Place: Texas Roadhouse
Lunch...no, Dinner: 10oz Ft. Worth Ribeye, chili, rice, Rattlesnake Bites, bread, Coke
Every once in awhile you get the right server and the right guy making the steaks and everything is just perfect here. This is one of those nights. Nice.
John Hughes died today, and I felt like waxing philosophical, so it's a rare dinnertime post.
His signature accomplishment will always be "The Breakfast Club". He wrote it. He directed it. He was also responsible for the only other movie you'll remember Molly Ringwald for..."Sixteen Candles".
He was a writer for a couple dozen other things you'd recognize...the "Vacation" movies, the "Home Alone" movies, the "Beethoven" movies, "Pretty in Pink", "Weird Science", "Planes, Trains & Automobiles", amongst others.
So I was a bit surprised to discover I don't own a single one of his movies. In fact, I haven't seen a single thing he's been involved in the past twenty years. In fact, I'm pretty sure it's been at least that long since I've sat down to watch ANY of his movies.
I saw "The Breakfast Club" on TV after it had left its mark on teens and just-past-teens everywhere. I recognize the greatness of it. In its own little way, it was a masterpiece. Still...watched it once, that was enough. I remember when St Elmo's Fire came out, people who knew I'd seen it would ask me "Is it like "The Breakfast Club?" Not because of John Hughes, who had nothing to do with it (it was a Joel Schumacher turd)...but because some of the "Breakfast Club" stars were in it. I couldn't reply, because I hadn't seen "The Breakfast Club" by then.
I saw "Some Kind of Wonderful" largely because of Mary Stuart Masterson. Masterson and her character "Watts" reminded me of Ginger, a girl who was my best friend for about five minutes of my childhood before she got better sense and walked away. People do that with me. A lot. This is why I will never let my cats outside. "Help us! We need a better human!"
I saw "Pretty in Pink". Can't remember a second of it.
If you were to peg me down to a John Hughes favorite, it would have to be "Sixteen Candles". I may have even had a VHS copy of that one for awhile. Upon reflection, Sixteen Candles was more like a light Kevin Smith movie. Maybe I'm just remembering it wrong.
Hughes used to talk about a sequel to "The Breakfast Club" if he could 'just find an excuse to bring that group of people into the same room again'. I thought the 20th high school reunion would be a fascinating study to see how those characters turned out.
I wonder if they'll all be at the funeral.
