What's Happening (and what's not!)

My three devoted readers (and I include you, Bridgeman, even though clearly France does not offer any kind of email service), what a great month since my last post. Very busy; teaching at the Rosauro UCF camp with JM, KG, and NR, always a pleasure and a blast, hanging out with ENP and GDP, which is more amazing every day, and seeing some friends on and off as we continue figuring out how to function as parents and not-so-normal-anymore people. In other news, students are continuing to do well--SV won the MSU job full-time, and three FSU students advanced at the ASO Modern Snare Drum competition--one incoming freshman from ATL who came in second in his division, and two FSU students who advanced, then one went all the way to finals. Very cool! Also tons of new gear at school to play with, and I can't wait for all the students to return from their summers to see and play upon all the new stuff.

In other news, however, I could not be more disappointed. M. Night's new trainwreck is called "The Happening," and I quote Mr. Moviefone (sic) when I say that "It's not happening." I tend to get really excited about certain movies--Dark Knight, Star Trek, X-Files, etc. and then have a really hard time when they don't deliver. I think M. Night's problem is that he suffers from "George Lucas Syndrome," a term I coined last night after the movie. M. Night writes, directs, and produces everything, and probably micromanages all kinds of other things in the production. As a result, I imagine there's no way to be objective, and the general direction of his movies since Signs has definitely taken an even sharper turn downwards.

It is hard to be objective when you don't have anyone collaborating with you. Let alone to have someone (or several people) as your foil to say, Wow, that's really bad, M. Night. Let's reconsider. Should we have Mark Wahlberg talking to a ficus tree? I knew in the first 15 seconds of that park bench scene that the rest of the movie was not only going to be bad, but Episode III bad. And I was right. The whole thing rang hollow and wasn't effectively executed on almost every count, and I think it's sad when a reboot of The Incredible Hulk spanks any project of M. Night. But there it is.

The only hope for M. Night is that he hasn't been completely infected with the malady. For example, some friends and I watched Raiders last week, and then Temple of Doom. Why does Lucas have to have kids (Short Round=Ewoks) and stupid sidekicks (Capshaw=Jar-Jar) in these films? While the model is present in the "adopted" daughter and female co-star (who I was surprised to learn was the female lead in Elf, where she was luminous), it was not as mindless and dumbed-down as Lucas likes it. Although the acting and dialogue levels were completely on par with Episode III. It was uncomfortable to watch.

There's a reason that Empire is the best of the Star Wars movies. Check the credits and you'll see what I mean. I know, however, that Nolan and Co. will deliver on Dark Knight, and I can't wait! Until next time, here's rolling front to back and back to front.