Entries from December 2009
Genius…
December 31, 2009 · Leave a Comment
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And watch this (if you’re feeling especially ADD today, fast forward to 2:30 or so…).
Categories: Wise Words
Tagged: gever tulley, make magazine, ted, tinkering school
What everyone else is listening to
December 30, 2009 · 1 Comment
I–just like most everyone else with a keyboard or a camera–have been doing a little looking back recently, given this is both the end of the year and the end of the ohs. In that vein, allow me to reflect on something that I find fascinating, even though it hasn’t affected my own iPod playlists.
When this decade opened, pop music was in a rut. It was dressed up (or down, depending) with sexy schoolgirl videos (when will that look ever die?) or with “edgy” videos, but it was still formulaic and uninspired. (I realize that literally millions of people disagree with this opinion. That, indeed, is why they call it pop music. Popularity, however, is not an indicator of quality–please refer to fast food, WalMart, reality TV, entertainment “news”, People magazine, and high fructose corn syrup.) The lesser elements of 80’s pop got sloughed off and dumped into an echo chamber. The beats were flaccid, the hooks dull, and whole songs were glazed with a plastic Auto-Tune perfection. It was Botox and silicone, sonically rendered.
But the big wheel of trends has come back around, and some terribly interesting things have been happening on your radio dial in the last coupla years. Much like the inexorable return of the neon high-top, leggings, and tiered miniskirts, New Wave and synth and glam are seeping back into music–and it’s enough to make me wish I still owned PVC and eyeliner. Because while Christina Aguilera never made me want to dance, Lady Gaga makes me want to revive the electrical tape and go-go boots look and move my body until I fall down…
This is utter pop genius. I think what I love about this is that it takes what was boring about pop music ten years ago and spit-shines it until it becomes what it wanted to be all along. It toys with notions of sex appeal and celebrity, thumbs its nose, licks its lips, and sticks a fork in the eye of the beholder. It brings a little of the grotesque back into pop. It’s performance art.
Like I said, I’m never gonna have this stuff on my iPod. I appreciate it, but won’t spend money on it. So why do I care enough to write about it? Because I find it heartening when I hear something interesting playing on Clear Channel. I know it makes me sound like a horrid snob, but I like to think that it’s just a little subversive to mix something like Lady Gaga in with the avalanche of banality that fills the airwaves. This isn’t a revolution–we’re still talking mass market stuff here. It’s like having the too-short-lived Firefly airing between Everybody Loves Raymond episodes… I don’t expect it to make a huge difference, and I’m sure most of the great unwashed finds it a little weird. But it’s there, a little spark among the generic, and it just might influence someone else to make their own art. Platinum-certified special is still special.
For another take on what made your stereo interesting this year, go check out Chez’s picks (currently in progress) of the best singles of 2009.
Categories: That's Entertainment!
Tagged: lady gaga, pop music
The trouble with fiction
December 28, 2009 · 2 Comments
I lent out another copy of my favorite novel of all time, and have (again) given up ever getting it back. Which is quite alright–I think everyone should be issued a copy upon their 30th birthday, and be given a week’s vacation to read and digest. The replacement arrived last week. I’ve been fending off just re-reading the whole damn thing for the dozenth time (because I’m involved with too many other books right now, and literary polyamory has its limits) by snacking on select passages, stealing bites here and there.
Duncan is a kick in the teeth for me, as a writer. It’s not just that he writes what and how I want to write–intelligent, rich, complex, honest characters in rhythmic, funny, heartfelt, buttery prose–but that he writes so bravely. There’s an open heart on every page, all vivid nerve and muscle.
Behind the scenes of this here blog, much has been a-percolating. The mushrooms I chose for a header weren’t entirely accidental–there are all sorts of strange little fleshy shoots springing up in the dark ’round here. My trouble is deciding which to foster, when, really, I want to tackle all of them, at once and with gusto.
One thing you might notice about me, if we spend any time together, is that I have no sense of proportion, at least when it comes to matters of work, of being productive. I don’t just bite off more than I can chew; I will whittle a second set of teeth just so I can chomp some more. Part of it, I’ve decided, is my own personal brand of red herring–if my to-do list is long enough, padded with mundane tasks and repetitive chores, then I can excuse myself from actually accomplishing something significant. Didn’t write anything today? That’s because I was reorganizing the closet and cooking forty pounds of food for my coworkers (not kidding) and making tomorrow’s to-do list… I was being productive with my time, after all.
It distracts me from the hard work, which is to say, it distracts me from what I most want to be doing.
(Re-)reading something like The Brothers K is the smelling salts to my predicament. Forget the housecleaning–I’ve got a bottleneck of writing stops and starts to sort out, some sense to make of the legions of orphan passages that litter my desk.
More than that, I’ve got some peace to make between me and fiction. (And here’s where the bravery part comes in…) It seems counterintuitive, but I’m finding that saying something that’s technically untrue is worlds harder than saying that same thing plainly. Put another way, fiction is proving more daunting for me because of its elasticity–the made-up or un-true elements allow what I’ve written to stretch until it touches or envelops damn near anything. Put yet differently: nonfiction is bounded, poetry is stretchy but finite. Both can move and touch and motivate, but they also have the kind of clear boundaries that therapists the world over wish they could bottle and sell. Fiction, on the other hand, can (and probably does) have parts in it of every person I’ve ever known, every place I’ve ever been, every sight sound taste smell I’ve ever sensed–and that makes it the most intimate thing I can do on paper, even with the untruth of it to protect me.
But The Brothers K could never be anything but fiction and still retain its power to make me laugh out loud and cry a river and dive into it as into a warm sea, over and over again. It, and all the other books like it, remind me that courage has its reward. The honest novelist might be the bravest soul you’re like to meet.
Categories: See Jessie Write
Tagged: david james duncan, the brothers k, writing fiction
From the night before
December 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Categories: Dispatches From the Front
Tagged: christmas eve, luminaria
Christmas Presents!
December 24, 2009 · 2 Comments
I think maybe the dogs read a certain post I wrote recently, because they seem to have taken it upon themselves to bring a little Christmas cheer into the house…
Last night, we came home from an unexpected trip to the holiday-pillaged grocery store (more on that later) to find a special gift waiting for us. Artfully and prominently placed atop a woven green blanket on the couch was most of a tiny skeleton–pigeon, as it turns out. Tiny pearls of currant-bright blood clots still clung to its ivory surfaces and nestled in the weave of the blanket, shining like scarlet pearls. It really did look rather festive, truth be told. Festive, and a little gross.
You know how there’s always that person whose gifts you dread to open? It’s usually a well-meaning relative who really has no idea what you might want, and so gets you something extra cutesy or something the teevee said the Kids These Days would like. You nearly break into a cold sweat pulling back the wrapping paper, and you have your fake smile and an enthusiastic (and totally honest), “Oh, you really shouldn’t have!” at the ready.
Maybe I should have resurrected that act for the pooches. I think Santa’s little four-footed helpers were a bit hurt that we didn’t appreciate their efforts more. Brows furrowed, they seemed to be saying, You’re putting that in the trash?!?
Well, it’s not like they kept the receipt or anything.
Categories: Dispatches From the Front
Tagged: dogs, Santa's little helpers, skeleton
The Greenhorns
December 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Categories: That's Entertainment!
Tagged: greenhorns trailer
Chew on this for a while…
December 21, 2009 · Leave a Comment
There’s an article in the most recent issue of Bicycling about a fella named Scott Cutshall who defied conventional wisdom and his doctors’ expectations by losing over 300 pounds without surgical intervention. (If that weren’t impressive enough, he’s become my new hero because he refused Oprah’s invitation to fetishize himself on national television.) Buried in the piece is mention of some fascinating research that has demonstrated that the portion of the brain that sorts and makes decisions is also the same area that governs willpower. Our modern, multi-gadget, bluetooth, ADD existence aside, we know that the brain really is a very poor multitasker. Dr Kathleen Voh’s study demonstrated that if too much brainpower is expended making decisions, less is left over to enforce them, via the power of will.
Cutshall was successful in so monumentally changing his own life partly (largely?) because he limited his choices–he put himself on a strict diet and a strict cycling regimen. He didn’t have to decide what to eat or when to ride; those choices were made for him, leaving more energy to put into his will to actually carry them out.
Today’s New York Times offered up a related gem, buried in a piece about kids turning off and tuning out of Facebook. Dr. Walter Mischel’s 1960’s marshmallow experiment demonstrated that preschoolers who are able to delay their own gratification (not eat the marshmallow right away) grew up to be high achievers, adults who were markedly more competent in intellectual, academic, and social spheres than their counterparts who lacked such self-control.
In our modern world, where every choice spawns one hundred more after it, every item can be customized, personalized, and branded in greater and greater detail, what does this tell us about ourselves? With literally hundreds of varieties of toilet paper to choose from, how can we expect our brains to keep up?
I’m thinking it’s no coincidence that at the very moment in history when we have an unprecedented array of choices before us every day–choices of what to wear, eat, buy, drive, hear, watch, smell, send–we are also becoming a culture incapable of delaying gratification. Text messages must be answered immediately, even if it means risking a car crash. Email isn’t fast enough anymore; we twitter and tweet among ourselves all day long. No money down! Don’t pay till 2012! Buy one get one free! Ready in 10 minutes or less, guaranteed! No wonder we have no discipline left to stick to our diets or our principles or our guns. Religion may have long been the opiate of the masses, but the masses have moved on to something far more potent: the cult of options.
Limited-edition, designer altar piece available now, in 37 customizable colors.
Categories: Commentary + Philosophy
Tagged: decision making, kathleen voh, walter mischel, willpower
Let’s Go To The Movies
December 19, 2009 · 2 Comments
Well, I’ve done the music review, I’m on a little old-fashioned cinema high, and the Golden Globe noms are out this week, so I suppose it’s inevitable that this morning I’m thinking Best Of Film. Think of this as more a free-form reflection on movies that have moved me, more than any sort of rational, critical ranking. Because while I can absolutely recognize a film like Watchmen for its technically excellent, faithful rendering of a watershed book, it didn’t get its hooks into me quite the way it did my gentleman-comic-book-lover-of-a-certain-age Man Friend. I want my movies to impress my head and tug at (or gouge or warm or break) my heart.
First, let’s give some props where some props are sorely overdue.
File under: Criminally Overlooked the following:
The films of Craig Brewer. Hustle & Flow (2005) and Black Snake Moan (2006) were both pitch-perfect films in disguise, meaty, clever, surprising, and refreshingly honest. (Read an old post on the subject here.) And as a bonus, each can be cross-referenced under Movies That Would Not Have Been Possible Without the Music.
Constantine (2005). No, really. I am dead serious. I know it’s Keanu Reeves, but remember Neo? This is the same kind of sparse dialogue this man was born to mouth. Constantine was a visually stunning, artfully directed twist on the age-old battle between good & evil. And brilliantly cast–Tilda Swinton as the archangel Gabriel? Peter Stormare as Lucifer? Genius.
Secretary (2002). One of my favorite movies of all time, easy. An unusual, authentic love story, with one of the best love (technically sex-less) scenes put on film. A copper tub, a grass bed, and a great song? Yes, please.
Brick (2005). Another unlikely concept, solidly executed. It’s a hard-boiled, noir detective yarn, set in a modern-day high school. Improbable, dense, intelligent. Great performance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Stage Beauty (2004). Billy Crudup is riveting in a role that manages to explore notions of gender and performance, without ever once feeling dry or academic. Magnetic, vibrant, nuanced, perfect.
Redbelt (2008). Chiwetel Ejiofor became one of my all-time favorite actors with this one role. A very Mamet exploration of honor and duty, this film resonated long after the closing credits. Ejiofor fully inhabits his character, communicating dignity and conflict with his very skin. A pivotal scene between his character and Emily Mortimer’s quite literally left me breathless with its power, courage, and deep compassion. Very human, and, perhaps paradoxically, quite exceptional.
Our Daily Bread (2005). Completely wordless, story-less, actor-less, and music-less, this is one of the most compelling movies I have ever laid eyeballs on. A carefully composed visual symphony, with urgent subject matter.
File under: Movies That Would Not Have Been Possible Without the Music:
Once (2006). A raw and utterly real look at love. The soundtrack is one of the year’s best records.
Almost Famous (2000). A luminous and heartfelt love letter to a time and place.
High Fidelity (2000). Infinitely quotable. Lloyd Dobler, all grown up.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). Made bluegrass cool again.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001). Lovely and campy and, well, operatic.
File under: Eye- and Mind-Popping:
Memento (2000). Oh, Guy Pearce. I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you in taffeta and sequins. Dark and puzzling. Put the Nolans on the map.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). I have never cared so much about two characters I absolutely could not stand. Charlie Kaufman and Michel Gondry both tend to be a little too clever for their own good, but they knocked it out of the park with this one.
Frida (2002). This film could only ever have been made by Julie Taymor. Her respect for her subject shows in every shot. This film bleeds in color.
Big Fish (2003). Accessing family through myth and memory. An earnest, poignant story told with a playful hand.
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I didn’t think it could be done. Forgive me my doubt, Lord Jackson.
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). What fairy tales were before Disney got ahold of ‘em.
File under: Someone Had To Say It:
Team America: World Police (2004). Puppets. Blissfully unaware American imperialism. Satire sailing right over the heads of the satirizees. And did I mention puppets? Fuck Yeah!
Jesus Camp (2006). Maybe the most frightening movie of the decade. The Ring might have made me scared to turn on my TV, but this movie made me scared to leave the house.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006). You’ve got graphic depictions of shootings, stabbings, dismemberment, disembowelment, massacres, executions? Sure, bring the kiddies on in! But what’s that you say? Your film has S.E.X. in it? You mean, like with (gasp!) naked people? Oh, my. That just will not stand.
Religulous (2008). Bill Maher, I *heart* you.
File under: Leading Ladies:
The Hours (2002). I think Nicole Kidman bartered her acting talent for lip collagen after The Hours, because she hasn’t been nearly this good since. A triumvirate of powerful performances, in a deep, literate screenplay.
The Queen (2006). Delving into questions of tradition and celebrity and media and privacy, Mirren is (yeah, I’ll say it) truly regal as this film’s anchor.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004). I really did not want to like these films. Quentin Tarantino is insufferable, and most of his films are highly overrated (ooh, did I say that out loud?). But Uma Thurman as The Bride is undeniably, ostentatiously kick-ass. A fine, hyperbolic, frenetic, and deeply satisfying popcorn flick.
File under: Still Too Fresh To Tell:
Ask me again in 2020 if these held up, but right now here’s what’s sticking with me from this year’s movie-going…
Away We Go nailed the “are we fuck-ups?” worries of the I-guess-we’re-grown-ups-now early 30’s. Maya Rudolph and John Krasinski are wonderful together.
The Hurt Locker (along with HBO’s Generation Kill) is both a timely and honest look at the wars we’re in, and a further reworking of the war film genre. The noble rallying cry of Once more into the breach, dear friends has given way to the text-speak cynicism of WTF?
Fantastic Mr. Fox siphoned off all the love I was saving for Where The Wild Things Are (though that flick still deserves every drop). Never have I been so utterly charmed by a movie.
Categories: That's Entertainment!
Tagged: best of, movies
Christmastime in Washington
December 22, 2009 · 1 Comment
I’m starting to get this cold, queasy feeling that in the next day or two we’re going to see front-page photos of a gang of pompous, Congressional morons flashing their teeth and patting each other on the back as if they’ve accomplished something.
The healthcare bill they pass (and, at this point, isn’t it a foregone conclusion that they will, if only for xmas headlines?) would fit right in at There I Fixed It–a rickety, amateurish assemblage of clumsily cobbled-together bits & bobs.
Congratulations, asshats. You’ve created a monster gift to the already bloated insurance industry, and you’ve done not a whit to improve access to or quality of healthcare in this country. Good on ya.
Politics… an abomination before our eyes, or the pinnacle of genius performance art?
Categories: Commentary + Philosophy
Tagged: healthcare bill, politics