Last night a few co-workers and I hopped over to the Pleasanton Regal theater to catch a flick. We saw “The Illusionist“, which fortunately, turned out to be pretty good. Good, but not great. I say “fortunately” because I managed to confuse the film with “The Prestige“, which though I’m sure vaguely similar in content, is in fact, an entirely different film. I realized this as, during the movie trailers, a promo for the real “Prestige” was shown. So for the next five minutes, I sat in flickering darkness, furiously scanning my brain to try and remember what movie we were indeed seeing. It wasn’t until Edward Nortan’s name came up in the opening credits that I figured it out. It’s a pretty funny experience sitting in the theater thinking “um, what movie am I about to see?”

And hopefully “The Prestige” will be better.

I’m excited because I just discovered that one of my favorite bands, Calexico, released a live session EP on iTunes recently. Their music is awesome, I’d describe it as an eclectic blend of rock and spaghetti western music, with surf and southwest sounds slapped on top. Much of their collection is available on emusic. I recommend checking them out.

Or, Movie Game Sunday 1.

Show up at my place around 6-6:30. We’ll order pizza and start the movie between 6:30-7. Games after.

See you there. Bring some bucks for pizza or bring some beer. Email me if you need directions.

Crista and I have decided to try and put together movie & game night for Friday Thursday or Sunday nights. I love hanging out with friends, but have been spending so much on restaurants and movies lately, I thought it would be nice to lower the costs. Here’s the plan as it stands.

We’ll be watching old movies, either classics or b-movie horror stuff. The idea is to keep it light and silly. First up is the 7th Voyage of Sinbad. The special creature fx were done by Ray Harryhausen, who was one of a kind. He was really a pioneer of stop-motion model effects. Most of you have probably seen his work in Clash of the Titans. It’s not great by any modern standards, but he was the forerunner to the modern greats. I think some of the original Lucas model work wouldn’t have come about were it not for him.

Games after. We can split up for board and/or gamecube games. Mario Strikers is a current 4-player favorite. Trust me, even if you don’t like video games that much, you’ll love this.

I’m thinking we can order pizza for the first one. Chip in, and bring some beer if you like. Comment if you’re interested in coming this Friday Thursday or Sunday.

Update: Though I’m planning for Fridays, I can probably be compelled for any night Thursday through Sunday. I know lots of my friends play music on the weekend.

Update: Since Daryl is somebody I’d like there, this will occur either Sunday or Thursday nights. Place votes.

Update: Looks like Sundays it is! Thanks for the feedback. I will post a time and details for this Sunday. I expect we can start around 6 or 7.

There are some shows I watch that I love. ‘Lost’ is of course one of them. I love the show and it’s a great show. For new episodes, I often have Justin, Chris, Ashley, and sometimes Crista over to watch.

I also watch ‘24′ pretty religiously. It’s an entertaining, but by no means great show. Maybe not even a good show. But I consider it my guilty pleasure show. So, if you’d like to come over and watch it with me, please do. It’s on Monday’s at 9pm on fox. Comment if you’d like to pop-in tonight, Crista and I will be watching. I’ll be there by 8pm if you want to come early to hang out.

So I got a Nintendo DS last week. That explains the virtual puppy. The virtual puppy is from the Nintendogs game. I also picked up Animal Crossing: Wild World at Brendan’s urging. Thankfully he hooked me up with some great items during online play the other night. It’s great fun.

Beware, both games are like virtual crack. If you value your time, loved ones, and tendons, don’t get them.

But they are real fun. Nintendogs also seems to be the first game ever to entertain my mother.