today was a beautiful spring day, temperature near the 70's, yet i spent the whole day inside. i didn't realize how warm it was until most of the day was already over. my one chance to enjoy the weather, renata's phone call invitation to go for a walk, i missed because i was in my bedroom watching the war coverage and didn't hear it ringing. i slept until noon, and i could've gone for more sleep but usually don't like to sleep later than that. i had pizza rolls for lunch. i turned the heat off. i took a shower. i then left my house before 6pm to pick up dan in allston, heading in the direction of coolidge corner for john miller's bachelor party.

it had started to rain by the time i arrived at dan's place. we were lucky once we got into coolidge corner, found a curbside parking spot right across the street from zaftig's, the restaurant where we supposed to meet the 11 other guests of the bachelor party. with minutes to spare, dan and i went browsing at the brookline booksmith. maybe a long time ago i've visited this bookstore before, but i don't remember anymore. as far as i'm concerned, tonight was my first time. amanda garnier and eliza jones used to rave about this place, but i figured their opinion was swayed by their brookline ties. after having seen the place for myself, i can see there's much to like about it. for one thing, it's a lot bigger than i'd imagined it to be. i even bought a book, the asian grocery store demystified by linda bladholm, a book that's been on my amazon wish list for a while, but i was happy to discover it was for sale on the discount table for $6 (amazon's price is $12). nothing makes a place shine brighter than finding bargains,

although my loyalty still lies with wordsworth in cambridge, it could be a whole north/south of the charles river culture clash thing. after i paid, we went returned to zaftig's. the hostess of the restaurant saw dan and i and said, "are you here for the bachelor party?" and directed us to the back, where john's cousin sean, john and dan's former roommate brian (the same brian i saw briefly last night, the same brian i saw in davis square thursday), john's brother tom (the organizer of tonight's events), and john himself greeted dan and i. later, john's holy cross friend john arrived as well. we waited for the remaining guests to show up, but decided to order without them when it seemed they wouldn't make it in time. i ordered the reuben sandwich, corn beef with sauerkraut on rye bread, nothing spectacular, i've had it before, better than the youngman i had yesterday though. by the time we were done with eating, the rest of john's friends showed up (some coming as far as new york city, same as john). those that ate paid the bill, and then we all went across the street to the coolide corner theatre, brian sheltering me from the rain with his oversized umbrella and convincing me pants can never be too tight.

so this is a bachelor party in this new 21st century age of political correctness. no shitfaced with alcohol, no strippers, no prostitutes. i'm sure there are still plenty of soon-to-be-married men who do those sort of things, but i personally find no great appeal in it. we have a dinner, then we go to the found footage film festival. that's the bachelor party. the AV screening room was more than half full already by the time we got there. with our large group, the party had to sit in scattered groupings. elias showed up, we got him a seat right in front of us. the 8pm show was more moments with dora, musical moments culled from various sources, including movies, television, cable access, and even music videos. it was better than all of last night's 2 pre-midnight video shows combined, but the bitter taste of last night's disappointing foray in found footage still remained. my favorite moment was the mike flowers pop video for oasis' "wonderwall." i also liked the song "the biggest aspedastra in the world" (circa 1950's?) and its use of double entendres. the program ended with bonnie tyler's "total eclipse of the heart" video, a song that i like, but i never realized the video featured ninjas and village-of-the-damned children amongst other things.

the 10pm show was a documentary about the people who make highway safety films. during the intermission prior, people without tickets were leaving the AV room while those that remained shuffled about changing seats. brian and his special friend nathan came up to the back, unable to sit in the front row next to this man i saw from yesterday, an eccentric fellow wearing a creme colored suit and matching hat. it wasn't the way that he was dressed that was annoying, but rather the fact that he laughed at everything, in a very loud and obnoxious manner. it's fine to laugh when it's genuinely funny, but during the highway safety documentary he was laughing at all the gruesome crash footage, and i found that quite distasteful. i wanted to shout from the back of the theatre, "shut up you sick f*ck!" nobody else was laughing except for him. a few minutes into the film, john left, unable to stomach the carnage. dan went with him minutes later. after the movie, brian and i plotted to kill this annoying man.

almost everyone gathered back up for the midnight show, kiddie mindwarp. "parents - who needs them?", "dirt-witch", "cipher in the snow" (about being a zero), learning how to share, and a mime who dooms kids to their deaths via games of hide-and-seek were amongst the film clips shown.

after everything was all over, everyone went about their own way. i gave dan a ride back to allston then i went home. i think i drove extra carefully after seeing that movie about the making of highway safety films. has tonight's second outing of found footage changed my opinion of it after last night's subpar presentations? well, the next festival isn't until next year, that's a long time away. if they were to have it again next weekend though, with brand new stuff, i wouldn't go, not even if they paid me.

i'm very proud of my color table. it's something no one will ever get to see, but it's how i pick the colors for each day's entry. the colors i pick aren't just arbitrary, there's usually some significance tied in with the color choice.