Tuesday, May 15, 2007

"Dear Mr. Vernon...

...We accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for what ever it was we did wrong. But we think you're crazy to make us write an essay telling you who we think we are. You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a movie guy, a writer, a kitty girl, a fashion guru, a comic enthusiast, a journalist, a film lover, a konami kid, a rap star, a knitter, a poker kid, and a tv junkie. Does that answer your question? Sincerely Yours, The Blogosphere"






Don't you forget about me,

Don't Don't Don't Don't

Don't you forget about me....

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Where is my mind?

The Pixies were on to something. Umass can make you lose your mind, I have never felt more uninspired to do any work than ever before. Maybe because its so close to the end, oh well. But it gets me thinking...did you ever feel like your life was routine, that it wasn't going to change or get any better or any worse? That it was what it was. What if something happened that forced you to change your life, made you drop what you were doing and start something new. When I think about that, a few movies about life come to mind...

25TH HOUR: A Spike Lee joint about a guy(Edward Norton) who is on his way to jail for the next 8 years, he has only 24 hours left to spend with his family and friends, the final montage at the end was pretty amazing the 1st time I saw it when Norton's father tells him as he's driving his son to jail what his life could be if they just kept driving onward. I won't spoil it anymore but it's a pretty solid movie I thought. Here's a angsty F. U. scene from Norton on the city of New York...








STRANGER THAN FICTION: Something a little more new, maybe you've seen but if not you netflix it or whatever. Harold (Will Farrell) finds out hes a character in a book and more importantly he's going to die in the end. In the routine life Harold lives, he decides to change things around. Same concept, but more lighthearted if your want to see a comedy.






IKIRU: Perhaps one of favorite movies directed by perhaps the greatest Director ever in my opinion, Akira Kurosawa. An old man who lives a quiet routine depressing life finds out he is terminally ill and is going to die. He only has a short time to live and make the most of his final days. Few movies ever get into concepts of the meaning of life but this one handles it nicely. I feel everyone should see this movie at least once. To me, it gets the rare 5 star rating on netflix.









...And why do I bring this all up? because I found out over the weekend mt family wants to move to California which basically means my life changes, for better or worse we shall see....

Monday, April 30, 2007

weapon of choice

D.A.R.E. was a complete waste of time. So was "Requiem for a Dream" or anything else that wants to scare you out of doing drugs. You shouldn't listen to a loved one on the matter, you should be listening to the real people who are looking out for your interests; celebrities. queue up "gimme shelter"...














courtesy of celebguru.com, here's some celeb quotes on drugs...



"I’ve slept with too many women, done too many drugs and been to too many parties. I loved acid when I was at college. It was an escape. I liked mushrooms. They were like easy acid. I did like blow…Blow would dress you up for a party, but never take you there. You’re always like. This is going to be great! Then you’re just depressed."



"The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father. He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared. "




"My mind seemed to have a huge neon sign in it that blinked nonstop: COKE. GET COKE. So I did. It was great for dieting, partying and picking up my mood."



"I ended up on a shrink’s couch, and he told me to write down how much I did in a week: 20 E’s, 4 grams of coke, six of speed, half an ounce of hash, three bottles of Jack Daniel’s, 12 bottles of red wine, 60 pints."

...and we havent even touched on the Lindsay Lohan's or the Alec Baldwins of the world. Sure Tom Cruise is crazy, but isn't everyone else pretty much. Playing it straight doesn't cut it anymore, if you want to be succesful in the business, you better start re-enacting scenes from "Blow". Don't be afraid of the River Phoenix stories, your invincible my sweetest friend....everyone you know won't go away in the end. Comon you'll be rich, its totally worth it, I promise...

Monday, April 23, 2007

...well qualified to represent the LBC, Me and Louie we're gonna run to the party and dance till the rythem gets harder

The summer time has finally come. The months of May through August means beaches, bbq's and of course blockbuster movies. Here are my top 5 most anticipated summer movies, but first some notables....

The Honorable Mention Trilogies: Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Oceans 13th, The Bourne Ultimatum, Rush Hour 3, Shrek 3




Ladies and Gentleman, after falling of the planet since middle school, the return of Mr. Chris Tucker. Maybe i'll watch Rush Hour on a friday cause i'm gonna get high, I ain't got no job and I ain't got shit to do.




The Sleepers: Hot Rod, The King of Kong, Fanboys, Eagle vs Shark, Rescue Dawn, The Invasion

one thats the new breed of SNL movies, one about donkey kong, one about star wars, one new age indie, one by Werner Herzog, one about aliens...but don't take my word for it, look em up or wait for them in theatres, you'll feel like you found a diamond in the rough.




The Ones I'm Staying Away From: Hostel 2, Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Hairspray, Mr Beans Holiday

-Eli Roth annoys me, even if he is from my town.
-I wasted 2 hours of my life watching the 1st Fantastic 4 on HBO and I want it back
-I just realized Borat is basically a total ripoff of Mr. Bean except like 1000 times better
- Ok I literally spent 10 minutes trying to sum up John Travolta's crazy up and down career with the punchline being its probably about to be way down with his new movie Hairspray but I couldn't put it into words, I mean just LOOK at this pic...



Oh my god, it's Tom Cruise, Oh my god



and now the TOP 5....

5. Transformers: I can't believe I talked myself into a Micheal Bay movie staring Tyrese and Shia LaBeouf. But comon, its Optimus Prime, its Megatron, it's "Transformers!....robots in disguise!"




4. Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix: I usually go to the movies with friends most of the time but here's one tradition that's been going strong for the past few years. I've seen every Harry Potter movie with my Mom and Sister(who's married) and we'll keep that going until all of them are done. Ahhhh how cute you watch kids movies with your mom ahhhh, great, look at the silly cat




3. Paris, je t'aime: 20 directors and a large cast make up vignettes about the city of love. It includes directors such as the Coen Brothers, Walter Salles, Alfonso Cuaron, Alexander Payne and Gus Van Sant and a cast including Natalie Portman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elijah Wood, Nick Nolte, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Catalina Sandino Moreno and Steve Buscemi to name a few. Sounds amazing.





2. Knocked Up: AKA 40 Year Old Virgin 2 as writer/director Judd Apatow returns with the same cast sans Carrell for another Comedy of awkward love situations. For all you Grey's Anatomy fans this one stars Katherine Heigl






and the #1 movie im waiting for this summer.....






1. The Simpsons Movie: Out of any show in history, The Simpsons might go down as perhaps the greatest of our generation. What other show can remain watchable from age 5 to age 22. They're keeping this plot top secret but who knows, maybe we find out where Springfield is...or not.







...Summertime, and the livin's easy...

Sunday, April 22, 2007

My favorite actor

The forgotten ones are just that; Forgotten. He only appreared in 6 movies in his entire lifetime, 5 of them were argueably some of the greatest movies ever made. John Cazale unfortunatly died of cancer at the age of 42 and made a widow of a young Merryl Streep. A native of Boston, John appeared in The Conversation, The Deer Hunter, Dog Day Afternoon and of course The Godfather 1 and 2. You probably know him as Fredo. To me, he's probably my favorite actor.







I wish i could find some video clips but unfortuantly there are none. You can listen to this sound clip and use your imagination. Its the lake house scene in the godfather 2 that starred Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall and Annie Hall herself, and yet John steals the show with probably the best scene in the movie, enjoy.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Note to self,...

....make sure to drive home more often so I can watch more Planet Earth in HD, its awesome.

...pizza makes for fantastic ammo against annoying fans at ballgames

...I think Entourage is slowly but surely jumping the shark

...I can't wait until Vince goes back with Ari and makes meddilin.

...Next time you joke around about throwing your red cup at the chicks face who cut you in line to the bathroom at the party, make sure she can't hear you.

...Buy some of "Jordan's Furniture" furniture cause the sox could definatly go all the way.

...If some bad player raises 6 times the BB, don't go over the top All-In with your 9's, they clearly had KK you idiot.

...Download that song in the ending credits of the last Sopranos episode, need to give that one another listen.

...I'd actually watch "Cleaver"

...Bet on Tony living, just my gut feeling...I hope.

...If your ever on Deal or No Deal, have the courage to say "Deal", $100,000 is a lot of money.

...watching Babel again made me realize for 2nd time around what an amazing movie it is.

...Anna's Taqueria will NEVER get old.

...nothing beats the solo at the end of Freebird, guitar hero rocks.

...Do NOT choose Vince Young in next seasons fantasy draft.

...Celebrate by taking a shot if the C's get a top 2 pick, take a bunch of shots if they don't.

...the next time you have serious writers block, try and write a better blog entry than this.

...more to come

Monday, April 09, 2007

You know how in old westerns, they would say things like "Your alright in my book" or "In my book, your alright", well.....I actually have a book.

I usually just write about movies but lately I've been working on some film projects. I'll get to that in a second. This weekend I saw Grindhouse. A double feature homage to grindhouse cinema by pulp Directors Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. The two features, Planet Terror(RR) and Death Proof(QT) combined for a 3 hour romp full of deliberate grainy footage, cut scenes and even fake trailers. My favorite by a landslide was Rodriguez's Planet Terror, a classic B-movie zombie flick with a budget. Its full of fun characters and cameos, including Bruce Willis and of course Fergie, who no one can take seriously anymore since Alanis Morrisette shat on her face. It was fun, not to sound like the retarded guy on Howard Stern but, I GIVE IT A 10! On the other hand, Tarantino's Death Proof left me with mixed feelings. I expected more from him, sure it had the good dialogue but kind of lacked a strong story. It wasn't bad, but it just wasn't B-movie fun like Planet Terror. If nothing else, check out Grindhouse for the fake trailers, high comedy.


speaking of those that are good and not good in my book, UVC-TV19 is having their 2nd annual film festival April 26th, 7pm in the Cape Cod Lounge. I used to work there for a while until I quit last semester. So consider this my 1st and last shout out to them. If you wanna check out some short films you should come. I actually have my own entry in there that I did with a buddy of mine. He was more the creative force behind it and I was more of a producer. I don't really feel like writing about it so just ask me if your curious.


Oh but the short film fun doesn't end there. Tuesday(before class) and Wednesday i'll be shooting a promo with that same friend for WBUR in Boston. We then have to edit it for our friday deadline. I also have to edit another promo for my Brother-In-laws fundraiser, so hopefully i'll be done with that at some point. Saturday i'll be in Boston acting in my friends film project, you know because i'm a regular combo of Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman and John Cusack and all. I'll also be doing some cinematography work for his short film planned for may. And there's more to come i'm sure, so i'll be keeping busy from here on out. And...since i have nothing else to add, here's a hot picture of my new girlfriend...