Happy New Year's

New Year's Eve was quiet for me. I actually got a bit drunk on Saturday AND Sunday, which is rare for me these days, but I had the kids for New Year's Eve and we just stayed in and watched Planet of the Apes. I had to be stern when my five-year-old daughter repeated the famous line, "Get your filthy paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" but inside I was very amused. Afterward I watched the "final cut (2007)" of Blade Runner, which seems to be the 1992 cut with punchier sound and maybe some subtle, un-Star Wars-like special effects tweaking. It's still a great movie. Not a brilliant movie, but I think the key to Blade Runner is that it looks like a plausible, lived-in and liveable world, and every set piece and action sequence is cool. I also appreciate that it doesn't spell everything out, and that you can take or leave the suggestion that Harrison Ford's character may also be a replicant. In fact, I have to admit if I hadn't read that somewhere I don't know that I would have figured it out from that unicorn sequence. Afterward, I watched bits of the other versions. The tacked-on ending to the original U.S. cut is still kind of lame, and I was surprised not only that the narration was dumb and unnecessary but that it was recorded so low and tinny.

I really wanted to go see There Will Be Blood today but it's apparently not playing in San Diego yet. WTF? What I've heard of Jonny Greenwood's score is very good. I also bought the complete Twin Peaks and I think I'm liking it even better now--the pilot episode hits me a lot harder now that I'm a parent.

It was a good New Year's Day. Took down the tree and ornaments. Made a couple very complicated paper airplanes for my son out of a book. This book defined five different types of folds, if that gives you an idea how hard these are. I don't think I quite got the second one right, though it flew pretty well.

Watched most of the Capitol One Bowl and part of the Rose Bowl, then dropped the kids off and went to the gym. I worked out pretty hard and then got a half sandwich/half salad thing at a bakery restaurant chain near me, Panera, with four cups of iced tea. I made a ton of notes for my long-in-the-works graphic novel The Solution, and wrote a page of full script. I felt really good about it, because I really figured out just what I want to do with this section (I'm writing it like the fourth issue of a six issue miniseries) and came up with a way to do it that's both more emotional and more erotic than I had in the months I've known the basic plot for the issue. I don't know why, but I just tend to get a lot of good work done if it's outside my house. Less distractions, I guess.

Hope all of you had a good one.