Armageddon

Apple won a double pass to the Armageddon Expo. So, we figured we may as well give it a go. Free is free, right?

The tragedy began outside the venue, where a bunch of young adults (or old children) were dressed up as superheroes, one of them heroically climbing, fist over fist, up a length of steel rope, above his applauding friends.

Sadly, no greater tragedy took place. He did not fall and break a limb or even scrape his knee.

Inside the venue, it was pretty much an onslaught of such costumed fanatics.

Some kudos deserves to go out to those whose costumes were very intricate and well put together. But then, that kudos (and more) deserves to be ripped right away again when you consider just how sad it is. It’s excusable when you’re aged 7 or so and prone to indulgent and imitative fantasies.

But for mid-teens, late-teens, and especially twenty-somethings and above – one feels like taking them by the shoulders, slapping their poorly made-up faces and saying, “Snap out of it, goddammit, get a life – you are not the Joker, OK?”

I felt a bit sorry for the quasi-quasi celebrities too. Not even in this niche environment of hardcore nerds could they garner much interest. For the most part, they just rocked back and forth in their chairs, below dramatic posters of themselves, a numbing boredom overtaking them.

The chairs of Michael Winslow and Michael Hurst had been abandoned. A shame, since Winslow actually might have been cool to say hi too, the Police Academy films being somewhat significant comedies from my youth.

Of course, the fanatics and  F-grade celebs are just what makes Armageddon the despairingly hilarious time that it is.

The expo did remind me to pick up Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series at some point too…

Lazy fucker

… is what my film lecturer/course coordinator is.

My evidence?

• his lectures are all basic paraphrasings of our weekly readings
• he’s fat
• he stumbles during his own lectures when reaching beyond the obvious, and
• when reaching beyond the obvious he falls back on calling upon us to ‘discuss amongst ourselves’.

And the clincher:

“I’m sorry you don’t have your essay questions yet. I’d hoped to get them to you sooner or today, but they’ll be with you next lecture. I’d say I have a good excuse, but really I’ve just been busy.”

Busy.

So, following the example set by our lecturer/course coordinator/self-proclaimed head fascist, may we hand our essays in late on the basis that we ourselves have “been busy” too?

I doubt it.

Too bad if his laziness has cost us valuable time.

And now that we have received our essay questions, what are they?

They are rushed, lazy, poorly thought out, and involve spelling mistakes.

Holy crap am I glad to have paid almost a thousand dollars to be doing this course in order to “further” my education. What an investment!

Relegating

Espressoholic are closing in a month. Maybe less now. Apparently their landlord gave them their notice for one reason or another, and now their premises will become (in all likelihood) just another cheap Courtenay Place drinking joint where students can prostitute themselves to an awful soundtrack.

I wish I cared more.

I have plenty of good memories of the place, including a number of fine Sunday panini after getting drunk and prostituting myself the night before to an awful soundtrack.

A couple of long gone, though more-or-less positively remembered, relationships of mine also have beginnings or other fond connections to the place.

But the last two times I’ve been there, I’ve only been reminded of reasons why maybe it is time for them to move on:

1. In this instance, the chocolate chip cookie was too large, and while it was a good deal in terms of portion size versus dollar, I just felt sick by the end of it. It was also way too floury. I mean, I know I could have stopped eating it for both of these reasons, but I had paid for it after all.  It also took exactly far too fucking long to get served considering there was only one fuss-pot in front of me in the line, but several staff loitering around.

2. In this instance, the savoury muffin was also generously sized. Though, while filled with many gorgeous things,  for some reason it tasted only like butter. Plus, it came in one of those paper wrappers, to which about a third of the muffin got stuck, and which made it very hard to eat while on the run. Just use a damned non-stick muffin dish.

Petty? Maybe.

And yes, I relegate some things too easily to the past.

But, for me, Espressoholic works better there.

Launching into the blogosphere

Blogs are stupid, aren’t they?

Why would anybody want to blog? Why would anyone ever want to air their thoughts to such a broad and unscrupulous audience as that found on the internet? Is it something to do with exhibitionism or masochism? Is the blogosphere the realm of the chronically lame and lonely? Who would ever read this shit anyway? Will my friends even read it? Step back… do I even have any friends?

For answers to all these questions and more, read any old person’s blog.

Or stick around and read this one.

Quality not assured.