Top 10 Years of the Decade

"I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts. "
-Orson Welles

Top Ten Years of the Decade

10. 2002
9. 2007
8. 2001
7. 2003
6. 2000
5. 2005
4. The Hurt Locker
3. 2009
2. (TIE) 2006 & 2008
1. 2004

Watched: Watchmen

Week 16 & Hesh Isaacman EPISODE 2

"You're about as mysetrious to me as a blocked toilet is to a plumber."
-Insomnia

26-18-1

Oakland Raiders vs. Cleveland Browns Browns -3
New England Patriots vs. Jacksonville Jaguars OVER 43.5
Indianapolis Colts vs. New York Jets Colts -5.5

Hesh Isaacman: Celebrity Lawyer EPISODE 2 "The Buffalo Kills" is NOW ONLINE. We shot this installment Tuesday night before I left Virginia to come back to New York. It took about 2 hours to shoot, the budget was $30, and I cut it in a day. Please comment and rate.



Watched: Humpday

Week 15

Haven't gotten lost in the woods, have you?"
-Avatar

24-18

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Seattle Seahawks Buccaneers +6.5
New England Patriots vs. Buffalo Bills Patriots -7
Cincinnati Bengals vs. San Diego Chargers Bengals +7

Amy's Picks

7-5

Chicago Bears vs. Baltimore Ravens Bears +11
Green Bay Packers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Packers ML +115
Minnesota Vikings vs Carolina Panthers Vikings -9

Watched: Solaris

Things I Didn't Learn In Film School

"Sometimes you have to pee in the sink."
-Charles Bukowski

Francis Abbey & Jerry Dennis were sweet enough to have me on their new movie podcast "Things Didn't Learn In Film School". I shot the shit for an hour about my video store education and lament the Redskins loss to the Saints.

Listen to the show (episode 4) on www.filmsnobbery.com or subscribe on iTunes.
http://filmsnobbery.com/2009/12/13/things-i-didnt-learn-in-film-school-episode-4/

Watched: Hail Mary

Week 14

"At that point I ought to have gone away, but a strange sensation rose up in me, a sort of defiance of fate, a desire to challenge it, to put out my tongue at it."
-Fyodor Dostoevsky

22-17

Minnesota Vikings vs. Cincinnati Bengals OVER 42.5
Green Bay Packers vs. Chicago Bears Packers -4.5
Washington Redskins vs. Oakland Raiders Redskins -1.5

Watched: The Brothers Bloom

Week 13

"My goals are to play the piano and get really, really, really fat."
-Charles Barkley

22-14

Houston Texans vs. Jacksonville Jaguars Texans PK
Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Giants Cowboys -2.5
San Francisco 49ers vs. Seattle Seahawks 49ers PK

Amy's Picks

6-3

Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Carolina Panthers ML +200
Tennessee Titans vs. Indianapolis Colts Titans +6.5
New Orleans Saints vs. Washington Redskins Redskins +9.5

Watched: Food Inc.

Week 12

"No performer should attempt to bite off red-hot iron unless he has a good set of teeth."
-Harry Houdini

20-13

Indianapolis Colts vs. Houston Texans Colts -3.5
Washington Redskins vs. Philadelphia Eagles Redskins +9
Miami Dolphins vs. Buffalo Bills Dolphins -3

Amy's Picks

4-2

Washington Redskins vs. Philadelphia Eagles UNDER 40.5
Chicago Bears vs. Minnesota Vikings Vikings -11
Kansas City Chiefs vs. San Diego Chargers Chargers -13.5


Watched: The Beyond

Week 11

"I just don't understand people who would walk out on a movie."
-Takashi Miike

19-11

San Francisco 49ers vs. Green Bay Packers OVER 42
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. New Orleans Saints Bucs +425
Washington Redskins vs. Dallas Cowboys OVER 41.5

Amy's Picks

2-1

Miami Dolphins vs. Carolina Panthers Miami ML +155
Indianapolis Colts vs. Baltimore Ravens Colts -1
New York Jets vs. New England Patriots Jets ML +425

Watched: Deadlands 2: Trapped

Week 10

"If we only defend, we lose the war."
-Seven Samurai

17-10

Denver Broncos vs. Washington Redskins Broncos -3.5
Seattle Seahawks vs. Arizona Cardinals Cardinals -9
Chicago Bears vs. San Francisco 49ers 49ers -3

Amy's picks

New England Patriots vs. Indianapolis Colts OVER 50
Buffalo Bills vs. Tennessee Titans Bills ML +240
Denver Broncos vs. Washington Redskins Redskins ML +160

watched: M. Butterfly

Week 9

“I'd hate to be a teetotaler. Imagine getting up in the morning and knowing that's as good as you're going to feel all day.”
-Dean Martin

15-9

Arizona Cardinals vs. Chicago Bears Cardinals ML +125
Houston Texans vs. Indianapolis Colts OVER 48
Tennessee Titans vs. San Francisco 49's OVER 41

Watched: Black Belly of the Tarantula

Wedding Bells & Week 8

"Eleven years ago, I had a heart transplant. I got the heart of a young woman who is in her late 30s. So by that calculation, you may be giving me this award too early, because I think I've got 40 years left, and I intend to use them.”
-Robert Altman (8 months before his death)

13-8

Denver Broncos vs. Baltimore Ravens Broncos ML +160
Miami Dolphins vs. New York Jets OVER 40.5
Minnesota Vikings vs. Green Bay Packers Vikings ML +155

This week's NFL picks are being posted earlier in the week than usual. The reason being that tomorrow morning, I'm going back home to Virginia for the wedding of Ian Albetski & Bridget Devlin Burke. I was fortunate enough to be there when they met and this Saturday I'll be there to see them wed. There will be also be an open bar. Hopefully the good vibes will allow me to go 3-0 with my picks for the second time this season.

Watched: Don't Look Now

Week 7

"You know, a long time ago being crazy meant something. Nowadays everybody's crazy."
-Charles Manson

11-7

Minnesota Vikings vs. Pittsburgh Steelers Vikings ML (+190)
New Orleans Saints vs. Miami Dolphins Saints -6.5
New Orleans Saints vs. Miami Dolphins OVER 47

Watched: Memories of Murder

Week 6

"We make up horrors to help us deal with the real ones"
Stephen King

10-7

*Washington Redskins vs. Kansas City Chiefs UNDER 36.5
*New Orleans Saints vs. New York Giants OVER 48
Denver Broncos vs. San Diego Chargers Broncos ML

*No internet for the last couple of days so I was unable to post picks before kickoff yesterday.

Watched: Paranormal Activity

Piano Delivery

"You turned an Easter egg hunt into a butt fuck-a-thon."
-Made

So far this morning I have deflected a Nigerian scamster and disappointed a pair of piano movers by telling them they had the wrong apartment. Finished typing the first draft of "Dysphonia". 101 pages. I've been in the habit of writing longhand (pencil and spiral notebook) for the the last 2 years, This way Skynet cannot steal my ideas.

Watched: Midnight Express

Week 5

"Censors tend to do what only psychotics do: they confuse reality with illusion."
-David Cronenberg

6-6

Went 0-3 making picks last Sunday but luckily I woke up after kickoff, so I didn't place any of the bets. Instead I bet it all on the Vikings Monday night. Favre was kind enough to cover the spread.

Washington Redskins vs. Carolina Panthers UNDER 37.5
Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Philadelphia Eagles Buccaneers +15.5
Indianapolis Colts vs. Tennessee Titans Colts -3

Watched: Anvil: The Story of Anvil

Week 4

"Fuck your hat."
-Goodfellas

6-3

Baltimore Ravens vs. New England Patriots Ravens +1.5
Detroit Lions vs. Chicago Bears UNDER 40.5
New York Jets vs. New Orleans Saints OVER 45.5

Watched: The Bird With The Crystal Plumage

Inside

"I like films to have something inside, I don't mean a message, I mean something from the soul."
-Dario Argento




















Watched: Grace

Week 3

"You've been in my life so long, I can't remember anything else."
-Alien 3

4-2

New York Jets vs. Tennesee Titans Jets -3
Washington Redskins vs. Detroit Lions Redskins -6.5
Indiannapolis Colts vs. Arizona Cardinals Colts ML

Watched: Martyrs

Week 2

"I'll send you a postcard from Space Mountain."
-The Shield

2-1

New Orleans Saints vs. Philadelphia Eagles Over 46
New Orleans Saints vs. Philadelphia Eagles Saints PK
Dallas Cowboys vs. NY Giants Cowboys -3

Watched: Marathon Man

Football Season

"Football season is over"
-Hunter S. Thompson's suicide note

Hopefully my picks will be better than last year

NY Jets vs. Houston Texans Jets +175
NY Giants vs. Washington Redskins Giants -6.5
Philadelphia Eagles vs. Carolina Panthers Eagles -2.5

Watched: Eastern Promises

Talk Radio Part II

"Let me take you down..."
-John Lennon

The Independent Corner interview was a ball. Special thanks to Movie Geek Jerry Dennis for dropping in and getting his Geek on.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/JonathanMoody/2009/09/11/The-Ten-Sundays-show


Watched: Conan The Barbarian

Talk Radio

"Censorship is telling a man he can't have a steak just because a baby can't chew it."
-Mark Twain

Myself and Ian Albetski will be guests on the live podcast The Independent Corner tonight September 10 @ 10 PM (EST). We'll be shooting the shit for an hour about low budget filmmaking and the future of Ten Sundays Productions. If you can't catch the live feed, the show will be archived and you can listen to it at your leisure.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/JonathanMoody

Watched: Apocalypto

Bullfighting

"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
-Albert Einstein

Although I maintain that 27 is too old to receive Birthday presents, today my mother gave me a copy of Hemingway's bullfighting novel Death in the Afternoon. It's pretty thick, but still shorter than her other present, Joe Eszterhas's memoir Hollywood Animal, which is over 700 pages. By 27, Orson Welles had directed Citizen Kane, Booth had killed Lincoln, and Morrison, Hendrix, Cobain, and Joplin were dead. It's silly to envy assassins and the dead. I'll be 27 in 2 days and I think I'm happier than most of my friends.

Watched: Funny People

The Milgram Experiment

"After all, life hasn't much to offer except youth, and I suppose for older people, the love of youth in others."
-F. Scott Fitzgerald

I'm getting on a bus for DC in 8 hours. The bus snakes around midtown for awhile before the Lincoln Tunnel spits it out onto the New jersey Turnpike. I will arrive in Chinatown around 1:30 in the afternoon and have arranged for my usual escort to meet me there. Supposedly I'm going down there to document the struggles of making a low budget film. I am not privy to the details of the budget. When films reach a certain cost, it is impolite to ask. Just like scraping a price tag off a Christmas gift. It is less for the recipient's benefit and more about hiding your own embarrassment if you overpaid. I haven't been on a film set in over a year. If you're not a participant, most sets are about as fun as biting down on a fork. Between the repetition and the slew of obnoxious optimists, I'll probably lose my wood pretty quickly. I'll be on set for the next 2 weeks and I'm going to try and blog a few times about the goings on. Also, 58 pages deep on the new script. It's not a race, but it's nice when it starts to get thick.

Watched: Zombthology

À bout de souffle

"All right, I'll count to 8, and if you haven't smiled, I'll strangle you."
-Breathless

It is hot and sweaty even with the windows open and the fan on. Never end a sentence with a preposition. I would have ended the first sentence with the word "oscillating" but then I'd have to check to make sure I spelled it correctly. That first sentence looks increasingly poor upon second glance. Not just because of the foolhardy preposition placement. I notice that bad writers always use two adjectives to describe something when one will do just fine. Perhaps it is a holdover from writing book reports that had to hit a predesignated page count. I'm 46 pages into the script now and to think about it like that takes all the fun out of it.

Watched: Shocker

Illiteracy

"I don't like what I'm doing, Sport"
-Taxi Driver

If you are a non confrontational person and have friends that you never want to speak to again, write a script and send it to them. Tell them it's important. Tell them you respect their opinion. They will avoid you like the plague because they either a.) never read it or b.) read it and thought it was godawful. You'll never really know.

Watched: There Was A Little Girl (Madhouse U.S. Title)

Solipsism & Adoption

"The children had stones already."

-The Lottery

I am in the middle of gathering materials together to send to New Blood Entertainment, a Canadian based distribution company. They showed interest in acquiring the non exclusive rights to "Cannibal Cheerleader Camp." They seem to think that they can make a few bucks from it and I was flattered so I agreed to sign the deal. Myself and the actresses involved worked on "Cannibal" for 3 days almost 2 years ago. Then I spent scattered days and weeks over the next year, editing the picture, finding the right composer, designing artwork, creating sound effects, and reshooting the tiniest little bits that nobody but myself noticed were imperfect. The finished product received some very glowing reviews and one extremely negative. The film was probably somewhere in between. We held a handful of small screenings that were all pretty awful and it failed to beat even mediocre competition at a pathetic local film festival. Truthfully, I never wanted the sceenings to be well attended and I didn't even go to the festival because I never thought the film was very good. It's not the sort of thing that a 25 year old should be laboring over. I'm grateful for the reviewers that genuinely got a kick out of it. They took the time to give well deserved ink to the girls and their hard work. The audiences were polite at best. But to try and flog something so inconsequential made me feel like a teenage girl stuffing her training bra. The whole thing is embarrasing and I'm glad it's someone else's problem now.

Watched: Le Dernier Métro

-Paul

Slate

"And though I'm no Olivier / If he fought Sugar Ray / He would say / That the thing ain't the ring, it's the play. / So give me a... stage / Where this bull here can rage / And though I could fight / I'd much rather recite /... that's entertainment."
-Raging Bull

In early April, after a month of feeling miserable and thinking I was going to have a heart attack every time I walked up a flight of stairs, I finally broke down and went to a doctor. I've always been an amatuer hypochondriac, but I was losing sleep over the littany of health problems I was worried about having. After hooking me up to an EKG, taking my blood, and listening to my lungs (which even after 13 years of smoking, the doctor assured me were "as clear as a bell"), two separate doctors confirmed it was all in my head. They diagnosed me with having generalized anxiety disorder and depression. I've always believed that only boring people don't have some level of mental problems so I was a bit flattered. I think I was just getting bent out of shape being worried about what other people had and what I thought I deserved. I kept catching myself in the middle of conversations where I was desperately trying to sound like things were going better than they really were. It's like lying on a resume. Well, it was making me ill. It wasn't cigarettes, booze, red meat or pills that were wrecking my body. It was the serial name dropping and phoniness that pollute this whole sideshow and stop it from ever being an art. I've tried my hardest to apologize to people I've blown it with. I think the more sadistic of them enjoyed my prostrating. I'm writing off the last year because if I dwelled on it, I'd just get worse. I finished the first 32 pages of "Dysphonia" Thursday morning. It's going to be a feature length rape-revenge horror script. I've been watching as much Cronenberg and Argento as I can get my hands on as well as listening to Metallica's "Master of Puppets" to get in the mood. It's been rewarding to work on and I think it will be something special once it's finished. The teaser poster is below. Getting back in the habit of writing every day is tricky and it's easy to get derailed after a string of late nights and afternoon wakeups.

Also, welterwieght boxer Arturo Gatti was found dead yesterday. If you are unfamiliar with him, get familiar quick by watching some highlights from his trilogy of fights with "Irish" Mickey Ward. He was 37 and foul play is suspected.

Watched: El Orfanato
-Paul

Independence Day

"The tragedy of modern war is that young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals."
-Edward Abbey

This is an imperfect country and a young country. We cannot hide behind our youth forever. Today I deleted all the old posts on this blog and will be starting over next week.

Watched: All The President's Men