okay, that's it; i'm fucking bummed. read in the paper yesterday that the county board of supervisors tabled their final decision on their development plans for the land that the sac 6 drive-ins sits on for may 14. the drive-ins have escaped the wrecking ball for the past 8 years but i think that this is the final curtain call for the venerable old theater. i've written about the place many times before so my love of drive-ins is i think well-known. and when the drive-in is gone that's it no more for sac or even northern california. my good friend b. and i plan to go to the drive-in this friday. it may be the last time.

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but in other news, good news, philly poet ryan eckes started a blog. do check it out. eckes is one of the most exciting poets i know.

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taking the week off for a much needed holiday. my plans are to have no plans. i'm gonna do a little writing, a little reading, a little movie watching, and a lot of delaminating.

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speaking of movies i just watched for the 2nd time today, i don't know why i watched it twice but i did, the indie film seven and a match. i'd caught the last 15 minutes of it last year on ifc and because it features heather donahue whose most famous work is the horror flick the blair witch project i wanted to see if she's a good actor. she is. but seven is not really a good movie. an ensemble piece much like the big chill sans the nostalgia and for twenty-somethings the movie is about old college friends who have a weekend reunion at the summer home of their friend who still lives in the house and who also organized and set the action in motion.

now, we have the disparate cliched, yet goofy roles, such as the sensitive male, the gay guy, the letch and the person so miserable she can't help but make those around her miserable too. the actors are game and the only one i half-way recognized, other than donahue, was devon gummersall who played geeky, brainy brian krakow in the excellent, but short-lived tv series my so-called life. but here's the catch: the main character, the one who still lives in the beautiful seaside house in maine, ellie has an ulterior motive. since the house is in foreclosure, she inherited the house along with a mountain of debt when her parents died in a car accident, she discovered that the insurance is worth much more than the house. so ellie asks her friends to help her commit arson.

i don't believe it. even in this depressed housing marking a coastal maine house with lots of woodland surrounding it would be worth a lot. i think. in california a house like that would be worth millions and selling it would be fairly easy. i don't know what the housing market is like in maine but the movie was released in '03, the height of the housing bubble, and i figure ellie could at least get a half mil out of it. but then there would go the plot and the movie would end up just like the big chill. and that movie was boring!

instead we have a group of friends who've grown apart thru the years but not grown up very much. but then how could they when they are only in their late twenties. despite their relative naivete, after all what does grown up really mean anyway, i mean i know people in their 50s who still haven't figured out what they want to be when they grow up, the seven friends renew their bonds and are for the most part likable.

the main thing for me is that the movie lacks nostalgia that makes a film like the big chill kind of icky. the characters' neuroses match their types and even if there is little depth to their roles they do their best. the photography is mostly gorgeous which is helped out by filming coastal maine in the fall. the direction is both harried and leisurely. this film is the only one i think by director derek simonds who also wrote and performed most of the indie-rock style songs for the sound-track. the music matches the movie just so. not that that is good but it is a good effort with the occasional moment of genuine love.