The Photo
the info
Dan Carlson
Los Angeles, California

I'm a twentysomething white male with ambitions to be a professional film critic and generally spend my days getting paid to watch movies and write about it. I try not to think too hard about how I want to build my life around talking about other people's creations and not mine. A compulsive reader and stubborn cineaste, I take an often contrary stance to my more fundamentalist peers and upbringing by celebrating the pursuit of the good, and the Good, in life, love, art and film. If you watched enough episodes of a few TV shows ("The Hungry and the Hunted," "The Cut Man Cometh," "The Body," "Waiting in the Wings," "Out of Gas," "April is the Cruelest Month," "20 Hours in America," "Colonial Day" for starters), you would understand me completely, and you'd also realize that much of my worldview and philosophical insights are heavily influenced by fictional works/programs, and many of the good things I've said in my life are just a regurgitation of someone else's imaginings. I guess I was made to be a film critic.
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The Clock
View Article  Review: The Sentinel
Michael Douglas, everyone's favorite Action Grandpa, back on the big screen:

Clickety-click.

View Article  Those Boots Really Are Big
There's more info here, but basically, you should know that more than a few of these apply to me. ButterKrust, Mi Tierra, using the exit ramp to gain speed, the whole nine. All the list needs is a reference to El Raton.

Just a reminder to Keep San Antonio Lame. If you don't like it, lump it.

You Know You're From San Antonio When:

You lost your virginity at Mission Drive-In.
You know exactly how to get to the Ghost Tracks from anywhere in town. [true]
You think pro-choice means flour or corn tortillas.
You've never been to the Alamo.
You think a health drink is a margarita without salt.
You think being able to read the Taco Cabana menu makes you bilingual.
You used to live in a neighborhood you wouldn't even drive through now.
There has been a road crew on your street since before the Alamodome was built.
You remember when Crossroads Mall used to be called Wonderland.
You've been to Midget Mansion and the Fat Farm.
You know all about the Dancing Diablo and the Donkey Lady bridge.
You know that Wheatley and Brackenridge is the same school.
You remember the Captain Gus show.
Your subwoofer has twice the value of your car.
You have three rodeo outfits but never have been on a horse.
You are an expert with the brake pedal, but you have no idea what a blinker is.
Your idea of culture is wearing a Hard Rock T-shirt.
You think the last supper was at Mi Tierra.
You do your grocery shopping at a flea market.
You think local politicians are crooks, but you still do not vote.
You care if San Antonio is in the national spotlight.
A formal occasion is getting a glass with your longneck.
You believe tacos, barbecue, tequila, and beer are the four basic food groups.
You think wearing bows in your hair will get you a husband.
Your white mother learned how to make tamales & menudo from your neighbors.
You know the real definition of Fiesta is 'stay home if at all possible.'
You have ordered Mexican food at a Chinese restaurant.
You had breakfast tacos at Taco Cabana on Christmas morning.
You remember the Joske's Christmas display.
You remember when JC Penney's had a restaurant.
You remember hamburgers from Whopper Burger.
Your elementary school field trip was to the ButterKrust Bakery.
You complain about how cold it is when the temperature dips below 70.
Your cholesterol is over 300.
You had a birthday party at Kiddie Park.
You have had nightmares about the giant cowboy boots in front of North Star Mall.
You own an album by, have seen or are even aware of any of the following bands: 'Moxy', 'Legs Diamond', 'Trapeze', 'Garfield' and especially 'Ozz Knozz' or 'Heyoka.'
You know what people are talking about when they refer to the 'hey-she-b.'
Your idea of a tropical vacation getaway is Port Aransas.
You get defensive when your friends from Austin talk about the great show they saw last night.
You party with your cousin more than twice a week.
You call any convenience store 'icehouse.'
You have only seen snow once in your life and it was twenty years ago.
You think a flash-flood warning means 'go drive through a low water crossing.'
You think the exit ramp is your own personal lauch pad.
You get annoyed when tourists ask for 'fa-jite-as.'
You couldn't care less about the Rodeo but never miss the Cowboy Breakfast.
You know the location of both the Hanging Tree and the Hollow Tree.
You don't have to look at the menu when you order at Bill Miller.
You have never, ever called this city 'San Antone.'

the post
Questions? Comments? Complaints?

Drop 'em in the mailbag.
the quotes

"The critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising."
— Pauline Kael


"Film lovers are sick people."
— Francois Truffaut


"I hope I strike a blow for chubby bald men everywhere. I hope they rise like an army."
Paul Giamatti, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, 12/14/04


"Let others praise ancient times, I am glad I was born in these."
— Ovid

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the wisdom
Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When?

O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.
— Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe


Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.
— John Stuart Mill


We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.
— G.K. Chesterton


We were, for the briefest of moments, something greater than the sum of our uncertain parts; we were youth itself, in all its painful glory and sharp joy.
— August Van Zorn


There is a time in the lives of most writers when they are vulnerable, when the vivid dreams and ambitions of childhood seem to pale in the harsh sunlight of what we call the real world. In short, there's a time when things can go either way.
— Stephen King



Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town.
Ask the Dust, John Fante