Why Popcorn?

Going on ten posts on this blog now and have not paid adequate homage to "Popcorn" which in this blog's title suggest I should, hate dishonesty in advertising!
Popcorn and movies goes together like...popcorn and movies. For me personally it started laying on my grandparents wood floors, gaurded by the cold next to their rock fireplace and on top of large braid rugs, that my grandma could still point out my uncles little cotton T shirts from the 50's woven in to,  watching Sunday TV- shows like Rawhide, Mutual of Omaha 's Wild Kingdom and the Wonderful World of Disney. My grandpa loved popcorn- and it has always been an acceptable Sunday evening dinner in my family, popped by hand on top of the stove in an old fashioned popper you have to stand over  the burner to turn the internal paddle that keeps the kernels moving across the hot pan.
Where to start with popcorn- its history or my family history with it- I think I will start on a personal note. My grandpa was a farmers in Minnesota, before the doctors told him he should go West due to his health. That was when my mother was in High School, so by the time I came along we were entrenched in living in Colorado, but returned to the farms of Freeborn County often to visit. Going East- in the 70's, we took Coors beer and 501 Levis - two things unattainable and much desired by our relatives- and coming home we brought  back popcorn- popcorn grown on my families own land.

Popcorn cobs are small and hard- sometimes we could get it already off the husks and sometime we had to do that part ourselves, twisting it in our hands protected by leather gloves letting the kernels fall into big brown paper bags.
As each great niece or nephew graduated from High School, my great Uncle Edmond would gift us with a full brown grocery bag of popcorn, mine lasted until sometime in my Sophomore year- generously sharing the small but unbelievably nutty fluffiness with my friends and roommates and trying to recruit them to the joy of my favorite Sunday dinner.
My great uncle is gone, and no one else still grows the popcorn- and the shelves at the grocery store are shrinking the choices of unpopped kernels and replacing them with nine billion varieties of microwave bags, which by the way my Navajo students loved to rip apart after the popcorn was gone and suck the last bit of whatever the butter substitute was that the paper was satrated with- but that is another blog-
Luckily there is still Orval Redenbacher- pretty descent and looking out my upstairs window where I sit on my bed- I can see the red dirt of Yellowjack and Cahone and further to the north is Dovecreek- where dryland farming - meaning no irrigating- beans, sunflowers and yes popcorn is still grown and I can buy popcorn that is not as good as that of my uncles, but at least hints at the nutty goodness I remember- If Adobe Milling ever stops growing popcorn, I will just have to pick up the family tradition of growing our own in my own backyard- hummmmm- might do that anyway!

Nowdays, everyone is a critic...

Was literally "stuck" in Las Vegas for almost a week while my sweet little, second degree brown belt daughter happily karate chopped and kicked her way through a conference. I have one word for Las Vegas- YUCK! It is full of glittery lights, little old ladies wheeling their walkers through the 103 degree parking lots to get to the air conditioned casinos where they will gamble away their Social Security checks and the strip- where on the sidewalk, the goal seems to be to wear the least amount of clothes as possible, leaving nothing up to the imagination and above are countless billboards of faceless women's bodies also leaving nothing up to the imagination.
Well there I was- so what did I do, went to movies of course- saw Knight and Day- actually twice, because frankly the other choices, echoing the summer layout of movies, just didn't interest me.
FYI- Diaz and Cruise previously starred in Vanilla Sky in 2001 together , not one of my favorite Cruise movies, and according to IMDB she was a uncredited woman on the subway in Cruises Minority Report in 2002- humm? must of stopped by for lunch on the set or something and did a cameo for kicks.
I actually liked Knight and Day, way more then I had thought I would - since it had Cameron Diaz in it, not my favorite actress, an actress that how can I say this nicely, has gotten ahead in her career more for her "pieces and parts" like the faceless models on the billboards in Las Vegas then on her acting chops. I don't think I have ever paid to see a movie she is in twice.
Tom Cruise is another story- there are very few movies of his I have not seen, like Eyes Wide Shut, where the premise has no interest to me- but he can act- when he wants to-
Well according to Yahoo Movies- Knight and Day is not doing well- the Critics have given it only a C +- with grades from the Boston Globe, Chicago Sun Times and E! Online.
But....according to an article by James Wolcott in the July issue of Vanity Fair ( which came out about the 3rd of June?) on the "threatened species of Film Critics" - he believes that the scholarly critic that we just assumed knew more than we did what made a movie good so listened to them- is now a dying breed- replaced by Moi......! So now instead of thumbing through a newspaper or magazine to be told what movies are good and worth your bucks to see- you can go online to someone like me who can tell you Cameron Diaz can't act.
But movies, along with art, music and books- unless they are very, very bad- are subjective- what I like, you might not like- proven all the time in my group of friends. So we like each other a lot, hang with each other, even travel across the country together and get a long great, like the same food- but when it comes to movies- nope- what I like they don't- so how can a critic or I tell you what you like.
And reality is - people will like structurally bad, poorly written movies- i.e.- Twilight--All movies have to do is strike a chord in you- if they do, for whatever reason, you like them, if not, you don't- I don't think there is a way to convince someone to like a movie- but I do know that a bunch of hype, a bunch of friends telling you- you have to go see a movie- cause they are sure you will just love it- is a pretty good way to get some to NOT like a movie- because our human nature is to be "difficult" and we really, really hate to be told what to do.

Last Note: I don't like the movie poster- which to me screams classic 60's spy movie- which this movie is nothing about- the sillhouettes don't even look like Crusie and Diaz- okay I am done being a critic...for now.

I DO like Summer Blockbusters!!

On our way to San Francisco we stayed the first night in Salt Lake and headed to the mall to watch the just released summer blockbuster- "Prince of Persia". Okay, I'm sorry but that movies pretty much did not have a point, other than to show Jake Gyllenhaal buff muscles, mostly in slow-mo and often with water also flinging through the air

I told that to my daughter ( when she asked me) as we made our way to our car and had basically the whole family accuse me of since my pursuit of writing professionally- I have just become un-fun movie critic.

Okay I do say things like- "there was a lot of exposition in the first five minute" or " they really did not successfully pay off the set ups from the first act" that make my families eyes roll- but I DO like movies- and there are several what would be dubbed "Summer Blockbuster- just turn our brain off movies that I enjoy- that ALSO had a point or more of a point than- " adopted son of Emperor has major opportunity to show off muscles as he clicks magical knife and rescues a girl, but really not because she is pretty tough." Throw in the "Ground Day" repeat of scenes and it got painful to watch.

There are Summer Block Busters with somewhat of a point-

Mission Impossible- especially MI2
The scene where Tom Cruise is walking through the "Burning of the Saints" festival on his way to meet Anthony Hopkins who is his handler and is going to, well, burn him- is pretty poetic.

The new James Bond movies, the character development that is woven through Daniel Craig, ahhhh, killing everyone- is some good writing in my opinion. Casino Royale really refreshed a franchise that was running out of new ideas.

The Bourne Identity has its sweet moments, like when driving to Paris,  Matt Damon tells "the girl" listening to her talk, he can now finally relax and their romance is woven through all the violence- refreshing!

So there you go, just because there are big action sequences, things blow up and blood spattering in slow-motion doesn't mean you have to lose the story!

The Robin Hoods

Went to see Robin Hood for the second time this weekend, have found that there is so much more understanding when a movie is no longer new, it is a trait my family thinks is rather odd- though they seem to listen to music over and over again- in their opinion, movies should be viewed only once. To me, it seems that not watching  a movie more then once, is sadly not appreciating the hard work and artistry that went in to making that movie. In fact, my desire Not to see a movie again is a pretty good indication that it must not of been a very good movie.
Robin Hood, in my opinion could of been better, it felt choppy- there were many subplots that I wished were set up better and played out more. For one, the Lost Boys of the Green Woods- what the movie opened setting up, really could of added a much more rich texture to the movie. Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett, both good actors did the best they could, but there just wasn't a lot there for them, and a few scenes, while  I was watching them I really wonder why they were even in the movie, instead of the scenes building character I wished were. Example- why did they kill the king in a battle scene and set up for the bad guy to pursue him, when the king was already dead. Also same bad guy went looking for Robin in the beginning of the movie and really didn't try very hard to find him, until the very end.

On to the other Robin Hoods-

Working in the studio, I sometimes watch/listen to the BBC television series Robin Hood ( 2006) pretty  entertaining but sometimes a little bit far fetched- ( courtesy of Netflix's instant downloads)

Then there is Kevin Cosnter's Prince of Thieves, also right now on Netflix's instant download,  a movie that was not received well in 1991-but I think did better in slowly building up character then the new Robin Hood, I hate seeing Russell Crowe not have enought material to work with!

Sean Connery made a cameo appearence as King Richard in the very end of Prince of Thieves, but he also had played his own Robin Hood to Audrey Hepburn's Maid Marian...

                                                 

although movie goers of 1976 had a hard time seeing James Bond in tights, which brings us to another Robin Hood that I personnal abhor, but the mere mention of it makes my friends giggle, Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

My personal musing is more alined with  Disney's Robin Hood...(1973)

                                                           
it could be it is etched in my brain because of continuous playing of it through the preschool era of my children. But from my childhood Robin Hood will always be...

Errol Flynn, with Olivia DeHavilland as his Maid Marian and Basil Rathbone, the ullitmate bad guy.

Although I enjoy all of these Robin Hood Tales- I wouldn't label any of them the Epic Robin Hood story- it still needs to be made!

Bike Movies

Since I spent my whole weekend working the 12 Hour of Mesa Verde bike race, I thought I would do a posting to all the great bike movies....and I can't remember many...going way way back-

There was Breaking Away in 1979 starring a very young and very tough Dennis Quaid and friends stuck in a small town in Indiana with not much to do but swim in the limestone quarry, get drunk and think about the futures they do not have, while one of the friends tries to get into the competative bike racing circuit and speak Italian. Okay, the illustrator in me is coming out...why is there no bike on the movie poster for a movie about bike racing?

American Flyers, with a much more telling illustration poster, came out 1985 starring Kevin Costner as a serious bike racer with a not so serious little brother and the whole family has a big problem. Most of the film centers on a big race, across much of the west, with some cool scenery.

Okay- I actually Googled for other movies in the main stream about biking, couldn't find any and can not think of one movie that centers on mountain biking let alone road biking.....hummmmmm, think I know what story I should be working on next! Can anybody else think of good biking movies?

Westerns...a reflection of their time

The Western is a movie genre with a set time period, say the 1800's and slightly into the 1900's, when people looked like this...

Or this...

But Western movies more reflect the time they are made like Gregory Peck and Charlton Heston in Big Country (1958).

Tall, quiet, well groomed, with clean faces and slicked back hair, wide tailored pants and dude ranch, yoked, snapped cowboy shirts, until sex and the 60's came along and taste changed to...

Big Valley (1965), the popular TV show staring Barbara Stanwyck , Lee Majors and a very young Linda Evens, pin up girl for a 60's blonde bombshell...
Of course the male heart throbs of the 60's - had their turn in the Western as well, it became common fair for the aging John Wayne to have a hunkish somewhat of a rebel side kick- complete with the slicked back hair, chip on his shoulder and of course the tight tight pants, my it must of been hard to get on a horse.

in fact you could catch Jim West's pants ripping, in TV's Wild Wild West, if you looked real close in the fight scenes. Please don't judge me, I was young.
Then on came the 70's and who would be the consummate Western persona of that decade other then Clint Eastwood and such movies as High Plains Drifter (1973).

I tried to watch that last night, it is truly a Western on acid. Not making a judgment on Eastwood, who directed as well, it just has the flavor of the era...very weird. In fact according to IMDB, Eastwood wrote John Wayne after the movie's release wanting to work with him and was surprised by the Dukes very condemming  response- here on imdb.com
I really don't like the Westerns of the 70's- Cowboys too scruffy, women too slutty, too long of shots setting the mood, not enough dialogue, music is just weird.
I take that back, one of my favorites is the Frisco Kid (1979)

I liked Gene Wilder with all his crazy, cury hair and antics in the Frisco Kid (1979) but then he is a Rabi from Poland, Harrison Ford is the cowboy, actually outlaw, and the representative late 70's hunk, as I remember being twelve at the time. Think Ford's haircut is the same that it was in Star Wars, filmed two years sooner, hummm?

Can't think of a Western from the 80's?

Of course Eastwood came back to the Western in Unforgiven (1992) , again directing and his Western World is a little bit more accurate I think. No slicked hair, no over the top scruffy/slutty-ness.

And of course there is from my era, the best Westerns...

Legends of the Fall (1994),

Dances with Wolves(1990) - do not like that movie poster, I don't think it reflects the flavor of the movie.

Last of the Mohicans (1992), ok pre 1800's story.

And believe it or not, Kevin Costner's not so well received The Postman (1997) is really a Western...of the times.

I am waiting to see what flavor the Western will take on in the new milenium. Wasn't too impressed with 310 to Yuma (2007)...

It looked good, had Russell Crowe in it for peet sakes, but it broke the first rule of story writing, once you create your universe you are bound and dicated by the contraints of that univers. Read my disappointment in a previous post on my other blog Moonflower Musing.

Even though they are not popular at the moment and fading farther and farther in to some sort of  "mythology" the Western will always be one of my favorit genres. Here is hoping there are people in Hollywood who still love them and want to make them to be a reflection of the times they are made.

(Wikipedia source of most  movie poster, most movies available at Netflix and more info at imdb.com)

Might be crap, but at least " It Is Finished"...

It is a weird sensation when a story, or even a  artwork is finished. As its creator, you realize there is nothing more you can put to it or change, it is complete.
It might be a masterpiece worth of an Academy Award or to be hung in the Getty, or it might be a pathetic attempt at something that will fade into oblivion, but hey....at least it is done!
When I illustrate, the birthing process is short, a month or two at the most, but writing- let's just say the light at the end of the tunnel was a little bit farther away.
Last night I finished a second draft of my screenplay I have been working on for...first draft was dated 2002 and submitted it electronically to the Nicholl Fellowhip, along with I think 5,000 and some other hopefuls.

But the great odds don't matter right now, because IT IS FINISHED!! I cannot think of one way to change it anymore and what is so exciting is to move on to another story, am deciding between about three that have resided in my head far too long and shouldn't take eight years to be born- whether they will be  masterpieces or.... just crap, who can say!