Hey Mike! I've been non-communicado these past days, busy with lots of stuff. Some of it writing! Yesterday was a marathon day at work. But I see you've been kicking serious butt with the novel! Keep at it! I look forward to being able to sit down and read The Wannoshay Cycle in its entirety (soon? prod prod)

Hi Scott. Sorry to hear about your long day of work yesterday. I just don't understand why us artists have to work Day Jobs...

But I feel like I'm on a roll with the novel drafting! The goal is to hit 90,000 words before we leave for the beach on August 3rd.

Hold me to it.

Mike

Hmph, go figure. I loved "Donnie Darko". I thought it was creepy, disturbing, and thought-provoking all at the same time.

I also saw Amelie this weekend...we do agree on that one. I really liked it. Though I was surprised at how racy it was (I didn't realize it was rated R), since I'd heard how sugary and sweet it was in reviews.

I think the problem was following "Stuart Little" (Elizabeth's choice, one I surprised her with from the video store) with "Donnie Darko" (my choice).

I liked the film to a certain extent, but it left too many questions unanswered, like "Why set it in 1988?" and "Why the damn rabbit?" and so on. But the time travel stuff was interesting...

"Amelie" was wonderful, though. I LOVED the 15 orgasms-happening-right-now scene! You know those Europeans -- they're racy as all get out. And I'm thankful for it... ;)

"Donnie Darko" had some coolish elements, and I enjoyed the revelation about Frank (and just Frank in general), but the movie had many annoying aspects. Particularly concerning Noah Wylie's and Drew Barrymore's characters. The director had _frequent_ closeups and holding shots of them (and that malaysian/asian girl) as if something big was going to happen concerning them and it never did. They two teachers seemed to be "in the know" about what was going on. That stuff just annoyed me. I wanted to like the film, but didn't really.

Oh BTW, from many of your entries ago, I agree that "From Hell" sucked ass. Looked slick. But boring.

And what's all this about a movie call "Amelie" that everyone is talking (er, raving) about?

Scott -- good points about "Donnie" -- I couldn't figure out why there were focusing on the Drew Barrymore character either, until I saw she produced the flick! And the Noah Wylie character was there to give infodumps, and that was it.

But I also learned that the guy who wrote it and (I think) directed it was only 25 or so at the time. Amazing.

See "Amelie" to get all the crap in "From Hell" out of your system. Truly a magic-realistic film if ever I saw it. I'll be buying it some day to add to my slowly-growing DVD collection (he says after having bought "Dirty Dancing" for his wife and "Highlander" for himself last night! for $10 each!!!).