Accentuate the Positive

That's what I'm going to be doing, and looking for, here in Blogovia. That's not to say that I'll never post about, nor comment on, topics of the "What the hell's this all about?" variety. But I'm through getting mired in comment wars. That's not an indictment of anyone other than myself. I've just got much better things to do with my time than following, let alone participating in, the antagonism that surfaces in the comments of some of the blogs I read.

In the real world, I rarely get the kinds of opportunities to hear multiple points of view that I do here in Blogovia. That's what I love about it. I love debate. When it's done with respect, I often learn things. Sometimes it's just learning a new perspective, other times it's learning new facts and developments. And because of that, sometimes my perspective changes. I never understand why so many people are so adverse to changing perspective, because when I do, it feels really good. It's a major accomplishment. Maintaining your position in the face of opposing points of view can often be admirable, proper and even necessary. But it's also pretty easy. Truly listening to and considering an opposing point of view is a phenomenal skill; allowing yourself to admit that the opposing point of view carries more weight than yours takes guts. I appreciate that. And no, I'm not talking about politicians who change their "beliefs" as the tide of public opinion changes. I'm talking about the individual, and what's in the individual's heart.

The problem is that many times, debates in Blogovia are anything but respectful. And once they digress to insults, name-calling and the equivalent of middle-school playground pushing and shoving, I'm no longer going to learn anything. All opportunity for me to get what I want from the conversation -- healthy debate, even enlightenment -- is gone down the shitter. I'm not above reproach; I've gotten wrapped up in some of that shit, only to look at it later and think, why the hell did I waste my time with that trainwreck? I will give myself some credit and say I always try to keep it respectful, even when other participants are not. But even then, my comments are still enabling those creating the cesspool.

I've done a pretty good job of keeping things here at Boiled Dinner relatively civil. But I can't control what happens at other blogs, nor can I control what other people do or say. I can only control Jeff K. And Jeff K just ain't gonna play in the shitbox anymore.

Jeff K also ain't gonna keep referring to himself in the third person, but at the moment, Jeff K feels it's the most powerful way to get his message across.

Interviewrama

Here are links to all the people I interviewed. Read 'em and learn!

Don
Jodie
Joe
Looney
O'Tim
Ole Blue
Paula
PJ

Here are the answers to my questions from Paticus, if you didn't see 'em before.

My Interview

UPDATE: DON'T FORGET, ONCE YOU ANSWER THE QUESTIONS ON YOUR BLOG, COME BACK HERE AND POST A COMMENT LETTING EVERYONE KNOW YOU'RE FINISHED!

Paticus has this interview thingie on his site, and I thought it looked interesting, so I asked him to interview me. He sent me five questions to answer. Here they are:

1. What is the best movie remake ?

Ooh, tough one right out of the gate. The Fly comes to mind. As does The Thing and Casino Royale. But in the end, I gotta go with Scarface, which most people don't realize was a remake of a 1932 film.

2. What is your ultimate meal ?

Homemade chicken pot pie and mashed potatoes. Strawberry shortcake for dessert.

3. You have been asked to change the colors of M&M's - What 5 colors do you make them ?

Kelly green, forest green, hunter green, lime green and chartreuse green.

4. Why do fools fall in love ?

Everyone needs a hand to hold onto. Don't need to be no strong hand, don't need to be no rich hand. Everyone just needs a hand to hold onto.

5. What is the best joke you have ever heard ?

Okay, I had put a joke here with a disclaimer saying it's horribly politically incorrect, but I just can't post it. If you want to hear it, email me. Instead, I'll put this one, which is a Gary Shandling slice of brilliance:

I went to my doctor and told him, "My penis is burning."
He told me that means someone is talking about it.



Here are the rules if you want to keep it going:

Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
You will update your weblog with the answers to the questions, and let me know that you answered. If you don't have a blog, but would still like to play, I can send you the questions, and you can answer 'em in the comments.
You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Film Freaks Film Club

I had this really cool idea while writing a comment to the post below this, and it's such a cool idea it deserves its own post.

Who would be up for a blog-based film club?

Each month (or perhaps every other), someone is designated to choose a film. That person posts the film on his/her blog, and everyone in the club (secret handshakes and wotnot) watches the film by the deadline. Then the person who chose the film begins a discussion on her/his blog by posting questions or discussion prompts.

Or, perhaps the film chooser posts some things to look for during the film, preparing us for the discussion ahead of time.

We'd create a sort of Film Freaks Circle of Blogs.

Or, we could create a single team blog and all members have posting priveleges. That could be Way Cool Junior.

Thoughts?

UPDATE: It is Way Cool Junior. Here's the site.

Go read O'Tim

His ongoing commentary of Movie Madness is the stuff of legends.

Next round will be up soon...

CLICK HERE TO READ FORMER HALOSCAN COMMENTS TO THIS POST (please use Blogger comments from now on)

Go read Looney.

Whether you've seen Schindler's List or not, you should go read Looney's review (yeah, he finally got around to watching it -- not the most punctual of guys, our Looney...).

And go say hi to Brad, too. He directed and edited this scene from our movie Hempmento.

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Blog Newbie

My buddy Brad and I have been real-life friends for many years, and he's one of the few people on the planet whose opinion in movies I trust implicitly. He's a professional editor and cameraman by trade, and he and I have worked on a number of fun, original film & video projects (billing ourselves as the Stabloski Brothers).

Anyway, Brad has a blog now. It's called Stab Film. He only has one entry so far, about Mr. Scorcese, and you should go over there and welcome him to our crazy blog world. Don't be afraid to tell him he's full of shit, either, because he often is. And if you love film, or even just like it a shitload, you should make him a regular part of your blog surfing.

Of course, Brad, that means you have to regularly post on there, dude, or we'll eviscerate you.

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When You Were Yoots

Joe and I were having a discussion over at Paula's about the influence of parents on their kids, and it got me to thinking (as discussions with Joe always do, which is why I love having discussions with Joe) about whether I was right or not, which in turn made me curious to see how all y'all felt.

So here's the question: When you were a teenager, particularly in your high-school years, who had more influence on you as it pertained to your appearance? Your three choices are 1) Your parents; 2) Your friends/peers; 3) Celebrities/idols. Just name your number one choice, or order them if you wish. Tell me why.

I'm not talking about choices having to do with sex or drinking or cheating or driving like and idiot or things like that. I'm just talking about the more superficial choices having to do with how you looked.

Do tell!

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Calling All Blazing Saddles fans...

Go over to Supersnark's and join the fun.

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Get over there...

...and wish O'Tim congratulations for the arrival of his new son!

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Linkage.

Here are some people I've added to my blogroll recently whom I think you should go read 'cause we're good like that.

Jodie

Heath

JennyJinx

Law Wench

SuperSnark

Eric

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It's a blogturf war!

I have to say I haven't ever been involved in anything like this before. What a crazy couple days! Most everyone who reads my blog also reads Paula's, but in case you haven't been following the schoolyard banter going back and forth, well, let me tell you, you've been missing out.

It starts here with Paula's post and subsequent comments about pit bull attacks.

It then moved to a chick named Virginia's blog post and subsequent comments complaining about the way she was treated in Paula's comments.

Then back to Paula's with this post and comments about Virginia's post and comments.

Back to Virginia's where she praises her commenters for being so much better than Paula's.

Back to Paula's where she calls bullshit.

Finally over to this dude's, the New York City Watchdog, who did a lot of posturing.

Oh, and this comedianne named Miss Ann Thrope keeps posting really long posts in which she tells people to shut the fuck up. She doesn't seem to have a blog.

Whew! Did you read them all? I know, it'll take three to four days, but trust me, it's worth it.

Nothing amuses me more than people who cannot for the life of them see how their own words and actions contribute to a situation. Virginia, Miss Ann and Watchdog truly think they're not sitting in and smelling their own shit. I went over to Virginia's blog to make nice, because that's how mommy taught me, as did Mark, Joe, Don, PJ, shit, maybe more, and all they can do is bitch about Paula's commenters en masse, Looney and PJ in particular (okay, maybe PJ didn't go over to make nice but to be condescending in a way only PJ can pull off). Oh, I almost forgot about Gekko. She went over there too, and now I'm afraid of her again.

Any acknowledgment from Virginia that, well, while a couple commenters over at Paula's crossed the line (in her opinion, mind you), most of them have come over to my blog and been pretty respectful?

Nope. Nothing.

Why? Because then the whole foundation of her broken heartedness would crumble, and Miss Ann's butting in would have been a complete and utter waste of time.

Virginia accused Paula of not liking people to disagree with her, yet this whole thing was set off because Virginia didn't like people disagreeing with her. Of course, she won't see that. No, it's about how people disagreed with her. Rightttttt.

Well, to Mark and Joe and Don and everyone else who showed some class by going onto their turf and trying to make nice, you've got my respect even more than you already did.

Virginia and her ilk can keep languishing in their own shit and calling it someone else's.

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New Year's Wish List

I was mulling over resolutions and whatnots when I read PJ's post. Rather than doing resolutions, she made a wish list. In other words, she listed the resolutions she wished other people would make. Brilliant! So I'm doing the same.

1. I wish we had new carpeting in our house.

2. I wish the snow on our street would melt, as the city decided ours was not an important enough street to plow.

3. I wish people would chill the hell out when they're behind the wheel and stop driving like douche bags. What is it about automobiles that makes so many people believe that they're invincible? Slow down, give some room between you and the person in front of you, pay attention to the road and the other drivers, and we'll all get to where we're going without incident.

4. I wish people still fought with fists, knives, chains and pipes instead of guns.

5. I wish they still taught things like American history and social studies in public schools. Standardized testing has ruined the concept of well-rounded educations. Now it's all about math and English, math and English. My 7th-grade daughter didn't know who Gerald Ford was, and unless my wife and I teach her she'll never know because they don't study American history past the Revolutionary War in middle school anymore.

6. I wish Charlie Kaufman would hurry up and write another movie.

7. I wish I'd hurry up and finish the movie I'm writing.

8. I wish everything was less expensive.

9. I wish I could get into shape by drinking beer and eating pretzels, like I could when I was 21.

10. I wish all of you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2007.

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Buy this book. Now.

Welcome Home is a cookbook that PJ wrote. There are a number of reasons you should buy this book right now by clicking here.

• It's not just a cookbook. It's also a book. It's full of wonderful stories and reminiscing that you want to read whether you're cooking or not.


• The recipe's are for the most wonderfully comfortable of comfort food you could ever make. Seeing how I grew up eating these dishes, my opinion weighs heavily here.


• There are pictures of me in there.


• This isn't some big corporately published cookbook. PJ published this herself. She wrote it, a friend of ours designed it for her, and then she paid 100% of the printing costs herself. If you buy it, you won't just be getting the most unique and stellar cookbook ever written. You'll also be helping out someone who had the cajones to want something done, and then do it herself.

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Plagiarism while-U-wait

I see a few blogs wearing this sort of thing this season:


I'd be delighted if someone stole something from Boiled Dinner. Just imagine how many more people would get to see it. It's come to something when being ripped-off, bootlegged and pirated is the only chance you've got left.

*This entire post was stolen from Sour Grapes.

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The Glory of Film

I'm a digital fool. I loves the technology, loves the digital camera and iPod and digital video editing and the cool fun stuff that used to be reserved for "professionals." But there's still a beauty in film -- both still and motion picture -- that digital just can't yet duplicate. O'Tim's recent posts about his road trip to the Southwest is a great example of combining new-school technology with old-school beauty, with him taking hundreds of digital photos, and a number of rolls of 35mm film. Go check out his cool shots.

Here are a few B&W film pics I took a few months back while vacationing in San Francisco. They're all of Alcatraz from a boat out on the harbor. These are scans of the prints I had made, and the scans definitely don't do the prints justice. I had Wolf Camera do the developing (I used Tri-X b&w 100 speed film), and they did a marvelous job. The grain in the shots adds so much texture. Anyway, here's a digital delivery of film prints, for your viewing pleasure.











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Up in Smoke

While nowhere near as emotionally heated as Archer's hypothetical last week, I've got a real-life situation that begs the question: What would you do?

Rob Smoke is a city official in Boulder, Colorado. He's a member of Boulder's Human Relations Commission and runs the city's anti-hate hotline.

Señor Smoke, a 50ish dude with a crooked nose and very little hair, has a MySpace page. His quote on the page: "I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm horny, I'm stoned...and I'm a city official"

As you would expect, the page has created quite the controversy around here. Talk radio is all over it: Should Smoke be able to keep his job? If he does, should he have to take down his MySpace page?

Check it out, then discuss.

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WPOCBH

(worthless piece of crap blogger hack)

Some psycho has been over at PJ's Place exercising her right to free fucktardedness. She's been around for a few years over on usenet in misc.writing posting with various names. Now she thinks she's Janet, though she also commented as GLK in the same post, most likely an "oh shit" moment for her when she realized it. She's like the beginning of the Rudolph song: You know Gladys and Janet and Leslie and Daisy, Charles and Bozo and Holly and Crazy... Anyway, most recently PJ -- my mother, I'm proud to say -- posted a small rememberance of 9/11, accompanied by this photo:



Said psycho went to PJ's blog and, I shit you not, wrote a comment chastising PJ for not attributing the photographer, and saying she used it to push her own agenda.

Yes, I'm serious.

PJ's "agenda" was this:

Subject: in memory
Words: My thoughts and prayers are with those who lost loved ones five years ago today.

No, there's no more. That's it. That was her agenda, apparently horribly offensive to Janetgladysglklesliedaisybozoette.

This gutless (or ball-less, as David pointed out), friendless, careerless, pointless, witless, clueless, rhythmless, sexless, valueless, loverless, useless cretin won't even post a link to her/his/its own site.

WAC

And I never say that about anyone.

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Only 16% more to go, and another Brain Break.

You've Experienced 84% of Life

You have an amazing amount of life experience. In fact, you've seen and done more than most people. So congratulate yourself on what you've done so far. The future is only going to be more of the same!

How Much Life Experience Do You Have?

Looks like I'm nearly finished. I think I'll try to stretch out that last 16% over the next 58 years.

Found at Paula's, who swiped it from Shelly.


Brain Break #3: Jane Teaches a Lesson
This was a joy to shoot...



If you had trouble with watching it imbeded here in my blog, try this link instead.


Finally, I put a link to my commercial and film acting reel (aka Show Reel, as Sour Grapes calles it) in my side bar over yonder under the "Me" section. Do check it out and do tell me what you think...

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May Contain More Nuts

I'm a nut now. Check it out.

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