#21

End of the Year lists

Hotmail

TV's "Ladies Man"

Getting a 8mm camcorder

"Coven" (not) at the Dobie

"Antiques Roadshow"

Andy, sweet Andy.

The best Xmas gift

Merry Xmas kids!

Normally, at the end of the year, I do my "Lodger's Best of the Year" lists. I usually do these in December. I can always change them later. But this year I have the webpage and I don't want to have to go back and change them a lot. So, Lodger's "Best of '99" probably won't come out till January or February. There are a lot of films I won't get to see until then like "Magnolia," "Topsy Turvey," or "Angela's Ashes." Plus - then there is the Academy Awards announced in early Feb and those movies I might have missed this year that get a nomination. Anyway - "Best of '99" may not be posted until a few weeks. Okay. I guess that gives you time to recommend some stuff to me. Why not e-mail me your ideas and lists to lodger@filethirteen.com

I'm telling you. I'm about to lose my grip when Hotmail goes down. It's like my lifeline to the world and to all my friends just snaps. It's infuriating. Hotmail is now available in 7 languages. It doesn't work in any of them.

I saw one of the most horrible sitcoms imaginable the other day. It was so insipid and forced. It's called "Ladies Man" and it stars Alfred Molina. Who would want to put Molina in a stupid sitcom playing an American? Why did he agree? What a waste of talent. The thing also starred Sharon Lawrence, who should have never been killed off as Sylivia on "NYPD Blue" and Betty White, who is apparently getting too old to know better. What purile trash.

Wednesday, I decided to go by a camcorder. I have an old one, but it doesn't have a battery. Well, it has a battery but for some reason it doesn't work. Yes, I tried buying a new one. No luck. So anyway, I was looking at pawn shops, but all I could find was junk. I decided to look for a new one. I went to Best Buy and they had the one I wanted, a Sharp with the LCD viewfinder on the back for $399. But they were out of stock. Dejected, I bought the new Prodigy CD, Rush's "Moving Pictures" and a Bowie import CD single of "Thursday's Child." It has two outtakes from "hours..." on it. And there is a reason they are outtakes.

I was going to shop some more and try some more pawn shops when I saw a Circuit City. I popped in and they had the camcorder I wanted for only $379. Cool huh.

Got it home and charged up the battery. After a bit, I messed with it and made sure it all worked okay. I made a silly little short film by myself. Later that night, Tim came over. I listened to the tape he made at the Harry Knowles Butt-Numb-a-Thon. And then we played with my camera. We made a silly little short film with it too.

And even later, Rich came over. We went to the Dobie to see the midnight show of "Coven," but it was cancelled. We were pissed. The Dobie is such a piece of crud. I'm really getting tired of their problems. They need to hire a manager who gives a damn. Someone who understands the importance of running such a cool theater. Anyway, Rich came back to my place and we made a frozen pizza and, surprise, made a little short film. It was actually kinda good, for an absurdist comedy. I realized how much I have learned about filmmaking from Rich and Kelly in the short time I have known them. I really like hanging out and working on stuff with Rich.

Friday morning, I got up early. So I got my new camcorder and drove downtown. Went to the Capitol, Dobie Mall, UT clocktower, Alamo and 6th street and filmed stuff. I was hoping for that "twilight" feel to it, but I guess I was a little too early cause it looked like midnight more than 6am. Well, except it was pretty deserted. I filmed some continuous car ride stuff to some of the songs on Robert Fripp's "Exposure" CD. It was cool becuase, since I filmed through the windshield, stuff kept going in and out of focus. One of them I may make into a film. I'm thinking of calling it, "Twilight Car Ride down South Congress with Robert Fripp and Jen Proctor." I also filmed some factory smoke and some ducks in the water down here on Riverside by my apartment.

One of my favorite TV shows over the past couple of years was PBS' "Antiques Roadshow." On it, average citizens would bring in their household treasures and have them appraised. It's a great show. Unfortunately, this format has been ripped off by virtually every cable channel in town leading to numerous ridiculous shows. VH-1 has "Rock Collectibles," for example. What's next? "Animal Planet Pet Appraisers?" Imagine the exciting dialogue... "Well, do you have any idea how much your spotted gecko is worth?"

I got a billboard sized poster (what is called a "30-sheet" in the "biz") for "Man in the Moon" and put it up on my living room wall. It's huge. I filmed myself doing it too. I found this great Laurie Anderson spoken word piece where she talks about knowing Andy Kaufman. I was going to put it together and send it to the Alamo for their Andy Kaufman tribute night (12/23), but it didn't work out so well. Anyway, if you turn into an Andy Kaufman freak after the film, get Anderson's "The Ugly One with the Jewels" CD and listen to "The Rotowhirl" for her story. It's beautiful and poetic stuff, as is her modus operandi.

"Andy's Funhouse," the ABC special he did in the heydey of "Taxi," which is dealt with in the film a bit, was on TVLand last night. I only got to watch about 3/4ths of it. But it was pure genius. I saw a few parts of the "interview" with Howdy Doody which I remember seeing as a kid. It was just as weird and surreal now as it was then.

Thursday night, my parents and my two nephews came from Houston to visit. We went to a place in Barton Creek Mall called Johnny Rocket's. I thought it was gonna be kind of a 50's themed Bennigans, but it was more like an old 50's hamburger stand. All the employees wore white outfits with those old white "soda jerk" sideways caps. It was cool though. I was a little disappointed in it; Then in the middle of our visit, a Beegees song came on (lots of 70's tunes for a 50's joint) and almost all of the employees got in the aisle, right by our table, and did a cute little line dance. It was fun and cool. I've heard of singing waiters before, but never dancing waiters. It really made the place a ton of fun. It made our visit worthwhile. Even my nephews dug it.

Afterwards, we went into the mall and shopped a bit. Then we drove around looking at xmas light. Went by Zilker park but the boys didn't want to get out and walk. It was cool from what we could see. Lotsa lights in the trees. I'll definately have to go sometime. We went by the Capitol and by the Governor's mansion, which was really nicely decorated, and took pictures and stuff. To me, this kinda stuff is what Christmas is about. Not presents or any of that junk. Just spending time with friends and family.

The best gift I have gotten so far was when my friend Tim called and we talked for about 2 hours on Friday afternoon. We talked about movies a lot, in particular "Man in the Moon." But then our talk turned to a more personal nature and Tim confided in me like friends do sometimes. Tim usually doesn't "go there." He's very quiet and we don't talk about personal stuff too much. But we did a bit on this day. Plus he told me me had a gift for me which sounded like he thought of me when he saw something I would like, and so he bought it for me. That was really cool. But just chatting about his personal life and him confiding in me a bit made me feel really close to him. And that was the best gift I could ask for.

Merry Xmas Filethirteen-sters!