Movies with Robert

My best bud Robert took me up on my offer to come over and watch some screeners. He arrived around 9:30am and we got started. He first went through my pile of screeners and picked out movies that he wanted to see. I then went through and pulled out a few that I have seen and didn't wish to see again. We wound up with six movies and put them in a order that we though was good.

We weren't sure if we would get through all of these but we started with Rise of the Guardians. Now I saw this last week and loved it. It became an instant yearly Christmas movie for me. And on my second viewing I loved it just the same... it's a Christmas classic already for me.

After Rise ended we were hungry so we headed out for some lunch. We went with Wienerschnitzel as it's one of Robert's and my favorite places. Back home we popped in Moonrise Kingdom. Again I had seen this one a few weeks ago and was mediocre about it. But Robert really wanted to see it and I enjoyed it enough to watch again. I have to say that I actually enjoyed this movie more the second time around and I'm glad Robert wanted to watch this one.

Next was The Perks of Being a Wallflower. And if you read my blog about hanging with Brett yesterday you will notice that I watched this with him as well. So this is going to be my third time watching this in a matter of a few weeks.. and you know what... I don't care. I love this movie. Everything about it is just so good. And I'm actually the one who suggested that we watch it. Robert knew I had just seen it and it wasn't in his pile to watch.. I actually put it there because he needed to experience this fantastic movie.

So the first three movies I had seen.. now it was time to watch a movie that I have not seen yet. Madagascar 3. Here's the synopsis: Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman are still trying to get back to the Big Apple and their beloved Central Park zoo, but first they need to find the penguins. When they travel to Monte Carlo, they attract the attention of Animal Control after gate crashing a party and are joined by the penguins, King Julian and Co., and the monkeys. How do a lion, zebra, hippo, giraffe, four penguins, two monkeys, three lemurs travel through Europe without attracting attention and get back to New York? They join a traveling circus. Their attempts to get back to New York are consistently hampered by the Captain of Animal Control who wants to make Alex part of her collection. Once they make it back to New York Marty, Alex, Gloria and Melman realize that they want to be part of the traveling circus.

My Review... I enjoy the Madagascar movies. I've seen the first two several times and was looking forward to watching this. I had heard such great things about it and folks comparing it to Toy Story 3 which I just adored. Well it's defiantly not Toy Story 3. The first hour or so the movie is kind of crazy. Robert kept looking at me and saying "I feel like I'm on speed" the movie was so disjointed and fast pace it was very bizarre. Once they joined the circus the movie slowed down and actually started to get good. And it ended great bringing this trilogy to a conclusion. Maybe that's why folks were comparing it to Toy Story 3 as that movie did the same. It nicely ended that series. I give Madagascar 3 a C+

Made some pizza for dinner and started with our fifth movie Flight. Again another movie that I had not seen yet. I have heard from friends that it's not what you think, that it's a much darker film about alcoholism. So I was warned about the movie before watching it. Here's a brief synopsis: An airline pilot saves a flight from crashing, but an investigation into the malfunctions reveals something troubling.

My Review... As I mentioned the previews are a bit deceiving but I was warned about what the true story is about. The movie is not bad, but it's wasn't enjoyable for me. I have a hard time when the person, who is the main character and protagonist, is just horrible and never really changes until the end. But by that time I didn't care what happen to him. There wasn't one redeeming quality about him. The acting was excellent but I just couldn't get pass that I hated the main character. Maybe I didn't enjoy the movie because it was too real, I mean I understood that alcoholism is a sickness and that part of his actions were not controllable because he was sick, but it was just to hard to watch someone so self destructive.  Maybe that's why I enjoy Fantasy as I have enough real life drama in real life I don't need to see it on the big screen.

As I said this isn't a bad movie I just don't think it was the right movie for me. If you enjoy extreme drama then this movie is right up your alley and I'm sure you'll love it. Am I glad I watched the movie.. sure, will I ever watch it again.. nope. I give this movie a C

After that depressing movie we watched our final movie of the night Dr. Seuss The Lorax. This is the third movie of the night that I had not seen. Here's a brief synopsis: In the walled city of Thneed-Ville, where everything is artificial and even the air is a commodity, a boy named Ted hopes to win the heart of his dream girl, Audrey. When he learns of her wish to see a real tree, Ted seeks out the Once-ler, a ruined old businessman outside of town in a stark wasteland. Upon hearing of how the hermit gave into his greed for profits and devastated the land over the protests of the Lorax, Ted is inspired to undo the disaster. However, the greedy Mayor of Thneed-Ville, Aloysius O'Hare, has made his fortune exploiting the environmental collapse and is determined to stop the boy from undermining his business

My Review... I enjoy Dr. Seuss and don't ever remember reading The Lorax so I wasn't sure what to expect. This was an environmental film animated for kids. This movie is all about deforestation and how it effect the environment. Robert mentioned several times how this film just hits you over the head with their message and I agree.. it's not a subtle message. But with that said I did enjoy the movie and I did like the storyline, though a bit heavy-handed. My biggest complaint were the musical numbers that they would do in the middle of a scene.... Those felt very weird. Nowadays most kids movies are written for kids and adults and can be enjoyed by both. This is definably a kids movie and one that I don't think I'll watch again. I give it a solid C +

So I saw three movies that I had already seen and three new movies, but the best part was spending the entire day with one of my favorite peoples in the world.. Thanks for hanging with me all day Robert, you're AWESOME!!

Hanging with Brett

My buddy Brett came over this evening to have dinner and watch a few screeners. I haven't had a chance to spend some one on one time with him so I was really looking forward to this get together.

Brett and I met on The Guild, he's part of the Guild of Extras. I think we actual talked for the first time while at Comic con and I really though he was a nice guy. So we continued to chat here and there on facebook and he finally attended one of my movie marathons and that sealed the deal.. Brett instantly become a new member of my "Geek Mob".

And I have to say after spending about five or six hours with him today I like him even more. He arrive a little before six and the first movie he picked was The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I had seen this movie a few weeks ago when my buddy Aaron, but I loved it so much that I had no problem watching it again. I have to say I loved this movie even more. And Brett really enjoyed it as well, so that made the rewatch worth it.

I made us lasagna and garlic bread for dinner and by the time Perks was over the food was ready. So we ate and started our second movie, Cloud Atlas. Again I went to a screening of this about a month ago with my buddy Robert and totally loved it. But watching it again with Brett I loved it even more. It truly is going to be one of my favorite movies of 2012. I saw and understood so much more. And watching with Brett (who I found out is a human IMDB) made it so much more enjoyable. I can't wait to watch this movie again.

Once that movie was over it was late so we just sat for a few minutes and chatted. Said our goodbyes around 11pm and he headed home. It was a great day and I can't wait until we get to hang out again.

My Twinkie Adventure

So I went to the grocery store today and while in the bakery section I looked for any more Hostess Twinkies, Ding Dong or Cup Cake (those 3 are my favorites). I wanted to pick up three or four boxes of each to store as they are no longer making them. I know the news broke a few weeks ago but I honestly didn't expect everything to be gone. I assumed they had thousands of boxes in warehouses and they be on the shelves for a few months.:(

I checked a few more stores and no one had any hostess anything left. I was bummed. I went to ebay to see if anyone was selling anything and of course there were 10,000 auctions going on with people selling everything hostess. It looked like the average cost of 1 Twinkie on ebay was about $5.  There was even an auction of 1 box of Twinkies for 5 million (not joking).

Now I love Twinkies but there is no way I am going to pay $5 for one Twinkies. I did bid $5 on six or seven auctions for full boxes of Ding Dongs and Twinkies but if I get outbid, so be it as I won't pay anymore for those things.

I  know other companies are vying to buy the secret recipe and continue to make them so I'm not that desperate to find some.. but I'd still like to get my hand on at least a box of each. So if you see any boxes of Ding Dongs, Twinkies or Cup Cakes pick them up for me and I'll be happy to pay you back.

Buffy Rewatch Continues

Once again I struggled to motivate myself to do anything other then watch TV. I wasn't successful. Lucky for me I had plans in the evening...  I was heading out to my buddy Robert's place for our Buffy night.

Got to his place around 6:30pm, we ordered our dinner, Italian this time and we picked a new place. I always get the same thing, spaghetti with meat sauce and Italian sausage.

Caught up a little bit with Robert before starting our Buffy rewatch / first time. Again we are watching Buffy from the beginning. This is a rewatch for me and a first time for Robert. We are currently on season three. Our first episode is episode 5 "Homecoming", I thought it was an okay episode... nothing too special. It's always fun to see Buffy go head to head with Cordelia. 

After that we moved on to episode 6 "Band Candy". Now I told Robert that this was one of my least favorite episodes but I guess I forgot how awesome it really was. I laughed so much in this episode. Of course the highlights were Giles, Joyce and Snyder all acting like teenagers. It was a blast. Both Robert and I really enjoyed it.

Our final episode for the evening was episode 7 "Revelations". I really liked this episode as well, it started the rift between Buffy and Faith. And I can say that I truly dislike Xander. I don't remember him annoying me so much the first time around, but now he's just so horrible and annoying. And I totally forgot about the whole Willow and Xander thing. I mean I know how it ends but it's fun to see Robert so involved with these characters.

As always it was a great evening and fun hanging out with Robert. It had been a few weeks since we hung out for our last Buffy rewatch and I've been missing him more then usual. Gonna try and get one more Buffy rewatch in before the end of the year.

Also I got a new screener tonight.. Wreck-it-Ralph. Now I've seen this in the theaters and loved it so I can't wait to see it again.

Most Beautiful Song & Video

I came across this video from a tweet today and I'm surprised that I had not seen it earlier. The song itself was released in July and the video early October and already has almost 8 million views. I normally don't enjoy hip hop or rap so I know nothing about this artist other then he wrote one amazing song.  I've listened to this song about ten times so far and every time I watch this video it makes me cry. I love the words behind it, he speaks truth and honesty. This was a must have as soon as I heard it. So I went to itunes and found it.

I mean I love the video and music together but the song is just as powerful without the images. I also did more research on this artist named Macklemore and hope to listen to more of his stuff soon.

Hope you enjoy this song and video as much as I did.

Doctors and Dinner

yeah that's my Doctor

Today I had my annual yearly check up. I won't go into great detail as some of my life I like to keep personal (I know shocker), but I can say that my blood pressure is the best it has been since my teens. It was 121 over 80. Of course this is because I'm taking blood pressure medicine. I'm hoping with my continued weight lose I'll be able to get off the meds and still get those kinds of numbers. But for the most part I'm in fairly good shape for a 42 year old man.

After dinner I headed out to Burbank to have dinner with my bestie Will. Only problem is that I got to Burbank at 5ish and Will wasn't getting off work until 7:30. So I drove over to the empire center and did a little Christmas shopping. Not doing alot this year since I have been jobless for most of it... but I was picking up a few things here and there. After a half hour I had had enough. The lines and the crowds were just to much for me so I went back to my Jeep and just sat there listening to podcasts and texting friends.

The time flew by and soon I was having dinner with my buddy Will at Zankou Chicken. Will and I hadn't seen each other in a few months which we try to avoid but it happens more often then we like. But we both agree, it's not about the quantity but the quality of our hang outs. This was a great dinner. We sat and talked for over three hours and closed down the restaurant and then went to my jeep and continued to talk for another half hour. It was nice catching up with Will and a great way to end my evening.

Fighting the Blues

Today was a really lazy day. I still have many podcasts that I have to get edited and ready to be released as I am leaving the last two weeks of December. I have a ton of things I need to do around the house, like continue painting the outside or prepping the deck for sanding. Again none of this has been done. On top of all that I was extremely restless today, more then usual. I couldn't sit still for more then five minutes and my mind was going at a million miles a minute. I had so much to do that I couldn't do any of it. I hate feeling this way and I have to say that this year has been particularly bad. I've only worked 2 1/2 months out of the entire year. That is the least amount of work I have every done since I started working when I was 14.

I should be taking this time to get stuff done and my mind knows that but I just can't motivate myself to do it. Of course when I get a job again I'll be kicking myself  for not getting more done while I was off.. it happens every time. You would think that would motivate me but it doesn't. I don't know what's wrong with me... everything is such a struggle.

I did mange to get about 2/3'ds done on an upcoming Alien Nation podcast. It's something but far from what I could have accomplished today.

I hope I can get out of this funk soon.... I gots stuff to do.

Lunch, Guardians and Argo

Today my buddy Christopher came over to my place for a visit. We went out to lunch at Chili's before coming back to my place to watch some screeners. We choose Rise of the Guardians and Argo for our movie selection.

I wanted to see Rise of the Guardians as soon as I saw some standee in a movie theater. I didn't know anything about the story but the characters looked cool. Then I saw the previews and it was a must see for me. I was actually going to go to the movies this weekend to see it but as I mentioned in yesterdays blog, I got a screener of it. I was so happy when Christopher picked this movie as his number one movie to watch. Here's a synopsis: When an evil spirit known as Pitch lays down the gauntlet to take over the world, the immortal Guardians (Santa Clause, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, Sandman and new addition Jack Frost) must join forces for the first time to protect the hopes, beliefs and imagination of children all over the world.

My Review.. I love this movie. The story, the characters, the animation.. everything just came together so perfectly. This movie had such heart, right off the bat you love these characters. I mean maybe it's because they are characters from our childhood, ones that we grew up with and loved. The Sandman character was my favorite.. which is crazy since he doesn't ever say a word.. but that's how great this animation and story telling is. The main character Jack Frost was charming and fun. You wanted to see good things happen to these characters. When it was over I turned to Christopher and said.. wow this has now been put on my list of Christmas movies to watch every year and even when I just need a pick me up. I give this movie a big A.

The next movie we watched was Argo. Here's a short synopsis: In 1979, the American embassy in Iran was invaded by Iranian revolutionaries and several Americans are taken hostage. However, six manage to escape to the official residence of the Canadian Ambassador and the CIA is eventually ordered to get them out of the country. With few options, exfiltration expert Tony Mendez devises a daring plan: to create a phony Canadian film project looking to shoot in Iran and smuggle the Americans out as its production crew. With the help of some trusted Hollywood contacts, Mendez creates the ruse and proceeds to Iran as its associate producer. However, time is running out with the Iranian security forces closing in on the truth while both his charges and the White House have grave doubts about the operation themselves.

My Review.. Now I was a kid when the Iran Hostage thing happened.. but I do remember hearing about it as it was on every TV station. But I knew nothing about this six who escaped. So I didn't know how this story was going to play out. This made watching this movie very intense. I kept waiting for something bad to happen or someone get killed. This movie is very well acted but I didn't feel it was Oscar worth. It was well paced and never gave you a moment to breath. I enjoyed it from beginning to end but I don't feel the need to watch it again and again. I give this movie a solid B

Podcasts, Hobbits & Screeners... Oh My!!

Today was a fairly productive day. I spent a good six or seven hours working on the next two episodes of my MASH 4077 Podcast. Got them edited and uploaded and ready to go with show notes and all.

Peter Jackson released a ninth production blog, this time it was all about post production, and for me being a post super it was a lot of fun seeing how they go about things in post. All nine of these videos are amazing and so informative. I do hope these production videos wind up on the Blu ray when it comes out. I'm super stoked about seeing the Hobbit in a few weeks (Dec. 3rd). It's going to be AMAZING...

And just when I thought I was only getting that one screener (Amour) this week I checked my mail and sure enough there were two more.. Flight and a movie I was actually considering going to the theater this weekend to see because I wanted to see it so much Rise of the Guardians. Super excited to sit down and watch that one. Flight wasn't on my list to see but I'll watch it if one of my friends wants to watch it with me.

Thanksgiving - Food and Family

This year for Thanksgiving I went to Aunt Joyce's place. She moved there a little over a year ago and this was going to be the first family event she has put on. She lives about an hour and twenty minutes away from me but with the horrible LA traffic and the way the GPS took me, it took over 2 and a half hours to get to her place.

Joining me for this Thanksgiving was of course my Aunt Joyce, Uncle Marty, Cousin Matt, Cousin Austin, Mother, Father, Step Father, Brother, Sister-in-law, nephew, niece and grandmother.  So it was a good amount of family. When I got there my mom, step dad and grandmother were already there. I helped a bit with he dinner until my brother arrived and dinner was ready. As always with my Aunt's cooking the food was fantastic.

Afterward we played a game of Yahtzee before my mom, step dad and grandmother left. Then we played a few more games of Yahtzee before my brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew and dad left. I was the last guest there and played a game of Cards Against Humanity with my Aunt Joyce and Cousin Matt. 

It was a fun day filled with family and food.. two of my favorite things.

Podcasts and Screeners

Not a lot happening today.. it was way to windy to do any painting outside. Instead I stayed inside and caught up on some TV recorded on my DVR. I did manage to worked on the next episode of my Knights of the Guild podcast. It wasn't to complicated of an episode and only took for about two hours to finish, upload and release.

Knights of the Guild Episode #45 Show notes.. On set of "I'm The One That's Cool" music video, I interview "Extras" Jen, Anne and Gabe and Costume Designer / Wardrobe,  Kristen Ingram

Besides the podcast I really didn't do anything productive. I also got my first screener of the week, Amour. Never heard of this movie but looked it up and it looks to be a very depressing drama love story. Now sure I'll be watching it anytime soon but if I do I'm sure I'll blog about it.

LOTR Tattoo - One Week Later

Well it's been a week since I got my Lord of the Rings tattoo and I have to say that's it's healing great. I mean it's itching like crazy but that's a good sign. Another week of maintenance and it should be good to go.

It's funny I was checking out my tattoo in the mirror and I noticed that my Hogwarts tattoo (on my other arm) is a little lower then this one and me being super anal, it kind of bugged me. When I was getting the tattoo I was so focusing so much on making sure it was center on my arm and all I didn't think about it being symmetrical to my other tattoo on the other arm. Honestly it's not a big deal and if it was there is nothing I can do about it now.. it's not like I can take it off and move it down a few inches :)

I'm already getting excited for the fourth Tattoo which I'll be getting next year. It's going to be a Star Trek thing and it's going on my left calf as I have Star Wars (R2D2) on my right calf. Just have to come up with what I want. I know it's going to be Borg related.. just have to work out the details.

Twitter & Brownie Coats

I'm obsessed with Twitter, I have been since it started many years ago. There's not a day that goes by where I'm not tweeting at least a few times. I don't tweet about what I'm eating or anything to crazy like that. I basically use Twitter to keep my friends and family updated on what's happening in my life. I also use it to promote my podcasts and blog. I try and mix it up with geeky things and some personal things. I also use twitter to be up to date on the latest news. Breaking news hits twitter before it hits anywhere else.

Today I reached 2400 followers. That means that 2400 people receive my tweets when I post. That just blows my mind. I know being a podcaster (& The Guild) has helped me get some of those followers but they must like what I am tweeting as they are sticking around. I never thought I would have this many followers when I started. Obviously I'd be lying if I said I didn't like it. Being someone who has always been super shy and in the shadows for so long it's nice to get some attention now and then.

If you want to follow me on twitter just click on the LINK.

Speaking of Twitter.. I saw a tweet from i09 mentioning a Firefly thing with a link to a picture, so I clicked on it and saw this very adorable drawing/picture of the crew of Firefly as kids. It was titled Brownie Coats. I instantly fell in love with it and had to have a print. I clicked on the comments and noticed that someone had asked if prints were available and the artist said yes and all we had to do was email him. He was selling prints for only $15 plus $5 for shipping. This print was so worth the $20.

I also checked out his website and he had some amazing and geeky drawings beside this Firefly one. In particular he had two Lord of the Rings prints that I inquired about and those too had prints you could bye for $15 each.. I couldn't pass up those so I got all three prints.

Well today I got my Brownie Coats prints and it's AWESOME... the two LOTR prints will be arriving later in the week.

You can check out more of his stuff here on his blog http://www.patrickballesteros.blogspot.com/
He also have a website you can check out his other stuff http://www.patrickballesteros.com/

If you're interested in any of his things you can email him at patrick.ballesteros@gmail.com with any questions or requests.

Christmas Time

Yes I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet and I normally wouldn't even consider putting up my Christmas decoration until the Friday after Thanksgiving but since I'm not going to be around the last two weeks of December, as I'm going to be spending Christmas and New Years with Chris up in Montana. I wanted to start celebrating early.

Christmas is my favorite holiday and I love decorating and listening to Christmas music. So today I finished what I started over the weekend. I got my tree completely done and added the garland, lights and bulbs anywhere I could. I decorated about the same amount as I did the past few years. I normally go all out with lights outside on the house but since I live in a rural area and it would take so much work to do it I haven't done that since I moved to his house.

I have to say decorating alone isn't much fun but I did put on a Pandora Christmas station and just immersed myself info the Christmas spirit.

Twilight & Christmas Tree

Aaron and I got up around 9am, I made some breakfast and we watched Mockingbird Land. As Aaron had not seen it yet and I am saving it on my DVR. After that we started to watch.. yep you guess it.. another Lifetime Christmas special (it's a sickness :)).

He left around 11am and I bummed around the house and flipped the channels and noticed that Twilight was about to start. Now I haven't seen a single Twilight movie, which is strange since I'm into most things that are pop-culture. I did read/listen to the first book while commuting and enjoyed it and I've always wanted to watch the movies. So I figured since I caught it at the beginning I would take the few hours and watch it.

Of course I tweeted that I was watching Twilight for the first time and as expected received several response like "don't go to the darkside", or "don't rot your brain". There seems to be this negative stereotype that goes along with these books/movies... I never understood it. Lucky for me I don't care what people say, I like to judge things for myself. I still get flack because of my love for the Star Wars prequel... and yes regardless of what you say, I am still a true Star Wars fans even if I do love those movies.

Anyways back to Twilight, like I said I read the first book so I kind of had an idea where the story was going. And I have to say that I really enjoyed the movie, it was entertaining, fun, had some cool effects. It was your typical popcorn movie. It was cool to see how they portrayed the various characters compared to the book. They also cut quite a bit of the book out of the movie, but that's to be expected as this is an adaptation. I enjoyed it so much so that I want to see the sequels (and in fact recorded New Moon, which was airing next). I can see me buying the movies on blu ray in the future. Would I call myself Twihard... not yet :), but I am defiantly a fan and look forward to reading the rest of the books and seeing the other movies.

I could have watched the next Twilight movie but I really wanted to get something done so I put up my Christmas Tree and decorated it. It was nice because it was cold outside so I started a fire as I decorated the tree. I hope to get the rest of the house decorations up in the next few days. I'll post pictures when everything is done. I love Christmas.. it's my favorite time of the year.

"Screeners" Movie Marathon

So I woke up and turned on the TV and of course Lifetime channel was on and again got addicted to their Christmas specials. Since yesterday I have done nothing but watch these specials. They have gotten me into the Christmas spirit so much that I decided to pull out my Christmas stuff and put it up early (maybe tomorrow).

Because I have so many screeners and have nothing planned for this weekend, I couldn't work on painting the outside of the house as planned because of the rain, I put out a request on twitter and facebook and asked if anyone wanted to join me and watch some of my screeners. I had one taker.. my buddy Aaron.

He got to my house around 11:30 (he drove up from San Diego), when he got here we went out to El Pollo Loco for some lunch before returning home and starting our movie marathon. I left it up to Aaron on what he wanted to watch. I had only seen two of the movies from my selection of screeners so anything he choose would be fine. After he choose five movies I asked him to put them in order of viewing. So for today we are going to watch The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Frankenweenie, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Beasts of the Southern Wild and finally Moonrise Kingdom.

First up The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I remember when this came out and was interested in seeing it because it starred Emma Watson, who play Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies.

Here's a synopsis: Based on the novel written by Stephen Chbosky, this is about 15-year-old Charlie (Logan Lerman), an endearing and naive outsider, coping with first love (Emma Watson), the suicide of his best friend, and his own mental illness while struggling to find a group of people with whom he belongs. The introvert freshman is taken under the wings of two seniors, Sam and Patrick, who welcome him to the real world.

My Review.. I loved this movie, well written, acted and a twist at the end that I never expected. It made me laugh, cheer and cry. Maybe because I could identify with the main character as being an outsider in high school. I didn't expect to love this movie like I did. Emma, the reason I wanted to see this film was so good, no signs of Hermione and with her short hair I never once thought of Hermione when watching her. The main character "Charlie" is just so dame adorkable, you can't help but fall in love with him. This movie is based on a book, I now what to read the book. I can't wait to watch this again. I give this movie a solid A.

Next was Frankenweenie, synopsis: When young Victor's pet dog Sparky (who stars in Victor's home-made monster movies) is hit by a car, Victor decides to bring him back to life the only way he knows how. When classmates find out how he did it, they all bring back dead pets of their own with a monstrous outcome.

My Review.. Tim Burton is a hit or miss with me and I'm sad to say this was a miss. I found the story to be good, but the characters were boring, the animation is okay, maybe the B&W had something to do with me not enjoying it, I understand why they did it but I just didn't think it worked. Glad I watched this but won't watch it again. I give this movie an C+.

We then watched The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, synopsis: A group of British retirees decide to "outsource" their retirement to less expensive and seemingly exotic India. Enticed by advertisements for the newly restored Marigold Hotel, they arrive to find the palace a shell of its former self.

My Review.. This was a very enjoyable movie. It's a who's who of older British actors. It was lighthearted, funny, sad and sweet. I loved seeing the various lives of these older people and watching how each one deals with growing old. Of course Maggie Smith is my favorite character of the bunch, but each one was special and brought their unique take to their characters. I give this movie a solid B.

Now it was time for Beasts of the Southern Wild, synopsis: Hushpuppy, an intrepid six-year-old girl, lives with her father, Wink, in the Bathtub, a southern Delta community at the edge of the world. Wink's tough love prepares her for the unraveling of the universe; for a time when he's no longer there to protect her. When Wink contracts a mysterious illness, nature flies out of whack, temperatures rise, and the ice caps melt, unleashing an army of prehistoric creatures called aurochs. With the waters rising, the aurochs coming, and Wink's health fading, Hushpuppy goes in search of her lost mother.

My Review.. I did not enjoy this movie, that's not to say I hated it, but it was just to bizarre for me. I was completely confused by the story, the acting was great but the majority of the time I was just thinking to myself.. "wow this is such a bizarre movie". Am I glad I watched this? I don't know.. but I do know that I won't be watching it again. I'm not saying it's a bad movie.. just not a movie for me. I give this movie a C-.

And for our final movie we watched Moonrise Kingdom, here's a synopsis: Set on an island off the coast of New England in the 1960s, as a young boy and girl fall in love they are moved to run away together. Various factions of the town mobilize to search for them and the town is turned upside down -- which might not be such a bad thing.  

My Review.. This movie was okay.. just okay. I heard so many great things about this movie so maybe the hype got to me. I mean lots of great actors are in this film. And I'm into quirky kind of things but this was a bit to quirky for me. Again like Beasts I just don't think this is my type of movie. I'm glad I watched it and it was enjoyable but I won't ever watch it again. I give this film a C+.

Thanks Aaron for sharing this movie marathon experience with me.

Screeners

This past week has been a good week for screeners. Besides Beasts of the Southern Wild that I got last week I now have screeners for Dr. Seuss' The Lorax, Madagascar 3, Moonrise Kingdom, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Frankenweenie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Brave, The Impossible, The Dark Knight Rises, Argo and Cloud Atlas.

I normally get about 30 or so screeners so I still have quite a few to go, if it's the same as years past. Some ask me why I get these and it's because I am a member of the Producers Guild of America (PGA) and I vote on the PGA awards every year so the studios make sure I get to see all their award worthy movies. It's always a hit and miss on what I get. Some years it's huge blockbusters and other years its small independents films. So far this year I have gotten a nice mix of both.

Lifetime Christmas Movies & Wraith

After the interview I cam home and turned on the TV and started scrolling through the channels. I saw the Christmas special "12 Men of Christmas" with  Kristin Chenoweth was playing. I saw this last year as I'm a huge fan of Ms Chenoweth so I decided to watch it again. After that special there was another Christmas special with Amy Acker (from Angel) who I also enjoy so I watched that one. The next thing I knew I was obsessed with these Lifetime Christmas specials. They are just so heartwarming and Christmasy. I know it's not even Thanksgiving yet but these special really put me in the Christmas spirit. I watched another few specials before pulling myself away as I had returned my Magic Mike DVD and rented Wraith of the Titans.

I am a huge fan of the original Clash of the Titans, so when they did the remake I was excited to see it. I know many "hated" the remake but I actually enjoyed it, I liked the characters, story and special effects so I was looking forward to this sequel .

Here's a synopsis: A decade after his heroic defeat of the monstrous Kraken, Perseus-the demigod son of Zeus-is attempting to live a quieter life as a village fisherman and the sole parent to his 10-year old son, Helius. Meanwhile, a struggle for supremacy rages between the gods and the Titans. Dangerously weakened by humanity's lack of devotion, the gods are losing control of the imprisoned Titans and their ferocious leader, Kronos, father of the long-ruling brothers Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. The triumvirate had overthrown their powerful father long ago, leaving him to rot in the gloomy abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon that lies deep within the cavernous underworld. Perseus cannot ignore his true calling when Hades, along with Zeus' godly son, Ares, switch loyalty and make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus. The Titans' strength grows stronger as Zeus' remaining godly powers are siphoned, and hell is unleashed on earth. Enlisting the help of the warrior Queen Andromeda, Poseidon's demigod son, Argenor, and fallen god Hephaestus, Perseus bravely embarks on a treacherous quest into the underworld to rescue Zeus, overthrow the Titans and save mankind.

My Review: Once again the special effects were pretty amazing, the acting was good and the story was well done but there was something missing and I can't put my finger on it. I'm a huge fantasy lover and there are so few fantasy films out there that I hate complaining about one. Maybe I enjoyed Clash so much that I was hoping for the same with Wraith and it wasn't. I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy the movie as I did, it's a fun popcorn action packed special effect movie and I would watch it again but it definitely isn't on my list of top favorite fantasy movies. I would give Wraith of the Titans a B-

Job Interview

Today I had a job interview with a company down in Hollywood. They produce reality based shows so it's right up my alley. I had heard about this job from my friend Jonathan who recommended me to Tiffany. She contacted me via Facebook and we chatted a for a bit. I got some info about the company and the position. It was for a Post Supervisor (of course) for their current show but what they were hoping it would lead into would be a permanent post super position for the company. This sounded liked the perfect job for me. Only issue was that they needed someone to start mid December and I was leaving town on Dec. 18th and not returning until Jan 2nd. She asked me to send her my resume anyways just in case the start time was pushed. I sent her my current resume and figured that would be the end of it.

Well yesterday I got a call from the production manager asking me if I could come in for an interview tomorrow (which is today). He knew of my start time so I figured they pushed the start date.

I got ready this morning and left my house around 10:45am. I had to be there at Noon and it normally takes about an hour to get there. Well I arrived at the offices at 11:30am, a half hour early. I sat in my jeep and checked emails and such waiting for 11:45 as I figured it would take a few minutes for me to park and then go upstairs. I got to the office around 11:50 and went in.

For the next hour I spoke with four different people (including the show runner) about various aspect of post and this show I would be working on. This was by far the longest interview that I have done but it all went very well (in my opinion). When I left the office I felt good about the interview. They are suppose to call me early next week with their decision as they still had a few more people to interview...

So now I wait... fingers crossed.

Redbox & Magic Mike

I use to have Netflix (DVD service) and found that I would get a DVD and let it sit on my table for three months.. by the time I would watch it I'd have paid the same amount if I would have purchased the blu ray. So I stopped getting Netflix. I had heard of Redbox when they first came out but didn't pay much attention to them since I had Netflix.

I signed up to the service about a year ago but never actually rented a DVD/Blu ray until today. Though I have a ton of TV still to watch I feel like I'm falling behind with movies I want to see. One movie that I wanted to see was Magic Mike, yes it has cute guys who are strippers but I had heard that the storyline was good. So this would be my first rental from Redbox.

Here's a synopsis: Magic Mike (Channing Tatum), an experienced stripper, takes a younger performer called The Kid under his wing and schools him in the arts of partying, picking up women, and making easy money. As he keeps at the top of the game in the clubs, Mike struggles with trying to develop a relationship with a girl he really likes. The dramatic comedy screenplay was inspired by Tatum's work as a 19-year-old stripper before he made it in Hollywood.

My Review: I think I had high hopes going into this film because of all the hype I heard when it was released. I have to say I did not enjoy it overall. The eye candy was nice but half naked men does not make for a movie great. I felt the story just kind of dragged, it was described as a comedy/drama.. there is very little comedy in this movie.. I felt it to be very dramatic and maybe that's why I didn't enjoy it as much as I was hoping. I did enjoy the last half hour of the movie. I liked the relationship Mike had with The Kid's older sister. I thought the acting was pretty good, was one of the best parts of this movie. Overall I'm glad I saw it, but I don't plan to see it again. I would give this film a C+

MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 43

Download from itunes http://tinyurl.com/MASH4077itunes or listen/ get direct download http://MASH4077Podcast.com

Show Notes

Kenny Mittleider from Knights of the Guild, Alien Nation: The Newcomers Podcast & Confessions of a Fanboy Podcast, Simon Meddings from Waffle On Podcast, & Al Kessel from Tales from the Mouse House, Fast Forward & Just Because Podcast discuss one of the most successful and longest running television series in history.. M*A*S*H

Today we cover Season 2, Episode #19 - The Chosen People

43rd Episode Overall

Directed by Jackie Cooper
Written by Gerry Renert, Jeff Wilhelm, Laurence Marks, Sheldon Keller & Larry Gelbart
Production code K419
Original air date January 26th, 1974

Set during the Korean War in the 1950’s

Plot Summary: A Korean woman shows up with a baby she insists is Radar's, which surprises everybody, especially Radar. A Korean family moves into the compound and claims the land is their farm.

Hope you enjoy it, Kenny

One Tattoo To Rule Them All

It's been over a year and a half since I got my last Tattoo (R2D2) and I've been wanting this one since the beginning of the year. My buddy Moose (who I have known since I was 11 and he was 8) is the tattoo artist and he's been super busy and our schedules haven't meshed. Then I'd forget about it and months would pass and then we'd try to get together again and nothing. Finally a month ago we booked today to do it... finally.

You might ask why not just go to another tattoo artist, well he did my Hogwarts and R2D2 and he is fantastic. I only trust him to ink me. This is permanent and it needs to be right the first time.

So the other big thing is that he lives in Hemet which is 2 1/2 hours from my place. So I left my place at 3pm in order to get to his place by 6pm (I wasn't sure how traffic was going to be). My GPS took me through the back way and I avoided all traffic.. it was great. Got his place around 5:30 and grabbed some dinner before heading to his place by 6pm.

This tattoo represents my love for Lord of the Rings. I've enjoyed the books since I was a kid and with the movies it's elevated my love to that of Star Wars and Star Trek. When I was thinking of a LOTR tattoo I knew I wanted "One Ring To Rule Them All" saying in elvish. My first thought was to have it like a band running around my upper arm. Then I was looking at pictures online and saw it in a circle and actually liked the look of that better, the only thing it left alot of space in the middle. I thought about putting Hobbit feet in there since Hobbits are my favorite characters from the story. But having chopped off hairy feet in the middle of the circle didn't appeal to me...  I noticed that best friend Josh had J.R.R. Tolkien initials on his shoulder, it's a great combination of all four letters into one symbol and I thought it would look great in the space in the middle of the circle... so that's what I went with.

First thing we did was put some numbing get on my arm. This was the first time Moose and I were trying this stuff out.. it said it needed to wait and hour to get the full effect. We waited until 7 and then proceeded with the tattoo. Certain parts of my arm were somewhat numb but I felt about 85% of the needle and as the night went on I felt more and more of it. Still my arms (Hogwarts & LOTR) didn't hurt nearly as much as my leg (R2D2).

Both of my previous tattoos took a little over 3 hours, this one took almost 4 hours. I'm afraid what my next one will take :)

I'm extremely happy with the outcome, it's not exactly what I imagined but I think it's fantastic. I was looking for it to be burning out of my skin and though that's not exactly happening, it does look red hot and raised out of my skin.. which I love.

Next up will be Star Trek.. still working on what I want..

Buffy & Bros Resumes

It's been a good three weeks since Robert and I watched some Buffy. So as soon as he was back in town he booked some time to hang. First ate some yummy dinner at Taco Bell then went back to his place and started Buffy. For those who don't know, I am doing a Buffy re-watch, I've seen the entire series and loved it. Robert has never scene the series so we started at the beginning and it will take us months to finish but we're having a great time.

We made it to Season Three on our last visit, but was only able to watch the first episode. So tonight we started with S3, Ep2 "Dead Man's Party", not one of my favorites, I'm not a huge fan of emo Buffy. I know this episode had to be done to get the gang back together and the good thing is that this storyline didn't linger for episodes.

After that we moved on to S3, Ep3 "Faith, Hope & Trick" Now this is when the season and series starts to hit it's stride.. at least in my opinion. I'm not a huge fan of Faith but I think her addition added so much to Season 3 and I can't wait to show Robert where it goes.

And our last episode of the night..  S3, Ep4 "Beauty and the Beasts" We get the return of Angel, again not a favorites but really good, that's what I love about Buffy.. even there okay episodes are better then almost anything else on TV. I really like Seth Green's character Oz and he was brought to the for front of this storyline. Robert thought this one was really tense with the Jekyl character attacking Oz then Oz changing and attacking the Jekyl character before Angel comes in and snaps his neck.

Glad to be watching Buffy again and Robert seems to be really enjoying it well.

Mail Thieves

I stopped by my mailbox to get my mail, as I do everyday but something was different. First of all those who haven't been to my house my mailbox (along with the other 14 houses in my area) are located at the entrance of the dirt road leading to our houses about a mile away. Anyways went to the box and opened it with my key and noticed that light was coming in from the other side (not normal)... I walked around to the back and noticed that both doors were torn open and everything was gone.

My first thought was crap someone stole my mail and I wondered what was taken. I called Doug who is like the neighborhood watch guy and asked him if he was aware of the situation and he informed me that he heard about it this morning. He thinks that they broke into them last night. He has already contacted the post office and the police to file a report. 

Good news is I collect my mail everyday, and it was Veterans day yesterday (Monday) and mail service did not happen. So if it indeed happened last night as suspected then there was no mail in there.. at least not in my box. So that made me feel a bit better... still sucks though.

So now we have to wait for the post office to either replace or fix the boxes and until then we have to drive 30 minutes into town to get our mail at the local post office... hope they fix it soon.

Firefly 10th Anniversary Special

10 Years Ago

So I heard about this during comic con. Firefly recently started airing on Science Channel and it's doing really well so they decided to do a 10th anniversary special and filmed alot of it at San Diego comic con.

I've been a fan of Firefly since it first air (out of order) on Fox. From the first episode (The Train Job) I loved it. I loved the characters, the writing, the ship, the look and everything about it.  I followed it as it's bounced around the schedule and was devastated, but not surprised when I heard it was cancelled. I had most episodes recorded on some VHS tapes and would watch them over and over. Then found some bootleg DVD's on Ebay.

A few years later I was thrilled to hear that Firefly was coming to DVD and that they were finishing the effects and such on the 3 unaired episodes. I was there the day the box set came out and spent alot money to buy it. I came home and for the next day I watched every episode in order and was in heaven when I watched the brand new episodes. I was super excited to hear that boxset was selling out everywhere and they had to print more DVD and create more boxsets.

Today

Then a few years later there were rumors that Universal picked up Firefly and was going to create a movie based on the Firefly universe. Well those rumors were true and we got a sort of conclusion to the Firefly saga with Serenity. I was blow away by this movie. I saw it six or seven times in the theater and loved it.

Now ten years later I watch this special with tears in my eyes seeing these actors reminisces about being on set and how much fun they had. Watching them being brought to tears talking about fellow cast members and their fans. I knew I loved Firefly but after watching these special I realized that Firefly is and will always be one of my all time favorite sagas of all time. It joins the ranks of Star Wars, Star Trek, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. If we never get another TV series, movie or comic book, I'm perfectly content as I have 16 hours of awesome, awesome entertainment to enjoy over and over again.

Thank you Joss Whedon and the entire cast and crew of Firefly/Serenity for giving me something that has touched my heart in so many ways. I'm proud to call myself a Browncoat.. now and forever.

Confessions of a Fanboy #11

Download from Itunes: ow.ly/ek0nn or listen, get direct download ow.ly/ek0no

Hey all you Fanboys and Fangirls, it's time for another installment of Confessions of a Fanboy. This episode I sit down with Robert as he talks about being a Fanboy of Gaming.

Here's a quick bio for Robert.  Robert is a 28-year-old gamer and connoisseur of geeky things. He's gamed almost his entire life and likes all sorts of other things, such as Doctor Who, Firefly, Star Wars and even sports (gasp!). He's currently a software engineer on internal projects for a social & mobile video game company.

If you want to confess your fanboy or fangirl-ism to me send me an email at ConfessionsofaFanboy@gmail.com

You can also follow the podcast on Twitter @FanboyPodcast, or the Host Kenny @Geekyfanboy and today's guest Robert @RFLudwick

Please go to our podcast page on Facebook and "Like" us.. just click HERE

Happy Birthday Mom & Welcome Home Robert

Today is my Mom's birthday, planned to have dinner with her and the family. I left my hour around 2pm as I needed to get gas and then pick up some flowers for me mom's birthday. Went to Costco for gas and it was packed, about fifteen minutes later I was driving over to Stater Brothers for the flowers. I found two bouquets that I liked and asked for help combining them together. The florist wasn't around so one of the check out ladies came over and said she would do it. I appreciated her doing that but I'd be better off if I did it by myself in my car. Luckily they didn't charge me the $3 they charge to combine flowers.

Once I had the flowers I was ready to go, it was close to 3:30 and I needed to be at my moms by 5. Luckily for me traffic wasn't bad so I got to her place exactly at 5pm. My brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew and grand mother were already there. I said my hellos and we were off to the Spaghetti Factory for dinner, they didn't make a reservation. We drove in three separate cars and when we got there it was packed. We were stuck in line just to get out car parked. After about fifteen minutes Mom came over and said we were going to a different place and gave my brother the directions (I was following him). We drove to another Italian restaurant right down the street from my Mom's place.. don't know why we didn't go there in the first place. That place was dead.

Mom and Chuck go to that place often and know the owner. We were seated at once, the service was extremely slow, I guess it was a reason why we didn't go here first. Our waiter was great, he also sang to us, I guess the waiting staff sings Monday through Saturday but since it was Sunday we didn't expect them to sing but he did on and off. Dinner was very good and it was nice hanging with my family. We finished eating around 7:30 and I went back to my Mom's and hung out for a half hour.

I left her place at 8 and headed to the Long Beach Airport to pick up my buddy Robert who was flying in from Montana, he was up there visiting our friend Chris. I got to the airport around 8:30, parked my jeep and went inside. I've only been to LB airport one other time and I flew into that airport so I knew it was very small. I wanted where I thought Robert would be coming through. He arrived at 9pm and was out by the baggage area by 9:15.

We hugged out hello and grabbed his suitcase and headed back to my Jeep. Traffic wasn't bad and I had him home by 10:15pm. He was tired and had to get up for work tomorrow so I didn't stick around. We said our good nights and then I headed home and got in around 11pm.

When I got home I was exhausted. It felt like I had been driving all day. I immediately crashed and went to bed.