Saturday, July 05, 2008
I'm sorry--this made me laugh
As you probably know, actor Jim Carrey and "actress" Jenny McCarthy are boyfriend and girlfriend. Yesterday, they decided to celebrate the 4th (which was good of Carrey considering he's Canadian) by taking a romantic walk together on the beach in Malibu.
However--knowing they were being watched by the paparazzi, as usual, the couple decided to do a little something special to celebrate our Independence Day.
What did they do? They did this:
However--knowing they were being watched by the paparazzi, as usual, the couple decided to do a little something special to celebrate our Independence Day.
What did they do? They did this:
Friday, July 04, 2008
What the hell, maybe I should move to Hollywood...
To recap: Over the past couple of years, I have been keeping an eye out for Sex And Death 101, a movie reuniting Winona Ryder with Heathers scripter Daniel Waters, who would also be directing.
I know nothing of their relationship, but it seems to me there must be some bond forged by the fact that neither has ever topped that early collaboration, which I consider one of the more perfect movies of the past 20 years. Better they should work on something new than on the utterly unnecessary Heathers sequel they sometimes talk of drumming up.
My interest cooled somewhat when I saw Waters' directorial debut, Happy Campers, which didn't work.
And when Sex and Death 101 bypassed US theatrical release...well, I'd made my peace with the idea that the "never topping Heathers" thing was still true. But, it's Waters and Winona, and Waters had what sounded like an interesting story:
A man receives a list of the names not only of all the girls he's loved before...but all the girls he's going to love in the future.
So, when I saw it on the new releases shelf of my video store, it jumped into my hand immediately.
It is, in a word, disappointing.
Towards the end of his commentary track, the writer/director mentions Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut as "A deeply silly movie that I love," implying that Sex & Death is meant to be, at least in part, a parody of it.
Waters is right that Wide is silly, trouble is, what both movies have in common is that each thinks they're deeper than they are.
First of all, as a script it's not Waters best work. In my opinion, he starts on the wrong foot by concentrating on the wrong character: Roderick Blank, played by Simon Baker.
Roderick is the good-looking, successful man who receives the list.
The problem is Waters' script never really delves beneath the surface of his protagonist; so if that character seems unworthy of focus...you can see where the film is in for a rough go.
The needed contrast becomes apparent when Ryder enters the movie. She plays a siren nicknamed "Death Nell," infamous for seducing woman-beaters and other not-nice examples of my sex, then drugging them into a paralyzing coma. Leaving a graffiti-tag poetry couplet spray-painted on the wall.
Quick, who would you rather watch a movie about? Exactly. And it doesn't help that Baker is miscast. He's an attractive man, and in the rare moments in this film where his character is connecting with another human being, he brings his "A" game to the drama.
But based on this film (I haven't seen any of his other work), he can't play comedy. This is a problem.
Ryder can, but her role in the film is actually quite small--a few quick hits along the way, then the big climax.
For the rest of it, we're left with Rod and the women in his life.
For the most part these are (well-cast and well-played) cameos.
This (left) is actress Jessica Kiper, for example, who is also known as the model Sugar.
BTW, is it me, or is that dog the most smug looking son-of-a-bitch you've ever seen in your life?
(Click to enlarge)
Pollyanna McIntosh...that can't possibly be her real name...and Natassia Malthe, above, play a hot lesbian couple--so gay they just have to sleep with Rod as soon as they get a good look at him.
I know, but wait, there's another lesbian stereotype to come.
A couple of the women do warrant special mentions (one for good reason, one not-so-much); it is probably not insignificant that neither of them play numbers on The List.
The Facts of Life's Mindy Cohn plays Roderick's lesbian secretary and "gal pal," Trixie. The character is very much the kind of stereotype that one of my goals in writing my Girlfriend's Boyfriend play/screenplay/novel was to counter.
"The gay best friend," in no way sexually threatening; hopelessly (and inexplicably) devoted to a dude. Which (among other things) makes me wish Waters and his casting director had thought a little harder about filling the role.
You feel like a louse putting her down, but the nicest thing I can say about Cohn's performance is that she's lost none of her gift for brilliant banter.
Think about it.
Leslie Bibb
plays a girl who Roderick is horrified to find is not on the list. He wants her desperately, but she desperately wants to remain "just friends" with him.
Bibb (right) is definitely an up-and-comer (you may remember her as the Vanity Fair reporter in the slightly more successful movie Iron Man), but Waters wastes her here.
He does give her a good speech or two, though, before doing something really unpleasant to her and then topping that by threatening to do something even more so.
On the commentary track, Waters compares what he was trying to do, disdainfully, with American Pie, saying that film seemed as though it were made by people who'd never had sex.
I don't rank that film very highly either, but I immediately thought of an important distinction: It's about characters that have never had sex, and are quite literally going mad with want.
However, Waters does have a better feel for shooting nude scenes than the AP team, it must be said. For the most part the nudity here is realistically staged and non-exploitative (inasmuch as nudity in film can ever be non-exploitative, which is another topic for another post).
In scenes where you would reasonably expect a woman to be topless or naked, they are, but Waters can't really be accused of ogling them with his camera.
One possible exception was deliberately included in an attempt to distract an audience from a gratingly obvious plot point (didn't work, I saw it coming as soon as it was set up).
So: What we have here is a writer doing imperfect work for a director who doesn't have the experience yet to be able to perfect it. Unfortunately, they were one and the same man.
But as someone who wants to be a writer/director
myself, is there a lesson in Sex & Death 101 for me?
Perhaps only that even with said imperfect script, an untried director, Waters was able to attract a cast of beautiful, but also gifted, actresses to do his bidding.
What the hell...
I know nothing of their relationship, but it seems to me there must be some bond forged by the fact that neither has ever topped that early collaboration, which I consider one of the more perfect movies of the past 20 years. Better they should work on something new than on the utterly unnecessary Heathers sequel they sometimes talk of drumming up.
My interest cooled somewhat when I saw Waters' directorial debut, Happy Campers, which didn't work.
And when Sex and Death 101 bypassed US theatrical release...well, I'd made my peace with the idea that the "never topping Heathers" thing was still true. But, it's Waters and Winona, and Waters had what sounded like an interesting story:
A man receives a list of the names not only of all the girls he's loved before...but all the girls he's going to love in the future.
So, when I saw it on the new releases shelf of my video store, it jumped into my hand immediately.
It is, in a word, disappointing.
Towards the end of his commentary track, the writer/director mentions Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut as "A deeply silly movie that I love," implying that Sex & Death is meant to be, at least in part, a parody of it.
Waters is right that Wide is silly, trouble is, what both movies have in common is that each thinks they're deeper than they are.
First of all, as a script it's not Waters best work. In my opinion, he starts on the wrong foot by concentrating on the wrong character: Roderick Blank, played by Simon Baker.
Roderick is the good-looking, successful man who receives the list.
The problem is Waters' script never really delves beneath the surface of his protagonist; so if that character seems unworthy of focus...you can see where the film is in for a rough go.
The needed contrast becomes apparent when Ryder enters the movie. She plays a siren nicknamed "Death Nell," infamous for seducing woman-beaters and other not-nice examples of my sex, then drugging them into a paralyzing coma. Leaving a graffiti-tag poetry couplet spray-painted on the wall.
Quick, who would you rather watch a movie about? Exactly. And it doesn't help that Baker is miscast. He's an attractive man, and in the rare moments in this film where his character is connecting with another human being, he brings his "A" game to the drama.
But based on this film (I haven't seen any of his other work), he can't play comedy. This is a problem.
Ryder can, but her role in the film is actually quite small--a few quick hits along the way, then the big climax.
For the rest of it, we're left with Rod and the women in his life.
For the most part these are (well-cast and well-played) cameos.
This (left) is actress Jessica Kiper, for example, who is also known as the model Sugar.
BTW, is it me, or is that dog the most smug looking son-of-a-bitch you've ever seen in your life?
(Click to enlarge)
Pollyanna McIntosh...that can't possibly be her real name...and Natassia Malthe, above, play a hot lesbian couple--so gay they just have to sleep with Rod as soon as they get a good look at him.
I know, but wait, there's another lesbian stereotype to come.
A couple of the women do warrant special mentions (one for good reason, one not-so-much); it is probably not insignificant that neither of them play numbers on The List.
The Facts of Life's Mindy Cohn plays Roderick's lesbian secretary and "gal pal," Trixie. The character is very much the kind of stereotype that one of my goals in writing my Girlfriend's Boyfriend play/screenplay/novel was to counter.
"The gay best friend," in no way sexually threatening; hopelessly (and inexplicably) devoted to a dude. Which (among other things) makes me wish Waters and his casting director had thought a little harder about filling the role.
You feel like a louse putting her down, but the nicest thing I can say about Cohn's performance is that she's lost none of her gift for brilliant banter.
Think about it.
Leslie Bibb
plays a girl who Roderick is horrified to find is not on the list. He wants her desperately, but she desperately wants to remain "just friends" with him.Bibb (right) is definitely an up-and-comer (you may remember her as the Vanity Fair reporter in the slightly more successful movie Iron Man), but Waters wastes her here.
He does give her a good speech or two, though, before doing something really unpleasant to her and then topping that by threatening to do something even more so.
On the commentary track, Waters compares what he was trying to do, disdainfully, with American Pie, saying that film seemed as though it were made by people who'd never had sex.
I don't rank that film very highly either, but I immediately thought of an important distinction: It's about characters that have never had sex, and are quite literally going mad with want.
However, Waters does have a better feel for shooting nude scenes than the AP team, it must be said. For the most part the nudity here is realistically staged and non-exploitative (inasmuch as nudity in film can ever be non-exploitative, which is another topic for another post).
In scenes where you would reasonably expect a woman to be topless or naked, they are, but Waters can't really be accused of ogling them with his camera.
One possible exception was deliberately included in an attempt to distract an audience from a gratingly obvious plot point (didn't work, I saw it coming as soon as it was set up).
So: What we have here is a writer doing imperfect work for a director who doesn't have the experience yet to be able to perfect it. Unfortunately, they were one and the same man.
But as someone who wants to be a writer/director
myself, is there a lesson in Sex & Death 101 for me?Perhaps only that even with said imperfect script, an untried director, Waters was able to attract a cast of beautiful, but also gifted, actresses to do his bidding.
What the hell...
"Patriotic part." "Should we stand up?"
So you want to see cartoon versions of puppet versions of the Harry Potter characters illustrating a song from Grease 2.
I have good news for you.
(For any of you unfamiliar with the song: In the movie it's sung by a member of the T-Birds gang who is trying to trick his virgin girlfriend into thinking war has been declared so she will sleep with him before he goes off to fight. That rascal.)
I have good news for you.
(For any of you unfamiliar with the song: In the movie it's sung by a member of the T-Birds gang who is trying to trick his virgin girlfriend into thinking war has been declared so she will sleep with him before he goes off to fight. That rascal.)
(another) salute to George Carlin
From Chris Rock:
I'd kind of been waiting to see what Rock would have to say, because I remember one of his HBO specials (I think Bring the Pain, but don't quote me) beginning with a montage of covers of comedy albums that had influenced him--Cosby's To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With, for example. And Carlin's Class Clown.
One of my memories of George Carlin is of seeing him on TV at some awards ceremony--I think the Grammys, but again I'm not 100% sure. Whatever the award, they were doing that "close-ups of the nominees" thing in a category where an album of Carlin's was nominated alongside, among others, an album of Rock's.
Rock won, and--either Carlin was a better actor than he ever got a chance to show us--or else he genuinely loved seeing the younger comedian succeed, because he broke out into a big, seemingly genuine smile.
Either way, it makes it even more the shame that he's died.
He was the ultimate bulls--- detector. Comedians love an even playing field in life, which there never is. Anytime there wasn't one, he was quick to point it out. I love his bit about omelets: You kill a person, it's an abortion; you kill a chicken, it's an omelet. How did we become better than chickens? Who made this rule up?
I'd kind of been waiting to see what Rock would have to say, because I remember one of his HBO specials (I think Bring the Pain, but don't quote me) beginning with a montage of covers of comedy albums that had influenced him--Cosby's To Russell, My Brother, Whom I Slept With, for example. And Carlin's Class Clown.
One of my memories of George Carlin is of seeing him on TV at some awards ceremony--I think the Grammys, but again I'm not 100% sure. Whatever the award, they were doing that "close-ups of the nominees" thing in a category where an album of Carlin's was nominated alongside, among others, an album of Rock's.
Rock won, and--either Carlin was a better actor than he ever got a chance to show us--or else he genuinely loved seeing the younger comedian succeed, because he broke out into a big, seemingly genuine smile.
Either way, it makes it even more the shame that he's died.
That'll take the snap out of your answer
See, here's what happens. PJ questions some of the cover copy on this issue of Cosmo:
She asks:
Caustic fellow that I am, I instantly conceive of an easy joke: I'll find an image of actress Shay Astar, who played August on 3rd Rock from the Sun when she was a teenager (which she's not anymore). And post it with the comment, "Why do men cheat in August? ...Because this is August."
She asks:
why men cheat in August… Is this a new trend I’m hearing about?
Caustic fellow that I am, I instantly conceive of an easy joke: I'll find an image of actress Shay Astar, who played August on 3rd Rock from the Sun when she was a teenager (which she's not anymore). And post it with the comment, "Why do men cheat in August? ...Because this is August."
Hey, I said it was an easy joke, I didn't say it was my best.
But the thing is, while looking for a good image to use for this joke, I stumble across Astar's MySpace page. Turns out she's embarked upon a second career as a musician.
In the way of MySpace pages, there are examples of her work playing. And I kind of like it.
Like, not love--to my ears she's got a little too much of that Ann-Margret in Tommy unnecessary vibrato thing going on sometimes.
But still, like enough that it makes it harder to just use her for an easy sex joke.
(And I learn she comes from Santa Cruz, which also doesn't hurt)
And she's changed her look somewhat, too:
Just ever so slightly (but still looks good to me).
So as a kind of penance, rather than merely going for the easy joke, I'm going to send you to the MySpace page instead.
Give 'er a listen--relieve my guilt feelings...
Where does it go from here? Is it down to the lake I fear?
OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets
Point of order: The picture they claim is Marvin is not Marvin.
OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets
You will find that I am a man who enjoys his Mountain Dew.
OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets
Sad to say, I could probably survive for many more days than that.
OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets
That wouldn't be so bad if only I had a Rubik's Cube with me.
Thursday, July 03, 2008
Oh, there's always time for email on this blog, Yes there's always time for email on this blog...
(Yes there's always time for email
From a guy or girl or she male...)
D (aka TRO) sends a query through a comment. He asks:
From a guy or girl or she male...)
D (aka TRO) sends a query through a comment. He asks:
I am curious what you think of your candidate's changing positions. He was against FISA and now is on record as supporting it and now, of all things, is retracting his pledge to withdraw troops from Iraq immediately.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11517.html
I could list several more "flip-flops" he has made in the past few weeks but I am sure you are aware of his positions since you are a supporter
Anyway, this isn't baiting. I am seriously interested in how you feel about him changing his mind - especially on Iraq. I have tried to discuss this with my oldest son - a Obama guy - but he just won't even talk about it. He says I am making it up - or really that Fox News is making it up. Which concerns me because he is such a bright young man and I simply cannot see how he can ignore these indicators that Obama is just another politician.
Well, as a proud liberal I'm wary and I think I'm right to be. But I think "just another politician" is going too far. Obama's candidacy is genuinely historic, and a watershed moment for Americans of any National origin (and really, citizens of the world).
I wrote about FISA last month.
He's walking a line, to be sure. He's running a risk, and I think he knows that.
But I also think that sticking to a plan no matter what conditions on the ground are is sort of what the Republicans have been doing in Iraq for the past five years. So the idea of Obama's "refining" his own doesn't give me that sinking feeling of dread.
Especially if it's a choice between believing what he says, or what the GOP says he says.
I also have the feeling--and I don't claim to be a political fanatic, but I'm not a casual observer either-- that Obama is really serious when he talks about “a significant realignment politically in this election."
He is positioned, partly due to his own political skills, partly to the detonation of Bush's presidency, for a massive blowout victory. And I think that's what he's going for.
I may be wrong, but at this moment I think we're gonna see a lot of states going for Obama that the Republicans have never thought they needed to worry about. That's what I think Obama is trying to do.
I'm not sure it's gonna work, and I'm even less sure I think he's right to do it this way, but that's what I think he's trying to do.
As for Fox News, I decided a long time ago to respect almost nothing they report. It's one of my rules. Truth is to Fox News as bread to the makers of pretzels--and what they produce doesn't taste as good.
I consider them unfair, unbalanced (that last in more than one sense of the word), and given their most recent occurence of "acting out," really, really quite childish.
Overheard yesterday in the video store
I was in the "psychotronic" room--my video store's designated space for horror, "sci-fi," and the like; in the "sci-fi" section, looking at Star Wars DVDs. In the horror section were a young, goth-ish couple, a man and a woman, picking up and considering various titles.
When I heard this proclamation.
"Blood Orgy...hey, you wanna go look at the porn?"
I swear he didn't even pause for breath.
I, on the other hand, needed several seconds to recover.
When I heard this proclamation.
"Blood Orgy...hey, you wanna go look at the porn?"
I swear he didn't even pause for breath.
I, on the other hand, needed several seconds to recover.
strong, purposed, fierce, powerful and dedicated
The actress Kathy Najimy--who admittedly has a small role in the film--writes about Wall-E (and Eve-A).
I agree with her completely.
In essence [Eva-A] kicks ass...Flawed, powerful, dedicated to her purpose and well...the hero.
Wall-E is a great film that speaks courageously to the environment, the future of our planet, as well as depicting its lead male character as warm, funny, caring and sensitive (and into musicals)! And its lead female character as the confident, fantasticallyfierce woman in charge.
I agree with her completely.
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
Who are you?
Seriously: Do you recognize this woman? I ask because the shot caught my eye, but I didn't know who it was. So I looked it up, and imagine my surprise...
Someone up there likes me
We have here a photograph of Mary-Louise Parker, one of my favorite actresses; wearing my favorite color.
And what's that at her feet? Why, it's white apples.
Apples in my opinion are nature's most perfect food.
And for that matter, White Apples is the name of a book by one of my favorite writers, Jonathan Carroll.
This is rockin'.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
In the words of the old song...
...you gotta have heart.
The song was talking about making up a winning baseball team; I'm talking about creativity.
In these times when actresses like Angelina Jolie and Lucy Liu are billed as "starring" in animated films, there is a purity to Wall-E almost to the point of radicalism.
That's the thing about Pixar and why they're the heir apparent to Disney when Walt was alive. Yes, they can make some beautiful visuals. But though I would never belittle that accomplishment by saying that it’s easy, it’s not why they're so far ahead of the likes of DreamWorks and Marvel (who have released some good movies too, don't get me wrong).
We, as a culture, spend too much time talking (and hearing) about invention and not enough about imagination. You cannot, simply cannot, create from your head. It just doesn't work that way.
I think that's why I've found myself with so little desire to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I may be wrong, because as I say I haven't seen it, but I get an overwhelming sense of heartlessness from it. I can't think of one reason it exists except to separate a new generation of families from their cash.
Wall-E exists (and here I'm speculating, as I've not yet seen this discussed in the press) to challenge the Pixar animators, who could've just kept making Toy Story sequels...not, as they say--albeit in a different context--that there's anything wrong with that (Toy Story 2 was that rare sequel that topped the original).
The challenges were these: Could they make a movie that has almost no dialogue? Could they make it without "star" voices in the leads? Could they make it a real romance between…robots?
Other studios might have tried one or another of these things, but all three?
And damned if it doesn't work.
This is a romance. BTW, if you want to get all technical about how did the robots acquire personalities, why is one a "boy" robot and the other a "girl" robot...you have no business looking at this movie.
If you want your robot to be logical, a heartless automaton, Clone Wars is opening next month.
And don't listen to critics who want to somehow elevate the experience by claiming it's an ecological parable of some kind, or a "send-up." Nonsense. I say again: It's a romance.
Not because it is the story of a lonely robot who finds a girlfriend, although it is. The two meet when she, a probe-robot, is the first visitor to Earth in centuries. There, he, a trash-collector and compactor, is the last active robot, and very nearly the last living thing on the planet, apart from his friend the surprisingly sympathetic cockroach.
But it’s a romance because it has adventure, sparks and excitement, and yet there's a sadness to it, but also a giddiness, too and because it's all heart. It feels, in other words, very much like a first love. And that's only a send-up to those who can no longer remember.
Wall-E dares to tell most of its story without dialogue, a difficult task even if your stars are Oscar-nominated actors. But when your title character has very little of what we would usually call a face?
Still, he may not have much of a face, but one (or two) things Wall-E does have are a couple of eyes as expressive and subtle as a Chuck Jones-animated Bugs Bunny. If the eyes are the window to the soul, as the old saying goes, then Wall-E is all soul, and that soul is all nobility.
But only a toad would write about Wall-E without mentioning his romantic interest, Eve-A. I've seen one academic Feminist blogger who I can only hope (and do think) is not indicative of a wider response taking the film to task because Wall-E is the protagonist, not Eve-A.
I mean this: I don't understand what she was talking about. Eve-A is the best female film romantic lead in years. She's perceptive, powerful, and she has direction separate from her "man."
I don't think you can say that about the Sex & the City gals, for example.
I asked that above-referenced blogger if a great many of her problems with the film wouldn't have gone away if it were just titled Wall-E & Eve-A. I think there's a good case to make that it should've been.
In terms of the changes they both go through--which I've always felt is the best way to tell your protagonists--they are just about equal. In fact, Eva may change more than Wall-E over the course of the film.
A word about sentiment. Wall-E is not a good movie to go to if you think you're too big for sentiment. When I say that, I'm talking about earned sentiment that makes your soul sing, not the sticky variety that feels like it's caught between your teeth.
Sentiment that exists because you have been made to care about characters, to want them to do well, and to earn a place in each other's hearts. I can't remember the last time I've said "Oh..." so much at a movie. And again: I'm talking about robots.
But what priceless robots they are.
The song was talking about making up a winning baseball team; I'm talking about creativity.
In these times when actresses like Angelina Jolie and Lucy Liu are billed as "starring" in animated films, there is a purity to Wall-E almost to the point of radicalism.
That's the thing about Pixar and why they're the heir apparent to Disney when Walt was alive. Yes, they can make some beautiful visuals. But though I would never belittle that accomplishment by saying that it’s easy, it’s not why they're so far ahead of the likes of DreamWorks and Marvel (who have released some good movies too, don't get me wrong).
We, as a culture, spend too much time talking (and hearing) about invention and not enough about imagination. You cannot, simply cannot, create from your head. It just doesn't work that way.
I think that's why I've found myself with so little desire to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I may be wrong, because as I say I haven't seen it, but I get an overwhelming sense of heartlessness from it. I can't think of one reason it exists except to separate a new generation of families from their cash.
Wall-E exists (and here I'm speculating, as I've not yet seen this discussed in the press) to challenge the Pixar animators, who could've just kept making Toy Story sequels...not, as they say--albeit in a different context--that there's anything wrong with that (Toy Story 2 was that rare sequel that topped the original).
The challenges were these: Could they make a movie that has almost no dialogue? Could they make it without "star" voices in the leads? Could they make it a real romance between…robots?
Other studios might have tried one or another of these things, but all three?
And damned if it doesn't work.
This is a romance. BTW, if you want to get all technical about how did the robots acquire personalities, why is one a "boy" robot and the other a "girl" robot...you have no business looking at this movie.
If you want your robot to be logical, a heartless automaton, Clone Wars is opening next month.
And don't listen to critics who want to somehow elevate the experience by claiming it's an ecological parable of some kind, or a "send-up." Nonsense. I say again: It's a romance.
Not because it is the story of a lonely robot who finds a girlfriend, although it is. The two meet when she, a probe-robot, is the first visitor to Earth in centuries. There, he, a trash-collector and compactor, is the last active robot, and very nearly the last living thing on the planet, apart from his friend the surprisingly sympathetic cockroach.
But it’s a romance because it has adventure, sparks and excitement, and yet there's a sadness to it, but also a giddiness, too and because it's all heart. It feels, in other words, very much like a first love. And that's only a send-up to those who can no longer remember.
Wall-E dares to tell most of its story without dialogue, a difficult task even if your stars are Oscar-nominated actors. But when your title character has very little of what we would usually call a face?
Still, he may not have much of a face, but one (or two) things Wall-E does have are a couple of eyes as expressive and subtle as a Chuck Jones-animated Bugs Bunny. If the eyes are the window to the soul, as the old saying goes, then Wall-E is all soul, and that soul is all nobility.
But only a toad would write about Wall-E without mentioning his romantic interest, Eve-A. I've seen one academic Feminist blogger who I can only hope (and do think) is not indicative of a wider response taking the film to task because Wall-E is the protagonist, not Eve-A.
I mean this: I don't understand what she was talking about. Eve-A is the best female film romantic lead in years. She's perceptive, powerful, and she has direction separate from her "man."
I don't think you can say that about the Sex & the City gals, for example.
I asked that above-referenced blogger if a great many of her problems with the film wouldn't have gone away if it were just titled Wall-E & Eve-A. I think there's a good case to make that it should've been.
In terms of the changes they both go through--which I've always felt is the best way to tell your protagonists--they are just about equal. In fact, Eva may change more than Wall-E over the course of the film.
A word about sentiment. Wall-E is not a good movie to go to if you think you're too big for sentiment. When I say that, I'm talking about earned sentiment that makes your soul sing, not the sticky variety that feels like it's caught between your teeth.
Sentiment that exists because you have been made to care about characters, to want them to do well, and to earn a place in each other's hearts. I can't remember the last time I've said "Oh..." so much at a movie. And again: I'm talking about robots.
But what priceless robots they are.
How Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith could have been improved
Just imagine if playing Annakin Skywalker had been not Hayden Christensen...
...but Hayden Panettiere.
You know I'm right.
...but Hayden Panettiere.
You know I'm right.
Monday, June 30, 2008
I'd be willing to bet it does make the water taste better, at that
All jokes aside, I think this is a particuarly beautiful picture of Aniston, and it's not just because she's oh-so-tastefully naked.
IMG_7994
You see, the wonderful thing about the new Dildo 7994 is that it's so cunningly constructed no one need actually know you're using it, and yet...
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Oh! Oh yeah babe, oh yeah babe, oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah babe...
Ahem. The first season of Life, the best new TV show of the last year, is coming out on DVD with bonus features that made me do a dance of joy, on September 2.
My birthday? September 1.
I'm just saying is all.
This is the smokin' hot Sarah Shahi, who co-stars in the series (with Damian Lewis, who I am reliably formed by certain of my women friends is also gorgeous, but whose picture did you honestly expect I'd run?).
The second season starts in October.
My birthday? September 1.
I'm just saying is all.
This is the smokin' hot Sarah Shahi, who co-stars in the series (with Damian Lewis, who I am reliably formed by certain of my women friends is also gorgeous, but whose picture did you honestly expect I'd run?).
The second season starts in October.
That's it--I want to be a woman just so I can wear these clothes
To you girls among my vast reading audience, this may be old news, but I just stumbled across the funniest clothing label ever. I found it via the Kingdom of Style, where I've found more than one picture, and as that blog's "Queen Michelle" wrote:
Oh, and I don't know who the model is, but I totally want her too.
at first glance the label consists of sweet little girly tops featuring beautiful, delicate embroidery - until you look closely... intertwined with the fanciful birds and flowers you'll discover phrases like:
I Can Only Please One Man A Day. Today Is Not Your Day. And Tomorrow Doesn't Look Good Either.
I Hate Children
Will Fuck For Shoes
Life is Fucked Up
Oh, and I don't know who the model is, but I totally want her too.
Curvy Clown
This is another one of my random discoveries--you know, wherein I stumble across something whilst (and at the same time) looking for something else, and feel compelled to pass it on as a public service.
Now.
You know what you almost never see?
A sexy girl clown with a firecracker stuck in the cleft of her ass...
...who also plays Ukulele, has been called "An actress of great gifts" by Clive Barnes and can play the Kazoo with her, that is to say...with her...um...with her...
Aw, fuck. Ladies and Gentlemen, Amy G:
If at all possible, I'm going to marry this woman or someone as close to her as I can find.
PS: There's handfuls of other video clips of her performances to be found on YouTube, enjoy.
Now.
You know what you almost never see?
A sexy girl clown with a firecracker stuck in the cleft of her ass...
...who also plays Ukulele, has been called "An actress of great gifts" by Clive Barnes and can play the Kazoo with her, that is to say...with her...um...with her...
Aw, fuck. Ladies and Gentlemen, Amy G:
If at all possible, I'm going to marry this woman or someone as close to her as I can find.
PS: There's handfuls of other video clips of her performances to be found on YouTube, enjoy.
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Les vieilles plaisanteries sont les meilleures plaisanteries
"Coup manqué, mais vos genoux m'excusent-ils blessent-ils ? "
" Pas, pourquoi ? "
" Puisque they' massacre re je."
BTW...
"Men In Blanket Ran Javelin?"
=
"Benjamin Alan Varkentine."
Now you know, and knowing is half the--
=
"Benjamin Alan Varkentine."
Now you know, and knowing is half the--
Friday, June 27, 2008
How did such a fanciful romance as Stranger Than Fiction ever get made?
I ask that not because it isn't good--it is. But it's also literary on more than one level: It seems as though it's based on a book (tho it was an original screenplay); it's about the process of writing. It seems to have been written by someone (Zach Helm) who was acquainted with literature, and it has a sense of wordplay in the dialogue and character names.
(some of which hit me only after I'd finished watching.)
(if nothing else, I owe it for showing me, even inadvertently, how much "odd" sounds like "Awed.")
One of the thoughts that I had as I was watching Stranger Than Fiction is that if I ever do get to be the writer/director I want to be, I might be the only one who would ever want to cast Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey and Ferrell together in a "dramedy,"
or human comedy.
What these men have in common besides being star comics is this: I've had little or no interest in seeing most of the dumb-ass shitty Jerry Lewis impressions and fart jokes that have proved so lucrative for them.
To a man, I prefer them in works where they get to do some dramatic acting: Sander in Spanglish, Carrey in The Truman Show, now Ferrell here.
What I have an interest in--among other things--is high-quality performances, and in Stranger Than Fiction Ferrell delivers a choice example.
By the end I had come to care about his hero--who knew he could play a recognizably believable human?
The story is about a man, Harold Crick (Ferrell), an IRS agent who hears a voice in his head. Not a voice telling him what to do, but describing what he is already doing with a better vocabulary than he possesses himself.
He responds to this about as well as could reasonably be expected. After consulting with a couple of doctors (one played in a delightful cameo by Tom Hulce, a worthy actor too long missing from features) he seeks out a literature professor.
The professor is played by Dustin Hoffman, giving an admirably deadpan, underplayed and truly supportive performance.
Slowly they discover that the voice is that of Karen Eiffel, a reclusive novelist Hoffman admires, played by Emma Thompson (who looks much less Brigitte Bardot-ish in the film). It's the best depiction of a writer's life I've seen since Cradle Will Rock.
Harold is the central character in a novel she has been writing but unable to finish. And now (we know but they don't), her publisher has sent an assistant, Penny, to hurry her along.
This presents a problem for Harold, because the one thing the central characters of Eiffel’s novels have in common is this: All of them die at the end.
Harold, like any of us sensibly, doesn't want to be in a tragedy, he wants to be in a romance.
And he may have just found the beginnings of a love story with a woman he is meant to be auditing, played by the picturesque Maggie Gyllenhaal; named Ana, weirdly enough for me.
This part of the story has a warmth to it comparable to the late and lamented Adrienne Shelly's Waitress, and not only because like Keri Russell in that film, Gyllenhaal here is a baker.
Some might call it mushy, but only if they haven't had a really good chocolate chip
cookie with a glass of cold milk in a while.
Besides, Harold doesn't exactly sweet-talk his Betty Crocker:
Still, for most of it, I was preparing to give my review of Stranger Than Fiction as "Undeniably entertaining, but lacking a certain something in emotional engagement." You know--like They Might Be Giants' music.
But damned if it didn't sneak up on me. So really, I'm serious, how did this get made? No mutants coming alive in museums, riding around in talking, driverless cars as they try to crack an old Spartan code...how the hell did this movie get made and distributed by a major studio?
My guess? Will Ferrell. He must have used some of the juice he has from Elf, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and the successful "Frat Pack" movies.
And good on 'im (if I'm right--it could just as easily have been Marc Forster, director of Oscar bait, which sold the studio).
(some of which hit me only after I'd finished watching.)
(if nothing else, I owe it for showing me, even inadvertently, how much "odd" sounds like "Awed.")
One of the thoughts that I had as I was watching Stranger Than Fiction is that if I ever do get to be the writer/director I want to be, I might be the only one who would ever want to cast Adam Sandler, Jim Carrey and Ferrell together in a "dramedy,"
or human comedy.What these men have in common besides being star comics is this: I've had little or no interest in seeing most of the dumb-ass shitty Jerry Lewis impressions and fart jokes that have proved so lucrative for them.
To a man, I prefer them in works where they get to do some dramatic acting: Sander in Spanglish, Carrey in The Truman Show, now Ferrell here.
What I have an interest in--among other things--is high-quality performances, and in Stranger Than Fiction Ferrell delivers a choice example.
By the end I had come to care about his hero--who knew he could play a recognizably believable human?
The story is about a man, Harold Crick (Ferrell), an IRS agent who hears a voice in his head. Not a voice telling him what to do, but describing what he is already doing with a better vocabulary than he possesses himself.
He responds to this about as well as could reasonably be expected. After consulting with a couple of doctors (one played in a delightful cameo by Tom Hulce, a worthy actor too long missing from features) he seeks out a literature professor.
The professor is played by Dustin Hoffman, giving an admirably deadpan, underplayed and truly supportive performance.
Slowly they discover that the voice is that of Karen Eiffel, a reclusive novelist Hoffman admires, played by Emma Thompson (who looks much less Brigitte Bardot-ish in the film). It's the best depiction of a writer's life I've seen since Cradle Will Rock.Harold is the central character in a novel she has been writing but unable to finish. And now (we know but they don't), her publisher has sent an assistant, Penny, to hurry her along.
Penny Escher: Sitting in the rain isn't going to write a book.
Karen Eiffel: That illustrates exactly how much you know about writing books.
This presents a problem for Harold, because the one thing the central characters of Eiffel’s novels have in common is this: All of them die at the end.
Harold, like any of us sensibly, doesn't want to be in a tragedy, he wants to be in a romance.
And he may have just found the beginnings of a love story with a woman he is meant to be auditing, played by the picturesque Maggie Gyllenhaal; named Ana, weirdly enough for me.
This part of the story has a warmth to it comparable to the late and lamented Adrienne Shelly's Waitress, and not only because like Keri Russell in that film, Gyllenhaal here is a baker.
Some might call it mushy, but only if they haven't had a really good chocolate chip
cookie with a glass of cold milk in a while.Besides, Harold doesn't exactly sweet-talk his Betty Crocker:
Ana Pascal: You were staring at my tits.
Harold Crick: No, I'm sure I wasn't. And if I was, it was as a representative of the United States Government.
Still, for most of it, I was preparing to give my review of Stranger Than Fiction as "Undeniably entertaining, but lacking a certain something in emotional engagement." You know--like They Might Be Giants' music.
But damned if it didn't sneak up on me. So really, I'm serious, how did this get made? No mutants coming alive in museums, riding around in talking, driverless cars as they try to crack an old Spartan code...how the hell did this movie get made and distributed by a major studio?
My guess? Will Ferrell. He must have used some of the juice he has from Elf, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and the successful "Frat Pack" movies.
And good on 'im (if I'm right--it could just as easily have been Marc Forster, director of Oscar bait, which sold the studio).
Pixar is taking no chances in getting me to see Wall•E
As it happens, I've already made plans to take my nephew to see it next week, but then I stumbled over this promotional image:
Now that's niche marketing.
ETA: I found the image atop Eberts review of the film, which I'm not going to read in its entirety until I've seen the movie. I did glance at the first paragraph, tho, and...ohboyohboyohboy...
Now that's niche marketing.
ETA: I found the image atop Eberts review of the film, which I'm not going to read in its entirety until I've seen the movie. I did glance at the first paragraph, tho, and...ohboyohboyohboy...
Shower the people you love with love in sun showers; Rain down
There are always choices. For example, just now I had the choice between making another post about Obama and Clinton and a lot of dumb stuff that really doesn't matter (in the long view and the grand scheme). Don't believe the hype.
Or, I could post this magnificent video of James Taylor and The Dixie Chicks playing "Shower The People" together. Guess what I did.
Amazing, isn't it? I generally find Taylor too loose for my tastes, but The Dixie Chicks pump him up considerably. Not just as they would any red-blooded hetero male--those girls can sing.
Or, I could post this magnificent video of James Taylor and The Dixie Chicks playing "Shower The People" together. Guess what I did.
Amazing, isn't it? I generally find Taylor too loose for my tastes, but The Dixie Chicks pump him up considerably. Not just as they would any red-blooded hetero male--those girls can sing.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
a lengthy but well-worth reading interview with George Carlin.
It is so (worth-reading) not only because it appears to be the last in-depth interview he ever gave, but because it truly is that, in-depth. Speaking to Psychology Today, the recently deceased comedian had a chance to talk about art, and self-expression, and other topics that rarely came up when interviewers wanted to ask him about "the 7 words" again.
If I quoted every little thing he said which rang a bell for me this post would be half again as long as the interview itself. So I'm going to limit myself to just a couple, but I strongly encourage you to take a few minutes and go read the whole thing.
Interview found via Mark Evanier, who was told about it by another one of his readers, Dawna Kaufmann.
If I quoted every little thing he said which rang a bell for me this post would be half again as long as the interview itself. So I'm going to limit myself to just a couple, but I strongly encourage you to take a few minutes and go read the whole thing.
Self-expression is a hallmark of an artist, of art, to get something off one’s chest, to sing one’s song. So that element is present in all art. And comedy, although it is not one of the fine arts—it’s a vulgar art, it’s one of the people’s arts, it’s the spoken word, the writing that goes into it is an art form—it’s certainly artistry. So self-expression is the key to even standing up and saying, "Hey, listen to me." Self-expression can be based on looking at the world and making observations about it or not. Comedy can also be based on describing one’s inner self—doing anecdotes, talking about your own fears...But I don’t think these things are mutually exclusive. I think self-expression is present at all times, and whether or not you’re talking about the outside world or your responses to it depends on the moment and the subject.
The writing is what gives me the joy, especially editing myself for the page, and getting something ready to show to the editors, and then to have a first draft and get it back and work to fix it, I love reworking, I love editing, love love love revision, revision, revision, revision.
Interview found via Mark Evanier, who was told about it by another one of his readers, Dawna Kaufmann.
Oh, man.
To recap: First, I experienced an odd bout of compassion for Anne Hathaway's (allegedly) criminal ex-lover, on the grounds that if I were waking up with a goddess in the morning, I might go to extreme lengths to keep her too.
Then it turned out he'd tested positive for opiates, so I lost some of that compassion.
And now...now I don't know how the heck I feel. It seems that Raffaello Follieri will be in jail through tomorrow or longer, if his attorney can't put the bail together. Which might be tricky as his bail has been set at $21 million.
Follieri suffered an attack of anxiety or sinus infection, or both, depending on which published account you read (or whether you think the sinus infection was trumped up to explain the opiates) after his bail hearing Tuesday.
Oh--why is his being in jail through tomorrow signifigant?
Because tomorrow is his birthday.
Remind me never to complain about mine again.
Then it turned out he'd tested positive for opiates, so I lost some of that compassion.
And now...now I don't know how the heck I feel. It seems that Raffaello Follieri will be in jail through tomorrow or longer, if his attorney can't put the bail together. Which might be tricky as his bail has been set at $21 million.
According to press, Follieri has been spending his days in a seven-and-a-half by eight foot two man cell that includes a bunk bed, toilet, desk, sink, and a very small window.
Follieri suffered an attack of anxiety or sinus infection, or both, depending on which published account you read (or whether you think the sinus infection was trumped up to explain the opiates) after his bail hearing Tuesday.
Oh--why is his being in jail through tomorrow signifigant?
Because tomorrow is his birthday.
Remind me never to complain about mine again.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
At this point, Karl Rove is just asking to be stepped on
Consider this fascinating exchange between Bill O’Reilly and Karl Rove on Fox News last night:
O’Reilly, referencing an NYT article published over the weekend, said that the Times had “outed a CIA agent,” which “obviously puts the CIA agent in danger.” Rove accused the paper of maintaining a “double standard. It is deeply concerned when Richard Armitage outed Valerie Plame. Of course, they were only concerned until the point that it became apparent that it was Richard Armitage, not Karl Rove.”
This goes beyond irony. This is hypocrisy. This is childish acting out because in your heart you know you're a liar and need to be spanked.
But to take the longer view: Consider what Karl Rove has done, not only to his country, but (specifically) to his party and his president (little if any of which has been good). Why does anybody still pay any attention to that man?
Say what you will about the boomers--and I have said and will say plenty--but they knew what to do when their leaders were exposed as crooks. You throw the rascals out, and you don't invite them back to your parties anymore.
For this generation, there seems to be no wrong you can do that'll make you lose your standing--unless, of course, it's oral sex.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
But wait, there's more.
You know that bout of compassion I had this afternoon for Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend, now under arrest? I may be getting over it. Turns out Raffaello Follieri, whom a
...not only defrauded people out of millions (allegedy), but...
So. Y'know, one tries to see things from the other fella's point of view. One tries to cling to the belief that in this country, everyone's innocent until proven guilty.
But I'm sorry, anyone who has had hot Hathaway love and still feels the need to put opiates into his system...clearly something is very, very wrong here.
(Of course, it could be that he turned to heroin--or whatever the opiate in question might be--only after she kicked him out. Which would be more understandable, if not excusable.)
judge placed...under home detention with an electronic monitoring device
...not only defrauded people out of millions (allegedy), but...
The prosecutor also said Follieri tested positive for opiates from a urine sample earlier Tuesday morning
So. Y'know, one tries to see things from the other fella's point of view. One tries to cling to the belief that in this country, everyone's innocent until proven guilty.
But I'm sorry, anyone who has had hot Hathaway love and still feels the need to put opiates into his system...clearly something is very, very wrong here.
(Of course, it could be that he turned to heroin--or whatever the opiate in question might be--only after she kicked him out. Which would be more understandable, if not excusable.)
Elizabeth Edwards is awesome
Edwards addressed an Internet conference in New York today by video hookup from her home in North Carolina.
Anyone else think that the Edwards' are starting to seem like the Clintons, only without the enchanting lies, guilt, inability to know when they're beaten, paranoia and generally sad spectacle?
I hope Obama puts both of them to work, even if he doesn't ask John to be the VP.
He was too hip for the room
George Carlin again, this time from the pages of a Playboy interview in 2005.
Excerpts:
Excerpts:
I'm Irish Catholic, so there's inhibition there. I didn't take the Catholic part very seriously as a kid, but you can't shake the Irish part too easily. And you know, Irish foreplay is "Brace yourself, Bridget."
...you get these people now who say, "I'm not religious. I'm spiritual." Fine. But religion in this country has become a complete distortion and exploitation of the spiritual urge.
PLAYBOY: How do you classify your vitriol?
CARLIN: It's dissatisfaction and disappointment. I'm disappointed that my culture let me down. I feel betrayed by the people in this country. They're dumb. They're just fucking stupid.
Well!
Say, remember a little over a year ago when I wrote about the Attack of the Killer Lesbian, Seething Sapphic septet?
The wheels of justice grind slowly, more slowly than they should, but they grind.
A state appeals court yesterday overturned the gang-assault convictions of two members of an alleged lesbian she-wolf pack that beat and slashed an insult-spewing straight man in Greenwich Village.
The wheels of justice grind slowly, more slowly than they should, but they grind.
Holy cow
Damn me and my compassionate impulses--they keep getting in the way of my fully enjoying seeing people getting the ass-kicking they so richly deserve. First it was how absolutely creamed John McCain is getting come election day. I still think he's going, and want him to, lose, but does it have to be as humiliating as I'm pretty sure it's gonna be?
And now...Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend has been arrested for wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy; he could go to jail for life. So...given my already expressed opinion that this guy was bad news, why don't I feel better about this? I dunno.
It certainly shouldn't be that I feel sorry for him, no matter whose ex he is, guilty or not. Never feel sorry for anyone who makes more than a million a year. It's just a good rule of thumb.
Maybe I think if the guy already has been expelled from paradise, do we really need to kick him when he's down?
Maybe it's because whatever I may think of him in my envious, green-eyed way, they were together four years, so I want to believe she really cared for him. Whether he deserved it or not. This has to be difficult for her and I'm a fan, I don't want things to be difficult for her.
Or maybe it's just that I can't help thinking how ironic the events of this week must be for my Reason Enough to Believe in God. Her film a champion at the box office, her ex-boyfriend a known criminal. (Allegedly).
Maybe it's just because reportedly he used the money he's alleged to have scammed from his investors in order to keep Ms. Hathaway in the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed.
To be fair, let's admit that more stable souls than his, mine or yours might well go wobbly from awakening at sunrise pressed up against the alabaster nude skin of a dream made flesh.
And now...Anne Hathaway's ex-boyfriend has been arrested for wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy; he could go to jail for life. So...given my already expressed opinion that this guy was bad news, why don't I feel better about this? I dunno.
It certainly shouldn't be that I feel sorry for him, no matter whose ex he is, guilty or not. Never feel sorry for anyone who makes more than a million a year. It's just a good rule of thumb.
Maybe I think if the guy already has been expelled from paradise, do we really need to kick him when he's down?
Maybe it's because whatever I may think of him in my envious, green-eyed way, they were together four years, so I want to believe she really cared for him. Whether he deserved it or not. This has to be difficult for her and I'm a fan, I don't want things to be difficult for her.
Or maybe it's just that I can't help thinking how ironic the events of this week must be for my Reason Enough to Believe in God. Her film a champion at the box office, her ex-boyfriend a known criminal. (Allegedly).
Maybe it's just because reportedly he used the money he's alleged to have scammed from his investors in order to keep Ms. Hathaway in the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed.
To be fair, let's admit that more stable souls than his, mine or yours might well go wobbly from awakening at sunrise pressed up against the alabaster nude skin of a dream made flesh.
Monday, June 23, 2008
"And damn it, that's my job!"
As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement's biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a "fruitcake interpretation" of the Constitution.
(George Carlin, I miss you already)
I wasn't that happy with Obama a couple of days ago (see "...neither Andrew Shepherd nor Jed Bartlet is running in this election," below). So I'd like to thank Spongedob Scarepants here for reminding me how Obama makes religious conservatives absolutely crazed.
"Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?" Dobson said.
Woof! That's some sentence structure, Dob.
Gee, he was just here a minute ago...(One more, EDITED WITH ADDITION)
EW.com has put together a nice photo-piece of George Carlin's career milestones.
ETA: And on Yahoo, they're featuring Carlin's feelings on how he would like his obituary to sound.
ETA: And on Yahoo, they're featuring Carlin's feelings on how he would like his obituary to sound.
Want me baby
This is interesting. Someone screennamed "nico92stronger" has taken Madonna's version of the Marvin Gaye song I Want You (recorded with Massive Attack) and cut it to the "legendary" video for Justify My Love.
I put that in quotes because I've always felt the MTV banning, VHS release, "moral outrage;" her ABC-Nightline appearance and ooh-homosexual imagery! was just Madonna's way of making some quick cash.
I suppose you can't knock it for working, though also I never thought the record was much good.
I Want You, on the other hand, I think is evidence for my strongly-held belief that Madonna is a much better interpretive artist than a creative one. Most of her own songwriting attempts sound kind of half-assed to me, especially when she got out of the groove and starting trying to offer Serious Advice.
But given good writers, like Gaye and his collaborators, or Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, or Stephen Sondheim, or Steinberg & Kelly, she can put over a lot of emotion. The "mash-up" of this song with these images is surprisingly effective.
I put that in quotes because I've always felt the MTV banning, VHS release, "moral outrage;" her ABC-Nightline appearance and ooh-homosexual imagery! was just Madonna's way of making some quick cash.
I suppose you can't knock it for working, though also I never thought the record was much good.
I Want You, on the other hand, I think is evidence for my strongly-held belief that Madonna is a much better interpretive artist than a creative one. Most of her own songwriting attempts sound kind of half-assed to me, especially when she got out of the groove and starting trying to offer Serious Advice.
But given good writers, like Gaye and his collaborators, or Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, or Stephen Sondheim, or Steinberg & Kelly, she can put over a lot of emotion. The "mash-up" of this song with these images is surprisingly effective.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
America's fastest rising young foole
Award-winning comedian George Carlin dies
--quote from The International Herald-Tribune
This is the kind of news that truly...well, I'm not joking or exaggerating, when I clicked onto the Yahoo! main page just now and saw it as the featured story, there was a sharp intake of breath from me.
I would've said "Oh my god," but given his rather negative feelings about religion it doesn't seem a fitting tribute. So I'll do my best with what I have.
This may be a little scattershot, but I want to get it down while the news is still fresh.
I'm a George Carlin fan from way back. Better to remember the immortal Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television:
I look at that list, written in the early 1970's (when Carlin was once arrested for using them onstage), and I realize that in 2008 there's only four left you can't say, and then you can't only on non-cable, network television.
He was also fired in Vegas, as he once put it, "for saying shit...in a town where the big game is called 'craps."
On an HBO special paying tribute to Carlin's then 40-years in comedy (he made it to 50), host Jon Stewart, then a few years away from taking over The Daily Show, said something about Carlin that I have always remembered (of course, I have the show on tape and have watched it many times, which helps).
He said that for comedians, Carlin was "Part of our holy trinity: Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor...George Carlin. The rest of us are just congregation."
Of course, Carlin had made spoof newscasts ("A man attempting to walk around the world...drowned today.") part of his live show before The Daily Show or Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update."
Speaking of SNL, I haven't started reading the obits yet (as I write this), but I'll betcha every single one of them mentions he was the show's first host ever.
Paul Provenza on the commentary track to the Aristocrats DVD said that Carlin was one of the very few comedians he likes to listen to talk about the technique of comedy.
(Here's the trailer for that film)
Stewart also spoke with Carlin in that same tribute about the older comedian's love of language, so obvious in his work. I think of a routine which I don't know is as famous as some of his others, but to me it was a great example of the comedian as truth teller.
In it, he showed how we misuse language to bleach the humanity out of it, using the changing terms we've used to describe the same condition from war to war for an example, slowly morphing "SHELL-SHOCK" into "post-traumatic-stress-disorder."
There were other ways in which he showed up the inconsistencies (not to say absurdities) in the way we speak, act, and indeed live. For instance he once questioned the illegality of prostitution thus:
Not for nothing was it announced last week that he would receive the Mark Twain Prize, it's an honor he deserves at least as much as anyone who's ever won it. I just wish they'd done it last year, so he wouldn't have to get it posthumously, but I shall try not to be bitter...unless I can get a good joke out of it.
But for all his skill with language, it should not be forgotten that he also had a neat line in funny faces, observe:
You've already seen examples of the first two, here's some of the best of the third, in ten minutes from a 1991 (IIRC) special.
Here's the next 10 minutes of that special, as George moves from the big things that divide us to the little things we have in common. Or do I mean the little things that divide us, and the big things we have in common?
But besides his full routines, one of the reasons I was such a big fan and could still enjoy my tape of his specials even after I knew all the jokes, was all the flips he would put in just to "start a new paragraph," almost as an aside: "But let me ask you this, my interesting Judeo-Christian friends..."
Among the many reasons this is such shocking news is that I've been waiting years for a book to be written about Carlin. It's unquestionable that there will be one, probably more than one, but I'd hoped he'd live to tell his own story in his own way. At least now whoever takes up the task will have an ending.
Then there was Carlin the actor, I think at his best in the films of Kevin Smith, who clearly worshipped the comedian and wrote for his voice. His small role in Smith's Dogma is one of the most memorable in what is, itself, increasingly beginning to seem like the writer-director's best film. And in Jersey Girl (which isn't) Carlin's performance is one of the best, if not the best, things in the movie.
And as a good '80s man, I have to mention how awesome he was as Rufus in the Bill & Ted movies, especially the first one (IIRC, he'd been sick just before the second, which accounts for his limited participation).
I am so happy I got to see Carlin live. This would have been in Cupertino, California, around 1989, with Faith, my girlfriend of the time. I wish I could say I remembered some great routine that he'd done that night and which I later saw on one of his HBO specials, but the truth is I don't. But I was there, and I saw him.
Here he is about 16 years before that.
Another memory: On the last track of Carlin's Occupation: Foole ("I understand your son is a foole, Mrs. Carlin.") album, there's a great moment when, while in performance, he is given a note telling him that his previous album has won the Grammy for comedy.
Getting back to that tribute special again (I told you--I know it real well) in it Carlin describes his feelings about his fame as like being in, and part of, a big, collective family--a family he never had growing up, he added. People would approach him, he said, and say things like "Georgie! I saw you back in '89, and you remember what you said..." "Did I? Oh yeah..." Finishing up by saying "I guess I'm in the family, man., I guess it's okay."
from the outset there were indications of an anti-establishment edge to his comedy. Initially, it surfaced in the witty patter of a host of offbeat characters like the wacky sportscaster Biff Barf and the hippy-dippy weatherman Al Sleet.
--quote from The International Herald-Tribune
This is the kind of news that truly...well, I'm not joking or exaggerating, when I clicked onto the Yahoo! main page just now and saw it as the featured story, there was a sharp intake of breath from me.
I would've said "Oh my god," but given his rather negative feelings about religion it doesn't seem a fitting tribute. So I'll do my best with what I have.
This may be a little scattershot, but I want to get it down while the news is still fresh.
I'm a George Carlin fan from way back. Better to remember the immortal Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television:
I look at that list, written in the early 1970's (when Carlin was once arrested for using them onstage), and I realize that in 2008 there's only four left you can't say, and then you can't only on non-cable, network television.
He was also fired in Vegas, as he once put it, "for saying shit...in a town where the big game is called 'craps."
On an HBO special paying tribute to Carlin's then 40-years in comedy (he made it to 50), host Jon Stewart, then a few years away from taking over The Daily Show, said something about Carlin that I have always remembered (of course, I have the show on tape and have watched it many times, which helps).
He said that for comedians, Carlin was "Part of our holy trinity: Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor...George Carlin. The rest of us are just congregation."
Of course, Carlin had made spoof newscasts ("A man attempting to walk around the world...drowned today.") part of his live show before The Daily Show or Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update."
Speaking of SNL, I haven't started reading the obits yet (as I write this), but I'll betcha every single one of them mentions he was the show's first host ever.
Paul Provenza on the commentary track to the Aristocrats DVD said that Carlin was one of the very few comedians he likes to listen to talk about the technique of comedy.
(Here's the trailer for that film)
Stewart also spoke with Carlin in that same tribute about the older comedian's love of language, so obvious in his work. I think of a routine which I don't know is as famous as some of his others, but to me it was a great example of the comedian as truth teller.
In it, he showed how we misuse language to bleach the humanity out of it, using the changing terms we've used to describe the same condition from war to war for an example, slowly morphing "SHELL-SHOCK" into "post-traumatic-stress-disorder."
There were other ways in which he showed up the inconsistencies (not to say absurdities) in the way we speak, act, and indeed live. For instance he once questioned the illegality of prostitution thus:
Not for nothing was it announced last week that he would receive the Mark Twain Prize, it's an honor he deserves at least as much as anyone who's ever won it. I just wish they'd done it last year, so he wouldn't have to get it posthumously, but I shall try not to be bitter...unless I can get a good joke out of it.
But for all his skill with language, it should not be forgotten that he also had a neat line in funny faces, observe:
"There are three ingredients in my comedy," he said in a 1991 interview with the Los Angeles Times. "Those three things which wax and wane in importance are English language and wordplay; secondly, mundane, everyday observational comedy -- dogs, cats and all that stuff; and thirdly, sociopolitical attitude comedy."
You've already seen examples of the first two, here's some of the best of the third, in ten minutes from a 1991 (IIRC) special.
Here's the next 10 minutes of that special, as George moves from the big things that divide us to the little things we have in common. Or do I mean the little things that divide us, and the big things we have in common?
But besides his full routines, one of the reasons I was such a big fan and could still enjoy my tape of his specials even after I knew all the jokes, was all the flips he would put in just to "start a new paragraph," almost as an aside: "But let me ask you this, my interesting Judeo-Christian friends..."
Among the many reasons this is such shocking news is that I've been waiting years for a book to be written about Carlin. It's unquestionable that there will be one, probably more than one, but I'd hoped he'd live to tell his own story in his own way. At least now whoever takes up the task will have an ending.
Then there was Carlin the actor, I think at his best in the films of Kevin Smith, who clearly worshipped the comedian and wrote for his voice. His small role in Smith's Dogma is one of the most memorable in what is, itself, increasingly beginning to seem like the writer-director's best film. And in Jersey Girl (which isn't) Carlin's performance is one of the best, if not the best, things in the movie.
And as a good '80s man, I have to mention how awesome he was as Rufus in the Bill & Ted movies, especially the first one (IIRC, he'd been sick just before the second, which accounts for his limited participation).
I am so happy I got to see Carlin live. This would have been in Cupertino, California, around 1989, with Faith, my girlfriend of the time. I wish I could say I remembered some great routine that he'd done that night and which I later saw on one of his HBO specials, but the truth is I don't. But I was there, and I saw him.
Here he is about 16 years before that.
Another memory: On the last track of Carlin's Occupation: Foole ("I understand your son is a foole, Mrs. Carlin.") album, there's a great moment when, while in performance, he is given a note telling him that his previous album has won the Grammy for comedy.
Getting back to that tribute special again (I told you--I know it real well) in it Carlin describes his feelings about his fame as like being in, and part of, a big, collective family--a family he never had growing up, he added. People would approach him, he said, and say things like "Georgie! I saw you back in '89, and you remember what you said..." "Did I? Oh yeah..." Finishing up by saying "I guess I'm in the family, man., I guess it's okay."
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