fripodding and succeeding: bobby womack - across 110th street

As I stated earlier this week, I've been rather busy attempting to get back on top of my numbers at work. Ya know, my "A Game." Last week was my D game. This week might've been a B+ game. Even though I had several meetings I could write off to subtract from my numberly goal, I still wanted to surpass my own expectations. But hey, I did what I had to do.

But enough about that. Let's get on to today's iPick for the friPod.

Once again I thought I'd pick something relevant to Black History month... but again I lied. It's not that I couldn't pick such a song, but usually it's what iSaac and I are feeling at the moment when the pick is chosen. Today, we picked Bobby Womack's Across 110th Street.

Thanks to Quentin Tarantino, my ears have been opened to this gritty, real-life account to the hardships of the ghetto. Not that I haven't heard songs like that before (specifically from the 70's) because I can name a few artists that would tell you like it is: Stevie Wonder, James Brown and Curtis Mayfield to name a few. But it's just something about this song. Maybe it's how he chant "Across 110th street" as the instruments flare up. I think it's the instruments that have a lot to do with it, really. But I also just like the lyrics as well.

And movie buffs may have heard this song in other movies too. I was just informed this song is also featured on such a movie called Across 110th Street. Imagine that. Actually the song, and several others, was sung by Womack himself. That's how Black cinema was done back then. Again, check Curtis Mayfield and Super Fly. Another movie this song is featured in is American Gangster. But there's another song from that movie I liked a lot I'll save for another day. But let's take a look at the scene from QT's Jackie Brown that sent me to iTunes in the first place.



The scene itself isn't all that thrilling, but it's nicely done. Tarantino has a thing for long one shots. He also likes to pay homages to heroes, like blaxploitation movies, such as this one and using that era's sex symbol Pam Grier. The movie itself was pretty good. Classic Tarantino, even though it's not truly his since he didn't write it. But I'll forgive him. But extra kudos to him for picking this song to start the movie. It's also a great song to drive to... or wait in traffic... or walking down 109th Street.

m.i.a. = missing indoobian actions

This particular M.I.A. does not stand for "missing in action" or refer to the lady singer famous for the song Paper Planes which I don't particularly care for, but was surprised to see performing at the Grammys a few weeks ago. That's another story entirely.

Some may have noticed decreased activity of my presence in the blogospshere. Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on who is stalking me I suppose. Or who I've been stalking. I haven't really been reading most of my favorite blogs recently. Much less comments. I haven't even responded to comments here, yet! But no worries. I'll be back, sooner or later. I've just been really busy. And this week is no exception.

Especially this week, actually. I have about 2-3 meetings this week, some of which are on the same day! Not only that, but my weekly 55 file quota I had to add an extra 20 to make up for lost files last week. That's my own fault. All that slacking had caught up with me. So consider this doing time for the crime. I progressed in my digression (from work). I slacked early and often a little too much, then crammed as much work as I could in the last 2, sometimes 3 days. Which meant I had to work on a Friday!

[Gasps are heard world-wide, shock and awe on their faces. Even dogs look up confused. Birds stop chirping. Planes are grounded. Construction halted. Even the Sun (which no one knew had a mouth) has mouth agape.]

Yes, indeed, the master slacker had to practically work an extra full day to try to catch up. I can use the word "try" because I gave it my best attempt, but didn't make my 55. I failed.

[Everyone has sighs of sadness.]

But never fear, I'm on a mission! I've changed my ways! Yesterday, a good start for a Monday, I was up 20, which makes up for last week (since in reality, they count the files for an entire month) and today I already spent an hour and a half letting my computer update/upgrade security measures (which counts towards off-production, and would've taken up my time some time this week whether I manually started it or not). Plus the meetings will also count and maybe save me a whole 5 files or more! Who knows? What I do know is that I will strive to achieve my 55, or even 65 and shine through with dazzling but humble colors that I expect myself to do. I have a reputation to keep. It's okay to slack as long as I have the work to back it up first. And now it's time to back that thing up. I'm sorry, bad joke. This isn't 1999 anymore. Forgive me.

Speaking of music, friDay may be the next time you'll hear from me on here. I want to give 1000 apologies for missing last weeks and not doing anything Black-History-Month-related like I might've said I would sometime this months... which is almost over. But as I always believed, Black history should be celebrated all the time. So maybe I'll purposefully do what I was going to do in March. Or April. Or August. Nothing ever happens in August. We'll see. But as for now, back to basics. It's time to attack! I've got iSaac here, fully charged and ready to go. I had my eggs (no bacon today, maybe tomorrow) and a pretty good cup of coffee. Not feeling the caffeine yet... Oh wait... HA HA! ....yeah, there it is! Okay now... attack! [Takes a short nap.]

about last night... at the oscars... and the bets...

I practically lifted the very list from my an earlier post just to expand on it. Whatever is listed first after naming the category, is what was predicted by Entertainment Weekly. If I agreed, I left it alone. If I had other opinions, it's in bold parentheses... although on some I sort've agreed anyway to what the predictions were. Those that are underlined are the winners.

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Director, Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Actor: Sean Penn, Milk (the Comeback Kid Mickey Rourke or the Underdog Richard Jenkins)

Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader (too close for me to call, haven't seen any of these but if not Winslet, then Streep or Hathaway.)

Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona (I'd like to see a surprised Taraji Henson)

Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk (I <3 Wall-E, honorable mention for In Bruges)

Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

Animated Film: Wall-E

Foreign-Language Film: The Class -LOST- Departures (Japan)

Documentary: Man On Wire

Editing: Slumdog Millionaire

Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire (The Dark Knight just for kicks)

Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Costume Design: The Duchess (Do period pieces from this era always seem to win... or am I wrong?)

Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Score: Slumdog Millionaire (I want to give this to Wall-E, but it's the only movie I've seen)

Song: "Jai Ho," Slumdog Millionaire

Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (I want to mention The Dark Knight for Two-Face, since most of the action on screen was barely CGI, according to the director. But I equally visually enjoy every special effect in Iron Man so this is a tough call for me)

Sound: The Dark Knight (Wall-E)

Sound Mixing: The Dark Knight (Wall-E... I mean c'mon... the sounds and the dude behind them?) -LOST- Slumdog Millionaire

Short: Spielzugland (Toyland)

Animated Short: Presto -LOST- La Maison en Petits Cubes

Documentary Short: The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306 -LOST- Smile Pinki

Overall, if I were to actually bet money, I would've lost 4 categories. Regardless, it's fun. And if you watched the telecast, you were either entertained, confounded or bored. Award shows aren't for everyone, but I thought it was different and enjoyed most of it except the length. I haven't figured out how to get my live-Tweetings to post on here... but I wouldn't torture you like that. I think I might've posted close to 100. Maybe. Instead, it's much more fun, and funnier, to watch professionals do it. I recommend to look around EW's Oscar page for more fun and recaps, especially if you are into that kinda thing and you want to know more of what happened last night.

missing fripods and found links

First of all, allow me to apologize for my absence this past friDay. I didn't have a song, or video or anything ready to talk about. It's been quite a week for me, but a good week over all. Well, except for at the office, but I'll make up for that on Monday. I will work on getting a double iPick for this coming friPod's edition.

Besides not doing my office work for the week, I was busy planning my road trip to Minnesota. It's still awkward for to say I'm going there, especially out loud to other people because their response is always "Minnesota? What the stank is in Minnesota?" Actually, quite a lot. But specifically, the Mall of America. But I'll post more on that when I actually get closer to going.

Tomorrow is the Oscars! Woot woot!

And besides the work I wasn't doing and the early road trip planning, I came across a few websites. One of which I hinted at last week: Christian Children's Fund. That's right, I'm sponsoring a little Bolivian boy! I don't want to get in trouble with them or for exploiting children or anything like that... so I'll hold off on his name until him and I start writing each other and I give him a proper nickname. I'm excited about this and can't wait to befriend him as well as help him and watch him grow. I've been blessed and I want to bless someone else. Anyway, I did my research, the CCF has been around for many years and they (and other sources) prove the money is going towards the children's benefit. Soon I will talk to my dad and see if he's interested in having our church sponsor another child. I'll let them pick, but I'll be more than happy to set it up and write letters as well.

Another interest I've taken on is back to my old school computering days. I have a knack for knowing how to get around computer software and some hardware. I'd like to get better at the hardware side. What better way other than to do what I did before: teach myself. It's mostly free and whenever I get around to some light schooling on it, I will come in with some background knowledge already which will make it easier to learn. So I'm going back to basics now that I have a junked computer to "play" with, and possibly some extra funds to invest in it. If not now, then maybe in a few months. I still need to do my writing ya know. But I enjoy taking apart and rebuilding computers. Like mechanics to cars or something.

Kitten and I discuss our dreams rather frequently. We also discuss less deep things like the contents of poop, but we already discovered a book to enlighten us on such facts. Anyway, since our dreams are another topic of discussion, we wanted to learn more about them and I stumbled across this website that talks about lucid dreaming. There's more than likely tons of books, articles and websites on this, but you have to start somewhere. This seemed like a good place to start. I haven't finished reading all of it yet, but it's something I think is highly interesting. Plus, dreaming is a storyteller's best inspiration and origin for great tales. And sometimes I really need to know how to escape out of a nightmare. I will continue my studies of dreams by looking into dream interpretations.

FML is (I think) a fairly new site. Almost like a blog, reminds me of Twitter, with everyone contributing to it. If I tell you that "ML" stands for "My Life," you can figure out what the "F" is. A friend sent it to me asking me if I thought it was funny. To be honest, it was like a painful laugh. You're able to separate the entries by groups like love, money, sex, work, etc... and then you can also see how others respond to someone's entry. Do you agree that they got it bad and you feel their pain? Or did they deserve what happened to them? It's really self explanatory when you check it out. In a way, it might make a depressed person feel a little bit better knowing that they aren't the only one having a hard time, or someone might be going through something a bit worse. Another site that maybe helpful in that weird way is WhichIsWorse.com.

Last, is my favorite one and I had to laugh when I caught it on CNN's website... or was it Time? Doesn't matter. Another friend sent this to me before I even read about it later. The URL is simple and tells you exactly what you are about to see. ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com. And then, it will show you exactly why you are fat. Not only that, but several ways to cause death. Death by heart attack probably, if you ever eat any of these things that's shown. This also has a blog format and I think a new picture adds everyday. The first time I went there, I couldn't go more than 5 pages in one sitting. I actually began to feel sick. And I'm mostly certain that all the pictured items are indeed real. Have they actually been eaten? I can't say. I hope not. But I know some people have a serious love for bacon and this site is proof of that. I love bacon too, but it has it's time, place and proper portions.

dreams of anti-fame

I was reading about the dreams of aspiring screenwriters who want to make it big in Hollywood... as well as some money figures of what some screenplays sell for - even the ones that's don't get made. And to be completely honest, those figures I saw, even the so-called "modest" amounts, looked quite alright with me. But between that and reading an article about a soon-to-be-watched documentary called Dreams on Spec, I read some line about struggling to be "the next big thing." And I thought that line... and it got me thinking-I don't necessarily want to be the next big thing. I just want to be something. I indeed, want to be successful and content, but I don't want the glitz and glam. I'm still going to shop at The Mart and eat at IHOP. But, perhaps, I think it all depends on your definition of success. Anyway, I was stuck on the phrase "next best thing" and jotted some lines down as I thought about it.

I don't want to be the next big thing.
I just want to be something.
Not just anything, but a mix of everything.
They'll say "He's doin' his thing."

I'm completely aware that being a screenwriter isn't a profession that would make me an instant multi-millionaire (unless I'm directing, starring, etc.), but I just want to get by. Not only that, I just want to be really good at it too. So I continue my learning and studying. I haven't been aggressive in this passion the past few days due to some other concerns (like vacation planning), but rest assured, my dream won't be deterred. Oooh! Another hot line! [Scribbles in notebook.]

"push" film review

My sister thought this movie was a spin-off of Jumper or some kind of remake or movie version of Heroes or another kind of X-Men. And who could blame her? I only heard about this movie a month before it was released. Even then I wasn't so sure about it.

While it may not have cracked the top 5 in the box office, it was still a decent movie to see. The special effects were definitely fun and it kept you entertained... mostly. I counted a few dry spots that could've been cut or shortened or something. Most of the time it was giving the audience information... but it felt like the scenes went on too long and we needed to see more action and special effects!

It's a eye-candy movie like Wanted or The Matrix. It's not ground-breaking special effects, it's just fun to watch when it happens. The fight scenes in particular.

The title comes from what a certain kind of psychic can do, called pushers, who push thoughts and ideas into someone's mind. There are movers, who obviously move things with their mind. Watchers who can see the future. Sniffers who sniff things to see the past (of that object and those who have touched it). Shifter who change things into whatever they want. And bleeders who scream so loud, they make anything in ear shot bleed to death probably because their brains explode. It's kinda violent. There are a few others too but it's worth watching to check out this world they live in.

Overall, besides the dry parts, I'd watch it again when it hits DVDs. I wouldn't rush to the theater, though. And Dakota Fanning needs more clothes. I understand she was probably going for a certain look in this film... but I didn't like it. That's just me. Anyway, not a bad film. It does make you wonder which power you'd like to have.

I gave it *** and a half *.

life update 2.16.08

Hello fellow Indoobians. I wanted to turn some of my recent adventures into little short stories, but these events are piling up faster than I have time to sit down and write them. And I didn't want to neglect or forget to document them. Such things are a bit too much to let Twitter handle on it's own.

But let's journey briefly and chronologically, shall we?

February the 12th, I helped my friend, Unique, make cupcakes for the first time in her life. Actually, it was the second. Before I showed up, she burnt her first batch by breaking the first rule of baking that isn't listed on any recipes but apparently needs to be: don't leave the house. While they baked, we watched a movie about another kind of baking: Pineapple Express. Unfortunately, I had to given to my severe dislike of watching a bootleg (I don't care of the quality is top notch, it's still stealing and illegal). Fortunately, it's a movie I've already seen legally, so I'm not too bothered by it. By the time the movie ended, the cupcakes were done and were a success. I didn't help with the frosting, she handled that on her own without worry.

February the 13th, the so-called Unlucky Day, was actually a pretty decent and enjoyable day. Kitten and I went to see my best friend, or more appropriately, brother-from-another-mother whom I shall call Mr. Phoenix (for the time being, and with no relation to the actors) and his band Taken From Ashes (formerly known as The Final Approach) perform at a local pub. So local, I didn't even know it was there despite my driving past it several times in any given month. An hour long set was played with about 9 or 10 songs including an awesome metallic/rockish cover of Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise. This was an event I should've brought a camera for, so I could really show how things went down. It was undoubtedly fun, and TFA sounded great. Better than the Toad's performance.

February the 14th, Kitten and I reclaimed it as Friendship Celebration Day. Sure it's a corny title for those singles who don't have anything better to do, but to those who would've followed our exploits that day would think we were a couple anyway. We ventured to the mall and found a belated birthday gift for my brother-in-law, went to the movies to catch Push (which I still haven't written a review for), and later went out for pizza at a quiet pizzeria. Word to the wise for the future, local family-run places might not be as busy during such times compared to the commercial restaurants. Okay, that might not be a fact, but I was right in picking a not-so-busy place to hang out... even if that is our usual weekly not-so-busy hang out spot anyway.

Friendship Celebration Day continued as I ventured to Mr. Phoenix's new place. He and his girlfriend (who has a sense of humor painfully similar to my own, but I won't destroy her because of this since she's on my good side, Mr. Phoenix's better half and seriously enjoys cheese) treated me with nachos and chili dip as we caught up on life, talked about the performance from the night before, and watched Pan's Labyrinth. 'Twas a good time. For his birthday this weekend, he gets a free month of Netflix on me. Enjoy it. Now.

February the 15th, I was asked to fix a friend's computer. He got excited that I was coming and called his friend to come over so I could fix his too. So I stopped by his house and got one computer running, but not the other. I don't consider myself a computer expert, but I've been known to get by. This loss was discouraging, so I took it to the "Nerd Patrol," as I usually do when a problem is beyond my capabilities. I don't normally speak negative things about people, whether I know them or not... and I won't start now. Let's just say I don't like the character who "helped" me very much and I must now be alert of who's working at the desk the next time I return. Pompous pretentiousness isn't a very good customer service trait. Actually, it's not a good trait at all unless you are an evil villain. Hmm... looks like I met some inspiration.

It would seem like an incredibly random act for me to do this, but I signed up to sponsor a child with the Christian's Children Fund. It's something I actually thought about doing for a few years, but was never in a financially stable place to do so. But things are going good and I've since taken care or gotten rid of useless bills, so why not spend that money on something worth it? It's legit, I checked. My passion is still charity for the arts (in schools), and Lord knows America has it's own major problems. But the Indoob is global-people from around the world stop by. So this is me reaching back out to the world. And maybe someday I can go visit the little guy. More on this later.

I'm planning a road trip that I'm seriously (hopefully) going to take this summer. To where? The Mall of America! There was talk and plans of making plans to go last year with a few friends... but that fell through in a few different ways that's not necessary to discuss, and needless to say, I never left. But this year, I'm making plans with whom I'd call a "doer" and not just a "talker." I love my friends, but I need more doer friends than talkers, because I don't want to keeping talking about it. I need to do it. And I'll be sure to bring a camera or two to show it.

My dad (who is a doer) suggested I start writing letters to some famous doers asking for "not a hand out, but a hand up." People like Tyler Perry, who is definitely a success story if I ever heard one, from living in his car to owning several cars (I assume). Perhaps he'd like to lend a helping hand to someone like me. I know I definitely wouldn't mind working for him at his company. My dad also suggested contacting Will Smith's people. Both of which have their own successful production companies. My aunt suggested Oprah. Also worth a try, and we share a birthday... that's gotta get me some points, no? Whether I get in contact with any of them or not, this is my season for progression. And I refuse to lose my dream of doing and being something great.

So yeah... that was my weekend. I also ordered the second season of 30 Rock (shame on me for buying out of order, but it was cheaper and I still love you Tina Fey) and the Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection (more on that later). So please excuse me in a week or so whilst I laugh myself to creative, comedic and witty enlightenment with these awesome stories, actors and writers. But I'll be sure to pre-post some posts about stuff. Maybe. Somebody hasn't been sleeping much which affects his work during the day because he's too busy writing... so something's gotta give. And yes, I liked that movie.