Current Tunes: Converge - Last Light
Nothing major to see here today folks. Just saying a friendly goodbye to the year 2009 and preparing myself for a new set of 365 days to better my life with.
This past year has been a major growing period. About two years ago when I first started grad school, I knew I would do a lot of growing, and it's so encouraging that I have. Not that things were easy at all, and not that I'm a great person now, but improvement is something to be sincerely grateful for. I still have lots of work to do.
This was pretty much my last year spent outside "the real world," that place where your career really comes into focus and becomes such a pivotal part of defining your life. The time for carefree partying and slacking is drawing down to an end. True responsibility is just around the corner. While in the past the thought may have been frightening, I have learned to master that fear and instead embrace it openly and happily.
See you all in 2010, may it be a prosperous year for all of you.
31 December 2009
30 December 2009
StagNATION: A Decade of Backward Steps in U.S. Politics
Current Tunes: Doomriders – Crooked Path
Looking around the web for the past few days, lots of news outlets are putting up cute little features about the past decade in politics, and it seems like most of them have a quite negative view of the past ten years. Rightly so, I’d say.
Ever since 2000 we’ve been given barely any reason at all to believe in our leaders. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m only talking about Dubya here either. It’s everyone. There’s been what seems like a literal avalanche of contemptible behavior in the American political landscape. There was the Valarie Plame incident, the failure of John Kerry, the impotency of the Democratic Congress (under Bush AND Obama), the heinousness of Jack Abramoff, the torture of Abu Ghraib & Guantanamo, illegal wiretapping. It’s been a played-out joke for a while now, but to say that it all makes me wish for the days of Bill Clinton isn’t so much of a joke anymore. And I don’t like Clinton at all.
Perhaps the most disheartening thing about all of this is it’s not like this is just me being Sad Sally about our system. Everyone is pissed off. The whole country knows its getting screwed over left and right and this feeling didn’t just start yesterday or anything. It’s been building since midway through the decade. A lot of people thought the answer for all the negativity and corruption of Washington was Barack Obama, and I hate to break it to you, but he’s not the answer at all.
In my view, there are a few very specific causes of the majority of problems with the operation of our government. The foremost of them being the Democratic and Republican political parties. These two parties are meant to serve as opposing sides of a system that hinges on a very tight balance. Instead of acting as a liaison between their candidates and the people who they will represent, they are in actuality and facilitator between candidates and pure power. That’s what the political parties truly care about. They don’t care about classes, or demographics, or regions. They care about running the show, those other things are just keys to their end goal.
Another main key for the parties to keeping control is the second major cause of our government’s ineptitude: corporate sponsorship and lobbying. Every politician, every single one (except maybe independent/socialist senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont) has taken money from large corporations and they depend on them to fund their campaigns. They listen to those companies more than they listen to actual people.
Electing Obama didn’t address either of these issues at all. Obama took money from major corporations and he’s indebted to the Democratic Party, obviously. So the system marches on, free to continue exploiting their unbelievable power and influence to benefit only themselves. Significant progress will happen when the parties reform (fat chance, I say) or a new 3rd party establishes itself as meaningful and influential enough to back an alternative campaign and set of policies. A noteworthy 3rd party I think could happen, if people would wake up and stop blindly following the Republicans and Democrat parties all the way off the cliff.
It’s been a very uncomfortable ten years of politics for me. As the years went on and things became more and more corrupt, the more disgusted and apathetic I became about it. A decade ago, I had a fierce, decisive viewpoint on any topic but was still willing to listen to opposing sides. Now I just don’t care; or I do care but I find it hard to do anything about it.
Looking around the web for the past few days, lots of news outlets are putting up cute little features about the past decade in politics, and it seems like most of them have a quite negative view of the past ten years. Rightly so, I’d say.
Ever since 2000 we’ve been given barely any reason at all to believe in our leaders. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m only talking about Dubya here either. It’s everyone. There’s been what seems like a literal avalanche of contemptible behavior in the American political landscape. There was the Valarie Plame incident, the failure of John Kerry, the impotency of the Democratic Congress (under Bush AND Obama), the heinousness of Jack Abramoff, the torture of Abu Ghraib & Guantanamo, illegal wiretapping. It’s been a played-out joke for a while now, but to say that it all makes me wish for the days of Bill Clinton isn’t so much of a joke anymore. And I don’t like Clinton at all.
Perhaps the most disheartening thing about all of this is it’s not like this is just me being Sad Sally about our system. Everyone is pissed off. The whole country knows its getting screwed over left and right and this feeling didn’t just start yesterday or anything. It’s been building since midway through the decade. A lot of people thought the answer for all the negativity and corruption of Washington was Barack Obama, and I hate to break it to you, but he’s not the answer at all.
In my view, there are a few very specific causes of the majority of problems with the operation of our government. The foremost of them being the Democratic and Republican political parties. These two parties are meant to serve as opposing sides of a system that hinges on a very tight balance. Instead of acting as a liaison between their candidates and the people who they will represent, they are in actuality and facilitator between candidates and pure power. That’s what the political parties truly care about. They don’t care about classes, or demographics, or regions. They care about running the show, those other things are just keys to their end goal.
Another main key for the parties to keeping control is the second major cause of our government’s ineptitude: corporate sponsorship and lobbying. Every politician, every single one (except maybe independent/socialist senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont) has taken money from large corporations and they depend on them to fund their campaigns. They listen to those companies more than they listen to actual people.
Electing Obama didn’t address either of these issues at all. Obama took money from major corporations and he’s indebted to the Democratic Party, obviously. So the system marches on, free to continue exploiting their unbelievable power and influence to benefit only themselves. Significant progress will happen when the parties reform (fat chance, I say) or a new 3rd party establishes itself as meaningful and influential enough to back an alternative campaign and set of policies. A noteworthy 3rd party I think could happen, if people would wake up and stop blindly following the Republicans and Democrat parties all the way off the cliff.
It’s been a very uncomfortable ten years of politics for me. As the years went on and things became more and more corrupt, the more disgusted and apathetic I became about it. A decade ago, I had a fierce, decisive viewpoint on any topic but was still willing to listen to opposing sides. Now I just don’t care; or I do care but I find it hard to do anything about it.
29 December 2009
Protest in Iran
Current Tunes: Cave In – Stained Silver
While the recent attempted plane bombing has most people’s attentions right now, I can’t help but keep my eyes focused on Iran instead. It feels so strange for all this to be happening all in the last week of the year. Maybe my memory is bad, but I don’t particularly recall having many terrorist attacks on our soil in the past year, at least none that we were told about. It’s like we went so long without any of this business and it has to come along at the tail-end of the year and ruin everything.
In contrast to that, this madness in Iran has been bubbling for quite a while, and these recent protests and killings is only further testament, in my mind, that the situation in Iran has to change and soon. I can’t really act like I have my finger right on the pulse of the average American’s thoughts and perceptions, but it seems to me most of us here in the USA don’t really get what’s going on over there. If I’m right, we might have the press and media to thank for that.
From a purely political perspective, what does that say about U.S. involvement overseas if the average citizens of Iran actually do force out these theocrats and establish a free nation? On one hand you’d have Iran, who fixed its own problems (probably not without internal bloodshed) and stood its ground on its own. On the other hand, you’d have Iraq, which had to have its dictator forcibly removed and years later is still in total disarray (though things are steadily improving from what we hear). I suppose I’m extrapolating much too far into the future. I don’t know how we in the U.S can help, given how stretched we are already between our two wars and the struggling economy, but I’d like to know how we could.
I sincerely hope we can see dramatic, sweeping change in Iran in the near future, if not in the next year. Again, I’m not exactly a foreign policy expert or anything, but from my vantage point it looks to me like a non-theocratic, possibly democratic, Iran would have more impact for the U.S. in the Middle East than an end to the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. Back in June, I was excited to see the protests going on, it gave me hope that the country might be seeing change. But when the protests died down after all the violence, I feel discouraged. Clearly the people of Iran aren’t so easily dissuaded. It’s inspiring to see people who are so sick and fed up with their country being driven into the ground and they finally decide to do something about it. I sincerely wish the people of Iran the best of luck. They’re overdue for a miracle over there, and perhaps in 2010 they’ll finally get it.
While the recent attempted plane bombing has most people’s attentions right now, I can’t help but keep my eyes focused on Iran instead. It feels so strange for all this to be happening all in the last week of the year. Maybe my memory is bad, but I don’t particularly recall having many terrorist attacks on our soil in the past year, at least none that we were told about. It’s like we went so long without any of this business and it has to come along at the tail-end of the year and ruin everything.
In contrast to that, this madness in Iran has been bubbling for quite a while, and these recent protests and killings is only further testament, in my mind, that the situation in Iran has to change and soon. I can’t really act like I have my finger right on the pulse of the average American’s thoughts and perceptions, but it seems to me most of us here in the USA don’t really get what’s going on over there. If I’m right, we might have the press and media to thank for that.
From a purely political perspective, what does that say about U.S. involvement overseas if the average citizens of Iran actually do force out these theocrats and establish a free nation? On one hand you’d have Iran, who fixed its own problems (probably not without internal bloodshed) and stood its ground on its own. On the other hand, you’d have Iraq, which had to have its dictator forcibly removed and years later is still in total disarray (though things are steadily improving from what we hear). I suppose I’m extrapolating much too far into the future. I don’t know how we in the U.S can help, given how stretched we are already between our two wars and the struggling economy, but I’d like to know how we could.
I sincerely hope we can see dramatic, sweeping change in Iran in the near future, if not in the next year. Again, I’m not exactly a foreign policy expert or anything, but from my vantage point it looks to me like a non-theocratic, possibly democratic, Iran would have more impact for the U.S. in the Middle East than an end to the Iraq or Afghanistan wars. Back in June, I was excited to see the protests going on, it gave me hope that the country might be seeing change. But when the protests died down after all the violence, I feel discouraged. Clearly the people of Iran aren’t so easily dissuaded. It’s inspiring to see people who are so sick and fed up with their country being driven into the ground and they finally decide to do something about it. I sincerely wish the people of Iran the best of luck. They’re overdue for a miracle over there, and perhaps in 2010 they’ll finally get it.
28 December 2009
My Film of 2009 Rundown
Current Tunes: Disfear – Get it Off
Another year in movies has come and gone. I wish I could say it was an exciting year, but in actuality I was left completely listless and bored by this year’s fare. I could barely put together a list of 10 films I saw this year that I actually considered worthy. I don’t know if it’s just me getting old and crotchety, but if I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it.
I’ll grant part of the problem was that I didn’t exactly have tons of cash sitting around to spend on tickets. Being thrifty meant it was especially important to choose my films wisely, and I don’t believe I did that at all. I kept making poor decisions. Well, enough moaning and groaning. What films did I enjoy this year? Here you go…
1. “District 9”
2. “Zombieland”
3. “Up”
4. “Avatar”
5. “The Hangover”
6. “Where the Wild Things Are”
7. “Up in the Air”
8. “The Princess & The Frog”
9. “Watchmen”
10. “Inglorious Basterds”
Well I covered my opinion of “District 9” a week ago, so I’ll forego explaining that one. The presence of not one or two, but three whole family/children’s films on the list surprised me. Well, whether or not “Wild Things” constitutes a family film is another debate entirely. To give you a more precise idea of how little of thought of this year’s crop of films, I can look at every film (save #1 & #2) on this list and point out very specific problems these films had that held them back from being truly great.
Speaking of that, here’s a brief list of films from 2009 that really let me down. I could have made a much longer list, but I’m keeping it short in the name of not appearing like a total killjoy…
“G.I. Joe”
“Terminator Salvation”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
“Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince”
“Inglorious Basterds”
Now, you’re probably saying “Matt, wait, wasn’t ‘Inglorious Basterds’ in your list of best films for the year?” Yes, it is. “Basterds” was a strange case for me this year. I enjoyed it; I laughed hard, it had cheerful, triumphant moments. However, it’s a seriously flawed film. As the months have gone by, I’ve even come to question the necessity of this film, but that’s a discussion for another time. I expected “Basterds” to be Quentin Tarrantino’s best film yet, and it wasn’t. Far from it actually, I still stand by my statement that it’s the least-good film he’s made yet. That’s why it’s a disappointment. I hope my standards weren’t too high; I really don’t think they were.
“G.I. Joe” and “Transformers: ROTF” I enjoyed as well, but you’ll never ever catch me saying those were well-made movies either. Put together, they may have made an OK movie. This year’s “Harry Potter” disappointed me because everyone told me this was the film where the baddies in the story would finally have a chance to shine, when in the film all the baddies just depressed me with their flat acting.
Despite my underwhelming attitude toward the cinematic output of 2009, I am quite excited about 2010. It’s always nice to be able to look towards the future, isn’t it? Here’s a list what’s got me buzzing for 2010, with short explanations of what to expect or what has me so interested in these films:
“Tron: Legacy” (been waiting about 20 years for this, I want it 3x more than anything else)
“Cop Out” (Kevin Smith directing Bruce Willis? Yes, please!)
“Inception (Christopher Nolan’s new drama. Possible it could exceed “Dark Knight”)
“The Expendables” (Stallone, Lundgren, Statham, Li, Schwarzenegger, Willis, & Randy Couture?!)
“The Rum Diary” (Hunter S. Thompson adaptation finally happens!)
“Jonah Hex (For the Mastodon-written soundtrack alone)
“Clash of the Titans” (original will always be better, but this looks fun enough)
“Machete” (Danny Trejo gets his chance to truly shine in the spotlight)
“Daybreakers” (interesting twist on vampire lore)
“Predators” (Robert Rodriguez’s look at my favorite extra terrestrials)
“Legion” (Crazy possessed grandma climbing the ceiling. I’m there.)
“Salt” (Spy flick meant for Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie instead)
“How to Train Your Dragon” (Vikings!)
I certainly anticipate having a much better time in theaters next year. If anything, 2010 will be interesting to see if the success of “Avatar” pushes 3D filmmaking into the next realm. There are already rumors flying around about 3D re-releases of “Star Wars” and a host of other popular favorites. Well whatever happens, I’ll see you in the theater (in the back row) in 2010!
Another year in movies has come and gone. I wish I could say it was an exciting year, but in actuality I was left completely listless and bored by this year’s fare. I could barely put together a list of 10 films I saw this year that I actually considered worthy. I don’t know if it’s just me getting old and crotchety, but if I didn’t like it, I didn’t like it.
I’ll grant part of the problem was that I didn’t exactly have tons of cash sitting around to spend on tickets. Being thrifty meant it was especially important to choose my films wisely, and I don’t believe I did that at all. I kept making poor decisions. Well, enough moaning and groaning. What films did I enjoy this year? Here you go…
1. “District 9”
2. “Zombieland”
3. “Up”
4. “Avatar”
5. “The Hangover”
6. “Where the Wild Things Are”
7. “Up in the Air”
8. “The Princess & The Frog”
9. “Watchmen”
10. “Inglorious Basterds”
Well I covered my opinion of “District 9” a week ago, so I’ll forego explaining that one. The presence of not one or two, but three whole family/children’s films on the list surprised me. Well, whether or not “Wild Things” constitutes a family film is another debate entirely. To give you a more precise idea of how little of thought of this year’s crop of films, I can look at every film (save #1 & #2) on this list and point out very specific problems these films had that held them back from being truly great.
Speaking of that, here’s a brief list of films from 2009 that really let me down. I could have made a much longer list, but I’m keeping it short in the name of not appearing like a total killjoy…
“G.I. Joe”
“Terminator Salvation”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
“Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince”
“Inglorious Basterds”
Now, you’re probably saying “Matt, wait, wasn’t ‘Inglorious Basterds’ in your list of best films for the year?” Yes, it is. “Basterds” was a strange case for me this year. I enjoyed it; I laughed hard, it had cheerful, triumphant moments. However, it’s a seriously flawed film. As the months have gone by, I’ve even come to question the necessity of this film, but that’s a discussion for another time. I expected “Basterds” to be Quentin Tarrantino’s best film yet, and it wasn’t. Far from it actually, I still stand by my statement that it’s the least-good film he’s made yet. That’s why it’s a disappointment. I hope my standards weren’t too high; I really don’t think they were.
“G.I. Joe” and “Transformers: ROTF” I enjoyed as well, but you’ll never ever catch me saying those were well-made movies either. Put together, they may have made an OK movie. This year’s “Harry Potter” disappointed me because everyone told me this was the film where the baddies in the story would finally have a chance to shine, when in the film all the baddies just depressed me with their flat acting.
Despite my underwhelming attitude toward the cinematic output of 2009, I am quite excited about 2010. It’s always nice to be able to look towards the future, isn’t it? Here’s a list what’s got me buzzing for 2010, with short explanations of what to expect or what has me so interested in these films:
“Tron: Legacy” (been waiting about 20 years for this, I want it 3x more than anything else)
“Cop Out” (Kevin Smith directing Bruce Willis? Yes, please!)
“Inception (Christopher Nolan’s new drama. Possible it could exceed “Dark Knight”)
“The Expendables” (Stallone, Lundgren, Statham, Li, Schwarzenegger, Willis, & Randy Couture?!)
“The Rum Diary” (Hunter S. Thompson adaptation finally happens!)
“Jonah Hex (For the Mastodon-written soundtrack alone)
“Clash of the Titans” (original will always be better, but this looks fun enough)
“Machete” (Danny Trejo gets his chance to truly shine in the spotlight)
“Daybreakers” (interesting twist on vampire lore)
“Predators” (Robert Rodriguez’s look at my favorite extra terrestrials)
“Legion” (Crazy possessed grandma climbing the ceiling. I’m there.)
“Salt” (Spy flick meant for Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie instead)
“How to Train Your Dragon” (Vikings!)
I certainly anticipate having a much better time in theaters next year. If anything, 2010 will be interesting to see if the success of “Avatar” pushes 3D filmmaking into the next realm. There are already rumors flying around about 3D re-releases of “Star Wars” and a host of other popular favorites. Well whatever happens, I’ll see you in the theater (in the back row) in 2010!
27 December 2009
My Music of 2009 Rundown
Current Tunes: Corrosion of Conformity – Wiseblood
Such a good year for metal! I could have easily done a top 20 list this year, but that’s a bit drawn out don’t you think? I enjoyed this year musically; there were many strong releases and plenty of awesome concerts to go to. So, for 2009 here were my top albums:
1. Isis – “Wavering Radiant”
2. Mastodon – “Crack the Skye”
3. Warbringer – “Waking Into Nightmares”
4. Kylesa – “Static Tensions”
5. The Black Dahlia Murder – “Deflorate”
6. Revocation – “Existence is Futile”
7. Pelican – “What We All Come to Need”
8. Narrows – “New Distances”
9. Baroness – “Blue Record”
10. Slayer – “World Painted Blood”
Honorable mentions: Megadeth – “Endgame” / Immortal – “All Shall Fall”
Also, here are some links to my choices for best songs of the year. A few of these are seriously NSFW, so be careful and all.
"20 Minutes/40 Years" – Isis
"The Last Baron" – Mastodon
"Pussy" – Rammstein (NSFW)
"Into the Grey" – Darkest Hour
"Oil Upon the Sores of Lepers" – Anaal Nathrakh
"Ov Fire and the Void" – Behemoth (NSFW)
"Ocean Metal" – Dagon
"Battle Slut Drinking Song" – Destroy Destroy Destroy
"Gypsy Kids" - Narrows (NSFW)
Such a good chunk of material this year. I fully acknowledge my top albums are a little heavy on the sludge/stoner genre, but those are really the bands that I think produced the most interesting stuff this year. My top album, “Wavering Radiant,” I can conclusively say over the course of the year I’ve listened straight through 40+ times. I wasn’t exactly the world’s biggest Isis fan, but that album put me over the top on them. Now for my top live shows:
1. Neurosis
2. Trap Them / Narrows
3. Baroness
4. Dethklok
5. Mastodon
6. Warbringer
7. Kylesa
8. Torche
9. Skeletonwitch
After getting to see Radiohead twice l and seeing the reunited Rage Against the Machine, I think it’ll hard for any year to stack up to the level of awesome I got in the live show department last year. But this year did me real well, a lot of it on the strength of Scion Fest, which was a real blessing for Atlanta. Out of the ten total bands listed above, I saw seven of them at Scion Fest. I had an especially Mastodon-influenced year; I saw them four times in 2009. Once they fix their live vocals problems, they’ll be legendary.
Now while this year saw lots of fantastic releases, there were also a slew of albums that just fell flat on their faces, and left me utterly disappointed:
Pearl Jam – “Backspacer”
Street Sweeper Social Club – s/t
Municipal Waste – “Massive Aggressive”
Alice in Chains – “Black Gives Way to Blue”
Priestess – “Prior to the Fire”
Rammstein – “Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da”
Skeletonwitch – “Breathing the Fire”
Now everyone knows there are varying levels of disappointment, and this selection of albums definitely embodies that. Pearl Jam disappointed me because I know they’re capable of so much more than putting out mediocre fluff like this. Priestess disappointed me for pretty much the same reason, but they’re worse off because they’re in a position where they need to prove themselves and this year was a step back. On the other hand, Skeletonwitch and Street Sweeper (aka Rage Against the Machine Jr.) albums were enjoyable enough, but they still fell short of my expectations. I would say the same thing about Rammstein’s effort this year, but I can’t exactly say what my expectations were for that band. Rammstein, as corny as they are, usually manage to keep doing something new, but it didn’t feel like that this time.
Now as good as this year was for music, there’s still oh so much to look forward to in 2010 for me. Here’s a list of known (and some speculative) albums that could or will surface next year that I’m excited for:
Dillinger Escape Plan – "Option Paralysis"
Overkill – "Ironbound"
High on Fire – "Snakes for the Divine"
Ihsahn - "After"
Living Sacrifice – "The Infinite Order"
Deftones - ?
Finntroll – "Nifelvin"
Decapitated - ?
Anthrax - ?
Nachtmystium - ?
Radiohead - ?!?!?!
Rage Against the Machine - ?!?!?!
There are still some rumors here and there swirling about Rage doing a new album, but I don’t know what to make of that. Radiohead I do know for certain are going to the studio in early 2010, so that’s promising. Deftones have been through a lot this past year, what with their bassist being in that horrible car wreck that left him in a coma. The whole experience has led to perhaps the strangest thing I’ve seen in a band’s career. They have an entire album done, mixed, recorded, everything (titled “Eros”). But they’re sitting on it, and they’re going to record an entirely new album instead to release in 2010. I’m all for whatever they decide to do, but I think they should reconsider what to do with “Eros.” I want to hear it.
So that’s my music rundown for 2009. Be sure to come back tomorrow for my best of film for 2009!
Such a good year for metal! I could have easily done a top 20 list this year, but that’s a bit drawn out don’t you think? I enjoyed this year musically; there were many strong releases and plenty of awesome concerts to go to. So, for 2009 here were my top albums:
1. Isis – “Wavering Radiant”
2. Mastodon – “Crack the Skye”
3. Warbringer – “Waking Into Nightmares”
4. Kylesa – “Static Tensions”
5. The Black Dahlia Murder – “Deflorate”
6. Revocation – “Existence is Futile”
7. Pelican – “What We All Come to Need”
8. Narrows – “New Distances”
9. Baroness – “Blue Record”
10. Slayer – “World Painted Blood”
Honorable mentions: Megadeth – “Endgame” / Immortal – “All Shall Fall”
Also, here are some links to my choices for best songs of the year. A few of these are seriously NSFW, so be careful and all.
"20 Minutes/40 Years" – Isis
"The Last Baron" – Mastodon
"Pussy" – Rammstein (NSFW)
"Into the Grey" – Darkest Hour
"Oil Upon the Sores of Lepers" – Anaal Nathrakh
"Ov Fire and the Void" – Behemoth (NSFW)
"Ocean Metal" – Dagon
"Battle Slut Drinking Song" – Destroy Destroy Destroy
"Gypsy Kids" - Narrows (NSFW)
Such a good chunk of material this year. I fully acknowledge my top albums are a little heavy on the sludge/stoner genre, but those are really the bands that I think produced the most interesting stuff this year. My top album, “Wavering Radiant,” I can conclusively say over the course of the year I’ve listened straight through 40+ times. I wasn’t exactly the world’s biggest Isis fan, but that album put me over the top on them. Now for my top live shows:
1. Neurosis
2. Trap Them / Narrows
3. Baroness
4. Dethklok
5. Mastodon
6. Warbringer
7. Kylesa
8. Torche
9. Skeletonwitch
After getting to see Radiohead twice l and seeing the reunited Rage Against the Machine, I think it’ll hard for any year to stack up to the level of awesome I got in the live show department last year. But this year did me real well, a lot of it on the strength of Scion Fest, which was a real blessing for Atlanta. Out of the ten total bands listed above, I saw seven of them at Scion Fest. I had an especially Mastodon-influenced year; I saw them four times in 2009. Once they fix their live vocals problems, they’ll be legendary.
Now while this year saw lots of fantastic releases, there were also a slew of albums that just fell flat on their faces, and left me utterly disappointed:
Pearl Jam – “Backspacer”
Street Sweeper Social Club – s/t
Municipal Waste – “Massive Aggressive”
Alice in Chains – “Black Gives Way to Blue”
Priestess – “Prior to the Fire”
Rammstein – “Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da”
Skeletonwitch – “Breathing the Fire”
Now everyone knows there are varying levels of disappointment, and this selection of albums definitely embodies that. Pearl Jam disappointed me because I know they’re capable of so much more than putting out mediocre fluff like this. Priestess disappointed me for pretty much the same reason, but they’re worse off because they’re in a position where they need to prove themselves and this year was a step back. On the other hand, Skeletonwitch and Street Sweeper (aka Rage Against the Machine Jr.) albums were enjoyable enough, but they still fell short of my expectations. I would say the same thing about Rammstein’s effort this year, but I can’t exactly say what my expectations were for that band. Rammstein, as corny as they are, usually manage to keep doing something new, but it didn’t feel like that this time.
Now as good as this year was for music, there’s still oh so much to look forward to in 2010 for me. Here’s a list of known (and some speculative) albums that could or will surface next year that I’m excited for:
Dillinger Escape Plan – "Option Paralysis"
Overkill – "Ironbound"
High on Fire – "Snakes for the Divine"
Ihsahn - "After"
Living Sacrifice – "The Infinite Order"
Deftones - ?
Finntroll – "Nifelvin"
Decapitated - ?
Anthrax - ?
Nachtmystium - ?
Radiohead - ?!?!?!
Rage Against the Machine - ?!?!?!
There are still some rumors here and there swirling about Rage doing a new album, but I don’t know what to make of that. Radiohead I do know for certain are going to the studio in early 2010, so that’s promising. Deftones have been through a lot this past year, what with their bassist being in that horrible car wreck that left him in a coma. The whole experience has led to perhaps the strangest thing I’ve seen in a band’s career. They have an entire album done, mixed, recorded, everything (titled “Eros”). But they’re sitting on it, and they’re going to record an entirely new album instead to release in 2010. I’m all for whatever they decide to do, but I think they should reconsider what to do with “Eros.” I want to hear it.
So that’s my music rundown for 2009. Be sure to come back tomorrow for my best of film for 2009!
26 December 2009
My Television of 2009 Rundown
Current Tunes: Radiohead - The Tourist
Not many days left in this year, so it’s high time I got down to the business of letting you folks know what forms of entertainment got me excited this past year and what let me down seriously. Instead of throwing up one huge post covering everything, I decided to split it into three separate posts, for your reading pleasure. Today I’ll be covering my year in television, while tomorrow’s topic will be music and Monday will bring us the anticipated list of Matt’s favorite (and not-so-favorite) films of the year. Enough with the explanations, on to the task at hand!
In regards to my television habits, I’m not exactly what you’d call a researched or learned consumer of television shows. I have always had a hard time dedicating myself seriously to serial television shows over the years, but this past year it all started to add up for me. I’ve found a few shows that really grabbed my attention, and I’m happy that they did. Most television shows are so contemptible for me, always following the same outlines and rehashing the same kinds of characters and stories. The few shows that I did get attached to in the past year I think caught my eye because they try to do something different, which is really what I look for in any kind of entertainment media. Anyway, I can’t really put together some sort of top 10 for TV because I’m so apathetic about it usually, so instead I just offered up a few words on the shows that did delight me:
“Sons of Anarchy” – This show definitely picked up steam in its 2nd season, to the surprise of many I do believe. When I first heard about “SOA” I figured it would get canned right away for delving too deep into a sub culture that most people know nothing about or are completely frightened of. I guess though I was foolish to underestimate the power of those kinds of emotions; people can so often be drawn to what they don’t understand. This show is a powerhouse for FX right now, and it seems like the sky’s the limit for SAMCRO.
This was my favorite show of this year because out of everything I watched this felt the most real. I believe this characters in the show are real. Especially Jax (Charile Hunnan) and his mother, Gemma. (Katey Segal, still deserves a Golden Globe nomination) This mother and son team is so complex and rich it’s unbelievable. This 2nd season also showed me that the writers and creators of this show aren’t afraid to do what they have to do; i.e. kill of characters that have something coming to them even when I personally want them to stay alive so badly.
“House” – This season isn’t over yet (we’re only half way through) but it’s had a fairly good start. It’s been bumpy, and has had stop-start moments that have felt awkward but there is one single element that’s really keeping me hyped on this show and it came out of left field for me. The story arc involving Chase and the Great Sin he perpetrated early in the season is absolutely phenomenal. I have no idea how it will turn out, but I’m certain it’s only getting started.
Even putting that aside, Hugh Laurie is still bringing down the house night after night. Get it? Bringing down the house??? So far this season we’ve been getting an interesting dose of Gregory House 2.0 after his embroiled, painful stint in rehab created an entirely new breed of monster. He’s still House, he’s still a prickly thorn in everyone’s side, but he’s… different. And I don’t think you can deny that it’s different in a positive way. This show probably only has two or three seasons left, so this is the stretch where the creators will have to determine if this goes down in history as a truly great show, or a show that had promise and floundered out in the end.
“Lost” – Oh, “Lost.” You are an elusive, mysterious mistress indeed. Whatever people might say or think about this past season, there’s only one thing that truly matters when talking about season 5: time travel. I was very skeptical. I didn’t think it would work. “Lost” was already the most complicated TV show in history and time travel only makes things more difficult. But they did it, they pulled it off. Not only did they pull it off, it looks like they’re using time travel as a great device to not really “bookend” the show, but to seal it off, preserving it in a sense. As if they’re wrapping it in plastic to keep out contaminates.
The actors on the show continue to step it up episodes after episode on this show. How valuable are the performances of Terry O’Quinn (Locke), Michael Emerson (Ben), Matthew Fox (Jack), and Evangeline Lilly (Kate), indeed the whole cast? Here’s how I see it: “Lost” would make a fantastic series of novels; the story and the mystery is what makes this show so popular. The actors however are making this a real-world story; a lesser group of actors would merely make this show an overly elaborate fairy tale. The final season has so much to live up to, and the writers could possibly end up failing fans. But I seriously doubt the actors will.
“The Daily Show” & “The Colbert Report” – Not necessarily what I would call the best shows on television, but I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to call them the most important hour of creative television being made today.
“Real Time with Bill Maher” – This show keeps me sane. This is the show that “Crossfire” could have been if it hadn’t been run by ideologues and puppets.
Even with these fine shows, there were a few shows on TV this past year that seriously disappointed me:
“Dollhouse” – Given that I wrote about the failures of this show about a week ago, I don’t feel any especial need to elaborate any further. Despite it’s faults, I very much wish the show wasn’t being canned.
“Kings” - This show actually should be included in the section of what I enjoyed, as “Kings” was completely absorbing. It’s not the show that disappointed me, but NBC for not continuing the series, and the rest of the cable universe for not seeing their mistake and picking up and continuing the series. This show was gorgeous. Even if the story wasn’t near Shakespearean in its depth (and it was), it has to be the most beautifully filmed show I have ever seen on television. I’m so sad to see this show go. Ian McShane is a gargantuan actor capable of any task you set before him.
“The Glenn Beck Show” – Now, I know what you’re thinking. Haha, what a funny little joke. But I’m including this here because it was a true, legitimate disappointment for me. On his radio show, I had come to somewhat respect Beck as a pundit for the Republican party. I didn’t agree with hardly anything he said at all, but at least he wasn’t the pompous windbag that Rush Limbaugh is. Turns out if you put him in front of a camera he’s actually worse than Limbaugh. I was fine to disagree with him politically, and his random conspiracy theory rants don’t bother me so much. It’s his tactics that absolutely blow my mind. This guy is an inexcusable weasel.
Not many days left in this year, so it’s high time I got down to the business of letting you folks know what forms of entertainment got me excited this past year and what let me down seriously. Instead of throwing up one huge post covering everything, I decided to split it into three separate posts, for your reading pleasure. Today I’ll be covering my year in television, while tomorrow’s topic will be music and Monday will bring us the anticipated list of Matt’s favorite (and not-so-favorite) films of the year. Enough with the explanations, on to the task at hand!
In regards to my television habits, I’m not exactly what you’d call a researched or learned consumer of television shows. I have always had a hard time dedicating myself seriously to serial television shows over the years, but this past year it all started to add up for me. I’ve found a few shows that really grabbed my attention, and I’m happy that they did. Most television shows are so contemptible for me, always following the same outlines and rehashing the same kinds of characters and stories. The few shows that I did get attached to in the past year I think caught my eye because they try to do something different, which is really what I look for in any kind of entertainment media. Anyway, I can’t really put together some sort of top 10 for TV because I’m so apathetic about it usually, so instead I just offered up a few words on the shows that did delight me:
“Sons of Anarchy” – This show definitely picked up steam in its 2nd season, to the surprise of many I do believe. When I first heard about “SOA” I figured it would get canned right away for delving too deep into a sub culture that most people know nothing about or are completely frightened of. I guess though I was foolish to underestimate the power of those kinds of emotions; people can so often be drawn to what they don’t understand. This show is a powerhouse for FX right now, and it seems like the sky’s the limit for SAMCRO.
This was my favorite show of this year because out of everything I watched this felt the most real. I believe this characters in the show are real. Especially Jax (Charile Hunnan) and his mother, Gemma. (Katey Segal, still deserves a Golden Globe nomination) This mother and son team is so complex and rich it’s unbelievable. This 2nd season also showed me that the writers and creators of this show aren’t afraid to do what they have to do; i.e. kill of characters that have something coming to them even when I personally want them to stay alive so badly.
“House” – This season isn’t over yet (we’re only half way through) but it’s had a fairly good start. It’s been bumpy, and has had stop-start moments that have felt awkward but there is one single element that’s really keeping me hyped on this show and it came out of left field for me. The story arc involving Chase and the Great Sin he perpetrated early in the season is absolutely phenomenal. I have no idea how it will turn out, but I’m certain it’s only getting started.
Even putting that aside, Hugh Laurie is still bringing down the house night after night. Get it? Bringing down the house??? So far this season we’ve been getting an interesting dose of Gregory House 2.0 after his embroiled, painful stint in rehab created an entirely new breed of monster. He’s still House, he’s still a prickly thorn in everyone’s side, but he’s… different. And I don’t think you can deny that it’s different in a positive way. This show probably only has two or three seasons left, so this is the stretch where the creators will have to determine if this goes down in history as a truly great show, or a show that had promise and floundered out in the end.
“Lost” – Oh, “Lost.” You are an elusive, mysterious mistress indeed. Whatever people might say or think about this past season, there’s only one thing that truly matters when talking about season 5: time travel. I was very skeptical. I didn’t think it would work. “Lost” was already the most complicated TV show in history and time travel only makes things more difficult. But they did it, they pulled it off. Not only did they pull it off, it looks like they’re using time travel as a great device to not really “bookend” the show, but to seal it off, preserving it in a sense. As if they’re wrapping it in plastic to keep out contaminates.
The actors on the show continue to step it up episodes after episode on this show. How valuable are the performances of Terry O’Quinn (Locke), Michael Emerson (Ben), Matthew Fox (Jack), and Evangeline Lilly (Kate), indeed the whole cast? Here’s how I see it: “Lost” would make a fantastic series of novels; the story and the mystery is what makes this show so popular. The actors however are making this a real-world story; a lesser group of actors would merely make this show an overly elaborate fairy tale. The final season has so much to live up to, and the writers could possibly end up failing fans. But I seriously doubt the actors will.
“The Daily Show” & “The Colbert Report” – Not necessarily what I would call the best shows on television, but I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to call them the most important hour of creative television being made today.
“Real Time with Bill Maher” – This show keeps me sane. This is the show that “Crossfire” could have been if it hadn’t been run by ideologues and puppets.
Even with these fine shows, there were a few shows on TV this past year that seriously disappointed me:
“Dollhouse” – Given that I wrote about the failures of this show about a week ago, I don’t feel any especial need to elaborate any further. Despite it’s faults, I very much wish the show wasn’t being canned.
“Kings” - This show actually should be included in the section of what I enjoyed, as “Kings” was completely absorbing. It’s not the show that disappointed me, but NBC for not continuing the series, and the rest of the cable universe for not seeing their mistake and picking up and continuing the series. This show was gorgeous. Even if the story wasn’t near Shakespearean in its depth (and it was), it has to be the most beautifully filmed show I have ever seen on television. I’m so sad to see this show go. Ian McShane is a gargantuan actor capable of any task you set before him.
“The Glenn Beck Show” – Now, I know what you’re thinking. Haha, what a funny little joke. But I’m including this here because it was a true, legitimate disappointment for me. On his radio show, I had come to somewhat respect Beck as a pundit for the Republican party. I didn’t agree with hardly anything he said at all, but at least he wasn’t the pompous windbag that Rush Limbaugh is. Turns out if you put him in front of a camera he’s actually worse than Limbaugh. I was fine to disagree with him politically, and his random conspiracy theory rants don’t bother me so much. It’s his tactics that absolutely blow my mind. This guy is an inexcusable weasel.
25 December 2009
Christmas Workout Cheer
Current Tunes: Anthrax – A.I.R.
Man I feel exhausted., but in a good way. Working out this morning wasn’t a torture session this morning, it actually felt good.
Right as soon as I got done running, I looked up at the TV in the gym & on ESPN they were doing a short feature on Alabama football and they’re upcoming BCS championship game against Texas. A lot of the conversation centered around Alabama being such a favorite in this game, and whether or not all the pundits saying they were so favored would go to their heads. I was encouraged to hear not only Saban saying they’re not listening to that talk, but that the key leaders on both side of the ball weren’t buying eht hype either. That’s the best Christmas present I could get this year: seeing the Tide beat the pants off of Texas and take back the crown for the best football program in college football!
Watching the segment had greater benefit for me though. Seeing all the clips they showed of Alabama’s victories was pretty inspiring for me at that moment. Thinking about how for the decade or so before Saban got there we had to wallow in mediocrity. Controversial, backstabbing coaches and heavy-handed sanctions kept us down to some degree, but whatever adversity held the program back, UA is back on top again.
I thought about all the hard work those kids have gone through this season to get to where they are, and it made me think that I too could work that hard and win my own championship. I could finally loose the weight I needed to loose and could not just feel healthy but be healthy again.
That’s one especially important key to a long, drawn out process like this. You have to constantly find things or ideas to keep motivating you, to keep pushing you along when things feel monotonous or like they’re in a standstill. I realized today too a difference between this attempt at weight loss and times before. Times before I would tell myself how easy it was going to be, and that’s not true at all. Weight loss is hard to do, but nothing truly worthwhile is easy, right?
Happy Holidays to everyone, and bonus points to you for reading my humble blog on Christmas.
Man I feel exhausted., but in a good way. Working out this morning wasn’t a torture session this morning, it actually felt good.
Right as soon as I got done running, I looked up at the TV in the gym & on ESPN they were doing a short feature on Alabama football and they’re upcoming BCS championship game against Texas. A lot of the conversation centered around Alabama being such a favorite in this game, and whether or not all the pundits saying they were so favored would go to their heads. I was encouraged to hear not only Saban saying they’re not listening to that talk, but that the key leaders on both side of the ball weren’t buying eht hype either. That’s the best Christmas present I could get this year: seeing the Tide beat the pants off of Texas and take back the crown for the best football program in college football!
Watching the segment had greater benefit for me though. Seeing all the clips they showed of Alabama’s victories was pretty inspiring for me at that moment. Thinking about how for the decade or so before Saban got there we had to wallow in mediocrity. Controversial, backstabbing coaches and heavy-handed sanctions kept us down to some degree, but whatever adversity held the program back, UA is back on top again.
I thought about all the hard work those kids have gone through this season to get to where they are, and it made me think that I too could work that hard and win my own championship. I could finally loose the weight I needed to loose and could not just feel healthy but be healthy again.
That’s one especially important key to a long, drawn out process like this. You have to constantly find things or ideas to keep motivating you, to keep pushing you along when things feel monotonous or like they’re in a standstill. I realized today too a difference between this attempt at weight loss and times before. Times before I would tell myself how easy it was going to be, and that’s not true at all. Weight loss is hard to do, but nothing truly worthwhile is easy, right?
Happy Holidays to everyone, and bonus points to you for reading my humble blog on Christmas.
24 December 2009
Health Care Bill Passed After 11 Months of Effort! Now What?
Current Tunes: Megadeth – Washington is Next!
How monumental is this health care debate to our world? Well apparently it was the 2nd longest Senate debate in history, short only of the discussion over whether or not to join the fight in World War I. But it’s passed now. After a little fine-tuning here and there, it looks like Obama will sign it into law soon.
I wish I knew whether or not I was legally obliged to acquire health insurance under this plan. I’m still in this gray area of student/worker/adult whatever. If I am indeed going to be forced by the government to purchase a health care plan, that might be a silver lining. It would certainly light a fire under me to pick myself up and get a real, 40-hour/week job.
That’s not really what had my attention when I look at the passing of this bill. When I read about this being such a long debate that stacked up to the WWI Senate debates, it immediately called to my mind Woodrow Wilson for me. Suddenly my thoughts turned to a smirking irony, as I added it up in my head and saw Obama become Wilson Jr., in a sense. Wilson was a guy who was laughably idealistic, and had such grandiose plans for America and wanted them to happen, no matter the cost. But he still had these idealistic tendencies, and in politics those are always one of the first costs.
Obama marketed himself as a guy who wouldn’t make those compromises, but it looks to me like he’s already getting a taste of what that’s going to be like. No bipartisan support on anything. Guantanamo's Torture Hotel still not closed for another year. No financial/banking reform. Not saying I want it to turn out this way, but I can totally look to the future and see Obama wheeling around town, broken, beaten, and never smiling just like Wilson did at the end of his time in office, shaking out the hollow shell of a farce they called the League of Nations.
It’s taken him a whole year to build this health care business to this point. I’ll grant him he had some extraordinary barriers in his way, but certainly he wasn’t naïve enough to think the Republicans would just roll over for him, did he? Things will only get tougher from here on out, especially if Republicans win back some seats in the next election. As we say in the south, he better get while the gettin’s good.
I may not have voted for him last year, but I was willing to give him a shot. I thought he’d hit the ground running hard, but it looks like he may have hit just a little too hard and gradually lost all the momentum. If the election were tomorrow I don’t know who I’d vote for, but it certainly wouldn’t be Obama at this point.
How monumental is this health care debate to our world? Well apparently it was the 2nd longest Senate debate in history, short only of the discussion over whether or not to join the fight in World War I. But it’s passed now. After a little fine-tuning here and there, it looks like Obama will sign it into law soon.
I wish I knew whether or not I was legally obliged to acquire health insurance under this plan. I’m still in this gray area of student/worker/adult whatever. If I am indeed going to be forced by the government to purchase a health care plan, that might be a silver lining. It would certainly light a fire under me to pick myself up and get a real, 40-hour/week job.
That’s not really what had my attention when I look at the passing of this bill. When I read about this being such a long debate that stacked up to the WWI Senate debates, it immediately called to my mind Woodrow Wilson for me. Suddenly my thoughts turned to a smirking irony, as I added it up in my head and saw Obama become Wilson Jr., in a sense. Wilson was a guy who was laughably idealistic, and had such grandiose plans for America and wanted them to happen, no matter the cost. But he still had these idealistic tendencies, and in politics those are always one of the first costs.
Obama marketed himself as a guy who wouldn’t make those compromises, but it looks to me like he’s already getting a taste of what that’s going to be like. No bipartisan support on anything. Guantanamo's Torture Hotel still not closed for another year. No financial/banking reform. Not saying I want it to turn out this way, but I can totally look to the future and see Obama wheeling around town, broken, beaten, and never smiling just like Wilson did at the end of his time in office, shaking out the hollow shell of a farce they called the League of Nations.
It’s taken him a whole year to build this health care business to this point. I’ll grant him he had some extraordinary barriers in his way, but certainly he wasn’t naïve enough to think the Republicans would just roll over for him, did he? Things will only get tougher from here on out, especially if Republicans win back some seats in the next election. As we say in the south, he better get while the gettin’s good.
I may not have voted for him last year, but I was willing to give him a shot. I thought he’d hit the ground running hard, but it looks like he may have hit just a little too hard and gradually lost all the momentum. If the election were tomorrow I don’t know who I’d vote for, but it certainly wouldn’t be Obama at this point.
23 December 2009
A Sudden Removal / 'Time Magazine' Annoys Me
Current Tunes: The Sword - Mother, Maiden, & Crone
Welcome to my 50th post! Confetti!!!
Well, it’s gone. That’s the end of that. It’s time to move on from here.
I went and got my hair cut this afternoon. By cut I mean completely stricken from my person. I removed two years worth of hair growth and now it sits in a bundle on my desk, detached from me forever.
It took me a long time to gather up the strength to go to the salon, sit down in the chair and actually go through with it. I’m talking at least two months of dancing around it, thinking about it, but never finding the time or motivation or whatever it took to actually go through it. Until today, when I just woke up, decided I would just do it, no more thinking about it, just purely and simply deciding to go and do it. It’s funny how it’s not a complicated thing, really, to just up and decide that yes this thing will happen. You let the (imagined) weight of it fester in your mind, and you start to second-guess yourself.
Anyway, I’m so happy I did it. It’s cliché, but I feel like a completely new man. I think I look like a real person now, a respectable person, not some caricature or anything like that. My viking-self is of course sad that my hair’s gone, but he’ll get over it soon enough. This was meant to happen. It feels like the realest thing I’ve done in a while.
So I don’t know where “Time Magazine” gets the idea that they are a major authority on cinema, but they somehow decided that publishing their own list of the “Best 100 Movies of All Time” was warranted. I really don’t have a lot of bad things to say. I’m overjoyed to see them put “Blade Runner,” “Brazil,” and “City of God” on the list. Lumping all three “Lord of the Rings” films into one is kind of cheating; those films are overrated anyway.
There are plenty of the usual choices, and that’s perhaps the biggest gripe I could have about this list; it’s just too safe. There’s no ‘omg’ choices to get people talking. It’s all the same choices you always see on lists like this, in fact this list looks eerily similar to AFI’s.
OK, I take it back. There is one choice on this list that definitely puzzles me, and it’s the “The Fly” from 1986. I’ve never seen that film, and probably never will given how much I dislike bugs and horror films in general. So perhaps I shouldn’t judge, but really? “The Fly?” Let’s even operate on the presumption that this specific slot is reserved for a film that falls in the sci-fi/horror genre. Are you trying to tell me that you chose “The Fly” for that slot over Ridley Scott’s “Alien?” That’s just silly. Stick to politics, please.
22 December 2009
Bringing the Pain & "Karate Kid" Remake Looks Meh
Current Tunes: Strapping Young Lad – Love?
Throwing my jeans into the dryer earlier today, I wondered why exactly I hear so many people say they don’t like doing laundry. I don’t get it. Doing laundry is a cinch. Maybe my view of laundry stems from my undying love for clean, hot clothes fresh from the dryer. It’s the best feeling ever. Beyond that, aren’t there other more irritating house chores? Sweeping/mopping the floor? Washing dishes? Laundry’s just picking up some clothes, dumping them in the washer with a little soap, then bang! Twenty minutes later they’re clean. Done deal.
Sorry to disappoint you, but this isn’t a post dedicated to the virtues of laundry-doing. So now that that’s covered…
I woke up and worked out today. Holy crap did that hurt. Daily workouts, along with a balanced and healthy diet, is a serious goal that I’m incorporating. I’ve done it before too; I’ve had significant two or three month periods where I did work out regularly and saw results. I eventually fell off the track though; I don’t particularly remember why and I don’t particularly care either. I’m not going to let past failures at this inhibit me. Looking toward the future, that’s what happens from here on out.
Though it’s moderately frustrating at the starting phase, and for a very strange reason. I only worked out at about 75% intensity as I was at during my peak exercising stints. My mind wants me to be back at the level I was at during my peak, but because it’s been so long since I worked out I have to start slowly, of course. Lest I kill myself. However, this is just another facet of teaching myself to reject the idea that failing once before means I will always fail. That is a fallacy and it is one that I am done with.
My dieting plan is a two-fold attack. The first part is learning to cook things. I barely know how to cook a grilled cheese sandwich or pasta. I think a major problem in my normal diet is I eat too many things that are processed, easy-to-fix foods that are loaded with calories. If I would just learn to cook well, I could eat healthier food I’m certain. And loose weight, which is of course the final desired result.
The second prong of this battle strategy is eliminating certain foods all together. Yes, all together. From here on out, no more soft drinks, no potato chips, no frozen chicken tenders, no more cookies, and most sadly, no more beer. Soft drinks I have eliminated before; I remember a good three or four year stretch where I never drank one. The difficult part is finding something to substitute for soft drinks. All the other things I can find easy substitutes for that are healthy, but tasty beverages that aren’t water are not easy to come by. Tea is definitely a candidate to replace coke. I’ll manage though. Success is the only option.
On the movie front… A new trailer for the remake of “The Karate Kid hit the Internet today. I heard about this a while back, and what made me not immediately vomit at the news was the fact that Jackie Chan was to be involved in the Mr. Miyagi role.
But, of course, instead of being a Japanese-American war veteran, Chan looks like he plays a homeless, drunken, street-dweller. Maybe that’s not the case, but that’s how it looks. Well regardless, looking at the trailer the one problem that’s grating on me now is actually the title. They should have changed the title to “The Kung Fu Kid.” It’s kind of an insult to both Chinese and Japanese cultures by mislabeling this film; Kung Fu is a Chinese martial art and Karate is uniquely Japanese, for those of you who do not know. There might be some who say I’m nitpicking, but people in this country would pitch a fit if a movie suggested some cultural facet based here in America were confused with, or drawn parallel to, Canadian culture.
I’m just saying is all. The real truth of the matter is they probably kept the title for its clout and prestige, to help sell a product to the masses. Everyone knows the original film, and that’s a selling point for this film. Even if the context and culture have been completely changed, for many people it will still appear to be the same film all over again. Bah, Hollywood can be oh so frustrating sometimes.
Throwing my jeans into the dryer earlier today, I wondered why exactly I hear so many people say they don’t like doing laundry. I don’t get it. Doing laundry is a cinch. Maybe my view of laundry stems from my undying love for clean, hot clothes fresh from the dryer. It’s the best feeling ever. Beyond that, aren’t there other more irritating house chores? Sweeping/mopping the floor? Washing dishes? Laundry’s just picking up some clothes, dumping them in the washer with a little soap, then bang! Twenty minutes later they’re clean. Done deal.
Sorry to disappoint you, but this isn’t a post dedicated to the virtues of laundry-doing. So now that that’s covered…
I woke up and worked out today. Holy crap did that hurt. Daily workouts, along with a balanced and healthy diet, is a serious goal that I’m incorporating. I’ve done it before too; I’ve had significant two or three month periods where I did work out regularly and saw results. I eventually fell off the track though; I don’t particularly remember why and I don’t particularly care either. I’m not going to let past failures at this inhibit me. Looking toward the future, that’s what happens from here on out.
Though it’s moderately frustrating at the starting phase, and for a very strange reason. I only worked out at about 75% intensity as I was at during my peak exercising stints. My mind wants me to be back at the level I was at during my peak, but because it’s been so long since I worked out I have to start slowly, of course. Lest I kill myself. However, this is just another facet of teaching myself to reject the idea that failing once before means I will always fail. That is a fallacy and it is one that I am done with.
My dieting plan is a two-fold attack. The first part is learning to cook things. I barely know how to cook a grilled cheese sandwich or pasta. I think a major problem in my normal diet is I eat too many things that are processed, easy-to-fix foods that are loaded with calories. If I would just learn to cook well, I could eat healthier food I’m certain. And loose weight, which is of course the final desired result.
The second prong of this battle strategy is eliminating certain foods all together. Yes, all together. From here on out, no more soft drinks, no potato chips, no frozen chicken tenders, no more cookies, and most sadly, no more beer. Soft drinks I have eliminated before; I remember a good three or four year stretch where I never drank one. The difficult part is finding something to substitute for soft drinks. All the other things I can find easy substitutes for that are healthy, but tasty beverages that aren’t water are not easy to come by. Tea is definitely a candidate to replace coke. I’ll manage though. Success is the only option.
On the movie front… A new trailer for the remake of “The Karate Kid hit the Internet today. I heard about this a while back, and what made me not immediately vomit at the news was the fact that Jackie Chan was to be involved in the Mr. Miyagi role.
But, of course, instead of being a Japanese-American war veteran, Chan looks like he plays a homeless, drunken, street-dweller. Maybe that’s not the case, but that’s how it looks. Well regardless, looking at the trailer the one problem that’s grating on me now is actually the title. They should have changed the title to “The Kung Fu Kid.” It’s kind of an insult to both Chinese and Japanese cultures by mislabeling this film; Kung Fu is a Chinese martial art and Karate is uniquely Japanese, for those of you who do not know. There might be some who say I’m nitpicking, but people in this country would pitch a fit if a movie suggested some cultural facet based here in America were confused with, or drawn parallel to, Canadian culture.
I’m just saying is all. The real truth of the matter is they probably kept the title for its clout and prestige, to help sell a product to the masses. Everyone knows the original film, and that’s a selling point for this film. Even if the context and culture have been completely changed, for many people it will still appear to be the same film all over again. Bah, Hollywood can be oh so frustrating sometimes.
21 December 2009
Cameron Answers the Call; "Avatar" is Stellar
Current Tunes: Nachtmystium – Ghosts of Grace
So the next step in the filmmaking evolutionary ladder has finally stumbled onto the scene; “Avatar” is out and running in theaters all over the world raking in metric tons of cash. I still remember years ago when news was leaking out about Cameron finally coming back to popular filmmaking, with some sci-fi themed project he’d been working on for years upon years. It sounded pretty preposterous to me, I admit. But I had to hold faith in the project, because this was James Cameron we were talking about. The guy who’s simultaneously responsible for the highest grossing, 2nd-most-Oscar-winning film in history (“Titanic”) as well as inarguably the greatest pure action flick ever made (“Terminator 2: Judgment Day”). Not to mention projects like “Aliens,” and “The Abyss.”
Even when the project first got rolling, plenty of hype-spewers were saying the most puzzling things; it was going to be a 3D masterpiece, it would change the cinema dynamic, maybe even it was his greatest project yet? I was baffled by all of this talk. Cameron didn’t have anything to prove to the world; he’s the Hank Aaron, the Michael Jordan of popular American cinema. If there were a motion picture “Hall of Fame,” he’s wouldn’t be inducted yet but they’d already be preparing an entire wing of the museum just for him.
Then the previews hit the street a year or so ago and I wondered where all this cut footage of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” had suddenly appeared from. It definitely looked like something stuck in-between a live action film and a Saturday morning cartoon. This significantly lowered my expectations. I almost wondered if I would even see it. But last month, as the early reviews started to come in and it became clear that “Avatar” might have some legs, my heart lifted a bit. Perhaps the Hero of Hollywood, Cameron, would return triumphantly.
“Avatar” is a good film; undeniably I would say. Film history isn’t something we always have a firm grasp on, so saying someone’s work is “revolutionary” or “game-changing” is a bit premature, especially for a film only in its first week of release. However I’d say it certainly looks like it will be. But let’s not even talk about the future, when the present for this film is so much more interesting….
For starters, it did $77 million in business in America over the weekend alone, with more than $242.5 million cashed-in worldwide for the same time period. So it’s pretty much already made its money back. Which, normally, that’s not such an astounding feat on its own; plenty of films have done that. What’s important to recognize is this is a film that by most accounts cost $300 million to make. Compare that to the $140 million it took to make “Iron Man,” the $185 budget of “The Dark Knight,” or even the $200 million price tag on this year’s monstrous “2012.”
We’ve seen some serious watershed moments for box office tallies, between last year’s unbelievable fun for “The Dark Knight” and this year’s box office beating brought to us by “Transformers 2: ROTF,” which grossed $800 million worldwide. Don’t be surprised when “Avatar” outshines both of these films at the ticket counter. We would be wise to point out that perhaps some of the reason why its box office totals will be due to increased ticket prices from the inclusion of 3D glasses, but don’t be fooled. People are going to go see this movie because it rocks.
Now, also, to you sci-fi fans out there who might think it looks a little too much like a kids movie, I want you to consider a very important little factoid. After his weekend’s debut, “Avatar” now boasts the largest debut weekend ever for an original film. By original we mean not based on previous material, not based on a comic book or a sequel or what have you. This one fact is what has me harping on “Avatar” so much. Like “District 9,” it represents an original, creative science fiction vision whose power and appeal isn’t already prepackaged with a previously published book series or a lifetime of nostalgia to help it sell. This is something new that wants to (and confidently does) stand on its own.
Smart, original, and entertaining science fiction film is dying out, and it hurts me so much to say that. The reason it’s dying is because the genre is becoming flooded with these mediocre comic book adaptations and series sequels and other bombastic nonsense that’s geared more towards selling popcorn than getting people to talk about good ideas. I won’t launch into a prejudiced tirade against “Star Trek,” but even that film falls into the same lump of super-blockbusters that feel like all whiz! bang! and pow! and come up significantly short on true substance. That’s a series that used to really belt out some of the best thought-provoking American science fiction, but it looks to me like that’s a thing of the past.
All this text so far and I’ve talked so little about the film, haven’t I? Well, I’d like to believe that the less I tell you, the more you’ll enjoy it once you go see it. That was part of caused me to be so stunned by what I saw: I didn’t know what to expect. So let me just go with generalities.
It’s a roller coaster ride like any other modern blockbuster, but it’s smart. It’s clever, and it’s technically masterful, as all Cameron’s work is. The story you’ve probably heard before, but there’s enough new twists to it to keep you engrossed and entertained. The effects and computer animation are probably the best committed to film yet. That’s one of it’s most appealing qualities sure, but how I would describe the film’s use of effects is that Cameron was less concerned with using them to wow you and instead concentrated on just showing you. That strategy worked wonderfully, as you very gradually and gently become lured into the world he creates; you can literally feel the planet encompassing you as you try to brush away the limbs and bugs that flitter past your face as you voyage from scene to scene.
I enjoyed “Avatar” because I could just feel in my bones that this wasn’t a film that was solely concerned with taking money from your wallet, then presenting you with a few mindless distractions as compensation. “Avatar” has a place to take you, and makes sure you’re incredibly comfortable for the ride and makes sure to take the scenic route. Simply joyous. Phenomenal. This is a film to end this decade on. Don’t wait for DVD, this is a theater experience unlike anything we have seen before.
So the next step in the filmmaking evolutionary ladder has finally stumbled onto the scene; “Avatar” is out and running in theaters all over the world raking in metric tons of cash. I still remember years ago when news was leaking out about Cameron finally coming back to popular filmmaking, with some sci-fi themed project he’d been working on for years upon years. It sounded pretty preposterous to me, I admit. But I had to hold faith in the project, because this was James Cameron we were talking about. The guy who’s simultaneously responsible for the highest grossing, 2nd-most-Oscar-winning film in history (“Titanic”) as well as inarguably the greatest pure action flick ever made (“Terminator 2: Judgment Day”). Not to mention projects like “Aliens,” and “The Abyss.”
Even when the project first got rolling, plenty of hype-spewers were saying the most puzzling things; it was going to be a 3D masterpiece, it would change the cinema dynamic, maybe even it was his greatest project yet? I was baffled by all of this talk. Cameron didn’t have anything to prove to the world; he’s the Hank Aaron, the Michael Jordan of popular American cinema. If there were a motion picture “Hall of Fame,” he’s wouldn’t be inducted yet but they’d already be preparing an entire wing of the museum just for him.
Then the previews hit the street a year or so ago and I wondered where all this cut footage of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” had suddenly appeared from. It definitely looked like something stuck in-between a live action film and a Saturday morning cartoon. This significantly lowered my expectations. I almost wondered if I would even see it. But last month, as the early reviews started to come in and it became clear that “Avatar” might have some legs, my heart lifted a bit. Perhaps the Hero of Hollywood, Cameron, would return triumphantly.
“Avatar” is a good film; undeniably I would say. Film history isn’t something we always have a firm grasp on, so saying someone’s work is “revolutionary” or “game-changing” is a bit premature, especially for a film only in its first week of release. However I’d say it certainly looks like it will be. But let’s not even talk about the future, when the present for this film is so much more interesting….
For starters, it did $77 million in business in America over the weekend alone, with more than $242.5 million cashed-in worldwide for the same time period. So it’s pretty much already made its money back. Which, normally, that’s not such an astounding feat on its own; plenty of films have done that. What’s important to recognize is this is a film that by most accounts cost $300 million to make. Compare that to the $140 million it took to make “Iron Man,” the $185 budget of “The Dark Knight,” or even the $200 million price tag on this year’s monstrous “2012.”
We’ve seen some serious watershed moments for box office tallies, between last year’s unbelievable fun for “The Dark Knight” and this year’s box office beating brought to us by “Transformers 2: ROTF,” which grossed $800 million worldwide. Don’t be surprised when “Avatar” outshines both of these films at the ticket counter. We would be wise to point out that perhaps some of the reason why its box office totals will be due to increased ticket prices from the inclusion of 3D glasses, but don’t be fooled. People are going to go see this movie because it rocks.
Now, also, to you sci-fi fans out there who might think it looks a little too much like a kids movie, I want you to consider a very important little factoid. After his weekend’s debut, “Avatar” now boasts the largest debut weekend ever for an original film. By original we mean not based on previous material, not based on a comic book or a sequel or what have you. This one fact is what has me harping on “Avatar” so much. Like “District 9,” it represents an original, creative science fiction vision whose power and appeal isn’t already prepackaged with a previously published book series or a lifetime of nostalgia to help it sell. This is something new that wants to (and confidently does) stand on its own.
Smart, original, and entertaining science fiction film is dying out, and it hurts me so much to say that. The reason it’s dying is because the genre is becoming flooded with these mediocre comic book adaptations and series sequels and other bombastic nonsense that’s geared more towards selling popcorn than getting people to talk about good ideas. I won’t launch into a prejudiced tirade against “Star Trek,” but even that film falls into the same lump of super-blockbusters that feel like all whiz! bang! and pow! and come up significantly short on true substance. That’s a series that used to really belt out some of the best thought-provoking American science fiction, but it looks to me like that’s a thing of the past.
All this text so far and I’ve talked so little about the film, haven’t I? Well, I’d like to believe that the less I tell you, the more you’ll enjoy it once you go see it. That was part of caused me to be so stunned by what I saw: I didn’t know what to expect. So let me just go with generalities.
It’s a roller coaster ride like any other modern blockbuster, but it’s smart. It’s clever, and it’s technically masterful, as all Cameron’s work is. The story you’ve probably heard before, but there’s enough new twists to it to keep you engrossed and entertained. The effects and computer animation are probably the best committed to film yet. That’s one of it’s most appealing qualities sure, but how I would describe the film’s use of effects is that Cameron was less concerned with using them to wow you and instead concentrated on just showing you. That strategy worked wonderfully, as you very gradually and gently become lured into the world he creates; you can literally feel the planet encompassing you as you try to brush away the limbs and bugs that flitter past your face as you voyage from scene to scene.
I enjoyed “Avatar” because I could just feel in my bones that this wasn’t a film that was solely concerned with taking money from your wallet, then presenting you with a few mindless distractions as compensation. “Avatar” has a place to take you, and makes sure you’re incredibly comfortable for the ride and makes sure to take the scenic route. Simply joyous. Phenomenal. This is a film to end this decade on. Don’t wait for DVD, this is a theater experience unlike anything we have seen before.
20 December 2009
Keep On Raging in the UK
Current Tunes: Killing in the Name - Rage Against the Machine
So how powerful is Facebook? It's ability to move people and breach barriers was definitely proven today in the UK, where a few average citizens got so tired of being force-fed the same old pop music crap and pulled off a miracle. It seems that for the four years before this one, the winner of the UK Christmas #1 Single happened to always be a song by the winner of the show “X-Factor,” which is essentially the UK's version of “American Idol” if you didn't know.
Two brave and creative folks from Essex, Tracy & Jon Morter, decided they would put together a protest to fight against manufactured, soulless music and started a group on Facebook dedicated to putting a different musician at the top of the Christmas charts this year. Their musician and song of choice? “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine. After organizing hundreds of thousands on their Facebook group, they launched a massive campaign encouraging people all over the UK to buy online downloads of the 15-year-old RATM song from their self-titled album. Just a few hours ago, the charts made their finally tallies and Rage came out on top over recent “X-Factor” winner Joe McElderry.
Now they could have chosen just about any song by any real, legitimate musician and I would have totally been behind this. But choosing Rage, and “Killing in the Name” in particular, really warms my heart. Over 500,000 people in the UK ended up buying a digital download of the song to make this awesome protest happen. That's a whole hell of a lot of people who are fed up with fake, plastic, artificial music that gets made just to make profit for major record companies. That fact alone gives me a little more hope for the future of the music industry, a business that is already struggling so hard to find new footing in the digital age. Hopefully it won't be lost on these companies that this event also proves that online distribution of music is indeed the future.
I don't want to over exaggerate and call this the biggest story of the year or anything, but I think this event is far more significant than it might look with a brief glance. Here we have just about finished up the first decade of this century, of this millennium actually, and we have this interesting little event come along that nudgingly reminds us that this world we live in is indeed getting smaller. And technology is the reason why.
So how powerful is Facebook? It's ability to move people and breach barriers was definitely proven today in the UK, where a few average citizens got so tired of being force-fed the same old pop music crap and pulled off a miracle. It seems that for the four years before this one, the winner of the UK Christmas #1 Single happened to always be a song by the winner of the show “X-Factor,” which is essentially the UK's version of “American Idol” if you didn't know.
Two brave and creative folks from Essex, Tracy & Jon Morter, decided they would put together a protest to fight against manufactured, soulless music and started a group on Facebook dedicated to putting a different musician at the top of the Christmas charts this year. Their musician and song of choice? “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine. After organizing hundreds of thousands on their Facebook group, they launched a massive campaign encouraging people all over the UK to buy online downloads of the 15-year-old RATM song from their self-titled album. Just a few hours ago, the charts made their finally tallies and Rage came out on top over recent “X-Factor” winner Joe McElderry.
Now they could have chosen just about any song by any real, legitimate musician and I would have totally been behind this. But choosing Rage, and “Killing in the Name” in particular, really warms my heart. Over 500,000 people in the UK ended up buying a digital download of the song to make this awesome protest happen. That's a whole hell of a lot of people who are fed up with fake, plastic, artificial music that gets made just to make profit for major record companies. That fact alone gives me a little more hope for the future of the music industry, a business that is already struggling so hard to find new footing in the digital age. Hopefully it won't be lost on these companies that this event also proves that online distribution of music is indeed the future.
I don't want to over exaggerate and call this the biggest story of the year or anything, but I think this event is far more significant than it might look with a brief glance. Here we have just about finished up the first decade of this century, of this millennium actually, and we have this interesting little event come along that nudgingly reminds us that this world we live in is indeed getting smaller. And technology is the reason why.
19 December 2009
Lock It Up in "The Attic": The Demise of Whedon's "Dollhouse"
Current Tunes – George Thorogood & The Destroyers – Bad to the Bone
I’m finally coming around to accept something that’s both difficult and frustrating. I’ve almost been in denial about it, as much as one can be about these sorts of things. I think I mostly listened too much to what others tried to say, instead of just listening to my heart. It’s disappointing to have to come to grips with it, but it’s better to face the truth of the matter than to continue to live in a deluded world built on falsehood. It’s for the better for me to face up to it. This is so hard to say, but I’m afraid that I’ve come to realize that “Dollhouse” is not a very good television show.
While it’s been quite enthralling to get two shows worth of material for the last couple of weeks, the format has had an unfortunate side effect for the show. The primary problem is these episodes were clearly meant to be shown with a week’s break in-between each, so some of the usual tension and excitement that comes from standing around the proverbial water cooler each week to talk about the show’s development has been diminished. A good, dramatic television show, like a good stew, has to simmer for a little while, and clumping the episodes into two-piece nights isn’t letting the audience get the full flavor of the show. This all in all isn’t really the fault of the show’s creators, this is just the strategy taken by Fox to hurry and rush the show out of it’s schedule so both they, and Whedon, can get on with their lives. The tumultuous relationship is over.
However, getting to see two episodes in such chronological proximity allows for a much more precise and immediate comparison, and the resulting examinations aren’t very promising. Last night’s (Friday) block particularly highlighted this paradigm, featuring one show that was severely lacking in flow and craftsmanship (among other traits) while the second seriously turned up the heat with intrigue, mystery, and good ol’ fashioned fun. That’s how this show has been from the outset; it’s simply a hit or miss show that shows some wonderfully bright flashes of inspiration and ideas, but in the process burns itself out.
What had always frustrated me about the show (and I believe many, many other fans of the show) is how the “Dollhouse” could not, no matter what it did, get me emotionally invested in Echo, the main character for gosh sakes! Such a flaw of storytelling would normally be enough to completely kill my attachment to any sort of show, but such was the perplexing nature of this show: despite my scorn for Echo, most of the other supporting characters overwhelmingly well-done, provocative, interesting, not to mention finely acted. Victor, Sierra, Boyd, Topher, Adele all gripped me with their personalities and their individual conflicts that kept me turning the page, so to speak, each week with this show.
Apparently that trait held only a fragile amount of sway with me, as it all came crashing down with the first of the two episodes from last night, “Stop-Loss.” More appropriately called “The Victor Episode,” we get a focused look in on Victor’s real life after his contract with the Dollhouse expires. Turns out Victor is a former soldier, suffering from PTSD; or at least, he was suffering from PTSD until Topher cured him of it, which I thought was another very cool extrapolation of the technology being explored in this show. While I’m sure this was meant to be a companion episode to “Belonging” (the fantastic Sierra-oriented episode, directed by “Star Trek: The Next Generation” star Jonathan Frakes), “Stop-Loss” unfortunately featured none of the tension, excitement, or heart that its counterpart had. Which is all the more a disservice to Enver Gjokaj, who has been nothing short of stellar playing the role of Victor.
The episode following “Stop-Loss” was a step back in the right direction though. Ever since this show started, one concept had literally frightened me to my core, and in “The Attic,” we got to finally see what that mysterious place was really all about. It was everything I expected, and nothing like what I expected at the same time. That mostly stems from some specific secrets about the purpose and operation of the Attic, which of course I won’t spoil here. This episode stunningly moved along the main plot line quite efficiently and managed to explain plenty while not making things more complicated (something “Lost” does every single week, ha). This episode was an absolute treat, but as I said before it unfortunately highlighted the show’s frustrating inconsistency, and that took a little of the fun out of it.
All that jabbering to just flat out tell you I’m so happy “Dollhouse” is coming to an end soon. Only three episodes left, and unfortunately I have to wait until January 8th for the next one. You gave it a good try Whedon, but I think you made a few key mistakes that those ended up too overwhelming to carry a show like this whose premise was already a bit shaky and pushy, especially for studio executives. To be fair, it hasn’t all been you’re fault. They stuck you with a really lame time slot. I would have watched this show on cable every single night if it had been scheduled on a Tuesday or a Wednesday; Friday night is meant for socializing, not for sitting on the couch, sorry.
But it’s all OK! I have a feeling you’ve got something extra special up your sleeve for your next couple of projects. It’s that promise that helps me feel fine with “Dollhouse” ending. Consider this: can you really look me in the eye and pick any one individual episode of “Dollhouse” and tell me it’s better than “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?” No, you can’t. Because “Dr. Horrible” is a supremely intelligent little animal, and I for one think that’s what Joss should concentrate on for the near future. It should be pretty obvious to most that that’s what he’ll be concentrating on in the near future, and I’m perfectly fine with that. I can’t imagine how much different things would have been if Joss had invested all the money & energy he used on “Dollhouse” and put it towards “Dr. Horrible” instead, but there’s no point in silly what-ifs. It’s best to just keep looking forward.
I’m finally coming around to accept something that’s both difficult and frustrating. I’ve almost been in denial about it, as much as one can be about these sorts of things. I think I mostly listened too much to what others tried to say, instead of just listening to my heart. It’s disappointing to have to come to grips with it, but it’s better to face the truth of the matter than to continue to live in a deluded world built on falsehood. It’s for the better for me to face up to it. This is so hard to say, but I’m afraid that I’ve come to realize that “Dollhouse” is not a very good television show.
While it’s been quite enthralling to get two shows worth of material for the last couple of weeks, the format has had an unfortunate side effect for the show. The primary problem is these episodes were clearly meant to be shown with a week’s break in-between each, so some of the usual tension and excitement that comes from standing around the proverbial water cooler each week to talk about the show’s development has been diminished. A good, dramatic television show, like a good stew, has to simmer for a little while, and clumping the episodes into two-piece nights isn’t letting the audience get the full flavor of the show. This all in all isn’t really the fault of the show’s creators, this is just the strategy taken by Fox to hurry and rush the show out of it’s schedule so both they, and Whedon, can get on with their lives. The tumultuous relationship is over.
However, getting to see two episodes in such chronological proximity allows for a much more precise and immediate comparison, and the resulting examinations aren’t very promising. Last night’s (Friday) block particularly highlighted this paradigm, featuring one show that was severely lacking in flow and craftsmanship (among other traits) while the second seriously turned up the heat with intrigue, mystery, and good ol’ fashioned fun. That’s how this show has been from the outset; it’s simply a hit or miss show that shows some wonderfully bright flashes of inspiration and ideas, but in the process burns itself out.
What had always frustrated me about the show (and I believe many, many other fans of the show) is how the “Dollhouse” could not, no matter what it did, get me emotionally invested in Echo, the main character for gosh sakes! Such a flaw of storytelling would normally be enough to completely kill my attachment to any sort of show, but such was the perplexing nature of this show: despite my scorn for Echo, most of the other supporting characters overwhelmingly well-done, provocative, interesting, not to mention finely acted. Victor, Sierra, Boyd, Topher, Adele all gripped me with their personalities and their individual conflicts that kept me turning the page, so to speak, each week with this show.
Apparently that trait held only a fragile amount of sway with me, as it all came crashing down with the first of the two episodes from last night, “Stop-Loss.” More appropriately called “The Victor Episode,” we get a focused look in on Victor’s real life after his contract with the Dollhouse expires. Turns out Victor is a former soldier, suffering from PTSD; or at least, he was suffering from PTSD until Topher cured him of it, which I thought was another very cool extrapolation of the technology being explored in this show. While I’m sure this was meant to be a companion episode to “Belonging” (the fantastic Sierra-oriented episode, directed by “Star Trek: The Next Generation” star Jonathan Frakes), “Stop-Loss” unfortunately featured none of the tension, excitement, or heart that its counterpart had. Which is all the more a disservice to Enver Gjokaj, who has been nothing short of stellar playing the role of Victor.
The episode following “Stop-Loss” was a step back in the right direction though. Ever since this show started, one concept had literally frightened me to my core, and in “The Attic,” we got to finally see what that mysterious place was really all about. It was everything I expected, and nothing like what I expected at the same time. That mostly stems from some specific secrets about the purpose and operation of the Attic, which of course I won’t spoil here. This episode stunningly moved along the main plot line quite efficiently and managed to explain plenty while not making things more complicated (something “Lost” does every single week, ha). This episode was an absolute treat, but as I said before it unfortunately highlighted the show’s frustrating inconsistency, and that took a little of the fun out of it.
All that jabbering to just flat out tell you I’m so happy “Dollhouse” is coming to an end soon. Only three episodes left, and unfortunately I have to wait until January 8th for the next one. You gave it a good try Whedon, but I think you made a few key mistakes that those ended up too overwhelming to carry a show like this whose premise was already a bit shaky and pushy, especially for studio executives. To be fair, it hasn’t all been you’re fault. They stuck you with a really lame time slot. I would have watched this show on cable every single night if it had been scheduled on a Tuesday or a Wednesday; Friday night is meant for socializing, not for sitting on the couch, sorry.
But it’s all OK! I have a feeling you’ve got something extra special up your sleeve for your next couple of projects. It’s that promise that helps me feel fine with “Dollhouse” ending. Consider this: can you really look me in the eye and pick any one individual episode of “Dollhouse” and tell me it’s better than “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog?” No, you can’t. Because “Dr. Horrible” is a supremely intelligent little animal, and I for one think that’s what Joss should concentrate on for the near future. It should be pretty obvious to most that that’s what he’ll be concentrating on in the near future, and I’m perfectly fine with that. I can’t imagine how much different things would have been if Joss had invested all the money & energy he used on “Dollhouse” and put it towards “Dr. Horrible” instead, but there’s no point in silly what-ifs. It’s best to just keep looking forward.
18 December 2009
"District 9" Rules 2009
Current Tunes: Baroness – Steel That Sleeps the Eye
I watched “Moon” last night, an interesting little sci-fi feature by newcomer Duncan Jones. I found out after a brief bit of digging that Mr. Jones is actually the son of David Bowie. Crazy no? What a legacy to have to live up to…
Anyway, I wanted to talk about moon to more specifically talk about another movie. “Moon” was good enough for what it was. An interesting little character study, of sorts. I had high hopes for this film; the hype was at just the right level for me to be excited, but not to a brimming-over point, like I might get with mindless fan-fare like your everyday comic book movie. I gotta say though, I’m quite let down by “Moon.” I guess why I’m let down by it is because it wasn’t the new age masterpiece that plenty of people were calling it.
I had been so excited by all the buzz surrounding it “2001” influence, but what I saw looked less like influence and more like unadulterated plagiarism. Which happens, in film these days anyway. I had a hard time identifying with the main characters, and I would explain why, but it’d require spoiling a major, major plot point that’s best kept secret. It just got flat out dull at moments too, and that’s never a good sign.
But getting to the point, the positive outcome of seeing “Moon” was it gave me a newer appreciation of not just how overwhelmingly good “District 9” is, but how powerfully vital it will be in the coming decades. I’m going to go ahead and proclaim “District 9” the best sci-fi film made since “2001.” Shock and amazement, I know… It’s true though. I challenge you to find me a movie made in the genre since 1968 that is 1) technically masterful 2) wholly original 3) pertinent to world affairs and 4) all and out purely entertaining as “District 9” is. Plenty of sci-fi films have had a few of these elements, but I can’t think of many that contain all four. Even my beloved “The Matrix” can at best lay claim to three of these criteria, in my opinion.
Looking back through the years, I confidently feel “District 9” stacks up to any film made in the genre (and to plenty outside of it). That’s why (as a little preview to my end-of-the-year lists) I’m going to go ahead spoil you folks on my best film of 2009 and tell you that its undoubtedly “District 9.” And this is without even seeing the work of my hero and idol, Terry Gilliam. That should let you know how heavy I am on this film. If you haven’t seen it, go out and get it next week when it hits DVD.
I watched “Moon” last night, an interesting little sci-fi feature by newcomer Duncan Jones. I found out after a brief bit of digging that Mr. Jones is actually the son of David Bowie. Crazy no? What a legacy to have to live up to…
Anyway, I wanted to talk about moon to more specifically talk about another movie. “Moon” was good enough for what it was. An interesting little character study, of sorts. I had high hopes for this film; the hype was at just the right level for me to be excited, but not to a brimming-over point, like I might get with mindless fan-fare like your everyday comic book movie. I gotta say though, I’m quite let down by “Moon.” I guess why I’m let down by it is because it wasn’t the new age masterpiece that plenty of people were calling it.
I had been so excited by all the buzz surrounding it “2001” influence, but what I saw looked less like influence and more like unadulterated plagiarism. Which happens, in film these days anyway. I had a hard time identifying with the main characters, and I would explain why, but it’d require spoiling a major, major plot point that’s best kept secret. It just got flat out dull at moments too, and that’s never a good sign.
But getting to the point, the positive outcome of seeing “Moon” was it gave me a newer appreciation of not just how overwhelmingly good “District 9” is, but how powerfully vital it will be in the coming decades. I’m going to go ahead and proclaim “District 9” the best sci-fi film made since “2001.” Shock and amazement, I know… It’s true though. I challenge you to find me a movie made in the genre since 1968 that is 1) technically masterful 2) wholly original 3) pertinent to world affairs and 4) all and out purely entertaining as “District 9” is. Plenty of sci-fi films have had a few of these elements, but I can’t think of many that contain all four. Even my beloved “The Matrix” can at best lay claim to three of these criteria, in my opinion.
Looking back through the years, I confidently feel “District 9” stacks up to any film made in the genre (and to plenty outside of it). That’s why (as a little preview to my end-of-the-year lists) I’m going to go ahead spoil you folks on my best film of 2009 and tell you that its undoubtedly “District 9.” And this is without even seeing the work of my hero and idol, Terry Gilliam. That should let you know how heavy I am on this film. If you haven’t seen it, go out and get it next week when it hits DVD.
17 December 2009
Approaching the End of the Decade & It Turns Out Tiger Woods is the Gene Simmons of the PGA
Current Tunes: Pardon the Interruption on ESPN
Between all the insanity surrounding Tiger Woods and the death of Bengals’ wide receiver Chris Henry this morning, I’m moderately thankful I’m not a celebrity. The debacle Woods is going through makes me oh so grateful for my privacy, what little of it I still have. Admittedly I myself am actually most responsible for any lack of privacy I’ve suffered. Using Facebook, Twitter, this blog are all conscious decisions that degrade my level of privacy, at varying levels. The Internet is shrinking the privacy bubble; we’ve all known that for a while, but how much smaller is it going to get? Could we possibly complete burst it?
RFID chips in national ID cards? ISPs logging all your purchases and shopping accounts to better know how to market to you? Patriot Act wiretapping, warrant-burning, Miranda rights stomping nonsense. There’s lots of ways our privacy is being curtailed. I’m not out to sound like a conspiracy theorist. One person I know would probably respond, “Who cares? The government doesn’t have any interest in you, you’re a speck of dust on the shelf.” It’s probably true, but shouldn’t privacy still be a principle to stand up for? A right to be protected? And like I said before, that right is almost completely gone for major celebrities who have to live with people trying to hack their cell phones for pictures or text messages, whether incriminating or not. Average standing citizens might not be far behind, and that bothers me.
Now, about Joseph Lieberman. I never liked this half-wit from the start. Sorry to be tooting my own horn, but I wanted this guy gone from the Senate years ago. This is the same knucklehead who thinks that Congress should get to decide what music you listen to, what movies you watch, & what video games you’re allowed to play. Apparently American government is knowledgeable enough about art to dictate what’s tolerable, but they can’t run a health care insurance racket? I know they’re completely different subjects, but that logic just does not add up to me.
In reality, I haven’t been following the health care debate/issue/hodgepodge/catastrophe in great detail. I’m not very invested in the discussion, to be truthful. But I can’t miss out on a chance to bash on my Most Hated Senator, Mr. Lieberman. Nevertheless, if you want to know what I think about health care (and you obviously do if you read this freakin’ blog!), I think the public option should happen. My general logic for this is, if people get sick, they die. Or, they miss work, or they under perform at work. Or they can’t take care of their children. Then the economy suffers as a whole. That’s disgustingly simplistic, I’ll admit.
So let me look at it a completely new way. I understand the exchange of commerce is vital to our society’s stability, but what are some things we don’t charge for, or charge very minimal for? The examples that come to mind, for me, are breathable air & water. Another thing we provide that we don’t pay much for (compared to what it costs) is military protection. Why is it we don’t pay a fee to the military, but we have to pay for a little round white dot that cures headaches or infections or whatever? Yeah, I know what you’re going to say: taxes. Well taxes pay for lots of other things than military.
Health care is expensive, but so are Hollywood film productions. James Cameron just spent $300+ million on a movie. But when it comes out tomorrow, people are going to be paying an average of about $9 a ticket to see it. You can make significant investments, as a company, and still keep prices at the consumer level low and affordable and still make it profitable. Looking at the same industry, Sony Pictures & Terry Gilliam aren’t going to charge $30 a ticket for “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” to make up for the fact that only a third (or less) of the people who saw “Avatar” will see their film. And they even spent less money making “Parnassus.” But yet health care companies, hospitals, insurance companies, whoever are going to charge more for a certain procedure or prescription just because this treatment gets used less often than a dose of Tylenol or a swift slap on the back?
If anything, allow me to use a purely Pathos-based argument: America touts itself as the greatest, most prolific, most well-to-do country in the world, but we let our citizens die every day of treatable, curable disease just because they don’t have the financial means necessary to line the pockets of hoggish health insurance companies. That idea just sickens me to think about it.
Between all the insanity surrounding Tiger Woods and the death of Bengals’ wide receiver Chris Henry this morning, I’m moderately thankful I’m not a celebrity. The debacle Woods is going through makes me oh so grateful for my privacy, what little of it I still have. Admittedly I myself am actually most responsible for any lack of privacy I’ve suffered. Using Facebook, Twitter, this blog are all conscious decisions that degrade my level of privacy, at varying levels. The Internet is shrinking the privacy bubble; we’ve all known that for a while, but how much smaller is it going to get? Could we possibly complete burst it?
RFID chips in national ID cards? ISPs logging all your purchases and shopping accounts to better know how to market to you? Patriot Act wiretapping, warrant-burning, Miranda rights stomping nonsense. There’s lots of ways our privacy is being curtailed. I’m not out to sound like a conspiracy theorist. One person I know would probably respond, “Who cares? The government doesn’t have any interest in you, you’re a speck of dust on the shelf.” It’s probably true, but shouldn’t privacy still be a principle to stand up for? A right to be protected? And like I said before, that right is almost completely gone for major celebrities who have to live with people trying to hack their cell phones for pictures or text messages, whether incriminating or not. Average standing citizens might not be far behind, and that bothers me.
Now, about Joseph Lieberman. I never liked this half-wit from the start. Sorry to be tooting my own horn, but I wanted this guy gone from the Senate years ago. This is the same knucklehead who thinks that Congress should get to decide what music you listen to, what movies you watch, & what video games you’re allowed to play. Apparently American government is knowledgeable enough about art to dictate what’s tolerable, but they can’t run a health care insurance racket? I know they’re completely different subjects, but that logic just does not add up to me.
In reality, I haven’t been following the health care debate/issue/hodgepodge/catastrophe in great detail. I’m not very invested in the discussion, to be truthful. But I can’t miss out on a chance to bash on my Most Hated Senator, Mr. Lieberman. Nevertheless, if you want to know what I think about health care (and you obviously do if you read this freakin’ blog!), I think the public option should happen. My general logic for this is, if people get sick, they die. Or, they miss work, or they under perform at work. Or they can’t take care of their children. Then the economy suffers as a whole. That’s disgustingly simplistic, I’ll admit.
So let me look at it a completely new way. I understand the exchange of commerce is vital to our society’s stability, but what are some things we don’t charge for, or charge very minimal for? The examples that come to mind, for me, are breathable air & water. Another thing we provide that we don’t pay much for (compared to what it costs) is military protection. Why is it we don’t pay a fee to the military, but we have to pay for a little round white dot that cures headaches or infections or whatever? Yeah, I know what you’re going to say: taxes. Well taxes pay for lots of other things than military.
Health care is expensive, but so are Hollywood film productions. James Cameron just spent $300+ million on a movie. But when it comes out tomorrow, people are going to be paying an average of about $9 a ticket to see it. You can make significant investments, as a company, and still keep prices at the consumer level low and affordable and still make it profitable. Looking at the same industry, Sony Pictures & Terry Gilliam aren’t going to charge $30 a ticket for “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” to make up for the fact that only a third (or less) of the people who saw “Avatar” will see their film. And they even spent less money making “Parnassus.” But yet health care companies, hospitals, insurance companies, whoever are going to charge more for a certain procedure or prescription just because this treatment gets used less often than a dose of Tylenol or a swift slap on the back?
If anything, allow me to use a purely Pathos-based argument: America touts itself as the greatest, most prolific, most well-to-do country in the world, but we let our citizens die every day of treatable, curable disease just because they don’t have the financial means necessary to line the pockets of hoggish health insurance companies. That idea just sickens me to think about it.
16 December 2009
The Return
Current Tunes: Ole’ Nessie – Mastodon
So I took one whopper of a hiatus it seems. That’s not unfamiliar ground for me with my blogs. I’ve got a track record of just disappearing for sections of time and such was the case for the major part of this fall. Two and a half months I’ve been gone, and I can’t make any good excuse. No, I won’t make any excuses. That’s something that has to be gotten rid of.
This past quarter of school was quite challenging for me, and I feel like I barely survived. I learned some new things, discovered that I can dig inside and find a way to push myself when I really need to. I still don’t think I’m some vanquisher of adversity, but I’m possibly apprenticing for the title. I wanted to give up so very much, but I didn’t. I should feel very good about that; I should feel better about it than I do. Persevering through class was a triumph. Like always, I guess, I highlight my failures and forget my successes.
The time for that is done and over with though. I’m putting together a toolbox. It’s sturdy, and it’s going to someday be filled with all the things I need to complete the tasks I have ahead of me. I’m tired of falling victim to the same foolish mental fallacies and faults that pave a path to disappointment and despair. I haven’t written anything in a long time, not really written anything. I’ve put words on a page; I’ve organized them into documents. But I haven’t churned out anything that feels like a creation. Just products. That’s coming to a stop though. I’m rediscovering my love for the overwhelming power of creativity.
I’ve had to sort through all the distant memories to find what I needed to get back to a place where writing is a love and not a chore. I remember being locked away in my apartment in Tuscaloosa so many years ago, where I ended up writing some of the best things I’ve ever written in my life. I remember nights just sitting at my desk with lit candles and Bryant-Denny stadium lit up across the street. I remember a time when I didn’t have to force the writing, when it just happened. Subconsciously, I knew I needed to get back to that place, and so I tried all sorts of stupid, foolish methods to get back there, none of which worked. I think I’ve come to realize I don’t have to go back to that place; I have to go back to me.
As for the future of Quantifiable Darkness, one major problem I had was a complete lack of schedule in regards to when posts would happen. That is a thing of the past. Starting today, posts happen daily. That's right, daily. Expect the same fun-time hodgepodge of media commentary, political rambling, personal accounts and other general mayhem. Sometime after Christmas Day you can all tune in for my end-of-the-year "Best Ofs," which has mostly been compiled but is on hold until a few certain films have been viewed, including "Antichrist," "Avatar," "The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus," and "Up in the Air," among a few others. I'm especially excited about my "Biggest Disappointment" sections, now not just in music, but for the TV & film components as well. Joy of joys!
I’ve returned, and it feels good to be back. You should know this isn’t the only thing I’m going to write tonight either. As soon as this gets posted, I’m getting to work on something else, one of a few different small projects I want to try out. Hopefully writing up a small essay or a few poems will jump-start me into finishing my thesis in the coming two weeks.
04 October 2009
United States of Zombieland
Current Tunes: Radiohead - Lucky
I haven’t seen as many movies this year as I have in past ones, so I can’t help but have some reservation about what I’m about to say, but “Zombieland” is probably going to end up being my favorite film of this year. It was an absolute treat; it was like a nice, high-cost but high in flavor and pleasure dessert from a upscale restaurant. Like a rich, decadent red-velvet cake that you sink your teeth into with ravenous delight, doing your own unconscious zombie impression as you chomp mindlessly at your brains-dessert with unbelievable fervor.
I loved the genre-mixing, stroke-of-genius idea of mixing zombie apocalypse with reluctant, awkward misfit road trip. The beauty of that idea comes in how you get a sense of progression and movement along with the characters as they traverse the burned and damaged countryside, scavenging for food and for some sense of solace. Placing the story inside of that narrative, you feel like you’re actually getting somewhere instead of waiting for everyone to die whilst huddled together in the local mall, like in “Dawn of the Dead” for example.
That movie’s genius too, but this is a new breed of zombie film that I think perfectly fits in with the precedent and canon first set out in “Shaun of the Dead.” I could see both that film and “Zombieland” taking place in the same world, at the same time. I’m pretty sure the characters from each movie would have trouble getting along with each other, but with most survival-oriented narratives, of course they would find a way to reconcile. I’d like to see that movie.
“Zombieland” has it’s own uniquely American attitude however. It has a tendency to dwell on a moment or two for too long, but makes up for it by diving back into the major narrative head first without recourse. Cavalier is a good word to describe this movie; it knows what the rules and conventions are, and it follows them as far as its devil-may-care attitude will take it, but winks at you through the whole process.
And how attractive is Emma Stone in this movie? Very. I’d give her hotness a rating of supernova for this performance. Hot, rebellious chick wearing lots of black leather toting a shotgun and kicking just as much ass as Woody Harrelson’s character… it’s perfect. Woody Harrelson is spectacular as well; easily my favorite character in the whole bunch. I was warmed and entranced by how supremely bad ass ‘Tallahassee’ is, while still maintaining (and sometimes emphasizing) serious flaws in the character. The end result isn’t just an arrogant jerk you can learn to like, but you empathize with his plight. But even then, there was one other performance that was even hotter than both Harrelson and Stone combined.
I’m talking about Mr. Bill “I Can Create Life” Murray. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say it might be the greatest cameo role of all time. Let me repeat: all time. I can’t really explain why, because it’d give away the surprise of the whole event. What I’ll say is it gets this illustrious title of greatest all time because it’s so sublime and so perfect, and so incredibly creative, it’s almost like an entirely postmodern deconstruction of the cameo role as a facet of art. It is a cameo, but it isn’t. I know I’m prejudiced, considering he’s been my single most favorite actor since I was even a young child, but he should get some special recognition for his appearance in this movie. I suppose an Oscar is out of the question, which I find annoying because even an honor like that isn’t good enough for how awesome this cameo was.
All in all, a very worthwhile and very surprising movie. I promise you, what you see in the previews is only a small taste of what the movie offers, and even then they are somewhat misleading. I was totally surprised by this movie; I didn’t expect to laugh that much, but I did. I appreciated the risks that the writers and director took, even more when I realize they probably didn’t see them as risks when they started work on this fantastic film. They must have just seen they had a good idea on their hand that only required a subtle, small, quiet cast to connect the audience with the narrative, and they pulled that part off perfectly. A+ filmmaking, a sheer piece of joy.
I haven’t seen as many movies this year as I have in past ones, so I can’t help but have some reservation about what I’m about to say, but “Zombieland” is probably going to end up being my favorite film of this year. It was an absolute treat; it was like a nice, high-cost but high in flavor and pleasure dessert from a upscale restaurant. Like a rich, decadent red-velvet cake that you sink your teeth into with ravenous delight, doing your own unconscious zombie impression as you chomp mindlessly at your brains-dessert with unbelievable fervor.
I loved the genre-mixing, stroke-of-genius idea of mixing zombie apocalypse with reluctant, awkward misfit road trip. The beauty of that idea comes in how you get a sense of progression and movement along with the characters as they traverse the burned and damaged countryside, scavenging for food and for some sense of solace. Placing the story inside of that narrative, you feel like you’re actually getting somewhere instead of waiting for everyone to die whilst huddled together in the local mall, like in “Dawn of the Dead” for example.
That movie’s genius too, but this is a new breed of zombie film that I think perfectly fits in with the precedent and canon first set out in “Shaun of the Dead.” I could see both that film and “Zombieland” taking place in the same world, at the same time. I’m pretty sure the characters from each movie would have trouble getting along with each other, but with most survival-oriented narratives, of course they would find a way to reconcile. I’d like to see that movie.
“Zombieland” has it’s own uniquely American attitude however. It has a tendency to dwell on a moment or two for too long, but makes up for it by diving back into the major narrative head first without recourse. Cavalier is a good word to describe this movie; it knows what the rules and conventions are, and it follows them as far as its devil-may-care attitude will take it, but winks at you through the whole process.
And how attractive is Emma Stone in this movie? Very. I’d give her hotness a rating of supernova for this performance. Hot, rebellious chick wearing lots of black leather toting a shotgun and kicking just as much ass as Woody Harrelson’s character… it’s perfect. Woody Harrelson is spectacular as well; easily my favorite character in the whole bunch. I was warmed and entranced by how supremely bad ass ‘Tallahassee’ is, while still maintaining (and sometimes emphasizing) serious flaws in the character. The end result isn’t just an arrogant jerk you can learn to like, but you empathize with his plight. But even then, there was one other performance that was even hotter than both Harrelson and Stone combined.
I’m talking about Mr. Bill “I Can Create Life” Murray. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say it might be the greatest cameo role of all time. Let me repeat: all time. I can’t really explain why, because it’d give away the surprise of the whole event. What I’ll say is it gets this illustrious title of greatest all time because it’s so sublime and so perfect, and so incredibly creative, it’s almost like an entirely postmodern deconstruction of the cameo role as a facet of art. It is a cameo, but it isn’t. I know I’m prejudiced, considering he’s been my single most favorite actor since I was even a young child, but he should get some special recognition for his appearance in this movie. I suppose an Oscar is out of the question, which I find annoying because even an honor like that isn’t good enough for how awesome this cameo was.
All in all, a very worthwhile and very surprising movie. I promise you, what you see in the previews is only a small taste of what the movie offers, and even then they are somewhat misleading. I was totally surprised by this movie; I didn’t expect to laugh that much, but I did. I appreciated the risks that the writers and director took, even more when I realize they probably didn’t see them as risks when they started work on this fantastic film. They must have just seen they had a good idea on their hand that only required a subtle, small, quiet cast to connect the audience with the narrative, and they pulled that part off perfectly. A+ filmmaking, a sheer piece of joy.
30 September 2009
Fight to Get it Back Again
Current Tunes: Pearl Jam - The Fixer
So one dropped-out-of-class and one visit to the bursar later, and I feel significantly more myself than I did the last time I talked with you all. Less stress and more economic freedom makes for a fantastic combination, I must say. Now I can concentrate on more pressing matters like thesis work and job hunting.
Easiest way to explain how different today is compared to Monday would be to talk about what’s coming up for me this afternoon. I’m headed up to the school this afternoon to finish up some class work for today, and I’m actually moderately looking forward to it. Which is no small happening, considering how difficult this class will be for me, I think. I’m actually having to go to extra tutoring sessions on Fridays, to get help with learning InDesign so I can design this little book project of mine. It’s exciting, getting to learn something I know almost nothing about and have no skill regarding the primary process of it all.
Who says fighting is something negative? I’ve finally put something together about myself. I’m adversarial, wouldn’t you agree? Think about how contrary and argumentative I am most times. I think I finally figured out why I’m that way; because it’s a struggle, and there’s nothing like a good struggle to let you know you’re still alive. Conflict is what makes the world go ‘round, not love. Hell, you could make a pretty concrete argument that love is a conflict. Who was it that said love is a battlefield? Oh yeah, Pat Benatar. Well, not as compelling as Descartes or Pope, but it still gets the point across. No offense to you, Mrs. Benatar.
If I try to articulate why it is that I love the feel and the emotion of the struggle and the fight, it’s hard not to get caught in the undertow of it all. Fighting isn’t always violence and destruction; that’s a distinction I think people don’t always realize, and even I fall into that faulty logic from time to time. I’m going to do my best to stay out of it though. We struggle because we must. We fight because it is the path to greatness, achievement, progress and even hopefulness, sometimes.
Haven’t really meant for posts to focus so exclusively on personal observations and problems, but there hasn’t been much room for going to movies lately. New shows have started; both “Sons of Anarchy” and “House” are off to rolling starts, but I’m still evaluating them on a larger scale that will take another week or so. Hopefully this weekend, though, I’ll get out to the theater to see “Zombieland” and report back with a riveting review. Promise.
So one dropped-out-of-class and one visit to the bursar later, and I feel significantly more myself than I did the last time I talked with you all. Less stress and more economic freedom makes for a fantastic combination, I must say. Now I can concentrate on more pressing matters like thesis work and job hunting.
Easiest way to explain how different today is compared to Monday would be to talk about what’s coming up for me this afternoon. I’m headed up to the school this afternoon to finish up some class work for today, and I’m actually moderately looking forward to it. Which is no small happening, considering how difficult this class will be for me, I think. I’m actually having to go to extra tutoring sessions on Fridays, to get help with learning InDesign so I can design this little book project of mine. It’s exciting, getting to learn something I know almost nothing about and have no skill regarding the primary process of it all.
Who says fighting is something negative? I’ve finally put something together about myself. I’m adversarial, wouldn’t you agree? Think about how contrary and argumentative I am most times. I think I finally figured out why I’m that way; because it’s a struggle, and there’s nothing like a good struggle to let you know you’re still alive. Conflict is what makes the world go ‘round, not love. Hell, you could make a pretty concrete argument that love is a conflict. Who was it that said love is a battlefield? Oh yeah, Pat Benatar. Well, not as compelling as Descartes or Pope, but it still gets the point across. No offense to you, Mrs. Benatar.
If I try to articulate why it is that I love the feel and the emotion of the struggle and the fight, it’s hard not to get caught in the undertow of it all. Fighting isn’t always violence and destruction; that’s a distinction I think people don’t always realize, and even I fall into that faulty logic from time to time. I’m going to do my best to stay out of it though. We struggle because we must. We fight because it is the path to greatness, achievement, progress and even hopefulness, sometimes.
Haven’t really meant for posts to focus so exclusively on personal observations and problems, but there hasn’t been much room for going to movies lately. New shows have started; both “Sons of Anarchy” and “House” are off to rolling starts, but I’m still evaluating them on a larger scale that will take another week or so. Hopefully this weekend, though, I’ll get out to the theater to see “Zombieland” and report back with a riveting review. Promise.
28 September 2009
Failure and Success
Current Tunes: Cowboys & Panthers (Panteras!) on Monday Night Football
So here’s my synopsis for the day. Here is how today was different.
1.) I said something that needed to be said today. I made the conscious decision to make a calculated, reasoned risk that yielded not the exact result I had envisioned, but indeed a better one. Overall, I felt good about it.
2.) I did laundry. Without specifically needing to. I could have likely gone another week or more without actually doing laundry, but I did.
3.) Not only did I continue my “mini-habits” routine this morning, I worked out for half an hour today. What a horrible half hour. It completely beat me, but I went the whole half hour even though I wanted to quit. A key lesson to remember.
4.) I woke up before the alarm that I set. Before. By an hour and a half. I’m tired now, have been all day (I’m sure working out only added to this). I could have gone back to sleep, but I made myself get up out of bed and the confidence I gained from that can’t be explained in words.
One last thing that made today different was interesting, insightful. I took a few t-shirts of mine (I have many) and set aside a few and cut the sleeves off a few of them, making a few sleeveless t-shirts to wear around the apartment. Sleeveless t’s are one of my greatest loves, something I didn’t discover until a year or so ago. So comfy...
Anyway, I only did this to four shirts. Only four. I could have done it to about ten more; I really only need ten or so real t-shirts for wearing out in public. The thought occurred to me that I mostly don’t want to do it because of my horribly unstoppable conservative streak. I want to conserve and preserve my shirts as they are, I can’t let them change. And for the silliest reasons. “Oh, I can’t cut up that shirt, I had such a good time at that fest,” or “I remember how I got that shirt, changing it would be like changing a memory.” Silly little rationales that fall short of the ideal definitions of fact and law. Maybe after I’m done with this, I’ll do one more.
All this today, and I still have an assignment due tomorrow and no idea what I’m going to turn in. On the surface, it’s not a difficult or complicated assignment at all. It just requires a good amount of creativity and of late I haven’t felt creative at all.
But the problem is bigger than that. I’m ashamed to turn in something for an assignment that I’m not proud of, something that I think is garbage. I think though, that may be something I need to teach myself to do. What ends up happening, I get so nervous and worried (worried is an important word here) about what’s required of me for the class and that I won’t meet the expectations of the teacher. So instead of just simply doing and/or trying, I just say to myself that to not do it at all would be the better choice. Which of course obviously it’s not. I had it really ingrained in me that everything always had to be your best, always. Not “as often as you can,” but always, every single time. I have to accept that there are some things I will not be the best at, that I will fail at. I will have to accept humility and go about life and not let it get the best of me.
My foolish self, I should remember how last quarter I stressed and stressed and worried and worried about my final paper in a class. I churned out a ridiculous, half-ass paper (by my standards anyway) and made I think an 88 on it. Maybe even higher than that. The point is, and J was there listening to me bitch constantly, I defeated myself before I had even started. I might be doing that with this assignment, unfortunately. I can foresee myself justifying the idea of just waking up early in the morning and starting to work on it immediately, AKA procrastination of the most unnecessary kind.
Perhaps all I need to do is accomplish even a small amount of work before I hit the hay tonight. Anything that can be a sign of progress.
So here’s my synopsis for the day. Here is how today was different.
1.) I said something that needed to be said today. I made the conscious decision to make a calculated, reasoned risk that yielded not the exact result I had envisioned, but indeed a better one. Overall, I felt good about it.
2.) I did laundry. Without specifically needing to. I could have likely gone another week or more without actually doing laundry, but I did.
3.) Not only did I continue my “mini-habits” routine this morning, I worked out for half an hour today. What a horrible half hour. It completely beat me, but I went the whole half hour even though I wanted to quit. A key lesson to remember.
4.) I woke up before the alarm that I set. Before. By an hour and a half. I’m tired now, have been all day (I’m sure working out only added to this). I could have gone back to sleep, but I made myself get up out of bed and the confidence I gained from that can’t be explained in words.
One last thing that made today different was interesting, insightful. I took a few t-shirts of mine (I have many) and set aside a few and cut the sleeves off a few of them, making a few sleeveless t-shirts to wear around the apartment. Sleeveless t’s are one of my greatest loves, something I didn’t discover until a year or so ago. So comfy...
Anyway, I only did this to four shirts. Only four. I could have done it to about ten more; I really only need ten or so real t-shirts for wearing out in public. The thought occurred to me that I mostly don’t want to do it because of my horribly unstoppable conservative streak. I want to conserve and preserve my shirts as they are, I can’t let them change. And for the silliest reasons. “Oh, I can’t cut up that shirt, I had such a good time at that fest,” or “I remember how I got that shirt, changing it would be like changing a memory.” Silly little rationales that fall short of the ideal definitions of fact and law. Maybe after I’m done with this, I’ll do one more.
All this today, and I still have an assignment due tomorrow and no idea what I’m going to turn in. On the surface, it’s not a difficult or complicated assignment at all. It just requires a good amount of creativity and of late I haven’t felt creative at all.
But the problem is bigger than that. I’m ashamed to turn in something for an assignment that I’m not proud of, something that I think is garbage. I think though, that may be something I need to teach myself to do. What ends up happening, I get so nervous and worried (worried is an important word here) about what’s required of me for the class and that I won’t meet the expectations of the teacher. So instead of just simply doing and/or trying, I just say to myself that to not do it at all would be the better choice. Which of course obviously it’s not. I had it really ingrained in me that everything always had to be your best, always. Not “as often as you can,” but always, every single time. I have to accept that there are some things I will not be the best at, that I will fail at. I will have to accept humility and go about life and not let it get the best of me.
My foolish self, I should remember how last quarter I stressed and stressed and worried and worried about my final paper in a class. I churned out a ridiculous, half-ass paper (by my standards anyway) and made I think an 88 on it. Maybe even higher than that. The point is, and J was there listening to me bitch constantly, I defeated myself before I had even started. I might be doing that with this assignment, unfortunately. I can foresee myself justifying the idea of just waking up early in the morning and starting to work on it immediately, AKA procrastination of the most unnecessary kind.
Perhaps all I need to do is accomplish even a small amount of work before I hit the hay tonight. Anything that can be a sign of progress.
24 September 2009
Current Tunes: Live feed of UN Security Council summit on nuclear disarmament
Two days in, I have incorporated two new habits into my mornings. Very simple ones; lying on the floor to relax/meditate for ten minutes as well as doing as many push ups as I can (this idea of course at the suggestion of Charles). I’m encouraged so far, and I believe these small practices will have good and positive results. Push ups are peculiar to me. I don’t believe I’d done real push ups since middle school, or maybe earlier. Yesterday, I think I only did three actual push ups, but today I did more like 13. I suppose the first day I was probably doing them wrong. I don’t think I had my arms spaced out far enough. So, already we have met with small progress! Great success!
A second weekend in a row in Florence will be had. It appears highly possible I’ll be attending the Tide & Arkansas game on Saturday, and that is immeasurably exciting to me. Going to the three Alabama games I went to last year was incredible; I’d go so far as to call it uplifting, invigorating, maybe even life-changing. We really need a huge showing against Arkansas. We need to beat them by three touchdowns or more and show the country just how serious this team is. Well, I suppose we don’t need to, but we’re just one victory like that away from replacing Texas in the #2 spot in the polls.
Game aside, I suppose I’ll spend half of my time helping pack up items in the house, and the other half working on class work or hanging out with the usual crew. Wish I didn’t have to wait to leave so late on Friday, but those are the breaks.
It occurred to me that Halloween’s only a month away, and as a consequence I’m going to do my best to make some solid, exciting plans now, not later. My last few Halloweens have been squandered at home, sitting around doing nothing in conjunction with what’s essentially the most fun holiday. I’m sure most of you might want to jump on me and say, “Hello?!?! CHRISTMAS???” but I would remind you, after the early morning presents and all that, you’re still left stuck in the house with nowhere to go except the movies (because everywhere else is closed) and you spend all your energy for the day in that first hour of the morning. With Halloween, you can wake up in the morning, slip on your Batman costume and wear it all day. And if you work hard enough at it, you can end up with ten times as much candy as you would get in your stocking on Christmas. Christmas is a sprint; Halloween is a marathon. That’s today’s lesson.
I had tuned into this little UN meeting (see Current Tunes) thinking it would be filled with insightful comments and possibly even a new idea or strategy for rethinking world disarmament. I should have known better, all I heard and saw was world leaders glad-handing each other, barking out pure and pointless rhetoric on how nuclear bombs are bad and we have to get rid of them, and keep certain other nut bags from getting them. That's real progress, woo boy. Stop saying what everyone already knows and get something done for once, please? Maybe I would actually like you, United Nations, if you did something meaningful.
Want to know the truth though? I'm really only ranting about this meeting because I can't find anything else that particularly catches my attention in regards to politics right now. Which actually, now that I think about it, this is a prime climate for me to be super-charged when it comes to politics and government, but I'm not. Everyone's running around at town hall meetings crying about the sky falling, or how global warming is going to turn the world upside down, or how North Korea's on the verge of sticking a nuke up our tailpipe, and none of this has me worried in the slightest. I'm not really sure why. I worry more about my own personal crises instead, and those I worry about too much.
That's what I've come to conclude: I worry too much when it comes to my own problems, but when it comes to the problems and concerns of the world itself I'm probably far too apathetic. I didn't always used to be that way, but things change and you have to learn to accept change, right? It happens. What can I do to change the problem of nuclear disarmament anyway? I'm not a nuclear physicist, and I'm definitely not a politician. That's a discussion for another time, really. I don't feel like going all 'it only takes one voice to change the world' right now, but maybe next time.
Two days in, I have incorporated two new habits into my mornings. Very simple ones; lying on the floor to relax/meditate for ten minutes as well as doing as many push ups as I can (this idea of course at the suggestion of Charles). I’m encouraged so far, and I believe these small practices will have good and positive results. Push ups are peculiar to me. I don’t believe I’d done real push ups since middle school, or maybe earlier. Yesterday, I think I only did three actual push ups, but today I did more like 13. I suppose the first day I was probably doing them wrong. I don’t think I had my arms spaced out far enough. So, already we have met with small progress! Great success!
A second weekend in a row in Florence will be had. It appears highly possible I’ll be attending the Tide & Arkansas game on Saturday, and that is immeasurably exciting to me. Going to the three Alabama games I went to last year was incredible; I’d go so far as to call it uplifting, invigorating, maybe even life-changing. We really need a huge showing against Arkansas. We need to beat them by three touchdowns or more and show the country just how serious this team is. Well, I suppose we don’t need to, but we’re just one victory like that away from replacing Texas in the #2 spot in the polls.
Game aside, I suppose I’ll spend half of my time helping pack up items in the house, and the other half working on class work or hanging out with the usual crew. Wish I didn’t have to wait to leave so late on Friday, but those are the breaks.
It occurred to me that Halloween’s only a month away, and as a consequence I’m going to do my best to make some solid, exciting plans now, not later. My last few Halloweens have been squandered at home, sitting around doing nothing in conjunction with what’s essentially the most fun holiday. I’m sure most of you might want to jump on me and say, “Hello?!?! CHRISTMAS???” but I would remind you, after the early morning presents and all that, you’re still left stuck in the house with nowhere to go except the movies (because everywhere else is closed) and you spend all your energy for the day in that first hour of the morning. With Halloween, you can wake up in the morning, slip on your Batman costume and wear it all day. And if you work hard enough at it, you can end up with ten times as much candy as you would get in your stocking on Christmas. Christmas is a sprint; Halloween is a marathon. That’s today’s lesson.
I had tuned into this little UN meeting (see Current Tunes) thinking it would be filled with insightful comments and possibly even a new idea or strategy for rethinking world disarmament. I should have known better, all I heard and saw was world leaders glad-handing each other, barking out pure and pointless rhetoric on how nuclear bombs are bad and we have to get rid of them, and keep certain other nut bags from getting them. That's real progress, woo boy. Stop saying what everyone already knows and get something done for once, please? Maybe I would actually like you, United Nations, if you did something meaningful.
Want to know the truth though? I'm really only ranting about this meeting because I can't find anything else that particularly catches my attention in regards to politics right now. Which actually, now that I think about it, this is a prime climate for me to be super-charged when it comes to politics and government, but I'm not. Everyone's running around at town hall meetings crying about the sky falling, or how global warming is going to turn the world upside down, or how North Korea's on the verge of sticking a nuke up our tailpipe, and none of this has me worried in the slightest. I'm not really sure why. I worry more about my own personal crises instead, and those I worry about too much.
That's what I've come to conclude: I worry too much when it comes to my own problems, but when it comes to the problems and concerns of the world itself I'm probably far too apathetic. I didn't always used to be that way, but things change and you have to learn to accept change, right? It happens. What can I do to change the problem of nuclear disarmament anyway? I'm not a nuclear physicist, and I'm definitely not a politician. That's a discussion for another time, really. I don't feel like going all 'it only takes one voice to change the world' right now, but maybe next time.
21 September 2009
Non-Habit Forming
Current Tunes: Insomnium - Down with the Sun
Man, what a way to start out a new season. If "House" isn't the penultimate of what television can accomplish, then they should just give up on the medium as a whole. Television almost without exception is terribly pointless and bad for you, but not "House." That's one of my favorite things about it.
Continuing with media related topics, my compliments to the Emmy Awards for being the first snobby, mindless, glad-handing award show in history to actually give an award to an entity that wholly deserved special accolades. I’m talking of course about the award that Joss Whedon and Co. won at the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony for “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” I especially love what Mr. Whedon says at the end of the acceptance speech he gave that night. It’s good that the mainstream television industry is acknowledging not only good storytelling and creativity, but also a changing of the guard that’s happening. The Internet is not a deterrent to good television and storytelling; it’s a new and more efficient delivery system. I could very well seeing this as being a moment when media historians look back and say “When ‘Dr. Horrible’ won an Emmy, that’s what opened the floodgates.” My congratulations to Whedon, and I enthusiastically await the next part of the series. Especially when I consider how I think they have so many different angles to grow the show into.
I stumbled across an interesting little link today, via the Twitter account of one Mr. William Gibson. I don’t know if this report will get the needed circulation that I feel is really necessary, as the media can be quite unreliable when it comes to reporting stories that don’t involve the sex lives of pop singers. The real reason though I believe I’m pointing this article out is that it reminds and saddens me that I wasn’t more staunchly outraged by all the reports and facts surrounding how our government sanctioned torture for multiple years in multiple cases.
A younger me, a 17-year-old me, would have been so angered by such a revelation he would have demanded excused absence from school in order to more faithfully protest the extreme insanity and ignorance of our government representatives. But it was just another footnote for the current me. Perhaps though this not-so-stunning-to-me information will help awaken people to how we should proceed with not just complicated socio-political issues, but will serve as a reminder to treat our fellow man with a little more dignity and respect.
I feel I’m finally coming around to appreciate the real value in integrating positive habits into my life and routine, so now I must begin that process. I'm approaching this concept like a class; I have to assign myself practice exercises in order to teach myself the concepts and actions that represent comprehension of the material. With any process where you try to learn, where you’re starting fresh, I feel it’s probably a good idea to try first with something small. So I need a couple of good ideas for a small, almost-but-not-quite menial habit to ingrain in myself. One idea has been to just simply lie on the floor for half an hour a day, listening to my iPod and not getting up from the floor until the half hour has passed.
My other ‘simple’ idea had been to stop being so negative about everything in life, but after a moment I realized that’s a terribly complicated and difficult. Even then, it's not really creating a new and positive habit, it's eliminating a negative, preexisting one. The iPod idea isn’t great either, I feel. I don’t think it generates anything positive in my life; it’s merely ‘neutral.’ I suppose a habit is truly doing something and laying on the floor listening to music isn’t really doing. Working out daily is a highly desirable habit for me, but I’ve tried that before and couldn’t make it last. Maybe I should try again.
Man, what a way to start out a new season. If "House" isn't the penultimate of what television can accomplish, then they should just give up on the medium as a whole. Television almost without exception is terribly pointless and bad for you, but not "House." That's one of my favorite things about it.
Continuing with media related topics, my compliments to the Emmy Awards for being the first snobby, mindless, glad-handing award show in history to actually give an award to an entity that wholly deserved special accolades. I’m talking of course about the award that Joss Whedon and Co. won at the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony for “Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog.” I especially love what Mr. Whedon says at the end of the acceptance speech he gave that night. It’s good that the mainstream television industry is acknowledging not only good storytelling and creativity, but also a changing of the guard that’s happening. The Internet is not a deterrent to good television and storytelling; it’s a new and more efficient delivery system. I could very well seeing this as being a moment when media historians look back and say “When ‘Dr. Horrible’ won an Emmy, that’s what opened the floodgates.” My congratulations to Whedon, and I enthusiastically await the next part of the series. Especially when I consider how I think they have so many different angles to grow the show into.
I stumbled across an interesting little link today, via the Twitter account of one Mr. William Gibson. I don’t know if this report will get the needed circulation that I feel is really necessary, as the media can be quite unreliable when it comes to reporting stories that don’t involve the sex lives of pop singers. The real reason though I believe I’m pointing this article out is that it reminds and saddens me that I wasn’t more staunchly outraged by all the reports and facts surrounding how our government sanctioned torture for multiple years in multiple cases.
A younger me, a 17-year-old me, would have been so angered by such a revelation he would have demanded excused absence from school in order to more faithfully protest the extreme insanity and ignorance of our government representatives. But it was just another footnote for the current me. Perhaps though this not-so-stunning-to-me information will help awaken people to how we should proceed with not just complicated socio-political issues, but will serve as a reminder to treat our fellow man with a little more dignity and respect.
I feel I’m finally coming around to appreciate the real value in integrating positive habits into my life and routine, so now I must begin that process. I'm approaching this concept like a class; I have to assign myself practice exercises in order to teach myself the concepts and actions that represent comprehension of the material. With any process where you try to learn, where you’re starting fresh, I feel it’s probably a good idea to try first with something small. So I need a couple of good ideas for a small, almost-but-not-quite menial habit to ingrain in myself. One idea has been to just simply lie on the floor for half an hour a day, listening to my iPod and not getting up from the floor until the half hour has passed.
My other ‘simple’ idea had been to stop being so negative about everything in life, but after a moment I realized that’s a terribly complicated and difficult. Even then, it's not really creating a new and positive habit, it's eliminating a negative, preexisting one. The iPod idea isn’t great either, I feel. I don’t think it generates anything positive in my life; it’s merely ‘neutral.’ I suppose a habit is truly doing something and laying on the floor listening to music isn’t really doing. Working out daily is a highly desirable habit for me, but I’ve tried that before and couldn’t make it last. Maybe I should try again.
09 September 2009
The Fall Approaches
Current Tunes: Bruce Springsteen – The Rising
Such a worthless slacker I am! The lazy-break between quarters of class has devolved me into a creature with uncanny resemblance to sloths and sun-bathing cats of any species, save lions I might say...
How utterly indescribable Dragon*Con was. Another weekend’s worth of unbelievable memories logged and registered. I would say that I wished Dragon*Con happened every month, or every week, because its so much fun. But that would take away from what they’ve all meant up to this point. It wouldn’t be a special is what I’m trying to say.
First day was absolutely amazing. Getting to the Con at 7 AM was totally worth watching Leonard Nimoy & William Shatner banter back and forth like old friends at a bar enjoying a drink and reminiscing about old times. Though, between the two, the more enjoyable and more intelligent was definitely Leonard Nimoy, who impressed me greatly. Had a chance to see him at a 2nd panel, and I think I made a mistake in passing on that. Patrick Stewart’s panel was well-worth the +1 hour wait as well. Another incredibly well-spoken and intelligent overflowing with grace and good stories; what more could a fan-boy like me ask for? I’m curious to see what this new Shakespearean production he’s involved with will be; I’m anticipating “King Lear,” but I could be wrong.
The first day as well, I went to a panel featuring the man himself, Terry Gilliam, and he was gracious enough to show us a wealth of footage from “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” and I was utterly enthralled with what we saw. What I liked best about the panel was when he talked about Heath Ledger, who he talked about not as if some sort of Herculean demi-god had left the earth, but mentioned his passing as what it most realistically was: a horrible passing that can’t be dwelled upon, but can be remembered through tribute and reverence. My devotion to the master (Gilliam) paid off too; on Saturday, at his panel with Neil Innes discussing “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” I was rewarded for my diligence and time spent waiting in lines. The two men were privy to presenting two lucky individuals from the audience with a signed box set of “Monty Python” DVDs, and Mr. Gilliam’s criteria for deciding his recipient was bent on who could first tell him how many syllables were in the title of his new film (the answer was 13, sound it out…). Anyway, standing from the 3rd row from the front, Mr. Gilliam spotted my mildly-insane ass standing up from my chair waiving my hands in the air screaming “13!!!!’ as loud as I could, eventually motioning with my hands a distinguishable “one” then “three” in finger form until he appreciatively nodded his head yes and motioned for me to approach…
I excitedly made my way through the seats to the front of the stage and received my prize, trying to shout to him how I had my skills as an English major allowed me to so quickly count up the number of syllables in the title, but alas, he misunderstood or misheard me and made some mention about me “being English” to the crowd. Oh well, I had won my prize, and now I gaze upon it lovingly and happily.
Sunday was a memorable day as well. The Felicia Day/Dollhouse panel was compelling, and the associated “experts” on the show related some interesting and thoughtful commentary and theory about the show, and only further enhanced my desire for the premiere to approach even more quickly. Sunday evening was spent largely in the basement of the Hilton, gaming in many different aspects and arenas. I was given my first introduction to “Are You a Werewolf?” and I’d be amiss to tell you the experience left me dazed and scarred in the most profound ways. Over the weekend I was deeply exposed to the intense and marvelous experience that is “Dominion” and I have to say I’m completely hooked on the game.
Other highlights included an educational panel for ‘newbs’ like myself on “World of Warcraft” and the always entertaining “Lost” panel, which featured some exclusively interesting theories that included a second… YES, I said SECOND, smoke monster?!?! I missed the parade again, I didn’t see many musical performances. Those were important goals that were skimmed over, in the name of being in line early for important panels. So sacrifices had to be made. The good news is I think I have that out of my system now; next year, I don’t believe I’ll be so completely focused on panels that feature major celebrities/actors like I have been in past years. For example, Trek Trak can really only seduce me with Armin Shimerman and/or Rene Auberjonois from here on out. I mean really, how do you top William Shatner after this?!?! I've seen everyone from "Next Generation" pretty much now, after having seen Mr. Stewart. Admittedly though, my deep affection for "Star Trek" may draw me back to those huge panels if they bring in someone big and important next year, no matter what I say now.
Next year, I’m going to spend much more of my time on gaming and smaller panels that concentrate on giving out actual information and discussion instead major hero-worship. The major plus to this will be far less time spent waiting in lines. I think I’ll also avoid the dealers/exhibitors halls next year as much as possible; I don’t need to worry myself with buying pointless trinkets and junk, right?
Well on another completely different angle, school starts back next week which means the switch back to responsibility and work will have to be immediate. I’m going to have a lot on my plate between school, job searching, thesis-writing, and just general living. This break has gone by way too fast, but that’s mostly my fault. I’ve let it slip away from me; I could have been semi-productive, but I haven’t been, unfortunately. I can change that next week, once class becomes that kick-start that punches be back into responsibility mode. Even more helpful will be the change in weather; I need a nice cold day. I need that damned hoodie-wearing-weather.
Such a worthless slacker I am! The lazy-break between quarters of class has devolved me into a creature with uncanny resemblance to sloths and sun-bathing cats of any species, save lions I might say...
How utterly indescribable Dragon*Con was. Another weekend’s worth of unbelievable memories logged and registered. I would say that I wished Dragon*Con happened every month, or every week, because its so much fun. But that would take away from what they’ve all meant up to this point. It wouldn’t be a special is what I’m trying to say.
First day was absolutely amazing. Getting to the Con at 7 AM was totally worth watching Leonard Nimoy & William Shatner banter back and forth like old friends at a bar enjoying a drink and reminiscing about old times. Though, between the two, the more enjoyable and more intelligent was definitely Leonard Nimoy, who impressed me greatly. Had a chance to see him at a 2nd panel, and I think I made a mistake in passing on that. Patrick Stewart’s panel was well-worth the +1 hour wait as well. Another incredibly well-spoken and intelligent overflowing with grace and good stories; what more could a fan-boy like me ask for? I’m curious to see what this new Shakespearean production he’s involved with will be; I’m anticipating “King Lear,” but I could be wrong.
The first day as well, I went to a panel featuring the man himself, Terry Gilliam, and he was gracious enough to show us a wealth of footage from “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” and I was utterly enthralled with what we saw. What I liked best about the panel was when he talked about Heath Ledger, who he talked about not as if some sort of Herculean demi-god had left the earth, but mentioned his passing as what it most realistically was: a horrible passing that can’t be dwelled upon, but can be remembered through tribute and reverence. My devotion to the master (Gilliam) paid off too; on Saturday, at his panel with Neil Innes discussing “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” I was rewarded for my diligence and time spent waiting in lines. The two men were privy to presenting two lucky individuals from the audience with a signed box set of “Monty Python” DVDs, and Mr. Gilliam’s criteria for deciding his recipient was bent on who could first tell him how many syllables were in the title of his new film (the answer was 13, sound it out…). Anyway, standing from the 3rd row from the front, Mr. Gilliam spotted my mildly-insane ass standing up from my chair waiving my hands in the air screaming “13!!!!’ as loud as I could, eventually motioning with my hands a distinguishable “one” then “three” in finger form until he appreciatively nodded his head yes and motioned for me to approach…
I excitedly made my way through the seats to the front of the stage and received my prize, trying to shout to him how I had my skills as an English major allowed me to so quickly count up the number of syllables in the title, but alas, he misunderstood or misheard me and made some mention about me “being English” to the crowd. Oh well, I had won my prize, and now I gaze upon it lovingly and happily.
Sunday was a memorable day as well. The Felicia Day/Dollhouse panel was compelling, and the associated “experts” on the show related some interesting and thoughtful commentary and theory about the show, and only further enhanced my desire for the premiere to approach even more quickly. Sunday evening was spent largely in the basement of the Hilton, gaming in many different aspects and arenas. I was given my first introduction to “Are You a Werewolf?” and I’d be amiss to tell you the experience left me dazed and scarred in the most profound ways. Over the weekend I was deeply exposed to the intense and marvelous experience that is “Dominion” and I have to say I’m completely hooked on the game.
Other highlights included an educational panel for ‘newbs’ like myself on “World of Warcraft” and the always entertaining “Lost” panel, which featured some exclusively interesting theories that included a second… YES, I said SECOND, smoke monster?!?! I missed the parade again, I didn’t see many musical performances. Those were important goals that were skimmed over, in the name of being in line early for important panels. So sacrifices had to be made. The good news is I think I have that out of my system now; next year, I don’t believe I’ll be so completely focused on panels that feature major celebrities/actors like I have been in past years. For example, Trek Trak can really only seduce me with Armin Shimerman and/or Rene Auberjonois from here on out. I mean really, how do you top William Shatner after this?!?! I've seen everyone from "Next Generation" pretty much now, after having seen Mr. Stewart. Admittedly though, my deep affection for "Star Trek" may draw me back to those huge panels if they bring in someone big and important next year, no matter what I say now.
Next year, I’m going to spend much more of my time on gaming and smaller panels that concentrate on giving out actual information and discussion instead major hero-worship. The major plus to this will be far less time spent waiting in lines. I think I’ll also avoid the dealers/exhibitors halls next year as much as possible; I don’t need to worry myself with buying pointless trinkets and junk, right?
Well on another completely different angle, school starts back next week which means the switch back to responsibility and work will have to be immediate. I’m going to have a lot on my plate between school, job searching, thesis-writing, and just general living. This break has gone by way too fast, but that’s mostly my fault. I’ve let it slip away from me; I could have been semi-productive, but I haven’t been, unfortunately. I can change that next week, once class becomes that kick-start that punches be back into responsibility mode. Even more helpful will be the change in weather; I need a nice cold day. I need that damned hoodie-wearing-weather.
31 August 2009
Chill Out... Seriously.
Current Tunes: Opeth – Heir Apparent
Well, haven’t I been a bad, bad boy? Gone too long without a post/update of any kind. But finals week is tumultuous. And dangerous. And stressful. But whatever, it’s done.
I probably wouldn’t have even posted today, but circumstances beyond my control have forced my hand. Today’s events have sent the Internet, indeed it appears the entire world, into a massive paranoid frenzy. So as a staunch supporter of reasoned, rational thinking and calm collectedness, I am here to put all your fears to bed. Everything will be all right, no one will be harmed, no one’s life is in as much danger as it might seem.
It’s O.K. that Disney’s buying Marvel.
So stop freaking out about it. It wasn’t but three or four years ago, Disney Company bought the Jim Henson franchise, and even I freaked out moderately about that. I remember all of us speculating that they would rape and pillage the canon of beloved classics like “Sesame Street” and “Fraggle Rock,” but no such travesty occurred. They’re making money off the Jim Henson name, sure, that’s what corporations do. Let’s not act like it’s some abomination against the gods of Imaginationland.
This makes lots of sense for Marvel, it looks like to me. And fans of the so-far-successful series of Marvel Comics turned into films should be especially happy about this. Disney will provide a great deal of financial backing to future projects, and Disney can market a film with the best of them. A $4 billion price tag should excite fans to know that that’s what Marvel is worth. Maybe would have been more in a better economy? I'm not an expert, but that seems more than plausible to me.
It’s important to put that in context. Go back in time nearly 50 years ago, walk into a local comic store selling its first copies of “Fantastic Four #1” and tell the owner, and whatever young and impressionable patrons are there, that a few decades from now Marvel will be bought by the Walt Disney Company. They’d throw you out of the store, straight into the back of the next ambulance making a stop at the crazy-house. This is a monumental day for comic books, to see that that’s how far the medium has come. From a low-brow, adolescent indulgence to a pinnacle, top-tier American entertainment franchise.
If you really want to make a fuss about something, you should actually be angry about what Disney already controls a stake in… Establishments like ESPN, ABC, Miramax, Touchstone, Dreamworks (YES, THAT’S RIGHT, DISNEY OWNS STAKE IN DREAMWORKS!), Hyperion Books, Hulu, plus several video game developers. This is just a piece of the list and doesn’t include the ridiculous amounts of revenue generated from their direct brands and their bloody theme parks. Their ownership in cable extends far past their silly family-oriented pop-nonsense like Disney Channel and the ABC Family Channel. They own Lifetime, A&E, The History Channel, & The Biography Channel as well as a host of local broadcasting stations across the country.
Disney is a media empire of frightening reach and scope, mostly because of how far they reach into the minds and lives of American children. That’s what you should be the most angry about really, if you’re going to pitch a fit about something.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m still not here to rag on Disney. I, for one, am excited that Disney made a smart move and picked up Marvel. I know Marvel’s shareholders are all happy people too, and good for them. Shareholders sure often get labeled as greedy people, and maybe plenty of them are. Also, I don’t happen to know any of Marvel’s shareholders personally, but I have to salute them for investing their money in a property that the whole country hasn’t always viewed as a vibrant, meaningful aspect of American pop culture. Guess who’s left laughing now? This isn’t a step backwards for comic books, and it certainly isn’t their death; this is a validation.
Well, haven’t I been a bad, bad boy? Gone too long without a post/update of any kind. But finals week is tumultuous. And dangerous. And stressful. But whatever, it’s done.
I probably wouldn’t have even posted today, but circumstances beyond my control have forced my hand. Today’s events have sent the Internet, indeed it appears the entire world, into a massive paranoid frenzy. So as a staunch supporter of reasoned, rational thinking and calm collectedness, I am here to put all your fears to bed. Everything will be all right, no one will be harmed, no one’s life is in as much danger as it might seem.
It’s O.K. that Disney’s buying Marvel.
So stop freaking out about it. It wasn’t but three or four years ago, Disney Company bought the Jim Henson franchise, and even I freaked out moderately about that. I remember all of us speculating that they would rape and pillage the canon of beloved classics like “Sesame Street” and “Fraggle Rock,” but no such travesty occurred. They’re making money off the Jim Henson name, sure, that’s what corporations do. Let’s not act like it’s some abomination against the gods of Imaginationland.
This makes lots of sense for Marvel, it looks like to me. And fans of the so-far-successful series of Marvel Comics turned into films should be especially happy about this. Disney will provide a great deal of financial backing to future projects, and Disney can market a film with the best of them. A $4 billion price tag should excite fans to know that that’s what Marvel is worth. Maybe would have been more in a better economy? I'm not an expert, but that seems more than plausible to me.
It’s important to put that in context. Go back in time nearly 50 years ago, walk into a local comic store selling its first copies of “Fantastic Four #1” and tell the owner, and whatever young and impressionable patrons are there, that a few decades from now Marvel will be bought by the Walt Disney Company. They’d throw you out of the store, straight into the back of the next ambulance making a stop at the crazy-house. This is a monumental day for comic books, to see that that’s how far the medium has come. From a low-brow, adolescent indulgence to a pinnacle, top-tier American entertainment franchise.
If you really want to make a fuss about something, you should actually be angry about what Disney already controls a stake in… Establishments like ESPN, ABC, Miramax, Touchstone, Dreamworks (YES, THAT’S RIGHT, DISNEY OWNS STAKE IN DREAMWORKS!), Hyperion Books, Hulu, plus several video game developers. This is just a piece of the list and doesn’t include the ridiculous amounts of revenue generated from their direct brands and their bloody theme parks. Their ownership in cable extends far past their silly family-oriented pop-nonsense like Disney Channel and the ABC Family Channel. They own Lifetime, A&E, The History Channel, & The Biography Channel as well as a host of local broadcasting stations across the country.
Disney is a media empire of frightening reach and scope, mostly because of how far they reach into the minds and lives of American children. That’s what you should be the most angry about really, if you’re going to pitch a fit about something.
Don’t get me wrong though, I’m still not here to rag on Disney. I, for one, am excited that Disney made a smart move and picked up Marvel. I know Marvel’s shareholders are all happy people too, and good for them. Shareholders sure often get labeled as greedy people, and maybe plenty of them are. Also, I don’t happen to know any of Marvel’s shareholders personally, but I have to salute them for investing their money in a property that the whole country hasn’t always viewed as a vibrant, meaningful aspect of American pop culture. Guess who’s left laughing now? This isn’t a step backwards for comic books, and it certainly isn’t their death; this is a validation.
19 August 2009
Death to Stress
Current Tunes: Pantera – 25 Years
Just a little more than two weeks until DragonCon, and it’s all I can think about in my private little crazy mind. I’m ready to dive in head first, immerse myself in the biggest weekend of escapism imaginable.
That point hit me pretty hard that DragonCon is exactly that: a weekend of complete removal from concrete reality. Walking around three different hotels over the course of a weekend being surrounded by people dressed up as superheroes and “Star Wars” stormtroopers is not even remotely close to reality. Over the weekend, too, my physiological needs transform quite dramatically. I go from needing minimum three meals a day to eating maybe one sandwich for a whole day. Seven hours of sleep? Psshhhh… four hours is twice as much as I need to function!
My memory-creation brain cells go into overdrive as well. My mind switches to some kind of ultra-photographic-memory-mode where my eyes are like lenses, soaking in light second for second and retaining the images in some massive storage unit somewhere in my skull. My ability to retain and process information somehow increases as well, between all the fascinating panels featuring stars of stage and screen, to the insightful writers panels, to the eye-catching trinkets offered by the merchants from all over the nation. Yes, it’s nothing like true reality at all. Thinking about it so intently, it reminds me of Baudrillard’s “hyper-reality.” That concept perfectly explains DragonCon: a simulation of incredible scope and influence.
The past few days, what lone thoughts I have that don’t center around DragonCon have been related to a close-knit group of topics: stress, efficiency, wellness, self-management. Like always, really. But the conclusions have been stunningly different of late. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve let myself fall into a circle of behavior that makes things far more difficult than they should be. The two major components are procrastination and stress. Stop me if this sounds familiar…
Basically I get overly stressed out about a particular task that has to be done. The stress grows so great, I put it off until later. Then, the process of procrastinating only allows for more time to stress about the obstacle, which then leads to more and more procrastinating. I’ve managed to wrest myself from this cycle, for the moment, and I did it by starting with stress. I calmed myself down, calculated a path to completion, and let it go at that. So far, it’s working.
There’s been a tangible, physical component to the cycle too that must be combated as well, and I don’t think I fully grasped its power until this morning. My far-too-high stress level I believe has been affecting my sleep, as it often does for all sorts of people. For instance, before I fell asleep I remember my last thoughts being stressing about a particular school assignment, and I believe the stress carried over into my sleep. I woke up multiple times (at least four that I recall) over the course of the night, which resulted in me not being fully rested for this morning. After only a few moments awake, I was sure that the stress was the major culprit.
In the past I would have chalked it up to an uncomfortable mattress or the temperature being too high in my room or laying down the wrong way on my pillow, something of that sort. I’ve had more than frequent difficulty sleeping over the past several months, and I think I have to credit stress as the reason why.
So, new goal: sleep comfortably and calmly, free of stressful thoughts. Which will hopefully lead to a smoother, more comfortable, more progressive day-to-day existence. Cheers to that, am I right? I love simple solutions for complicated problems.
Just a little more than two weeks until DragonCon, and it’s all I can think about in my private little crazy mind. I’m ready to dive in head first, immerse myself in the biggest weekend of escapism imaginable.
That point hit me pretty hard that DragonCon is exactly that: a weekend of complete removal from concrete reality. Walking around three different hotels over the course of a weekend being surrounded by people dressed up as superheroes and “Star Wars” stormtroopers is not even remotely close to reality. Over the weekend, too, my physiological needs transform quite dramatically. I go from needing minimum three meals a day to eating maybe one sandwich for a whole day. Seven hours of sleep? Psshhhh… four hours is twice as much as I need to function!
My memory-creation brain cells go into overdrive as well. My mind switches to some kind of ultra-photographic-memory-mode where my eyes are like lenses, soaking in light second for second and retaining the images in some massive storage unit somewhere in my skull. My ability to retain and process information somehow increases as well, between all the fascinating panels featuring stars of stage and screen, to the insightful writers panels, to the eye-catching trinkets offered by the merchants from all over the nation. Yes, it’s nothing like true reality at all. Thinking about it so intently, it reminds me of Baudrillard’s “hyper-reality.” That concept perfectly explains DragonCon: a simulation of incredible scope and influence.
The past few days, what lone thoughts I have that don’t center around DragonCon have been related to a close-knit group of topics: stress, efficiency, wellness, self-management. Like always, really. But the conclusions have been stunningly different of late. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’ve let myself fall into a circle of behavior that makes things far more difficult than they should be. The two major components are procrastination and stress. Stop me if this sounds familiar…
Basically I get overly stressed out about a particular task that has to be done. The stress grows so great, I put it off until later. Then, the process of procrastinating only allows for more time to stress about the obstacle, which then leads to more and more procrastinating. I’ve managed to wrest myself from this cycle, for the moment, and I did it by starting with stress. I calmed myself down, calculated a path to completion, and let it go at that. So far, it’s working.
There’s been a tangible, physical component to the cycle too that must be combated as well, and I don’t think I fully grasped its power until this morning. My far-too-high stress level I believe has been affecting my sleep, as it often does for all sorts of people. For instance, before I fell asleep I remember my last thoughts being stressing about a particular school assignment, and I believe the stress carried over into my sleep. I woke up multiple times (at least four that I recall) over the course of the night, which resulted in me not being fully rested for this morning. After only a few moments awake, I was sure that the stress was the major culprit.
In the past I would have chalked it up to an uncomfortable mattress or the temperature being too high in my room or laying down the wrong way on my pillow, something of that sort. I’ve had more than frequent difficulty sleeping over the past several months, and I think I have to credit stress as the reason why.
So, new goal: sleep comfortably and calmly, free of stressful thoughts. Which will hopefully lead to a smoother, more comfortable, more progressive day-to-day existence. Cheers to that, am I right? I love simple solutions for complicated problems.
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