Chow chow chow

Currently Reading: Between books. I'll start something new soon.

I haven't been doing very much that would qualify as exciting so instead I'll be writing about more mundane things today.

I had a rather good Monday. I told CC when I got home that you know you've done a good job with a dog's haircut when the owners pick him up and can't stop squealing about how CUTE he looks. Ok, I will grant that the dog in question was picked up by a father and his 3 daughters and the younger ones were probably pre-disposed to squealing in delight but even the older one joined in so they must really have liked him. I can't say that his haircut was anything special really. It's not like I created a work of art. But I can say for certain that he looked MUCH better leaving than he did arriving and, well he sure was a cute little guy.

I also had a chow in Monday. Chows are always an adventure. You never really know what you're going to get with them. Some are absolute angels, like the chow-lab mix we have named Joey (I've mentioned him before). He acts more like a large pomeranian. Other chows, well I'm sure everyone remembers the story about the chow that bit me (sounds like a title of a really bad James Bond ripoff movie doesn't it? The Chow That Bit Me!)

Monday we had a new one in and she falls somewhere between the two. Her name is Zoe and her owners are friends with one of our regulars who suggested they come see ME. Yeah, that feels good when someone recommends you by name. She must really like how I cut HER chow Granny if she's sending me more business. Still, you have to appreciate the irony of me being sent MORE chows seeing as how one bit me. But I digress.

Zoe, as you can see, has a little bit different coloring than you usually see in a chow. She's got blond hair which would suggest she's part something else. Given the texture of her hair, my guess would be she's part golden retriever. Her owners came in wanting a sort of blend cut for her. She goes outside a lot and comes back in just COVERED with nasty stuff. This time of year there are a lot of little seed pods and pine cones and burrs and you name it. Long hair dogs that like to romp through the brush this time of year can really mess up their coat.

Given Zoe's color though, I thought she'd look fabulous as a lion so instead of jumping right to the blend, I first stopped her cut at the usual lion pattern and took a few pictures. Isn't she cute? Since this cut was destined to be a blend though, I had to leave the body a little longer than for your typical lion cut. Her coat in true lion pattern would be about half that long. Still, I got good pictures and showed them to the owners, just in case they feel like having her done lion-style some time in the future.

But to be fair, the blend cut that she ended up with also looked pretty good too. It's more bear-like of course and works well with her chow features. Personally I like the lion look better for chows and poms but they don't pay me to do the cuts I personally would choose. Here's how she came out in the end. Still cute I think.

I've actually been catching up a little bit on the movies lately. Right before CC left we went out and saw the new Jackie Chan/Jet Li movie Forbidden Kingdom. If you haven't seen it and you're a fan of either of them or of Kung Fu movies in general, go check it out. It was very well done I must say and even though you can pretty much predict all the major plot turns (especially if you've seen a lot of movies out of Hong Kong) it's still an enjoyable show.

I also caught Cloverfield on dvd last night. CC has a membership at Blockbuster online and a list of movies she wants them to send, one at a time. When she's out of town, like she is now, I go in and edit that list a little bit so they send movies that I'd like to see that she really isn't interested in.

Cloverfield, in case you forgot, is the monster movie. They had great trailers running of this giant SOMETHING attacking New York City. When you tear it down to the basics, it's really just a different take on the old Godzilla movies (note, the OLD ones not that newer remake). And in many ways it resembles the Korean movie The Host.

What made this one a little different from the others is that it was shot with hand-held cameras and done entirely from the point of view of the people on the ground. The basic story is that a guy is going away to Japan because he's been promoted at his company. During his going away party the giant monster attacks. The rest of the film is them trying to find out what's going on and get out of New York. Again, this is done entirely with hand-held cameras and that's my only real problem with it.

The camera jerks around a LOT obviously and while it does give you a really good first person perspective, it made me pretty dizzy. I'm actually glad I didn't see this in the theater because it would have been MUCH worse. At least at home I could look away or pause for a bit, let my brains settle down a bit and then resume. Thing is, if it weren't for that jerky camera motion, I'd watch this movie a few times to catch all the little things going on in the background. I'd certainly have bought the film instead of renting. And you know, it didn't have to be done that way. The movie was strong enough to stand on its own without the gimmick.

If you get a chance, and if you like monster movies and aren't prone to motion sickness, you may want to check out Cloverfield. It's a pretty good ride.