M E M O R Y L E S S N E S S

This weekend, Liz and I went to see Shine a Light at the new IMAX theater near our place. It rocks, seriously. Hadn’t seen an actual (read: entertainment) movie in IMAX before; I’d just seen a documentary previously. Anyway, it was obviously a Scorsese film, which was cool, and the set list is rad (lots of less-popular tracks, with a smattering of the hits (naturally). Go see it, if you can. Definitely worth the price. (Incidentally, the new theater near us features self-service/free-refills of all sizes of drinks, so that’s cool…they also have a full bar and a crazy ice cream shop.)

I also finally got around to posting some pictures from as far back as October 2006. Here they are, in chronological order:

Pictures from Las Vegas, October 2006

Highlights:

Fountains at the Bellagio

Me with Frankenstein’s Monster, Madame Tussaud’s wax museum

Pictures from the Burden Brothers Show at the Texas Crawfish Festival, Old Town Spring, TX, 04/28/2007 (some are good, some are blurry)

Highlights:

The Burden Brothers

Casey Hess #1 (Liz and I really like this one, despite the blur.)

Casey Hess #2 (We were right in front of him, hence the relatively high number of Hess shots in this set.)

Pictures from the Burden Brothers Show at Antone’s, Beaumont, TX, 07/21/2007 (some are good, some are blurry)

Highlight:

Vaden Todd Lewis

Pictures from the Baboon Show at the Double Wide, Dallas, TX, 12/21/2007 (some are good, some are blurry)

Highlights:

Baboon (This picture isn’t very good, really, but it does include Andrew Huffstetler’s signature “finger in the air.”)

Mark Hughes (This picture reminds me of the cover to Instrument Soundtrack by Fugazi.)

A lot of the photos from these sets have been added to my new photoblog.

Last night, Liz and I went to the Halloween 4 and 5 double feature. From that site:

Don’t miss an exclusive Halloween 4 & 5 Double-Feature on the big screen for one night only! Plus, a special never-before-seen bonus – Halloween: Faces of Fear – an in-depth documentary directed by Mark Cerulli featuring interviews and rare behind-the-scenes footage including “Meet the Michaels” – conversations with six of the men behind the mask. In select movie theatres on October 30th at 7:30PM (local). The $10 ticket price includes Halloween 4, Halloween 5 and the special bonus documentary.

Other than the facts that 1) they started the documentary early so we missed the first part of it and 2) there weren’t too many people there, it was a fun time. The documentary (what we saw of it) was interesting, and not just archival footage that we’d seen previously (some of it was old footage, but some of the people in it are now deceased, so that’s how it had to be). I learned some things, such as the fact that the director of part 5 is a man named Dominique (he’s French), not a woman as I’d previously thought. The crowd (small as it was) was really into both movies, too, laughing at appropriate (and inappropriate) times. It was cool.

I had seen both films several times before, but I’d forgotten how silly they are. Something about watching them on the big screen added to their silliness; maybe it was the laughter of the other moviegoers. Anyway, it was fun. Liz and I discussed how a big part of the silliness, really, is that these movies are very focused on the adventures of Jamie Lloyd, an eight (in part 4) to nine (in part five) year old girl. There’s nothing wrong with that, except that these are American films so we know that she can’t really be in peril; American filmmakers/producers don’t traditionally put children in peril. Part 5 also adds the ridiculous “thorn” symbol to the Michael Myers mythology, the symbol which plays very heavily into part 6’s plot. Donald Pleasence is, of course, the best actor in both films; the dude was an icon for a reason. He took the part of Dr. Loomis seriously (as seriously as possible in these sequels; I imagine that it was easier to do so in the original film), and that lends a lot of credibility to the Halloween films that he’s in, imo. Part 5 features a lot of people (particular Dr. Loomis) harassing Jamie (shaking her, getting in her face, yelling at her); the crowd seemed to particularly enjoy this. The children harassing her in Part 4 (”Jamie’s an orphan!”) also elicited their fair share of chuckles.

All things considered, it was a fun time. Fathom Events should have more events like this.

More Halloween-related links, courtesy of HalloweenMovies.com:
Halloween
Halloween 4
Halloween 5

Happy Halloween. It’s almost time to carve pumpkins and watch the original Halloween for the umpteenth time. Aww yeah!

on 7/6, liz and i went to this theater to see bruce campbell’s new movie, Man with the Screaming Brain. he was also signing copies of his latest book, Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way (which is really good), so we got one signed. yes, i’m a fanboy.

apparently, he doesn’t pose for pictures with fans anymore, but there was a nice lady there taking pictures for people as he signed. if i look a little bit starstruck in these, it’s because i was; i ain’t gonna lie…it’s BRUCE CAMPBELL.

i seem to be pretty interested in what he’s doing, eh?

note my demonic red eyes in this one:

so yeah, we got the book signed, then we sat in the theater and waited for the Q&A. some people had good questions, but then there were the random lame questions that you’d know the answers to if you had either a) read his autobiography (If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor) or b) looked at his website, neither of which seems to be too much of a stretch for people who are supposedly fans of his (questions such as “Evil Dead IV?”). the best question, or at least the funniest one, was, “how do you stay in shape?” it was asked by an old man. odd.

after some questions, he introduced the movie, then it started. let me tell you, Man with the Screaming Brain is one of the most bizarre movies i’ve ever seen. it was shot in bulgaria because of low production costs, and it had a weird tv-esque look to it. that makes sense, since it was financed by the sci fi channel and it’s going to be shown on there in september after campbell’s book/movie tour is over.

the movie is really funny. ted raimi as pavel pretty much steals the scenes that he’s in as a hip hop obsessed russian teenager/twenty-something. that’s especially funny, since he’s about 40. anyway, it’s a good low-budget movie that’s worth seeing, i think. yes indeed.

so today is our one year anniversary. well, our one year wedding anniversary…liz and i have been together for 5.5 years today. it’s been a year since we went to vegas and such.

i’ve taken thursday, friday, and today off work so we can have a long weekend to celebrate. and celebrate we have…we went to Star Wars on wednesday night and thursday afternoon, and we’ll likely go again later today. we’ve also watched the original Star Wars trilogy, just to see how they match up with the prequels…Episode III fills in a lot of the holes, but there are some discrepancies. we missed the Reverend Horton Heat show, but that’s okay. like i said, i’ve seen them about 10 times (more like 12, actually, i think). they come here a lot, too, so we’ll catch them next time. anyway…

on friday, we went and walked around the mall. that’s always fun. i bought some stuff for liz (anniv. presents). then we went home and ate pizza. aww yeah. on saturday, we hung out, slept in, etc. then went to see Dominion (the Exorcist prequel). more on that later. yesterday, mick and lara came to town (for the graduation of a friend of theirs). they came by our apartment, then we went to lunch together. it was nice to see them, and it was nice to meet their baby, keegan (even though he was a bit fussy when they first got here, and then he slept the rest of the time). it was fun. after that, liz and i went to the downtown aquarium. that was neat. we’ve been meaning to do some of the “tourist” stuff around here, so we did…that seemed like a better bet than the zoo, too, since yesterday was really hot. the aquarium is cool; lots of fish. and, for some reason, they have white tigers and a ferris wheel. with the fish and tigers, it was almost like we were back in vegas. the aquarium also has a cool bar that makes goos margaritas.

after the aquarium, we went to the hard rock cafe for dinner, only partially because we’d eaten at the one in vegas the night before our wedding last year. that was fun, but we both felt yucky after having eaten so much yesterday. we went home and walked on the treadmills for a while, then watched The Science of Star Wars on the discovery channel. it’s pretty cool. today, we slept in again (well, i did. liz couldn’t sleep well, so she’s napping now). i got up after a while, got us bagels for breakfast, and then we exchanged anniversary presents. she got me cool cool stuff. the novelization of Episode III, for instance, to go with my copies of the novelizations of the other Star Wars films. she also got me Joey Ramone’s solo album and Lucky 7, the one Reverend Horton Heat album i didn’t have. she also got me the second season of Quantum Leap and Team America on DVD. i tell ya, that girl spoils me. it’s all stuff that i wanted, and now i have it, aww yeah.

i got her some things she seemed to like as well (The Crow box set, Blade box set, the new System of a Down album, the new(est) Prodigy album, The Donnie Darko Book).

so, we’ve got a lot of music to listen to and movies to watch. but that’s just how we roll. hah. all in all, it’s been a great anniversary and pre-anniversary. and it’s not over yet. still going to see that movie one more time, then it’s off to dinner. aww yeah. and i’ve got a 4-day work week this week, then there’s another 3-day weekend. excellent.

love you liz. happy anniversary.

before the movie, liz and i were talking about how excited and (relatively) let down we were in 1999 by Episode I. we both saw it the day it came out. i actually saw it 3 times before the day was out. well, once the previous day and twice that day. i worked at the theater when that one came out, and i actually worked the night of the midnight show.

i’d closed the store (my other job) the previous night, it was summer, so i was asleep at noonish when the phone rang. it was the theater manager, asking if i wanted to come screen the print of the movie before the show. “hell yeah,” i said. “be here in 30 minutes. and come alone.” seriously, he said that. normally, we could bring friends to the screenings of new movies. normally, the new movies came in early enough to screen them the previous day. man, i don’t think i even showered. i got to the theater, we waited around for about an hour for everybody to show up (during which i went to taco villa (?) with chris casler to get food for everybody, listening to brutal juice in the car…the details one remembers are weird, eh?). so the movie started, the 10 or so of us cheered, it was great. then the movie happened…and we were all a little disappointed…or more than a little, in some case.

so i went home after the movie, it was about 4 o’clock. i took a shower. my mom had bought me Episode I legos, so i put them together, then ate some dinner, and went back to the theater for work at 6 or so. we were showing some crappy movies that day, so nobody much showed up (having only 2 screens was awesome in that respect…it was often dead, even on a weekend night). the midnight show of Phantom Menace had sold out a week or more before. the first attendee of the show got there at 8pm. it was this girl i’d gone to high school with who had recently (or shortly after that, maybe) dated my friend dream briefly. so, she took one of the lobby chairs and sat by the theater door for 3 hours or so until we let people in for the film. around 9, more people started to show up. by 10, it was getting crowded…by 10:30, it was packed…our little lobby was filled with Star Wars fans. they filed into the theater when we opened the doors, 3 of us tearing tickets (usually, we just had one usher (or none at all)).

i was scheduled until 11pm or something weird…i worked until 11:45 or so, i think, slingin’ popcorn, tearing tickets, running around. it was almost as busy as when i’d started working there when the abominable Twister came out. it was crazy. my friends had saved my seat (i think it was booe that saved it, to be exact). i told the boss that i had tickets, but i’d work until right before the movie started. somehow, i got away with that. weird. he’s the one who scheduled me until 11pm, after all.

and it seems like that wasn’t that long ago…6 years has flown by. crazy. after the show (which a multitude of my friends attended, including seth, oscar, colin, mick, james, tom, jason, and, uhh, many others…), many of us went to mick’s place and played Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. which is hard, though i still kicked everyone’s ass. then people left and james and i stayed up talking about Star Wars philosophies and how we expected the story arc to go linking Phantom Menace to A New Hope. we also talked about how the movie wasn’t as great as we’d hoped, but it was still better than it could have been. and how jar jar binks had to go…yeah. fun times.

then i went home and went to bed. i slept in the next day, then went to work at the store. that evening, i went back to the theater with my parents to see the movie again. for a movie that disappointed me, i sure saw it a lot within a 36 hour period, huh?

man, seems like it was really recent. 6 years, damn. i’ve got another good Star Wars anecdote that i was reminded of last night. maybe later.

i should have included this stuff in the latest installment of THE GwD STAR WARS SPECIAL. it was pretty sparse. perhaps there’ll be an EPISODE IV of that. or a IIIb or something.