Hollywood Swingin

Politics and Me

2008-11-05T19:14:00.000-08:00

I don't like to talk about politics for a couple of reasons. Because I have very passionate feelings about some things, and because I tend to view things very differently from most people I know. I'm not going to talk much about it now, but I want to start blogging again and it seems hard to avoid.

It made me very happy to see Barack Obama addressing the crowd and nation last night. For all of the "issues" and all of the last 20 months or so, last night was about something different.

I was very impressed by what I saw. Its hard to say more than that. Things just feel different now. They may not be. He may end up being just like all the rest. But it really felt different. I am very excited for him to get started. This could be really special.

-T

Resolutions and Real Change

2007-12-27T19:53:00.000-08:00

It is almost New Year's Eve once again, and once again we hear that word "resolutions" mentioned quite often. What does it mean? It is a tradition of the holidays, part of our standard operating procedure. Generally it is somewhat of a joke. People ask jokingly "what are your New Year's Resolutions?" People respond with a joke of some sort, "I won't make it a week without...." Smoking, Picking my Nose, Cussing, Eating something I shouldn't etc. etc.

I don't remember the first time I heard this. I believe I heard about resolutions right about the same time I heard about Times Square or Fireworks. So as far as I can tell this Tongue and Cheek "tradition" has always been there.

Then there is this question. Would any of us do this if we haven't always heard about it? The answer is...Yes, of course we would. It is in our nature. Just as we do at our birthdays or, for younger people, at the beginnings of new school years, we take the beginning of a new year as an opportunity to right things that we don't feel good about. Sometimes we require the feeling of a "clean slate" to make us feel like change is possible. What the kiddies call a "do over." We often have a tough time making real changes that matter and things like the celebration of the beginning of the new year can really be that chance that someone is looking for. Unfortunately, real change is lost in all the silliness surrounding New Year's Resolutions.

I will use this year to change. I am not making any resolution to speak of. I am becoming a different person. I have, for 18 months now, been on a tremendous emotional journey and I am not the man I once was. 18 months ago, I was scarcely a man at all. I will be different in 2008 because I have not the ability to go back to what I once was anyway. But I will use the turn to the New Year as a way to motivate myself to make real practical use of my new self.

In 2008 I will love myself. I will treat myself as if it is my sole God-appointed task to take care of me and help me to succeed. I will not listen to discouragement disguised as advice, given to me by people whom I do not respect. I will not let them hurt me simply because they are trying to protect themselves. I will respect my education and my talents and I will use them in the pursuit of art and of a satisfying life. I will not listen to those who try to tell me that it is not right. I will love my wife, the only person who has ever said they loved me who has truly, honestly, selflessly and devotedly loved me. I will love her every moment of every day and I will love her selflessly, how she wants and needs to be loved, not how I want to. I will listen to truth. I will listen to what I know is right. I will not listen to years and years of programmed nonsense disguised as values. Work ethic and love of family are coded messages meaning don't risk, don't try and don't get hurt. In 2008 I will be in action. I will go forward not back. I will seek and not hide. I will find new friends that think the way I do, and who have goals and dreams, not hobbies and fantasies. I will pray and bring my inner self to peace for the first time in 32 years.

But most of all, I will respect myself.

-Tom

Something about Christmas

2007-12-12T18:07:00.000-08:00

Something has happened in recent years that is somewhat troubling. I have found that it can be incredibly easy to let most of the Christmas season go by unnoticed. I remember when Christmas didn't start in the Malls and Stores until December, but for me it started before Thanksgiving. Now, in the Stores, Christmas starts in early December, and I can't seem to get it going until a week before the day.

When I was in College, I just had to get through exams and then it was Christmas in all of its Yule Tide glory. Since those days, it has been less and less that way. I had a Christmas in Los Angeles where I still had time to do stuff. Steph and I went to her office Christmas party and I had time to build a sort of ramshackle tree. 75 degrees on Christmas Day in Los Angeles. (May not seem like Christmas to some, but for me it was just a shade above what I am used to.)

The next two were spent while I was working a new job and wrapped around some traveling, which made it difficult. These also were the last two times that I will spend Christmas Day without Stephanie.

Last year, we were both working so much that it was hard to get any time to think about it at all. This year we are living in a hotel on the road with my company and then we will be taking a long road trip during the Holiday season.

As long as I am with my Beautiful Wife, I will truly be happy. But really, I want a house of my own, a place to call home so that I can start celebrating the whole season and not just the day in question. Thats what I am going to give myself for Christmas next year.

There is one last thing. My Amazing Wife, knowing that this is the case, has done a spectacular job at organizing our Christmas Television Classics schedule. She has really made this a great Christmas in a year where it could easily be the most forgotten of all. Thank You Steph.

-Tom

Searching for Tom

2007-12-04T19:18:00.000-08:00

Once again, I find myself searching for my former self. More accurately I'm looking for the place where my true personality intersects with everything I have learned about myself recently. The truth is, I feel that I have lost a lot of ME recently. What's worse is, if asked, I don't know that I could fully describe what ME is.

I would describe my former life as everything up to the point at which I moved to California. Since that time I have learned a lot about myself. I have learned about my family, my childhood, my hopes, my fears, and many of my issues. I have looked back on my former self with these new understandings and it really blew the lid off of some things for me. Most specifically, I found that a lot of my attitudes and activities were really just obsessive distractions compensating for some a lot of fear and insecurity.

As I realized more and more that this was the case, I worked to drop more and more of these pretenses from my life. The negative result has been that I lost most of my TRUE personality and am now a very generic and bland version of my former self.

Frankly, I am very boring and depressing and I want my SELF back. The good things about me, the fun things, the passionate things, are the things I want back. I used to have energy, thats what I want back. I'm coming to get it.

These Mother------s don't know how to act....
Yeah!
-Tom

Not Tonight...

2007-12-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

Nope....not tonight.

Peace on Earth...
-T

Wii Baby

2007-11-30T18:16:00.000-08:00

"I got it, I got it, I got a Wii! Woo!" said Stephanie. Early one morning last January I heard these words left on my voicemail by my beautiful soon-to-be bride. It has been fantastic ever since. The Wii has been every bit as revolutionary as advertised.

The coolest experience so far was at the wedding. WE had a lot of Wii fun that week. I bought Tiger Woods '07 and The Boys and I had a lot of fun.

My favorite part of Wii is the Virtual Console. This is where I can download classic games from my childhood. Ah, the wonder of Super Mario Brothers 2. I LOVED this game. We got it for 42 dollars at the Lionel Play World in Mesa Arizona. I haven't played it in well over 15 years. When I started it up, I can't believe how I remembered just how to do it. Its freaky.

Best Video Game system in History.
-T

Entertaining myself at home.

2007-11-29T19:45:00.000-08:00

Stephanie and I have recently begun watching more movies and television shows at home. After last week's Black Friday Bonanza, Stephanie and I have a ton of new stuff to keep us occupied. In an effort to keep our entertainment spending down, we are engaging in a series of both mini and full-sized marathons. Tonight we are watching numerous episodes of The Office. We watched Star Wars a couple nights ago and are planning to watch more very soon. We are also planning to do a repeat of our 2002 Bond Marathon. One of our very first.

Some marathon's I'd like to do soon:
Six Feet Under
Dark Angel
Post Apocalyptic Movies
Complete James Bond

Director Marathons:
Martin Scorsese
Alfred Hitchcock
Paul Thomas Anderson
Francis Ford Coppala

Actor Marathons:
Paul Newman
George Clooney
Gweneth Paltrow

I don't know how to shop for food!

2007-11-28T19:11:00.000-08:00

When I went away to college in 1997 I discovered the magic of the meal plan. 16 meals a week plus 150 bucks worth of free money to spend at school restaurants...a.k.a. Bonus Bucks. I thought I had landed in food heaven. There was a Pizza Hut and then they added a Taco Bell and a Chik-Fil-A. There was a burger place and a sub place.It was awesome. In addition to all of that fattening junk food bliss, there was also real food. Actual cooked meats, vegetables with side dishes and appropriately portioned desserts. There was healthy food to be found, and made easy. For me, eating healthy was as simple as getting in the right line. That was a big help. I won't pretend that I didn't eat a ton of Taco Bell food and personal Pizzas. I certainly did, but I also ate some good regular meals.

Then reality set in. I graduated. I moved to Los Angeles where I had little to no money at all. When Ralph's had frozen dinners on sale for a dollar a piece. I bought about 30 of them. I also started working at The Greatest Fast Food Place on Earth and a delicious part of my compensation package was one free Double Double and Fries every day. Every day for about 7 months. From here on my diet has been a constant struggle.

But heres the point to the whole thing. It's not like I got spoiled in college on having my meals just magically appear, and then forgot what I used to know. I NEVER knew how to do this. I lived with my parents before this and the food just magically appeared there too. Never out of Hot Pockets or the ever delicious and easy to eat right out of the carton Lloyds Barbeque Mmmm. Healthy.

I have no idea what I am doing. I have no idea how to eat right. I have no idea how to shop effectively. No one ever taught me. No one ever showed me. Whats worse, when worse came to worse and I had to teach myself......I took the easy way and refused to learn. By eating out or eating cheapies from the grocery store. Ramen noodles and 3 for a dollar frozen burritos for example. Taking the easy way out is an important issue for another blog. Being able to focus and pay attention when my wife is showing me how to shop healthy and effectively is another.

Once again I find myself in a place where I want to reclaim some power for myself. Now is the time.

-T

A Sad Day

2007-11-27T19:43:00.000-08:00

Early this morning Washington Redskins Definsive Back Sean Taylor died from a shooting on Sunday Night. I heard about the shooting yesterday and saw he was in a coma. He was clearly listed in critical condition, and certainly a coma is pretty darned serious. Yet when I heard the news this morning that he had died, I was shocked.

He was 24 years old and unbelievable talent. He was also "troubled" to be diplomatic. Which is to say he'd been in trouble with the law and had been of questionable character. That means people called him a thug. Myself included. When he was drafted by the Redskins I did something that I hate. I turned a blind eye to what I thought about him in exchange for his incredible skills on my team. The truth is, the NFL is a second-rate league to me and I wouldn't have done that if he was a Gamecock or a Dodgers. That doesn't make it any better that I did that.

A DUI and Felony Armed Assault Charges were part of his resume. I and everyone I know thought he was a thug.

Friends say that recently he had really turned his life around following the birth of his daughter. But most of us didn't know or care to find out. Easier to just say "Nice pick, Thug."

And now he is dead. Shot by an intruder in his home with his girlfriend and their daughter in the house. And I hope that I am not the only one who will turn away from calling him a low-life. Maybe its random, maybe its something from his past life that came back to haunt him. I don't know. He was just barely a man. He was incredibly gifted. Just like that...gone. As are many years to come of football excellence. Years spent with his daughter and family. Years to become as good a man as he could.

I don't usually get too involved with these sorts of newsworthy tragedies, but this is painful and sad.

Good Luck and Godspeed Sean.
...Hurricanes!

-Tom

A well needed long weekend.

2007-11-26T20:38:00.000-08:00

I have to be honest. I needed a break. From what? I don't know. But the First week that we were here was a tough adjustment to make. Doing some real work. Back to the middle of a job instead of near the end like I was in New Jersey. Pushed right into the middle of it, I had to get my bearings. It took me a while. So a 5 day weekend, starting with Thanksgiving Day was just what the doctor ordered.

Thanksgiving at Medieval Times, Friday at the Mall, Saturday a quick trip up and back to New Jersey, Sunday Pancakes at IHOP and a lot of lying around. Monday (base closed) more lying around and a lot of relaxing.

Back to work tomorrow. A lot to do in a short time. But its nice to have a good project to work on. So, unbelievably, I'm kind of excited to get back to it tomorrow. Weird.

-T

Housebreaking....that Darned D

2007-11-25T19:52:00.000-08:00

So I haven't done very well with getting Johnny Drama housebroken. Its been tricky as we have been moving a lot. But really its just an excuse. I have been lazy for a couple of reasons. First because his little poops and pees are so small and tiny that they don't seem to cause much problem. Even the pee is easy to clean since its like a thimble full. The second reason is just that I am lazy.

When we got Sonny, I didn't have a dog yet so I knew that I was going to have to do this. And I told Stephanie that I would do whatever it would take. I did a pretty good job I'd say. Well...We did have to pay for the carpet to be replaced at our apartment in Sherman Oaks, so I don't know how good it was. Somewhere after that, he really became a very good dog. He has had "accidents" on only the most rare of occasions. The thing is though, I have become pretty darned used to having a trained dog. So when I got a new dog, I really wasn't ready for the potty training.

So I haven't done a great job. I have managed to get him to pee and poop in acceptable places indoors. Which means on the puppy pad or on the bathroom floor. Actually, he gets in the tub and pees. Which I thought was great and encouraged a lot. I figured maybe I'll never have to walk him again. But its not good for him or me.

So Steph got us a new book. The Loved Dog by Tamar Gellar. And I am rededicated to training my puppy as well as teaching my slightly older, but still young dog some new tricks. So we will be dealing with some whining and some crying over the next week or so, but I think it will be worth it.

I love Dogs.
-T

Arrrrrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhh

2007-11-24T20:38:00.000-08:00

I can't take it anymore. Errrr. 23-21 Clemson beats Carolina. I have been dealing with this for what seems like forever. We win one. We lose two. We win one. We lose one. We win one. We lose two. I don't know. We should have won this game tonight. Seriously! The problem I have is that year after year after year, we are better than them. I mean it. We are always better than them and we always manage to lose.

Now, on a personal note. I am handling this loss a lot better than I thought. I am moving on finally and I have better things in my life. Therefore it doesn't hurt. I am doing alright.

My name is Tom and I'm a sportsoholic. Its been 2 months since I last threw something at my television.

-Tom

Black Friday!

2007-11-23T19:28:00.000-08:00

Sometime back I heard the term Black Friday. It was funny term that retailers used amongst themselves as the day that all the crazy shoppers come screaming to the stores to get in their Christmas shopping. Little by little, the term has gotten out to everyone else and has become pretty common. The weird thing is that its apparently so common, that the stores are calling it that in their advertisements. Now this seems a bit much to me.

First off Stores...lets not pretend that you hate this day. If anything its Green Friday or This will keep us going for all of next year Friday. I guess its working though. The shoppers seem to act like the hate it too. But they all do it. A special day when shoppers and retailers all grumble together.
...Interesting.

The way I see it is like this. And to paraphrase the great General Bethlehem would say...You want Black Friday? I'll....give you.... Black Friday!

So Stephanie and I ventured out on this day for no other reason than to chuckle at the hilarity of it all. We go out with no shopping agenda at all and therefore have no stress.

A funny thing happened today however. We got to Best Buy and started finding some really good deals. Oh...Don't worry. It wasn't about Christmas shopping. It was about picking up some long desired DVD sets for both of us.

Specifically

Six Feet Under Complete Series for 114 bucks
Dark Angel Complete Series for 40 bucks
The Ultimate James Bond Collection all 21 movies for 90 bucks

Holy Crap! Awesome.
We did pick up a couple of gifts at that point, what the heck right? As long as we stayed true and kept this day all about us. December is for Christmas diggity doggonit. Black Friday is for Pirates...arrrrrgh. And we came home with the Booty.

Peace
-T

Thanksgiving Day

2007-11-22T20:38:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving Day 2007. Stephanie and I looking to make it a memorable day and I think we found it. We went to Medieval Times for dinner. It was awesome. I don't know if its quite what the Pilgrims had in mind, but a little bit of Jousting for Thanksgiving never hurt anyone.

It was our first Married Thanksgiving, and it was great to spend it alone. With just each others and of course our pups.

I am thankful for a lot this year, but there is really only one thing on my mind. My beautiful wife Stephanie I am thankful that we were married. I am thankful that we had such a beautiful wedding. I am thankful that we have a great future planned. I am thankful for all the days we get to spend together. I am thankful for the awesome adventures that we have coming. It is, without a doubt, my best Thanksgiving so far.

Ok, I'm thankful for Star Wars for the 30th year in a row.

-Tom

Starting to Peter out

2007-11-21T20:45:00.000-08:00

I have to be honest. I don't want to write this blog. But I said I was going to do it every single night in November. So hear I am. Really two nights in a row with nothing or little to write about.

I spent 3 hours today in a 3 ft crawl space in and attic above a guard shack at the entrance of a National Guard installation in Northern Maryland. At one point, I took a little break and laid back on the plank of wood that was keeping me from falling through the ceiling. I looked up and thought "how did this happen?" Weird. But, its cool. Years from now Steph and I and our kids might ride by there and I can say hey, Daddy mounted all the security in that weird little building there. Yay!

What else?

I really want to make a short Star Wars fan film. I don't know why. It just seems awesome for some reason. What would it be about? I'm not sure. Hmmm. I really just want to see myself with a lightsaber. In theory I can get it done with my computer if the little hamster that runs on a wheel inside it can hold out. Time for a new laptop.

Oh crap. Its 3 minutes til midnight. Better post this thing.
Happy Turkey Day everyone.

Peace
-T

Blog about Dogs

2007-11-20T18:22:00.001-08:00

I have been trying to think about what to write tonight. I thought of a few things. The premiere of Frank TV, and how it means I won't have to see those commercials anymore. My job and how its still going fine. How it makes me mad that that some people still think that Southerners use Y'all to refer to just one person. None of these things seemed very good.

And there is a million different Peter Griffin "What Really Grinds My Gears" kind of blogs I could write.....But I hate blogs like that.

So I decided to write about my dogs. A little girly perhaps, but so what? My little dudes are laying on the couch next to me right now. They are being very restful, which is nice. A little while ago they were fighting over Bobos. Sonny has a big stuffed Petsmart Bobo toy and Johnny Drama has a little Drama sized one. They eventually decided they weren't interested....for now.

So they will rest here for awhile. Saving their precious energy until bedtime when they will wait for the lights to go out before beginning their battle for under-the-covers positioning.

They're good ole' dogs.

-T

Think Win Win

2007-11-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

First let me say right out in front that this comes from Steven Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Which is an incredible book, that can really make a difference in people's lives.

The 4th Habit is what Covey calls Think Win Win. While all the habits are incredible, this is one I think about quite a bit. He says there are four possible outcomes to any conflict. Win Win. Win Lose. Lose Win and Lose Lose. Read this book. Seriously, its incredible. I won't try to explain it anymore. The point is, however, that Win Win is the best possible outcome for all involved.

Conflicts big and small happen all the time. Most people, it seems, are always fighting to secure a win for themselves with only that in mind. But with that attitude, it ensures that someone loses. These same people seem to spend most of their time complaining about both their recent losses as well as their narrow victories over people who tried to screw them.

An easy example I can think of is Driving. It seems many people look at driving as series of little conflicts. And the if you can win as many as possible you will somehow get to work sooner. When they see someone getting in front of them, the scream at them and then speed up to try to prevent this. What happens here is that one of the two people in this scenario will lose. Then that person will try even harder to win the next conflict. This eventually results in the roughly 45,000 automobile related fatalities every year.

People scoff at the "we can make the world a better place" theory. Mostly they think no one will try it, so they don't try. Also, people think it depends on making big sacrifices to let someone else win. But here, you can look at life from an everyone wins philosophy. Work to make that happen and guess what.....Everybody wins.

No one will buy this. I know they won't. If I tried to tell someone, they would basically ignore me because they would think I am telling them to let someone else win. Which means they lose. I don't understand why people see everything in life as somebody wins and somebody loses. Its really sad. This is one of the deepest and most pervasive problems in our society today. We can all succeed and we can all be successful. But no one will risk it.

The sneaky little secret is that you are SUPPOSED to want to win. Helping the other fella win along with you, just makes you a great person. Plus it helps you out down the road too.

What do I know though....Read the book.

-T

Best Show on Television?

2007-11-18T18:36:00.000-08:00

Since 1999, this was an easy question to answer. The Sopranos. But now that we live in a Post Cut-to-Black world, what show will come in to fill the void? I have sampled quite a few in the past year looking for the one.

What I discovered is that TV looks a lot like the Sopranos. In 1999, shows were still very episodic. ER was the number one show on TV, and while it certainly had a lot of ongoing plot lines, it still worked very well from week to week. You could miss a week or two or four and still enjoy an episode.

In 2007, the shows people are talking about aren't episodic at all. Heroes, Prison Break, Lost, are all huge. Here are shows that if you miss an episode, you might as well quit for the year and start over on DVD. The Sopranos effect is very clear.

Add to that the advent of the DVR, which allowed people an even better chance to not miss their shows.

The problem is these shows just aren't as good as the Sopranos. Well, I guess thats not fair. But they just don't quite do it for me.

I don't know. I have pared down my TV watching to basically no shows. With the Writers Strike having already put and end to the Office for the foreseeable future, it leaves only one show.

How I Met Your Mother.

This show is the best show on Television. Seriously. I'll say this. Its the funniest comedy I have ever seen. Not saying the Best show that could be called a Comedy, but it is the FUNNIEST.
The best part is the continuity. Little details in one episode that come back in big ways in later episodes. It makes for great re-watching of old episodes on DVD.

So as I see it, and for as long as we still have new episodes still being aired. A little show Steph and I just call HIMYM will be the official Tom's favorite show.

-T

First Day off in Baltimore

2007-11-17T17:41:00.000-08:00

So theres no football today. Well, there's football today. The Gamecocks, for the first time this year, are off. So with no painful loss to wait for all day, what else to do?

Turns out. Not much. Steph and I spent the day discussing our lives and future. It wasn't a lot of fun really but it was pretty helpful.

I want to go to school to get my PhD. Its something I have wanted for a long time but wasn't sure if I should or not. I don't want to give up on my film making dreams, but I also really think I'd love to teach film studies to college kids.

We talked a lot about my job and our living arrangements. Which aren't great. Living in a hotel kind of sucks. The last hotel was pretty nice. More like little apartments. This hotel is like a regular hotel. It does have a separate bedroom which is sort of nice. It will be good because I can go to bed early if I need to.

We talked about Babies. How they are cute and cuddly and a very manly thing to want. I really can't wait.

Then we went to the Super Walmart. This should have been great. We haven't had the greatness that is Super Walmart in a couple of years. Apparently the people here haven't had one in a while either because everyone in North East Maryland was there. Also, there is that new "Christmas starts on November 1st" policy to consider. So there were about 10,000 Last Minute Shoppers to deal with. Not much fun.

So now to settle down with a little Friends Mini-Marathon before bed. A long day, but tomorrow will be a great one.

-Tom

Friday Night in B-More

2007-11-16T17:24:00.000-08:00

So a week, or most of a week, has gone by and the weekend is finally here. So what to do? Its Friday Night.....Right?

So Steph and I decided to do up Baltimore Steph and Tom style.

Dominoes Pizza and DVDs.

So, you might call us wimps or old or no fun or something like that.

But we've been to 44 states in the last 5 years. What have you done?

-T

Also. I love my wife. And pizza and Friends with her is better than anything out on the town.

A Day Long Remembered

2007-11-15T20:02:00.000-08:00

If you scroll down this blog a little bit, you will find at least a few posts on the topic of Barry Bonds and steroids. Today we get an answer to a very big question. Not will Barry Bonds be indicted. The question is will we ever get undeniable proof of what we already know?

The answer would seem to be Yes. As the Feds have positive drug tests for Barry Bonds. They have the test!

It doesn't make any difference if he is convicted on Perjury and/or Obstruction of Justice charges. Even if he is exonerated of that, we still have the test and testimony that he did cheat.

Now, this doesn't really do much for me. I have eyes, so I can see whats true without having to be told. My hope, however, is that this will call out the Pro-Bonds crowd for what they are. Phonies. They pretend that they support him on some sort of Innocent-until-proven-guilty sort of level. The truth is they don't have the guts to fight for integrity. The support the cheaters.

I don't want to say its because they are liars or cheaters in their own personal lives...but....well...

Where are you now? Phonies. Where is the "He's never failed a test crowd?" mmm...hmm

I see a lot of people saying "This is a sad day for Baseball" It is NOT. This is a Glorious Day for Baseball. Its a day straight out of over-the-top, over-dramatic school for the touchy feely. A day that would make Jefferson Smith very proud. Its a day when Truth and Right prevailed and evil is vanquished. A day when our government did something right. (For those who don't think that ever happens)

Remember Remember the 15th of November. Turns out Mulder was right about the Truth.

-T

Starting a New Job

2007-11-14T18:22:00.000-08:00

I feel like I haven't worked in weeks. Its really only been a few days. But really, its been a long time since I had a LOT of work to do. Its not that we didn't do anything in New Jersey. We did. Its just that that job was nearing the end and all the heavy lifting was behind us. So we have been touching up, and cleaning up and troubleshooting for a while.

This job is right in the middle of the heavy stuff. Lots to do. Long hours. Also, this job is much much more complicated than the last one. So today was a much heavier day than I have had in a while.

Plus, getting used to the new city. Getting used to the new Hotel etc. So by the end of the looooonnngg hard day, I just came home and collapsed on the bed. Ahhhhhhhh.

You know what? It feels pretty good though. And here comes the fun part. I love coming home to my wife. I get home and she just makes it all go away.

Tomorrow....Day 2.

-T

First Night in Baltimore

2007-11-13T19:41:00.001-08:00

Here in Baltimore...really....I'm out near the airport. Not so much IN Baltimore. The Hotel is pretty nice. We have two rooms again finally. Which is nice. We have a TV that we can hook up the DVD player to. There's not as much space as the last place, but thats ok.

The best part, its about 10 degrees warmer here tonight than it is in New Jersey. I don't know what December is like in either New Jersey or Baltimore, But I am betting on it being a bit warmer.

So I just got settled in. I'll be heading off to work in the morning. Maybe...just maybe..I'll get to see some of the city this weekend.

-T

East Coast Kind of Guy?

2007-11-12T18:28:00.000-08:00

Here on our last night living in New Jersey, I am thinking a little bit about how I feel about that. This is something I have thought about quite a bit. I am a person that tends to latch onto certain things or ideas and not let go. From little things, to seemingly more important things. I have been a Coke over Pepsi, McDonald's over Burger King, kind of guy. I'm a National League guy. A Shorts and Flip Flops kind of guy. I also have always thought I was an East Coast guy too.

Not really because I chose it. I did live sometime in Arizona as a kid, but it my parents hated it and it was always a matter of time before we moved "back east." I moved to California in 2003, and I still couldn't really shake the "I'm out here" feeling. The jobs I had took me more and more eastward. Salt Lake City, Austin, Boston, New Jersey and now to Baltimore. I have been up and Down the East Coast a lot in the last year. To Key West...Twice, to Charleston several times, to Boston and New York City many times. And I have come to a strange and very surprising conclusion.

....I don't really like it here....

More importantly....I like it "out there."

I miss the west. A lot. And I am stunned by this. I could talk for a week about what I miss about Los Angeles. I miss the Great Salt Lake and the Wasatch Mountains. I miss the Alamo. I miss Kingman Arizona. I miss how in the West you can see for 100 miles in all directions. I miss the Sunshine. I miss the rocky mountains in general and The Rocky Mountains in specific. Its beautiful out there.

To be fair. In my recent life here in the "Far East" I have discovered the pure joy and magic that is New York City. Wow, what an awesome place.

In the end, what I found is that I really could live anywhere. I could still choose to live in the East or the South. I'm pretty sure I won't live in too cold a place, but I could. The cool thing is that I have manage to remove this curious sort of umbilical cord that had kept me attached to the East Coast and has freed me up to live anywhere that Steph and I would like. And thats pretty exciting.

I put LA's chances at about 65% and New York's at about 30% and everywhere else at 5%.

We'll See.

-T

The Writers Strike

2007-11-11T18:45:00.000-08:00

For a week now the Writers Guild of America has been on strike. It is, of course, pretty big news. The automatic question for America whenever any large group goes on strike is "How does this effect me?"

The answer for this one is the same with every other strike..."It depends." Depends on how much TV you watch and on how well prepared your favorite TV Show was.

For me, this is an interesting situation. As an aspiring filmmaker, media studier, and all around motion picture entertainment connoisseur, this strike is of particular interest and significance to me. It may be of more interest to me than to most people. Although, it may actually effect me less than it would most people. Generally, I don't watch that much new television. This year even less than usual. So when shows are going into reruns or being pushed into hiatus, it doesn't really make too much of a difference in my life. I do enjoy good television shows, but I don't do well trying to keep up during the year. So I often watch tv shows later. Sometimes on DVD in the Summer. Sometimes on On Demand through cable. Sometimes during the season on iTunes.

Which leads us to the point of this particular strike. It seems that the writers of all these programs aren't getting paid for their work being shown on these new media formats.

I don't care much for strikes. No kidding, right? But when they come up, I tend to think there is no excuse to not get these things fixed before it comes to that. In most cases, I don't know who is right or wrong, but get it fixed before we have to cancel the World Series or before I have to walk from Sherman Oaks to Hollywood.

In this case, however, I can really come down on the side of the strikers. Obviously as someone with an above average appreciation for the rights of artists, it makes sense. But even beyond that, this one seems a bit of a no-brainer.

The writers want to get paid when the material that they created gets played on the internet and on cellphones and other such new media outlets. The Networks/Studios are saying 2 things.

1. That its too early to tell just how much money they are making off these new outlets. So they won't pay the writers anything while they are waiting.

2. They also have said that most of the Internet distribution is a "form of promotion" for the show, essentially a commercial, and therefore they shouldn't have to pay the writers anything.

I don't know a lot about labor agreements, but I know BS when I smell it. There are a few simple truths in this world and here is one of them. You can't tell a story without a story. And that is becoming very very obvious to the bigwigs right about now.

-T

More about Sports

2007-11-10T19:53:00.001-08:00

We are losing to Florida by 20 points with 9 minutes to go. We just fumbled the ball and the game is certainly over. What should I care? 2 Years ago we beat Florida for the first time ever. Last year we lost by 1 point and Florida went on to win the National Championship. This year. In a year we were supposed to be even better, and in a year when we had been ranked as high as 6, we are getting clobbered.

Heres the thing though. I spent years and years hoping to beat Florida. Years and years knowing that this was one game on the schedule that we just couldn't touch them. So we have 2 good years against them and now I expect to win every year? I don't know.

I am upset about this. Mostly because we were doing so well and have lost now 4 straight games. And we look awful too. So its really just the repeated losing and the continued drop off thats killing me.

But what is really wrong? I don't want to hurt this much. It bothers me still. I know its wrong to be this upset about it. Its too much for me. And I have been rehabilitating myself for sometime now, and I am disappointed to find that it may not be working as well as I'd hoped. I still get mad. I still want to throw things. I still want to slam things down. It still bugs me.

One thing, is that I left a lot of this behind me. I had calmed down to a nice simple and respectable appreciation for Gamecock Football. But people had pointed to 2007 as a potentially big year for us. As the year got going, it started to look like it might be something really special. And I let my guard down. Its just like bringing and alcoholic to a wine tasting I guess, cuz I was off the wagon.

So now, in addition to the pain I feel from losing, I have the pain of feeling a little like a sucker. A sucker because I essentially consciously said "I will let my guard down this time because it looks like this will be worth it" and I am getting hosed. Hosed by my team and by those people who said it was going to happen.

In the end the question is this....just what is my problem anyway? The problem is that I spent most of my life using sports as a way of hiding from pain and fear. For 25 years or so I did this. So much so that its not easy to stop. Even here and now. Today. When my life is probably more happy, more healthy and more in order than it has ever been. And yet here I am again, struggling to deal with something that I should be able to deal with.

Maybe its a good sign....now that I think of it. If I am as happy as I have ever been right now, then maybe its ok that I'm upset. Maybe it means that not all of my Football obsession was based on hiding from pain. Maybe some of it was and is just genuine love of team. I suppose thats a decent enough thing.

Wow...I feel better.

...Weird.

-T

A Day Like No Other

2007-11-09T18:30:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick one about today. One of those days when you wake up and your life is one way and when you go to sleep things are very different.

I woke up this morning not knowing where my next work project would be. Not knowing for sure exactly what I wanted to pursue in life.

In the course of today, I decided that I'm going to make a plan for getting my PhD. I found out that my company is moving me to Maryland. And I was offered a chance to possibly shoot a music video for a friend's band. Also, one other thing that might happen but I'm not going to mention just yet. Don't want to jinx it.

Anyway. Just like that. A seemingly regular sort of day that might end up being one of the biggest of my life.

-T

Message Board Culture

2007-11-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

The internet is an amazing thing!! I can't put enough exclamation points on it to do it justice. There are so many facets to the internet and being online. I have been consistently online for almost 11 years now, and it has change my life in innumerable ways. Additionally, it has changed the world in incredible ways. And as with all new inventions and developments, there are strange and quirky phenomena that are unique to that invention.

One of those things is the internet message board and the resulting message board culture. I won't begin to get into the history and beginnings of the internet message board. Mostly because I don't know its history and am not really interested in researching it. I am vaguely aware of some sort of computer bulletin boards when I was younger, but whatever.

I go to a few different message boards. The main reason...or the one I would like you to believe...is for news. There are people online who have little to do in life and so they spend their time scavenging for news that relates to their interests. Then they try to one up each other by being the first to post it. I like to take advantage of that to get the news.

So in my years of "observing" the posters in their natural environment i have noticed a few things. First, everything that happens in the world is RIDICULOUS. It doesn't really matter what the theme of the board is, or what side of the topic they are on. They are pretty darned mad about it. A person with less internet experience might be fooled into thinking that these people are very unhappy in their personal lives and have no other means of relieving themselves.

Another thing that Stephanie and I both have noticed is that after awhile, they begin to divide themselves into distinct groups. Stephanie pointed out to me recently that this occurs on Celebrity Baby Blog. As I understand it, there is a big divide between the fans of Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and those of Suri Cruise. In fact they even refer to themselves as Team Shiloh and Team Suri. (actually, the moderators at that site have since made them stop doing that.)

This seems to occur everywhere, but I like the Baby Bloggers organization the best. On the Star Wars board we have Team Prequels and Team Originals. On the Gamecock Messageboard its about Quarterback...Team Mitchell and Team Smelley. But the newest one to develop is on the Sopranos messageboard. Where the discussion is all about the ambiguous season finale, and whether Tony lives or dies. That argument is amongst the self named Lifers and Deadheads.

The truth is...its all a big freaking distraction from real life, and a cheap means of feeling smart or important. In all of these cases, it is based on deconstruction of whatever it is they are talking about. And it is just that. Deconstruction. It doesn't build anything. Which means its worthless.

-T

I just had a Genius Idea!

2007-11-07T15:47:00.000-08:00

As we know, the Writers strike in Hollywood has been a big topic lately. The networks are frantic trying to figure out what to do. How will they make ends meet? How will they fill out their weekly lineups?

The thing they have going for them now, that they didn't have the last time there was a strike is Reality TV. Reality TV does NOT (and this should be pretty obvious to all) use writers. So they will not be affected by the strike. So the networks may want to create even more Reality based shows to fill in for the others.

Thats where my idea comes in. I have created a few new Reality competitions that will help the Networks in two ways.

1. So you Think You can Write for Television
2. America's Next Top Television Writer
3. Who Wants to be a Television Writer

and my favorite one...

Television Writing with the Stars

where 10 Writing Professors from Prestigious Film Schools team up with 10 Superstar Actors and Talk Show hosts and attempt to teach them to write their own material.

C'mon Networks, this could work. At the very least, this post could make a decent monologue joke. I'm available.

-Tom

The Complete Series

2007-11-06T15:39:00.000-08:00

I have a new obsession of late. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, it is something that I won't be able to take advantage of.

We are apparently living a Golden Age of "The Complete Series" Dvds for television shows. I want all of them. I don't really know what it is. I feel some kind of Power from owning an entire television series from Start to Finish. Especially because they come in these really clever packages. I admit, I am a sucker for cool packaging. I'm also a sucker for the idea of a "complete collection."

I found out today that an X-Files complete series set came out today. Now, here is a show that I know is pretty good. In all, I have seen around 15 episodes total. To be honest, I don't know when the last time I even thought about that show was. However, now, its all I want.

In addition to that, the entire series of King of Queens, Seinfeld and Full House came out today. Seinfeld comes in a Box Shaped like a big refrigerator. (though that may be a Best Buy exclusive.) King of Queens in box shaped like an IPS delivery truck. Full House comes in a House Shaped Box, much the same as the House Shaped Box that the Everybody Loves Raymond Complete Series set came in a couple of weeks ago. Golden Age Indeed.

What really got me pumped up was the Six Feet Under set that came out last year. Very cool. It comes in a grave-like package with fuzzy grass on top. That did it for me. I immediately realized that a Complete Sopranos Set must be in the works. I then sold all my existing single season sets of Sopranos. (I got a very good return on them to considering it was right before the final season aired.) So I am patiently waiting for it, and waiting to see what it looks like.

Stephanie bought the complete Friends set earlier this year, and it has been awesome, and well worth the cost. Which leads me to the problem. I really don't have a lot of room in the budget for 100 and 200+ dollar DVD sets. It has honestly worked out really well with Friends, because we have gotten a great deal of viewings out of it. All things considered, these sets are certainly worth the money in theory. However, they aren't exactly worth it in practice. Not for me right now at least.

So for now, its just a lot of me looking, dreaming and lusting for the Power that comes with owning every single episode of the Andy Griffith Show.

-Tom

Tom Andrews and the Quest for Truth

2007-11-05T19:26:00.000-08:00

In a world where things are not always as they seem. In a land where people aren't always who they say they are. Comes a man on quest to discover secrets of himself and the truth about his life. I have in the last year come to the conclusion that I am not always who I thought I was. And that truthfully I don't know how I feel about a lot of things.

I will be using this blog over the next weeks to work out some truths about myself. Most specifically, how I feel about certain things, what I like, and what I belive.

Tonight's question is a big one. Sports.

I am a Sports guy, and I have been for as long as I can remember. In college, I was one of "those guys" who painted his face, drank a lot and yelled and screamed at every football game. Its true. Looking back at that guy. I'm not quite sure who that was. I'm not embarrassed at all. But I wonder if I did that because I really wanted to, or if there was something more.

In college I suffered with some issues. Specifically depression, confidence and identity. In fact I have spent a lifetime struggling with identity. I'd like to look back and chuckle at my face painting days, but there is something about it that seems fishy. A little too comfortable with the knowledge that people knew me as a guy that painted his face. A little too concerned with what people thought about me and if they were looking my way. A little too conscious of how it made me feel about myself. And a little too quick to accept football as the most important thing in my life to the detriment of everything else.

Now, I don't act that way anymore. And here is the question. Was I unhealthy before and have become more healthy? Or was I fine before and have simply evolved and changed, grown and matured? I'm not yet sure.

I'm not saying that there was anything wrong before. I'm not ashamed. But I have questions about myself and that requires a closer look.

This is just one small area of the Sports World According to Tom that needs exploration. One Step at a Time.

Peace...
-T

Packing it up again

2007-11-04T15:15:00.000-08:00

In the last couple of years, Steph and I have moved quite a bit. From Columbia, SC to Los Angeles, to Salt Lake City, to Austin to Boston and then to New Jersey. "What a long strange trip its been." Now we are preparing to move again. This time, we really aren't sure where just yet.

Its narrowed down to a couple of scenarios, and we will be finding out pretty soon. We are getting everything ready now so that we will be ready to go on short notice. We are doing a lot better at managing our stuff I have found this time. Having a car that can carry more has been a plus.

Adding to that comes this....Stephanie's brilliant idea for space saving. We purchased some of these vacuum bags for clothes storage. I would say I was skeptical. That might be an overstatement. I was taking a wait and see attitude as far as how well this would work. I must say, early results are in and they are all positive.

We essentially reduced the space taken by a large amount of clothes by 50 percent. All I can say is Whoa! We have 2 large suitcases and about 4 other small suitcases and it actually looks as if we might get all of our clothes into the two big ones. Technology is grand.

We should be able to get our stuff to a very manageable 2 Explorers worth of stuff. We have only 1 Explorer of course, but at least we know 2 trips would be the absolute max.

Anyway, we will be in a holding pattern for a bit. But if we can get one more long term assignment, I think we will be able to finally work toward the big settle down. We'll see.

-Tom

Busted my Head

2007-11-03T17:24:00.000-07:00

A weird thing happened to me today. I busted my head falling out of the shower. Seriously. I have been out of shape for a while now, and I'm really ready to get back into shape. So I was actually exercising today, which was nice. Steph and I were going to go out, so I jumped up really fast to take a quick shower. I hopped in the shower and turned on the hot water. But really quickly I got light headed and felt a little dizzy. So I leaned forward in the shower and rested my head against the front wall of the shower. I was catching my breath. The next thing I know, I was dreaming that I was walking down the hall at the public storage where we have put some of our stuff. Then I here Stephanie yelling "are you alright?" Then I realized my face was on the floor.

I snapped to, pretty quickly but was pretty freaked out. I had passed out in the shower. Very strange. I remember thinking, man I'm out of shape, I can't believe I'm so winded. Then....Whap! I was on the floor.

I worried for a minute that it could be something serious. I've been thinking about it all day, and I'm pretty sure its not. I know what its like to be winded and to be out of shape. Its not an unfamiliar feeling. I have been an athlete for most of my life. I have been in and out of shape from time to time and I know how it feels to push myself hard and to feel like that. I have never been this out of shape though, and this is the extreme of what happens.

Thats the end of that. This is a wake up call for sure. I'm tired of being tired. Tired of being out of breath. Tired of feeling like a fatso. So starting tomorrow, its no more cheese and eggs every morning and no more NOT exercising.

Its time to go back about 15 years. 6'2' 195. Lean and Strong. 200 lbs by Christmas. Mark it Down!

-T

American Gangster

2007-11-02T17:04:00.000-07:00

So while I am continuing to knock the dust off of my blog, I will stay in the shallow end. So a movie review.

So Stephanie and I saw American Gangster today. This is a movie I have been wanting to see for a while. Mostly because of Denzel Washington. He's about as powerful an actor as there is, and I'm a big fan. Secondly, I like movies with 2 strong characters on opposing sides. Heat comes to mind historically, and more recently 3:10 to Yuma. And speaking of Russell Crowe, here is a guy making a big come back for me. LA Confidential, The Insider, Gladiator. Loved him, but after that, he just seemed to disappear. But, I'm ready to love him again.

Simply put, this is a very good movie. Unlike the other movies I mentioned, these two characters don't really meet until the end. Not just that they don't meet, but don't know about each other. Washington is the criminal, but doesn't know he is being chased until he is caught. Crowe is the cop who is chasing someone, but doesn't know who it is until nearly the end of the chase. On the surface, this might not be good. We don't get the Cat and Mouse aspect of Dinero and Pacino in Heat. We don't get the Battle of Wills of Crowe and Bale in 3:10. So what does that leave us with? It leaves us with 2 separate movies on a collision course with one another.

I'm not sure if thats good or not, and maybe thats what keeps this movie from being Great. Everything around that however is superb. The drugs, the violence, the action, its awesome. Flying to Vietnam. The undercover cops, corruption. Its all so complex and sophisticated. Its an incredibly textured film and it has some tragedy on a few different levels.

I want this to be a really Great movie and it just doesn't quite go the distance for me. It lacks a certain thing. I don't quite know what to say. The difference between a Hall of Famer and one of the best ever. Some movies just go that extra mile, they add that extra unexpected layer or quality. This one is amazing, but never quite gets to that top level.

Its an A though.

Tom's rating 84

Dusting off the Blog.....

2007-11-01T16:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, its time to start writing again. I found out about NaBloPoMo from Steph So I decided to get on it again. I haven't been blogging in what has clearly been a long time.

Most days I spend a lot of time wrestling with thoughts in my head. A million different things swirling around. I have thought getting back to blogging would help me to keep them all straight, but I haven't made the time to get started again. Sometimes, I just need a little push. So the challenge to write a blog once a day for a whole month seems like a good enough challenge.

So here we go.

-T

Superman

2006-06-29T22:46:00.000-07:00

Tonight, Steph and I saw Superman. Honestly, I have been pretty interested in this for some time now. I have not cared much for any of the big Superhero movies that have come along lately.

I saw Spiderman in 2002 and I liked it pretty well. Especially the first half of it. The second half was somewhat lacking. Really though, it wasn't very good over all, and the more I watched it the worse it got. There was Hulk, and that was just flat out dreadful. And I mean bad. Then there was Daredevil. And that was lousy. And I love Ben Affleck. Then there was Spiderman 2, and it was better than the last. But by that time, I really didn't care. Last year was interesting. First there was Batman Begins. Now this one was good. Really, very good. But I had a little bit of ill will toward it, because I still didn't think it was THAT good. I mean, as good as everyone was trying to say. There was also Fantastic Four. Which I actually kind of liked. On a low standard sort of scale. Oh, and then there was X-Men. Pretty cool in 2000. Pretty cool in 2003. And Pretty cool in 2006. But to be honest. The only one that I honestly like is Batman Begins.

At this point, the Superhero genre is in full swing. I honestly feel like Superman and Batman are a little above the trend of superhero movies being popular. So I wasn't thrilled about them coming out during this time. But we got a pretty good one in Batman, so I was cautiously optimistic about Superman Returns.

One thing I loved was that this was going to be a sequel to Superman II. For two reasons. One, it kind of wipes out the crap that is Superman III and IV. Two, it does not wipe out the excellence that is Superman and Superman II. While Batman Begins is kind of like a prequel to the others, it really didn't feel like it fit with the others. But this one does. Superman Returns is a straight up direct sequel to Superman II. Not just stylistically. It looks and feels just like the old series. The credits are the same, the music is the same. The mannerisms of Supes and Clark and Lois and everyone are still the same.

I'll tell you what. I loved this movie. Straight up loved it. Its not without a problem or two, but it was really really good. And now, I'm kind of glad that it came out now. Because it deserves to be the best of the bunch. As Superman is clearly the best of all Superheros. I now see a little battle starting, and it could be good, and it could be bad. But no matter what, it will be interesting.

We have a franchise of Batman movies on the way. All trying to be the darkest and grittiest.

We have a franchise of Superman movies on the way. All trying to be the brightest and classiest.

We have a franchise of Spiderman movies that are already here and still coming. All trying to be the most fun and silliest.

Who's going to come out on top? I don't know. But in the end. I think Batman and Superman will crush Spiderman. Or at least I hope so. Right now, box officially speaking. Spidey is cleaning up. But he clearly sucks.

We shall see. But for now.....Maybe I will Lois.....Maybe I will.

-T

I think it's time for me to fly

2006-06-28T19:24:00.000-07:00

I turned in my two weeks notice tonight. I'll tell you what. I was actually a little nervous, and this surprised me. I have, of course, expected this day would come for quite some time. I have, of course, been ready to be done with this line of work for a while. I have, of course, no real regrets or sadness over leaving Texas. I have, however, a strange and urgent desire to make sure people don't hate me. Sometimes, this desire can be a problem. Most times I'd say. I honestly though that my current supervisor would be fine with me leaving, but on the way over I got really nervous that he might be mad. He wasn't. He reacted how I generally expected him to. Supportive and generally cool, all the way around.

So now I am free. I am ready to give up all this. My 23 dollar an hour job. My food per diam. My free housing. Everything. I'm ready to be an artist. Preferably not the starving kind, but an artist anyway. I'm ready to go! I can't wait. California here we come, right back where we started from. California.....Californyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

And Stephanie realized that my last day will be July 12th 2006. My first day ever working for Dataline in Utah was July 12th 2004. 2 years to the exact day! Thats freaky.

-T

Finally!!!

2006-06-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

Ha ha....after weeks and weeks of problems, I finally saw a good movie that didn't lose the critics. Cars is the movie, and the critics finally get it.

This movie was first, very very funny. Second, it was very clever. Third, it was quite touching. As we know, Disney/Pixar movies have become kind of a Genre on its own. Mixed in with a couple of notable cartoons from other studios (Dreamworks' Shrek and New Line's Lord of the Rings Trilogy), the world of computer animated features has completely replaced the hand drawn animation of the past. Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are, without a doubt, the best of the bunch. Cars is next on the list for me.

One thing the Pixar does well is cleverness, and this movie is full of it. Lots of good humor that adults can appreciate a long with kids. Tractor Tipping is funny. SUV boot camp for SUVs that have never been offroad is hilarious. And Jeremy Piven in the role of Lightning McQueen's agent is the funniest thing ever. And if you don't know why... YOU BETTER RECOGNIZE. All that mixed with typical pixar heartwarming story about people and relationships that helps kids learn good lessons and reminds adults that they should remember whats important.

All that said, the critics liked it too. Good for them. Maybe they're not as dumb as I thought.

-T

Finally!!!

2006-06-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

5 Weeks in a Row!

2006-06-03T15:41:00.000-07:00

Its great. Apparently, I am the dumbest movie person ever. Every Single Saturday, for 5 weeks in a Row, I have gone to see the Hot movie of the week. Whoa. Actually, 4 weeks. The first week I saw Stick It, instead of Mission Impossible III. But for 5 straight Saturdays, I have gone to the movies, and come back pleased. More than pleased. My reactions ranged from Very Pleased to Really Excited. And, for 5 weeks in a row, the same movies that I saw have been slapped across the face by the Film Critics. First it was Stick It, the Posiden, then DaVinci Code, then XMen 3. The latest entry to the list is The Break Up.

The Break Up, coming in at a dismal 33% Fresh Rating , was a good movie. In fact, it was a very good movie. First things first. It was as funny as a comedy should be. As funny as the trailer implied it would be. But more than that. It was pretty darned good. Romantic Comedies tend to be blown off by people anyway, as summer fun for girls. So it should surprise no one that it would have as difficult a time as summer action movies have in getting respect. This movie is better than that. It had real drama without ever having to try too hard. A well-made movie that perfectly blended comedy and drama. Almost every man in the world has a relationship or two, so its not just for women. It plays on the very obvious themes of Men and Women are different. But it does not rely on that. We are presented with the facts that its really not about the differences between men and women and the various aspects that are unique to gender. Its really just about these two people. We are given to outside characters that react to the stars. Joey Lauren Adams plays Jennifer Aniston's sister, and Jon Favreau plays Vince Vaughn's friend. John Favreau points out to Vaughn that he is not just a dumb guy, but that he specifically is kind of selfish. Selfish to all his friends, not just his girlfriend. Adams tells Aniston that she specifically is handling this situation all wrong. That she is acting crazy, not that women just do that. This is what I liked the best. It showed us some things that TEND to be common amongst typical guys and typical girls, but explained that they don't have to be that way. And that most people can get over that and work together.

However, I read reviews of people who clearly didn't watch this movie. They come in with their catchy little catch phrases. The ones they clearly had in mind a week ago and were just hoping to get to use. Like Just another Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus retread. No it wasn't. And if you had actually watched, instead of writing in your little notebooks through the whole movie, you would know that. Its a shame, but I say again: Film Critics have the most power in influencing people to see a movie yet they are clearly the least qualified people on earth to give their opinion about a movie.

Sad But True.

-T

A new Look at an Old Movie

2006-05-29T16:10:00.000-07:00

First let me say how much I love Boogie Nights. This is one of my favorite films ever. I saw Boogie Nights for the first time in May of 1998. I immediately thought it was fantastic. I rented it two or three times that summer and tried to copy it to a tape of my own. Yes, that was wrong. The only reason I didn't buy it on tape of course was that I was going to be getting a DVD player that Christmas. My friends also liked Boogie Nights. We did, or course, get the film on DVD and watched it again and again. It was pretty much a full year of Boogie Nights in our Apartment. Along the way came a liking for the film's director, Paul Thomas Anderson. Since the film was conceived, written and directed by him, we considered ourselves P.T.A. fans. And so we eagerly awaited his next movie.

Magnolia. aka PTA's I can do whatever I want film.

After Boogie Nights, PTA got pretty close to blank check and free reign to do what he wanted with his next movie, and thats what he did.
The Trailer was very promising. And I admit, expectations were high.

Then we saw it. My feelings were all over the place. Watching the movie I was engrossed in all of the Hoffman/Robards scenes, but not so much in the others. When the Frogs came at the end, I really loved it. My first reaction was that I really liked it a lot. Though I talked with Brian that night about it, and the more I examined it, the more I was dissappointed. Then I watched the trailer a few more times. I love this trailer. And I started remembering all the things I loved about the movie. I went back to see it again, and was dissappointed. Brian, on the other hand, loved it the second time.

Thus began a 6 year debate over what is or is not wrong with this movie. For years we have talked about this thing, and for years I have been frustrated about how the movie isn't what seems/claims to be.

My problems with the movie. First, it's too long. Say what you will. Call me a low-brow Joe Six-Pack if you want. It's TOO DAMN LONG. It's not even that there are unneeded scenes, its just that scenes go on too long.

Second, it doesn't really work as well in the coincidence department as it wants too. They set up the film with a series of interesting though not really relevant urban legends. At least two of which are untrue. They use them as a way to set up the idea that strange things happen all the time. The film's characters are all somewhat interconnected and are all experiencing harrowing and bizarre events on one day in a small area of Los Angeles. This never comes through as well as it should or could. I read recently that initially there was a scene where it is explained that all of this is happening within a one square mile part of town, but it was cut for time reasons. THREE HOURS LONG and this is what they cut out?

I have watched this film a few times since the first time. Probably 4 or 5 now. And one thing is true. Generally I have been more and more happy with it each time. Last night, I watched it again. And a something occurred to me. I really like this movie. A lot. And I really always have. And what I realize, after dealing with the DaVinci Code movie reviewer debacle last week, is that I am grading this movie unfairly.

I still generally feel about its problems, the same way I have always felt. Actually its not its length that as much as the pacing. Its plods along in the end, when it really should pick up the pace. The idea of the freakishness of the situations linked by a freak of nature event still does not come across as well as it should. But the movies is really good. It could be great. I mean really great. But its only very good. I have been treating it like it could be good, but instead is bad. I've been giving it the DaVinci Code treatment. Like I think it should be an 85 but its so its a 35. The truth is, it IS an 85, but it COULD BE a 95.

So let it be said. I like Magnolia. If I ever said I didn't, I take it back. I like it. Its a very good movie. Its a great movie. I love it. I really like it. Its not even that it has some problems any more. I can think of some things that would have made it better, but that does not detract from what is there.

The Davinci Code

2006-05-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

So I went to see the Davinci Code today. First off, I'm glad to finally know what the heck all the fuss is about. And I must say, its pretty darn cool, and I'm glad to finally be in on it. And as of right now. It just posted a 29.5 million dollar opening day. Which puts it pretty darned high up in the all time rankings. Sitting in the Star Wars weekend, a week before Memorial day, this movie could potentially a pretty big grosser.

Now, here is the first issue that needs touching on. The reviews for this movie are pretty bad. Actually, the reviews seem to be only slightly bad. Its just that there are a ton of them. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a fresh rating of 16!! Thats extremely low. But it calls out the inherit problem with the rotten tomatoes system. In this case, its seems that most reviewers don't think its THAT bad, but just that 123 out of 150 think its kind of bad. So it makes it look worse than it is. That said....Are they NUTS!!!!

This movie was very good. VERY GOOD. Its now three weekends in a row where I am left to deal with the ridiculous fact that reviewers are morons, and I don't understand what it is they are looking for in a movie. What's different about this movie from Stick It and Posiden is that I feel they were waiting to love this movie. The Reviewers (calling them writers would give them too much credit at this point) are continuing to bring too much baggage into the movies with them. They clearly went into Stick It and Posiden chomping ready and eager to pounce on them. Armed with catch phrases and pithy remarks already written just waiting for the opportunity to use them.

It would seem that Davinci Code was different. It seems to me that they are all desperately dissappointed by a film that they inexplicably assumed would be the next Schindler's List. When it turned out to be just another very good film, they couldn't handle it.

I am pretty much done with movie reviewers at this point. We will go ahead and add most of them to ESPN personalites on the list of people with the most power but the least understanding of what they are talking about.

The second thing of interest about this film is the religious aspect. I know there have been protests. I met a person recently who said he wouldn't see the movie because he "was a Christian." I told him I consider myself a Christian and I can't wait to see it.

Having seen the movie I can now examine my thoughts on the subject. I thought it was great. And from a religious point of view I thought it was interesting. First things first, it's fiction. It does not mean that Ron Howard or Tom Hanks or anyone involved believe what it says. Its fiction. Its just like Star Wars or Superman. Its a story, fabricated to excite people. Furthermore, the movie never really claims to prove that its story is true. They say that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalen and that she gave birth to a daughter after the Crucifixion. In the end, characters in the movie assert that this is true and that one character in the movie is a descendant of Jesus. They are searching for the final resting place of Mary Magdalen which is essentially the big mystery. They mention doing DNA testing to verify. However that would only prove that she was related to Mary. In the end, the very best that they could do was prove that all of this was about Mary Magdalen and her descendants. There is still no definitive proof that her unborn child was that daughter of Jesus.

In addition to all that is this. I am speaking of myself. If I were to find that this is true. If I were to find out that Jesus was a man. Had a wife, and a child. Would this change how I feel about God and my religion. The answer is no. I would not feel different. I have always believed in God. I have always felt the power and comfort of my religion. And I have always been aware that things in the bible are stories that are designed to illustrate the best way to live life. I could believe that the story of Jesus could fit that discription as well. What the Davinci Code is about, in my opinion, is plausible. But it would not change how I live my life and how I practice my faith.

I do, however, understand why some people will be upset. I do not know much about the Catholic Church in general, but I understand why many would feel that they had been living a lie if this were to be true. I just know for myself, it would not affect me that way.

-T

A new attitude

2006-05-08T18:56:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and decided one thing. I'm going to be in control of myself. That may seem a little over the top. After all, its not like I grope people in public or cuss and spit in church or anything. However, I do have some problems with letting my brain run wild on me. I guess that comes with the territory of being a genius. LOL

Sometimes I get a little wired up. I'm in my own head. I work a job that is juuuuuusstt brain occupying enough to keep me from thinking about anything important, but not nearly complex enough to keep my brain stimulated properly. Its been like this for just about 2 years now and I think it has taken a considerable toll on my intellect.

Its hard to explain, but I sometimes feel that this job is making me stupid. And the funniest part is this. It makes me more stupid than when I pushed carts at Wal-Mart. More stupid than when I hustled burgers at McDonalds or Fries and Sodas at the In-N-Out Burger. mmmmmmm In-N-Out Burger. When I worked Fast Food I was normally too busy working to think about anything other than what I was doing. Chop Chop, quick quick you know? When I worked the carts at Wal-Mart, it was easy breazy. Just me and my thoughts and generally pleasant phyisical outside sunshine work. I kept a notebook in my pocket and wrote down ideas all the time.

This job though leaves me stuck in brain limbo though. By the end of the day, I find that my brain has been racing all day trying to shoehorn in thoughts and ideas into every available free moment. And its all easy, low-brow, crap too. Mostly consisting of Barry Bonds and various other sports topics. Sometimes its more heady stuff like how to build high-density neighborhoods that are still family friendly. While there will certainly be a time and place for this line of thought, its not exactly helpful or productive given my current goals and objectives. Anyway, by the end of the day, I'm exhausted. All I want to do is vege out in front of re-runs. I used to think that it was the job that wore me out, but its not.

So what to do about it? Control myself....and remain calm. Another by-product of this behavior is that I tend to panic in easy situations. So I got up, I sat on the couch and I calmly collected my thoughts. I made sandwiches, I got dressed I went to work. I spent the majority of my day just listening to my Ipod and staying conscious. Staying in reality and out of my crazy world of racing thoughts.

Breath in Breath out. Remain Calm.

Reggie Bush wants to wear number 5 in the NFL (not allowed for Running Backs by rule)

...nope. Not interested. Relax, clear your mind.

Barry Bonds is just one Homerun from tying Ruth

well, its not really tying since he.........Shhht. Quiet your mind Tom and you'll hear the midi-chlorians talking to you.

And so it went most of the day. Know what? Surprisingly easy. Even easy to avoid the pitfalls of entering conversations with my co-workers about Paris Hilton and Jager Bombs.

After doing....whatver I'll name this new discipline....all day, I came home and went to the Gym. I burned 500 calories and felt pretty darned good. I read some of a filmmaking book, I read some filmmaking articles and actually felt like blogging. I feel rested, mentally rested. And it feels great!

Day 1: A success. Lets see how this works out the rest of the week. Til Then....

answers will come when you are at peace, placid.

-T

My Date With Drew

2006-05-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight I watched a great movie called My Date With Drew. The story of a guy who won 1100 dollars on a gameshow and set out to get a date with his lifelong crush Drew Barrymore. Furthermore, he wants to make a movie out of it. Here is a guy I can relate to.

While Drew is a personal childhood/early adulthood favorite of mine, I admit to not being quite as enthralled with her as this guy. He has daydreamed about this for his whole life. He was even a member of the Drew Barrymore fan club as a kid.

He gets a video camera from Circuit City. One of his buddies buys it because his credit card is declined. The plan is to return it in 30 days on Circuit City's no questions asked 30 day return policy. So he has 30 days to make the date happen.

What follows is a fantastic film about following your dreams. Its a film about being, not just persistant, but relentless. It is about being childlike, full of hopes and dreams. It is about reaching for the stars and proving that you can reach them. Yes, its also about how cool it would be to get a date with a movie star you have loved for 20 years.

This is going on my buy it list. Put it down as inspirational. Plus, at 40 minutes in, you can see the main character drive by the Burger King on Van Nuys Blvd across from our old apartment. Steph and I used to get breakfast there a lot.

-T

"If you don't take risks, you'll have a wasted soul." - Drew Barrymore

Study?--oh, and Not without Buck

2006-04-20T21:36:00.000-07:00

I have to Study tonight. Seriously. Study for a test tomorrow. Weird huh?
I'm not really going to. Its an open-book open-note 70 question multiple choice test that I have 4 hours to take. Basically. I spent the night streamlining my notebook so I know where to look for everything.

Also, I watched 8 Men Out today. About the 1919 White Sox throwing the World Series. Its a very good movie. Made by John Sayles, who Steph and I saw at SXSW a month ago. Its pretty sympathetic to the players and I don't think that is an unreasonable stance to take.

Brian and I have talked off and on about Shoeless Joe Jackson and the movement to get him in the Hall of Fame. There is a few things to consider.

Was Joe Jackson good enough to be in the Hall of Fame? Almost definitely. However, his career stats don't really measure up. That puts him in the Kirby Puckett/Sandy Koufax category. Puckett was hit by a ball and went blind. He never played again. Koufax had 6 of the most dominant seasons in the history of the game. He was unbeatable for 6 years. He retired at 30 because of an arm injury. Both would most certainly have had numbers that ranked very well amongst HOFers had they been able to complete their careers. Jackson fits in that category as well, though the reason for his career being cut short is considerably less understandable.

The other thing is to determine just how guilty he is. Was he just a "dumb hick" that didn't really know any better? Well, he did know something. We know he got 5000 dollars and we know he knew why he got it. There are some plays he made in the field that were marked "questionable" by writers at the time. So it comes down to this. Do we think he was just too weak minded to resist the pressure put on him by his fellow teammates? I'm not sure.

I do know this. There is no way Jackson should be reinstated before Buck Weaver. Based on the movie, as well as research, Buck was guilty only of knowing about it. One of his buddies came and got him and brought him to a meeting. At the meeting the team pitched it to Weaver and Weaver told them to go to hell. He wasn't interested. He didn't tell anyone, because he thought they'd come around. This is all he is guilty of.

So I can say this. I'm ok with Joe Jackson being reinstated, and therefore being eligible for the Hall of Fame. However, there is no way I'd support Jackson until after Buck Weaver is allowed back.

-T

Another Day in Arkansas

2006-04-19T19:07:00.000-07:00

Boy o boy its boring here. Third night in this hotel room. Third night all by myself. I like being by myself a little bit. But really, I miss Stephanie and the pup. Oh man I love that pup.

Work was ok. Today was a real hands-on day. Which made it 10 times better than yesterday. Though still 100 times worse than a day off and 1000 times worse than hanging out in Santa Monica. Still obsessed, as you can see.

I had Waffle House for dinner tonight. Man was that good. Best Grits I've had in a long time.

Today is just plain blah. I don't have much on my mind I guess. Waiting for the Dodgers to start and avoiding watching the Sopranos.

peace
-T

Blah Blah Blah

2006-04-18T19:30:00.000-07:00

Arkansas is sooooo boring. I don't think that is really a fair statement. I don't really want to be here. I'm stuck in a hotel room. I don't much feel like going out with these guys here. I really didn't feel much like coming and I want to just put my time in and get back to Texas. So, in fairness, Arkansas may be great. I just wouldn't know.

I did make this though

Back to Work

2006-03-21T22:35:00.000-08:00

Today I went back to work. For real this time. I am whooped man. The Film Festival is officially behind us. I won't look back at least for now. Today was about work. Which, quite frankly, sucked. What was I expecting right?

I don't know what to say. There are two ways to look at this day. First thing I thought when I got there was sssssssssssssssssssssssss. Air out of balloon, wind out of sails etc. But then there was something else. A little bit of arrogance maybe. Just a little renewed confidence set in. Its a nice little feeling. Its similar to that feeling you get when you walk around listening to your headphones. Its like your there and you can interact in their world, but you live in your world. Its nice. A little obnoxious maybe, but a nice feeling anyway.

It didn't matter too much anyway, because our Baseball Draft really kicked off in earnest today, and that occupied most of my thoughts.

I took Chase Utley with my first pick this morning and Juan Pierre. These are two picks that I am quite pleased with. I cant say any of my goals for the future because my enemies will read this.

-T

Fantasy Baseball Draft

2006-03-20T22:34:00.000-08:00

The Day After

2006-03-19T22:33:00.000-08:00

Day 9. The 4 movie Big Finale LOL

2006-03-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

Today was pretty long and tiring, but pretty darned good nonetheless. A 4 movie Finale.

First was a movie that was just flat out not good. I don't know what to say about it much more than that. Things That Hang From Trees. The ongoing theme of this festival for Steph and me is how to make good films from small amounts of money. Well heres an example of a lousy film that was made with a lot more money than we would get. I have nothing else to say other than this movie was just lame.

Second was Charlize Theron's movie East of Havana. She produced the movie that is. And the important part is that it was shot on the same camera that we bought. Thats a big deal. And it was important for us to get a look at what our camera can do. And its nice. Real nice. As a film, this movie was quite good. A real look at a tough situation for poverty stricken people in Cuba. Its interesting to see how American Rap Music can appeal to the poor and downtrodden in Cuba in much the same way it spoke to similar people in America in the late 80s and early 90s.

The next film we saw was American Dreamz. This was a lot of fun. A real, big budget movie that will be released in a few weeks. It appeals of course to the Idol fans in both Steph and me of course. It was very funny. I think, of course, some of the audience members got a little carried away with their Anti-Bush excitement. The movie has a President character in it. In my opinion, it is much more a parody of our media than of our President. But these people are all stupid, so they don't see it.

The last movie of the night was LOL. This is one of the most interesing movies for us. It is made for dirt cheap (3000 dollars), and by a filmmaker (Joe Swanberg) that seems to have a similar outlook on movies as us. It was a very cool film. I really liked it a lot. It serves as inspiration. Kind of like, "If this can get in, than ours can get in." But thats a little unfair, as LOL is not a bad film. I just know that it is something that we could make.

The last day was a long one. By the time it was over, I had quite a headache and I was looking forward to sleeping in late the next day. Fortunately, I had 2 days off to recover. What a day! What a week!

-T

Day 8. Bickford Schmeckler and Movie Orgasms

2006-03-17T16:01:00.000-08:00

Day 7. Work Sucks, Movies Rule

2006-03-16T15:59:00.001-08:00

Day 6. V for Obnoxious, Cowardice and Irresponsible

2006-03-15T15:39:00.000-08:00

Day 5. Charlize F-ing Theron told me I can do this stuff

2006-03-14T15:37:00.000-08:00

Day 4. Bettie page. Spoiled fun and accidental genius?

2006-03-13T15:34:00.000-08:00

Day 3. Alan Berliner and Cassidy Schmassidy

2006-03-12T15:32:00.001-08:00

Day 1. F*CK! SXSW is on!!

2006-03-10T15:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, here we go. The day arrived. I got up and went to work. But I spent pretty much the whole day just trying to get out of there. We managed to get out a bit early which worked out really well. So I had enough time to get home, get showered and eat.

So lets get to it. Steph and I got downtown in pretty decent time. We took MOPAC down to Cesar Chavez Blvd. We had to stop at an ATM to make sure we had money to park. We parked in the Convention Center Parking Garage. From there we went to the convention center to get our Badges. We picked up our badges and a bag full of swag. An interesting and personal thing happened here, but I will get into that a little later.

We got a coupon for a free beer. That was a good way to start. After that, it was time to walk to the Paramount movie theater and find some food along the way. We ate at Schlotsky's Deli, and it was pretty good.

Ok. The first movie was called F*ck, and it was pretty darned good. It was a documentary about the word. Where did it come from? What does it mean? Why do people like saying it? This movie was good. It was very funny and pretty clever. Even when it got a little political, it still stayed pretty even and in the middle. Although, people in the audience seem to respond only to the parts that are sort of typical "liberal" positions. It was also very cool to be able to hear from the director after the film was over.

The next film we saw was Robert Altman's new film Prairie Home Companion. This one was a big deal. This is the North American premiere of a major Hollywood film. Not that Altman wants to be known as a Hollywood filmmaker. The best part was that John C. Freaking Reilly spoke on stage before the movie started. Holy Crap that was cool. The movie itself was pretty good. It was a little weird which is typical of RA, especially in his recent movies. Unlike his recent movies, this one was pretty enjoyable. Fun to watch in a lot of places. Especially Reilly and Woody Harrellson.

After the movie, we popped into the after party at a bar on 6th street. We saw JC Reilly again there which was cool.

We headed home around midnight or so. What a night! All in all, a great beginning to what should be an awesome, if not exhausting, week of movie stuff! Woo Hoo! I'm lovin this!

-T

We got the Camera!!

2006-03-09T15:29:00.000-08:00

Its here! Its here! The Camera is here. I'm so excited I can just about burst. Its here just in time for us to go to the Film Festival and not really use it.

The Panasonic DVX100B. Its very complicated, and a little overwhelming. I am excited to get started on it, but its a bit frustrating because its not just something you can dive right into. It comes with two books, a thick manual plus another book about how to get the most out of it. Additionally, it comes with a tutorial cd.

I did open it up and turn it on. I shot a couple of shots of Sonny. Let me just say, you can see the difference. Really. This thing looks good! I can't wait to make a movie.

In another quick note, Steph and I drove downtown tonight to do a little scouting. We got a decent look at where the convention center is and where we may park tomorrow. I am so excited about this. I'm glad Stephanie pushed this issue with me. I'd be damned mad if I blew off an opportunity like this.

-T

Barry Bonds Book

2006-03-08T15:27:00.000-08:00

Barry Bonds is Back in the News today and now it is really juicy. I mean big time. Just when you thought that you were going to have to watch his smug face all year acting like he had gotten away with it all and was headed to the hall of fame. SMACK. Its all downhill now.

Today, Sports Illustrated released some excerpts from a book that comes out later this month. Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada are writers for the San Francisco Chronicle who have been following the Bonds story for almost 10 years. This book is essentially a wrap-up and summary of all of their work. And it is juicy. These guys are very credible and are generally going to be believed.

The best part is this. It will turn the heat back up under Barry just in time for the season to start, and will guarentee that this issue will not go away.

-T

Aunt Melinda

2006-03-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

My Aunt Melinda died last night. I CANT believe I just wrote that. Its a sentence that I have never typed before. Its absurd and surreal. This is impossible. It can't be real.

Yesterday morning I was thinking about jokes. My family likes to tell jokes. I was trying to think of some to tell one of my co-workers, but I couldn't remember any. I got my phone out and thought to call my Aunt Melinda. She would know some great jokes. I have no idea why I did that. My Aunt and I are pretty close. But I don't talk to her on the phone very much or anything. I just thought to call her. I didn't though. I figured she was busy. Turns out, she was in the hospital. Her kidneys and Liver were failing.

My mother called me last night and said, my Aunt Melinda is in the hospital and it was very serious. I worried. I thought, this could be life threatening. I thought in the next few days I might have to start thinking about how she might be possibly dying. I understood how serious it was, but I thought there would be time to process it. I thought there would be time to see if she could fight it. About 2 hours later my mom called and said that she won't make it through the night.

What!? How can this be? Two Hours. She was one of my favorite people who will always be there. Two hours later. She won't make it though the night.

And she didn't. My Aunt Melinda died just before midnight last night. And I can't believe I just said that.

My family is struggling with this. I tend to handle deaths pretty well. This morning when I got up and found out that it was really true, I accepted it pretty well. People often say things about Heaven and spirits and things like that. For me, I always really believed that those things were true. Some people think these things, but when death comes, they have a tough time with them. I really don't. I really feel those emotions. When I heard that she had died. I immediately thought of her in Heaven with my Granny and I gave a little smile.

I am stunned and shocked. Its hard to process it all. I am very sad for my family. I hope they will be ok. But when they say she's in a better place, I believe it. I really do. I have heard the saying that both Birth and Death are doorways to new worlds, and I believe that. I also believe that God has a plan for everyone. Some of this sounds like crap. But I believe its true. I really do.

I love you Aunt Melinda. I thank you for the time I spent with you and I will never forget you.

Your Nephew
-Tom

Ok, lets talk about Crash

2006-03-06T15:04:00.000-08:00

Let me come right out and say this...I did not want Crash to win Best Picture. I did not think it was the best movie of the year. I did not think it should have been nominated for best picture at all. So lets talk about why.

The makers of Crash, and it supporters too, have done something that bothers me a little bit. They have positioned Crash to be a "provacative" movie. They can say "If someone doesn't like it, then we have done a good job." The problem here is this. The reason I didn't like it has nothing to do with the subject matter. The reason I don't like it, is that it is a flawed film from a filmmaking point of view.

The problem for me is that the film doesn't work as a story. The Acting is fantastic. The Cinematography is great. And, for the most part, the scenes are well written. As a collection of scenes, however, it just doesn't add up to any kind of satisfying resolution. Its like there's no end. I can accept the idea that all of these people's lives are incredibly intertwined. Its just that this strange circle of people never really go anywhere or amount to much. It really is just a collection of scenes that deal with a very serious topic. While it may work to make a strong point about racial disharmony, it really falls short as a story that works.

Another issue is this. In any movie, you must be careful to be true to your characters and your story while trying to make your point. In this case, the filmmakers seem to be pushing so hard to get their point across, that sometimes the characters do and say things that seem unnatural. Terrence Howard's reaction to the police after being hijacked is simply too much to be believed. I could believe he would freak and give Ludacris what he gave him. But he puts the gun in his pants and steps out to the police who have guns on him? No way. That was unnatural. And you might say that someone would actually do that, and I believe it could happen. But they did not show me anything about his character that would make that action believable. Another thing, is pretty much all of Ryan Phillippe's role in the films ending. It all just doesn't work for me. Phillippe and Tate in the car posturing to each other. Its the same old tired "Let me show you whats in my pocket/Take your hand out of your pocket or I'll shoot" bit. Its stupid. How about just say something like. "Hey, I have a statue just like yours. Its in my pocket, can I show you?" And then I am to believe that Ryan Phillippe, the good cop, just burns his car and hides the evidence. The guy had a gun on him. Who wouldn't believe that the guy tried to pull the gun on him? No one, thats who. You can't lose touch with reality just to prove a point. No matter how good the point.

These flaws are from a purely filmmaking point of view are not based on the issue of racism. So without even getting into that, the film has some serious shortcomings. I think many of those were overlooked because people were so enamored by its strong stance on Racism. But you still have to do your job. This movie faked its way to the Oscar. Its like Country music. If you pick a subject that is serious and important and that everyone is passionate about, then they won't notice when do shoddy work. Thats just the way it is.
-T

Oscar Prediction Time

2006-03-05T11:28:00.001-08:00

Its SuperBowl Sunday in Hollywood California. Thats Los Angeles for those who don't know. Its the most important day of the year for movie nerds. So its time to make those picks. A little more difficult than making a Super Bowl pick. I will list what Should win in the categories I have seen enough of the choices to feel comfortable.

Here we go:

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Nominees:

----Winner: Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Diana Ossana, James Schamus

Capote (2005) - Caroline Baron, William Vince, Michael Ohoven

Crash (2004) - Paul Haggis, Cathy Schulman

Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - Grant Heslov

Should win: Munich (2005) - Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Barry Mendel

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nominees:

---Winner: Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005)

Should Win: Terrence Howard for Hustle & Flow (2005)

Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Joaquin Phoenix for Walk the Line (2005)

David Strathairn for Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Nominees:

---Winner/Should Win Felicity Huffman for Transamerica (2005)

Judi Dench for Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)

Keira Knightley for Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Charlize Theron for North Country (2005)

Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (2005)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominees:

---Winner/Should Win: Jake Gyllenhaal for Brokeback Mountain (2005)

George Clooney for Syriana (2005)

Matt Dillon for Crash (2004)

Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man (2005)

William Hurt for A History of Violence (2005)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominees:

Amy Adams for Junebug (2005)

Catherine Keener for Capote (2005)

Frances McDormand for North Country (2005)

Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener (2005)

----Winner/Should Win: Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Best Achievement in Directing
Nominees:

Should Win: George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

Paul Haggis for Crash (2004)

----Winner: Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Bennett Miller for Capote (2005)

Steven Spielberg for Munich (2005)

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Nominees:

---Winner: Crash (2004) - Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco

Should Win: Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - George Clooney, Grant Heslov

Match Point (2005) - Woody Allen

The Squid and the Whale (2005) - Noah Baumbach

Syriana (2005) - Stephen Gaghan

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Nominees:

---Winner/Should Win: Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana

Capote (2005) - Dan Futterman

The Constant Gardener (2005) - Jeffrey Caine

A History of Violence (2005) - Josh Olson

Munich (2005) - Tony Kushner, Eric Roth

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Nominees:

Batman Begins (2005) - Wally Pfister

Should Win: Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Rodrigo Prieto

---Winner: Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - Robert Elswit

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - Dion Beebe

The New World (2005) - Emmanuel Lubezki

Best Achievement in Editing
Nominees:

Cinderella Man (2005) - Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill

The Constant Gardener (2005) - Claire Simpson

Crash (2004) - Hughes Winborne

---Winner/Should Win:Munich (2005) - Michael Kahn

Walk the Line (2005) - Michael McCusker

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Nominees:

---Winner/Should Win: Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - James D. Bissell, Jan Pascale

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) - Stuart Craig, Stephanie McMillan

King Kong (2005) - Grant Major, Dan Hennah, Simon Bright

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - John Myhre, Gretchen Rau

Pride & Prejudice (2005) - Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Nominees:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) - Gabriella Pescucci

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - Colleen Atwood

Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005) - Sandy Powell

---Winner: Pride & Prejudice (2005) - Jacqueline Durran

Walk the Line (2005) - Arianne Phillips

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Nominees:

---Winner: Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Gustavo Santaolalla

The Constant Gardener (2005) - Alberto Iglesias

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - John Williams

Munich (2005) - John Williams

Pride & Prejudice (2005) - Dario Marianelli

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Nominees:

---Winner/Should Win: Hustle & Flow (2005) - Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman, Paul Beauregard ("It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp")

Crash (2004) - Michael Becker, Kathleen York ("In the Deep")

Transamerica (2005) - Dolly Parton ("Travelin' Thru")

Best Achievement in Makeup
Nominees:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - Howard Berger, Tami Lane

Cinderella Man (2005) - David LeRoy Anderson, Lance Anderson

---Winner/Should Win/Should be one of about 6 Oscar Nominations!!!Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) - Dave Elsey, Annette Miles

Best Achievement in Sound
Nominees:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - Terry Porter, Dean A. Zupancic, Tony Johnson

King Kong (2005) - Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Rick Kline, John Pritchett

Walk the Line (2005) - Paul Massey, Doug Hemphill, Peter F. Kurland

---Winner/Should WinWar of the Worlds (2005) - Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Ron Judkins

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Nominees:

King Kong (2005) - Mike Hopkins, Ethan Van der Ryn

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - Wylie Stateman

---Winner/Should Win: War of the Worlds (2005) - Richard King

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Nominees:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - Dean Wright, Bill Westenhofer, Jim Berney, Scott Farrar

King Kong (2005) - Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, Richard Taylor

---Winner/Should Win: War of the Worlds (2005) - Pablo Helman, Dennis Muren, Randy Dutra, Daniel Sudick

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Nominees:

Corpse Bride (2005) - Tim Burton, Mike Johnson

Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004) - Hayao Miyazaki

---Winner: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) - Steve Box, Nick Park

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Nominees:

Bestia nel cuore, La (2005) - Cristina Comencini (Italy)

---Winner: Joyeux Noël (2005) - Christian Carion (France)

Paradise Now (2005) - Hany Abu-Assad (Palestine)

Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage (2005) - Marc Rothemund (Germany)

Tsotsi (2005) - Gavin Hood (South Africa)

Best Documentary, Features
Nominees:

Darwin's Nightmare (2004) - Hubert Sauper

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) - Alex Gibney, Jason Kliot

---Winner/Should Win: March of the Pinguins (2005) - Luc Jacquet, Yves Darondeau

Murderball (2005) - Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro

Street Fight (2005) - Marshall Curry

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Nominees:

---Winner: God Sleeps in Rwanda (2005) - Kimberlee Acquaro, Stacy Sherman

A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (2005) - Corinne Marrinan, Eric Simonson

The Life of Kevin Carter (2004) - Dan Krauss

The Mushroom Club (2005) - Steven Okazaki

Best Short Film, Animated
Nominees:

Badgered (2005) - Sharon Colman

The Moon and the Son (2005) - John Canemaker, Peggy Stern

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005) - Anthony Lucas

9 (2005) - Shane Acker

---Winner/Should Win:One Man Band (2005) - Mark Andrews, Andrew Jimenez

Best Short Film, Live Action
Nominees:

Ausreißer (2004) - Ulrike Grote

Should Win: Cashback (2004) - Sean Ellis, Lene Bausager

Síðasti bærinn í dalnum (2004) - Rúnar Rúnarsson, Þórir Snær Sigurjónsson

---Winner: Our Time Is Up (2004) - Rob Pearlstein, Pia Clemente

Six Shooter (2005) - Martin McDonagh

So there it is. Good Luck to all, except for King Kong.

-T

2006-03-05T11:28:00.000-08:00

Its SuperBowl Sunday in Hollywood California. Thats Los Angeles for those who don't know. Its the most important day of the year for movie nerds. So its time to make those picks. A little more difficult than making a Super Bowl pick. I will list what Should win in the categories I have seen enough of the choices to feel comfortable.

Here we go:

Best Motion Picture of the Year
Nominees:

Winner: Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Diana Ossana, James Schamus

Capote (2005) - Caroline Baron, William Vince, Michael Ohoven

Crash (2004) - Paul Haggis, Cathy Schulman

Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - Grant Heslov

Should win: Munich (2005) - Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Barry Mendel

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nominees:

Winner: Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (2005)

Should Win: Terrence Howard for Hustle & Flow (2005)

Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Joaquin Phoenix for Walk the Line (2005)

David Strathairn for Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Nominees:

Winner/Should Win Felicity Huffman for Transamerica (2005)

Judi Dench for Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005)

Keira Knightley for Pride & Prejudice (2005)

Charlize Theron for North Country (2005)

Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (2005)

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominees:

Winner: Jake Gyllenhaal for Brokeback Mountain (2005)

George Clooney for Syriana (2005)

Matt Dillon for Crash (2004)

Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man (2005)

William Hurt for A History of Violence (2005)

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominees:

Amy Adams for Junebug (2005)

Catherine Keener for Capote (2005)

Frances McDormand for North Country (2005)

Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener (2005)

Winner/Should Win: Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Best Achievement in Directing
Nominees:

Should Win: George Clooney for Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005)

Paul Haggis for Crash (2004)

Winner: Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (2005)

Bennett Miller for Capote (2005)

Steven Spielberg for Munich (2005)

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Nominees:

Winner: Crash (2004) - Paul Haggis, Robert Moresco

Should Win: Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - George Clooney, Grant Heslov

Match Point (2005) - Woody Allen

The Squid and the Whale (2005) - Noah Baumbach

Syriana (2005) - Stephen Gaghan

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Nominees:

Winner/Should Win: Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Larry McMurtry, Diana Ossana

Capote (2005) - Dan Futterman

The Constant Gardener (2005) - Jeffrey Caine

A History of Violence (2005) - Josh Olson

Munich (2005) - Tony Kushner, Eric Roth

Best Achievement in Cinematography
Nominees:

Batman Begins (2005) - Wally Pfister

Should Win: Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Rodrigo Prieto

Winner: Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - Robert Elswit

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - Dion Beebe

The New World (2005) - Emmanuel Lubezki

Best Achievement in Editing
Nominees:

Cinderella Man (2005) - Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill

The Constant Gardener (2005) - Claire Simpson

Crash (2004) - Hughes Winborne

Winner/Should Win:Munich (2005) - Michael Kahn

Walk the Line (2005) - Michael McCusker

Best Achievement in Art Direction
Nominees:

Winner/Should Win: Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) - James D. Bissell, Jan Pascale

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) - Stuart Craig, Stephanie McMillan

King Kong (2005) - Grant Major, Dan Hennah, Simon Bright

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - John Myhre, Gretchen Rau

Pride & Prejudice (2005) - Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

Best Achievement in Costume Design
Nominees:

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) - Gabriella Pescucci

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - Colleen Atwood

Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005) - Sandy Powell

Winner: Pride & Prejudice (2005) - Jacqueline Durran

Walk the Line (2005) - Arianne Phillips

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score
Nominees:

Winner: Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Gustavo Santaolalla

The Constant Gardener (2005) - Alberto Iglesias

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - John Williams

Munich (2005) - John Williams

Pride & Prejudice (2005) - Dario Marianelli

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song
Nominees:

Winner/Should Win: Hustle & Flow (2005) - Jordan Houston, Cedric Coleman, Paul Beauregard ("It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp")

Crash (2004) - Michael Becker, Kathleen York ("In the Deep")

Transamerica (2005) - Dolly Parton ("Travelin' Thru")

Best Achievement in Makeup
Nominees:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - Howard Berger, Tami Lane

Cinderella Man (2005) - David LeRoy Anderson, Lance Anderson

Winner/Should Win/Should be one of about 6 Oscar Nominations!!!Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) - Dave Elsey, Annette Miles

Best Achievement in Sound
Nominees:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - Terry Porter, Dean A. Zupancic, Tony Johnson

King Kong (2005) - Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, Hammond Peek

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Rick Kline, John Pritchett

Walk the Line (2005) - Paul Massey, Doug Hemphill, Peter F. Kurland

Winner/Should WinWar of the Worlds (2005) - Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Ron Judkins

Best Achievement in Sound Editing
Nominees:

King Kong (2005) - Mike Hopkins, Ethan Van der Ryn

Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) - Wylie Stateman

Winner/Should Win: War of the Worlds (2005) - Richard King

Best Achievement in Visual Effects
Nominees:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) - Dean Wright, Bill Westenhofer, Jim Berney, Scott Farrar

King Kong (2005) - Joe Letteri, Brian Van't Hul, Christian Rivers, Richard Taylor

Winner/Should Win: War of the Worlds (2005) - Pablo Helman, Dennis Muren, Randy Dutra, Daniel Sudick

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Nominees:

Corpse Bride (2005) - Tim Burton, Mike Johnson

Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004) - Hayao Miyazaki

Winner: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) - Steve Box, Nick Park

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Nominees:

Bestia nel cuore, La (2005) - Cristina Comencini (Italy)

Winner: Joyeux Noël (2005) - Christian Carion (France)

Paradise Now (2005) - Hany Abu-Assad (Palestine)

Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage (2005) - Marc Rothemund (Germany)

Tsotsi (2005) - Gavin Hood (South Africa)

Best Documentary, Features
Nominees:

Darwin's Nightmare (2004) - Hubert Sauper

Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) - Alex Gibney, Jason Kliot

Winner/Should Win: March of the Pinguins (2005) - Luc Jacquet, Yves Darondeau

Murderball (2005) - Henry Alex Rubin, Dana Adam Shapiro

Street Fight (2005) - Marshall Curry

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
Nominees:

Winner: God Sleeps in Rwanda (2005) - Kimberlee Acquaro, Stacy Sherman

A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin (2005) - Corinne Marrinan, Eric Simonson

The Life of Kevin Carter (2004) - Dan Krauss

The Mushroom Club (2005) - Steven Okazaki

Best Short Film, Animated
Nominees:

Badgered (2005) - Sharon Colman

The Moon and the Son (2005) - John Canemaker, Peggy Stern

The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello (2005) - Anthony Lucas

9 (2005) - Shane Acker

Winner/Should Win:One Man Band (2005) - Mark Andrews, Andrew Jimenez

Best Short Film, Live Action
Nominees:

Ausreißer (2004) - Ulrike Grote

Should Win: Cashback (2004) - Sean Ellis, Lene Bausager

Síðasti bærinn í dalnum (2004) - Rúnar Rúnarsson, Þórir Snær Sigurjónsson

Winner: Our Time Is Up (2004) - Rob Pearlstein, Pia Clemente

Six Shooter (2005) - Martin McDonagh

So there it is. Good Luck to all, except for King Kong.

-T

2005 Official Movie Rankings

2006-03-04T21:18:00.000-08:00

At long last, the time has arrived. 2005 was a banner year for Tom. I have seen more movies this year than any other. At the moment I have seen 58 2005 movies. I plan to sneak a couple more in tomorrow morning before the big show. The Superbowl for movie makers. So, at long last, I have made my official list. Here goes.

The first step is to determine the bad movies. In Baseball we have something we call The Mendoza Line that seperates the Bad hitters from the fair or good hitters. It is based how low a player's batting average can be before it negates that player's good defense. We have a line in the movie world too. It is the point at which poor filmmaking quality can no longer be tolerated in spite of fun or entertainment levels. Or vice versa. I should come up with a name for this line. Hmmmmmm

So I went through the whole list and decided which movies I would say are simply Bad movies. I came up with 12. These I ranked in order from worst to least worst.

The next step was to go through the list and determine which movies are top ten worthy. I usually do this and come up with about 15. This year it was 13. 13 movies that were legitimately top 10 movies.

The next step, of course, is to eliminate 3 movies from the top ten. That was also pretty easy. There were three that were just not quite there for me.

Here is the catch. I made the list today right before I went to see one last movie....and guess what. Its a top ten movie no doubt. Which means there is one movie that was a top ten one and got nudged out at the last minute. And its a biggie too.

The next step is the big deal. To rank the top ten. The first thing I did was to determine if they were in the top or bottom of the top ten. I came up with 3 bottoms and 7 tops. I ranked the bottom 3 then moved on to the other 7.

After all of that, I took the other 32 movies and broke them up in to top middle and bottom of the rest. I did not rank them all, just put them in general groups.

So here we go.

The Top Ten
1. Munich
2. Brokeback Mountain
3. Goodnight and Good Luck
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. Hustle and Flow
6. Walk the Line
7. Elizabethtown
8. TransAmerica
9. Capote
10. Cinderella Man

I think that Munich and Brokeback mountain stand out above the rest. Flawless filmmaking and both very compelling stories. Munich edges out Brokeback, but not by much.
Now lets talk Star Wars. Seriously. I know that few will support this, but they don't know as much about film as I do. This movie was flawless. Oh, not just flawless for an average movie either. Never before was there a movie with more work to do. George Lucas put himself into a place where no filmmaker has been. Tying two movies that were made in the last 6 years seemlessly to 3 movies that were made more than 25 years before. It does this, and does it brilliantly. To be honest, for a long time I thought it was truly the best film of the year. I decided, however, that it doesn't have quite enough punch in the What does it mean? department. After all, it is still a fantasy adventure. But if anyone says that its anything less than brilliant, they are film snobs and pretenders.

The rest of the Top 10 was pretty easy. Hustle and Flow and Elizabethtown are two you might not see on other lists, but they were incredible. These, while very different in most ways, are films about life, what it means and what is important.

You might notice that Crash is missing. Well, it made the top 10. Only for a minute. Because I saw Transamerica tonight and...forget it. Sorry Paul Haggis. Crash is a very good film. It packs quite a punch in the What does it mean? department, but is sorely lacking in the Does anything that happens make sense? department.

So it was a great year. I belive I will see North Country and Enron tomorrow, so I will edit them in later. For now... here is the Official Tom list of 2005.

1. Munich
2. Brokeback Mountain
3. Goodnight and Good Luck
4. Revenge of the Sith
5. Hustle and Flow
6. Walk the Line
7. Elizabethtown
8. TransAmerica
9. Capote
10. Cinderella Man

11. Crash
12. War of the Worlds
13. The Island
14. Rent
15. The Jacket

Best of the Rest (no particular order)
Upside of Anger
March of the Penguins
House of Wax
Bad News Bears
Constant Gardner
Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
Fever Pitch
Must Love Dogs
Skeleton Key
Chronicles of Narnia
Wedding Crashers
Batman
Mr. And Mrs. Smith

Middle of the Rest (no particular order)
Ice Princess
Murderball
Junebug
A Lot Like Love
Wallace and Gromit Were Rabbit
Red eye
Sky High
Guess Who
Monster in Law
40 year old virgin
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Hitch

Worst of the Rest (no particular order)

Pretty Persuasion
Bewitched
Herbie
Are We There Yet
Fantastic Four
Madagascar
King Kong

-------------The Bad Line------------

Flightplan
The Longest Yard
Dukes of Hazzard
Sin City
Miss Congeniality 2
Dark Water
White Noise
The Ring Two
Man of the House
Dirty Love
Boogeyman
Cursed

There it is, in all its glory. Man, I love my job.

-Tom

And now for something completely different

2006-03-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

I woke up this morning to watch a little bit of the World Baseball Classic. Live from Japan, it was a game that started at 3 am here. I watched about a half hour before I went to work.

It was alright. It was cool to see Ichiro. I'm pretty excited about this thing. Its tough to deal with at first. There are a lot of games in the far east, which make them pretty tough to watch. There will be games in these time zones on Tuesday. It should be pretty cool to watch.

The Americans are, of course, awesome. The Dominican Republic team is also incredible.

In addition, Spring Training has gotten underway. The Dodgers are playing, with all their new guys. I am loving Nomar as a Dodger. This should be a great season.

Woo Hoo...Baseball is back!

-T

Nuts

2006-03-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

Well, tonight we got thwarted. The car's battery was dead. We were going out to eat and then going to see Matchpoint. Alas no. The universe conspired against us.

Thus ends our streak of 7 straight days of seeing an oscar nominated movie. We did ok though. Still a few more to get to. And almost time to make the list. I can't wait.

On another note, I spent a lot of time working on my MySpace profile I finally got it close to what I like. I'm not done yet though, so we will see what develops.

Thats all for now. Next week I will be back to real writing.
-T

Hustlin and Flowin....whoa!

2006-03-01T21:59:00.000-08:00

Its hard out there for a pimp. Indeed it is. Holy crap was this movie good. Ok Ok, I blew it. Yesterday I flat out said that I thought I'd seen everything with a shot to crack the top 5. I also told my buddy Brian that I thought Terrence Howard wouldn't pose a threat to the other 4 Oscar Nominees.

First thigns First. Terrence Howard gave THE best performance by an actor in a leading role last year. Seriously. Strathairn, Hoffman, Ledger, Phoenix were all awesome. In a year with some REALLY good performances, Terrence Howard absolutely was the best.

As for Hustle and Flow the movie? Amazing! I thought this was fantastic. It has to be said...I loved it. It was much better than Crash. I'm going to watch it again and again. This movie is twice the movie Crash is. And I feel comfortable in saying its going to crack the top 5 or at least 10. Its crazy that this movie is not nominated and Crash is.

Still Going

2006-02-28T21:54:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-27T19:34:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-02-26T19:16:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-25T18:50:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-24T18:31:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-23T21:23:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-02-22T20:01:00.000-08:00

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...

2006-02-21T19:42:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-20T18:54:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-19T22:51:00.001-08:00

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!

2006-02-18T20:24:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-02-17T19:13:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-16T19:39:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-15T19:30:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-14T21:06:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-13T18:40:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-12T20:53:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-02-11T19:34:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-10T20:52:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-09T20:04:00.000-08:00

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?

2006-02-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-07T19:36:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-06T19:10:00.000-08:00

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

2006-02-05T19:58:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-02-04T20:11:00.000-08:00

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

Traffic

2006-01-30T19:42:00.000-08:00

Austin Tx has the worst Traffic I have ever seen. Not to be confused with Utah drivers are the worst I have ever seen. These are two different things.

Really...Austin the city that never met an elevated highway it didn't like. Every single freeway is almost entirely elevated. Which means they have spent a crap ton of money on them. Yet they clearly arent working because...Austin TX has the worst Traffic I have ever seen.

Oh and its not like I haven't seen much. Los Angeles...not exactly a bastion of free flowing clear freeways.

Its really just been the one day. but wow. I mean wow. I called my buddy Josh who lives here. Josh who used to live in the NY/NJ area. He says its the worst he's ever seen too.

I hate traffic. More than just about anything. Live downtown work downtown play downtown. Thats what I say.

-T

Super Week.....blech

2006-01-29T20:26:00.000-08:00

Just a quick note to say that today begins the worst and most obnoxious week of the year for sports. 7 straight days of talking about one game that really isn't that good a match up. I can't take it. Wake me up when its over please.

-T

Fantasy Baseball

2006-01-28T19:19:00.000-08:00

Just a little post to talk about whats on my mind. Its that time again. This will be the 4th year that I have hosted a fantasy baseball league. Its kind of nerdy. Yes, thats true. Beyond that though, its a pretty cool way to follow baseball.

I'm not sure, but it may be a little contradictory to some of my baseball beliefs. I believe that it is more important to be a fan of a particular team than it is to be a fan of a particular sport. I think this is very important. We have too many fans of a league (the NFL and NBA leap to mind) and not enough fans of the Chiefs, Lions, Raptors and Kings. The sport becomes more important than your team. I think that creates a very dull, low-passion, league.

So I worry a little that playing fantasy baseball goes against this principal. I know it does in theory, but it doesn't really affect my love for the Dodgers so in actuality its fine.

What it does do, is keep me more in touch with the players that are out there and what teams they are on. It gives me something to check on every day. That is what is great about Baseball anyway. There is new input every single day. And it is a 6 month race that moves just a little at a time. I love that.

I'm excited to get started once again. We will see if this year I can actually win my own league.

-Tom Andrews
Team Owner
Hollywood Swingers

A moment to relax?

2006-01-27T18:32:00.000-08:00

Its Friday night in Texas. I finally have a minute to sit and chill. I am cautiously happy about our future here.

This morning began with some housekeeping stuff. Checking out our trailer to figure out what all is on board. Followed by doing timesheets and expense report stuff. Ho hum boring.

Later on, we went out to one of our work sites to find out what the deal is. And the answer is.....

Its work. Whatever. Better than some jobs, much worse than others.

The big deal is... Living in Austin and can we do it?

And the answer is...probably.

I did a lot of digging, and made a bunch of phone calls. I took these guys out to look at some corporate apartments and they liked them. I found out we can get into one a week from Tuesday. I really didn't want to wait that long, but I think I can.

The only hitch is getting the folks at the home office to sign off on it. There is no reason why they shouldn't, but there is no reason why a lot of things shouldn't happen. But they do happen.

So we will wait until Monday to see, but if feels good.

So for tonight, I will relax. I will enjoy a minute or two to sit back and watch HBO and hang out with my two favorite people.

Finally here

2006-01-26T20:49:00.000-08:00

We got to Texas today. We ate at a Burger King just inside the border. It had a stuffed bull head on the wall. Whoa!

We saw Dallas from afar, we will go there eventually.

We got to Austin tonight, we got into our crappy hotel. Its a nice hotel, but crappy that it is a Hotel.

Work tomorrow. Find an apartment tomorrow, but at least no more driving.

Still driving

2006-01-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

West Monroe Louisiana. Thats where we landed tonight. We had Hooters, which was a nice treat. We watched Veronica Mars. Also nice.

We are moving along. One more day. Hopefully.

Struggling

2006-01-24T18:54:00.000-08:00

Today was just one of those days. One of those days I'm going to have to write about another time. Just like this other day back in December, there will be an over-the-top rant and rave coming one day. Maybe sooner rather than later. We will see.

But we are on the way to Texas. Austin Texas Baby

Hollywood Swingin

Politics and Me

Resolutions and Real Change

Something about Christmas

Searching for Tom

Not Tonight...

Wii Baby

Entertaining myself at home.

I don't know how to shop for food!

A Sad Day

A well needed long weekend.

Housebreaking....that Darned D

Arrrrrrrrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhh

Black Friday!

Thanksgiving Day

Starting to Peter out

Blog about Dogs

Think Win Win

Best Show on Television?

First Day off in Baltimore

Friday Night in B-More

A Day Long Remembered

Starting a New Job

First Night in Baltimore

East Coast Kind of Guy?

The Writers Strike

More about Sports

A Day Like No Other

Message Board Culture

I just had a Genius Idea!

The Complete Series

Tom Andrews and the Quest for Truth

Packing it up again

Busted my Head

American Gangster

Dusting off the Blog.....

Superman

I think it's time for me to fly

Finally!!!

Finally!!!

5 Weeks in a Row!

A new Look at an Old Movie

The Davinci Code

A new attitude

My Date With Drew

Study?--oh, and Not without Buck

Another Day in Arkansas

Blah Blah Blah

Back to Work

Fantasy Baseball Draft

The Day After

Day 9. The 4 movie Big Finale *LOL*

Day 8. Bickford Schmeckler and Movie Orgasms

Day 7. Work Sucks, Movies Rule

Day 6. V for Obnoxious, Cowardice and Irresponsible

Day 5. Charlize F-ing Theron told me I can do this stuff

Day 4. Bettie page. Spoiled fun and accidental genius?

Day 3. Alan Berliner and Cassidy Schmassidy

Day 1. F*CK! SXSW is on!!

We got the Camera!!

Barry Bonds Book

Aunt Melinda

Ok, lets talk about Crash

Oscar Prediction Time

2005 Official Movie Rankings

And now for something completely different

Nuts

Hustlin and Flowin....whoa!

Still Going

Capote

Watched 12 more movies today.

Dear George Clooney

Brokeback

I hear the train a comin

I have no idea...

Work work work...

King Kong

Dr. Pepper and The Alamo

Whataday!

Houston...Here we are.

Day 9. The 4 movie Big Finale LOL