11.20.05
Harry Potter, pub crawls, lazy days
So, first things first. Harry Potter. The Goblet of Fire.
I saw it yesterday, a matinee showing at The Lincoln. I was, of course, almost as hyped as many people are. I mean, Hermione is getting hotter and hotter, the effects are sweet, the story lines are getting more and more adult, and its just a cool series in general, right?
But as I was driving up to the movie, talking with candice, I was informed that that movie was only 2.5 hours long. How in the name of good literature and writing can they they fit a 752 page book into 2.5 hours, I asked, while still maintaining enough of the story to make it worthwhile?
Well, friends, I can now give you the honest answer.
They can’t. At least, in this case they failed miserably, IMHO. I mean, its still an ok movie, but it just didn’t work. Maybe they’ll go LOTRings style on us and release a DVD version that gets it.
The whole thing was very badly rushed. By which I mean the audience gets a bare minimum story/dialog scene to set up a longer action shot. The Quidditch World Cup is not seen, only the player’s entrance’s. Winky doesn’t exist. Rita only gets one interview and two articles. The whole “harry is a self serving git” plotline is barely even a background event, and certainly not one that I think anyone who hasn’t read the books will get.
I know they have to cut a lot out. Thats ok. It happens. It can even be done well, as proven by the LOTRs, and, to a certain extent, earlier HP movies. But they just didn’t get it done, this time. They needed more time. The sad thing is, a half hour more probably would’ve done it…although an hour might’ve been better. It felt like a bunch of cut scenes from an old computer game, to be honest. You know the ones….the ones where it took longer to load the cut scene from your cd then it did to play it? Yeah, those.
However, this weekend I have been reaffirming my love for main street belleville (the website doesn’t do it justice).
Friday night, in one of my fits of loneliness, I went for a one-man pub-crawl around belleville’s 5 main street bars. First was my favorite haunt, Castletown Geoghegan, then I strode all the way to the opposite end of the drag to visit 313, which is the local “alternative” joint. I think the bartender was trying to hit on me, until she realized that I am just not interesting…at least not for random conversation over a bar. There was a band from south florida playing there, one perfect minute , and I thought they were fairly good, except for the fact that I couldn’t really hear them because they were too loud for a little bar like that. I am now downloading a song of theirs to see what I really think.
Incidently, they were trying half-heartedly to get the crowd to pay attention to them, and failing. It was kind of sad. I always think its sad when a band, especially a good one, doesn’t have an audience. After about three songs, I moved on, having stayed an extra 45 minutes just to see the band. Between my bleeding ears and that heart-sickening feeling I get whenever there is a lost puppy I can’t take home or a decent band begging people to listen, I couldn’t stay. I kind of wish I’d had the money to buy their cds…they were selling 2 for $10, and I think it would’ve been worth while. But I’m trying to be cheap, as you’ll see when we finish the pub crawl.
Anyway, next I walked one down to Big Daddy’s 618, which doesn’t appear to have a website. I’d never been in, although I’d often thought about going in. Its a pretty standard meat-house, with big bouncers, a mix of old and young (since its the only meathouse in town) people, skimpy clothing, and a small dance floor playing crappy music. I had a coke, oggled some ass (mmm, thongs poking out of pants), and moved on pretty quickly. I suppose if I had somone in the area to go become geeks on the dance floor with, it would be worthwhile.
So then, it was the local jazz club….Main Steet Jazz and Blues. This is kind of a funny little place, the guys that work the bar are very much like the guys from High Fidelity. The beer there is cheap, so I had a $2 for 10 ounces beer, watched the 3 man jazz group play a song (I just can’t get into jazz so I can’t tell you if they’re any good), and moved on.
The last place was the ground floor, which is kind of a new-agey alternative place. True to the “new-agey alternative” style, they had a screamer band playing. The band was nearly as good as one-perfect minute, but they had people listening to them and bobbing along, so I stayed and listened and watched. This place had probably the most interesting people…a couple of girls dressed in pretty standard clubbing gear but clearly enjoying the music as much as their skanky, unbathed boyfriends, a shorn head, rolled up jeans and combat boot wearing chicka who I think might’ve been the bouncer (very tall, very muscley, and she followed a group of the clubber/skeezer peeps into the back with an attitude of “you’re not going to fuck each other in my bar, a couple of guys playing chess near front (the band was in the back), and finally, a very violent, very large gentlemen who started trying to start a fight when the music ended and someone told the band that they sucked (which, well, they did). He told the band that he would “go to jail for them” and went and got in the face of the kid that said they sucked. I left.
Incidently, I just listened to the three one perfect minute songs on their website…they’re ok, but they have that “every small alternative band” sound. I hope you know the one I’m talking about. Meaning they’re worth going to if they play near you, but I can’t see them making it big.
And lazy days…like yesterday. Yesterday I had big plans, and ended up doing basically nothing except watching harry potter, eating mexican, and playing computer games. Because I am a fool. But this weekend has been good none-the-less.
Oh, and I promised a money count. All that for less than 20, and I think I might’ve come in under 15. I got a coke at the ground floor as well as big daddy’s.
