2004-08-18 - 11:02 a.m.

The Downbeat 5 were great last Saturday, and I�ve been watching tons of movies lately, among them The Professional, which has been low on my list for years. I found a pretty big framed poster for Leon, the original and foreign version of the film, when I still lived in the dorms, and it was on my wall for two or three rooms and then I left it out for someone new to find. So it was nice to actually see some version of the movie, and it was a great film and worth watching. I also watched Trees Lounge again, which has to be one of the ten best movies ever made. I don�t know how I came up with ten, but trust me--it�s good.

The Roommate and I also had a cleaning freak-out last Sunday. That was a relief. There�s been people repointing our rather large apartment building all summer, which basically means blasting out the mortar between all the bricks with surgeon-bone-cutter thingies and replacing it with new stuff, which basically means closed summer windows that still can�t prevent thick layers of silt and years and years of accumulated gunk in everything that�s in our apartment (including us), layers of sludge at the bottoms our windows, and a pink sidewalk outside. Not fun, and certainly not the kind of optimistic environment necessary for fostering enthusiastic and aggressive cleaning. We feel better now.

Tomorrow the Roommate and I are heading to NYC to see GBV play for free. We�re staying in a hotel for two nights which (if I�m not mistaken) will officially make this the longest vacation I�ve taken since I spent a few days in Scranton with Sean and his family maybe six years ago.

Since the Roommate�s birthday is also tomorrow, I get to shower her with awesome birthday gifts tonight. I�m looking forward.