movies of my weekend

I had a restful, uneventful weekend. I wish it wasn't coming to a close. I know it's awfully trite of me, but still-- I LOOOOATHE Mondays.

I did a bit of reading (quite a bit, really, I'm almost to the end of The Children's Story by AS Byatt and that's a pretty gargantuan read) and watched some movies-- 2 of which, I found in the bargain bin at Price Chopper ($3.99-- what a coup!)

The Incredible Journey of Mary Bryant this is a period drama, so right at the outset I'm thinking-- right up my alley, y'know? But there was too much misery, & starving& rape & dying kids in this movie. It was very heavy, bleak affair overall. But it did have its redeeming points, the foremost one being that I only paid $3.99 for the thing. Also I like Romola Garai and she gave a great performance in this flick. And I find Jack Davenport to be rather yummy, in a Brit sort of way ( ..happens to be one of my favorite modes of yumminess!!)

In a very different vein, I watched Evil Roy Slade. I had, somewhere online, read about this movie. I can't really recall how I stumbled on to it, but it sounded like a Blazing Saddles knock-off...except cheezier. (Blazing Saddles done in the style of Top Secret!) So *of course* I was interested. It seemed like just the sort of obscure little film that would be public domain, but I couldn't find it to watch online anywhere. And it was fairly cheap on Amazon but once you combined that with shipping charges it totalled up to more $$$ than I wanted to shill out. So I sorta pushed it to the back of my mind, where it languished until I spied it in the bargain bin at Price Chopper and then I remembered I had been wanting to check it out. I'm glad I shilled out the 4 bucks--it's pretty damn funny. Though, you have to be tolerant of silly humor. For instance, one of the scenes that gave me the biggest guffaws, was the scene of singing sheriff Bing Bell riding in to town...




"Hello Mommy Nature!" I sooo love that.

sign #648 that I am a bad person

Grrrr...someone in the training class next door keeps coughing and coughing and coughing. … just a dry little cough, spates of two or three at intervals of like, every 15 seconds. I mean, surely, if it was a barky-bronchial sort of cough, I’d feel a twinge of sympathy. As it is I am *trying* to muster up some sympathy. But honestly , I’m just annoyed. I want to like, take a handful of lozenges and do a driveby (or, a “run-by” in this case, I suppose) and pelt her with ‘em, run away. Have refrained thus far…still straining to sympathize…

An Observation

Today I went on one of my frequent errands up to the hospital (bringing blood samples to the lab). I had to , uhh, avail myself of the facilities while I was there. It struck me as rather odd that an institution that has hand sanitizer dispensers two strides away from every elevator on EVERY floor, does *not* provide toilet seat covers. I’m not a stickler about seat covers (NOT one of those ladies that stashes a pack in her purse) but if they are provided, I generally partake (unless in the throes of an emergency episode, entering the restroom at a fast jog / run/ sprint) On the other hand, if they don’t provide…I’m NOT hover-squatting. F*ck that.

I mean I realize that no one is going to get H1N1 anally from plonking down on a grotty terlet. But isn’t a hospital supposed to be…I dunno…hyper-sanitary? Like, even more so than TJ Maxx?

Then again, maybe they’ve done their share of surgically removing seat covers from peoples’ ass cracks and that made them decide that triple cleaning the toilets was a better option.

three uneventful vids of not much happening

On Valentine's Day, sad sack singleton that I am, I volunteered to watch my nieces & neph so my sister & bro-in-law could have "date night". The losers wound up going grocery shopping. Oh well...


Here's me (behind the Flip cam) and the kids out partaking of the fresh VT air. I am worried that Sadie is venturing too far up into the woods and that worry is causing me to bellow unbecomingly (be forewarned) Also, I am not being nice to poor Seth, who is trying desparately to get his b-ball skillz captured on camera.

In this next bit, Lucy informs me that, aside from Seth's athletic skills (he IS an uber-jock) he's also pretty adept at deforestation.

Ah, well, of course, I'm paraphrasing that somewhat. See for yourself--

So, you think all that's uneventful, wait'll you scope this ... the other night, when leaving work, I filmed about a half minute of the early evening sky. No, no UFO sightings or anything like that, I was just struck by the blueness...how very intense GLOWY blue it was. Was diggin' the gradation of it---light blue horizon to a sort of navy sky overhead. I thought it looked like the skies of a Maxfield Parrish work.

I don't know how well all that translated on to "film", HD or no...

I was so chronically hagged out today, I could barely bear it. And I actually, miraculously, saw a cute guy in the vicinity of my office (no one I actually work with..inhabitant of the office next door). Normally, this would be a joyous occasion but today-- with my chapped face, my Mémère slacks on, ill fitting sweater, and tore-up, rolling-down knee highs--AACK! I very nearly dove into my car.

In other unextraordinary news of the day, my iPod surprised me with how very random its random shuffle can be--it played "Nightmare on My Street" during my commute home. That's right-- DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince's masterful foray into horror-comedy. Or comedy-horror. Well, to use the Crayola principle the dominant adjective comes second..(blue green is a green with a bit of blue in it; red orange is an orange with a soupçon of red).so ...horror-comedy it is. Anyways, that song cracks me up ("I'm your DJ now, Princie!!")

Every now and then I just MARVEL at the fact that "The Fresh Prince" and the poised, fairly handsome, big box office draw that is Will Smith are one in the same human being. Also, every now and then, I wonder if DJ Jazzy Jeff is quite as Jazzy as he was back in tha day. What is he up to? Does he ever think to himself--Hey..well, at least I got top billing, eh?

In a total musical 180, I was listening to a classical/opera/showtunes playlist last night (these genres are always in my "Top 25 Played" 'cause I listen to them nightly as I drift off to Slumbertown..or...if you so prefer-- Snoozeville) And I suddenly took notice of Carl Maria von Weber's "Huntsmen's Chorus". I guess I've probably heard it before, I don't know why it didn't strike me previously. I'm kinda smitten with it now.

the sloppy jalopy report

I've been driving my car with the check engine light on for nearly 3wks now (first blinked on & freaked me out back on 1/25). Stupid? For sure...though I'd rather spin it as brash recklessness.

I have noticed a sort of sluggishness in its performance, but this sensation is so subtle, that I wonder if I'm imagining it on account of check-engine-light-induced-paranoia. This sluggishness does seem to occur when my temp gauge is indicating that my car is waay cold. Cars just perform differently in the cold, right? Or it's not unusual for them to anyways...

So I'm driving it under the moronic notion that if the engine was going to undergo a catastrophic failure, it would have done so by now. I've considered cruising into Auto Zone and having them hook it up to the computer & read me a code but I've procrastinated on that because--
1. I'm lazy
2. Dread-- they may tell me (for like, the 3rd time) that it's just a bum O2 sensor which is no major deal...BUT they may also tell me that my car is on the verge of massive, multiple, cataclysmic, nastybad organ failure and about to incur beaucoup repair costs that I can't afford. I'm not tryin' tah hear that, Homes.
3. Just in general-- procrastinating's my favorite. No, it sucks. I know it sucks. But I do it all the time.

So I vacillate between white-knuckled,on-edge driving, expecting the car to shit the proverbial bed at any moment...and half-suspecting that it's just a no-biggie O2 sensor issue again. But everytime I think-- "Yeah...the car's ok" I rebuke myself for the thought. You know how lotsa folks rave about "the power of positive thinking"? Well, I'm a big believer in the negative power of positive thinking. A nutso part of me thinks that such a thought will instantaneously finish my car off. Another example: when driving in bad snow and/or ice, I will sometimes mentally assure myself with a li'l "Doin' good" or something like that, but then I quickly follow it up with: "DON'T be so self-congratulatory!!" To put it concisely- I'm a big believer in the possibility of jinxing myself. Not that I've ever done it... or that I rationally think that it happens... oh, shit, I wasn't all that concise about that, was I??

Believe it or no, there is something to be said for white-knuckled, edgy driving. I have acquired, in the last few weeks, a heightened sense of place. As I drive, I keep mental notes on where I am. Northbound on Rte 120, just passed the cross street of Etna Rd, approaching cross street of Lafayette. This, obviously, is so that when I phone for roadside assistance, I can clearly articulate where to come rescue me.

Also, I'm probably avoiding a lot of aural damage that I would normally be incurring. Usually, I am one to have my music cranked up to the max (to ELEVEN!!) --sometimes rattling my side mirrors, and always loud enough to cover up my singing (that is key) But I've been very uncharacteristically driving with my radio OFF. Y'see I've been straining very hard to try to listen to the under-the-hood innerworkings of my ride....I've even caught myself, when wanting to extra-listen, turning down the volume on the radio that's not on. I fully realize how kinda ridiculous I'm being. I'm not the freakin' "Car Whisperer",after all!! And all I can really hear, while in motion, is the loud thrumming road noise of my winter tires and the rattle of a box of white Tic Tacs I have in my dash cubby. Not terribly informative. But I listen extra hard when idling at a stop light, or letting it idle before I shut it off. And it sounds VERY NORMAL. I'm especially relieved not to hear "THUNKKK!" when I turn it off. I don't know why I'm specifically trepidatious of "THUNKKK!" but yeah, that stole into my head for some odd reason, at some point, and there you have it.

The lack of THUNKKK! & nonominous purr of my idylling engine is , I fear, slooooowly lulling me out of my High Orange Car Terror Alert status. This is bad, because the best thing about white-knuckled ultra-paranoid driving, is that when you DO break down at the side of the road, it's almost a fecking RELIEF. You have sort of a resigned sighing, "Ah well. It's finally done it now, eh?" sort of reaction....as opposed to the "AGH! SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK?" panic that will hit a driver of normal mindset.

In a totally, nonautomotive aside, it occurs to me that my run-on sentence rate was impossibly higher than usual in this post. Please forgive me my rambliness!!

movies in the works

There is to be a remake of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I don't fully condone the Hollywood trend of remaking everything under the sun . But it certainly beats another prevalent biz trend of spinning toys and board games into movies. I feel like, if screenwriters are running out of fresh new movie ideas, the next best option is to start adapting all the novels. Really. I mean--ALL OF THEM. It boggles the mind that there will be movies of LEGOS AND VIEWMASTERS (both in 2012, per IMDB. Oh yes, I should specify: these be 2 **separate** movies. There is no upcoming movie featuring both Legos and Viewmasters . That would be preposterous!!) when there are perfectly enjoyable books out there that haven't been adapted for the big screen. It feels wasteful. It feels wrong. You catch my drift.
But back to this Li'l Whorehouse thing--
Perhaps the movie industry hasn't run out of new ideas completely, but I think it's a given that the reservoir of new ideas is noticeably drying up . So in that case, I suppose remaking old movies isn't the WORST possibility. It's not as good as a novel movie...but it's better than a g.d. Rubik's Cube movie. What I find sort of amusing is the ever-looming "What will they re-hash next??" question. The more weird or obscure the better, I say. So maybe I'll see Best Little Whorehouse. After all, it is purported to be a musical ...and I'm a sucker for musicals (have yet to get around to seeing Nine...but I really wanted to) So maybe I'd see it. Depends on the casting..

Casting is also key to the success of the proposed Nat'l Lampoon's Vacation sequel. That aforelinked article says (citing a Variety article) that Chevy Chase will at least cameo in it as Clark Griswold. That's as it should be--Chevy Chase is the heart of those movies (though I can't vouch for the Vegas one, having skipped it) . Some of the commenters on the article championed Anthony Michael Hall as Rusty. I like that idea, but wonder... can AMH be funny? I mean, I know he used to be funny...damned funny, actually... but can he be funny NOW?? Now that he's come thru his steroids phase, and his voice has changed and he spent gawd-knows how many seasons on that Dead Zone show( <--that had to have sapped him of something, eh?) ?? Oh, I did happen to see the episode of "Community" that he guested on, but he sort of underwhelmed me there. Unfortunately, I really don't think a studio would give a wide theater release to a movie with AMH in a lead role. I wish it would happen though. I do so like to see these blast-from-the-past faves getting work (sincerely!!) This transitions rather nicely to...

The Alicia Silverstone vampire movie. This is reportedly an upcoming project of Amy Heckerling, who is maybe not the hottest property nowadays but a Heckerling movie would be a hell of a lot better for Silverstone than saaaay, popping up on some CW show as somebody's mom as she is near-susceptible to doing. If they crank this out before vamp-mania fades away, it could be a sweet comeback for both star & director.

Lastly...
It probably does not surprise anyone who knows me that I am miiiiighty stoked for this 2011 flick...

survey sezzzz

I was browsing a news item somewhere on the comcast site, and spotted a survey. Nothing to do with the news item, just a sidebar thing ..for Valentine's Day, I'm presuming.

Well, I'm quite often game for a survey...provided it's nothing current events related, nothing pithy like that and not being administered by someone accosting me in a mall.

So I voted. See below for a screen cap of the results (thus far)...

I promise 300 awesome points and a prize-yet-to-be-thunk-up-by-me to whomever guesses which song got my vote. . . .

haaa!

Yes, I STILL watch SNL (I am one of the few) and though lately the Digital Shorts have been more “miss” than “hit” for me (Laser Cats, for instance, needs to die) this short from the 1/30 episode cracked me up. Hi-fecking-larious.

I don’t watch Mad Men, but on account of this genius portrayal of “Sergio” I pledge myself a lifelong Jon Hamm fan…