The Debate Over Jacket Photos

Reading Jackthunder's comments re. Jonathan Franzen below, I was reminded of a very funny piece I read a while back concerning Franzen's jacket photo on The Corrections. Those of you who have read the book will almost certainly remember this picture, in which Franzen looks, according to this article, like "a hunky TV lawyer, perhaps Harry Hamlin in his "L.A. Law" days." (Raisenette is drooling, no doubt.) Click on the post title to view that photo and another picture of the "real" Franzen.

A Precursor to "Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot II"?

So it seems that Sly Stallone is making a new Rocky movie, which I can get behind to an extent (the first Rocky movie was excellent). But a another Rambo movie?

According to imdb.com:
When Stallone originally conceived the idea around 2002, the plot involved Rambo going into Afghanistan to battle terrorists.

Why?

Kill Bill, vol.2

As I watch KBv2, I get feelings similar to that which I have about William Carlos Williams, poet who wrote "The Red Wheelbarrow."

I've always hated that poem because I felt that it was SO simple and if anyone other than a famous person wrote it, no one would give a good god damn about it. (I wrote a poem to this effect in college.)

Sometimes this is how I feel about Quentin Tarantino. If he hadn't hit it big (and in a stylish way) with "Reservoir Dogs" would we allow him to do the things that he does--the dialogue, the art-for-arts-sake camera angles, etc. I know there is such a thing as paying your dues and earning the right to make the movie you want to make, but it sure seems that famous people get away with stuff that no one else can ever get away with.

And while I'm in a critical mood . . . it has been about two years since I saw KBv1, it seems that I haven't actually waited that long to see the concluding sequel. You see, I saw the whole burying the Bride alive already, it was just presented as last year's season finale of CSI:, in which Nick Stokes (George Eads) was buried alive and the rest of the CSI: team had to find him before his air ran out. Are you surprised that this Very Special Episode was directed by none other than the auteur himself--Mr. Quentin Tarantino. (Did KBv2 not make enough money, so he had to mainstream his idea for the masses?)

Also . . . handy tip #1--if you are ever in a death fight with someone and they try that old trick of shoving your head into the toilet bowl so that you drown. Well, just keep your wits about you long enough to FLUSH the toilet, removing the water and providing the needed oxygen to keep fighting.

Handy tip #2--if the death match continues and your opponent is a) equally skilled at sword-fighting, b) only has one eye, and c) is in a close-quarters standoff with you . . . rip out her good eye (a la Dalton larynx maneuver in Roadhouse) and blind her. Easy huh?

So, okay . . . I was ready to rip Q. for KBv2, but those two elements that I mentioned above (clever) and the end scene where two female assassins are holding guns to each other while trying to decipher how to properly read a pregnancy test . . . well, you've GOT to give the man some credit for surreal creativity.

And so, I have.

More LOST clues on the internet

(NOTE: It might make more sense to you if you read the entire post BEFORE you start clicking on the links.)

Trying to escape the tedium of this afternoon's particular task, I surfed over to my nemesis' website and low and behold Mr. James Lileks has a link to something on LOST.

Naturally, I followed Mr. Lilek's instructions, visited the fictional Hanso Foundation website (introduced in the episode "Orientation"), added an "s" to the URLs http and was transported to this website (with sound!).

Faced with this oddity, I tried to translate the website's Morse Code title bar.

Discovering that the translation--if I got it right--is a Latin phrase, I went to this page to get an explanation.

So, do I know anything more now than I did ten minutes ago?

No.

(Mr. Lileks' description of his path down this internet path is similar to the one that I took, but I got a more "satisfactory" answer than he seems to have. Follow my path before you see what he has to say.)

A picture is worth a post-it note

I am trying to find new things to junk up my regular blog and so I have spent a ridiculous amount of time tonight looking around on the web, searching other blogs, trying to find a new, neat add-on or sidebar item.

In the process of searching for this, I found this interesting collection of Flickr photos that detail post-it notes that people have attached to the Netflix movies that they are returning to the mother ship.

I got nothing else to say . . .

The Ram-baby

As in "Rimbaldi baby."

But this article is not about that. It's about the evolution of the pregnant woman on television. First it was Lucille Ball and now a super-spy can easily climb from a stealth bomber to a 747, both going 800 miles per hour at 30,000 feet.

That's plausible, right?

Anyway, the funny line from this article: "Jack Bristow . . . may be able to disarm a nuclear weapon, but can he assemble an Ikea crib? . . . [F]or Jack it will be 'the first time in 20 years he's used a screwdriver for its actual intended purpose.' "

Long lost reviews

Below are two music reviews that I did a while ago during my music reviewing spat. I forgot that I had written them and never got around to posting them. So, without further ado, here they are. Enjoy.


Caesars “39 minutes of bliss”
“I wanna smoke crack, cuz you’re never coming back.” Those are the lyrics that open Caesars’ miniature opus. It is a constant stream of noise, with steady drum beats and guitar riffs from start to finish. The album, even though it is just under its advertised 39 minutes, is very full. It feels like the band only had 39 minutes of tape left and had to fill every last space of it with music. I like that. The music is a little too punk for my tastes, but I like their attitude and their effort. I’m giving it a 3. An interesting note: the song “Jerk it out” from this album was featured on many of the early iPod Shuffle commercials.

Decibully “City of Festivals”
A quiet, reflective set of sad-sounding songs. With lyrics that are full of lamentation and desire, Decibully could almost be another Ben Gibbard side project. For someone who likes such things (me) this is a great album. Some might find the songs too depressing, but they work for me. The lead singer reaches a little too much for higher notes and puts on too much of a breathy air, but the music works well to overcome this flaw. I will say that this is not a great album to listen to near the end of workday when you want to just go home, it’s too slow for that time of day. Otherwise it is enjoyable. I’ll give it a 3.5.

Finding Neverland

It's been an imaginative day. While I was getting Ariel to bed tonight, she asked me to tell her a story. Usually, she wants to be the one telling the stories . . . and sometimes how they do run on. But tonight it was my turn.

So, spur of the moment, I decided to try and tell her some of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" one of the Chronicles of Narnia. I got through the main substance of what I remember from the first chapter or so--where Edmund (whom I called Eddie) and Lucy discover the painting of the Dawn Treader and are magically transported onto the deck of the ship and begin their journey.

If we pursue the story further, I'll probably have to make up the majority of what remains--or maybe I'll read it at night and tell it to her the next day? I don't think that she is quite ready to sit still very long for C.S. Lewis' prose just yet. I tried to do that with "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" last year and I think she needs a bit more time.

Anyway, after she went down to bed I decided to watch Finding Neverland. It was very good and while it was sad at the end, it was a satisfying kind of sad. I was especially glad that I had the pleasure of watching an actual play performance of "Peter Pan" with Ariel. I think it made me appreciate the movie's depiction of the play a bit more. Previously, I had only seen the Disney animated version, and I think that you really miss something if that is all that you know. Plus, I can relate to the idea that Barrie had to bring children into the theater on opening night to win over the adults watching the play.

Watching Ariel talk to me tonight after I finished telling her my story, I wonder if she will have a rich fantasy life and love the same kinds of things that I do. Will she be very serious and practical? Will she have as strong imagination in ten years that she seems to have now? I hope so . . . having seen what she is capable of, I would hate to see it disappear at some point. I think that would make me very sad.

But, what else can I say about the movie? Depp gives a very strong performance and while I kid about him a lot, I really respect his movies. Freddie Highmore and all of the children performed well. I liked the touch of adding Dustin Hoffman into the mix of this movie, even if it did remind one of the sadness that was Hook.

I wonder if I will always associate Peter Pan with Ariel.