Thursday, July 24, 2008

How I Met Your Mother

Today is my 15th wedding anniversary, to think that I could find anyone who would actually put with me that long is kind of mind boggling. I tend to be wierd, selfish, and sometimes down right difficult to live with. Just to give you the story if you're interested. The year was 1991, I had transferred to a new school where I knew no one. I had a friend that attended there a year before me but he was kicked out due to an accident in which he and some friends vandalized a building on campus. Really he wasn't that bad of a guy I swear and as far as I know he never ended up in jail. It's just the people I used to hang with had a strange idea of what was fun to do. Any way, when he found out I was transferring he called up his friends and they were on the look out for me. These were essentially my friends for the next two years although I added a few to the mix and moved in large circle that had different smaller circles inside of it. Confused? good. My first two weeks were pretty lonely I had yet to hook up with my friends friends, we just hadn't ran into each other so to speak. Any way my wife, doing something very out of the ordinary for her, came over to the dorm I was in to meet a guy who had randomly dialed her and her roommates room number (if you were dialing a room on campus you only had to dial the four digit room number like calling from one hotel room to another in the same building accept it worked all over campus. This little liner note went a lot longer than I thought it would...). I happened to know the guy and passed through the lobby as they were getting ready to go to Taco Bell. They asked me to go with them, so I said ok, it just happened that my future significant other drove a 1977 Buick (I grew to love that car, it's story all it's own.) that would easily hold all of east Texas. The first Iraqi war had just started so I questioned her as to when this boat was to set sail for Iraq. To this day she loves to tell this story. This was not a love at first sight type of thing, more like she hated me and I barely recognized her. Skip to mid-February of the same year. I had invited three friends to come home with me for the weekend, this somehow grew into a caravan of 3 car loads of 20 - 21 year old college students. My wife's roommate had married a couple of months before and moved out, her other best friend didn't like to do much of anything. So one of the girls that was going home with me asked if I knew L.A. and I told her I vaguely recalled our run south of the border. This friend said that L.A. didn't have many friends and was kind of lonely and wondered if it would be OK if she tagged along. At this point my group of three had turned into a group of 8 or more, so the more the merrier. We became friends after bonding that weekend (still one of the best weekends of my life) and she became a regular in my smaller circle of friends although I still didn't hear wedding bells or me even asking "would you like to go out?". Cut to the next year of school, L.A. was a senior, I was failing miserably at just attending school, but there was a tradition of Sadie Hawkins, since I had as many girlfriends as guy friends we decided it would be cool to do the Sadie Hawkins thing as a group of paired up friends. I paired up with L.A. I thought she was fun and a little different and pretty easy on the eyes too. So I asked her out again, we dated off and on over that year until she graduated, I was going home and not returning and so we were at a cross road. I thought it would just kind of drift away until luck would have it that her first job was about 40 miles away from my hometown, great! We kept dating and eventually it became evident to me that I really didn't want to hang out with anyone else. So we got hitched, although we like to tell people that we aren't really married we just live together, this is always quite fun for us to see their reaction. That's my story of how I met my wife, I'm leaving out drama and some other things just because it would take too long. Anyway, happy anniversary Baby!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

My week

I have been somewhat of a recluse this week when it comes to blogging. Let me give you a quick run down.
1. Working- The job sucks this week that's all I'm saying.
2. Playing guitar - Actually, kind of relearning, I was taught to play by a great teacher but one that felt technical things like understanding what you were doing just wasn't necessary, " just play whats on the page". I want more than that now and with a wife and child study time is a little bit harder to come by, not to mention I don't play out much except at church and none of my friends play and even if they did they would have more important things to do than have fun.
3. Paying bills, I hate the end of the month.
4. Working, did I mention that it sucks this week?
5. Watched a movie called Big Wednesday, it was made in 1978, it's set in the late 60's three late teen early twenty something buddies get the call from Uncle Sam to go to Vietnam ending their days laying on the beach, surfing, making out with girls and fighting (lots of fighting) I enjoyed this movie, my wife, not so much. I can't decide if it was the acting, the story line, the cheesy 70's look of the film or all of the above that annoyed the crap out of her to the point she got up and went to bed. It starred Gary Busey, he was in things like Lethal Weapon, D.C. Cab, Point Break, now he is the resident crazy man in Hollywood, crashing red carpet interviews and scaring the crap out of young stars who have no clue who he is. It also stars Jan Michael Vincent, his biggest roles were as the pilot on the series Airwolf and Disney movies, his last role was almost killing himself in a car wreck and being Hollywood's worst alcoholic. I am thinking about hunting this down on DVD just hoping it has an extras section or commentary by the director, I would imagine putting these two actors together in one place was quite crazy and probably ruined the career of the director.
I'll return in a day or two with my next movie list stay tuned...

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Trey's Top Five Favorite Movies

I have nothing else to talk about tonight so I'm beginning my movie installments I may only post one every now and then. Tonights category is...DOCUMENTARIES! I think I just heard everyone who may read this close it. I don't care I'm talking about it anyway. I love documentaries, it could be a film over glue drying and I would probably watch it. A good documentary can be about anything, it can have a slant to make you believe one way or another on a subject, it could something as simple as following someone around while they really don't do anything. It just depends on what grabs you. I'll list a couple of honorable mentions that weren't quite good enough to crack the top 5 and then we'll get to the top 5.

Honorable Mentions:
Roger and Me - This was Roger Moorer's first big break as a documentary director, it failed to make the top 5 because its a little dated now although it may soon be relevant again. It came out in the late 80's. It basically talks about all the jobs GM cut during a downturn of the automobile industry in Moorer's hometown of Flint, MI. I'm not a Moorer sympathizer and this was before he got really out there and did stupid stuff like go on a rant at the Oscars. It is sad and funny at the same time, his usual formula and it worked really well in this movie. This was probably the first real documentary I ever watched.

Favorite Scene- Cuts between a lavish Christmas party thrown by GM for the white collar workers and people who used to work for GM being forcibly evicted from their homes while Christmas music plays in the background. Good Times.

Endless Summer - It's a movie about two guys who travel the world in the 60's surfing, yes, that's about it. I'm always mesmerized by people doing things I can't do.

Supersize Me- Probably the most well known documentary on my list. The film maker goes on a crazy diet of McDonalds for 30 days and every time he is asked if he would like to supersize his order he has to say yes. He takes a physical before and afterwards (the experiment was actually cut short due to health issues that arose from the diet of fried fatty food 24/7, imagine that.) the change is unbelievable and I swore off of the golden arches for about a year before choosing items off the menu that kill you more slowly.

Favorite Scene- His doctor packs up, closes her practice and leaves town because of threats that are hinted to have come from the main clown of fastfood. Scary.

5. The Devil and Daniel Johnston
This the story of Daniel Johnston, an underground hero in the music world of Austin, Texas and his slow slip into insanity. He is plagued by voices and depression, infatuation with the devil and the number 9. His case is so severe his parents will have to take care of him the rest of their lives, which isn't long considering they were in their seventies when the film was made. You actually feel bad for them and want to take him in if for no other reason to allow them some peace before their time is up. The hurt in them is horrible, you can tell they are both tired and scared for their child once they are gone. His music is somewhat child like, songs about Casper the ghost and other things from his childhood but it is also very nice to listen to.

Favorite Scene - Daniels dad retelling the story of a time when he personally flew Daniel to a show and Daniel, freaking out mid-flight, wrestling the keys from his father and throwing them out of the window. He actually started crying again just telling the story...

4. This Film is Not Yet Rated
It's the history and the quirkiness of how films get rated. Film rating is voluntary but almost a necessity to get a film into theatres. The director finds out that it's a very secretive process, the industry does not even release the names of raters and most refuse to talk after they leave. He makes it his mission to expose the raters of the year the film was made (they change the raters every year). It really is very interesting.

Favorite Scene - When they tell a list of words that are guaranteed to get you an 18 or older rating if used to often and in certain combinations. What words can be said and what words can't be said and they say them all. I haven't laughed this hard at a film in a longtime. My wife who is more conservative than I did not find this scene the least bit funny.

Favorite Scene 2 - When the director submits his film for rating, the hoops he has to jump through just to get a letter on the film. You already know where his rating is headed once they see the content of the film.

3. Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
This is basically the story of Enron, it lays out their creative accounting ideas that brought down the largest business to ever fail in the U.S. well, before the whole housing thing anyway. In some ways it is a foreshadowing of what we are seeing now. You get to see up close through interviews how they destroyed hundreds of thousand of lives with their lies. Then when it's over and you're about to get the bad taste out of your mouth, you think about the fact that the CEO escaped prison by dying and virtually getting off free. It's a real feel good movie (sarcasm mode off).

Favorite Scene - Enron found they could drive of the price of electricity by having un-needed emergency shutdowns of parts of or whole power plants and while this is happening listening to two employees joke about squeezing every last penny out of grandma. The whole company should have gotten jail time.

Favorite Scene 2 - The CEO Jeffery Skilling actually showing a future plan in which you could invest in weather. WTF!?

2. Dogtown and Z Boys
This is a skateboard documentary about the evolution and revolution of skateboarding in the seventies. The Z boys were a skate team that took surf moves and brought them to the street (they would skate when there were no waves). In doing this, they took skateboarding from a light version of ice skating and transformed it into the aggressive over the top sport it is today. You meet every member of the team and what they did and what they became. I used to skate before I got fat and old so maybe that is why this appeals to me but it did win best documentary at the Cannes film festival when it was released.

Favorite Scene - The members of Dogtown talking about how they would empty pools just to skate them. Yeah, these were pools they didn't own.

1. Decline of the Western Civilization: The Metal Years
This is actually part 2 of a 3 part set, it deals with the music scene of Los Angeles during the 80's so it is basically about hair metal. You get to see some stars before they were stars, people who hoped to become stars, and how decadent the whole scene was. A time of fast cars and faster women, a time when chicks were hot and guys looked like hot chicks. This was my scene, I grew up on this music and so that is why it is special to me. This is long out of print but supposedly they are working on getting it re released. I was able to catch it on the tube and record it.

Favorite Scene - When the director asks musicians in the scene what will they do if they don't make it, (which most didn't) the common answer? "I will probably end up in a slum somewhere, I can't do anything else".

So there you have it, my first top 5 films of _________ genre. Hopefully you'll look some of these up. If Documentaries don't appeal to you, stay tuned I'll have more in the future.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Everytime I think I'm, they drag me back in.

My friend PJ who got me into this whole blogging mess brought up something I had sorta thought about but not really. Blogging is sort of a cheap form of therapy, I agree on this and I think I am seeing the benefits, I come here and get all the crap out and that leaves room for the more important crap. What I mean is, I completed an "album" of sorts in my personal little music studio here, I intended to be done with recording for a while, but suddenly I am filled with new ideas, songs and parts of songs that come from nowhere. I suck and I make no bones about that, don't look for my songs on top 40 anytime soon, but to write something heart felt about a loved one, or write something funny about whatever it is that makes you laugh and then listen back to it and think "that's not really that bad" is a good feeling. I think I have blogging to think for that, I come here and discard the stuff I don't want or need and save the other stuff for what truly entertains me. I'm hoping the next "album", which I will probably start working on in the next week or so will be all originals, I promised myself after I completed this last one that it was the last one I was doing just to please friends and family, the next one is for me and it will have all of the warts and scars I tend to hide from people. My family won't want to hear it, it won't be nice church songs, it will be about opening my closet of anxieties and letting them out. It will be about things I like, things that make me laugh and things that make me hide under the covers, and that is what art is supposed to be about, whether it's writing, music or pictures or whatever. It's about doing something that pleases you and makes YOU happy and I'm getting there, thanks to this. On a less heavy note, AFI just did a top ten on top ten, the top ten movies of ten different genres. I'm a huge movie fan so I am going to be reworking that into the top five of Trey over the next few days, some will be on the AFI list some will never have been heard of but I'm trying to come up the categories right now so it make take a few days.

Monday, July 14, 2008

I Hate Mondays

The title for a song by the underrated Boom Town Rats sums up everybody's Monday I think. Just because I am full of useless trivia I am even going to tell you what inspired the song. Apparently in the late 70's a teen girl went on a shooting spree at an elementary school (yes, it even happened way back then) when arrested and asked why she did it, she simply replied "I hate Mondays". Starting at the end of last week and continuing into this week, work has been non stop, an upgrade that has largely been seen as "successful" ( my company has a funny way of measuring success) has caused the help desk I work at to be flooded with calls, someone who has been on hold for twenty minutes will tell you that is not a sign of a "successful" upgrade. Things don't look any brighter tomorrow which means my Monday has lasted 3 straight days plus 3 days that I didn't work but did worry about it (when I took time out from worrying about everything else). I will go in tomorrow and do a report for the boss, a report he used to do until he went away for a few days, taught me how to do it and then decided it would be good for me to do everyday, even when he is there. Then I have to train new employees which goes something like me talking and giving them important information and them promptly falling asleep during the middle of the important information. Then, when they start taking calls they will be quick to point out that they don't feel they were properly trained over the material they decided to sleep through, not that them sleeping had anything to do with that though. On top of that there are only about 3 other techs who have a brain to think logically through problems they were hired to solve and only two of those do that on a regular basis, the other 10 are content to let me do the thinking for them. I used to fight this but found out it was totally useless and a waste of our customers time to try and force these techs to think, so now I just dole out answers like I have an unlimited supply. Do I sound a little bitter? Did I mention that there are other outside forces who feel their clients are more important than the 30 customers that are currently holding patiently? Yeah I guess I didn't until then, I hate Mondays.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

He's not a fighter...

I learned pretty quickly that my son is not a fighter. He doesn't like confrontation, instead he would rather everyone get along. My case in point we were at the park yesterday and a little girl and her dad showed up. My son loves other kids and considers them all his "new friends" that's his words. Unfortunately the little girl did not feel the same way and as he tried to play with her she pushed him. Instead of pushing back, or lashing out, he just came back and told me that she pushed him. I think he was more hurt that she didn't want to be friends more than anything else. The little girl's dad gave her a good scolding and after several uncomfortable minutes between me and him and us doing our best to have our children avoid each other the little girl came around and decided to be friends and all was right with the world. While I love that my son is sensitive enough to want to be friends with everyone I also want him to know that it is ok to take up for himself. This produces quite a quandary though, how do I get him to understand that we don't bully other kids but we don't get bullied either? I haven't figured it out yet and luckily he hasn't been in a situation that requires him to fight because I just don't know that he would do it. He does wrestle and play fight with me but in a real situation he would probably walk away, I'm ok with that as long as he is not daily being harassed by some kid whose parents have not taught him any proper manners. This is just the latest in my long list of current anxieties.

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Waaay tooo loooong

It's been a while, this will be a run down of what has been happening since I have not been blogging.
1. Vacation- In Galveston with the family, we stayed at the "helltell" as Mr. B calls it. I went a whole week and only checked the Blackberry twice!

2. Movies- I got a digital video camera for my birthday and it is scarily taking over my life. I video everything, I found myself standing outside shooting stock footage of a "Spooky" Moon just in case I need it in the future, scary I tell you, let's just move on before it requires me to make a movie of a girl climbing out of a well...

3. Music- This is one of my favorite things in the world and I found the less I try the easier it comes to me as far as writing, I also have tried to become more educated in what the heck I'm actually doing when I pick up the guitar (I play by ear) so I have been learning scales, theory, sight reading, it's crazy. I love it.

4. Mr. B - The wife is going out of town this weekend so we have a guys weekend planned, he's staying up late Friday, we may also go bowling Friday or visit friends. Saturday we're eating donuts, getting a haircut, going to the park, and then eating at McDonald's...for the toy in the meal of course.

5. News - I'm about to drive myself crazy, I obsess over the news, especially gas prices and the middle east I scan all sites looking for hints of what the market will do tomorrow, something has got to give.

6. Finally- I'm having weird dreams, every night since Sunday I have had some sort of crazy dream, Sunday night's scared the crap out of me that's all I can say about it. Monday night featured many former co-workers, me storming out of a large electronics store because they would not accept my Musicians Friend card or a laminated piece of paper that says I'm good for the cost of the video game as payment and me getting irate with people standing in a hall talking. Yeah uhm, just talking... Tuesday nights dream I don't remember much I think there was another former co-worker I just remember waking up and thinking " what the heck is the matter with me?!"

7. Work - Yes, vacation was brief and work has been painful this week, it seems every week I do a little more of everyone Else's job, but I have started calling people out on it and I'm going to get worse before I get better.

This has been nice, I feel better even if there is no one reading this. I have to go now, I have to film a cat walking down the side of the street, you know, just in case I need it in the future...