2 Conans for you...

The Gubernator at the Brattle in...

The Barbarian...

And... the anemic, beady-eyed, red-headed, freckled, giant freak...

O'Brien! =)

Thanks to Jim for the Emmy goodness headzup!

Keep on keepin on~

who the F is "free to be?"

I've seen these green billboards around town on my commute for maybe a month now. At first I only saw wrestling (WWE?) and GILMORE GIRLS being pushed, on a network going by "CW." No idea who or what CW was. After a while I just guessed that it must be something like CN8, a Comcast-run network that will feature syndicated shows in rerun or second run. Then I saw posters pushing SMALLVILLE and my VERONICA MARS on this CW, whatever it is. I *know* UPN wasn't giving up VERONICA, and SMALLVILLE's a solid Warner Brothers property getting second run play on ABC Family already. So, WTF? Did SMALLVILLE flip to UPN (for whatever television industry shenanigan reasons, the WB lost BUFFY to the U in its last season, so I'd seen it happen before) and UPN get bought up by, or made over as, CW?

I don't know.

But I'll find out.

=)

(Probably in commercials on UPN or the WB.)

Keep on keepin on~

Race war!

Or...

The Amazing Races!

Just a couple days after THE DAILY SHOW's Senior Black Correspondent Larry Wilmore reported on the embarrassingly lazy makaka racism prevalent on the national political stage today, I do believe the cosmos has delivered a response of sorts. Joe passed along the news that the next edition of SURVIVOR is creating tribes based on race.

Whatever that is.

Can someone tell me how they define race when they make these teams? Are they checking for genetic roots? Security profiling guidelines? Paint swatches? Expert phrenologists? What team would C. Thomas Howell from SOUL MAN make? Dave Chappelle or Eddie Murphy in "white" make-up? Watching SURVIVOR, will Stephen Colbert even know that the tribes are split up by race?

(He doesn't see black or white. The only colors he sees are red, white, and blue. =)

From skimming online, I've found that the tribes are not named after this animal or that rock formation native to the Cook Islands, but take their names from very scientific terms, usually found next to scantron ovals on standardized tests...

The African-American Tribe
The Asian-American Tribe
The Hispanic Tribe
The White Tribe

It had to be That Word. Race. Heckuva direction to take the show. I suppose they're just trying to keep things fresh, right? And, all the hubbub it's sure to cause? Well, y'know the old saying—No such thing as bad publicity. I've heard that Vegas oddsmakers are working the numbers, and Radio Limbaugh has already given up some predictions of his own. Anyhow, the way the show works, the initial tribes are broken down and reshuffled as part of the game.

Perhaps it will be by religious beliefs.

Let the healing begin!

Keep on keepin on~

a vball booty call...

A cheat of an entry. An edited copy/paste of a volleyball roundup email I sent out this morning...

-------------------------------------

Move over, Pluto! There's something "meatier!"

Get it? "Meatier?" "Meteor?"

Yeah, it doesn't make astronomical sense, but hey, I don't write this stuff!

Oh, wait, I do write this stuff...

Geez, how do you guys stand it? I think I'm gonna unsubscribe...

=)

I've committed myself to non-beach happenings on Saturday, so I'm now just looking for bodies for SUNDAY at the beach. The forecast doesn't look tip-top, but hey, 30% chance of precipitation is 70% chance of volcano activity!

Or somethin...

Let me know when you'd be able to get there. I'm still good to get a net up by 10.30 once we get the peeps.

Keep on keepin on~

* Note, the sad pun-chline above was repurposed from a KFC commercial some years back. Popcorn chicken (aka fried who-knows-what), I think it was. Inside a KFC, we see a bunch of kids getting some original recipe gristle before a forecast meteor shower. The manager guy is in the foreground talking up the new, bigger, juicier popcorn chicken—bigger bits of chicken, same herbs and spices, you know the spiel. He's just wrapping up when behind him a kid points out a window and shouts, "Meteor!"

Manager guy looks into the camera, holds up a bushel of popcorn chicken, and says, "They sure are!"

p.s. Really and truly, I love me some popcorn whatever-the-f-it-is. =)

-------------------------------------

p.p.s. Anyone else notice how their restaurants became so godawful depressing once the name changed to KFC from the full Kentucky Fried Chicken? That's not just me, right? I mean, empirically, these "restaurants" are just sad, curs-ed, perhaps. Maybe it's a deal with a devil to maintain the original recipe goodness. Perhaps the KFCs are built on hellmouths, conjunctions of ley lines...?

Godawful depressing.

And what's up w those biscuits? Are they actually cooked?

I am a sucker for original recipe.

wandering the square after THE WINDOW...

A good and kooky night. Some real edge-of-your-seat noir goodness at the Brattle to cap off a rough day of packing, trucking, and moving. Another couple of convergence events... Another sighting of that photog prof, right after that permit business at the city hall annex, and then a kee-razy intersection of the Brattle, an Atomic client, and a volleyballer. Kooky. More on that another time.

Also, see the most excellent painting in the first photo? I encountered a series of them in Inman Square earlier in the day during a moving run. Rowan and In first spotted his work in Harvard Square two Mayfairs ago. I came back to the apartment from Harvard Square after them and they asked me if I saw "the cool paintings," and I knew exactly which ones they meant. Apparently Mint Julep (dunno that I love it as the replacement for the smartass card and candy shoppe) and the toy store in Inman Square also knew.

Keep on keepin on~

if you're moving from Cambridge to Cambridge...

... and you want a new muthaf@ckin visitor parking permit, you better muthaf@ckin make sure that you muthaf@ckin got the OLD one, cuz if you dont' muthaf@ckin got it, you gonna muthaf@ckin GET it, and good!

It'll cost you 25 bucks to get the new permit, for a new address in Cambridge, if you can't produce the old permit. Which means... You can't be going thru your stuff while you're packing and moving, always looking to lighten your load, come across your guest pass for the old address, and say ask yourself, "Do I need to hold onto this permit? It's no good at the new address... I'm gonna hafta buy a new one anyway! Time to find out what a Cambridge Visitor Parking Permit sounds like when it's shredded! Whee!"

Nope. You do not want to be doing that.

Cuz you'll get to the Cambridge City Hall Annex, produce your updated registration and a utility bill for the new address, explain how you're moving from one address in Cambridge to another address in Cambridge, have the guy behind the window ask you, "Why do you want to buy a new parking permit?" explain that you just want a new guest pass, but figured that a new registration would require a new permit, too, and hey, the guest pass comes WITH the permit for eight dollars. I'll have yet another sticker darkening my back seat, but hey, I needs to park my jalopy. I can deal.

And the fellow behind the window says, "You don't need to buy a new permit. You'll just buy a new visitor permit. Do you have the old visitor permit?" I tell him, "I do not. Do you need it?" Why? I've given him my registration and a utility bill and he's found me in The System, why should he need the old permit?

He tells me, "You have to turn in the old permit to buy the new one, or else you buy a replacement and that is 25 dollars."

Errrr...

"But if I had said I want to buy a new parking permit and visitor pass at my new address, together that would've been eight dollars?"

"But you are already in The System. If you have the old permit, you should bring it back and then you can have the new one for eight dollars."

At this point, I gather my proof of Cambridge existence and abort. I retreat to the lobby area to cellularly confer w my sister and Rowan. They're gonna be staying at the new address from tonight on and will need some kind of permit to park there Cambridge-legally overnight.

It's 4.45pm. 15 minutes til the Annex service windows close for the day.

I didn't shred the permit. It's with my sister's car. And it turns out my sister's car is many miles away at this time, 15 minutes til the Annex service windows close for the day.

I explain the wtf and we decide to suck it up. I get back in line, get called up to a different window. I explain to the guy wtf. Also, "I had a check ready for the eight dollars thinking that that's all I'd need to pay for the pass. Can you accept that and the difference in cash?"

"No. The System won't let us process payment in parts."

Grrrrr...

"Right." I tear up the check. I even had $17 in exact bills. *sigh*

The guy's tapping away at the computer. "You don't have the old guest permit?"

"I can't get to it now, no."

"Well, don't try and use it. Tear it up, because it's been cancelled."

If I was really and truly That Guy that the neighbors describe after the fact as a "quiet fellow, kept mostly to himself," right about then is when I would've smashed through the plexiglass window, reached through the frame, clenched my thumb and first two fingers behind the man's trachea, and jerked it loose from his skeleton. After that I would've jumped completely thru the window and taken those cute little miniature traffic signs they keep on top of their cubicle dividers and stabbed each of the other works in the eyes with them. Maybe after I settled down and caught my breath a bit, I would've enjoyed inflating the man's torso by blowing into the tube lolling out of his neck. That might've made me feel a little better...

Do you get that? He cancelled my old permit. Anyone behind those windows at one of those computers can CANCEL an old permit whenever they wish. Apparently they only wish to do it after I pay $17 more than I should have to.

Bleah.

I should've known. If I'd paid closer attention to the directions... If I'd thought it through, I would've known. I made a couple assumptions, read thru the helpful permit requirements online, and just didn't think it through... The System.

Feckall. After the scavenger hunt craziness I went thru to get my permit renewed earlier this year, I thought I'd be on top of all this—update my registration, have a utility bill at the new address ready, a check (or money order according to the site, but it turns out cash works fine...). I thought I'd studied up for this one. Turns out my notes were for the wrong class.

Bleah.

He CANCELLED it! Just sitting there, tapping at the keyboard, thinking about boobies and his +4 mace... and then took my money...

Bleah.

Keep on keepin on~

turnstiles...

The new turnstiles at the Central Square station started turnin' stiles—or is that stylin' turns?—on Friday morning. Pretty exciting...


Are these barriers taller than the ones I've encountered at other stations? Hrmm... I'll hafta pay attention next time I'm at South Station, or think to look out the window when stopped at Kendall or Boylston.

Seems like it's taking forever to get the Charles Street elevated T station finished, eh? Granted, that traffic circle, or ellipse, or spiral, or pentagram—whatever it is that guides traffic around it—has got to make construction there a big ol' cluster, but c'mon! Those prison cells across the way are gonna be condos any day now, and those hepcat condo dwellers didn't pay top dollar for a view of a NOT slick-and-reflective ultramodern-looking transit station of the future. Hurry it up!

Heh.

This morning at Central there was a bit of a mob at the main entrance. People trying to figure out how to deal with the automated pass machines and turnstiles. I've got a monthly pass, so haven't had to deal with the dispensing machinery, so I cruised thru like usual, trading in the old-fashioned swipe action for more of a feeding maneuver. It's kinda kooky that since January (I think?) the passes have been made to work with old and new turnstiles, and are fed into the new ones "upside-down."

I was waiting at the "front" of the platform getting a few more pages into THE LONG GOODBYE (Raymond Chandler is so much fun to read =) when I hear a loud talker, not quite a yell, "Come on! What's wrong with you people?" And I turn to look to the voice and see this animated old fella, white hair fanning out a bit under the brim of a real-and-true hat, is just coming thru one of the new turnstiles. He's gesticulating expressively, walking to one of the wall-inset benches, turning toward the people still waiting to enter, and saying overloudly to no one in particular, "All these people, lined up there! And not one of them knows how to get in! Ridiculous!"

Heh.

Keep on keepin on~

why didn't NIGHTWATCH stick around...?

NIGHTWATCH. I'm sure it played at the Kendall, but probably only for a week or two. I just don't get their f'd up programming there. I mean, the Brattle is the Brattle. Most of their programming is one-day or a weekend only, but you can check out their schedule for a whole season all at once. The Kendall, week to week, it seems like you will consistently get the opening date, but the limit of a "limited engagement" isn't always posted.

Bleah. I guess I should've been paying more attention is all...

Still, what's wrong w the frickin frackin mainstream that NIGHTWATCH would only be carried by the likes of the Kendall in the first place? Bleah. Now I'm gonna hafta win the Brattle's Guaranteed Request Raffle to see it on the big screen. But what to double bill it with...?

UNDERWORLD would be a little too similar, and I think it would be bad form to have them go back-to-back. Perhaps an old-school Hammer vampire flick, with Peter Cushing? BLADE would be a very good fit, but that doesn't really feel like taking advantage of the Brattle opportunity and ambience...

Hrmm... I never did get to see that so-so lookin' VAMPIRE HUNTERS flick that came out of Hong Kong a couple years back...

A Japanese horror flick... Maybe the first JU-ON. Or how bout something more mundane...? BATTLE ROYALE? Heh. Dayumn, that would be pretty satisfying. Or, along those lines, ONG BAK! Just for a helluvalotoffun.

Ah, but I'm losing the whole double-bill thang...

SHAUN OF THE DEAD could work. HIGHLANDER? Not quite... Forces of good vs evil in the modern world. Dayumn, that sounds like every other anime I've ever heard of, and maybe a few dozen manga adapted for live-action film.

I know! I'll hafta look for some horror/suspense from S. Korea. Or maybe pick a Chan Wook Park flick - OLDBOY. Awww yeah =)

Dayumn, now I wanna put OLDBOY and BATTLE ROYALE together... hrmmm... And ONG BAK and DRUNKEN MASTER 2... Guess those could be other raffle tickets.

It's for a good cause and all, right?

*sigh*

I'll hafta think about it some more. If anyone's got a good idea for a NIGHTWATCH companion flick, do let me know.

Keep on keepin on~

culture

I hit Shakespeare on the Common last night as part of the Keri's Angels Gang. Keri picked an excellent evening for it, a super-cool, non-stick Boston summer night.


Is it ON the common or IN the common? I feel like the language of WAR OF THE WORLDS taught me ON the common (the first missile the journalist encounters crashes into the common), but I'm not sure...


Anyhow, except for having to maintain a perch on top of a stack of sketchbooks and novels to see through the fat heads of the jerkos that set up their chairs in front of us 10 minutes before showtime, it was a really fine evening of free Boston-tinted culture.



"Taming Of The Shrew" was adapted by this year's Commonwealth Shakespeare Company for a 1950s(?) Boston North End setting, with father of Shrew Kate and Gentle Bianca, Baptista, playing owner of the restaurant 'Tista's. Updates to the play include some swapped out dialogue, swinging tunes and fashions, and a couple of well-placed wicked accents. I'm surprised the Sox, the "curse," and Kelly's Roast Beef didn't get any play. Or maybe they did and I just didn't pick up on them.

Ran into friend and back-in-the-good-ol'-days coworker Jessica before the show started. Caught her on the way to getting to saved spots for herself, her cute blue-eyed blue-bowed baybay, and her feller. Quite the together family unit. =) She informed me that she'd just run into another buddy ol' pal, Kelly, who was there as part of a company outing. Once I let Jess and company go, I tried to find Kelly via cell, but she wasn't anywhere nearby and it seemed like it was getting close to showtime. I told her I'd try her again at intermission, but when the lights went up for the break, I found that while hiding out in Big Red, my phone had spent most of its battery and I couldn't make a call. Bleah. O well.

I noticed on Monday that MickeyD's is giving away something called "Polly" to the girls and frickin frackin HUMMERS (the gas guzzlers, not the knob gobblers) to the boys in their Happy Meals. Is that REALLY necessary? Maybe to add some realism, they should lock down the toy's wheels until you fill the car with soft serve ice cream. And then they'll only roll until the ice cream melts, and then you need to get some more soft serve. I wonder if any of the models are military, and if the armor comes in additional separate Happy Meals?

I caught a trailer for Oliver Stone's WTC a few movies back and was surprised to see how the movie (or at least this trailer cut for it) seemed slanted towards a melodramatic perspective of the day, complete with bites of cliched dialogue and a scene of asking for volunteers to enter the towers. Since then I've seen TV ads that seem a little less inspiration-bent, but are instead soaked with more of an eMpTyVee flavor, with voiceover about a moment that defines a generation, and some rock song swelling behind it driving the ad...

If you feed Oliver Stone and 9/11 into the movie-making machine, well, I wouldn't expect to get the film that these ads seem to be promoting. I really don't know what to make of it, and unless it turns out friends or family are really keen on checking it out, I'll be just fine not seeing it for a while.

PRINCESS BRIDE is playing at the Boston Harbor Hotel this Friday evening. I've missed all the free outdoor movie options so far this summer, and despite all the packing/moving whatnot I have yet to accomplish, I'd really like to check this out at least once before the fall. I'll probably toss a coin Friday afternoon to figure out what to do, what to do...

Keep on keepin on~

THE PROTECTOR

Holy elbows of fury! I just caught a commercial for the Weinstein Co. U.S. release of Tony Jaa's THE PROTECTOR! You might remember me pushing his greatness in ONG BAK on you? You've gotta keep your eyes peeled for this commercial, and the opening on August 25.

When the commercial started, I thought I was gonna be seeing an ad for Jet Li's FEARLESS, opening September 22.

Incidentally, Broken Lizard's next, BEERFEST, opens the same day as THE PROTECTOR...

So many movies...

Keep on keepin on~

p.s. Keep your eyes open for writer Douglas "GENERATION X" Coupland and director Paul "DARK HOURS" Fox's EVERYTHING'S GONE GREEN... What I've read of Coupland goes down like a good candy bar, with crunchies and maybe nuts, sometimes nougat, but no caramel, toffee, or fruit. I love me some MICROSERFS! I hafta say, I never did pick up his "GOD" book, cuz the price tag on such a small hardcover frankly annoyed the heck out of me. And I don't know if I wrote it up—I'll hafta go back and look thru emails—but I caught DARK HOURS at the Boston Fantastic Film Festival at the Brattle and dig it. It was intense and moody, perfect for a mean-n-nasty escaped-psycho-con-takes-family-hostage-in-a-cabin thriller. Their cinematic love child will probably push a lot of my buttons.

beach days, 2 for 2 =)

A second day of beach volleyball goodness! We were only supposed to have 4 players for the day (myself and three volleyball playing lasses - just like in the dream...~ =), but a couple of regulars made unannounced cameo appearances and we had 6 of us keeping CR doubles going all day from 11am to almost 4pm. The inconvenient truth let up just enough this weekend to give us two grand days at the beach, and I'm glad that we got to take advantage of them.



I hafta admit, every other time I consider my Nahant weekends, I get the feeling I'm in a kind of rut, y'know? Committed to doing the same thing every Saturday and Sunday all summer. Still, with a weekend like this one, well, everyone should be so lucky as to fall into such a rut.

Alas, I did hafta sacrifice my midnight opportunities for STREETS OF FIRE goodness at the Brattle. I figured couldn't handle a midnight flick the night before a beach trip. I'm the vball junkie who's got the community works, y'know? I try to get myself to Nahant by 10am to get a decent parking spot and stake a decent 30x60 claim to get a court set up.

I'm very happily exhausted right now. Ready to just melt into my pillows in air conditioned comfort. But I'm planning on shaking that off so that I can hit HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE at the Brattle tonight. It's a Miyazaki anime flick that I missed last year when released in the states, and the Brattle's got it and SPIRITED AWAY going on for a couple days, in dubbed and original Japanese with subtitles. I highly recommend everyone check them out. Miyazaki's stuff (PRINCESS MONONOKE, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, GRAVEYARD OF THE FIREFLIES) is haunting, whimsical, surreal, gorgeous... animated fables and mythology. I'm going to see the subtitled version of CASTLE tonight.

Mmm... large popcorn, large lemonade, and some fantastic anime. Should be a good cap to a grand day.

Keep on keepin on~

a day at the beach...

Only *after* a good day of play-chill-play-chill-play CR doubles at the beach, did I stick around a while to read me some NIGHTWATCH—which I'm very much enjoying (thanks, Jessie, for pointing me to the book, inspriation for the cool-looking movie which I missed in theaters earlier this year)—and manage to get myself a decent bit of red-faced burn.

Still, a day at the beach is a day at the beach, no?

=)


Keep on keepin on~

MIAMI VICE: careers in southern law enforcement...

I dig me some big screen MIAMI VICE! It's a solid, gritty, dark (in mood AND in palette), and gorgeous Michael Mann update to the TV series we know and love.

Beware that it IS humorless, and its unfolding story of undercover identities, loyalty, and betrayal, appears to be set against a South Floridian Ragnarok, the end of the world. That is, almost every suspenseful scene happens at twilight or midnight, and is punctuated by flashes of lightning in the skies.

The story is pretty classic, I think, and decently layered for the undercover detective set-up. Crockett and Tubbs get pulled into an F.B.I. investigation of an international drug and arms supplier. In a vicious and violent meet-gone-bad, the F.B.I. discover that their deep cover agents have been compromised by someone in the intelligence community. Detectives Crockett and Tubb are brought in because they are Miami local law enforcement, and as intelligence outsiders are sure to be "clean." However, in order to keep them from being compromised by the unknown mole, only a select few can know that they're working the case undercover. It's pretty much the ultimate take on the MIAMI VICE undercover theme...

Y'know, without the suspension of disbelief part where you have to buy that these two shady characters—who pretty much invented metrosexual with their flashy duds, one who lives on his boat with a pet alligator named Elvis, ex-mascot of the Gators, the other his partner who typically plays the Caribbean businessman from New York—are supposed to be inconspicuous, and never remembered, recognized, or "made."

I'm reminded of a little bit of dialogue from the VICE TV pilot, between Gina and Sonny on his boat...

Gina: Do you ever wake up in the morning and forget who you are...?

Sonny: Darlin, sometimes I wake up and REMEMBER who I am...

I gotta say, Don Johnson could really sell that "darlin'."

Man, I'd love to get Michael Mann and John Woo in a room together talking about some undercover detective/buddy cop screenplay collaboration. Tony Leung's undercover triad in HARDBOILED lived on a boat in Hong Kong. No gator, but dozens of cranes. That living arrangement for me instantly helped build the Leung's character as it drew on my many TV-hours of VICE's Crockett/Burnett.

"Let's make a paper toad for Johnny Wong!"

Back to the movie... The boys establish their cred by setting themselves up as freelancing smugglers who can move big bad's merchandise more securely than the previous crew, whom Crockett and Tubbs bust in record time. They start out dealing with big bad's snivelling lieutenant, but when they deliver such an impressive performance as big volume transporters, they work the leverage to gain an audience with the power couple who run it all - big bad and his missus, played by Gong Li.

Of course, Crockett makes a move on her. And of course, she finds him irresistible. Bleah. Just the thought of Colin's wretched, unclean, funky flesh mingling with hers makes me queasy. Forcing the nausea down to the smallest gurgle of bile at the back of my throat, objectively, I gotta say the movie had to work hard at building the chemistry between the two, which should have been easy and free flowing. For me, the story had to build the connection *for* them, and *around* them, in spite of them, y'know? It put them in situations that a decently conditioned movie audience is meant to read as romantic, whirlwind, passionate... And with the help of just enough dialogue and concern from partner Tubbs, it does ultimately succeed. It's just much more of a struggle than it ought to be.

I don't want to drop a bunch of spoilers here, but I think you can see all the conflict and story potential here, right? Think of HEAT and COLLATERAL, only, without the laughs.

The music in the flick is excellent. Thank the Space Pope I didn't have to listen to the suckage of that "In The Air Tonight" cover until the end credits rolled! I recognized some Moby, or Moby-ness, at least, in parts. I give Michael Mann's HEAT most of the credit for putting Moby on my musical map. "God Moving Over The Face Of The Waters" I think was the title of the first Moby track I really fell in love with. Throughout VICE, there were great musical bits that felt very much like the best of Jan Hammer's scoring for the TV show. Melodic and moody piano and keyboard riffs, just the right well-placed notes. Alas, I couldn't spot Hammer's name in the credits. I wonder what he's up to these days...

Altho I do not think they topped Edward James Olmos's Lieutenant Castillo from the TV series, I will say they made a good casting decision for movie Castillo, a fella I don't immediately recognize from other roles, but handled playing the heavy, even opposite his cowboy detectives. Olmos's Castillo was my first memorable TV/entertainment encounter with gravitas in a character. He taught me how someone could create a strong personality and build a character of strong will and principles with only the most minimal brushstrokes in a thrifty amount of screen time. If you're familiar with his character, you've got to know what I mean. I think he brings those same skills to the C in C of the Galactica, too. Only, y'know, paunchier.

=)

Does anyone else remember the VICE episode where Olmos's Castillo singlehandedly storms a drug kingpin's waterfront compound, starting from the shore in some skiff or whatnot and working his way across the grounds, disappearing into the shadows of palm trees and topiaries, steadily and expertly dispatching a legion of gunmen, super-feckin-special-ops-ninja style, until he gets to the big boss inside his manor...? That was the most amazing bit of stealth action I'd seen on the tube until then. I wonder if it was a Michael Mann directed episode...

I always gave Michael Mann full credit (others might call it blame : P) for the MIAMI VICE phenomenon. Only when I see the credits on the big screen of the film do I finally get that VICE was created by some Anthony Yerkovich guy, who also got credit, I'm pretty sure, at the start of every episode of the TV show. I guess I hafta blame the eMpTyVee pop-art-y Michael Mann Productions bumper that appeared at the end of every episode.

Also, he followed up VICE with CRIME STORY (my first wonderful encounters with Dennis "Jimmy Cyrano" Farina and Anthony "THE CLOSER" Denison), and I just saw Mann as the common factor and figured he must be responsible for the coolness. I would LOVE to see CRIME STORY brought to the big screen. It would be Michael Mann doing THE UNTOUCHABLES meets L.A. CONFIDENTIAL.

The show co-opted a beautiful theme song and had a great intro sequence.

I'm a-walkin' in the rain
Tears are fallin' and I feel the pain
Wishin' you were here by me
To end this misery
And I wonder—
I wah- wah- wah- wah- wonder
Why—
Why why why why why—
She ran away
And I wonder where she will stay
My little runaway
A-run- run- run- run- runaway

Frack. I realize now that I can only remember the intro from the Vegas seasons, dominated by the lights on the strip at night reflected in the chrome of fenders and curves of 50s hot rods. I wonder what the Chicago intro was like.

They feckin dropped an a-bomb on a gangster on that show! =)

Kickass!

Keep on keepin on~

STREETS OF FIRE

And HEY! *TONIGHT* at the BRATTLE - THE GOONIES!

THE GOONIES plug above originally appeared at the bottom of this entry, but post-ramble, I figured I should lead with the most important/time-sensitive info. And now, back to the beginning...

----------------------

Heh, that title works on a couple levels today...

Man, it is stoopid-hot and sticky. Weather.com has got both a "Severe Thunderstorm Watch" AND an "Excessive Heat Warning" up as severe weather alerts for Cambridge. D-lovely, no? I hope that thunderstorm happens (even tho the alert is up, the forecast for the next couple days gives only 20% and 30% chance of precipitation - WTF?). It should be a great release/relief. After the Friday night deluge last week (a brilliant lightning show, too), we had a couple of those crisp (not crispY) summer days that I really dig. The sun is out, it can be Hot, even, but the air is not thick and molesting you with every breath you take, y'know?

I'm supposed to play volleyball today. After work, around 6pm. That... is gonna Hurt... But, what with the days gettin shorter and all (bleah), maybe it'll be a little less hellacious by then.

Maybe...

A little...

I thought back to an idea that Steve suggested back in the crummy prologue to summer this year. That we should agree on a temperature that would justify a senior cut day, y'know? A day when we just call each other, get the day off, and go hit the beach to play some vball.

Alas, we never mobilized on that. But I do like the idea. I was thinking that today would be a good day to escape the cobblestoned jungle for beach and ocean, but odds are, most of the day would not be all that kind to volleyball playing. The forecast highs in the area are over 100 degrees for today. Wheeee~

Well, this week of ugly hot followed by potential torrents ought to make for a good weekend for beaching. I sent out a roundup email earlier this morning and hope to get a decent crew for both days. Despite my plans to hit the midnight STREETS OF FIRE at the Brattle on Friday and/or Saturday night, I'll aim to have the net up by 10.30am either day.

That's right, STREETS OF FIRE! The 80s scifi rock opera directed by Walter "THE WARRIORS" Hill and starring Michael "EDDIE AND THE CRUISERS" Pare, Willem "Green Goblin" Dafoe, and Diane "JUDGE DREDD" Lane! Also, Rick "the Keymaster" Moranis, Wild Bill "Game Over, Man" Paxton, and Ed "electric car" Begley Jr.

Alas, I've never seen this movie all the way thru. I expect it'll be like DISTRICT B13, only with musical numbers instead of parkour running and sledgehammers instead of martial arts. The fashion is probably just about the same. =)

Of course, I might not make it to both nights at the Brattle, as LITTLE DARLINGS is playing at midnght over in Brookline at the Coolidge...

Man, isn't Tatum O'Neal like crazy good fun on RESCUE ME?

And HEY! *TONIGHT* at the BRATTLE - THE GOONIES! =)

I'm gonna try and hit the last show tonight. What with vball in Watertown tonight after work, it'll be the only show I can make. Maybe I can sucker my sister and Rowan into going with. I've only ever seen it once, when I saw it in the theaters as a kid. I liked it. It was a crazy genre buster, y'know? A story that could go anywhere at any moment. And in tone could jump from Little Rascals to STAND BY ME, y'know? It had Short Round, a Corey, a Hobbit-to-be, and that freaky woman with only half a tongue from THROW MOMMA FROM THE TRAIN. And of course Cyndi Lauper's song and music video to go with!~ What's not to like? But I never quite felt the cult reverence and dedication to the film that a lot of my generation seem to have for it. Maybe I missed something?

Well, perhaps I'll find out tonight. I hope it's not sold out.

Keep on keepin on~

how is this acceptable...?

Y'know, in that familiar Sullen Teen, disgruntled gennexer way, I DO kinda LIKE being annoyed with mySpace's apparent too-big-for-its-britches-ness... This organically grown friendster 2.0, the internet's hallway of high school lockers, decorated by users and their "friends," stuffed with secret notes, hiding a diary with tucked-in clippings on huffing, cutting, purging, hacking, and who-knows-what, postered with the latest cute band alert, Teen Beat or Bananas centerfold, filled with textbooks still in their shrink wrap, and this year, co-opted by Fox, who gets that it's been deemed cool by the eMpTyVee demo, somehow, but is still trying to figure out how to make that coolness WORK for it...

The situation resembles (okay, maybe it's a stretch, but at 1am, my brain's pretty pliable) the sadly now-stereotypical media-hyped scandalous mySpace crime, no? The luring of an under-age teen into a situation s/he's not ready for. Rupert and Fox want mySpace to come out and play, like a real business, and sure, mySpace might be curious—"Oh, they're so OLD! Still... they've got $$$ and it would probably make for a good story to blog... maybe I could get it on video, too!"—but is really just fine hunting down old school classic rock from Journey, Simple Minds, and Hall & Oates, chatting with Kevin Smith and Rob Thomas, sending mail to movies the way Homer Simpson* does, and believing that Jenna Jameson and Forbidden really are its friends...

Maybe mySpace will end up agreeing to meet them at the coffee shop...

And then go all HARD CANDY on their @ss!

Heh.

Eh.

Whatev.

Keep on keepin on~

-------------------

* Homer's letter to DIE HARD...

Dear Die Hard,
You rock!
Especially when that guy was on the roof!

P.S: Do you know Mad Max?