'Dog Connection' and Steven Seagal Movies

You know how some people say they feel so connected to their pet? Well, I can say the same thing, except I mean it literally. My dog and I are a dynamic duo, linked together through tubes and brain waves, we use our power to defeat evil (or create it, sometimes I forget what our mission statement specifies).

Otherwise, I am very excited, I have two Steven Seagal movies on tap from netflix. They are called 'Hard to Kill' and 'Out for Justice.' I haven't watched a classic bad movie in a long time, so I figured I could use a solid dose of Steven Seagal revenge style movies. These kind of movies are good for the soul.

Guest Post by Mariana: Movie Review of "The Remains of the Day"

So, I'd like to introduce you all to Mariana, she runs a wonderful blog called Gatochy's Blog. She usually posts about a variety of subjects, she always has interesting ideas, and she loves art, film, music... Today, she is writing a guest post here at my blog, it is a review of the movie "The Remains of the Day." Enjoy!

I accidentally caught a glimpse of 1993's "The Remains of the Day" on tv, and it made me realize a) why I hate it, and b) why Anthony Hopkins was picked to play Hannibal, the cold, psychotic criminal who eats people without raising his heart beat.

In "The Remains..." he's a stiff upper lip butler who works in a big mansion, and he has lots of employees under his charge, namely his own father and Emma Thompson, who is the housekeeper. In the IMDB page his character is defined as "A butler who sacrificed body and soul to service in the years before World War II (and) realizes too late how misguided his loyalty has been." But that is so misleading. There is no supressed emotion here -- there is no emotion here. Sacrificing his humanity or common decency is not something that was ever asked of him, or something that simply came with the job. He chose to do away with them all on his own because he genuinely didn't need them. He's a silent, quiet monster.

Example: his father is sick, and dies in his bed while a dinner party is going on. It's up to Emma to see Anthony in private to give him the bad news. His retort goes something like: "I see" or "I understand". How about "Hmmm" eh, Anthony? Emma asks him if he would like to see the body. Anthony says he's busy now, girlfriend, he'll see it laters. He uses the word perhaps, perhaps later. Perhaps? You mean there's a chance he may choose to not see his father later in the day? Remember she is not exactly inviting him for tea and scones. Saying not at this very moment, thank you, perhaps later, is not the apropriate response.

Now Emma is in the horrible position of having to ask Anthony for permission to close his father's eyes, to which Anthony acquiesces. Put yourself in her shoes: here you are, working in a household, and someone dies. All of a sudden it's up to you to touch a dead body, to close the eyes of this man who is essentially a stranger to you, like so many other to-do items on your list: clean the stairways, wash the dishes, close Anthony's dead father's eyes.... Not cool, Anthony, not cool. But Anthony is all, yes please Emma, if you would be so kind, because I am rather busy right now as you can see, I don't have time to see my father for the last time. You'd think there were no other employees who could stand around looking stiff in his place. It's not that it was necessary to ask that of Emma, or that he had any right to do so, he simply doesn't care about people.

For me this character just goes to prove you don't have to be a raving lunatic who eats people to be creepy. Just being this cold, autistic, shockingly inappropriate person is more than enough. Remember the butler in "The Shining"? He was another one. All he had to do was stand there talking about how he had corrrrrrected his wife and kids and he made you shiver to the bone.

Movie Review: Grindhouse

I went to the theater yesterday to see the movie Grindhouse. Honestly, I had zero expectations... believe it or not, I don't like all of Tarantino's movies, I mean, sure, I love Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, but I never really got into the Kill Bill movies. I don't know why, I would've thought they were right up my alley, but instead they just kinda bored me.

Anyways, Grindhouse was amazing! It was thrilling, exciting, just a blast to watch, I don't think I've ever been as entertained by a movie as I was by this one.

Basically it's two movies in one, the first part is a film directed by Robert Rodriguez, it's called Planet Terror. The opening scene takes place at a dance club and showcases the lovely Rose McGowan go-go dancing, certainly an auspicious beginning! So, the film is pretty much just a crazy zombie movie... the action is great, tons of crazy stuff happening... super extreme violence, which really didn't bother me because it's so overdone that the violence loses most of its usual meaning. And the film is really crisp, seamless, suspenseful, atmospheric, the dialogue is fun and great, the characters are wonderfully crazy and stylized... Weird stuff happens, like Rose McGowan's character loses a leg and gets a super-gun screwed in to take the place of her leg... did I mention that there are lots of needles in this movie, one attractive lady doctor has a reserve of needles which she wields like a carnival knife thrower. Cool. The film is just superb, the violence, visuals, humor, execution of the scenes, dialogue, it just doesn't get more perfect and fun than this.

The second film is directed by Quentin Tarantino and it's called Death Proof. After Rodriguez's film, I was doubtful this second part would be as good. Death Proof was different in style and content, but it was every bit as good! This movie involves young attractive women, a pyscho serial killer who kills young attractive women with his car, and car chases with said young attractive women and psycho serial killer, and constant references to the movie Vanishing Point, which I've never heard of... Anyways, Tarantino's film is less cartoony and less stylized than Rodriguez's film, and it's a little more focused on dialogue and not as visually stunning or violent in comparison to the Rodriguez flick, but it's just as cool and exciting... although, if forced to choose, I have to say Planet Terror was my favorite of the two films.

These films spoof tons of older films and are very silly but the spoofing and silliness never manage to overshadow the action, story, and atmosphere of the films. It's hard to be original and stick with your story when you are constantly spoofing crazy shit, sometimes a story loses all sense of meaning when that happens, but that never happens with these films, they are just too fresh, crazy, and fun!

And the craziest thing is that these films are so damn funny! I wish I could tell you about the end of Death Proof, I laughed so hard...

These movies have everything going for them, they are funny, filled with beautiful action, great dialogue (which would seem weird because it's very B movieish), awesome suspense and atmosphere, I mean, it's all good, all around! and to see these flicks back to back, how awesome is that, they work so well together.

I guess all I can say is that the film was masterful, absolutely positively masterful. Definitely one of my favorite films ever!

Blood Test. Ground Squirrel. Science of Sleep.

I went to get a blood test today. In the room where I had my blood drawn, there were huge glass windows and beyond those windows was a golf course. It's quite a nice looking course, weeping willows hanging over ponds and all that sort of stuff... and the sky looks so beautiful from this room, I don't know what it is about that view but it always amazes me. Maybe 'they' planned it that way, so I'd be distracted from the fact that someone was sadistically sticking needles in my arm while they laugh a laugh that sounds like it's coming from the depths of hell.

Anyhow. Guess what creatures I saw popping out of the ground at this golf course? Ground squirrels! They would pop out of their holes and calmly watch people play golf. They were quite funny, I wonder what those squirrels think of when they watch humans play golf. Maybe they think of nothing, or maybe they think the weather is hot and they hope the sprinklers will start up soon... Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to talk to the squirrels, I was in such a rush, I would've certainly asked them what they were thinking about.

In other news, I saw this amazing movie, Science of Sleep, I loved it! Definitely recommend it, although it isn't for everyone, it's not, well, I guess it's not very linear, within the movie things are always jumping back and forth from reality to dreams. One really cool thing about the movie is that it features Charlotte Gainsbourg, Serge Gainsbourg's daughter! Anyways, the film is really creative, beautiful, charming, and just plain fascinating. I like it just for the visuals, but it's also very lyrical and the acting is great, so check it out if you get a chance.

Here's a vid of Charlotte singing, never heard her stuff before, she's good...

A Memory. My American Film Experiences.

First off, I didn't plan on writing about sharks in this post yet that's what I ended up doing. I guess they fascinate me. Or maybe sharks control my brain, I really don't know.

I was relatively young when my family moved to the US.

The movie experience, particularly the American movie experience, was new to me, and it really blew my mind. The films I saw featured whole new worlds full of craziness and diabolical weirdness, lots of attractive women and demonic monsters, lots of pithy wordplay and characters embarking on harrowing yet successful endeavors... but I particularly enjoyed seeing all the attractive women on screen. And the monsters were cool too, but they didn't help my psyche very much.

You see, the American film experience is truly unique, at least it was at that point in time, before globalization had really walloped foreign film industries (I don't know how true that is, but it seems that way). Moreover, what added to the power of all these American movies I was seeing around 1989-90, was the fact that I was a naive little 7 year old whose viewing experiences consisted mostly of cartoons. The cartoons I had seen were shorts featuring the likes of Bugs Bunny (I always loved Bugs, but I did find his fondness for cross-dressing a little perplexing), Donald Duck, Daffy Duck (whose insane anger never ceased to amuse me, I always remember Daffy getting his beak blown off his head, I thought that was the pinnacle of hilarious, I still do), and Mickey Mouse (although I thought he was boring).

Little did I know how much contemporary American films would change my provincial outlook and form me into the demonic monster I am today. I've come a long way, that's for sure.

One of my first big screen experiences was Ghostbusters 2. Frankly, it was as terrifying a thing as I've ever seen, specially given how young and impressionable I was. I haven't ever seen the movie again, but I remember snippets from that first, traumatizing visual experience...

One thing I seem to remember from the movie were the monsters or ooze that would materialize out of faucets. I even think there was a scene where the bathtub faucet had ooze coming out of it. It was also around this time that I saw Jaws for the very first time. My cold hard intellectual reasoning quickly put 2 and 2 together and I realized the jaw-dropping potential catastrophes that could take place: not only could monsters and ooze could come out of faucets, but there was a huge potential that Jaws could come out of the faucet. This new fear began haunting me night and day, it smothered me, I couldn't go anywhere without worrying about sharks bursting out of faucets. Even the water fountain at school was a potential death trap. I tried warning my friends, but my broken English didn't allow me to properly convey the gravity of the situation.

My mind, once launched into these kaleidscopic visions, would imagine all sorts of frightening scenarios. One such scenario was the one where my parents would call for me, search for me, only to come upon my bloody bathtub, the murky water topped by a couple pieces of floating flesh, and maybe a jagged bone fragment here and there... Lord knows what they would have thought, I would've been too dead to explain that my demise came about from a shark monster that materialized out of the faucet. And I felt sad, I didn't want that to be their final memory of me, my blood in the bathtub, maybe a shark tooth embedded in a piece of my unrecognizable flesh, serving as a subtle clue that might allow my parents to figure out the godawful truth of my demise...

So after seeing Jaws and Ghostbusters 2 I never really could relax anymore when I was in the bathroom. In fact, the thought of Jaws or monsters coming out of household spigots haunts me to this day. And, needless to say, I'm insanely afraid of the ocean. And you know that grate in pools, the one at the bottom of the deep-end, well, it's connected to the ocean via a long pipe and Great Whites can travel through it and end up in any household pool at any given time (I know others believe this, I've come across an internet post or two that asserted this hideous truth). But the CIA doesn't want you to know this truth, and they've done a bloody good job at keeping it covered up (maybe you didn't notice, but we never heard again from those internet posters who asserted the truth). The CIA might even be right in smothering this awful truth, because the truth might be too hard to handle for most people (that's a Jack Nicholson allusion, I'm subtle like that). Hence, most of us live in ignorance, which is probably for the best.

Sheesh, that was a pretty standard conspiracy theory paragraph, sorry, I don't feel very original sometimes.

Ok, anyways, let me finish this because I don't know what I'm saying.

There is something good that came out of all this. My uncle, to this day, reminds me of the time he brought me and a friend to McDonalds. What we ordered for dessert and devoured with utter joy still perturbs him. My friend and I ordered green slime, you know, I think the Ghostbusters people had a deal with McDonalds at the time... so my friend and I ate this green slime dessert, it was probably just toxic waste covered in sugar... but it was sooooo yummy.

So in the end, the movie Ghostbusters 2 might have scared the crap out of me, but at least I got to enjoy some green slime. A happy ending. Yay!

Drawing. Movie. Books.

I'm posting another cartoony drawing... macabre, like usual :)

And I included a chainsaw in this drawing, I know many of you were unhappy with the lack of chainsaws in my drawings. I will try to ratchet up the level of violence in my future drawings. Well, maybe. That's not a promise.

I couldn't fall asleep last night because my head was hurting. So I passed the time watching a movie on tv. The movie was really silly, but it was great. Movie was called Transporter 2 or something of that nature. It was good fun, the villains were totally villainous and great, the love interest was very sexy, the dialogue was horribly horrible, and the action scenes were pretty ludicrous/terrible but somehow that added to the movie's charm.

Other than that, not much to report. I did start what seems to be a great book by a French author I've never read before (Francois Mauriac). There's a bunch of French writers from the 50s era I'd really like to get back into, been a while since I read that stuff. I'm especially looking forward to reading some Boris Vian novels, that guy is crazy great, at least the one book of his I read, L'ecume des Jours, was awesome... definitely recommend that novel, it's been translated in English so it shouldn't be too hard to find if you're interested. It's surreal and wild, but it's full of tragedy and despair too. I really need to reread it, but I don't have a copy of it anymore...

Anyways, hope everyone is having a great weekend! and enjoying the basketball.


My sister said I should change the background so I took her advice! but I'm having trouble coming up with the right color... Please, feel free to give me suggestions, any sort of change I should make in a drawing, or ideas for future drawings!

Leaving the House. Thoughts on the Movie Blood Diamond.

Whew, I'm really tired today, I did a lot of stuff (for me) yesterday.

I finally made it out the house (really!). I went to Borders, I just love wandering about and checking out all the temptations... But hey, I made it out without buying anything! I have certain suspicions that the Borders megacorporation called the CIA to order a hit on me, you know, put a couple of retributory bullets in my brain for not spending a cent in their store yet I still read tons of shit. I'm not scared though. Really, I'm not (can you tell I'm trying to convince myself, I'm really doing a shitty job of soothing my fraying nerves).

Anyways, I also went to a movie with some friends. We saw Blood Diamond, a movie starring a guy I used to call DiCrapio, but he was awesome in this movie, I got so much more respect for him than I did back in the day.

I was a bit worried Blood Diamond might get too preachy, or just be full of cliches... but overall the director did a great job, and the action was stellar, and like I said, DiCaprio was really great, and so were all the other actors. Of course there were some stupid parts, totally Hollywoodized, but hey, you'd have to be an idiot to not expect that sort of stuff!

I haven't seen The Departed, but it seems people are saying DiCaprio was even better in that flick.

Friday Music Fun. And a Clip From Trainspotting.

I was randomly surfing Youtube. First I found this song I love, it's called 'Sweet Pea.' Fantastic. Shoot, but I can't upload it in this post. Oh well. Anyways. Then I stumbled upon this scene from the movie Trainspotting, one of my favorite scenes of all time, haha it mostly features Begbie! And then thinking of that movie got me thinking about Blondie, and their song Atomic which some band covers in Trainspotting. And then thinking of Blondie made me think of their lead singer who reminds me of France Gall and Francoise Hardy. Who then made me think of Serge Gainsbourg (a total pervert!), who in turn reminded me of Frank Zappa. Did you need to know all that, why of course not! But that's what I'm here for, needless explanations. Uh, and I'm throwing in some other songs that I love, why? Well I suppose just for the hell of it!

Anyways here's some awesome vids:

Trainspotting Scene

Blondie-Atomic


Elton John-Saturday Night


France Gall-Les Sucettes


France Gall-Ali Baba Und Die 40 Rauber


Eazy E-Real Motherfuckin' Gs


Francoise Hardy


Francoise Hardy-Devi Ritornare


Devo-It's a Beautiful World

Francoise Hardy-La Maison Ou J'ai Grandi


Frank Zappa(not actually him though, some other guy, love this song)-Catholic Girls


Frank Zappa-Bobby Brown


Serge Gainsbourg-Je Suis Venu Te Dire


Serge Gainsbourg-Qui Est In, Qui Est Out


Serge Gainsbourg and FRANCE GALL!-Comic Strip

Hurray! More Scorpions in the House (Why Am I Still Living Here...)! Plus Painting Ideas, and a Line From the Movie Platoon

Please welcome the newest member of our family, he's in the foreground, big fat scorpion guy, he looks a little bleached out, must be from eating poisoned crickets. In the background is Scorpy the Scorpion, who, as you might remember, met his terrible fate a while back, a fate that included my dad pounding him into the ground with my sketchbook (uh, no, that's not bitterness there, just stating the facts!).

Fortunately this big fat scorpion was dead when we found him, Howard, our pest control guy who is so awesome by the way... Howard and I sometimes have these long winding conversations about life and everything, plus he's got a cool twirly Rollie Fingers/19th century moustache going. Anyways, I have a feeling this big fat scorpion died not directly from Howard's insecticide, since it is very difficult to poison scorpions directly, you must poison them by poisoning the food they eat, like crickets. Why do you need to know this, you don't, you are bashing your head into the keyboard because that was useless and excessive info which will most likely never serve a purpose in your life.

Ideas for Paintings

Anyways, I think this newest scorpion presents a much better specimen to do a painting of, although it's too bad he's a little bleached out, but that's kinda cool in a way.

I was thinking the other day about ideas for paintings when I'm better, I think it'd be fun to do some still lifes with a mixture of objects that have different surfaces and textures, like an old tv (painting the screen and reflections would be cool, heck, maybe I can find a broken tv who's screen is cracked) somehow juxtaposed with dog toys (I have no clue on the layout, but I'm thinking a conventional one might be interesting). What's cool about dog toys is all the teeth marks, little pieces hanging by a thread, and the infintesimal scratches and details... I think all those details and nicks and scratches will be fun to capture.

Movie: Platoon

On tv last night... Platoon! Only saw a snippet, but it was great, Tom Berenger, totally intense in this movie telling a wounded soldier, 'Take the pain!' Sounded like a real sadist... but Berenger's so good in his role, I think that line about taking the pain will repeat itself inside of my head whenever I'm having bad headaches... Unfortunately I missed the part of the movie where they smoke opium out of a shotgun, I saw the movie years ago back in high school, but I always fondly remembered that part!

Dog Problem and a Movie You Should See

Dog Problem

Bad news. Very bad news. Rambo (our dog as most of already know) is awesome, but he has one little problem. Ok, it's not little, it's freakin' colossal, huge, monsterous, brobdignagian...

Actually, I just decided I can't write about this problem. It's too troubling, disturbing, terrible, it will give you all nightmares...

I'll tell you about another more mundane problem he is causing. He likes to chew on things, and this isn't so bad I guess, most puppies like to chew on things. But he keeps trying to eat my books and magazines, and sometimes when he gets lucky he's able to capture a shoe from my room and make it down the hall without my noticing. Well, he's not so villainous, he could be a lot worse, the only troubling thing is the unmentionable problem, but when you put it in perspective it's probably not all that bad. Sorry, none of this made sense, some day, maybe I will be able to find the words to explain the colossal evil problem that haunts Rambo, but it is still too fresh in my mind...

Although Rambo's unknown 'problem' may cause you to wonder if he may not in fact be an unscrupulous evil tyrant, I will vehemently proclaim that Rambo is most certainly not any of the following things: serial killer, talk show host, rapist, drug smuggler, narcotics agent, illegal immigrant, border patrol agent, money launderer, backstabbing fiend, mobster, embezzler, stealer of identities, internet hacker, government spy, avid fisherman, arms dealer, ally of the evil Duckbill Platypuses, hockey player, spy for the Kremlin, designer of faulty chairs, Ford company CEO, terrorist, nor is he an ardent destroyer of private property. Ok, that last one is a big fat lie, he loves destroying the shit out of private property!!! I hope that lie doesn't throw my other assertions under greater scrutiny...

Movie: Running Scared

I saw this movie yesterday, it was awesome. Sure it was a little silly at times, and I thought the acting wasn't always great, but it's a great flick, reminds me of Sin City, chock full of action and violence! Crazy pimps, hookers, child pornographers, undercover cops, bombs, knife fights, car crashes, sleazy mobsters, lots of gunplay, this movie has it all!

I SAW BOND!!!

Bond Movie: Casino Royale

So, what did I think? First off, I'm thankful they did away with all the gadget nonsense, freakin' fluff is what that was!

Well, the intro scene was the best, with Bond and bad guy jumping off one crane to another, running around kinda parkour style, and it was filmed in a really cool way, so I loved that beginning! Other than that, the movie was so so I thought. Definitely very gritty at times, and damn, the torture scene was, well, let's just say I WILL be having nightmares about that. Cracked me up that the bad guy was a French guy named 'Le Chiffre'!!!! I thought Daniel Craig was good, I feel like the cameramen focused so much on his eyes, I could freakin' paint them from memory if I had to... Craig does make for a great Bond.

Ok, you can stop reading at this point if you haven't seen the movie, I divulge important information. Sorry goes out to Shaymus, I have already ruined his Bond viewing experience.

Anyways, I have a feeling some parts were seriously edited, like, where the hell was a classic car chase, come on, in that sweet Aston Martin, how could you not film such a scene? Plus the poker game, there were some really weird cuts that made no sense to me. And gaaawwwdd, this movie was boring at times, the ending, I mean, do I need to see the girl literally drowning, you know, that's just weird (maybe you dug that part, I didn't). I think they were trying to be very visceral, but sometimes I just felt they were being very brutal and gritty with no reason. Style for style's sake is cool, but when substance is lacking, it gets a bit tiresome. Hell, it's a Bond, so what can you expect. It's a good Bond nevertheless, but I've definitely seen a lot better action flicks than this one.

The New Bond Promises to be Murderifically Marvelous

I feel very awake at the moment. You need to know this. I don't know why.

I didn't see a movie yesterday, today might be the day the movie event happens. Most likely we will be seeing a violent movie that is needlessly murderific, with a visual feast that includes huge multi-million dollar expensive explosions, shootouts with blood flowing as freely as wine in the Garden of Eden (see Bosch's painting for reference point, actually this has nothing to do with anything), monsters that eat little kids, psycho dogs with rabies frothing at the mouth breaking into people's homes and eating the stuff in their fridge, super evil villains who are so demonic and crazy and use these mind blowingly intricate sadistic (is that redundant?) torture methods I will have constant nightmares about them in the months to follow, car chases so deliriously hilarious that I will want to blow $80,000 on a new car just so I can trash it as exactly as I saw it happen in the film, and lots of sexy scenes with women who are so unbelievably faked up with make up and sooo skinny I can barely perceive their oh so beautiful presence, oh, oh wait wait, of course there also needs to be lots of drugs and drug dealing super-villains with funky foreign accents and fancy designer eyeglasses that I will need to purchase a pair so I can act as intellectually villainous as the villains I've witnessed on screen...

Yes, I expect many things from the new Bond movie, I really do. My faith is rock solid, I'm sure this movie will fulfill all my expectations and more. Hmmm, yes, I do so love the simple pleasures in life, although I do tend to get carried away in my excitement...

I mentioned torture scenes, I'm not actually a great fan of that, although now that I'm thinking about it, it brings to mind this painting that I really like, it's by David Gerard, quite an insane and gruesome piece... but really beautifully painted!

The Judgement of Cambyses

What Movie To See? Gassehnauer Song, Plus Two Music Videos Featuring Zakir Hussain, Plus Art Links

Ok, I don't have much news to report. Hmmm, if I feel ok I think I might see a movie with some friends, either The Departed, but I really want to see the new Bond, or that movie Happy Feet (my sister told me about it, there's like, dancing penguins! Did you know I'm a sucker for animated penguins?!).

Music Stuff

Check out this song over at Stuff on Fire, it's called Gassehnauer. I LOVE IT!

I also found these crazy cool videos on youtube. The first video features the tabla playing Zakir Hussain, accompanied by a guy on Japanese drums. Second video is Zakir Hussain doing a solo.

Art Stuff

If you haven't checked out Bibi's Box yet, you should! She just posted on a couple artists that are worth checking out. The artists include the sculptor Edouard Martinet, and also the mesmerizing work of Marco Guerra and Yasmina Alaoui, who work along the lines of body art that includes intricate arabesque designs, just incredibly beautiful patterns!

My Thoughts On Borat, And a Movie I'd Like To See

Quick Thoughts on Borat

I saw Borat this weekend with my dad. It was nice making it out of the house, I've really only been leaving to go to doctors' appointments! Anyways, the movie was pretty good, I thought it sort of lost steam about half way through, but I completely expected that. With this kind of movie, the schtick can get tiring, and although it never quite reaches that point, there are times where it gets a little boring. Overall there were some great scenes, stuff that made me laugh like I've never laughed before, and the same goes for my father, I think he was crying he was laughing so hard. I was really happy that Borat got a bear, it made me think about how we should all have pet bears. Not the vicious man eating bears, but domesticated unicyle riding bears (or is that just demeaning...).

The reason this movie is interesting, once you get past the mastery of improvisational comedy, is the fact that Borat unmasks people so quickly and effortlessly, showing what people think, what makes them tick, and what kind of wacky prejudices they harbor. I find it highly ironic that it was the government of Kazakhstan that complained so furiously over this film (did they ban it?), when the true target in terms of criticism is the US. We're lucky to live in a country where such a wacky, subversive?, sort of film can be made, and not only that, but make boatloads of money too!

Movie: District B13

I've seen videos of people doing Parkour, a sort of urban ballet where you try to pass obstacles in the fastest way possible, but I've never seen it integrated into a movie. This clip is from the movie District B13, some of the shots in this action sequence are astounding, I'd love to see how they set up the cameras, must've been tricky. Definitely going to have to rent this film.

Quick Thoughts on Walk the Line, and I Need Advice for Making T-Shirts and a Website

I Forgot

I forgot last night was the season opener for the NBA, and fortunately I missed it because the Phoenix Suns got picked apart by the Lakers. No sense drowning myself in alcohol and pills over this thing... Actually, it's really not a bad excuse to do some careless womanizing and mind blowing drugs. That creak you heard was me popping open my desk drawer where... Actually I can't tell you about that, since the government is watching me, don't want them hitting up my door in 20 minutes with their flashy badges, super sharp suits, fancy sunglass wearing, frowny looking faces. Not to mention the fact that they have guns... Cooooooollll, I love gun play...

Walk the Line

I did watch a movie I'd been meaning to see for a long time, Walk the Line, which was quite good, but you know, the stuff with all the drugs and everything, it was kinda sad to me, but it's good to know in the grand scheme of things everything turned out pretty ok for Johnny Cash. His music is really unbelievable, he's one of the few singers whose songs I can truly feel, they're very powerful. I'd like to see a movie made about him that spans a greater part of his career, something with a little more arc to it.

I did like Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash, thought he did a good job, takes some dedication to try and sing like Johnny Cash for a movie. I love that scar he has above his lip, don't know how he got it but I think it's pretty cool. I got this feeling he's probably a very intense person in real life.

Johnny Cash Singing 'Ring of Fire'

Can Anyone Give me Advice on Making a Website and T-Shirts

So, now that I've been starting to feel better I've been thinking about a couple of things I'd like to do. First major thing I need to do is set up a website for my art. Does anybody have any recommendations on the best way to get this done, I have a friend who's willing to do it, and not for much money, but I'm not sure he's very good at the design aspect. Also, once you have someone set up a site, is it easy to do your own updates, instead of having someone else do it for you? I already have the domain and everything, all I need is to set something up.

As for the t-shirts, I was thinking it'd be fun to make shirts with little monster characters. A good way of going about it seems something like this site, Printmojo, but I've never done anything like this, so if anyone has any advice on this let me know. The quality of the shirts is important to me. So, I don't know if I should get shirts printed locally or through the internet...

A More Grisly Header? and the movie Sea of Love

1.Working on the Header
I'm still fiddling around with this header, fortunately I've been feeling well enough to work in photoshop! I'm making it more gory, because I think that's what we all want, more violence, blood, guts, etc... We love that stuff. I guess with this new header my site probably got bumped up to an R rating. Anyways, more ideas are always welcome. Maybe I'll change one of the people out from the picture and instead include a rabid dog eating a human leg, as Shaymus mentioned. Not sure if I can pull it off, but certainly worth a try. Ah, the myriad ways I amuse myself!

2. Movie: Sea of Love
I was able to catch huge chunks of this movie last night, but sadly I missed some parts because of phone calls. Without even realizing it I found myself immersed in the story and completely engrossed with the characters. Al Pacino is amazing(as usual), and the mood and atmosphere of the film were amazingly well constructed. I hope this is on tv sometime, because I need to see the whole thing. This movie has a film-noir sort of feel to it, which I love, and if you couple that with a great actor like Pacino, well, you just can't go wrong. John Goodman was in this movie, and he's also excellent. Anyways, I highly recommend this film even though I didn't see all of it :)

Herbie: Fully LOADED!!!!

Ok, I only saw a couple minutes of this movie, but, yes, oh my god, I have to say it was amusing. I really like Matt Dillon and Lindsay Lohan wasn't so bad. Granted I felt terrible and my judgement tends to get thrown out of whack when I'm not at my most tippity toppedness. Maybe I'm just using that as an excuse, maybe I genuinely enjoyed this movie. Whaddya think about that?

Please God, let it be a fluke. Has my sense of discrimination been blowed up? Am I too lenient in judgement, or just flat eccentric, or is it plain stupidity? Ahhhh, I suppose we'll never know. And no, that is not an invitation for people to answer that question, because I for one place enormous, unbelievable, unheard of, monsterously obscene value in my ability to judge whatever it is that must be judged, so this whole thing is a flippin' fluke.

Shoot me. Shoot me now. I really did like it.

Film: Au Revoir Les Enfants

The main reason I've even been thinking about the World War II period, other than the video I just posted, was that I recently saw the movie Au Revoir Les Enfants.

The story takes place at a Catholic boarding school in France during the Nazi occupation. I really got into this movie, although I wouldn't call this the greatest movie ever. The thing that resonates is the innocence of all the children involved, that events far out of their reach or control are shaping their lives in ways they can't even imagine.

This movie serves as a remind of how difficult life must have been in those days. Moreover, I think it's an extremely shameful part of French history that should not be forgotten.

I don't know very much about common everyday things of this era. I know about the fighting, leadership roles, and those sorts of things, but not so much the human stories, except for the Jewish people. I'd like to read about how the Germans coped during this time, how the French lived, how did Londoners live their lives in the midst of air raids... There was suffering on all sides, and enough shame and sorrow to spread all around.

Movie: Les Felins and other things

Today I got to hang out with a really good friend who's in town for a little while. I didn't feel too tired overall, so that was a nice time.

Clear and Present Danger was on earlier in the day, I really wanted to watch that, but instead I spent my time reading. Damn, what a waste right? I only got to see the part where they blow up the drug dealer's house. I wanted to see the part where those guys on the roof pop out of nowhere and start launching rockets. Cool stuff. I've never seen the whole movie, I doubt it's all that amazing, but for some reason I think I'd really dig it.

Later, I watched part of this old French movie, Les Felins. I thought it might be decent, it has Alain Delon in it who I usually enjoy. But this movie was bad, just really heavy-handed, lots of silliness, but not in a good way. No redeeming qualities, except it had some good looking women in bikinis. That is it. Throw in some rocket launchers and drug dealers and maybe I'll mark it up a notch in my book.

Miami Vice

It was great leaving the house. Getting to see Miami Vice was cool, unfortunately it wasn't quite as amazing as I had hoped. I liked the atmosphere in this film, and the tension was good. But the movie and shots were too disjointed and shaky for my tastes, too many close-ups, but most importantly, there weren't enough gunfights. The one at the end was pretty good though. Generally what I'm asking for in a movie like this is 2 superb, over the top gunfights, plus one or two more middling episodes of destruction. Anyways, it was still a good way to spend an afternoon. No regrets.