May 2008
28 posts
watching “The Sopranos” (6:10 - Moe N’ Joe) w/ @Natterjack, drinking pomegranate cocktails w/ Italian-style Amish popcorn.
thinking the timing and casting in film adaptation of “The House of Yes” was mostly off. (maybe it’s just better on stage.) Bujold is okay.
watching Hitchcock’s “Rich and Strange” (1931), a transitional talkie film laden with vestigial silent film techniques & lackluster dialog.
watching Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes” amused by how, 70 years later, all sexual innuendo — and lack of — is absolutely backwards.
Speed Racer: like a videogame, designed by children, stuck in “attract mode” for 2 hours, like the cartoons to which it pays slavish homage.
could the next film fail to be any better?
10,000 BC: a pseudo proto-biblical prehistoric heroic adventure romance, with more conviction & anachronisms than energy. induces sleep.
like any third rate afterschool anime, “Speed Racer” simply fails as a motion picture, because the pictures fail to tell its simple story.
nothing spices up a second rate motion picture like seeing it at a drive-in! http://twitter.com/HearthHill/statuses/819119692
Emily Mortimer as Karin Lindstrom is the brilliant north star in the shining and perfectly cast constellation of “Lars and the Real Girl”.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: the latest amusement park ride in this ongoing high budget homage to low budget serials.
the longest continuously operating movie theater in the U.S. is The Robey, in the small town of Spencer, WV. http://www.robeytheatre.com
Lars and the Real Girl: the believable population casting this tale of sweet delusion makes this old cynic kinda like people. brilliant sap.
sitting down in America’s oldest continually operating movie theater, perhaps in it’s longest continually used seat.
listening to “Yours Truly Johnny Dollar” on WAMU. http://del.icio.us/mykltrappler/YoursTrulyJohnnyDollar
wondering if Tarantino is a has-been as a director, and out of original or fresh ideas.
Rodriguez’s “Planet Terror” is 10 time more inventive, stylistic & entertaining than “Death Proof”. higher budget? http://twurl.nl/l7g6zd
troubleshooting a balky rear screen projector.
today: configuring, normalizing & resetting 12 interactive kiosks + 10 plasma displays + 120” touchscreen + demo suite + presentation suite.
Tarantino’s “Death Proof” (part 1 “Grindhouse” double feature): if you bother, stick thru lame 1st act for tolerable 2nd. great soundtrack.
season 1 of “This American Life” on television thoroughly underwhelmed. will they rise to their radio show’s high standards in season 2?
finally watched “Once”: very much moved by the cast and music. not crazy about the constant Steadicam. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907657
how did such neutral nouns as “singer” and “songwriter” become a musical genre? why haven’t songWRITERS risen up with a better catchphrase?
wrapping up “Six Feet Under” season 3 with “Twilight” and now “I’m Sorry, I’m Lost”.
watching “Six Feet Under” season 3’s “Death Works Overtime”.
my inner child, suckled on the glass teat, gapes at brilliant and sublime television like seeing a spell, a magical fairy story, impossible.
watching “Six Feet Under” season 3’s “Everyone Leaves”. (Amazon http://urltea.com/2wpq)
tempted to observe loose parallels between the wildly distinct careers of Orson Wells and @IraGlass.