Mr. Tom Day sent this to me today asking that I post it here on the blog. It's a wonderful piece and I am honored to have the Day man grace this blog once more. Enjoy.

The Last Mission

It’s eleven at night and I am half past drunk enough to care. Sitting here looking out into the city that deflates my view of humanity and I am paralyzed with fear. I do not know what the future holds but I believe it to be bleak. Am I afraid of death or is it the inconsequential nature of my existence? People laughing, loving, crying, screaming all at once, and for the rest of our lives, we will remain unknown to each other. Life, it seems, is unaware of the past and present, and sure as hell doesn’t care about the future.

The thoughts of the last mission are still there. It was supposed to be a normal drop. How did the Russians find us? It doesn’t matter… there was only supposed to be two of us and no one else knew. Fuck, that briefcase is something that will make your blood run cold and they control it.

Oh well… It’s only a matter of time now until I end up with a hood over my head, hung out to dry; just a frayed end of rope that is ready to be excised. My history will be erased and some new recruit will take my place, and I am ready to end this now. I sit here before you, surrounded by clues to my former self, only wishing to reach the bottom of this bottle. Would you be so kind to join me?

My only requests: please make it quick and tell my partner I…

Awww Hells Yeah

Daniel Craig has done a wonderful job playing James Bond since he took over with Casino Royale. I know that The Quantum of Solace takes some shit for not living up to the tone that Casino Royale built, (which may or may not be true) but I am incredibly excited for the new Bond film, Skyfall. It has Javier Bardem as the villian who's absolutely brilliant in everything he's ever touched, and with any luck he'll bring some real magic to his role. Also, I'm an unabashed fan of Craig. Ever since I saw him in Layer Cake, watch it by the way you'll thank me later, I've followed his work and he hasn't made a bad film as far as I'm concerned... well Tomb Raider sucked... really bad. But anyways, the trailer for Skyfall just came out and I'm totally sucked in and full of hope for this movie. Should be a good flick.

Fantastic News

I'll post later about seeing my first death metal concert this past weekend with Tom, (so brutal), but I had to mention this news first. The Tallest Man on Earth is releasing a new album this July and for any of you who have followed this blog, (both of you), you know that I absolutely loved The Wild Hunt as it was my top album of a couple of years ago. Well he released a new track from the album, "1904" and it's amazing. There is a very real progression in his sound and at the same time its not as though he abandoned the sound that made me fall in love with his music. On top of that, he's coming to Minnesota in August (YES!!). So yeah, check out the track at this link. It's great.

Jesus...

Action/Adventure

Last night I had nothing really going on and I didn't want to go out to the bar, (sorry, Ben), so I ended up watching a couple of movies. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol was a damn fine movie. It lived up to the renewed prowess that M:I III had while being it's own film. I won't give anything away, but the suspense and action doesn't really let up any more than it needs to in order to let the audience catch its breath. Say what you will about Tom Cruse, (god knows I have), but seeing him as Ethan Hunt again reminded me why he is the star that he is. He can just flat out play the shit out of the character and is a total badass while doing it. Simon Pegg is also great in the movie and it's nice to see him have a more significant role in massive movies because his screen time in Star Trek and M:I III just weren't that substantial. I've been a fan of his since I rented Shaun of the Dead on a whim in 2005/2006 and it's wonderful seeing him in big films that will help broaden his exposure. I just can't wait until he makes another film with Nick Frost and Edgar Wright. Speaking of Edgar Wright, I watched The Adventures of Tintin last night as well, (which Wright co-wrote), and I couldn't sum it up any better than Tom Day did when he first told me to watch it. He said that it was essentially Raiders of the Lost Ark, but with motion capture graphics and fewer snakes. Holy shit, the movie was everything an adventure film should be. The film was full of amazing set pieces that took place all over Europe and the scenes were kinetic and absolutely brilliant. There were chase scenes that baffled me in terms of their intricacies and peril that sucked me into the film in a way that totally transported me and I'm having a difficult time of remembering any films in the past 2-3 years that have done that so successfully. Sure, it may or may not be a film geared towards children, but that's not entirely true. One of the characters is a drunk sea captain who starts detoxing at one point and hallucinating which as a health care worker who has seen this happen many times (and can be quite scary often), can't believe they pulled it off. But they did. Please watch this film. It's amazing.

Gross

I was just incredibly disappointed in myself when I was impressed and found enjoyment in The Weather Channel's new online interface. I'm getting old.

Tea Update

At some point between cups 5 and 6 I realized I had made a huge mistake drinking so much tea. Yeah, I was more or less in a caffeine coma for a while last night, but the good news is that everything up to the 5th cup was delicious. Drank the shit out of my Dragonwell (green tea) and Darjeeling Sungma, Earl Grey, and Irish Breakfast (all black). It was when I tried to drink my second cup of Earl Grey that I realized I had no self control and hated myself for it. Oh boy. How do you detox yourself from something that's loaded with antioxidants?