Dah Dah Dah

There hasn't been too much happening the past few days. The Oscars came and went and took my birthday right along with it. I went by Star Clipper yesterday, and I'm pretty excited about last week's crop of books. A couple of Hulk's (or a Hulk and a Herc), a couple of Ultimates, and an Invincible await my craving eyes.

Kara and I watched "Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst," and it was pretty good. A standard doc utilizing talking heads and archival footage, the story is compelling enough to keep the viewer intrigued. Unless, of course, the viewer is really tired.

I picked up "Justice League: The New Frontier," from Best Buy yesterday. I purchased the two-disc edition which included a mini Green Lantern figurine. He stands atop my monitor, protecting this little corner of Sector 2814.

David and I met last night to discuss revisions and other pre-production matters for our upcoming short film. Tonight we have the last table read before shooting starts on Saturday. It should be an exciting and nerve wracking time. We made several revisions to the script and began discussing different techniques we will employ both during the shoot and during the editing phase.

Your chance to meet a real star...

William Mead, Adam Baugher, and I recently completed a few KDHX promos. The concepts are kinda goofy: children of celebrities or obsessed fans of former TGIF programming dads. Here's the first one William cobbled together...

Special Folks

Emperor Toba of Japan, Ibn Battuta, explorer, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, Italian humanist, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Don John of Austria, military leader, Matthias, Holy Roman Emperor, Vincent Voiture, French poet, Charles Le Brun, French artist, Johannes Clauberg, German theologian and philosopher, Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor, James Quin, English actor, Jacques de Vaucanson, French inventor, John Burgoyne, British general, Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge, Martin W. Bates. U.S. Senator from Delaware, Wilhelm Grimm, German philologist and folklorist, Leo von Caprivi, Chancellor of Germany, Winslow Homer, American artist, Arrigo Boito, Italian composer, Luigi Denza, Italian composer, Andrew Inglis Clark, Tasmanian politician, George Moore, Irish writer, Pyotr Nikolaevich Lebedev, Russian physicist, Honus Wagner, American baseball player, Ettie Rout, New Zealand activist, Chester Nimitz, U.S. admiral, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz, Polish writer and painter, Marjorie Main, American actress, Kurt Tank, German aeronautical engineer and test pilot, August Derleth, American writer, Zachary Scott, American actor, Ralph Erskine, British architect (Byker Wall), Árpád Bogsch, Hungarian turned American international civil servant, Betty Marsden, English comedy actress, Abe Vigoda, American actor, Douglass Watson, American actor, Richard Hamilton, English painter, Steven Hill, American actor, David Soyer, American cellist, Jean Alexander, English actress, John Gunther Dean, American diplomat, Emmanuelle Riva, French actress, Barbara Lawrence, American actress, Dominic Chianese, American actor, Michel Legrand, French composer, John Vernon, Canadian actor, Judah Folkman, American cancer researcher, Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy, Renata Scotto, Italian soprano, Linda Cristal, Argentina-born actress, James Farentino, American actor, Phil Knight, American sportswear manufacturer, Kathleen Margaret Richardson, Baroness Richardson of Calow, British Baroness and Methodist reverend, Pete Duel, American actor, Denis Law, Scottish footballer, Joanie Sommers, American singer and actress, Joe Lieberman, American politician, Paul Jones, English singer (Manfred Mann), Colin Bond, Australian racing driver, Hristo Prodanov, Bulgarian mountaineer, Terry Semel, American business executive, Pablo Milanés, Cuban musician, Nicky Hopkins, British musician (d. 1994), Barry Bostwick, American actor, Grigory Margulis, Russian mathematician, John Stapleton, English television presenter, Rupert Holmes, English musician, Edward James Olmos, American actor, J. Jayalalithaa, Indian politician, Walter Smith, Scottish football manager, Tim Staffell, English singer, Dennis Waterman, British actor, Tony Holiday, German singer, Debra Jo Rupp, American actress, Helen Shaver, Canadian actress, Steve Jobs, American computer pioneer, Alain Prost, French race car driver and four-time F1 world champion, Paula Zahn, American journalist, Eddie Murray, American baseball player, Sammy Kershaw, American musician, - Plastic Bertrand, Belgian singer, Beth Broderick, American actress, Michelle Shocked, American musician, Teri Weigel, American pornography actress, Outi Mäenpää, Finnish actress, Mike Vernon, Canadian ice hockey player, Andy Crane, British children's television presenter, Todd Field, American actor and film director, Bill Bailey, British comedian, Russell Ingall, Australian racing driver, Lloyd McGrath, former English footballer, Jane Swift, former acting Governor of Massachusetts, Billy Zane, American actor, René Arocha, Cuban baseball player, Mitch Hedberg, American comedian, Jeff Garcia, American football player, Jonathan Ward, American television and movie actor, Kienast quintuplets, American quintuplets, Pedro de la Rosa, Spanish Formula One driver, Brian Savage, Canadian ice hockey player, Manon Rhéaume, Canadian female ice hockey player, Chris Fehn, American percussionist (Slipknot), Jordan Jovtchev, Bulgarian gymnast, Alexei Kovalev, Russian ice hockey player, Richard Clapp, Canadian baseball player, Chad Hugo, American musician and producer (The Neptunes), Karim Bagheri, Iranian footballer, Mike Lowell, Puerto Rican baseball player, Ashley MacIsaac, Canadian fiddler, Maurizio Giuliano, writer and traveller, Matt Skiba, American musician (Alkaline Trio,Heavens), Eric Griffin, American rock guitarist, Bradley McGee, Australian cyclist, Crista Flanagan, American television comedian, Zach Johnson, professional golfer, Marco Campos, Brazilian racing driver, Floyd Mayweather Jr, American boxer, Jason Akermanis, Australian rules footballer, Bronson Arroyo, American baseball player, Shinya, Japanese musician (Dir en grey), 8 - John Nolan, American musician (Straylight Run), Anton Gustafsson, Swedish rock music fan, Shinsuke Nakamura, Japanese professional wrestler, Roman Sloudnov, Russian swimmer, Lleyton Hewitt, Australian tennis player, Mohammad Sami, Pakistani cricketer, Nick Blackburn, American baseball player, Klára Zakopalová, Czech tennis player, Clivio Piccione, Monegasque racing driver, Sterling James Keenan, American professional wrestler, Wojtek Wolski, Polish Ice hockey player, Daniel Reilly, British entrepreneur, Mayuko Iwasa, Japanese entertainer and model, Chieko Kawabe, Japanese singer, model and actress, Kosta Koufos, American-Greek basketball player, & Brian Spath, cool cat

Famous

My post yesterday started off with some talk about the ice storm that hit the area throughout the day. This was picked up by Kurt Greenbaum of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in his online feature Virtual St. Louis inside the "Blog Zone." What's funny is that the headline is "Everyone blogs about the weather; nobody does anything about it." It's really funny to see the title of my blog in his article amongst other blogs such as Highway 61, St. Louis Real Estate Investment & Development Blog, and Life in these United States.

Kurt, you're the greatest!

Roundhouse Kick!

My friend, Gerald, has a great post featuring some wicked goalie fights. Enjoy!

(click the picture)

To Your Ears

My friend, Jeff, is experimenting with some digital sounds and you should take a listen...

(click the picture)

Ice Day!

It is wicked scary out there and more to come! I was supposed to speak at Rohan Woods School as part of a Fine Arts Day. I was going to talk about film and show a couple of animated shorts, but that has been cancelled. That stinks, though, it would have been a lot of fun. I was also supposed to appear on KCFV-FM (St. Louis Community College Florissant Valley's radio station) which features "100 Watts of Power!" This was to be a media appearance to promote the Oscar party thrown by Cinema St. Louis. With so much going on (preparing for the Oscar Party, CinemaSpoke, the Rohan Woods presentation, & preproduction on "Tonight, She Takes Her Revenge"), I had to cancel that glorious engagement. It could have been neat, though, so hopefully I get the chance to appear on air with them again soon.

Comic Day was a blast, or as Dan Nichols puts it, "Comic book day was the best day of the year so far." Agreed. As previously speculated (Oh, sweet Saturday!), we gathered at IHOP, where Jonesy caught the eye of our waitress. This particular IHOP also featured Grandpa Magic or Mr. Magic, I forget which. Just a lonely old man sitting at the front of the restaurant blowing up balloons for kids. A rare, magical treat. We (Jeff Elden (the driver), Jonesy (the navigator), Shaun Snow (the instigator), Dan Nichols (the heartbreaker) and myself) then drove on over to the Shrewsbury comic show. What a great, smelly place. I took in a few copies of the Best of the Idaho Avenue Film Festival DVD and set them on a table near the front of the room (for FREE!). They were gone before I could dive into my first box of comic goodness. I saw Matt Bryan and he was picking up a few issues of BPRD and Hate (which I think were for Mike McCubbins). The group also caught up with Chris Young and he joined us for the ride to St. Charles and the 25¢ sale at the Fantasy Shop. I found 16 comics, which is an all-time low. But that's a good thing. I didn't stock up on back issues of X-Men, Superboy, and Aquaman. I think I'm changing my fanboy habits. We then went to lunch at Chris' Pancake House. This was some good eating and I compliment Jonesy on his fine selection. Thanks also to Jeff for hauling us around and for letting me borrow his Miracleman collection. I anxiously await its awesomeness. More on Jeff later.

Kara and I watched a whole slew of movies over the weekend. We picked up "Waitress," "Once," "The Brothers Solomon," & "Interview." "The Brothers Solomon" was horrible. I expected much more out of Bob Odenkirk, but I guess that's all changed now. "Mr. Show" can no longer excuse you or save your career. I was disappointed in "Waitress." I was pretty excited about the film, especially since it features Nathan Fillion. My expectations were pretty high and there were some very neat aspects to the film. My respects, however, to Adrienne Shelly. "Once" was all it was cracked up to be, even if the story was somewhat strange. It's a nice love story, similar to "In the Mood for Love," where our heroes don't get each other in the end. "Interview" was good, too, especially the end. For most of the film I figured it was going to be like any other "opposites attract" story. It really did things that you weren't expecting and didn't give in to the general cliches a film like that is susceptible to. When I returned those videos, I picked up seven more. Yes, seven more. So far I have watched "American Gangster," "Michael Clayton," & "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford." All were really good, especially Michael Clayton. American Gangster was a bit long, although I heard that Benicio del Toro was originally going to play Russell Crowe's part and the film was going to be directed by Antoine Fuqua. As a fan of "Training Day," I think that would have made for a really good film. Jesse James was poetic and deliberately paced. Casey Affleck stole the show and it was definitely a different role for Brad Pitt. I know he's played crazies before, but not an American legend. Pitt did a good job, it's nice to see him in roles that don't have a number in the title.

Tuesday I went with Chris and Cliff (my bosses) to the Fountain on Locust. It's a new eatery (we visited them on their first day!) that has opened up in the historic Automotive Row on Locust Avenue. They serve chocolate, ice cream, coffee, and cocktails. I had a "Dr. John," which is peanut butter and banana with honey on toasted wheat bread. It was really good. If you have a chance, check them out, you won't be disappointed.

A quick thanks and my deepest gratitudes to Jeff Elden for his wicked awesome design of the newly minted official logo for the page. You can peep it at the right of this blog. Head over to Jeff's page to spy more of his awesome work. Also a congrats to Mike & Matt who have been accepted into the Gimme Truth! contest. More on that after the contest hopefully.

"Jonesy"

...before he went to Ecuador to score himself a bride...

Flooded

I've been really busy this week getting stuff ready for the Oscar party so much so that I haven't had a chance to blog away as I would have liked. Kara and I watched a bunch of movies over the weekend and I rented seven(!) more yesterday. Comic day was a blast. I picked up a few decent books and it did a little to whet my appetite for Chicago. Hopefully after this week I'll be able to settle back in and recap all of the movies I've watched and the comics I've read. Oh, I guess I should mention that I want to start recapping the comics I buy and read each week. I may occassionally throw in an actual book as well (but I doubt it).

I really wanted to find a nice image for this blog, but all I ever find when I try a google image search is porn. What is up with that? I mean everytime I ever type anything in it's always porn. No matter what. I tried typing insane, crazy guy, and flood. Porn, porn, porn. I know the internet is saturated with it, but I don't always want it thrown into my face. So I guess I'll just leave you with this...

That's my friend, Matt Bryan, I think...

Let's All Go to the Lobby!

What a wild, wild week. Three movies this week, not sure of the last time that happened, nothing close since I went to "x2" and the "Matrix Reloaded" back to back. Yesterday I went to see "Vantage Point." Oh, boy. While some of the action sequences were decent and the editing in parts was crisp, this film just seems a tired rendition of flicks like "In the Line of Fire," "Sentinel," and "The Bodyguard." Actually, more like an amalgamation of all three. It has a litany of big name Hollywood types, but overall I laughed more than I should have though the film will probably be moderately successful because of the star power and the gimmick of finding out what Dennis Quaid saw.

I finished up my entry for the Gimme Truth! contest presented by the True/False Film Festival. Hopefully it makes the cut, I'll find out sometime next week. I also "executive produced" a piece by Matt Bryan and Mike McCubbins. It's an animated story narrated by Jeanie Meyer. It's really funny and nicely animated, an excellent addition to the next Idaho Avenue Film Festival.

This morning after I visited the post office, I ran into a place called the Gelateria. Their hook is gelato, an Italian ice cream made from milk and sugar. I ordered a hot chocolate since I was frozen from waiting for the post office to open. It was quite the tasty serving. All that's left now is passing the K-Dub hot chocolate taste test. She's still in search of a new fave, especially one located in St. Louis.

The Comic Geek

As previously reported (Oh, sweet Saturday!) I picked up "Wimbledon Green" at Star Clipper during their Valentine's Sale. This was quite the enjoyable read, not as dark or lonely as Seth's other work "It's a Good Life If You Don't Weaken." The story centers around a comic book collector, no, the world's greatest comic book collector. Mystery and intrigue surround this gent and he is both liked and disliked. The comic shows a different side of comic book society, one that is older, more affluent, and clean as opposed to the general portrayal that is younger, basement-dwelling, pimply-faced, greasy, etc. Seth's art is akin to Peter Arno or James Thurber and his story telling is nostalgic, tongue-in-cheek, and clever. It's layered and very textured, simple yet powerful. If you get the chance, check it out or you could borrow my copy if you're in the neighborhood.

Let's All Go to the Lobby!

Well, two days, two movies. This is a pace that I cannot keep up, but it sure is fun. Today I took in a screening of "4 luni, 3 saptamani si 2 zile," or "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." This Romanian film won the Palme d'or at the Cannes Film Festival last year, but was snubbed of an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. The film deals in some pretty serious subject matter (abortion), and uses a lot of standard European filmmaking techniques (static shots, long takes, etc). It was a really good film, definitely very powerful, but not for everybody. I'm not sure how I feel personally about abortion, but I believe in the freedom of choice as it applies to society as a whole. This film will make you think twice before you fly to Romania to have a black market extraction.

I have come into possession of the Academy Award nominated short films, both live action and animated. Hopefully I'll be able to watch those in the next few days. SLIFF had the foresight to play a number of them in the festival. Just shows you the taste my predecessor had and the big shoes I now have to fill.

On Sunday, Bill, Adam, and I worked a few hours on some KDHX promos. Mostly funny but hopefully technically sound, they should be ready in a few weeks. I played the son of Tom Selleck, Bill the son of Steve Guttenberg, and Adam a raging Reginald Vel Johnson fan. The concept behind the promos is "Real People, Real Stories, KDHX." I'll post a link to my youtube page once they are up and ready to be viewed. Hopefully they will air on KDHX as well.

Let's All Go to the Lobby!

I just got back in from a screening of "Jumper" starring Darth Vader and Mace Windu. The only thing I can say is that I'm glad I didn't pay for this. The special effects were top notch and the film features Jamie Bell of "Billy Elliot" fame, but that's about all it has going for it. I've never been a big Hayden Christensen, though I did enjoy "Shattered Glass." He just doesn't evoke more than a cardboard cut-out would have in the same role. Then there is the case of Samuel L. Jackson. He seems an actor capable performances and I've enjoyed him in "Black Snake Moan," "Die Hard: With a Vengeance," "Pulp Fiction," and "Unbreakable." He also has a handful of films that I would like to see (The Red Violin, The Caveman's Valentine, Resurrecting the Champ, and the forthcoming Frank Miller directed, "The Spirit"). It boggles my mind that he so readily takes on any role that comes across his desk, or his agent's desk, or his manager's desk, or whatever. He is heavily in demand and acting must be fun to him, so I guess I can't blame him. He should have stopped, however, when the casting agent told him he would look like this:

Oh, sweet Saturday!

Well, here I sit at the KDHX TV station, wasting the night away, as usual. The first part of the day, however, was spent in grand fashion as K-Dub and I did some shopping, had a great lunch, and watched a painfully slow, somewhat boring semi-documentary.

Star Clipper Comics had a Valentine's Sale and Kara and I hit with a bang. Of course, it was mostly me shopping, but that is beside the point. Kara picked up a nice Pocky bag for her cousin's birthday. I went on a spree and picked up the following pieces:

Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson, and Kilian Plunkett
Wimbledon Green by Seth
Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Escapist vol. 2 by various contributors (including Matt Kindt, who did the cover art)
and a couple of single issue comics

Afterwards, we had lunch at the Benton Park Cafe. This was a great place, located right across from Gus' Pretzels. Karu got a chicken salad sandwich and I had a BLT. First BLT I've had in a long time. I'm usually opposed to mayo, tomatoes, and lettuce, but today I indulged.

When we got home, we watched the documentary "Zoo." I was intrigued about this flick, especially because of the subject matter, but it kinda fell flat. It'll receive two stars on the old Netflix rating system. "The Devil and Daniel Johnston," was quite enjoyable, if a bit too long. DJ is quite imaginative, lonely, and crazy. His music is really inventive and pretty odd, which is why he became pretty popular in Austin, I guess.

Next Sunday should be pretty awesome as a nice collection of friends shall share breakfast and comics. First stop will probably be IHOP, followed by the Shrewsbury comic book show, and then the 25 cent sale at the St. Charles Fantasy Shop. Good times all around!

From all angles!

So, it's been a bit since I have posted (again), but there's been quite a bit going on. First, congrats to Dave and Tracie on the birth of lil Oliver. He has hair, so that's a plus. Good luck to the little guy, and hopefully he enjoys wearing a fake beard and having a camera in his face for the rest of his life.

It snowed on Thursday and it was very beautiful. What was more beautiful was getting out of work on Friday because of it. Kara and I then went to Star Clipper, West County Mall (new iMac for K-Dub!), and then to St. John's to visit the newborn Ollie. Friday evening was spent with Jeff Elden (of the featured friends to the right of this blog!) and Shaun Snow. Pizza, jokes, and a great conversation filled up Friday night. Those guys are a couple of class acts.

Saturday, Kara and I went to my mom's to celebrate birthdays. Shannon Kay and Kara were both born in January and so we honored them in February. Way to go, girls! We had lasagna and chocolate cake, watched the Blues game, and then rolled back home around 11pm.

Things are moving forward with Meatloaf's first short film, whether certain detractors like it or not. Dave and I are taking the first steps towards being filmmakers, so who knows how it will go. Wish us luck.

William and I got together for breakfast Sunday morning and it was very productive. We're going to shoot a few promos for KDHX, develop the old demo reel a bit, and discuss some options for short films. Again, we'll see how it goes, so fingers crossed.

No films to report on lately. I have quite the backlog of festival flicks still, plus a few I have borrowed from Dave (among others). My library films have run over since I was not able to log on and renew them. I will have my revenge. My most recent netflix film arrived, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, and seems promising; hopefully I'll be posting on it soon.