I am the Audience

Nevermore 2007

February 26, 2007

film, Nevermore Film Festival

First let me say, Wild Child and I have decided that no matter where he lives when he is grown, no matter what holidays we are celebrating, the last weekend in February is the one that he has to come home for.

He and I saw The Anthology of Errata on Saturday at 2. This was a collection of shorts. They were Night of the Hell Hamsters, which was very funny, Zombie Hunter, which I found dull, Facility 4, a zombie movie by Bento Productions (That piece of trivia was the best part of it), The Listening Dead, a fairly clever silent ghost story with a “happy ending”, Itsy Bitsy which was quite funny, and Oculus, which creeped the kid out so badly he had to leave. It has won a bunch of awards but really didn’t do a lot for me, not awful, not phenomenal. C says he can’t stand mirrors with critters, so he was waiting in the lobby for me when it was over.

Carolyn, and joined us for The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell. It is hilarious in a blood-and-guts kind of way. It’s a post-apocalyptic story with robots, evil overlords, Cannibal Sue and the Anti-Christ. What’s not to love? C was a complete fanboy and got his ticket autographed.

Carolyn chose not to stay for DeadAlive. I had never seen it. It is awful. I laughed my ass off and Wild Child had a blast.

Sunday, Himself decided to skip the critters because he was not interested in seeing In Memorium, which as nicely paired with the short Of Darkness. So, I saw those with Marq, who did not ever laugh at me when I jumped.

Apparently, there was a lot of buzz about Of Darkness at the festival. It was deserved. They told a chilling story with very little special effects. They followed the rule that the best monsters are the ones you never see completely.
Why I’m going to Hell

December 30, 2006

family

When my son was 2.5 yo, we moved to Pinehurst. We went to see my parents pretty frequently on the weekends and this meant driving west on I-40 in the evening on Friday afternoons.

On one trip, he was fussing about the sun being in his eyes. Said, “Make the sun go down, Mom. It hurts my eyes.” I tried adjusting the shade, but he was the bad height, too short AND too tall for the shade to be effective. I said “Honey, I can’t make th sun go down.” He said “Sure you can. You can do anything.”

How could I disappoint him?

So, I said, “Put your head down here (on my thigh) and I’ll do what I can. (I checked the distance from sun to horizon) It’s gonna take about 30 minutes.” He said, “Why’s it gonna take so long? I said, “The sun is very heavy and it takes a lot to move it. Gimme about half an hour and it’ll be down.” He said, “OK.” and put his head down.

A couple of weeks later, we were going back.

He said “Mom! The sun is in my eyes again!” I said,”OK. Put your head down again and I’ll see what I can do. This time it’s gonna take a little longer.” He said, “Why’s it gonna take longer?” I said, “It’s daylight savings time. The sun is higher in the sky so it is going to take me longer to get it down.” He said “OK.” and put his head on my thigh, again.

So we got there and my sister was visiting, too.

Saturday, he was buzzing around the house and he threw himself on my lap, gave me a squeeze and said, “I love you, Momma!” and buzzed off.

My sister, Amanda said, “I wish somebody loved me that much. He thinks you are the best thing in the world.”

I said, “He thinks I make the sun rise and set.”

She said,”THAT might be a little extreme.”

I said,”ASK him.”

So she hollered for him and he buzzed back in the room.

“What?”

“Who makes the sun come up and go down?”

“My MOMMA!”

And he buzzed back off.

She said “You are so going to Hell for teaching him that.”

I laughed until I cried.
Art and Nature

November 5, 2006

art, Beautiful, dancing in the field of dreams

I love it when people are able to enhance the natural beauty of the world. Chihuly’s Glass in the Garden, Goldsworthy’s ribbons of leaves and flowers meandering along a river or field, Paul Winter’s music interwoven with the voices of whales.

I am reminded of Gimli’s response to Legolas when they came out of the Mines of Moira. Legolas is being snarky about how dwarves would mess up all the lovely rock formations they had seen. Gimli was appalled at the suggestion. He asserted that dwarves would rather take years determining the perfect place to remove a chip than to mar one jot of that beauty. It was where the Elf and the Dwarf became friends, from that shared appreciation of Beauty.

I knew a guy who objected to that gilding of the lily. He thought that Nature didn’t need our assistance.

I don’t agree.

I like the idea of Humanity and Nature working in concert.
Chicago

October 6, 2006

art, Beautiful, food & drink, travel

Damn, I’m tired! Tom walked my feet off!!!

It was GREAT!!!!!

Had FABulous Indian food.

Walked all OVER the Art Institute of Chicago. TWICE. I have seen more of Georgia O’Keefe’s stuff. I am still a fan.
There was a little Dali that really rocked my socks, too.

They had a photo exhibit with 5 different artists entitled “So the Story Goes”. I liked one (Sally Mann). One was disturbing (Nan Goldin). One didn’t touch me at all (Philip-Lorca diCorcia).

The other 2 …. I have mixed feelings about. (Tina Barney and Larry Sultan).

We saw Redmoon Theater’s Twilight Orchard, which looked like a Cirque du Soleil audition. And a damn good one.

I have had a Chicago-style hot dog. Two of them, actually. And Chicago Pizza at Lou Malnati’s.

I’ve forgotten the name of the Greek restaurant. It was delicious, though. We had a choice of calamari and broiled octopus. We went with the octopus.

We spent an afternoon at the Shedd Aquarium, too. (I did like the shrimp with the go-go boots.)

OH. I almost forgot and that would be really silly.

Millenium Park.

I don’t know if I enjoyed Crown Fountain or the Bean the best.

We stayed with Tom’s aunt and uncle, who are delightful. And we took buses and subways all over the place. (Subways are still a novelty to me.)

And that was my weekend.
Nevermore 2006

February 19, 2006

film, Nevermore Film Festival

Snow Day, Bloody Snow Day was a short that ran before Zombie Honeymoon. It looked like it was done by a bunch of film students. And it probably was. The dialogue was cheesey, the acting was dreadful, the fight choreography was horrible.

It was a hoot.

Zombie Honeymoon is already out on DVD. They have it at Blockbuster and Netflix. The acting was betterthan SD,BSD. The choreography was still bad. Time had no meaning to the story. The script was awful. In short, it was a typical zombie movie. Without the cleverness of Shaun of the Dead. BUT, it made us laugh and I don’t think either of us felt like my money was completely wasted.

Christopher is sick and his symptoms were evident on the way home, so he didn’t get to see Death Trance.

Death Trance was very uneven. Some of the fight choreography was good, some was hideous. There was one break dancing fighter that really had me tickled. BUT, the story held me. I wanted to know what was going to happen with the stolen coffin. I wanted to know which one of the characters was going to be the hero. And I wanted to know what was up with that little girl, what her attatchment to the coffin was.

Sadly, it isn’t available to rent yet, so my boy is going to have to wait a while to see it. And he will like it.

Nevermore 2007

Why I’m going to Hell

Art and Nature

Chicago

Nevermore 2006