Saturday night I did my first bit of volunteering for the Rideau Valley Roller Girls. In retrospect, not sure what took me so long to do so. Guess I was content and enthralled enough in my watching of the sport from the sidelines. When the question arose if I wanted to help out though, I was all in. Now I get to ad 'score catcher' to my resume. As with many events big and small in my life, I seem to manage the avoidance of anything in the way of photographic evidence that I was there (I don't think there's any proof I lived in BC or have been to New York a couple times). I am in the above shot, a bit Where's Waldo style though.



Segueing nicely into other roller derby related news is the next Sunday Night Geek Night at the Mayfair. We'll be screening the drive-in derby classic Kansas City Bomber in association with my Rideau Valley Roller Girl friends. I've been trying to track down this one for pretty much the duration of my association with the theatre. And through a crazy chain of events (well...ebay) we now own an actual print of the thing. So we might make it an annual tradition, show it before the start of every roller derby season or somethin'.

The next Sunday Night Geek Night - July 4th at 9PM

I remember the pop-culture boom that was Beavis and Butt-Head. At one point in 1993 - 94 or so, they were everywhere. They seemed to be on every magazine cover, t-shirt, and entertainment news clip. I did not like them. To be fair, at this point I hadn't actually seen the a single episode, I was purely judging the product before actually having seen it. We didn't get MTV in Canada at the time. Or if we did, it wasn't regular cable...and it was before that there internet contraption made watching every single thing ever made readily available for your viewing enjoyment.

In a fateful post-high school vacation to Florida, my two friends and I spent a large chunk of our get-away in my aunt and uncle's backyard pool. A backyard pool that just happened to have a TV nearby to it. So we got to be in the pool, eating amazing junky American food, while watching TV. They were good times indeed.

One beautiful sunny Florida afternoon, instead of doing something useful or vacation like, we were again in the pool. And on the aforementioned pool-side TV was a Beavis and Butt-Head marathon. On that day we watched a hell of a lot of Beavis and Butt-Head. And also on that day I fell in love with everything and anything Beavis and Butt-Head.

What people who never watched the show (like me) didn't know was that it was hands down smartest show on television. Really. Pure genius. Then I noticed that a lot of people who I thought were cool (David Letterman, Patrick Stewart) were also fans. It started getting more accolades and praise from legit media sources and not just those MTV slackers. Then a lot of people kind of realized that Mike Judge was a cartoon makin' genius. Or at least I think so.

Maybe the pinnacle of his animated genius is the one and only big screen adventure undertaken by the duo, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America. A grand adventure of two idiots on a quest to find their missing TV. There's an awesome dream sequence, nifty secret celebrity cameo's, a Rob Zombie hallucination segment, and an amazingly put together story (even more impressive 'cause it's a pair of characters who are usually in short episodes of which a big chunk is music video cut-aways).

I miss Beavis and Butt-Head. I wish for the day that Mike Judge returns to Beavis and Butt-Head. And I am ecstatic to see it on the big screen again for the first time since 1996.

Sunday Night Geek Nights presents Beavis and Butt-Head Do America at the Mayfair Theatre - Sunday June 20th at 9PM

I cannot tell a lie. I have absolutely no emotional connection to the GoBots and their fight against (or with?) the Rock Lords. None the less, I think the concept of showing bad Hanna Barbera style 80's Saturday morning animation up on the big screen a great thing.

GoBots being screened at the Mayfair came to fruition upon tying to get a hold of the Transformers animated movie (best death scene in a movie EVER!). It, alas, is unavailable. That lead me to jokingly ask 'Can we get the GoBots movie?' To which the Mayfair's head programmer said 'There's not a GoBots feature is there?'. And sadly enough, not only did it exist, but it was available. It's a strange backwards world.

So, although I haven't actually seen this movie, I can guarantee you this: It is better than a Michael Bay robot movie. Promise.

Sunday Night Geek Night:
GoBots Battle of the Rocklords - June 13th at 9pm at the Mayfair.
With upwards of NINE GoBots toys to give away, thanks to those fine geeks over at the Comic Book Shoppe

Another awesome event happens at the Mayfair this Saturday, a triple bill screening of the original (pre - Crystal Skull) Indiana Jones trilogy. Plus, thanks to our friends at Quinn's, you can sneak over to the adjoining Quinn's patio and get an Indy themed burger, or maybe try some eyeball soup.

As a true fanatical bonus to the event is a very special screening of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation (Friday the 11th & Saturday the 12th at 7pm). Learn all about the film over at the un-official Indy site: TheRaider.net

Having the adult animated comic book anthology Heavy Metal play at the Mayfair puts geeky Kodachrome memories of my high school youth back into my brain. I watched the film a number of times back in the long ago times of the late 80's to early 90's.

The comic magazine itself, was exploitative, filled with lots of sex and violence, outer space and monsters, a ton of imagination, and work from some of the greatest writers and artists around (what more could a 13 year old want from a publication!?).

The cartoon itself over-flows with legendary geeky talent. Featuring the work of producer Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters), writer Dan O'Bannon (Alien, Return of the Living Dead), comics legends Richard Corben, Bernie Wrightson and Moebius, and the voice talents of SCTV alums Eugene Levy, Harold Ramis and the late great John Candy.

Plus, in a local bit of film history, the project was partially animated in none other than Ottawa.

The very nice looking re-release print of Heavy Metal, on June 6th at 9:30, only at the Mayfair, only for Sunday Night Geek Night.

Oh...and we'll be giving away some swell DVD's thanks to our friends at the bestest video store around, Invisible Cinema.