godthedog

i once wrote a piece of fan fiction between brock lesnar and the big show in some thread here. a shiny new quarter to anyone who has the gumption to dig it up.

my request to be Cancer Marney for a day was never granted. i passively and graciously once again ask for that privilege.

portishead - 'dummy' john coltrane - 'a love supreme' (fuck 'kind of blue', THIS is the perfect "jazz intro" record. got a great soaring, melodic sound that makes it a lot more accessible than miles's more scattered, cerebral approach. even if you don't know shit about jazz, when you listen to this you have something basic to grab on to and rarely get lost.) ween - 'chocolate and cheese' frank sinatra - 'only the lonely' (as i understand it, this is essentially a better version of 'in the wee small hours'.)

"characters with motivation" doesn't save vol. 1 from being a spotfest. the movie makes it very clear that it doesn't care about what the bride's motivations are: it cares about slick lighting, making references to other movies & genres and wowing you with spectacles of violence. the bride never struggles (just goes through the motions, like a video game), she never makes a choice, she has almost no history (and even her history is just an excuse to refer to other movies & genres), she doesn't even have a name. there is exactly ONE moment when we see that there is something really at stake in all this (when she wakes up in a coma without her baby), and the moment is promptly forgotten about for the sake of showing all kinds of creative ways to kill people. the audience has no reason to care about her. vol. 2 is another story. but vol. 1 is a spotfest.

I'm curious, what's your opinion of the Last Temptation of Christ? It's a well made movie. An inaccurate one that ignores the warmth and heart of Christ shown in the gospels, and one that ignores His true purpose in favor of a ridiculous "What If?" scenario. But a well made movie, nonetheless. why is the "what if" scenario so ridiculous? the idea was to put those qualities into jesus to manifest more clearly our own more human feelings of guilt and doubt. a fable telling us that if someone so great can overcome those feelings to fulfill his purpose, then we can too. the point is to show his struggle with those ideas. to make him as divine as he's portrayed in the bible would have been to downplay or ignore that inner moral struggle; without that, i can no longer see myself in what jesus is struggling with, and the film would lose its power to make me believe in myself. without giving jesus that moral struggle, it would fall into that same trap the bible falls into about the problems with trying to live up to someone who was literally perfect. the imperfection is needed for strength, or else you fall into the kierkegaard trap of giving up because you can never live up to him. i don't think the point was to make you wonder IF christ went through that at all; i think the point was to make you reflect on your own faults, doubts, sins, etc., and make you aware of god's love and the power of forgiveness. the point is not to be accurate: the point is to USE the story of jesus as a reference point in reflecting on other matters. to criticize it for being inaccurate is like criticizing 'freeway' for having the little red riding hood character go to prison. the movie isn't RETELLING the legend, it's using the legend to tell its OWN story.

eric clapton - 'unplugged' 1. signe - 4 2. before you accuse me - 5.5 3. hey hey - 5 4. tears in heaven - 7 5. lonely stranger - 7 6. nobody knows you when you're down and out - 7.5 7. layla - 7 8. running on faith - 8.5 9. walkin' blues - 8 10. alberta - 6 11. san francisco bay blues - 6 12. malted milk - 10 13. old love - 9 14. rollin' and tumblin' - 5

sex scenes edition: 1. 'lost highway' 2. 'sex and lucia' 3. 'monster's ball' 4. 'storytelling' 5. 'mulholland drive'

ah. i'll follow suit: robert johnson - 'a proper introduction to robert johnson'. dayum.

i second this. i've read it four times since i was seventeen, and although the flaws become more and more apparent with each reading, it never ceases to amaze me & my outlook of it changes just a little bit every time. i can't take it in small doses: once it gets rolling i spend every spare second reading it, and it usually takes a solid month to stop thinking about it once i finish it.

on a semi-related note...at the used cd store, i could get a copy of 'dirty mind' for around $8 or 'purple rain' for $10. which would be the better option?

explain the "dayum." jay-z - the black album. it's okayish. on the whole, i prefer the grey album remixes i've downloaded (especially "december 4th"). robert johnson - 'a proper introduction to robert johnson'. yes, that's the title of the album. twenty-nine tracks of robert johnson on one cd for ten dollars at borders. of course it's awesome stuff, but listening to the whole thing at once gets a little monotonous and overwhelming.

prince: 'sign o' the times'. huzzah.

just got back from a showing. good good stuff, and LOTS of imitating the spirit of hitchcock going on (some for the better, some for the worse). first half or so was spectacular, but when it started throwing spanners in the works (especially that long focus on the fbi/lapd subplot) the focus got kind of diffused. some rethinking of the structure, staying closer to the original idea without thinking "hey, the audience might be bored with this claustrophobic concept an hour & a half into it, let's change it up a little," would've helped. but tightness was never michael mann's strong point anyway, so i'm not terribly surprised. if i can't find anybody to hang out with tonight, i might head to borders and write up a proper review. EDIT: and mann didn't film LA much differently than sofia coppola filmed 'lost in translation' or steven soderbergh filmed 'ocean's eleven'. it's just a matter of having lots of streetlights in your shot that are out of focus, and keeping your focal lengths really really narrow. it looks all abstract and pretty, and it's a fairly standard way of shooting a bright city at night.

the "i love people" edition (to balance out the last one): 1. it's a wonderful life 2. singin' in the rain 3. mr smith goes to washington 4. city lights 5. mary poppins

edited for my personal taste, with 2 bonus picks.

wasn't there a fox made-for-tv movie about ten years ago that defended OJ? this movie will suck. royally. also, that photo looks like the way tim meadows used to be made up for his MJ parody on saturday night live.

just found a used copy of 'sign o' the times'. this shit BETTER be good, or i'm holding every contributor to the prince thread responsible.

so nice to see a thread about a mod's authority turned into a thread about gay sex.

work was incredibly boring tonight, so i ended up doing like twenty of these on my scratch paper to pass the time. i'm doing these song titles from memory, so i may get some wrong (especially the dylan ones). velvet underground - self-titled candy says - 9 what goes on - 7 some kinda love - 7.5 pale blue eyes - 3.5 jesus - 8 beginning to see the light - 6.5 i'm set free - 6.5 that's the story of my life - 5.5 the murder mystery - 6 after hours - 9 that's a balls-out great album right there. billy joel - '52nd street' big shot - 6.5 honesty - 7 my life - 6 zanzibar - 7 stiletto - 8.5 rosalinda's eyes - 7.5 half a mile away - 7 until the night - 7.5 52nd street - 7.5 not that great on paper, but the consistency and the variety are bitchin. one of the few records i listened to all the time as a kid and still get a legitimate kick out of today. velvet underground - 'white light/white heat' white light/white heat - 8.5 the gift - 5 lady godiva's operation - 4 here she comes now - 8 i heard her call my name - 8.5 sister ray - 8 they took the most chances on this one, and not coincidentally had the most misfires. "the gift" is great the first time, but doesn't hold up to repeated listenings very well. "godiva" just does nothing for me. the rest is way solid. bob dylan - 'blonde on blonde' rainy day women #12 and 35 - 7 pledging my time - 7 visions of johanna - 7 one of us must know (sooner or later) - 8 i want you - 7 stuck inside of mobile with the memphis blues again - 7 leopard-skin pillbox hat - 7.5 just like a woman - 5 most likely you'll go your way and i'll go mine - 5.5 temporary like achilles - 6.5 absolutely sweet marie - 8.5 4th time around - 9 obviously five believers - 9 sad-eyed lady of the lowlands - 10 i bolded the last 4 tracks because damned if it isn't something like the greatest album-ending hot streak ever. awesome, awesome stuff. and coat needs to do 'the pod'. i would, but i can't remember the whole track listing offhand and i don't want to look it up.

i have very very little experience with prince. but he will always be special, as the first tape i ever bought was the 'batman' soundtrack. i'm also an ENORMOUS fan of ween's "l.m.l.y.p.", the eight-minute prince tribute.

last week i drank every night for six days. that's WAY over my record, which is i think once every 4-5 months.

somebody refresh my memory of the nick cave/pet shop boys incident.

'bad' > 'thriller'. 'bad' has a harder overall sound with more sharpness, and the songs tend to be more solid (not that its best stuff trumps 'thriller's best stuff, but its weakest moments are waaaaaaaaay better than "the girl is mine). 'thriller's cup runneth over with that soft syrupy almost-disco-but-sort-of-pop sound that permeates through even the hardest tracks, and just has not aged well. especially on "baby be mine" and the like. the keyboards are just too soft and cheesy.

i like their cover of "all is full of love."

dammit. i was hoping this thread would be about how gavin rossdale doesn't make real music.