Out of Focus

RUMORS OF MY SLIDE INTO DEPRESSION (LIKELY STARTED HERE) HAVE BEEN SOMEWHAT EXAGERRATED (PROBABLY BY ME)

And I was so proud of regularly contributing to this blog, too. Well, I really do plan a return to whatever it is I regularly do in this space. I mean, did anyone pay attention to the television upfronts and the new fall schedule last week. Way to go NBC! If you want to be the fourth place network, you be the best damn fourth place network you can be. Jeff Zucker and Robert Iger should leave their respective NBC and Disney gigs to start an entertainment company together. Both of them are directly responsible for the demise of their respective entertainment entities, yet they both manage to fail upward! I gotta figure out how to do that.

Anyway, when a person you don't see that often bumps into you on the street, you say, "How are you doing?" and he says, "No, how are YOU doing?! I've been to your blog," you might realize that you've been laying it on a bit thick. Granted, this has been a crappy month, and last week continued the trend of annoying annoyances with my iPod deciding to die prompting yet another trip to Apple's "Genius Bar." But all equipment seems to be working now, and things appear to be looking up, at least a little bit. And hell ... the month is almost over.

So back to business I will get to chat about those pesky upfronts, the upcoming summer movies, and that little thing called Star Wars, but for now, I've got to run. Thanks to everyone who sent me nice messages in response to my vague "my life is hell" entries. I appreciate it, especially from strangers, in fact, and it's nice to know at least a few people care about this space other than just myself.

Regularly scheduled programming will return sometime between tomorrow and Monday, I swear. Until then ....

THE GOTHAMIST INTERVIEW: MAY DAY 3 - DALMAR JAMES

OK, so maybe I'm starting to feel a little better, even if Apple is pissing me off with this delay fixing my laptop. I keep getting different answers from them. Very annoying. Hopefully all will be good.

Last night helped. Gothamist's Laughable Hype last night was absolutely fantastic. Talk about needing some laughs, and boy did I get them (and shit, how lame did that sound)? I think Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel may seriously be the funniest people alive. Jessi Klein, as usual, had me laughing hysterically, and both Nick Kroll and Chelsea Peretti were as clever and funny as always. But I had never seen Aziz Ansari before, and that guy is seriously funny. Even standing for the entire show wasn't so painful because I was laughing so hard. Major kudos to both Jens (Carlson and Chung) for putting the night together.

Oh yeah, and speaking of Gothamist, our final interview of the week is today with Dalmar James of Zoom In. If you're interested in film and video post-production, you should check-out Zoom-In and give Dalmar's interview a read.

THE GOTHAMIST INTERVIEW: MAY DAY 2 - NIGHT AGENCY

So this week in New York are the TV upfronts -- where all the networks reveal to advertisers and the world at large what their fall schedules are going to look like. We get to hear all about the new shows coming and the unfortunates that have recently been cancelled. So it only makes sense that to add to my depression during this horrid horrible month of May that the wizards at NBC have decided to cancel one of the best shows they had on the air -- American Dreams, often mentioned on this site. Oh yay!

But again, I'm not here to rant about that stuff ... yet (although I am starting to get a little feeling back in that regard, so we'll see). Instead, I'm here to talk about the second of our (read: Lily's) three interviews on Gothamist this week: with Night Agency, a group of young upstarts (damn I'm starting to hate people in their 20s) running a very successful new media/"guerilla" marketing company. You've probably seen their work without even knowing it. For example, remember when there were all those posters for thetwoheadeddog.com all over town, and they'd have weird lettering on them, with gaps, sort of spelling out innocuous phrases? And the proper response would be, "What the fuck?" Only later would you find out that for some reason MTV2 decided that its new logo would be a two-headed dog. Well, the execution of that whole ad campaign was Night Agency. Does that help?

Check out the interview ... they tell it better.

THE GOTHAMIST INTERVIEW: MAY DAY 1 - YOMAIRA REYNOSO

So I'm still working on putting all the pieces of life back together. It's been a very difficult two weeks for me personally, and things haven't really gotten much better. To make matters worse, the crown on my front tooth decided last Friday night would be a good time to pop off -- thankfully it's now been fixed -- and even worse, my computer decided this morning -- while I was waiting at the Apple Store Genius Bar to have something minor looked at -- to die. As in, not turn on. At all. I guess it was being considerate, what with me being at Apple already. But now I don't have my laptop (and therefore, most of my LIFE) for the next week or so, and I'm only praying that all my data (and iTunes!) weren't lost. Because you see, I bought an external hard drive just a few days ago in order to back everything up before installing the new Tiger OS, but of course, I hadn't actually gotten around to doing that.

Oy.

But, of course, the title of this post isn't, "How has Aaron's life gotten more difficult since he last posted a week ago." No, it's not. Rather, it's an indication of another week of Gothamist Interviews. Here are a couple brief warnings, though. First, it's not a whole week. Lily and I are only posting three interviews this week -- today through Wednesday. Second, I really shouldn't even say, "Lily and I," because this time around, it's about 95% her. No, it's not payback for the difficulties of last month when she was in Greece, however, it just so happens that I haven't been in the frame of mind to concentrate on finding and doing these interviews, so I simply backed out and told her she had to carry the load. I did help edit and format all three we're doing, but she deserves the credit for these in full.

Starting TODAY with Yomaira Reynoso. Ms. Reynoso is one of the teachers featured in the just released documentary Mad Hot Ballroom, about elementary school kids learning ballroom dancing. Mad Hot Ballroom has been an audience favorite at film festivals around the world. It recently played at the Tribeca Film Festival and attracted over 3000 people to an outdoor screening at the "Drive-In" while also filling one of the festival's largest venues, Stuyvesant High School. Now it's getting a limited release.

Ms. Reynoso is probably the most down-to-earth and real person we've interviewed. Her voice comes through in the interview so clearly that if you've already seen the movie -- or even maybe when you see it -- you'll nod and say, "Yup, that's how I thought she'd sound." Go read the interview and then go see the movie -- or vice-versa. In their own ways, they're both fun and illuminating.

WE'RE JUST GOING TO INHALE AND HOLD OUR BREATH FOR A BIT AFTER ALL

So last Monday I posted how Tribeca was over and I should be back to posting more regularly. Then Monday and Tuesday, the world of my personal life sort of came crashing down around me, and I haven't particularly been feeling like blogging much. There's been a lot I've wanted to write about, too, but I just haven't been able to actually sit and do it. For example, we're right in the middle of a phenomenal Harold Lloyd series at Film Forum. We've already missed the brilliant Speedy, one of my all-time favorite silent films for numerous reasons, none less than the horse-drown trolley-car chase scene that goes right through Washington Square Park and the arch. Starting this Friday they feature the silent version of Welcome Danger, which apparently hasn't been seen in 3/4 of a century. Hopefully I can get myself together enough to get to its one-week engagement.

Also starting on Friday and running through the end of the month is (seemingly, at least) the most comprehensive retrospective of the work of the great Michael Powell. The Film Society of Lincoln Center's web page for the program is as much history lesson as schedule information. There are so many not-to-miss selections in this program, it's ridiculous to even attempt to list them all, but I have to give a plug for one of my all-time favorite films (frequently mentioned on this site), The Red Shoes. I have actually never seen the film projected nor on a big screen, and even though I've already missed two of the screenings, thankfully there's another one at the end of the month at which I will surely be in attendance.

Oh, and as importantly, tonight at 9 PM on IFC is the premiere of Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession about the late, great, Los Angeles-based, premium cable movie channel. I didn't live in LA until after the demise of Z Channel, but all the people I knew who lived out there raved about it, and nearly two decades after it departed, it still has a cult following. I've heard great things about this doc, and even more fantastic is IFC's schedule for this weekend when the channel will have an IFZ Channel Weekend this Saturday and Sunday (5/14-15) airing the kinds of films one used to find on Z Channel: The 400 Blows, White Nights, Wild Strawberries, Salvador, and more.

So that's about all I can muster right now. I will try to come back with more this week, including talk about the festival and new movies (of which I've seen -- ugh -- none; there goes that New Year's resolution unattainable goal.

Until next time, maybe tomorrow ... just maybe ....

AND ... EXHALE!

Well that was fun. Yes, the Tribeca Film Festival ended yesterday, and finally I can start to breathe again. Maybe even see some movies and watch some TV. (Yes, my job at the festival actually precluded me from seeing anything, until I finally had the chance to sit through the wonderful Favela Rising yesterday.) In fact, I finally returned home last night after 10 days at the Marriott Financial Center to discover that much of my DiVod TV from the past several weeks was (shudder) gone, so I'm going to be way behind and trying to figure out how to catch up.

Now I've got a week or two of wrap on the festival -- cleaning stuff up and writing reports about how things went and what still needs to be improved before next year. I'll write more about my TFF experience in the coming days and where I plan to go from here, and even more importantly, I'll get back to praising and ranting as soon as I can.

I'd like some help from you, though -- anyone who is in New York who attended the festival -- I'd love to know what you thought. Not just about the movies, but about the experience. I'd especially love to hear from anyone who was attending Tribeca as a returning customer. We made a lot of changes at most of the venues (especially our main screening location, the Regal Battery Park): most seemed to help even if things still weren't always perfect. If you've come to the festival in previous years and were there again over the last two weeks, what did you think? Did you have an easier time finding the information you needed? Did anything especially help? Did anything happen to piss you off? Did it look like a festival? Did you enjoy the atmostphere?

Feel free to comment or email me (link is above to the left), but I'd appreciate only serious responses. I don't mind complaints, but if you're not offering something constructive or real, I'd appreciate you not wasting my time. A lot of my job this year was dedicated to creating systems to help provide the audience with a better experience and an easier time actually getting to and seeing the movies. It's still not perfect, but it is improving, , and I'd love to hear what you think.