for dinner i prepared some channa dal masala with spicy italian sausages, the crazy fusion of indian and italian cuisine. the sausages took a long time to cook in the toaster oven, on top of stinking up the place, which i had to light a scented candle in order to mask the smell. i'll try the conventional oven next time, although not coming from a family where we used the oven a great deal, i find it kind of daunting.
when my father got off from work he came by and picked me up so i could drive him back home and borrow the car for the evening (i was going to the midnight showing of can't stop the music at the coolidge corner theatre, i'd be getting out too late to catch public transportation). i returned to cambridge and waited for an hour before heading back out. 
traffic was fine despite the freezing rain until i got into downtown allston, where things slowed to a crawl. past commonwealth avenue though the traffic picked up again and i was able to make it to the theatre right on time and find curb side parking to boot. the place was empty, i was hoping to see a lot of theatre folks lined up to see this movie, dressed up as a member of the village people so they can gain free admission. after purchasing my ticket (i thought about dressing up but chickened out), i waited outside for the rest of the party to arrive.
elias' friend matt was the next person to show up. i've met matt once or twice before, but never really talked to him. he revealed he'd been following my exploits through my weblog and was curious as to how i find the time to write every day. the secret is i am unemployed and i sleep really late! he was also taken aback on seeing me in person. yes, i get this a lot, what you don't realize from the weblog but what you discover when you meet me in person is how hairy i am, missing link sasquatch hairy. <that was a joke> it's definitely weird though, meeting an almost complete stranger who knows everything about me. i suppose this is how celebrities must feel when they meet fans who know everything about them through tabloids and entertainment shows and magazines.
after matt came elias and amanda and his other friend michael. we all migrated back inside the warm theatre so they could buy tickets. 
it was interesting to see that from the ticket counter the workers had a little lcd screen where they could monitor the progress of the various movies playing throughout the theatre and also watch the movies themselves if they wanted to, i've never seen that before. soon dan and cymara showed up as well (dan's birthday tonight by the way). 
we were the first group of people inside the large downstairs screening room, and as a cinematic appetizer we were treated to some trailers from the late 70's early 80's (star trek: the motion picture, sudden impact, firefox, the sword and the sorcerer, thief). surprisingly, clinton did not splice in a brief segment of porn into the trailers as he is notoriously known for doing, which left me feeling both relieved and disappointed at the same time. in the end, only a few dozen people showed up for the movie (i thought maybe it'd be packed, like the time they showed master of the flying guillotine) with four dressing up, two construction workers, one cop, and one cowboy (who was actually a cowgirl).
this wasn't my first time seeing can't stop the music, but the first time on the big screen. this time around i was a little more objective, noticing some details i didn't pick up the last time i saw it. the overt homoeroticity is done in such a way that i can see how people could miss it. they were careful to add a lot of female presence whenever they do anything gay. if you're a straight male, you might spend all your time ogling the ladies and totally not realize your getting a faceful of gaiety. 
even the ymca sequence, which is as gay as you can make it, features samantha simpson (valerie perrine) jiggling about in her tight "macho woman" t-shirt, receiving a massage, and frolicking topless in the hot top with the village people. i remember when i saw this movie as a kid, i totally didn't pick up on any of the homosexual overtones, i just thought it was a silly, fun movie. dan and i were surprised that there were members in the audience shouting "gute!" when steve guttenberg appeared for the very first time, we had previously thought it was our own special nickname for thespian guttenberg. and was it just me, or was tonight's movie a special version, because i didn't remember any full frontal shower sequences when i watched the video. i also had some time to think about how ron white's (bruce jenner) character in the movie is married and wears a wedding ring. i wonder if it's something to do with his real life wife, and how he didn't want to take off the ring for the movie, so they made up this story of how he's in the process of divorcing. don't know if this is true or not, but just a thought.
after the movie, i caught two of the costumed people outside and asked them to pose for a photo. it was kind of embarassing because i had accidently disabled my flash and took me 3 tries before i was able to get the photo (if you want to know, i set the camera to multiple capture, which disables the flash even if you manually tell it to turn on, took me a few minutes to realize that). elias left with his friends while i drove dan and cymara back to their allston apartment. traffic was just as bad returning through allston center, the roads congested with barhoppers on their way back home. back in cambridge, all the curb side parking spots near my house were filled up (made worse by the numerous snowbanks taking up valuable parking real estate), so i ended up having to park on beacon street in somerville.
