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Cake day: May 6th, 2026

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  • I spent a summer in college working in a piano store. It was totally empty 90% of the time, and my job consisted mostly of keeping it from burning down until people came in for piano lessons after school.

    They were the local Bosendorfer dealer, so I had lots of time to play a full size concert grand all summer, the one with the 8 extra low keys at the bottom. It was such a smooth playing instrument, that it nearly ruined me for all other pianos. After playing that Bosendoerfer, a mere $50,000 piano felt like a toy.










  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafetomemes@lemmy.worldMovies
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    5 days ago

    Waterworld was a flop that got a reappraisal, and is now considered a pretty cool movie. It was really a victim of a critical wall that was against it from the start. That happens with some movies.

    Babylon is another. That’s going to get a reappraisal at some point, and become a cult classic.

    Showgirls is going through a reappraisal, and people are starting to see it differently. It was a Paul Verhoeven movie, of course it was great.




  • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.cafetomemes@lemmy.worldMovies
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    5 days ago

    Why does everything have to be a huge production? Paranormal Activity was an effective horror movie, on a budget of $55K. Most of that went to the main characters computer rig, and hardwood floors for the director’s house, where they shot the film.

    That’s an extreme example, but there is no reason they can’t shoot an original idea on a moderate budget, and in fact, they do it ALL the time. The idea that everything is a remake or a reboot is an exaggeration. Look at all the streaming platforms, filled with original material, and begging for more. Obviously, original screenplays are getting shot every day.


  • A buddy and me were the first in our circle to get an apartment after college, so we became the meeting place. It wasn’t a party house, we drank beer, and smoked weed, but it was calm and quiet, and the old folks below us never complained. They were frequent visitors, as a matter of fact.

    People would start showing up around 8. My buddy and I managed different record stores, and we were into all sorts of music, and we had ALL the latest promo recordings, so usually we had a ball game on the TV with no sound (for our buddy Mark, who loved sports), while we listened to music, smoked, and talked. There were usually a dozen people, guys and girls, all ages, right up to old folks downstairs, sometimes. He’d had a stroke, and he could understand everything, but couldn’t converse, beyond random curse words, which he would deliver with either exasperation or disbelief, which we all thought was hilarious, and so did he and his wife.

    At 11:30, we’d watch Johnny Carson’s monologue on the TV, and at midnight wed switch it over to two episodes of Twilight Zone. After that, everybody went home.

    That was our ritual about 3-4 nights a week for a couple of years, until everybody started to scatter as they found jobs in different places. We’d go out now and then, but only because we weren’t going to meet any new girls hanging around our apartment. Going out often meant moving the party to someone else’s place for the night.

    We couldn’t afford to go out to party much, but we always had a better time at home with our friends, especially since there were no threats of judgemental parents, RAs, etc. Our first real taste of true adult freedom was sweet enough to keep us happy.