After a month of no posts (I was sick, had a play, had work), I know I should have something more meaningful than a link to a trailer for the new Die Hard movie and I actually did until I saw this. I'm very happy that at least one eighties action star looks like he can still be cool. Good ol' Bruce Willis. Unfortunately, Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone failed to do remain awesome in action movies. Do we really need another Indiana Jones movie with Harrison Ford*? Do we really need another Rambo movie? Did we need the first Rambo movie? I believe the answer to be no. Judging by the trailer, it looks like we do need another Die Hard movie.
I'll try to post something meaningful and intellectual tomorrow.
*What we really need is a new Indiana Jones movie with Nathan Fillion.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Sunday, March 11, 2007
80's Cartoons
Certifiable proof that the eighties rocked. Thirty minutes of 80's cartoon openings. Those thirty minutes gave me so much nostalgia. I have distinct memories of watching about half of those cartoons and more hazy memories about another quarter. There were a few great ones that they didn't have (Alvin and the Chipmunks), but it was pretty comprehensive. There were also a few horrible ones on there. I managed to avoid the Zelda cartoons as a little kid and watched one relatively recently. It made me want to destroy my brain. Ugh. No decade is without it's flaws, I suppose. Anyways, watch that link if you grew up on eighties cartoons like I did and want to kill thirty minutes.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
"Vaginal rejuvenation" and "revirgination"
According to the Washington Post, "laser vaginal rejuvenation" is a relatively new and unstudied cosmetic surgical procedure that is gaining popularity. The three main reasons for these procedures are "to enhance sexual gratification by repairing tissue damaged by childbirth, to give women a 'youthful aesthetic look' or to make those who are not appear to be virgins." While I think that the first reason listed is a perfectly good reason - after all, if you're having sex you ought to be enjoying it - I think the second two are absolutely repugnant.
The only people who need their genitals to have a "youthful aesthetic look" are porn stars. In any other case it is simply cosmetics taken too far. While I find them distasteful, having breast implants or other forms of cosmetic surgery can be used to attracted a partner. But a woman doesn't need a "youthful" looking vagina to attract a potential partner because by the time the potential partner can see her genitals he's moved well past the stage of "potential."
I don't have many comments on the use of vaginal rejuvenation surgery to "make those who are not appear to be virgins." I've never understood societies (creepy) interest in having men deflower virgins. Revirgination, as it is called, is a short procedure that basically puts the hymen back in place. The WP paraphrases a N.J. gynecologist: "the "revirginization" operation has become increasingly popular as a gift for men." I'm sorry, but this just frightens me. I'm not going to even get into how this surgery doesn't actually "restore" virginity.
While the revirgination is a physically harmless procedure, the laser vaginal rejuvenation surgery has not been studied in any detail. Nobody knows what the long term effects are, how often it actually works, how often it doesn't etc. As a general rule of thumb, anything with the word "surgery" in it should be studied carefully before it is available to the general public. The fact that many women are subjecting themselves to a potentially dangerous treatment for the sake of their physical appearance is worrisome.
I'm not calling for a ban on these surgeries, just more detailed studies. I also think that people as a whole need to stop encouraging this sort of thing. Frankly I find it disgusting that some women are so insecure that they have cosmetic genital surgery and that their husbands are in support of this. People focus far too much on their physical appearances and the amount of time and money that is wasted on these surgeries is further proof of that.
The only people who need their genitals to have a "youthful aesthetic look" are porn stars. In any other case it is simply cosmetics taken too far. While I find them distasteful, having breast implants or other forms of cosmetic surgery can be used to attracted a partner. But a woman doesn't need a "youthful" looking vagina to attract a potential partner because by the time the potential partner can see her genitals he's moved well past the stage of "potential."
I don't have many comments on the use of vaginal rejuvenation surgery to "make those who are not appear to be virgins." I've never understood societies (creepy) interest in having men deflower virgins. Revirgination, as it is called, is a short procedure that basically puts the hymen back in place. The WP paraphrases a N.J. gynecologist: "the "revirginization" operation has become increasingly popular as a gift for men." I'm sorry, but this just frightens me. I'm not going to even get into how this surgery doesn't actually "restore" virginity.
While the revirgination is a physically harmless procedure, the laser vaginal rejuvenation surgery has not been studied in any detail. Nobody knows what the long term effects are, how often it actually works, how often it doesn't etc. As a general rule of thumb, anything with the word "surgery" in it should be studied carefully before it is available to the general public. The fact that many women are subjecting themselves to a potentially dangerous treatment for the sake of their physical appearance is worrisome.
I'm not calling for a ban on these surgeries, just more detailed studies. I also think that people as a whole need to stop encouraging this sort of thing. Frankly I find it disgusting that some women are so insecure that they have cosmetic genital surgery and that their husbands are in support of this. People focus far too much on their physical appearances and the amount of time and money that is wasted on these surgeries is further proof of that.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Night Watch
Last night I turned the TV on to watch Lost but it was mysteriously in Spanish. After failing to turn the show into English I gave up and decided to watch this odd looking Russian fantasy/thriller movie called Night Watch. Apparently this movie was the first Russian movie to get more than 2 million dollars domestically, so I figured it would have to be at least decent.
I put the movie in and after spending about ten minutes trying to get it out of the bad English voice-overs (what is up with my TV and languages? yeesh) I started watching it. It begins pretty badly with some exposition about the forces of light and darkness meeting on a bridge and battling and nobody can win so there's a truce blah blah blah. It looks corny so far. Then we fast forward closer to the present and start getting into the plot.
The plot of the movie is pretty basic. The forces of light and the forces of dark monitor each other by having the good guys police the night and the baddies policing the day. Our hero Anton is drawn into this when the good Night Watch stops a witch from performing some sort of magical abortion on Anton's wife (somehow this would get his wife back to him). Anton's magical powers awake after some stylish scuffling (including some weird doll-spider thing coming to life and someone transforming into a tiger) and we fast forward again into the present where Anton is now a vampire.
To say any more would spoil the plot as well as reveal that I really didn't follow it. This movie shouldn't be watched for the plot, it should be watched for the setting and style. It turns out that post-soviet Russia mixes really well with the dark modern fantasy setting. The mood that the setting conveys is the second-best part of the movie.
The best part of the movie is the stylish scenes. This movie was shot with barely over a 4 million dollar budget, but I really couldn't tell. We've got CGI effects of people appearing and disappearing onscreen, we've got people morphing into animals, we've got cars flipping over through the air and plenty of other cool bits. I can't really describe how cool some of the scenes are, especially the ones where the good guys enter "The Gloom," a sort of alternate reality place that didn't make much sense to me.
The final thing to note about this movie is the subtitles. I don't know why this hasn't been done before, but Night Watch uses subtitles incredibly well. When one character yells, the subtitles are big and come right out of his mouth. When another character is half-dead and struggling to get the words out, the subtitles are small and flicker. Thankfully this effect isn't overused; if anything it is underused.
In the end, you're only going to like Night Watch if you enjoy modern fantasy movies and if you don't mind getting lost in a convoluted plot. If you do like modern-fantasy stuff, this movie is going to be easy for you to enjoy. Personally, I thought it was great but it definitely isn't for everyone.
I put the movie in and after spending about ten minutes trying to get it out of the bad English voice-overs (what is up with my TV and languages? yeesh) I started watching it. It begins pretty badly with some exposition about the forces of light and darkness meeting on a bridge and battling and nobody can win so there's a truce blah blah blah. It looks corny so far. Then we fast forward closer to the present and start getting into the plot.
The plot of the movie is pretty basic. The forces of light and the forces of dark monitor each other by having the good guys police the night and the baddies policing the day. Our hero Anton is drawn into this when the good Night Watch stops a witch from performing some sort of magical abortion on Anton's wife (somehow this would get his wife back to him). Anton's magical powers awake after some stylish scuffling (including some weird doll-spider thing coming to life and someone transforming into a tiger) and we fast forward again into the present where Anton is now a vampire.
To say any more would spoil the plot as well as reveal that I really didn't follow it. This movie shouldn't be watched for the plot, it should be watched for the setting and style. It turns out that post-soviet Russia mixes really well with the dark modern fantasy setting. The mood that the setting conveys is the second-best part of the movie.
The best part of the movie is the stylish scenes. This movie was shot with barely over a 4 million dollar budget, but I really couldn't tell. We've got CGI effects of people appearing and disappearing onscreen, we've got people morphing into animals, we've got cars flipping over through the air and plenty of other cool bits. I can't really describe how cool some of the scenes are, especially the ones where the good guys enter "The Gloom," a sort of alternate reality place that didn't make much sense to me.
The final thing to note about this movie is the subtitles. I don't know why this hasn't been done before, but Night Watch uses subtitles incredibly well. When one character yells, the subtitles are big and come right out of his mouth. When another character is half-dead and struggling to get the words out, the subtitles are small and flicker. Thankfully this effect isn't overused; if anything it is underused.
In the end, you're only going to like Night Watch if you enjoy modern fantasy movies and if you don't mind getting lost in a convoluted plot. If you do like modern-fantasy stuff, this movie is going to be easy for you to enjoy. Personally, I thought it was great but it definitely isn't for everyone.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Favorite albums!
Because lists disguise the fact that I barely update this thing. Or at least not enough for my liking.
1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
A rumination on life, death, the afterlife, God, Anne Frank, love, alienation and who knows what else. This is my favorite album. As a whole it sounds like nothing I've ever heard while each individual piece sounds familiar (except the zanzithophone and singing saw, those were both new to me). There's your standard guitar, bass and drums and added onto that are an assortment of horns, organs, and the afformentioned singing saw and zanzithophone. All of it sounds pretty bad the first time you hear it, especially Jeff Mangum's singing. The lyrics are incomprehensible on first glance as well. If you do what I do and stick with it, hopefully you'll grow to love this as much as I have.
2. The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse
Yet another rumination on life, death, the afterlife and God. This one stops at Anne Frank, though, and goes onto dehumanization and solitude. Isaac Brock's voice takes some getting used to, but it really carries across the desperation he tries to convey. My favorite part of Modest Mouse is their thematic dichotomy (I love that word): trailer trash and poetic musings. They break down when the trailer trash aspects take full force, but thankfully that doesn't happen here.
3. Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros
A third musing on life, de- forget it. I've got no clue what this Icelandic band is singing about, but man is the singing good. These are really slow moving, ethereal sounding songs that, again, take a while to get used to. Sparse drums, simplistic basslines, cool piano and a guitar played with a cello bow, plus a string quartet and an awesome male falsetto.
4. Kid A - Radiohead
Paranoia reigns supreme with Radiohead! Also, good experimental rock music. These dudes are the innovators of rock. There's one truly ambient piece here, but the rest are mostly electronic/rock songs. They're the most accessible so far on this list.
5. Picaresque - The Decemberists
In order... a song about a child monarch, a double suicide by star-crossed lovers, the tragic death of a barrowboy, a song about a second-rate sports player, a love story about a secret agent and a government bureaucrat, a song about an old person waiting for a letter from their long lost love, an anti-war song, one about a novelist, child prostitutes, vengeful sailors in a whales belly and finally a plain old poetic song. All with big and archaic words and folk-rock instruments. Seriously good stuff if you're into that sort of thing.
6. The Runners Four - Deerhoof
Deerhoof! The best Deerhoof! An hour of it! They rock, rock and rock. Their drummer is awesome, their guitarists are awesome, even their high pitched Japanese singer is awesome (especially now that she can sing well)! Either you'll love Deerhoof or hate them.
7. If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle and Sebastian
Bluesy, folksy, rocksy songs. Sexuality, religion and love are covered here. The coolest thing about these songs is that they cover specific characters who are vividly drawn within a few minutes. "Judy and the Dream of Horses" is a definite favorite.
8. F# A# (infinity) - Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Pretentious, long songs that start slow, get fast, climax and then dissolve into ethereal sounding sounds, with rants and monologues put in for good measure. There are three songs on here, but that's still a good hour on the CD. A really good piece of music, if you ask me, but I wouldn't recommend it to most people.
9. The Lemon of Pink - The Books
I bought this on the title alone and I'm really glad I got it. The Lemon of Pink takes acoustic guitars, cello and "foundsound" which is basically voices from movies, TV, video games and wherever else they dug it up and mashes it together into really easy to like songs. As strange as it sounds, this is the kind of music I can relax to.
10. The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place - Explosions in the Sky
Guitar, guitar, bass and drums, all instrumental. More slow build ups to big climaxes. Instrumental music is tough for me to describe, it seems. They follow a pretty set pattern of the intro, build up, climax and rest but they do it so damn well!
So, that's the list of music I like! I think my descriptions petered out at the end. Ah well.
1. In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel
A rumination on life, death, the afterlife, God, Anne Frank, love, alienation and who knows what else. This is my favorite album. As a whole it sounds like nothing I've ever heard while each individual piece sounds familiar (except the zanzithophone and singing saw, those were both new to me). There's your standard guitar, bass and drums and added onto that are an assortment of horns, organs, and the afformentioned singing saw and zanzithophone. All of it sounds pretty bad the first time you hear it, especially Jeff Mangum's singing. The lyrics are incomprehensible on first glance as well. If you do what I do and stick with it, hopefully you'll grow to love this as much as I have.
2. The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse
Yet another rumination on life, death, the afterlife and God. This one stops at Anne Frank, though, and goes onto dehumanization and solitude. Isaac Brock's voice takes some getting used to, but it really carries across the desperation he tries to convey. My favorite part of Modest Mouse is their thematic dichotomy (I love that word): trailer trash and poetic musings. They break down when the trailer trash aspects take full force, but thankfully that doesn't happen here.
3. Agaetis Byrjun - Sigur Ros
A third musing on life, de- forget it. I've got no clue what this Icelandic band is singing about, but man is the singing good. These are really slow moving, ethereal sounding songs that, again, take a while to get used to. Sparse drums, simplistic basslines, cool piano and a guitar played with a cello bow, plus a string quartet and an awesome male falsetto.
4. Kid A - Radiohead
Paranoia reigns supreme with Radiohead! Also, good experimental rock music. These dudes are the innovators of rock. There's one truly ambient piece here, but the rest are mostly electronic/rock songs. They're the most accessible so far on this list.
5. Picaresque - The Decemberists
In order... a song about a child monarch, a double suicide by star-crossed lovers, the tragic death of a barrowboy, a song about a second-rate sports player, a love story about a secret agent and a government bureaucrat, a song about an old person waiting for a letter from their long lost love, an anti-war song, one about a novelist, child prostitutes, vengeful sailors in a whales belly and finally a plain old poetic song. All with big and archaic words and folk-rock instruments. Seriously good stuff if you're into that sort of thing.
6. The Runners Four - Deerhoof
Deerhoof! The best Deerhoof! An hour of it! They rock, rock and rock. Their drummer is awesome, their guitarists are awesome, even their high pitched Japanese singer is awesome (especially now that she can sing well)! Either you'll love Deerhoof or hate them.
7. If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle and Sebastian
Bluesy, folksy, rocksy songs. Sexuality, religion and love are covered here. The coolest thing about these songs is that they cover specific characters who are vividly drawn within a few minutes. "Judy and the Dream of Horses" is a definite favorite.
8. F# A# (infinity) - Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Pretentious, long songs that start slow, get fast, climax and then dissolve into ethereal sounding sounds, with rants and monologues put in for good measure. There are three songs on here, but that's still a good hour on the CD. A really good piece of music, if you ask me, but I wouldn't recommend it to most people.
9. The Lemon of Pink - The Books
I bought this on the title alone and I'm really glad I got it. The Lemon of Pink takes acoustic guitars, cello and "foundsound" which is basically voices from movies, TV, video games and wherever else they dug it up and mashes it together into really easy to like songs. As strange as it sounds, this is the kind of music I can relax to.
10. The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place - Explosions in the Sky
Guitar, guitar, bass and drums, all instrumental. More slow build ups to big climaxes. Instrumental music is tough for me to describe, it seems. They follow a pretty set pattern of the intro, build up, climax and rest but they do it so damn well!
So, that's the list of music I like! I think my descriptions petered out at the end. Ah well.
Music and catharsis
Today was a long, miserable day. I get home and the first thing I do is put a CD on, turn the volume up and lie in bed. Forty five minutes, I'm feeling a thousand times better and ready to continue with life. Why? How does a piece of music cause me to feel rejuvenated? For that matter, why do I have such a strong emotional attachment to this album? There doesn't seem to be any rational basis for these things. Frankly, I don't have any good theories on this.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Book review!
As terrible as it sounds, I just finished reading my first book this year. I've got to start finding more time to read.
Review time: "Only Revolutions" by Mark Z. Danielewski is a novel written in free-verse. The story is about two teenagers named Haley and Sam who are perpetually sixteen years old. The novel consists of two monologues, one by Haley and one by Sam, about their seriously deranged road trip across the United States. The book is a love story between Haley and Sam, a metaphor on the decline of the American Dream. The main theme comes across in the different ways that Haley and Sam view the same events. When they are confronted by The Creep, one of the two antagonists in the book, Haley sees Sam fighting him off while she cowers in the corner while Sam sees the exact opposite. This continues right up until the tragic end, even when it is physically impossible for the two characters to see opposite things happen. There is a lot of figurative language and wordplay in this book and whether or not you should read it largely depends on how much you enjoy figuring out just what the heck is going on. Personally, I enjoyed the poetic language, but I know it isn't for everyone. Overall, this is one of the best books I've read. It has strong themes, good pacing, good character development and a plot that still manages to come through despite the fact that you get conflicting information from both monologues.
Review time: "Only Revolutions" by Mark Z. Danielewski is a novel written in free-verse. The story is about two teenagers named Haley and Sam who are perpetually sixteen years old. The novel consists of two monologues, one by Haley and one by Sam, about their seriously deranged road trip across the United States. The book is a love story between Haley and Sam, a metaphor on the decline of the American Dream. The main theme comes across in the different ways that Haley and Sam view the same events. When they are confronted by The Creep, one of the two antagonists in the book, Haley sees Sam fighting him off while she cowers in the corner while Sam sees the exact opposite. This continues right up until the tragic end, even when it is physically impossible for the two characters to see opposite things happen. There is a lot of figurative language and wordplay in this book and whether or not you should read it largely depends on how much you enjoy figuring out just what the heck is going on. Personally, I enjoyed the poetic language, but I know it isn't for everyone. Overall, this is one of the best books I've read. It has strong themes, good pacing, good character development and a plot that still manages to come through despite the fact that you get conflicting information from both monologues.
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