Monday, January 01, 2007

2007 is here now...

Well Happy New Year to those out there that might happen to read this. I hope your New Year's Eve was enjoyable. I carried out the usual tradition of summer sausage, cheese, and Ritz crackers (which I finished snacking on some more of a while ago) and we had a little bit of pink champagne from last year in the refrigerator. Speaking of New Year's Eve and contrary to some's belief, I thought Dick Clark looked much better than his last appearance with more mobility and a clearer speech pattern. The man IS New Year's Eve and when he no longer feels like doing it (which I think won't happen until he leaves us), I'll stop watching ABC for New Year's Eve. Ryan Seacrest is an untalented idiot. Our coffee table has more talent.

How was your Xmas? Mine was cool. Not alot of gifts as money was tight for all of us but alot of food and fellowship was had by all.

I hope 2007 is a fun year, with good health and goodwill for all. Of course until all of our troops are home and this ill-gotten calamity known as the invasion and occupation of Iraq is over, that wish won't come true. One can hope and perhaps the Democrats will hold Bush's feet to the fire to start bringing troops home. Also, they need to hurry up and get that minimum wage increase enacted ASAP. As for myself, I'd like to find a full-time job that pays well, has flexible hours, paid insurance and is fun. I'm a loyal and dedicated worker. I have excellent customer service skills and would like to find something that takes advantage of that -- if a writing job isn't in the offing, that is. I'll keep you posted on my progress in this arena.

2007 will be an interesting film year. More sequels of course. I'm most looking forward to Grindhouse on April 6th.

TV in 2007. One project has me excited and that's Drive, the new series from Angel and Firefly writer Tim Minear. It stars Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Slither, Serenity, the upcoming White Noise: The Light) and will air on FOX sometime in March or April. For more info, check out...

http://www.fox.com/drive
http://www.drivefans.com

I plan to get up early on Thursday morning and turn on C-SPAN and MSNBC to watch the 110th Congress being sworn in. Seeing Nancy Pelosi stand behind Bush and next to Cheney will be priceless.

Getting back to the topic of movies, I sincerely hope that 2007 can provide a decent slate of interesting and thought-provoking films. I hunger for David Lynch's Inland Empire, Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men (which starts playing here this Friday) and many more. Babel is playing here again, albeit only twice a day. I hope I can use connections to get to see them.

Films like the ones above provide the viewer with elements that can be discussed, deconstructed, analyzed, and debated. Said films offer scripts written with love by filmmakers that aren't afraid to take a chance and who want to bring imaginative and original stories to the masses. It is this that makes me furious when I see absolute crap like Night At The Museum rake in cash. Former cast members/writers of the excellent and edgy early '90s MTV sketch comedy series The State wrote that film. They also wrote The Pacifier (!). In a few weeks, a remake of the excellent 1986 horror film The Hitcher will be released by Rogue Pictures, genre imprint for Universal Pictures. It's utterly appalling that intelligent, thought-provoking films are continually thwarted by crap. Sheer, unmitigated crap is continually foisted upon the moviegoing public who eagerly slurp up any offal that's placed in front of them and then hungrily ask for more.

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