When I got to the convenience store tonight, I came to a realization that must be pretty common in literature or something. I have achieved my goal and now I am empty. I have tried every kind of beer I can possibly get in this town and now I have nothing left to look forward to. Fortunately, I saw that there were canned cocktails, and that one of those was called "Gold Moscow Mule," a drink which even Wikipedia didn't know anything about.
A little internetting told me that this drink is just a little vodka and a lot of ginger beer. Basically, it smells, looks, and tastes like ginger ale.
They also had gin and tonic, which they call "Clear Gin Tonic," and it basically tastes like a gin and tonic without the gin and tonic and with some vaguely pine flavored liquid. Boo, Kirin. You fail.
Also, both these drinks are pretty weak, so nobody worry that I am getting drunk on a school night.
I have watched a couple movies lately. I watched the sci-fi "classic," "Soylent Green," which I found out was loosely based on a story called "Make Room! Make Room!" Anyway, this movie is hilariously stupid at points and somewhat decent at other points. There is one scene that is sad if you know a little about the movie, which I would like to point out. One of the characters is played by Edward G. Robinson, who was dying of cancer at the time of the film. In the movie, he ends up going to a suicide parlor and dying. Also, Soylent Green is people. Now I've ruined the movie for you like pop culture ruined it for me.
I also watched a little movie called Battle Royale. It is a crazy Japanese movie about a crazy Japan in which a class of underachievers is chosen every year to fight to the death on a deserted island. It is hilariously violent at some points and more interesting if you realize that the villain now advertises some kind of energy drink here.
So, I had a discussion with Karen about the movie, and I mentioned that it was all pretty much what you would expect in that the characters are all basically archetypes and they all get what is coming to them (people who try to make peace are killed by those more ruthless; some people kill themselves to avoid fighting; there is a psycho dude as well as a manipulative girl; ultimately our pacifist heroes outsmart the system). It was odd to me that she hadn't thought of it like that. I guess that is because I read a lot of science fiction, in which characters are often secondary to overall theme like this.
I would argue that this only marginally qualifies as science fiction, though. There are people who would disagree (Alex), but they are wrong. FACT. There are those that would say I only classify the things I like as science fiction, what they might call hard science fiction. I disagree. I would point to Lester Del Rey's "Badge of Infamy," which is free on Project Gutenberg, if you'd like to check it out (don't). It is definitely science fiction. It is also definitely terrible. So there.
I'll tell you what movie I'd like to see. Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. I'll admit I only want to see this because Bob Dylan is in it and did the soundtrack, which is actually a pretty decent album. The album is sweet if only for the reason that it works as a counterexample for people who argue that Dylan's only skill is his lyrical genius. He definitely is the greatest songwriter OF ALL TIME (NOT PAUL SIMON, TAKE THAT DAD), but it's not just because he's good with words. He's also got quite a knack for a simple but catchy melody and arrangement.
This album is also from the decade of Dylan which I sort of have a soft spot for. A friend recently mentioned how his album Desire often goes overlooked, and I'd like to mention that in a way, the 70's is Dylan at his best. It's also him at his worst if you have a listen to 1978's Street Legal. The Dylan of the 70's is Dylan after he has already given up on two musical movements and his wife had given up on him. He's still saying a lot, but he's not trying to stand alone on a stage with just a guitar and a harmonica, shouting at the world that "The Times, They Are A Changin'," but he's also not spitting out drug-addled descriptions of drunken clowns and the world's Mr. Joneses over a wailing organ. He's just got stories to tell now, and they're entertaining, whether or not he ever had a job in the great north woods or saw the bloody face of Ramon. Really, it is only a few albums, but they are all great. It really starts with John Wesley Harding, which is not technically from the 70's, but that is where his simplistic story-telling style begins. The point is, I'd like to see that movie because it looks like he is just playing himself.
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