We Couldn't Have Made This Up if We Tried....Sex Change, Anyone?

We actually borrowed this conversation topic from a dormant blog about actual conversations overheard in Washington, DC. Since the entry was from Oct. 14, 2010, we can not say that these lines were said by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), the most far right senator on the Hill (he's a Tea Partier ya' know) as he was not elected then.

We also want to take a moment to shamelessly promote two screenings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975) with Tim Curry as Dr. Frank N. Furter (above), the transvestite from Transylvania, on Oct. 20th at 8:00 p.m. and then at 11:59 p.m. at the Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, Va.

Here is the conversation:

"You just can't go in and get a sex change operation. I mean, you just have to do the research and be ready if a doctor wants to you one."

http://www.theshadowboxcinema.com

My Cinematic Rant for the Films of 2011

We sent in a more verbose version of this rant to a film magazine. The film we are 'discussing' here "Bellflower" was quite a cult sensation. It was shown at the Shadowbox Cinema in Roanoke, Va., and at a/perture Cinema in Winston-Salem, NC, among other places. Originally, "Bellflower," which we gather was filmed in Wisconsin (don't quote us on that), made a splash at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

It also played somewhere in the Washington-DC metro area. We tried to find where by checking out a review of the film in "City Paper," but while we were unable to find out, the publication told us that the film only cost $17,000 to produce?! Of course, we could have found that out on the Internet Movie Database as well.

I thought "Bellflower" was a very interesting, hip film until the third act, and amazingly enough the reviewer for "City Paper" seemingly agreed with me. The film concerns a road trip as the apocalypse is looming.

I guess the best way to describe it is a "Mad Max/Easy Rider meets Left Behind" kind of film, except that "Bellflower" does not have an evangelical political agenda unlike the film series with born-again actor Kirk Cameron best-known for the '80s sitcom "Growing Pains," who is the exact same as I am!

And, we gather he has something like 14 children (that is a joke, but it is a ridicolous number that is slightly lower than that!).

Here is my revised rant:

"I must profess sincere admiration for film director Even Glodell and his film "Bellflower," even though I gave it a four out of ten on the IMDB. It is such a 'so bad it's good' film that I almost put it on my top 20 films of the year list.

Glodell made his own unique film in his own unique way. The fact that the screenplay's dreadful third act derails the film into a lurid mess shouldn't make each of us admire him profoundly.

He may well end up learning from his mistakes and end up out Tarantinoing QT himself!"

Things We Learned on Twitter Tonight- Principal Skinner Mentions Roanoke, Va.

Harry Shearer, who has done many things besides voicing characters on "The Simpsons," mentioned Roanoke, Va., my hometown in a tweet tonight.

The tweet was regarding the fact that my friend Jason Garnett was screening Shearer's documentary "The Big Uneasy" about the Hurricane Katrina fiasco at The Shadowbox Cinema tonight. The film, which Shearer produced and directed, also shows at the same venue tomorrow night (Saturday night) at 8:00 p.m.

Here was the tweet from Shearer:

"Big Uneasy opens tonight in Roanoke, Va., and Encinitas, Ca., I'll be skyping the
Q & A at the latter, Palorma Theatre."

The film is also screening in Savannah, Georgia, this weekend.

I saw the screening at the Shadowbox and the documentary turned out to be a fairly well-done film, which features a number of funny cameos by John Goodman, that helps balance the depressing subject matter. The film's focus on how it affected New Orleans, where Shearer is a part-time resident, is quite moving.

As for Principal Seymour Skinner, I had found out a while back through Wikipedia that he was actually an Armenian-American?! This humored me because I am a Turkish-American, and for reasons why I won't go into (we only have so much time to dedicate to blog entries) our two groups have 'some political friction.'

Skinner's real name as revealed in a 1997 episode (it is easy to forget that the show has been on since 1990 and if Bart Simpson aged in real time he would have probably retired from skateboarding) is Armin Tamzarian.

In the episode in which the name of Skinner was revealed there is a real man named Seymour Skinner who confronts him for being an impostor. According to Wikiepdia, Shearer himself said that he intensely disliked the episode which many Simpsons fans apparently consider to be the equivalent of the infamous "Spock's Brain" episode of the original "Star Trek."

SIDEBAR: For my friends and followers back in my adopted city of Greensboro, NC, I also want to highly recommend "Talking Pictures," a new musical comedy by Tommy Trull and Chris Tilley who are (full disclosure) friends of mine. The two-act play is a farscial look at the early days of Hollywood when Harold LLoyd was the king of comedy. "Talking Pictures" is being staged at the historic Broach Theatre in downtown Greensboro. There will be a production tommorow night at 8:00 p.m.