I was really, REALLY looking forward to seeing this. Aside from the fact that I like Tim Burton, adore Johnny Depp and worship Alan Rickman, I love the idea of a sort of horror flick coming out at Christmas.

Imagine my utter disappointment in the Dickinson (my town’s one and only multiplex) for not bringing it to my town. It’s like the Carmike all over again with a theatre chain dictating what an entire city wants and doesn’t want. Man, it really ticks me off and makes me not want to see movies at the Dickinson, ever. Thank goodness there is The Grand downtown and while I know Sweeney will probably never play there either since it’s geared towards family fare, I absolutely love what the fine volunteers are bringing in there. Kudos to them, big bad BOO to the Dickinson.

So I drove to Lincoln to see it (an hour and a half away – and I was in Lincoln for xmas anyway but I wasn’t gonna leave without seeing ST.) Worth it? Totally. Now, you have to enjoy musicals to like this film because if you’re the type of person who can’t work out why people burst into song and seem to automatically know all the dance steps then Sweeney probably isn’t for you. You’ll spend the whole movie being irritated.

But if you can get past that and listen to the lyrics (and there’s not much in the way of dancing in Sweeney so you’re safe there) and watch the whole gory story unfold, then you’ll probably dig on Sweeney.

For the record, I didn’t know much about the Broadway musical at all. Had no idea it was such a dark and bloody story because man, if I had, I would totally have read up on it. It’s tragically awesome.

The story is this (Spoilers ahead and if you live in my town and don’t know the story, you’ll probably want to skip the rest of this until you can get yourself to Lincoln to see it): A pervy, wicked judge imprisons talented barber, Benjamin Barker on false charges, tearing him away from his beautiful wife and baby daughter. While Benji’s sent away, the judge makes a move on his wife which leads to her poisoning herself. The judge takes in the baby as his ward and raises her as his own.

Benji escapes and returns to London with a new name: Sweeney Todd. And Sweeney’s got vengeance on the brain. He meets Mrs. Lovett in her awful pie shop and sets up his own barber shop upstairs (which happens to be the small apartment he once lived in with his beautiful wife.)

Sweeney’s ultimate goal is to get the judge in for a shave where he will then slash his throat and have his revenge. But the plans get bollixed up as plans do, and a young sailor falls in love with the now teenage daughter of Sweeney who is virtually imprisoned within the judge’s home while he spies on her. I don’t like pervy Alan Rickman, but I will say he’s quite good as an icky sleazeball.

So Sweeney begins slashing throats of those he deems evil and who will not be missed and Mrs. Lovett turns them into meat pies she then serves to the public. The blood flows and spurts and gushes in great gurgly noises as he slashes and bashes these baddies up and the public just LOVES Mrs. Lovett’s meat pies. It’s cannibaltastic.

The plan gets messed up when the judge finally turns up in Sweeney’s shop and just as Todd is about to have his revenge, the lovesick sailor bursts in begging Todd to help him rescue the girl from the judge.

Oh there’s more, and it’s really quite gory and the music is fantastically dark and wonderful. But you should see it for yourself. I got a bit sniffly at the end. You see, you never quite hate Sweeney despite all the nasty, horrible, evil things he does. I admire any story that can make me sympathetic towards such a creature.

Wow this got long. Anyway, I’d say see the movie, even if you have to wait for the DVD. It’s excellent.

I’m trying to think about the things that happened this year that made it memorable. Sort of my own little end of the year thing. Let’s see…

Nobody I love died. That’s a good. Always appreciate a year that passes with all my loved ones intact. Morbid? Maybe, but hey, it’s what I think about.

When I started thinking about this I worried that I’d have very little to reflect on because I tend to generalize my life. Like when someone you haven’t seen in a while asks you how your life’s been and you answer, “Oh, fine. Same old same old.” When in fact, many new things have occurred. So when I thought about this, I remembered that there’ve actually been a few milestones this year.

My sister became engaged. That’s a biggie. Seeing them at Christmas was wonderful because I could just tell how much they love each other. They’re good for each other and I’m quite chuffed to be getting a brother 🙂 I always wanted one of those.

Shannon turned the big 1-6 and is driving the car now. She just asked to borrow it tomorrow and I’m even letting her have it to go to a New Year’s Eve party. Oh don’t worry, it’s a sleepover at a friend’s with a bunch of girls and she’s under strict orders not to go joyriding. I’ve noted my mileage 🙂 Anyway, I don’t need the car myself. I plan to kick off 2008 by watching some Doctor Who.

My father got hitched this summer to the lovely Charlotte in a cozy backyard wedding in Montana and we got to be there. Montana in summer is quite lush. I learned how to split logs with an axe so if I should ever have the need to become an axe-wielding homicidal maniac, I’ve got experience with the wielding part.

Hmmm what else… Oh I’ve learned a new trick at work. I can add video/audio editing and producing to my resume. I’ve always been good at editing sound but never had the equipment or software to work on video. But I do now, muahahaha. And I love it. AND I got a video camera for xmas as well so expect cheesy little videos to show up on this blog soon. Just waiting on a memory card.

My newspaper was sold to a new company. It marks the first time I’ve been involved with something like this. So far, it’s been… interesting to observe.

Carrying on with the geek theme, I’ve also learned more than I ever wanted to know about DNS transfers and nameserver crap. I hate that stuff with a very intense passion. I’m hoping I won’t have to muck with any of that stuff much in the new year. It’s a pain.

I’m just going to gloss right over the shite that went wrong this year. Like my fuel pump crapping out and costing $900 bucks to fix, or the recent little car accident, or the fact that I make ok money for this market and yet I’m *still* living check to check. I mean seriously, I have no life to speak of. Where the F does the money go? Yeesh.

On the lighter side of things, I discovered a love for Doctor Who and Torchwood. Netflix is full of win and awesome. XM channel 44 is excellent about 90% of the time. I kinda dig the fact that my cat loves no human apart from me and the kid. Anyone else is just flesh to devour if she got the chance 🙂 I love knowing that I get to go to my sister’s wedding in California next October thanks to my brilliant cousin and his fabulous gf. Can’t wait to be in Cali again. I’m going to test the vibe and see if it’s someplace I’d want to go back to someday. I don’t think I’ll stay in Nebraska for the rest of my life, but I’m not sure where I’d want to go. But that’s a topic for another blog 🙂

Yeah at the end of the day, 2007 was pretty okay. Ups and downs as most years have, but that’s all right. Here’s to 2008, though 🙂 I hope it rocks.

Well the Big Holiday is over and I must say that this was a really lovely holiday – apart from getting hit by a car of course. That pretty much sucked.

I think I might be in a bit of shock. Just a little. I’ve been in car accidents before, but just bumper thumps really. But I keep flashing on the damage to my door and the rear wheel well that was bent in so far the car is not drivable. It was a pretty good smash. I think if we hadn’t been in such a tank-like car (a Ford Taurus) the damage to us in the car would have been worse. I’m glad it hit my side and not Shannon’s.

What happened was the roads are slick. It began snowing after we got back to town after having a great visit with Aunty Jo and everybody and we stopped at a truck stop to get some food. After we left there, my sister was making a left turn and we began to slide. She wasn’t going very fast and was beginning to get the car corrected before we slid too badly, but we didn’t get a chance to because a guy in an SUV slid as well and rammed us. Kelly says she saw him in the rearview and felt he was coming up too fast for her liking and sure enough, he was sliding and couldn’t stop.

But we’re all fine. Kelly and Matty and Shannon are ok, no bumps or bruises and the driver of the SUV was fine as well. I hit my head but I don’t have a bump or anything. My left arm’s a bit sore but not enough for me to be able to tell if it’s from the accident or just my normal achiness. I’m just a little wigged after seeing the damage to the body of my door. It could have been bad. I’m really thankful it wasn’t but now Kel and Matt have to spend their last day here sorting out insurance crap and figuring out how to get another rental car to get to the airport. This hasn’t been a very good vacation for them – though the spending time with the family was good of course 🙂

Anyway, I’m knackered and frozen from sitting in a cold car for an hour. Accident aside, it was a wonderful Christmas being able to see my sis and soon-to-be-bro, hanging with everybody xmas eve and I’m really glad Kelly and Matt came with me to meet Jo and Tom, Hannah, Gunter and Becca. That made me all kinds of happy 🙂

It’s Boxing Day now, but oh well, Happy Christmas everybody.

It’s Christmas Eve day. Both an eve and a day – it’s a Christmas miracle 🙂

It’s been a busy week what with getting ready for xmas and the last-minute shopping and the sodding Chex mix I had to make from scratch. And that’s literally ‘sodding’ Chex mix. Apparently, no matter how carefully I follow the simple recipe, I am incapable of turning out delicious Chex mix. It’s always soggy and chewy. Once I even burnt it. But my Gran insisted that the mix be one of the things I get to bring to xmas eve dinner and I’m not allowed to just buy it. *sigh* Oh well, she’ll just have to deal and maybe next year she’ll let me bake a cake or something. THAT I can do.

And to make matters worse, my sister and Matt aren’t here yet 🙁 They were supposed to arrive in town around 4pm but due to a really long story, they missed their flight and have to wait to catch the same flight tomorrow (well, today. I haven’t been to bed yet.) So that’s one day less we get to spend with them out of the already too few days they’ll be here. Sucks. There was nothing they could do though and if Kelly happens to read this – I am not mad or anything 😉 I just miss ya. Sorry about the douchebag in holey spandex at the check-in counter.

Ah well. Xmas eve dinner tonight should be lovely with all the fam gathered to eat beer cheese soup, whatever the G’s serve up, Rick’s root beer, and my soggy chex mix. Then lots of pressies 🙂 Then I think we’ll drive over to this guy’s house who’s done a light show set to music. Shan and I checked it out earlier this week and it was way cool.

So with all this going on, plus another trip to Lincoln on xmas day to see Aunty Jo and fam, things will be quiet round here. I hope those of you who pop by here have a lovely Christmas full of family, friends, egg nog (except me, I do not like the nog) and of course, pressies 😉 And that’s quite enough of that mushy stuff.

The first Torchwood Season 2 trailer! With scrummy James Marsters goodness!

*thud*

Is it January yet?

It’s 10:43pm and I can’t go to bed. My eyes are burning, my contacts are like pieces of sandpaper in my eyes and I keep glancing longingly over at my cat who is curled up on my bed snoring lightly.

I’m trying to import one of my forum databases into its new home on my new server. Apparently the database is giganimous and I’ve been waiting for it to import for about 2 hours now. I didn’t realize it was going to take this long so now I’m wishing I’d started it earlier this evening. *sigh*

I’ve never been particularly patient. Growing up, Christmas eve was agony for me, so eager was I to get to pressies in the morning that I’d stay up all night, too excited to sleep. I’ve grown out of that phase now though 🙂 But my impatience leaks out all the time.

On the road, I despise being behind people who drive way below the speed limit. Online, I will curse at my computer if a page takes too long to load, or lags. I’ve cussed a blue streak at the database this evening. At work, my laptop is being particularly pokey when switching between programs and it’s pretty much driving me insane.

Waiting for people who are late bothers the hell out of me. Once, back in Cali, a friend of mine told me she would pick me up when I finished my shift at the video store. I close up the place at ten and step outside to wait for my ride. And I wait. and I wait. Soon an hour has passed. This was the Jurassic era when we didn’t have cell phones so I had no way to call her and yell at her. Long story short, she never showed and I walked the five miles home in the dark. The next day I found out I’d been blown off so she and her boyfriend could shag on the beach. Ever since then if someone is late to meet me or pick me up, I panic and get pissed off.

I don’t really have a point for this blog other than I needed to kill some time while I wait for this motherf****ing ****sucking piece of **** big-ass database from hell to import.

I think I’ll go poke the cat.

Damn the internet for sucking up my Sunday night. Apparently, you can watch live webcams of movie premieres at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Le sigh. So I lived vicariously through the lens while famous people showed up for the premiere of P.S. I Love You, starring Hilary Swank and ummm, oh Kathy Bates is in it. And Lisa Kudrow. And some Irish guy who’s Very Famous. I can’t remember his name because I was trying to find James Marsters 🙂 He had an eensy part in the movie that mostly ended up on the cutting room floor, but hey, it’s nice to see him working 🙂

(Actually he’s a very busy boy with a recurring role on Without a Trace, a new CD out, this Swank flick, hie return as Brainiac on Smallville in January, and my most anticipated: a bigger-than-life role on Torchwood starting in January 🙂 Oh yeah, and he’ll be the villain, Piccolo, in Dragonball Z live action flick coming out next year. The things I sit through for this guy. Sheesh. Though his Lex Luthor in Superman Doomsday was really good.)

Anyway, watching the webcam was cool even if they’re still doing the ‘auto-refresh every 4 seconds’ thing with it like this was 2003.

Crappy shot eh? I knew some Marsters fans who live far far away and couldn’t stay up late on a school night might want to see him at the premiere, so I took a few caps. They’re crappy but oh well.

So I had planned to finish watching some Smallville tonight but I got sucked into this premiere. Oh well. I’m hoping Netflix sends my damn Dr. Who dvds soon. Been waiting ages for them.

What else is happening… not much. Work is work. It’s… interesting atm. That’s all I’m going to say about it. The kidlet’s working quite a bit which is nice for her. She enjoys the having of the cash to go do stuff like see the ‘Golden Compass’ tonight with some friends. One of them is driving and I’m nervous about it. We’ve had snow and ice off and on for the past four or five days and I haven’t been letting her drive the car to work or anything because she’s not driven on bad roads yet. So letting some other teenager do it isn’t much better. I need to take her to an empty parking lot and let her practice on it, I think.

Amazing how used to her driving I’ve become. Usually when she’s working in the evenings or weekends I let her just have the car. I’m never going anywhere because I have no life, so why not? Now that the roads are fooked, I won’t let her and I’m back to being the chauffeur 🙂 It’s weird.

Well she just got home so I’m off to get her unwired so she can get to sleep since it IS a school night for her 🙂