"Oh look, an indoor outhouse..."

Strange time for convergences and coincidences, this week. A lot of stuff is coming around full-circle, and I am not trying to be deliberately cryptic. Sorry it is coming out that way. All I can say is that what goes around comes around, and this is NOT a case where that statement is related in any way to revenge, 'getting back at someone', or what-have-you. It's just a strange month so far, that's all.

An example:

The first movie I ever saw in a theater by myself - meaning I went without parents or friends and just wanted to see a movie that I was looking forward to - was BEETLEJUICE. While it played theatrically I saw it no less than 8 times. It is very likely that BEETLEJUICE was the very first movie that I ever saw to the point where I 'studied' it with enthusiasm to the point where I decided I wanted to 'make' movies.

So when I discovered it was playing at my local theater this weekend... well... I was totally up for it. I haven't seen BEETLEJUICE in a looooong time, despite my enjoying it so much when I was in Jr. High.

I looked the movie up on IMDB Saturday evening, before attending, and discovered a neat circular coincidence. Originally BEETLEJUICE was released in March of 1988. That's 20 years, for you kids who can't count. Almost to the day.

Cool!

So while I was driving, by myself, to the theater, I was thinking about how BEETLEJUICE was my first 'by-myself' movie experience. But for the record, the VERY first movie I had ever seen in a theater was THE MUPPET MOVIE.

It was a throwaway thought, until I went into the movie theater and heard the pre-show music that they were piping in while my friend Josh and I got seated.

They were playing 'Can You Picture That' from THE MUPPET MOVIE.

Very Cool!

What's NOT so cool is the fact that BEETLEJUICE has NOT aged well, for me.

When I was 9 or 10, 'Adventure' on the ATARI 2600 was a pretty badass wicked game.
You got a sword... you got to fight dragons and find keys... total coolness for a video game. A few years ago I was lucky enough to find an old 2600 emulator online in order to play those old video games form the era, including 'Adventure'. Naturally, I drooled at the prospect of revisiting such an old friend.

'Adventure' kinda sucks. It's NO 'World Of Warcraft', that's all I am saying.

BEETLEJUICE is the same way. It doesn't hold up, and now it makes sense why my mother and stepfather had that glazed-over look of perplexed confusion on their faces after watching it in our living room, back when it came out on VHS. This was after months of me raving about it and not shutting up about how awesome of a movie it was.

They were kinda right. The movie kinda sucks.

Maybe it's my in-the-last-10-years-acquired disdain for artistic Goth. Maybe it's my appreciation of substance over style. Maybe it's my being-able-to-see-where-Burton-interfered-with-the-script-to-accommodate-his-pretentious 'vision'.

Whatever the reason; BEETLEJUICE didn't hold up.

Kinda sad.