Thursday, July 31, 2008

Au cinéma!

Coming from the wilds of Vermont, I don't have a lot of celebrity sightings to my name. I won't lead you on: this post isn't about Britney Spears crashing Beloit, although this isn't a bad story either.

Last year at this time, I spent a weekend in Chicago with my friend Karen '10 (a Chi native & Midwestern enthusiast). After dinner downtown, we got a little turned around and wandered onto a deserted street. It was the middle of the afternoon on a Saturday and the road was littered with broken glass and trucks with shot out windows. After a couple minutes, we started seeing trailers and food carts. Walking through the scene was even fun once we realized the bazooka-sized holes in the cop cars were just part of the movie magic. We had no idea what was being filmed at the time and I've been on the look-out ever since. Fortunately, Karen and I took a snapped a couple photos on our adventure. The most memorable was this semi:

Reads: "Slaughter is the best medicine."

Those of you who have recently seen "The Dark Knight" will recognize this as the vehicle Heath Ledger's Joker takes during the street chase. Yes, Karen and I wandered onto the Batman set.

I don't go to the movies all that often, but when Shelley '09 called on Sunday night, I decided it would be worth $8 to see the late Mr. Ledger totter around in candy striper outfit. When the temperature stays above 75 (F) after sunset, there are few places I would rather be than a cool, dark movie theater. As for our choice of film, I'm glad I saw it up on the big screen. The Joker did not disappoint and I finally ID-ed the set from last summer.

In current events, Sports Camps has arrived and campus is infested with children. Professors are showing up en masse. New Student Days are drawing near. By next week, this blog will be turned back over to academic goals and big plans. It's that time again...