They Live... Tonight!

By brynna

Monday January 21, 2008

A while back we had an idea to get together once a week and shoot the shit. Since eating spaghetti in our editor’s living room didn’t provide too many opportunities for self promotion, we decided to do a free movie night for all every Monday instead. Though the Chinese at the Astoria is probably less appetizing than a pot of Ragu, we heard that their audio/visual equipment sends subliminal messages to attractive audience members encouraging them to have sex with event organizers. We’ve been testing our theory every Tuesday night there since October, and lets just say there have been more than a few mornings we’ve had to stand on the bus.

First up we’re showing John Carpenter’s They Live. This was one of the first popular films to criticize increasing corporatization and material fetishism in neoconservative 1980s America. We really enjoy films that provide important social commentary and poignant political criticism. We also like shitty eighties movies with aliens and magical sunglasses. This movie is so bad that Carpenter didn’t even admit to writing it, instead used a pseudonym – when the best line of the film is “I came here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubble gum,” you can see why. Regardless, this movie has all the awesome it should: homeless people with guns, mutant yuppies, WWF wrestler Roddy Piper playing the lead, a six minute alley fight, cheap religious allegory and lots of really fake looking stunts and explosions. Actually, now that we think about it this film kind of reads like one and a half hours of Stanley Cup Riot footage.

So why’d we choose it? For one thing, the plot is so fucked up and nonsensical that you’re not going to miss anything running to the bar for another pitcher or shooting a round of pool. Also, last month one of us bought a pair of Raybans but they really suuuuuucked, so we sent them back with a mean letter and the company sent us a big cardboard box of new ones for the whole Only staff! We really like them, except they make us see in black and white and since wearing them we’ve stopped buying Starbucks. Weird. Oh well, at least we don’t want to fuck DJs anymore…

They Live will begin at 9:00pm sharp.