"Immigrant Song"

So I watched The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo with some friends on Tuesday. Let me say that it was a very good movie, I enjoyed the cast, and director David Fincher made a lot of great decisions that really made me feel for certain characters, and made me fear for others. He does tension very well. He also made decisions that make me very sure I can never watch the film again. The sexual abuse suffered and inflicted by the title character is so intense, and the camera just doesn't pan away. Good film, mostly great acting, but some of those scenes are just not going to leave me any time soon. The actress playing that main role really underwent a dramatic appearance change, it's outstanding how "in" the character she is. The song playing in most of the trailers, and over the title credits is a cover of Led Zeppelin's  Immigrant Song by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross with vocals by Karen O of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. When it finished, one of my friends leaned over and said, "now I really want a new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album". I said I wanted Reznor and friends to do a new version of Another Brick in the Wall (Part II). Oh, almost forgot: it will change the way you hear Orinoco Flow like American Psycho changed the way you heard Hip to Be Square.

"Fly Like an Eagle"

Watched the new Justin Timberlake/Cillian Murphy/Amanda Seyfried movie In Time last night. It has a really neat premise that I don't think has been done before. It also contains aspects (good aspects) of Bonnie & Clyde and Les Misérables. It tells the class warfare story well, and the actors in it were all great. That being said, it wasn't as good as the sum of its parts. Partially for me this was due to a number of things "pulling me out" of the experience.

Right at the beginning, the voice over before the movie really begins was a giant hand wave. "We don't really know how to explain the science part of our sci-fi premise, so just go along with us here." Setting up the whole no one ages after 25 and time is money thing is important, but don't try to tell me that there is a scientific explanation, but we're just not going to tell you, because our narrator doesn't know. Just set up and move on. Everyone stops aging at 25 gives us the amusing visual of Olivia Wilde as Justin's Mom. I thought that would be a distraction, and at first it was, but she turns in a hell of a performance.

For a movie that should have been stocked with people in their mid 20s, one of the things that really pulled me out of the experience was how old some of the actors looked. Cillian Murphy was great in his role as a Time Keeper, but he's 35 and looked it. At first it worked, he's a senior cop, so having some gravitas helps, but that's not the premise that they set up. no one is supposed to age outwardly, hard life or not. The cars are all classic sports cars and muscle cars from the 20th century, which is cool, we've made cool cars over the years, but they all 'sound future-y'. Again, its distracting to hear the Star-Trek door hiss sound every time someone opens a car door in this movie.

Andrew Niccol always gives us a good premise, but sometimes his execution is better than others. It's fairly heavy handed against the rich, but I think this one is worth checking out if you've got the chance.

"This is How I Roll"

Busy weekend. Hung out with friend I haven't seen in years who just got back from England. Also took a Londoner to his first live baseball game. Played board games at a potluck with friends, and also spent hours at Denny's with yet other friends. But the funniest part of the weekend was going to the movies Friday night.

Horrible Bosses was three times funnier than I expected. It is vulgar, slightly violent, and more than slightly dirty, but if you have not seen it yet, get it on Netflix or hit the second run theater near you.

"Ma Belle Evangeline"

Watched The Princess and the Frog last weekend. I'm sure plenty has been written about the new princess being black, and about the princess working towards a goal, and not just hoping for her prince to come. I just wanted to tell you that the music was great, the art was fun, and all the callbacks to the earlier movies in the Disney cannon were great. I enjoyed Keith David as the bad guy, and John Goodman in a supporting role, and didn't notice Oprah, Terrence Howard, or anyone else I was supposed to.

Honestly the music was my favorite part. I know that people were disappointed that Alan Menken (The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast etc.) was pulled off the soundtrack, but Randy Newman goes great with the New Orleans and Cajun sound.

I'd give it a thumbs up. It swings for the fences and gets so close you want to give it to them. Old Disney style, with talking animals, great songs, and classic character looks. I'm looking forward to Tangled.

"Love Will Tear us Apart"

Watched The Time Traveler's Wife last weekend. Two of us had read the book and one hadn't. The two who had read the book agreed that the book was better, but that the movie was enjoyable and really couldn't do exactly what the book had done due to media shifts. The person who hadn't read the book liked it and wanted to read the book. As to audience complaints that it was confusing, she merely stated "the title of the movie tells you all you need to know not to be confused. If you come in thinking time travel and you still get confused then you are easily confused, and I'm sorry."

They didn't deviate much from the story, though they did cut out a bunch. I think they should have done more to show age changes, but what they did was good, I just think a little more would have been helpful sometimes. Rachel McAadams was great, Eric Bana is Australian but I forgot, and Brooklynn Proulx is a pretty good child actor with a ridiculous name. Ron Livingston deserves more work. He was a good lead in Music Within and of course he's famous for Band of Brothers and Office Space, but I think he should be more of a household name. Then again, maybe he's just a good actor, not a great actor, I don't know. I think he's great. But what do I know.

See the movie if you have the time. Read the book for sure. And watch something with Ron Livingston in it and tell a friend. The man needs some exposure.

Miles from Nowhere

Just watched The Brothers Bloom.

First of all, great music. Cat Stevens, Bob Dylan, and the Small Faces just to start. Cast is perfect, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Robbie Coltrane, all perfect; Rachel Weisz was quirky without being annoying. The movie is about telling stories and the truth, so it has that going for it. And cinematically I loved it. Little moments with the camera, and the director making us aware of the uncomfortable silences and letting them build.

It wasn't perfect. But it was good.

"Welcome Home"

The Acadmey Award nominated short film 9 is being adapted as a feature length film. The trailer hit on Christmas Day.



It's been so long since I've done his, I forget how to embed videos. But it's worth taking a second to check out the links.

"Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Sorry for the pun.

In case you haven't seen it yet...

Looks a lot like Sin City to me, but looks like fun.

• MTV
• Music Videos
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• Entertainment News

I haven't read enough of The Spirit. But I've read enough to know I wouldn't trust most directors to do it right. Of course, this is Frank Miller we're talking about, so I think I'm gonna give him a little room.

"Rocket"

So we had some good guesses, but fewer people than I thought. Guess this one was a little hard. Or maybe just not interesting enough. I tried to stray from the music quizzes a little, and the next quiz is also not music related. In addition, the next quiz I was going to do is fairly hard (I think) so maybe I'll put it on the back burner. Take a break from the quizzes, see if I can fill my blog with something else for a while. Random trivia, or a play by play on updating my resume.

Enough of that. On to the answers.

1. I like rich people. I like the way they live. I like the way I live when I'm with them. This is Richard Haydn as Max Detweiler in The Sound of Music. He's the weaselly but nice about it manager/kindly uncle.

2. We're all going to die and they're never going to give me my license! E.T. The older brother says it about the feds chasing them.

3. I can do anything, I'm the chief of police. Fletch was a good guess, I can almost hear Chevy Chase saying it, but it is from Jaws.

4. Angel, ha! She's a female! And all females is poison! They're full of wicked wiles! "What's a wile" "I don't know, but I'm agin' 'em". Oh Grumpy, one day you'll warm up to women. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

5. That's a pie crust promise. Easily made, easily broken. Julie Andrews movie number 2: Mary Poppins. Way to go Melissa.

6. Her dream had come true. She was a folk singer. Not as obscure a quote as I thought, Forest Gump it is. Big pat on the back for everyone, unless you pictured Buttercup naked in which case you are dirty. Bad readers! Hee Hee, now you're all doing it.

7. Kids, we're gonna have to eat this cake by ourselves. Your Uncle Joey didn't make parole again. Back to the Future it is, with Lea Thompson in some really great fat/age make-up.

8. I don't want to play the gender card right now. You want to play a card, let's play the "let's not die" card. I didn't expect anyone to get this. It's from Nemo! Marlin is talking to Dory about not asking for directions, then Dory speaks whale remember? Man I've watched that movie too many times for a thirty year old without kids.

9. Do you know why the number two hundred is so vitally descriptive to both you and me? It's your weight and my I.Q. Oscar winner Gene Hackman in the role I remember him best for: Lex Luthor in the first Superman film. He's bitching out his hired help Otis (Ned Beatty) in this line. Way to go Lex, biggest brain on the planet, rip on a guy for being fat.

10.When you grow up, your heart dies. Melissa is right on with Breakfast Club.

11.I want him manning a radar tower in Alaska by the end of the day. Just mail him his clothes. Ominous line from the first Mission Impossible movie.

12.Wonderful girl! Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her. Han Solo will hunt down those of you who did not know this and revoke your geek card. Of course Lykaon gave his up of his own free will earlier this month.

13. Both hands on the wheel, Mr. Jones, I'm a very nervous passenger. Sean Connery as James Bond in Dr. No. Dude picks him up from the airport, and Bond knows its a setup the whole time.

14.This is the cleanest and nicest police car I've ever been in my life. This thing is nicer than my apartment. Axel! Eddie Murphy in the first Beverly Hills Cop. It's from earlier in the film, before they realise he's a cop.

15. Flying a plane is no different from riding a bicycle; it's just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes. And last is Airplane! Melissa got this one too.

Hope everyone enjoyed this little walk down memory lane. Sorry I didn't include pics or videos, but I actually have work to do at work today! Stupid work, making Davey's few loyal readers have to stare at boring text.

"Rocket Queen"

There are movies that you have watched time and time again. Movies that you would swear you could quote every line of, right along with it. But could you really? What if someone gave you a line completely out of context? I'm sure we all could do "Anybody want a peanut?" or "As you wish!" But how many of us can do "I'm not saying I'd like to build a summer home here, but the trees are actually quite lovely"?

OK,that one was a little easy with the build up from the other quotes, but you see what I mean. So here is the idea. Quotes from some of the biggest and best movies of all time. The chances that you have seen these movies is very high, but do you remember them all? Let me give an example. The quote that gave me the idea for this is "It rains because you're sad baby." Remember it? It's from Men in Black 2. I'm not including it in the quiz because it is not a well known enough movie. I mean, it was big, but it wasn't HUGE. The movies these quotes come from are HUGE. Either enormous blockbusters, or movies that touched our national conscience or both.

Oh yeah, and bonus points for the title of the post. It's a song I picked special for someone who hasn't posted here in a long time. Someone who just may get Dutch-balled if she doesn't play.

1. I like rich people. I like the way they live. I like the way I live when I'm with them.

2. We're all going to die and they're never going to give me my license!

3. I can do anything, I'm the chief of police.

4. Angel, ha! She's a female! And all females is poison! They're full of wicked wiles!

5. That's a pie crust promise. Easily made, easily broken.

6. Her dream had come true. She was a folk singer.

7. Kids, we're gonna have to eat this cake by ourselves. Your Uncle Joey didn't make parole again.

8. I don't want to play the gender card right now. You want to play a card, let's play the "let's not die" card.

9. Do you know why the number two hundred is so vitally descriptive to both you and me? It's your weight and my I.Q.

10.When you grow up, your heart dies.

11.I want him manning a radar tower in Alaska by the end of the day. Just mail him his clothes.

12.Wonderful girl! Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her.

13. Both hands on the wheel, Mr. Jones, I'm a very nervous passenger.

14.This is the cleanest and nicest police car I've ever been in my life. This thing is nicer than my apartment.

15. Flying a plane is no different from riding a bicycle; it's just a lot harder to put baseball cards in the spokes.

" I Like Chinese"

Dave's comment about Flash Gordon villain "Ming the Merciless" on Maren's post, and her own mentioning of the old serial version got me thinking.

The ethnicity (please not "race" we are all the same race) of villains in our popular media. Who are our go to villains though the years, and who gets pushed aside for a new crop?

I don't have a coherent thought on this one. I'm kind of rambling here. So let's start with the Yellow Peril. As Dave pointed out, the new version of Flash Gordon has Flash face up against Ming as always, but he is not Asian, as he has typically been portrayed. Now, in this particular case, Ming is supposed to be an extra-dimensional, or alien, but still; the Yellow Peril has been whitewashed. Other recent examples of this whitewashing include the movie version of Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and Batman Begins. In Mr. Moore's graphic novel, "The Doctor"; a Fu Manchu stand in b/c that name is still not in the public domain, is a major villain. He is Chinese, has the moustache, and has hoards of Asian followers. In the film, no such character exists. They give us a bland, and yet over the top masked figure named the Fantom. In the recent Batman reboot, we are presented with one of the Dark Night's most enduring and interesting characters, Ra's al Guhl. According to DC Comics, Ra's is of Arab/Chinese descent, and is usually portrayed as such in the comics. After teasing us with Ken Watanabe, an odd, but at least Asian casting choice, instead the give us Liam Neeson. A man so white he's Irish.

Like I said, I'm rambling, sorry, just gonna have to go with me here.

For a long time, before most of us were born, the bad guy was the "Injun". Westerns of the 50's and beyond perpetuated the Native American as a vile killer and only interested in scalping good honest settlers who only wanted a place to raise their children. Now a days, a studio wouldn't dream of a plot like that.

For a good while there, we had the Eastern Bloc with the biggest bad of them all backing them up, MOTHER RUSSIA. Ah the misspent days of my youth. I swear every movie with a gun had a Chech or a Russian "Ivan" behind it. Red Dawn mixed it up a little with the addition of some Cubans. For a long time, we beat the Commies. But not anymore. Now they aren't the bad guy anymore. I'm not 100% sure we're done with them though. Keep your eyes open. Commie plots are everywhere.

Let's talk about "The Arab". For generations, all we needed to know was white turban good, black turban bad. Just like Cowboys! "Arabs" help Indiana Jones fight the Nazis in the first and third movie. They helped Peter O'Toole defeat the Turks in Lawerence of Arabia. And in two I really want to touch on, they helped James Bond beat the Russians in The Living Daylights; and Rambo beat the Russians in Rambo III.

Who were these heroic brown people who could assist All-American Rambo, and Her Majesties Finest? The Mujahideen of course. We loved them in the eighties, funded them, trained them, and then after a few more years, they won. Then they fought amongst themselves, finally founded an extreme religious state, and became cannon fodder in movies and video games. Of course by this time they had changed their name and become al-Qaeda. So now we can use "The Arab" as a bad guy. But I think we will tire of Arab bad guys soon. It's too complex for most Americans. The current war in Iraq has soured all of us on a simple "turban bad" mentality.

Then we have the Nazis. Always the bad guy. Can't go wrong with beating on Nazis. The aforementioned Dr. Jones kills Nazis. Hellboy gets his hate on regularly. Bogie shoots one at the end of Casablanca. Cap fights them accross the decades. We've shot them up in video games since Castle Wolfenstein and continue to do so in modern World War II shooters like Call of Duty. Heck, in the new Tom Cruise film, Nazis are the bad guys, and the good guys.

So I guess, what I wanted to ask was where do you think we are headed? Hugo Chávez seems to be looming. Korea could be a problem soon, but I'm not talking about the real world, I mean in movies and video games. Aside from the obvious, Nazis and Aliens; who else are Americans going to be shooting at in the next decade?

" I Say a Little Prayer"

Inspired by posts on /. and many other sites for years, I thought I'd ask a rather obvious question. Where do you go everyday? Online I mean. What are your must see sites. We've talked music and movies plenty, and I've given up a few of my favored time wasters. But I want a good long list from many sources.

Do you read the news online? MSN? Yahoo? Google News? Do you read music reviews, check out early news on comic books, read celebrity blogs?

Here, in no particular order, is a list of sites I find time to visit as often as I can, and why.

First off, for general news I hit a bunch of sites. Drudge, FoxNews, CNN, NPR, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor NewsBusters. I read as many versions of stories as I can, because most news is totally biased one way or the other, and the only way to know the truth is to assume they are all lying to you. That way you have to find the facts that they all mention, you can presume that to be truth, and assume the rest is fluffy garbage.

I read a bunch of people's blogs now, which is fairly new. The only person not linked in one or three degrees from this blog is my friend Jill in NYC. Thanks to the rest of you for constantly making my day go by easier.

I read pop candy all the time. Its on USA today. I don't read the rest of the site. It hurts my brain. I'm sure it's hard work printing a national newspaper at a third grade reading level, but it doesn't mean I have to read it. Pop Candy is a shiny gem. She is thirty, lives in this area (DC) grew up around here and has the best job in the world. She blogs about pop culture. Whatever she wants. Celebs, comics, movies, TV, live shows, albums, and ignores whatever she feels like. I would intern for her in a heart beat. But then I'd be working for USA Today. Also I wanted to marry her when I was younger. It's a blog now, but back in the day it was a weekly column. The one where she says she was getting married was such a sad day for little ol' me.

For random knowledge it's wikepidea. I love to hit the random button. And I love to read the discussion tab. People get so angry! For movies it's got to be imdb. IMDB has gone through a number of style changes over the years, but before google was google, before Wikipedia was a twinkle in somebodies eye, IMDB was the most organized site on the web, and it's still one of the best. For music I use allmusic.com not to download mind you, but to research. Great stuff.

I read Penny Arcade and xkcd every day. Order of the Stick too. Questionable Content I like to save up and read weekly. Everything else can wait. Sure I read userfriendly back in the day, and PvP and Mac Hall and tons more, but the only web comics I still read regularly are those four.

For light articles I like Slate and Salon. I'm not really sure I know when I'm at one and not the other. I'm sure they don't like to hear that, but it's the truth. I like them both. And one of them has Doonesbury!

As an aside, I love Doonesbury. Fairfax County History always stopped after WWII. Gary Trudeau taught me US history after that. Vietnam, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Civil Rights, Iran Contra. The list goes on. I know for a fact that I can trace my absolute disdain for the Federal Government, no mater who is leading it, to Doonesbury.

ESPN for sports news is kind of a gimme. Rolling Stone gets at least one read. Pitchfork is where I go for album reviews. I read slashdot a few times a day for that hard to define "tech" news. I go to comic book resources for comics news, and ain't it cool news for the latest movie stuff.

I'm sure I've forgotten plenty, but how about a few from you guys?

"Twist and Shout"

Alright movie fans. Time to return again to your list of remakes, but this time:

Movies that were better than the original. Better can imply anything you would like; made more money, more artistic integrity, funnier, more 'ploding goodness, whatever. Having not seen Transformers, I can't comment on it, but I'm sure that others can and will.

Ocean's Eleven. The remake is a smooth, visually appealing heist movie with great star power and dialogue. So was the original, both had good cameos, and memorable endings. I'd say it was a toss up, until you recall the opening sequence of the remake where Brad Pitt's character is teaching the Hollywood kids how to play poker. Slight advantage to the remake.

Scarface. The original was pre-code Hollywood (1932) but never really managed the staying power of 1931s Little Caesar. The remake stars Pacino and the worst Cuban accent you will ever hear. But it still has a huge following, memorable quotes, spawned a video game.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe was far and away cooler than anything done previously.

Roxanne, with Steve Martin is the best version of Cyrano de Bergerac put to film.

OK, I'm not saying that this list is exhaustive, that is in fact what I am hoping that you will do: add more. There are a lot of movie remakes out there. which ones need to be seen?

"Perfect Crime"

Updated
Some background before the quotes.

As some of you may have noticed, I like me some themes. Every post has had a song title as the subject, and I like to think that the song has had something to do with the post. I've referenced the Beatles the Beach Boys and Bowie, as well as other artists that do not start with B. The above quote is Guns and Roses, way to go Moheggie. The picture is from The Great Train Robbery.

My friend Mark and I run a game. It is a crime themed game where our friends play the part of criminals trying to pull various heists. For those of you unfamiliar with the role playing games, it is something like Oceans 11 meets Dungeons and Dragons. Anyway, we send out emails every few weeks to remind the players what is going on and whose turn it is to bring the Mountain Dew. As the subject to each of these emails I have sent out I included a quote from a film in the crime genre. Some of these will be hard, some easy.

I sent the first 12 of these out as a contest for my players, and I would be remiss if I did not mention that Rick Davis won that contest. And while I have you here, let me also congratulate Chris and Orin. I mentioned Chris in this post. I still can't say exactly what he's doing in Atlanta, but now its both of them and I am still very jealous. Players Pat and Ash recently moved closer so we hope to see them a whole lot more. Lauren just got a new job, Chris and Kate are gearing up for Pennsic, Bobby has already got his tickets for Transformers, and if anybody sees Ted, tell him we miss him! On to the quotes!

1. “So, what does a man with thirty-five million dollars' worth of gold do at night? Watches his big-ass TV.” The Italian Job (2003 remake)

2. “Ten oughta do it, don't you think? You think we need one more? You think we need one more. All right, we'll get one more.” Ocean's Eleven (2001 remake)

3. “Back when I was picking beans in Guatemala, we used to make fresh coffee, right off the trees I mean. That was good. This is shit but, hey, I'm in a police station.” The Ususal Suspects

4. “What color are their hands now?” The Great Muppet Caper

5. “We grow copious amounts of ganja, yah? And you're carrying a wasted girl and a bag of fertilizer. You don't look like your average horti-fucking-culturist! That's what I mean Willie!” Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels

6. "Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money!" Heist

7. "Is he cool?" "My motherfucker's so cool, when he goes to sleep, the sheep count him." Heist

8. "If he'd just pay me what he's spending to make me stop robbing him, I'd stop robbing him." Butch Cassidy and the Sunset Kid

9. "There is a beautiful woman in my bed and a dead man in my bath." The Pink Panther Strikes Again

10. "We three kings be stealin' the gold" Three Kings

11. “I looked at the clock, 'cuz I was saying to myself "Where could he be going at five to seven with that sawed-off shotgun?" A Fish Called Wanda

12. "You look down, they know you're lying and up, they know you don't know the truth. Don't use seven words when four will do. Don't shift your weight, look always at your mark but don't stare, be specific but not memorable, be funny but don't make him laugh. He's got to like you then forget you the moment you've left his side. And for God's sake, whatever you do, don't, under any circumstances..." Ocean's Eleven (2001 remake)

13. "Gentlemen, your communication lines are vulnerable, your fire exits need to be monitored, your rent-a-cops are a tad under trained. Outside of that everything seems to be just fine." Sneakers

14. "If we all do our jobs, we will each be rewarded according to our just desserts." The Spanish Prisoner

15. “I bet you went up to Mrs. Lincoln at the Ford Theatre and said "How was the show? Did I miss anything?" Hudson Hawk

16. "What can I tell you? I'm the bad guy." Hudson Hawk

17. “We protect our government's communications, we try to break the other fella's codes. We're the good guys, Marty.” Sneakers

18. "He knew the risks, he didn't have to be there. It rains... you get wet." Heat

19. "You tried to get in a suckers share on a score that I set up, from the beginning! " The Score

20. "You're saying I violated section 34/Double-D?" Inside Man

21. "I'm gonna flee from the scene of the crime in the nick of time. " Bandits

Bonus: {This is dialogue, not one person.}
"Do you play?"--- "Try me."- The Thomas Crown Affair (1968 original)

Rules:

Jeff and all my players have already seen 1-12.
Try it without "cheating" on the Internet until Monday. Monday I will post answers and open the flood gates to the Internet. I will say that all of these movies are crime/caper related films. Most of you will have at least heard of most of these films. I hope I'm getting this up in time to let Dave have a chance before he leaves on holiday.

"Mad World"

Just saw this over on Pop Candy. (If you don't read it regularly then... well, you could probably survive, but I don't know why you would bother)

The Guardian (that's a newspaper in England for those keeping track) is posting a list of 1,001 films to see before you die. That's a lot of films. I don't know if I have that much free time. Still, could generate some fun back and forth in the comments.

Oh yeah I have this great set of movie quotes for a quiz, but we just did movie quotes over here.
It was fun, and I don't want to follow too closely. What's the verdict, should I post my own quote list?

It has a theme...

"I Got Rhythm"

Well I certainly had a fun weekend. Here's hoping you did as well. Since I can't figure out a coherent theme to this weekend, at least not one to post on, I figure this can be: A Slice of Life.

Friday I spent the whole day at the airport. Now I don't want to talk about work, not because they asked me not to, but because I think work, the very concept of it, is a terrible horrible no good very bad thing. Let's just say I walked up and down the baggage claim level collecting people and by the end of my day (6:30pm) I needed a foot massage and a bottle of powder.

I went out to dinner and spent a few good hours with the girl I am not currently dating. Wow is that relationship a little to much to go into at this point. For now lets say we were, now we're not but we'd both like to again.

I drove home at midnight and got a call from a friend of mine who lives in Philly. She was in town for the night and so we met up at her parents house and hung out for a couple of hours. I always have great conversations with her. She is my high school sweetheart, and we have stayed in touch and close for more than ten years since breaking up. The last good conversation we had helped me get over a calender style turning point in my life. This time we talked about love, and the walls we all build around our hearts. Is there any better therapist/guru/life coach than a good friend with a cup of coffee in the wee hours of the morning?

After going to sleep around 4 am, I was awakened at 8:00 by a phone call. Some friends of mine were moving from Maryland to VA and I had volunteered. Arriving in Maryland around 9:30 the apartment was... a little under prepared. I began having nightmares brought on by reading Disco Mom's blog entry (click on show original post to read her tale, then read on for more tales of woe), but fortunately the move proved very smooth. 10 people on the load and 13 on the unload with bagels and coffee on one end, and water, coke and pizza on the other end. Six hours later and we were done. I met some good people, got some exercise, and helped find a home for a 70+ year old table with plenty of good years left in it.

I went home and took a nap, because I promised to go to a birthday party that night. Now the birthday party was a little racy, so you may want to skip the next paragraph if you are... you know, what's that word? Oh right. Old. If you're old, you know, no fun anymore. Hee hee.

So the party was a hot tub party. The hot tub was small, the alcohol was flowing, and the music playing inside was not my cup of tea, so I spent most of the night outside on the patio. Now I don't want to describe myself and ruin Dave's fun; so lets just say that there were men there who were more attractive than me, and less; but all the men were in bathing suits at some point. As for the ladies, one was pregnant and two did not get into the hot tub. All the others did. In fact at one point in the night there were four woman in the hot tub at once. There were also four men in the hot tub. At that point, only one of those eight people had anything resembling a top on. I had a good night. And those girls who didn't end up in the hot tub? One of them did spend most of the evening in her lingerie after loosing strip Foosball. A good night indeed.

OK prudes, you can start here again. There will be no more discussion of topless ladies in this post. Oops. "If we shadows have offended..." ho ho ho.

I got home around 2:30 or so and went straight to bed. Woke up late, headed over to my folks for a send off meal for my Aunt, Uncle and cousin who were in town on vacation. Left there and went to go see Oceans 13. Go see it. Did you like the first two? You'll love it. Did you like the first one but the second one left you confused/cold? You'll love it. Have you not seen them? Go rent them and then you'll love it. Did you see the first one and hate it? What the matter with you! It was a good movie! Come over to my house, we'll watch them all and drink martinis and I'll explain why you are wrong in the head. It'll be fun. Not hot-tub-party-with-half-naked-ladies-fun (did it again, hee hee!) but good clean fun.

Went out to a lite meal after the movie. We talked about a lot of things, but if sort of devolved into us discussing lots of ways to mess with the people who try to get you to sign petitions at whatever rally/concert/Metro station you happen to be at. By unanimous consent, other peoples ideas were rude, but mine were evil and may cause volunteers to cry themselves to sleep.

After the meal, we walked through Borders and then headed for the house to hang out. Instead I got call from a friend who needed to talk. My Sunday night was spent late night with a cup of coffee, acting as confessor/guru/friend.

Sometimes I wonder, if this is all life has in store for me. Does it have more meaning? How can I get through one more day of work, much less a week, a month, 30 more years?! Then I have a weekend like this one. Who could ask for anything more indeed?

"Ain't That a Shame"

First, let me apologize to Lykaon. I thought I got the idea from you. Turns out it was from friend Jeff's friend Nat. What can I say: it was a post about a movie on a page with a black background, I should have done my research. Now that that unpleasantness is out of the way...

Let's talk about needless remakes. You know the ones I'm talking about. Movies that got done again for no real reason. Nothing added or changed really. Just "updated" I'm not talking about movies like Guess Who. I heard it was bad, but it was not a remake. It may have started life as a remake script, but Guess Who and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner aren't even the same genre. They're barely the same language.

Nat was ranting about the upcoming remake to The Big Chill that has been put into development you can read it (his rant), I won't try to summarise here. But I will say that I would pay good money to see French Stewart and David Schwimmer remake Friday.

So here we go, a list, in no order at all, of movies that I think add nothing at all to the originals. Not a single thing worth salvaging. Please disagree or add your own. Maybe later we can talk about remakes that surpass the original, but lets stay focused people. Movies that did not need to get made:

• Poseidon. I really don't understand. The original had Ernest Borgnine and Gene Hackman. Why wouldn't you watch that again? Need more? How about Red Buttons, Roddy Mcdowall and Shelley Winters. Honestly, like it or not ( and I do), it certainly did not need to be remade.
• Bad New Bears. No really, they remade it. I didn't know either. Billy Bob Thorton was in it. And Greg Kinnear. No I don't know why Walter Matthau hasn't risen from the grave to kill them yet either.
• A Lindsey two-fer here. Parent Trap and Freaky Friday. Lindsey, I may have seen your hoo-haa but you should not be trying to step to Haley Mills and Jodie freakin' Foster
• The Grudge. You sparked horrible sequels and did not deliver on your tease for naked Buffy. I could not hate you more if I tried.
• The Out of Towners. The original is still regarded as a classic. The remake had Steve Martin, Goldie Hawn, Mark McKinney and John Cleese. And might be the worst regarded film any of them have made.
• Sabrina. I liked this movie the first time I saw it. I admit it. Then I saw the original. Why did they try to top that! Stupid Greg Kinnear! Stop making remakes! Make original films!
  

OK so here is the one I mentioned last post. Hairspray. I'll let you guess who John Travolta plays. There appears to be no reason at all to remake this film other than... no I can't think of one. I liked the original. Obviously someone else did too. Why didn't they do us all a favor and go rent the original and save us from this.

Enough already. Time for you to chime in. Agree? Disagree? did I miss any obvious ones? Remember, hold off on remakes that surpass the original. We'll deal with those in good time...