It's now official: I'm a loser, lol.
Tonight a local news stationed aired a story about SecondLife and I was sort of the focal point of the story, lol. When I did the interview I was imagining it would be about a variety of different Austinites and their experiences with SL, maybe a "Look At The Varied Range Of People Who Make Up This Online Community" type of thing.
It wasn't, lol. It was "This Guy Has A GREAT Life... In SL, That Is" hehe.
I mean, not really, lol. Michelle Valles was exploring the shift that's happening in the way we network, the way we communicate. There are video blogs that, I feel, provide necessary exploration of the complete story she was trying to tell. But new packages have to fit inside the news, so even an anchor has only so much time allowed to them in order to cover the rest of the day's news.
But I watched it and -- because it's ME up there (and also probably because I'm a writer and I just IMMEDIATELY get ideas about how I would communicate any given story, without provocation and without even realizing I'm doing it) -- I saw the peice and I'm like "I look like a dork! I'm this homely guy who has no life except a fantasy life online!"
It's a bit funny because I've been blogging openly and honestly for years, but somehow seeing my big, fat self on local news and hearing my last couple of years condensed down into a 3-minute package is almost depressing.
Not really, though. I mean, here was my day:
Before I went to sleep I decided to get past Level 4 of Tomb Raider Legend -- where I've been stuck for several weeks now -- and I DID! Not only that, I zoomed through 3 or 4 sub-levels of Level 5! And that was fun!!! (I'm in Russia now, hehe.)
Then I slept fitfully for a few hours.
When I woke up Gnomey was online and we chatted until she had to go for the night.
Brian and I expanded some on the movie he and Tommy and I are working on for this year.
Then we started up a several-hour SIMPSONS marathon during which he made fajitas!!!
We paused our marathon in oder to break out this tiny little protable TV Kelly gave me several years ago (we don't have cable or an antenna for our TV) and watch the SL package, then resumed the Simpsons marathon until he went to sleep... Which is now.
Now, by chronicalling this, I'm not trying to prove I'm NOT a loser -- which this entry would fail miserable to do, hehe -- but simply to illustrate how differently a life can feel as opposed to how it can look when it's presented under a certain light. A story about SecondLife says (to my occassionaly insecure and/or self-conscious self) that I'm noboby in Real Life, but at least I can pretend to be somebody in SL. But in RL there are several different things going on that makes my last day off FEEL, as I'm living it, like a LOT of FUN!
I think there's a profound concept in there somewhere, though I can't mine it now. I need to figure out the 3 main characters for the screenplay.
But I think Michelle and her editor did a great job, and I just wish she had had the time to explore all the different aspects she was going for more thoroughly. But it would have timed out like a segment of Dateline, lol. Whenever someone makes a documentary about SecondLife I think it's gonna be a hit.
OOH!!!
And I had this cool profound thought about Gnomey!!! As I was falling asleep this morning I was thinking about her, just everything I know about her, all the aspects of her and her personality I've experienced in the less-than-a-year I've known her. I started out just going through all the pictures I have of her and all the times I've seen her on the webcam, and then just exploring specific details about her tastes in music, her relationships with her family and friends and best friend and ex-boyfriend and me and Brian, her tastes in TV shows and movies, different stories she's told me about work, about when she was in school, about adventures at the pub, the text messages we've swapped when we first got together and she and her best friend went to Cornwall... Just all kinds of stuff.
In high school I dated a lot. And throughout my life I've had several really close female friends.
And Wendy is ONE IN A BAJILLION!!! She's one in a gagafrillion!!!
I don't know if I've blogged about this before, but in Douglas Adams' forth Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy novel -- SO LONG, AND THANKS FOR ALL THE FISH -- Arthur meets this woman named Fenchurch who IMMEDIATELY takes hold of his heart and imagination. And I had forgotten about this until after Wendy and I had become a couple and I had picked up the novel again (for the 42nd time or so) but when I was a kid I was ASTOUNDED by the character of Fenchurch... particularly hers and Arthur's relationship. It was so WEIRD to me! Arthur (if you've read any of the Hitchhiker's books you know this) is a bizarre cat, but this woman is equally bizarre and in a different way, and together their weirdness seems to sort of cancel each other out somehow. It's like the Marx Brothers: Stick one of them in a movie and they stick out like a sore thumb; stick all of them in a movie and it becomes THEIR movie.
Does that make any sense?
Gnomey is a goddess whomever she's with, where ever she is. Not that superficial "diva" type goddess, but just this amazing woman who stands out in any crowd and attracts attention just by being her. (Though she might tell you otherwise, hehe.) But there's SOMETHING about her personality, something about WHO SHE IS, that seems to transform me from a guy his best friends get and love and get, but that the rest of the world might go "What's HIS problem?" into someone that kinda makes sense. Like when people see us together they won't necessarily look at me and think... well, whatever they'll think. They'll look at US and think "That's an interesting couple."
This isn't coming out right, lol.
What I'm trying to convey isn't really about Gnomey and me, per se. I'm just saying that she, as an individual, has a powerful and magical personality. So much so that, it seems to me, WHO SHE IS seems to synergize (if that's a word) with the personalities of those she's around, transforming the individuals into something new entirely.
That's how amazing she is.
I like to tell Wendy that God must truly be a She, and She made Wendy in Her own image.
And that's not just a cat trying to make his girlfriend smile, either. I truly believe that. It's the only thing that makes sense. It's the only way to explain how my Gnomey can have all the magical, mystical, wonderous qualities she has. God was feeling particularly inspired 21 years ago, so She made Her masterwork.
And SOMEHOW -- God only knows HOW, hehe -- Gnomey fell for me.
:D
Anyway, time for me to get some writing done.
P. S. If you watch -- or watched -- the local SL news package, I just want to remind you to BEWARE THE SEEDY UNDERBELLY OF SECONDLIFE, hee-hee! The drug cartells and terrorist cells and corporate feudalism can really be a bitch! When you're in SecondLife always remember to lock your doors and windows and don't drink anything that anyone gives you!!!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Star Trekkin' Across The Universe...
I'd like to introduce you to the United Federation of Planets' latest crewmember, DR. RUFUS!!!
Brian's been watching A LOT of Classic TREK recently and I got the idea that it would be cool to have a USS Enterprise Bridge in SecondLife.
And he agreed.
And a few days later (as I was still gathering reference materials for our endeavor) had already FINISHED IT!!! lol
We haven't made our Classic TREK uniforms yet, though Brian's working on them, so I looked around SL a bit and found the film-franchise uniforms and bought one. It comes with a complete set of Command, Science, Medical and Engineering uniforms with all the ranks from Ensign to Captain.
I decided Dr. Rufus is a Lt. Commander. ( have NO IDEA if this is even acurate or not. I haven't bothered to track down Bones McCoy's rank, hehe, but I imagine myself chief medical officer.)
And, of course, what's the purpose of owning your own bridge of the Enterprise if you can't sit in the Captain's Chair?!!
And through the power of digital image manipulation, I can have Dr. Rufus and Captain Rufus on the bridge at the same time!!!
Bloody brilliant!!!
:D
Next step will be to completely populate the bridge with Rufuses in different types of uniforms, but that'll get tricky (because of the way SL's in-world camera works) so that'll be a project for another day.
Yes, I know I'm a nerd, hehe.
But so does my Gnomey Goddess! In fact, she fancies herself a nerd, too! So there! ;P (Hey, if she doesn't have a problem with being -- in her words -- "a sausage muncher" then how put-off could she be with my Star Trek obsession?) lol
Brian's been watching A LOT of Classic TREK recently and I got the idea that it would be cool to have a USS Enterprise Bridge in SecondLife.
And he agreed.
And a few days later (as I was still gathering reference materials for our endeavor) had already FINISHED IT!!! lol
We haven't made our Classic TREK uniforms yet, though Brian's working on them, so I looked around SL a bit and found the film-franchise uniforms and bought one. It comes with a complete set of Command, Science, Medical and Engineering uniforms with all the ranks from Ensign to Captain.
I decided Dr. Rufus is a Lt. Commander. ( have NO IDEA if this is even acurate or not. I haven't bothered to track down Bones McCoy's rank, hehe, but I imagine myself chief medical officer.)
And, of course, what's the purpose of owning your own bridge of the Enterprise if you can't sit in the Captain's Chair?!!
And through the power of digital image manipulation, I can have Dr. Rufus and Captain Rufus on the bridge at the same time!!!
Bloody brilliant!!!
:D
Next step will be to completely populate the bridge with Rufuses in different types of uniforms, but that'll get tricky (because of the way SL's in-world camera works) so that'll be a project for another day.
Yes, I know I'm a nerd, hehe.
But so does my Gnomey Goddess! In fact, she fancies herself a nerd, too! So there! ;P (Hey, if she doesn't have a problem with being -- in her words -- "a sausage muncher" then how put-off could she be with my Star Trek obsession?) lol
Monday, February 26, 2007
Ghost Rider for PS2
I just finished playing several levels of the new PS2 GHOST RIDER game!!!
I like it!
I bought it because (1) I love videogames, (2) I LOVE the character and (3) I have NO IDEA when I'll have the time/money to see the flick (hopefully on the Big Screen!!!) so I figured this game would somewhat slake my Ghost-Rider thirst.
And it really is! :D
It's pretty simple -- and I have NO PROBLEM with simple, hee-hee. There are on-foot levels and there are riding levels. In the on-foot levels you just gotta remember where your "Jump", "Light Attack" and "Heavy Attack" buttons are and you just keep pumping them in different combinations until you've decimated your opponents (of which there are MANY, even on the Easy Difficulty setting).
In that way it reminds me of the late, late arcade games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mortal Combat, only the graphics KICK ASS and you've got a 3-D perspective rather than the old-school 2-D screen.
Also, it's like old-school arcade games in that you get a Game Over screen after you die. That's one of the things I was happy to see gone when I started playing the newer console games. (I started with a Sega Saturn LONG AFTER the platform went defunct because I got it -- and several games -- for a sweet $25! Then my obsession grew until, early last year, I broke down and bought a PS2.) But the game's simplicity makes the Game Over aspect tolerable, because usually when you get close to the end of a level (so far, anyway) you don't have too much trouble getting back through the level, then getting past it.
The hardest part for me so far is the riding levels. I've never been good at driving games, because I tend to over-compensate. If I need to swerve left a little I tend to crash into the barrier at the FAR LEFT of whatever course I'm maneuvering. But either I've gotten better or game programmers have figured out how to give us game-driving-challenged gamers a bit of an assist. TOMB RAIDER LEGEND has at least one motorcycle level, and I can kick it's ass and really enjoy myself doing it. The same is more or less true about GHOST RIDER. There are some complex jumps and slides (where you have to slide sideways beneath a barrier or else get knocked off your bike and start over again) and I've been able to clear those levels eventually.
Brian closed tonight at work, and has to open this morning (that's a 6-hour turnaround!!!), so I thought I might help him get to sleep by letting him watch me play a few levels of Ghost Rider. It actually didn't put him to sleep, though, lol. Usually at the end of his day he can watch me play an hour -- maybe 2 -- of Tomb Raider or Resident Evil before he feels sleepy. With Ghost Rider (tonight, anyway) I ended up tiring-out before he did, lol.
The game can be a strain on the fingers and forearms, with all the continuous button-pushing, lol.
Still, it was fun! I played for mayeb 2 hours and cleared 3 or 4 levels! (I went online to verify just how many and how many I still have to go, but no one online has listed the levels. :( And, natch, I can't be bothered to at the moment, lol.)
It was nice talking to my baby tonight!!! I woke up a little early and took a quick shower so that she could see me NOT looking a mess, hee-hee. We didn't get to chat for long, but it was nice!!!
She'll be waking up in a couple of hours, so I'm excited about talking to her again!!! :D
Have I mentioned that my work week has been rough and I haven't gotten to see much of her?
If not, it has been and I haven't, so I'm going to enjoy every nano-second we get this weekend!!!
:D <3 x o x o x o
Ooh! And before I started gaming tonight Brian and I got to chat about some ideas we've each had about his alien comedy, so hopefully our meeting with Tommy tomorrow will be particularly fruitful!
We'll see. :)
Anyway, hope you all have a GREAT DAY!!!
And Wendy, I ADORE YOU TO BITS, BABY!!! xoxoxo
I like it!
I bought it because (1) I love videogames, (2) I LOVE the character and (3) I have NO IDEA when I'll have the time/money to see the flick (hopefully on the Big Screen!!!) so I figured this game would somewhat slake my Ghost-Rider thirst.
And it really is! :D
It's pretty simple -- and I have NO PROBLEM with simple, hee-hee. There are on-foot levels and there are riding levels. In the on-foot levels you just gotta remember where your "Jump", "Light Attack" and "Heavy Attack" buttons are and you just keep pumping them in different combinations until you've decimated your opponents (of which there are MANY, even on the Easy Difficulty setting).
In that way it reminds me of the late, late arcade games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Mortal Combat, only the graphics KICK ASS and you've got a 3-D perspective rather than the old-school 2-D screen.
Also, it's like old-school arcade games in that you get a Game Over screen after you die. That's one of the things I was happy to see gone when I started playing the newer console games. (I started with a Sega Saturn LONG AFTER the platform went defunct because I got it -- and several games -- for a sweet $25! Then my obsession grew until, early last year, I broke down and bought a PS2.) But the game's simplicity makes the Game Over aspect tolerable, because usually when you get close to the end of a level (so far, anyway) you don't have too much trouble getting back through the level, then getting past it.
The hardest part for me so far is the riding levels. I've never been good at driving games, because I tend to over-compensate. If I need to swerve left a little I tend to crash into the barrier at the FAR LEFT of whatever course I'm maneuvering. But either I've gotten better or game programmers have figured out how to give us game-driving-challenged gamers a bit of an assist. TOMB RAIDER LEGEND has at least one motorcycle level, and I can kick it's ass and really enjoy myself doing it. The same is more or less true about GHOST RIDER. There are some complex jumps and slides (where you have to slide sideways beneath a barrier or else get knocked off your bike and start over again) and I've been able to clear those levels eventually.
Brian closed tonight at work, and has to open this morning (that's a 6-hour turnaround!!!), so I thought I might help him get to sleep by letting him watch me play a few levels of Ghost Rider. It actually didn't put him to sleep, though, lol. Usually at the end of his day he can watch me play an hour -- maybe 2 -- of Tomb Raider or Resident Evil before he feels sleepy. With Ghost Rider (tonight, anyway) I ended up tiring-out before he did, lol.
The game can be a strain on the fingers and forearms, with all the continuous button-pushing, lol.
Still, it was fun! I played for mayeb 2 hours and cleared 3 or 4 levels! (I went online to verify just how many and how many I still have to go, but no one online has listed the levels. :( And, natch, I can't be bothered to at the moment, lol.)
It was nice talking to my baby tonight!!! I woke up a little early and took a quick shower so that she could see me NOT looking a mess, hee-hee. We didn't get to chat for long, but it was nice!!!
She'll be waking up in a couple of hours, so I'm excited about talking to her again!!! :D
Have I mentioned that my work week has been rough and I haven't gotten to see much of her?
If not, it has been and I haven't, so I'm going to enjoy every nano-second we get this weekend!!!
:D <3 x o x o x o
Ooh! And before I started gaming tonight Brian and I got to chat about some ideas we've each had about his alien comedy, so hopefully our meeting with Tommy tomorrow will be particularly fruitful!
We'll see. :)
Anyway, hope you all have a GREAT DAY!!!
And Wendy, I ADORE YOU TO BITS, BABY!!! xoxoxo
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Shave the Cat & Sell the Neighbors; I Gotta get Rich Quick!!!
OMG! I NEED to own a home so I can save THOUSANDS of dollars using the Direct Buy "system"!!!
Have you ever noticed that everything nowadays is "a system". I aired this one infomercial about ladder that could be stretched and folded and retracted and just generally tweaked into 80 or so different configurations. Only it wasn't a ladder... it was a LADDER SYSTEM!
If you buy a program off one of those informercials that helped you sell crappy trinkets online, you're actually buying a SALES SYSTEM. Or a program that tells you when to buy and sell stocks... it's a "wealth-building" SYSTEM. And you don't buy a book-and-cd set that tells you how to buy and sell real estate, you purchase a financial-betterment system! ANTI-AGING SKIN-CARE SYSTEMS!!! WTF is THAT about?!!
PLEASE tell me we're not this gullible! Please, I beg you, tell me that when you hear these "clever" manipulations of marketing language you are as annoyed and insulted as I am! Because if we're the people that MARKETING PEOPLE think we are, we are SO SUNK, lol!
I mean, I want to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year working only three hours a day from the comfort of my own home, but I refuse -- REFUSE -- to buy any of these "systems" because they are so astounding INSULTING of my intelligence!
Jerry Seinfeld has a joke about TV commercials for over-the-counter drugs. He describes the simplistic graphic representing a human being: A sillhouette in profile with eyes shut and mouth open, a cartoon tube leading from the mouth down to the abdomen where it opens into a large, open circle. "That's how phareceutical companies see us: eyes shut, mouths open." (Or words to that effect...) Seinfeld wasn't wrong, I think. Watch drug commercials NOW!!! "Does your leg sometimes move when you're asleep? Beg your doctor to write you a prescription for Zestril!"
And these "systems" always promise hundreds of thousands of dollars a year working only three hours a day from the comfort of my very own home. It doesn't matter if it's real estate, stock trading, bulding welath in the "cash flow bussiness" or the black market trading of un-baptised Third World babies. "Amazing wealth with minimal effort!"
If it really was that effective, would they really be paying for informercial time in the wee hours of the morning? Wouldn't they be selling this stuff in Walmart?
If they were REALLY effective, I don't think that wealthiest 2% would even allow the "systems" out there where we unwashed masses might dig our way out of our little ghetto holes.
Okay, I'm getting all political now... Never leads anywhere good, lol.
I'm going away now. I'm sure there's SOMETHING work-related I can be doing, lol.
Oh, and to my Goddess:
I miss you and LOVE YOU and CAN'T WAIT to hang with you later!!!
x o x o x o
:D
Have you ever noticed that everything nowadays is "a system". I aired this one infomercial about ladder that could be stretched and folded and retracted and just generally tweaked into 80 or so different configurations. Only it wasn't a ladder... it was a LADDER SYSTEM!
If you buy a program off one of those informercials that helped you sell crappy trinkets online, you're actually buying a SALES SYSTEM. Or a program that tells you when to buy and sell stocks... it's a "wealth-building" SYSTEM. And you don't buy a book-and-cd set that tells you how to buy and sell real estate, you purchase a financial-betterment system! ANTI-AGING SKIN-CARE SYSTEMS!!! WTF is THAT about?!!
PLEASE tell me we're not this gullible! Please, I beg you, tell me that when you hear these "clever" manipulations of marketing language you are as annoyed and insulted as I am! Because if we're the people that MARKETING PEOPLE think we are, we are SO SUNK, lol!
I mean, I want to make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year working only three hours a day from the comfort of my own home, but I refuse -- REFUSE -- to buy any of these "systems" because they are so astounding INSULTING of my intelligence!
Jerry Seinfeld has a joke about TV commercials for over-the-counter drugs. He describes the simplistic graphic representing a human being: A sillhouette in profile with eyes shut and mouth open, a cartoon tube leading from the mouth down to the abdomen where it opens into a large, open circle. "That's how phareceutical companies see us: eyes shut, mouths open." (Or words to that effect...) Seinfeld wasn't wrong, I think. Watch drug commercials NOW!!! "Does your leg sometimes move when you're asleep? Beg your doctor to write you a prescription for Zestril!"
And these "systems" always promise hundreds of thousands of dollars a year working only three hours a day from the comfort of my very own home. It doesn't matter if it's real estate, stock trading, bulding welath in the "cash flow bussiness" or the black market trading of un-baptised Third World babies. "Amazing wealth with minimal effort!"
If it really was that effective, would they really be paying for informercial time in the wee hours of the morning? Wouldn't they be selling this stuff in Walmart?
If they were REALLY effective, I don't think that wealthiest 2% would even allow the "systems" out there where we unwashed masses might dig our way out of our little ghetto holes.
Okay, I'm getting all political now... Never leads anywhere good, lol.
I'm going away now. I'm sure there's SOMETHING work-related I can be doing, lol.
Oh, and to my Goddess:
I miss you and LOVE YOU and CAN'T WAIT to hang with you later!!!
x o x o x o
:D
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
I Am The Sausage Man
So I'm video-chatting with Wendy this morning ("morning" in that I had just woken up) and I'm eating pizza for breakfast -- an EXCELLENT way to start off ANY day!
And my Gnomey Goddess asks me what kind it is.
So I tell her: It's Tony's brand pepperoni and sausage.
Okay, so I'll take a break in the narrative to explain that I've been exposed to a lot of kevin Smith recently. I've re-watched CLERKS 2 and watched the behind-the-scene feature and listened to the SMOdcasts and even watched BOTTOM'S UP (starring Jason Mewes as the lead). So when I hear the word "sausage" I think "penis".
So I go for the joke: "You can tell your friends that your boyfriend loves the sausage."
It's a funny joke, I think. It's shocking, it's not what you expect to hear a straight man say, particularly if you're going out with him.
It was a mistake, though.
And maybe not for the reasons you might expect.
Randomly throughout the rest of the conversation -- up until I had to go and get ready for work -- my baby asks "So how was your sausage, baby?" Or "Did you enjoy your sausage?" Or some variation on the question.
I'm not living this down anytime soon.
I am the sausage-lover.
I'm stuck with it.
Someone else might have laughed and blushed and then quickly changed the subject and forgotten the joke as quickly as possible.
Not my baby.
I'm the sausage-lover now, lol.
I mean, literally speaking it's true... I dig sausage in just about any form I can get it. Breakfast sausage links, breakfast sausage patties, Itallian sausage, pork sausage, Li'l Smokies teeny-tiny party sausages, on pizza -- ESPECIALLY on pizza!!!
One could say (and I know I'll regret this, as well) I love sausage every which way!
LITERALLY SPEAKING.
But then again, her sense of humor is one of the many, many reasons I fell in love with my Gnomey. And her playful attitude.
And it's those 2 character traits that are gonna be a pain in my ass for a long time to come, lol. ;P
But it's all good.
Because as much as I L-O-V-E the sausage, I love my Wendy-Lady about a billion times more, hee-hee!!!
:D
And my Gnomey Goddess asks me what kind it is.
So I tell her: It's Tony's brand pepperoni and sausage.
Okay, so I'll take a break in the narrative to explain that I've been exposed to a lot of kevin Smith recently. I've re-watched CLERKS 2 and watched the behind-the-scene feature and listened to the SMOdcasts and even watched BOTTOM'S UP (starring Jason Mewes as the lead). So when I hear the word "sausage" I think "penis".
So I go for the joke: "You can tell your friends that your boyfriend loves the sausage."
It's a funny joke, I think. It's shocking, it's not what you expect to hear a straight man say, particularly if you're going out with him.
It was a mistake, though.
And maybe not for the reasons you might expect.
Randomly throughout the rest of the conversation -- up until I had to go and get ready for work -- my baby asks "So how was your sausage, baby?" Or "Did you enjoy your sausage?" Or some variation on the question.
I'm not living this down anytime soon.
I am the sausage-lover.
I'm stuck with it.
Someone else might have laughed and blushed and then quickly changed the subject and forgotten the joke as quickly as possible.
Not my baby.
I'm the sausage-lover now, lol.
I mean, literally speaking it's true... I dig sausage in just about any form I can get it. Breakfast sausage links, breakfast sausage patties, Itallian sausage, pork sausage, Li'l Smokies teeny-tiny party sausages, on pizza -- ESPECIALLY on pizza!!!
One could say (and I know I'll regret this, as well) I love sausage every which way!
LITERALLY SPEAKING.
But then again, her sense of humor is one of the many, many reasons I fell in love with my Gnomey. And her playful attitude.
And it's those 2 character traits that are gonna be a pain in my ass for a long time to come, lol. ;P
But it's all good.
Because as much as I L-O-V-E the sausage, I love my Wendy-Lady about a billion times more, hee-hee!!!
:D
Sleeping Again (I Think...)
So I was able to get to sleep yesterday when I tried to! YAY!!! :D
I woke up a couple of hours early, but I think that's okay. It's just about time for my baby to be getting up and I've made it through the day... So I think things are cool again, lol.
I got to spend some time with her before she went to bed, too!!! YAY!!! That's the upshot of waking up a couple of hours early!
Especially last night! She wasn't feeling well and went to sleep a little bit before or after (I don't recall precisely) I would have been waking up to my alarm.
BABY, I HOPE YOU'RE FEELING BETTER!!! <3 <3 <3 x o x o x o
ALSO... I found out that my baby loves DUE SOUTH!!!
This is important to me. I don't mind that my baby and I have different tastes; it keeps things interesting! But the more we have in common, the beter. No doubt.
And I DIG DUE SOUTH!
AND SO DOES MY GNOMEY GODDESS!!!
Which is well cool!
I took a break from catching up with podcasts and HEROES and STUDIO 60 and stuff, and just enjoyed me a nice, light-hearted DUE SOUTH marathon. I watched the following episodes:
"The Gift of the Wheelman"
"A Hawk and a Handsaw"
"An Eye For an Eye"
"The Man Who Knew Too Little"
"The Wild Bunch"
"The Blue Line"
"The Deal"
"Heaven and Earth"
"Victoria's Secret, Part 1"
"Victoria's Secret, Part 2"
"Letting Go"
What's that? About 8 hours and 15 minutes?
That's 1 hour and 45 minutes shy of a work shift for me, hee-hee.
:)
That's a nice li'l slice o' DUE SOUTH, hehe. :D
Yesterday Brian bought THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING, and while I was having my little DUE SOUTH marathon he was watching that over and over again, lol. He surprises me sometimes. ;P He's not the avid Horror fan that I am, but some movies just tickle his fancy just right, lol. In fact, I had forgotten -- until he reminded me yesterday -- that he saw that movie 3 times in the cinemas, lol!
Anyway, the guy who created DUE SOUTH and wrote and/or directed several of the really memorable episodes, Paul Haggis, I got to listen to him speak live at the Creative Screenwriting Expo a couple years back!!! (The same one where Brian & Kelly & Tommy & I got to see and listen to Joss Whedon and Nathon Fillion in person!!!)
Haggis more recently wracked up a bunch of OSCARS for CRASH, a movie he wrote and directed.
But I haven't seen that yet. To me Paul Haggis is one of the absolute GENIUSES behind DUE SOUTH. (Paul "Benton Fraser" Gross, of course, being another unstoppable force behind that show's brilliance! he directed some, and I believe he wrote or co-wrote some great episodes, as well as produced -- or executive produced -- more than one season.)
All the episodes I watched were Season 1. I have Season 2 on dvd, also, but I sort of drifeted off toward the end of "Letting Go" and so I stopped watching.
Maybe next weekend. :)
It's 10:33 am in the UK, so I think I'm gonna wrap this up and wait for Wendy to come online.
PEACE TO ALL!!!
And GOOD HEALTH, too!!!
I woke up a couple of hours early, but I think that's okay. It's just about time for my baby to be getting up and I've made it through the day... So I think things are cool again, lol.
I got to spend some time with her before she went to bed, too!!! YAY!!! That's the upshot of waking up a couple of hours early!
Especially last night! She wasn't feeling well and went to sleep a little bit before or after (I don't recall precisely) I would have been waking up to my alarm.
BABY, I HOPE YOU'RE FEELING BETTER!!! <3 <3 <3 x o x o x o
ALSO... I found out that my baby loves DUE SOUTH!!!
This is important to me. I don't mind that my baby and I have different tastes; it keeps things interesting! But the more we have in common, the beter. No doubt.
And I DIG DUE SOUTH!
AND SO DOES MY GNOMEY GODDESS!!!
Which is well cool!
I took a break from catching up with podcasts and HEROES and STUDIO 60 and stuff, and just enjoyed me a nice, light-hearted DUE SOUTH marathon. I watched the following episodes:
"The Gift of the Wheelman"
"A Hawk and a Handsaw"
"An Eye For an Eye"
"The Man Who Knew Too Little"
"The Wild Bunch"
"The Blue Line"
"The Deal"
"Heaven and Earth"
"Victoria's Secret, Part 1"
"Victoria's Secret, Part 2"
"Letting Go"
What's that? About 8 hours and 15 minutes?
That's 1 hour and 45 minutes shy of a work shift for me, hee-hee.
:)
That's a nice li'l slice o' DUE SOUTH, hehe. :D
Yesterday Brian bought THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING, and while I was having my little DUE SOUTH marathon he was watching that over and over again, lol. He surprises me sometimes. ;P He's not the avid Horror fan that I am, but some movies just tickle his fancy just right, lol. In fact, I had forgotten -- until he reminded me yesterday -- that he saw that movie 3 times in the cinemas, lol!
Anyway, the guy who created DUE SOUTH and wrote and/or directed several of the really memorable episodes, Paul Haggis, I got to listen to him speak live at the Creative Screenwriting Expo a couple years back!!! (The same one where Brian & Kelly & Tommy & I got to see and listen to Joss Whedon and Nathon Fillion in person!!!)
Haggis more recently wracked up a bunch of OSCARS for CRASH, a movie he wrote and directed.
But I haven't seen that yet. To me Paul Haggis is one of the absolute GENIUSES behind DUE SOUTH. (Paul "Benton Fraser" Gross, of course, being another unstoppable force behind that show's brilliance! he directed some, and I believe he wrote or co-wrote some great episodes, as well as produced -- or executive produced -- more than one season.)
All the episodes I watched were Season 1. I have Season 2 on dvd, also, but I sort of drifeted off toward the end of "Letting Go" and so I stopped watching.
Maybe next weekend. :)
It's 10:33 am in the UK, so I think I'm gonna wrap this up and wait for Wendy to come online.
PEACE TO ALL!!!
And GOOD HEALTH, too!!!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
What's The Opposite of Narcolepsy?
Okay, so yesterday was just plain WEIRD for me...
It kinda started Sunday.
When I got home from work I surfed the Net for a while and listened to some podcasts and just generally did my normal winding-down thing. Then I went to bed.
And I laid there for a couple of hours, unable to sleep.
After a couple of hours I got tired of trying to sleep, so I got up and went online to see if my baby had logged in yet. She was eating, so I occupied myself until she was back. I chatted with Brian and stuff.
When she came online we hung out, and it was REALLY COOL!!! I got to spend several hours with my Sweety, hours I normally would have been sleeping, so no complaints there.
Then the day turned into evening and it was half an hour before Brian & Mom & I do our Family Dinner thing, so I called Mom and asked if she wanted to go to dinner early, and we did and it was all cool.
I got home stuffed, and dead-tired (natch... I hadn't slept all day). So I gave myself half an hour to digest and went to sleep.
And woke up around 1:00 am. (I really don't remember now, and I think you'll come to understand why the details are hazy.) I did some laundry I had put off for 2 weeks, then waited for Gnomey to wake up.
We got to spend some time together and it was really cool (seriously, just really joyous for me!) and then she had to go to work. I messed around on the computer some more, then went to bed.
...and AGAIN I was unable to sleep.
See, this is BAD because Tommy was supposed to come over yesterday so we could start working on our movie. I NEEDED SLEEP.
But, again, I found myself unable to get any. Brian went to work, worked a whole shift, and came home and I was still wide awake. I got to greet my baby when she got home from work.
Now here the details get even fuzzier...
It seems like she had some stuff to do, and it was maybe an hour before Tommy was going to get off work and come over, and I was finally feeling tired. So I decided to take a nap in my brother's room -- where this computer is -- so that when my baby IMed me the little sound that lets you know you've got a new IM would wake me up. I hoped to chat with her for a bit until Tommy arrived, then I'd get to work with the guys.
I woke up a little after 9:30 pm or 9:40 pm, Brian was asleep, Tommy's beer was in the fridge (suggesting that he had, indeed, come and gone) and Brian had picked up some fajitas for me, lol.
I was starving, so I ate, then set up camp in Brian's room again. (He sleeps on the couch, if I haven't mentioned it before, so his room is wide open. Plus, I can close his door if I'm watching video or listening to a podcast on the computer -- as opposed to the iPod -- and not wake him.)
I ended up dozing for a couple more hours, waking up every 20 minuts or so to see how long I had been asleep and whether Wendy had signed in. I think around 12:30 am I was finally up for good and watched a movie on the computer and listened to the first 2 SModcasts.
My Gnomey Goddess never signed-in, but that has happened before, when she woke up late and had to rush to get to work. It's now close to 1:00 pm her time, so she's definitely on her way to work right now.
And I need to go to bed.
And that scares me. Will I be able to get to sleep? I have to wake up at a certain time if I hope to spend time with Gnomey on my last day off, and if this insomnia crap kicks in again, there's no telling when I'll wake up after I eventually fall asleep!
I don't even know what's going on! I haven't been playing with speed or some drug that keeps you awake. I haven't even had any coffee or tea since Friday! So it's not a chemical thing. I just have NO IDEA what's up here. And tomorrow I go back to work, so I really need my sleep schedule to be in tact by 5:00 pm Wednesday or else I'll be nodding off at work. (Which is something that I CAN NOT let happen.)
I don't feel ill in any way. No cough, no sniffles, no tummy ache, no fever. Besides, when I'm sick I tend to ONLY sleep. There's no staying awake during daylight hours and then sleeping after the sun goes down... I'm ALSEEP.
So this is the damnedest thing, lol.
Anyway...
The sun is starting to peak through the clouds and my baby is at work by now, so wish me luck.
And if anyone has ever experienced something like this, please drop me a comment. This just straight-up baffles me.
PEACE!!!
Love to my Goddess!!! :D
It kinda started Sunday.
When I got home from work I surfed the Net for a while and listened to some podcasts and just generally did my normal winding-down thing. Then I went to bed.
And I laid there for a couple of hours, unable to sleep.
After a couple of hours I got tired of trying to sleep, so I got up and went online to see if my baby had logged in yet. She was eating, so I occupied myself until she was back. I chatted with Brian and stuff.
When she came online we hung out, and it was REALLY COOL!!! I got to spend several hours with my Sweety, hours I normally would have been sleeping, so no complaints there.
Then the day turned into evening and it was half an hour before Brian & Mom & I do our Family Dinner thing, so I called Mom and asked if she wanted to go to dinner early, and we did and it was all cool.
I got home stuffed, and dead-tired (natch... I hadn't slept all day). So I gave myself half an hour to digest and went to sleep.
And woke up around 1:00 am. (I really don't remember now, and I think you'll come to understand why the details are hazy.) I did some laundry I had put off for 2 weeks, then waited for Gnomey to wake up.
We got to spend some time together and it was really cool (seriously, just really joyous for me!) and then she had to go to work. I messed around on the computer some more, then went to bed.
...and AGAIN I was unable to sleep.
See, this is BAD because Tommy was supposed to come over yesterday so we could start working on our movie. I NEEDED SLEEP.
But, again, I found myself unable to get any. Brian went to work, worked a whole shift, and came home and I was still wide awake. I got to greet my baby when she got home from work.
Now here the details get even fuzzier...
It seems like she had some stuff to do, and it was maybe an hour before Tommy was going to get off work and come over, and I was finally feeling tired. So I decided to take a nap in my brother's room -- where this computer is -- so that when my baby IMed me the little sound that lets you know you've got a new IM would wake me up. I hoped to chat with her for a bit until Tommy arrived, then I'd get to work with the guys.
I woke up a little after 9:30 pm or 9:40 pm, Brian was asleep, Tommy's beer was in the fridge (suggesting that he had, indeed, come and gone) and Brian had picked up some fajitas for me, lol.
I was starving, so I ate, then set up camp in Brian's room again. (He sleeps on the couch, if I haven't mentioned it before, so his room is wide open. Plus, I can close his door if I'm watching video or listening to a podcast on the computer -- as opposed to the iPod -- and not wake him.)
I ended up dozing for a couple more hours, waking up every 20 minuts or so to see how long I had been asleep and whether Wendy had signed in. I think around 12:30 am I was finally up for good and watched a movie on the computer and listened to the first 2 SModcasts.
My Gnomey Goddess never signed-in, but that has happened before, when she woke up late and had to rush to get to work. It's now close to 1:00 pm her time, so she's definitely on her way to work right now.
And I need to go to bed.
And that scares me. Will I be able to get to sleep? I have to wake up at a certain time if I hope to spend time with Gnomey on my last day off, and if this insomnia crap kicks in again, there's no telling when I'll wake up after I eventually fall asleep!
I don't even know what's going on! I haven't been playing with speed or some drug that keeps you awake. I haven't even had any coffee or tea since Friday! So it's not a chemical thing. I just have NO IDEA what's up here. And tomorrow I go back to work, so I really need my sleep schedule to be in tact by 5:00 pm Wednesday or else I'll be nodding off at work. (Which is something that I CAN NOT let happen.)
I don't feel ill in any way. No cough, no sniffles, no tummy ache, no fever. Besides, when I'm sick I tend to ONLY sleep. There's no staying awake during daylight hours and then sleeping after the sun goes down... I'm ALSEEP.
So this is the damnedest thing, lol.
Anyway...
The sun is starting to peak through the clouds and my baby is at work by now, so wish me luck.
And if anyone has ever experienced something like this, please drop me a comment. This just straight-up baffles me.
PEACE!!!
Love to my Goddess!!! :D
Monday, February 19, 2007
I Lost The Bet :P
A couple of nights ago I made the first of what I hope will become a growing trend of Internet Blog Bets. My baby wasn't online and I bet YOU, the reader, that she was asleep.
Ray Jay: "...so if my Gnomey Goddess isn't sleep at 11:31 pm (her time) on Friday, February 16, 2007 then I'll post an embarrassing pic of myself on this here blog, in the very near future."
I then asked her to post a comment letting me know whether I was right or not, and she did. You can read it for yourself in the Comments for that entry, but here's the vital info...
Gnomey Goddess: "hey baby munts munts, i was not actually asleep"
So because I'm a man of my word, and because I would just REALLY LOVE to see more people making public bets over the Internet (not the money kind, but the "If you lose you gotta..." kind) here is me paying up...
There ya go. Me in all (well, most) of my glory, tee-hee.
If you happen upon this and you'd like to chance seeing me in more embarrassing situations, please feel free to post your bets in the Comments of any entry. Blogspot emails my comments to me, so I will very likely see it within 24 hours of your posting it.
Note that I am not a sports fan, and so I'm not likely to bet on any sporting events. (I have no preference so betting would be difficult.) And also note that I'm not all that foolish, so I'm not likely to take a Sucker's bet.
I'm really into movies though, so if you wanna bet about which movie you think will do better opening weekend, or something along those lines, I'll very likely take you up on that one (unless I agree with you).
And if I take your bet I'll blog about it, so anyone else reading the blog can enjoy!
And if I accept your terms, I WILL do whatever I'm meant to should I lose... HOWEVER... YOU should be willing to follow up should YOU lose! (That's the only way it's fun! :D )
P. S.
Wendy, for you I'll just take requests, hehe. ;) Any thing YOU wanna see a pic of, just tell me, hee-hee. (LOVE YOU!!!)
Ray Jay: "...so if my Gnomey Goddess isn't sleep at 11:31 pm (her time) on Friday, February 16, 2007 then I'll post an embarrassing pic of myself on this here blog, in the very near future."
I then asked her to post a comment letting me know whether I was right or not, and she did. You can read it for yourself in the Comments for that entry, but here's the vital info...
Gnomey Goddess: "hey baby munts munts, i was not actually asleep"
So because I'm a man of my word, and because I would just REALLY LOVE to see more people making public bets over the Internet (not the money kind, but the "If you lose you gotta..." kind) here is me paying up...
There ya go. Me in all (well, most) of my glory, tee-hee.
If you happen upon this and you'd like to chance seeing me in more embarrassing situations, please feel free to post your bets in the Comments of any entry. Blogspot emails my comments to me, so I will very likely see it within 24 hours of your posting it.
Note that I am not a sports fan, and so I'm not likely to bet on any sporting events. (I have no preference so betting would be difficult.) And also note that I'm not all that foolish, so I'm not likely to take a Sucker's bet.
I'm really into movies though, so if you wanna bet about which movie you think will do better opening weekend, or something along those lines, I'll very likely take you up on that one (unless I agree with you).
And if I take your bet I'll blog about it, so anyone else reading the blog can enjoy!
And if I accept your terms, I WILL do whatever I'm meant to should I lose... HOWEVER... YOU should be willing to follow up should YOU lose! (That's the only way it's fun! :D )
P. S.
Wendy, for you I'll just take requests, hehe. ;) Any thing YOU wanna see a pic of, just tell me, hee-hee. (LOVE YOU!!!)
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Anybody Remember Captain America?
When I was a little kind -- I must have been 8 years old -- I remember watching this TV movie about Captain America... He drove a motorcycle and the white rings on his mighty shield were transparent, and a permanent part of his costume was a blue motorcycle helmet with white wings painted onto the sides.
VERY silly stuff!
This was 1979, before Marvel Comics realized that they didn't have the first clue about how to make movies. They'd just license their material to TV networks and pray for the best.
...and they usually got the worst, lol.
I mean, they had one RESOUNDING success with the show THE INCREDIBLE HULK, but only because the writer/director who made the pilot movie -- Kenneth Johnson -- knew what he was doing, and knew how to adapt from one medium to another.
There were also attempts at SPIDER-MAN (and considering the recent success of the film franchise, one has to wonder how a production company could foul THAT particular franchise up) and DR. STRANGE that I know of.
CAPTAIN AMERICA was clearly intended to be a pilot movie for the anticipated series, but it was just pretty damned BAD.
Still... I was a kid, and my tastes were admittedly "less discerning," to put it nicely, hee-hee.
I had a black & white TV in my room and I remember watching this train-wreck with my little brother, just enjoying the fact that one of my favorite super heroes was on the screen in flesh-and-blood... and spandex!
Then later that same year (I was maybe 9 by then) the network (and I don't remember which network at this point released A SEQUEL!!! CAPTAIN AMERICA II: DEATH TOO SOON!!!
You've got the very groovy -- '70s style! -- Steve Rodgers bombin' around in the Mystery Machine, and every half hour or so he pops out the back on his shiny bike, eagle-winged blue helmet ablazin' in the sun!
I think a part of me suspected that I was watching rubbish even back then, but I could stomach it. I simply zoned through all the melodramatic dialogue and waited eagerly for the all-too-short action scenes.
And, I'm not proud to say, I was disappointed when Captain America didn't become a weekly series. (I was a kid, cut me a break. I still had fond memories of KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK, wondering why they didn't launch a KISS Saturday morning cartoon show already.)
Just over a decade passes and I'm living in L. A. and I hear the greatest news EVER... They're doing Captain America again! This time for the Big Screen!!!
Well all right!
Burton's BATMAN was good! (Though, compared to Nolan's BATMAN BEGINS Burton's attempt was woefully lacking... But at the time that was the most serious adaptation of Comic Book Superhero to the Big Screen.) (Also, this is forgetting -- as I did at the time -- Richard Donner's SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE which, looking back, was really the best superhero movie until Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN probably.) I think I may have even spied a picture or two of this new Big Screen Cap' in a geek-zine or somewhere. HE WASN'T WEARING A MOTORCYCLE HELMET THIS TIME!!!
But I do my time in L. A. and make my way back to Texas, and the movie just never is released!!!
WTF?!!
I think it isn't until the mid-90s when HBO gets ahold of the rights to air it that I FINALLY see the flick.
I remember wanting to like it a bit more than I did.
But it stayed true to his 1940's Nazi-era orgins... A life-of-death battle with the Red Skull finds him riding a rocket and plummeting into Arctic waters... He awakened generations later (in 1990 rather than in the 1960s, as in the comics, but that's completely understandable)...
It was a great effort, really. The filmmakers and actors took the project seriously -- no Burton-esque hamming-it-up here.
It just didn't quite have the emotional UMPH! I like out my of adventure flicks.
But would ya believe it? They NEVER made a sequel! I was waiting for Part 2 to make it all good. But nope.
Anyway, recently Marvel got the very clever idea to make 2-D animation Marvel heroes movies and release them straight to dvd, and ULTIMATE AVENGERS: THE MOVIE came out last year and re-whetted my appetite for Cap'. It was good. I felt something when I watched it. And the hero has never been COOLER!
ULTIMATE AVENGERS II was good, too... though not quite AS food. And the more recent THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN is the weakest yet. (Not Reb-Brown-in-a-blue-helmet-with-eagle-wings-painted-on-the-sides bad, mind you... Just not as strong as the first ULTIMATE AVENGERS dvd.)
So anyway, why am I going on about Captain America?
Because... um...
Last week I tracked down copies of the 2 TV movies on vhs and a German release of the 1990 film on dvd...
And they came in the mail today, lol.
Well, not the first TV movie. I'm still waiting for that to arrive.
But I have CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990) and CAPTAIN AMERICA II: DEATH TOO SOON now, lol.
Hey, my brother listens to '80s music and watches G.I. JOE and HE-MAN AND THE MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE to revisit his youth, I watch bad Captain America flicks.
And Gnomey, honey... Please tell me you love me anyway, lol. (I can almost PROMISE you that I won't ever ask you to watch them with me, hehe. Probably.)
Speaking of my Goddess, I should probably get to bed.
OH!!!
For any John Cleese fans out there, iTunes has the complete series of FAWLTY TOWERS in audio form!!! The sight-gags that are integral to the story are described by for us by Manuel!!! It's really a laugh, and each episodes begins with an interview with John Cleese talking about how he and then-wife Connie Booth came up with the ideas for the episode! VERY COOL!!!
PEACE-OUT, Y'ALL!!!
:D
VERY silly stuff!
This was 1979, before Marvel Comics realized that they didn't have the first clue about how to make movies. They'd just license their material to TV networks and pray for the best.
...and they usually got the worst, lol.
I mean, they had one RESOUNDING success with the show THE INCREDIBLE HULK, but only because the writer/director who made the pilot movie -- Kenneth Johnson -- knew what he was doing, and knew how to adapt from one medium to another.
There were also attempts at SPIDER-MAN (and considering the recent success of the film franchise, one has to wonder how a production company could foul THAT particular franchise up) and DR. STRANGE that I know of.
CAPTAIN AMERICA was clearly intended to be a pilot movie for the anticipated series, but it was just pretty damned BAD.
Still... I was a kid, and my tastes were admittedly "less discerning," to put it nicely, hee-hee.
I had a black & white TV in my room and I remember watching this train-wreck with my little brother, just enjoying the fact that one of my favorite super heroes was on the screen in flesh-and-blood... and spandex!
Then later that same year (I was maybe 9 by then) the network (and I don't remember which network at this point released A SEQUEL!!! CAPTAIN AMERICA II: DEATH TOO SOON!!!
You've got the very groovy -- '70s style! -- Steve Rodgers bombin' around in the Mystery Machine, and every half hour or so he pops out the back on his shiny bike, eagle-winged blue helmet ablazin' in the sun!
I think a part of me suspected that I was watching rubbish even back then, but I could stomach it. I simply zoned through all the melodramatic dialogue and waited eagerly for the all-too-short action scenes.
And, I'm not proud to say, I was disappointed when Captain America didn't become a weekly series. (I was a kid, cut me a break. I still had fond memories of KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK, wondering why they didn't launch a KISS Saturday morning cartoon show already.)
Just over a decade passes and I'm living in L. A. and I hear the greatest news EVER... They're doing Captain America again! This time for the Big Screen!!!
Well all right!
Burton's BATMAN was good! (Though, compared to Nolan's BATMAN BEGINS Burton's attempt was woefully lacking... But at the time that was the most serious adaptation of Comic Book Superhero to the Big Screen.) (Also, this is forgetting -- as I did at the time -- Richard Donner's SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE which, looking back, was really the best superhero movie until Sam Raimi's SPIDER-MAN probably.) I think I may have even spied a picture or two of this new Big Screen Cap' in a geek-zine or somewhere. HE WASN'T WEARING A MOTORCYCLE HELMET THIS TIME!!!
But I do my time in L. A. and make my way back to Texas, and the movie just never is released!!!
WTF?!!
I think it isn't until the mid-90s when HBO gets ahold of the rights to air it that I FINALLY see the flick.
I remember wanting to like it a bit more than I did.
But it stayed true to his 1940's Nazi-era orgins... A life-of-death battle with the Red Skull finds him riding a rocket and plummeting into Arctic waters... He awakened generations later (in 1990 rather than in the 1960s, as in the comics, but that's completely understandable)...
It was a great effort, really. The filmmakers and actors took the project seriously -- no Burton-esque hamming-it-up here.
It just didn't quite have the emotional UMPH! I like out my of adventure flicks.
But would ya believe it? They NEVER made a sequel! I was waiting for Part 2 to make it all good. But nope.
Anyway, recently Marvel got the very clever idea to make 2-D animation Marvel heroes movies and release them straight to dvd, and ULTIMATE AVENGERS: THE MOVIE came out last year and re-whetted my appetite for Cap'. It was good. I felt something when I watched it. And the hero has never been COOLER!
ULTIMATE AVENGERS II was good, too... though not quite AS food. And the more recent THE INVINCIBLE IRON MAN is the weakest yet. (Not Reb-Brown-in-a-blue-helmet-with-eagle-wings-painted-on-the-sides bad, mind you... Just not as strong as the first ULTIMATE AVENGERS dvd.)
So anyway, why am I going on about Captain America?
Because... um...
Last week I tracked down copies of the 2 TV movies on vhs and a German release of the 1990 film on dvd...
And they came in the mail today, lol.
Well, not the first TV movie. I'm still waiting for that to arrive.
But I have CAPTAIN AMERICA (1990) and CAPTAIN AMERICA II: DEATH TOO SOON now, lol.
Hey, my brother listens to '80s music and watches G.I. JOE and HE-MAN AND THE MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE to revisit his youth, I watch bad Captain America flicks.
And Gnomey, honey... Please tell me you love me anyway, lol. (I can almost PROMISE you that I won't ever ask you to watch them with me, hehe. Probably.)
Speaking of my Goddess, I should probably get to bed.
OH!!!
For any John Cleese fans out there, iTunes has the complete series of FAWLTY TOWERS in audio form!!! The sight-gags that are integral to the story are described by for us by Manuel!!! It's really a laugh, and each episodes begins with an interview with John Cleese talking about how he and then-wife Connie Booth came up with the ideas for the episode! VERY COOL!!!
PEACE-OUT, Y'ALL!!!
:D
Friday, February 16, 2007
Awwww, Tee-Hee-Hee
I think my baby's sleepin'.
:)
It's 11:00 pm her time, and she usually has an early morning of it on Saturdays. So when I logged in to our IM and saw that she's not online, I got this mental image of her snuggled up to Ray Jay the Pillow, eyes closed and expression relaxed in peaceful slumber...
SO CUTE!!!
She may not be asleep. He computer -- particularly her Internet connection -- sometimes gets squirrel-y on her. So it could be simply that she can't get online at the moment.
But I'll bet she fell asleep. ;)
Baby, when you read this, leave me a comment letting me know if I called it or not, please!
And if I'm wrong... I'll post a silly picture of myself on a future entry... Like me in my house robe doing something embarrassing (tho' not explicitly obscene, lol).
In fact, if ANYONE has any (reasonable) suggestions as to a good pic to post for losing a bet, please leave a comment. (I'm looking for personally embarrassing, but also family-friendly. Like PG-13, no worse, hehe.)
BLOG BETS! That's something you don't see often enough! Why don't more people publicly make bets on their blogs? I mean, 'cause the BEST bets are when you're forced to do silly stuff in public! Like where a cap or shirt sporting the logo of a rival sports team when your team loses an important game!
I LOVE that stuff!
I wear blue fingernail pollish (because in my imagination, I'm kind of a rock star, lol) and more than once a stranger has asked me if I lost a bet or something, lol! (Not my baby... She likes it, hehe.)
So why don't more people make blog bets? It's brilliant!
Anyway, so if my Gnomey Goddess isn't sleep at 11:31 pm (her time) on Friday, February 16, 2007 then I'll post an embarrassing pic of myself on this here blog, in the very near future.
If she IS...
Then sweet dreams, my love!!! :D <3 <3 <3 x o x o x o
And now... I need food.
PEACE!!! :D
:)
It's 11:00 pm her time, and she usually has an early morning of it on Saturdays. So when I logged in to our IM and saw that she's not online, I got this mental image of her snuggled up to Ray Jay the Pillow, eyes closed and expression relaxed in peaceful slumber...
SO CUTE!!!
She may not be asleep. He computer -- particularly her Internet connection -- sometimes gets squirrel-y on her. So it could be simply that she can't get online at the moment.
But I'll bet she fell asleep. ;)
Baby, when you read this, leave me a comment letting me know if I called it or not, please!
And if I'm wrong... I'll post a silly picture of myself on a future entry... Like me in my house robe doing something embarrassing (tho' not explicitly obscene, lol).
In fact, if ANYONE has any (reasonable) suggestions as to a good pic to post for losing a bet, please leave a comment. (I'm looking for personally embarrassing, but also family-friendly. Like PG-13, no worse, hehe.)
BLOG BETS! That's something you don't see often enough! Why don't more people publicly make bets on their blogs? I mean, 'cause the BEST bets are when you're forced to do silly stuff in public! Like where a cap or shirt sporting the logo of a rival sports team when your team loses an important game!
I LOVE that stuff!
I wear blue fingernail pollish (because in my imagination, I'm kind of a rock star, lol) and more than once a stranger has asked me if I lost a bet or something, lol! (Not my baby... She likes it, hehe.)
So why don't more people make blog bets? It's brilliant!
Anyway, so if my Gnomey Goddess isn't sleep at 11:31 pm (her time) on Friday, February 16, 2007 then I'll post an embarrassing pic of myself on this here blog, in the very near future.
If she IS...
Then sweet dreams, my love!!! :D <3 <3 <3 x o x o x o
And now... I need food.
PEACE!!! :D
Thursday, February 15, 2007
STS-117 Still A Go So Far...
If you're geeking out about this year's shuttle missions to the International Space Station too, then know that Atlantis is at the launchpad awaiting its in approximately one month to the day.
The significance, of course, is that the shuttle program has 5 important missions this year in order to complete the ISS by the time of the space shuttle's retirement in 2010. If all 5 missions are successful then the ISS has a real chance of becoming the massive research facility and "launch pad" for moon/Mars missions that it is hoped to become.
Me, I want these missions to succeed because I SO dig on the thought of the Earth having a real-life SPACE STATION orbitting up there!!! AND I want humans to go to Mars!!!
And so far the first mission is still a go!!!
So yay!
Also, on a more personal note...
Gnomey Goddess, thank ya for last night's conversation, hehe! I really enjoyed the chat! ;) Bits of it keep popping back into my memory all night so far! ;P
Oh, hey! It's supposed to be the coldest night of this winter tonight, with temperatures as low as 24° F tonight! So that should be fun. Hopefully by the time I go home it'll have warmed up at least to freezing, lol.
I'll let you know.
Okay, so I should get back to work.
The significance, of course, is that the shuttle program has 5 important missions this year in order to complete the ISS by the time of the space shuttle's retirement in 2010. If all 5 missions are successful then the ISS has a real chance of becoming the massive research facility and "launch pad" for moon/Mars missions that it is hoped to become.
Me, I want these missions to succeed because I SO dig on the thought of the Earth having a real-life SPACE STATION orbitting up there!!! AND I want humans to go to Mars!!!
And so far the first mission is still a go!!!
So yay!
Also, on a more personal note...
Gnomey Goddess, thank ya for last night's conversation, hehe! I really enjoyed the chat! ;) Bits of it keep popping back into my memory all night so far! ;P
Oh, hey! It's supposed to be the coldest night of this winter tonight, with temperatures as low as 24° F tonight! So that should be fun. Hopefully by the time I go home it'll have warmed up at least to freezing, lol.
I'll let you know.
Okay, so I should get back to work.
Valentine's Day Post-Mortem
I use this blog -- as most blogger do -- to vent my emotional shit. To expose to whomever the emotions that well up inside me so that they don't do me physical and mental damage.
And this blog entry is about the following subject:
MY GIRLFRIEND IS THE MOST AMAZING AND WONDERFUL AND PERFECT WOMAN ON THIS PLANET!!!
Look, here's the thing: I'm a FREAK. A nerd. A loser with hopes -- dreams, plans -- of eventual greatness.
Though I am pretty hot (hehe) I'm not a perfect physical specimen. (No Brad Pitt am I.) Though I am smart, I'm SO not an Einstein. Though I am creative, I'm no Douglas Adams or Rod Serling or Michael Crichton.
And yet my baby seems (and Goddess knows why) to love me for who I AM.
But here's the truly romantic part, the really great part: She doesn't love me BLINDLY.
One of the hottest thing about my Goddess Gnomey is that she is HER OWN woman. She's lived Life and developed her own perspective, her own , opinions, her own take on Life, the Universe, and Everything.
And she has NO PROBLEM giving me shit when she thinks I need to hear it, lol!!!
In fact, she expressly told me once that it bugs her when people blog about their fights with loved ones, but I have to say this because it makes my point: Wendy and I fight.
And if you're in a relationship, I SERIOUSLY doubt that surprises you. Couples fight. It's part of the package. Couples do dirty, dirty things with each other that they'll NEVER tell their friends and family about, and couples fight, lol.
And my baby can HOLD HER OWN!!! I am SO SERIOUS when I say that I hope we NEVER get into a physical altercation because I can fight... And I fear that that woman can KICK MY ASS!!! :D
I'm not being "sweet" or "nice" either when I say that! She played Rugby when she was a child... This chick is TOUGH!
And that's one of the things I LOVE about her!!!
See, here's the point: I've got "casual friends" and I've got REAL fuckin' FRIENDS.
My casual friends try to tell me what I want to hear.
And that may seem like a nice way to live one's life, but here's the thing: When you want to tell stories for a living -- stories that will touch as many people as possible, stories that will MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the lives of those who read, watch, hear those stories -- you NEED to know what's REAL.
One of my dearest friends, Kelly, will TEAR APPART a script that I've written and tell me that most of it is shit.
And I'll do the exact same thing to him.
It's not because either of us enjoys hurting the other. In fact, we would SO prefer to say to the other "OMG! That's the BEST story I've EVER READ!" It's easier that way. Nicer that way. It's a lot less strain on the friendship!
But when you submit a story to Money-People, you're very likely to hear "No, that's great... But it's just not what we're looking for." The Money-People don't care about you;p they just want you to not hate them (in case you DO write something they want to buy that will make them millions of dollars).
But FRIENDS care about YOU.
They don't want to see someone they care about embarrassed. They don't want to see someone they care about in shame. They want the rest of the world to see the greatness that THEY see in you.
And if that means fighting with you over s screenplay or novel for an hour and a half, they'll take that bullet, because it's NOTHING to them, it's just time.
Time wasted, sure... But it's just time.
And ultimately, friendships benefit from "wasted" time. All the hours you kill with each other add up to a solid and invaluable investment in the relationship.
So I'm watching BACK TO THE WELL: THE MAKING OF CLERKS II and every time Jen Schwalbach-Smith (Kevin Smith's wife) pops on-screen to tell the story of the making of that movie the way she perceived it, I get this swell of emotion for my own Gnomey!!!
She's this tight, little smart hotty who fell in love (I believe) with Kevin Smith's SPIRIT, and he with hers! And according to Smith's blogs, they fight plenty! They disagree plenty. And they fuck plenty, lol.
They are FRIENDS.
REAL FRIENDS.
They would rather fight with each other than let the other look stupid in public. They would rather fight with each other than let the other be embarrassed, they are THAT invested in the happiness of the person they love!
And that reminded me of why I fell in love with Gnomey Munts Munts in the first place.
Let's forget for a second that she's just the HOTTEST peice of woman I have ever seen.
Let's forget that she makes me laugh until I cry.
Let's forget that she has SO MUCH love inside her that she is sometimes hurt by the people she bestows that wealth of love upon.
Wendy is a REAL FRIEND!!! She seems to care AS MUCH about me as the people who have known me for 25 years or more!!!
Brian and I will fight about a stupid idea od mine. But he's MY BROTHER. he's kind of obligated (thought not really, knowing how siblings can drift apart as they age) to get my back.
Wendy has known me 6 months!
I mean C'MON!!! We have an Internet relationship! Neither party has to EVER see the other party's REAL side. And yet my baby tells it like IT IS. She tells me what she likes and doesn't like! She tells me what she believes and doesn't believe!
This woman is REAL!!! And THAT'S one of the things I love MOST about her!!! I can fuckin' TRUST her! If she says it, it's not bullshit. If she says it, that's what she really thinks!
How many friends do you have that you can say that about?
Cherish EVERY ONE of them!!! Because THEY got your back! THEY care about whether you succeed or fail! THEY want THE BEST that you can achieve in this life!
(Omg I SO wanna talk dirty to my Gnomey Goddess right now!!! lol)
But that's my big epiphany... The friends we have that don't necessarly tell us what we think we want to hear are the friends we can TRUST.
And THAT is one of the reasons I am THE LUCKIEST man in the world!!!
Plus, she's got so much love inside her that she can be sometimes hurt by the people upon whom she bestows that love.
Plus, she makes me laugh until I cry.
Plus she's the HOTTEST piece of woman I have EVER SEEN!!!
All in all, this has been a blissfully PROFOUND Valentine's Day for me, hee-hee!!!
I hope yours was as fuckin' SWEET as mine was!!!
:D
And this blog entry is about the following subject:
MY GIRLFRIEND IS THE MOST AMAZING AND WONDERFUL AND PERFECT WOMAN ON THIS PLANET!!!
Look, here's the thing: I'm a FREAK. A nerd. A loser with hopes -- dreams, plans -- of eventual greatness.
Though I am pretty hot (hehe) I'm not a perfect physical specimen. (No Brad Pitt am I.) Though I am smart, I'm SO not an Einstein. Though I am creative, I'm no Douglas Adams or Rod Serling or Michael Crichton.
And yet my baby seems (and Goddess knows why) to love me for who I AM.
But here's the truly romantic part, the really great part: She doesn't love me BLINDLY.
One of the hottest thing about my Goddess Gnomey is that she is HER OWN woman. She's lived Life and developed her own perspective, her own , opinions, her own take on Life, the Universe, and Everything.
And she has NO PROBLEM giving me shit when she thinks I need to hear it, lol!!!
In fact, she expressly told me once that it bugs her when people blog about their fights with loved ones, but I have to say this because it makes my point: Wendy and I fight.
And if you're in a relationship, I SERIOUSLY doubt that surprises you. Couples fight. It's part of the package. Couples do dirty, dirty things with each other that they'll NEVER tell their friends and family about, and couples fight, lol.
And my baby can HOLD HER OWN!!! I am SO SERIOUS when I say that I hope we NEVER get into a physical altercation because I can fight... And I fear that that woman can KICK MY ASS!!! :D
I'm not being "sweet" or "nice" either when I say that! She played Rugby when she was a child... This chick is TOUGH!
And that's one of the things I LOVE about her!!!
See, here's the point: I've got "casual friends" and I've got REAL fuckin' FRIENDS.
My casual friends try to tell me what I want to hear.
And that may seem like a nice way to live one's life, but here's the thing: When you want to tell stories for a living -- stories that will touch as many people as possible, stories that will MAKE A DIFFERENCE in the lives of those who read, watch, hear those stories -- you NEED to know what's REAL.
One of my dearest friends, Kelly, will TEAR APPART a script that I've written and tell me that most of it is shit.
And I'll do the exact same thing to him.
It's not because either of us enjoys hurting the other. In fact, we would SO prefer to say to the other "OMG! That's the BEST story I've EVER READ!" It's easier that way. Nicer that way. It's a lot less strain on the friendship!
But when you submit a story to Money-People, you're very likely to hear "No, that's great... But it's just not what we're looking for." The Money-People don't care about you;p they just want you to not hate them (in case you DO write something they want to buy that will make them millions of dollars).
But FRIENDS care about YOU.
They don't want to see someone they care about embarrassed. They don't want to see someone they care about in shame. They want the rest of the world to see the greatness that THEY see in you.
And if that means fighting with you over s screenplay or novel for an hour and a half, they'll take that bullet, because it's NOTHING to them, it's just time.
Time wasted, sure... But it's just time.
And ultimately, friendships benefit from "wasted" time. All the hours you kill with each other add up to a solid and invaluable investment in the relationship.
So I'm watching BACK TO THE WELL: THE MAKING OF CLERKS II and every time Jen Schwalbach-Smith (Kevin Smith's wife) pops on-screen to tell the story of the making of that movie the way she perceived it, I get this swell of emotion for my own Gnomey!!!
She's this tight, little smart hotty who fell in love (I believe) with Kevin Smith's SPIRIT, and he with hers! And according to Smith's blogs, they fight plenty! They disagree plenty. And they fuck plenty, lol.
They are FRIENDS.
REAL FRIENDS.
They would rather fight with each other than let the other look stupid in public. They would rather fight with each other than let the other be embarrassed, they are THAT invested in the happiness of the person they love!
And that reminded me of why I fell in love with Gnomey Munts Munts in the first place.
Let's forget for a second that she's just the HOTTEST peice of woman I have ever seen.
Let's forget that she makes me laugh until I cry.
Let's forget that she has SO MUCH love inside her that she is sometimes hurt by the people she bestows that wealth of love upon.
Wendy is a REAL FRIEND!!! She seems to care AS MUCH about me as the people who have known me for 25 years or more!!!
Brian and I will fight about a stupid idea od mine. But he's MY BROTHER. he's kind of obligated (thought not really, knowing how siblings can drift apart as they age) to get my back.
Wendy has known me 6 months!
I mean C'MON!!! We have an Internet relationship! Neither party has to EVER see the other party's REAL side. And yet my baby tells it like IT IS. She tells me what she likes and doesn't like! She tells me what she believes and doesn't believe!
This woman is REAL!!! And THAT'S one of the things I love MOST about her!!! I can fuckin' TRUST her! If she says it, it's not bullshit. If she says it, that's what she really thinks!
How many friends do you have that you can say that about?
Cherish EVERY ONE of them!!! Because THEY got your back! THEY care about whether you succeed or fail! THEY want THE BEST that you can achieve in this life!
(Omg I SO wanna talk dirty to my Gnomey Goddess right now!!! lol)
But that's my big epiphany... The friends we have that don't necessarly tell us what we think we want to hear are the friends we can TRUST.
And THAT is one of the reasons I am THE LUCKIEST man in the world!!!
Plus, she's got so much love inside her that she can be sometimes hurt by the people upon whom she bestows that love.
Plus, she makes me laugh until I cry.
Plus she's the HOTTEST piece of woman I have EVER SEEN!!!
All in all, this has been a blissfully PROFOUND Valentine's Day for me, hee-hee!!!
I hope yours was as fuckin' SWEET as mine was!!!
:D
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
I just got to spend a few hours with GNOMEY!!! I took today off so that I could spend as much time together as possible. :D
This is the first Valentine's Day that hasn't sucked for me in more than a decade, lol. The first one I've actually looked forward to, because of my baby!
And when I wake up, I get to CONTINUE THE LOVERS' DAY CELEBRATIONS!!!
Don't know what we'll do, but it'll be fun! :D
She also turned me onto another cool Britcom! I haven't watched more than a couple of clips on YouTube yet, but it's called BOTTOM and it stars at least 2 of the guys from THE YOUNG ONES! (I use to love that show when I was a teen! Brian has it on dvd now, so I still see the odd episode now and then, when he gets in the mood.) I haven't searched it on Wikipedia yet, so I'll probably be going on about it in a future entry, lol.
Yesterday I re-watched ROCKY and I had forgotten how badass that flick it! it's all low-key and cute. Very charming.
And then this evening, after Gnomey went to bed, Brian and I watched THE GUARDIAN which was really good! When I saw the trailers I figured I'd like it, but it was a bit more spiritual than I expected!!! Really cool!
I'm still 2 episodes behind on HEROES, so I'm looking forward to catching up. And iTunes just sent me this week's STUDIO 60 so I can't wait to watch that!
Ooh! I also watched my first SMALLVILLE in a while! That was pretty good. I still believe about 3 seasons ago they should have just ended the show and recast all the actors as adult versions of their characters and called it METROPOLIS or something, lol. 'Cause each season takes the series farther and farther out of Superman cannon. (How much of a nerd am I, lol!)
I started to watch this weeks SUPERNATURAL with Brian, but I started dozing. (I haven't gotten enough sleep lately. No idea why. Very odd.)
Anyway, that's kind of an update on my life, such as it is, lol.
And if my Gnomey Goddess is reading, I LOVE YOU BABY!!! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY AND THANK YOU!!! *smooches*
Okay, mushy stuff over, hehe.
I hope EVERYONE reading this has (or had) a WONDERFUL VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
:D
This is the first Valentine's Day that hasn't sucked for me in more than a decade, lol. The first one I've actually looked forward to, because of my baby!
And when I wake up, I get to CONTINUE THE LOVERS' DAY CELEBRATIONS!!!
Don't know what we'll do, but it'll be fun! :D
She also turned me onto another cool Britcom! I haven't watched more than a couple of clips on YouTube yet, but it's called BOTTOM and it stars at least 2 of the guys from THE YOUNG ONES! (I use to love that show when I was a teen! Brian has it on dvd now, so I still see the odd episode now and then, when he gets in the mood.) I haven't searched it on Wikipedia yet, so I'll probably be going on about it in a future entry, lol.
Yesterday I re-watched ROCKY and I had forgotten how badass that flick it! it's all low-key and cute. Very charming.
And then this evening, after Gnomey went to bed, Brian and I watched THE GUARDIAN which was really good! When I saw the trailers I figured I'd like it, but it was a bit more spiritual than I expected!!! Really cool!
I'm still 2 episodes behind on HEROES, so I'm looking forward to catching up. And iTunes just sent me this week's STUDIO 60 so I can't wait to watch that!
Ooh! I also watched my first SMALLVILLE in a while! That was pretty good. I still believe about 3 seasons ago they should have just ended the show and recast all the actors as adult versions of their characters and called it METROPOLIS or something, lol. 'Cause each season takes the series farther and farther out of Superman cannon. (How much of a nerd am I, lol!)
I started to watch this weeks SUPERNATURAL with Brian, but I started dozing. (I haven't gotten enough sleep lately. No idea why. Very odd.)
Anyway, that's kind of an update on my life, such as it is, lol.
And if my Gnomey Goddess is reading, I LOVE YOU BABY!!! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY AND THANK YOU!!! *smooches*
Okay, mushy stuff over, hehe.
I hope EVERYONE reading this has (or had) a WONDERFUL VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
:D
Monday, February 12, 2007
THIS May Be IT...
Brian and I had a surprise visitor today... Our co-writer/director friend Tommy!!!
Okay, I'm sure you're tired of hearing me whine about writing and my career and blah, blah, blah, but this is MY blog and it has all but replaced my personal journal (I have NEVER kept a diary, btw, it has always been a JOURNAL) so I'm gonna ramble on about anything I like.
:P
So anyway... Brian and I haven't had much success writing his movie, and I haven't had much success writing either of my movies or my novel.
Writing is generally a solitary process, and in that sense I'm not a writer.
I grew up (starting at age 11) in the theatre. Our theatre troupe was a community theatre and we each did EVERYTHING. We constructed the sets, painted the sets, fished out props from the shop, fished out costumes from the shops, bought costume pieces for our role, sometimes made costume pieces for our role, rehearsed together, pulled curtains for each other, helped transition between sets when we weren't off stage, worked lights, worked sound effects, stage managed if we weren't right for any of the parts in a particular play, were therapists for each other when Life threatened to overwhelm one of us, were cronies when there was a reason to celebrate, stood just in the wings and danced naked or partially naked for each other to try to crack the on-stage actors up, dated each other's ex-girlfriends, fought with each other, made-up with each other, fought alongside each other, fought on behalf of each other, then when the play was over we tore down the sets with each other and went out into the Real World and got into trouble with each other.
I'm a TEAM player, not really a solo act.
So in that sense I'm not a writer, I'm a producer. (I work best supporting someone else's creative vision with my own creative insights, so in that sense I'm not really a director, either.)
And so, late last year, I wrote Tommy an impassioned email begging him to find a regular time during which he and Brian and I could meet every week and FINALLY get a feature-length script written.
And, very generously, he agreed.
Now, he's also a daddy and a husband and a generally upstanding member of the community (when he's not with Brian and me, that is, hehe) and so he had to juggle some things around.
TODAY he showed up to visit, and announced that he would be doing so EVERY Monday!!!
It took him almost a month and a half to work out the logistics, but it looks like WE'RE GONNA BE WRITING A MOVIE!!!
This makes me INDESCRIBABLY EXCITED!!! I've known for the better part of a year now that when we get a script that's good enough to make a competitive movie, we may very well be able to find financing for it. And so I thought "I'll just crank out scripts until we find one Tommy wants to direct, and we're in business."
But "cranking out scripts" is a bit of a hassle when you haven't yet figured out what you do well and what you don't. That is to say that in spite of 14 years of study, I don't yet know my writing strengths and weaknesses, specifically. The horror script I wrote at the end of last year revealed -- quite surprisingly -- that even when I think I have a tight, commercial (meaning "people WANT TO see it" and not necessarily "will make me rich") idea I may not be NEARLY as close as I imagined. (And that's one of the dirty li'l secrets about storytelling -- if people don't want to hear the story, no one is gonna notice how well it's told.)
But whenever Brian and Tommy and I collaborate, the results -- probably due to our 3 unique perspectives -- tend to be quite good. And even though I'm usually the guy who sits down and writes the pages (I am good at that, I don't mind taking credit for that) it seems to take all 3 of us to create all the IDEAS that go down on those pages.
I could write a 120-page story that is correctly formatted and keeps you turning pages. That's part of my gift. I've done it many times before. But after you read the words "The End" and close the script, are you excited about what you just read? Or do you go "Oh, okay" and forget just about every single word you read?
When I'm writing on my own I tend to fill hundreds of pages with forgettable -- though cleverly-chosen and well-crafted -- words. And that DOES NOT a filmmaking career make.
But because of our past work experiences, I truly believe that with the (Un-)Holy Triumvirate we have a REAL shot at being allowed to quit our "day jobs"!
So today may turn out to be a landmark day for us!!!
At the very least, I'm enjoying the possibilities that today has opened up for us! I mean, Life might step in the way and derail our efforts (once again) and tell us it's not yet time for us to unleash our movies onto a poor, unsuspecting civilization.
HOWEVER... until it does I will simply and joyously celebrate the fact that all the players are currently in place for what could very well be the beginning of something very, very beautiful!
(And maybe a little bit subversive and messy, too, hee-hee!)
:D
Okay, I'm sure you're tired of hearing me whine about writing and my career and blah, blah, blah, but this is MY blog and it has all but replaced my personal journal (I have NEVER kept a diary, btw, it has always been a JOURNAL) so I'm gonna ramble on about anything I like.
:P
So anyway... Brian and I haven't had much success writing his movie, and I haven't had much success writing either of my movies or my novel.
Writing is generally a solitary process, and in that sense I'm not a writer.
I grew up (starting at age 11) in the theatre. Our theatre troupe was a community theatre and we each did EVERYTHING. We constructed the sets, painted the sets, fished out props from the shop, fished out costumes from the shops, bought costume pieces for our role, sometimes made costume pieces for our role, rehearsed together, pulled curtains for each other, helped transition between sets when we weren't off stage, worked lights, worked sound effects, stage managed if we weren't right for any of the parts in a particular play, were therapists for each other when Life threatened to overwhelm one of us, were cronies when there was a reason to celebrate, stood just in the wings and danced naked or partially naked for each other to try to crack the on-stage actors up, dated each other's ex-girlfriends, fought with each other, made-up with each other, fought alongside each other, fought on behalf of each other, then when the play was over we tore down the sets with each other and went out into the Real World and got into trouble with each other.
I'm a TEAM player, not really a solo act.
So in that sense I'm not a writer, I'm a producer. (I work best supporting someone else's creative vision with my own creative insights, so in that sense I'm not really a director, either.)
And so, late last year, I wrote Tommy an impassioned email begging him to find a regular time during which he and Brian and I could meet every week and FINALLY get a feature-length script written.
And, very generously, he agreed.
Now, he's also a daddy and a husband and a generally upstanding member of the community (when he's not with Brian and me, that is, hehe) and so he had to juggle some things around.
TODAY he showed up to visit, and announced that he would be doing so EVERY Monday!!!
It took him almost a month and a half to work out the logistics, but it looks like WE'RE GONNA BE WRITING A MOVIE!!!
This makes me INDESCRIBABLY EXCITED!!! I've known for the better part of a year now that when we get a script that's good enough to make a competitive movie, we may very well be able to find financing for it. And so I thought "I'll just crank out scripts until we find one Tommy wants to direct, and we're in business."
But "cranking out scripts" is a bit of a hassle when you haven't yet figured out what you do well and what you don't. That is to say that in spite of 14 years of study, I don't yet know my writing strengths and weaknesses, specifically. The horror script I wrote at the end of last year revealed -- quite surprisingly -- that even when I think I have a tight, commercial (meaning "people WANT TO see it" and not necessarily "will make me rich") idea I may not be NEARLY as close as I imagined. (And that's one of the dirty li'l secrets about storytelling -- if people don't want to hear the story, no one is gonna notice how well it's told.)
But whenever Brian and Tommy and I collaborate, the results -- probably due to our 3 unique perspectives -- tend to be quite good. And even though I'm usually the guy who sits down and writes the pages (I am good at that, I don't mind taking credit for that) it seems to take all 3 of us to create all the IDEAS that go down on those pages.
I could write a 120-page story that is correctly formatted and keeps you turning pages. That's part of my gift. I've done it many times before. But after you read the words "The End" and close the script, are you excited about what you just read? Or do you go "Oh, okay" and forget just about every single word you read?
When I'm writing on my own I tend to fill hundreds of pages with forgettable -- though cleverly-chosen and well-crafted -- words. And that DOES NOT a filmmaking career make.
But because of our past work experiences, I truly believe that with the (Un-)Holy Triumvirate we have a REAL shot at being allowed to quit our "day jobs"!
So today may turn out to be a landmark day for us!!!
At the very least, I'm enjoying the possibilities that today has opened up for us! I mean, Life might step in the way and derail our efforts (once again) and tell us it's not yet time for us to unleash our movies onto a poor, unsuspecting civilization.
HOWEVER... until it does I will simply and joyously celebrate the fact that all the players are currently in place for what could very well be the beginning of something very, very beautiful!
(And maybe a little bit subversive and messy, too, hee-hee!)
:D
Thursday, February 08, 2007
SPACED Rewlz!!!
(Had to fight myself from calling this entry "I've Been SPACED" or --- wince -- "SPACED-Out". I'm not proud of this.)
I finally saw SPACED yesterday!!! Both series!!!
There's a story behind this...
Okay, a couple of years ago my Cool Friends -- some folks at work who know much more about foriegn films than I do -- turned me on to SHAUN OF THE DEAD and I finally saw it.
AND LOVED IT!!!
As I'm sure you know by now, SHAUN is this British Romero-style zombie comedy that is both a brilliant and original zombie movie and a hysterical and original comedy flick! In fact, one could argue that it actually fits in with Romero's cannon of zombie flicks -- which chronicle the epidemic of living dead taking over Philadelphia; only SHAUN just shows us what's going on across the Atlantic. (If one were nerdy enough TO argue this point, that is. I, of course, am that nerdy. In fact, that would be a cool marathon sometime: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, DAY OF THE DEAD, SHAUN OF THE DEAD and then LAND OF THE DEAD... Just 'cause LAND feels a bit more futuristic than the rest, but SHAUN certainluy feels more contemporary than DAY.)
So then my ultra-hip friends informed me that the director and star/co-writer of SHAUN actually had a Britcom called SPACED. My friend Pete let me watch the first 3 episodes of Series 1...
...and I enjoyed it...
...and then I learned that it would NEVER be released in the States!!!
EVER!!!
It's already on dvd in the UK, but apparently they're having problems with the music rights or something, so it will just never be available here. I've read that BBC America is airing it -- or has recently aired it or something -- but I don't have cable. And our cable company, Time Warner Cable -- who are complete and utter tyranical BASTARDS and charge out the ass for their service because they have no competition in Austin (BASTARDS!!! May the company go bankrupt and it's owners burn both on earth and in hell for their parasitic feeding off the meager wages of the Working Man and Woman!!!) -- would undoubtedly charge at least half my monthly income for any cable package that included BBC America.
So I was half-resigned to the fact that I would probably never see the show.
(Time Warner Cable are BASTARDS and should all suffer debilitating sexual diseases that prevent them from ever again knowing the pleasure of physical intimacy with another human being!!! Bastards!!!)
(Sorry. I'm done.)
(Bastards!!! Hate them!!!)
But anyway (BASTARDS!!!) I discovered a few days ago that ALL 7 EPISODES FROM BOTH SERIES (14 episodes, total) ARE AVAILABLE TO WATCH ONLINE!!!
So despite the fact that Time Warner Cable, Austin should be smited (or "smote"... whichever) with excruciating physical, emotional and psychological pain that never eases even temporarily and never ceases, I WAS ABLE TO WATCH EVERY EPISODE OF SPACED!!!
YAY!!!
When I watched the first 3 episodes a couple years ago I had not seen the show SCRUBS, either. But now that I've seen most of SCRUBS I couldn't help wondering whether or not the tone and style of SCRUBS was inspired by SPACED. I remember being a bit confused and taken a-back by the way the narrative bounced around. But when I re-watched the first 3 episodes of SPACED (after having consumed HUGE quanitities of SCRUBS) I found the narraive bouncing to be refreshing and easy to follow.
AND... SPACED first aired in 1999 and SCRUBS didn't come along until 2001. (And I'll bet TV show creators can afford a few hundred dollars a month to watch Britcoms on whatever fascist cable companies they're enslaved to.)
I mean, it may be a coincidence, but I'll confess that the only reason I didn't have the instant urge to write something in the style of SPACED is because I'm already working on a couple of projects in the style of SCRUBS -- which, as I already meantioned, is identical in style and tone.
So if you've got a buddy who knows where to find complete TV shows on the Net and you can spare about 7 hours DO WATCH SPACED!!! It is unbelievably funny!!!
It's about Tim and Daisy who pretend to be a "professional couple" to get a flat in London. And, naturally, the more they get to know each other the more they seem simply PERFECT for each other... even if neither of them is willing to admit it, even to themselves.
But it's not about the possibility for romance. That's just sort of those little candy bits on the icing on a really good cake. The reason for watching the show is how FUNNY these characters are! Not just Tim and Daisy but also their landlord, Tim's best friend, Daisy's (annoying) best friend and their downstairs neighbor!
And the director -- Edgar Wright -- is really just as much a character as the chracters are! What I mean is that the WAY the show is shot and edited adds just as much as the writers and actors contribute! (Think SCRUBS, or THE ADDAMS FAMILY movies or the first MiB movie or Soderberg's OCEANS ELEVEN...) If you've seen SHAUN, you know what I'm talking about anyway.
Oh, and another cool thing about the show is that it's written by the stars, Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson! This is cool (for a nerd like me) because one of my other favorite Britcoms is FAWLTY TOWERS written by it's stars John Cleese and Connie Booth!!! (Although Cleese and Booth were married when they did FAWLTY TOWERS, I believe. To my knowlege Pegg and Stevenson haven't even dated.)
So that little connection is kinda cool, hehe. :D
Okay, I should probably get back to work. It's a slow night, but I've allowed myself to slack for as long as I dare, hee-hee.
P.S. The owners and managers of Time Warner Cable, Austin should seriously consider taking their own lives in a vicious and excruciating manner AFTER having sliced-off/-out their genitals and consumed them.
Just an opinion.
Greedy and satanic fucking BASTARDS!!!
I finally saw SPACED yesterday!!! Both series!!!
There's a story behind this...
Okay, a couple of years ago my Cool Friends -- some folks at work who know much more about foriegn films than I do -- turned me on to SHAUN OF THE DEAD and I finally saw it.
AND LOVED IT!!!
As I'm sure you know by now, SHAUN is this British Romero-style zombie comedy that is both a brilliant and original zombie movie and a hysterical and original comedy flick! In fact, one could argue that it actually fits in with Romero's cannon of zombie flicks -- which chronicle the epidemic of living dead taking over Philadelphia; only SHAUN just shows us what's going on across the Atlantic. (If one were nerdy enough TO argue this point, that is. I, of course, am that nerdy. In fact, that would be a cool marathon sometime: NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, DAWN OF THE DEAD, DAY OF THE DEAD, SHAUN OF THE DEAD and then LAND OF THE DEAD... Just 'cause LAND feels a bit more futuristic than the rest, but SHAUN certainluy feels more contemporary than DAY.)
So then my ultra-hip friends informed me that the director and star/co-writer of SHAUN actually had a Britcom called SPACED. My friend Pete let me watch the first 3 episodes of Series 1...
...and I enjoyed it...
...and then I learned that it would NEVER be released in the States!!!
EVER!!!
It's already on dvd in the UK, but apparently they're having problems with the music rights or something, so it will just never be available here. I've read that BBC America is airing it -- or has recently aired it or something -- but I don't have cable. And our cable company, Time Warner Cable -- who are complete and utter tyranical BASTARDS and charge out the ass for their service because they have no competition in Austin (BASTARDS!!! May the company go bankrupt and it's owners burn both on earth and in hell for their parasitic feeding off the meager wages of the Working Man and Woman!!!) -- would undoubtedly charge at least half my monthly income for any cable package that included BBC America.
So I was half-resigned to the fact that I would probably never see the show.
(Time Warner Cable are BASTARDS and should all suffer debilitating sexual diseases that prevent them from ever again knowing the pleasure of physical intimacy with another human being!!! Bastards!!!)
(Sorry. I'm done.)
(Bastards!!! Hate them!!!)
But anyway (BASTARDS!!!) I discovered a few days ago that ALL 7 EPISODES FROM BOTH SERIES (14 episodes, total) ARE AVAILABLE TO WATCH ONLINE!!!
So despite the fact that Time Warner Cable, Austin should be smited (or "smote"... whichever) with excruciating physical, emotional and psychological pain that never eases even temporarily and never ceases, I WAS ABLE TO WATCH EVERY EPISODE OF SPACED!!!
YAY!!!
When I watched the first 3 episodes a couple years ago I had not seen the show SCRUBS, either. But now that I've seen most of SCRUBS I couldn't help wondering whether or not the tone and style of SCRUBS was inspired by SPACED. I remember being a bit confused and taken a-back by the way the narrative bounced around. But when I re-watched the first 3 episodes of SPACED (after having consumed HUGE quanitities of SCRUBS) I found the narraive bouncing to be refreshing and easy to follow.
AND... SPACED first aired in 1999 and SCRUBS didn't come along until 2001. (And I'll bet TV show creators can afford a few hundred dollars a month to watch Britcoms on whatever fascist cable companies they're enslaved to.)
I mean, it may be a coincidence, but I'll confess that the only reason I didn't have the instant urge to write something in the style of SPACED is because I'm already working on a couple of projects in the style of SCRUBS -- which, as I already meantioned, is identical in style and tone.
So if you've got a buddy who knows where to find complete TV shows on the Net and you can spare about 7 hours DO WATCH SPACED!!! It is unbelievably funny!!!
It's about Tim and Daisy who pretend to be a "professional couple" to get a flat in London. And, naturally, the more they get to know each other the more they seem simply PERFECT for each other... even if neither of them is willing to admit it, even to themselves.
But it's not about the possibility for romance. That's just sort of those little candy bits on the icing on a really good cake. The reason for watching the show is how FUNNY these characters are! Not just Tim and Daisy but also their landlord, Tim's best friend, Daisy's (annoying) best friend and their downstairs neighbor!
And the director -- Edgar Wright -- is really just as much a character as the chracters are! What I mean is that the WAY the show is shot and edited adds just as much as the writers and actors contribute! (Think SCRUBS, or THE ADDAMS FAMILY movies or the first MiB movie or Soderberg's OCEANS ELEVEN...) If you've seen SHAUN, you know what I'm talking about anyway.
Oh, and another cool thing about the show is that it's written by the stars, Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson! This is cool (for a nerd like me) because one of my other favorite Britcoms is FAWLTY TOWERS written by it's stars John Cleese and Connie Booth!!! (Although Cleese and Booth were married when they did FAWLTY TOWERS, I believe. To my knowlege Pegg and Stevenson haven't even dated.)
So that little connection is kinda cool, hehe. :D
Okay, I should probably get back to work. It's a slow night, but I've allowed myself to slack for as long as I dare, hee-hee.
P.S. The owners and managers of Time Warner Cable, Austin should seriously consider taking their own lives in a vicious and excruciating manner AFTER having sliced-off/-out their genitals and consumed them.
Just an opinion.
Greedy and satanic fucking BASTARDS!!!
Monday, February 05, 2007
Finally Saw PULSE!!!
Can't wait to buy it on dvd, hehe! Good flick!
Also, Brian and I watched THE BROTHERS GRIMME last night, and he watched THIS MOVIE IS NOT YET RATED (my 2nd time to watch it).
And I've actually sat down while Brian was watching some Classic TREK and let the show suck me in! hee-hee :D It really is a great show! Some episodes are this brilliant mix of 1960s over-acting, low-budget special effects, and just BRILLIANT writing! Classic Trek satisfies the little kid in me who enjoys cheesy low-budget AND the snob in me who wants his entertainment to be deep and profound!
Oh! AND... I took a vacation day yesterday so I could celebrate Gnomey's birthday with her! I got to spend time with her before I went to sleep Sat morning just as she was getting ready for her birthday party, then I got to spend time with her before she went to sleep!!! It was really nice! :D
And while I was waiting for her to wake up (Sunday morning) I watched AMERICAN PIE: THE NAKED MILE, lol. Cute flick. Fun! Plenty of naked people, which is always a good thing! And it sort of has the heart of the first flick.
I wonder if the AMERICAN PIE movies are THE most successful straight-to-dvd sequels in the market place. Because you see these sequels in your video store -- usually sequels to movies based on Stephen King stories -- and you wonder if they make much money. But then when the last 2 AP sequels came out I saw them advertised on TV A LOT and I see them at Walmart and Best Buy... So I wonder if maybe the AP people figured out how to make money off of straight-to-dvd features.
That would be a new way to break into the film business...
Obviously Disney's straight-to-dvd features make tons of money, but that's because "Disney movies" are their own sub-genre of Family Films. Walt created legendary, iconic movies that have managed to become part of our coming-of-age process. So I consider Disney's s-t-d movies a different phenomenon entirely.
I think the secret is QUALITY, personally.
Usually when you rent RETURN TO SALEM'S LOT or THE PROPHECY 8: THE EVIL ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN or whatever, the movies themselves aren't that well done at all. (If they were halfway decent the studios that made them would have distributed them theatrically. DIRTY DANCING was meant to be either a TV movie or a direct-to-VHS movie or something, I've heard, but it was so good the studio released it in theaters and made a killing.)
I think up until now, studios hired crap filmmakers to do the straight-to-video sequels just because they knew they'd make SOME money. Or maybe they'd pay to have the film made, and when it turned out to be crap they decided to save the advertising costs and just sold it to Blockbuster and whoever else they could pawn it off on.
But I think there's definitely a much richer talent pool among filmmakers nowadays, and -- sadly -- the studios are killing theatrical releases by putting out more blockbusters each season than people can possibly afford (with their money AND with their time) to go see.
Blah.
This is me going on. I don't have some big, clever finish to this riff. Just putting my thoughts out there.
Ooh! HEROES and STUDIO 60 come on tonight! (And, speaking earlier of PULSE, VERONICA MARS airs tomorrow night!)
I'll have to wait until iTunes downloads my episodes for me, but I'll be watching them soon!!!
Also, Brian and I watched THE BROTHERS GRIMME last night, and he watched THIS MOVIE IS NOT YET RATED (my 2nd time to watch it).
And I've actually sat down while Brian was watching some Classic TREK and let the show suck me in! hee-hee :D It really is a great show! Some episodes are this brilliant mix of 1960s over-acting, low-budget special effects, and just BRILLIANT writing! Classic Trek satisfies the little kid in me who enjoys cheesy low-budget AND the snob in me who wants his entertainment to be deep and profound!
Oh! AND... I took a vacation day yesterday so I could celebrate Gnomey's birthday with her! I got to spend time with her before I went to sleep Sat morning just as she was getting ready for her birthday party, then I got to spend time with her before she went to sleep!!! It was really nice! :D
And while I was waiting for her to wake up (Sunday morning) I watched AMERICAN PIE: THE NAKED MILE, lol. Cute flick. Fun! Plenty of naked people, which is always a good thing! And it sort of has the heart of the first flick.
I wonder if the AMERICAN PIE movies are THE most successful straight-to-dvd sequels in the market place. Because you see these sequels in your video store -- usually sequels to movies based on Stephen King stories -- and you wonder if they make much money. But then when the last 2 AP sequels came out I saw them advertised on TV A LOT and I see them at Walmart and Best Buy... So I wonder if maybe the AP people figured out how to make money off of straight-to-dvd features.
That would be a new way to break into the film business...
Obviously Disney's straight-to-dvd features make tons of money, but that's because "Disney movies" are their own sub-genre of Family Films. Walt created legendary, iconic movies that have managed to become part of our coming-of-age process. So I consider Disney's s-t-d movies a different phenomenon entirely.
I think the secret is QUALITY, personally.
Usually when you rent RETURN TO SALEM'S LOT or THE PROPHECY 8: THE EVIL ANGELS TAKE MANHATTAN or whatever, the movies themselves aren't that well done at all. (If they were halfway decent the studios that made them would have distributed them theatrically. DIRTY DANCING was meant to be either a TV movie or a direct-to-VHS movie or something, I've heard, but it was so good the studio released it in theaters and made a killing.)
I think up until now, studios hired crap filmmakers to do the straight-to-video sequels just because they knew they'd make SOME money. Or maybe they'd pay to have the film made, and when it turned out to be crap they decided to save the advertising costs and just sold it to Blockbuster and whoever else they could pawn it off on.
But I think there's definitely a much richer talent pool among filmmakers nowadays, and -- sadly -- the studios are killing theatrical releases by putting out more blockbusters each season than people can possibly afford (with their money AND with their time) to go see.
Blah.
This is me going on. I don't have some big, clever finish to this riff. Just putting my thoughts out there.
Ooh! HEROES and STUDIO 60 come on tonight! (And, speaking earlier of PULSE, VERONICA MARS airs tomorrow night!)
I'll have to wait until iTunes downloads my episodes for me, but I'll be watching them soon!!!
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