March 31, 2008

Watching:
The only movie I watched this week was The NeverEnding Story. Wondering what those kids are up to these days? Barret Oliver (Bastian) hasn't done anything since 1989. Noah Hathaway (Atreyu) will be in Troll next year... and then there's this.

Reading:
I haven't really been reading anything this week. I've been mad busy, and have barely been home since last Monday. This post is shaping up pretty freaking weak.

Listening:
Morphine. Bluesy, rock and roll, like nothing else. Vocals smooth and dark as black strap molasses. If Mark Sandman were just a little older, I'd swear he was spawned during the Boston Molasses Disaster. I'm tempted to compare the band's music to drunken sex, but what particular qualities about it draw that comparison, I cannot put my finger on.
"Sandman's primary instrument was a two-string bass guitar (with both strings usually tuned to the same note) played with a slide... Colley played primarily baritone saxophone, and he sometimes played two saxes at once." (thank you, Wikipedia)
"I propose a toast to my self control
You see it crawling helpless on the floor
Someday there'll be a cure for pain
That's the day I throw my drugs away"
Morphine - Cure For Pain

March 24, 2008

Watching:
V for Vendetta: I attempted to watch this movie once when it first came out, but fell asleep. Re-watching it now, I'm not sure what that was all about, because I rather enjoyed it. Yes, there's a special soft spot in my movie-watching heart for comic book movies and sci-fi, but I thought it was a good comic book to movie transliteration. It was the type of sci-fi I enjoy too, a story that's not only physically viable, but easy to foresee (isn't that supposed to be the point of sci-fi?). PS: If you think The Matrix was the best sci-fi movie of our time, crawl out from under your rock and watch Equilibrium.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: Tuesday night I had a migraine, and when I feel like doodoo, I put this in and fall asleep, which is exactly what I did. I still love the crap out of this movie, it's familiar and comfortable and I know all the words to all the songs, and no I don't think the Child Catcher is scary.
Monster House: Suncoast is the devil. Half-price sales and whatnot. But all the same, this movie is a modern classic, which isn't *really* appropriate for children anyway, with the dead people and drinking and all. The cast is great; it isn't a bunch of 'voice talent' actors, it's genuinely good actors (Steve Buscemi, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Catherine O'Hara), and the animation and directing are artistic and very well-done. My only complaint is all the fat jokes directed at Chowder. Come on, the name was tolerable, but why perpetuate that kind of idea in a kids' movie?
3,000 Miles to Graceland: Action movie with B-list actors as Elvis impersonators. The 'bad' actors get killed off first (Christian Slater, David Arquette), but the movie is quick to introduce new characters that had me saying "really? seriously?" like Jon Lovitz and Ice-T (don't get me wrong, I like Jon Lovitz, but an action movie isn't really his place). If you liked it, check out Shoot 'Em Up, it was equally bad, or as my brother said 'good for what it was,' which is pretty much all you can say about Graceland, too.
Short Circuit: Classic, classic, classic. I don't know anyone that doesn't enjoy this movie. It's been ages since I'd seen it, so I'd forgotten most of it, so lines like "I am sporting a tremendous woody" still sound funny. Watch it with your childhood friends, but maybe not your kids.

Reading:
Just picked up Jesus : an interview across time : a psychiatrist looks at his humanity but haven't started reading it yet. I'm not even sure what it's about since there's no info anywhere on the net, including on my library's webpage, which is where I got it. The topic itself sounded intriguing though, so we'll see how that goes...
Still reading The 8 Essential Traits of Couples Who Thrive but I'm on the second half now, which is always the point that I kinda slack off on the reading. I could use "I've been really busy" as an excuse, but that list of movies invalidates it.

Listening:
Magnet (aka Even Johansen). He's great. Mellow, sincere, I'd classify it as 'shoegaze' maybe, you might call it 'indie.' Great for chilling on a rainy day or falling asleep to. Also, he covers 'Lay Lady Lay' with Gemma Hayes, which is just freaking fantastic.
"With your heart in the future and your head in the past, there's nothing in between that's gonna last"
Magnet - The Gospel Song

Post Number One! (Mar 17 2008)

So I'm starting this new blog, and we'll see how it goes. My goal is to post once a week, and possibly after a while on the same day every week (Monday probably). I'll be talking about what movies I'm watching, what books I'm reading (or avoiding reading), maybe what books I'd like to read, and what music I can't stop listening to.

Watching:
The Lives of Others: set in East Germany in the 80's, a "political thriller and human drama" (usually both descriptions that make me not watch a movie, but I don't really read the backs of dvd boxes)... one Stasi officer is listening in on the life of a writer and gets a little caught up. Which is a shite description, but it's a quite good movie; I really enjoyed it.
The Pianist: Ok, so I realize I'm probably like the last person in the world to watch this movie, but I knew it was really long and I have a short attention span and it didn't really seem that interesting etc. But I picked it up because I had watched pretty much everything else in my brother's movie collection, and I managed to watch it in one sitting. Besides being a little long and drawn out, it was pretty interesting for one more movie about Jewish genocide, which if that's a topic you like, I could give you a whole list of recommended titles, cause I feel like I've seen them all. Life is Beautiful is probably a good place to start...
The Flower of Evil: I should have read the description on the back of the box. "Anne runs for re-election to the town council, shepherded by Matthieu, her fellow candidate and campaign manager. Her husband, Gérard, a businessman and philanderer, hates the campaign and feels vindication when a nasty leaflet circulates about their family history. His son, François, just back from the U.S., is in love with his step-sister Michèle, and she with him, although something is amiss besides their being cousins. Watching it all is their elderly Aunt Line, who has her own haunting memories. A death in World War II and a death on election night collapse time in the perpetual present and bring unexpected expiation. There's a lot to celebrate." Sounds interesting in a boring kind of way, eh? Yeah, by the time it got to the climax, the movie was over and I had already fallen asleep. I finished the movie another night, then couldn't remember if I'd finished it; it was that un-memorable.
For the Bible Tells Me So: an interesting documentary about Christianity and homosexuality, and the co-mingling of the two. To me, most of what was presented was pretty much old hat, but my mom and brother found it very interesting and loaded with new info. If you're already familiar with this movie and enjoyed it, you should check out Trembling Before G-d, directed by Sandi Simcha DuBowski, and occasionally playing on the Sundance channel. It's a similar concept, except that it follows Orthodox Jews who are gay, which I find a little more interesting since they follow the letter of the law waaaaaay more than Christians do. Which reminds me, check out THIS website.
Ghost World: My brother happened to rent this, and I was bored and thought it'd be better to re-watch Ghost World than Van Wilder. Good choice, obviously. The humor is classic, in that high school funny, but not immature funny kind of way, and the sound track is just phenomenal. The cast is stellar: the always fantastic Steve Buscemi, gorgeous Thora Birch (Thora Birch's boobs in Ghost World: amazing. Thora Birch's boobs now: ehhh.), Scarlet Johansson (no worse than usual), and Illeana Douglas (whose name I can never remember, but she's unforgettable as always). I didn't realize that Art School Confidential was also by Terry Zwigoff (director) and Daniel Clowes (writer); that movie seems to be in a whole different category than Ghost World... I don't really have much good things to say about it; I thought it was a yawn-fest with tired jokes.
If you wanna nerd it up with another great comic book movie (one that doesn't suck anyway), check out American Splendor.

Reading:
I had been reading The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill, which was very interesting, but then the Garden Show started and I didn't have time to read it, and it was due back at the library and I didn't feel like renewing it again. It's about the psychology of murder (from an evolutionary psychologist's background), so as far as I got, people mainly kill because of baby-making. Hopefully I'll be finishing it at some point, cause psychology + murder = pretty freakin interesting to me.
Currently reading.... ok, I admit, I was a little embarrassed and hesitant to post this one, but it's The 8 Essential Traits of Couples Who Thrive. Effing embarrassing, I know, but I totally suck at interpersonal relationships, and there's no time like the present to learn how to not be a total screw-up, ya know? So, for what it is, it's pretty interesting. Admittedly, I didn't realize it was a book for married people, but the info wouldn't really be that different for couples who aren't married (at least so far in the book). It works from the viewpoint that long term relationships aren't destined to be boring, stifling things that cramp your style, and there's no reason to go into them expecting that.
I'm still kind of reading The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible, which I really need to finish because everyone wants to borrow it (sorry, everyone). It's good, and not as boring as you'd expect, being a book about following every written law in the Bible. It's actually more about the author's 'journey' through the Bible than the Bible and its laws directly. So I'm not sure why I'm dragging my feet on finishing this one, but I'd really like to get to the end before I forget what the beginning was about.

Listening:
*Arrah and the Ferns*
Seriously, check them out. Folksy-ish pop-ish with (usually) a girl (Arrah Fisher) singing leads. Their one and only cd, Evan is a Vegan was released in 2006 and is spectacular and has been on repeat on my iTunes for like a week. The lyrics are somewhat adolescent (including a reference or two to myspace), but on that same token, innocent and clean and even poetic...
"You and I, we lay like fireflies
retired from those summer nights
All bottled up as victims of our child's play
And when we laugh the walls are muted by our existence
Should I be a bit more persistent when I ask you to stay over?"
Arrah and the Ferns - Skylark