I Am Ironman!

Go see Ironman. I loved it! And be sure to stay all the way to the end of the credits, for a special bonus/sign of things to come!

ROUS!

Rodents of Unusual Size? I don't think they exist.

Star Wars, explained by a 3-year-old

Luke has to learn how to do his little light up sword and try to block the little pokey ball. Meanwhile, the shiny guy always worries!

Let me rock you Chaka Kahn

Goodbye, UA Cine

The old UA Cine theatre has not been in operation for years and years, and the building has stood empty. It's back a little ways from the road and I hadn't noticed how derelict it had become. It's slated to be torn down in 2 weeks or so, according to the security guard who didn't want me taking pictures on the property.

It was a really cool old building with two huge-capacity theatres. The lobby was glassed in, if I recall correctly, and the doors to the two screens were just right there off the lobby... I think those were probably the 2 openings showing in the photo above.

I don't recall ever seeing the light-up "box office" pole in the top left corner of the above photo. Kinda neat. I have half a mind to hop that chain link fence and snag it. I'm sure that it's sadly destined for the junkyard.

Spider Pig

Spider pig, spider pig
Does whatever a spider pig does
Can he swing from a web?
No he can't, he's a pig
Look out!
Here comes the spider pig!

Caught red-handed showing feelings

I'd forgotten how much I love Pink Floyd's film "The Wall." We saw it at the Inwood last night at midnight with Brittney and Chris. We weren't the oldest people in the audience but we definitely fell in the high end of the range.

Near the beginning of the film, someone's cell phone rang. The girl sitting in front of me turned to her boyfriend and asked, quite seriously, "Was that in the movie?"

Sigh.

Doc's cluster headache cycle is just not going away. No screaming bad ones, but he has a headache almost constantly since about February. Saturday we went to three different health food stores looking for this capsaicin nasal spray which is said to help with migraines and anecdotally with some peoples' clusters too. The first one was just a distribution center in an office park (closed), the second one was Roy's Natural Market (closed on Saturdays... seriously, WTF?), and Whole Foods did not carry it. We may have to order it online.

Our Whole Foods trip wasn't a complete wash though; we spent a long time staring at the fabulously gorgeous desserts in the dessert cases. They are too pretty to eat. I just want to look at them all day! I purchased a new bottle of Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Soap. I love this stuff. The label, if you aren't familiar with it (and if you're not I suggest you read it!), will lead you to the conclusion that dear old Dr. Bronner was nearly all his pancakes short of a stack, but by God (pun intended) he can make some damn fine environmentally friendly non-sodium-lauryl-or-laureth-sulfate-containing liquid soap. It's expensive but a little goes a long long way.

First Born Unicorn

On Friday night, Doc and my Mom and I watched a nifty old movie, "The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao." Tony Randall plays Dr. Lao, Medusa, the Abominable Snowman, a serpent, Pan, Merlin, and Apollonius of Tyana (the blind seer). It also stars Barbara Eden, pre-Jeannie. I love the classic special effects – cheesy and obvious to our 21st century eyes, but undoubtedly stunning for the time.

Also, we discovered that the line in the chorus of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication" is, indeed, "FIRST BORN UNICORN." Seriously. "First born unicorn, hard core soft porn." I just... I have no words. How can I possibly have words to describe that?

Watch Award-Winning Film "Coda"

Here is our first-place-winning short film from the 2007 Dallas 24-Hour Video Race, "Coda."

Our required elements were:

• Theme: Wrong Turn
• Prop: a musical instrument
• Location: flagpole
• Line of Dialogue: "You don't owe me anything."

Hope you enjoy!

First!

TONIGHT: Support your local filmmakers!

Hey kids, come on out tonight to the Angelika for the finals of the 24 Hour Video Race!! Our film will be screening at 8:20 p.m., but you can come as early as 6:15 to watch the other categories' finalists. Admission is only $3, and that means you can see as many as 30 short films for ONLY $3!!

Come on out and support me, Doc, and Lori as we emerge victorious for the third year in a row!!! (We hope.) What a great, fun, inexpensive way to spend an evening!!

3 years in a row!

Our film made the finals! "Coda" will screen a second time next Tuesday night at the Angelika. I'll post it here as soon as we manage to get it up on YouTube.

Wish us luck!

Coda

Against what seemed like impossible odds, we finished our movie last night and turned it in on time – in fact, an hour and 15 minutes before the deadline, which I think is a record for us.

We were able to finish up so quickly due to new fast equipment, better knowledge of that equipment, smooth teamwork, and a really good story.

This year's theme was "Wrong Turn," the prop was a musical instrument, the location was a flagpole, and the line of dialogue was "You don't owe me anything."

I don't want to give away the plot of our film before it's screened, but I will post it here later on this week.

I felt sick to my stomach all Friday evening and Saturday morning, so I wasn't much use to the team initially. I went to bed about 1:30 a.m. and left them to the brainstorming. I got up at 7 and began working on the props, which turned out rather well. I'm really glad that Kinko's was almost deserted at 11 a.m. and they were able to print the posters I needed in 40 minutes. I felt better as the day went on, and was able to help out more and more. During some of the shooting, I was the boom mike operator (and I managed to keep it and its shadow out of the shots this year, lol). I also created the titles and helped a teeny bit with the editing.

Nate called me in the early afternoon to tell me that he was officially a daddy. Woohoo!

About 5 p.m. when we began capture of the film we shot in the afternoon, we realized that the tape had failed and all the footage had huge banded stripes across it. I dashed to Frye's to get a tape head cleaner in hopes that it would help. In the meantime, the team tried to decide between throwing in the towel, shooting a "we couldn't finish our film because..." ending, or scrambling madly to reshoot.

I'm glad they chose to reshoot. Doc stayed at the house and edited a rough cut of the morning's footage while the rest of us went out to retake 11 scenes. Luckily our location was less than 2 miles from the house. We finished up in 45 minutes, shooting only one take for most of the scenes we needed.

It all came together beautifully. I'm really happy with the finished product, even though the quality of the footage we lost was largely better than our retakes. Our story fits really well with all the required elements; nothing seemed forced or half-assed. I'm not feeling the need to do a "director's cut" this year. Thomas (our camera guy) is a good cinematographer, and Doc and Lori and I work really well together.

After we turned in our tape (10:43 p.m. officially! and the place was nearly deserted) we sat for a while to wait out the traffic getting out of the Music Hall nearby and spoke to Laura Nietzel, one of the directors of the festival. She told us that a few years back they had created a DVD with the winning movies that also included an audio commentary track by the teams. I think it would be cool to have a DVD like that but the audio commentary seems a little ambitious, which is probably why there hasn't been a DVD since.

Today I'm tired but not as tired as I thought I'd be. Right now Doc and I are sitting on the patio under the umbrella with cold drinks and our new misting fan blowing at us. The temperature is in the low 80s and the fan makes it bearable, in fact very nice. We don't plan to do much of anything today. Tomorrow night I am in a taste-test study for Chili's restaurant. I'll get a meal out of it, plus a $50 Chili's gift card. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off work, and Friday a few of the girls from the office are coming over for a happy hour on my patio. Hopefully it will be a nice relaxing week.

Will we finish?

That is the big question right now. It's 8:13 p.m., our 5-minute short film is due no later than midnight, and due to tape failure we had to reshoot the second half of our film at 5:30 p.m. We've got a decent rough cut, but still have to add a few cutaway shots, the music, the titles, and a special effect scene.

Our motto for this year is "Failure Is An Option." We almost decided to just shoot ourselves hanging out at the house, drinking wine, explaining what went wrong, and tacking it on to the end of the movie. Instead we did lightning-speed retakes of of eleven shots, and are hoping for a miracle.

Wish us luck!



Also: CONGRATULATIONS NATE AND YVONNE!!! Little Baby Stull (she's yet to be named) was born at 8:20 this morning. Both parents are ecstatic and exhausted. Way to go, Yvonne!!!

Random Catch Up

I dreamed the other night that at work we had a new building, similar to the old apartment building we used to work in, but more house-like. I shared an office with Amy, in the 2nd floor bathroom. Her desk was in the tub, and mine was in the sink. Our printer sat on top of the toilet. If anyone wanted to bring us anything, they had to shimmy up the drainpipe on the outside wall, and shove their papers in through the window.

Ben and I are phone-interviewing candidates for our open web designer position, and most of the people that we really like want way too much money -- like, $60-$90,000 annually. It's really disheartening. There are two people we're bringing in this week who fall somewhat within the salary range we're offering, so hopefully one of them will work out. If not, it's back to the drawing board, reposting the position and probably end of summer before we're able to hire someone. I'm the only designer on staff right now, and my workload is completely insane. I may only be the dried out empty husk of a designer by the end of summer, if we have to wait that long to get some help.

Last night Doc and I watched "The Science of Sleep." It was a pretty good movie, and a really spot-on representation of the strangeness of the dream state. Things kept shifting, changing, appearing in different places at different sizes, in different environments.

I had a nice productive weekend. Saturday I was awake at 6:30 and doing yoga by 7. I know, crazy. I couldn't get back to sleep after Neko woke me up. I did some gardening and a bit of housecleaning, and Doc and I saw a movie ("The Last Mimzy," which was good except for the cheeseball ending that the studio probably made them slap on there for a family-friendly feel), looked at bamboo hardwood flooring options, and then invited Brittney and Chris over for dinner. We grilled sausages and chicken, roasted potatoes, I made a roasted tomato soup, and we ate outside on the patio. I spent most of Sunday re-vamping Doc's website. He was just wanting minor updates and an additional section, but I insisted that it would be easier to start from scratch and rebuild the pages.

I don't know if I'm stressed out lately, or if it's hormones, or the onset of warmer weather, but my skin is in terrible shape. It's driving me crazy. I do not want to be 34 and have the skin problems of a teenager.

catching up with depeche mode (and me)

I leave town for a week, with scant computer access, and it feels like my arm is missing or something. I guess that I could have sent short blog entries via my phone, and although at times it is satisfying to crystallize my thoughts into a 50-character limit, sometimes I just need free reign to blab.

Like now. So here I go.

First of all, I have some fun links to share. This is courtesy of Brett, who has been keeping up with my love-hate relationship with my treadmill. These dudes are infinitely more coordinated than me; it made me feel queasy just watching them. Also, notice how the film was shot in one take. Imagine how many times they must have practiced those moves and how many flesh-squished-underneath-treadbelt injuries must have occurred during said practice sessions...

Too bad this is already over... I think we might have been up for the challenge of making a 5 minute film entitled "Motherf***ing Wombats on a Motherf***ing Segway." Thanks once again to Brett, who it seems is becoming a purveyor of all things hilarious on The Internets.

And from Leslie, The House on the Rock. Here's the official website, but this photo gallery paints a much better picture of what it's all about. I'm thinking that we need to plan a Crazy Shit Across America road trip.

I also want to share some nifty art that I found. The first image is from an artist named Karen Eastman, who does some really nice abstract nature-themed art. Some of it reminds me of my own art, some of it seems influenced by Georgia O'Keeffe.


This next artist, Philip Straub, does gorgeous digital paintings and illustrations. A lot of his work seems to illustrate magicial fantastical realms. It's amazing eye candy. I could look at it for hours.


And last but not least for tonight, proof! I say PROOF! that playing Dungeons and Dragons is hazardous to your health -- nay, your very LIFE and ETERNAL SOUL! Witness the following grainy image showing four innocent teenage girls on the path to darkness! You might want to shield your childrens' eyes before looking!

i think you've got snakes on your internet

I've been having entirely too much fun this afternoon having Samuel L. Jackson make personal phone calls to my friends and co-workers, demanding that they go see Snakes on Plane. "Hi, this is Samuel L. Jackson. You may remember me from such films as Pulp Fiction, Star Wars, and The Incredibles. But I'm here today to tell you about a movie that's near and dear to my heart. That's right, I'm talking about Snakes on a Plane!"

clerks II

Clerks II managed to be both a 2-hour-long dick joke, and suprisingly sweet and sentimental at the same time.

Highlights:

• Cameo by Jason Lee (playing neither Brodie nor Banky)
• Cameo by Ben Affleck (thankfully short, although I have to admit I did like him as Bartleby in Dogma)
• Cameo by the absolutely adorable Ethan Supplee
• Randal's "You're going to make me do this, aren't you?" speech while he and Dante sit in jail
• The whole "ass to mouth" thing
• The Lord of the Rings debate with the gay hobbit references at the end
• Jason Mewes' sorta-full-frontal nude scene. Disturbing.
• Jay's line about turning his life around and maybe becoming an astronaut: "I could discover a new alien life form! And fuck it."
• "I assure you, we're re-open!"
• And my personal highlight: The look of pure unrequited love that Dante gave Becky as she danced for him on the roof of Mooby's. That intense stare where you can tell he's just DYING to declare his feelings. Dear god, I nearly melted into my seat. Hats off to Brian O'Halloran for brilliant acting.

And despite all the jokes throughout the film about Dante's looks (he called himself fugly!), I can't help but admit that Brian O'Halloran is totally hot. He just is. Always has been.

the movies, finally!!!

At long last, I have managed to get our Video Race films down to a manageable size and posted to the Internets! I'd like to take this opportunity to thank YouTube for hosting my two huge files rather than me having to do so. :)

This one is this year's entry into the Dallas 24-Hour Video Race, "Cover Story." We won 2nd place.


And here is last year's entry, titled "Watchmaker." This film won 3rd place.

confections of mass deliciousness

"The world can no longer turn a blind eye to Wonka's deception and misdirection," Rumsfeld said. "Without full inspections, there's no earthly way of knowing which direction Wonka's going. Not a speck of light is showing, so the danger must be growing. And he's certainly not showing any signs that he is slowing. Are the fires of Hell a-glowing? Is the grisly reaper mowing? Who can provide the world with the answer to these pressing questions?"

"The candy man can," Rumsfeld added grimly.

cars!

I'm kind of embarrassed by my last post. It makes me seem like a whiny baby. I thought about deleting it, but a larger part of me doesn't really want to, because that wouldn't be true to myself. I WAS feeling sad and lonely that night, and I don't want to edit my personal history to make me sound better -- to myself or others. I am who I am. I know y'all love me even if I am moody sometimes.

On Friday I did go running over the lunch hour, as planned. I really liked getting it out of the way in the middle of the day and freeing up my evening, but my energy level did not seem quite as good as it usually is in the late afternoons. Also I wasn't sure how the timing would work out -- getting to the gym, running, showering, and getting back to the office within an hour (it didn't quite work). I ran 3 miles, although I'd only planned to do 1.5. My legs were really burning and I thought I'd have to stop, but I pushed myself hard to 2.5 miles and by then the pain disappeared, so I went for all 3.

I think I'll try it a couple more times and see how my energy is, and if I can streamline the timing somewhat.

After work I went to Gloria's with Yvonne, Nate, Jim, Brittney, Chelsea, and also Bill from our office. There was much laughter, sangria, and margaritas all around. I decided to come home afterwards rather than see if anyone wanted to hang out, because I was a little tired from my lunchtime run and the alcohol.

Saturday was a day of errands -- the bank, the shoe store (where I located a pair of black slide sandals nearly identical to my ancient pair whose sole has cracked in half -- but they're MENS shoes, strangely enough; see photo at right but imagine them in black), and the grocery. Central Market sends me these great coupons, usually for things like free meat or $10 off groceries with $40 purchase. So I ended up with a free 1.25 pound sirloin steak (dinner tonight!) and some free blueberries and ice cream. I did not get any exercise in Saturday, but I was intending it to be a day off, so I don't feel that bad about it.

Tonight we are going biking around White Rock Lake. Nate and Yvonne plan to join us as well. It's pretty damn hot out right now (97 degrees) so hopefully it will have cooled off a little in a couple of hours when we meet them. This morning I baked some blueberry lemon corn muffins and this afternoon I baked some buns that are supposed to be similar to the ones served at Schlotzsky's restaurants. We'll see about that. Now I'm cooking a mini-meatloaf that I can slice for a sandwich tomorrow.

We saw "Cars" this morning. It was fantastic! I wasn't sure how they were going to make an entire feature film about automobiles, but they have that fucking Pixar magic working in their favor. I wonder if Steve Jobs' reality distortion field is reaching that far?? One of my favorite parts by far is the end credits. Definitely stay all the way through! I won't spoil it for you by telling you why; all I will say is Monster Trucks Inc.


"Cars" reminds me a little of one of my all-time favorite "old-style" cartoons -- the one about the son of a taxicab who wants to be a racecar.

The award-winning film

By popular demand (all two of you), I am posting Cover Story, our 2006 24-Hour Video Race final film project.

It's a ginormous download (30 MB), so don't say I didn't warn you. Yes, I'm sure it could be a smaller download but I don't know how to make it into such, so this is what we're stuck with for now.

Hope you enjoy it!!!

[EDITOR'S NOTE: I obviously don't know what I'm doing in post-production. so I'm removing the link for now until I can get a version of the movie posted that actually works. I will take any and all suggestions for getting a 5-minute movie from Final Cut Pro into a file small enough to post to the web.]

Quick updates

A couple of quick updates because I'm too tired to write snappy prose tonight.

1. We took 2nd place at the video festival last week. It was somewhat of a surprise. Details to come, I promise! I'll also post the movie here for you to download or view.
   
2. I ran a 5K after work today. Not an actual race, but just 3.3 miles (approximately) around the indoor track. I felt really quite amazing, actually, and I could have run longer if I'd really tried. I would have been exhausted, but I could have found the strength to go maybe 4 miles. I think it is vastly easier for me to achieve those types of distances when I run with Yvonne, partly because I have someone interesting to talk to and take my mind off what I'm doing, but also because she is better than me and I feel like it's a (good) challenge for me to keep up with her endurance.
3. I am apparently incapable of properly operating the stopwatch/lap counter on my snazzy new iPod, and so I guess I'll need to invest in a regular stopwatch or lap clicker or something of the sort. I wonder if a pair of Nikes and a nano would do the trick?
4. I dreamed last night that I told Yvonne that I'd discovered a new way to really tighten up copy. You just inserted the word "And" at the beginning of every sentence, and voila! Fantastic copy, so easy to edit now! When I woke up, even in my half-asleep state, I thought to myself "Now what the fuck was THAT about?!"
   

Finals again!

We made it to the finals!!

Our silly little film is advancing to the finals in the 24 Hour Video Race competition next Tuesday night! We were one of three teams selected to advance in our division. The other half of our division's films screen tomorrow night and some will be chosen from that group to advance as well.

Once again, our film was really different from anything else that we saw. Most teams went for comedy, which I guess is probably easier under such a short timeframe. I don't know that I could make a good comedy film. The style that we have developed these past two years seems natural to me.

I was really thrilled that so many of my friends and co-workers came out to the theatre. Thanks to Lisa, Chelsea and Erika, Brittney, Yvonne and Nate, and of course Kat and Brett. Hope to see you next Tuesday!!

24 Hour Video Race 2006

Doc, Lori and I competed again this year in the 24 Hour Video Race competition. This year we also added Lori's friend Thomas to the team. I think that we came up with a really neat idea and executed it very well. We chose our roles in advance. Doc was the director, Lori was the producer, Thomas was the cinematographer/cameraman, and I was the location sound guy (or, as Yvonne called me, "Fish Boom") and editor.

Friday night we gathered at the Magnolia Lounge in Fair Park, where we signed in, picked up our badge lanyards and a case of "vitamin water" (weak koolaid), and at midnight they showed us a video depicting the required elements for our films. This year, our theme was "Cover Story," the prop was any measuring device, the location was a statue or other public work of art, and the line of dialogue was "That's what I'm talking about."

We hopped in the car and brainstomed all the way home, making a brief stopover at SMU's Meadows Museum to look at the outdoor sculptures to see if any would be suitable. Once we got home, we continued to generate ideas, and finally around 2 a.m. we narrowed it down to our top two. We chose our final idea based partially on the fact that it would require us to shoot at only one location, and last year we feel that we wasted time at too many different locations. From 2 to 4 a.m., we worked on the script, storyboards, and shot list. Kathryn and Brett came over about 2 a.m. with makeup and costume possibilities in tow, and hung out with us for a while before heading up to my studio to get some sleep.

We all went to bed around 4 a.m. and got up a little before 7. We ate breakfast, drank coffee, showered, and then Doc, Lori, and Thomas headed out to scout locations. I worked on props and costuming, and about 8 a.m. we decided to race out to Kat and Brett's house in Wylie to gather more costume pieces.

When we all arrived back at the house, we discussed the location possibilities, settled on one, completed our shot list, gathered up our equipment and headed downtown. We unloaded at the sculpture Four Chromatic Gates by Herbert Bayer (1984) at Ervay and Federal near Thanksgiving Square. The sculpture is located in a narrow plaza between two office buildings, one of which had some broken out windows and a construction fence encircling it.

Shooting took about 2-1/2 hours, much less time than last year. We were completed by 1:30, ahead of schedule. Kathryn, Brett, and Doc were wearing multiple layers of heavy clothing and our scenes required them standing or lying on the ground for extended periods of time; although our film was set in winter, it was actually about 95 degrees outside. I was really afraid that one or all of them were going to have heatstroke! But we kept them hydrated with water and dabbing the sweat from their faces before each take.

When Lori and Thomas scouted the location, it looked ideal, but almost as soon as we started shooting, construction workers in one of the buildings started jackhammering like crazy. They made that godawful noise almost the entire time we were shooting, and I was hoping against hope that the shotgun boom mike that I was carrying was picking up the actors' sound more than the jackhammers. Also, about halfway into shooting, the workers started dropping bricks and concrete out of one of the 10th-floor windows, and then shouting at us in Spanish, most likely telling us to leave. We realized that although they'd cordoned off an area around the building, they were probably wanting to throw their bricks and other stuff into the middle of the plaza (easier, I guess) right where we were working. We decided that we would just ignore them, shoot as fast as we could, and keep going until or unless somebody came downstairs to talk to us. We talked to a couple of security guards from the other building, who came outside to smoke and see what we were doing. They had no problem with us being there, especially because we assured them that we wouldn't be long, we'd clean up, and we'd be respectful of the space.

Anyway, we lucked out and did not get kicked out of our location. If we had, then I think we would have had to forfeit the competition, because if we'd had to re-do everything at another location, we would not have been able to finish in time.

When we finished shooting, we packed up and came home. Lori and Doc went upstairs to my studio, where we'd set up a capturing station to get the footage off the tape, and started that process. I went out to get some pizza for all of us. Kathryn and Brett had some food and cold drinks, hung out for a while, and then went home. About 3 p.m., we had all the footage reviewed and captured, and I started the editing process.

Editing took a long time -- we didn't finish until nearly 11 p.m. -- but that was TONS more time than we had last year and I think we were able to be calmer about it and make some really good editing decisions. Doc chose the music from the craptastic selection we were given from a sponsor called the Music Bakery, and Lori and I sat there and worked on the editing. Doc finalized the sound -- realizing that we were simply not going to have time to splice in and sync up our "good" sound from the shotgun mic, we simply used the noisy sound-on-camera, but Doc worked extensively with it to tone it down to the point where the jackhammers weren't as noticeable. And layering it over the nice cello music we used, I think it turned out very well.

We rendered it (which took all of about 30 seconds), printed it back to DV tape, tested it out, and raced back down to the Magnolia Lounge to turn it in. Our official turn-in time was 11:37 p.m., and we were team #26 to turn in our film. Just like last year, we didn't see very many teams come in after us to turn their tapes in, yet today we found out that 68 teams "made it to the finish line." It sure didn't seem to me like 42 additional teams wandered in after we got there, so I'm not quite sure what to make of that figure. Supposedly the deadline was midnight, no exceptions. Then we all went back to our respective houses, showered, and went to bed.

And now, for the part you've all been waiting for -- what was our film about? Working within the constraints of our assigned elements, we came up with a love story. The plot: a crazy man, an instrument of fate, wanders through an urban scene. He carries a gray wool blanket with him. He stops in front of a sculpture and starts yelling at it, hitting it with his blanket. He then throws the blanket to the ground and stomps off. A homeless man sleeping underneath the cover of the sculpture picks up the blanket, making sure the crazy guy isn't coming back for it. Warmed, he stops shivering and falls asleep. He wakes some time later to discover his new blanket is missing. He looks around, sees it draped atop a lump a few feet away, and snatches it back. He goes to sleep. He wakes again to find a homeless woman stealing the covers off of him before his eyes. A tug of war ensues, and he wins. The woman crawls back to her pile of newspapers, defeated. He curls up under his blanket again. But something is bothering him. He realizes that she is cold too and he's bothered by that. An idea strikes him -- he will cut the blanket in two and give half to her! He pulls off his belt to measure the blanket, and takes out an old knife to cut it down the middle. But before he can make the first slice, she realizes what he's about to do and comes over to stay his hand. They look at each other, smile, and curl up under the blanket together. Our instrument of fate comes storming back down the street again, stops in front of the art to yell at it, notices our homeless people curled up together, and has a moment of clarity. He calmly says "That's what I'm talking about!" and wanders off again, muttering to himself. Fade to black.

The cool thing is, because there were no leafy trees in the scenes or other telltale signs of summer, and because of the costuming and the fact that our actors could, well, ACT, I think it's totally believable that it was the middle of winter.

And Kathryn had an incredibly clever idea for our end credits: have our "homeless" actors hold them up written on cardboard signs!

I had to heavily edit the film and leave out a couple of scenes that we'd originally wanted to use, because of time constraints. Our final time was 4:58, two seconds under the limit. Doc isn't happy with his performance, but the rest of us think he was fantastic. Kathryn was wonderfully expressive, as usual. And Brett, who claimed that he had no talent and was simply following instructions, did a terrific job.

"Cover Story" will be screened at the Angelika on Tuesday, May 16, at 8 p.m. If we make it to the finals, those will be held on Tuesday, May 23. Wish us luck!!!

What do an iguana and the Illuminati have to do with anything?

Check out these Polish marketing posters for American movies. Some are obvious, most are quite beautiful, but some are just plain weird.

This one is for Trading Places. No, really, it is.

The Fisher King

We just watched "The Fisher King." I have not seen it since it first came out, which was something like 12 or 13 years ago. I think I understand it better now, and it both scared the crap out of me and made me feel so incredibly sad.

The Red Knight is an amazing piece of cinematic achievement.

i played recorder in doc's crazy circus orchestra!

on saturday, doc and i participated in this crazy wacky performance art piece done by a photographer friend of lori's, max sturdivant. it was a big circus themed thing, with a blue tarp big top, fireworks, wonder woman and batgirl, a fire eater, a sword swallower, and lori dressed in black with gold leaf on her face. there was lots of pyrotechnics and lots of colored smoke bombs going off everywhere. max filmed the whole thing, and doc composed and performed the music live as we were taping -- a really beautiful ambient soundtrack with lots of swooshy sounds and clanking things. it was really neat.

what we didn't know beforehand was that doc would also be conducting a band -- six nonmusicians, ME included (OMG), playing things like a big kettle drum, a tambourine, a gong, a little shaker egg, a wooden fish that you hit with a stick to make a hollow sound, and a plastic kids' recorder. somehow i ended up with the recorder, the only instrument (besides doc) that actually had to play NOTES! everyone else got the easy rhythm jobs!! i fucking SUCK at the recorder, although a couple of quick lessons from doc helped a little. i didn't make it squeak horribly ALL the time after that.

max absolutely loved the soundtrack, which was fantastic. doc is going to be working with him on getting the sound finalized for the film (post-production, i guess you call it). i really want to see the end result.

here is doc teaching some of the band how to play their instruments.


batgirl and wonder woman's main job was to hold a pinata full of sparklers.


i guess batgirl got her own poster.

real life simpsons intro!!

somebody went to a whole lot of trouble to make this! i would love to compare it side by side with the actual animated simpsons intro...



now if only i could find it someplace to download and keep...

if you are having trouble viewing it, click here to go to the source

shining!

have you seen "shining"? it's the feel-good movie of the year! a movie about a boy, looking for a dad!

(let me know if the link quits working; i'll find another)

in other news, sometimes you can still surprise someone you've known for 11 years. a couple of weeks ago i picked up some oranges i'd bought, as we were unloading groceries, and started to juggle them in the kitchen. it shocked the hell out of doc. i mean, if you possess a skill such as juggling, even at a rudimentary level like mine, wouldn't you think that at some point, in the 11 years you've known a person and in the eight or so that you've lived together, you would have already revealed that you possess said skill? apparently this was not the case. the good news is, even though i don't seem to have actually juggled anything in the past 11 years, i was able to keep the oranges in the air for a good 30 seconds before i dropped one.

the must-see movie of 2006...