J.R. Bookwalter profile picture

J.R. Bookwalter

Ain't nothin' goin' on but the rent!

About Me

1966: Birth.
1977: Saw STAR WARS and my life was changed forever.
1978: Started cranking out Super-8mm short films in my backyard and my parents have regretted it ever since.
1984: Graduated high school (or rather, released from prison, take your pick) and headed to a brief stint at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.
1985: My apartment was robbed so I quit AIP and came home. Two months later got financing for my first feature film, THE DEAD NEXT DOOR. It's been a blur ever since.
1989: Finally finished THE DEAD NEXT DOOR. The next couple of years are spent cranking out various levels of cinematic slop.
1991: Tired of being somebody else's lackey, I decide to start my own video distribution company (like it's that easy, to just say it).
1992: Ready to slit my wrists after a particularly bad cinematic endeavor, but I'm rescued by a little movie called OZONE, which I self-distributed in January, 1994.
1997: Goodbye, Ohio, here comes Los Angeles.
1998: I'm drafted into slavery (er, post-production work) for Full Moon. That's what I get for making fun of all their movies years ago.
2000: My servitude to Full Moon pays off when they ship me off to Romania for a month to make WITCHOUSE 2: BLOOD COVEN. The next year is mostly a blur.
2001: I make a little picture called WITCHOUSE 3: DEMON FIRE which proves that a movie about three chicks in a beach house is never a bad idea.
2003: Enough is enough, my tenure with Full Moon is over and I devote the rest of my miserable existence to the creature known as Tempe DVD.
2005: A documentary I executive produced & edited called SOMETHING TO SCREAM ABOUT hits Showtime. THE DEAD NEXT DOOR is released to DVD from Anchor Bay. But don't be fooled, the ship is still taking on water, same as always.
2006: Goodbye, Los Angeles, here comes Ohio (again!). Professionally, not much happened. Personally, it was one of the best years of my life! Got remarried on August 26 and have been enjoying life with my new wife.
2007: New year, new cat, some new directions in life. Stay tuned...

My Interests

Apple iPhone... Apple iPod... the Internet (thank God for DSL!)... e-mail... watching DVDs (i.e., Netflix)... my Apple MacBook Pro... iced tea... Jamba Juice (oh, how I miss thee!)... my Apple G5 editing system... defeating spam... travel... talk radio... road trips... graphic design... hangin' with my kinfolk now that I'm back in Ohio... playing junior psychologist to people...

I'd like to meet:

First of all, there's a big difference between "friends" and "acquaintances". I think most people use the word "friend" when they really mean "acquaintance" (look in the dictonary if you don't know the difference). I have a close circle of real friends, but you can never have too many acquaintances, so say hello and let's see what happens! I'm a bit of a social retard in real life but I'm more apt to make new pals in the safety of cyberworld.

Music:

In no particular order: Wall of Voodoo (including Stan Ridgway and Andy Prieboy), Johnny Cash, Timbuk 3 (and Pat MacDonald solo), Men Without Hats (and Ivan solo), Prince, Billy Idol, Fleetwood Mac (including Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks solo), Alanis Morissette, Jim Croce, Talking Heads (and Tom Tom Club), R.E.M., Adam Ant (or Adam & The Ants), Madness, The Police (and most Sting or Stewart Copeland solo), Michael Jackson (it takes a big man to admit that these days!), The Cars, The B-52's, Wang Chung, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Sheena Easton, Elton John, John Denver, The Statler Brothers, The Doors, Nirvana, Eurythmics (and most Annie Lennox solo), The Carpenters, The Bee Gees, KC & The Sunshine Band, Blondie, Eddy Grant, Thomas Dolby, Naked Eyes, The Thompson Twins, Howard Jones, The Go-Go's (and Jane Wiedlan solo), Men at Work, Queen, Hole, Portishead, Concrete Blonde, Tori Amos, David Bowie, The Breeders, Pearl Jam, Green Day, The Offspring, John Carpenter, Madonna, Vanity 6 (and even Appolonia 6!), The Time, Goblin, Spinal Tap...my fingers are too tired to keep typing.

Movies:

After a lifetime of being a horror geek, it's mostly comedy and drama for this kid now, but the classics still rule (DAWN OF THE DEAD, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, DEEP RED). These days I prefer to laugh... some of my favorite comedies include OFFICE SPACE, THE 'BURBS, PLANES TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES and RAISING ARIZONA. I still believe the 1970's were the last great decade for movies. I also dig documentaries and movies based on real-life people & events. I'll watch any of those.

Television:

THE OFFICE, THE COLBERT REPORT and THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE are current faves, and LAW & ORDER: SVU is a staple. Otherwise it's all old stuff on DVD, like DARK SHADOWS, THE BOB NEWHART SHOW, SEINFELD, SANFORD & SON, THE JEFFERSONS, etc.

Books:

Who has time for books?

Heroes:

We can be heroes, just for one day...

My Blog

Cheap bastard alert...

Looks like the fine folks at Anchor Bay Entertainment (er, Starz Home Entertainment) have dropped the retail price of THE DEAD NEXT DOOR from an already-low $14.99 to a mere $9.99 (as of Sept. 18)! No...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Tue, 18 Sep 2007 04:09:00 PST

End of the summer and end of an era...

Wow, this has been a fast summer, not unlike last year! But it's been one of the best summers in recent memory, too.Things kicked off on June 29 with the release of Appe's iPhone. Yes, I was one of th...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Fri, 31 Aug 2007 11:54:00 PST

POLYMORPH infests Ukraine! Film at 11...

I had almost forgotten about licensing a couple of Tempe flicks to Ukraine a year and a half ago when DHL showed up this morning with copies of both POLYMORPH and OCTOBER MOON!Long story short: My wif...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Fri, 22 Jun 2007 12:02:00 PST

One area where less is truly more...

Maybe it's just me getting older, but I'm too impatient to sit through a 90-minute movie anymore, let alone the 3-hour-plus "epics" that Hollywood keeps wanting to churn out. (Here's a tip to the stud...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Wed, 13 Jun 2007 06:42:00 PST

I've got a case of iFever...

So Apple finally set a date for their damned iPhone, which I've already been salivating about since it was announced in early January. Sadly, June 29 is still 3+ weeks away at this writing, and of cou...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Wed, 06 Jun 2007 06:36:00 PST

Why I won't be connecting an Apple TV to my home theatre anytime soon...

If you're a Mac geek like me, then you've no doubt heard that Apple has started to ship their famed Apple TV box, which lets you enjoy iTunes movies, TV shows and music videos on your HDTV. I've read ...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Wed, 21 Mar 2007 12:14:00 PST

R.I.P. Andy Sidaris...

Man, I can't believe I'm having to write another one of these!Last night I got an e-mail from Arlene Sidaris, wife of one-of-a-kind filmmaker Andy Sidaris, that Andy had passed away on Wednesday. I ac...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Fri, 09 Mar 2007 06:19:00 PST

R.I.P. Don Dohler...

I guess from my now my blog will be mostly used to report the death of filmmakers. :-(Don Dohler is certainly not a household name in the indie world when compared to Robert Altman, but I had a lot of...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Tue, 05 Dec 2006 12:54:00 PST

R.I.P. Robert Altman...

Well, it was bound to happen eventually, but writer/director Robert Altman is dead.My earliest Altman experience is still one of my favorites, the often-lambasted POPEYE. I saw it in the theatre with ...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Tue, 21 Nov 2006 11:23:00 PST

Now can we please stop hearing about these mutha-@.$%in' snakes on that mutha-@.$%in' plane...?

So SNAKES ON A PLANE wasn't the hit everyone was expecting. Big surprise! It's just another reminder that hype (especially of the Internet-generated kind) can only take something so far. When people k...
Posted by J.R. Bookwalter on Mon, 21 Aug 2006 08:52:00 PST