Ugh. A busy day for once. A busy day complete with a near miss on a panic attack. Whoo. It’s those little things that make life fun … right? Don’t forget that the “Dawn of the Dead” Ultimate Edition drops into stores next Tuesday … or in my case, arrives via amazon.com. “Dawn of the Dead” contains on of my favorite opening shots for a film. It kicks!

And here … the cast of “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” muddles through a fun little sequence entitled “The Contest.”

The packaging of the Criterion Collection release of David Cronenberg’s “Videodrome” is some of the coolest dvd packaging ever. Whoo!

I’ve been up for days
And I feel like a laboratory rat
Inside a maze
And I reel in the monotony of
Screaming at the moon
In the middle of the day
But as long as I can see it
Then I know I’ll be ok
I’ll be fine
I’m out of sight
I’m completely out of mind
Completely out of mind
“Out of Mind” from The Cure

Rhino is going to be releasing remastered versions of The Cure’s studio albums, starting with “Three Imaginary Boys,” “Seventeen Seconds,” “Faith” and “Pornography.” Tentatively release dates start in April. Each album will be a two disc set with the bonus disc containing demos, remixes, and unreleased material. The first four albums will be what’s released first: The Good: Hopefully this means that songs like “World War” and “Carnage Visors” will finally make their way to disc. The Bad: For those of us that own all The Cure’s stuff, there’s gonna be 12 albums to purchase again.

Mmm. DVDs for Christmas!!! What could be better?

Er … wait … don’t answer that one.

I received “Dead Ringers” on Tuesday (a Christmas present to myself) and, man-oh-man, it is kickin’. Probably Cronenberg’s best movie done up really right by Criterion. Nice transfer of the film with extra “making of” stuff and audio commentary. Sweetness!!!

Lynnette’s present was my favorite of what I got … “Duran Duran: Greatest, The DVD.” Three plus hours of yummy Duran Duran goodness. There are so many nice things to say about this set. Cool packaging and fun extras (four, count ’em, four version of “New Moon on Monday”). My major complaint though would be that it’s a “greatest hits” package and not a completely comprehensive look at the video career of Duran Duran. There’s a great (though out of print) video album released in the early 80’s that has videos for practically all the songs off “Duran Duran” and “Rio.” I love the video to the singles version of “My Own Way” and would love to see it (and the others) make their way to disc as well.

All I can say in closing is … Simon Le Bon in the “Union of the Snake” video … uber yummy!!!

For Dr. Phibes’ edification … the boring (well, not that boring) weekend of Chas.!

Friday Night:
Michelle had some folks down to her place. So, while it snowed outside we were all warm and toasty inside with food and drink. Mmm. Maker’s Mark really does hit the spot on a cold winter night. Late in the evening videoke hit the screen and a few of us sang a few songs. Poor Burt. He was as out of luck as I am at parties.

Saturday:
Got up and braved to snow-covered roads to Asheville for the movie (see the previous post) and Christmas shopping with Lynnette. The movie rocked! The traffic sucked! Lynnette bought me “Duran Duran – Greatest – The DVD” for Christmas … but I have to wait until Wednesday to open it! I bought “Hellraiser” for myself! We ate at Outback and I drooled over the waiter that had the table behind us. Got back to the house, watched “Hellraiser” and drank a couple of beers all by my lonesome. Yeah.

Sunday:
Spent most of the day going through the extra goodies on the “Alien Quadrilogy” DVD Box Set. Made it out for a little Christmas shopping. Yeah. I am one of those last-minute people. Last night I watched the work print version of “Alien³” (gonna write more on this film later). Drank four beers and went to bed. Whoo!

So, there it is. Are you happy now, Dr. Phibes?

It’s official. My aunt and uncle are insane with the price they want for the house … 30,000 over what the realtor thinks is reasonable. We’ll see what happens.