we ended up killing off two bottles of wine, and getting completely smashed, no more than twentyfive minutes into the film. It was wonderful. It's been a loooooong time since I got smashed on wine. In fact, I wasn't even certain it was possible! Nonetheless, it was incredibly fun.

All in all, a grand weekend, full of creativity, relaxation, new clothes, new hair, and all manner of other freshness. Once again, I must thank aRvin for being such a wonderful host, and for all the posters and the Dave McKean prints--but most of all, for the Kenwood stereo receiver and speakers. Wow. Those things fucking rock it out.

Well...that said, I am now going to read most of Cait's new book, play with Christy (whom I missed very much), and then sleep.

Tomorrow, back to my usual plans for world domination!

I'm starting to think this year might not suck.