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| Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 | | 6:28 pm |
why don't you love me the way I want you to love me?
Is that a real song? Google comes up with nothing. I dreamt I was watching a biopic of some black singer, and it started off with him in a 50's doo-wop outfit singing "Why don't you love me/the way I want youtoloveme" (speeding up and descending at the end, the backup baritones "oooh-wop oooh-wop"ing throughout). Got a temporary computer courtesy my dad, as my regular computer crashed over a month ago. Got some money towards a new computer courtesy my ma, which I will attempt to spend if I can actually stay in the same city for more than a few days. Been here, to DC for Xmas, to Texas for a week to see my aunt, back here, to Pittsburgh last week, to SC last weekend and now off to Pittsburgh again. I guess they liked me there, and they invited me back. Saw a few good flicks -- Up In the Air, and Azur and Asmar - the Princes' Quest courtesy the gf. Also watched The Last Samurai, which was lame, though not disappointing. What was disappointing was the "Hollywood vs. History" on the bonus DVD, which I'd hoped would have at least some depth to it (the HvsH on Gang of NY had been pretty good). But I'd read an excellent book, The Nobility of Failure: Tragic Heroes in the History of Japan. The author, Ivan Morris, is still reeling from the grandiose and pitiful seppuku of his friend Yukio Mishima and so covers a dozen or so noble failures in Japanese history, from warriors' futile resistance to Buddhism to the kamikaze. Since Saigo Takamori has a chapter in the book, and his Satsuma Rebellion is the primary inspiration of The Last Samurai, I figured I'd check it out. On the whole, I can't recommend the film. The high point was that The Last Samurai's last words were in English. Read the book instead. And speaking of books, I need to get back up to DC sometime to get some I ordered from Borders courtesy Bhob, who gave me a gift card.  ( and shout out to my sister: ) Current Music: Blur | | Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 | | 8:00 pm |
| | Thursday, November 12th, 2009 | | 5:51 pm |
Hello, CP
A little ashamed to admit it, but I didn't actually watch all of Oasis. Over the last several days, I would watch it, and I could hardly get 10 or 15 minutes in before I had to turn it off, it was just too uncomfortable for me. So today I cheated, some. It's on Netflix instant view, so I skipped forward. Subtitles are visible on the forward skipping, which was convenient. I'm glad I didn't just give up on it, though I'm not sure I really could have. I do hate it when I'm sitting there just knowing that everything's going to end badly -- had the same trouble with Requiem for a Dream, even worse time with Late Bloomer. But this movie kept returning to my mind -- much more than those other two movies did. It was the middle part I had the most trouble with, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Hopefully, I'm not giving too much away, but the film isn't entirely a wrist-slasher. The Romeo and Juliette balcony scene at the end is wonderful and bizarre. I don't know how many stars to give this one -- I have no qualifications to rate it at all. Current Music: TDC - Oasis | | Saturday, August 29th, 2009 | | 12:58 am |
staying up late
Gotta stay up late this weekend to get onto back shift -- so I took a nap when I got home, dreamt that I was in some big industrial building in a city. This guy from work told me to look outside, and I saw this big zepplin in the night sky over the city, all lit up, with "U-238" written on it. I went out to this large balcony and watched it go by, its engines grumbling, then suddenly it pitched sideways in this artificial way and hit a building. At first I thought it had crashed, but then I realized that the whole thing was some sort of computer graphic projected into the sky. When I woke up, decided to continue my Hideko Takamine film festival -- she was in Ozu's Tokyo Chorus (1931) but she was only 7 or 8 in that movie. Last week, I watched Twenty-Four Eyes (1954) and was really blown away. Takamine was great -- the movie itself was terrific as well, despite some melodrama. I kept comparing Takime to Setsuko Hara. As in No Regrets for Our Youth, much of the film takes place before the war, and both movies use characters who are anti-military, and that always seemed like kind of a cheap shot for sympathy for post-war audiences. But then again, Takamine's character also expresses sympathy for works that are considered "red" by the authorities, so that does put a slightly different spin on things. 24 Eyes was 1955, after the occupation -- I don't know if that would have gotten through MacArthur's censorship or not. So at the video store today, rented When a Woman Ascends the Stairs -- another Criterion release, where Takamine's character is a Ginza hostess in her 30's. She's told that she's at the age now where she either needs to get married or start or her own bar. Her performance is even better than 24 Eyes, though the movie isn't nearly as sentimental. Watched it once so far -- I'll watch it again with the commentary, check that out. I have plenty of other movies to watch. I'd actually called Tim to see if he wanted to see Moon, and Sam was up for District 9 this weekend. Meanwhile I rented a DVD of The 10th Victim. Read the Sheckley novel years ago, we'll see if the movie's any good. Hopefully better than Freejack. Also got a DVD from the library with five complete movies by Mario Bava -- Black Sunday being the only one I've seen. So I should be able to keep myself entertained. Current Music: Abba - Bang a Boomerang | | Sunday, August 23rd, 2009 | | 2:34 pm |
pitchfork proclaimeth
so, the greatest single track of the last 10 years is.... roll drum... "B.O.B."! WHoo-HOoooo! Like I didn't already know that. I used to blather so much about how great the video was that Leslie gave me a DVD of Outkast videos to shut me up. Current Music: stars - the very thing (not on the list tho it's better than any walkmen song) | | Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 | | 12:30 pm |
wot's a computer?
Been a month or so, now I finally have a computer again... And the most exciting thing that's happened in the last month was that I heard about 5 seconds of "Election Day" by Hal (Keris Howard's band b/w Brighter and Harper Lee) on NPR's Marketplace, the July 30th evening show. It was just an instrumental segment -- but after all, the lyrics, "There's no hope, there's just despair" wouldn't really have fit that well, following a relatively upbeat story on healthcare. Check it out at time 22:50: Marketplace July 30th showI'm pretty sure I've posted the song before on this LJ, but I seriously dig it. Hal - Election Day(actually, I've had a pretty nice time in the last month, toodling up to NYC and SC and such) Current Music: yup! | | Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | | 5:44 am |
| | Thursday, April 2nd, 2009 | | 6:01 am |
comix
Went to see Beautiful Losers with Vern and Jeannine. I'd never heard of it, but it's in Jeannine's professional interest to go, so off we went. After the movie, we were driving back to Vern's, and he said that he'd gone to see Watchmen and we were talking about it. I said something about Tales of the Black Freighter -- "It's a comic book within the Watchmen comic book, but it wasn't in the movie -- they're making a separate movie." Vern said, "Well, I haven't read the graphic novel, but I definitely will." (emphasis in the original) Ouch! I felt like I'd used some kind of unPC word like "oriental" or "queer" and was gently corrected... Current Music: life after records - lazy town | | Thursday, March 19th, 2009 | | 5:56 pm |
DC DJ gig
DC peeps -- DJ Pinstriped Rebel and The Kaiser have kindly invited DJ Leonine Al (that's me!) to DJ tomorrow night! So head to the Marx Cafe, 10 pm to 2 am or thereabouts, and I'll be playing some of my fave pop tunes from over the years.  Current Music: Acid House Kings - I Didn't Mean to Hurt You | | Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 | | 8:00 pm |
Telephone Sanitizers of Gor
Kdotdammit reminded me of Boris Vallejo, my favorite artist. I think this is my favorite of his paintings.  Me, sitting in my underwear, my paunchy stomach growling, watching TV... Current Music: Butthole Surfers - Space I | | Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 | | 7:58 pm |
: )
latest meme! write a review of Watchmen! I don't think any movie has ever packed my friends list like this one. Me, I'm just disappointed that they didn't reach into a time warp and grab a 1987 Brad Greenquist to play Rorschach and proceed to shoot issue 6 frame by frame. | | Saturday, March 7th, 2009 | | 11:29 am |
verite schmerite
Remember that movie CQ? I kept thinking about it while I was watching David Holzman's Diary (1967). This Diary movie is one of the VHS cassettes that the library lets people take on the honor system, not checking out. Which I interpret to mean that they don't really care if you bring it back or not. Anyway, I'd never heard of this movie before, so I believed it as cinema verite -- I thought it was for real. I did wonder a bit at the legal issues, the copyrights of the songs, the TV shows, and the unwilling participants. But then, only after consulting imdb (which I hate to do before I watch a movie) it turns out it was all a parody. The actor who played Holzman later had a part in CQ, so obviously the hommage was deliberate. The movie wasn't all that great, even in the context of it being real. The only part I liked was how Holzman obsessed over Truffaut's "cinema is truth at 24 fps" or whatever, contrasted with Holzman's buddy's statment that the minute Holzman transfers his life to film, it ceases to be "the truth" but "something else." I guess there's something amusing about the filmmaker just turning into a pathetic perv, but I can't really imagine that this movie is actually worth watching, knowing that it's just a spoof. At least it was only 74 minutes. Current Music: Fall Out Boy - Dance Dance | | Tuesday, February 17th, 2009 | | 6:30 pm |
I've never heard a woman say, "Oh, he needs a girlfriend," who was actually willing to be that girlfriend. I think what it really means is, "Oh, what a pitiful slob." Current Music: Opeth - Deliverance | | Monday, February 16th, 2009 | | 6:35 pm |
| | Sunday, February 8th, 2009 | | 10:04 am |
38.8% "Other"
 based on LastFM stats, calculated by scaicha Current Music: Menomena on Guy DiMatteo Radio | | Friday, January 2nd, 2009 | | 7:54 am |
| | Thursday, January 1st, 2009 | | 7:30 pm |
The Duck-Billed Jackalope
The Mayborn Museum in Waco was pretty solid -- had a big kid's discovery section I wasn't that interested in, but it had a good natural history exhibit. The best part was the curiosity cabinet section -- just several cabinets with unlabeled curiosites a la 19th century museums. And it wasn't til I was almost out of the room before I saw the stuffed jackalope up on a shelf.  From my photo you can't tell, but it has a duck's bill on it... Big Black - Texas Current Music: Wavemaster - Tumbling Xylophone | | 6:14 pm |
| | 3:42 pm |
a long, strange trip
Ended up flying from Charlotte to San Antonio instead of driving, and it all worked out. Drove from San Antonio up to Lubbock, Amarillo, Wichita Falls, Waco. I brought a bio of James K. Polk on CD. Also, the rental car had XFM so I got to listen to the Led Zeppelin channel a lot. Yep, that's Zep 24/7 (well, they played some of that awful Robert Plant 80's garbage and a few covers of bands doing Zeppelin -- though the covers never deviated that much from the originals -- I was kinda hoping to hear that version of Kashmir that's on the Godzilla soundtrack). Anyways, got to seriously experience the dust bowl in Lubbock, my aunt's cemetery in Amarillo, a butterfly conservatory in Wichita Falls, the Creation Evidence Museum in Glen Rose, and a duck-billed jackalope in Waco. Really, pictures later. Led Zeppelin - Moby Dick/Bonzo's MontreuxThey Might Be Giants - James K. Polk Current Music: Lee Hazelwood & Ann Margret - Am I That Easy to Forget? | | Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 | | 6:10 pm |
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