unfucking things, the genius of Nicholas Cage and the cold

I've had some success making use of Unfuck Your Habitat's methods and motivations lately. Telling myself to clean in timed bursts, rather than marathon oh god it never ends everything is fucked forever sort of ways is useful. I've managed lately to destroy the "invisible corner" of crap in the living room and thoroughly cleaned both bathrooms. The one in our bedroom was harder because it is used so much more and contains multiple closets. But today I cleaned it, in just under an hour. It looks shiny like a hotel bathroom.

No cleaning could be done without a sound track. Pretty good for the random shuffle button magic.
"Made to Be Broken" - Information Society
"New World" - Lauri
"Lugner" - Funker Vogt
"Timewave Zero" - Grendel
"Uber den Horizont (dance or die remix)" - Blutengel
"Omaha" - Counting Crows
"Lightforce" - Mind.In.A.Box
"Harsh Generation" - Grendel
"Baby's On Fire" - Die Antwoord

The upside of cleaning (besides a really clean bathroom) is that I'm no longer freezing. I was just about to shave my head when the Winter Polar Burst of Doom spread over America. It was 20 degrees Fahrenheit while I was going to work this morning and while I hauled the trash. While this is definitely better than heat since it is dry, it still isn't entirely a picnic.

My mechanic finally gave me my car back. It was a couple hundred less than I expected to spend, which was good. It's amazing the difference in the brakes. I had no idea they were in such poor shape. At least I know my car is good to go for awhile longer. They were also incredibly nice about loaning me one of the shop cars to drive to work while my car was in for a week.

Yesterday was the Nicholas Cage marathon to end all marathons. Ten hours of awesome, complete with commemorative highball glasses etched with his face. The theater was packed and it was super fun. I was ecstatic at the first film which happened to be my all time favorite weird Cage film - Vampire's Kiss. (Also - because this movie really messes with the "what is real" question I genuinely want some fanfic where Peter Loew is friends with Patrick Bateman. Maybe they meet at some dinner party thrown by those art gallery girls they both seem to like.)

Following that was Leaving Las Vegas, one I had never seen. While I get that it was good, it was incredibly depressing. Watching him drink himself to death on screen made me think uncomfortably about my father. Plus the sexual violence that happens is really, really ugly in a way you don't often get in American cinema. It reminded me of the rape scene from the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - in no way sexy, completely horrifying.

After that, it was Fire Birds which was another I'd never seen. Think Top Gun but with all the excess trimmed out and Tommy Lee Jones having sad 40 year old man thoughts while eating a fudgesicle in the middle of the night. It hilariously involved the Reagan/Bush "war on drugs" and included a crack house with the words "crack house" spray painted on the front door. It was a riot.

Continuing the Action!Cage, there was Con Air with awards for hair and accent. That movie has a surprisingly good cast and is pretty entertaining for a goofy action movie premise. The chase scene on the fire truck needs to be a video game level.

Alamo Gregg trolled us hard for the final movie, playing the opening sequence of Windtalkers before cutting to the night's true crowning jewel - Raising Arizona. It is hard to go wrong with the Coen brothers. Plus watching this again after all those other movies really made me appreciate the ways Cage gives it all for his work. It was a good way to end things as well.