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A Day Without Brandon Patton; Or, Dancing Movies Please [Guest Post by Prince Gomolvilas]
posted by Prince Gomolvilas on Mon, Feb 18, 2008
in Jukebox Stories
I have seen Brandon Patton for 20 consecutive days, due to rehearsals for and performances of Jukebox Stories: The Case of the Creamy Foam. It’s an amount of time long enough that our individual identities have melded into one interchangeable mass of existential confusion. We’re thinking each other’s thoughts, and we don’t know who we are anymore. Swirling images of vaginas now occasionally flash in my mind and open up like blossoming flowers—and I can only imagine the sheer horror that Brandon must be experiencing.
Yesterday was going to be our first day apart, but Brandon took over his dad’s swanky Fisherman’s Wharf hotel room and wanted to throw a naked Jacuzzi party. Properly enticed, I showed up to a desolate room and we ended up watching Elizabeth: The Golden Age. A fine film, sure, but it’s no naked Jacuzzi party.
Today, Monday, was finally A Day Without Brandon Patton. I was very tempted to call him because I felt like I was living with a missing limb—but I read Codependent No More in the 90s and learned a thing or two about being alone.
Instead, I paid bills online, organized the Jukebox Stories mailing list, caught up on some e-mails and phone calls, did laundry, and went to see Step Up 2: The Streets.
I like dancing films. I mean, I even went to go see Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights IN THE THEATER, which is obviously a sign of some kind of chemical imbalance. I didn’t really like Step Up 2 all that much, despite its almost irresistible premise: dance school outcasts form a street dancing team to compete in an underground competition. Not very well-executed on any level, but it does culminate in a terrifically aggressive dancing finale in the pouring rain:
The original Step Up was better-paced, charming, and also boasted an irresistible premise that worked: ballet school girl recruits street-dancing janitor to be her partner. Although there’s some nice eye candy in the sequel, the first Step Up featured Channing Tatum (who has a cameo in 2). Tatum is about 11,000 degrees of hotness (which, incidentally, makes him hotter than THE SUN). He’s also a superb actor, and, when he helps the girl nail the final competition, I cried like a bitch:
One of my very favorite dancing movies, though, is Mad Hot Ballroom, a documentary about elementary school students who compete in a New York City ballroom dancing competition. It does for ballroom dancing what Spellbound did for spelling bees:
[More bloggings at Bamboo Nation.]