Advice for young photogs

When shooting pictures with a reflective surface, don't get yourself in the shot like our dear friend Nick Ut from the AP did.

Angering car lovers

One thing I've learned over the years is that car lovers really don't like it when you insult their vehicular tastes.

Case in point: our Managing Editor Aaron Cole reviewed the '09 Dodge Challenger (read the review here) in today's paper. While the review painted a less-than-stellar picture when it highlights the flaws of the car, he did say it's "impractical, nearly undriveable, tremendously fun and turns every head within a city block."

Just like every other unnecessarily amped-up vehicle from crotch rockets to riced-out imports to big honkin' SUVs, it's oh so fun, but oh so inefficient.

While there's only two comments on the story (so far), we found a thread on a Challenger forum about it with mostly negative reactions about the review.

This reminded me when I was in college and the opinions editor of our newspaper wrote a piece about how super-sized trucks were on the verge of extinction after domestic car companies were posting record losses (shameless plug for my college paper). It was more commentary about how Japanese car companies were winning because of their research efforts on efficiency and reliability than anything else. Regardless, we got lengthy letters from truck lovers who tried disproving everything he wrote in response to the piece.

But one thing that remains constant between these incidents: the key insult is "tree-hugging Boulder liberal" Mark Udall.

(Er... scratch the Udall part, I'm still suffering flashbacks from Bob Schaffer's commercials from the election season.)

2008 Starz Film Fest - Opening Night

I've covered the Starz Film Festival for four years now and the one thing that stays constant is the excitement on opening night. There's always an electricity in the air as film patrons fill the Ellie Caulkins Opera House to kick off the cavalcade of movies.

Last night was no different as the festival launched with the latest film from Director Rian Johnson (who was also a former Dry Creek Elementary student – go Dolphins), "The Brothers Bloom." It's about two con-artist brothers, played by Mark Ruffalo and Adrian Brody, and their adventures. It's a fun, lighthearted film filled with many laugh-out-loud moments. Shameless plug: see my full review next month at www.aurorasentinel.com.

I was a little disappointed by the Denver Film Society's in-house short to kick off the festival. Last year's was fun with Mayor Hickenlooper and Ron Henderson. This year featured local comedian Magic Cyclops in a lackluster bit.

"Dog," the 90-second short that opened the show, was a cute animation about one boy's reaction to his brother's dog dying. (It can be seen at http://www.hermannkarlsson.co.uk)

Now that the festival's underway, there are a number of flicks that I'm planning to catch:

• "Chocolate" (Thailand) - Saturday at midnight
  Think Tony Jaa if he were a female. The latest movie from the director of "Ong Bak" is sure to be filled with as much action as his previous two.
  
• "Slumdog Millionaire" (UK) - Saturday at 7:30 - $30
  Awesome flick. Check out my review at http://www.aurorasentinel.com/articles/2008/11/14/living/reviews/doc491d36fccbb9d136330687.txt.
• "Waltz With Bashir" (Israel) - Sunday at 1 p.m.
  It's an animated movie about a veteran of the 1982 Lebanon War.
  
• An Evening with Don Hertzfeldt - Saturday, Nov. 22 at 8 p.m.
  Hertzfeldt has been one of my favorite animators since I discovered him in college. His pieces are off the wall, a little crazy, but always hilarious.

Welcome home, Chauncey

Denver's son is coming home.

Chauncey Billups, the former George Washington High School and Colorado Buffs star comes back to the Nuggets along with Antonio McDyess.

A.I., we hardly knew ye.

But this is a good move for the Nuggs. Heck, it's a good move for both teams.

With Billups:

• The Nuggets get a top-tier pass-first point guard
  Denver has plenty of scorers without Iverson — Melo, Smith, and to a lesser extent, Kleiza — but haven't had a true quality point guard to feed them the ball. Anthony Carter is a nice backup point, but he's not on the same level as Billups.
• Size and defense
  At 6-3 and 202 pounds, Billups gives the Nuggets more size in the backcourt. Plus the two-time All-NBA defensive second team guard will give Denver something they've been lacking since the Mutombo days.
• Outside threat
  Billups gives the Nuggets another consistant 3-point shooter aside from J.R. Smith. This outside threat opens the inside and more scoring opportunities for Nene and Kenyon Martin.