Yesterday I received The Point from Netflix, watched it immediately, then returned it to Netflix only a few hours later. I am the fastest gun in the west!

I do love that movie so. It's amazing how many people don't know it, but I guess it's because it's one of those movies from the pre-video age that are very specifically for a very narrow generation of kids. And unlike Free to be You and Me, it wasn't as widely remembered.

Can you imagine, there used to be a time when something was on TV only once and if you missed it, that was just too bad? I mean, maybe it would be repeated sometime down the line, but mostly you just had the one shot. And everyone else all over the country would be watching it at the same time, it was a shared experience.

The kids today have a different kind of shared experience, the memory of seeing things multiple times, about having the video or the DVD, and there aren't going to be all of these memories that only belong to a few people.

If I talk to people who are even a year or two younger than me, they've never heard of The Point, and since so many of my friends are a decade younger than I am, they all have blank looks when I mention how glad I am that it's out on DVD at last, even if it is with the inferior Ringo Starr voice-over rather than the far better Dustin Hoffman or Alan Thicke versions.

Well, you unbelievers, it's one of the best cartoons ever made, right up there with Yellow Submarine in terms of trippy late-'60s animation, it has a great story with a strong message that isn't beaten into the ground, and it had fantastic music by the late, great Harry Nilsson.

Rent it. Rent it and tell me I'm wrong.

Last night was opening night for the 7p and 9p shows. I sold tickets, then sat in the box office and quite happily watched Firefly on DVD.

Tony had a show in the 9p with Mark in it, and after the show started, he snuck out and asked me if I had a cd player. I said no, but I had an mp3 player, so maybe I could move his cd song onto that.

I tried to move it, it moved but wouldn't play. I tried to rip it onto my computer, but it wouldn't play. I went into the booth and connected my computer to the board and tried to play the cd that way. There was no sound.

So Tony started to sing the closing song, "Yes sir, that's my baby/No sir, I don't mean maybe/Yes sir, that's my baby now," but he got the lyrics wrong, and I elbowed him and told him the right lyrics, but he just stopped and said, "What?" I could not stop laughing!

Of course, the poor actors were on the stage in full light, trying to sing along with the song that wasn't happening, trying not to fall about laughing, praying that Tony would bring the lights down. Which he did not for what seemed to be for a very long time.

I told him afterwards that the best thing to do would be to let Mark say his last line and do a quick blackout, that having them do that singing number just made the end of the show die a hideous death. He agreed, and all of the actors got down on their knees and thanked me for delivering them from that horror.

Today's horoscope:
You're thinking a lot. You're also noticing things that could be improved. Fix what needs to be fixed -- step outside of your everyday role and be a momentary superhero. The people you save will be eternally grateful.

One year ago today:
What they haven't figured out is that I am not going anywhere, that I fully intend to be a part of Omar's life until he dies. And of course, they aren't going anywhere either, they are permanent parts of his life, they are his family. Which means that everyone needs to suck it up and get along.

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Last Updated Wed 30 June 18:27:09 2004