Really stuck in the 80's

Wait a minute, now I am really confused. People are actually paying U.S. currency to see Journey without Steve Perry? How can that be happening? Does the keyboard player have a massive family presence in the Kansas City area? There wasn’t much of a reason to see the band before, now there is zero. On the other hand, at least we now know what the market price for nostalgia is. What amazes me is that Journey is a big enough draw to play the summer sheds while Jack Johnson is playing smaller venues. Explain that one to me.

It’s good to see that we’ve settled the details of The Neverending Story, which I found out today was at the time the most expensive film ever made in Germany. Yes, it was more expensive than all of those slow, plodding Wim Wenders films that I watched during that brief moment when I was intrigued by German filmmakers. (Other than Wings of Desire, you can pretty much ignore the entire genre. Well, I still want to watch Fitzcaraldo but that is another story that I’ll get to later). Anyway, I still think it is a flying dog. It’s one of the few things that I remember about the movie. That and the fact that the premise was that this entire fantasy world was slowly disappearing and there was an awful lot of death for a children’s flick. Not life scarring visuals but one that has stayed with me for a long time.

Of course, that pales to the effect of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I can’t tell you how many times I watched that film as a kid. I read last week where people consider it a cult classic but I certainly remember it being a yearly event movie growing up (just like the Wizard of Oz). Show me anyone who grew up during that time who isn’t afraid of the Oompa Loompas. You could show me that film today and I’d still be freaking out. That and the chicken getting its head cut off during the boat ride as Gene Wilder becomes more and more frighteningly manic. Seriously, I probably first saw that twenty plus years ago and I can remember it more vividly than I remember most of my twenties. Part of me wants to see the new film but I think that I would like to keep my nightmares constant for the time being.

I did read some more news that shows that Hollywood is completely out of ideas. There is a new animated trilogy in the works. A fully rendered 3D trilogy. Of the Smurfs. I’m not kidding. This isn’t going to be a waste of celluloid, it is also going to be a waste of hard drive space. First of all, how are you going to make one movie plot, much less three, out of the Smurfs? They all walk around their happy little village, Gargamel tries to kill them (for some really obscure reason, anyone know why) and Azrael the cat wonders why I’ve stolen his name for a fallen angel in a short story I wrote years ago. That’s about it. Who is clamoring for this? There is no retro nostalgia for this one, I can’t see anyone in Gen X being able to go to a friend and say “Hey, want to catch the Smurfs movie?” (You can do that with Transformers. Hell, I’ll probably end up doing it.) I wouldn’t even want to take my nieces to the film. I’d rather have them read or something. I seriously need to start working on my screenplay.

One last thing, in the best news that I’ve read in months The Frames are going to be playing in Lawrence in October. I am so unbelievably psyched about that show. Since this means that they must be touring I really encourage everyone to find out where they are playing and show up. Back in January I wrote about feeling that I was just an ant, meandering around my little ant farm in a rather sad little existence. We all probably feel that way sometimes. But when you listen to The Frames and especially when you see them in concert, it’s like someone just injected you with brightness and life. This is going to be so cool.