Snark

I'm in a kind of snarky mood today. Which is probably fairly obvious by my utiliziation of the word "snarky", which I never use. Just now I drove by three giant billboards for the movie "Arthur" within a one mile radius. Really? They need that many billboards? For a movie that looks like it's going to be worse than dreadful? First of all, who actually likes Russell Brand besides Katy Perry? Secondly, why is Helen Mirren in this movie? She is a stellar actor and I cannot imagine why she would sign on to this schlocky remake. And why is Hollywood remaking this movie in the first place? I saw the original one years ago with Dudley Moore playing the lovable drunken billionaire buffoon, and I remember finding it funny. My guess is that the film didn't age well, though. But that doesn't mean we need a remake of it. Why can't Hollywood make better movies? Instead of throwing millions of dollars at a formulaic rehash, why not just take a chance on an original script? I know that there are good screenwriters out there who are coming up with unconventional, creative scripts. I just don't get it.

Mr. Happy

Our neighbor's garage still sports those smiley faces, and amazingly they haven't been defaced by graffiti. We've found out that everybody on the block pretty much likes them, in fact people have been getting their picture taken in front of them. I guess the garage is earning something of a reputation. The other day (while we were out, of course) our neighbor, Jarvis, was outside with his tiny puppy, America. He noticed a bunch of people in front of the garage getting their photos taking. "Looks like a rock band," he thought to himself. Then teeny America slipped through the fence and ran over to the people in front of the garage. One of them scooped him up, and as Jarvis walked up to them he noticed that it was a rock band. Anthony Kiedis was holding America, and Jarvis snapped a photo with his cell phone of the Chili Peppers as they posed in front of our smiley faces! Of all the graffiti on all of the derelict garages in all of the gnarly alleys in all of the funky neighborhoods in all of Los Angeles, The Chilli Peppers chose ours for a photo shoot. Pretty cool... And if you happen to live in Los Angeles, you just may soon come across this same blue smiley face covering some hideous billboard in your daily travels.