FILM

DRIVE

Finally got to see Drive after hearing so much about it from the various reviews and festival coverage. Wasn’t entirely sure what to think going in, especially having no experience with any of Winding-Refn’s previous films. You can read my thoughts about the film over on the FLICKCHART BLOG, but here’s a snippet to give you an idea!

Truth be told, there’s not a lot in the way of action set-pieces in the film, but the ones that do exist are brutal. When people take their exit from the film, it’s not glossed over, nor does the camera really cut away. There’s a scene in particular where very little is left to the imagination, and it’s shot in slow motion so you can get all the gory details. The violence might be a bit much for some if it weren’t balanced by the lengthy interludes with Carrie Mulligan’s character, who develops a thing for Gosling through the course of the film.

Read the rest of the review!

CONTAGION

Meant to write up a review about this film on Flickchart when I saw it but was beaten to the punch by my girlfriend, Jandy. She basically said everything I was thinking about the film and did it in a much more concise manner than I would have; I tend to ramble. Perhaps the only area in which I disagree with her review and others’ would be with the Jude Law portion of the story. I thought it was a rather realistic portrayal of the blogosphere dealing with the outbreak and that it was a needed counterbalance to the mostly pro-CDC POV of the rest of the film.

Or it could just be that I like that it didn’t quite fit with the other arcs in the film. I am strange like that.

[REC] 2

Unfortunately, I came into this franchise via the remake Quarantine, which I am convinced isn’t as bad as everyone says. They’re pretty much shot-for-shot the same, with the main difference being the performances of the main actresses. I enjoyed them both and was anxious to see the sequel. While it wasn’t nearly as groundbreaking as the first, it was still enjoyable and expanded the universe significantly. Props on the twist at the end, even if I was able to see it coming a mile away.

BRINGING UP BABY

My girlfriend and I decided awhile back to make lists of the films we wanted the other to see, or that we felt the other needed to see. Her list is very organized and all the DVDs are sitting out, while my list is in the recesses of my brain and mostly forgotten.

One of the films that she brought to my attention was Bringing Up Baby which is a screwball comedy featuring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn. Cary Grant is pretty much awesome in anything that he does and I will watch any movie he’s in just because he’s in it. Helps that this film is awesome as well, and hits my comedic sweet spot.

Shame Grant couldn’t get much of a word in edgewise, though.

HARD BOILED

I’ve not had much experience with John Woo films, and I thought that Hard Boiled would be a good entry point. Turns out I was right. This film is nonstop awesome and even has a great tracking shot that puts most modern action directors to shame.

I’m pretty sure Shoot’em Up’s premise was inspired by the scene with the baby in the end.

JAWS

Yes, I hadn’t seen Jaws until recently.

You can pick your jaw up from the floor now.

Truth be told, I’m not a huge Spielberg fan (with the exception of the Indiana Jones series) and the premise of killer sharks has never really appealed to me. That said, this film was really fun and quite engaging. The special effects have really held up well and look arguably better than most of the CGI fishies that have come after.

Didn’t really care for the stuff in the beginning with the Mayor and the townsfolk.

THE WHITE SHADOW

Alfred Hitchcock AD’d on this film, which was lost until recently. Well…most of it is STILL lost, but I was able to catch an Academy screening of the three reels that were recovered. It was quite interesting to see the special effects of the time and how sophisticated they were.

Quite a treat, and it’s awesome that more of these films are being found and preserved. Hope to see more of these in the future.

MARIE ANTOINETTE

My introduction to Sofia Coppola was with Lost In Translation, which I didn’t like all that much. Of course, I was much younger and not as into film as I am now. So, when this came up as part of the “must watch” list that Jandy made for me, I decided to give Coppola another try. The verdict: I need to give this director another chance.

I liked that the accents didn’t match the location and that everyone listened to modern music, which is weird considering that’s what kind of annoyed me about A Knight’s Tale. I should probably give THAT another chance as well!

TELEVISION

DOCTOR WHO, SEASON 6

Gone from this season was all the wonder and fun from season five. In it’s place a bunch of timey-wimey weirdness and a terrible first half, followed by too long of a hiatus and a rather weird finale. I did like that Matt Smith was able to flex his acting muscles in this season, though. That was something of a complaint I had with the previous season. Also, having the Doctor get called out on his less than stellar traits was interesting. I hope they really push that in the next season.

SPORTS NIGHT, SEASON ONE

My introduction to scribe Aaron Sorkin was through his latest film The Social Network. It was a great film and among my favorites of last year. When I found out that he had done stuff previously on the small screen, I was intrigued. Enter Sports Night. Admittedly I wasn’t too keen on the premise, given my ambivalence toward sports, but the witty dialog delivered at breakneck speed won me over fast, not to mention the great thematic material of each episode and the great character work.

As a wannabe writer, this should be my textbook.

COMMUNITY, SEASON THREE

Community is my favorite television comedy. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the previous two seasons and the new one has been great out of the gate. I’m anxious to see what’s in store for the rest of the season and the plot involving John Goodman sounds like it will be interesting.

COMICS

SWAMP THING, #1-2

You can count me among those n00bs who were intimidated by the large issue numbers and the convoluted continuities of the DC Universe. Heck, that’s the main reason why I don’t read anything currently out from Marvel. With the New 52 I’ve decided to give some of these a try. It helps that Jandy is into this as well so we can compare notes.

Swamp Thing is so far my favorite out of the small few I’ve read. It’s got supernatural elements, weird plant hierarchies and perhaps the neatest “big bad” that I’ve seen in a comic in awhile. The first two issues have me completely hooked.

ACTION COMICS, #1-2

I wasn’t aware until reading these comics that Superman could be an interesting character. He’s young, rash and not the boring goody-two-shoes that’s depicted in the Superman comic out as part of the New 52. Major props to the writing here and the building of the character. I definitely plan to continue with this one.

Still on the fence about the jeans and cape look.

BATWOMAN, #1

My only experience with side characters in the Batman universe is through the original television show with Adam west and Burt Ward. In it, Barbara Gordon plays Batgirl, and does so with the same groovy pizazz that Julie Newmar exudes as Catwoman.

This comic is my first introduction to Batwoman, and I’ve gotta say that I’m intrigued. The art style is exquisite, with each splash page telegraphing the action brilliantly. The writing is a bit on the incoherent side, but I can forgive that with such an interesting design.

I’ll stick with this a few more issues to see where it goes.

VIDEO GAMES

DEMON’S SOULS

A hack-n-slash RPG with no real story to speak of and a difficulty that borders on annoying. Yep. Sign me up. This game is quite a treat and the extreme difficulty is balanced by the reward of having cleared a section. There are no saves in the game, and you can’t pause at any point in time. If you die right before the end of a section, you have to start that section over again. There’s a currency system in place to gain experience, and it’s done quite well.

If you haven’t subjected yourself to this, you absolutely must. There’s a sequel out now that I plan on getting at some point. Just have to finish the part I’m stuck at.

DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS

This game is insanely frustrating and extremely addicting. You can blame this on the mechanics of the game, which are closely modeled after MMOs. The only difference here though is that if you don’t have a handle on the stats for your characters, you won’t get very far. I find myself even at 3/4 of the way through the game saving before every major encounter so I don’t have to start the whole area over when I inevitably die. Part of me wants to just quit this whole game for good, but the other part of me needs to know how this thing plays out.

BIOSHOCK

I’m not very far into this game, and already I’m hooked. It reminds me of my favorite first-person horror shooter Clive Barker’s Undying and lays the creepy atmosphere on thick. The story seems like it will go in interesting directions. I’ll have to try and make more time for this in the coming days.

I’d like to get a couple of important details squared away with you first before I start rambling about why I think Scott Pilgrim is one of the top mainstream films this year. First of all, I’m a writer. As such, I believe in the story and characters above all else. Things like “who directed it” or “who produced it” or “how it was made” sit on the shelf below. Finally–and this is the most important detail–I’m a video game nerd from 8-bit yesteryear and I digest non-mainstream comics like fifty-nine cent, name-brand mac ‘n cheese; which is to say, I really dig comics. I’m the dorky, indifferent kid that wants “to think about death and get sad and stuff.”

There. I feel like we can proceed.

Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is awesome, and the hyperbole is well-founded. The film, from beginning to end, is an experience. Every moment oozes with style and is tailored to the “and stuff” generation I subscribe to; 8-bit sound effects run rampant, sound effects are written out comic book style, and characters pull huge fucking hammers out of their satchels.

This is all fine and good, as long as it’s not at the expense of the characters or the story. There have been too many adaptations that have opted for the “look right” option and have totally flubbed on the story front. With Pilgrim, the main characters all have story threads that wrap up nicely by the end credits and title character himself grows from being a kind of “twenty-something asshole” to “not that bad of a guy.” To quote him, “I think I just learned something.” The romantic triangle between him, Ramona and Knives is also very believable and the awkwardness and crushing blow of getting dumped is played out in a way that’s borders on uncomfortably accurate. It’s nice to see the filmmakers keep a good balance between silly romantic cliche and heartfelt character stuff.

The casting for the film didn’t feel wrong, and everyone was able to do their own thing with the characters. Michael Cera, despite his tendency for sameness across his roles, embodies Scott Pilgrim and does the role good. After seeing the film, I’m not sure anyone else could have played that role. One reviewer I read suggested that all his other roles are just training for this, and I can definitely agree with the sentiment.

Perhaps the most memorable role of the film is that of Scott’s roommate Wallace, played by Kieran Culkin. Every scene he is in is gold and I found myself wishing he had had more screen time. Brandon Routh also shines through as Todd Ingram and revels in the delightfully ridiculous role. When I say that I can’t complain about any of the casting choices, I’m being super-vegan serious.

That’s not to say that this film is perfect. It’s not. It’s a niche film tailored to a specific demographic. It’s paced like a video game and it winks at it’s viewers like an epileptic seizure. The characters could be deeper and could have more heart, but that’s not necessarily the point of the story. What you see on the screen is as faithful an adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s work as anyone could hope to achieve. It’s not going to be Criterion Collection Masterpiece of Nerddom, but it’s most definitely in the top mainstream films of this year and is pretty much THE film of the “and stuff” generation.

I lesbians this film so hard.

The final day for C2E2 arrived quickly and I leapt from my bed with excitement. I was going to try once more to get Jeff Smith’s autograph and make up for some of the fail of the previous day. I threw on two completely different socks and my Sonic hood once again. I shoved my copy of BONE into my book bag and bounded down the stairs of the apartment. Getting into the car, I told Chewie to “punch it.” We did and stopped at the nearby Dunkin Donuts for some breakfast.

I usually never have any problems at that particular chain, but that day seemed to be “mess up everyone’s order” day. After about ten minutes of getting everything straightened out, we were finally on our way down to McCormick place for the last time.

Bryan and Chewie dropped me off at the front of the building so I could race in to get my signature. They wished me luck and I made a break for the convention floor. And by “made a break” I mean I walked because I didn’t want to arouse any undue suspicion from convention security. I’d hate to be arrested by the K*BIS police en route to a signing.

I reached the main convention floor and adjusted my bag. The book, since it was a complete collection, started to weigh on me and get just a bit irritating. I convinced myself that it was worth it and made my way to the main floor and to where the line had formed for Jeff Smith last time.

I walked up to a less snooty looking Red Shirt.

“Is this the end of the line?” I asked.

He gave a light laugh. “No,” He said, “this is where we had to segment the line to not interrupt the flow of the convention. The line extends all the way that way. See the other guy in the red shirt?”

“No.”

The Red Shirt tried to point out where the next stage of the line began and I couldn’t see it. There were other lines leading to other places, but nothing like the fellow described. I said thank you and was going to just forage on to find the line myself, but was stopped.

“There’s no guarantee you’re going to get anything signed as the line is really big.” The Red Shirt said.

“Thanks,” I said, and walked away. Fuck the autograph.

I wandered about the web comics tables once more, just kind of zoning out. I met up with a friend, who we’ll call Patrick for sake of privacy, and we talked for awhile about making comics. The conversation soon devolved into comparing Flash and Photoshop and then we parted ways. I bought a cool shirt and then ran into my other friend Grace and a few of her friends. They had cool pictures from Cyanide and Happiness and SMBC, so I decided to do the same.

The C&H guys were very awesome about my requests and we talked for a little bit. I shared a pigeon-kicking story with the Fellow in the Tux Shirt and he laughed with delight. It was nice to revel in pigeon cruelty with another like-minded individual. I wanted to buy a plushie from them, but since my cash had run out, I was out of luck. Instead, I got an autographed high-five, which in hindsight was better anyway.

I made my way over to the SMBC guy, Zach Weiner, and commissioned a picture from him as well.

“What will it be?” he asked.

“I like cruelty to children and old people,” I said. He nodded like he understood my soul and started his piece of art. When he finished, I took it from him and gave him an enthusiastic high five. The picture was great.

I then wandered around the main floor some more and tried to see everything I had yet to see at the convention. For being small in size, there was a hell of a lot to see. I made my rounds through the various comic book stores represented and poked around to see what else I could find. Amidst all the shirts and merch I found Scott Ramsoomair and we talked for a little bit. Quickly I dispensed of the silly fanboy’isms such as “I’ve read your comic since the beginning” and “wow, you rock.” We then started talking about C2E2 as a whole and the differences between a for-profit run convention and a non-profit run convention. It was interesting getting his take on the whole thing.

With some awkwardness I said my goodbyes and parted ways with the artist. I had planned on coming back to buy a shirt, but forgot as soon as I found myself in Artist’s Alley. Chewie and Bryan joined me there and I followed them as they talked to the various artists they were interested in. As we toured the rows, I found myself regretting that I didn’t know of any of these people or what they did besides draw stuff. I was about to question turning in my nerd card when I ran into another friend I didn’t quite expect to see at the convention.

She recognized me first and it took me a few seconds to figure out exactly where I had known her from. We shared some cool allergy stories at a party once and I regaled her with the many times nuts tried to kill me. We caught up some, and then she was off to see more of the convention.

And then I was back at my apartment, and the convention had ended. It was over and everything would be back to the usual within a few hours. I took some time to think over the whole event and pondered what I would do differently.

Truth be told, I wouldn’t change a thing. That orgy rocked.

I woke up the next day, back in my apartment with a wicked hangover. Whatever happened during the Time Lord Orgy would forever be lost to the ether of drunken stupor. I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and picked up my phone to see what time it was. Seven in the morning. I checked my alarm to see what time I had set it for and realized I woke up roughly an hour earlier than I had planned. Slowly, I dragged my ass out of bed and made my way to the bathroom to see if I could get some sort of grip on reality.

Looking at myself in the bathroom mirror was a sight to behold. My hair looked like it belonged in an anime, shooting off in every conceivable direction. The light in the bathroom shone too bright, a sure-fire sign that I was in the throes of hangover. My eyes were bloodshot and I felt like my wrists were about to explode Riki-Oh style.

It was time to start C2E2, Day 2.

My friends arrived to pick me up eventually. For the sake of privacy on the internets, I’ll just refer to them as Chewie and Bryan. I sauntered over to their car and kind of threw myself into it. Instantly the car was away and we were making our journey back to McCormick place.

“You look kind of tired,” Chewie said.

“I drank a lot,” I said.

There was more conversation, I think.

We arrived in a prompt manner and I momentarily forgot about my hangover woes. The place was packed to the brim with all kinds of nerd and everything was in full swing. I don’t quite remember when I lost Chewie and Bryan, but I do remember them not being with me while I was poking around the Doctor Who area.

The guy at the Doctor Who Area was nice and he gave me pamphlets and cards I had no intention of reading. I saw a TARDIS-styled wardrobe and thought to myself how beautiful it would be to have a TARDIS-styled camping tent out in the badlands somewhere. Snapping back to reality, I looked for a Sonic Screwdriver. I too wanted to get myself a phallic do-it-all to prove that I could be just as good a fan as the rest. There was one, but it was a Sonic Screwdriver Game and the devices themselves looked dinkier than a Wal-Mart brand glow-sword.

I moved on to other booths and displays, waiting anxiously to the one panel I wanted to go to: JEFF SMITH PANEL OF AWESOME! I remember reading his comic book BONE a long-ass time ago and I wanted to be able to reconnect with that childhood I had long since lost. He was the key.

At around this time, my hair product wore off and just thinking about moving would blow my hair in some random direction. I took a good ten minutes (while walking in some direction) to make sure it was perfect for anyone who might be staring.

I found myself at the Web Comic Area again and in front of Gordon McAlpin’s booth. We talked a little bit more and I bought a Yellow Popcorn shirt. It was yellow. Yellow is awesome. I thought to say hello to Joel Watson of Hijinks Ensue, but it would have been awkward.

Me: Hi.

Him: Hi.

Me: I like that you’re a web comic creator, but I’ve never read your stuff.

Him: It’s all good. Let’s be best friends.

After that, I found the Topatoco Booth again and said hi to Anthony Clark like I was a creepster. I pointed out that I was wearing his Beartato shirt when it hit me that I was actually wearing his Beartato shirt. I dismissed the unease of not remembering how I dressed myself, and moved on.

It was finally time for JEFF SMITH PANEL OF AWESOME! I scurried to where the thing was going to be held with the glee of a child on christmas morning. I ran into another friend, who for security reasons we’ll call Grace, and we exchanged words.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” she said.

She punched me and we talked about maybe getting a chance to see Carrie Fisher live and in person. I showed her some of the pictures I took of the nerdly denizens of this convention and then scurried into the panel room to listen to one of my cartooning inspirations from childhood. First the moderator showed up and started plugging things in. I thought that THAT was Jeff and got confused.

“He looks a lot like Mike Mignola,” I said to no one in particular.

A younger, more handsome looking fellow arrived onto the stage and started tinkering with things as well. I assumed that since he looked younger, he couldn’t have possibly come up with something like BONE. Well, that was in fact Jeff Smith.

“Hi, I’m Jeff Smith,” he said. There was at least one BONE in the audience who squee’d in delight. Hint: Me.

And then my childhood was raped. See, I was anxious to hear how Jeff created his own comic book company and how it had been trying to make his way in the industry within his subgenera, which up to that point hadn’t been tapped. Instead, Jeff read from a future comic from the BONE world and talked at great length about RASL. After being really boring, he opened the panel up for questions and everyone asked essentially the same thing. A young kid worked up the nerve to ask a question and it made me happy since it quite reflected some of the giddiness I had felt going into the panel.

Then there was talk about a movie version and I checked out completely.

After the panel, I shuffled over to another room and met up with Chewie and Bryan. We were all going to see the CYANIDE AND HAPPINESS PANEL OF AWESOME! With the disappointment of the last panel, I wasn’t holding my breath. The guys came up to the front and showed everyone their videos.

It took me a moment or two to realize that the SMBC guy with red hair was Zach Weiner. A light bulb went off in my brain and suddenly things turned around. Also, at about that time there was a Cyanide and Happiness short involving a hobo kicking a pigeon to death and stealing the feed that a kind old lady had thrown to the ground.

The panel made my day.

At about 4pm, I ducked out and made my way over to where Jeff Smith was going to be signing copies of BONE. I thought to myself, at least I’d be able to get a signature to make up for the crappy panel. Boy, was I wrong! I made my way to the booth and failed to notice that there was in fact a line that had formed. A kind and patient young Red Shirt informed me of this and told me that I would have to go to the back of the line. I did.

Another Red Shirt, who I’d like to dub Smug Asshole, stopped me.

“This line is cut off,” he said in his Ass-speak. “Jeff will be signing books again tomorrow at 11. The next two hours were spent in a huge depression.

During that time, I saw a guy I had only met over Skype named Dave. He was cool. In hindsight, I should have been a little friendlier. But when your childhood innocence gets raped in such a way, there’s no room for pleasantries. I ate a pretzel and it was the most depressingly good tasting pretzel I ever had. Each granule of salt that fell from it symbolized broken childhood memories.

At some point I made my way out of the funk and met up with Chewie and Bryan again. I walked up to Bryan and he gave me this look that I couldn’t quite interpret. He pointed his head in some direction and I just stared at him like he was special needs.

“Uh..” I said.

“Over…there…” he whispered.

I looked over and saw curtain.

“Uh..” I repeated.

“Carrie…Fisher is five feet away from us.” I looked back at the curtain and the aura of celebrity hit me like a blast-wave. I was mesmerized. We acted giddy about being closer to Carrie than we’ve ever been before while Chewie talked to an artist that she admired. After we had had our fun, the PA announced that the floor show was ending.

“Want to check out the Top Cow Comics Panel of Awesome?” Bryan asked.

“They’re a big deal,” Chewie said.

I nodded and we made our way to the nicest of the panel rooms. We sat down among the nine other people there and waited for the room to fill up. It didn’t. Apparently, scheduling a panel right after the floor show closes is a bad idea. On the plus side, however, I learned a great deal about Witchblade and The Darkness and decided that I needed to look into Top Cow’s properties further.

When that poorly-attended panel ended, we all went and got pizza. That was about the time my hangover stopped.

I arrived at McCormick place from the #3 King Drive bus line. Emerging with me was a fellow in a Green Lantern tee and a guy who reminded me of a once co-worker. All around us there were signs for a kitchen and bath expo aptly named K*BIS. Confused, we made our way to the building and to where we hoped C2E2 might be held. Business executives chain-smoked like it was the end of the world and their faces suggested that they couldn’t give a shit.

Mustering up all the creepy I could find within, I got close to Green Lantern Tee and Once Co-Worker and asked them if they knew where the convention was. Just to throw some humor into the mix, I asked them if they were in fact going to the convention. Once Co-Worker scoffed, said yes and said that his plan was just to go through the K*BIS convention. I liked that plan and followed too closely. Fortunately for them, I backed off when I realized what I was doing.

The convention was nestled away behind the Kitchen and Bath Expo with a bajillion banners proving it. We found ourselves on a walkway over the road which seemed to stretch on for miles. I read each of the marquees above us that encouraged us along our way and that we were “almost there.” One sign even said that The Dark Knight was filmed in Chicago.

At the end of the REALLY boring walkway there was an Expansive Useless Area with nothing in it. There were a few Red Shirts scattered about to help the lost and elderly, but other than that this room served no purpose. I walked over to what I thought was the place to get my weekend pass and was then turned away because it was the wrong place. Eventually I discovered it was downstairs in another big area that didn’t have much to it either. Being the chode that I am on occasion, I asked a tiny Red Shirt where I could get my weekend pass.

“It’s straight ahead, sir.” She said.

I thanked her and hated myself as I walked over to pick up my pass. Every Red Shirt between me and the line seemed to get the memo that I was stupid and made sure to tell me where I could go get my weekend pass. I zig-zagged my way up to some Old Ladies behind the desk and they gave me a bitchin’ Weekend Pass / Lanyard Combo. Win.

Now that the registration had completed, I raced my way back up to the Expansive Useless Area and scurried my fine ass over to the Main Floor. I entered to discover myself in a strange world I had never seen before. Being a relative n00b to the whole convention…thing…I was kind of awestruck. Booths everywhere, people wandering about in costumes, and all kinds of shiny. I walked a ways in and found myself in front of the Oni Press booth.

SCOTT PILGRIM. I bought a shirt.

I wandered around some more, trying to keep track of the time. The plan was to go to the Kevin Conroy panel and pretend that I remembered that Batman cartoon from long ago. A couple hours later I realized that I had missed the thing, and then promptly got distracted by ANOTHER COMIC BOOTH!

There was nothing on that Main Floor that didn’t distract me on that day. I’d pass by a booth, stop, drool and then find another one and repeat the same process all over again. Along the way I stopped various people in costume and took their picture, feeling like such a creepster as I did so. Thankfully they weren’t assholes and let me photograph them with my Crappy Phone Camera. There was a particularly pretty Poison Ivy who let me take her picture and I felt even creepier. Didn’t help that I took like eight pictures in the manner of a few moments. Heh. Heh. Heh?

Next, I moseyed my way over to The Artist’s Alley where people were getting set up. Since I’m not a big Print Comic Geek, I didn’t recognize a single person there. This made me feel like less of a geek overall and at one point I considered reducing my Geek Cred plan to Bronze or maybe even Ugly Brown Color. After a bit of reflection, I convinced myself that I was fine and that I could make up for this deficit in geek cred by spending more money.

I took a few turns and found myself in an area that felt very much like home. I couldn’t quite place where I was at first, but when I passed by Jeph Jaques’ booth, I realized that I had entered Web Comic Alley. At that point in time I realized that I was going to be stationed in this area for a majority of the weekend.

Without hesitation I made my way to Anthony Clark, the creator of perhaps my favorite web comic of all time and shyly bought a Beartato Shirt. I then had him draw some cool Reginald Stuff on a free comic and then we took a most rad picture together. My smile was large and in charge.

CYANIDE AND HAPPINESS?! STARSLIP CRISIS?! MULTI-fucking-PLEX?! THEATER HOPPER?! SMBC?! Everyone was there and I wanted to talk to them all. After gushing over Beartato’s Creator, I made a beeline for the Multiplex booth and chatted with Gordon McAlpin some. Very nice fellow. I was tempted to ask if he wanted to hang ever in this life time, but I felt way too creepster and it was way too early in the weekend to ask that sort of question (Sadly, I would forget on Saturday and Sunday).

“I want to buy your shirt,” I told Gordon.

“What size?” he said.

“Large,” I replied.

“Sure.” He said. “Oh wait, I don’t have it in large. I’ll get it for you tomorrow.”

There was a lot more dialog before that as well, but I don’t much feel like trying to remember all of it.

The rest of that day went pretty well. I attended my first panel, which was The Mike Mignola Q&A Spectacular. I realized about twenty minutes in that I had no clue what he was talking about. That’s the problem with being the kind of person I am. I know of a lot of things, but I never look into them like I say I will and then just end up not having enough information to care or be interested. I imagine that if I had read any sort of Hellboy comic, I might have gotten more out of the panel.

The guy was great, though! (Can I have lunch with you at Panera sometime?)

After the panel ended, I stayed in my seat and waited. See, the next thing on the agenda was the AMERICAN PREMIERE OF DOCTOR WHO SEASON MATT SMITH!!! I texted my friends who were going to be there shortly and they told me they were standing in a long ass line to get into the room that I was in. Thinking that I heard them wrong, I just told them to come in and that I had their seats warmed and ready for them. Truth be told, I hadn’t warmed their seats. Truth be told, there was an actual line outside for the premiere and the Red Shirts weren’t letting anyone in quite yet. I despaired that I would ever see my friends again in the fury of the crowd rushing in, but eventually I saw them and motioned them over to where I was sitting.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi,” they said.

The premiere started with the MC talking about how awesome we are and about how awesome the premiere was going to be. He played a pre-recorded clip of Matt Smith and Karen Gillian saying “Hellooooww Chicagoowwww.” The MC stopped the clip and talked about the two episodes we were about to watch. We all cheered when he left the stage, not because he was particularly bad or anything, but because we were about to watch Doctor Who.

It started and the lights dimmed. As soon as the opening titles hit, the crowd went nuts and we all had a giant orgy.

Last year I wrote up a post about my new years resolutions. Out of the 20 I posted, I ended up completing only one. So this year I decided to re-think the resolution thing and come up with more attainable goals so I feel less pathetic when the 2011 rolls around. Although, I have a feeling that history will repeat itself like it usually does and I’ll be writing a post similar to this one next year. Yay for New Years Resolutions, eh?

Anyway, here’s the list in all it’s listy glory.

1. Finish a final draft of Year of the Con, my nerdy road-trip comedy.
2. Acquire an Agent and a Manager to help sell my script and future ones I write.
3. Complete writing of two web series I want to produce.
4. Get at least one of the web series produced.
5. Write a third screenplay.
6. Get Photoshop CS2 and Flash 8 back on my compruter. Srsly, the newer ones blow.
7. Write every day.
8. Find either a better-paying job or a second job.
9. Start up my old webcomic.
10. Go to more shows.
11. Go to a rave.
12. Go to at least 2 nerdy conventions. Dress up for both of them.
13. Go to comic con.
14. Write a sci fi novel.
15. Complete Script-Frenzy this year and do NaNoWriMo again!
16. Write a spec script for a sitcom, hour-long drama, procedural, and whatever you call the ooey gooey goodness that’s on HBO and SHOWTIME these days.
17. More dates. Some blind dates perhaps.
18. Do one of those speed dating things and have at least as awkward a time as Steve Carrell did in The 40 Year Old Virgin.
19. Drink more cranberry juice. So delicious.
20. Get a suit. I’ve got the pants. Just need to get the rest.
21. Co-write a film script with someone.
22. Hang out more with friends and be less of an anti-social bitch. God, srsly.
23. Do two things I would never otherwise do.
24. Get my toon to level 80. God, srsly. I’m such a terrible nerd.
25. Visit at least 2 Friendfeed people. ROAD TRIP!
26. Take Killer (my cat) to the groomer. Be able to afford that.

Here’s to the new year!

Sigh.

Truth be told, I think The Dark Knight was nominated for everything it deserves. The only makeup worthy of note is the Joker’s. The only performance worthy of note is the Joker’s. There’s no art direction to speak of, and the directing is inconsistent throughout the film. The screenplay is nothing special, and feels particularly bloated with the Hong Kong sequence. Bruce Wayne was not the focus of the film, and because of that, it felt more like “The Joker” than “The Dark Knight.”

Don’t get me wrong. I enjoyed the hell out of The Dark Knight. It’s definitely a favorite of ’08. But Oscar worthy? Bitch plz!

Feel free to try and convince me otherwise, but I hold to the fact that Heath Ledger was the only AMAZING thing in that movie. The rest was WAY below the standard set by Batman Begins.