Author: Chuck

  • Nightmare on I-5


    Sitting in a hotel overlooking the Hollywood Hills writing a blog entry while watching “Dancing With the Stars.” It doesn’t get any better than this. Ever. Since I’ve apparently been condemned to Hell. I guess what the preachers kept saying about self-abuse being a carnal sin was true. There’s an orc-like woman who lurks in…

  • Democracy Inaction


    Today I exercised the right of every American citizen to have an uninformed voice in the course of action of our government. I’m always left feeling guilty and ignorant every voting period, because of my policy of spending 30 minutes reading the for & against arguments about the propositions, then going to the poll and…

  • Live with Regis & Vaan


    Final Fantasy XII is a great game. It took me about eight hours to come to that conclusion, because I didn’t like it much at first, and it takes a long time to get going. I wasn’t jumping up and down to get into another long RPG, but I ran into my friend Frank on…

  • Subtropical Homesick Blues


    Oh boy! My blog’s first post-by-request. Granted, it’s about “Lost,” so I would’ve ended up talking about it anyway, but still. It looks like the “Lost” backlash is in full effect on the internets, to the point that even the complaints have gotten stale. For my part, just over the last four or five weeks…

  • Lack of variation on a theme


    Before I give anybody the wrong impression: I still like theme parks. In general. I can see myself going to them, and enjoying them. But sometimes on a Monday night, you just want to go out for dinner. Without walking through clouds of fog and past giant globes and guys doing the robot to an…

  • Not even on crutches!


    On her blog, Rain says that this video audition for Stanley Kubrick is the funniest thing ever, and she may be right. People in the comments keep going back and forth about whether it’s fake, which is missing the point. Either way, it’s awesome. (My vote goes for “fake,” which somehow makes it even cooler).

  • More fun with dream analysis


    The neighbors’ Halloween party last night had an extended jam session on the bongos that lasted from about midnight to 2 or 3 AM. (The time change and my intense desire to go to sleep made it difficult to gauge). Once it was all over and replaced with the sounds of people in their early…

  • The Supremely Satisfying Tittybong


    I realize you’re supposed to finish a book before you write a book report on it, but 1) I’m really enjoying this one, and 2) I’m bored and want to virtual-talk to somebody, and c) who knows, I could die tomorrow, and everyone would be at the wake lamenting, “If only there’d been more time.…

  • Taiko


    It’s coming up on November again, which means another International Taiko Festival in Berkeley and another post where I tell people they should check it out. The tickets are more than a little pricey, but it’s usually a spectacular show. If anybody out there’s planning to go, let me know so’s I don’t have to…

  • Damn Wii Smokes Too Much


    I’m way too old and disinterested to be getting into a “which console rocks hardest” battle, but I still read the videogame blogs and am bemused by the wackiness surrounding the Nintendo Wii. Specifically, it has the power to turn people into hypocrites. First was this quote from one of Sony Australia’s managers saying that…

  • Hellboy: Sword of Storms


    The Cartoon Network is airing an animated Hellboy movie called “Hellboy: Sword of Storms” this Saturday at 6:30pm. I’d heard about the series at the local comic book convention last year, but it’d dropped off my radar until seeing it in a magazine this week. Because it’s 2006, you can find an online production diary…

  • A bum, which is what he is


    For years I’ve had a list of movies I need to see to become “movie literate.” Mostly they’re ones I don’t particularly want to see, I just feel like I owe it to myself to get more cultured but without all that tedious reading. And I’ve been quoting them for so long, I feel like…