Friends and movies, but not together
Yesterday ended up being one of those good days where it's sunshiney, productive and filled with friends. I did a few loads of laundry and ironing while cleaning my place and putting away clutter. There's nothing like the look of a newly clean, orderly place.
In the afternoon I went to Rockwell and Page parks with miashell, it's always good to see her. For once up here I went out and had someone to talk to while doing it. Since she grew up here, it seems that a lot of our times out in Bristol turn into Michelle's Childhood Revisited Tour.
At Rockwell Park there was a swimming hole they the city shut off years ago, and now it's overgrown with tall weeds, the concrete lining the pool depth with NO DIVING painted on, the lifeguard chair still standing there, the bathouse and changing rooms all boarded up. It looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie where society ended decades ago. Michelle used to swim in what's now a mess of weeds!
Later on I went back to Page Park to see my work friend Trina play with the company softball team, and later on I made her some dinner.
Today I saw "The Simpsons Movie." It's good, folks. There's something about Albert Brooks' ability to make anything sound funny, there are some pretty smart jokes, and it's just general good-time silliness.
Dude, Bart wang. BART WANG! Homer giving the double-fingers while going down the sinkhole. Marge says "goddamn." At the sight of the dome, the church people running into the bar and the bar people running into the church. The silo full of pig crap that says PIG CRAP with a drawing of a pig face on the front. Maggie vs. Krusty's monkey.
The Inuit medicine woman with the giant boobs, however, bothered me a bit, given how bad the show can be when it comes to non-white race/ethnicity ... but since everyone on the show is an idiotic stereotype anyhow, it's tough to condemn.
In a nice touch to the way the show began, there was a significant part that dwells on how Homer's actions tear the family apart, and he has to work to redeem himself. The show has explored this several times, but this one was as tough as they come, with Marge leaving Homer and taping over their wedding video.
If only the theater wasn't so crappy, with the projection being too low on the screen and shifted to the left and the left curtain hanging over part of the movie. I know these big movie chains cheap out by using high school kids instead of real projectionists, but damn! I didn't pay $7.75 to get a shitty movie experience. They kinda fixed the projection placement, but not the curtain. It left me pretty steamed, so I complained. The guy behind the counter looked like he was 16, and I had my Angry Black Man(TM) Face on. They gave me a free pass (I could have gotten more since he merely asked me how many were in my party) along with some concession comps and the name of the regional manager. I think I'll take my free movie and then never go there again.
I saw no good trailers. Yes, that movie with The Rock (my bad, Dwyane Johnson *snicker*) playing a pro football quarterback with a surprise daughter doesn't count. But they did show the trailer for "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Jason Lee is intent on destroying our childhoods by starring in these unavoidedly middling rehashes of old cartoons. Of course, I'll likely be taking Rosemary to see "Underdog" if I go to Philly next week.
In the afternoon I went to Rockwell and Page parks with miashell, it's always good to see her. For once up here I went out and had someone to talk to while doing it. Since she grew up here, it seems that a lot of our times out in Bristol turn into Michelle's Childhood Revisited Tour.
At Rockwell Park there was a swimming hole they the city shut off years ago, and now it's overgrown with tall weeds, the concrete lining the pool depth with NO DIVING painted on, the lifeguard chair still standing there, the bathouse and changing rooms all boarded up. It looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie where society ended decades ago. Michelle used to swim in what's now a mess of weeds!
Later on I went back to Page Park to see my work friend Trina play with the company softball team, and later on I made her some dinner.
Today I saw "The Simpsons Movie." It's good, folks. There's something about Albert Brooks' ability to make anything sound funny, there are some pretty smart jokes, and it's just general good-time silliness.
Dude, Bart wang. BART WANG! Homer giving the double-fingers while going down the sinkhole. Marge says "goddamn." At the sight of the dome, the church people running into the bar and the bar people running into the church. The silo full of pig crap that says PIG CRAP with a drawing of a pig face on the front. Maggie vs. Krusty's monkey.
The Inuit medicine woman with the giant boobs, however, bothered me a bit, given how bad the show can be when it comes to non-white race/ethnicity ... but since everyone on the show is an idiotic stereotype anyhow, it's tough to condemn.
In a nice touch to the way the show began, there was a significant part that dwells on how Homer's actions tear the family apart, and he has to work to redeem himself. The show has explored this several times, but this one was as tough as they come, with Marge leaving Homer and taping over their wedding video.
If only the theater wasn't so crappy, with the projection being too low on the screen and shifted to the left and the left curtain hanging over part of the movie. I know these big movie chains cheap out by using high school kids instead of real projectionists, but damn! I didn't pay $7.75 to get a shitty movie experience. They kinda fixed the projection placement, but not the curtain. It left me pretty steamed, so I complained. The guy behind the counter looked like he was 16, and I had my Angry Black Man(TM) Face on. They gave me a free pass (I could have gotten more since he merely asked me how many were in my party) along with some concession comps and the name of the regional manager. I think I'll take my free movie and then never go there again.
I saw no good trailers. Yes, that movie with The Rock (my bad, Dwyane Johnson *snicker*) playing a pro football quarterback with a surprise daughter doesn't count. But they did show the trailer for "Alvin and the Chipmunks." Jason Lee is intent on destroying our childhoods by starring in these unavoidedly middling rehashes of old cartoons. Of course, I'll likely be taking Rosemary to see "Underdog" if I go to Philly next week.