Month: June 2001

Here’s a little bit more about my experience of Moulin Rouge. The only things about it that I can say bugged me were all the jump cuts. They make you dizzy after a while. Now, for the positive stuff:

There was a lot more music than I would have guessed. Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman (if that was her voice) just pass as singers, but the “show” made up for any weakness in their voices. It was truly a Spectacular Spectacular. The way the modern music was worked into the turn-of-the-20th-century Paris impressed me; it was done much differently than the way similar music was used in A Knight’s Tale. There seems to be a trend lately with creative anachronisms in otherwise “period” films.

I also discovered that Baz Luhrmann, the director of Moulin Rouge as well as the “MTV” Romeo and Juliet that came out a few years ago (with Leonardo DiCaprio… ugh), created that “graduation speech” song. You know the one I’m talking about—it’s a little bit of background music with someone giving “advice.” The song is called Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen).

Tonight I had dinner at Anna’s house with my father, Anna, and her two sons. It was a good Father’s Day dinner, with filet mignon, pesto pasta and chicken, with some chocolate cake and cherries for dessert.

Late last night, I found myself at the Sea Bright (correction: Seaside Heights) boardwalk with Darren, Denise, and Alissa. We walked up and down the strip, played some Skee-Ball, looked up in wonderment at the insanely dangerous carnival rides, most notably the Sling Shot, and took in the “sights.” If it’s late, the boardwalk is definitely the place to go… if you are a high school drop-out and have at least one kid to tag along.

Prior to the trip to the shore, Stacey was in town with her roommate, so we had a nice diiner out. Before the movie I finally saw Moulin Rouge (more about that later).

Earlier on Saturday, I went to the Princeton Fete. I wasn’t completely impressed with the event, but there was some sort of interpretive dance troupe. I might have taken some decent pictures of them. Once I find the cables for my camera hidden in the boxes of junk I brought over from my apartment, I’ll get those photographs online.

After the Fete but before dinner, Alissa and I went to Stults Farm in Cranbury to pick strawberries. We picked a couple of pounds worth before it started pouring and we decided to leave. Freshly-picked strawberries taste much better than the ones you buy in the supermarket.

I’m looking for a reliable web server which supports ASP, ADODB Microsoft Access object, SMTP server object, MX routing for email, and importantly, 99.9% uptime because the site I need switched to a new host is currently getting about 80% uptime. The current host is Media3. Apparently they’re having problems with their connection to the backbone, but their company website never seems to have problems. So please let me know if you know of a web host with those features…

Okay, everyone else is doing it, so I gave into peer pressure. I took the test, and this is what it told me:

Spike, your inner rock star is Beck

Yeah baby, the rock star part of you is all Beck. Women are enthralled by your seductive energy, a perfect mix of intrigue and poetry. You and Beck have got it all together because you’re unafraid to say exactly what’s on your mind, and let everyone in on your quirky point of view. Intellectual and sexy, you continually dodge conventional stereotypes with your eclectic personal style. But when you really break it down, it’s just your great sense of humor and easygoing talent that makes the crowds go wild. Throw a fiesta, and inspire your inner Beck.

It just so happens I have two turntables and a microphone.

“Oops, reports of our death were, like, greatly exaggerated,” stated Spears regarding the circulating rumor of the drunken car accident involving the teeny pop icon Britney and her teeny pop icon boyfriend Justin Timberlake of N’Sync. Timberlake asked of the reporters, “What’s the deal with this media attention and when is it going to fade out?” Man, I’m tired of reportin’.

This is where I once again review my weekend. If it’s getting old, let me know. Maybe someday I’ll write something substantial here. But until then…

Dinner with Jen and Devon; Red Bank, NJ; Swordfish (came this close to being interesting–not as cool as the movie’s official Warner Bros. website); picking up furniture; Quills (I liked it though everyone else thought it was a nap opportunity); Handspring Visor Edge; and of course, no Moulin Rouge yet.

Now the plan for tonight is to work on other people’s websites.

A few weeks ago, I finally put in a request with the US Postal Service to have my forwarded from my old apartment to the place in which I live now. I mailed the request to a postmaster somewhere, and it took about a week to be active. For a few days, I actually received mail addressed to me in my new house. Then, nothing. It crossed my mind that possibly I just wasn’t getting any mail, but I used to get tons of junk mail every day and various bills pretty frequently. I ruled out the possibility that I just wasn’t getting anything. I confirmed this yesterday when I talked to Becky and Jim (who live in the apartment once rented to me). Apparently they have been receiving my mail lately.

Why would USPS decide that after a week I no longer needed my mail forwarded? The form was filled out correctly…

Can you believe there is stuff on my Amazon.com Wish List that has been there for over a year?

I’ve been listening to a lot of different music lately–different for me, anyway. I plan on putting my music education degree to some good use (heh) and writing some articles soon. It should be a cool endeavor. I haven’t written in a while, so it will be good practice.

I went to a Yankees game with the office today. Rather, I went with the people from the office. We left before the end of the game, at which point the score was 8-1 in favor of the Orioles. The Yanks ended up losing 10-3. I thought the Yankees were supposed to be a good team. Karma?

The only thing really keeping the ball game interesting was that we happened to sit in a section of the “Tier” where most of the foul balls hit by right-handed hitters went. People all around us went home with a free, round souvenir.

I am home from Maryland. I spent yesterday and today with [DELETED] (who mentions to me that I don’t write about her enough) meeting with [DELETED]. There’s no need to bore you with work-related details, but we did have some time after meetings on Sunday night to go see Shrek (Official Site Here). It was a cute movie.

It was a little windy, but otherwise the weather was beautiful. The landscape also was very nice. It was a nice change to get away from New Jersey, the land of flatness, humidity and overpopulation.

Also, I had a weird dream last night (early this morning), which I wrote about here.