Still Going

Oscar nominated Documentary film Murderball was the special of the day and boy was it cool. Another addition to the oscar marathon. This movie was interesting, cool and hilarious at times.

We are making our way towards Oscar Sunday, and the point at which I must make my top 10 list. Its getting interesting. I have seen more movies this year than ever before. We have a few more to see, but I feel like we have seen most of the movies with a real shot of cracking the top 5 if not the top 10.

Hustle and Flow, Matchpoint, Transamerica, Pride and Prejudice are still out there. Hopefully to be had this week. Its going to be a good week.

-T

Capote

We did it. We watched all of the 5 Best Picture nominees. This one was pretty damned good too. I really didn't know much about Truman Capote at all. It was really interesting. Not only did I not know much about Capote, but I didn't know what this movie was about. It was totally not what I expected.

Phillip Seymore Hoffman. What can I say. I have been watching this guy for 10 years. I first remember him in Twister in the mid 90s. Then I saw him in Scent of a Woman, which was the early 90s, but I didn't watch until 97. Then came Boogie Nights. Ahhh Boogie Nights (more on that later) By then he was famous. He's awesome, and he deserved to get a role like this. And he drilled it.

We have one more Best Actor nominee to see this week. But between Hoffman, Straithairn, Phoenix and Ledger I frankly don't know who to pick. They were all amazing.

I don't have a lot to say about this movie other than it was just really really interesting. I liked it a lot. Its up there.

Its really just about time to make the big list. Matchpoint, Hustle and Flow and Transamerica are still waiting to be seen. I think that will be it though.

2005 was fun.
-T

Watched 12 more movies today.

No really, I did. Steph and I went to see all of the Oscar Nominated Short films today. Living in Austin is starting to pay off. I won't go into detailed reviews of all of them. I'll give my overall impression.

I was not particularly impressed. I wasn't dissappointed. Just not blown away. To be honest, I could do that. I know I know....why don't you then? Ok, I will.

There was one, Cashback, that I did like quite a bit. I think it should win the award, I hope it does. The others had some good things about them, but weren't overwhelmingly great.

The animated shorts were good. There were two that were serious. Two that were humorous and 1 that was completely WTF? The Funny ones were good, especially the Pixar One Man Bad film. That was cool and should win. If The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello wins, I will seriously consider shooting someone. Blech. By the way, that is not the WTF? one. That was called 9 and I liked it but holy crap I don't get it.

Tonight we came home and watched The Constant Gardener. This was a decent movie. It was fine. It was too simple. Anyone who reads this, who has seen it, and who isn't as smart as me will say "Too Simple?" That is because the movie goes out of its way to seem complicated. It is overwhelming in its details. Its "complex" plot dealing with large pharmaceutical companies working with governments doing illegal testing on poor Africans...blah blah blah.

Heres the movie. A bad guy teams with some other bad people to do some bad things. A good person catches them, they kill her. The good person's husband spends the movie connecting the dots to catch the bad guy. I have seen this movie once a month for my entire life. Just because you set in a new place and give it a new crime doesn't make it a new movie. Just because you inundate us with absurd amounts of details and characters and convoluted plot devices does not make your movie complex. Its not supposed to be confusing. Its supposed to be good. I like it fine. It was interesting. But nothing particularly special.

Wow what a week. King Kong, Walk the Line, Brokeback Mountain, Junebug, Good Night and Good Luck, Wallace and Gromit, and all the Nominated Short Films. Not too shabby.

Capote tomorrow.

-T

Also, I bought an Ipod Nano today. Woo Hoo

Dear George Clooney

This afternoon I saw your film Goodnight and Goodluck. I would like to thank you for what is truly a fantastic piece of filmmaking.

Let me tell you a little about myself. I loathe politics in the media. I find the onslaught of media coverage of National politics to be disgraceful and, more significantly, a complete fraud. National news discussion is to this decade what Seinfeld was to the 90's. It is simply a new type of entertainment masquerading as social consciousness.

In all honesty, I thought this movie was going to serve only as encouragement to this type of "Journalism." I knew the story was a good one and certainly worth telling. I thought that it was being made now in responce to perceived wrongdoings by our current administration.

I cannot tell you how happy I am to be wrong. Not only did this film NOT do what I was afraid of, but it DID do something important that I believe was desperately needed. It provided a right and responsible example of how media editorials SHOULD be handled. It asks that those in charge give serious and responsible thought to the issue, how they feel about it, and whether or not to challenge it. It then asks that they present a fair and responsible argument. Moreso, it asks that the media treat the public with respect and as though they are intelligent enough to make up their own minds.

What I feared would be an awful show of support for the poor way in which the national news media is handling coverage of our government, turned out to be a perfectly timed admonishment of the national media in general. I would genuinely like to thank you for a profound piece of filmmaking. You are, in fact, my favorite movie maker.

-Tom Andrews
Independant Filmmaker


P.S. It was fantastic Technically too.

Brokeback

This afternoon, Steph and I finally saw Brokeback Mountain. I'm a little mixed. I am dealing with expectation issues. Not so much expecting that it was going to be the greatest thing ever, but just of what the movie was going to be like.

Its hard to say. I think the movie was flawless. Truly flawless. It was incredibly shot and put together. It was brilliantly acted. It was fantastic writing. I just didn't connect with it quite the way I expected to. Its on me, I know. Because I can think of nothing that they should have done differently.

So heres what,s good though. Heath Ledger is a stud. A straight up stud. He was fantastic. He went from being an incredibly strong figure to a desperate broken down loser. He played it all with dignity and strength. I was really impressed by him.

Also, Michelle F. Williams. Woo Hoo baby. I said it way back when. She was THE best thing on Dawson's Creek, even when everyone was all over Katie "facial ticks are acting" Holmes. Oh, that's mean. I actually like Katie Holmes a lot now. I loved Michelle Williams on that show though. I thought she was easily the best actor there and hoped she would get a decent shot. She got one, and she knocked it out of the park.

This movie was heartbreaking. Its terrifying to see 20 years of a person's life go right by and watch them completely bottom out. I think I had some ideas about this movie being a bit more uplifting than it was. I think I thought it was going to be the kind of unconventional yet inspiring romance type. It was not. It was a tragedy and a very sad one at that. It ends at the bottom, at the beginning of the climb back up. So there is some goodness in its final scene. Enough to know that he is ready to reclaim his life. So it leaves you with a good feeling. But it was very sad and very very good.

-T

I hear the train a comin

Woo Woo the Trevor Train is comin through. Really the Oscar movie train I mean. Tonight is the first night in what I think will be a whole weekend of Oscar movies.

First up. Walk the Line. This movie was fantastic. I have been reading about this movie for what seems like years. It came out in November, and I just couldn't get to it though. Let me say, it was great. I loved it. I'll say this. I think Hollywood is really coming around on the Biopic thing. Pick the most important part. Find the part of the story that is real and tell that. Don't just give me a series of re enactments of their life.

Johnny Cash had a really tough childhood, and it haunted him as an adult. They told us about his childhood quickly and then focused on the 10 year period in which he struggled with it and dealt with it. Good Job.

Joaquin Pheoenix was great, as was Reece Witherspoon. Both will be tough to beat next Sunday.

This movie is up there. Im not making my official 2006 list until next week, but this one is going to be up there.

-T

I have no idea...

what to write about. First I thought about writing about TV. A couple of things. They cancelled Love Monkey, and that really sucks. I'm sick of likeing shows that don't last. The other thing is...They can say Bullshit on TBS?? I know TBS said they were going to stretch the limits when they were going to put Sex and the City on the air, but wow. I didn't think they could do that. Thats all I have to say about TV.

Theres also the enough with the fake trailer bit already. Shining was cool, and the Sleepless in Seattle horror trailer was cool. And now there are several others that are just lame and not funny. Swingers the Horror movie, Broke Back to the Future. Whatever. Not much to say about that either.

Then there is American Idol.....Well....I like that show. I like the gray-haired Taylor and Ace and the kid who looks like Peter Brady.

Well enough of this. Tomorrow I'll write about Jack Kerouac and the Beat Generation and I will seem smart again.

-T

Work work work...

Back to work today. After being off for three and a half days, its hard to go back. Man this job is boring. I'm not sure what to say about it, it just sucks. I walked in there this morning and just smirked. Blech, I didn't take my hands out of my pockets until I absolutely had to.

No no, its ok I guess. Its just not very challenging, and its tough to stay energetic about something thats not that challenging.

The good part was it was pipe running time again. I've got a good solid weeks worth of good tricky pipe work to do. When all else fails, I can fall back on that. Apparently I am the greatest pipe bender in all the land.

I'll take it.
-T

King Kong

Well, I finally saw it. I finally got to see the movie that would possibly break Titanic's record at the box office. The movie that could blow away the Oscar competition. And.....

It sucked. No wait. It didn't suck. It had good parts. And its good parts were pretty good. But it had bad parts. And its bad parts were baaaaaaaddddd.

Seriously. Who saw this movie and said it was oscar worthy? First off, the special effects had serious problems. Bad looking blue screen work. The CGI was really sketchy. And to be honest, I think it was just plain edited badly.

It was too too long too. I tend to think that its ok for movies to be longer if they are good. A lot of my favorite movies are longer than two hours. But there is a reason why most movies don't get to be this long. The reason is, that most movies don't need to be this long. Really 99% of movies don't need to be this long. They just don't. In short, if you're going to be long, you better be right. This movie just doesn't need it. There are bunch of scenes that run a little too long, and a couple of scenes that run waaaay too long. Not to mention, a couple that just don't need to be there.

Mostly, its just not that good. I liked some of it. But its just too all over the place. Too many characters, too complicated, too many story lines and just too over-the-top in most places.

The reviews were pretty good though, so its not going to be the failure that I think Peter Jackson really deserves. Its a box office bomb though, and an Oscar joke. Its finishing up around 216 million, which would be nice for most movies. Not for one that cost 300 million to make and was expected to make close to 400 if not way above that. If they had just canned this project, they could have built a whole mile of Wilshire Blvd. Subway with that money and Steph and I could have seen Brokeback Mountain today.

Oh well, better movies to come this week.

-T

Dr. Pepper and The Alamo

Another busy day. Got up and left Houston this morning. We went to San Antonio. That wasn't really in the plan, but we added it. Didn't take too long. We saw the Alamo. This is actually the third time I have been to the Alamo. Once when I was a kid with my parents while moving across the country. Then again in 96 when I was with Jeff and Susie on our trip to Arizona to see Florida get their butts cut by Nebraska. And well...it was pretty cool.



Here is another reason to love Stephanie. She has the same time/space hangup that I do. Its freaky to her that we were driving on the same highway that Jeff and I were once on before. Also one that she and Shelley were on once before as well. "Its like you guys are still here" she said. She's weird. I love her. I feel the same way. Not to mention, we discussed how Santa Anna and 4000 angry Mexican soldiers were standing in the Hyatt Regency San Antonio ready to slaughter the guys in the Alamo. Very weird.

Here's the really cool thing. In a gas station on I-10, I found "the special Dr Pepper" Its pretty darned good too. It has a kind of homemade taste too it. I bought 4 bottles. But they were gone by tonight. Steph had one, and I had three. Thats why I'm up late too. I'd like to find a way to get some more.

Man Texas is great. Sports, History and the home of one of my favorite things in the world. I think we are going to take a little trip up to Waco next weekend and visit the Dr Pepper museum. Sweet.

-T

Whataday!

Ok, where to begin. Ok, at the beginning. Got up this morning, had a complementary apple danish and some orange juice. Steph and Sonny and I got in the car to go into town.

We figured we'd do some driving and picture taking with the pup first. So we went to the Astrodome. This didn't start out as well as I'd hoped. I thought we'd be able to go to the parking lot and stop and get out and look at it and take a picture and what not. We couldn't though, because they are having a Rodeo there this weekend. That was kind of a bummer.

We drove out and had to turn right, so I had to move over to another street to go back into town. This was a lucky break, because there was a petsmart right there on that street. I hadn't really planned to go, but there it was. We bought a crate for Sonny. This made us feel better about leaving Sonny later that night. Plus we will need one for later this year. This was a good one, because it is collapsable. Plus we finally got his nails clipped. On top of that, the Petsmart parking lot is a very good place to take pictures of the Astrodome.




We went into town to look around. We saw the new Houston light rail. That thing is cool! We went by the convention center, through downtown and then over to Minute Maid Park. Then we went back to the hotel for lunch and to drop off the Dog.

We had Whataburger! And I had the new chicken strip sandwich. It was awesome. I have been wanting to eat this for three weeks, and it was all that.

Back to Houston and to the Park. This was great. An hour tour of Minute Maid Ballpark. First off, I learned that its original name was..no not Enron Field. It was The Ballpark at Union Station. Thats cool. I dig that. I'm going to try to refer to it as that now. We got to go out on the field. At least on the dirt part. We got to sit in the dugout! Very very cool. All in all, a very cool experience.




Then to All-Star Jam Session. I am not much of an NBA fan. Not at all really, but I do know a fair amount about it. I do like basketball in general and as a sports fan, I respect it a lot. And, turns out, it was pretty darned cool. It was cool to see all the people trying to show their skills at various basketball skill competitions. I liked the lowered rim slam dunk competitions. I'm a wimp, I didn't try anything. I have minimal skills. I shoot pretty well. I don't dribble. Most of all, I don't want to wait in line for 30 minutes just to go 2 for 3 from the line.

I also bought a box of 1989 Topps Baseball cards for 7 bucks. That was an unexpected little bonus. Steph and I opened them up in the Hotel tonight after we got back. I got a Sheffield, but no Gregg Jeffries. Whatdayagonna do?

So we had a great day. A long and fun day. It was awesome. Exhausting, but well worth it. I'm really glad we did this.

-T

Houston...Here we are.

So we are in Houston tonight. Houston Texas...woo hooo. And today, I saw the dog gone Astrodome. The Astrodome! And guess what. Its ugly as crap! But its legendary, and I saw it.

It was a good day. Had a half day at work, stopped by Dunkies for some Vanilla Chai. Got one for Steph too.

Then we got on the road around noon. It was an easy trip, very little traffic. At least very little until we got to Houston. An easy trip made easier by a good 3 hour chat with Steph about the fascinating world of urban planning. I know I know. There is no way I'm letting that girl get away.

We got to Houston and boy was it busy. But we did fine. I think we were just ahead of the major part of rush hour. And let me just say Houston can join Austin as the kings of the elevated highways.

We stayed on the 610 freeway around the south side of Houston where we went past the Dome. Reliant stadium is there too, and it dwarfs the Dome. Hard to believe, but true.

Heres a bonus. I missed a sign that, I assume, said "Hey dummy, don't get into the HOV lane or you will miss your exit." So I missed our exit. The good part was, the HOV lane took us by about 1 mile and a half of dead stopped traffic because of construction. I just had to turn around and come back a little way. That little screw up of mine saved us at least 30 minutes or so.

We got to our hotel, picked up some Outback, and chilled for the night. Tomorrow should be great. Stadiums, the NBA, picture taking..fun fun.

Til Then
-T

Elizabethtown

Wow, I loved this movie. We watched it tonight. I wanted to see it when it came out, but I just didn't get to it. It came and went pretty quickly. I guess it just didn't play well out in the world. So we watched it tonight.....and....

Wow. I really loved this movie. It was really great. I feel like Cameron Crowe is talking directly to me. He's so good at showing people in their natural state. His movies are so personal and genuinely moving.

This movie, in particular, really touched a nerve. It looks at that need to awaken from the dull sleep of the mundane and actually go through life awake, alert and interested in the world.

Plus, it had a road trip. And I love road trips. I believe in America. I believe that everyone needs to get out and see the country. They need to see other places and meet other people and experience other things.

Life is for Living. This is a movie about a guy finally waking up and really LIVING his life. And I loved it.

-T

On the Road

Monday I started reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. A legendary book from the 50s. I didn't know much about it. I know it is legendary in the Beat or Beatnik world. The sort of pre-vietnam 60s rebels. I knew its about taking a road trip and seeing America, of which I am a big fan.

I'm just underway in the book, but I am hooked. I'm also very interested in reading more about the Beat Generation.

Steph and I have developed some very real philosophies and theories, and I am always looking for people who feel the same way. It seems that these guys might be close.

I was impressed early on by the narrator's description of his friend Dean. How he loved Dean because he was excited about life. I thought, here is something I can get behind. They are rebels because they want to live their lives, not because they are protesting war or any other great "cause." I believe in living life, not just getting by and surviving. That is a quest worth pursuing.

-T

Crash

Tonight, Steph and I watched Crash. Let me first say that I liked this movie very much. But here is the catch. I have a lot of little negative things to say.

First off, its extremely heavy handed. If I were Roger Ebert, I'd find some really clever analogy about spreading icing on so thick that they used a shovel or some nonsense. Really though, after about 3 or 4 scenes I'm like "Ok, we get it. People are racist. I accepted that after a while though. I decided it was an artsy film about racism, I suppose they should talk about race.

Second, a lot of it is contrived. There are several scenes where characters do and say things that just don't seem natural. Its like they are just doing whatever it takes to make each scene be "about something." What I call Tony and Christopher posturing. In the Sopranos, Tony and Christopher often posture to each other, even when they are essentially on the same page. It always results in the two of them being mad at each other. Only in the Sopranos its usually believeable, as Tony and Christopher are stubborn and prideful.

Last, there is really not much plot. Stuff happens in the movie, and the stuff is good and interesting. The characters are good and interesting too. In the end, however, it never comes together in anyway that makes for a good story. Its a series of interconnecting happenings. Nobody seems to have much of a complete story, and none of them ever amount to any sort of satisfying culmination. The two movies that automatically come to mind are Nashville and Magnolia.

Nashville, which I love, does the same sort of interconnecting story thing. In the end, all the characters come together for the big finish. Magnolia, which I would like if it wasn't kind of flawed, does a similar thing. Here too is a movie where all of the interconnecting characters unite in the end in some sort of culmination that works, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense.

This movie could really have stood to employ a writer that was good at story telling. A little LA Confidential or Shakespeare In Love would be nice. These were Oscar caliber movies that were sharp, clever and had really interesting stories.

All that said...I really liked this movie. Had I seen it last Summer, before people said it was so fantastic, I think I'd be raving about it. I'd have still noticed its problems though. I don't have any problem with it being nominated. I doubt it will make my top 5 but it will be up there.

-T

Going to Houston

Steph and I are going to go to Houston this weekend...probably. I'm excited. I still plan to go to Austin at some point. I have been here for 2 1/2 weeks and not really been here.

There are some cool things to do in Houston. The air and space museum is there, which is very very cool. Also the NBA All-Star game is there this weekend. Now, I don't really like the NBA, but this is just kind of cool. I do have respect for it, so that would kind of neat to be around. Also, there is Minute Maid Park. We are going to do a tour. That is going to be very cool. Baseball stadiums are awesome.

And then, there is the 8th Wonder of the World itself. The Astrodome. In all its splendid hideousness. I absolutely abhor this structure, yet I am compelled to respect its place in history as one of the most famous sports arenas of all time. I can't wait to get a picture of Sonny in front of it.

I can't wait.
-T

Decision 2006

I am making a decision tonight. I have to look at what I want to do and decide to actualy do it. Sometimes I find it hard to do what I want to do. I'm afraid. It's a lot like that moment before you get into the pool. You know its what you want to do. You can't wait to be swimming. You know you'll get used to it almost as soon as you get in. But for the moment, you are afraid of taking the plunge. You know it will be cold so you just circle around the pool. Walking back and forth along the edge, staring at the water. You know you want to be in there, but you are just nervous about getting wet.

I'm not really like this. I'm the guy that usually jumps in before I have a chance to think about it. But I haven't done that with this. I have committed to being a filmmaker, yet I haven't made myself take the leap yet. I told everyone what I wanted to do, and I can't go back now. I don't want to. Now I'm telling everyone that I am ready to really start. And I am.....NOW

Read something, Write something, Think something, Shoot Something. This is how I will live. I am going to think, read and write every day. And I will shoot something every single week. No matter what. No excuses, no rationalizations, no Bull Shit.

I have decided.

Tom Andrews
Independant Filmmaker

Movies...woo!

We saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe today. Tonight we watched The Graduate. Two movies that you might think are pretty different, but I find to be quite similar.

First off, it was really nice to see a movie at the theater. This was just the third time Steph and I had been to the theater since we left Utah. It was a good feeling, and we will be out to the movies much more in the weeks to come.

Chronicles of Narnia was pretty darned good. As one of only 2 or 3 people on Earth that hasn't read The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, I realized going in that I had absolutely no idea what this movie was about. I'm still not sure I know completely. Its a kids story about excitement and adventure, complete with morals and life lessons. Its an escapist movie if there ever was one.

4 kids are trapped in London during the World War II bombings. Their father is away fighting in the war. Peter, the oldest, is charged with being the "man of the house." It is hard when war comes to your home and isn't just in a far off land. It is hard for those who have to deal with it, but have no way to do anything about it.

If people facing hardship were to find a portal to a magical land, one might think that that land would be wonderful and happy and free of conflict. That is not true. The land they discover is very dangerous and is in the midst of a massive war of its own. Only in this war, these 4 kids play a pivotal role. And Peter, in specific, is chosen to lead an entire army in a fight for freedom. There are no ambiguous poltical issues here. There is a clear and true cause against an enemy that is pure evil. The kids, of course save the day. Freedom and righteousness return to Narnia.

Tonight, we watched the Graduate. One of my favorite movies, and not as dissimilar from Narnia as one might think. Contrary to the general belief the Graduate is NOT about sex. It is not about affairs. It is not about creepy old ladies seducing young men. The Graduate is about desperation. It is about young people who do not understand or like their place in the world. It is about older people with regrets about their lost youth.

Ben is a college graduate. He was a fantastic student and athelete in college, and now he has no idea what to do with himself. He is bored out of his mind. His parents' life is not appealing to him. Adults tell him on several occasions that he will only be young once. Mrs. Robinson once went to college, she once wanted to be an artist. Instead she became a wife and then a mother and then an alcoholic and then she wants to sleep with Ben in some desperate attempt to feel young again.

There is a theme in both of these movies. It exists in movies like Fight Club, the Matrix, Lost in Translation and several others. It is a feeling that has been around for a long time. A need that exists in all humans to live a life that is satisfying. To be in control of your own destiny. To do or be something that feels important. To feel like you matter. It is an inate feeling that exists within people, and the best kinds of movies are the ones that get in touch with this feeling.

-T

A little health today....just a little

I drank 8 glasses of water today and hit the speedbag at the gym. Woohoo. Sounds like a lot right? I know, its not much. Its a start though.

I set out to drink more water. I find that I want a of soda to drink. I'm addicted to Dr. Pepper. And, as it turns out, Texas is the worst place to be if you are addicted to Dr. Pepper. There is nowhere here that doesn't have Dr. Pepper readily available. But there is one thing I noticed. If I drink a lot of water, I'm not really that thirsty. I know...weird huh? Who would have thought that water cures thirst. And when I am not thirsty, I don't really want soda. This is another example of my resolution to work with my problems. Rather than insisting on just trying to straight up overcome my soda addiction, I'll just find a way to outsmart myself. Turns out the sneaky way is actually healthy in this case. Weird.

The second thing I did was hit the speedbag. I have always wanted to do this. Having watched Rocky movies all my life, I always thought it would be cool to be able to be good at hitting that bag. Its all about rhythm of course. You hit the bag and it bounces against the back of the board, then it comes forward. It comes back to fast to hit it again. So what you have to do is hit it hard enough to make it bounce three times. Back, then front, the back again. Then when it comes back to center, you hit it again. If I am doing it wrong, someone please tell me. I have only been doing it for two days total and I can already make it do that budda puh budda puh budda puh sound. Which is really very cool. I can switch back and forth left right left right or do one hand several times in a row. The only thing I haven't mastered is that very cool smack thing that they do in movies where right before they are done hitting it, they really haul off and hit the crap out of it. I'm getting there.

By the way, does anyone know why people say "haul off" and hit something? what the heck does that mean.

Anyway. The thing I hate most about exercise is how incredibly boring it is. I'm hoping to find some kind of fun ways to do some exercise, and this is fun for sure.

-T

More Austin Traffic

Tonight sucked. I have already discussed how bad the traffic is here in Austin. I started to think that maybe I had overstated the case a bit. Turns out...No.

Tonight, Steph and I decided to go see Harry Potter. It was the last night in the movie theaters, so we had to go to a theater across town. But it really wasn't all that far.

The movie started at 6:40 and we left the house at 6:00. Seems like enough time. But it wasn't.

Here's the thing though. It wasn't even close! I mean, NOT EVEN CLOSE! If we had left a full hour before the movie started we wouldn't have made it. Just sitting on I-35 (the 35?) inching forward. What a disaster.

The worst part is, I don't really understand how it works. The Traffic is worse going into Downtown than it is coming out. Actually it goes through Downtown. People work in North Austin and live in South Austin? Where do the people who work Downtown live. Maybe no one works downtown. Maybe those are just 30 story bars and coffee shops.

Light Rail is on the way, but it can't get here fast enough.
-T

5 Blades??? Why?

Another Super Bowl inspired post. One of the commercials during the game on Sunday was for a new razor blade that has 5 BLADES!

Now when I was growing up and first learning to shave. We had the "patented lift and cut" two blade razor. And this was a big deal. An innovation. Sometime in the 90s, the three blade razor was introduced. When that happened, I think most of us accepted that it was legit, but the joke then began that companies would keep trying to out-do each other by adding more blades.

Then, about 2 years ago it happened. The commercial said "No one can have a razor with 4 blades right?......WRONG!" And the 4 bladed razor was born. Steph and I joked. I said I could not actualy believe that the did it. I thought it was a joke, but there it was.

Well, its happened again. They actually did it. A 5 bladed razor. Are you kidding? I bought into the lift and cut 2 blade system. I accepted that the 3 blade system gives you and even closer shave. The 4 blade razor is nonsense though, and I don't know what to think of 5 blades. What do these blades all do? Lift and cut made sense. What do they all do????

-T

Finally

An apartment! Its been almost 2 weeks, but we finally got into an apartment here in Austin. I won't get into how much of an ordeal it was, but just know that it was.

Really though, it was just tough to relax here until I got into an apartment. I know that we are going to be here for 4 to 6 months, so I ought to just relax. It just hard to do that when you are in a one room apartment with a dog.

So now we are good. We can leave the house without worrying about Sonny or our stuff or maids or anything like that. Now I can relax and go enjoy this place, because I am quite excited about being here.

Time to do some things. First off, going to see some movies. There are about 10 or more movies on the list to see. Oscar nominees and some that we just didn't get to yet.

After that. I want to see my good friend Josh who lives in Round Rock. Plus my 2nd cousin Paul who lives on the side of Austin.

After that. Just get out on the town. Walk around downtown, and on the UT campus. Try out the bus routes...I know...whoa slow down there Tom.

Mostly though, this is a filmmakers town and I want to get out and meet some filmmakers.

So now lets get it started.

-T

A little about parity

Something I have talked about before came up again on Sunday. This idea of parity in sports. For whatever reason, Baseball seems to be the sport that takes the heat for having the most uneven playing field. So to speak.

What you hear is that in Baseball, only the Yankees can win. Only the rich teams can compete. Then football season starts and you hear about how the NFL is great because any team can win the championship every year.

You hear this, but it isn't true.

The first clue was that, prior to Sunday, the Patriots won 3 out of the last 4 Super Bowls. Baseball has had 5 straight years of a different champion, including two teams in two years where neither team had won a World Series in almost 90 years.

Then came Sunday. The Steelers won the Super Bowl. And Paul Tagliabue stated that they are the third team to win their 5th Super Bowl title.

Now that is three teams (Steelers, Cowboys, 49ers) that have won 15 out 40 Super Bowls. Thats 38%.

I did a little research and some comparisons.

Numbers of different champions in the last 40 years.
NFL 17
NBA 13
MLB 19

but considering the NFL has more teams than MLB, and considering that the people that argue this point are claiming to be out to help the little team, its more significant to look at how many have not won.

Number of different teams that have not won championships in the last 40 years.
NFL 15
NBA 17
MLB 11

Now tell me which league is harder for the little guy to win in?

Yet for whatever reason I have to hear people I know saying things like "I don't really care about Baseball because my team can't compete." Yeah, your team can't win because ESPN told you they can't. Stop listening to them!

-T

The Super Bowl

Where to begin? Ok, heres where.

Thank goodness this is over. I like watching the Super Bowl and all, but I don't have the energy to put up with all of this hoopla. Its exhausting. I don't really like the NFL that much anyway.

That said. It was a pretty good game. Well, it was at least kind of close for a while. If that equals good. Pretty sloppy most of the time though. As football goes it was just ok.

It really goes to show just how much better College Football is than the NFL. Without getting all "Its the greatest ever" on the subject, this year's Rose Bowl was one of the most amazing games I have ever watched. Tonight's game was like watching Sonny play football compared to that.

As for the commercials? They were ok. I don't know. Nothing particularly memorable. Just a reaffirmation that car commercials are the most obnoxious pretentious boring pieces of filmmaking ever made.

Well, one more Super Bowl down. One more repeat winner. (more on that tomorrow) The Steelers are this year's champions. Well, of the NFL that is. As for the Champions of Football in general? I'll take the University of Texas Longhorns.

Hookem Baby

-T

A 4 Movie Day!

I love days like this. We went to a video store. A video store. Thats weird enough these days. Since Netflix took over the world. We picked up a few things.

First was Old School. Here is a movie that everyone has seen but me. Surprisingly, I liked it. I liked it quite a lot. I thought Will Farrell was tolerable, which is saying quite a bit for me. Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson were great as usual.

Next was Last Action Hero. I have never seen this. It was on HBO. I didn't really mean to watch it. I just turned it on and didn't turn it off. It was ok. Nothing spectacular, but pretty interesting. Especially since it is about a kid who goes inside a movie. I like stuff like this. So the kid makes references to the actors names and characters they played in other movies, even though they are in character in this one. Someday somehow, I'm going to make a great movie in this same kind of style.

Next was Dirty Love. I have wanted to see this movie for about a year, but never got around to. Jenny McCarthy is tired of not getting any roles, so wrote one for herself. Or so I heard. Well, I don't think Jenny did herself any real favors. I don't know what to say other than this movie was just silly. Most of it was sort of gratuitous nonsense. If you look at Rotten Tomatoes horrible 4% fresh rating for the movie, I'll agree with the one guy who gave it a positive review. That there is a halfway decent movie in there somewhere. But I didn't get to see much of it.

Lastly was But I'm a Cheerleader. Surprisingly not very much cheerleading in this movie. But a fun little film in its own right. A funny thing happened. I thought I recognized one of the main characters. I thought perhaps I had seen her in something before. I said to Steph, "Who's that? I recognize her from something." Steph said, "You should. Its Clea Duvall. You took her order when you worked at In-and-Out Burger." Oh yeah, thats right. I actually recognize her as someone I physically saw and spoke to one day. Der.

All and all a very fun movie day. We have Crash and MacArthur Park to watch tomorrow. Plus whatever might be on HBO...Oh yeah, and that football game too. Steph and I have many movies to watch. And as long as we get into an apartment this week, we'll be going to the movies every night.

-T