downtime?

[dr4b]

Er, yeah. Yesterday I went to the Mariners-Indians game, sat 9 rows behind the field, got to see a whole bunch of guys get hit by baseballs and clear both benches out into a crowd of confusion (not to be confused with like, a brawl). Kevin Millwood got the win; I would feel guilty for rooting against the Mariners if not for the fact that a) Millwood still holds the "Phillies don't PITCH no-hitters" soft spot in my heart and b) Grady Sizemore is a really cute kid, and he almost hit for the cycle, and I really thought it'd be cool to see.

I went swimming this afternoon at the gym. I decided to actually get a real membership as opposed to the summer membership, but they had no membership reps there today. Oops. If it turns out I can't actually get the "by July 30" special discount, I might not join after all. We shall see.

In the evening I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with the gang. I thought it was a pretty good movie, though it was *very* Tim Burton. I dunno, I liked the newer script better than the old script, but I love the musical aspect of the old one -- like, I thought it was cool that the Oompa-Loompa songs actually had the book's lyrics in this version, but on the other hand, because this wasn't a musical, the random songs seemed sort of... intrusive and random. I dunno. I did like that they had the squirrels and Veruca; it had always bugged me how they changed some of the things from the book in the original, like the geese, and having Charlie drink the fizzy lifting drinks, and whatnot. Though... adding in the "Wonka as a kid" sideplot seemed very very strange, and the redone ending... bah, I dunno.

Whatever, it was fun, that's all there is to it. Whee.

Afterwards I went to Tower Records because they're having a sale on broadway soundtracks, so I got Hairspray, Chicago, and Forbidden Broadway: Special Victims Unit. Oh man, I'm not wishing I saw FB when I was off in New York, but the songs on this are really good. I love this stuff, you know. I wish I could like, work with these guys.

Oh, and uh, the Mariners traded Randy Winn to the Giants for Yorvit Torrealba and Jesse Foppert, and traded Miguel Olivo to the Padres for Miguel Ojeda and Natanael Mateo. And Eric Byrnes is now on the Orioles. The trade deadline is weird.

Comments

[danno-san.livejournal.com]

With respect to the squirrels: Tim Burton actually spent 6 months training the squirrels to work at their stations, rather than just cg'ing the entire scene out.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

I *WANT* one of those *SQUIRRELS*! Dee, *GET* me a *SQUIRREL*!

[dr4b]

I tried, remember? Unfortunately, I don't think the Seattle park squirrels are trained to work in a chocolate factory.

[bhudson.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's odd for a resident of squirrel hill to be demanding squirrels -- especially one who's gotten an indoor houseplant (an oak seedling) chomped by one of the critters (the acorn must have smelled nice).

[dr4b]

I know! I thought that was cool. When I thought about it, it made sense that they changed squirrels to geese in the original -- I mean, I'm sure it would have been too expensive to make that scene in 1970, but now? no problem. train animals OR just use CG. Arr.

[chirik.livejournal.com]

I agree with the very Tim Burton feeling of it, and I also preferred the original musical numbers to the modernized ones, but I loved the movie anyways. It was lots of fun still. I don't remember the book, so don't know how it diverged, but it bothered me the fizzy lifting drink was gone, sorta. It made Charlie too pure to me. He wasn't the least rotten of the kids. He was Little Mr. Perfect. On the other hand, the fizzy lifting drinks was a touch of ‘he breaks the rules, but gets away with it; they break the rules and don't.’

But very good movie. I've seen it twice, and will be buying it on DVD.

[dr4b]

He IS the most pure and good of the children in the book. That's the point of it all actually, how he's one of the only good and pure kids left in the world and he gets this awesome prize. Also, Wonka just immediately gives him the factory and invites the whole family in, and it's happily ever after (well, until they take off into space in the elevator, but that's another story).

The fizzy lifting drinks scene isn't in the book -- it's just a room they pass by on the boat.

I actually thought they made the other kids too rotten, not Charlie too pure in this version. Mike Teavee, for example, in the book, is just kind of a dumb kid who is always glued to a TV, but I mean, hack the competition? Hate chocolate? That was a bit overboard. But it was what they were going for, I think.

[montykins.livejournal.com]

Oh, Forbidden Broadway: SVU is out on CD now? Excellent; that was the show they were doing when I saw them in New York. It was, as you'd imagine, most amusing.