Teh Funny, Teh Horror!

So, I was driving a friend to the train station Tuesday night and on our way, there was a lot of activity around a house near campus and a cop car across the road, and I had to take a detour to get to my destination.

Says I: Must be some major construction project going on over there? Street work, maybe?
Says He: Oh no! They're shooting a movie ... Unborn, something like that.


Now, totally exciting! So when I got home, I looked it up on IMDB and here is the follow up exchange:

Me: Dude, we gotta stalk this movie. Gary Oldman is in it!
Him: Is it a remake?
Me: there's very little info on IMDB.... just that the hero is a young woman being haunted by spirits and a small cast listing....but there are a million movies or so it seems titled the Unborn
Him: Girlfriend, you can have Gary. I'll take Cam Gigandet...
Me: yeah! everyone's happy!
Him: You know, there are quite a few horror movies filmed in Lake Forest.
Me: Maybe that is because Lake Forest is a horror movie and the directors know that they will save a gazillion dollars on special effects by shooting here.......
Him: That's exactly what I was thinking.


So, anyway, I may do some gentle stalking of Gary Oldman, but not too much as the LFPD is brutal, man, and have so little to do with their time I would no doubt be tazed to a briquette. It would be a good follow-up to my stalking of Patrick Stewart at a play he did here in Chicago back in the 90s (said stalking involving a bunch of us standing around wondering if we should try to stalk Patriack Stewart) and my more recent stalking of Sean Penn during the filming of Mystic River.

Mystic River was filmed in East Boston at the same time I was working at a small agency there and we got to see a lot of the action. One day, I decided to try and get a picture. Why not? So I went over and snapped a picture in which all you could see was a bunch of observers' heads and then a bodyguard came over.

Bodyguard: Miss? Mr. Penn would appreciate it if you would refrain from taking photos.
Me: Yes, sir!

Because, really, who wants to piss off Sean Penn?

Cats and TV

Since my dish did not get fixed again this weekend, I read a lot and also watched the movies Netflix sent me. I have had some recent good luck in regards to my Netflix movie - Last King of Scotland and Year of the Dog are two recent notable watches. I was somewhat nervous about this week, as they sent me 28 Weeks Later and The Number 23. 28 Weeks Later definitely wasn't as good as 28 Days Later and I certainly didn't think the political allusions were as great as the critics kept making them out to be, which is sad because zombie movies should always be either political or pure camp. And The Number 23 was just, well, bad. Not even a good plot twist. Still, good time wasters.

Netflix also sent me Apocalypto. Yes, they sent me a Mel Gibson movie. Yes, I watched it. It wasn't as bad as I had feared it would be. It is really a very basic action drama plot. There were certainly some moments of excessive and uneeded violence. I found the insinuation that the Mayans and Aztecs set themselves up to be destroyed by Europeans to be offensive and inaccurate. I actually liked the way he had the entire viewpoint be from the main character's point of view - when he was confused, you were confused; there were no attempts to explain points of view outside the main character's; you felt like a prisoner in an alien world.

The film also highlighted the worst animitronic animals in the history of film as well as the best use of a bee hive as a weapon against one's enemies ever.

What was most interesting, however, is that Pele sat and watched the whole thing.

Now my cats don't often watch tv. They might doze while I am watching tv, but they don't tend to actually look at the screen. They are not even terribly interested by birds on tv. They do enjoy watching elephants on tv for some reason. When the elephants come on, they usually perk right up and pay close attention. Maybe they speak Elephantine or some such.

But for Apocalypto, Pele nestled herself down on the cushion and watched. She was even tracking action and everything. She behaved for a whole two hours. It was a miracle.

On the other hand, Pele is an cat of truly bad taste. Her preference in music runs to Depeche Mode and Conway Twitty. Go figure.....