Pamela Gordon in The Dogwalker, opening on Friday

CHECK IT OUT.

Okay, so I know that for the last three months or so, I've been, like, "Snakes on a Plane this" and "Snakes on a Plane that," or, maybe I haven't really talked about the movie very much on my blog, but I've definitely been anticipating the hell out of it and talking about it a lot IRL (in real life) (erik, if you're going to go ahead and explain that "IRL" means "in real life" then why don't you just say "in real life" in the first place?) (because I didn't, okay) (anyway) (now I'm talking to myself) (do you ever think about your sanity and how fragile it might be?) (whenever i see some obviously crazy person walking down the street gesticulating wildly and talking to themselves, I wonder if that person was a non-crazy one day and then something snapped and the next day they were crazy?) (and then i worry that maybe i'll just snap like that one of these days) (but then i remind myself that crazy people never think they're crazy so i take solace in the very fact that i'm questioning my sanity and its fragility) (what the fuck am i even talking about right now?) (i guess i've just been thinking a lot about this rollercoaster we call life [oh my god i can't believe i just typed the phrase "this rollercoaster we call life"] [that's the worst phrase in the history of this paragraph] and the subjectivity of sanity) (now i can't believe i just typed the phrase "the subjectivity of sanity") (these parantheticals are really having their way with me tonight) (sorry) (I WAS FUCKING TALKING ABOUT SNAKES ON A MUTHAFUCKING PLANE) (which I haven't seen yet, despite the fact that I've been hyping it for what feels like hundreds of weeks) and I actually went to the movies over the weekend, but instead of seeing Snakes (and instead of seeing Step Up, which i'm also PSYCHED to see) (and also instead of seeing Material Girls, which looks kinda awesome in an after-I-see-it-I'll-be-fully-prepared-to-argue-with-you-that-it's-better-than-The-Godfather-even-though-I-haven't-seen-it-yet-I-just-have-that-much-faith-in-it kind of way), I went to see Oliver Stone's World Trade Center, and I just have to say that I wish he'd gone the controversial route, but instead he told a very straightforward story that, yes, made me cry about ten times, but lacked the kind of cinematic chutzpah you expect when going to an Oliver Stone film, if that makes any sense.

What a terribly awkward run-on sentence. Anyway, my point is that you probably already saw Snakes on a Plane, so if you're planning on going to the movies this upcoming weekend (and who isn't) (I'm putting my salesman hat on now, which is why i said "and who isn't," but stay with me here) then you should go see The Dogwalker, which opens at the Laemmle Music Hall in Los Angeles on Friday, August 25th. (I think it's also opening in other select cities, but I don't have that info, so check your local listings.) (Check me out: "check your local listings") (I sound like I've done this before) (okay, I guess I have)

The Dogwalker stars Pamela Gordon, who was a fucking Los Angeles theater rockstar. I got to know Pamela's voice really well before I actually met her. Of course, I knew her from her various film and tv gigs (chief among them her role as Wyatt's mother on fucking Weird Science) (I loved Weird Science) (I mean, it's hard not to love all of those John Hughes movies, and I absolutely loved Sixteen Candles and Breakfast Club, too, but I have to admit that when I first saw those movies I was a little too young to fully appreciate them--I was still in elementary school, so I kinda looked up to those movies as harbingers of things to come, and then, years later, I fully FULLY appreciated their genius--but with Weird Science, well...with Weird Science, I was fucking there. I mean, like, I knew what it felt like to be a total dweeb geekazoid--I identified, big time--and even though Kelly Lebrock wasn't necessarily my dream babe, I admired the fact that she knew how to take these two scrawny wimpazoids and turn them into Men with a capital M.) (So, yeah, I loved Weird Science.) (AND PAMELA FUCKING PLAYED WYATT'S MOTHER, did I mention that already?) (So, yeah: Pamela Gordon was already a rockstar in my book before I even met her), but before I got to know Pamela, I listened to her voice every night for seven weeks.

In 2000, the summer after I graduated from college, I was working on XXX Love Act at the Actors' Gang as the Stage Manager and Assistant Director (to be honest, I didn't really do any assistant directing, but director Mark Seldis was nice enough to give me the title, so I'll lay claim to it) and we needed someone to record a couple answering machine messages as sound cues. Mark asked Pamela to do it. Pamela had this amazing, deep, throaty voice. I wasn't there when they recorded the cues, but I was there every night when we played the sound cues, so I became very well acquainted with her voice, and then, one night, I was standing outside the theater and I heard her. I remember that very distinctly: I didn't see her first, I heard her voice first, and then I turned and there she was: Pamela fucking Gordon, in the flesh.

Anyway, I'm just trying to tell you that Pamela has always been a bit of an icon in my eyes, and if you knew her work, she would probably be an icon in yours as well.) (Oh, and sidenote upon sidenote: I didn't actually meet Pamela that night when she came to see XXX Love Act. If you want to read the story of how I met Pamela, CLINK HERE)

Pamela died in 2003 (stop smoking, people), shortly after filming her first starring role in a movie (which happened to be, yes, The Dogwalker). I have a feeling she woulda starred in many more films had she been around longer. Do yerself a favor and go check out her movie. I saw it at the Newport Beach Film Festival a couple of years ago and loved it. Pamela is great in it, as always. Go check out the movie. GO. (I'm serious here, GO.) The preview is below.

AND HERE'S THE WEBSITE WITH INFO ABOUT WHERE THE MOVIE IS PLAYING.