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OK, so I lied. There was a bit of order imposed on this list. Turns out, most of the movies I DIDN'T care for ended up on the previous list . This one's got the better choices. P.S. I Love You Not that we're necessarily starting auspiciously. Let's face it, weepy romantic comedy ranks slightly lower then standard-issue romantic comedy on my "must see" list. But Dani really wanted to see this one, and that pretty much trumps. I didn't hate this one… Hilary Swank is almost always interesting to watch, and there were a lot of other good performances. And yes, despite the weepy nature of the movie, there were some genuinely funny moments. Overall, not terrible for a movie I wouldn't be caught dead going to on my own. I Am Legend Now this is more like it. I had my doubts going in to this one. I mean, I enjoyed The Omega Man years ago, but let's face it… it doesn't age well. And it's been far too many years since I last saw The Last Man on Earth...

Seriously… this is the name of the next Bond film? James Bond returns in 'Quantum of Solace' According to the article, it's based on the title of an Ian Fleming short story. I wonder what Ian was smoking at the time. Oh, wait… The crux is the emotional phenomenon… the Quantum of Solace, the smallest unit of human compassion that two people can have. As long as that compassion exists, people can survive, but when it is gone, when your partner no longer cares about your essential humanity, the relationship is over. Ah, it's all clear now.  

The holidays being what they are… weeks of madness to get the shopping done, the house decorated, then cleaned for the party, wrapping all those presents &mdash as well as the day-to-day work/chores/rest… and the studio's insistence on releasing all their really big holiday movies in one big chunk, the week between Christmas and New Years became time for our own little movie fest. In no particular order, here's my thoughts on some of the pics we saw. Fred Claus I'm cheating a bit here, since we actually caught this one before Christmas, but it's of the season anyway. Not terrible, but I'm getting really tired of Vince Vaughn's man-child shtick. We get it, it's cute/funny how you refuse to grow up until confronted with the repercussions of that childish behavior, then we all learn a lesson as you step up and become the adult we all knew you could be. Been there, done that, more than once, and he's on the verge of becoming as annoying/irrelevant as h...

I've REALLY been trying to avoid getting political lately. ALl it seems to do these days is make me angry, frustrated, annoyed and a generally hateful individual. But let's face it, the '08 campaigns are in full swing, and the California primary (along with, seemingly, most of the rest of the country) is only weeks away. It's not like I've had too much to stress about right now. The Democrats would have to run the second coming of Josef Stalin for me to consider voting Republican, so I don't even care who they're voting for right now. So it's really just a question of whether I want to vote for Hilary or Obama, right? And then along comes Iowa. I've really done a fine job of ignoring those damn Republicans — yadda, yadda, John McCain… mumble, mumble; Mit Romney… Don't care, don't trust either of you, so I don't need to know what you're going to say. But then along comes the uproar about Mit being a Mormon (and his disingenuous "d...

We saw Beowulf this past weekend in the Digital 3D version. (There are three versions right now — Digital 3D, IMAX 3D and plain old movie theatre digital. Seems like an embarrassment of riches, and I wonder if they're tracking all three combined to get the movies box office each weekend.) We saw trailers for a couple of new 3D films for next year (including the new live action Journey to the Center of the Earth ). James Cameron's directing Avatar and Dreamworks has Monsters vs. Aliens , both for 2009. 3D is obviously the "next big thing". As I was watching Beowulf, I had some thoughts on this. Overall, we both enjoyed the movie. It's a big, fun, loud action/adventure with a strong fantasy element… right up our alley. It doesn't hurt that it's based on a piece of classical literature so there's a strong story to work from. (Let's face it, if you're talking archetypes, Beowulf's gotta top the list. In fact, during the climactic battle, Dani...

So last month I made the observation that I hadn't posted a word about the acting I've been doing recently. Since then, it's been over a month since I've posted anything. In that time, I've been on vacation a couple of times, seen a few movies and read a couple of books, played a good game on the PC… oh, and spent a week in Paso Robles, where we'd gone on vacation, while Dani was hospitalized with a blood clot. And it occured to me, as I was studiously NOT blogging, that it's really all about what's too personal. I blog about a lot of things I find meaningful. Or important. Or amusing. I'm often snide, sarcastic and/or cynical. And I don't feel any real compulsion to share those things that are more personal. I almost never talk about work (not just because I don't want anyone from work stumbling across any rants I might feel compelled to post) and certainly don't feel like sharing my feelings on that week in Paso Robles. So here it is, t...

The obvious joke here, of course, is who knew he had a heart. Doctors Find Cheney Has Irregular Heartbeat Sadly, I couldn't resist the obvious.

There's an excerpt from David Chase's new book (or an excerpt from an interview about the book… I'm not entirely sure which) in last week's Entertainment Weekly. In it, he talks about how surprised he was at the reaction to The Soprano's finale ("I knew they'd be angry, but I didn't realize they'd be THAT angry) and his contempt for those who, after following and cheering Tony Soprano for seven seasons, all suddenly wanted to see him punished for his "sins". And all I've got to say to that is bullshit. The problem with the Sopranos finale isn't simply that it's one of those seemingly ubiquitous non-endings that directors are so fond of lately. I think he's right that there's a certain number of fans that would be dissatisfied with whatever ending he came up with for the series, since everyone has their own idea of how these stories should end. But what he's done here is to build up the tension in the closing scene,...

I've been acting again since the Spring. Just wrapped a weekend of Twelfth Night in Las Vegas, followed by a Halloween themed night of Edgar Allen Poe and Edward Gorey scenes at the Huntington Library. I don't know what's coming next… gonna have to start looking at audition notices, I guess, and maybe get a subscription to Backstage West again. But I've written next to nothing ABOUT the experience. I've started several posts… but often that's little more than a title and a brief sentence to remind myself what I intended to talk about. But I haven't finished one of them. (Admittedly, acting and writing use different sorts of creative "muscles" — but it's all creative, right?) I've got a degree in Theatre. I love acting, and I've had more fun doing these shows this year than I've had in ages. But the blog has lain here fallow, waiting for me to say anything about anything , for nearly a month. But not a word. About movies, or books, o...

Navy to mask Coronado's swastika-shaped barracks I mean, seriously, in 21st Century USA, don't we have better things to worry about than whether a set of Navy barracks is sending some kind of subliminal Nazi message to aliens from space? Obviously the jackhole that started this uproar doesn't, but after just a few moments on his site, I understand where this nonsense comes from. But the rest of us can't seriously care about this, right? Silly me… of course we do: …in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, the Navy has budgeted up to $600,000 for changes in walkways, "camouflage" landscaping and rooftop photovoltaic cells. Yes, that's right, the US Navy will be spending $600,000 this year to disguise something that can only be seen from space. I'm either getting too old for the bullshit, or our collective cultural IQ is plummeting into the basement faster than anyone could anticipate.  

We got into a discussion the other day, during rehearsal, about the contemporary problem with this word. It came up because there's a line in Twelfth Night where one character refers to another as niggardly. The actor who has that line has changed it to "tight-fisted", an adequate replacement, and one I can't, in all honesty, argue with, mainly because it's not worth the possibility that anyone in the audience would be sidetracked by the word. It also bears acknowledging that this actor is African-American, which just adds another layer of potential confusion to the issue. But where I got hung up on the discussion was the actor defending this choice, not simply for the above reasons, but because he felt that there's some justification for the confusion… that because the words sound alike, 'niggardly' has become a potentially offensive word. He then went on to argue that words change meanings all the time and that this is just one of those cases. (This ...

I've been working with a Shakespeare group in Burbank ( Shakespeare at Play ) for the past several months and have done a few workshops and shows with them. (I realized recently that I've been seriously submerged in Shakespeare when I used the phrase "fulsomely false" in my recent post on the movie Invasion, and didn't even notice I'd used it till days later.) The most recent show we wrapped was As You Like It, a part of their Summerfest 2007. When I heard that HBO was doing a version of As You Like It , I couldn't wait to see it. HBO, known for its quality programming and movies, Kenneth Brannagh who's shown that he knows Shakespeare (between his incredible Henry V and entertaining—despite Keannu's wooden Don John— Much Ado About Nothing ). Fine actors in the main comedic roles (Alfred Molina as Touchstone and Kevin Kline as Jaques) and a pack of British actors to handle the majority of the rest of the play… what's not to like, right? (Ah, ...

Southwest Airlines Tells Woman Her Attire Is Too Revealing Maybe we DID need that Invasion .  

As any number of reviewers are wont to point out, the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers was an allegory for the creeping conservatism of the Eisenhower years. The story of seemingly normal people being replaced by emotionless alien pod-people IS a great analogy for the way conservative thought processes seem to suck the life out of otherwise healthy individuals.* So it's probably no surprise that every few decades, as our politics swerve to the conservative side, someone feels the need to trot this story out again. (It's funny… I distinctly remember the 80's remake of Invasion —the one with Donald Sutherland, for those not inclined to click the link—as being Reagan era. But according to IMDB, it came out in '78, during the Carter administration. Maybe the backsliding into that Reagan mindset had already begun and that's why it seems so much a part of that time period.) Then again, I just discovered the Abel Ferrara version from '93, so maybe my whole ...

All debate about the merits or evils of Pinkberry aside, have you SEEN the latest in motorcycle headgear? I can't find an example of it online, so it gives me hope that this is an isolated incident, but I've seen this several times in the past few weeks and I can't believe I'm seeing the same guy with the same helmet each time. But it's gotta be seen to be believed… Proudly displayed along the crown of the helmet are a row of bristles, somewhat like a those on a Roman helm (similar to this ). The latest example I saw was a blue and white helmet with a row of bright blue bristles jutting up along the top of the helmet. The first time I saw this, as the guy zipped past me on the 105, I figured I had to be seeing things. But as I mentioned, I've seen it several times since, and all I can say is you've GOT to be kidding me. Without a doubt, the most inane transportation related decoration I've seen since exhaust spinners .  

I've never heard of Pinkberry before today. (I'm more geek-trendy these days than pop culture trendy.) But apparently, this is the latest legal drug of choice. Let's face it, they only sell 2 flavors ('regular' and 'green tea') and are what sounds like stupid expensive ($9 for a large with toppings… that's nearly twice what Coldstone Creamery charges for ICE CREAM, and this stuff isn't even frozen yogurt). Suddenly you've got people lining up dozens deep to buy this stuff? This is one serious meme . Unless, of course, the secret ingredient (and maybe the reason the FDA won't let them call their product frozen yogurt) is some heretofore undiscovered incredibly addictive element that they've innocuously slipped into the recipe. Judging from the number of people calling in to KROQ this morning to say they couldn't understand it, but after one trip to Pinkberry's they just couldn't get enough of it, I'm kinda tending toward t...

White House Declares Office Off-Limits Anyone surprised by this move has NOT been paying attention to the Bush White House.

…You'll see Mr. Bean's (wait for it…) Silly Dance! ?!? The scariest thing is that I've seen the trailer for Mr. Bean's Holiday . And the quote above (from their oh-so-cutesy radio campaign) is the height of sophistication compared to what I saw in the trailer. I swear, it almost makes me long for the days of Benny Hill !  

I don't usually post links like this… MoveOn.org Political Action: Help get the word out about Dick Cheney's Quagmire I may be a political loudmouth, but I tend to limit this stuff to email, where I can quietly spam my friends, rather than posting it here. But when you hear what Cheney said in '94, you've gotta wonder what the hell happened to his grasp on world politics between then and 2001. And no, I don't think you can blame it all on 9/11. Have I mentioned, recently, how much I hate these pricks? Oh yeah, I guess I have .

Can I just say, good GODDAMN riddance: Rove to leave the White House, return to Texas The only disappointing thing here is he's going home, instead of to a prison where he frankly belongs for what his machinations have done to this country. Good riddance, Karl. Rot in hell.