Review: 12 Angry Men

12 Angry Men is one of my favorite films, due largely to the simplicity and timelessness of the inherent moral.

The film manages to capture and hold attention, for a whole hour and a half... with a cast comprised of, you guessed it, 12 men - a jury - locked in a room to deliberate the fate of the accused.

At the beginning, eleven of the twelve are convinced of the defendant's guilt and are ready to turn in a guilty verdict and avoid sitting in the hot jury room on a sweltering summer day.

One holdout feels that the evidence is flimsy at best and sets out to challenge the other juror's confident viewpoint.

The genius of the film is that it is written so cleverly as to make these events watchable and compelling, slowly stripping down the viewpoints and motives of the various jurors as the holdout sways them with the lack of solid evidence.

The acting is solid too... Every performer gave his best here, with Henry Fonda giving a stellar performance as the film's star.

Adapted from a play, this classic from 1957 is a must-see for any film enthusiast.

Indeed, everyone should see this film about examining the facts without prejudice.

 Also check out the trailer, which is certainly a relic from another era of trailer editing.

Welcome March!

February was full of surprises. First was that I was really sick for over a week, at the very beginning of the month, didn't feel like getting off the couch to go see a doctor. Finally, after missing a whole week of work, I managed to get the strength to get up and go get checked out, found out it was a migraine and the doctor gave me a shot that made me feel better within few minutes.

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Other than that, I've been spending my time at work and hanging out with my family. When I'm not,  I'm reading books and watching DVDs I get from the library (Perry Mason mysteries, Columbo). 

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I really want to spend more time working on my writing and artwork over the next few weeks though. During February, I wrote a little story and did some accompanying sketches, depicting what my family might look like in twelve years and what we might be doing. (I speculated that I might be investigative journalist fighting injustice as well as uncovering people financing human trafficking. All very exciting stuff.)

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I had 22 posts partially written and scheduled for February, but they never went up because I never finished any of them. They were all reviews of Thomas & Friends episodes. I plan to finish writing them and then retroactively post them on the dates that I had originally planned to. [Eventually changed my mind because it took me so long to finish them. Planning to post them during my 245 Day Project.]

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So hard to believe that it's the end of the first day of March, but here we are!

My First WinterJam! Or, The Time I Met David Crowder

Friday, January 20th 2017, I got off work at 6:00 planning to meet my brother in the parking lot. Unfortunately, he was running late and when he arrived we had to stop at the gas station for a quick refuel. Then, finally we were on our way to Pittsburgh for WinterJam.

Colton Dixon

When we arrived at the PPG Paints arena, we found a great parking space in the garage at the side entrance.

We hurried inside, an hour late. The nice guards at the door let us in for free! 

We got in just in time for a couple songs from Colton Dixon. 

Tenth Avenue North

This was followed by awesome performances from Tenth Avenue North, Britt Nicole and others.  

Snapshot from Crowder's performance. 

My brother and I agree that, as awesome as everyone was, David Crowder was our favorite act that night! 

Crowder, Nathanael & I.

So,  after his grand finale performance, we slipped through the crowd and got in line for Crowder's autograph. 

We were the last people in the line and the guards cut the line off behind us. 

Turns out that the show was running 30 minutes behind that night, so staff were eager to keep things moving. 

David Crowder and yours truly.

 We only spent 40 minutes in line,  then got a moment to say hi to Crowder before the staff hurried us along. But we both got cool selfies with him. 

The WinterJam artists, preparing for takeoff.

When we got back to the car,  I looked  out into the city for a photo, and seen the tour buses below us and got a cool photo. 

Definitely a night to remember! 

"Saving Time" Review (Thomas & Friends S20E6)

The sixth episode of the twentieth season turned out to be another clever one, with Samson providing another interesting situation that the show had never used before.

It has been suggested numerous times by a number of fans that Samson is the first legitimately flawed character in the Thomas & Friends television series, and this episode continues to prove that. He lives in his own little world, over-confident and self-assured, making decisions based on his (limited) understanding and not taking the helpful advice (or direct orders) issued him by his coworkers and superiors. Now we just need an episode where he faces severe personal consequences. Time in the shed or something.

Image from TTTE Wikia

Anyway, this installment saw him trying to save time. First, by taking too many cars and causing confusion and delay, and in a humorous twist at the end of the episode, too few cars - in a further attempt to save time. 

Another plus for any episode about Samson, is that he is a mainland engine and not from Sodor. Considering how overcrowded the little island had been in years past, it is always refreshing to see engines like Connor, Caitlin, Hiro, Gator and Samson, who are just visitors. 

Image from TTTE Wikia

An additional quirk that makes Samson interesting to watch is his unique speech patterns; the way he talks is different to all the engines we already know and love on the island of Sodor.

Moving beyond Samson though, the episode was great and had a lot of well written and animated moments. The scene in which Samson tries to scale Gordon's Hill with his heavy load made you feel the strain - it was painful to watch. 

Other high points for the episode include the soundtrack, Thomas pushing the train backwards like a real engine might, seeing the Blue Mountain Quarry again and Stanley (who doesn't like him?)

Image from TTTE Wikia

This episode was brought to us by none other than Andrew Brenner himself, back for his second outing this season. This episode is a great addition to the series and gets a solid 8/10 rating from me.

Starting Over, Hello 2017!

Hello everyone, I am finally getting around to reviving my blog (I also have plans for my YouTube channel) I made some efforts to begin posting again over the past year, but was largely thwarted by my busy schedule. Now, I've made some time for my writing and my blog is included in that.

Firstly, I intend to make good on old promises and write some posts which I have promised for a long time - some reviews, some short stories, fan fictions and other fun stuff.

Also, it is noteworthy that while I have no immediate plans to continue my journalistic interviewing endeavors, you can read my short lived "ZEM Interviews" blog right here on "zem2point0." My interviews with Neil Jackson, Kristin Booth, Cara Gee, Miranda Frigon and Matt Price were all merged into this blog when I no longer had time to maintain the other one. I figured this blog had more of a future and potential traffic than the other.

As for the forthcoming reviews I mentioned, in lieu of all the reviews I had talked about writing over the years, evaluating various Thomas & Friends productions and such I've decided to review "The Great Race" and the show's 20th season as well as 2 of my favorite films, namely "Valkyrie" and "12 Angry Men." (Read my previous reviews here: "Sidney Sings," "Toby's New Friend," "Henry Gets the Express," "Diesel and the Ducklings" and "Bradford the Brake Van.")

Hopefully cooking and recipes will have a chance to shine too! Like when I posted one of my Mom's favorite recipes (Asian Broccoli Noodles).

Now, for the really good stuff: The most important thing in my life is my Christian faith. I want my faith to shine through in my original writings, which is why I'm so excited about the books, films and online content which I'm currently writing. (See my previous faith-based posts: zem2point0, Jenny the Cat, The Cross, Practice Makes Perfect and Jesus - more than you think He is). Also, I love to share the fun little adventures I've had with my family and animals, life is truly full of blessings and wonder and I enjoy sharing that too. (Check out my adventure-related stories: The Cow(s), The Ostrich of New Jersey, Alligators and Ebony the One-Eyed Dog).  Ultimately, more posts like these are the goal.

This photo of dear, sweet Ebony was taken on New Year's Day 2014. Ebony passed away in November 2016.

I'm so excited about this new year! I want to make the most of it! Like I said on Facebook:

"It's a new day, a new year, to make the most of every minute and show our love for one another! Just like every day when we wake up, we have a chance to do our part to make the world a better place and to do everything to the best of our ability; and to pray and listen for direction in how to do that.

"...behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:2 

"...whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John 13:34-35"