From the wildly successful show my theatre company put on Friday night (great reaction from a sellout crowd) to pulling off a somewhat last-minute booked visit by T-Clog, this past weekend was Non Stop Excitement in its purest form.
First-I had been sweating out the situation with the Reader's Theatre show, since we'd had a glitch in our mass email system and had reason to believe a vast majority of our contact list did not receive two email that were sent out in the runup to the show. So, we really didn't know what to expect. But whether it was the exposure we got via the huge turnout we got for our Christmas Show or that our audience base is growing as a result of word-of-mouth from our small but deep set of "regulars," the community was out in full force. We literally had to turn a couple of people away when we topped out our seating capacity at 50. I was overwrought with nerves, prior to the show. Performing does not bug me in the least; but the prospect of "winging it," as I was expected to do in some pre-show remarks, was making me a basket case; as was the prospect of hitting all my technical cues (a light flip, sound) at the right time. I just hate doing that stuff-my brain is not hard-wired to pull that type of thing off very well. But everything went about as smoothly as possible, and after the show I was awash in what is becoming a familiar blend of relief and satisfaction.
Then, late Saturday morn. Hanging out at the coffee shop with my family; one T-Clog stops in, as per the arrangement. And, from that point on, a potentially delicate balancing act between a Daddy-starved family and a friend who has made a journey to visit was pulled off by all parties with grace and good cheer. The Clog and I remained around enought to ease my daughters through some of the touch-and-go moments of the day and, in fact, performed the "nighttime ritual" that night; Lucy's 2nd story read while sitting on the lap of a close friend of mine in just over two weeks! Things didn't get too raucous over the weekend-it was "NSE" of a rather domestic sort, but we all understood that going in. Activities included checking out a few local haunts (including two coffee shops), "forest football" actually played on a nearby jogging path, a visit to the "zero-G" slide that was built in local park, beer, pizza, Mouse Trap, Trivia Pursuit, a couple of Star Trek episodes, some good conversation, YouTube exploration, my first viewing of Napoleon Dynamite and...I'm sure I'm forgetting something...
Thanks for the visit, Clog.
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- Dan
- Father, musician, trail runner, reader, geographer, craft beer aficionado, meditator.
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11 comments:
Sounds like a killer weekend. What'd you make of "Dynamite" Who selected it?
T-Clog won the race between Mighty Tom & T-Clog to be the first to share the movie with me.
I went into the movie fully expecting to think it was one of the greatest things I'd ever seen, after the way it was built up by those I know well. But I gotta say-it was just plain lacking something for me. Definitely a lot of funny moments. But I guess I had an overriding sense, throughout, that it was just a lot of wacky shit thrown together without a whole lot tying it all together.
Yes, yes, I get how it's kind of "Revenge of the Nerds" for the new millenium, but I sort of felt like a concept that could have given me a true "Starfish & Coffee" sort of outerspace antihero just sort of gave me a surly sort of nerd to whom I couldn't relate as much as I'd have liked.
6 out of 10, if something doesn't hit me a day or two more down the line. I hope my reaction was not negatively affected by the pre-viewing hype, but I fear that may have been the case.
It's fun, but yes, that character is very difficult to like. His family is clearly funked up, but man, why so surly. That and the general glacial pace of the movie makes it not something I seek out.
I might give it more than 6, but not much.
The end of the movie - the music - and the sweetness of the wrap makes it work for me.
Like Dan, I was led to the film by hearty recommendations. I kept getting distracted by the whole breast-enhancing salesman stuff, and the crystal machine/future transport thing. I kept thinking we weren't supposed to like Napolean, but pity him.
The tether-ball game ending was sweet.
I LOVE it and will continue to LOVE it. "Don't be jellous you guys because I was on-line all day talking to hot babes!"
Plenty of funny moments, funny lines. But again, the thing wasn't really cohesive for me. And I, too, was confused as to whether we were supposed to like or pity Napoleon.
End, with the "When in Rome" song-very nice. But if you really like movies with a misfit that have a sweet ending to a good 80s song, I could recommend about 10 movies by John Hughes.
I'm with you Dan. When I first saw the trailers I was expecting a Wes Anderson-esque movie. Then I started hearing people say great things, and then I hear more people saying great things, and these people were people who's taste in movies (as well as other things) was questionable. By the time we actually rented it my expectations had plummeted (I call it the "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" effect, which we still haven't seen yet). When we finally watched it I found that it didn't even live up to my lowered expectations. Yes, as everyone has stated, there were some funny lines, and moments, but as whole, "meh." I found that I didn't give a shit about what happened to Napoleon. The only character I even remotely was interested in was Pedro, and not even much.
I kinda feel like a jerk for suggesting it. I will let you suggest all movies from now on since you have a theatre / movies degree.
I wasn't even going to discuss the movie here until I was asked about it, so don't worry about it-I'm glad I saw it.
Yo, Clog, don't take anything I said personally. I know many people who LOVED the film, and I generally have great respect for their opinions in such matters, just not this time.
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