You autumn be ashamed of yourself!
There, my weak lead-in pun is out of the way. Now I can get down to business. And by "business" I mean my usual stream of hot air, studiously pounded out on my Logitech G510s Gaming Keyboard. Hey, only the best for you, you know this!
So, what has happened since last we spoke? Well, I guess I'll lead with the Four Points Film Festival, which I mentioned in the previous post. I talked of a short film I got to be in where I got to play an android. Well, it has since been made available online, so I'mma let you see it!
Warning: Abbie, you're not going to like it. Everyone else, I think there's enough worthwhile elements to make it worth a viewing, so go for it!
Hmmm.... it doesn't have embedding enabled... I was just going to conveniently post it here, for you to watch without having to leave this wonderful little blog... but I guess not!
So, if you want to watch it, it is called Memory Recall, and can be found at THIS LINK.
If you do go there, you'll notice 4 "pages" of films (8 per page, only 1 on the 4th page), totaling 25 films. Even though 170 films were submitted worldwide on time, the judges have culled out the 25 films that they wanted to put up for the Audience Choice Award! Our film made this cut. Which means if you wanted to, you could vote for your three favorite films of the twenty-five available for viewing. The Audience Choice Winning Film wins a cool $1,000. (vote here)
But your vote would only count if you vote for exactly three films! You can't just vote for one! Which means, if you're a conscientious person, you can spend a couple of hours watching all 25 films and score-carding them all... or rely on the opinion of someone who already did that! (Yes, I mean me...)
My Favorites:
-- What Goes Around: This is a work of art; a true film. It's from Warsaw, Poland, and has terrific cinematography, clever shots, great costuming, wonderful acting, lots of great moments, and is my pick for the very best. If I were a contest judge, this would get my vote for Best Film.
-- Morsus: This is the best American effort, in my opinion. Crisp writing, tight editing, very solid acting, terrific flow. This one got one of my three votes as well.
-- The Man in the Swivel Chair: OK, bear with me on this. It is a completely absurd film, and it's incomplete, in that it has no opening credits or closing credits - I assume they ran out of time and just sent it "as is"... it just starts and ends abruptly. And the characters are hams, along the lines of something you'd find from the Coen Brothers... but I laughed so hard - and I really needed a good laugh when I'd seen it - so (after much deliberation) I gave it my third vote. I guarantee you not everyone will enjoy this as much as I did - or maybe even at all (don't even try it, Abbie!) - but it was just what I needed. Absurdity at its rough-edged best. (warning: a bit of bad language)
-- Phil Can Feel: Another beautiful, well-crafted film (from Peru), it is loaded with wonderful imagery, minimalist dialog, effective acting, great moments. In fact, as well as I tried to do the "android" part in our film, I think this guy's android performance buries mine. I'll just have to try harder next time!
-- Reconnectes: This was very well made as well, in my opinion. It's a bit too heavy-handed with the message for my taste, but beyond that, a top-notch effort, featuring some very natural performances (not all, but many).
Others that I feel are worth a watch include: Who Am I?, Taste Tester, Running Heart and Handle With Care.
Do with this info as you will. The films are all under 8 minutes long.
Next?
Well, I'm about 75% of the way through my re-read of Pat Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles. As usual, reading The Name of the Wind was a pure joy... and also, the same concerns I had with The Wise Man's Fear the first time around are still there this time... Inconsistent writing, a few forced moments, some boring stretches of barely-interesting world-building, some oddly skipped content (The Trial, and the disastrous Voyage to see the Maer of Vint), and a hamstringing of the relationship between Kvothe and Denna (that awful, illogical "argument" they had right before Kvothe went off to find the bandits was so overdone and unnecessary).
Speaking of boring, how boring was that last paragraph?
Here, I'll liven things up...
Abbie, you won't like that video either, I'm afraid... more Extreme Absurdity... it will only appeal to you if you are a fan of all of the following:
- Absurd Humor
- Star Wars
- WWE/Randy Orton
- Internet Memes
If you failed to check all of those items, skip the video...
Guess I better drop a photo in instead...
This kid fell asleep in his mom's arms while waiting to get a photo with Santa... so Santa improvised this photo... awesome...
I had a great Thanksgiving - I hope you all did as well. Very mellow. Had dinner at my Wonderful Mother's house, as per tradition. Because I was there, we had two turkeys... no, not because I'm a big eater, but because I'm a turkey, see?... Come to think of it, I'm a ham as well, so we technically had two hams also...
Anyways, one of the highlights of the whole extended weekend was the fact that I bought exactly ZERO games in the Steam Holiday Sale! None! I resisted every deal! Well, honestly, it was likely because I own Fallout 4 now.... I've been playing it, saving the post-apocalyptic wasteland from all the various and sundry wasteland baddies... so who needs more games, eh? What else does a growing boy need? I even stopped Minecraft for the time being! That's how serious I am about saving the wasteland! See what a hero I am? SEE?!??!?!
Wow, another boring paragraph... I'm on a roll!
Uh oh.... I'm in trouble...
On the plus side, I also recently read that people who talk to themselves out loud are more likely to be geniuses!
So I've started talking to myself out loud... O_o
And just to tease you all again about Beyond The Impact, man o man, wait until you see what we are going to do... just wait. Incredible things are in the works. When Jeff gets back from his World Travel, we go into high gear... I cannot wait...
All that to say... yeah...
One final tidbit, I went to a family gathering over the weekend, with almost all of my aunts, uncles, cousins - many of whom I haven't seen in a decade or more. It was great visiting with everyone. I live in my own little world so strongly, it's hard to remember the importance of extended family.
Anyway, if you watched our film, thank you. If you voted for it, thank you even more.
I'm exhausted - I need sleep!
Until we meet again,
Dave the Goof
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