Another Day, Another Dollar

As always, another week brings another story. Please read, rate and comment. Or leave a comment here on my blog if you don't want to register for WordPress. This story is actually based on a story my dad tells when there's a full moon. It's completely, 100% true, or so he's assured me, and the Bloody-eyed Fox will kill you, if you're of the wrong lineage.

I've watched two more movies since we last spoke: Le Doulos and Casque D'Or.

Le Doulos, or Doulos: The Fingerman, is a Melville film, which always makes me happy. I won't even spend time reviewing it, because I would just gush about it and annoy Brent.

Casque D'Or was a period piece set in what I think was the 1890s in Paris. It had Simone Signoret, and the two movies shared a male lead, Serge Reggiani. It was a love story, and quite an interesting one at that. It seems the primary method of communication between the sexes at this time was the slap. All in all, very enjoyable, but probably not something I'd screen at movie night.

A Fool Is Someone Who Pays Twice For The Same Thing

Another short story can be found here. Based on this image.

I recently watched The Complete Mr. Arkadin, which had to have been one of the more frustrating experiences of my life. The main character was portrayed by one of the most non-nuanced performances ever. Truly, a horrific acting job, which makes it hard to give a damn about the rest of the movie. But therein lies the rub! The rest of the movie, barring some minor points, is a gem!

There are characters seen onscreen for scant minutes that you could devote entire films to! There's sumptuous, well-thought-out cinematography (there's also some atrocious cinematography lumped in there), and a jigsaw puzzle of a plot that is, in the end, truly fantastic. Let's not forget the dialogue! There's some truly badass dialogue in this movie: "I knew what I wanted. That's the difference between us. In this world there are those who give and those who ask. Those who do not care to give... those who do not dare to ask. You dared. But you were never quite sure what your were asking for. "

Granted, there's some hallmarks of older cinema that I still will never understand: a number of "playful" (for lack of a better term) scenes, involving fun chases and strange games of tug of war. But perhaps the world was simply more playful back then, since people didn't have premarital sex with which to sublimate their drives. Definitely worth checking out, and I've decided, once I'm slightly richer, I'm going to remake the shit out of it, fixing the minor problems and casting John Hamm from Madmen. It'll totally stay in the early fifties, because that's one of the best places to set a movie, as not all problems could be solved with a cellphone call then.

Desperate Kids Do Dangerous Things

Here's this week's Elephant Words contribution.

Just tipped over the halfway point on Rome Season 2, for the second time. This is where I left off last time, when I moved from Florida leaving the series unfinished. Also watching Madmen so I can give it back to Elliott before I move to Los Angeles. I'm four episodes in, and it's breath-taking.

Ripped the complete Twilight Zone to my iPod, and The Wire season 3. So I've got entertainment galore, and no need to buy or rent any movies for quite some time.

Putting Netflix on hold next week. I dropped down to the 1-at-a-time plan, and $8.99 seems slightly overpriced, since they start to slow down your delivery if you send things back the day after you get them. No sense paying for it while I make the move and find a new address.

The movie I just sent back today was The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford, and it was one of the most gorgeous movies I've ever seen. I really feel like this movie slipped under a lot of peoples' radars, coupled with the fact you can't force America to pay attention to Westerns anymore, though it used to be the most popular genre in the country.

Facts of Life

I've got another Elephant Words story up today! As always, I would be grateful if you would:
1. Rate it on Elephant Words
2. Leave a comment on Elephant Words
3. Forward it to as many people as you can. We're really trying to drive up readership at the site, and it's free fiction from quality writers, so we'd love the encouragement.

I was invited to stick around for another 6 weeks, and jumped at the opportunity. Having deadlines is what keeps me honest. So, you know, Karolena, I need a new deadline.

I've knocked out a few books lately that I'll be reviewing as soon as I get the time.

Keeping Things Real

Here's my latest Elephant Words story.

As always, please rate and comment honestly. I like this quite a bit more than last week's post.

Last week's post, which you can view in my archives on Elephant Words, or by clicking here, felt, to me, like it suffered from being a student film.

The problem with student films is they are often short, and when one wants to make a comedy, one often ends up telling a joke with a punchline, rather than having an actual story where the comedy comes naturally from the characters and their actions (as well as delightful window dressing). So it felt like a set-up and a punchline to me. I enjoyed the first story I did there, because it was a pulp sci-fi piece masquerading as a love story/relationship deconstruction. This one is probably the one I'm most proud of so far, though there's at least three weeks left (and hopefully more!).

Tomorrow is a meeting with my artist for our first comic project, and I'm really excited about this one. It's going to showcase a lot of old Pittsburgh, which I think is pretty cool.