Saturday, November 3rd, 2007
I really enjoy musicals, but I’m a bit of a snob for “book musicals.” I like The Sound of Music, but the original John Waters Hairspray and High School Musical were disappointments because all of the song and dance routines are ancillary to the plot. West Side Story is the perfect antidote for those films. The plot advances more through dance than through song, which is fine because the choreography is great. It’s a very 60s movie (Austin Powers, mod 60s; not hippies 60s), which kinda slapped me in the face at first, but I quickly came to like that aspect of the production.
This movie is a classic for good reason and highly recommended if you like musicals. I could easily watch it again.
Monday, October 15th, 2007
I don’t have the time or energy that I used to devote to finding new music, but I have found a few blogs to help me out. The interwebs (or at least the little corner I monitor) have been all afire lately over The Black Kids, so I wasn’t going to write about them. But then I actually listened, and I was blown away. It’s been a long time since I’ve had that sort of visceral reaction to music on the first listen, so long that I can’t remember when it was. Check out The Black Kids on MySpace—you can download their whole EP for free.
The other band that I’m in love with at the moment is White Rabbits. I would describe them as sounding kinda like Interpol. Apparently they have two drummers, which is pretty cool. I have some tracks, including live ones, I got somewhere, but Hype Machine is being a bitch right now so I can’t find the links. White Rabbits does have free MP3s on their MySpace, so you can check them out that way.
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
There’s such a long list of dystopian sci-fi films and books that it’s hard to determine exactly where THX1138 falls in the overall scheme of things. It borrows heavily from Brave New World and 1984, but it also is reminiscent of Metropolis, The Island, and The Matrix. Except that all of those things are good—okay, not The Island, but it at least had explosions and good chases.
For whatever reason, the subtitles turned themselves on about five minutes into the movie, and that was a good thing. I could understand all the soft-spoken parts (there are a lot) as well as the background vocals (there are a lot of disembodied announcer, too), which helped me to understand a lot more about what was going on in terms of both the plot and the future society in general.
Taken solely on its own merits, THX1138 would be a forgotten film. It’s preserved solely by another small film made by the same director a few years later. Ultimately, it’s only a footnote.
Thursday, October 4th, 2007
Darths & Droids is a webcomic that posits, What if the Star Wars saga were actually the campaign of a long-suffering GM? Then it explores the answer using screen-caps from the movies (starting with The Phantom Menace). If you’re a gaming geek or a Star Wars geek—or, like me, both—then check it out. If you’re my wife, just keep reading.
Monday, October 1st, 2007
I’m not a big fan of lists or countdowns that are “The Best Whatever as Voted by YOU.” The entries are generally all top-notch, but what’s number one is such a matter of personal preference that I always end up being disappointed. So with that preamble, I have to say that the Top 50 Dystopian Movies hits all the right notes, although I may not necessarily agree with the actual rankings themselves. The honorable mentions are also great.
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007
First, there’s a book for introducing adolescent girls—girly girls, at that—to Dungeons & Dragons. If John Baichtal’s anecdote is any indication, it seems to be able to accomplish it’s mission. Moreover, Wil Wheaton’s teen son seems to have something going with a hot D&D girl at his school.
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
I recently downloaded pilots for some of this fall’s new tv shows from Amazon Unbox to watch on my TiVo. I’ve used the Amazon service before, so that’s a story for another time. But the shows I watched ran the gamut from the worst to the best of what television offers.
Continued reading >
Saturday, March 31st, 2007
Caroline was out of town for a baby shower last weekend, and that gave me the chance to catch up on my shows, including Lost (although I still haven’t seen this week’s episode yet). My constant fear—and debate topic with other fans of the show—is that the producers and the network, in an effort to milk a successful show for every last ounce of profit, will drag it out way past its prime, much like The X-Files. If the recent episodes are any indication, the writers are already starting to run out of gas.
Continued reading >
Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
I’m fascinated by movies that are structurally more like literature than cinema. SLC Punk is a good example: it’s highly non-linear yet easy to follow, and it reveals the protagonist’s inner thoughts (not with an annoying voiceover, but by cleverly breaking the fourth wall). Oscar-nominated Little Miss Sunshine similarly feels like a work of literature rather than one of film.
Continued reading >