02/10/09 - My Guy

	MOVIE - Friday the 13th, again ART - I Lego NY -nyt- LOCAL - Courteous Mass -abc-
	U.S. - Digital TV FRANCE - Testes Cancer tied to pot -lemonde- WEB - KenKen (beats Sudoku!) -nyt-

MOVIE NEWS - Really? A remake of "Friday the 13th"? Because they haven't fully explored the depths of the character? Or, when there's a massacre in the stock market, we need the theatrical distraction of teen slaughter?

When the original Friday the 13th came out May 9th, 1980, we piled 13 kids into Jolene's boyfriend's truck (she was dating an older guy from Jesuit High - the all boys school - sigh) and drove to see it en masse (11 high school kids in the back of a pickup truck...no seatbelts, no helmets...now THAT'S scary).

In the theater, we missed the scene where the first camp counselor meets "Jason"; it seems our theater's copy of the film had broken at that scene so many times, they had to splice it out. The rumor among us was that the film was "haunted".

It was scary. I worked at a Boy Scout camp the next summer and avoided the archery range like the plague. Every night, while walking through the woods to my cabin, I clung ferociously to the belief that only bad kids who had sex and feathered their hair were victims in slasher movies. I was only 1/2 a target.

It got a Razzie for "Worst Picture" of 1980, along with "Xanadu" and "The Nude Bomb"(?)! They both lost to "Can't Stop the Music".

There was a 1981 spoof called "Saturday the 14th"

Razzie-nominated Betsy Palmer went from playing Jason Vorhees' mom to memorable, guest-starring appearances in "TJ Hooker", "Charles in Charge", and "Knots Landing". I nominated Betsey's cable-knit top for "Best Supporting Sweater".

Kevin Bacon went from "Animal House" to "Friday the 13th" and was able to cling onto his career for long enough to be redeemed in "Diner".

There are 1.72 Friday the 13ths in the average year. By my count, this is the 12th "Friday the 13th" movie, if you count "Jason vs. Freddy" (but not "Jason and the Argonauts", which involves killing of a different sort). That's only .43 "Friday the 13th" movies per year. Praise Jesus.

ART NEWS - I Lego NY -nyt- I couldn't resist this minimalist interpretation of New York icons. If you "get" half of them, you are an honorary New Yorker!

2/14 - Happy Valentine's Day! Celebrate at the High.

LOCAL NEWS - Courteous Mass -abc- Ride your bike with a group that promotes sharing the road...safely.

Atlanta loses a Tree Lover -ajc- R.I.P. John Stowe

Sad justice - Arrest made in Midtown teen's murder -ajc-

Eat like an ape -ajc- It seems that Zoo Atlanta animals are in good shape and not overweight. 26% of Georgians are obese; I see a diet craze coming on - live in the zoo!

U.S. NEWS - Digital TV - So Congress has delayed "conversion" to digital broacast TV (right now, most stations are broadcasting digital AND analog...so the "conversion" is really just turning off the analog broadcast.) They claim that it's too expensive for some folks that didn't get the converter box (with a $40 government coupon our taxes paid for.) What? They can't pay for a box, so the TV stations have to continue to pay to broadcast analog? It's not like it's frakkin' water! It's business...it's a product...if the TV stations are willing to lose the business, let them stop broadcasting analog! Or is the government going to pay for that, too?

You need emergency broadcast information? Turn on the radio.

FRANCE NEWS - Testicular Cancer / Marijuana tie -lemonde- Why isn't this news in the U.S.? I see a Michael Phelps public service announcement in the works.

WEB NEWS - KenKen (beats Sudoku!) -nyt-