Donnie Darko: The Director's Cut

I'm so glad I finally got to see Donnie Darko at the New Beverly Cinema this evening. I've been wanting to see this one for a while and it was worth the wait. What an unusual film!

I won't reveal many details of the plot because I had no idea what the film was about before seeing it and it was a wonderful mystery to see the story unfold. In a nutshell, the title character Donnie Darko, played by the talented Jake Gyllenhaal, narrowly escapes death in a freak accident. He also suffers from psychological instability and often sees dark, hallucinatory visions. Besides his therapist, Donnie communicates with an imaginary character named Frank, who always wears a scary bunny costume.

This odd, suspenseful, and often funny film follows Donnie's perilous journey through high school and his struggles to understand his supernatural view of the world, leading to a shocking climax. The supporting cast includes Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jenna Malone, Patrick Swayze, Noah Wyle, and Drew Barrymore, who also executive produced the film.

The story is set in October 1988 during the Bush-Dukakis presidential election, so there are many humorous references to the Eighties and the soundtrack features some great songs by '80s bands such as INXS, Tears For Fears, Duran Duran, Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Oingo Boingo.

The version I saw was writer/director Richard Kelly's 2004 Director's Cut, which is a full 20 minutes longer than the original 2001 theatrical release. From reading about the film on IMDB, the new version includes a lot of visual effects not included in the original, plus some added character development scenes and changes to the soundtrack. I recommend this one if you enjoy off-beat, quirky films in the vein of David Lynch's Blue Velvet and Mullholland Drive.

PS: My favorite scene is where Donnie takes his girlfriend to the movies...at the Aero Theater in Santa Monica where I often see films with my friend Heidi!!

Shine On You Crazy Diamond

Painting by George Underwood

Syd Barrett, founding member of the rock band Pink Floyd has died at age 60.

CNN story

Barrett wrote and performed the band's early psychedelic hits in England, including "Arnold Layne" and "See Emily Play." However, due to mental illness and drug use, Barrett left the band in 1968, replaced by David Gilmour who stayed with the band through their rich 1970s period, including the albums Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall.

One Barrett fan, who was highly influenced by him, was rock star David Bowie. Here's is what Bowie had to say today:

"I can't tell you how sad I feel. Syd was a major inspiration for me. The few times I saw him perform in London at UFO and the Marquee clubs during the sixties will forever be etched in my mind. He was so charismatic and such a startlingly original songwriter.

Also, along with Anthony Newley, he was the first guy I'd heard to sing pop or rock with a British accent. His impact on my thinking was enormous. A major regret is that I never got to know him. A diamond indeed." - David Bowie, July 11th 2006

Yahoo Answers

If you haven't seen it yet, check out Yahoo Answers. It's fun to read the questions whether or not you read the answers.

I found out about the website today via this fascinating CNN article about Stephen Hawking.

Enron's Ken Lay Dead at 64

Facing a possible life sentence in prison for committing fraud and conspiracy in the collapse of Enron, the largest corporate scandal in American history, Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay had a massive coronary today at his luxurious vacation home in Aspen, Colorado.

CNN.com article

Lay, who helped build Enron into the seventh largest company in the nation, famously funded George W. Bush's political career. Because of Enron's collapse after an accounting scandal, thousands of workers lost their jobs and their life savings and billions of dollars were lost by investors; meanwhile Lay and his cronies enriched themselves with millions of dollars in sold stock.

Nice guy. If only Dubya would follow his lead and drop dead.

TV's Aaron Spelling Dead at 83

Big loss this weekend for the entertainment industry. If you've watched television anytime in the past 40 years, you have no doubt seen at least one of the 3,000 (that's right, three THOUSAND) television programs produced by the prolific Aaron Spelling.

His most famous hit series include Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Dynasty, Charlie's Angels, Starsky and Hutch, Hart to Hart, Beverly Hills 90210, Melrose Place, and more recently, Seventh Heaven.

If that weren't enough (and that is just a small sampling of the successful programs he produced), Spelling also produced 140 made-for-TV movies, including 1976's The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, starring a very young John Travolta.

Now, I am not particularly a fan of Mr. Spelling's work, though I certainly have seen many of his programs over the years. But I have to give credit to a guy who was born into poverty from immigrant parents and found success in the cut-throat entertainment industry. I'd say he did pretty well for himself.

Also, I have something of a personal connection to the Spellings since I often drive by their huge estate in Holmby Hills on my way home from UCLA. If the traffic on Sunset Blvd. is bad, I often cut through the neighborhood (which also includes the Playboy Mansion on the same street). Every time I pass the gigantic Spelling mansion (over 50,000 sq. ft.) I'm tempted to ring the bell at the gate and ask if Tori can come out to play!

We're not likely to see a media mogul quite like Mr. Spelling again. In today's multinational corporate comglomerate culture, individuals rarely have the clout and sheer creative force demonstrated by Aaron Spelling. TV programs today are produced by committees that conduct extensive focus group marketing tests and are overseen by large corporate entities endebted to advertisers and shareholders. It's hard to think of big television networks and movie studios as "middle management", but that's basically what they are.

Aaron Spelling died yesterday of a stroke at his home in Los Angeles. He was 83 years old. Rest well Mr. Spelling. You've earned it!

Read the CNN article.

"The Widescreen Scam"

Came across an interesting article written by Guy Wright about the history of film and TV aspect ratios, the widescreen vs. full-frame debate. His thesis is that the widescreen format is simply a marketing gimmick that studios started in the 1950s to compete with television (true), even though most filmmakers and audience members prefer the full-frame 4:3 ratio (debatable).

Personally, I much prefer a widescreen aspect ratio because it is closer to recreating actual human vision. Because our eyes are placed horizontally across our face, we can see a wider range of vision horizontally than vertically.

Mr. Wright's article is very informative and entertaining, if you are interested in such things.

Madonna Rocks

WARNING: SPOILERS!

Wow, was I blown away to see Madonna in her last performance at the Forum in Los Angeles last night. Thanks to my great friends Frank and Benny, I got to attend the show.

Madonna was absolutely incredible, as I surmise she always is. I'm sorry I haven't seen her in concert before, because her disciplined athleticism, her strength of personality, and her experienced eye for creating a spectacle are simply unrivaled in popular entertainment today.

Compared to role model Cher's casual, raunchy banter, Madonna disappointingly spoke very little to the audience between songs. And she ended the show abruptly with no encore. It was sadly jarring to have the spell broken so quickly and with no curtain call. At least some lucky fans in the $350 floor seats got to take home one of the hundreds of shiny gold balloons that fell from the rafters during the finale. Anyone remember the moon balloons from Bowie's Serious Moonlight show?

Unsurprisingly (to this Bowie nut), moments of The Confessions Tour show were highly influenced by David Bowie's performances in the 1970s and '80s, including the diva's reveal from within a glittering disco ball. Bowie had a similar appearance out of a mirrored hand opening up in his Diamond Dogs show of 1974. Madonna's team of aggressive, athletic dancers created mouth-dropping moments of shock and awe, much like Bowie's 1987 Glass Spider entourage did with their dramatic vignettes and dialog sequences, which Madonna has stretched in to full narratives. Don't get me started on Bowie's groundbreaking use of stage video in 1990's Sound + Vision, to which every subsequent pop show owes a debt!

Madonna's multiple video displays perfectly complemented the live action on the various stages, runways, and platforms stretched across the width of the arena. There was so much going on: cages, trap doors, strobe lights, roller skates...I can't spoil it too much, but there were so many astonishing images created during the performance that I can barely remember them all.

Madonna's physical prowess on stage never ceased to amaze. At times, I felt nervous about the physical risks she was taking with some of the choreography. She's going to break a hip someday, throwing herself across the floor like that! At age 47, she possesses an extraordinary muscular strength for so lithe a body, combined with a contortionist's flexibility. If there's a black belt in yoga, Madonna must be 8th degree!

Pardon all my gushing, but I'm someone who generally considered Madonna "my little sister's music." I am certainly nostalgic for some of Madonna's early hits, but I never took her very seriously as a musician, and never appreciated her often crass behavior. Her body is still in great shape, and her singing has matured, though she was plagued with the Forum's muddy arena sound.

I loved all the costumes and set changes, and the phenomenal dancing by some very talented and pretty young people. The guys doing flips on the monkey bars for "Jump", and the roller skating sequences both spring to mind. My favorite segment of the night was Madonna-as-leather-rock-goddess jamming on her black (Les Paul?) guitar for "I Love New York", one of the best and most rocking tracks off Miss M's current Confessions on a Dance Floor album. Madonna obviously relished the opportunity to rock out on stage and it was great fun to see her enjoying herself.

She played most of the songs off the new album, to which I am currently addicted. The quality of song writing is generally good, and the production kicks ass. The beat never stops and neither does the guilty fun. Folks, if you can afford a ticket to see this show, it's totally worth it. Madonna, I tip my hat to you.

The LA Times review describes the show much better than I can here.

P.S. Much has been said about Madonna's appearance on the cross. She stole that from our 1990 dinner theater production of Evita directed by David Armstrong.

Dump the Bitch, Paul

Excuse me, I mean SIR Paul.

No doubt you've all heard about Sir Paul's marital troubles. Sorry about that, Paul. It happens to the best of us. Personally, I never thought Miss Mills did anything for him.

Here's a reason why they broke up.

Driving Without Oil

It's taken 30 years, but Brazil has switched from gasoline to ethanol and has become completely independent from the foreign oil market.

ABC News: Out of Gas -- Brazil Replaces Oil With Homegrown Alternative

Warner Bros. to sell films via BitTorrent

The Digital Revolution is on!

Read the MSN Story.

Original "Star Wars" coming to DVD

I'm so happy to hear that the first Star Wars trilogy (now called Episodes I - III) will soon be available on DVD in their original, unedited versions.

George Lucas has a habit of revising and updating his old films with "enhanced" visual effects, new characters -- he even changed the Ewok celebration music at the end of Return of the Jedi.

To please fans like me, this fall Fox plans to release 2-disc sets with the original theatrical versions and the new, restored versions together.

May the Force be with you...always!

'Star Wars' goes back to basics - Yahoo! News

Your next CD deck may be a PC

Dear Santa Claus,

Here's what I want for Christmas:



Your next CD deck may be a PC - Tech News & Reviews - MSNBC.com

TomKat has spawned

Thank god. At long last, TomKitten is here!

CNN.com - Cruise, Holmes welcome daughter Suri - Apr 19, 2006

Happy Easter

Celebrity Sighting: Samuel L. Jackson

Hey, I saw one of my favorite actors, Samuel L. Jackson, driving in his brand new, black Mercedes convertible this afternoon in Beverly Hills.

Traveling west on Santa Monica Boulevard, he made a right turn on to Palm Drive. I was waiting at the red light at Palm and Santa Monica and he turned right past me. Unmistakably him, in his black Kangol hat.

Amazingly, Samuel L. Jackson has appeared in over 100 films. And in case you haven't heard the news, he recently surpassed Harrison Ford's long held spot as the biggest box office star in the world.

Yep, he's one bad mother-f*cker.

Pooh turns 80! (Hef too)

Hard to believe that Winnie the Pooh is officially 80 years old. He doesn't look a day over 70 to me.

To celebrate, he got his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The ceremony today happens to coincide with the release of "Pooh's Grand Adventure" on DVD.

In other octogenarian news, Playboy founder and publisher Hugh Hefner also turned 80 years young over the weekend. How does he manage to maintain his vast publishing empire AND satisfy three hot young women while staying in his pajamas all day? He gets by with a little help from his friends, of course, and LOTS of Viagra.

Happy Birthday, Hef! You lucky bastard.


Hef gettin' jiggy with Paris Hilton

Jake Gyllenhaal Gets Drunk!

Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal appears to be feeling no pain in these hilarious photos of a pre-Oscar bash with Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee and other celebs, including Uma Thurman and William Hurt.

Jake Gyllenhaal gets drunk at Pre-Oscars - The Superficial - www.thesuperficial.com

Tom Tancredo vs. Illegal Immigrants

"They are 'a scourge that threatens the very future of our nation,' he says."

Border War: Immigration Debate Heats Up - Newsweek Politics - MSNBC.com

Germs: Dangerous or Not?

If you're a germophobe like me, you will find this article from MSN quite interesting. Some good news, and some suprises!

Germ and Bacteria Hot-Spots: 12 Things You Should Know-MSN Lifestyle - Mind, Body & Soul

More Oscar Fun Results

Well, there weren't many guesses for the mystery IDs of these past Oscar winners. Although Cary Grant and Julie Andrews were featured in the major publicity materials for this year's Academy Awards ceremony, these secondary images feature slightly less "vintage" performers than the previous two.

It's pretty easy to guess the male figure is Sidney Poitier, although this photo was from his recent honorary award from 2002, not his 1963 Best Actor award for Lillies of the Field.





The female is another recent winner, Renee Zellweger for 2003's Cold Mountain. The odd ring on her forefinger triggered my memory and hinted that this was a more recent winner.