i haven't seen a movie in 21 days, 3 weeks exactly. this whole month, busy with work, i haven't had time to partake in one of my favorite summer pasttimes, which is to worship at one of the many cinematic temples throughout the city.

so i met dan and cymara and one of dan's friends at fenway 13. i actually motorcycled to kenmore square, my first time venturing on bike back into boston since last summer, when i rode a few times to the boston design center.

the movie started off with a couple of trailers. nothing memorable (or no trailers i haven't seen before), other than iron monkey. i sure hope that movie doesn't cause an animal crisis a la 102 dalmations. hate to see a whole bunch of people buy themselves iron monkeys for pets only to realize they can't take care of those damn critters and have to gave them away to shelters!

the movie itself was funny. funnier still if you've seen the other kevin smith movies. however, despite the fact that there were certain scenes that brought me to tears with laughter, i wouldn't recommend this movie, unless you were a big kevin smith fan or a jay & silent bob fan. it's not so much a film as more of a thank you to all the aficionados by bringing back a whole lot of characters from the kevin smith universe, and giving them funny lines to say and putting them in funny scenes. the story itself wasn't that interesting, even with the addition of four sexy international jewel thieves, one of them played by eliza dushku, whom many of you might know i have a terrible crush on. when the movie finished we stuck around for the secret scene (get ready for spoiler, yadda yadda), which was alanis morrisette as god "closing the book" on the story. if i had to pick one funny scene as my favorite (there were so many! yes, i admit, i am a big fan of jay and silent bob!), i'd say the intro when you see the adult jay and silent bob standing outside the convenience store and jay is singing this funny song that consisted mostly of the word f*ck.

the evening ended with me riding my motorcycle back home. i had a little problem leaving the garage. after paying for parking, the guy at the gate couldn't raise the bar because my motorcycle wasn't heavy enough to trigger the release mechanism. so he had to call up this guy and manually raise the bar. i sped off quickly, slightly embarrassed by all the attention. next time, i'm adding weights to the bike! coming out of kenmore at night with the citgo sign and the city skyline in the background was pretty cool though. if you're smart you'll realize, but tony, how can you see the boston skyline when you're leaving the city? yeah, that's true, but fortunately, i got a wee bit lost trying to get out of kenmore square so after the second time around, i was able to get a pretty good glimpse of boston!

i had dim sum with laurie again on saturday. i was to wait for her in harvard square, she'd come pick me up via car at the designated receiving zone (outside of nini's corner).

the bus ride from my house into harvard was most interesting. first, i sat next to a crazy woman who was twitching. that by itself wasn't too bothersome, i can tolerate the occasional twitch in my mbta benchmate. when she started talking to herself, i started to get a little worried. apparently she was narrating everything she was seeing out the window. the other weird thing that occurred was when there were two babies onboard, each in their strollers accompanied by their mommy, on opposite ends of the bus. babies love to look at other babies, it's a known fact. you get two babies together and they will shut up and just stare at one another. anyway, i always thought babies had bad eyesight and could only see a couple of feet in front of them, but apparently i'm wrong, because these babies locked eyes from opposite ends of the bus and started screeching at the top of their baby lungs, high-pitched shrieks, alternating back and forth, like a tennis match. apparently i was the only person who was mildly freaked out by these screaming babies -- everyone else seemed to be enjoying this primal baby display, following the shrieking, turning their heads from one end of the bus to the other end. i was glad when we finally arrived at the station. a couple of minutes more, there would've been a high change of me wetting my pants.

i got to harvard sort of early, so i stopped by wordsworth, where i picked up a copy of teach yourself: beginner's arabic script, an introduction to reading and writing arabic. i figured since i'd be going to a muslim country at the end of next month, i'd want to pick up some arabic so i can impress the natives. so with book in hand i waited at the pick up area. i was sort of afraid laurie wouldn't show up, but when the agreed to time rolled around, along came laurie in her vehicle. i hopped in and away we sped in the direction of chinatown via storrow drive, elvis costello singing on the car stereo.

after parking the car in a garage (where laurie once again remarked how poorly designed it was), we stepped into chinatown. it must've been underground goods day, as the streets were littered with people selling stuff, everything from cheaply made belts to blackmarket leechees. we found our way to china pearl, our dim sum provider of choice, grabbed a number, and waited outside in the halls of mirror, advancing steadily forward as the people in front of us started to thin, waiting for 188 to be called on the pa. when we heard our number we shuffled inside, answered yes to do you want to share a table?, and was escorted to our table.

the food was pretty good this saturday, but it just might be because i was very hungry. i'm happy to report that the dim sum did not have to be asterisked, because i was able get my two favorite dishes, chicken feet (oh, i mean, phoenix claws! yaaw!) and tripe. i didn't get greedy today, just one serving of tripe, but i could've easily eaten a few more portions of delicious cow stomach lining. all you tripe player haters out there, step off! i was pretty surprised that laurie was able to enjoy herself, after just having a root canal done the day before. but i guess the girl just loves that dim sum! as for conversation topics, i don't exactly recall what we talked about (maybe we were just too busy eating), but i remembered asking laurie if she was upset with my new haircut (i didn't warn her i'd be changing my head fur), and also revealing to her that i was excited to see that return of the living dead iii and re-animator would be coming out on dvd (now only if terrorvision would come out as well!). i knew laurie had enough food when she starting to slip in and out of these food comas. shortly afterwards, we paid our bill and left. we hung out in chinatown a little bit more (made a visit to the atm to withdraw some money, stopped by meitung supermarket to see if they had vegetarian dumplings) before laurie gave me a ride back to harvard square.

i can't remember the last time i had a haircut. i knew my hair was getting awfully shaggy, but i promised myself i wouldn't get a haircut until my project was over, sort of like a post-traumatic rebirth of sorts. so with my project finally kind of over (i think, right?), it was time to treat myself (and others, who were starting to get sick of my disheveled hairstyle) to a nice haircut at the local barber shop.

the only time i can go to the local barber shop is saturday, since they're closed on sundays. unfortunately, i'm not the only person who can only go to the barber shop on a saturday. most of the working class can't go on a weekday, so saturday is the busiest day for haircutting. when i do decide to get a haircut, i have to wake up extra early, in order to beat the crowd. i got up at 7:40am to walk to the barber shop. despite the fact that i got there at 8am, right when they open, two people were already there ahead of me. after a short wait, it was my turn and i asked for my usual, "short in the back and on the sides, long enough on top to comb." when it was all over, i walked home stroking the back of my newly-shorn head, feeling just a bit lighter now that i got rid of most of my head fur.

i also planned on shaving off my goatee, but after the haircut, i've reconsidered and i'm going to keep the goatee for just a little bit longer. i got that chin fur just the way i like it, nice and thick.

old haircut*

new haircut (after shower)

barber shop

* i had a beard but i shaved off a segment of it so the barber wouldn't be confused as to where to stop and start cutting.