Whine and Cheese

One of the big perks of rejoining a gym is the eye candy. I'd not belonged to a gym in years, so I'd forgotten how much fun it is to watch muscled, furry guys sweat outside of an adult movie. The local Planet Fitness to me is definitely good for the view.

Now the Planet Fitness gym model is no "lunks," meaning the big roid boys generally don't belong, so as not to create an intimidating environment for the everyday joe or jane. I like the general idea of it, though it doesn't block out the former, just their stereotypical behavior.

This morning, I was up at the crack of o'dark to get to the gym to do my bicep workout. I've been trying to go in the early hours because the after-work hours are insanely crowded, especially in the free weight area. I've managed to do this for a few weeks now and there are some clear regulars in the gym.

The one that has caught my attention the most is a very fit, handsome otter-type. He has golden brown hair, a very thick, but well kept beard, and a lean muscular body, of which he can lift, stretch, and move in a way to distract everyone. He's muscled, but not huge. I don't see any fur on his chest, but it's well defined and I haven't seen him in the locker room yet. He has one of those bodies that an anatomy text book would use to point out external physical features -- "these are 'abs'" and "biceps are located here."

He's smiled at me once at the gym last week and I melted a bit. I admit it. So I like to think that he's a nice guy at the very least.

And I'm happy to see him at the gym, as motivation of a body I'll likely never have (I'm not an otter build) and as a welcome distraction for the number of miles I've left to run on a treadmill.

While I was getting the latest issue of my comic book done, I spent a lot of time watching horror movies and true crime shows. To be fair, I do that often anyway, but I'm always looking for new shows/movies to watch. During the coloring of pages, I watched a couple of things that had some significantly handsome fellers in them.

The first was the movie "Devil". I avoided this movie when it was in theaters as I'd gotten burned so much by anything M. Night Shyamalan directs. I figured it was crap and dodged it. However, several friends had said it was good, so I watched it on Netflix. A movie about five strangers trapped in an elevator only to find one of them is probably the devil, and I found it was actually pretty good. The guy that caught my attention was Chris Messina (<---), who plays the police detective who shows up to solve a suicide/murder in the building.

While he's a bit on the skinny side, there is something very attractive about him. From what I've seen of him online, he seems to be pretty furry. What caught my attention was his lips. Seriously, his lips are full and made me want to kiss him!

This past weekend I watching the true crime show "Killer Couples." This show generally does re-enactments using actors that are far more attractive than the actual people involved in the crime. In this particular episode, a muscled fitness guy who shares a house with a single woman is murdered by her and her new fiance so he'll get out of the house.

The murder victim in this episode was played by actor/stuntman Derek Russo (-->). He's big into science fiction and horror. Muscled, bearded, and furry, he also seems to have a great sense of humor. While he's not a big name yet, he definitely caught my attention.

Granted I'd have watched these things if such handsome guys were not in them, so it's just icing on a particular cake for me.

Nothing major happened this week, so I don't have a specific theme for the post. Here are the odds and ends:

• The cartoon for my coworker is done. I'll email it him tomorrow. And by "done," I mean it is finished and not available for changes.



• I finished up "Jessica Jones" this week. It's a great series. I look forward to another season of it (if they make one). I think the next hero series is supposed to be about Luke Cage (aka Power Man), but I'm sure Jessica Jones will make appearances in it. I've been going through Netflix and found an Australian series called "The Principal" that is pretty good. It stars a swoonworthy bearded hottie named Alex Dimitriades as the lead.
  
  



• I need to mix up my workouts. I "like" Men's Health on Facebook and I've seen some interesting cardio workouts to try. One of them involves kettlebell swings, something I can do when it's raining or snowing and can't run outdoors. And it certainly doesn't hurt that the guy demonstrating the workouts is BJ Gaddour, their fitness director, and another bearded hottie.
  
  



• Yesterday, I was standing in line at Starbucks, which was full of holiday shoppers wanting caffeine. I stood in line for ten minutes when this blonde 20-something witch came up and started chatting up her friend in front of me. Then she just stood there. I was staring daggers at the back of her head until she finally turned around, saw me, and said "hi." I smiled and immediately told her where the back of the line was, which was behind me and the ten other people she cut in front of. She giggled and said that she was only in line to talk to her friend. Sure, I thought. She then whispered to her friend how rude I was. Ironic, isn't it? She left the line, but her friend ordered something for her as the little bitch left drinking an iced coffee.



• Hopefully, my Christmas shopping is done. I went last night to (ugh) Wal-Mart. Since I am shopping for folks far away, it made sense to get the stuff where they could exchange them. And worse, I ended up buying things I need/wanted, spending more on me than on everyone else. Yeah, I bought the kettlebell. Sigh...



• Last night, I did a sketch of the kettlebell, just a doodle while watching TV. I uploaded it to my Flickr account and two folks marked it as a favorite. I checked one of the folks who picked it and saw nothing but nudes and sexual pics among his favorites. It just struck me as funny that among all of these x-rated favorites is this one pencil sketch of a kettlebell.



• Monday is looming. Luckily, I'm working the week and then will be off for the holidays.

When I got this DVD in the mail from Netflix, I honestly don't remember why I added it to my queue. It doesn't star any actor I'd heard of before. Maybe it was one of those recommended with I added something else. Anyway...

The movie is "The Black Torment", a 1964 historical British gothic flick. When Sir Richard returns to the manor with his new bride from London after several months of being away, he's received with scowl and suspicion, as the local villagers believe he is responsible for the murder of young local woman. Several times people claim to have spoken to him when he was somewhere else, including his new wife. In addition, the ghost of his deceased first wife is now appearing at night in the manor and the grounds, proclaiming him a "murderer."

The movie isn't bad, but it's a dated flick. I'd say it's a typical gothic movie for the period and I can see some of the scenes being very frightening for the early 1960s. I figured out the "twist" pretty early on, but I still enjoyed watching it unfold.



The movie stars handsome British actor John Turner as Sir Richard. He's a tall, burly man, with sculpted facial hair for the movie. He has a furry chest, which you can see in the opening of his shirt in a few scenes. The lady show tons of cleavage, but too bad they couldn't throw in a shirtless shot of the lead actor on occasion.

Not sure I'd buy the DVD, but it was a good way to spend 90 minutes or so.

I was a bit surprised to read online that Robin Williams had died at the age of 63. Despite being so incredibly funny and energetic, he's had many personal problems, including depression and substance abuse. His death is suspected to be a suicide.

I basically grew up watching Robin Williams on TV. "Happy Days" was a staple in my house growing up where he first appeared as "Mork from Ork," which was quickly followed by "Mork and Mindy." As a kid, it wasn't unusual to try sitting on your head or spew out a "Shazbot" or two. In those formative years when my eye was being drawn to the hairy chest of Tom Selleck, the fur of Robin Williams did not go unnoticed.

While I always enjoyed seeing him shirtless (and occasionally naked) on film, it really was his talent that I loved. I have always been a big fan. When he did stand-up, he was phenomenal; when he was acting, he was amazing. Whenever "The Birdcage" is on, I invariably stop to watch it.

I think the greatest appeal of Robin Williams was his ability to make you connect with him. When he was happy, you were happy. When he was sad, you just wanted to hug him. To this day, when I watch "The Fisher King," I just want to take Parry (his character) home and make everything okay for him. That Oscar win for "Good Will Hunting" was well-deserved.

One of my favorite stand-up performances was at an anniversary for "The Comedy Store" that I had taped on TV over 20 years ago. He was all over the place, seemingly totally unscripted, playing off the audience is wild ways. One of my favorite lines was when he was dealing with a heckler of sorts. The guy said he was incognito.

"You're not incognito anymore," Williams replied, "You're not even in Kansas anymore, Dorothy! No, you're not, you're on Hollywood Boulevard. Hookers, transvestites, and pimps! Oh my!!"

The latter part of that was done with him skipping across the stage. aceofspace and I still quote that last line to each other on occasion.

I'm sad that he's gone. It just felt like his talent was endless and to think that there will be no more is disappointing.

Tonight, I settled in after my workout and dinner to do some inking of some comic pages. I looked through my DVD's for a movie to watch. I selected The Howling (1981).

I remember watching the movie when I was a kid and I remember it being thrilling. As an adult, I admit that the movie has aged a bit, but it's still a pretty good movie and story. A news reporter (Dee Wallace) is nearly killed by a serial killer while working on a story. Rattled and suffering from post-traumatic stress, she agrees to go to a psychiatrist's compound called "The Colony" to recover. While there, she starts to realize that something is very wrong as there are werewolves running about the Colony.

The movie has quite a list of stars -- Christopher Stone, Patrick MacNee, Slim Pickens, and John Carradine. It's been a long time since I've watched the movie, so what I didn't realize was the future stars who were in the movie. The late Meshach Taylor was there as a police detective and Robert Picardo, the actor who is best known as the holographic Doctor from "Star Trek: Voyager," plays serial killer/werewolf Eddie Quist. It was fun to see them both young and in early roles.

It was nice to see Christopher Stone in his prime and showing off his body, so it hits many fun points for me. The special effects were especially impressive, especially for the time. The were done by then 21-year-old Rob Bottin (left), who could have very easily passed for a werewolf himself, with that hair, beard, and chest fur.

It definitely made for a good choice tonight.

I intended to spend the weekend to recover. While it's better, it still needed some rest. So I skipped working out and went to the movies.

After lunch on Saturday, I went to see a matinee of "You're Next". This horror movie has a great indy vibe that I liked. When a family gathers for an anniversary party at their parents' remote vacation "mansion," things go terribly wrong when they are picked off by unknown assailants wearing animal masks. The killers, however, are in for a surprise when one of the guests at the party has an unusual talent for survival. The movie stars A.J. Bowen (right), who is a super-handsome bearded bear of a guy. I've seen him in several horror movies and I've now elevated him to my short list of potential celebrity husbands for me. I'm definitely buying this one when it comes out on DVD.

I've not done a double-movie day in a long time, but I really wanted to squeeze in "The World's End" this weekend too. So before the first movie started, I sent out a text message to several friends asking if they wanted to catch an evening showing of it.

After the movie, I went home and did some laundry and cleaned the bathroom. I finally found a combination of cleaner and scrubbers to get my bathtub as clean as the day I moved in. I've been fighting that hard water discoloration for years and it's gone. I know it's strange to get excited about something like cleaning the bathtub, but it really is nice to have it shiny and new-looking again.

So that evening, a group of us, including chrisglass and _decibel_, went to the new theater in Oakley to see "The World's End". I adore Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright. "Shaun of the Dead" and "Hot Fuzz" are among my favorite movies of all time, and this film didn't disappoint. When a down-and-out man decides to get his old school buddies together to repeat and finish the 12-bar pub crawl from their youth, they find out that their old home town has changed in ways they hadn't expected -- people have been replaced with "robots." The men continue the pub crawl in an effort to not be noticed, but beer after beer makes it harder to do. It's funny and exciting as the bar fights begin and the effort to escape gets harder. Definitely one to add to the collection.

Even more fun was that the movie was filmed in part in Welwyn Garden City outside London where I did a work trip in 2005. I saw a few familiar sights as the guys were racing around from pub to pub.

Sigh... tomorrow is Monday. These weekends just aren't long enough.

Friday night, I went to see Sinister. I decided to treat myself to the "21 and Over" section at the Rave Theater. It was $5 more, but I thought I'd experience the film without teenagers. Overall, I thought the movie was very good, some really great scares, and was pretty darn creepy in its story. The only thing that messed things up was the setting. While the adults section is very comfy with leather seats and servers bringing you food and drinks, it's distracting to have the servers walking in front of the screen all the time and whispering to patrons. I am not sure I'll do it again for that reason, as it's hard to lose myself in the movie.

Saturday, I was up early for my morning run. I put in my four miles, rushed home to change, then went to the movies again to catch a cheap matinee of Smiley. This was a "Bloody Mary" style flick where typing a phrase three times in a chat room would cause "Smiley," an internet killer, to appear and kill the person chatting. The movie was predictable, the writing was horrible, and the acting was dull. It was something worth holding off until Netflix.

On a bright spot, I saw this cute actor in an orange juice commercial. He's burly with a nice voice. I do wish commercials had a database so viewers could learn the actors names and see if they have done other work. I'd park illegally to see if I could get him to come around. :)

The Lumberjack from Bad Blood
I love a creepy horror flick and I have a growing appreciation for foreign films, so I ended up buying Bad Blood (Coisa Ruim), a Portuguese horror flick about a haunted house in a remote area inheirited by a city family. The movie has little gore, but relies on the little things I love -- footsteps upstairs when the sole person at home is downstairs, mysterious people appearing in the distance, etc. Things come to a boil when one of the family members is possessed and things start moving around on their own. It's not an exceptional movie, but it's not a bad one either.

I'm trying not to buy DVD's without seeing them first, but this one was on sale. In the first scene, I found out that it was worth the money as the above handsome bear appeared as a lumberjack chopping wood in the first scene and a few smaller appearances. He has no real speaking part and isn't listed in the credits. In the "making of.." extra, the writers state he was a local extra. He is definitely a good choice :)