Another Saturday Check-In
A gray start to the day hereabouts, it's been a sleep-in Saturday.
Last weekend was a wet, dirty nightmare as we had a substantial plumbing problem that did a number on the downstairs -- largely the den, bathroom and laundry room areas, as the upper floor is our main living floor (the place is built into a hillside, and our parking ground level is the same as the upstairs) -- so a great deal was trashed. The blockage was beyond the lowest point in our plumbing, so everything started trying to come up out of the toilet and bathtub in that bathroom.
Trav and I hauled a huge amoung around for pick-up this week, including our couch that was down there. The love seat's fine, but the couch was a lost cause. There's still plenty of work to be done down there, including more to battle mildew, but the mood's considerably less tense this weekend.
Over on my Clix blog I most recently posted something about the set due for release Nov. 21. A week from today I'll be playing in a pre-release event for it.
No new movies out this weekend we'll be looking to see The Mist over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Sure, it could all go terribly wrong, but the short story immediately evoked thoughts of a film treatment so I've been watching for some sign of this for years. Turning a short story into a film is a far smoother transition -- novels almost always receive a lobotomy in the move because so much must be cut out and the rest compressed, and even then there's the question of what the screenwriter decides what the novel was really about and feels compelled to share his insights. The elements in The Mist are basic enough that the biggest question is what they decided would be the best way to end it. Keeping the end open, as in the story, may have been judged by a focus group to be unsatisfying, but with luck their hope for a money-making sequel will work to keep the story intact.
For today, though, I have shopping to do if we're going to be eating for the next week or so. I already have the turkey bought -- picked that up Thursday, before work, when they'd hit their sale prices and I could easily find one over 20 lbs -- so that's tucked away in the freezer downstairs. We have plenty of meals between now and the 22nd, though. So... I'm off!
A gray start to the day hereabouts, it's been a sleep-in Saturday.
Last weekend was a wet, dirty nightmare as we had a substantial plumbing problem that did a number on the downstairs -- largely the den, bathroom and laundry room areas, as the upper floor is our main living floor (the place is built into a hillside, and our parking ground level is the same as the upstairs) -- so a great deal was trashed. The blockage was beyond the lowest point in our plumbing, so everything started trying to come up out of the toilet and bathtub in that bathroom.
Trav and I hauled a huge amoung around for pick-up this week, including our couch that was down there. The love seat's fine, but the couch was a lost cause. There's still plenty of work to be done down there, including more to battle mildew, but the mood's considerably less tense this weekend.
Over on my Clix blog I most recently posted something about the set due for release Nov. 21. A week from today I'll be playing in a pre-release event for it.
No new movies out this weekend we'll be looking to see The Mist over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Sure, it could all go terribly wrong, but the short story immediately evoked thoughts of a film treatment so I've been watching for some sign of this for years. Turning a short story into a film is a far smoother transition -- novels almost always receive a lobotomy in the move because so much must be cut out and the rest compressed, and even then there's the question of what the screenwriter decides what the novel was really about and feels compelled to share his insights. The elements in The Mist are basic enough that the biggest question is what they decided would be the best way to end it. Keeping the end open, as in the story, may have been judged by a focus group to be unsatisfying, but with luck their hope for a money-making sequel will work to keep the story intact.
For today, though, I have shopping to do if we're going to be eating for the next week or so. I already have the turkey bought -- picked that up Thursday, before work, when they'd hit their sale prices and I could easily find one over 20 lbs -- so that's tucked away in the freezer downstairs. We have plenty of meals between now and the 22nd, though. So... I'm off!
Comments
D and I were noting that there were several movies out (or coming out) that we'd like to see. Conspiring against us, time and finances, have foiled previous efforts. However, we may be going to see a few in the next couple weeks. THE MIST is one high our lists as well.
I couldn't agree more about short story adaptations vs. novel adaptations. ESPECIALLY when it comes to King's work. STAND BY ME was a much better effort than...well...nearly any of his novels.
Have started my Turkey Day grocery shopping, but haven't picked up the turkey yet. Great sales prices around here, though. It'll be happening in the next couple days, I'm sure.
With D's birthday next week, I've got a full week of "favorite meals" planned with Thanksgiving kind of rounding it out...;)
Have a great holiday, if I don't catch you before then.
There are some interesting (prospectively) movies out and coming out, though most of them will likely slide on to video viewing in '08. No Country For Old Men will likely be one that will slide; reports are that the Coen bros. may have stuck with the source novel's tricks, resulting in a movie that pulls the audience along for most of it and then jerks them into what I've seen vaguely reported as an unsatisfying discontinuity in the final reel.
The only movies seen recently have been Saw IV - which, as a fan of the franchise I must report was a disappointment, though I'm preferring to focus on how they managed two solid sequels out of it. As it appears to have done well at the box office I'm expecting a Saw V, but the interest in seeing it would have more to do with habit and doubly morbid curiosity.
30 Days of Night was the other recent viewing, and I didn't bring myself to write anything about it save in an email exchange with someone else who'd seen it. I simply wasn't moved to write anything about it unless prompted. In the end it was mostly what I'd expected, which is more good than bad. The atmosphere was handled well and the movie didn't drag.
As with most years the holidays are simultaneously coming up too quickly and taking too long to get there. I know the former's the greater truth, though, and am trying to not help the time speed by out of impatience.