The trailer went up today for THE RUM DIARY, the upcoming movie based on the wonderful Hunter S. Thompson novel of the same name:

Looks like it should be a fun movie, and the manic tone seems similar to that of FEAR AND LOATHING IN LAS VEGAS, which makes sense as both are based on Thompson books that feature Johnny Depp as the protagonist. Plus it’s set in the Caribbean, which automatically gives it a gold star in my book.

One thing I do find funny is that, in the book, the main character of Paul Kemp is 22 years old (the same age Thompson was when he originally wrote the book in the 50′s), and Depp, who is portraying Kemp, is in his late forties. Not necessarily a big deal, but one of the themes of the novel involves the main character growing older and worrying about being “over the hill.”

Makes me curious how, or even if, the movie will touch on the subject of age.

A photo depicting the horrible devastation caused by the earthquake that struck the East Coast this afternoon:

(via Grist, with hat tip to Nick)

So my HP laptop, the one I just purchased this past June, crapped out on me over the weekend.

It started Saturday night, when out of the blue the wireless network adapter stopped working. While I was trying to fix it, a few minutes later all manner of Windows-centric background programs began to fail and throw up errors. With a hypnotic fascination akin to viewing the aftermath of a terrible car crash on the highway, I watched as more and more error messages started popping up, all the while Windows 7 did it’s damndest to quickly restart the failing programs, even though it was the metaphorical equivalent to using a small bucket to bail water out of a sinking ocean liner.

And then — the dreaded Blue Screen of Death appeared.

It’s funny: In my many years of owning a computer I’ve never once had the BSoD rear its ugly head before. I’ve had other errors and crashes on my machines, sure, but never the granddaddy of all Windows-based Epic Fails. I’d feel more self-important, but it’s not like I’ve joined an exclusive club or anything.

My hope is that this won’t be too difficult a situation to recover from. Like I said, the computer isn’t even three months old, so any hardware issues should be covered by the manufacturer’s warranty, and there’s a HP-authorized repair place about five minutes from Kristin’s who ought to be able to fix it. Honestly, I’m more concerned about loss of data at this point. Windows won’t run for more than a couple of minutes at a time, so I can’t copy the contents from the hard drive. Yeah, I have an external hard drive that I use for back-ups, but the most recent infodump on it was from June, when I switched over to the new computer. So while a lot of my music and video files are on it, a lot of my newer document files are way out of date. Fortunately, I have a friend who does data recovery for a living, and he seems confident that he can save my precious datums.

The thing most annoying me right now is that I don’t have a current version of my essay about the trip I took to Pittsburgh last month with the Broken Dayton Young Communist’s Society (or whatever they’re called). I’m supposed to file the essay on the 31st, and I’m about halfway done with it, but I’m not gonna be able to access it till Wednesday at the latest, and that’s only assuming that Operation All Your Data Are Mine goes smoothly. All of which means I’m gonna have to haul ass to finish it on time.

Ah, well. I suppose there’s a lesson in here somewhere about routinely backing up one’s computer, and most certainly backing up important documents immediately after working on them, but I’ll be damned if I can find one.

A pitch for an as of yet unwritten movie called ONE RING TO BIND THEM:

A hilarious romantic comedy in the vein of THE HANGOVER, MY BEST FRIEND’S WEDDING, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS comes — ONE RING TO BIND THEM.

Set over a weekend in San Diego, the story opens as a wedding is being put together at a Comicon-like fantasy convention. The bride and groom, two die-hard Tolkien enthusiasts, are having a cosplay ceremony, and the entire wedding party is decked out in their finest Middle Earth attire.

When the bride-to-be’s wedding ring is accidentally mixed up with a replica of the One Ring the morning of the wedding, the Best Man and the Maid of Honor — neither of whom can stand the other — have to put aside their differences and form a Fellowship of their own to track down the missing ring.

As they quest their way across the convention center floor together, enduring a number of hilarious encounters and mishaps with all manner of geeks, romantic sparks begin to fly and their mutual dislike begins to transmogrify into something more.

High fantasy has never been this much crazy fun as they search for ONE RING TO BIND THEM…

Well, that’s my pitch. Hollywood producers, please drop me a note in the comments section if you wish to throw obscenely huge piles of money at me in return for a script.

Kind people at the Tolkien estate: Please don’t sue me.

Had an excellent time yesterday at the Wedding Party held at Lauren’s farm house out in the country. There was an abundance of finger foods to eat, each guest having brought an appetizer. I made a nice ‘n spicy salsa, and Kristin made a strangely good spinach quiche. I say strangely not because her food generally tastes poorly — indeed, it almost always rocks — but because I hate hate hate spinach, and this quiche was actually quite good.

So we spent the evening outside, sweltering beneath the unyielding sun before it finally set and the temperature dropped to something tolerable. Drank a lot of wine and other beverages, including a ginger liquor and lemonade concoction made by Kat which was thoroughly refreshing.

Today I need to run a few errands and finish up a couple of things, because on Monday I’ll be leaving for a short jaunt down to Hilton Head. I’ve never been there before, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it, and besides: it has a beach. A few days of lounging and reading on the beach is really all I’m asking for.

Speaking of lounging, I think now I am going to visit the pool for a little while and finish detoxing from last night.

Made it back home from Pittsburg late Friday night after departing a little after 21:30. I stayed for the “I Am Immortal” opening reception, threw my shit in the car, then hit the road.

Like the whole sweaty week in general, opening night was a lot of fun. There was food and drink, a fair number of people in attendance, a remarkably pretty sunset that looked like it was assembled from pixels –

– and Nick’s only somewhat giant Giant Face even made an appearance.

I had written several blog posts during my stay, and was going to combine them into one fairly long post, but then thought better of it. A lot of the content dealt with the very same stuff that will be going into my essay-thing, and I figured it would be silly to write about it in two different spaces. So it will be available later this year, whenever the chapbook for the show goes live. Once I know when, I will of course be sure to note so here.

The trailer for JOHN CARTER — the upcoming movie based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’s excellent book, JOHN CARTER OF MARS — looks absolutely phenomenal.

I have great and justified hope that this will be an amazing film. Its writer/director, one Andrew Stanton, is the same fellow who also wrote and directed Pixar’s FINDING NEMO and WALL-E. So clearly the man knows his shit. Michael Chabon also came in to do some rewrites, which can only have strengthened an already tight script.

JOHN CARTER’s story is actually based not on JOHN CARTER OF MARS, but on the first book in Burroughs’s Barsoom series (Barsoom, of course, being the Martians’ name for their planet), A PRINCESS OF MARS. I’m guessing after the MARS NEEDS MOMS debacle this spring, the executives at Disney wanted a non-girly sounding name that wouldn’t drive the teenage boys away in droves.

The movie doesn’t actually come out till next March, which isn’t exactly soon, but for now this trailer at least provides a tantalizing glimpse.

Things on this end have been relatively quiet of late, hence the lack of posting. Not to say I haven’t been keeping busy; just that I’ve haven’t been up to anything really post-worthy.

There are a few things I’d like to put down, though, mostly for myself, so future-Josh doesn’t have to rely solely on my sad, crappy memory to recall these sundry events.

This week I am in Braddock, Pennsylvania, embedded with the members of the BrokenDayton art collective as they prepare for a show they’re putting on called “I Am Immortal.” Here’s the premise behind it:

Ohio-based artists Nicholaus Arnold, Ian Briedenbach, Ren Cummings, Phillip Evans, Ashley Jonas, and Frank Travers will present work in different mediums exploring the resurgence of art and culture in Braddock, PA.

A highlight of the show will be a time capsule available for public participation. Guests are invited to bring items from their lives for inclusion in the piece, which will be buried on site during the closing reception on July 22nd.

The show starts Friday and runs through next week. I’m following them around this week and taking notes as they transform the performance space into their own. Afterwards, I’ll be writing up a piece detailing my experience for eventual inclusion in a chapbook or something they’re planning to publish later this year.

We’re being housed in a gorgeous convent next door to the space. It sounds odd at first to think one is being quartered in a domicile that used to be inhabited by nuns, but you’d be surprised at how rapidly you get used to the idea. More on that tomorrow.

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This past Saturday I went to see THE LION KING at the Schuster Center. I’d been wanting to see one of these live-action Disney musicals for years, and this was my first real opportunity to do so. It didn’t disappoint. The music and performances were phenomenal, as expected, but what really impressed me were the tricks they used to bring the Savannah wildlife to life. It’s kind of mesmerizing seeing a person move across the stage with canes strapped to their hands and feet, doing a damn good approximation of a giraffe’s body language.

My sister tells me BEAUTY AND THE BEAST is coming to Cincinnati in the late fall. I would really like to see that one, too.

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Dunno if anyone’s noticed, but last week the new site theme went live. I’ve been working on it off and on the last month or so. I think this is the 11th redesign I’ve done since this blog’s inception nearly ten years ago. That may seem like a lot of redesigns, and it kind of is, but I enjoy poring over and editing lines of HTML and CSS, so it’s really never a chore — though at the end I always feel a little burnt out. This new theme still needs a little tweaking, but on a whole I rather like the new, warmer look. I hope you do as well.

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The next month or two is looking to be busy as well, which pleases me to no end. Aside from this BrokenDayton gig, I’ve got another exciting project in the works: designing a website for a Real Live Client. I’ll hopefully know more about that one in a few weeks. Web design and getting paid for it is something I’ve been looking to get into for some time, so being able to add this to my pre-existent portfolio can only be a boon.

And then sometime in August, Kristin, yours truly and a couple of her friends, are taking a road trip to Hilton Head for a few days of relaxation on the beach. I’ve never been to Hilton Head before, and I honestly don’t care where we’re going so long as it’s warm there and I get to relax on a beach. This should serve to fulfill those needs.

So yeah. Interesting times these are.

What do you do when you’re en route to a crucifixion and you get a bit peckish?

You apparently make a quick pit stop at McDonald’s.

Last Saturday, I went with Kristin and Kat to ComFest, Columbus’s annual community festival. This was my first year going. For the uninitiated, ComFest is basically an excuse for the whole of Columbus to meander to a park downtown, get sozzled, and generally just party. There is an abundance of good food, music, shops, and other activities that can easily keep a person occupied all day long.

I was in the mood for beer before we even got to Columbus, and once there, after about 20 minutes of roasting under the sun, I was ready to sell my unborn child for a drink. Unfortunately, the lines to first buy beer tokens, and then to get the actual beer were horrendous and slow moving. So instead I got lemonade.

One of the unusual things about the festival is that, by a delightful quirk in Columbus law, women are legally permitted to go topless. Something about a court declaring years ago that there’s no difference between a man and a woman being outside without a shirt. I don’t know all the details, but I wasn’t complaining. Suffice to say there were a fair number of breasts on display, usually covered with colorful body paint.

After leaving ComFest, we embarked on a mission to acquire hotdogs at Dirty Frank’s. It was tasty as usual, and more importantly, I finally got a beer.