What a chill ass weekend I’ve had. It’s funny how a weekend of monotony and inactivity can rejuvenate you.  Laziness was feeding me grapes in a bikini while I relaxed on my couch noshing on faux-beef fajitas and sippin’ on soda pop.  After catching an episode of Entourage on HBO this past Friday, I figured that I’d download the latest season (Season 5) and watch it. I must admit…the praise that this show has received is well deserved. I wasn’t exactly chugging the bottle of hype that’s been circulated around the past 5 years or so about this show…but I am now.  It tickled enough of my viewing fancy for me to also download seasons 1-4.  I finished season 5 yesterday and decided to start from the beginning today.   About an hour or so ago, I got done with Season 1 and am gonna work my way back up to Season 5. Mad props to Wahlberg and the crew for having the genius to bring this show to the Home Box Office.

I went to a vegan/veggie friendly joint called Ria’s Bluebird in East Atlanta on Memorial Drive this past weekend. Nice joint to get brunch/breakfast at. I ordered two eggs scrambled with Soysage and skillet potatoes on the side.  Everything on my plate was on point.  Definitely a place worth returning to (which I will).  I would say that it’s comparable to the Thumbs Up Diner on Edgewood – but I like Ria’s better.  I find it amazing that the same stretch of Memorial Drive that folks wouldn’t even considering traversing through years ago is now a hip hotbed for young, urban professionals in the city. I’ve said this many times before, but it’s very Brooklyn-ish – and I friggin’ love Brooklyn, so I’m glad that we have an area in the city like this. It’s a good escape from the cosmopolitan atmosphere of Midtown. Although…where would a rave be without a rant? I think that the revitalization of an urban area is a great thing, but why must all the hip and chic new restaurants be so overpriced? One day, it’s a lower income neighborhood and a few years later, it’s a hipster hangout that charges 5 bucks a beer and $10 for a burger. Really? I thought the whole idea of the hipster and indie movement was to wrestle away from the commercial and corporate? But…we starve for anything that resembles a departure from the normal…so…we pay, shut our mouths, and enjoy the ambiance.

I saw Gran Torino last week. Another solid movie put out by Clint Eastwood. This man is money. Might as well change his film name to Federal Express…because that man delivers. Was it as good as Million Dollar Baby? No. But…that is the sign of a great director. When you’ve made so many great movies that everyone expects the next to be better than the previous. In Gran Torino, Eastwood plays Walt Kowalski, a Korean War vet who moves back to his old neighborhood following his wife’s funeral. Much to his chagrin, his neighbors are Asians. Their kindness gradually weathers away Walt’s bigoted mindset and he grows fond of the neighbor’s children. Because of his unexpected and newfound relationship with his neighbors, Walt finds himself immersed in the conflictual relationship between the neighborhood and the local Asian gang. That is the basic premise of the movie. It’s pretty interesting how Walt’s neighbors are unaffected by Walt’s perpetually narrow-minded and prejudiced epithets. They look beyond his disparaging remarks and ignorant perspective and see a misunderstood man that’s capable of good. Plus, like I said previously, any movie about a flagrant racist makes for interesting theater – and that it did…that it did. If anything, this movie may serve as a renaissance for the revival of forgotten slurs.  Zipperheads? Gooks? Spooks? Like Randal says in Clerks II, maybe Eastwood’s “bringing it back“.