Geneva (Yeah, Like the Convention) or Finally Getting Around to Blogging This

The cutie between the 2 Beijinoys is Geneva McLoughlin. She's from North Carolina but we met in Beijing. She was in town coupla weeks ago but I only found out by random happenstance.

I was looking to hire a mutual friend for a wedding emcee gig. A woman answered his cellphone. Her voice (and American accent) sounded familiar but I couldn't place it at the time. Next day mutual friend calls back and says Geneva's in town and he had lent her his phone since he's acting as her host during her vacation here. I got to talk to her again and we arranged to meet up once she got back from Cebu. (Yes, mutual friend is thorough w/ the hosting thing. I woulda just brought her to Intramuros.)

Monday the week after while waiting for Geneva at the Power Plant branch of Fully Booked I read some Will Eisner comics (the hell w/ "No Browsing, Pls."). Finally I saw a petite, literally fashionably late woman wearing a vinyl faux snow leopard skin overcoat trying to call me on her cellphone. By the time it rang I was literally behind her. We had coffee at the Starbucks on the same floor.

Little backstory: Probably the most notorious event during Geneva's stay on Beijing was when she was beaned on the head w/ a brick by a fellow student (who was apparently a few bricks short of a load himself) supposedly because he was offended at the sight of her in a miniskirt. In the end she got a mild concussion, suffered some memory loss and we never did find out the identity of the culprit (other than he's the son of some Korean diplomat muckety muck). I even considered using a false identity at the BLCU registrar to try to check his records, but sadly that plan fizzled out.

While a coupla emails from her mom made Geneva's condition sound worse than it actually was (w/c was why I never bothered to email back since I thought she wouldn't remember me anyway), thankfully that wasn't the case. Yeah, she's fine. Seems that one incident (written in the email) about her not remembering her favorite food when her mom placed it in front of her was more a case of Mom bringing out her daughter's favorite food when she was a kid, and daughter casually asking, "What's this?" I totally get that. Hell, I used to like homemade fried chicken as a kid, but I cringe at the thought of eating that mid-deep fried and dried mess now.

Got that? She's fine. After our long chat at Starbucks I invited Debbie and Aileen to join us for dinner at Jollibee, w/c Geneva's been dying (ok, just mildly curious) to try.

Oh, Yeah...

What were the events the transpired the day before that I forgot to blog about?

What do you call nightmares w/ happy endings? Seriously. Bad Dream That Ends Well? Dreammare? Anyhoo, I had one of those. Horrible. I thought my best friend was mauled/beaten to death. I headed for my room to meet the 'rents, all the while dealing w/ grief the way I do when I'm awake: stoic, anxious, and in denial 'til I actually see the body. As I open the door who comes to greet me in w/ tears and a hug but my best friend, alive. I realize it's a dream but the flood of joy, relief and all those other positive emotions I felt seemed real. I didn't wake up crying tears of joy, mind you, but there was a lingering feeling that this day was going to be a good one.

Good news came in the form of an email telling me my book order went through and was shipped the next day. My evening was spent reminiscing via Youtube, watching clips of shows I grew up watching, like Marlo & the Magic Movie Machine, Punky Brewster and Perfect Strangers. Well worth skipping over my dloaded copy of Reefer Madness: the Movie Musical. Guess you had to watch the original to appreciate the satirical nature of the remake.

Oh, and Jack Palance's version of Ripley's Believe It or Not! is far superior to Dean Cain's exteme-showcase-fear-factor-lite presentation. Argh, I really wish my Betamax machine was still working. Hell, I wish it was still intact.

10 Thoughts on The Simpsons Movie and Ratatouille

Caught this last week at Power Plant mall, a "double feature date" w/ Goldy and her sister Kim. Seriously underestimated the Saturday crowd, but at least our seats were far from the screaming kids. And I saw my model crush Georgina Wilson, who turned out to be not as freakishly tall as I imagined her. She was accompanied by BF Richard Gutierrez and fellow model girlfriends, who shrieked when one of them appeared on the big screen in a commercial. Sigh. Getcher kicks where ya can...

I'll alternate thoughts between flicks:

• As with most TV-to-movie cartoon transitions, with TSM you could see the difference in terms of scope (widescreen) and "level of maturity" (Bart's wang, Homer flipping people off). I liken it to an OAV or the Batman direct to DVD animated movies.
• Cute as Rata's rodents were, Goldy could not get over the grossness of the concept of rats in the kitchen cooking. Talking toys, bugs, monsters, fish and cars, fine, but rats that cook? Eugh. No better than cooked rats, I gather.
• If you've been on the air for 18 seasons, some storylines are bound be retread: Bart (and Marge) fighting w/ Homer, Bart ends up w/ Flanders, Homer goes on a reflective quest, etc. Thankfully the jokes themselves are fresh.
• In terms of casting, Patton Oswalt(as Remy) isn't the most recognizable name (outside followers of American standup comedy and The King of Queens), and Janeane Garofalo (as Collette) was almost unrecognizable w/ her faux French accent. Peter O'Toole (as Anton Ego), on the other hand, I spotted right away.
• Boy, that Harry Plopper just went up and disappeared halfway through the second act, didn't he? Same deal w/ Lisa's would-be environmentalist /boyfriend, Colin. And just when Spider-Pig became the latest incarnation of Last Song Syndrome.
• While I was fine with the rat-chef concept, the infestation in the food closet have me the heebie jeebies. I was expecting Willard to do a cameo.
• Longtime viewers of the series are rewarded with the appearance of the thousand-eyed creature (in reference to Blinky the 3-eyed fish), as well as the scene of Homer and Bart finally making it over Springfield Gorge (see Bart the Daredevil). And Die, Dr. Nick!
• I loved the more-or-less realistic reaction of the kitchen staff when they walked out on Linguini after he tells them about Remy. C'mon, when someone you think was a master chef credits a rat for his skills, either you have him put away or bring him to the nearest tabloid reporter. Hell, the Supreme Court booted a judge who said he consulted magical dwarves in his cases. Still, the quasi realism was shattered when both a chef and food critic became accepting of Remy's talents. Yeah, yeah, we need our Happy Ending w/o The Lie.
• Much as I liked TSM, I probably could've just waited for the DVD.
  
• For those who want to know what real ratatouille looks like:

Obviously catering to both peasants and vegetarians alike.