Some Thoughts For That Post-Christmas, Pre-New-Year Times

Beautiful women never need their tires rotated...I've been to the Jiffy Lube and Les Schwab Lord knows how many times, and I've yet to see an attractive woman at either. And I don't mean Angelina-Jolie-lookin' women (who I believe just have a small army of men around them to do their bidding..."go get groceries!"), I just mean even marginally attractive. Not that I'm looking to pick up women at such locations, but it does baffle me. I also never sit next to attractive women on airplanes. Perhaps I'm cursed...

I bought the first season of Saturday Night Live on DVD after Santa found it fit to not put it under the tree this year, and it is marvelous. Worth every cent it took to get one-day shipping on it.

Dreamgirls is awesome.

Studio 60 and Veronica Mars need to come back right now.

Girl Talk is not a fun game, no matter what you might have heard.

My room was insanely cold for the last few days. Tonight it's pretty warm I guess.

The Ramones are a great, great band.

Meat Loaf's just-released Bat Out of Hell III is kinda disappointing so far. I need a serious sit-down with it to be sure.

These are the bands I go to immediately upon entering any record store - The Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell, The Ramones, Meat Loaf, and Queen. I check both the LP and CD sections for these. All other bands (including Zeppelin, the Stones, KISS, even the Beatles) are totally incidental. The realization of this practice leads me to believe that my Top 5 bands may not have been what I had long suspected.

Being sick over Christmas Break is the pits. I was sick last year, too, only I was lucky enough for it to be after New Year's. I've got a mere two days to get my wits back about me. Luckily, I still have a healthy stack of DVDs on the coffee table in my basement. I'm strolling through SNL and Seinfeld Season 7, plus I've knocked out Little Miss Sunshine, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (which I still insist is, in fact, better than the first one), and A Prairie Home Companion, but still Clerks II, Mission: Impossible III, the second season of Veronica Mars, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and two seasons of The West Wing (Cynda?) remain untouched. And two books...Katie, Killing Yourself to Live is fantastic thus far. And yeah...that's pretty much where all my Christmas cash went. Hurray!

That's pretty much it. Go back to whatever you were doing. It was probably more interesting.

Merry Christmas

Hope you're all having a great one.

Two Brand-New Trailers to Rock Your Balls Off

TRANSFORMERS

and

GRINDHOUSE

If you have the tech, watch 'em in HD. 'Cause it's all with the HD...and stuff. For my money, Transformers may just be the better of the two. That's right. Michael Bay might just beat out the double-shot of Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino (and I'm not one of those lame hipsters who insists Pulp Fiction wasn't really that good...I love all things by both of those guys).

So I'm back in town, the travel was pretty average, all things considered. Hope to see ya'll real soon.

DONE

Thank sweet Jesus. After cramming what should have been a ten minute presentation turned into five, I'm sitting out the rest of class and waiting to be officially done. Then I pack my bags, wait for noon tomorrow, and get my ass outta here.

I don't fly out 'til 4 now...did I already talk about this? Whatever. Anyway, I'll see ya'll Thursday I'm sure.

I got to write a paper on the science behind Armageddon. It was pretty sweet.

I Can't Wait to Come Home

Even my will to blog has lessened...Lord knows what'll happen tonight when I have to accomplish things. Like...homework and stuff. I already forgot when one of my classes was today and missed it entirely. Good thing we were just watching a movie.

Watched A Charlie Brown Christmas this morning, the original. Good Lord do I love that movie.

Emerson Ben and Gray came back from Europe on Saturday. Much insanity followed. Now they're gone, and things are pretty sane again. It's kinda weak. And I'm so very, very sleepy.

Okay, time to post something online for production that was supposed to be up last Wednesday. Hurray.

Golden Globe Nominations

Well, I had a whole thing written out about 'em, but it was probably too long for most of you to give a damn. Long and the short of it, though, is that I haven't seen several of the films that received multiple nominations (though I absolutely plan to when they come out). I could go on and on about how so much great work was overlooked, but it's not the Oscars so I don't care too much. And as much as elitists will tell you how much crap the Oscars are for never honoring the films that really deserve it (which is often true), I care about them because it's so cool when the stuff you really enjoy gets recognized (like Sofia Coppola winning screenplay for Lost in Translation, Rachel Weisz getting best supporting for The Constant Gardener, Adrien Brody beating out JACK NICHOLSON for Best Actor in The Pianist). And the fact that Pan's Labyrinth has a good shot at winning Best Foreign Film this year is so awesome. I love that.

This post isn't just about the Golden Globes but about all the results I've seen from critics' groups across the nation.

Anyway...I still can't believe how little love The Prestige and Marie Antoinette are getting from pretty much everybody. To me, they're two of the best movies of the year and mark huge steps forward for their directors (Christopher Nolan and Sofia Coppola), who are each at very exciting points in their careers and did really strong, gutsy work after coming off relatively huge success (both creatively and financially) with Batman Begins for Nolan and Lost in Translation for Sofia. Never mind how strongly directed each film was, Nolan's screenplay for The Prestige was incredible in its structure alone, and both films boasted fantastic performances (Christian Bale deserves a supporting nod, and I'm still rooting for Kirsten Dunst...her Marie Antoinette was transcendent). I know with Marie especially, I'm one of few really pulling for it, but I think over time it'll really, really hold up.

And then there's The Fountain, which I probably couldn't say more good things about but will continue to anyway. That Darren Aronofsky isn't being recognized for this almost proves how ahead of his time he is (Stanley Kubrick only won one Oscar in his life - for visual effects in 2001). That Hugh Jackman isn't being recognized shows how often great acting goes unrecognized (and it's totally an Oscar performance, too, is the thing...the whole movie is full of those scenes that you watch and you think "Oscar clip"...the fact that you DON'T think that is Aronofsky's magic).

And United 93, which is just such a fantastic film on so many levels...there needs to be more awards given for ensemble acting, that's for damn sure. Never mind Paul Greengrass directed the hell out of that. Man.

So those are the four films I'm really rooting for. Just sad that, besides maybe United 93 (which some critics' groups have been all over), they won't get the recognition they deserve. Argh.

Hey, Look!

I made a movie!

It's a mere 6 and a half minutes long, so if you find yourself with some spare time, give it a look-see.

The Golden Globe nominations were announced today. I'll be back later today with my thoughts and complaints (almost no love for The Prestige, Marie Antoinette, The Fountain, or Studio 60...sad).

Avoiding Work? Yeah, Me Too

I still have an unforgivable amount of work to do on this presentation for speech class tomorrow, and it's not so much that I'm dreading getting started, I just can't get started. Sorta strange. Anyway, most of the time I had set aside tonight to work on the presentation, I was instead working on the movie. I came up with way too many ideas to try to implement the day it's due, and then I didn't have time to export it (which apparently takes 45 minutes to an hour...dammmmmn). So it'll be a day late, but what'll you do.

Unfortunately, I also have nothing to talk about. Basically just been working, like ya'll I'm sure. The sad part is it hasn't even been that much work. I wouldn't last a day at a real school. Oh, my flight time is much less certain now...turns out nobody knows what's going on. Hopefully I'll find out tomorrow before I completely collapse (I'm showing up to do my presentation and then I am GONE...my presence in science class is yet to be determined, although I've already missed two and a half days of that class out of an allowed...two).

I can't wait to get home. Less than a week now.

HAD To Post This

Am I wrong to be really looking forward to this? Yeah...probably. Jason Lee is doing the voice though, which is pretty boss.

Yeah...The NBA on NBC Theme Really Was Amazing

"Me? I've had so many names... Old names that only the wind and the trees can pronounce. I am the mountain, the forest and the earth."
-The Faun (Pan's Labyrinth)

I just saw Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which is definitely one of the best movies of the year. Not quite The Fountain good (I'm really going on the offensive to get people to see THAT movie, be prepared), but it's battling in my mind with United 93. I'll have a whole glowing review written later, when I...y'know...don't have a final worth 80% of my grade in 12 hours.

Also, tomorrow my video project will be posted, for all to laugh and jeer at. The narrative isn't really...coherent...but neither are 3/4 of the artsy-fartsy projects the kids in my class did (one kid did an 8-minute stills-audio project about his spiritual connection to food...another about his fear of architecture...so yeah), but mine's actually kinda fun, so I'm letting myself off the hook.

I've been on this whole wave of music the past week or so, which I know seems like more of the same, but there really are periods I go through when I don't want to listen to anything in the collection. But this last week I rediscovered all this music while I was trying to figure out what to put on the video project. I've been going through all the Crows' albums tonight while I "study" (read: see who else is procrastinating and go get pizza). I've also been blasting the balls off of the Marie Antoinette soundtrack, which is like ten shades of greatness. Little Elvis here and there. Sucks, though, 'cause while I have all this music that's so good over the summer, there's no a lot of music I really like especially during the winter (except Christmas music...yay!)

Does anyone have John Lennon's solo stuff? I had a bunch but when my computer died it all flew away 'cause I didn't have it backed up and I've been missing it. So I wanna steal some over the break. Also George Harrison, same problem. Hell, I don't have no money for music.

Okay I need to study some more. This test is...lame.

Well, Poop

I was all set for a 4:00 flight out of Boston, which wouldn't have gotten me to Portland until midnight, but hey...4:00 flight. So now I'm flying out at 6 AM...yeah...6:25 specifically...yeah. Well, good news is I get in on noon on the 20th, which is like a whole 'nother day before Christmas! And sure I'll be so tired I'll be wishing for the sweet sweet relief of death, but guess what? Didn't stop me over the summer, won't stop me now...we're all (Portland folk, that be) partying it up (RC Cola style) on the 20th.

P.S. I have the Tiny Toons theme song stuck in my head (it is, however, one of the best TV show themes ever).

P.P.S. That thought led me on a quest that ended here (they have the theme song from Doug!) and subsequently here (if you had a childhood, you'll remember this as soon as you hear it).

So Hungry

I don't get it...I've been hungry like all day. For breakfast at noon, I had a full waffle, which doesn't QUITE satisfy me, but if I eat any more waffle I just get sick and the toast line was too long. But y'know, it's a hefty waffle, a decent meal all things considered. Then five hours later I had dinner, which probably amounted to a breast and a half of chicken and...what did I have? Some salad...oh, and two slices of pizza. Then four hours after THAT I had a hamburger and fries...burger was a quarter-pounder, and it was just a regular order of fries, but y'know, satisfying. Then, what, three hours after that I had a turkey sandwich? And now it's an hour and a half after that and I'm hungry again.

I think the problem is I didn't have any milk today. The Dining Hall milk thing was out of order (both the skim AND the 2%...but of course chocolate and whole was working fine, but I hate both of those with a passion), and it's Sunday which means the C-store (the on-campus convenience store) didn't have any milk (though for once in its existance it had Sierra Mist), and by the time I realized how badly I needed milk it was too late to go to 7-11 (unless it's Friday or Saturday night, going to 7-11 after midnight results only in multiple offers of drugs...and it's only a block away). And actually tonight there was a full-on fight across the street between like twelve people. So probably a good thing I didn't go for that.

So yeah...tomorrow I will definitely consume huge amounts of milk. I'll need the stamina...as much work as I got done today, I need to get a SHITLOAD done tomorrow so I can go to the Pan's Labyrinth screening on Tuesday with a clean conscience...I'll go anyway, but my conscience won't be clean otherwise.

How's finals going for ya'll? Unless you're already outta school. Like my brother. In which case, screw you (love you Chris....)

Invitation to Join NBA Bloggers

This came in my e-mail box a little bit ago while I was desperately trying to find reason not to read my journalism book (which may also explain the presence of this post).

Dear blog author:

We recently came across your site, flycaptain.blogspot.com, while searching for bloggers who blog about the NBA.

A small group of us have started a new site called NBA Bloggers. Our intent is to bring basketball bloggers closer together, and make a positive contribution to the Internet community.

Would you be interested in joining NBA Bloggers? Please take a few minutes to have a look at what we are trying to do, and if you are interested, there is a sign up page to get the ball rolling. We would greatly appreciate your support in this endeavour.

If you do not feel that your blog would be a good fit for NBA Bloggers but like to read about your favorite sports team, come visit us for some great content from our growing list of blog authors. You can also check our FAQ Section to learn more about NBA Bloggers

We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you on NBA Bloggers.

Craig Cantin
NBA Bloggers
info@nba-bloggers.com

Where to begin....I dunno, I think mainly in that I've never once (to my recollection) discussed the NBA in any capacity on the blog. I might've mentioned that it sucks and they should really learn how to play defense, but besides that...I've talked about college ball and Duke a few times, but the NBA?

Anyway, to anyone from the group who may be reading this, I greatly support the building of community in the blogging world, and believe that such discourse of ideas amongst people with similar interests can only be beneficial to the author themselves and the greater public who can now more easily discover and locate writing pertaining to the their interest, but seeing as I...pretty much hate the NBA (a direct result from my foundational years spent in one of the greatest periods of the league's existance), I gotta decline membership.

I'm just wondering how they ever found me in a search for bloggers who blog about the NBA. But whatever.

"There's No Reason Not To Prepare Your Family In Case of a Terrorist Attack"

Yes, I actually just heard those words from the radio. Biggest plans we ever went over when I was a kid was stop, drop, and roll. Until we got that sweet ladder we could hang out our window to escape, which I always wanted to just use anyway.

Just Repositioned My Speakers

For the longest time, they were on my desk, which sort of juts off from the head of my bed at 145-degree angle (I remember some stuff), and the speakers were right on that angle. They were great when I used my desk, but that surface has since become unbelievably cluttered to the point of being completely unusable, so I now do all my business on my bed (sorry, the joke's too obvious to make). Anyway, I still used the speakers, but they had such odd placement relative to me that the music didn't quite sound right. But now they're on the two posts at the head of my bed, so they sort of envelop me from just barely behind. It kicks ass. It's like really, really nice headphones that you don't have to wear. I'm listening to Queen's "Prophet's Song" and it is IN-SANE.

Now I just hope they don't fall off...perhaps some sort of adhesive.

Finished up a few bonus shots for my short film, which I started editing last night and it kicks ass. Mainly 'cause I'm laying kickass tracks to the whole thing. God bless a complete unwillingness to sell this stuff so I can use Three Dog Night.

Ahhh...thirteen days 'til Portland. More than a little excited, I must say. But I got a pass to see Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which I am REALLY looking forward to (some people are saying it's better than The Fountain...I doubt I'll think so, but hey, it's still gotta be pretty damned good). The only downside is it's the day before my journalism final, which is also the same day I gotta turn in the short film. Yeah, that'll be a fun night.

Apocalypto Musings, Or: Judging Films Before They Come Out Based Solely On Whether Or Not You'd Have Him Over For Dinner

This is a subject I've talked about at extreme length in a variety of settings, so...screw you! I'm talking about it again!

My friend Julie recently joined a Facebook group called "Boycott Apocalypto and Mel Gibson." While it is a group of a mere 14 members, it echoes sentiments I've been hearing for a few months now. That sentiment is...Mel Gibson's a dick, don't see his movie. First part, definitely true. But guess what? For every person in Hollywood who actually says something massively offensive, there's a solid hundred or so who have good enough publicists to get them to keep their mouths shut. And Tom Cruise is a perfect example of this. For the longest time (I'm talking two decades longest time), Tom Cruise was America's poster boy. EVERYONE loved Tom Cruise. Even if you didn't really like him, you still loved him. Don't deny it. Nobody even cared that he's a scientologist, which yes, has been of public record for many many years. Yet all the while, crazy was brewing inside of him. Michael Richards is another fine example (though I'm less surprised that he's a little off, and he was more suffering from a case of "that guy's still working?" when all that started).

Anyway, point is, you're supporting dozens, maybe even hundreds of crazy people every time you go to the movies. Actually, Sylvestor Stallone put it best - "The truth be known, I am insane with long, horrible fits of sanity. Now, if you can make insanity work for you, that's actually called creativity. If you can't, that's called a menace to society."

Additionally, trying to rally together a boycott of anything is the dumbest course of action ever. Better course of action? Get a lot of people of various backgrounds and opinions TO see the movie, and have a discussion afterwards. Don't wanna spend the cash? Then shut up and stick with yelling "Mel Gibson is a dick," which everyone kinda knows anyway (although this whole drunken yelling thing was blown way outta proportion - if I had a dollar for every dumb thing I've heard someone yell while drunk, I'd have a few weeks of good solid restaurant meals). Just don't associate that with his work. I've known a number of people I hate the living hell out of (you can change "hate" to "greatly dislike" if you're one of those people who, for reasons that are beyond me, can't stand the word), but who I will admit are damn good at what they do (Rob Kodadek being the one that most immediately springs to mind).

I don't really care if you see Apocalypto or not. Hell, feel free to say it's probably a crappy movie. I think it looks pretty badass. But don't be one of those people whose first thought in weighing whether or not to see something revolves around People Magazine's cover story. You're not going there to be their best friend. You're going (I hope) to see something creative that'll make you feel or think or (if you're lucky enough) both.

P.S. There is a subargument to the boycotting of Apocalypto that claims Gibson took advantage of Mexican labor in the making of the movie. I don't know the whole story (who does?), but the only thing I heard of that one could interpret as such was this LA Times article that stated he often called for extras and other crew people to get to the set at 1 AM to be in make-up and so forth, only to, hours later, roll by and tell them they won't be needed for the day. The way the article has it, though, is that the people were still paid for their time, it's just that labor in Mexico is much cheaper than in America and Gibson's rich enough to not give a damn how much it costs him. So I guess he really inconvenienced them, but "took advantage of" might be a bit harsh. Also, shooting a movie like this is not easy under the best of circumstances, and things are bound to change when it's essentially one guy running the show.

Come Fly With Me, Fly!

You know how it's okay for random people to friend you on Facebook when you're just starting college, and it's all just kind of the process of people trying to make friends? Then you know how it's a little strange when complete strangers friend you in the middle of first semester of Sophomore year? Yeah. Some dude just friended me, who I swear to God, I have no idea who this guy is. No frickin' clue. On one hand, that makes me feel cool and popular. On the other, I know I am neither so it makes no sense. At all.

Found out there's somebody at my school with the last name "Drinkwater." What a great last name.

Finished The Cider House Rules. I beasted out like 150, 175 pages yesterday. And if that isn't strong enough indication, I frickin' loved it. Love the John Irving. I kinda guessed the ending by...I dunno, 150 pages in, but how cool is that that I was still way into it despite nailing the ending? Anyway, fantastic book.

Dude, there is nobody in journalism today. The entire row in front of me - empty. Row in front of that - two people. My row - one other person. Row in back of me - one guy. The first two rows are pretty stacked, as are the last two, but that's four rows in between with a whole lotta nothing. Why did I come today?

Holy crap my final's in a week for this class! I haven't read any of the books! Luckily, most of it comes from the notes, but I should probably give the books a good once-over. And the final's worth like 80% of my grade. So very, very screwed. Finals like this really bring out the anxiety in people though. The fact that I'm even a little worried should show that. But the people who actually care regardless? They're going nuts. So that part's fun.

Bought the new Collector's Edition of Rocky yesterday and watched it. What a great movie. Can't wait for Balboa. "Yo Adrian!"

Tonight is The Pick of Destiny!

Two (Somewhat) Quick Things

Studio 60 just had its best episode yet, even better than the pilot (which was pretty much gold shot out across airwaves). Please watch it...if you're late, it'll be free for a bit at NBC.com (I assume they're still doing that), then available on iTunes as always. I love Christmas. I'm listening to Christmas music right now, via the online stream from Portland's 103.3. And somehow I ended up in the one floor at this heaten school that loves Christmas as much as I; even the Jews are nuts for it. It's wild.

And Adrianna brought up a point I somehow forgot to mention, even though I talk about it all the time...the fact that the Army should've never abandoned "Be All That You Can Be," which is the best slogan ever for anything, especially for something like the Army. "Army Strong" doesn't even make any sense. Even "An Army of One" was better, and that wasn't even close to as cool as "Be All That You Can Be." But what'll you do.

P.S. The guy on the radio is giving advice on what to do when you're caught speeding...

'Bout Friggin' Time!

I just saw the best Army Reserve commercial...they had all these scenarios with people jumping out of airplanes and running across fields and hopping over fences and stuff, and those were juxtaposed with people doing real jobs in the real world - in fact, the same people who were in the Army situations. So they had this one where this mohawk (is that how you spell "mohawk"?) dude was helping his buddies over a fence or whatever, and Mr. Voice was like "Get the training to help your buddies today" (or something) and then it cut to the mohawk guy in the office and Mr. Voice was like "So you can help your career tomorrow" (or something. But Mohawk Guy still had the mohawk in the office! I laughed 'til it hurt. 'Cause y'know...they don't let you have mohawks in offices.

As for what the title refers to, it finally snowed today. Only a little, to be sure, but it's something. And it's still friggin' cold. Although that's apparently not gonna stick (weather.com is my best friend, but it really ruins all my fun).

Man, there's been a whole string of weird commercials! I just saw a bunch of leprochauns (is that how you spell "leprochaun"?) and aliens working as the pit crew for a unicorn driving a racecar! And then Tiger Woods shot a golf ball at it raced a racecar! For a jewelry store no less! The Tiger Woods and the unicorn...two separate commercials, btw.

Ahhhh...my day was boring 'cause I couldn't get my video to capture in my production class and was supposed to try using my friend's camera, which I shot it on, but he wasn't around...luckily Bravo shows The West Wing in the afternoon.

If I Gotta Be Damned, You Know I Wanna Be Damned...Dancing Through The Night With You

Today, I start (and end) principle photography on "Severence Package," my 3-4 minute short film for my Intro to Media Production class. It should be a pretty sweet little thing, and I even worked in a small action scene that I'm pretty pumped about shooting. But first, I gotta get ridiculously caffeinated. I'm way to sedate most of the time to naturally pump people up to beating each other up. Never mind that that's the last thing we'll be shooting.

I saw Tony Scott's Deja Vu last night, which was pretty frickin' awesome. The first 2/3rds are better than the final act, but it works overall. And there is one of the best car chase sequences ever. Four words...time travel car chase. That they even thought it up was amazing, but it's a really cool innovative execution as well (as is most of the movie...it's the geekiest damn action movie since The Matrix).

I gotta think up a topic to research and lead a 10-minute discussion on for my speech class. Vanessa suggested "milk," which might not lend itself well to hours of research, but I do like the idea of getting graded on a discussion about milk. And I'm somehow kicking ass in that class (Pat can testify that my senior project should've been the indicator that if there was anyone who should never be allowed to give a speech about anything, it's probably me), so I can live losing a few points.

But this week should be fairly leisurely...I have a screening of Blood Diamond on Tuesday (which I'm psyched about...Leo DiCaprio talking in a sort of non-existant accent!), I'll do some research here and there for this discussion thing, and edit the hell out of "Severence Package." But the week after, I have a shitload of work - gotta turn in "Severence Package," lead the discussion, take a journalism final (it should be mentioned that this final is one of two things we're graded on in the class), and give a science presentation. Good times. And I keep hearing mixed reports as to whether or not we have a production final...it would blow if we did though, 'cause I sucked it up on the midterm. But then it's break, and all will be right with the world.

Oh, and I am seeing The Nativity Story sometime this week. Mark my words.