Sunrise, and I weed my DVDs...

So, here it is, oh-dark-thirty, and I'm still up. I've been reading a blog by a woman I knew years ago, drinking Earl Gray tea, and waiting for 6-o'clock, when I'm going to jump in the shower and then go watch the sunrise. I haven't left the apartment since Thursday. Can you tell I'm on vacation?

Earlier, I cleaned up a bit, talked to my brother down in Jacksonville, worked up some wicked arcane spell combos for D&D, and watched both Big Fish and From Hell. Funny thing, I used to like From Hell a lot; it had a good story, both Johnny Depp and Robbie Coltrane's characters were interesting as hell and Heather Graham...well, I fucking hate Heather Graham—she couldn't act her way out from under an awning—but even she wasn't painfully bad. Then I read Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's original graphic novel, and the movie suddenly sucks ass. For one thing, Moore introduces the character of Sir William Gull before the murders begin and—get this—the entire story unfolds through his eyes. The reader gets to see exactly what motivates him. There's an entire chapter in which he travels London, telling Netley about the timelessness of the city and how its history is written in blood and atrocities and how he sees his "work" as the crowning achievement of this history. The story is painstakingly researched, and the artwork is both disturbingly detailed in its realism and hallucinatory in its evocativeness. The book is a masterpiece. And the movie...isn't even close.

So, there's a DVD I'll be trading in soon.

Big Fish, on the other hand, is always enjoyable. I've seen it twice, and I've cried twice. Sure, the story's kind of saccharine, but it's also original, imaginative in Tim Burton's lens and well-acted by...well, shit, everybody.

So, there's a DVD I'll be keeping.

I don't really know why I want to go out and brave this frigid weather to sit on a cold stone bench and watch the sun come up over Lake Michigan. I've been thinking of doing it ever since Monday morning, when I stayed up goofing off until 7:00 a.m. I think it's because I haven't ever done it, and I've lived in Milwaukee for over two years now. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I simply stayed up and watched the sunrise. It must've been a very long time ago.

I don't really know, though. And that's not too surprising, is it?