Crabcakes and Improv
Note: what follows is not meant to sound like a shameless gushing post... entirely.
Last night I went to see Wedding Crashers (opening weekend). It was the first movie I've seen since being back in the DC area, because we all know summer movies are usually excruciatingly awful. It was a bit of a shock, seeing this movie in DC, because, well, we got tickets. And it was awesome.
In Los Angeles the question was "what showing are you seeing of this movie on opening weekend?" In DC it's more like, "Yeah, that looks good, I'll check it out sometime." I guess in LA everyone in the audience knows someone who's in the movie or worked on the movie or heard a story about the movie. I mean what is LA without the movies? TV? Please... It's just what you do: movies.
But seeing Wedding Crashers in DC was great because it takes place in DC (the whole theatre cheered when the first shot came up! Imagine if everyone in LA cheered when they showed LA... haha). The movie played to my hometown crowd! That's always the best.
It was also imperitive that I see the movie as soon as possible because my roommate from LA - and future roomie in the Move To NY Plan - is in it. They filmed a large portion of the movie in Maryland, and I was privvy - when I moved to LA - to see some pretty rad pictures of the shoot on my roomie's Power Book (while we were kickin' back drinkin', I'm sure).
It's a little weird to have lived with someone for nearly a year and then all of a sudden move away from them. Things get... quiet... the laughter subsides a bit. You don't have a guaranteed movie buddy (he and I used to go to midnight showings on opening weekends all the time), and you don't wake up to their music in the morning. Needless to say, I miss my buddy.
So you can imagine my shock when the first time I saw him moving around in about two months was on a movie screen a gazillion feet high and a gazillion squared feet long. I jumped in my seat and clapped my hands. I'm a nerd. He would remind me of that.
Now there are two places we can go with this post. One is to go into how cool it is to see someone you know - really know - on a big screen, but that would be awfully LA-naive and annoying of me. I mean I work in the arts, I see cool people all the time doing cool stuff in cool places all the time (I saw my roomie on Broadway already. Ooops, that's gushing...), and I know that this is only the tip of the iceberg. But the other place we can go is what follows...
Wedding Crashers is AWESOME!!!!! Such a hilarious, fun, cool movie. And rather quotable. I forsee more AIM IM away messages quoting Wedding Crashers than Old School in the future. I can hear my 15 y/o brother and god brother quoting it (once they see the film). It's gonna be all over the place!
I'm a little biased and have to say that my roommate said my favorite line. It's in the beginning of a football scene. He throws up his arms and exclaims in the way I saw him do countless times in our living room, "Crabcakes and football! That's what Maryland's about!" Of course I laughed out loud and clapped my hands... but so did the whole theatre. Hometown baby, hometown. With my roomie representin'! Aw yeah.
When we left the theatre people were laughing and quoting the movie in the hallway. There was a line outside and around the building to get into the next show. It was a little weird because although I know enough abouy movies to know how and where they are made, who follows it, box office numbers, production company advertising and all that, I forget the anticipation of... well, the rest of the country... when a movie comes out. It's like magic. We don't know about the hundreds upon hundreds of people behind the camera, or the people on screen... or maybe we do.
I called my roomie right when I got outside the theatre. "Hi!" I gushed.
"What up, Alli, how's it goin'?!" he said.
"I just saw you on a really big screen and it was sooooo weird," I said.
"Ah, did you like the movie??"
"LOVED it! LOVED it! It was so cool to see you! I miss you!"
"Aw, I miss you too! I just got West Wing Season 4 [his obsession] and I still think of you every time I see Janel Moloney."
"She's so hot. Thank you!!!" I said, like I always said. "Hey, I might be biased," I continued, "but you said my favorite line in the movie!"
"Oh yeah? Which one?"
"'Crabcakes and football! That's what Maryland's about!"
"Ah yes," he said, then told me his favorite. Then he continued, "You know, my whole part was improved."
"What?"
"Yeah, they wrote my character then kinda put me there and all those lines were improved."
"I didn't know that..."
"Yup."
Then all of a sudden I was amazed again. I thought back to when I'd go see his improv group perform when I first moved to Los Angeles. Those kids were the first people I befriended, it was the first bar I frequented, the first few times I laughed out loud, rolling on the floor... in public. I thought about all the midnight showings of movies he and I went to - the theatre where I'd see Quentin Tarantino buying popcorn, Claire Danes getting her ticket ripped, Jack Black slip into the row in front of us for a midnight showing of Spiderman 2. I thought of my roomie watching West Wing, our late night talks, the nights we'd accidently drink too much, the diner we'd go to a little tipsy, the dive bar he loved, the day I had breakfast with him back in April of 2004 when I was visitng LA and he mentioned that he was looking for a roommate. A week later I told him yes, I'd move in.
And here I was, a measly one year and three months later, on the phone with him 3,000 miles away, missing Los Angeles - or a small part of Los Angeles - for the first time, well, ever.
On the walk back to my friend's apartment, down the streets lined with huge marble buildings and street traffic, people damp, soaked in humidity, I thought about my old street, the highway, the view of the city from my favorite hike, the beach, my roomie, how it wasn't all that bad because of... well, him. I thought back to the movie and how I felt so close to it and so far away at the same time. I thought about how cool it was that he just made up that line, all those lines. It just goes to show you that some of your most profound moments and favorite things can be decided upon in one split second.
Last night I went to see Wedding Crashers (opening weekend). It was the first movie I've seen since being back in the DC area, because we all know summer movies are usually excruciatingly awful. It was a bit of a shock, seeing this movie in DC, because, well, we got tickets. And it was awesome.
In Los Angeles the question was "what showing are you seeing of this movie on opening weekend?" In DC it's more like, "Yeah, that looks good, I'll check it out sometime." I guess in LA everyone in the audience knows someone who's in the movie or worked on the movie or heard a story about the movie. I mean what is LA without the movies? TV? Please... It's just what you do: movies.
But seeing Wedding Crashers in DC was great because it takes place in DC (the whole theatre cheered when the first shot came up! Imagine if everyone in LA cheered when they showed LA... haha). The movie played to my hometown crowd! That's always the best.
It was also imperitive that I see the movie as soon as possible because my roommate from LA - and future roomie in the Move To NY Plan - is in it. They filmed a large portion of the movie in Maryland, and I was privvy - when I moved to LA - to see some pretty rad pictures of the shoot on my roomie's Power Book (while we were kickin' back drinkin', I'm sure).
It's a little weird to have lived with someone for nearly a year and then all of a sudden move away from them. Things get... quiet... the laughter subsides a bit. You don't have a guaranteed movie buddy (he and I used to go to midnight showings on opening weekends all the time), and you don't wake up to their music in the morning. Needless to say, I miss my buddy.
So you can imagine my shock when the first time I saw him moving around in about two months was on a movie screen a gazillion feet high and a gazillion squared feet long. I jumped in my seat and clapped my hands. I'm a nerd. He would remind me of that.
Now there are two places we can go with this post. One is to go into how cool it is to see someone you know - really know - on a big screen, but that would be awfully LA-naive and annoying of me. I mean I work in the arts, I see cool people all the time doing cool stuff in cool places all the time (I saw my roomie on Broadway already. Ooops, that's gushing...), and I know that this is only the tip of the iceberg. But the other place we can go is what follows...
Wedding Crashers is AWESOME!!!!! Such a hilarious, fun, cool movie. And rather quotable. I forsee more AIM IM away messages quoting Wedding Crashers than Old School in the future. I can hear my 15 y/o brother and god brother quoting it (once they see the film). It's gonna be all over the place!
I'm a little biased and have to say that my roommate said my favorite line. It's in the beginning of a football scene. He throws up his arms and exclaims in the way I saw him do countless times in our living room, "Crabcakes and football! That's what Maryland's about!" Of course I laughed out loud and clapped my hands... but so did the whole theatre. Hometown baby, hometown. With my roomie representin'! Aw yeah.
When we left the theatre people were laughing and quoting the movie in the hallway. There was a line outside and around the building to get into the next show. It was a little weird because although I know enough abouy movies to know how and where they are made, who follows it, box office numbers, production company advertising and all that, I forget the anticipation of... well, the rest of the country... when a movie comes out. It's like magic. We don't know about the hundreds upon hundreds of people behind the camera, or the people on screen... or maybe we do.
I called my roomie right when I got outside the theatre. "Hi!" I gushed.
"What up, Alli, how's it goin'?!" he said.
"I just saw you on a really big screen and it was sooooo weird," I said.
"Ah, did you like the movie??"
"LOVED it! LOVED it! It was so cool to see you! I miss you!"
"Aw, I miss you too! I just got West Wing Season 4 [his obsession] and I still think of you every time I see Janel Moloney."
"She's so hot. Thank you!!!" I said, like I always said. "Hey, I might be biased," I continued, "but you said my favorite line in the movie!"
"Oh yeah? Which one?"
"'Crabcakes and football! That's what Maryland's about!"
"Ah yes," he said, then told me his favorite. Then he continued, "You know, my whole part was improved."
"What?"
"Yeah, they wrote my character then kinda put me there and all those lines were improved."
"I didn't know that..."
"Yup."
Then all of a sudden I was amazed again. I thought back to when I'd go see his improv group perform when I first moved to Los Angeles. Those kids were the first people I befriended, it was the first bar I frequented, the first few times I laughed out loud, rolling on the floor... in public. I thought about all the midnight showings of movies he and I went to - the theatre where I'd see Quentin Tarantino buying popcorn, Claire Danes getting her ticket ripped, Jack Black slip into the row in front of us for a midnight showing of Spiderman 2. I thought of my roomie watching West Wing, our late night talks, the nights we'd accidently drink too much, the diner we'd go to a little tipsy, the dive bar he loved, the day I had breakfast with him back in April of 2004 when I was visitng LA and he mentioned that he was looking for a roommate. A week later I told him yes, I'd move in.
And here I was, a measly one year and three months later, on the phone with him 3,000 miles away, missing Los Angeles - or a small part of Los Angeles - for the first time, well, ever.
On the walk back to my friend's apartment, down the streets lined with huge marble buildings and street traffic, people damp, soaked in humidity, I thought about my old street, the highway, the view of the city from my favorite hike, the beach, my roomie, how it wasn't all that bad because of... well, him. I thought back to the movie and how I felt so close to it and so far away at the same time. I thought about how cool it was that he just made up that line, all those lines. It just goes to show you that some of your most profound moments and favorite things can be decided upon in one split second.
posted by AllDeTime at 10:27 AM
2 Comments:
I just "googled" (is that even necessary anymore? to put the quotation signs on googled? I'm sure I must return all of my cool points on that)"crabcakes and football" to make sure I had the quote right for my fantasy football league team. I didn't expect to find anything, but here I am. Your buddy and that entire football scene was my favorite in the movie, and that movie was funny throughout. But, on a larger note, I just want to say you are pretty funny yourself. Not many people can convey that detached irony of cynical youth without it seeming heavy-handed, forced or whiny. More to the point, it is funny. Very funny. But I have enjoyed all of your blogs and look forward to reading more of them in the near future.
Thank you!! This brightened my day. I love to know that I'm slightly influencing the lives of strangers. It makes my plan to take over the world in a few years just that more encouraging. Good luck with your fantasy team. :)
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