Blog is a Mix Tape

Movies: Lars and the Real Girl

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:08:13 -0700

Lars and The Real Girl by Nancy Oliver and Craig Gillespie (2007, MGM). Is it ironic that a film that, at its root, is about loneliness, I'd rather have watched it alone? In the midst of a half full theater, instead of being as engrossed into the striking story as I should have been, I found myself questioning the whats and whys of other people's laughter. I should have been thinking about why a small town went willingly with another man's delusion. I should have been challenging myself to consider "Bianca" under these different circumstances. And, to some extent I did but I still wanted to ask people, "Why is this scene funny?"

Was it the absurdity? Because, of course, a Real Doll is absurd. It's offensive and gross. That said, Ryan Gosling's Lars is far from absurd. He's a sweet, gentle soul who takes in the world from a very safe distance. So, theater patrons, is it his curious mental illness that is laughable? I might be able to accept that. I, however, only occasionally got the joke. Most of the time, I was just sad for Lars and his hurt and proud of the simple acts of kindness and honesty that this entire town shows him at the right moments to provide some level of therapy and healing.

But still, that fucking doll. I know we imbue objects with our own feelings and hangups and I'm trying to accept that this creepy sex toy could be anything to anybody in the right context -- something the movie showcases time and again -- but still. There are dudes paying thousands of dollars to hump an inanimate woman (with a backstory like she came from the Cabbage Patch) who won't reject them. Or talk. Or think. Or be.

You'll forgive me if I struggle with accepting her as Lars and his community does.

And yet, even though I squirmed in my seat with my brow furrowed, it is a wonderful film. The acting is spot on. We get to know these people in both their little and big moments. And, I cared.

Real Doll notwithstanding...recommended.

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last.fm says: downtempo

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 02:20:31 -0700

In this round of last.fm recommendations, there was a distinct push towards the chillout end of my musical spectrum. Well, that's not exactly true. I've never really liked the term chillout and especially not as interchangeable with downtempo. Zero 7 doesn't relax my mind and heart. They ignite it. See also Jazzanova, Koop, and the rest of my favorite European NuJazz acts, or whatever you want to call them.

Anyway, the best of the bunch in this crowd of newly found is Troublemakers:

Hum Hum

Troublemakers

I'm less sure about Fat Jon The Ample Soul Physician (who regularly shows up in my recommendations) but I do like this track a lot:

You Are

Fat Jon The Ample Soul Physician

and, finally, there's Jehro who has a wonderful voice but may, in fact, be too "chillout" for me:

Continuando

Jehro

For all my last.fm friends, what has the music site been recommending for you?

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Books: Mouse Guard - Fall 1152

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:38:19 -0700

Mouse Guard Volume 1: Fall 1152 (Mouse Guard)

David Petersen

Mouse Guard Volume 1: Fall 1152 by David Petersen (2007, Archaia Studios Press). Halfway through Special Topics in Calamity Physics, I lost interest. I was reading a line here, a paragraph there, a chapter during an ambitious afternoon and then this arrived in my PO box and saved me. I don't remember how I learned of the Mouse Guard but the lush fall colors and illustrations drew me to it. Perhaps it's nostalgia, although I shudder at the thought of being that corny and pedestrian, but it does remind me of some of my favorite elementary school reads -- an encyclopedia about Gnomes and the illustrated The Hobbit.

Much like the lush worlds of those stories and art, the Mouse Territories are not for those with weak constitutions. Terror hides in every dark corner. Friends are lost in battle. Treachery and treason infect souls. I'm not sure if David Petersen intends his Mouse Guard to be children's lit but I'm sure it will be considered as such. Taken that way, it's the kind of kid lit I like. It doesn't lie or coddle. It tells children what they need to know, not that bad things exist (they already know this) but that bad things can be dealt with (why do I feel like I'm stealing that from something I saw this week?).

Each chapter opens with words of wisdom from Mouse Guard text and guide books. I was particularly taken with this one:

"Clouds, leaves, soil, and wind all offer themselves as signals of changes in the weather. However, not all the storms of life can be predicted."

one line/one song: space is the place

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 01:15:12 -0700

The dance floor, I would argue, has always been a plane apart, a space for freedom of movement literally, and in the mind’s eye.

(via negrophile)

Space Is The Place

Spaceboys

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last week on last.fm

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 23:14:43 -0700

Top Tracks for the week ending 21 Oct 2007

1	J-Love – Return Of The Theodore Unit (f/ Ghostface, Sean Wiggs and Trife Da God)	5
1	Foals – Mathletics	5
1	Lifers Group – Short Life Of A Gangsta (Organized Konfusion Rmx)	5
1	Edwin Starr – Headline News	5
5	Laura Gibson – Hands in Pockets	4
5	D'Nell – 1st Magic Groove	4
5	DangerDoom – Mince Meat	4
5	Jaylib – The Official	4
5	DangerDoom – Crosshairs	4
5	Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek – Too Late	4

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The Dead Don't Dance

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 10:24:21 -0700

The dead don't dance. That was the root of the argument James was making as he presented his faux-Japanese proverbs to me. True enough, but, still, I wasn't going to dance.

"Live every day like it is your last," he pressed. "Won't you be upset if you don't spend your last night on Earth dancing?"

"If this was my last night on Earth. I would be dancing," I said. "But not in this place. And not with these people."

James countered, "You not dancing is like placing the sun in a box. It denies us all the warmth. It denies the trees and plants their life."

"And yet, it is still the sun."

"Don't you care about your legacy," he asked.

"I have only two concerns for when I die," I said. "That my parents don't find porn in my home and that I don't leave someone else with my messes."

It's a lie. I have other concerns and they are the most important: I want my legacy to be that I've done more good than harm. That, hopefully, I haven't consumed more than my share. That I have had a positive effect on the living things I interact with. And, while I joked last night that I run from my fears*, if I'm ever in the Defending Your Life scenario, that I'm found not to be a coward when it really counts.

With Molly's "Last Meal on Earth" post and this conversation and some larger life questions that I've been struggling with, you might think I'm a little too focused on the end times. You'd be wrong. I'm always all about the here and now. This moment.

And even if I'm not in the midst of a physical get down, I'm always attempting to maintain that spiritual shuffle ball change.

*The Fears in this instance:

Crazy white people dance moves.
That at a party featuring a white couple in ignorant Cholo/Chola costumes,I might at any moment be faced with people in black face or some other nonsense and I'd have to burn the place down.
That, in the event that the police were called to this event for a disturbance, they'd shoot the lone black man in the corner on sight which, in retrospect, maybe I should've hoped for someone attempting to be "ghetto fab" so as to be effective cover from the po-po.

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Movies Meme

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 08:30:02 -0700

Have I done this before?

AFI's top 100 movies. Bold the ones you have seen. ~~Strike out the ones you couldn't finish.~~ * the ones you have seen more than once.

1. Citizen Kane (1941)

2. Godfather, The

3. Casablanca (1942)

4. Raging Bull (1980)

5. Singin’ in the Rain (1952)

6. Gone with the Wind (1939)

7. Lawrence of Arabia (1962)

8. Schindler's List (1993)

9. Vertigo (1958)

10. Wizard of Oz, The (1939)*

11. City Lights (1931)

12. Searchers, The (1956)

13. Star Wars (1977)*

14. Psycho (1960)*

15. Sunset Blvd. (1950)

16. 2001 : A Space Odyssey (1968)

17. Graduate, The (1967)

18. General, The (1927)

19. On the Waterfront (1954)

20. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)*

21. Chinatown (1974)

22. Some Like It Hot (1959)

23. Grapes of Wrath, The (1940)

24. E.T. The Extraterrestrial (1982)*

25. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)*

26. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)*

27. High Noon (1952)

28. All About Eve (1950)

29. Double Indemnity (1944)

30. Apocalypse Now (1979)

31. Maltese Falcon, The (1941)

32. Godfather Part II, The (1974)

33. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)

34. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

35. Annie Hall (1977)

36. Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957)

37. Best Years of Our Lives, The (1946)

38. Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948)

39. Dr. Strangelove (1964)

40. Sound of Music (1965)

41. King Kong (1933)

42. Bonnie and Clyde (1967)

43. Midnight Cowboy (1969)

44. Philadelphia Story, The (1940)

45. Shane (1953)

46. It Happened One Night (1934)

47. Streetcar Named Desire, A (1951)

48. Rear Window (1954)*

49. Intolerance (1916)

50. Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)*

51. West Side Story (1961)*

52. Taxi Driver (1976)

53. Deer Hunter, The (1978)

54. M*A*S*H (1970)

55. North by Northwest (1959)

56. Jaws (1975)*

57. Rocky (1976)*

58. Gold Rush, The (1925)

59. Nashville (1975)

60. Duck Soup (1933)*

61. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)

62. American Graffiti (1973)

63. Cabaret (1972)

64. Network (1976)

65. African Queen, The (1951)

66. Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)*

67. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

68. Unforgiven (1992)

69. Tootsie (1982)*

70. Clockwork Orange, A (1971)*

71. Saving Private Ryan (1998)

72. Shawshank Redemption, The (1994)*

73. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

74. Silence of the Lambs, The (1991)*

75. In the Heat of the Night (1967)

76. Forrest Gump (1994)*

77. All the President’s Men (1976)

78. Modern Times (1936)

79. Wild Bunch, The (1969)

80. Apartment, The (1960)

81. Spartacus (1960)

82. Sunrise (1927)

83. Titanic (1997)*

84. Easy Rider (1969)

85. Night at the Opera, A (1935)

~~86. Platoon (1986)~~

87. 12 Angry Men (1957)

88. Bringing Up Baby (1938)

89. Sixth Sense, The (1999)*

90. Swing Time (1936)

91. Sophie’s Choice (1982)

92. Goodfellas (1990)*

93. French Connection, The (1971)

94. Pulp Fiction (1994)*

95. Last Picture Show, The (1971)

96. Do the Right Thing (1989)*

97. Blade Runner (1982)*

98. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942)

99. Toy Story (1995)*

100. Ben-Hur (1959)

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last.fm this week

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:42:50 -0700

Top Tracks for the week ending 14 Oct 2007

1	Gap Mangione – Boys With Toys	4
1	Little Brother – Life Of The Party	4
1	Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings – Nobody's Baby	4
1	Dilated Peoples – Spit It Clearly	4
5	Rilo Kiley – It's a Hit	3
5	Skillz – Don't Act (f/ Freeway)	3
5	Phonte – Take On Me (f/ Carlitta Durand)	3
5	Blackalicious – Dream Seasons	3
5	Osunlade – Change For Me	3
5	The Go! Team – Bottle Rocket	3
5	Apostle of Hustle – My Sword Hand's Anger	3
5	Zero 7 – Somersault (Dangermouse Remix)	3
5	James Brown – Down and Out in New York City	3
5	Dilated Peoples – World on Wheels	3
5	Incognito – Raise	3
5	Janet Jackson – Sexhibition	3
5	Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins – It Wasn't Me	3
5	Steely Dan – Through With Buzz	3
5	M.I.A. – Sunshowers (Diplo Mix)	3

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Flashback Friday: In Every Way

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 08:04:13 -0700

12 In Every Way

Reverie

It's off a new compilation but I'm sure it's a rare groove older goodie because Gilles picked it. It also perked up my morning like the percolator. Does anybody still remember how to do The Percolator?

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Grey's Anatomy: Izzie Revisited

nobody@vox.com(Jason) — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:37:10 -0700

How I gauge the quality of a show is in its ability to get me invested in the characters and the world that surrounds them. My three favorite television shows of all time - Six Feet Under, The Wire, and Homicide: Life on the Street - do this incredibly well. There are times when I've felt I might run into those characters in Pasadena or Baltimore if only I knew where to look. I have emotional responses for the characters. I root for them. I root against them. I care.

I'm not sure Grey's is of that quality, mostly because I don't believe the world they live in "exists", but by my reaction to Izzie Stephens, the characters are sure real enough. She makes me angry. Not in the "ohmygodshessofrustrating" kind of way that Meredith's stilted emotional abilities do but in the "ohmygodwhycouldn'tshehavehadthemouthsurgery" kind of way. I, at least, empathize with the other residents. Christina and Meredith and Alex and George I get even when they do their stupid shit. They understand their faults. They generally act willfully even when they are inappropriate and I see the reasons why. I don't always root for them but I get it.

Izzie, though? Ugh. Her self-righteousness is almost always wrongheaded. Her over-response to situations and issues is beyond explanation. But, as I wrote on twitter (and what prompted this post), her most damning trait is that she's disingenuous. Her "sweetness" is a lie. Her candor is bullshit. What she perceives as intimacy and what she's willing to do to maintain it is almost always ethically and morally problematic.

And...she just bugs.

A running theme in my conversations yesterday was "the people we choose to surround ourselves with." I don't cotton to people who BS or those who are prone to unwarranted histrionics. It's weak sauce and I don't have time for it. Especially when that behavior leads to shrapnel hitting others and even more so when said person seems not to care in the slightest what comes of their actions.

So, when Izzie does what she does and wraps it with baked goods and a pretty bow while kick-ass ladies like Callie and Bailey (with the Denny thing) have to deal with the blowback, well...

Rage. I'm filled with rage!

So, I guess the show is doing something right.

But, you know, we've discussed this before.

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