RafeWorld

I don’t write a lot about my years at the hotel. Maybe it’s having a mindset for so long about not burning bridges, or maybe it’s that my mind has blanked some of my memories from my time working there to protect me from insanity. I enjoyed a lot of the people I worked with, but the job itself was crazy, especially as I carried my responsibilities with such a personal level of attentiveness that I couldn’t let myself “take it easy.” My work ethic and my expectations exceeded my own common sense – a problem that I can’t ever seem to let go of.

It wasn’t uncommon for me to have 80-90 hour weeks at the hotel. That’s not an exaggeration, unfortunately. There were times where I literally only got three or four hours of sleep between the time I got home from work and the time I had to go back in. Thankfully, it wasn’t the norm, but working six days a week or twelve hour shifts were pretty common. It wasn’t unusual for me to be greeted by people as I entered the building with the query: “Don’t you ever go home?”

For the longest time, the joke was that I didn’t. It was a hotel, after all. It wasn’t hard to believe that I had a room somewhere I could sequester myself for a few hours of sleep in between shifts. The “barn” (our audio-visual office) was private enough with few enough holding keys at the time that it was completely believable that we could have a cot set up in there. Frankly, there was a time or two (or a dozen), when I was in “hurry up and wait” mode, awaiting a room with little a/v requirements to finish so I could reset it for early the next morning, where I did grab a quick nap in the office, uncomfortably positioned in the office chairs.

As I entered management, I would find myself covering last minute pop-ups where things weren’t scheduled or the event didn’t justify the cost of bringing in a staff person. I was, after all, a slave of salary. As this became more and more frequent thanks to poor meeting planners, the exchange became something out of Clerks:

“Don’t you ever go home?”

“I’m not even supposed to be here today!”

It’s unfortunate not enough people recognize Kevin Smith’s debut film, since it’s so easily quotable. Still, at least the response was true, if not as clever as most people understood.

Fast forward to present time. I’m arriving at school around 7:30. I usually stay afterwards to prepare my materials and check in with other members of the department. At the beginning of the year, I determined I would stay until 4pm each day in an effort to get more done at the school and less that has to be done at home. Even that’s been unrealistic, as it’s uncommon for me to leave before 4:30. With very little prep time during the day, and an almost constant need to meet with principals, guidance counselors, other teachers, etc, I almost always have things to do once students leave.

On top of that, I was “volunteered” to run a new digital scoreboard our school has installed as part of the ongoing construction. This week was one of two games I said from the get-go I couldn’t participate in, but due to a comedy of errors (or, at least something I’m trying to call a “comedy”), I wound up having to go at the game.

So… get to the school at 7:30am. Leave around 5pm in order to come home and grab a quick bite to eat before getting back to the school before 6:30. As I walked up to the gates to enter the football stadium, what am I greeted with? One of the other teachers, who asks, “Do you ever go home?”

And before I could even think about it, the response came out: “I’m not even supposed to be here today.”

It’s funny because it’s true, but in that brief instant, this school year became something reminiscent of my time at the hotel – an experience that I don’t write much about, either because I don’t want to burn bridges, or because my mind has blanked things out to protect me from insanity. There is one key difference: this time I carry an unparalleled love for what I do, even if it does slowly drive me mad over the next year.

As good, old Norman Bates once said: We all go a little mad sometimes. It worked out well for him, right?

So Cinema Blend went to San Diego Comic Con this year. It was my first trip to San Diego and the largest convention I’ve ever been to, blowing away DragonCon by about 500 miles. The atmosphere was a little different though. It’s much more corporate at SDCC, with a constant studio presence everywhere, from banners lining the halls to celebrities popping up in just about every panel. DragonCon is more fan run, with roundtable discussions and less fanfare.

Now, I didn’t have the typical SDCC experience, because I was there with the press. Instead of waiting in lines to get into panels, I spent almost half my time waiting on celebrities to show up so I could interview them. I recorded so much audio and video, I’m still making my way through it, and still finding interviews I didn’t even remember conducting, which I guess doesn’t speak very highly of the quality of the interviews. To be fair, by Saturday, when the opportunity arose to interview someone with Disney/Pixar, my response was, “It was just Pete Docter.” I had become so used to conducting these interviews that one of the men behind Pixar, behind Monsters, Inc and the upcoming Up didn’t dazzle me. That’s called conditioning.

Most of these things I’ve said you can find over at Cinema Blend, so what part of the trip can I make unique to my personal blog? Well, how about things that affected me personally – the moments of the trip that I will never forget as long as I live. Here goes:

1. I got to see J. Michael Straczynski (whose name I can oddly spell correctly on the first try). JMS was the creator of Babylon 5, one of the most compelling television shows I’ve ever seen – and one that has had a lasting philosophical effect on me. JMS has long been a hero of mine, and getting to see him address an audience was so cool I can’t even begin to touch on it. I meant to bring my copy of his book on scriptwriting to get addressed, but it was overlooked in the packing, so no autograph for me. I tried to rationalize that with something Neil Gaiman recently wrote on his blog – that you should never meet your heroes because once you know them they tend not to be heroes anymore, but I’m bummed I didn’t get the autograph. Hopefully next year.

2. I got to see the first live performance of a Fraggle in front of an audience. In celebration of the upcoming fourth season of Fraggle Rock on DVD, Karen Prell was brought in to perform Red Fraggle, who led the audience in several sing-a-longs before debuting an episode from the fourth season. Technical glitches ran rampant through the performance, but Prell-as-Red took it all in stride and did an awesome job. Considering my love of Auppets, this was an awesome experience.

3. Following the Fraggle Rock panel, I got to sit down and interview Prell and Dave Goelz. Goelz goes even farther back with the Muppets than Prell does – he’s the puppeteer and voice of Gonzo the Great, who was my favorite of the Muppets growing up, until Kermit finally took over as my favorite. Goelz sounds nothing like Gonzo, so it was hard to associate him with the character, but it was still an awesome half-hour talking with Prell and Goelz.

4. Actually, I have talked about this on Cinema Blend, but meeting Summer Glau was an earthshattering experience. The girl is so breathtakingly beautiful, my jaw literally dropped when she entered the room and I had to go back and listen to my tape to make sure I made any sense when talking with her (thankfully, I did, so it’s just my memory that’s been blurred).

So, those are my personal highlights from SDCC 08. I have more writing and editing to do before all my coverage is complete, at which time I’ll try and post something else about the trip that’s been on my mind.

I’ve had to put a call in to everyone’s favorite phone provider, so I’m on hold. What better time to update the blog with random stuff.

I’m writing a series of articles for Cinema Blend looking at the Batman films in preparation for The Dark Knight. It’s a fun excuse to watch those old movies again, and the only excuse to watch some of the bad ones. You can track the progress of the series here: Prepare for the Dark Knight

Irony of ironies, after 12 minutes someone picked up my call. I’m calling to speed up my Internet service, but the call is going slowly because their system is slow. There’s confidence. Anyway, someone picked up sooner than expected and this was just a post while I’m on hold so I guess I’m done for now.

Occasionally something I write for Cinema Blend will be a duplicate of something someone else covered. Rather than have those words wasted, I’ll post them here.

This isn’t so much a wasted story as an alternate introduction. I compiled our CB Guide to Indiana Jones and this is the original opening for the piece. We decided it was too much like a preview and didn’t fit the mode of writing we wanted the guide to open with, so here’s my take on why we should be excited about Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull before I’ve seen it…

Who would have thought that, nineteen years after Indiana Jones rode off into the sunset with his good friends and father, the man with the hat would be back? Even in the sequel-obsessed Hollywood days we live in, I never expected to see Dr. Jones returning for another adventure, and had turned my adventure sights to competing second-bests like The Mummy and National Treasure.

Indiana Jones has returned, and this time he’s bringing his son instead of his dad, or that’s the big rumor that was all but 100% confirmed. He’s also bringing back an old flame, Marian Ravenwood (Karen Allen), who looks just as good as the time Indy walked into her bar in Nepal.

Along with his traveling partners, Indy has also grabbed his standard traveling gear: his whip, hat, and something new: nineteen additional years of age, which may or may not be an issue for you. It certainly doesn’t seem to be a problem for the action hero. The advertisements have taken full advantage of showcasing both Indy’s increased years as well as some serious action sequences. I can’t help but think the ads are also leaving the best for the screen, offering only a few more seconds of the same action pieces with new advertising to tantalize us for now.

No, it’s not Indiana Jones we’re worried about here, but sidekick Shia LaBeouf, who just might be the future of the franchise if George Lucas has his way (we’re hoping he won’t). Indy’s sidekicks have always been decent as sidekicks, but not much use for anything else. Trying to develop a sidekick into a leading character may be a bit too much to ask, especially after fans have already seen LaBeouf take on a leading role in a franchise to mixed reviews.

Then there have been various rumors that have been circulating the net, causing a little bit of worry. The most disconcerting have included aliens, space ships, and an appearance by Spielberg’s Close Encounters costumed characters. A lot of those have fallen by the wayside, although that shot of a crate with Area 51 markings doesn’t exactly calm those concerns.

In the end, I’m going to remain hopeful about Indy’s new adventure. Indy may be old, but he can still fight the good fight (especially now that he doesn’t have Nazis to contend with). LaBeouf may be being groomed to take over the franchise, but we’ll worry about that in the future – this is Indy’s domain right now. And those rumors be damned; I’d rather not know what Indiana Jones is facing off with until the film starts to roll. Besides, even the weak picture in the existing trilogy is a fun ride, albeit one that doesn’t quite measure up to the other two. If Kingdom of the Crystal Skull can manage that much, nineteen years after the franchise was assumed to be over, I’ll take it.

Occasionally something I write for Cinema Blend will be a duplicate of something someone else covered. Rather than have those words wasted, I’ll post them here 

I’m a huge fan of Elizabeth Banks, who is probably one of the best comedic actresses around right now. Her storyline on Scrubs has probably been one of my favorite love interests for Zach Braff’s character, and Kevin Smith ensured I would see his next picture, Zack and Miri Make a Porno (as if there was ever any doubt), by casting her as the female lead.

While Banks has a phenomenal sense of comedic timing, not everything she does has to be comedy. Her role in the recent Definitely, Maybe had its serious side, but nothing on par with what she’s taking on next: the president’s wife; and not just any president. Elizabeth Banks has been cast as Laura Bush, wife of current president George W. Bush.

When I first heard that headline in The Hollywood Reporter, I assumed this had to be a comedy. After all, you have a comedic actress and a lot of potential for laughs with Bush (as evidenced by the many parodies of his term of office). That’s not the case, though. This is Oliver Stone’s biography of Bush, currently titled W and starring Josh Brolin as the president.

I have to admit I’m hesitant about an Oliver Stone movie depicting the biography of George W. Bush. After all, Stone isn’t one to keep his personal politics out of his movies. At the same time, this could be quite the opportunity for Banks to show herself as more than just a comedic genius – an opportunity I’m excited about. The film starts shooting next month, so it shouldn’t be too long before we hear about how both Banks and Stone are doing creating a project like this.

Had an online roundtable interview with National Treasure: Book of Secrets director Jon Turteltaub tonight. The way this works is you join a Flash based chat room where only the keynote person can talk to the room. On the side the studio plays some kind of featurette about the movie, in this case a short piece that will actually be on the upcoming DVD. You submit questions to the moderator, who filters them to the keynote and answers spew forth… very slowly.

The benefits of this kind of interview process should be fairly evident. I can interview the filmmaker without leaving the comfort of my home, and it’s unlikely a director of Turteltaub’s stature would come to my house in Roanoke to talk. On his side, he gets to chat with several members of the press (not sure how many were there, but I got two questions in over the course of an hour) from the comfort of his home or office. It was also convenient to be able to run to the bathroom and not really miss anything, although that was equally due to the pacing of the interview, which was dreadfully slow.

The slow pace isn’t the only disadvantage to interviews like this. Let’s start with that featurette – a six minute piece that played on rotation for the duration of the hourlong interview. I could almost recite the audio from the featurette by the time it was done. Also, since the interview is done with a bunch of press, it’s hard to really get a good dialog going with the interviewee. There were several instances where I would have loved to joke around with Turteltaub based on his own humorous comments, but this was a one way conversation, so that wasn’t possible.

Then there are the members of the press who aren’t asking good questions or didn’t do any research (and this is coming from the guy who, in a previous roundtable interview, asked the Farrelly Brothers if they planned on following in the rumored footsteps of the Wachowski Brothers and initiating a sex change for one of them, simply because I didn’t have a question that hadn’t already been asked). Despite the filtering, several repetitious questions worked their way in as well, which made for some wasted time – not exactly helping that slow pacing problem.

In other news, I went for the audition today and was offered the part. I wound up saying no, although I’m feeling a little guilty about that. One of my former actresses is among the cast. The fact that she didn’t do my show this year made it a little easier to say “no” even though I would be disappointing her.

Truth be told, it actually made it a lot easier to say no when I found out she would have been one of the love interests for my character. A nineteen year old is a little young for me to be involved with, even on stage. I suppose I should feel good that anyone would think I could be paired with a nineteen year old believably, but I think having done the show would just be a constant reminder of how much older than her I am. lol

So… I said no. More theatre updates later as some of those other opportunities take a little more solid a shape.

Somehow I completely missed the fact that this weekend was when Daylight Savings Time shifted into effect. Some people hate Valentine’s Day or Halloween. I hate the start of Daylight Savings Time. It takes me at least a week to get used to the time difference and that missing hour of sleep makes me extremely grumpy – moreso than usual. Needless to say, I probably won’t be that personable for the next week. Thankfully for my students, it’s a predominantly even week, which means I have planning three out of the five mornings this week, which means they won’t encounter me until I’m relatively awake.

I had to review College Road Trip, my second Martin Lawrence film for the year. Thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as the first one I had to see (which I still blame for making me so dreadfully ill). You can read my official review of the movie over at Cinema Blend.

One thing I didn’t talk about in my review was something that I started thinking about because of College Road Trip. The movie is about a dad trying to hold on to his young daughter for as long as he can, and arguing that, while most people think parents say goodbye to their daughters at their wedding, it’s really when they go off to college, off into the world to survive on their own, that people have to let go of their children. That really got me thinking – people have kids, but eighteen years later they’re saying goodbye, as they go off into the world to become their own person. That’s such a short period of time when you think about it. The clock ticks by so quickly, and suddenly that little girl or boy is moving off on their own.

Please don’t read anything into this for those select few who actually read this and know me. While it’s common knowledge that Kristi and I want to have a family, we haven’t made any grand movements in that direction since last year’s miscarriage. Still, it just made me think of how little time we have between the birth of that child and having to say goodbye, and that made me a little melancholy.

What’s really strange about reacting to a movie that way, particularly a Martin Lawrence flick, is that I probably have a better relationship with my parents now than I did when I was a teen. I never went off to college to find myself (instead I moved in with a girl, then decided to take classes, then…), but moving out put me in a better place to interact with my parents as real people, not just as a child. Disney’s family-friendly movie doesn’t look at that aspect of things, so I guess it isn’t all bad.

Still, I know when I do have a kid, I’m going to want them to stay small as long as they can, just like any other parent.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen most of the big contenders for any given weekend. Thankfully I had the day free to go take in this weekend’s offerings, which decided to come out on Thursday this week for Valentine’s Day. Because nothing says Valentine’s like goblin attacks, teleportation, or bad dance choreography.

The best of this weekend’s movies is Definitely, Maybe, with Ryan Reynolds, Abigail Breslin, Elizabeth Banks, Isla Fisher, and Rachel Weisz. If you thought any of those cast members were weak before, you won’t by the time the movie is over with. Sure, it’s a sappy romantic comedy, but this is one of the best specimens of the genre, and Ryan Reynolds has great chemistry with every one of the ladies, especially Abigail Breslin, who plays his daughter, to whom he is telling the bulk of the story to.

Little Maya (Breslin) asks her father to explain his relationship with her mother (the two are getting a divorce) and so Reynolds’ character decides to tell her the story of the three loves of his life, but not tell the girl which one is her mother. The resulting story is a well woven story of a nice guy who falls in love with three women, and what happens with each relationship. It’s a little When Harry Met Sally at times, which aught to appeal to rom-com fans.

A talented young actor is shared by The Spiderwick Chronicles, the second best pick for the weekend, which stars Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) as twins in the story of a boy who finds a hidden “field guide” that reveals the hidden fairy world connected to our own world. Once the book is opened, a foul ogre attempts to seize it, so that he can understand the different races of the fairy world and destroy them.

The visuals in Spiderwick are its greatest asset. With some of the creatures taking up a lot of screen time, you want them to look good. It pulls off this nice hiding of the fairy world in such a way that it’s always there, we just don’t always see it (sylphs look like flower blossoms, etc). Highmore’s performance here isn’t up to what he’s done in movies like August Rush, but he’s still pretty talented and between him and Breslin, I have hope that young actors don’t all have to be precocious types like Dakota Fanning.

Jumper is about what I expected it to be. Hayden Christensen still can’t act, and I’m rapidly losing faith in Rachel Bilson, who is proving she isn’t much more than a pretty face. While she’s still a great pretty face, it’s hard to appreciate that when you have Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz, and Isla Fisher being both beautiful and talented in another movie this same weekend.

The concept of the movie is about a young man who discovers he can teleport around – a power that winds up putting him in an ages-old war between Jumpers like him and Paladins, who hunt down the jumpers. Star Wars fans finally get to see who would win in a fight between Anakin Skywalker (Hayden) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), although the result isn’t very satisfying.

The action pieces in Jumper work really well, but anytime the story slows down to let the love relationship between Bilson and Christensen develop things get painful quickly. Add on top of that the stupid line about the Paladins hunting Jumpers because “only God should have that power” (why would God have the power to teleport if he’s theoretically everywhere at the same time?) and you’ve got a weak picture. At least the ending leaves things open for a sequel. Yay. [/sarcasm]

The last of the weekend’s offerings is Step Up 2 the Streets, the needless sequel to a pretty good little guilty pleasure dance movie. The resulting sequel isn’t anywhere near as good or guilty pleasure. I wrote my formal review on that this weekend, available at the site. Short version: this might as well have been a direct to DVD sequel, with none of the original’s charm or entertainment.

So there you go. What to see or what not to see in theaters this weekend, ranging from a definite must see to a definite miss.

Like most people, the news of Heath Ledger’s death caught me completely off guard. I never associated the actor with a party lifestyle, so the notion that it could be drug-related totally threw me. I spent the evening after finding out in a state of denial, as reflected both in this week’s podcast and in a variety of editorials I’ve written. I just kept waiting for this to be a mistake – the press screwed up in reporting it, or someone misrepresented the facts or something. Sadly, time has passed and Ledger has not popped up on the horizon where he was hidden. The actor is dead, and Hollywood is diminished by that loss.

I’ve said this a couple of times, so I feel a bit repetitive here (and if you read other places I write I’ll sound repetitive as well), but I didn’t give Ledger the benefit of the doubt at first. When he was on TV in Roar and in movies like A Knight’s Tale and The Patriot, I thought he was just a pretty face. The roles seemed identical with no real depth to them. In fact, I thought so little of both him and the roles, I didn’t even see the films, which was a second shame (although it’s a guilty pleasure, I truly enjoyed A Knight’s Tale when I finally viewed it last summer). It wasn’t until Terry Gilliam’s The Brothers Grimm (another guilty pleasure flick) that I truly saw the potential in Ledger’s career.

Many people are comparing Heath Ledger’s passing with that of James Dean. For a change, I actually agree with the comparison – typically I think pundits are too quick to draw comparisons like these, but here it seems appropriate, although there are differences. Dean was still early in his career, where we hadn’t seen the potential of where he could go. Ledger, on the other hand, had already made one transformative change in his career, from pretty-boy leading man to a deeper, more complex actor with films like Brokeback Mountain. We saw the potential of Ledger’s career, which makes the loss all that more tragic. For all we know, Dean could have burned out as an actor even if he lived, but Ledger had shown the promise of a long, well established career, and was even starting to move to directing. Ledger’s death doesn’t just match the tragedy of Dean’s; it surpasses it.

This summer, The Dark Knight will be a grim reminder of that potential in Ledger’s life. Much like The Crow, fans will have to endure a skillful performance from a star that burned out far too early, along with press that could possibly add that much more weight to the loss by showing how Ledger was approaching the role that would be his last. It was a shame to sit through it one time with Brandon Lee. A second time is just that much worse.

I haven’t taken a chance to talk about Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street yet. Not because it doesn’t deserve talking about – truely it does. As someone who hasn’t seen the original musical (even though it was performed here in Roanoke) I’m not sure I’m fully qualified to talk about it… but here goes:

The movie, for those who aren’t at all familiar with it, is about a barber who was wronged. An evil judge took interest in the barber’s wife and had the barber convicted for a crime he didn’t commit. The barber sent off to Australia (which, remember, was a penal colony at one time), the judge took the wife and daughter as his own. Eighteen years later, the barber comes back under a new name seeking revenge.

The basic story is well in tact in the movie, although I understand there was more with the younger members of the cast, the eighteen year old daughter and her romance (conveniently) with one of the sailors who befriends Todd on the voyage back to London. Instead the movie focuses on Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) and his landlady/friend Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), who clearly has more interest in Todd than just as a friend.

Since the tale involves a barber seeking vengence, who eventually starts killing his customers and dumping them to Mrs. Lovett’s basement to be turned into meat pies, you can expect plenty of blood. Interestingly, the movie never once bothered me with its bloodshed. I expected it; it delivered it. In fact, it’s done in such a comical, outlandish style, there’s nothing really cringeworthy with the bloodshed. Instead, it’s when the corpses hit the basement floor (delivered from a rigged barber chair on the second floor) that you can’t help but wince a little. They just hit with that much force.

A lot of the advertising for the movie has skipped over the fact that this is a musical. In fact, most of the early ads had no singing at all, and some movie patrons wound up leaving and asking for their money back, they were so unaware this was a muscial. It’s actually closer to an operetta, with just about every other line breaking into song. For non-musical actors, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter do a fair job with the songs. In fact, Depp is quite capable with his music and makes me wish someone would make a movie version of Les Miserables with Depp as Thenardier – he’s that dispicable in the role. Carter, on the other hand, gets a little blown away at times. Her voice is quite whispery and breathy, which is appropriate for the character, but the mix of the music overpowers her at times; at least it did in the theater I saw the movie in.

The film carries Burton’s signature style, being bleak and gothic in its visual style, which fits the movie perfectly. In fact, the only thing that’s lacking from Burton’s typical style is Danny Elfman as the film’s composer. Instead Michael Hingham handles the Stephen Soundheim score and the difference isn’t all that noticeable. I found it interesting that, for a movie about a barber, so many characters carried bizarre hairstyles and went around unshaven. I’m sure there’s a deeper meaning to it, but I didn’t catch that until later in the film. Basically anyone with a nefarious undertone to his character was unkempt, with only the youthful innocent having any real attention to their appearance. Very interesting stylistic decision.

As much as it almost pains me to admit it, Sacha Baron Cohen almost steals the show as Sweeney Todd’s rival, Signor Pirelli. His character is incredibly well played, from his competition with Todd over who can shave the closest to his final confrontation with Todd. Cohen pulls off the character, the singing, and multiple accents. Considering the actor has announced he’s retiring the characters that made him famous, it’s quite possible the actor will have a decent future in mainstream acting.

Bottom line: I thoroughly enjoyed Sweeney Todd and was glad to have seen it in theaters, although it’s not a movie that begs for the big screen experience. If you have the chance and a musical about a murderous barber is up your alley, it’s worth checking out. if the story doesn’t appeal to you, or muscials don’t appeal to you, it’s not worth your time, because this is definitely a case of getting what you’re expecting, for good or bad.