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OK, I went to see Southland Tales Friday for two reasons:

1. I love Richard Kelly’s earlier film Donnie Darko and consider it one of the best films ever.

2. Calpernia appears briefly in a scene on the maiden voyage of the Jenny von Westphalen, a blimp that’s powered by an energy source invented by a guy who… oh, never mind. It’s way too hard to explain.

Despite those two reasons, I was a little concerned after reading about the disastrous Cannes screening and subsequent recutting. My mom always said “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say it.” I of course say not nice things with alarming regularity, so her advice obviously didn’t take.

I am not, however, going to say anything bad about the film beyond that I didn’t like it. I thought it was very audacious, the kind of studio film an indie director gets to make once. It was uncompromising in terms of fearless originality, but it was just a hodgepodge of a story that felt like a lot of cool vignettes without any cohesive stuff to hold the thing together.

So, glad I saw it, but I can’t recommend it. However, if you have not seen Donnie Darko, you need to Netflix that immediately.

I went to three grocery stores before I found my Tofurky this year! Worth the effort, though. I really like these things a lot. I roasted my Tofurky with a variant of a recipe on the box: onions, brown sugar, mustard, balsamic vinegar, cider. I usually have Mariani dried cherries in the house (best ever made, topped only by their pineapple), but no dice, so I improvised with some other stuff. It turned out pretty well, though mine didn’t have nearly the amount of stuffing shown on this box. We also had mashed potatoes from scratch, cranberry sauce, magic bars, a tomato salad, wine, and some single malt scotch after dinner.

I have so much for which I am thankful, including great friends and loved ones, cool mentors, the best business partner, and talented peers. Can’t wait to tell you all about what we’ve been working on for our final 2007 project! I hope your Thanksgiving was great, too!

I’m a member of the Ivy Plus Society, a social group for young alumni of select schools. The other day I took Calpernia along to an event they had at Seven Grand, a bar we both like downtown.

I always enjoy meeting interesting people who are good at what they do, no matter what that is. I met a well-known cosmologist whose observations led to recent images of a star with a comet tail, a cardiology resident at UCLA, and a couple of other funny writers involved in the WGA strike.

If you went to one of the included schools, I urge you to join! They have a holiday party coming up in Santa Monica.

* Calpernia and me chatting with screenwriter Michael

* Full photo series