Category: Entertainment Industry Thingies
Another great post from Bash.org
1. Stand up halfway through the movie and yell loudly, “Wait… where the hell is Harry Potter?”
2. Block the entrance to the theater while screaming: “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” – After the movie, say “Lucas could have done it better.”
3. At some point during the movie, stand up and shout: “I must go! Middle Earth needs me!” and run and try to jump into the screen. After bouncing off, return quietly to your seat.
4. Play a drinking game where you have to take a sip every time someone says: “The Ring.”
5. Point and laugh whenever someone dies.
6. Ask the nearest ring-nut if he thinks Gandalf went to Hogwarts
7. Finish off every one of Elrond’s lines with “Mr. Anderson.”
8. When Aragorn is crowned king, stand up and at the top of your lungs sing, “And I did it…. MY way…!”
9. At the end, complain that Gollum was offensive to Ethiopians
10. Talk like Gollum all through the movie. At the end, bite off someone’s finger and fall down the stairs.
11. When Shelob appears, pinch the guy in front of you on the back of the neck.
12. Dress up as old ladies and reenact “The Battle of Helms Deep” Monty Python style.
13. When Denethor lights the fire, shout “Barbecue!”
14. Ask people around you who they think is the next “Terminator” sent from the Middle Earth of the future to assassinate Frodo Baggins
15. In The Two Towers when the Ents decide to march to war, stand up and shout “RUN FOREST, RUN!”
16. Every time someone kills an Orc, yell: “That’s what I’m Tolkien about!” See how long it takes before you get kicked out of the theatre.
17. During a wide shot of a battle, inquire, “Where’s Waldo?”
18. Talk loudly about how you heard that there is a single frame of a nude Elf hidden somewhere in the movie.
19. Start an Orc sing-a-long.
20. Come to the premiere dressed as Frankenfurter and wander around looking terribly confused.
Ah, bash, I love you so… :biggrin
On Second thought…
You know, a few months back, i had left a brief review of Lord Of the Rings: The Two Towers, saying that ti didn’t care for it at all that much. Personally, the short version jumped around too much and it was just tougher to get into the damned thing than I could recall with either version of Lord Of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
My opinion has changed though, thanks to the extended version of the film.
First off, i do have to say that I was most likely feeling like crapola when I originally watched The Two Towers. Seeing I had only been out of the hospital for a matter of days. But looking over that review I wrote in it’s shortness – it holds true. The original version had too much jammed into too short a time frame and therefore sucked because you jumped around and didn’t get all the story you needed to get with the shortened version.
The longer version has just a bit more plot development, it’s a bit more captivating and it tells you more about the key characters. I don’t want to spoil the extended version for those who haven’t seen it, but Bormir is back in this version and not just in a flash-back from to Council of Elrond… It gives you some insight on how bad things are in Gondor and how much Bormir was fancied.
For the record, though, most of the movie is the same if you have seen the original movie. I personally just prefer this longer cut because it just developers better than the other version that came out in theaters.
The Film Fan Man and Movies that Panned
With The Matrix Reloaded panned by critics and with Revolutions getting the same treatment, I am wondering just how much I am going to like Revolutions seeing that i liked Reloaded for all its flaws that the critics claimed the movie had, or how it was boring or whatever.
I know this isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last, that I experience this. There have been plenty of movies I have liked that critics – or even the public – have loathed to one degree or another.
Take, for instance, Jim Carrey’s The Majestic. For some reason, I cannot not-like Carrey in a serious role which Jim has tried before to give his acting a little more depth. I mean, I also liked The Truman Show as it is one of my favorite movies all time… That’s two Carrey roles that got mixed reviews — and loathing from the comedic demanding Jim Carrey Loving public.
Add The Cable Guy to this list and you have a trifecta of bombed Carrey movies that I love. I like the dark humor of Ben Stiller’s movie in which Matthew Broderick is stalked by a cable installation technician who watched one too many re-runs as a child.
Lets not stop here however, I’m sure I have a long list of movies that were panned that I happened to like… For instance, Death To Smoochy is a comedic masterpiece to me. Ok, not a MASTERPIECE but at the same time, it’s a amusing comedy that features Robin Williams in a role that finally allows him to showcase his inner anarchist. It also lets Edward Norton finally defuse the ultra-serious image that he has passed out in movies like American History X and Primal Fear.
Then we have the Pierce Brosnan-as-James-Bond Tomorrow Never Dies. I’m told time and again that Sean Connery is the ultimate Bond but alas — I believe Pierce is and this film sorta cemented that with me. He’s suave, he’s got the expressions and the acting down and he’s just too f’n cool in this movie. Most of the recent Bond films have been less believable, to me at least, than this one…. Which I couldn’t stop watching when it came out, and that I have seen put down numerous times by the fans.
Another one that comes to mind – which has a direct link to The Matrix movies because of the writers, is Assassins. Maybe you can call this one a guilty pleasure because Sly Stallone is sorta blah in the lead role but damnit — Antonio Bandaras comes off SO FUCKING COOL as Miguel Bain. Wouldn’t you agree… Bobby?
And there is another movie that could easily make this list, that being the Matthew Perry / Bruce Willis assassin-in-suburbia The Whole Nine Yards. To some, the movie is too dark. To others? The movie humor is too light and therefore inneffective. I’ve seen this flick ridiculed by fans and by critics alike but, aw hell.. It’s enjoyable to me.
So what about you? Any movies that were panned that you actually loved? I don’t mean blockbusters like Star Wars or something either…
Fucitol you Bastardane
Molecules with Silly or Unusual Names
For chemists and the chemistry students in everyone
Fire and Rain
I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you again
A jovial refrain of Na Na Na;s
I don’t know what it is about this song but after watching the video performance of the song, after listening to it for years, I can find some comfort in it when I am at either emotional extreme – when things seem right or things are wrong.
Wrong being what they’ve been for a while now…
At any rate, the song is Hey Jude. I doubt anyone else finds the euphoria or the comfort in the song that I find every time I hear it… I can get lost in the music (or just get lost in the sound) and I can also read the lyrics at one point or another and find some shred of hope… This stanza for example….
You’re waiting for someone to perform with
And don’t you know that it’s just you, hey Jude, you’ll do
The movement you need is on your shoulder
Julian Lennon is really a lucky son of a bitch when I think about it. I mean, the guy has gone through hell (his own personal one) but this song is a song for him — McCartney came up with it on a drive over to see Julian during his parents divorce and was trying to cheer him up with the song. They’ve always been friends from what I know…
And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders
For well you know that it’s a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder
Sorry I haven’t been paying attention to that verse, Paul… It would seem that is something I need to remember in the future — that being merry or attempting a positive demeanor even when things are grim are better than foolishly bringing down the world around you and bumming those around you out.
The other verses are great too, but unfortunately they don’t hold true in this portion of my life. I practiced them when they were possible – as best I could – and instead of things ending in a euphoric refrain, the melody was turned off and the chorus was shunned.
Oh when can I start to make things better? How can I start to make things better? A few Na-Na-Na’s aren’t going to accomplish that….
Reloaded Ramblings
Well, I’ve been feeling :puke since late last night. Honestly, I was up until 6 AM because my stomach was doing knots and I couldn’t have slumber sweep me away. It didn’t help that I had stayed in bed until noon the day before….:sleepy I gotta get back to normal hours.
At any rate, Mike gave me The Matrix Reloaded as requested as a late birthday present (speaking of late birthday’s – my silence towards other’s birthday’s is only because of other’s silence twoards mine). I had seen the movie back in June so it wasn’t like I was unaware what happened…
But come on, folks… you should know me. Well, maybe you don’t. I happen to be deaf and use a device to help me hear — but most conversations are tough on me. So I depend on captions with TV and the like.
What does this have to do with Re-Woah-ded? It’s time for my delayed review on the film now that i understand just WTF was going on (not to say I didn’t through watching the movie with just the images on screen).
I look at this movie and I watch it and after dropping all the rehetoric — “It’s about choice”, “Cause and effect”, “It’s understanding that choice and why you made it” and all the other stuff — I find the film’s aim to be about Faith. Undying faith.
How did I jump to this conclusion? Neo being ridiculed by the Architect for having hope. The fact that Morpheus is at a cross roads (“I have lived a dream and now that dream is gone from me.”), and how much the people of Zion and even the machines must believe in Neo — or believe in themselves for that matter — in order to survive the coming onslaught from the Machines.
There’s the love story that you see in this film which is faith in a bond between two people (sidenote – the scene with the cave and Neo making it with Trinity could have been edited out and re-shot with just the two of them in bed in the warm afterglow. That might have moved the movie along faster).
I don’t know, maybe I am missing something here — maybe I just enjoy the movie enough to not care to see the contradictions that the critics are talking about… I see this as a film of faith. As will Revolutions end up being.
Keanu Reeves has said the movies are about “Birth, Life and Death” which scares me a bit because I don’t want to see Neo get killed off to save everyone else. I want to see everyone else saved somehow with Neo leading the way…..
Oh well, so much as for that.
I got my writing assignment back from Herr Fisher and need to work on that sometime soon. I don’t know when I will however. Sorta discouraged and sort of just blah right now with writing — though this entry came off my mind/fingers pretty well. We’ll see what happens.
Manoir de Valotte — façons échappant à d'autres
TOO LATE FOR GOODBYES
Julian Lennon
Ever since you’ve been leaving me
I’ve been wanting to cry
Now I know how it feels for you
I’ve been wanting to die
But it’s much too late for goodbyes
Yes it’s much too late for goodbyes
Time has come since I’ve been with you
We’ve been starting to die
Now it seems you don’t care for me
and I don’t understand why
But it’s much to late for goodbyes
Yes it’s much too late for goodbyes
Ever since you’ve been far away
I’ve been wanting to fly
Now I know what you meant to me
I’m the one who should cry
And it’s much too late for goodbyes
Yes it’s much too late for goodbyes
© 1984 Charisma Music/Chappell Music.
When you're strange
People Are Strange
(by J.D. Morrison)
People are strange when you’re a stranger
Faces look ugly when you’re alone
Women seem wicked when you’re unwanted
Streets are uneven when you’re down
When you’re strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you’re strange
No one remembers your name
When you’re strange
When you’re strange
When you’re strange
Big event today…
Big things are happening today, I mean really really big things… Great things that will make the entire world happy…
Willy Wonka is opening his factory up to the kids who found the Golden Tickets and he will let them tour the factory before….
Oh wait, that was just a movie? Never mind
Hold Me, Thrill me, Kiss me, Kill me
So I forgot to bring up Thursday Night and what I was up to to keep myself busy but not keep my mind off problems entirely…
Michelle and Josh came around. They had both stopped by during my hospital stint and were a refreshing change of pace from the day to day. We just watched some flicks together and had a good time…
…And up until this movie-watching stint, I didn’t know how GAY the opening of Reservoir Dogs is… :tongue
There we are, sitting and watching the flick (Michelle had never seen it) and Tim Roth is going nuts because he’s been shot in the gut and in a lot of pain… Well, Tim and Harvey Keitel share a few intimate moments as Keitel tries to comfort Roth and Tim (Mr. Orange) ends up telling Harvey (Mr. White / “Larry”) to hold him… And Mr. White starts trying to build up Mr. Orange’s confidence and calm him down by combing Mr. Orange’s hair and asking him “Who’s a tough guy.,..” in a rather serene voice…
The entire fucking movie I am cracking jokes about that when Roth is on screen. “Hold me, Larry! Hold me! I’m a tough guy! I’m a tough guy!” There’s that cop who gets his ear cut off (:puke), Roth wakes up after passing out from blood loss and takes out Mr Blonde…
“Hey… Hey you… What’s your name?”
“Marvin… Marvin Nash…”
“Hold me, Marvin! Hold me! Don’t leave me, Marvin!”
I mean, I apologize to Quentin Tarantino and the guys in this movie because I absolutely love Reservoir Dogs and the work of some of these actors (Tim Roth especially)…. But that is the funniest, most closet homosexual shit I have seen. I started cracking jokes about having a Reservoir Dogs drinking game too. “When ever K-BILLY comes on, you take a drink…. Whenever Mr. Orange says ‘Hold me!’ you take a drink… Whenever Joe acts like an asshole, you take a drink… Whenever someone says ‘Dick’ you take a drink…” (that last word alone would have you drunk before the opening credits)…
We ended up watching Southpark later on and of course my entry on Southpark is up — you can read my take on that.…
At any rate, I got a first hand taste of the sick sorta need of having someone special in your life — well, sorta. I started missing what I have had in the past by watching Josh and Michelle together. It made me long tenderness. I haven’t had it in the past, per se, just someone to imagine it with… even that non-physical experience that I have had, I started longing. Living on the concept of emotion between two people is a very tough thing and I guess that’s one place I had faith… Faith in the emotion and pursuing it any way possible until things finally align so that the physical could be pursued. One way street though…
Getting back to the subject of Thursday… Michelle is determined to have another movie night sometime soon and get me to watch Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Now, I’ve never been a horror buff but then again – when you’re watching movies with friends, you can watch about anything and enjoy it… :smile
It's in the lyrics
I’m not down… just these lyrics do mean a lot to me and it’s strange how they mirror my life now…
Help! (Lennon/McCartney)
Help! I need somebody,
Help! Not just anybody,
Help! You know I need someone.
Help….!
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,
Now I find I’ve changed my mind I’ve opened up the doors.
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being ’round
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me?
And now my life has changed in oh so many ways,
My independence seems to vanish in the haze.
But every now and then I feel so insecure,
I know that I just need you like I’ve never done before
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being ’round
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me?
When I was younger, so much younger than today,
I never needed anybody’s help in any way
But now these days are gone, I’m not so self assured,
Now I find I’ve changed my mind I’ve opened up the doors
Help me if you can, I’m feeling down
And I do appreciate you being ’round.
Help me, get my feet back on the ground,
Won’t you please, please help me?!
Help me! Help me, oh.
The more things change, the more they stay the same
Those words can be used for a lot of different topics right now but I only have one topic right now that I am going to use that phrase for….
Southpark: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut
You know, when this movie came out – it was a censorship battle between the MPAA and Trey Parker/ Matt Stone, which Stone/Parker won hands down. Yet some of the plot really started to give me a case of Deja Vu from the last few months…
An Unjustified war for bullshit reasons, a militant dictator who silences the opposition and tries to make it look like she is doing it for the best interests of the nation but they are her own in the end, Saddam Hussein, stupid military tactics, putting the blame on everyone but those who should be blamed….
It’s like Parker and Stone predicted the future and what we are capable of doing as a nation – being narrow minded dip shits.
It gave me chills
I Will
Back a few years ago, I went ahead and bought The White Album (this was before I lost my hearing) and tried to make heads and tails of it. It was a lot of songs I had never heard before and some of them to this day I have not heard. My main reason for buying the album wasn’t because I heard it was the prime CD at the time for some rockers (which it was, oddly) but becasue of the Paul Is Dead clues that came with the album and certain songs on it (Back in the USSR, Obladi-Oblada).
There was one song I listened to – it was a ballad by John Lennon, which seemed sort of odd because this was John we are talking about, that he wrote to Yoko (everything he was writing at the time went to Yoko) that I found appealing in it’s simplicity and it’s melody. Yet I had the song play in my head sometimes with people I liked or about people I liked and things either didn’t work out or they fell apart. I started to blame the song – does that sound crazy or what? It’s not like any given song can curse a relationship or something like that…
Yet I still blamed the song and if I ever started thinking of it I would shun it from my mind because I took it as a kiss of death for things and oddly enough it seemed to be.
Yet I think of the lyrics now and look at the words themselves and think to my life and wonder if the reason things didn’t work out was because the past girls didn’t fit what the lyrics said? Or maybe I’m thinking too much if I have a song on my mind with people anyway?
What happens with someone who comes into my life does fit the lyrics and my thoughts mirror those of lyrics? I’ve been wondering that when the song popped into my head earlier this week… I haven’t fought it off like in the past. Maybe that explains the current? Then again, maybe I just need a bit of Faith to understand that song lyrics don’t influence the course of life and that I should just let things play out?
I Will (Lennon/McCartney)
Who knows how long I’ve loved you
You know I love you still
Will I wait a lonely lifetime
If you want me to–I will.For if I ever saw you
I didn’t catch your name
But it never really mattered
I will always feel the same.Love you forever and forever
Love you with all my heart
Love you whenever we’re together
Love you when we’re apart.And when at last I find you
Your song will fill the air
Sing it loud so I can hear you
Make it easy to be near you
For the things you do endear you to me
You know I will
I will.
Cure Me or Kill Me
This song is so appropriate right now (ok, the title more than the verse)…
Cure me… or Kill me
By Gilby Clare
When the last car hit the wall
Was the guilt still in or head?
In your magic crystal ball
Is the power that made you mad
You can’t save yourself,
it’s a pleasure cruise
You’re damned for a million years
There’s a viper in your bedroom
Under the sheets is tarantula fuzz
When she bites, she bites for murder
I bleed the Addams Family blood
There’s a spell on me that I can’t reverse
It’s a sympathy cross you burn
Cure me or kill me..
But don’t leave me here for dead again
Cure me or kill me..
But don’t leave me here for dead again
This is your last happy Christmas
Your worst Birthday party
The cyanide in your poison ring
Wouldn’t cure my misery
Don’t bury me when I’m history
I think you’ll find an easy way out
Someone want to clarify something for me?
Is James Clayton in The Recruit NOC or is he a wash out that got used by a dirty CIA agent?
I watched it late last night and I know this question isn’t supposed to hang with you but it is hanging with me… Don’t know why for sure… I knew Al Pacino’s character was the dirty one but I wasn’t quite sure about the ending of the film….
All Apologies
All Apologies:
What else should I be?
All apologies
What else should I say?
Everyone is gay
What else could I write?
I don’t have the right
What else should I be?
All Apologies
In the sun
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun
In the sun
I’m married
Buried
I wish I was you
Easily amused
Find my nest of salt
Everything’s my fault
I’ll take all the blame
Aqua sea foam shame
Sunburn with freezer-burn
Choking on the ashes of her enemy
In the sun
In the sun I feel as one
In the sun
In the sun
I’m Married
Buried
Married
Very
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are
All in all is all we are (repeat X number of times)
(copyright Nirvana – please don’t threaten litigation )
Observations on "Pie Fucker 3"
Jason Biggs described himself in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back perfectly while he was being arrested…
“I’m the Pie Fucker! I’m the Pie Fucker!”
Unfortunately that’s the only role Jason gets questioned about — or when he’s being asked about other things… Pie Fucking ends up one of those questions that comes up. Pretty nice distinction to have about yourself, isn’t it? “I was a teenage pie-fucker”…
Ok, why am I talking about the copulation of Jason Biggs and an Apple Pie? Because I saw Pie Fucker 3… er.. American Pie 3….er… American Wedding this afternoon where we continue the gross outs and the odd sexual situations that Jim ends up getting himself into. He ruins a wedding cake, he gets head at the most uncomfortable time…
And his bride doesn’t even talk about Band Camp in this one. I feel ripped off!
Serious, American Wedding wasn’t that bad a piece of cinema from a cast that you knew for the most part – Jim, Michelle (Say my name bitch!), Finch, Stifler, Jim’s Dad, Kevin Myers…
This wasn’t Jim’s movie like American Pie 2 was (American Pie was just a general exploration of teenage sexuality inthe late 1990’s). There were plenty of things that revolved around Jim and Jim’s wedding but for the most part this was Steve Stifler’s movie. Trying to hook up with Michelle’s sister, trying to throw a great bachelor party, ruining and then saving Jim and Michelle’s wedding… Seann Williams Scott got the big role of the movie.
And I will not be one to say American Pie is dead because this married Michelle and Jim (though I do think you won’t see anyone back for a 4th). There is arguably a 4th movie out there that would explore — and this gets a little gross to think about it — the trials and tribulations of a couple expecting their first child. Of course, we’ve seen that in Nine Months but then again – that was a lot more gentle and a lot less of a gross out than any American Pie movie has been.
Oh, and for those who haven’t seen it – don’t mistake Allyson Hannigan for Tara Reid in the movie… That’s who she resembles more times than not for some strange reason. I don’t mean because she’s a party girl or a blonde but I just mean she isn’t bubbly as much as she was in AP and AP2.
Overall good movie — for a gross out. Worth seeing.
Netflicked
What the heck happened with my Netflix Profile???
Oh, it’s not like something wrong or bad happened to it. Quite the opposite really. Netflix, it seems, made two of my movie reviews spotlighted (that or there is a glitch in the system) and I am very much surprised to find that some of my reviews have large numbers of people who have voted to describe my reviews as “Helpful”.
For example, check out the review for Jewel of the Nile by Stonegauge and you’ll see that this crappy movie and subsequent review has a ton of votes now for it…
Also, my review of X-Files: Fight the Future now has seven favorable votes in it’s name. All my other reviews (from The Naked Gun 33 and 1/3rd to the Buccaneers Super Bowl DVD) have somewhere below 10 votes to them – mostly 1 or 2.
Personally I think it’s a technical glitch but who cares? I’ll take it!
And for those following my 24 Season-renting-saga, it is now 4PM on the day of the California Presidential Primary. Disc 4 was much weaker than the first 3 discs (first 12 episodes) mostly because the product can’t keep providing great plot twists over and over again. I can’t get into details because I don’t want to spoil the show (I consider it like a movie after seeing as much as I have) for those who have not watched it yet. It’s that good.
Adaptation (the movie this time)
I just got finished watching Adaptation and.. well… you look at the hour this was posted and you can judge me a bunch of different ways because of it.
“John’s still having problems sleeping, eh?”
“He really shouldn’t have had Pizza Hut last night, it messes up your insides.”
“I’m driving him mad, I know it… Just wait until I surprise him with the knife in the gullet! Buahahahahahah!”
Um, that last one’s kinda’ messed up, ain’t it? But it was original context and you have to give me credit for that one! Score one for the John-ster! *cha-ching*
OK, off the craziness and back onto the reality of it all… I finished watching the film Adaptation and it just struck home with me in so many ways. I mean, I totally identified with the character even though it was the screen writer himself (for the record, I know there is no Donald Kaufman)… The self doubt, the cowardice, the shyness.. And some of the phrases that were quoted from The Orchid Thief and stuff like that. It was just… Wow..
I mean you look at the fact that Charlie has a a twin brother in the movie and he (Donald) is talking about split personalities in his screenplay — that’s a ploy to have Charlie himself use multiple personalities in his character after damning multiple personalities to Donald in the movie.
I mean, I really can’t say anything else… the movie just floored me. It was funny but it was also a lesson of sorts… “You are what you love, not what loves you” is a great example of it… But also the following:
Point is, what’s so wonderful is that every one of these flowers has a specific relationship with the insect that pollinates it. There’s a certain orchid look exactly like a certain insect so the insect is drawn to this flower, its double, its soul mate, and wants nothing more than to make love to it. And after the insect flies off, spots another soul-mate flower and makes love to it, thus pollinating it. And neither the flower nor the insect will ever understand the significance of their lovemaking. I mean, how could they know that because of their little dance the world lives? But it does. By simply doing what they’re designed to do, something large and magnificent happens. In this sense they show us how to live — how the only barometer you have is your heart. How, when you spot your flower, you can’t let anything get in your way. (John Laroche said that in the movie… character played by Chris Cooper. I swear, that guy either pisses the shit out of me, annoys me or I find him just too damned likable! )
The quote itself had my mind swimming with regards to a lot of different things. The movie in general made me want to write. There were a few times where I just got up and said “I have to stop and I have to write that idea I have.” Or maybe, “I should start that story I was thinking of with this and that.”
It also made me nostalgic, remorseful, confused and lonely – yet it also made me understand how we are all alone and all feel alone in our own ways. Some deal with it a lot better than others, some hide it… Some have met someone that takes away that solitude and some are forever searching.
Find your flower, find your insect. You won’t be truly pollenated in life unless you find your match and make love to it. You will not procreate the epiphany of your being unless you find your match.
As crazy as I sound right now – I’m sure of myself, I’m just very very confused and very very tired. Though I’m longing my flower…
The Doors are Open
I’ve been thinking of the
Doors a lot lately. I downloaded video music clips a few months ago off Kazaa
Lite and of course i have been enjoying them (even though the audio is ratty
on Light My Fire performed at the Ed Sullivan Show) to no end. Moonlight
Drive, Break on Through, Touch Me — excellent through and through.
I’ve long been a fan of Mr. Mojo Risin’s poetry and verse.
So watching the video for
Touch Me (which was performed live by the Doors on the Smothers Brothers show)
I noticed a little anomaly that featured guitarist Robbie Krieger with a nice
shiner on his left eye. Curious, I went and asked about it on the Usenet newsgroup
alt.music.the-doors…
And was re-introduced to
anal-final-word-on-the-Doors-author Patricia Butler.
Ms. Butler wrote Angels
Dance and Angels Die which is a biographical account of Jim Morrison and
Pamela Courson (Jim’s wife). Butler, however, seems to think that what anyone
else wrote in their books is fictitious or if anyone takes something from their
books and had it put into The
Doors by Oliver Stone, it’s completely fictitious… which is bullshit.
Look, not everything written
is a factual statement or a exactly-how-it-happened account, yet when John
Densemore, Jerry
Hopkins and Danny Sugerman all concur on a story — I’m going to accept
that as a fact and not believe a woman who wasn’t there. I mean Hopkins wasn’t
"there" but Sugerman
was (as a kid). Densmore was the god damned drummer in the band. I am going
to believe what he says over what Patricia Butler says any
day.
Anyway, it’s another pleasant
valley Sunday here in status-symbol land. I think I’m going to go find Mr. Green
(who’s so serene with a TV in every room) and tell him a thing or two about
living in excess and glamor.
The Phantom Edit Part 2
I was debating writing this here on my own journal or on Kill The Web but I figured I am having such a shitty day that having a topic to write about in here was going to be impossible unless I thought up something like this…
A couple of years ago after The Phantom Menace came out in movie theaters, there was a copy of the movie circulated that cut out Jar Jar Binks from the movie, along with some other cuts. It was titled The Phantom Edit. Personally I think about the editing room and how much Star Wars Episode 1 could have been better if they had left out some of the crap that was in the movie (a lot of the kiddie stuff with Anakin, 3PO and R2D2, etc) and I was thinking to last year’s “Attack of the Clones” and how things could have been improved with that one.
…and it bothers me that it would have been so much better if Lucas had just been a little more liberal with the knife.
I mean, any story is better if you cut the fat. Cut out the bullshit and try to make a long story short… It works in writing and it works in cinema too. I mean, think about this — did they REALLY need to define the Force in Star Wars Part 1 as a fucking parasite in the blood? Absolutely not. What about Back to the Future? Did they need to show Marty’s mom acting really irresponsible more than they did in the final version of the film? Nope, and it worked. They didn’t need to show Marty drugging his father to get him to go back to sleep either… Both shots were cut out from the final version of the movie (but available on the DVD) and would have given just a bit too much information. It wasn’t important that they were in the final version of the film but then again it would have been strange if they had been.
Any Star Wars faithful would balk at the idea of C3PO and R2D2 being cut out from Episodes 1 and 2 but honestly – what point do they serve besides comic relief? Couldn’t there have been written quips in characters lines in order to get them some comic relief in the film? Also the stunning false visuals that they had too many of in Episode 2 needed to be trimmed down a bit. It got to be useless and annoying to see CGI everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, they painted a stunning picture but at the same time, nothing was real (and there’s nothing to get hung about, strawberry fields forever). It wasn’t like they hand-designed miniatures as they had in the first film which awed movie goers because every visual WAS real to an extent.
CGI is good in moderation (as long as you have a good movie attached to the CGI), but over doing it… well, that just bores people. I had that problem when I saw The Matrix Revolutions but I could live with it – the story made up for short comings of reality.
Maybe I’m just too picky with things? Eh, take out the maybe. I AM too picky with things. But then again, if I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be leading my true life.
Equilibrium
As of starting this writing, there are a lot of things that are going through my head right now that I wanted to enter in here, but at the same time I need to give some order to the chaos, right? First things first, second things second and all that… right?
The first thing is the balance of the soul — Equilibrium.
Actually, I’m not writing about balance directly or about Libra or about the soul and all that deep shit that I could get into right now. Instead I’m writing about the movie Equilibrium with Christian Bale. Now I’ve talked about wanting to see The Matrix Re-Woah-ded and seeing I haven’t, this makes one very acceptable substitute in my mind. No bullet time and the action sequences weren’t as sped up as The Matrix, but the idea of Gun Kata (a martial art that makes the gun as lethal as a sword) and this 1984 / Fahrenheit 451 / The Matrix inspired film was excellent in it’s own right.
The premise of this film that got my attention the most, however, was the emotion=crime / war / man’s destruction premise. I couldn’t feel Sunday morning besides sorrow or numbness. I started watching the movie and I could identify with Bale encountering emotion for what was probably the first (or a fresh) time. It was like me receiving sound again by way of the ABI in
2001… He is overcome by trivial things such as a sunrise and other emotions and it’ s… just powerful. Of course they could have overkilled that (or maybe it would have been proper?) by showing more imagery like that — having the character just staring at something we take for granted every day and finding emotion (pleasure) in it? That would have been strong too.
As things go, I’ve got 2 papers I may very well use for my 2nd Assignment with der Long Ridge. I’m waiting to hear from my instructor, Lou Fisher, about a question that I had concerning the paper and hopefully that will be soon. I’m also waiting for Sarah Evanchalk to get back to me with regards to the stories — I sent them both to her for her to critique.
Speaking of stories, I’m also waiting for someone to get back to me on a story I touched on a few days ago on here. I think it’s a good story but it could be cleaned up a bit.. And I long to be able to piece together some of the things I touched on with this story by starting another portion of the thing.. I know, I know – vague, but it’ll become apparent soon enough I hope.
I’m also thinking things I shouldn’t be – or I had been thinking things I shouldn’t be. Now I have regrets and I started believing things that aren’t true any more. Talk about a fucking roller coaster with emotions.. And also another vagueness that I apologize to the masses for reading. The person who that would mean something won’t even see this, so it’s not like I’m doing anything by publishing it.
Oh well, more ttomorrow – got stuff on my mind and got time to write.
Moonlight Drive
I’m trying to write a new short story that is going to be part of something greater in the coming weeks and months. A chronicle of short stories that turns into a short book perchance? I don’t know, we’ll see what happens there. At any rate I’m a good bit done (not finished at all) with the initial story that stood out in my mind for this tale but I’m not sure how I’m going to get to the finish of this “Chapter” just yet. That’s one thing you can like about writing – never knowing how it ends until you find a spot where you’re comfortable with finishing.
At any rate, there’s a key to this short story int he form of music and I was listening to this song over and over again in order to get the full of it and help me out with the scene – and now I can’t get the friggin song out of my head… For the sake of doing so, I’m just dumping the song on the reader.. The rhyme is really easy to follow and it displays how great a poet the lead singer of this band was…
Ladies and Gentlemen – The Doors:
Moonlight Drive
Let’s swim to the moon
Uh-huh
Let’s climb thru the tide
Penetrate the evenin’ that the city sleeps to hideLet’s swim out tonight, love
It’s our turn to try
Parked beside the ocean
On our moonlight driveLet’s swim to the moon
Uh-huh
Let’s climb thru the tide
Surrender to the waiting worlds that lap against our sideNothin’ left open
And no time to decide
We’ve stepped into a river
On our moonlight driveLet’s swim to the moon
Let’s climb thru the tide
You reach a hand to hold me
But I can’t be your guideEasy to love you as I watch you glide
Falling through wet forests
On our moonlight drive
Moonlight driveC’mon, baby, gonna take a little ride
Goin’ down by the ocean side
Gonna get real close
Get real tight
Baby gonna drown tonight
Goin’ down, down, down© 1967 Doors Music Company
I hope to have the story that the song is an integral part to online in the future but it is not the begining of the story – it’s a part of the story, that’s all. A chapter of a greater tale.
*Sigh*
This is the end, beautiful friend
This is the end, my only friend
The end –
Of our elaborate plans
The end –
Of everything that stands
The end –
No safety nor surprise
The end –
I’ll never look into your eyes again
Can you picture what will be,
So limitless and free?
Desperately in need
Of some stranger’s hand
In a desperate land?
—
This is the end my beautiful friend
This is the end my only friend
It hurts so much to set you free
But you’ll never follow me
The end –
Of laughter and soft lies
The end –
Of nights we tried to die
This is the End
— Taken from The End by James Douglas Morrison
© 1967 The Doors Music Company
One
I had a moment of realization over a song lyric just a short while ago. This happens to me once in a while when I think about some songs I know or I have heard. You think about the lyrics and sing the lyrics but you don’t always think of the story behind the lyrics or what they mean.
For example, “I Just Called To Say I Love You” by Stevie Wonder doesn’t say much more than the lack of a special occasion… That’s the entire point of the song when you think about it. He wasn’t calling to talk to someone because it was Halloween or because it was New Years Day or a “Wedding Saturday within the month of June,” he was just calling to profess his love for no reason at all.
Now, the song that got to me is something I heard when it originally came out in 1992. One by U2. Now, this song I have been nuts about since early February when I was trying to learn the song specifically because people thought it would be in the Super Bowl halftime show as a tribute. I’ve been singing the song on and off and sometimes just thinking about the lyrics and trying to figure out what Paul Hewson was talking about (Paul, FYI, is Bono).
Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You’ve got someone to blameYou say,
One Love
One Life
When It’s One Need
In the Night
One Love
We Get to share it
Leaves you baby,
If you don’t care for itDid I disappoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth
You act like you’ve never had love
And you want me to go withoutWell it’s
Too late
Tonight
To drag the past back out into the light
We’re One
But we’re not the same
We get to Carry each other
Carry each other
One
Now I could keep going and mention all the lyrics to the site but if my recollection serves me right, I am a webmaster of a BEATLES Lyrics site (if people don’t litigate me, I mean :-p ). The point of what I am talking about is what does this song – One – mean… What does ONE Mean?
First off, obviously it’s about a relationship. It isn’t, however, a relationship that has broken up. It’s still ongoing. It seems as if the person talking is trying to talk up their relationship — how both sides are committed to it. He may have pried a little too deep at one point (Did I ask too much/More than a lot ) and the other side did not take it well because of this. The other side is a bit reserved and he’s laying down the fact that if they are in love — they’re supposed to be a single unit, try to function as one even though they aren’t the same. Sure they hurt each other but they’ll do it again — that’s what tends to happen in love anyway. Someone gets hurt over something, even if it’s not something. I think he is also trying to confess that what went down was not a fatal mistake…
Honestly, only Bono can truly know what the song means… I see this story as what is going on in the song… It definitely has little to do with the three distinctive videos that were released for the song ( 1 – Bono in the bar, shots of a woman, shots of U2; 2 – U2 performing, Bono sitting on a couch and singing, all band members appearing in drag, cars driving through Scotland; 3 – The lone buffalo roaming the terrain ).
“What the hell brought this on John?”
Nothing to be honest. I just get to thinking on a tangent like this all the time. Something of absolutely no substance coming to mind. It’s one of my charming personality traits 🙂
I’ve been on FanHome a lot the last day… I’m trying to help boost the amount of traffic on the Football section of the site (seeing it is Training Camp time in the NFL and the season will start soon). For those of you who have never been to FanHome, first off — I administrate on the site. Second off, it’s a sports message board of some noteriety on the net. It should reach 40 thousand registered members sometime tonight. It’s definitely worth a look if you are into sports.
I updated the site a bit here and there. I now have 3 separate email addresses for all 3 sections of the site which is a big plus. I doubt anyone sends me an email from here but all the same if you need to — webmaster@stoengauge.com will do the job for ya.
