Saturday, December 20, 2008

Back... to the Future!

Well, at least back to something.
Last night I went to a sold-out performance of a show that's been off the air for ten years.
"In the not-so-distant future, next Sunday A.D. ... "
Recognize it?
It's the starting line of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (or MST3K)!
That's right, the whole MST3K cast was in town to do 3 different live shows, Thursday, Friday and Saturday! People came down from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana to see the show - and judging from Friday's first show (they did repeats on Friday and Saturday nights) it was totally worth it!
Calling themselves Cinematic Titanic now, and ditching the robots from MST3K, the six MST3K alumni ripped a film called "House of Vampires!", a Filipino movie thankfully free of copyright. The film was set in Mexico, and it really isn't that important what the plot involved (a House of Vampires?) but the comments came fast and funny.
It's quite different seeing an MST3K show "live" and in a theater (The Lakeshore Theater - hoo hah!) than on tape or CD. The whole audience is laughing at the jokes, making it easy to enjoy the craziness.
I got everyone to autograph "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" for me - you may recall that MST3K did a takeoff on "SCCTM" already, THAT version meade me roll on the floor in hysterics, so this version should be good.
Afte that, I went to a chili restaurant called Chili Macs (whose specialty was.... chili mac!) for some chili (sans mac) and walked up and down Broadway, enjoying the pulse of that part of the city. It was so... alive! So... New York City! Stores were open and video shops and theaters and Chili Macs!
Needless to say, the MST3K - Cinematic Titanic bunch left me in a great mood, and so too many of the other audience members, who I got to talk with while waiting in line to get my car out of the garage.

All in all, an excellent night!