Its A Wonderful Life

Yikes, I can smell it, the winter coming. Today was windy and cloudy and cold. Fallchange is always a weird time for me...I always feel like there's annoying sparks of electricity under my skin and a certain ache in the souls of my feet. A friend once told me that's the ancient instinct in me, compelling me to follow the herd, but I'm not really quite sure. I like to think that its magic. This time between summer and winter is one of transitional seasons, and the changes in the earth create an upswing in energies both known and unknown. Samhain approaches, and every day closer thins the barrier between this dimension and the next, letting those mysterious energies also creep through into our normal-looking world, bombarding all of us and making us feel weird things.

Things have been hectic, but are slowly moving into more manageable territory. My move from Sheboygan is now mostly complete, as well as my boyfriend's move to our new place. Now that I'm here in this place, my upcoming second move to Oshkosh seems much less daunting, especially as I will be moving in with partners Jimi and Andy, and then we can really begin work on the upcoming feature.

Went camping for Labor Day this weekend with two friends and the boyfriend. Only the second time I've been camping in my life, and I must say it was most enjoyable. The night was beautiful and even though we didn't catch any fish, the actual fishing was awesome.

I love fishing. Sitting there in the middle of nature, listening, watching, practicing that cast over and over again, smoking pot and chatting quietly with friends...The mysteries of the little plastic creatures that live in the tackle box, the fun of shopping for bait and accessories...I love it! I definitely am going to be fishing more this fall and autumn--I want to be able to catch something before I actually get to fish in the famous national parks when J and A and I travel cross-country to our new home in Portland, Oregon. We need something to cook over the fire! There's something about fisherpeople that is good and pure, like horsepeople. They are some of the last people that have to think like animals. Not just because it's their jobs, but it's what they love to do. Wisdom exists in such people. And they're as friendly as they are quiet and companionable. Don't mind if you light up a joint either.

Speaking of, I've got this in my pipe right now: Cloud 10 incense, also known as mojo. Nice! Me likey. Bruce high five's you and everyone who has the brass ones to smoke this in public (it's not cannabanoids, so it's 100% legal). Did you know Michigan is now a medical marijuana state? It's a wonderful thing. Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois are also considering legislation reform, and of course outflanked Wisconsin must join in or risk losing its population! The news continues to churn out the same garbage. NBC claimed its a passing fad and because of the problems and "abuse" of medical marijuana, they will not pass. They also claim supporters are in a short minority, which I know to be bullshit, even though it did make me hyperventilate around the house a little bit. I mean, come on. Everyone who "breaks the barrier" realizes one thing: Everybody smokes pot. You think your dad didn't whiff that shit in high school? If you're as old as I am, which is only early twenties, that means your dad grew up in the 70's and 80's. Fat chance. Your dad was sitting right next to my dad (who still won't completely admit it) and puffing away while watching Star Wars in the theater. And ultimately it doesn't matter if it happens now or in 200 years. The point is, it is inevitable. Time is a steady and swift river that erodes everything in its path. Will gay marriage is even going to be an issue by then? Hell, by then Bert and Ernie will be married on Sesame Street and wondering around the breakfast table whether androids should have equal rights. Weed sure isn't going to have a problem. Politicians and their canines might have issues though, considering how they so violently and openly screwed said pooch on all of this. As soon as these storms pass they will go from hating it to figuring out how to make money off of it. Balance is restored, despite the nation remaining a beastial pimp.

Moving on. Everyone should watch Some Like It Hot, my favorite movie. Did you know that Tony Curtis always wanted to act with Cary Grant, and he got the chance right after making fun of his accent while wooing Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Cane. I've always been more of an Audrey girl than a Marilyn girl, or so I was before I became a stripteuse and discovered my inner Va-va-voom. But after re-watching this classic, I realized something: Not only is Marilyn talented and beautiful, but she's funny!

As funny as any of the comedic actresses of the day. She plays Lemon and Curtis square for square every round and usually ends up winning in a sly, quiet sort of way. Lemmon is amazing, as always. I think Jack Lemmon was better than Bob Hope. Will I go to hell for actually saying that? Ahh well, I don't believe in hell anyway. See The Apartment. Then see everything he and Walter Mathau were in together. It'll be the greatest education you'll ever get in gentle comedic acting and quirk. Lemmon's lovely brown eyes and his charming up-and-down voice are some of my fondest childhood memories. Curtis is also great, taking on three different voices that he changes at the drop of a dime.

Other good movies I've seen lately: The Seventh Sign with Demi Moore and David Bannon. David Bannon plays Jesus. Not even kidding. But the film is great, another 1988 vintage classic (like moi). It obviously was in the tune of most movies of its kind, and takes quite a few leaves from then-god Spielberg, but its good all the same. Some parts play out like an 80's after-school special but I can deal. And when it came down to it Demi Moore was very good, especially at the end. Manny Jacobs as Avi steals the show though. Where did that guy go? Somebody let him know I want to hire him!

Machete: Boy oh boy, how awesome was this? A fake trailer made by Robert Rodriguez made for the Grindhouse movie event, it featured the now famous Danny Trejo as a Mexican immigrant turned assassin turned revengencer turned revolutionary leader. And it was so insanely popular they were forced to delay the long-promised Barbarella and make a feature! AWESOME! Every time I see Danny Trejo I can't help but smile and my chest gets a little tight. That guy is an inspiration to us all. Not to mention a great actor! In Machete he gets to take up the Mariachi-like role of a man seeking revenge, always a great film subject. The film is done in the shitty old grindhouse style advertised in the trailer, and it couldn't be more excellent. Trejo gets Michelle Rodriguez, Jessica Alba, and Lindsay Lohan, as is only fitting for a BAMF of his magnitude. The film makes its point about immigration, too. I personally am in favor of expanding Mexican immigration, combined with efforts to help them raise up their native country again so that they don't have to run away from it. For god's sake, they're our neighbor to the south. We put them in the position they're in by giving and then withdrawing our economic support and thus condemning them to ruin. Watch Day Without A Mexican. We share this continent and we should not let our Mexican brothers and sisters suffer and just sit idly by.

And last but not least: Cop Out with Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan, and directed by Kevin Smith. Yep, that's right, Kevin Smith did the buddycop movie. And it was great. Morgan is so fucking hilarious he makes nose come out my milk. And that's not a normal thing for milk to produce. Willis obviously likes him and their chemistry was great. Smith totally snuck in an "All Your Base" meme reference. The bad guys were also awesome with Guillermo Diaz as a baseball junkie/drug kingpin and Kevin Pollack as Willis and Morgan's frienemy cop. All in all, a good watch. Maybe not on par with Mall Rats, but Kevin is getting into the meat of his directing, so I don't blame him.

Update soon with more movie goodness!

Live Long and Prosper,
Part III

True Blood: A Vampire Haterz Guide To One Of The Best Shows On T.V.

It's not that I hate vampires, but lawds, I hate Smeyer. That woman cast a shadow over the world of popular fiction fantasy that the Harry Potter books and the revived Lord of the Rings series had recently illuminated. Smeyer is the worst kind of popular tripe author. Not to mention her books and the resulting cineshit are poopsicles. Jo Rowling could pluck that woman's eye out with a flick of her pen, man.

I do love Anne Rice. Actually, my new movie is going to be dedicated to Anne Rice; not because of her awesome vampire series that I grew up reading in high school, but because of what has happened to her lately. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/29/anne-rice-i-quit-being-a_n_663915.html Poor woman. I know just how she feels. But her vampire work, and the resulting movies that came from it (well, more Interview than Vampire Lestat) were so awesome, such a huge triumph of fiction. They were also HOT. Really hot. And in that fashion, True Blood has become worthy of paying homaaage to Anne Rice's delightful "savage garden".

First, let me say that the opening credits is just one of the most awesome montages I've ever seen. I loooove a good montage. Chuck Workman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_fCRE5Xtnc is one of my favorite montage directors ever. TB's credits are just sublime. I love gritty Southern shit. See In The Garden Of Good And Evil. The writers clubs of the South are some of the most exclusive, and in true genteel fashion, they love their homages. TB and especially TB's famous opener portrays the best of the South: Crazies, etiquette, hot sweaty wisteria sex, pitch black night and blazing day, and all the nasty things that live at the bottoms of swamps. The only other openers I've seen on par with it are Dexter and many an anime. It always makes me feel such a confusing tangle of powerful emotions.

Sookie Stackhouse/actor Anna Paquin and I have a love/hate relationship. Anna was Rogue, one of my favorite characters of all time. I grew up with Lenore Zann's sexy and yet innocent voicing of her in the 90's classic X-Men the Animated Series. I do have a soft spot for Paquin's portrayal of her. In fact I wrote and obsessively read dirty fanfiction for her character and Logan/Wolvie for a long time. Of course they were mixing Jubilee's comic book role with Rogue's, but that was fine for me because Rogue is awesome. The more screen time the better. Then X3 came out and shat on the relative goodness of the first 2. But hey, no Marvel movie is perfect.

Sookie is well portrayed as pure and sweet, but everyone knows too many sweets give you cavities. And by now my jaw is dully throbbing. Sookie better get badass quick or things are going to go South for her reviews. Well, farther than they already are, and it's way past the Mason-Dixon. Bill, played by the intriguing Stephen Moyer, is getting a bit dull too, but that's only because he's being overshadowed by Alexander Skarsgard's delightful Eric. Eric is a great character. At a thousand years, he retains a certain quality of being caught between his blood and power lust and a certain sense of insecurity bestowed upon him for one of my favorite characters, Godric. Now I know Godric isn't the Godric from the books, but I plan reading the books after the series is finished, so I don't care. Alex's portrayal is amazing. He's sexy, cold, and yet beastly passionate. He reminds me of Rice's Marius, my favorite character from her work.

Other favorites of mine are Lafayette and Tara. Brilliant acting and great character ownage. Too bad the scripts they're given past season 1 all suck. Poor guys. Like Sookie, they've been stuck in perpetual victim mode the entire time, Tara in particular. I need to see Tara emerge from this funk, and the emerging had better be as awesome a bit of writing as an actor like Rutina Wesley deserves to play to. I've got no qualms about her or Nelsan Ellis, just the people standing behind them and sometimes, around them. Favorite other characters include Maxine Fortenberry and son Hoyt, Jessica Hamby, Queen Sophie-Anne Leclerq (going to be cosplaying her soon!!!), Nan Flanagan, Pam, Terry Bellefleur and sweet, bumbling cousin Andy, and Jason Stackhouse. The last two have a tendency to get the short end of the stick as well, and people find them sickening because of their constant moron factor. However, they have their moments of brilliance and all is very well portrayed by Chris Bauer and Ryan Kwanten. Funny, I never saw Ryan in anything before TB, but now I see him everywhere! His All- American good looks and honest open style are refreshing. He plays Jason to a T.

True Blood offers lots of other goodies, like great music tracks, fantastic one-liners, and an amazing amount of quirk and zing. Its stories are generally good, punctuated by cliffies that are generally hair-ripping. All together its pretty well-rounded, but as of late its been going a bit oval. People and events seem locked. It's like the 5th Harry Potter book, all transition and little real movement. That's how I prefer looking at it, as it gives a feeling of room for hopefully inevitable improvement. I continue to watch the show and await the finale with bated breath and growling stomach for more. True to my backpage reader form, I've wikipedia'd the books to see what shape storylines will take, and me likey so far. As long as it keeps going, I'll keep posting. Hell, after it stops, I'll Firefly the shit.

Cheerio,

Part III

QUALL-IFICATIONS

What, to me, makes a good movie?

1) Lighting: Not too much of any one thing, a movie should be a celebration of light. Of course, the light reflects the mood of the film, so discretion in each genre has to be used, but that only means that the rules were meant to be played with until they break. Light is life. Without it, there is no sight. Without light, the film doesn't exist. It must be lauded within every scene.

2) Script: Tight writing is so key. A screenplay is the passport for a film to travel. Everyone looks at it, so it had better be in order. A great script is practically a "Get Out of Jail Free" card. Actors will fall all over themselves to snap up those roles. Which brings us to the next...

3) Actors/Characters: If they don't fit, it WILL suck. Ever seen a great landscape with a partially decomposed body in it? Yeah. Its like that. I bet you can name ten, right off the top of your head: Movies you saw that were miscast. Some people say that's not the director's fault sometimes, but murder is always someone's fault. If you can't stand up to a freaking actor then you have to stick to busboys.

4) Quirk and bits: Quirk is basically chemistry. But instead of chemistry in the movie, its the movie's chemistry with you. The little loud fizzy multicolored Tom and Jerry pops that go off in your head when your mind is blown. Those moments that make it so sweet to be breathing and witnessing magic. The ones where you pat your own back for getting it at the video store. It feels like getting an inside joke. It feels like they made it just for you. Great, legendary movies are all quirk and good bits. They usually work in combos: Music with picture, actor with actor, actor and picture. That kind of thing. Getting at...

5) Music: Music, like light, is life. If light is the soul of the film then music is blood. It must course smoothly, uninterrupted and yet you can't be able to ignore it. People think its merely an accent piece, but the truth is the score is the second script. And just as important if not more than the first. 

6) Picture: Film is made up of individual frames that fly by. Every one of them should be able to be taken and framed and put up. No one bit of film is unimportant. Its all vital, its all special. There is no throwaway in great films, no wasted space. You have an hour to three in some cases, and every second counts.

7) Family: The director and crew must be a well-working unit. When distress comes up, it shows. When they work on a movie, that movie should be their life. An artist devotes, they don't just go to work and go home. Eye of the tiger, man, eye of the tiger. Keep on your toes. Don't ever let it get to be a job.

8) Eye Treats: I'm a stripper, I like cool costumes and sets. Use your goddamn imagination people. Dazzle me. Stunts are always tops too.

9) Hustle and Flow: Cohesive, smooth, not choppy. A movie is a slipstream. Stylization in timeline is great, but there are tricks to doing it. The only people I can think of that usually do it nowadays do a damn good job, so there's not much to yell at. But when telling a linear story it shouldn't be that hard. Set your blocks up and knock them down cleanly. Don't leave any castles half-stacked for people to sit pondering about nonplused during credit roll.

10) Ending: A good solid ending is key. Even if the end of the story is phantasmic, the actual ending in the audience's eyes must leave them satisfied that they're not wasting 8 to 10 dollars on an expensive piece of crap.

Anyway, those are just my personal notes. Ones I'm going to have to actually utilize these next 6 months as I start the arduous journey of making my first feature film.

What the film is about and all that jazz is really irrelevant here, because this blog is about the mechanics and essence of film making, as well as movies themselves. I'd rather talk about more crucial stuff (ie things that worry me). I really know nothing about this, its the blind leading the blind. And yet I feel relentlessly hopeful and confident in a way. No matter how bad I screw this up, I have a strange and unshakable faith that I'll be able to salvage any major disasters. Perhaps its because I felt that all my life I was racing against time to get to this crucial point. Now that I'm here, there is SOOOO much work to do or die. Whether I will succeed or not: Only time will tell. Thanks to the magic of the Intarwebs, you can watch.

Now that the ground rules are laid, feel free to play: Add, message, do whatever you will. Please, if you have a movie you think I might not have seen, let me know. Even if I have, we can have a good chat about it. Irreverence is key. Anything that I don't like gets Bruce Lee's Immortal Foot of Doom!!! Don't get me wrong though, even though I claim to be all irreverence, I really do have a love for certain things and people in this business that borders on creepy, so feel free to share your film obsessions as well. If you are a stripper, welcome! I will be talking about that too, as its part of my life and one of the ways I'm going to finance the movie.

So let's have fun together. Sexy happy naked fun!

Nanoo nanoo,

PART III