I'm getting a display phone!

At work, some people have display phones, where you can see the phone number of the person calling and the time and the number that you dialed and everything, but most people have the ordinary kind of phone.

Well, my phone wasn't working on Monday, so they tried replacing it with another one. "What about a display phone?" I asked, and was told "Ask your manager."

So, to the Evil Overlord I went.

ME
Evil Oooooverlooooaaaard, can I have a display phone for Christmas, pleeeeeeaaaaase? I've been here five years!

EO
(laughing)
I think about it.

(and then, yesterday)

EO
Come here, sit down.

ME
Yes?

EO
Okay, I give you display phone, but if I ever hear complaint from vendor that you no answer your calls, I take it back again!

ME
O, I will answer my calls, I promise!

O, and speaking of gifts, since I mentioned The Wishlist That Ate Manhattan, two sweet good people actually got me things (or at least, I assume they did, because I know that I didn't order anything)! I am very thrilled at your kindness, whoever you are, but I want to make clear that, unlike some, I have some self-control and have neither opened nor peeked nor anything at them, and won't until Xmas day, so don't think I'm being rude for not sending thank you notes yet!

So, last night I had a date with Sean Connery, but I stood him up. I'm so sorry, Sean!

It was the premiere for Finding Forrester, but since I had no-one to go with, and that the night before the house was not full and it started about twenty minutes late, I did not rush to get there at 7.15p, but instead got there at 7.28p, and was told that there were no more seats. I didn't believe it, but they insisted.

Fortunately, the same movie was playing at SAG an hour later, so I just went to that screening instead.

Basically, the film is about a black teenager from the Bronx who has both a gift for basketball and for writing, who gets a scholarship to a Manhattan prep school, and at the same time, makes friends with a reclusive writer in his neighbourhood who helps him with his writing.

It was as if J.D. Salanger liked helping young boys rather than fucking young girls.

I saw that trailer on Sunday, and of course it gave away the entire movie, and trumpeted it as being "from the director of Good Will Hunting", not a good recommendation as far as I was concerned. Only later did I remember that that was Gus Van Sant. O, how the edgy have fallen.

Anyway, the film was exactly as trite and predictable as expected, and ol' Gus was clearly pushing to make it as sentimental and gushy as possible, but he was thwarted by the astonishing performances of his leads.

I can just imagine the casting call. "I need a black kid who can play sixteen, equally believable as a street kid basketball player and as a writing prodigy. O, and he also has to be good enough to spend most of the movie in two-person scenes with Sean Connery and not be blown off the screen. Okay, go find him!"

Honestly, at least 60% was just the two of them together, and for that you've got to have presence, and you've got to have chops. And this kid, this Michael Pitt, has got it. He is marvelous, and so is Sean Connery, natch, and the two of them together keep the film from going into Robin Williams territory.

The whole cast is excellent, actually, Busta Rhymes of all people, plays his brother and is just great, F. Murray Abraham is the teacher that accuses the boy of plagiarism and Anna Paquin is the prep school girl who becomes his friend.

Anyway, my recommendation is, yes for the acting and no for everything else, but the acting is good enough to overcome the weakness of the script.

Don't forget to read Erm, this wee's Journal of the Week!

Also don't forget, if you want a Xmas card and you have either never sent me your address, or you moved since last year, or you accidentally dropped off the list last year, let me know!

Today's horoscope:
Uncovering hidden information proves useful. You put your knowledge to work.

One year ago today:
"What is this star doing in Nowhere, New Jersey?"

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