Gakked from Brannon...

[Edit: Bumped to include new content]

100 Movies Meme

1. Watch 100 movies or more in 2008.
2. Keep track of how many I watch and write a little something about each one.
3. First time movies only. It doesn't count if I've seen it before.
4. If you want to recommend any movies to me, please do! Old movies, new movies, good movies, bad movies.

Update 12

73. Hard Candy. A deeply uncomfortable film, and one that was clearly shot on virtually no budget, but riveting nonetheless. Not the standard Saw-style Lions Gate kill-porn fare that it was marketed as; witty, clever and extremely dark. Particularly interesting to me was the performance by Ellen Page from Juno, who delivers an outstanding character study here. Not for the faint of heart, and fairly lurid, but a really interesting film.

74. Son of Rambow. Charming little British film, about a schoolboy – in a fairly repressively religious home – and his friendship with one of the more troubled schoolyard ruffians. Not great, but a pleasant little movie.

75. Swordfish. Yup. Just as dumb as I feared. And, for a movie that was all kinds of “startling” for Halle Berry showing off her breasts, um, they really aren't the nicest breasts. Hugh Jackman fans may enjoy the fact that he runs around in a towel for the first, oh, fourteen hours of this interminable, plodding, stupid movie.

76. Run, Fatboy, Run. Actually watched this in the theater awhile back, and forgot to record it. Schwimmer's surprisingly funny (albeit occasionally saccharine) directing turn works well with Simon Pegg's outstanding comedic (and occasionally wrenching dramatic) acting. Also? Dylan Moran completely steals the film away from everyone with his performance as “Gordon”—a variation on Moran's Bernard Black character.

77. V: The Final Battle. Actually rewatched the whole damn film/TV series, as I have an Alien Lizards From Beyond The Stars concept I'm toying with. Wow. It does not hold up well. I expect it didn't hold up well in first run. Fun, though.

78. Baby Mama. I love Tina Fey. I like Amy Poehler. I did not like this movie.

79. The Grand. Really uneven poker-caper mockumentary, that's notable for the normal amusing performances from David Cross and Denis Farina, and more, for Werner Freakin' Herzog as, and I quote, “The Scary German.” Mediocre, but not awful.

80. Battlestar Galactica: Razor. Uneven slice of BSG fanservice--which reinforces my opinion that, while I enjoy the "reimagined" series--the Cylon designs from the original show (the Raider starfighters, the Basestars, the Cylon Centurions) all look cooler than the modern counterparts. Something about the visual style, which was just shot differently (with lots of strange zooms and camera movements) than the show, is distracting, and some of the CGI is just appallingly unconvincing, marring some really good ideas for scenes. (Notably, a young Bill Adama battling a Centurion, while both are in freefall toward the surface of an icy planet.) Also: it bugs me that Bill was a "nugget" and only seemed to fight in one major battle of the First Cylon War. Lame. It always seemed that he was pretty active in the war.


( Read more... )

It's the first day of deer season here in rural/rustic/scenic Pacific County. It's an odd community "event" of sorts out here, as locals take their deer hunting very, very seriously.

I'm sure there's a great deal of sport hunting going on, but the vast majority seems to be folks who just need a cheap source of protein. It's a pretty economically disadvantaged area -- worsened by the flooding a while back -- and so, for a large number of families, venison is the major source of meat in their diets.*

It gets a little creepy, though; I used to live a few miles from a military base, and grew accustomed to the steady thunder of artillery practice. But I'm still a little twitched by sporadic bursts of gunfire echoing through the woods.

On the other hand? It is an incredibly gorgeous fall morning. The skies are a vibrant blue, and there's a warm blanket of sunshine that blunts the air's chilly edge.

Plus, it looks like I'll be heading southward tonight, that my wife and I might visit with the Ruckas, whom we have not seen nearly enough of, of late.

Watched a couple movies last night while plugging away on the Vertigo book, which reminded me, I'm way behind on updating the "100 Movie Meme" stuff.

I've also been surfing political blogs and current news stories and just getting more and more angry, which I thought I'd sorta gotten past. Dear lord. Perhaps not the best way to spend my morning.

Anyway, that's about it. Nothing of interest here. Move along. :)

*Not kidding. The first month I lived out here, my neighbor--who is a local youth pastor--had mentioned to some of his "kids" that "one of the guys who worked on Halo moved into the old Jones place." Sure enough, a bunch of them showed up on my doorstep and wanted to talk videogames. Really sweet kids, I hasten to add, and I was happy to chat with them. But I was a little concerned by one thing: the kid driving the car they showed up in. This kid looked all of about twelve -- very small, very slight. So, I asked him how old he was, and he had ID to verify it: he was SIXTEEN YEARS OLD. And, some gentle questioning revealed, the only protein in this kid's diet was from deer he bagged during hunting season. (Further, he was even more eager for deer season, because he'd finally managed to acquire -- a gift from my neighbor, I expect -- a rifle suitable for deer hunting. He'd been hunting deer with a .22.)

Yeah, I'm enough of a geek that I can say I must own a set of these.

So great.

I've been heads-down on the Vertigo project for the last couple weeks, trying to get a lot of pages in the can before I depart for the frozen Northern wastes I hail from (think Cimmeria, but with more French-Canadian accents).

Work is progressing slower than I'd like, but I'm reasonably happy with the work I've been turning out. The opening scene is fairly complex, despite a seemingly simple set-up, and a lot has to be communicated by ambient background dialogue and character "acting," stuff that generally makes my fearless editor absolutely nuts.

(I fully expect to get the initial note from her that I got on damn near every complex scene I wrote in Checkmate: "I'm not sure that's going to work." Moo hoo ha ha.)

---

Also, I'm an IDIOT. I mentioned last week that I'd gotten a new iPod. What I forget to mention, because, as I said, I am an idiot what's got no brains, is that my wife arranged for the purchase of said device. So, yes, BEST. WIFE. EVER. Despite being slammed with work -- and the normal grind of dealing with taxes and bills and whatnot that goes into maintaining both the store and our "civilian" lives -- she took the time out to treat me to the iPod Classic I've been lusting over since it came out.

Week Two with the new device, and I have to say I am quite pleased with how it's working. Every scrap of music I own, plus 100 or so podcasted old radio dramas, a season of BSG, a handful of videos, and a bunch of other crap and it's only half-full.

I'm still re-ripping a bunch of old CDs; when my external drive at home had a massive failure a while back -- thus decimating my complete archive of work from Microsoft -- I also lost my .mp3 library.

Most of it had been backed up elsewhere, but coordinating between two remote computers, one of which is about 8 years old, and completely unconnected to the internet has been, um, challenging.

Started really monkeying with Smart Playlists -- which have been a feature of iTunes for, like, forever -- and I'm starting to really like them. Any iTunes users, feel free to share your Smart Playlist setups in the comments. I'm interested in seeing 'em.

---

Jerwa and I had a notion (not even an idea, really) for a sci-fi "thing." Plus we've had a sudden windfall in contact from people at various publishers suitable for such a project. So, that's proven distracting, but an interesting distraction.


---

That's about it. Work. Music. Jerwa. Oh, and Greg Rucka is sick, and that makes me sad.

--

That is all.

So, my friend and fellow comic-scribe Brandon Jerwa (along with his lovely bride) are members of an electronic music act called SD6.

I'm late to the party on electronic music, though I'm developing a real fondness for it, in large part due to SD6's most-recent album, "Beyond Noise and Transmission." It's moody, atmospheric stuff, and quite excellent.

To that end, I'm gakking this entire post from Jess:

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Jess writes:

It's election season, and sure enough - WE NEED YOUR VOTES! We're up against some heavy hitters here, but with your help we can win the music category in Evening Magazine's Best of Western Washington! You do have to sign up to vote, but we'd REALLY appreciate the support. And remember - a vote for SD6 is a vote for all electronic artists in Western Washington. Plug-in pride, baby!

Just head over to http://best.king5.com/sd6/biz/115898 and click the "vote" button above our photo! It only takes a minute.

If you haven't heard SD6, pay a visit to www.myspace.com/sd6 and listen to tracks from our debut album "Between Noise and Transmission."

To celebrate the nomination (and SD6's unique economic bailout plan) 23db Records is offering the full-length "Between Noise and Transmission" CD for the outstanding price of only $8.00! This offer is available exclusively at http://www.assemblage23.com/store.html#sd6 - just click the link and drop one in your basket!

Thanks in advance for your support! Together, we can make a difference!

www.myspace.com/sd6
www.sd6online.com

---

Hit the links, check out the music, and if'n you like it, drop them a vote. Better yet, snag a copy of the discounted album, because it's really, really good and they deserve your attention and support.

That is all.

Vote Shatner/Hasselhoff '08.

Seriously. How much sillier is it to vote for them over, say, the actual candidates?

Ahhhh.

Brand spankin' new 160 gig iPod Classic is currently chugging away. It'll be nice to have something that'll carry ALL of my music on it, allowing me to dump tunes off my laptop.

It's shiny.

Jerwa and I made the trek north to Bellingham, Wa., where we were guests of Bell-Con.

It's a pleasant enough show, small but well-attended; the hosts were quite nice and friendly. Not a great show for us, alas. Definitely more of an "indy" crowd, and both Jerwa and I had a table full of material that was about as mainstream as the show got.

Still, got to shoot the breeze with Jerwa for a rather extended period, which is always nice, so there's that.

Oh, and the Bellingham Herald has a bit on it, and mentions both me and my cowriter "Brenden Jerwad" which I assume refers to Brandon. I hope. Or else I REALLY need to lay off the scotch.

Also got to visit with Neal Bailey (of the Superman Homepage fame) and the lovely Kristen, as well as some "regulars," including a rather charming young woman who has been having creators sign her leather jacket, and a fellow named Eric who has stopped by to say "hi" at just about every signing I've ever done.

All in all, not really a financially viable trip, but an entertaining one.

Jerwa and I will be appearing this weekend at Bell-Con, in Bellingham, Wa.

Come and watch us desperately try and earn your attention.

Hope to see you there.

Jerwa and I babble about lots of, um, stuff on the "Johnny Gigawatt & The Tiger Men From Mars" podcast tonight.

...this one was kind of strange. Fun, of course, and the guys are always good hosts, but I think all of us were feeling a little goofy tonight.

You Have Been Warned.

Also: I'm told there may be Ted Nugent. That was Jerwa's fault. All. His. Fault.

Enjoy.

Jerwa and I will be guests of the fine folks of the "Johnny Gigawatt & The Tiger Men From Mars"* podcast this evening; not sure what time exactly it goes live, but I'll post a link here when it does.

I was asked to participate in an earlier show, and it was a ton of fun—though my cell phone cut out at some distinctly inopportune moments. Trying it through Skype this time, hoping to avoid that issue on this show.

(* How can you NOT love the name of this show? I mean, COME ON.)

I've been uncharacteristically political hereabouts lately, which may alienate some/all of you.

That said, and I can't stress this enough, the selection of Palin as a running mate speaks VOLUMES about McCain's judgement; seriously. She's a train wreck of a candidate, and a simple review of actuarial tables indicates that she has a ridiculous statistical likelihood of ending up in the Presidency.

Apparently, there's an PBS poll about her qualifications, and there's been an organized campaign on the right to hit it hard. The link is here.

As it'll likely be one of those polls that one side or the other references for political advantage, I urge you to participate—no matter which side of the fence you're on.

Edit: Linky fized.

Apparently, after the bizarre and inexplicable Jerry Seinfeld/Bill Gates Vista ads have been pulled for being, well, just impenetrably odd, this little tidbit came to light:

The new "I'm a PC" ad campaign for Vista? Created on a Mac.

Heh.

Probably old news, but what the hell?

I worked there for eight years, and I saw a lot of stupid crap, especially in the "money wasted on internal cheerleading like this" but this is a PRIZEWINNER.

(Gakked from bejeezus .)

So good I thought it was a hoax (since confirmed as genuine via the Boston Herald)...

An Alaska woman, who knows Sarah Palin, has become an internet phenom courtesy of a long screed decrying Palin's record.

Some highlights:

"During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign."

"Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a "fiscal conservative". During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents."

"While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin's attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day."

"As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla's Police Chief because he "intimidated" her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska's top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it's pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn't fire her sister's ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support."

Wow. THIS is the person who will be a heartbeat away from the Presidency? And don't even get me started on the statistical likelihood of a 72-year old walking tumor factory surviving an eight year term. (Answer: signs point to "No.")

For a guy who bristles a lot when people question his judgment, the selection of Palin just seems so completely ill-considered as to border on lunacy.

Complete text can be found here.

Verification of authenticity of the e-mail can be found here.

It's been a prolific day.

Wrote and submitted three(!) pitches to Joe Rybandt at Dynamite, per his request. (Had a lovely time at the retailer summit in Vegas, and got to spend an evening discussing comics and drinking with Joe. It was all Very Professional and Not At All Boozy.)

Made the zillions of phone calls I needed to make today, though none of the bureaucratic ones yielded fruit, alas. Tomorrow is a new day, though.

Also managed to run all the system updates and whatnot I needed to run to polish up the OS on the laptop; the recurring issue (wherein the machine simply wouldn't reboot—it would just spin the fans and overheat) has been repaired and thus I now have a shiny new version of iTunes 8 and the updated system file.

Machine is running great, and I must say this again: Apple customer service on this issue has been absolutely above reproach. Courteous, friendly, fast, and they did more than I asked them too.

The ONLY gripe I have (and I suspect it's an iTunes gripe) is that it's treating my laptop as a new machine for the purposes of authorizing songs. So, I have to deauthorize all of my iTunes approved machines and reauthorize them. Whatever. Not a big deal at all.

Today I am actually happy.

I'll be offline for much of the next five to seven days, courtesy of a faulty logic board on the PowerBook.

Reachable via phone / text message.

That is all. Carry on. :)

-E

Edit: On my way to collect my newly repaired laptop this afternoon. Back on semi-regular e-mail and whatnots by this evening. \m/

Don LaFontaine, the gravelly voice that made the phrase "In a world..." ubiquitous in movie trailers, has died, apparently (and ironically) from a problem with his lungs.

Seems like he was an awesome fellow, often responding to requests from fans to record their voice mail messages, which is supremely cool.

Bummer.

As I continue to beat the piece Jerwa and I did for PopGun like a cheap drum...

Frequent collaborator Brandon Jerwa and I deliver annotations/"directors' commentary" for our short piece, Wide Awake, over on Comics Waiting Room.

(And, as with the Comic Book Resources article, the complete nine-page story is available for your perusal, for the whopping price of "FREE.") Check it out; as always, comments, questions, and so on are welcome.

Enjoy!

The aforementioned interview with Brandon Jerwa, David Messina and I is now available on Comic Book Resources, which also features the complete 8-page horror-adventure short we contributed to the second volume of Image Comics' PopGun anthology series.

Tell all your friends! Collect them all!