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Guys, can we all just agree that families are weird? It’s 2011. Can we just finally for once and for all recognize that there are both good and bad things about families, and that it is definitely weird that you have this lifelong bond to people some of whom you might not even like that much, and that there is all this intense stuff about families and your sense of obligations towards families and your sometimes inability to escape the long dark shadow cast by your family, and all of that, but also that some things are pretty great about families and but also that in the end the one thing that is for sure is that we all have families and we all have to figure out how to manage that while also leading our own lives as best we can? It seems like every single year we are rediscovering how weird it is to be in a family, as if we didn’t have families last year, or weren’t paying attention. And here’s another thing about families: everyone’s got to do the work, OK?! Stop complaining. “I can’t stand my family.” Shut up. Deal with it dot gif, dude. No matter what, they definitely MADE YOU, so give them credit for that and then work out the rest. It’s exhausting! We all have headaches already without having to listen to your headache. And you know what, when you start to actually talk about it, your mom sounds fun and nice and like she really loves you, SO CAN IT.
This week’s (final) entry in the Hunt for the Worst Movie of All Time: Holiday Edition Hunt, Four Christmases, is about a couple who has a bunch of wacky families. OH DON’T WE JUST ALL. Let’s talk about it.
Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon are two LOVERS in San Francisco who love to take dance classes and play role-playing fuck games in the bathrooms of awful looking hotel bars. They live in a REALLY nice apartment and dress nicely and have BANTER. It’s basically the dream, OR IS IT? At one point early in the movie at the dance class they take together (not to be confused with one of their role-playing hotel bar bathroom fuck games) a couple asks them when they are getting married which is an INSANELY personal question to just spring on a stranger. Like, shut your mouth? That’s none of your business? Instead, Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon give a lengthy and somewhat condescending lecture about all the ways in which marriage is an antiquated contractual trap that puts undue pressure on what was an already happy relationship. Sure! That’s certainly a valid viewpoint to have in this world of constantly dissolving marriages. They went a little hard about it to perfect strangers in the cool down period of a dance class, but shame on those strangers for bringing it up in the first place, so.
For the past three years, Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon have avoided going home for Christmas and made up elaborate lies about charitable work they were doing when in reality they were going on a Christmas with the Kranks style caribbean vacation. This year, though, the airport is all fogged in. Oh no! To make matters worse, a news reporter on the scene tries to interview them, so now everyone knows they aren’t actually in Burma inoculating goats or whatever the hell, and so now they not only have to spend Christmas with their families, they have to visit ALL FOUR FAMILIES ON THE SAME DAY!
Hold on a second.
I have trouble running more than one ERRAND in a day. How are these clowns going to go to four separate Christmas celebrations? Do all of their families live in one apartment complex? (Answer: no.) It’s just so weird that a light-hearted Hollywood romantic comedy for the holidays would include such an unrealistic plot point when all the other movies in the world stick fastidiously to the believable. Huh. Anyway, so they go visit their families and everyone is KARAZY! There is the poor family and the born again Christian family and the hippie family. It is all a little bit much! Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon keep learning very SURPRISING things they didn’t know about each other, like Vince Vaughn’s real name is Orlando, not Brad, after the city in which he was conceived, and Reese WItherspoon went to fat camp when she was a kid. They are starting to think they don’t know each other at all.
Wait a second.
I get that they have skipped Christmas for the past three years, but neither of them has ever met the other’s family WHATSOEVER? Because that should have raised some red flags on both of their parts. It would be hard to believe that a happy couple that had been dating for three years had never met anyone from each other’s respective families no matter what, but on top of that, EVERYONE LIVES IN THE BAY AREA? No one had a brunch at some point or something? Not even a brunch, huh? Weird. You guys should break up because you’re both being VERY weird.
Oh, wait, they do break up. Because after being continuously forced to hold babies at each house in an ever-increasingly comical insistence on beating the audience over the head with what was coming next (like, the first time Vince Vaughn holds a baby, shit goes into SLOW MOTION, lol) Reese Witherspoon realizes maybe she DOES want to get married and have kids one day, who knows, and maybe it’s not enough to wear black turtlenecks and take it from behind in a bathroom stall after dance class.
Maybe there is more to life?! But Vince Vaughn told her from the beginning he didn’t want those things, so he drops her off at the LAST CHRISTMAS and drives away. Don’t worry. Give him 10 minutes. And he’s back. They decide that even though families are crazy they are going to be a family and the movie ends with a BABYYYYYYYYY. (But they didn’t tell their families because they still hate their families and are so bizarrely secretive in a really unhealthy way but whoops now they are on the news again LOL.)
Oh boy.
Four Christmases is easily the best of the movies we’ve watched this month (we have all watched all of them, right? Especially Jingle All the Way? Some of you watched that one twice, I’m sure). Vince Vaughn is very charming and fun to watch in movies. He’s so puffy I MEAN FUNNY! There are lots of wacky characters. Who doesn’t love wacky characters?! Probably the best of the four Christmases is when they go to Vince Vaughn’s hippy mom’s house, where his former best friend from childhood is now her boyfriend and trying to play step-dad to Vince Vaughn and meanwhile his UFC brother is staring at him while eating chicken wings and then they play Balderdash or something. It’s a good scene. Very funny. Did you know that April from Eastbound and Down is in this movie? Hello!
Sure, it is somewhat corny and entirely predictable, and there are plenty of very dumb moments in it and things that don’t make sense (like would a woman really carry a pregnancy test in her bag to Christmas and would her sister find that pregnancy test and for no real reason just take it on a whim and then fight a child in an inflatable bounce castle to get that pregnancy test back but also the inflatable bouncy castle is supposedly her greatest fear even though she is a full grown adult because one time she was a kid in a bouncy castle and something happened or something? Doubtful on all counts!) but whatever. How mad do you really want to get about a holiday romantic comedy that has a couple of genuine laughs in it and very little product placement (other than Balderdash)? Save your energy! You’re going to need it for the feats of strength!
Jon Favreau is very good at playing a big fat jerk, WHO KNEW?!
Here is the thing that does bother me about this movie, though: the world does not need an argument against grown adults choosing to live their lives outside of society’s expectations when it comes to marriage and children. Like, just to give you a sense of how firmly ingrained our communal dedication to those social pillars is, despite the fact that divorce rates are through the roof and the “sanctity of marriage” has been tarnished by Who Wants To Marry a Plastic Surgeon’s Knife and whatever else kind of garbage, people still get married and divorced and have kids and kill them ALL THE TIME. The needle is just not moving in any significant way on that. Don’t worry, HOLLYWOOD. The point is: to present a mature, happy, adult couple who has decided to live their lives in a manner that they have chosen based on all the knowledge in the world (remember, these are college-educated urbanites, pretty sure they’ve got their facts straight on what’s what in this world) we don’t need to present them as foolish and misguided and missing out on something that they and we already know all about. That shit is WELL COVERED. They’re doing what they want to do! Leave them alone!
I’m open to the idea that people who do live their lives according to an anti-marriage belief system can definitely come around to the opposite side of things if presented with the right person and the right circumstances, but I am not sure that those circumstances entail an exhausting day of deeply uncomfortable family visits. Like, what? Movie magic, I guess.
To reiterate: we all have families, all families are weird, but most of them are also kind of great, and Vince Vaughn is good at his job, so let’s just do the work of being alive in a world of inter-dependent human beings and try our best all things considered to enjoy what we have as often as possible but this week especially. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
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Is Gummo a holiday movie? Review that movie, please
That’s a great movie Steve, did you ever read Harmony Korine’s Book? There’s many pages about made up celebrity stuff the the monsters would enjoy.
Are there any good Christmas movies?
yup:
Die Hard.
Godfather. They had a clever way of dealing with problems with the “families” get it?
I see what you did there.
I imagine Abed saying that., and it’s hilarious.
I got to see Die Hard in theaters last week! Awesome Christmas movie!!
You got to see Die Hard in theaters LAST WEEK??? Do you live in Heaven? Tell Leslie Nielson I said, “stop calling me Shirley.” He’ll know what it means.
And tomorrow I get to see Home Alone, too. For six bucks. Leslie says he’s serious
Has anyone else watched Home Alone lately, for the first time since it came out when you were the same age as Macaulay Culkin, and watched it with your family while home for Christmas and been totally blown away that EVERYONE totally enjoyed it? And that it is one of the great modern Christmas films but you forgot about it because all you could remember was little Kevin putting on the aftershave and screaming into his reflection?
Me too.
I could have gone to see Home Alone in the theater for 25 cents last week! It was 10 AM on Saturday, though, and that whole “working” thing got in the way.
Plus, we had already watched it the day after Thanksgiving.
NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN. HO. HO. HO.
I… I was going to say Love Actually. And then remembered. And uh, yeah. Hmmm. AWKWARD.
Gabe’s review of Love Actually didn’t make me like it any less, therefore I feel ok about loving it.
What was the best movie ever reviewed in The hunt?
The Wicker Man, obviously. Never was there a more poignant question asked repeatedly than “How’d it get burned?”
The complete list is here: http://werttrew.tumblr.com/post/273168812/the-worst-movie-of-all-time-the-complete-list
Of all the films Gabe has reviewed for WMOAT, he has liked three: Gran Torino, A History of Violence, and Rachel Getting Married.
In my opinion, Gran Torino is probably the best film to have been WMOAT-ed.
Wait… best movie in that it was considered to be a “good” movie or best movie as in the most entertaining to watch be emasculated by Gabe?
It’s A Wonderful Life. SO BEAUTIFUL, YOU GUYS.
“Meet Me in St. Louis.” Not necessarily a Christmas movie but I watch it every Christmas Eve.
Judy Garland’s version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” is the best. Ever. Because of the line, “until then we’ll have to muddle through somehow.” (Even Sinatra changed that one to make it more cheery.)
Nothing like hearing that tragic junkie warble about happy golden days of yore to make me lose my shit every single Christmas.
The version of A Christmas Carol from 1984, with George C. Scott as Scrooge. Also the Muppet Christmas Carol, because Kermit as Bob Crachit is always good.
-Bad Santa
-National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
Not a movie really, but the only Christmas themed thing I’ve enjoyed in years was last night’s Misfits Christmas Special. From where they had to kill Jesus to stop him raping to stomping the shit out of that afterbirth, it was 100 percent holiday good times.
John Favreau is coming dangerously close to being banned from the WMOAT. He’s like the Robin Williams of directing.
Also, Swingers is over-rated.
I enjoy Elf and Iron Man a lot
Elf is great, but I gotta give credit to Will Ferrell on that one, same with Iron man and Robert Downey Jr.
Jon Favreau is really good at getting great actors to be in his mediocre movies. I said it.
I’m not arguing your Swingers statement, but for clarity’s sake I wanted to know if you were inferring that Favreau directed it. Favreau wrote Swingers, but Doug Limon directed it. MADE was Favreau’s first writer/director credit.
If there’s another Hunt for the Worst Movie of All Time: Holiday Edition Hunt next year, I will be married and nearing my mid 30′s. I guess my point is I’ll be in a maturer place.
With that:
FLW in 2010!
This Movie features a cameo by Donkey Kong champion Steve Wiebe, who has exactly one line of dialogue. And if you haven’t seen ‘King of Kong’ I recommend it. It is the most fun you’ll ever have watching nerds argue about 1980s arcade games.
second that recommendation for king of kong, rad movie
Rad indeed, I assume you’ve seen the Rock a Fire: the Movie documentary, Steve?
Ok, this is an annoyance of mine, so please bear with me, but I would really love to see a movie where the main lady character starts off not wanting babies, goes through baby intensive christmas celebrations, and still does not want babies! That would be my christmas miracle!
That tree isn’t balanced properly. She’s going to go into a tailspin.
be great if it climaxed with a gory abortion scene
It does! You’ve just described Inside. BEST XMAS MOVIE EVER.
OMG, OMG, OMG NO. It’s the most disgusting thing I’ve seen on film, but a great movie otherwise.
I read that as claymated and thought you were on topic for once. Inside is great, Anna.
I felt less gross about it because they didn’t get married. Right? I hope I’m remembering that right.
“…maybe it’s not enough to wear black turtlenecks and take it from behind in a bathroom stall after dance class”
I think some people might disagree with you Gabe.
For your consideration next Christmas hunt: Just Friends (Amy Smart, Ryan Reynolds, Chris Kline)
The worst cast in the worst Christmas movie about the worst people ever. The moral of the story is fat people will never get the girl. Seriously.
Jon Favreau begs to differ. But, seriously, Just Friends would be a great movie if it was just ninety minutes of Anna Faris.
I am so so sorry to the people of the earth for continuing to make these terrible movies. That is all. *sobs* *walks away*
You know what you did.
Where’s Baby Friday? I haven’t seen her all day.
She is getting some much needed R&R.
She’ll be back. That’s nice of you to ask though!
I haven’t seen her ever.
Now that it’s late enough that it won’t start anything, I just want to say how grateful I am that no one was talking about whatever it is that happened in the comments last week (I honestly don’t know, other than adults taking Videogum way too seriously). Gabe and Scott and crew are trying to expand Videogum right now. The last thing a new user needs is to walk into Extreme LiveJournal: Grad Edition. That’s not to say I don’t enjoy Seriousgum, but when it gets into some self-absorbed abyss of what Videogum means (HAHA! It means that we get to read insanely clever posts about the latest Juggalo Toy Drive and post animated gifs of James Franco eating pie in the comment section while occasionally having thoughtful discussions about the sense of community that said Juggalos share and, really, is it any different than our own communi*BANG*), anyway when it gets to that, I tune out. I don’t care. I don’t “take sides” or whatever that means on the internet. I scroll through looking for a thoughtful assessment of why the Clay Duke video was so popular. I scroll through looking for a cute self-deprecating defense of the WMAOT of the week. I look for puns. I look for gifs of a chihuahua hiding from a goat or whatever.
Baby Friday, if you’re indeed “getting some much needed R&R” and it’s because of that whole thing, come on! Really?! You’re funny and this is a site dedicated to funny. Again, I have no idea what the deal was (I only skimmed through the comments about it because WHO CARES?! Life is short, 2012 is right around the corner and we’ve gotta Eat, Pray and Comment on the latest Gwyneth Paltrow developments while we still can), but if whatever skirmish took place is keeping people from enjoying the site, then I say, “MAN UP!”
Admittedly, this is one of the most self-reflective comments deriding self-reflective comments in the history of self-reflective comments deriding self-reflective comments EVER. Probably. But my point stands. If you need “R&R” from making puns on a pop-culture blog because someone eHurt your iFeelings, COME ON! PUNS ARE GREAT!
As someone who has read this blog from the beginning but rarely comments, I am constantly amazed at how seriously people take this blog. I’m not saying that with any condescension or judgement, it’s just something I find odd.
I’m getting R&R because I’m a high school teacher and exams finished Friday and I’m EXHAUSTED. I’m also prepping for my friend to come into town. But thanks for the assumption and for dragging all this crap out again.
Son of Gabe, thanks for looking out for me!
Huh? Sorry, I wasn’t trying to any assume anything. And I was mostly talking about Baby Friday, who I think is really funny and it would be a shame if she was leaving because of some petty skirmish.
No offense (seriously), but I don’t really know who you are, so I honestly wasn’t directing anything towards you.
Happy Holidays!
Sorry, I need some sleep! Woof. That’s on me.
Whoops! Hit the wrong reply. Jesus, off to bed.
Hi, That One. I’m taking normal holiday R&R. But I’m still here!
Good to hear! Enjoy it!
I know this may be too easy a target, but can I nominate Vanilla Ice: Cool as Ice?
I believe one of the rules is “It cannot be intentionally bad”.
No one would cast V. Ice without intending disaster.
As a strangely secretive person, especially towards family, I’m a little scared that I just read about my future
Over the weekend, I watched the the first 20 minutes of Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead. It seemed pretty bad, so we skipped ahead to certain scenes and our suspicions were confirmed. Then we skipped to the ending, and it was SO BAD!
So this is my official nomination for:
Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead
Nightmare, nightmare, nightmare. An opinion is subjective and I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you might have benefited from watching the whole movie through and that cherry picking scenes without the proper context might not be the best way to rate whether a movie is good or not. You have your opinion. I have mine. I’m not going to waste everyone’s time on changing someone’s matter of taste with conjecture.
So I’ll use science.
“Any movie that starts out with Marisa Tomei naked cannot be considered bad.” J. Robert Oppenheimer, American theoretical physicist and professor of physics at the University of California, Berkeley.
Nightmare, Dr Oppenheimer is considered the father of the atomic bomb. Who are we to argue?
I remember basically liking the performances in Before the devil knows your dead even though the “story” was kind of “mehhh” not realistic or good. I think I gave that movie a 3.5 stars (out of five) but maybe I’m mis remembering
Steve, you clearly gave that movie 3.2 out of five. I recommend you please keep a log of this in blog form. Also, would you attend a Seattle meetup? Just tell me yes or no & I’ll stop asking.
Fuck. Do I have watch this movie all the way through now?
I TOLD you! Didn’t I tell you? *looks at camera* Didn’t I tell her?
No, you don’t have to watch it all the way through. Phillip Seymour Hoffman made everyone else look bad, because he can act, and the story is terrible. You’ve seen all you need to.
If he’s the father of the atomic bomb, does that make them a nuclear family? Please don’t hit me.
that movie is fucking intense.
i remember it didn’t have much point other than being fucking intense. but it was so fucking intense.
Hmmmmm….but was it intense?
that movie was a teepee AND an igloo
two motherfuckin tents
wait, maybe I meant wigwam… what the fuck?
yeah, an igloo is not a tent.
Please give it a shot, nightmare. It is a truly brilliant film that relies on CHARACTERS and STORY to be entertaining rather than an “Abraham Lincoln meets vampires” dimestore sensibility. And it’s PSH’s best performance, IMO, and this is coming from someone who adores Synecdoche.
Give it another chance
I want to again nominate 2001′s ‘The Fast and The Furious’ because it is the worst movie to ever spawn 4 feature film (FOUR!) sequels and features dialogue such as this:
Vin Diesel: You almost had me? You never had me – you never had your car… Granny shiftin’ not double clutchin’ like you should. You’re lucky that hundred shot of NOS didn’t blow the welds on the intake! You almost had me?
Klassic Diesel.
Aren’t action movies auto-disqualified ’cause they don’t aim high enough to have the failed ambitions needed to be the worst movie of all time?
There are very few people that I would feel compelled to try and fight for no legitimate reason if I saw them in person. But Paul Walker is definitely one of them.
HEY HEY HEY Paul Walker was in Meet the Deedles! That was an oscar worthy performance, he was snubbed, the Academy was intimidated by his talent!
sarcasgum
If any part of the series is going to be nominated, it’s got to be 2 Fast 2 Furious. I’ll never forget the part near the end where Paul Walker and Tyrese are driving, TRACKING A BOAT IN THE MIDDLE OF A FUCKING LAKE and Paul Walker sees A TWO FOOT JUMP MADE OUT OF WOOD HEADED DIRECTLY INTO THE LAKE and Tyrese is all, “You’re not gonna do what I think you’re gonna do” and Paul Walker’s all “HELLS YEAH THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I’M GONNA DO” and then heads toward the jump and flies HUNDREDS OF FEET IN THE AIR OVER A FUCKING LAKE and then LANDS ON TOP OF THE BAD GUY ON THE BOAT while being entirely unharmed. That may not be an exact interpretation, but it’s only because I’ve spent the last 7 years SORTING OUT THE NIGHTMARES.
Oh this is only the first in a four-part series of nominations, ending in the coup de grace ‘Fast Five’.
that’s an interesting idea – and it would KILL Gabe — series’ taken as a whole
what got worse by the end, Gabe? It can include shit that started out good and went bad. but, also, that’s not necessary:
Lethal Weapon 1-4 or DieHard 1-4?
Saw 1-7 or Friday the 13th 1-13 or so?
All 13 Land Before Time movies
My uncle “found” a bootleg version of that movie that some guy in the theater shot on handi cam in mexico and brought it back for me (I guess he thought I’d like it? JK I TOADLY DID). During that scene, an entire row of people get up and walk out. One person even turns around and gives the screen the finger. I have never in my life been so angry at a movie that I have given it the finger so I second 2 Fast 2 Furious.
Wait. “I 2nd 2 Fast 2 Furious.” FIXED.
Vin: “Now i gotta take apart the block, and replace the PISTON RINGS YOU FRIED”
(Crowd of CAR SAVVY gangsters and WOMEN): “OOHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”
True story: On one of the bathroom stalls at my school, there is a list of people’s favorites movies, and someone wrote “Fast and the Furious 1, 2 & 4.” Therefore, I nominate Fast and the Furious 3, without ever having seen it. Have fun, Gabe!
speaking of reese witherspoon, for some reason I went to see “how do you know(?)” this weekend. what the fuck was I thinking? I don’t know. it was showing at the right time and tron wasn’t. can’t even blame my girlfriend cause she had never heard of the movie – I talked her into it.
anyway, I’d like to be the first: whenever it gets to dvd, consider that piece of shit it NOMINATED
But….But….But….Paul Rudd is in it!
amiright, ladies?
you don’t need a female to confirm that. I can confirm that Paul Rudd is indeed one of the dudes embarrassing himself in this movie.
The previews for that movie made me had a dream with Paul Rudd where he was representing his country’s soccer team (who knows what country!) and I was cheering for him? And he told me he thought I was really funny? And then my girlfriend’s exgirlfriend punched me in the jaw? Anyways the point is that I woke up feeling pretty giddy that Paul Rudd talked to me because he is a dream boat and I will see every movie that he is in.
This film makes out like four Christmases would be a bad thing; four sets of presents, four helpings of turkey and potatoes smothered in gravy and four chances to show off my array of Christmas Jumpers? HELLO!?
I am going to have to get my parents to split up, remarry and then marry someone in the same situation in order to have such a wonderful ordeal.
The Parent Trap 2: Christmas Boogaloo
guys, as a resident of the bay area, i have a very important question about this movie and the bay area; was it actually filmed here (unlike that terrible tv show “parenthood” that i can’t stop watching because sometimes i am a really obsessive completist to the point where, like, i have to own every single album that a certain pedal steel player played on because i liked him on that one record and i also really like pedal steel guitar, and also because i maybe have an unhealthy crush on lauren graham even though she is infuriating in that show and everything else she’s ever been in)? and, if yes, is it worth watching for those fun little “i know that street corner,” or “hey you can’t make a right turn there and then be there” moments?
IMDB says they filmed in Santa Clarita, the city, and “Twin Peaks, San Francisco, CA,” which apparently requires independent notation because–WHO KNOWS.
I also live here and am a mite obsessive about seeing familiar places in movies and television. Aside from a couple tunnels and kind of a little bit the view from their MASSIVE FANCY APARTMENT–not the apartment itself, or that bar–they could be anywhere.
Did you see Just Like Heaven? It’s pretty obnoxious, but its location shots are much more extensive and specific as far as San Francisco goes.
i watched the old sean connery movie “the presidio” last week cause it was free on netflix and I wanted to see shots of san francisco.
the movie is TERRIBLE!!! but there are a lot of shots. mostly, you guessed it, of the presidio.
grr. arrgh. that makes me so frustrated. can they please film movies where they set them? i’m ok with every movie being set in LA, new orleans, new york or vancouver if it means NO MORE LIES. i’m tired of the geographic lies. they make me abnormally upset.
i’ll have to watch this just like heaven film because i love me some bay area place recognition in movies and i also love me some donal logue. donal logue, you guys! why haven’t we talked about “terriers”? it is so good and it is so probably going to get cancelled.
I like that idea. and none of these “fake names” for actors either.
Sweet Home Alabama. A film about a girl named Reese Witherspoon, who moves from Los Angeles, CA to Los Angeles, CA. Reese misses the “real folks” that she grew up with in Los Angeles, CA. She goes to visit Los Angeles, CA, meets a guy, and realizes that she should have stayed in Los Angeles, CA the whole time. So she moves back to Los Angeles, CA. Sweet Home Alabama.
haha. well played, sir. to rephrase, i’m ok with the use of lot b, set 25, universal studios, as a stand-in for non-descript alabama town that 99% of the population would not know by sight. what i am not ok with is to have a movie take place in a city that millions and millions of people know about and recognize and then have it be so clearly not actually filmed there.
also, you messed up the plot of sweet home alabama, dude. come on, that is an american classic. get it right. she doesn’t meet a guy, she falls back in love with her standoffish estranged backwoods husband with a heart of gold (whose brother i went to college with, NAMEDROP!).
ha, interesting. ringing a bell from a past life. you’re not the first person to namedrop that dude to me, and, if I remember correctly, not the first person to namedrop that dude thru his brother. and I used to live in SF. i think I’ve made a jackass of myself on here too many times to reveal my name. but, do we know each other?
Almost all San Francisco movies get the bay area totally wrong. It’s all pretty outdoors shots of the bay and maybe twin peaks, and then enormous LA-style sprawling houses and no victorian anything.
I used to know the people who owned the Full House house. Not at all like the Tanner’s on the inside, let me tell you.
Probably the movie I’ve seen recently that got SF most right on was Zodiac. Or Milk. Bullit is pretty fun too because the locations are great but make no sense.
sounds like we must at least know some of the same folks. i know mr. lucas’ brother from the forestry program at uc berkeley in the early 2000s. from there i’ve dumped around oakland smoking weed and collecting records. when’d you leave sf?
’bout 3 years ago. do you play music also, or just collect it? that might be a good place to maybe figure out mutual acquaintances.
i don’t play anything but check my profile. maybe you recognize/know some of the records/people we’ve released on our little money losing venture? and i probably know or at least have seen live whatever local band you could think up.
oh yeah – social studies! they are awesome. I used to live with a dude that was buddies with the band, so they used to hang out at my house a lot. and we went to see them a few times. right after their first album there was a great show at the swedish music hall, lots of tambourines. maybe I had a conversation with you at a social studies show.
or maybe I just met someone else who met the lucas brother. either way, it’s cool to think about those folks.
condolences/spoiler: terriers has already been cancelled.
also, as an aside, i drive from olivehurst to san anselmo (they’re in california, look ‘em up!) every xmas morning. it is so empty and quiet and awesome and you can drive so fast. i like to imagine that we’re in some post-apocalyptic world where my wife and i will be forced to play unwilling heroes to some band of helpless humans roaming the landscape and then we’ll all learn something about our own humanity in the end. it’s the best.
“We all have headaches already without having to listen to your headache. And you know what, when you start to actually talk about it, your mom sounds fun and nice and like she really loves you, SO CAN IT.”
I am really glad to see that I’m not the only person that feels that way about people badmouthing their families. Especially because they’re always like, “Ugh, my mom always wants to talk to me about Fox News!” and some people have to be like, “Well, my mom can’t talk to me about anything because she’s dead/in jail/went out for cigarettes and never came back, and my only Christmas wish is to be able to see her sitting across the table from me on Christmas day, even if she was reading aloud from Steve Winwood’s script, ‘Abortions and the Abortions Who Abort Them’.” So yeah, it sucks when you don’t see eye-to-eye with your family, and some people have miserable parents, but perspective is helpful. Dad beats you up=sucks. Mom wants to take you to the mall and buy you some pants=tolerable.
At least it wasn’t FIVE Christmases, amirite? *tap tap tap* …Is this thing on?
What’s the deal with CHRISTMAS?