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Well, I'd hoped to see HPDHI at midnight, but work seems to have other claims on me; so be it. Enjoy, all. More happily, as I was laaving piano bar last night, the pianist called out, "Fred- you need to hear this." I often request Tori Amos songs; now, he tore into "Precious Things," making it an unforgettable cry of rage.

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Happy anniversary, Calvin and Hobbes- first published 25 years ago today.

Oh, LORD...

From the top-linked article below:

Warner Brothers Pictures reportedly wants Robert Zemeckis to direct a remake of The Wizard of Oz ... and the studio already has a script ready to go.

According to Deadline, the studio wants Zemeckis to get behind the camera for a live-action remake of the 1939 classic—using the script from the original film. Warner Brothers owns the screenplay as a result of buying Ted Turner's media company, which in turn had bought it as part of the MGM library. A total of 19 writers worked on the original script, many of them without credit, to hammer it into the beloved masterpiece we all know.

So why the rush? Well, Disney and Sam Raimi are developing a prequel called Oz the Great and Powerful, with Robert Downey Jr. attached to star, and there have been at least two other adaptations of the source novel announced in recent months (Does anyone know if John Boorman’s CGI Wizard is still happening?). It seems like using the original script is the quickest route for Warner Brothers to get its own Oz movie out there.

Zemeckis, whose credits include Back to the Future and Contact, is in early talks with the studio, and there's no telling whether he'll take the job or not. He's currently working on a remake of his own, a new animated version of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine that is due to come out in 2012.

Today, Novemeber 18th...

...A Christmas Story was released in 1983.

...Calvin and Hobbes premiered in 1985.

...Alan Moore was born in 1953.

...Sir W. S. Gilbert was born in 1836.

...William Tell allegedly shot an apple off of his son’s head ("Ow!”) in 1307.

...but most of all, my friend roadnotes was born on this day. Happy birthday, V!

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Via rm: The fate of many movie palaces: to wind up as chain stores. More disheartening than I can say; this makes me think of Follies. When I go home, I'm going to close my eyes, and think about the Embassy Theater in Wellington, with its stained glass windows and piano in the upstairs lounge (and upstairs lounge, come to that).

Nicole Claden, 24, who lives in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, said she was glad the Chopin Theater had become a Starbucks. “I’m terrified of movie theaters these days because people are getting bedbugs in them,” she said. “I also like pumpkin spice lattes.”

But Sarah Schilling, 78, lamented the loss of her local cinema on the Upper East Side to yet another Duane Reade. “You get so used to things changing all the time we don’t remember — and that’s a waste.”