Kevin Standlee: Fandom Is My Way of Life

A couple of days ago, after getting the oil changed in the Astro, I stopped by Raley's to get a few things. I was dressed more or less like my user icon in this post, although I was wearing a face mask. The clerk said, "I don't mean to give any offense, but you look like Sheriff Buford T. Justice from Smokey and the Bandit."

I laughed and said that there are worse things to be than to be mistaken for Jackie Gleason's character, and that I may come to the look naturally, as several members of my family were in law enforcement, including my late uncle Seth Reynolds, who was assistant sheriff of Sutter County, California when he retired after a full career starting as a patrol officer.

I was even more amused, given the apparent age of the clerk, as the movie was from long before he was born, but he was clearly a fan of it. Also, looking for photos of Gleason in the role, I found a lot more people portraying Gleason's character who look more like I do when I'm in my "summer uniform" than Gleason himself.

Courtesy of debgeisler, an amazing and wonderful ad.



This is one of the nicest feats of cinematography, not to mention acting, that I've ever seen. Deb's post pointing us to it also includes a reference to the director talking about it. Keep in mind that this turns out to be just about the last chance they had to get it right -- take 40 on the second and final day they had for shooting -- but they did it.

Alas, it still doesn't make me want to take up drinking. :)

I don't go to movies very often, but last night, Lisa and I went to the Star Cinema, a single-screen, one-showing-per-weekday-evening, not-a-multiplex-at-a-shopping-mall movie theater in Stayton, Oregon, where we watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I'm not going to say this was a great movie. I found it entertaining the same way I would an amusement park ride, but the plot is even thinner than the other movies, and Lisa was so irritated with the internal inconsistencies that she said were she watching it by herself, she would have walked out on it.

On the way home, she came up with what she thinks would have been a better ending, and one that's more in keeping with the original film, too. ( It requires spoiling the actual ending, so I'll put it behind a cut )

I really like her ending better, because I think it evokes the original Raiders of the Lost Ark -- and besides, it also sort of explains how Indy manages to repair his reputation. As it stands, the final scene assumes "Come home, Professor Jones, all is forgiven" without really establishing even with a single throwaway line how that happens.