Aloha from Monster Island!

I've got a longer post I've been working on on my recent culinary adventures, and I also want to do some kind of roundup of the just-ended TV season, but I'm so fucking busy that I don't really have time to get all that done right now. So in the meantime, a randomness post.

What's been keeping me so busy? Well, it looks like I have a job lined up with LAUSD. Not a permanent job, just filling in for a week. Seems that someone arbitrarily made the decision to add an extra week onto the end of the school year (at least for the adult ed nightschool programs), but of course all the teachers already have their vacations planned and have no intention of canceling them, so the schools are scrambling to get substitutes in. The catch is that the amount of red tape I'm having to go through is unbelievable. And part of it involves getting a physical, so we're talking about overlapping bureaucracies (LAUSD and Kaiser Permanente) combining to drive me insane.

First I had to go downtown last friday and spend several hours wading through red tape at the LAUSD administration building. Go to 14th floor, get forms, fill them out and take them to the 18th floor, get them signed off on, return to 14th floor, get stamped, go to 15th floor to get fingerprinted...it's like Brazil! Then, they give me some forms that I need to take to my doctor, get a physical and tb test, doctor fills out the forms and puts them in a sealed envelope, I take them back downtown.

So I call Kaiser, ask for the earliest possible appointment to get a physical. My doctor doesn't have an opening until mid-July. They could schedule me with another doctor, but they would have to change my primary physician! Finally, after 15 minutes on the phone, I convince them to let me make an appointment without losing my doctor. Yesterday, I go in for a physical, get the tb test, but tomorrow I'll need to go back to get the test read. And then return the forms downtown. And of course, all this needs to be done during business hours, when I'm supposed to be at work, because the fiscal year end is approaching. And in my spare time, I'm going to have to edit and burn 20 DVD's for anxious comedians (having just finished the last batch a few days ago).

So I'm a little stressed.

I just voted, although I didn't cast a vote in half the races on the ballot. Just didn't have time to research them, and I was particularly peeved at myself for not figuring out whom to vote for for superintendent. I had no idea who any of the candidates were. But I did vote for Westley over Angelides, even though I'm annoyed by both of them. I just liked what Westley chose to emphasize in his earliest campaign ads, and besides, as the L.A. Weekly says:

Angelides is banking on a tax hike for those who earn more than $500,000 — a move we support wholeheartedly, by the way. But such an increase would likely require a two-thirds vote, and we hear no explanation from Angelides on how he will persuade Republican voters — or even moderate Democrats — to secure passage of such an initiative, or what his backup plan will be if the GOP blocks him. After all, Angelides has repeatedly promised not to raise any taxes on the middle class, a vow that forecloses any honest debate about investment, about how we rebuild California’s public schools.

Westly also hopes to pour more money into K–12 classrooms and higher education. He has offered a somewhat more pragmatic strategy for achieving his goals, by getting $3.25 billion — half the amount going unpaid to California — from tax scofflaws and giving 42 percent of the total to education.

I'm a sucker for pragmatism. I voted for Jerry Brown, and a random candidate running against Diane Feinstein (a symbolic gesture, but I talk so much about wanting to get rid of the current crop of useless Democrats, I figured I should put my money where my mouth is), for prop 81, against prop 82 (sorry, just not convinced on that one).

June DVD's: A Month of Temptation

God, so many good DVD's coming out this month. I wish I could afford them all. Today, we finally get a good DVD of my favorite summertime movie, Dazed and Confused. It's getting the Criterion treatment, with commentaries, documentaries, screentests, and so on. Obviously, that's the big release of the week for me, but there's also Mommie Dearest: The Hollywood Royalty Edition, which includes a commentary by John Waters. I don't think I'll be buying that one, but I'll definitely rent it just to listen to Waters, one of the most enjoyable speakers in the world. Plus Jesus is Magic, Entourage Season 2, and a new Dumbo DVD.

Next week, FINALLY, the GREATEST MOVIE EVER MADE comes to DVD: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, in a loaded-as-fuck edition. Most of the features are a mystery other than the Roger Ebert commentary, but it looks like Fox put more effort into this disc than a lot of mainstream hits get. Although, this is the movie that could really use a John Waters commentary. God, if they could have John Waters and the McDonald Bros. do a commentary track, that would be awesome (I'm wondering if Redd Kross appear in the featurette entitled "Look On Up At The Bottom," after the Carrie Nations song that Redd Kross covered on Born Innocent). And of course, the original Valley of the Dolls is also coming out, which I don't love nearly as much, but great cover art!

On the same day, we finally get the weirdest zombie movie ever, Cemetary Man (Dellamorte Dellamore), Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which everyone who's seen has gone into a frothing-at-the-mouth rant about the greatness of, Dave Chappelle's Block Party, which I'm dying to see, and Season 3 of Arrested Development!!! Oh, and Jimi Plays Monterey/Otis at Monterey--fuck yes!--and a single-disc edition of Monterey Pop. That's like, a year's worth of shit I want in two weeks!

June 20 sees one of my favorite obscurities, The Loved One, a great dark comedy adapted by Terry Southern from Evelyn Waugh's novel, as well as Peter Sellers' hippie comedy I Love You, Alice B. Toklas. And June 27 has a couple Masters of Horror episodes and a Chuck Berry documentary.

Randomness:

Happy Satan Day! This looks like a much more enjoyable event than the Omen remake.

Definitely bookmarking this thread!

These CD's sound pretty good.