hope sets sail

guess what movie's coming to the midnight movie at the sunshine at the end of august?

2008-07-23T17:42:00.003-04:00

a special victim.

2008-07-22T23:16:00.000-04:00

so I did a little law & order: svu work today. I played some kind of military personnel.

it was hot as hell and unfortunately for us, it was a scene in the fall so we had to wear long sleeves and a light jacket in the 90+ degree heat. ugghhh.

but the scene I was in also had chris meloni and mariska hargitay. and! and! chris elliott was a guest star in the episode! haven't seen that guy since ... get a life? whoa.

we shot at this science museum in queens and were fed really well too.

hell yeah.

pre-production kicks off on my short film!

2008-07-17T16:48:00.003-04:00

I'm currently piecing together the parts that would eventually become my new comedy short film entitled 8 Days Later. this is a film in which I am the writer, director and actor.

I had a meeting the other day to go over the storyboard and it's looking a little bit like this:

special props go to alex tarampi on flexing his BFA muscles in a mad sketching session.

I'll be posting updates. we're looking to shoot in early august.

on seeing ricky gervais live at madison square garden tonight.

2008-07-14T23:41:00.005-04:00

so kate got us tix to see ricky gervais tonight at madison square garden as a (very) early birthday gift. as one might expect, it was a real fuckin' hoot to see him in the flesh and hear his hilarity live.

two things that surprised me:

a) doors were 7:30 and he got started 7:50 on the dot. am I just so used to rock shows starting hours after the doors open, or is this just how it's done for big stand-up shows?

b) he recycled about 15% of material from his previous stand-ups. admittedly, those who would know this are only the geeks who own the region 2 uk dvds of his previous shows and played them on a multi-region dvd player. repeatedly.

but yeah, the man is an unstoppable genius. if you want a taste of his hilarity, pop over on that link I gave you up top (and just now) and peep his promo for his nyc shows.

"but aj, I'm at work and I don't have sound on my computer."

well then you have two options:

a) wait till you get home and watch it.
b) quit your shitty job.

please have a wonderful day.

who's that on an elle.com blog?

2008-07-08T23:28:00.001-04:00

72 hour film shootout.

2008-07-06T18:31:00.001-04:00

so I am writing to humbly request your vote for (or perhaps just view) my team's entry in this year's 72 hour film shootout.

the 72 hour film shootout is a nationwide competition where filmmaking teams have 72 hours to write, shoot, edit and produce short films up to five minutes in length on a selected theme. when the theme "A First Goodbye" was announced on friday 6/20, my team stayed up all night writing a script, spent that saturday and sunday filming, and then our fearless director pulled an all-nighter putting it all together by monday 6/23.

the fruits of our labor can be seen here:
http://ningin.com/mediastream/item:show/2008/07/01/initial/

you can vote by clicking on the "VOTE! Audience Award" button below the clip.

do it!

the website is down: sales guy vs web dude.

2008-06-26T16:26:00.003-04:00

extremely funny clip, especially if you work in an IT capacity. or worked with non tech savvy people.

deadliest catch video game.

2008-06-23T00:06:00.002-04:00

hell motherfucking yes.

what's next, jon & kate plus 8 on psp?

mashup: requiem for a day off.

2008-06-19T18:45:00.002-04:00

holy shit.

G4 attack of the show - wonder twins sketch.

2008-06-12T20:46:00.001-04:00

this is so clever and hilarious.

12-year-old girl banned from all-boys basketball league for being too awesome.

2008-05-31T18:03:00.002-04:00

exactly what the title says. very much worth checking out.

movie review! indiana jones and the kingdom of the crystal skull.

2008-05-23T17:57:00.002-04:00

if I had to summarize it in one quip I'd say "if you've seen one indy movie, you've seen 'em all. in a good way." but that would make me a dismissive, snarky internet asshole (even if it is a positive thing I'm saying). so I won't.

although the story is as simplistic as you can write one, it's as fun and action-packed as you remember all the others being. it's a summer blockbuster, what do you want?

ps- cate blanchett in a bowl-cut brunette wig is hot as hell. meow.

brand new mates of state cd next week!

2008-05-15T02:24:00.002-04:00

mates of state's latest and greatest, "re-arrange us" is coming out next tuesday. you can stream the entire album from their myspace page, or if you're more of the visual type peep their first video:

me likey!

there may be blood.

2008-05-08T22:23:00.001-04:00

there will be blood is next in our netflix queue but they've been taunting us the past few weeks that there may be a long wait.

so yeah.

spaced on dvd finally available to yanks.

2008-05-07T12:36:00.003-04:00

to those of you who don't own multi-region playing dvd players (what good are you, anyway?) the day has come to rejoice.

spaced is finally available to american audiences!

spaced is/was the sitcom that was created by the genius minds that went on to make shaun of the dead and hot fuzz. if you thought those movies were clever, your asses will be floored when spaced hits your television set.

mark your calendars now!

the chicken, the fish and the king crab.

2008-04-29T22:13:00.003-04:00

today I caught the chicken, the fish and the king crab at the film festival. I made sure I ate before catching it because I figured I'd be bombarded with shots of food that would encompass my entire field of vision.

this film follows one spanish chef, jesús almagro, and his quest to compete at the bocuse d'or, an olympics-like culinary competition between 24 top chefs from around the world.

chefs train years to compete in this, not to mention spending over $100,000 in materials to practice with.

but you know what? the type of miniscule, surgically crafted miniature square morsels did little to fuel my appetite. it was much like a fashion show where everything looks pretty but you wouldn't really see yourself wearing anything coming down the runway. same thing here -- I can't imagine eating the kind of foods they were judging.

it just wasn't that exciting to me.

the final scene was of the spanish chef helping his mother prepare a big pan of paella while talking to the camera about his experiences at the bocuse d'or. the paella looked good. really, really good. and it made me wonder, was there a message that this was REAL cooking -- preparing meals for your family and friends? the paella, with big chunks of chicken and shrimp tumbling around in the big metal pan, couldn't have been farther from the intricately delicate sculpture-foods at the bocuse d'or.

not to run this message into the ground, but to me, the shot of the paella was much more appetizing than anything else I saw in the film.

it would have been nice had the final message in the film been a big fuck you to the competition.

the film itself was very enjoyable as jesús almagro is a lovable underdog who you really want to do well. is this the karate kid of the culinary world? you'll just have to watch and see if jesús delivers a crane kick to the french chef at the end of the competition.

Låt den rätte komma in

2008-04-28T21:20:00.003-04:00

for those of us who don't speak swedish, that translates to "let the right one in" and it's the title of a fantastic film I just saw at the tribeca film festival. it's a tender tale of a young bullied boy who falls in love with the girl next door, who happens to be a vampire.

as much as I strongly urge you to go see it, I just as strongly urge you not to watch the trailer online because it doesn't come close to doing justice to the beauty of this film. in fact I feel it can be misleading, not to mention it giving away key scenes that's best left for you to see for the first time on the big screen.

is it a coming of age story? is it a horror movie? there's no categorizing this film.

the two leads appear to be in their early teens, and according to the director's q&a after the screening they had little to no prior acting experience. that to me was mind blowing. to get such performances out of these actors must require so much skill and patience by the director. wow.

I don't know what kind of u.s. distribution they have lined up but it needs to be seen by many people. in the meantime, if you're in the nyc area you need to get off your ass and see it before it's too late.

a joyous day.

2008-04-20T12:06:00.002-04:00

if you're jewish: happy passover.

if you're a pot smoker: happy 420.

holy shit, I haven't posted anything about march madness!

2008-04-07T18:51:00.003-04:00

this is what happens when:

- I go out on a limb and pick my hated teams to do well (duke, I'm looking at you)
- this year being an exceptionally weak year for kentucky, my interest in the tournament was equally as weak
- my brackets got shot all to hell by the time the sweet sixteen rolled around

so tonight is the championship game between kansas and memphis. the only thing I'm looking forward to is the two boots pizza we're ordering.

holler.

have you filled out your march madness brackets?

2008-03-18T17:16:00.004-04:00

feel free to join up the march madness brackets challenge group I created on yahoo:

http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/

group id: 77617
password: yuta

you have until end of day wednesday to submit your bracket (yeah it's short notice).

michael or mike?

2008-03-18T17:04:00.003-04:00

I find it interesting how michael jordan is referred to as "michael" when he's referred to by his full name, but if it's just his first name it's "mike" (eg: If I could be like mike).

but yet it sounds so weird if someone were to say "mike jordan."

who's with me on this?

this officially kicks off my annual (and sporadic) march madness rants.

2008-03-14T12:46:00.003-04:00

so march madness is in full swing. there's conference tournament coverage every night this week and it all leads up to Selection Sunday when we see who made the Big Dance (aka the ncaa tournament). the tournament itself begins next week.

so the first thing to get off my chest is how some of the tv announcers pronounce va tech like vah-tech and not virginia tech.

if they're going to do that, why don't they pronounce ga tech like gah-tech and not georgia tech?

let's keep it consistent.

flicts and flakes.

2008-03-13T16:45:00.003-04:00

here's a little game that's sure to brighten everybody's day. whenever the word conflict comes up in conversation, replace it with cornflake.

example:

sorry barry, but I am unable to make the 9:30 call tomorrow due to a scheduling cornflake.

hilarious, right?

direct flights vs non-stop flights.

2008-03-13T14:13:00.002-04:00

I hear people confusing the two all the time and it drives me absolutely fucking bonkers, to the point where I make a point to correct the person. I have become That Guy.

let me make it absolutely easy for you:

> direct flight means it's probably gonna make a stop somewhere along the way.

> non-stop flight means exactly that: it's not going to make a stop somewhere along the way.

there.

ricotta cheese.

2008-03-13T13:10:00.000-04:00

I think I really, really like ricotta cheese.