Notes from a Genius

"Miss Stevens" starring: Lily Rabe, Timothee Chalamet, Lili Reinhart, Anthony Quintal, Oscar Nunez, Rob Huebel, Larry Bam Hall written and directed by: Julia Hart When the premise of a film focuses on a seemingly young, blonde, naive (in some ways), new(ish) high school English teacher who accompanies 3 of her students (one being a rule-following girl, one being a flamboyantly gay boy, and the other being a bad-boy type who thumbs his nose at conventions) as their chaperon on a weekend trip for a drama/theatre competition, you will understandably assume that something is going to happen between the young teacher and the bad boy. That's where the tension falls, after all, in a very uncomfortable sense. We've all seen it before, in fact I reviewed an excellent movie called "A Teacher" a couple of years ago. But, you will be pleasantly surprised that this movie sees that road and decides to take the road less traveled. Instead, the teacher has sex with...

Well, another year is coming to a close and I am lucky enough to have the type of job that gives me a break at the end of the year which allows and lends itself to being reflective. So, I usually take these two weeks to think about life, where I am and how I got here, as well as the bumps and bruises and good times along the way throughout the year. This year was no different, providing lots of experiences, good and not so good, but nothing that I would ever regret. That's the biggest thing I've learned over the years of my journey through adulthood- no regrets. This year I was able to complete the necessary courses to become certified as an Assistant Principal with hopes of finding a suitable job at a new school next year. I also moved up to teaching 1st grade at the same school I've been at now for 5 years, although that has also given me the itch to leave and find something new, to challenge myself somewhere new with a new group of colleagues and a whole new batch of k...

"Yoga Hosers" starring: Lily-Rose Depp, Harley Quinn Smith, Adam Brody, Harley Morenstein, Ashley Greene, Austin Butler, Tyler Posey, Jennifer Schwalbach-Smith, Justin Long, Tony Hale, Natasha Lyonne, Genesis Rodriguez, Vanessa Paradis, Haley Joel Osment, Johnny Depp, Ralph Garman, Sasheer Zamata written and directed by: Kevin Smith You want nepotism? Oh, Kevin Smith has just the film for you. This is by no stretch of the imagination a good film and I think it is fair to say that Smith's filmmaking career has seen much much better days. So, what does he do? Well, he writes and directs a film that his daughter stars in with her best friend, Lily-Rose Depp, who happens to be Johnny Depp daughter with Vanessa Paradis. And, oh yeah, her parents also show up in the film, Johnny Depp is a less recognizable role as he wears lots of prosthetics. This has to be one of the worst/best movies of the year because of just how bad it is, but I think it seems to know that about ...

This is always so hard to compile and complete, but alas, I did it. Top _20_ Albums of 2016 1. Radiohead- A Moon Shaped Pool As a Radiohead fan stretching all the way back to their first album, Pablo Honey, and when they were deemed "one hit wonders" of the '90s, but quickly came out with album after album that just continuously disproved that theory- each album showcasing a new approach to music, in either how they wrote it, how they recorded it, how that packaged it, and even how they sold it- they have continued to impress me, and I can say THIS is the album I've been waiting for, ever since "Kid A" came out. The orchestral sound is just perfect throughout the album, the composition of the band's music and the orchestra that accompanies on most songs is just damn near perfect. It's a reflective album. It's an album flush with romanticism, and in a way, it's a "breakup" album.  2. Chance the Rapper- The Coloring Book ...