'The Prestige' Made Me ANGRY

When a movie stars Christian Bale and Michael Caine and is directed by Christopher Nolan... it's only natural to assume it's going to be pretty good. Especially after having seen The Dark Knight just a few weeks ago. My issue with The Prestige, which I watched Saturday night, is that it is a good movie... and could've been a GREAT movie... except that the end was so utterly ridiculous that I was still seething about it the next day.

My anger led me to do some Internet searches on the film to ensure I was understanding everything correctly, and that's when I discovered that the movie was actually based on a novel. So now I forgive Nolan just a little bit, because at least he wasn't the one who dreamed up the unbelievable "plot twist."

It's hard to write about this film without giving anything away, which you all know I am loath to do (totally, totally random side-note: I just found out that "loath" used as I did above is not spelled "loathe"... learn something new every day!). But I can safely say that The Prestige is about two magicians who are totally obsessed, and I do mean obsessed, with besting each other's tricks. As time goes on, they raise the stakes higher and higher... and that's when things finally end in silliness. But the ride is a good one, and perhaps if you don't get riled up as easily as I'll do, you'll like the whole thing overall. My husband, his brother and a friend of theirs, all much saner people than I am, thought the movie was good.

Perhaps I had too high of hopes for The Prestige because of its stellar cast (though it was a bit confusing... I kept referring to Michael Caine as "Alfred" and expecting Bale to hop into the Batsuit at any moment), or because I loved what I initially thought was a comparable film, The Illusionist. What's strange is that even though both The Prestige and The Illusionist appear to be about magicians back in the day... The Prestige is the movie that's pulling one over on its audience. For those of you who have seen the movie, I will detail my issues with the film in the comments section as they give away all of the major plot points.

For those of you who haven't seen The Prestige... if you are OK with a bit of "are you KIDDING me?"-ness in your movies and won't lose sleep over it like I did, then I guess I would still recommend the film. Its cast is excellent, the acting and setting and 85% of the story is great... it's just the last parts that left me feeling like I had been tricked, and not in a good way. But if you had to choose between The Prestige and The Illusionist... I'd go with The Illusionist.

- e

The SeaDog -- WRROOF!

A few guests arrived at my place yesterday, so I've been busy running around showing them the town. Whenever we have visitors, I use them as an excuse to do some of my favorite activities in Chicago--the "touristy" things that I'd have a hard time justifying on my own.

One of those things is riding the SeaDog--a speedboat adventure up and down Lake Michigan, with absolutely the best views of the city you'll ever see. You may remember that Nerdy P and I went on the SeaDog while on a break from our Taste of Chicago pilgrimage last summer.

Yesterday, my husband, our guests and I took the 5 PM departure from Navy Pier. The weather was gorgeous and the views once again did not disappoint. Above is me before we took off... you can see our sister boat behind me with the SeaDog logo. There are no "after" pictures of me, however, because my hair looked like Tina Turner's after being wind-whipped for 30 minutes, even though it was in a ponytail.

Here are a few shots of Navy Pier as we headed out.





And here are a few shots of my beautiful city:




The best thing about the SeaDog trip, after the views, is the fact that they yell... "SeaDog.... WRRROOOF!!!" right before they turn the microphone off and crank up the engines. For whatever reason, I think it's hilarious.

Anyway, we had a great time and now I can check "SeaDog" off of my annual "Things to Do in the Summer in Chicago" list.

- e

Three Seconds Say It All: Experiencing Lollapalooza Vicariously

So, as I figured, I didn't end up going to Lollapalooza at all this past weekend. My husband, however, had a great time over the course of the three-day event and thankfully did not end up getting trampled. When he arrived home each night and showed me the videos he captured, I was confident that I had made the right decision to NOT attend. Yes, I'm old. A picture and short (and I do mean SHORT) video he shot during Rage Against the Machine's performance the second night (Saturday) prove my point.

Here's the picture:


So that doesn't look THAT bad, right? Crowded, yes... but everyone at least seems to be coordinated in their efforts to rock out and/or take digital pictures.

But now check out the video, taken from that same spot minutes later. I will let you watch it first (it's safe for work, but you NEED the sound on) and then I will give my comments below. Unfortunately it's not as crisp of a picture as it is when I play it on QuickTime from my laptop, but you'll get the idea.

OK... so I watched this video about 50 times in a row after he came home Saturday night and laughed my head off every single time. Then I woke up in the middle of the night giggling about it. I keep re-watching it and keep laughing. Something about it just kills me. He said that he literally could not move, that's how packed it was, even fairly far back from the stage (the stuff being thrown in the sky was just water, by the way). As he attempted to hold up the camera, someone slammed into him from behind (people were moshing even that far back in the crowd!) and down came his arms as he struggled to not lose his footing or our camera.

I wish I knew if that weird scream noise at the end was him or someone else, but I guess it will remain a mystery (he has no memory of screaming, but I don't think he'd admit it if he did...). Anyway, he kept his camera in his pocket from that point on.

Shortly after the video above was taken, Rage actually had to stop their show because people were getting crushed up against the barricades near the stage. The lead singer asked everyone to "take ten steps back" and to not let their aggression out at the festival, but rather to "take it to the streets." What?!?! Was he instructing people to riot after the show? Who knows. Regardless, that didn't happen. But they did have to stop the show two more times to plead again with the crowd to move back.

Anyway, even though I got a kick out of his short clip, it reinforced my initial hunch that I would've absolutely hated dealing with that sort of crazy crowd.

His pictures and videos from the Radiohead set on the first night, however, did make me wish I could've watched their show from a bubble floating over the masses.


Here's just a partial clip of their performance of "The Bends," one of my favorites. The initial seconds of the video show the entire stage before zooming in.



He also recorded songs from Wilco, Battles and hyper DJ Girl Talk (a few lyrics near the beginning are not safe for work), for those of you who many be interested. The best part of the Girl Talk video is about 1 minute 40 seconds in, where a guy starts crowd-surfing right in front of my husband... two feet appear in front of the lens all of a sudden. Since Girl Talk (Gregg Gillis) is a DJ, he basically just let his laptop play and it looked like an all-out dance party. My husband reports that it was by far the craziest crowd (in a good way) of the weekend. If, like me, you already felt old before watching that video, you will feel absolutely ancient afterward.

My friend Adam Graham, who writes for The Detroit News, posted a recap of his Lollapalooza experience here, so be sure to check that out for more pictures and video clips, including one of the bizarre Girl Talk finale where he rode in an inflatable raft over the crowd while part of the chorus from Journey's "Faithfully" played on loop in the background. !?!?!

For those of you who mourn the loss of The O.C. as much as I do, I end this post with a video of the surprise appearance by Phantom Planet, singing "California" during Mark Ronson's performance. I cannot stop myself from wailing "Californiaaaaa, Californ-yaaaaaaaaaaa, here we coooooommmmmeeeee!" every time I hear this song.



Seth Cohen, I miss you.

- e

A Shock at "Bottle Shock": Mother Nature Wreaks Havoc

Last night I went to a screening of Bottle Shock, a film that was apparently a big hit at the Sundance Film Festival. It's the true story of how California wines gained their reputation as some of the best wines in the world in the 1970s, and has a pretty decent cast, including Bill Pullman and Alan "Professor Snape" Rickman.

Here's the trailer if you're interested:

The screening was at 7, so after nabbing the LAST People from the nearby magazine vendor to read while waiting (my thoughts on the Jolie-Pitt twins spread are in the comments section of yesterday's post), I got in line at 6 PM.

Let me tell you, this screening was doomed from the very beginning. Usually you are let in to the theater about a half-hour before the movie is set to start. Last night, however, 7 PM came and went and we were all still snaked across the Piper's Alley theater lobby. Finally, a woman came out and said that there was a delay (duh), but that we'd be seated in five minutes and then they'd give us time to get snacks and whatnot.

We were indeed let in five minutes later, but then we sat and sat and SAT. A woman in front of us went to see what in the heck was going on, and came back to report that the screening version of the film had arrived on site just as we were let in to the theater, and it takes about 45 minutes to load it into the projector. ?!?!

Finally, nearly an hour late, the movie started.

About five minutes later, it stopped. It sounded like the film just snapped in the projector. Everyone let out a huge groan and then several people bailed from the theater. The woman in front of us leaned back to tell us that the movie was almost two full hours--the longer the delay, the later we'd be at the theater that night.

My husband and I figured we'd wait it out for at least a few minutes, and sure enough, the lights dimmed again shortly thereafter and the movie began again. At several points over the next 15 minutes or so, we heard extremely loud thunder--at first I thought it was in the film, but then I realized it must be outside. When we had entered the building, it was a nice, sunny 85-degree day.

I had been growing increasingly uncomfortable at the high level of air conditioning in the theater, to the point where I didn't think I could take another hour and a half of being frozen. I glanced around and saw that everyone was huddled in their seat or had draped coats over themselves, so I whispered to my husband that I was going to try and find someone to turn off the A/C.

As I stepped out into the concession area, I was surprised to find it completely deserted. NO ONE was around. In addition, people from The Second City's studio next door were literally running down the stairs and out of the complex, several with huge garbage bags over their body. Was this part of some weird skit they were practicing?

Then there was a flash of light and I realized that the roof of the building was glass, and what I had just observed was lightning. I peered down into the lobby to see through the street-level windows and was shocked to realize that the sky was totally black, gusts of wind were blowing down North Avenue and it looked like everyone around was in a panic.

Suddenly I saw one of the managers of the theater who had let us into the screening. He was muttering to another employee about how he was going to "inform theater four first." I ran up to him and said, "Excuse me, but I'm in theater three... what's going on?" He replied that there was a tornado warning for the southern part of the county, and that he was told he had to get everyone into the lobby, and that he'd probably be shutting down the movie shortly. He said that if they downgraded it to a thunderstorm, they would start up the show again after that. He ended with, "Your show is totally cursed!"

There was no way I was going to wait around to see if the situation got any better. I crept back into the theater, whispered again to my husband, and we were outta there. Miraculously, we got a cab within minutes--I could not believe it. Usually when it even starts lightly raining outside, cabs seem to disappear or stream by you one after the other, filled to capacity. But we lucked out this time.

We told the driver not to take Lake Shore Drive, because I was worried it might be flooded, or at least the underpass at the exit near our place would be overrun with water. Instead, we went through "the park," meaning Stockton Drive near the Lincoln Park Zoo, for those of you familiar with the city. As we made our way there, I was absolutely stunned by the damage around us. At LaSalle and Clark (near the Chicago History Museum), the traffic light pole was knocked over and thrown into the middle of the street, meaning that all lights at that already-usually-confusing intersection were out. Buses were idling curbside... garbage cans and their contents were strewn everywhere.

We pulled onto the road in the park, and it was just covered with tree branches. Near the Zoo, Channel 5 (NBC) was filming at the location of what looked to be at least a century-old tree (I'm not good at guessing tree ages, but this thing was MASSIVE) that had been completely uprooted and tossed on its side. That sort of thing makes me cry, seriously. At that point, I said to the cab driver, "What happened???" We told him that when we went inside the theater it had been completely nice out.

He reported that from 8 - 8:25 PM, it was like all hell broke loose. "Everywhere I drove, there was the wind. The wind followed me, I could not escape it. I started praying, I thought I was going to die." By the looks of the destruction around us, I knew he wasn't lying. He still seemed shaken and nervous.

My next thoughts were of my poor doggy, who HATES storms, and of our basement, which as you may remember, flooded almost exactly 13 months ago during torrential rains.

Recently the city's crews have been doing major construction on the street in front of our condo, supposedly to fix our crappy sewer system. Their work was being put to the test.

Amazingly, we had no water damage. My dog was safe in his crate, though he seemed very glad to see us. I woke up again in the middle of the night as the storm raged on and my dog paced, just to ensure the sewers weren't backing up. All remained well--we dodged the bullet this time.

Others weren't so lucky... 238,000 people were still without power this morning (we didn't lose ours, though the Walgreens at our corner and other stores did). The roof was torn off of a suburban high school. Fires sprang up across the city and thousands of trees have been damaged or uprooted. Power lines are down, anyone at either Chicago airport was out of luck, and the Cubs game was called off.

The lesson of the night: Mother Nature likes to make sure we remember who's the boss. That, and you might not want to go see Bottle Shock, it seems to be cursed!

- e

The Twin Pics: So Close, Yet So Far

When I got up this morning, I called the Walgreens on my corner to see if they had the new People magazine with Angelina and Brad's twins on the cover. The woman who answered said, "I can't leave my register, but I'm sure we do." I replied, "Can you transfer me to someone who can look? I don't want to come over there in the rain if it's not there yet, it was supposed to hit newsstands today." I am put on hold, and then a few moments later the same woman comes back on the line and says, "Yeah, it's here."

YAY, YAY! What a glorious morning. Who cares about the pouring rain when there are pages of the Power Twins to devour? I put on my raincoat, grabbed my umbrella and headed off.

Do I even need to tell you that it wasn't there? I was beside myself with anger. I walked all around the store and only saw last week's issue. Then I went up to the woman at the cosmetics counter. "Are you the one I talked to about People magazine?" "Yeah!" she said, "He pulled it up at the counter."

Hope springs eternal. But the guy at the counter just pointed me to the week-old issue. "No, that's not it," I moaned. "Sure it is, it's People magazine!" he scolded. "Not the one that comes out today!?!?!" I cried, and then headed back to the woman at the cosmetics counter.

I stopped a few feet away from her and informed her that they did in fact NOT have the new issue yet. "Yes he does," she insisted. "No, he doesn't, not the one that comes out today," I shot back. "Well, you didn't say that on the phone," she protested. "Um, I said 'The one with Angelina's twins on it,'" I ended as I headed out the exit doors. She threw her hands up like "How am I supposed to know about Angelina's twins?" and went on with her day.

I couldn't give up that easily. I trekked three blocks down to CVS, which only had the issue from TWO weeks ago?!?!

Borders, I thought. Borders will definitely have it! So I continued my walk in flip-flops that were not meant to be worn in wet conditions, arrived at Borders and... they were closed until 10 AM. I could FEEL the magazine on the other side of the glass. But I was just not meant to read this damn thing over my morning bagel.

So I trudged back home in the rain. It's now ten, but I have to eat. Then I will CALL Borders and ENSURE they have it before heading out again.

In the meantime, the two cover shots are up for public consumption... do they look like $14 million dollars? Because that's what they cost between the two magazines...

(And yes, during this morning's debacle the thought DID cross my mind that my priorities are way out of whack and it was ridiculous that I was getting so upset over pictures of babies that I would never, ever meet. But that didn't make me want to see them any less.)

- e

No Lollapalooza for Me

I am a little bit sad this morning because I was considering buying a one-day Lollapalooza ticket in order to see Radiohead perform tonight. I was holding off because the weather forecast was calling for thunderstorms. As I should have known because the weatherman is NEVER RIGHT (best job/biggest scam in the world...), it has turned out to be a completely beautiful Friday and the chance of rain is at less than 5%. And now the one-day passes are sold out. Curse you, weatherman!!!

To be honest, though, I'm not that down about not being able to stand in the midst of tens of thousands of people who have been sweating and drinking in the ninety-degree heat all day, especially since it DID storm yesterday and the grass at Grant Park is probably all muddy. I'm not a fan of unassigned seating or the threat of being trampled, what can I say? Because I am also not trusting of my fellow man, I would've probably ended up a mile back from the stage and would've just been stewing throughout the concert and bitter at all the young drunk poseur kids around me. Here is my estimate (red X) of where I would've been standing:


Mind you, that is just ONE of the stages at the festival. But anyway, now that I've really thought this through, I feel better about missing out. I'm going to put that $80 to much better use... like stocking up on Magic Shell or something.

My husband IS attending all three days of Lollapalooza, however, and I'm sure he will make a point of telling me how good Radiohead was and then I will get depressed all over again. At least I saw them two years ago (for you Lost fans who weren't reading this site back then, there is actually a show reference, albeit a weak one, in that old post).

I was also considering getting a one-day pass for Sunday, so as to see Kanye West again, from a better vantage point. I can justify spending that $80 even less than I could justify it for Radiohead, however, so I'm sure I'll remain at home.

But I will say that for those of you who may be going, you will have a tough choice between Nine Inch Nails and Kanye (if you like both of them, that is). I say this because I don't even like Nine Inch Nails (seriously, all of their "songs" sound EXACTLY THE SAME and they give me nightmares!), but if they have the same light show effects as they did a few days ago at a show in Seattle, it would be hard for me to not want to check them out (they play at the same time as Kanye but on a different stage--they've set it up so you can't see or hear the other stages).

The cool part of the light show starts at about the 25-30 second mark... you only need to watch it after that for like 25 seconds to get the idea. Then I just jumped around throughout the rest of the video to get a taste of the other effects--I must say, it's pretty sweet and unlike anything I've seen at a concert before.

But really, though, their music just sounds like noise to me. Yes, I'm old.

For those of you going, stay safe and drink lots of water! If my husband takes any good pictures, I will post them in the days ahead. For now, though, I'm just going to listen to Radiohead on my iPod in my air-conditioned condo, close my eyes and pretend that I'm seeing them live on stage.

- e

Where Does the Time Go?

I found myself gasping this morning at the realization that the calendar has found its way to July 31st. It's safe to say that, for me, June and July flew by, and in what I'm sure will seem like no time at all, I'll be donning my parka and hard-core snow boots again every afternoon when I go out to walk my dog.

But the fact that the summer is charging forward with a vengeance reminded me of something I've been wanting to write about for a while now: what I do with my time day in and day out.

Lately I've been meeting up with friends I used to work with at various firms over the past decade, and all of them are extremely curious as to what my "typical day" is like, now that I have been away from The Man for nearly a year. I have definitely gotten the sense that most people think I sleep until noon, walk my dog in my pajamas, and then flip through magazines and TV channels while eating bonbons in my robe until it's time to sleep again. Now, if Magic Shell counts as bonbons, then yes, there is a little bit of that going on, but otherwise I really have no "typical day." Yet I feel constantly busy, behind in projects and communications (sorry to those of you I have yet to respond to via email or Facebook...) and each night I wonder, "Where in the hell did this day go?" I also have no idea how I ever got any personal errands done when I was in an office for 8-12 hours every day.

There are a lot of really random things that happen each week that eat up time. Let me use today as an example. I had every intention of getting up at 7 AM to get a jump-start on all the things I have to do. But, because I went on a power walk with my dog last night for the first time in two months, I felt all sore and tired and stayed in bed until 8.

At 8, I turned on my laptop, checked emails and Facebook messages and then made a quick breakfast of a half-bagel, cream cheese and orange juice. While making my tea, I called my mom, because a family member went into the hospital last night (nothing serious, thankfully) and I wanted to hear an update. While I talked to my mom (it was now 8:30), I Swiffered our upstairs hardwood floors because my dog's hair sheds ridiculously in the summer and I need to sweep every day. I also unloaded the dishwasher while still on the phone.

I got off the phone with my mom, but then needed to call two other relatives to pass along the update. After that, my brother called, and then I called a friend to tell her what was going on. As soon as I hung up with my friend, my mortgage broker called. We are refinancing right now, and it turns out that the mortgage peeps could find no record of our condo's title being filed. At this point, it was 10 AM.

So my broker relays to me the chaos that will ensue if we can't find the title/deed documents. I think back to five years ago and remember there being some drama about the title, and I tell her I think I was eventually mailed something, but it arrived a long time after our close. She warns that if I don't find the official title document, she's going to have to track down the lawyer of the people who we bought the place from in 2003 and it's going to be a mess.

This leads me to rummage through my laundry room shelves, where I have our various mortgage and closing documents spread throughout several folders and boxes. I cannot find the right document.

Finally, I remember that I put all of my Most Important Life Documents in a Secret Place, so I search that spot, and lo and behold, think I have found the right paperwork.

By this point in time, my mom had called me again with another update, so that took a few minutes. Then I called my broker back to ask if I had found the right thing, but she was no longer in the office. I remained hopeful that I had found what she needed, so I scanned in the three pages of what I thought was the deed and then emailed them to the mortgage company. By this point in time, it was 11 AM.

Several emails had come through over the course of those few hours, so I responded to the ones that needed immediate replies and then put all of the files, boxes and papers that I had torn out of my shelves back in their rightful spots. My stomach was growling because of my mini-breakfast (typically I eat a much bigger breakfast, it's my favorite meal of the day!), so I popped Amy's Organic Cheese Pizza Snacks into the toaster oven, and while they were cooking I loaded the dishwasher with a bunch of dirty dishes that had accumulated in the sink, threw away dead flowers that were in our centerpiece and changed the water in the vase, and then washed a few dishes that can't go in the dishwasher.

When I went to eat the pizza snacks, the phone rang. It was 11:23 and it was my mortgage broker, who was still out of the office but thought, from my description of the paperwork, that I had found the right document. I finished my pseudo-lunch and then began this post.

Four hours have passed since I got out of bed and I feel like I've accomplished nothing. I could've never had any idea when I went to bed last night that I would be doing any of the things that have taken up the first half of this day today. That is why one of my favorite sayings is, "People plan, God laughs."

Anyway, I WILL say that if I were to describe a typical day, it would be that I get up, eat breakfast, have my tea, and attempt to write my "According to e" post as soon afterward as possible. The posts get emailed out to subscribers in the early afternoon, so if I don't get one up in the morning, it doesn't get emailed until the following day, and for whatever reason that stresses me out. No, it is not "my job" to write on this site and no, I don't get paid in any way for anything I put on here (for this reason I hope you truly, truly, TRULY appreciate the lack of ads on both of my blogs!). Why do I do it? Because I am getting paid to write other things that one day I hope I'll be able to share with you all, and I've found that writing a short post every day has helped me to become a better writer and a faster writer and get over my need to think about everything I write for hours on end before I start typing. Plus, I have "virtually" met so many of you over the past few years that I find myself craving feedback, comments and the weird sort of camaraderie that comes from people who share the same interests, even if they never meet in person.

If I get done with my "A to e" post early enough, I will work on my "real" writing projects for a few hours. I walk my dog for 20 minutes or so every afternoon, and then typically keep on writing after I get home. But more often than not, phone calls, emails, Facebook messages, CNN.com and PerezHilton.com do distract me a bit and take up a few hours each day. I also read a lot for some of the projects I'm working on--a form of research, if you will.

Then there are all the things I now do during the day that when working for The Man I could only do after business hours or on the weekend: laundry, cleaning, a wide variety of appointments (doctor, dentist, hair, vet, etc.), waiting for deliveries for everyone in my building, scheduling repair work for my building, scheduling charity pick-ups, watering plants, and so on. And if I actually schedule a lunch or meeting with a friend or colleague, then usually four hours are taken up between getting ready, traveling to/from the meeting spot and the meeting itself. If I don't have to see any other humans on a given day, then I usually don't take a shower until 4 PM, or after I go on a walk or to the gym, which is usually near the end of the day but before the rush of people coming from the office.

So there you have it. I think a lot of people would not do well with the lack of structure I face every day... but then there are those, like me, who prefer it to an office atmosphere. I wouldn't trade my situation for the world and know how lucky I am to be able to do what I love, so despite the daily dramas that distract me from more productive pursuits, I hope I can keep this lifestyle forever!

- e

P.S. So it's now 12:52. I just got off the phone with my broker, I did not have the right documents. No one can figure out if our title/deed was even ever filed and it is, as she predicted, a complete and utter mess. My dog is pacing to go on his walk. My mom just beeped in again while I was on the other line with the broker. AND I had to cancel an appointment I had scheduled at 1 PM with my tax guy. I have a feeling I'm not going to get much else done today...

Wizards and Vampires: The HP6 and Twilight Trailers

Last night I had a mini freak-out conniption when, just as I was about to shut down my laptop for the night, I saw that the Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer had finally been released. Take a look:

First off, I think it looks incredibly dark and my hopes are rising that this film will actually live up to the awesomeness of the book. They found, once again, the perfect kid to cast as Tom Riddle. He has already given me nightmares. I was totally digging Dumbledore's polka-dot scarf thingy, too. But the best parts, to me, were the Harry and Dumbledore voice-overs at the very end. Chills! Now we just have to wait four more months.

A few of you have written me about the movie Twilight that is coming out in December, based upon the best-selling series by author Stephanie Meyer. I had never even heard of these books, and then was shocked to learn that they are quickly approaching Harry Potter status in both sales and levels of crazy fandom. Then an Entertainment Weekly issue arrived a few weeks ago with the two leads from Twilight on the cover, so I realized I couldn't be left out of the phenomenon any longer. The first book is on its way to my house as I type this.

I'm sure the books are great and I'm excited to read them... in fact, I sat next to a woman my age on the bus yesterday who was holding one of the books in the series, and I asked her what she thought and she replied, "I really didn't think I would be that into them, but they are really good!" However, I gotta say, I'm not feeling the movie trailer quite as much. Yes, I am happy that the main vampire kid, played by the same guy who played Cedric in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, can take over for Shia LaBeouf on my Inappropriate Celebrity Crushes list. But the fact that he is so damn pale in the movie is not helping... and something about the acting just seems off to me, especially with the girl playing Bella. I'm hoping after I read the book my opinion will change. But I know I'll see it no matter what.



For those of you who have read the book, is the trailer worrying you or making you excited to see the movie? The majority of fans, according to this article, seem to be hating on the Entertainment Weekly cover, if nothing else...

- e

A Life's Goal Accomplished: Jimmy Buffett at Toyota Park

Yes, believe it or not, one of my life's goals was to get to a Jimmy Buffett concert. You would think, since he's been touring pretty much every summer for the last four decades, that this would be an easier goal to achieve than, say, visiting all seven continents. But yet I'd still never gone to a show. It would've been ideal to have seen him when he held the first concert ever performed at Wrigley Field, just a few blocks from my place... but I was in Europe at the time. Therefore, last Tuesday evening, the realization hit me that I wasn't getting any younger, and neither was Jimmy, so I better get serious.

That is how I ended up searching StubHub and finding third row seats for his concert this past Saturday night at Toyota Park, a stadium that's a little bit south of Chicago (where the Chicago Fire soccer team plays). Let me tell you, Jimmy did not disappoint. We had an absolute blast and I'm so glad I finally got my act together to see him play live.

As we headed to the stadium, my husband and I talked about the fact that it's actually pretty strange that I'm a Jimmy Buffett fan in the first place. His legion of followers--known as Parrotheads--typically have a few major things in common, and I don't really fit the description. First and foremost, I'm not a big drinker. That right there is almost grounds for dismissal from Parrothead Land. Secondly, I've never even smoked a cigarette, much less other, uh, things that Buffett fans have been rumoured to enjoy inhaling. On top of all that, I've been known to get more than a tad seasick when out on the water. e and sailing don't really mix. AND... it turns out I didn't even know the words to one of his most famous songs, "Margaritaville!" Ever since high school, I thought he was saying, "Blew out my flip-flop... Stepped on a pop tart." Then I saw a guy in front of me on the way into the show and the back of his shirt had that phrase on it, only "pop tart" was "pop top." I said to my husband, "What? What is a pop top? I thought it was 'Stepped on a pop tart?'"

My husband, fearing for our lives, shot me the evil eye and hissed, "Shhh!!! Good God, don't say that around here! These people are SERIOUS!" He then went on to explain what a pop top was. I think I'm going to keep saying pop tart. But anyway, it was just another reason that I didn't fit in with the rest of the crowd.

So why do I love this man? The concert made it crystal clear. The guy is just happy. He is happy to be alive, happy to be doing what he loves, and seemed truly, truly conscious and thankful of the fact that the universe dealt him a winning hand. I like Jimmy Buffett for the exact same reason that Ireland remains my #1 favorite country I've ever visited: both Jimmy Buffett and the people of Ireland know how to enjoy life and have the best attitudes on the planet. Further, the business geek in me can't help but respect the fact that he is a marketing genius. You may remember my visits to his restaurants/bars/merchandising meccas in both Vegas and Orlando. So I love him for those reasons, plus the fact that a few of his songs are about pirates.

Looking around the stadium, I honestly think Toyota Park usurped Disney World as "The Happiest Place on Earth." Everyone was in a good mood. No one was embarrassed at the fact that they had parrot hats, cheeseburger hats, shark hats, leis, grass skirts or coconut bras on. I've never seen so many friendly people in my life. Yeah, a lot of that friendliness surely came from the many beers and/or margaritas consumed in the parking lot before the show, but hey, the world needs positivity in any type of form nowadays, don't you agree? Here's a short clip of the crowd hitting around many, many beach balls at the beginning of the show:

But I need to back up a little bit... here are a few pictures I snapped as we made our way into the stadium. The first is a shot of just one small section of the lot as we were driving in from the highway. Notice all of the tents set up... it was seriously like a tailgating party at Michigan or Notre Dame, times ten thousand.



Here is a "Fins Up!" truck and a mini-luau.



Finally, here's my favorite guy I saw. He reminded me of an older Sawyer from Lost (Jimmy actually referenced Lost during the concert, more on that in a minute). You may want to click to enlarge the picture to get the full effect of his awesomeness.


The concert itself was wonderful. If you're interested in the set list, I found it on another site here. As you may be able to see from this shot we took as we headed down to the field level, there was a huge map as the backdrop on the stage.


At one point, Jimmy asked the lighting guy to zoom in on the Great Lakes. But the Great Lakes weren't actually drawn out on the map... the entire United States was just a big blob. When Jimmy realized this with a bit of embarrassment, he covered by saying, "Perhaps the lakes are like the Island on Lost... they moved!" The vast majority of the crowd seemed befuddled by this comment, but I was in my glory. And THAT is why I love Jimmy Buffett.

This last video goes out to Nerdy P and Crazy Joe-E, who, at a very young age is already a Parrothead and has learned not only the words, but also this dance to the classic song, "Fins":



I've got another life goal now. See Jimmy Buffett in concert AGAIN.

- e

The X-Files: I Want to Believe

You can bet that I was extremely nervous as I headed in to see the new X-Files movie, after having read negative review after negative review in the days leading up to its premiere. As you may recall from my post about the 1998 X-Files Expos last week, I was quite a fan of the television series. From the picture on the right, you can see that I had my mini-Mulder with me for moral support in case the film was awful (and yes, I had him on my lap so that he, too, was able to watch the movie).

First, the bad news. The movie was not great. My husband called it "crap," but I think he was just jealous that I shouted out "YESSSSS!!!!!" when clean-shaven Mulder appeared on the screen (early in the movie he looked a little rough, so I was worried). But anyway, we both agreed that the pacing of the movie was way too slow, that we were flat-out bored at several points, and that they could've written a much better plot in the six years since the series went off of the air.

The good news is that I'm still glad I saw it, and it in no way ruined my fond memories of the TV show. Mulder and Scully continue to rock the house and all of the acting in the film was fine--quite frankly it just felt good to be reunited with those beloved characters once again. And it wasn't like the storyline was totally lame or anything... it's just that the action was too spread out and they probably could've chopped off at least 20 minutes or so from the 105 minute running time.

While I had been worried about the addition of Amanda Peet and rapper Xzibit (seriously?) as two new FBI agents, they weren't really in it that much and didn't annoy me when they were, so that was a big relief. Finally, there were a few nods to the series (one that made me especially happy toward the end) that helped piece a few things together for long-time fans. Overall, however, it was a "stand-alone" story that anyone could understand, even if they never saw the show.

If you loved the series as I did, though, you should stay seated until the end of the credits so as to leave the theater on a slightly happier note.

The bottom line is that I can, in good faith, recommend the movie to anyone who watched the show religiously--just set your expectations accordingly and know that the movie doesn't even come close to being as good as some of the best episodes in the series' nine-season run. If you never watched the show, however, or watched it on and off but weren't outright obsessed with either Mulder or Scully, then you should probably skip it... at least on the big screen.

The thing I'm most disappointed about is that since the movie hasn't wowed the box office (it made $10 million over its opening weekend, and had a $30 million budget...), I fear that plans for the third movie, revolving around the alien invasion and possible end of the world on December 21, 2012, may be scrapped. I honestly think that movie would be awesome, because who better to handle the extreme paranoia that's going to be engulfing the world that year than Chris Carter? They've got a few years to convince The Powers That Be in Hollywood to still move forward with it. "I want to believe" that it will happen! Hee, hee.

I leave you with semi-relevant pictures of my dog and mini-Mulder--they had never met each other until this weekend. At first my dog appeared upset at the little FBI agent, but then, as happens with most everyone, he grew to love him.

Long Live Fox!





- e

Shame on Shia

First off, you know I only post on weekends if something really, really gets to me and I simply cannot wait until Monday to comment on it. And that is what has happened on this otherwise brilliant Chicago summer day.

The motivation for this post is my need to vent and mourn over the fact that I'm going to have to find some other twenty-something to replace Shia LaBeouf on my Inappropriate Celebrity Obsessions list. Apparently he was out driving in L.A. at 3 AM this morning, crashed and flipped his car (!) after making a left-hand turn. He was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. Some chick was in the car with him, but so far she hasn't been identified.

I tried to forget his lame Walgreens arrest. I even tried to overlook the fact that he smokes, which is typically a deal-breaker in my book. But I can no longer continue to be in denial that Shia is a bad, bad boy. A DUI is a ticket off of the Inappropriate Celebrity Obsessions list.

He better not end up like freakin' Corey Haim or I am going to be seriously depressed.

Let's hope he gets his act together. And let's hope the rest of my Sunday can be salvaged as I search for other decade-younger-than-me actors to take my mind off of Shia.

- e

Coldplay at the United Center

Last night my husband and I were lucky enough to have been invited to enjoy the Coldplay concert at the United Center from box seats. If you imagine the stage being set up at the 12 position on a clock, our seats were in between the 4 and the 5 and just above the first raised section of stadium seating. I looked up at the poor souls who were where we were for the previous tour and felt a twang of pity-- three rows from the top of the arena and behind the stage is no place from which to see any concert. I'm glad that those bad memories have now been replaced with last night's experience.

We missed the first opening act, but saw most of Santogold, a reggae-sounding rapper from Brooklyn--she was pretty good. The Powers That Be at the United Center informed everyone that Coldplay would be filming during the show, so they turned off all of the TVs and lights in the boxes and everywhere else. All that did was make you realize how many people had cell phones, PDAs and camera phones, because screens were lit up all over the place for the duration of the concert. Technology: a blessing and a curse.

The other thing I just HAVE to mention before I get into the music itself was this totally crazy woman who was in front of us (in the first normal row of seats below the box) who "danced" non-stop the entire time. Luckily we were high enough that we could still see over her (though it should be mentioned that the rest of the stadium was on its feet for the full 2.5 hours the band played...). But I felt really, really badly for the young guy standing next to her. She was one of those people who had absolutely no rhythm, yet flailed about wildly to every single song, even the slow ones. I mean, she was totally hitting the dude to her left constantly (no one was on her right), and if I were him, I definitely would've resorted to violence. Instead, he kept looking back at us and making faces, as if to ensure we knew she wasn't with him. She appeared to be by herself, didn't have a drink in her hand and didn't move from her seat until the encore, so it's not like she was sucking down alcohol the entire time. All I could figure was that: 1) she just loved the music and wanted to express herself in that unfortunate way, 2) was hopped up on some sort of speed/crack/whatever, or 3) drank a lot before getting in her seat. People like this always seem to sit by me at concerts, I can't figure it out.

OK, so onto the band... Coldplay opened with, appropriately, the first song on Viva La Vida, "Life in Technicolor." I will list the entire set they played in the comments section so as to not ruin it for anyone who's catching them later in the tour... but be forewarned that I am going to comment on a few specific performances...

...Such as the fifth song they played, "Viva La Vida." I thought it was totally bizarre that they chose to place perhaps the most high-energy track in their repertoire in between two slow songs, and really didn't have any special effects going on during it or anything. At the end of last week, Coldplay performed VLV outside in some park in L.A.--broadcast live on The Tonight Show--and they had confetti bursting out of the stage to the beat and whatnot, but there was none of that in the show last night for this same song. I had been positive that they would either open or close with VLV, so I thought its placement at the end of the first third of the concert was not well thought-out.

Their stage set-up was pretty typical, but had two jutting "arms" that went out into both sides of the audience on the floor. Throughout the show there were also anywhere from one to six large orbs suspended from the ceiling, upon which various things were projected--sometimes a live feed from the stage and at other times still images or random videos. At other times they just glowed... guess what color they were during "Yellow"? About half-way through the night a huge screen rose up behind the band which greatly helped everyone be able to see the guys more clearly. While Chris Martin did his trademarked hop-dancing at several times throughout the night, the other guys pretty much just stayed in their spots. I must say that Mr. Paltrow was lookin' mighty fine, too... his hair was not too short and not too poofy. Why, oh, why is he married to her?!?!

By far the coolest part of the night, to me, was when all four band members finished up a song, jumped down from the stage, and then continued running through the stadium (followed by spotlights) and up a flight of steps and out an exit, like they were hightailing it to go get some hot pretzels or something. After they disappeared, everyone was like, "What just happened?" Then a few moments later they re-appeared on a small landing right in the middle of the crowd. If I had been in any of those seats nearby I would've been freaking out. They proceeded to whip out guitars, plug them in and perform "The Scientist" right there. I loved it.

I should also mention that between the show I was at last night and the one held the previous night (also at the United Center), they attempted to film their video for "Lost!". As you may remember from my write-up on the Viva La Vida CD, I liked the "Lost?" version of this song much better, but hey, beggars can't be choosers. They obviously plan to release "Lost!" on the radio as they've been performing it on late-night talk shows and now have filmed the video. Look for me when it comes out! I had on a gray shirt. You'll totally see me.

FINALLY we got some confetti (though it kind of slowly floated down from the ceiling rather than shooting from the stage) during the second-to-last number, "Lovers in Japan," which was accompanied by a hectic montage of images that fit the lyrics on the big screen behind the stage. When it was all said and done, the stage and stadium were blanketed with a rainbow of small colored paper bits. I'm sure the clean-up crew cursed the day Coldplay came onto the scene.

All in all, while I thought their arrangement of the set list was not ideal and some of the lighting effects temporarily blinded many people in the audience, Coldplay did put on a great show and I'm so happy that I got to go and observe them once again from a proper angle. Nothing will beat seeing them at the much more intimate Aragon Ballroom in the summer of 2001 before they became really popular... but now they have four albums to pick and choose from and I sang my heart out along with them for 2.5 hours, which I can't say I was able to do seven years ago.

If you see them on tour this year, I hope you enjoy the show as much as I did, and be sure to let me know if they played any different songs in the main set or in the encore.

- e

The 1998 X-Files Expo: No One Can Ever Blackmail Me with these Pictures if I Choose to Post Them Myself!

My dear friends, the time has come to fully reveal the extreme level of nerdiness that I have achieved in my lifetime. Those of you who have been following my writing for the past few years are already aware that I am quite the strange individual. But now, as the saying goes, I'm going to take it "to eleven."

Ten years ago, a series of conventions for über-nerds were held around the country. They brought together a group of people known as "X-Philes," whose common thread was that they had spent the better part of the past five years of their lives (at that point) obsessed with two fictional FBI agents known as Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, the main characters on one of the best TV series of all-time, The X-Files.

It should come as no surprise that I was one of those people, and that I went to not one, but two of the X-Files Expos held a decade ago. In Chicago I went with my friend BP, fellow Internet geek and conspiracy theorist. He brought a yo-yo to the event, held at Navy Pier, and was the subject of intense jealousy when none other than Assistant Director Skinner (Mitch Pileggi) asked him for it during his speech in front of the huge crowd.

In Detroit, the convention was held at Cobo Hall, and I went with my friends JH and the infamous Nerdy P. The highlight of that one was most definitely a talk by Cigarette-Smoking Man, a.k.a. Cancer Man, played by William B. Davis. The newspaper at which I worked during college, The Michigan Daily, actually still has an article up about the Detroit X-Files Expo.

Besides hearing some of the smaller players on the show speak (others I saw included "X" and a few of the Lone Gunmen), we got to look at tons of props that had been used throughout the years, choose from more merchandise than you could ever dream of (I got the "I Want to Believe" poster, naturally), and watch a sneak preview of the upcoming movie, The X-Files: Fight the Future.

In addition, we got to take some crazy pictures with sets they had worked up for the event. The first two below were scanned from the physical photographs I've been saving since 1998, but the third picture, which is probably the funniest, was given to me on an old-school floppy disk and was never high-quality in the first place. So I apologize for its graininess, but hopefully you will still get the idea. All three of the pictures below can be enlarged when clicked upon so that you can see the details a bit better.

So without further ado, here we are with the car used in the first X-Files movie, fearing the approach of the alien mothership!



Below, I am taking over Mulder's office (notice how they even got all the pencils in the ceiling!).




And finally, I was stuffed into the trunk of a car by none other than the Men in Black! I totally missed my calling as an actress, don't you agree?




Ah, such great memories. I can't wait to be reunited with all my fellow X-Philes this Friday for The X-Files: I Want to Believe. It's been six long years since the series ended, and even I had to read back through a synopsis of all nine seasons to prepare for the movie.

I am SO ready to see Mulder's smirk again, it's not even funny. My enjoyment of the film will be directly proportional to how much screen-time Mulder has. And yes, I will be bringing my Mulder action figure to the theater with me. Pics on Monday!

- e