A Weekend for H Movies

Here's a hint for school administrators across this great nation: Do not fire and rearrange teachers within hours of the big district-wide faculty party. It tends to cast a pall. The much-anticipated blow out took a turn. A significant turn. And the administrators, oddly, didn't show up. Your Sister wasn't directly affected, but she now has a new English teacher who, just a few hours before, was the head of the social studies department. There was movement among the coach/teachers to accommodate the new football chief, too. It was sudden and unexpected for the staff, and it happened on practically the last day of school. The party couldn't escape the topic, and I was desperate for something I could talk about. We left early.

As she went to graduation, I saw The Incredible Hulk, a movie very different from the Ang Lee Hulk film. It's a simpler story told with more energy, and there are lots of extras for the comic crowd. I was very happy with it; I had expected a trainwreck almost as soon as the project was announced. I don't know if you ever got to see the TV series from the '70s, but this film tips its hat to that show often, to the delight of geezers like me. Strangely there were single women watching this film, and I can only assume they came to see Ed Norton.

After we put away another class' research papers, we watched The Happening. This is a small film that will piss off a lot of people expecting The Mist or Dawn of the Dead. I enjoyed it. I think there's a lot of meat on the bone, and it reminds me thematically of The Mist or Cormac McCarthy's The Road. It's assuredly a post-9/11 film. But don't go expecting to see something veiled in the ads. The commercials show you all the R-rated bits.

While at the theater, I saw a strange sticker in the bathroom, and I don't know if it's for a local band or a movie-marketing ploy. But I like it.


We got home around 9:45 and caught the last half of the Tonys.

We've grown some more grass, and now a pumpkin plant -- my first pumpkin plant -- has sprouted. We're going to have a bouncing baby jack o'lantern.

I finished my five scripts for this week, including the farces Arsenic and Old Lace and Moon Over Buffalo, two murder plays, and a play that's either a parody of such plays or a very stupid straight version. I cant tell, but I say we play it campy. We have another meeting tonight and I assume I'll be given another handful of scripts. I've read around 20 already.