Yeah. I know. We are trying to diminish the use of the term “man cave”. But I ran across the listing of a mini-marathon of this show so I had to look at the descriptions. At 6pm, the Man Caves episode will feature director Kevin Smith. I make a mental note thinking it would be interesting to watch and write up. At 5:55pm, I was watching Jurassic Park. At 6:20pm, I was still watching Jurassic Park. The T-Rex scene was coming up!  (Yes, I will watch that scene any time it is on. So so amazing.) So the T-Rex turns over the car, the girl screams and—Damn you, Behr Paint Ad!!! Yeah, watching it on regular tv does afford you the opportunity to use lots of expletives at the infuriating cuts to commercials in the middle of scenes. I switched over to the Kevin Smith Man Caves during the ad break but it too was on a commercial. A family was dancing when the power went out but, thank goodness, they had a generator so they could continue dancing. I turned back to Jurassic Park. Ah damn, just in time to find out that the second one, Lost World, was on after. Haven’t seen that one much. Place your bets on whether or not I’ll watch it. Spoiler warning: yes, I will…because Baby T-Rex In the Mobile Home Scene.  Back to the Original JP. Samuel L. Jackson sure smokes a lot in this movie. I saw Wayne Knight at a movie theater once. The cute little spitting dinos are coming up. Afflack ad. By now the Kevin Smith Man Caves was over. My mind starts to wander…

Right after Jurassic Park opened in 1993, I had just graduated college and got a job as a tour guide at Universal Studios Orlando. While I was being trained on the back of a tram, staff were lining up for screenings of Jurassic Park. (Side note about the tours in Orlando: if you’ve been to Universal Hollywood, then you know the tram has a lot of cool stuff happen during the tour. Earthquakes, floods, Jaws, the parting of the Red Sea. Well, Orlando’s tour was different. It was an informational tour. Meaning you rode on a tram and listened to a Theatre major talk non-stop for 15 minutes about “facades” and “practical sets” and “not filmed here but we recreated it and isn’t it cool?” plus other fun facts about movies and Universal. Then the tour guides listened to guests wonder aloud why nothing happened on the tour. I was OK as a tour guide. However, I did get in trouble on my last tour one night when we passed Kongfrontation and said, “5 minute wait for King Kong! Boy, I bet you guys waited almost an hour earlier.” Apparently that kind of talk doesn’t go over well.) Soon after the screenings and the film’s opening, Steven Spielberg was there to look at the Jurassic Park exhibit (props and the triceratops). I saw him walk by the tour guide trailer! Then later at a private night event, I was posted at the New York street set when I heard on the radio that Spielberg was leaving the exhibit and getting into a car in the Hollywood area. I abandoned my post and hightailed it to Hollywood. I got there in time to see him get in the car. WE MADE EYE CONTACT. Yep. One day, Steve and I will laugh about that, I thought. My whole amazing life is ahead of me.

When Jurassic Park came out on dvd, I was living my whole amazing life as a hostess at Planet Hollywood in Chicago. The manager played the T-Rex scene every hour on one shift. Nobody ordering Chicken Crunch and drinking Home Alones watching that clip had any idea that Spielberg and I MADE EYE CONTACT.

Let’s take a moment to honor Sir Richard Attenborough who died the other day. RIP John Hammond.

Also, let’s take a moment to think about the two actors playing the kids in JP. You had more lines and screen time than Samuel L. Jackson. Kind of amazing to be in such a classic film. Wonder what they are doing now? Tell us, IMDB! The boy, Joseph Mazzello, was on some Justifieds and Person Of Interest plus G.I. Joe: Retaliation. The girl, Ariana Richards, was in Tremors and one of its sequels. Samuel L. Jackson was in Snakes On a Plane.

Raptors on deck! Jeff Goldblum just uttered the great line “When the Pirates Of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.” That means they are coming up.  Time to get some snacks and watch them terrorize the kids.

Man Caves is on the DIY Network. Jurassic Park is on in my heart always…