Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Double Feature
It's kinda funny how my last post started out about double features and the Drive-In and then I read in the paper that the Hi-Lite 30 Drive-In Theatre in Mongomery was torn down this weekend. Having only lived in this area for 6 years, I don't have a long relationship with this theatre. I've shared some employees-who got me into free movies. I Went with the Ex a few times. But the one great thing about the Drive-In was that they would allow you to bring your dog.
Last summer, I must have gone there atleast once a month to watch a double features with Pimby. We'd share popcorn, I'd bring a 2-litter, he'd have his bowl of water. It was his chance to socialize, becuase other people would bring their dogs too. And the kids loved him, becaue he loved Kids. I don't have Pimby anymore, so I'm not sure why I got upset about the theatre being torn down.
Maybe it's just knowing that there are good memories that I know I can never re-live.
Saturday, July 22, 2006
The Tao of Smith & Shyamalan
Let me start out that if you don't want to read about how I realte Movie's to my life, then stop reading now and don't bother leaving me shit comments about how you just wasted 5 minutes of your life reading my blog. I kind of use this as a Public Diary to get thoughts out of my head and onto paper.
Anyway...
One of the great things my father taught me while growing up was the Double Feature. The Double feature is when you see two movies for the price of one. Drive in's used to do them, now you have to sneak into the second one to do it. But the way we look at it, $9.50 should get you two movies. Now I'm not gonna do film reviews on the two movies other than to say that both "Clerks II" and "Lady in the Water" got me thinking about my life.
Clerks felt kinda like my life store, Dante is in his early 30's feeling that life has passed him by. He's working in fast food, kept saying he's going to get out, but never does. He watches as everyone he knew from HS was more successful than him. He then meets a woman that loves him and represents what a guy wants in a woman, and he know's it's that time in your life where you have to grow up, get married and do what adults do. And even though she doesn't quite get him, he's going to marry her. (back to this in a moment)
In LITW, M. Night does what M. Night does, he throws in little clues in the begining and in the end, all the little peices come together to be what is needed in the end. (OK, mini-film review tidbit here: I think the best performance in this move is by Bob Balaban who plays a film critic who makes fun of how all Horror/Mystery fills have the same formula). But even though I don't think this in Shyamalan's best work, I learned somthing about myself.
In Clerks, what gives the movie it's happy ending is when two charecters that, though big parts of the "View Askewnivers", have little parts in each Kevin Smith film, end up giving Dante what is needed to make him happy. And it LITW, same thing. Charecters that only get a quick screen shot in the begining, end up making the happy ending.
So now anyone that has stuck around this far in my blog want to know -Vince, WTF does this have to do with your life??
Well, I have always beleived that maybe bad things happen for a reason so that good things will come out of them. The best example is that if I didn't get my DUI in 1998, I never would have stopped drinking and I never would have saved up the money for a down payment on a house.
But maybe it's not just the bad things, maybe it's that little thing that you don't think of that often that happened for a reason to get you where you are today or where you will get in the future.
For those that don't know (and I know there are a lot of you-and this is going to shock most of you, and I've been thru years of therapy to deal with it, and I am finally at peace that it wasn't my fault- I was the victim, and I've moved on) I was raped when I was 15. It led me to be a sheltered-shy person through HS and beyond till I finally admited it to a doctor and my family when I was 25. Over those 10 years of hiding this big secret (and now I'm using s Shrek Reference) Problems grew on top of problems like an onion-some of which I still carry with me today. But I dealt with the pain with Humor and becoming a workaholic. trying to keep my head on anything else so that I wouldn't think of the pain.
I would get depressed about my marriage falling apart and the company I worked for for 12 years selling out and letting me go. I know for a fact that if I was still married and working for the King that I wouldn't be taking classes at Second City.
I hear comidic actors talk about why they got in to comedy say it was becuase things didn't go well for them growing up, and this was a way of acceptence from others when they laughed at somthing you'd say.
I keep telling myself that if that didn't happen at 15, I would have been more outgoing in HS, I would have probably gone to college because I would have had more self confidence. I would have gone to Second City 10 years ago and really have a chance of making people laught for a living. I sometimes feel like I'm starting this too late in life to make a living doing it.
But what if it happened for a reason, what if the reason it happend was so that I could have some experiences in life to make fun of. I see these 19-24 year old students in class that have no idea how to start a scene because they've had nothing in their lives that relate to the situations thrown out.
So that leaves me where I am now. Is there a balance in the Universe and everything that has gone wrong in my life will lead to a big thing going right. or will my life be like these movies- Predictable endin waiting for Jay & Silent Bob to save the day?
Ibnly was to
Anyway...
One of the great things my father taught me while growing up was the Double Feature. The Double feature is when you see two movies for the price of one. Drive in's used to do them, now you have to sneak into the second one to do it. But the way we look at it, $9.50 should get you two movies. Now I'm not gonna do film reviews on the two movies other than to say that both "Clerks II" and "Lady in the Water" got me thinking about my life.
Clerks felt kinda like my life store, Dante is in his early 30's feeling that life has passed him by. He's working in fast food, kept saying he's going to get out, but never does. He watches as everyone he knew from HS was more successful than him. He then meets a woman that loves him and represents what a guy wants in a woman, and he know's it's that time in your life where you have to grow up, get married and do what adults do. And even though she doesn't quite get him, he's going to marry her. (back to this in a moment)
In LITW, M. Night does what M. Night does, he throws in little clues in the begining and in the end, all the little peices come together to be what is needed in the end. (OK, mini-film review tidbit here: I think the best performance in this move is by Bob Balaban who plays a film critic who makes fun of how all Horror/Mystery fills have the same formula). But even though I don't think this in Shyamalan's best work, I learned somthing about myself.
In Clerks, what gives the movie it's happy ending is when two charecters that, though big parts of the "View Askewnivers", have little parts in each Kevin Smith film, end up giving Dante what is needed to make him happy. And it LITW, same thing. Charecters that only get a quick screen shot in the begining, end up making the happy ending.
So now anyone that has stuck around this far in my blog want to know -Vince, WTF does this have to do with your life??
Well, I have always beleived that maybe bad things happen for a reason so that good things will come out of them. The best example is that if I didn't get my DUI in 1998, I never would have stopped drinking and I never would have saved up the money for a down payment on a house.
But maybe it's not just the bad things, maybe it's that little thing that you don't think of that often that happened for a reason to get you where you are today or where you will get in the future.
For those that don't know (and I know there are a lot of you-and this is going to shock most of you, and I've been thru years of therapy to deal with it, and I am finally at peace that it wasn't my fault- I was the victim, and I've moved on) I was raped when I was 15. It led me to be a sheltered-shy person through HS and beyond till I finally admited it to a doctor and my family when I was 25. Over those 10 years of hiding this big secret (and now I'm using s Shrek Reference) Problems grew on top of problems like an onion-some of which I still carry with me today. But I dealt with the pain with Humor and becoming a workaholic. trying to keep my head on anything else so that I wouldn't think of the pain.
I would get depressed about my marriage falling apart and the company I worked for for 12 years selling out and letting me go. I know for a fact that if I was still married and working for the King that I wouldn't be taking classes at Second City.
I hear comidic actors talk about why they got in to comedy say it was becuase things didn't go well for them growing up, and this was a way of acceptence from others when they laughed at somthing you'd say.
I keep telling myself that if that didn't happen at 15, I would have been more outgoing in HS, I would have probably gone to college because I would have had more self confidence. I would have gone to Second City 10 years ago and really have a chance of making people laught for a living. I sometimes feel like I'm starting this too late in life to make a living doing it.
But what if it happened for a reason, what if the reason it happend was so that I could have some experiences in life to make fun of. I see these 19-24 year old students in class that have no idea how to start a scene because they've had nothing in their lives that relate to the situations thrown out.
So that leaves me where I am now. Is there a balance in the Universe and everything that has gone wrong in my life will lead to a big thing going right. or will my life be like these movies- Predictable endin waiting for Jay & Silent Bob to save the day?
Ibnly was to
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Cubs
How bout giving up Two Grand Slams in One Inning, does it get any worse.
This Team is reminding me of my marriage-
Starts out with promise,
lots of injuries,
things start going down hill,
stuff gets thrown out on the lawn.
Hopefully the Cubs will be smart enough to get a divorce from Dusty Baker.
Oh wait, it's the Cubs.
This Team is reminding me of my marriage-
Starts out with promise,
lots of injuries,
things start going down hill,
stuff gets thrown out on the lawn.
Hopefully the Cubs will be smart enough to get a divorce from Dusty Baker.
Oh wait, it's the Cubs.
Friday, July 14, 2006
Ego Boost Day
Yesterday was an awsome day for me and I don't have many so I had to blog about it.
Back in Level A of class I was told by my classmates at Second City I was the funniest person in the class. Now we are finishing up Level B classes and the teacher-Brian Posen- went around to all of us and asked the whole class why we like working with eachother. As we are going around people would say this person has confidence, this person brings energy, this person becomes the charecter...
When it came to me he asked "Why do we like working with Vinnie-Vince" (he calls me that cause 45%the class calls me Vinnie, 45% call me Vince, and the other 10% call me Tony-I don't know why)
Anyway, when he asked, nobody said anything, but everyone had a smile on their face. At first I was worried becuase there was no response, but Brian saw the smiles too and asked why is everyone smiling?
The responses ranged from "he has no fear" "He has stage presence" "He doesn't always have to be the funny one, he'll set you up for the joke if it's there" , and one woman said" just seeing him on stage makes me laugh"-at first I took this as an insult, but Brian said that I have the best facial expressions (It's the Eyebrow).
Then, with this added confidence, I went to perform at the Playground with a classmate of mine and I felt i got great laughs there. After the show we were told that the Chicago Tribune will be there next week to write an article and take pictures. They will be starting earlier than usual, so peope that haven't been coming don't know this and won't be let in late.
So I'm doing great in class and have the chance for some free publicity. Now if I could just get my house sold and quit my job, things would be perfect.
Back in Level A of class I was told by my classmates at Second City I was the funniest person in the class. Now we are finishing up Level B classes and the teacher-Brian Posen- went around to all of us and asked the whole class why we like working with eachother. As we are going around people would say this person has confidence, this person brings energy, this person becomes the charecter...
When it came to me he asked "Why do we like working with Vinnie-Vince" (he calls me that cause 45%the class calls me Vinnie, 45% call me Vince, and the other 10% call me Tony-I don't know why)
Anyway, when he asked, nobody said anything, but everyone had a smile on their face. At first I was worried becuase there was no response, but Brian saw the smiles too and asked why is everyone smiling?
The responses ranged from "he has no fear" "He has stage presence" "He doesn't always have to be the funny one, he'll set you up for the joke if it's there" , and one woman said" just seeing him on stage makes me laugh"-at first I took this as an insult, but Brian said that I have the best facial expressions (It's the Eyebrow).
Then, with this added confidence, I went to perform at the Playground with a classmate of mine and I felt i got great laughs there. After the show we were told that the Chicago Tribune will be there next week to write an article and take pictures. They will be starting earlier than usual, so peope that haven't been coming don't know this and won't be let in late.
So I'm doing great in class and have the chance for some free publicity. Now if I could just get my house sold and quit my job, things would be perfect.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
The Following is from TVGuide.com Ask Ausiello Column:
"Holy Kryptonite, yes! For those of you who didn't see the Super prattle I posted yesterday in the Ausiello Report, Jimmy Olsen will make his eagerly anticipated debut in the season premiere...Now, here's the other big news I teased about in AR: Sources say that a pivotal comic-book character will show up this season — and it's got "fanboy orgasm" written all over it. "
Since I was Accurate in picking who the new Northwestern Head Coach would be, I figured I'd try another prediction.
Bruce Wayne will be on Smallville this season. Fans of the show have been waiting for this for 6 years. For the last 4 they said no becuase of "Batman Begins" but with the second Batman film two years away and with the new CW Network trying to draw fans quickly, it kinda makes sense.
Other things I've considered, but doubt:
Robin/Dick Grayson, Diana Prince/Wonderwoman,
Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, or J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter.
And the two things I keep hoping for, that I know will never happen:
Dean Cain or Adam West.
They did do the Tom Wopat last year for all the Dukes of Hazzard fans, so who knows.
I love when all the Fall TV rumors start.
"Holy Kryptonite, yes! For those of you who didn't see the Super prattle I posted yesterday in the Ausiello Report, Jimmy Olsen will make his eagerly anticipated debut in the season premiere...Now, here's the other big news I teased about in AR: Sources say that a pivotal comic-book character will show up this season — and it's got "fanboy orgasm" written all over it. "
Since I was Accurate in picking who the new Northwestern Head Coach would be, I figured I'd try another prediction.
Bruce Wayne will be on Smallville this season. Fans of the show have been waiting for this for 6 years. For the last 4 they said no becuase of "Batman Begins" but with the second Batman film two years away and with the new CW Network trying to draw fans quickly, it kinda makes sense.
Other things I've considered, but doubt:
Robin/Dick Grayson, Diana Prince/Wonderwoman,
Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, or J'onn J'onzz/Martian Manhunter.
And the two things I keep hoping for, that I know will never happen:
Dean Cain or Adam West.
They did do the Tom Wopat last year for all the Dukes of Hazzard fans, so who knows.
I love when all the Fall TV rumors start.
