Here is the promo peice for the new British TV series starring Karl Pilkington, airing on Sky in August. They told Karl it was going to be called Karl Pilkington's Seven Wonders, but Ricky announced that it's actually going to be called An Idiot Abroad. Poor Karl. Looks hilarious though.
Oh, and just for fun, here's Karl telling the Warners sales reps to get off their ass and do some work.
Carpool is an online show by Robert Llewellyn that I started watching when he first created the show. It's a talk show that takes place in a car with a variety of celebrities and other interesting people. 80 episodes later, someone's decided to pick it up for traditional television. And that someone is channel Dave, the channel that played the new Red Dwarf episodes. How exciting.
Last night, I went to the Jimmy Awards. This is an awards show for the most talented musical theatre high school students in the country. Perk of the job.
I always liked going to our plays in high school, so this was like that but with even more talent. There were 44 nominees. We got to hear about one verse from each student. Then the judges narrowed it down to 5 and each of them got to sing solo a song of their choice. I was happy that the winner sang Your Daddy's Son from Ragtime because that's my favorite musical (plus she did an amazing job at it).
Oh, and did I mention that it hosted by Kathie Lee Gifford? Pretty crazy, huh?
"A note to the publishing industry: More book launches should end with crowd surfing" --Spinner
After visiting the Intrepid with writers group, I went over to Brooklyn for a book launch of one of our authors from work. It's a book about punk, and since Eric is not only a music writer but the frontman for a popular punk band, he also put on a concert. And one of the two other acts included Aaron who I work with.
Aaron playing bass for LFD
I have not been to a punk concert since high school, and when the first band went on, I started wondering why adults do punk music. It's just a bunch of noise and angsty teens need to make to get out all their issues. But it turns out only the first band was like this. I actually liked Aaron's band LFD the best as far as sound goes. However, Eric's band NBT is amazing to watch because Eric is quite the spectacle. We were a little baffled because as the author we work with, Eric is this friendly polite guy and we had no idea that he had this stage persona that pulls people's hair and rubs his mic under his armpits. And there were about three crowd surfing moments not including the random drunk fat guy who got up on stage and stage dived into a crowd that quickly separated to let him crash to the floor.
This week, writers group met on the Intrepid. We got to hang out on the flight deck next to the fastest plane in the world, hold our meeting on a lower level, and tour the ship and museum. There's pretty much nowhere you can't go on board. Then we took a power-tour of the submarine. They said it would be a 15 minute tour, but we only had 10 minutes to spare, so we ditched the tour guide right at the beginning and forged ahead on our own, zooming through the whole thing in 5 minutes. Very cramped space in there!
We took some group photos, so I will post them when I get them. But there are a lot more photos on my facebook album. Check it out.
I bought a bed. Adult shopping is boring. Here's a story of Karl Pilkington's adventure buying a bed, not realizing it doesn't come with a mattress, and getting one from the back of an old van. His girlfriend wasn't impressed. You have to forward to 4:10 (halfway through) into the video for the story:
I met Loudon Wainwright III one year ago today. And, I'm packing all my things in cardboard boxes because I'm moving. Let's hear what good ol' Loudon has to sing on the subject.
Okay, I can say it now: I signed a lease. I am officially going to be a New Jersey-er starting July 8th. Yee gods!
Subway observations:
Taggers are starting to spraypaint their Twitter screen names on the walls of subways now. I think I will have to process the magnitude of this development later.
Also, we had the coolest subway driver yesterday. Every single stop, he announced the stop in a different accent, and they were so convincing, I couldn't tell which one was real. There was Irish, Jamaican, Brooklyn, Canadian, and more. We were all cracking up the whole way home.
Somehow I managed to get hooked on this 2009 British sitcom called Plus One (which you can watch on YouTube). Thankfully (I guess) it's only two and a half hours long in total. I found it by mistake because it was linked from an Ashes to Ashes thing since Plus One stars Daniel Mays who I've recently come to appreciate from his performance as Keatsin A2A. But he can do comedy too. It's not even a particularly clever show, and it's a bit low brow for my taste, but it is undeniably funny, if a bit in poor taste sometimes. I'm just imagining how fun it would have been to write. Okay, you have a bunch of celebrities at your disposal--now make up a light-hearted story to go around it and just do ridiculous things.
The premise of the show is that Rob's girlfriend dumps him for a pop star and then Rob gets invited to their wedding. He spends the entire five episodes trying to find an impressive plus one (a date to the wedding) to get revenge.
Clips: The first few minutes: Mr. Black vs. from Blue Rob getting his shoes stollen Rob showing off dancing Rebecca's boyfriends
I will be in Madison for the first few days of the first full week of July.
Last night was the SPI alumni party. I was happy I was able to give at least two new students some advice and tell them about a possible opening in our company. But mostly I just wanted to see some friends from the program and get free food.
On Sunday, we had our picnic at church. The bishop came and I chatted with his wife for a while. I'm going to miss my church when I move.
As far as I can tell, it's when a bunch of people take photos of each other at the same time and post them to Twitter. Here's one that showed up on Milo's twit feedthat includes both Robert Llewellyn and Robin Ince. Does everybody in England know each other? I hope Bobby Llew's invited Robin to be in Carpool. That would be a good discussion (or possibly monologue?).
Yet another Ashes to Ashes drawing. Maybe I've got it out of my system now. I realize how funny it is Sam Tyler always said "God is in the details," but Keats was the one obsessed with details.
My job is moving to New Jersey. Yesterday we took a look at the new building. It's pretty much entirely brand new. And very green--motion detector lights, doors lock and unlock at certain times of the day...This reminds me of the Bradbury story There Will Come Soft Rains where even though the entire population has been killed, the house continues to work automatically on its own--making breakfast, sweeping the floor, letting the dog in, announcing the time, etc.
Haha, but it's a pretty cool space even if it has attic slanting walls that make bookshelves and bulletin boards a challenge.
While I was in this city, I looked around the area and looked at an apartment I really like. There's some more news on this, but I'll announce it if it becomes concrete.
Unrelated, while I work on my podcast, I'll be revisiting all of my music and giving reviews and recommendations on this page.
Crikey. 30+ unique visitors per day on milohtomb.blogspot.com? Keep it coming! Plus, lots of comments, some from Milo, some from people I recognize, some from people I don't, some annonymous. Really cool. How can I keep up this sort of involvement for the next month?
If you're not aware, this is a fictional blog full of comedy and travel and...it's basically a buddy novel, except instead of a friend, Milo has a stalker, and instead of being a passive read, you can partake. Go leave a comment and become part of the story!
"GENE Hunt is set to become ever larger than life by starring in a Hollywood blockbuster. The tough detective from Ashes To Ashes, played by Philip Glenister, is being lined up for his own movie."
Is this just a rumor that started because Matthew Graham said he's not putting Gene Hunt in any more TV shows, but if Hollywood came knocking that would be a different matter? Gosh, the end of Ashes to Ashes was so epic, I can't imagine them trying to go even bigger than that. And would they try to Americanize it again? It would still have to be Philip Glenister in the role. We all saw what happened when Harvey Keitel triedto play Gene Hunt.
A year ago, I started from scratch in many ways. I went to a new school, got a new job, moved to a new state, and basically knew no one. A year later, I'm doing it all again.
Yes, that's right: I got a job! Okay, so it's not exactly a new job--it's where I've been working part-time for the last ten months, but now it's full-time. That means salary, benefits, the works. It also means moving to New Jersey. Not thrilled about that, let's be honest. It's a little harder to get around without a car, so I'm looking at urban areas like Hoboken and Jersey City.
I saw a place in JC that was really good today. I also walked around Hoboken. Both cities are pretty cool, very different than each other.
So, yes, it will be sad to leave my church, the beach, my NYC coolness points, and most of all my awesome roommates, but it's a proximity thing (and I don't like this neighborhood anyway, to be honest). Hopefully I'll be able to find good roommates and a good church in Jersey.
More about the job: publicity, marketing, and social media for music, film, and theatre trade books. I'll be doing a lot of what I'm doing now and then some. Modern publicity, leading publicity into the future, I guess. I'll also get to work more one-on-one with authors, which I'm very excited about.
Quick rant: I applied to get health insurance in January. They screwed up the form a couple times so it took two months for it to even start being processed. I had to get blood taken when I had pink eye, but the insurance people said if I get approved (and why shouldn't I?) then they will pay for anything that happened during the three months my application was being processed. I called them this week to see if that would still apply if I moved to Jersey since the blood was drawn here on NY soil. Turns out, this whole time since March, my application has not been processing. It's not on record. Now, I don't know who screwed up, but this is a big screw up, don't you think? Surely this kind of negligence is illegal?
So that's the news. I'll let you know when I find a new place to live. The office moves to NJ June 28th, so hopefully some time around then.
I've been waiting for Splice to come out ever since it was announced because Vincenzo Nataliis my very favorite director. It's finally out and I saw it and I want to talk about it. In brief: I overall like the film, but it's not my favorite of Natali's (though it's tough to compete with Cube.)
I'm not giving away any big spoilers here, so don't worry. Because I dance around some of the surprises, this review will ring more true (hopefully) if you've seen the film. But also use it to prepare yourself for what you'll see and look for the right things.
Genre
If you're expecting a mainstream horror film, this isn't it. At the same time, it's too mainstream to be artsy. One of the great things about Natali's movies (he often writes as well as directs) is that even though there's something strange going on in the plot, the movie is never ABOUT the plot. It's always about character. So, yes Elsa and Clive have created a species by splicing human and animal DNA. But the real movie is about how Elsa's childhood has affected her outlook, her needs and desires. If you don't follow that train of thought and instead look simply for a monster movie plot, you'll be disappointed.
But can I say, that the movie was moving in one direction with one tone, and then changed around 20 minutes before the end of the movie. I hated the fact that it went from this movie about struggling with morals to some cliche monster in the woods versus humans who've dropped their flashlight in the stream. I mean, really, guys? The very final scene is fine, but the climax, I suppose you'd call it, felt like it was stuck in there by Hollywood.
Character
The characters are strong, at least the main two characters. Even though both often flip flop their opinions on they are doing, it's never out of character and always in reaction to something that's happened. We slowly get the full picture of Elsa as the pieces of her childhood fall into place over the course of the film. I feel like some people aren't going to like the very end of the movie, the last shot, but it's inevitable, in a way, at least thematically. It sums up the character and brings full circle Clive's accusation earlier in the film about what Dren (the creature) means to her. I would have liked to see more between Clive and his brother. That relationship seemed a little thin. Deleted scenes?
Direction
You know, when I first started to watch the film, I thought that the movie didn't feel like Natali. It didn't feel like anyone in particular, but as the movie went on, the STORY felt more like Natali, especially the ending. He always has a sound story with strong characters who end up either transforming or, even more often, becoming the people they are, as Nietzsche might say. It'd say it's closest to Cypher. It's got more of that Hollywood feel to it than Cube, Nothing, or Elevated.
Music
Didn't notice the music too much. Certainly wasn't bad. Would have preferred some more Micheal Andrews. Or, who did the music for Cube? I wish there was a soundtrack to that.
Special Effects
Holy cow, good. Natali's movies are usually very organic. If you recall the first scene in Cube or the ending of Nothing, we tend to see some body innards, and not usually in a gory shock appeal sort of way. He never does anything for the shock effect (except maybe that first scene in Cube?). But it's often shocking just the same. Dren is clearly partially played by a human sometimes (or all the time?). There is makeup, but there is definitely a lot of work in post too. I think. It's hard to tell, really. It looks really good. She looks mostly human except her eyes are too far apart and you can see the place where the two halves of her brain formed. And then of course, her legs bend like a dog's and she has a scorpion tail. There are also other organic things in the film. Lots of placenta sack or strange hybrid creatures that look like something out of an advanced eXistenZ or something. It all looks good, especially for being an indie film.
Acting
No problem with the acting. There's a scene in the beginning where I guessed one of the big twists as early as I could have possibly guessed it. Was it too predictable or was the way that the actress (Sarah Polley) spoke so good, I could tell she was lying? Also, I was pleasantly surprised that David Hewletthas a pretty big role in the film. I thought it would be a cameo, but no. He was good as always.
Theme
There are three big things going on here.
1. Elsa's childhood. How upbringing impacts your mind as an adult.
2. Morals. When you start changing the rules, how do you know what's right and wrong?
3. Coming of age. Dren's rapid age puts her through childhood and puberty as though she were a human being.
I thought all these entwined nicely and without one, the story would collapse.
Choices
As you can see, I've mostly only had nice things to say, so why has Splice gotten some bad reviews? As a viewer, there are some things that I would have been happy if they left out. Some reviewers are applauded at the "bestiality" in the film, and I agree I could have done without those two scenes AS A VIEWER. But as a WRITER, I can see that those two scenes are extremely important to the story. They could have done something else there, yes, and then the story would have gone in a different direction. The first scene is immensely important to themes one and two. They lead the characters to do what they do next. Without it, they never would have had such a big emotional change-around. And the second scene is crucial to the end of the movie, and therefor theme 1 which is the whole point of the movie. Without it, it falls apart. So yeah, ew, but you write your movie, let them write theirs.
The experience
I saw this in a half-full cinema on a Saturday morning. The movie was getting a good reaction from the crowd. There are parts that are really intense or gross and you could hear and feel the audience tensing up. There were only two big laughs in the movie and neither of them were comedic parts. There aren't actually any genuinely comic elements in the movie despite that Natali has done comedies (see Nothing). The laughter was a release of tension from two really tense parts of the films. Both times were in a moment of quiet where the characters were in trouble by someone else. People in the theatre were yelling things like "Oh snap!"
To sum, I thought the characters, story, performances, and effects were all very sound. I hated the random b-horror-flick climax. I was disturbed but didn't disagree entirely with his choices. The movie is graphic, but not for shock effect.
fastest plane in the world
Somehow I managed to get hooked on this 2009 British sitcom called Plus One (which you can watch on YouTube). Thankfully (I guess) it's only two and a half hours long in total. I found it by mistake because it was linked from an Ashes to Ashes thing since Plus One stars Daniel Mays who I've recently come to appreciate from his performance as Keats in A2A. But he can do comedy too. It's not even a particularly clever show, and it's a bit low brow for my taste, but it is undeniably funny, if a bit in poor taste sometimes. I'm just imagining how fun it would have been to write. Okay, you have a bunch of celebrities at your disposal--now make up a light-hearted story to go around it and just do ridiculous things.
Yet another Ashes to Ashes drawing. Maybe I've got it out of my system now. I realize how funny it is Sam Tyler always said "God is in the details," but Keats was the one obsessed with details.
My job is moving to New Jersey. Yesterday we took a look at the new building. It's pretty much entirely brand new. And very green--motion detector lights, doors lock and unlock at certain times of the day...This reminds me of the Bradbury story There Will Come Soft Rains where even though the entire population has been killed, the house continues to work automatically on its own--making breakfast, sweeping the floor, letting the dog in, announcing the time, etc.
