Dog Day of the Dead -- "The Day"

"The Day" started out, like well, every other day before it. I got up out of my bed and stretched the limbs. Then after a brief stop in the bathroom for a refreshing drink, I headed to Sally's room. When I entered her room I was sad at the sight of her still made bed. Normally the bed is very unkept and, at this time of the morning, containing a half sleeping girl. That's when I remembered she had been at summer camp for the last four days and that day was the day she was supposed to be returning to us. The thought of this got my tail waggin, if you can really call it a tail, its more like a stump ever since that bicycle accident when I was three. I still jump everytime I hear a bicycle bell ring. I had wanted to just lay next to Sally's bed until she returned but remembered did have a morning duty to perform.

I ran down the stairs and out my special dog door. I call it my special dog door, not only because I am the only one who could go through it , but because there is a small wooden board that is hung above it that has my name painted on it. "Chesterfield" was stenciled in a beautiful shade of grey along with a couple of flowers on either end of the name. Sally made it for me a few summer camps ago. It made me smile everytime I saw it. What didn't make me smile was the smell that hit my nose when I reached the outside.

I didn't really notice it until I went to pick up the paper. A breeze blew in the right direction and the aroma of death was so foul, it made me drop the paper I had just picked up in my mouth. I nearly puked. The morning air was filled with more than a foul stench. I had been so focused on my thoughts about Sally's return and getting the paper, I didn't pay attention to what my ears were hearing at first. With the distraction of the smell of death filling my nose, my attention returned to the present and thats when I realized the neighbor hood was very noisy. There were sounds of car alarms and sierns coming from everywhere. At one point I thought I heard an explosion in the distance. Fear slowly started to reach its icy cold hands around my neck. I immediately shook it off and went into protection mode. Something was happening in the "not good" category and I was damned if I was going to let whatever it was into my yard. I abandoned the paper to patrol the area.

Like many of the houses on our block, a 5 foot high wooden fence bordered our land. The fence was stained just that spring and the smell from the fresh stain helped mask the smell of death, at least a little. With nose to the ground, I walked the perimeter checking to see if anyone or anything had come into my yard. I heard something thud against the front gate as I passed it. I stopped and waited to see if it had been my imagination. Thats when I heard the thud again. It sounded as if someone were bumping up against it over and over again. From where I was I could not see over the fence so I moved to the porch to see if I could see what was trying to get in. It was at that moment I saw my first "changed".

It was Charles, our paper boy though the term boy didn't seem to fit him since he was a freshman in High school and already over 6 feet tall. He was usually being followed by at least one or two females but on "The Day" I think they would have wanted to be as far away from him as possible. The baseball cap he always wore was tilted to one side and very dirty, his hair was a mess and his eyes were cloudy white. His neck had a huge gash in it. The blood from the wound had since dried but you could still see the muscles where the skin was missing. His arms were limp and swayed as he continued to walk into the fence. He just kept walking. Step-bump-step-bump. I had never seen such thing before, it creeped me the hell out.

Dog Day of the Dead

I miss playing catch out at the Park. Frisbee, tennis ball, hell any stick would do. Sally and I would go to the Big Field and play there for hours. The Trees stood tall along the Field's edge and if the wind blew just right they sounded as if they were speaking to you. Occasionally a squirrel would venture from its tree sanctuary, out into the field, only to be chased by me back to its home. It's not like I ever intended to catch the little bastards, they were just fun to chase and let me tell you, we springer spaniels love the chase. Sure we had squirrels at home too but there wasn't as much running room and a lot of times the squirrels there would sit on top of the fence, just out of reach, and mock you, shake their little furry asses in your direction and even hit you with their nuts, little bastards. Park squirrels were more respectful. I would like to believe that they enjoyed being chased as much as I enjoyed chasing them. More than chasing the Park squirrels and the trees, and playing catch, I loved the smell of the grass.


The grass at the Park had such a magnificent fragrence to it, I would sometimes I would just lay in it and breath deep, let its wonderful aroma fill my nose as I watched Sally with her parents Tim and Maria enjoy a picnic in the sun. The grass smell was so perfect it would sometimes even put me to sleep where I would dream of chasing squirrels through the clouds. With each breath of grass air, I would float higher and higher in the sky until I was drifting in a sea of delicious aromatic bliss. Today the grass smells like shit.


Actually shit smells better than the Park grass does today and let me tell you I have smelled a lot of shit in so I would know. The smell of death has erased the beautiful essence of the grass that I use to enjoy so much. It's not just at the Park either. Nope I would say that there isn't a place in this whole damn city that didn't smell of death, or worse, but then again this is no surprise considering how many of the walking dead are, well walking about. They just spend their entire day and night walking, I always wondered where they thought they were going. Phil, he's the oldest of our group and one of the craftiest son of a bitches I have ever met, but then again it should come as no surprise considering he's a raccoon, anyway Phil thinks they are on the search for food. Lucky enough for us it appears they only care for the taste of human flesh. Oh my dog! I am sorry I forgot to introduce Phill and Crow and FiFi and "The Day" and... tell you what, if you would allow me the courtesy, I would like to back up my little tail to when it all started. It has become known among most of us as "The Day".

The Doctor is dead, Long live the Doctor

So I finally got to seeing both parts of the End of Time and On the whole I was actually surprised that it was better then expected. Now I will try not to give away spoilers just in case any Dr Who fans actually read this and have not watched the End of Time yet. Lets weigh in the best we can shall we.

Part One:

Part one was a little more of your standard Davies episodes. It was one of those that you saw most of it coming due to the trailers for the episodes. The way they had the Master return (again in the trailer) I thought was a bit of a stretch but any chance to see Simm back in that character is fine by me. This episode really had more of the Davies Finale type of feel which isn't exactly bad BUT isn't exactly good either. The one problem I have always had with Davies writing is the scale he feels he almost has to have everything on. It's so huge and always involving like the entire planet...while dramatic and epic as this is, it almost has become a cliche by now. We get some excellent dialog and, between the Davies epic moments, their are some fantastic bits of conversation and well you can tell Tennant put in his all in this part. The cliffhanger caught me as a surprise as well. In all a better than average story for Mr. Davies even with his rather cliche Epicness. The cameo of a certain actor was great as well.

Part 2:

Talk about you snow ball traveling down hill. Things just continue to ramp up as this episode went on, in a good way. This is definitely an episode where you have to really pay attention to the dialog. I suggest you do your bathroom breaks ahead of time because if you lose your focus on this episode you could lose a lot of exposition. This episode is truely a tie up episode not just for the story from part 1 but basically manny of the Davies story archs. Where the performances were decent in part 1 , part 2 was just fantastic. Tennant and the crew put their all into this episode and it was really a solid piece of work. There were alot of moments where you think they are going to do something and then they actually take it in a different and better direction. There are some subtle items addressed in this episode that give some foundation for future story archs. Tennant delivers a fantastic bit of monolog and I got misty. The event that actually causes the generation was a surprise but it made a lot of sense for the way this Doctor has always been portrayed and it again made me misty eyed.

While watching Part 1 I was a bit worried about the direction the finale was going to take but Part 2 really helped create a solid story worthy of Tennants send off.
Not only that but some how they managed to end it in a way that I really want to see the next doctor in action. In just a few minutes my doubts kind of dissolved and I can't wait for the next season.

Enjoying the little things.

I haven't blogged in months only because I have been focusing on my Final Cut projects and that we are in full swing at the part time job, and the holidays and well you get the point. Anyway I just share just another example of how small the world wide web has made the world...in a good way.

A while ago I did a review of the movie OC Babes and the Slasher of Zombietown. It was a What the Frak! film which I try to feature weekend budget, under ground, or just plain weird b-movies. This one was a doozy and I really kicked it through the dirt. Well just last week I get a comment on the video post I did and it basically said that it was a good review and how most people just say they hated it, but my review was well thought out, etc. I was surprised at the compliment on a review that basically said the movie was bad with bad frosting. Turns out the comment on my video came from the writer and director of the movie. Talk about your small world.
Now I know its not like George Lucas or anything but I thought it was really cool to hear from the actual maker of the movie. I messaged back and forth a little and he told me a short "making of " story about the movie and the problems they ran into. Also why some of the things looked the way they did.

Needless to say I was giddy the rest of the day and thinking about it now still brings a smile to my face. It also has helped keep me motivated to doing what I have been doing with the Final Cuts and also start putting some true effort behind my bigger planned projects. Who know maybe he will be a resource I can turn to later on. It is indeed a small world.

bloaaarrg!!!

Ok so I am walking down the street the other day. Now when I say day I really mean night and by street I mean ally. Anyway I walked past a half open doorway and I see two rather hot women making out...or at least I thought they were making out ...damn this itches....I slowed down because you know, hey free show right, so I noticed that one seemed to be enjoying it more than the other. The one faceing me seemed to have this glazed, wide eyed lifeless stare and the one with her back to me was moaning in a approvement apparently of her own actions....can't stop scratchin shit maybe infected..Anyway,I noticed a pool of liquid by their feet. It ....damn that itches and hurts...Where was I oh yeah the pool. I thought maybe one of them had spilled their drink or something but then the light reflected on it and it had a reddish tint.....damn arm going numb....so I was thinking blood right. as I went to approach the couple the one who had her back to me and had been kissing the other girls neck turned around.
Now I have seen some cracy.....i mean crazy,...damn hard to concentrate...I have seen some crzy shit in my day but never seen a woman eating another womans layrnx before....I am thinking there is probably some weird person out there where thats their fetish ...now that I mentioned it, it will be a fetish site on the web...dmmit brain foggy...getting hungry to.. To make my point larynx eating hottie cam after meee. I Well I assumed sheeeee was cause of the pale skin and ...umm brains...I mean cloudy eyes and all....anyway ....damn hungry now....any she chased me...fast little bitch but I got away...shhhiitt aarrh...fuck what did I just say oh when I say got away I mean she caught me once but only biitttee my arm.....stomach reallg hurtazz hed fuzzzzzweeee.....hunnnngrrree arrrrrrrvggh btt I think shhe marrrrr ha ben zom......

Fall is definitely here

Well fall came like a bat out of hell. But it usually does for Wisconsin so its not a big surprise. The leaves turned all kinds of fantastic colors which makes this place a very pretty place to live for a couple weeks before the colorful leaves decide to leave their planet tree to explore the ground that is my lawn. Its not that I do not mind raking, its a normal part of this time of year when you leave in a city that has a large amount of trees, its just the amount of raking that needs to be done.
It would be nice if the trees dropped all their leaves at once like the one tree in our backyard. One day the tree will have all of its color, the next you find the leaves all decided they had had enough and commited mass suicide, leaving the tree looking like a skinny naked old man. Wow that's a visual I didn't need. Anyway the rest of the tress around here aren't so nice, in fact they are cruel. You could rake all the leaves off your lawn mid day and by night fall they will let just enough leaves go so that it looks as if you never raked.
Don't take it like I am a lawn fanatic, I am not by a long shot, just ask my buddy Jim or the Wife. I do like having the feeling of accomplishment and the trees dropping their leaves in small batches really puts the kabosh on this feeling.
Soon snow will be here and I will be cursing myself for never taking the free snowblower that doesn't work in to have it looked at.
Snow is alot like the fall leaves. You could shovel your walk free of snow and clear of ice and you turn around to put your shovel or unbroken snowblower away and find a fine layer of snow covering where you just shoveled. Guess its the price you pay for living in midwest, but I can't imagine myself living anywhere else. Its worth the price.

Just What am I missing?

OK confidence in what I do has never been my strong suit since I was a teenager. I have been doing a number of movie reviews and while they are not in depth as a Roger Ebert I hope folks find them entertaining. I could go more in depth, I can be a deep guy that is more than foreign torture movies and b-horror. So what am I missing with the movie "Girlfriend Experience".

For those of you who don't know the movie it stars Sasha Grey in her first "non porn" film. Now the fact she is a porn star and the movie is about a week in a call girl's life is not why I rented the film...ok its not TOTALLY the reason why I rented the film. I had heard a lot of good things about the movie from critic sites and it got a lot of hype at Cannes. Its a movie direct by Steven Soderbergh, the one who brought us Erin Brockovich(which I really enjoyed) and the Oceans franchise ( which I really liked the first one). It a docu film style of movie where its shot like a documentary but not a documentary which I enjoy as long as the writing is decent.
The movie scenes are shot out of order which can be a little unsettling but it does make you have to pay attention and it does give you those "A HA! so thats what happened" type of moments but on the whole I didn't think this movie was very good. All the other critics in the world seemed to disagree.
The movie definitely dates its self as the subject discussed by all of the call girl's clients is the economy . This makes sense since they are supposed to be rich guys. It is set just before the most recent election so there are alot of Obama/McCain debates discussed as well.
The problem I had with this is I have/had heard soooooooooooo many of the same damn discussions in real life that these parts of the film really turned me off to the movie. I hear enough of it during the elections and now I am getting it in the movie. Please enough.
I am all for being topical but it was monotonous in real life and it was the same in the movie.

You do really feel bad for this young girl and some of the decsions that she makes in the film but on the whole I just felt the characters were plastic and the main actress seemed bored. I know thats how her character was supposed to kind of be ...this really blocked off girl but the actress herself seemed just dulled by what she was doing.

So I will keep on keeping on and reviewing like I review, I am just wondering what I am not seeing that the critics are. Maybe its why they are the famous one I don't know.

Girlfriend experience gets one stub.

Yes folks I am crazy....but don't tell the others in my head

So I have decided to do something kind of crazy. I plan on doing 5 final cuts a week BUT they are only going to be one movie each show. This gives me a little more flexibility in time which seems to help my ADHD tendencies. Now some may ask...wow that comes to 260 movies a year to review. Yeah I got plenty I can give my opinion on so no worries about running out.

I applied to a web site to be a horror movie movie reviewer for them. It would be text which is probably why they have not contacted me back. My grammar isn't the best as most, if not all of you may have noticed so that would be my downfall. I did also link them to my youtube page which may have been a mistake. I could see them worrying about me promoting myself on their web site more than reviewing a movie, not that I would do such a thing but I could see their concerb. I am going to follow up with them but I think I know their answer if they have not contacted me so far.

Which makes me think perhaps I should put forth a bit more of an effort in lookin for sites that might want movie reviewers, video or written. Maybe look up some video contests but that means showing a little more ambition than I normally do. I just know I gotta do something.
Thats why I am going to try and stick to doing so many movie reviews a week. Practice makes perfect and it will keep me motivated to want to do more. At least thats the plan

"Ah ha!" & WOW moments and slaps to the head

So I am catching up on my episodes of the Fringe, which is by the way a show that definitely got better with age, the show is a lot different than it was when it began but that is a good thing. The last episode of the first season truely surprised me. I won't give away any details but there was a major "Ah ha!" moment and also a "Wow" moment. A moment I didn't see coming. Now I have never claimed to be the brightest bulb on string but usually I can catch where things are going but the show threw a curve. I liked it.

I will admit that 6th Sense caught me off guard, laugh all you want but I got so into the story I didn't really think about it. I have no problems admiting it. There have been many movies that I did figure out way before hand and while I enjoyed those movies I felt a little let down. Its not the movie's fault I had seen soo many movies that I was able to predict it.
Saw was another one of those movies that surprised me. Never saw the ending coming and neither did alot of my fellow movie maniacs. IT was a WOW moment.

The slap of the head comes from Hollywood thinking they could build a franchise off of these movies or the director thinking he had to do the same thing over again because it worked the first time. Why do they think that? I mean the more they repeat these formulas the more predictable they become which I think tarnishes the original.

6th sense wow'd and ahha'd people and the movie took off. M Knight I think then thought that was how he should make all his movies. The problem is it seemed forced with some of them and made them less of a movie than they could have been. The first Saw movie was very creative and ending out of no where, They developed a great character and brought horror to a different gory level but then they decided to rinse, wash, repeat with the next movies. Those sequels could have possibly been better had they not tried to be the same as the first.

Look I am not a major movie maker I know that. I have not made a major motion picture, but I got to think there has to be a better way to go about these movies. I understand doing a franchise and all that but who says the movie has to be the same as the first , course we the movie watching audience is a bit at guilt as well. We continue to pay for the movies because we hope the next movie will be something new and different. Nothing wrong with that I guess, we can always look at the money spent gives us the right to call a crap movie crap.

I just wish movie makers would look past the dollar signs once in a while.

Rediscovering the magic of the 1st Doctor.

My wife and I have begun to watch the first Doctor who's. I Have successfully converted her to a Who fan. So much in fact she did the research to find out what Dr episodes were on DVD, and when those shows original release dates were. Then updated her netflix Q accordingly.
In watching the originals it made me realize again how actually ground breaking the series was with what was done in the way of F/X writing, characters, etc. They did some cool things with the budget they had. Now while I have watched many a series of the Doctor I am still green in the way of back story for the show. The going ons as it were. I know they worked on a limited budget, very limited and I imagine they stuck with the TARDIS being a police box because it was cheaper to use the same prop then coming up with new ones every story. Now this may not have been why they kept it a Police Box but I am sure it may have had influence.

They then write this reason into the story. What I thought was most interesting is the difference in the Doctor between the Pilot and the 1st Episode. IN the Pilot he was alot harsher, meaner and just basically alot more old cranky guy. In the 1st Episode while the Doctor still had some attiude he was lighter in tone.
We have watched "The Unearthly Child" and "The Daleks" which were still badass bad guys even back then. Its funny on how consistant they have kept their shape all these years. Again unusual for a sci fi series that has gone this long. Sure they have gotten upgrades but there really is not a huge difference between the 60s and the Aughts Dalek. I like that.
We also watch by far the two weirdest episodes, at least in my opinion, that we have seen "The Edge of Distruction" two parter.
We have started to watch the Aztecs which is shaping up. It is a shame there are so many episodes missing from that time. I even sat through the half hour material they have been able to salvage of "Marco Polo" that one would have been fantastic to see in its entirety.
I look forward to watchin more as they come in.