Roadhouse: you may think that this meme jumped the shark when Family Guy devoted half of an episode to mocking the 1989 Patrick Swayze action flick. Yeah, well, there's still some life left in the dang thing. Road House: The Play proves it.

Uhhhhh.....that totally wasn't a riff on the untimely passing of "The Swayze" last fall, I swear.

The movie transitions to the stage pretty well and the local cast does a great job of capturing the goofy spirit of the source material. It isn't an outright parody, although Portland Mercury editor Wm. Stephen Humphrey does play the part of Carrie, the sex-starved bartendress. And a guitarist on the side of the stage plays "She's Like the Wind" twice. And the actor playing Dalton hams up the tai chi scene. And the narrator gets it on with Wade at one point. And....all right, fine. It's a parody.

Anyway, it's a fantastic production, even if the cast resorts to using a panda bear costume for the *polar* bear scene. Yeah, yeah, we fans can be total asshole sticklers about these sort of details.

Road House: The Play will be back on stage at the Someday Lounge tonight and tomorrow night. Details and more can be found over here.

Labels: Swayze, theater

I thought the "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" thing started, maybe, in the late '90s. Now Wikipedia tells me the infamous "street art campaign" began way back in 1986. Over the past few years, numerous rip-offs and homages have popped up around Portland and the world. I spotted this one featuring Patrick Swayze outside the sushi-go-round on NW 23rd last Sunday. There's also a t-shirt currently on Threadless to go with it.

Like any casual fan of his '80s and early '90s ouvere I'm pulling for the guy as he battles his way through cancer. As either a showing of support or a reason to get together, a few friends and I gathered for a Swayze Film Festival over the weekend. We only managed to get 1/3 of the way through Dirty Dancing (that thing has not aged well) but I'm happy to report that Red Dawn, Road House and Point Break were all well received. I'm convinced that last one is at least the 42nd best movie of all time and the 3rd best partially filmed in Oregon. Point Break's climatic "50 year storm" scene wasn't shot in Australia. Wheeler and Ecola State Park filled in for the land down under.

Lay off the cigarettes, will 'ya, Mr. Swayze? Those things won't help you put cancer in Baby's old spot in the corner. Get healthy, man. Some of us are still holding out for a Point Break sequel.

Labels: movies, Swayze