AAARGH!

After spending a fair amount of time updating about my cultural excursions since Friday, Internet Explorer crashed. In the interest of time (and, admittedly, not feeling like writing that much a second time), I'm going to catch up using short bullet items:

• The Cramps rocked well on Friday night. Posion Ivy hasn't lost a step on her git-box prowess, and Lux Interior had more of a punk attitude than I've seen from him before. It could have been the fact that the Crystal Ballroom was totally non-air-conditioned on a day that had reached the higher 90s in Portland.

• The final Pour Babies long-form improv show was terrific. The entire cast was "on." The audience-suggested title was "The Dentist of Doom," and fellow ComedySportz member Sam Super was hilarious as a self-extracted, singing, dancing, heroic tooth.

• I still prefer the original "Bob le Flambeur" (one of my 15 favorite films of all time), but Neil Jordan's remake, "The Good Thief," did a nice job of updating the story while keeping in spirit with the original. Nick Nolte's Bob Montagné had a few more personal and professional demons than did Roger Duchesne's original character, but hey, times have changed in the heist/caper world since 1955. Bonus: Leonard Cohen's wonderful song "A Thousand Kisses Deep" is used twice in the soundtrack. Seek out the original "Bob le Flambeur" to see how stylish films can have substance, too, and also to become an instant Isabelle Corey fan. You have been given fair notice.

• Rob Zombie's directorial debut, "House of 1000 Corpses," left me wanting less --- unfortunately, there is more; about 17 minutes were cut between its film festival premiere and U.S. distribution version. The gore and sadism were unrelenting, with nary a well-developed (or in this case, even halfway-developed) hero or heroine character in sight. So where's the suspense when the audience has no one to root for? Also, rather than being content with subtle nods to his obviously diverse mental catalogue of filmic influences, Zombie pretty much blatantly rips off a lot of already clichéd --- or at least extremely obvious --- "greatest hits" horror movie moments, making this mess more hodgepodge than homage.