Signal Watch Watches: What to Expect When You're Expecting (2012)

Let's get some facts on the table.

• Jamie and I have no children.  Without getting too personal, there are medical reasons this is (at least partially) true.  But it is also true that the biological tripwire that is native to most successful living organisms which tells them its time to procreate has never gone off within my own system. 
• I am longtime pals with the screenwriter for this movie.  She more or less informed me that the movie was not in my demographic, and that no feelings would be hurt if I gave it a pass.  But, dammit, if any one of you knuckle-heads writes a movie that plays near my house, its likely I'll go.  And so I did head out to see this film on a sunny Sunday afternoon.  Because I am supportive.  

In general, this is not the sort of thing I'd normally consume as comedy (I DVR Eagleheart on Cartoon Network and still will watch things like Warrior of the Wasteland for a laugh), but I also generally don't rush to the theater for comedies, anyway.

Now, the crowd at this movie was particularly interesting as (a) I don't know what the make-up is of the new Slaughter Lane Alamo Drafthouse, but this was not the usual young genre freaks, and (b) oh my god, the number of pregnant women in the theater.

As someone without children, it was also interesting to hear the things the mass of the audience found hilarious (I assume in a "we've all been there") sort of way, and the things I found funny (small children "discovering" a dead animal in the woods and presenting it to Dad) which didn't get as much of a laugh.

This is absolutely the big, star-studded ensemble comedy it appears to be, following a half-dozen storylines with different bits of misadventure, tragedy and other ways of examining the same human experience from multiple angles.  I do think with so many stories in the movie, there's a little something for everybody.

Today is Jimmy Stewart's 104th Birthday

In college I took a class called "acting for non-acting majors".  Everyone in the room had to state who their favorite male and female actors were.  The folks who weren't film buffs tended to drop the names of popular actors of the day, many of which left me rolling my eyes so hard I'm surprised my orbs weren't creaking with rust by the time they got to me.  The folks who wanted to be seen as having discriminating taste all said "Al Pacino", and this was well after Scent of a Woman.  It was amazing.

Well, in the Spring of 1997, when asked, my answer was:  Jimmy Stewart

And if you asked me again today, I'm not sure my answer would change, other than to say that I see no point in asking the question.  Today, I would also say:  Jimmy Stewart

And today is Stewart's 104th Birthday.

Congrats to AmyD, Completer of Law and Information Schools!

Amy: Cutter of Cakes

The quality of the picture is not Amy's fault.  She was otherwise employed.  At any rate, I failed to take a great picture of her Saturday night as she cut into a delicious chocolate cake.  The chocolate cake that was next to the crazy graduation cake you can see in the foreground.

Amy is, of course, the fiance of my brother.  This weekend she graduated from a joint program at the University of Texas in the Law School and the School of Information.  She's now part lawyer, part librarian, all cop.  Or something.

Anyway, we're proud as hell of AmyD, and couldn't be more impressed.

She's got a job lined up to begin in the fall with an office of the Texas Legislature.  In the meantime, I believe she begins on Monday with a course to prepare her for the Texas bar exam.  No rest for the wicked.

I also managed to meet some of Amy's family over the weekend, including her grandparents and her dad (mom Jean had been met previously, and sister Heidi - also met previously - was not able to attend).  All swell folks.

Way to go, AmyD!

Happy Birthday, Mr. President - 50th Anniversary

Well, this is interesting.

Saturday was the birthday of both our own NathanC and Seattle-based-pal, The My.  NathanC received a light hearted image of Donald Duck with cake.  For The My, I decided to Google an image of Marilyn Monroe in "the dress" singing to JFK.

It turns out that May 19th, 2012 was the 50th Anniversary of the infamous "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" birthday serenade from Marilyn Monroe to John F. Kennedy, President of the United State of America.

I say:  God bless America.

While Mrs. Kennedy was not in attendance, the performance did not go unnoticed.  It can't have been much fun to see America's icon of sex throwing herself at her husband from a stage in front of not just a Madison Square Garden full of people, but Life Magazine, TV cameras, and the world.

Still the gold standard for both brazen winking about one's dalliances and performances of The Birthday Song*, we can only stare in disbelief that the world of 1962 was kooky enough that one would have their birthday party hosted by Peter Lawford.  Also: have their mistress sing to them on camera in front of an NBA-arena-sized crowd.

If you've never seen Monroe's breathy performance, here you go:

The reference to "the late Marilyn Monroe" was a joke about Monroe's tardiness to the birthday program. Of course, Monroe would be dead within 6 months.

For more on the performance, consult the internet.

Happy 50th Anniversary of ruining everybody else's birthday, Ms. Monroe.


*Megan Draper's performance of Zou Bisou Bisou in the Season 5 premiere of Mad Men may set another standard for good Birthday singing ideas.

Signal Watch Cinema Series is GO!!!

If you live in Austin (and many of you do), then you may want to check out our "calendar" section all summer long.  Come June, Austin ramps up the offerings to us locals at The Paramount, The Alamo and elsewhere.

our own Paramount Theater

Just click on calendar in the horizontal tabs, and see what we're thinking of doing.    We'll try to keep the calendar updated all summer long as movies come out and life and whatnot gets in the way.  I'd guess we're going to be changing the line-up every two or three weeks, so keep your eyes on the schedule.

there you go, Jason.  Right there.

It's in Google Calendar, so you should be able to add our events to your own calendar with the push of a button.

If you want to join us for anything, make sure we can actually make it by contacting us first.  Email, texts, phonecalls, twitter, facebook and singing telegrams are all perfectly reasonable ways of reaching out to us.

We're also planning a trip down to San Antonio this summer to see a movie or two (most likely Gilda), so join us in The River City.

It's a hell of a line up this summer, and I am pretty excited.  Bond Week.  Sci-Fi Week.  Horror Week.  Noir.  Samurai.  It's going to be all right.

my second home away from home in the summer

Signal Watch Watches: Being Elmo - A Puppeteer's Journey (2011)

On CarlaB's recommendation, Jamie and I watched Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011), an award-winning documentary about Kevin Clash, the puppeteer behind ubiquitous kiddie icon, Elmo, the red muppet with the laugh of a madman.

I don't really know what to say about the doc.  Its already won a truckload of awards, and I would argue that its a pretty darn good movie and absolutely worth seeing.  A sort of "for the whole family" type of film, and one that I would show any kid with a creative bent.

Clash's journey from lower-class America to the most famous name in showbiz you've never heard of is absolutely remarkable, as a kid pursues his passion and turns it into something loved by kids around the world. In some ways, however, its a story of a guy who sets our to fulfill his dreams, and, indeed, he does, with a minimum of challenge.

No Post Friday - Clara Bow into the weekend

No post tonight. Ms. Clara Bow is here to see you through your Friday.  I'm going to do some reading.

and one more, because Diane Keaton does not own the ladies-in-neckties thing

Signal Watch Watches: Crank (2006)

I don't listen to the podcast How Did This Get Made? all that often, but I had to give the recent Birdemic discussion a whirl, and that rolled me into the discussion of 2006's Crank, a movie I had absolutely no interest in at the time of its release.

HDTGM covers movies they cannot believe were put together (see: last year's The Smurfs), but it also covers movies that the crew (all working in the industry) cannot believe happened to get made in the studio system for their sheer audacity (read: awesomeness).  During the hour-long podcast covering Crank and its sequel, they kept referring back to elements of the films that I couldn't believe had made it into a movie in wide release (maybe in the mid-90's, but no so much today in this era of watered down, PG-13, aim-it-at-15-year-olds homogeneity).

I have to say, from a certain perspective, Crank does not disappoint.

What to Expect When I'm Off to the Movies

Admittedly, the upcoming film What to Expect When You're Expecting does not fit neatly into the realm of what we cover, or what I'd normally see in a year.

However: not only am I intrigued by the cast, but longtime pal Shauna Cross worked on the film.  In fact, she sort of wrote it.  I don't know how these things work, but I'm calling her The Screen Writing Person on the movie.

It also features folks I really dig, like Thomas Lennon, Chris Rock, Wendi McLendon-Covey and others.  Its a huge cast.  You can read the names yourself.

So, y'all go see this movie when it comes out on Friday.  Shauna's going to have two kids to feed, and its up to you, the movie-going public, to make sure those kids don't go hungry.

Signal Watch Watches: Curse of Bigfoot (1976)/ Teenagers Battle The Thing (1958) - with RiffTrax

Wow.

There are a few breeds of "bad movies" out there.  This one falls into the "contemptibly incompetent/ nobody here knew how to make a movie.  No, that is not hyperbole, these people really had no idea what they were doing.  At all." category, the reigning champion of which still seems to be Monster-a-Go-Go (1965), but just by a sasquatch hair.

While Monster-a-Go-Go has its own stunning production history to consider, Curse of Bigfoot is a 1976 repackaged 1958 movie originally titled Teenagers Battle The Thing.

Apparently seeking to cash in on the mid-1970's Bigfoot craze (yes, our younger readers, there was a mid-1970's Bigfoot craze.  I don't know.  How do any of these things happen?  I blame The Six Million Dollar Man and In Search Of, but they seem to post-date this movie, so I have no clue, man.  Bigfoot and Wildboy?).