Oscar Prediction Time

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

-T

Capote

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

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

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

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

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

2005 was fun.
-T

Watched 12 more movies today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Capote tomorrow.

-T

Also, I bought an Ipod Nano today. Woo Hoo

Dear George Clooney

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

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

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

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

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

-Tom Andrews
Independant Filmmaker


P.S. It was fantastic Technically too.

Brokeback

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

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

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

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

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

-T

I hear the train a comin

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

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

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

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

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

-T

I have no idea...

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

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

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

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

-T

Work work work...

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

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

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

I'll take it.
-T

King Kong

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh well, better movies to come this week.

-T

Dr. Pepper and The Alamo

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



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

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

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

-T

Whataday!

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

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

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




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

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

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




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

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

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

-T

Houston...Here we are.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Til Then
-T

Elizabethtown

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

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

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

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

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

-T

On the Road

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

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

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

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

-T

Crash

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-T

Going to Houston

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

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

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

I can't wait.
-T

Decision 2006

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

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

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

I have decided.

Tom Andrews
Independant Filmmaker

Movies...woo!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-T

A little health today....just a little

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

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

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

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

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

-T

More Austin Traffic

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

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

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

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

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

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

5 Blades??? Why?

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

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

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

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

-T

Finally

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So now lets get it started.

-T

A little about parity

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

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

You hear this, but it isn't true.

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

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

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

I did a little research and some comparisons.

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

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

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

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

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

-T

The Super Bowl

Where to begin? Ok, heres where.

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

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

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

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

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

Hookem Baby

-T

A 4 Movie Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

-T

Traffic

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

A little sad. Is that ok?

Here is a quick but serious one. I am a little sad tonight. Its tough, but I can't desice if I am nuts or if I am normal. I have been packing the car and cleaning up my place in this house. I find myself walking around here and pouting a bit.

The fact is. I'm sad about leaving. Its odd, considering I have recently decided that I would be very happy if I didn't live in Charleston anymore. I always thought I'd come back and live here eventually. But I now know that its ok if I don't.

So its funny that I find myself sad for leaving. But I think its because I know that I'm comfortable with not living here that makes me sad. Does that make sense?

It's like I am really leaving now. I'm really moving away. For real.

And my question is, is that ok? I know it is, but I still feel silly. I feel kind of dumb. Stephanie says one of my problems is that I am afraid to let myself feel the way I naturally feel.

So here it is. I'm leaving Charleston tomorrow and it could be for good. And while I am glad that I am good with this possibility, I am sad that I am leaving.

Off to the future now.

Some stuff about me.

I learned a few things about myself while I was home again. I learned a lot about what I wanted to do. I learned a lot about what is important to me.

You hear people say these kinds of things a lot, but you don't think they apply to you. But then you find yourself saying things like I learned a lot about myself.

One thing, that I have mentioned before, is that I don't have to live here anymore. When I was in California, I loved it. I really did. But it always felt like I was "Out here" when I was there. Like Charleston was my homebase and I was always away. But now that I have come back. I realize that this is just another place. Just like LA, just like Utah, and probably just like Austin. And there is nothing that makes me stay in one place or another just that I like being there.

Another thing that I learned was that I'm ready to be on my own. Here is something that I didn't know that I didn't know. What I mean is, I thought I already was on my own and was already happy to be there. Turns out that I was still dependant on my parents. Its not really about money or that kind of technical dependance. Its more of an emotional dependance that I didn't really know existed. Mom and Dad and me and Jesse have been my main family circle for as long as I can remember. Maybe its just from being around Jesse and Kristi and Aris. Maybe its from bringing Stephanie and Sonny home with me. But I get now that I can make my own circle.

Its not like I never wanted to grow up, but I never really cared too much to set up shop as a full fledged adult. I just never saw much reason too. But I do now. I think its cool. I'm excited about the chance to make my own life in my own place. Growing up was one thing. But becoming an adult is another. I think that I was worried that becoming an adult meant giving up. It meant that I was going to have to settle down and get a boring, non-creative job and spend the rest of my life doing nothing important.

I don't know really what it is exactly, but I know I'm damned excited about going out to find it.

No Trains in Austin

I looked it up. There are no trains in Austin. Commuter trains I mean of course. What will I do? I pretty much don't ever want to live anywhere where there isn't a commuter train of some sort.

You can call me a snob if you like, but I just don't want to drive anymore. No no. I love to drive. What I mean is I just don't want to HAVE to drive anymore. Driving should be luxory, not a neccesity doggonit. So I want to spend my life somewhere, where I can walk and take simple train and trolley trips to where I need to go. If I want to drive I will. I ll drive through the city, through the countryside, enjoying myself all the way.

I think Austin should be cool, but they better get their crap together soon or I simply can't like them if they aren't at least thinking about it.

-T

It Texas for Real

Howdy Pawdnuh. Its Lone Star State time. Woo Hoo. It looks like its real and it looks real good. I found out that Steph and I are officially going to Texas. Austin Texas to be precise. 3 months there and three months in Dallas.

I am pretty darned excited about this development. First because I was getting really nervous about whether or not this was going to work out at all. Second, because Austin sounds really cool.

Its a college town with a college that I particularly like. 2005 National Champion Texas Longhorns. Another thing is that Austin is one of the best film cities in the country.

In addition to all of this, its Texas. Davy Crockett, The Astrodome, The Grassy Knoll, Giant, LBJ, JR Ewing, Issac's Storm, Tumbleweeds, The Birthplace of Dr. Pepper, The Red River, Steers and uh..well...and most importantly the home of Sheriff Buford T. Justice.

I can't wait.

-T

An apology

I owe someone a sincere apology. There is someone that is special to me. Someone that came along at an important time in my life. A time when I was graduating from College and really looking to move forward into the future. Someone that was a very significant part of my growth and evolution. Someone I met in Charleston, came with me to Columbia and accompanied me to football games, road trips, movies, and just about anywhere else I went. Basically, someone more special to me than almost anyone else I know. I did not treat him very well I must say. I took him for granted. I assumed he would always be there. I didn't care for him. I didn't pay him the attention they needed from me. And then I left for California without him.



I'm sorry buddy. I really am. You were very good to me and I let you down. I ran you down until you couldn't run anymore, then I towed you home and left you in the driveway for 2 years. I'm a jerk. You deserved better than me.

And in that time, I forgot about you. Not only did I forget, but I developed a harsh anti-car political agenda.

I bought you the very day that Star Wars: Episode I came out. I named you The Phantom Menace. I went out and bought a Sun Visor a Steering wheel cover and a University of South Carolina sticker. But it was all downhill from there.

Tonight I watched in sorrow as you were towed away from my house. I am sending you off to find out the extent of the damage I have done to you, and what can be done to bring you back to life.

But I make you a promise. If its not too late, and you're not too far gone. I promise to bring you with me wherever I go. I will never let you down again. I love you man. Come back to me.

-T

Tony Dungy and the Damned Colts

The Colts Lost yesterday. While they managed to make it a close game, they really looked lousy.

Several weeks ago I wrote about how mad I was at Tony Dungy and the Colts. How I thought that played a half-assed game against the Chargers. They couldn't decide if they wanted to go for it or not. They couldn't pick a side. Either go for the record or rest your players. They chose to just sort of play half way and see how it goes. They played like crap, they looked like crap and they lost at home in ugly fashion.

People said that they would ok and that they were still the favorite to win the Super Bowl. I said no. I said that they would not win another game this year.

Guess what. I was wrong. They lost the next week, and in the last week of the season they played lackluster football and beat a lousy Cardinals team by 4 points. Then the played uninspired football against the Steelers yesterday and they got beat.

Today, Tony Dungy has come out and said this season was a failure. Hey T, who do you blame for that? I know his son killed himself, and that is certainly sad. It has no bearing on this however. Look back and see how you handled this team. Tell me what message you sent to your troops back in December. What message did you send when you said things like this? We want to get the record, but our goal is to stay healthy for the playoffs. or We play every game to win but we know the playoffs are what is important.

I think they should have gone all out for the record, but I won't get into that. The point is that he should have committed one way or the other. Not play the "well, we'll see how it goes" game. Either come out and say we are going for it. Or come out and say, Payton and the starters are going to play 3 or 4 series and thats it. No guts.

And now the "season is a failure." Thats not right. I am very unimpressed.

-T

I'm keeping my car

I decided. I'm keeping it. I love it. Its my car and I'm keeping it. Dog gonnit. I had kind of ignored it since I have been here. But I climbed into it today and realized just how much I really like it. I have 1100 bucks to take care of it. There seems to be no reason why I can't make the thing run well enough to take back to LA with me.

Cleaning!!!!!

Another day spent cleaning, another day I feel like I got nothing done. What does it take. I am getting a storage room and shoving all my crap in it this week. Out Out I say. I want no more of this STUFF everywhere. I shall keep plugging away at it this weekend I guess.

errrrr

And to top it off the Redskins lost today.

-T

Ready to Go

I was told today that I would be going to Austin Texas for 3 months and then to Dallas for 3 months. I hope upon hope that this is true. If it is, it will work out very well for Steph and me. And Sonny too.

I am so ready to get out of here. Its been too long. We were only supposed to be here for 5-6 weeks. I accepted staying through New Year's, but I really wanted out at that point.

I am just about ready to get all my stuff out of here. I want everything out. Its time to be, once and for all, untied to my family. I am glad to have this chance to do it. By the end of this weekend. I will have everything ready to go except my car. The car will be the only thing to work on this coming week.

Its almost time to go. Woo Hoo

-T

Building a wall

No, today I was actually building a wall. Physically. At work today, some of the techs and I spent the day building a wall and making one pointlessly large room into two more functional small rooms. Really the other guys did most of the work and I watched and did small tasks. Really, I don't know much about building walls.

I learned one thing though.

Its very easy.

So this leads me back to something that Stephanie and I have discussed a lot. Why does building stuff cost so much. It costs 300 million dollars for just one mile of underground subway. It cost 18 million dollars to build that school that I was working at. Why? Why does it cost so much to build stuff?

The wall we put up today didn't cost that much. 8 sheets of drywall for about 5 bucks each. 40 bucks. about 20 long 2x4s. Not maybe 60 bucks. Some nails, a cool nail gun. Maybe 150 bucks in materials. Then, really, it only required 3 guys for 8 hours. These guys make nearly 20 bucks an hour. But only because they are trained to do much harder stuff. But we will give them that. 480 bucks for Labor.

So this wall cost maybe 600 bucks give or take. Thats really not very much. Now I grant you, its just one small wall. And it wasn't exactly built with perfect precision that might be expected from a high end project. But still.

Cinderblocks cost like 50 cents at Lowes. Almost all of that school was built with Cinderblocks. Now I know you have to pay a guy who is good at laying them down. Electricians, plumbers, tile guys, painters. I do understand that it adds up. But 18 million dollars is rediculous. I simply don't see it.

Can someone help?

-T

Could be Texas

Today I found out that Texas will likely be the spot where Stephanie and I will land. I won't say too much more. We will see.

But I will be here for another week and a half. Thats not so bad. It will give me enough time to finish up here. Take care of all my issues. Clean out my stuff and leave here with no lingering obligations.

That was the goal when I came here, so hopefully I'll be able to do it.

So, we will see what happens.

-T

Customer Service

Over the last week, I have gotten about 4 calls from someone of Unknown ID. Typically I do not answer these calls. However, when I get three or four in a short period, I tend to think it might be important. I answered it tonight, and it was important.

It was a collection agency, calling to tell me that my Utah Power bill was delinquent. Ahhh Utah. It couldn't be Training Table calling to tell me that they overcharged me one day and would I like them to send me a check or a free Double Extreme burger.

This is a mistake I thought and set out to take care of business. First off, I know I paid on the phone in Novemeber when I scheduled the power to be turned off. I checked my bank statement online, only to find out that no payment had been posted. Ok, I guess I do owe them money. But I'm upset that no one ever bothered to tell me. So I called.

Here is what I got:

The Lady I talked to first told me that if I didn't get a statement in the mail, then something must be wrong with the post office. Then she told me that if my payment didn't get posted its because there was something wrong with my debit card. She followed all that by saying that since their company uses and outside company to handle phone payments, then it is "Not our problem."

I was pretty upset by this. No, I was really upset. I didn't appreciate being treated like a liar or an idiot. I asked to speak to her supervisor. He was a delightful fellow who also seemed to think that I was either lying, stupid or just trying to get out of paying my bill.

These people made several mistakes. Starting in November when the guy told me that if I made the payment then, then I would have no further business with them. Followed by not sending me any kind of notice either by email or actual mail and then claiming that they had done both. Then having a third party payment company that did not actually make my payment. The second time that happened by the way.

At this point, what I wanted was for him to say, that he was sorry for what happened and for the way I was treted. I told him this, and his response was "I'm sorry you didn't get the mail" Wow thanks. I feel better now.

I was mad. Very mad. And here is the important part of this story. I didn't want to call back. I just wanted to move on and not think about it anymore. But Stephanie pushed me to call back. I did, on faith. Stephanie is always right about this stuff. And she was right tonight. If I hadn't called back, I would have been grumbling all night long.

but....

I called back and talked to another supervisor. Steph said to make sure that I start by saying I WILL pay the bill. Which I did. I explained what happened in November and what happened tonight. I told him that I did not appreciate how I was treated and that I wanted to know that they appreciated this fact. He said that they did. He apologized to me. He explained that it is unlikely that they would have sent out any mail statements and apologized for that mix up. He stayed on the line through my payment process, made sure it went through and then promised to call the collection agency as soon as I got off the phone. Generally speaking, he handled the situation with a lot of class.

Stephanie was right. She said, just get it done now. No sense in feeling bad the rest of the night. Especially if you have to call again the next night to take care of it. Just take care of it right now. I am glad I did.

In the end, I can't believe those two people talked to me that way. I'm not an idiot, do your damned job. Its not my fault you hate it. Furthermore, believe what I say and take a look at your system and ask yourself "Is this working?" Its not that hard to just do what you are supposed to do. And what you are supposed to do is to be friendly and help people figure out what they need to do.

-T

Stephanie

Stephanie and I argued a lot this weekend. And I hate arguing. One of the great things about me and Steph is that we see the world in very similar ways. We have been living at my parent's house, waiting to get a job assignment. Trying to figure out our future. Its a lot of stress on us. When we argue, its usually because we are just not communicating about something that we probably agree on.

I have been just out of my head lately. I am stressed about family, work and our future. And I get mad and snap at her. I don't know why, but I have just been freaked out lately.

Stephanie gets it. She just gets it. Now she fights me back, and she doesn't take any crap off me. But when we take a minute to be cool, she reminds me of all the reasons why I should calm down.

Tonight she helped me a lot. She helped me to realize things that I really already know. She reminded me of why I got into this business. Because I wanted to live a life that was fun and exciting. She reminded me that while its important to work to get money for our movie, it is also important to make sure we are living the way we want to. I love her. She gets it. I'm so stressed out, and I'm sure glad shes here to keep me moving in the right direction.

Thanks Steph.

-T

Downtown Charleston

Stephanie and I went downtown again today. Hopefully the last time we go before we leave. It was nice. Sans Sonny. We walked down King Street. This is one of my favorite places in Charleston. More so now than ever before. Mostly because its like a real city street. Stores and restaurants and apartments and art galleries. Its wonderful. We had a great time.

If I were to ever live here again, I would not live anywhere other than Downtown Charleston. I used to get all into the Charleston and Vicinity. What I considered to be practical Charleston. It stretched from the beaches all the way to Summerville.

I-526 is a beltway freeway that makes a loop through the city. I have now decided that anything outside of that can fall into the ocean for all I care. I am sick of the suburbs.

Im outta here.

Lets talk about Film Noir

No one understands Film Noir, no one but Steph and I apparently.

Film Noir is not about shadows. It is not about crime. It is not about violence. It is not about bad women. Its not about camera angles. It is not about lighting. It is not about water. (as one person I know thinks it is)

Film Noir is about desperation.

These films were made starting around 1940 and ending in the late 50s. 2 very significant things happened around 1940. World War II began and the Great Depression ended. Most of the world was up and busy. The economy recovered, people had jobs again and things to do. The world was at war. War is an exciting time. I don't mean that its fun, just that it is exciting. People are really worked up. Most of popular entertainment reflected these things.

However, there was a smaller group that felt isolated from these events. Artists who did not really join the rest of the world in coming out of the depression. Some who did not share in exuberance that was being displayed in many parts of the world. They shared a view of the world that was negative and hopeless.

The mood at the core of the film noir movement was born out of this feeling. These movies are about desperate people. They are dark and brooding people. They are bored and without hope. They are miserable in their lives. They no longer see any difference between moral rights and wrongs because they don't think that anything matters anyway. This is why they commit crimes. Because what would be the difference? And at least the crime might shake up their lives in some way that being right would not. Most of their actions are dictated by boredom in some way.

The Maltese Falcon: Bogart is a private investigator. His partner gets killed, and he is almost totally without concern. Why? Not because he hated the guy, but because he simply doesn't care about anything. He gets involved in the case, because that is what he does. He believes he is in love. Because at this point, even a mild attraction would feel like love. In the end he is stuck with a bunch of squabbling thieves. He turns them over to the police, not because he is particularly honest, but because it simply isn't worth trying to get involved in.

Double Indemnity: Fred MacMurray is an insurance claims investigator. He has been doing it for a long time. He is great at it. He is bored and tired and is searching for anything that would make his life more interesting. Not searching particularly hard of course, because that would take desire and effort. Then something falls into his lap. A woman. Together, they cook up a scheme to defraud the insurance company. It eventually goes wrong, she dies, and he confesses before he dies too. He throws away his life because his life is miserable.

None of this has anything to do with lighting or camera angles or crime specifically. But these things are great devices to convey this mood. And it is not enough to just say it is a desperate and hopeless attitude. It is an attitude specific to the during and post war era in the U.S and Europe. The people who made these movies did not set out to make these kinds of movies. They just made movies. They just told stories that represented how they felt. It was only later that these movies were studied and grouped together.

I see all the time how people talk about new Noir Movies just because they are about crime or are dark or mysterious.

The Usual Suspects is not a Noir. Pulp Fiction is not a Noir. Sundance darling Brick, is not a Noir.

There are no new Noirs. But if there were, Fight Club would be closer to one. Because it deals much more with desparity of mankind. Not because its about crime and has some dark shadows in it.

I just wish people would know what they were talking about before they talked.

-T

Another week down

Ok, its been my uh..um..some number week at work and living here in Charleston for 2 full months now. I am so ready to get the heck out of here. I want out. I think today, I may have found out where I am going and when. I won't jinx it, by saying anything, but things may be looking up.

-T

Oh Wow!!!

Ok, just to update. Holy crap-a-moly! What a game. I hate to get all Kurt Warner on the situation but.....that was one of the greatest football games I have ever watched.

First off, its only great because of the importance of the game. Thats just the way it is. Plenty of great games in September just don't mean as much.

But wow. I have been waiting for USC to lose for what seems like forever. I had been favoring Texas over the last few years just because I had contemplated going there for a PhD program. But now, I must say, I think I am going to be a Longhorn fan for the rest of my life.

Hook'em baby!

-T

The Granddaddy of them all.

Tonight is the night. The Rose Bowl. The Granddaddy of all bowl games as some would say. The BCS got one right finally, some others might say. Some others might say that this is the most anticipated game in Football History. I don't know, but it should be pretty darned interesting though. I have been looking forward to this for a while.

As one of the few people that don't want there to be a playoff, I enjoyed this season thoroughly. I took great pleasure in watching the undefeated teams lose games week after week. You get to about 4 weeks in and there are about 8 unbeaton teams. Week after week, they get knocked off. The problem is that ususally there is only 1 unbeaton team at year's end. And then all the sorry 1 loss teams are fighting over that second spot. Last year's problem was that there were 3 undefeated teams.

Most people think this is a big problem and year after year they complain about how bad it is. I don't think its bad year after year. I ll fight over that issue like anyone. But in this case. We got exacly what we wanted. A clear cut 2 best teams playing each other game. So lets put the argument on hold until next year.

This is the Rose Bowl after all.

-T

Hook'em Horns!!

The Tom and Steph Constitution

A little something Steph and I did on New Year's Eve was to draft a constitution for our Movement. It may sound silly, but thats ok. Its what we do. Because Stephanie and I are tired of people not striving to be the best they can be. We are tired of people settling for less than they should. We believe life is for living, and not just surviving. Ourselves included. For that purpose, we wrote this.


We the people of the United Minds, in order to form a more perfect society, establish truth, in sure growth and creativity, and secure the blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United Minds of America


Article I: Integrity
Do that which you claim you will do. Be that which you claim to be. Live a life that is both genuine and true. Treat every action you take, every task you perform and every promise you make as the though the sanctity of your name were staked upon its success. Every word you speak is a promise you make.


Article II: Presence
Be present in the world around you. Let not one moment pass by without your knowledge. Be in charge, take control, direct yourself purposefully at all times. Waste not by lethargy, apothy or timidity one moment better spent in the pursuit of truth.

Article III: Purpose
Seek meaning and substance in your life. Spend the short time on Earth that is yours in the pursuit of accomplishments that better yourself and the world around you. Search for that which exists within you which is creative and true and which serves to enlighten those who exist in darkness.


Whether life exists by accident or by intelligent design, its existance shall be revered as a gift bestowed upon us all. We shall live our lives in appreciation of this gift and in understanding of its importance. We shall utilize for the good of all, the gift of the mind. Think.

New Year's Eve

A little more about my New Year's Eve celebration this year. Or last year I guess. Steph and I tossed around some things we might do, but in the end we decided to stay in. So went out and got a little Champagne and I dug out my collector 2000 Millenium glasses which were never used.



We had a good night. We watched When Harry Met Sally and then had ice cream as we waited to ring in the New Year. As the time approached, I popped the cork on the Champagne

This is something I won't soon forget. I have never done this before, and wasn't sure what to expect. I know this though, it made quite a loud POP sound and the cork fired in the air, hit the ceiling and landed behind the television. Its scared the crap out of me and I am glad no one got hurt. The Champagne was ok. I'm not a huge fan of it, but it was fun.

Steph and I set out to write a constitution for ourselves. Kind of like New Year's Resolutions, but more like mission statement for our Future endeavors. I'll post it tomorrow.

As the time came and the ball dropped (its nice to be in the same time zone as the ball for once) we shared a kiss and promised to make 2006 the best year ever.

It was probably the best New Year's Eve I have ever had. It was a great night, and I feel energized to take on the New Year.

Welcome 2006

Happy New Year everyone. Its 2006. Can you believe that? 2006? I love New Year's Eve and Day. Its a real time of reflection and contemplation. Something that is really needed by a lot of folks. Me especially. So there are two things to do today. Determine where I am now and where I want to be at Year's end. Then to make some specific resolutions.

Resolutions are kind of an overdone thing. They are talked up and made into a big deal, but are usually joked about. I think they are important though. I think this is a time that you can really use to help you better yourself. Most people struggle to do things to better themselves. It can be hard to just set a goal and stick to it. Sometimes, you need a little something to make your resolve stronger. It would be nice to be able to just make a change on its own merits, but sometimes we need more than that to make us stick to it. You know what? Thats ok. Don't worry too much about doing something the right way, just get it done. If it takes doing it this way, then do it this way. This is what I want to work on this year.

Where I am and where I am going.
Something Steph and I talked about was learning to work with yourself. I need to relax a little about fixing problems and make sure I get done what needs to be done. Sometimes its not important to do it the "right" way, its just important to get it done. If last year was about fixing and breaking down, this year is about building up.

I will continue to build a relationship with Stephanie. Last year I broke away all of the nonsense and issues and questions that we had before. This year, I am excited to build something positive and great. We will continue our quest to unlock the secrets of the universe.

The Movie is coming. Stephanie and I will make our movie. It is our dream. No, it is the beginning of our dream. Making dreams come to life is the theme of 2006. And oh by the way, I'm going to see a baseball game at every single baseball stadium this year. Not bad huh?

and now for some resolutions.

I will get in shape.
Not just that. I will run a 10k in under an hour. I will do more than 10 pull-ups at a time. I will have one of those tight hard stomachs.

I will write.
I will write a feature length screenplay on my own. I will organize all projects that I have in my head. I will work on them all and plan which ones can be made and how.

I will learn to speak Spanish
This one I am ripping off from Stephanie. I have always wanted to do it. This year will be the best time, Steph and I can work together on this one and it will make it easier for us both.

I will learn to to be more socially acceptable. I will cuss less. I will dress better. I will eat better. I will learn how to manage the post office and the grocery store and social situations. I WILL ATTEND SOCIAL SITUATIONS!!

These things, and others, are what will make 2006 the best year yet. And next year,when Steph and I are in NY or some other fun New Year's Eve local, I will recap what I have accomplished. It will be an incredible year.

So lets get it on.

-T