It All Began After We Got There

Yes, I knew it would happen though I really did.

We left town around 2p.m. for a OKC Hornets game. Well when we arrived in OKC my friend and co-worker wanted to stop by a Sam's Club to get a infared trash can, I kid you not.

No I'm not worried that he might read this. He doesn't own a home pc nor would he know what a blog was, even if he read it. I also don't believe that anyone I work with knows that I write this blog or that I even exist for that matter.....

Anyway after TWO Sam's Club visits failed to produce the desired and now elusive infared trash can/gonna be post Christmas present my friend Bub suggested that we get a drink now that we had three hours to kill before tip off.

Did I mention that we didn't have tickets yet?

Anyway we stop off at a place that he claims to frequent when he is in OKC, however he had never been there this early in the day. It was about 4 p.m. by this point.

We entered The Playhouse, yes it was a titty bar. Now I have nothing against a good titty bar however I know the game after having plenty of long conversations with former strippers and I know going in that they are working. I am nothing more than a mark to them to get them free drinks, food, drugs, or money. I have no illusions that they like me or their job for that matter which puts us with something in common ironically.

So we walk in and I have to use the restroom since I have had a full bottle of water on the trip down and couldn't find one in either of the two Sam's Clubs that we visited previously. So Bub pays my cover charge and I ask where the men's room is. The music is pretty loud and I see him saying something, possibly drink related, I hold up my finger in a "I'll be right back" fashion and by the time I'm finished he has purchased me a yellowish drink.

Now anyone who knows me knows what I drink when I drink is a Tequila Sunrise, unless it is a occasion that I drink wine with my photographer friend or it is unbearably cold out and I fix a hot chocolate with Irish Cream which I have found to be quite warming:) Anyway, we sit down and I notice that the DJ is dressed like Penn Jillette. So I pick up my drink and nearly spit it out, I am not sure what Bub ordered for me at this point but I am sure that it is very sour and has practically no alcohol in it.

I am starting to rethink my decision to use my "I'll be right back" finger.

So I content myself with watching the game on TV between Boise State and Boston College....much to my dismay a stripper comes and sits down at our table. She asks my friend's name, he replies "Bub" to which she replies "Bug"?

I again nearly spit out the mystery drink.

"Bub" he replies again closer to her head and much louder this time....he then tells her my name which reminds me to take a baseball bat to Bub's knees at sometime in the future. So she then looks at me and I turn on my "Don't even think about touching me" vibe and she latches onto Bub's arm and starts to stroke his thigh.

I hated to do that to him however better him than me in this case. She chats him up while I continue to watch the bowl game while another stripper on stage has climbed to the top of the stripper pole and is trying to get my attention. I glance in that direction just in time to see her slip and bang her head with a audible thunk on the stage.

I again nearly spit out the mystery drink.

I don't think that is exactly what she was going for but I was amused....probably not as amused as the other four or five patrons in the club but I smiled to myself anyway while the stripper at our table had now started to sing the lyrics to whatever song it was that was playing....and now was even more involved with Bub's lap. I decided that it was time to get myself and Bub another drink. A Bud Light for him and a Tequila Sunrise for me. So I get up and head over to the bar and order said drinks. He pops the cap off of the beer and gets a glass for my drink. He puts the ice in, the Tequila, and then the orange juice....and then some other kind of juice that might have been cranberry juice....which is wrong and not very tasty....and then the grenadine on top of that.
At this point I was sure of one other thing....these drinks were expensive.

Nine dollars later I return to the table to see that the stripper has conned Bub out of a shot. So I sit back down and try to enjoy my butchered drink when the crackhead stripper at our table starts to yell at a guy who is trying to tip a dancer....the poor guy looks around to see the crackhead at our table yelling that she is going to divorce him.....seven or eight times.

I don't think the stripper on stage was amused but it did look like she had recovered from the rough landing on the stage.

The crackhead finished her shot and said she was going to dance next and was probably going to have some heavy metal played by Penn Jillette because it was time to get this party started. She asked Bub several times if he was going to watch her dance next....did I mention several times she asked this? So she says she will be back in a minute and goes and talks to Penn.

She walks back by the table and again mentions that she is up next and if Bub is going to watch her dance....I kid you not.

Well she gets on stage to the tune of Journey......yeah, time to get this party started.

So I again go back to my second mystery drink while Bub watches his new crackhead stripper friend dance.....while I again try to watch the bowl game.

So a few strippers later and the crackhead didn't show back up....which was nice. Bub tells me that after I finish my drink we'll leave and go find tickets to the game. Two big gulps and a very nasty drink disappeared.

So we head downtown and I get out in front of the Ford Center while Bub finds a parking place. I go in to the box office find out that they are sold out and catch up with Bub at the end of the block. I tell him the bad news and we decide to park and find something to eat and try to find a scalper before the game starts. So we head to Bricktown and eat while nothing very interesting happens. It was a good meal. We locate a scalper and purchase two tickets thirteen rows off of the floor for fifty dollars apiece. They were good seats behind the home goal. Which resulted in something cool!

We got to have the balloons that the fans wave while the opposing team is shooting free throws, which tonight was the Houston Rockets. We win with 1.9 seconds left on the clock 92-90.

All in all a very interesting and fun day even though the crackhead was the highlight of the day.

My Season Is Over

Yes my friends. It is true. The Predators scored a paltry 13 points this past weekend thus ending my run at the semi-final level.

There isn't much more to say about it really....it has been a season of good games and horrible games. I had a good winning streak for a while but had a dismal start.

Now my friends I hope that the Christmas Holidays have been very good for you. I hope you found that you enjoyed both giving and receiving gracefully. My days off have been fairly productive! I have given lots of thought to my friend's project. She has been working many hours over the past couple of weeks so there hasn't been much time devoted to collaborating as of yet. However she says that that will change within a couple of weeks.

I am excited about this development. As for Locker I plan on working with my producer friend to get the DVD problem worked out. I know he has been super busy with his business and has been working on the project on the side. I really can't ask for more as he has even spent an entire night and worked at his business the entire next day. How can you ask more from a person than that?

Merry Christmas!!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

My Fantasy Season Is Quickly Ending Today And Nothing

I'm getting beat 34-8 right now while most of the games are rolling around to the third quarter. Yes my friends it looks like my season is going to end in the semi-finals of the playoffs.

It isn't what I wanted to happen but it looks like no one is wanting to score today. I had to play Jerry Porter over Marvin Harrison since Harrison is being rested today and didn't make the trip to Seattle.

Yeah, it is over.

I did my Christmas shopping this morning. I'm working on one gift still and might be for another day or so.

There isn't much to report in filmmaking news. I am off next week as I have said earlier so I am hoping that I can get Locker on DVD finished and shipped out. That is my goal....well has been my goal but you all know the problems that have cropped up.

I have seen a very good or funny movie but you are probably familiar with how I write my reviews by now. I try to keep away from any plot points if at all possible and try not to discuss anything related to the movie except how I felt about it. I hate spoilers so that really makes for some strange reading sometimes.

Believe me it would be easier to write a regular review and go through the whole story other than the essentials that I try to post....and I really want to get into the plot and the meaning of this movie. This movie really made me want to discuss it after watching it.

Well the movie is called Nothing and essentially it is about a couple of life long friends who live with one another and when their world starts to encroach on their peaceful existence, people start to disappear. Not like that, in a more creative and hilarious way that had me laughing in its cleverness and wit. They discover that hate is a powerful emotion and it can lead to things that you may not anticipate.

Nothing is a brilliant indie feature from the director of Cube. Watch it, you won't be upset about it and you will probably hate things a little bit less.

Last Night's Christmas Party

Allow me to set the context for last night's party. This is a very slow time of year where I work and we are encouraged to take the week off between Christmas and New Year's Day.

There just isn't a lot happening and therefore no reason to be there. So this year we get a Friday and two consecutive Monday's off paid and then we take vacation the other four days which gives you a total of eleven days off for the cost of four days. Yeah, it is a bargain! Eleven days that I don't have to be at work, woohoooo!!!

Well today is the first day off so last night we got together at a local club to celebrate not having to go to work because of the holidays! I love this time of year!

So there I am last night surrounded by some very fine people I have known for quite a few years now. I confess that I did tip maybe a couple too many in my celebratory glee. However it was a blast and a fine way to start the vacation!

I did do a couple of drunk emails and a drunk call....so not too bad.

I have finished my Christmas shopping and I am ready for the holidays:)

The next couple of weeks with my friend's project should prove to be interesting as we have started the pre-production research stage to determine the symbolism of her subject. I'll post more once I have obtained her permission to write about it:)

.....Well Second Place

Which is worth 20 dollars.

The team that got first had 35 going into last night and had two players. His players did the job and captured first overall which is good. He is a friend of mine and his team hasn't had a good year.

I'll have to call him today and tell him that he won some money this week! He'll be happy about that!

In the new project, I will be calling my friend today. She has been working many hours lately and apologized for not being in touch with me recently about her project.

A Win Plus First Place!

I won my heads up playoff match up this week 48-45 and captured first place this week which is worth 40 dollars!

Not bad for a team that started out being lucky to score in double digits!

Things seem to be rolling so far, next up is the division championship and then the Super Bowl!

Week 15

My fantasy team is now in second place in my division.
They have really picked it up lately and are riding a three game winning streak.

After yesterdays games I have zero points and five tie breaker points. No big deal, I didn't have anyone playing except for my tie breaker!

My opponent, the Eagles have zero points and also had a WR playing. So going into today he is a player down!

I have a good shot at advancing today!

King Kong

Yeah that's right. King Kong.

It was everything I thought it would be and just a bit more.

My friends you have probably noticed that when I write about something I've seen I try very hard not to mention a whole lot about the story itself and just mention the look or the feel of a movie rather than the actual contents if at all possible.

I try to mention what I get out of it without spoiling it for anyone else.

So now I have made a hot chocolate on this sub 30 degree evening and added a bit of Irish cream to add a bit of....flavor;) I've given some thought about what I experienced while watching King Kong and what I wanted to write about it.

So here it is. It is a good movie. Lots of cgi. Had some touching moments and some tedious scenes but overall I thought is was a love story.

There were some great fight scenes and Skull Island looked incredible and menacing. There was a very touching scene between Naomi Watts and Kong towards the end that to me really cemented the love story. The tragic part is of course seen from a mile away but since this is a remake it isn't a surprise to anyone.

I do believe that the holiday season was the wrong time of the year to release such a epic movie though....and make no mistake about it. Kong is a epic movie. This is truly Lord of the Rings/Gladiator modern epic caliber.

While I didn't experience the emotional pain that I did while watching the 1933 original climax, it was still moving and a emotional experience. What was odd though was that what was done in 1933 was a smallish stop motion model and the modern Kong was a CGI enhanced multi-million dollar creation and I still felt more for the original Kong when he fell than I did for the modern one despite the very touching and happy scene I mentioned above.

I enjoyed it.

I didn't enjoy the previews. Miami Vice and the Poseidon Adventure are going to be out next year in remake form. Now I can appreciate the irony of my comments since Kong has been remade twice however I covered that in a earlier post.

Miami Vice and The Poseidon Adventure are unforgivable.

Haunted With Color

Imagine for a minute a film that blurs the line between living and dying. Of color and grayscale. That takes the beauty of a immense, beautiful landscape and washes the color from it. That dances with ghosts and living beings of tragic circumstance.

This is the movie Northfork.

Taking place in 1955, it witnesses the death of the town of Northfork by the construction of a hydroelectric dam that will flood the area within days.

A child too sick to travel, a kindly priest, four imaginary friends, and six men in black populate the barren lands of Montana. The film reminded me of a dried rose. Color is still there however it is pale, seemingly fragile to the touch and would crumble into dust. No longer vibrant and supple.

The almost grayscale look brings you closer to the death of the town of Northfork in its last days. It is cold but not uninviting, in fact it is almost friendly, it is haunted. Every minute of this movie is a beautiful metaphor for life and death. The place in between where dreams and breath meet in swirl into the misty comfortable air around you.

It isn't for everyone and everyone who sees it will see something different, but I enjoyed it.

Capote And The Death Of PC On TV!

Monday a friend and I went to see Capote. It is a very powerful movie. Phillip Seymour Hoffman seemed to channel the late Capote for this role.

There is no justice at the Oscars if Hoffman doesn't get a nomination. It was a stirring and portrayal of the six years he spent writing In Cold Blood and his relationship with Perry Smith. Smith might have very well been Capote just in another body. They shared so much in common but from what I got they were extremely lonely people.

I'm not commenting on Smith as a innocent or person who invoked sympathy from me. He was a bad guy, a very bad guy. Capote could be a arrogant, condescending, and self centered pain but he wasn't a killer. He was a writer. He took his loneliness and channeled it into one of the most famous novels of its time.

He was stunned with what he found in the persona of Smith. He really did see himself and talked to him for days on end as if trying to get to the bottom of his own soul. He wanted to know what made Smith tick so maybe he could glean a clue as to what made himself tick.

Capote was all of this and more. If you aren't familiar with the crimes of November 1959, don't be too concerned about it. It isn't' necessary to understand what is going on and is covered in great detail. It covers from the morning of the discovery of the Clutter's bodies to the final snap of the rope as Smith is hanged.

That is the serious part of this post.....the other part is a show called The Boondocks. Based on the comic strip, this cartoon inhabits Adult Swim on Sunday evenings. It is the story of a Grandfather who moves his two urban Grandsons to the suburbs. This is a very racy and amazing show that has a lot of humor as it pokes fun at the urban culture. So far it has covered topics such as the R. Kelly trial to a straight laced prosecutor and his prison anal rape phobia.

I really hope this ushers in the death of all things PC on TV. I really do. Anyone who knows me knows that I hate the very idea of political correctness. It is something that could undermine the fabric of this country. It is destructive and corrosive. Shows like The Boondocks show the absurdity of the concept of PC and work diligently to destroy it. I for one am whole heartedly behind it.

I Think I Get To Eat Now!!!!

I have a friend I have talked about on here before. My photographer friend. She is insanely creative and has approaced me with a film idea.

A children's film. I have a few minor details so far but she is going to get me a outline tomorrow and let me work on it and start to flesh it out.

I think this is something I need right now, I know it is. I want to work on something that will come to fruitation and with her help I think that it will gel. She is more creative than I am, I am more practical.

I think more nuts and bolts on something, like how can this be filmed with what we have. She thinks more creatively and can put together situations and scenes in a way I can't.

I'm very excited about this!

I'm Hungry

Here I am....very very hungry.

I ate the last of my left overs yesterday, including some two day old pizza:) So now I've got to get out this morning, when it is all cold and get something to eat.

Now my friends the title is also a metaphor for me as well. I am starving! I'm creatively starving, I need a project that will come together. I need a project, I need a project.

I'm going to be out of town tomorrow so maybe a slight change of scenery will be instrumental to helping me during this time of drought.

No, its nothing like that. Its just hanging out with a friend.

I have a metaphorical morality tale in my mind right now that could evolve into something. I think I just put too many limitations on myself when writing.

I am writing to my budget. I'm writing down to things that I can film around.

Maybe I shouldn't care about that part. Maybe I should just write a 10 million dollar script that has a ton of extras and CGI. Maybe if I did that it might break loose some ideas and get things rolling in a smaller realm?

I'm thinking about a McGriddle this morning, maybe a Egg McMuffin? I always get my dog something like a regular sausage biscuit. He likes that. 6:30 this morning I hear one of my cats howling at my bedroom door. I see a little white paw slipping under the door as if that is going to get my attention and shake the sleepy slumber from my sleepy mind faster than her horrific meow that tells me she is hungry and wants fed NOW!

After my embarrassing early exit last night (honestly my earliest exit in a live tournament since I started playing) I feel I need to get to another tournament and get back into practice. Maybe put some money back into a online account and get back into the swing of things and shake the rust off.

Fantasy Football wise, my team is taking on a team that is about two games behind me. If I lose it will be devastating to my season. I believe the playoffs start next week. I'll have to talk to the Commish and see, the wild cards could possibly start today in fact....

I'll just have to check on that and update tonight or tomorrow.

Well since I am starving and my tummy is growling like my cat wanting fed, I'm heading out now into the cold to satisfy my hunger.....my physical hunger.

Bad Poker Evening

Well it wasn't that bad casue it was worth it to hang out and have a good time. However I was out fairly quickly.

Ten people showed up which is a good sized game for this area. A lot of loose players and a couple rarely folded but they did catch the cards. Meaning that you really couldn't push anyone out of a hand if they had a small piece of it and were drawing to a hand.

I got caught in a bad hand that I should have folded and my aces were cracked by two pair. I went all in and the calling station wouldn't fold his hand and beat me with two pair. It wasn't a bluff but it wasn't a great hand either.

So I came back home after a 30 minute drive....which was nice. I added the portable dock for my Sirius radio pod to my vehicle. So now I can take it from work where the boombox is to my vehicle!

Well today Richard Pryor died. Sirius had a tribute and played his best material so it was a good time out there and back!

He was a very funny and very troubled person. He seemed to have been suffering a lot in the past two decades. I hope he is in a better place.

Poker Night

Well tonight there is a poker tournament I have been invited to. I am familiar with a few of the people I will be playing with and if everyone shows up that is supposed to show up there should be a nice pot to play for.

I haven't played online poker in months now. I am not sure why other than I just felt burned out on online poker. I just took the cash in the accounts out and just never put any back in.

However live poker is something different. I would play this every week if there were a good game around. Now if you are a regular reader of my blog then you know that I have more of a tournament style and don't really enjoy the ring games as much.

I fold 99% of my hands. I win usually 1-3 pots per hour and play maybe 4-6, I'm rarely a chip leader until towards the end. I'm just a tournament style of player.

Anyway there are supposed to be about twenty people attending at $20 bucks per.

Its worth that just for the evening's entertainment....winning will be frosting:)

My Remake Quandry

My friends, anyone who knows me knows that I hate the trend of TV shows being turned into movies. It is a horrible idea and a horrible trend.

The movies are usually done in a way that doesn't respect the original source material. The originals are usually classics that have a large fan following and therefore a large base that theoritically should attract a large box office.

The results are usually mediocre at best.

I refuse to even see any movie based on a TV show. I know that my action won't detract from Hollywood making more of them, it is more principle for me than anything else.

The other nasty trend is the remake fever that seems to be going on as well.

I was deeply saddened today when I saw the amount of planned movies that are going to be remade. I'm not going to list them, the list is huge and with a little searching you can find them too. They make me weep when they try to take some amazing movies on their own right and add a ton of CGI effects and updated dialogue.

They are then under the delusion that it is better. Maybe sometimes it is better, I wouldn't know. I don't see them either if it is at all possible. Usually the movie is worse than the original and ruins it like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Remakes aren't anything new. Frankenstein has been remade more than a few times over. The Hammer version is on the same level as the classic Universal version, I can say that with no problems what so ever. Dracula is the same way. There are countless other remakes that are also too numerous to mention but you understand where I'm coming from.

My quandry is this.

King Kong.

How do you see a movie remake when you are usually opposed to remakes?

You trust such a classic to Peter Jackson who is probably one of the hardest working filmmakers in the world today. He is a obsessive fan of the movie and takes the handling of the film in the most serious of ways.

I have seen and read nearly everything I can find on King Kong and I'm so excited to see this movie I can't describe it! So there you go. I'm such a fanboy of coming movie that I can't help but show it.

It looks like one of the greatest spectacles of all time! I mean this looks like it can be as big as Ben-Hur, The Ten Commandments, or as epic as Lord of the Rings. Well as epic as a single movie can be as opposed to the grand Holy Grail of epic movies. Which used to belong to Star Wars in my book.

Watch out Titanic.....here comes Kong.

Another Victory!

I am now tied for second place in my division. After a 39-25 victory the Predators crawled into this tie and now are poised for the playoffs within the coming weeks.

It is freezing cold out, going to be about 3 tonight. I decided it was a good evening for hot chocolate and Bailey's Irish Cream.

I also picked up the fouth season of 24 this afternoon so my evening is set!

Locker is nearly ready for DVD now, finally! I'm so excited about that and all of the people I've promised copies to should also be happy about it!

I can't be more thankful for their patience.

So now I am going to indulge myself in Jack Bauer's life while sipping some piping hot chocolate with Irish cream in it!

Life is good!

Week 13

If things go well today there will be a three way tie at first in my division. The Predators need to win, beating the second place team and one of my best friends who owns the Mandingos. The River Rats need to lose to fourth place team the Eagles who I beat last week.

That would create the tie. A few weeks ago and after some lackluster performances by my "ace" players I never thought I would be in this position.

Palmer is still my home run hitter and is putting up points every week for the Predators.

We'll see what happens but I feel good about it!

Sundance Rejection

RE: 9637-Locker

Dear XXXXXXXXXX

Thank you for submitting your film to the 2006 Sundance Film Festival. Regretfully, I must inform you that it was not selected by our committee. We appreciate having had the opportunity to view your work, and want you to know the decision was a difficult one, as we saw many more worthy films than we had space for.

I would like to wish you the best of luck with this project and your forthcoming work. I hope you will give the festival the same consideration in the future.

Sincerely,

Geoffrey Gilmore
Director, Sundance Film Festival


Yes my friends this was the biggie.

Let me tell you that it isn't everyone who gets a rejection email from Sundance.

It means something to me.

It means that I have completed a film and sent it to Sundance! It means that I completed something (and paid someone to watch Locker) in the biggest film festival in the US.

So what if it was rejected. Better films than Locker will also be rejected. I'm not upset. I knew this was the likely outcome. What it means is something more than all of that.

It means I had a movie that I made. With my two hands and my fine actors and friends, we put together something that was seen by the people who put together Sundance.

We took a shot my friends. How many people go through life and then say I wish I had....

I've done this before.

Deja vu.

Slamdance Rejection

I received my Slamdance rejection email today.

There's no good to tell you. I could rehash the most volatile moments of the final programming meetings, recounting the gallant attempts to get your film in. I could remind you of the incredibly high number of submissions for the very few amount of slots. Finally, I could offer solidarity, revealing that I got a rejection myself yesterday and another on Friday. But I can assume none of this really matters.

This year Slamdance received more narrative features than we ever have before. We saw such an eclectic mix of films. Thank you so much for submitting to Slamdance. I sincerely hope you will continue to send us any future projects. I wish you the best with your ongoing festival applications.

Congratulations on making a film!

Warm Regards,
Sarah Diamond

--
Sarah Diamond
Director of Programming
Slamdance Film Festival



This simply means that at least one other person has seen it since my last rejection!

I'm very happy about that. Honestly I really am.

It is no secret that I have been creatively dry lately but today I think I might have hit upon a idea that would develop very quickly into a script. A full length script.

Deja vu.

I've done this before.

A Win!

And second place overall to go with it!
With Marvin Harrison scoring on a 80 yard play from scrimage he got me 12 points! He had over 125 yards total receiving so that added points as well for a grand total of 70 for the Predators!

That gave me a payday this week as first overall had 73.

Not bad for a team who could barely score double digits in the beginning of the season.

I almost feel like I'm on auto pilot this morning. I know that I'll drive the same route to go to the quick shop to get my coffee and get my coffee card stamped.

It's Tuesday.

DVD Tuesday. I'll probably look over a couple of new releases at lunch and then head back to work again.

I've done this before.

Deja vu.

Week 12 Update

I'm a TD down. I lead nearly all of yesterday by a sizeable amount until my weekly matchup went off with a outstanding Seattle performance.

Donte Stallworth came through to put me at 5 points down to winning my weekly matchup. I have Marvin Harrison tonight. I trail 55 to 60.

The other team is done. If Marvin scores one TD I win 61-60 and collect a weekly payday at probably second place overall for the week.

Overall I feel that Marvin will come through for me. Things are working well right now, even with Locker. I have a plan B if plan A doesn't happen this week.

Hopefully plan A happens though!

Week 12

I have a good start on week 12 so far. I started Keyshawn Thanksgiving Day and he got a score!

I think I'm in good shape overall. I started the Bengals D over the Steelers D purely on a matchup.
I believe that Cinncy will have a better time against a poor Baltimore Offense rather than the Pittsburgh D vs. the explosive Indy Offense on Monday night.

We'll see!

Pretty Good Weekend So Far!

Thanksgiving was good.

I didn't even think about getting out on Black Friday.

Picked up some DVDs today and some lunch since I finished off the last of the leftovers today.

King Kong finally came out on DVD this past week. Yes the original. The glorious 1933 original! If you watch this movie today you will see some amazing technical achievements that to this day are fun to watch. I can't get enough of this movie! Son of Kong was great and really expanded upon the potential of Kong and Mighty Joe Young was an improvement on that story wise.

All of them had one thing in common though they inspired Ray Harryhausen: Genius.

I have spent hours upon hours watching in amazement as his creations lumbered, crawled, flew, and danced across the screen. Battling everything from Elephants to San Francisco. Mr. Harryhausen's contribution to filmmaking can never be overstated.

Now to Locker news. My new opening is going to work, however the .AVI file of the credits is showing up blank for some reason now. I can't tell you how frustrating this is for me.

I was supposed to have copies done and sent out two weeks ago but these tiny technical glitches keep holding up production.

It will get done.

One Of The Best Ever!

Last night I watched Gonzaga beat Michigan State in triple overtime! That was one of the best college games I have ever had the had the privlege to watch!

It makes me hope that this will be an amazing season for college hoops and that the next game the Zags play, is better! They play the third ranked Conneticut Huskies in the Maui Invitational tonight in the final!

The semi-final had everything you could ask for in a game. Heart, determination, a will to win, and plenty of toughness! Honestly you could not ask for more!

Anybody who knows me knows that I am a big fan of the USBL and particually the Storm. I have seen some amazing games because it is minor league. These guys don't know what it is like to play for millions of dollars and know that if they are going to play for a NBA team they need to prove that they have the game it takes.

The USBL is the league of opportunity. Players who aren't drafted come to this league to develop their style and game to a higher level. If you want to see basketball in its purest pro form catch a game. You won't be sorry you did.

You will know that every player out there is making what you make a week or less but are playing for the future. They aren't rich and they aren't famous. They play for you, the fan, and they give all that they have.

How could you ask for more?

A Win!

Yes my friends, The Predators rolled to a victory yesterday and have a shot at third place overall this week!

That puts me in the money for the week!

That is nice but I have to be honest right now and tell you all that I just don't have a shootable idea right now and I'm very frustrated about it.

I have written down a few ideas but there just isn't much that is coming together for me right now.

I am not the kind that just waits for inspiration to hit me and try to write something anyway but the ideas I am writing just aren't working right now.

Week 11

I have a good shot at starting my winning streak again this week. The Predators will be full strength and I have some favorable matchups.

Of course we'll see how things wind up tonight since I don't have any players going tomorrow night but I feel good!

I have some laundry to do heading into this short holiday week. This is a good thing, I can use a four day weekend right about now. Hopefully the duplication problems will be solved tomorrow or Tuesday and I can use those extra days to roll out as many copies as I need to send out!

I have promised a lot of people copies and have yet to be able to fulfill those promises. I will fulfill them though.

December is nearly here and so is 2006. I have a great feeling about December and the upcoming year! I feel a lot of changes around the corner and heading my way.

Locker News

There has been a huge problem in making the ISO file in which we duplicate the DVD copies I am going to send out to the cast and distributors.

Well my producer is working on the problem and has ordered a new firewire card which should solve things and get them rolling!

He has worked very hard on this project and even pulled a all nighter for it. I can't thank him enough.

This has been a long week for me, lots of emotional ups and downs, I do believe the next couple of months will hold what I've been working towards for a long time now! Everything looks bright and I can't wait to get there!

Just As I Thought

My first loss was at hand, breaking a nice winning streak.

Unless Keyshawn can score about 30 points by himself tonight I will be at .500.

I cut Mewelde Moore and picked up Duce Staley. I hate the RB by committee situation but I needed a RB that was going to carry a larger part of the load than Moore.

In other news, this is the final day of my first four day weekend in the next couple of weeks!

Yes I get another four day weekend over Thanksgiving!
I love this time of year but Novembers tend to be hard on me. One of my good friends has gone back to Korea after a very nice visit but he'll be back in February! I'm looking forward to working on his fan film project! He really has some good ideas on the potential of a fan film and especially this fan film.

The best is yet to come my friends!

Locker News

After a lot of work, Locker is now able to be duplicated!

Yeah I was planning on last week for that to happen but I'm happy that it took a little bit longer to look better.

I am hoping to be able to start sending out the copies to the distributors and my cast within days now!

Yeah I know I've said that before but this time is different, there is something to ship!

Fantasy news is this, I'm predicting my winning streak to end this weekend, I have two questionable RBs and both of my QBs are on bye weeks. I might make a pick up if someone is there I can use for a week while Carson Palmer is off but we'll see.

Saw II.....Same Movie Higher Body Count

Yes it has more of a budget and it even had more cast members minus the expendable and stupid plot device of Danny Glover.

Saw II was essentially the same movie. It had lots of quick cuts to disguise the lack of action on screen. They really tired me out after awhile and I was yawning about half way though the devious devices that the writers conjured up for the new group of victims.

The best aspect of this was seeing a New Kid get what was coming to him:)

Anytime that happens I'm a happy camper! First Jordan Knight makes a idiot of himself on Surreal Life and next Donny gets a lackluster film career:) Life is good!

5-4 The Predators Are Rolling!

Yes!

My team took second place in the league this week. For the first time this season they scored over 50 points and are riding a nice winning streak. I'm probably going to have to replace Dom Davis though, I believe he could be injured for the duration. We'll see.

Anyway second place is in the money and they are starting to earn their keep....just a little bit.

blugill: year one

Yes my friends it has been one year since I started writing my blog. I started writing in one of the worst months in my life and didn't put a lot of what was really going on in my original Crossroads post.

However it is time to take stock of my surroundings and to see where I've come and where I'm going. I've shared a lot of things that I couldn't or wouldn't share without the anonymous nature of the net with a lot of strangers who will either never meet me or could care less about meeting me and quit reading after only a post or two.

For those of you who have stuck with reading my trite ramblings, a sincere heartfelt thank you. For those of you who are new, welcome! I hope you enjoy reading about my personal and public life such as it is.

Alright, anyone who knows me knows that my nick is blugill, no "e". I made that up myself and here is the story behind it for my one year anniversary story.

Way back in the mid 90's when the net was expensive and 33.6 was brand new along with the new Intel 200 mhz processor I got my first pc. I had a friend who had a pc for a little while and he was telling what to do and stuff to do online. So he was telling me about this chat software called Pirch and then he spelled it for me so that I would know what to look for. Me being a newly minted newb had no idea what he was talking about and misunderstood. I thought he was telling me his name in some obscure chat room and that his nick was Pirch.

So I thought long and hard and came up with my own fish name and modified it without the "e" so that he would recognize me in this obscure chatroom that never existed since I misunderstood the whole thing from the get go.

So I made it up while my newly customized pc, complete with 16 megs of ram and my 2 gig hard drive was being built.

blugill or blu, the trendy way to pronounce it has become my nick and my alternate online personality.

Not quite as glamourous as it sounds I know and sort of a let down, I'm sorry to say.

I have it on ICQ and if you doubt me, my blugill number is lower than any imposter blugill out there....yeah I've actually run across a few people out there who have used the name or registered it on some app or some game. No big deal, afterall I'm the originator and I know who thought of what:)

Now here is some surprise good news!

I have a DVD copy of Locker sitting right beside me!

Saturday was a big day! My producer and I finished the cover and made a ISO copy of the finished version!

What does that mean?

Well it means that now I will have the much promised DVD copies to send out this week! A couple of tweaks on the cover and we can start duplicating them and the DVD itself!

And then my very hardworking cast will get their real copies that they have been so very patiently awaiting! I can't thank them enough for their patience and I hope they will be very happy with their performances cause it is going out to a few distributors who showed interest in the movie as well as the film festivals that it has been sent to!

So after this past year am I better off now than when I started writing my blog?

I'm a work in progress and it isn't as relative a question or as simple as I would like it to be....I don't know when I could answer that question and I don't know if I should. I can tell you that this past year had some very hard things to go through and some things I accomplished that I never thought I could.

I think that if this past year was any indication, anyone who is around me and can bear to be around me for long is in for a wild ride in year two!

Am I writing a new project? Nothing I have worked on so far on paper is really working yet but something will....and that will be my new project which will be better than Locker, I promise....and I hope you will be with me during every step like you were for Locker and all of the other musings I have posted:)

So....let's get started!

The Second Best Internet Only Show

The Dan and Scott show. Who?

Dan Schulz and Scott Wirkus, the comedy show duo who pioneered uncensored comedy radio. They started with Radiofun.com, moved to Talkspot.com, which also hosted the best internet only show, the Karen Kay show, I just don't have any archives from her show to post but I am on her yahoo group email list:) Then the boys moved to Hitthebeach.com which was a diaster before landing finally at eyada.com.

Eyada and Talkspot were tragic and before their time. When 56K was standard and ISDN was broadband but very expensive.

Today when broadband is commonplace and very inexpensive interactive web shows would do very well.

First of all allow me to explain what these shows were. Uncensored and unleashed, they are the First Amendment in all of its glory. Freedom of speech never had it so good!

The government could do nothing to fine or censor these networks, much like Sirius or XM. The only difference was that this was interactive!

You had a web cam on the host while there was a chat room that the fans and the hosts were in as well. You as a fan had some bearing on the direction of the show.

So the context of this would be that years before Sirius hired Howard Stern and made a huge deal about uncensored radio, these shows ruled the net! Unfortunately only though dialup which lead to lagging bandwidth problems and connectivity.

Podcasts are good but not interactive. Chat rooms are cool but after a while they can bore you a bit. Webcams are fun but they are like chat rooms after a while. Add all three together and you had magic!

I have over a hundred Dan and Scott shows which I have uploaded to a third party site called Rapidupload.com and I feel that it is a good time to post these links to share the magic that was....and maybe inspire another company to take a chance and take interactive radio to the next step!

I personally feel that the dialup timing was bad and coupled with a lack of marketing, these networks just never found the audience and never fulfilled the potential that is still there!

I hope you enjoy the shows, some of the files are large, around 300 megs but they are worth it!

D&S1
D&S2
D&S3
D&S4
D&S 5
D&S 6
D&S 7
D&S 8
D&S Final

Wow....I'm Tired!

Today started off like any other normal day around my shop. Well everything except one bizarre thing that has been happening lately....my supervisor who I've written about before has turned over a Dr. Jeckyll leaf lately.

He has gone out of his way to be nice to everyone. Don't know what is up but the last time he was this way he was in the middle of a divorce. Don't know what is up this time but we'll see. He is still as hyper as ever and really has problems keeping a train of thought longer than three seconds.

Anyway, there I am at work. I brought my PSP and Star Wars: Battlefront 2 game to work because I knew it was going to be slow.

Well it seemed like it until I got home and it hit me.

I had done a ton of shop work and did some outside work. I did all of that and played multiple games of Star Wars and really got the hang of it after getting it only yesterday:)

I'm tired! I was in a good mood all day long and the day went quickly:)

Then the power went out! Yeppers my friends, the power went out at work! Which gave me about another half hour of on the clock PSP time!

Not a bad day at all!

Well I Won!!!!

Yes the Predators came through last night!

I won my heads up match 52-51 and took third place this week in the league! That means I won my weekly fee back!

This moves me to .500 this season and moving up the ranks.

Locker news? Yeah a little bit!

I have contacted some distribution companies and have heard back from a few of them requesting screeners!

I am feverishly working to get a screener ready to start sending!

Halloween And Week 8 Results

It has Halloween and I had no trick or treaters. I went out and bought two bags of candy, had the Jack-O-Lantern that was carved last week on the front porch and burning in all its glory and no one saw it or came by for trick or treating....

I don't know if I should be disappointed or happy. yes it is disheartening that no one came to partake of my Halloween goodies, however as a sad sign of the times maybe it is better that responsible parents are taking their children to the houses of people that are known by the family instead of the friendly strangers who never would harm anyone anyway.

However there are always those twisted idiots out there who would love nothing more than to lace a snickers with a cut razor. Sick. Anyone who knows me knows I have no sympathy for someone who would harm a child like that.

Well in fantasy football news I score the most amount of points all season long and the kicker of the week's opponent scores 21 by himself!

Yeah 21 points!

I'm headed for defeat tonight, I can tell already. I have the Steeler's D and Special Teams going and am down by 4 points.

The Steeler's need to get at least 16 points for me to get into the money for the week. We'll see but I'm not holding my breath!

Week 8, Saturday Poker, Minor Locker News and Filmmaking!

Week 8 is upon my team. My best WR in Marvin Harrison is on a bye this week and I'm head's up with one of the best teams in the league this season.

I do not feel good about today's matchup to say the least!

Yesterday was Saturday and there was a poker tournament at a friends house. Out of the sixteen people who committed to show up five did and played. I got first which paid a handsome $70! Yeaaa Me!

After the tournament I called Locker's producer and took the film to him to update the opening credits. They look much better but still kept the simple black and white from the film fest screeners I sent out. I'm partial to simplicity:)

That reminds me of Wednesday night and I don't know why I didn't have a post about this but I'll do it now! Wednesday evening I met with my photographer friend and we carved pumpkins into jack-o-lanterns! Now this was the first time I have done this since I was a kid! It was a good time and I kind of got under her skin a little bit when I wanted to trade her pumpkin for mine. Obviously hers looked much better and mine....well didn't look good.

Anyway I had a great time this week!

Alright, I Admit It!

I have been watching the World Series on commercial breaks.

Anyone who knows me knows that I've been bitter since the strike year that killed the Fall Classic years ago.

My interest was first rekindled....in the very slightest amount possible....with last year's improbable Red Sox victory. Now with the other Sox looking to answer back it has again made me take notice...enough to watch the occasional inning.

Yes MLB still has a ton of problems like Balco Barry and a whole swarm of players that scurry away like 'roid roaches when the light of suspension starts to shine.

If baseball wants to be serious about the game and start to repair years of damage they need to make taking steroids as the crime it is and start putting players in prison or giving them years of community service.

Still it won't matter, baseball's best game still pales in comparison on a NFL Sunday! The NFL has taken over as the national pastime. It is no secret and hasn't been for years now.

The MLB is probably still third place but only because America really doesn't like Hockey, Soccer, or any other sport that doesn't involve action and games ending in ties. The NHL cut its own throat by striking so long that what little interest there was in the States really was snuffed out and now the NHL can be only seen on the Outdoor Life Network. At least the NCAA caught onto the fact that fans hate ties and fixed the problem with the addition of overtime in football.

Soccer will never do that and Soccer will never be big in the States. That doesn't mean we are less educated in the nuances of the game or the beauty of the motion...we just don't care. We don't care if you burn down your entire city or riot yourselves deep into the night for some unknown to us rivalry that we will never get or understand. We don't care if it is the "World's Game"....it's only because the rest of the world will never like American Football....we like it that way, leave it alone, its our game.

The NBA hasn't been the same since King Jordan retired the second time and took everything interesting about the game with him and leaving a bunch of spoiled punks in his very classy wake.

That leaves Nascar. No other sport has the top players going head to head in one place every week. Most everyone adopts a favorite driver and dons the team colors or has someone they kind of like if they see a few races. It is just a natural sport to pick someone from the crowd and root for them!

NFL and Nascar! God Bless America!

Two In A Row....Its Called A Streak!

My team has now crawled up to a 3-4 record. Scoring nearly 40 points I soundly defeated the Outlaws to get to nearly .500 on the season!

Good?
No.
Bad?
Yes.
Conclusions?
More homework required for next year's draft!

There is some Locker news!
Tribeca film festival contacted me and said that I needed to send them a new tape, the one they had was blank!

So I have packaged one up and will send it tomorrow:)

I hope that they watch it and are still patient with me and the USPS! I think, hope it will get there by Friday if not Saturday!

No Locker News And Week 7

Yep, week 7. After eeking out a victory in week 6, the Predators are seeking another win. The owner (me) isn't holding his breath. I'd be amazed if my 2-4 team cobbles together 20 points.

Carson Palmer will have a tough time against the Pitt D (whom I also own) but Marvin Harrison has the potential to have double digit TDs against the Houston D! Yeah I know, wishful thinking but I fully expect Manning to hit Harrison on every single pass today and a 1,500 yard day with 16-18 TDs by the time the fourth quarter ends.

That is about the only way I'm going to be competetive this year in the league.

I was really wanting to write something snazzy and clever today but I think I'm all clevered out this morning. My lava lamp has been on for about twenty minutes and is about ready to get to bubbling.

I've been going over many movie ideas lately but there isn't a lot that is sticking unless you add a budget. Then I can do more than just have a single location shoot and it opens up a lot of ideas.

We'll see what happens:)

I'm 2-4 Now

Yes my friends, I won this week. I was middle of the pack overall but my team did manage to win the head's up.

Proud?

I'm still looking forward to next season....

Week 6

This morning I'm going with a starting lineup of:
Carson Palmer: My lone star this season
Dom Davis: disapointing is a understatement
Mewelde Moore: still a unknown quantity but hopefully a decent pickup
Marvin Harrison: Oh Marvin. I had him his rookie season and a couple of years in between then and now. He and I have been through a lot together, hopefully he pulls it together.
Keyshawn: A surprising pickup and is putting together some good games but not enough with no one else helping him out.
Jerry Porter: Could play better if he would catch a ball every now and again.
Kaeding and the Steelers D

So again if I break it into the double digits I'd be not really happy since my team ranking is just south of horrible but I'm already looking forward to next season!

I Have Just Seen The Future Of Buffy!!!!

And now she is called Veronica Mars.

Not exactly Buffy, but this has got to be one of the best ten shows on TV in the past ten years!

I can't really give a ton of details since I have a strong distaste for spoilers so I stick to the generals so Smart, Funny, Dramatic and Dark will have to cover it....that and the best writing since the Joss Whedon Did TV days. All of this despite a thankfully brief appearance by Paris Hilton.

The Shield and Deadwood are still among the tops however Veronica Mars deserves a place among your TV on DVD collection....a high place.

As a side note Francis Capra is among the stellar cast....oh? Unfamiliar with the Capra name? Frank Capra, Francis Capra's Great Grandfather, was perhaps among the greatest of directors, not only of the golden era but of all time.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm an emotional guy who actually sheds tears during emotional scenes. Scenes that really effect me on a deep level will have me drying my eyes. Nah, I'm secure enough that I don't care who knows, I'm trying to get a point across. Any director who can have that effect upon me has my respect and admiration....Frank Capra was the best.

My Funnily Shaved Cat

I noticed a odd smell coming from one of my cat's mouth the other day. I immediately started looking for something for bad cat breath. Then I decided to look and see that maybe there might be a small animal or perhaps a rotting smurf in his mouth that was causing this bad smell.

I opened his mouth and I could tell that his gum around his right incisor was inflamed and very swollen. I called the vet and got him an appointment to have him looked at. The vet explained to me that sometimes a cat will lose his "killing teeth" but it was nothing that I had done or his diet and nothing had happened to him.

I found that to be amazing since he is only about three years old.

So I have my sister-in-law drop him off at the vet so he can now have his teeth pulled. Since he is an indoor cat the vet said he won't need those teeth anyway.

So I get to the vet to pick up my groggy defanged pet kitty! I get him home and put tuna on his nose and on my other cat's nose to help with the smooth transition of reintroducing cat one to cat two.

In the past this has proven to be a slight ordeal of hissing and running. The tuna helps because now neither cat smells like a vet. Since cats appear to have the memory span of a potato and would completely forget that they the other cat was their brother/sister and had lived their whole lives together, anything over a couple of hours and all of a sudden the cat left in the house has taken over EVERYTHING.

The other cat has been completely purged from the memory, hence the hissing and running. When they smell the same, it is like magic!

So I get my cat home and properly smelling like tuna when I notice his from legs....they have two shaved spots on them!!!! He has two shaved spots on his two front legs! It looks hilarious! I mean I hate to laugh in a situation like this but it is so funny!!!!

My shaved cat....

Serenity And Desperate Hous......Filmmakers

I purchased Desperate Housewives and saw Serenity the other day so that I would have something to do on my holiday weekend! Well that and I did some boredom eating...

First Serenity fulfilled the promise of the series which was cut short by about six and a half seasons. It was a great series and if there is nothing else done with the series then Serenity will serve as a well done farewell. Basically a show set in the distant future with a touch of the old west. It had everything that made a series great and then some!

Desperate Housewives....well now there is a completely different type of series but just as enjoyable. I would say as far as drama tinged with comedy the best comparison would be Six Feet Under. Now there is a great show! But this is about Desperate Housewives. This show has drama, comedy, a tinge of soap opera, and some chick flick. I found myself laughing out loud at some moments when I was familiar with the characters!

There are some moments of comic mastery here! There are some dark moments that rival Six Feet Under as well! It is a fine balancing act that both shows seem to follow well!

Well by now I'm sure that my starting kicker has probably stubbed his big toe and won't be able to hit a field goal if his life depended on it.

Yep....Week 5

Eleven points.

My kicker is going tonight but if this week stays true to yesterday he should break his ankle in warmups.

Well It Is Week 5

We shall see how my team performs today but believe me, I don't have high hopes. If they get into double digits I would be happy.

I have already accepted the fact that I'm going to have to pay for the whole season at ten bucks a week. My team just doesn't seem interested in helping out and winning some money back.

There are some good games happening though, New England vs. Atlanta and tomorrow night Pittsburgh vs. San Diego. My QB, Carson Palmer, has a chance to rip apart Jacksonville's D tonight while Marvin Harrison, my ace WR, can dismantle the San Francisco D.

What is going to happen though?
Palmer will get hurt in the shower this morning while Harrison will sprain a toe in pre-game warmups and neither will play.

Well on the positive side, Bonnie Bernstein and Jillian Barberie were both looking pretty hot and perky today.

Happy Friday!!!!

I'm home today and there is a story behind that, so here goes!

This past Monday letters went out to season ticket holders for the Storm to come and pick out our seats today. The Storm is the local semi-pro basketball team. I've been a season ticket holder since year one.

So yesterday, Thursday, the coach called one of us and said that Friday is going to be packed with people and that we could come in the afternoon before and pick our seats. Well by that time I had already put in a leave slip and had my leave approved for Friday so that I could pick out our three seats. Even though it was unnecessary to take off now, I did it anyway:)

Heck it is a four day weekend now!

Small things in life like this bring me happiness:)

My Trip

Recently I have heard a song (Photograph by Nickleback)that inspired me to pick up my high school yearbooks and take a trip back down memory lane.

Man I did some stupid things.

I looked at the pictures and wondered who that person was and now here I am seventeen years removed from those times. Some were good, actually it is odd but I don't know why I remember the good things instead of the bad things.

I know there were bad times. Times that I really didn't like, some I regretted, some when I look back and saw how heartless or mean I could be. And now here I am, worn down by life and I look back and see how brash and sometimes arrogant I was. Here is the lowdown.

My family had a restaurant that I worked in from middle school until I was a senior when we closed it. Times were pretty rough for a while. I had a paper route in the early mornings. So I started driving when I was fourteen.

The town cop let me as long as I kept it under control but I can't tell you how many times I got stuck because I thought it'd be fun to take my pinto station wagon through a long stretch of mud or a snowbank and what do you know, there was a ditch under there!

Yeah, stupid was my middle name. I rebelled a lot at school but my grades were good enough to get the honor roll. I was a football player and weight lifter. I decided early to learn a skill so that I could make ends meet while I was a struggling rock star....

So I learned how to paint cars. I went to college and dropped out and painted cars again. I worked painting cars and tractors after that for twenty dollars a day. I painted aircraft and then worked for a cable company, got laid off there and got my current job. Thirteen years later here I am.

I have finally figured out what I'm good at and what I want to do.

I was at the ten year reunion and was pretty happy to see the people I came of age with. There is something about the high school years that just imprint you.

I see a couple of people occasionally who are still in town or who have moved back.
I have friends that I dearly love.
Some that I have brief sentences with that I just can't relate to anymore.
Some I'd love to have long conversations with but haven't seen in years.

Yeah I know, "Don't live in the past".

I don't....but it is nice to take a trip back and remember where you came from. To remember what you had a burning passion for then and compare it with what you desire now.

To compare you before you took a few of life's beat downs. While you still had rough edges but you thought you were the pinnacle of humanity...you had the world by the tail. What you didn't know is that the world tolerated you...that it had seen better and badder and survived them too.

I thought I was so brilliant back then and now what I had in book learning I lacked in experience and wisdom. Only time can give you that so when you hear that youth is wasted on the young...Believe it.

I'm sorry...this rant has been brought to you by my memories and if you are still awake and reading, kudos to you, you are my hero!

Poker Night

And I got nearly cleaned out of about twenty dollars. Yeah, it wasn't serious. We were playing dealer's choice with a quarter limit with three raises.

It was a lot of fun though!

Anyway while playing the game was on tv and I'm pretty certain I saw my photographer friend prowling the sidelines in search of this week's front page football shots!

My stupid leaky roof didn't get fixed...I put five gallons of tar in the area where I was sure the leak was vming from but nnnnnnooOOOOOOooooo, that didn't fix it. So now I'm going to have my brother come over here and spray water on the roof while I am inside to see when the leak starts. That should narrow down the leak and allow for a smooth fix!

I'm dropping a RB and a WR. Yep, that's right! De'Shaun Foster and Donte Stallworth are gone! I want to pick up Mewelde Moore and Brandon Lloyd. Hopefully they can score more than what my current players are doing....which isn't a lot.

Now what does this have to do with filmmaking? Pretty much nothing, it's my blog:)

Well as a small update, I got Moore and missed out on Lloyd.

I'm Off Work Today!

Yes!

It is probably going to be a four day weekend!

I have scheduled my vehicle into the shop to have some work done to it. I don't think it will take long but work is very slow right now and they are encouraging us to take off.

You don't have to ask me twice!

So now I am enjoying a nice quiet morning at home. Tomorrow is payday so I am about to figure out my bills.

Which reminds me of this little dilemma!

Last Friday after work a few co-workers and myself stopped in to a local club for a drink. I tab out when my check card is rejected?!?!
Now I KNOW I have more than enough money to pay my tab which amounts to about fifteen dollars. So they save my tab until the next time I come in.

I get home and get my mail and I have a letter from my bank! Ah ha! (dramatic music)

It appears that the banks database has been compromised and all cards have been canceled and will be reissued. So now here it is Thursday and I STILL don't have my check card back! Those things are so handy to have! You just don't realize it until you don't have it!

So hopefully I'll have a replacement card today....

Fantasy Football Blues

Yeah....week 3 and my team has faltered. Since the injury to Javon Walker my team just doesn't seem to have the heart of its arm chair owner.

Apparantly Peyton Manning can't hear me when I tell them to throw deep to Marvin Harrison on every play and have a twelve touchdown day. Yeah I know he can't catch EVERY pass but if it hits his hands he NEEDS TO, and of course every catch needs to be converted into points for my team!

Don't they know that my fantasy football knowledge is at stake here?

I mean it isn't like THEY had to pay the franchise fee and the weekly entry fee!

Come on guys, you need to pick it up and think about scoring at least a little bit!

If not then I guess we will have to talk about a heart transfusion.

My First Rejection!

This is exciting!

Thank you for submitting your film, “Locker” to the 2005 Big Apple Film Festival. We thoroughly enjoyed viewing your film, however due to an overwhelming number of submissions we received this year we are unable to accept your film to screen at this year’s festival. We wish you continued success in your future endeavors and we look forward to viewing more of your work in the future.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Lipp
Big Apple Film Festival


One down, a lot more to go!

Wait...Why is this exciting you may be thinking?

Because good or bad, it has been seen, viewed, maybe even enjoyed or hated! The reaction matters not. The fact matters that it has been seen! Who cares if it was rejected or not! It isn't like Lucas or Speilberg hasn't made a flop before!

Locker has been seen!

Saturday Afternoon Poker

Well I played two tournaments at a friend's house. There was a 20 dollar entry fee for each and I placed first and third in that order:)

Not bad but in the second game I could have played a bit better.

I should have mowed today but I didn't. No big deal, I can do it tomorrow before kickoff!

Not much to report Locker wise. My photographer friend gave me some photo magazines to examine shooting style and composition. There are some pictures that really stand out for me that I'll have to ask her about.

She gave me some good criticism about the shots in Locker and how I could have improved them but I admit, some of it is still over my head right now....but I'm a quick study.

Time To Do Guy Things!

I don't know if I told you all or not but I am kind of handy around the house. Yes I hate mowing but some other things are kind of cool!

A leak developed above my washing machine so I got up on the roof without breaking anything and applied lots of black, gooey, tar stuff to patch up said leak! YES! I feel very manly now!

So I climbed back down to Mother Earth again without breaking anything, a job well done!

Did I tell you that I am a pretty decent cook?

Man, I'd make someone a good wife! Just kidding! Sheesh!!!!

Now I can't wait for it to rain to see just how the fix holds up!!!!

Week 2 Results

I have 34 points going into tonight. I dropped Javon Walker and picked up Keyshawn Johnson.

Dallas plays Washington tonight and hopefully Key will pick up at least one TD and maybe some bonus yards. for me.

I am looking to pick up Stephen Davis and drop one of my less productive RBs. First place this week has gone to the team who had McNabb and T.O. on the same team. He hung 73 points on the league this week!

Yesterday we had a fine send off for my friend who is moving away. The evening ended by a rousing Trivial Pursuit game after Manos: Hands of Fate and a few hours of socializing.

Wanna Know Something????

Locker really doesn't get good until you have seen it about 52 times like I have. Yes I'm making copies right now. It's a great way to spend a Saturday evening let me tell ya!

I have seen Locker so many times it doesn't hurt anymore, something calloused over I think. I hope it isn't my taste in movies.

I wanted to get the DVD copies done before my friend left for LA. I gave him a VHS copy so he would have something until they are done.

I discussed the cover with my photographer friend. She gave me some much better ideas than I had and improved what I did have.

Ben-Hur And Filmmaking

Ben-Hur, quite possibly the most epic of epics or at the least tied with The Ten Commandments in terms of golden era epic filmmaking. They just don't make movies like this anymore.

Yes you can say that The Lord of the Rings is probably the most epic of all time however I'm talking about pre-LOTR.

Don't even mention Titanic to me but you can include most David Lean films in the category of epic in this context.

Ben-Hur not only stands the test of time it might very well define time in the terms of film. I do favor The Ten Commandments as a better film and contains more pure star power though but Ben-Hur is probably larger in scope and depth.

I won't go into the story since most everyone is familiar with it so I'll start by saying that the new four DVD set is the best this film has ever looked and sounded!
Want to talk extras? How about the entire remastered silent version and two making of documentaries!

Ben-Hur is a film I really don't get tired of watching. Not really so much for the story but what went into making it. You can see that the stars were used to being treated as stars and you can just feel how they get into their roles. There is a bit of the over acting that was dominate of that era but it lends to the larger than life spectacle that is unfolding before your eyes. Make no mistake, this is pure spectacle. This is the three ring circus with a fair outside the gates which is down the street from a Rolling Stones concert.

Ben-Hur is much more that just that, it is human and could never be remade. Ben-Hur is a style of filmmaking that is dead now. No one takes the epic seriously anymore and they come up with dreck such as Troy, and Alexander.

Please, don't ruin this for me. Let Ben-Hur be Ben-Hur.

Well....My Team Tanked

Not only did the top four of my draft picks only score one TD but I lost Javon Walker for the year due to a torn ACL!!!!

Yeah my team tanked this weekend! However the bright spot is this, I am third on the waiver line. Meaning I can replace Javon with a top flight WR! There are three good ones left and I am practically guaranteed one of them!

So perhaps Javon won't hurt as much as I am hoping he won't hurt me.

In other news I mailed Locker to Tribeca today. I gave out one copy to one of my main actors last night! He is about ready to follow his dream and I can't wish him more!

This weekend my producer is planning a trip to pick up DVD supplies, I'm excited about this! I need to get some idea of cover art worked out and hopefully will be talking with my genius photographer friend about an idea or two cause I can't get a grasp of what it should look like. I keep thinking of "cold" colors like white and blue but then again maybe I need dark colors. I know I'm not good at this part!

I think I'm going to have about thirty copies made after all, that should cover almost everyone.

I'm excited! Things are working well right now:)

Kickoff!!!!

The glorious kickoff to the 2005 NFL season has just happened this past Thursday night!
My beloved Raiders fell to the devious Patriots of New England. I can't help but think that they should have invested some more money into the D.

The linebacking corp is thin while the line is suspect at best. I felt that they could have shut down the pass if Tom Brady hadn't been throwing against them. Dillon kept getting stronger as the game wore on.

I am in three leagues, well one serious league and two free Yahoo leagues. This is going to be a great season:)

In other news I think I'm going to have about 20 to 25 copies of Locker duplicated to give to the actors and the meat market where I filmed it and of course my family and friends. I think 25 should do it for sure.

I have some ideas about cover art but will run it by a couple of friends first who love doing that sort of thing. I know my photographer friend will have plenty of thoughts to talk about.

I saw Crash today. It is an ensemble movie with so many people in it that I won't even begin to list them. To be able to describe it would be to do it an injustice. What it really is about is gray.

All about gray.

It is about skin color. Attitudes, rational and irrational. Racism and perception. How good people aren't as good as they would like to be and how bad people aren't as bad as you would like for them to be.

I mean when you know what is right, good, and the path, you feel grounded and know what to think, right?

I mean how else do you know what is and what isn't?

Well when you start to see that gray area that happens to crop up every now and again it sometimes shows that things aren't always black and white. Yes sometimes things are that simple.

Sometimes they simply aren't.

Today: A Good Day

No one at work showed up but yours truly. We have this cool call in to work system and people generally take advantage of it:)

I had a respitory physical today and so who is there when I show up to the doctor? My partner in crime, Chris. There were a series of cool events like that today however I can't relay them since they were of a personal nature:)

It is Wednesday, one day before the official kickoff of the NFL!
My beloved Raiders will take on the Patriots of New England:) It is also one day after DVD Tuesday, I got Lost. You probably recall my distaste for network tv, instead I try to write and watch either news or cool channels like History or the shows on FX or HBO.

Well Lost is an amazing show! I'm thrilled, enthralled, and engrossed with this show!
It is addictive and has a really cool Scifi twist:)I can just feel a Twilight Zone influence with this show!

The Gorilla Syndrome And Filmmaking

You know what autopilot is don't you?

It is when you exist instead of live. When you fill the role of someone who is trading your time for a service and exchanging who you are for being able to scratch out a living. You start off on Monday morning and put up with self important people who seek any means necessary to justify their existence by being even MORE self important.

The Gorilla Syndrome. They (generally people such as my supervisor from work) will stand up taller and beat their chest a little bit harder so that their display will justify who they are to you and make them credible in your eyes. They take great pleasure in telling you how to do something no matter if it is right or wrong, it is the action of command that they relish and not the consequences.

It is more important to them to demonstrate authority than to learn. As a result they cease to learn and wind up on permanent autopilot. Well it really isn't autopilot, it is closer to intellectual death. They do gain knowledge in college but never learn from experiences.

Here is the disconnect though: I don't get it.

So it turns into being funny to me.

The more someone demonstrates being an alpha male the funnier it is to me. I can see their insecurity filling the air around them. It is very difficult to take them seriously. They crave respect and admiration while missing the whole point of humanity and compassion.

Greatness is never greatness when you have to tell others how great you really are.

What does this have to do with filmmaking? Well nothing to do with filmmaking but if you ever see a character demonstrating the Gorilla Syndrome in something I did just know that I'm probably laughing a lot and had a great time writing that character:)

Something Really Cool Happened!!!!

Hey,

Right on. Thanks for the props.

Kevin


What is special about those few lines?

Well allow me to supply some context:)

Well it is from none other than the brilliant and amazingly down to earth Indie Filmmaker Kevin Smith to yours truly.

I basically found his email on the web, thinking it probably isn't real I sent a Thank You for the inspiration email. Well when it didn't immediately come back, it made me think it is probably active but old. Well my jaw dropped to the floor when Mr. Smith actually wrote back!

Now what does that mean to a small town Oklahoma filmmaker? Nothing other than I sent Kevin Smith a Thank You email for pioneering some trails and took some arrows I won't have to.

It is just very cool and really made my day to read such a nice gesture:)

Thanks Kevin!

Just A Random Update

No really, honest.

Let me set this up, today Friday the second of September is an anomaly. It is payday Friday of a three day weekend.

It only happens a few times per year and it is a great day where I work!

It was a rough week at work, allow me to vent a little bit please:)

Our supervisor proved to be particularly incompetent this week. Allow me to set the stage. There are three people in my shop on days in my building. There are five others at the other shop in another building. All eight of us are classified as the same shop, we just work at different ends of the facility in different buildings.

Our lead went home after one hour the other day, leaving us with two people in our shop. Our super supervisor asked our lead what was pending before disregarding all of the answers and micromanaging all of our actions:)

First he asked our lead what he was going to have me and my co worker to do for the day. We had our assignment which was a mistake and our lead knew it, he was just testing our supervisor to see if he had actually learned anything during his nearly two year stint. He hadn't.

Here is what happened. Our lead knew that we couldn't do our job because the huge majority of what we had to was gone. I'll be a little more specific. I work around aircraft. He had to place pilot's names on the aircraft. No big deal right? Well they just happened to be flying and not present when we were to do this job as our supervisor should have been well aware. So we had no aircraft to put new names on.

Our supervisor jumped on our lead's suggestion of having my coworker and myself out on the flightline. He immediately ordered our lead to bring two people from the other shop down to cover our work load in the shop.

So now here is the result, within a half hour we had found every aircraft that happened to be not flying and changed the names, it amounted to four aircraft. The other two coworkers came down and proceeded to do exactly what our supervisor wanted them to do which was to do all of the shop work load and answer the phone...all day long:)

My coworker and I basically had the whole day free and taunted our other two coworkers with our lack of a work load:) This also proved for a deeper problem as their work load fell behind since they were two people short and two of them also had to go to another shop for a few hours which left one single lazy person in their shop who refused to do anything at all.

All in all a very funny day worthy of a Dilbert cartoon:)

I feel my IQ dropping when my supervisor is around me, like it is being sucked out of my head.

He is a walking talking black hole from which intelligence goes to die.

A Nice Finish!

I won a satellite tournament for entry into a 500,000 guaranteed tournament that took place today.
The battle began at 3:30 Sunday afternoon and I busted out at 7:30 in 199th place!

199???? That can't be good?!?!

Well it had over 3300 entrants in it and it paid me nearly 500 dollars, not good? If you divide it as an hourly wage, it is outstanding for four hours of work!

I was pretty happy with that finish! It was by far the largest tournament I was involved in.

Things are going well!!!! In a lot of different areas right now.
I can't help but think that this is the leading edge of a lot of good things yet to happen in the next few months:) I really honestly think a lot of good is going to come from Locker! Poker? Its a diversion:) A fun diversion but more or less a hobby:)

I just feel that I'm really honestly on my way to somewhere good right now. I don't know where or when but I do feel good about it:)

I Needed That!

I feel pretty good today!

Yesterday's draft went well, I think I have a very competetive team this year!
Dominick Davis
Deshaun Foster
Chris Brown are my RBs

Marvin Harrison
Javon Walker
Jerry Porter
Donte Stallworth are my very lethal WRs

Carson Palmer
Aaron Brooks fill out my QBs

The Pittsburgh and Cinncy D/STs
and Nate Kaeding and Rian Lindell my Kickers

We have a league member who lives in Lousiana which happens to be under the gun of Hurricane Katrina. It is headed towards New Orleans as a Category 5 Hurricane, possibly the strongest hurricane to hit Lousiana (winds are now sustained 175 mph). I doubt that any of it will reach here, but who knows, it might not turn to the North East.

I plan on relaxing today and staying in the house. I went to get groceries Friday so all I have to do is some laundry.

I've been reading Kevin Smith's blog lately. It is interesting. I would like to get to the point where I could pick and choose my projects for a living or if I had a great idea (and I do!) then I would have people jumping through hoops to get it going:)

Actually his blog is about his normal everyday life. He writes about normal things instead of a celebrity lifestyle. Yeah, even down to his bathroom breaks. Say what you wish about him, he does have a way of communicating, he is a natural storyteller.

I guess it is time to get my laundry started so I can get it done, its been a good weekend but I hope your weekends have been better than mine!

Draft Day!!!!

Yes my friends today is Draft Day, something that is familiar with every fantasy football player in the country!

The day that will create your team for an entire season! A day in which you will take players from teams you really don't care about just because they are the best player on the board! A day in which you put aside your NFL loyalties and are all about Team You!

Terrell Owens....never would touch him with a 10 foot pole but here it is, he is the best receiver on the board and you have your RBs....do you take TO? Do you take the baggage and balance that with the 14 TDs and 1500 yards? Yes my friends that is the kind of pulse pounding decision many will be faced with today and in the past few weeks up until this coming Thursday!!!!

Today is the day that you have been preparing for, you will either be king of the league or a donater.

My friends today is exactly what I need right now as well. For some reason I have been really....drained for the lack of a better word. Since I have sent out my screener copies of Locker I have had trouble sleeping, I've been extremely excited about the prospects!!!!

I'm going to have a hard time concentrating on the draft while I know that the past couple of days my screeners have been arriving at their destinations!!!!

My friends I am going to have some fun today, I need that right now. I had no idea that Locker would wear me down like this, not so much physically other than the restless sleep, but emotionally.

This is going to be a wild ride!

And He Rested

Yes my friends, tonight I decided to call it good for the evening and did something I dread instead.

I mowed my yard...after nearly two weeks....of rain.

It was like a 1000% humidity after work and I had just enough gas left to get 95% of my yard done, the rest will have to wait until the next time I mow or until I get some more gas.

I can't even get gas out of my vehicle since I drive a diesel. Yeah that would really gum up my mower fast!

I have been reading about different film festivals and looking at what their entry fees are. I'm going to let it rest for a few days, there isn't a fest I'm interested in right now however I am going to look at some Plan B fests. Yes and I have to review my copy of From Reel To Deal and find out the next step to this blueprint!

Believe me I'm not delusional at all. I know I have a movie but not a indication of my talent or ideas, just my budget! I am anxious to see what the first reactions are to Locker by unbiased people when I get it copied to DVD.

Criticize me all you wish but no one had better criticize the acting, these people spent almost nine hours in street clothes in 9 degree temperatures and trying to remember their lines! Believe me I was dressed for it but I wasn't on camera either!

Also keep in mind that I am not a great writer right now and I could have given them some better material to work with but with what I gave them and with what they accomplished in that environment in that time frame....I'm pretty happy with that part!

So if you watch Locker, keep in mind the context of what was happening behind the camera:)

This Is A Cool Update.....Read On

Yesterday afternoon I decided, for good or bad, to forego the music and add the end credits myself, without the rolling part.

I did not contact the local production company for the film look treatment and just go with it as is. We'll see how it is received as is, barebones and unplugged so to speak.

I have sent screener tapes to:
Sundance
Slamdance
The Documentary and Fiction International Film Festival in West Hollywood

At that point I ran out of screener tapes and now have to make two more to send to
The Big Apple Film Festival (I filled out the paperwork on this one already, just didn't have the extra tape to send as I had seen Locker five times already yesterday)

and possibly Script to Screen in Tulsa, undecided on this one.


There is a list of upcoming film fests that I need to take a close look at.

Final Bugs Ironed Out!!!!

Finally!

Yes, I can now honestly say that Locker is 99% complete!

I am going to contact the production studio tomorrow and see what it will take to put the film look filters on a completed project and the end rolling credits!!!!

I'm on the fence about music right now.

We'll see what the musician comes up with and go from there. If it is very gripping then I'll find a place for it.

Well Now.....

I have added the opening credit sequence myself. I haven't made the montage splices that I was thinking of doing yet.

I'm going to show it to a couple of people and see how that goes. If it is alright without them then I probably won't waste the tape to do them.

I am nearly finished with it though. Will have to get it transfered to tape for the musician to watch and add some music and will have to figure out how to do the rolling credits in the end...other than that it is just a matter of getting it into the proper festival format!

A Red Bull Later And....

I finished editing Locker tonight!

Why?

Well it has been a rough week in a few different areas. I'm going to have to start facing some truths now instead of deluding myself, most notably in my job area.

Do I want to spend another 40 years (yes FORTY) in the same job so that I can retire or do I want to take my shot?

Locker is what it is, a first effort with no money and one day of shooting. It isn't horrible but it isn't a masterpiece either. It has some solid performances and I hope a story that will make people overlook the shortcomings, well at least distract them long enough to enjoy it a little bit.

So now the next step is simple, get it watched by Chris to make sure I haven't doubled any scenes or left anything important out. Get a tape to the musician and get it on tape. Get it to a production company for the titles and then get it on DVD to start sending to film festivals!

Yeah, I think this is going to be a good shot at a start at something nice:)

This Weekend

I am going to dedicate myself to finishing my part of Locker.

Yeah.

I'm going to put those scenes back in, not sure how yet since I have to find some extra space on my laptop first and it is nearly all full of clips but I am confident that I will make it work.

After that it is a small matter of putting the music in when it is finished and the credits. I think I'm going to film four seperate segments about five seconds apiece to fore shadow the opening robbery scene.

I really need to move this project forward and get onto the next one. Even if this isn't a perfect movie by any means it is a first effort and something that be sort of a calling card in terms of potential.

I think that when people see the performances of the cast, it will open up some eyes!

So mark it down right now, I'm saying that barring any sort of technical glitch that I won't be able to overcome, I'm going to finish the editing less the score and credits this weekend!

National Geographic Channel And Filmmaking

Well this post really doesn't have anything to do with gilmmaking but it does have to do with the National Geographic channel and body modifications.

Specifcally tattoos. I have nothing against tattoos, piercings, brandings, scarification, or any of that. I don't want any of them though.

In my short time on this planet it has occurred to me that we change, in fact probably one of the one constant that you can depend on is that things change, now, today, tomorrow, next week. It is likely that something will be different by the time I post my next entry. Something big, small, or in between, something will be different.

Who I am today is not who I was ten years ago. And who I am today is not who I will become in another ten years.

To me a tattoo is a reminder of what you are right now at that point. In a few years you will be reminded of who you were at that point.

If that time was good then you run the risk of limiting yourself and living in the past.

If that time was bad you run the risk of being dragged back into a low point and might promote self pity instead of moving forward in a healing direction.

There is nothing I can think of that defines who I am today that I will probably feel that strongly about in twenty years or sitting around the nursing home and having to explain why I did what I did then.

There isn't a tattoo that I really think sums me up to the point that I want to have it put on my skin...forever.

Locker Update

I have allowed a local musician to view Locker...minus the missing scenes of course. He went really wild over it and was guessing who was going to live all the way through it. It was kind of funny!

He seems like a good guy and had some ideas that he really wanted to play with. So, that is where Locker is at right up to the minute!

In other project news, I seem to have developed creative ADD. I have a burning interest in a project for a little while and it burns out only to be replaced by another burning interest!

I'm writing a film noir script.
I still love the concept behind my super secret blog project.
I would love to have something to shoot right now, today but that is unlikely since no one in the group is really in the position with a project to shoot.
Chris and I briefly had a short film project about the psychosis of Tom Cruise called Saving Katie.

So ADD is an understatement.

It has been so bad that I haven't even updated my blog like I want to. I had a really cool entry worked out in my head the other day and forgot the whole thing shortly afterwards!

I'll get over it, don't worry friends.

Training Camps Are Open!

Yes friends it is that time of year! The NFL opens up their training camps to start another glorious season of football goodness!

This is the time of year where fantasy players scour training camp reports and hang on every last word printed and rumor to find that one pick in the late rounds that will win a season for their team and make the owner look like a genius.

Yes it is that time of year and life is good!

Poker Night

Well out of the biggest tournament I have played in to date with some very very good players I placed 5th. Outside the money but very good and a confidence booster since I came to the final table second in chips!

I played a good game, tight at times and loose at times. I bluffed a couple of pots and took them down!

Overall I feel that when I am able to play in a bigger tournament I'll do well!

Time Warp

When I was a teen I would listen to all of the people who were older than me talk about how life has passed them by. How that they graduated high school and woke up the next day being 30. I never believed them but now I can see what they were talking about.

I understand now that the older you get that time actually speeds up!

I'm sure there is a scientific principle behind this phenomenon!

If I were a person who continually looked backwards and at the decisions I made and what I could have done differently or an action I could have taken or not taken....well if you did that and could harness this power of the aging time warp and find a way to go forward or backward. Well if you could bottle that power!!!!

You would probably sell that bottle of time travel goodness to people who have a lot of regrets. With the grass always being greener in the neighbor's yard you always seem to forget that there is a huge leaking septic tank just below the surface.

A long time ago I learned that I am who I am now because of the decisions made with the best information at the time. It isn't very often that you find someone who says, "I'm going to make the worst decision I could possibly make in every single situation that requires me to make a decision!"

The person you are now is the result of decisions of yourself and others. I have it pretty good, better than I probably should be doing in fact. Yeah I like to complain from time to time but overall I don't know what I could do to make things better or me to be happier...other than working more with my projects that is.

Time travel in a bottle isn't a reality yet so for the time being that decision is one I won't have to make! Thank Goodness!!!

Sometimes A Moment

Is a very powerful thing. It doesn't have to be a lot. Well I just had a two hour moment.

Anyone who knows me pretty well knows I am a boxing fan. In fact when I was younger I believe I could have been a boxer, maybe even a good boxer. Well with the geography of the situation there was just never that opportunity around here so I pursued other dreams.

Funny, this is sort of a two movie review that ties in to a moment. I'll start here, some movies are more than movies, they transcend film and become art and an experience.

Yesterday a friend and I went to see The Devil's Rejects. Hoping that this would take modern horror films and like a shot of adrenaline to the genre, Hollywood would start to make good horror films again. It wouldn't be too bad if this was actually a horror movie, it wasn't. It was more like a road/crime movie.

It had violence, yeah. It had blood, yeah. Horror movie, no. Wasn't even close.

Don't expect scares but you can expect William Forsythe to turn in a good performance and some unexpected laughs. You can also expect many many scenes that are too close and lots of slow motion...

An experience, a moment? Yes, the drive down and back was good and very productive. In fact we came up with a cool idea for a short film that I think would be fairly easy to do! It's innovative, timely, and funny! The meal afterwards wasn't too bad either.

Million Dollar Baby.

Well you will all know it is a boxing movie. Not a boxing movie like Rocky. Rocky was a underdog movie that happened to be about a boxer. A boxing movie is Requiem For A Heavyweight. A moment of art on film.

Million Dollar Baby is about heart and skill. It is about life and death and more importantly the quality of life you lead. Regrets and forgiveness, triumphs and tragedy.

To describe it beyond what I've written is to do it an injustice. To watch it is to experience it. Not like the dreck of War of the Worlds with its tacked on happy family friendly ending and momentum stopping Tim Robbins scenes. Not like the wave of Japanese Ghost Story remakes which has spread like a rash in the cinema. No not like that at all.