godthedog

who did you play? i was magnus/puckeridge/hound/lord albert.

don't be ashamed. i haven't seen any of those.

it's like the white album, it will make you kill people. seriously. i remember a news story about a group of fucked up teenagers who decided to watch it on drugs, and then they killed people. and every time i quote you in the future, your quote will be changed to "Do what now?" because i think it's funny. i've still never seen 'godzilla'.

saw the first episode, lost interest. it would work if the show was funny, but it's not. i expected worse singers and wittier comments from the judges.

well shit, i was hoping you'd be the first. be an innovator, and combine your virtuosity with a finely-honed ability of expressing yourself onstage through the power of interpretive dance.

a true virtuoso would be a hendrix or a clapton or a coltrane, a member of the pantheon. there's a big gap between "having a really good working knowledge" of an instrument (which is i think what you mean) and real virtuosity. if you compare them to the good multi-instrumentalists (prince, paul mccartney, brian jones, etc.), there's a pretty large difference. i can't think of any real renaissance men in the field off the top of my head, but if you want to be the first, that's a noble and bitchin goal. it'll just be really really really hard to pull off.

cat power - 'you are free'. pretty good stuff, but apparently i already downloaded all the great songs from it. i'd heard "names", "good woman" & "werewolf" so i was expecting something haunting and sparse and beautiful, but there's a lot of filler that doesn't have any strong tone to it.

um...how hard do you plan to work at this? most go their whole lives without gaining true virtuosity of even one instrument.

so, back to the subject... this deeply disturbs me. fuck this little piece of shit, he knew exactly what he was writing and exactly what kind of reaction it would provoke. free speech does not apply here.

the great jean renoir himself said that directors (at least the noteworthy ones) spend their lives making variations of the same movie. i don't think that's necessarily true of all good directors (like, say, michael curtiz or steven spielberg), but of all the auteurs, the ones with a strong personal style. scorsese seems to have tried very hard to get beyond this, but when he strays from his strengths his work just gets weaker. and i vote 'pulp fiction'. 'shawshank' has a stronger human element & is more moving, which i usually go for, but it loses some points for lack of originality. for all its earnestness, that movie REVELS in cliches, and not always in a good "frank capra" kind of way. whenever i watch the sequence of teaching the convict how to read, and the revelatory scene of "OMG andy didn't really kill his wife~!" it makes me squirm. none of that bullshit going on in 'pulp fiction'.

first play i ever did in high school was a one-act of stoppard's called 'the real inspector hound'. TONS of fun, lots of energy in the writing, and insanely clever. i highly recommend it. in fact, i think i'll dig out my old marked-up copy of it now to revel in its greatness and the memories.

looks like detroit is going to the finals. this makes me happy.

the "michael jackson still has it when he wants to" edition: 1. "in the closet" 2. "unbreakable" 3. "will you be there" (the middle 3 1/2 minutes of it) 4. "you rock my world" 5. "give in to me"

almost forgot...'the road home', possibly the most gorgeous movie i've ever seen, was also released in 1999. it was in china, & didn't make it to the US for two years, and i didn't see it until 2003, but i still say it counts.

jeff buckley edition: 1. "mojo pin" 2. "grace" 3. "last goodbye" 4. "lilac wine" 5. "so real"

1999. being john malkovich, three kings, eyes wide shut, blair witch project, fight club, american beauty, boys don't cry, the war zone, magnolia, bringing out the dead, go, the insider, the straight story...no contest. greatgreatgreat year to work in a movie theater. dude, come on. the 60s-70s had jean-luc godard, orson welles, kurosawa, luis bunuel, francois truffaut, the beatles, 'mary poppins', 'the graduate', 'bonnie & clyde', martin scorsese, francis ford coppola, and roman polanski.

and you know that purposely posting mindless crap just to get a reaction IS trolling, right?

i'd be cocky too if i was beating the number one team in the west so handily, without making any real effort. i think i heard marv albert scream at the top of his lungs, "IT COUNTS, AND THE FOUL!" at least nine times for the lakers during that game. they're both rhythm teams, and minnesota can't create its rhythm without cassell or home court advantage, especially playing a team with so many weapons.

author stage actor

this excessive tournament shit is getting very stupid very quickly.

these tournaments have proven to be useless time & again, everybody bitches about everything, nobody's ever happy with it, and we end up with people arguing over the greatness of 'south park' v. the greatness of 'predator'. i AM intrigued by 'eternal sunshine' being pitted against 'kane'. i'd never thought about comparing the two before, and was surprised to find that i enjoy 'eternal sunshine' more. time will tell with that one though: 'kane' has held up against a good 20-30 viewings from me, and i've only seen 'eternal sunshine' once.

you need to get into a fight.

graduated from the university of georgia a couple weeks ago with a bachelor's in philosophy & film studies. got accepted into new york university's graduate school for film studies, will be going there in the fall (and taking out $40,000+ in student loans). my best friend gets married at the end of july, & a month later will be stationed in iraq.

'mary poppins' 'the princess bride' 'batman' 'short circuit 2' 'the karate kid part II' 'back to the future' 'ghostbusters' 'raiders of the lost ark' 'mary poppins' is by far my favorite of the lot, for nostalgia and on its own merits (yes, i think 'mary poppins' is better than 'raiders of the lost ark'). fucking phenomenal movie that always makes me feel like a kid again when i watch it, i don't think any other movie ever captured that magical sense as well as it did.

currently, on tcm: 'steamboat bill, jr'. damn good stuff. that's insane, that's like six hours of film. i can only imagine the internal monologue that inspired this: "wow, what a great, long movie 'pulp fiction' is. i'm exhausted. what should i do now?...oh, i know! i'll watch 'the godfather part II'! THAT'LL get me energized!"