Holy shit how time flies. It’s the first Tuesday of the month again, which means that I am bringing you the only regularly scheduled feature I have ever been able to pull off (except for that one glorious year of doing The Prognosticator regularly) – the Love Train. This feature was born to counteract the impression that I hate everything; the reality is that hating on shit is funnier than loving on it (unless it’s a dead bear, in which case it is: a) funny, b) fucking sick, and c) completely NSFW), so I tend to rant more than rave in my editorials. But the Love Train is all about love, and it’s all about what I am loving at the moment – like a snapshot inside the sunshine of my spotless mind.
So, without much further ado, let me bring you the things that are making my life a little bit more tolerable in recent days…
What I’m loving in my life: My Los Angeles support network. I don’t know how I would have moved to Los Angeles without my friends. And I don’t mean that in a “Hey, help me move this couch” way, since I had the director of Vampire Assassin do all that shit for me. I mean that in the way that moving to a new city is a tough change, and having people here to hang out with and generally rely upon makes all the difference in the world. I had a decent group here in LA before I moved: my brother and my best friend and her fiancée were both out here, and I had famed internet writers Mr. Beaks and Andre Dellamorte, along with other colleagues like Ryan Rotten and Brad Miska and others with whom to be social. Then I had people who I knew from other areas of life who have come to be very good friends in the last couple of weeks, even if they make me go to awful bars like The Gold Room in Echo Park. I even met a couple of new people in my time out here, including one person who I think is going to be my friend for a long time to come. If you’re planning on making a big move, I can’t recommend enough that you have a solid group of people available for you on the other side.
What I’m loving in video games: Elite Beat Agents. I recently bought a Nintendo DS in preparation for a long overseas trip and the release of a new guitar sim on the platform (I am gay for these types of games), and I asked my friends to lend me some games. One friend lent me Elite Beat Agents and it’s barely been out of the DS since she gave it to me. I know this game is old news, but I’ve been recently bewitched in the extreme. While the songs on the game leave a lot to be desired – You’re the Inspiration by Chicago?!?! – the fucked up weird scenarios plus the engrossing game play make the thing totally addictive. I’m really looking forward to a sequel to this game… there must be a sequel coming, right?
What I’m loving in beverages: Water. I know, this is the worst thing I have yet ‘loved’ in a Love Train (and that’s saying a lot, since my friend and occasional message board SnarkMaster Russ Lucas got annoyed when I posted about loving specific potato chips), but we’ve been having a heat wave and a half in Southern California for the last week or so, and living without air conditioning in a scenario where everything in my house has become uncomfortably hot to the touch due to the 100 degree ambient temperature, I have really started to appreciate the benefits of staying hydrated. You know you’re hot when you chug a half liter of water standing in front of your fridge.
What I’m loving in the movies: The fall season has begun! Finally, the summer movie season has croaked, leaving my upcoming screening schedule fat with titles like Into the Wild, The Darjeeling Limited, Eastern Promises and another look at the masterful The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (hopefully my review will be live in a few hours). I’ve been off the screening game lately – it’s hard for me to get to screenings here in LA – but I’m ready to ramp up in the coming months for the deluge of if not greatness at least serious goodness I expect. If you see me waiting for a bus in the middle of the day, offer me a ride. I’ll probably have a +1 to an Oscar contender, and I’ll take you with me.
What I’m loving in my room: This poster:
