A New Year; let us raise our glasses

Hello my friends,

I apologize, most sincerely for my absence. I often open my blog fully intending to write out a new entry but I find most times that I am simply at a loss for a proper way to express myself or filled with a doubt in the value of the words and sentiment I would be conveying by making a new entry. But I sit before you today with a new year ahead of me and a new idea of how to make this blog into a place where I can maintain my own sanity as well as a place where I can try and keep up with a regular schedule of writing to go along with my own creative projects.

So, on that note, let me begin. Much has transpired since my last entry. First and foremost; Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all my readers. I hope you all had a safe, happy and inspiring holiday season. And now we all dwell in the post-holiday doldrums that seem to always occur. I will say that this was one of the most low-key holiday seasons for me in recent memory, which was not unappealing. Occasionally, when I look at the pictures plastered all over Facebook, I will think back to my younger days when I was among those who drank to a level of belligerency and remember somewhat fondly nights spent in the basement of Matt Anderson's house with so many friends and acquaintances. So many people I don't remember and probably only met that one time because it was just one of those places. Parties were known to just occur and 20 people would be in that basement, playing pool, listening to some punk-rock and drinking the night away. New Years was regularly a big shindig. But, as is commonplace, people grow up and distances both physical and emotional start to set in. I can't even remember the last time the "old gang" were all together. The closest would probably have been a big party/festival last summer, but there were still several big pieces missing.

Dammit...see, I talked about my nostalgia trying to escape for the past couple posts and here it comes...sorry, I promise the blog gets better further down so feel free to skip ahead if you want.

It's not so much that I'm sentimental for the past...not anymore. I used to be that way. I was clearly a product of my musical taste. "Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?" to borrow a line from Nick Hornby. The fact is I enjoyed my youth. I think most people would say that they look upon their late teens and early/mid-twenties fondly. But I'm 30 now and my future is ahead of me, not behind me. I've accomplished more in the past year than I ever thought I would. I got my first professional writing work published and I re-found a great girl. I'm still trying to learn how to navigate some of the waters I am finding myself in (such as the fact that I had to just fire the artist I found to work on a co-op project Matt and I have been building for the last year or so) and where I need to start pitching new stories. But I'll find my way.

Ok, sentimental nostalgic stuff is OVER! Promise.

Time for some reviews. I'll start with movies I've seen recently and then work my way into previews for upcoming flicks you really should watch if you haven't already. So I finally saw Harry Potter a few weeks back. As I had suspected it diverged from book necessarily and made me wish I had continued my original trend of not reading the book prior to seeing the movie in the HP series. I will say though that the second part is going to be so action-packed and AMAZING, I really can't wait. The movie itself was very good. Though I would criticize the director for making the characters too "teenagery" and by that I mean, annoying mood-swings and outbursts and awkwardness. I get that they ARE teenagers and these things happen, I just think it's annoying and it could have been lessened. Next: Black Swan. I think if you like artsy movies you'll probably love it. I think it was an insane piece of crap. I'm sure it has it's merits and there's obviously some great acting involved from Natalie Portman, but there's a lot of things that make no sense in the story making it hard to enjoy the seriously hot sex scene between the aforementioned actress and Mila Kunis...that alone would warrant a Netflix instant-watch. Next: Tron - Legacy. Visually amazing and not to shock too many die-hard Star Wars fans into coronary's it actually reminded me of Episode I in the sense that it took them 28 years to finally get another Tron project to the theatres and they couldn't do better than this...really? I think, like Lucas, the director/writer fell in love with all the new technology and felt that the visual would outshine the rather lacking script. One saving grace is the kickass soundtrack by Daft Punk, truly amazing and they even make a cameo...I think.

On to the previews: this upcoming summer is shaping up to be one of the best in a very long time from Green Hornet to Green Lantern and Thor to Transformers as the big blockbuster potential hits. But I've also noticed some really cool under-the-radar type movies like: Battle: Lost Angeles and Sucker Punch both of which are due out in March 2011, most likely in an attempt to preempt the summer of giant films. And speaking of 2011 films I would be remiss if I didn't look back at 2010 and reflect on some of the best movies that came out.

I would be hard pressed to find a movie I found more intriguing or inventive than Inception. But rounding out my top five of 2010 would be: She's out of my League, Hot Tub Time Machine, Get Him to the Greek, Iron Man 2, Scott Pilgrim...ok yeah I know that makes it a top 6 list...like there's some rule about 5's and 10's.

I'd love comments on your top movies of 2010 and what movies you're looking forward to in 2011!

Peace,

Tb (JQ)