JournalCon! Woooo JournalCon! JournalCon!

Wooooo!

I remember the first one I went to; it all seemed just so crazy and wild and intimidating. All these people I'd only read about online, suddenly in the same place, made physical, the weird sensation of a dream where all your old friends and houses have merged with your present digs and peeps. It's disconcerting, yet it makes perfect sense that you can instantly bond with these people. After all, you already feel like you know them; the only barriers have been flesh and geography. This year, I've been a nervous wreck about the actual event from a planning standpoint, but a lot more relaxed about the social part of it. I feel like I know a lot of people who'll be there and I'm even thinking of taking breaks to go home and relax, which I never would have considered in past years (it helps that it came to us this year instead of us having to travel). It doesn't feel so all-consuming. The one I went to, I wondered how the organizers could stand to tear themselves away from the 2 a.m. fun to go sleep in their own comfy bed. Now I understand. This has been a huge drain on all of us and right now a little bit of fun is going to go a long, long way. I'm just happy to be seeing everyone and sad for the folks who couldn't make it. But, we plan to take lots of purty pictures.

Hell, we've even got a Webcam set up.

Mystic River: I saw this last weekend at the Austin Film Fest and I just wasn't impressed. I know, I know. It's an operatic whatsis about American Tragedy and Sean Penn is brilliant in his understated non-acting acting Method method. Maybe it's just not my kind of film because I was bored silly, I thought much of the acting was overwrought and not in a good way (Marcia Gay Harden skitters like she's going to shatter if you blink at her) and the police part of it (which the film focuses too much on) is sub-Law & Order. There's a point near the end of the film where I thought, "Are these police detectives or guys who've just watched a lot of police dramas running around pretending to be cops?" Much praise has been given to Clint Eastwood's direction, but I found it leaden. And the last 10 minutes are just preposterous. I'm completely in the minority, so don't let me stop you from seeing it. But I'm really curious if anybody else feels this way after seeing it. I really struggled to sit still through this one. And unlike some films, it really wasn't a matter of me not "getting it." Oh, I got it. I just thought "it" was very obvious and belabored.

The Gospel of John: I refuse to say anything bad about Jesus or His Films in this space. I did think it was funny, though, that Mel Gibson changed the name of his upcoming Jesus joint, The Passion to The Passion of Jesus, because everybody was so unclear about whose passion the title referred to and just who this mysterious bearded guy was that's the main character in his movie. Thanks for clearing that up, Mel.

Runaway Jury: The only John Grisham movie I remember seeing is The Firm, which was okfine. No, wait. I saw The Client and that was okfine, too. And The Pelican Brief which was notsofine. Damn. I guess I've seen more than my share. If I didn't see A Civil Action or The Rainmaker, I'm sure not going to go out of my way to watch this, even if it's got The Cusack. What is it with Cusack trying to be all dramatic lately? Go make more movies like High Fidelity. Stop trying to convince us you have Total Acting Range. You're not Sean Penn. Stop it.

September 11: 11 films about September 11! Yay! Let's go to the movies! (Singing) Let's all go to the lobby... Let's all go to the lobby... Although the Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu segment sounds intriguing, I think I'll be hitting "Skip" on my feet when walking to the movie theater.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: It's getting suprisingly decent reviews given that horror remakes typically never ever ever ever ever ever work. Even when very talented horror directors try to return to their own work, it doesn't work. (George Romero's "Dead" trilogy excepted.) This does put me in the mood to rent the original, though, which I've never seen all the way through.

Veronica Guerrin: Journalist movies almost never work for the same reason movies about writers nearly always don't: It's hard to put on film what it's like to be a reporter. The Paper is the only modern film that sorta kinda comes close, and that was more about the workings of a newsroom than an individual beat reporter's life. Wait, what was I saying? Oh, that I like that Cate Blanchett. She's coooooool.

DVDs: My life just got complicated because the first seasons of Cracker and Prime Suspect landed on my desk. Mmmmm britdrama. Despite the drool factor, I'm not going to see any of those because this weekend is Web Writers Weekend and I don't plan on being home much at all.

My little disembodied head reappears for another XL Blog entry.

I talk about TV, magazines and other stuff, probably for too many column inches.

We don't have a fall here. It's cooled down very nicely -- the windows were open last night and Oscar sat on the sill while I slept, hoping the allergies wouldn't flare up too badly, but really we don't have an autumn here, not anything like this.

Tonight, I'll be bag stuffing with the good folks at Web Writers Weekend. We're going to have about 150 people stuffed into the Omni Hotel and everybody's just a little bit nervous and on edge. We've been planning this for almost a year and I don't think any of us is really completely aware that it's REALLY HAPPENING IN TWO DAYS. That's just freaky.

Computer update: It's sorta working now, but not really. I'm still afraid to turn it off and the video capture drivers make everything look blue in capture mode. This is totally sexy and fascinating, I know. I'll keep you abreast. (Ooh, a breast. That's sexy, too.)

A new Smallville recap is up. Go check that out.

I feel a little strange, but in a good way, today. Last week, I was freaking out. On the same day, my desktop computer broke down with a video card problem, I lost my checkbook and I had a major work problem that needed solving. Plus, over the weekend, Terribly Happy reverted back to 2001.

Then, like forbidden and dark magic, everything was solved. The checkbook turned out to be right in my laptop bag where I left it (buried deep within its dark folds), the video problem sort of fixed itself (after a second Windows reinstall, a fresh video driver installation and a lot of wasted time) without me having to send the video card in, and the work thing got fixed with a short conversation. And my ISP guy sent several e-mails explaining what happened to the site and assuring me it would be fixed post haste, if not postier. And it was.

It's weird. I'm not used to stuff just fixing itself like that. I'm used to calling tech support and being on the phone for hours, stewing about work stuff, ordering new checks and cancelling old ones. But, weirdly, it's all just... taken care of. Now I'm looking around thinking I owe a demon some soul crackers or something.

There is one nagging thing, though -- one of the cats has decided he really liked to pee on the futon. There's been some unheaval around the house, so he's kind of emotionally vulnerable right now, and I'm sure that's what's to blame, but damned if he hasn't found himself a mattress-sized kitty litter pad. I've doused the area with OdoDeath, some sort of industrial-strength odor killer that leaves cat pee smelling like eucalyptus, but it only lasts until the next time Oscar decides he'd rather the living room smell like his bladder. Anybody got any cat pissing tips?

Except for the urine, my life is quite all right this week.

After a weekend time-warp scare, it looks like Terribly Happy and Bloggystyle are back.

And just in time, too. I did a review of Eddie Griffin's stand-up gigs in Austin that ran in Sunday's paper. You can also find an article by Pamie on the site. She interviewed Erica Beeney of Project Greenlight, whom I got to meet Friday at the Austin Film Fest.

Folks, I got snubbed. Like, "Hi, how are you," back to her conversation without another word. I got Beeneyed, people. More later. Right now I'm just glad the site's not still stuck in 2001.