Ft. Lauderdale Dopefest is a Success!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Well, I survived the 6 hour roundtrip drive out to the east coast for this little party, and it was well worth the drive. I actually ended up there early and in the pouring rain, so I drove around aimlessly for about 45 minutes before heading over to hypergirl’s house to pick her up. Once I got there, she announced that ssskuggiii had decided to come after all, so we drove out to Deerfield Beach to pick her up (getting lost along the way, thanks to hyper’s sensational sense of direction… :wink: “Hi, listen, we’re on the thingy but we don’t know if we’re supposed to be going down the thingy or that other one.”).

We were finally able to pick her up, though, and headed back to the cinema in mid-afternoon tourist filled traffic. We got there with, oh, 2 minutes to spare or so, and got into the theater where Anniz was able to find us. We all shook hands and then sat down as the previews started. I can’t speak for everyone else, but I liked Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. It had better action sequences than The Matrix, if they were even less believeable, and the scenery was beautiful. After the movie, we headed over to… uh, to… um… a restaurant in the same shopping center, and had lunch.

Montfort and Anniz decided to get ice cream, and he explained to her the differences between the different items, which she’d never heard of. (She ended up getting a banana split, which I think she enjoyed.) Tasha and Jess had ordered milkshakes, but they didn’t arrive until long after the food came. Our waitress feigned surprise and a call to action, and we tipped her well for her acting ability - look for her in your nearest off-broadway production any week now. Finally Montfort and Anniz had to head home, and UncleBill had a long motorcycle ride back to Miami, so we took pictures and parted company and I dropped off Jess and Tasha before heading home myself. Montfort’s pics should be up on Tuesday, and mine might not be up for a while.

Anyone else have anything to add?

Oh, yes. That reminds me. Hypergirl thinks I have cute eyes, whereas ssskuggiii thinks they’re like muddy pond water like you’d see in a horror movie. Just so you know.

2

Hey Sani, I said your eyes looked like cloudy swamp water from a horror movie. Big difference: my thought was of this really neat looking water they have in horror movies, and yours just makes it sound like your eyes look like a pool that needs to be cleaned. Also, we went to Swensen’s to eat.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon had beautifully choreographed but highly unbelievable fighting scenes and some attractive actors, especially Jen and Lo. :smiley: The bamboo was really kewl, and I never realized it was that flexible. Hmmmm, if life was that interesting as a chinese person of another era, I’d want to live there back then. Of course, I’d be a warrior. Of course, now every time I think of a martial arts movie, the phrase “Behold the mighty excalibur, held aloft from the bosom of the water” shall pop into my mind because of my random comments during that movie, and also all the Jesus references that didn’t quite fit will be there too. Wow, I should have some fucked up dreams tonight about Jesus the martial art master who has excalibur as his personal weapon…

3

I enjoyed myself. I’m sorry I have no sense of direction, but at least we managed to get where we had to be. The movie was not so great, I liked the Matrix better (and I didn’t like the Matrix much). There were some gorgeous visuals in it though. A couple odd Jesus references too. I made Taha giggle in the middle of the movie when the warrior was walking on water. But it was a fun day.

4

Anniz and I had a lot of fun, too. The theatre was just 10 minutes from my mother’s house, so we stopped by at a record store I like to frequent on my rare trips south on the way. After I bought her Madonna’s The Immaculate Collection (we had heard “Borderline” on the radio on the drive over, and she didn’t know the song), we headed across 44th St. to the theater.

I spotted UncleBill standing around, drying off, as we drove by the front. We parked and walked over and introduced ourselves to him. He’s a newbie, but we like him, anyway. :stuck_out_tongue:

We waited around until 10 minutes before showtime for SanibelMan, ssskuggii, and hypergirl (who absolutely lives up to her username). But, they were late so we figured they’d find us inside. We found some good seats in the middle and waited for both the film to start and for the late folks to show up. Fortunately, the latter happened moments before the former.

I didn’t care too much for the film. The action scenes were great, ballet-esque, but the direction was rather sub-par. I’m not sure if it was a Chinese-style, or just bad directing, but it turned me off in the first half hour before the action kicks in. The fight in the trees was worth the $9.50 I paid for Anniz and I to see it, though, so all’s not lost.

Afterwards, the restaurant we went to was Swenson’s. Anniz’s banana split was both her first ever, and too damn big. Her back was starting to act up, so we sadly had to cut the festivities short. I felt a little bad about that, considering how far Sani drove, and how wet Bill got in the rain on his bike. I promise we’ll do this again in the future!

My digicam pix should be online early in the week. We’re not due to go back until late Monday night.

5

Getting wet is one of the joys of riding (Zen thought: there can be no dry clothes without wet ones).

I left MIA in warm sunny weather, and saw the black rolling foreboding clouds as I approached Sunrise. The temp dropped 10 deg in seconds, the breeze picked up, and the leaves fell off the trees in droves. Yup, it was gonna be a doosey.

The cataract held off until I was waiting at the light to turn left into the theater, when the deluge began at 12:05. I got off the bike at 12:08.

The movie fight scenes were a high tech version of the old kung fu’s made in Hong Kong with the impossible moves and “flying”. I saw it as both tongue-in-cheek and tipping the hat to the “classics”. The story has good interpersonal tension and growth aspects, some fun scenes, great scenery throughout, and a good look at the Chinese culture as it pertains to who wields power and influence.

I enjoyed the movie, the burger, the company and the chance to meet some fellow dopers.

Note: the weather in Miami was ten degrees WARMER than Sunrise on the dry run home.

6

Here is some pictures from the meeting.
http://chanceofrain.com/pix/sofla/

It was fun to see some more dopers,
I had a good time.
The girls where very cute and SanibelMan too,
he have very beautiful eyes.

7

Great, we’ve got pics, and everyone looks pretty good, no less!

I have pics, too, but my camera got thrown in a box with everything else on my desk for the upcoming move, so they might not be up for quite a while, sorry.