I got up this morning and was reading Seattle Weekly’s restaurant reviews when I suddenly remembered: there is a Mexican restaurant in town with the largest burritos in the world. I hadn’t been there in ages. I barreled upstairs and found my housemates Scott and Jane in the living room watching my DVD of SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, a marvelous film. Nonetheless, the huge burritos were calling. I herded them outside and we tore across town.

The place is called Gorditos, and it’s nominally a healthy-food Mexican restaurant. I’m not sure what’s healthy about serving a burrito the size of a fireplace log, but it is tasty as all heck. The owners make a half-dozen different salsas from scratch, all different and delicious, and the tortilla chips are fresh as well.

When I say this burrito is the size of a fireplace log, I’m only exaggerating slightly–it’s the size of a fireplace log split down the middle, lengthwise. It’s huge–over a foot long and bulky. You wouldn’t believe it unless you saw it for yourself. We left with ample leftovers.

Next up was Daniel & Heather’s house, where the delayed photo shoot happened. But first Daniel showed me excerpts from a film he got last night, some bizarro Japanese samurai action comedy about a golden sword and a warrior who had his own sword caddy (“Hand me number 6!” he’d cry in the heat of battle).

The photo shoot was brief and went well. Once more I put on some kind of cape, held a rake, and stood in the backyard pointing at things that weren’t there. I posed as Nodens for one painting, as I’d mentioned in an earlier dispatch, but I also got to pose as Great Cthulhu himself for another work Heather is also doing for the Call of Cthulhu D20 book. That was pretty special–two gods in one day!

Then it was time to go home, groan over my lunch, and watch a movie…

Destroying America

This is a skateboard video of all things. For some years now, individuals and small companies that are involved in skateboards commercially have been making low-budget videos showing guys doing their tricks. They’ve also served to chronicle skating exhibition tours and other special events, and moved into narratives to some extent. Destroying America is a pretty amazing flick. I’m not into skateboarding at all, but this film gets the big thumbs up. The actual skateboarding content is pretty low. Instead, it’s a real American Guy kind of movie–the sort of flick that any random american male would probably make if he had some money and a camera. The film loosely follows two skateboard guys driving around in their incredibly beat-up van, wreaking merry havoc on the landscape. They are opposed by an enthusiastic cop played by Erik Estrada of the CHIPS television series. In the opening sequence one of the guys, who has an unhealthy interest in Asian pornography, gets his ass kicked repeatedly by a Japanese schoolgirl who knows tae kwon do. Then he and his buddy catch on fire and are rescued by two porn actresses driving an ambulance. They drive through a Christmas Tree sale lot, wrecking everything, and do the same at an outdoor taco place. Erik Estrada pulls them over and gives them a stern talking-to. Some impressive skateboarding occurs, often involving things on fire. At the end, Estrada’s cop car sails off the roof of a building and explodes as it plunges to the concrete. And really, I’m only scratching the surface. The film is goofy fun from start to finish and chock full of outrageous stunts and silly stuff: Estrada loads up on donuts while the skaters roll over his car, the boys drive their half-wrecked van into Yellowstone Park and ram it into trees, pro skater Tony Hawk makes a cameo as a pizza delivery driver, and in scene after scene our havoc-wreaking guys smoke cigars and drink forty-ouncers of Budweiser. Really, there’s nothing wrong with this film and lots to recommend. Find a copy and see for yourself.

After watching this crazy flick I had work to do for a few hours. And, sadly enough, I finished playing that Star Trek computer game. Lots of stuff blew up real good. Speaking of which, I came home and checked out the second film of the day…

Akira

This is the new special edition DVD of the classic Japanese animated film. First off, if you like this movie then you need to get this disc. (I didn’t get the extra-pricey two-disc set.) The film looks and sounds incredible, and is easily worth the eighteen bucks or so it costs. If you haven’t seen the film, Akira is a sci-fi action flick set in 2020 or so in Neo-Tokyo, the new capital of Japan after a world war nukes the original city. The film marries incredible Blade Runner-inspired cityscapes with motorcycle gang action, riots, a military coup, and psychic warfare. It’s an amazing visual achievement, one of the last great pre-CG animated films, with a realistic style that’s a real departure from most anime works. The film’s hard, violent edge and ambitiously conceived storyline make it a great grown-up adventure film, with a stylishness that hasn’t been equaled and a scope both epic and dense. Watching it again for the first time in several years I was struck by how good the editing is in the film–there are a number of places where the creator/director, Katsuhiro Otomo, cuts away at just the right moment within a scene. It’s very well made. The soundtrack is also amazing.

And that’s a wrap…