True Friendship!

What is friendship? Aristotle said something about a single soul dwelling in two bodies. Yeah, whatever. I think friendship is demonstrated in things like telling your friends about awesome places like Savannah’s Southern Take-out. I was recently introduced to this place by people who must truly love me; otherwise they’d have kept it to themselves. Savannah’s is located on Scalp Avenue, it’s exclusively take-out, and it’s just fabulous. They have good southern cookin’, everything is homemade, and everything is delicious. We had ribs, barbecued chicken, candied yams, collard greens, mac and cheese, barbecue beans, and cornbread. Then we played Spite and Malice and whined about how full we were. It was like being in the Deep South, but without the wretched heat and 18-hour drive.

Because everything is homemade, they sometimes run out of stuff so you should call ahead if you have a big order. I suggest you eat your collard greens with your cornbread, the way the girls in Mississippi taught me to do it.

Things I Have Learned While Helping to Put Together a Crib

1. Pay attention to where you set down that Allen wrench.
2. Electric screw guns are roughly as essential to life as oxygen.
3. When someone eagerly stands back and allows you to engage the locking pins over the base board, it’s because he knows that the process will bend back and/or split your nails and he is taking advantage of your naiveté.
4. When you perform this task on camera, you are creating a semi-permanent record of your clumsiness.

You really ought to know about this movie

So I created this Excel spreadsheet to track all my DVDs and books because I am a freak. The DVD one is a thing of beauty because I have columns detailing the genre, format, and special notes so that I can do things like separate out my Coen Brothers movies in a jiffy. There’s also a column to track who gave it to me if it was a gift and, most importantly, who has it if it was lent out. I spent quite a bit of time on this since I have such a ludicrous number of DVDs that they really ought to preclude me from having a Netflix membership, but I love Netflix so deeply that I don’t even let thoughts like that bother me. So, imagine how I felt when all my planning and freakish organization failed me as I looked for my Suicide Kings DVD to no avail. It turns out I lent it to Josh before I even made the spreadsheet and it’s now packed in his DVD boxes in his new house in Virginia. I’ll be getting it back soon, so that’s cool but that brings me to the point of this post: Suicide Kings is such a fantastic film, people.

Suicide Kings is one of those movies that most people don’t seem to know about. Most people I know, anyway. When I find someone who has seen that movie and loves it like I do, I feel like I’ve found a kindred spirit. It’s like, “Ah, you love Suicide Kings, so now I feel like I understand you and we will never run out of things to talk about.”

I just love Christopher Walken and Denis Leary so much that I couldn’t believe my luck when I found them in the same movie together. It is utterly quotable in almost any situation, except for the fact that it is laden with so much profanity, but after years of movie watching I am pretty much desensitized to profanity, so that’s really not a problem for me. (Sorry Mom.) If you are also moderately desensitized to profanity and have a love of awesome movies and/or would like to never run out of things to talk about with me, go rent it!

Simon Pegg, marry me!

I recently rented Hot Fuzz and was reminded just how brilliant Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright are. They’re like these super-cool guys who are so funny and clever and even cooler because they’re not trying to be cool or even aware of their supreme coolness. Nick Frost, too. Extremely cool. This led me to, once again, pull Shaun of the Dead off my shelf, because any evening watching Shaun of the Dead is a good one. You should totally go rent these movies. Watch Shaun first and then Fuzz. Have a Pegg/Wright/Frost evening and then be sad that you’ll never be as awesome or clever or funny as these guys.

I had SUCH a great day today

I had the BEST time in New York City today. We (me, Melis, Brian, Jackie, Kristen, and her friend) drove in to see Rent now that the original actors (Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp) for the two main characters are back for a limited run. The show was amazing, just amazing. These guys have such wonderful chemistry and such a great rapport on stage. They also appear to not have aged in the last decade. I don’t know if they’re sleeping in Tupperware or bathing in the blood of children, but they looked great. We were among the last to leave the theatre and Jackie (who had never seen the show before today) looked over and said, “Um, isn’t that the guy? Isn’t that one of the originals?” Sure enough, Anthony Rapp was standing ten feet away, waiting to step outside the see the mob of screaming fans waiting on the sidewalk. Nice catch, Jacks. We were happy to catch a glimpse of him because the mob outside was so huge, there was no seeing anything out there.

That evening Kris and her friend were seeing an off-Broadway play and Jackie and Brian scored standing room tickets for Jersey Boys, so Melis and I were on our own. We tried to get lottery tickets for the evening show of Rent, but failed. We headed to TKTS and, after much deliberation, settled on Xanadu. We were very unsure of our choice and even tried to trade them in at one point. What a foolish mistake that would have been! The show was awesome. Hilarious, clever, great music, great cast (including Cheyenne Jackson! Anyone who has seen All Shook Up knows exactly what I’m talking about.) This show is great! Go see it! But the best part was after the show. We went to the stage door and met Cheyenne. What a lovely, gracious (completely freakin’ adorable) guy he is. He signed our Playbills, took a photo with me and Melis, and was all enthusiastic when she told him that she directed All Shook Up for her high school. Melis and I walked down the street giggling like the 12 year-old girls that we secretly inwardly are. It was pretty awesome.

Then Melis had the bright idea to head down to the Rent stage door to see if Anthony and Adam would come out and sign our Playbills. Xanadu is a short show and we were out way before the others, so we had some time to kill and thought that we could beat the crazy mob to good spots for seeing the Rent guys. On the way down to Rent we stopped at a newspaper stand for a drink and I had an incredible stroke of luck. My favorite gum (cinnamon flavored Freshen Up) is impossible to find in Pennsylvania but there, lo and behold, sat 8 packs of it. My eyes widened, my heart raced, I pounced. I gathered up all 8 packs and the little old Chinese lady behind the counter gasped in shock. Then she pulled out her stash from below the counter and asked if I wanted more. I said, “Yes, I’ll take two more. So that will be 1 bottle of water and 10 packs of gum, please.” The guy behind me said, “Is that the gum with the liquid center? Man, that stuff is hard to find.” Seriously dude. I look for it everywhere. I was even hoping to stumble upon it in London. Now I am so stocked up, and I walked down 7^th Avenue, giddy with my good fortune.

Then it was on to Rent. We got there in plenty of time to get a front row spot on the barricades they set up to handle the crazy crowds by the stage door. About 20 minutes later, the show let out and the people who had rushed like madmen from their seats were horrified to find there was already a crowd, three people deep, at the barricades. More and more people swarmed in and started shoving us against the barricades like it was a Who concert in Cincinnati. Let me take a moment to explain, in case you’re not familiar with this show, that Rent fans are the most fanatical, semi-psycho fans on Broadway. It is a huge deal that Anthony and Adam came back, and it’s really tough to get tickets right now and people go crazy to see them. The crowd pours into the streets, the NYPD has officers there, it’s pandemonium. And Melis and I were at the front of it all.

Anthony came out first. He was very polite and reserved and kept thanking people for their enthusiasm. The crowd went so crazy and I thought we were going to flip the barricade over and end up, face down, on the ground at his feet. He signed our Playbills and spent a lot of time with the crowd and was very gracious. I told him I have liked him since Adventures in Babysitting (“Oh Thor, mighty god of thunder!”) and he, somewhat disappointingly, did not respond with “Ya think?” I guess you can’t have everything. Then Adam came out and the crowd went wild. Girls were screaming, “Adam, marry me!” He had to stop signing autographs to ask people to calm down and take a step back so those of us at the front didn’t get crushed. He also spent lots of time with the crowd and was completely adorable. Then the NYPD had to step in and push the barriers back and do some crowd control, which basically consisted of screaming at people to stop pushing. It was pretty fabulous.

Oh for pity's sake, I am so dumb

I drove to the Gibsons' tonight to spend the weekend. About 30 minutes into my trip, I called their house to check what their dinner plans were. I talked to Uncle Giz. The conversation went thusly:

Me: I'll be there around 8:30. What are your dinner plans?
Giz: Where are you now?
Me: Ebensburg.
Giz: Ebensburg?
Me: Yeah, Ebensburg.
Giz: Why are you in Ebensburg?
Me: (silence, as I contemplate my stupidity)
Giz: Ebensburg? E-B-E-N-S-B-U-R-G? Ebensburg?
Me: Ummmm, yeah?
Giz: Why are you in Ebensburg?
Me: Because I am so freakin' dumb!

And then Uncle Giz had a hearty chuckle at my expense, and then he made a joke about my stupidity and involving the city of Erie, and then I hung up on him.

But wait! I'm even more stupid than you realize. I was driving up the Johnstown Expressway and I got to where the highway splits and I thought to myself, "I need to go through Windber." And then I thought to myself, "No, that's the way to Chris' house. Instead I should go through Ebensburg." As if Chris' house (in Harrisburg) is not on the way to the Gibsons'! Clearly I have some sort of brain disease.

Okay, fine. FINE.

I ate the shoe cookie.