Thursday, July 17, 2008

Similarities

So, I'm reading this fantastic book called Seagalogy. It's "A Study of the ass-kicking films of Steven Seagal". However stupid it may sound, it is an incredibly well written thought out and purposely funny book.

Since I leave the responsibility of watching crap to Schu, I haven't seen a Seagal film since the mid 90's. And even then it was bits and pieces when I was projecting at a movie theater. So for the hell of it I decided to re-watch Above The Law, Seagal's cinematic debut.

While I was watching it, I kept feeling like I'd seen one of the tertiary characters before. I wrote it off originally to having seen scads of films. Then in one scene it clicked. I think I took the guys picture!

I was out on Hollywood Blvd. snapping photos of interesting faces one day and I thought this guy was just bizarro. It was the narrow eyes and pencil mustache that did it.

Are these the same guy? Tough to say. Above the Law came out in 1988, this picture was taken in 2008. Twenty years can change a guy. You be the judge.





Monday, July 14, 2008

So What...

Yeah, I haven't written anything in a while. For those of you at home keeping score, I've been trying to get Film Geek Primer up and going as a regular web site. This is a slow and educational process. Is it successful so far? I have no idea. It doesn't seem to be. I think there is just too much to do and not enough time to do it.

I'm not even sure if it's something I want to keep pressing forward on, but I always have that, "just around the corner" attitude that is very frustrating. Sometimes a corner is just a corner and there is nothing more beyond it.  I'm not trying to sound negative if that's how it's coming off, I'm just trying to be a realist.

I am in Los Angeles. I am meeting some people. Maybe I should sit down and just start writing scripts. I've got a ton of ideas and they aren't that bad. Some are even very commercial which is odd for me. It's not even about money or living some big fancy Hollywood lifestyle. I know it's all bullshit. It's more about achieving some dream I've always had of being involved in the movies. I know the outcome won't be that illusion I used to dream about (still do sometimes) as a kid, but shit if I can't follow through with what I set out to do in the first place. What kind of person does that make me.

How many times have I said this? Is anybody keeping track? Is this a yearly thing for me? Is this a cycle or a directional spiral? I know I've written something like this before, I just don't know if there is anything different about it, or it's the same old whiny bullshit.

I guess this time I'm pondering ending a current project that is actually operational for another project that is a little more questionable. Plus if I give up on FGP, am I just proving I can't complete something I started? This does have quite a few interesting questions and facets to it, don't you think? I am one fascinating son-of-a-bitch! 

I think the most bizarre part is I could actually do both. Stop worrying about the primer and getting it going, just have fun with it and write and have fun with that as well. 

Who knows.

Maybe I'll do a list of some of the movies I've liked this year, then again, that would be something I should put up n FGP. Interesting how that works.