Entertainment Tonight

(Here’s a post written on Friday night, that I never got around to posting this weekend, with Monday morning Director’s Commentary.)

Since I haven’t posted anything recently (I know the Dwight YouTube thingy was just phoning in. I do, I really do), and it’s Friday night (as of this writing…who knows who when I’ll get around to posting this?), and I’m enjoying a nice glass of infrastructure, let’s have a really random talk about entertainment.

Why entertainment? Consider it a post in honor of Joyce Kulhawik, channel 4’s very cool entertainment reporter, who gave her last report tonight. Thanks to budget cuts at the station, she was laid off. (Boo budget cuts!) Pretty much every Boston station has laid off their entertainment reporters, which means local music and theater can kiss their TV coverage goodbye.

(Of course, it’s not like I actually get to go out and hear live music or see live theater anymore, but it’s nice to pretend.)

This is sad. Of course, its not like I get out much anymore to see live performances. The last movie we saw in a theatre prior to a few weeks ago was “Juno,” which we saw Christmas vacation week. “Juno” was awesome, and features a shout-out to one of my BFFs, Herschell Gordon Lewis (Google him if you don’t know who he is). Okay, maybe HGL doesn’t think of me as a BFF but he is a friend and an exceedingly cool guy who completely freaked out my boss’s former boss by hugging me and then jokingly declaring to a group of people at a conference that he and I had been having an affair for years. I think the boss thought I was gonna sue or something. I just cracked up laughing.

(Have I told that story before? Who cares? I’ve been up since 5:15 a.m., and the little bast…I mean, darling who woke me up then proceeded to yell at me for several hours, about everything from what was on television to the fact I wouldn’t him eat M&M Yogurt for breakfast, nor would I change my shirt just because he wanted me to.)

I told you this was gonna be random. Someone will sum up in the comments, so either go there or keep reading, ‘kay?

Anywho…

A few weeks ago the husband and I saw “Iron Man,” which, as Cake said, was really, really cool. Robert Downey Jr. was excellent, and as IANO said (no link, cause he said this to me in person—I know. How old school) the movie would have been great if he was just playing Tony Stark for 2 hours, and not Iron Man.

(Caught the end of the MTV Movie Awards last night. Downey was very funny.)

A movie that was not so good was “Spider-Man 3,” which we finally saw on cable last week. As a good comic book geek, I generally make an effort to get out to the theaters to see these sort of things. And we intended to see Spidey the Third on a cinema, we really did. Then…everyone we knew who had seen the flick—geeks and non-geeks alike—told us it was crap. So shelling out $50 bucks to a babysitter suddenly seemed like not such a good idea.

(Oh, but you know what was good? Friday night’s “Doctor Who.” We’re up to “The Poison Sky” here in the U.S. – that’s part 2 of the Sontaran story. Loved the “Are you my mummy?” bit. If you saw it and didn’t get the joke, go get the season 1 DVDs and watch “The Doctor Dances.” C’mon, like you’ve got something better to do.)

Skipping Spidey at the multiplex was $50 bucks well saved. In the midst of one of the many song and dance interludes, the husband looked at me and said “Who is this movie for? Do they think kids would like this?”

“I dunno,” I said. “Maybe gay kids, who are trying to reconcile their love of superheroes with their love of Broadway?”

Then, I realized that gay kids would have better taste than to like this sort of nonsense.

As for my kids—who are gay? Straight? Who knows? I’m sure they don’t even know yet…Dan-El liked the action sequences, but was nowhere near as excited as he was for “Transformers,” which he has watched multiple times (that’s very high praise for a non-cartoon movie coming from a two-year old). Jak-El kept wondering why we weren’t actually seeing Spider-Man more (I wondered that too), and thought the ending was very, very sad.

For the most part, I don’t watch a lot of movies on TV. I tend to fall asleep, even if I’m really enjoying the movie. This is a byproduct of having a child who gets up at 5:20 a.m. almost every day.

I do watch a lot of TV though. This season of “Top Chef” has been pretty entertaining. There was one high pressure challenge where I predicted accurately who would win. The husband was puzzled. How did I know? Simple. She was a mom, and used to doing multiple things at once while people screamed at her simultaneously about things unrelated to the tasks she was doing. Before writing this I made Jak-El a grilled cheese sandwich and Dan-El pasta, while at the same time feeding the cats and listening to Jak-El give me detailed rundown of an episode of “SpongeBob” and Dan-El yelling “Light on, Mommy!” as he played with a light switch.

(Every time I hear the name “Top Chef,” I automatically start singing it to the tune of the “Top Cat” theme. Cause I’m a bit of a tard. It’s true. Ask my cat.)

And since Dan-El is screaming “DADDY HERE! DADDY HERE!” I know the husband is home with our dinner (from Boston Market. YUM!) that means blog writing time is done.

In the words of Gordon Ramsey, SHUT IT DOWN! SHUT IT DOWN!

Happy weekend, friends!

(Happy Monday, that is.)