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| { April 06, 2003 }
A Re-Animated Weekend
This past Saturday afternoon I had the extreme pleasure of seeing the third installment in the Re-Animator series, Beyond Re-Animator. It was showing at my new favorite Philly theater, the Bridge, as part of this year’s Philadelphia Film Festival. By far the best part of the screening was the appearance of the series’ star, Jeffrey Combs. Also, being that I am a huge fan of H. P. Lovecraft’s horror stories (even if many of the adaptations are…well…bad), the film peaked my interest. The movie fit nicely in line with the previous two, degrading as most sequels do. Enjoyable? Yes. It wasn’t about the gore and grisly zombie scenes. It wasn’t about the bad acting and worse dialogue. It wasn’t about the disembodied penis versus rat battle. And it surely wasn’t about the go-no-where script. It was however about the entertainment value. Combs’ Herbert West was as enjoyable as ever, and that was all I really expected. Bravo.
The night brought with it a new dining experience. Liz’s parents took us out to a swanky little Cuban restaurant called Mixto. Being about as uncultured as you can get, I expected Mexican food. Well, as is usually the case with matters concerning food, I was wrong. I was delighted to find the cuisine to have a much more tropical flare. I think I ate about 10 different variations of plantains. Although I felt like I broadened my horizons a bit, I am still wary of leaving the safety of a strict macaroni and cheese diet.
The wee hours of the morning brought sleep depravation (the clock changing stuff always throws me for a loop) and a quick viewing of last year’s Salton Sea with Val Kilmer. I really do enjoy Val Kilmer’s acting, though many times his role choices are questionable (Re: Batman Forever, At First Sight). I still have a lot of fun watching Willow. Anyway, this was the best movie he has made in quite some time. The ending left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth as it was bitterly trite, but the ride getting there was enjoyable at least. And Vincent D’Onofrio is always a treat, this time playing a sadistic drug dealer named Pooh-Bear.
Waking up late on Sunday led me to the park to try out my new Holga (it’s a lomo style camera, so this is just the easiest site to get info on it) camera in the park. Hopefully I am using the damned thing right. The Holga is the cheapest medium format camera you can buy, some retailing for under $20. It’s basically just one step up from a pinhole camera, put together on the cheap with a plastic case (which apparently leaks light like crazy causing me to encase it in black tape) and manual everything (including film advancing). I blew through one role and am anxious to get it developed, as I am looking forward to the delightful vignetting inherent in the system. If the results are remotely positive I will put them up here in the near future. 
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