Da7e Gonzales

S is for Space Jockey.

Anxiety.

Ain’t ever gonna let it rule me.

Can’t let it out.

Just gotta fight it.

At some point, next week, a new 3D Bipolar Bear EP will drop at 3dBiPolarBear.com. Go there now to see another preview track off “Subways and Smoke Breaks.” It’s named that way because I made the entire thing on subway rides and during smoke breaks. Including the cover art. It’s 100% phone.

Hey-oh!

Latino Review has moved to Latino-Review.com. That’s a hyphen! A hyphen meant for speed and unity of purpose and less rambling from Da7e. : ). 

That means that my 6 Things W/Da7e articles have gone the way of TheBadAndUgly.com. 

BUT! Since Waterhole is now available to you easily.

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

HERE

I thought I’d re-print what I had to say about it. So you can see it. Then we can talk about it.

I was sent this independent film, The Waterhole, by the official Twitter account of the movie @WaterholeMovie. I was intrigued by this particular slice of independent cinema because of a producing experience I’ve had in my past, namely, shooting in a bar for The Four-Faced Liar (an indie I did some associate producing on for my college friends).

The Waterhole is about that time in a young person’s life where they realize they need to get their shit together. I guess I’d say quarter-life crisis. It’s between a college movie and that time period currently being discussed on television in Perfect Couples and Traffic Light. It was a Sundance Lab Finalist screenplay about Miller (Patrick J Adams), a guy getting out of a failed relationship and slowly sinking into alcoholism.

It’s one of those indie films that isn’t based on a big premise or hook idea, it’s about watching the three (arguably four, but really three since the bartender is more of a sounding board) friends work through their personal drama. Miller just dumped his girlfriend who cheated on him, another guy just got engaged and that sort of spooks him and the third – memorably named Cracker and memorably performed by an actor named Joey Klein – is really an alcoholic whose disease is destroying his life.

The Waterhole was shot in Reno at an actual bar and is about alcoholism, so occasionally I forgave the indie film “empty bar syndrome.” Believe me, it’s tough scheduling extras to sip apple juice mixed with seltzer water for three hours, repeating the same mimed conversations. So having one character own the bar and the other characters end up at the bar at seemingly bizarre hours had be buying a partially full bar. I had some trouble buying a bar that didn’t have constant music on TVs on, but some things you forgive indie films.

The Waterhole was a pleasant experience, even if the story has trouble integrating all three concepts under a unifying theme. I’m not exactly sure what everyone has learned at the end. We certainly know that alcoholism is dangerous, but beyond that, I just wanted Miller to man up and realize that actions have consequences even if you want them to or not.

And to be fair, I dealt with that reality for half a decade, easy, when I was that character’s age, so the few months covered in this film’s timeline is pretty good timing for emotional growth.

Oh, did I mention there are some really talented and hot women playing the female roles in this movie? (Since it was shot in Reno, they’re probably all LA based, you lucky West Coast bachelors you. ) Their emotional stories take place largely off screen, but to the credit of the women playing the unseen side of these relationships, they came off believable. That goes for all three of them, with their three sets of beautiful eyes.

Last I head, Amazon was sold out of Waterhole DVDs, but I bet you can find more by poking around the official site.

Thanks BATTLESHIP Trailer.

Friendsgiving VIII 2011 Montage!

Ack. ARRRRRGH. AAAAAAAAACCCCCRERRRRRRGGGG!

So frustrating.

Hello Friends! Some of you might remember that I used to run a gossip/movie-news hybrid site called The Bad And Ugly. That site is still around content wise (though the formatting of the site has changed), so I thought I’d migrate this Halloweeny post over to the Tumblr and replace the broken YouTube videos with links to working ones!

Because Fall = Halloween = Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

I grew up in Boulder, Colorado. That wasn’t where I was born, but that’s where I spent the majority of my childhood and school-years. Living in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains reinforced my association between the autumn season and Halloween.

Living in Brooklyn, nature isn’t exactly all around me. When I suggested to a friend that they “just go outside and get a rock” to prop open their door, said friend looked at me like I was crazy. Because there isn’t anywhere within miles of me where I could pick up a rock that wasn’t really just a chunk of concrete.

So, around this time of year, it’s always nice to get in a spooky mood. Back in the days of grade school, where the entire month of October was dedicated to Halloween and harvest activities (yes, I grew up in the West where things like the yearly harvest were still celebrated), I would watch cartoons and “scary” movies. These days, the “scary” movies I see are usually adult-themed and very gory. Which is totally fine, but I can’t go watch SAW V and recapture the childhood feeling of a spooky Halloween season. It doesn’t help that whichever theater I go to, when I emerge to rejoin reality, I’m always greeted by a cityscape and not multi-colored trees and houses with jack-o-lanterns.

That’s why I spent last night watching Disney’s Halloween Classic “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow,” narrated and sung by Bing Crosby. The flick was originally a segment in a tow-part film RKO Radio Pictures and Disney released into theaters on October 5th, 1949 as The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. The film was based on two literary stories (Kenneth Grahame’s Wind In The Willows and Washington Irving’s Legend of Sleepy Hollow) and both were narrated by then-celebs. Bing Crosby took on Sleepy Hollow and Basil Rathbone (Sherlock Holmes, Captain Blood) narrated the Wind In The Willows portion.

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was the final “package” film released by Disney. The studio had begun to bind two semi-related stories together before bringing them to theaters because of WWII related budget cuts. After The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Disney returned to doing single-narrative animated films.

So, courtesy of YouTube, I present Disney’s The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow after the cut. Because Halloween as a kid was fun, and now it’s just a week where I have to go shopping for a costume to get drunk in.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Part 1

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Part 2

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Part 3

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Part 4

OPKINO CUT: “Drawing Heart Out Of Something Technical And Seemingly Lifeless That I Like”

Some of The Real Steel review (Reel Steal? Reele Steele? Authentic Alloy?) got caught between segments. And @misterpatches had some good points.

FULL EPISODE EVERY FRIDAY AT OPKINO.COM

“OpKino Cut” are segments that make good audio material, but ultimately got left out of the podcast. (Or you could have listened to the Temple Grandin episode where we actually left the rant in, and if so I apologize)

Here’s the two you missed if you’re only coming to this blog:

OpKino Cut: Little Katey Rich (off Moneyball)

OpKino Cut: Dare To Be Stupid (off 50/50)

I know dinosaurs aren’t around… (ahem…anymore). But they are also one of my secret fears. This photo is kind of terrifying. 

vincentpeone:

Some days are much cooler than other days- like last Friday when Josh and I got yelled at for running at the Jurassic Park ride.

• INT. APARTMENT LIVING ROOM
• Two guys watch the news, sitting on a couch, drinking coffee and juice.
• Jim: I am so happy I have a job.
• Dale: Seriously.
• Jim: Could you imagine trying to get through all this political posturing on a week-to-week basis?
• Dale: What?
• Jim: I mean, watching the news everyday and watching these idiots talk about things they'll never do, knowing that their next stupid decision could be, like, the end of my income.
• Dale: I don't think you'd watch the news if you were unemployed.
• JIM: All I did when I was unemployed was news and X-box...and Law and Order. But it was unavoidable in those days.
• Dale: I don't find the news interesting. I'll watch the Daily Show but, it's, like, it's too hard to tell how serious everything really is when everything is treated like it's an apocalypse.
• JIM: It doesn't matter, man, the government is broken.
• Dale: Saying that doesn't fix anything, though. You have to, like, vote and shit.
• JIM: Voting doesn't fix anything.
• Dale: Sure it does. It makes the politicians responsible to the people.
• JIM: In theory...but in practice...Let me punch you in the face.
• Dale: Why? No. I mean, No, what are you talking about?
• JIM: No, come on, let me punch you in the face. I'll give you-
• Jim pulls out his wallet. He puts $5 on the table.
• Dale: No. Five bucks isn't enough.
• Jim puts a $20 on the table
• JIM: Twenty-five bucks.
• Dale: Why? Why do you want to punch me in the head so badly?
• Jim looks into his wallet. Puts another $20 down.
• JIM: Forty-five bucks to punch you in the face, no questions asked.
• Dale: I broke my nose like that in high school, man. Just tell me-
• Jim gets up and leaves the room.
• Dale: - why? Why? Dude? Is it because I told you to vote?
• Jim is back with his checkbook. He's writing a check.
• JIM: Here. One-thousand dollars. I will pay you one-thousand dollars to punch you in the face.
• Jim rips off the check and hands it to Dale. Dale looks down at the check.
• Dale: And I get to take this and the cash if you can punch me in the face.
• Jim plucks the check out of Dale's hand and puts it on the pile of cash.
• Dale: Fine.
• Dale sits up straight. Jim sits down next to Dale.
• Dale: Just try to-
• POW! Jim punches Dale right in the nose, re-breaking it and sending blood spilling down his face. While Dale holds his face in pain, Jim picks up the check, rips it in half, then stuffs the money and ripped check into his pocket.
• He turns and looks at the TV as if nothing happened. Drinking some juice out of a glass.
• Dale: Ah! FOOK! MAH NAASE!
• JIM: That's what voting is. Except you get a sticker that let's you act like you're better than people.
• END

Tomorrow’s Operation Kino Podcast Ep #28, Drive and the Toronto Film Festival are discussed and the lightning round question involved everyone’s favorite Disney Musical number. 

I decided that what we needed we remixes of Disney songs for all the music breaks. I really tried to make them varied and pleasant to listen to (because I tend to have weird taste in music, especially remixes).

The only weirdness I faltered on was the ending track which is the above remix of It’s A Small World.

But - hey - it could have been worse, it could have been this weirder one:

Little Dude Teaser

I’m glad someone else drew this, because that means there are kindred spirits out there.

The press release manages to remember my name is spelled with a 7. EXCELLENT:

In addition to numerous premieres, NYHKFF devised a number of exciting panels to provide a unique opportunity for festival goers to hear insightful discussions from a variety of film industry experts. Among these is a special live recording of Operation Kino, the popular weekly movies and pop culture podcast from Katey Rich (Editor and Chief of Cinemablend.com), Matt Patches (Movies Editor of Hollywood.com), David Ehrlich (Criterion Corner, Movies.com) and Da7e Gonzales (LatinoReview.com). Anyone can join the specially formatted “Film Court” show featuring three debates about film topics, tidbits, prizes and the ever-popular Lightning Round. (Find more Operation Kino at OpKino.com and on Twitter at @OpKino.)

OPKINO LIVE! Film Court will go down 9/5 at 7PM at the Producer’s Club on West 44nd. Maybe I’ll make a Facebook invite to make you all click “Maybe”

delbertshoopman:

Just a reminder to the East Coast here is the official Earthquake scale. So just chill. (via: Dan at Irrational films)