Saturday, November 9, 2013

Harvey Pekar's American Splendor Movie

    This evening I watched 'Harvey Pekar's American Splendor' movie. Found a DVD copy of it at the Shoreview library. Really liked Toby the nerd. Was odd to see a can of WD-40 in the bathroom. Liked hearing a Pretenders song in it, 'My city was gone', it was on an album I have, 'Learning to crawl'. Also liked seeing Molly Shannon in it in a small role, as Pekar's wife, Joyce, in the play version. I am thankful that my comedian friends told me about this entertainer. Saying 'I have a job' sounded familiar to me, needing reassurance. In my case I have had a recurring dream about how I didn't finish my college degree. But I have. More recently I am thinking of dreams I haven't written about but should have much earlier. One was being in a pickup truck with my dad who was driving kind of fast and I didn't say anything. This is unusual for me. Another was of hurting a coworker that I now avoid as he got really annoying to me, always trying to out-argue me about petty subjects. Along with giving me unsolicited advice about my relationship. The third dream may have been the oddest, a mom who used a Tazer to keep her kid in line. But who was the mom? Still not sure.
   I got plenty done besides finding the movie and watching it. I also went to a secondhand store and made some nice finds, especially books. Though two items I bought weren't books- a photo frame and a 'Simpsons' dice board game. It's the 5th 'Simpsons' game I have now. With the books I got a Charlie Brown coloring book, and a Simpsons Christmas book. Two others were a Dilbert book, that I plan on storing at my office, and a stamp collecting book from 1978. Another was a 'Chicken Soup' book- I already had at least one before today- this was for singles. The final one was about the movie 'How the west was won'. I guess I was thinking of Emerson Hough on that one, though he had nothing to do with this specific story despite being a western writer. Another Iowa native, John Wayne, was listed as an actor in the movie.
   I really liked looking through the stamp collecting book already, in more ways than one. First, it was nice to know how I got it for real cheap, less than a dollar. But also since it serves as a reminder for my growing stamp collection thanks to E-bay orders, be it individual stamps or first day covers. I have a decent number of those profiled in the book, like from some World's Fairs. Surprising how the Huguenot series from 1924 is not mentioned at all. It has given me some ideas for more E-bay orders on first day covers. There is one of Fort Snelling, which I have toured multiple times. Another is of the Turner Society, a nice reminder of the annual visit for Oktoberfest in New Ulm as I like having a drink at Turner Hall.
   I did return to my home to unload things and get groceries, along with bid on a postcard from E-bay. And I did get the postcard- it has images of 6 buildings from my hometown of Newton, Iowa, from 1920. It appears to be Lincoln School, the courthouse, the Methodist church with a big dome, the August Bergman home, the Carnegie library, and the One Minute washing machine company. I have been in all of these buildings except for the last one.
    Then it was on to Blockbuster Video in West St. Paul. I was expecting there would already be a liquidation sale in effect, due to the recent announcement, but not yet. The signs up said it was the last day for rentals, and the liquidation sale will begin in less than a week. Guess they need time to go through all of their inventory. I got a good look around but bought just one item, a bag of Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorn. I ate half of it while watching the video this evening. I have been to liquidation sales before, so I know how they work. Of course it is all sales final. But I also know it is like an auction, as the discounts are small at first. Since I already have plenty of DVD's I will have to be careful about what I buy. But this is also why I made a list in the past year of what I own, to cut down on the chance of duplication. If it means bringing the list with me then I will do it. There is plenty of popcorn and movie candy there, so it may mainly be getting the food items.

No comments:

Post a Comment