Last Week In Chris: 5.26.26

In Memoriam

Remembering a damn fine Memorial Day weekend

Mando Lorean sighting, Alamo Drafthouse Village

You can’t spell M-O-V-I-E without T-V. I went to see “The Mandalorian and Grogu” on opening night. I was a lot less hyped to watch it than the guy above was, for sure. Despite my lack of enthusiasm, I will rarely pass up an opportunity to eat mozzarella cheese sticks inside a movie theater.

The Mando movie was essentially a two-part episode, which was what I was fearing. While I liked how it opened with an action sequence, the whole thing was lacking in the awe department. The film just looked cheap, like it was made with Disney+ money. There was basically no reason for a theatrical release other than Kathleen Kennedy’s complete and total lack of imagination. 

If I’m being honest, I enjoyed the series when it originally aired, but “Andor” changed the game. Watching that show could, at times, be a visceral experience. This flick was, in a word, fine. Regardless of how you felt about “Rogue One,” that movie had stakes. It also had satisfying fan service, a.k.a the Darth Vader-on-meth fight scene at the end. This movie had…Zeb.

Don't worry, though, I saw a real spectacle when I left the theater: a post-sunset double rainbow over Burnet Road. 

“Country” art that didn't, for once, look like something from the Cracker Barrel gift shop. Thinking it was going to rain all weekend, I decided to take Friday off and drive the TT out to Marble Falls. 

The reason: a contemporary art “museum” had recently opened, and the inaugural exhibit had THREE pieces by Ed Ruscha. It turned out they were prints, but still. The theme of the show, Words Matter, resonated with me for obvious reasons. Each piece contained a word or two, a few sentences, or entire stories (except for three photos that had no words at all — just blank spaces on derelict billboards).

Arthouse is really more of a gallery space, albeit a fancy-schmancy one designed by regional starchitects Lake | Flato. While over half of the names on display were new to me, the exhibit did include heavy hitters like Faith Ringgold and Robert Rauschenberg. Interestingly enough, the drawings by singer-songwriter Terry Allen were among my favorites. Two featured captivating stories of disappointed women.

It was slow at Arthouse around 2 p.m. on Friday. So slow that I got a personal mini tour from the founder, Mickey Klein. A docent later told me Mickey made millions and millions of dollars in oil and gas up in Midland. I would’ve never known it, as he was one of the most down-to-Earth old-time Texans I’ve ever met. But that didn’t stop him from saying, “He’s a friend of mine,” whenever I mentioned art-world luminaries like photographer Stephen Shore. 

Speaking of photography, that’s going to be the next exhibit, sometime in the fall (likely October, from what I was told). Then, Japanese ceramics will follow. Apparently, it’s all stuff Mickey and his wife Jeanne have collected over the years. 

If Arthouse is all you’re going to Marble Falls for (like I was), the drive out there will be thrice-as-long as a walk through the collection. I stretched the trip out by lingering over a club sandwich and a slice of peanut butter pie at the nearby Blue Bonnet Cafe. The old-school diner, complete with a lunch counter, did not disappoint. The people-watching (and eavesdropping) was almost as satisfying as looking at the art. 

Live from Monroe…it’s Friday night! Did y’all happen to see the “secret show” Stephen Colbert taped a day after shutting down the Ed Sullivan Theatre? His finale on CBS was the very definition of “class act,” but I preferred the messiness of his hourlong guest hosting gig on public access TV’s “Only In Monroe.” I heard about it on Saturday afternoon, along with about half-a-million other people (judging from the counter on the video I watched).

Jack White served as Colbert’s musical director, and they gamely Lady-and-the-Tramped some local chili dogs. Actor Jeff Daniels dropped by for what I’m generously calling a cooking segment. And Eminem told Colbert to “Lose Yourself” (a.k.a. set the show’s set on fire). Colbert also interviewed the regular hosts of “Only In Monroe” while doing hits from helium-filled balloons — before he went straight to the tank. The whole affair reminded me of “Late Night with David Letterman,” circa 1985.

I guess he hosted the Michigan talk show once before in 2015 as a warm-up for his “Late Show” duties, but I missed it. I won’t say the two hours I spent watching both episodes were the best of the weekend, but they were some of the most amusing. 

Side note: When looking for a movie to watch after my Colbert consumption, I stumbled upon the 2001 HBO original movie “Conspiracy.” Kenneth Branagh, Colin Firth, and Stanley Tucci play Nazis debating The Final Solution. It has a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score, and for good reason.

Book club not booking it. My read-whatever-the-hell-you-want book club met on Sunday afternoon. We don’t officially take minutes, but I think it might have been our longest meeting ever. 3 p.m. to 5:30ish p.m. I reviewed the excellent “Nuclear War: A Scenario” by Annie Jacobsen, which was originally recommended to me by my friend Ashley. 

The principal reason we ran long was the lengthy side conversation we had about whether administrative idiocy could lead to the world ending in roughly an hour. People were incredulous, but over half probably voted for Trump (we meet in Williamson County, after all). We have a standing “no politics” rule, so I was doing gymnastics trying to talk about the Cheeto without talking about the Cheeto. These are the other books people talked about (and liked):

“Alone at the End of the World” by M.P. McDonald

“Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen

“DUNE: The Graphic Novel, Book 2” by Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson, Raúl Allén, and Patricia Martín

“Entitled: The Rise and Fall of the Duchess of York” by Andrew Lownie

“The Island of Sea Women” by Lisa See

“London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for the Truth” by Patrick Radden Keefe“Slaughterhouse Five: The Graphic Novel” by Kurt Vonnegut, Ryan North, and Albert Monteys

“Two Lives with You” by Lauren Ho

Rock Me, Amadeus It comes as no surprise to say I was a weird child. Case in point: I watched Milos Forman’s Academy-Award winning biopic “Amadeus” multiple times. So when I heard that Austin Film Society was showing a restored print, I decided to relive my misspent youth playing the violin and cello (and watching prestige cinema on HBO/VHS). 

Man, it was as good as I remembered. And it was a treat to see it on the big screen — with better speakers than the RCA tube television we had as a kid. I have no idea why the flick’s getting a re-release now. Perhaps it’s part of the marketing campaign for Jon Batiste’s forthcoming “Black Mozart?” IYKYK. Oh, while I was out, I book-ended the movie with a pretzel stop at Easy Tiger and a stroll through the Blue Genie May Market. Shockingly, I bought not a thing, though I was really tempted by this cat poster. I also wanted these breakfast food prints, but they were $750 each!!! For a print!!! I guess her client is the Mickey Klein-type.