Bill Moyers

Nate sent me a link to a Bob Herbert editorial today that just about sums it up...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/03/opinion/03herbert.html?hp

I watched this, this morning. It was from last night's Bill Moyer's Journal.

The whole thing makes you want to throw you hands up in defeat.

I once asked a reporter back from Vietnam, "Who's telling the truth over there?" "Everyone, he said. "Everyone sees what's happening through the lens of their own experience." That's how people see Jeremiah Wright. In my conversation with him on this broadcast a week ago and in his dramatic public appearances since, he revealed himself to be far more complex than the sound bites that propelled him onto the public stage. Over 2000 of you have written me about him, and your opinions vary widely. Some sting: "Jeremiah Wright is nothing more than a race-hustling, American hating radical," one viewer wrote. A "nut case," said another. Others were far more were sympathetic to him.

Many of you have asked for some rational explanation for Wright's transition from reasonable conversation to shocking anger at the National Press Club. A psychologist might pull back some of the layers and see this complicated man more clearly, but I'm not a psychologist. Many black preachers I've known — scholarly, smart, and gentle in person — uncorked fire and brimstone in the pulpit. Of course I've known many white preachers like that, too.

But where I grew up in the south, before the civil rights movement, the pulpit was a safe place for black men to express anger for which they would have been punished anywhere else; a safe place for the fierce thunder of dignity denied, justice delayed. I think I would have been angry if my ancestors had been transported thousands of miles in the hellish hole of a slave ship, then sold at auction, humiliated, whipped, and lynched. Or if my great-great grandfather had been but three-fifths of a person in a constitution that proclaimed, "We the people." Or if my own parents had been subjected to the racial vitriol of Jim Crow, Strom Thurmond, Bull Connor, and Jesse Helms. Even so, the anger of black preachers I've known and heard about and reported on was, for them, very personal and cathartic.

That's not how Jeremiah Wright came across in those sound bites or in his defiant performances this week. What white America is hearing in his most inflammatory words is an attack on the America they cherish and that many of their sons have died for in battle ? forgetting that black Americans have fought and bled beside them, and that Wright himself has a record of honored service in the Navy. Hardly anyone took the "chickens come home to roost" remark to convey the message that intervention in the political battles of other nations is sure to bring retaliation in some form, which is not to justify the particular savagery of 9/11 but to understand that actions have consequences. My friend Bernard Weisberger, the historian, says, yes, people are understandably seething with indignation over Wright's absurd charge that the United States deliberately brought an HIV epidemic into being. But it is a fact, he says, that within living memory the U.S. Public Health Service conducted a study that deliberately deceived black men with syphilis into believing that they were being treated, while actually letting them die for the sake of a scientific test. Does this excuse Wright's anger? His exaggerations or distortions? You'll have to decide or yourself. At least it helps me to understand the why of them.

But in this multimedia age the pulpit isn't only available on Sunday mornings. There's round the clock media — the beast whose hunger is never satisfied, especially for the fast food with emotional content. So the preacher starts with rational discussion and after much prodding throws more and more gasoline on the fire that will eventually consume everything it touches. He had help — people who for their own reasons set out to conflate the man in the pulpit who wasn't running for president with the man in the pew who was.

Behold the double standard: John McCain sought out the endorsement of John Hagee, the war-mongering Catholic-bashing Texas preacher who said the people of New Orleans got what they deserved for their sins. But no one suggests McCain shares Hagee's delusions, or thinks AIDS is God's punishment for homosexuality. Pat Robertson called for the assassination of a foreign head of state and asked God to remove Supreme Court justices, yet he remains a force in the Republican religious right. After 9/11 Jerry Falwell said the attack was God's judgment on America for having been driven out of our schools and the public square, but when McCain goes after the endorsement of the preacher he once condemned as an agent of intolerance, the press gives him a pass.

Jon Stewart recently played a tape from the Nixon White House in which Billy Graham talks in the oval office about how he has friends who are Jewish, but he knows in his heart that they are undermining America. This is crazy; this is wrong -- white preachers are given leeway in politics that others aren't.

Which means it is all about race, isn't it? Wright's offensive opinions and inflammatory appearances are judged differently. He doesn't fire a shot in anger, put a noose around anyone's neck, call for insurrection, or plant a bomb in a church with children in Sunday school. What he does is to speak his mind in a language and style that unsettle some people, and says some things so outlandish and ill-advised that he finally leaves Obama no choice but to end their friendship. We are often exposed us to the corroding acid of the politics of personal destruction, but I've never seen anything like this ? this wrenching break between pastor and parishioner before our very eyes. Both men no doubt will carry the grief to their graves. All the rest of us should hang our heads in shame for letting it come to this in America, where the gluttony of the non-stop media grinder consumes us all and prevents an honest conversation on race. It is the price we are paying for failing to heed the great historian Jacob Burckhardt, who said "beware the terrible simplifiers".

So Get On Up There and Give Us A Speech!

With the 2008 Academy Awards officially less then one week away, I figured it was high time I throw my hat into the ring of non sensical and utterly un-important Oscar predictions. Because as everybody knows, the stakes are high and many if not all must get their two cents in before those names are read off of those envelopes on that oh-so special night.

Who Will Win?

Who Should Win?

Who wasn't even nominated?!?!?!

Which contemptuous piece of self-congratulatory hooplah will offend us the most?

Only time will tell, but until that day. I give you my list of oscar predictions and rants about why my taste is completely superior to that of the academy.

Editor's Note:
I am not an oscar prognosticator, usually my predictions are wrong. I think sure things are long shots and surprises usually pop up in categories that I think are solid locks. I also usually disagree violently with the majority of the decisions for awards so a lot of this is being written out of spite.

Just wanted to be up front with that...

Here we go, just starting from the top on down:

BEST PICTURE:
ATONEMENT
JUNO
MICHAEL CLAYTON
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
THERE WILL BE BLOOD

Who Will Win:
No Country for Old Men

Who Should Win:
No Country for Old Men

Should have been nominated:
Zodiac, Sweeney Todd, Into the Wild, Ratatouille, The Assassination of Jesses James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Diving Bell and the Butterly, Once, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days. and the list goes on and on and on...

I'm probably jinxing myself by predicting this because No Country will be the first time I movie I genuinely loved and actually thought was the best picture of the year is in fact the best picture of the year. It seems to have a lot of momentum behind it, and the only real threats I see it having are Juno and Atonement. Everyone knows what will happen if Juno wins (there shouldn't even be an award show due to the simple fact that its nominated). I think No Country will pull it off.

BEST ACTOR:
George Clooney
Daniel Day Lewis
Johnny Depp
Tommy Lee Jones
Viggo Mortensen

Who Will Win:
Daniel Day Lews

Who Should Win:
Johnny Depp

Should have been nominated
Emile Hirsch, Phillip Seymour Hoffman (for either the Savages or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead), Casey Affleck for either Gone Baby Gone or Assassination (the movie really is about him and Pitt is the supporting performance see Training Day for another backwards example of this, Mathieu Almaric, Tommy Lee Jones for No Country (again movie is really about him), Chris Cooper, Frank Langella, Christian Bale. I don't know how you would fit all these guys in here though

Okay, I know that Daniel Day Lewis completely owns this years award and nothing will stop that. And by a certain logic he deserves it, no other piece of acting was as compulsively watchable and out and out earth shattering as his take on Daniel Plainview. That being said, if I were on the academy, I would cast my vote for Mr. Depp. Technical skill aside and all that objective stuff, I was more impressed with Mr. Depp's performance in terms of its difficulties and how he not only surmounted them but improved upon them. He had a tougher job and he created a more memorable portrait taking the idea of a singing actor to bold new places.

BEST ACTRESS
CATE BLANCHETT
JULIE CHRISTIE
MARION COTILLARD
LAURA LINNEY
ELLEN PAGE

Who Will Win
Julie Christie

Who Should Win
Julie Christie

Should have been Nominated:
Nicole Kidman, Helena Bonham Carter (although some might argue she was more of a supporting player), Wei Tang, Amber Tamblyn (Stephanie Daley), Jiseon Kim (In Between Days), Carice Van Houten (Black Book), Anamaria Marinca (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days)

This also appears to be somewhat of a lock. My heart is torn (to use Ebert's coinage) between Christie and Linney. I want Linney to win not only because she is amazing in the Savages but to make up for the travesty that was the 2000 academy awards when she lost to that faux-empowering ego fueled piece of blather known as Erin Brockovich. Then again Christie is the most devastating and deservedly will win the award. I must admit, I still have not seen La Vie en Rose so maybe I am completely wrong about all of this, except for Erin Brockovich sucking of course.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett
Rube Dee
Saoirse Ronan
Amy Ryan
Tilda Swinton

Who Will Win
Ruby Dee

Who Should Win
Amy Ryan

Should have been nominated
Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Laura Vasiliu (4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days)

This is a tough one, not only because all of the nominees are deserving in their own way, but also because of the inability to predict the winner based on the swarming tides around three nominees. First it was Amy Ryan winning and everything and anything in her path. Then Blanchett wins the Golden Globe, then Ruby Dee wins the sag and now its just a big clusterfuck. Personally, I'd be happy if one of those three wins the award, maybe also Tilda Swinton because she gave a masterful performance.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck
Javier Bardem
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Hal Holbrook
Tom Wilkinson

Who Will Win:
Javier Bardem

Who Should Win:
Tough call but Javier Bardem

Should have been nominated
Either Mark Ruffalo or Robert Downey Jr. for Zodiac, Adrien Brody (The Darjeeling Limited), Ethan Hawke (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead), Ed Sanders (Sweeny Todd)

Like the supporting category, all of these nominees are quite deserving. I am torn between Javier Bardem who captivated the crap out of me and Hal Holbrook who sneaks up on you and breaks your heart. Javier's gonna win it no doubt, but again I wouldn't be against any of these nominees winning. This is a surprisingly strong year for Supporting work. Good job academy! Keep up the good work!

BEST DIRECTOR
Paul Thomas Anderson
The Coen Brothers
Tony Gilroy
Jason Reitman
Julian Schnabel

Who Will Win:
The Coen Brothers

Who Should Win:
The Coen Brothers

Should have been nominated:
David Fincher, Tim Burton, Tamara Jenkins, Sarah Polley, Sean Penn, Brad Bird, Andrew Dominik, Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi, Christian Mungiu, Sydney Lumet

Not much to say about this one, get rid of Gilroy (even though his movie is really really good), definitely get rid of Reitman (god he sucks) Other than that, it's a strong field and I just want to see what the Coen Brothers say in their acceptance speech. That and they deserve it for directing the shit out of that movie.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (this is a heartbreaker)
Juno
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

Who Will Win:
Juno

Who Should Win:
The Savages/Ratatouille

Should have been nominated
The Darjeeling Limited, Margot at the Wedding, Eastern Promises, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead.

This one just sucks, one of the most irritating screenplays ever published is going to take away some much earned attention from The Savages just because its "indie" enough to be "hip" The academy has always had a tin ear for writing (see 2005 Crash over the Squid and the Whale are you fucking joking me) But this is taking their poisonous streak too far, the good people of Hollywood can do something about this before its too late, please vote with your hearts and your minds. Anything but Juno.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Atonement
Away From Her
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Who Will Win
No Country for Old Men

Who Should Win
No Country for Old Men

I just wish the Coen Brothers had written an original script this year, but in lieu of that they definitely wrote the best adapted script of this year. Although the accomplishments of Away from Her and Diving Bell should not be overlooked. Not much else to say about this one, I think its the Coens this year.

So there you have it, all the big awards parceled down to one mealy blog entry. I could go on and on about Best Cinematography and Best Live Action Short film, but does anybody want to read that? I don't want to read it or write it. Let me just say that it's not a matter of these awards being more important (although they definitely get more press). It's that all of the awards are equally unimportant, and I just decided to highlight these particular high profile names because therein lay the potential for the most amount of words to be spewed.

In conclusion, a great movie has the potential to take its rightful place alongside such masterpieces as:
Crash
Million Dollar Baby
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Chicago
A Beautiful Mind
Gladiator

and don't forget...Braveheat!!!!!

And other half-rate movies, most of which were not even worth the 3 cent dvd's upon which they were eventually stamped. And some of them even down right blew.

So no matter what happens, movies will continue to evolve and remain hopelessly dated at the same time. People will carve out their own niches, trends will be ignored, and demographics will not allow themselves to be exploited. The heart and power of filmmaking and movie-watching lies not in the useless trinkets one can accumulate, but in the quest to seek out the movies that never even had a chance.

Jack, I Swear...

I don't really have much to write about as a cohesive whole.
So, I'd rather make a bunch of little observations and notes.

-I'm a little more than halfway through Mark Oliver Everett's (E of EELS) memoir: Things The Grandchildren Should Know and before I jinx myself and the book I will say its a harrowing read comparable to Didion's Year of Magical Thinking. I don't really know what I was expecting but this has already far surpassed it. I will write more about this later except to warn you, read with a box of kleenex and maybe a good friend or loved one nearby.

-If there is a planet Radiohead, I would like to live on it. Rolling Stone recently called them the band of the future, I would like to think we've been saving their music in a time capsule so that future generations will know what it was like to be alive at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. Also, their new album In Rainbows has officially reached the heights of masterpiece. (It just took a few listens) and try not to get chills after listening to videotape.

-The Heath Ledger story is an incredibly sad one. I don't really know what else to say, I had planned on writing a long tribute to him analyzing his performance in Brokeback Mountain. I decided it wasn't necessary and more words would only add to the clutter of noise surrounding his death. I just finished re-watching Brokeback Mountain and I will say, it's an absolutely beautiful performance. Daniel Day Lewis was completely right at the SAG awards, that last scene is like a punch to the gut. It's a tragedy when anyone dies, so I don't mean to prescribe more worth to Mr. Ledger's death than anyone else's But since he was in the public eye and we saw his contributions to the world, it's hard not to stop and think about what he was capable of and what we will now never see. At least we have Brokeback Mountain, and not to harp on this but this is the performance that completely turned me around on him, it's just breathtaking.

-I've decided that I hate award shows. I guess I'm just tired of seeing people with their heads lodged up their own asses in real life, I don't need to see it on television. Especially when it just boils down to 2 hours of advertisements and ten minutes of awards, I think I have better things to do with my time. Plus when we live in a country (here comes Mr. Self Righteous) where more people watch american idol than vote in a national election, I think we need to re-think our priorities. Also after watching Brokeback Mountain and thinking about how that piece of shit Crash won best picture (it was also up against good night and good luck, capote, and munich...dear lord). It's hard not to just want to actively boycott the damn things. Then I think about maybe I'm taking all of this a bit too seriously and like I said there are more important things to worry about, then I think about how JUNO might win best original screenplay.

And I'm right back where I started.

Good night.

To Fix or Ruin

It's Late. I'm tired. I'm about to delve into E's memoirs.

This is all I got.

Kevin Devine speaking for me once again (on almost everything)

You wrestle yourself to the ground
you springboard and kick yourself in the mouth
cause all of that drama, that embarrassed charade
couldn't stop you or settle you down

so you got back with your black hole
and you don't care who's out there or who knows
cause you're spent and you're sad
cause you've bronzed it, it's your badge
and you've fixed it to all your clothes

every t-shirt and overcoat
so it's with you through hot or cold
but i would tear it from the cloth
yeah, i would tear it from the cloth
grow up and knock it off

cause there's a world awake outside
with injustice and music and july, july
with history's arc,
with your family,
with art.
but it don't mean nothing
not to you, not tonight

you can't see past the length of your nose
the biggest problems, well you're sure they're your own
that girl you cut loose
those two friends that cursed you
and all that powder that you can't leave alone

and you say, you know, you know, you know
but i know that you don't, you don't, you don't
cause if you did, you'd really try
if you did, you'd really try to let all that die

so marry yourself to your work
and crowd your confusion with words
then round out your life with some records you like
while you bury your love in the dirt

cause it's endless, the ditch you can dig
you're stubborn, and you're prideful, and you're all over it
so i suggest you make sense of the time you've got left
so you don't end up back where you've been

and you say you won't, you won't, you won't
and i hope that you don't, you don't, you don't
but if you mean it, then stand up and fight
but if you mean it, then stand up and fight
cause i mean, it's only your life

i mean it's only your life
to fix or ruin
to figure what to do with
it's only your life
to fix or ruin
cause no one else is going to do it
cause it's only your life

...And SCENE!

Here is something that happened to me.

Roughly translated into screenplay format.

Enjoy.

EXT. RALPH'S ON WILSHIRE-EVENING
A young man walks out of a Ralph's supermarket carrying a Marie Callender's Frozen Sweet and Sour Chicken and a plastic bottled Dr. Pepper. He turns the corner and heads to the Rite-Aid parking lot across the street where he is currently illegally parked.

He wears a collared shirt and corduroy pants.

It is relatively late for dinner, he is tired, hungry, and eager to get home.

As he rounds the corner, AN OLDER MAN approaches him. He is well dressed, carrying a BEBE shopping bag. He is laughing at the YOUNG MAN, he begins rubbing his chin.

OLDER MAN: Hey, you got the look man.

The Young Man walks by hoping this is the last of their conversation.

OLDER MAN (cont'd): Look at you. You slick.

YOUNG MAN: Thanks.

OLDER MAN: Hey, you got the look, all you need is a suit. You small time though now right? Small time.

The YOUNG MAN doesn't really understand what the guy is saying so he keeps walking in the hope that he will eventually lose interest and walk the other way.

OLDER MAN (cont'd): Yo, you small time but check this out.

He indicates to the BEBE bag.

OLDER MAN (cont'd): You see this bag, this is a 3,000 dollar Burberry Handbag. Do you understand how much this is worth? How much you can make? Yo, if you want to come with me, we could do this.

The young man begins to catch on, very slowly.

YOUNG MAN: No, that's okay, I'm not interested.

OLDER MAN: Nah, man you don't understand. They got these clubs in Beverly Hills, underground clubs, beneath the ground clubs. Nobody knows about them, I can get you in, just come with me.

YOUNG MAN: No really, that's okay I need to get...

They stop at the Young Man's car.

OLDER MAN: Look, you got the look and you small time now. But all we have to do is get you a suit, you could be making 5,000 dollars a day. How much you make now? I bet it ain't that.

YOUNG MAN: I'm sorry, but really I just want to...

OLDER MAN: All we gotta do is, I get you a suit. We go in together, I take the salesperson, I distract them. You head to the back, you can grab at least 3 or 4 handbags at a time. You slip out, there you go, there's the money right there.

Bam.

YOUNG MAN: I'm really not interested in that.

OLDER MAN: I see, I see, you still small time. You into the low risk thing, that's cool.

The YOUNG MAN notices the OLDER MAN pointing at his frozen dinner and soda. Then it hits him.

YOUNG MAN: Oh no, I didn't steal this. I paid for this.

OLDER MAN: You mean you didn't...

YOUNG MAN: No, I just paid for this like a minute ago. I had the receipt but I threw it out.

Silence.

YOUNG MAN: I just...I don't like plastic bags.

Silence.

YOUNG MAN: They're bad for the environment.

OLDER MAN: Oh.

YOUNG MAN: Sorry.

OLDER MAN: Okay well. Alright.

YOUNG MAN: Sorry about that.

The Older Man slinks away into the shadows. The Young Man gets into his car and drives out of the Rite-Aid parking lot, back to his apartment.

THE END

Over-rated, Under-Rated, and Useless Trinkets

Wow, two blog posts in 72 hours, that must be some kind of new world record.

I would like a medal for that.

Now where was I? Ah yes, proclaiming what I felt were the most over rated and under rated movies of the year.

Let's start with the over.

THE MOST OVER-RATED MOVIE OF 2007

JUNO

Is this a surprise? I guess not to the outside world, but to the blogging world, yes. I would like to think this is the last I will ever speak about this movie, but I'm sure it will come up again (hello Crash?) I don't know what else to say really, a lot of this movie bugs the shit out of me. The preposterous dialogue (I have a thing against dialogue that sounds like a writer hunched over their computers pounding out obnoxiously quotable catch phrases and calling it real human interaction), the obvious and ham-fisted direction. The nauseating soundtrack, the fact that again the dreaded abortion is handled with kid gloves. As is the whole pregnancy as even ardent admirer a.o. scott pointed out in his latest times piece. Here's the thing, I'm all for movies where teenage girls don't just sit on the sidelines or act like uptight prudes, it's definitely an under-represented group. That's probably why this movie is all the more disappointing, either that or because it sucks.

THE MOST UNDER-RATED MOVIES OF 2007

MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, BREACH, LUST, CAUTION

I know, I know my indecisiveness is again my undoing. I was originally going to single out Margot and then Breach popped into my head and then lust, caution. Basically the gist is all of these movies got somewhat of a bum rap when they were released and thus died quick box office deaths. With Margot, people couldn't get over the fact that these characters were so hideous. I couldn't get over how funny, engaging and well played they were. God forbid a movie wants to understand a person rather than fall in love with them. Breach, I don't know, it seemed to have everything. The best performance of Chris Cooper's career so sneaky and exciting. A timely story (I don't even have to get into that one) and a movie about government that doesn't end in sermonizing. But people said it was boring, (so is that kind of work unless you're james bond) so I think the truth is in the details and this movie nails them. Maybe this whole why can't movies about the war sell any tickets can be answered by this: good or bad people want wild hogs, national treasure 2, alvin and the chipmunks, juno, and the bucket list instead of anything else (notice a trend amongst all these?) And Lust, Caution is not a particularly great film. But worth seeing regardless because of the unique poise of Ang Lee. He tried to pull something off her that doesn't always quite work (there's tedium where there should be intrigue) But the effect of the film will stick with you for days and it is only until you put all the pieces together that you see where his heart was in the story. The devastating effects of love and sex and how struggles for power always lead to admissions of weakness. It's fascinating work that will hopefully live on far longer than its worst reviews said.

WORST MOVIE OF 2007

SOUTHLAND TALES

This was a no-brainer but I'm tired of reading about this movie from the gaggle of idiots who all seemed to have slimed their way over from the village voice. It's way brilliant, I think it's just about the greatest post modern deconstruction of our generation. I just put it on my list because everybody hated it, therefore I have something to say. Fuck all that, this movie blows and you would know it if you could stand to sit through it. Destined to become a midnight staple for stupid hipsters everywhere. Fuck it, avoid it like the plague and hope that Kelly can successfully dislodge his own head from his ass. But if he follows the sage like word of these voices writers, that isn't going to happen anytime soon. This movie blows and TRANSFORMERS sucked ass too.

Well that about wraps her all up in a neat little bow. It was a very good year and I can't say I'm excited for 2008. But who knows.

Toodles.

The Anti-Fanboy Top Ten 2007

Well here we are, that magical time of year when critics, bloggers, and online movie fans ramble on and on about their favorite movies of the year in the hope of proving that their list is superior in every way to all other lists.

I am here to tell you that my list is the list of all lists

Period.

No, this whole practice of list making is kind of silly, it doesn't really serve a purpose other than for critics to justify their pathetic existence. I kid of course, it's just fun and of course it means nothing but if you want to get into that debate I might as well shut down this blog right now. I enjoy doing this and it allows me to think about the movies I love in a different way.

So without further ado...

Drum roll please.

1. ONCE
I consider this to be my favorite movie of the year. Maybe some movies were better shot and more professionally assembled, but no other movie this year lifted me up the way this one did. It may not have the polish of other movies, but it is still perfect. You fall in love with this movie and not because it offers phony uplift but because it quietly sneaks up on you and breaks your heart. It's about two people who need each other at the exact same moment but are wise enough to know they can not be together. It's funny, honest, and full of the kind of moments you rarely find in life let alone film. Oh yeah, and the music is fantastic.

2. ZODIAC
As soon as the credits came up on David Fincher's Zodiac I not only knew I had just seen not only one of the best movies of the year (and Fincher's personal best) but maybe one of the best movies of the past decade. Exhaustive, exhilarating, and enormously fascinating, this procedural leaves all others in the dust. It takes a certain kind of talent to assemble of the information of a thirty year investigation (that's still active) and convey it with the visual deftness of an artist. Fincher puts that into every single frame of the film and it's an astounding achievement. I bemoaned the quick box office death of this film, but the fact that a major studio even made it is a victory in and of itself.

3. NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
Chasing right at the heels of Zodiac (in a perfect world they would be tied) the Coen Brothers' No Country For Old Men has the same kind of scarily perfect execution of craft. And they both sacrifice empty violent redemption for a more meditative questioning of how violence can destroy the mind. No Country features the kind of borderline sadistic suspense sequences that make you forget you are comfortably sitting in a theatre. Not to mention three performances that complement each other so well, it's a marvel they just barely every appear on screen together. The Coen brothers have always been a unique and surprising team, but here they revel in their masterly expert storytelling abilities and the results will floor you.

4. SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET
I saw Sweeney Todd on opening night and it instantly placed on my list. I saw it again and it shot up to number four. Tim Burton's unrelentingly bleak horror musical lays waste to all the stagnant, empty musical pageantry that has plagued our theatres these past couple of years. This one goes to those places that seem only reachable in nightmares but does so with jovial musical numbers. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham carter sing their asses off and it shows not only in the melodies but in the performances. It's a rare blend of raw emotion and nuance that would be difficult for any actor to pull off, let alone two untrained singers. All praise be to the Depp/Burton alliance, one of the most satisfying actor director team ups of all time.

5. THE DARJEELING LIMITED
Granted this movie probably earned a spot probably when I heard it was announced. That being said, Wes Anderson's fifth film is funny, touching, and genuinely moving. People like to accuse Anderson of relying too much on quirk and repeating the same story over and over again. That's idiotic, but I have noticed a theme running through all of his films. He loves stories about people reinventing their lives, usually going to any means to recreate a story in which they are essentially, happy. Darjeeling is no exception and the most heartbreaking thing about it is that happiness is not found. Anderson rewards the journey rather than the destination, I love this movie.

6. THERE WILL BE BLOOD
Paul Thomas Anderson's horror/western Daniel Day Lewis freak out puts you in a grip that you can not shake free of until several days have passed. In tandem with Jonny Greenwood's powerful score, Anderson finds a way to take you down with protagonist Daniel Plainview's descent into hell. It's an astonishing experience and Daniel Day Lewis plums the very depths of the worst in humanity and comes up with something funny, scary, and all together fascinating. Points also to Paul Dano for matching him note for note, their scenes together burn with an intensity that you can not look away from. Anderson has taken a relatively simple story and packed it with the kind of allegorical heft usually saved for great fiction.

7. INTO THE WILD
Probably a biased call in this case because any movie packed to the gils with Eddie Vedder's music will probably find its way into my top ten list. That being said, Into the Wild is a tragic yet inspiring story consumed with lust for the imagery of its hero's heart. The film offers a surprisingly complex portrait of its lead but more than that, I found it to be a love letter to America. And not in the chest thumping flag waving way, but in about the areas of this country that are still unexplored my most. Where people work, live, an die with the kind of dignity and passion that few of us will ever understand. And in Hal Holbrook's tremendous performance, it is ultimately, a love letter to people.

8. THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
The most beautiful film of the year and featuring a stand out, titanic performance by Casey Affleck. This slow burn of a movie methodically traces the last days of Jesse James and the beginning of the infamy of Robert Ford. In assessing modern celebrity culture and the intersection of myth and fact, Andrew Dominik's western has the quality of watching legend become history. That is not to suggest this is some kind of flat historical document, rather this is about how the country is shaped by people who take control of their own story and in the process create that world for themselves. The tragic element of it is how destructive it can be to the people, the land, and the myth.

9. THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
Diving bell manages to convey not only the physical claustrophobia of the main's locked in syndrome but also the psychological capacities in inspires. The results are scary, liberating, an all together incredible to see. The story inspired a kind of collusion of camera and sound that takes you to a place you didn't know movies could take you. It's flashy yet subdued, emotional but never cloying, and above all it's beautiful. With a story that is not so much about over coming illness than it is reassessing one's life and coming to terms with all the mistakes, guilt, and blown opportunities. Schnabel's film is wrenching for sure but ultimately a kind of life we all aspire to.

10. RATATOUILLE and PERSEPOLIS (tie, yeah that's right)
I know I said earlier how a tie would be out of the question. I changed my mind. But I feel like this is completely justified in that these two were revolutionary animated films that are technically brilliant while never losing their humanity. Instead of berating us with pop culture references and celebrity voices. Persepolis and Ratatouille are more interested in character and truth and they succeed brilliantly. Ratatouille may be the best directed film of the year animated or otherwise (I can not wait to see what Brad Bird does in live action) and Persepolis achieves a certain kind of grace in telling the story of a young girl growing up without a proper home. They are both funny, surprising, and wonderfully drawn. Maybe people will rediscover that no matter what D you are in, it's always about story.

ALL TIED FOR 11th PLACE (seriously I love these movies but for the sake of being succinct, I couldn't squeeze them all in)
The Savages, Margot at the Wedding, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, No End in Sight, Eastern Promises, Sunshine, I'm Not There, Control, The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, Rescue Dawn, Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten, The Host, Gone Baby Gone, Away From Her, Michael Clayton, Sicko, The Bourne Ultimatum, Lust, Caution, Deep Water

Special Achievement Award (for surpassing the hype and then some:
The Simpsons Movie (you didn't think I forgot about it did you?)

I'll be back later with my annual over-rated, under-rated titles as well my Worst of the year selection.

Until then, it's been real.

Flightless Bird

I wanted to share with you, an account of an experience I had a few weeks ago at the Iron and Wine concert in downtown L.A.
The show was amazing (big shocker there) and it was so despite the most determined efforts of a group of hipster fuckwads behind me. I won't get into the agonizing details of their vain attempt to sully one of the most moving musical experiences I've had in recent history. Let's just say, it confirmed what I've always thought:

Concerts would be great if it wasn't for the fucking audience.

Anyway, what I wanted to talk about (and not have this spill over into a long, angry diatribe against certain members of the audience) was when Sam Beam and his sister came back onstage for the encore. He ditched his band, it was just him, his sister, and his guitar. He only played one song for the encore, The Trapeze Swinger. Which I would bet dollars to donuts is not one of the, if not THE most beautiful song ever written. On top of that, the room fell silent when he played, allowing each of us to crawl inside our own space and feel as if he was playing that song just for each of us, individually.

What also made it special was that Trapeze Swinger has a certain affiliation to Cinnamon because it was used in a video Nate made for mom and also due to the fact that Nate pointed out how Sam Beam was like the human version of Cinnamon. His head blanketed by hair, his demeanor peaceful, calm, serene, and full of wisdom.

He starts playing the song, the noise in the room drops to zero. And in those 7 or 8 minutes something happened that I've never experienced before in a concert. I felt some kind of merging (again attributed to the fact that it felt like he was playing that song just for me) wherein it felt like the words were leaving Sam Beam's mouth along with the gentle plucking of his guitar and floating out into the air. And in that time they ceased to be concrete things, infusing with my thoughts, memories, and grief. It was as if the words brought Cinnamon back to life for those few brief blissful minutes. They became a part of everything.

I know that sounds vague and quasi dazed but it's hard to explain. But it got me thinking about all of the things we cherish, like the little sense triggers that unleash an onslaught of memories and moments. And how through music, movies, books, conversations, sights, or whatever it may be, through those instances where we are lucky enough to catch ourselves and realize what wonderful things have happened to us. This is how he lives forever.

It's like my man E said...

"There are two kinds of Christmas people, those who like their Christmas lights to stay on solid and those who like them to blink. As a kid, I always had a thing for sitting in the dark and watching the lights blink on and off at random. In the end, what we have are these little, great moments. They come and they go. That's as good as it gets. But, still, isn't that great?"

Takk You

Sigur Ros is a benefit to humanity.

Not a very bold statement or even original one, and maybe I'm just on a high from seeing Heima today.

For whatever reason, as of this moment nobody could talk me down from that.

Here's what I mean.

Sigur Ros makes music for the very reason music was meant to be made. There is no prior knowledge one needs of musical history in order to enjoy the sound these people produce. There is no need to understand even the basics of musical instrumentation or songwriting in order to enjoy these tracks. There is no need to understand the language in which the lyrics are sung. What makes this band so special is that their music transcends all limitations. I don't mean this to sound naive and gushing, I am writing from what I feel when I listen to their music and it is the reason I will continue to listen to their music for as long as I have the ability to hear. When you listen to Sigur Ros (at least when I do) I forget about all of the bullshit that is associated and very much a part of "the industry." All of the things that are what we commonly associate as popular culture and what it takes to be successful within that culture. You forget about the coffee, the assistants, the meetings, the phone calls, the errands, the parties, the handshakes, the scripts, the interviews, the press kits, the publicists, the managers, the executives, grocery shopping, interns. It all disappears and all you are left with, is the music.

I remember that the point of all this is to share a common experience with other people, an experience or a thought or a memory or a moment or a fragment of a memory of a thought. To share that with total strangers and hope that through the darkness and the neurological chain reaction it triggers you find some kind of understanding that helps you feel like you are a part of the world. That's what I think the point of all this is, to connect, to share, and to learn. It seems so simple and some how these four guys and girls from iceland have found to way to do that at a very profound level. And they did it all on their own (with a lot of help I'm sure) from their little country in their little homes based on their little lives. Through all of that they made me appreciate the world and my part in it. A tall order for a band, and I'm sure someone could find fifty ways to call bullshit on me during this post. I can't help it, it's sigur ros. Terence Malick understands it, David Gordon Green understands it, Nathaniel Carota understands it, Explosions in the Sky understand it (a lot of other creative entities do too but I must refrain from acknowledging them right now). We live in a spectaculr, changing, breath taking world and we make our own lives and we do the best we can. Isn't that great?

P.S.
When I say other creative entities, I, of course refer to my family and friends. I could list them here but you guys know who you are. That's pretty great too.

No More

Another reason...

I speak for a man who gave for this land
Took a bullet in the back for his pay
Spilled his blood in the dirt and the dust
He's back to say:

What he has seen is hard to believe
And it does no good to just pray
He asks of us to stand
And we must end this war today

With his mind, he's saying, "No more!"
With his heart, he's saying, "No more!"
With his life he's saying, "No more war!"

With his eyes, he's saying, "No more!"
With his body, he's saying, "No more!"
With his voice, he's saying, "No more war!"

Yeah, nothing's too good for a veteran
Yeah, this is what they say
So nothing is what they will get
And there's no American way

The lies we were told to get us to go
War criminals let us be straight
Let's get to the point where our voices get heard
And I know what I'll say

With his mind, he's saying, "No more!"
With his heart, he's saying, "No more!"
With his life he's saying, "No more war!"

With his eyes, he's saying, "No more!"
With his voice, he's saying, "No more!"
With his body, he's saying, "No more war!"

No more innocents dying
No more terror rising
No more eulogizing
No more evangelizing
No more presidents lying
No more war

With our minds, we're saying, "No more!"
With our hearts, we're saying, "No more!"
With our lives, we're saying, "No more war!"

Here's to the State...

One reason why Eddie Vedder is a genius...

Here's to the judges of William Rehnquist,
Who wear the robe of honour in their phoney legal fort.
Oh, justice is a stranger when the partisans report,
When the court elected the president it was the beginning of this war.
Whoa here's to the land you've torn out the heart of,
William Rehnquist, find yourself another country to be part of!

And here's to the government of Dick Cheney,
With criminals are posing as advisors to the crown
And they hope that no one sees the sights and no one hears the sounds
'Cause the speeches of the president are the ravings of a clown
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Dick Cheney, find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the churches of Jerry Falwell,
Where the cross, once made of silver, now is caked with rust
And the Sunday morning sermons pander to the fear of men in lust
Heaven only knows in which God they can trust
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
Jerry Falwell, find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the laws of John Ashcroft,
Congress will pass an act in the panic of the day
While the Constitution is drowning in an ocean of decay
And freedom of speech is dangerous, I've even heard them say
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
John Ashcroft, find yourself another country to be part of

And here's to the businessman of George W.,
Who want to change the focus from Halliburton and Enron
And their profits, like blood money are spilling out on the White House Lawn
TO keep their hold on power they're using terror as a gun
While the bombs that fall on children don't care which side that they're on
Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of
George W., find yourself another country to be part of

It's A Motherfucker

"With your beauty so precious and the seasons so fast..."

I don't really know what else to say. Thirteen years just seemed to have blinked by and now he's gone, he was always there and now he's gone. We have been preparing ourselves for this on and off for the past five years, they tell you that goldens don't live much longer than 9 years old. Through all that time you figure we would have found a way to not make it hurt as much but I can assure you that is definitely not the case. That nauseating feeling circulated through my body when I heard, as if preparing myself for the massive upheaval that was about to occur. You can't blame us for wanting to keep him around forever, anybody who spent more than five minutes with him was instantly hooked. He had the ability to heal wounds with just a look of that slightly amused dead pan expression he always wore. His compassion and love made him unique, but his sense of humor made him a life saver. He never wanted to be left alone, he never excluded anybody (except when it came to eating), and he would listen without judgement or complaint. He would make a complete ass of himself and never act embarassed or self-concious, or make someone else feel small when he did. He was perfect so we didn't have to be, he was our therapist, best friend, and confidant. He never asked for anything in return. That's what I'll miss I suppose, he was full of that spirit that makes you appreciate life and more importantly your life a little bit more. We're all looking for it, we're lucky in that we found it in such a silly creature. I miss you buddy, but I know you're doing the exact same thing you were doing down here, so I'm not worried.

There's a Calvin and Hobbes I thought of today, well actually, two of them and I couldn't stop thinking about them all day today. The first being one where Calvin finds a raccoon that dies a few hours later. Calvin says this in reponse to the whole event, it pretty much sums it up...

"This is where dad buried the little raccoon, I didn't even know he existed a few days ago and now he's gone forever. It's like I found him for no reason, I had to say good-bye as soon as I said hello. Still...in a sad, awful, terrible way, I'm happy I met him. What a stupid world."

And the other one is one where Calvin and Hobbes are in bed saying goodnight to each other. They realize, however, that they can meet up in each other's dreams so they can continue to play. Bill Watterson said he wrote that after his cat had died and he thought the best way to see her again was in his dreams.

I hope I see Cinnamon in my dreams, and Summer too. It's so hard to imagine him not being around, maybe I can see him whenever I want, maybe he will be around forever. He would like us to think so I imagine.

This is a song I've been thinking about a lot today. I was going to just use a quote, but here's the whole thing...

Keep a fire burning in your eye
Pay attention to the open sky
You never know what will be coming down
I dont remember losing track of you
You were always dancing in and out of view
I must have thought youd always be around
Always keeping things real by playing the clown
Now youre nowhere to be found

I dont know what happens when people die
Cant seem to grasp it as hard as I try
Its like a song I can hear playing right in my ear
That I cant sing
I cant help listening
And I cant help feeling stupid standing round
Crying as they ease you down
cause I know that youd rather we were dancing
Dancing our sorrow away
(right on dancing)
No matter what fate chooses to play
(theres nothing you can do about it anyway)

Just do the steps that youve been shown
By everyone youve ever known
Until the dance becomes your very own
No matter how close to yours
Anothers steps have grown
In the end there is one dance youll do alone

Keep a fire for the human race
Let your prayers go drifting into space
You never know what will be coming down
Perhaps a better world is drawing near
And just as easily it could all disappear
Along with whatever meaning you might have found
Dont let the uncertainty turn you around
(the world keeps turning around and around)
Go on and make a joyful sound

Into a dancer you have grown
From a seed somebody else has thrown
Go on ahead and throw some seeds of your own
And somewhere between the time you arrive
And the time you go
May lie a reason you were alive
But youll never know

I wish you'd've done this for me when I was a kid. But you didn't have a drug problem then.

I feel like so much has happened since I last posted. It feels like as if an entire summer just breezed by like a cane field in a high wind. A lot to talk about, not nearly enough time to do it. And since this will probably be the last post I write for another couple of months (I knew it, I AM like Salinger), I will try to get to the meat 'n mud of it all.

Something I would like to address right off the bat, I can not, CAN NOT wait for The Darjeeling Limited. If I had to go out on a limb, and with this blog I find that I most frequently do have to, I would say it's the movie I'm most excited for this summer. Followed in a close second by Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding (more on that closer to its release date). Anderson is my favorite director working right now and I suppose the reason for that is because he is the director I most aspire to rip off in my own work. After having just watched the Royal Tenenbaums, I realized just how comforting his movies are and how pleasant they are to re-visit. Darjeeling looks like all that and more, it feels like he's going after bigger emotional game here while sticking true to his obsessions and fantastic visual style. I've heard the complains that Anderson has made the same movie over and over again, but I feel like you could say that about a lot of great directors and Anderson is a GREAT director. They have obsessions, themes they can't seem to shake, and god forbid a visual style. If Anderson made a movie that looked like something Spike Lee had directed, I'd be kind of let down. It's a delicate tight rope to walk and I understand the complaint completely, I guess it just doesn't bother me. I think the reason is because Anderson's movies all take place within their own meticulously production designed universes. So all of the behavior and peculiarities of the characters are not meant to be mocked because to them in their world they are completely justified (listen up napolean dynamite). And that's the key to Anderson's work, he never talks down to his characters, he celebrates them in all refracted flaws and glories. They are capable of the best and the worst in and from each other. He also seems to cherish the notion that family is whatever you make of it, it's our job to make each other happy and to love each other. If he's not one of the most optimistic and hopeful voices in filmmaking I don't know who is? Plus he wraps it all up in some of the most sharply observed comedy in American filmmaking, he's not out to rub your face in shit because he thinks its good for you, nor beat you over the head with his pleas for forgiveness (take that Haggis). Okay I'm done, but go see Darjeeling, I would like to right a full review right here at this blog. And what's that you say? You would like to read it, okay if you insist. Will there ever be a rainbow?

Also a quick aside, I was saddened and upset at the news of Owen Wilson's health problems. It doesn't mean anything but I wish him the best and I hope he gets the help he needs and recovers quickly. I think the media coverage of this is disgusting, I wish magazines like People and US Weekly would just go away and never come back. Wilson has accomplished some great work in his career and I look forward to more, I hope he gets better.

The screening for ASD went over like gangbusters last week (ASD is what they will be calling it on JoBlo, Chud, and AICN when the time comes). I love it to death, I'm a little biased of course, but I think its a masterpiece. It felt at home up on the big screen and I think thats quite an accomplishment. And even after driving across country, pre-production, and being there every day for the shoot. I still find myself getting caught up, immersed, and watching the movie not as crew but as a fan. I think there's something to be said for the storytelling talent at work when you can pull somehing off like that. And Flip like Wilson, I can't wait to see what he does next. You'll get a better write up over at the REAL director's blog. It's quite an accomplishment, I tip my non-existant cap.

I feel like there's so much more to squeeze in here, Josh Ritter, No End in Sight, New York City, John Wells Productions, U.S. News and World Whatnot, Resignations, why Once and Zodiac are the two best movies of the year so far, how little has changed since All the President's Men, San Francisco, The Genius of Wes Anderson (oh wait I already covered that), the genius that was THE SIMPSONS MOVIE. Okay, I'm over stimulated, I better sit down here for a minute. Wait a minute, I AM sitting down.

...And her.

Au revoir,

I like fruit baskets because it gives you the ability to mail someone a piece of fruit without appearing insane. Like, if someone just mailed you an apple you'd be like 'Huh? What the hell is this?', but if it's in a fruit basket you're like 'This is nice!

I like sports; I like professional football. I like to get to the stadium and see the games live, you know. And I paint my chest before I leave the house. But I don't have many friends, you know, so I usually just do punctuation and tack on a group already in progress. But sometimes it works out kind of weird because we ended up on TV one time and it said 'JETS?'

Yippee Kay Yay Mr. Falcon

Hello there, I know it's been a few hours north of a month since my last post.

I'd like to make amends right now, by giving you folks a little something I like to call.

Ethan's People, A new segment for the people by the people.

Actually, it's really more of a rant that I've been thinking about for quite some time, and by some time I mean the past couple of hours and a few minutes here and there while I was on a run today.

As you no doubt have heard, it is now official: Live Free or Die Hard has been rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, language, and a brief sexual situation, apparently.

What da fuck?

Granted, I knew about this several weeks prior when it was officially leaked via bruce willis through some drunken rant he gave at a nets game wherein he not only revealed the rating but how uniquely jersey trash he actually is. So this really isn't new news, however, it is upsetting. And there are several reasons why: but first let me issue a disclaimer:

I here acknowledge that we as citizens of the planet earth were and are still in no need of a fourth die hard movie especially one called live free or die hard. I was always a little against the project from the beginning, primarily because die hard with a vengeance was so goddamn good (and as Spiderman 3 proved) it is very hard to go out strong on your third movie. There was a sense of completeness there like they waited five years between die harder, they got John McTiernan back, everything had come full circle. When it was announced, after many gestating years of rumors and false starts, i was more than anything in need of a reminder as to what a fourth die hard movie could be. Plus the whole set up just seemed like a cash-in and a lame one at that. Techno terrorists? Live Free or Die Hard? Bald Bruce Willis? The whole enterprise just seemed so smug and aware of its ludicrous existense that it seems like it wants to fit nicely next to Snakes on a Plane for a double feature of shit. The only saving grace behind this comatose franchise being brought back to life via mouth to mouth from the guy who did not only underworld but underworld 2 was that it would be loud, vulgar, and violent. Not that I am ordinarily in need of those things in movies (in fact people are usually idiots when it comes to that stuff) but Die Hard has a certain finesse when it comes to those topics in that it never seems gratuitous or mean spriited like Eli Roth type torture porn (and I will always call it that), I at least hope it would be a satisfying action movie. Then the trailer came along and I wasn't blown away by it or completely assuaged in my fear. But it did look like fun with one shot that pisses me off only because I had the idea for using a car as a missile against a helicopter many many years ago except I always imagined it taking place over a very small river, not sure if that would have worked. I don't know what's more depressing, that I thought of it or that Die Hard 4 is the Die Hard that wound up using it. Anyway, the trailer had some lame parts, it seems a bit too jokey and self aware in a way the old movies were not and the Kevin Smith cameo looks pretty bad and I really like kevin smith. In essence, red flags. Then I hear this bullshit about a PG-13 rating and I lost it.

Why is it that filmmakers are allowed to carve up, disembowel, castrate, behead, and dismember teenagers (usually Female) at the drop of a hat and still get away with an R rating. Why is it okay for teenagers to sneak into those movies (The very same who are getting killed) but the idea of such a fragile minded young individual sneaking into an R rated Die Hard movie is too appalling to consider. I won't turn this into a rant against the MPAA because violence always gets a free pass no matter what especially when it comes to sex. But how come horror is allowed to be R now but action is not. The R Rated action movie has all but disappeared, replaced in its stead by the Neal Moritz shit parade. Classics such as The Fast and the Furious Trilogy, S.W.A.T Stealth and many more have been produced under the guise of this bullshit bastard. And it was in these films that they stumbled upon a formula, if they could only subtly hint at the mindless violence of the 80's action movies without showing anything, they could make a bundle. They could get every kid in every mall to be exposed to the kinds of movies they want to see without their parents having to be dragged along, its win win for everybody. Blood and mayhem were replaced by rapid fire editing and an inane inability to accurately stage an action sequence. Violence was something to be feared on screen. Which is weird, because for a time in the early to mid 90's there were moments when it seemed impossible to escape another R- rated action movie ready to fire somebody out of a tower on alcatraz and have them impaled on a fence post. What happened? was this a reponse to 9/11 (a half assed one at that). Did kids suddenly exhibit their buying muscle while adults just gave up and watched the very things that makes being an adult great go to waste?

I've realized that i've already typed more than I intended to, I will continue this tomorrow.

Until then...

to be continued...

The Songs You Wrote, Got Me Through A Lot, Just Wanna Tell You That.

After a whole "day" of travelling, it's good to be back home. Real real good.

I am in anticipation like you would not believe to be back in the city with the old karl krew. You know the ones I mean.

I'm excited for Tess's big celebration. I'm excited to meet the one who calls herself Hughes.
I'm excited for John's...

I like John.

All in all, should be a hoot 'n a holler about which I should be reporting constantly. As long as you care to listen.

But just to let you know, as a wise man once said.

"It's a very exciting time."

I have tried to post on my blog for the past week, both times they were videos cribbed from YouTube that I found quite quirking. And both times I was denied, no stairway style.

I hope this one works.

I've been thinking about Elliott Smith a lot recently (I know, I know the collective eye roll begins with the oh hear comes another plea for Mr. Smith) After hearing New Moon, the collection of B-Sides and lost recordings just released this week, I am simply stunned as to the man's songwriting abilities, I think he is unrivaled in his age bracket. Even the stop he didn't put on the album is better than what most slave over to press to disc. It's inspiring and then a bummer for its just another reminder of what a colossal we lost when he died. After listening to the cd, I decided to take a trip over to the Audio-Video solutions store where the Figure 8 album cover was shot in front of. It's quite a sight actually, thousands of hand-written notes by fans from various points throughout the last three years since his death. Some of them are touching and poetic, some not so much, and some were inspired. The common thread through all of these was, "Your music got me through a lot of shit." or "I wouldn't have made it without you, thank you so much." Obviously, more elegantly worded than that. Now, it's debatable whether or not that's true, I can't speak for the people who wrote the messages, and a lot of music is supposed to do that. But I think it's really interesting that all of Mr. Smith's fans chose to thank him for that particular part of his music, as if to suggest that his talent and his emotional gifts as a songwriter somehow translated into therapy for a few listeners. And to me that is what's so fascinating about his music and ultimately rewarding, the constant push and pull between disaster and recovery. On the one hand, his music culminates with some really dark subject matter, places no human being likes to see inside themselves or inside each other. On the other hand, here is a guy who would get up on stage with a guitar and just release all of this and people got better because of it (or so they thought). That's why to me, his music has always been much more complicated than happy/sad, sure there are sad moments in it, but I think his music is about survival. Ultimately he succumbed, but that by no means makes him a martyr for the music. It just proves once again the age old wisdom that music is immortal and in a strange way, so is Elliott. (I know I stole that from the end of Big Fish, but it works really well.) Anyway I was just thinking about that, and just how I wish he were still around.

I'm gonna try posting a video in the next entry (we'll see if it works this time, thank you very much youtube.) I'm not sure when it's from, but it's Kevin Devine covering The Biggest Lie, which is an Elliott Smith song and if there's anyone I want to hear covering Mr. Smith, it's Mr. Devine. (To give credit where credit is due, Bright Eyes also does a fantastic cover of it as well, there's even a video on youtube of Mr. Oberst playing that song in a what looks like a gymnasium in full on halloween get up, I think it's from the year he died, check it out I'll let Nate post that one, even though he swore off videos for a while.)

Happy Mother's Day too, if you want you should check out this website, it's got a pretty moving short film directed by Robert Greenwald. Just reminds you the simplicity of the message and how complicated it is to put it in action. Hope you all did something special and worthy of yo mama.

http://mothersdayforpeace.com/

Good night america,

"You look and him like you've never known him
but i know for a fact that you have
the last time you cried who'd you think was inside?
thinking that you were about to come over
but i'm tired now of waiting for you
you never show."

All the Way to New York City

I was thinking about how much I love quiet music.

Quiet shows, quiet audiences, that's where I feel it.

I was thinking about how some of the music I like can be talked over when played live.

This is for all those quiet performers.

It's also for all the people, places and moments I miss in New York City.

I wish I could take you with me
All the way to New York City
We could get an apartment there
Be closer to our families.

We could take my station wagon
And fill it to the brim
And wave goodbye to all our lovely friends
Never to return again

You could write for picture shows
And I could get a job waiting tables
At a restaurant where famous people like to go
We could buy old overcoats and walk through the snow
All the way around central park
Our cheeks as pink as wild roses

We could take the subway home
And stare at our reflection in the window panes of the train
And see how much New York has changed us.

Got my main man adam duritz on the speed dial.

The following are not my words, they are those of Adam Duritz.

Wise and dreadlocked.

This is for that girl who decided to let me know she thought dashboard confessional sucked as I walked towards St. Mark's place however long ago that was.

Feast on it.

For instance, I think Chris Carrabba is a great songwriter. I think Dashboard Confessional is a great band. I hadn’t heard of them until Gil Norton (see Recovering The Satellites (1996)) told me he was going to make an album with them but (and take this with a grain of salt since I pretty much worship the ground Gil walks on-if you agree, let’s hang out and that’ll be our “scene”, I guess) I think A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar (2003) is a fabulous album (and, as I later discovered, so are The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most and The Swiss Army Romance). I was flattered to be asked and proud to be on Dusk and Summer (2006).Then a little while later I started hearing all about something called “Emo”. Now I’m not saying Chris started the movement; I’m just saying he was the first I heard of it. I have to admit I was a little more inclined to like Emo than any other scene just because Emo is short for “emotional” (I think) and I like the idea of music that has actual feelings involved in it. I was starting to get really worn out by “irony”. It’s just too easy to be clever and NOT care.
So, in “Hands Down“, the opening song from A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar when Chris sings:Hands down, this is the best day I can ever remember
Always remember the sound of the stereo
The dim of the soft lights
The scent of your hair that you twirled in your fingers
And the time on the clock when we leave cause it’s so late
And it’s one thing we shared together
The streets were wet and the gate was locked
So I jumped in and I let you in

And you stood at the door with your hands on my waist
And you kissed me like you meant it
And I knew that you meant it

I know that he means it. I really do because there’s too many details for it to mean anything else. “Hands down, this is the best day I can ever remember” might seem like a corny line in the hands of someone else but not when Chris sings it and DEFINITELY not when ANY songwriter follows that line with the 10 lines that follow it in this song (even if I got some of the lines wrong). So if that’s “emo”, count me in.

Long live AD and DC

Why Am I So Pathetic? Don't get it.

I just wanted to write a few things before I go to bed. It's about 1:36am now and I've fallen into this weird habit of going to bed later for no particular reason. It's not like I'm galavanting around town, naked as a jaybird, I'm just sitting here, watching t.v. or reading shit online. Trying to read the huge pile of books in my to read box, not really getting any of it done. I've become quite skilled at wasting a lot of nights. The only problem with this comes when I wake up early in the morning, I just can't not do it. I really like being up in the morning and I want to start waking up earlier but I feel like that would sacrifice sleep, and since I don't drink coffee, nor do I handle being tired very well (as evidenced by the USC tour guide who spotted me yawning emphatically during her speech), I need to find a way to get to bed earlier and wake up earlier. Then everything will be alright.

Wow.

There you have it, I just wasted four minutes of my night right there typing out that nonsense.

I hope I didn't waste your time.

Quick Things: (Seriously this time)

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Blinking Lights and Other Revelations is definitely on my list for desert island records (however that notion has become someone outdated with the invention of the ipod). No other album in the small history of my musical life has the ability to re settle me the way that one does. There's something about his vocals and the story he tells on that album, it's like listening to a voice on the other end of the phone in the middle of the night telling you not to worry beceause bad things happen, good things happen, and the lights are always blinking no matter where you are.

Secondly, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone is some kind of musical miracle. I say that because somehow Explosions in the Sky have managed to out do everything that has come before in their musical cannon (no small feat). That is not to say their earlier stuf is now negated, but they soar to ridiculous heights on this album. The weird thing is, it didn't hit me at first. Sure I loved it and was completely bown away by it, but this album is like meeting a good friend for the first time. You hit it off at first but there's still some hesitancy due to the fact that you don't know each other. Then somewhere along the trail everything clicks and you need to be best friends with this person, right now. That might be a little abstract, but that's the best I could come up with. This is their most complex album, the melodies swirl in and out of each other with such precision and skill that the narrative is much stronger on this album than it has been before. On top of that there is a much more spontaneous shift to this record, as if to suggest these songs are being recorded on the spot. I have no idea how they do it, it has the raw surging power of a live show with the emotional complexity of superb storytelling. It fucking rocks.

Last thing, I promise. Annie Hall is a great great movie. All I have to say about it is that it once again proves that the need for any kind of movie about the ins and outs of relationships has been negated. It was Say Anything, Chasing Amy, All the Real Girls, and now Annie Hall, actually, I would also like to add Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to that list. All of these movies say it all and it pisses me off. Maybe I can find a way to incorporate Ned Beatty into my movie, they wouldn't see that one coming.

Okay that's it, I'm going to bed.

"this is the day
that i give myself up cold

the dust of ages
settles on your days
and so you shake your coat off
and get on your way

bloodshot and trembling
a new day has begun

the dust of ages
settles on your days
and so you blow it all away
and get on your way

the dust of ages
settles on your days
but i'm not fuckin' around anymore
i'm on my way"

It's Natural to Be Afraid...

Well, I hope you all read up and studied each and every manufactured thought that appeared in yesterday's L.A. times concerning the box office success of 300 versus the relative disappointment of Zodiac. Like I said, I hope you didn't break anything in your fit of rage. Then again, it's important to remember these are just half rate idiots writing for a stupid newspaper and they don't really care about telling a good story or even telling the truth. They write whatever will give them the quickest easiest answer to complicated questions, actually most journalists do that too come to think of it.

Anyway getting down to business, this article pissed me off in so many ways, I don't know where to begin.

Let's start with the basic assumption the article makes:

That 300 is a new cultural phenomenon in league with Star Wars, The Matrix, or Lord of the Rings. And like those films it's success is based around the fact that it supposedly celebrates the things that movies do best (visuals, speed, classic story telling) and how it is invincible to any sort of criticism because the very thought of analyzing such a work would rob of the purpose it serves as a movie. It's not a dissertation after all.

The first part of this I would like to debunk is that 300 is some kind of cultural phenomenon. That simply is not true, you need a little bit more time than a week to prove that. You also need a better response than the movie has gotten thus far. If you apply this logic to every movie than in this year alone, Norbit, Wild Hogs, and Ghost Rider would be considered cultural phenomenons. Not to mention scores of other movies most people only remember as something they dug out of their ears. I would even argue that Lord of the Rings is not quite yet a cultural phenomenon, it was at one point but I think the true test is to see how long it stays in the public sphere of conscious after its initial release. Star Wars has passed that test (the original trilogy anyway, but I won't get into that now), and I think the original matrix will any day now. The point being, 300 is a movie that made a shit load of money on its opening weekend and it surprised some people. are we really going to remember this, ten years later, as a watershed day for cinema? That's the dumbest thing I ever heard.

The article then goes onto to discuss the drubbing the movie received by the critics. Which is also inaccurate, for according to metacriic the movie received a score 53 which it describes as mixed to average reviews. Compare that to the score of 27 received by both Norbit and Wild Hogs. Point being, while it didn't get great reviews, a couple of big critics like entertainment weekly and rolling stone liked it. And even the people who didn't like it didn't hate, the sampling the L.A times takes are from critics who really hated it, of which there a few. Not to suggest that this means the movie is great, but the article essentially claims that the critics who hated the movie some how took away from it political or social commentary that wasn't there and therefore only existed so critics could rag on it. First of all, most of the negative review of the movie I've read and even the two they quote in the article (and you can see these reviews at www.metacritic.com) hated the movie because it is poorly made, not because they didn't agree with its politics (as dunderheaded as they may be). They hated it because the writing is lousy, the acting is a lot of screaming and little else, and the fact that the entire movie strives to be a feature length gorgeously rendered video game. Any mention of the nationalistic, drumbeating, pro war homophobia that supposedly exists in the movie, goes by as more of an afterthought. More like, yes the movie sucks and p.s. here is some weird shit in it. The article, however, quotes director Zack Snyder as laughing off the reviews, saying they came across as "so neo-con" and "so homophobic" (yes his actual words) and that "they couldn't just go see the movie without trying to over-intellectualize it." This is idiotic in so many ways, first of all he uses the words neo-con and homophobic as if he doesn't know what they mean. And I think it's very interesting that he equates intellectualizing something with being neo-con and homophobic. Does one make you the other? I guess I never thought about it that way. He also doesn't seem to understand that when someone accuses you, based on your film, of subscribing to a certain set of ideas, that doesn't mean they are always right. However it doesn't mean that pointing those ideas makes them fervent followers of them. I actually don't even know what he's trying to say, it doesn't make any sense and he sounds really stupid saying it. The critics pointed out how homoerotic the movie is to deflate the toxic machismo that seems to permeate every frame of the damn thing. They said it to make fun of you mr. snyder, not gay people. The article acts as if no movie in the history of cinema had ever grossed a lot of money while receiving mostly negative reviews. It kinda happens all the time, and it's one of the great mysteries of life, hopefully this writer will sleep better knowing he has contributed much by way of public knowledge about the subject. What it seems to me, with all of this, is that Snyder made an irresponsible movie (and that's okay by the way). He made a politically irresponsible movie and he won't cop to it, I think he put a lot of shit in there without realizing it and refuses to admit it because he will come off as a buffoon. Well, tough shit, own up to it at least, I think that's what the Spartans would have wanted. That's the man's way of dealing with it.

The final part of this article that actually enraged me (the other stuff just kind of got on my nerves, whereas this part sent me off the fucking cliff). The writer attempts to make some half assed connection between why 300 succeeded and why Zodiac failed to attract any of that attention.

Oh no he didn't.

I've been harboring this ever since I became aware of the 70 million opening for 300. Dammit, that was Zodiac's money and it fucking earned it. Why a movie like 300, that is chest thumping, simple, comic book gore gets the audience, whereas a devastating, thoughtful, and supremely executed detective story like Zodiac gets none. Why can't they both get it? I imagine there are more than enough people in this country to make up for Zodiac's deficit, right? Why Zodiac didn't do well is for another blog, I want to dicuss why 300 did so well instead. The article supposes that is because David Fincher made the movie for himself and for no one else. That he wasn't thinking about the audience or the critics, only about himself. Well, moron, filmmaking is an extremely personal artform and in case you forgot, David Fincher's (along with several other thousand) name will be attached to this movie forever as not just the director, but as the guiding vision. If he doesn't make it for himself, than why make it in the first place? I hope this guy knows that his name and only his name will be attached to this shitty article forever, so he is not allowed to blame anybody else for this debacle. Second of all, the claim that Zodiac is somehow inaccesible is complete and utter bullshit. I have not been more enthralled by a movie like that for a long time, how is that not accessible. And obviously not every audience member shares the same tastes as me. But it doesn't really matter whether people like it or not but there is something in this movie for everyone to at least check out. To least buy a goddamn ticket. Also, God forbid, a director tells a story without the usual cinematic pay offs. God forbid he makes a murder mystery not about the violent porn of most serial killer movies (and stupid T.V. shows by the way) but about the cereberal and haunting life of its own that a case can take on when it infects the mind of ordinary human beings. God forbid a director attempt to show the transformation of a city and its media from mild indifference to the kind of paranoid delusions we still suffer from today. God forbid a director try to make a movie not about death, but about how life rebounds or doesn't from that death. Again, these are not radical concepts, merely interesting ideas explored with precision and depth by the makers of Zodiac. It is not like some kind of thought exercise that will only appeal to intellectuals (christ, I liked this movie) but rather a movie that poses a lot of interesting questions and theories but allows its audience to come to its own conclusion. Dammit, that's what filmmaking is all about and it pisses me off that because Fincher doesn't revel in bloodletting, he somehow has receeded into the dark corncers of artistic pretension, and that nobody should see his movie. That is complete and utter bullshit, to the highest degree. I loved Zodiac, I was into every single minute of it, and I watched it feeling as though I was in the hands of one of the most capable story tellers working today. Other than that, it was a weird and deeply confusing artistic experiment that left me feeling cold and indifferent because Fincher didn't include an ending where Jake Gyllenhall cuts off the Zodiac killer's head in slow motion with a battle axe while sreaming something about the glory of the San Francisco Chronicle. Oh yeah, everybody.

Okay, I've chewed everybody eyes and ears for about long enough now. I hope this rambling tale of magic and heroism made a little bit of sense. Again I should have prefaced this by saying I haven't seen 300 yet and maybe all of this is moot. However, I plan to and when I do, you will be the first to hear about it.

Go see Zodiac.

"i said johnny and i, we got lost tonight, but we doubled our chances we've got somewhere to go, we've got devils chasing us to hunt us down, and we know we can't go like this from now, i've got a feeling of you, and we danced for so long, i want your arms around me, said never gonna let you down, never gonna let you down, but i will always let you down "

Go ahead, Cornelius, you can cry.

I'm not going to post anything of my own today.

I would instead like you all to read this article from the L.A. Times about 300.

Try not to smash something...

300': It's just a movie -- or is it?
Call it a grand, vivid spectacle -- nothing more, nothing less.
PATRICK GOLDSTEIN
March 20, 2007

DON'T tell the critics, but "300" is a new kind of action movie, a clever synthesis of the stylized epic storytelling practiced by Peter Jackson in "Lord of the Rings" and the stop 'n' start fast-motion cutting of the Wachowski brothers' "Matrix" series. Let's call it Hyper Cinema. "300's" entire visual environment — its billowy wheat fields, its stormy gray skies, even blood that miraculously evaporates before it hits the ground — is a fabricated universe, created by 1,300 effects shots generated in a computer after the actors have gone home.

It's a gamer's view of the world that film critics don't relate to because they seem to have forgotten the kick they got from reading comics as kids. When I went to see "300" last week, the theater was full of scruffy guys who looked like they spent a lot more hours playing Final Fantasy X11 or God of War II than working out at the gym. In an era when it's increasingly difficult to reach young males, "300" offered a vivid spectacle of glistening pecs — as one admirer put it, "Ray Harryhausen crossed with Leni Riefenstahl" — that couldn't be replicated at home.

"We took a singular idea and went all the way with it, which I think resonates with audiences," director Zack Snyder, whose only other feature was a remake of "Dawn of the Dead," said on the phone from London. "It gives you that feeling that made you go to movies in the first place, as in 'Holy [smoke], that was awesome!' "

Populated with unknown actors, the retelling of the gory battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC was airily dismissed as hokum by America's leading critics.

Where the fanboys saw an easily identifiable theme — "me and my buddies are gonna band together and kick some butt" — critics spied pandering trash. The Boston Globe's Wesley Morris called "300" "action porn." The New York Times' A.O. Scott said " '300' is about as violent as ' Apocalypto' and twice as stupid." And the Washington Post's Stephen Hunter, dripping with disdain, exclaimed, "Go tell the Spartans that their sacrifice was not in vain; their long day's fight under the cooling shade of a million falling arrows safeguarded the West and guaranteed, all these years later, the right of idiots to make rotten movies about them."

Those idiots grossed $129.2 million in just 10 days. And Snyder says he wasn't perturbed by the nasty reviews. "Nah, I love 'em, they were funny," he says. "The reviews were so neo-con, so homophobic. They couldn't just go see the movie without trying to over-intellectualize it."

The critics were disturbed by a host of issues, not the least being the film's macho belligerence, cartoonish lack of interest in history and racial stereotyping of Xerxes' Persian hordes as dark-skinned, decadent club queens. But a key reason critics reacted so harshly is because they have been trained to value realism over fantasy, whether it is the stoic drama of Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima" or the cool psychological precision of David Fincher's "Zodiac," which has flopped at the box office, despite critical raves.

"Zodiac" had everything a critic could love. It was smart, full of context and armed with a compelling narrative about an obsessive search for an enigmatic killer. Unfortunately, Fincher is a filmmaker who has little interest in what audiences — or studio executives — think about his movies. He makes them for himself.

In contrast, Snyder's "300," with its Xbox ethos, is a movie made for a generation of visual sensation seekers. Critics are largely shaped by the aesthetic of the cinematic past, which is why you often get the feeling they've been dragged, kicking and screaming, into a new world they describe as coarser, more superficial and less intellectually stimulating than the golden age of their moviegoing youth.

The complaints are almost always the same. "It's an epic without a dream," said one critic. "The loudness, the smash-and-grab editing, and the relentless pacing drive every idea from your head, and even if you've been entertained, you may feel cheated of some dimension — a sense of wonder, perhaps." Those words were written 30 years ago by Pauline Kael, reviewing "Star Wars."

If anyone knows how late critics come to the party, it is Fincher, whose breakthrough 1995 thriller "Se7en" was roundly dismissed by many of the same top critics who were "Zodiac's" biggest admirers. The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern called it "ponderous," Time's Richard Schickel dubbed it "twaddle" and Newsweek's David Ansen described its style as being a cross between "a Nike commercial and a bad Polish art film."

Now that his work is more familiar, Fincher is considered an old master, at least compared with a nervy upstart like Snyder. As it turns out, the two men's backgrounds are surprisingly similar. Fincher, who is only four years older than the 40-year-old Snyder, began his career at ILM doing optical effects on George Lucas films before directing a series of commercials and music videos for everyone from Aerosmith to Paula Abdul. Snyder had a similar career path.

"I'm part of the 'Star Wars' generation — it's what made me want to become a director," Snyder says. "Blade Runner," "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Excalibur" — films he saw in his mid-teens — are the ones he cites as big influences.

It's obvious that Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" series has served as an influence as well. "300's" deformed hunchback, Ephialtes, who betrays the Spartans, is uncannily reminiscent, both in physical form and in moral ambiguity, to "LOTR's" Gollum.

Snyder has learned that film is a subliminal art, in the sense that he uses his visuals to supply the film's emotional underpinning. In "300," the sky is always dark and unsettled, as if to signal the bitter bloodshed to come. "We tried to make the sky reflect the emotion in the movie, which you can't do in a regular movie," he says. "That's what is great about this kind of green-screen filmmaking. It's not just the actors who matter. Every element in the frame supports the emotion of the moment."

Sadly, our critics, who seemed content with hooting at "300," have lost touch with what makes movies different from other art forms. Hollywood's mass-audience films are not a literary or an intellectual genre. Never have been, never will be. They are built around visuals and emotion, the two elements that "300" used to capture the public imagination.

No one understands this better than 13-year-old Tristan Rodman, who saw "300" (with his dad, since the film is R-rated). "I guess the critics have not liked the movie for the same reason that the majority of people in America did like it," he told me. "Most people just went to see it. Not for the acting or the story, which was just OK, but for the spectacle."

Tristan got a great thrill from seeing "300." And whether you're a critic or just a fanboy, isn't that what people have always gone to the movies for?



I will write more on this tomorrow, stay tuned...

Would You Erase Me?

Okay, another blog entry I've owed for a long time. I think it's pretty good though that the last entry I made was a little more than a week ago, the window is getting smaller. And I'me excited about that, maybe I can close it between a week next time.

Maybe...

So first things last, I need to give you guys an Oscar recap. The most pressing issue of the whole issue is how once again the Oscars took a lot of short cuts and rewarded films that didn't deserve nominations. I should break this down nomination by nomination, don't worry I'm not going to go through them all. And yes I am aware of the fact that they are almost a month old and therefore no longer relevant, so don't bother pointing that out.

Best Picture
The best of this lot was Babel, plain and simple. With The Queen and Letters From Iwo Jima a close second respectively. It seemed though as the announcement loomed that the award was up for grabs between the two least deserving titles, The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine. Don't get me wrong both films I enjoyed, but the Departed fucked up in a lot of vital areas that made it severely not great. And Little Miss Sunshine is just kind of slight, there are moments in that movie I love but others that just seem like they came out of the indie dysfunctional family cookbook. Watch this film and compare it with the much more delicate Squid and the Whale and you will see why the academy sucks so hard. But that makes sense the Oscars were never about making difficult choices, because these awards are for the regular movie going audience. Snide as that sounds it is not intended to be, what I mean is that the Oscars are meant for people who don't see a lot of movies for whatever reason that may be. The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine were the most popular at the box office and they were clearly the most widely seen. However, The Departed simply had the obvious distinction of an iconic american director and a classic genre studio movie. Compared to the upstart "indie" that Little Miss Sunshine claimed to be, the message from Hollywood was clear, tonight, we honor ourselves.

Best Director
I was against all the buzz I was hearing about Scorsese winning. I thought this was another of those Academy covering their own asses and giving an award to a nominee for a career that they so callously ignored in years past, rather than the film at hand. And yes Scorsese should have won it many times for many other films in the 70's and 80's (except when he lost against Redford, if there was some way they could have tied that would have been acceptable, Ordinary People for life). And yes he is a great filmmaker and one of most influential of pure craft of any other american director. However, when it came down to it, he made a film that was more interested in piling up bodies than about whether or not anybody cared about those bodies. I remember reading an article (spoilers ahead, stop reading if you haven't seen the movie) where Scorsese said one of his main stipulations in agreeing to do this movie was that everybody had to die, plain and simple. I think he just had this idea in his head that he was going to do something radical in a mainstream movie and kill off all the big stars so that he could get across his message that our world is rotting from within. I just think the job he did on the departed was more interested in the destination than the journey. Paul Greengrass on the other hand, took an extremely difficult subject matter and handled it with such precision and with nary a mis step that it's breathtaking. He made a better film and he had a lot more at stake between the two of them and when it comes down to a directorial award, that should come into consideration. Anyway, the point of all this is, all was forgiven when I saw Coppola, Spielberg, and Lucas giving the award to their pal. I gave in, it was very nice to see at least for a few seconds and in a completely staged proceeding that some people can remain friends in this business for so many years. I'm glad he won, he just should have pulled a Ving Rhames and given it to Greengrass out of gratitude. That's all I got to say.

Best Screenplay (Original and Adapted)
Once again the Screenplay award fucked up, they really never get this one right. The same I said for best picture applied for these two awards (Won by Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed). As far as adaptations go, I think Children of Men should be studied in classes for many years to come as a model of a pristine film adaptation. The amount of information conveyed in that script without any kind of expository tidal waves and the amount that they pared down to get to the essential meat of the story really makes the movie in my opinion. And it's easy to lose sight of that admist the visual miracles being performed but watch it again and see how subtly and convincingly the writers give us a world with unlimited possibilities and how easily they get right to it, like they've been living there all along. As for original, Pan's Labyrinth connects two stories in a way that seems to just flow rather than grasp for any kind of thematic resonance. The way Del Toro handles his material gives the sense that he has had this material inside of him for a long time and he knew it down to every single beat and pause. Michael Arndt's script, while charming had a lot of snappy zingers in it and uses a lot of easy characterizations to make emotional shortcuts. It's a good script but Del Toro's script feels like a fairy tale, artful and timeless.

Okay that's enough, I've chewed everyone's ear off enough about how I think I have all the answers and the academy just misses the boat year after year. Obviously none of this really matters, the movies are the movies and they will stay that way for all of us to enjoy and argue about for years to come. By no means is this a definitive answer, and really, I don't know what I'm talking about.

I think I'm going to call it a evening on that note, next time, a thrilling post on the week that was Bike Week 2007. On that note, keep smiling america.

"where 24 turn 25, i heard you try to take your life, why
you don't realy know.

where 24 turn 25, there so much pression in this times to be
something that you don't.

where 24 turn 25, i try to hold your head up high, why
well i don't realy know.

where 24 turn 25, make this the best time on your life, why
i don't realy know."

And the winds to gravel roads.

Last night's entry came through only as an aborted one. I planned to write a small re-cap of what has happened to me in the past week, but it felt like the words were being rippped untimely from my brain. I gave up and settled on quoting a really good tom waits song instead.

But now I'm here to settle a few scores.

I need to gush for a second, I just saw Josh Ritter at the el rey and I think he is one of the greatest musicians alive today. I know I say that a lot, but his lyrical abilities are astounding, not to mention is excellent guitar plucking skills. He's also damn funny and a great peformer, see what I mean? I'll sum it up this way, the album version of Thin Blue Flame is jaw dropping but hearing him play that with just an acoustic guitar will make your heart swell. He really is a great man, I just can't get enough of him now. Just listen for one of his songs in A Slow Dissolve, used ingeniously by the way, and it's one I can't get out of my head. But that's a good thing, not a bad thing like the Beyonce medley I had in there a while ago.

A post script to that, the submarines are also really good too. For just a guy, a girl, two guitars, a couple random instruments and a laptop they know how to make some shit happen. My appreciation for them was deepened greatly by this performance.

A quick recap of some movies I've seen recently, I think last time we talked, I had just seen Letters from Iwo Jima. Since then I haven't seen much, let me think actually.

The Lives of Others
Definitely deserved the academy award, if only it hadn't been up against Pan's Labyrinth. I hate to make choices like that, but seriously Lives of Others is pretty flawless. It's recreation of the Stasi in the mid-80's of Germany feels monotonously real and the passion of the film is subdued to the very end when it hits you and it feels like a great story has just been told.

The Astronaut Farmer
I have a soft spot for movies like this (see Millions) but rest assured this one is really good (also see millions). First of all, it's beautifully shot with some surreal and beautiful desert farm landscapes that can only really exist in movies or places where you live. It's got a great flippant sense of humor that refuses to rest when the hokier parts of the story threaten to take it over. The Polish Farmers are not just merry pranksters, they mean every word of what they say, and I think it can be as cheesey as it wants to be, cause the shit's real.

Breach
A damn compelling and fine film. Chris Cooper is scary good, real scary good. Billy Ray furthers the promise he showed in Shattered Glass, I could definitely see him becoming a buttoned down Michael Mann. His ability to peer into the minds of working men is un parallleled in hollywood. He just does it to the stiffs who work in an un funny version of the office. What is most interesting about Breach is how it explores the contradiction inherent in the intelligence system. It's designed to deal with some of the most melodramatic and epic shifts in human history. Yet its operators are taught to be detached liars who keep secrets from everyone so that they can operate with as little emotional influence as possible. Ray nails that and it makes breach a fantastic character piece.

That's pretty much it for now, I need a full blog for an oscar re cap. Look at...the craziness

Also everyone needs to play laser tag with Gabe at some point in their lives. Especially if he uses his trademark method he crafted at action zone, to see that in action again is like watching kareem pull off a sky hook. But seriously Gabe, any time you're up for it again, color me tickled pink. I'm really itching to get back into the fog machine filled sweat covered, acne and dirty kids infested Doogan controlled arena that is laser tag. Also we gotta beat to those kids next time, that was really embarassing. I'm waiting.

"Though I'm here in this far off place
My air is not this time and space
I draw you close with every breath
you don't know it's right until it's wrong
You don't know it's yours until it's gone
I didn't know that it was home ‘til you up and left"

San Diego Serenade

I never saw the morning til I stayed up all night
I never saw the sunshine til you turned out the light
I never saw my hometown until I stayed away too long
I never heard the melody, until I needed a song.

I never saw the white line, til I was leaving you behind
I never knew I needed you til I was caught up in a bind
I never spoke i love you til I cursed you in vain,
I never felt my heartstrings until I nearly went insane.

I never saw the east coast til I move to the west
I never saw the moonlight until it shone off your breast
I never saw your heart til someone tried to steal,
Tried to steal it away
I never saw your tears until they rolled down your face.