This is Halloween

Nightmare Before Christmas is showing in 3D at the Castro Theatre, so Puppy and I caught a showing last night. I don't think I'd seen it in nearly a decade, so it was interesting to compare the movie to what I remembered.

Firstly, the movie did itself a disservice by showing 3D previews of other movies, including Alice in Wonderland, which I'm really excited about. The technology they used to 3D-ify Nightmare didn't compare to the new-fangled effects of movies to come.

Secondly, I don't remember all the singing! I knew there were songs, but there were many more than I remembered.

Thirdly, this man in front of us kept exposing his buttocks whenever he stood up because his sweatpants (Sweatpants! In public!) kept sliding off whenever he sat up. And he seemed to sit up a great deal.

I may not dress up, but I can still judge

Somehow, I was roped into serving as a judge for our office building's Halloween costume contest today. So, at the appointed time, I dutifully excused myself from a very long conference call ("I have another, ahem, meeting.") and made my way down to the building lobby.

I'm not sure why I didn't think of it, but I was only one of two judges who didn't dress up for the event! A Halloween scrooge, if you will.

In any case, there were only a few contestants this year, when apparently there were typically 20 entrants in any given previous year. I'm not sure we could blame the weaker turnout to the economy, but I'm sure it crossed several minds. We had a Rastafarian, Miss Piggy, a disgusting chef with rats all over him, Richard Simmons, Mario, a witch, a Mardi Gras witch, Marty McFly and a boy scout.

After careful deliberation, we gave first prize to the witch, second to grody chef, third to Miss Piggy and an honorable mention to Richard Simmons. Marty McFly was one of my personal favorites, thanks to the accuracy of his costume, but I appreciated all the effort that went into the witch's elaborate makeup. I think most of us included Richard Simmons in the count simply because the fellow showed up in embarrassingly short shorts and a tiny tank top.

Like the undead zombies in "Thriller"

Commuting on the F-Market the other night, our train passed a wall that was plastered with posters announcing Michael Jackson's posthumous movie, This Is It.

One of the passengers turned to two strangers and remarked, "There's a new Michael Jackson movie? What's it about?"

A friendly stranger replied, "It's a movie made from footage of Michael Jackson's concert rehearsals."

The inquisitive passenger then said, "Concert footage from before or after he died?"

Their conversation continued, but I couldn't hear it because I was giggling to myself, imagining movie producers filming MJ's corpse, being propped up and wheeled about to his greatest hits. Come to think of it, maybe no one would notice if that were indeed the case.

Carbo loading

Due to some cancellations, a journey on the F-Market and an unproductive trip to Radio Shack, Puppy and I ended up at $10 all-you-can-eat pizza last night. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I guess I envisioned a pizza buffet, like the ones advertised on Cici's commercials (By the way, what is a Cici's, where is my nearest location and how do they make these meal extravaganzas so cheap???).

Instead, we sat at a booth in a bare restaurant with a few tables filled with approximately six other overweight men and a poor waitress floated to each table, serving slices of pizza as they exited the oven.

In all, I probably had 1.5 smallish pizzas, but it was way more than I expected to eat, especially for a day where the gym didn't quite fit into my schedule.

All the single ladies

If you haven't been watching Cougar Town, let me introduce you to the best 1.5 minutes of television this season:

It's funny because it reminds me of my life!

Circus freak

On our way to the Mika concert on Saturday, Puppy and I got onto the muni with a lady who wore a fake beard. I'm not really sure why she wore it, but she didn't seem to be crazy other than the fact that she had fake facial hair on. I, on the other hand, was a bit puzzled and curious.

We are golden

Puppy and I made our way across the bay to see Mika in concert last night. The venue was intimate and interesting (gold buddha statues with scary glowing eyes) and packed with gays and girls.

The concert began with Mika's bandmates watching television - something about a space journey gone wrong. And Mika walked across the stage in a spacesuit before ripping it off and exposing himself before changing into a stripey-checkerboard suit for the opening song, "Relax."

It was s short, but really energetic and fun concert. Despite having broken himself the night before, Mika managed to dance and jump around in a bejeweled air cast and encouraged the audience to do the same. For "Love Today," he had everyone closing their eyes and jumping up and down, which was pretty neat.

I also especially enjoyed his backup singer who was this lovely Asian lady with a shock of bright pink hair. Her shimmying around was fun and made me covet her job.