E.T.

I love thrift stores. And I am known, on occasion, to patron some for no other reason than that it helps makes me feel normal. Today was on of those such days where I did that exact thing. When I walked into this thrift store I noticed two things. One was an E.T. doll like the one featured above. Which I immediately cradled underarm and did not let go of. The second was a circa eight year old boy who was doing his best to annoy the living shit out of his mother, and every other person in the store. His antics included a non stop verbal assault. Asking the most asinine questions bent only to tweak a response from his mother. He even demitted a manikin claiming it would not let go of him. Until the hand fell on the ground after his hand stopped supporting it.

I loved the kid. And as I continued my shopping and perusal of random goodies he continued his antics. Our one interaction came when I was looking over the books. He looked and saw what I had in my hand and asked, "Is that E.T.?" And I replied yes it is. Then he retorted. "You look like E.T." To which I thanked him for the comparison.

The best part was yet to come. He went over to his mother, who was literally less than ten feet away from me in this tiny store, and whispered quite audibly He's creepy. To which his mother said, "What?!"

He's creepy.
"What?!"
He's creepy.
"What?!"
And then he leaned in and whispered, still audibly to me, He's creepy.
"That's rude! You should apologize."
"He didn't hear me."
"Apologize."
Looking his mother in the face. "Sorry."

I could barely contain myself. I have never been more entertained while in a thrift store. It was awesome.

Movies Revisited

Summertime at the Yuba

Well, with the Nevada City Film Festival coming up I am getting more and more excited for films. Especially the ones that I had forgot I put on that top ten list all those months back. Honestly, I haven't even thought of this blog all that much in the last few months. But that is more due to my brain being ravaged by chemotherapy and my body slowly deteriorating under the constant intravenous poisonings that I had scheduled in place of my grandiose Summer adventures.

I did see the Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus and can say that I will be sad if it truly is Terry Gilliam's last and final film. It was good. It was great on some levels, but I still want to see what he has to create over the next years of his life. Almost all the other films on that list haven't even been released yet. Some, like Paul, won't even make it out until next year. I have yet to see Inception and opted out of Alice in Wonderland. Both seemed over hyped or under rated in the moment for me to make the effort.

But now I must make some amendments to the list. Not for films that I have seen, but ones that just need to be added. Even if it no longer makes it a "top ten." Julian Schnabel's Miral will be added if for nothing else than out of respect for his previous films. Sofia Coppola's Somewhere could be added for the same reason. Also of note, Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, The Green Hornet, The Social Network, and TRON.

Most of all I am excited at the prospect of one of my favorite actors, Kieren Culken, getting back into the acting biz. I didn't even know he had done something new until I saw his name in the credits for Scott Pilgrim. He was in a great indie flick with his younger brother called Lymelife last year. Now he has a few more movies in the works. After seeing him in the Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys and Igby Goes Down I was convinced of his acting prowess. I would dare say I hadn't seen anything that beat it until Paul Dano started showing off his skills in There Will Be Blood and Gigantic.