Earlier in the week I had made tentative plans to hang out with Adam at his house on Saturday, but I hadn't heard back from him. When I got up I called him, and sure enough, things were on. After a shower and a quick bite, I grabbed a handful of dvds and set out toward Adam's.

I was excited, not just because I hadn't seen Adam in a while, but also because he has a HUGE widescreen television -- something like 55" or so. Now, I'm not a typical boy: I don't like sports, cars, steak, etc. I do, however, rather enjoy a big tv and a big stereo. One day, perhaps, I may even get one, but until then, I'll live vicariously through others.

Since I wasn't sure whether Adam's wife Tricia and their two kids would be around, so I tried to choose dvds that would be agreeable, if not entirely family-friendly. I definitely wanted to see how a couple dvds in particular looked and sounded on his system.

Once I arrived, I realized that Tricia was leaving with the kids for a couple hours, so I needn't have chosen so particularly. No problem, though -- I still had some good ones.

First up was the KMFDM WWIII: Tour 2003 dvd, mainly because I'm actually in it for about ten seconds. The show itself sounds good, but it's regular stereo, not surround, so nothing spectacular.

Next up was the Peter Gabriel Growing Up Live dvd. This one I knew would be special, and so did Adam as soon as the menu came up -- the menu screens themselves were all in DTS. Adam's not a big Peter Gabriel fan, so I didn't intend to make him sit through all two hours of the show, but I did want to hit a couple songs in particular, especially the title track, "Growing Up". In short: amazing. The surround accentuates the songs without sounding contrived, and the visuals, which were great on my tiny, piece-of-shit tv, were beautiful, making me again regret missing that tour (though I'm not sure how much of the stage show from this Rome concert was traipsed around the US when he came through).

My two live dvds made him want to throw in his live Slayer disc. Not the Still Reigning disc, which I'm actually keen to watch, but their previous live dvd, War at the Warfield. It's not bad, but I wasn't really in the mood for Slayer (unlike Adam, who's in the mood for Slayer if he's awake, and occasionally at other times as well), so we didn't watch more than two or three songs. Plus, Kerry King's guitar tone was atrocious. Seriously. WTF?

Now was time for films. My youngest brother (coincidentally named Adam) had purchased Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind as a Christmas gift for me, and I'd just received it the day before. That, coupled with the fact that my friend Adam had not seen it (nor even heard of it, due to his Tivo prepensity for skipping commercials), made for a perfect excuse to watch it.

Of course it's a great film; Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry are both great in their own rights, but when together are unbelievable. How is it on Adam's system? Incredible. The surround moments are great, and it's looks just fabulous. I think Adam will buy it now, if that's any indication. (He actually wanted to watch the first half again immediately, once he knew the ending.)

Midway though Eternal Sunshine, we took a moment to eat some pizza, as Tricia had just gotten back. Good times, pizza. Actually, it was weird, too, as I'd not met Paul, Adam & Tricia's youngest, before today. I'm not sure how old he is, but I know he can't crawl yet, but is about to; you figure it out. But it was weird, since the last time I at over there, a girl (Ellie, their oldest) was in the high chair, and now a boy was. Ellie was taking a nap, so it was kind of like deja vu.

After the pizza, Adam and I went back down to the basement to finish the movie. I was intending to leave after it, but I wanted to put in Zardoz and let him watch the first ten minutes or so. What happened of course, was we ended up watching the whole damn thing. It's shot in 2.35, whick I hadn't really noticed before. It's a really good-looking film, with nice color schemes throughout. Filming in rural Ireland doesn't hurt any, either. ;)

Of course, even though I really like it, I wouldn't say it's the best film ever; then again, it is far better than it gets credit for. But I'll discuss that some other time.

After Zardoz, I went home. Gabe, January Fairy, and Baby Kitty had all gone to a movie (Constantine) and then to IHOP, but were on their way home, so i couldn't join them. I chatted with the Toast in China (no relation to All the Tea in China), then crashed.

incidentally, check out this image of Zed (Connery's character in Zardoz) I just found:

sweet, isn't it?