My friend Kelly had been trying to take me out for my birthday, well, since my birthday 3 weeks ago, but we just kept putting it off, usually because my nights are always booked up and my schedule's just been really busy lately. But we finally got to hang out and catch up on Tuesday, and we decided to catch a movie. I wasn't sure what I wanted to see, but then we noticed that The Life Aquatic was still playing at the Charles and we decided to see that. We were gonna have dinner next door, so we got down there an hour before the movie was supposed to start, and there was a long line in front of the Charles going all the way around the block. So instead of going straight to the restaurant, we asked the girl at the door what was up, and it turned out it was a free movie night sponsored by the City Paper, and that they'd keep letting people in until they reached capacity. So we decided to save dinner for after the movie and go ahead and get in there while we still could get in for free, and snacked on popcorn and Raisinets while waiting for the movie. So that was a pretty nice surprise. The movie was alright. I like all of Wes Anderson's movies but I wasn't really expecting much. I loved Bottle Rocket and I was hoping he'd return to the more overt wackiness of BR and let go of the quiet longing and deadpan humor that all of his biters have been honing in on lately. And there were some really funny moments ("Calm, collected, German", and "son of a bitch, I'm sick of these dolphins!"), but mostly it got dragged down by a really convoluted plot and Owen Wilson's distractingly bad Southern accent and emotional threads that didn't really connect. But we saw it for free! So I can't complain too much.

Last night I saw my friends' newish band Communist Bakesale for the 2nd time. I'd been to the Mojo before, but not at quite this time of year, so I wasn't expecting it to be as cold as it was in there. They appear to have zero heat or insulation, and everytime someone went in or out the front door a huge gust of cold air would come in. And even with my coat and hat on I was still cold in there, and I found it very hard to concentrate on the music when my feet were so cold that my toes were numb. They did a good cover of "Life During Wartime", though.

Labels: Baltimore music, movies

This entry was posted on Friday, January 28, 2005 at 11:03 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.