Not Dead, Just Uninspired

No updates in almost a month. I barely noticed, did you? This blog was created for short, off-the-cuff commentaries (or in the words of Matt Stone and Trey Parker, “commentary: mini”) but I’d pretty much fallen back into the habit of long, dishy tirades well suited to the House Next Door’s Links of the Day. It’s fun to stretch my essay muscles every once in a while but I tend to get bored halfway through them. I’d rather write twelve one-paragraph-long pieces than one twelve-paragraphs-long, so to encourage renewed activity I’m going to try and get into the habit of writing something… anything at least once a day.

Part of the problem has been that I haven’t been to the movies in four weeks (hooray for late August!) when the only thing out are bummer docs about genocide in Darfur, films that should have remained skits on “SNL” and Jason Statham movies. I also haven’t been to a test screening since early summer, and this one can be directly be attributed to the construction being done to turn the Sherman Oaks Galleria into another Arclight. The Galleria is about 10 mins from my front door and hosts 2-3 test screenings a week but during renovations (and recently, a temporary shuttering) they’ve halted or have been scattered up the 101. I really want to see David Gordon Green’s Pineapple Express and Jake Kasdan’s Walk Hard but I’m not driving to Thousand Oaks on a work night to do so.

Netflix has definitely come in handy lately. I only saw a couple of movies in theaters during the spring so I’ve finally been able to catch up on the likes of Fracture, The Lookout and Vacancy (PS: I wasn’t missing much) from the comfort of home. I’m also trying to get caught up on “Friday Night Lights” before the new season starts later this month, but my initial response is that of slight disappointment. I’m weary of passing judgment too early (only four-episodes in, with the second disk due in the mail tomorrow) as most great shows get better as they go, but I can’t help but wonder if all the people who went nuts over it, especially the ones who claim it’s not really about football, realize that it’s essentially a better written and directed version of “The O.C.”?

I’m actually going to cut this entry short here as I’ve got a lot to get into but I think if I keep going it’ll all just sort of peter out and die on the page. Short, quick and to the point is the new motto.