Saturday, February 23, 2008

Soon I'll be selling star maps

I'm in LA right now for work. Today is Saturday, though, so it's been mostly a free day. I'm staying right near the ocean, which is nice, and after having spent the last few days cooped in edit houses I thought it might be good for me to go out for a walk on the beach. It's been a while since I've spent any time admiring the vastness of nature that God created, and all that, so I thought now would be a good time.

I had walked about 100 yards, admiring the ocean & enjoying the new Rikki Lee Jones album on my way... when I saw a private party near the beach at a hotel. It was for the IFC Spirit awards, signs told me, and it was very private. I thought, "Wow, there might be someone famous there." Then I checked myself. Here I have the entire ocean by my side, a beautiful strip of beach, and a nice blustery day. To spend it looking for celebs seemed wrong. So I looked back out at the ocean and kept walking.

Well the ocean was nice I guess, but then I turned my head again and I had come upon a tent. A tent housing the actual IFC spirit awards. And limos were pulling up to get people. There were about 30 people gathered around a partition, but it was barely a crowd. Hmm, I thought, well, I'll just take a peek. I walked up next to the partition and was about 30 or 40 feet from the limos.

When Javier Bardiem walked out. Followed by Brad and Angelina. Right near me. Well! I thought. I'll just stay a tad longer. (Here's the lowdown: Brad's hair was cheesy, Angelina's hair was hiding her face, Javier was shorter than I thought and was scarier with a bowl cut.) I was hooked. Instantly a guy from Jiffypop walked by and offered me and everyone else some popcorn. I declined, thinking, that's weird, I'm not actually at the movies. But, as more and more celebs came out I kinda wanted some. I'm sure there's a conspiracy there somewhere.

By about 15 minutes later, I had seen Matt Dillon, Ricki Lake, and Dustin Hoffman. I pulled out my cell phone and tried to take pics but all I got was shots of their cars because for some reason my cell phone camera makes things look farther away than they actually are. I wondered in the back of my mind if God was like, great, thanks for enjoying nature and all. I doubt he's sarcastic like that, but as I turned back towards the hotel it did start to rain.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Unscrew America



Hey everyone, a big website that I've been working on for a while just went live. It's for a nonprofit organization founded by Lesley Chilcott, one of the producers of An Inconvenient Truth. The basic idea is to get people to start switching from incandescent lightbulbs to CFLs and LEDs. But the site is pretty fun.

Visit it here.

Also check out a you tube video for the project here.

Ten Things I would like to happen on LOST.

1. Someone explains where Richard Alpert and the other Others have been since the end of last season.
2. Someone just even throws me the smallest bone and just says, "Wasn't it weird how there was a four toed statue?" C'mon guys, just a reference to the statue. You don't have to tell me where it came from.
3. Danielle Rousseau's flashback, where Montand loses his arm.
4. Ok, A flashback for the statue, where you tell me where it came from. That would be cool.
5. All the survivors get together and have a meeting. Everyone states what weird things they've seen on the island. Then, they all agree: This is a weird island. If you see something strange: TELL EVERYONE IMMEDIATELY.
6. I get an explanation for all those "Quarantine" signs on the hatches. 'Cause right now it seems like the writers dug themselves a hole on that one.
7. Hurley learns more about the numbers and Libby while back in the mental institution.
8. Karl falls off a cliff.
9. A flashback for Cindy Chandler.
10. A flashback for the real Henry Gale.

I also will accept a flashback from the crew of the Black Rock, Kelvin, and Radzinsky, and Patchy. Also Mr. Friendly, now that the post mortem flashback precedent has been set with Naomi.

That is all.

Sleepy Rider

Last night I dreamt I was riding a motorcycle down a hill on a major highway.

Which sounds like it should have a been a very cool, exciting dream; full of adventure and awesomeness. Nope.

Here's how my psyche chose to play it: The motorcycle ran out of gas. And even then, the thought in my head wasn't, "How am I going to get home?" It was, "Oh Man, now I'm going to have to walk alongside my motorcycle, pushing it down the highway and people driving along will think I was afraid to ride it down this hill, so I got off and walked next to it." Hmmm.

Then I dreamt about comic books.

Friday, February 1, 2008

LOST: one more thing...


*MORE SPOILERS*

Um, this morning I went to the excellent Lost site Lostpedia and learned that it wasn't Jacob sitting in the chair in Jacob's cabin when Hurley peaked in, it was Jack's Dad, Christian Shepherd. Um. Wow. See photo. That fits in with my theory, which is that everyone on the island has Dad issues, Rich Dad issues often, and that those Dads are somehow behind this whole island experiment or whatever it is.

More support of that theory will debut on ABC.com on Monday. Abc.com's been hosting these lost Missing Pieces, tiny 2 or 3 minute bits of Lost that take place at different points through the first 3 seasons. There's been some silly fun ones and some more interesting pointed ones. There was one where the others were responding to Walt's specialness while they've got him locked in that mysterious room. Then there was one where Jack meets Ethan for the first time. There was even on that seemed kind of uninformative on the surface: Jack's dad gave him a stopwatch as a wedding gift. I suspect, however, that the watch has some tracking device in it, or something that has to do with keeping track of Jack while he's on the island.

So, all that is to say on Monday the last of the Missing Peices episodes will be revealed, and it's going to be a doozie. See, you can read about them in advance on Lostpedia, because people with Verizon or something can watch them on their cell phones before they debut online. And this one gave me goosebumps AND supports my Jack's Dad theory. Check it out at here, at your own risk. All I will say is that it stars Vincent the dog and it takes place seconds before Jack wakes up from the crash way back in the very first episode... And it's mindblowing.

LOST premeire thoughts

Here are my thoughts during last night's Season 4 opener of LOST:


* SPOILERS HERE *


Open on a pile of fruit, okay, kinda cool but kind of rude to those of us who were hoping you'd open on something AWESOME. But, whatever. A car chase? Really? Oceanic 6? I can't believe it says "Fisher Stevens" in the cast list.

Um, this cannonball scene is terrible. What's happening? I don't like it when they're getting off the island. The island is the coolest thing about the show, go explore the Dark Territory or find that Foot Statue with 4 toes or something! Hmm, Hurley's back in the mental institution. I bet he finds out later that Libby was there once, too. Wait, that Oceanic airlines dude is scary. And awesome. Ok, I like this show again.

Wait, Naomi crawled away? She was alive? Jack is a doctor but he didn't even check her pulse?? He's tried to save every starfish with a cough since the beginning of the show, that doesn't really follow. Ben still rules, though, but he's a little powerless now. Will he remain that way? Are we ever going to learn who the real Henry Gale was?

Naomi's dead again, I can only assume she'll be running a marathon or baking a ham in another scene in about 5 minutes.

Oh crap. Jacob's cabin. Now this show is more than awesome. Jacob's sitting in the chair, I think. AHHH! An eyeball. I think it was John Locke's. Locke sure is not dead.

Wait, now Charlie's alive? At least Hurley's invisible friend isn't back. He was creepy. Oh, Charlie's not alive. Geez.

Now Jack and Hurley are playing horse. Geez, that was a short game. Jack's kind of rude. Wait, now we're supposed to know that it was a bad idea to go with Locke? So the people on the boat are...? This show is really bold in its faith in the audience. I like it.

Still the best show on TV.

Monday, January 28, 2008

The Sheeps



Hey everyone,

I have a new band called The Sheeps. We're playing our first show this Wednesday night at the Carousel Lounge here in Austin. It's in what a friend of mine just called a "stabby" part of town. So it should be fun.

We also just got started recording a demo to use to get other shows. We got six songs down, which is nice. I've posted a few of the rough mixes on our brand new myspace page at here. Keep in mind they're super rough, missing backing vocals, tamborine, etc. But I think we're on the road to something good. Check back in about a week and a half and final mixes will probably be up.

Whoohoo!