Why I'm Excited for the New Spider-Man Movie

The new Spider-Man movie, The Amazing Spider-Man, comes out on July 3rd. And based on the new trailer, I'm pretty excited.



Some people are wondering why they'd already be rebooting the Spider-Man franchise when the previous trilogy just ended a few years ago. The first, most obvious reason is money. They'll make money off of it, so to the movie studio people, it's worth doing.

The second reason is that, right now, the superhero movie boom is still alive and kicking. In another 3-5 years, things might settle back down. People might eventually get tired of seeing superheroes in capes and tights running around beating up bad guys and making witty puns and quips, but the superhero movie genre still has life left in it - hence, a Spider-Man reboot.

To be completely honest, I'm most excited because this new franchise doesn't star Tobey Maguire. I don't know a ton about Andrew Garfield (other than the fact that he played Mark Zuckerburg's taken-advantage-of friend in The Social Network), but I do know that just the scene where he's catching the car-jacker is funnier than ANY line from the original three Spider-Man movies.

And that's important to me. Because in the comic books, Spider-Man is a funny, funny superhero. Like, laugh out loud funny when he's written well. And in the original movies, Tobey Maguire was about as funny/witty as a wall. He got the "nerdy" Peter Parker persona down pretty well, but Spider-Man has always been a two-sided coin. Nerdy Peter Parker disappears when the mask goes on, and witty Spider-Man takes over. In fact, part of the reason it's so important is because one of Spider-Man's strategies with a number of his villains is to mock them and talk trash to them in order to distract and frustrate them. It takes them out of their rhythm and he eventually wins the fight as a result of the villain making a mistake out of frustration.

Instead, throughout three Spider-Man films, we had to listen to Tobey Maguire's nasal-y, whiny voice as he got tossed around by every bad guy he fought, barely surviving every fight. If it weren't for Spider-Man 2, I don't know if I would've really enjoyed any of the films from that franchise - and I'm a HUGE Spider-Man fan (although, I'll admit, the series' target audience might not have been those lifelong fans who would be more opinionated than the average moviegoer).

Either way, this new franchise looks to be really well done. The cinematography looks gorgeous and the whole movie just feels grittier and realer. I mean, Spider-Man lives in (and fights crime in) New York City. It's not exactly the land of sunshine and smiles all the time.

I'm excited. I guess that's what it comes down to.

New Opportunities, Once Again

After five truly enjoyable months as the Temporary Web Content Editor at Evangel University, my tenure at EU has finally run its course. Thankfully I wasn't fired or anything bad like that; the woman I was filling in for temporarily just happened to come back from maternity leave.

As such, I'm now looking for work in the Springfield, Missouri area. Getting my foot in the door of the creative community here in Springfield hasn't been quite as easy as I'd hoped it would be, but that doesn't mean I'll be giving up trying anytime soon. I'd love to connect with the right agency, shop or firm looking for a skilled copywriter/digital media strategist/account strategist/any other fitting-enough job description-ist, so hopefully I'll be able to have some successful outreach here moving forward.

Until then, I'll be actively pushing people to my favorite little gem of a website, www.HireMikeBilleter.com and hoping they like what they see there. I know I like what I see there, but I'm probably biased.

If you are reading this and happen to know of any open opportunities (either in Springfield or just telecommuting), please don't hesitate to drop me a line and let me know. I'm interested in a wide variety of industries and subjects, so I really wouldn't be opposed to any new opportunities.

Thanks for your support, everybody. I look forward to throwing some less serious, more humorous/inspiring content on this blog soon.

-Mike

P.S. - Before I forget, I just wanted to say that working for Evangel here in Springfield was a really awesome experience. Just an entire college campus full of goodhearted people with a strong, Christian foundation. If there was a spot for me there, I'm sure I would've stuck around longer, but alas, 'twas not to be at this time.

Photo by photologue_np.

One of Many Reasons I Love "The Princess Bride"

The Princess Bride is one of my all-time favorite movies. Probably a Top 5 All-Time movie for me, if not Top 3. Which is funny, because I spent about two years as a kid telling my mom I'd "never want to watch a stupid movie about princesses" before she finally thought to explain to me that André the Giant was in it. At that point, I figured it had to be at least kind of awesome.

Anyway, I could write an entire blog post (and maybe someday will) about how much I love The Princess Bride. The older I've gotten, the more I've grown to appreciate every single line of witty and humorous dialogue and every single facet of its timelessness and beauty. And that's me trying to sum up my love for it succinctly.

Anyway, Entertainment Weekly did some "reunion photo," which sparked an outpouring of Princess Bride fans asking for more than just a photo. So they released this "Oral History" where they talked with the film's director, the writer of the original novel, and most of the cast involved in the film. It's definitely worth the read, but I wanted to highlight one of my favorite things from the story/article/whatever it is.

It comes from Mandy Patinkin, who played Inigo Montoya, the man who spoke the now semi-famous line, "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." This excerpt from the EW story gives a good look at why the cast members from The Princess Bride were able to make such a magical film.

PATINKIN: Not a day goes by where somebody doesn’t come up and ask, “Can you say the line?” And I say it with the greatest joy in the world. I’ll often whisper it into a little kid’s ear so he’s not looking at my face, so he just hears my voice, because I don’t want to mess up the magic.

Isn't that fantastic? I've read so many stories and Wikipedia entries about actors who hate when people constantly bring up a single line or single scene from their careers, and here's Mandy Patinkin, grateful that people are so enamored with that character and that film. AND he goes out of his way to make it a magical experience for Princess Bride fans of all ages. Just fantastic.

Anyway, I love The Princess Bride. If you haven't seen it before, I'm not sure there's a single movie I'd more strongly recommend that you watch.

-Mike

Photo comes from the official Princess Bride website.

The Power of Passing

Larry Bird was an incredible basketball player. There's not really any other way to say it.

Rather than ramble on about his various accolades and skills, I'm just going to focus on one thing for now: as good as Larry Bird was at scoring LOTS of points, he was also an unbelievably skilled passer.

Proof:

Watching this video led me to the realization that, sometimes, being the guy who makes the perfect pass at the right time can be just as effective as being the guy who scores the points.

I'm not sure exactly what that means in the business sense, but I do know there are lots of people in this world who are phenomenal passers but don't see how much value they bring to the table on a daily basis. I guess this is my way of saying that, if you're the kind of person who thrives on making the pass that leads to the big play, do that and do it as best as you can. And enjoy it.

Every big-time scorer needs someone to get him/her the ball. There's nothing wrong with being the person who sets people up for success. Especially when you end up on the winning team.

There's my cheesy inspiration for the day. Happy Friday.

The Incredible Mr. Flowers

My friend Joey Ryan (and his band, the Inks) have a new video for their awesome song "The Incredible Mr. Flowers." The video is LEGO stop-motion animation, so you already know it'll be a fun one.

Enjoy, and feel free to share the video/song with any and all of your friends who appreciate good music. In fact, go ahead and share it with your friends who don't appreciate good music too. Who knows? Maybe this will help them start appreciating it...



Oh, and more info on Mr. Ryan and his Inks can be found at JoeyRyanAndTheInks.com. Happy listening!

Jobs, Dogs and Movies

Now that we’ve officially settled in Missouri, I’ve got exciting news – I have a job! I recently started working with Evangel University (where Lindsie has just started grad school) as a Web Content and Marketing coordinator. It’s a temporary position as of now because I’m filling in for a gal who’s heading out on maternity leave, but it’s a fun opportunity and it’s been a blast so far.

From writing new commercials to working on website changes, I’ve pretty much had to dive in without even time to take a breath, but it’s been a wonderful experience and I couldn’t be more happy with the way things are going.

Also, the movie I’ve been helping to do some work on, Dust of War, is making some fantastic progress. They’ve added some stellar actors and they’re having a lot of fun on set from what it sounds like. The Facebook page is alive and kickin’ with over 1,200 fans now, and we’ve set up a Kickstarter push in order to raise the last bit of money Dust of War needs to finish the film out strong. Feel free to check it out if you want to be a part of a fun, independent, South Dakota film. (And don’t mind the dead body in the beginning of Andrew’s video…it’s just for show.)

That’s just a small update for now, but it’s nice to check in and let you know what’s going on.

Also, I’m starting to get along with my wife’s dog now. Soooo, taking all Mayan calendar predictions and hurricanes/earthquakes into consideration, that still might be the most blatant sign that the end is near.

Happy Labor Day weekend, everybody!

P.S. - My wife took that really awesome photo above. It's of Evangel's clock tower in the middle of campus. Pretty sweet, right?

Moving Time!

It’s official. Lindsie and I are now residents of Springfield, MO and it has been great so far. Because we have about 4,000 things to do now that we’re officially moved and situated, this will be a short and simple update.

First things first, we have gotten all of our stuff into our sweet 3-bedroom duplex. We have some awesome neighbors who are both extremely friendly and extremely quiet, which is an fantastic combo in my and Lindsie’s books. And because we’re now in a sweet 3-bedroom duplex, we have room for everything and we can actually move around without bumping into each other. It’s great.

Springfield has been a wonderful town/community so far. I don’t think I’ve met a single rude person since we’ve been here and everyone seems to be generally helpful and excited to have us here. Not that Sioux Falls wasn’t pleasant or anything, it’s just nice to be a part of a community that has welcomed us so readily from the start. It’s kind of surprising how much of an impact that vibe can have on newly-arrived residents like us.

All in all, we’re sad to be out of Sioux Falls. It was a GREAT place to live for 7 years and it deserves a better post than this (which I’m sure it will get here sooner than later), but we’re excited to be in Springfield now and we’re excited to see what adventures unfold from here on out.

Anyway, I’ll post more info soon. For now it’s back to unpacking, organizing, re-organizing what I failed to organize correctly the first time and taking a little time to take a deep breath and figure out life in Springfield.

Photo by Doug Wertman.