Sunday, December 16, 2007

No redemption

Posted by Mickey Z on 12/16 at 07:48 AM
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  1. Good Morning Everyone...the ‘great’ snow storm is here in Maine...I stayed home from wark...Mickey...the word spiritual always confuses me. Every individual has their own specific slant based on their experiences...I never know if people are associating spiritual with man-made religious ideas or...? I am reminded language cannot describe some experiences very well.

    “The people who are trying to make the world worse never take a day off”...greedy, war brains will not think otherwise.

    From a post by JOS yeterday...I too hope the Jets beat the...patriots...and I hope it takes less than 6 years!

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  12/16  at  10:15 AM

  2. This brings to mind an occasion 20-some years ago when I went to see what was then the Taviani brothers’ most recent film, ‘Kaos’.  I found it a beautiful and intensely moving film, one that remains to this day one of my favorites.
    But the audience was fidgeding from boredom, and I’ve never seen so many people walk out on a film. By the end of the film, the audience of about 200 had dwindled to no more than a dozen.
    Then there were recent occasions of seeing Buster Keaton films, and my partner and I were the only ones laughing. How can one not find Buster Keaton funny?  I don’t understand.

    Posted by Greg from   on  12/16  at  11:54 AM

  3. What is it with people and their cell phones? This crap is getting out of hand: texting while driving, texting while a server is trying to take their order in a restaurant, texting in a movie theater while others are trying to watch a movie, etc., etc. Not to mention constantly talking on these damn things. What were all these people doing a few years ago when almost no one had cell phones?

    Most of the movie theaters I go to have a zero tolerance policy on cell phone use during a movie and you will be thrown out if caught using it, although that doesn’t seem to stop most of them. Cell phones have truly become national obsession/addiction.

    Sounds like you had a nice time at the movies in spite of everything else…

    Posted by Buddhamonkeydevil from USSA  on  12/16  at  12:29 PM

  4. Hi Buddha, Greg, and joe...How is everybody? Much of my part of the State lost power this morning. Just came back on....cold, dark, and no water...kinda like camping, and I never liked camping.  In all of the years of my childhood, I remember that the power only went out once, and that was during a freak hurricane that came through Pennsylvania. Why are there so many power outages now - about 5 or 6 per year here ??? I think that the equipment was better in the old days and now the bottom line and profits are the only things that count.

    Posted by RMJ from Mickey Z 4 Prez Hdqts  on  12/16  at  04:37 PM

  5. RMJ...4...Maybe utility executives are putting more money in their pockets instead of spending on regular maintenance of electrical power systems?  Another symptom of america decaying? Is that Hurrican Hazle?

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  12/16  at  04:46 PM

  6. Thanks for the review, MZ. I was skeptical about that movie, as I am about most every major release, but I think it would be worth the time. And Alice Braga *is* stunning (niece of Sonia Braga, late of “Moon Over Parador"), but not as stunning as texting during a movie.

    With the storm (c. 16” of snow in the last 4 days) I only went out to do some quick errands on Friday… but found a widescreen DVD of “The Big Lebowski.” The Dude’s dream sequence is one of the most original and hilarious bits out there - offhand I can’t think of anything that comes close and still works.

    Posted by Zen Prole from Urth  on  12/16  at  07:18 PM

  7. Hello Expendables...from a cold NYC. For the record, today’s storm was not as bad as expected, I love Buster Keaton, and I’ve never seen The Big Lebowski. If we ever get a DVD player, I will remedy this.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  12/16  at  09:14 PM

  8. Hey, maybe I’ll get to see it in the next week sometime… But the review from the Onion worried me:
    http://www.avclub.com/content/cinema/i_am_legend
    Esp. this: While any resemblance between Matheson’s story and this adaptation is largely coincidental—the film drops all the book’s twists, its ending, and even the meaning behind the title...”

    Ouch, the ending is the whole idea! Oh well, wait and see…

    Posted by James from Hell's Kitchen  on  12/16  at  09:24 PM

  9. The Big Lebowski! I really like that movie. “The dude abides”.

    I am suprised to hear the Taviani brothers mentioned there. I love that bit in Kaos with the two guys stuck under the bell. I watched Padre Padrone at college as part of my Drama degree.

    So - to get on recent topic. I’m in China - almost no sign of Christmas anywhere and no pressure to buy.

    Let’s face it - these days we all live under relentless pressure to buy on any given normal day - adding to that with xmas is intolerable.

    Posted by Andy from Shanghai  on  12/17  at  01:11 AM

  10. Also. AV club has a feature on movies that use violence to enforce christmas.

    http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/have_a_black_and_blue_christmas

    Posted by Andy from Shanghai  on  12/17  at  01:14 AM

  11. Mickey..7..not to worry..as soon as santa klaus delivers american bombs to Turkey..he will drop off your DVD player...(<: [bombing terrorists in Norther Iraq...what a crock of crap]

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  12/17  at  10:45 AM

  12. You talkin to me?

    Mickey, beware of the DVD.
    I don’t like watching them with people who stop/start the film, indulging in all the features.
    For me, the film stops being a film at that point.

    Sometimes the closing song can absolutely nail the film going experience.
    I cannot tell you how many times I have sat in my seat, enduring the credits in their entirety, listening to a killer song.

    The End, in Apocalypse Now, and Syd’s My Way in Goodfellas are two off the top of my head.
    My all time fav is Can’t Find My Way Home at the end of the film Fandango.

    Back to your original post:
    Better to stay away from the chain theaters.

    Posted by Tommy from I live by the River  on  12/17  at  12:47 PM

  13. Tommy..12..My favorite end movie music is The Mission...it’s perfect for intensifying the sad/angry feeling after watching indigenous children being slaughtered by spanish and portugese colonists in south america.

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  12/17  at  01:03 PM

  14. Tommy is right on: avoid the chain theaters and caution about DVD habits. Discs are great for picture quality and extras, but the ‘director’s commentary’ feature never made much sense.

    And interrupting a movie in mixed company is verboten! Especially in a theater. If you want to pay $9 to have a conversation, go to Starbuck’s.

    Posted by Zen Prole from Urth  on  12/17  at  03:22 PM

  15. Here’s another perspective on ‘spirituality’...an Interview with Martin Prechtel by Derrick Jensen

    http://tinyurl.com/38wdtp

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  12/17  at  09:08 PM

  16. I have to say there are two things I believe to be true…

    The Big Lebowski is the best movie ever made and
    The Wire is the best television show ever made.

    I say these things with all of my heart.  I hardly ever do that anymore.

    Posted by JOS from OP  on  12/17  at  09:22 PM

  17. oh...and the Jets SHOULD HAVE beaten the Pats yesterday.  Don’t you hate thaT?  When something SHOULD HAVE happened?

    Posted by JOS from OP  on  12/17  at  09:23 PM

  18. JOS...yeah...just the name patriots disgusts me...of all the names for a team...they had to come up with this star spangled nonsense...maybe the jets won even if the score didn’t reflect this?

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  12/17  at  09:35 PM

  19. yeah Joe...the PATROITS, how much worse can it get than that?

    Posted by JOS from OP  on  12/17  at  09:38 PM

  20. Just think if pro football is choreographed to carry the line of the central government imprinting this us against them, red white and blue crap prevailing...?

    Bellicheck, Bush...holy horse feathers how disgusting....Nothing would surprise me…

    Posted by joe of maine from   on  12/17  at  09:46 PM

  21. I really have to see this Big Lebowski.  As I mentioned here once, I met the real man who the story was based on-- that would be Doug Dowd’s son.  Doug is an economist and friend of Howard Zinn, he moved to Italy where he continues to write-- and has some wonderful free lessons at his website-- some I sat it on:  http://www.dougdowd.org/

    I seldom go to movies-- they mostly lost their magic for me sometime back.  Maybe it is a frame of mind that I seem to be missing.  It is funny, Andy, but some of my favorite movies are Chinese tearjerkers.  One of my favorites was about a little boy who was raised by a rustic couple during the Cultural Revolution.  The little boy had an affinity for storks, and when his Shanghai parents reclaimed him and brought him back to the city, the little boy became listless.  The rural couple missed him and brought him a present of sunflower seeds.  It has been such a long time since I saw it, so I’ve forgotten many of the details. The last scene shows the little boy dancing with the giant storks when they return in migration, and his mother who is a ballerina dances on the stage in a classical dance of storks.  Some things just don’t translate, do they?  It was very moving, with beautiful nature photography, and the little boy was so endearing-- as were all the characters in the movie. It was heartbreaking to see the rustic couple go about their chores, but they thought that life would be better for the boy in the city. And the storks were wild and beautiful.  and the music was beatiful-- Mussorgsky and Chopin-type sonatas with a Chinese flavor.  I love that type of movie which somehow captures something of the ephemeral innocence of childhood, of unselfish love and about nature.  Just the type of things too many of us are too busy to appreciate in real life.

    That’s my story....  Captcha says “simple”

    Posted by Robert B. Livingston from San Francisco, California  on  12/18  at  04:24 AM

  22. Since I was a kid, I’ve loved the experience of being in a movie theater...especially the coming attractions. I go to the chains and I patronize the many indie places NYC has to offer. I sneak in some organic popcorn and have a ball...even when everyone is texting all around me.

    FYI: new post is up.

    Posted by Mickey Z. from Astoria  on  12/18  at  05:37 AM

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