Monday, May 29, 2006

Monday 29th

Dem a loot dem a shoot dem a wail
a shanty town

007 (Shanty Town) - Desmond Dekker

So today was an interesting day. Woke up this morning and grabbed the newspaper only to be totally surprised by reports of a transit strike occurring today. Well that was completely out of the blue. Turned on the television and they were saying no buses, trains or streetcars were running. So how's a brother supposed to get to work downtown when this city's only got one decent way into the core (The DVP) and that's usually crowded even when transit is running.

Oh well. From the news it didn't seem like this problem was going to be solved soon as the transit workers were striking over maintenance schedules and perceived disses by management regarding driver safety. Cant blame those folks but they could have given us more notice.

Anyway long story short I ended up working from home as the buses never got running till around 3 or 4 this afternoon. Turned out to be a great day here too. Hot just the way I like it. Yea yeah yeah I know everyone will complain about the humidity and the heat being too much but I refuse to complain on any day its hot. I love the heat and any day I can sweat just walking up the road is a good day in my opinion.

So worked from home until late afternoon, stopping every now and then to get some errands done and hang with diddy jr (3 and a half months and counting) and then walked to the nearby cinema to catch X-Men III. Yea forget Superman and Da Vinci Code and all the rest , this is probably the only summer blockbuster I was interested in seeing ...besides Pirates of the Caribbean.

Photobucket - Video and Image HostingWhat can I say about X-III? It was just ok in my opinion. Yea it raked in over 120 Mil this long weekend in the US but it was definitely not as good as X-Men II in my opinion. Sure it was fast a fast paced action movie with decent action scenes but the pace seemed a little frenetic for the entire movie and even the big battle scene near the end just seemed kind of confusing. Not confusing as in who was fighting who but just in terms of the way the scenes were shot it just seemed too jarring.

Then there was some stuff there that just didn't seem to fit the characters of certain heroes and villains. Magneto for example seemed a bit out of character in his dealings with Mystique and Jean/Phoenix in my opinion was just a little too much out of control. Yes she is the Dark Phoenix who was completely different from Jean Girl but still I just didn't feel that the movie wasn't stretching things a bit. They kind of brushed Rogue to the side and a couple of other main characters from the earlier movies just never really got involved. I think there was just too much going on and the newer characters never got developed properly and seemed rushed into action while the older characters just seemed to be going through the motions. On the plus side they finally gave Storm a bit more screentime and we got to see Colussus and the Beast but other than that I thought that this movie was lacking.

After the movie I ended up doing some shopping. Hit a West Indian grocery store on the way home and had the interesting experience of watching the youth ahead of me in line buy a cutlass. Was a little disturbing actually. You ever stand in line at a supermarket and realize that the fella ahead of you have a cutlass in his hand? Wha I thought the place was getting rob at first to tell ya the truth cause the yout did look a certain bad boy, igrant, not too much common sense sort a way so I was a bit worried. I was tempted to turn back and start dodging about the aisles looking for the back door in case he was looking to chop up someone but it turned out he was just buying the item at hand. He aint look like no farmer or gardener to me though so I wonder what he want a cutlass for. Hmmmm .

Windies won again this weekend winning the series against India which is incredible. Congrats to them. Still wont jump on the bandwagon yet. Still a test series to be played. In NBA news , the Pistons are battling Miami as we speak so I'm off to watch the 4th quarter.

Oh the Desmond Dekker quote above has nothing to do with this post except I just wanted to say rest in peace as he died last Thursday.

10 comments:

Scratchie said...

oxqliibqWell you just changed my mind about going to see X III. It sounds more like a wait for DVD show. Saw Da Vinci Code. Everybody says the book was better. Never had a problem since I never read the book. I thought it was good in a could be better kinda way but hey.......

Miz JJ said...

I can't stand the extreme heat. I just bought a 12,000 BTU air conditioning unit because I can't stand the heat.

Abeni said...

It real hot here so much that I can't even sleep properly.Not sure If X111 showed here yet but am not keen on seeing it.

Windies really surprised everyone

Mad Bull said...

Heh! I bet the rude bwoy read my post which suggested that every REAL West Indian owns a cutlass! So you have a Bajan passport! Dat nah say nutten! Weh you cutlass?

Anonymous said...

4panist is correct. I am one of the readers who don't know what a cutlass is. In my city a cutalss is a car. Now I would hope that you can't buy one those in grocery store. Now has for Xmen III. I loved it. I was fan of the cartoon in the 90s. I thought the action was great. Although I don't know and am not a big fan of the writers changing the story lines. I still liked the action in it.

Unknown said...

I heard about that transit strike. I saw a picture with a whole heap a bicycle that people rode to work. Good thing you could work from home, much better that being in an office.

I doubt I will be going to the cinema to watch X-Men 3, i'll just watch it on DVD, not a "buy expensive movie tiket" movie to me.

Luke Cage said...

Let me not mince words. XIII-The Last Stand was plain wack! I knew the movie was in trouble when the directorial reigns was being bounced between 2 directors and then finally went to Brett Ratner. Give me a break. Although the action sequences were pretty fly, you were dead on when you said that they were too jarring and forced. Impressive bridge battle sequence, but talk about lack of story and heart which was something Bryan Singer brought to the franchise. Did you stick around for the surprise clip after the credits???

Amadeo said...

A cutlass you say. When I see that I pick up something heavy in case he start tripping.

dorna! said...

I had to scroll real fast past the X III spoilers. :D
Man, you can have the heat and the humidity too. Can't wait for December when the temperature drops to something more civilised down here.

Jdid said...

@scratchie - yep watch it on video
@miz jj - i'm the opposite i cant stand the cold
@4panist - cutlass isnt a bajan word
@abeni - not you complaining about heat too
@mad bull - yes star you probably influencing the masses, good work :-)
@jelli - cutlass, machete, collins, sharp cutting tool. re x-men the action was ok at times but at others it just seemed really out of control
@stunner - well i aint have no bicycle to ride nowhwere when the bus stop run
@luke cage - i missed the stupid suprise clip but i know what it is
@amadeo - yea it was a bit disturbing but i moved away and also checked the vicinity to see what i could reach in two seconds
@bb - well thank your daddy fa me then cause i'm loving it
@dorna - global warming at its finest gotta love it till we all burn to a crisp