Howdy, Adventurers! How goes it?
Last night Steanso had a lovely dinner of grilled fish and vegetables with Team Wilson and The Pea's sister, Ruby Rockit, who will soon be moving to Seattle with her faithful companion and sidekick, Buford T. Justice. Ruby works at Anne Kelso salon as a hair artist (her description) and knows about half of the people in Austin. Ruby is a funny, fun-loving gal, and we'll miss her when she moves, but she promises to come back to visit soon and often, so we guess that'll be okay.
After dinner and saying goodbye I wandered back across the street where I talked to Roundball on the phone for awhile before watching a short John Carpenter film with Crackbass called Cigarette Burns from the Masters of Horror series (which I believe originally aired on Showtime, but I might be wrong). Cigarette Burns had some fairly orginal ideas and some decent acting, but it probably fell a little short of the mark in terms of what Carpenter was aiming for. Cigarette Burns is a film about a film, a long lost work of horror that is rumored to have driven its audience mad at its one and only screening. Throughout the span of the movie C.B. repeatedly makes reference to the films of Dario Argento and a few other more "artistic" horror directors. Through both the theme and direction of the movie it becomes clear that Carpenter has become somewhat self conscious in regard to how his own legacy will be viewed within the pantheon of horror movie greats. In some ways, I think Cigarette Burns is meant to be an homage to the art involved in the creation of horror movies and a statement about how strongly a good horror movie can effect its audience, but in the end, there are several scenes in which Carpenter simply can't resist the urge to stoop to some good ol' Hollywood gorefest schlock. Cigarette Burns is probably worth a look for fans of the horror movie genre, but the material here has been covered at this point (see The Ring, In the Mouth of Madness, etc.), and you're not going to see anything truly new.

By the way, as long as I'm throwing around my ten cent reviews, I'd like to take a second to throw in a very favorable review of HBO's Deadwood. I just finished watching the second season of this western series on DVD, and I really enjoyed it. The characters are incredibly complex, and creator David Milch seems to go out of his way to give each person on the show a multitude of competing interests and motivations which drive their actions (there are no strictly good or bad characters on Deadwood, and the moment you've made up your mind about someone on the show, they'll do something to change your attitude about them). The dialogue on the show is well written, with expletives easily laced between almost Shakespearean moments of speech, but mostly I like the show for its characters. The people on the show are just very believable, and you find yourself intrigued because of the struggles that they have with themselves as much as the battles that they engage in with their neighbors.
Anyway, it's a good show. Watch it if you have HBO, and rent it if you don't.

OK, that's it for now. The Wilsons are off to Colorado today. Let's all wish them a good trip!