don’t forget to bring a towel

So, who wants to go see The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy at Cinerama on Friday at 7pm? I've already got my ticket from here.

I will be getting in line straight after work. I remember when I was the cool punk girl who got in line early for rock shows. Now it's for sci-fi/fantasy/horror films. How one's priorities change as they get older.

PS: To avoid the internet surcharge, you can use my moviewatcher card #241820711. It doesn't cost me a thing and when you pick up your ticket, you might get a voucher for a free small drink (with an expiry of the year 1825).

Happy Hapcp

I am in such a good mood today because of the Serenity trailer and Snow Day, Bloody Snow Day almost being done (tonight!! knock on wood, etc), that I wanted to share one of my favorite pictures ever.

lipnicki

It’s Jonathan Lipnicki! Blinged out!

Happy Day in Geeksville

The “Serenity” trailer goes live at 1pm, at which time I will watch it with no sound and then again with sound when I get home. I love my new computer at work with windows media player and no speakers! I saw a video of a “Serenity” panel from Wizard Con and it made my little geek heart pitter patter. Especially the part where Joss goes all homoerotic on Nathan Fillion.

In movie news, our beautiful film is being audio sweetened as we speak! It already sounded pretty good before it went in there. The best part is that the audio tech had never seen it before and it's reported that he can't stop laughing. (Hopefully with the film and not AT it).

I still can't seem to find available tickets for Hitchhiker's Guide, which opens on Friday. If anyone knows where I can get them, let me know! It's presumably going to be playing at the Cinerama but I can't find any evidence of that on their website.

UPDATE

Dear god, the “Serenity” trailer is glorious. Even without sound. It gave me chills, it did. Captain Tightpants is looking hotter than the Georgia asphalt. Also got to see River kicking ass (which means, hopefully, she will become interesting), Jayne giving someone a wicked pile driver, and what I believe are the first glimpses of the big, scary Reavers (who look a lot like orks from what I can tell). Holy crap, this is all so exciting! I need to go change my underwear now.

UPDATE #2
Jumpin Jesus! I just want to pick something up from our special effects editor dude and he was kind enough to show me the trailer WITH SOUND. I don't think I've felt that good since I sneezed and cleaned my ears at the same time.

Just wanted to mention a bit of weirdness. On my way there, I passed a bum who was sitting on a bench on pioneer square. Next to him was a Chuckie doll. What the eff? Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “My buddy n' me”.

blocky compendia gorham fluff charles dateline

WEEKEND RECAP

Friday

It was looking like it was going to be a poor turnout for our Robocop screening. At 8:00, no one had shown up yet (besides me, Faye and Dom. And Two of us live there), so we continued to watch Carnivale and be equally amazed by it’s brilliance and amused by it’s charming Dust Bowl dialogue (you sonofabitch, goddammit). Around 8:15, Sherwood arrived, but, by that time, we were too far into the episode to stop. So Sherrard, who uninitiated into the world of the Rousties, (not that those of us who were caught up had any better of an understanding of it), checked his email and padded around the apartment until we were finished. Around 9:00 we started Robocop (first watching 5 minutes or so of commentary which was long enough for us to learn two important and amusing details.
1) Verhoeven almost didn’t accept the offer to direct it because his first reading of the script “led [him] to believe that it was a standard American action film”. It wasn’t until his wife read it and convinced him that “there was a lot more going on here” that he decided to make his American directing debut.
2) He pronounces it “Rrrrrobocup”. It’s hard to type that out the way he says it. Basically, he rolls the first “r” and makes the whole word as close to one syllable as possible. Hilarious.

Around 10:00, krk arrives with snacky reinforcements and a friend who’s name has already escaped me. (Damn you, reefer!) BennDunn arrived around 10:30 in time to catch the end of the movie, drop off a copy of the Tivo’d “Reefer Madness” and a Polaroid of his person identifying himself as “1 Ben Dur”. Everyone met and adored Tobe who reveled in the petting orgy. And then we all retired to bed because we are all sleepy and lame.

Saturday

Faye and I had some writin’ ta do. We have all these “little bits” left to add to the feature script. Things that should be easy, but when you sit down to write them, they end up taking a dogs age and you’re googling random phrases like “rectal prolapse” for inspiration and the next thing you know, it’s time to go to a backyard BBQ and croquet match in the rain. I’m hoping we’ll only need one more week on this bad boy and then we’ll have completed draft # 3.
At 5:00, we headed to our friend Chris’s house to eat veggie BBQ and prefunk for the Reggie and the Full Effect show. We ate a delicious and gluttonous portion of veggie burgers, rice and kimchi (sp?) and homemade angel food cake for dessert. We enjoyed this meal whilst watching THE most fucked up TV ever created, Wonder Showzen. This was only the second episode I have ever seen and I have to admit that even this bloodlusty wench was a LITTLE grossed out when I first saw the bit about the Chewties. However, by the time they got to the “Leprosy Nachos”, I was already desensitized. Still, I must know who these people are and how they can possibly think of things so disturbing as a child in a Hitler costume interviewing people on the street.
After dinner, we decided to break in the newly grown grass in the backyard with a game of croquet. I have only played croquet once before and it was a looooong time ago so I have to say I think I did pretty well. I was in last place but I was still right behind everybody else so it wasn’t as cripplingly humiliating as, say, high school gym class. I can’t wait to play again! Halfway through the game, it began to rain. We thought we could play through, being hardened Seattleites that we are. We were wrong. The rain came down with increasing strength and we were forced to postpone our game. Luckily, it stopped before we had to leave, so we finished the game just in time to hop in Chris’s fancy and recently acquired antique convertible. No top down for us, but Faye still wore the fifties-style scarf I bought her for this very occasion.
We arrived at El Corazon (formerly Graceland) just in time for Reggie’s set. We were horrified to find that we were surrounded by children with a mean age of 18. Despite the presence of irritating children, drunk dudes and some guy farting tacos, the performance was great. I had previously held reservations because I heard that the lead Reggie is going through a divorce and it also saddened by the break-up of the Get Up Kids. Faye and I were both worried that this meant a return to the emo sensibilities of the GUK. It did not. It meant death metal. Very angry death metal. And people adorned in fake blood. Awesome.
We left as soon as the set was over, as we had no desire to stick around for New Found Glory or to spend any more time with these people. Since it was still early, we headed to the Hill for a drink. We started at the Wok and Grill but were dismayed to learn that their juke box was broken. Having no other purpose to remaining there, we decided an impromptu karaoke session at Jai Thai was in order. We made some calls to bulk up our group and proceeded to sing!
Highlights:
-Andrew’s surprise performance of “Power of Love”. We were trying to train him for his contest the following night where they choose the song for you. He clearly did not need training.
-Chris’s balls-to-the-wall, and no doubt sore-throat inducing performance of “Mother” by Danzig.
-Some guy with a devil lock who did the most dead-on performance of “The End” by the doors, followed later by an incredible Elvis impersonation. I think I have a crush on him.
-Erin’s always flawless “One Way Or Another”.
-Me doing “Say It Aint’ So”. It might not have been a highlight for other people, but for me it was loads of fun. I wish they had more Weezer at karaoke. I would KILL to do some songs off Pinkerton.
-Some poor girl choosing “Piano Man” and being drowned out by the entire bar singing along loudly.

Sunday

It started out as a perfectly normal Sunday but escalated to a bit of an emergency situation when we realized that Tobe was urinating blood. Faye and I took him to the emergency vet (right around the time when I would have gone to yoga. Doh!) and he was given antibiotics for a urinary tract infection. The poor little guy! I have to give him a pill twice a day for two weeks. For those of you that have ever had to give a pill to a cat, you know that it is typically a Sisyphus-ian endeavor. However, Tobe is a champ who takes his pills with little protest. We will know in a few days if his problem is clearing up. I’ve had the little guy for a week and he’s already been to the emergency room. Hopefully this is just a problem that he’s had for a while and was just never taken care of, rather than a sign of a weak immune system. Poor little feller.

Anyway, now we are back to Monday and this is THE critical week in the world of Snow Day. We have to send the movie off on Wednesday (Thursday at the latest) to make it into the San Diego Comic Con. Wish us luck!

69943

Having just been to karaoke, I'd say this is a pretty accurate quiz result.

Your Taste in Music:

80's Alternative: High Influence
80's Pop: High Influence
90's Alternative: High Influence
Hair Bands: High Influence
Heavy Metal: High Influence
Punk: High Influence
80's Rock: Medium Influence
80's R&B: Low Influence
Adult Alternative: Low Influence
Alternative Rock: Low Influence
Gangsta Rap: Low Influence
Progressive Rock: Low Influence
Ska: Low Influence
How's Your Taste in Music?

Like an afterburner for your penis.

Is it just me, or is The O.C. getting really weird?

Last night’s episode featured Caleb about to dump his wife for something that most husbands would be excited about but then changing her mind (because he’s plotting something more evil??) , Kirstin being tempted by a guy who is only hot in that early 90’s kind of way, and Zach hinting at being evil himself. And speaking of evil, what was WITH that comic industry party? First of all, there is NO WAY that a publisher who was initially interested in Atomic County would start making all those demands to Disneyfy it. The comic world isn’t governed by the same “standards and practices” that television and film are. Comics push the envelope and are edgy and typically very violent. They also have a built-in demographic so who CARES what the mid-western kids can “relate” to. They don’t read comics to relate. They read them to forget about their own boring, sex-less lives for a while. The O.C. needs a comic consultant to make this storyline more realistic.
And the SECOND weird thing about that industry party was all those industry dudes standing around drinking wine and laughing maniacally. Was that supposed to be as comic-y as it was? Is this some clever subversive way of making The O.C. more artistic? Or are they just losing their minds over there?

As for Tru Calling, hilarity ensued yet again. Highlights include when Tru spoke of her titular “calling”, when porno music played during YET ANOTHER of her bizarrely flirtatious conversations with her brother and when she once again fell “in love” with a guy she knew for two episodes who died. And what’s the deal with all these love interests being “90’s hot”? Is that look coming back or something? This particular stud is reminiscent of Is it just me, or is The O.C. getting really weird?

Last night’s episode featured Caleb about to dump his wife for something that most husbands would be excited about but then changing her mind (because he’s plotting something more evil??) , Kirstin being tempted by a guy who is only hot in that early 90’s kind of way, and Zach hinting at being evil himself. And speaking of evil, what was WITH that comic industry party? First of all, there is NO WAY that a publisher who was initially interested in Atomic County would start making all those demands to Disneyfy it. The comic world isn’t governed by the same “standards and practices” that television and film are. Comics push the envelope and are edgy and typically very violent. They also have a built-in demographic so who CARES what the mid-western kids can “relate” to. They don’t read comics to relate. They read them to forget about their own boring, sex-less lives for a while. The O.C. needs a comic consultant to make this storyline more realistic.
And the SECOND weird thing about that industry party was all those industry dudes standing around drinking wine and laughing maniacally. Was that supposed to be as comic-y as it was? Is this some clever subversive way of making The O.C. more artistic? Or are they just losing their minds over there?

As for Tru Calling, hilarity ensued yet again. Highlights include when Tru spoke of her titular “calling”, when porno music played during YET ANOTHER of her bizarrely flirtatious conversations with her brother and when she once again fell “in love” with a guy she knew for two episodes who died. And what’s the deal with all these love interests being “90’s hot”? Is that look coming back or something? This particular stud is reminiscent of a certain former MTV VJ or the star of this horrific and short lived MTV sci-fi series. Gross.
Also, was the ending where they showed the consequences of Tru “breaking the rules” supposed to be shocking?! “I have de ja vous”. OOOH! The horror! Better not keep breaking the rules, Tru. We don’t want a bunch of people running around getting De Ja Vous. Imagine that chaos that would cause!
God, I love this show!

Lies! It's all lies!

This quiz is kind of stupid because there are lots of cities I've been to that weren't listed. Like several in the UK and loads of small southern towns. And even some larger southern towns. I mean, Richmond wasn't even listed and I lived there for 11 years! It used to be the capitol of the entire country, for God's sake. But whatever. I guess these are probably supposed to be for “fun”.

UPDATE: I just want to say that I actually HAVE travelled to Latin America. I've been to Cancun which wasn't listed. I've also been to 8 towns in England BESIDES London but none of them were listed. I'd say that makes me pretty well traveled in the UK. And one of them was the place of Shakespeare's birth so I can't imagine why that doesn't “count”. Morons.

Your Travel Profile:

You Are Very Well Traveled in the Northeastern United States (71%)
You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in Canada (40%)
You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in the Southern United States (38%)
You Are Somewhat Well Traveled in the Western United States (32%)
You Are Mostly Untraveled in Eastern Europe (20%)
You Are Mostly Untraveled in Western Europe (14%)
You Are Mostly Untraveled in Southern Europe (13%)
You Are Mostly Untraveled in the United Kingdom (13%)
You Are Untraveled in Africa (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Asia (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Australia (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Latin America (0%)
You Are Untraveled in New Zealand (0%)
You Are Untraveled in Scandinavia (0%)
You Are Untraveled in the Middle East (0%)
You Are Untraveled in the Midwestern United States (0%)
How Well Traveled Are You?

Panda finds herself a mate

So…Tobe is doing really well. He's a quiet, gentle sort who just loves belly and head scratches and sleeping in dark corners. (Could it be that his blue eyes are hurt by light?). I honestly can't imagine why anyone would have given him up. He has pretty smelly farts and he does spray a bit, but if those were the only reasons to get rid of someone, Dom would have been history ages ago. Haha. I kid, I kid.

But seriously, he's awesome. I'm very happy with him and he seems to be pretty happy with me. He's a very good lap cat and he only slightly hinders my computer work when he decides he needs my hand to scratch his head right then and there.

Marilyn is doing ok with it all too. I think she's figured out the drill. She will meet him tomorrow night during Tobe's Coming Out Party/screening of Robocop. Things might get hairy for a little while but, given how mellow she's been so far, (not mellow for some cats, but for Marilyn who is pretty high strung, VERY mellow) I think she'll be ok.

Enough talk about my cat. I promise I will not become a crazy cat lady and start throwing tea parties for Tobe and dressing him in his Sunday best. On to more important topics like how excited I am for Trashy TV Thursday and how we are so close to finishing Snow Day that I can taste it! We just might make the San Diego Comic Con deadline after all. That has little bearing on whether or not we get INTO it, but if that happened, I would have a little geek orgasm. Can't get ahead of myself. No sir.

In work related news, my boss got himself a shiny new computer so I inherited his old one. It's very nice. It has 37 gigs! (As opposed to the 5 gigs that my old computer has). I also got me a flat panel monitor so I have a whole foot between my face and the screen now (instead of the 4 inches I had before). It's fantabulous and it's distracting me, temporarily, from how much I don't like being here. Hopefully the novelty won't wear off for a while due to my recent revelation about my indentured servitude to this company.

That is all.

barren augusta dutiful spotlight

The depressing half
Fuck. I recently realized that my brilliant idea of quitting this demeaning job to go and get a different one is, at this juncture, but a mere pipe dream. I have been very good at saving money and have a nice little cushion (not a WHOLE lot, but enough to keep me afloat for 2-3 months of unemployment). However, it has recently come to light that I must use that money for film stuff. It's probably going to be a lot for the sound mix (and Gadzook can only pay for half of that). It's going to cost a ton to send the movie to festivals. It's going to cost a ton more to print postcards, posters, stickers and buttons to promote the film. Not to mention the fact that, should we actually GET INTO any festivals, I will want to go to them. That's plane tickets and hotel cost. So all that money will need to be spent. Every job I have looked at cannot even pay me close to the what I'd thought was the meager salary I get now. So I might as well stay here. Hopefully my boss will be just as nice about letting me change my mind as he was about letting me take my time in leaving. That will be an embarrassing conversation. Damn me and my expensive dreams. Why couldn't I have wanted to be a fry cook?

The happy fluffy kitty half
Tobe is doing well. He was stoney baloney yesterday having gotten his bawls clipped. (I don't know what they did though cos he still HAS them…Maybe they just disconnected them? Weird) He napped for a little while on my lap and then a while longer in the corner of the office. I think he was slightly terrified of his freedom at first. (Insert Oz joke here). But by the end of the evening he was ready to come out of the office and explore. Unfortunately, we couldn't let him do that because we are supposed to keep him and Marilyn separate for 5 days. I also gave him a sponge bath because he was stinky and his tail was matted with dirt. He was very well behaved and I think he actually enjoyed the massaging properties of the scouring side of the sponge very much. I could only get about half the dirt out of his tail though. Ms. Faye will open her kitty salon later in the week and try to tackle the rest of the dirt. He still smells a bit though. It's that pesky boy spray smell. But theoretically, the snipping of the bawls should take care of that in time. ANYWHO, is he definitely a fantastically behaved cat and he loves being held and pet and put on laps so I think we are going to get along just fine. The best part is that Marilyn has been so weirded out that she hasn't even been meowing at us. She let us sleep right up until the alarm went off this morning. Awesome. Today, Tobe is allowed to explore the rest of the apartment whilst Marilyn stays in the bedroom. Let me tell you, she was none too pleased about that arrangement. She actually hissed at Dom. I will probably post pictures of his adorable orange fluffy self later in the week. Hooray for kitties.

inferiority complex taxidermists behind 8

WEEKEND RECAP

Friday
I relaxed for a minute or two when I got home and then headed over to the Canterbury with the lovely and talented Faye to start our evening of debauchery. We chose our table and sat and waited for our people to show up. It was one of those evenings where people came and went and we stayed affixed in our seats like so much immovable furniture. But happy, drunk furniture. We were visited by the likes of sweet Erin, krk, Andrew, Derek, Aiyana, Elyse, Erik, Borgia, Sherrard, another Chris and a cast of hundreds. People came and went and ordered and once again we made the mistake of not paying as we went. So at the end of the night, Faye and I were left with a bill full of things that we weren’t responsible for and the guilty parties nowhere to be found. Some people owe us some money. But before that happened, we had a lot of fun talking with the peeps, playing music on the juke, getting nearly concussed by a flying volleyball, eating delicious fries smothered in fairy dust, drinking a lot of beer (though not as much as we were charged for) seeing a stranger’s penis, and avoiding people from ye olde alma mater that we didn’t necessarily want to see. T’was a fun and eventful night, to be sure.

Saturday
We had much to do so I only slept in till around 9:30. We listened to some more music from our composers for “Snow Day” down in L.A. Then I got ready to go to the Seattle Animal Shelter to check out the kitty selection. Like this guy, I have been wanting a kitty of my own for quite some time. I had cats growing up, but in my adult life, it has been mostly rodents (whom I loved dearly but their lives are far too short). My last two rodents had to go and live with Auntie Faye because Dom’s cat, Marilyn, wanted to eat them and it gave them little rattie stress disorders. (For some reason my first two ratties weren’t afraid of her at all. But she definitely wanted to eat them too). Anyway, I still wanted a pet of my own. Someone to pet and love, etc. Marilyn is very much Dom’s cat. She likes me ok but she doesn’t want to sit on my lap and rarely wants me to give her the hugs and pets that I have in abundance to give. So a cat of my very own was the only solution.
After taking care of some more film business, Faye, Dom and I arrived at the Shelter just as it opened. Despite some guy standing outside the door trying to give away a beautiful dog by shouting about how his owner had killed himself and the dog had been abused, the shelter wasn’t quite as depressing as I’d prepared myself for. It’s run by good people who make sure to only let the animals get adopted by the right folks. You have to fill out an application before you can even pet an animal. Anywho, after passing a few kitties in the front room (including THE fattest house cat I have ever seen…seriously. My guess is that she tipped the scales at 20 pounds), I went to the back where I met many nice cats who needed a place to live. I had some requirements that needed to be met. Adult cat, male (because Marilyn would NOT get on with another girl), and not too old because, as much as I wanted to take home that sweet 15-year old boy, I don’t think I could handle getting attached to yet another animal that would be gone in just a few years. Also, the cat in question must be friendly, mellow and a lap cat. We found a fellow right away who seemed to meet these requirements. He was a bit younger than I’d wanted (11 months), but he was pawing at the cage to get our attention. His information said that he was very friendly and a lap cat. He had only been at the shelter a day or two and was brought there by a pregnant woman who had owned him for only a week. Apparently, she couldn’t handle all the spraying that this un-neutered cat was doing and, whatwith the bun in the oven, she didn’t have time to deal. Well, he was getting neutered before anyone could adopt him, so as far as I was concerned, he had no problems. I filled out the form and earned my petting privileges. The cat in question (unnamed), was placed on Dom’s lap and immediately settled in. He took a brief sabbatical on my lap but then returned to Dom’s ready for a nap. He seemed pretty cozy wherever though and was very much enjoying the barrage of pets that we gave him. He also didn’t meow once (which would make a great foil to Marilyn’s loquaciousness). We were sold. I filled out more paperwork and the young lad was mine. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take him home that say because he needed to be snipped first. So he was set for the knife on Monday and Monday evening, his groggy, furryness would arrive at his new home. Hooray for kitties.

Faye and I returned to my house to write. We had planned to finish the 3rd draft of our feature on that day. Well, writing always takes longer than you think it will. We did make quite a bit of headway though. We probably have one more day left. It’s really close, though. REALLY close. And, if I might toot our proverbial horns, pretty damned good. Certainly the best thing we’ve ever written (together. Faye has written plenty of amazing things on her own).

We then headed off to Woodinville for Ben’s roomwarming party. His parent’s had hooked up the pad with a sweet new “media room” and Ben wanted to break it in with a movie party. I have never been to Woodinville and I’m not sure if Faye has either, so we weren’t sure if we were in the right place. You follow 520 to the END and then you keep going. Whoa. And then you drive through Deliverance and turn off onto a secret street that curves up a spooky hill and then you end up in a vast expanse of a cul-de-sac. And that’s the way to Ben’s house. The house itself was pretty damned impressive. As was the ball-dropping flat panel super large wide-screen TV that we were met with. It was displaying the second half of Reefer Madness the musical when we arrived. And even though I didn’t get to see the first half, I must say it is one of the most brilliant things I have seen in a long time. Who knew Veronica Mars was so adorable and talented? Apparently, a lot of people. But not me until Saturday. After that was over, there was some debate over which film should be the inaugural one for the new TV. Faye and I suggested Robocop. With it’s Verhoevenness, how could you go wrong? But a room full of people we had never met outvoted us and we watched “The Lost Skeleton of Cadavre” with Faye and I agreed was one of the most pretentious, dead-horse beating pieces of independent cinema we’d seen in a long time. It is meant to be a spoof of Mystery Science Theater type films. But the whole reason THOSE movies are funny is because they aren’t meant to be. A movie like that which IS meant to be funny just isn’t because it’s far too self-referential. But we still enjoyed some stinky cheese and I just replayed the memory of “Reefer Madness” in my head until the movie was over. God, I’m an asshole.

Sunday
I did some tidying (though not enough. I really need to get in gear on that. I live in filth. It’s embarrassing). I also heard some more of our music for “Snow Day” which is ALMOST DONE!! I watched Some Kind Of Monster while I ate lunch. The review were right. It did make me hate Lars Ulrich more. Especially the part when sweet old Dave Mustaine pours his heart out to the point of tears and Lars is all “dude, I don’t care. Get over it”. My heart went out to Dave Mustaine who, if you ask me, is multitudes more talented than Lard will ever be. It makes me sad that Dave himself doesn’t realize this. Megadeth was the intellectual metal band. They sang about politics and occasionally witches. They used words that I had to look up in the dictionary when I was 12. Metallica was music for truck drivers. You were better off, Dave. I want to give you a hug.
Then I went to yoga and didn’t do so bad this week. I definitely need to make sure I go once a week.
Later, I got our “Snow Day” poster from our extremely talented artist (featuring the soon to be ubiquitous Skullflake™) and futzed with the design a little bit to make it print ready. Things are coming together! This week will be a very busy (and hopefully fruitful) week in “Snow Day”. And next week we will hopefully have all the necessary materials together to submit to the prestigious San Diego Comic Con Wish us luck.

Tonight I get to pick up my new kitty who I have named Tobe! Oh, happy day. Hulk would be pleased.