My Summer 2009 Oh Yeah! List
10) 21st Century Breakdown -- Green Day
The album that grows on you like a bad mole. It is no Dookie or American Idiot and a far cry from Nimrod. However, once you listen to it again and again in a hot car, you finally get it -- we're all musically doomed, so party now.
9) Bruno
Wazzup? It's boner flopped at the box office, true, but it was also a step above Borat. That's because it is easy to get on board with a guy who could be a terrorist from another country, but it is hard and ballsy (sorry) to throw America's worst fear back in their face and make people laugh. Performance art hardly does it justice. This was a defying leap into comedic social commentary.
8) Rescue Me
Let's see: more details about 9/11, substantial character development Sean's battle with cancer, and the women taking control over Denis Leary's tortured and confused fireman? Oh, and everyone is drinking again, including the ghosts. Yeah, it is a kick ass season.
7) City Of Glass Graphic Novel -- By David Mazzucchelli and Paul Karasik, based on the novel by Paul Auster
Forget the original and go with the adaptation that's original, eye opening, and haunting in a way the source material was never able to quite cook up. Not only are the illustrations entrancing and hypnotic, they push the story to new depths. A great summer graphic novel.
6) The Hangover and Up
The best double-feature you can get for one ticket price. Sneak into it with someone you love and is willing to hold your hair back (extra bonus: stay for both movies' credits)
5) "Paranoid" music video by Kanye West
R&B rap meets werewolf Tarantino movie. It's B-horror style with imagination and energy that elevates a mediocre song to a new level of awesomeness. And I suppose Rhianna is pretty dashing as the possessed damsel going to the top of the mountain in her tricked out convertible. You worry about the wrong things...
4) Weeds
Still funny. Still creative. Mary-Louise Parker and Justin Kirk have the best chemistry on television. It wouldn't be summer without green growing in Mrs. Botwin's backyard. And speaking of chemistry...
3) Away We Go
Dear Dave Eggers, I apologize for calling you a hack writer who does not fully understand complex and intriguing human beings. Perhaps Maya Rudolph and John Kransinski just did everything perfectly, but you and Vendela Vida gave them the set up. Write more movies, less books.
2) "Like A Boss" music video by The Lonely Island
Stay off the boat and go to work where you can micromanage, hit on Debra, find a fish, fuck its brains out, and have an interview with Seth Rogen. I am a believer in the Lonely Island guys and think that once again, they are genius in what they make.
1) Cage The Elephant -- Cage The Elephant
Ain't no rest for the wicked. Same goes for this album on your radio. Make sure you go crazy.
Oh yeah...
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Quick Sample
Last night, in a hot, cramped, sweltering apartment in Ocean Beach, I finally got to do the reading of Salt Water Cajuns (formerly, Our Mother, Staten Island), with a group of fantastic actors.
I now have a new direction to go with it and TJ and the cast gave me some interesting ideas to chew on. At first it felt like another shot in the dark at making the story work, stretching for emotion, plot, and character all at once. But a lot of the actors really liked it, many saying that when it goes up they want to audition for it.
They have hope that it will go up -- better than I do at the moment.
Speaking of actors and this play, there was a man who went by the title of Bowser back in New York and who would occasionally read and act in pieces in the dramatic writing department. In fact, he was one of the first people to read the part of "Sean" in my play.
Where is he now? Wait until about 45 seconds into this clip to find out. I've never seen him do anything like this before.
If you want to see more -- and god knows, I wasn't expecting to -- the whole episode is on Hulu. At least one of us is making it big.
I now have a new direction to go with it and TJ and the cast gave me some interesting ideas to chew on. At first it felt like another shot in the dark at making the story work, stretching for emotion, plot, and character all at once. But a lot of the actors really liked it, many saying that when it goes up they want to audition for it.
They have hope that it will go up -- better than I do at the moment.
Speaking of actors and this play, there was a man who went by the title of Bowser back in New York and who would occasionally read and act in pieces in the dramatic writing department. In fact, he was one of the first people to read the part of "Sean" in my play.
Where is he now? Wait until about 45 seconds into this clip to find out. I've never seen him do anything like this before.
If you want to see more -- and god knows, I wasn't expecting to -- the whole episode is on Hulu. At least one of us is making it big.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Revamp 2.5
90210 has done it. Melrose Place is about to do it. And So Say We All has just completed it: a makeover and updating of an old show.
"Old," you say. "You've only been around since February! Of this year"
You are both right and wrong, sir and/or madam. We, So Say We All and the newly re-did SSWA website, have recently started to expand into the world of...wait for it...wait for it...art.
So Say We All is still storytelling and themes, but the different outlets and genres of creative expression will all have a chance to perform and get their voice heard. We are not a production company, we are just a producing entity.
Music videos are in the works, with a performance on every second Monday of the month at South Park's Whistle Stop bar. The story slams are getting bigger and better. Look out for this month's "When Poverty Strikes" show on July 31st, just in time for California to go broke during Fiscal Armageddon and August, when So Say We All changes venues, we are staying up to do our "3 A.M." show.
Plus, be on the look out Prop 8-er Haters, we are doing a main stage show with the LGBT community called: "That's So Gay." with a date that is TBA.
Basically, we are growing, we are moving, and we want you on board.
Shameless self-promotion done!
"Old," you say. "You've only been around since February! Of this year"
You are both right and wrong, sir and/or madam. We, So Say We All and the newly re-did SSWA website, have recently started to expand into the world of...wait for it...wait for it...art.
So Say We All is still storytelling and themes, but the different outlets and genres of creative expression will all have a chance to perform and get their voice heard. We are not a production company, we are just a producing entity.
Music videos are in the works, with a performance on every second Monday of the month at South Park's Whistle Stop bar. The story slams are getting bigger and better. Look out for this month's "When Poverty Strikes" show on July 31st, just in time for California to go broke during Fiscal Armageddon and August, when So Say We All changes venues, we are staying up to do our "3 A.M." show.
Plus, be on the look out Prop 8-er Haters, we are doing a main stage show with the LGBT community called: "That's So Gay." with a date that is TBA.
Basically, we are growing, we are moving, and we want you on board.
Shameless self-promotion done!
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