Drew Barrymore and Justin Long Grope Each Other in Going the Distance

As big of a movie fan as I admit to being, generally speaking, I would much prefer to have my eyes gouged out with a hot poker than sit through a Romantic Comedy. Because contrary to popular belief, the lowest form of humor is not the pun, it is the romantic comedy: which is almost without exception neither romantic nor funny. So, when I made the decision to attend a screening last evening of the new Drew Barrymore flick, Going The Distance, I was hedging bets that I’d find it irredeemably heinous: especially based on the commercials which make this film seem like viewing it would be only slightly more fun than root canal therapy. But, surprise! I was wrong: Going the Distance is awesome!

As the title suggests by its not-that-clever play on words, Going the Distance is about two people living on opposite coasts trying to make a long distance relationship work. Erin (Barrymore) is a San Francisco-based writer doing a summer internship at a NYC newspaper when she meets the recently dumped record label A&R guy, Garrett (played Justin Long) in a bar. After one of the more fun one night stands you could possibly hope to have, Erin and Garrett agree to spend the remainder of her internship – six weeks – hanging out and hooking up until she has to return to her home in California. Of course, as she’s about to board her plane back to the west coast, they decide they like each other too much to call it quits and commit to a period of flying back and forth to visit each other and “see where this thing goes,” as they say.

Besides being unbelievably funny, Going the Distance is also kind of hot and sexy. When they are not cracking jokes or saying very clever things to each other and those around them, Erin and Garrett are either making out or boning each other almost constantly. Few will deny that Barrymore and Long (whom I’ve had a crush on since he started appearing in Apple’s Mac Versus PC commercials) are an attractive couple with great on-screen chemistry (I believe they are also a couple in real life, and it they aren’t they should be) so if you enjoy watching horny young people maul each other, you will be able to buy into the veracity of this well-worn plot. I’d also bet that if you see this movie with a date, I don’t know how you could possibly not get laid afterwards. Excellent supporting roles are all over this thing, including Christina Applegate’s outstanding turn as Erin’s sister Corinne (watch for the line “Maya! Statue!” to become a buzz phrase any second now), comedian Jim Gaffigan (King Baby) as Corinne’s husband Phil, and Jason Sudeikis (SNL) and Charlie Day as Garrett’s hilarious best friends, Box and Dan.  As much as I think that romantic comedies are retarded bullshit that have about as much grounding in reality as Lord Of The Rings, this film kept me engaged and laughing hard enough to suspend my disbelief and enjoy myself for 96 minutes. That’s all you can ask of any movie, really.

The Worley Gig Gives Going the Distance Four out of Five Stars.

Dear Editor,

I have always wanted to work for someone young enough to be my kid.
Now’s my chance. I did this already for some nit-wit at **** ****
Magazine, but I figure you at least know who The Beatles are, so I might
have a better shot here. And your Twitter posts indicate that you do
enjoy an adult beverage now and then, so if nothing else, we can get
smashed together. So just hire me. I really hate it here.

Hey, Free Admission! (Image Source)

A couple of weeks ago, Worleygig.com was honored with an exclusive invitation to join a cool new web-ring of blogs created by one of our very favorite websites, Neatorama Dot Com. The NeatoHub, as it’s called, circulates high-quality blog posts from a select group of sites around the globe via the widget you’ll see posted along the lower, right-hand margin of The Gig’s home page. You’ll also see a listing of NeatoHub posts when you click to comment on or view a full individual post. It’s a pretty cool project, and I’m very honored to be part of it. Please check it out by clicking on some of these guest posts, which in turn will generate traffic to Worleygig.com. Thanks to Neatorama for the opportunity to bring the Rad Blog to a wider audience, while also enriching our readers’ experience with fun new blog posts!

On This Date in 1967: The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein died of a sleeping pill overdose. News of Epstein’s death reached The Beatles while they were on their now infamous retreat with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The back story of Brian Epstein’s life while he worked with The Beatles is actually pretty intriguing and crazy and obsessive and all that good stuff. I recommend checking out the book The Love You Make by Beatles’ camp insiders Peter Brown and Steven Gaines for lots of good dirt on Epstein and the whole band. The book gets a bad rap for being such a sordid tell-all, but you know what they say, “they wouldn’t print it if it wasn’t true.”

When I first laid my baby blues on Miss Mary Jane, a limited edition, resin figure designed by artist Paige “Paigey” Pumphrey and manufactured by Patch Together, I thought I was looking at a little alien pixy with a massive broccoli floweret for hair. But closer investigation revealed what should have been obvious from the start: Mary Jane’s hair is huge bud of pot, duh. Furthermore, her adorable hooded jumpsuit is actually a Ziplock baggie, how appropriate! Miss Mary Jane is 8-inches tall when fully assembled (some gluing is involved) and sells for $59.95. While they currently appear to be sold out, you can request a re-stock at This Link.

Mysteriously: Still Gets Women 

Kiss bassist Gene Simmon$ celebrates his 61^st Birthday today with Virgin sacrifices and rolling around in big piles of cash.

On This Date in 1977:  Stiff Records’ artist Wreckless Eric released his debut single, “Whole Wide World.” Ian Dury (RIP) played drums on the record and Nick Lowe played bass.

Thanks to The P5 Blogspot for the Tip!

All I want to know is, how do you put one of these things on?

Thanks to Neatorama For The Tip!

The late Who drummer, Keith Moon, would have celebrated his 64th Birthday today. RIP, Keith.