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Zooey Deschanel … Tiny Camper

Posted by Neal Campbell on Dec 21, 2011 in movies | 0 comments

I have no idea what the real story behind this photo is. Zooey Deschanel posted it on Facebook without commenting on it. It’s got Zooey, the most adorkable woman on earth looking beautiful as always. Taking a look away from Zooey … I know, it’s hard to do … there is something very familiar about this scene! This isn’t the first time we’ve seen her looking much bigger than surrounding furniture, is it? At the end of Elf, she and Buddy are visiting the North Pole where the furniture is also tiny.

The story I’ve made up in my head about this photo wouldn’t be a bad idea for Elf 2. Imagine Buddy’s adoptive father taking a road trip down from the North Pole in a tiny, elfin motorhome to pick up Buddy, Zooey and the grandson for a cross country trip. Elf 2: Road Trip. In this scene, Zooey has had all the camper living she can handle, and she wants to get on a plane back to New York NOW!

Remember Anna Chlumsky from My Girl?

Posted by Neal Campbell on Dec 16, 2011 in movies | 0 comments

My Girl was one of my favorite movies growing up. I still love movies that look back at the last half of the last century with glowing nostalgia. I think it has something to do with loving Judy Blume books as a kid.

My Girl made me laugh and made me cry. It has so many great moments like the ones with the senile grandmother and this scene where Anna and Macaulay Culkin kiss and not know what to do after, stand up and pledge allegiance to the flag.

She took a break from acting. Now she’s 32 and she was at the premiere the new movie about Lady Margaret Thatcher, The Iron Lady. The photo on the left is Anna Chlumsky at the premier of the film. The photo on the right is Anna like I remember her from My Girl.

If you’re feeling nostalgic like I am, don’t bother checking Netflix Instant Streaming. I did. It isn’t there.

Your (awful) Guide to Holiday Movies from Think

Posted by Neal Campbell on Dec 11, 2011 in Filmmaking, movies, podcasting | 0 comments

I love public radio and one of my favorite shows is called Think with Krys Boyd. It’s smart and Krys is an excellent host. Before you read the rest of what I’m about to write, you should listen to this episode …

Your Guide to Holiday Movies

Think is produced in Dallas and this episode features DFW film critics, Stephen Becker of KERA’s Art&Seek, Christopher Kelly of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Chris Vognar of The Dallas Morning News. I’m not familiar any of these guys, but two of them came across as much too film illiterate to have jobs as film critics. One guy fell asleep in Hugo. A couple of them consider National Lampoon’s A Christmas Vacation a great Christmas film. They suggested Home Alone and It’s a Wonderful Life are not Christmas movies. One or more of them hasn’t seen Love Actually and still criticized it!?!?! The number of films these professional film critics admitted they haven’t seen was embarrassingly astounding.

Dear Krys Boyd,

Think is the best show produced by KERA and one of the best shows on public radio. Please skip these guys next time you want to talk about film. It’s like they decided because they like going to movies they would get jobs as movie critics without understanding that they’d be no go at it until they had seen everything. The take away from this episode of Think is the guests you had on haven’t taken the time to watch enough films to know what to Think.

Love the show, though!

Neal

Gerry Bruno Interview

Posted by Neal Campbell on Oct 11, 2011 in Filmmaking, Interview, movies, production | 0 comments

We Live in Public

Posted by Neal Campbell on Apr 18, 2010 in movies, podcasting, tech culture, tech media | 3 comments

Jason Calacanis tweeted about a documentary called, We Live in Public. The title sounded relevant to my life, so I looked it up on Netflix and watched it today … gotta love the Netflix iPad App. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant film to watch, but there are lessons anyone participating in social media can learn from it.

The film is about Josh Harris. Harris made a lot of money in the early .com days. He had a vision for Internet TV back when most of us were still on dial-up. He started a company called Pseudo.com and when his personality made investors uncomfortable, he moved on to invent lifecasting. He and his girlfriend lived in a loft with cameras and microphones everywhere until the experiment cost them his money, their relationship, and maybe some sanity.

For about a year before we launched GeekBrief.TV, I studied attention economics in an effort to understand how to share information people can get from a wide variety of sources in a way that is special enough that they would want to get it from us. As a shy, retreating, bookish couple, we had to stretch outside our comfort zone in order to accomplish our goal. It helped immensely that Luria has that special something when she’s on camera. Stretching beyond what felt comfortable enabled us to accomplish what I thought we could.

Tools of social media give us all access to the world any time we want it. It’s then up to us to choose how much we live in public. As Luria and I walk through the pain of ending our marriage, it feels improper to talk about the personal stuff and disingenuous to say nothing at all. Our goal is to make it through this gracefully. I’m inclined to share my personal pain because it has helped me to read other people’s stories. Anytime I do that though, I have to do it in a way that is respectful of Luria’s desire for privacy. It’s tricky so my default is now set to Not Share.

Everything we’re going through is new. I’m sure we’ll both make mistakes. I’m more sure I’ll make more mistakes than she will. I’m not convinced it was the right thing to announce this on our blogs. I just don’t know, but one thing she and I both believe is that the geek world is better than the cool world because geeks are concerned about perfecting our tech while accepting one another just as we are. Beyond that, living in public is a tricky proposition, so if you choose to do it, it’s probably best to proceed with caution.