One of my favorite childhood authors is Diana Wynne Jones. For many books you loved as a kid, when you go back to read them as an adult, you realize that the story isn’t as clever as you had thought at the time and that all sorts of subtle indoctrination are present everywhere (I’m talking to you, Philip Pullman and C. S. Lewis). However, Jones has the uncanny skill of remaining intriguing, despite the clear angle for children.
But I get ahead of myself. Jones is famous for writing the Chrestomanci series, Howl’s Moving Castle (and the sequels), the Derkholm books, as well as other assorted novels, my favorites being Archer’s Goon and the Homeward Bounders. Without fail, Jones has different but sympathetically flawed characters that emphasize a certain moral quality, or philosophical standpoint without preaching or trying to be deceptive. She clearly teaches tolerance for others who are different while maintaining firm morality. Most of her ideas are completely different from others of the same genre, and are amusing both to children and adults. If you enjoy simple seeming stories with complex solutions, than I encourage you/your children to pick up a Jones novel.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Yoko Kanno
Yoko Kanno originates from Japan and is well known to those familiar with anime as the composer for the justly popular series Cowboy Bebop. Yoko Kanno and her band the Seatbelts (because they jam so hard) have composed countless songs of every genre. Usually ‘every genre’ means country AND western, or at worst, crappy imitations of classic songs, but this does not. Kanno is one of the few, perhaps the only one, who can perform creative songs in opera, bebop jazz, blues, and many other styles, all uniquely hers. She also is the main pianist for the group, and it has been speculated that she is, secretly, one of her featured singers.
Aside from her fabulous composing skills, she also is a talented linguist. She is fluent in Japanese (duh), English, French, and Russian. Not only is she fluent in all these languages, she writes songs in these languages. She has a particularly special ability to select words in the various languages to form an emotive language that sounds beautiful and can be translated from these various languages.
There are so many different songs I want to recommend listening to, so I will try to limit myself. I would listen to Voices, Rain, Tank!, Inner Universe, Blue, and Green Bird. It is very rare to find someone this talented who is not pretentious or money grabbing, but this artist truly deserves you money.
Aside from her fabulous composing skills, she also is a talented linguist. She is fluent in Japanese (duh), English, French, and Russian. Not only is she fluent in all these languages, she writes songs in these languages. She has a particularly special ability to select words in the various languages to form an emotive language that sounds beautiful and can be translated from these various languages.
There are so many different songs I want to recommend listening to, so I will try to limit myself. I would listen to Voices, Rain, Tank!, Inner Universe, Blue, and Green Bird. It is very rare to find someone this talented who is not pretentious or money grabbing, but this artist truly deserves you money.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Watchmen (Bonus!)
Because I suck at life, I was unable to post last Friday. Excuse 1, I needed to sleep due to the Watchmen primere the night before, Excuse 2, I wanted to watch Dollhouse, and Excuse 3, do not question your God.
Most of you are familiar with the new Watchmen movie, but I'm going to choose to ignore this film until a later date and instead focus on the original comic book. The graphic novel is gritty and realistic in such a way that you forget that the pretense is a little silly, you forget that none of this is real, and you are completely sucked into the implications of the text. The novel (and it is a novel) is entirely about how the phrase "Life is meaningless" actually affects humanity. If life is meaningless, than how should we behave? Watchmen is a character study about how different standpoints on life all ultimately lead the reader to the conclusion that if life is meaningless, than nothing matters, right and wrong are purposeless, and we only exist because of some freak chance beyond our control.
Camus' "The Stranger" personified existentialism, but Watchmen realizes what this means for humanity. If we, actual humans, truly believed as Meursault believed, then the actions of the Watchmn would be the terrifying results. I urge you, I implore you, read the comic book. Even if you don't like comics, you will like the depth and emotional resonance in this one.
Most of you are familiar with the new Watchmen movie, but I'm going to choose to ignore this film until a later date and instead focus on the original comic book. The graphic novel is gritty and realistic in such a way that you forget that the pretense is a little silly, you forget that none of this is real, and you are completely sucked into the implications of the text. The novel (and it is a novel) is entirely about how the phrase "Life is meaningless" actually affects humanity. If life is meaningless, than how should we behave? Watchmen is a character study about how different standpoints on life all ultimately lead the reader to the conclusion that if life is meaningless, than nothing matters, right and wrong are purposeless, and we only exist because of some freak chance beyond our control.
Camus' "The Stranger" personified existentialism, but Watchmen realizes what this means for humanity. If we, actual humans, truly believed as Meursault believed, then the actions of the Watchmn would be the terrifying results. I urge you, I implore you, read the comic book. Even if you don't like comics, you will like the depth and emotional resonance in this one.
Monday, March 09, 2009
Matchstick Men
This is a 2003 movie that really is not worth your time. “Why?” one might wonder. Two simple words: Nicolas Cage.
That’s right. ANOTHER Nicolas Cage movie. If you are vainly trying to remember this movie, don’t bother trying. Like all Cage movies, they are indistinguishable from one another except for what kind of ugly Cage is looking. It is utterly beyond me as to why Cage not only gets cast (the first mistake), but gets paid ridiculous sums of money. Now, when a genuinely good actor gets paid exurbanite amounts, I shut my yap like everyone else who paid money to see the movie, but when a poor, unattractive, generally irritating actor gets cast again, and again for the same role in different movies, it gets my goat. You might be wondering what the phrase “gets my goat” means and I have to admit, I have no idea.
Aside form the complete lack of any skill in this punitive actor, the rest of the cast is made of good actors who get into their characters in a believable fashion. However, since Cage is a soul-sucking maniac, his shallow performance takes the life out of every scene. One might suggest that the writers are the real criminals in this waste of your life, but that person would be wrong. The writing is decent, and the plot is intriguing enough. There are simply some ‘actors’ who are so terrible, everything they touch turns into an artistic travesty, despite high box office sales. Once again, if I, the supreme and mighty one, ruled this world, this nonsense would go unseen. However, since lesser minds are in control…
You don't need to hear a plot summary to know that you should not watch this movie. Do the right thing son. Stay away.
That’s right. ANOTHER Nicolas Cage movie. If you are vainly trying to remember this movie, don’t bother trying. Like all Cage movies, they are indistinguishable from one another except for what kind of ugly Cage is looking. It is utterly beyond me as to why Cage not only gets cast (the first mistake), but gets paid ridiculous sums of money. Now, when a genuinely good actor gets paid exurbanite amounts, I shut my yap like everyone else who paid money to see the movie, but when a poor, unattractive, generally irritating actor gets cast again, and again for the same role in different movies, it gets my goat. You might be wondering what the phrase “gets my goat” means and I have to admit, I have no idea.
Aside form the complete lack of any skill in this punitive actor, the rest of the cast is made of good actors who get into their characters in a believable fashion. However, since Cage is a soul-sucking maniac, his shallow performance takes the life out of every scene. One might suggest that the writers are the real criminals in this waste of your life, but that person would be wrong. The writing is decent, and the plot is intriguing enough. There are simply some ‘actors’ who are so terrible, everything they touch turns into an artistic travesty, despite high box office sales. Once again, if I, the supreme and mighty one, ruled this world, this nonsense would go unseen. However, since lesser minds are in control…
You don't need to hear a plot summary to know that you should not watch this movie. Do the right thing son. Stay away.
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Regina Spektor
An unusual singer/songwriter (I hate that phrase), Regina Spektor is a Jewish girl from Soviet Russia, who immigrated to New York at a young age. However, she retains aspects of an odd Jewish/Russian accent that colors all of the lyrics in her songs, and the way she expresses herself. Well known for her odd vocal inflections and tonal sounds, Regina is deserving of the fame she is starting to achieve. Spektor has deep meaning in her piano driven music that is not about the typical topics most songwriters select (love, sex, money, beatin’ yo’ hoe). Or, if she does choose to speak on a common topic, she addresses it from a different perspective than most other people due to her unique upbringing. There are no stereotypical words to describe her style, other than beautiful.
Furthermore, Spektor uses intellectual stories for her music. There are many references to Biblical/Jewish history, as well as literary figures, such as Shakespeare, Sophocles, and Fitzgerald. This adds depth that most popular artist miserable fail to achieve. Spektor avoids the irritating idea that a chorus should be the same word repeated twenty hundred times (see every song Britney Spears has ever performed), and deviants from the standard pattern that most music on the radio has. For that, I appreciate her greatly.
Her albums are 11:11, Soviet Kitsch, and Begin to Hope. For those of you wondering, Kitsch means an inferior form of art, and 11:11 refers to a superstition that a wish will come true of you see the clock read 11:11. Some singles to sample if you like Spektor or not are Fidelity, Carbon Monoxide, Edit, and Samson.
Furthermore, Spektor uses intellectual stories for her music. There are many references to Biblical/Jewish history, as well as literary figures, such as Shakespeare, Sophocles, and Fitzgerald. This adds depth that most popular artist miserable fail to achieve. Spektor avoids the irritating idea that a chorus should be the same word repeated twenty hundred times (see every song Britney Spears has ever performed), and deviants from the standard pattern that most music on the radio has. For that, I appreciate her greatly.
Her albums are 11:11, Soviet Kitsch, and Begin to Hope. For those of you wondering, Kitsch means an inferior form of art, and 11:11 refers to a superstition that a wish will come true of you see the clock read 11:11. Some singles to sample if you like Spektor or not are Fidelity, Carbon Monoxide, Edit, and Samson.
Monday, March 02, 2009
Following
For those of you who are familiar with director Christopher Nolan (The Prestige, Memento, Batman Begins), you probably have never heard of this film. This is a low budget ($6,000!) film made by Nolan and his friends in England on weekends for a year. Told in a typical Nolan non-linear storyline, the movie is about a young unemployed writer who takes to following strangers to get ideas for a book. However, one of the men he is following notices this, and he entices the young man to join him when he robs an apartment. The man identifies himself as Cobb, and while they are in the apartment, Cobb shows that he isn’t so much concerned with stealing as seeing who a person really is, and destroying their personal items. The young man begins to emulate everything about Cobb (his appearance, mannerisms, etc.), and starts a relationship with a woman whose apartment he once broke into. When the young man finds out that her gangster boyfriend is blackmailing her, he makes a series of bad decisions that bring all the fragments of the story together.
Extremely well acted and edited, it’s difficult to remember that a major company did not produce this. The sequencing of the scenes is reminiscent of Nolan’s next movie, Memento, but more understandable from the start of the movie. There seems to be a growing trend among directors to edit their movies in a non-linear fashion (Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Gus Van Sant), which, because I’m nerdy, I think points towards postmodern trends. Nothing can be known for certain until the end of the movie, and even then the content is usually subject to the viewer's impressions. It’s the film neo-noir, where it’s all subject to your own interpretation. You can choose to believe whatever you want.
Since I doubt you’ll be able to find it at Blockbuster, I recommend getting this movie from NetFlix. It’s a short movie, but full of psychological insights that are common to other Nolan movies. Also, support independent movies! It’s through small movies that good directors and actors can be found.
Extremely well acted and edited, it’s difficult to remember that a major company did not produce this. The sequencing of the scenes is reminiscent of Nolan’s next movie, Memento, but more understandable from the start of the movie. There seems to be a growing trend among directors to edit their movies in a non-linear fashion (Quentin Tarantino, Richard Linklater, Gus Van Sant), which, because I’m nerdy, I think points towards postmodern trends. Nothing can be known for certain until the end of the movie, and even then the content is usually subject to the viewer's impressions. It’s the film neo-noir, where it’s all subject to your own interpretation. You can choose to believe whatever you want.
Since I doubt you’ll be able to find it at Blockbuster, I recommend getting this movie from NetFlix. It’s a short movie, but full of psychological insights that are common to other Nolan movies. Also, support independent movies! It’s through small movies that good directors and actors can be found.
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