My dear acolytes, your faithful narrator has remained as busy as ever. I’m so busy and also quite tired that I shan’t go see the midnight show of Spider-man 3 tonight. I’m going to wait until tomorrow like so many others. I prefer to see the midnight screenings of the big “event movies” that are to my liking because the anticipation and audience reactions are quite fun. I’m not a huge Harry Potter fan, but a midnight screening with dorks dressed in school boy (and school girl) outfits always make for an entertaining event. Experiencing a movie with all the fandom separates the movie-going from just seeing it plainly at home on a DVD. Maybe the Friday late afternoon crowd will be still pumped….
I re-watched SPIDERMAN 1 and the new SIPDERMAN 2.1 DVD. I like these flicks. The comic book lived as a staple in my childhood. I recall the exact issues when the new black suit came out and when it eventually morphed into VENOM, and even my first issues ever were the first ever appearance of the HOBGOBLIN. I have long since sold my collection, but I kept some graphic novels and trade paperbacks because the storylines heavily influenced my writing and stories. Chris Claremont and John Byrne in particular greatly affected my interest in long form storytelling.
I got a book on the making of GRINDHOUSE, the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez ode to drive in-style movies. By the time the announcement of the fake trailer came about including the “S.S. Werewolves” one by Rob Zombie, I was numb to any potential similarities to HORRORS OF WAR. One element that I had completely not gotten was that in January 2006 when we premiered HORRORS OF WAR, I had made a DVD of old grind house style trailer and drive in movie theatre interstitials to play in the theatre leading up to the screening to set up the “mood” for our “B” movie. I had hit the trend before it was trendy, but then again I was equally influenced by the same movies and styles by watching “Super host” on WUAB on Saturday afternoons and “Big Chuck and Little John” midnight movies before anyone had cable TV. Sonny Chiba, Bruce lee, and King Kong were staples of my youth. Reading this book reminded me of all the things I had in mind with HORRORS OF WAR, except now that their movie GRINDHOUSE has bombed entirely, none of it is a useful marketing tool. Oh well.
I’m still doing a lot of film and video work for other people. My freelance is at an all time high, which is good, but the waiting for pay really sucks. It’s hard to plan your finances when you have no clue if a check is due in 3 days or 3 weeks. This lifestyle is NOT for everyone. I need to make the money, so all I can do is keep astute records of money owed and wait until the cash cow starts mooing.
Luckily, there’s nothing new to report in the realm of stalkers, freaks, geeks, or drama. Everything seems to have faded away on those fronts. Maybe it’s because I don’t have the time to give a rat’s ass, or maybe they have found someone/something better to fixate on. Either way, my life has less weirdness.
Well my new car, a 2005 Ford Mustang GT is not all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, I knew I was getting a used car, but I was hoping something this new would have less trouble. Thank god I’ve been making butt-loads of cash money to cover all the repairs that have already come up. I think I’ll sell it off early next year once I’ve gotten some miles on it, but the new jobs are paying it off quick. I might give it to My Sexy Fiancé Veronica, if she’s a good girl.
The cats have complained that the media is not portraying their country fairly. All these blogs ever do is focus on the strife and trouble, but never anything positive. The army has built bridges, and some of the younger cats love the soldiers. It doesn’t matter that several hundred innocent civilians die a week. It’s all about balance. Our congress has put forth a bill that would basically pull troops out of Rossdonia this fall, but let’s face it, that would let the terrorists win. Then again, I think that if I don’t give them milk every morning that this would let the terrorists win. They also said that if I didn’t play with a string with them, then that would let the terrorists win too. Politics are a strange and ignorant game to play.
Last week a new $75 hard cover book about the making of the original STAR WARS was released to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of the film, May 25th 1977. STAR WARS was the first film I ever saw in the theatre and it changed everything about my life. The first 45″ record I ever owned was the STAR WARS Main Title and B-side Cantina Band. The first album I ever owned was the 2 LP soundtrack. John Williams’ score made me want to be a musician and I was for over 20 years. The movie itself opened my mind and imagination into believing that ANYTHING is possible. If that crazy geek named George Lucas could get those visions from his imagination onto a movie screen where anyone can see it, then that kicked ass. In the years since, my mind has been avidly interested in HOW he got his vision on screen and that later translated into becoming a filmmaker myself. I know the prequels were a disappointment and I don’t care. It doesn’t unring the bell for me. I want the book and I ordered it today. I thumbed through it at Barnes and Noble and it rocks. The hardback edition has 30+ more pages of storyboards and other interesting bits the soft cover edition does not. I’ll save over $30 ordering it online.
Speaking of books, I did read & finish THE CHILDREN OF HURIN, the last JRR TOLKEIN book to be published posthumously and also, the most completed work since THE SILMARILLION. It’s actually a story told in summary form in the SILMARILLION, but this is a pretty full and clear account of this story. It’s my 2nd favorite SILMARILLION tale and it is a good story. This book rocks my socks and even though it lacks the depth of emotion that reading the SILMARILLION carries in terms of impact, then again neither does THE LORD OF THE RINGS, to be quite honest. There are some characters that are affected and changed (or killed) in this story that without the spine of history the SILMARILLION gives it, the level of tragedy somehow gets lessened, but not enough that the casual reader won’t get it or get something out of this story on its own. Hopefully some people will get this, and then go back into THE SILMARILLION to get the back story in full.
Well, the big big big news is that over at [url=HTTP://GROUPER.COM/VIDEO/MEDIALIST.ASPX?O=12&FI=&FPL=22877]GROUPER.COM[/url], old Sonnyboo shorts have exceeded the 10 million views mark. Three of the movies have over 3 million views each, and that rocks. I’m a little bit blown away by the exceptionally high numbers. I haven’t been promoting the movies. I just upload them and see what happens. With so many sites like YOUTUBE, METACAFE, IFILM, UNDERGROUNDFILM, MOTIONBOX, and a slew of other clone sites, I’ve tried to keep up, but then again I have a life outside of the Internet (and that is a shocking revelation to most Acolytes of Boo). Regardless, 10 million is a big number no matter how you cut it. Sony Pictures owns [url=HTTP://GROUPER.COM/VIDEO/MEDIALIST.ASPX?O=12&FI=&FPL=22877]GROUPER.COM[/url] and some of the people behind the scenes there have taken note of the numbers and have contacted me.
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