Fantastic Fest: "It is a celebration of geekdom at its geekiest"

Produced for public television station KLRU of Austin, All My Friends Are Vampires is a way-cool overview of the phantasmagorical frenzy that is Fantastic Fest, the world's wildest genre-movie exposition. I'm on screen to offer pithy commentary at the 11:30 and 15:00 marks (and off-screen, but still heard, at around 24:10). But, hey, you owe it to yourself -- and to director Mario Troncoso -- to savor the whole dang thing.

Happy Thanksgiving, movie fans!

As I have noted elsewhere: It's a melancholy fact of life that if you live long enough, you reach a point when you start to wonder: How many birthdays do I have left? How many Christmases? Independence Days? Thanksgivings?

For better or worse -- though I strongly suspect it's for the better -- I have no way of answering those nagging questions. But I do know this: You can enjoy all the holidays you want, any time of year you desire, at the movies. In honor of the day, here are two guides to notable flicks featuring Thanksgiving gatherings -- one from Time Magazine (including two personal favorites, Judd Apatow's Funny People, pictured above, and Jodie Foster's Home for the Holidays) and another from (OK, don't laugh) AARP Magazine (featuring a fave that, oddly enough, I had almost forgotten: Alice's Restaurant).

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. And as I am wont to remind folks on occasions such as this: It's a miracle that we're even here and alive.

It's Take 4 for Houston Cinema Arts Festival

The hits just keep on coming this weekend at the 2012 Houston Cinema Arts Festival. And so, being the shameless gravy trainer that I am,  I have hitched my wagon to it.

A few days ago, I got a chance to interview HCAF artistic director Richard Herskowitz for CultureMap and, as you can see in the above video, KHOU-TV. But wait, there's more: I offer a guide to promising HCAF offerings here, and my own tribute to HCAF special guest Robert Redford here. (Redford -- interviewed here by CultureMap editor Clifford Pugh -- will be honored with the festival's Levantine Cinema Arts Award.)

And don't forget: After the 9:15 pm Saturday screening of the most excellent documentary Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp at the Sundance Cinemas, I will host a Q&A with director Jorge Hinojosa.

Because, really, it's all about me.

Four more years! Four more years!

Celebrating the RE-election of Barack Hussein I Smoked Bin Laden's Ass Obama. Let the good times roll, y'all.