Stupid courage

I recently picked up a copy of The Princess Bride on DVD, and I was watching it with William Goldman's commentary earlier. I've read both of his books on screenwriting in Hollywood, and in the second one he wrote about the making of the film. He repeats some of his observations, making me wonder if doing the commentary inspired the book or the other way around. Anyway, one thing he said on the commentary stuck out for me, when Inigo Montoya finally gets his revenge on Count Rugen at the end, for killing his father. Referring to the twenty years Inigo has spent learning to be a swordsman and tracking the Count down, Goldman calls it a "stupid quest" and says "Nothing moves me as much on Earth as stupid courage."

For a moment, I considered the alternatives open to Inigo. He could have simply grieved for his father, learned a trade, started a family, and told his kids the story of the evil man who killed their grandfather. Or he could have grown bitter, turned evil himself, and continued the cycle of the strong preying on the weak (even in the story, he starts out as a criminal and drunkard).

The difference, I think, is that people want to write stories in which characters like Inigo are the heroes, and people like to hear those kinds of stories. Their courage may be stupid, but we recognize it as human, and even if we never have to display it ourselves, we hope it's there inside us if we ever need it.

Cat problems

Our male cat has acquired a bad habit of chewing on paper things left lying around the place. In the past, these have included the dvd sleeves that my Netflix movies come in and the corners of my Entertainment Weeklys. However, when I walked out into the living room this morning, I saw one of the envelopes containing bills that I had left on the kitchen table last night on the floor. The other two were missing. I hunted around and found them scattered in various places, all chewed to various degrees. I guess I'm going to have to stop leaving that kind of thing out at night. I can't imagine the contents are too damaged, but it still sucks.

More exploring

I did a few more hours worth of photographing murals today in East Austin. I'm getting diminishing returns the farther north I go, but I'm still seeing a few here and there. I got a couple shots at Sam's Bar-B-Que restaurant, and later I swung back by to try the food. I asked for the mutton, I believe the first time I've tried it, and it was alright but not my cup of tea. I prefer brisket, so I told them I'd be back to try that. I recognized the woman from one of the short documentaries aired one night Phil and I went to "East Austin Stories". Sure enough, she confirmed that was her, and told me a scene from The Life of David Gale was filmed there as well.

I'm continually surprised by what I find over there, and today was no different. There's a retirement community that looks plopped down out of the sky, clearly aimed at upper class seniors, which is just huge, a little neighborhood all to itself. In fact, the east side is commonly thought of as being the low-rent part of town, but let me tell you, there are some rich people living over there, and it's all the more striking when you see little enclaves of beautiful houses and brand new condos next door to the poorer one-story houses.

A few weeks ago, I saw graffiti that said something like "Go back to California", and the word "gentrify" has appeared once or twice. It's a very real problem when so many low-income families are concentrated in that part of town, where they have access to so many of the city's amenities and services close at hand. They obviously don't want to give those things up, and why should they?

Random encounter

This past Tuesday, I met my first former reality show contestant at a happy hour after work. After we left the first bar, we met up with her and her very cute friend later at Fado, an Irish bar downtown for food, song, and dancing. Yes, she did a little Riverdance for us, and my colleagues even got out on the dance floor for a little improvised half-irish jig, half-hip hop get-down. Meanwhile, I kept the beat by clapping and stomping with the band and laughing harder than I have in some time. It was so much fun.

It was interesting hearing some of the behind-the-scenes details, since I already knew a bit about that kind of filming from my own experience and reading up on the industry. For instance, the field is whittled down to four finalists in the first two weeks of filming. And when it comes to getting people talking, alcohol is a producer's best friend. No surprise there.

The future of cinema

I went and saw Wedding Crashers after work today, after glowing recommendations from multiple people. It was good, but my immediate thought when it was over was that this movie was made to be seen with an audience. I don't think it would go over quite as well in the living room. Don't get me wrong, I laughed as much as everybody else in the theater (and everybody was laughing), but there's been a lot in the press about how this movie is special, and if it's true that it is special, then it's because we don't see a whole lot of non-event movies designed for the theater audience experience anymore.

I've had more than one conversation about the future of movies in the digital age in the past couple weeks, so I've been thinking about it lately. What with the advent of simultaneous theater/home video/television release on the horizon, the way we decide what movies we go out to see may be changing in the near future. Right now, we see the movies we don't want to wait for on DVD. When there's no waiting, what would entice you out to brave the crowds?

I tend to make an effort to see in theaters movies that have impressive visuals, simply because it's a big screen, so the visuals are clearer and (hopefully) more impressive. That motivation is fading as home theaters become more impressive and cheaper. My next TV will be a big plasma that will serve as a big screen for my DVD watching. I already have a great sound system. Will I still want to see War of the Worlds in a crowded googolplex when the picture's just as impressive at home?

I pointed out to one person that there will always be dating, which means there will always be people looking for some way to spend a night out. Theaters aren't going away. (Well, maybe some of them are, since they overbuilt so much in the last decade.) But Wedding Crashers is the kind of movie that will attract moviegoers to the crowd experience, where you laugh harder or gasp louder because everyone else is doing it too.

Fun with fruit

OK, I'm not usually one to bag on terrible song lyrics, having written a few myself, but every once in a while I can't help it. Right now, the stupidest lyrics on the radio, which get stuck in my head until I want to put a drill to my temple, are from Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl". Until I looked them up to be sure what I was hearing, they sounded even dumber than they are, but they're still dumb enough.

I defy anyone hearing this song for the first time not to go "Huh?" when, towards the end of the song, it turns into a commercial for a certain type of fruit. That's right, the words to the part in question are:

Let me hear you say this shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
(This shit is bananas)
(B-A-N-A-N-A-S)

Again
This shit is bananas
B-A-N-A-N-A-S
(This shit is bananas)
(B-A-N-A-N-A-S)

The radio version censors out the profanity, so it sounds like she's singing "Eat bananas", then spelling it out as shown above. Hurray for the English language. Somebody call Dave Barry.

Drying out

We got a little more rain today, which is good, since the property manager sent a form letter letting us know if the trees die we get fined. Trees dying from the heat/drought - that's something I never had to worry about in Indiana.

I cross Town Lake at the dam on the west side every day coming home from work, and the water level varies but it doesn't look terribly low, so there must be rain somewhere upriver. Still, we could use more in the city limits so I don't have to lug a bucketful of water outside to douse the trees.

Keeping cool

As I write this, we’re getting the first rain we’ve seen in about a month, along with quite a bit of lightning (including a strike that knocked out my power for half a second, requiring me to start this post over-grrr). When I got out of my air-conditioned car this afternoon after work, the blast of hot air that hit my face really was like opening an oven. In this kind of weather, nothing beats a cold dessert!

I made a recent favorite of mine last night to take into work today. I got the recipe out of a company cookbook from the last place I worked and made a few tweaks that really turned it into a home run. Here it is:

Buster Bar Ice Cream Cake

Ingredients: 1/4 cup melted butter; 1 bag of regular oreo cookies; 1/2 gallon of vanilla ice cream; 1 can of fudge topping; 1 8-oz. container of cool whip; 1-2 cups of honey roasted peanuts.

Directions:

1. Set the cool whip out long enough to thaw completely. If you’re using a rectangular box of ice cream, leave it in the freezer until you’re ready to use it-otherwise, leave it out long enough to be soft but not soupy.
2. Crush 2/3rds of the oreos into very small pieces and crumbs, but set aside 1/3 of them for garnish, then pour the crushed ones in a large bowl. Melt the butter and add it to the oreos, mixing well into a kind of crust. Mash the mixture into a 9” x 13” baking pan.
3. Using a spoon, scoop all of the fudge topping into a skillet (I made the one last night using caffe mocha flavor, which turned out excellent). Set the burner on the lowest setting and melt the fudge, but turn it off if it starts to bubble.
4. If you’re using a box of ice cream, open up the box and peel it off the ice cream. Then, with a long knife, slice the ice cream into three, 1”-thick layer pieces. Lay two of these on the oreo crust in the pan, the third will require more slicing in order to fit. If you’re scooping the ice cream, just make sure the entire oreo crust is covered-this will require about a half-gallon’s worth.
5. Gently pour the fudge out of the skillet on top of the ice cream. (If you scooped your ice cream and it is melted, the fudge will run between the scoops and form a second crust when frozen.)
6. Sprinkle as many peanuts as you prefer over the top.
7. Add the cool whip on top of the peanuts.
8. Crush the remaining 1/3 of the oreos as chunky or fine as you like and sprinkle them on top of the cool whip.
9. Put tin foil over the pan and freeze for at least 3 hours.
10. Cut with a knife and serve.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Even grain silos are bigger in Texas. 

Fun weekend

Wow, what a weekend. I drove up to Dallas Saturday morning to see friends and hang out for the Fourth, and a good time was had by all. We got into the whisky Sunday night and played a four- or five-hour game of Truth or Dare that was really just Dare, about which I will say no more. I actually got a little sun at the pool that afternoon, too, which is too rare lately.

Saw War of the Worlds Saturday night. I liked how faithful to the book it was, even in the ending, and the effects were as impressive as you'd expect. It's a testament to his acting ability that it was easy to forget Tom Cruise's recent downward spiral and get emotionally invested in his character. This has been a great summer for movie fans so far.