Tag Archives: movies

Short People Got No Reason

Posted on November 26, 2011 by Pamela

Yesterday at the movie theater they had a display for Phantom Menace 3D.

Take my picture! I shouted at Bob and sprinted across the lobby.

I guess they aren’t expecting many kids to want to get their picture taken.

Bob said: Can you be taller?

Me: I’m on my tiptoes. My calves are cramping. Hurry up.

Then I tried to jump.

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Even Better Than The Real Thing

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Pamela

Bridgelift on Interstate bridge. I took this picture from inside the bus, that’s why that funky strip of dark blue at the top.

I just saw that Actung Baby is 20 years old today. It’s almost old enough to go out and drink. This aging thing gets more and more painful all the time.

I went to see Twilight yesterday. I think that’s my first time to the movies since my birthday which was in December. That used to be my thing to see a matinee on Friday afternoons. Now it seems like its takes too much time. And when I do have time there’s nothing I want to see.

I’ve never pretended that I was all high-brow about movies. There is a flavor of goofyass movies that I enjoy a great deal.

I don’t know what to tell you about his one. As I watched it I tried to imagine bringing in a person who knows nothing about Twilight and then trying to prevent that person from gouging his/her eyes out.

This thing was a mess and I still can’t decide if it was so bad it was good. I had a stomachache from laughing at it. The special effects were goofy. The soundtrack was used as a blunt object to beat the audience in the face. We already knew the story is dopey but it could be fun dopey except it wasn’t. Execution clumsy on all levels. Good parts: sheesh, these kids are pretty and there is some skin, a couple of cute scenes with the leads. Also a nod to how stupid the name Renesemee is. That’s about all it has to offer.

My time would have been better spent seeing the new Pedro movie. Maybe next weekend.

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FIFA World Cup Games 37, 38, 39 & 40

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Pamela

Highway 96, Humboldt County, California

Tonight we went out to dinner and my breath was a tad fishy so on the way out of the restaurant I grabbed a mint. When we were walking to the car I was in the middle of a big story and I opened my mouth and inhaled and swallowed the entire huge mint.

For a second I panicked but I could still breathe and you read stories all the time about people swallowing anvils and mayonnaise jars and this was actually food so I figured I’d probably survive. But now, an hour later, I’m burping spearmint.

Soccer Coverage

I’ve figured out that if I take one bus earlier (6:18a) I can be in the office at about 5 minutes to 7:00 in time to see the kick off.

I had switched from Univision to watching ESPN on my computer. But this morning the computer said I needed a login.

USA game – login — coincidence? I’ve never needed a login before. A pox on you ESPN!

I only had 5 minutes and no time to troubleshoot so I watched the first half on Univision. At the half I was able to log on using info from co-worker. I like to stream one game on ESPN and then do Match Cast on FIFA which is like a live blog for the other game.

Whew. What a game. US v. Ghana

That game tripled my grey hair supply. At one point the announcer said that the US was looking really dangerous. (This was barely into the 2nd half.) I said: No they don’t. They aren’t making any goals.

But then, 90+1

I couldn’t scream because I was at the office but I did jump around a lot. Super awesome game that made me really happy. And isn’t Cherundolo (#6) fun to say?

Here are some moments of pure manlove from the USA game.

Do you think players ever hurt themselves during goal celebrations? It looks like an injury just waiting to happen.

Then my other team Germany played Ghana. This game wasn’t as nail-biting in terms of the outcome but they still made me wait until the 60th minute for a goal and then basically shut down. Isn’t Phillipp Lahm dreamy? Plus I love the 3 “p’s” in his name.

It was a good soccer day.

Non-soccer related item #1

Bob got Up In The Air from netflix this weekend. That’s the one with George Clooney where he flies around firing people. I really wanted to see this movie and was a little miffed that it was at the house during World Cup when I’m already watching a million hours of TV per day. But I really wanted to see it and here’s my review: see it. I expected to like it and I liked it more than I expected. It’s also a good study for story-telling. Everything happens because of decisions the characters make. I’m glad I took the time to see it.

Non-soccer related item #2

So remember I had to change from blogger to turdpress because google didn’t want to let people ftp any more and blah-blah as part of this whole switch I changed webhosts?

I pay my webhosting a year at a time and I canceled the old host 2 months before my year expired. I knew they weren’t going to give me any money back and I didn’t ask. But I phoned and the guy on the phone said okay you’re canceled – send a note to this email. I sent a note asking for confirmation. Got no confirmation and then and I got a notice that I would be billed. I had a conniption, sent more emails and was assured if I sent a cancelation notice, I was canceled. No worries.

They’ve sent me three billing notices now. If they have a process for terminating your account shouldn’t they have a process to stop sending you bills? What a way to leave your departing customers with a bad taste in their mouths. They should all get a giant mint.

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Movie Rituals

Posted on August 13, 2005 by Pamela

My favorite time to go to the movies is the first Friday matinee. I park in structure across the street where the theater validates and take a spot on the side that faces east and NOT the ramp because it’s too hard to get out of.

The theater is mostly empty. Few employees. The same person who takes my money, tears my ticket and tells me to enjoy the show. I don’t get food or drinks. I sit in the exact middle of the theater. If there are talky looking people in that area I will go higher.

Last weekend I saw Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which I loved more than I expected. I remember when the first one came out. I loved the book and couldn’t wait to see the movie. I remember being with a bunch of kids, perhaps someone’s birthday although the release day was June 30, 1971 which means it wasn’t my birthday but that my memory of seeing it with Scotty and Stacy is probably correct.

I watched the 1971 version a weekend earlier and it holds up okay for a movie made in 1971. I admit to fast forwarding through all the musical numbers. I don’t think it adequately conveyed how miserably cold and poor the Buckets were — it left out Mr. Bucket completely. The 2005 version is more true to the book and wonderful — I don’t know where to start. I liked Johnny Depp’s kooky performance and I loved the addition of Willy Wonka’s back story. Tiny spoiler but turns out his dad is Count Dooku/Saruman.

Also last weekend I saw Must Love Dogs which got dreadful reviews but how many critics are women my age? This is certainly a stupid movie but still satisfying for women around my age or older (who were the only people in the half full room with the exception of two gray haired men who arrived with female companions). While we waited for the movie to start the theater did not show “the 20” (endless commercial pimping various other things to watch or buy) nor did it play any music of any kind. I wasn’t sure if we were being neglected because our demographic would be likely to complain about Mountain Dew commercials at ear bending volume, or if it was because they didn’t want to waste their time playing the stuff knowing we would be unlikely to buy Starburst or Diet Coke or watch a new TV show about a group of large-toothed twenty-somethings grappling with inane problems.

I finally visited Cinetopia a new entertainment complex that opened in east Vancouver. I’ve been reading about this place and was a bit skeptical — it’s an upscale theater where you pay more money for a better quality experience. I was expecting it to show the latest numbnutz action movies and stupid comedies and was thrilled to see they have a variety leaning more towards the small films that I would actually want to see.

The reason I went today is because they are showing um, Star Wars in high definition. That was viewing #9 and hi def is AWESOME. (I realize it is not a small film but who cares? I was a film I wanted to see.)

The theater is fantastic. The auditorium theaters have big snazzy leather seats that tilt back and lots of foot room. While I was there I checked out one of the living room theaters and they have luxury leather recliners with an ottoman for your feet. And after 4pm they lock out minors and you can enjoy an adult beverage served at your seat. I told Bob I want to go there for our anniversary in a few weeks.

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Movie Geeks

Posted on July 17, 2005 by Pamela

This is what happened at the movies the other night. It’s not nearly as interesting now as it seemed when I jotted down the notes.

I arrived at the theater early (planned) and sat on a bench in the shade, enjoying being outside and drawing in my notebook. I noticed some people sitting against the wall and wondered if there was some nerd thing opening that night.

You know the guys. They had lots of electronic gear: cords, earphones, things of various size they were tapping on. Bad skin, the quietly aggressive bearing that those with sketchy social skills possess. Serious faces. No sign of humor in this bunch.

They sat in the shade behind a single canvas band. A man from the theater wearing a mauve shirt and black slacks and a walkie-talkie clipped to his belt came out and told them the screening was canceled. In all theaters.

The guys hop up in passive outrage and get on their cellphones. They take their Suncoast bags and wander off, no doubt to go home and bitch about the situation in a chatroom.

More people arrive for the screening and 15 minutes later another guy comes out to dismiss them.

Turns out the screening for The Island and I immediately develop a theory that the movie stinks and this is damage control. I want the movie to be good. It stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson and the premise is fantastic – clones and stuff. “Please don’t suck” I thought when I first got a whiff of the trailer. I hope I’m wrong.

None of the people from the canceled screening paid to see another movie. They left.

Later, when Kathy and I went to our movie, (Mr. & Mrs. Smith – very entertaining!) we saw them letting people into the screening which wasn’t canceled after all and I felt bad for the filmgeeks who got in line before 5pm and were sent home for nothing.

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Random Round-Up

Posted on July 17, 2005 by Pamela

The Oregonian did a big “any moron can make a pie” pep article with a completely foolproof crust recipe which I tried and had my biggest disaster to date and there was more of it. I was completely fearless about adding water because I read that it depends on how dry the flour is and given my long history of patching together sandy piles of flour, I figured this had to be it.

Nah. Super big pile of sand that I desperately patched together. And she said to use parchment paper when rolling it out and she’s a crazy lady because everything that wasn’t sand stuck to the parchment paper.

When done, it looked pretty and brown but also I sort of over-baked it because I was doing too many things in the kitchen at once. Have you ever done this? You hear your timer and you think, okay I’m just going to finish doing this — whatever and wash my hands and then grab that thing out of the oven then suddenly 10 minutes have gone buy and you’re like: oh shit! That’s what happened.

The crust was way too tough. I could tell the minute I tried to put a knife into to take out the first piece. It’s perfectly edible, but still not right. My next tactic is to buy a kitchen scale and exactly measure my ingredients. Maybe that will help.

***

Also this week I dreamed that I read the new Harry Potter in paperback. It was a small throwaway book and I didn’t know what all the fuss was about.

***

Last night Bob and I watched an incredible movie called The Sea Inside. It won the Oscar for best foreign film and I’m not going to lie, it’s a tough one. But it’s beautifully made and fantastic acting and an amazing trio of women characters supporting Javier Bardem. Worth the effort.

***

This is an item about movie theaters that is good food for thought. This guy suggests that theaters offer monthly passes so that for a flat rate, a person could see as many movies as he or she wants. The idea being that people will try more movies they wouldn’t ordinarily see. For me, I’d be more likely to go to movies on weeknights because I’m too cheap to pay full movie price and usually go only to matinees. But here’s why it wouldn’t work. First I’m not sure how the box office would be reported and whether Hollywood would like that comingling of $$$). Second, when you went to the movies people would be more likely to go in and out and try different things which would severely diminish quality of experience. I personally go to less movies because I don’t like dealing with parking, crowds and jackass people who talk and are noisy.

Here are some super cool pictures of clouds.

And finally, here is a HILARIOUS story about an illegal copy of Revenge of the Sith and the subtitles. (added: looks like this site might be down and I don’t have the inclination for research right now, so good luck.)

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