First Film Fest review

Tried to go see a movie on Friday night, but it was sold out, so I spent Friday night hanging out in Old City (Plough and Stars, followed by Triumph, both pretty decent spots, provided you get out of Plough before 11 p.m.) Had better luck on Sunday. Saw Bogart film Deadline USA with Sarah (review coming manana) and Dangerous Parking with Andy. If anyone is interested in checking something out tonight around 7ish, let me know. Here is Andy’s review for Dangerous Parking:
Dangerous Parking is the kind of film I’d never really recommend anyone seek out, but would love to talk about after they’d seen it anyway. Its flawed, loses its identity about halfway through, and becomes so disjointed that its really two films presented under the same banner. However, it does confront alcoholism and addiction in a way that can make any “professional drinker” reflect.

The problem with Dangerous Parking isn’t its message. It really does gets into the main character Noah Arkwright’s booze and blow problems in a lighthearted and funny way. The film uses jump cuts and
post-production animations to flash back and forward to funny drinking stories, and not so funny binges, and kept me interested, entertained and engaged.

The problem comes when Noah gets himself domesticated. Maybe I find drinking stories more fun than love stories (and that’s going to get me immortalized in film one day), but I think the real reason is the
film completely changes personality. Noah’s still there, and he still struggles with his demons, but the film goes from in your face and comedic about one bad thing (addiction), to a soft and romanticized
touch about another (cancer). It could be the nature of the two diseases, but I question why you’d talk about Noah’s first fight in a”fun” way and then change gears and talk about the second fight in a
“miserable” way.

In the end, Dangerous Parking had Johnny and I talking for 20 minutes afterwards, and I think that’s what I’ll take from it most. The film is not forgettable, but is a missed opportunity at what could have been a better film.

JGT’s take: Yeah, I’m in cahoots with Andy on this one. Another thing that was really annoying was the cussing. I’m no saint, but I honestly bet this guy dropped the f-bomb more than Pesci in Goodfellas, and to less effect. One good thing about the film Andy failed to mention: the women in it are stunningly gorgeous, somehow much hotter than most women in Hollywood flicks. But yeah, it tried to be a combo meal: come for the wacky tale of battling addiction and stay for the uber-depressing cancer filled conclusion. Shoulda picked which film it wanted to be.

Happy Birthday Ricky!

Exclaimer of one of the greatest quotes in Philly sports history. And the fact he got taken to the woodshed for it is another grand display of what utter geniuses Eagles fans are. I mean, the team was losing 21-6 with like two minutes left in the game when it happened. Guy is making a couple million a year. Who in the holy hell is he going to risk his health and livelihood to catch a meaningless pass in a meaningless game? A moron. That’s why Eagles fans just couldn’t understand Ricky’s logic, because their skulls are so thick they would have done something as stupid as blow a multi-million dollar job to catch a meaningless pass. For who, for what indeed.

Sofa Kingdom Wins

This 1993 thriller, directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Gene Hackman, takes place in Memphis.

Jams Win, repped by Map of Kansas

Who was coach of Kansas when they last won the national championship?

Sofa Kingdom Wins

Memphis is named after an ancient capital in what country?

Dork Sided Wins at O’Neals

In what town will you find the University of Kansas?

Pics of last week’s winners

Alright gonna post pics of last week’s winners with questions underneath about either Memphis or Kansas. One guess per per person.

A few last thank yous

QB IV is now history, but before we move on, I did want to acknowledge a few folks. First of all, the good people at Zipcar for their help. People asked me, “Why didn’t you go with Philly Car Share?”, and the bottom line is that they weren’t interested in helping with QB IV and Zipcar was. In my book, score one for Zipcar for helping out local small business. Also, wanna thank the Locust Rendezvous. They were a huge help, and I hope that when you guys are thinking about where to grab your next drink, you consider the Rendezvous. An extremely friendly staff, one of the few places in Center City that serves pitchers, great prices, and a room full of characters that come free of charge. Speaking of beer, I got a lot of compliments regarding our choice of suds. Sly Fox came up huge, and $25 for all you can drink of top quality beer is almost unheard of, and I want to thank them for making that happen. The Beauty Shop Cafe, my neighborhood coffee shop, decided that they wanted to help out as well. Great spot on 20th and Fitzwater. Free wireless, great coffee, great tea, great bakes goods. The Philly Pretzel Factory gave us a couple hundred free pretzels, and though I never got time to eat one, I heard they were a hit. And to Mental Floss, for hooking us up with all of those magazines.

A few individuals I want to thank as well. Vaughn and Eric of Axis of Evil Knieval came up HUGE, not only going out to Royersford to get the kegs, but then dragging them up three flights of stairs. Vaughn then stayed and help with the myriad of duties that we were working on in the hours leading up to the show. The show literally would not have come off without all of the help I got from a number of other people as well: Suzy/Ginger (did programs and helped grade papers), Trivia Art (did scoresheets and computer scoring program, as well as posted info on his site), D-Mac (promotional help), Chip Chantry (not only helped with halftime show, but also graded papers and kept score on computer), Corey and Liz (the bartenders), the WID, and Black Elvis and the Burnin Loves. Janella, Ms. Carol, and Ms. Michael at the Blue Horizon were absolutely a joy to work with. And of course a special thanks to my Mom and Dad, who ran a million small errands in the last few days to help make sure we got all the food, sodas, napkins, etc. we needed. Finally, thank you guys for making it all the way up to North Broad to play quizzo on a cool spring night. I hope you all had as much fun as I did, without screaming and cussing as much as I did in the hours leading up to the event (much of which was captured by the documentary crew, embarrassingly enough), and hope to see you again next year when we do it again!