February 28, 2005
i didn't overthink the voting
last night i hosted an oscar party. if you weren't invited, please accept my apologies. i am very forgetful.
the turnout this year wasn't as high as in years past, but i think that may have worked to my advantage. with twelve of us dropping a few bucks into the prize pool, i passed around ballots and we made our picks for best whatever. somehow, i won. my first year ever! whoo!
(marc flashes his winnings and realizes that perhaps self-portraits aren't the way to celebrate)
jamie and erik spent much of the night (along with amy) keeping track of their scores - all ranking near the bottom of the pack. about halfway through the party it was decided that the loser - the person with the fewest points at the end of the night - would be forced to drink the lone bottle of smirnoff ice that mysteriously appeared in the fridge.
(losing with dignity, erik chugs the premium malt beverage)
February 26, 2005
February 25, 2005
another movie list
Bill W. sent his movie list this afternoon. It's now online at http://balgavy.com/movies/movies2004billw.html
calling all film geeks!
a few of the oscar nominated short films are online at salon.com today through midnight. mitch, jim and i saw these recently and if you've got some downtime this afternoon, i suggest waiting through the salon ad and checking out the animated short called RYAN and the live action short called 7:35 IN THE MORNING (7:35 DE LA MANANA). RYAN is the longer of the two and I'm not sure if watching it on a computer monitor will do it justice. Watching it on the big screen was wile - it's got this far out feeling. It's documentary-like, but with really cool animation. 7:35 IN THE MORNING is the film i'm hoping wins the academy award.
calling all ny film geeks!
this week gothamist has been running interviews with various programmers from around the new york film retro & specialty scene.
bruce goldstein - film forum
florence almozini - BAMcinematek
david schwartz - museum of the moving image
laurence kardish - museum of modern art
kent jones - walter reade theater / film society of lincoln center
February 24, 2005
b i n g o
competitive bingo is awesome. i am now the proud owner of a purple bingo marker and plastic red bingo spotters.
(outside the bingo parlor, listmaker and youthlarge wait for friends to arrive.)
(after getting my bearrings and learning the ins and outs of how the game is played - it's more complex than you might think - it was time for a self-portrait.)
(youthlarge mistakes a bottle of ketchup for her dabbing marker.)
happy birthday listmaker!
February 22, 2005
the list of movie lists gets longer
i've posted two new movie lists today. click below for 2004 movie lists from kaci and donovan. send me your list before the oscars. (and comments for all movie lists can be found here)
and
so many questions
last night the neuticles took third place at dr. fact's night of fifty questions. last month's winners, the steve gutenberg bible, once again captured first place.
(poster image lifted from the dr. fact website)
i had fun. and the rest of my team was gangbusters when it came to identifying US presidents.
rumor has it that next month the cost of trivia will go up. and there may be additional changes in store. could be interesting. but i'm holding out for singles night trivia (or maybe i'm now convinced that everything should be singles night).
on another note, the neuticles need to win soon because i have promised to buy neuticles necklaces for everyone if we win.
February 21, 2005
sleep is in short supply
the rss feed for the file magazine collection is now a full feed that includes the photos. the site has a great collection of photographs.
snowbound reading
twenty/forty just published an interview with eric bachman of crooked fingers.
February 18, 2005
everyone loves summer
I'm still watching THE OC but my Thursday night OC Club hasn't met in ages. What's going on guys? We need to get together soon! Especially since my DVR stops recording before the scenes and I never get a preview of what's going to happen next week.
As for OC talk this week, my friend Phil pointed me in the direction of ESPN's Bill Simmons who recently compared THE OC and 90210. It's good stuff (scroll about halfway down to get to his thoughts). I was particularly fond of his take on the Watershed ridiculous episode (through two seasons) for both series.
For straight up OC talk, Electric Honey plays Friday morning quarterback. She's not happy with the current direction of the show and, like a lot of people, is ready for Ryan to start throwing some punches again.
And if you want an in-depth analysis of Mischa Barton's on-screen romances, turn to Andrea Seigel who one week ago asked why is it that Mischa "seems to only have on-screen chemistry with girls?"
two new lists!!!
With Oscar night drawing closer, the movie lists are flying in!
Two new lists today - one from Amy W. and the other from Chris M.
Take a look at their thoughts on the movies from 2004 and don't forget to join the discussion here.
Email your lists to me.
February 14, 2005
mid-winter update
Right now I'm watching a Jesus and Mary Chain video on VH1Classic. Ooops, strike that. A Dinosaur Jr. video just started.
On Friday afternoon I thought about spending part of tonight at a Knicks Singles Night at Madison Square Garden (sponsored by Gothamist). On Saturday afternoon I called the number to sign up but I think I accidentally left my work phone number. When I did that I forgot to hang up. After five seconds of silence I corrected the possible phone number mistake. It must've been my subconscious telling me that I didn't really need to go. I'm not a basketball fan, anyway.
My lack of going out tonight means there's no wrap-up here about my attempts at dating. I've never been to any sort of singles mixer and I'm curious. The next time something like that comes up, sign me up.
I am ready to report that I got new glasses last Monday (pictured below). I also got a haircut and even trimmed two centimeters from my beard (not that you can tell).
The haircut meant that I had to trim some of the hairs that are part of my sideburns. I'm not sure if I clipped enough of those hairs. Right now I'm comfortable with things. Having such a large beard opens so much for experimentation, but once you cut part of it away you can't grow it back overnight.
Friday night I ended up in Atlantic City. I played craps for the first time. I loved it. It's a really good thing I don't live closer to that town. Sometime in the middle of the night the guys I was with and I decided to grab some food from the only open restaurant at Caesar's. I had the french dip. It wasn't very good and I kept burping for the rest of the night. It was pretty gross. Luckily, I had thoughts of being at the craps table to keep my mind occupied. When it was my turn to roll I felt so much pressure - so much pressure that I found myself get superstitious - I had to really concentrate on making sure the right numbers came up on the dice. It's frightening stuff, that gambling.
February 11, 2005
slowly untangling
Last night Handwashings and I went to the Museum of Television and Radio for an event entitled Unraveling The Wire. We had tickets to the overflow satellite room where we could watch the panel discussion on a large screen. Luckily, we were among the first ten to line up for that room. Doing so allowed us to enter the main room for the discussion (We spent an hour in the satellite room as episode one of the third season was shown to the assembled groups).
The panel featured creator David Simon along with Ed Burns (Producer/Writer),
John Doman (Dep. Commissioner Rawls), Idris Elba (Russell 'Stringer' Bell), Seth Gilliam (Sgt. Ellis Carver), Jamie Hector (Marlo Stanfield), George Pelecanos (Producer/Writer) and Karen Thorson (Producer). It was moderated by Ken Tucker.
During the discussion I was reminded that the show has a huge ensemble cast. Having four cast members and so many people behind the scenes on stage last night may have been too much. It didn't impact the panel poorly, it just made me wish the event had gone on for another hour. The second season about the docks was barely mentioned. David Simon also did a good job reminding the audience that the City of Baltimore really does play a huge roll in the series. While not pounding us over the head with the idea that the city is a character, he talked about the setting of the series as if it was just as strong an element as any of the lead actors.
The big question on your mind, I'm sure, is - what's up with season four. Tucker was quick to ask the question and initially Simon said nothing had been decided yet. About halfway into the conversation the topic came up again and Simon mentioned that season four is up to him. The ball is in his court. If he and the other producers can come up with credible stories that appeal to HBO (and to themselves), then it seems likely that season four can happen. The issue of ratings was discussed. The show didn't get huge numbers this past season but the way ratings are counted changed between seasons 2 and 3. All those airings of THE WIRE on HBO2 and HBO On-Demand don't count toward the ratings.
Simon went out of his way to praise HBO and my reaction is that his praise was genuine, especially when he mentioned that working with a network to figure out the direction of your series artistically is a much better problem to have than arguing with the network about how to get the ratings up. His one complaint was about the issuing of DVD's for seasons one and two after the start of season three. Now that we're three or four years into having tv shows on dvd, it's becoming common sense to most that a previous season for a show that's such a serialized drama should be made available to as many people as possible before the new stories begin.
Idris Elba was thoroughly praised by more than one audience member. In introducing the first question from the floor, one audience member suggested that Denzel Washington watch his back. Hearty laughter ensued.
Ed Burns seemed like an interesting guy, even though he didn't say an overwhelming amount. He's worked as a detective and he's also worked in the Baltimore City schools, thus providing one of the hints as to where the story for season four may find it's major arc.
All in all, it was a great event. I've got my fingers crossed that Handwashings will also provide a recap.
February 04, 2005
plots out of control
i no longer write about THE OC after every episode. a few weeks ago i became less enthused with the show. i can't explain why, but i think the thrill of the witty dialogue faded. i'm almost ready to blame the dialogue...does anyone else agree that it's not as snappy as it used to be? was it all in my head before?
sandy keeping secrets from kiki? i hope the next episode has her reminding him of that woman in his law office from last year.
caleb's heart attack seems like an unnecessary plot device. and why is juju off seeing spas around the world? shouldn't someone have phoned her? maybe she's in portland...
if you're looking for some good OC talk today, erica seems to have it covered.
February 02, 2005
Sujan's 2004 Movie List
Sujan's movie list is now online.
Comments for all movie lists are here.
Email me with your list.
internet ready, again
chris larry has returned from blogging hiatus. now that he's at a computer during the day two or three times a week, i hope we can expect regular posts. his most recent case of bile & venom has him going all edu-blogger on us, with discussion about his new job at the museum of television and radio.
recording, recording
two hours ago i sat down and planned to quickly list the shows i'll be recording over the next few days. my blog entry for www.recordingtelevision.com turned out a little longer than expected.
keep an eye on that spot over the next few weeks, as i hope to share some thoughts about sex on television and the recent article in the new york times about the dvr industry. i also hope to introduce a new semi-regular feature. exciting things, i promise.
my fotolog