verushka70 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
verushka70) wrote2009-10-17 04:59 pm
verushka70) wrote2009-10-17 04:59 pm
fanboys/girls, Nathan Fillion/IFC, Spike Jonze/NPR, the Coen Bros., my trip
Well, I haven't been around much lately. Or haven't posted anyway. Getting the empty apartment fixed up and ready to rent has turned into an expensive and time consuming project.
.
Scroll past the next 7 paragraphs to get to the fannish stuff, if the boring details of being owner/operator of a 3 flat... well, bore you.
Not only did stuff need to be painted, but plaster needed to be patched, it turned out the refrigerator was leaking and had ruined all the kitchen tile (necessitating purchase of new fridge and re-tiling of kitchen), the floors were fucked up by the tenants (requiring sanding/refinishing of floors throughout), and the floor next to the 2nd shower (originally put in for my Grandma after she turned 85 and had trouble getting in/out of the bathtub) also needed to be tiled. And a new lock was needed for the back door, new 3 prong outlets for some of the electrical outlets... the list was seemingly fucking endless, and don't even get me started on the desperately needed tuckpointing and external woodwork painting.
I was trying to get it all done before I left on a much-deserved long-ass vacation, but that's not happening. So I have tried to leave behind my control-freaky if-I-don't-do-it,-it-won't-get-done-right issues, and I'm leaving the remainder of the unfinished crap to my bf and my long time best friend who is also a realtor & will show the apartment and place the ad for me while I'm gone, and only asked me for $100 to do this.
(And he'll also pay the guys doing the tuckpointing, floors, electrical, tiling, etc. -- with the checkbook from "The Estate of..." -- I trust him implicitly. I could give him $40K -- if I had $40K to give him!!) -- in cash and tell him to hold it for me for 5 years, and in 5 years, when I came back, he would give me back the EXACT SAME $40K, not ever having once touched it or spent it and replaced it like many people would have, no matter how desperate his circumstances might have become. That's the kind of pal he is. God, we are so old. I have known him since I was 16! That's 26 years! Fuck me!!)
Anyway, paying him $100 to take care of this for me is ridiculously cheap; if I were doing this through his realty office, it would cost me 1 month's rent for his services and the office/execs would get a percentage. I've told him to run credit & eviction checks on prospective tenant applicants and keep track of how much it's cost & how many he did so I can reimburse him when I get back.
Anyway... boring details, forget those. I am going on a trip!! I am (for reasons that don't need explaining at this juncture) leaving tomorrow for a cross country road trip. I will be driving my sister's kayak from Chicago to Issiquah, WA so I can trade her expedition kayak for a smaller, more maneuverable (I'm told) kayak she pre-arranged to trade with a guy she first met on a Victoria Island, BC beach in August and cemented the deal with at a kayaking conference in September. I am taking my dog! We will have an adventure! I am not a kayaker and know nothing about kayaking, I am merely a courier of said kayak... but I love road trips.
And I desperately need the vacation. Except for a few 3, 4, & 5 day trips here and there, and 1 week in Amsterdam in 2004, I have not gone on a real vacation lasting more than 1 week since 2002. After everything that's happened in the last few years (dad died, nursing school, stepdad's cancer, mom's cancer, stepdad's death, first nursing job, mom's death in June) I just really, really needed the time away. And -- sounds terrible to say this but it's true -- thanks to death insurance (I refuse to call it life insurance, because it only pays off when you die), I have the money to take the time off work and get the hell away from home for a couple/few weeks.
I'll either take I-90 or I-80 across MN, SD, WY, MT, ID, and WA or IA, NB, CO, UT, OR & WA respectively -- depends on the weather. I may drive up into Canada while I'm in Issiquah because it's right next to Seattle and so close to BC and I've never been there and ever since HCL's road scenes I have wanted to! I'm just a little worried about driving everywhere with a kayak on a rack on the roof of the car. But there's a lock for it like a bike lock, apparently. And my dog is coming with me! To keep me safe!
Anyway. Here are some links to stuff I found about fanboys/fangirls, Nathan Fillion, Spike Jonze, and the Coen Bros., which popped up on IMDB.com:
Study: Fanboys Are Girls, Too
Popular perception of pimply, awkward young men is too limited, according to study.
By Brent Lang
Published: October 13, 2009
http://www.thewrap.com/article/fanboys-may-not-be-who-marketers-think-8613
What Drives Nathan Fillion
By Aaron Hillis on 10/14/2009
10132009_FillionTrucker.jpg Nathan Fillion in "Trucker," Monterey Media, 2008
Even if Nathan Fillion weren't currently playing the eponymous mystery writer on the hit TV series "Castle," the genre fans out there would surely know the charming Canadian actor from his work with cult-beloved producer Joss Whedon.
http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/10/nathan-fillion.php
Spike Jonze Directs Mischief, 'Wild Things'(NPR Fresh Air w/podcast)
October 13, 2009
When children's book author Maurice Sendak asked his friend, director Spike Jonze, to make a film based on his book Where the Wild Things Are, Jonze initially declined.
brief article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113744907
transcript: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=113744907
download podcast: http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2009/10/20091013_fa_02.mp3?dl=1
Interview Joel and Ethan Coen
Joel and Ethan Coen Wilson Webb
by Sam Adams October 14, 2009
Joel and Ethan Coen have never been personal filmmakers in an obvious sense, but A Serious Man is as close as they’re ever likely to get to autobiography.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/joel-and-ethan-coen,33937/
.
Scroll past the next 7 paragraphs to get to the fannish stuff, if the boring details of being owner/operator of a 3 flat... well, bore you.
Not only did stuff need to be painted, but plaster needed to be patched, it turned out the refrigerator was leaking and had ruined all the kitchen tile (necessitating purchase of new fridge and re-tiling of kitchen), the floors were fucked up by the tenants (requiring sanding/refinishing of floors throughout), and the floor next to the 2nd shower (originally put in for my Grandma after she turned 85 and had trouble getting in/out of the bathtub) also needed to be tiled. And a new lock was needed for the back door, new 3 prong outlets for some of the electrical outlets... the list was seemingly fucking endless, and don't even get me started on the desperately needed tuckpointing and external woodwork painting.
I was trying to get it all done before I left on a much-deserved long-ass vacation, but that's not happening. So I have tried to leave behind my control-freaky if-I-don't-do-it,-it-won't-get-done-right issues, and I'm leaving the remainder of the unfinished crap to my bf and my long time best friend who is also a realtor & will show the apartment and place the ad for me while I'm gone, and only asked me for $100 to do this.
(And he'll also pay the guys doing the tuckpointing, floors, electrical, tiling, etc. -- with the checkbook from "The Estate of..." -- I trust him implicitly. I could give him $40K -- if I had $40K to give him!!) -- in cash and tell him to hold it for me for 5 years, and in 5 years, when I came back, he would give me back the EXACT SAME $40K, not ever having once touched it or spent it and replaced it like many people would have, no matter how desperate his circumstances might have become. That's the kind of pal he is. God, we are so old. I have known him since I was 16! That's 26 years! Fuck me!!)
Anyway, paying him $100 to take care of this for me is ridiculously cheap; if I were doing this through his realty office, it would cost me 1 month's rent for his services and the office/execs would get a percentage. I've told him to run credit & eviction checks on prospective tenant applicants and keep track of how much it's cost & how many he did so I can reimburse him when I get back.
Anyway... boring details, forget those. I am going on a trip!! I am (for reasons that don't need explaining at this juncture) leaving tomorrow for a cross country road trip. I will be driving my sister's kayak from Chicago to Issiquah, WA so I can trade her expedition kayak for a smaller, more maneuverable (I'm told) kayak she pre-arranged to trade with a guy she first met on a Victoria Island, BC beach in August and cemented the deal with at a kayaking conference in September. I am taking my dog! We will have an adventure! I am not a kayaker and know nothing about kayaking, I am merely a courier of said kayak... but I love road trips.
And I desperately need the vacation. Except for a few 3, 4, & 5 day trips here and there, and 1 week in Amsterdam in 2004, I have not gone on a real vacation lasting more than 1 week since 2002. After everything that's happened in the last few years (dad died, nursing school, stepdad's cancer, mom's cancer, stepdad's death, first nursing job, mom's death in June) I just really, really needed the time away. And -- sounds terrible to say this but it's true -- thanks to death insurance (I refuse to call it life insurance, because it only pays off when you die), I have the money to take the time off work and get the hell away from home for a couple/few weeks.
I'll either take I-90 or I-80 across MN, SD, WY, MT, ID, and WA or IA, NB, CO, UT, OR & WA respectively -- depends on the weather. I may drive up into Canada while I'm in Issiquah because it's right next to Seattle and so close to BC and I've never been there and ever since HCL's road scenes I have wanted to! I'm just a little worried about driving everywhere with a kayak on a rack on the roof of the car. But there's a lock for it like a bike lock, apparently. And my dog is coming with me! To keep me safe!
Anyway. Here are some links to stuff I found about fanboys/fangirls, Nathan Fillion, Spike Jonze, and the Coen Bros., which popped up on IMDB.com:
Study: Fanboys Are Girls, Too
Popular perception of pimply, awkward young men is too limited, according to study.
By Brent Lang
Published: October 13, 2009
http://www.thewrap.com/article/fanboys-may-not-be-who-marketers-think-8613
What Drives Nathan Fillion
By Aaron Hillis on 10/14/2009
10132009_FillionTrucker.jpg Nathan Fillion in "Trucker," Monterey Media, 2008
Even if Nathan Fillion weren't currently playing the eponymous mystery writer on the hit TV series "Castle," the genre fans out there would surely know the charming Canadian actor from his work with cult-beloved producer Joss Whedon.
http://www.ifc.com/news/2009/10/nathan-fillion.php
Spike Jonze Directs Mischief, 'Wild Things'(NPR Fresh Air w/podcast)
October 13, 2009
When children's book author Maurice Sendak asked his friend, director Spike Jonze, to make a film based on his book Where the Wild Things Are, Jonze initially declined.
brief article: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113744907
transcript: http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=113744907
download podcast: http://public.npr.org/anon.npr-mp3/npr/fa/2009/10/20091013_fa_02.mp3?dl=1
Interview Joel and Ethan Coen
Joel and Ethan Coen Wilson Webb
by Sam Adams October 14, 2009
Joel and Ethan Coen have never been personal filmmakers in an obvious sense, but A Serious Man is as close as they’re ever likely to get to autobiography.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/joel-and-ethan-coen,33937/