CineVegas

So, I finally bought my tickets for CineVegas! For a complete schedule, go here: http://cinevegas.bside.com/2009/schedule/week. As for my highlights, look no further.

Harmony and Me
Playing: Friday, June 12th and Sunday, June 14th
Synopsis: The most creative works of art, music and literature often come from heartache. In a way, that’s all we can hope for and from Harmony, a sullen 20-something lyricist, as he pines for a woman who broke his heart with seemingly little remorse. Harmony finds some solace in song, yet he fails to find tangible compassion from those around him...
Why should it be seen?: To support an Austin filmmaker. Looks to have indie-cred.

Jon Voight - Marquee Award.
Playing: Sunday, June 14th
Synopsis: Q&A with actor and screening of one of his films.
Why?: Duh! Jon Voight. And the screening is of a Hal Ashby movie, Lookin’ To Get Out, which I'm sure is pretty hard to come by.

Palermo Shooting
Playing: Sunday, June 14th
Synopsis: On the outside, Finn has few troubles: he’s a famed photographer, he’s respected, he’s busy. But underneath it all, Finn is not at peace. He barely sleeps and fails to connect. While he struggles to choose between art and commerce, he remains lonely, stuck in a tormented state of indecision and depression...
Why should it be seen?: It's directed by the brilliant Wim Wenders and Dennis Hopper, Milla Jovovich, and Lou Reed starring in the same movie seems like something to be seen.

Patriotville
Playing: Friday, June 12th and Saturday, June 13th
Synopsis: Wit and comic verve are the twin props of this alternately charming and biting satire. PATRIOTVILLE humorously explores the roles greed and corruption have played in the slow deterioration of small-town America. Talmage Cooley crafts a timely story with a delightful mix of characters who will have you laughing and thinking throughout...
Why should it be seen?: Justin Long is cute and funny. That's all you need.


Willem Defoe
Playing: Sunday, June 14th
Synopsis: Q & A with actor and screening of one of his films.
Why?: Defoe is one of the most bad assiest actors around (he even made JC look tough)!


Jury Prize Film
Playing: Monday, June 15th.
Synopsis: It's a gamble, and that's what Vegas is all about!
Why should it be seen?: Hopefully the pricey opening night film, St. John of Las Vegas, or the sold out film 500 Days of Summer will win the jury prize and then you will be able to see one of them. Anyways, it seems worth the 10 bucks.

Some other highlights that I unfortunately won't be able to attend the screening of: Moon (starring Sam Rockwell), Beautiful Darling (documentary about the famous Factory scenester, Candy Darling), Adam (endearing looking romance starring Rose Byrne and Hugh Dancy), 500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb, J G-L, Deschanel -- this one is understandably sold out), All-In: The Poker Movie (not much interested in poker, but interested in what Ira Glass has to do with it)

Networking

Yet another great night at the library: When The Handshake Is Mightier Than The Pen: A Literary Open House. I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about attending this event. What sort of people will be there? How do inform people that I write, but am not published? Will there be a lot of young hopefuls such as myself? In this town, will anyone of note actually show up? Should I try to promote my blog? I guess sometimes you just have to take a leap and ignore the jitters. Look for a detailed update after the event (it's not until June 24th)!

Sherlock Holmes (wtf)?

Trust Guy Ritchie to make Sherlock Holmes look like a British gangster:



This has killed any dim hopes of mine that this might be a slightly good film.

what do you do when inspiration strikes?

The thing about being a writer is that sometimes it's very inconvenient when inspiration strikes you. I know you can set aside a time to write everyday, but more often than not it seems that an idea finds you when you're not looking. So what do you do? I am fortunate enough that if I'm in bed and I think of something to add to a story, I can usually remember it come morning. But sometimes I lie awake thinking about it for a long time, so I might as well get up and write it down. But if it's a new idea, I find that I have to write it down almost immediately. I've bought tons and tons of notebooks, and I've tried to get into the habit of carrying them around with me. But the other day I had a line that was in perfect iambic pentameter, and nothing to write it on but a paper towel from the bathroom. I think the craziest thing is when I find myself writing a whole plot outline, character sketch, or anything else down while I'm DRIVING. Hey, stoplights afford you enough time to get a few sentences out before you become a danger to yourself or others...

I heart Criterion and I heart Netflix!

I know this matters to probably .5 people on the planet, but I just got an e-mail from the Criterion Collection that they have released Wise Blood on DVD! It's one of the hardest Brad Dourif (when he was younger) movies to find. I was considering checking it out on VHS from the university library, but they make you watch the videos in-house and I just never had time. Oh! Netflix here I come.

Ewan McGregor, Angels and Demons

Because I still can’t believe he has taken a supporting role in the big screen adaptation of Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, and because I need to cleanse my palate, today I present to you the 4 Fictional Characters Ewan McGregor Has Portrayed in Big Screen Adaptations of Novels That Are Sexier Than a Vatican Official.

4. Frank Churchill in Emma, adapted from the novel by Jane Austen:

Okay, so he’s no Mr. Knightley (or comparable to any other male leads from Austen’s novels) and you can sorta understand why Amy Heckerling turned his character gay in Clueless. I mean, he does gossip more than the girls in this adaptation of one of Austen’s gossipiest novels.

3. Joe Taylor in Young Adam, adapted from the novel by Alexander Trocchi:

Yeah, he’s a reckless womanizer, and his girlfriends sometimes end up dead, but still sexier than a Vatican official. All he does in this movie is seduce, seduce, seduce.

2. Ed Bloom in Big Fish, adapted from the novel by Daniel Wallace

(Picture coming soon)

He's maybe a little too perfect in this movie. A total DILF.

1. Mark Renton in Trainspotting, adapted from the novel by Irvine Welsh:

It’s hard to describe Renton’s sexiness. And unless you find men crawling out of toilet bowls sexy, it’s hard to find a picture that captures it. But if he were a real person, I probably would take him home and then proceed to stalk him and serenade him with New Order songs.

ok...next month is going to be awesome

Next month, one of my local libraries is going to be host to events with Laurell K. Hamilton AND Augusten Burroughs (oh, and Norm Clarke and Tony Curtis together). I love getting to hear published authors talk about their experiences and asking them tons and tons of annoying questions, so this will be perfect. Laurell K. Hamilton is going to be on Friday, 6/5, @ 7 pm and Augusten Burroughs is going to be on Saturday, 6/20, @ 7 pm. (Sorry, you'll have to check www.lvccld.org if you want the info for ol' Norm and Tony.) Those are both days I'm not working, so I can actually go! And I was beginning to think the only event we were going to have was the one with the authors from Chicken Soup for the Soul...

weird things found at the library

Say you were browsing at the library and in one of the books you came across an invitation for some guy's birthday party and it promised sic free drinks (including alcohol!) and the front had a glamor shot superimposed on to a screen capture from a video game, wouldn't you want to go? I thought so. Sidenote: Whoever this guy is, if he wants more friends/notoriety he should try to get in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most MySpace friends and then maybe get his own reality show (Like a male Tila Tequila). I can almost guarantee he deserves one.

Geeky Dreamboats

Finally, I have a term to use when people ask me what my "type" is. Geeky Dreamboats! My friend bought this book over the weekend:

This little book for under $10 is nearly perfect. Not only does it include fun facts about each geeky dreamboat (Jake Gyllenhaal is a swedish nobleman? Who knew?), but it also rates each on a scale of ultimate geek to almost cool. I have to point out, however, that the authors left out Jason Lee. He's the ultimate geeky dreamboat! Brodie? Hello? At least they had the foresight to include Simon Pegg and rate him ultimate geek. And, girls who are lucky enough to have a so-called geeky dreamboat in their possession, can now bestow him with an awesome certificate via the publisher's website.

nastiest rejection letter?

I know writers keep their rejection letters cuz we're all self loathing like that. What was your nastiest rejection letter? Feel free to reword it to soften the blow (or not).

I've been fortunate in that I've only received the standard "Your work is not a right fit for this publication," which is basically a nice way of saying "Your work stinks." But at this point, a rejection letter for me is a pat on the back for even trying to send out manuscripts. In a year or so, when my apartment is wallpapered with them, they'll probably make me cry.

Garcia-Bernal, Luna, and a Cuaron

I probably should have known about this earlier, but I just got wind of the new movie that features the long-awaited, at least by me, reunion of Gael Garcia-Bernal and Diego Luna (who looks strangely like Brandon Flowers on the poster). And the fact that this time around its directed by the other Cuaron ain't too shabby either. They play brothers in this film, which I don't quite buy. And those of us who enjoyed *ahem* certain scenes from Y Tu Mama Tambien know why its also kinda lame. Oh well. It looks cute enough and seems to have a killer soundtrack.

Twitter, twitter, twitter

I was all atwitter today because I had a new follower on Twitter, and so I thought that would give me more blog exposure. Well, it turned out to be a spam account offering a free WalMart gift card. Oh boy! Incidentally, I have now joined Twitter although I refused to ever, ever join. If you want a tweet about my blog updates, please visit Ms. Read @ Twitter!

Writing Buddies, Yea or Nay?

I say nay, and that's not because of the other person. I realize that people have lives and a lot of us are often too busy to write. I say nay because you think that a writing buddy will always be there to move you along, or to inspire you to write. But the only person that can inspire you, is you. Maybe if I found someone locally and we had to report to each other in person every week on a particular day, I would say yea to the idea of writing buddies.

the library keeps hitler: the unknown artist in storage

I checked out Triumph of the Will from the library because I'm interested in things like propaganda and how people can be manipulated through words and images. My library is self-checkout, but to return it you have to give it to someone at the desk. Well, today was the day to return it but I felt really uncomfortable handing it in because I didn't want my co-workers thinking I was some sort of Neo-Nazi. And then I thought about how yesterday was Hitler's birthday and that it might seem like I watched it in honor of his birthday. So I just kept it. Hey, I don't get charged late fees and I still am interested in watching it. At least I didn't check out Hitler: the Unknown Artist, which is actually a book we keep in storage. And at least I don't share a birthday with him like these unfortunate people.

wasted weekend

Instead of writing this weekend, I played The Sims 2. And, yes, my sim also works on a novel, and yes, she gets more done than I do. I missed the news over the weekend (that's how much I played) that British author J. G. Ballard died yesterday (BBC). I wish I was still at Borders so I could make a display in his honor. I remember watching an interview with him in the dvd extras for Empire of the Sun and being blown away at how straight-laced and personable he seemed considering his often dark subject matter. But then again I've always found that people who write the weirdest, darkest things turn out to be the nicest people on earth.

Oh, another thing...

I thought I had such a clever idea. Years from now--when I'm a blogstar--I was going to start a community for new writers and I was going to call it Novel Novices. Well, come to find out that such a thing already exists. Except, for some inexplicable reason it has to do with Twilight. Shoot! Remind me one day to post a rant about Stephanie Meyer. Although Stephen King pretty much said everything for me, it would still be fun to write.

Ms. Read

In my google quest to find out whether someone already had the id name Ms. Read -- and might one day begrudge me the use of it -- I came across some interesting (sort of) facts:

• Miss Read is the pen name of an English author. Here is a link to her Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Read. I must have been really tired last night cuz I could have sworn she wrote novels in the 1800's, but now that I look her latest book was published in 1996. Not as cool.
  
• Ms. Read is also the name of a plus-sized clothing store.
  
• And Ms. Read is apparently a restaurant/cafe owned by the above mentioned clothing company that is only located in Malaysia (?)
  

Why now?

I am currently musing about the events of the past few weeks which have inspired me to start this blog. On Monday, I started my new job as a technical writer for a local and very small software company. So I could, technically, say that I'm a professional writer. Actually, during the interview process I remember the founders of the company asking me if I ever kept a blog. My response was "I've tried, but my life really isn't interesting enough." Well I guess the events of the past few weeks, this day in particular, have kind of bloated my ego to the point where I've decided to keep one. Whilst working at the library, I ran into a former writing instructor whose first question was, typically, "So have you been working on a novel?" And when I told him no, he told me that I was the best writer he had come across in five years of teaching so how come I wasn't?! Nothing like that compliment to boost said ego. But then there's always the comments from people like my good friend who once said "You should watch Ace in the Hole. I think you'd like it because you're a writer. Well, not really, but you know what I mean."