Three Movies, One Day...

Yesterday, was a LONG DAY for Shane, as I watched THREE movies!!!

First up, my buddy Craig and I caught an afternoon showing of "Syrianna" at the NEW Keystone Arts Cinema that Jason manages. The theatre is NICE! I like it a lot, unfortunetly, the movie bored me, and I found myself napping at times. It wasn't that it was a BAD movie, because it wasn't. It was just very slow, very political, and very slow. Did I mention it being slow? Okay, it was SLOW. Slow = SLEEP for Shane.

Then, I came to work and built up "King Kong" and watched it around 8:00pm.
The movie was about 45 minutes TOO LONG.
The first hour of the film, could have been trimmed down by 15 minutes, there's just SO MUCH on the boat to the island that is not important.
Then, from the time Ann gets taken by Kong, until she's found, run roughly 1:30, it SHOULD have only been an hour. There's SO MUCH extra stuff that doesn't progress the story, it's just there to impress the viewers, and it bored me.
The third act was almost perfect. There's some SLOW moments on top of the Empire State Building, but aside from that the third act was the most enjoyable.

So, we did a midnight show of "King Kong" (I did NOT feel like watching this with the public, which is why I watched it early, alone...) so, since I was STUCK at work until 3:30am, I decided to make the best of it and watch "Just Friends", which I've wanted to see for a while, but never made the time to. I REALLY enjoyed "Just Friends", I found myself laughing at loud, alone in the theatre. It was a good time. There's some plot points that are OUT THERE, but it's not something that ruins the film, it's expected in this type of movie. It's worth watching, Ryan Reynolds is too funny.

So, I got home from work at 4:00am, then got a call from Preston at 8:00am, telling me that him and Craig had decided to go to Caesar's Casino today, after Preston does the recording, and wanted to know if I wanted to go. I told him to call me back when he was done with the recording, and I had every intention of saying "no" and going back to sleep. Then, I realized that I had a coupon for $63 bucks from them, and it expires next week. So, I figured: I should go and get this money, and play "for free" (technically) and have a good time before work tonight. So, when Preston called back, I agreed to go, if they cam and picked me up. I got ready, napped on the couch until they showed up, then slept most of the way down. I did okay, came home with a little extra cash, which should go towards a Christmas present, or two. Plus, I got to play a couple hours of cards, and it was a BLAST. I had some nice people at my table, and we talked sports (Pacers/Colts) the whole time.

After poker, Craig went up to play Caribbean Stud (which I'm going to try next time, it looks like A LOT of fun, and Craig doubled his $100 pretty easily). Now, if I was smart, I would have played $5 on Red 23, at the roulette table next to us. I RARELY EVER play roulette, and when I do, I only play ONE number: Red 23. Why? Michael Jordan. It's my lucky number. (Not really, since I've never won with it, but today would have been differently). With in 30 minutes, Red 23 hit FIVE TIMES on the roulette table. Which means, the first time, $5 would have become $175 (hitting the exact number in roulette pays 35:1). And if I would have continued with it for 30 minutes, FIVE times would have been $875. But, who knew? And after the third time I thought there was NO WAY it wouls ever hit again. Mabybe next time I'll try it... Craig ended up taking some of his Caribbean Stud winnings and did play roulette, putting some random amounts down on Black 4, Red 23, and Black 35 (the two numbers on each side of Red 23) And he hit on the Black 35, making $175. He gambled a little bit more away, and then we were out the door. GOOD DAY for Craig, and I had a lot of fun being the support after I stopped for the day. It's fun to go, even when I decide to stop gambling. So, I came home up a small amount, Craig come home up a good deal, and Preston broke even and QUIT for the day. Even though he kept going over to three card poker, he never sat down! What control! I HATE coming out even. I'd rather tell people I lost money, than broke even. But, that's just me.

Now, I'm at work. TIRED. Even though I slept half of the drive home. And if we sell for "King Kong" tonight, I'm here until 1:47am! Maybe I'll watch another film tonight.

A History of Cell Phones...

Qualcomm QCP-1960. July 1998.
This is where it all started. I was 18 years old, and cell phones were NOT the "hip" thing yet, but I still wanted one. I was at the Indiana State Fair, and got flagged down by a salesman. I eventually applied and got approved for a phone, and walked out with it that day. "That was so easy!" I thought. Late 1998 was probably the real "BOOM" in cell phones, and by 1999, most people were beginning to carry them. I still feel that I was one of the first "common-folk" to carry a cell phone, and I needed it, because I was never at home, and always out and about. I did also have a pager at the time, but it was annoying attempting to find a payphone anytime someone paged me. So, I took the step up and got a cell phone. I've been hooked ever since. I was with Ameritech on this phone, they later became another company, who later because Cingular. When I moved to California, I left the phone with my brother, and he finished out the last 6 monthes on my plan.

Samsung SCH-3500. March 2001.
While living in Cali, I made the bold move to buy a new cell phone, and this time I got on Sprint, and I've been with them ever since March of 2001. I'll be going on five years, in just a couple of months. This was a cheap phone, I think around $100. I liked it at the time, because of display being visable all the time, and the angle when it was open seemed to fit well with my head. It was also rather funny, because when I moved back to Indy, I learned a friend of mine here had the same phone, and later that year when Sergio (from Cali) got on Sprint, he told me he got the same phone as I had. It seems that was a popular phone at the time!

LG TP1100. February 2002.
Eventually, I got tired of how BIG the SCH-3500 was. In early 2002, smaller seemed be the "in" thing, and lots of really small phones were being released. So, I went to Best Buy and picked up the TP1100, because of its size. It was nice and small, a little thick, but still didn't carry the heft and bulk of the SCH-3500. I also liked the 4-way navigation bar, as opposed to the 2-way of my previous phone.


LG 5350. December 2002.
Yep, the TP1100 only last 10 months. In December, I was asked to be a part of a Christmas play at Kristen's church, and during the performance, someone snuck into the dressing room and stole a number of items from a number of people. Wallets, Cell Phones, etc... were taken. Luckily, my parents helped me out to quickly purchase a new phone and I picked the 5350. It was AWESOME! It was my first phone with a color display! The phone was blue! (My favorite color) The buttons had a blue glow, instead of a green. And the exterior Caller ID was also blue. It was COOL! Plus, this was the first phone I had that allowed me assign multiple phone numbers to one contact. Previously, every number I entered had to have a different name attached to it. Now, I could have one contact, with a wokr number, a home number, a cell number, and even a pager number. All together. It was cool! MAJOR step up the cell phone ladder.

Sanyo 8100. June 2003.
So, the 5350 lasted even shorter than the TP1100. Kristen and I were in Florida, standing in the middle of the ocean, and I got the brilliant idea to call my parents. Pull the phone out of my pocket, flip it open with one hand, and... OH!!! The phone flies out of my hand, and lands in the middle of the ocean. Needless to say, it was dead. It was beyond dead. It wouldn't power up, it wouldn't do anything. It's life was gone. So, the next morning, Kristen and I spent 8 hours, driving ALL OVER Ft. Lauderdale looking for the BLUE version of the 8100. Most Radio Shacks, Sprint stores, and Circuit City stores had a ton of silvers, but I wanted the blue. Finally, at around 5pm, we were directed to a Circuit City, where a blue phone was on hold for me. They only had two left, and the gentlemen at the store we were at called them, they physically found the phone and put my name on it. Finally, I had the phone I searched all day for! It had some awesome features, and most importantly, it was my first camera phone. I loved taking pictures with it, and sending them to various people. Eventually, my parents, my brother and Kristen would all eventually get camera phones, so that we coule all send pictures to each other. This was also the first phone I had with full color exterior display, which would show pictures of people when they were calling. What a step up!
NOTE: Pictured above is the silver model of the phone, I actually had the blue model, but could not find any blue pictures.

Sanyo 5500/VM-4500. December 2004.
The 8100 was a good phone, and lasted a long time. However, around Christmas last year, the 8100 started to lose its mind. The vibration alert stopped. The ringer was whack, sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't. The exterior display was on again/off again. So, for Christmas, Mom and Dad gave me some cash that I used to pick up the Sanyo 5500. It was basically an upgrade of the 8100. Matt, Kristen's brother, had this phone and I always liked it, so when the time came to get a new one, it's the one I picked. I stepped up from a camera phone to a video camera phone (although, I didn't get a lot of use out of the video camera, it was still fun to use...). I also got the blue keypad back, speakerphone, and a multi-colored LED alert. It had seven colors, that you could program for different things. Whe someone would call me - it would do a "rainbow" of the colors. When I got a voicemail/text message it would blink blue. When an unkown number called me, it would blink red. It was COOL. Plus, there were 5 LED lights used as the flash for the camera. It was some high-end equipment, and I loved the phone.

Samsung A-900. December 2005.
The new love of my life. Since 2003, I've been watching a Motorola RAZR phone. I can remember that first commercial for the phone, when it was falling through the sky, slicing through the words describing its features, then slamming straight up into the ground. It was SO COOL! And I wanted one SO BAD! A nice slim and trim phone. I even toyed with the notion of leaving Sprint, to get a RAZR phone. I'm glad I held out. I now own one of the COOLEST cell phones ever. It's insanely thin, and small (same dimensions as a credit card) and does things I never imagined a cell phone can do. It's got a small hard drive which stored music on it, and can be played through a media player on the phone. It streams video from the internet, including movie trailers. It has a 1.3 mega-pixel camera/videocamera with zoom. Speakerphone, advanced voice dialing, and a SHARP beautiful interior display, along with a very nice exterior display. It's REALLY the coolest and best phone I've ever owned. I'm happy I made the investment, and I'm happy that I waited it out, until Spring came through with such an amazing phone. It's REALLY COOL! And makes me a happy camper.

Do I Like Peanuts?

Just in case anyone was wondering if I liked Peanuts, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, or Christmas... I thought I'd share some pictures from around my apartment...


On top of the TV sits Snoopy and Charlie Brown in train cars. These were from Whitman's candies last year, there was a set of four, and I seem to be missing two of them (I'm pretty sure I've got them all somewhere...). On the right, is a Hallmark ornament from last year. I plays "O Christmastree" when you push the button.



On top of the DVD Rack sits a Charlie Brown Bobblehead (with his poor little tree...). Next to that is this year's Hallmark Waterglobe. It's motion sensative, so when you shake it up, it begins playing "O Christmastree" and the tree on the front lights up, along with Snoopy's doghouse (A gift from my mother a couple of weeks ago, THANKS MOM!). In the back are plush Charlie Brown and Snoopy figures. We added some reindeer antlers to Snoopy, and I'm trying to find a small Santa hat for Charlie Brown.



My Peanuts "action figures" (although, honestly, they don't do a lot of action, but it sounds better than a doll...). The top row is a mixed collection from the "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" set and the "You're an All-Star, Charlie Brown" set. I bought whatever I could find, and nowhere ever seemed to carry the ones I needed to finish either sets. Ebay, someday... The middle row is the ALMOST the ENTIRE SET of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (I'm missing Schroeder and his piano with candlestick from this set). Finally, the bottom row is the ENTIRE SET of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" including the alternate "Director" Charlie Brown.



My mother bought this ornament for me last year. It's Linus giving Snoopy a gift. (It's a little blurry, but that's Snoopy sitting on top of his doghouse). A Christmas light gets stuck inside the doghouse (from the bottom) and it lights up the words "Merry Christmas". REALLY COOL ornament!



Kristen's mother bought this ornament for me a couple of years back. Snoopy and Charlie Brown sleding. It too is on the tree. I've got another series of Whitman's ornaments on my tree (about six more total) but all their pictures turned out too blurry, and I'm too lazy to go down and take any more pictures tonight. Maybe at a later date...



Sparky even gets in the holiday spirit with this Special Christmas Season Treat Jar. His standard one is Snoopy's doghouse, so it was an easy decision to get him this when we saw it.



There's one final ornament from this year that I need to hurry up and buy. It's this year's musical ornament (see on top of the TV for last year's musical ornament). Hopefully, I'll pick it up this weekend...

So, if there was any doubt, I hope I've SQUASHED IT, and proven that I LOVE PEANUTS! And I REALLY LOVE CHRISTMAS!

Castleton Arts

Monday was a sad day. Realizing that Castleton Arts was really closed. Dione has been gone for a couple of weeks, and that kind of set things in motion, but it wasn't until Monday that it hit like a ton of bricks. And yesterday, AMC was to turn over the keys to the building to Simon. It's tough. This building has been a part of my life for the past 7 years, and it's tough to think that I'll never set foot in the building again. People who know me, know that I don't deal well with change. And the fact that this has to change, is really hard for me. My "career" in Film Exhibition began in this building in December of 1998. Jason L. Maier and I randomly ran into each other one night, because of my friend Brandy, who was friends with Jason's friend Joe. All of us hung out, and Jason and I decided to try hanging out some more. Eventually, I started coming up to Castleton Arts, where Jason was working. From the beginning, he started teaching me how to thread films, build and tear films, and I just soaked it all up. Then, in January, he got me a job at the AMC Clearwater theatre. I still spent a lot of time at Castleton Arts, hanging out with Jason, and sometimes working for them (off the clock). I got to be really good friends with Dione and Dave (the two managers) and formed some bonds with people that I'll have forever. In the fall of 1999, Jason and I began writing a script that would turn into "Consternate" in the booth of Castleton Arts. On that same day, GWAM Guys was formed - in Castleton Arts. So, my "career" in Film Exhibition was started in that building, and my "career" as an indie film maker started there also.

This is a picture of Jason and I going over the script, and getting ready to film in the Men's Bathroom at Castleton Arts. In the spring of 2000 through the entire summer, we spent many nights, after closing, filming out film. Some nights we had as many as 15 people running around inside and outside, doing things for the film. The entire opening scene of the film takes place in Castleton Arts, as well as three or four more scenes throughout the film. We'd film a couple hours one night, a couple hours another night, and just constantly go back and film when schedules allowed. In the film, if you watch the posters on the walls, you can see the span of time it took to film. In almost every scene the posters are different, and sometimes change between shots and angles. Continuity was not something that was high priority back in the beginning... We used the lobby, the men's restroom, Cinema 2, and a couple of outside walls. Jason L. Maier even hung over the side of the roof, to get an overhead shot for the film.

In December of 2000, we premiered our first film "Consternate" at Castleton Arts! The same theatre that we spent months filming in! We had close to 160 people show up, and had a very successful response to our first attempt at a film. As proud as I am of the film, I am glad to see how far we have come in our productions. But still, I'll always remember the night that GWAM Guys packed Cinema 2 to show their own film! It was an amazing experience.

Over the years, we used parts of Castleton Arts for locations in numerous films. For "Consternate" we used basically the entire theatre (as it was the backdrop for the scenes). For Ryan Tungate's "The Chrome Lady", we used the upstairs hallway, some close-ups of the doors, and the stairwell going upstairs from Cinema 3. In "Escape" we cleaned and reorganized one of the upstairs storage rooms, and turned it into Little George's office. Kristen and I spent a couple of hours on two seperate days, moving and reorganizing items in the room, to make it look like an office. I'm really happy of how it turned out looking in the film. For Jason L. Maier's "To Change the World", we used the upstairs hallway again for some of the key scenes between Lee Vidal and Drew Stafford. The thin hallways and tight corners worked perfectly in the scenes. Although we never filming in Castleton Arts for "Crazy About You", we did use the lobby to hold our auditions for the film, as well as our cast read through. The lobby provided a nice large and open space for us to gather a large group.

Many Thanksgivings I found myself spending some time at Castleton Arts. Even before we started our annual poker game, Jason and I would still hang out on Thanksgiving night, and he often was working at Castleton Arts. So, I would find myself there, before we found someone to hang out until Best Buy time (often Denny's). Dione and I shared a passion for the Christmas Season, and I can remember at least three years that I helped her put up the Christmas decorations in Castleton's lobby. I remember shopping with her at Target for all kinds of decorations to use. The Castleton Arts Christmas Party was also one of my highlights of the season. Spending a night in the lobby with a large group of friends, exchanging presents, and enjoying the season. I still remember the night I changed my mind about Troy. It happened one year at the Castleton Arts Christmas Party (up until then, I didn't care for him... something about his attitude, we didn't click right away... probably because of how much alike we were), so anyways, after the Christmas Party, Jason, Zach, Troy and I decided to play football in the lobby. Jason and I against Zach and Troy, and I don't remember exactly what happened, but at some point I just realized: Troy is pretty cool. And we've been good friends ever since. In recent years, I didn't spend as much time at Castleton Arts as I used to, and that's been my fault, and I kind of have regrets about it. I never really realized it wasn't going to be there.

Now, I can't go sit in the office with Dave Lichty, and talk for HOURS about films. I can't go sit on the couches and talk to Scott Grow, while playing Scrabble. I'll never get to help Dione decorate for the Christmas Season. We'll never get to show another film in Castleton Arts, or shoot any part of any film there, ever again. Now, all I've got is 7 years of memories about how that place changed my life, and turned me into the person I am today. So many late nights were spent hanging out at Castleton Arts. So many years of working the Heartland Film Festival at the theatre. I remember working it in 1999, when it was close to nothing, and watching every year as they expanded and got more and more screens of the theatre, until they finally took over the theatre for an entire week. I wonder what's going to happen with Heartland next year? There's no more "Let's meet at Castleton Arts and just take one car..."

It's a tough time right now. It's too big of a change. And I feel like I've lost so much. Growing up SUCKS! I wish things never had to change. I guess this is just one of many things going on that need to force me to move on in my life... I can't live in the past. No matter how good that past was.