The Movies of My Life
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: The Shins' "New Slang"

as if you asked. like you care. but, what follows is a list (in a very specific order) of my favourite flicks.

1.) Almost Famous
2.) Garden State
3.) Amadeus
4.) Chasing Amy
5.) Braveheart
6.) Fight Club
7.) Moulin Rouge!
8.) Pirates of the Caribbean
9.) Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade
10.) Spider-Man 2
11.) X-Men 2
12.) Snatch
13.) Patch Adams
14.) Finding Neverland
15.) Closer
16.) Band of Brothers
17.) Tombstone
18.) Love Actually
29.) Chicago
20.) High Fidelity
21.) As Good As It Gets
22.) Sleepy Hollow
23.) Good Will Hunting
24.) Swingers
25.) Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
26.) Return of the Jedi
27.) Trainspotting
28.) Spider-Man
29.) The Incredibles
30.) Superman
31.) The Empire Strikes Back
32.) X-Men
33.) Episode II: Attack of the Clones
34.) Star Wars: A New Hope
35.) Return of the King
36.) The Fellowship of the Ring
37.) The Two Towers
38.) The Passion of the Christ
39.) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas


it's probably important to note, at this time, that this list is subject to change on a daily basis -- except for the top 5. the top 5 might rearrange themselves, but those five remain the top 5. these aren't necessarily the films i think "are the best films," but simply some of my favourites, the ones i never get tired of watching. and i own all of these. except Episode III, which in fact, has not yet been released.

now you know. and knowing, as you know, is half the battle.

tune in next time (or some time in the future) for the most influencial films of mine.

God's Institution for Crazy People
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Big Bad Voodoo Daddy's "You & Me & The Bottle Makes Three"

that's what Dr Womack, our pre-marital counselor called marriage. "God's institution for crazy people, that's what it is, because you have to be committed. That terminology exists for a reason." this is the same man who, when he has seen me at work for the past six months will stop me and ask, "are you guys still getting married?"

i'll respond, "yes."

"really?" he shakes his head, flustered. "but you two seem so happy!"

we got a long famously last night, fun was had by, well, there were only three of us there, so the three of us. we were scheduled to meet for an hour, but we took it to an hour and forty-five minutes without blinking. Kelly and i had a lot to talk about afterward too, which is always good.

Kelly had to dash off to an English Club meeting after our meeting, and i had to finish updating Ripple's website, so we parted ways. on my way home i ran by McKay's to pick up Cliff Notes on Shakespeare's "Richard II" and found a hardback "Ultimate Marvel Team-Up" and Kanye West's "College Dropout" album, so i picked those up too, only spending about 8$, thanks to the McKay's credit i had.

life is good.
very good.

Love in the Time of Scurvy
Mood:  loud
Now Playing: the Chemical Brothers' score for "Fight Club"

this weekend offered up all sorts of surprises.

on Sabbath (Saturday, for you Gentiles not affiliated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church) i performed "Other Agenda," a very well-written skit about people's various agendas for attending church. it was an ensemble piece and i played "Pastor Jim," the lead, more or less. good fun.

Saturday night we threw a massive pirate-themed surprise party for Amos, Corey, and Kelly, as their birthdays are all right on top of each other. the night can be summed up with the following collage:

after the party, Kelly and i went back to my apartment and watched "Aladdin," which still just cracks me up. love that movie. after Kelly went home, i watched Dancer in the Dark, which was a thoroughly depressing movie. it's directed by Lars Von Tier, who has the single most depressing view of America i have ever encountered. the movie was good, but not as good as von Tier's Dogville, which starred Nicole Kidman and Paul Bettany.

in the wake of "Dancer in the Dark," i sat down and wrote two short film scripts for Ben Mitzelfelt, which i will deliver to him shortly (probably this afternoon).

i then needed a pick me-up, as the Holocaust script i had just written and the "Dancer in the Dark" film had left me a bit drained, so i popped in season 1 of Britain's The Office, which kept me very entertained.

Sunday was slow and relaxing, i went in to Barnes & Noble with Kelly and perused the books. i picked up Chuck Palahniuk's "Survivor." upon returning home, i sat down and flew through 81 pages of the book, something i haven't done in probably more than a year, when i read Palahniuk's "Fight Club." absolutely a fantastic read.

tonight Kelly and i begin our first night of pre-marital counselling. should be a gas. i'll have a play-by-play account for ya' tomorrow.

Trading Insults (and Other Curious Dialect Phenomenon)
Mood:  incredulous
Now Playing: War's "Why Can't We Be Friends?"

who knew my little blog would stir up so much trouble?

this blog is a direct sequel to the one that has friends old and new up in arms (August 17th's "Exhaustion -vs- My Existence as a Reverse Oreo"). some have posted comments, others have e-mailed me, and one called me.

what follows is not to be confused with me trying to defend myself. it is me explaining myself and my blog further (something, i'm told, an artist is never supposed to do, but i'll make an exception this once).

i grew up believing there were good words and bad words. i didn't question it. i just didn't use them. but growing up on military bases has a way of exposing one to all sorts of words in various languages. i was amazed how many good people used bad words. when my family would sit down on Saturday night with a big bowl of popcorn and watch a movie, i knew any time someone uttered one of those four-letter words, if i looked over at my mom, she would shake her head disapprovingly. i thought it curious that some of my heroes, good people still, would use bad words.

as i grew up, my friends started using these words. the more i heard them, the less i thought they were bad. i realized my friends could call me a "dork," and it wouldn't effect me. but if one of my enemies called me a "dork," i was deeply offended and hurt.

that was the first time i was introduced to the duality of words. it wasn't the word that offended me. it was the intent behind it.

since then i have sat down through MULTIPLE Bible studies with people, as they try to explain their faith or as they tried to make sense of what they read in the Gospel the night before, would swear a blue streak (so far as for one man to call the Saviour "Jesus f*ckin' Christ"), but not once was it offensive (shocking, yes, offensive, no) because i knew this was just their dialect, their language and to them, it wasn't swearing. the words weren't bad.

i was in eighth grade when i adopted "these words" into my vocabulary. as i did, i quickly realized there are people you can say these words around and people you can't, very similar to the way one (living in the south) has to choose the words carefully they use when talking about the south losing the Civil War.

words. we're talking about words here. we're talking about the relevance people put on them, which i think is odd. i think "outlawing" these words is the easy (dare i say, "Republican") way out.

we need to challenge ourselves to ask ourselves why we use the words we do. what do we mean when we use them? that's what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5:22. it's not whether or not i use "the N word" or not, it's about why i use it. what do i hope to prove by using it? what place am i hoping to put someone in by using it? where is my heart? am i being malicious?

for the record, there are two words i use VERY sparingly as it's hard to be anything but malicious when using them: mediocre and ugly.

i'm not asking anyone to agree with me. this is my world view.

Last Night of Freedom (for Kelly)
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: Young Rascals' "Groovin' (On a Sunday Afternoon)"

well, school's back in session. not for me, i've graduated. i've moved on to the purgatory of an 8-5 job. but not Kelly, she's still trapped on campus. she pretends she's excited, she's such a little trooper, but i can see her eyes screaming for the freedom that comes with graduation. in due time, my dear, in due time.

we celebrated her last night of freedom with a trip to McKay's Used Books, DVD's and CD's. exciting stuff. i picked up a copy of "A Clockwork Orange," and "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen." i'm looking forward to reading both, though i am disappointed i couldn't find anything by Chuck Palahnuik. his book "Fight Club" was absolutely amazing and i'm eager to read something else by him. ah well. another time, perhaps. after our field trip to Discarded Book Land, Kelly and i swung by Sonic for a Good-Bye to Summer Milkshake.

i took Kelly back to my apartment where she raided my DVD collection for her parents, who, when they have a spare hour, pop in a DVD or go to an R-rated comedy to be offended.

after Kelly went home with her bundle of my DVD's, i sat down and enjoyed "Layer Cake," a gritty British gangster movie. if you dig any of the following: "The Usual Suspects, "Snatch," or "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels," you'll enjoy this. i can see why Matthew Vaughn was offered the job of directing X3. very dark, gritty, and moody. two thumbs up. but then again, i have a soft spot for British movies. and nobody does British gangster movies like the British.

but don't watch it if you don't like "four-letter language." the British excel at that.

Movies, Movies, Movies
Now Playing: Kanye West's "Jesus Walks"

a life draped over a toilet bowl is not a life at all. that's what i discovered Tuesday (which, by my watch, was yesterday). i ate something that got so angry at me, it made me throw it back up and then it sent me to bed for most of yesterday. in the words of Dwight McCarthy, "yeeeesh."

but yesterday wasn't all bile and vomit. Soapbox had their first concert, it was a lawn concert, a block party, for Tennessee Temple's "Welcome Back" Party. they rocked my socks off. okay, that's a lie. i wasn't in socks. i was in my Birkies, but had i been wearing socks, they totally would have rocked them off.

today, as i spit-shined the IVF DVD, i visited Apple's trailer site. there's a lot of really great movies just around the corner, by the looks of it.

Scott's Must-See Movie List of 2005

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe
Elizabethtown
Jarhead
Serenity
The Brothers Grimm
Domino
Thumbsucker
Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire
Everything is Illuminated
The Corpse Bride
Proof
Transporter 2
Little Manhattan
King Kong
Into the Blue
Rent
Aeon Flux
A History of Violence

V For Vendetta (though rumour has it, it's been bumped to next year)

so, if you're ever not able to find me, you now know where to look!

Sex, Puritans and Wedding Crashers
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: the theme to "Knight Rider"

a lot of right-wing Christians get offended when you call America "Puritanical" as if it were a bad thing. when i call America "Puritanical," i mean it in the most perplexing way possible. it truly confounds me.

example #1: when an American movie is exported to any other country in the world, it is reviewed and edited slightly. every country has different rules and regulations concerning what makes an R-rated movie. we have our guidelines, they have theirs. what i find most interesting is American movies, if they are going to be re-edited, nine times outta ten, they are re-edited to take violence out. when an international movie is brought into the US, nine times outta ten in order for it to have an R rating, sex has to be cut out.

while the rest of the world is worried about violence, America is worried about sex.

example #2: being a life-long comic book aficionado, i have always found it most interesting that when a non-comic book junkie picks up a comic book, the first thing they comment on is the figure most super heroines have. "Is her superpower that she can fit into that suit?" as one Calvin & Hobbes strip put it. people's eyes are drawn to the female form and people are offended. they don't notice what the female is doing (tearing apart a villainous robot limb from limb, completing obliterating existence, etc.). they notice what she is (or isn't) wearing. very few people look at the men in comics and go "egad, could that suit be any tighter?!" despite the fact that the superdudes wear just as tight, just as revealing outfits as the superchicks do.

why is this? why do we, in America, care more about who's sleeping with as opposed to who's killing who? why do we care if my next door neighbor prefers boys over girls? why aren't we more concerned with how many automatic weapons are roaming the countryside? why aren't we more concerned with how easy it is to buy any given weapon and any amount of ammunition? why do we support the separation of church and state only when it goes along with our personal beliefs?

i think its because Americans are delusional. we've been deluded into thinking America was founded by Christians. we've been deluded to think that the right to bear arms is the right to own enough weapons to arm a third-world country.

a little something about the founders of America: the closest thing to a Christian we had on the founders' committee were deists, people who believe God created the world and then shoved it into His heavenly closet -- something He checks on from time to time but never gets involved with.

America never has been nor ever will be "Christian America." it was founded NOT on the principle of being able to worship God but on the principle of not having to worship God if you don't want to. it was founded to protect the deists who were tired of the king or queen being able to execute them if they didn't believe Jesus died for their sins.

it was founded by Puritans. remember "The Scarlet Letter?" remember the witch hunts? remember people being burnt at the stake or stoned or crushed or drowned? yep, that's your friendly neighborhood Puritans. moralistic hypocrites who would gladly kill someone who didn't believe the same way they did and then claim it was for their better good.

sounds like America today to me.

<*/ end rant *>

this weekend was full of laughs and giggles! i curled up with season six of "The Simpsons" and laughed till i was nauseous. season six has gotta be one of their best, if not THE best.

the Easley family (Kelly's mom's side) had their "August Birthday Bash" on Saturday, so we went down to Fort Mountain and joined in. fun was had by all. i'm finally known as "Scott" to them (as opposed to "Chris" or "that guy who was locked in the motor home's bathroom when Dora began driving away"). and Kelly's twenty-one now. and that is just stinkin' hot, i'm sorry.

i took Kelly to see "Wedding Crashers" on Saturday night. it was the second time i've seen it, and i laughed just as hard this time as i did the first time. much to my delight, Kelly enjoyed it to, though found the "boobie montage" at the beginning to be "superfluous." i'm just happy to see Vince Vaughn back to being his amoral self.

last night i watched Robert Altman's "The Player," which really is the best anti-Hollywood film Hollywood has ever made. i think it was supposed to be a thriller, but it was really more of an extended Hollywood in-joke (though never really funny) with more cameos than you can shake a stick at. if you don't follow Hollywood news, this is a movie i don't think you'll enjoy, as it really requires that you have more than a passing knowledge of the industry.

this week i hope to begin work on Rachel's music video, tighten up the script for Kelly's and my mockumentary, and send the Puritans to Guam (as it's as good a place as any for them to start a new colony).

Favorite Simpsons Memory #37

Groundskeeper Willie: It won't last. Brothers and sisters are natural enemies. Like Englishmen and Scots! Or Welshmen and Scots! Or Japanese and Scots! Or Scots and other Scots! Damn Scots! They ruined Scotland!
Principal Skinner: You Scots sure are a contentious people.
Groundskeeper Willie: You just made an enemy for life!

Waste of Human Flesh
Mood:  d'oh
Now Playing: Bon Jovi's "Nobody's Hero"

i enjoy days like yesterday. i completed all my work early and was able to sack out. but it's also days like yesterday that make me wonder about my time management.

i hate that phrase. it was repeated so many times when i was growing up that i almost cringe when i hear it now.

but days like yesterday make me feel like a waste of human.

why? because as soon as i completed my work for the day, i opted to watch some movies. four. i watched four movies yesterday.

first i watched "Waiting for Guffman," which is a fun movie, especially if you're a fan of Christopher Guest films. you either are you aren't. his movies tend to be exercises in improvisation, and this one was no different. i finished that, said, "gee whiz, i have some free time on my hands, let's pop in another movie!"

so i watched "Sin City." that's a movie i know people are going to watch, if for no other reason, for the cast and they're either gonna totally dig it or totally hate it. i knew what i was getting into because i own all the Sin City books. it's dark, twisted, and really far from redeemable, but i like it. it's like a deconstructionistic film noir flick about modern chivalry. that might be a stretch, but it's a fun yarn. Robert Rodriguez is my hero.

this is about the time when Marshall (my brother) came over. we usually play GameCube or Xbox when he comes over, but last night we decided to watch one of my latest Netflix arrivals, "The Addams Family." i hadn't seen it in thirteen years, and he had never seen it and we both enjoyed it immensely. it has very dark (read, "macabre") sense of humour, but is just about the most absurd and wacky thing to hit the screen since the Muppets. you can definitely see how this guy went on to direct "Men in Black."

after the movie was over, i took Marshall home. upon returning home, i realized i had another couple of hours before bedtime. i decided i needed to do some writing, so i busted out Final Draft and wrote a four-page monologue that had been rambling around in my head all day and celebrated this by watching the very mediocre "Human Traffic."

it could have been something great. i liked a lot of the ideas in it, but it simply tried too hard to be every other successful British film (Trainspotting, Lock, Stock . . . ) and ultimately second-guessed itself as a film and ended up just being a movie with a thumping techno soundtrack, marginally witty banter about the minutia of pop culture (with several not-so subtle Kevin Smith references -- including, but not limited to, a large "Clerks" poster), and some creative editing. i also had the nagging feeling throughout the film that they had "Americaned" it up, replacing British dialog and references for more acceptable American ones.

disappointed and realizing i had just spent the last eight hours watching movies, i retreated to my room, brushed my teeth, said my prayers, read the next chapter of "V for Vendetta" and went to sleep, wondering if this is the existence God created me for.

i'd like to think not.

Tombstone
Mood:  sharp
Now Playing: Okay Dragon's "Mozart Remix"

Kelly had never seen "Tombstone!" i can't marry someone who's never seen the greatest western ever, so i made her watch it last night. it is now my goal in life to create a character like Doc Holliday in that movie. such a great character! Val's performance steals the show! i wonder if, when they were making the movie, they had any idea how high they were raising the western standard? granted, westerns aren't Hollywood's cup o' tea any more, but i can't think of a western that has come out since "Tombstone" that even comes close to comparison. "Open Range" is the only one that comes to mind, but i consider that more of a drama that just so happens to take place in the west, not so much a western (though it does have one of the coolest gun fights to ever be put to celluloid in it).

life at the office has slowed down considerably and i can breathe again, which was much needed. i have a massage scheduled for an hour from now, so i'm about to bust me out some lunch.

i've begun some pre-production work (conceptualizing, mostly) on a music video for Soapbox, something i hope to be shooting in the next week or so. more details to follow. ;)

-=S

Exhaustion -vs- My Existence as a Reverse Oreo
Mood:  suave
Now Playing: part 1: Raju Ramayya's "Ask DNA," part 2: 8mm's "Nobody Does It Better"

Part 1

it's done (for the most part). totally never have to look at it again (not counting all the tweaking i have to do to it probably over the next week). the night before last i stayed at the office until 9pm to put the finishing touches on the IVF DVD. by 9, i was wiped and could barely see straight so i went home, only to return the next day to try to have it finished by lunch time. come 11am, it was presentable. that stupid five-minute video represents about 170 man hours of work, and more stress and frustration than i care to get into (i recently read an article about a woman who complained about her "incompetent boss" on her blog and was fired for it, so i'm not going to complain about my incompetent boss here).

so last night, after my crazy, mad-dash to the finished line for IVF DVD completion, i was totally wiped. i sacked out, watched "Kung Fu Hustle," which is like an old Warner Brothers' cartoon amalgamated with a martial arts movie, wrote a three-page short film script, watched "X-Men 2," and was in bed by 11:30pm.

but now i'm wide awake and ready to go! i have to fine-tune this video a little and prepare for class this afternoon, so i still have much to do. thankfully, i'm jazzed on java and can tackle any problem!

avast!

Part 2:
(parental discretion is advised)

for those of you who know me really well, you know there's only two things to really know about me. three, okay, there's three things to know about me. four. five. danggit. okay, there's a lot to know about me but here's the five -- six! the six big things:

1.) I do my best to serve my God.

2.) I possess an unnatural (and unholy) love for all things Kevin Smith.

3.) I really do swear like a f#ckin' sailor (and am confounded by why there's such a thing as "bad" words and why, in said "bad" words, only their vowels are offensive, except for in the case of "shit," then it's the T, because for some reason, "ship" isn't offensive at all).

4.) I am, in fact, a Reverse Oreo. A fact I have very well kept hidden (as I live in the south, I feel I don't need to compound my fear of the hangman's noose, I'm already a "yankee"). If you at all doubt this fact or are confounded by its meaning, you can look up my college roommate who was, and continues to be, black.

5.) I am a fan of Bon Jovi.

6.) I love lists about myself.

so, naturally, when i discovered Kevin Smith's online diary, i was instantly hooked and have enjoyed reading his sometimes daily updates.

but today when i visited, i found an entry that made me laugh, made me think, and made me reflect on my own life. it's because of ponderings such as what follows that i connect to this cat in the ways that i do. i understand what he's saying and it's cool to have someone like that (especially when that someone is a "real someone," you know, a Hollywood-type).

the following is an excerpt from his online diary and relates the story of a Q&A he recently attended.

(this is where the parental advisory kicks in)

"In the course of telling a pretty funny story about working on ?Catch & Release?, I use the phrase ?nigga? to refer to a Tim Olyphant, in the phrase ?Nigga, this ain?t ?Deadwood? and you ain?t the sheriff.? Too much Chapelle-watching for me, it would seem. While I obviously didn?t intend it in any kind of racist context and no hush fell over the (largely white) room when I uttered it, I still feel badly. Dave Chapelle I ain?t, nor do I - who?s never been at the receiving end of a profiling, never been discriminated against, and never took any shit because of the color of my skin ? have the right to employ the ?N? term as even a colloquial term of endearment. Sure, I?ve been profiled, discriminated against, and took shit all my life because I?m overweight (which is still something of minority in the aesthetic-obsessed culture of the U.S.), but let?s face it: fat ain?t black. At the end of the day, I?ve prospered plenty in white America, and being white certainly didn?t hurt.

"The gay community co-opted ?fag? as a means of taking the malicious power out of the term when used against them by homophobes, but I don?t use ?faggot? loosely either. Just because some of the black community has appropriated the ?N? word for much the same reasons doesn?t mean that I can use it too, even in a non-racist fashion (if there?s even such a thing).

"Sometimes I get carried away with my deep love for all things black and forget that I?m not black myself. Saying Jesus was black in ?Dogma? doesn?t make me black. Being called a ?whigger? throughout high school because of my unfashionable early embracing of hip-hop (particularly Run DMC and Public Enemy) doesn?t make me black. Wearing Fubu doesn?t make me black. Identifying with black folks doesn?t make me black. Wanting to be black most of my life doesn?t make me black. Nothing will ever make me black (although, when I first learned that my Mother had been adopted and learned, further, that she had no idea who her birth parents were, once the initial shock wore off, I immediately started fantasizing that, somewhere in my bloodline, I might have some black in me, as it would explain a lot).

"So, to anyone in attendance at the Q&A that day, whether you were offended or not, I apologize. Rest assured, it?ll never happen again.

"I will, however, continue to use the term ?Motherfucker? as liberally as I can, even though it, too, is a term I got from the black community (from Chris Rock, particularly; Rock?s use of ?motherfucker? makes it sound like the most poetic adjective/noun ever invented)."


'nuff said

-=S