"Did I miss anything?"

Firstly, apologies for the delay in bloggination. I'd originally planned to update this little baby every week or so but as someone once said, "Sometimes, life gets in the way." And sometimes it's work specifically. Being the manager-type at your city's only enjoyed major corporate videostore has it's share of tiny little perks... but one of them certainly wouldn't seem to be the hours.

If you're primarily a second-shift employee, you sort of have to expect to give up certain freedoms in your life. You have to give up your days to sleep, you can't hang out with many of your friends who work more regular, desirable (and respected, it seems) nine-to-five gigs... and finding that special someone to share a romantic relationship with is difficult at best (though I'm out there, trying). And on top of that, to not be able to enjoy the relaxation of two days off in a row (such as weekends)... How can one find the time and energy to blog? (No, this is not me pictured here. I may be funny looking, but I'm hotter than this.)

Yes, it beats being unemployed and yes, I'm happy to have a job that requires no commute as I'm a five-minute-tops walk from the shop. But, like many, I dream of something more. Something better. This blog is an attempt to keep me on track and I'm going to try and work at it more effectively and more regularly than I have this past month. That's my promise to you, the reader. And to myself, the whiner. ;)

Anyway...

For the last two years or so, I've been taking single-day and two-day trips to New York City every sixty days or so. NYC and I have a bit of a history, you see. Years ago, after having decided to become a filmmaker and winning a couple of awards for some of my video work in high school, I applied to the undergraduate Tisch Film Program at New York University -- "the Harvard of film schools." This was quite an undertaking for a lunch-ticket, state-assistance kid from the woods of Massachusetts but I took my shot. And to my astonishment, I was accepted. This was probably the highest point of my creative life, the equivilent of a Minor League Pitcher getting his chance at the Majors, and getting the call to NYU -- a school where film giants like Martin Scorsese and Spike Lee regularly act as instructors -- this was a dream come true. My mom and I were called to the school for a "financial aid counseling meeting" as we had no real assets and had tapped out all the available scholorships and grants that we could get our hands on. My mom got all dressed-to-impress -- so proud she was of her loving son -- we bought two Peter Pan bus tickets out of Providence, Rhode Island and embarked upon the four hour trip to the Big City to see what riches life held in wait for us and our collective futures. Cut to: Interior, NYU Offices, Day...

After about fifteen minutes, the Financial Aid Counselor looked us in the eyes and said "I'm sorry, but I just don't see any way that you can afford to attend NYU." You see, even with every resource tapped and every penny squeezed, we would still be an estimated seven thousand dollars short for tuition and room/board per year. Heartbroken and beaten, my mother and I left the Financial Aid office and shared the saddest lunch I think I've ever experienced. "Should we stay the day and see the city?" my mom asked, only having been to New York once herself a decade or so before. I saw little point in it. Why show a starving man a buffet and not let him touch a morsel of food? I asked if we could just catch the next bus home. She tearfully agreed, and we did so.

Of course, this all worked out in various ways as the years have passed. Had I been accepted to NYU I never would have attended Keene State College in beautiful Keene, New Hampshire and made several of the greatest friends a guy could ask for. But this in a nutshell was my tale of a New York Dream that never happenned. And this, largely, is what has led to my desire to learn the streets of Manhattan and a little of Brooklyn. Call it righting a wrong. Call it curiosity. Call it what you will. My recent trips to NY have been great experiences all across the board. Spotting movie locales, visiting museums and libraries, seeing sights, I've become a huge fan of the ol' Big Apple. Now that I've learned my way around -- from Battery Park up to the mid 80's, anyway -- I feel at one with New York. They say "if you can make it there, you'll make it anywhere." Having been there a few times now, we'll see soon enough how true that is.

My most recent trip to New York City was a bit of a washout, both literally and figuratively, due to a 48-hour rain soaking of the East Coast at the hands of Mother Nature. The day's damp coolness certainly beat the 110-degree-with-the-heat-index sunshine of my last visit in late June. This was a trip with a purpose, though, as my primary goal was to search for the offices of a certain literary agency that I'd read was looking for new, undiscovered screenwritng talent. I'd read about them (who shall go unnamed, for now) in a monthly writer's magazine and they sounded, to me, to be a decent outfit to examine. I have an issue though, careful as I am, with dealing with people I've never met, so I decided to have a look for the offices in question to see what the place was like. It's a comfortable office in a nice area and the gentleman at the front desk was kind enough to let me know that what I'd read was true, that they were seeking new writers to represent and that I should send along the standard query letter of introduction and such, should I desire to. "Thanks," I said. "I believe I'll do that." And so I will. More on this, as it develops. :)

Well, that's about enough "Dear Diary" for me for one afternoon. Must be at work in less than an hour (see above). On a non-related note, please look below at what sounds to be a great occassion here in Boston that I hope to attend next week. It's called FILMS AT THE GATE. Lamenting that there are no more Chinese cinemas in Boston's Chinatown district, local businesses have joined forces with local moviefans to present a five-day series of screenings of martial arts classics to be held outdoors in Chinatown, free to the public, to call attention to these films of old and to unite to community. If this isn't the definition of "beautiful" I don't know what is. Please check them out at the following links and spread the word.

http://www.filmsatthegate.com
http://www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2006/08/20/kung_fu_back_on_the_screen/

Oh, and here's this week's reviews.

Theatrical:
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ***1/2
Beerfest ***
Crank **1/2

Video/DVD:
Day Watch (Dnevnoy Dozor) ***1/2
The Inside Man ***1/2
Malcolm X ***1/2
Bamboozled ***
Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction *** (for being a laugh riot)
Running Wild (Korea) **1/2
Intolerable Cruelty **


More later...