Zengrrl dot com :|: The Personal Website of Writer Michelle Snow

stop the movie remake madness!

Sep 28, 2008 movies and tv

Recent years have seen many classic movies “remade” or reimagined” – the whole idea is nothing new, as Hollywood seems less and less capable of taking chances on original script ideas. But it seems that the frequency of these remakes being green-lit is increasing and now they’re treading into dangerous areas. I am, of course, referring to the movies that are just such cult classics you wonder how and why anyone would want to redo them.

Now there comes word that one of my all-time favorite films is now in the process of getting this redo treatment and it greatly disturbs me.

That movie is The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

What makes it so disturbing is not just that somebody would dare to remake it, but that the people behind this atrocity are none other than MTV Films. Lou Adler, executive producer of the 1975 original, is actually rumored to involved, too.

WTF??

Look, MTV, I know you’ve had great success airing the heavily edited version of the original every year for Halloween on sister network VH1.  But this “it’s not a remake but a reimagining” of the classic just isn’t sitting well with me. The beauty of the original is its imperfections – I don’t need a glossy, pretty-cast remake/redo/reimagining of it. I love it as is.

Thankfully, Richard O’Brien, the writer and star of the 1975 cult classic, has not given his blessing to this madness, but one has to wonder if there’s enough money that he could say yes.

I’m crossing my fingers hoping this all falls through, but to quote Han Solo, “I got a bad feeling about this.”

Tags: cult classics, movie remakes, rocky horror picture show

spending the weekend with bloggers

Sep 15, 2008 tech stuff, work, writing

So this weekend, Jilly, Dan and I attended IZEAFest, a blogger conference downtown at the Grand Bohemian hotel. I think overall, it had a good variety of panels, and while I learned some things that were new, what I really took away from the conference was more of a reinforcement of things I already did know, as well as some renewed inspiration and a sense that I was still on the right track with all the blogging and social media stuff I do.

What I enjoyed most, though, was the chance to network with other bloggers. IZEAFest had a comfortable level of attendance, which means it was possible to walk up to anybody and start a conversation. I finally got the chance to talk to John Chow, whose blog I read daily for inspiration on monetizing and advertising on blogs. I also met Sean Bonner (at right in the pic with me), whose Metroblogging network I’ve been writing for the last year or so, along with his girlfriend Tara, who I would love to know better as she works in the music biz and, as you know, I spent over 15 years in the music biz before going full-time as a writer and designer.

I finally met Rae, who writes the uber-awesome Ramblings of a TV Whore website (which y’all should be reading if you aren’t already), and discovered we had so much in common from both being Browncoats and sharing quite a few Twitter feeds, to almost being neighbors. Also enjoyed chatting with Ashley in person, as he puts out a local Orlando blog that I love to read. I actually met so many more people that my head’s spinning trying to remember them all, but most have been added to my Twitter and RSS feedreader.

I did skip out on the Saturday night party, which I heard was a blast and would have love to attend if I wasn’t still feeling completely under the weather from the combo of lack of sleep and tail end of the flu I caught on Wednesday. I’ve learned open bar on top of the flu and exhaustion is not a good thing for me. LOL I hope the IZEA folks can forgive me, as I really enjoyed meeting them all, too. And yay to them for kicking ass with both the IZEAFest and their products, including one that they briefly talked about that I think will introduce a whole fun new layer of interactivity to blogs once it’s released to the public. More on that as it becomes open to join for all.

Anyways, if you want to check out IZEAFest for yourself, they’re actually streaming all of the panels online. You can also read my “official” review of it over at Metroblogging Orlando, where I have links to the Twitter and Flickr streams from the event. Oh yeah, my Flickr photos are up, too, but the light sucked and I sat too far back for my flash to be truly effective, so I just gave up taking any after a while.

If you went, drop me a note in comments either here or at the MB story so I can come check ‘em out. Next big event coming up is BlogOrlando at the end of the month. Still time to sign up if you want to go and this blogger conference is completely free to attend.

Tags: blogger events, IZEAFest, Orlando, social media, tech events

it was seven years ago today…

Sep 11, 2008 life

Seven years ago today, I woke up for work, like any other day. I turned on the TV to the Today show, like I always did, listening to it in the background as I got ready, but not fully paying attention.

Then it dawned on me that something major had happened…something that would change forever how we view the world around us.

Today is the seventh anniversary of the tragic events of 9/11, a day when America’s bubble of safety was pierced by terrorists on our own soil, and launching us into a war we neither wanted, nor could afford. Even today, we are still suffering the effects, from the economy to constant fear of another attack.

But I hope at some time today, each and every one of you will take a moment to remember those whose lives were cut short by the attacks and say a prayer for them, their families and the troops who are still caught in the throes of the 9/11 aftermath.

Let us never forget…

Tags: 9-11, September 11, world events

the 80s called…they want their beta back

Sep 10, 2008 work

We get a lot of questionable stuff to sell in the store, but I really think this tops everything.

A video exercise tape called “Simply Ball”. Does anybody still buy video tapes to exercise to? Let’s hope so or these’ll be gathering dust for a long while.

Tags: exercise videos

a chock-full september

Sep 9, 2008 friends and family, life, photography, travel, writing

Well, here we sit at the beginning of September. I can’t believe the summer is gone – I feel like all I’ve done is work the past few months. If I’m not writing or doing design, I’m working that part-time store job, which some weeks has been almost 30 hrs.

But this month I’ve got a few things happening that should make time a little more fun. Jilly and Dan are flying cross-country today to join me at IZEAFest this weekend. You may have seen the link in my sidebar for a while. IZEAFest is a 3 day blogger conference with panels on everything from how to blog to making money off your blog, and it’s bringing in a multitude of speakers, including people like John Chow, who makes over $30,000 a month off his blog. Yeah, wouldn’t that be nice?? And for the three days of the conference, tickets are only $65, which I think is a good investment. I think tickets are still available if you want to join us.

Dan is only here for 10 days and I’m sure he’ll be wanting to hang with his sister, whom he & Jilly are staying with, but it’ll be good to finally meet him in person.  And I’m super excited about seeing Jilly again. We talk weekly either by IM or phone, but we haven’t seen each other in person for almost two years. I think Thurs the 3 of us plus Rhon will be going to WDW for the day. He’s never been to any of the parks, according to Jilly, so we’ll probably do a few hours at each so he can get a good overview of the whole Disneyworld experience.

Then after he leaves, Jilly will be surfing at our apt for another 10 days or so. I know we’re doing BlogOrlando (another blogger conference here in town) along with a day at Epcot for the Food & Wine Fest. We’re also going to have a chance to talk about some business ideas we’ve been kicking around to see what may work and such.

I also took the day off for my birthday. Don’t really have anything planned, but I just hate working on that day. It feels like I’m setting a precedent for the next year, you know. LOL  Plus it’s a Tues, so what trouble can I really get into?

Hmm… I sense a possible challenge there…

I’m hoping Cindy and Chantal might have a free day this month to meet Jilly. I think they’d all like each other. Too bad Cindy’s husband Jeff is off saving Iowa – he and Jilly have known each other online but never met in person. But maybe sometime when the world starts spinning a little slower, the 4 of us (J&C and R&me) can head out for the extended Vegas weekend we keep talking about and then J&D can come up to meet us, since they only live 2 hrs away. Perhaps even Jim & Julie can fly down to Vegas, too. Granted, Rhon and I will be the only “non-couple”, but I’m sure that won’t stop the 8 of us from having way too much fun in Vegas. LOL I’d say Beck & Kurt, too, but they’ve got the kids and I hate when people bring kids to Vegas.

Anyways, I’m hoping to get caught up on my writing with some of the extra days I’ve taken off. I’ve already made a good start. Here are some of my recent articles posted:

• 5 Free Things in Miami, Florida @ Suite101.com Budget Travel
• 5 More Free Things to Do in Miami @ Suite101.com Budget Travel
• 40/40 Club Closes at The Palazzo @ Las Vegas Logue
• Hard Rock Opens New Poker Lounge @ Las Vegas Logue

Since I get paid for every article view, I’m hoping to get more articles up so I can make enough to start paying more towards my gramma’s funeral bill. The sooner I can do that the better since the interest is like $80 a month alone.

So, I hate to beg, but if you have a few minutes to visit any links that are of interest, it’d be very much appreciated!

I also found some old photos dating back to 2003 on my old desktop, which Rhon now uses. I had to fix a problem on it and thought, “hey, wonder what I still have on here.”  I’ve uploaded some from Epcot’s Living Seas (including some cool jellyfish and seahorse pix) and a bunch from 2003′s Star Wars Weekends at Disneyworld (I believe it was the last year that Anthony Daniels, who plays C3PO, ever attended) to my Flickr account.

Keep in mind they were taken with a crappy point-and-shoot digital, which was my first digital camera, but I still think they’re kinda cool. Here are a few of my faves from both sets:

What else… Oh I watched the premiere of that new HBO series “True Blood” based on the Sookie Stackhouse vampire novels. I think it really should have been a longer episode – way too many characters to throw into an hour of introduction – but overall I think this may turn into one of my favorites of the new TV season. Also watched the season opener of “The Sarah Connor Chronicles” – kinda cool seeing Summer as a badass again. Hopefully the show won’t suffer a sophomore slump like “Heroes” did last year. If you saw either, what did you think?

In the next few weeks, I’m gonna try to post more regularly to this blog, esp. as I show Jilly around town. But don’t forget you can always follow my Friendfeed or Twitter to keep up with my various writings and short musings in between.

ZG over and out…

Tags: "Star Wars", "Walt Disney World", animals, BlogOrlando, friends, IZEAFest, jellyfish, seahorses, starfish