February 2006

My wife and I are thinking about getting a dog.  We've never had a dog before.  We've always been cat people.

Let me correct that.  We're done thinking about getting a dog.  Now we're in the thinking about what kind of dog to get.

I've wanted to get a pug for a long time, and so I've talked to a lot of people about pugs.  Pugs seem to be a divisive breed among dog people.  Anti-pug people say that they are disgusting and require too much maintenance.  Apparently you have to clean out their face folds all the time.  Pro-pug people say that they are excellent in every way.  There's a guy down the street who has a pug.  He told me they were "great dogs," but that they were "kinda gross as far as bodily fluids are concerned."  I haven't had a chance to ask him to elaborate on this yet.

The primary concern is that the dog can't be a cat-eater.  That's one of the reasons I favor the pug.

The ubiquitous pit bull is not out of the question either, as long as the dog can get along with our cats.  In a way, a pit is a more practical choice because there are so many of them in the pound at any given moment.  Same with chihuahuas.  I like the idea of having a dog like a pit that can actually do something useful, like run off nighttime intruders.  And I have yet to meet a pit bull I didn't like.  A friend of mine has a great dog - a pit-lab mix.  A cat-eater, unfortunately.  I should mention that I got bit by a pit bull once when I was a kid, but apparently it didn't scar me mentally because I just remembered it recently when I was trying to remember all the pit bulls I've known.  I guess I didn't really like that dog much, so I have to take back my earlier statement about never meeting one I didn't like.

When it comes down to it, almost any dog will do, as long as they don't mind us putting little hats on them for laughs.  And don't bother the cats.

I haven't seen all his movies yet, but here are my unasked-for opinions:

• Faces - Fantastic.  The scene where the businessmen have a job title pissing contest to see who will win the attentions of the lady is stamped into my cortex. [imdb|amazon]
• Killing of a Chinese Bookie - It was ok.  Didn't really understand why this is considered to be one of his three masterpieces.  Maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind. [imdb|amazon]
• Opening Night - Is it wrong to say that my favorite parts of this movie were when Gena Rowlands melted down onstage and John Casavettes was humorously unsympathetic? [imdb|amazon]
• Gloria - Two words: child actor.  Terrible. [imdb|amazon]
• Shadows - Borderline unwatchable.  If I was a film student I'd probably have been able to find some redeeming quality, but I'm not a film student.  To be honest I shut it off about halfway through, so maybe its unwatchability is not borderline. [imdb|amazon]

Obviously I still haven't seen a couple of the other important ones, but there you have it. 

Seems like a mixed bag to me so far.  Faces was the first movie of his I saw and is hands down one of the best movies I've ever seen.  I've been slowly moving through the rest of Cassavetes' stuff and it's been a little painful.  Gloria being a good example.  Possibly one of the worst movies I've ever seen.  Bad acting from Gena Rowlands, plus the kiss of death of a precocious child actor.