BEST OF 2006

Albums:
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins-Rabbit Fur Coat
Camera Obscura-Let's Get Out Of This Country
Cat Power-The Greatest
Pearl Jam-Pearl Jam
The Killer's-Sam's Town
The Raconteurs-Broken Boy Soldiers
The Decemberist's-Crane Wife
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs-Show Your Bones

Looking Foward to in '07...
The Shins
Arcade Fire
Block Party
(fingers crossed) Interpol

Movies:
The Departed
Little Miss Sunshine
Marie Antoinette
The Fountain
United 93
Thank You For Smoking
Brick
The Proposition

On My Way To The Theatre To See...
Children of Men
The Good German

Worst Movie Of The Year (Maybe of all time?)
X-Men III

Dark Horse for Best Movie of the Year come Oscar Time...
She's The Man (Amanda Bynes is sooooooo funny)(No seriously you guys get it on video and tell me you don't love it)

Favorite New Hobby of '06:
Listening to Podcasts on the subway-Creative Screen Writing & Filmspotting- Two Faves

LORDS OF THE MOVIE MARATHON!










Amber and I did today what we have spent many a conversation contemplating. We watched the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (extended versions) back to back to back. We are in New York alone for the holidays and it seemed like a perfect way to spend an entire day with nothing to do. So here is the strategy we used to acomplish what some might say is the impossible... To watch a straight eleven hours of LOTR..
First- Exersize early- we walked the dogs to the park and then to the store for junk food (We are athletes, mind you).
Second- Well planned eating schedule-
1-Captain Crunch for breakfast
2-McDonalds for lunch (zaps all energy that would keep you from wanting to move during daytime)
3-Chips and dip + cheese puffs (for end of first movie, stamina is what I'm talking about here)
4-Energy drinks around Two Towers (prevents slipping into coma after McDs and other junk)
5-Chinese for dinner at half hour mark of Return...
6-Keep Sour Jacks in close proxemity at all times.
7-Green iced tea all day long (antioxidents help body fight all that immune system crushing sugar)
We Started at 11:50 am EST Sunday and finished at 12:41 am EST the next day (Oh Merry Cristmas all). Eleven hours of LOTR stretched into 12 hours 51 minutes with bathroom breaks and taken phone calls.
In conclusion it has been quite a journey we have been on today. A journey I would recomend to anyone who thinks they are as hard core as Amber and I are. Not many are though I imagine. The movies move very quickly and here at the end it doesn't feel like we just sat through all three. Peace Out and Merry Christmas!

You Probably did not hear it here first.
The new Shins album is due in January, and they have a video for the single Phantom Limb on youtube. Check it out if this link works, if not cut and paste. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkITsv3Nk6M

Happy Birthday Mr. Burt!

Welcome to the old man club. Trimming nose hair is soo fun.

Running with the bulls.
Christmas shopping is more fun when you are at a loss for oxygen because the sidewalks are packed from buildings to street with angry people. Merry New York Christmas.

It's the, the, the, THE GRINCH!

We saw The Grinch on Broadway this last Thursday. The theatre was beautiful and full of wide eyed little kids. It was a very fun show, although the magic of the film is probably unattainable on stage. Patrick Page (who previously played Scar in the stage version of The Lion King) was menacing and charming and really made the show. I would recomend the show for families with small children.

NYFA Has A Blog!
My class has started a blog at nyfaclass.blogspot.com so check it out and you can see all my nerdy friends talking about nothing but movies (not that anything else matters). KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!

Movies To Check Out:
Some recent favorites of mine (I've had a little free time)
Theatre
Casino Royale
The Fountain
Marie Antoinette
Video
Deer Hunter
Curious George
Millions
Ed Wood
Thank You For Smoking
She's the Man
The Proposition
Postman Always Rings Twice

One Man's Treasure...

There is a very intersting phenomena that happens in an apartment riddled city like New York. People leave apartments all the time and moving furniture is a giant pain. So much so, that an alternative to moving all your stuff is just leaving your furniture behind when you relocate. It is a big factor in this phenomena that movers and vans and packing supplies actually cost more than just replacing the furniture from Ikea. Having said all this my very good friend Lucas has introduced me to the art of furniture scavaging. All this furiture that people leave behind usually just gets put to the curb on trash night by the landlords. So when one finds a piece that might just fit in their apartment they are not only getting free furniture they are saving the landfill space. Lucas has found a couple of nice pieces in the last year and called me tonight to let me know of an armoire that he spotted on the curb in front of his building (Amber has been looking for just such a piece). So we wandered over and snagged that beauty before anyone could beat us to the punch. Getting it up the stairs was a reminder that I really want to leave all of my furniture here when I move (we don't have an elevator and we live on the fifth floor). A big thank you to the very nice young man who lives in our building and helped me get it up the stairs out of the kindness of his heart.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!



Hey everyone, we braved the elements to see the Macy's Day Parade. We saw Gloria Esteban, Hall and Oates, Emmit Smith, Julie Andrews and some nice young rap star named Chris Brown (He seemed very nice). The marching bands rocked! Well we froze and got soaked but it was a blast and got home in time to see the end of the parade on TV because we were watching from where it started uptown.

I endured as long as I could. After four years of being married and more importantly, four long years of denying Amber the opportunity to color my hair... I finally gave in. This is before and after the haircut and a bit of fadding.

Bond, James Bond
Go see the new bond. Eva Green is the perfect reason if you are out of them. She is a new force in Hollywood, at least I am a huge fan. The action is non-stop and if you can keep breathing the whole time you will have a blast.

Late October Review

Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins and The Killers, How much can one person handle. First Jenny Lewis, she along with the twins and her great band put on a fantastic show. The music and dancing was very fun, but her voice carried the whole show and left everyone wanting more. She is a loved performer and even had reasonably priced t-shirts ($15). The Killers, expensive T's ($30) and a mediocre venue, The Theatre at Madison Square Garden (don't got to a show in the 300 section not cool) not the stadium but an underground theatre with very low ceilings. BUT, The Killers rocked and although we were too far away from the sound system and the band frankly the energy was still getting us going all the way back. The show was great fun and the band was terrific.

Marie Antoinette

This may very well not be one of the best movies of the year, but it is one of my favorites by far. I loved every minute of this film. Sofia Coppola says so much about her characters and story with out an overload of heavy diologue, she lets her camera film and we as an audience get a chance to feel.

The Departed
It has been a big week in my world!
New albums from The Killers and The Decemberists, both of which are terrific, started the week off with a bang. The boom came today when I saw The Departed, Martin Scorsese's new film, a remake the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. I mention the fact that it is a remake so that I can say that from frame one it is a Martin Scorsese film. It is fierce, brutal, and unaplogetic. Say what you will about Scorsese, he is not for everyone maybe, but his films bleed passion and and truth even if playing out as the opera they tend to. He releases a film once every two years or so and I begin waiting for them as soon as the credits role on the last one. Scorsese at his tender age is making films with more guts than most any filmmaker half his age. Quintin Tarantino claimed that directing is a young man's job, I give you my two favorite action films of 2006: Miami Vice by 63 year young Michael Mann and The Departed by 64 year young Martin Scorsese.

Lucas and Eric's Big Adventure.
Lucas needed to go downtown and check on buying a cable for music recording and I happened to be on vacation for the week so ventured out in the big city to wander around for a while. We got off the subway and headed in the direction of Times Square where the music shop was located and we were stopped by the producers of the Dr. Keith Ablow show. He snuck up behind us and before we could run were being interviewed for a "what the people on the street think" segment. It was actually fun and he was very nice. I will update if we find when the show airs, it is new I am not sure it airs on the west coast, should be sometime next week. We then saw Nellie Furtado do a live show in the middle of Times Square. We were then wandering uptown and came across the Letterman show taping a segment on a side street and they crashed a car almost into a crowd of gathering viewers. As we were leaving the late show building were heard some cool music coming from a back door of the Roseland venue and we walked around to the front only to realize the cool music we heard was a sound check for the Racontours who were putting on a show that night. Never a dull moment in the NYC, and stay tuned for the details of Malinda's big night with Conan O'Brien.

"Revenge"
I have just completed shooting my first semester final film project. I have screened the footage but have not begun editing yet. I am very proud of the work and will keep updating as the project moves forward. I do have to say that half way through film school I feel as though I am hitting my stride as a student of the great art.

The Black Daliha Sucks!
I am sorry but don't waste your money.

Hello Everybody,
Sorry for the delay in posts I have been prepping my first term movie. I am remaking an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode. I have condensded it down quite a bit but I am very excited to film on Wednesday. I have a couple of terrific actors and I think we will make something to be proud of. Since I wrote last Andrea and I tried to crash the VMA's. We couldn't get within a block and a half but we had fun. We got home and watched one of the worst produced award shows I have ever seen. The Killer's were one of the few bright spots which leads me to my next point. Amber Lucas Malinda and I are going to see The Killer's in October at Madison Square Garden. 75% of us are completly stoked and Malinda will be converted asap. I also got the Jenny Lewis (Rilo Kiley) CD and I am enjoying it, and Amber and I are going to see her in October as well. Lots of news and tired fingers, I will contact you all after I finish shooting so have fun!

RIP
Steve Irwin, the crocidile hunter, was killed just off the coast of Australia today. When Amber and I first started hanging out we would watch his show together into the wee hours of the night. Ever annoying he has always held a special place in my heart.