Taking Woodstock

Just watched Taking Woodstock. It's a great Ang Lee film. Highly recommended.

A quick film

This weekend I had the pleasure of working with a great bunch of peeps on the 48 Hour Film Festival project. Read about the Festival here. The challenge is to make a complete film during one weekend (48 hours) We drew the category of detective/cop. The required prop that had to appear was a jar of coins. The required character that had to appear was a chef named Maggie Logan and the required spoken line was "Call me as soon as you hear anything".

I was so impressed with our team and I was honored to be a part of it.

The film can be seen here.

V for Vendetta

I had been loaned the graphic novel by a kid. After reading it, I had to see the movie. Obviously the printed page is always more condusive to your own interpretation of things...but the movie was very well made. And what a great story.

"One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter"

HBO presents The Journalist and The Jihadi: The Murder of Daniel Pearl

Daniel Pearl and Omar Sheikh were both highly educated individuals from privileged backgrounds who saw the world very differently. Pearl was a humanist who became an accomplished journalist and spent most of his career reporting from the Muslim world as part of a quest to promote cross-cultural understanding. Sheikh was radicalized by events that he regarded as the global persecution of Muslims, and became an Islamic militant who chose a deeply violent method to achieve what he believed in. After 9/11, their paths crossed in Pakistan, with tragic consequences. Tuesday, October 10 at 8pm

more

Cool write-up on our friend Mackenzie.

Anyone interested?

The Dark Crystal Part Two

Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep"

Free Movies Fallen out of Copyright (Public Domain):Free Movies, Documentaries, Cartoons, Music & Comedy

We saw the movie Rent last night. It was amazing. It was very true to the stage version of the musical. The modified soundtrack was very effective in telling the gripping story and the mostly original cast performed well under the close eye of the camera. After seeing it dozens of times as an usher in SF, I was curious to see how it compared. It did not disappoint.

As we left the theatre, I thought about how it affected me on varying levels. Primarily, the show itself is such high quality. That alone is worth the price of admission. It is based on my favorite opera, La Boheme, so it wins automatically in my book. On top of that, the story focuses on a tightly knit group of young artistic city folk struggling to create an eccentric life to be proud of. I, along with countless others who happened to be doing exactly that when the musical was in it's prime, identify with the characters strongly. Even if it was only a romantic attachment to to the idea of living in an industrial loft, it still was (and still is) just that: romantic.

There is also the element of the friend family. As forces pull in all different diections, the characters rely on the connection of the close group to hold steady. The steadyness is somewhat of a religion. And, just like in life, the connection does not always hold as steady as we'd like.

It was also great to see our friend Mackenzie in the movie. Ironically, I met her when we were both ushers for Rent. She plays April, Roger's ex-girlfriend.

The movie made me miss city life and my friends. I'm glad neither are going anywhere.

See the movie!