Before I begin. I was just watching letterman and Zach Braff was on to promote his new movie the last kiss. As Braff walked on the band started playing "Last Kiss" in some kind of jazz band ensemble cover of it. Last Kiss is the J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers song that Pearl Jam completely kicked ass with. I thought it was an odd choice, just wanted to share that. Also the movie looks lame, Zach Braff is lame.
Anyway, as Nate's blog has previously reported, we are all done here. Tomorrow morning, Nate and I set out on expanse across this great nation of ours en route to Avondale. Everybody else has left and all that remains is this dualistic notion of loss (end of Summer, always a sad time for me) and extreme joy and elation (in light of completing the movie). We are going through the seemingly contrasting and negating oppositions of those two extremes of emotions. It's a weird thing, not a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination. We did it, there's no reason to be bummed. And I personally think Nate has a pretty damn good movie on his hands (sound issues aside...oh boy). Maybe this just means that (gasp!) we had a really good time shooting this movie and we're going to miss it. How awful.
"Are you being sarcastic, dude?"
"I don't even know anymore."
In summation, I'm really happy we're done, and I'm really happy to leave. I'm really happy to go home. I'm happy.
"I want to see my family
my wife and child waiting for me
I've got to go home
I've been so alone you see"
An exaggeration perhaps but a really good song covered by Iron and Wine that I was listening to today. I like this whole stream of concsiousness thing...it fits me like a speedo.
"I'm a selfish old crank, and that fits me like a Speedo"
Okay, I'll stop.
Two more things before I tucker off to bed...
I watched a movie tonight (recommended by Dad) called Paris, Texas. It's about a guy lost in the desert who goes on a search to essentially reunite his son and wife. It's an epic movie muted by a refreshing lack of excessive mush usually heaped upon hollywood projects such as this. It's also got an amazing visual style, extreme neon colors accentuate the perpetual lonliness of the American west (a topic I am becoming more and more interested in as you will not in later blogs). The environment seems to be built on harsh extremes not meant for sane human beings. It's a really powerful film that doesn't really hit you until after you watch it. Then it's like a punch to the gut. There was one scene that stuck with me, and it makes sense because Roger Ebert called it one of the best movie monologues in cinema history (I don't know about that, I mean Roger Ebert is never wrong so I don't know what to think). Anyway, in the scene Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) has relocated his estranged wife in a peep show booth in Texas. He clarifies to his ex-lover, Jane (Nastassja Kinski) the reason for his departure in an explanation that has untold years of regret sewn into its account. Regret for not for ony for his actions but for the self pity he used to rationalize them. She ends the scene with one of the most devastating monologues I've ever heard. It's too complex for tears.
"I... I used to make long speeches to you after you left. I used to talk to you all the time, even though I was alone. I walked around for months talking to you. Now I don't know what to say. It was easier when I just imagined you. I even imagined you talking back to me. We'd have long conversations, the two of us. lt was almost like you were there. I could hear you, I could see you, smell you. I could hear your voice. Sometimes your voice would wake me up. It would wake me up in the middle of the night, just like you were in the room with me. Then... it slowly faded. I couldn't picture you anymore. I tried to talk out loud to you like I used to, but there was nothing there. I couldn't hear you. Then... I just gave it up. Everything stopped. You just... disappeared. And now I'm working here. I hear your voice all the time. Every man has your voice."
Definitely check this out if you have the chance. Really strong flick.
While you're listening to my recommendations, also check out Nine Lives while you're at it. The only film I can remember that captures of the feeling of reading a great collection of short stories. Check it out for real.
One last thing. See this is what I do, I get all my stuff out in one blog entry and then I lay dormant for weeks and weeks on end. I need to parcel this out a little more evenly, that will be a new year's resolution.
It made my heart sing to see the U.S. Government protecting our security and livelihood in the face of such an undeniable terrorist threat as the one posed by these San Francisco citizens. It's truly mind blowing to me that this "conservative" administration has adopted such a neo-conservative attitude when it comes to demolishing civil liberties and ignoring the consitution whenever they see fit.
Yet, somehow, when it comes to an issue that really calls for Government Assistance (you'd figure the neocons in charge would jump all over an opportunity like this), like the Hurricane Katrina relief. They are nowhere to be found, they are admirably sticking to their conservative roots of non governmental interference. Except of course when it comes to awarding no bid contracts to businesses (exploiting this American war zone just like they did the one in Iraq). And essentially putting a big "whites-only" sign all over most of New Orleans through their sleazy means. If this all sounds a little extreme (I apologize if it does but this is a real pisser), check out Amy Goodman's coverage of the anniversary of the disaster over at Democracy Now! (make sure you check out August 29th's show if you're reading this tomorrow. There's some real fascinating and damming stuff over there and coupled with a recent ass wiping of the constitution that our government seems to encourage. I don't know. Sorry to complain.
Okay, I'm going to bed. I've talked your ear off enough, this should give you enough to chew on for another month, when I decide to write in this thing again. See you guys back in PA.
"Cheer up, you miserable fuck
This has gone on long enough
And I don't want to hear anymore
'Cos it you wait for the day
You find your thinking bends to straight
You'll be waiting for a long, long time
Oh you, well you are no fun
And I'm so dumb
But please let us not be lonely, again."
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Sunday, July 23, 2006
I think its time to put the top down
Just saw Clerks II. It was okay, something weird going on in it though. It wasn't nearly as funny as the original obviously. Granted it was funny, but Clerks is its own unique kind of funny, yeah that sounds dumb but that's how it is. Anyway, I've always felt Smith was really good at emotional stuff (Chasing Amy is his best movie, deal with it, Dogma is a close second). And this one had that but it felt forced, like he had this crazy funny self-aware sequel but he felt that since he's older he needs to make it mean something. That kind of thinking is fine by me, if it's organic. Why couldn't he just make a ridiculous clerks movie? I guess it would be pretty lame of him to make a movie that would only amuse him and a few of his friends (take that me). In all seriousness, the emotional stuff didn't work. And I say that as a kevin smith fan who likes the emotional stuff.
Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that. I have a headache and we're going to start this movie soon, gotta get my shit together.
All I have left is a song...
your hand on his arm
the hay stack charm around your neck
strung out and thin
calling some friend trying to cash some check
he's acting dumb
that's what you've come to expect
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
he's wearing your clothes
head down to toes a reaction to you
you say you know what he did
but you idiot kid
you don't have a clue
sometimes they just get caught in the eye
you're pulling him through
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
now on the bus
nearly touching this dirty retreat
falling out 6th and powell a dead sweat in my teeth
gonna walk walk walk
four more blocks plus the one in my brain
down downstairs to the man
he's gonna make it all OK
i can't beat myself
i can't beat myself
and i don't want to talk
i'm taking the cure so i can be quiet
wherever i want
so leave me alone
you ought to be proud that i'm getting good marks
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
Anyway, that's all I'm going to say about that. I have a headache and we're going to start this movie soon, gotta get my shit together.
All I have left is a song...
your hand on his arm
the hay stack charm around your neck
strung out and thin
calling some friend trying to cash some check
he's acting dumb
that's what you've come to expect
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
he's wearing your clothes
head down to toes a reaction to you
you say you know what he did
but you idiot kid
you don't have a clue
sometimes they just get caught in the eye
you're pulling him through
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
now on the bus
nearly touching this dirty retreat
falling out 6th and powell a dead sweat in my teeth
gonna walk walk walk
four more blocks plus the one in my brain
down downstairs to the man
he's gonna make it all OK
i can't beat myself
i can't beat myself
and i don't want to talk
i'm taking the cure so i can be quiet
wherever i want
so leave me alone
you ought to be proud that i'm getting good marks
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
needle in the hay
Friday, July 21, 2006
In defense of bashing M. Night Shyamalan.
I'm sure you are all sick of hearing my rants against M. Night Shyamalan. Yes, you know I think he's been downhill since Signs (Signs included, and I don't just mean a slight decrease of quality, he's crashed into the fucking mountain). Yes, you know the Sixth Sense is slow (and not the Terence Malick good kind of slow but slow as in lacking dramatic tension), ponderous, and cheap thrill scary until the final twist where you say, that doesn't make up for the suckiness of the rest of the movie. It is what it is, a twist. For a better example on how to use a twist ending see Unbreakable (his only good film, and a great one at that) there is a twist in which the story that preceeded it is cast in a new light. The twist makes it a different movie, a better one. And since most of the people who read this blog are out here in Idaho, I imagine this will come as no surprise to the two (maybe three) other people who read this thing.
Regardless, the reason for this is I wish to write a response to two (yes, two) articles I have read in the "prestigious" village voice and Slate.com both titled "in defense of M. Night Shyamalan. I thought to myself, why does he deserve a defense? What has he done to warrant this kind of heedless admiration from a publication as notoriously cynically impossible-to-please as the village voice? I'm sure you will all roll your eyes at this comparison but when Revenge of the Sith came out, even people who loved the movie went out of their way to tear George Lucas a new one (except for A.O. Scott of the New York Times, he's a certifiable hero). Since I've been basically writing a long defense of George Lucas article ever since this blog began, I need to point out that Lucas (and countless other filmmakers) have done what Shyamalan's done. Except they (Lucas etc) celebrate the sharing of their myths. Shyamalan celebrates himself as the creator of them. For further evidence, anyone who doubts Lucas as a director obviously watch Star Wars. But pay important attention to THX-1138 and American Graffiti as examples of a director who can impress a distinct visual style on two very different works of film.
Anyway, before I try to stuff 8 billion blog entries into one. Let me present some of the "evidence" in the Slate.com article and then present a few counterpoints to these claims.
"But Shyamalan's missteps have been interesting, his mistakes worth a second look, and his obsession with the integrity of his own artistic visions, however irritating, has distinguished him from nearly all his young-Hollywood competitors."
Ross Douthat (the writer) makes a fair point that a bloated ego and incomparable self love don't necessarily equal a filmmaker without vision, talent, or intelligence. My response to that is, narcissism does hurt a filmmaker when he allows his talent to become a showcase for it. His films become an excuse for his greatness, as Shyamalan's films do, not the passion that inspired them . Examine how his twists talk down to the audience, it becomes a sadistic game of simultaneously egging the audience on to figure it out by promising one and then slapping them down when you pull the rug out from under them with the twists of all twists. When this happens, your twists are the story and there is nothing else to the movie worth watching. Not exactly the mark of a good storyteller as Shyamalan wishes the masses to proclaim him. Shyamalan gets off on deception, on proving he can out wit his audience with trick-less tricks. If David Blaine were a filmmaker, he's be Night's best bud. But twists aren't the only problem with his films, there are more sinister forces at work here defending his garbage. Check this one out...
"It's worth comparing Shyamalan's career choices, for instance, with those of Bryan Singer...Singer has essentially reinvented himself as a director of comic-book blockbusters, a man to be trusted with massive budgets and well-known franchises. He's been making movies for the studios, in other words, instead of doing what Shyamalan has tried to do—which is to persuade the studios to make movies for him."
"But this path comes with a price. You find yourself making sequels and franchise pictures rather than finding (or writing) new and unusual stories of your own...Shyamalan, by contrast, doesn't make sequels or franchises (he turned down a chance to script Indiana Jones IV). He doesn't adapt Dan Brown best sellers, or Robert Ludlum potboilers, or Disney theme-park rides. He doesn't rely on CGI, or even use it much."
I don't know wear to begin with this shit. First of all, Douthat calls Gore Verbinski versatile and talented. I guess that's how well you can gauge his abilitiy to judge talent. Second of all, just because you come up with original stories, doesn't mean they are any good. They can suck just as much or more than comic books or adaptations. I'm not bemoaning Shyamalan for sticking to his own material (we need more of it these days) I just think it's a massive stretch to ultimately label every thing that pops out of his brain gold. Shyamalan may write original screenplays, but he definitely follows a formula that's as tried and true as any brand name (in fact his films do come with a brand-name, ever notice his name above the goddamn title?) And this goes far beyond the twist ending bullshit I talked about earlier. All of his films are about ordinary men over come with some sort of inconceivable grief, who, through the power of the supernatural (and Shyamalan's self proclaimed story telling brilliance) find their way back to redemption and learn how to be better men through an acceptance of faith and belief. A certain kind of creepy christian domination is certainly none-too-subtle in some of his films, no wonder he and Mel got along so well. Now I understand that there is such a thing as a common theme uniting a director's body of work, but there is a serious difference between that and telling the same goddamn story every single time. Shyamalan's films don't represent a constant drive to understand the human condition, they represent a filmmaker high on his own gas, unable to come up with anything else. If you notice, nothing different ever happens to that thematic line. He never strives for a variation on it, he's content with setting em up and knocking em down every single time. I say that impulse, rather than a willingness to work with someone else's material indicates a death of originality. Shyamalan sold out to his own shit a long time ago. Also I believe the reason Shyamalan sticks to his own scripts all the time is because he doesn't think another writer is capable of topping or even countering his vision of cinematic prowess. Also, a personal note, if I hear one more so-called film theorist proclaim someone a genius because he or she doesn't use CGI. I'll let you fill in that blank.
"Shyamalan seems to be aiming for something, amid our summers of high-grossing superhero movies and our winters of little-seen Oscar-bait projects, that's increasingly rare these days: a marriage of entertainment and art, of mass-market tastes and elite sensibilities... So, Shyamalan deserves credit, despite his vanity and his missteps—not because he's succeeding, necessarily, but because he's willing to keep trying and unwilling to take his place with those timid, highly compensated directors who know neither victory nor defeat."
It's interesting how certain critics foam at the mouth when they get the ability to trash a film by Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, or even someone like Steven Spielberg. Because those are three directors (among others), who never make boring films. They always have a certain creative stamp that bears the mark of someone who is always exploring, always pushing the limits of his or her talents. And while crash and burn they sometimes do, I have yet to see a collection of articles such as these making an attempt to justify these failures. They often use the films they hate as impetus to suggest that "this" is proof that these directors never had any talent to begin with, or have subtly lost it along the way. People let Shyamalan off the hook with the greatest of ease. Possibly because unlike Lee and Stone, Shyamalan never says anything that pisses people off the way those two do. But beyond that, it's the one part of the Slate article, that I can't figure out. Why do people let Shyamalan off with such an easy pass when his movies have so obviously sucked the past couple of years? In the words of Elliott Smith, I don't think I'm ever gonna figure it out.
P.S. I wrote most of this while watching The Thin Red Line, which only added to my venom. People call Shyamalan a born filmmaker, no, Terence Malick is a born filmmaker. It's not even worth a comparison, but I need a good dose of Malick to offset this Shyamalanonsense. But you should all watch The Thin Red Line. It's fucking amazing.
Here is the slate article. Check it out if you feel I mis-represented it.
That's about enough...
"I need some sleep
Time to put the old horse down
I'm in too deep
And the wheels keep spinning 'round
Everyone says I'm getting' down too low
Everyone says you just gotta let it go
You just gotta let it go
You just gotta let it go
You just gotta let it go"
Regardless, the reason for this is I wish to write a response to two (yes, two) articles I have read in the "prestigious" village voice and Slate.com both titled "in defense of M. Night Shyamalan. I thought to myself, why does he deserve a defense? What has he done to warrant this kind of heedless admiration from a publication as notoriously cynically impossible-to-please as the village voice? I'm sure you will all roll your eyes at this comparison but when Revenge of the Sith came out, even people who loved the movie went out of their way to tear George Lucas a new one (except for A.O. Scott of the New York Times, he's a certifiable hero). Since I've been basically writing a long defense of George Lucas article ever since this blog began, I need to point out that Lucas (and countless other filmmakers) have done what Shyamalan's done. Except they (Lucas etc) celebrate the sharing of their myths. Shyamalan celebrates himself as the creator of them. For further evidence, anyone who doubts Lucas as a director obviously watch Star Wars. But pay important attention to THX-1138 and American Graffiti as examples of a director who can impress a distinct visual style on two very different works of film.
Anyway, before I try to stuff 8 billion blog entries into one. Let me present some of the "evidence" in the Slate.com article and then present a few counterpoints to these claims.
"But Shyamalan's missteps have been interesting, his mistakes worth a second look, and his obsession with the integrity of his own artistic visions, however irritating, has distinguished him from nearly all his young-Hollywood competitors."
Ross Douthat (the writer) makes a fair point that a bloated ego and incomparable self love don't necessarily equal a filmmaker without vision, talent, or intelligence. My response to that is, narcissism does hurt a filmmaker when he allows his talent to become a showcase for it. His films become an excuse for his greatness, as Shyamalan's films do, not the passion that inspired them . Examine how his twists talk down to the audience, it becomes a sadistic game of simultaneously egging the audience on to figure it out by promising one and then slapping them down when you pull the rug out from under them with the twists of all twists. When this happens, your twists are the story and there is nothing else to the movie worth watching. Not exactly the mark of a good storyteller as Shyamalan wishes the masses to proclaim him. Shyamalan gets off on deception, on proving he can out wit his audience with trick-less tricks. If David Blaine were a filmmaker, he's be Night's best bud. But twists aren't the only problem with his films, there are more sinister forces at work here defending his garbage. Check this one out...
"It's worth comparing Shyamalan's career choices, for instance, with those of Bryan Singer...Singer has essentially reinvented himself as a director of comic-book blockbusters, a man to be trusted with massive budgets and well-known franchises. He's been making movies for the studios, in other words, instead of doing what Shyamalan has tried to do—which is to persuade the studios to make movies for him."
"But this path comes with a price. You find yourself making sequels and franchise pictures rather than finding (or writing) new and unusual stories of your own...Shyamalan, by contrast, doesn't make sequels or franchises (he turned down a chance to script Indiana Jones IV). He doesn't adapt Dan Brown best sellers, or Robert Ludlum potboilers, or Disney theme-park rides. He doesn't rely on CGI, or even use it much."
I don't know wear to begin with this shit. First of all, Douthat calls Gore Verbinski versatile and talented. I guess that's how well you can gauge his abilitiy to judge talent. Second of all, just because you come up with original stories, doesn't mean they are any good. They can suck just as much or more than comic books or adaptations. I'm not bemoaning Shyamalan for sticking to his own material (we need more of it these days) I just think it's a massive stretch to ultimately label every thing that pops out of his brain gold. Shyamalan may write original screenplays, but he definitely follows a formula that's as tried and true as any brand name (in fact his films do come with a brand-name, ever notice his name above the goddamn title?) And this goes far beyond the twist ending bullshit I talked about earlier. All of his films are about ordinary men over come with some sort of inconceivable grief, who, through the power of the supernatural (and Shyamalan's self proclaimed story telling brilliance) find their way back to redemption and learn how to be better men through an acceptance of faith and belief. A certain kind of creepy christian domination is certainly none-too-subtle in some of his films, no wonder he and Mel got along so well. Now I understand that there is such a thing as a common theme uniting a director's body of work, but there is a serious difference between that and telling the same goddamn story every single time. Shyamalan's films don't represent a constant drive to understand the human condition, they represent a filmmaker high on his own gas, unable to come up with anything else. If you notice, nothing different ever happens to that thematic line. He never strives for a variation on it, he's content with setting em up and knocking em down every single time. I say that impulse, rather than a willingness to work with someone else's material indicates a death of originality. Shyamalan sold out to his own shit a long time ago. Also I believe the reason Shyamalan sticks to his own scripts all the time is because he doesn't think another writer is capable of topping or even countering his vision of cinematic prowess. Also, a personal note, if I hear one more so-called film theorist proclaim someone a genius because he or she doesn't use CGI. I'll let you fill in that blank.
"Shyamalan seems to be aiming for something, amid our summers of high-grossing superhero movies and our winters of little-seen Oscar-bait projects, that's increasingly rare these days: a marriage of entertainment and art, of mass-market tastes and elite sensibilities... So, Shyamalan deserves credit, despite his vanity and his missteps—not because he's succeeding, necessarily, but because he's willing to keep trying and unwilling to take his place with those timid, highly compensated directors who know neither victory nor defeat."
It's interesting how certain critics foam at the mouth when they get the ability to trash a film by Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, or even someone like Steven Spielberg. Because those are three directors (among others), who never make boring films. They always have a certain creative stamp that bears the mark of someone who is always exploring, always pushing the limits of his or her talents. And while crash and burn they sometimes do, I have yet to see a collection of articles such as these making an attempt to justify these failures. They often use the films they hate as impetus to suggest that "this" is proof that these directors never had any talent to begin with, or have subtly lost it along the way. People let Shyamalan off the hook with the greatest of ease. Possibly because unlike Lee and Stone, Shyamalan never says anything that pisses people off the way those two do. But beyond that, it's the one part of the Slate article, that I can't figure out. Why do people let Shyamalan off with such an easy pass when his movies have so obviously sucked the past couple of years? In the words of Elliott Smith, I don't think I'm ever gonna figure it out.
P.S. I wrote most of this while watching The Thin Red Line, which only added to my venom. People call Shyamalan a born filmmaker, no, Terence Malick is a born filmmaker. It's not even worth a comparison, but I need a good dose of Malick to offset this Shyamalanonsense. But you should all watch The Thin Red Line. It's fucking amazing.
Here is the slate article. Check it out if you feel I mis-represented it.
That's about enough...
"I need some sleep
Time to put the old horse down
I'm in too deep
And the wheels keep spinning 'round
Everyone says I'm getting' down too low
Everyone says you just gotta let it go
You just gotta let it go
You just gotta let it go
You just gotta let it go"
Monday, July 17, 2006
I am the man who heard voices
So getting back to my initial frets about the Israel/Hezbollah (Hizbollah, I've seen it spelled both ways) conflict. I should probably amend that to include Hamas/Palestine/and Lebanon, and if I really wanted to break out the big guns, I would throw in Syria and Iran, the boogermen.
I'm no middle eastern expert, I'm sure everything I say has been said better and more eloquently by somebody else out there in the world wide web. I'm sure people opposing and agreeing with me would tear me down in a second for my naive and bias views.
With that all out of the way, this concerns me because the neocons seem to dusting off (or reloading) their torches and pitchforks, calling for the heads of the leaders of Syria and Iran. Well, I shouldn't say they are going to be using those weapons, they will call on some poor uneducated minority to do that. And if they can't get them, they'll just go with the white supremacists. Or this. Either way, the people who want this war will be doing everything in their power to avoid fighting it.
Check out Glen Greenwald's blog. In his words he makes an extremely relevant point about the lack of honest debate about the Israeli lobby influence over U.S. Foreign policies. Definitely check out the washington post article he links to, it's long, but the detailing in it of the inner workings of AIPAC and other organizations is pretty revealing. Anyway, Greenwald's point is that if anybody tries to question Israeli policy, they are usually labeled anti-semites or coupled with some other extremist group. The lack of honest debate has led this country down some really dark paths in the past (Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq). Engaging in a new conflict with anybody and everybody that poses a threat to Israel seems like another aggravatingly weak justification for war that some of these assholes seem to be drooling for.
It seems to me that Hezbollah and Hamas are capable of extreme violent actions, considering they struck first. Israel is right up there with them, everybody is capable of extremes and sometimes peaceful democracies like Israel act out of a violent desire to swing their military might and prove their worth to the rest of the world. Why we excuse this kind of foolhardy aggression is beyond me, other than only to say we participate in the same kind of cowboy macho bull shit. See, it's the male gender's fault, we should attack them, I mean us. I don't wish to slant this in anyway, but both sides are at fault. It's just that Israel seems to be goading us into a full on cluster fuck. That really sticks in my crawl.
Hopefully the voices of reason will outweigh the hawks, and with Iraq looking the way it is now, I can't believe there are people out there who want to spread this all the way around the rest of the middle east. Also, to all the Gingriches and Kristols out there, don't give me this shit about the sacred mission of protecting Israel human life. I have one word for you, Africa, well maybe another one, oil. Maybe that's for another post, to be continued.
The new Night movie comes out on friday, and from all forecasts, it's looking pretty shitty. I don't want to sound like an asshole and say something like I want him to fail (i save that bile for Eli Roth and Brett Ratner, maybe Paul Haggis now). It's just that he's been obsessed with his own brand ever since his shit took off. He's openly admitted he's out to start pop culture phenomenons. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that pop-culture's job not some wannabe Spielberg/Hitchcock mis-mash. Also I think it's really interesting that he has all but ignored his first two films (Wide Awake and Praying With Anger) two religious comedies that didn't feature twists endings or pretentious supernatural allegories. I think the reason behind that is they didn't make any money. That's my other big problem with him, he equates his worth as a filmmaker with how much money they bring in. He could have directed Battlefield Earth and as long as it made money, he would have thought it was this century's citizen kane. It will be interesting to see how Lady in the Water does, hopefully it will be such a colossal crash and burn that Night will re-think his career and maybe stop making movies about how brilliant he is.
I might try to see it because I think Night's career has been very interesting in how each movie has gotten progressively worse (except Unbreakable, good shit) and just when I thought he couldn't get enough of his own hubris, he tops himself, it's kind of like how not to be a filmmaker, I should pay attention. I guess all I can say for him is that, like the Mel Gibson character in his mean, facist religious movie Signs, Night is not beyond redemption. He probably doesn't want it though, he's an asshole.
That's it for now, see ya in the funny pages.
"I'm a connoisseur of roads. I've been tasting roads my whole life.
This road will never end. It probably goes all around the world."
I'm no middle eastern expert, I'm sure everything I say has been said better and more eloquently by somebody else out there in the world wide web. I'm sure people opposing and agreeing with me would tear me down in a second for my naive and bias views.
With that all out of the way, this concerns me because the neocons seem to dusting off (or reloading) their torches and pitchforks, calling for the heads of the leaders of Syria and Iran. Well, I shouldn't say they are going to be using those weapons, they will call on some poor uneducated minority to do that. And if they can't get them, they'll just go with the white supremacists. Or this. Either way, the people who want this war will be doing everything in their power to avoid fighting it.
Check out Glen Greenwald's blog. In his words he makes an extremely relevant point about the lack of honest debate about the Israeli lobby influence over U.S. Foreign policies. Definitely check out the washington post article he links to, it's long, but the detailing in it of the inner workings of AIPAC and other organizations is pretty revealing. Anyway, Greenwald's point is that if anybody tries to question Israeli policy, they are usually labeled anti-semites or coupled with some other extremist group. The lack of honest debate has led this country down some really dark paths in the past (Iraq, Iraq, and Iraq). Engaging in a new conflict with anybody and everybody that poses a threat to Israel seems like another aggravatingly weak justification for war that some of these assholes seem to be drooling for.
It seems to me that Hezbollah and Hamas are capable of extreme violent actions, considering they struck first. Israel is right up there with them, everybody is capable of extremes and sometimes peaceful democracies like Israel act out of a violent desire to swing their military might and prove their worth to the rest of the world. Why we excuse this kind of foolhardy aggression is beyond me, other than only to say we participate in the same kind of cowboy macho bull shit. See, it's the male gender's fault, we should attack them, I mean us. I don't wish to slant this in anyway, but both sides are at fault. It's just that Israel seems to be goading us into a full on cluster fuck. That really sticks in my crawl.
Hopefully the voices of reason will outweigh the hawks, and with Iraq looking the way it is now, I can't believe there are people out there who want to spread this all the way around the rest of the middle east. Also, to all the Gingriches and Kristols out there, don't give me this shit about the sacred mission of protecting Israel human life. I have one word for you, Africa, well maybe another one, oil. Maybe that's for another post, to be continued.
The new Night movie comes out on friday, and from all forecasts, it's looking pretty shitty. I don't want to sound like an asshole and say something like I want him to fail (i save that bile for Eli Roth and Brett Ratner, maybe Paul Haggis now). It's just that he's been obsessed with his own brand ever since his shit took off. He's openly admitted he's out to start pop culture phenomenons. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that pop-culture's job not some wannabe Spielberg/Hitchcock mis-mash. Also I think it's really interesting that he has all but ignored his first two films (Wide Awake and Praying With Anger) two religious comedies that didn't feature twists endings or pretentious supernatural allegories. I think the reason behind that is they didn't make any money. That's my other big problem with him, he equates his worth as a filmmaker with how much money they bring in. He could have directed Battlefield Earth and as long as it made money, he would have thought it was this century's citizen kane. It will be interesting to see how Lady in the Water does, hopefully it will be such a colossal crash and burn that Night will re-think his career and maybe stop making movies about how brilliant he is.
I might try to see it because I think Night's career has been very interesting in how each movie has gotten progressively worse (except Unbreakable, good shit) and just when I thought he couldn't get enough of his own hubris, he tops himself, it's kind of like how not to be a filmmaker, I should pay attention. I guess all I can say for him is that, like the Mel Gibson character in his mean, facist religious movie Signs, Night is not beyond redemption. He probably doesn't want it though, he's an asshole.
That's it for now, see ya in the funny pages.
"I'm a connoisseur of roads. I've been tasting roads my whole life.
This road will never end. It probably goes all around the world."
Sunday, July 16, 2006
A Skin Too Few
A pretty interesting idea from a poet named Nick Drake.
Live Air by Nick Drake
The deserted second hand record exchange;
Just a bald guy and his ponytail
Guarding the memory palace of dead vinyl;
Multiple copies of Rumours and Blue
And the Carpenters' Greatest Hits in brown and gold;
Pink Moon's playing on the sound system,
Nick Drake's last LP; soon he would die
On the night Lord Lucan disappeared, Miss World
Lost her crown as an unmarried mother,
And the sun's November mercury slipped
Off the indigo horizon at 4.04 pm...
I browse the bins, and luckily I find
Fruit Tree, the deleted posthumous box set -
Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, Pink Moon;
Three big black discs, acetate ammonites
Coded for ancient technology.
I offer Bela Lugosi my credit card;
He stares at the name, my face, then up
To the shivering strip light and the obscure ceiling
Where sound waves collide with dust to conjure
Nick's sad ghost in the live air, whispering:
Know that I love you, know that I care,
Know that I see you, know I'm not there
Then the song fades to recorded silence -
The hushed acoustic of his after-life -
Before the static, the perpetual heart-beat trip
Round the record's inevitable zero...
Lugosi looks from the dark vacancy,
The tangled wires, the drifting motes
In the creaky auditorium of dust
Where the ghost had sung and disappeared; he grins;
"Oh man, oh man, I thought you were dead..."
Right on.
Live Air by Nick Drake
The deserted second hand record exchange;
Just a bald guy and his ponytail
Guarding the memory palace of dead vinyl;
Multiple copies of Rumours and Blue
And the Carpenters' Greatest Hits in brown and gold;
Pink Moon's playing on the sound system,
Nick Drake's last LP; soon he would die
On the night Lord Lucan disappeared, Miss World
Lost her crown as an unmarried mother,
And the sun's November mercury slipped
Off the indigo horizon at 4.04 pm...
I browse the bins, and luckily I find
Fruit Tree, the deleted posthumous box set -
Five Leaves Left, Bryter Layter, Pink Moon;
Three big black discs, acetate ammonites
Coded for ancient technology.
I offer Bela Lugosi my credit card;
He stares at the name, my face, then up
To the shivering strip light and the obscure ceiling
Where sound waves collide with dust to conjure
Nick's sad ghost in the live air, whispering:
Know that I love you, know that I care,
Know that I see you, know I'm not there
Then the song fades to recorded silence -
The hushed acoustic of his after-life -
Before the static, the perpetual heart-beat trip
Round the record's inevitable zero...
Lugosi looks from the dark vacancy,
The tangled wires, the drifting motes
In the creaky auditorium of dust
Where the ghost had sung and disappeared; he grins;
"Oh man, oh man, I thought you were dead..."
Right on.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Go Haunt Someone Else
Very exciting news, Kevin Devine's new single is up. Listen to it here.
You have to click on Show #99 to here it. It's the first song in the program, you shan't be dissappointed.
He has a new album coming out in October, kind of bummed only because I thought it was coming out in August. Dramatic turn of events, I know, but I still, I wanted me my Kevy Devine now. Right now. Anyway, the new single is good. I wish I had a better quality cut of it but he seems to be making an interesting transition to a more traditional method of songwriting. I'm not chastizing him for this in anyway, but I know he signed onto a major label so it will be interesting to see how his DIY style will meld with the whole Major Label thing. He definitely has the smarts and the integrity to withstand whatever creative pressures come with a major label. I say, give 'em hell.
A lot of stuff has been going on recently that's very troubling. I will elaborate on this further, I just need to bulk up my knowledge a little bit more. Plus it's late and I can barely type this post coherently. I am not talking about anything personal, I mean in the area of Global Conflicts, okay I'll just say it. The Israel Lebanon/Gaza thing, it's really starting to get me worried. Anyway I'll let you all sleep on that, sorry, I'm a bastard I know.
Good Night...
"And it's fucked up, fucked up
And this is fucked up, fucked up
This your blind spot, blind spot
It should be obvious, but it's not.
But it isn't, but it isn't."
You have to click on Show #99 to here it. It's the first song in the program, you shan't be dissappointed.
He has a new album coming out in October, kind of bummed only because I thought it was coming out in August. Dramatic turn of events, I know, but I still, I wanted me my Kevy Devine now. Right now. Anyway, the new single is good. I wish I had a better quality cut of it but he seems to be making an interesting transition to a more traditional method of songwriting. I'm not chastizing him for this in anyway, but I know he signed onto a major label so it will be interesting to see how his DIY style will meld with the whole Major Label thing. He definitely has the smarts and the integrity to withstand whatever creative pressures come with a major label. I say, give 'em hell.
A lot of stuff has been going on recently that's very troubling. I will elaborate on this further, I just need to bulk up my knowledge a little bit more. Plus it's late and I can barely type this post coherently. I am not talking about anything personal, I mean in the area of Global Conflicts, okay I'll just say it. The Israel Lebanon/Gaza thing, it's really starting to get me worried. Anyway I'll let you all sleep on that, sorry, I'm a bastard I know.
Good Night...
"And it's fucked up, fucked up
And this is fucked up, fucked up
This your blind spot, blind spot
It should be obvious, but it's not.
But it isn't, but it isn't."
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
I am Jor-El, master of scheduling!
I was watching a new show on mtv called Why Can't I Be You with nate (the new director as he should be called) and a thought occured to me that kind of bummed me out. It had to do with how shallow and harsh we are with each other (don't worry, I'm included in this condemnation.)
This reality show has to do with someone wanting to experience life through somebody else's eyes for a few weeks while MTV makes it all happen and documents it. They in essence become somebody else, as the title indicates. At first I thought this was a step in the right direction for MTV, they were documenting a positive experience in a person's life rather than watching them puke for cash or make out with a stranger in a drunken haze while puking, for cash. In this episode a cheerleader wanted to break down the fear and stereotyping she created around another student who seemed to be following the goth-punk scene or a hybrid of the two if no such singular scene exists. Anyway, the cheerleader initially showed a real commitment to learning about a life she had previously cast off with the greatest of ease. I thought this was a show that would bring people together.
I learned later on in the show that it actually pulls us further apart. I know you are probably all thinking, it's an MTV show, what did you expect. Or that I shouldn't get so worked up about something that's designed to solve a life time of problems in thirty minutes. I agree with you on all that, but bear with me, I don't write in this thing very often.
Anyway, the show, through its various machinations proceeded to suggest that high school can only be survived if you find a particular fad, trend or niche and dedicate yourself to following the strict rules of that group at all costs. But also that human beings (especially teens) are ONLY defined through their exteriors (clothes, hair, piercings, carefully coifed mowhawks). It was interesting to watch the punk girl because that whole act is heavily immersed in notions of anti-conformity, anti-establishment, and anti-everything that's not punk. If they are anti-conformity, then why do they all dress the same? Why are people who are part of the punk scene so easily identifiable as such. They all conform to a set of standards that are just as shallow and surface obsessed as the cheerleading group. And whether they want to admit this or not, they are just as dismissive and judgemental of outsiders as everybody else is of them. What's especially upsetting about this (for the punk kids) is that none of them will look like this in ten years. The style to which they so heavily cling right now will be nothing more than a memory as they quietly sell out like everybody else and adopt a set of standards that will allow them to keep a steady job.
I don't mean to be cynical and I don't mean to direct all my questions towards one particular group. I don't even like using the term punk because it has so many connotations that probably don't apply to what I'm talking about. I might as well start calling them the grunge kids. It's just for the sake of simplicity, it's the best way to describe the group I saw on this show.
It upsets me that bright, creative, and passionate kids are stunted like this into defining themselves through such irrelevant and temporary means. It's like nobody wants to take the chance and express something about their personality, they would rather have their clothes do it for them. Maybe I can take comfort in the fact that punks and cheerleaders share the same kinds of anxieties and neuroses that will maybe bring them together when they least expect it. Don't get me wrong, I take no joy in other people having anxiety, I just want them to get together because of it. Stereotyping is probably the easiest thing a person can do, and nothing sucks more for a young mind then trying to figure yourself out while somebody else (or yourself) has already got you pegged. When people act in a way they think they SHOULD be acting, they never live up and it can be kind of a drag.
I don't know how this ends, I don't really have any solutions. I hope this all even makes sense, I guess I just hope everybody finds their way. That's what I call a glib, self-serving solution to everyone's problems. I knew I had it in me.
"Stop light plays its part so
I would say you've got a part.
What's your part? Who you are.
You are who who you are."
This reality show has to do with someone wanting to experience life through somebody else's eyes for a few weeks while MTV makes it all happen and documents it. They in essence become somebody else, as the title indicates. At first I thought this was a step in the right direction for MTV, they were documenting a positive experience in a person's life rather than watching them puke for cash or make out with a stranger in a drunken haze while puking, for cash. In this episode a cheerleader wanted to break down the fear and stereotyping she created around another student who seemed to be following the goth-punk scene or a hybrid of the two if no such singular scene exists. Anyway, the cheerleader initially showed a real commitment to learning about a life she had previously cast off with the greatest of ease. I thought this was a show that would bring people together.
I learned later on in the show that it actually pulls us further apart. I know you are probably all thinking, it's an MTV show, what did you expect. Or that I shouldn't get so worked up about something that's designed to solve a life time of problems in thirty minutes. I agree with you on all that, but bear with me, I don't write in this thing very often.
Anyway, the show, through its various machinations proceeded to suggest that high school can only be survived if you find a particular fad, trend or niche and dedicate yourself to following the strict rules of that group at all costs. But also that human beings (especially teens) are ONLY defined through their exteriors (clothes, hair, piercings, carefully coifed mowhawks). It was interesting to watch the punk girl because that whole act is heavily immersed in notions of anti-conformity, anti-establishment, and anti-everything that's not punk. If they are anti-conformity, then why do they all dress the same? Why are people who are part of the punk scene so easily identifiable as such. They all conform to a set of standards that are just as shallow and surface obsessed as the cheerleading group. And whether they want to admit this or not, they are just as dismissive and judgemental of outsiders as everybody else is of them. What's especially upsetting about this (for the punk kids) is that none of them will look like this in ten years. The style to which they so heavily cling right now will be nothing more than a memory as they quietly sell out like everybody else and adopt a set of standards that will allow them to keep a steady job.
I don't mean to be cynical and I don't mean to direct all my questions towards one particular group. I don't even like using the term punk because it has so many connotations that probably don't apply to what I'm talking about. I might as well start calling them the grunge kids. It's just for the sake of simplicity, it's the best way to describe the group I saw on this show.
It upsets me that bright, creative, and passionate kids are stunted like this into defining themselves through such irrelevant and temporary means. It's like nobody wants to take the chance and express something about their personality, they would rather have their clothes do it for them. Maybe I can take comfort in the fact that punks and cheerleaders share the same kinds of anxieties and neuroses that will maybe bring them together when they least expect it. Don't get me wrong, I take no joy in other people having anxiety, I just want them to get together because of it. Stereotyping is probably the easiest thing a person can do, and nothing sucks more for a young mind then trying to figure yourself out while somebody else (or yourself) has already got you pegged. When people act in a way they think they SHOULD be acting, they never live up and it can be kind of a drag.
I don't know how this ends, I don't really have any solutions. I hope this all even makes sense, I guess I just hope everybody finds their way. That's what I call a glib, self-serving solution to everyone's problems. I knew I had it in me.
"Stop light plays its part so
I would say you've got a part.
What's your part? Who you are.
You are who who you are."
Monday, July 03, 2006
Here's to the state of mississippi
I found this on the Nation website. It's a speech Frederick Douglas gave on July 4th 1852.
Granted, in this context he is specifically talking about slavery.
I still feel a lot of what is uttered in this speech applies today regardless of the specifics.
Happy 4th of July...
WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE 4TH OF JULY
by Frederick Douglas
This...is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom.... It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act.... Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance.... The principles contained in [the Declaration of Independence] are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost....
Fellow-citizens--Pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?... Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions!... But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.... This Fourth of July is yours, not mine....
I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future....
What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy--a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the every-day practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival....
Fellow-citizens, I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing and a byword to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement; the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice....
Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.... While drawing encouragement from the "Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference.... A change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe.... Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.... No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light.
Granted, in this context he is specifically talking about slavery.
I still feel a lot of what is uttered in this speech applies today regardless of the specifics.
Happy 4th of July...
WHAT TO THE SLAVE IS THE 4TH OF JULY
by Frederick Douglas
This...is the birthday of your National Independence, and of your political freedom.... It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act.... Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance.... The principles contained in [the Declaration of Independence] are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost....
Fellow-citizens--Pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us?... Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions!... But, such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me.... This Fourth of July is yours, not mine....
I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there, identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future....
What to the American slave is your Fourth of July? I answer, a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy--a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.
Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the every-day practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival....
Fellow-citizens, I will not enlarge further on your national inconsistencies. The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad; it corrupts your politicians at home. It saps the foundation of religion; it makes your name a hissing and a byword to a mocking earth. It is the antagonistic force in your government, the only thing that seriously disturbs and endangers your union. It fetters your progress; it is the enemy of improvement; the deadly foe of education; it fosters pride; it breeds insolence; it promotes vice....
Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.... While drawing encouragement from the "Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference.... A change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe.... Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.... No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Forgive me
Forgive me, this is a little bit of self indulgence here.
Actually it's a big bit of self-indulgence.
About to leave for idaho, lots of strands swirling around in the old coconut.
There's one in particular I can't really shake.
This song is for that strand. It's cheesey I know, but dammit, at least I know it.
It's a new dashboard song, that pretty much says it all...
She smiled in a big way
The way a girl like that smiles
When the world is hers. And she held your eyes
Out in the breezeway, down by the shore
In the lazy summer
And she pulled you in
And she bit your lip
And she made you hers
She looked deep into you as you lay together
Quiet in the grasp of dusk and summer
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
When you only had barely enough to hang on
And she combed your hair
And she kissed your teeth
And she made you better than you’d been before
And she told you bad things that you wished you could change
In the lazy summer
And she told you, laughing down to her core
So she would not cry
And she lay in your lap as she said
“Nobody here can live forever
Quiet in the grasp of dusk and summer.”
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
When you only had barely enough to hang on
She said “No one is alone the way you are alone.”
And you held her looser than you would’ve if you ever could’ve known
Some things tie your life together
With slender threads and things to treasure
Days like that should last and last and last
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
When you only have barely enough of her to hang on
Hang on
Hang on
Hang on
Actually it's a big bit of self-indulgence.
About to leave for idaho, lots of strands swirling around in the old coconut.
There's one in particular I can't really shake.
This song is for that strand. It's cheesey I know, but dammit, at least I know it.
It's a new dashboard song, that pretty much says it all...
She smiled in a big way
The way a girl like that smiles
When the world is hers. And she held your eyes
Out in the breezeway, down by the shore
In the lazy summer
And she pulled you in
And she bit your lip
And she made you hers
She looked deep into you as you lay together
Quiet in the grasp of dusk and summer
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
When you only had barely enough to hang on
And she combed your hair
And she kissed your teeth
And she made you better than you’d been before
And she told you bad things that you wished you could change
In the lazy summer
And she told you, laughing down to her core
So she would not cry
And she lay in your lap as she said
“Nobody here can live forever
Quiet in the grasp of dusk and summer.”
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
When you only had barely enough to hang on
She said “No one is alone the way you are alone.”
And you held her looser than you would’ve if you ever could’ve known
Some things tie your life together
With slender threads and things to treasure
Days like that should last and last and last
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
But you’ve already lost
When you only have barely enough of her to hang on
Hang on
Hang on
Hang on
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Here is his trying to catch a fly ball with an oven mitt!
Heard this on aintitcool.com and they linked it to a website called tv week.
Sounds pretty legitimate...
Three years after Fox canceled the show, Matt Groening's "Futurama" will resume production for a 13-episode run on Comedy Central. The new episodes will be added to the network's library of 72 "Futurama" episodes previously licensed from 20th Century Fox Television. Voice talent Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio will return for the new episodes, which will debut in 2008.
"There is a deep and passionate fan base for this intelligent and very funny show that matches perfectly with our audience and it is great that we can offer them not just the existing library, but something they've never seen as well," said David Bernath, senior VP, programming, Comedy Central.
"Futurama" marks the third Fox project revived by basic cable in recent years. New episodes of "Greg the Bunny" are being ordered by IFC, and Fox resurrected "Family Guy" after the series found success on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
Long live the king.
Sounds pretty legitimate...
Three years after Fox canceled the show, Matt Groening's "Futurama" will resume production for a 13-episode run on Comedy Central. The new episodes will be added to the network's library of 72 "Futurama" episodes previously licensed from 20th Century Fox Television. Voice talent Billy West, Katey Sagal and John DiMaggio will return for the new episodes, which will debut in 2008.
"There is a deep and passionate fan base for this intelligent and very funny show that matches perfectly with our audience and it is great that we can offer them not just the existing library, but something they've never seen as well," said David Bernath, senior VP, programming, Comedy Central.
"Futurama" marks the third Fox project revived by basic cable in recent years. New episodes of "Greg the Bunny" are being ordered by IFC, and Fox resurrected "Family Guy" after the series found success on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim.
Long live the king.
Monday, June 05, 2006
It's a worldwide suicide.
An Inconvenient Truth once again proves my theorem that movies can be about so much more than Vaugniston or Brangelina. I don't know why I picked those two because neither brad pitt or angelina jolie have a movie out, but you know what I mean. Movies have the power to do exactly what they set out to do, move people. There's something exhilirating about feeling that collective vibe permeate throughout a screening room when everybody realizes they've just been empowered. Sure it's cheesey and maybe it's a little naive, but when you feel it, you'll know.
I felt that last night and as shocking, sobering, and almost defeatist as the movie may seem, you don't walk out of the theatre that way. You'll shake your head at the astonishing irresponsibility of certain administrations, you'll wonder how you could have possibly ignored such a calamatious situation. But you won't walk out of the theatre feeling lost, you know exactly what to do. And ignore all the partisan crap you might read about the movie, I've heard the new york post review is particularly bilious and I also read that a fox news commentator compared Gore to Goebbels (if you think about it hard enough your head might explode). All I know is the facts are indesputable, the truth is right there and frankly I don't really care anymore who is to blame. Even though I think I know who is to blame (us), that doesn't matter any more. Trying to parcel out blame turns this into a red state blue state he said she said bullshit contest that won't amount to much of anything. We just need to fix this shit. Now.
With that being said, go see the movie, let everyone know what you think. It is important, because one thing the movie highlighted that I had somehow forgotten was that this is not just a problem for humanity. This is a problem for every form of species on the planet, and some of these ever so delicate ecological systems depend on the tiniest of organisms to function properly. The damage being done right now will directly affect those systems for the negative, and everybody knows, we've already fucked the animals over enough. We at least owe this to them. Point being in all seriousness, this is for the planet not just for us.
And for those of you who didn't think Gore was funny, did you not see futurama? Get with the program here...
Everybody do something.
Meanwhile, I got something from e.v. and mike mcC
"Medals on a wooden mantle. Next to a handsome face.
That the president took for granted.
Writing checks that others pay.
And in all the madness. Thought becomes numb and naive.
So much to talk about. Nothing for to say."
"Searching hope, I'm shown the way to run straight
Pursuing the greater way for all human light.
How I choose to feel is how I am.
I will not lose my faith
It's an inside job today
Holding on, the light of night
On my knees to rise and fix my broken soul
Again."
I felt that last night and as shocking, sobering, and almost defeatist as the movie may seem, you don't walk out of the theatre that way. You'll shake your head at the astonishing irresponsibility of certain administrations, you'll wonder how you could have possibly ignored such a calamatious situation. But you won't walk out of the theatre feeling lost, you know exactly what to do. And ignore all the partisan crap you might read about the movie, I've heard the new york post review is particularly bilious and I also read that a fox news commentator compared Gore to Goebbels (if you think about it hard enough your head might explode). All I know is the facts are indesputable, the truth is right there and frankly I don't really care anymore who is to blame. Even though I think I know who is to blame (us), that doesn't matter any more. Trying to parcel out blame turns this into a red state blue state he said she said bullshit contest that won't amount to much of anything. We just need to fix this shit. Now.
With that being said, go see the movie, let everyone know what you think. It is important, because one thing the movie highlighted that I had somehow forgotten was that this is not just a problem for humanity. This is a problem for every form of species on the planet, and some of these ever so delicate ecological systems depend on the tiniest of organisms to function properly. The damage being done right now will directly affect those systems for the negative, and everybody knows, we've already fucked the animals over enough. We at least owe this to them. Point being in all seriousness, this is for the planet not just for us.
And for those of you who didn't think Gore was funny, did you not see futurama? Get with the program here...
Everybody do something.
Meanwhile, I got something from e.v. and mike mcC
"Medals on a wooden mantle. Next to a handsome face.
That the president took for granted.
Writing checks that others pay.
And in all the madness. Thought becomes numb and naive.
So much to talk about. Nothing for to say."
"Searching hope, I'm shown the way to run straight
Pursuing the greater way for all human light.
How I choose to feel is how I am.
I will not lose my faith
It's an inside job today
Holding on, the light of night
On my knees to rise and fix my broken soul
Again."
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
I sincerely apologize for all the trouble I've caused
A couple of things I've been meaning to talk about, forgive me if this entry seems a little bit scatter-brained.
-The Da Vinci Code was not a whole lot of fun. I've avoided the books because I heard they were garbage, but I thought the movie looked fun in that detective code cracking kind of way. Plus they shot at a bunch of really cool locations, I figured it was worth a try to check out and see what all the fuss was about.
The first half of the movie has more exposition than the three movies I'd seen previously combined. Characters seemed to have no purpose other than espousing history and useless knowledge to each other in a zane attempt to understand the situation. It's only when ian mackellan shows up, sorry sir ian mackellan that the movie begins to have any sort of punch to it. Granted it doesn't get better but at least you get the sense there could have been a lot of fun here. The movie's not boring it just sort of plods along in that bad ron howard kind of way, where you feel like a robot could have directed the movie and achieved the same result. I guess I can't say its a shame since I'm tired of the book, tired of hearing about it, hopefully this movie will put the whole thing to bed.
-The new phillip roth book "everyman" is excellent. I liked how compact and precise it is, it really allows roth to explore the main character, in a way that never feels like it is in any kind of service to the plot because there is no plot. And it works because roth weaves character and story together in a way that never feels forced, things happen the way they do in real life, according to this one particular man's actions and motivations. There are some passages in the book about getting old and dying that are damn near heartbreaking. And even though the main character is kind of a prick, his voice brings a kind of pathos that is quite satisfying.
-The song Marker in the Sand is one of the best songs pearl jam has ever written/performed in their long history. I don't know what it is about that song, it's infectious, i just get happy listening to it. I also generally like music that doesn't make me want to move (I don't really have a good answer for why that is by the way) but I want to move when I hear that song. The lyrics are dead on and his voice carries it all the way through. I think its my favorite song off the new album and definitely in the top three right now (I don't know if anything can unseat rearviewmirror so maybe marker is #2).
-Nate's totally right, I just saw X-Men: The Last Stand and I gotta say as low as my expectations were, I'm still bummed by it. I keep going back to three years ago and how exhilirating X2 was and still is. There was something in the way bryan singer weaved together the holy shit moments with a story that resonates because it's character driven. It wasn't about filling parts in between the huge set pieces, he had a story to tell. Brett Ratner on the other hand ignores those impulses or is not capable of them, either way he fucked up royally with X3. Granted there were some moments that me revelling in X-Men geekiness, which I should clarify that I am not an X-men geek because I've never read a single comic and I never watched the cartoon. For some reaon the movies have triggered a special reaction with me for these mutated punks. I think it's because watching them is like watching the 72-10 bulls or a great jazz ensemble. I love the moments when they are allowed to riff and improvise with their powers yet still remain a solid unit. That shit kicks ass. Maybe I look too much into it, or I just want super powers of my own. Anyway, back to the movie, it seemed that in their rush to make this epic and final, a last stand if you will. They sacrificed so much of the story telling that was so prevelant in the first two. Powerful emotions are handled like filler and just when you think a scene is about to reach a dramatic peak, Ratner cuts away to something else. This is basic shit and he just plain sucks at it. Yes the action is cool, but up to a point. Some of it is rather poorly staged and clumsily edited, plus there are only so many times you can watch a character get hurled into the air and rise to their feet without a scratch. The anticipation kind of wears down after a while. Plus someone please explain to me why you take the climactic battle of the x-men trilogy and shoot it in the middle of the night, in the fucking dark? This guy's got a lot of chutzpah, missy.
Two final things that ran through my mind during my viewing of X3 or whatever it's called.
-Episode III is ten times better, a million times better even. It's the be all end all movie for trilogy cappers, X-3 shouldn't even be allowed to lick the dogshit from it's boot-heels.
-I hope somebody one day let's me direct one of these super hero movies. I want to do something really cool with one of them, hopefully they're still popular when I step up to the plate.
Okay, I'm tired, I'm going to bed.
"i am no more
i am not good
i am so sorry
if you misunderstood
i'd make it up
but i cannot
if i am an animal..."
-The Da Vinci Code was not a whole lot of fun. I've avoided the books because I heard they were garbage, but I thought the movie looked fun in that detective code cracking kind of way. Plus they shot at a bunch of really cool locations, I figured it was worth a try to check out and see what all the fuss was about.
The first half of the movie has more exposition than the three movies I'd seen previously combined. Characters seemed to have no purpose other than espousing history and useless knowledge to each other in a zane attempt to understand the situation. It's only when ian mackellan shows up, sorry sir ian mackellan that the movie begins to have any sort of punch to it. Granted it doesn't get better but at least you get the sense there could have been a lot of fun here. The movie's not boring it just sort of plods along in that bad ron howard kind of way, where you feel like a robot could have directed the movie and achieved the same result. I guess I can't say its a shame since I'm tired of the book, tired of hearing about it, hopefully this movie will put the whole thing to bed.
-The new phillip roth book "everyman" is excellent. I liked how compact and precise it is, it really allows roth to explore the main character, in a way that never feels like it is in any kind of service to the plot because there is no plot. And it works because roth weaves character and story together in a way that never feels forced, things happen the way they do in real life, according to this one particular man's actions and motivations. There are some passages in the book about getting old and dying that are damn near heartbreaking. And even though the main character is kind of a prick, his voice brings a kind of pathos that is quite satisfying.
-The song Marker in the Sand is one of the best songs pearl jam has ever written/performed in their long history. I don't know what it is about that song, it's infectious, i just get happy listening to it. I also generally like music that doesn't make me want to move (I don't really have a good answer for why that is by the way) but I want to move when I hear that song. The lyrics are dead on and his voice carries it all the way through. I think its my favorite song off the new album and definitely in the top three right now (I don't know if anything can unseat rearviewmirror so maybe marker is #2).
-Nate's totally right, I just saw X-Men: The Last Stand and I gotta say as low as my expectations were, I'm still bummed by it. I keep going back to three years ago and how exhilirating X2 was and still is. There was something in the way bryan singer weaved together the holy shit moments with a story that resonates because it's character driven. It wasn't about filling parts in between the huge set pieces, he had a story to tell. Brett Ratner on the other hand ignores those impulses or is not capable of them, either way he fucked up royally with X3. Granted there were some moments that me revelling in X-Men geekiness, which I should clarify that I am not an X-men geek because I've never read a single comic and I never watched the cartoon. For some reaon the movies have triggered a special reaction with me for these mutated punks. I think it's because watching them is like watching the 72-10 bulls or a great jazz ensemble. I love the moments when they are allowed to riff and improvise with their powers yet still remain a solid unit. That shit kicks ass. Maybe I look too much into it, or I just want super powers of my own. Anyway, back to the movie, it seemed that in their rush to make this epic and final, a last stand if you will. They sacrificed so much of the story telling that was so prevelant in the first two. Powerful emotions are handled like filler and just when you think a scene is about to reach a dramatic peak, Ratner cuts away to something else. This is basic shit and he just plain sucks at it. Yes the action is cool, but up to a point. Some of it is rather poorly staged and clumsily edited, plus there are only so many times you can watch a character get hurled into the air and rise to their feet without a scratch. The anticipation kind of wears down after a while. Plus someone please explain to me why you take the climactic battle of the x-men trilogy and shoot it in the middle of the night, in the fucking dark? This guy's got a lot of chutzpah, missy.
Two final things that ran through my mind during my viewing of X3 or whatever it's called.
-Episode III is ten times better, a million times better even. It's the be all end all movie for trilogy cappers, X-3 shouldn't even be allowed to lick the dogshit from it's boot-heels.
-I hope somebody one day let's me direct one of these super hero movies. I want to do something really cool with one of them, hopefully they're still popular when I step up to the plate.
Okay, I'm tired, I'm going to bed.
"i am no more
i am not good
i am so sorry
if you misunderstood
i'd make it up
but i cannot
if i am an animal..."
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
What nate and john did on their summer vacation...
A little treat for y'all...
Recovered texts from the journals of nate and john's summer road trip 2004:
Robin Hood and Little John
Walkin' through the forest
Laughin' back and forth
At what the other'ne has to say
Reminiscin', This-'n'-thattin'
Havin' such a good time
Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally
Golly, what a day
Never ever thinkin' there was danger in the water
They were drinkin', they just guzzled it down
Never dreamin' that a schemin' sherrif and his posse
Was a-watchin' them an' gatherin' around
Robin Hood and Little John
Runnin' through the forest
Jumpin' fences, dodgin' trees
An' tryin' to get away
Contemplatin' nothin'
But escape an' fin'lly makin' it
Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally
Golly, what a day
Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally
Golly, what a day
Recovered texts from the journals of nate and john's summer road trip 2004:
Robin Hood and Little John
Walkin' through the forest
Laughin' back and forth
At what the other'ne has to say
Reminiscin', This-'n'-thattin'
Havin' such a good time
Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally
Golly, what a day
Never ever thinkin' there was danger in the water
They were drinkin', they just guzzled it down
Never dreamin' that a schemin' sherrif and his posse
Was a-watchin' them an' gatherin' around
Robin Hood and Little John
Runnin' through the forest
Jumpin' fences, dodgin' trees
An' tryin' to get away
Contemplatin' nothin'
But escape an' fin'lly makin' it
Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally
Golly, what a day
Oo-de-lally, Oo-de-lally
Golly, what a day
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Quick, to the FALCON!!!
Check this out.
I never thought they'd do it, but apparently they were persuaded enough by fan pressure to release the original "unaltered" or "old-school" star wars trilogy as it was seen in 1977, 1980, and 1983 perspecitvely. Goddamn fanboys have way too much power.
My thoughts on this: It's cool, I hope some of the long time star wars fans are happy and they get back those films they claim George Lucas has stolen from them with the prequel trilogy and the special edition. Me, I could go either way. As it has been long documented on this blog, I saw the trilogy as the special edition when I was 13. I fell in love with those movies, I'm happy with them, I don't miss anything when I watch them. It will be cool to have those original versions on dvd just for the sake of movie history. Oh and for the record, greedo shooting first DOES NOT diminsh the han character at all. The man was a rogue not a viscious psycho path who blasted anyone who got in his way. The reason his redemption works at the end of the movie is not because he's evil, it's because he doesn't care about anyone. That's why to see him come blazing through that star light destroying one of vader's tie fighters will always be a thrill, that's why.
I love the new pearl jam album. I love it, I love it, I love it. I've loved everything they done, but this one is especially memorable. It's everything they do well but at the same time it's stuff they've never done before. I find myself asking, "this is a pearl jam song?" after song have finished. Plus it's some of the most focused and pointed political commentary to come from a mainstream band in many a moon, but it ends on a none of hope, what more can you ask for? Nothing, they are the best band in the world, period, exclamation point, whatever you want.
Key Songs: (Even though they are all amazing, I mean that)
Marker in the Sand
Come Back
Life Wasted
Unemployable
Comatose
Big Wave
Severed Hand
I'm off to see Josh Ritter now, he should be good. I hope he plays good man.
Those undecided
needn't have faith to be free.
And those misguided,
there was a plan for them to be...
Now you got both sides
claiming 'killing in god's name'.
But god is nowhere
to be found, conveniently...
What goes on?
Walking tightrope high
over moral ground.
Walk the bridges be-
-fore you burn them down!
Do come round
with the living, let
what is living love.
Unforgiving, yet
needing forgiveness first...
God, what do you say?
God, what do you say?
I never thought they'd do it, but apparently they were persuaded enough by fan pressure to release the original "unaltered" or "old-school" star wars trilogy as it was seen in 1977, 1980, and 1983 perspecitvely. Goddamn fanboys have way too much power.
My thoughts on this: It's cool, I hope some of the long time star wars fans are happy and they get back those films they claim George Lucas has stolen from them with the prequel trilogy and the special edition. Me, I could go either way. As it has been long documented on this blog, I saw the trilogy as the special edition when I was 13. I fell in love with those movies, I'm happy with them, I don't miss anything when I watch them. It will be cool to have those original versions on dvd just for the sake of movie history. Oh and for the record, greedo shooting first DOES NOT diminsh the han character at all. The man was a rogue not a viscious psycho path who blasted anyone who got in his way. The reason his redemption works at the end of the movie is not because he's evil, it's because he doesn't care about anyone. That's why to see him come blazing through that star light destroying one of vader's tie fighters will always be a thrill, that's why.
I love the new pearl jam album. I love it, I love it, I love it. I've loved everything they done, but this one is especially memorable. It's everything they do well but at the same time it's stuff they've never done before. I find myself asking, "this is a pearl jam song?" after song have finished. Plus it's some of the most focused and pointed political commentary to come from a mainstream band in many a moon, but it ends on a none of hope, what more can you ask for? Nothing, they are the best band in the world, period, exclamation point, whatever you want.
Key Songs: (Even though they are all amazing, I mean that)
Marker in the Sand
Come Back
Life Wasted
Unemployable
Comatose
Big Wave
Severed Hand
I'm off to see Josh Ritter now, he should be good. I hope he plays good man.
Those undecided
needn't have faith to be free.
And those misguided,
there was a plan for them to be...
Now you got both sides
claiming 'killing in god's name'.
But god is nowhere
to be found, conveniently...
What goes on?
Walking tightrope high
over moral ground.
Walk the bridges be-
-fore you burn them down!
Do come round
with the living, let
what is living love.
Unforgiving, yet
needing forgiveness first...
God, what do you say?
God, what do you say?
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Life's Just Too Short Little Ndugu
I guess I've been away for a while. I don't know, I guess I haven't really had much to say. Everytime I get something, I seem to lose it between the thought and actually sitting down at the computer. But I feel like now, I've got some thoughts that I just can't shake.
Nate and I just got back from United 93, head over to his blog for some interesting thoughts on the subject. Before I get to the movie, a little history should be provided to preface my thoughts as a whole.
When I first even imagined the idea of a movie about the events of the morning of September 11th, I was against it. I thought they were doomed to fail given the fact that the images most likely to dominate the film were images we all saw happen on tv, and in a lot of cases, with our own eyes. I thought, how could a film, a piece of celluloid or maybe digital video recreate an action we all saw? Special effects cheapen it (see Pearl Harbor) even a real life recreation can't compete with the images of life processed in the human mind. I personally, never thought it would actually happen.
Then I read that Paul Greengrass had a project in the making and suddenly, I did a complete flip flop. For those of you not familiar with Paul Greengrass, he directed a movie back in 2002 called Bloody Sunday (if you haven't seen it, go out and rent it as soon as possible, or if not possible, I have it and I will loan it to you). Bloody Sunday is about the clash between the British Military and unarmed protesters in Derry, Ireland that ended with the deaths of 13 people. It's one of the most stunning recreations of a dramatic event that I have ever seen. Greengrass gives a documentary like immediacy to the action that does more than put you there, it surrounds you. He centers right at the heart of the violence and finds the heart of the wounded, it's the most we can hope for from an artist. So when I heard he was taking on United 93, my fears were assuaged a little. Here was a filmmaker that I trusted to respectfully represent this material. I also trusted him as someone with a non-exploitative agenda, I knew he wanted to make this film as a filmmaker, not as a thoughtless purveyor of an easy sell.
Nothing can prepare you for this film. I need to stress that more than anything, if you even have the slightest inkling of a doubt about seeing this movie, than stay home. I do not feel this is something every american should see as their patriotic duty, I do not think this is a movie every citizen of the world should see as their humanitarian duty. This is a film about a nightmare and I do not urge people to re-live nightmares. If you want to go, than go. I went because I respect the power I see in movies to represent all the things our minds and bodies are capable of. I went because Paul Greengrass is an artist I respect and I want to see his work. I went because this movie is important, good or bad, it is important.
I have never had an experience in a movie theatre (or life in general) comparable to the one I had sitting in that dark room on Second Avenue watching United 93. Visercal doesn't even begin to describe it. This movie squeezes hard and it does not let go. I can't even say it's let go of me yet. There are images in this film that even if you shield your eyes, your mind will recess into the deepest coils of your memory and bring back that same awful feeling you had in the pit of your stomach when you first heard the news. The overwhelming surge of mis-communication that occured as fear and panic took over and you were unable to discern whether the horrific or the truly horrific was actually happening. This movie captures all of that and with a precision and compassion that is undeniably moving and truly heart wrenching. I don't know what else to say, I guess all I can say is that I didn't think a film about 9/11 could move me because I'm still trembling from that day, what more could a film do? Whatever that is, United 93 did it. I'm sure I will write more about this, but I'm still lost as of right now.
More stuff coming soon, new Pearl Jam album on tuesday, graduation, all kinds of stuff. I want to write again, and hopefully I won't forget to.
Remember...
sing loud
sing louder
sing to feel
sing for everyone
please sing loud
sing louder
sing to heal
sing for everyone
sing for life sing for choices
sing for everyone without voices
sing for...
love - laughter - everyone here and after.
fear - hatred - everyone less than sacred.
life - choices - everyone without voices.
you can pray while they all keep sinking away.
Nate and I just got back from United 93, head over to his blog for some interesting thoughts on the subject. Before I get to the movie, a little history should be provided to preface my thoughts as a whole.
When I first even imagined the idea of a movie about the events of the morning of September 11th, I was against it. I thought they were doomed to fail given the fact that the images most likely to dominate the film were images we all saw happen on tv, and in a lot of cases, with our own eyes. I thought, how could a film, a piece of celluloid or maybe digital video recreate an action we all saw? Special effects cheapen it (see Pearl Harbor) even a real life recreation can't compete with the images of life processed in the human mind. I personally, never thought it would actually happen.
Then I read that Paul Greengrass had a project in the making and suddenly, I did a complete flip flop. For those of you not familiar with Paul Greengrass, he directed a movie back in 2002 called Bloody Sunday (if you haven't seen it, go out and rent it as soon as possible, or if not possible, I have it and I will loan it to you). Bloody Sunday is about the clash between the British Military and unarmed protesters in Derry, Ireland that ended with the deaths of 13 people. It's one of the most stunning recreations of a dramatic event that I have ever seen. Greengrass gives a documentary like immediacy to the action that does more than put you there, it surrounds you. He centers right at the heart of the violence and finds the heart of the wounded, it's the most we can hope for from an artist. So when I heard he was taking on United 93, my fears were assuaged a little. Here was a filmmaker that I trusted to respectfully represent this material. I also trusted him as someone with a non-exploitative agenda, I knew he wanted to make this film as a filmmaker, not as a thoughtless purveyor of an easy sell.
Nothing can prepare you for this film. I need to stress that more than anything, if you even have the slightest inkling of a doubt about seeing this movie, than stay home. I do not feel this is something every american should see as their patriotic duty, I do not think this is a movie every citizen of the world should see as their humanitarian duty. This is a film about a nightmare and I do not urge people to re-live nightmares. If you want to go, than go. I went because I respect the power I see in movies to represent all the things our minds and bodies are capable of. I went because Paul Greengrass is an artist I respect and I want to see his work. I went because this movie is important, good or bad, it is important.
I have never had an experience in a movie theatre (or life in general) comparable to the one I had sitting in that dark room on Second Avenue watching United 93. Visercal doesn't even begin to describe it. This movie squeezes hard and it does not let go. I can't even say it's let go of me yet. There are images in this film that even if you shield your eyes, your mind will recess into the deepest coils of your memory and bring back that same awful feeling you had in the pit of your stomach when you first heard the news. The overwhelming surge of mis-communication that occured as fear and panic took over and you were unable to discern whether the horrific or the truly horrific was actually happening. This movie captures all of that and with a precision and compassion that is undeniably moving and truly heart wrenching. I don't know what else to say, I guess all I can say is that I didn't think a film about 9/11 could move me because I'm still trembling from that day, what more could a film do? Whatever that is, United 93 did it. I'm sure I will write more about this, but I'm still lost as of right now.
More stuff coming soon, new Pearl Jam album on tuesday, graduation, all kinds of stuff. I want to write again, and hopefully I won't forget to.
Remember...
sing loud
sing louder
sing to feel
sing for everyone
please sing loud
sing louder
sing to heal
sing for everyone
sing for life sing for choices
sing for everyone without voices
sing for...
love - laughter - everyone here and after.
fear - hatred - everyone less than sacred.
life - choices - everyone without voices.
you can pray while they all keep sinking away.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
City of justice, city of love.
Oh wait,
That's gotham city. Nevermind
As most of you know, we are venturing off into the deep blue yonder of paris, france for a week.
I know that I probably don't post enough to necessitate something like this but I'm going to get back into the swing of things.
Therefore, I just wanted say au revoir for the week and I will see you all when I return.
Until then...
It's the letter, the letter that never came.
Dearest Children, Since we have been abroad we have missed you all so much. Certain events have compelled us to extend our travels. One day, when you're older, you will learn all about the people we've befriended, and the dangers we have faced. At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events, may, in-fact be the first steps of a journey. We hope to have you back in our arms soon darlings, but in case this letter arrives before our return, know that we love you. It fills us with pride to know that no matter what happens in this life, that you three will take care of each other with kindness, and bravery, and selflessness as you always have. And remember one thing my darlings and never forget it - that no matter where we are, know that as long as you have each other, you have your family, and you are home. Your loving parents.
That's gotham city. Nevermind
As most of you know, we are venturing off into the deep blue yonder of paris, france for a week.
I know that I probably don't post enough to necessitate something like this but I'm going to get back into the swing of things.
Therefore, I just wanted say au revoir for the week and I will see you all when I return.
Until then...
It's the letter, the letter that never came.
Dearest Children, Since we have been abroad we have missed you all so much. Certain events have compelled us to extend our travels. One day, when you're older, you will learn all about the people we've befriended, and the dangers we have faced. At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say there is much more good in it than bad. All you have to do is look hard enough. And what might seem to be a series of unfortunate events, may, in-fact be the first steps of a journey. We hope to have you back in our arms soon darlings, but in case this letter arrives before our return, know that we love you. It fills us with pride to know that no matter what happens in this life, that you three will take care of each other with kindness, and bravery, and selflessness as you always have. And remember one thing my darlings and never forget it - that no matter where we are, know that as long as you have each other, you have your family, and you are home. Your loving parents.
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
Unleash Mr. Beast
To piggy back off of nate's post, the new mogwai cd is really really good. Pitchfork said it was too soft for their tastes, but like I usually say, fuck pitchfork. Mogwai has the ability to make their sound sound new and unique every time they put out an album. And, yes, the cd is soft but it rocks at the same time. I'm really really impressed, and I don't get impressed too easily.
New Pearl Jam single is out, World Wide Suicide, it's starting to get stuck in my head, and it rocks. Thank god pearl jam is coming back to whip us into shape and kick our asses into submission. I'm excited about the new album (i know i'm always excited) but this time it's different. The guys seem more invigorated more enthused than ever about the shit they're putting down. On top of that, Stone Gossard said it's their most accessible album to date, which would make some people cringe, but I'm cool with it. I think it just means they made a rock record, nothing that's going to play on mtv, but a straight ahead rock record still has the ability to rock. People said Takk was Sigur's most accessible album to date, if that's what passses for accessibility these days, I'm down.
Yeah, the oscars sucked, but they always do. I didn't watch them this year, which was kind of weird because I usually make a point to watch them. I'm kinda bummed I missed some of stewart's stuff, it sounded quite quirking. I like the idea of the political ads, especially about dame judi stench. Getting back to the winner, I thought all the actors were deserving but what's with everyone turning on Reese Witherspoon now? Apparently she's too perky, too cute, god forbid somebody is excited about winning an oscar. Now I didn't see her speech so maybe she was noxiously annoying, all I know is she and joaquin made walk the line, without them, the movie sinks. That doesn't mean it's bad, I thought it was a fine flicka show. But something happened between those two, and you can tell because sometimes the movie soars with them at the helm. I just think that if an actor can take lesser quality material and upgrade it, that's a performance. Look at what Denzel did with training day, would that movie had been a tenth of what it was if a lesser actor attempted that part? They would have made alonzo just a psycho-path, Denzel made him something ten times scarier, a psycho path we understand. Sorry to go on the rant but I was just thinking about how awesome Denzel is. Anyway Reese deserved it, she should be happy, I hope she does more good work in the future.
As for the best picture debacle, people are comparing this to back in 98 when Shakespeare in Love won over Saving Private Ryan. First of all, no, Shakespeare in Love is a fantastic movie, just as much deserving of the oscar as SPV was. Crash blows ass and does so on every possible level (except for the acting, which is the only reason it is remotely watchable). If I hear one more person sing its praises about how groundbreaking the movie is, I'm gonna shoot out my own knees. Spike Lee made a a movie back in 1989 about race relations, it was called do the right thing. Shit didn't even get a best picture nomination. The point is Do the Right Thing is a perfect movie on all accounts, script, style, and direction. There's not a false note or a wrong turn anywhere on screen, it's perfect. That and You can count on me are two of the most perfect scripts ever written for the screen, at least that I've counted. I'm sure there are more. Anyway getting back to do the right thing, there's something very fishy about the fact that Spike Lee has been screaming and hollering for almost 20 years about race relations (everyone knows I love spike and I don't mean that in a bad way) and for some reason when a white guy like Paul Haggis makes a movie like Crash, people think its groundbreaking and it wins. To me Crash is one of those pat yourself on the back feel good liberal race movies where you say, oh my god people are awful but thank god I'm not like that. That makes people feel good about themselves, Do the Right Thing makes you say, oh my god, I'm like that and I'm capable of that as well. That doesn't make people feel good, hence, no oscars. It's alll bullshit, but just so people are sure, not only do I disagree with the politics of crash, it was also a lousy movie. I wouldn't be nearly as pissed off as I am if crash had been a well made, well written film, which it is not.
Now, for something positive...
I'm on a roll, this way I won't have to write another post for at least ten years.
We finished Golf The Movie this past weekend, and whatever I say will probably cheapen into some sort of hallmark sentiment. But I was really blown away with everyone's performance, the cast, the crew, the hospitality (mom), I couldn't have even imagined the help I got. There is something so exhilirating about watching a bunch of people busting their ass to make a creative endeavor as good as it possibly can be, and to watch those people get excited about the process, it's a thrill I don't even want to try to describe because I don't think I can. I just want everyone to know that I am forever grateful and that this is one of those things I will never ever forget, for as long as I live. This is for everybody who helped in anyway possible with this movie. I owe so many people favors and whatnot that I will probably never be able to repay them. But, it's good knowing you got people like that in your life backin you up. And on that note, a little kevy dev...
And I have been feeling this good for a reason
my friends and my family
you all are my backbone
you keep me balanced and settled
and I'm in debt to you all endlessly
Yeah I'm in debt to you all endlessly
New Pearl Jam single is out, World Wide Suicide, it's starting to get stuck in my head, and it rocks. Thank god pearl jam is coming back to whip us into shape and kick our asses into submission. I'm excited about the new album (i know i'm always excited) but this time it's different. The guys seem more invigorated more enthused than ever about the shit they're putting down. On top of that, Stone Gossard said it's their most accessible album to date, which would make some people cringe, but I'm cool with it. I think it just means they made a rock record, nothing that's going to play on mtv, but a straight ahead rock record still has the ability to rock. People said Takk was Sigur's most accessible album to date, if that's what passses for accessibility these days, I'm down.
Yeah, the oscars sucked, but they always do. I didn't watch them this year, which was kind of weird because I usually make a point to watch them. I'm kinda bummed I missed some of stewart's stuff, it sounded quite quirking. I like the idea of the political ads, especially about dame judi stench. Getting back to the winner, I thought all the actors were deserving but what's with everyone turning on Reese Witherspoon now? Apparently she's too perky, too cute, god forbid somebody is excited about winning an oscar. Now I didn't see her speech so maybe she was noxiously annoying, all I know is she and joaquin made walk the line, without them, the movie sinks. That doesn't mean it's bad, I thought it was a fine flicka show. But something happened between those two, and you can tell because sometimes the movie soars with them at the helm. I just think that if an actor can take lesser quality material and upgrade it, that's a performance. Look at what Denzel did with training day, would that movie had been a tenth of what it was if a lesser actor attempted that part? They would have made alonzo just a psycho-path, Denzel made him something ten times scarier, a psycho path we understand. Sorry to go on the rant but I was just thinking about how awesome Denzel is. Anyway Reese deserved it, she should be happy, I hope she does more good work in the future.
As for the best picture debacle, people are comparing this to back in 98 when Shakespeare in Love won over Saving Private Ryan. First of all, no, Shakespeare in Love is a fantastic movie, just as much deserving of the oscar as SPV was. Crash blows ass and does so on every possible level (except for the acting, which is the only reason it is remotely watchable). If I hear one more person sing its praises about how groundbreaking the movie is, I'm gonna shoot out my own knees. Spike Lee made a a movie back in 1989 about race relations, it was called do the right thing. Shit didn't even get a best picture nomination. The point is Do the Right Thing is a perfect movie on all accounts, script, style, and direction. There's not a false note or a wrong turn anywhere on screen, it's perfect. That and You can count on me are two of the most perfect scripts ever written for the screen, at least that I've counted. I'm sure there are more. Anyway getting back to do the right thing, there's something very fishy about the fact that Spike Lee has been screaming and hollering for almost 20 years about race relations (everyone knows I love spike and I don't mean that in a bad way) and for some reason when a white guy like Paul Haggis makes a movie like Crash, people think its groundbreaking and it wins. To me Crash is one of those pat yourself on the back feel good liberal race movies where you say, oh my god people are awful but thank god I'm not like that. That makes people feel good about themselves, Do the Right Thing makes you say, oh my god, I'm like that and I'm capable of that as well. That doesn't make people feel good, hence, no oscars. It's alll bullshit, but just so people are sure, not only do I disagree with the politics of crash, it was also a lousy movie. I wouldn't be nearly as pissed off as I am if crash had been a well made, well written film, which it is not.
Now, for something positive...
I'm on a roll, this way I won't have to write another post for at least ten years.
We finished Golf The Movie this past weekend, and whatever I say will probably cheapen into some sort of hallmark sentiment. But I was really blown away with everyone's performance, the cast, the crew, the hospitality (mom), I couldn't have even imagined the help I got. There is something so exhilirating about watching a bunch of people busting their ass to make a creative endeavor as good as it possibly can be, and to watch those people get excited about the process, it's a thrill I don't even want to try to describe because I don't think I can. I just want everyone to know that I am forever grateful and that this is one of those things I will never ever forget, for as long as I live. This is for everybody who helped in anyway possible with this movie. I owe so many people favors and whatnot that I will probably never be able to repay them. But, it's good knowing you got people like that in your life backin you up. And on that note, a little kevy dev...
And I have been feeling this good for a reason
my friends and my family
you all are my backbone
you keep me balanced and settled
and I'm in debt to you all endlessly
Yeah I'm in debt to you all endlessly
Tuesday, February 14, 2006
Happy Valentine's Day
I guess I've given up on writing anything anymore...
As the candy hearts poured into the fiery quasar, a wonderous thing happened, why not? They vaporized into a mystical love radiation that spread across the universe, destroying many, many planets - including two gangster planets and a cowboy world. But one planet was exactly the right distance to see the romantic rays, but not be destroyed by them - Earth. So all over the world, couples stood together in joy. And me, Zoidberg! And no one could've been happier, unless it would've also been Valentine's Day. What? It was? Hooray!
Happy Valentine's Day.
As the candy hearts poured into the fiery quasar, a wonderous thing happened, why not? They vaporized into a mystical love radiation that spread across the universe, destroying many, many planets - including two gangster planets and a cowboy world. But one planet was exactly the right distance to see the romantic rays, but not be destroyed by them - Earth. So all over the world, couples stood together in joy. And me, Zoidberg! And no one could've been happier, unless it would've also been Valentine's Day. What? It was? Hooray!
Happy Valentine's Day.
Wednesday, February 08, 2006
to: elliott, from: portland
I always do this, I know. A real post is coming soon, I promise.
It's just that, whenever someone writes anything about Elliott Smith, it's usually very touching. The other day I was listening to one of his songs (or a cover) I'm not sure, anyway, I thought to myself: I wish he was still around. That's all.
Here's what the man wrote,
To his fans, Elliott Smith was someone who told your sad story and made you feel like you were not alone. He took your desperation, your toils and torments, and he made them beautiful, and in doing so he made you beautiful.
To those who knew Elliott personally, he was a tortured soul, full of love and grief and an insatiable desire for something more.
For all his odes and allusions and beautiful references, Portland thanks him. For making the darkness of this world gorgeous, we all thank him. May he rest in peace
-Anthony Davis, Expunged Records
P.S. I actually found a decemberists song I can stand listening to. It is an elliott smith song but progress is progress.
It's just that, whenever someone writes anything about Elliott Smith, it's usually very touching. The other day I was listening to one of his songs (or a cover) I'm not sure, anyway, I thought to myself: I wish he was still around. That's all.
Here's what the man wrote,
To his fans, Elliott Smith was someone who told your sad story and made you feel like you were not alone. He took your desperation, your toils and torments, and he made them beautiful, and in doing so he made you beautiful.
To those who knew Elliott personally, he was a tortured soul, full of love and grief and an insatiable desire for something more.
For all his odes and allusions and beautiful references, Portland thanks him. For making the darkness of this world gorgeous, we all thank him. May he rest in peace
-Anthony Davis, Expunged Records
P.S. I actually found a decemberists song I can stand listening to. It is an elliott smith song but progress is progress.
Saturday, February 04, 2006
We have to overcome the idea that everyone is the same.
Hey, it's time
To move away and shine!
You can be all you ever want
In a dream.
You can take time along the way,
Let this music in your head.
You can be all you ever want
Inside a dream.
And if you take this time,
And you will move their minds,
You'll find it's all in a dream.
It's the only way
For you to be...
To move away and shine!
You can be all you ever want
In a dream.
You can take time along the way,
Let this music in your head.
You can be all you ever want
Inside a dream.
And if you take this time,
And you will move their minds,
You'll find it's all in a dream.
It's the only way
For you to be...
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