Laughter From the Rafters

So last night I made the ear-splitting drive to Somerville (my car's exhaust has a massive hole in it, causing my Maxima to sound like a 767) to see Cinematic Titanic live at the Somerville Theater. I met up with my buddy Frank to catch five of the original folks behind Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffin' on a craptastic '70s kung fu-sploitation flick called The Dynamite Brothers. It was the second of two nights and the place was sold out. It was basically Nerd Central (myself included). We managed to score second row seats, which was pretty sweet. The show opener was Dave "Gruber" Allen, a funny guy who's been in a ton of stuff but most notably (to me, anyways) played guidance counselor Mr. Rosso on "Freaks and Geeks." He was joined by CTer J. Elvis Weinstein, who played some bass on a few songs they did together. Then the rest of the CT crew came out: Joel Hodgson, the original host of MST3K, Trace Beaulieau, Frank Conniff, and Mary Jo Pehl. They were set up on stage in front of the movie screen with stools and microphones and proceeded to hilariously riff on the flick for the next 90 minutes. The movie was a kung fu knockoff of The Defiant Ones, with a black guy and a Chinese guy handcuffed together by a crooked cop. They escape and unintentional hilarity ensues. The 1974 movie featured some familiar faces: Aldo Ray, a character actor from the '50s-'70s and James Hong, who has played Asian characters on "MASH" and "Seinfeld" and just about every other TV show or movie that has ever featured an Asian character. The CT crew had us all in stitches, whether it was Joel's spit-take when one of the cops drops an early f-bomb, or just their repeated tooling on the director's insistence on showing characters just walking around. After the movie ended, they did a quick reel of some of their MST3K "greatest hits" and then stuck around to sign autographs in the lobby. We didn't bother to get in line, which by the time we got out was already into the street. But definitely a great evening.

I came home and watched the Leafs-Canucks game. I was pleased to see Mats Sundin get a standing ovation after a tribute was shown on the Jumbotron, although there were some fans who booed him every time he touched the puck. As has been the case his entire career, the night ended in classic and clutch fashion: It came down to a shootout and then Sundin won the game with a beautiful deke. Pretty great stuff.

Not That Social

Here I sit on a lazy Saturday morning and I already have my 20-miler behind me. It's a nice feeling. It wasn't a nice feeling yesterday while I was actually doing the run. The girls were off at Disney on Ice and I headed out on a cold morning--temps in the mid-20s, strong winds, and an unexpected inch of snow on the ground from the night before. My legs felt heavy and I struggled throughout the run; it took me longer than expected and Deb and the girls caught an earlier train. I was supposed to pick them up, but I was still a mile out when the train pulled in; fortunately some friends of ours were on the train and gave them a ride home. I had skipped my Thursday tempo run because I was running long yesterday, so I'll get that in tomorrow.

Tonight I'm heading to the Somerville Theater to check out Cinematic Titanic, the latest venture from most of the old Mystery Science Theater 3K crew. They'll be showing some crappy old martial arts flick and making with the jokey-jokes throughout. Should be a blast. They've been releasing DVDs for about a year, but this is their first tour.

While I'm out tonight, I'll miss the Leafs-Canucks game, which features the return of Mats Sundin to Toronto. There's been a lot of back and forth up in TO about whether fans will boo or cheer their former captain. Anybody who boos him is a moron. That guy busted his butt for 13 years for the Leafs and is one of the greatest players in franchise history. Sure, he didn't lead them to a Cup, but I blame that on the GMs over the years as much as anything. I'll be TiVoing the game and watching it after I get home tonight, and I'll cheer him on.

Speaking of TiVo, I've still got to watch the last two shows of Late Night with Conan O'Brien that just aired, wrapping up his 16-year run at 12:30 on NBC. In June, he takes over for Jay Leno as host of The Tonight Show. Hopefully, he won't tone it down too much, because it's been fun watching his consistently hilarious show over the years. One of the best things on the show was Robert Smigel's Triumph the Insult Comic Dog; I sure hope he still makes appearances on the new show. In the meantime, here's a collection of some of his greatest moments. Classic.

Counting the Scars

Happy hump day. It's absolutely beautiful out right now--sunny, dry, about 80. Hopefully next week will be like this when I'm on vacation. Yeah, I know I already took a vacation a few weeks ago, but next week is Deb's last before school starts up again, so I figured I'd spend it with her and the girls.

We've been officially bat-free for 10 days. Just sayin'.

Deb's definitely got Olympic mania. She's been watching it nonstop. I've been poking my head in from time to time to see what's going on. Man, that Michael Phelps has been insanely good. Five golds as of this writing, with three more chances to win. He's already the winningnest Olympic athlete in history. Meanwhile, tough times for Canada, which has yet to bag a medal.

I'm into the second week of my training for the Philly Marathon, which takes place just before Thanksgiving. I did a 13-miler on Sunday and will run 15 this Saturday. Just got some new shoes, which should make things that much easier. Gotta love the cushioning in new shoes.

Blowing the blues away:

• There's a fair amount of controversy brewing this week over the film Tropic Thunder, which has seen protests from activist groups upset over the film's use of the word "retarded." The movie is a satire of Hollywood, but the folks urging a boycott don't seem to get the joke. The ones being made fun of are Hollywood stars who play mentally disabled characters in bids to win Oscars, not the mentally disabled themselves. But just like any joke, when you have to explain it in minute detail, it's not as funny anymore. If we're supposed to stop making jokes or satire because of the fear of offending people, we might as well stop making jokes or satire altogether.
• Sad to hear of the deaths of Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes in the last few days. Both of them were leaders in their respective fields. The theme from "Shaft" was positively kick-ass. And Bernie Mac was a funny dude (clip is NSFW).
• As a big fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, it has been fun to see OG host Joel Hodgson and crew come back with a new movie riffing venture, Cinematic Titanic. Basically, they follow the old MST3K formula of taking a crappy movie and making wisecracks over it. I've seen the first movie they did, The Oozing Skull, and it was hilarious. Meanwhile, second MST3K host Mike Nelson and a couple of the other dudes have their own movie riffing effort, Rifftrax. Haven't seen any of their work, but they've been riffing on movies of more recent vintage. Check 'em out.