Best Reason to Cross the Hudson

Friday night my favorite movie theater (the Loew's Jersey Theatre) was playing my favorite movie (Muppets Take Manhattan) so a PATH train ride was a must.

The Loews Jersey is a beautiful old movie palace restored and run by volunteers. They show movies there about once a month, popcorn is a dollar, you can't beat this place and I want to show you some pictures of it.

This is what it looked like after the movie ended and they raised the screen--the giant speakers that had been blasting Kermit and Piggy's voices at us all night.

The organ--before each show there's a dude playing it and they lower him into the earth when the movie starts. You can't beat this place.

Looking back.  This place is gigantic, and there's a balcony, too.

Looking up.

Also looking up.

Looking back.

Heading upstairs.

This is the Men's room.  I can only imagine what the Ladies room looks like.

Chandelier and lobby.

Chandelier and lobby, unobstructed.

This organ you can't touch.  So maybe I could have touched the other one?

More upstairs.

Steven and Jeff, discussing Muppets with excitement.

For the record, before the movie Cher and I had Filipino food there in the neighborhood.  It started out pretty well, grew more challenging towards the end.  Very authentic, though.  That's my guess.

Best Photo Booth

This is what Josh was up to in his photo booth at the party. I thought it odd when he told me I was done without hearing the shutter go. Turns out it was because he was making video art.

40's Video Booth from Joshua Brown on Vimeo.

Best Christmas Blowout and Addendum

Saturday night Carol threw a WWII USO-themed Christmas Party.  It was off the hook, it was the jam, it was vintage, it was modern, it was well attended.  It was everything.  And more?

Here's some of the people that were up in that party:

Dave and Jeff were among the choice few repping uniforms.

I feel Chris pulled off the "I'm shipping off tomorrow" look best.

Jane and Jane.

There's me.  I repeated my costume from the Tom Cruise party when I went as Tom Cruise in the movie Valkyrie.  You know, where he played a nice Nazi.

Candice, Laura, Mariah.

My roommates were even there.  It was great having the whole family at a party together.

Jeff was in town from Tennessee.  Apparently Lauren couldn't believe her eyes.

Mala and Nat.

Jen and Beth.

There was a big line to get photographed by Josh.

Okay, Winners of Best Costume, Female: Maddy and Claire as League of Their Own baseball playing ladies.

Trish.

Look at Steven's socks!  Creepy!

Di.

The partying got serious when Chateau switched from Christmas music to off-the-hook dance jams.

Karrie and Rustin.

Chaunte and Jeff.  There were a lot of great hairdos around that night.

Chillin on the landing.

Helen.  Home safe from Rio.

Erin!

Inside the artist's studio.

I don't know that dude, but he seems to hang out with a good crowd.

Amber.

Caroline.

Partyin'.

Spence, my roommate.  Carol, our hostess.  Ryan, the guy.

Ellie!

Andrea!

This is Jen falling from the couch's armrest onto Andrea onto Monica with Hyeku getting pulled along down with her.

Austin.

Jacob shows up, starts dancing around, driving all the ladies nuts.

Can you guess what mid-90's dance hit is being enjoyed in this photo?  Here's a hint: It's not the Chicken Dance.

Dave in council.

Grace and Evelyn in council.

Grace!

And last but not least, Broek.

So yeah, dude. That was the party. It was excellent.

ADDENDUM: And now I'm just getting home from a gathering at Emily's house.  Less themed, less dancing, still totally excellent.

 Our hostess.

Revelers.

Jeff and Dave in their civvies.

Helen and Kent.  We were roommates for a month in 2009, did you know that?  Kent and I.  That's what I'm talking about.  And now we're neighbors.

"Now listen Jeff.  We need to take a real good photo for our Christmas Card.  Not another disaster like last year's."

Merry Christmas, you Animals.

Best Angry Dad

Mostly what I want to say about this week's Friday Night Lights is: I would not mess with Vince's dad.  The guy who is playing Vince's dad? This week he did some real acting and I liked it.  Chilling transformations from guy who's just trying to be a family man to guy who's seen some stuff and back again.

But I'll also say:  At first I was thinking about this episode and thought, "Ehh, pretty normal FNL" but then I realized "No, way different FNL."  Julie has been getting in dumb situations, as she often does, and the Taylors have been dealing with it, as they often do, but this week the Taylors were like "What in the world are we going to do?" and Coach was, for the first time in five seasons, without a wise answer to give and basically at the end of his wits . . . he even had to leave practice early and was late to a game.  Can you believe it?  And this episode even fooled with well known FNL conventions, for example: Vince had a problem weighing on his mind, so we see him walking up to that Taylor house one night, this is what Coach's players do, afterall.  They show up at his house at night to talk about their problems.  But Vince stops short at the door, he realizes this isn't a problem for Coach, or that this is a problem Coach can't help him solve.  So he leaves.  How is the problem resolved?  Please See Above Screencap and accompanying paragraph.

So, yeah.  Friday Night Lights Season Five: Still moving along nicely, 6 episodes in on a 13 episode season.  Basically we're nearly half-way through the final season and things seem to be on track and well-paced for an excellent finale.  Little clues are being dropped (without any subtlety) of what we can expect at the end of the season, I don't have a problem with any of it.

Oh, and this was my second Friday Night Lights post of the week?  No biggie.  Just getting caught up.

Best I Have Good News!

Guys!  Tonight I saw an advance screening of Green Hornet, which comes out next month.  I found it to be highly entertaining and just plain surprisingly good.  It was funny, like as funny as an extra-comedic Indiana Jones or a toned-down Pink Panther movie, without being a parody and had good action, excellent action, actually.  Cameron Diaz was neither too prominent nor too annoying, Seth Rogen was convincing, in a way, as a reckless rich kid who decides to become a hero, the Korean pop star that played Kato totally stole the show (you should have heard the enthusiastic post-film chatter in the men's room re: Kato), Christoph Waltz played a fine villain—both menacing and humorously maniacal, and Michel Gondry nearly directs this one totally straight . . . there are a few stylistic flourishes, but everything is pretty under control.  In fact, I probably could have gone for a touch more French weirdness.  In a sense this movie sort of has it all: if you just chill, you'll find yourself smiling the whole time and, quite possibly (as many members of the audience did) clapping or cheering more than once.

I would accept a sequel to this film readily.  The leads had good chemistry, I would be happy to see what other sorts of adventures they have.

Worth Noting:  Our screening was in 2D, but the film is being released in 3D.  There really weren't any scenes that had me thinking: If only that was popping out at me!  However, the closing credits were clearly commissioned after the decision to switch to 3D was made as they were clearly meant to be all up in my face.

Best And Where Do I Submit My Application?

There is a job in China where you get paid to trick baby pandas.

And to give baby pandas baby panda backrubs.

All in the name of love. And science.

More facts here.

Best Keepin It Real

This music video for Daft Punk's first "single" off the Tron Legacy soundtrack looks more like Tron than Tron Legacy does. Know what I mean?

Daft Punk - New Music - More Music Videos