Sunday, May 28, 2006
Sadness, Movie Etiquette and a Wedding Dress?
First off, I have to ask for a moment of silence for one of the greatest artists and creators of our time that passed away yesterday: Alex Toth.
I mostly know him from his work Jonny Quest and Space Ghost, but his art and style has influenced many of the artists I know and he will be missed. I hear there will be a memorial panel for him at this year's San Diego Comic Con, so if you're going there this year and want to pay your respects, that's probably the best way to do it.
On to a happier note now, Ben and I have seen a couple movies in the past week. First up was The Da Vinci Code. Before I tell you what I thought, first I'd like to say that I haven't read the book, and I know that a lot of things were changed from it which is why a lot of the fans hated the movie. I liked it. I also realize it is a work of fiction and not meant to be taken literally. I don't understand this whole controversy over the popularity of the book and why the churches are so against it. Its fiction, and the author has said so in many interviews. He just happens to know alot about his source material and uses that to weave a tale that is believable in that it is fiction. You believe what is happening in the scope of the story, but I'm not about to call up Opus Dei and ask for the albino monk... I mean, after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark I didn't think that Indiana Jones had REALLY tried to stop Hitler from gaining one of the most powerful religious items that has ever existed. I also didn't think that Indiana Jones had saved us from the Nazis AGAIN by not letting THEM get their hands on the Holy Grail in The Last Crusade. Why is this movie so different? I just don't know... As far as the acting went, I know we're not used to seeing Tom Hanks in a role where he's not at one extreme or the other as far as emotions go (many years ago some friends of mine had said that the movie Philadelphia was the death of the "funny" Tom Hanks because his turn as an AIDS suffering lawyer won him the Oscar and was very moving and serious...thankfully that did NOT happen, The Ladykillers being a PRIME example), but I wasn't put off by the choices he made for the lead character he was playing. I thought it was believable and not "phoned-in" at all. Also, Sir Ian McKellen was outstanding as always. Which brings us to the other movie I saw this week:
X-Men: The Last Stand. This latest sequel in the X-Men movie franchise is, by far, the best yet. I hope this is a trend and any future movies they make will continue to get better with time. A lot, and I mean A LOT of things happen that I was floored by and not expecting. I don't think they could have cast ANYONE better than Kelsey Grammer in the role of Hank McCoy AKA The Beast. I also LOVE Vinnie Jones, and while I'm sure it was to save time, Juggernaut's character was changed a bit to fit the story (not just that he wasn't Xavier's stepbrother, he was a mutant in the movie), which didn't really upset me (what did upset me was the "I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch!" line, just because it was horribly cheesy, though, if ANYONE could pull that line off, it would be Vinnie Jones, because, well, let's face it, he's Big Chris, and no one messes with Big Chris) because you only have so much time with a movie audience and you have to pick and choose the more important things to be true to when dealing with over 50 years of source material. I also like MORE what they did with the whole Phoenix origin in the movie than how it occurred in the comics, since I'm not big on blaming everything on alien entities or gamma rays, but that's just me... That being said, this movie was awesome. Go see it, you won't be disappointed.
The only bad part of my movie going experiences this week was the audience that I had to share it with. Why, oh why, is God punishing me by placing asshats behind me at every movie I go see, no matter what day of the week, or what time of day??? Can anyone answer me this? Let me know and I'll change my sinning ways... At the Da Vinci Code I had to listen to the jackholes behind me say no less than 12 times how all Tom Hanks REALLY wanted was a blowjob from Audrey Tautou's character. They made other lame comments throughout the movie and I was this close to telling them that the new Lindsay Lohan movie was playing RIGHT down the hall and was probably a bit more suited for their maturity and intelligence level, obviously... What kept me from saying anything (because you know me, usually I DO NOT hold back at the movies) was because they were RIGHT behind me. I have big bushy hair. I have a silent crippling fear of people throwing things in it that I will never feel because my hair is about 5 inches away from my head at any given angle. So I waited until the movie was over and loudly proclaimed to Ben that "I wish JUST ONCE that we could go to the movies and NOT have the people behind us be ASSHATS!" Hopefully that got through, but I'm not holding my breath on that, because I'm sure they couldn't possibly think I was talking about THEM... Also the X-Men gave us an inside look of how NOT to act in a theatre on opening night with bloodthirsty comic geeks that have been waiting all year for this flick. Telling the whole theatre how "gangsta" Wolverine, Magneto, Juggernaut and all of the other male leads in the movie are OVER AND OVER, REALLY wasn't necessary. And there's a hot and steamy scene with Wolvie and Jean Grey at one point and you'd swear the jerks behind me had NEVER seen two people go at it before. I know this was a nerd movie, but come ON! They kept talking and kept talking (which if it were an exclamation at something that happened on screen or cheering or something, I could have handled it, its THAT kind of movie and it was an opening night, midnight show) but saying how HOT Ben Foster (Angel) is and then giving us a dissertation as to WHY he's so hot, is really talk for the ladies' room AFTER the movie. Our friend Chrissy DID have enough and told them to shut up, and they did, for the most part, which was nice and I didn't have the fear of retaliation in the back of my mind for the rest of the movie.
So I've decided that I'm going to make up a pamphlet. I will carry copies of this pamphlet with me everytime I go to the movies and hand it out to anyone that starts acting like a jackass during the movie while I'm in attendance. I'm thinking of calling it "Madame Mar's Guide to Movie Going Etiquette: How to NOT Piss Off the Other 50 People Here Who Have ALSO Paid Good Money to See This Movie". Its just a working title. If you have any suggestions for possible content, please don't hesitate to let me know.
And the last of my drama filled week happened yesterday, but it started about three weeks ago. I was in my closet and took notice of my wedding dress, that after almost 3 years of marriage I have YET to pay to have it cleaned, pressed and preserved. ::gulp:: I unzipped it from its garment bag and noticed that the outside lace coat had fallen off the hanger and I went to put it back on when I noticed the GINORMOUS Coke (I can only assume it was Coke because it didn't look like any of the alcohol I was drinking) stains all along the side of the actual dress and on the coat! I do not remember spilling Coke on my dress, but there it was. So I get all blubbery, I take the dress to Ben, shove it in his face and start crying at him that we need to have my dress cleaned and preserved NOW.
I don't know crap about dry cleaning. I'll put that out there right now. I don't own things that have to be dry cleaned because its a pain in the ass. I don't even like ironing clothes, I'm pretty low maintenance. So calling a bunch of places out of the phone book trying to explain to them what I want and need is not my cup of tea. I decided to call Bibbentuckers, a pretty upscale dry cleaning joint in Dallas, just because I figure they are big enough and fancy enough that they won't turn my dress into a pile of ripped up satin and lace. The girl on the phone sounded pretty dumb, but I figured I'd just take the dress in and see what happened. So we get there yesterday morning and they're all ready to do the dress when the guy helping us asks if I know where the care tag is for the dress. I do not and we search fruitlessly for about 10 minutes inside the dress for the care tag that the shop I purchased the dress from put in a nice plastic big RIGHT on the front of the garment bag for easy reach.
...
The guy reads the tag and turns out, the chemical they use to clean with is the EXACT chemical that the care tag says NOT to have the dress cleaned with. JOY! Apparently this chemical will melt any beads on my dress and my dress and the coat are FULL of beads. We ask if he knows someplace we can take it to and he gives us the name and we go in search of this place. I won't say the name, one, because they are now going out of business and two, the lady that was running it was an A-List Nutbag. When we got there, I saw signs on the door that said closing and I should have followed my gut and told Ben to just drive away, but against my better judgment, I went inside to ask if SHE knew of anyplace to take it to. She held us captive for almost half an hour gibbering about how much NOT to spend on the dress and where NOT to go and where SHE was going to work would charge us too much... We finally just thanked her and said we would just go back to Arlington and look someplace up and beat cheeks back home.
So I still have a filthy dress in my closet, and I'm no closer to finding a place that can do the work for me...I found another place in Dallas (RIGHT where we were yesterday, of course!!!) that seems like my best bet. I sent them an email asking them prices and what they could do for me, so we'll see how that turns out. But it did give us an excuse to eat at Einstein's Bagels, which I love and who REFUSE to open up shop in Arlington (HINT HINT to anyone in charge that sees this).
That's the long and short of it, folks! So treat your eyeballs to some Visine after this long tirade.
Poopshoot.
I mostly know him from his work Jonny Quest and Space Ghost, but his art and style has influenced many of the artists I know and he will be missed. I hear there will be a memorial panel for him at this year's San Diego Comic Con, so if you're going there this year and want to pay your respects, that's probably the best way to do it.On to a happier note now, Ben and I have seen a couple movies in the past week. First up was The Da Vinci Code. Before I tell you what I thought, first I'd like to say that I haven't read the book, and I know that a lot of things were changed from it which is why a lot of the fans hated the movie. I liked it. I also realize it is a work of fiction and not meant to be taken literally. I don't understand this whole controversy over the popularity of the book and why the churches are so against it. Its fiction, and the author has said so in many interviews. He just happens to know alot about his source material and uses that to weave a tale that is believable in that it is fiction. You believe what is happening in the scope of the story, but I'm not about to call up Opus Dei and ask for the albino monk... I mean, after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark I didn't think that Indiana Jones had REALLY tried to stop Hitler from gaining one of the most powerful religious items that has ever existed. I also didn't think that Indiana Jones had saved us from the Nazis AGAIN by not letting THEM get their hands on the Holy Grail in The Last Crusade. Why is this movie so different? I just don't know... As far as the acting went, I know we're not used to seeing Tom Hanks in a role where he's not at one extreme or the other as far as emotions go (many years ago some friends of mine had said that the movie Philadelphia was the death of the "funny" Tom Hanks because his turn as an AIDS suffering lawyer won him the Oscar and was very moving and serious...thankfully that did NOT happen, The Ladykillers being a PRIME example), but I wasn't put off by the choices he made for the lead character he was playing. I thought it was believable and not "phoned-in" at all. Also, Sir Ian McKellen was outstanding as always. Which brings us to the other movie I saw this week:
X-Men: The Last Stand. This latest sequel in the X-Men movie franchise is, by far, the best yet. I hope this is a trend and any future movies they make will continue to get better with time. A lot, and I mean A LOT of things happen that I was floored by and not expecting. I don't think they could have cast ANYONE better than Kelsey Grammer in the role of Hank McCoy AKA The Beast. I also LOVE Vinnie Jones, and while I'm sure it was to save time, Juggernaut's character was changed a bit to fit the story (not just that he wasn't Xavier's stepbrother, he was a mutant in the movie), which didn't really upset me (what did upset me was the "I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch!" line, just because it was horribly cheesy, though, if ANYONE could pull that line off, it would be Vinnie Jones, because, well, let's face it, he's Big Chris, and no one messes with Big Chris) because you only have so much time with a movie audience and you have to pick and choose the more important things to be true to when dealing with over 50 years of source material. I also like MORE what they did with the whole Phoenix origin in the movie than how it occurred in the comics, since I'm not big on blaming everything on alien entities or gamma rays, but that's just me... That being said, this movie was awesome. Go see it, you won't be disappointed.
The only bad part of my movie going experiences this week was the audience that I had to share it with. Why, oh why, is God punishing me by placing asshats behind me at every movie I go see, no matter what day of the week, or what time of day??? Can anyone answer me this? Let me know and I'll change my sinning ways... At the Da Vinci Code I had to listen to the jackholes behind me say no less than 12 times how all Tom Hanks REALLY wanted was a blowjob from Audrey Tautou's character. They made other lame comments throughout the movie and I was this close to telling them that the new Lindsay Lohan movie was playing RIGHT down the hall and was probably a bit more suited for their maturity and intelligence level, obviously... What kept me from saying anything (because you know me, usually I DO NOT hold back at the movies) was because they were RIGHT behind me. I have big bushy hair. I have a silent crippling fear of people throwing things in it that I will never feel because my hair is about 5 inches away from my head at any given angle. So I waited until the movie was over and loudly proclaimed to Ben that "I wish JUST ONCE that we could go to the movies and NOT have the people behind us be ASSHATS!" Hopefully that got through, but I'm not holding my breath on that, because I'm sure they couldn't possibly think I was talking about THEM... Also the X-Men gave us an inside look of how NOT to act in a theatre on opening night with bloodthirsty comic geeks that have been waiting all year for this flick. Telling the whole theatre how "gangsta" Wolverine, Magneto, Juggernaut and all of the other male leads in the movie are OVER AND OVER, REALLY wasn't necessary. And there's a hot and steamy scene with Wolvie and Jean Grey at one point and you'd swear the jerks behind me had NEVER seen two people go at it before. I know this was a nerd movie, but come ON! They kept talking and kept talking (which if it were an exclamation at something that happened on screen or cheering or something, I could have handled it, its THAT kind of movie and it was an opening night, midnight show) but saying how HOT Ben Foster (Angel) is and then giving us a dissertation as to WHY he's so hot, is really talk for the ladies' room AFTER the movie. Our friend Chrissy DID have enough and told them to shut up, and they did, for the most part, which was nice and I didn't have the fear of retaliation in the back of my mind for the rest of the movie.
So I've decided that I'm going to make up a pamphlet. I will carry copies of this pamphlet with me everytime I go to the movies and hand it out to anyone that starts acting like a jackass during the movie while I'm in attendance. I'm thinking of calling it "Madame Mar's Guide to Movie Going Etiquette: How to NOT Piss Off the Other 50 People Here Who Have ALSO Paid Good Money to See This Movie". Its just a working title. If you have any suggestions for possible content, please don't hesitate to let me know.
And the last of my drama filled week happened yesterday, but it started about three weeks ago. I was in my closet and took notice of my wedding dress, that after almost 3 years of marriage I have YET to pay to have it cleaned, pressed and preserved. ::gulp:: I unzipped it from its garment bag and noticed that the outside lace coat had fallen off the hanger and I went to put it back on when I noticed the GINORMOUS Coke (I can only assume it was Coke because it didn't look like any of the alcohol I was drinking) stains all along the side of the actual dress and on the coat! I do not remember spilling Coke on my dress, but there it was. So I get all blubbery, I take the dress to Ben, shove it in his face and start crying at him that we need to have my dress cleaned and preserved NOW.
I don't know crap about dry cleaning. I'll put that out there right now. I don't own things that have to be dry cleaned because its a pain in the ass. I don't even like ironing clothes, I'm pretty low maintenance. So calling a bunch of places out of the phone book trying to explain to them what I want and need is not my cup of tea. I decided to call Bibbentuckers, a pretty upscale dry cleaning joint in Dallas, just because I figure they are big enough and fancy enough that they won't turn my dress into a pile of ripped up satin and lace. The girl on the phone sounded pretty dumb, but I figured I'd just take the dress in and see what happened. So we get there yesterday morning and they're all ready to do the dress when the guy helping us asks if I know where the care tag is for the dress. I do not and we search fruitlessly for about 10 minutes inside the dress for the care tag that the shop I purchased the dress from put in a nice plastic big RIGHT on the front of the garment bag for easy reach.
...
The guy reads the tag and turns out, the chemical they use to clean with is the EXACT chemical that the care tag says NOT to have the dress cleaned with. JOY! Apparently this chemical will melt any beads on my dress and my dress and the coat are FULL of beads. We ask if he knows someplace we can take it to and he gives us the name and we go in search of this place. I won't say the name, one, because they are now going out of business and two, the lady that was running it was an A-List Nutbag. When we got there, I saw signs on the door that said closing and I should have followed my gut and told Ben to just drive away, but against my better judgment, I went inside to ask if SHE knew of anyplace to take it to. She held us captive for almost half an hour gibbering about how much NOT to spend on the dress and where NOT to go and where SHE was going to work would charge us too much... We finally just thanked her and said we would just go back to Arlington and look someplace up and beat cheeks back home.
So I still have a filthy dress in my closet, and I'm no closer to finding a place that can do the work for me...I found another place in Dallas (RIGHT where we were yesterday, of course!!!) that seems like my best bet. I sent them an email asking them prices and what they could do for me, so we'll see how that turns out. But it did give us an excuse to eat at Einstein's Bagels, which I love and who REFUSE to open up shop in Arlington (HINT HINT to anyone in charge that sees this).
That's the long and short of it, folks! So treat your eyeballs to some Visine after this long tirade.
Poopshoot.
Comments:
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I would call:
http://www.gownsremembered.com/index.html
or
http://www.heritagegown.com/gown.php
and get a price.
-CP
http://www.gownsremembered.com/index.html
or
http://www.heritagegown.com/gown.php
and get a price.
-CP
Cool, thanks! I'll look into these if that place in Dallas falls through.
I'd rather do it someplace semi-local though, because shipping my dress cross country makes me nervous...
I'd rather do it someplace semi-local though, because shipping my dress cross country makes me nervous...
First off, one more moment of silence for the Late, Great Alex Toth...
Secondly, I haven't seen any of these movies yet, so I can't really comment on any of them yet... I mean, I could, but it would sound like I'm talkin' from the deepest recesses of my ass... So, I shall spare you my blabbin', for now...
Thirdly, sorry to hear about your Weddin' Dress... I'm actually lower maintenance than you are, so I can't really offer any advice on your dress... Sorry... But, I will keep my fingers crossed for you...
Tony
Secondly, I haven't seen any of these movies yet, so I can't really comment on any of them yet... I mean, I could, but it would sound like I'm talkin' from the deepest recesses of my ass... So, I shall spare you my blabbin', for now...
Thirdly, sorry to hear about your Weddin' Dress... I'm actually lower maintenance than you are, so I can't really offer any advice on your dress... Sorry... But, I will keep my fingers crossed for you...
Tony
Oh!!! One more thing... I think your idea for a handout pamphlet for theatre etiquette is Brilliant... While they're lookin' at it, you can get yourself psyched up to whoop some ass, if they decide to continue bein' "AssHats"...
Tony
Tony
I'm really going to work on that pamphlet. I'll send you a copy of it so you can start a Chi-Town chapter of the Movie Etiquette club.
I'm taking my dress to a lady in Dallas tomorrow, everyone cross their fingers!
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I'm taking my dress to a lady in Dallas tomorrow, everyone cross their fingers!
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