Friday, April 26, 2013

"Call Me Crazy: A Five Film" (event)



If you haven't been watching, Lifetime has a tremendous series of
shorts entitled "CALL ME CRAZY: A FIVE FILM."

The films sport an incredible cast of actresses and directors,
including Ashley Judd, Laura Dern, Jennifer Hudson,
Jennifer Aniston, Brittany Snow, Octavia Spencer,
and many more!

The five short films deal with a range
of different mental health issues through
a single different woman's personal
journey and struggle.

The project was designed to elucidate what
it is to have mental illness (and to deal with a
loved one who has it,) and is designed to erase the
stigma--to start dialogue and healing.

For a more detailed look at the films, the actresses,
and  to get show times for the next movies, check out

***

Friday, April 19, 2013

WTF!?!? A Bomb didn't hit the TV station, did it?


Look, my week has been pretty shitty, and the
last thing I like to do at the end of a difficult day
is dwell on Real World problems and upset.

I like to Veg-out. I like to get lost in fantasy.
I like to drop out for a while so my mind can numb.

Now, granted, my week hasn't been 'lose-an-arm in a bomb'
bad or 'face-full-of-shrapnel' bad, but it's not a fucking
contest and my stress needs dealing with, so...

I was more than a tad annoyed when I tuned in to see
"Revolution" Monday night, only to find it preempted by
more NBC News lack-of-coverage and anything-but-fact-finding.

(Don't get me started on non-stop space-filler 'coverage' of
tragedies where inanities abound. And yes, I was hoping to
escape real-life strife by watching fictional strife; sue me!)

So I heard there was a great ep of "Independent Lens" featuring
the history of Wonder Woman on instead! Eureka!
A solution! I haven't been abandoned by the TV goddesses!

Helllllllll to the No!
They aired (locally, at least) a god-damned episode
about Fort Lauderdale and the history of tarpon fishing!
(Or something to that effect; I was so upset about the
pre-empting, I didn't linger to get the whole scoop!)

All I know is, that by tonight, I better have
some fricking "Happy Endings" on the tube, or there
may be some more upset on the streets soon enough!
Dammit--I ask for so very little!
How much endless cycling or horrible images do
people really need, anyway!!??


Monday, April 8, 2013

Just Sayin'


"Ummm.....it's The Apocalypse, girlfriend...

You gots to learn to fucking MULTI-TASK!!!"

-Georgia Unity


Friday, April 5, 2013

A Favorite Uncle Passes


My first memories of the 'Dynamic Duo' of Roger & Gene
must have been from about age 12 or 13. I was a hopeless
insomniac, and would watch the overnight syndicated TV shows
as one of my means of getting through the night.

And there it would be, their movie review show, with
witty yet venomous banter, intelligent speaking on the
art and history of cinema, and I was mesmerized.

I knew I was into movies as an escapist forum, but
I was only just coming to understand my love for
the knowledge of actors, directors, nuances, and so forth.
Certainly I had no one to help cultivate such interests in
Southern Podunkia, and now I had found an outlet and
an inspiration for truly experiencing film.

I was exposed to so many ideas and textures, indeed
exposed to films themselves. I was so excited by footage of
the 1986 French film, "Summer"/"The Green Ray" (Le Rayon Vert,)
that I sought out a special Saturday morning foreign film showing
in Tampa--my first foreign film, I'm sure--and was mesmerized!
Film became not just an isolated experience, but a trip into
the larger world.

On a family outing in Daytona Beach, while everyone else was
gung-ho for watching some stock racing one night, I slipped
away to a theatre I had spied with a showing of "Shy People"
(an incredible movie with Jill Clayburgh, Barbara Hershey,
and Martha Plimpton) at the age of 17, knowing where
my true heart was to be found. It was amazing, and I had been
introduced to the film by an episode of  "At The Movies."

I learned whose opinion jived with mine and whose was
the polar opposite, and either way I was able to accurately
determine which movies to avoid or rush to probably 95%
of the time. For a long time, Roger's outlook nearly identically
mirrored my own, until he seemed to swing in a different
direction. And still I enjoyed his evaluations!

But the idea of having the input, the familiarity, the connection
of these two film aficionados and critics to turn to on a
regular basis was a large part of my life, and I will always
appreciate the impact these two gents had.

Thanks for the education and the memories, Roger...
I'll see you at the movies.