So I had a great birthday yesterday, I spent it running around with the wife and doing some shopping for a few winter clothes, which for our area means when it gets into the 50's every now and then for a few months. Our weather in
West Texas is generally so mild it makes owning coats annoying, as you can only really get some use out of them maybe a week out of the year.

We caught a matinee of
Saw V in the afternoon, which is a franchise I'm still getting some enjoyment out of even as they fall victim to the laws of diminishing returns. The traps seem to stay somewhat interesting, but they keep stretching the believability of their continuity by adding in characters that we're supposed to believe were just off camera in earlier films. While I like they attention to detail and continuity, it's become harder to swallow with each film as they shoe-horn more intricate genius into
Jigsaw's machinations, which evidently managed to account for any number of variables, right down to the letter. In short, it's getting increasingly silly, but the tine of the films is maintained, as are the gruesome deaths, so I still figure it's worth a matinee ticket.
Oh, and the wife actually likes these gory fucking movies, I don't know exactly why, but she's been down to watch them since we caught the first one in the theater years ago, so I figure why rock the boat.
Oh, and there's new stuff at the
BSL of you haven't been by there lately, check that out if you have lots of free time.

Today was almost more of the same, as the wife actually had some time with no non-profit organization meetings, so she and I took advantage of that again and went to an early lunch together, then hit
Barnes & Noble to look around at the magazines. We ran into
Robbb, visited a bit with him, then he split, we bought a couple of magazines and then went down the little strip to
Best Buy because we needed to exchange the copy of
Casino Royale that the wife had bought me for my birthday for the 2 disc version. They were of course out of it, so I picked up a couple cheap
Dimension Extreme titles instead and we headed across town to our final stop: the books music and video place that I once worked at that I feel like I incessantly talk shit.

The whole shit-talking thing? Today will be no different, this store sucks out loud.
I was looking to purchase
Tropic Thunder on
Blu-Ray that was released today. I had a giftcard from selling some
DVD's to them, so I figured I could use the $20 or so towards that and pay the difference. I check their new release rack, there's nothing except the standard def disc, so I ask an associate, she begins looking into where it might be. Over the next 15-20 minutes, no less that
6 employees all searched the store for the alleged 9 copies (!) of this film that they have in their inventory, yet can't produce. At one point, 4 employees are all standing together, rubbing elbows in front of the new release rack as if the fucking things will appear if the right number of idiots gather at one time.

This isn't the first time this has happened, most recently I attempted (
unsuccessfully) to purchase
War Inc. on
Blu-Ray from them, another title featured in their weekly ad, which to my knowledge (I even checked the rack today out of curiousity) they have
NEVER FUCKING RECIEVED. I eventually gave up, found the single copy of the
Casino Royale 2 Disc edition they had and bought it instead, taking time to pick up a customer comment card on my way out so that I can express my frustration to their home office. That's one thing I
never do, but to try to shop this store on more than one occasion and be greeted time and again with such
ridiculous lapses in service, I mean give me a fucking break. It's one thing to not carry some obscure foreign film that 8 people in
America have heard of, but to
habitually post ad titles and not even get them into your fucking stores, or to
lose them once they are recieved, what the fuck, over? How is this glorified garage sale still in business?

We headed home, I checked e-mail and ordered
Tropic Thunder online as part of a discount sale
Deep Discount was having right now, because fuck trying to shop locally. I enjoy recieving packages in the mail, it's like a mini-
Christmas, isn't it?
The wife caught a nap before her evening meeting and I watched the copy of
Beetlejuice on
Blu that she'd bought me, a film I hadn't seen in many moons. I'd expressed interest in it because I was curious how much difference the hi-def transfer would make on an older film, and it was noticeably better, but still obviously not as clear as something newer which is shot on digital video.

While the wife was at her evening meeting I watched a documentary I have to review for
Pop Syndicate called
Larry Flynt: The Right To Be Left Alone, which covered his various battles over free speech, both over pornography and politics, and despite not having a completely clear through-line (it jumps around a bit), I really enjoyed it and want to re-watch the
Milos Forman bio sometime soon.
The wife came home in time to finish that with me, then she and the
Yorkie headed to bed while I went to the office to work on this.
Be seeing you.
Tag, you're it, Baggy Eyes! Shopping,
Movies,
Saw V,
Big Suck Loser,
Lunch,
Exchanges,
Casino Royale,
Blu-Ray,
Tropic Thunder,
Beetlejuice,
Larry Flynt The Right To Be Left Alone,
Milos FormanLabels: Beetlejuice, Big Suck Loser, Blu-Ray, Casino Royale, Exchanges, Larry Flynt The Right To Be Left Alone, Lunch, Milos Forman, Movies, Saw V, Shopping, Tropic Thunder