so, i've been living in park slope with lamar. from a practical standpoint, this has made for some changes. being on 6th st between 4th and 5th aves, it is a short walk to the 4th ave/9th st F/M/R station. we both get up each morning and go to work. it is nearly an hour train ride for me to LIC, but i don't have to transfer, which is an advantage over williamsburg. the main advantage is that i get woken up at a consistent time every morning. and when i come home, i'm not tempted to stay up alone looking at crap on the internets until 3 or 4 am, as i sometimes did.

park slope is further along the gentrification timeline than williamsburg. there is a "family-friendly" cloud that sortof hangs over much of the neighborhood, esp 7th ave. lots of strollers. 5th ave is "edgier" with more bars and casual restaurants. 4th ave is the river of lanes that seperates the residential from the industrial. what would logically be 9th ave ("prospect park west") runs along the park, forming the east border. the weather here has been totally crap up until the past two days, but perhaps as summer finally arrives, we'll make use of the park.

saturday lamar and i went to a party. we stopped at the american beer distributing company in cobble hill, and i decided to make a variety pack of dogfish beers, with their punkin' ale, raison d'etre (ale), indian brown ale, and 60 minute IPA. we started drinking them in that order, and whoa, i got wikked triz in a hurry. i had failed to notice that some of them were 8% or 7.2% ABV. the, ah, jello shots may also have helped things along. at least i didn't end up funnelling cans of bud or miller two at a time, as one of our hosts did. anyway, the beers were all good, as far as i can remember. the punkin' ale didn't really taste like pumpkin, but the nutmeg and other flavors came through. nor did the raison d'etre taste like raisins; i'm not the biggest raisin fan, so that was okay.

the internet is littered with accounts of gen x-ers going to see the "final" episode of the star wars saga. merits aside, i watched the first three at a tender and impressionable young age, repeatedly (actually had a new hope taped off HBO on betamax at home), and consequently, they carry a great emotional currency for me, like it or not. like most, i was very disappointed with phantom menace and attack of the clones. really, the fighting, particularly the beginning of menace and the end of clones, was the only element i really liked. fortunately, revenge of the sith has a lot of fighting. more importantly, it has the most special effect... darth vader. when i first saw the first full trailer for sith, and the image of vader on the table appeared, i realized that just by invoking this image from my childhood, this movie was going to bypass my capability for objective evaluation. what i can say, is that i am glad this movie exists. there are plenty of bits i don't like, chief among them the "new" portrayal of the emperor, but overall sith serves its intended purpose. namely, showing how a (perhaps the only) conflicted character in the star wars franchise is locked into a course of action by his own fears and desires. it also seemed to say that arrogance was what caused the downfall of the good guys, and shame was what drove them into hiding, though i could be wrong about that. anyway, i saw an entertaining movie on a big screen with a bunch of other people who wanted to see it, and i enjoyed it some. if i can think of something more worthwhile to say about it, i will.