So last night I went to see the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie, There Will Be Blood, at the Union Square theater. Me and the BSB are running late, so we book it into the theater about 20 minutes before it starts. Lucky for us, they just let everyone in so we are able to get good seats.

So the movie is effing long, ok? It’s like 2 1/2 hours long, and my phone goes off RIGHT in the middle of this intense quiet scene. Yup, I was that person. But what I realized was that the movie is SO long that the theater didn’t have time to play that 30 second clip of the dancing popcorn telling you to shut your cell phone off–and since I was so rushed, I totally forgot, AND I had my phone on silent the whole day long, but I must’ve put it on ring when I was trying to locate the BSB, so I would here it if it went off. I promise you, I’m NEVER that person who leave their phone on during the movie.

(The trailer for Funny Games starring Michael Pitt, Tim Roth, and Naomi Watts look AWESOME btw.)

Anyway, so I’m the really annoying person who has their phone go off in the middle of the movie, and my ringtone is “Move Along” by the All-American Rejects, so I’m pretty much mortified. So as I’m desperately scrambling to turn my phone off, the woman next to me is like “UUggghhH!!!!,” and she makes this loud annoyed sound.

So I finally fish my phone out and stop the ringing (This is all happening in a number of seconds, it’s not like I’m letting my phone ring for minutes.) But now I’m holding my phone in my hand b/c my phone also makes ANOTHER noise when you want to turn the ringer off so I’m waiting for some noise so i can turn the ringer off. Then I finally just press it after a minute or two and it makes this little beep and the woman is like “CAN YOU SHUT THAT THING OFF, DAMNIT?” So I’m like, “I AM turning it off,” in this low, but enraged whisper.

What do you think she thought I was going to do instead of turning the phone off? Was I going to start making phone calls in the middle of the theater? Was this movie capable of curing cancer and by me making a tiny beep, I’ve denying the world the cure to a horrible disease? Seriously, WHAT was the point of her saying that, other than to be a b-tch?

I was so angry at her I felt like taking my cell phone and clocking her over the head with it. THERE WILL, BE BLOOOOOOOD!

I just had to get that off my chest. It only goes to show you, dancing popcorn warning you about cell phones going off IS actually effective.

Oh and the movie? I thought it was good, not as *amazing* as all the critics are making it out to be, but I loved that Paul Dano was in it–I was scared he’d get pigeon-holed after Little Miss Sunshine. The bits about how oil is dug were interesting, and the soundtrack by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood was BRILLIANT, but I think the movie is a little bit too long. All in all worth seeing, but no need to run. It’s basically Gangs of New York: The West Coast Years, but Daniel Day Lewis is still pretty good and the vision of the wild frontier of America is pretty awesome.

I also saw one of my favorite singer-songwriters there at the showing. Interested to hear which one you think it was…

Around 4:30 PM today I got the best email ever–and email informing me that Michael Pitt‘s band Pagoda would be playing with Aloke at Pianos for the first 4 Wednesdays in June–starting today. Who knew that Michael Pitt even had a band?!?! I quickly dashed off frantic emails to anyone I thought would be remotely interested in seeing Pitt (best known for his roles in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, “Dawson’s Creek,” and the upcoming Gus Van Sant movie more than loosely based on the life of Kurt Cobain–Last Days) take on the dubious title of actor-slash-rock star. The prospect of being treated to a delightfully stomach-turning performance (remember Keanu Reeves in Dogstar or Russell Crowe in 30 Odd Foot of Grunts?) was an opportunity I just couldn’t refuse.

Surprisingly enough, Pagoda wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting them to be. In fact, they were actually kinda good–for a rip-off Nirvana band. Pitt was at his best when he was letting loose and passionately screaming whatever he was saying into the microphone. There were some good riffs going on, and the songs were listenable. Actually, better than just “listenable.” Some of them might have been a bit good. Being at that show was like being time warped into the early 90s in Seattle. There were people banging their heads in the front of the crowd and the bassist looked like he hadn’t changed clothes since 1992 as he wore his sleeveless tshirt and let his long blond hair flick around. Pitt sported a hole-y dark colored tee with ripped black jeans and a sea foam green Fender guitar. The drummer, apparently a dude named Ryan, had loads of friends in the audience (indicated to me by their screaming of “Ryan! Ryan!”). It was all kinds of awesome on many different levels of both good and bad taste. But perhaps I’m just being blindsided by the fact that I absolutely adore everything that Michael Pitt touches for some unexplained reason. To me, Michael Pitt is to acting as Ryan Adams is to music. I suppose if Ryan Adams decided to professionally act, I’d feel the same way about it as I do about Michael Pitt’s musical career: I love it even if it isn’t the best.

Much to the chagrin of Kiran, there were no Ryan Gossling sightings, nor were there any Asia Argento, Lukas Haas, Gus Van Sant, John Cameron Mitchell, JT Leroy spottings either. If they were there, I wasn’t clever enough to spot them. I did however remember seeing a skinny girl much like the one in this picture up front dancing her heart out.

You can find some Michael Pitt solo/Pagoda MP3s by following the links in this thread.

Remember–you have THREE MORE WEDNESDAYS TO STALK MICHAEL PITT ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE. See you there.

I just saw Michael Pitt outside my apartment for the last time this year. He was wearing some black knit hat and a tan coat w/ black pants? And of course… lighting up a ciggy.

I was going through some really old magazines from 1999 and found this picture of Michael Pitt in some play at NYTW called The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek

6am today there was scheduling drama. I’m not sure if it’s resolved, but I sure as hell didn’t go into work today.

Oh, I forgot to mention- In the “Where is Michael Pitt” category… from Friday….Mitchell Fink (who took AGES to write back to me last month… it was very funny. You had to be there) reports on the Douglas McGrath “Nicholas Nickleby” adaption read at the New York Culture Project on Bleecker St. last Tuesday… “Michael Pitt, who is best known for his recurring role as Henry on “Dawson’s Creek,” read the Nickleby part at McGrath’s presentation. There is no production timetable as yet.” Other weirdos reading that night were: Gwyneth Paltrow, Nathan Lane, Tim Curry, Natalie,and Alan Cumming.

You know what also made me laugh today? Nick mentioning that I love limeys. I started to think about it… then I looked at all my journal entries, and I guess I *do* like them. Now I had to ask myself… “Qu’est-ce que c’est un ‘limey’?” I’ve used the word before, but I had no idea that it ONLY refers to ENGLISH people or people of English descent.

So I guess only Coldplay really counts as being limeys. Although Guy is actually Scottish, not British.. oh my god- and I totally forgot- JONNY IS WELSH!!! JON IS WELSH!!! JJ72 are Irish, The Strokes are American, Ronan Keating is Irish too, Travis is Scottish…. although Starsailor are English too…. In any case, I’m going to have to use the word more often.

I got my Michael Pitt fix on the TV today. Finding Forester was on.

Some stimulating discussion about boobies on The Bad Samaritan. Fake boobies, real boobies, Britney’s boobies, etc.

As part of a continuation with last week’s “London Week,” I love the constant Oxford Street mentions of Bulletproofpunk.