I make grand plans to blog, but at the end of the day, I spend more time concerned with the presentation of what I’m blogging on then what I’m blogging about.

This should be fun, shouldn’t it?

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Avatar, The Blindside, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up and Up In The Air

Here’s what I’ve thought of them so far…

The Hurt Locker: This film was one I’ve wanted to see for a long time, and it had a large about of hype surrounding it… and it was worth it. The Hurt Locker was excellent. It fell right in step to the mindset of a man who’s only really good at one thing, disarming bombs. It’s also a film that I will want to watch over again, so that I can spend a little more time in the head of William James. He was very simple to understand his base functions yet, he became one of the more complex characters I’ve seen on screen in a long time. You understood why he did things, who he turned away and why he made felt comfortable with his choices, but that didn’t stop you from feeling like he was making mistakes.  The final bomb disarming sequence in the film really drove home a lot of mixed emotions, and was a perfect way to sum up the war in Iraq itself, I won’t ruin it, but based on those merit alone it might deserve to win best picture.

The Blindside: I don’t know if I enjoyed this movie more than I should have because it was a great film or if because I had such low expectations for it. Sandra Bullock has had a very interesting year, between this, “The Proposal” and “All About Steve”. It was refreshing to see Sandra in this role, which is was quite good in, but does a great role equal a great film? If that were the case, where’s “Crazy Heart” or “The Last Station”? and would “the Wrestler” get the nod last year? There were a lot of great moments in this film, but I wouldn’t even think about this film as the best this year could produce.

Avatar: Ok, throw away all the CGI, 3D and effects, and what would this movie be? The story isn’t new, thought not every story has to be. The concepts are true and tried, but that doesn’t make them bad. Avatar will change film making, that much is certain, but looking at this film, how couldn’t it be decent? If you take a story people are familiar with, add in awesome special effects and then throw in great direction (say what you will, James Cameron’s direction is a strong selling point for this film) and you’re bound to get something good, but is it great? In comparison you have…

District 9: which out of these four films is a strong number two if not number one. District 9 was a film that blew me away in the theaters. Maybe I wanted to buy into the hype, how couldn’t I? After Transformers II, District 9 is masterpiece theater! District 9 was clearly (in my mind) the best Science Fiction film I saw last year (note: I didn’t see “Star Trek” or “Moon”, which I was told were both very good, I plan on seeing them… eventually) because it did what Science Fiction should do. It took a theme people knew, in this case it was “Apartheid” placed it in a militarized Johannesburg ghetto and then gave you a take on the situation in a larger than life setting so you could understand the theme / concept without becoming personally invested. District 9 did this, and created a film that, while only using $30 Million dollars, created something that could rival Avatar. While it’s not the “Best award to create something on a budget”,  that fact is still, to me, pretty impressive.

Up: I tried to watch the movie but sadly feel asleep twenty minutes in  after taking two Tylenol PM in the afternoon and didn’t think it would make me pass out. I haven’t gotten to this yet, next week!

So here’s my rankings so far:

1.) The Hurt Locker

2.) District 9

3.) Avatar

4.) The Blindside

On the docket for this week: An Education / Up in the Air (potentially last week in theaters), A Serious Man (out on DVD), Inglorious Basterds (on DVD / On Demand) and Up (DVD in Possession)!

I might try to find an illegal creative way to see “Precious”, I mean, if it comes down to it being the only film I haven’t seen, then I’ll just be desperate to have a complete picture on all the films.

There are other films, like “The Last Station”, “Crazy Heart” or the flat out ignored “Moon” that I plan on seeing later, but I think these ten films will keep me pretty busy.

1.) Try to complete a book a week (or every two weeks) in relation to theater / improv / whatever. This goal shouldn’t be too hard, but it’s already proved to be more difficult then I hoped. It took me from the 18th of Jan. to yesterday,  the 3rd of Feb. to finish a rather short book (truth be told, I did go back and take notes…). I’m hoping to get through at least eight or nine books by May (complete with detailed notes).

2.) I’d like to go the the gym more often. It’s strange, when I don’t go I feel like I’m missing something in my life. I hope the the sleep study I have (coming up on the 11th) with yield positive results and I can end up sleeping better. that would be nice. That might also inspire me to get up earlier and go to the gym. these two things would be awesome.

3.) I really would like to write more. I have all these budding ideas that need outlets. I have “The Clink”, which is fine, and I have this new project in the works too… but I would really like to branch out even further. write out a few of the plays i’ve been kicking around. If 2010 yielded so results in that department, i’ve be very happy.

4.) Performer more (potentially). Be it a musical, Improv, film, whatever. The more, the better. I know I have a few things that are set to happen (like “Rocky” in the fall) but, I want to work on adding a few more things in the mix. Time will tell.

5.) Spend more time with Suzanne and the Cats. This goal might seem either obvious or hard to fit in compared to everything else I mentioned, but it’s still very, very important. Life  isn’t worth living without company, and the company I keep is the very best company of all. Suzanne has been a very positive and caring force in my life, and I plan on showing her every day that I appreciate her.

6.) Try to also spend time with my friends. I’m really happy to have this project i’m working on with my friend Tom, were seeing as many different productions of “Rocky” as we can, and adding critique to the performances. Also, I have “The Basement”, “The Clink” and you name it with my Wilmington Improv friends. Plus Wrestling time with Gordon and other fun things, like Passover and “You’ve Got Geek on You” movies! 2010 could be a very good year to spend with other.

7.) I’d like to create another “The Andrew Mitchell Project” album in 2010… It could be time for another.

Well, that should be my year in a nutshell, more or less might happen, but if everything I mentioned occurs, things will be looking pretty good.

So right now I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Myspace (but not really), WordPress and tumblr…and my apple webpage, but that’s neither here nor there.

right now, I  have my tumblr content heading to twitter and facebook (I will do a few random items that I only post on one or the other) and I will only update this wordpress page for actual content.

It’s almost too much to deal with / understand, but it’s how I’m living.

Right now I’m in the ever awkward “between shows” phase of my life,  “Rocky” ended Nov. 1st and I’m not certain when the next show will happen, but it will.

In the meantime I’m a member of “The Basement”, Delaware’s newest, hottest, sexiest(?) Improv group. I had my first show with them last night at the Washington Street Ale House and it was good.

on a sadder note, I will more than likely be saying goodbye to Leo and K.T. come tuesday now. They’ve been two very good cats and I will miss them both dearly, but I knew this was going to happen eventually. I also know that i’m going to have to move puck over to Suzanne’s because he’s not a solitary sort of cat. big changes are on there way.

moar funny pictures

So I was walking home from the gym last night and I walked past the 5 & 10 on main street only to see the image above. I neon sign that says “U of D Clothing” in front of a mess of naked mannequins and empty hangers… Of course I had to fail Blog it! To my disappointment it has not made it to the actual fail blog site. a co-worker of mine believes that it didn’t make it to the site right away because it may be difficult to understand. Still, I made it, that has to be worth something (possibly?)  if it never makes it to the website I can at least always say that I tried to make a bold statement on the internet on a failure of store front advertisement.

well what’s new with me?

This weekend is the final weekend for “The Producers” at the Drama League. I’m playing the role of Franz Liebkind. It’s been an interesting run and I’ve enjoyed the role but I can’t help but to think I can do more with it. Don’t get me wrong, no one is telling me anything in relation to this thought but I feel like something has been missing in my performance but I’m not quite sure what that is. Still, it’s been fun doing a role that I normally wouldn’t audition for and I’m in the middle of a very talent group of lead actors. I’m hoping this role will lead to bigger and better things in the future.  

I’m doing the role of Frank n’ Furter in “The Rocky Horror Show” in 29 days, I have always wanted to do this role and I’m happy I can kind of use it as a “Rocky Retrospective” and good out on a high note. I plan on making this my last production of Rocky… for now. I won’t say that I’ll never do “The Rocky Horror Show” again, but I won’t seek out the “Rocky Horror Show” after this performance. So take pictures and by tickets ’cause once it’s done, so am I!

That being said I’m in the process of trying to lose a few pounds before the show. Currently (or as currently as last night) I weight 197 pounds. I’d like to shave off 15 pounds by opening (Oct. 23rd) which is pretty reasonable if I shoot for 3 to 4 pounds a week.

I had an audition for RENT which, truth be told I wasn’t exactly ecstatic with the current outcome, but I’m happy to have received a callback for the ensemble. I’m always going to be the hardest on myself and while I wish the result was different I can use this as a learning experience (as it should be). RENT has been a show that I’ve always wanted to do since I saw it in ’97 and I’m glad that it’s out there but I (like many others I’m sure) have had a drive to do the role of Mark Cohen. Mark Cohen is role that as a teenager a identified with and real bonded to (being a bit of a musical theater / loner kid in High School it was like there was someone else like me at times) so to know that the role isn’t in the cards right now does have me a bit down, but I can’t dwell on it. 

What can I dwell on? moving on from this experience and not letting it happen again. I should have a better portfolio of audition songs ready to go. I auditioned with Wicked Little Town – reprise from “Hedwig & The Angry Inch” a song that I thought would help since Anthony Rapp (The original Mark on Broadway) did “Hedwig” a few years back but I suppose the audition panel was not aware of this and didn’t see this in myself. Next time I should pick a better song with 16 better bars, that’s a new goal of mine, to find the best audition folio for myself.

Next year (2010) starts what should be a bold journey for me in relation to the goal of getting into Grad school in 2012. I’ve started to plan my journey and I plan on having this blog be my companion on this journey. I’m very excited to see where it takes me. I plan on auditioning for “Macbeth” at the Delaware Shakespeare Festival and I plan on auditioning for a show for the Philadelphia Fringe Festival, along with the Delaware Theater Company and Theater Alliance annual auditions. It’s time to go big or go home in my book.

The biggest and best thing to happen to me since I last blogged is my relationship with a one Suzanne Stein, who has really emotionally and mentally opened a lot of doors for me and whom I’m very thankful to have met. We were both doing “Hay Fever” together at Chapel Street and somehow or other hit it off on opening night. I say “somehow or other” because that was the night I spent most of it drunk or blacked out but I guess if she likes me in spite of it then maybe it’s meant to be . Suzanne really has been a wonderful and much needed addition in my life and with her kind nature and warm heart has really given me a lot of hope and fulfillment.

So, to sum things up, I’m doing alright, I have a great relationship, great friends, a few great shows that I’m working on and a bunch of great things on the horizon. One might say that tony the tiger and I have a lot in common. Now is the time to push myself and break out. I hope to not disappoint.