Still here.

I just got back from watching Un prophète. It has earned a spot next to The Godfather in the pantheon of organized crime film classics. I can't think of any false steps. I was the fourth person to enter the theatre, but we ended with three when one of the guys left during/after the throat cutting scene. I'm not sure why they left then, they didn't say anything like, "That is an appalling and desensitizing depiction of violence, of which I will take no part." But their manner was a bit huffy. Their loss, there was only a couple more scenes of violence/murder, and they weren't as graphic, then again I didn't leave after the first one.

Back to the movie, it is the story of a 19 year old illiterate, Arab named Malik. He is sentenced to six years with no outside friends, or inside for that matter, which brings us to Cesar Luciani commissioning him to kill another Arab that will be testifying in a case. For doing this, Malik gets protection, and isn't killed by Cesar himself. Cesar uses Malik and his 12 hour leaves from prison to run errands for him between Arab and Corsican mafia. I really recommend this film, if you can't see it in the theatre, put it on your Netflix queue. And there is a really neat cover of Mack the Knife by Jimmy Dale Gilmore.

In other news, I had my 29th birthday the 28th of March. To celebrate,I went to the first home match of The No Coast Derby Girls this season. They are split into the Road Warriors and the Mad Maxines (JV and Varsity respectively). The most interesting/vulgar name of an opponent that first group was Queefer Sutherland. This last Saturday was their second home date, to which I won tickets with a radio contest (I'm not really sure how that should be phrased).

The 10th of April, my sister and I went to Sioux Falls to attend my uncle's induction into the SD Sports Hall of Fame. It was a wonderful time with family. One of the stories my uncle told during his speech was about an opponent he'd wrestled about six times over a three year period. The opponent was asked in an interview whom his most feared opponent was, and it was my uncle. The opponent continued to say it was like wrestling Death itself. Of course this was neat to hear, considering my uncle has never resembled Death to me in any of my own interactions with him.

Next weekend I plan to go to the Parkville Microfest just outside of Kansas City. It is a great craft beer festival that pulls brewers from Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. There's also good food vendors and live music. And being outdoors in a city park, there's plenty of dogs too.

Speaking of dogs, leaving the theatre, I saw a young lady walking two miniature/Italian greyhounds, André, 9 and Mia, 6. I'm normally not big on small dogs, but they were a fitting pair, André white with grey patches, and Mia, a fawnish-grey (as far as I could tell in the street light). I asked if he got along with her, and their owner said he only gets upset with her when she sleeps on him too much.