Be merry, be happy, or just get to the other side

The Holidaze are upon us, and hope you are enjoying yours... especially hoping that you get at least a day or 2 off (although some folks are not that lucky) (and if you are working, I hope that you love your job). I have been off work since December 21st, so that fantastic, and don't have to go back until January 6th. I am in the category of persons who just wants to get past the Helliday itself, and it has gone smoothly this year except for just one anxiety attack last week... feeling much better now and in the home stretch!! Go go go!!

We have been entertaining ourselves with concerts, movies, some light shopping, and otherwise just NOT being on a schedule. Here's a bit of a concert from Sunday night, The Band of Heathens played wearing wonderfully tacky Christmas sweaters!


Seeing some good movies too... 'tis the season when the nominees are announced, and a lot of the contenders for awards are the ones freshest in the minds of those who decide. I loved "Inside Llewyn Davis," another Coen Brothers/T. Bone Burnett collaboration (like "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") that is not a musical but is driven by music. I've had the CD soundtrack for awhile, and one of my favorites from it is "The Auld Triangle," which is lip-synced in the movie by 4 guys in matching beige sweaters (I'm not really giving anything away there), but it is these guys (Punch Brothers & Marcus Mumford) plus Justin Timberlake who actually do the vocals. I love this intensely.


We've seen "12 Years a Slave" and "Dallas Buyer's Club," going to see "American Hustle" tomorrow (Christmas Day).

Whatever you do, enjoy it.

Drive-by Lumbergh

*******

Hello Peter. Whaaat's happening? Ummm, I'm gonna need you to go ahead come in tomorrow... so if you could be here around 9... that would be greaaat, mmkay? Oh oh, and I almost forgot ahh, I'm also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on.. Sunday too.. okay. We ahh lost some people this week and ah, we sorta need to play catch up.

*******

Hello Peter. Whaaat's happening? Uhhh... we have sort of a problem here. Yeaaah, you apparently didn't put one of the new cover sheets on your TPS reports before they go out. Did you SEE the memo on this?
--yeah, yeah, I have the memo right here. I just forgot. But it's not shipping out until tomorrow, so it's no problem.
Yeeaaah, if you could just go ahead and make sure you so that from now on, that would be greaaat, and, uh, I make sure you go ahead and get another copy of that memo. Mmkay?

*******

Happy Friday.

(photo taken while in the heavy traffic of evening rush hour)

Love this sign!

Well, how is your holiday season going? I finally got the post-surgery boot off of my foot, and got to see it without the bandages. Very ugly and all the wrong colors (I decided not to post photos and spare you that), but getting a little better every day (with a new bandage so I don't have to look at it). One of these days I will take a walk for no reason and not worry about busting stitches or swelling. I am lucky enough to work for an employer who provides a generous winter break (this year it's 7 working days plus surrounding weekends and I added a couple of vacation days for some extra downtime).

It's going to be lots of sitting-down stuff, like on Dec 24 we are going to see Die Hard at the Alamo Drafthouse, a nice little Christmas movie that will include live pyrotechnics in the theater and a free Twinkie for all in attendance. I guess I can sell that Twinkie on ebay, huh?

I've already gone through my annual Christmas doldrums (it's unavoidable) but I think I've come out on the other side of it OK. That's always the goal. It's partly because here I was feeling down in the dumps, then I heard other people's bad news (both people I know and of course the endless daily NEWS news) that I sort of snapped out of it.

Also, it won't be long until my news feeds won't have the made-up "War on Christmas" which is really a "War on non-Christians" shit like this (one of my in-the-flesh friends posted this as something she supports) (::: sigh :::)What to do about these things? Ignore, ignore, ignore, and don't get in political or religious discussions with them. We have things in common - just not those things. Screw this.

And this too. I am so sick of this kind of shit.

Christmas is a secular holiday that occurs during a time of year where nearly every religion that ever existed has celebrated or observed something. I am celebrating having 13 days off in a row, even if I don't have much planned other than not using the alarm clock.

My wish for you is to celebrate or don't celebrate whatever the hell you you would like, have fun doing it and don't get hurt. And for goodness' sake, have a happy new year.
Heathens Greetings everyone! I leave you for now with Pussy Willow playing the theremin.

Thanksgiving, then and now

Oooh! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and everybody is psyched up about the huge meal, the football, seeing family members, turkey turkey turkey pie pie, and then there are those hitting the stores for the Black Friday Shopping Stampede. I've done all the big family dinners that I ever want to do in my life, so I'm done with that. Something to be thankful for right there!! Yaay!!

Those of you participating in a big dinner prep might appreciate this absolutely classic hilarious and real letter that someone shared with the Awkward Family Photos people. I think I may have posted this before, but I always revisit it this time of year. It's traditional! My graphic is just a thumbnail - go to the site to read it and enjoy the some more real life weirdness - shit that you just can't make up. Awkward Family Photos: The Thanksgiving Letter

One of my new favorite Thanksgiving-dinner-themed things is this series of comics called "Thanksgiving as a kid VS Thanksgiving as an adult" from The Oatmeal. Again, I've provided a teeny thumbnail because you should go over and read it where it lives. Love The Oatmeal.

We do have some Thanksgiving traditions, even though none of them involve getting stuffed with food until we can't walk. We usually go to the Alamo Drafthouse and watch a movie. They have a full dinner and drink menu, always, (including a full turkey dinner and trimmings if you are so inclined - but I am going to stick with pizza), and we are going to see "Lincoln." Seems like this is going to be one of the ones to beat when the Awards are handed out, so looking forward to it. I find it to be ironic that we are going to see a movie about Lincoln on the anniversary of JFK's assassination...

Whatever you do, enjoy your day. Don't get into any fights at the dinner table if you can prevent them. Life's too short for all that bullshit and heartache.

Keep smiling.

Vincent

In the spirit of the time of year, here's a delightful little short from Tim Burton, narrated by Vincent Price, on the topic of Edgar Allen Poe. Perfect.

I've seen this one before, but it's worth another view. Or two.

How old am I? This many.

This was my favorite TV show as a kid. I also loved The Liberace Show.
There were lots of shows on where you'd get to watch people dancing. The music was great too. Late at night, there was only a test pattern on.
These were my heroes as a pre-teen. I kept scrapbooks of clippings about them. I met Alan Shepard as an adult (during his book tour) and he signed my old LIFE magazine with him on the cover.
I witnessed these events on live TV. What an emotional roller-coaster!

This guy on the right held me in his arms onstage. Toddlers are hard to resist. About 12 years later we met him again, and when my mother asked if he remembered it, he nicely lied and said that he did. I got to see the guy below, on the left, when he looked like the picture on the right.


My first concert that was unaccompanied by parents was this one. I went with my older girl cousin. I don't think she was into the British Invasion, she preferred Elvis and Frankie Avalon.
I got to see these rock icons in concert. I most regret not seeing Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, or The Beatles.


The 17-yr-old version of me had this closeup view of Plant. More about that here.

I lived in a whole bunch of places, some of them twice. Trying to settle down a bit more these days.

Yes, it's another birthday. Nothing planned except maybe a day off work. I will most likely be well-behaved and probably go to bed early.

Here is Liberace playing "Bumble Boogie" on his TV show.

Rental Review Time

A Face in the Crowd [imdb] [wiki]

This is an old classic, and yet, amazingly, neither of us had seen it before. Made in 1957 and directed by Elia Kazan, it was a story with a strong statement about the always unholy relationship between entertainment and politics, and the raw power that comes out of it. If you were a Keith Olbermann watcher, you know that every time he brought up Glenn Beck, he called him "Lonesome Rhodes" Beck. The Lonesome Rhodes character is the one played by Andy Griffith in this movie. He was a drifter who happened to have a folksy personality, a little musical skill and a lot of charismatic crowd appeal. He ends up on the radio almost by accident, becomes really popular, and the spiral begins. Really recommend this one that we watched on DVD via the library. The DVD also included a little documentary about the making of the film, and it includes relatively recent interviews with the now-deceased Budd Schulberg (the screenwriter), Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Tony Franciosa. Also in the movie are a young Walter Matthau and Lee Remick.

The Adventures of Tintin [imdb] [wiki]

I love Steven Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Steven Moffat, John Williams, Andy Serkis, Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, Mackenzie Crook, Daniel Craig, etc., I love animation, kid movies also made for adults, adventure, and action. Despite all that, I got bored watching this and we didn't even finish it. That's very unusual. Maybe it's better if you have some background with the Belgian Tintin comics - getting to see the characters come to life - maybe it would have helped. This kind of realistic motion-capture animation sometimes gives me the creeps, and other times (other movies) I think it works fine and doesn't bother me. This one is in the former category. I was just wishing they would have either used real-life people (animals included) or go completely cartoon and give it the look of the original. In fact, that would have been awesome. The action scenes in this just didn't carry me along with them, and characters were pretty flat. I won't say "don't see this," but I will say that we got bored with it. Your results may vary.

The Grey [imdb]

This was presented as a true-to-life survival drama, but I would really say it's more surreal than real because of the way the wolves are portrayed. There are probably animals in the wild that are this big, this dangerous and possibly this mean, but not wolves. OK, so suspend disbelief and pretend they are real wolves (and I wish that they had just made up a fictional critter instead of fostering unnecessary wolf-hatred), and it's a pretty good story about survival, living vs dying, overcoming fear, the basic nature of humans, and sorting out religion. It was a teensy bit predictable here and there, but did have quite a few surprises, including the ending. Even though there are lots of philosophical discussions among this bunch of Alaska plane crash survivors, the movie doesn't resolve them for you. I liked that. One of the most striking things about this movie is the reminder that there are places on earth where humans are not meant to live, but still do.

We saw this on regular DVD which included some deleted scenes, none of which I thought should have been left in, so good call there. It was entertaining and worth a rental. Also, the snow scenes might help take the edge off these hot summer dog days.

My Beatle jacket

We finally watched "Living in the Material World," the Martin Scorsese documentary on George Harrison. First, it's really excellent, and not simply another entry in the huge pile of Beatle documentaries. This one has more in it, especially about the music itself. It's a 'duh." See it if you are a Beatle fan, music fan, or interested in the sixties at all.

The reason I'm posting is because it shows George Harrison wearing a jacket that made me hit the pause button and go to the closet.

It looks almost exactly like the matching jackets that my mother and I bought during the same time frame. They were wool (of the scratchy kind), stitched together with some kind of wool yarn, and lined with either silk or satin, I don't know which. They were from Greece, and we lived there at the time.

Ours were both turquoise in color, but I wish I knew what color George's was. I haven't found any color pictures of it. I am not sure what happened to my mother's jacket. I probably gave it to a cousin after she died. I was unable to transport her entire collection of things across the country.

Life is full of weird coincidences.

DailyShow-worthy headline!!

An actual screen-grab from the Huffington Post today. It was inspired and irresistible for the writers, I'm sure.

And in other news, this actually relating to The Daily Show and Colbert, looks like the satellite/cable wars are going to prevent online streaming of my 2 favorite shows for awhile. That's how I watch them (during my lunch break) so now I guess I'll have to squeeze in more TV time during the evening. Not sure I have that extra hour. Grrrrr. Thankfully it's supposed to be temporary (wonder if hulu will still have them?)

Melancholia

Like most people, we watch quite a few movies. Most are okay to pretty good, or at least worth watching even if I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend them. Occasionally one comes along that inspires a lot of thought, inspiration, and conversations afterward. They leave a mark, and this movie was one of those. It's easy to tell that this is a movie that will usually not leave people in a neutral state, you will love it or hate it. I loved it. If you felt differently, let's try not to hold that against each other.

It's a film in two parts, very separate but joined. Many other elements are presented in pairs for contrast.

It's very surrealistic, and heavy with symbolism. I would say that the movie is about depression, futility, meaningfulness of life, and, oh yes, a planetary flyby. A lot of movies deal with the topic of possible cataclysm, but most of them are formulaic action pictures.

These flybys (close calls when an asteroid's orbit brings it near earth) seem to happen all the time... and, in fact, on the very night we watched this movie on DVD there was a flyby called 2012 FA57. More on some of these events on space.com and NASA's JPL (where you will find a bit more solid science). Along with those current events, add April's spectacular full moon to the dark visual beauty in the movie and it made for a haunting experience for us.

I don't think I could put a label on this one.

Rolling Stones, Rice Krispies, and Turnip Greens

The topic of getting the Rolling Stones signed up to do a jingle for Heinz beans in 1966 came up in a TV episode last night. The idea sounds preposterous, but they actually did a jingle for Rice Krispies cereal in 1963, watch it above. A pretty bizarre concept if you think about it now, because if there were a list of things that would be associated with getting up in the morning, this band would not appear on it. However, this episode (of Mad Men) deals with the NYC Stones show of July 1966 when they were touring for an album that DID have a song that included perfume, turnip greens, pork and beans and citified high heels, all in the first verse. "Down Home Girl," have a listen. Oh man, do I love the early Stones? Yes, I do.

Zou Bisou Bisou

I hadn't heard this one before tonight. Ooh La La.

More comedy!

Since so much of what the politicians are saying these days is not followed by "...HA HA! Just kidding!!" I feel that some comic relief is in order. I wanted to share this delightful Colbert 2-part interview with Maurice Sendak.
[link]

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 1
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

[link]

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Grim Colberty Tales with Maurice Sendak Pt. 2
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Getting ready for another weekend featuring a lot of time climbing up and down ladders, and smearing paint on the walls. Hopefully it will be unexciting and uneventful.

Patton Oswalt

Happy birthday to Patton Oswalt, one of my favorite comedians.

Haven't seen his latest movie, Young Adult, but will definitely see it on video. I prefer certain movies on video because of the extra features, deleted scenes, bloopers, and so forth.

Patton on Twitter

Internet Affairs

Watched these two DVD documentaries, and it was just a coincidence that we ended up with these particular ones during the same week - a coincidence because the subject matter is very similar.

Talhotblond
Summary: This is the true story of a love triangle that takes place entirely online. Lies lead to murder in real life, as a teenage vixen (screen name 'talhotblond') lures men into her web. Revealing a shocking true crime story that shows the Internet's power to unleash our most dangerous fantasies.

Catfish
Tagline: Don't let anyone tell you what it is.
Summary: In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue.

They both deal with cyberspace relationships and the pitfalls. Catfish also makes you think of the unique positive opportunities these relationships and social networks can provide - opportunities that didn’t really exist before the internet came along (at least not occurring at lightning speed, and the speed of communications is often what creates the unique situations).

Talhotblond explores the much, much darker areas of human obsession and desire. We’ve kept the conversations going on both of these movies, and don’t agree about everything. Sorry… but I am really trying to avoid posting spoilers – it’s best that you know as little as possible about the content of each one of these before seeing them. We knew nothing about Talhotblond, and had a very big surprise in the end stretch of it. Catfish has had more press, and we had both heard something spoilerish (and couldn’t even share “well, what did you hear?” without possibly spoiling something for the other person). As it turned out, we had both heard the same spoiler, and now we cannot agree whether that tidbit of spoilage was true or not. If you plan on seeing them – don’t use ‘teh google’ first.

If you only see one of them, I would really recommend Talhotblond more.


(If you have a spoilerish comment to leave, please write SPOILER at the beginning of it. Thank you!)

TV - Good, Better, Been Better, and Bad

Late to the Party, But All Caught Up and Ready For More

Mad Men (AMC): Love this show, checked the DVD boxsets out of the library and easily watched them marathon-style, now ready for its return sometime this year. Great characters. We hesitated on this one because the trailers did not entice me. An actor friend of mine recommended it to me, and came up with this interview question for someone who wants to be a manager: "Which 'Mad Men' character are you?" If forced to answer that question, I would have to pick Peggy Olson. Which one are you? Another thing I like about Mad Men is that it has an end scheduled after a few more seasons. Things should end before they become pathetic, and I hope that Mad Men goes the distance.

The Walking Dead (AMC): a newly discovered series that we are now caught up with thanks to a box set and a New Year's Eve marathon. (I'd rather watch zombies than Ryan Seacrest.) It has great characters. Very intense. It's nice to be watching Laurie Holden in a series again, and being reminded of Marita Covarrubias and the X-Files.

Doctor Who (BBC/BBCA): For most of my adult life, people have been telling me that I would love Doctor Who, but it never sparked. MrB got me started on Torchwood (the 3rd season) so we watched all of that in reverse order. We liked the Doctor Who spin-off a lot, and I actually started watching The Doctor because of it, during David Tennant's reign (the 10th Doctor). Now all caught up with the 9th, 10th and 11th regenerations (plus a smattering of the old series), Matt Smith and Tom Baker are fine but David Tennant is still my Doctor. Some of the most recent DW episodes have not been as good as when Matt Smith first came on the scene, in my opinion. Have not seen the most recent Americanized Torchwood beyond the first episode, but it has not gotten good reviews. Please stop Americanising BBC programmes! Grrrrrrr.

---

Network TV

House MD (FOX): Still a damn good show. Not sure how long it can continue, seems like it is nearly used up.

Castle (ABC): The whodunnit gets figured out pretty quickly, but I like Nathan Fillion.

Bones (FOX): We are just tired of this one. My favorite characters are either gone, dead, or have gone all mushy. The occasional appearance of Billy Gibbons is not enough by itself to redeem it. We dropped it this season.

Fringe (FOX): Still very interested in this show and absolutely adore the character of Walter, but ratings are not good and I believe that this show will soon be gone. The title of the show kind of describes the loyal little niche that keeps watching.

---

Reality or Educational
Not much regular viewing in this category. I like Pawn Stars and Mythbusters sometimes, also science/educational - and don't mind at all if Professor Brian Cox is delivering the message.

---

Four or Five Days a Week

I watch these via a web browser during work lunches. We don't soak up much politics at home. I obsessed way too much during the Hillary/Obama wars and was rightfully reminded of it. At some point it's a good idea to stop driving yourself and others crazy, and leave the topic. Buuuut.... I haven't given these up:
Rachel Maddow
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
Colbert Report

---

Biggest "How Did We Miss This One" show discovered this year

Arrested Development: missed the entire original run but watched it all on DVD last year. This show is hilarious and brilliant. They are making a movie version, hope it's just as good.

---

What we're not watching

Any of the live Republican debates. All I've seen are the few choice snippets that are worth watching the following day for their delicious awfulness. When they get down the the nominees, I will watch those debates. The American election process is far too long.

Reality TV that involves trying to become a pop singer, dancing, trying to marry somebody, wife swapping, or parenting. Enough!

Fox News (if I want to see a bunch of implausible made-up crap, I prefer a movie like Ice Spiders on SyFy, at least it's funny.)

Silly Hats, Trashcan Music and Giddy Thrall

Saturday was an epic day for us, at least by our current standards. Usually it's me who wimps out, too hot, too late, too this, too that, {whiiiine} but sometimes things click.

Saturday morning at 10, MrB participated in the annual costumed bike parade which is part of New Belgium's traveling beer/bicycle/acrobatic festival called "Tour de Fat" (a reference to Fat Tire beer). Most people wear some kind of a costume or at least something fun. MrB rides in a Santa coat & and hat with red shorts. This year I wore a hat and shirt that looked like a zebra. It was a very, very silly hat. I will wear it again. New Belgium produces a lot of good beer, and 16 oz. of it could be had for $5. One of the acts was a couple who were yo-yo professionals (yes... that's correct). They were great. In the days of Ed Sullivan they would have been world-famous.

We allowed ourselves a pit stop at home to medicate the kitty (literally) and soon headed out to the Gypsy Picnic to see one of our new favorite bands, Delta Spirit, at 6:30pm. I'm pretty sure we were the oldest people in the crowd. I don't even care. I love this band's energy. The trashcan in the title refers to one of their songs where they use a trashcan lid as an instrument. This video did a great job of capturing their finale, which was a song I can't identify yet, morphing into that old standard "SHOUT" (Isley Bros.). It still works and still gets the crowd involved, same as always. Hell yeah! (if you don't have a chance to see it all, slide over to the 2:20 mark.) Not typical of the rest of their music, but they are worth checking out (their website has pro video, also try Spotify, iTunes...)


Now for the whipped cream AND the cherry on top. First of all, this town doesn't usually get star-struck. It's a film town, and reports of big movie stars making candid or *secret* public appearances are commonplace. But the recent 2-day visit by Johnny Depp to promote his new film, Rum Diary, and to receive a special award at the Austin Film Festival left the town in what the Austin Chronicle appropriately called a "giddy thrall." For me it was the (rather poorly-kept secret) appearance at the Continental Club, playing guitar onstage for an hour and a half with his old friend Bill Carter (whose songs are more famous than he is, such as "Crossfire" that was covered by SRV). Oh yeah, and Billy Gibbons was there for awhile too. And we were in the front row, pressed up against the stage just a few feet from Depp. If you want to see some much better shots than mine there, click here.

Here's a little local video and news coverage of his awards, etc.

This is my video, a Bill Carter song called "Willy the Wimp" that was also covered by SRV. We waited in line for 3 hours (for a 12:30 AM show). No wimps here. Not this time.

UPDATE Oct 26: Yahoo is featuring one of my videos in a story.
UPDATE 2 Oct 26: NOLA.com also linked to one.
UPDATE 3 Oct 26: Another Youtuber named AbbyandJohnny stole my videos and uploaded them to her channel. Now some of the media outlets are linking to those. Now that's just low-down and dirty on her part.
UPDATE 4 Oct 27: NME has a few of mine posted.

ACL Festival Day 1

We had the kind of passes that allowed us into artist backstage area as well as limited stage-side seating. These are wonderful to have because you can recharge your psychic batteries (as well as your *literal* batteries) in a place that’s not a marching throng of sweaty humanity. They also have free (for tips) beverages, snack food, somewhat air-conditioned restrooms with flush toilets and actual soap+water. These things make a LOT of difference, and we are grateful to our friends for this gift.

I like to see my favorites, but also really like the opportunity to see someone I've never seen, and in some cases I might not have even heard of them. Just walking by the back of the crowd doesn't count, gotta stay for at least a song.

Friday Highlights

Ha Ha Tonka (3 songs, front)
Good indie band from Missouri. Yes, that's right. Our old stomping grounds.

Delta Spirit (whole set, stageside)
Have been wanting to see this band for awhile. Don't have any of their music but plan on changing that. It was great to be able to watch them from the stage.While we were there, we noticed below us that one of the cameramen below us (we are on a kind of railed catwalk) is totally obsessed with this gorgeous blonde and keeps filming her instead of the band. Well... these things happen. More about her soon...

Cave Singers (2 songs, tent stageside)
Have seen this great band before, but got there too late to get a good viewing spot, and the side seating had obstructed views PLUS bad sound, so we moved on.

Ray LaMontagne (2-3 songs, side rail)
Everybody has heard Ray's music. It's been used in television shows and I think) commercials. Very soulful, great voice.

Bright Eyes (whole set, stageside)
Had never seen this band before. An exciting and intense show. Here’s a zoom-in of center stage.Lead singer Conor Oberst about to crowd surf. I love this one because of the facial expressions in the crowd!
While standing in line, the woman ahead of us mention that the “Tree of Life” guy was making a movie here, so that explained the previous 'groupie-ogling cameraman'. The woman being filmed on the stage for Delta Spirit was Haley Bennett, and during Bright Eyes, the movie crew came striding down the center aisle of the crowd and proceeded to enter the stage from the (audience) left. Here is one of my shots, and we didn’t figure out who the actor was from that distance... and, in fact, did not until Monday...... which is probably a good thing because I probably would have melted on the spot. Here is someone’s video of them as they were preparing for the stage approach:


We missed all but one song by Gary Clark Jr. for that bit of excitement, but he is a hot local gee-tar player so we hope to catch him soon in Austin somewhere.

We didn’t make the most of the headliners at the festival, mainly because the only way to get close to the stage is to “camp out” there for many, many hours during the day. I have done that plenty of times, but not this time. Stageside viewing was not available for Coldplay, so we watched about half of it from way back on the lawn in a throng of people. Other than the in-person laser light show, I think I would just as soon watch on Palladia or ACL-TV if I can’t get close to the stage. Anyway… Day 1 was a blast, and a tiny bit of rain fell, which made us all ecstatic.

Here’s a collection of links about this still super-secret Terrence Malick film starring Christian Bale that was filmed at ACL-fest.

Superhero Hype <---- check out these great photos!
Collider
NY Mag
IFC
The guy (on twitter) who got the candid video
First showing

(I did not care for Tree of Life, but will have to see this one - just because...)

The good, the bad, and the really-shoulda-been-better

Seen in the theater:

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
We went to see this based on it having a lot of good reviews, because our first reaction to the trailer was, "oh noooo, not another Planet of the Apes rehash!!!" Glad we overcame that reaction and saw it though, because this is not just a prequel that looks like it was done only to scrape some more money off the bottom of the barrel. There's some thought put into the premise, and like any good sci-fi, there's enough plausibility in it to make you think. It does have super-plenty trivia references to the original Planet of the Apes, and I liked the more subtle ones but some of them were just blatantly over-the-top. I would say if you have been living in a human zoo and haven't seen the original 1968 film - see that one first.

Seen in the theater:
Cowboys and Aliens
This was a movie I was looking forward to ever since seeing the trailer. I didn't see any way that it could miss. Harrison Ford AND Daniel Craig? As cowboys? Look at this awesome poster!! Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell and Paul Dano are in this too. It wasn't terrible, but I thought it did not live up to its potential. It's worth a rental, and I would still put that poster on the wall.

Seen on DVD:
Masked and Anonymous
This is from 2003, so it's been out awhile. I had not heard good things about it, but we were curious to see it anyway. It has an amazing cast of really actors that I enjoy watching: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Penelope Cruz, Jessica Lange, Ed Harris, Giovanni Ribisi, Val Kilmer, Luke Wilson, Angela Bassett, Mickey Rourke, Christian Slater, Bruce Dern and more. The most important star is Bob Dylan. Larry Charles directed, and he co-wrote this with Bob Dylan. It almost seems like he also let Dylan direct it too. Maybe the director was just really star-struck at getting to make a movie with/about Dylan that he allowed the musician to take the reins, and even permitted him to narrate. The dialogue was pretty bad, and the characters were flat and uninteresting, the best acting was in the bonus features where some of the actors stated how much they liked the script. Amazing. (It reminded me of the 3 Star Wars prequels that have a lot of good actors in them but they are completely wasted by bad directing, dialogue and script. {curse you, George Lucas!!!!! :::shakes fist::::} ) Back to the Dylan vehicle, it did have some good parts, and those were the music performances, Dylan and his band. Guitar player Charlie Sexton (the one with the cheekbones that won't quit) is from Austin, he's someone we've seen play a lot. The rest of the movie was a waste of everyone's talent, in my opinion. If you are a big Bob Dylan fan (and I haven't been one of those since the 1960s) you might really like this, and most likely have already seen it.

Live from New York, it's Saturday night during a hurricane!

WTF, Weather Channel?!?! (You too, every other televised or video-streamed media source!) You have cameras situated in a place where we can see the roof shingles and piers being blown far and wide, massive flooding, surging water, trees being blown down... that's a great thing that these events can be shown to us folks out here watching it on TV. It's important to do that, I think.

By WHY do you keep sticking a person out there in the middle of it? Are you betting that the viewers are going to enjoy seeing some poor schmuck getting the hell beat out of him because he's enduring the full force of a hurricane? Are you going to keep doing that until one of them is killed? Or are you secretly hoping for that because you'd get a ratings bump?

Maybe you could send a drone camera out there, or if that's not exciting enough you could get one of those human-shaped robots and send it out there dressed in a raincoat? Then it could be the robot yelling into its built-in mic, "STAY INSIDE! I'M IN THE STREET BUT STAY OUT OF THE STREET! RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!"

Jon Stewart did a sketch on something similar during the recent post-storm flooding. Brilliant as usual.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Weatherman-Based System of Flood Height Measurements
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Really folks, please DO stay safe, evacuate, or whatever has been advised for your area. Don't be like that guy on TV with the park bench hurtling straight at his head.

[UPDATE: Virginia streaker flashes dick on Weather Channel]