t
o
n
y
a
n
g
'
s
 
w
e
b
l
o
g


i woke up at 10:30am this morning to go down to the fresh pond cinema to catch bad santa. there was hardly anyone at the theatre, it was mostly daddies with kids, mommies out holiday shopping. i bought a medium unbuttered popcorn ($4), with a half empty bottle of orange gatorade stashed away in my bag. there was no more than a dozen people in theatre 1. there was a moment of confusion when two parents came in with two little kids. "no way are they watching this movie, nice responsible parents," i thought to myself. turns out they just came in to grab seats (despite the fact that the theatre was practically empty), then took the kids out to what i'm assuming to be a different movie, before coming back. nevertheless, the two kids couldn't have been older than 6 years old, is it safe to leave them alone unsupervised in another screening room? don't you love responsible parents who care more about their kids than themselves? it just warms my heart.

bad santa was a funny movie, the perfect cure to those sappy holiday films that pop up this time of the year. i usually have a hard time digesting dark comedy ("what's the point? why is everyone so mean?" are questions that i ask and never get answers to), but for some reason i was on the same wavelength as bad santa. how bad is billy bob thorton's bad santa? the movie starts with him getting drunk in a bar, followed by him puking in the alley way just as soon as the opening credits finish rolling. minutes later, he's pissing on himself while working as a department store santa, swearing at the little kids. some people would be horrified, but i found it hilarious. the bad santa character never breaks out of his badness, just when you think maybe the spirit of christmas might at last touch him (just like in so many other christmas movies), he does something mean-spirited. despite all his flaws, i still ended up rooting for the guy. lauren graham (lorelai from "the gilmore girls") plays bad santa's girlfriend who just happens to have a santa fetish. she has nice screen presence, and i'm glad she doesn't get manic-ditzy like her character on tv. bad santa ends up moving in with this little fat boy (how it happens, too complicated to explain, you just have to see the movie) who seemingly believes that he's the real santa and just follows him around. the little boy gets picked on in school, and you just hope that bad santa can instill a little wickedness into his victim-like demeanor, like a mister miyagi to the karate kid, or yoda to luke skywalker. john ritter has a minor role (his last film role) as the department store manager torn between having a feeling that this particular santa isn't quite right, versus his fear of reprisal over any plans to fire bad santa and his african-american "little person" assistant. bernie mac infuses some "angry black man" into his department store security guard character, but if there's a weak spot in the casting it's him, his humor is too underutilized, sort of wasted in this particular film. overall a good movie, made me laugh, made my groan too, and i can't remember the last time i watched a holiday movie with so much anti-holiday spirit.

i came back home, where i caught the patriots game, 2nd quarter, pats ahead. as much as i wanted to stay and watch the game, i then went over to lynn's house, andrew's mother's friend, who's been trying to get in touch with me for the past few weeks about coming by and helping her with some computer questions. this i would classify under "obligations." normally i wouldn't do it, but i felt if i didn't help her, who else could she ask about mac problems, and i was getting an used epson printer out of it (the 740, although it's probably broken). i went over for about an hour and a half, answering questions like how to select more than one item at a time, using the search function, reading attachments, and how to visit websites other than the ones shown on the earthlink homepage. i left with the printer, carrying it back to my place in the cold.

the football game was still going on, and i caught the final few minutes, the new england defense shutting down the colts offense just inches away from scoring the game winning touchdown. another sunday, another patriots victory, it's a great time to be a pats fan. i heard if they win one more game, they will have clinched a playoff spot. the patriots every week seem to be more of a juggernaut, sometimes winning pretty, other times ugly, but always winning.

my parents picked me up after they got off from work and i returned with them to belmont, where we had lamb steak for dinner. i also took the opportunity to give my sister her birthday present, the red mogu pillow. i then got a ride back to my place, along with all the dishes that my parents borrow for thanksgiving. later, alex wong dropped by, then left during alias. tonight's episode was weak in the story department (david cronenberg as a timothy leary-esque dream professor with the hot coed assistant was too distracting, too comical for the seriousness of current storyline), but it did reveal interesting details about sydney's disappearance, and the episode ends with a crazy cliffhanger that i can't wait to see what it is. the sneak peek of next week's episode apparently has sydney sleeping with witness-protection-project will. when will next sunday be here?

the project that will not die came back to me friday night with a list of fixes on what i had thought was error-free code. does the client expect me to sacrifice parts of my sacred weekend to work on it? somehow, i'm in the mood to blow it off, i just want to enjoy the rest of my sunday night, kick back, go to bed early, not worry about it. bad santa is definitely a bad influence.