Holy Crap, Batman.

Jesus, it's been a month since I blogged.  Been an exciting month for sure.  We're booked into and start rehearsals on Sunday for...

Half in the Bag and Bored!

Which is going to be a sketch comedy revue put on during the upcoming C2E2 comic book convention here in Chicago, at McCormick Place.

Sat. 4/17 at 2:45

So, me and my writing partner, the uber talented Joe Goltz (Shout out Wisconsin!) were writing our asses off this last month.  Script is final, still some last minute tweaking but we planned for that.

Hired a great director, Jason Chin, with deep comic knowledge and 15 years of directing sketch~!

Cast a FANTASTIC group of performers, now known as Mid Grade Comics!, Ana, Alex, Rammel, Jeff, Siobhan, Kelsey, Mark, Joe and Myself to put it on.  More on them as we near the show.

Truthfully, I really hope it's funny, and moreso that my team feels it's worth their effort.  They're going to be putting in a lot of work, we all are, and I hope it lives up to it.  That's my fear, that the group would feel it's not at least palatable material.

We will be putting on a Tech Rehearsal at Gorilla Tango theater the week prior.  More on that as it nears...

So great stuff.  Movies have been about 80%, but I'm trying to keep up one a day~!

MotD: The House that Dripped Blood

Hammer Horror has a nice big soft spot on my neck.  It bit me as a kid, just a couple of them, and I've loved everything I've seen of theirs, which admittedly isn't much.  I've got a ton of Hammer in my queue and this is the start of them.  This was an anthology of a house that brings doom to all who live in it.  Steals a bit from House of Wax, but that was what Hammer did best, take the cool aspects of other horror movies and put Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in it and make it more awesome!  No let down here.  Really fun.

They call you The Bandit...

So, The Daily Blank is currently having a Slepski-palooza.  I've apparently infested the homepage with my made up tales of snark.  I hope some other stories kick me out, because it looks like I'm a story hog.

I do like the one about AfterOPRAH though.  I love a MASH reference and an AfterMASH reference with some Jamie Farr thrown in is tops for me.  I hope the Alan Alda quote is not too obscure to be confusing. 

I've got another story in the hopper about Gobots and it dawned on me while writing that just how much freedom I can have here.  I don't want to get overboard with it, but I cannot wait to start really making up some shit.  Just having fun with all the miniscule bullshit that's in my head.

Topics will soon include:

Burt Reynolds
G.I. Joe
Burt Reynolds
Comics
Burt Reynolds

You get my point.  In fact, as I'm typing this I think I may incorporate Burt as a recurring member of Daley's staff.  Maybe put him on the City council.  Seriously.  And this is all as I'm typing this so if stream of conciousness doesn't make super sense, then suck it.

Write a story about something real, the best satire has it's basis in reality IMHO, and in that story, include the mention of Burt being put into place as some position.  Next few stories, just start referencing him giving quotes on the matters at hand.  The shit's getting made up anyway, so why not use Burt.  What is then created, over time, is a paper trail of an imaginary life of cinematic great Burt Reynolds. 

Stay tuned....


MotD: Slacker

Richard Linklater's indie debut feels like a warning sign for what the rest of the 1990's was going to be. It's very entertaining, a very writers movie, kinda like Seinfeld, about nothing and in the process, about everything.  The camera flows from person to person via shared conversations throughout a day in Austin, TX.  Lot's of monologues, some better than others, the best belonging to Madonna's pubis.  Worth seeing to have said you saw it, it has rewatcheability, if only because there's a LOT of concepts tossed about.  Well played, Clerks, well played.

Ticket to Ride

Appropos of nothing, I was doing the math today on some logistics of life here in Chicago.  Let's say I was going to go into Lincoln Park for the day to shop.  I planned on spending at least 3 hours there.  Now, everything I have been told from the city says they want me to take public transportation, be it the El or a bus.  I agree with the concept in principle, I would rather not congest the streets with a single passenger car.  Believe it or not, I do feel that way. 

However, in the scenario here, the train would cost me $4.50 (at least, if I don't have connections).  Driving my own car and parking at a meter, even at the bullshit inflated prices of the new meter contract, would only be $3.  Additionally, depending on the time of day, driving is way faster.  Yes the train gets you in the vicinity faster, but then add in walking time, etc.  At best it's a wash for time spent, at most, the car is a better alternative.

So, why do I want to take the train?  I'm talking about a day trip here, not a night out thing with cocktails involved or to an area where you know parking is non-existent.  And Brian, exclude bikes here, let's pretend it's dead of winter.

If the city was really serious about cutting down on congestion and increasing the usage of public transportation, they would LOWER the CTA fees, not raise them as they're planning on doing in the next year.  The math simply makes sense.  People that HAVE to use the CTA will do so regardless of cost, so all they're doing is driving away the casual user, in exchange for pimping more money from the necessity user. 

It's similar to what Marvel did with Amazing Spider-Man when they increased production to weekly.  Many casual fans dropped off, myself included, and they simply squeezed more money out of their die hards.  Circulation overall dropped somewhat, but they made the money back on the wallets of fewer people.  That hardly seems like a responsible business tactic that a city should be foisting upon their citizens.

MotD: Taking of Pelham 123 (2009)

I wholeheartedly disagree with the public's distaste for John Travolta.  Scientology is crazy, yes, agreed.  He's made some shitty movies, who hasn't?  Check my sidebar for some of my own shitty vehicles.  He is still engaging to watch and he certainly was in this.  Mix in Denzel, who is always just amazing, and Tony Scott and you have a seriously good kidnapping thriller.  Remake, of course, of the same named Walter Matthau film, it veers somewhat in motivation.  It's tight, starts right where it needs to and takes you right to the end of the escapade.  See this and then I recommend watching the original as well.  Just as gripping, dramatically more of a character study, and both are quite good.

I'm getting too old for this shit.

Not dressing up for Halloween, but being out until 6, or I guess 5.  I suppose last night was exaggerated by the Fall Behind aspect of the clocks, but still.  That was a fun night, but long.

I woke up midway through the first quarter of the Bears game and got it together enough to hit the power button on the remote control.  Pleased with the outcome but Cutler should make sure his health insurance is solid, because he's gonna get killed.  Our offensive line is just that.  They can't block an intestine.  Defense looked really good, but they were playing against an awful, just plain awful offense. 

Here's the costume, Jesse Custer: The Preacher!

Saw some good costumes last night, lots of fun stuff.  Nothing that stood out as a knock out costume however.  Nothing that I recall this morning and think like, WOW that was good.  Not sure why, just didn't see that one particular winner.  I was accused of being a costume snob, for my penchant for obscure costumes, and I think she was right.  I'm a total costume snob.  Eh, I'll own that!

MotD: The Most Dangerous Game

First off, this is NOT the Jarts documentary that I was hoping it would be.  It is, however, a FANTASTIC little movie!  It's streaming off Netflix right now, so please, all (both?) of you reading this, watch this movie.  I'm sure you're familiar with the premise, a great hunter is tired of the mundane animal hunts so he's now hunting the most dangerous animal of all.... MAN!  This has inspired countless remakes/reinvisionings/satires over the years and it's so worthy of it.  This is the same production outfit that gave us King Kong.  Also, it looks like DC used the visual of the hunter was the inspiration for the revamped Merlyn.  What do you think?

Count Zaroff

DC Comic's Merlyn

Her Name is Rio and She Dances on the Sand!

Happy Olympic Bid day everyone!

I truly feel this was a great day for Chicago.  It's kinda like when the US troops rolled into Baghdad and deposed Saddam.  It took an outside force, The IOC, to walk into downtown Chicago and tear down Mayor Daley.  He finally doesn't get something that he wants. It also was painful for a portion of the populace, to see outside liberators tell you how you should be.  Oh frabjous day, callou callay!

Now, I can't wait to see Daley's post mortem interviews.  Frankly, I doubt he'll even give one.  How much money was on this fruitless venture?

Also, can we all agree that last month, Daley gave Oprah Michigan Ave. in exchange for her stumping here?  Transparent.

Now, let's get the cops a contract!

MotD: The Beatles: Help!
In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Chris Rock yells out "George Lucas is gonna sue somebody!" when Cockknocker shows up.  I can only think that would have been his reaction if he had been around for the first episode of The Monkees, "George Harrison is gonna sue somebody!"  Having never seen any of the Beatles movies, I only had read about how much they influenced THE MONKEES show.  Holy crap, Screen Gems stole everything from Help! and put it on the small screen.  Substitute Ringo's ring (love that macguffin too, a ring for Ringo) for the Monkey's paw and you have one of my favorite Monkees eps.  Crazy narrative, but way entertaining.  And that music is just so wonderful.

Doomsday +1

No, not the Charlton comic that gave us John Byrne.  I'm talking about the Olympics.

At this time tomorrow, we'll know if Chicago has gotten the Olympics, and all signs are pointing to yes.  This makes me VERY sad, for a few reasons.

1.  Chicago is the most corrupt city in the U.S.  Pardon me, let me amend that.  Chicago POLITICIANS are the most corrupt in the U.S. and the Olympics has always had corruption problems.  It had problems in Salt Lake, Utah.  That's UTAH a state made for and run by MORMONS.  Mormons got in trouble for running a corrupt Olympics.  What chance to we have?

2.  Congestion in the city will go crazy.  I know this is 7 years off, but traffic and costs of parking and tolls will only go up and cars on the road will only multiply.  Too many people descending on the city will be insanity.  Can we handle it, yes, we're very capable people, but will t be enjoyable, no it won't.

3.  City taxes will go to funding this, guaranteed, and that's a problem.  To my recollection, this has never been voted on by the public.  I may  be totally wrong there, so I'll not hinge my point on the fact that the voters never had a say.  What I will say is that our taxes will go up, and we're already one of the highest taxed people in the US. 

4. New construction is the biggest argument that people are making for these games.  Here's my problems with that.  The money for this construction will be coming from #3 above and a budget built on numbers that will absolutely be eclipsed by overruns.  Therefore, when the supposedly privately funded dollars run out, the money that would come from the govt. and donations, Daley will dip into Chicago's wallets.  This won't be exterior funds coming into the city making us rich.  We'll be stealing from our left hand to pay our right. 

4.5 The new construction, while I'm sure will be competentely built, won't be long lasting structures.  They cannot be, not unless the budgets go higher than they are.  So we'll be building locations that are either MEANT to be temporary or just won't be as high quality as a private business venture would provide. 

5.  Finally, the flat out benefit to the city, as reported on by MULTIPLE outside sources, Anderson Accounting being one of them, is well below the projection that Daley and his cronies have put out there.  Just like the clusterfuck that was the Parking Meter scam, Daley is being shortsighted with the money.  He could have gotten more for the parking meters than they did, but whether he's too stupid to get it or just to shortsighted, he didn't.  And by all accounts, we, the denizens of Chicago, are paying 4x for it.

I'll have to wait at least 7 years to find out whether I'm right or not, and I'll have to listen to all kinds of bullshit for that time.  I guess this is how people who were against Obama feel now.  A lot of parrallels there, passion on both sides, some very geographically delineated viewpoints.  Oh well, I'm not going to launch into a comparison here.  I just wanted to get my thoughts down prior to the announcement, to go on the record.

MotD: To Live and Die in L.A.
William Friedkin is a pimp.  I cannot think of another movie, tho maybe if I sat down and put my mind to it, that more screamed 1980's than this movie.  Really exciting film, with great performances and exciting set pieces.  SCREAMS 80's, which makes me chuckle.  Surprisingly the only thing missing is a giant mountain of blow somewhere.