Tuesday, June 27, 2006
I saw the break-up on Sunday with some girlfriends. It was almost last on the list of movies I wanted to see, but since I've basically seen everything else that's out right now, we decided to check it out. If you're thinking about going to see this movie, especially on a date, don't. I read something about how the director wanted to make a movie about a break up, because there aren't any movies that specifically deal with that phase of a relationship. After seeing this horrendous movie, I think there is a very good reason no one has made a movie about a break up before. There were several major problems with this film. The pacing was very off, both with specific comic set ups, and with the entire story arc. Instead of showing anything that would cast the characters in a sympathetic light early on, the director chose to tell the story of their entire relationship up to the start of the movie with a photo montage. While we all got the point, we didn't get to know or like the characters through the photos. Then the movie immediately launches into a painful family dinner party scene and very familiar type of relationship fight. The fight scenes made me physically sick to my stomach, because we've all had that fight. And no one wants to re-live it with some popcorn in a movie theater. After the film takes us through this entire painful break up process, absolutely nothing redeeming happens. Not to ruin the ending for anyone who plans to see it, but really, nothing good happens at all. We were so depressed after the movie that we immediately went to a bar and had a drink. Awful.
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Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Apparently being jobless and aimlessly hanging out in Santa Monica results in some good celebrity moments. I saw Chad Lowe again this morning. He either lives or is working near where I live. Then I saw Kristin from Laguna Beach at a surf shop down the street after lunch. I had coincidentally just been discussing the LC vs Kristin debate - basically either people think LC is hot, or Kristin is hot. I am firmly in the LC camp, Kristin just looks totally average to me, and LC is very pretty. LC does seem to be more low key and somewhat depressive, whereas Kristin has some charisma going for her, but if we're talking looks only, LC wins hands down. In real life Kristin is even more average, someone you would never look at twice. And she's short. She's got a nice even tan though. Perhaps fake?
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Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Sorry about the ads. I don't have a job, so even though no one actually reads this blog, I decided google ads were an idea to make me feel productive. And, going to business school pretty much screams "sell out" so I feel like any subsequent selling out activities are just expected from me, right?
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Saturday, June 03, 2006
Rescue Me is doing well in the ratings, which is great. What's baffling is that the Office doesn't do better, especially with all the critical acclaim. It's Arrested Development all over again. Although I have to admit that Arrested Development started to bore the hell out of me, I think it was the point when they knew it was not going to live on and they just got crazy. The whole British storyline was honestly retarded. Oscar winning movie stars couldn't even save that plot direction.
Whenever I read ratings reports and comments in the trades, there is always one or two shows that have incredibly huge ratings and the critics hate, or vice versa. When I worked in production the conventional wisdom was "Americans are stupid." Producers basically dumbed down absolutely everything thinking that TV watching fat Americans would prefer it that way. Of course, these were people producing pretty unsuccessful television. You can tell if the creators of a show think the audience is idiotic, because they make absolutely no effort to throw in cleverness anywhere. Sitcoms are the worst offenders. For some reason they are generally one or two joke stories, with a serious lack of funny off handed one liners. The Simpsons has been on the air literally forever because the writers just say stuff that they are fully aware will only make sense to about 1% of the audience. And that 1% thinks it's so hilarious that they die laughing, and then repeat the joke 1 million times to their friends. Great viral marketing.
Back to stupid Americans, I think what is going on is that TV serves a very specific function for people. TV is a very passive medium of communication, and you are generally watching it on your couch, with some snacks, in your house, at night after a full day of working. Almost no one wants an intellectual exercise at that point in the day. It's the time of the day and the situation where you really want to just be entertained. Whether you're smart or dumb, various people like different forms of entertainment. I personally am a mystery junkie, so I love procedurals. I also like to laugh, so I enjoy funny shows. I'm bored with almost all sitcoms and almost all reality shows at this point. But I don't think people are dumb if they want to sit aorund and watch the King of Queens, or So You Think You Can Dance. Whatever, if you like it, go ahead. Where we get truly bad TV is when the people making the TV think the audience is really stupid for wanting to watch a bunch of aspiring dancers humiliate themselves on TV, and they make poor creative decisions because they just don't understand the audience.
Why people don't like critically acclaimed TV like the Office... I think it's an acquired taste issue. Everyone I know really likes it (including my 10 year old nephew) but a lot of people are somehow completely unaware it exists, or would need to watch 3 or 4 episodes to get it (or to realize it's actually almost as good as the British version). For instance, much more popular My Name is Earl is much easier to immediately understand.
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Whenever I read ratings reports and comments in the trades, there is always one or two shows that have incredibly huge ratings and the critics hate, or vice versa. When I worked in production the conventional wisdom was "Americans are stupid." Producers basically dumbed down absolutely everything thinking that TV watching fat Americans would prefer it that way. Of course, these were people producing pretty unsuccessful television. You can tell if the creators of a show think the audience is idiotic, because they make absolutely no effort to throw in cleverness anywhere. Sitcoms are the worst offenders. For some reason they are generally one or two joke stories, with a serious lack of funny off handed one liners. The Simpsons has been on the air literally forever because the writers just say stuff that they are fully aware will only make sense to about 1% of the audience. And that 1% thinks it's so hilarious that they die laughing, and then repeat the joke 1 million times to their friends. Great viral marketing.
Back to stupid Americans, I think what is going on is that TV serves a very specific function for people. TV is a very passive medium of communication, and you are generally watching it on your couch, with some snacks, in your house, at night after a full day of working. Almost no one wants an intellectual exercise at that point in the day. It's the time of the day and the situation where you really want to just be entertained. Whether you're smart or dumb, various people like different forms of entertainment. I personally am a mystery junkie, so I love procedurals. I also like to laugh, so I enjoy funny shows. I'm bored with almost all sitcoms and almost all reality shows at this point. But I don't think people are dumb if they want to sit aorund and watch the King of Queens, or So You Think You Can Dance. Whatever, if you like it, go ahead. Where we get truly bad TV is when the people making the TV think the audience is really stupid for wanting to watch a bunch of aspiring dancers humiliate themselves on TV, and they make poor creative decisions because they just don't understand the audience.
Why people don't like critically acclaimed TV like the Office... I think it's an acquired taste issue. Everyone I know really likes it (including my 10 year old nephew) but a lot of people are somehow completely unaware it exists, or would need to watch 3 or 4 episodes to get it (or to realize it's actually almost as good as the British version). For instance, much more popular My Name is Earl is much easier to immediately understand.
Another installment in the historical record of my celebrity sightings:
Ed Norton is one of my favorite actors for so many reasons. One of the main ones is that he is totally hot, but not in perfect and unapproachable way. He seems like a guy who could be your boyfriend and wouldn't be arrogant or self absorbed. I saw him near the same movie theater of the Vince Vaughn sighting and he was not incredibly tall, nor incredibly short, but looked exactly like himself and was very cute.
One actor who is way better looking than you can actually believe is possible is Jude Law. He's like a luminous gorgeous person. He is totally intimidatingly gorgeous. My friend had a "moment" with him while he was shooting a really crappy movie on our block, but that's her story to tell.
It would seem from the last few postings that I am completely celebrity obsessed. I sort of am, but really just because I enjoy gossip quite a bit, and it's much nicer to gossip about very public people you don't actually know than to gossip about your friends. I'm trying to avoid the latter. And, all of those gossip magazines are a serious amount of entertainment for $2. It's the best entertainment bang for your buck in my opinion. Nothing in the whole magazine is the slightest bit boring, and sometimes you are totally doubled over laughing at the "Celebrities, They're just like US!" photos of Liv Tyler pumping gas or whatever. My favorite was the photo of Britney Spears eating bread with the caption "They eat carbs!!"
I've met a few people who are creepy celebrity obsessed, like they find out you work in entertainment and they ask you if you've worked on a show with anyone famous in a overly interested way. I get the feeling that these people would make a big scene if they actually met anyone halfway famous, and would feel both awed by the person in an inappropriate way, and feel some sort of personal connection to them, which is equally creepy. I think the correct way to deal with a celebrity encounter is to not stare at them too much if you can help it, and then just write about it in your blog later. No autographs, that's horrendous. (I mean, obviously there are special cases. I have an autograh from Lars Ulrich, but we are potentially related. And I also got an autograph from Sonia Thomas, a competitive eating champion, but that's funny.)
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Ed Norton is one of my favorite actors for so many reasons. One of the main ones is that he is totally hot, but not in perfect and unapproachable way. He seems like a guy who could be your boyfriend and wouldn't be arrogant or self absorbed. I saw him near the same movie theater of the Vince Vaughn sighting and he was not incredibly tall, nor incredibly short, but looked exactly like himself and was very cute.
One actor who is way better looking than you can actually believe is possible is Jude Law. He's like a luminous gorgeous person. He is totally intimidatingly gorgeous. My friend had a "moment" with him while he was shooting a really crappy movie on our block, but that's her story to tell.
It would seem from the last few postings that I am completely celebrity obsessed. I sort of am, but really just because I enjoy gossip quite a bit, and it's much nicer to gossip about very public people you don't actually know than to gossip about your friends. I'm trying to avoid the latter. And, all of those gossip magazines are a serious amount of entertainment for $2. It's the best entertainment bang for your buck in my opinion. Nothing in the whole magazine is the slightest bit boring, and sometimes you are totally doubled over laughing at the "Celebrities, They're just like US!" photos of Liv Tyler pumping gas or whatever. My favorite was the photo of Britney Spears eating bread with the caption "They eat carbs!!"
I've met a few people who are creepy celebrity obsessed, like they find out you work in entertainment and they ask you if you've worked on a show with anyone famous in a overly interested way. I get the feeling that these people would make a big scene if they actually met anyone halfway famous, and would feel both awed by the person in an inappropriate way, and feel some sort of personal connection to them, which is equally creepy. I think the correct way to deal with a celebrity encounter is to not stare at them too much if you can help it, and then just write about it in your blog later. No autographs, that's horrendous. (I mean, obviously there are special cases. I have an autograh from Lars Ulrich, but we are potentially related. And I also got an autograph from Sonia Thomas, a competitive eating champion, but that's funny.)
