Geek Movie Day

29 September 2002

Evidently I was mistaken in considering it List Day in M'rissaland yesterday. Evidently it was Geek Movie Day.

When we had finished the last of the cleaning, I wanted to work, but I felt like death on crackers, so I flopped on the sofa with Empty Cities of the Full Moon and popped in a tape of "Desk Set." I had taped "Desk Set" from AMC earlier in the week. Scott (the one without Michelle) had recommended it years ago. We lived in Concord when he recommended this movie. We're talking sometime in late '99 or '00, here. So I dutifully wrote it down on the movie list we keep on the whiteboard on the fridge, and we started checking video stores for a copy, because Scott sounded really enthusiastic. No such luck. We moved. Still no such luck. But, you know, we're going to move again, and so I leave movies on the list, in case they're around when we get where we're going.

Well, Mark spotted "Desk Set" on AMC, so we taped it, and I got to see it yesterday. By that time, it had been long enough since Scott last saw it that he was a little nervous about how good the recommendation was. This is the man who lent me Piers Anthony's Bio of a Space Tyrant when we were in high school because he had enjoyed it several years earlier. So this is someone who has cause to be wary of the "enjoyed it several years ago" phenomenon.

He had no need to worry. That movie was so cool. First of all it was Hepburn and Tracy, and I have decided that I love Hepburn and Tracy. I may not love all of their movies, but I love them. And there are several of their movies I haven't seen yet, so I have the chance to find out if I love them. It's not just because I adore Katharine Hepburn, either, although I started out fairly skewed towards her. Spencer Tracy had some really great impish moments.

And they could so easily have made it an anti-technology movie, or an anti-geek movie, and then they didn't. In a modern remake, Tracy's character would have had to learn not to be so much of a geek. He would have to make some genuine and believable effort to care less about his Very Nice Computer (watchen der blinkenleits!). In this movie, he did not. The British release title was "His Other Woman," and the only thing it could possibly mean is that the computer is his first love. Which it really was, and that was just fine.

After that, I worked a tiny bit more, and then Alec came for dinner and "Real Genius." He seemed quite fond of dinner, even praising the sludge after the actual food was gone. (It is good sludge, I will say.) And evidently the strawberry-lemon cheesecake bars were quite a hit. He laughed at the right bits of the movie, too, although he laughed at them when they happened. Unlike me. I laughed at them when they were about to happen. I can't help it. Jordan is so awesome. Anyway, Alec stuck around and talked until kind of late (for us), and it was cool. I hope we get a chance to spend a little more time before he moves. I'll even make bars again.

Today we're trying to figure out plans with Amber. We may get Zachary's or Fijian food or some such thing like that. I'm not entirely sure what we'll do. We may consult a list. We may not. We're just zany like that.

Plans for rest of the day include catching up on a few more e-mails, finishing Empty Cities of the Full Moon (Now With Obtrusive Exposition Man!), and working on the Not The Moose. And talking to the folks, probably. I wouldn't mind watching another Geek Movie, but I'm not sure what's out there that I haven't seen. Mail me with Geek Movie recommendations if you have any.

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