Here is another treat. Another reason why I love my fraternity boys- I’ve drilled it into them that they aren’t just part of the college, but part of the town, so they help out at town events whenever they are needed. Here they are decorating the church for the annual Halloween party last night and then tonight, running the costume contests and cleaning up after. Just good kids:
The kid in the second picture popping off a cap Boardwalk Empire style just cracks me up. His real name is Nelson, and during the costume contest he went on stage and called himself Babyface Nelson. That kid and his parents are full of win.
I did the usual routine of giving out candy and trying to make sure Rosie doesn’t escape when I open the door. It was rainy and crappy, so I had half as many guests this year as last, so at the end I was basically shoveling candy into baskets just to get rid of it all.
Steve was quite the stud- he cameto the door and peeked his head out every time someone knocked and I think I heard “Woah that’s a big cat” and “Wow look at his paws” twenty times. I’m beginning to think his former owners had a daughter, because every time a little girl came to the door, he rushed over to her and demanded to be petted and got super affectionate. It was really cute.
khead
We were shoveling too. Expected a whole lot more and by the end of the night – 15 mins ago – it was “Please, take more”. The little kids were actually scared of Gracie kitty.
Yatsuno
You know, proof of the welfare of Papa Stevedore Hemingway would be most appreciated.
jeffreyw
Kittehs love them some Halloween parties.
RSR
Hey John, really great job with the young men at the fraternity. Lessons that will last a life time.
Sorry the trick or treat weather was sucky. We scraped by before the rain here in Philly. (Last year, of course, much of the area was post-Sandy, and delayed Halloween days or weeks.)
Cheers!
raven
Back in from the neighborhood T or T. It just keeps getting bigger.
John Cole
@khead: I joked with someone earlier that in the last half hour of trick or treating I was basically giving every kid a diabetes starter kit just so I could get it all out of my house, because my fat ass doesn’t need it and it is poisonous to two of the other residents.
Yatsuno
@John Cole:
Theobromide is not good for kittehs either.
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Those are some great costumes. I’m sure the younger kids appreciated the attention of the ‘big’ kids. More age diversity is a normal human experience we are deprived of in our ‘modern’ society.
khead
@John Cole:
So glad it’s not just us. My wife has been making fun of me for hours for overbuying candy, but I really did expect more kids. I, um, overestimated the market in our new neighborhood. Those last few poor kids are headed straight to a life of sugar monitoring.
Omnes Omnibus
@John Cole: @khead: Better to have too much than to tell the last kids coming around to fuck off.
Violet
Parent with kids keep walking right by my house and not bringing them over. I think the Halloween party across the street is too big of a draw. I’ve got all the porch lights on and am sitting out here with a bowl full of candy. I’m going to start shoveling it into the next kids’ bags if more people don’t start coming over here.
Seanly
John – I admire a lot of the stuff you write about the fraternity, but one aspect you don’t discuss that I appreciate is that it appears to be a diverse group of individuals. My alma mater has 28 social fraternities and sororities. When I attended in the late 80’s, they were not very diverse. Very little as in zero. The frats were also very stratified along economic lines and forget joining all but 1 if you were Jewish. I hope they are more in line with what you teach your young men.
Poopyman
Oooh! Steve’s a ladies man!
We’ve had ONE kid all night. The candy bowl, however, is nowhere near as full as it was 2 hours ago. Urrrp.
Omnes Omnibus
@Seanly: Big or small school? I am starting to suspect it matters.
AliceBlue
Good on you, John, for giving so much of yourself to these young men.
schrodinger's cat
Steve is a good old fashioned lover boy, like my boss cat Yogi.
Redshirt
Silence, or rather still the echo of the Red Sox win.
Alison
We never get any trick-or-treaters here! My parents moved into this apartment complex in early 2008 (and I moved in with them in 2011) so this will be their 6th Halloween here and never a single one. And there are kids here! Makes me wonder if the management tells them not to? But that would seem odd…it’s not like soliciting, most people like trick-or-treaters. But I can’t imagine why else none of them would come around.
Of course we still buy at least a bag of candy just in case, because we figure the one year we don’t will be the year they’ll show up. My dad is happy to step in and see to the usage of the candy when the bowl is still full the next day :P
David Koch
Cole, you need to dress Lilly up for Halloween
janeform
It’s fun to have pets at Halloween. One trick or treater saw our Sheltie at the door and blurted out “That’s a perfect dog!” He’s always there to meet and greet, even at the ripe old age of 15.
IowaOldLady
I see a business opportunity: Candy-B-Gone. Pay me and I’ll come to your house and take away all the leftover Halloween candy.
Our last dog loved Halloween. She’d rush out onto the porch and stick her head in all the bags to see what they had.
Omnes Omnibus
@Alison: If someone comes to my door, I’ll just give ’em a beer. After all, this is Wisconsin.
taylormattd
This is what jumped out at me from your post, Cole:
I’m sorry. I can’t help myself. And let’s just say I have an interest in frat guys. Don’t judge.
HinTN
West Virginia – four African American males, six white boys and a girl. Hmmmmmm
Alison
Oh and I did this to my cat :P https://twitter.com/alisonrose711/status/395967092291145728
She was actually pretty cool about it. It’s super lightweight so I left it on her and she walked around in it all day :)
Linnaeus
There’s children in my neighborhood, of course, but we don’t get trick-or-treaters – they go to neighborhood/community Halloween events mostly.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: Not cheese?
Linnaeus
@Omnes Omnibus:
How bout a cheese brat to go with that beer?
Mnemosyne
@Alison:
We put a similar one on our late great cat Boris. G is looking for the digital file, but I probably won’t have it until tomorrow.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: Kids don’t want cheese. They want candy or beer.
Steeplejack (tablet)
@jeffreyw:
That is a clutter of cats!
PsiFighter37
BTW, not sure if this was asked/answered in the past – but did we do a good job of raising money for your frat via the raffle?
Elizabelle
I expected to see Lily in a Howloween costume.
And Rosie doing something or other.
Enjoyed the kids who came to the door. Great costumes. Great kids.
One little guy in black telling me he wanted to be the Grim Reaper, but did not have a scythe.
Complimented him on his skull candy sack.
Linnaeus
I wonder if trick-or-treating has gone down in the last couple of decades. I remember when I was a kid that my neighborhood streets were full of children going door to door; now my dad tells me it’s not nearly what it was. I would guess that planned Halloween events have siphoned off a lot of the children who would normally be out.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Linnaeus: Would a true Wisconsinite actually eat a cheese brat?
Omnes Omnibus
@Linnaeus: I think there is more fear of creepy neighbors these days as well.
LT
Looks like a good bunch, John. You do the world good helping those guys out. (You do the reputation of fraternities good, too.)
Elizabelle
@Linnaeus:
The Beltway Snipers about ten years ago took a toll on Virginians out trick or treating.
They were apprehended well before, but T&T has not recovered.
Linnaeus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Maybe not. I didn’t know that cheese brats were of questionable Wisconsin-ness. Last time I was there, you could get them pretty easily.
raven
@Elizabelle: I have a big scythe on the porch along with a giant crosscut saw.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Cheese goes nowhere near brats. Mustard, sauerkraut, and onions are fine, but that is it.
@Linnaeus: There are lots of things you can buy but shouldn’t. Coors beer, for example.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus:
Are neighbors really creepier, though?
Makes me sad that kids today do not get to roam the neighborhood with the freedom we had.
Of course, we did not have electronics that demanded our waking moments.
Linnaeus
@Omnes Omnibus: @Elizabelle:
Yeah, I think safety concerns – creepy neighbors, scares about candy with poison or razor blades, etc. – have played a role. We didn’t even think about any of that when I was a kid.
Elizabelle
@raven:
This little guy would have appreciated that. He seemed truly bummed in not bringing his Reaper costume off.
Elizabelle
@Linnaeus:
I did a lot of my trick or treating on military bases.
Socialized housing, y’all.
Razor blades would have been grounds for dismissal from service and losing your home.
Linnaeus
@Elizabelle:
As well it should be. That said, I’ve been reading that the whole razor-blade-in-the-candy thing was mostly urban legend that gained steam in the 1980s, like the satanic day care centers.
PsiFighter37
I have to say that I’m impressed with the number of grown-ups without children who still get into Halloween in NYC. I stopped dressing up once I hit college, but the Big Apple is definitely a city where people let their inner child out on October 31st.
Me, I had a fucking miserable day at work, so I’m sitting around in my boxers drinking Green Flash Palate Wrecker.
PF37 +2
Omnes Omnibus
@Elizabelle: @Linnaeus: I don’t think neighbors have gotten any creepier. It is more that TV and the internet have allowed every story of a creepy neighbor to get national coverage. As a result, people worry about it more. My parents were primarily concerned about the danger of me getting run over crossing a street than anything else. My guess is that this is still the greatest danger that kids face on Halloween.
raven
@Elizabelle: Not sure a little guy could carry this baby very far.
raven
dupe
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Elizabelle: funny, I saw plastic scythes in the grocery store, along with pitchforks and costumes. I noticed cause Grim Reaper was always the costume I thought of too late after my annual “I guess I’ll be a hobo again”. The last time I actually went to a Halloween party (twenty years ago) I was gonna do the grim reaper but never found time to make a scythe. Or for that matter a hooded black robe.
Linnaeus
@Omnes Omnibus:
Oh, I agree. It’s the availability heuristic at work.
JPL
When my son camped out at my house with the cat, one Halloween we dressed up Miss Moxie as a cheerleader. She was quite proud and finally stood up to his cat, Mr. Alice. After that anytime Moxie was concerned about the cat or fireworks, I’d put on her cheerleader outfit. Gosh, a year later someone started making money by selling tight fitting capes for timid dogs. phhhhht..
Elizabelle
I like JCole’s fraternity guys.
Four years goes by so quickly. I am glad they will have happy memories and friendships and some damn fine eating to remember.
Got to pay it forward with the youngers.
Elizabelle
Settling in with TCM’s Vincent Price festival, as Betty Cracker noted.
October went by so quickly.
Tomorrow is Day of the Dead?
I think we’re at peak leaf in Northern Virginia. Spectacular.
Litlebritdiftrnt
Booked the dogs into the Kennel today, really worried about it, I don’t want them to think that they are in jail.
raven
@Elizabelle: This was the best we got up on the Blue Ridge Parkway a week ago!
raven
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Hey, what do you know about Northern Soul?
raven
@efgoldman: When I ran the intramural football program at Georgia we could not schedule the Sammie’s and the ZBT’s against each other. It was real hate.
Elizabelle
@raven:
Lovely. You were near us!
May need to roam a bit tomorrow daytime, if it’s not too rainy.
And then non-stop canvassing. GOTV. The Cooch is going DOWN.
raven
@Elizabelle: We were in Central VA for a family reunion Saturday, slept in the shadow of Falwell U!
Seanly
@Omnes Omnibus:
Small school, about 3500 undergrads when I was there. A majority of the male upperclassmen belonged to a fraternity at least while I was there.
Narcissus
In my area it’s a big thing for kids to go trick-or-treating out of car trunks in parking lots organized by churches and schools and shit. I guess kids these days are too good to walk five miles and somehow lose their rubber mask because they took it off because they couldn’t breathe.
PurpleGirl
I spent close to two hours at the lobby party. We had lots of people coming through, from out building and from other buildings. Lost of candy and some bottled water too. Decorations inside and outside. We had a small “hay ride” in one of the seating areas — small bales of hay, containers of candy and decorations there too. It was really nice. Many of the mothers and elder residents talked with me about the costume. I enjoyed myself. The party was a success. We will do it again next year. There was a very light rain early on but it didn’t stop or dampen the party.
Litlebritdiftrnt
@raven: I lived it, but to be honest I was too drunk to remember it, went down to the club on numerous occasions on a coach the dancing however defeated me.
Elizabelle
@raven:
Ah, the Lynchburg/Roanoke axis. Lovely territory, but for the Falwellites.
Heard they might get some snow showers recently?
We have not even had a hard frost in NoVA.
Trust Bodhi remained healthy throughout.
Elizabelle
Roger Corman and Vincent Price movies on TCM.
That’s Roger B. Corman to you, sir.
raven
@Litlebritdiftrnt: Huh, I’m really interested in it but I keep hearing that they didn’t drink much because it was too physical. Any this documentary is pretty good.
Northern Soul: Keeping The Faith. The Culture Show BBC2
raven
@Elizabelle: My bride is from Appomattox. The Bohdi and Lil Bit loved the spilt Brunswick Stew!
Omnes Omnibus
@Seanly: Mine was about 1300 students and about one third were in a frat or sorority. Most of the people I have come across who have a reasonably positive impression of the Greek system went to schools that were smaller than 2000. Purely anecdotal.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: My high school was three times that size. At least for the 3 years I was there!
Omnes Omnibus
@raven: My high school was about the same size as my undergrad.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: I think Illinois was about 28,000 in 69.
Keith P.
Lambda Lambda Lambda?
Pogonip
Which looks more Halloween-ish–a green-eyed black cat or a yellow-eyed black cat? Discuss.
Geoduck
Re: poisoned candy scares. Here’s an article on the subject from the Designated Expert. Short version: It’s never happened.
And my alma mater didn’t even havefrats.
schrodinger's cat
@Litlebritdiftrnt: When are you going to see your mom?
Suffern ACE
@Pogonip: one with both colors is clearly a familiar of some dark force.
schrodinger's cat
One of my astronomy profs would always dress as Darth Vader!
Steeplejack
@Pogonip:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a green-eyed black cat, on Halloween or any other day. And I’ve
ownedcrewed for a few black cats over the years.MattR
@PsiFighter37: The NYC Halloween Parade in the Village is the largest Halloween parade in the world as well as the only parade of any sort to take place at night, at least according to the WPIX broadcast I flipped onto earlier. I have never been, but I have a few friends who have gone almost every year for the past 20 years.
@Alison: This is my 10th halloween in my condo complex. It is a mixture of garden style condos and townhouses in a suburban area. We have a playground in the back that gets regular use and I see kids around all the time. But I have never had one come to my door and I have not even seen any trick or treaters while walking my dog. I have no idea where they go. All I know is that every year I eat a bag of Snickers in the first week of November.
Omnes Omnibus
@schrodinger’s cat: I never had a professor dress as anything for Halloween. My Civ Pro prof in law school did give out Blizzards to people have good answers to questions when we were discussing this case. That was pretty cool. Mine had peanut butter cups.
xane
I don’t know if you really get this kind of fan mail, but srsly, JC, you and your influence increases the good in this world, full stop. Thank You, and Namaste!
Omnes Omnibus
@MattR:
Did someone mention Halloween Parade? Given the timing, I had no real choice.
Hill Dweller
Dubya strikes again:
Pogonip
@Steeplejack: Around here (Ohio) they’re about evenly divided between green and yellow. There are geographical differences in cat populations, e.g. the Vikings liked orange cats and white cats, so you find a lot of those along the old Viking invasion routes.
trollhattan
Have had one trick-or-treater. One. It’s okay though, because it was a tiny, tiny duck on his very first Halloween. Sooooooo very cute.
Need to leave the candy on the porch and go track down the fam; no point sitting around here. Must be something about the flawless, warm night keeping those darn kids at home.
Any Sarah Jarosz fans? Her latest album is wonderful–a sure sign she’s growing into her considerable talents. Here’s a video for you. Music done the right way.
http://www.pastemagazine.com/blogs/av/2013/10/live-from-newport-folk-2013-sarah-jarosz.html?utm_source=PANL&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=131031
The Moar You Know
@Geoduck: Mine banned them. Was fought in courts for years, they finally established one off campus but so far as I know still no official frats. Not a Banana Slug, are ya?
First Halloween without the dog. She hated fall but loved Halloween, all the kids and people constantly coming by. We always have a bowl of candy and one of dog treats, it’s that kind of neighborhood. There’s a lot of dog treats left tonight. It’s those kind of things that punch you in the gut when you’re not expecting it.
Wish the wife wasn’t so allergic to cats, we could use a couple of super-size torties or Maine Coons around here these days.
Traffic was real good this year, got rid of most of the candy. We’re a bit off the beaten path so we don’t get as many as I used to at my old place. I could go through five, six bags easy there.
Pogonip
@Pogonip: It is also possible that Viking wives did NOT like those cat colors. “Sven, that orange cat of yours couldn’t catch a mouse if it had handles. Take her with you when you go Viking and I’ll keep the gray tabby here.”
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Hill Dweller: Not a dime’s worth of difference Wasn’t Priscilla Owen a perennial short-lister for the USSC under Dumbya? Thank god the Idiot Princeling saw Harriet Miers in the hall that day.
Omnes Omnibus
@Pogonip: It is also possible that cats of those colors liked Vikings.
schrodinger's cat
@Omnes Omnibus: My ginger girl has yellow eyes and white paws, but her temperament is very unViking like.
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
Nice guitar she’s playing.
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl: I have some pictures but am having trouble uploading them to FaceBook. Will link to FB when I get something posted.
trollhattan
@Steeplejack:
Ooh, I’m glad you mentioned it. I don’t know what it is, some kind of guitar-mandolin hybrid?
Omnes Omnibus
@trollhattan:
Unholy abomination! Burn it! BURN IT!!!!
Steeplejack
@trollhattan:
No, it’s just an arch-top guitar. Not a common style these days, so it catches the eye. And it would seem she went out of her way to select it rather than the usual. Kudos to her.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Then we don’t need to burn it? Bummer.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Go ahead and splurge and get yourself that Les Paul you’ve always wanted. You deserve it.
Geoduck
@The Moar You Know:
No, I’m a Geoduck. The type of people who go there have absolutely no interest in joining fraternities, so it’s never remotely been an issue.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: I was more excited about burning things. Oh well, Guy Fawkes Day is coming up.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Also, if I buy the Les Paul, I will finally need to decide between black and cherryburst.
ceece
If you have extra candy, there is an organization that puts in into care packages for troops overseas.
Their website: http://www.operationgratitude.com/halloween-candy-buy-back-2012/ Yes, I know it says 2012, but on Facebook they announced they are doing it for 2013. They encourage dentists or parents to buy the candy from kids, but they don’t seem to reject leftovers if you have them.
James E. Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
Not a tough decision, go with the black.
Sarah Jarosz appears to be playing a mandocello.
Omnes Omnibus
@James E. Powell: It is the classic, but once in a while I see the other and think it looks damned good.
pseudonymous in nc
nthing the fraternity stuff. It’s an alien concept to me, and there’s a lot to dislike about how frats often turn out in big state schools, but Cole’s doing a good thing as grizzled oldish frat mentor.
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m all about the sunburst finishes. I may belong to the Strat clan — possibly because I’m a lefty, and Gibson doesn’t like lefties much — but every guitar I’ve owned has been a sunburst.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
In my distant childhood I attended the Montpelier School in Ealing, London, and my mates and I enjoyed fiddling with fireworks on Guy Fawkes Night. I particularly liked Catherine wheels. You could buy all sorts of fireworks at the newsagent on the high street, where I went each week to get my copy of The Beano and a few pieces of candy. Good times.
. . . Egad, I’m having a Proustian moment.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Cherryburst. It’s luminous.
Steeplejack
@James E. Powell:
You’re right. Good eye.
So Omnes can go ahead with the burning, then.
burnspbesq
@trollhattan:
Heck yeah. Great record. The rest of her band (Alex Hargreaves on violin and Nathaniel Smith on cello) are equally good players.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Woohoo! Fire!
burnspbesq
@Steeplejack:
Octave mandolin. Custom job made by a luthier in Seattle. Dear Santa, I want one of those.
SatanicPanic
@Omnes Omnibus: I’ve always wanted a white one. But mine is black.
Omnes Omnibus
@SatanicPanic: The real white or the yellowy one that was made to look white on B/W TV?
SatanicPanic
@Omnes Omnibus: I want a white custom like Steve Jones, so real white i think
cckids
We seem to be the outlier – we had easily 200 kids trick-or-treating. I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of trashy, overly sexy costumes. For some reason, there were 8-10 Minnie Mouses (?). Also lots of Spidermen & Iron Men.
My favorite, though, was one of two girls dressed in Harry Potter robes. The redhead said “I’m Ginny Weasley”, but the blonde said “I’m myself. I got my letter from Hogwarts last week”. Won my nerd heart.
burnspbesq
Sarah is taping an episode of Austin City Limits next week. Don’t know when it will be on.
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus:
My money-is-no-object dream axe: a 1960 TV yellow, double-cutaway Les Paul Special, with the P-90s re-wound for more sustain.
SatanicPanic
@SatanicPanic: Of course if I could afford that I would buy a White Falcon.
Omnes Omnibus
@burnspbesq: I should confess I don’t really play, so, if I got one, I would put it away until I got good enough to be able to use it properly.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
Think of it as a piece of art that you could appreciate and enjoy on a daily basis, whether you played it or not.
fuckwit
@Keith P.: And Omega Mu. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoFJ9M1W4G0
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Nah, a goal. Also, I always buy skis, for example, that are capable of a level or two beyond my skills. It makes sure I keep working to catch up the the equipment and that I can’t outski the equipment.
PurpleGirl
For those who want to see a picture of my Yarn Monster costume. FB shortened the picture so most of the bottom half isn’t showing, but it continues the theme of the top portion that is showing. It also shows the hat I made to go with the tunic. It’s from a few years ago because I couldn’t upload the one taken this afternoon. This is though is better.
Steeplejack
@Omnes Omnibus:
What I meant was that you could enjoy it even while not being “worthy” of it. And, who knows, it might provide motivation to practice and become worthy.
fuckwit
@Elizabelle: Really? Going down? On Cooch?
I cannot wait until that whole election is over, so I can stop hearing about Cooch. It’s just an way too sexual of a metaphor to be attached to a truly unsavory, uh, teabagger.
I mean, I very much enjoy going down on cooch, but not THAT cooch.
Seriously, you have a teabagger named Cooch in Virginia, it’s double-entendre overload. Make him go away!
However, there’s one sexual entendre I’ll always keep around: that “movement” will always be teabaggers to me. I actually have a greasemonkey script set to change all instances of “tea party” to teabaggers. It is easier to tolerate their existence when imaging them all contentedly sucking on testicles, instead of howling about (forced!) birth certificates and getting government out of their Medicare.
Omnes Omnibus
@Steeplejack: Got it.
Steeplejack
@PurpleGirl:
You might want to check that link. For me, at least, it just takes me to what I presume is your “home page” on Facebook, with a real name and everything. Eek! I hope the NSA doesn’t see it.
PurpleGirl
@Steeplejack: I know. I decided to post it for some other people to see it there. And I’m not that nimble in using FB.
Steeplejack
@PurpleGirl:
Maybe it’s because I’m not logged into Facebook, but I don’t see the picture—just a generic “[Your Name] is on Facebook” page.
PurpleGirl
@Steeplejack: Argh. Then I have to do something about that. Thanks for the heads up.
ETA: It does show to people logged in. I may have to put it on a photo site.
trollhattan
@burnspbesq:
a-HA. Was trying to figure out the four string pairs on a gee-tarr body. Dankeschon.
handy
Okay, October Baby is a movie you really want to avoid. Just an FYI.
Steeplejack
@handy:
Ditto for The Counselor. Saw it last night, and it’s wretchedly bad. Which surprised me; the previews and the list of participants had raised my hopes.
askew
@Steeplejack:
God, that was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen. WTF with that car scene? Seriously, so freaking bad.
PurpleGirl
I remembered I had a flickr account I’d only used once. I uploaded the photo there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25838683@N06/
Steeplejack
@askew:
Yeah. I never thought I’d ever be in the position of wanting to unsee anything with Cameron Diaz in it, so thanks for shattering my expectations on that, Ridley Scott and Cormac McCarthy.
Steeplejack
@PurpleGirl:
Okay, that works. Eek! Yarn monster!
Alison
@Steeplejack: @askew: There was a rather amusing pan of that movie over at Salon, with the apparently appropriate title Meet the worst movie ever made.
I mean, I haven’t seen it, but I wonder if that’s possible. This is the same world that gave us Ishtar, Gigli, and every Adam Sandler movie except maybe The Wedding Singer on certain days…
Steeplejack
@Alison:
I’m not one to throw around absolutes like “worst ever,” but it is stunningly bad in a classically Hollywooden way: A-list cast, gorgeous production values, big-name screenwriter and director—all straining mightily and and ending up producing a giant crater in the ground.
I blame McCarthy and Scott. The screenplay is awful: tedious and slow, punctuated by little blips of action and philosophical monologues that sound like late-period Hemingway grafted onto Carlos Castaneda. And Scott orchestrates it all in heavy-handed, over-the-top “I’m Ridley Scott, goddamn it!” mode.
The actors aren’t given much to do, and they don’t do much with what they are given. Fassbender’s character is a passive cipher, and Antonio Banderas just seems to be adding to his collection of weird movie hairdos. (He does the full Harpo Marx in this one.) Brad Pitt sort of sleepwalks amiably through his part—it’s amazing how many mediocre and bad movies he has been in without any of the crap sticking to him—and Penélope Cruz comes out all right, mostly because she’s given the least screen time and the fewest bad lines. Cameron Diaz is not a great actor on a good day, but I felt sorry for her, because her character is at the fulcrum of the plot, and she has to deliver a lot of bad lines.
The main thing is that I felt cheated by the previews, which made the movie seem more action-y and (I hoped) somewhat in the ball park of No Country for Old Men. Kiss that goodbye. But even if McCarthy and Scott were shooting for something else—a different tone, a different (elevated) approach to the genre—they failed dismally at that.
It’s really bad, but I don’t think it
risessinks to the level of, say, Showgirls. You know: “You’ve got to see this to appreciate how truly awful it is! Plus—breasts!” The Counselor doesn’t even have that going for it.Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: The previews looked so awful. It was amazing to see so many A list actors in what looked like a stale and what’s the point? movie. Looked cynical and ugly.
Passed on that one.
Did you see 12 Years a Slave yet?
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Have not seen that yet. It’s on the list.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack:
We must discuss once you’ve seen it. Saw it this week, reading the book (which I’ve had for a while but not cracked), and then will see it again.