The internet has been touch and go the past two days, and I’m on a friend’s computer instead of my own, so I can’t add the usual flair you have come to know and love to this post. Even with the fest completed, this continues to be an intensely film-related vacation. After a buffet breakfast at a place called Ingrid’s Kitchen, I headed over to the best bookstore in Oklahoma City, Full Circle. Designed with all kinds of nooks and crannies and rolling ladders, it is a store whose selection is not only Okie specific, but wide ranging. It’s design encourages discovery and their staff are super friendly. No one paid me to say that, seriously.

I went to Full Circle because my friend, Sunrise Tippeconnie, was signing a book in which an essay of his is featured. The book is Sooner Cinema: Oklahoma Goes to the Movies and I’m in the process of reading it. Quite interesting. This state has a long history of making movies and being portrayed in them. Which brings me to my next point.

The talk of the town right now is Michael Winterbottom’s The Killer Inside Me, which is shooting here right now. The film has brought stars Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, and Ned Beatty. During the final day of deadCENTER they had blocked off streets downtown and filled them with 1950s cars. Last night I headed to Cookie’s, a tiny bar with a lot of heart, for the Cast and Crew more-than-halfway-through-production party. It was a nice time with some wonderful karaōke singers. The only celeb to show up was Mr. Beatty, and he was a gentleman.

I love hanging out with film crews. They are so much more tolerable than filmmakers because they rarely want to talk about movies. After the bar I went straight to a Sonic for the second time today. For those of you who don’t know about Sonic, well, you just have to drive until you find one. I got an Ocean Water Slushie and some onion rings. They tasted delicious after drinking a Pacifico cerveza.

We are off to the Wichita Mountains now, probably no more film to deal with today. I still owe you all some reiews and you’ll get them, but probably not until I’m back in New York. Poke around the site in the meantime, there’s a lot going on here.

My great grandfather was an egg candler in Philadelphia. The job was relatively simple. Hold an egg up to the light and determine its health. Some eggs would be healthy enough to incubate and hatch while others would end up in omelets and vaudeville acts. There was more to it, of course. Candlers like my great grandfather had to have a finely tuned eye to make an informed decision thousands of times a day.

We here at the candler blog try to apply the same methodology and care to popular culture. We will do our best to hold anything that comes across our radar up to a candle, so to speak. Looking at something on the surface is rarely enough to determine its place in the world; instead we will try to dissect it, see through it, understand it.

At least, this is the hope for the candler blog. For now, we will stick to what we know: movies. Movie reviews, cinema essays, personal rants and the like will be our bread and butter for the time being. We encourage your input and want to make this an open space for all aspiring candlers out there.

We’ll let you know more about who we are and what our goals are in the weeks to come, but for now, enjoy reading what we have. See you soon.