I Heart My Job.

Work has been busy busy -- to say the least -- but I can't complain too much because the payoff is fantastic. For example, last night, Glenn and I watched a great movie, part three of "The Man with No Name" trilogy, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. It was this film and its two predecessors which really put Clint Eastwood on the map. It's no wonder since Clint fits the role of "The Man with No Name" perfectly. But, I digress. Getting to the good part: This morning, I had a phone call with Tuco himself, yes, the wonderful Eli Wallach. I am a pretty big Eli fan, and how can I not be? His autobiography is titled The Good, the Bad, and Me -- too cute! He's just too adorable for words and an all-around great guy. Plus, not only did he tell me how much he loves TCM and thinks it is the "cleverest" idea, but he also said he loves me! Eli Wallach said that to ME! I had to pinch myself after that phone call!

Side note: Because of my infatuation with Eli Wallach and Sergio Leone, I have seen The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly before, but not in a long while. Since I'm trying to branch out and expose myself to more Westerns, Glenn was smart enough to grab the Spaghetti Western for our Friday night viewing. Of the Westerns I've seen to date, I have to say, I'm coming around. The genre is actually really great, and I'm starting to believe that one of my grad school professors had it right: When you think about it, pretty much every other genre is a Western at heart. But, that's an analysis which will have to wait until a later post. Another reason we went with that movie last night also had a lot to do with the fact that I've been yammering on about Eli for a while now. I can't help it -- I'm so excited!

Now, you're probably wondering why I'm having Saturday morning phone calls with Mr. Wallach. True, Eli and I aren't good pals -- yet -- but I did meet him once. During my senior year of college I took a Cinema Studies class devoted to director Elia Kazan. Well, my class was fortunate enough to attend a screening of Baby Doll at the Film Forum which was followed by a Q&A session between Eli and journalist Patricia Bosworth. There were less than 50 people at the screening, and 15 of them were NYU students. Eli was nice enough to come over and shake hands with each of us and answer questions we had. He was 90 then, and sharp as a tack. Well five years later, 95 years young, Eli will be this December's TCM Guest Programmer, produced by yours truly, and hence, the Saturday phone call and my enthusiasm for work! Eli is energetic as ever and very excited to be involved with TCM. I'll be re-introducing myself to him this coming Wednesday, and I am incredibly stoked. For all the running around I've been doing at work in recent days, I'm looking forward to this next week. It'll still be hard work, but it's gonna be tons of fun!

And speaking of my TCM work, well, I suppose reiterating some of my work: June 29th will be the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Frank Loesser, the lyricist/composer for musicals such as How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and Guys and Dolls; and songs such as Baby, It's Cold Outside and Heart and Soul. Surely if you don't know the name "Frank Loesser" you know his music. Well, Robert will be co-hosting a night of Frank Loesser films on June 29 with Robert Morse, the original star of How To Succeed, and a current cast member on one of my favorite shows at the moment, Mad Men. He plays Bert Cooper, and in person, Morse looks more like baby-face J. Pierrepont Finch than the older half of Sterling-Cooper. Anyhow, you can decide for yourself:

Robert Morse is a fantastic co-host -- a bundle of energy, that's for sure. Sadly, he would not release any information pertaining to next season, nor did he offer me a walk-on role. Oh well. That's quite alright with me. Luckily, I really like my day job. Watch TCM!

Bye-bye LOST. Sad face.

Holy cow, it’s June! Summer will officially be here in only a few short weeks! Crazy! I hope your weekends were lovely. One of the highlights of mine was by far Glenn’s birthday dinner where I had the BEST meal of my life -- just incredible -- 3 1/2 hours of deliciousness after deliciousness. Ahhh, my mouth is watering from the memories. Anyhow, while I’m sitting and waiting on my cast iron pans to be seasoned (Yay! Finally! Their first seasoning since I received them for my birthday -- months ago!), I figured here’s my chance to catch up on some posting.

Now, as I mentioned last week (yes, I’m way off, but hey! It’s been a busy week! And did you not read that sentence where I said I’m seasoning pans I received 3 months ago?), I watched the series finale of LOST on Sunday, May 23, 2010. Like many viewers, I felt rather unsatisfied, and my reasons for this dissatisfaction do not differ from other viewers’ own reactions. But at the same time, I’m a bit conflicted because I LOVE the show. First of all, I must admit, I re-watched the finale -- yes, all 105 minutes (that is commercial free) -- and as I re-watched with the expectation that I would receive no answers, I enjoyed the episode much more. Therefore, let me start with the positive. Just as the first episode of the series (and really, most of the first season) illustrated and to which the last episode was circling back, LOST is a series about relationships and the effects people have on one another. In many respects it was a show about love. On my second viewing, LOST’s emotional impact really got to me. It seemed that with each flash, more tears came to my eyes -- yes, even when Sayid reunited with Shannon, this viewer felt a tug on her heart strings. And especially at the end, even though I was anticipating all of it, as Vincent jumped out of the bamboo to be with Jack as he died (and in the same place where we first encountered both characters), I bawled my eyes out. I mean, Vincent came to be with Jack because he didn’t want him to die alone! GEEZ -- tears just thinking about it! Jack said in that first episode, “If we don’t live together, we’re gonna die alone." Luckily, they did live together and not one of them, not even Jack who appeared to be all by himself, was going to die alone. The writers  sure did go for emotional overload and managed to make me realize that I truly am sad the show is over. As the final episode proved how important everyone was to one another, how their actions affected each and every one of them, the other elements of the show fell into place: The acting was great  -- probably some of the best of the series -- and the story telling was very well done. For a stand alone episode, it was fantastic.

Now, had LOST not intentionally planted clues all along the way as an attempt to create a complex mythology to the whole series, had they NOT done that, I probably would have loved the finale. But they did do that! ALL THE TIME! The mythology, the religion, the science, the philosophy! The Easter eggs and the red herrings!  LOST had been built up to be so much more than just simple storytelling, and in the finale, so much got swept under the carpet. And that’s where my sadness and disappointment come in. Whether it was with characters or with objects or with subjects discussed, LOST was a show all about clues. I mean, I thought that everything meant something. I loved trying to unravel the mystery of the island, which still begs the question -- what is the island??? I just don’t get it! I mean, from the beginning I thought that the characters were all in Purgatory, but the creators said, “NO! They are not!” REALLY?! Because you know what -- they are! Sure, it wasn’t an island Purgatory -- they couldn’t have it be THAT obvious -- so instead they were like, “We’ll create a sideways universe, and that -- THAT will be Purgatory. We’ll fool everyone!” So, yes, everyone’s dead. And you know what, JJ et al? That sucks! That is such an easy out! If you’re going to do that, at least answer some questions that are still lingering out there in the island atmosphere. I mean, throw us a bone! What exactly was MIB? Why electromagnetism? Why could Jacob go off the island but MIB couldn’t? Why was Walt special? What does DHARMA stand for? Where is the island? Who first encountered it? Did the “constants” really matter? What about time travel? And Faraday? And everything sciencey and philosophical? WHAT ABOUT THAT?? There seemed to be so much brilliance wound up in LOST -- the mystery of it all. But was it all for naught? I mean, the show easily could’ve been told in just a few episodes -- couldn't it have? Alright, don’t get me wrong, I still love the show, and I’m glad it wasn’t told in just a few episodes -- it was so much fun! But I am sad there wasn’t more to it than what it ended up as. It was a bit of a let-down, but it was still an amazing ride, with a few bumps along the way, but fun nonetheless.

No, I did not watch LOST from its beginning; Elisha, a coworker from the NYU Bookstore let me borrow season one when I took vacation, and I remember buying the first four episodes of the second season on iTunes because I just could not wait to have the second season in my hands. From the beginning, I was hooked, and I remember feeling the pain of having to wait NINE MONTHS until the next season began. The show really hit the emotional chords: LOST could be make me laugh, bring me tears of sadness, make me happy, and yes, infuriate me to no end. At times it was incredibly manipulative, but then it would come to light that it really just had no clue what it was doing. I think its intentions were good, but the delivery wasn’t always there. There were moments when I thought I’d had enough, but the show would turn around and reel me back in. I suppose I did consider “breaking-up” (I term I’ve seen with many LOST reviewers in recent times) with the show, but really, that was never an option. I had every intention of seeing it through to the end. And while I have been left unsatisfied, I am glad I stuck with it, and I am very sad to see it leave, even if I know it’s for the best. I’ll miss Sawyer's jabs at Hugo, and hearing Desmond say “See you in another life, Brother.” Luckily, the show will live on in DVD and Watch Instantly scenarios. And, of course, for the really really die hard fans, the box set -- with ALL the answers so they say, and to which I say, HA, yeah right! -- will be available in August. So for now I’ll leave you with some super awesome silkscreens that came up in my reader, and images that make me happy for LOST’s inspiration on others. So Bye-Bye, LOST. It was fun, it was wild, and above all, it wasn’t real. (I don’t know if that makes any sense, but I think the confusion is fitting for saying fare-the-well to this specific show).

(Thank you, Design Sponge.)

The End? REALLY?!

Hi all! As this Monday work day is coming to an end -- YAY! -- I am so ready to get my nap on. I had a fantastic weekend, pretty action-packed, but I am too sleepy to write about Iron Man 2 and the LOST series finale -- though waiting on the latter is probably best because I'm still trying to sort out my feelings concerning "The End." I'm realizing after scouring the interwebs for some other reactions to the episode that I am not alone in my "Really?!" I mean, I'm not a big SNL watcher, but I kinda wish they would do a Weekend Update this Saturday just for a "Really?!" sketch all about LOST. Otherwise, I should do my own because I have a lot of "Really?!" remarks to make. I mean, we re-watched the pilot Saturday night, then spent all Sunday evening watching the 2-hour re-cap, followed by the 2.5 hour episode, then came back and watched some of the cast on Jimmy Kimmel Live. I mean "REALLY?!" Why did I get out of bed to watch JKL half awake, then continue to have dreams where I was discussing LOST with others? (Not THE others, but that would've been cool.) Obviously, I need some rest, so I think that I'll go into more depth tomorrow -- perhaps in lieu of when I would normally be watching LOST on Tuesday night (I must admit, regardless of the less than stellar finale, I am sad there are no new episodes) -- then later in the week I'll review Iron Man 2 -- which was a lot of fun! So, have a very lovely evening. Just 4 more days to go before a nice, long, holiday, celebratory weekend! Woo hoo!

Happy Birthday Jimmy Stewart!

This month has certainly been chock-full of celebrations! Today marks the anniversary of the birth of one of my most favorite actors of all time -- James Stewart. From the 1930s all the way up to the 1990s, Jimmy possessed the best reactionary technique of any actor to come before or since. I think the film Harvey (from which the above image comes) is a prime example of just that. I mean, Jimmy makes you believe there's a giant rabbit sitting, standing, talking to him every step of the way. A tall, lanky guy from Indiana, Pennsylvania, Stewart was roommates and best pals with Henry Fonda in New York, ventured West to Hollywood where he made such classics as You Can't Take It With You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Philadelphia Story (for which he won his only Oscar), and The Shop Around the Corner; left movies to fight in WWII where he became a decorated pilot in the Air Force; then returned to Hollywood where he continued making exceptional films such as It's a Wonderful Life, Harvey, as well as the Hitchcock classics Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo, and do not forget the Anthony Mann Westerns such as Winchester '73, The Naked Spur, and The Man From Laramie. I mean, an incredible career Stewart had, and one I have never ignored -- as he made a significant contribution to my thesis -- and a filmography that makes it excruciatingly difficult to pick a single favorite Stewart movie. Really, it's impossible! Anyhow, I wanted to pay tribute to this fantastic actor and, from what I've gathered, all-around nice guy. Happy Birthday, Jimmy! I'll be watching you on TCM all day today!

Pomp and Circumstance. Yay Me.

So yesterday I was so excited about my blog turning 2 that I completely forgot to mention something just as important: As of Sunday, May 16, 2010, I am no longer a student. That's right. Yesterday I graduated from Boston University with a Master of Fine Arts in Film Studies. I know, I know...It can't be too surprising, right? I mean, as this blog attests, I am obviously a master of Film. Now, though, I have the documentation to back it up. Woot woot! And while I did not partake in the commencement exercises (I'm still working on my teleportation skills), I did feel the huge weight leaving my shoulders, and today I am able to breathe a little easier and focus on the really important things in life: Being awesome. Being brilliant. And the topper: Being able to sleep. So, we should all celebrate how awesome and brilliant I am after I wake up from a much needed nap. Perhaps when that happens, I'll also possess a little bit of modesty.

In all seriousness, going back to school made me realize how fortunate I am in this life (as well as how much I do not miss the "work" part of being a student -- I loved my classes, but when it came time to write essays and take tests, ugh, what a pain those were). Just a few short years ago as I was filling out the applications and writing the essays for Masters programs, they each started with a quote from Robert Osborne and ended with "After I receive my MFA, I would like to work for an organization such as Turner Classic Movies or American Film Institute." Well, now I'm working with Robert Osborne at TCM. It doesn't get much better for me (other than perhaps running the network -- but that'll come in time). Had it not been for BU, the Film Program, and the connections I made, who knows if TCM would have ever happened. I just have to remember how incredibly fortunate I am and how thankful I am for my grad school experience. Deciding to go to BU really changed my life in so many respects, and while not everything has been easy, it has most definitely been worth it.