My boyfriend and I have been lazy slugs all weekend. We didn’t want to cook on Saturday night (or Saturday lunch, or Friday night), so around 5:00 on Saturday, we started debating where to go for dinner.
“You know what I’d like?” I said. “A fruit salad. I would love a nice fruit salad.”
“Where do you want to go for that?” he asked.
“I can think of two places where I’ve had a good fruit salad: Mother’s and Katz’s,” I told him. After a little more discussion, we decided on Katz’s, which had more choices for him for dinner (especially if he wanted meat—Mother’s is vegetarian).
Month: August 2004
movies this week: support your local video store
Yawn.
I don’t really care about any of the movies opening this week. Hero looks like the only interesting possibility. So I will suggest alternative movies to rent for each new movie appearing in Austin this week.
Also, aGLIFF opened in Austin this weekend, which is probably an improvement on most of the mainstream stuff in theaters right now.
Continue reading movies this week: support your local video store
miscellany: petition big sleazy noir book sale
Miscellaneous stuff that’s been kicking around and I keep forgetting to put somewhere else:
A small favor. If you like Thirties screwball comedy films, or maybe even if you don’t, please visit this page and sign the nice online petition to have Twentieth Century released on DVD. I don’t know how useful these petitions are but it can’t hurt, can it? (I had no idea the play was being revived on Broadway. I can’t imagine Alec Baldwin and Anne Heche creating a fraction of the style and passion and charming nastiness displayed by John Barrymore and Carole Lombard.)
Continue reading miscellany: petition big sleazy noir book sale
the aftermath
Now that it’s over I don’t mind talking about it, and I don’t even have to anthropomorphize the little bugger. Scotty, my ass, it was squamous cell carcinoma. Not as common a skin cancer as basal cell, but not as bad as a melanoma.
Here is what I thought would happen: I would go to the doctor’s office and get one local anasthetic injection, the doctor would remove the tiny bump and investigate it, he might have to go back in and take away an itsy-bitsy bit more, and then he’d close up the wound with maybe a couple of stitches and put a band-aid over it. In other words, nothing much more than the biopsy procedure, except they were going to get rid of the whole thing. The wound might be bigger than the biopsy wound so I’d have to use a regular band-aid instead of the little round kind. I would have to take some annoying painkillers for a day or two that would make me groggy, I’d sleep a lot, and then I’d be fine by the end of the weekend. I might not be able to work out that weekend, but I could stay home and spend my days watching movies on DVD.
movies this week: the early edition
I’m writing this on Wednesday night, earlier than usual. That way, if I end up looking like Vincent D’Onofrio in The Salton Sea after I leave the doctor’s office tomorrow, at least I won’t have to worry about this one thing.
August is traditionally a cinematically lackluster month. The real blockbusters start earlier in the summer. August is a time for the Films of Desperation: the pseudo-blockbusters that studios hope and pray you’ll go see because they’re new and hyped and you already saw all the good movies. Or else they’re hoping you’ll go see anything to get out of the nasty hot weather. Even the selection of movies at the Paramount isn’t as good as the lineup in June or July.
Sometimes, if you’re lucky, you can find a few good independent movies that couldn’t quite wait until the end of the year. Cross your fingers.
a little c minor
“Yesterday I looked in the mirror and saw a pimple. Its name is Agnes.”
—Paula Danziger, The Cat Ate My Gymsuit
movies this week: Saturday the 14th
William Goldman once wrote that all sequels are whore’s movies. I tend to agree with him for the most part — after all, how many sequels are made from box-office bombs? The bottom line obviously dictates whether or not to rehash the original material as a sequel. However, that doesn’t mean that all sequels are poor movies: The Godfather, Part II, Evil Dead 2 (and Army of Darkness), The Empire Strikes Back, and Aliens are all very good and entertaining sequels. Perhaps Mr. Goldman would call them courtesan movies.
Summertime is prime sequel-pimpin’ time, and this has been a better summer than most for enjoyable sequels. Spider-Man 2 was a lot of fun. I didn’t see Shrek 2 (I disliked the first one) but many people felt it was better than the original. The Bourne Supremacy is supposed to be a good solid action film.
movies this week: the migraine mix
I can tell you all about the movies I bought on DVD tonight at Fry’s. They were on sale and I had some extra money so I went crazy: Cold Comfort Farm, The Cat’s Meow, and The Truth about Charlie. Before you all fall over backwards with shock about the last one, let me explain that the Truth about Charlie DVD also have Charade on it and the consensus from various review sites is that this is the best transfer of Charade available, even better than the Criterion DVD. Also, much cheaper than the Criterion DVD. I almost bought Junior Bonner but I want to find out about the DVD quality first because I am picky that way. For the sake of Steve McQueen, I assure you.
You don’t want to hear about any of this, do you. You want to hear about new movies, movies that are premiering this week. No one wants to know all the sordid details of my DVD collection (which is actually a lot smaller than you would think). No one wants to hear about the later films of Bogdanovich and Schlesinger. That’s fine.
This is all procrastination because I feel like I don’t have much of anything to say about this week’s movies. It must be some kind of summer movie slump. Or maybe it’s because I’ve had to work on Math Stuff in the office, and Math Stuff makes me cranky and edgy and less likely to show much interest in new movies. Also, I can feel a headache approaching. But I will try my best.