Pitch Perfect

No, this isn't a movie about Justin Verlander. This is a "Glee" inspired movie that we attended on a whim. The wife and I both really liked "A Joyful Noise", and this looked to be the college glee club equivalent. It was.

The film stars Anna Kendrick who continues to come on strong. The second youngest nominee for a Tony Award ever she apparently lit up the stage as Dinah in "High Society" on Broadway. I remember her mostly for her great work in "Up In The Air" as the neurotic, and interesting character Natalie Keener. At any rate, Ms. Kendrick stretches a bit here and pulls what might have been a so-so movie up several notches. She does a bit with a cup that deserves a standing O all on it's own.

Great cinema. Nope. Good movie. Yep. And I say that because I was entertained for the hour and a half or so while I was there. And in this day and age of ten dollar movie tickets and an arm and a leg for popcorn, that is all that I ask for. If a film happens to be excellent, great. But if it's only entertaining, that's great too, in my book. Movies are escapism and entertainment after all. So this film totally worked for me. Although for the life of me, I will never understand why she is crying while watching the end of "The Breakfast Club". Pleeeaasseeee.

If you haven't seen it, see it. And while you're at it, rent or buy "A Joyful Noise". Fun stuff for the whole family. It's movie candy. I'll never tell you candy is good food, but sometimes it's nice to have candy.

As a side-note and is now several weeks later, and I was surprised to see "Pitch Perfect" on many serious critics'  "Best 10 Movies of 2012" lists.

The Walking Dead - Season 3 has started.....

Season 3 of The Walking Dead took off with fierceness last Sunday night. The local band of real live people we love so much stumbled upon a prison and after weighing the options, decide that entering, and killing off all the zombies inside, is a viable way to keep them all safe. However there is something about zombies dressed out in riot gear that I find discerning.

They manage to fight their way in and take the "big yard". That night they all sit around a campfire. Really? The next day they enter the prison itself and take on many zombies. One bites Herschel, the closest thing they have to a doctor, and they have to do some emergency surgery of their own. I sure hope they can find the arsenal because how much ammo could have been carried in a satchel anyway?

I still love this show. I love the concept, the characters, the actors, the whole thing. Especially the new character they have introduced. She is hot. She drags zombies with her on chains sans arms or lower jaws. And she's beautiful. I soooo can't wait to find out what she's about.

Stay tuned TV fans. This one is still going strong.

55 Years After "On The Road" Daddy-O

In 1948 Jack Kerouac hitchhiked back and forth across the country and in 1957 he wrote about this adventure (too strong? Okay, "exploits"). He filled a coffee urn, loaded a continuous roll of brown paper towel into a typewriter and wrote the saga (too strong again? "account") of what transpired. It took several uninterrupted days but when he finally collapsed it was done. It was done, Dean Moriarity.

Along the way with Neal Cassidy (referred to as 'Dean Moriarity') Sal Paradise (as Kerouac calls himself) encounters other hipsters of the day: Allan Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and many others. Sentences run on for pages, just as the days ran into night and then into the next day. Four or five page sentences are not unusual. Nor was the voice of God in the clouds as Jack rolled into Denver. "You Boy" he would exclaim.

The nights, the days, the jazz. Kerouac often explained "I'm not a writer. I'm a musician. I play the typewriter." Truman Capote once said "He's not a writer, he's a typist."  And I say -

"yeah Daddy-O, yeah!" You almost get it, you breakfast at tiffany's in cold blood hanging out with andy warhol because you think that will make you an artist loser. What else you got? What if Lennon/McCartney only ever wrote "I Should Have Known Better" and "A Hard Day's Night"? Do they diminish as artists? I think not, Truman, you arrogant piece of fat dead flesh.

Keep trying, daddy-o, because.....somewhere in America, when the night falls.....
I remember Dean Moriarity......and so does the whole world.