Archive for June, 2006

I don’t like having back-to-back Friday Funday posts, but it seems like something that happens all too often these days. In order to prevent having three Friday Funday posts with nothing in between them, I’m writing this post about… Well, it’s about nothing, really.

So, how’s it going?

This hideous beast is parked outside. I guess the guy who owns it is here to see one of our sales people.

Hey, what what was everyone’s high score on Manole? The best I’ve managed so far is 249,390. Can anyone explain how the hell the high score is over 2 million?

One of the shoelaces on my work shoes broke yesterday. It was kind of funny because I was putting them on, and when I pulled the laces tight, one of them popped off in my hand. I just sort of sat there for a moment, dumbfounded. I was just going to change into jeans and wear different shoes, but I managed to work out a temporary solution. I bought some laces from the drugstore across the street, but they ended up being too short, so I had to go buy more shoelaces from another store. They were shorter than I would have liked, but I didn’t feel like chasing shoelaces all over town, so I’m sticking with them.

That’s about it. Not a lot has been happening lately, so I haven’t had a whole lot about which to blog.

OH!

Last weekend, Morah and I went over to Seattle to help Kris with a short film he’s shooting. It’s a new version of a video I helped him shoot in college called Collect All Four. It was two days of pretty intense shooting, which was great since I haven’t shot anything for… Gosh, years now.

I’ve seen a few early cuts of some of the scenes and they’re coming together pretty well. I look forward to seeing the whole thing!

Okay, now I think I’ve told all there is to tell. See you guys back here tomorrow for another Friday Funday!

While I’m sure that most readers of this blog are aware that I am getting married in October, many may be surprised to learn that we (that is, my fiancée and I) will be having a Catholic ceremony.

As such, there are a number of hoops that the church forces you to jump through before you can get married (if you want the receive the sacrament of marriage, which Morah does). One of those hoops is the Engaged Encounter, and this past weekend, Morah and I went on ours.

What we expected was two days of hippie-esque, massage-circle, trust-fall, talk-about-your-feelings, make-macaroni-art-and-share-it-with-the-group type activities that involved a disgustingly cute married couple and a half a dozen other hard core-religious engaged couples. What it turned out to be was two days of listen-to-boring-talks and write-about-your-feelings-until-your-hand-cramps type activities with two kind-of-cute married couples and over a dozen other religious-but-not-in-a-why-aren’t-YOU-Catholic-way couples.

All in all, it seemed kind of pointless for Morah and I to be there, as the majority of the activities were things like, “Think about where you want to live, how many kids you want, should your spouse stay at home and raise the kids” et cetera, then write down your feelings and talk to each other about it. I think it primarily designed to facilitate communication between the couples and get them thinking about issues that they may not have previously thought about.

Trouble is, Morah and I have fantastic and very-open lines of communication between us, and we had already talked about everything they told us to talk about. So it was kind of boring.

To make things more interesting, I tried to get creative with the stuff I was writing. I tried to do something a little different for each one, so I ended up with (among other things) a short story, a third-person narrative, a poem, a love letter, a comic strip, and a Mad Lib. I figured that if I had to do something as acerebral as tell Morah how I feel, even when I know she already knows, I should at least make it a little more challenging for myself by getting creative.

On the last day, just before we left, they had us ask for forgiveness from our partner (if we needed to). They billed it as a “last chance” to get things off your chest before the weekend was officially over. Morah and I agreed that we had nothing for which we needed to be forgiven, so we went to get some water. While we were waiting around, we overheard another couple who were having a really serious discussion. She seemed quite cross with him and he seemed rather indignant. She was saying something about him and his friends and how he needed to respect her more. Morah and I looked at each other and decided to give them privacy. I hope it all worked out for them!

All in all, we had a lot of freedom. That freedom combined with the fact that we live a three minute drive away from the camp meant that Morah and I could have gone home at night, had we really wanted to.

It wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be. I’m glad it’s over and done with, though. Now we can get everything sorted with the Spokane Diocese and get the paperwork going in Honolulu.

It was nice to be able to spend the weekend with Morah without the stress of the outside world. The retreat grounds were nice and we walked around a bit on Saturday afternoon.

I would say that, besides spending time with Morah, the best part of the weekend was the snack table. -)

1) What film made you angry, either while watching it or in thinking about it afterward?

The Matrix 2. At first, I only kind of disliked it, but then we started talking about it and I ended up hating it so much, that I never bothered to see the third. Which is really a shame, since the first one is pretty good.

2) Favorite sidekick?

George Lang (from The Spanish Prisoner. See why below)

3) One of your favorite movie lines?

George: How are things in the outer office?

Susan: My troika was pursued by wolves.

George: It’s a good thing this cookie arrived unscathed.

(If you ever watch this scene, note that the actors are trying very hard to suppress their laughter)

4) Describe a perfect moment in a movie:

Remember the first time that you watched The Usual Suspects and you figured it all out? Yeah, that was a cool moment.

5) Favorite John Ford movie?

Wee Willie Winky. Oh! No, I mean The Searchers. Sorry.

6) What film artist (director, actor, screenwriter, whatever) has the least–deserved good reputation, artistically speaking. And who would you replace him/her with on that pedestal?

Tom Cruise. Need I say more?

7) Showgirls: Yes or no?

Yeah, just because ever since Saved By The Bell, I’ve wanted to see Elizabeth Berkley naked. I really should rent it…

8) Most exotic or otherwise unusual place in which you ever saw a movie?

There used to be a drive-in theatre in Hawaii (it’s gone now). I saw Back to the Future III there. It’s the only time I’ve been to a drive-in.

9) Favorite Robert Altman movie?

MASH, but I haven’t seen A Prairie Home Companion yet…

10) Best argument for allowing rock stars to participate in the making of movies?

This is Spinal Tap. Wait…

11) Describe a transcendent moment in a film (a moment when you realized a film that just seemed routine or merely interesting before had become something much more)?

In Cinema Paradiso, Toto’s best friend, Alfredo, dies and leaves him a can of film. At the very end of the film, Toto watches the film. I won’t ruin the moment for you, but it makes me cry every time; it’s the most beautiful moment I’ve ever seen caught on film.

12) Gina Gershon or Jennifer Tilly?

Who came up with this and why are they so obsessed with Showgirls? I’m going to say Jennifer Tilly because she’s a voice on Family Guy and she played Louella Parsons in The Cat’s Meow.

13) Favorite Frank Capra movie?

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

14) The scene you most wish you could have witnessed being filmed?

The scene in Dog Day Afternoon where Al Pacino calls his lover. Read about it here.

15) Name a movie that inspired you to walk out before it was finished?

The only movie I ever left prematurely was Big Top Pee-wee, but even then, I only left because I had a really bad stomach ache (oh, and I was seven years old). So I guess the answer is that I’ve never walked out on a film because of how bad it was. In fact, I once sat through a Pauly Shore double-feature. Now that’s dedication.

16) Favorite political movie?

Election.

17) Your favorite movie poster/one-sheet, or the one you’d most like to own?

Probably something old like Metropolis or Citizen Kane.

18) Jeff Bridges or Jeff Goldblum?

I’ll have to agree with Mike here, The Dude wins it.

19) Accepting the conventional wisdom that 1970-1975 marked a golden age of American filmmaking in which artistic ambition and popular acceptance were not mutually exclusive, what for you was this golden age’s high point? (Could be a movie, a trend, the emergence of a star, whatever)

Actually, I feel that the movies leading to artistic freedom of the early 1970s are more important, specifically Easy Rider (1969) and The Rain People (1969). That’s not to say that these movies are any good, but they were =highly= influential.

Also, I disagree that the early 1970s were the “golden age” of American filmmaking. Can you say the first quarter of the 20th century? Yeah, thanks for playing.

20) With total disregard for whether it would ever actually be considered, even in this age of movie recycling, what film exists that you feel might actually warrant a sequel, or would produce a sequel you’d actually be interested in seeing?

State and Main needs a sequel like there’s no tomorrow. The Big Lebowski could also do with a sequel, but without Donnie, I’m just not sure it would hold up. He really tied the film together.