Spring is upon us. The birds are singing, the sun is shining, the grass is growing.
Our cruddy baseball team has a brand spanking new baseball stadium, and I haven't gotten out there to check it out yet. Actually, I think I've been at work for all of the home games they've played thus far. Hopefully, I'll be able to make it next Thursday for Thirsty Thursday. While I'm excited about that, I'm also pretty excited about going to Durham this coming Sunday. Karen and I are going to a Bulls game. Every year, I've been saying, "Hey, I'll go to a Bulls game this season", but I haven't been to a Bulls game since about 1982. Long before they built their new shiny stadium and got promoted to AAA. It should be a load of fun.
I was feeling kinda cruddy yesterday, so I planted my ass in front of the TV and watched movies. My Netflix rotation got all messed up, so I had to watch one of my own movies. I was pleasantly surprised when I was reminded that I had a new one in my collection. A couple of weeks ago, I picked up The Ice Storm in the $5 bin at Best Buy. Score! I've always really liked that movie, but I don't think I had seen it since it was a new release. Or maybe once on cable since then. I can never understand why that movie didn't receive more attention. It got a Golden Globe nomination for Sigourney Weaver's supporting actress role, won at BAFTA for the same, and won a Cannes award for screenplay writing. Other than that, the only nominations it got were from inconsequential entities like Mike and Steve's bitchin' film festival, Muncie Indiana. I'm just sayin'... Freakin Titanic won everything under the sun that year, and The Ice Storm is a much better film. And made on a considerably smaller budget. I read that the budget for The Ice Storm was $18 million. I don't even know how they paid the actors on that budget. Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci, Elijah Wood, Katie Holmes. These are all name-brand top shelf actors. Of course this was Katie Holmes' first role. Yes, it was before we knew who Joey Potter was.
Maybe I'm being a big geek, but I noticed a pretty cool connection while watching that movie. At the very beginning, Tobey Maguire's character is reading a Fantastic Four comic, and his voiceover explaining that issue will later make a lot of sense, as it sort of gives the movie meaning.
Anyway... Fantastic Four. Marvel Comics. Created by Stan Lee. Stan Lee also created Spiderman. Spiderman was recently played by.... Tobey Maguire.
I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that Tobey Maguire is a comic book freak, and it isn't really a coincidence or fluke that this connection exists. However, I don't think that's the case at all. I read somewhere that he never read the Spiderman comics before playing the role, and hasn't since then.
Okay. After all that. If you haven't seen The Ice Storm in a while, or if you haven't ever seen it, do so now. Rent it tonight, or go over to Best Buy and snag it out of the $5 bin.
Okay. Enough of my rambling.
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