I swear I'm not dead. The last couple of weeks have just been weird, I'm back now. So I'm going to celebrate my return by beating a dead horse. It was brought to my attention over my little sabbatical how fucking badly our society handles the gender discussion. We're not even bothering with the basics in this one; if the general tenor of modern gender politics eludes you this post can wait for you to get educated, or you could not read this one. I truly wouldn't blame you at this point. No, today we're talking about why the whole conversation is probably fucked.
The first major stumbling block in the conversation about gender has nothing to do with anything even remotely involving what bits everyone has or how they feel about them. When people start talking about bad shit that happened to them a certain percentage of the population seem to compete for biggest victim. That percentage is close enough to 100 that we could probably just call it everybody. Not everybody all the time, but everybody has had that day. When someone brings up their troubles and you just can't help but share your own, for whatever reason. Now, sometimes this is an ego thing, sometimes its an attempt to make a connection, sometimes its just the bad shit version of sitting around trading stories. Unfortunately, they all look alike from the outside and we're hardwired to assume the first. So by contributing your story, regardless of intent, its assumed you're either trying to spotlight or out-victim the other party. Add in the fact that you can't really talk your way out of that assumption without making it worse and the conversation starts to look pretty bleak.
The second hurdle here is essentially that men exist. Not because we're evil or stupid or exceptionally privileged or whatever, but because men are both the oppressors and fellow oppressed. "The Patriarchy" is the go to villain of the gender debate, and to some extent rightfully so since the practices established by several historically insular groups of sociopathic, shitsouled douchebags oppressed a planet for pretty much all of history. Pretty much everyone acknowledges that men are also damaged by gender stereotypes; emotional abuse, disregarding male victimization in rape and assault cases etc. However, men have a precarious place in discussing gender issues, partially because some people shit the bed for the rest of us, but also partially because of the ease with which criticism can be interpreted as the aforementioned bed-shitting. A man talking about feminism tends to come off as a misogynist, a parrot, or a "man-splainer", which really limits our viable roles in the conversation.
There is no monolith in this story, feminism isn't made up of one egalitarian philosophy made into a movement, the patriarchy isn't the endless ranks of white men hellbent on destroying all they survey, and believing that we should have fair treatment regardless of circumstance doesn't make you part of any group. If it did this probably wouldn't be a problem anymore. Its easy to point to a system and blame it on those most benefited, logical even. But doing so ignores every unwitting contributor, every asshole willing to fuck themselves over to keep someone else from succeeding, everyone who has let things get worse instead of trying to do better. Sadly, the systems of oppression we toil under are ancient and vast machines, built by every act of shitty self-promotion, cruelty, selfish ambition, and hostile competition in history. We're all guilty, and its not enough to tear down the system, we need to make something better or we'll just end up here again.
Monday, August 31, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
Weekly Cinemeh To be continued.....
So this week was hectic and we didn't get a chance to watch any movies so Weekly Cinemeh will not be posted this week. Sorry about that.
Friday, August 21, 2015
Weekly Cinemeh
Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh. This week's theme was French films. French cinema is known for being obtuse and artistic, and from what I have seen, this is close to the truth, though I am far from an expert. This was a fairly mixed week, but ultimately I am curious and will look up more French films. Anyway: to the list!
1: Les Visiteurs
The visitors is a French Comedy about a 12th century knight and his manservant being sent into the future while trying to go to the past to prevent the knight from killing his girlfriend's dad while tripping balls (because a witch spiked his water). The knight and his peasant friend are essentially a French version of Black Adder and Baldrick. While in the future, they need to find a way back with the help of the knight's descendants. This movie was pretty funny. Jean Reno is good and his Baldrick, played by Christian Clavier, is very funny, especially when he finds out that the nobility in the future got rid of the feudal system. This is also one of the only movies about the past that I have seen that addresses the fact that people from the middle ages had fucked up teeth, which was actually a plot point. It was fun to watch the medieval peoples fuck with the status quo, and I loved that the one of the first things that happens with them is that they get thrown in a mental institution. The only weird thing in this movie was that Jean Reno's character kept throwing out a "I wanna Fuck You" vibe to his descendant who looked like his S.O. from the past. Give it a watch.
Eshi: I enjoy Jean Reno; I don't think I've ever been disappointed by him and this movie isn't an exception. Watching a relatively dignified french actor run around with a flail squealing in battle rage is just delightful. Christian Clavier is simultaneously repulsive and charismatic and his whirlwind romance with the delusional baglady was great. I agree with Brian though that the whole, "Time to fuck my Grandkid" thing was disconcerting, but I don't know how the French go about their incest. They are making a third movie in this series, I'm not sure it needed a second (which I didn't even know about) and a third, almost twenty years after the second, is disappointing. This one's pretty good though, you should watch it.
2: Amelie
I love this movie. This wasn't my first time watching it, but I felt that if we are to suggest French movies we would be wrong to not include Amelie. Amelie is a movie about a introverted, oddball, and slightly naive French girl who decides to become a superhero of sorts, helping those in need and punishing bad people. Its a heartwarming and hilarious movie. Audrey Tautou was charming as the quixotic Amelie, and the rest of the cast was good as well, adding a delightful amount of charm to each scene. This movie focuses on the importance of having connections with people in your life. Amelie spends the bulk of her life in her own head, not giving much though to the world around her. When she discovers that it feels good to help people she dives into it, imagining herself as a Zorro type character and slowly coming out of her shell. Its a sweet movie that has some beautiful scenes, and I would suggest it heartily.
Eshi: Amelie is the most genuine and charitable examination of the fantasy-minded I've ever seen, and it brings me great joy. The characters are wonderfully exaggerated and fucking filled with personality. The story rambles and meanders just enough to be comfortable, cinematography is bright and spectacularly emotive, even the psycho-stalker character manages to be more playfully neurotic than threatening. Amelie is the movie version of your favorite candy: sweet, pretty, and interesting enough to always make you feel better.
3: Fascination
This was my first interaction with "erotic horror". This movie was about a thief who gets into trouble when trying to hold up a house inhabited by vampires. There is a lot of tits in this movie, which was only shocking because I didn't know that the movie was erotic horror until a bit into it. The plot was simple, and the characters where kind of bland. The thief is also the stupidest motherfucker that has ever lived. The entire movie revolves around the vampires killing this guy. They fucking tell him that they are going to kill him, but he stays because the power of boners. I am not saying that they elude to his possible death, they outright fucking tell him, and he doesn't run. I get people acting appropriately stupid in horror films to advance the plot, but rarely does a plot tell the victim that they are a victim, and then the victim doesn't even try to leave. The special effects also leave a lot to be desired. and when the vampires eventually eat someone on screen it is super obvious that they aren't eating a person, just hovering over the body pretending. All of this negatives aside, there are some beautiful scenes, specifically when Brigitte Lahaie walks casually along wielding a scythe after murdering a bunch of people. It was beautiful and frightening all at once. It was boring though, and for a horror movie that's a mortal sin. This movie didn't turn me off of the idea of erotic horror, but it might make me a little hesitant in the future.
Eshi: Man, if you like gratuitous nudity and amateur pantomime this is the one for you. Half the conversations basically end with one or more parties trying to look alluring and wandering off, leaving the last person speaking just kind of standing there, trying to figure out what the fuck they're doing there. That character is the audience surrogate regardless of who they are at the time. The thief is too busy trying to be cool to give a fuck about his grandiosely telegraphed and clearly outlined demise, the vampires are pretty much just crazy rich ladies who get off on ineffectually mouthing travelers for their blood, and the sex scenes are all pretty much what it would look like if rape had a sibling with Down's. Brian is right though, Brigitte Lahaie does a grand job of answering the age old question, "why does that corpse have a boner?" for all kinds of reasons.
1: Les Visiteurs
The visitors is a French Comedy about a 12th century knight and his manservant being sent into the future while trying to go to the past to prevent the knight from killing his girlfriend's dad while tripping balls (because a witch spiked his water). The knight and his peasant friend are essentially a French version of Black Adder and Baldrick. While in the future, they need to find a way back with the help of the knight's descendants. This movie was pretty funny. Jean Reno is good and his Baldrick, played by Christian Clavier, is very funny, especially when he finds out that the nobility in the future got rid of the feudal system. This is also one of the only movies about the past that I have seen that addresses the fact that people from the middle ages had fucked up teeth, which was actually a plot point. It was fun to watch the medieval peoples fuck with the status quo, and I loved that the one of the first things that happens with them is that they get thrown in a mental institution. The only weird thing in this movie was that Jean Reno's character kept throwing out a "I wanna Fuck You" vibe to his descendant who looked like his S.O. from the past. Give it a watch.
Eshi: I enjoy Jean Reno; I don't think I've ever been disappointed by him and this movie isn't an exception. Watching a relatively dignified french actor run around with a flail squealing in battle rage is just delightful. Christian Clavier is simultaneously repulsive and charismatic and his whirlwind romance with the delusional baglady was great. I agree with Brian though that the whole, "Time to fuck my Grandkid" thing was disconcerting, but I don't know how the French go about their incest. They are making a third movie in this series, I'm not sure it needed a second (which I didn't even know about) and a third, almost twenty years after the second, is disappointing. This one's pretty good though, you should watch it.
2: Amelie
I love this movie. This wasn't my first time watching it, but I felt that if we are to suggest French movies we would be wrong to not include Amelie. Amelie is a movie about a introverted, oddball, and slightly naive French girl who decides to become a superhero of sorts, helping those in need and punishing bad people. Its a heartwarming and hilarious movie. Audrey Tautou was charming as the quixotic Amelie, and the rest of the cast was good as well, adding a delightful amount of charm to each scene. This movie focuses on the importance of having connections with people in your life. Amelie spends the bulk of her life in her own head, not giving much though to the world around her. When she discovers that it feels good to help people she dives into it, imagining herself as a Zorro type character and slowly coming out of her shell. Its a sweet movie that has some beautiful scenes, and I would suggest it heartily.
Eshi: Amelie is the most genuine and charitable examination of the fantasy-minded I've ever seen, and it brings me great joy. The characters are wonderfully exaggerated and fucking filled with personality. The story rambles and meanders just enough to be comfortable, cinematography is bright and spectacularly emotive, even the psycho-stalker character manages to be more playfully neurotic than threatening. Amelie is the movie version of your favorite candy: sweet, pretty, and interesting enough to always make you feel better.
3: Fascination
This was my first interaction with "erotic horror". This movie was about a thief who gets into trouble when trying to hold up a house inhabited by vampires. There is a lot of tits in this movie, which was only shocking because I didn't know that the movie was erotic horror until a bit into it. The plot was simple, and the characters where kind of bland. The thief is also the stupidest motherfucker that has ever lived. The entire movie revolves around the vampires killing this guy. They fucking tell him that they are going to kill him, but he stays because the power of boners. I am not saying that they elude to his possible death, they outright fucking tell him, and he doesn't run. I get people acting appropriately stupid in horror films to advance the plot, but rarely does a plot tell the victim that they are a victim, and then the victim doesn't even try to leave. The special effects also leave a lot to be desired. and when the vampires eventually eat someone on screen it is super obvious that they aren't eating a person, just hovering over the body pretending. All of this negatives aside, there are some beautiful scenes, specifically when Brigitte Lahaie walks casually along wielding a scythe after murdering a bunch of people. It was beautiful and frightening all at once. It was boring though, and for a horror movie that's a mortal sin. This movie didn't turn me off of the idea of erotic horror, but it might make me a little hesitant in the future.
Eshi: Man, if you like gratuitous nudity and amateur pantomime this is the one for you. Half the conversations basically end with one or more parties trying to look alluring and wandering off, leaving the last person speaking just kind of standing there, trying to figure out what the fuck they're doing there. That character is the audience surrogate regardless of who they are at the time. The thief is too busy trying to be cool to give a fuck about his grandiosely telegraphed and clearly outlined demise, the vampires are pretty much just crazy rich ladies who get off on ineffectually mouthing travelers for their blood, and the sex scenes are all pretty much what it would look like if rape had a sibling with Down's. Brian is right though, Brigitte Lahaie does a grand job of answering the age old question, "why does that corpse have a boner?" for all kinds of reasons.
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Dramedy
So over the past couple of weeks we have watched all of The Newsroom and I have to say I am very impressed with the show. I tend to dislike drama shows because most of them lack any sense of humor and focus so much and adding more and more drama that they feel joyless in general. The Newsroom bucks that by being one of the funniest shows I have seen while also offering good drama and catharsis. It is one of the few shows that I've watched where I want to watch more after it is done.
The show takes the subject of the news and runs with the idea that "we can do better". It gets a little preachy, but at the same time its a subject that deserves to be discussed like this. For most people in the US, their view of the world outside of the United States is from the news and pop culture. Pop culture is fictionalized anyway so you can't get to mad at them for not fact checking, but the news is supposed to let people know what is going on in the world. Its an important tool that has been hijacked by people who want to sell ad space.
This is the main premise of the show. What if a news program didn't have to worry about ratings? Its a good thought, and The Newsroom tackles it well. The show opens with an amazing speech that is supposed to make you think and inspire you, and this sets the tone of the rest of the show. It focuses on doing this type of work well, because its meant to be done that way.
The cast is excellent, and they all have good chemistry together. I am a fan of Olivia Munn's work from The Daily Show (which also focuses a lot on the news being done poorly) and I am glad to see that she can handle herself well in a pretty major role. Jeff Daniels did a great job as well, and it was fun to see him do a serious role in a funny way. Sam Waterston played the President of the news network and was my favorite character on the show. He was so funny, and I loved how he could go from calm and affable to balls out angry in seconds.
Aaron Sorkin wanted to make a series about competent people doing a good job, and he did well. The series is written phenomenally and was a joy to watch. I tend to binge a little when watching TV shows, but this is one of the only times I felt compelled too. Its a good show that was on the air for 3 seasons on HBO. Amazon has the first two seasons up for free if you have a prime account, give it a try, you will not be disappointed.
The show takes the subject of the news and runs with the idea that "we can do better". It gets a little preachy, but at the same time its a subject that deserves to be discussed like this. For most people in the US, their view of the world outside of the United States is from the news and pop culture. Pop culture is fictionalized anyway so you can't get to mad at them for not fact checking, but the news is supposed to let people know what is going on in the world. Its an important tool that has been hijacked by people who want to sell ad space.
This is the main premise of the show. What if a news program didn't have to worry about ratings? Its a good thought, and The Newsroom tackles it well. The show opens with an amazing speech that is supposed to make you think and inspire you, and this sets the tone of the rest of the show. It focuses on doing this type of work well, because its meant to be done that way.
The cast is excellent, and they all have good chemistry together. I am a fan of Olivia Munn's work from The Daily Show (which also focuses a lot on the news being done poorly) and I am glad to see that she can handle herself well in a pretty major role. Jeff Daniels did a great job as well, and it was fun to see him do a serious role in a funny way. Sam Waterston played the President of the news network and was my favorite character on the show. He was so funny, and I loved how he could go from calm and affable to balls out angry in seconds.
Aaron Sorkin wanted to make a series about competent people doing a good job, and he did well. The series is written phenomenally and was a joy to watch. I tend to binge a little when watching TV shows, but this is one of the only times I felt compelled too. Its a good show that was on the air for 3 seasons on HBO. Amazon has the first two seasons up for free if you have a prime account, give it a try, you will not be disappointed.
Friday, August 14, 2015
Weekly Cinemeh
Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh! This week our theme was animated movies. We had a lot of choices of style, intended audiences, and genre so we went in a few directions. I don't really have a lot to say about this one in the intro so, to the list!
1: Justice League: Gods and Monsters
I love superheroes in general; I am not the biggest comic nerd, but I can hold my own. I loved this movie. It was a great alternate universe version of the Justice League and their villains. Basically, Supes is the son of Zod not Jor-El which makes him a little more cool with violence, Batman is a vampire created from a failed cancer cure, and Wonder Woman is a superpowered God/alien with a sweet ass sword and a troubled history. Together these three run the justice league, and are hated because they don't mind dropping someone who is a bad guy. Its an interesting take on the universe. I know there are a few more from this series coming out, and I will definitely watch them. I feel like DC saw Marvel going family friendlier with their movies and universe and said, hey lets go the other way. The animation was very similar to the animation of the Batman animated series I watched when I was a kid, so It felt nostalgic, and the background of the characters kept them pretty fresh. It was a good combination. The movie focuses a lot on establishing the series universes' backstory, so hopefully the other movies will expand the story a little more. I heartily recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of super heroes, and wants something a little different.
Eshi: For the most part I'm not a huge DC fan, as is so often the case I think some of the villains are really cool, but typically only around the frayed edges of their canon. This was everything good there has ever been about DC. Superman is forceful, uncompromising and bears the confidence his ridiculous fucking powers ought to bring, all the while still being compassionate and goodhearted. Batman, voiced by the wonderful Michael C. Hall, is a very fucking welcome break from the standard borderline sociopathic Bruce Wayne. Wonder Woman manages to be a colossal bad ass without completely caving to the spectacularly disappointing flusterpation that WW so often suffers from. Gods and Monsters was superbly done and I encourage its viewing.
2: The Emperor's New Groove
This was a movie from 2000 about a selfish emperor of the Incans named Kuzco who gets betrayed by another official named Yzma when he fires her. She tries to poison him but instead turns him into a llama. Antics ensue. Its a fun movie, though not without its faults. There is a deus ex machina type edit later in the movie that they break the fourth wall to point out. as a movie meant for kids you are probably not meant to poke to many holes in it, so I will digress for now. I am not a fan, per se, of David Spade, but his douchiness helped a lot in this role. I have also pointed out how much I love John Goodman in the past, and he doesn't disappoint. Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton are also great. I would suggest going back and watching this movie if you haven't seen it in a while, it still holds up in some funny ways, though it is far from perfect.
Eshi: New Groove was a lot of fun, no matter how much I loathe the psychotic racist mouse god that spawned it. The cast was great, the jokes were cute and the story managed to avoid going completely saccharine. Patrick Warburton deserves more money. That is all.
3: Mardock Scramble: The First Compression
I have odd feelings about this movie. Its not bad, but it wasn't for me. The story revolves around a revived murder victim who is to be used as a witness in a trial. She gets a robot mouse that can turn into anything to help her defend herself from the men trying to kill her to keep her from testifying. The technology is cool, the world environment could be interesting, but the story gets a little out of hand, and some basic questions never get answered. The one that hit me the most was if the investigator has video of the guy committing the murder, and the mouse thing that can record everything sees the investigator for the defense threaten to straight up kill his client, yet nothing ended with anyone saying, "Oh, yeah. we've got evidence of some fucking hardcore intimidation, better tell the Judge". It could be something that comes up in the other two sequels, but I lost interest really quickly. I like anime for the most part but sometimes I have a hard time watching some of it. I think I prefer anime series more than the one shot movies because they can establish a coherent story a little better. I wouldn't recommend against it, but it just wasn't for me.
Eshi: The combat in this movie is pretty fucking metal. For the most part however, Brian is right. Most of the is movie, which is one of three, fails to completely inspire. Between the weirdly sexualized protagonist and the general why-the-fuck of the storyline I'd give this one a miss if I could do it all over again.
1: Justice League: Gods and Monsters
I love superheroes in general; I am not the biggest comic nerd, but I can hold my own. I loved this movie. It was a great alternate universe version of the Justice League and their villains. Basically, Supes is the son of Zod not Jor-El which makes him a little more cool with violence, Batman is a vampire created from a failed cancer cure, and Wonder Woman is a superpowered God/alien with a sweet ass sword and a troubled history. Together these three run the justice league, and are hated because they don't mind dropping someone who is a bad guy. Its an interesting take on the universe. I know there are a few more from this series coming out, and I will definitely watch them. I feel like DC saw Marvel going family friendlier with their movies and universe and said, hey lets go the other way. The animation was very similar to the animation of the Batman animated series I watched when I was a kid, so It felt nostalgic, and the background of the characters kept them pretty fresh. It was a good combination. The movie focuses a lot on establishing the series universes' backstory, so hopefully the other movies will expand the story a little more. I heartily recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of super heroes, and wants something a little different.
Eshi: For the most part I'm not a huge DC fan, as is so often the case I think some of the villains are really cool, but typically only around the frayed edges of their canon. This was everything good there has ever been about DC. Superman is forceful, uncompromising and bears the confidence his ridiculous fucking powers ought to bring, all the while still being compassionate and goodhearted. Batman, voiced by the wonderful Michael C. Hall, is a very fucking welcome break from the standard borderline sociopathic Bruce Wayne. Wonder Woman manages to be a colossal bad ass without completely caving to the spectacularly disappointing flusterpation that WW so often suffers from. Gods and Monsters was superbly done and I encourage its viewing.
2: The Emperor's New Groove
This was a movie from 2000 about a selfish emperor of the Incans named Kuzco who gets betrayed by another official named Yzma when he fires her. She tries to poison him but instead turns him into a llama. Antics ensue. Its a fun movie, though not without its faults. There is a deus ex machina type edit later in the movie that they break the fourth wall to point out. as a movie meant for kids you are probably not meant to poke to many holes in it, so I will digress for now. I am not a fan, per se, of David Spade, but his douchiness helped a lot in this role. I have also pointed out how much I love John Goodman in the past, and he doesn't disappoint. Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton are also great. I would suggest going back and watching this movie if you haven't seen it in a while, it still holds up in some funny ways, though it is far from perfect.
Eshi: New Groove was a lot of fun, no matter how much I loathe the psychotic racist mouse god that spawned it. The cast was great, the jokes were cute and the story managed to avoid going completely saccharine. Patrick Warburton deserves more money. That is all.
3: Mardock Scramble: The First Compression
I have odd feelings about this movie. Its not bad, but it wasn't for me. The story revolves around a revived murder victim who is to be used as a witness in a trial. She gets a robot mouse that can turn into anything to help her defend herself from the men trying to kill her to keep her from testifying. The technology is cool, the world environment could be interesting, but the story gets a little out of hand, and some basic questions never get answered. The one that hit me the most was if the investigator has video of the guy committing the murder, and the mouse thing that can record everything sees the investigator for the defense threaten to straight up kill his client, yet nothing ended with anyone saying, "Oh, yeah. we've got evidence of some fucking hardcore intimidation, better tell the Judge". It could be something that comes up in the other two sequels, but I lost interest really quickly. I like anime for the most part but sometimes I have a hard time watching some of it. I think I prefer anime series more than the one shot movies because they can establish a coherent story a little better. I wouldn't recommend against it, but it just wasn't for me.
Eshi: The combat in this movie is pretty fucking metal. For the most part however, Brian is right. Most of the is movie, which is one of three, fails to completely inspire. Between the weirdly sexualized protagonist and the general why-the-fuck of the storyline I'd give this one a miss if I could do it all over again.
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Sick Post Bro
I am feeling kind of shitty, so this post is going to be almost non existent. I have been feeling a little depressed lately. I have seen a lot of news about people killing one another, police being assholes, people in general being ass holes, stuff like that. I am sure many of our readers have seen much of the same news about, and I thought we could all use some cheering up. E.B. White (the man who wrote Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little and was a big contributor to the New Yorker) once got a letter from a man who lost faith in humanity. His response is great.
Dear Mr. Nadeau:
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.
Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
Sincerely,
E. B. White
This made me feel better about things, at least a little bit, and I hope that it may help, in some small way, the few people who real this blog.
(quote source)
Dear Mr. Nadeau:
As long as there is one upright man, as long as there is one compassionate woman, the contagion may spread and the scene is not desolate. Hope is the thing that is left to us, in a bad time. I shall get up Sunday morning and wind the clock, as a contribution to order and steadfastness.
Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say, the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed, sometimes rather suddenly. It is quite obvious that the human race has made a queer mess of life on this planet. But as a people we probably harbor seeds of goodness that have lain for a long time waiting to sprout when the conditions are right. Man’s curiosity, his relentlessness, his inventiveness, his ingenuity have led him into deep trouble. We can only hope that these same traits will enable him to claw his way out.
Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.
Sincerely,
E. B. White
This made me feel better about things, at least a little bit, and I hope that it may help, in some small way, the few people who real this blog.
(quote source)
Monday, August 10, 2015
Rabble Rabble Rabble
So I've been having a hard time landing on topics to write about lately. At least partly because, like the German baby, I don't have much to say when things are acceptable. I mean yeah the world is on fire and the idea of justice is more of a novel hypothetical then a social imperative; but my shit is going pretty alright. Which is kind of an interesting phenomena, I care that bad things are going on in the world, and I'm still all about fixing those problems, it just isn't something I feel the need to get all frothy about anymore.
I don't see the point in getting outraged because outrage is a worthless commodity these days. We all know about, if not acknowledge, the big problems that we face as a species. There is no point in spreading awareness. I would rather enjoy the opportunity to help people where I can than stress out about all the people being predictably disappointing. And since so much of what I do is either pop culture (which I'm way behind on) or social ills you can see how I might have hit a dry spot. I'm going to try to do more YKWFA in the coming months as I exercise my developing giveafuck gland. Meanwhile Brian is still holding strong as ever and Weekly Cinemeh is on the docket for the foreseeable future.
I don't see the point in getting outraged because outrage is a worthless commodity these days. We all know about, if not acknowledge, the big problems that we face as a species. There is no point in spreading awareness. I would rather enjoy the opportunity to help people where I can than stress out about all the people being predictably disappointing. And since so much of what I do is either pop culture (which I'm way behind on) or social ills you can see how I might have hit a dry spot. I'm going to try to do more YKWFA in the coming months as I exercise my developing giveafuck gland. Meanwhile Brian is still holding strong as ever and Weekly Cinemeh is on the docket for the foreseeable future.
Friday, August 7, 2015
Weekly Cinemeh
Hello, and welcome to another edition of Weekly Cinemeh. This week our selection of movies where from actor/director/writer Stephen Chow. Chow is a master at physical/absurdist comedy and makes movies that are essentially live action Looney Tunes movies. His movies also tend to be spoofs of genre films that poke fun at what is considered normal genre tropes. If I could sum up most of what I have seen of Stephen Chow it would be "the phrase 'what the fuck just happened!?' in movie form", though not in a bad way. Eshi and I are both fans of his work, so this week we picked a few movies of his we have not seen. It was a pretty fun week here. So, without further ado: To the list!
1: Out of the Dark
A movie that blends The Exorcist with Leon (and a little bit of slasher film at the end). In this movie the main character is Leon (played by Stephen Chow), who spends his time escaping mental institutions and running around an apartment building exorcising ghosts. The plot focuses on a couple who killed their mother/mother-in-law who die trying to get away from her ghost/Leon/the building's security force (basically a bunch of mall cops) who come back from the dead to kill the people responsible for their deaths. This movie is very funny, and the story, while being slightly bat-shit insane, is very fun to watch. Several times during the movie Eshi and I would turn to one another and say, what the fuck just happened? in baffled glee. I had a good time with this and think you will too. Watch it.
Eshi: I have a special place in my heart for Stephen Chow, so this week was good for me. Out of the Dark manages to take a nearly incomprehensible story about ghosts and turn it in to a comedy slasher-ghost-romance. Karen Mok running around dressed as prepubescent Natalie Portman was kinda weird but a fun poke at the creep-factor in Leon. Like all of the movies on the list today, this one is a lot of fun, but definitely go in with an open mind or you'll end up confused or annoyed.
2: God of Cookery
This movie had me giggling for hours afterward. It is basically a Kung-fu movie version of the Iron Chef TV show. Its about an amazing chef, known as the God of Cookery, who runs his business like a greedy, narcissistic tyrant and looses his respect for the craft. He gets deposed by one of his partners and an apprentice with amazing skill. Afterward he is on the street and he must earn his title back. Its a fun movie with a lot of ridiculous jokes and funny references to old school Kung-fu movies. Anyone who likes old school Hong Kong action movies will like this movie, and even if you don't, give it a try.
Eshi: This is a fun take on the old "comeuppance and redemption" story. Guys a dick, gets fucked by his shady buddy, finds love but is a dick, stops being a dick and kicks his shady buddy right in the shady balls. The street fight and cooking competition play interesting counterpoint and I really enjoyed the final showdown. Do it, do it with friends.
3: King of Comedy
In this movie, Chow plays a failed actor who keeps getting fired while trying to land a big acting gig during the shoot of a movie that is suspiciously similar to a John Woo movie. While in need of some extra income, he takes a job teaching hostesses how to act interested in customers so that they can get more money. The movie turns into a romantic comedy for a little between Chow and one of the hostesses named Piu Piu (Cecilia Cheung) before going full Woo and going undercover to stop a smuggler for some reason. Its a fantastic movie that pokes fun at action movies and romantic comedies. Give it a shot.
Eshi: Life is really hard for the intermittently hyper-competent. If Out of the Dark is shameless in its lampoonery; King of Comedy is straight up tenacious. The fight scenes are delightfully ridiculous, the dialog is fun and the characters are bombastic. I love this movie even with its gratuitous waste of mother fucking Jackie Chan. My only disappointment is that they didn't get Chow Yun Fat.
Honorable mentions: Anything else Stephen Chow does.
Kung Fu Hustle is the standout one for me here, it was my first experience with Stephen Chow, and I have been in love with him ever since. It has excellent writting, great action, and some good music. I would consider it a must see. Journey to the West and Shaolin Soccer are also very good, and worth the watch. Really, if you like comedies, most of his movies are worth it.
1: Out of the Dark
A movie that blends The Exorcist with Leon (and a little bit of slasher film at the end). In this movie the main character is Leon (played by Stephen Chow), who spends his time escaping mental institutions and running around an apartment building exorcising ghosts. The plot focuses on a couple who killed their mother/mother-in-law who die trying to get away from her ghost/Leon/the building's security force (basically a bunch of mall cops) who come back from the dead to kill the people responsible for their deaths. This movie is very funny, and the story, while being slightly bat-shit insane, is very fun to watch. Several times during the movie Eshi and I would turn to one another and say, what the fuck just happened? in baffled glee. I had a good time with this and think you will too. Watch it.
Eshi: I have a special place in my heart for Stephen Chow, so this week was good for me. Out of the Dark manages to take a nearly incomprehensible story about ghosts and turn it in to a comedy slasher-ghost-romance. Karen Mok running around dressed as prepubescent Natalie Portman was kinda weird but a fun poke at the creep-factor in Leon. Like all of the movies on the list today, this one is a lot of fun, but definitely go in with an open mind or you'll end up confused or annoyed.
2: God of Cookery
This movie had me giggling for hours afterward. It is basically a Kung-fu movie version of the Iron Chef TV show. Its about an amazing chef, known as the God of Cookery, who runs his business like a greedy, narcissistic tyrant and looses his respect for the craft. He gets deposed by one of his partners and an apprentice with amazing skill. Afterward he is on the street and he must earn his title back. Its a fun movie with a lot of ridiculous jokes and funny references to old school Kung-fu movies. Anyone who likes old school Hong Kong action movies will like this movie, and even if you don't, give it a try.
Eshi: This is a fun take on the old "comeuppance and redemption" story. Guys a dick, gets fucked by his shady buddy, finds love but is a dick, stops being a dick and kicks his shady buddy right in the shady balls. The street fight and cooking competition play interesting counterpoint and I really enjoyed the final showdown. Do it, do it with friends.
3: King of Comedy
In this movie, Chow plays a failed actor who keeps getting fired while trying to land a big acting gig during the shoot of a movie that is suspiciously similar to a John Woo movie. While in need of some extra income, he takes a job teaching hostesses how to act interested in customers so that they can get more money. The movie turns into a romantic comedy for a little between Chow and one of the hostesses named Piu Piu (Cecilia Cheung) before going full Woo and going undercover to stop a smuggler for some reason. Its a fantastic movie that pokes fun at action movies and romantic comedies. Give it a shot.
Eshi: Life is really hard for the intermittently hyper-competent. If Out of the Dark is shameless in its lampoonery; King of Comedy is straight up tenacious. The fight scenes are delightfully ridiculous, the dialog is fun and the characters are bombastic. I love this movie even with its gratuitous waste of mother fucking Jackie Chan. My only disappointment is that they didn't get Chow Yun Fat.
Honorable mentions: Anything else Stephen Chow does.
Kung Fu Hustle is the standout one for me here, it was my first experience with Stephen Chow, and I have been in love with him ever since. It has excellent writting, great action, and some good music. I would consider it a must see. Journey to the West and Shaolin Soccer are also very good, and worth the watch. Really, if you like comedies, most of his movies are worth it.
Tuesday, August 4, 2015
Scratching An Itch
So I have been playing a lot of Dark Souls lately and it has been scratching an itch that I didn't know needed scratching. While not a perfect game, Dark Souls does a lot of things right. It has excellent atmosphere, well designed monsters and environments, and a lore that requires its players to piece things together rather than spoon feeding all of the information. Dark Souls doesn't hold the hand of the player and guide them through the game, it encourages exploration and clever thinking.
Most games will take a lot of time to make sure the player knows all the ins and outs of the game and the difficulty will slowly ramp up. This is good, but so many games follow this path its nice to play a game that assumes you can figure it out. Dark Souls tutorial is a bunch of signs in its first area, and that is it. Nothing forces you to read them, but they are glowing so they are hard to miss so its kinda your fault if you don't bother with them and can't figure the game out. After it tells you how to play it just lets you run free.
That's not to say that tutorials aren't good, god knows I wouldn't get through a lot of games without them, but making them a mandatory and drawn out part of the game seems excessive. Pokemon games for instance, haven't changed much, but they all make you go through a tutorial on how to catch pokemon. You can't say "no thanks, I know how to do that" you have to sit back and watch a NPC do a pokemon battle. I get that if you don't know how to play it, this is useful information, but forcing players to go through it seems like a waste of time.
Skyrim, a game that I also love, does the same thing with its tutorial. Its like 10-20 minutes long and unskippable. If I just want to wander around adventuring I need to go through a lot of shit just to do so. Luckily mods fix that issue, but it shouldn't have to be modded out.
I know this is a stupid thing to complain about, but the worst parts of many good games are the stuff like this. As I said before, Dark Souls is far from perfect, but I like that it doesn't guide you through the experience, it gives you a world and says "Explore!". Then it kills you over and over and over again.
By the by, if you want to know about another game that does the same thing: Dragon's Dogma. Its a fun game with some great monster design and has some of the best boss fights I have played in an action RPG (You can climb a dragon and stab it in the fucking heart, its balls out).
Most games will take a lot of time to make sure the player knows all the ins and outs of the game and the difficulty will slowly ramp up. This is good, but so many games follow this path its nice to play a game that assumes you can figure it out. Dark Souls tutorial is a bunch of signs in its first area, and that is it. Nothing forces you to read them, but they are glowing so they are hard to miss so its kinda your fault if you don't bother with them and can't figure the game out. After it tells you how to play it just lets you run free.
That's not to say that tutorials aren't good, god knows I wouldn't get through a lot of games without them, but making them a mandatory and drawn out part of the game seems excessive. Pokemon games for instance, haven't changed much, but they all make you go through a tutorial on how to catch pokemon. You can't say "no thanks, I know how to do that" you have to sit back and watch a NPC do a pokemon battle. I get that if you don't know how to play it, this is useful information, but forcing players to go through it seems like a waste of time.
Skyrim, a game that I also love, does the same thing with its tutorial. Its like 10-20 minutes long and unskippable. If I just want to wander around adventuring I need to go through a lot of shit just to do so. Luckily mods fix that issue, but it shouldn't have to be modded out.
I know this is a stupid thing to complain about, but the worst parts of many good games are the stuff like this. As I said before, Dark Souls is far from perfect, but I like that it doesn't guide you through the experience, it gives you a world and says "Explore!". Then it kills you over and over and over again.
By the by, if you want to know about another game that does the same thing: Dragon's Dogma. Its a fun game with some great monster design and has some of the best boss fights I have played in an action RPG (You can climb a dragon and stab it in the fucking heart, its balls out).
Monday, August 3, 2015
The Trouble With Overactive Reflexes
I've been thinking about the idea of reflexive responses lately, and I've come to a conclusion. Fuck that shit. Every time you say "I'm fine" and you're not its just easier than the conversation, you have failed a little as a human being. Now, I get how that can be off-putting but hear me out.
First, let's clarify some terminology. When I say reflexive response I'm referring to any time someone shortcuts a conversation without thinking about it. If somebody asks if you're okay and you don't want them to know, don't say you're fine or okay or whatever. Fine and okay are great if everything if fine or okay, but if they aren't you're fucking lying outright. If you don't want to talk about something at the very least think of why you don't want to talk to them and consider if that makes you a shit-spigot or not. I'm being pretty specific here but only because I think "I'm fine" is probably the worst offender on this front. We should never aspire to circumvent communication, if for no better reason than no one can do anything if they don't know what's going on. Problems can't be solved and joy can't be shared if we don't talk about it. If you don't want your joy shared you're a dick and if you don't want your problems solved you need to get your shit sorted out.
The worst part about it is we've all done it, hell most of us have probably done it today. It's so much easier to just brush off a discussion with placation than it is to have it that we don't even fucking think about it. We don't even give people the option to get involved and we don't give ourselves the chance to let go of shit. Honest and genuine communication is one of the most important pillars of society and we've turned our backs on it because we let ourselves be embarrassed about stupid shit. Next time someone asks you something I you respond without thinking, stop and consider what you're actually saying by not saying anything of content.
First, let's clarify some terminology. When I say reflexive response I'm referring to any time someone shortcuts a conversation without thinking about it. If somebody asks if you're okay and you don't want them to know, don't say you're fine or okay or whatever. Fine and okay are great if everything if fine or okay, but if they aren't you're fucking lying outright. If you don't want to talk about something at the very least think of why you don't want to talk to them and consider if that makes you a shit-spigot or not. I'm being pretty specific here but only because I think "I'm fine" is probably the worst offender on this front. We should never aspire to circumvent communication, if for no better reason than no one can do anything if they don't know what's going on. Problems can't be solved and joy can't be shared if we don't talk about it. If you don't want your joy shared you're a dick and if you don't want your problems solved you need to get your shit sorted out.
The worst part about it is we've all done it, hell most of us have probably done it today. It's so much easier to just brush off a discussion with placation than it is to have it that we don't even fucking think about it. We don't even give people the option to get involved and we don't give ourselves the chance to let go of shit. Honest and genuine communication is one of the most important pillars of society and we've turned our backs on it because we let ourselves be embarrassed about stupid shit. Next time someone asks you something I you respond without thinking, stop and consider what you're actually saying by not saying anything of content.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)