I knew this would happen eventually, and am somewhat surprised that it took this long.

I got hired to work on a movie where I will be living out of town for the next couple of weeks. I usually do at least one out of town gig a year.

These gigs are my favorite.

A kind of a working vacation where you are put up with your coworkers and forced to hang out with everyone nonstop. Whether these forced relationships work out for the better or for the worse these trips usually lead to good stories and I’m a collector.

This is going to be a camping gig.

I hate camping.

It’s hard to maintain my agoraphobia while living in the outdoors.

It’s also hard to watch the movie I’ve committed myself to watch while living in a tent, but I worked it out.

Last week, Monday, I read the first installment of the Southland Tales graphic novel before watching the movie I then wrote my review on Tuesday, leading Wednesday to technically started my new Southland Tales week.

Does this make sense?

What I’m trying to say is that I read the first comic book on Monday, watched the movie, and now it’s Wednesday and I’m about to read the second installment and watch the movie yet again.

The second installment of the Southland Tales is called Fingerprints.

This week I learned:

• UPU2 stands for Urban Pacification Unit 2. I’m happy to finally have figured that out!

• This graphic novel is from 2006 and it seems to be ahead of its time when it comes to issues that are becoming more omnipresent on Facebook.

• Zora and the whole Neo-Marxist group love to talk about shit.

• Though I realized Seann William Scott has a strange interaction with his reflection in the movie, and there are times where the Rock seems to be spending a little extra time in the mirror, I wasn’t aware that there was more to this mirror world and that the Rock experienced post car explosion time travel.

• I also was aware that characters referred to using Fluid Karma as bleeding, but I was unaware of the Bleeder/Nonbleeder storyline.

• I really like how we get to see segments of The Power script. I also like how the section that is shared in part one feels that it could have been written by Krysta Now. The way that her character is written as flawed yet special feels like it could be her trying to justify herself in spite of these flaws.

• The movie references the Rock’s new tattoos with the line about someone getting under his skin. We learn in part two of the graphic novel that the Rock gets these tattoos to fulfill the prophecy written in the script… The Power.

• I learned that there is a kid that must have progeria or something. He only has a cameo.

• And I saw my first ball in the story. I still don’t know what they mean, and I still have my theories, but I guess I’ll have to wait until next week.

So this is what I learned after reading part two.

After my read, I went out and had a few drinks with some friends and when I returned at 12:30 in the am on Thursday the 4th I fired up the Theatrical Release of Southland Tales for the 21rst time this year, and the second time this week.

I didn’t think I would learn anything new from the movie but then as Seann William Scott and the Rock sit at a café and Seann William Scott starts to describe his dream he goes into detail about sand walls and a maze. I guess I never heard the bit about the maze and sand wall because I thought Seann William Scott was just setting up the dreamlike world. It took me a couple of seconds to realize that he was going into details of the dream that is cover in the graphic novel.

I also never put together that the Rock blew up in the experimental Treer truck and there was an angle about them hiding the truck not just because the Rock’s old body was in it, but to avoid the public having safety concerns with vehicles running on this volatile Fluid Karma.

I can’t wait for next week to find out what issue 3 has to offer.

I really can’t wait until the week after that when I will be back home and have the proper time to review all three installments of the graphic novel and see if I can make heads or tails of anything.

See you then!