Midnight Ramblings

Just finished watching Oliver Beene. It's a so-so Malcolm in the Middle clone, it's main novelty being it's set in the early-1960s. Well, I watch it for a different novelty. One of our heroes school friends is a girl named Joyce, the picture of 1960s girlhood. And who plays this ideal of innocense and childhood in 1962? Why, none other than Daveigh Chase, who one acclaim for her role of Samara, the creepy, spooky, murderous phantom on the videotape in The Ring. Hmm. Now that I've watched a whole episode of Oliver Beene, I wonder if I have only seven days left to live? No one's called to tell me....

Since I had so little homework, I spent my afternoon watching Dogma again. While I do love Kevin Smith, and I know that Dogma was his pet project, I do think it's the lesser of his films. No matter how many times I watch it, it's always nothing like I expect. Look at the premise: two angels who've been cast out of heaven have found a loophole to get back in. If they do get in, the universe ends. Now, a ragtag bunch of heavenly beings are the only thing standing between the angels and the end of the world. Sounds like a pretty spectacular fantasy epic, doesn't it? But what do we get? 3/4 of the film consists of the characters sitting around debating Catholicism.

Kevin Smith said he wanted to wait until he was "ready as a filmmaker" before making it. I think he should have waited a few more films.

But stuff like that makes me eager to do my fantasy epic about life, the universe, and everything. I don't have a plot yet, just a mishmash of ideas:

- God is a Japanese woman
- The rulers of the universe are three people (2 men, 1 woman) sitting under a tree along a country road
- Death is an 8-year old girl
- And we've got throw some creepy looking twins in there.

This all seems like stuff I've pulled out of my head just for the sake of being different, but trust me, in my warped logic, this makes sense.

And I've been planning a project, too. One of my ideas brewing in the back of my head since my broadcasting education began was to co-opt the equipment and produce a reading of one of my columns. Take a column I like, throw in some supporting background music and sound FX, and throw it all on tape. Only thing is, we've been focusing on making 30 second commercials so far. I read the column aloud this afternoon to get a feel, and I'm looking at 12 minutes. So, it's all the stress and urgency I feel producing 30 second spots right now, times 24.

I can hardly wait to start.

Next Issue...I Like To Hug People