Monday, August 29, 2005

It just occured to me...



I've never been to Mardi Gras...

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Thoughts on a genre



It occurs to me that not many people are aware of the genre of British film known as, "gangster pictures." In America, we really don't have much for this genre. It gets folded into "film noir" or "action" or in the case of Scorsese or Coppola, "drama." Quentin Tarantino is probably the only writer director that has managed to rival the British gangster style with his mainstream work, and even then only with two of his films (Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction).



While we here in the U.S. may have seen some stateside remakes of classic imports from Great Britain (Italian Job, Get Carter, etc.), these pathetic "reinterpretations" are no match for the current slate of imports that are actually of the genre made by the team of Guy Ritchie and Matthew Vaughn.



To understand the appeal of this genre is to understand two problems that mainstream audiences have with the films when trying to view them: 1) the accents and the slang and 2) the complete lack of redeemable characters. These two complaints can be settled with the following rebuttals: 1) get cultured, you isolationist pricks and 2) welcome to the world of crime and criminals.



Given the fact that the actual concept of an anti-hero is lost on the mass audience, it doesn't seem to hard to grasp that they would have a hard time trying to figure out which character they're supposed to root for; trying to overcome the "lesser of two evils" approach to understanding. What should be kept in mind during the viewing of the British gangster genre is that, upon multiple viewings of the same type of movies, you'll begin to learn what is so fascinating about this particular type of film versus other action or dramatic pictures: criminals make better characters than cops. It's an unfortunate realization to come to in the current good vs. evil climate of world events, but, let's face it: the true depths of desperation and depravity that exist in the romanticized view of the gangster that was ingrained in cinema due to characters pioneered by American filmmakers during the forties and fifties. It has become slightly apparent that the British, while maybe coopting these archetypes, are almost taking them in new directions while American filmmakers are almost neutered to the idea of making a villain a protagonist.



That seems to be something that is lost in current crime drama, save for The Sopranos and the Shield on television, both of which are constantly under fire for there complete lack of "moral fiber" or "positive messages" from parent groups.



While viewing the latest offering from the U.K., Layer Cake, I was awe-struck at the level of depth given to the criminal underworld. It was almost a masterpiece of filmmaking... but then the reality sets in: you're dealing with characters that no one can support in a world populated by evil and the only thing you're hoping for is that the less-bad guys will be able to continue to profit from their dealings in drugs and violence.



If there is a more interesting two hours to be engrossed in, a genre more entertaining and stimulating, then please, speak up for that genre now. I don't think it exists in modern cinema.

Wednesday, August 24, 2005

the equation

If we take:




and add:




mix with:




and throw in a dash of:




then maybe we'd be on the write track. Mixology for cynical romantics. Rah.

...Yup. Probably it...


I know what it is. I'm in love with fiction. Romanticism is not a good constant. Let's see what we can do about that, shall we?

Sunday, August 21, 2005

Thought Balloons




I honestly wonder what would happen if everyone had their own thought balloons floating over their heads and only the illiterate would be unable to read minds. There'd probably legislation to control all of the "balloon traffic" that'd inevitable spring up. "Thought-proof" cars would be made to avoid decreased visibility during rush hour traffic. Hats to give each of your balloons different colors would be the talk of Europe, but fizzle out in popularity before really hitting it big in the US market. The United Nations meetings would need two sets of translators: one for what a representative is saying and another to read what they are thinking. The thought balloon fashion trend would be close to running out of steam until someone would come up with a way to give each balloon different text styles. Individuality restored to free thought, a boom would most likely hit where couples would not only meet and fall in love over what the other person thinks, but how they think in the same style. Of course, foreign languages would be "thought" in the right alphabet, but right when the UN budget is about to be broken due to double translators, special glasses will come out so people can read balloons in their own languages. World Peace and harmony will eventually occur twenty-two years after the thought balloon revolution hits its peak because everyone will have learned to avoid negative thoughts and in doing so, stop thinking negatively at all.

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Some authors... sheesh...


So the bitch of being someone with an overactive imagination and a love of certain genres of literature is that sometimes you just can't put down a good story. Whether it's an autobiography of a transvestite revolutionary or the six-hour version of Dune on a bootleg videotape, some of the smartest people I know have wasted entire days on getting through a single, enveloping story in one sitting. Me? I just blew four hours reading the new Alex Robinson graphic novel, Tricked. The story follows six characters and their peripherals as they all slowly begin to converge on the singular event they will inevitably share. The chapters descend instead of ascend to the climax of the book. Robinson, for those who've never heard the name, wrote the excellent and surprisingly well-paced Box Office Poison and his long-delayed follow-up, just like a musician trying to climb back from a one hit wonder record, has a degree of patience and growth that adds to his still constant grasp of dialogue, emotion, and terrific character studies translated to words and pictures. It's a good time.

Tricked is 19.99 and is the intimidating size of a small text book, but don't worry: there're plenty of pictures. It IS a graphic novel, after all.

Every once in awhile, it feels great to pimp this shit.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Here we are, born to be kings, we're the princes of the universe...



I love that song. I miss being a kid and thinking that Highlander was the shit. Now, being this really critical movie guy makes me sit down and go, "well, that sucks. How derivative. Could they BE any less subtle?" I'm like Chandler if he was a Village Voice film critic. Shite.

In a sense, that's what we are, though. The "mispoche" that we've become. The "family we choose" as the Jews say. This group of people who bring something to the table and step up when it counts. In the end, we're masters of our own destiny (as corny as it may sound), but never a truer statement. We'll accomplish what we're capable of once we believe that we can do it.

So I've been writing essays again. I sat down and actually hashed two or three out. I'm debating posting them up here, but keep getting blindsided by two things: one, lots of typing, dammit. two, I'd actually like to make some type of collection of them and maybe submit it. If I do post them, I hope somebody gives me some power-ups and maybe I'll actually do it. Fuck that, I'll do it anyway.

{See that? Mid-sentence realization, right there. Gotta love writing from stream of consciousness.}

Living downtown now. Got my little slice of home in the NW Couch area. Living behind a bar, up from Powell's and down from 21st. I'm actually really excited about all of this. I actually start school again in a month. Since things are going so well, of course I've started to get all wacky and defensive again. *Sigh* Nothing if not predictable, my brain is.

I'm hoping this'll be the last 12am, random thoughts put to paper post that I do for awhile. While interesting to look back at, they're not all that interesting. It's mostly a chance for me to get my thoughts out on "paper" and see what I'm thinking.

I will say this, to end on a good note: I am not sad. I am not angry. I am not bitter. I am not depressed. All for of these things are very new to me in a situation like this and all self-deprecation aside, show that I'm growing. This is the good news. I'm excited about that.