i read somewhere once that the dirtiest room in the house is not the bathroom but actually the kitchen. after cleaning up my parents' kitchen today, i pretty much agree. today we moved the stove and the refrigerator. the stove wasn't so bad, some oil splatters on the nearby walls, that's about it. however, underneath the fridge was something so gross i nearly went insane just from looking at it. the dust underneath was so thick, it was like a piece of carpet. while i was trying to figure out how to clean up the mess, my father was already getting his hands dirty, scooping up the dust and washing the floor with a sponge and brush. apparently he has a higher threshold for grossness than i do.
the second half of the day we put another layer of water-based polyurethane on the hallway floor (my father did most of the work, i basically supervised and moved the lamp so he could see better). the problem we've been having are tiny bubbles on the finish. it's an old can of polyurethane so we added some water to thin it out which seemed to help a little bit but we still get bubbles. we're using a nylon brush: maybe the trick is to use a pad. fortunately we ran out of the old stuff so we can try a new can of polyurethane next time.
after i got back to cambridge i took a detour to the somerville theatre to catch the late matinee of eastern promises. there was just one thing on my mind: naked fighting in a russian bathhouse! not since robert deniro's travis bickle in the tax driver has a cinematic character been so cool and scary at the same time as viggo mortensen's nikolai, russian mob chauffeur and occasional hitman. the aforementioned climatic fight screen leaves nothing to the imagination if you ever wanted to see aragorn au naturale. like cronenberg's a history of violence, when the violence comes it's ultra-graphic. an interesting side note, guns are never seen in eastern promises: instead, knives are used prominently, which lends itself to a more visceral brutality. hard to explain, but cronenberg's films seem to have a "fleshy" quality to them. in this film, apart from the knife violence, we also have rapes and childbirth and needles and tattoos - constant reminders of the pains of the flesh. naomi watts' character rides around in an old russian motorcycle, immediately endearing her to me.
back at home, i was resigned to having some rice noodle leftovers for dinner, but my parents were coming back from costco and dropped off a chicken bake. wednesday night's television lineup: 8pm pushing daisies (ABC) followed by life (NBC) at 10pm. i caught a glimpse of bionic woman: i think that show's going to get cancelled.