a blast from the past

I wrote this in another life...
Maybe it’s the near proximity of all that caffeine or the exorbitant pricing structure for good ole coffee. Whatever the reason, Starbucks takes the cake for cheeky pretentious behavior.

Last night while on our way home from my wife’s fav. Store – Target (pronounced – “TarJeet” in the French snooty accent). We decided to stop at the aforementioned Joe-joint for some hot chocolate. She waited in the car and I went inside to fetch the delight only to discover to my dismay a line 15 deep at the only open register, this at 9:45PM. I waited only a moment before realizing that High Blood Pressure and waiting in line with the progeny of a bunch of upper middle class twits was not a good mix.

Going home I related this to the lovely wife and remembering another gaffe on the part of Starbuck’s finest I pronounced them the “Most Pretentious snobs on the Planet!” They overcharge for coffee and other liquid crap and then have the audacity to have a tips jar.

The Starbucks next door to my place of work is housed in one of the finest home courts in the NBA; CONSECO Fieldhouse. While I rarely buy coffee there, I admit to a weakness to their crumble-coffeecake (cakey-crumble coff? Coffee-cakey-crumbs? – Whatever they are pretty good when fresh). Recently I decided to stop in on my way to work. While standing in line to pay, I noticed you had a choice of “Soy milk, milk and “organic” milk”. Quickly realizing that all cows are “organic” I though I’d be funny and chat up the cute girl while she made change. Note – I am obviously old enough to be her father so it was not intentious flirting on my part.

Exchange:

ME: “I understand what Soy milk is and I know that all cows are alive so, what do tell is the difference between “organic milk and regular milk?”

HER: (picture a thinnish, 20+, very Caucasian, college graduate of European extraction with Blue-black hair the color of Korean’s dipped in grape juice. With condescension dripping from her pierced lip), “IT is milk, from cows, that have not been treated with GROWTH HORMONES and Antibiotics…” (There is not a punctuation mark in the lexicon of the English language adequate for relaying the tone of voice that issued from her lips).

ME: (I’m quickly thinking this part) “Hmm, do I blast her where she stands or do I just walk slowly away and store this in the memory so I don’t ever have to have conversation with the she-twit again?” – (This part was spoken) “Uhhh, OK?”

(This part was voiced sotto voce to the next person in line - also my generation) “So I guess I don’t want the milk from the BIG, HEALTHY cow. No I’ll have my squeezins from the thin anemic sickly one over there. “ – he chuckled, getting the joke.

I left shaking my head, wondering at how unhappy a person has to be to be snobbish to a total stranger who was helping pay for her loans that covered 4+ years of Medieval French Literature at IU or where ever she matriculated. For all she knew, I was the grand Pooh-Bah of the Organic Cattle Farmers convention here in Indianapolis to sell non-treated moo-juice to America.

When I was her age (oh god- now I’m talking like my grandfather) I never would have spoken to a customer like that. Either the customer would have publicly dressed me down or my manager would have. What is it with people who take their causes so seriously that they can’t get a good joke, or even a bad one for that matter?

The Dark Knight

(let the link fully load and watch the trailer)

Queen Tiger and I had a date night last, and took in the latest in the Batman saga.

It was dark, really dark, I mean verrrry dark in that movie.

Somewhere I read that the Batman movies are/were judged by their villains. The first with the Joker was more about Jack Nicholson and his scenery chewing than Michael Keaton. The next forgettable "Batman Returns" with The Penguin and the Catwoman was repugnant.
Val Kilmer and Chris O'Donnell were outclassed by Tommy Lee Jones and Jim Carey in "Batman Forever" although Kilmer did have a certain weirdness that almost made him believable as Batman.
George Clooney while painfully bad as Batman was only saved by having to act against Chris O'Donnell, what-her-face (Fatgirl?) and the combo of UmaThrman/Arrrrnold - "I AM Mr. FREEZE". This movie was so bad that I actually turn it off when it comes on TBS and thats saying something.

What was interesting about "Batman Begins" w/ Christian Bale was that the movie was really ABOUT BATMAN! The villain was secondary and the story about how this guy decided to run around wearing a bat suit fighting crime almost made sense. It set up the next movie and apparently really stuck to the graphic novel's sense of darkness and forboding.

In "The Dark Knight, the villain comes back to the forefront and man-o-man is he nasty. Heath Ledger is as creepy a bad guy as I have seen on screen in a very long time. He absolutely dominates this movie. Had he been The Joker in the first movie, Jack could have never played the part and the rest of the comic bad guys would have disappeared as well. In all but the last movie the villains are comic book characters who exist to provide the good guys with someone to defeat but with TDK we venture into psycho-land. Ledger is psychotically bad with very little humorous intent other than a twisted absurdity that makes you laugh just not in a good way. The odd thing is that from the moment you meet him on screen, you cannot take your eyes off of him.

When she asked about taking her boys to see it, I told the gal who cuts our hair, that she might want to think about it. There is no sex or profanity in this movie but it would scare the bejeebers out of an 8 year old who has an imagination. This guy is the stuff that bad dreams are made of.

Oh yeah, did I mention that

IT IS REALLY LOUD!!!!

All in all it was a good movie, definitely worth the $20.00 we spent at Fandango. I might even see it again if I could catch a matinée. (I'd take ear plugs)

(07.26.08 Edit)
Saw it again at the IMAX. I wish i had seen it there first. There are a number of scenes which are shot in IMAX format that are pretty incredible.

this is what you missed

unless you were here with us.

Also this:


Have a happy 4th of july