Thursday, October 25, 2007

Things seem to be getting mildly better around here. Part of me thinks it's just that people are tired of things seeming completely unmanageable and are just reflexively calling conditions improved. But a lot of the evacuations have been lifted.

You know, I ought to point out that this whole thing hasn't actually impacted my life very much. Aside from worrying about the proximity of the fires, I've pretty much conducted my life this week exactly as I would have if it weren't for the fires. The 2003 fire had much more of an impact on my life, since the power was knocked out for a day and we did have to evacuate. So I've been pretty lucky. Then again, it's not over yet.

Last night, I dreamt Kingston Falls was burning and Phoebe Cates was presiding over it, laughing sadistically on a hilltop even as her own flesh was burning. I don't know why my subconscious was so harsh to Cates, but obviously I did end up listening to he cast commentary for Gremlins. It was fascinating in a weird way--it almost had a dramatic arc, where a group of unlikely cohorts are reunited, their personalities clash, but they pull together in the end. The commentary featured Phoebe Cates (Kate Berringer), who had very little to say, and sounded almost like someone who wasn't even in the picture, as the others continually prompted her to tell stories she had absolutely no memory of, though apparently her favourite part of the movie, as a viewer, is when Gizmo spawns the other mogwai. Howie Mandell (the voice of Gizmo and some of the gremlins), on the commentary, comes off as a mildly funny douche, as after Cate giggles at her favourite scene, Mandell asks Joe Dante, the director, if those furballs are actually his balls.

Mandell obviously seems to think he was the star of the movie. I kept wishing that someone would point out to him that anyone could have done Gizmo's voice.

The main drama on the commentary, though, was provided by Joe Dante and Zach Galligan (Billy Peltzer). Galligan comes off as an eager nerd, chomping at the bit to tell every little story he can think of, sounding both like someone who rarely gets a spotlight anymore and also like someone who genuinely loves DVD commentaries. It was during one of his early, excited ramblings that Howie Mandell interrupted to point out that he'd be pretty annoyed if people were talking over the movie when he was trying to watch it, and what's the point of commentary anyway? It's not the first time I've heard an actor gripe like this on a commentary, but I'm always impressed by the level of stupidity required to spawn the comment*. Joe Dante somehow managed to explain to Mandell, without calling him a moron, that people can turn the commentary off whenever they want, and that it's meant for people who've watched the movie before.

But later, when Galligan started going into a story about a scene that had to be filmed at 6am, Dante interrupted to say that it was that sort of story he'd probably edit out of the commentary if he could. Galligan replied with a very subtly, but obviously deeply felt, hurt, "Why?"

Dante gave an awkward excuse and a tense silence followed. Finally Dante started blabbing about this and that before anyone else felt comfortable talking again.

And somewhere in all of this was Dick Miller (Murray Futterman), who didn't seem to quite understand the sense of humour of all these young people and stayed quiet for most of the commentary. But he made everyone laugh when, at the very end, he said, "Oh, I just thought of a good story."

Phoebe Cates has one of the sexiest voices ever, I must say.

I pencilled two pages yesterday, inked two, and coloured quite a bit. But I'm still very behind on colouring, so I need to buckle down.

I went out yesterday to get shaving cream and decided to eat lunch at a tiny Mexican restaurant next to the CVS. An eight year-old kid rang me up and brought me my food. I could see that he and his father, the man making the food in the back room, were the only people working there. It was like being in a Robert Rodriguez movie, which reminds me I have the Desperado commentary to listen to . . .


*It's worse when it comes from people I have more respect for, as when Stanley Donan said it on the Charade commentary, or when Lucy Davis said it on the Shaun of the Dead commentary, though at least she was cute about it.

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