Happy Hour at Chez Animal Hair Can I get you a drink?

I am suuuuuper bored at work becuase a document I’ve been waiting for isn’t here yet. So far I have written some CD reviews, burned some CDs to listen to in the car, called my Dad to wish him a happy birthday and watched vids on the internet.

OK so this one is great. It’s Michael Cerra (who used to be on the best show of all time, Arrested Development) on the set of “Knocked Up” fake-filming a scene from the film. I also want to say, I adore Katherine Heigl. I have never seen Gray’s Anatomy and honestly have no interest, but I have seen her on talk shows and she’s so damn funny and appealing. Plus, doesn’t she look like she could be Ashley Judd’s sister? I am really excited to see “Knocked Up” and no, no one pays me to say that. But if someone wanted to…..

Then I learned that Michael Cerra has his own internet show:

[Lookee here]

and speaking of looks-like, I think he looks like Beck.

Posted under celebrity news/gossip

OK so it starts in a few, and I will be updating it as we go.

7:00pm: I see they still have the awful host. Also the sound editor should lose his/her job as I didn’t hear much of what she said since the audience and music were so loud. Cheeseball opening. Damn I thought they’d improve not make this even more corny.

She just introduced the judges Carrie Fishy. And the Mumbler is on again. Please turn down his mic when it’s not his turn to talk. Please!!

7:10: Oh good, some behind the scenes stuff. I like to see how they interact with each other.

7:16: OK so now it’s time for elimination. The contestants are in three rows. She says that in each row, one person’s film was in the top three, and another one is going home.

And Zach’s “Danger Zone” is in the top 3 so he’s safe.
..looks like it Carolina going home. Of course I don’t know this for sure, as we went to a commercial. This is kind of annoying, it’s JUST like American Idol now: “Carlolina, Marty, the judges said, ____. America voted and (uncomfortable pause)…you have to wait a few more minutes.” Aaargh. But Marty (while he was one of the jerks I mentioned in a previous post) made a better film even if he didn’t follow the directions and shoot a film, he shot a trailer.

7:27: and Carolina is the first to go…..

7:30: OK so middle row: my predictions: Adam’s film (Danceman) is the top, and Kenny’s going home.

I was wrong I think…Adam is safe but she didn’t say his film was one of the top 3. Yep, Will Short’s “Lucky Penny” was the other one in the top 3. I voted for it too.

I have to say at least I”m not hearing DJ humming which is a relief.

7:41: …and Claudia is the next one to go. Which is fucking ridiculous. She says she and Carolina are going to make a movie together so that’s good.

OK next row: My prediction? Andrew (Spaceman) will be in the top 3 and Jessica will be going home.

7:45: I was wrong again, Andrew’s was not the last top 3 but he’s safe. Now I’m thinking that the guy who made the nerdy movie will win just because it was so controversial. Unless they’re doing this row different and Andrew did win.

…and the winner is Jason which means that Phil is going home. I liked Phil. Bummer.

I’m really pissed that these ladies are going home. There were much worse films than the ones by these ladies. I didn’t vote for any of the ladies but that’s not because I didn’t like them, but because I liked some others better and I only voted for 4. None of them should have been in the top 3 or even the top 10 but they should not have been two of the bottom three. That sucks.

Posted under tv/movies

I don’t know how long I will be able to keep this up, but I was thinking of blogging about my new favorite show, “On the Lot�

We caught the first and second episodes Sunday (repeats) after reading an article in the paper about one of the contestants who is from Minneapolis.

If you don’t know about this show and you like movies, you need to know about it. I’ll try to describe. It’s like “Project Greenlight� without Ben Affleck. Ok not really. Well, sorta. It goes like this:

Tons of filmmakers (like 12 thousand or some such crazy) sent in short films with the hopes of being selected to complete on this show. It’s kind of like your Top Chef, Project Runway, Shear Genius, etc. Those who are chosen must complete assignments and then are judged on them. The difference is that, like American Idol, we the viewers get to vote on our favorites. I still am not sure if our votes even count or if the judges decide, but they make us feel like our vote counts whether it does or not (just like the US of A, right?)

K so the first couple of episodes were whittling it down to 28 (I think) finalists from 50 hopefuls. The first assignment was to pitch a story to the judges; Gary Marshall (director of many great films); Carrie Fisher (god how I love Carrie Fisher, I want to be her best friend – have you read her books?!) and Bret Ratner (I do not want to be his best friend, I don’t think my ass would qualify me).

So each contestant gets a “log line�. It’s the seed of an idea for a film. Their job is to flesh out (or at least outline) a story and then try to sell it to the judges in hopes that one will make the film. They aren’t really going to make the film; the task is coming up with and delivering a good pitch.

We agreed with the article that our homey, Andrew, had the best pitch. He was likeable and articulate. He did not stumble, and did not take off his belt and whip the stage, and he was able to find the exit door when he was excused.

They let a bunch of people go and it was down to 35. End episode one.

Episode #2

The next task was to create a short film. They were to team up with 2 other filmmakers and each one got their own scene and location. They were to assist on each other’s scenes then had to work together to edit and make a good product. Ooooh some heads did butt. There were two guys who especially hated each other and I frankly thought they were both jerks. But they put together a film like everyone else did. I’m not going to go into too much, but the films were mostly pretty entertaining. The personal drama was as well.

They were judged on the films and a few sent packing. Now we’re down to 28. The next challenge was to create (alone) a one minute short.

My DVR in the living room where we were watching this is not a TiVo and it sucks raw eggs. I have complained about this piece of shit before on here so I won’t say too much except that something funky went on and part way through what we thought was supposed to be episode #3 turned into a documentary on the show, “Last Comic Standing�. I poked around on the Official Website and it looks like a lot of people had this same problem (not with defective DVRs but with missing an episode).

UPDATE: Oh my, I just read more and apparently there was some real drah-ma.

This from a friend of one of the filmmakers:
If you all knew what really happened at those final eliminations (and I do!) you'd know that, had they shown it to an audience of filmmakers, they would have zero credibility and integrity left. That's why they didn't post the one page/one hour films or show ALL of the judging of those films on the outtake reels or the cheesy trick they played on two of filmmakers for the eighteenth spot on the show. People they had problems with stayed and some that did a great job on their final challenge went home. It's nothing but reality TV and has nothing to do with looking for the next great filmmaker. You've all been duped and bamboozled.

Episode #3 (I think)

Last night: The show now has a completely different look. It’s presented on a stage in a very large theater with lots of glitz and glamour and a new host. I don’t have any idea what happened to Chelsea Handler who was the host of the first few Epis, but whatever. This girl is pretty annoying. Her name escapes me.

So the shorts they were supposed to make: I don’t remember if they were supposed to be comedy or not, but I think they all were. Or at least the filmmakers intended them to be, though I can’t say I laughed at all of them.

The shitty DVR strikes again and while were out replenishing our desert supplies we missed three of the shorts toward the beginning. One of them was Andrew’s, this pissed us off and no amount of chocolate or cheesecake helped. I know, I tried. (But we could watch them online later.)

For the judges they lost Brett Ratner and gained someone one named DJ Caruso who had some sort of mumbling problem. More on that later. But I was relieved to hear the host say that Carrie Fisher would be around for the whole season.

The shorts we did see were pretty good. Mostly. I am not a fan of potty humor so, like the judges, didn’t care for the farting, peeing ones. Interesting that those were done by women. Probably trying to fit in with the guys. Be edgy, right? Whatever. Didn’t work.

I think my favorite was the first one, Danceman. It was about a guy who doesn’t speak but uses interpretive dance to convey his emotions. It was hilarious and it helped that the star was a guy I’ve liked for a long time. His name is Mark Feuerstein and he’s adorable (you may have seen him in “In Her Shoes� he was Canny’s BF-Husband). But it was funny, charming, well done all around.

OK so the humming? What the hell was wrong with that Dj guy? Whenever one of the other judges was talking you could hear him going “Mmmm, mmmm� and even like he was hmm-ing in approval but just making noise. It was really annoying. If he’s on again, show people, please turn off his mic until it’s his turn to talk.

After the show we watched Andrew’s called Space Out which was about drunk aliens getting pulled over and was hilarious. We voted for that one along with Danceman and Lucky Penny; which was about a penny that was anything but lucky.

You can watch the films here:
http://www.thelot.com/ à and click on Vote. But I think you can only do that when voting is open. I can’t seem to figure out how to watch the films on off time.

You can watch full episodes here: http://www.thelot.com/episodes/watch/ but you have to download a plug in.

So I plan to write as we watch the results show tonight.

Posted under tv/movies

Now, I watch a lot of TV. But I do not watch “Dancing with the Stars�. I do however watch “ET� sometimes and so I’ve been sort of up on who is on the show and who dances well, etc.

Yesterday at work I hear two of my co-workers talking. One, let’s call her Darla, is saying to another one, let’s call her Jean, “Boy, I really liked that dance you were showing me last night.� This indicates that Darla had a dream about Jean dancing and it was deduced that Darla had this dream because she watched “Dancing with the Stars�. (never mind that the thought of Jean dancing anything is beyond strange).

So I was curious as to who won the show. So the exchange goes like this:

Me: Hey Darla, who won Dancing with the Stars?

Darla: Ummm…..Joey!

Me: Oh OK. Thanks.

I later looked online and saw that Apolo Anton Ono won. So:

Me: Darla, I thought you said Joey won!

Darla: Yeah, the skater!

Me: That’s Apolo, Joey was in N’Synch!

Darla: Well it’s not my fault he has a funny name.

Posted under Random Thoughts

This little cutie literally fell into our backyard last night. I don’t know if he came from a tree or the roof (we have a family of something living in the roof). But he plopped down on the sidewalk near Greg.

Luckily Greg got the cat and dogs into the house before they noticed him (her). He seemed a little stunned but not otherwise hurt. He was shy at first, but really took a shine to Greg. He tried to crawl up to him. I didn’t want him to imprint on me so I tried not to get too close. That and I was a little scared he’d bite me. So the end of this movie is me taking it and when he ran toward me I yelped and ran in the house.

I called Animal Control and they told me to call the Humane Society. I called them and they were closed. I called Sue because we had a feeling she’d know what to do and of course she did. She suggested we call the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. I did and they were closed but said that they opened at 9am and we could bring him in at that time. I asked what I could do for him in the meantime and she said put him in a box and keep him warm. Don’t feed him anything.

We found Misha’s old cat carrier and put him in there with a towel. I got real nervous when I woke up because it was about 57 degrees, but the little bugger did just fine. Because we both had to work early this AM Sue came over, picked him up and brought him into the center. Wasn’t that nice?! So he’s in re-hab (queue Amy Winehouse song).

OK here’s a little movie: It’s not great quality, I’m going to play with it more when I have time.

or

[click here]

UPDATE: On August 10th I learned that Rocky was released back into Minneapolis on July 15th, 2007. I hope the rest of that story is not “and then was promptly eaten by a cat”.

Posted under pets

OK so this is the kind of email I get (related to my side job)

****************************************************
Promoters Shemar Moore is available to host your event for a limited
time!
So, if you want the ladies to turn out in droves and want to bring
real Hollywood to your city Shemar Moore is your man. Call ——
today to book Shemar May 1, – June 4, 2007 ONLY!
So, don’t miss the chance to have one of Hollywood’s sexiest men in
your town.
****************************************************

Do you think I could have him “host” an event at my house?

For those if you who don’t know who he is, he’s the hotttiieeeee on “Criminal Minds” *sigh*

See?

Posted under celebrity news/gossip