Another Day, Another Selection! Manny’s New Year’s Eve receives its third festival selection. Art Film Awards.
The film got selected for the January Edition of the festival.
“Due to many of film and scripts submissions, the jury will need a few days more to make the final decision and announce the winners and finalists.”
I’m hoping the film makes it to the following round.
Room 526 is officially a Finalist at the Best Indie Film Award Film Festival.
Unfortunately, the film didn’t win, but just being selected and then a finalist is good enough.
I may be late but it’s Miguel’s Friday Thoughts.
Utah Jazz have been a surprise story this season. Jazz are on a 11-game winning streak. They have the best record in the NBA with a 15-4 record. Wow! No one saw this coming.
Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado has been traded to the St Louis Cardinals. This is a huge upgrade for the Cards and a downgrade for the Rockies. I’m a fan of Arenado. He’s a caliber player that deserves to be a contending team. Let’s see how he will do in a Cardinal uniform.
A few days ago, Sixers beat the Lakers. Several sports journalists are over exaggerating thinking that the Sixers have a shot of beating the Lakers in the playoffs. I disagree. We have seen numerous times of teams getting owned in the regular season to then get dismantled in the postseason.
The 2000 Ravens had one of the greatest defense of all time. There were fast and ruthless. Their defensive coordinator was Marvin Lewis. Under Lewis, Ravens defense allowed just 10.3 points per game in a 16-game regular season. This set a league record.
Ravens gave up only 970 rushing yards all season. They ranked 7th in pass defense, but their rushing defense best was their best. Their defense were led by middle linebacker Ray Lewis, 2000 NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Five players represented the Ravens in the Pro Bowl.
Ravens beat the Broncos, Titans, No. 2 offense Raiders, and the Giants in the Super Bowl. Ravens finished the entire season with a 16-4 record.
The 2000 Ravens is the best defensive team I have ever seen in all of my years watching football. The closest one to challenge the 2000 Ravens are the 2013 Seattle Seahawks.
My comedy short film Manny’s New Year’s Eve got selected once again. I want to thank Vesuvius International Monthly Film Fest. It’s our second festival selection and we are beyond thrilled.
It was directed, produced, written, shot, edited, and starred by yours truly. My story in making this project happened so suddenly and unexpected.
On New Year’s Eve, I knew I wasn’t going to do nothing. The COVID-19 is still active and the following day is the anniversary of my grandmother’s death. Ever since her death, my family and I barely celebrate New Year’s anymore. There is something I needed to do because I felt so bored. An idea came up and I decided to make a very short film about New Year’s Eve.
At first, I thought about doing the short film with my best friend, but things were going to be very difficult and hard to pull off. So I made it all by myself. I came up with the outline of the story. A man who is struggling with boredom tries to make the best out of New Year’s Eve. The film received positive feedback. Manny’s New Year’s Eve premiered on my Instagram and YouTube on New Year’s Day.
Last night, I was in the mood to watch a classic teen rom-com movie. When I was a kid, I used to see the trailer many times of Drive Me Crazy. For the first time, at the age of 29, I watched the movie. Here’s my review of the movie.
First of, the film is starring Melissa Joan Hart, Ali Larter and Adrian Grenier. During that time, Melissa had a hit show Sabrina, The Teenage Witch. As for Adrian, It’s funny to see him in Drive Me Crazy because I recently began binge watching Entourage. I’m enjoying it so far. Anyway, back to the subject. This is not one of those Oscar caliber movies. It’s a cult classic. I mean that in a good way. We all like movies that we know it’s not good, but you enjoy watching it. Some movies are not meant to be taken so seriously.
Drive Me Crazy had some good moments in the movie. Melissa’s performance wasn’t so strong in my opinion. As for the ending, I didn’t like it very much. I just didn’t think the writers should’ve added about the parents moving in together in the treehouse. I get that they’re not married but I feel that could’ve been written way better.
I learned something about this movie that I didn’t know before. The movie was originally called Next to You. It all changed because of Britney Spears’ “You Drive Me Crazy.” The song inspired the title of the movie. The film grossed 22,593,409 worldwide, against an $8 million budget.
I know many of you are shocked right now. Yes, I’m a guy that watches WNBA games. From 2000-2002, I used to follow women’s basketball consistently. I still tune in once in a blue, but not as much as before. Here are some of my favorite WNBA players:
Teresa Weatherspoon: Spoon is undoubtedly the heart and soul of those New York Liberty teams and one of the greatest Liberty players of all time. She wasn’t too much of a scorer. She was known for her tenacious defense and fiery play. No one can’t forget about her half-court buzzer-beater shot in Game 2 of the 1999 WNBA Finals against the Houston Comets. “The Shot” became the most significant moment of her career. Unfortunately, Liberty wasn’t able to win a title during the Weatherspoon era. New York Liberty lost three championships to the Houston Comets. Ugh, it makes me sick to my stomach. Comets were fortunate to have the big three: Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, and Tina Thompson. Overall, I’ll never forget Teresa’s impact on the game of basketball. She is a 2-time Defensive Player of the Year, 5-time WNBA All-Star, and 4-time All-WNBA Second Team. Last but not least, a Hall of Famer.
Tamika Catchings: Anyone who has played under the Tennessee legend head coach Pat Summit knows that she will bring out the best in you-you are destined for greatness. Summitt did that for Tamika. Ms. Indiana Fever is one of the greatest WNBA players I’ve ever seen. Catchings spent her 15-year career with the Indiana Fever and served as President of the WNBA Players Association from 2012 to 2016. Tamika Catchings is a prolific scorer, as well as a rebounder, ball handler, and defender. Catchings helped bring Fever a championship in 2012 when they defeated the reigning champion Minnesota Lynx, three games to 1. She was named the MVP. Catchings was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2020. Here are more of her career accomplishments: 2011 WNBA MVP, 12-time All-WNBA team, 5-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, 12-time All-Defensive Team, 7-time WNBA steals leader, 2002 WNBA Rookie of the Year.
Honorable Mention: Tina Thompson, Lisa Leslie, Sue Bird, Maya Moore, and Candace Parker.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to their first Super Bowl since 2002. For the first time in the Super Bowl’s history, a Super Bowl team will play in their hometown. This year’s Super Bowl will be in Tampa.
Aaron Rodgers is now 1-4 in the championship game. The packers had all the momentum in the second half. I’m very disappointed that the Packers’ offense didn’t capitalize on Tom Brady’s two interceptions in the 4th quarter. The Packers’ offensive line was horrible.
Rodgers should’ve run the ball on 3rd and goal at the end of the 4th quarter. Instead, he threw the ball, which was incomplete. It became 4th and down, and instead of going for it, the Packers head coach made a costly dumb mistake and settle for the field goal. Packers would never get the ball back. A controversial late flag on the Packers for pass interference put the icing on the cake. Bucs win 31-26.
Tom Brady will make his 10th Super Bowl appearance. He’s the goat for a reason.
Sometimes I feel people don’t pay much attention to black and white films because they’re too old. A lot of great films are in black and white. I’m going to share some of my favorite black and white movies. These two films are from the Golden Era of Cinema.
Citizen Kane: The 1941 film still makes a tremendous impact. This movie is a masterpiece. At the age of 25, Orson Welles was ahead of his time. He directed, produced, starred in his film. Welles’ performance is nothing short but phenomenal.
It’s A Wonderful Life: Another masterpiece—a classic Christmas movie. A movie people will have a good time watching with their families for decades. Frank Capra and James Stewart were a great director-actor duo.
Welcome to Miguel’s Friday Thoughts! I had a long time without giving you all my Miguel’s Friday Thoughts edition. I will provide you with my thoughts on one topic: Tiger Woods new documentary on HBO.
Tiger documentary is a 2-part series. Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers of all time and probably the most famous golfer ever. What he has accomplished in his career is nothing short but spectacular. Woods currently has 15 world championships, second behind Jack Nicklaus (18). In the first part, it touches on Tiger’s early beginnings. I was aware of the relationship between him and his father. They were close. However, I was getting the impression that the media was being too extra. For example, when Tiger and his father both have said in separate interviews that they’re best friends, the interviewer would respond, “but he’s your father/but he’s your son.” It’s ridiculous because many great families consider their brother, sister, parents, etc., as best friends. Why? Because at the end of the day, a family is all you got. So I just felt that it was corny of the media asking them those questions.
In the second part, the documentary focuses on Tiger’s infidelity and legal troubles. I’m going to say this. I don’t condone cheating, but the public had this idea of Tiger being this perfect public figure. No one is squeaky clean. We all have our shortcomings. It’s just that some cases are significantly worse than others. I don’t care about his personal life. It’s not like he murdered someone. I mostly care about his work, whether he’s performing well or not. Many of these women who came forward feeling “emotional” and “hurt” knew that he was a married man. So why would you get yourself involve with that man? Because he’s Tiger Woods? I just felt that this documentary tried to be slick to demonize Tiger’s relationship with his dad and more. The same people who bashed Tiger during his dark times were the same people who cheered for him when he came back to play golf and won. I think that’s BS.