The Occasional Blog of Jonah Weiland

Word comes today that cancellation is imminent for Aaron Sorkin’s “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.� Not really surprised at all.

Those who know me know that I love Aaron Sorkin’s shows. “Sports Night� and “The West Wing� were both brilliant under his pen and deserve all the kudos lauded on them. When word of “Studio 60� came out, I got very excited. It seemed so right that Sorkin would be back on TV following his exit from “The West Wing.� I remember watching a 2 minute up front presentation this Summer that got leaked onto the ‘net and my anticipation grew ever so much more. Watching the Pilot many weeks before it aired on the network got me even more excited! I couldn’t wait for the show to premiere! It was looking like, very quickly, NBC would have a great, intelligent hit drama on their hands.

Then I saw episode two and the rest. Oh boy. (more…)

Five years ago I found a beautiful, oversized, Italian “The Right Stuff” poster on eBay. It’s a gorgeous 47″ x 64″ inches poster. It’s my favorite movie ever and I decided one day I needed a poster. There are a number of different American posters available, but most of them are rather overpriced and the artwork wasn’t all that inspiring. But, the European editions of the poster are much more colorful and when I saw this Italian beauty, I had to have it. Interestingly, when I picked up the framed poster from the shop down the street, the owner of the shop handed me a note from one of their customers offering to pay me twice what it cost to have it framed. I declined, but it was nice to get.

Now, my home has some very high ceilings and a lot of wall space to cover. “The Right Stuff” poster was great, but it really needed a friend. So, a year or so later I found another oversized poster, this time in French for “The Fugitive.” Now, it may not be one of my favorite movies, but it is one I thoroughly enjoyed, but the poster itself is fantastic. Once again we’re talking bus stop poster sized and the art is great — it’s a giant wanted sign for Dr. Richard Kimble. Complete with stats on “the killer” and a phone number to contact should you see him.

That was followed by two more movie poster purchases — a French first edition “Invisible Man” poster (regular sized) and a Thai “Tron” poster. The “Invisible Man” poster was a real find, but I’ve not yet had the chance to frame it. One day. The “Tron” poster never materialized, unfortunately, and I got screwed out of $25. Thankfully it wasn’t more than that. It was a gorgeous poster though with brighter colors than I’ve seen in any domestic “Tron” poster (I’m told with a lot of the older foreign posters they were printed with dyes that were more toxic to the environment, but are very colorful).

Today I won a poster I’ve been keeping my eye on all week. It’s another oversized French poster, this time for the classic Steve McQueen movie “Bullitt.” Have a look.

Not a great picture, but once it gets delivered I’ll post a better quality photo of it here. I love that film so much and can’t believe I found this at the price I did — original “Bullitt” posters generally don’t come cheap and are somewhat hard to come by.

This sucker will be framed immediately and placed alongside “The Right Stuff” and “Fugitive” posters. Can’t wait.