Tuesday

One of the frat houses on my street has a teddy bear wearing a UCLA T-shirt hanging by a noose from the balcony. I guess the USC vs. UCLA football game must be this weekend.

Last night I was walking near my apartment after dark with my friend Erica when we spotted a guy headed toward us. Erica whispered, “That guy looks sketchy. Should we turn around?” The guy was close enough and walking fast enough that the only way we could really avoid him would be to turn and sprint in the opposite direction. That seemed a bit drastic to me, and besides, the guy seemed focused on a cell phone conversation. I shrugged and said, “I’ve got my pepper spray.” As we neared, the guy reached his free hand inside his jacket flap and held it there, pretty clearly suggesting that he had a gun. I was sure we were about to get mugged, but the guy passed us without incident. Still not sure what was going on there. Maybe he was just fucking with us. Or maybe he suspected we were going to jump him. I guess that’s a reasonable concern if you see two people spot you, stop to confer, then keep walking toward you.

Tonight I went to a free advance screening of Grandma’s Boy, a decidely sub-average comedy in the vein of The Waterboy or Mr. Deeds. It had a strikingly unpolished, straight-to-video feel, full of awkward silences, bad comic timing, and set-ups that didn’t pay off, but it did have a fair number of funny moments as well. Its portrayal of the video game industry was, sadly, fairly accurate.