Home, sick

I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon marveling at how cold it was in my office, hunched down in my hoodie and eventually feeling sore all over from tensing my muscles against shivering. By the time I got home, though, I realized I was actually feeling the aches and chills of Coming Down With Something, Dammit. Which would have been bummer enough, but I also had to take care of the little guy while his mother worked late ... and the little guy ended up getting sick all over himself shortly after I put him to bed. So I had to clean him up, change his pj's, strip and change the crib, find new blankets for him, all of which took so long with all the lights blazing that he just thought it was time to get up and play again. Much, much later, I got him back in bed (and, eventually, to sleep). It really sucked the rest of the wind out of my sails, though, so I was under Dr. Wifey's orders not to even think about going to work today.

(Another consideration was that we're not supposed to send the little guy to daycare for 24 hours after a vomiting episode, so one of us would have to stay home with him anyway. He seems absolutely fine, for what it's worth. I don't think he has the same bug I do, and more likely he may have just swallowed a little too much snot, or possibly gagged on some, to bring up his dinner. Pleasant, I know. But, again, the point: he's fine.)

(Also, BTW? Not to jinx it or anything but he's actually been sleeping all the way through the night again. Like, five nights in a row now. Which made the cookie-tossing interruption last night all the more of a grief, but on the bright side it happened at 7:45 and not 2:15.)

So I've been hanging around the house in pj's myself all day and feeling much better; no doubt I will return to the office tomorrow, but it will already be Thursday so that seems tolerable. While the little guy napped today I finally got around to watching the DVD of The Warriors that I Netflixed back in September. (Hoorah for no late fees!)


Ah, The Warriors, surely one of 1979's top five gems of cultural infamy. It seems like one of those movies that everyone has heard of and knows a little bit about ("CAN ... YOU ... DIG ... IT!" or "Warriorrrrs ... come out to plaaayyy-aayyy!") but very few people have actually seen. It got a big push for its 25th anniversary (DVD release, new video game) and there have been rumors of a remake for a while, but it remains a cult classic with a very small cult. Of which I am now a cultist, I suppose.

I really was open to allowing The Warriors to become my new favorite movie, but sadly, that didn't happen. It's a fun movie, and has a lot of great moments, and its sensibilities are so inline with mine that if it didn't exist I would be on the verge of creating it myself. I guess I'm just spoiled by 21st century blockbusters, and the interminable parts of The Warriors that slow down almost to a stop border on the unforgivable, while the gloriously batshit insane action setpieces ... look like they're from a film from 1979. With a budget of about $50K. That's a really unfair way to judge a movie, though, so I'm trying to keep the context in mind and respect what the movie does right. It starts really strong, creating this crazy comic-book inspired New York City of the near future. (I love New York, love comics, please don't ask me to choose which I love more.) I can't quite decide if a major metropolis essentially ruled by night by tribal gangs who all wear color-coded theme costumes (and sometimes facepaint) would be the awesomest of all possible worlds, or the most terrifying. Probably both. When the gang in spangly purple vests and matching pimp fedoras walked through the subway station, the movie had me. Then, as it dragged on, it lost me. Then, for the penultimate fight scene, it had me back. And then, when the movie reached a conclusion which was narratively satisfying but viscerally completely wrong, I was disappointed. I would watch it again with someone who has never seen it, but I most likely wouldn't watch it just for myself.

But would I go see a remake? Depends on what they did with it, probably. I did find myself thinking that the action scenes would be improved with a modern translation, and that basically the underlying ideas are good even if the execution is a bit cheap and dated. (And frankly, if they just got The Rock to play Cyrus I think they'd be halfway to genius right there.) Then I think about how horribly they fucked up the Rollerball remake and I kind of hope they just leave The Warriors alone.