weapons of massdistraction

My movie-going experiences yesterday couldn’t have been more different, even though both were at the same theater. I met up with a friend early in the morning and had a Twilight ticket in hand by 9:30am. There were no hordes of squealing teens and tweens. Just a quiet, wide open lobby. And a nearly empty theater with a handful of other women like us. I’m often interested in the adaptations of books I’ve read, even when they’re painfully bad. This movie wasn’t. But it wasn’t great either. Just about what I expected. The thing that threw me off the most wasn’t the film, but one of the damned previews. For a horror flick called The Unborn. I’m not a huge fan of horror to begin with, but what the fuck Hollywood? I carried one son who was “incompatible with life” and then my other son Felix was stillborn, after I miscarried his twin. I think that’s enough real life horror. I don’t need to imagine their unborn spirits becoming malevolent and haunting anyone.

Later I returned with my surviving son (who I continually thank my lucky stars for) to see Bolt in 3-D. Holy wow. Walking in to that cacophony set of warning bells for both of us. I nearly bolted out the door. But I shelled out for tickets and pushed our way through and around the overenthusiastic young women. Many of whom were cordoned off in different areas to wait for their appointed showtimes of Twilight. For their safety or ours, I couldn’t say. But our kid-packed auditorium seemed like a sea of tranquility by comparison. We settled in with our popcorn and special glasses and got to see some trailers in 3-D (I was treated to the Coraline trailer twice in one day, but it was definitely better in 3-D). And thankfully Bolt was enjoyable enough I won’t mind seeing it with the lad again.

Five other things.

• Stumbled upon “How to feed a vegan for three days or more” when poking around on posterous, for the search term vegan. And it’s pretty decent advice.
• Oh noes! The news I knew was coming but didn’t want to hear. Pushing Daisies got the ax. Stupid bastards at ABC.
• Celina saw my Giraffe? Giraffe! photos which prompted her to send me this bit of “Mistakes to avoid upon waking” genius.
• I’m a longtime Emily the Strange fan, but was tickled to find illustrator Nicomi Nix Turner’s other work. Her In Vein exhibit looks like it was just stunning.
• Interesting but alarming video of kids fully immersed in video game play. Now I’m wondering what I looked like those summers spent playing Frogger or Legend of Zelda, or, more recently, SSX Tricky for PS2.

The lad is staying over with grandma tonight, for the first time in a while, and after I dropped him off I had a hard time narrowing down my options for the evening. I ran some errands instead of attending a friend’s housewarming party. And instantly regretted it. Then I went to dinner alone at Midori’s, with a book. Both were excellent. Now I’m at a NaNoWriMo write-in instead of the Roller Derby (regret!) and writing for the blog instead of the novel. For shame! I’d better get back to my unreality now.