Artwork tonight from Jim Burns, which really reminds me of Rendezvous with Rama.

Take one down, pass it around…

So, a year ago, I set out on this quest to watch 100 movies in 2015. Well, I am TWO movies away from that goal with two days to go in the year. Granted…I *did* have to watch 6 movies in the last two days to get myself to this point…but hey, what am I if not a procrastinator.

Speaking of procrastinating…I *finally* sat back down for writing hour today, and feel soooo much better. It wasn’t a full hour, but it was a GOOD partial-hour. My short story is NOT a complete disaster…it just needs some love and affection. A good spit polish. Some massaging. Telling it that it’s beautiful, and everyone will totally love it.

I watched three movies today, guys. It’s too many. AND did my narrations. 24 of them. This other guy that does narrations, we’ll call him Hazy, he went ham today. Hard As A Motherfucker. He may have beat my single-day narration record of 58 narrations. Maybe. Not by much, if he did. I totally understand, though, that he’s going cray on getting as many done as he can. He can clearly see the Ho and I snapping up as many of these waiting lessons as we can, and he wants to make sure he gets his, you know? I’m not sweating it, there are enough to do right now for all of us. I have my daily goals, and I’m perfectly content hitting them for the next couple days.

Then it is two days OFF. And I mean OFF. No narrating. No Flix work. Nothing. The first two days of 2016 will be restful and introspective. Well, off except for the writing 😛 Have to get this Trek short whipped into shape and ready for the Ho and maybe a couple others to read by the weekend. That would then give me two weeks for any rewrites and copy editing that needs to be done. Deadline is the 15th of January. I think I’m going to spend some time tomorrow looking over the submission process and guidelines again, just make sure I have everything straight. It’d be a shame to not even be able to participate just because I wasn’t paying attention, you know?

I watched Beasts of No Nation today and it blew me away. It was SO FUCKING GOOD you guys. Not for the faint of heart, definitely, but it’s one of the only movies of its kind that I’ve ever seen, when it really had hope in it. Hope, and what one might argue an uplifting message, despite all the horror it really wades through and dwells upon. It struck me as very concerned with realism, which is interesting given that’s it’s a story based upon a novel, i.e.- not a true accounting of actual events. It’s meant to be an amalgamation of many truths all wound into one. I found it to be very moving, and I’d definitely put it on my list of this year’s best. So, kudos and cheers to Netflix.

I also watched the documentary To Be Takei which was an absolutely wonderful portrait of George Takei that revolved around his activism and personal life/history. Truly, it was a fantastically made documentary. I loved it. Really made me realize how much I respect the man.

My last movie of the bonanza was a little HBO doc called Shot Heard Round the World which was about the Giants and the Dodgers in the 1951 baseball season. It culminated in the very famous call of “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” I’m not a fan of either team, but it was really cool to get a glimpse into baseball culture of that time. Lots of interviews with the players of the series, and lots with the fans, too, and about how much the two groups really hated each other.

Oh, and I also started to watch American Sniper which is likewise instantly recognizable as a competently-made film. I think I’m going to enjoy it, too. That’s what I’m watching tomorrow. I think it’s the last one left from the Best Picture nominations of this past award season. Seems fitting, given that the new awards season is now upon us.

That’s all for tonight. I was more verbose tonight seeing as I’m actually getting to bed on time. Waking up this morning was rough…I have no desire to repeat that tomorrow on a work day 😛 Gotta do what we gotta do, you know? Of course you do. Go to bed.