The Death and Life of Ice Cream
8:57 am | Video | Watching | 0
Hope you have a hot, sticky, wonderful July 4th.
Works in progress
5:09 pm | Blog | Girly, Watching | 3
Guess what? I’m turning this site into a tumblelog. As if you haven’t noticed my gradually increasing tendency to post only Twitter updates and YouTube video.
God, this exactly the kind of meta-blogging blog post that I hate. I was ruminating on this last night at Stitch ‘n’ Bitch — why do I always think that everything I make or create has to come out perfect? I have spent so much time on this silly little narcissistic website that I almost take the joy and spontaneity out of it for myself.
Less talk, more rock. That’s what we need. Except Wordpress and I aren’t on good terms right now either. Why can’t you just do what I want you to do, inanimate object?
Point of this post is to tell you that I have been having many adventures, and I want you to hear all about them. I’ll get to them as soon as I can. Patience, my pet.
In the meantime, I’ve updated the Movies page. I’ve seen some real shitters this year.
Little yellow buzzing
2:23 pm | Video | Two Wheels, Watching | 2
I only wish I’d learned this kind of stuff in my motorcycle safety classes.
Oh, I have another video for you too, but it’s in very, very poor taste.
I *was* Angela Chase
12:18 am | Video | Girly, Watching | 1
Sorry. I just spent the past month watching every single episode.
All James Brown, all the time
9:02 pm | Video | Watching | 2
Jesus, James Brown’s widow is my new hero.
Best line: My husband would not let anybody see him not made up. I was his hairdresser, trust me. He had to be fly, okay! All the time!
(Via Dlisted)
The devil’s darning needles
11:02 pm | Blog | Watching, Writing | 0
The worst thing about working in the museum is that, when I’m not at work, the last place I want to hang out is the museum. As a result, I have not yet seen the two biggest exhibits.
When Nan Goldin was there I did manage to eat lightening-fast lunches nearly every day so that I could spend my remaining 45 minutes sitting in the velvet-dark, cold gallery, watching her disturbing slide-shows. I first heard of Goldin when she was referenced in a passing comment on MetaFilter, and since then I’ve been borderline obsessed with her work. There doesn’t seem to be anything special about it, and that might be the draw. Each photo alone is a glimpse into her strange and sad life, but look at them as a whole and you get a very vivid and complete picture of who the woman is, who her friends are and what her life has been like. After sitting through one of her slide-shows I leave convinced that I know this person, that we are friends. I get this feeling from other creators too, people who seem to have selflessly invited us into their lives, no matter how superficially, and who address us with the kind of familiarity with which one would address a sibling.
It might not surprise you to learn that two of these people are bloggers. It’s the nature of the medium.
Art and music and movies seem to have synchronistically melded into my life lately. There is a scene in CQ (which we just watched again) where Paul is talking with his French girlfriend about the film he’s trying to make. Frustrated with his own pretenses, he tells her he just wants to make something that is real and honest. Marlene turns right around and says to him, “But what if it’s boring?” Could there be a greater comment on our self-obsessed narcissistic blog-addicted generation?
Later in the movie Paul meets his father at the airport. Dad tells Paul that his grandmother used to believe dragonflies would come in the night and stitch up one’s mouth if one told lies. Dad finishes by saying “Maybe you can use it somehow. You never know when some little overheard story or image can find a place in your work.”
When my Inprint instructor Randi found out that Christopher and I met through some scootering buddies she was fascinated by the story. She said to me, you don’t think there’s anything special about that because it’s your everyday normal life, but to me that sounds like a great beginning for a story.
Which leads me to Barton Fink, another movie we just re-watched. Throughout the movie Barton is surrounded by inspiration and muses and he remains willfully ignorant of them. Thus the beginning of his self-imposed writer’s block.
Not sure where I’m going here, just a few things I’ve been thinking about lately.
Happy Easter Monday
10:59 pm | Video | Watching | 2
Museum museum
2:27 pm | Video | Watching | 0
It’s a beautiful day outside. I started the morning with a fantastic longer-than usual run down by the bayou, at which point it was already nearly 80 degrees. Came home, showered, resurrected our former long-standing Sunday tradition of riding the scooters to The Black Lab for brunch, sitting outside, morning cocktails. 
It’s a great day to be outdoors, but now I have to go to work, where, as Cortney said, I’ll be surrounded by beautiful things all day.
Tonight I’m going to a black-tie Oscar party. Day-Lewis or Bardem, either one can have me. The rest of Hollywood I could care less about. Christopher and I watched “She Gods of Shark Reef” last night. Roger Corman. He’s a guy who made the movie business fascinating. Unfortunately, “She Gods” is not one of his best, but you can watch it in it’s entirety on Google video.
I still hate the State of Louisiana
10:02 pm | Video | Watching | 2
Joyeux Mardi Gras, mes amis.
Here is a video to brighten your day — a brother/sister duo zydeco dancing in their kitchen (via Tiny Lucky Genius).
2008 Movies
January
Wake of the Red Witch, 1948 — John Wayne and tikis. Plus, a story within a story. It was actually compelling and entertaining.
The Raven, 1963 — Roger Corman for kids! Only loosely (very loosely) based on the poem.
Juno, 2007 — Here is the problem with going to see a movie everyone loves. When you don’t love it, you really wonder why. Cute and sweet and funny but not great as my expectations. And I’m super sick of ironic dialogue for the sake of being ironic. Enid in Ghost World has Juno beat by a mile.
Shag, 1989 — More Eighties than Sixties, unfortunately.
February
There Will Be Blood, 2007
She Gods of Shark Reef, 1958 — Roger Corman. The version we watched was poorly transferred. Not the best plot but the setting is beautiful. Watch the whole thing on the Internet Archive or Google video.
Psyched By The 4D Witch, 1972 — Horrible, horrible, even by B-movie standards.
March
Garden State, 2004 — Here is how I imagine the idea for this film played out: Zach Braff comes up with a series of vignettes, things he’s said to himself If I ever make a movie, I’ll have a scene in it in which this thing happens. Well, he made that movie, probably in the hopes of getting laid, and none of those vignettes fit together. And the story is lame! And the Going Home to Confront Personal Tragedy plot is so played out! And Wes Anderson did it first! And better!
The Endless Summer, 1966 — Made me miss Huahine and reminded me of my dad.
April
*Barton Fink, 1991 — I am obsessed lately with the idea that inspiration is all around us and yet the vast majority of people refuse to see or take advantage of it. Probably my favorite of the Coens’ dark movies. (My favorite of their light movies is Lebowski.)
*CQ, 2001 — Gets better every time I see it.
May
Thirteen, 2003 — Kind of without a point but also kind of sad and desperate in the teenage way that I once was too.
*My So-Called Life, the entire series — I used to live for this show. Angela Chase was the first prime-time teenage protagonist I could relate to.
Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, 2008 — Stupid, worthless and mindless. I didn’t expect much, but I expected better than this.
Last Year at Marienbad, 1961 — Beautiful and mysterious but utterly confusing.
June
*Reality Bites, 1994 — The first cinematic documentation of a Hipstuer!
Requiem for a Dream, 2000 — Nice movie to look at but it utterly annoyed me with it’s sudden devolution into worst case scenarios for every single character. Scared straight!
Factory Girl, 2006 — Sienna Miller is a horrible actress and Guy Pearce is the worst Andy Warhol I’ve ever seen committed to film.
*The Doors, 1991 — A little cheesy but so iconic I have a hard time now distinguishing between Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison and Jim Morrison as himself.
July
Shopgirl, 2005 — Still tender and sad but the film version seems to over-exaggerate some of the fringe characters and featured super-clichéd slow-mo shots of Mirabelle. I adore this book and the movie still brought me to tears.
Gonzo, 2008 — Some ridiculous dramatic re-enactments but overall a good post-mortem documentary.
Movie Trailers: Trash or Treasure — In high school I dated a boy who worked at a small movie theater. His boss had been there for more than 10 years, and over that time he had saved the trailers for all the films he’d loved. One night as a midnight screening he invited all the employees and their friends to view then trailers spliced together into a 10-year 3-hour montage of cinematic history. This film could have been as great as that but the movies chosen for “Trash or Treasure” were high on camp and low on substance. Still, I’ve added a few I hadn’t heard of to my Netflix, so there’s proof that trailers work.
Cry-Baby, 1990 — (Young) Johnny Depp, Rock-a-billy, motorcycles, Iggy Pop, Willem DaFoe, a hot-looking Tracie Lords (is there any other kind?) and John Waters. Yesss.
The Dark Knight, 2008 — Not Oscar-material exactly, but one of the better blockbuster action movies I’ve ever seen. Extremely un-hokey, and even the CGI is done well (and I hate CGI).
August
Brokeback Mountain, 2005 — Slow and subtle. I cried.
Jacob’s Ladder, 1990 — I found it very predictable and I can’t take Macaulay Culkin seriously in any role other than Home Alone.
The Wicker Man, 1973 — Bizarre horror and an accidental musical. It was wonderfully odd.
Stax/Volt Revue Live in Norway 1967, 2007 — Bought this at the Stax Museum. Awkwardly filmed but still amazingly fun to watch. Made me love Arthur Conley even more.
Tropic Thunder, 2008 — Wonderfully stupid.
*Donnie Darko, 2001 — Watched the Director’s Cut. I’ve always liked this movie but I still don’t understand it.
Gimme Shelter, 1970 — I never knew that the man who died at Altamont had pulled a gun. This movie is amazing for what it doesn’t say as much as what it does.
Goodfellas, 1990 — I can’t believe I’ve never seen this before. I now have a fiery crush on Ray Liotta.
September
*Rushmore, 1998 — Hadn’t seen this in a long time so I went to the “10-year Reunion” at Discovery Green. As always, Anderson’s films are charming, but this was sillier than I remembered it being. Max Fischer and I graduated the same year.
October
I Am Cuba, 1964 — Maybe the most visually stunning movie I have ever seen. i absolutely loved it.
The Exorcist, 1973 — October is the time for classic horror films. I had never seen this movie before and it freaked me the hell out.
*Malcolm X, 1992 — On second viewing, parts of this movie are cheesy and pedestrian, but overall the story still holds up. Denzel Washington has never appealed to me except in this role.
November
*Night of the Living Dead, 1968 — The original and still the best zombie movie. It leaves just enough unexplained to make the whole thing exceedingly creepy.
*Movies marked with asterisks have been previously watched