Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Movies- The good The bland and The overated
There will be Blood
This is the worst movie I've ever sat through since The Aviator. (please don't stone me for hating the aviator-I understand on some dim level that it looked pretty) The gripping cinema-photography and good acting can seem enough for some movie goers, but I wanted something more when I rented this film. I wanted plot. I wanted characters who existed outside of predictable parameters.
Something terrible is happening in American cinema. The younger annoying brother I never had is materializing in the form of a violence and collateral obsessed 13 year old braggart. He thinks he knows something about women, but is terrified of them, so they never appear outside of crude conversational reference. Those who love him look at his potential, which as of now seems to rest in his high cheek bones, pretentious and "retro" fashion taste, ability to use large words in complex sentences, and the emergence of a strong jaw line. In other words he's a good looking brat who can charm even the most critical adult, if they don't have to spend too much time with him.
Spoiler. I realized what was wrong when the young preacher boy leapt across the table at his father. This was brutal. It had that wouldn't it be cool quality. And if this Oscar nod is an annoying young boy, then I'm going to say the next film on my list is the tantalizing class clown.
This is the worst movie I've ever sat through since The Aviator. (please don't stone me for hating the aviator-I understand on some dim level that it looked pretty) The gripping cinema-photography and good acting can seem enough for some movie goers, but I wanted something more when I rented this film. I wanted plot. I wanted characters who existed outside of predictable parameters.
Something terrible is happening in American cinema. The younger annoying brother I never had is materializing in the form of a violence and collateral obsessed 13 year old braggart. He thinks he knows something about women, but is terrified of them, so they never appear outside of crude conversational reference. Those who love him look at his potential, which as of now seems to rest in his high cheek bones, pretentious and "retro" fashion taste, ability to use large words in complex sentences, and the emergence of a strong jaw line. In other words he's a good looking brat who can charm even the most critical adult, if they don't have to spend too much time with him.
Spoiler. I realized what was wrong when the young preacher boy leapt across the table at his father. This was brutal. It had that wouldn't it be cool quality. And if this Oscar nod is an annoying young boy, then I'm going to say the next film on my list is the tantalizing class clown.
Batman- The Dark Knight
I didn't go to this film with high expectations, so when it turned out that the hype about Heath Ledger was true, well, its hard not to be satisfied. This film is light on its treatment of Batman, but the villains have all of the menace and deliberately calculated patience touted in so-called more sophisticated films such as Blood. What's more, its actually enjoying to watch. Recent news has this film slated for re-release in January for at least the I-Max screen. For the film-makers, this is another shot at Oscars, but for audiences who didn't get their fix of summer blockbusters in a season of such gaseous air pockets as The Incredible Hulk, it's a second chance.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
San Francisco
San Francisco- Fog City?We are back from San Francisco. This is day 21 of my job hunt, and I am happy to say that I have at least one part time job, that is, I will begin paid training for a good job as soon as I get back from my next trip to the city.
This photo was taken at the De Young Museum...I'm the one hidden behind the large dancing white flower...I find myself thinking of the friends I made on the train ride to this par of California. Jackie might want an email right now, a picture, a caption, "My heart is Not broken," it would say, but I may be too early to say...By the way, L.a. is the city of angels, New York is the City of Broken Dreams- what in this world is San Francisco?
Monday, May 5, 2008
Essay for Modern Poetry
A traditionalist reading of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock holds that the poem is about meaning in a socially shallow world, middle age, and the general sense of life unfulfilled due to indecision and self-conscious concerns. This is, in a deconstruction of the poem, only one reflection of the shattered mirror of Eliot's work. The conception of this idea of Prufrock, as a shallow man, one fraught with anxiety, also allows for a distinctive mirror reading of the tone which places the narrator as a sardonic man of deep thought and deeper frustration. Beyond these questions of basic communication is also the conceptualization of Prufrock as an experience, a poem of cumulative imagery and word sounds, both narration, hesitation, and the space in between. By tracing the ever changing possible connotative meanings within this text, one stops looking at a broken glass, and more to something akin to a river of mercury, or fast moving stream; the language moves like water, providing constant reflections and refractions. Still, it is possible from a personal perspective to trace several paths for the effects of the poem. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock must also be considered in a system inclusive of other works such as The Cocktail Hour, and (Insert Poem), works which allow deeper and sometimes more definite insight to T.S. Eliot's idea and values.
Yeah, Eliot. This is what I enjoy doing in my spare time. The essay turned out better than it should have, considering what I set out to do...
A traditionalist reading of The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock holds that the poem is about meaning in a socially shallow world, middle age, and the general sense of life unfulfilled due to indecision and self-conscious concerns. This is, in a deconstruction of the poem, only one reflection of the shattered mirror of Eliot's work. The conception of this idea of Prufrock, as a shallow man, one fraught with anxiety, also allows for a distinctive mirror reading of the tone which places the narrator as a sardonic man of deep thought and deeper frustration. Beyond these questions of basic communication is also the conceptualization of Prufrock as an experience, a poem of cumulative imagery and word sounds, both narration, hesitation, and the space in between. By tracing the ever changing possible connotative meanings within this text, one stops looking at a broken glass, and more to something akin to a river of mercury, or fast moving stream; the language moves like water, providing constant reflections and refractions. Still, it is possible from a personal perspective to trace several paths for the effects of the poem. Eliot's The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock must also be considered in a system inclusive of other works such as The Cocktail Hour, and (Insert Poem), works which allow deeper and sometimes more definite insight to T.S. Eliot's idea and values.
Yeah, Eliot. This is what I enjoy doing in my spare time. The essay turned out better than it should have, considering what I set out to do...
Thursday, April 10, 2008
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