So I broke my normal Monday night routine of being a pathetic waste of couch-goo last night and went out with a couple friends (some old, some new) for the good ol’ standby dinner-and-a-movie. Dinner at the Bridgetown Grill (try the jerk chicken sandwich and don’t try to eat the little green pepper slices they give you in one bite), followed by Batman Begins at the Fox Theatre. I mean, the Fabulous Fox Theatre. Any theatre with an Arabian-landscape curtain, a glorious nightscape of stars painted on its ceiling, and bathrooms one could easily get lost in and it must be regarded as “fabulous”. Of course, this is Midtown and “fabulous” no doubt gets tossed around quite regularly around here. If you know what I mean.

Anyway, I hadn’t been to the Fox since I saw Pearl Jam there on their Vs. tour back in… eh… a while ago, and I forgot what a cool vibe the place gives off. We joined the organ player in rousing singalongs of old classics like “Georgia On My Mind”, “Take Me Out To the Ballgame” (second line, “take me out to the park“? Eh?) and a splendidly delightful medley of “Gin And Juice”, “(Ain’t No Fun) If Tha Homies Can’t Have None”, and “California Love”. We reveled in the timeless antics of Woody Woodpecker (there should be a law that every film is preceded by a cartoon).

The movie itself was really good - I’m not a huge Batman fan (I was more of a G.I. Joe/Transformers guy back in the day), but the whole backstory was really well laid-out, and was my favorite part of the movie. The movie (not just this one, but most of this genre) got bogged down with the introduction of the villain’s nefarious plot to throw Gotham into riotous chaos. I guess because the bad guys could’ve easily just bought a nuclear weapon with a lot less trouble than what he actually did. Nevertheless a great movie.

And great company.

DAve