Bush Is Debating Himself Again

George W. Bush, on Kosovo 4/9/99:

“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is...I think it’s also important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they will be withdrawn.”

George W. Bush, on Iraq 6/24/05:

“It doesn’t make any sense to have a timetable. You know, if you give a timetable, you’re — you’re conceding too much to the enemy."

I can't figure out which one to agree with, but disagreeing with the Iraq policy is unpatriotic, and I can't have that.

By the way, I am enjoying such Schadenfreude right now watching him squirm. He sounds worse and worse, his arguments get thinner and thinner (starting at a negative anyway) and his definsive tone gets bigger and bigger and it all sounds so floundering. It's wonderful. I remember almost buying the Iraq WMD thing back in the day just because to lie about such a thing and get caught would be fucking brutal, but he did, and now he's been caught, and no yellow magnetic ribbons can save him. I love it. He earned it, and it's going to make Iran/Contra look like Lewinsky scandal should've looked.

They've made a sequel to my favorite potboiler

transporter2, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

I LOVE the films that Luc Besson shits out with Robert Mark Kamen, Corey Yuen, and Joe Lettier. Together they have shat out The Transporter, Kiss of the Dragon, Wasabi, and Unleashed. I think they're all great, they have basically the same plot as The Professional, a loner (Statham, Li, Reno) gets mixed up with a girl who they have to defend from the trouble they're in, and in the process not become so much of a loner, and therefore a better person. I love the action in The Transporter, and just found out that they've made a sequel. Very very exciting. Almost as exciting as the short-haired chick in the trailer.

Edgewater Ants Will Eat Your Brain!

Edgewater Ants Will Eat Your Brain, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

I was walking to work this morning and saw thousands and thousands of ants, it was so wicked I had to take a picture, then while fumbling with my camera I spilled hot coffee on this mass of ants, instantly making me their Hitler.

Ken Mitchell Caught!

Ken Mitchell Caught!, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

In the midst of moving Matt, Fred shouts, "Hey, there's a Schadenfreude shirt!" I pulled out my digital camera and zoomed in on the pedestrian 50 yards away, and it was none other than Ken Mitchell. Way to represent Ken!

Hell Move Hour 9

Hell Move Hour 9, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

9 Hours. That's how long it took to move Matt Larsen into his new apartment. Above we see Steve Gluck and Fred Mowery trying to fit 25 pounds of shit into Matt's 5 pound box. Fred, Matt, Steve, and I lived together on 618 W. Patterson a while back, "before the dark times, before the empire." It was fun to have the entire 618 W. Patterson crew was back together, even though we were trying to shove huge couches through little doorways with lots of 90 degree angles.

Short-Haired Chick Friday

Cecile De France, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Today's short-haired chick is Cecile De France, I know I hadn't heard of her either, but I had heard of the film she stars in which is burning up the slasher genre: High Tension, or Haute Tension if you don't live in America. Evidently Ms. De France tears up the screen Bruce Campbell style and kicks major ass in what is supposedly a really great slasher movie. It's supposed to be funny too. I don't know why all these movies have to be funny too, but they do. Plus, her hair is really short.

Fish Fry!

It's Popaw!, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Hey, sorry I haven't been blogging lately. It's certainly a catch 22 in that blogging is all about revealing what's going on personally, but the more that's going on, the less time there is to blog. I went home for Father's Day as a big surprise to my Dad. I arrived at 1am, and woke him up off the couch, his brain was a little scattered having just woken up and he just stared at me tryin to make sense of why I would be standing there at 1am. The best thing was that I got to be a part of the annual Father's Day fish fry. The greatest grandpa ever, my Popaw Willard has been living and fishing in Florida since 1981, he's caught a lot of fish and mastered the art of frying them for the enitre neighborhood to enjoy. I get so tired of calling on Father's Day only to here my whole family in the background eating Popaw's fish, this year I did something about it, and ate, and ate, and ate, and defended the Democrats, and saw Star Wars Episode III with my cousins, uncles, and the best sister in the world, Jessica, who is my compatriot in arms when it comes to talking about horror movies and Bam Margera. The last movie I saw with my Uncle Ronnie was Popeye on a military base in 1981, and the last movie I saw with my Uncle Donnie was The Jerk in 1979 (which was so great, I WAS 7!). I was already obsessed with comedy and that was the greatest thing for me, when I got back and wouldn't shut up about Steve Martin my fate in comedy would be made complete when my Step-Father gave me his vintage "Let's Get Small" cassette. Which brings me to my life today.

Remember how Rumsfeld was defending Guantanamo last week.

Halliburton to build new $30 mln Guantanamo jail

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Halliburton Co. unit will build a new $30 million detention facility and security fence at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding about 520 foreign terrorism suspects, the Defense Department announced on Thursday.

And freedom, we're keeping it open so Americans will have freedom too.

Short-Haired Chick Friday: Batman Week Edition

Tank Girl, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

When you want a short-haired superhero, you need Tank Girl. Not really a superhero, but based on a comic book and coming out in the famine of Live Action Superhero movies prior to Blade. Somewhere in between The Rocketeer and The Shadow. In there somewhere. Lori Petty is super cute, but this movie is super shitty. She's way cuter in Point Break, perhaps her cutest performance.

Soon, soon I shall see it.

Soon, soon I shall see it., originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Well, it's out there. It exists, it begs me to see it right now and I'm in that fun area where I might say fuck it and go any minute. I'm working on the long-awaited Schadenfreude documentary as I have to return the Video8 camera next week. But I'm thinking about ditching for Two Hours. I have made a LONG tradition of gearing up for the release of any superhero movie by watching lots of Superhero movies in the leadup. I would at least like to watch some of Batman 1, 2, 3, & 4 to get geared up. Though, given the title of this film that's a more absurd prospect than normal. Well I'm procrastinating from working on the doc by blogging. Man I can't wait. It's out there. It exists. Someone's watching the new Batman right now because there's a new Batman right now. Is it just me or is the excitement around this one tamer than previous Batman's, is the concept of having a Batman movie now taken much more for granted? Or is it that this one is considered more mature and so we're acting a little more like it's a Woody Allen film opening in the early 80's, where we're all excited, but don't show it, because showing your excitement over a movie is for Star Wars fans.

Batman week continues with The Bigfoot of Superhero Movies

The Bigfoot of Live Action Superhero Movies, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

I swore I saw it when I was a kid but was never completely sure if such a thing existed. I remembered being 5, sitting on the floor of the apartment watching the Justice League, live action all gather onstage, EVERYBODY was in it, Hawkman, Green Lantern, The Flash. Later in life I had a flashback to this show, I asked everyone I knew, nobody had ever heard of such a thing. It's a tv movie that starred the entire Justice League, live action, how could it exist and nobody remembered it. Finally I moved to a city that had sense enough to hold the second biggest comic convention in the US. I went to my first con and asked the bootleg video booth guys, they knew it, and pointed me right to it. It was called Legend of the Superheroes, and yes it starred the entire Justice League, live action. I was so happy when I finally held it in my hands, with the picture you see all dot-matrix printed and slipped into a plastic video case. Not only did it exist, but I was going to watch it for the first time in 20 years. When I did I was back in Ohio, 5 years old again, and enjoying every moment of this complete piece of shit, but a piece of shit that really warmed my heart, plus, again, there was no X-Men 2 in 1978, most Superhero things were very innocent and very shitty, but compared to nothing, were superhero movies nonetheless.

I also found something else that day at the con, something else the NOBODY knew anything about. A Star Wars movie that came out in between Star Wars and Empire and only aired on tv once. Sound like a bigfoot? Sound like a lie? Again, I remembered seeing this Star Wars thing on tv and being as excited as any kid in 1978 would be about anything Star Wars related, but you must understand my frustration when nobody had heard of it, then I really did think I was crazy, IT WAS STAR WARS for fucks sake! How was I the only one who had heard of this? Well that exists too, and it has Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and an animated Boba Fett. So I wasn't crazy, though CBS was, because they made a piece of shit.

Both the Star Wars Holiday Special and Legends of the Superheroes give really good insight to what the REST OF THE WORLD was thinking while visionaries like George Lucas and Richard Donner were making Star Wars and Superman. If the EXACT SAME IDEA (even after Lucas and Donner had done their version) were given to almost anyone else in the industry at the time, they would have Princess Leia singing with Jefferson Starship (I did not make that up).

OLD SCHOOL!!!! I got two words for you FUCKING SHAZAM

Dude, that's fucking Shazam, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

It's still Batman week, and the fawning over past Live Action Superhero Movies and TV shows continues.

In the late 70's on Saturday mornings, after all the good cartoons like Plastic Man, Fangface, Scooby-Doo, and Superfriends were finished, you would watch Tarzan and Fat Albert, but after Fat Albert aired, the cartoons were officially over and you had your choice of watching Solid Gold or going outside to re-enact that morning's Johnny Quest with the neighborhood kids. OR, for a couple months in '79 you could watch Shazam and Isis. Filmation, a company so named because they shot their shows on what had to be 8mm film, produced a total of twenty-some Episode of a live action Shazam. Oh, this show was so good. We loved this show so much. It was the exploits of some old man in a Winnebago and his odd reltionship with a young boy, Billy Batson. They drove the Winnie all over the country and encountered other groups of teenage boys who would get into some monkeyshines like doing drugs or joyriding or cheating on an exam or stealing or othe such childish lesson-deserving antics. They would be put into danger, and Billy Batson would say Shazam and turn into Shazam. Shazam would save the kids and then tell them off. Then at the end of the episode Shazam would talk into the camera and give you a talking to, telling you not to steal or whatever, the guy who played him had a really creepy smile and is now a huge gun advocate with his own line of hunting videos. I saw him at the comicon last year, but didn't get to close, he seems like he may snap at any moment and I've always thought a comicon is just asking for a massacre in terms of it's scale and unbalanced people anyway, a smartass comment in Jackson or Gil Gerard's direction could turn that place into a pile of bullet-riddled Army of Darkness shirts in a second.

OLD SCHOOL! Reb Brown In The Hizz!

Classic Cap!, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

I ask you to envision a 7 year old Adam Witt waiting all Saturday for the Saturday night movie, "Captain America: Death Too Soon" There was a picture of Reb in the newspaper TV supplement, and all throughout that Saturday I left it open to the page with Captain America on it, waiting, waiting until later that night, sitting through all my Granparents tv shows, Sha-Na-Na, Hee-Haw, The Mandrell Sisters, staring at Reb Brown in his glorious Captain America uniform, waiting to see what his exploits would be, and when it came on I mentally went somewhere else for two hours. You could get Hulk every week, Wonder Woman, and Shazam as well, but the Spider-Man and Captain America tv movies, those were rarities, once-a-year events. Nothing was more hypnotic than watching those. Good times.

Old School!

Classic Spider-Man!, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

A little classic Spider-Man, Nicholas Hammond style comin atcha! It's Batman week, Christian Bale is the man, but let's take a moment to respect our elders.

MAN-THING!!!!!

MAN-THING!!!!!, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Okay, fuck Batman for just one second. Yeah, sure, I know, two days left. But today is the day, let me get seriously old school here, like Reb Brown old school. My favorite genre is and always has been The Live Action Superhero Movie (LASM) and once upon a time there weren't that many of them, which made my interest special. I'm excited for see Man-Thing because I've spent far more time in the LASM drought than in the present era-of-plentiful. Back then, if it wasn't a Batman year, you watched...whatever you could get your hands on, whether it be that shitty Generation X tv movie (Generation X - the Marvel Mutant Comic not everyone born in the 70's) (1993) which I proudly watched and taped or that Matt Salinger Captain America Movie (1992) which I own thank you very much, or even the David Hasselhoff Nick Fury TV movie, which I love. Yes it was all shit but prior to X-Men 1 how was a Superhero Movie nut to pass the time between The Phantom and The Shadow?

Which brings me to Man-Thing. You see, we're so spoiled now, we've got two Live Action Superhero movies coming out this summer, the third of year (Elektra, which I love, was released in February). Four if you include Man-Thing, which nobody would. While Warner Brothers (who owns DC comics was putting out Superman (1978) Marvel (independently owned) was putting out Spider-Man the shit tv show, while DC/Warner was putting out Batman (1989) Marvel was putting out The shit Punisher (Dolph!). Aside from the pilot episode of The Hulk, Marvel put out pure shit for it's entire existence up until Blade, from Captain America (79) to Fantastic Four (93), and now they're the golden boys but Man-Thing is sure to be shit, but that's the Marvel I know and love. THIS is the Marvel who made The Trial of The Incredible Hulk tv movie with the worst Daredevil ever and Sallah as Kingpin.

GODBLESS them and the Man-Thing out on video today. Today I'm back in 1988 and Blade had never been produced, and it never begat X-Men, and that never begat Spider-Man, The Hulk, Fantastic Four, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, and I know that this would be my only superhero fix for the year. So I'm buying Man-Thing today. I'm like Nicholas Hammond old school.

Now here's the question of the day. Will they run their spiffy Marvel Films logo in front of this one or disown it?

When's the last time you were told whether to be worried or not?

I just got really curious about what threat level we were under right now because nobody talks about it anymore. I know we all make fun of it, but that terror alert chart is dumb. I guess I'll be the last guy to call it out. It's just so funny that it was the most important thing in the world, the thing you checked along with the weather channel before you left for work. Well it's Yellow right now on Monday, June 13th 2005, just so you know. So there is a SIGNIFICANT risk of a terror attack today, kinda like yesterday. Yellow's the average, it's been yellow ever since we were significantly attacked, and I think it was orange a few times too, you know, for the holidays. I guess it should've been Green all this time if it were anything close to accurate. But it's never been Green or Blue. Not in four years has the chance of terror attack been anything but SIGNIFICANT. Our governments funny, and we all know it, but we don't do anything about it but gather all in one place so we fuck our chances of winning the electoral college. And blog, we blog too.

It's Batman Week!

The agony, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Everybody's excited about Batman Begins. And if you're not, from what I've heard, you ought to be, yes you, the guy who hates those stupid movies, evidently even you can get excited about this one. And being predisposed to liking live action superhero's enough to be excited about Man-Thing's straight-to-video debut, I am of course excited as hell.

But probaby the man most excited about this, even more so than Chris Nolan or Christian Bale is Joel Schumacher. Perhaps the bricks and garbage will stop being thrown through the window of his Beverly Hills home, perhaps finally the mailbox will be unbashed in the morning, and maybe just maybe the only shit in his yard will be from his little gay dog and none of it will be on fire.

I feel sorry for Joel Schumacher. Here's a self-made man who made it all the way to the top, braved a tougher Hollywood than most, directing shit like D.C. Cab to great movies like Falling Down, Lost Boys, and Flatliners. But all he'll ever be remembered as is the buy that fucked up Batman. It's such a pervasive theory, that my friggin' grandma knows Joel Schumacher fucked up Batman. It would not surprise me if he blew his head off this week, EVERY SINGLE magazine, paper, trade magazine, website, chatroom, everything I've read about the new Batman also mentions that Joel fucked the last two up.

But Live Action Superhero movie prior to Blade go, how far off was Batman & Robin? We act like the movies got campy "all of a sudden" but how far is Schwarzeneggar from Tommy Lee Jones, and how far is Tommy Lee Jones fron Danny Devito, and how far is Danny Devito from Nicholson? None of this is THAT far from the original Batman, just one too many nudges in that direction I guess. That mixed with a pure misunderstanding of the audience, and some really stupid stuff. I like Batman Forever a lot, there's some real good stuff in there. I know plenty will disagree, sure it's colorful, but the Robin story has some weight to it, and Kilmer is really good, I love Kilmer as Batman, more than Keaton. But even if you considered Batman Forever the standard-bearer of the franchise, Batman & Robin is still off the mark. But no more so than any fourth entry in any franchise (unless you renumber your series like Lucas did, but we all know what the fourth film is)

Although, I should say, as far as "bombs" like Batman & Robin go, we should all be so lucky to have a bomb that makes $230 mil before DVD.

Short-Haired Chick Friday

Natalie!, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Here's your short haired chick of the week. I love short hair on women, I think Nastassja Kinski ruined me when I saw Cat People at an impressionable age. Well now a very attractive woman in her own right has joined the ranks and Alien 3'd her hair for "V for Vendetta", produced by the Wachowski Brothers, based on the Alan Moore comic book. Natalie, first you turned 18, that was a very sexy move, then you starred in Star Wars (quick path to my heart), then you played a stripper (quicker path), now you've shaved your head. Seriously, there's no reason to try this hard to get me, you should focus on your career.

THX11384EB

THX11384EB, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Rereading Skywalking: The Life and Films of Geroge Lucas. I never realized how much George Lucas was the Tarantino of his time. Say what you will about The Phantom Menace, you can't find a more perfect beginning of a career, it would take 25 years for another film to come out that had the impact of American Graffiti (Pulp Fiction), and I don't know if a film more radical than THX 1138 has been greenlit by a major studio since. And then of course, his third film. We forget how radical his third film was, how visionary, how new, the world had never seen anything like it. From 1965 to 1977 nobody was better. We're so spoiled now, sitting on our asses, eating doritoes, complaining that Lucas doesn't work doesn't stand up to our standards, and saying how we coudl make a better Matrix Reloaded.

Observations on G.I. Joe while watching Season 1 Disc 1

Zartan!, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Tomax and Xamot, the leaders of the Crimson Guard were this twins who ran a megacorporation and funneled all their money into Cobra. Imagine if the head of Dow was running the resitance in Iraq. Considering the G.I. Joe was made during Reagan and was all ra ra, we're American, and you suck, this is a pretty awesome fuck you to big business. The Crimson Guard doubly so because they all dress up as businessmen and live next to you in your neighborhood, even their wives don't know, but they're the elite of the elite with Cobra. And when these simple businessmen get the call they don the Crimson Guard uniform and go fight. It's taking the communist scare thing (your best friend could be a communist) but saying that businessmen ar the communists.

Mutt and Dusty let Duke out of some laser prison and he slaps them both low fives. awesome.

Is Mutt supposed to look like Burt Reynolds?

They use the word terrorist a lot. Back when it didn't mean anything.

Roadblock reminds me of my old roommate, especially when he gets angry and yells.

They sure find a use for the Bridgelayer, every episode they have a chasm that must be crossed. Which is funny, because I had the bridgelayer when I was a kid and never found one chasm for that useless toy.

I love how many characters there are, perhaps the best ensemble cartoon of all time? Althought they don't have the diversity of the characters from Transformers, they all had a lot of personality.

Snake Eyes is awesome, Storm Shadow is awesome, but Quick Kick was bullshit.

There are three types of men in this world, those who like Scarlett, those who liked the Baroness, and those who like Lady Jaye. To this day I am still a serious Lady Jaye guy.

I'm wondering why Alpine and Bazooka and Shipwreck are such prominent characters leading all the stories, as opposed to Duke who's the leader. And then I realize that these action figures were all introduced at the same time, they were probably new when this show was airing. Buy Shipwreck kids, look at all the cool stuff he does. I guess that would explain the bridgelayer as well.

Snake Eyes just breakdanced. Out of control.

The Worst Job I ever Had (the many temp jobs of Adam Witt)

There's a place on Wacker Dr. going North from the loop, where it hits the river and starts going East. A shitty place to spend your smoke breaks. Staring at Wacker where it curves. Inside this building is a cheap jewelery wholesaler who has all these cheap little stores that they put in places like Bowling Green, Ohio where nobody’d know the difference.

The Main Office of this Mega corporation was so small. Like a one bedroom apartment. The whole office and BREAK ROOM were all in the same room. So at some point when the cubicles that were stuck in between filing cabinets (leaving some businessguys only a 1 in 10 chance of getting out of their desk with their businessguys knees intact. At the end of all the hallway created by the space in between desk and in between filing cabinets was a glass partition and 20 Asian women all speaking asian in a room the realistically could fit 12 if you took the two bad seats with your back to the vending machine. They all worked sorting diamonds in the diamond area.

This was a people-first kind of place.

I worked with another buy, a black kid, and the only thing I remember about him was that he went to GNC at lunch and came back with like a billon millgram Vitamin E, because it makes you able to screw longer. Never heard that since.

This is unbelievable, so there we are sorting out complaints and we put one color highlighter in an interoffice envelope and put it in one postal bin and another color highlighter in another interoffice envelope and put that in another postal bin. Exciting stuff, huh? Once our fascination with the job and our drive to do it better wore off Mr. All-night-long and I started talking, then joking, then having a good time, and then we got SHUSHED! The woman in charge of telling us what to do (and answering any questions should a highlighter of a third color show up) SHUSHED us! Like we were in fourth grade. Now, of course we were loud, their stupid upper management shoved all of these fearful underground dwellers in the smallest office in the world! You numbskulls! Who would work for this company, hey, I’m just here for a few days, you people have committed. Oh, they were so sad.

Okay, anyway, so The Coked Up Boss. So I knew they weren’t spending money on real estate, and then one day I figured out where all the money was going. We got SHUSHED by The Big Guy. He was so 45 and bald and overly Florida Tanned because he vacationed all the time because all the money went to him and he was so coked up and angry, so angry. And I guess Mr. Dickhard and I were being too loud too often so Mrs. Pleasedontfireme calls on the big guy, who comes in an tells us to shut up like your Mom would when you’re 13 and you know everything and you’ve pushed your her to the end of her rope during an all-day mall outing.

So later I’m looking for a phone, because they were all at desks with people in this tiny place. So I wander into, what I later assume was the luxuriously large executive lounge and make a call from what I later assume was the executive phone, and the Coked-Up guys busts me and assumes I’m stealing money. And treats me like a guy he caught trying to steal money! I’ve never been yelled at so bad in my life. I went back to my sorting job, only to have the Coked-Up guy walk to the door and point to me “that’s the guy” he says as a security guard escorts me out of the worst job I ever had.

Kelly Nichols, the Nail-Gun Girl

Kelly Nichols, the Nail-Gun Girl, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Okay, so I was just having a conversation with a friend on the fact that slasher films were the only place to see nudity back in the day. We were marveling at how, considering that sex and violence were psychologicall linked in EVERY MOVIE WE SAW in our formative years, that we turned out just fine but kids today see the word "sex" in the sky in the Lion King and end up killing their kindergarten class? Perhaps the problem is not the one we claim.

The Toolbox Murders, Pre-Porn Porn, and the Nerdiest thing I ever said

Bit by bit...by bit he carved a nightmare, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

So I see the new Toolbox Murders is out, the one directed by Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). I haven't seen it but hae a great love for the original. It starts where all my interesting childhood stories start, with my childhood best friend Richard Jones. In the 1980's when VCR's had been invented, the big studios were unaware of how much money they were losing by not glomming onto this new format, there were hundreds of video stores bringing in unprecedented amounts of money and Hollywood was ignoring it. But the exploitation production companies were not. These guys were so independent they'd make the Weinstein's puke and if only the Weinsteins could see a return on their investment like these guys did, there likely will be no era like it again for indies. These guys were cranking out low-budge movies and selling for $100 a copy to stores that would make that back in a week based on the demand. Also Friday The 13th and Halloween had become money printing presses, money invested in making a slaher film had a guaranteed return on investment of thousands of times the money put in. It had a built-in market and could make tons of money in theatre's and then go onto video and clean up again. These two factors led to two things, LOTS of slasher movies, and Richard and I watching ALL of them.

One of the great advantages of slasher films was, not only were they good entertainment, but they all had nudity in them, which was a HUGE selling point and increased the butts in the seats, and definitely the amount of pre-pubescent teens watching movies they already wanted to see just based on violence alone!. In an age prior to getting our hands on real porn, this is how you saw women nude. The best nude scenes ever pre-porn were the shower scene in Porky's (duh), the sex scene in Scream For Help (Lolita Lorre), and the Nail Gun Girl in the original Toolbox Murders (Kelly Nichols). She was gorgeous and was nude for SO LONG. I later found out that she went onto a successful porn career, which is so weird, the girl from Toolbox that we all wanted as kids is naked somewhere else, and even dirtier.

This all brings me to the nerdiest thing I ever said. I was Odd Obsession and I was looking at their slasher collection and recognizing SO MANY old favorites, and I picked up the movie Pieces, at an advanced age, unable to be able to tell many of my old slasher movies apart I asked the Brian "Is this the one that takes place in the hotel? Because sometimes I get Pieces confused with Toolbox Murders and Driller Killer" I then stopped, and shook my head in embarrassment. Anywhere else I would've been made fun of, but luckily I was in Odd Obsession. Brian hugged me and said "It's okay, you're in a safe place." Godbless him.

One Year!!!!

Superman Returns, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

It's great to have him back isn't it?

For anyone who hasn't seen, this is the first look at Brendan Routh as Superman from Bryan Singer's Summer 2006 Event. I am a serious old school live action superhero movie fan, long before Blade started this new wave of Superhero films. I LOVE Richard Donner's Superman, and after all the false starts with Tim Burton, Nic Cage (1996), McG (1999), Brett Ratner (2001), and McG again (2003) I am personally very happy to see someone in that suit again and am ready to believe once again that a man can fly.

Two Weeks!!!!!

Batman Begins, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

Matthew Vaughn not directing X-Men 3

Just read the Matt Vaughn (Lock, Stock, Snatch, Layer Cake) will not be directing X-Men 3. I was very excited to see Matt Vaughn's take on something the had to overcome great odds to become a great series to begin with. Now here's the super Joel Schumacher sized kicker, Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, Rush Hour 2, Rush Hour 3) will be stepping in. Ew, makes you hurt all down deep inside doesn't it? I wonder if he'll cast Richard Pryor just for a little of that Superman III magic. He should have the X-Men make fun of themselves, comment on how stupid superheroics are, that always makes for a good turn in the third outing of any movie. Then again, it might be hard to fuck up, it's still Bryan Singer's cast. And would I rather have Bryan Singer directing this than Superman? Never.

How To Behave When Company Comes Over

So evidently Sandy and I made asses out of ourselves in front of the company last night. We had a couple Public Radio producers from Sweden stop by the studio last night to observe our process. We know how to behave ourselves, but sometimes we forget that other people are around and interrelate the way we do when nobody’s around. We’re not afraid to tell each other what we think, sometimes in the rudest of terms.

So I completed my draft of Episode 55, a day behind schedule. I assumed it needed a lot of work and put a lot of work into it. Sandy works faster, but pays less attention to detail, I’m a detail guy and that annoys Sandy, Sandy says things are “done” whether they are done or not and that annoys me. Deadline’s are more important to Sandy. I’m not Mr. Deadline, I will noodle and mess with my art until far past the deadline, which is why Stephe makes up fake deadlines for the submission of my films, godbless him (although I even fucked that up yesterday, I don’t know why anyone even works with me anymore). So I was supposed to send Sandy a new draft of Ep55 last Friday Morning, I didn’t send it until 9pm, 12 hours late. I didn’t want to send a work in progress only to have the exact thing I didn’t get to receive the comment that it wasn’t good. Plus I had to sleep and go to work, it’s not like I had ALL DAY to work on it.

So we’re going through Episode 55, with our two Swedish friends in attendance, and after going over Act 1, Sandy feels the need to point this out to everyone, that I take too much time on my scripts. He needles me by doing his demeaning impression of me doing my work. Sometimes I can take a joke, sometimes I can’t, I was proud of the draft I turned in, so this was one of the times I couldn’t, I’m normally tightlipped on the shortcomings of my friends, but I let Sandy have it, all my thoughts on the draft he turned in and why it sucked and we just got into a pissing match, right there in front of the Swedes. Back and forth back and forth.

I didn’t think anything of it until it was pointed out later that the Swedes jaws had dropped watching Sandy and I “fight” and that Justin wasn’t engaging in conversation with them, he was actually distracting them. We were arguing and I assumed Justin and Kate were in a conversation with them, I didn’t realize that we had caused it, so Sandy and I kept going because Justin and Kate were busy. Conversing. It was awful and ultimately just an excuse to work less on the Episode.

Ironically, in the end, neither Sandy or I’s contributions to the show last week mattered much, it’s been rewritten again by the group, again by Justin, again by Sandy, again by the group.

It took me 20 minutes to write this. Sandy would’ve done it in five. It would be shorter, but it would be more efficiently done and you, the reader, should respect that.

THE CHILLOUT MOVIE

What a Crazy Teacher, originally uploaded by PinthGarnell.

I'm reinstating the chillout movie. The chillout movie was the movie you popped in every day when you got home from school. From the invention of the VCR through much of college I always had the chillout movie, throughout grade school my friends and I had a contest to see how long you could keep the same chillout movie, through how many successive viewings on successive days. My first chillout movie, and I think many people's was Fletch. Fletch was my chillout movie off and on, and my two different records were ten days straight and eleven days straight. If only I hadn't taken a break that would be my record setting movie, my record setting movie ultimately was Ghostbusters with 21 days straight, number two Lethal Weapon at 15. Breakfast Club is in there somewhere and to this day I can say all the words to the first fifteen minutes of Fletch and Breakfast Club. Ultimately the Ghostbusters record fell when Richard Jones discovered Summer School and clocked in 29 viewings.

Chainsaw? As in “Black & Decker?”
No, as in “Texas Massacre”

The only reason I bring this up is that Stephe, Sandy and I in the wake of Star Wars Episode III have been quoting a lot of Star Wars, but we only ever quote Episodes IV through VI for obvsious reasons. We’re now on a mission to get quotes from Episode I, II, and III into our lexicons. That means making Star Wars Episode I my new chillout movie. And by the way, it’s not as bad as you made it out to be in your mind. As one of our Episode III opening day viewers said: “It’s much more disappointing to thing about than it is to watch.” Plus it’s young Obi-Wan, how bad can it be?