I Saw My Name on the BIG SCREEN at the LA Film Festival

Yep, that's right. Didn't even take that long, did it? It's official: I've made it. I own this town...yada, yada, yada.

Ok, that's a bit much. But I did get to see the name "Mark Kosin" on a real movie screen for a real movie that was really playing at the LA Film Festival. Really.

The movie is The Poker House, and I was a production assistant for this particular film for a couple of days in May 2007 when they were filming in the very unspectacular Lemont, IL. The Poker House is directed by Lori Petty, who also co-wrote it along with David Alan Grier. [If you're having flashbacks of OJ's Bronco chase and striking baseball players, then you're probably remembering that the last time these names were heard together (or heard at all) was when they co-stared in the 1994 Pauly Shore vehicle In the Army Now].

The Poker House was the first (and only) "real" movie that I have PA'd on. I honestly didn't think I'd ever hear of it again but lo and behold, it was showing three times at the LA film Festival. I figured that I owed it to myself to check it out and that I did, and was happy to see my name scroll on down near the very end of the credits under the listing "production intern" (on account of I didn't get paid: also notice the lack of credit on IMDB).

The movie was .....meh.......OK. The acting was top-notch, especially from the young female lead actress, Jennifer Lawrence, and Selma Blair was good as her drugged-up whore mother. Kind of overly dark while a bit too hokey. But it was still a grand time, and proved that my handful of Saturdays in May were not in vain.

Other than that I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Cubs SWEEP THE WHITE SOX at Wrigley Field last weekend. Since it was an AL team it's not that big a deal that we SWEPT them, certainly not as important as if we'd SWEPT the Cardinals. But any SWEEP is a good SWEEP.

SWEPT.

[Side note: As I watched the ESPN broadcast of the Sunday Night game where the Cubs completed their SWEEP, Joe Morgan proved again that he is either an anti-Cubs biased hack or a complete idiot or both when he said that the basket on the outfield wall is called "Banks' Boulevard" because Ernie Banks used to hit a lot of HRs there. That's just wrong, and when a color commentator consistently makes such moronic statements that undermine a great player like good ole' #14 then said commentator should be fired after being smacked over the head with a large snow shovel, a la the ending of Home Alone. For more outrage I recommend Bleed Cubbie Blue, and there's also a wonderful website called FIREJOEMORGAN.COM]

We'll see what happens this weekend down at US Cellmisky Park. I do love the City Series, or the Crosstown Classic, or the 'L' Series or whatever people like to call it. It's the best and I am really jealous of everyone who can experience it first hand in Chicago.

Also happy to hear about Derrick Rose. I haven't heard all the pro-Rose chatter that is supposedly goin on in CHI but I'm giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. Yea, go Bulls...

I signed a lease on a new apartment, but I'm saving that for a post to be named later.

Oh, and it was sad to see George Carlin go. He was brilliant when it came to ripping apart bullshit and I will leave the last words for him:

Fuck.
Shit.
Piss.
Cocksucker.
Motherfucker.
Cunt.
Tits.