August 18, 2016

After not going to the movies all year, I finally got out and saw something.

On the theory that it might amuse you to guess what might have finally motivated me to commit to sitting through a movie in the theater, I won't say what it was just yet.

ADDED: Irene got it. 

47 comments:

Anonymous said...

Suicide Girls? I stopped going to theaters after sticking to too many sticky seats. Unsanitary.

rehajm said...

Werner Herzog thing.

Or Sausage Party

Gahrie said...

I thought they already pulled Ghostbusters.

LuAnn Zieman said...

Hillary's America. Heh.

Gahrie said...

It is either Florence Foster Jenkinsor Pete's Dragon.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Sausage Party? My real guess is Cafe Society.

Irene said...

Cafe Society?

mockturtle said...

Last time I watched a film in a movie theater was Gandhi in February, 1983, downtown Seattle.

Irene said...

Or ... the Frank Zappa documentary.

Danno said...

I've got you beat. The last movie I went to was in the mid to late 1980s. Hollywood is synonymous with trash to me.

Jon Ericson said...

Art House?

Karen of Texas said...

Anthropoid. Because Hitler.

Or Ben Hur.

Linda said...

Jason Bourne

Jon Ericson said...

Clinton Cash.

Sydney said...

My guess would have been Herzog, but his movie isn't out until tomorrow.

rhhardin said...

Wait for the DVD.

Bad Lieutenant said...

The answer is, what would annoy us the most?

Pete said...

Lo and Behold.

Ann Althouse said...

Irene said...
"Or ... the Frank Zappa documentary."

Correct!

Ann Althouse said...

I do totally want to see "Lo and Behold."

Ann Althouse said...

"Hollywood is synonymous with trash to me."

Yeah, Zappa said that.

Clyde said...

I saw Sausage Party yesterday. Lewd, crude and funny as hell, if you have a warped enough sense of humor. Best of all, it wasn't a sequel or franchise movie. Originality is rare in Hollywood these days, because it's too risky.

Irene said...

There is a Frank Zappa statue in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.

Ron said...

By myself, I wouldn't have no boss, but I'd be raisin' my lovely dental floss

Ron said...

His album with Captain Beefheart, Bongo Fury, is one of my all time favorites...

320Busdriver said...

Frank is the BOMB

And a musical genius. I might go see it. Was it worth it? I did not even know it was a "thing."

I still listen to "Dumb All Over"... most of which is true.

Did I mention he was a genius? Miss that guy.

Josephbleau said...

A mental toss flycoon.

Quayle said...

Ann, you can be my Duchess;
my Duchess of prunes.

Ann Althouse said...

Excallent. But badically an edit of concert footage and interviews with journalists. You can probably see these things. One by one on Youtube if you take the trouble. But it's a good edit and a profound experience, especially if you want to think about art, beauty, and the meaning of life. I appreciated the intense experience and have some details I'll share tomorrow.

320Busdriver said...

Looking forward to it!

James said...

Didn't know this was a movie... gotta see it if it ever comes near here. And second the comment that Bongo Fury is a fantastic album. Joe's Garage still my favorite though. Or Apostrophe.

Laslo Spatula said...

For a certain generation Zappa is a Signifier.

For the next generation he is a Fetish.

For the generation after that he is a documentary they will not bother to watch.

I am Laslo.

CWJ said...

Zappa might have actually appreciated Lazlo's comment.

Will Cate said...

Love absolutely all his stuff from Freak Out right on through Joe's Garage.

His studio material from the 80s wasn't as great (although, as Frank himself said, if it sounds bitchin' to you, then it is bitchin') ...

... would make an exception tho for 1987's "Jazz From Hell" which is excellent.

Roughcoat said...

In what sense was Zappa a genius? So many people say that he's a genius, they say it automatically, in the way people say things that have been repeated over and over so many times they know longer really hear what they're saying. I found his music unlistenable, his humor snarky and juvenile. Same goes for Don van Vliet, with whom Zappa is often compared or likened to. I met and briefly worked with van Vliet and found him an insufferable jerk. I almost got in a fistfight with him.

mockturtle said...

And who else would name a daughter 'Moon Unit'?

MacMacConnell said...

Roughcoat
For the most part I agree. But, I still listen to the Absolutely Free album I bought in the 1960s.

gadfly said...

Frank Zappa - on the cover of the Rolling Stone - for July 1968

Ann Althouse said...

"Excallent. But badically an edit of concert footage and interviews with journalists."

Written on my iPhone and apparently I couldn't see what I was writing.

Should be: Excellent and basically.

Ann Althouse said...

"In what sense was Zappa a genius? So many people say that he's a genius, they say it automatically, in the way people say things that have been repeated over and over so many times they know longer really hear what they're saying. I found his music unlistenable, his humor snarky and juvenile."

1. What is the significance of something that's frequently said about someone? You realize that you are propagating the meme. If there were a modern Dictionary of Received Ideas it would have "genius" after Frank Zappa.

2. In the movie he's confronted with the idea that he's called an "eccentric genius," and he breaks it in two, agreeing that he's eccentric. As for "genius," he says "maybe."

Ann Althouse said...

The movie concentrates on his later work and shows him expressing dismay that people who say they like him are fixated on the mid-60s music.

Will Cate said...

I'm more fixated on his mid-70s music -- that particular group was so tight and talented -- I don't think any other era of Zappa's ensembles matches them. But, that's just me...

Roughcoat said...

If there were a modern Dictionary of Received Ideas it would have "genius" after Frank Zappa.

Exactly. Thanks for reinforcing my point about Zappa.

Anonymous said...

Big Zappa fan, here, and I'll probably watch this after it hits Direct TV, etc. But I always thought FZ's instrumental music was more sophisticated and enlightening than anything he ever said. Zappa really wasn't very outrageous or funny after about 1968.
And he totally lacked humility and was always over-the-top sarcastic and self-satisfied. Trust the art, not the artist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaCrslK-Sfk

And the same composition as directed by Pierre Boulez :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ29gn5P68M

Bruce Gee said...

I saw Zappa and the Mothers in the Field House, circa 1971. His "new" lead singer was the former lead singer for the Turtles, complete with full white-afro. His penance for having been in the Turtles was to sing a straight version, mid-concert, of HAPPY TOGETHER. Ooh ooh ooh ooh! went the Mothers.

Unknown said...

what could be better than '500 motels'? saw it at a midnight movie in Charleston SC after a long night drinking, thought for a moment someone had slipped me something.

Unknown said...

sorry, 200 motels. I had WAY to much to drink.