A close game near the end (2-1) but I’ll take the two points. Let’s see if they repeat this tomorrow night against the Checkers. Last year they devastated the Barons 7-0, then the season gradually went into the toilet.
Various co-workers and acquaintances have asked, without soliciting from me, “Have you lost weight?” It’s a relief/thrill when the answer is, “Yes. Thanks for noticing. I’ve dropped 20 pounds, another 20 to go.”
Today’s exchange with one of the gym’s trainers was cooler, he complimented me on my consistency…showing up practically every day and running. Thanks dude! It takes beaucoup self discipline to maintain the habit, especially when the results hit frequent plateaus. I recently overcame the upper two-teens to get to the lower two-teens, I think I’m stuck on the lower two-teens as I’m pushing to be under 210 pounds on a regular basis; this would be five out of seven days a week.
Michael O’Hare passed on September 28. He was best known as Commander Sinclair on Babylon 5 and spoiler alert, Valenn. This was revealed over a decade ago, it’s not really a spoiler. O’Hare didn’t do much TV from what I could find, he was more of a stage guy. Initially I thought his B5 acting began as rather stiff but I was growing to like him when the powers running the show decided to go with Bruce Boxleitner with season two. How Sinclair was ditched started off in a clunky manner. I am glad they brought O’Hare’s character back periodically and gave him a great farewell as becoming a key person in the B5 Universe’s history. I also give J Michael Straczynski credit for demonstrating his adept writing with something as fluid as an ongoing TV series.
I’ve also noticed how B5 has had bad luck with its cast. Three major actors are gone while Star Trek: NG and its spinoffs have had no major losses. I would prefer all genre shows’ casts to live long, pleasant lives with one exception, Adam Baldwin from Firefly, he’s a birther douchebag.
Next up was Howard H Scott. You may not recognize him at all. He was a key player in helping with the development of the LP, the music format for albums before cassettes, CDs and MP3s. Scott had incredible patience in supervising the transfers of long Classical pieces from 78s to 33 1/3s. This was all done without computers or tape in the late Forties. More about him is here.
Finally, NFL Hall of Famer Alex Karras died. Many my age know him for the Webster TV show he starred in with his wife and Gary Coleman knockoff Emmanuel Lewis. I usually avoided the sugary program. To me he’ll forever be Mongo in Blazing Saddles!
It’s a dual-purpose event. The season-ticket holders get their packages and gifts, then meet the lineup. This year we have a pair of new goalies, a few changes with the regular skaters and a new coaching staff. Sad to see the two Daves get fired but it’s easier to blame them for a bad season than sack the team.
This year’s gift was a portable chair. Not an uncomfortable, metal folding chair. A cooler one with a cup holder, made of canvas I think. It’ll come in handy with waiting in queue outside and when Somara kills time while I skate at the Northcross rink.
I think the Stars are looking great. We have a couple Swedes, a vet from the Milwaukee Admirals, two guys who should be in Dallas pinching in (thanks lock out!) and a dude from France.
Season opens for us Saturday with our first home game this Sunday against the Checkers.
My friend Steve’s little boy is getting bigger, 12! I think. I’m sure he’s over Ben 10 by now and more into the cooler comic books we grown-ups are into. With the changes in our civilization it’s probably easier to just send him iTunes/Amazon gift cards.
The nice staffers at White Rock threw in a touching condolence card too. I was mostly moved by Dr. Riggan’s kind words. He knew how much Molly meant to me.
Today was a half day at work since I had my monthly session with the doctor for the ongoing evil-twin war. Dr. Custer had some nice insights as well about why am I more torn up/distraught over the loss of a 10-pound creature than say Grandpa and Grandma. As much as I loved Molly, I have some perspective yet it still doesn’t stop the pain.
Every day I do get better. Eventually I will enjoy the Tom Jones hit again without sorrow.
This is a little kid book my friend Helen recommended for me to help with grieving over the loss of Molly. I was really touched by the preview on Amazon so I bought two copies, one for me and the other give my vet. The actual book didn’t disappoint as I cried while reading it since I could relate to the narrator explaining how he misses his cat Barney.
I do hope the vet’s copy helps other children overcome their sorry too.
Let’s get the most obvious question/statement out of the way…why was this movie (re)made given how awful Stallone’s version was in 1995? It is a fair yet cliche question I think I can answer. Firstly, Comic book characters are hot properties again thanks to the Marvel Comics juggernaut. The other entails the film’s DNA, it was primarily made and funded outside the US. While sitting through the closing credits we saw many references to the UK and South Africa. Oh yeah, if imdb.com is correct, this was made for a paltry $50 million which is chump change in America for these types of flicks, another hint on how the primary audience isn’t Americans.
I’m done second guessing the economics/rationales, the real point in writing about Dredd is how this movie isn’t something I’d recommend to everybody like Brave or Prometheus while arguing it’s better than Paranorman. Maybe I should post a scale to clarify where “Acquired Taste” stands against “Rental.” For now let’s say they’re equal with nuances.
The other matter I want to declare is that I’ve been a fan of Judge Dredd since the late Eighties when I could find new and reprinted adventures. I’m more familiar than the average Yank when it comes to the UK’s equivalent of Batman. I also know the comics are really satire; in many ways, it’s how the Brits perceive America through the lens of our violent media and culture. Was I excited to see another attempt at a Judge Dredd movie well? Not immediately. The initial reviews I read were mixed too. When they’re not unanimous in either directions, I lean toward checking it out because I’m familiar with the source material.
How does it fare though? This adaptation was a thousand times more faithful to the comics than Stallone’s buddy picture. Karl Urban is much closer to emulating the character’s personality. Most importantly, he never takes off the helmet. I wish his voice were a bit deeper but it’s better than doing the Batman sure needs a lozenge schtick Christian Bale does. There’s no time wasted on a long exposition neither, you get the idea of what a hellhole MegaCity One is and Dredd starts fighting perps in minutes. The production team goes with a lower-tech look unlike the comics yet it works better to illustrate the crippling poverty and squalor for the backdrop.
Some creative changes were made to accommodate the movie for a broader audience: it’s partly an intro story for Judge Anderson, a telepathic judge; it’s a mentor picture due to this mission being Anderson’s graduation exercise; the dark humor is absent unless Dredd makes a zinger; Dredd is more flexible or merciful when he stuns a pair of juveniles trying to shoot him, in the comics he would’ve killed them. None are deal breakers, the producers made the wiser concessions in order to bring Dredd and his universe to life.
Overall Dredd succeeds with three out of four audiences. Longtime fans, they will applaud this. Action-film fans, it ranks up there with Robocop. Gore aficionados, the slow-motion splatter delivers (you see things from the perspective of people taking a drug called Sl-Mo). Sadly it fails with the biggest, most important crowd…general audiences. People went to The Dark Knight Rises in droves despite it being a somewhat equally gruesome movie. Batman’s 50-year head start and international fame through Adam West probably helped. Judge Dredd will always elicit bewilderment or a quick, snarky comment about Stallone’s flop. If you’re in the first three audiences, Dredd will deliver, otherwise don’t bother.
To catch this, Somara and I drove all the way to the Slaughter Lane Alamo, the only good theater carrying Dredd 3D. We were late to the pre-show fun but caught a couple amusing things, namely the trailer to Robocop 3, the sequel without Peter Weller in the key role and some cheesy horror movie Diane Franklin starred in.
The NHL is off to repeat bad history with another self-destructive lockout thanks to Gary Bettman and tightwad/dumbass owners. Never mind how profitable things were, the owners are terrible at running their businesses but like other industries…they blame unions for their stupidity.
At least this doesn’t affect the AHL terribly other than some NHL-calbier players coming down for the interim. In the Stars’ case that would be Tomas Vincour and Matt Fraser who can give us the offensive punch we lacked last season. They had it in spades last night and Wednesday. Too bad those victories don’t count.
I’m hoping the fantastic demonstrations shown are a sign of what’s to come. The Stars were strong on opening night and then limped along for the remainder. The previous season was one everybody would prefer to forget, namely the coaching duo of the Daves…they got sacked within 24 hours of our final game. Their successor Willie Desjardins seems alright yet we need to see how things look in another month, what will be the trend. Plus I’m not sure how many NHLers our common opponents are going to have hanging around their benches.
The Stars’ fourth season kicks off on 10/13 in San Antonio (sigh, again) and they open at home the following Sunday (10/14) against Charlotte, an odd choice. I’ll take it. We should beat ’em, I dislike most thing from the Carolinas; Southern Culture on the Skids gets a pass along with Ben Folds.
This one’s Pink.
For those under 30 who don’t know the character on the shirt is, it’s Floyd “The Barber” Lawson from The Andy Griffith Show, played by actor Howard McNear. Once Eugene Levy starting doing his funnier impression on SCTV, I could never watch the corny SitCom without giggling at Floyd appearances.
The shirt is a good play on the ProgRock band’s name.
Last Saturday I got my daily running back on track. Whenever I let it slide too long these days I start from a relatively easy goal of two miles at a decent speed. Then I bump the distance by a tenth every successive day until I reach three miles.
The exercise was given a lower priority during the vacation due to Molly concerns, trust me, I love exercising on a day off, there’s less of a rush to finish. Sometimes I push the objective a little further.
Now life is settling back to its expected routine for the remainder of 2o12 and I made it past 700 miles since I started aggressively tracking last year. My weight dropped significantly too, depression will do this. I gained a few pounds back but I’m under 215!
I hope to regain the 3 or 3.1 miles/day setup and cross the 800-mile finish line in less than 35 days. Wish me luck. It should get a little easier when I change shoes after 750; each pair lasts around 175 miles, I may lower this to 150.
Wow, has it been 15 years since this hit theaters? (Late Spring 1997, right before the Summer Blockbuster season.) I think the movie was a partial success/partial flop with the $29 million (about $40 today) it made at the multiplexes. I can confidently say that Romy & Michele lived on successfully through cable and rentals. Enough to get Disney to gamble with an ABC Family Channel prequel eight years later starring…Katherine Heigel, the queen of comedy buzzkill.
On the surface this was another film in a string of Mira Sorvino’s failures before she faded into lesser TV roles. Another victim of the Oscar® curse. Personally I like Mira yet I must confess bias: she’s close to my age (a year older), she’s part Italian (like me!), very intelligent in real life (way more educated than yours truly) and has starred in The Great Gatsby (a favorite novel!).
R&M can also be seen as one more cynical marketing vehicle to sell yet another compilation of Eighties hits, see Grosse Pointe Blank and The Wedding Singer. Hollywood knows the power of musical association with memory well.
Lastly, the front half of Generation X (1965-1980) was starting to reach its collective thirties so here was an attempt to make its version of The Big Chill. A movie I think should be buried at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean along with all the other self-congratulating Boomer crap.
Put those accusations and theories aside, along with the odd looks I get when defending R&M. Poor marketing hurt its chances, namely the blonde jokes in the bylines. A more daring and honest campaign would’ve gone with John Hughes themes in its DNA. Blasphemy! some might reply.
I’m not going to waste any time over the story, either you know it or don’t care. What I did rediscover during the Quote-Along was another moral lesson I missed upon previous viewings; I hadn’t watched R&M in its entirety for a decade. What was it? Regardless of high-school social standing, teenagers torment each other directly/indirectly, intentionally/unintentionally and gleefully/unknowingly. Examples:
The last illustration is obvious and to some extent, the others probably were but it never sunk in. I guess I related too much with Heather in my late twenties (what Paul Bellini coined in a funny song called “Long Dark Twenties”).
Was it a good time as a joint Quote-Along/Girlie Night? Yes even though R&M‘s key lines aren’t in the same league as The Princess Bride, Caddyshack or So I Married an Ax Murderer (next week!), a good chunk are memorable. The props were clever: gummi bears and a rave ring for the club scenes. The host had some ladies do a dance off to the Cyndi Lauper tune. Lastly the pre-show fare was mostly Eighties music videos which skewed toward the ladies.
Has R&M held up after 15 years? For its core audience it does and not much more. Younger people will see it as dated, especially the technology used. Could it be revamped or worse…remade? Easily, the themes never change only the scenery, inside jokes (“I’m the Mary you’re the Rhoda!” gets puzzled looks from anybody under 30) and stereotypes. It’s not an endorsement for rebooting, I’m stating how the universality of its story continues to work.
Do I recommend watching it again? Yes with a slight condition. It’s best if you haven’t sat through it in at least five years. People who hated R&M then will probably continue to hate it. The ultimate test will be if R&M gets cycled through in the next two years for an Alamo signature event.
This will go into effect on Friday, October 15 at least with all the Austin locations. The initial stages irritated me because they tacked on a few more bucks per seat. They did react to people (such as myself) grumbling, making accusations of the Leagues & Co. catering to the one-percenters in our midst, people who are making Austin shittier and more Republican/Teabagger.
However, I am in the camp of agreeing with the policy since there is no upcharge in their final implementation, namely when buying seats online which is how I do things with Alamo 90 percent of the time; Dredd was the first movie we’ve attended on the spot in weeks, otherwise, we plan ahead. I worked at two other theater chains, I know the grief when there are few good, remaining seats. Plus this is no different than concerts. I’ve enjoyed my times on the floor with general admission. If it’s a band I’m nuts over, I make sure I’m there early, otherwise, I don’t bitch, shove or weasel my way up.
Let’s see how it pans out in the long run. I think there will be no change in attendance.
You probably thought this month’s header was Hipster trio The Avett Brothers given the bodacious and ironic facial hair. Alas…no. It’s from a print of Giuseppe Garibaldi at three different phases in his long military career.
I’ll write more about him and others as the month goes on, Garibaldi receives some special attention because America is reminiscing over the Civil War. In the Deep South’s case, they’re not since they spend all their energy revising what occurred. Now wait, how does the dude who was a major player in unifying the Italian peninsula into the modern nation of Italy have to do with America? You’ll just have to find out as October progresses.
Meanwhile I’m going over the leftovers from last year and see I need to continue digging. There’s more to Italians than being entertainment and/or organized-crime figures.
