Dear Friends,
We went to see Renfield yesterday. It was great fun. If you love Nicolas Cage, you will love the film. He’s super Cage-y in it and if, like me, you are a fan of the movie Vampire’s Kiss, you will really like this as he gives a few subtle nods to his performance in the film.
This made me realize I haven’t posted a new review in a while. I should probably do a proper review of the movie. I have taken in a lot of content since I reviewed anything, so I might have to wait until the summer to try and catch up.
Either way, it was a nice way to laugh with the family in the afternoon. I like being able to occasionally take some teenagers to do something fun that we all enjoy. Earlier in the day, Liam and I picked up Teresa from the movies (yep, she did two yesterday) and Liam drove for the first time in the Harkins parking lot at Christown. I’m very happy to say that he did really well.
Prior to the movie we visited Michael and Tracey and wished them a bon voyage on their big trip to Portugal. We will definitely miss them for two weeks but look forward to seeing all the pictures and hearing the tales of travel when they get home. May the universe bring them home safely to us.
We also had a show on Saturday night. Again, the kid did good. The crowd was pretty small when we played, but we played well. We hadn’t practiced for a couple of weeks and did just fine. The band after us was a joke, though. They were playing along with backing tracks and I don’t think they were actually playing anything live or even singing. I’ve never opened for a lip sync band before. I wish it could have been Milli Vanilli.
Overall, other than feeling like ass Friday night and a good portion of Saturday, it was a nice weekend. I think I needed the rest, to be honest. I had a few sick students last weekend and I picked up a little bug from them. It didn’t last long, though.
This should be a fun week. There is a student art show at school on Thursday and I’m helping out with that so it’s going to be some long days, but that’s okay. I look forward to celebrating with the kids. It’s getting down to the nitty gritty, as I’ve been sharing, and the natives are definitely restless. Time for some big projects to keep them occupied.
Happy Monday to you all. The Bet will be back soon.
Before I go, I think I need to give one more shout out to Nicolas Cage. He's one of my favorite actors. It goes back to Valley Girl, of course, and like many dudes my age, I wanted to be as cool as "Randy" was when I was in high school. I also enjoyed him in Rumblefish (another teenage fave of mine and based off the S.E. Hinton book), Birdy, and Racing With The Moon, before he really hit the big home run with Raising Arizona.
Sure, I did ignore or tune out some of those big action films he did for a decade or so and laughed my ass off at Face Off, but you gotta love the guy. He throws everything at a part. He lives large and, yes, I don't have to deal with some of his bad choices and I feel bad for those that did and have, but still. He's Nicolas Cage. If you haven't seen The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, do yourself a favor. It's so fun. Renfield is not as good of a movie, but it is really fun, too.
Top 10 Nic Cage movies in no particular order (there are lots of recent ones that I haven't seen but have heard great things about like Pig and I'm also leaving out some of the small parts like the one in Rumblefish which I don't really consider a "Nic Cage" movie):
Valley Girl
Vampire's Kiss
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
Moonstruck
Wild At Heart
Guarding Tess
Kick Ass
Honeymoon In Vegas
Leaving Las Vegas
Raising Arizona
See you tomorrow.
yep.
If you like Cage being Cage, then check out "Mandy" (2018).