A fortnight gone

Its been a couple weeks since I've posted on here and I can't really say that nothing has happened. Jesse left Monday morning for France and only returned this past Friday, but did so with all sorts of stories. Tuesday we watched "Network" for movie night at Mike's, and Friday night I went to see Ghostrider with Yale and went to Hifi afterwards. Brian and Lyndsey were there and Brian and I played pool most of the rest of the night. The following night we went to Willie's show at Maxwell's in Hoboken. It was a fantastic show. The band was spot on, Willie got me in for free and even got me free dinner, I finally got to see Marah live and they were a treat. Just a great time. It took us a while to get back to Brooklyn afterwards and we went to the Country Club for a bit but I didn't really enjoy myself there so I didn't stay too long.
Sunday night, Willie played another show, this time at Rockwood but again with the full Band. Liz and Tessa played prior to him and they were pretty fantastic. Willie then played a few songs solo and the drummer showed up right as he was bringing the rest of the band on stage. The show was at 1 in the morning on a Sunday night so we hadn't really expected many people but there was actually a decent turn out. I also got to see Khara and Brittney who I don't see regularly but they are always a treat.
The Monday night Living Room show, on the other hand, wasn't terribly exciting. Not a lot of people showed up but I guess that was just because of the two shows the nights before and the fact that Willie played at eight thirty which is a bit early for his crowd. Tuesday, we watched "Dog Day Afternoon" and Wednesday I went to Ash Wednesday Mass with Aria at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown. The cathedral was beautiful but there were just so many people trying to get ashes that the set up of the service was very awkward. Still, I'm glad I got to go.
This past Friday, Jesse got home but was understandably too tired to do much of anything and Willie's mom was in town so he was spending time with her. So I went to Hifi on my own with the hope of playing a bit of pool like I had the week before. That didn't happen but Aria and some of her friends were also there for a while and after they left, I hung out with Nadir and Fozzie (I don't know how he actually spells his name) and I watched Thriller. Aria texted me kind of late in the night and I met up with her again at one of her friend's places. I stayed there for a bit but then just went home. I guess it was a decent night.
Saturday Yale came down and we hung out here for a while and played video games. Then around one we went to the country club and met up with Aria and basically the same friends I had seen the night before. Jesse showed up at some point as well as Daris and some of his friends. I actually enjoyed myself Saturday night which had been the first time I'd had fun at the Country Club in a couple weeks.
Sunday was a relaxing day during which Yale, Jesse and I went to see "Reno: 911" and then went to Hifi for a couple drinks and couple games of pool and a game of Scrabble with Stephen and Sean (I won based solely on the word "high" which was on both a double letter score and a triple word score). Monday night's Living Room show had a better turn out than the week before and even Thomas (one of the Country Club bartenders) showed up. Last night was movie night and we watched "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" and I can say its been one of my favorite's yet. Mike definitely hasn't disappointed with his selection thus far. And that catches us up.

The weekend in review

Pretty crummy weekend. Friday night I really wanted to go out but Willie was in Asbury Park, Jesse was taking it easy, Yale was in Park Slope and Aria had to stay in Manhattan because of an interview the following morning. I didn't want to go to Hifi or the Country Club by myself, going to Park Slope would have been a really big hassle and Aria was going dancing which I had no desire to do. So I stayed in.
Saturday night I drank before meeting anyone out and was in a bad mood anyway so when I met up with people at the Country Club I just wasn't enjoying myself and so I went home. Sunday I met up with Yale and we walked around the city for a while and then went to see "Smokin Aces". The movie was good enough. It was very entertaining which is all you can ask from a movie like that. Afterwards I met up with Willie and Jesse at Hifi and stayed for a couple drinks. I played a game of Scrabble but didn't do too well. Then I just went home and went to bed, wrapping up a crummy weekend.
On a lighter note, Jesse is going to France today and I'm excited for him about that. Its something he's wanted to do for a long while and I think he will really enjoy it.

We used to swap shots between drinks or drinks between shots.

Last night was movie night at Mike's (the owner of Hifi) place with Jesse and Aria. We watched "The Big Sleep" (the original with Bogart and Bacall). I'd been wanting to see that since I read the book a few years back and Mike happened to have it. I'm actually going to let him borrow my copy of the book next week since he hadn't read it. The movie was pretty much excellent. Bogart played Marlowe pretty much spot on the way I'd imagined him while reading. My favorite lines from the book were pretty much all in the movie but they did change the ending some and edit a few scenes to make there more of a love connection between Vivian and Marlowe than there was in the book. Overall, I thought it was fantastic though.
After the movie, we all went over to Hifi together and had a few drinks and Mike, Jesse, Stephen (from the Scrabble game the other night) played a few games of pool while Aria spent most of her time on the phone. We grabbed a cab and dropped Mike off and then headed back to Brooklyn where we went to the Country Club for a while. Jesse and Aria ran around and took photo booths while I sat at the bar and chatted with Reggie and this guy George about horror movies. At one point Jesse shot me with a water gun. Then we went home and called it a night. I stayed out entirely too late though. Movie night is supposed to an early night but last night was definitely not. Good times though.

When you do things right, they'll hardly know you've done anything at all

So, I made it home. Hooray! My flight went pretty uneventfully. I watched "Flushed Away" during the flight (Meh.) and an episode of "King of Queens". Once I got back, I waited oh so long for my damned baggage (not the emotional kind, silly) while the late night airport attendants played on the intercom (they were pretending to be cats, apparently). I got home to a kittenless apartment. That actually requires a little bit of explaining. Jesse and Willie informed me (via myspace comments to myself and each other) that they had gotten a kitten while I was gone and that it was staying in my room. Well, I wasn't entirely excited about the idea but reconciled myself with it throughout the week and was ready to meet the kitten when I got home only to find out that they had been lying and had actually forgotten about the lie until I asked where it was.

Jesse went to bed after not too long and Willie and I went to the Country Club to meet up with Daris and Luke. Aria came out as well and over all it was a nice little first night back in New York, although nothing overly exciting happened that I remember. The following night, I did my taxes first (rock) and then Yale came over and we went into town to a place I'd gone back in September with him called "The Peculiar Pub". We stayed for a couple drinks, Aria met up with us, and then we attempted to go to Aria's friend Caitlyn's party. We failed.

We walked about (I swear) 700 blocks trying to get to the JMZ (a subway) while I complained about just taking a cab. Apparently there were no cabs in New York on Saturday night, however (this is not true). We finally did find one, drove about three blocks in the wrong direction before realizing the cab driver didn't know where he was going. We got out and walked back to the JMZ and stood and waited for it for about twenty minutes before realizing that we didn't know which direction to take the train (both direction lead to Brooklyn and we didn't know where in Brooklyn we were going exactly). We got back out of the train, back into a cab and just went to the Country Club instead. Rachel, Willie, Daris and a few other met up with us there and it was a successful night in the end.

Yesterday was Super Bowl. Bryan Hamilton called me a bit before the game to wish me happy Super Bowl because he said he remembered how much I liked it. I thought that was awfully sweet. He said that Super Bowls haven't been as much fun since I left. We chatted for a while and the Jesse and I went to Hifi to watch the game. The crowd at Hifi was fantastic. All the regulars were there and even Sky and his girlfriend KJ (who Aria apparently knows). I played a couple games of pool with Jesse, a couple games of pinball with Mitch and even a game of Scrabble with Shawn and Steve. Again, it was a very good night, even if the game itself didn't do too much for me.

Perfect DRM

This is an excellent article on Digital Rights Management. Everyone who has any interest in media, sharing, copyright protection et cetera should read it. It basically discusses the mistakes that the MPAA and RIAA have made in trying to protect their media and how they should take a hint from the book publishing industry in the way they deal with intellectual property protection. Good read.