turnaround gurkha

After much anticipation and trepidation, I watched the “Hitchhiker's” trailer last night…

Here are my very mixed impressions. For anyone who cares. Which is probably just me.

Good: Straight off the bat, it was thrilling to see Arthur in his bathrobe.

Bad: It hurt to hear Ford's American accent although he says “What if I told you I was from another planet?” instead of “What if I told you I wasn't from Guilford”. So maybe this Arthur thinks his friend Ford is from Detroit. Regardless, it's changing a major characteristic of Ford and I don't like it.

Good: I still think Mos Def is a good actor and he JUST MIGHT be able to pull it off.

Good: The Vogons!

Bad: There's some slapstick jokes in there. They might be great in context but I worry that they might have stuck too many of these in just to appeal to the sub-intellectual American audience.

Good Trillian's cute little pajama-space outfit. I think she will be a charming Trillian and much more interesting than the one in the book and (especially the BBC series).

Bad: The obvious push for the Arthur/Trillian “love story” which is evident even in the split second that Trillian is being attacked by something or other and shouts “Arthur!”. Trillian was never in love with Arthur! She had the classic “Bad Boy” syndrome and that's why she chose Zaphod.

Good: The few lines I heard from Sam Rockwell were delivered very well. I still think he was a great choice for Zaphod.

Bad: I STILL hate the situation with Zaphod's head. When his first head “flips back” to reveal his second, he looks like this He-Man action figure I used to have. VERY cheesy. And it's not at all the way it was described very clearly by Douglas Adams. I just don't understand why they couldn't have done what they did in Men In Black 2. I can understand being on a budget but it would have been SOO worth it. That is something that I, as a director (or producer or anyone in an position of power) would NOT have been flexible on. And after waiting for 10 years to make this film, you'd think they'd want to get it right.

Good: Arthur! Arthur! Arthur! Martin Freeman is the PERFECT choice. And he even gives a little “Tim” look to the camera when Zaphod says that he and Ford shared 3 of the same mothers. Hopefully Martin Freeman's acting will overshadow all of the other little problems that I forsee.

I'm still pretty excited about the film. I realise I'm being hard on it. But that's what fanboys and girls do.

But seriously, guys…is having TWO PROPER HEADS too much to ask?! Apparently, yes.

February 17, 2005
Categories: Filmpinions . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Amatuer Match

Last night I watched the DVD compilation of the work of Michel Gondry. It is very entertaining and I enjoyed it as much as I enjoy his films (Human Nature being one of my favorite movies), but I found this DVD to be EXTREMELY intimidating as well. Part of me was thinking “if only my dreams were as eccentric as his, I could come up with cool ideas for films and videos too!” But it's not just his IDEAS. The man gets an idea and then he knows EXACTLY how to pull it off. It's one thing to think “I want Beck to follow his shoes. I want dozens of Kylies to walk around the block together. I want the White Stripes to be made of LEGGOS!”. It's another thing to DO it and make it look awesome and not at all special-effects laden. I was in AWE watching the Kylie video. I honestly could not figure out how he did it. I fell back on the notion that it must be a blue screen. BUT IT WASN'T! HOLY SHIT! He's just some sort of savant!! It's a good thing my film aspirations are low concept (lots and lots of bloody gore) because otherwise, just knowing Michel Gondry exists would be enough to make me want to crawl into a hole and never attempt to make a movie again.

On a different note: The “Hitchhiker's” trailer is finally on line and I can't bloody watch it till I get home!!! Poo sticks!

February 16, 2005
Categories: Filmpinions, I Made Movies . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

Don't let ED depress you…

It has been a trying week indeed. On Monday morning, we learned that our composer quit the movie (because he was swamped with PAYING gigs). I guess I can understand needing to take the paying gigs and dropping the non-paying ones but it still screws us and that does not make me happy. Dom has been frantically trying to find a new composer. It hasn't been easy. The trouble with most of them is that, in order for them to do it for free, we can't have a nice, traditionally horror orchestral soundtrack. The alternative? Midi. Which sounds…like midi. We did NOT want that. Our old composer happened to know a lot of musicians who could play for free. No one else does. Maybe we can just have Dom rif on his tin whistle live while he watches the movie. It worked for Jim Jarmusch.

But that was just the beginning. My week has been shitty for loads of day-job related reasons that are too boring to explain. I'll just say that it has been hell here and I can't tell if I'm getting sick or I just feel like ass because I hate it here so much.

There have been some highlights though. Monday night I watched this low budget horror flick called “Detour” with Dom, Faye and Sherrard. The “plot”: some liberal arts college students are driving back from a rave through the desert and they take a titular detour to find a rumored peyote field. But instead of peyote, they find some disgruntled Tuscan Raiders who have taken to cannibalism. The result? Lots of girls in daisy dukes die bloody deaths. FANtastic.
After the movie we watched the toy division of the dog show and laughed heartily as the little fluffy dogs whose hair obscured their legs. Watching a dog who appears to have no legs run is the height of comedy.

And those are the high points. Everything else has been shit city.

February 16, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I Made Movies, I'm Working . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

second attempt

WEEKEND UPDATE

Friday
We had our Snow Day wrap party which was loads of fun! We were pleasantly surprised to discover that The Grotto in the basement of The Rendezvous is an adorable cross between an underground bar in Amsterdam and The Mos Eisley Cantina. Our bartender was an super cool gay man called Babe who bore an uncanny resemblance to Tom Savini. Before we arrived, we'd consumed a bottle of champagne in an attempt to keep booze costs down. I never seen to remember that such a thing doesn't work because I forget that I'm hammered and buy too much alcohol anyway. Regardless, a good time was had by all (or at least by me). We danced to Joy Division and it seemed like a matter of minuted before the Shame Lights came up and we were thrown out onto the street. At the time, I thought I had a lot of party left in me, but I completely crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Saturday
Owowowowowowowowowowowowow.
But really, didn't I deserve that? 5 pints of water, some french fries and 1 nap later, I became functional and was able to accompany Faye to sign the lease on her new apartment (the interior of which looks exactly like my apartment but with only one bedroom). While she filled out the paperwork, I hung out with her landlord's carpet loving, windowsill eating toddler. Children are very weird and I will never understand them.
After that, we had about two hours to kill before our Snow Day wrap dinner for minors. (Several of the people that worked on the project were under 21 and couldn't attend the party). Faye and I lingered over some chai magic for an hour but still had another hour to go. We ended up at the ridiculously huge and versatile QFC on Broadway where we purchased each other stuffed animals. I got Faye a fluffy puppy with a purple bow whom she dubbed “Pupzooki” and she got me a fanciful purple unicorn called “Unicron”. We then attempted to stroll VERY SLOWLY to Charlie's as we still had 20 minutes before the dinner. Luckily, one of our minors arrived early so we hung out with him as everyone else trickled in. But guess what? He was the ONLY underager that showed up. Seriously, people. If you RSVP “yes” to an evite, it's as good as a legally binding contract. You are now, under the penalty of law, legally assholes.
Still, the 7 of us old fogeys had fun with our little fella. We later took him back to the Zookster Palace to watch Zardoz.
Ah…Zardoz. What can be said about this film that can't be better summed up by looking at this picture? Or this one?
After that we watched SNL with Jason Bateman which was one of the best SNL's I have ever seen. Their current cast is really incredible.
Also…ale and pie.

Sunday
We spent the morning doing ADR (“additional dialog recording”) for Snow Day. It went pretty well. Also, Faye and I now have director vocal cameos in the movie!
Later, yoga.
Later still, Arrested Development.

Hooray for weekends!

February 14, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I Made Movies . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

53581

My extremely long and enteraining LJ entry just got lost. I hit the spell check button and the window closed. There is no way I can be that prolific again. Fuckers.

I'll try again in a little while. Right now I have to go cry. It's definitely a Garfield-style Monday.

February 14, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

grimm foible

They paved Sam Goody and put up a Starbucks.

Ok, so it doesn't have quite the same ring as that Joni Mitchell song, but it's true. Where that junky old Sam Goody on 3rd used to be, there is now a gutted out building. And from the illustration of the projected finished project, it looks like the sole purpose of doing that was to put up ANOTHER Starbucks. Now, it may sound like I'm annoyed about Starbucks specifically. That's not entirely accurate. While I do think it RIDICULOUS that there is quite literally (at least) one Starbucks in any given 2 block radius downtown, I am more annoyed by the pointlessness of gutting the building. Apparently, they are trying to make 3rd and Pine/Pike look less like the tramp haven that it is and more like a swanky metropolitan area, what-with the new Johnny Rockets and the re-faced McDonalds and the silly little coffee/sandwich bar called “Cosi” that they installed in the soon to be Macy's. But it's not gonna work. It's not.

But the real issue here is this: It seems like there is no sacred architecture in Seattle. I'm not saying that the Sam Goody building was a beautiful example of historical architecture. But I see this kind of thing ALL the time around town. I come from a city (Richmond, VA) in which most of the buildings in their metropolitan area are hundreds of years old. If not the whole building, then significant sections of it. It's history. People live and work in history and there are whole societies dedicated to preserving it. (It's probably the only cool thing ABOUT that city).

Since Seattle is a young city, most of the buildings are pretty new, and therefore they don't give a second thought to tearing something down and starting over. The only “living history” we have here is the Underground Tour and those guys had to fight like hornets to preserve that. As neat as it is, it's also pretty crappy down there. It looks like a college student's basement.

Most of the standing buildings in Seattle aren't more than 50-60 years old. My old apartment building was built in the 1970's and yes it was a shithole but that's only because the owners didn't take care of it. Oh, the toilet in your unit is broken? No, we don't need to fix it. We'll just tear down the whole effing structure and build luxury condos instead. In fact, I think if The Man had his druthers, everyone in Seattle would live and work in a Starbucks-like environment.

In summary, Seattle will never have historical buildings are ANY living history because we will just keep building a “young Seattle” on top of it. One day, in the not so distant future, people will be heading underground to see scraps from the Seattle of 2005. Maybe we'll even find part of the Sam Goody sign buried under some coffee grounds.

February 11, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, Seattle . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

gonna go back in tyme


You Belong in 1967


1967


If you scored…

1950 – 1959: You're fun loving, romantic, and more than a little innocent. See you at the drive in!

1960 – 1969: You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule – oh, and drugs too.

1970 – 1979: Bold and brash, you take life by the horns. Whether you're partying or protesting, you give it your all!

1980 – 1989: Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night – and successful during the day.

1990 – 1999: With you anything goes! You're grunge one day, ghetto fabulous the next. It's all good!
What Year Do You Belong In?

February 9, 2005
Categories: Meme Crazy . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

that had caught fire

A work-day inspire haiku:

I wonder how much
force it takes to kill someone
with a three-hole punch.

February 9, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I'm Working . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

everyone can be a bigshot

I just wanted to transcribe the introductory paragraph(s) from the quarterly letter we send out to our clients here at my day job. Let me remind you of what I do so that you can fully understand the gravity of this letter. We manage individual investment portfolios. In other words, we help rich people get richer through the stock market. There are two owners of our company. One of them writes the quarterly newsletter designed to assuage any fears that our clients might have about fluctuations in the market or economy. He is, at least on the surface, a conservative man in both demeanor and politics. And with that in mind, read on:

“Help me, Rhonda. Hurtling through a blur of traffic like a misguided missile, why, tell me, is it that most taxicabs don't have seatbelts? It makes you feel as vulnerable as a mosquito contesting highway airspace with the grille of a Mack truck. After all, we live in a 'safety belt' society where warnings, precautions and advisories are as ubiquitous as a multitude of moose milling around Manitoba. Examples of today's ever present alerts would be:
WARNING: Flexible Flyer sleds have recorded very poor crash test results in collisions with sidewalk curbs.
WARNING: This space age toy include 5,254 parts, requires self-assembly and a 315-piece professional tool set. Batteries NOT included.
But there is a way to make decisions and live life free of being constantly 'on guard' for fear of making a mistake. Over the entrance to the public library is the inscription that 'knowledge will set you free'. And information is knowledge. Information brings understanding which in turn brings a sense of security or trust. It is that information about [Company Name] that we want to impart to our clients and prospects so that there is a knowledge of what we stand for and what we can be expected to deliver.”

Granted, by the end of that, I SORT OF understand what he's trying to say. But I'll be damned if a client can get past the first paragraph without thinking they are reading the ravings of a lunatic.

February 8, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I'm Working . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

you are not in

WEEKEND RECAP

It's been a while since I've done one of these because this is my first weekend after three solid weeks of no days off. Obviously, making movies is fun but I never got a chance to recover from the day job hangover I have every Friday. So this weekend I did! Yay!

Friday
A bunch of us went to our beloved Canterbury to drink way too much and eat greasy food. The place became absolutely packed which is new. I hope it doesn't get overrun with assholes because The Canterbury is my last refuge away from Capitol Hill Indie Zombies. We did bring a lot of film people with us so maybe it only SEEMED crowded because there were so many people with us that I wasn't used to having around. We didn't end up leaving early-ish to sing karaoke which is what I'd wanted to do but I couldn't seem to convince anyone to do it. Instead they kept saying “one more beer”. And that's the story of how I became excruciatingly hungover Saturday morning. Eventually, I got Krk, Faye and Dom to leave to go watch the first rough cut of Snow Day that our editor sent us. It's shaping up very nicely! I am freakishly excited about it! One of our crew is currently mass mailing comic conventions to see if they will show our film for free. That would be better than festivals in most cases because it would be seen by our target demographic (and wouldn't be panned by the snobs that often grace film festivals) and it would be free as well! (Hopefully). There are several film festivals we will sumbit to as well. But I'm mostly excited about the possibilty of Joss Whedon, Rob Zombie or Patton Oswalt seeing our movie. Digression much?

Saturday

After nursing respective massive hangovers, Faye, Sherwood, Dom (who was hangover free, the dry bastard) and I headed to the Bellevue Square Mall so that Faye and I could buy new dresses for the wrap party (horrifically girly, I know…but just because we like to spit blood on people and make dirty jokes doesn't mean we don't like to look pretty). Meanwhile, Sherwood and Dom shopped for shoes. (Which is also horribly girly and I can't make excuses for them). After that we went to see “Alone in the Dark” because after reading the description of it in the Stranger,(scroll down, cracka) how could we not?! It was Craptacular indeed and well worth paying matinee prices (or sneaking in) for a good laugh. Tara Reid just looks SO SMART with a pony tail, a clipboard and glasses!

Sunday
Dom and I were treated to breakfast by the Glidewell family in Redmond. For those of you that don't know, Alesia is my long lost childhood friend from Huntsville, AL. She was also the person with whom I made my first movie entitled “Mississippi Care Bears”. It was an abstract, mostly ad-libbed film which is as funny as it is poignant. Anywho, breakfast was great and the parents (I think) got a kick out of seeing what became of the hyper, A.D.D. riddled little blonde girl (who is now a mostly subdued, larger gothic girl. Notice I said GothIC and not GOTH. There IS a difference).
After that I watched a terrible movie on comedy central (I heart Jason Bateman…especially when he says “anal leakage”) and struggled with whether or not to go to yoga for the first time in a month and a half. Eventually, I decided I HAD to go and am very glad I did. I am pretty sore (which is normal) but I did REALLY well for not having been in that long. I believe it is because I am now about 8 pounds lighter and my center of gravity is different! I am able to balance a lot better because I'm not so top heavy. Hooray! Furthermore, I was very invigorated after class. Yoga. Is. Awesome. And so are normal-sized boobies. And Chewbacca.

February 7, 2005
Categories: Dear Diary, I Made Movies . . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a comment

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