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...