"Honest Movie Titles: Oscars 2010"

via collegehumor.com

There's more funny posters in the College Humor article, but this one is my favorite!

Posted via web from bigepaz is eileen

The Art of the Steal (Trailer)

via traileraddict.com

"Culture is an industry..."

I'm in the mood for a good documentary. This one is supposed to out already, but I don't see it listed anywhere in SF Bay Area :(

Posted via web from bigepaz is eileen

Catching up

I've been really absent on this blog for many reasons. All those reasons are pretty boring and mundane to detail, so for the time being I'm just going to do my best to start up again.

I've got so many new projects it's scary. Today my multi-tasking has finally caught up to me and I'm just plain beat. The biggest thing I can share is a new podcast I'm working on with my friend Lynn Fu. Of all my passions to broadcast to the world, I bet you didn't see this coming, because I sure as heck didn't.

The podcast is all about Vampires. I'm one of the millions of women who fell hook, line and sinker for the Twilight Saga. At the same time, I've been a big fan of True Blood on HBO. Lynn and I got really enthusiastic chatting about both stories and (with a little prodding from our friends) we rounded up the gusto to produce our own little podcast. You can find that podcast here: biteclubshow.

Truthfully, it's scary to put my opinions out there and sounding both fanatical and crazy about Vampires probably sounds weird to you. Still, the fun of this project outweighs any apprehension I initially had. Most of all, it's really exciting to produce something that isn't tied into work!

I have to say that if it wasn't for Lynn, I wouldn't have done this podcast -- remember my plans for a chocolate blog and podcast? Yeah stalled, but not dead. Sometimes you just need that extra push to get things up and running. Did I mention it's A LOT of fun? :)

Well, that's me catching up and here's me doing the same audio style. It's using an application called AudioBoo. I'm still unsure how I'll continue to use AudioBoo, but so far it's really easy to use, and the free iPhone app is very handy. Have a listen. I think the audio quality is excellent :)

Until next time.

E

Review: The Soloist, B-

via latimes.com

This evening I saw The Soloist starring Jamie Fox and Robert Downy Jr. I rarely write movie reviews, but something about this film caused me to create this quick post.

I had not heard of Nathanial Anthony Ayers till this movie and I knew nothing of the LA Times articles from Steve Lopez. So this was a clean slate for me.

I'm also a sucker for the autobiographical films/books and tend to like many, if not all of them (Ray, Cinderella Man, Beautiful Mind, Georgiana, etc). Furthermore, I love films that are centered are music. But oddly enough, halfway through this film I felt a disconnect.

The acting was superb, but how could it be anything less than spectacular? I was beginning to feel the gravity of this true story was minimized.

Why did I not feel the emotion? Why didn't I connect with the characters? The only thing I could pinpoint was the screenplay. Was the script "hollywood-ized"? The answer is yes, and as I would soon find out, the liberties taken by the Director were clearly the wrong ones.

After the movie I read the review from the Los Angeles Times, and suddenly I began to understand why I had trouble with the film. As the article mentions, the psychedelic light show was not necessary (in the scene where Nathanial visits the symphony for the first time) -- and that's just one of the many little items I that bothered me.

The final nail in the coffin was the 60 Minutes piece above that I watched when I got home. It fills in the missing gaps! There's the emotion I wanted to feel for Nathanial. There's the understanding I was looking for in his plight. For me, this 14 minute piece from Morley Safer was much more touching and thorough than the movie. I'm fine with dramatization, but why didn't we see Nathanial visiting Steve's home and family? Why didn't we see the shock therapy, as mentioned in 60 Minutes?

For all it's faults, this is a movie that is worth seeing purely to support Mr. Ayers and Mr. Lopez -- and to that extent Mr. Downey Jr. and Mr. Foxx. But I can't help but think how much greater impact this film could have had on the plight of the homeless in LA and schizophrenia.

I'm left aching to read the original LA Times articles by Steve Lopez and his book.

Posted via web from bigepaz is eileen

Pop Music Thursdays (Flashback) - America

"Today"!

Truthfully I had another song in mind and no plans to go the "flashback" route this early. Instead, I'm banking that song for next week, and present to you The Jewish Elvis with his classic song "America".

My inspiration for this week's pick began with a LaLa recommendation of "America" from raygun01 (better known as BOL's Jason Howell). Oh yes, I'm outing him again!  Then it came up as one of my shuffled songs on my iPhone as I was working out at the gym. As it played I picked up momentum on the elliptical and hit "repeat" -- three times!

The gym incident happened on the eve of Barack Obama's paid infomercial (which I thought was moving, positive, and inspiring). Now maybe i'm a little emotional in the midst of layoffs, a terrible economy and a growing uncertainty of the future, but listening to that song gave me a little bit of hope. I know I'm sappy and you might think I'm crazy, but that's seriously how I felt! That's the beauty of music, right?

Truthfully, I've always loved this song and the cheese of the lyrics like:

On the boats and on the planes
They're coming to America
Never looking back again
They're coming to America

Plus this song came from one of my all-time favorite movies, The Jazz Singer (1980). I can't even count how many times I've seen it!

I hope you enjoy this week's pick and if you're in the US, I hope you VOTE! You don't have to vote for my candidate, but please exercise your right.

Posted by email from bigepaz is eileen (posterous)