I've decided that I need my weekends to be increased by 50%. This past weekend was my last weekend of “nothing planned” for probably about a month* so I celebrated by blowing most of it. Thankfully, I had dinner plans with friends on Saturday**. That was fun and then on Sunday the GF invited me to go see a play that some friends of hers were in on Saturday afternoon. They play itself was not very good, but afterwards we went over to the Summerfest in Wicker Park for some good tunes and bad food. As it turns out, the fest was much larger than last year, but most of it was art and crafts and cheap Louis Vitton knockoffs. Mercifully, there was one tent selling funnel cakes, and corn dogs and cheese fries. At least I was able to get something that will contribute to my eventual early death for dinner.
Afterwards, having spent most of the weekend engaged in activities, we decided to just veg and rent movies. So we headed over to Blockbuster on the way home to look over the options. First, I need to mention that the video stores are full of crap these days. No wonder nobody goes to the movies anymore.
For example - Oh Kal Penn. You made such a big splash on the US domestic movie scene when you broke in with your starring role in Van Wilder. After following it up with your star turn in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, I was confident you would go onto bigger and better things. But as the GF and I browsed through the offering at Blockbuster, we were both disappointed that you seem to not only be choosing the same sorts of roles in the same sorts of movies – but you're also using the same facial expression on the cover art for each (see here and here). Apparently, this poor guy's been relegated not only to being the new token Indian guy*** in the domestic film market but to being the “Indian Guy Who Looks Seriously Disturbed (If Not Disgusted) By Whatever He's Supposed to Be Looking At”.
We ended up walking about with two movies that we were both only mildly ambivalent about, and only one of which we actually finished. I was kind of excited about The Aristocrats because it was supposed to be “unspeakably obscene language” and it would be “rolling on the floor funny”. It was neither. Yes, it was mildly amusing to watch Bob Saget do the joke, and the mime was mildly amusing. But for the most part it was more academic on the nature of humor amongst comedians than a laugh-out-loud retelling of the joke itself. It was interesting from a “theory of humor” perspective, but not inherently funny.
I almost wish we would have gotten King Kong instead...
* Wedding this weekend in Ann Arbor with Spice and J.Po, Mom in town next weekend, tentative dinner plans with friends the weekend after that, etc, etc, etc.
** Two sets of friends, too! I know, I'm such a bastard, scheduling two dinner dates with friends for the same night. But I hadn't seen one in months and the other's was a birthday party, so I felt obligated.
*** After all Ajay Naidu is pretty established at this point, and America needs fresh harmless token Indians.
Afterwards, having spent most of the weekend engaged in activities, we decided to just veg and rent movies. So we headed over to Blockbuster on the way home to look over the options. First, I need to mention that the video stores are full of crap these days. No wonder nobody goes to the movies anymore.
For example - Oh Kal Penn. You made such a big splash on the US domestic movie scene when you broke in with your starring role in Van Wilder. After following it up with your star turn in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, I was confident you would go onto bigger and better things. But as the GF and I browsed through the offering at Blockbuster, we were both disappointed that you seem to not only be choosing the same sorts of roles in the same sorts of movies – but you're also using the same facial expression on the cover art for each (see here and here). Apparently, this poor guy's been relegated not only to being the new token Indian guy*** in the domestic film market but to being the “Indian Guy Who Looks Seriously Disturbed (If Not Disgusted) By Whatever He's Supposed to Be Looking At”.
We ended up walking about with two movies that we were both only mildly ambivalent about, and only one of which we actually finished. I was kind of excited about The Aristocrats because it was supposed to be “unspeakably obscene language” and it would be “rolling on the floor funny”. It was neither. Yes, it was mildly amusing to watch Bob Saget do the joke, and the mime was mildly amusing. But for the most part it was more academic on the nature of humor amongst comedians than a laugh-out-loud retelling of the joke itself. It was interesting from a “theory of humor” perspective, but not inherently funny.
I almost wish we would have gotten King Kong instead...
* Wedding this weekend in Ann Arbor with Spice and J.Po, Mom in town next weekend, tentative dinner plans with friends the weekend after that, etc, etc, etc.
** Two sets of friends, too! I know, I'm such a bastard, scheduling two dinner dates with friends for the same night. But I hadn't seen one in months and the other's was a birthday party, so I felt obligated.
*** After all Ajay Naidu is pretty established at this point, and America needs fresh harmless token Indians.
Comments
KK was the movie that confirmed my suspicion (after suffering through the first two LotRs - I didn't bother with #3) that I just can't watch Peter Jackson movies.