The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

So it is rainy, gray, and blah today in my town and its almost in stark contrast to my mood and the Christmasy decor that has now come to complete fruition outside in the stores.  I mean really, usually on days like this I feel blah right along with the weather...but today I refused to be.  I mean I was downright chipper...well chipper for me...on a Tuesday...in late November.  Stop looking at me like I'm always grumpy! Anyway, today was our last normally scheduled day until next Wednesday due to our block scheduling this week and then four days of junior diversity (Thursday and Friday and then Monday and Tuesday) so I'm feeling a little strange for that.  I'm also doubting I'll finish Act II of Caesar until next week, which isn't really that surprising given the time I have to actually teach.  However, I shall take it in stride and just go with the flow.  Oh I was proud of me when I arrived home today, I actually did some crunches and pushups since I was...

Well its that time of year again.  The time of year when the stores get crowded, you start seeing red and green and little white lights everywhere, and our pocketbooks all get a little lighter (or in some cases a lot lighter).  Its the Holiday Season (I say Holiday because there are so many gift giving holidays during December, though admittedly Christmas gets more of the screen time than most of the others...though Hanukkah has its weight too) and so its time for all of us to do a bit more work than we might be usually accustomed to.  You know, stuff like baking, planning parties, buying gifts, wrapping said gifts, and traveling.  It becomes a whirlwind, and with 26 full days left until Christmas it might seem like we have plenty of time to get all the shopping, planning, wrapping, cooking, and traveling done.  However, as work days pile up and deadlines close in we quickly find that time runs out too soon like it always does.  Who here always feels like t...

It was 1986 and America was dealing with a number of technological and medical changes having to do with the body.  Gyms and spas were featuring more and more advanced body toning and sculpting equipment, plastic surgery (which began as a procedure to help those with disfigurement and now was being used for more vain endeavors) was rising in prominence among the affluent, and a disease called AIDS was slowly putting itself into a position to destroy us from the inside out.  It seemed that everywhere you looked, something was changing our bodies into vessels that were unfamiliar to us.  It created intrigue, curiosity, and fear...and director David Chronenburg was right in the middle of it.  He was already examining the effects of science and the body in films such as The Brood , Scanners , and Videodrome and was poised to bring his vision of body transformation to an old tale and make it relevant again.  To date it is considered one of the best remakes to come ou...

It was 1996 and I, by sheer happenstance, picked up a sci-fi magazine to leaf through while passing through a mall. I was shocked when I turned a page over and saw "ALIEN 4" as part of the headline for an article. I about shit myself. I devoured the article, reveling in the fact that not only were they continuing the series I had loved for so long and believed dead, but they were also bringing back Sigourney Weaver to play Ripley. I thought it was too good to be true and I was eager to know how they would accomplish this...outside of saying that Alien 3 had been a dream. It turned out that they were going to bring her back through cloning, an original concept I thought (I was 12 after-all) which would give new complications to the story and the character. I simply couldn't wait until 1997 when the film would finally be unleashed. For me, it seemed like years, but November 26th, 1997 finally arrived and I sat in the darkened theater quivering with anticipation for ...

It was Christmas of 1991 when I first saw the poster advertising that there would be a 3rd Alien film in theaters the following summer and I was all a-quiver with excitement.  I had just been introduced to the first and second films earlier that year and was a huge fan already of both the stories and of Sigourney Weaver herself, so the prospect of a new movie was like a dream come true.  I waited patiently (or impatiently as Mom would tell it) for the big day to arrive, reading and watching anything I could get my hands on that would give me a glimpse of the film to come.  The trailers made it look like an action packed and frightening thrill ride to equal Aliens ...so what if there was only one alien creature this time and there were no weapons, this was gonna be great.  Finally, the day came when I would be sent to the theater to see the film (with an adult guardian of course) despite my mother's misgivings (she thought I might not be able to take it...with good r...

I was racking my brain at "The Addams Family" trying to think of where I had seen one of the actors, Terrence Mann, before.  I remembered him from other stage shows such as "Cats" and the 2000 revival of "The Rocky Horror Show" but I was sure I had seen him in a movie.  So I looked him up and low and behold, not only had I seen him in a film...but I owned two of them.  So that inspired me to write about this particular B-movie that is a rip off of Gremlins but yet manages to find its own madcap spirit, much like the original Piranha .  It also includes several strange sci-fi elements that it manages to create its own strange mystique.  Lets chew on a snack and enjoy the little morsel that is Critters . The story begins on a prison asteroid in the middle of an unexplored galaxy.  The prison is accepting a transport containing several Krites, small monsters with large jaws and teeth that roll about like hedgehogs.  The Krites are so dangerous that t...

What a great weekend that was!  Four days and three nights in New York City with all the noises, sights, sounds, and smells (some rather pungent) thrown in, and it was amazing.  I think it might have been one of the best trips I've ever taken to the Big Apple, largely because the schedule was so loose.  We would wake up, eat breakfast, and decide where it was we wanted to go that day.  I only wish there had been even more time....but then I probably would have gone broke. The first day I got there around noon and I was the only one from our group who was there that early so I arranged to see an old friend of mine and then stood in line at the TKTS booth to get tickets to a show that evening.  I lucked out at the booth and got four orchestra level tickets for "Mary Poppins" at half-price.  We were maybe 5 or 6 rows back from the stage for only $61.50 each...a steal considering how orchestra seats go for over 100 or 150 most nights.  Before the sh...

So Friday night was really awesome at my house, I bet you wish you had been there.  I had a few friends over and we had an Alien marathon...we planned to watch all four but we only made it through three before pooping out.  We got Applebee's take out (which was terrible) and several beverages of a spirituous nature (aka...beer) which made our night pretty fun on top of the films.  I wasn't much fun that night though, I must admit, because I was so tired from the week.  Or at least that's what I thought.  I woke up Saturday morning with a sore throat and a stuffy head and lamented my rotten luck.  Being sick is never pleasent, but being sick on the weekend just adds insult to injury because you want to feel great and use the time to the fullest, but your mood and general lousy feeling brings you down.  It was mild I'll admit, and didn't interfere with most of my errand-running, but by the end of Saturday and by half-way through Sunday I was chair-bound ...

I remember visits to my Dad's old apartment relatively well, considering they started around the time I was 5.  Mom and Dad decided to get a divorce around that time of my life (I didn't even know the meaning of the word, I thought they said we were getting a horse) and I was saddened by it, but not as much as kids in the movies tend to be.  For me, all it meant was that Dad lived in another state and we would see him less.  Visits were always great though.  Dad would rent us movies (or get them from the library once he discovered that they had a great selection), get pizza, and take us to fun places like Chuck E. Cheese's and the local parks.  It was like a vacation, and every movie that I saw while visiting Dad has become one of my all-time favorites.  I sometimes wonder if my affection for said films is inspired by that feeling of special-ness we always got when visiting with Dad.  Anyway, I'm getting away from my point.  It was on one of these...