Oh yeah. Definitely.
I caught a rerun of Gilmore Girls yesterday that was already half-way through. The scene I first saw was set in the Yale cafeteria. Rory and Paris were discussing the men in their lives, and I notice something I didn't ever notice before: the graphic on the shirt Alexis Bledel was wearing.
Reading is Sexy
I would so rock that shirt if it came in a size medium for males.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Monday, September 24, 2007
Off the Grid
So I'm finally back online for the first time since last the Thursday night. It feels refreshing to go away after a while. For the most part, I've used my hibernation as a means to focus of getting some writing done. Two Fridays ago, I made a deal with Dang to turn in pages into him every so often to keep my focus on finishing the ol screenplay.
I'm aiming on getting my first draft of said screenplay done by next Monday, and then spend October on tightening everything up. On Friday, the first volume of the Jack Kirby Fourth World Omnibus finally came in. It's my birthday gift from my buddy Ray. It's about a month after the fact, but he finally ordered it couple weeks back. So on Friday, after the mail came in, that Omnibus hardcover was just staring at me, baiting me to unwrap the plastic around it, flip through all the Jack Kirby goodness. But I persevered, and I mustered the will power to finish my page count goal for the week. I'm increasing this week's goal twofold from last week. Fun times lie ahead on the horizon!
I'm aiming on getting my first draft of said screenplay done by next Monday, and then spend October on tightening everything up. On Friday, the first volume of the Jack Kirby Fourth World Omnibus finally came in. It's my birthday gift from my buddy Ray. It's about a month after the fact, but he finally ordered it couple weeks back. So on Friday, after the mail came in, that Omnibus hardcover was just staring at me, baiting me to unwrap the plastic around it, flip through all the Jack Kirby goodness. But I persevered, and I mustered the will power to finish my page count goal for the week. I'm increasing this week's goal twofold from last week. Fun times lie ahead on the horizon!
Monday, September 17, 2007
What I am.
I have a friend who has told me in the past that real life isn't like it is in the movies. I've always thought about that, but I think it's the contrary. Where do storytellers get their ideas? Where do they think up this shit?
Everyone has drama in their personal lives every so often. There are those in the world who think that their family is the most fucked up family in the world. We don't always get along with our friends, our spouses, our significant others, or otherwise. We all have strangely fucked up dreams every now and then. There are news reports of murderers, serial killers, rapists, burglaries, extortion, embezzlement, hit and runs, charity work, late night heroics in a sporting event, explosions, whatever. In real life, we find these and other happenings so interesting is because there is a varying degree of emotional depth that we latch onto. We latch on because there's something very true about those things. And therein lies what storytellers do: find some sort of truth about their the story, and cultivate it.
I mean, how else would we, the audience, be so captivated by films? We love certain films because there are certain characters that we can identify with and sympathize and empathize with. They have flaws, as do we all. To be able to give that to an audience is a very special thing.
To be able to tap into people's emotion, into relationships, and so on, and bring something real like all of that into something like narrative or fiction, is what excites me. I get a kick each time I see others do it successfully.
As the days are currently passing, I find myself inching closer to finishing my first feature screenplay. Still a ways to go, but I'm committed to making this happen. It is a very special piece of work.
Until then here's a quote from Elaine Stritch from the Emmy Awards last night when she presented an award with Stanley Tucci.
Elaine Stritch:
“I’m not faking this. I really don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
In a nutshell, that's how I think of my life thus far. :P
Everyone has drama in their personal lives every so often. There are those in the world who think that their family is the most fucked up family in the world. We don't always get along with our friends, our spouses, our significant others, or otherwise. We all have strangely fucked up dreams every now and then. There are news reports of murderers, serial killers, rapists, burglaries, extortion, embezzlement, hit and runs, charity work, late night heroics in a sporting event, explosions, whatever. In real life, we find these and other happenings so interesting is because there is a varying degree of emotional depth that we latch onto. We latch on because there's something very true about those things. And therein lies what storytellers do: find some sort of truth about their the story, and cultivate it.
I mean, how else would we, the audience, be so captivated by films? We love certain films because there are certain characters that we can identify with and sympathize and empathize with. They have flaws, as do we all. To be able to give that to an audience is a very special thing.
To be able to tap into people's emotion, into relationships, and so on, and bring something real like all of that into something like narrative or fiction, is what excites me. I get a kick each time I see others do it successfully.
As the days are currently passing, I find myself inching closer to finishing my first feature screenplay. Still a ways to go, but I'm committed to making this happen. It is a very special piece of work.
Until then here's a quote from Elaine Stritch from the Emmy Awards last night when she presented an award with Stanley Tucci.
Elaine Stritch:
“I’m not faking this. I really don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”
In a nutshell, that's how I think of my life thus far. :P
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Gilmore Girls
So this past Tuesday night saw the repeat of the last episode of Gilmore Girls on The CW. I was able to watch the half of it. I remember watching it originally back in May. It was sad then as it is now. I think my favorite period of the show was the third and fourth seasons. I got into the show because of Smallville. Together, Gilmore Girls and Smallville represented The WB's Tuesday night schedule.
It was during the summer that followed Smallvile's first season that I began watching repeats of season two episodes of Gilmore Girls.
When the new season kicked off in the fall, I made it a point to watch Gilmore Girls as well as Smallville. I've been a fan of Gilmore Girls ever since. In fact, I must say that Gilmore Girls has eclipsed Smallville as my favorite of the two. If someone were to tell me that back then, I would tell you to go paint my house. Don't get me wrong here: I still park my arse in front of the television to watch a new episode of Smallville, and I'm still making it a point to follow the series when the show's seventh season kicks off at the end of this month but Gilmore Girls just has that unique charm to it.
Gilmore Girls had a wealth of likeable characters that evolved through the course of the series. It was great to know that these characters really cared about each other. There are some people out there who have issues with the dialogue in the show, but I loved it. I thought it was absolutely masterful how Amy Sherman-Palladino and company did a one-eighty on the Dean and Jess characters. Dean was the good-clean cut kid, and Jess was the bad-boy, and by the time both characters were written out of the show, you realized Dean just didn't know what he really wanted, and was the way he was because he didn't know what else to do. He was indecisive. Whereas Jess shed all his unnecessary baggage, and grew up. I think the execution on that worked so well, some people don't even realize how seamless that transition came about.
Even though I can see Rory and Jess hooking back up together again in their futures, I just think it would be awkward and weird considering Lorelai and Luke got back together in the last episode. Kind of incestuous considering Lorelai and Rory are mother-daughter, and Luke and Jess are uncle-nephew.
Plus Alexis Bledel is really pretty. Shallow of me to say, but the hell if she ain't.
It was during the summer that followed Smallvile's first season that I began watching repeats of season two episodes of Gilmore Girls.
When the new season kicked off in the fall, I made it a point to watch Gilmore Girls as well as Smallville. I've been a fan of Gilmore Girls ever since. In fact, I must say that Gilmore Girls has eclipsed Smallville as my favorite of the two. If someone were to tell me that back then, I would tell you to go paint my house. Don't get me wrong here: I still park my arse in front of the television to watch a new episode of Smallville, and I'm still making it a point to follow the series when the show's seventh season kicks off at the end of this month but Gilmore Girls just has that unique charm to it.
Gilmore Girls had a wealth of likeable characters that evolved through the course of the series. It was great to know that these characters really cared about each other. There are some people out there who have issues with the dialogue in the show, but I loved it. I thought it was absolutely masterful how Amy Sherman-Palladino and company did a one-eighty on the Dean and Jess characters. Dean was the good-clean cut kid, and Jess was the bad-boy, and by the time both characters were written out of the show, you realized Dean just didn't know what he really wanted, and was the way he was because he didn't know what else to do. He was indecisive. Whereas Jess shed all his unnecessary baggage, and grew up. I think the execution on that worked so well, some people don't even realize how seamless that transition came about.
Even though I can see Rory and Jess hooking back up together again in their futures, I just think it would be awkward and weird considering Lorelai and Luke got back together in the last episode. Kind of incestuous considering Lorelai and Rory are mother-daughter, and Luke and Jess are uncle-nephew.
Plus Alexis Bledel is really pretty. Shallow of me to say, but the hell if she ain't.
Monday, September 10, 2007
A helluva start
Wow. That was a helluva Monday night. Go NINERS!!!!
It wasn't pretty. But more like "UGHH"... And then it was "Woooooooo!!" by the end of it.
Well, you don't know what you have until you face a little adversity. 85-yard drive with 3:06 in the forth when the offense only managed 30 yards the entire second half before that last drive... That's how you start off a season. It may have been just the Cardinals, but it was a division game, and we lost 4 in a row against the Cards, so hot damn if that wasn't a helluva Monday night!
20-17 Niners over Cards!
...hrrmm, woulda been a good idea to record the game.
It wasn't pretty. But more like "UGHH"... And then it was "Woooooooo!!" by the end of it.
Well, you don't know what you have until you face a little adversity. 85-yard drive with 3:06 in the forth when the offense only managed 30 yards the entire second half before that last drive... That's how you start off a season. It may have been just the Cardinals, but it was a division game, and we lost 4 in a row against the Cards, so hot damn if that wasn't a helluva Monday night!
20-17 Niners over Cards!
...hrrmm, woulda been a good idea to record the game.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Scream
So late Sunday night, and into Monday morning at about 1:30 in the am, I was about to go to bed, but needed something to fall asleep to. I turned on the tv, and rediscovered a nice little movie that was just starting on one of the movie channels: Scream.
I ended up staying up until 3:30 watching the entire film. It would've been nice to have just TiVo'd it, but I TiVo'd a whole mess of Buster Keaton films from last week, and hadn't watched all of them yet, so I stayed up... Besides, I haven't watched a horror movie during the middle of the night since I watched the first two Evil Dead films on consecutive nights a couple years back. Anyway, this time I watched Scream with a new pair of eyes. I mean I feel that I now can appreciate films on a whole nother level post-film school. [Insert warm and fuzzy feeling]
Scream is smart and satirical of the horror genre. And in so doing, it plays right in line with the rules of horror films. But it also sees fit to break some of them: The killer(s) are motivated by the disintegration of the family, and a need to -in some way- rectify it all. And adversely: despite not being a virgin anymore, the heroine lives through the ordeal.... *sigh* Phew, here I was thinking that three months after graduating, it would've all went out the other ear by now...
Kevin Williamson's structure is awesome, the execution by Wes Craven is great, and this is why I love horror movies. It has the ability to tell a good story with the ability to scare the shit outta you, and also doesn't take itself too seriously. But more than anything: it's quite intelligible. Scream is part of the genre that is the teen-slasher movie, but beyond that, its intelligence is what makes it just as good now as it was when it was originally released. My money is that it will still hold up well in the years to come.
I ended up staying up until 3:30 watching the entire film. It would've been nice to have just TiVo'd it, but I TiVo'd a whole mess of Buster Keaton films from last week, and hadn't watched all of them yet, so I stayed up... Besides, I haven't watched a horror movie during the middle of the night since I watched the first two Evil Dead films on consecutive nights a couple years back. Anyway, this time I watched Scream with a new pair of eyes. I mean I feel that I now can appreciate films on a whole nother level post-film school. [Insert warm and fuzzy feeling]
Scream is smart and satirical of the horror genre. And in so doing, it plays right in line with the rules of horror films. But it also sees fit to break some of them: The killer(s) are motivated by the disintegration of the family, and a need to -in some way- rectify it all. And adversely: despite not being a virgin anymore, the heroine lives through the ordeal.... *sigh* Phew, here I was thinking that three months after graduating, it would've all went out the other ear by now...
Kevin Williamson's structure is awesome, the execution by Wes Craven is great, and this is why I love horror movies. It has the ability to tell a good story with the ability to scare the shit outta you, and also doesn't take itself too seriously. But more than anything: it's quite intelligible. Scream is part of the genre that is the teen-slasher movie, but beyond that, its intelligence is what makes it just as good now as it was when it was originally released. My money is that it will still hold up well in the years to come.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Fantasy Football
No I don't participate in any leagues, but my brother, Pat, does. Multiple leagues actually. And today I helped him in one of those League Fantasy Drafts. As opposed to a draft held online, this one was held at one of Pat's friends' house. It was pretty fun, and I think I finally realize just how much fun my brother has with it. And to a greater extent, how much fun it it for everyone else who participates in Fantasy Football, and other fantasy sports leagues.
In the past, I figured that I wouldn't want to devote so much of my time in all of it. I still am, though. Maybe next year I'll give it a shot.
In the past, I figured that I wouldn't want to devote so much of my time in all of it. I still am, though. Maybe next year I'll give it a shot.
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