James Urbaniak ([info]urbaniak) wrote,
2006-01-29 09:06:00
  • Previous
  • Memorize
  • Share
  • Next

The Goldblum Standard

On Thursday I was driven to the unoccupied house that serves as Fay Grim's home in the film. To get to this suburban area we drove along Karl-Marx-Strasse, a low-rent retail strip that reminded me of Manhattan's 14th Street. In Berlin these days Karl Marx apparently stands for cheap wigs and low-priced sneakers. Bargain hunters of the world unite.

Every actor should have the opportunity to spend a day on a movie set with Jeff Goldblum. His enthusisam is infectious, to say nothing of his inspiring technique. The man has chops. His three energies on the set were: 1) quiet and focused, 2) loosey-goosey and hilarious and 3) manic and focused, all depending on what was going on in the scene being shot. Bottom line, he clearly loves what he does and is an open, curious and imaginative team player. I got a lot out of the experience. Vive la Jeff.

Last night Parker Posey corralled a bunch of the cast and crew to a bar called Ballhaus which resembles nothing less than a large wedding reception room, right down to the middle-aged couples shaking their tail feathers on the dance floor to seventies disco hits. Since I was dreading beforehand that the bar might be one of the those loud, crowded THUNKA-THUNKA-THUNKA places, the so-unhip-it's-hip Ballhaus was exactly my speed.

Some bearded middle-aged guy was dancing solo in a big, flamboyant way and kept veering towards various ladies (including Mrs. Urbaniak) all of whom avoided him until Parker Posey, in a fit of reckless joi de vivre, took his hand and did some amazingly energetic swing dancing with the gent for a couple of songs. I wonder if he knew who she was and that he was living the dream of countless Parker fanatics across the globe. I didn't see any tabloid photographers there so "Parker's Wild Night Out!!!" probably won't be the headline on Monday's newspaper.

Ballhaus is located on Grosse Hamburger Strasse. Yes, "Big Hamburger Street." As God is my witness, I will some day direct a film with that title.

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    switch
     
    Help
  • 46 comments

[info]mdmedarthbaker

January 29 2006, 17:03:49 UTC 6 years ago

How is it that you got to experience all the most stereotypical avenues in Germany? It's as though all the situational funny in the cosmos descended into you general vicinity.

[info]eronanke

January 29 2006, 18:02:12 UTC 6 years ago

I've always regarded Mr. Goldblum with a little bit of apprehension. The reason is, in 9th grade science class, we had to watch a certain movie. That movie was called "Life Story" (AKA: The Race for the Double Helix). He played Watson, (the famous co-discoverer of the structure of DNA), and since my science teacher didn't like teaching, we watched that movie easily eight times in as many months. It was a made-for-TV movie only shown in the UK, so I'll bet he thought that no one this side of the pond remembers.
Please, please, please do me this one thing- tell him that for MONTHS twenty girls at a private high school in Toronto, Canada ran around quoting his best line, "A humiliated Linus is a dangerous Linus".

[info]urbaniak

January 31 2006, 13:43:47 UTC 6 years ago

Whoa! I wanna see that. James Watson is a great character for the Blumster.

[info]eronanke

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]craigjclark

January 29 2006, 18:39:09 UTC 6 years ago

Ballhaus is located on Grosse Hamburger Strasse. Yes, "Big Hamburger Street." As God is my witness, I will some day direct a film with that title.
And you must get Jeff Goldblum to put in an appearance and say "Cheeseburger!"

Anonymous

January 30 2006, 00:40:02 UTC 6 years ago

With Steve Rattazi as The Hamburgler. And Paul Newman as Aragog.
-RL

[info]pellnell

January 29 2006, 21:11:50 UTC 6 years ago

Any chance you will do the obligatory el jay thing and post badly-framed, fuzzy pictures of yourself and Mr. Goldblum goofing off here?

It's kind of funny. I didn't have a very high opinion of Jeff Goldblum as an actor until 2004, when I went to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou on Christmas day. It's one of my favorite films, by one of my favorite directors.

[info]eronanke

January 29 2006, 21:46:56 UTC 6 years ago

Rent "Igby Goes Down". He's fabulous in that.

[info]lisalog

January 30 2006, 12:52:31 UTC 6 years ago

A couple of years ago in New Orleans I was out walking my dog and encountered Miss Posey walking her dog. (She was filming a movie next door to my apartment building). My dog was known for being a bit cantankerous around other canines, baring her teeth and growling threateningly, but she was downright courteous and accommodating when Miss Posey's dog sniffed her nethers. She became so excited, in fact, that their leashes became tangled. Parker Posey handled the whole situation with grace and aplomb, and for that I salute her.

Anonymous

January 30 2006, 18:02:34 UTC 6 years ago

Tsk. Everyday the well grows drier
We need a troll.

[info]urbaniak

January 31 2006, 13:37:31 UTC 6 years ago

If Voucher Ankles isn't doing it for you lately, maybe you should be reading another blog.

Anonymous

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]urbaniak

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]lizzymama

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]tinyjoseph

January 30 2006, 18:24:33 UTC 6 years ago

"Big Hamburger Street"

Can't have ANY hamburgers or the like in the movie. It would ruin the title.

Goldblum has to be on VB. You got the connection, work some magic!

Vive la Jeff!

Anonymous

January 30 2006, 19:06:43 UTC 6 years ago

Re: "Big Hamburger Street"

Heck, Goldblum has already done a guest voice on an Adult Swim original, so it shouldn't be too hard to set that up.

[info]tinyjoseph

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]sylak

6 years ago

  • Loading...

Anonymous

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]tinyjoseph

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]urbaniak

January 31 2006, 13:47:24 UTC 6 years ago

Re: "Big Hamburger Street"

Can't have ANY hamburgers or the like in the movie. It would ruin the title.

Exactly. Big Hamburger Street isn't about hamburgers. It's about a state of mind.

Anonymous

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]tinyjoseph

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]urbaniak

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]tinyjoseph

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]urbaniak

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]tinyjoseph

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]drd2001

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]tinyjoseph

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]fuzzy_shoes

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]sylak

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]notoriousnoir

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]urbaniak

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]___acid_queen

January 31 2006, 03:00:24 UTC 6 years ago

I want to live on Big Hamburger Street! i would love for someone to ask me where in Berlin i resided, to which i'd reply nonchalantly, "big hamburger street". oh man. I have a new goal now. *adds to list*

[info]lp_reanimator

February 2 2006, 19:15:25 UTC 6 years ago

Awesome

That is awesome. And I agree with Sylak, your livejournal is too pure to be muddled up by my inane blabbering. Keep on keepin' on, Urbaniak. PRoVinites everywhere are worshiping you at this moment.

[ this is Figure09 from PRoV ]

Anonymous

February 3 2006, 04:35:35 UTC 6 years ago

I don't have an lj.

Proffy here, reporting for duty.

[info]urbaniak

February 3 2006, 11:40:01 UTC 6 years ago

Holy shit! It's the sarcastic peach picker, the mother/hipster/bassist, the guy who can kill things with his mind, the millionaire and his wife, the movie star and the rest here on Voucher Ankles Isle! Did you all travel together in the PRoVmobile?

Anonymous

February 3 2006, 13:56:30 UTC 6 years ago

PRoVmobile road trip

Indeed we did! And we stopped at coheed's on the way for peaches and ice cream.

[info]sylak

6 years ago

  • Loading...

[info]lp_reanimator

February 3 2006, 16:56:32 UTC 6 years ago

Gosh darnett

I posted a comment, but it never showed up. Oh well. I have nothing else to say, except that since I will not be an actor, I have no chance of working with Jeff Goldblum. Too bad, so sad.

[info]lp_reanimator

February 3 2006, 16:58:14 UTC 6 years ago

Re: Gosh darnett

Wait, yeah I did. Crap. Oh well.

[info]thetoiletduck

February 3 2006, 23:00:29 UTC 6 years ago

I don't want to be left out ....

Hey you are working with Jeff Goldblum, that is all kinds of cool. I hear he is made of candy. Can you verify this?

[info]lolaquigley

February 4 2006, 00:14:32 UTC 6 years ago

Following the crowd...

Secretary of Agriculture here. I had to head over here, all the cool kids were doing it.

[info]netgeez

February 4 2006, 05:36:00 UTC 6 years ago

Ms. P & Mr. G

Hello, first time caller, long time listener here. Blame JP. Anywho, a number of things for no good reason.

1) Watching Parker Posey grow up in the Christopher Guest movies is pretty amazing, especially how young she looked back in Waiting For Guffman. And for those of you unfamiliar with the movies, Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, etc, what's WRONG with you people? "'Who's Fonzie?' Don't they teach you kids ANYTHING in school?"

2) Jeff Goldblum actually was in one of the few movies I ever walked out on, Jurassic Park 2. When the little black girl started doing gymnastics while being chased by the dino critter I had one of those Popeye "I've had alls I can stands" moments. HOWEVER, a movie I bet a lot of you missed was one called Mad Dog Time starring Jeff Goldblum, Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Barkin, Gregory Hines and a bunch of other cool people in a film noir that really has to be seen to be appreciated. AND it just goes to show that with Jeff and Ellen in the same movie everything once again comes full circle to Buckeroo Banzai. Or Big Trouble In Little China. Usually one of the two.

3) Rusty or Doc?

4) I tried to think of something nice to say about VB, and this is what I came up with. Venture Bros. is the first show that I have actively pestered innocent friends into watching since Mystery Science Theater 3000 was on the air. Now THAT'S a bump.

Enjoy your vacation and the drinkable beer...

[info]brew_mccrew

February 4 2006, 06:34:15 UTC 6 years ago

All the cool kids were doing it (Sylak and Nais) and I'm a big follower so here I am. Teh almighty Brew McCrew. Gooday mate.

[info]destructogrl

July 25 2006, 16:55:10 UTC 5 years ago

How the hell did I miss "Big Hamburger Street" when I was there????

That's it... now im going to HAVE to go back. Probably will be a total let down, my luck it's gonna be full of currywurst stands. That's it, your movie can be on people who are addicted to currywurst and doner kebobs. ;-)

And yes, I kicked each and everyone of my friends who told me... "Oh, it's not going to be cold at all." End of May, 45 degrees, and me with one jacket for two weeks.

You have any plans on going back to Berlin? I can recommend some ultra hip swanky swank places that aren't in any travel books if you do.
Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Facebook Twitter More login options
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…