Well, as you can see, we’re assiduously keeping up with our irregular blogging!  There are a lot of challenges to being a small, artist-owned and operated venture and social networking is one of them, including whatever part blogging plays in that!

I hope y’all are enjoying The Alien Factor. Now I’ll tell yew whut – I enjoy parts of most of the movies we riff.  I can enjoy the movies themselves, and I can enjoy the jokes we make.  I continue to view the finished product with a critical eye, especially since we’ve had various learning curves with our project.  Some movies I just can’t stand – Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, for example.  I’m sure it ends up being funny, a lot of people love the MST3K and CT versions, but me - I can’t get past my own personal resentment of the film itself.  I don’t like Frankenstein’s Castle of Freaks either. I can laugh at the CT result but I’ll never warm up to it. I’ll be cordial to it when I see it at a party or if it should show up unbeknownst to me at, say, a happy hour that friends have organized, but I will avoid sitting by it and engaging it.

Now… on the other hand… I adore Wasp Woman and the first 3/5ths of Doomsday Machine.  And I lurve, love, luff The Alien Factor.  I love the monsters, I love the actors, I love the sincerity of it, and I love the “shot in the basement” of it all.

I’d not heard of Don Dohler until John Kinhart contacted me and told me about him, suggesting that maybe some of his films might work for Cinematic Titanic.  So I had the opportunity – a new experience for me – to work with Greg Dohler, Don’s son, as a liaison for CT to acquire The Alien Factor.  So there’s a kind of personal investment in it.

But I feel like it’s a video diary of some of my formative years (monsters not withstanding). I KNEW those girls, I KNEW those guys who go out into the woods to find what that killed ‘em, I KNEW that bar, I KNEW those hairstyles - and my dad bore somewhat of a resemblance to the mayor guy, what with the leisure-suity fashions, comb-over, giant glasses and all. Not to mention my dad was mayor of Circle Pines in the early sixties.  So it all just hit so close to home.  In fact, when I first screened it, I got the impression it had been filmed with Wisconsin or Minnesota, because it was alllll too familiar.  I love doing The Alien Factor live because it’s one of those movies in which the audience will start laughing at certain parts WITHOUT any CT jokes, just because the movie itself is so unintentionally funny!

 Don’t miss CT on the East Coast in April. We’re in Northampton, MA on April 15; Princeton, NJ on April 16, and then we hit Broadway, baby, BROADWAY, on April 17.  Looking forward to seeing y’all there.

So Cinematic Titanic has announced an additional date as part of our East Coast “tour” – we’ll be in Northhampton on April 15. So get your taxes filed and come celebrate with Cinematic Titanic at the Calvin Theater.  Then we’re on to Princeton, NJ and then Broadway, baby, Broadway!  The Nokia Theater on the 17^th of April.

So I was looking on a map to see where in Massachussetts Northhampton was. Mostly I was hoping to be close enough to the coast to visit a maritime or whaling museum.  I can’t imagine that a lot of whaling activity occurred in Northhampton, seeing as how it’s pretty far inland, but I was hoping.  But what I DID notice was Rhode Island.  Now, my sense of geography is pretty sound, but I have to admit I completely lost track of Rhode Island. And no wonder – have you seen how small it is?  It’d be kind of fun to live in a state where you can just seemingly WALK everywhere!

I tease Rhode Island. I know it’s a fine state.

So is anyone on Facebook?  I am, and you know who keeps coming up as a “Friend suggestion?”  David Hockney.  That just cracks me up.  Like – why is David Hockney coming up in my possible friend que?!  What are the six degrees of Facebook separation?

It puts me in mind of when I lived in New York and was a member of the Chelsea YWCA.  Every month in the lobby they’d put up a tripod stand thingy with a posterboard declaring “Member of the Month!” with a photo and a typed piece of paper of the member’s biography.  I don’t know what the criteria was to become Member of the Month; I can’t help but feel I didn’t lobby hard enough or take out enough ads in variety to be awarded the distinction, but in any case –

One day I walked in and guess who was the YWCA Member of the month?  Edward Albee. I didn’t think it could be the same Edward Albee, what are the chances? The little bio thingy typed piece of paper did indeed confirm it was THAT Edward Albee. Now it figures that a famous American playwright has to workout somewhere, so why not the Chelsea YWCA?

Apparently a staff member would interview the MotM and type up the bio. What made me want to laugh and cry was how bitter Albee’s bio was; he described the pain of his early childhood, being adopted by parents who didn’t love him, and continued to elucidate certain resentments on his part…  and allllll under this cheerful, bright construction paper lettering of “Member of the Month” and a headshot of him.  And by the way, Albee swims several miles each day in the YWCA pool.

Anyhoo… where was I??