Back in Austin!

Boy, does it feel so right to be back in Austin! I was out of the country for nearly all of July, and was in Dallas for the rest of the time. I tried to go to the movies as often as I could, and hit up some awesome restaurants in Dallas. Ziziki's, Eno's, Rise nº1, The Porch, Park on Henderson, The Common Table, Lumi, and La Duni were just a hanfull of some of my new favorite spots I ventured to this summer in Dallas. The majority of films I saw were decent... nothing stuck out as 'the must-see summer blockbuster', but my two favorite films were JJ Abram's secretive 'Super 8' and The New Times' 'Page One'.

 Abram's sci-fi epic was captivating and fresh. The cast's camaraderie and youthful spirit was reminiscent to Speilberg's 'Goonies', while the plot steered more towards Abram's bulk of work ('LOST', 'Fringe'). The film had me laughing, sympathetic, and on the edge of my seat -- a true roller-coaster of emotions! The short film that the kids entered into their contest (titled "The Case") played during the credits and was genius. A neat side-fact is that the children actually wrote and filmed the humorous film without any intervention from Abrams.

The New York Times' all access documentary was great. A film crew followed the newspaper tycoon for over a year - a very interesting period for print media as social media outlets and online news has taken over the 'age of information'. The current global recession occurs, and forces major cutback and layoffs within the media giant. During that same time, Wikileaks breaks on the scene and turns the news industry upside-down. The New York Times eventual compliance with the rouge media source eventually lands much them much critisism.. all the way up to the White House.