The Legend of Air Guitar Boy

We were talking the other day about something we saw at the theater several years ago. In June of 1998, not long after MK and I were married and had moved to Illinois so I could go to graduate school, we went to go see the movie Mulan. I enjoyed the movie then and still enjoy it now, but it has never been as great as the first time we saw it. Partly this was due to the theater. The small town we lived in had a theater that offered first-run films at only $2 per ticket. This meant that on a limited grad student budget, we could go to the movies, get a drink (with free refills), popcorn (with free refills) and Twizzlers for $10. Not each. $10 total. Unfortunately, this theater went out of business a couple years later.

The biggest reason the movie was never quite as amusing after that first time was Air Guitar Boy. When the movie ended and the house lights came up, a family a few rows in front of us stood up and collected their belongings. There were several children in the family, but only one that really caught my attention. He was a pudgy child, around ten years old. As his family waited for a break in traffic to leave their row and walk down the exit aisle, the boy began to gyrate to the music playing over the closing credits. As if a fat child dancing spontaneously were not funny enough, the child busted out the air guitar. No, the song was not exactly heavy on guitar riffs, but that didn't matter to him. He played like C.C. DeVille on "Nothin' but a Good Time", jamming like there was no tomorrow. I nudged MK and nodded in the direction of the kid. We watched and chuckled quietly to ourselves. Eventually the boy realized that people had noticed him and came running down his row of seats to glare at us. Then, undeterred by an audience, he returned to the jam session.

We talked about this kid again recently and realized that if he were about ten years old then, he would be 18 now and probably finishing or already out of high school. No matter how old he gets, he will live forever in our memory as the pudgy air guitarist when we saw Mulan. He'll probably never know how much laughter his performance has brought to people over the years. I can only hope that I see him one more time and that it's on this.

Until later...

Trivial Tuesday

We're rapidly approaching the release date of X-Men 3. You probably remember who the X-Men were in the first two movies, but how good is your knowledge of the X-Men from the comics? For example, can you name the original 5 X-Men from Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters?

If you can, post them in the comments section and win bragging rights for the week.

Want to impress everyone even more, name the X-Men who would become the new team (and rescue the old team) in Giant-Size X-Men #1.

Ok, so it's lunchtime on Wednesday, and it appears maybe this question needs some hints. So far we have had Scott Summers/Cyclops and Jean Grey/Marvel Girl named. (Esther also mentioned professor Charles Xavier, but I wasn't including him in the list of five since he ran the school and formed the X-Men.) How about some hints?

1. Scott Summers/Cyclops answered by Invisible Lizard
2. Jean Grey/Marvel Girl answered by Invisible Lizard
3. A Blue Guy (was in X2...sort of) Beast/Hank McCoy answered by Thordora
4. Making his first appearance in the X-Men movies this year. Angel/Warren Worthington answered by Thordora
5. A cold sort of fellow who appeared in X2 as a youngster who had "tried not being a mutant." Iceman/Bobby Drake answered by Esther

Let's see if this helps.

Congratulations to all who answered this question. (See above for answers and winners.)

That Was My Woodstock!

After a work this evening, we decided to stop for dinner at Damon's. I like the food there, but I really enjoy playing along with the NTN Buzztime trivia. I don't know how many people are familiar with NTN, but here are the basics. You get a handheld device with a keyboard and small screen which you use to answer questions displayed on a television screen that all can see. The questions are multiple choice, and you receive points for answering correctly and quickly. All people at the current location compete for high score as well as with other networked sites around the country. At the end of each game a winner is declared for each site and stats are shown for the national network.

At the end of the first game, I beat the other players at our restaurant (there weren't too many playing, so it's not as impressive as I'd like to pretend), but then was thrilled to see the national stats with my name listed up there at number 20. Well, I certainly couldn't leave it at that. I had to play another game. I played again, this time with a few more people competing at our location. Once it was over, I didn't want to leave even though we'd already paid (The place wasn't very busy, and we tipped our waitress more than she deserved to make up for us sitting around so long), because I wanted...no needed to see the stats. This time, I was fourth.

I realize that this probably shows just how pathetic I am, but I was actually quite pleased knowing that at other locations where this game was going on, people would look at the screen and see CK from Damon's, Kalamazoo at #4. Like I said, it's pathetic that it made me happy, but the way things have been going recently, I'll take it.

Until later...

Trivial Tuesday

ABC has announced recently that there is going to be an interactive game called Lost Experience based on the hit TV show. Before crash landing in the middle on Isla Dharma, Hurley was a drug dealer. At least, Jorge Garcia was.

Garcia guest starred as a drug dealer in an episode of what comedy from the creator of Seinfeld?

You know the rules. Answer and win bragging rights.

Update: Congratulations to Ms. Q, who knew that Jorge Garcia had shown up on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Movie Mayhem

Sorry, I can't think of a more interesting title today.

Part I: The Phantom

We watched the 2005 version of The Phantom of the Opera on TV recently. While most of the issues from our viewing have already been discussed, I wanted to talk about it some here as well. Is wonderful that the man in the mask decides to do the right thing (sort of) when someone shows him pity for one of the very few times in his life, but the guy is a sociopath and there's really no getting around that. He extorts money, stalks, kidnaps and murders. Among his lesser offenses are that he takes credit for the accomplishments of others. He is a teacher, but Christine is the one actually singing. However, if you listen to some of the lyrics, it's clear he doesn't believe she's really all that great except for his teachings (He refers to her success as "my triumph" and in another place claims "it's me they hear."). Of course, the most heinous of his crimes is that he was teaching and encouraging someone to sing opera. I can get past some of this. I can get past that it was a musical and that they sang random lines that weren't part of a song and probably should have just been spoken. I can get past the fact that I often felt like I was watching a really long Meatloaf video. The thing that really bothered me is that we were supposed to overlook the horrible things he did because he could sing. Wait, he's a good singer, so we give him a free pass for murdering someone? I thought we agreed only to do that with former football players and TV stars.

Part II: Kalamazoo?

We went to see a movie recently (well, a couple of weeks ago anyway) that was written by people from Kalamazoo and was filmed here in town. The movie, Kalamazoo (IMDB, Official Site), may not have been the greatest movie I've ever seen, but it was pretty enjoyable. It dealt with three women who come back into town for their 10 year reunion and have to deal with all of the issues around that. Sure, I'd probably choose Grosse Pointe Blank if I wanted a high school reunion movie based in Michigan, but this had things GPB didn't. Sweetwater's Donut Mill. Harding's Markets. Food Dance Cafe (which happens to be probably my favorite place to eat in town). Blossom. No, really. Blossom. Ok fine, Mayim Bialik. It was lighthearted and fun, while stressing the importance of self-acceptance...and highlighting the inability of some people to move beyond high school hierarchies. It was nice to see places you are familiar with on the big screen and really nice to get to support aspiring film makers from the area.

Until later...

Even More Useless Than Usual

Would you like some random thoughts that aren't really long enough to be an entire post on their own? Here they are anyway.

It's Spring and everything's blooming. It's a nice time of year, but it did bring up something I've always been curious about. I've never really understood the purpose of the Bradford Pear tree. Sure, it's pretty when it blooms, but it's a pear tree that never actually produces any pears. As if that weren't enough, it is quite possibly one of the foulest smelling plants I can think of. It smells bad enough that if it's stench were to cause people to vomit, it might actually improve the smell. So why would anyone choose to plant this tree instead of other attractive yet not sickening flowering trees?

Whenever I check and empty my spam folder in Gmail, I often wonder if I'm the only person who is so amused that the webclips bar that usually scrolls through news stories displays Spam recipes instead. Is there another food that is so universally maligned as Spam? Sure, people don't like Brussel Sprouts, but we don't use them as a new term for other things we hate. Maybe I'll start a campaign to do something like that. Junk mail will be onion, because just like when you ask for no onions on a burger you think you are off all the mailing lists but there's always that last one or two you can't get rid of. Unwelcome guests could easily be called fish, since Ben Franklin made that comparison long ago, but I'd rather come up with something new. That last guest that will never leave even though you've been trying to hint that you are going to bed, we'll call him cabbage because like the smell he just lingers and won't go away. The boyfriend or girlfriend that you try to get rid of that keeps coming back? Garlic, 'cause it also keeps coming back for a long time. Ok, this isn't nearly as amusing as I thought it would be. Time to move on.

I heard this morning on the news that Vanna White was getting a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Have we gotten to the point where the only thing needed to qualify for a star is to stand around and occasionally flip over a letter? Actually, it's not even that anymore. She hasn't had to flip over letters in at least a decade, because they introduced the new board. Now she walks past and touches each letter as if she's suffering from a severe compulsion to count them all. If this is where we are now, what's it going to be like ten years from now? Will we give a star to anyone who's ever been on a reality TV show? How about people who are famous for being famous? Paris Hilton doesn't have a star yet does she?

Speaking of the celebutante, every time I see an ad for Hilton Hotels I wonder: Do the employees of the chain look up to her as some sort of hero or do they resent her every time they see her in the news? I just have this image of them all hating her because they came to the conclusion that her press coverage is inversely proportional to the value of their retirement fund.

We came home the other day after a really long day, so we just threw ourselves down in front of the TV and watched some old episodes of Family Feud on GSN. It often amazes me to see how just plain dumb (sorry, there's just no nicer way to put it) some of the answers given by contestants are. This episode had some really bad answers. My favorite was when they asked a family "Specifically what things make a woman look masculine?" After a couple of guesses like large muscles and the way she dresses, one member of the family said "Her appearance." Really? Ya think? So her appearance has to do with how she looks? Never would have guessed that. After it was explained that the answer wasn't specific enough since it was really just restating the question, the person gave another incorrect answer and we moved on. Two people later we struggled for an answer again. Suddenly, a light bulb came on over the contestant's head, "Umm....her appearance?"

We went to dinner with some friends a few weekends ago at a chain restaurant that has come up with an interesting solution to having multiple parties waiting for tables. Rather than ask for your name or give you a coaster sized beeper that vibrates and lights up when your table is ready, they give you a card with the name of a celebrity and some trivia about him/her. For example, we were Bruce Willis. When our table was ready, they called for Bruce Willis and we handed them the card they had given us. I'm not sure if it is any better than any other system, but it does lead to some interesting conversation, like the following exchange.

Hostess: Vin Diesel, your table is ready.
Friend: I thought they said these were celebrities.
Me: Too late. I already trotted that joke out when they called for "Dean Cain, party of four".

Until later...

Playing 20 Questions and 20 More Questions

Ah, memes. Salvation of the uninspired blogger. I stole this one from Ms. Q of Whirled Peas. Sort of. She only did 20 instead of all 40, but we won't hold that against her. Anyway, here's the meme.

1) Who is the last person you high-fived? I honestly couldn't tell you the last time I high-fived someone. It's probably been a while.

2) If you were drafted into a war, would you survive? Considering my inability to remain quiet, my tendency toward clumsiness and a few million other factors, the answer is probably yes, for about 5 minutes.

3) Do you sleep with the TV on? Only if I fall asleep in the recliner.

4) Have you ever drunk milk straight out of the carton? I started to say yes, but not in a long time. Then I remembered that if we buy chocolate milk, it might not ever see a glass.

5) Have you ever won a spelling bee? I couldn't win a spelling bee if I were the only contestant.

6) Have you ever been stung by a bee? Once, about ten or fifteen years ago. Or maybe it wasn't a bee, but a wasp. It was some sort of stinging thing that ran into me right as I walked out the door. It stung me on the side of the head.

7) How fast can you type? Interesting question. Type with a keyboard and free use of the backspace key or on a typewriter with no corrections allowed and deductions for typos? On a computer where I can backspace and correct all I want. Reasonably fast, but not exactly blazing. The other way...well, let's just say I once took a typing test in high school and ended up with negative words per minute.

8) Are you afraid of the dark? Dark? Not really. The unknown, heights, failure? Yeah.

9) What color are your eyes? Green

10) Have you ever made out at a drive-in? Do I look like I grew up in the fifties?

11) When is the last time you chose a bath over a shower? Whenever I want to hide and read, don't feel good, am sore or just feel like it.

12) Do you knock on wood? Only if it is a door I want someone to answer.

13) Do you floss daily? If you are my dentist I do.

14) What happened to question #14? Nothing, it's right here.

15) Can you hula hoop? I can't even hu-

16) Are you good at keeping secrets? Like I'd tell you.

17) What do you want for Christmas? I can't come up with an answer to this question when someone asks me at Christmastime. I have no idea how to answer this in April other than to say, my two front teeth. (Stupid Chipmunks corrupting my brain.)

18) Do you know the Muffin Man? Cue Shrek flashback in 3, 2, 1...Not my gumdrop buttons.

19) Do you talk in your sleep? How would I know? I'm sleeping.

20) Who wrote the book of love? I guess that depends on what you mean by love. Since just about everyone who has done this has answered with a reference to the song, I'll venture a guess that it might be Masters and Johnson. (It's a joke, people.)

21) Have you ever flown a kite? Yes, but not for many, many years.

22) Do you wish on your fallen lashes? No, but if I get too stressed I pluck hair from the crown of my head or from my chin. Trichotillomania: fun for the whole family.

23) Do you consider yourself successful? Sometimes, when I'm not busy obsessing over being a failure.

24) How many people are on your contact list of your cell? Wait, does the pizza place count as one person or do have to count all the employees too?

25) Have you ever asked for a pony? No. It sounds like too much responsibility. Besides, I have a car.

26) Plans for tomorrow? Let's see...tomorrow is Thursday, so I'll be working.

27) Can you juggle? Almost as well as I hula hoop.

28) Missing someone now? Who isn't?

29) When was the last time you told someone I Love You? Probably the last time I walked out the door to my house, if not since then.

30) And truly meant it? I find this question kind of insulting. I wouldn't have said it otherwise.

31) How often do you drink? Several times every day. If you don't you'll die of thirst. You can't live without water, you know.

32) How are you feeling today? Stressed, tired, and I have a bit of a sore throat now that I think about it. Thanks for asking. Wait, I was probably just supposed to say "Fine" like everyone expects when they ask that.

33) What do you say too much? I never shut up. The real question is what don't I say too much.

34) Have you ever been suspended or expelled from school? Please, my halo was practically glued on. (That was a no, by the way.)

35) What are you looking forward to? Now, do I go for the cheap joke and say "Question 40" or actually answer this one? Decisions, decisions. Nope, laziness wins and my final answer is Question 40.

36) Have you ever crawled through a window? I don't think so, and if I haven't done it in the past, I'm certainly not going to do it now.

37) Have you ever eaten dog food? No, and I'm rather proud of that fact.

38) Can you handle the truth? I can handle it as long as you admit that you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.

39) Do you like green eggs and ham? I don't care if it's from a book, St. Patrick's Day won't get you off the hook. Meat and eggs aren't green in color, nor blue nor orange nor any other.

40) Any cool scars? Hmm...I have scars from having my gall bladder removed and from having my knee repaired. I don't know if they qualify as "cool" or not, they never tended to hang out with the really cool crowd.