Month: May 2009

Clue at the Clay

stardate

I just saw Bawdy Caste’s production of Clue at the Clay Theater in San Francisco, which they performed like they do the Rocky Horror Picture Show– they perform all the action in costume silently as the movie plays behind them on the screen. The audience heckles the screen as the movie plays.

Something I noticed this about Clue this time was the minor inconsistencies between each of the three solutions– would Yvette really have time to run the length of the mansion twice, kill the cook, and drag her body to the meat locker in the time she spent off-screen?

To sort this out, I was thinking it would be cool to put footnotes on screen while the original action is happening, color-coded by each of the three solutions: “Solution A: Right now, Mrs. Peacock is killing the cook.” In addition, the clues used in the solutions would be called out: “Yvette flinches when she sees Mrs. White.”

Flowers in the Attic

flix

Good lord why did I watch this. Wasn’t the book bad enough?

Made in 1987, the story is just depraved, and I’m not talking about the incest (which either is not in the movie or I spaced out during that part).

At every opportunity, the most dramatic thing happens, even if it is completely improbable. Example: protagonist is pretty, blonde, innocent. She is her daddy’s favorite; he even says so. So her father not only dies in an accident which is never explained, but on his birthday, and when they are preparing a surprise party for him. Every drop of melodrama is milked from the scenario.

Basically the movie is an exercise in repressed sexual reference. Petty-evil mom played by Victoria Tennant (playing a similarly spoiled character as in All of Me) stands subservient and has her clothes ripped off before being whipped by her bible-toting mother and father. Doomed-to-die blonde dad flirts with his favorite daughter, the protagonist played by a very young Kristy Swanson.

I feel like porn is more honest; normally I would have liked this movie but since it’s an adaptation of the book it has no plot development. This is basically a romance/fantasy for preteens.

BUT you know what was great? Christopher Young did the score. Which I guessed, because it sounds just like the Hellraiser movies!

More made up words

stardate

Hey gesmerity. Are you jimmiged?

ga sm’rrty? Ga smere i tee?

Gimmiged?

You know when you wake up from a deep sleep and try to talk?

gesmerity I think is supposed to be “smarty” or “Smart-ass.” Jimmiged is related to garbage or “rummage” and means something related to “cleaned” as in “showered.”

3d puzzle sphere thingy

looky

I saw this cool thing on ThinkGeek: the 360 Puzzle Sphere. It sure looks familiar…

Oh wait. It’s because I’ve seen it before: The original was called the Superplexus, and it was designed by artist Michael McGinnis. Here’s an article in the chron about the saga involved in bringing his dream to market.

At one point McGinnis made a giant one (6 feet in diameter!) and had it displayed at the 2007 Maker Faire.

So what is the deal? Is it a rip-off? Is McGinnis getting paid? I sure hope so!