ugh. I’ve been sick. Urn had a cold, which somehow Annie caught. So of course, now I get sick, too. Which wouldn’t have been so bad if Annie hadn’t used up all the kleenex and taken all the cold medicine with her when she went home for the weekend. Oh well. On a weekend when I had no larger plans than to stay home and be anti-social, I guess this is a better time to be sick than a normal workweek, when I can’t afford to miss work. If I’m going to be miserable, it might as well be in the comfort of my own home.
One thing I’ve noticed about being sick is that my attention span gets even shorter than usual, and I get even more apathetic that usual. I don’t feel up to doing anything more than sitting on the couch and watching TV, and I don’t even really want to do that. As a result of this, when I get sick, I tend to watch a lot of movies. But due to my extremely short attention span, I can’t handle movies with a great deal of plot. So I end up watching a lot of BAD movies.
This weekend, I rented The Sixth Day, which was about what I was expecting (Arnold blows things up and makes bad puns!), and the first Highlander, which was a lot worse than I remember. I also saw most of Muppet Treasure Island, which has some really funny pirate songs. Then there was some horrible made-for-TV Mission To Mars knockoff on the sci-fi channel, a police chase documentary, about 15 minutes of Wyatt Earp, in which Kevin Costner makes a lousy Wyatt Earp, but the guy they got to play Doc Holliday is pretty cool. Add to all of those a couple hours of just channel-flipping, watching 10 minutes of Star Trek here, and 20 minutes of VH1 there. Sadly, I couldn’t find any Bob Ross episodes anywhere. Bob Ross is the best thing to watch when you’re sick. He was an amazing guy. And, of course, I watched Iron Chef. It’s just about the best show ever.
Addendum, 10 minutes later:
I forgot to mention about 3 episodes of Saturday Night Live and The Replacement Killers, which was much much worse than The Killer. Being sick, I wasn’t even able to enjoy the fact that Mira Sorvino or however you spell her name left her shirt unbuttoned for the entire movie.
I'm a 30-year-old 
Sean Says:
Monday, May 28, 2001 at 8:45 am.
So far as I know, Joy of Painting with Bob Ross is on ONCE per week: Wednesdays at 1pm on OPB. You’re in Washington, so don’t know about up there.And it’s good if you’re sick or not. Awesome show.I only watch TV late at night, when they actually play music videos. If you catch it, watch the new U2 video for ‘Elevation’ off the Tomb Raider soundtrack. U2 vs Evil U2. It’s cooler than I expected.
Mr. Bread Says:
Monday, May 28, 2001 at 11:05 am.
"the guy they got to play Doc Holliday" . . . that would be Val Kilmer. He was also great in Red Planet, which I rented recently and wasn’t as disappointed by as I would have thought. It totally sucked, but Val Kilmer had a couple of good lines. And of course there was Carrie-Anne Moss, although they pretty much wasted her. And Terence Stamp, too. Come to think of it, all the meaty parts went to crappy actors. I change my mind, that movie sucked.U2 is great. Elevation is a great song. I want to see that video, but I only get Mtv2 after 3am, and for the life of me I can’t get the reception to ever clear up completely.If you want a good easy-going movie, rent some classic John-Woo-while-he-was-still-in-Hong-Kong stuff. "A Better Tomorrow", which was his first movie, is totally cool, and of course so is Hard Boiled. And then there’s "A Better Tomorrow II", which I haven’t seen yet. But hell, any John Woo movie is cool. Even Broken Arrow."Would you mind not firing at the thermonuclear weapons!!???"- John Travolta, "Broken Arrow"
scott Says:
Monday, May 28, 2001 at 11:38 am.
No, you’ve got the wrong movie. Val Kilmer was in Tombstone, which was great all around. The movie I’m talking about it the Kevin Costner knock-off film, which was called Wyatt Earp, and had a different guy entirely playing Doc. ;)
Sean Says:
Tuesday, May 29, 2001 at 4:01 am.
It also sucked. Merely by nature of the fact that it’s about Wyatt Earp but came out AFTER Tombstone. Tombstone rocked. It had Kurt Russel, Val Kilmer(not sucking!), Bill Paxton, Billy Bob Thornton before anyone knew who he was, and some others I forget. It rules. I need to go watch it again.Speaking of little known early parts, did you know that Forrest Gump’s son at the end is lil Haley Joel Osmont? Neat!Also, starlet Alicia Witt, who was seen in Urban Legend and on the Sopranos, is supposed to be a genius. Proof of this is the fact that at the wee age of like three she played Paul’s sister Alia in Dune. Smart enough to work for David Lynch, even as a toddler!I’m currently reading Dune, after which I’ll finally watch the miniseries, then rewatch the Lynch movie. Reliable sources say the mini had some good stuff, and lots of stuff from the book that didn’t make it into the flick, but had uniformly terrible acting. Agree/disagree?
Pat Says:
Tuesday, May 29, 2001 at 2:42 pm.
I agree. It started out kinda suckish, but in the second and third nights it was better. I really liked some of the stuff they did, but I also really didn’t like some of it. It’s at least worth a watch.
Alex Says:
Wednesday, May 30, 2001 at 10:58 am.
It is no better or worse than the david lynch movie. The series is a little truer to the actual events of the book, while the movie does an interesting job at trying to capture the mystic feelings of Mua Dib as the messiah.But they both drop the ball on the ecology of the planet, which is what 1/3 of the book is on.Has anyone else here read the 4 Hyperion books by Dan Simmons? I’m on number 3, and I would have to say they’re incredibly good.–Alex
scott Says:
Wednesday, May 30, 2001 at 12:31 pm.
I read the first one in high school. It was interesting. I never got totally into it, but much like Dune, the author succeeded in creating an entire new world with new cultures. Pretty cool.
Alex Says:
Wednesday, May 30, 2001 at 2:22 pm.
Well, if you ever have the time, give them another go. The next three are a lot more entertaining than the first book, much different style, but the series as a whole is pretty strong.Unlike Dune, this series gets better with every book, and from the people I’ve talked to who have read it already, the last book is the strongest of the 4.–Alex