Watching Stuff Post
1. I've seen all of season 1 of Raising Hope now, via Netflix (and our new streaming box, which is a bargain at $90 and means I'm no longer unable to use my computer while someone has it hooked up to the television to stream things). I'd seen some recent episodes of the show but not the early ones. It's a lot of fun, and I didn't know it was from the same guy who did My Name is Earl, which I always enjoyed. It's also fun spotting some regulars from that show on RH. I've also now gotten my head around Garrett Dillahunt NOT being John Henry. (Or Cromartie. If you've watched The Sarah Connor Chronicles you know what I mean.)
2. I've also started watching Hack on Netflix, which used to film here in Philadelphia back when it was on the air. (I never watched it because we couldn't get CBS pre-digital antenna. And we've never had cable.) It's fun seeing familiar landmarks all over the place, but what was really weird for me was to see my old apartment building, The Warwick, used as a seedy apartment building where the culprit lived on the pilot episode! (It's actually a pretty nice building right around the corner from Rittenhouse Square, where we had rather cheap rent on a two-bedroom apartment 22 years ago.) Then it turned up again in the third episode as a hotel! (You could clearly see the words THE WARWICK carved into the entrance in both episodes, but the third one also had a HOTEL and VACANCY sign out front.) It was actually the original Warwick Hotel back when it was built (in the 20s, I think--there's still a huge painting on the side of the building saying WARWICK HOTEL, although it's pretty faded). I'm wondering now if my former residence is going to be in half of the episodes.
3. We just went to see Moonrise Kingdom, which was a very enjoyable, very Wes-Andersonesque (since he made it) experience. It reminded me that I've been meaning to see a handful of other films of his, such as Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Royal Tennenbaums and The Squid and the Whale. Before tonight I'd only seen Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited. I think I won't make it a marathon, though. Too much of Anderson's work all at once feels like it would be wearing on my psyche. I enjoyed the way he had all of these big-name people in relatively minor roles (Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton) and still, it was the kid actors who stole the show. It just had me smiling the entire time. :D
2. I've also started watching Hack on Netflix, which used to film here in Philadelphia back when it was on the air. (I never watched it because we couldn't get CBS pre-digital antenna. And we've never had cable.) It's fun seeing familiar landmarks all over the place, but what was really weird for me was to see my old apartment building, The Warwick, used as a seedy apartment building where the culprit lived on the pilot episode! (It's actually a pretty nice building right around the corner from Rittenhouse Square, where we had rather cheap rent on a two-bedroom apartment 22 years ago.) Then it turned up again in the third episode as a hotel! (You could clearly see the words THE WARWICK carved into the entrance in both episodes, but the third one also had a HOTEL and VACANCY sign out front.) It was actually the original Warwick Hotel back when it was built (in the 20s, I think--there's still a huge painting on the side of the building saying WARWICK HOTEL, although it's pretty faded). I'm wondering now if my former residence is going to be in half of the episodes.
3. We just went to see Moonrise Kingdom, which was a very enjoyable, very Wes-Andersonesque (since he made it) experience. It reminded me that I've been meaning to see a handful of other films of his, such as Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Royal Tennenbaums and The Squid and the Whale. Before tonight I'd only seen Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited. I think I won't make it a marathon, though. Too much of Anderson's work all at once feels like it would be wearing on my psyche. I enjoyed the way he had all of these big-name people in relatively minor roles (Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, Jason Schwartzman, Tilda Swinton) and still, it was the kid actors who stole the show. It just had me smiling the entire time. :D