Pre-weekend Weekend Lunch Invite 51. Not Playing With a Full Deck

Wooo. The last few days before the big odometer brings about all new digits for us. I just hope this page holds up alright...oh, and the people and things that it relates to as well.

Among the amusing music-related things to happen, MTV2 will play all 18,000-ish videos in their library in alphabetical order by song title starting on the first of the year. They say it will take about four months to get through them all.

By Jan A. Nedelka ROCHESTER, NY (not AP News) - Earlier today, Max, a cat known for his aloofness and disinterest in most playthings, was observed batting around a small stuffed fish. Caught in the act, Max bashfully admitted that he was enjoying his new toy. "After a few years on the street, most things that humans call 'playthings' aren't of much interest", said Max. "This guy who lives here with me sometimes gets little noisemakers 'n shit for me, but if I play with them they just fall apart. These toys are clearly made with the weak and feeble housecat in mind. I got skeelz I picked up on the street, and I need that level of challenge to be really engaged."

Asked why this seemingly benign little stuffed fish held such interest, Max replied "It's not so much about the fish itself, but where it came from", nodding in the direction of a large and somewhat obscene looking stuffed cat labeled 'Harry Hairball'. "Few things are as satisfying as eviscerating another animal," explained Max, "so the ability to force Harry to disgorge a cornucopia of artificial foodstuffs and hairballs is a real pleasure." Harry (http://www.rumpustoys.com/toys/harryhairball.html), upon further investigation, did indeed contain a wide varieties of artificial cat foodstuffs, all of which Max found acceptable.

Max ended the conversation by mauling the photographer's hand and scurrying off to another room. While Sean Penn has not been known to actually bite photographer's hands and kick at them with legs at the same time, we're pretty sure that Sean wishes he thought of it first.

A week from this Saturday, you could earn yourself free lunch at O'Bagelo's. How? All you've got to do is figure out how all the titles relate to the numbers for this page and the preceding pages and e-mails. For instance, #51 (above) is "Not Playing With a Full Deck" since there's 52 cards in a Poker deck. Many are thoroughly obscure, some are plain wrong or don't make any sense, and like always (?) there's partial credit and extra credit for creativity. Check out the archives for the complete list. Next week I'll have a printable list and better rules.

Oh yeah, and buy my Pokemon cards. :-)

Movies

Movie this week:

• Fantasia 2000 at the IMAX theater. Like it's older, like-named sibling, it's a bunch of musical sequences set to animation. If you hadn't heard, the segments are:
  • Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (abstract story of good vs. evil)
  • Pines of Rome (flying whales)
  • Rhapsody in Blue (Al Hirschfeld-esque animation)
  • The Steadfast Tin Soldier (duh)
  • Carnival of the Animals (from the official website: "Providing an answer to the age-old question, 'What would happen if you gave a yo-yo to a bunch of flamingos?'"
  • The Sorcerer's Apprentice (remastered from the original)
  • Pomp and Circumstance (Donald Duck as Noah's assistant)
  • Firebird Suite (sprite of nature)

Thursday

Karaoke at Drinks by Mary Dawn (535 S. Clinton.)

WBER's Alternative Music night at Red (171 St. Paul.)

Friday!

(Get your fill tonight, 'cause the rest of the week is pretty boring.)

Rist Rocket & The Al Beaman Band will be at Monty's Krown (875 Monroe Ave.) tonight.

The Frantic Flattops and White Cotton Panties will be at Bug Jar (219 Monroe Ave.) as well.

For something completely different ... The Capitol Steps will be at Nazareth College for two shows.

Moxy Fruvous will be at The Tralf in Buffalo both tonight and tomorrow.

Similarly, Barenaked Ladies will be at the Marine Midland Arena in Buffalo.

Chronologically, arrange your evening around the fireworks and celebrations:

1. From 4 to 7 is the New Year's Early Eve Skating Party at Manhattan Square Park Ice Rink (353 Court St.) Then the Ground Fireworks Display starts at 7:00 p.m.
2. Next, haul yer kiester over to The Dome Center (E. Henrietta Rd. and Calkins Rd.) for the tail end of the Town of Henrietta Family New Year's Eve Party from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Their fireworks start at 9:30 p.m.
3. Recklessly drive as fast as you can to the Pont de Rennes footbridge at High Falls for the New Year's Eve Laser Celebration & Fireworks starting at 11:45.
4. From there, move your head ever so slightly upward as to see the Millennium Magic Fireworks Display which I assume will launch from where they do the Independence Day fireworks starting at Midnight. Don't forget your fire-retardent umbrella as the computer-controlled sequencers are liable to get millennium bug fever.

Karaoke at Boston Brew Company (251 Exchange Blvd.)

Stradleday

Welcome to the Year 2000! If there's a lot more horseback riders around and a lot fewer cars, Welcome to the Year 1900!

FYI, O'Bagelo's is closed today.

Treehouse Cinema's Movie Night, 9:30 p.m., The Treehouse (693 East Ave.) This week: MST3K Night As Carl from the Monroe County Baha'i Mailing List put it:

Welcome in Y2K with some of the best episodes of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, the classic, hilarious television show that lampoons "cheesy movies." Prepare to laugh... a lot.

Meet at O'Bagelo's today at 165 State Street at noon today since they were closed yesterday. See you all there.

Today is WBER's countdown of the top 90 albums of all time. It runs from noon until 10:00 p.m. Lots of talking, like last week, but hopefully just as much fun. Bring food to Joey and Frisbee.

FOX's Sunday Night Animation Reruns:

• King of the Hill - Peggy's Turtle Song Peggy quits her job to stay at home and meets an angry female rocker while taking guitar lessons. Guest voices of Tammy Wynette and Ani DiFranco.
• 8:00 - Simpsons Brother's Little Helper Bart exhibits worrisome behavior when he takes an experimental drug for hyperactive children.
• 8:30 - Simpsons E-I-E-I D'oh! Homer and Bart grow a highly addictive cross between tobacco and a tomato after moving to an old farm.
• Futurama is on hiatus.

Postapocalyptic silence all around.

Utesday

Open mic comedy at the Colosseum Caffe (262 Park Ave.) starting around 9:00.

Open mic poetry at Java's (16 Gibb Street) starting around 9:30.

Weensday

No South Park today at Rohrbach's at 315 Gregory Street at 10:00. Rather, it's the Man Show - Compilation 2: highlights from the second half of the season.

(The links archive is coming soon.)