Our tax dollars hard at work!

I accompanied a friend of mine to a preliminary hearing today.
She has been accused of something unjustly. It's not a criminal case, just a disciplinary infraction.
In any case, she was told to arrive at the building for her preliminary hearing before 9:30am. This, she was told, was to review the facts of the case and decide whether she would need to be seen by a judge.
I met her there for moral support.
There were about three other women there when I arrived waiting to be seen as well.
We sat in the waiting room for an hour. No one else was called in during that entire time.
Finally she gets called in by the judge who proceeds to inform her that this meeting is to determine the date for her hearing. He has no knowledge of what she has been accused of, and has, in fact, not read anything in her file. He then introduces us to the attorney who will be representing the city who also has not read the file and has no knowledge of the case and has just been assigned the day before. He now has to review the file and determine whether there is enough evidence for her to be seen by the judge and he will inform her of this at a later date, but before the actual hearing.
They then proceed to take out their blackberrys and go through their calendars to pick a date for the hearing for three months from now.
So, not only did they make my friend waste a vacation day at work, they had her go all the way there for something they could have just sent her a letter about, or called her about. What if she didn't have any vacation days left? She would have lost a days pay for absolutely nothing important.
I just don't understand why we're paying the judges and lawyers to sit in a room all day and tell people when they are scheduled to come back for a real hearing. Isn't that what secretaries or clericals are supposed to be for. This is how our wonderful system works folks.

500 Days of Summer

I went to a screening of 500 Days of Summer, hosted by Gen Art.
Joseph Gordon Levitt, who is highly underrated and, I think, about to become a much bigger star than he currently is, is excellent in this movie. He plays a guy in love with the always charming Zooey Deschanel. She is one of my favorite actresses. She always manages to find the most interesting roles to play. While they usually involve some guy being infatuated with her, they're never the same. She can play a dimwitted rich girl as smoothly as she can play a smart-ass.
They have excellent chemistry in this movie and the story is very believable. It has the same directorial feeling as Peter and Vandy, another Indie flick which was actually screened at the Gen Art Film Festival earlier this year, but the tone of the movie is very different.
I'm not sure if this is a good date movie, it's not exactly a happy-go-lucky romance. But it is a movie guys and girls will both enjoy since I think both can relate to either character in the relationship.
I'm still not sure which movie I like best, 500 Days of Summer or Peter and Vandy, but they are both in my top 10 for the year so far and I'd recommend both to anyone who has the opportunity to see either one.

My new career path

So, I'm going to try my hand at wedding planning.
Through my own wedding planning experience over this past year, I have come to realize I really enjoy doing this.
I'm super organized about it and I've been nice and calm through out the whole process so far. I've impressed so many vendors with my organization and collages that I've put together for each aspect of the wedding.
I'm currently quite bored and unhappy in my current job. While I'm making decent money, I'm definitely not satisfied with it. However, in this economy I can't afford to quit my job, but I know that I can move forward with the wedding planning on my own time while I continue in my current job.
I am going to take a course to get certified. While certification is not necessary in this type of business, I think it would help give me an advantage over others who are not certified. It should also provide some tools and documents that will make my business run more smoothly.
Wish me luck in my new endeavor. I am really going to work hard at this.
I have a new Storefront on WeddingWire.com to get exposure.
My business name is "NEW DAWN Weddings & Event Productions".

Here's hoping I don't screw up some couples big day!

What Recession?

I would love forsomeone to explain to me how, with all the news of falling profits, huge layoffs and government bail outs, I'm seeing so many stores undergoing cosmetic renovations. Citibank, Verizon, HSBC, to name a few that I have passed by, are updating some of their locations around the city. I'm not sure if this is happening elsewhere in the country (if it is, I'd like to know). It just seems to me that now is not the time to make a perfectly functionable location prettier. I think that money could be much better used on something more important, like the salaries of the people that were laid off. But that's just my opinion.

Gilbert Godfried at Caroline's

It was my first time at Caroline's last night. The place is pretty nice, and quite big compared to most other big name comedy clubs in the city. We had dinner before the show, which was surprisingly very good and well presented, if a bit pricier than I would have liked for a comedy club, but it is in the middle of touristy Times Square.
We somehow magically ended up with reserved seating right in front of the stage, it may be because we were having dinner, but I don't really know.
The emcee was woman, she was okay, kind of funny but not hilarious. Her jokes were kind of all over the place and her interaction with the audience was not great. The second guy, Kevin, was great. He had excellent delivery and his material was fantastic. His story about being smacked in the head by a pigeon had me laughing so hard I was crying.
Then we get to the main act of the night, Gilbert. It was a little hard to watch him, as he was uniquely awkward, he comtinuosly had a hand on his head either rubbing the top or covering an eye. He also kept adjusting the mike, usually putting his arms up to cover his face. I'm not sure if it was part of the act or if he's genuinely awkwardly shy. His routine was very good though. His voice is so annoyingly familiar and it just makes everything seem so much funnier. His jewish jokes were awesome and his impressions were pretty good, especially Jackie Mason and Bob Dylan. He capped it off with some of the dirty jokes from his DVD which were familiar but still great to hear coming from Gilbert.
Overall it was a fun night and it was pretty cool to see Gilbert Godfried live.

Gigantic: A Review

Gigantic
Starring Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel.

The director, Matt Aselton was endearingly funny during the Q&A after the film.
It was interesting to hear that even he was unable to understand the reasoning behind some of the strange goings on in the film.
The Homeless/Con Edison/Hunter is one of the odd character metaphors that is kind of left to interpretation by the viewer.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. Dano is very believable as an unexpected love interest for Zooey's quirky character.
John Goodman plays Zooey's rich father with back problems. It's nice to see him in a good role again.

So far, the film festival has shown two very good movies that I would definitely recommend to any film lover, not just Indie film lovers.

Gigantic will be released on theaters today.

Lymelife review

Last night was the New York premiere of Lymelife.
It was the first of seven films showing at the Gen Art Film Festival.

The movie was fantastic. It stars the wonderful Alec Baldwin, Jill Hennessey (Law & Order), Kieran & Rory Culkin, Cynthia Nixon, and Emma Roberts. Set in Long Island. The movie revolves mostly around the youngest son (Rory) of the family and a sort of coming of age. There are some great realistically awkward moments as well as some seriously intense scenes. It was well written and very well cast.

I can see why it was the opening of the festival but it will be a tough act to follow.

The movie opens in limited release in theaters April 8th.
If it's playing by you, I would recommend going to see the movie.
If not, put it in your Que.