April 30, 2005
Towel Anyone?
Posted by Matt in
Geek Humor
Yesterday was an interesting day. At work, we just got a new storage server that holds 8.8 terabytes of data. The interesting part was it did so by having 42 hot swappable hard drives contained within it. Any other day I would have said “cool” but the significance of the 42 on opening day of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy just gave it more meaning. Jess & I have been looking forward to the movie for a long time. We planned on going to see it opening day but we didn’t know when. There was talk at my office about an “offsite meeting” at the cinema as well as talk amongst our friends about going at night. With the offsite meeting falling through, it was going to have to be at night. Our friends, Bill & April, also wanted to go so we found a time that worked for both of us. The time of the movie was 10:10 PM so Jess & I had some time to spare.
We called in an order to D’Angelo’s for a steakbomb and a chicken stir-fry pocket and on our way to pick it up, we stopped off at Strawberries to pick up the full set of the Firefly series. Jess had been reading her daily dose of blogs and found one that had this link. In typical Jess fashion, she did her research and found out Firefly was yet another series Fox destroyed (see Greg the Bunny and Roar for a few others). That alone suggests it would be good. Anyway, we get home with the food and Firefly and get ready to watch the first episode. But there was a problem, the chicken stir-fry pocket is a steak and cheese sub. By now it is 7:00 and we don’t have time to go back and get the right order so we just dealt with it. Besides, we were looking forward to watching Firefly. The first episode ended (it was a two hour pilot) and we grabbed our towels and headed out to the movie.
We got to the theater at 9:20, got our tickets, I played Time Crisis 3 and then Jess & I sat down to wait for Bill and April. A long time ago, Bill used to operate on “BST” which was Bill Standard Time. Even though we can’t remember the last time he was late, I doubt we will ever forget BST. BST was defined as ST + log(BQ) = AT where ST = Suggested Time, BQ = Bill Quotient and AT is Arrival Time. Once again, defying BST, Bill showed up promptly at 9:30 as we agreed to, and he even made sure to point to his watch in a “See! I CAN be on time” manner.
We went to claim our seats and then Bill and I went back out to get some refreshments. I had a bunch of quarters in my pocket so what were we to do? Back to Time Crisis of course! After one game, we figured we better get back. We went to the concession stand and got what we needed (there was no line, nor was the ever one) and when we got back to the girls, we of course complained about the long wait at the counter (good cover for the video game playing). The movie began and the first 30 minutes were great. Then I fell asleep and woke up 10 minutes before it ended. It was a crazy day but you know what? Douglas Adams was right. A towel is the most massively useful item an interstellar hitchhiker can have, and it goes without saying a late night movie goer as well. It made a great pillow. No, the movie was not bad, but my battle with my eyelids was a losing one. I guess I should have checked with orders logged in the back of my head hours before the movie stating my eyes will close promptly at quarter to 11. Had I, I could have filed a petition by drinking a red bull :-) So, does anyone wanna go see movie?
By the way: That Greg the Bunny link, if you pay close attention, you will see Count Blah flipping you off :-) Or maybe it’s a little “F.U.” from the creators to Fox?
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LOL... Matt, another link via Libby about Serenity:
http://www.notesgirl.com/NotesGirl/notesgirl.nsf/dx/ooh-ooh-ooh.htm
I found another use for having my towel with me after the movie... in the bathroom after the movie, I washed my hands, and me and April were in line to dry our hands at the auto air-dryer. I hate those. And then I rembered. I had my towel!! :-)
The movie was good... I could definately have used some more direct quotes from the book, though. Even the "book" narrator said some sentences direct from the movie, but then stopped right before the mind-bogglingly brilliant bit in whatever paragraph he was reading about.
I read how Douglas Adams had tried to get this made and even had an agreement with Disney that fell through (who would want this to be a Disney movie?).
But as for Firefly, I loved that show and was shocked to see it had such a small viewership. But at least they kept the show cast to make the movie. I am eager to see that one
Sounds to me like BST is actually governed by the arrival time rule of Bistromathics.
Chris, I bet the success of the DVD sales of Firefly is what actually prompted them to make a movie... in fact, that's usually what prompts companies to make a movie or a sequel in this day and age. Take Pitch Black. The movie did so poorly in theaters, it was even brought back a second time at the end of the summer to see if it would do better. The real surprise lay in the success of the DVD sales, to which the movie has achieved a cult following and prompted them to make the sequel. They butchered it, don't get me started, but still. :-)
And as for Douglas Adam's involvement, he was completely involved in all aspects, from what I've been reading. All the new characters (including John Malkovich's) were created especially for the movie, and were created by Douglas Adams himself.
Stan - LOL!!!
Firefly is great. Was pointed in its direction by a Kiwi mate of mine. the DVD's he lent me have commentary soundtrack extras by cast and crew an are definitely worth a go.
Think my favourtie episode had to be 'A Man called Jane' or whatever its proper title was, so funny.
Matt, I'm still aghast that you fell asleep during the film, eeks! We saw it last Friday, and even though I'm an Adams purist and general H2G2 nut, I thoroughly enjoyed it! Pan-galactic gargle-blaster, anyone?
