Always Do The Right Thing.

I am currently on the last stretch of a four-hour Bolt Bus ride from New York to Washington D.C., where I will be visiting my lovely girlfriend, Anne Goode, at The George Washington University for the weekend. I hope to catch a screening over the weekend of Steven Soderburgh's latest film, The Informant!, starring Matt Damon as a corporate executive-turned-whistleblower. The movie looks like a great comedy-drama, and it marks the first movie release of the fall season that I'm eagerly anticipating.

Last night, I attended the live panel discussion Remembering Michael Jackson at NYU's Cantor Film Center, presented by The Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music. Among the many speakers were writer/director/producer Spike Lee, infamous New York Press cultural critic Armond White, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Margo Jefferson. Although I can't claim to be the world's number one Michael Jackson fan, I was more than excited to see Spike Lee, who is a graduate of the Tisch School of the Arts, and one of my favorite filmmakers. If you click on this link to a story on the Remembering Michael Jackson panel, you can look at thirteen official photos from the discussion, the second of which you can actually spot me in the background if you enlarge the picture.

Even though I firmly believe in respecting the peace and quiet of celebrities, a few fellow film students and I couldn't help but ask Mr. Lee for a photograph as he was waiting for a taxicab outside of the Cantor Film Center. Above, you can see the picture of which I am already very proud (to Mr. Lee's right are freshmen Julie Cole and Jeremy Keller). In the other picture on the right, you will see my hand shaking Mr. Lee's hand after the discussion.

From Do the Right Thing (1989) and Malcolm X (1992) to 25th Hour (2002) and Passing Strange (2009), Mr. Lee has firmly established himself as one of the finest American directors of our time.