Saw Titicut Folllies in Chris C's class. I didn't much care for it, it was awful. We also saw Noam Toran's Desire Management, which was pretty good as a provocative piece on how products can be presented in movies. We also saw Object for Lonely Men, that he made while at the RCA. I think I saw it when I was visiting Ian... The best part is the creativity of the piece. I also remember his Accessories for Lonely Menk on remembering a significant other through the traces of their presence. It was definitely a terrific bunch of product designs.
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We saw the new James bond movie, Casino Royale . It was totally awesome. Bond (played by Daniel Craig) was such a brash but charming character, his acting was very enjoyable. The new intro used mathematical functions (sine waves and fractals-I'm such a nerd), reminds me of Ian Gouldstone's Corollary animation . Jim really liked Night Watch , but I didn't go. Maybe I'll have to watch it soon, although it sounds scary. Clerks II at LSC, was gross but fun. Some unbelievable scenes. I want the hours of my life back from watching Beerfest . Ofcourse, we also did see Borat , which was fun, but less mindless. It was educational, NOT!
Recently saw The Departed with V. It was very good, and the acting was superb. I really thought Marky Mark was a great character, full of fun and hijinx. Nicholson was a superb bad guy, as always. Matt Damon was great at playing the double cross, and so was Leonardo. Great timing and screenplay, I was riveted. The film was set in Boston, so there were many backdrops I could relate to. Boston is beautiful! highly recommended.
Last weekend we saw Thank you for Smoking at LSC. I think the guy had a lot of common sense in the way he approached what he did. Sure, we all have jobs we might not like, and we all find ways to justify why we work for them. I recently read some excerpts from Wisnioski's "Engineers and the Intellectual Crisis of Technology" and thought it melded perfectly with what the hero does in the movie. After enough inner dissent, we begin to question why we should apply technology and who benefits. Then we can put things into perspective in relation to how societies should function. The LSC classic was Some Like it Hot , which coincided with Buro's birthday. It was a terrific movie, and I enjoyed the acting. Its just funny and serious at the same time, and even in black & white, the action is intense. I liked all the intrigue between the four main characters, and even the bad guys looked great. Oh Sugar! The way they all walk in the movie is great, btw. Makes me want ...
Saw Fearless with Virginia and Rich. It was a wonderful movie, and makes me appreciate martial arts even better. The hero's transformation was very moving, and the fighting scenes were spectacular. It is worth it to try and watch it again sometime. Recently saw Brick with 1W at LSC . It was a good movie. We spent some time afterwards to discuss what actually happened, and I decided that it was an interesting movie, but they were definitely not High School STudents. The whole school plot was a random as a backdrop. It was a melancholy movie, and as they go, it was alright but a little slow. Had to pop in B13 to watch David Belle do Parkour, get the blood pumping again. Also saw bits of the 7 Samurai .
For class, we recently did a study of shopping as it has become more mechanized. We went to Haymarket and compared the wonderful experience to Shopping at Shaws. It was somewhat of a surprise how positive the shopping experience at Haymarket was, compared to shopping at Shaws. At Haymarket, the vendors were very friendly, while at Shaws, they were merely functional. It is interesting that the separation of job functions, and optimization of efficiency in the shopping process has also resulted in shopping being more task oriented in finding and aggregating, vs. negotiation and persuasion. Check out my songs on the haymarket and shaws experience.
B13 was awesome!!!! I could watch the guys move all day! Whoo hoo! Makes me want to hang a rope outside my window. The guys really knew how to go through windows and land on their feet. In class this week, we saw Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times , some stuff from Edward Muybridge , the visual-music ballets of Oskar Fischinger , and the bizarre militaristic synchronicity of Busby Berkeley and Ethel Merlman. Many from the Prelinger Archives , particular a movie on the great US census involving 2 traveling bums, and a documentary about the work done by housewives (by Jam Handy's Easy Does It ). Woof!
Saw V for vendetta at LSC with the hall. It was pretty awesome. Talk about the best hack ever. Also, in Chris C's class, we saw Stanley Milgram's Obedience video fromYale university. It was easy to understand that responsibility and ethics are things that need to be taught to people. Many people do not have the capacity to question authority nor take full responsibility for their own actions. Think of all the people who are just happy to work, and don't want to rock the boat because they think that a higher authority knows best, even when they are told to harm other people. Interestingly enough, V for Vendetta refers to the Milgram experiments, comparing V's ordeal with those of the Milgram participants.
Saw Real women have curves with the hall. It was good, the plot was interesting and the only thing I wanted was the movie to be a little longer to the point where she helps out her family because of her education. Or maybe a post-synopsis of her getting along with her past eventually. We also just saw 12 Monkeys again. Superb acting by both Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis. Brad Pitt- wow! HOw does he do that cross-eyed thing?
Saw y tu mama tambien and also some of pulp fiction. It's hard to believe that the same actor in "Y Tu Mama" was also in "El Crimen de Padre Amaro". Beautiful acting in both. I really had a turn in my attitude to the character Padre AMaro-- he was a good guy and by the end, he was a bad guy and I hated him in the end. Good writing, I guess, and it was a good contrast to Y Tu Mama. Y Tu Mama was a trip and a half.
Maid in Manhattan was okay. It had lots of boring bits, but I thought the kid was cute. Also saw El Crimen del padre Amaro with the stickmen. It was pretty cool watching with them, since it made the sad movie a lot better. We were supposed to watch Y TU Mama Tambien, but that dvd was all scratched up. Next time!
For Two-fer-Tuesday at Hollywood video this week, we rented Howl's moving castle . It was awesome, I have to watch it again sometime. The story was awesome, and the characters were so bold and noble. I also enjoyed the scenery, many nice touches in the water and fire elements. This was just awesome in everyway. I have liked all the movies by Miyazaki so far, but this one was very romantic and exciting. Howl was very cool, and the storyline about the man who'd eaten a star was tied up *perfectly*! Wow! The plot had me going, and I didn't want the adventure to end. The characters were addictive (Calcifer, Turnip Head, Marco, Howl, even the Witch of the Waste). You can tell that things were going to get exciting and funny. Howl saying "I don't want to live if I can't be pretty" was hilarious... and throwing a tantrum! Yay! I wish I could throw tantrums that awesome! :) :) :) This is a MUST see! Unfortunately, can't say I enjoyed Tristan & Isolde as ...
Crash was good. I think it reflected American society in general. Particularly in cities where we have to drive everywhere, there is more classism because people who drive seem to be disjointed from other people. they don't see each other face to face and they don't exchange pleasantries because they're always surrounded by metal and glass (cars and buildings). There's no level playing field where people from different backgrounds really interact with each other-- they don't have to deal with each other, they don't learn about other cultures, and there you get more racism and stereotypes. Its really too bad that our car-loving society drives us to alienation and estrangement from each other. Everyone's too "busy" and too "mobile" to actually be there with each other and spend quality time. Ari says, "is this one of those movies where these suspicious coincidences happen all the time"... yes it is, ari, yes it is....
Pirates of the Carribean, Curse of the Black Pearl was awesome the 2nd time. As always, I always liked Johnny Depp's pirate character, Captain Jack Sparrow, and his funny mad way o' looking at things. Reminds me of Cap'n Kennit from the Live Ship Series by Robin Hood. Orly was okay, as usual, but I think the tops was the plot with all the crazy pirate-ghosts running around. Everyone loves a scare from dem pirates!!! Arrrrggghhh! All the main characters were strong and noble, and I really liked the ending. I'm shivering me timbers for Captain Jack Sparrow, savvy!
Mission Impossible 3 was pretty good. The action was good, but the characters and plot was a little formulaic. I think the problem with Tom Cruise is that he's such a big star, that I couldn't think of him as Ethan Hunt during the whole movie. The other characters in the movie were pretty nameless and faceless, but I think it was cause of Cruise dominating the entire movie script, and most of the action. I did like the "cool tech" they showed. Most notable was the face-mask 3D machining and then the automatic speech generation tech. Wooow. Other than that, I wish that I cared more about the characters because not once during the movie did I ever really believe they weren't acting... Still, it was a good way to spend an afternoon with V & R!
This weekend we saw Syriana and MirrorMask . Both movies were great. Thanks to Indy for telling me more about Syriana. I have to admit I was a little confused by what really happened in the end, well not really, but the exact order of things, and Indy set it straight. I think Indy's going to get the book so that he can tell us what the real story is about, but it sounds interesting. Sounds like Oil is messy. Mirrormask was a real trip. I loved it. The imagination is a wonderful thing. All the beautiful creations of the mind, the fish, the friends, the masks, the giants orbiting, the sphynx... all a bit edgy and wonderful. I wonder who teaches imagination, and whether there are any real ways we can teach people to dream. It was wonderful, and I bet this is a movie that Yams would love. On a related note, Olivier "Twist" Gondry was on campus this weekend. So I remembered that Yams loved the work, and we downloaded the "Around the World Daft Punk Video" so Indy co...