August 28th, 2009 § 0
I don’t even know what to think about this. But I couldn’t help but point it out. If only they were as on top of telling me to avoid roads that are closed due to the BarBQue festival this weekend as they are on top of finding out where women are parading around in bikinis, I might actually find their content worth reading.
Good grief.
August 24th, 2009 § 0
There are these days that I get euphoria. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s something like depression – everything in life just combines in the right combinations to push my personality over the top. Rather than being down and lethargic and reclusive – symptoms of depression – I become boisterous, energetic, and super-confident. I feel like I could take over the world, in a benevolent and all-loving sort of way.
Today I’m filled with dreams of being a freelancer. Don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely happy with my job; other potential jobs do not tempt me and you’d be hard pressed to get an actual word of complaint out of me about work. But this isn’t where I’m going to be forever. There is a time and a place for everything. And one day, I’ll get my skillsets in order, I’ll get my online presence in order, and I’ll know that it’s now or never, and I’ll take the leap to start out on my own. And today I’m just thinking about how that’ll be. It’ll be good, I hope.
But I’m also thinking about all the dreams Freya and I share together. Dreams of vacation coming up soon – a weekend hiding out in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains where we’ll spend our time painting and writing and soaking in a hot tub drinking champagne. Dreams of adventure in the near future – our road trip around the US that will be the adventure that makes everyone else jealous (8-10 months going wherever we want, doing whatever we want).
Then there are the dreams of who knows how far off – our dream of starting some sort of commune or collective; a place where artists can come and live for a few months (or longer) as they work on their various projects, a place where we can attempt to put into place the ideas about community that we are continually shaping. We drive past large buildings all the time and discuss its merits for being that place – we’ll find something some day.
Freya has a dream to start a homeless shelter here in Nashville aimed at families and children – the fastest growing aspect of homelessness in America today (see here). She has no clue what it will look like yet, that’s one of the things we want to research on our big road trip. But it’s an admirable dream, and I can’t wait to be there as she finds out how to carry it out.
But then there are the small things, the actual things. There’s the ability to roll down the windows on this majestic day, to sing aloud to a song that actually celebrates the glory of being alive (check it out, it’s on repeat as I type), to see the clouds floating along.
Yeah, it’s euphoria, and it strikes me occasionally and I love it. Today is a good day. Every day is a good day, even if you don’t quite remember it.
June 10th, 2009 § 0
I’m rereading Chaim Potok’s excellent novel My Name is Asher Lev right now, and last night I stayed up way too late reading. These two passages really caught my attention and merit putting somewhere that I’ll be able to find again.
He said to me one day in the second week of July, “Asher Lev, there are two ways of painting the world. In the whole history of art, there are only these two ways. One is the way of Greece and Africa, which sees the world as a geometric design. The other is the way of Persia and India and China, which sees the world as a flower. Ingres, Cézanne, Picasso paint the world as geometry. Van Gogh, Renoir, Kandinsky, Chagall paint the world as a flower. I am a geometrician. I sculpt cylinders, cubes, triangles, and cones. The world is a structure, and structure to me is geometry. I sculpt geometry. I see the world as hard-edged, filled with lines and angles. And I see it as a wild and raging and hideous, and only occasionally beautiful. The world fills me with disgust more often than it fills me with jooy. Are you listening to me, Asher Lev? The world is a terrible place. I do not sculpt and paint to make the world sacred. I sculpt and paint to give permanence to my feelings about how terrible this world truly is. Nothing is real to me except my own feelings; nothing is true except my own feelings as I see them all around me in my sculpture and paintings. I know these feelings are true, because if they were not true they would make art that is as terrible as the world. You do not understand me yet, Asher Lev. My little Hasid. My sanctifier of the world. My half-naked painter with dangling payos and a paint-smeared skullcap. One day you will understand about the truth of feelings.”
Then, two pages later.
The following week, the third week of July, we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We walked through centuries of Byzantine and Western crucifixions. He showed me the development of structure and form and expression, and the handling of pictorial space. I saw crucifixions all the way home and dreamed of crucifixions all through the night.
I told him the next day that I did not think I wanted to see any more crucifixions. He became angry.
“Asher Lev, you want to go off into a corner somewhere and paint little rabbis in long beards? Then go away and do not waste my time. Go paint your little rabbis. No one will pay attention to you. I am not telling you to paint crucifixions. I am telling you that you must understand what a crucifixion is in art if you want to be a great artist. The crucifixion must be available to you as a form. Do you understand? No, I see you do not understand. In any case, we will see more crucifixions and more resurrections and more nativities and more Greek and Roman gods and more scenes of war and love – because that is the world of art, Asher Lev. And we will see more naked women, and you will learn the reason for the differences between the naked women of Titian and those of Rubens. This is the world you want to make sacred. You had better learn it well first before you begin.”
These passages stand alone – but that last sentence was a dagger to my heart. Do I have the strength to learn the world well? Most Christians do not. They do not see the reason to expose themselves to the horror of the world, but in being afraid to do that, they are never able to speak to that world.
I want to avoid that. It sounds like a long long path, but I’ve already taken the first steps…
April 17th, 2009 § 1
Marc Webb’s debut film finally made it to Nashville last night, as part of the Nashville Film Festival (which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, very cool). The trailer bills the movie as a story about Boy Meets Girl, but not a love story, and the trailer is accurate, thank goodness. We don’t need another romantic comedy, and this film doesn’t attempt to give us more of what we don’t need.
Instead, the film, in its light-hearted and whimsical style, is concerned with what exactly love is in modern times. Both of the main characters come from homes with divorced parents, but Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) believes in true love and finding “the one” while Summer (Zooey Deschanel) does not believe in any of that stuff. Their story; told in a great non-linear fashion that examines the 500 days that Summer is in Tom’s life, examines whether either of their ideas about love hold up in reality.
Much has been made in early reviews about Webb’s experience with music videos, probably because there is a dance scene and the music is heavily tied to the visuals in the film (look for a great split-screen sequence with Regina Spektor’s song Us), but I think most of those reviewers missed the subtle touch that Webb brought out in the post-film Q&A last night. The narrator that we hear in the trailer is the narrator of the film as well; a deep, soothing voice that sets the tone for a storybook-ish movie. By beginning with the narrator giving us the setup – Girl doesn’t believe in love, boy does believe in love, and boy knows that girl is The One at first meeting – the film gives the viewers the normal cues of a fairy tale story.
But the film isn’t intending to be a fairy tale, nor is it intending to subvert fairy tales by setting your expectations and destroying them. Rather, it is questioning and wrestling with my generation’s takes on love – the fear of labeling relationships, the generation of kids who’ve grown up after divorce, the desire for some concrete idea of love but the complete lack of any model or definition. By using fairy-tale aspects, 500 Days of Summer did well to ask the questions that I’ve heard lots of friends ask (that I myself asked), and while the film didn’t really have any good answers, it wasn’t willing to forsake all hope in the idea of love.
I identified with the movie a great deal because I’ve been in those positions before; finding someone who I thought was the one, being with a different someone who just really really wasn’t the one, and finally finding The One who I’m now happily married to. I still don’t know exactly what love is; but I’m a lot closer and I do know a litany of things that it is definitely not. This movie, rather than being a “happy ending all things tied up neatly but nothing of substance provided” Hollywood film, successfully (to me) asked some questions and wrestled with them in a way fitting its characters and story, then ended on a note of hope. It wasn’t a perfect film, but it was far better than anything that Hollywood normally produces on the subject of love, and I hope it has a great deal of success at the Box Office.
Off Topic:
And I think that somewhere down the line there is a critical essay waiting to happen about how this film identifies another shift in culture; with Summer being representative of this generation’s wrestling with the 70′s generation (which might be defined as Spring – the birth of free love and love as a self-centered, self-seeking concept). If I were to write said essay, I would place the modern generation right at the end of 500 Days of Summer (which I won’t spoil), and explore the themes of the film as suggestions of ways that culture is changing. But that’s just me.
March 30th, 2009 § 0
Many critics have already railed against this film for being gimmicky. I’m here to tell you they are right. But most of those critics saw the film for free, meaning that they didn’t get the full experience that I had last night. Freya and I decided to see the film on the IMAX screen in 3D, and we might have rethought that if we’d asked the price before purchasing the ticket. The tickets were $14.50 apiece – $6 more than your regular movie ticket.
When you go see 3D movies on IMAX, the theater gets to add two upsell fees – $3 for IMAX, and $3 for 3D. If the film were good, if it were interesting, I’m fairly sure I’m ok with paying $6 extra dollars per ticket to enjoy the film on the biggest screen possible. And 3D on IMAX was definitely cool.
Monsters vs. Aliens was not good or interesting though. I guess when one takes inspiration from B-Movies and then attempts to write a kids movie, one cannot make anything more than a B-movie. And when a studio undertakes the effort, with its legions of writers and focus on the bottom-line, and when the film becomes the Studio-head’s seminal effort to show off the awesomeness of a new technology, well you can guess that there are a couple things that fall to the wayside in making that film.
Those things are plot, characterization, plot, and refinement of plot. Monsters vs. Aliens is, when it comes down to it, a demo-reel for 3D technology. There are some funny gags and a few laugh-out-loud lines or scenes, but overall, there is very little substance to this movie.
You shouldn’t misunderstand either; I love a good kids movie. I was all about suspending some disbelief and having some fun with Monsters Vs. Aliens. But the writers through every possible idea they could come up with into a bucket, and it just kind of came out looking like mud. Here’s some of my main complaints:
But honestly, I think I would have enjoyed the movie more if not for those ticket prices. It just wasn’t worth it at all.
March 25th, 2009 § 0
Fine Point
December 22, 2008
Why go to Sunday school, though surlily,
and not believe a bit of what was taught?
The desert shepherds in their scratchy robes
undoubtedly existed, and Israel’s defeats-
the Temple in its sacredness destroyed
by Babylon and Rome. Yet Jews kept faith
and passed the prayers, the crabbed rites,
from table to table as Christians mocked.
We mocked, but took. The timbrel creed of praise
gives spirit to the daily; blood tinges lips.
The tongue reposes in papyrus pleas,
saying, Surely - magnificent, that “surely” -
goodness and mercy shall follow me all
the days of my life, my life, forever.
(Published in the New Yorker, Mar. 16, 2009)
RIP Mr. Updike
January 22nd, 2009 § 0
The other night my wife and I settled in for a movie night and she chose “High Fidelity,” one of my all time favorite love songs. That’s one reason I married her; her good movie taste. So we watched it and when it was over I was in the mood to make a top 5 list (since that’s what the characters in them record store do all day), and this morning on my way to work I did.
So here they are, my top five movies about love (not necessarily Romantic Movies)
1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
(Written by Charlie Kaufman, directed by Michel Gondry)
What can I say; this movie is not only top 5 movies about love, it is a top 5 movie for me period. The screenplay is brilliant, the directing is wonderful, but what gets me is after all that the two characters put themselves through; their moment of grace (and “true” love) is at the end, when they stand in the hallway and look at each other and say “Ok.” Right then and there, they grasp that love isn’t about being happy, it’s about so many deeper things that they won’t have unless they love each other for their worst parts.
2. The Princess Bride
(Written by William Goldman, Directed by Rob Reiner)
The best fairy tale ever told on film; it promises to have everything and it fulfills. This movie somehow rises above the cheesiness it could have to stand the test of time and age; making it somehow a film that feels as old as Casablanca and as new as last weeks’ big release. Sure, it doesn’t wrestle with the complexities of love, but there’s no better classic romance on film that I know of.
3. Annie Hall
(Written and Directed by Woody Allen)
This is another film about love, but it takes it from the angle of why didn’t it work out. Woody Allen uses all tricks and gimmicks available; from thought subtitles and animated sequences to breaking the fourth wall by dragging in Marshall McCluhan to bring depth to the characters and weight to the questions that he raises in his opening monologue. This film deftly explores the myriad of issues that lead to displeasure, unhappiness and ultimately the breakdown of relationships we go through.
4. High Fidelity
(Written by D.V. DeVicentis, based on a novel by Nick Hornby, directed by Stephen Frears)
This film gets me for the scene where Rob asks Laura to marry him; as he rambles about liking other girls and how he is “tired of the fantasy” but he “never seems to grow tired of her.” It’s not exactly the most romantic scene in the world, but it is a humble admission from a jackass that he needs to grow up, and he can’t see himself doing that without her around. This film also features Jack Black in one of the few roles that makes it seem like he’s acting, and a strong appreciation for the power of music.
5. 10 Things I Hate About You
(Written by Karen McCullah-Lutz & Kirsten Smith, directed by Gil Junger)
There are probably better films out there about love; maybe something by Krystof Kieslowski or another foreign film, but I couldn’t think of any of them and this film is just a personal favorite. It’s been a long time since teen movies didn’t equate sex with love, but I guess the Shakespearean roots of this film helped it along (It is based on the Taming of the Shrew). Yes, it is set in a high-school and yes the characters are all clearly high-schoolers, but somehow this movie reminds us that love is often about sacrifice and forgiveness, and it has a rollicking good time reminding us of that.
January 14th, 2009 § 0
Yeah I know, this is a tip to you who are engaged from a man. Obviously it’s going to be about sex or something.
WRONG!
So, while you’re all coming to my wall to write me birthday wishes you might as well hear something interesting from me.
When you get to the part of wedding planning where you choose your music; CHOOSE WISELY.
Eschew the standard and go for the personal.
Freya and I had Kelley sing Over the Rhine’s I Want you to Be My Love for the Processional, then we played Devotchka’s “How it Ends” for Freya’s entrance, and then we left to Sigur Ros’s Hoppippolla.
Not only did we get lots of compliments for good music choices; which they were, but we also will ALWAYS think of our wedding when we hear these songs.
This morning on our way to work I put on Sigur Ros’s album Takk, and when Hoppippolla came on we looked at each other, as we do every time we hear the song, and said “WE’RE MARRIED!”
It was a beautiful moment to us, and cheesy I’m sure to the rest of the world.
So, my argument is, if you pick a song that is a favorite, but one that will be a long-time favorite (not your flavour of the week), then from that moment on whenever you hear that song you’ll think about that glorious day.
And honestly, I’ll go ahead and say it, steal Sigur Ros’s hoppippolla for your wedding because it’s one of the most glorious, heavenly songs ever. It’s short, right around 4 minutes, but it starts with a lone piano and crescendos with what sounds like a full string section.
Here, just watch the video and agree:
Hoppipolla from ESLA on Vimeo.
(One of my most favorite music videos ever also)
December 16th, 2008 § 0
(I posted about this film right after we saw it, but I thought I’d go ahead and write a proper review.)
Round this time of year many people watch a higher percentage of old films than they do on a normal basis. They drag out old VHS copies of White Christmas, Holiday Inn, It’s a Wonderful Live, and let these films play a number on the sentimental and nostalgic parts of their brains. Watching those films, we can’t help but think of the “good old days.” Now, arguably, these movies represent very little about their respective time periods, but with their overriding optimism and upbeat plots, we can’t help but dream a little dream about how things used to be better.
Mike Leigh’s latest film is not a musical and probably will never stir up much nostalgia, but it does paint an accurate portrayal of Now that will attract film watchers for years and years. The film is not an immediate classic, nor does it have any overwhelming strengths that make people talk or ensure its success as a indie phenom (no hip pregnant teens, crazy families in classic vans, or sex dolls posing as girlfriends). Instead, Leigh has crafted a film that is grounded in reality, to the extent that it is hard to remember these are characters and this is fictional.
Happy-Go-Lucky centers on Poppy (Sally Hawkins), an upbeat, eternally optimistic school-teacher who lives with her best friend in London. Hawkins brings Poppy to life in brilliant ways, from the boots she continually wears to the sneaky smile that is ever-present. We meet Poppy riding her bike through London, her bright clothes standing out even in contrast to the various hues that pepper the city streets. Soon after this scene her bike is stolen, and with only a mournful “We didn’t even get to say goodbye,” Poppy moves on, not to be discouraged by this crime.
As we follow her to work, to driving lessons, and out to her pregnant sister’s house in the suburbs over the next few weeks of her life, we find out that nothing is able to discourage Poppy. And as we realize this, we expect Hawkins’ character to get really annoying really quickly. But the subtlety of Leigh’s writing and the strength of Hawkin’s acting combine to reveal that Poppy is not naively living on a planet of her own making but choosing to navigate reality with a smile on her face.
This does not mean she succeeds in bringing that cheer to others – a bookstore clerk that she meets in the first scene is unmoved by her obstinate attempts at communication and as the film progresses she fails and meets other obstacles, and with each one we see deeper into who Poppy is and find out more what it is that drives her eternal optimism. I found myself expecting to find cracks in her psyche; surely she is running from something. But Leigh and Hawkins reveal, through Poppy’s encounters with a strong supporting cast that the optimism is not a defense mechanism, instead it is revealed to be a sure-footed strength, a confidence that Poppy carries with her, undefiled by the sin rampant in the world. Poppy is not traversing the world unaware, instead she is wise to the problems and tragedies of life and courageously smiles through it all, insistent that even if she can’t make everyone smile, she at least ought to try.
Eddie Marsan puts in a wonderful performance as Scott, the driving teacher who is exasperated to no end by Poppy’s enthusiasm and happiness. But in Leigh’s film, no character is a prop or a cartoon, and Marsan puts in a performance that turns on a dime and opens our eyes even further into what it means to live as Poppy does.
As most Americans enter into the holidays, it is a shame they won’t take time to go find a theater showing Happy-Go-Lucky. Because, unlike those classic holiday movies which sugar-coat problems with singing and frosty windows, Happy-Go-Lucky’s strength is that it dwells in the mundane yet tragic reality of modern life. It is only because of Poppy’s unwavering exuberance that we remember we too have a choice in how to respond to reality, and acceptance of it does not mean cynicism or pessimism.
December 16th, 2008 § 0
If you’ve listened to the episode of This American Life that came out Sunday, you’ve heard the short play by the Neo-Futurists. It’s kind of a deconstruction of a conversation – instead of making a statement, they simply say “Statement.” It ends with a brilliant line that is currently my status on Facebook.
My wife and I have listened to it the past two mornings on the way to work, and laughed so hard we were nearly crying each time. Just now, inspired by that play, we had our own conversation via facebook chat. I’ll relay that for your enjoyment.
Freya: enthusiastic greeting!
Winston: enthusiastic greeting!
Freya: kind-hearted question
Winston: generic response
return of kind-hearted questionFreya: generic response
bland statementWinston: agreement
Freya: over used internet short hand accompanied by light hearted and funny statement
Winston: Complaint
Freya: sympathetic response
Winston: Affectionate statement
Freya: returned affectionate statement
witty and sweet remarkWinston: Typed laughter
And while I’m relaying interesting things, check out these lyrics from the band MGMT. This is off their latest album Oracular Spectacular, and it’s the first cut Time to Pretend.
I’m feeling rough, I’m feeling raw, I’m in the prime of my life
Let’s make some music, make some money, find some models for wives
I’ll move to Paris, shoot some heroin and fuck with the stars
You man the island and the cocaine and the elegant carsThis is our decision to live fast and die young
We’ve got the vision, now let’s have some fun!
Yeah it’s overwhelming, but what else can we do?
Get jobs in offices and wake up for the morning commute?Forget about our mothers and our friends
We were fated to pretendI’ll miss the playgrounds and the animals and digging up worms
I’ll miss the comfort of my mother and the weight of the world
I’ll miss my sister, miss my father, miss my dog and my home
Yeah, I’ll miss the boredom and the freedom and the time spent aloneBut there is really nothing, nothing we can do
Love must be forgotten, life can always start up anew
The models will have children, we’ll get a divorce
We’ll find some more models, everything must run its courseWe’ll choke on our vomit and that will be the end
We were fated to pretend
Depressing indeed, but quite a wonderful expression of the world today. It caught me offguard, especially considering the sound of the song (quite poppy). I highly recommend it.
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