I think many of us who consider ourselves members of the so-called "Generation X" were absolutely rocked yesterday when news broke that writer/director/producer John Hughes had died. Many of us knew Hughes was responsible for ''The Breakfast Club,'' ''Pretty in Pink,'' ''Sixteen Candles'' and oh yeah ''Ferris Bueller's Day Off.'' Yep yep. Knew those. Some of us also knew about ''Planes, Trains & Automobiles'' and ''Some Kind of Wonderful'' (I loved Watts, I really did). But did you know that Hughes wrote the HI-larious scripts for the ''National Lampoon's Vacation'' movies? Or that he penned the ''Home Alone'' film franchise? Yeah, he totally did.
In short, I heart John Hughes movies and I've never ever, for one second, been ashamed of it. Not when my snooty, high-falutin' film geek buddies reminded me that none of his movies ever won an Academy Award. So what? Truth be told, his movies gave me MANY more hours of great entertainment than most of the Oscar winners I've seen. So there. Pfffft!
I don't think I'm alone when I say that while I own a LOT of these DVDs, I'm gonna be getting a lot more of them in coming weeks. I'll need a new DVD cabinet just to hold them all, too. And it'll be pink. Sparkly. And I'll sit and visit with my old friends Watts, Duckie, Samantha, Long Duk Dong, The Geek, Ferris and Claire. And I still lust after Jake Ryan (and Duckie, but I mean COME ON people it's JAKE RYAN right?!?!).
Ha HA! We did it - pulled GAs for the last two Springsteen shows at Giants Stadium. I'm now officially in training. In 2003, we did five shows at this lovely place...the last night, Aug. 31, was GA. Room for 1,000 in the "pit" area...they drew numbers and we had wristbands...we were among the FIRST FOUR in the STADIUM. I kid you not. Really did happen. Anyway, they open the gate and say "Go!" and we ran the LENGTH OF THE FIELD to our spot on that front rail. I think we were at the 70 yd. line when my beloved turned to me, huffing mightily, and said "never again."
Never again?
HA. As I said, I'm in training. Those of you who've followed my trials and tribulations related to multiple back surgeries know that I will NOT BE DENIED.
Huff. Puff.
Congratulations to all who were fortunate enough to land tickets to these shows. To all who were not, take heart - there WILL be drops, I just know it.
Ew. So tomorrow is it - our last shot at actually securing tickets to TWO Giants Stadium shows. 11am our time and you can BET we have our game face on. For those of you fans trying tomorrow, I wish you the BEST of luck. We hope this will be easier than the disaster that was June 1, 2009, sales. We can't afford the secondary market AND a trip to the ridiculously expensive NYC/NJ area. Fingers are crossed. Just get us in, we'll handle the rest.
I can't stop writing about Springsteen tickets as you can tell. Can't stop buying them either. Let's hope we all get in.
Given that I've now watched ''The Wrestler'' video oh, at least three dozen times in recent days, thought it might be nice to post another favorite "Hot Bruce" video. Not going too deep with this one - no platitudes about songwriting, performance, arrangement, etc. No. This is just pure hotness. I'll get back to the deep stuff later. It's almost Friday. Long week.
Major shout out to the Backstreets crew and to the ''The Windsor Star'' and Don LaJoie for coverage.
On a completely unrelated note, had a very strange day today. First, we had a VERY small earthquake near our city (no I didn't feel it, seriously it was only a 2.2). Not exactly a regular thing around these parts, I tell you.
Nine hours later all kinds of hell broke loose over the state...tornado warnings coming so fast I couldn't keep up, so I stayed in my closet just in case (I had a book, my iPhone and dear Chico Seymour Hoffman with me so I can't complain, it's a walk-in in case you were wondering). I knew when we hit around 70 degrees something was gonna be funky today. At one point, it was pitch black in my backyard and sunny out front.
The worst storms were in East Alabama - lots and lots of funnel clouds, but so far few touchdowns, if any. I do miss going to work to cover these types of events - it always made me feel like I was doing something important, like I was helping in some way, even if it was just telling Merlene and Earlene to run the hell to the basement. A while back, I decided I'd go back to storm chasing. I am a NWS trained spotter - don't think I just run off half-cocked and start pointing my videocam skyward. No no. Didn't have a chance to do that today...storms were just not close enough for me to arrive in time and, quite frankly, my driving skills are not yet up to par after the whole back surgery mess (see: leg and foot still numb, best to let spouse take the wheel whenever possible). I can get to Starbucks for coffee on a lovely sunny day, but I'm thinking I will leave the more treacherous navigation to Jeff and his two good legs.
To give you a little idea what it looked like outside in Alabama today, here's video following a wall cloud, funnel cloud, etc. across Oxford (near Anniston for those who may not know). Spooky stuff. Respect the spooky stuff.
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