Before the month ends . . .
. . . I think I'll post again. 2 updates in a month, yo! Okay, today I got to hang with most (but not all) mah homies fo' sho! Check it, Liz, the Mango AND Keyser Suze! It's too bad I missed Taco Fest the night before but it's cool, I suppose, today was still pretty bangin'. I went over to Liz's house around noon where it always starts. There was some confusion as to what the plan was and when everyone would be arriving/getting picked up. Today was dedicated to watching the film adaptation of the Broadway musical, Rent, but more on that later. Liz and I had some time to kill, so . . . I let her drive around the block a few times. She's definitely mastered the car, not that it's a hard thing to do because, as I said earlier, it's pretty tame. Liz wasn't the only one that found her way on the driver's side of the car. No no, this HUGE bug with WINGS found its way in somehow, attached itself to the window and decided to freak Liz out. Enough to make her pull over, park the car, force me out, crawl over to the passenger's side and then jump outta the car. I walked around and got rid of the thing but yeah, that was pretty funny. Moving right along, which is exactly what we said seconds after, she drove us back to her place where I got my chance to drive HER car. Now this thing is TOUGH! Don't laugh, this thing is seriously tough, yo! Underneath its cute and cuddly exterior, hides a beast within that doesn't take kindly to strange drivers. Although, it's got a good kick and I pulled off a U-turn fairly easily, it still hates me. I had a little trouble parking the thing because I was genuinely worried about plowing into the Mercedes Benz in front of me, so, I let Liz take care of it. Yeah, the Cav defeated me. :( Ahh well, moving right along to my little meeting with my new buddy (Liz's dad!) :) I was glad to hear that he really liked Lost, so much that he got it done in a week! Nice! Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy. Oh yeah, with the time we had left to do nothing, we sat down and saw the very, very end of 'Lords of Dogtown.' Oh, brother. Yeah, I caught a glimpse of what Liz called was the most "touching" moment in the entire movie. It featured people. Skating! *holds back tears* It also featured the most vulgar thing imaginable that was said about someone's mother. I'm not about to let this entry get a PG-rating, so I'll leave it at that. It had Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here' playing (the scene totally ruined the song) and a bunch of people skating in a drained pool. Then it played file footage of the real "Lords of Dogtown," (since it's based on a true story) but honestly, when you've seen one slimy, skateboarding delinquent, you've seen them all. Sorry Liz, I don't think I'll ever see the appeal. You're gonna have a hell of a time with this one, Z . . . Alright, moving right along to when we picked up . . . the Mango! It was nice seeing her again, it had been so long! Well we made our way to the Harkins to meet up with Susan. It was nice seeing her again, too! Well, I THOUGHT I saw her, anyway. I thought I picked her out in the crowd but . . . after being told what she was wearing while with her over the phone, I was dead wrong. Yeah, that was interesting. So yeah, we saw Rent. The movie was, um, hmmm . . . punishment for Good Night, and Good Luck. Nah, I'm just kidding around! Like I said earlier, it's like that one made-for-TV movie we all watched in health class over at MRHS, 'And the Band Played On' except there's actually a band this time. Yeah, this movie focused on similar social issues. Okay, the movie is getting a miserable 50% over at RT. There have been worse movies that have been given much higher ratings than that, believe me. This rating may have been a tad harsh. Andy Klein of the Los Angeles City Beat had this to say whilst taking a stab at the movie's flagship song:
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rent/
"Eight thousand fortysome irretrievable seconds, how do you measure the time that you wasted on Rent?"
Ouch. Another . . .
"I hated every 135 minutes of it. Heroic HIV-positive New Yorkers who do nothing and do not want to pay rent. They worship a flirty drag queen named Angel."
-- Victoria Alexander, FILMSINREVIEW.COM
On the other hand, a "good review" written by Jason Clark:
"One would have to be made of stone not to respond to at least something in this vivid score, and it sounds marvelous."
It's true, Jesse L. Martin (Detective Ed Green on NBC's Law & Order (the regular one, not SVU)) was pretty good in the movie. He can act and sing and dance and he's straight thuggin', yo! I like him, he's a good actor. I suppose that's a really good thing about this movie. I realize it's a musical but I sort of liked the parts where they weren't singing. It's too bad because just when things got good and about 10 minutes had gone by, it was time again for another song and dance sequence. I also thought it was funny how they sang about everything. It was like 'Trapped in the Closet' but especially strange and awkward. Imagine a couple of people in a studio apartment dancing around a candle in the middle of the night while it's totally dark. "OMG, the fire died out!" "OMG, I burned myself on the wax!" "OMG, I need a band-aid!" Or . . . something like that. Anyway, I knew it was not exactly 'my' kind of movie. But it definitely doesn't deserve the thrashing it's receiving by the critics. I'm not gonna say RottenTomatoes is wrong, though! They can be off but never wrong. But the movie itself is not as bad as these people are making it out to be. My guess is these people have seen the actual musical on Broadway and had a different experience with that. Not everyone is capable of doing that; however, and it's just not something one should focus on entirely when judging a movie. If you want a rating based solely on what the people think, it's getting an 81% by the users of RT and 7.7/10 from the people over at IMDB.com.
Well, it was time for Susan to go at this point. Bye, Susan, see ya in a few weeks! *waves* It was also around the time I handed the keys over to THE MANGO! She's a pretty good driver, too, especially considering she hadn't driven a car since July. Well, we drove around and around, while blasting James Blunt (Awesome! - He's gonna be the musical guest on SNL December 3rd, mark your calendars!). We settled on playing a game of pool at the Mango's house. I met her parents, "officially" for the second or third time, heh heh! They're pretty cool, too. I don't think I did very well at pool but we got to talk a little while playing, so that was cool. I also saw the cityscape of Toronto, very nice! It was then time to say goodbye to the Mango. Bye Mango, see ya in a few weeks, yo! *waves* ;) We're definitely gonna set a day to watch Lost completely, it's gonna be SWEET! Don't worry Z, we're gonna make sure you're there. Liz says you'll LOVE John Locke! ;) Yeah, then I finally got a chance to drive and we headed for Liz's house. We got to check out John Locke's episode before the day got out. Now THAT is "touching entertainment," Liz! Entertainment done right! John Locke rocks! I suppose it's better if Liz just leaves the season set behind for her mom to watch as I see a fan in her, too! ;) I told her to keep it as long as she likes. Don't worry, we'll all sit down in a big group and watch it over the break when we've got time. (I bet ya can't wait for that, right Liz?! ;)) Plus, like I said, it's just TV, not really something to make time for, anyway.
Well, I had a great time today! Again, looking forward to seeing all of you this winter break! I think some of us have got an entire month off or close to one, so that'll be great, I'm sure.
I don't have a corny way of saying goodbye this time like I had in the other entry. I suppose I can burst into song like the cast of Rent. But I have a subpar singing voice and dancing skills that are even worse. Ya know, seriously, out of nowhere today, I was thinking about that joke Liz loved back in 8th grade, the knock-knock joke the Z told me about with the "who-who" and the "is there an owl in here?!" punchline. Yeah well, I'll replace my typical corniness with the unusual seriousness of this owl . . . which in the end, turns into random "funniness," which . . . probably isn't even a word . . . ;)
Lata all!
:)
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/rent/
"Eight thousand fortysome irretrievable seconds, how do you measure the time that you wasted on Rent?"
Ouch. Another . . .
"I hated every 135 minutes of it. Heroic HIV-positive New Yorkers who do nothing and do not want to pay rent. They worship a flirty drag queen named Angel."
-- Victoria Alexander, FILMSINREVIEW.COM
On the other hand, a "good review" written by Jason Clark:
"One would have to be made of stone not to respond to at least something in this vivid score, and it sounds marvelous."
It's true, Jesse L. Martin (Detective Ed Green on NBC's Law & Order (the regular one, not SVU)) was pretty good in the movie. He can act and sing and dance and he's straight thuggin', yo! I like him, he's a good actor. I suppose that's a really good thing about this movie. I realize it's a musical but I sort of liked the parts where they weren't singing. It's too bad because just when things got good and about 10 minutes had gone by, it was time again for another song and dance sequence. I also thought it was funny how they sang about everything. It was like 'Trapped in the Closet' but especially strange and awkward. Imagine a couple of people in a studio apartment dancing around a candle in the middle of the night while it's totally dark. "OMG, the fire died out!" "OMG, I burned myself on the wax!" "OMG, I need a band-aid!" Or . . . something like that. Anyway, I knew it was not exactly 'my' kind of movie. But it definitely doesn't deserve the thrashing it's receiving by the critics. I'm not gonna say RottenTomatoes is wrong, though! They can be off but never wrong. But the movie itself is not as bad as these people are making it out to be. My guess is these people have seen the actual musical on Broadway and had a different experience with that. Not everyone is capable of doing that; however, and it's just not something one should focus on entirely when judging a movie. If you want a rating based solely on what the people think, it's getting an 81% by the users of RT and 7.7/10 from the people over at IMDB.com.
Well, it was time for Susan to go at this point. Bye, Susan, see ya in a few weeks! *waves* It was also around the time I handed the keys over to THE MANGO! She's a pretty good driver, too, especially considering she hadn't driven a car since July. Well, we drove around and around, while blasting James Blunt (Awesome! - He's gonna be the musical guest on SNL December 3rd, mark your calendars!). We settled on playing a game of pool at the Mango's house. I met her parents, "officially" for the second or third time, heh heh! They're pretty cool, too. I don't think I did very well at pool but we got to talk a little while playing, so that was cool. I also saw the cityscape of Toronto, very nice! It was then time to say goodbye to the Mango. Bye Mango, see ya in a few weeks, yo! *waves* ;) We're definitely gonna set a day to watch Lost completely, it's gonna be SWEET! Don't worry Z, we're gonna make sure you're there. Liz says you'll LOVE John Locke! ;) Yeah, then I finally got a chance to drive and we headed for Liz's house. We got to check out John Locke's episode before the day got out. Now THAT is "touching entertainment," Liz! Entertainment done right! John Locke rocks! I suppose it's better if Liz just leaves the season set behind for her mom to watch as I see a fan in her, too! ;) I told her to keep it as long as she likes. Don't worry, we'll all sit down in a big group and watch it over the break when we've got time. (I bet ya can't wait for that, right Liz?! ;)) Plus, like I said, it's just TV, not really something to make time for, anyway.
Well, I had a great time today! Again, looking forward to seeing all of you this winter break! I think some of us have got an entire month off or close to one, so that'll be great, I'm sure.
I don't have a corny way of saying goodbye this time like I had in the other entry. I suppose I can burst into song like the cast of Rent. But I have a subpar singing voice and dancing skills that are even worse. Ya know, seriously, out of nowhere today, I was thinking about that joke Liz loved back in 8th grade, the knock-knock joke the Z told me about with the "who-who" and the "is there an owl in here?!" punchline. Yeah well, I'll replace my typical corniness with the unusual seriousness of this owl . . . which in the end, turns into random "funniness," which . . . probably isn't even a word . . . ;)
Lata all!
:)