I finally found out what part of Mexico Ian is from.

Am I studying abroad? Yes, lots of them. At first impression, I was glad to live in the US because I think the average American girl is prettier than the average Mexican girl. Yet I’m finding that Mexican girls have pretty cool personalities. Yesterday I had a second girl in 2 days tell me that I was really cool. American girls are never so blunt. And I wasn’t even telling that good of jokes. The first one said I was ripped, so she’s clearly delusional, but in a good way. Maybe I’ll come down here again to search for a potential wife because the marianismo of the culture idolizes submissive women, and I really enjoy getting my way so basically I want a doormat of a woman. Just kidding. But no seriously, I’m just kidding. Here’s another thing:
What do you call a dog with no legs?
It doesn’t matter. He’s not coming.
They loved that one! Jokes like that stopped working in grade school for me back in the States.



Anywho, I spent last weekend in Pachuca, Mexico. Llovana celebrated her birthday in a cabin in the woods with a group of friends. We drove an hour away from the city into the woods, and when we reached the cabin, there were tree-covered mountains on all sides, with a river snaking through all the mountains.



I was really lucky to find the group. The first Sunday I was here I looked up the closest Protestant church in the area. It happened to be Primera Iglesia Bautista. I've always admired how there can be so many First Baptist Churches. How are they all the first one? A missionary lady gave me the number of a missionary family hosting a group of college students. I've been running around with them ever since. They're all from the Bible Belt. When I came here, I knew I would have an intercultural experience. I just didn’t know it would be with so many with gringos. There are about 150 Americans studying here and one 1 Canadian. “I suppooze it’s kinda fun, ay?” He really said that!

Hookwinked, Or: A Very Good Reason to Watch Where You Throw Things

So there we were, cruising along back from the Seaside section of the Oregon Coast. Pat was up front driving, riding shotgun was Matthew Spear. I was behind Matt in the right nut of the middle row, Ian hanging at the left nut, Maggie sitting tight in bitch. In the back row sat Mike directly behind me, Nancy next to him, Ben next to hear. Full house, packed car.



Beach traffic was wicked that day, as many a city-dweller sought the respite of slightly-cooler weather, or at least the quick option of a large, very cold body of water. We were running at what must have been roughly anywhere between 0 and 15 miles an hour in two-lane traffic when Ben declared he had to use the restroom. I suggested he just go by the side of the road, as he could easily catch up with us down the road a ways. He said he’d think it over.

Not long after, the two lanes merged into one, and our real trouble began. A white car tried to pull out to the right from behind us and jump in front, believing somehow that this one-car leap would give him a huge advantage. I was about to turn and yell out my window for them to calm down, when I heard their engine roar. Then I noticed the car, which was white with a black pinstripe running just off-center and featured two speakers placed (not installed) onto the back ledge of the vehicle’s interior, was being driven by two African-American gentlemen who looked in no mood for any sort of nay saying from a white scrawny boy in a Suburban.

I quickly yelled, “they’re from the hood!” as they passed by, but I was too late. The cherry (from a container Maggie had provided) had already left Ian’s hand and miraculously collided with the roof of the car. Given Ian’s position relative to their vehicle, and that the throw was done left-handed, I would have commended him for the toss if not for the nature of its victim. Soon, the man in the driver’s seat threw an unknown object at us. It was around then that everyone became aware of the nature of our adversary, and all of us who were in a position to quickly slid down for fear of being shot.




We road peacefully behind them for a couple of miles, during which they reached around in the back (for a gun?) more times than was comfortable, though we eventually were certain of the presence of a child. After a bit of time, Ben’s bladder could no longer rest and he climbed out the window next to Ian (while the car was moving, mind you…it was quite a sight) and ran to climb over a nearby hill, seeking privacy for his urination. Traffic quickened, and fearing we would leave Ben behind forever, we pulled over at the next convenient place while Matt relieved himself...




...and we waited for Ben to catch up.




As soon as he did, it was back on the road, and into sporadic traffic, but it wasn’t long until we spotted the hoods on the side of the road, standing there doing nothing at all, until we passed and they launched an unknown object towards us. Matt responded with his middle digit while the rest of us ducked like little babies.

Not long after down the road, thinking we lost them long ago, I heard Nancy ask “Is that them behind us?” We looked back and sure enough…black pinstripe. Could they have seen us pull over and done the same simply to rejoin traffic and hunt us down? How had they then gone through all those cars and caught up with us? What was their larger plan? Could all this have really happened over a cherry? So many questions, but with not enough time to answer them as not long after, we saw a police car on the side of the road pulling over an old beater for God knows what. But it wasn’t that one that had our attention, it was the one driving the opposite way down the road who had stopped in the middle of it, allowed us to pass, and then by some insane chance or what can only by described as a miracle…

…they pulled over the black pinstriped car.

To this day (hour) we are uncertain why this took place. Were they simply harassing several cars on the road, or did this run deeper?

There are any number of stories from the beach that day, from the sand crabs to the OSU comeback in the 4th inning to the sunburn we all received to a random middle-aged woman who insisted Ben pick up the only hot girl in a group of three, leaving me and Mike high and dry to the rest of what could only be described as an utterly insane 3-hour drive home, but what will stick in my head above and beyond all of them was our encounter with the hoods, and how certain we were, if only for brief moments, of impending doom.

THE BREAK-UP

Shocked. I was shocked when I left the theater tonight. For a number of reasons. First, I was shocked at just how good the movie was. Not just funny; I could tell from the trailers it’d be hilarious. But I was shocked at how serious it was. How completely different it was from what you’d be led to expect. It’s entertaining, but honest in its entertainment. Then I was shocked that I almost didn’t see it. I got caught up in the anti-hype and the 31% on Rotten Tomatoes, and almost let it slip by (normally, if I don’t see a movie within its first two weeks of release, it’s unlikely I’ll catch back up). Then I was shocked at the 31%, that critics haven’t responded better to the kind of movie they should have been clamoring for – one that’s more ANNIE HALL than TWO WEEKS NOTICE

There’s a lot going on here. First, this is a huge leap forward for Vince Vaughn. To my knowing, he hasn’t had a role like this since his breakout in the fantastic SWINGERS back in 1996. He’s been through a huge, much deserved resurgence since 2003’s OLD SCHOOL doing everything from the yearly Wilson Bros./Ben Stiller/Will Ferrell comedy to an indie hit (THUMBSUCKER) to an action movie (MR. & MRS. SMITH), and has come out now with easily his best work to date. He’s a funny, engaging actor who ends up more relatable than I thought he’d be at the beginning of the flick. Really, just fantastic work.

But it is a relationship movie, and like a relationship, it takes two. I’ve never been a Jennifer Aniston fan. I think she’s a talented enough actress, and funny on occasions. I’m not a big fan of FRIENDS, but I liked her well enough in OFFICE SPACE I suppose. But here, she’s funny in a way Vaughn isn’t – whereas much of Vaughn’s comedy comes from the situations he creates, hers is in the reactions. We laugh because we can empathize, as is true for so much of the movie.

And that’s the key right there. It’s relatable. We’ve all been there at one time or another. Not fighting over a condo per se, but dumped. Rejected. Made to feel as if we’re not understood or loved or appreciated by the only person whose understanding, love, and appreciation you need. And the movie touches that exact nerve while making us laugh throughout. If you’re at all a fan of relationship comedies or dramas, I cannot recommend this highly enough because it’s the best of its kind out there right now.

As a final, geeky note, I gotta give a huge mention to the supporting cast, because when I saw the trailer and saw that they squeezed in all of these people who I love to watch but don’t get nearly enough work, that alone made me need to see it. Every one of them comes out just as fantastic as anyone at all familiar with them would expect – Jon Favreau (SWINGERS), Joey Lauren Adams (the chick in CHASING AMY), Jason Bateman (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT’s Michael Bluth), Justin Long (DODGEBALL), Vincent D’Onofrio (the alien in MEN IN BLACK and the dad in THUMBSUCKER), and believe it or not, Peter Billingsley (Ralphie from A CHRISTMAS STORY). They’re all underused, but only because they’re all enormously talented. Go see any of the stuff listed above, it’s all fantastic.

P.S. Someone should post something...besides Doug declaring that he's better than me, I've made now the last three posts...and that scares me.

Counting Crows Live

First, they played with the Goo Goo Dolls, a band I didn’t have any particular feeling towards going in but now just do not like. Their act didn’t have an ounce of life in it, and I wondered if there was any real point in coming out with a new album when they’re clearly content (though not at all thrilled) to play “Iris” and “Give A Little Bit” from town to town. Anyway, completely bland and forgettable, not unlike so much of their work.

The Crows, however, were a different story altogether. I was talking about this with Ben last night, how there are some bands I truly dig their music and in many ways simply admire (Zeppelin, The Beatles), but only have a loose connection with emotionally. Their music is fantastic, but it mostly doesn’t hit me in a specific way, nor do I have a great memory tied to it. On the other hand, there are bands that it’s almost all emotion, where their music hits a certain viewpoint or feeling I’ve always had, or I have a very specific memory in which their music resonated with me (The Beach Boys and Queen are probably the two best examples…also Joni Mitchell). With the Crows, it all started when I saw them in concert three years ago, as they were playing with John Mayer, who I immediately regretted actually wanting to see. But the Crows, a band I was only scarcely familiar with, blew me away. They had a whole set-up onstage that included (electric) candles, and front-man Adam Duritz half-grooved, and half-hobbled around stage, as much engrossed in the melody as the rest of us. This is something that can come off as a little self-righteous, but not to me; not this time at least.

Though they changed the look of the show (a little more traditional-light-heavy, which worked big time for them during “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby”), the feel was the same, and now that I’m actually familiar with their work a bit more, noticed a number of other things. First, their songs are very, very different when they perform them live than their studio releases. Not unlike Zeppelin, the Crows do relatively tight, focused studio tracks, and then unleash a more free-form, expressive version of the song onstage. Which, if you’re anything like me and demand something you can’t buy on CD when you see a band live (and that something has to go beyond “they’re playing right in front of you”), is the best thing ever.

They started off a tad shaky as “Recovering the Satellites” and especially “Hard Candy” were almost exact duplicates of their studio tracks, and they were using a lot of video to back them up (which ultimately destroyed any chance the Dolls had with me), but by the time they went into “Mrs. Potter,” here were the Crows I fell for in 2003. Duritz wandered the stage almost aimlessly, rocked out as he sung, and changed or expanded on many of the lyrics, making for a similar, yet very different experience from listening to the album. And he held out the mic the first few times for the “talk! to! me!” which I’m a big fan of. They continued their free-form, expressive style throughout, giving the fans something new as often as they could. I’ve heard “Mr. Jones” and “Hangin’ Around” a thousand times (and still love them both to death), but never like this. It wasn’t just that it was there right in front of me…they lyrics were different, parts were dropped entirely. They were completely different songs, but still with the exact same mood and feel to them. It’s really hard to describe, but it’s the best experience you can get in a live show because you couldn’t hope to capture it in audio alone…the tech work and the band’s energy just flows from the stage, all the way to the lawn seats my brother and I had.

They didn’t just play the hits, either, which is always nice. Besides giving me something I can’t get on CD, a huge bonus for me at a concert is when they don’t play a song or two that I’d love to hear (in this case, I wanted “Round Here” the whole time but came up empty), but it doesn’t bother me in the least. There was no “Accidentally in Love” or “Big Yellow Taxi,” but fantastic renditions of “Goodnight Elizabeth” (which, it turns out, is about a girl from Lake Oswego…fun fact) and most definitely “Richard Manuel is Dead.” And hearing “A Long December” and “Holiday in Spain” (a fantastic choice for an encore song, it turned out) just killed me all over again.

It was the first show of their tour, and it felt every bit like it. It may all be part of show business, but the feeling I got watching it was a band giving their all, part out of love for the fans but mostly just for love of playing the music and being onstage together.

What a great band.

Haha, I'm better than Scott