<BLOWS DUST OF XANGA>

Without beating around the bush, Wall-E is my favourite Pixar film to date, and in my opinion, is the studio's ultimate achievement. The first image/impression Pixar gave us--before Toy Story, and even before Geri's Game--was that desk lamp hopping around on the Pixar logo. Despite my personal fear of inanimate objects coming to life (see Sun Fizz or the shower scene in Stephen King's It), I find the Pixar lamp endearing. Since then, Pixar has made personification and anthropomorphism its bread and butter (with the exception of The Incredibles). The characters in Wall-E are the pinnacle of personification. All the robotic and artificial intelligence characters have minimal or stoic dialogue, but the animators truly bring them to life, especially Eve and the titular character. In fact, I would argue that Wall-E himself is the most human character that Pixar has ever given us.

On a side note, the future presented to us in the movie is both frightening and plausible (in that respect, it reminded me a lot of the future depicted in the Mike Judge's highly underrated film, Idiocracy).

Happy Bastille Day.

So I went to meet up with my dad who is doing some job training here in SoCal. The site of his job training was Cerritos, CA--a place I had heard about since I arrived at UCLA, but I had never been to. Past roommates (Phil, Albie, Jimmy) were from there and tons of APhiO people had either gone to Cerritos High or Whitney High. Both Jimmy and Henry Lee used to babble nonsensically about the super-library the town had built (complete with VIP entrance, giant dinosaurs and a banquet hall to throw parties), the Cerritos Auto Square being the major source of revenue for the city, and something about there being fountains everywhere you go.

Anyway, I had always intended to visit this mythical place, and now I had an excuse. When I exited on Shoemaker, I was astounded at what I saw. Everything was...different. Street signs were stylistically unique, the way their city blocks were laid out were different, even the street lights were...different. I can't fully explain it.

When I first visited Irvine, it struck me how truly suburban the city was, and reminded me of NorCal (as if someone wedged a piece resembling Cupertino into Southern California). With Cerritos, it didn't have that kind of familiarity. It was just...different. It was exactly like World 4 in Super Mario Bros. 3,  aka "Giant Land." Everything in that level was the same, except everything was BIGGER. Same...but different. This is how I felt when I got into Cerritos.

(as an aside, Iggy Koopa was always my favourite of the Koopa brood--probably because he was the only one who wore glasses, with the implication in my head being that he was an avid reader and thus, the most relatable to me.)

Things are starting to ramp up a bit at work. That coupled with major planning endeavors and visits up north has left me a bit fatigued. I must resolve to get to the gym as much as possible to increase my energy levels (I'm getting 9 hours a night sometimes and still feel tired!). Thankfully, I have things to look forward to like Vegas on Labor Day and the previously mentioned visits up north (anything that gets me out of L.A. goes in the plus column).

In an effort to "save myself for Vegas" and just as a healthy alternative, I am resolving to quit drinking until Labor Day weekend (no wine, beer, liquor, spirits, etc.).

Yeah yeah, it's only about a month, but baby steps...

Hollywood News
From Matt Damon's GQ interview:

On he and Ben Affleck getting their first big paycheck after selling the script for Good Will Hunting:
We both bought Jeep Grand Cherokees. It was funny, because Ben and I, we both always wanted a Jeep Grand Cherokee for some reason. That was the car. We always talked about it but never could afford one. So when we suddenly had the money, we each instantly started trying to convince each other to get a different car. We’d say, ‘Hey, have you seen the Explorer? The Ford Explorer is really cool.’ Because we knew it would just be so gay to get the same car.

Hilarious. Despite all the time that's passed and Affleck's unfortunate "JLo phase," I still contend that Damon & Affleck would be a hoot to hang out with...(best celebrity couple ever!).