instead of thinking about all the things i did in seattle, i went looking for wes anderson links. i found some. here’s what i learned, so far– the new flick involves bill murray, gwyneth paltrow, jason schwartzman, and the ensemble cast. he’s also writing it with owen wilson and noah baumbach, which is surprising and nice, because i enjoyed kicking and screaming (and mr. jealousy, though not as much).

i also found an article in which anderson interviews spike jonze which was interesting, also a big list of films that wes anderson found influential. there’s some good ones in there, you should check it out.

did you know the inspiration for max fischer was the lead character (noah taylor) in flirting? here’s an interview.

lastly, as long as we’re talking movies, i’d like to let you know that nick hornby and devincentis (grosse pointe blank, high fidelity) are working together at adapting eggers’s a heartbreaking work of staggering genius, or so says the observer. i remember seeing eggers talking about the offers he got when i saw him talk at the u-bookstore oh so long ago, and someone saying that john cusack would be good to play him, and he was concerned at cusack’s age. i mean, really, the guy’s getting old.

i’m going through some sort of bout with self-importance, so i’m going to keep my personal life on the backburner around here for a while.

i’m back from seattle, and i had a fantastic time. things will go back to normal around here for the rest of the week, and i’m already planning a playlist for friday.

ah, seattle was so good. i’ll break it down, in list form, because i know you’re all itching to know– just as soon as i get adjusted to the heat and take a shower. we ran out of money in the cab and had to walk a little ways to get to the cars. i’m stinky.

i’ll admit, he’s one of my favorite pundits on the interweb: point.

awww shit: x-ray specs. this is the real thing! who’s naked? YOU ARE!

seeing as i spend so much time on the road these days, i find it only natural to bring it up so often. i don’t usually like driving in traffic, but really, who does? this morning, at 5:30 am, going to work, there was already traffic. it made absolutely no sense to me.

the thing that really gets me is that in the south beach areas there is an over-abundance of personalized license plates, half that don’t make any sense to anyone aside from those contestants of that dumbass gameshow, bumper stumpers, and the other half making perfect and insanely idiotic sense.

i wonder if anyone has the personalized plate, “ih8u.” there was this guy in high school, who had a personalized plate that said “donjuan,” though i had not idea why or how he came up with that plate, because he certainly was no demarco. i keep hoping it was a joke, but i don’t think it was.

i know you’re all itching to get personalized licenses now, ones that say stuff like “nmbr1dad” or “frshrde” or “ccluvsu,” but why not just go all the way, and get a personalized airbrushed plate? here you go. i like how they have a category for unicorns as well as other mythical animals like frogs and birds.

via reuters

then how are they supposed to rock?

it’s as if someone’s training me to go to seattle, though i hear it’s not that rainy there right now. in time, i’m sure.

so, how many of you have really gone out and bought plastic bags and duct tape? i was at kinko’s last night, waiting forever to make a fax to the troubadour to get my death cab tickets. there was some guy that reminded me of chris farley doing his best frustrated fat man routine there. he’d go over to the hole punch machine, try in vain to push it down and get through something like 75 pages. he’d fail miserably, and his big blonde hair on top would wave around and he’d raise his arms up and whine loudly. “God!” he’d say, and stomp around. it would’ve been funnier if it wasn’t so pathetic.

an old lady waiting in line to get her copies paid for was talking loudly. “As if duct tape and plastic bags is going to stop anything! Ridiculous!” and then she rustled her bags loudly, mumbled to herself, then walked out the back door. the kinko’s clerk, already flustered by chris farley, shrugged her shoulders and smiled.

i’ve been avoiding the news, c-span, cnn. ari fleischer is talking about something right now, imminent terrorist attacks or the plan to kill saddam in 48 hours after the war starts. i’ve chosen the cartoon network instead, hamtaro to be exact. kids don’t need to know about the terrible world outside of cartoons.

i should be at the store or something right now, searching for something to get my sister for her birthday, which is tomorrow, but i can’t get myself to get out of the house right now. one of my favorite parts about buckets of rain is that you have an excuse not to go outside unless you have to. i got soaked this morning putting laundry in. i thought about how rain could possibly dampen anthrax spores and prevent them from floating far distances.

jonas was right.

sit on a train, reading a book
/ same damn planet every time i look
/ try to relax and slow my heartbeat
/ only works when iím dead asleep
/ been thinking and drinking all over the town
/ must be gearing up for some kind of melt-down
/ all i am is a body floating down-wind
/ whatís wrong?
/ nothing
/ are you sure nothingís wrong?
/ yeah
/ but youíre sad about something
/ yeah
/ so tell me what
/ i donít know
/ i canít tell you
/ all i am is a body floating down-wind
/ as the express train passes the local
/ it moves by just like a paper boat
/ although it weighs a million pounds
/ i swear it almost seems to float
/ and as we pass by each other
/ our heads all full of bother
/ we canít look, we canít stop
/ we canít think, we canít stop
/ because weíre stuck in our own paths
/ and itís the way it always lasts
/ but i need something more from you

crappy realmedia file here

for the first half of the movie, i was mildly interested, though the foot or hand or whatever it was that stuck out of the door and mel chopped it like william wallace was kind of lame. then, it was all downhill from there.

and who said shamalyan could act? what was with that stupid warning? and then how they got the freakin’ aliens to leave? that was STUPID. thumbs down, man, save your money, email me and i’ll tell you how it ends. and no, mel gibson is not already dead OR a superhero. as if he could ever be that clever again.