Half Your Age Divided By Seven

Username:	Password:
Forgot your password?	Remember Me

Stevie Ray screencaps
Again, for those of you who aren't on Facebook...

I was scrubbing through the footage, then looked away for a second to check on what was happening on the TV (football was on). I turned back, and found this frame waiting for me, and started cracking up:

You can see where his chest is getting red from all the crap we've been throwing on him.

I immediately posted it to Facebook, then decided I might as well post one cap for each of the actors:
( Read more... )
Actually, none of these 3 frames made it into the rough cut I've hashed out so far, but I love them all.

Back to editing. Almost ready to tackle the sound mix, which is going to be one of the bitchiest parts of the process.

Current Mood: busy

Just noticed that my email address on kusoyaro.com has been wrong for like the past 3 or 4 years. That's....awesome!

Current Mood: accomplished

"Stevie Ray" film shoot update
For the, like, 3 of you who aren't on Facebook, here's a post with some pictures from the weekend's film shoot. I directed, with

nopictures as Director of Photography, and starring

alphazen, Grey Garrett, and Rebecca Roberts. It was a stressful and intense but ultimately (IMO) successful shoot. I had some hiccups with compatibility with the footage (had to buy a fucking $80 codec), but as soon as I was able to look at it, I immediately called both Nate and Grey to tell them how happy I was (I didn't call Rebecca because I don't have her phone number, didn't call Rick because...well, I guess I don't really have an excuse for not calling him...eat a dick, Rick!)

This is a small subset of all the pictures that were taken, and I've written some comments about the pictures, in lieu of making an actual detailed post about the shoot.

All photos courtesy of

bogosort
( Cut for pictures )
You guys can handle two uncut pictures, right?

Cast and crew photo. I think it was Rebecca's idea for everyone to grab a prop, which was fucking awesome. Too bad the edges got dark like they did, but it's still a great picture. Tom's prop would be a lot cooler if you could see that there's actually an arrow sticking out of it.

Just the actors.

Current Mood: satisfied

kwasek, though an ass, is awesome. For all of my films to come, Croff's will be the official custom brand for any brand-named props I need. It will be my Big Kahuna Burger.

Current Mood: impressed
Current Music: The Bird and the Bee - Fucking Boyfriend

Hello Kitty Kat

An out-of-the-blue appreciation of one of my favorite Pumpkins songs of all time, one that I've actually never heard ANYONE say anything about. I still remember riding home from Meijer (back when I lived in Michigan), having just bought Pisces Iscariot, hearing this song for the first time on my Walkman, and thinking that it was the best song I had ever heard in my life. I still love it.

The "I don't wanna be like the others, please" and "Who's sorry now?" parts still kill me. Not to mention, "MY LOVE IS RAZOR SHARP, MY LOVE IS FUCKING STRONG."

Current Mood: nostalgic

Poll #1464156 Testing a long-held childhood belief
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 31

A red circle with a slash through the middle is the universal sign for:

View Answers

GHOSTBUSTERS
18 (58.1%)

Something other than Ghostbusters
13 (41.9%)

Current Mood: curious

Fantasy Football week 1, concluded
THE GOOD:
The Ebert Rules league. How refreshing, for once, to look in my WR scores column and not see a series of sorry, dismal <5 numbers like 3, 0, 1. Instead, I was looking at something more like 21, 19, 22 (can't look up the exact numbers at the moment). The rivalry with

kwasek continues on as it should, with me crushing his nuts, Antichrist style! This is exactly how I began the season last year, outscoring the rest of the league and crushing Brett...this could mean that it's all going to start falling apart for me in about 4 weeks.

THE BAD:
In the Pull Fat Fat league, for a team I was really high on, just about everything went wrong. First, a dickless performance by Steve Smith (or, more accurately, Jake Delhomme). Disappointing numbers from Ronnie Brown. Anthony Gonzalez manages to injure himself just by running around the field alone, scoring 0 points. Fucking Cutler. Fucking, fucking Cutler, who at one point was doing so badly that he was erasing the rest of my team's points. The matchup with

rys was pretty much neck and neck, and it came down to the Patriots game, since I have Randy Moss and he has Tom Brady. The game was absolutely agony to watch...every pass to Moss helped me gain ground on my slight deficit, since receiving yards are worth more than passing yards, but every pass to Welker or Faulk helped Jason pull away slightly. After a few big passes to Moss, however, things were just starting to look up for me, and out of nowhere Brady throws two miracle touchdowns (neither involving Moss) within like 2 minutes to essentially end my week. After the second touchdown, my (Brady fanboy) brother emailed me to say "heh, bet you didn't like that." Frustrating stuff.

THE UGLY:
Jeremy Shockey

Current Mood: okay

Final Fantasy Football
Fantasy football begins tonight!

League: Pull Fat Fat
League Commissioner:

stealthhe
Division: Phat

QB: Jay Cutler
RB1: Maurice Jones-Drew
RB2: Ronnie Brown
WR1: Randy Moss
WR2: Steve Smith (Carolina)
WR3: Antonio Gonzalez
TE: John Carlson
K: Nate Kaeding
DST: Chargers
Backup QB: Brett Favre
First round matchup:

rys

League: Ebert is the Best
League Commissioner: Ass
Division: Fjuck DW

QB: Donovan McNabb
RB1: Matt Forte
RB2: Cedric Bensen
WR1: Greg Jennings
WR2: Reggie Wayne
WR3: Santonio Holmes
TE: Chris Cooley
K: Nick Folk
DST: Cowboys
Backup QB: Brett Favre
First round matchup: Brett

Feeling pretty damn good about my PFF team, not so super great about the Ebert team, but I think I have what it takes to pull out both wins this week. DIE!

Current Mood: optimistic

From a web ad for the new film Gamer:

"The last time Gerard Butler kicked this much ass...was 300 years ago!"

...wow. That is just completely nonsensical on so many levels.

Current Mood: indescribable

Fantasy Football: draft weekend over!
- Got #2 in the draft order again. Unfortunately, the #1 man (

stealthhe) was not foolish enough to draft Tom Brady with that pick, so Adrian Peterson passes to Nick Corbo this year. Our full draft board is viewable here, though most of the middle is obscured by glare. My picks are fully visible, though! I feel pretty good about my team this year...my focus was on receivers, which, for those of you who were reading last year, remember were a total disaster for me.

-

murdercitydevil ended up with my two top receivers from last year, which will be a total shitshow for him.

- I'm in a different division than

kwasek this year, so that rivalry will be toned down a bit. I will still DESTROY HIM when we meet, however.

-

rys appears to not have The Worst FF Team Ever Possible this year, and neither does Carmine (the three of us are in the same division again), so I doubt I will be able to squeak my way into the playoffs with a barely winning record this year.

- BRETT FAVRE! AGAIN!

- This league, led by Nick Corbo, is officially named Pull Fat Fat. Brett's league, which drafts next weekend, is named Fjuck Ebert because Brett is a douchebag.\

- goddamnit will football season fucking start already

- Alton Brown's Cape Fear punch came out pretty well. The recipe splits cleanly in half, so I made one batch on Friday, and one on Saturday. Friday night's was a big hit, but Saturday's was a bit off; my guess is that I went too far in juicing the lemons and ended up grinding some of the bitter pith into the juice. It was still a fun and tasty experiment, though given the high cost of the recipe, I'd probably only make it again for special occasions. Like next year's draft!

- The Dropkick Murphys' "I'm Shipping Up to Boston" has the least fun drumline EVER in Rock Band.

- It is IMPOSSIBLE to play poker when a 14-year-old kid has the nuts literally every single hand.

Current Mood: satisfied
Current Music: Skunk Anansie - Twisted

it begins again!
In two days, Fantasy Football (league 1 of 2) begins for the new season. From talking to

murdercitydevil last night, we are both ridiculously hyped for this shit. It's going to be so damned confusing following two different leagues on the same website, but I'm looking forward to the Sunday chatroooms and get-togethers. Hopefully experience will help out this year...last year, I didn't even know which teams my players were on until like week 3. I have a feeling

kwasek is going to lose a lot this season, thanks to me. I had a sweet team lined up in his league, but he erased it, the ass.

For some, this marks the beginning (well, not quite yet) of 16 weeks of fun discussions, analysis and smack talk on LJ. For others, it's 16 weekly posts to skip over. Yeah!

And before anyone asks, both leagues I'm in are completely full.

stealthhe's league filled up before we even got outside our local circle, and Brett's league filled up pretty quickly as well.

Current Mood: excited

Nick Corbo is apparently unable to enjoy a live performance of music-songs unless he first goes to a restaurant and gorges himself. This, we discovered tonight prior to the Silversun Pickups concert.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Gogol Bordello - Wanderlust King

New stellastarr* album is only $3.99 over at the Amazon mp3 store (non-DRM). Kind of disappointing so far...there are a couple of decent tracks, but it's definitely a step down from their previous two albums. Some of these songs will probably grow on me, though. Time for another listen...

Current Mood: disappointed
Current Music: stellastarr* - Sonja Cries

48 Hour Film: Shelter
It's been over 3 weeks now, but after tinkering with it, dragging my feet, and getting distracted by other things, here is our 48 Hour Film! There's one edit in there I still don't like, but I've decided to just move on at this point.

Shelter:
xVid, 72 MB
MPEG1, 121 MB
(I made the MPEG1 version because some of our team members couldn't view the xVid, but they're the same)

Contains violence, brief nudity, and one brief expletive, so I guess it's NSFW.

If you downloaded any previous versions, please delete them, because according to the Team Leader agreement I signed, there can't be any copies floating around that don't have the 48 Hour Film logo at the beginning.

Our genre was horror (gah), the prop was a tire, the required character was Tim or Tina Flagler, unemployed musician, and the required line of dialogue was, "I need to leave in a minute." For a mostly first-time crew, operating under constraints that are a challenge even to veterans, I think we did alright. I'm looking forward to the next film, which I'll be able to do on my own terms (thinking about early fall...still hammering out some kinks in the script, and need to coordinate with some key people to set a date). Having to do a film in my least favorite genre, on almost no sleep, was a bitch.

As for the studio name, that was just some random crap I put down when I was registering our team; I thought we'd be able to change it later :P Rest assured that this will be the first and last film ever attributed to "Dinking Chadwick Pictures."

Also, some outtakes from the shoot:
xVid, 78 MB
MPEG1, 65 MB
With appearances by Christian Bale and a dead fucking chicken.

Current Mood: calm

So for our screening tonight, I found when I arrived that our film was playing dead last. I wasn't too concerned, until the two films before it ended up being campy comedies that got the audience laughing a lot. Then came our moody, strange, downer of a horror film. I think it played well enough, though. During the final scene, people were gasping, squirming and whispering things like "Oh my god", and "That's fucked up." I'm happy enough with that reaction. It wasn't the best film of the night (I'm pretty sure one of the films we saw tonight is a strong contender for Best Film), but it definitely held its own. It was also fun finally not being the only one from my team in attendance! Ben, Rebecca,

arterich and Liz made it out tonight.

Still working on a cut to put online. There's actually a scene where you can see ME, from head to toe, standing in a shot. As far as I know, no one on the team has noticed it so far (they've all gotten preview screeners, and no one's said anything), and luckily, it was out of the action-safe area so it was cut off during tonight's screening, but I definitely want to edit that out before putting it online :P Luckily, we shot enough coverage of that scene to get around it.

And now to work on another one of these in two days!

Current Mood: relieved
Current Music: Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham - Uterus

So it looks like Virgin Mobile Festival is actually still happening this year, and tickets are free. Which is good, because I probably wouldn't pay very much to see this year's lineup, but for free? Sure!

Also, it's at Merriweather Post Pavillion this year, which, on one hand is good because it's only 10 minutes away, but on the other, it's a much smaller venue. It's also only one day, but it's on fucking Sunday. What the hell. I'll probably go because it's close and it's free, but I'll totally understand if no one else feels like going :P

Current Mood: thoughtful

Fucking terrifying.

Apparently, a DC Metro train crashed into another yesterday, killing 9. And it happened on the exact route I take whenever I go into DC -- I was on it just last week! I guess it's a good thing that now that Corbo's buying a house, he'll finally have to start driving to work every day again!

Current Mood: scared
Current Music: Metric - Gold Guns Girls

A bunch of you have asked me about the 48 Hour Film that some friends and I put together a couple of weeks ago. We did complete it, and submitted our entry in time to be included in the competition and screenings.

Screenings are tomorrow and Wednesday night, divided into two screening groups per night. We are group C, screening beginning at 7:15 PM on Wednesday at The Charles Theatre downtown. I have an extra comp ticket to our Wednesday night block if anyone local feels like making the trip. I will also be attending Tuesday night's 7:15 PM screening, both to support the other filmmaking teams, and to get an idea of what to expect. I don't think I need to attend all 4 blocks, though, with tickets at $10 a pop. I will post a copy of our film online after the screening on Wednesday.

I will also possibly be traveling to Atlanta this weekend to work on yet another 48 Hour Film, but thankfully, this time without the pressure of being producer/director/writer/editor/party host all at the same time (not that I was necessarily the sole person doing every one of those things).

Current Music: Stars - Elevator Love Letter

Holy crap, Canadian Invasion 4.0 begins TOMORROW. So many things I still need to do! At least I emptied out and washed the curry pot.

And here I was thinking I would have time to play Ghostbusters on my PS3 tonight!

EDIT: Also, beer requests? Pee beer? Those Belgian white cans? The fruity pink version of said cans? Skullsplitter?

Current Mood: rushed
Current Music: MGMT - Time to Pretend

48 Hour Film Pictures
I don't know how public the photos from the weekend's film shoot are on Facebook, so here's a selection.

All of these photos were taken by either

sertrel,

bogosort, or Ben, as far as I know.

( Read more... )

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Silversun Pickups - Panic Switch

Highlights of the 48 hour film shoot (for me, at least):

- Working with our lead actress, Lindsey. Well, more like, me telling her where to stand (or, more often, kneel/cower) and simply watching her work.

- The 6 merciful hours of sleep I reluctantly took on Saturday night.

- Instructing the crew to tear dozens of pages out of various notebooks and crumple them up, only to learn that those pages contained Omar's college research work, some of which he'd considered for publication.

- Half of our crew mistaking Omar's sump-pump for a trash can and fucking it up.

- Opening tomato cans with a hatchet.

- More or less everything that involved abusing Omar's hospitality in letting us shoot in his house. (thanks, man, we owe you!)

- Nick Corbo: "YOU CLOSED THE DOOR BEHIND ME!!" That was the flubbed line of the weekend. There were more interesting ones, but that one was the best. Trust me.

- Bloody Nick Corbo Smile. Most inappropriate, yet hilariously awesome edit ever.

- Emily dismantling a chicken by screwdriver and hammer.

- I made a lot of rookie mistakes, but I definitely learned from them. Learned a lot about what things I need to take charge on more, what needs to be delegated, etc.

- TURNING IT IN ON TIME.

I'm sure there's a lot I'm forgetting, but I'm still exhausted, and it's been a long day at work on top of that.

Current Mood: drained

holy crap the insanity of the upcoming 2 (maybe 3) weeks

Current Mood: numb

Wow, what timing...just as I'm starting to get into David Foster Wallace: The Infinite Summer challenge!

Technically, I've already started the book, but I only got about 1/5 of the way through before being sidetracked by the 48 hour film project. If I start the book back up in July after all the insanity is over, I'll still be reading the bulk of the novel within the window.

EVERYBODY DO IT!

EDIT: And sorry guys, I don't have an audiobook of it :P It'd probably be impossible to follow anyway, and they probably couldn't find a reader who could choke down 3-page-long sentences.

Current Mood: thoughtful
Current Music: Velvet Revolver - Spay

Breaking Bad season 2 finale
BB, I love you, you're a terrific show, but that's cheating. That's the biggest cheat I've ever, ever, ever.....

....ever seen on TV EVER.

Lost only WISHES it could piss me off this much.

Current Mood: aggravated

"A promise, sworn on any book of faith you would wish me to swear this promise upon: This Sunday's "Breaking Bad," coupled with with last Sunday's "Phoenix," is the most extraordinary finale of the season. This is like nothing you have ever seen. "-- Newsday

Holy crap! Need to catch up on "Phoenix" tonight, even though I already know what happens to one particular character.

Current Mood: excited

Maryland Film Festival: Day 3
Film #1: Rocaterrania (trailer)
A documentary about a 70-year-old man who, as a young man, invented the fictional nation of Rocaterrania to escape his difficult home life, and has more or less been living in that nation in his head for his entire life. As he explains throughout the film, the nation has its own history, alphabet, culture, political intrigue, film industry, etc., which all track along with various landmark events in his own life. In one striking montage, he goes through a series of photos of his college years with his "girlfriend"...his fictional girlfriend from Rocaterrania, whose portrait he carries around with him everywhere. The film could have easily poked fun or taken a stance of pity, but it more or less just asks us to observe this man and the way he's chosen to live his life.

rippetoe's new nickname is Peekle. Us it any chance you get.

Film #2: You Might As Well Live (no trailer to be found!)
As soon as the movie ended, both Emily and I pretty much simultaneously commented that the movie reminded us of Observe and Report, with its over the top, wildly offensive humor and characters. I would say it actually goes quite a bit further than OaR, but for someone like me, that just means even funnier! Features Michael Madsen and Gus from season 5 of The Wire! A terrific, terrifically stupid movie. If they can find a distributor that will actually release this thing, I definitely recommend checking it out.

Film #3: Nollywood Babylon (also no trailer)
A fascinating, energetic documentary about the Nigerian film industry. Nigerian film industry, you say? Two days ago, I would have asked the same question, but this doc explores the mind-blowing fact that Nigeria has the third largest movie industry in the world, only behind the United States and India. The reason nobody hears about it is that the entire industry subsides on local street sales of VCDs. Nothing really makes it out of the country, but the sheer volume of films produced is astounding; the documentary follows one director in particular, who is under 40 years old, and has shot 157 feature films. The doc goes through some history to explain how the various economic crises the country has experienced in the past few decades has caused this model of film production and distribution to become dominant in Nigeria. Indeed, one veteran old-school Nigerian film director goes on record as saying that the new filmmakers are making too many films too quickly, and that they're all rubbish. Based on the clips of films they show, I'd be inclined to agree, but the movie also goes to lengths to explain how these films are made in tradition of African styles of storytelling, which don't really meld well with film conventions popular elsewhere in the world. Highly recommended, if it ever gets released here.

Korean BBQ was had after the final film of the festival, which has now replaced the tapas place as my go-to eatery for the MFF. The tapas place, while tasty, is really pricey, and due to the fact that it is literally attached to the theater, is always insanely packed during MFF weekend.

Just as I was pulling back into my parking lot on the drive home, the audiobook of Snuff finished. Perfect timing to end the weekend!

I'll find time to see Star Trek eventually :P

Current Mood: happy

So my brother's been avoiding FNL for years. He's watched other shows I recommended and enjoyed them, but he just didn't have any interest in FNL. Finally, he gave in and started watching it today because someone on his favorite podcast recommended it.

After watching the pilot, he sent me the following text:
"Well that was probably the most emotional hour of television ever."

Told ya!

Current Mood: accomplished

Maryland Film Festival: Day 2
Film #1:
Stingray Sam (trailer...kind of short and sparse, but enough to give you the general idea) Awesome. Just awesome. The first real gem of this year's festival. A sci fi/western/musical/comedy (take the Conchords' Bowie video, add intergalactic cowboys, and you would have something that would have fit right into this film), split into 6 episodes, and narrated by David Hyde Pierce. Featuring the greatest fist-bump in the history of ever. This movie played to a packed, enthusiastic crowd, and almost everyone stayed for the almost-as-entertaining Q&A with writer/director/star Cory McAbee. McAbee's previous film, The American Astronaut, was apparently a festival sensation back in 2001...will definitely have to check that one out.

Film #2:
Alexander the Last (trailer) It's been 3 years and 3 films since writer/director Joe Swanberg's awful, awful LOL (which

nopictures,

i_plissken and I saw at MFF 2006), but since then, Swanberg has become one of the most talked-about indie directors on the festival circuit, so I figured I'd give him another shot and see if he's improved as a filmmaker. Has he? Well...kinda. There's still the cheap DIY aesthetic, the same awkward framing (Swanberg managed the not-inconsiderable task of making lead actress Jess Weixler look absolutely hideous in many instances due to his awful lighting and framing), the same mumbling, awkward, directionless improvised dialogue, the same gratuitous nudity, but at least this time around, there are defined characters, and a story for them to breathe in. It takes a while for the good stuff to come through (I considered leaving 1/3 of the way through), but by the time the credits rolled, I had to admit that it was a pretty affecting and in-depth look at what makes relationships work vs. fickle infatuations.

Film #2.5:
The original plan was to see Daytime Drinking (trailer), but it was sold out by the time

rippetoe arrived, so I sold my ticket to the first person on the waiting list, and instead we spent the next couple of hours drinking and eating delicious tapas at the restaurant next to the theater.

Film #3:
The Paranoids (Los Paranoicos) (trailer) A nice little Argentinian film about an awkward, introverted writer and his traverses through the challenges of everyday life, not the least of which includes the fact that his domineering friend produces a hit TV show featuring an awkward, introverted character based on (and named after) him. Runs a bit long, and has a couple of useless characters and subplots. Kind of a typical indie 20-something character drama, but not bad. Probably doesn't have enough dramatic "oomph" (whatever that means) to get released over here, so I'm glad I got to see it...that's what MFF is for, after all! The staffer who introduced the film stated that the festival is actively looking to expand its reputation as a foreign-film-friendly festival, and hopefully in the future get foreign directors to actually show up and introduce the films.

In between films today, I listened to the audiobook of Chuck Palahniuk's Snuff, which lent the whole day a sort of surreal, semi-pornographic hue (until Emily arrived, of course, which instantly killed all boners). Definitely a better day than yesterday. 3 more to go tomorrow!

Current Mood: satisfied

Maryland Film Festival: Day 1
Changed my schedule a bit from what I originally had planned.

Film #1:
Lightning Salad Moving Picture (trailer). Atrocious. Simply atrocious. I guess I was expecting some zany fun, but the movie is actually 10 times even more stupid than what is shown in the trailer. It's just a couple of douchebags walking around acting like douchebags and thinking they're funny. It also had the worst sound mixing I have ever heard. The dialogue ranged from inaudible to blasting out the speakers and popping with every hard consonant. Nate and I did better using dialogue recorded off of peoples' random PC mics. Not a single person stayed for the Q&A. Part of that may have been the fact that the end credits seemed to last for like 10 minutes, even though I can't imagine how that movie took more than 5 people to make.

Film #2:
Make-Out with Violence (trailer). Marginally better. At least the filmmakers knew how to properly shoot a film and had actual actors. The movie as a whole is one of those 80's type teen comedy/dramas, where they have their last summer before college to air out all their confused feelings about romance and growing up. Except, for no reason whatsoever, one of them goes missing, drowns, and comes back as a zombie...but not a menacing, evil zombie. She just kind of sits around in a bathtub and lurches around harmlessly occasionally, and two of the characters have to keep her a secret from everyone else, also for no reason. All the characters' parents are conveniently away on vacation (for the entire summer!) or whatever, so there is none of that for them to contend with. It had its moments of comedy, but it was mostly very boring and drawn-out teen melodrama, where nothing much of consequence happens, even regarding the zombie. Also, the title makes no sense, as there is no violence, and what little making-out there is doesn't really matter.

Hopefully tomorrow fares better.

Current Mood: tired

Just got a letter from my condo association:

"ATTENTION
RESIDENTS

VERIZON FiOS
WILL BE COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SOON!"

Mid-June, supposedly.

YES!!!! GOODBYE, COMCAST!!

Current Mood: ecstatic

I live!
Barely. Holy crap. Best BenzerCon ever. Epic and relatively drama-free!

Now, to rest, recover, and return to regular life!

Current Mood: drained

Just finished the audiobook of Orson Scott Card's Children of the Mind.

Maybe this has long been known, but in the author's interview at the end of the last disc, he says that he has plans for a sequel to Children that will not only resolve a pretty big question that was left hanging, but will also tie the whole thing up with the Shadow saga as well. Guess I should go listen to the Shadow saga at some point.

Current Music: Lily Allen - Not Fair (aka the Andy Song)

You wanna let something in, you gotta tear it out

kwasek¹ game, now with six, because I have an easy way of making six categories!

Jack: I see you good you forced faker, just make it easy

Kate: in regards to my usage of the drug, it modified my personality to the extent that I was highly irritable

Sayid: maybe you would have been something I'd be good at

Hurley: Lindy hop around the truth, Jump back wolf pack attack

Sun: Our hopes are in vain, Tomorrow is all mine

Aaron: You wanna let something in, you gotta tear it out

¹ OWL CAKE

Current Mood: sleepy

After having put it down for a few months, I picked Infinite Jest back up today and read 30 pages¹. It took me an hour and 40 minutes. That is absurd. At this rate, I am looking at over 50 total hours of reading for completion.

¹ Not included in that count are 11 pages^a of endnotes that I also read.
^a 8 of those pages were one note.

Current Mood: exhausted

I thought April Fool's Day was 9 days ago.

Current Mood: indescribable

As if the series weren't padded out and bloated enough, the final Wheel of Time novel is going to be split into 3 volumes. Oh fucking brother. It was probably inevitable, given that there are approximately five thousand plot threads to resolve, but it's still annoying.

Current Mood: grumpy

Animated films meme from

lord_darkseid...
I had to guess on a lot of these...many of the ones I checked, I'm fairly certain I saw them as a kid, but don't entirely remember.

( Read more... )

Total Score: 98/173 Animated films

Current Mood: groggy

New 100 movies meme! This one's based off Time's 100 All-Time Best List. This one seems a lot more diverse and less American-centric. It also contains some films that are over 10 hours long :P Since it's "all-time best" as opposed to "must see before you die", I'm sure the selection criteria was slightly different. This one also contains the Apu movies, so

nopictures still can't claim the whole list!

Same rules as last time. Bold for seen, Italics for shame, Underline for owned but unseen.

( Ready, set, go! )

36/100. Dismal.

Current Mood: guilty
Current Music: Radiohead - How to Disappear Completely

I'll just tell 'em what my daddy told me: "YOU AIN'T NEVER GONNA AMOUNT TO NOTHIN'"

kwasek¹ game, 90's edition:

Earth: She's been diagnosed by some stupid FUCK!

Fire: And the widow was at the funeral, and they had quite a catfight

Wind: I'll go outta my way to prove I still smell her on you -

noomdespilce - Nirvana - Lounge Act

Water: Fifteen blows to the back of my head, fifteen blows to your mind

LEELOO: I'll just tell 'em what my daddy told me: "YOU AIN'T NEVER GONNA AMOUNT TO NOTHIN'" -

jimmyen - Faith No More - RV

¹ ~~pants~~

Current Mood: nostalgic

and the widow was at the funeral, and they had quite a catfight
From Ryan

_way_:
"100 Movies to see before you die
...according to the staff at Yahoo! Movies, anyway, who 'believe that each one is a timeless classic that you absolutely have to see.'

Here's the rules, If you've seen a movie, bold it. If you have not seen a movie, leave it in plain text. Lastly, if you have not seen a movie, but are kind of embarrased to admit it (because your friends will probably give you hell over it) italicize it."

And here I'm adding my own rule, because this is something I'm particularly bad about:
If you own a movie but have not gotten around to watching it yet, underline it.

( Ready, set, go! )

66/100, almost exactly 2/3! Not too bad.

I submit my incentive is romance, I watched the pole dance of the stars
Another round of the

kwasek¹ game!

Earth: You're just like anyone, When the shit falls all you want to do is run away

Fire: We live a lie, You'll never find, Never in a month of Sundays

Wind: He'll put his mind in detention and let his heart decide

Water: It was the longest day that I ever known, I watched you start that drive alone -

murdercitydonut - Spoon - You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb

LEELOO: I submit my incentive is romance, I watched the pole dance of the stars

¹ Browns suck

He'll put his mind in detention and let his heart decide
Today's xckd is so true. That's all.

Current Mood: nostalgic

East region, 2 seed, and we play on home turf...bring it on! Tons of ACC teams in this year...should be fun.

Anyone interested in doing a for-fun online bracket?

EDIT: Alright, I've set it up. Anyone who wants in, give me your email address and I'll send out an invite. If you were in our FF league, give me the email you used for that account, since I'm doing this on CBSSportsline.com.

Current Mood: optimistic

The Harry Potter fandom documentary We Are Wizards, which I saw at last year's Maryland Film Festival, and which eventually led to my discovery of Wizard People, Dear Readers, is now available full-length on Hulu:

In addition to Brad Neely's narrative stylings, the doc goes into other aspects of HP fandom, such as Wizard Rock, the battle against Warner Brothers for fans' rights, and wackos who think HP is a harmful initiation into the occult for children. Neely's segments are by far the most entertaining, but it's still a fun doc overall.

Basically, if you've ever wondered what this LJ icon is all about, this movie is a good place to start :P

Current Mood: geeky

We live a lie, You'll never find, Never in a month of Sundays
The Charles Theater's latest revival series focuses on the films of Robert Altman (I skipped the last series, Goddard, in favor of hanging out with friends). Revivals are shown Saturday at noon, then the following Monday and Thursday at 7 and 9 PM, respectively. It kicks off this week with Brewster McCloud, but I'll have to skip it to head down to VA for St. Patty's Day activities. The rest of the schedule, though, is as follows (I only listed the Saturday dates because those are the only ones I ever go to):

( Schedule )

Some good stuff there. I was hoping 3 Women would be included, but there's always still Netflix. I'm always up for the revivals, provided I'm in town or free that Saturday. Let me know if any of you local or semi-local people are up for any of those. As always, no visit to the Charles Theater is complete without a trip to Sofi's Crepes!

Current Mood: peaceful

new TV obsession
I sat down to watch an episode or two of the highly touted Breaking Bad¹ today to kill time before the Duke vs. UNC game this afternoon (game sucked). Instead, I ended up watching the entire first season today (taking a break for the game, of course). Had I only started half an hour earlier, I would have finished it in time to catch the season 2 premiere broadcast tonight². For some reason, I thought it was already a few episodes into the new season. Bah.

Anyway, this show's first two episodes blew me away like no other television drama since BSG's one-two punch of "33" and "Water". Admittedly, BB kind of settles down after the first 2, but it's not long before it ramps back up. Hell, the first season is only 7 episodes, so there's no reason not to check it out.

¹ I was actually extremely wary of all the positive press I'd heard about the show, as AMC's other flagship original drama, Mad Men, received equally ridiculous praise, but the first 3 or 4 eps of that didn't impress me enough to want to watch more. What actually got me interested in BB was Stephen King's effusively enthusiastic endorsement^1a (an EEE, if you will!), in which he loves BB but also expresses indifference towards the highly praised MM. His shared apathy for MM was enough for me to give BB a chance.
^1a I will say, though, that SK's description of BB as "No Country for Old Men crossbred with the malevolent spirit of the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is a bit much. The show is much more grounded in everyday life and humor than that.

² I finished watching season 1 and started this typing this at 10:34 PM, just past halfway through the season 2 premiere's broadcast. Oh well, there's always BT tomorrow.

Current Mood: enthralled
Current Music: Chris Cornell - Get Up (okay, seriously, what the fuck is this bullshit??)

filenaming fuckup
So as I've stated in the past, my preferred method of naming mp3s is
Artist - Album - Track Number - Track name
That way, even if you have a ton of stuff by the same artist, each albums' tracks are listed together in the correct order. But what happens if Track Number and Album accidentally get swapped?

( Super dickery! )
Gah. I don't want to go back and redo everything, but that is a huge damn mess.

Current Mood: annoyed
Current Music: Bad Religion - The Gray Race

Watchmen

Generally, I enjoyed it. I have minor quibbles about the ending (not squid-related, surprisingly!), but nothing worth going into. The one thing that drove me absolutely nuts, though, was the fight scenes. I fucking hated them. It was like I was watching a serious, grown-up movie about realistic and flawed characters, and then suddenly, once the fists started flying, I was watching a cartoon. It's not that I hate that style of fight scene in general, it's just that I really felt it clashed with the grave, serious tone of this particular movie and really jarred me out of the story whenever it happened. 2 minutes into the movie, I was already afraid I was going to hate the whole thing, since the first scene is a fight scene.

I seriously was so bored during the big jailbreak scene where they're fighting their way down the hallway that I just sort of zoned out and stopped paying attention. ( Spoiler ) After the 3rd or 4th time this happened, I was like, "Christ, just stop fighting and finish talking already!" I think the guy next to me felt the same way, because he actually smacked his forehead during that scene. Glancing quickly at the comic, it looks like there was some fighting during that confrontation, but nothing like the talk-fight-talk-fight-talk-fight of the movie.

But yeah, other than that, I enjoyed it. And while of course everyone is in love with Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, I also really enjoyed Jeffrey Dean Morgan's performance as the Comedian. He had a much bigger role than I remembered (other than, you know, his death that triggers the whole story), and he owned every scene he was in.

Current Mood: okay

I'll find myself another burning gate, A pretty face, a vague idea I can't relate
The

kwasek¹ game!
I haven't posted every day, so I can't use the days of the week as a reference. So I'll use this alternate assignment of 5 categories:

Earth: I know it's unkind but my own blood is much too dangerous

Fire: Cool babies and soft operations, Holding my hand, throwing coins in my cup -

radial_jives - The Bird and the Bee - I Hate Camera

Wind: The thunder and the laughter, the last thing they remember -

snhknives - Stars - Celebration Guns

Water: If your right hand is causing you pain, Cut it off, cut it off - LOSER - Bloc Party - Flux

LEELOO: I'll find myself another burning gate, A pretty face, a vague idea I can't relate -

kellykinns - The Shins - Split Needles

¹ Ass.

Current Mood: groggy

If your right hand is causing you pain, Cut it off, cut it off
Hey, cool, there's finally an IMAX screen around here (other than the one at the Maryland Science Center, which shows only science films and second-run IMAX features), and it happens to be at my preferred big-chain theater, the AMC Columbia! Watchmen, anyone?

Admittedly, I'm not as super excited/worried as some people are, as I don't really consider myself a die-hard fan. I enjoyed it, but I've only read it once. I've never gotten into any geeky debates over its themes, characters, etc. I was utterly bewildered by the Tales of the Black Freighter segments, and I didn't read any of the supplemental text from in between each chapter. I made a couple half-assed attempts to re-read the whole thing once the movie kicked into production, but I only ever got about 1/3 of the way through.

So I'll be going in relatively fresh, and won't be super excited or super disappointed unless the movie is fucking awesome or fucking terrible on its own.

Current Mood: okay