WEEKEND RECAP

FRIDAY
Dom and I went to see “An Improvised Christmas Carol” at Unexpected Productions. It was a pretty good show. Our friend Amanda is in the troop and she is very funny. There were a few annoying people in the audience, but that’s to be expected, really.

After the show, we met Elyse, Gene, Andrew, Brugos, Derek and a few others at the Nite Lite. Elyse had already been drunk and then back to sober. She was VERY entertaining. Andrew was recovering from knee surgery. It’s amazing how far science has come, even in the last few years. He had arthroscopic surgery, which is what I had, and his scars were SO small that they will easily be gone in a year. My scars, also from arthroscopy 5 years ago, will be with me for the rest of my life. My surgery was more invasive than Andrew’s but still, they had all kinds of instruments and a damned camera in there and it just looks like two small puncture wounds. Take that, Scientology.

I got in two powerful drinks from the WONDERFUL bartender lady and got Elyse to do a Shirley Temple impression in her adorable indie sailor outfit. I could have easily stayed at the Nite Lite for a while, but everyone else had been there for a few hours so they were ready to move on. We moseyed up the street to Shorty’s, which was full, and then to the Lava Lounge, which had a nice big table with our name on it. The Lava Lounge isn’t as bad as I remember it being. I am no longer anti-Lava.

Since everyone was many drinks ahead of me, people started to leave after about an hour at Lava, so Dom and I took off too. A nice, mellow Friday night for us.

SATURDAY
The day began with a matinee of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”. Faye, Dom and I got there an hour early because we didn’t know what kind of crowd to expect. It wasn’t TOO crowded, but it was definitely good that we secured our seats early. We were joined by Ben, Emily and Brugos. As we sat there, waiting for the movie to start, it slowly dawned on us that we were surrounded by church groups. Faye was tipped off first by bad sweaters and the exclamations of people who were easily shocked by everything. We saw a bunch of awful trailers (including several of the ones Mark saw before Harry Potter. Oh my GOD, does ANYBODY care about M. Night Shlamamalayaman anymore?)

Then the movie began. Even if we hadn’t been surrounded by one of the most annoying audiences in history, it would have still been a fairly blah experience. Let’s get this out of the way first. I don’t really think the Chronicles are a Christian allegory inasmuch as everyone says it is. Sure, Lewis was a Christian and that would, undoubtedly, color his writing, but the whole allegory theory has gotten out of control. It was, first and foremost, a children’s story. And the best kind of children’s story too, because what kid doesn’t want to think that they can have an adventure like that while playing hide and seek? I know I did. Sure, as Borgia astutely observed, it’s kind of lame that these kids get to be kings and queens just because they’re the first humans to come to Narnia that happen to fit the ancient prophesy. But you don’t really think about it like that when you’re a kid. Instead, you think “This could happen to me” and that’s a nice, empowering notion. Especially for a lonely child.

ANYWHO, the movie: It had its good points and bad points. The good included some impressive CG, some beautiful cinematography, some excellent acting on the part of Tilda Swindon, that little hottie who played Mr. Tumnus, and the little girl who played Lucy, and, for Dom’s sake, the Griffins. As for the bad, well, Liam Neeson was far too recognizable to voice Aslan. He was boring and, in no way captured the majesty of the character in the book. His mighty, last word roar, was not really that commanding. The battle scenes were too long in the set-up without the payoff. The two elder children were kind of annoying at times. There were a lot of scenes that should have been trimmed or cut. There was no need to make the movie two-and-a -half hours long. The extra action sequences they wrote in felt gratuitous, and the kid who played Peter could not really sell the “coming of age” thing to pull off the scenes.

The Audience: You would think that at a 1:30 matinee, the biggest problem would be the children. Not so with these guys. With the exception of an occasional baby moan, the kids were silent. It was the adults we had to deal with. The row behind us (definitely church-goers) would NOT shut up. Everything shocked them and they felt they had to let us know. One of the ladies sounded an awful lot like Jennifer Coolidge, so it made it KIND of funny, but not that funny. The guy directly behind me had some food item in a paper bag that he was making AS MUCH NOISE AS POSSIBLE eating. After he ate the food, he TORE THE BAG UP. IN MY EAR. Then there was a man who smelled like beer who sat in front of us and ate Chinese take-out. At one point, he began muttering and coughing and then left the theatre for a few minutes, only to return later for more muttering. At the end of the movie he said “Wait till part 2!”. Jesus. I know church groups don’t get out much, but have none of these people ever been to a movie before?

After the movie, Ben and Emily went to Olympia real quick to get dinner. Brugos went to buy a suit and the Troika did a little shopping downtown. Brugos joined us later for dinner at Bill’s. Then we had a little time to kill before karaoke at Jai Thai. Dom went home to NOT play Warcraft and said he’d meet us later. Faye, Brugos and I got some unnecessary dessert at Charlie’s, and then headed to Jai Thai to secure a table. We were all kind of dead. Brugos had apparently been REALLY drunk the night before and Faye and I were exhausted from shopping. So it was, perhaps, fortunate, that they have now cancelled karaoke at Jai Thai. They said it was bad for business. I don’t really believe them because it was always crowded when I was there. It’s a bummer though, because now there is only ONE place left on the hill with weekend karaoke. Anyway, we stayed for one drink and tried to formulate a plan b. I got a drink called an “Adios Mother Fucker”. I didn’t understand the waitress, though, and thought I was getting an “Audio Smother Fucker”. Either way, the thing is packed with booze. It took me a while to get through it. Meanwhile, Ben, Emily, Borgia and Dom arrived. We eventually settled on going back to the Zookster Pad for a quick round of the karaoke home-version and then, perhaps, to watch “Return of the Jedi” on laser disc. Brugos was replaced by Gene. I haven’t seen Jedi in a very long time. It really IS the worst of the 3. Some parts, even with the abundance of nostalgia, are glaringly bad. But I still maintain that “Empire” is a genuinely good film. We WILL be having an Empire party in the next month or so. This I swear.

SUNDAY
I started by day by meeting my friend Ryan in Queen Anne for breakfast. The food at Ozzie’s is ok, but, under no circumstances, should anyone drink their damned coffee. HOLY SHIT! Ryan and I each had two cups and we were tweaking by the end of breakfast. My pulse raced for the next several hours, and my limbs were numb. I calmed myself down by watching the remake of “The Amityville Horror”. Now, it may have just been the coffee talking, but remake status aside, I thought the movie was actually pretty scary. It wouldn’t have been if Ryan Reynolds hadn’t TOTALLY sold the psychosis of the character. Man, he was brutal. As soon as he stops making movies like “Just Friends”, that guy has the potential to win some awards.

I crashed from my caffeine high right around the time I had to go to yoga.

After yoga, we had a Gadzook meeting about the feature. We’ve got to start getting serious about whoring ourselves if we have any hope of getting that thing made. Here we go…

December 12, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, Filmpinions . Tags: weekend recap . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

WEEKEND RECAP

I realize this is very late indeed, but, to be honest, last weekend wasn’t terribly interesting. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed most of my escapades, but they just weren’t really blog-worthy (whatever that means). However, my southern upbringing compels me to uphold tradition. And, as such, I will recap an uninteresting weekend with my usual verbosity.

FRIDAY

Faye and I begun our evening at the Six Arms. She drank beer and I, overpriced wine. Not to worry, though. I had a water bottle full of the stuff on my bag, so I didn’t need to buy more than two glasses. After we left the Six Arms, we decided to stop at Faye’s old local shopping establishment “The Ghetto Mart” to buy a quickie cheapie to drink in Hobo Park. Unfortunately, Hobo Park was closed, so we instead found a nice set of stairs at the top of a “Local Access” walkway. We two adult women walk by with sleeping bags, apparently on their way to a slumber party? We saw a guy trying to jump a fence from the inside (an escaped patient from a hospital?), and we “met” two fellows from the suburbs who were HAMMERED and also on their way to see Tom Lycus (sp?) at the Paramount. We gave them directions and then they invited us to join them at the Salmon Days festival the next day. “We don’t get girls like you in [wherever they said they were from]”. We took this to mean that not many girls in their particular suburb sit on stairs drinking on Friday nights. And sure that they are correct about that.

After we finished our drinks, we headed to the Meridian. We were 2 hours early. There was a line, but it was pretty short. Faye and I sat down to wait and were joined later by Dusty, Ben and a fellow called Ian (hey! I remembered someone’s name) who I learned was training to be a cop. I learned this after making a slightly disparaging comment about cops. Go me! Ben and Ian decided that we could hold their place in line while they went to get a drink.

Around 9:50, the line had grown exponentially. The theatre staff, not having any idea how to handle the type of opening-night fanaticism usually reserved for the Cinerama or Pacific Place, decided that the best course of action for dealing with an orderly line would be to instruct everyone to bunch forward and form and orderly blob. Nice work, guys. The geeks were the picture of politeness, however, and everyone found their seats in pretty much the order of their arrival.

We found our seats and awaited the start of the film. I, for one, was nervous. I have faith in the Whedon, but I’ve also been burned on plenty an occasion.
SPOILER ALERT
I have to say that the second Mal mercy killed a man who was about to be eaten by Reavers, I knew Joss wasn’t going to let me down. By the third act, I couldn’t close my mouth. Now, that asshole on the bus had indicated to me that someone was going to die. When Book bit it, I thought that was it. Of course I was sad about Book. But I did NOT see what happened to Wash coming. Never in a million years. When Wash was impaled, I earnestly placed my hand to my mouth in shock, which is something I never thought I would do. I was incapable of removing it for quite some time after that. I also grabbed for Faye’s hand as Kaylee and Simon were shot within seconds of each other. At that point, I had NO IDEA what was going to happen and I was terrified. I know Faye was feeling it too. After the movie there was naught to do but go home. On our way up the hill, Faye and I talked about the genius of Whedon. And his tendency to kill the characters who are the most pure of heart RIGHT when you least expect it. We hearkened back to Tara and how shocking THAT had been. And Xander leaving Anya? Good lord. Faye and I were messed up for weeks about that. We’d even made CUPCAKES for the goddamned wedding. He must have some sort of Faustian deal going because that kind of talent doesn’t seem natural.
END SPOILERS

SATURDAY

It’s office moving day! No human being should be required to wake up on Saturday morning to move their office, but I was. It was 7:30 and the copious CHEAP wine from the night before was taking its toll. I decided to take an experimental puff or two to quell the nausea, lest I begin the day by vomiting all over my co-workers. Granted, I have the urge to do that even when I’m not hung over.
We met at Starbucks at 8 for breakfast on the company. An eggs Florentine sandwich and coffee was just the thing to help me through the next few hours of…watching dudes move our stuff. We’d hired movers and, since we’d already packed everything, there really wasn’t anything for any of us to do till they were done. I definitely appreciated everyone coming out though. They could have easily just said “you handle it”. In fact, I’m surprised they didn’t. So I spent my Saturday hanging out with my co-workers while movers hauled things away around us. Actually, let me clarify that. Boss Man ended up conveniently out of town that weekend. Lil’ D “had to leave” at 11. So it was me, the nice intern and The Other One. Our tech guy was also there because he thought he would be able to get a jump start on setting up our server. But of course the data people hadn’t actually finished their job, so there was nothing for any of us to do. At 1:00, we went to get lunch at Fado. We came back at 2 and they were almost done. I got home around 3.

I intended to take a nap, but I just couldn’t fall asleep. So I just watched some TV and putzed around the apartment until 7:30 when Faye and Dusty came over to watch House of 1000 Corpses. Halloween being our favorite holiday, Faye and I have developed an annual October tradition of watching one good horror movie every weekend in October. Since most people we know actually HATE House of 1000 Corpses, it was just the three of us die-hard Zombie-ites. And it was every bit as entertaining as we remember it to be. Sure, it has its flaws. But it’s funny and gory and Mosely and Haig are AWESOME. After the movie, Dusty left and Borgia came over, but by that time I was pretty much ready for bed.

SUNDAY

I did pretty much nothing. Just went to the grocery store, and looked around the apartment for stuff I could sell for cash. If we’re going to be taking impromptu trips to L.A. (at least I hope we’re going to) I needs tha cash. Anybody know what the requirements are for selling your eggs?

October 6, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, Filmpinions . Tags: weekend recap . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

WEEKEND RECAP

FRIDAY

Faye and I went to see a screening of “Malfunkshun: The Andrew Wood Story” at the NW Film Forum. I was quite a fan of Mother Love Bone in high school, to the point of ridicule from my very metal/punk friends, but I haven’t listened to them in ages. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the documentary. Faye and I were a little disappointed by the Gits documentary at SIFF. If Seattle is going to be the next Hollywood, they’d better start making better documentaries about Seattle subjects. But “The Andrew Wood Story” was pretty good. At first, the psychedelic motion graphics reminded me a little too much of VH1 program, but after a while, I settled into it and enjoyed the ride. Despite having been a fan of the music, I didn’t really know that much about the man. Turns out he was a very funny, thoughtful fellow who liked to have a good time, look pretty and rock. His family kept referring to themselves as “screwed up”, but their love for one-another was so evident, that it really didn’t feel that dysfunctional. It was one of those stories that, even though you know it ends badly, still gives you a glimmer of hope. This guy left too soon, but he left behind some great music and left indelible marks on everyone who knew him. Even Chris Cornell, who is known for being kind of a dick, was clearly having trouble in the interview. He chain-smoked and choked back tears throughout. At the end, the director came up and answered questions. Actually, he answered one question with his life story. But it was ok. He seemed like a good guy. He explained that the documentary found him, and took 10 years of his life to make. He explained the structure of it and how he wanted to show Andrew Wood’s life from inside Andrew’s head. Once you know that, the style of the film is much easier to take. Also, Kim Thayil, AKA Zombie Santa, was in the audience of about 20 people. That made the whole thing seem that much more special. Even if this documentary doesn’t do well, it serves as a lovely tribute to the man, for the people he left behind. Sorry for the Hallmark sentiments. But I’m TOUCHED, Goddamnit!

After the movie, Faye and I went to the Canterbury for a quick drink and a plate of fries. It was the wrong night for the Canterbury, however. Our favorite waitress, the nice, small blonde girl, was off. And we were ignored. After waiting for about 10 minutes, I went to the bar to get our drinks, and asked if I could order food there. The bartender snippily replied that our waitress would take our food order. I said that I wasn’t sure if there was table service because we’d been waiting and hadn’t seen anyone. He said he’d “send her right over”. Faye and I were almost done with our drinks before we saw “our” waitress stroll through the room. She checked on the other table and then walked past us without even a glance. Faye and I downed the rest of our pints and went to QFC.

We spent the rest of the evening at my house watching Alan Partridge and drinking of the beer. Faye also printed out some pictures for her haircut the following day.

SATURDAY

Faye and I met at 12:30 to go downtown. Faye was on a quest for a new top and I was along to spend money I shouldn’t be spending. Glorious. We also went to Vain so Faye could get a haircut. A MAJOR haircut. From long to bob in an hour. And, I must say, Faye looks A-fucking-dorable. I know it must be a major adjustment for her to lose that much hair, but it definitely works.

After that, we still had some time to kill before meeting Dom for our dinner/casting meeting. We were quickly discouraged at The Rack, so we decided to give up on shopping and kick out the fun. We had a nacho and beer aperitif at Shorty’s followed by a quick game of Pinball. Then we met Dom at the Rendezvous and had out casting meeting. Right now, these meetings still feel a bit like make-believe. It’s hard to imagine that we are actually going to be contacting such and such’s agents and making offers!

After the meeting, I joined Dom in the Jewel Box for a show called “Verbatim Verboten”, wherein actors read the scripts from phone messages, interviews and other recordings, left by belligerent, intoxicated, or otherwise mentally unstable notables. Meanwhile, Faye hung with Borgia and Elyse. The show was pretty entertaining. The acting wasn’t stellar. And there was a very LOOOOONG-winded Woody Allen bit from his deposition about the Soon-Yi debacle. They kept coming back to it throughout the show and each time it was more insufferable. I very much pity the individuals who were forced to pour over the testimony. But, for the most part, the bits were amusing. Sherrard would have LOVED this show. My favorite bits were a belligerent message left by Ryan Adams on the answering machine of a man who gave him a bad review, and the ravings of Orson Wells as he attempted to record some advert voiceovers.

The show over, I resumed drinking with Elyse, Faye and Borgia while Dom had to do a reading really quick at a fundraiser in the Grotto. At 11:30, we were all exhausted and ready to go home. Elyse, especially, had an excuse, as she’d spent the day at the Puyallup Fair.

SUNDAY

I spent an ill-conceived morning watching “Dancer in the Dark”. Oh my god! I just don’t like Lars Von Trier. His “heroines” are helpless, borderline insane women who don’t help themselves. I’m all for tragedies, but only if the protagonist is willing to fight for self-preservation. I’m also all for stories about self-sacrifice, but not when it’s COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY. I guess the bottom line is that it’s hard for me to watch a 2 and a half hour movie about a character that I don’t like. It’s especially hard when that character is played by a singer with a grating, impish wail. After a while, I was fast forwarding through the musical numbers. I suppose Bjork’s acting wasn’t bad. I’m sure she was doing exactly what she was told. But the bottom line for me is thus: Lars, I don’t jive with your world view. Bjork, shut up.

To stop the bleeding in my eyes, Dom and I watched some more Battlestar Galactica (almost caught up!) and then went to the grocery store. This was followed by yoga and finishing Deadwood. Deadwood, by the way, is awesome. It’s very rare that a show is SO FULL of amazing actors that I actually like all the characters equally. Well, I kinda like the Doc a little more than everyone else.

NEXT WEEK: Hell-A!

September 19, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, Filmpinions . Tags: weekend recap . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment