The 3rd Annual Al Pacino Versus Robert Deniro Weekend

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!

AND

IN

All-Day Saturday at the Aerie Theater*

Lineup may include (in no particular order):

• Raging Bull
• Dog Day Afternoon
• Taxi Driver
• Scarface
• Mad Dog and Glory
• Glengarry Glen Ross
• Casino
• Scent of a Woman
• Cape Fear

Lineup will absolutely not include (because they suck):

• Heat
• Righteous Kill

Actual lineup will be much shorter due to the number of hours in a day, and the human body's natural inability to sit around for more than, like, eight straight hours doing nothing but staring at a screen.

If you're reading this, you're invited, but unless you're one of a very, very exclusive few (read: two) you're almost certainly going to fucking miss it god damn you.

p.s. If you're dying for a print of one or some of the posters I made then yes you can have one.




*this is just a room in my house




[UPDATE]

THIS YEAR'S WINNER IS AL PACINO. AL PACINO WINS THIS YEAR. TAKE THAT, ROBERT DENIRO.

The Final Lineup and awards for This Year:

• Dog Day Afternoon (AWESOME)
• Raging Bull (SPOUSAL ABUSETASTIC)
• Scarface (WAY FULL OF CUSSES)
• Mad Dog and Glory (BILL MURRYEST)
• Glengarry Glen Ross (HAD KEVIN SPACEY?)
• Taxi Driver (BEST "ARE YOU TALKING TO ME?")
  

What Movies Did I Watch Last Week?

Starting from February 14th and ending an hour and a half or so ago, at 11:59 pm on the night of Saturday 2/21. I am comfortable saying that this is the highest density movie watching week I've had, moreso than any week during the contest of summer 2007.

52. Casablanca 2/14 *****
53. Alien trespass 2/15 (t) ***
54. It came from outer space 2/15 (t) ***
55. Chrysalis 2/15 (t) *
56. Logan's run 2/15 (t) ****
57. Runaway 2/15 (t) ****
58. Alien Raiders 2/15 (t) ***
59. The thing from another world 2/15 (t) ***
60. Repo Man 2/16 (t) ****
61. Invasion of the body snatchers 2/16 (t) ****
62. Killer Klowns from outer Space 2/16 (t) ***
63. Transformers 2/16 (t) *
64. I married a monster from outer space 2/16 (t) *
65. Stark Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn 2/16 (t) ***
66. Fanboys (t) 2/17 *
67. The Enforcer 2/17 ***
68. Sudden Impact 2/18 ****
69. The Dead Pool 2/19 ****
70. Thunderbolt and Lightfoot 2/20 **
71. Midnight Meat Train 2/20 ****
72. Owning Mahowny 2/21 ****
73. The Class 2/21 (t) ***
74. Angel Heart 2/21 ****

Total: 23

The numbers indicate both the order in which the movies were watched, and act as a running tabulation of movies I've viewed since January 1st 2009. Did I mention the one-a-day-average-movie-challenge-09 here? I don't think I did, though now I have seeing as it's exactly what it sounds like. Star ratings are on a scale of 1-5, and a "(t)" indicates that the movie was watched in a theater. Numbers 53-65 were watched in the span of 24 hours at the Boston Sci-Fi Marathon.

Now you Know.

What Am I Up To?

Information Bullets:

• The basement has become a terrible place
• I started working at That Program
• New pants
• To Everyone who has been hassling me about what I want for my birthday, Here is your top priority, but don't worry - my hopes are not Up.
• Paul Newman is still Dead
• TV is a Thing again
  

A Brief and Triumphant Return pt 4

I've either come a long way or no way at all

P.S. I have one last thing.

Here is Why I Can't Abide Micro-Blogging

Listen: I’m not about to pretend to be on the cutting edge of anything these days, because keeping on top of the internet is like trying to build a sandcastle in a tsunami, so when micro-blogging started existing (and eventually became more prevalent) I really didn’t take much notice for a number of reasons:

1. I am not a guy with an enormous number of internet-only contacts, and even fewer internet-savvy-internet-only contacts
2. I am not that interesting
3. I don’t have the kind of self-worth that allows for me to write down every small thing I have done in a day with the expectation that the world gives a god damn about it
4. I have a decent attention span and a pretty firm grasp on the written language, and as such have graduated to paragraph form (most of the time) for things I feel worth writing and sharing
5. I am not a 12 year-old

Ok so, issue resolved, right? No, not right. For awhile the existence of sites like twitter were of no concern to me - I did not use them, and I did not know anybody dumb enough to hassle me to use them, and so we went along respectfully ignoring one another. But then Facebook, a site in a sort of steady state of information-overload-collapse, started integrating with these micro-blogging sons of bitches. Before you get on my case about anything, I’m well aware that the status-update field on Facebook was oft-abused before this integration, and that people were already capable of using this feature for dumb purposes at essentially any moment with mobile integration, but the truth of the matter is that this was usually too complicated for dumb people to set up, so it wasn’t a problem.

Now, however, it is kind of a problem. Anytime I sign onto the aforementioned social networking site I am faced with a fair number of people twittering about their terrible minutia. I realize that I am not forced to read this, and that I can adjust settings in order to cut down on this garbage, but what really bothers me is not that this technology exists (I am sure there are valid uses for it somewhere, somehow) it’s that people use it for the dumbest reasons possible. The fact that some of the people I am friends with are the perpetrators of such internet bullshit calls into question the decisions I’ve made in terms of the company I keep (digital or otherwise) becuase it is not easy to get onto my reasonably short list of contacts.

Here, let’s look at some of the information I’ve been given in the last few days (despite not requesting it) about people I kind of know:

Kelly is twittering: finally rolling out of bed... hooray, 12 hours of sleep!
11:50am

Jon is twittering: Cereal supplies running low. Next at-work breakfast: back to Pop Tarts.
12:13pm
Jon is twittering: BTW, I think I've finally found the correct size boxer briefs from H&M, which took longer than you'd think.
12:52pm

Robert is twittering: Quick shower and off to work.
3:14pm

This isn’t news. This isn’t interesting. This isn’t Funny. This isn’t anything.

Here, for the sake of argument, is how I might do a micro-blog post about what I'm currently up to:

Miles is Twittering: I can't hang out with my friends right now because they're watching Desperate Housewives in the other room and I am the last man on earth with a beating heart and honest Standards.

Was that a lot of fun? Did you enjoy reading a sentence about exactly what situation I found myself in? You better not have, because if that is the case then you have not been paying attention.

Please Stop it.
You’re Welcome
Now you Know.

[edit/p.s.]

Weirdly enough (and I hate to be the guy who tells you this) Penny Arcade and I are really on the same wavelength as far as this matter is concerned.

Here is My To-Do List

In case you had a burning curiosity regarding what things I feel are important to get done. There will be no order, be it alphabetical, priority, logistical or otherwise.

1. Finish That Thing
2. Finish The Other Thing
3. Fed-Ex The Broken Thing
   
4. Prepare for A Different Thing
5. Buy Food
6. Finish A Different God Damned Thing
7. Get Started on a Thing
8. New Shirt, Get?
9. Mail That Thing
10. Address A Thing (not related to #9)
11. Haircut
12. More Stuff
13. Carve Jack O'Lantern (time permitting)
14. Read Those Things
15. Finish To-Do List
    

Here is That List of Animals I Hope to see in Alaska

Did you know that I am going to Alaska? If not, you can find more Information about that here. Because Alaska is located close to the top of the planet it has numerous kinds of animals, most of which are not available to us here at the regular part of the planet. For organizational and personal reasons I have made a list of the animals I hope to see in Alaska. It follows:

• Penguin
• PanserbjØrn
• Inuit
• Baby Seal
• Regular Seal
• Navy Seal
  
• Pokemon
• Eskimo
• Gazelle
• Mammoth
• Kitten
• Moby Dick

I may or may not add to this list. I may or may not be able to give you much Information in the coming week due to the unavailability of internet in Alaska. (Alaska's internet deficiency is directly proportional to its biodiversity. Now you know.)

Here is a Current List of the Movies I have Watched This Summer

Did you know that I am in a movie-watching contest? Now you do. Who can watch the most movies over the summer, that is the question we are all asking one another and getting ulcers over. Anyway, now I can release this information. Note: Repeat viewings of the same movie count as an additional number on the list. Please enjoy the occasional parenthetical addition.

Begin Date: May 11, 2007

1. 28 Weeks Later
2. Casablanca
3. The host
4. Maximum Overdrive (God Damn it Mr. King what are you doing to Cinema?)
5. The Mangler
6. Shrek 3
7. Monster House
8. Bonnie and Clyde
9. Beat the Devil
10. Night of the Living Dead
11. Waitress
12. Hot Fuzz
13. The Treatment
14. Bug
15. Once
16. Down by Law
17. Pink Flamingos (argh argh fuck fuck shit god damn it ugh)
18. Ghost Dog
19. Paprika
20. Night Watch
21. Bottle Rocket (the fact that I'm trying to do it rarely does it for anyone)
22. Take the Money and Run
23. Wag the Dog
24. Curse of the Golden Flower
25. Old Joy
26. Repo Man (is always intense)
27. Day Watch
28. Severance
29. The Professional (Always like this)
30. My Neighbor Totoro
31. Ocean’s 13
32. Fall Guy
33. Knocked Up
34. Ghost in the Shell
35. The 3 Burials of Melquiades Estrada
36. Flags of our Fathers
37. Sherrybaby (Mad Bunnin')
38. The Untouchables
39. Gigantic: A Tale of 2 Johns
40. Eve’s Bayou
41. Mala Noche
42. Scent of a Woman (Hoo-ha!)
43. Habla con Ella
44. Sicko
45. Raising Arizona
46. Eagle vs Shark (more like "This Movie Wasn't That Good")
47. Mystery Train
48. The Elephant Man
49. A Funny Thing Happened on the way to the Forum
50. District B13
51. Lethal Weapon (Danny Glover wants you to know that he's too old for this shit)
52. Twelve Angry Men
53. The Tall Guy
54. Stop Making Sense (Same as it ever was)
55. Taxi Driver (Listen up you fucks...)
56. Three Kings
57. Tootsie
58. Die Hard (Yipee)
59. Die Hard with a Vengeance (Kai Yea)
60. Live Free or Die Hard (Mother Fucker!)
61. Love and Death
62. Ratatouille
63. Dog Day Afternoon
64. Smokey and the Bandit
65. The Conversation (He'd kill us if he had the chance)
66. Rain Man
67. The Namesake
68. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (a.k.a. "Bitch Cassidy and the Sundance Film Festival)
69. The Hustler
70. Roger Dodger
71. Transformers
72. Human Nature
73. Children of Men
74. From Dusk ‘til Dawn (looking at Tarantino is so hard)
75. Broken English
76. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
77. The Squid and the Whale
78. Cool Hand Luke
79. Paprika (again)
80. The King of Comedy
81. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
82. On the Waterfront
83. Hard Eight
84. Kicking and Screaming (not the Will Ferrell soccer movie)
85. Bulworth
86. The Impostors (Stanley Tucci is up for a Best Dude Grammy)
87. Chaplin (So is Robert Downey Jr.)
88. Fido
89. Once Upon a Time in Mexico
90. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
91. A Few Good Men
92. 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
93. Meeting People is Easy
94. Jungle Fever
95. All the President’s Men (Typewriters featured heavily in this movie. Soon: that typewriter information I keep promising)
96. Talk To Me
97. Chasing Amy
98. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
99. Funny Games
100. The Fountain
101. Punch Drunk Love
102. Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid
103. Scoop
104. Blood Simple
105. Wet Hot American Summer
106. Desperado
107. The Fly (Jeff Goldblum!)
108. Paprika (x3)
109. Brotherhood of the Wolf
110. Wordplay
111. The Thing
112. It’s Pat
113. Say Anything
114. Exterminating Angel
115. Sunshine (not. very. plausible.)
116. Rize
117. Videodrome (Oh my god David Cronenberg what are you trying to do to everyone?)
118. Crash
119. Hostage
120. Hombre
121. Harold and Maude
122. Nobody’s Fool (a very bad movie despite the presence of both Bruce Willis and Paul Newman)
123. Mysterious Skin
124. Blazing Saddles
125. 12 Monkeys

Here is the First in a (Probably) Series of Lists of Apologies

I am sorry for a number of things. In order to assuage the fairly remarkable amount of guilt I’ve accumulated over the years I will post public apologies for a lot of things, in no particular order and with no guarantee of sincerity.

• I’m sorry about being mean to the weird kid in third grade (I think his name was Jason? He would usually pretend that he was a velociraptor, which mostly resulted in him appearing to have very serious carpal tunnel syndrome and bad posture). I should have behaved better and not given into peer pressure
• I feel bad that I download a lot of music and also the New Harry Potter Book and usually do not give anybody money for these things
• I feel bad about hitting a childhood friend of mine in the eye with the antenna of a remote controlled car. He was making fun of my brother, and I had to put him in his place – he had no right because he had buckteeth and his mom picked out all of his clothes until he was like 12
• If I have made anybody cry who did not deserve it I would be sorry about that
• I am sorry about the time I listened to an Eminem song and found myself enjoying it. I hope you can forgive me
• I’m sorry that I locked the keys in a rental car when I was 6 and caused a hassle for my parents
• I am Very Sorry about That Thing I Used To Do a Few Years Ago That Nobody Knows About. That was terrible, I am very ashamed of that.
  
• I’m sorry about that car I may have scratched that one night at that one Chinese restaurant – I should have done a better job of parking.
• Sorry I said a sentence that made someone so unhappy that they had to drive their car around for awhile just because of it
• Most recently I am sorry that I let a nonprofit worker think that I actually cared to give her dumb cause money when in fact I simply did not have the heart to immediately say “I’m not interested thank you” because I felt bad about the fact that she had a pretty noticeable scar through her right eyebrow
  

Soon: That information about that typewriter!

A Short List of Things I Have in Common with Michael Emerson

We were both born in Iowa (neighboring towns, even)
We are both about 5'8''
Michael Emerson did freelance illustration for publications including The Boston Globe. I took a class on Adobe Illustrator in Boston.
Has appeared on both "The Practice" and "Lost." I have appeared in front of a TV while both of these shows were playing.

Michael Emerson has already won an Emmy, but I am going to go ahead and nominate him for a Best Dude Grammy. Congratulations, Mr. Emerson.

Here is that information about Michael Emerson you requested.