1. Go to this band's website http://www.myspace.com/loneydear and listen to the song "Ignorant Boy." It's so good. I saw them live last Saturday when they were opening for Andrew Bird (who, of course, was excellent) but they totally stole the show. This song is basically just "na na na na na na na na na na na na" over and over again but it was awesome. He had the whole audience sing it together-beautiful. They're even better live. Also check out their songs "Violent" and "I am John."
Speaking of the concert, I ran into everybody that day-I saw my kindergarden teacher at Robert's that morning, didn't even recognize her, then at the concert I also ran into this freshman from the high school who took a film class with me, like 5 years ago, (coincidentally she said she saw me at Robert's that morning too.... but seriously it was good to see her) and David Baker! I haven't seen the guy in forever (though we did talk over the phone right before our birthdays-he's 21 now). He's doing well though, going to school and illustrating comics, plus he's a huge Andrew Bird fan (I found out that night) and he still has his Hellboy hat! I love running into people. Old memories.....
Anyways on to number
2. This video:
It's awesome. A tribute to PTA's (Paul Thomas Anderson) films. Besides the fact that every film PTA has made has been a masterpiece, but the guy who edited this was genius. Seriously, knowing how hard it is to edit anything together, none the less clips (especially when it's from mostly 2-3 hour films), he does it perfectly. Better than most movies are edited. Why isn't this guy in the industry? The pace, rhythm, music (which are all important songs from the actual movies), the way that it shows different dialogue over different clips, and how all the clips work perfectly together, one after the other. This would make PTA proud.
3. The movie "The Fall", particularly this scene:
Great movie. Took over 4 years to make and filmed in over 20 countries with no special effects at all, it's a wonderfully directed, beautifully filmed (look at that cinematography-how did they pull that off!) movie, not to mention a great story (and Lee Pace, from TV's awesome, now cancelled-grrr-"Pushing Daisies" stars). It's about a guy whose paralyzed and manipulates a girl into giving him morphine to kill himself, by telling her an epic story in pieces.
Lastly, I wanted to post a video of my own that I made but it's taking forever to upload onto YouTube, so next time.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
Journal Entry for Mr. Bindschadler's Class - "Sublime to Ridiculous"
Movies can be a wonderful thing. They can be meaningful, intelligent, entertaining. They can make people connect or relate to and care about what's happening. They can send out a message or analyze and try to figure out some of the mysteries of life. They can help us deal with life and solve our own problems. They can help us reflect on our own lives, see things from a new point of view, and change our lives. They can makes us sympathetic, maybe we've felt similar before or dealt with something just like that. They can teach us, whether it's something that happened hundreds of years ago or something that's happening right now halfway across the world that we should know about, maybe try and fix. They can make us realize concepts, philosophies, life, the truth. They're entertaining, interesting, fun to watch. They're an art form. The can be a beauty to look at, whether it's the way they were filmed and shot or maybe just the people we're looking at. They can make us laugh.
They can do so many wonderful things, but let's face it, the whole idea is a little ridiculous. I mean, come on! All we're doing is watching people get paid to pretend to be someone they're not and pretend there isn't a camera right there filming them. The whole thing is so fake. Why should we care about these fictional characters and the things that happen to them (that don't really happen to them). The whole thing's a joke. It's like we're little kids playing dress up and pretending we're in some great place. But we're not! And society is always encouraging kids to be themselves and not pretend, yet we all pay to go watch grown adults do the same thing. And then we praise them and give them awards and recognition for being so good at.... pretending! I mean, is it really that hard? Yet, we're to blame, because we're the ones who are paying money that we worked for to go watch them. We make plans for whole hours and afternoons of our days to devote to watch these things. And why? Why should we care when it's not even real? It doesn't affect us or our lives in any way. Yet we go to a building and sit with other strangers, who we have no idea who they are, crammed in our seats, shoving popcorn down our throats and gulping our soda (a.k.a. carbonated fat), never taking our eyes off of "Fantasyland." A world that isn't real, that we'll never live, or go to, or be apart of. So, why do we do it? Are we trying to escape from our own lives? Are we watching the things we wish we could do? Imagining all the other possibilities? I'm not sure. It's strange, not to mention we're just sitting there for hours watching a huge piece of cloth. I mean, does it really need to be that big?
But these are the things we do. It may be strange when you really boil it down and think about it, but these are the things we think are fun and I'm not ashamed of it. Yeah, watching movies may be weird, but it's entertaining and I like it. Technically, you could say that about anything we do. Listening to music, going to concerts, watching/playing sports, reading, writing, playing any/every game, and let's not forget kissing. As one of my classmates pointed out, we're just putting our lips together or making our skin touch. Why do we like to do that so much? I don't know, but we do, it feels good (not that I would know) and we like it. There's probably a scientific explanation as to the way our chemicals are designed, but why does making our bodies touch stimulate us? Yet it does and I've always felt strange when I physically touch someone. Like I should keep my body to myself, but when I do touch someone, even if it's just their arm or something, I feel like I've given them my trust. Almost like I'm autistic in a way, but not so extreme and not really a fear of contact, but an unfamiliarity or uncomfortableness with it. And the same things that can be said about kissing can be said about sex. I won't get to graphic or anything, but if you think about that that's weird too. Why do we like doing that so much? Why does that pleasure us? But the truth is, everything can be weird. Our whole definition of weird is based on how we live our lives. Anything is. Normality, intelligence, crazy, and weird all depend on our definition and meaning of the word themselves and how we're looking at them. So anything and everything can be weird or normal depending on how you look at it.
They can do so many wonderful things, but let's face it, the whole idea is a little ridiculous. I mean, come on! All we're doing is watching people get paid to pretend to be someone they're not and pretend there isn't a camera right there filming them. The whole thing is so fake. Why should we care about these fictional characters and the things that happen to them (that don't really happen to them). The whole thing's a joke. It's like we're little kids playing dress up and pretending we're in some great place. But we're not! And society is always encouraging kids to be themselves and not pretend, yet we all pay to go watch grown adults do the same thing. And then we praise them and give them awards and recognition for being so good at.... pretending! I mean, is it really that hard? Yet, we're to blame, because we're the ones who are paying money that we worked for to go watch them. We make plans for whole hours and afternoons of our days to devote to watch these things. And why? Why should we care when it's not even real? It doesn't affect us or our lives in any way. Yet we go to a building and sit with other strangers, who we have no idea who they are, crammed in our seats, shoving popcorn down our throats and gulping our soda (a.k.a. carbonated fat), never taking our eyes off of "Fantasyland." A world that isn't real, that we'll never live, or go to, or be apart of. So, why do we do it? Are we trying to escape from our own lives? Are we watching the things we wish we could do? Imagining all the other possibilities? I'm not sure. It's strange, not to mention we're just sitting there for hours watching a huge piece of cloth. I mean, does it really need to be that big?
But these are the things we do. It may be strange when you really boil it down and think about it, but these are the things we think are fun and I'm not ashamed of it. Yeah, watching movies may be weird, but it's entertaining and I like it. Technically, you could say that about anything we do. Listening to music, going to concerts, watching/playing sports, reading, writing, playing any/every game, and let's not forget kissing. As one of my classmates pointed out, we're just putting our lips together or making our skin touch. Why do we like to do that so much? I don't know, but we do, it feels good (not that I would know) and we like it. There's probably a scientific explanation as to the way our chemicals are designed, but why does making our bodies touch stimulate us? Yet it does and I've always felt strange when I physically touch someone. Like I should keep my body to myself, but when I do touch someone, even if it's just their arm or something, I feel like I've given them my trust. Almost like I'm autistic in a way, but not so extreme and not really a fear of contact, but an unfamiliarity or uncomfortableness with it. And the same things that can be said about kissing can be said about sex. I won't get to graphic or anything, but if you think about that that's weird too. Why do we like doing that so much? Why does that pleasure us? But the truth is, everything can be weird. Our whole definition of weird is based on how we live our lives. Anything is. Normality, intelligence, crazy, and weird all depend on our definition and meaning of the word themselves and how we're looking at them. So anything and everything can be weird or normal depending on how you look at it.
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