I nailed that last item on my Saturday To Do list. I did, in fact, stay out ALL NIGHT LONG. Finally went to bed at 5am this morning. The rest of the mind-numbing entertainment coma wasn’t entirely to plan. Skipped the gym, didn’t go to a movie or to the art openings, but did spend my afternoon running errands, catching up with some lovely friends at Caffetto, and hanging out with my tight bros Adam and Carolyn. The three of us went to another friend’s birthday party where even my peculiar needs were catered to (in the form of mocktails and tofu dogs).
Afterward I’d intended to head to the Turf Club. Thanks to the glory of twitter I discovered my friends’ band went on earlier than I’d thought and I missed their set. Doh. So I stayed in Minneapolis - where we rounded up some other friends to head to the Triple Rock. While doing so I caught part of a Japanese movie that seemed custom made for me. I give you The Calamari Wrestler:
Okay, admittedly the films of Minoru Kawasaki aren’t for everyone. The man is as goofy as they come, and seems to have a penchant for dropping animal-suited people into movies of various serious genres. The formula works, and for the most part the humor comes more from the absurdity of the situation than from the actual script. The Calamari Wresler is probably the most straight-forward example of Kawasaki’s style—a pro wrestler comes back to life as a squid to reclaim his former life—and although this brand of schlock isn’t really equipped to hold up to any sort of serious scrutiny, it is a really goofy and fun way to spend 90 minutes.
I need to watch it in its entirety. Thankfully it is available via Netflix. And the official site, in Japanese, is entertaining in its own right. Maybe a little more so than The Talkers’ (allegedly) last show. Hanging out was great, especially when the topic of tazer bears came up, but The Talkers actual set was a bit odd and ended early. It was well before bar close so we high-tailed it over to the Hexagon to catch Cheer Accident. And in the hour we were there one member of our group had some particularly strange encounters involving auras of rainbow knives, and being mistaken for a member of Coldplay. All of these oddities added up to an extremely fun day and night.
After less than four hours of shuteye I returned to the wonderful world of sleep-deprived parenting. It’s been a day of struggling to get things done balanced with copious amounts of napping/zoning out and letting the lad do too much of whatever he wants. But that has included lots of drawing and planning his Halloween costume. That plan focuses on facial hair. It’s his latest fixation. He wants to have a beard and/or mustache when he grows up. We’ll have to go faux for this Halloween (but who knows, maybe he’ll have some scruff by next year - *shudder*) so he can dress up as obscure Italian cartoon character Dante Vale from Huntik. I set a bad precedent, letting him select my costume each year, so I wonder which seeker sidekick I’ll get stuck impersonating.
Bonus: Leonard Cohen kicked off his tour in NYC and will be in Minneapolis on May 3rd. Unfortunately the ticket prices are steep, with the cheap seats starting at $78.
Plus: Friday night was busy fun as well. We used Punch Pizza’s 2-for-1 coupons followed by a small pillow fight/Wii party at our house.
And: The Coraline book cover, re-imagined in a stunning retro style. And from Geeks of Doom, 9 Of The Most Entertaining Cameos In Movie History.
