AUSTIN, Texas, October 21, 2005 — I had a meeting at the club today. I decided I'd skip film panels today and just do film. I worked on my journal, mostly just roughing in the days and titles. Then I went to the club, worked out, showered and dressed there. We met and tasted a bunch of dishes proposed for the next menu change. We tasted some wine, too. I tried to moderate. Really.

We went downtown and parked and went to McCormick and Schmidt. We were going to have a drink and meet SuRu to eat in the restaurant part. Just because we never ate there before. But we saw these great happy hour prices for

apps in the bar and decided to stay in there. SuRu came down and we ate apps. (Red tomato curry mussels were great.) Had a drink or two. And went to two movies.

We saw these movies. At the Paramount.

Ice Harvest. What to say? It was noir. John Cusack was good. Randy Quaid was good. Oliver Platt was good. The set dressing and the cinematography and directing was amazing. But somehow it wanted to be Blood Simple or Fargo but Harold Ramis is not the Coen brothers. Still a fun movie in that same blood-drenched way. And Harold's presence at the festival was a huge boon. He presented Ghostbusters and was a real draw. A guy has to grow his work. This was an interesting direction.

The Dying Gaul See here's the thing: I have to believe the characters. I love Campbell Scott and he's given some stellar performances and involved himself with amazing projects. But until the last scene he was in, I didn't believe his character. I thought the plot thin and unlikely. To me this movie is an example of a pitch that had elements that attracted someone (Hollywood, Homosexuals, Internet, Intrigue, Sympathetic Characters Turning Bad) but the elements of the recipe didn't make a coherent movie. I did believe the Peter Sarsgaard character until the end when he and Campbell apparently handed off the believability baton. Maybe these characters were too complex for me to understand? Maybe I don't get Hollywood? (But don't you agree that no one would option that script alluded to in the movie for a million bucks? No matter what soul-wrenching changes the studio insisted on? But what do I know?)

xxx