Coming soon to a Theater and Computer screen near you!

Coming soon to this page will be another great story, this time about my family fishing adventures! This post will be here next week with a guest artist/writer friend of mine featured as the illustrator.

In other personal news: A Place to Stand, the movie, is still up and running and I'm excited to gain support and see the movie's progress in the next couple of months. If you're interested in supporting, contact me directly, visit aplacetostandmovie.com, and like us on Facebook.  See my last post here.



Back to the fishing story...

The exciting thing is that a friend of mine who has inspired my writing and blogging habits: Clara, writer of an amazing comedy blog called Clarafication will be a guest illustrator for this public journal site.  Prepare yourselves for laughs.

Some of the terrible things you can look forward to: Certain death on a fishing boat, dramamine, lots of throwing up, reeling in some big catches, and a sketchy hotel room filled with instant brew coffee.

All of these are important to the beautiful true life story that is to come. I am a big advocate of collaborative work and I think some great things will come of it.

To view my Anchorage Adventure, it's called A City by the Sea, check it out. (it's related, you'll see)

A Place to Stand

Best Films of 2011

Top ten.  Here it goes!




10. Jane Eyre

This isn't some foreign film, just an international poster for Jane Eyre that I liked a lot.  After watching Jane Eyre and realizing the story was such a gimic in the end that she just gave up to easily (Charlotte Bronte) it seemed, I realized that this was somewhat of the Twilight of the time.  The only difference being that the characters were three dimensional, and the time was interesting. By "Twlilight of the time" I mean that it was the love story everyone was falling for.  Except it didn't suck. People during the time of Bronte were able to tell the difference between good and bad writing.

Jane Eyre was well acted, directed, and technically sound in all areas.


9. Rango

I had so much fun watching this animated western.  It came out at the beginning of 2011 when there were no other good films out.  It's entertaining to see animals acting like old western characters and interesting to see the divide between animal and human characteristics as portrayed by animation.  Sometimes animals can talk about issues like water in Las Vegas that humans can understand better.



8. 50/50

This film perhaps helped me feel every emotion possible.  It touched on so many things that humans go through, loss, worry, death, cancer, the possibility of death, suffering, humor in the midst of suffering.  There was some crass humor but this movie made me respect the one on the left a little more.  Also, I already like Jason Gordon Levitt from Angels in the Outfield--a movie that maybe he wants to forget--and "3rd Rock from the Sun" the TV show.



7.Sourcecode

I've already seen Sourcecode three times and have enjoyed it with each viewing.  I'm a firm believer in seeing a movie more than once and enjoying it again the second or more time.  I think that's the mark of a good film.  Films weren't meant to be seen just once I think.  Originally the same great movies would come out once a year and people would be able to have a repeat viewing.  Like Gone With the Wind and such.  Anyway, this film is repetative to begin with.  You'll see.

It's mind boggling though! Alternate realities, strange ideas, time travel etc.  See it.









6. The Muppets

So many comedians have my respect this year. Jason Segal for example, though I haven't seen him too much before this, wrote The Muppets and performed singing numbers.  Gone are the days where people can do more than stand in front of a camera and deliver a good line while looking just right.  I loved this and I love those to actors on the poster.  Amy Adams and Jason Segal.

5. The Help

There has been a lot of complaint about this film with some silly talk about how the "white woman solved racism."  It's not about a white person solving a problem.  It's about anybody, anybody seeing that this issue needed to be talked about and doing something about it.  These issues are universal, not just to do with race.  We are all victims of racism, everyone is.  Just because someone is more privileged does not mean they don't have the right to do something about a problem.  Same goes for the underprivileged.

See The Help.  

4. The Artist

A silent movie, they call it.  For all intensive purposes, yes it is.  It plays with all aspect of what the cinema is and was to people.  It's a journey of a the cinema through the life of a man.  As if the movies themselves were personified.  Beautiful black and white piece of work.

3. Tree of Life

I think this poster is so appropriate for the film because of all the many images the film expresses.  It was the kind of montage (we call it editing but he french call it montage) that Eisenstein used to create.  It was a mixture of images to come up with a larger image, that is a larger message.  Two stories colliding.  Montage is collision as Eisenstein wrote.  (I think it was him.)  And this film had beautiful cinematography and had so many images and two stories--I would say becoming one.  The story of time itself, and that of an American family.  Shot in a way you've never seen a film before.

2. Hugo

Good think Martin Scorsese liked the 3D medium and ran with it.  This is like one of those peices of work that seem like it's been in someone's head their whole life and now that they get the chance to finally make it, it is breathtaking.  Martin Scorsese had all of those other movies his whole life to practice making this, what seems like, most autobiographical piece.  The movie that says the most about himself as a filmmaker.  Like The Artist it is a journey through the cinema.  Except this one is about a kid discovering what the magic of cinema is all about.  The BEST PICTURE of the year in my opinion.

My favorite though....

It All Comes Back to Harry

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Finale

The reason I picked Harry this year is because it brought back to me what the movies have always been about.  A social community experience.  I got to go experience the movies the way they used to be.  I went to the theater at midnight, all my friends were there, all excited to see this feature film.  It was a movie event, and that doesn't happen all that often.  I will hopefully talk about it more.  Plus it's amazing--simply the best of the year.

People were cheering, crying, laughing out loud.  People were dressed like wizards.  This was a huge mark in a cultural phenomenon.  Though not the end I think.  Harry Potter's magic will live on and we will understand it differently and more appropriately throughout our lives.  

BELOW ARE SOME MENTIONS



Honorable Mentions:
Tintin, WarHorse, Bridesmades, Crazy Stupid Love, Arther Christmas. Moneyball.

Best movie that takes place in both New Mexico and outerspace
THOR


Best movie of the year that was not released this year but was shown in theaters:
Lord of the Rings
It was remastered and had three intros by director Peter Jackson.
(There were a number of rereleases Lion King included)

Worst Movie possibly ever made:
Three Musketeers

Most Dissapointing Movie: War Horse
It used all the right tactics to get me to like the characters, I was supposed to like them because the film told me to, that's why I had a hard time.  Also the Horse had a best friend who was a horse.  It was an American Story Civil War tale like Gone with the Wind set in WWI Europe.  So many things just didn't belong there.  I thought it looked great--kudos to the cinematographer and art direction.  It just wasn't what it could have been--good.

Best Scene:
In The Artist where he has the dream and it is all in vibrant sound.  You must see it.

Best Movie going experience of all time:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. There were people dressed like wizards, brooms, goblins, house elves etc.  All there to enjoy, talk about, and wait for a wonderful movie that they all loved so dearly.  The audience I was with reacted to every expression, every moment with such appreciation.  The energy in the room was so high. That's what you go to the movies for--to laugh, cry, shout, and be in the moment.  I loved every minute of it.

Best Musical Number:
"Am I a man or a Muppet?" from The Muppets
Also the Opening number is pretty great.


Worst Best Visual Effects:
Planet of the Apes
It looked so real, the apes were expressing so much that I couldn't believe it.  No I literally didn't believe it.

Best 3D movie to date:
HUGO. See it, and see it in 3D.  It's absolutely stunning, it is beyond anything you've ever seen.  Haha beyond... whatever.

Most Montage:
Tree of Life


Best Acting:
The Ladies in The Help


Best Ensemble Cast:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
This is the best cast ever.  I'm pretty sure it's missing like 5 British Actors that I can think of, and that's it.


Best Summer Movies not released in the Summer
Sherlock Holmes and Mission Impossible 4

Thanks! featured photo etc.

Thanks to all who read! I'm having a fun time writing and posting important life information on here.  Glad this has been a part of my life.

This cat lives at our house.  We're not allowed to have pets, don't tell.

Skiing in Durango, notes on redundancy, and a curious case of the buts

Much to say about Not Skiing
A free write.

A sea monster relaxing in a Durango ski resort hot tub.

I decided long ago that I needed to do more things in life to enjoy it more.  I agreed to go on a ski trip to Durango.  It has been a wonderful experience mostly because I did anything BUT ski.  That's right, 'but' in capital letters and standing out as a preposition works in many ways here.  But here, I must interject more buts.  (Here my but functions as a conjunction and another is the subject). The things that I did instead of ("instead of" is quasi functioning as my but here) was lots of hot tubbing, going on a dangerous run that could have cost me my life if I had serious heart problems (but I don't), and enjoying the laughter of great friends I made who wanted nothing but laughter.

They teach you not to be redundant but I beg to differ.

Redundancy is a part of life and it is something necessary to enjoy it properly.  For example, if you are going on a ski trip to Durango as I did, but (or "though" in this case) I didn't actually ski, you would want to go on the ski lifts over and over again and you would go down the slopes over and over again in a redundant fashion. That's the only way you enjoy yourself and eventually get better at it or anything in life.

If you ski a lot you will be better at skiing, but writing is different, or so they insist.  For instance, it would be completely silly for me to repeat myself in a college essay they say.  But I repeat my thesis at the end of that essay, and I repeat my thoughts just in case you missed it.  In fact this is how they tell you to write an essay basically: "Tell them, Tell them what you just told with three solid points, and tell them again."  But don't be redundant, that's just annoying.  


So, to review.  I went skiing, but I didn't ski.  I'm ok with talking about and using buts a lot while I write.  And I think that redundancy is necessary in life, but it's annoying to English professors even though they profess that doing it is what makes the best essay. "Just kidding but don't, but seriously, do it."

The same sea monster relaxing in the same hot tub.

I wrote no essays while I didn't ski.  I began a letter which "should" be a lot like an essay, but it's not.  I began a journal entry which probably should be freely written but it always ends up being summed up and more organized than most essays I've ever written.  That's the trouble with writing, the more you practice, (like skiing) the better you get.  The more I practice writing, the more I think about all the rules I'm supposed to be following.

I sat in a hot tub in Durango while my friends skiied.  I told myself to relax and do very little to keep my mind occupied and worried about things that don't need to be worried about. These rules about having no rules are quite troubling and hard to follow like writing, skiing, using buts, and snowboarding.  There is a time to follow no rules and there is a time to follow all the rules, and relaxing is a lot like free writing where inhibitions in your mind still interrupt your freedom.  It's like, "no I want to write about candy, but I don't want to forget those awesome turnips that I ate too!"

Going skiing on my trip would have been like deleting a bad paragraph that just didn't fit with the tone of my college essay.  That paragraph would have likely been redundant with lot of buts.  Though I wanted to, relaxing, thinking, praying, spending time with people, and such, was what I came for. "That was what I was going to do dang it!"  I had time to run up and down the hill to the ski resort from the highway, catch amazing vistas, spend some quality time with some quality people, and get some quality relaxation in.

I share my inhibitions about writing with you dear reader (if you have managed to make it this far) because it is a lot like the way my mind works.  You see, my mind skis down slopes and manages to make the best runs at times with nothing getting in its way.  If it does see a  tree, it coolly goes around, if it makes a jump on a pass, it lands smoothly.  But. It isn't always like that. Many times it is like a bad run, it thinks that the tree really does affect it, it is afraid of the jumps and never lands smoothly.  If it lands terribly, it pretends to get up and say it was just fine with excuses as to why it fell down in the first place. 

At times your mind wants nothing to do with skiing, it wants to take no risks, not fall down, not win awards, not be the best.  Because the best thing for it is to enjoy what is around it and not make any more or less of what is around it than what it is. 

On this ski trip, I learned all the more about wanting more and more.  That is I learned about the concept of "wanting" itself not wanting more things necessarily.  The thing that causes us pain is wanting things to go a certain way.  This is the thing I've learned most this year.  Knowing that everything will NOT go as planned is a relief.  Because you know that much already.  Some things are just inevitable.  You will likely loose money, you will likely mess up, you will probably feel bad.  But the nice thing about that all is that lots of good things will happen in a way that you never expected as well.

It was nice to NOT want to ski.  Because then I didn't have to want to ski better, or perfectly, or something.  I don't mean to say, "avoid things and you'll be happy" or "don't ski and you'll appreciate things more" or something lame like that.  I'm using skiing as an example to say something bigger.

An unfortunate man.  (His identity kept secret).

Here it goes: Why want so many things when we already have everything to begin with?  God gave us everything we need. Everything is inside us if we look to it an accept it.  With that knowledge, we can do something with it.  With the understanding and the choice to live life as if you have been given all you need already, there is so much to do.

This is basically a free write. But. You know, there were some touch ups here and there.  So to sum again:  Skiing is great, do it because you already have JOY in you, not because you need JOY from it.  And Joy will come of you doing it.  (Skiing is a life example here, not something to live your life by.)

Like I said, this was a free write.  Conclusion, conclusion, conclusion, something that sums up things with Buts, skiing, redundancies, redundancies, redundancies and free writes now I guess.  God gives you so much so accept it.

Also: Cats.