Delusions of Grandeur

Jeremy Messersmith - Tatooine from Eric Power on Vimeo.

This is beautiful.

I Was Feeling Kind of Ethereal 'Cause I'm Precious

Today, Doll and I went to see Precious.

Wow. That was . . . wow.

In a span of two hours, I felt sick to my stomach, I laughed and my heart broke. It's a powerful movie, but definitely not for the faint of heart.

Maybe I shouldn't have let Doll go. At one point, she was crying, but trying not to be loud. So then she couldn't breathe. I thought I was going to have to carry her out!

The best part of the movie is Lenny. Is he ever not hot?

While You Scream These Words Tonight

Today, Doll and I saw 2012. I don't think anything I say here is really going to be any kind of spoiler, but if you're afraid it might be, you should just stop reading now.

The movie is based on the 2012 phenomenon. The Mayan calendar ends in 2012 and it is believed the world may end.

Therefore, there's a lot of death and destruction in this movie. Earthquakes cause great chasms in the earth. Cars and trains are blowing up left and right. Skyscrapers plummet to the ground. People fall, drown, burn . . .

It's not graphic, but these things are happening. And the movie theatre is pretty quiet.

There is a scene where really cool, really expensive cars are destroyed. The theatre erupts in a giant round of "OH HELL NO! OOOOOOOOOOOOH!"

Maybe the end of humanity isn't such a bad idea . . .

Taken

Step Brothers

Sleepwalking is funny!

Another Bad Taste to This Show

"I have a couple of questions for you."

These are the first words I hear out of my brother's mouth when he called the other day. I'm always afraid when he calls for a reason. Not that he's ever the one to deliver any bad news to me, but there's a first time for everything!

"Whaaat?"

"I need help with this movie thing."

He and T-Biscuit had signed up for one of the mailed-to-your-house movie rental companies. I've used Netflix for years, so he figured I'd know what to do.

"We got our first movies the other day."

"Oh yeah? What did you get?"

"Um. Prom Night."

"HAHAHAHA!"

I know. It was right up there with I Know Who Killed Me."

"Must have been awesome. What else did you get?"

"Um . . . 2010: A Space Odyssey."

Insane taste must run in the family.

Breathe Deeply from this Envelope

Dear Hollywood,

I will watch bad movies. Sometimes I'll be surprised and I will like them.

But I will never see Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

Heart,
Aunt Bee

Into the Mercy Seat I Climb

Last night, Raw and I went to the theatre.

She had a coupon, so she bought the tickets. "Two for the balcony, please."

We were really early for the movie, so we went upstairs to have a drink or two at the bar. We were the only ones there at that point, so the bartender was very chatty. "What movie are you seeing?"

"Pineapple Express."

"Oh awesome! I haven't seen it, but I've heard it's hilarious! I just caught a couple of minutes and I almost pissed myself!"

Other customers came to the bar, so he walked away to serve some drinks. Raw and I contemplated buying some Depends.

He came back, still interested in us. And by interested, I mean, he was trying to figure out how much money he was going to squeeze out of us. "Are you watching it in the balcony?"

The balcony seats are different. The tickets are typically purchased as a pair, since you sit in a loveseat with a small table in front of you. Servers bring food and drink to you at the touch of a button and you even have your own seat warmer.

We were, as mentioned, sitting in the balcony and decided it was time to head in. We tabbed out and gave our tickets to the usher.

"These tickets are actually for downstairs."

My brain was already working on what crappy seats we would get since we had been hanging out in the bar, assuming we had decent balcony seats. Raw's brain went straight to outrage. "We asked for balcony!"

The usher took pity upon us. "Well, if you don't care where you sit, we can fit you in."

He led us into the far dark corner. Crappy seats, sure, but at least we didn't have to try to search for something decent downstairs!

We thanked the kid profusely and made ourselves comfortable. We griped about the stupid ticket kid and gushed about how awesome the usher was to get us in, anyway.

Not that it really seemed to be a big deal. The show was starting in five minutes and there were more empty seats than full. Which is why it seemed really strange when a couple came and sat right beside us.

"We're mad at you!"

Raw and I glanced at each other. Do we know these people?

"You're sitting in our seats!"

Who would actually want these seats? We felt bad, since apparently we weren't supposed to really be there anyway. "We can move!"

"No that's okay. These are fine." And then she told us about how we were sitting in the seats they sat in when they first came to the theatre. "So they became our seats!"

"Seriously, we can move!" Raw was thinking the same thing I was. She and I could go to the other far corner. The one over there, that was empty. The one you'd think a person would naturally pick if they really wanted to be in one far corner and found out it was occupied. Why would they rather sit right next to someone?

"No. Really it's fine."

But it didn't seem to be fine. The man told us the whole story about how they weren't able to get the seat they wanted and she looked around the theatre. "It doesn't look that full!"

I was definitely feeling more annoyed than sympathetic at this point. It's a crappy seat, people! How can we get them to quit griping to us about it?

"Well, there seems to be enough room that we all four could share the seat!" I offered.

That did it!

This Is My Choice, This Is My Voice

Tomorrow, Raw and I are going to the Wichita Gay Pride and Festival. Some people seem to be very adverse to this.

"Why are you going to that?"

It's something different and sure to be fabulous! And we'll use any excuse to hang out together.

I think some people are afraid that this is my way of "coming out."

Calm down, boys and girls. I'm totally attracted to boys. You know, like a gay guy without the . . . package.

Doll found that out today while we were watching previews before the movie. A preview came on for the film Death Race.

It started out with Joan Allen, and I got interested. I like her as an actress, especially in The Contender.

And then I saw Jason Statham.

I sat up straight and shot a look over to Doll. She just nodded her head as if to say "Yeah I see him. Cool it, hornball."

I Tried to Drink You off My Mind

I watched Crocodile Dundee II the other night. There were some horrible examples of mens' suits in that movie. Let's not recycle those looks!

Blindness

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I Sink So Low That I Even Blame the Clouds

I know it seems really silly but I really want to see this movie!

Cold as Ice

Twenty-two years ago today, Challenger exploded in air.

The Texas Space Grant Consortium has a report of the chin of events leading up to the tragedy. I found this interesting mostly because there's not a lot I remember. I was in first grade and didn't have the internet to harvest for information.

What I do remember is my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Rickstrew, standing at the front of the class in her purple and white striped dress. She twisted her strand of pearls and announced she had something to tell us.

I can't even remember what she said. I don't even remember feeling anything. I was more concerned with the fact that Mrs. Rickstrew was going to break her strand of pearls with the way she was wringing them.

I wasn't even concerned with how difficult it must have been for her to break bad news to her students. It's not like she was saying "No recess today!" In fact, we carried on our day and played at recess, too absorbed with "who likes who" to be concerned with something that happened so far away. To people we didn't know. To people who weren't us.

This weekend, I saw Cloverfield. It wasn't until after I watched the movie that I noticed outcry over it being "too soon" so see such imagery onscreen.

I don't think I'm going to spoil the movie for anyone here. What I'm talking about has been online for at least nine months. This YouTube clip has, anyway:

It's not that I didn't notice. As I watched the movie and saw New York on fire, papers and ashes flying through the air, a collapsing building and the resulting dust cloud, I naturally associated it with the events of September 11, 2001. But it didn't affect me enough to keep me from enjoying the movie. I didn't even contemplate it much, either, until I saw discussions like these.

I'm not even sure what I'm getting at. I guess I'm feeling like
1. I don't have the empathy I sometimes fancy I do. I have a icy cold heart.
And 2. Do I remember the weirdest details or what?

For What It's Worth, It Was Worth All the While

Tonight, I went with Doll and Bret to see The Mist.

The theatre was packed and someone's phone kept ringing and I didn't like the ending. But I'm glad I went.

I saw something that I have never seen before. And not just on-screen!

I don't want to say too much. But I will say that, until tonight, I have never seen a whole theatre applaud when someone has been shot.

Memories Trapped in Time

Last night I watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose.

I've seen the movie before and didn't really like it. I was disappointed. But it was on last night so I thought I'd give it another chance.

I still wasn't scared or anything. And that's pretty much what you want out of a movie with that title.

I wasn't scared even when the characters were awakened alone at three in the morning by a burning smell. Here they were, always at three, creeping through the darkness and scared out of their minds; I was yawning.

I was pretty tired from my night out at Reba's so I went to bed really early. I fell asleep pretty quickly and slept so hard, I can't even tell you what I was dreaming about. Usually if I'm that out of it, I'll sleep for thirty hours without stirring.

But I woke up and had to use the restroom. I stretched and figured I could hold it if it was almost time to get up. I looked at the clock.

It was three o'clock on the dot.

And Guide Her

Tonight, I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Of course, the showing we originally intended to see was sold out, so we had to wait around. Once we finally got seated, we had to wait around some more.

But once the lights dimmed, we thought surely it wouldn't be long.

We were wrong.

"We're glad you chose our theatre to enjoy this movie," the Movie Man voice said. "But may we have your attention for just a moment."

He then had a lot of very nice things to say about Memorial Day and the "Star Spangled Banner" started playing.

"Should we stand?" I asked Doll.

Then the song changed its tune to "God Bless America." You know . . . the one about "my home sweet home."

It was the Celine Dion version. You know . . . a Canadian.

I guess maybe the song is about God blessing North America.

And Challenged the Laws of Chance

Today, Doll, Mitch, Bret and I went to see Reno 911!.

I've always thought the television show was funny and saw a trailer for the movie sometime back, and have been excited for the film ever since.

"This movie is going to be awesome!" Bret exclaimed as we walked up to the theatre.

"Yeah. It's going to be funny!" Mitch agreed.

"I'm pretty sure I'm going to pee my pants," I warned. "But I'm also afraid we saw the funniest parts in the trailer."

I think that might be when Doll decided not to sit by me.

We got our tickets and gave them to the ushers at the velvet ropes.

"Down the hall to your left, first on your right," they instructed.

At the entrance to that particular theatre, there was another usher. Doll and I started to walk past him, but he stopped us. "May I see your tickets, please?"

This is new. We had already shown our tickets once. We all looked at each other and produced our tickets.

He looked at Doll's, then mine and let us through. We walked in, and I heard the usher behind me. "May I see your IDs?"

"Doll!" I called. "They're checking IDs!"

As she went back to vouch for the boys, I tried to think of another time I'd seen them so tight about checking for viewers to be age seventeen and up.

I did remember a few times seeing people get rejected for buying tickets because they weren't old enough. And once, when I took the boys to a movie, the girl behind the counter asked "Are they your kids?"

Apparently, they needed to be under adult supervision to watch the particular movie.

But never had I seen a second ID checkpoint.

"This movie must be really bad!"

And it was. Hilariously nasty bad.

And Terror is Our Sempahore

Jacque bought Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest yesterday. When I showed up after work, I made her let me watch it.

I'm a relatively big fan of the Pirate movies. I heart pirates and I definitely heart Johnny Depp.

At some point during the film, Johnny did some brilliant thing as Captain Jack Sparrow and I said "That would totally be me. Because I would be the captain on our ship!"

"No way!" Jacque protested. "I would!"

"I would! Because I would whine until I got what I wanted! 'But I wanted to be the captain!'"

"If you were captain, we'd never get anywhere! 'Should we go to Austrailia or Africa? Hmm . . . Which one has the closest Target?'"