Pre-Weekend Roundup

This isn't much of a coherent or cohesive post. This is just, as the title of this entry states, a roundup of what's happened and what will happen in my schedule before I log off for the weekend.

As I said I would, I ended up renting The Devil's Rejects, Rob Zombie's follow up to his directorial debut, House of 1,000 Corpses.

My short review: The Devil's Rejects is better than House of 1,000 Corpses, but that's not saying much. Rob Zombie has got the look and style of the grindhouse exploitation horror movies of the '70s down (it's obviously a genre he loves), but he hasn't figured out suspense yet. For suspense, not only does one have to give the sense that there's at least a chance that the characters in the movie will escape/survive, but also create characters the audience gives a shit about (as in, at all). Unfortunately, he hasn't managed to do that with either movie.

(You may be wondering why I would go out and rent the sequel if I didn't like the first film. Not entirely an out-of-line question. The reason why I did so was because, like Rob Zombie, I absolutely love the genre and saw enough in House of 1,000 Corpses [such as Sid Haig's Captain Spaulding character] to make me want to give the guy another chance [it being his first movie and all]. To give him credit, he has improved with his sophomore effort.)

Oh, well. Maybe next movie.

* * *

I'm seeing Eye Candy tonight and Air Guitar and Vice Girl Confidential Saturday, and it looks like that will be it for my Fringe 2006 experience (six plays, as I had predicted). I offer apologies to anyone I know involved in a Fringe show I have not seen. Again, due to time and money constraints (I'm paying full price for tickets to these shows, plus the online service fee, so it's starting to add up), I wasn't — and won't be — able to get to everything.

Oh, well. Maybe next year.

* * *

About ten minutes ago I finished a short pantomime script for an upcoming project, spearheaded by Nosedivians Pete and Patrick, to be unveiled at a later date. Pete seems pretty happy with it, so that's a good sign. I'm looking forward to seeing it get staged. I may be writing two more pantomimes for them, depending on whether or not they want to write them themselves (which may be the case, since it seems as though Patrick may not need a "script" per se) or have another writer come on board.

Intrigued? Well, you better damn well should be.

But again, details for this project will be unveiled at a later date.

Anyway, have a fun weekend, folks. I'll be back on Monday to write about my three weekend Fringe experiences (or whatever else of note happens between now and Monday).

Offering information in piecemeal,

James "Suspenseful" Comtois