You are viewing [info]orpheus78's journal

Into the Realm of an Upbeat Tragedy [entries|archive|friends|userinfo]
Oscar

[ userinfo | livejournal userinfo ]
[ archive | journal archive ]

Links
[Links:| Lets Go Kings All Music Guide Side Line Rue Morgue Forums Wired L.A Weekly All Movie Guide Bookslut TSN Kings Espn Nhl Cbgxtra Archive.com ]

Holy Crap! [May. 17th, 2012|10:14 pm]
[Current Mood |weirdweird]

The L.A Kings are one win away from the Stanley Cup finals!! :O
Link3 Danced the Night Away|Dance

This Week's Friday Five! [May. 11th, 2012|10:24 pm]
5 random moments from The Simpsons

1. Principal Skinner and his mother are in group therapy talking about their problems. And the facilitator asks the group if they have any suggestions for the Skinners. And they all raise their hands.

“One that doesn’t involve childish name calling?”

They all put their hand down.

2. Bart grabs a kid a and asks him where he got the lemons to make that lemonade (he’s looking for a stolen lemon tree).

Kid: “This is Country Time Lemonade. There’s never been anything like a lemon in it!”

3. Lisa: “I had a cat named Snowball, she died, she died. My mother said she was sleeping, she lied, she lied.”

4. Bart keeps calling in the radio station to get an elephant he thought he won and it’s heard on the air. And some seniors at the retirement home hear it and say they are playing the elephant song, it reminds them of elephants.

5. Homer calls the missing baby line as is put on hold while “Baby, come Back” plays.
Link5 Danced the Night Away|Dance

"Just like the old Days." [May. 9th, 2012|09:52 pm]
[Current Music |The Thompson Twins-Lay Your Hands on Me]

I have been revisiting the films of Charlie Chaplin. I would like to say that The Gold Rush is my favorite silent film of his. Maybe. I think it might have been the first of his full length silents that I watched (but it might have been The Kid). The Gold Rush works on so many levels and just seems to me like the quintessential Chaplin film.

His films after that, however, are somewhat odd and sometimes more interesting and more problematic. City Lights was one of the last few silent movies to come out (talkies were already out when it came out). And it’s arguably better and more ambitious than The Gold Rush. And the ending makes me cry! And then there’s Modern Times which was practically silent (some Orwellian voiceover is heard early in the film). It just seems like another silent film now, but it came out in 1935 so somewhat odd to get a silent film that late. But the film itself is pretty good and a whole lot more political than a lot of his work. It’s certainly a product of depression era. And it’s still has a good amount of expressionism that went away during a lot of the talkie era. I mean some stuff (think: early Universal or other films helmed by Europeans still had some expressionistic tendencies), but for whatever reason, the 1930’s saw films become less visually experimental. And it’s hard not to watch Modern Times and not become enchanted by Paulette Goddard. :D

And then his talkies come up. The Hitler bashing The Great Dictator which in many ways is an odd film since it was made before a lot of what the Nazi government were really up to would come out to the rest of the world. And then we have the black comedy Monsieur Verdoux with Chaplin playing a Black Widow type of murderer (this movie makes a great double feature with Hitchcock’s A Shadow of Doubt Haha!).

And there’s the film that I watched last night, Limelight, which tells the story of Chaplin playing a washed up comedian. Certainly a film that feels personal. And then we have A King in New York, which I will probably rewatch next.

A lot of these films are strange in the sense that they do seem dated compared to other films that were coming out at the same era. Chaplin like a lot of directors did seem to fall into a style of filmmaking and didn’t seem to change too much. But these films taken as a whole are really well done and interesting. I like being able to watch these later films now because like a lot of people I assumed for a long time that Chaplin had only made silent films. And these later films show another, often more cynical side, of Chaplin.
LinkDance

Banana Bread, anyone? [May. 8th, 2012|10:38 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |The Psychedelic Furs-Sometimes]

title or description

Dunno. I would be afraid to go past that billboard. It looks like a slice of banana bread is about to fall, which sounds dangerous, but delicious.

Reminds me of a Leave it to Beaver episode about a billboard with a soup plate that was steaming, and beaver takes on a bet to climb up and check if there's actual soup.

Well, surprisingly, he gets stuck up there and the firemen are called while one Eddie Haskell yells out, someone save my children, lol!

Haha! That's the kind of stuff that would get you in juvenile hall these days. :P
Link3 Danced the Night Away|Dance

Sigh! [May. 8th, 2012|09:30 pm]
[Current Mood |sadsad]

The ending of Chaplin's City Lights chokes me up! *cries*
LinkDance

Yes, Virginia! [May. 6th, 2012|06:43 pm]
[Current Mood |chipperchipper]

The Los Angeles Kings will go to the Western Conference finals for the first time in 19 years! :O

title or description
Link4 Danced the Night Away|Dance

Accents in Movies? [Apr. 30th, 2012|10:03 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |The Culture Club-Victims]

I was thinking about The Last Temptation of Christ, mainly the film and not the book, and remember being particularly amused by the fact that Judas is played by Harvey Keitel. Scorsese, at least according to what I read, wanted to cast another one of his regulars, Robert Deniro, as Jesus Christ, haha. But back to Judas as portrayed in the film, well, specifically regarding his Brooklyn accent which is noticeable in parts of the movie, well, I cannot help but find it funny. Somewhat out of place, no?

BUT, on another hand, the people in the film from that region and that era wouldn’t have spoken English of any variety. It just seems funny that somehow there was an agreement that any film that takes place say pre Victorian era, regardless of the region, should use actors using British accents. I mean even something like 300 does it even though those people wouldn’t had spoken English, or rather, the language doesn’t existed as such. I think in our minds British English perhaps sounds more sophisticated, dramatic, and more archaic since it goes back further than American English.

Not necessarily a bad convention, but that’s why, lol, Judas speaking in a manner that resembles the English spoken in Brooklyn in amusing to me.
Link10 Danced the Night Away|Dance

This Week's Friday Five! [Apr. 27th, 2012|08:49 pm]
[Current Mood |calmcalm]

5 Movies that I have Double Dipped (Or More)

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (3 times: First DVD release, 2 disc special edition, 2 disc included in the collection).
2. A Clockwork Orange (3 times: VHS edition, First DVD release, 2 disc special edition included in the collection).
3. Blade Runner (2 times: First DVD edition, 2 disc edition).
4. Dawn of the Dead (2 times: First DVD edition, 4 disc special edition).
5. Preadator (2 times: Single edition in collection, 2 disc special edition).

And I haven't gotten into bluray yet. ;)
LinkDance

"And how do you take your tea, Miss Edgar?" [Apr. 25th, 2012|10:39 pm]
[Current Mood |contemplativecontemplative]
[Current Music |Ministry-10/10]

I used to say that the last Hitchcock film that I watched was always my favorite, which is more than anything, an attempt to be funny, and yet, there is some slight truth. Since I am a fan of his films, and believe that so many of them are great, I rediscover many of his films after watching them that it almost seems that it’s my favorite.

But, of course, it’s not quite that simple. Part of it is that I am not a favorites kind of a person. I don’t have a favorite novel, favorite film , favorite band, or, well, favorite a lot of things. I have a favorite sports team and favorite, hmmm, something else, I am sure. Anyways, back to Hitchcock’s films, I like rewatching his films regularly including many that I watch at least once a year. And there are some, however, that I have a hard time with and cannot really consider as favorites.

The films that he made during his last decade or so are usually seen as his weakest, perhaps, with the exception of Frenzy. I somewhat agree. Films like Topaz and Torn Curtain are interesting if not altogether successful and start to seem dated in parts. His last film, Family Plot is always fun and enjoyable and not a bad way to end a career, I mean, not everyone can make films at that age, but alas, it’s far from his best film.

And then we have something that precedes these films, Marnie, which follows two of his strongest films, Psycho and The Birds. Many people feel that Marnie is the beginning of his decline. Maybe. And it’s one of those films that I haven’t watched a lot and never could figure out of I liked or didn’t.

And well, I am thinking about this because I just rewatched it last night. It’s really an odd film that isn’t as much as a horror or typical crime thriller, but rather sexual thriller that Hitchcock made before. However, it somehow, maybe, lacks some of the atmospheric tension than say Rebecca, but it certainly was made to make people uncomfortable. Then there are Freudian reasons that are given for Marnie’s behavior, which may or may not really feel realistic, but still, there’s enough sexual tension in it all just make it hard and not want to watch it. I don’t know. An odd film, which I believe I do appreciate and yet the film seems missing something.

Other troubling Hitchcock films? I have never been able to get into I Confess like at all. I don’t really see that as an interesting failure just, well, not really good. The Wrong Man is a bit better, but also hard for me to get into. Although, I haven’t watched that last one more than twice. Films like The Paradine Case and Under Capricorn also tend to have a negative reputation, but alas, I haven’t watched either one of them.

I still believe To Catch a Thief is the best of his films that I haven’t watched.
Link8 Danced the Night Away|Dance

Dudes! [Apr. 22nd, 2012|09:33 pm]
[Current Mood |chipperchipper]

The Kings have won their first playoff series in 11 years!! And against the top seeded team in the NHL no less.

title or description

Sad that it took so long. In that time I went from a fresh face youngster to a bitter nutcase, lol, so I am not taking this for granted.
LinkDance

This Week's Friday Five! [Apr. 20th, 2012|09:31 pm]
Top 5 XTC Songs

1. "Making Plans for Nigel"
2. "Dear God"
3. "Love On A Farmboy's Wages"
4. "No Thugs In Our House"
5. "Senses Working Overtime"
LinkDance

Hmmmm [Apr. 18th, 2012|07:39 pm]
[Current Mood |geekygeeky]

Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock for the upcoming Hitchcock and The Making of Psycho film.



Looks good, no?
Link4 Danced the Night Away|Dance

So [Apr. 7th, 2012|10:33 pm]
[Current Mood |contemplativecontemplative]

The LA Kings Have/Get to play the Vancouver Canucks in the playoffs again!

Carry on...
LinkDance

So [Apr. 6th, 2012|10:37 pm]
[Current Mood |weirdweird]
[Current Music |B.B King-Midnight Believer]

How many steps must an Orpheus take before he is called a man?
Link2 Danced the Night Away|Dance

Late Night Weirdness! [Mar. 24th, 2012|01:25 am]
[Current Mood |weirdweird]
[Current Music |Peter Gabriel-Don't Give Up]

I was thinking about this today (because I like to waste my time thinking about lame random things on Friday night instead of doing anything fun, TGIF, indeed) largely after reading about a possible Carrie remake. Chloe Moretz’s name is being thrown around, which is, in my opinion, is a rather inspiring choice. And I also like the idea of a teenage horror film *gasp* having actual teenagers instead of the usual college dropouts, lol! I mean seeing teenage angst puberty driven anxiety from actors who are old enough to drink sort of takes you out of it, but then again, suspension of disbelief, I suppose.

But anyways, going back to King’s novel (it was his first to be published, I think), well, it’s a better novel thematically than structurally. King hadn’t found his style yet, but his ideas, and really the characters are there, and there’s so much that one can take from it. And one of the things present in that novel is religious fanaticism. Carrie White’s mother, is a religious nutcase, makes her daughter feel guilty for, well, having hormones, developing, and locks her in a closet to punish her (an alternative to the belt, maybe?). This is one of those things that doesn’t quite really come across in the first film quite as well as it does in the novel. Oh, should I mention that Jodie Foster possibly might play the mother (one can hope, can’t they?). And well, taken, with an attitude of remaking to make something new, the mother and daughter and religious and fanaticism angle can be gelled out more this time around.

And I find the religious element in Carrie particularly interesting because it’s one of those things that keeps popping up in King’s stories. Sometimes it’s just one character (think: The Mist) and sometimes it takes a larger role. This made me believe that King must’ve grown up in a home filled with religious fanaticism, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I am thinking that it fascinates him since he likes dealing with human extremes, and well, let’s be honest, religious fanaticism relies heavily in fear and that makes good source material for horror stories.

It’s almost stereotypical, using Old Testament (lol, love that my word processor corrected OT to have capital letters) type of religion to scare people, no? If you do “insert random sin here” you will end up in hell and spend all eternity there. And there are people who really believe these things with every fiber in their body. So it serves to scare others, control others, as well as one self.

I personally believe that there is nothing beyond this life and have thought that since I was a kid. And yet, I am not going to assume that I am right, or that there might not be something else that cannot be explained or comprehended by our minds. I think its human nature to question things and then lean, for some of us, towards this middle gray area where somethings are never going to be explained and it’s better not to assume either for or against (lol, though I tend to assume against, but not with every fiber in my body as to prove anything in my mind).

But considering, the rare, and unlikely possibility, haha, that those religious fanatics are right and that a lot of us are going to go to hell for doing too much or any of this and that, well, It’s a scary thought. And then there is the idea, at least in my head, that there might be this afterlife that mimics this one. Like imaging having a mental disorder or developmental disorder and having it carrying it over to the next life. Something like that seems unlikely to me, but scary because, well, it could be considered and imagined in our minds. And horror whether of the King variety or elsewhere deals largely with scaring ourselves with things that aren’t there or haven’t been proven to exist (whether it’s hell or monsters). But the ability to imagine it in horror is what makes the genre appealing to me. You can put yourself in all types of situations, experience some sort of vicarious fear (and that results in a high for some people, mind you) and then always have the safety net of closing a book if it gets too much. And that’s also why I sometimes enjoy the nightmares that I have and talk about them since it allows me to enter this realm and come back.
Link2 Danced the Night Away|Dance

OK, boys, let's take it from the top... [Mar. 20th, 2012|11:38 pm]
[Current Mood |chipperchipper]
[Current Music |Physic TV-I.C Water]

Martinez, Kopitar...

title or description


We've got our own thang...oooh...aaah!
Link4 Danced the Night Away|Dance

"Some of them used" [Mar. 18th, 2012|10:22 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |Prince-Little Red Corvette]

From Wikipedia Entry's on "Little Red Corvette"

Prince got the idea for the song when he dozed off in Lisa Coleman's pink Edsel after an exhausting all-night recording session. The lyrics came to him in bits and pieces during this and other catnaps. Eventually, he was able to finish it without sleeping.[citation needed]

Haha!
Link10 Danced the Night Away|Dance

Blast from the Past! [Mar. 9th, 2012|07:23 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |Laidback-White Horse]

Link2 Danced the Night Away|Dance

"There's a picture opposite me of my primitive ancestry." [Mar. 7th, 2012|08:52 pm]
[Current Mood |calmcalm]
[Current Music |They Might be Giants-Particle Man]

The Loafs Nation? Haha! Sometimes ESPN’s NHL page gets it right!

Wow! The L.A Kings are scoring and now, lol, are second to last in scoring. Cue the Jefferson’s theme music ‘cuz we’re moving on up. :D

I forgot just how much I like They Might be Giants! I should listen to them more often.

Am I still having nightmares? I dreamed the other day that I was trapped in the cemetery and then was chased by the police. Does that count?

I was thinking the Transformers kids got their movie? Where is our Gobots movie? I want to see Scooter on the bigscreen! *cries*

Some community college here is offering a bible as literature course, and you know, I always wanted to take such a class. And it focuses on the Old Testament! Alas, maybe next time. ;)

I want to read Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged, but it’s like a million pages. I want to learn about her brand of objectivism. Haha! If you look under who’s inspired by Rand on Wikipedia there’s a list that includes people from Neil Peart of Rush to John Stossel (Give me a break! :P). I went to see Stossel speak at San Jose State, and he was brought there by the economics department, and some dude, who got some student of the year thing, asked him some obtuse question like a show off. Lol! I sort of thought that Stossel was more into libertarian economics, but it might be similar, I am not sure. The only thing that I remember from college economics is the law of diminishing returns.
Link2 Danced the Night Away|Dance

This Week's Friday Five! [Mar. 2nd, 2012|09:23 pm]
[Current Mood |calmcalm]

This Week's 5 Albums

1. Neil Young "Rust Never Sleeps"
2. PJ Harvey "Uh Huh Her"
3. Depeche Mode "Songs of Faith and Devotion"
4. Stereo MC's "Deep Down & Dirty"
5. Bauhaus "Burning From the Inside"
LinkDance

What's The Difference Between Death and Doom Metal? [Mar. 1st, 2012|07:13 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |Neil Young-Sail Away]

Haha! Saw this on a messageboard. :D

title or description
Link5 Danced the Night Away|Dance

"I am the man who stays home and does the dishes." [Feb. 29th, 2012|09:18 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |Pulp_Dishes]

I was thinking about the upcoming Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter movie (based on a book that I haven’t read, mind you) and this was written by the same guy who wrote the zombified version of Pride and Prejudice which tells people what they already probably knew about a zombie of means is in need of more brains. And, dunno, partly because there has been a zombie renaissance of late (does this extend to that Cranberries song?) said zombified incarnation of Austen’s novel made A LOT of money. And all of this is somewhat amusing, because, well, it’s pretty much Austen fan fiction, which there is A LOT of, like, say something like Mansfield Park being told from the guy’s perspective, Henry Crawford, instead of the from Fanny’s point of view. And this stuff is out there, and some of it, actually gets published, like say one such novel focusing of Mina from Dracula aptly titled, Mina. Haha! It’s all very amusing and a lot of people, including myself, mind you, like writing stories set in other people’s literary worlds. In an exercise in self indulgence much like watching political debates when you know that you would never vote for the candidate from that other party. Haha!

But because Pride and Prejudice and Zombies made so much money and got a lot of attention ( I haven’t read it either), well, that opened the floodgates for glorified fan fiction. So now we got other Austen novels, not to mention works from similar authors, with zombies, and vampires, and Lovecraft type of creatures (Mr. Darcy is an Elder God, maybe?). It isn’t a bad thing, per se, I mean, I haven’t read enough of this stuff to really make a judgment, but yeah, overkill.

I read someplace something about a book with one of the Bennet sisters, probably Mary, going to college, and meeting some dude named Victor Frankenstein. :O But darnit, I can’t remember what the book is called, but I can probably find out if I use my graduate level research abilities, hahaha. But, yeah, I want to read it because, taking Austen & Shelley’s universes together makes some sense, well, maybe. Sort of like what Alan Moore did in The Extraordinary League of Gentlemen with taking characters from different Victorian era novels and putting them all together. And I liked the fact that the movie adds Dorian Gray to the equation (adding Tom Sawyer? Not so much).

Anyhow, most of this stuff probably isn’t taken too seriously by academia. The only such book that I think fits this is Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea which does get taught in colleges and is a prequel to Jane Eyre and tries to explain the mad woman’s history. And it’s a book that I sorta like, and as such, have found myself defending it, when I bring it up, since it gets labeled as silly fan fiction by others. Jean Rhys is an okay writer she’s just not Virginia Woolf. Hahaha!

Maybe, it is, and I just have bad taste. And maybe what it needed was some ZOMBIES!
Link4 Danced the Night Away|Dance

Word of the Day! [Feb. 29th, 2012|07:21 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |Joy Division-She Lost Control]

Thanks to Cracked.com I now know the meaning of the word Iktsuarpok.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19695_9-foreign-words-english-language-desperately-needs.html

Iktsuarpok (Inuit)- To go outside to check if an expected visitor has arrived, over and over again.

And now I am going to start using it all the time starting today! :D

I used to be a Iktsuarpok when I was kid and constantly go outside to check if the mailman had arrived!

That's because I subscribed to The Incredible Hulk and couldn't wait to see if he was going to get angry and turn green, lol!
Link1 Danced the Night Away|Dance

"If we walk without rhythm we won’t attract the worm." [Feb. 28th, 2012|10:23 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |Primus (They Suck!)-Harold of the Rocks]

I am reading a book about translation one Is That a Fish in Your Ear by David Bellos (love that Adams reference, by the way!). And it raises questions regarding translation, you know, the more abstract and philosophical aspects of language that one needs to deal with when translating. It obviously isn’t simply a process of finding word equivalents and dealing with grammar issues. And a lot gets said about a writer’s style getting lost in translation, so that means that one really isn’t reading Balzac unless they are reading him in...gasp...French. I would agree with that...BUT not everyone for that matter can learn every foreign language they want (seriously, I have been trying to learn Jabba the Hut’s language, because you really haven’t watched Star Wars until you know said language)...

But anyways, back to Bellos book, his book, and others that I’ve read touching upon the topic address the fact that language is largely composed of themes and concepts that are an extension of the culture that the language exists within. This raises the idea that one conceptualizes the world around them based on what language they use and think in. Something simple, for example, in Latin Languages, pronouns are gender marked, so a gender neutral table in English becomes feminine in Spanish and French. And that raises questions for translators taking, say English text, and then translating to French. The translator can just add the proper gender marked pronoun, BUT, the original writer might not have intended the gender.

A poet, for example, might refer to the sea as a she and that does create meaning as opposed to referring to the sea as it, right? And that raises problems and issues. And it’s not as something as strange as gender as it pertains to non living objects, but things, that seem more straight forward such as color, for example, say, the color green (it ain't easy being it, mind you). In some ancient texts (I want to say the Iliad) the sky is described as green!?! And no, it wasn’t probably some color blindness at play, but the fact that blue as a concept did not exists, and green as a concept incorporated a larger shade or color including shades of what we would now call blue.

And this is just related to concept differences between cultures and languages, but of course, there are basic structural languages that exists between languages. Word order for example (English tends to have SVO), grammatical issues, the use of articles, and whatnot. Translation then becomes tricky, philosophical, and creates the old cliché, that is, one learns a lot about their own language when working with another.

Noam Chomsky proposed the idea of a universal grammar, that is, that all the languages on this planet share enough basic elements to assume there is a universal grammar across them. This is where the old joke about the Martian linguist coming down and after hearing all the languages on Earth label them as dialects of the same language. I don’t know. Maybe. It’s all very theoeretical and hard to prove or disprove for that matter, but there really isn’t a language on this planet that’s so strange that linguists haven’t been able to work with, is there? Even Klingon, lol, can and has been analyzed! It has OVS word order! My Grammar teacher said so!

And then there is the idea that there’s something universal in humans and that affects language and how we use and think of language. Despite cultural differences are there any real differences say in brain structure between races to justify language differences.

It reminds me of Jung and how he saw the same archetypes across cultures and believed that there was some form of collective consciousness. And it might not be as mystical as it seemed, but based on some inherent biological tendencies?

Anyways, I am bent on posting here regularly (almost daily, mind you), mainly to amuse myself, and that’s why random brou-ha-ha like this gets posted by me.

And thinking of this also made me realize that I need to read China Mieville’s Embassytown, which deals with language differences…among species! :D

And thinking of language here, I do write "I mean" like a lot in the same way that I say "you know" a lot when I speak, but, I mean, I am from California, you know, so why not fit some stereotypes?
Link9 Danced the Night Away|Dance

More Disjointed Entries! [Feb. 27th, 2012|10:02 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |AC/DC- Who Made Who]

I was watching David Lynch’s Dune last (I didn’t watch all of it, mind you) and yet another stroll through memory lane. This time, I wasn’t lucky to have watched that movie in the theater but, did watch in when it came out in VHS. It stood out for me, well, because it was over 2 hours long and at that age, two hours seems like an eternity and parts of it were creepy, like that scene with Baron Vladimir Harknonnen floating about (one of the images that shaped my childhood), and the sand worms were scary, and the film was generally dark and violent. And then who can forget the half naked Sting (Don’t stand so close to me?). I generally liked the movie, I mean, not as much as something like Star Wars, but you know, um, yeah.

And it’s funny, that if you read the novels, it’s a very different type of story than Star Wars, but the studio, who were probably sniffing some spice of their own, lol, thought that it could be the next Star Wars. At that time, well, anything space related could be the next Star Wars, but the only thing that came close, haha, was The Ice Pirates (appreciate, don’t hate). But what’s funny is that Star Wars was one of the first movies to make a killing with merchandising things for kids and movies in the ‘80’s started following suit. And Dune being the next Star Wars, lol, had toys, stickers (I had some!), and coloring books, like with scenes of violence (Mommy, what color should I paint the blood?).

But it’s funny, because this was new territory, I mean, Masters of the Universe, which some people argued was one big toy commercial was controversial for blatant marketing at kids. And then the uncomfotable idea that kids could buy toys from movies that they couldn’t watch, like toys from Aliens, Predator, Robocop, and maybe Dune? But is it really any different to buy a Robocop figure than a GIJoe figure? I mean they both have guns, just, well, one of them is shown actually getting use out of it the source material.

But now it’s okay because a lot of these franchises get numbed down these days to PG13 and that means more toys for the kids.

But, oh, yeah memories. I wish I had some of those Dune figures. And Marvel put out a nifty comic adaptation that I would also like. But, hey, I have the movie so that counts for something right? Haha! I forgot about the movie after I grew out if childhood, and it wasn’t until I started to become a fan of David Lynch and realized, um, wait, he did that Dune movie too, right?

And then I read the novel for the first time...

And I still haven’t watched the SciFi Channel version! *cries*
LinkDance

"It seems that every path just leads to nowhere." [Feb. 27th, 2012|02:01 am]
[Current Mood |awakeawake]
[Current Music |Alice in Chains-Rooster]

Perhaps, just maybe, I resent the fact that 2001 came and went and we still haven’t had any trips (that I know, mind you) to Jupiter (boys go there to get more stupider, while girls go to class) . But what irks me more is that in A Clockwork Orange, Alex, plays music from the good old Ludwig Van Beethoven using…um…gasp…a…cassette! Well, maybe, it’s likely. I mean, in some weird way the film is trying to predict a future where young hoodlums listen to classical music, and as such, we might not be there quite yet, and when we are, the generation of hipsters inhabiting that time will make cassettes cool again. Maybe. That means that I shouldn’t throw away my Dio Holy Diver cassette or any others for that matter. Seriously, peeps, haha, I bought said cassette from a library sale for fifty cents because it was used and beat up, but it worked, darnit, still does, and bought it because I liked the cover (didn’t know what a Dio or for that matter what a Holy Diver was) and like many a teen who bought a Dio album since they liked the cover art was quickly blown away and couldn’t imagine growing up without it.

Back to A Clockwork Orange. Funny. My school used to have a music and film series and one of the films they showed was A Clockwork Orange and mind you, it’s a really interesting film to watch while focusing on Music with a capital M. I mean the way that Music is used in the Ludvico (sp?) treatment, the actual soundtrack in the film by Wendy Carlos (Moog synths!), and one can’t help wonder if the media of the music used in the film is really important, I mean, would it be any different if Alex would play an MP3 instead of a cassette? I mean he does go into a record store in the film (dressed as some sort of what could later be called a Barry Lyndon reject, lol). But these days, would he even walk into a record/music store, and well, get this, and that? You know, 2001 records being sold at the store, speed up orgy, and whatever else?

And back to the future. Despite the fact that it’s violent and offensive even to this day, A Clockwork Orange, works a whole lot better than it should be. I mean sci-fi films are notorious for lacking the philosophical depth of the original source, but not so much with ACO, and if anything, the film makes it stronger. I mean, it’s one thing to read violence in Nadsat, and another to see it, and the fact, that in the third half (how does that work?) one feels sorry for Alex being attacked, but I mean, he does deserve it.

Then there are other films like stuff such as the Dune film, say the David Lynch (which I still like even as a guilty pleasure, mind you!) *cries* And that film really couldn’t get all the philosophical elements through, and sort of didn’t really try (why deal with epistemological issues when your film has a half naked Sting?). Instead, we get a film that focuses on the visual elements like sand…gasp…dunes and worms and that girl who looks like a younger version of that woman from Candyman (oh, wait..). And I could list a countless of other film/book adaptations in the science fiction realm where much is loss in terms of philosophy. Anyways, I always assumed that much of what went into Dune was inspired by what was going on in the Middle East then and actually it still going on today. That sort of explains the look of the film, and that’s probably the case, but I also read that Hebert grew up in the Pacific Northwest, and there are some sand dunes in Oregon (!?!) that inspired him as a kid, so it’s a combination of things. I mean kids grow up in places, write, imagine things, research, but set a lot of their stories in worlds that parallel the places they grew up in. The Lord of the Rings, for example, has places that are stand-ins for real places that Tolkien hanged around in.

And last night (or sometime abouts) I was reading on Edgar Rice Burroughs and was thinking about the fact that I have never read his Mars stories and then wondered if they were like Tarzan set in Mars and then learned that the upcoming John Carter movie was based on his work. Color me clueless, but like I said, I haven’t read his Mars stories, so for all I knew, the protagonist is a young man named Alex who listens to cassettes in Mars.
Link2 Danced the Night Away|Dance

"Forget your fancy manners...your English grammar...you don't give a damn about..this year's girl." [Feb. 25th, 2012|11:09 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |Kate Bush-Them Heavy People]

I was reading an article on the comedy site Cracked.com today about Roger Corman which details several of the known directors from the previous generation who worked under him and then became major directors. Think guys like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, and what have you. I’ve been thinking about stuff like this, I mean how does one go about breaking into the business of being a director (and no, I don’t have aspirations to become a director, well, unless you count directing pop tarts commercials). I mean some of these guys went to film school, and well, yeah, I would assume it being somewhat more of a thing in this city, but all over the country as well and that's there really isn’t a shortage of people with film degrees, but without any real post grad experience, and are just left to fend for themselves.

Or, then again, one can and usually one does(assuming that one is lucky) attempt to work their way up and hopefully wishing that one day they get that big break. With a guy like Corman, who was in the business of creating cheap, quick, and profitable movies, well, he would easily take a chance on young people, and if he liked them, soon enough, be, like, hey Francis, got something that you could write and direct in a few weeks for a few thousand dollars? Well, yes, Mr. Corman, something that could along the lines of what could be called Dementia 13 (might as well skip the first 12). And well, there we go, a storied directing career begins.

But see, it’s not that simple, these guys, did have some talent, insight, and were willing to work hard, and took advantage of the chance, and worked their way up. But, um, yeah, they did have to get that chance. And for every Coppola there were probably a bunch of other guys who directed for Corman’s company and never went beyond the realm of the B-movie.

I don’t know, I was thinking that a lot of the creative arts, say film, music, writing, well, it’s the type of thing that people starring with the previous generation (the film brats) and after would go to school for. But then again, having a degree in that field doesn’t mean that doors will magically open or that you will even be that great, I mean, it is very arguable that there is something inherent and abstract as far as creative ability and you just can’t teach it. Do MFA make people great writers or are great writers born? The same could somewhat be said about directors, but undoubtedly, going to school could help.

And I was thinking how did this work before? I know Alfred Hitchcock started working with the likes of Fritz Lang and worked his way up. In those days it was probably more of an apprentice type of situation, but then again, in the early years, people were just making it up as they went along and a lot of people just fell into it. Like, well, this here corn business isn’t working out, so I might just head out West and work in them moving pictures. Haha!

I don’t know. If there ever was such a thing as the mentor/apprentice thing being the norm, well, I feel like I missed out. Now, it’s like take classes, complete a degree, and good luck, and off into the wide world you go, a rebel without a crew.

Yeah. My only mentor are the voices in my head. And in a parallel universe it's Robert Altman.
LinkDance

This Week's Friday Five! [Feb. 24th, 2012|09:33 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]
[Current Music |Einstürzende Neubauten-Yu-Gung (Adrian Sherwood Remix)]

5 Random Quotes from Random Movies

1. "Do you have any of that day old bread?"
2. "I can't get involved! I've got work to do! It's not that I like the Empire. I hate it!"
3. "Wait a minute. What am I doing? This is a very interesting situation."
4. "You have surprisingly good taste in men. They didn't tell you, did they? They've changed the rules of the fairy tale."
5. "The future? You murdered the future."
LinkDance

Hahaha! [Feb. 23rd, 2012|11:38 pm]
[Current Mood |amusedamused]

Regarding today's Kings trade?

title or description

:P
LinkDance

These things, 3. [Feb. 22nd, 2012|11:47 pm]
[Current Mood |bitchybitchy]
[Current Music |INXS-The Stairs]

While I was watching I Confess last night (a Hitchcock film and not a documentary about the English Beat), I was thinking, the rather obvious with that being Hitchcock really liked his courtroom scenes. I don’t know just how many of his movies have courtroom scenes, but a lot of them that aren’t quite court dramas such as say The Wrong Man or The Paradine Case (which I haven’t watched, mind you), have a court scene somewhere. . Sometimes, in my opinion, such scenes, arguably, say in Rebecca, slow down the film or seem out of character with the rest of the film and sometimes they do fit in and seem necessary, such as in Dial M for Murder. I don’t know, I figure Hitchcock was probably just interested in the law and how the court comes to decisions regarding innocence and whatnot. And part of it, I think, is that Hitchcock made films in an era when things needed to be explained and the guilty had to pay the price so why not use the courtroom to address such? I want to write a blog entry dedicated to courtrooms in film one day, but not today (that’s what she said. See, I can make those jokes too!).

If my Wendy icon here was ever appropriate. The LA Kings are easily the biggest disappointment in the NHL this year worse than Buffalo worse than Washington worse than anything. And their fans are at a point when, to paraphrase Frank Zappa, they don’t have anything to laugh at including themselves, so what the fudge? >:(

Because Tim Burton is remaking Frankenweenie into a full length feature, I just realized that I never watched the short! :O I’ve watched his Vincent short, but not the dog one, and I am pretty sure that I have it on my The Nightmare Before Christmas disc. Strange (why should it be?)

I don’t know what it is with me and parentheses these days.
Link2 Danced the Night Away|Dance

navigation
[ viewing | most recent entries ]
[ go | earlier ]