Phew!

Well my editor moved up my deadline to yesterday, and told me yesterday morning when I hadn't written a single word. Luckily I stumbled across TV Guide's top 25 Cult Shows and so I blathered on about some of the shows on the list. Good timing that. I had been struggling with the idea of pointing out the different ways the Internet has affected my viewing habits (yes, Yawn-inducing I know) when I somehow got on the subject of an old show I loved called Forever Knight. Man I loved that show, and it happened to be on that Top 25 Cult Show list which is how I switched gears and turned the column into that.

I love the cheesy stuff.

Speaking of cheesy, the other night I took a trip down 'The Long and Winding Road' of Nostalgia Lane where I came across George Burns 'Fixing a Hole,' The Bee Gees singing in a gazebo, Peter Frampton frolicking in 'Strawberry Fields' and Steve Martin banging on 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer.'

I'm talking about the 1978 film 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.' A film so bad it's good. It's deliciously campy, wretchedly wonderful and awfully good fun.

I found it at the Library last night and I nearly fell over on discovering the thing is available on DVD. I first saw this as a kid and I remember thinking Peter Frampton was cute, but it was the music that made me really love the movie.

Brief synopsis: Sgt. Pepper's music has brought people together through many eras. George Burns, as Mayor Kite of Heartland, walks us through a quick retrospective on the band's legacy. Billy Shears, grandson of the legendary band leader takes on the mantle along with his three best friends, the Henderson's - brothers who happen to be musically inclined.

The band is discovered by greedy record company, and while the band is away becoming big stars and being corrupted by greed and lust, Billy's girlfriend back home, Strawberry Fields, misses her boyfriend and leaves home to find him. Enter Mean Mr. Mustard and his creepy fembots who swoops in, steals the original magical instruments from the original Sgt. Pepper band and proceeds to turn Heartland from wholesome Leave It To Beaver-land to seedy, porn 'n crime in every corner-land. The band must come back, rescue the magic instruments from some weirdos and save the town.

The cast list reads like a Who's Who of 1978 - Frampton and the Bee Gees of course, Steve martin as Dr. Maxwell, Aerosmith as Future Villain Band, Alice Cooper as the Sun King, Billy Preston as the fix-it-all weathervane, Earth, Wind & Fire... And a finale with more big names than you can shake a fist at: Tina Turner, Robert Palmer, Franki Valli, Del Shannon, Seals & Croft, Sha-na-na, Wilson Pickett, Helen Reddy, Dame Edna, Leif Garrett, Heart, Wolfman Jack, Carol Channing (WTF?), and just a ton more. It's freaky how they got that many of those celebs together to sing the final song.

Anyway I didn't mean to blather on this long about this guilty pleasure type movie but I was just so happy to see it again.

Ack

Column... due... Thursday... Mind blank....

I need to watch more television. I used to think I watched too much television. It's always on. It wasn't until I started writing this column that I realized that the TV is just... on. Background noise. Usually a movie running if I can find one I like, if not then some old sitcom or episode of Whose Line. I can't stand it when it's quiet.

I don't watch CSi, or Desperate Housewives or ummm... I don't know. Anyway the point is I don't really watch enough television to be able to write columns about it. So instead I look for some different angle to write from. Right now I'm thinking maybe I'll take a look at how the Internet has affected television. And that idea just popped in my head as I typed this. I could talk about how fans of television shows can have an outlet for their need to talk about a show they love - especially if they don't know anyone in their lives who watch it. There's a niche for nearly every show, new or old. It's allowed interactivity. There have been internet campaigns to save shows. You have instant access to every aspect of a show allowing your obsessiveness to row and grow until you end up with your own fansite *cough*

Hehehe I'll think about it. Ok this helped. Gnight :)

Venting My Spleen

So I read this book the other week called 'Sahara' by Clive Cussler. I like Cussler books for a bit of mindless entertainment. I find them quite fluffy and good page-turners. Anyway I was surprised but happy to discover they made a movie out of 'Sahara' and that it was coming out in a week. That one flew under my radar as I usually keep up pretty well with movie news.

Anyway as a bonus, it starred Matthew McCounawhatsit and William H. Macy both of whom I adore.

I never should have gone to see it tonight. opening night. The theatre wasn't packed or anything. And just a few minutes before the previews I was happy to find myself with only short kids behind me and empty seats behind me. I hate packed theatres because people annoy me at the movies. Going to the movies is an experience for me and I want to take all the nuances in. I don't want to hear the cell phones ringing, the candy wrappers crinkling or feel the kids kicking my seat. I can live with a bit of whispering and I can even live with having a tall person in front of me if I have to. I mean, I can't have it *all* my way. But I go out of my way to respect my fellow moviegoers in case they would you know, actually like to watch the movie rather than listen to my commentary throughout.

Just as the previews begin, the seats unfortunately fill up behind me with the most obnoxious, most rude, most annoying women and their dates you could possibly imagine. Turns out the short people in front of me also belong to these people.

I don't often have violent thoughts. I don't normally fantasize about grabbing someone's head and slamming it into my knee. Just when I'm uber-annoyed and someone is showing obvious disrespect and disregard for the other people in the cinema.

This one women in the group. Oh. My. God. First of all, I still have her Fran Drescher-esque squals and shrieks echoing in my right ear. Secondly, my jaw hurts from gnashing my teeth and making elaborate plans to somehow insert my drink down her throat. I've never had the displeasure of someone this horrible at the movies, in all my years of traipsing off to the theatre.

During the previews which featured my daughter's hunk of the moment, Orlando Bloom she actually sat behind me moaning loudly. Either her boyfriend was doing something I don't care to think about, or she thought Orli was hot. Pretty sure it was over Orli because shortly after another trailer came up for Tom Cruise's latest whom she also apparently finds hot.

Then during the actual movie that I'd been looking forward to for a week, she carried on with the moaning in between spates of casual conversation with the children sitting in front of me. Not whispering mind you, but actually conversing as if they were outside trying to be heard over a thunderstorm. I shot them a dirty look but it didn't seem to do any good.

Everytime there was any kind of humourous moment or pivotal arc in the movie, she'd shriek. Right in my fecking ear. Even if no one else in the theatre thought it was funny or scary. Her cackle would echo around. And she didn't care.

I think that's what pissed me off the most. She didn't care she was disrupting the show. No matter how much she was shushed by me, other audience members - even by people in her own group - she just carried on as if she were at home. By the end of the film I was so angry at having the whole thing ruined by her that I seriously contemplated confronting her on it afterwards. Luckily I decided not to otherwise I'd probably be blogging from a holding cell.

I did nearly run her over though as I drove past her. She stared directly at me as if to say 'How dare you nearly run me over.' So I smiled as if I didn't care and drove on. It was very satisfying.

Wish I had though.

Ahhhh.

What a lovely period of time I've been having. I'm not going to spoil it by waiting for the proverbial hammer to fall. I've got my loverly new XM radio (Thanks Gary!) that I'm having a blast with, I made it to the top 2 in the office basketball pool thing and if Illinois wins tonight I get first place and a spot of cash. How nice :) The majority of other employees aren't too chuffed with me especially since I know jack about basketball and picked my bracket based on a very scientific method of 'who won more games between the two teams playing?' and 'Ooo I've been to Illinois, I'll pick them!'

I've heard a lot of grumbling in my direction today, hehe.

What else... well I'm still loving the RSS thingie and have sucked a couple other people into it. I designed a website for Matt the Cat that he seems to like very much. Learned how to do rollover images within an image while I was at it as well so, yay me. And I'm dead excited to learn I've only got 5 more car payments to go before it's mine all mine. Woot!

And Ooo it's 24 night, always a plus.

That's about the extent of my excitement around here. Things have just been going nicely lately and I'm digging it the most. Seems odd to say that while the world is enduring the loss of Pope JP 2. I understand the grief and the ceremony and solemnity of it all is really interesting to watch. My small eulogy for the man is pretty mundane as I'm not Catholic and he wasn't really an inluence on me, but it goes like this: I send my condolences out to Catholics who are mourning him. He stood by his principles and I respect him for that even though I didn't agree with some of them. But I've never been vehemently opposed to him as some I've seen, but then as I said I'm not Catholic and therefore not under his large sphere of influence. I read a blog today that was , well it was pretty outspoken to put it mildly and I also can respect that some people hated the Pope. But it's obvious he was well-loved probably moreso than he was hated, Sinead O'Connor aside, and did a lot of good in this world. A TCZ-er very nicely and simply said, Requiescat in pace, Karol Wojtyla. Ditto from me.

And there you have it, my bit about the Pope.

And now I'll sign off with a few hilarious quotes from another person who passed away this week, Mitch Hedberg:

"I think foosball is a combination of soccer and shish-kabobs."

"I would imagine if you could understand Morse Code, a tap dancer would drive you crazy. "

"I was at this casino minding my own business, and this guy came up to me and said, "You're gonna have to move, you're blocking a fire exit." As though if there was a fire, I wasn't gonna run. If you're flammible and have legs, you are never blocking a fire exit. "