attempting to make up for a two-month absence with a single long-ass entry
Yup, I’ve been away. After about five months of steadily posting here, I disappeared. That was two months ago, and now I’m back. Yiiiiiipppppeeeeeeee!
Where have I been, you ask? Well, I left one job, took three weeks off, then started another. I’ve left the world of publishing and, in an obvious sellout move, entered the family business and started selling insurance. (I know, I know--I've gone from being practically a Woody Allen impersonator to the punchline of one of his jokes.) Whether I stick with the world of property and casualty loss ratios is open to debate, but for now, that’s my gig.
Out of the office, I’ve put a lot of time into my short film, Yin/Yang. After a tedious and frustrating six months in the editing room, the ten-minute movie is now essentially finished (all that remains is some expensive and possibly unnecessary technical work that we may or may not splurge decide to go ahead with), and set to premiere at the Los Angeles Short Film Festival on Sept. 9. The Yin/Yang website will be up-and-running soon, so watch this space for more information.
I’m not going to promise to return to posting here more than a couple of times a week. With the new job situation, I just don’t have as much flexibility in the office. But I will try to post occasionally.
* I succumbed to the hype and caught a late show of Snakes on a Plane last night. As expected, it straddled the line between bad and intentionally bad like few movies before it, virtually redefining camp for a new generation. Despite that, though… it was still somehow disappointing. Yes, some of it was knowingly funny, but there wasn’t enough of that, and some of the funniest moments (like two predictable-yet-enjoyable moments in the airplane’s bathroom) felt tacked on. There was very little intentional humor; Samuel Jackson—one of the film’s biggest selling points—was criminally underused; and too much of the film did seem to take itself seriously. Sure, it was bad, but maybe not bad enough. Was it really that much worse than the movie about sharks that took place in upstate New York? Or for that matter, most of the B-movies that appear on cable late at night?
One area where the filmmakers really dropped the ball was with the casting. Getting Jackson was brilliant move, but other than him, it was as if they scraped together the rest of the cast with whatever they could find in the bargain bin. I mean, the secondary lead was some dude named Nathan Philips, who probably got the job because he placed third in a Marky Mark lookalike contest. Imagine if they had really played up the casting in this one, and sought out the type of familiar faces that would bring something to the table before they even said a word? Instead of Sam Jackson and a bunch of no-names, what if the cast looked more like this:
Burt Reynolds
Pauly Shore
Roberto Benigni
Lesley Nielson
Snoop Dogg
Hulk Hogan
Christopher Lloyd
Bruce Campbell
Jackie Chan
Rosanne Barr
Paris Hilton
Jenny McCarthy
Patricia Arquette
Frances McDormand
Bebe Neuwirth
Wouldn’t that have made for a much more watchable movie? And it’s not as if luring that cast would have broken the bank. Here’s to hoping the producers follow my advice when they cast the inevitable sequel (Snakes on a Boat? Snakes on a Train? Snakes on a Plane 2: The Return Flight).
On another notes entirely, what does it say about our zeitgeist that Snakes on a Plane has become so buzzworthy? This movie’s appeal is largely based on being dumb, simple (the title describes the whole concept) and silly. Shall we read into this film’s success to assume that our society during Bush’s second term can be described in these same words? Or is the film’s enthusiastic reception more suggestive of the fact that there’s an unfulfilled desire for Snakes’s unique attributes? In other words, is this movie a success because it reflects our culture, or because it reflects something our culture has been lacking?
Of course, despite the early hype, whether this film will actually turn out to be an unqualified success is still inconclusive; it’s worth noting that the 10:30 opening night screening I attended last night at a popular Manhattan theater wasn’t even close to sold out, and the young, drunk audience’s hugely enthusiastic response suggests that it’s more likely that Snakes will never be anything more than a cult film. Only time (and, perhaps, opening weekend grosses) will tell.
* After the blip-in-the-radar that was the 2004 season, all seems right with the world again, or at least the world of the Yankees and Red Sox. Since July 4, the teams have swung 8 ½ games in the standings, as the Red Sox have reverted to their late-summer-swooning ways.
This weekend, in a heavily promoted five-game series between the two teams, the Bronx Bombers have piled on. The third game is wrapping up as I write this, and so far the Yanks have scored 39 runs in winning all three games. It’s the first time in the Red Sox rich history that they have allowed 12-or-more runs in three straight games. More important, New York moved to 4 ½ games up in the AL East. The Red Sox also happen to be 3 ½ out of the Wild Card race.
I realize I’m risking a potential jinx by writing this, but the Yankees offense looks unbeatable right now. If New York’s pitching can continue to be decent, I like the team’s chances in the playoffs…
* Speaking of jinxes, both of my fantasy teams are riding high in first place. My newer team has something like a 20 point lead, while I’m hanging on by a narrow margin in the league I’ve been a part of for several years. In that league, I added Johan Santana, Mark Teixeira and Armando Benitez in two separate deals at the deadline. It’s a keeper league, and all three of those guys are free agents at the end of the year, but I think I did well in only giving up Mike Jacobs, Ian Snell, Johnny Gomes, Oliver Perez and a mid-range 2007 draft pick for two studs (Santana and Teixeira) and a player I desperately needed (Benitez, to boost my standing in saves, my weakest category). I was also happy to be able to add Jay Payton in a supplemental draft right after the trade; I plugged him in for Gomes, and that’s also given me a boost in production.
In my other league, I made a trade about a month ago that I’m much less happy about. I acquired Mike Mussina, who’s fallen off a little bit since the trade, for a stud prospect (Andrew Miller) in a league with three minor league keepers, and 4th and 10th round picks in next year’s draft. That one will hurt a bit next year, and in retrospect Mussina hasn’t helped much. Oh well, live and learn.
Where have I been, you ask? Well, I left one job, took three weeks off, then started another. I’ve left the world of publishing and, in an obvious sellout move, entered the family business and started selling insurance. (I know, I know--I've gone from being practically a Woody Allen impersonator to the punchline of one of his jokes.) Whether I stick with the world of property and casualty loss ratios is open to debate, but for now, that’s my gig.
Out of the office, I’ve put a lot of time into my short film, Yin/Yang. After a tedious and frustrating six months in the editing room, the ten-minute movie is now essentially finished (all that remains is some expensive and possibly unnecessary technical work that we may or may not splurge decide to go ahead with), and set to premiere at the Los Angeles Short Film Festival on Sept. 9. The Yin/Yang website will be up-and-running soon, so watch this space for more information.
I’m not going to promise to return to posting here more than a couple of times a week. With the new job situation, I just don’t have as much flexibility in the office. But I will try to post occasionally.
* I succumbed to the hype and caught a late show of Snakes on a Plane last night. As expected, it straddled the line between bad and intentionally bad like few movies before it, virtually redefining camp for a new generation. Despite that, though… it was still somehow disappointing. Yes, some of it was knowingly funny, but there wasn’t enough of that, and some of the funniest moments (like two predictable-yet-enjoyable moments in the airplane’s bathroom) felt tacked on. There was very little intentional humor; Samuel Jackson—one of the film’s biggest selling points—was criminally underused; and too much of the film did seem to take itself seriously. Sure, it was bad, but maybe not bad enough. Was it really that much worse than the movie about sharks that took place in upstate New York? Or for that matter, most of the B-movies that appear on cable late at night?
One area where the filmmakers really dropped the ball was with the casting. Getting Jackson was brilliant move, but other than him, it was as if they scraped together the rest of the cast with whatever they could find in the bargain bin. I mean, the secondary lead was some dude named Nathan Philips, who probably got the job because he placed third in a Marky Mark lookalike contest. Imagine if they had really played up the casting in this one, and sought out the type of familiar faces that would bring something to the table before they even said a word? Instead of Sam Jackson and a bunch of no-names, what if the cast looked more like this:
Burt Reynolds
Pauly Shore
Roberto Benigni
Lesley Nielson
Snoop Dogg
Hulk Hogan
Christopher Lloyd
Bruce Campbell
Jackie Chan
Rosanne Barr
Paris Hilton
Jenny McCarthy
Patricia Arquette
Frances McDormand
Bebe Neuwirth
Wouldn’t that have made for a much more watchable movie? And it’s not as if luring that cast would have broken the bank. Here’s to hoping the producers follow my advice when they cast the inevitable sequel (Snakes on a Boat? Snakes on a Train? Snakes on a Plane 2: The Return Flight).
On another notes entirely, what does it say about our zeitgeist that Snakes on a Plane has become so buzzworthy? This movie’s appeal is largely based on being dumb, simple (the title describes the whole concept) and silly. Shall we read into this film’s success to assume that our society during Bush’s second term can be described in these same words? Or is the film’s enthusiastic reception more suggestive of the fact that there’s an unfulfilled desire for Snakes’s unique attributes? In other words, is this movie a success because it reflects our culture, or because it reflects something our culture has been lacking?
Of course, despite the early hype, whether this film will actually turn out to be an unqualified success is still inconclusive; it’s worth noting that the 10:30 opening night screening I attended last night at a popular Manhattan theater wasn’t even close to sold out, and the young, drunk audience’s hugely enthusiastic response suggests that it’s more likely that Snakes will never be anything more than a cult film. Only time (and, perhaps, opening weekend grosses) will tell.
* After the blip-in-the-radar that was the 2004 season, all seems right with the world again, or at least the world of the Yankees and Red Sox. Since July 4, the teams have swung 8 ½ games in the standings, as the Red Sox have reverted to their late-summer-swooning ways.
This weekend, in a heavily promoted five-game series between the two teams, the Bronx Bombers have piled on. The third game is wrapping up as I write this, and so far the Yanks have scored 39 runs in winning all three games. It’s the first time in the Red Sox rich history that they have allowed 12-or-more runs in three straight games. More important, New York moved to 4 ½ games up in the AL East. The Red Sox also happen to be 3 ½ out of the Wild Card race.
I realize I’m risking a potential jinx by writing this, but the Yankees offense looks unbeatable right now. If New York’s pitching can continue to be decent, I like the team’s chances in the playoffs…
* Speaking of jinxes, both of my fantasy teams are riding high in first place. My newer team has something like a 20 point lead, while I’m hanging on by a narrow margin in the league I’ve been a part of for several years. In that league, I added Johan Santana, Mark Teixeira and Armando Benitez in two separate deals at the deadline. It’s a keeper league, and all three of those guys are free agents at the end of the year, but I think I did well in only giving up Mike Jacobs, Ian Snell, Johnny Gomes, Oliver Perez and a mid-range 2007 draft pick for two studs (Santana and Teixeira) and a player I desperately needed (Benitez, to boost my standing in saves, my weakest category). I was also happy to be able to add Jay Payton in a supplemental draft right after the trade; I plugged him in for Gomes, and that’s also given me a boost in production.
In my other league, I made a trade about a month ago that I’m much less happy about. I acquired Mike Mussina, who’s fallen off a little bit since the trade, for a stud prospect (Andrew Miller) in a league with three minor league keepers, and 4th and 10th round picks in next year’s draft. That one will hurt a bit next year, and in retrospect Mussina hasn’t helped much. Oh well, live and learn.
posted by Zackattack at 5:40 PM
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