halloween weekend

part one... "Saw II"
Bekah and I met some friends from work to see this movie Friday night. "Saw II" is the equivelent of cinematic vomit. It might taste good when origionally ingested, however, it burns when coming back up. The movie is well written and tells a good story, but is marred by the grisley imagery and strobe-like effects. Upon further consideration, the story becomes more implausible due to the fact it wants you to believe that a dying cancer patient who is physically incapable of getting out of his chair is able to commit such horrific crimes as dipicted throughough the movie. While the grime and shock works in some movies, Twisted Pictures takes "Saw II" into distasteful territory. Not for people with weak stomachs.

part two... Redmark
A good friend (former roommate and groomsman in my wedding) had a show in Moscow Saturday night with his band Redmark. So Bekah and I packed up the car and the baby and took a drive down to see them. One of Bekah's best friends lives down their, so we stayed with her family, while the band stayed at one of the frat houses at U of I. The band put on a rockin show at The Nuart Theater, a coffeehouse/theater/church that Bekah's friend works at part time. I saw Redmark perform last New Years Eve, and this show was exponentially better. Sonically, tighter, more passionate and energetic, and playing to a packed house. There will be another show there next spring, hopefully they'll be able to book a show up here in the Spokane/CD'A area at the same time. The bassist is dating my sister-in-law, so it's cool to have a personal connection to a band with such a potential to go somewhere.

After the show (and after the crowd had disipated and the band's gear had been loaded into the van) we hung out until nearly 1am, playing and singing worship, an activity I hadn't experienced with them since Drew and I were roomates nearly three years ago. It was peaceful, calming, and deeply spiritual. Once it was a normal part of my life, passing the guitar around between friends, worshiping God, enjoying each other's company, and not wanting the music to end. This weekend was almost like old times, a great break from my current stresses.

Mark my words. They'll be big some day, I'd say they'd be cool some day but they all ready are cool. I'll post their website in my links section in a couple of days, so bear with me. They also gave me permission to copy/distribute their promo CD, so let me know if you want a copy.

part three... carnival
Bekah (against my plees and wishes) dragged me to a church harvest carnival at some church out in Four Lakes. If you have no idea where Four Lakes is, there is a reason, it's the far side of Spokane tucked into the backwoods of redneckville. It was slightly more entertaining than the Halloween parties at the church I grew up in, but still not my idea of an enjoyable October 31st activity.

Gosh, I remember this one year on Halloween, Shane and I stayed home and played Goldeneye while passing out candy to trick-or-treaters. However, we didn't want our game to be interupted everytime the doorbell rang, so we left the front door open with the bowl of candy in the threshold and tempted fate with the honor system. One kid (dressed as a pirate if I remember correctly) asked how much candy he could take. Our answer - as much as you want. His eyes got so big, I thought he was going to run off with all of it. For ambiance, we had Korn and Rob Zombie playing on the stereo at full volume. A couple kids actually asked their parents if they could stay at our place and play games instead of finishing trick-or-treating. Solid proof that the Nintendo 64 was cooler than candy.