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Hello Peoples!
I got two blogworthies to yammer on about today, so I decided to consolidate:
Friday night I was away from the safe, warm womb of Cyberspace and had to spend most of the day in the cold, lonely wasteland that is "real life".
Some friends asked me to babysit, and as I have no real obligations to prevent me, and I could really use the $20, I happily accepted. I would've done it for free--they're good people and their kids are no trouble. Basically I got paid to watch movies and make sure the house didn't get swallowed up by the Earth while my friends were out.
Not a bad deal.
I ended up watching two of the most iconic films of 1980s Nerdery: Tron, and The Princess Bride. But since it isn't the 80s anymore, I saw more than just the movies.
See, I'm a Special Features buff. Commentaries, making-of documentaries, blooper reels, interviews, deleted scenes, alternate endings--I eat that shit up.
The 20th anniversary edition of Tron that came out in 2002 has some great stuff--you get not only a crash course in how one of the most influential technical achievements in cinematic history came to be, but you get to sit and gape in total awe at how far CGI has come in the last two decades.
But as awesome as Tron's bonus goodies are, they're not what really got to me that night.
Naturally, I've seen The Princess Bride a few hundred times or so--It's brilliant, hilarious, magnificently nerdy, and the most quotable movie not made by Monty Python or Quentin Tarantino, but I'd never seen the Special Features:
I only watched the interviews--it was getting late and I still wanted to have time to watch the movie. The actors featured were Mandy Patinkin, Robin Wright Penn(who's aged beautifully), Fred Savage and Chrises Guest and Sarandon.
After a bit of random reminiscing they shared their memories of Andre The Giant:
In accordance with everything I've heard about the man, the actors were of one mind concerning the late wrestler--specifically, that he was one of the kindest and most charming individuals any of them have ever known.
Mandy Patinkin shared a lovely anecdote about working with the big man:
It concerned the "Cliffs of Insanity" scene, which was filmed at the Cliffs of Dover in England, and actually involved the actors being pulled up a cliff on a winch.
Wallace Shawn(Vizzini)was more than a little concerned about this scene--for the diminutive actor suffers from extreme acrophobia. But even more than the actual act of being pulled up such a high cliff, Shawn feared that his phobia might ruin the film--such was his terror that he was convinced that he'd freak out and blow the scene.
Andre saw how nervous and fearful Shawn was. In response, he reached down with one of his dinner plate sized hands and patted the little man on the head like a child saying: "Don't worry--I'll take care of you" (Patinkin does a spot-on Andre The Giant impression--try to imagine his voice as you read this)
I couldn't help tearing up at that--regular visitors probably know I'm a sentimental bastard, and that was just too much for me. There just aren't enough stories out there of simple, heartfelt kindness in Hollywood. I'm not talking about big charitable gestures or impressive humanitarian acts--just basic, honest sweetness. Why do we lose people like this so quickly and easily?
I'm gonna give everyone a minute after that, seriously, take a moment--get yourself together. I'll wait. You don't wanna get into what's next while you're all melancholy.
So the new season of quite possibly the nerdiest hour of programming in history--Mythbusters, just started. And as much as I love the show for it's pure unadulterated, geeky goodness, one aspect of the show's appeal managed, amazingly, to slip my mind:
Kari Byron--KARI GODDAMN BYRON!!!
I'm so very, very, embarrassed. See, since starting this blog I've endeavored to offer my readers the nerdiest of eye-candy. I'm not just a pig, folks--I could have decorated my blog with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit models or Playboy centerfolds, but I choose to celebrate Nerdity as well as Beauty in my little corner of cyberspace.
Up 'til now I thought I'd done a good job--but how I managed to let the lovely Ms. Byron slip by unnoticed is beyond all comprehension.
How in Krom's name did I manage to...Y'know what, forget the bullshit--just three words: Hot. Geeky. Redhead.
HOT!
GEEKY!
REDHEAD!
Who doesn't love Hot, Geeky Redheads? SOHB even has one on Staff.
So here's a few pics to make up for my laxity, one or two will eventually be going up on the sidebar, but for now--enjoy them all:
The Dread Pirate Scoot
