The Weekly Flippo: June 2009

To those that are still searching. To those that have yet to be found. To those that seek the answers. To those that are the answers. To those people that feel like a statistic. To statistics that feel like people. It is to you guys that I dedicate this very special entry of The Weekly Flippo.

I'm sorry, Flip-philes. I'm in a contemplative mood this week. What's happening to the world today? Economic crisis. War in the Middle East. A new Jonas Brothers album. Where have we gone wrong? And, more imporantly, how can we set it right?

This week, I'm going to give you a heapin' helpin' of hope and list some stuff I think are worth living for (in no particular order). You may agree that these are great things or you may not. I just know they give me a little bit of hope. If I am able to find these anchors, I know you will be able to find some as well.

*Futurama is renewed! Yep, Comedy Central is bringing back my favorite television show about a twentieth century man waking up in the wild world of the thirtieth century. This classic may not be for everybody, but if you think jokes about A Brief History of Time and the binary code are funny, then I think you'll have a blast. My favorite episode remains "The Sting." If you are a fan of comedy or just good writing in general, I encourage you to check this episode out. Hopefully, Futurama will be able to generate more classics like this over at Comedy Central.

*DVDs are getting cheaper! The other day, I bought Congo for $5. How can you beat that? Congo... for five clams! Thank you Blue Ray... not because you are a substantially better format, but because I can now buy okay movies for super cheap. I recently bought the Director's Cut of Dark City for less than ten bucks. What a glorious time to be alive!

*Jeff Goldblum is alive! Yes, those nasty rumors were thankfully proven false and our favorite chaos theory spewing, fly mutating, "must go faster" saying actor lives to fight another day! Watch this video and see what has thankfully not been lost: http://www.worstpreviews.com/headline.php?id=14086&count=0

*Sneezing stills exists (or, as I like to call them, "nosegasms"). Who doesn't love a good sneeze? That right. Nobody. I love it when its a sunny day and you step outside and you sneeze and it makes a little mist. Long story short, sneezing feels so good, you're gong to need a tissue afterwards.

*Jack White is still making music. I believe that if Jack White were born in an earlier decade, his the songs he is writing right now would be the old standards. Enough said. Thanks for playing. Check out this video for The Dead Weather, Mr. White's third band: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scJ8ITsZsl4

*Lost is about to start its final (and sure to be blockbuster) final season. Its kind of amazing to think that this time next year, we're going to know what the island is and what the smoke monster is all about. Tell you the truth, I'm more concerned about the series providing closure to these characters that we have come to know and love over a period of five years. If episodes like "The Constant" and "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham" provide any insight into what they plan to do in the final season, then I think we may just have a satisfying ending on our hands.

Anyway, here are some youtube videos I'm digging this week.

*A Watchmen video unlike any other: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

*A trailer for Daybreakers. Awesome. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayYiMygqlfo&feature=fvst

*A music video for Weird Al's "Craigslist." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZqciuoiikw&feature=fvst

And with that, I believe we're all wrapped up for this week's special edition of The Weekly Flippo. Hopefully I have given you a glimmer of hope, a simple beacon in these alarmingly dark times.

Flippo

Hey Flip-philes. Sure, it has been a little while since my last post, but since when has that ever stopped us? We're both here today, a little bit older (and, contrary to popular belief, not quite wiser), and we're as eager as ever to get some bloggin' done. That's right. No "g". That's how you know you're in for a good time.

The biggest development over the last few months is that I finally finished my script for Trailer Trash Kidnapping. What I thought would be a 90-page sprint turned into a 127-page marathon. Usually brevity is a strong suit of mine. This time, it was one of my worse suits. A thrift store suit. The kind that itch.

Anyway, I turned it in to the Nicholl and am hoping for positive results. Hopefully, I can at least match the semi-success of Anywhere, Illinois, a project that managed to make it to the quarterfinals despite the debilitating handicap of being written by me.

I've managed to get a little bit of work in the past few months. The creators of MadTV made a webseries called Camera Cafe and I was fortunate enough to get on that as a production assistant. Not an amazing amount of money (that gold toilet remains an unrealized ambition), but enough to get my rent taken care of. Ah, the eternal quest of a twenty-something: paying rent on time. Good thing I don't have a whole lot of money right now. I fear I would blow it all on things I don't need, like DVDs and deodorant.

I went home a few weeks ago and worked as a PA for my buddy John Summerour's film, Sahkanaga. Though I only caught glimpses of how it looked on camera, what I saw was amazing, and I believe John has an astonishing film on his hands. I can't wait for you to see it, Dear Reader. It is being made with the upmost professionalism and enthusiasm, and if only a fracture of that skill is evident on screen, then it will still be a helluva film.

As always, here are a few youtube videos I'm digging this week:

The trailer for Funny People. Amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrYJGh2tXhU

Green Day's Know Your Enemy. Good song from a great album.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgvGPwEGoOI

The latest trailer for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Epic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnooUEuyn_M&feature=fvst

Oh, and the teaser for Toy Story 3. This is a very trailer-heavy edition of The Weekly Flippo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=og-t-u-fFGM&feature=channel

I suppose that wraps it up. If you'll excuse me, all that awesome has left me tired. I'll catch you next week for a little bit more Weekly Flippo.

The Flippo