Chapter 94: If My Life Was A Movie

After writing the blog last night around 5am, I had intended to go straight to bed in attempts to get up by 11:30am today and try to maintain some semblance of an AM schedule. This idea was all well and good but I neglected to consider the fact that, knowing me, I would wind up finding something else to distract me from going to bed as soon as I finished the blog. That is exactly what wound up happening. While writing the blog I was also doing a little random web-surfing and came across a video-editing freeware and downloaded that. So, after finishing the blog I felt the need to install this new program and, of course, couldn’t just install it and let it sit there. I had to try a little experimentation with it to get a little bit of a grasp on how exactly it worked. In this random experimentation I actually managed to make a video using some of the photos I had taken recently. I would post a link to the video here, but I am just not entirely happy with the way that it came out. It’s a very basic version of what I would like to do with my photography, but it is kind of a very rough draft version and looks kind of crappy, honestly. This was a good experiment, though, because I learned how to put photos together to make a video, complete with segues, title cards and music. That is a very good thing. Now what I need to learn is how to fine-tune it to make it look the way I envision it in my head. That will probably be a bit trickier, but at least I know the basics at this point. Throwing that video together and uploading it to YouTube, (which is also a process I was not familiar with at all before,) had me up until well after 7am. That was not a wise decision on my part.

Even with going to bed that late, I still managed to wake up at 11:30am when my alarm went off. My immediate thought was, “DO NOT GO BACK TO SLEEP.” This was what my head was saying. My body was a little less than responsive to that sentiment, though, and I laid there fighting this battle between the mind and the body for about 20 minutes until my phone started ringing. It was an unsaved number, but a local one. I always have a little trouble deciding whether or not to answer those or just let them go to voicemail. Something told me to answer this one, though, so I did. It was my sister’s girlfriend calling from her new cell phone, which I didn’t have the number to before because it is mainly used for work. She was calling to inform me of something I really didn’t want to hear. Apparently, the weather in Maryland has only gotten worse over the weekend and they are going to be closed again tomorrow, except this time they are not opening at all like they did Friday. It will be an all day thing this time. It really wasn’t bad Friday, and all the really terrible parts of the day on Friday were to do with answering our own calls. Anyway, they were calling to ask me if I would work 8am-8pm again tomorrow. As much as I immediately wanted to quote Whitney Houston and say “HELL TO THE NAW!” I agreed to it. As much as I whined about it on Friday, I earned about an extra $50 Friday. Doing one 12-hour shift this week would be even more than that, so long as I don’t wind up missing any time next week, (it was less than it should have been last week because I had the day that the Owl City concert was supposed to happen where my shift was an hour less than it normally would have been.) Plus, these two days are on the same paycheck so that really equates to an extra $100+ on my next paycheck and looking at it that way makes it a little bit better. Our account, unlike so many of the others at the place that shall not be named, absolutely never offers anybody any overtime. It is really the wise thing to do to take advantage of it while I can. It’s really a positive thing and I need to keep that in mind tomorrow while I am actually doing it, because I really let my irritability get the better of me on Friday and wound up spending the entire day bitching. I would prefer not to do that tomorrow. We’ll see how that goes.

After that phone call, the importance of not falling back to sleep was strongly emphasized and I had to force myself out of bed. I poured myself a bowl of Lightly Frosted Mini Wheats and sat down to a movie. As I discussed yesterday, I had decided that today was going to be a movie day and I was pretty determined to stick to it. So, first thing I decided to watch was “(500) Days Of Summer,” because I felt like it would be a little more light-hearted and fun than any of the other movies I had to choose from. “(500) Days Of Summer” stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, two of my favorite indie darlings. It is the story of a guy, Tom, who believes intrinsically in love, destiny and all of those beautiful ideals that so many of us have about life who falls in love with a girl, Summer, who does not believe in any of them. They are both quirky little characters and this film chronicles their relationship beautifully. It is shot in a really interesting and inventive way and the story is told through a series of days in Tom’s life with Summer, but they are often shown out of sequence and it really adds a LOT to the story that it is done that way. I don’t want to spoil the ending or anything, because I think anyone reading this should absolutely see this film, but there is a really amazing scene towards the end of the movie where you come to realize that these two people have managed to change each other’s minds and impact each other’s lives in the most profound way possible. There comes a point in the story where you realize that Tom has managed to make Summer believe in all of those things she was so vehemently against all along and at the same time she managed to make him stop believing in them. It is one of the most heartbreaking scenes I have seen in a very long time and I sat here crying my eyes out for a good little while over it. Don’t worry, there is more to the ending than that. Like I said, though, I HIGHLY recommend that anybody reading this go rent or, even better, buy this movie because it is absolutely amazing. It really reminded me so much of why I love independent filmmaking so much. It doesn’t have any of the frills of your run-of-the-mill, big budget blockbuster but it has a strong, genuine emotion that the viewer can really feel all throughout the story. It doesn’t seem like major studios have an interest in making this type of film and I really take my hat off to the makers of this and so many other films like this who take the craft of filmmaking back to it’s roots of just telling a great story.

The second movie I watched today was the third film by Richard Kelly, the director of “Donnie Darko” and “Southland Tales,” called “The Box.” “Donnie Darko” has long been one of my favorite films, and when “Southland Tales” was released I was really excited to see how he would follow it up. Unfortunately, I was wholly unimpressed with “Southland Tales.” Well, honestly, unimpressed isn’t really the correct term. It was a very impressive film in a lot of ways – the cast was absolutely amazing, the concept was really epic and there were a lot of scenes in the film that were pretty amazing. The film as a whole, though, was not unimpressive but utterly confusing. “Donnie Darko” was a big, strange concept and there was a lot of information and strange twists to follow along with, all in a completely inspired way. I always called “Donnie Darko” a very complicated film. “Southland Tales” was the same way, except that it was a little TOO complicated and near impossible to really understand. After these two, I was really interested to see what he did with “The Box.” Again, it was a pretty massive concept and filled with strange twists and turns and one of those movies you really have to pay attention to. “The Box” is the story of a young couple, back in the 70s, played by James Marsden and Cameron Diaz. They have a young son, probably 9 or 10 years old, and are kind of struggling to get by. She is a teacher and he works for NASA, and they are both kind of generally unsatisfied with their lives and having to struggle to get by. Then one morning, at 5:45am, a black car pulls up to their house, rings the doorbell and leaves a box sitting on their front porch. Inside this box is another box that has a locked dome top with a button inside of it. There is a note inside of the box that states they will receive a visit from Mr. Arlington Steward that evening at 5pm. Neither of them knows a Mr. Arlington Steward and are very confused by the whole incident. They go on about the day and both receive their own separate pieces of news that serve to make things a lot worse for them financially. That evening, the wife is home by herself when Mr. Arlington Steward arrives for his visit. He is an older man with a very large portion of his face missing, which appears to be from some sort of burning incident. He explains to her that he is giving her the key to unlock the dome top and get access to the button. If she and her husband choose to press the button he will give them a briefcase with a million dollars inside, and even gives her a single hundred dollar bill from it just for letting him in and talking with him. However, if they do choose to press the button somebody in the world, somebody they don’t know and have no connection to, will die. They have 24 hours to decide and he will return to retrieve the box at 5pm the next day. Again, I am not going to spoil anymore of this movie because it takes you on a long, complicated journey that I probably wouldn’t be able to relay properly, anyway. I will say, though, that I honestly think I liked this movie even better than “Donnie Darko.” It is such a huge story and gets more and more complicated by the minute, but the payoff in the end is completely stunning, shocking and absolutely captivating. It is absolutely insane where this movie takes you in the end, and once again I wound up bawling my eyes out by the end of the film. I also very highly recommend seeing this film. It is pretty breathtaking. It will be released on DVD on February 23rd and I think you should all go rent or buy it ASAP after that date.

Watching “The Box” was actually interrupted for a little while by a phone call from my best friend in California, Don. If you have been following this blog you may remember a while back when I posted about having talked to Don and how I felt like there were some really fundamental differences between us that had never been there before. Well, the conversation I had with him today only served to remind me why he has always been and will always be my very best friend in this world. We were on the phone for about 35 minutes and we mainly just discussed the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. I mean, we also talked about things that are going on in our lives right now and different projects we are both working on, etc., but mainly, we discussed Power Rangers. It was a really funny conversation and one that I really can only imagine ever having with Don. He and I were both really huge Power Ranger fans when we were younger, back when the show first started, and he was telling me about how he found a bunch of clips on YouTube of the cast from back then talking about what a fucked up experience doing that show was. Apparently, the production company that put the show together was extremely crooked and these actors were making something like $800 a week for their work on this show, even though it was full-blown phenomenon at the time. It was just a classic Jason & Don conversation and I am really glad that we had it. I have missed those and I was honestly beginning to wonder if we would ever have them again. It kind of makes me feel like everything is right with the world again. That is definitely a feeling that I have been lacking lately, too, so I am very grateful to have a little bit of it back.

This evening I sat down to the third and last movie for the day. I had purposely saved this movie for last because it was both the longest and the one I was least certain about, for some strange reason. I am talking about the most recent Quentin Tarantino film, “Inglourious Basterds.” Of course, I assumed I would like it simply because Quentin Tarantino has yet to do a single film that I haven’t completely loved. Also, the film features Eli Roth who is not only a favorite director of mine, but also a bit of an obsession. I just find him to be one of the funniest, sexiest, most interesting people working in the industry at this point. I think I may have been slightly put off by the subject matter of this film because I don’t really have an interest at all in World War II drama, although watching the film I immediately found that this was not what I was watching at all. It is classic Tarantino, but in a different setting that only served to make the whole experience all that much more interesting and unique. “Inglourious Basterds” is basically the story of a group of US soldiers back in World War II who were basically working to take down Hitler and the entire Third Reich, and who really had a big passion for killing Nazis. In spite of the subject matter, the film was brilliant and absolutely hilarious. The ending, while not at all historically accurate, was one of the most epic film endings I can remember. It was ridiculous and amazing. The more outlandish and historically inaccurate it got, the better the story got. It was also a really perfect way to end the day of film watching. It seems like the first two movies I watched got me extremely emotional, so this one was a perfect way to counterbalance those two.

The one film I didn’t get to today that I had really wanted to was the fashion documentary, “Valentino: The Last Emperor.” I kind of think I may save that one for a couple weeks, because I found out that on February 23rd the DVD of “The September Issue” is being released. I have been dying to see this film ever since I heard it had been made. “The September Issue” follows Vogue editor and fashion GODDESS, Anna Wintour, as she puts together the most important fashion magazine issue of the year. Anna Wintour is such a huge inspiration to me, personally, in spite of the fact that there isn’t all that much that is known about her, (beyond the fact that she was totally the inspiration behind Meryl Streep’s character in one of my favorite films of all time, “The Devil Wears Prada.”) I also recently learned of the existence of a documentary called “Lagerfeld Confidential,” chronicling the day-to-day life of fashion GOD and designer for Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld. Karl Lagerfeld has also always been a huge inspiration to me and has become even more so since he opened a Twitter account where he drops some brilliant fashion wisdom every now and again. They are always just simple and brilliant quotes from him, like “I'm never content with what I do. I live in a sort of permanent dissatisfaction. I think that's the secret to doing things well,” or “I am a fashion person, and fashion is not only about clothes -- it's about all kinds of change.” That last one is a particular favorite of mine. He just has such a fresh, fascinating view on what he does and I absolutely love that about him and aspire to have that same type of ideal about music. Anyway, I am hoping to pick that up on DVD in the next couple of weeks, as well, and have a little fashion documentary marathon one weekend.

In any sense, watching movies was an excellent way to spend the day and I am going to bed in a few minutes feeling really emotionally impacted and inspired by the films that I watched today. As far as I am concerned, that is the purpose of filmmaking, and that purpose was definitely fulfilled by the films I watched today, as well as “Up In The Air,” which I watched last night. That movie keeps coming back to mind throughout today. I was extremely impressed with it and really hope that it winds up winning some of the Oscars it was nominated for. Of all the Best Picture nominees that I have seen, I really think that is the one that deserves to win. Of course, I have yet to see “Avatar.” That movie seems pre-determined to make a major sweep. As far as “Up In The Air” goes, the category I would most like to see it win in is Best Supporting Actress, for either Anna Kendrick or Vera Farmiga. They were both incredible in the film, although I really do think it would be insanely amazing to see Anna Kendrick wind up an Oscar winner. I also think George Clooney is incredibly deserving of Best Actor, although I’m guessing it will go to Jeff Bridges for “Crazy Heart,” just because he is completely sweeping the awards season. I am not into the Oscars like I am the Grammys or any music awards because I don’t keep up with movies as well as I do music or TV, but I do think there are some really amazing nominees this year. I still probably won’t watch it this year, but I will definitely keep up with who won and who didn’t. I am being responsible tonight, though, and ending this blog right now, at 11:11pm, and going to bed. My 11:11 wish tonight is to sleep well and wake up when my alarm goes off at 6:30am. Wish me luck.