Home box office

These days movies can be viewed practically anywhere at anytime. Smartphones, portable media devices, DVD players in minivans, and laptop computers have made it so that we can see almost whatever we want at the press of a button.

This is not how it used to be, obviously. The two biggest developments in my own moviewatching as a kid were when my parents subscribed to the Disney Channel and when we got a VCR. The Disney Channel used to be a premium channel, just like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and The Movie Channel. Now it's part of the regular cable packages, and the programming, from what I can tell, is substantially different.

The Disney Channel used to show a bunch of the old cartoons, episodes of The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, and Disney features like The Apple Dumpling Gang, The Devil and Max Devlin, and Candleshoe. There were also the DTV music videos: mostly cartoon footage appropriately cut to pop songs, I suppose as an alternative to MTV. I loved these. (The one that sticks out the most in my memory is for Darryl Hall and John Oates' "Private Eyes".) After the cable bill arrived, I'd pore over the booklet that listed the channel's programming for the month. I can remember spending better portions of days watching whatever oldies happened to be scheduled.

Of course, there were also the premium channel previews and free weekends from time to time, which allowed me to catch up with non-Disney Channel movies. I can remember seeing some Mike Tyson fights this way, as HBO happened to be free at advantageous times. For whatever reason, Showtime tended to come in unscrambled regularly, especially at my grandmother's house. The picture had some graininess but was certainly very watchable.

Renting movies was always an exciting thing to do, as if it were a special occasion to pick something to watch. Examining the shelves at the small independent grocery store in town or at the larger ones nearby was a favorite thing of mine to do. Will the one I want be in?

It's with such memories that this summer I've decided to go back and watch films that I saw back then and probably haven't seen since. Catching up on the ones I didn't see is a little extra thrilling, even if the movies are junk. Within the last couple weeks I've watched The Last Starfighter, Summer School, Weird Science, and Big Trouble in Little China. Of those I had seen before, none have lived up to what I recalled them being, but they've been fun to see anyway. As with any art, there's what's in the text and what I bring to it, so even if the former is sometimes lacking, the latter more than makes up the difference.

Out of the past

Pretty much wiped out--23.65 miles on the stationary bicycle will do that--and feeling a touch nostalgic today, which is why you get the embedded music video. While driving around at lunchtime I landed on a radio station playing "the next generation of classic rock". (Translation: the music that was on AOR stations during my formative years.) I haven't heard these songs in a long time and own next to none of it, so I was sent on a bit of mental time traveling at the sound of Guns N' Roses, Tesla, and Def Leppard.

To add to that, seeing the new movie Super 8, opening Friday at a theater near you, pressed all the right buttons for me, not the least of which is it being set in a fictional town that's virtually where I grew up. Brookville, which is five miles from my hometown, is name dropped. Greenville, which is twenty miles away, hosts some scenes, although it's at a fictional Air Force base. I suppose they avoided having the characters go to Wright-Patterson because that's more urban.

Of course, there are a couple of major slip-ups, not that anyone is going to notice or care about them. (These are nitpicks for me to make because I know where they're talking about.) Belmont County is referenced, which is on the other side of the state rather than being adjacent to Montgomery County. Much of the film was shot in West Virginia, so maybe it's a nod to the area where production took place. The hilly landscape is not at all like the flat part of Ohio that I'm from.

The houses, inside and outside, all felt very familiar, though. The main characters are about twice as old as I would have been in 1979, but I confess to watching hungrily for props, production design, and anything else that I'd recognize. But there I go, getting all sentimental.

Small talk

The Golden Globes are pretty much a joke of an awards show from a sham of an organization. The group's network television contract and the awards' value as another accolade for trumpeting in marketing campaigns are the main reasons why they have any traction. I watch the awards show, not because I grant it any legitimacy but because it's part of the conversation...and there's usually nothing else on television.

Unlike the Academy Awards, I don't really know of people holding parties to watch the show. I imagine it happens, just not on the same scale. No, the place to get together, make snarky observations, and maybe gripe about the worthiness of winners is on Twitter.

Unfortunately my contributions to the stream weren't very inspired. Guess I wasn't on tonight. Nevertheless, for all the talk of interactive media, this was the way to view the program (and NFL playoffs and the recent college football bowls). It's strange to think of such broadcasts as the canvas on which friends around the country can joke around and chat in real time about, yet that seems to be an increasing attraction to them.

Oh, and for what it's worth, this awards season is pretty predictable. Get a jump on your Oscars pool by picking these near-sure things to win:

Picture: The Social Network
Director: David Fincher, The Social Network
Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter (upset special: Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech)
Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo, The Fighter

The nominees haven't even been announced, but at worst I've just predicted four of the winners. Maybe one of those will be wrong, but it's not looking that way.

Lazy Sunday

This morning I dragged myself out of bed to go to church. What with it being the Christmas season, I felt like I needed to make an extra effort, especially since I've been bad about attending all year. (I blame my failure to get to the services in part on the sleeping problems I've had for most of the year, but maybe that's simply a way of justifying it.) I expected to see a snow-covered parking lot, but nope, all we were getting was rain.

About midway through the service the rain changed to snow. It was coming down steadily when I carefully made my way to the car across the quickly becoming slick pavement and asphalt. As I drove to my next destination--the movie theater--I got stuck behind someone driving about 10 miles per hour. I'm all for being careful, but the roads were totally clean. Plus, not that many vehicles were on the streets yet.

By the time my showing of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader had ended--the film was tedious, by the way--the car required a decent excavating. With it being around 12:30, traffic was heavy and slow-moving on the snowy streets. Not that I had plans to go anywhere else, but this sealed the choice to hole up at home for the day.

Watching football and napping, with an emphasis on the latter, gobbled up the majority of the day. It is one of the pleasures of living in a cold weather state during winter that watching sports all day long on the weekend isn't something to feel ashamed about doing. I imagine it's harder to justify doing this when the weather outside is hospitable.

The TV remained on to watch the season finale of The Amazing Race. The global game show is easily the pinnacle of reality TV fare, and it's the one program of these I'd be interested to appear on. While it must be exhausting to run around the world and be thrown into stressful situations, how else could one get the quantity of experiences and passport stamps that the participants get while doing it on someone else's dime?

The Amazing Race is certainly molded as much as any reality TV show, but I appreciate that its intent isn't to show people at their worst. Sure, sometimes the contestants display cultural insensitivity and tempers flare. For the most part, though, this is a relationship program in the form of a game show travelogue, and those partners who remain patient and good-humored tend to perform better. (I think the producers learned a lesson several seasons ago when they cast a couple in which the husband seemed verbally abusive. People will get testy under the circumstances, but that extreme kind of reaction has virtually vanished.)

The snow has returned, I think, and is to continue to some degree through the night. And that was Sunday.

At the movies

Those who know me know I see a lot of movies. If there's a level beyond heavy moviegoer, I belong to that classification. Sure, I've been able to fold my moviegoing into my job--indeed, it's fed and stoked it--but my voracious viewing habits can't just be chalked up as work I have to do. In fact, I see far more films than I cover. (Not that I didn't try at one time. That guy spent far more of his free time writing for fun than I can muster the energy for now.)

I see plenty of bad films and many more that are mediocre. So why do it? Why spend time doing something in which the distribution of films on a bad-to-great scale likely resembles a bell curve? The easy answer is that I like going to the movies, but I don't imagine that explanation is satisfactory. Instead, let me provide an example.

Tonight after work I went to see Conviction, a fact-based drama about a woman who spends years going to college and then law school so she can reopen the case of her brother, who has been convicted of murder yet who she maintains is innocent. Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from it. The reviews have been mixed, and it looked more like awards bait than anything else. Like it or not, chances are it wasn't going to be anything essential.

As it turns out, it wasn't. I enjoyed the film. It's nothing fancy and doesn't really contain any surprises, but overall it's a well-acted and well-made movie. As an earnest and determined character, Hilary Swank gets a role in her wheelhouse--I much prefer her in serious parts--and performs wonderfully without overselling it. Likewise, the filmmakers don't apply the sentiment thickly.

Conviction isn't a great film, nor is it a manipulative tearjerker, yet I spent stretches of it on the verge of crying. Something about the intense love and devotion that this sister had for her brother really touched me. I don't think it would have made any difference if the story were a complete fiction. (I'd also wager that I'm more inclined to cry at movies with purity and goodness on display than sad scenes. Is this similar to those who cry at weddings?)

I've been stressed a lot lately, and while that wear and tear has eased some, I'm still kind of wiped out from everything. Nevertheless, I was with Conviction pretty much all the way and left the theater feeling better than when I walked into it. I suppose that is what, in some manner, I'm seeking when I watch any film or television program...or read a book or listen to music.

Art can provide catharsis via identification or enlightenment or entertainment or escapism. Maybe my seeking it in these places is reflective of deficiencies elsewhere. All I know is that sometimes it is necessary to go outside yourself to get a better understanding of the internal and the external. If that means getting choked up a bit at a solid prestige film, so be it.

La Vie en tricot

Within the knitting world it is common knowledge that Julia Roberts is a knitter. If a journalist is in need of a go-to celeb to represent knitting as trendy, she's inevitably the one whose name comes up. Rightfully so, I imagine. She's probably the top box office star who we know knits.

French actress Marion Cotillard doesn't have the same level of fame, at least in the United States, but you can add her to the list of celebrity knitters. You want more proof? Here you go.

March madness

Tuesday's game aside, the NCAA Tournament really started today as far as most college basketball fans and amateur gamblers are concerned. The first four days of the tourney, especially Thursday and Friday, are one of my favorite sporting events of the year, and I've been glued to much of today's action.

The timing, though, also matches up with the film festival up in Cleveland. It hurts some to miss these games, but the film fest gives me a chance to get out of town and see some movies that may not pass my way again. It's a trade-off, although I can usually squeeze in some basketball viewing when scrambling to get something to eat.

If I think I've been busy, I'm about to get a whole lot busier. On Friday and Saturday I've blocked out times for seven films. Is it madness? Yes. Will it be fun? I hope so.

The end

I've got nothing to blog about today, but since seeing the disaster (in more ways than one) movie 2012 was part of the day's activities, here's a pretty funny clip of a couple sequences from the film with all of the special effects removed. It makes what's already pretty ridiculous even sillier.



Well, OK, there's one part in there that's not in the film.

Scratchy

I was prepared to give my report on the Japanese film Wool 100%, but about fifteen minutes into it the DVD started freezing up. Thinking that perhaps my Blu-ray player was being finicky in what it would accept, I tried it in my laptop. Same spot, same problem.

The disk, which I checked out from the public library, bears many scratches. How it came to be so abused is beyond me, but such is the life of a library's property. It appears I'll have to obtain the DVD from Netflix to see it.

This thwarted viewing is symbolic for how much of my weekend agenda I completed. My productivity during these days of rest is practically zero right now.

Something doing

Books, music, movies/TV, web...this week's posts have ended up being about what media I'm consuming. Keeping up the theme, today is devoted to what I'm doing.

-Work. The ol' occupation has been keeping me busy. At this point it's a matter of holding on for a few more weeks until the summer break arrives and, in theory, eases the load somewhat.

-Exercise. Except for today I've been able to get out and put in a couple miles every day this week. Along with getting control of what I'm eating, this has gone a long way in making me feel reenergized.

-Moviegoing. There's been one to attend every night this week, and three more beckon over this holiday weekend.

-Laughing. Tonight I went to see a legendarily bad six-year-old film that was pretty funny during but has been hysterical in retrospect. Whether I've been reading about it or watching a clip online, I'm really tickled by how entertaining its badness is. (This is not very common for me, actually.) I haven't laughed so much and so hard about a movie in ages.

-Wondering. A couple months ago I asked at the rental office if I had overlooked something because I hadn't received any information about signing a lease renewal for my apartment. (Last year I got a letter more than five months before it expired.) I was told they were sending them out closer to renewal time this year.

I still haven't received anything and checked on it today. My lease is up at the end of June. I don't think there are or should be any issues. I'm hoping that some paperwork just got overlooked and am awaiting a response. Still, the thought that I could be out of an apartment in about a month's time unnerved me for awhile until I convinced myself that nothing shady is afoot.

For your eyes only

A blogging theme ended up developing this week. I've already covered what I'm reading and what I'm listening to. Today I'll cover what I'm watching.

When it comes to movies, I can pretty much say whatever is in theaters or opening soon and have it covered. Of course, that's not of any use to anyone. Up, the latest film from Pixar, doesn't arrive until May 29, but I can tell you that it's, umm, up to the studio's high standards. Even if a documentary about a heavy metal band doesn't sound like your thing, Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a sneakily inspiring story of two guys doing what they love and hoping for a breakthrough thirty years after they started playing.

TV-wise, I've been watching my fair share of Cincinnati Reds baseball. Of course I've been keeping up with the season finales of the shows I follow all season. Lost had an interesting end to its next-to-last season. Survivor wrapped a strong season that had plenty of drama from strategic play rather than interpersonal hatefulness. Fringe set itself up to go in a fun, new direction next year if it chooses to do so. The Office was at its cringeworthy best, especially in the second half of the season.

And of course there's American Idol. Kris has been quietly consistent and shown some ability to step outside the prefab Idol box, whether it's a different arrangement or choosing to sing a song from Once. I don't care for Adam's need to bludgeon every song, but I'll allow that he's been better than this year's (weak) competition.

Midnight madness

Last night I left home near midnight to see X-Men Origins: Wolverine at 12:01 a.m. (After all the trailers the starting time was more like 12:20.) Although I've enjoyed the other X-Men films, I'm not a hardcore fan or comic book reader, so I wasn't going out because I absolutely had to see it at the first available opportunity. Honestly, I expected the movie would not be very good. (Those expectations were correct.) No, this screening just fit into my schedule better. Really.

As far as I can remember, the last time I ventured from my apartment at such a late hour to do anything was about a year ago to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Then I was going because I was eager to see the movie.

It was never normal for me to run around late at night, but doing this happens so infrequently now that departing home to do something at such an hour is like visiting another world that used to be a little more familiar. The atmosphere from the blanket of night makes the same places feel transformed. It's like a secret society that emerges while most people are tucked into their beds.

To a certain degree I'm comforted by being out and alert at those late hours, as though it's liberating to roam in the moon's shadow. (This may say as much about where I am and have been than anything.) Maybe it's simply that this time of the day is quieter.

I didn't have to go to the midnight movie, but I confess that I got a bit of a charge at the idea of doing it. Sure, attending this screening let me support the theater that's a stone's throw from me and freed up those two hours the rest of the weekend, but I also wanted to catch a glimpse of what's going on when most reasonable people are sleeping.

Festival express

I know there's some curiosity about my recent exercise in moviegoing by seeing 44 films in eight days at the festival--not the most I've done, I don't think--so I thought now would be a good opportunity to share some insights about the experience.

First of all, I think it's taken me until today to recover completely. Keep in mind that I didn't attend eight straight days but four on, two off, and four on. With sessions beginning as early as 9:15 a.m. and lasting until nearly 2 a.m., one can spend almost an entire day seeing nothing but movies. I wouldn't recommend it, but the option exists.

One of the most common questions I get when telling people I've done this is, "Is it fun?" I wouldn't be putting myself through it if I weren't deriving some pleasure from the practice. I'd liken it to distance running. If you get little to nothing out of a voluntary activity, I can't imagine doing it, especially when it requires pushing one's limits.

I enjoy getting to see good films that may take months to come to town, if they ever make it. I like the discovery process of rifling through the festival guide to find what I hope are the gems and being surprised and pleased when I come upon them. Getting away from home for a short bit is also welcome. Really, that's enough.

It's inevitable that I see a fair number of mediocrities and a few real stinkers, but it comes with the territory. Yes, it's tiring, and yes, I can reach my breaking points. I've had films that I've probably slept through as much as I've seen, and there are times when the experience can feel confining. Nevertheless, there's always the promise of something better just an hour or two later. Never mind the critic designation; as a cinephile, that's the driving force. Something potentially good or great awaits with each new film.

The other most common question is, "How do you keep them all straight/how do you remember what each of the films is about?" This question sort of confuses me because each film is usually different enough from the others that they don't blur together. I may also be wired for retaining a lot of information because I will remember more than is probably typical. At the festival I will take notes to get my thoughts and reactions down so that I don't risk losing them. My specific responses are what I'm more likely to forget than plot points and such.

Since I'm credentialed, I have open access to anything I want to see. Passholders are given top priority for seating, so I don't have to fight the masses to get a seat. Except in a couple of rare cases I got the exact seat I wanted--on the aisle in the back on the lefthand side--every time. Both of these aspects make the festival less stressful. With a seat claimed I spend less time waiting in line to get in and have a few extra minutes to go to the restroom, get something to eat, or glimpse the outside.

Much of what I saw at the festival won't ever come across your radar, but a couple of the best films I saw are also higher profile (comparatively speaking). Sugar is one of the best baseball films I've seen, in part because it reveals an untold but crucial story of how a Latin American player might move through the system. Moon is a science fiction mindbender with Sam Rockwell that I won't say much about because it's best experienced with little foreknowledge. The former opened in New York and Los Angeles today. The latter debuts in June.

President's Day

I can't remember the last time I got President's Day off. It is not treated as a holiday at work because Martin Luther King Jr. Day grabs that lone honor for winter quarter. I don't believe we got it off when I was a college student either, so unless my employer in my temp days after college (and before my fulltime job) granted it off, the holiday has gone unobserved in my routine since high school.

Believe it or not, President's Day really was a holiday I looked forward to as a kid. We didn't go on vacations very often, but one trip that we usually made was to Toledo every mid-February. I know, Toledo in the winter (or Toledo at any time) doesn't sound terribly exciting, but it was the chance to get out of the house and spend a couple nights in a hotel.

The purpose of the trip was for my dad to get the business and family's taxes done by his accountant in northwest Ohio. Come to think of it, I'm not sure why there wasn't someone in the Dayton area who could do them. Nevertheless, it made for a fun weekend trip.

The big attraction for us kids was the hotel. I can't remember its name, but I can picture it as it's where we stayed pretty much every time. The building on I-75 south of the city didn't stand out in any way on the inside or outside. It was just the thrill of being in a hotel. Plus, it had a large indoor pool. I guess we were easy to please.

If we weren't swimming , we were probably watching TV. I recall being sprawled on the floor watching an Olympic hockey game from Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. (No, I didn't sleep on the floor.) Hotels also meant HBO, which meant being lured by the siren call of the magnificent theme music and open introducing the next movie. If the timing was right, we could seeFraggle Rock and The Beastmaster. Or maybe it was Dragonslayer...or both. I never saw it, but Super Fuzz always seemed to be on in those days.

President's Day was for going into downtown Toledo. In those days the city had a brand new shopping center called, I think, Lakeside. The first year it was open may have coincided with when we made these trips, but by the time we stopped going, I recall that it was nearly empty save for seniors getting their walking exercising.

It's funny the things that one remembers, but one other memory that sticks out in my mind was hearing a street corner preacher on a downtown corner near the accountant's office building. We didn't spend much time in the accountant's office. Usually we were just there while we waited for my dad to finish up the time he spent with them. I recall being intimidated by the guy yelling hellfire and brimstone in the big city, so you can imagine how shocking it was to go up high in this office and still hear him inside. That guy had a set of lungs on him.

Now President's Day is simply a day without mail delivery, but for those years when it meant a weekend family vacation of sorts, it was something greatly anticipated that I remember fondly.

In the year 2000

Every now and then I have to stop and marvel at what technology gives us. This evening I was in my parents' basement watching the Oklahoma-Oklahoma State football game with the sound down. My dad pulled up the Dayton-Marquette basketball broadcast over the internet. I considered bringing up the Blue Jackets radio call on my laptop. My mom watched a movie she was streaming from Netflix. My brothers were upstairs either playing a game on the Wii or watching Notre Dame and Southern California on the gridiron.

There's nothing all that remarkable about what we were doing. I suspect many other people in this country and around the world do the same. That's what is so amazing if you stop to think about it.

Where to begin? I don't remember exactly when we got a computer at home, but the IBM-compatible with the 5 1/4" floppy disk drive (maybe two) didn't appear there until I was in high school. I recall typing some papers on an electric typewriter, so I'm guessing that it may not have been until my junior year. Compare and contrast that with tonight's set-up. I count four computers, two of them brought by us kids. That doesn't even include the Wii or my iPod, both of which have more memory and processing power than that old computer certainly possessed.

The availability of entertainment, movies in particular, has changed dramatically too. I remember being excited when we got a VCR. It was 1985, if memory serves. Home video libraries were basically unheard of as the market was definitely rental-driven. Now you don't even have to leave the house to have a wealth of movie options at the press of a button.

It used to be that if you were beyond the broadcast signal of your favorite sports teams, you couldn't listen to the games. At best you wouldn't have known the scores until later that night, if not until the next morning. Now it practically doesn't matter where you are to be able to listen or watch live.

Granted, I'm not telling you anything you don't already know, but stop and think about how amazing this is. Technology becomes so invisible in our lives that we lose sight of the fact that we're living in the future of our dreams, minus the flying cars and personal jetpacks.

Here I am, a couple hundred miles from my childhood home and current place of residence, yet I can find out how my favorite teams are doing as they play. On a whim and without leaving the house I can decide to watch movies that I might not have been carried at a local video store. And I can write about my amazement and share it with readers worldwide as soon as I'm done. There's plenty of awful news out there and plenty for everyone to be concerned about, but seriously, isn't all of this pretty cool? Our twenty years younger selves would lose it over things we don't even blink at.

Don't try this at home

When I first started writing film reviews I didn't have access to advance screenings, so moviegoing marathons ruled my Fridays or Saturdays. (It depended on which day I had to be at work.) Seeing three or four in a day was not unusual, and a return trip the following day wasn't out of the question. Eventually I found out how to attend the press and promo screenings. I still saw a film or two on the weekend, but I viewed the majority during the week. To conserve time and fuel I've gone back to the old model this year. I'd even been cutting out some of the films I knew would not be worth my time.

This has been a mostly smart change, but with nearly thirty films opening in commercial release here in the last three weeks, playing catch-up and sampling the goods (for deciding what to review on the show) has chewed up a lot of recent weekend hours. I saw three films yesterday--all duds--and three more today. Tomorrow brings one more. (Good thing I went to the promo for Flash of Genius last week, I guess.)

As I left the theater around 4:15 this afternoon, I shook my head and wondered how I used to do this every week. (And yes, I know I've thrown down more films in one day than I did over both of these, but that's the film fest exception.) Granted, I didn't see much I liked, but that's almost beside the point when you're a critic. Knitting has been good at slowing me down and reminding me to take a breather. A case like this weekend provides a shining example.

After seeing Blindness I'll park myself at home in observance of the lessons knitting has taught me. I'm tempted to trek to Ohio State to see Bruce Springsteen play at a rally for Obama, but I went to a similar event four years ago. Lots of standing around and waiting. More importantly, though, I have a sock that needs finishing. I won't be doing that if I'm hanging around The Oval for the better part of the afternoon and early evening.

Knitting season

Perhaps I'm being premature, but I believe we have entered prime knitting season in my neck of the woods. There was a noticeable chill in the air for much of the day and definitely in the late afternoon while I sat outside knitting prior to seeing a documentary about the eccentric former pitcher Bill Lee. (Obligatory film critic content: the movie is nothing short of a mess but is still interesting from a baseball fan's perspective.) Forecasters claim that it will get as low as 48 overnight.

Knitting and cooler temperatures just feel more right, so maybe my output will increase as we lose degrees in the coming months. While I won't blame the summer sun for my slow completion of projects, my productivity definitely took a hit. It shouldn't. I had more free time than I'll have this fall and winter, but it's possible that a tighter schedule hones my efficiency.

As I enjoyed the crisp air while knitting in public, I realized that I still talk myself through every single stitch. The knit, knit, purl mantra echoes through my head as I silently say what I need to do. I even tell myself to purl the slipped stitch that starts each row. It is not the most engaging internal monologue, but I think it has the effect of intensifying my focus even though I'm not always aware that I'm guiding myself like that. When my knitting is at its most effortless, I can go faster. Do you find the same to be true?

On screen and in print

The poster for the film Young @ Heart, a documentary about senior citizens singing rock songs, features an old pair of hands knitting an electric guitar. Don't let that fool you; there's no knitting in the movie.

As for the film itself, it's a crowd-pleaser, although I wish it were stronger visually. (If the idea was to light it to make the old-timers look worse, consider it a success.) It takes place in Northampton, Massachusetts, which I visited briefly in 2001. I did what I always do when I see something that's been shot where I've been; I looked for places I recognized, namely the Iron Horse Music Hall. Didn't see anything I recognized.

Remember the blurb I wrote that I mentioned was going to appear in print? It was published in Nashville Scene today. It's available online here, but you'll need to scroll down a bit to find it. I suppose you know what name to look for to identify which is mine.

All the old showstoppers

I'm at a loss for what to write about. Goings-on aren't all that eventful. I'm knitting a blanket, but it's the knit stitch repeated ad infinitum, meaning there's nothing worth mentioning there. In lieu of looking for a scrap of interesting activity, let's take a peek at what I'm watching, listening to, and reading.

At the movies: I've been seeing a lot of dogs lately (cases in point: the laugh-worthy 88 Minutes and Prom Night). The best film I've watched in the past couple weeks is Leatherheads. It's far from perfect, but I'm a sucker for old screwball movies. George Clooney has made a solid attempt at replicating the snappy humor and good, old-fashioned entertainment.

On TV: It seems like television has been stagnant since the writer's strike, but new episodes are finally returning. Last week's The Office, with its acidic sitcom version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, was amazing. The fans vs. favorites edition of Survivor has provided some fresh twists to a show that should be stale by now. American Idol has been underwhelming this season, but I get a few good laughs from their hokey Ford music videos each week. But enough messing around...give me new Lost episodes!

In music: I haven't decided where Accelerate fits into the R.E.M. discography, but it's a blessed break from the sameness that made the last two albums generally forgettable. Gnarls Barkley's The Odd Couple can be pretty dark lyrically, but I'm fond of its vintage soul mixed with the contemporary. With Asking for Flowers Kathleen Edwards may deliver her most consistent album to date. The Tom Petty vibe on it doesn't hurt. I'm still digesting Hold On Now, Youngster... by Los Campesinos!

Reading, or not reading but have bought and really would like to find the time to read: I loved Jhumpa Lahiri's first two books, so I ought to dive into her new one, Unaccustomed Earth, and let it grab me instead of waiting to find the time.

I enjoyed the first two books Mary Doria Russell wrote, but I never got around to her venture into historical fiction. Maybe it's because the mix of science fiction and theology in The Sparrow and Children of God exerted such mental workouts that I kept waiting to pick up A Thread of Grace, her third novel, when I felt more up to it. (Or it could be that I wasn't jumping at the thought of reading something set during World War II. Call it fatigue from the war movies in recent years.) At least it's in hand now thanks to a deep discount on the hardcover version.

What are you watching/listening to/reading?

#1 with a question mark

Knitting has been put on hold while I clear out the cobwebs in my head from back-to-back days of basketball stats-keeping and attend to more immediate matters. This may seem like it's better suited for my other site, but I wouldn't want to erode my rock-solid authority by vacillating like this there, would I? *wink*

When I'm wearing my film critic hat--a fedora with a handwritten "PRESS" card sticking out of it, natch--the end of the year has the additional fun and stress of cobbling together the obligatory ten best list. There's also the list of honorable mentions and worsts, if so inclined, and awards nomination ballots. (Yes, plural.)

It's something I enjoy, but that stretch from Christmas to New Year's is already jam-packed with so much else that it is hard to find time for this nebulous process of weighing films and performances against each other, let alone squeezing in one more film for a first or clarifying second viewing. I'd like to do a best of 2007 music list, but that goes on the back burner. And the Archies have been on my mind on a regular basis throughout the year, but those can wait until January 2nd or 3rd at the earliest.

One of my ballots is due by the turn of the calendar, so I macheted my way through the thick overgrowth of the annual movie release list and the performances, music, and other technical achievements therein. I dashed off my nomination ballot because I figured I could live with something that would never be published. The hard work of nailing down my top ten list remains.

Really, though, it's the weight of what to put at #1. Do I go with There Will Be Blood, whose greatness has helped it burble its way up the list from where I would have put it immediately after seeing it? Daniel Day-Lewis' performance and that ending...goodness gracious. Or how about Ratatouille, certainly a less trendy pick but one of the most purely enjoyable films I saw all year? Of course, I really fell in love with Once too. And nearly every critic seems to have crowned No Country for Old Men for good reason. What about Atonement, which I might have liked even more if I hadn't been so tired when I saw it, or Zodiac, which has improved over time in my mind even if my initial evaluation wouldn't have it sniffing the top ten? Can I look at them again before carving my list in stone?

I know, it's hardly a life or death decision, but I want to be more certain in what film I anoint than I am right now. Complicating things more is that I have all of these on DVD except for Paul Thomas Anderson's oil epic, so I could put them to the test in a mini-marathon at home.

But can I even trust my instincts now? Ratatouille would be a novel choice--seriously, where's the year-end love, crix?--which lends it an edge. No Country for Old Men has the opposite problem. It's been feted by practically everyone, which is kind of a strike against it in a perverse sense. Once may have captured my heart the most, but it doesn't have the formal polish of the competition. Am I just a blind fanboy gushing over There Will Be Blood, especially since the director's Punch-Drunk Love topped my 2002 list?

Hashing this out in this space has helped cement one matter. Hot Fuzz goes no higher than five.