Random thoughts.

- I only now discovered that the Banana Twinkies that were sold up until a few months ago are still available...two boxes for $16. Totally worth it. Just call me Tallahassee.

- I had hoped to devote a whole post to this, but, as it tends to happen, I lost interest: Paul Weitz's Cirque du Freak: the Vampire's Assistant crashed and burned at the box office, while Chris Weitz's The Twilight Saga: New Moon will likely make a fortune due to its built-in audience of teenage girls of all ages and sexes. First of all, this will make for a great many awkward moments at the Weitz home for years to come. Second, despite no familiarity with the source material, I really enjoyed Cirque du Freak and am forced to assume, due to the mixed reviews and miniscule B.O., that Twilight has debased the vampire movie genre to the point where people can't recognize a good one when they see it. I will admit that John C. Reilly is a most unlikely vampire, but he was one of my favorite things about the movie. If nothing else, his dry wit and his scenes with Willem Dafoe (all too brief) are the highlights, but I also liked the ensemble that brought the freak show to life. It's unfortunate that a follow-up won't be produced, but I guess I could read the books.

- The Disney Channel was airing the 1934 cartoon "Lonesome Ghosts". I would've watched the whole thing had the original soundtrack been used. As is, I couldn't bear more than ten seconds at a time. Maybe it's the way the new audio was mixed or how obvious it was that they tried to slap a new coat of paint on an old house, but (as with the redubbed voice of Mammy in the "Tom and Jerry") the new audio is distracting to the point of unwatchability. I suppose airing the real McCoy would cut into the "Hannah Montana" residuals, but does anyone want to take a fucking chance at that network anymore?

- Speaking of classic cartoons, Cartoon Network has been airing "Pink Panther" cartoons. The first of two observations: who's the pinhead what came up with that laugh track on some of the cartoons?! Watching "Pink Tuba-dore" and hearing that track smeared over every other moment (even when nothing particularly funny was happening) made watching the not-bad cartoon a trial.

- Second observation: There must've been 20-30 pieces of tracked underscoring for these cartoons...and I could swear that "Pink UFO" used them all. Watching the cartoons back in the early 90s on TNT (good times...), the music was engraved onto my subconscious, but the slipshod music editing wasn't the only problem with this cartoon. Between the sloppy animation (doors and chairs don't disappear when they're clearly blasted into nothing) and the weak writing (character thinks that one thing is another thing), it seems like they really weren't trying here. (I remember 1978 being the last year to appear on these cartoons, like the staffers were ready to check out, but didn't bother to do any quality control. Some things never change, I guess.)