I used to hate Hugh Grant in every movie he appeared in. Then he was a part of the fabulous ensemble cast of ‘Love Actually’ and his suckage rating went way down. Today we saw him with Drew Barrymore in ‘Music and Lyrics’, which was a helluva lot of fun. Drew is as cute as I’ve ever seen her (and that’s pretty darn cute) and Grant’s character is likable, funny and altogether someone you’d be pleased to know. It’s a light movie with a ton of laughs and personalities you actually believe in and want to root for. Check it out.

New Hotness

We got the new hotness in a work. About 8 months back I put in a request for phatty-boom-blatty HD camera and editing system, with little hope of it happening. Found out right before we left for NYC that we got it. Received all the pieces and set it up on Friday. We’re talking tricked out Mac Pro system with a freakin’ huge monitor, a really nice video camera and the Final Cut Pro editing suite. It’s all so sexy!

I’ve never gotten around to really blogging about the NYC trip, out of pure exhaustion, and it’s not likely that I will. So I’ll try to share a few photos here and there. You know, for continuity.

Gene at the New York City Comicon

NYC sandwich shop with an awesome name.

Signature of Brian K. Vaughn, writer of Y: The Last Man, new story editor on Lost and number one super guy.

Animated Batman bank, purchased at the con. Nine dollars and 99 cents of awesomeness. (For some reason, you can't see his mouth in the photo...)

Wendy and I have returned from our adventure to New York City for a stay with the lovely Gene and Mary. I had intended to blog extensively this evening about the trip, but I’m still exhausted from all the travel. For now, I share this photo from the New York Comic Con:

Nothing like watching a Storm Trooper and a Tie Fighter Pilot dancing to pass the time in an exceptionally long line.

Tonight, Wen and I watched “The Prestige”, a flick starring a handful of my favorite actors (Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Scarlett Johansson and Michael Cane) by a favorite director (Christopher Nolan). Alas, I didn’t enjoy this flick so much. The never ended twists got old after awhile, and Nolan’s love of twisting time annoyed me repeatedly. Strangely, the film’s most outlandish conceipt didn’t annoy me as much as a simpler but unforeshadowed one. Plus, the final big reveal (of around ninety) was obvious way ahead of time.

Another fantastic show from Carbon Leaf. Last Friday, a small contingent of Armadians attended the CL headlining show at the Blueberry Hill Duck Room. It was the band’s first sold-out St. Louis show, which they were obviously excited about. Somebody offered Doug a hundred bucks for his ticket (which he turned down). The concert was incredible, an absolutely revelatory performance. Carbon Leaf is my favorite band. Wen and I have seen them live four times now. This show was my favorite so far. Interesting show highlight: they began their encore by going completely unplugged. No mics, no amps, just the band (sans drums) projecting “Learn to Fly” to a packed room struggling to remain silent. Other highlights – friggin’ everything.

Dork out moment: Doug, Wen and I walked up to CL guitarist Terry Clark after the show to shake hands (and hugs from Wen). Before even exchanging a greeting, he tells us that the bands sound tech had spotted Doug’s shirt (which says “Joss Whedon is my Master Now”) and excitedly called the bands attention to it through their ear-monitors. Turns out the band just watched all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD via their laptop while on tour. They were completely stoked to see a Whedon fan in the crowd. We all dorked out for a minute, and insisted that they spend some quality time with “Firefly” next (appropriately, I was wearing my “Browncoat” shirt from “Serenity”). It’s good to know that our favorite band is our kind of people.

Hot Blog-on-Blog Action: awhile back I commented on a short story collection, “Little Gods” by Tim Pratt, that I had really enjoyed. I sent the author an email telling him how much I liked the book, and which stories I found most affecting. He was kind enough to write back about a week later. He also apparently checked out my blog (the link is on my email signature), and wrote about my comments on his own online journal (he linked off to me, too). Pretty cool. This evening, we made a Borders run and I picked up Pratt’s novel “The Strange Adventures of Ranger Girl”, to be perused during our upcoming trip to New York to visit Mary and Gene.

I also cashed in all of my Christmas gift certificates and, with a 30% coupon, picked up Absolute Sandman volume one for just over fourteen bucks (it’s regularly priced at $99). I discovered Sandman with issue #50 in early high school and have been a Neil Gaiman fan every since. This Absolute edition collects the first four story arcs of Sandman in an oversized hardcover with a gorgeous slipcase. The pages have been recolored, and it includes a slew of “special features”. Now, if the absolute editions just come out every Christmas, maybe I’ll be able to use this tactic again…

Last weekend I attended a book signing in my hometown by one of my high school teachers for her recently published book of poetry, “Leaving the Limberlost”.

I stupidly wrote the quite long journal entry about the visit in my web browser, then MySpace crashed before I could save it. I can never bring myself to rewrite a lost blog like that, so here’s a summary: 1) it was nice to see my teacher again, and talk shop about writing; 2) chatted up some other old instructors who didn’t recognize me at first with the long haired that characterized me in school; 3) had nice chats with my (long-time-no-see) high school friends Jessi and Ben. Jessi runs the coffee shop that hosted the signing which is really cute. Ben and his adorable wife actually live pretty close to Wen and I. He’s a dentist now; 4) a little hometown nostalgia got me stalking through the MySpace High School listing to find profiles of my old classmates. There’s quite a few of the folk in my class and the ones around it on the ‘Space. Mostly, I was struck by how old most of them looked (though I should note that Jessi and Ben both looked almost exactly as I remembered them). In particular, any classmates who had children looked in the neighborhood of 40ish, instead of our actual late twenties / very early thirties.

Scary stuff. Made me examine myself in the mirror for signs of age. Over the last year or so, I’ve been told several times that people think I’m a guy in his mid-thirties who looks like he’s in his late twenties. I’m not really sure what to make of that…

As previously mentioned, Wendy and I are flying out to NYC later this week. We’re working on all the preparations now. It’s been a very long time since we had any kind of vacation, so we’re pretty excited. I’m hoping Gene and I will be able to attend the New York Comic Con for a day (it happens to be going on the weekend we’re there) but, in general, we’re just stoked to spend some time with the McKellys.

Currently:
/// watching Invasion (complete series on dvd). Three episodes from the end. It’s pretty good.
/// reading Peter and the Starthieves (sequel to Peter and the Starcatchers).
/// watching Batman: The Animated Series season #1 while I work out.

. I went to Mexico recently, on a business trip. Stayed at a fancy 5 star all inclusive resort. Went to meetings, had a sports massage, did a little swimming, drank tequila and hung with my Emmis Interactive peeps from all over the nation. Good times. Special note: when you don’t want to return from Mexico looking like a lobster, look to Neutrogena SPF 45 spray on sunblock. It’s like Colt 45 for your skin – works every time!

. The DaVinci Code movie is good. Don’t believe the critics. The most thrilling ride ever? No. But still very entertaining, well acted (especially Ian McKellan – no surprise) and intriguing. I never found it slow or tedious as some reviewers remarked, but I’m usually okay with a film taking it’s time, as long as it’s justified with character development or important information. (This does not apply to Peter Jackson’s King Kong, which I believe suffers from George Lucas syndrome – Petey’s too successful for anyone to reign him in when he gets unnecessarily extravagant.) I believe that many reviewers’ opinions were directly related to their views of the novel, the questions about the ideas it presents, and the author himself. For instance, Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman’s (sp?) review was full of pointed jabs at Dan Brown, the ideas in the story, and very little to really say about the movie. Then again, between Owen and Lisa Swarzen-something-or-another, EW’s reviewing staff is the last I’d look to for sound feature-going advice.

. I’m working on some new designs for the Point website. Finally, after 4 years of looking at that ugly thing, I get to do something new. I’m totally stoked, although my workload for the next few weeks just increased dramatically.

. At a recent friend gathering, I ended up playing several games of “washers”. It marked my second instance ever, I think, of partaking in this pasttime. I’ve always found washers, and horse shoes, to be a bit hoosier. But I had fun playing at the GC house warming party, and did pretty good for my second time out – a 4-1 record, losing only to Warmouse’s wife, Lisa.

. Wendy and I are nearing completion of the “Firefly” series – the short-live sci-fi, space-western tv series created by Joss Whedon, later continued with the film Serenity. I may have said it before, but it bears repeating now: “SONS OF BITCHES!!!” This show was so well written and spectacularly acted, it’s ludicrous that the network cancelled it before allowing it to build it’s audience. They should know by now that niche genre shows take a little time to gather an audience, but when they do, they can power their way through years of programming. Even shows you’d never have thought would be popular (i.e. Stargate SG-1, Forever Knight, Highlander) built large, loyal fanbases that sustained them through many seasons. Must I mention Buffy and Angel? My new emperor Joss Whedon is off working on a Wonder Woman film (with his track record of exceptionally strong female protagonists, only he can really pull this off), but I so wish he would return to making Firefly, maybe on the Sci-Fi channel. The shows lead character, Malcolm Reynolds, has quickly become one of my all-time favorite TV personas. He’s who I want to be when I grow up…

/// Listening to “Brandi Carlile (self-titled)” by Brandi Carlile