No Hay Un Banda....

Alright, well, I'm back. I probably should be packing (as I haven't done that yet... and we leave early tomorrow morning) and Morgan (my friend who's coming with us) should be here any minute (he's sleeping over), but I just felt like I needed to describe Mulholland Drive.

Haha, I wrote that late the night before we left for Bonnaroo and then Morgan arrived, right after I wrote that. But I feel like writing now, the night before I leave for camp, and don't feel in the mood to write about Bonnaroo (or the time - that's gonna be much longer). So, I thought I'd talk about the film Mulholland Drive.....

Two nights before we left for Bonnaroo, at about 11:00 p.m. I decided to watch Mulholland Drive, as I wasn't tired yet and I figured I'd finish it in the morning. Plus, I had been anticipating it and wanting to see it for quite some time now, so I was eager to watch it. I put it in and from that point on, I was put in a trance. It was one of the weirdest, if not the weirdest, experience I've ever had watching a movie, but to call Mulholland Drive just a movie would be to undermine it's affect: Mulholland Drive is an experience, and it transcends movies. Now, I'm not saying that Mulholland Drive is the best movie ever made, or my favorite, but it is like no other movie I've ever seen. It was my first David Lynch film (and from what I've read afterwards, supposedly Lost Highway and Inland Empire are even weirder), so that may play into it. I knew about David Lynch; namely that he was just another director, but that his films were really, really weird - but that doesn't even begin to describe it. We all have our own connotations for the word 'weird' and you have to set those aside when you're calling a David Lynch film 'weird' because though there's no other word to describe it, and it certainly is weird, it's not weird like anything else is weird.

Okay, I know I'm talking in really broad terms here, and making pretty grand statements, but I don't want to spoil the experience, because going into Mulholland Drive, you have to know nothing about it. I had seen the trailer for it, but it didn't seem to make any sense to me (even though watching it now, it seems like it has way more of a straight forward plot than it actually does), and all I really knew was that it was highly praised. So I put it in, having no idea what I was getting myself into, and suddenly two and a half hours passed. I hadn't moved an inch the entire time, stuck in position, entranced by this movie - I wasn't able to stop watching, take my eyes off, or go to bed. Now it was 1:30 in the morning and I sat there staring at the TV screen and whispered to myself: "What the fuck did I just watch?"

See, Mulholland Drive, well, made no fucking sense. In the film, random things just happen and are never explained. Characters pop up in beginning scenes and then never appear again, and many scenes play out, later seeming to have no relevance to anything whatsoever. The film is a mystery. Okay, well, that's the beginning of the film, but for some reason you can't stop watching - it's not bad, as in 'This doesn't even make sense! This is so stupid! I'm turning this off!' - and it's not laughable how it doesn't make sense, it just is. In reality, it's actually quite good, and the way David Lynch directs it you're drawn in, even though you don't understand it. And the direction is really, really good - that's something you can certainly admire. As the film goes on, though, it seems to start making more sense; there's more of a central plot that you're following and think you understand - weird stuff still happens, but you get the feeling that by the end, it'll all start making sense and trying itself up again. However, the opposite ends up being true, and if anything, David Lynch starts to put the ribbon on the box before letting it loose again causing the box to fall, open, and spill all over the place. In the last half hour, things get really weird and really don't start making sense and you don't get what's going on, but you're still left with the feeling that this wasn't poorly made; in fact, it was amazing and revolutionary. I know what you're thinking, it's revolutionary only because it doesn't follow the rules of storytelling, when in actuality anyone could make a film that doesn't make any sense and things happen for no reason. And although anyone could make that story, only David Lynch can make it work. Even though it didn't make the traditional sort of 'sense,' I actually did feel as if I understood it in a way, my own way I guess. It made a strange sort of sense, without giving all, or any, of the answers. And it's almost as if David Lynch is saying "Why do films have to have a plot?" This seemed to be all about tone and mood, and even though you weren't sure what it all meant, you certainly got a feeling, and that feeling is what it means. You can't deny, even if you like your films to be more cohesive, that it gave a strange feeling like nothing else. And as I imagine David Lynch would say "Why do films have to be cohesive? Can't films be left up to the viewer's interpretation of things and events?" He merely provides the outline; we determine how the story unfolds. And after reading other's interpretations of the film, as well as trying to develop my own, I have a pretty good idea of what I think happened, or what it means to me. I found it baffling when I read one post on IMDb, acting as if two widely agreed interpretations were set-in-stone fact, when those are just two interpretations like any others, though they may be shared by more people. And there are parts of some theories that I agree with and others that I don't, and I still haven't made sense of what it all means and every detail/scene in the film, but I don't think I'm meant to know. David Lynch has kept all the answers to himself.

To me, Mulholland Drive is kind of like Taoism. Once you've made sense of all of Mulholland Drive, like finding the Tao, you keep it to yourself and don't share it with others, because what it means, or finding the Tao, is all relative and depends on the person and.... oh my God, I think I just discovered the Tao myself. I guess that means I have to delete my post, because I'm not supposed to share it with others. Oh, fuck it, I'm not a Taoist. But I've read people who claim they finally understand what it all means, but don't post it, because it's about the journey finding the answers, not what the answers are themselves. One guy watched it like 300 times in a row consecutively, without any outside help from the internet or other people, and developed his own theory (which happens to not agree with the widely believed theory) about what it means.

The movie's also pretty creepy. Really creepy tone and some scary moments and I was watching it at 11 - 1:30 at night, all alone, with all the lights off, and suffice to say, I got kinda freaked/creeped out. I showed about the first hour to Morgan (who analyzes everything) and he didn't think it made sense, though he got tired and fell asleep. When we got back from Bonnaroo, I showed it to Nathan, who really enjoyed it, but didn't understand it either, but just loved how weird and random it was. Oh and there's a really hot lesbian sex scene. I mean, I always understood why guys like lesbian sex scenes (I mean, it's two girls), but I never really understood it until I saw this. Anyways, you should watch it. Seriously.

'Bad Line Readings' 2: Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

I also just wanted to say that I've been back from Bonnaroo for a couple days now and have been planning on doing a huge blog post on it, but it's taking me a little while which is why I haven't posted anything immediately. Hopefully I can get it up by tomorrow.

'Highlights from Europe Trip 2 + 3'

Well, I've got the next two videos in my 'Highlights from Europe Trip' series. In this case we have one video (#2) that's focused on an entire place, and edited and stuff, and then another video (#3, in this case), which isn't really edited, but just one clip of something funny, unusual, or just something... that happened on the trip. And that's how most of the videos will be presented on my blog from now on. I don't like the England one, as much as I like the Italy one (which I thought was pretty good), but there are some parts I did well there and some parts that just drag. So, here's that:

And here's the third one, a trailer for 'Cold Blooded,' a fake horror/sci-fi/creature movie that we made as part of this game at the Movieum in London (you had to perform an act, the camera filmed you doing this, and then it incorporated it into this trailer). Yepp..... fun stuff.

Finally, I had a memorable experience late last night, when I was watching Mulholland Drive for the first time. I think I want to blog about it, but I may do it later today, because I don't feel like doing it right now and I'm gonna go swim. I'm also leaving for Bonnaroo tomorrow, so I won't be blogging again until next week, but when I come back, I'll blog about my experiences and the concerts at Bonnaroo, continue with posts/videos in my three new series (I'll have new ones for each) and then after 12 days I'm off again! But I'll try and post as much as I can within that time period. (Though you haven't been commenting lately, Alison - where've you been?! We need to plan that Dark Knight party when I get back (but before I leave again). And you need to tell me when to go see Fame. Also, I hung out with Lucas yesterday and I have a funny story, next time I see you.) Also, Toy Story 3 comes out when I get back! Anyways, I'm gonna go swim.

'Highlights from Europe Trip 1: Italy'

Well, I got the YouTube thing working, and alas, we have come to our final series in the trio of new series (so, this is really just the beginning). First of all, do you remember this?

That trailer for the movie on our Europe trip that I never made. And remember how I talked about doing some individual videos on just the highlights from that trip, since there was so much footage to look through. And you're probably thinking now that you should've seen this coming (actually you're probably thinking 'No I wasn't thinking that at all - why would you think I think about what you're next blog series is going to be, Marc, you narcissistic twit).

Well my new series, titled 'Highlights from Europe Trip,' is kind of a combination of those first two things: It's a video series including memorable moments from our trip, but I've also edited a lot of the footage that I didn't think I could edit into an entertaining snapshot of our travels. So, there you have it, and here's the first video in the series, corresponding with the first country we went to on our trip (the first European country we set foot in): Italy. Hope you enjoy it.

The next video(s) in the series will be posted fairly soon and the rest randomly posted throughout the summer (with about a total of 10 videos in all, as I've planned thus far). I mean, when I'm not here I'm obviously not gonna be writing on this blog, but when I am here (as in Tucson), I'll probably be doing more so.

'Bad Line Readings' 1: Tough Guys Don't Dance

So, this is my other new series/segment: 'Bad Line Readings.' It's pretty self-explanatory. This is one of my three new series (the 'Remember This!' one being one of them too). I was actually planning on posting the last series today, but YouTube's being weird and is having problems uploading.... :( (and yes, it's video-related). So, hopefully I'll get that worked out in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, here's the first video for our new series 'Bad Line Readings' spoken by Ryan O'Neal in Tough Guys Don't Dance:

Oh man, oh God! Some top notch performances right there; I can't believe that guy was in Barry Lyndon. Anyways, this is actually the easiest of my three series because all I have to do is watch some bad acting and post it to my blog, but it's also fun, so :D.

'Remember This!' 1: Isaac McKillin'

So, for the past two days I've been cleaning my room. It's usually what I do in the summer, since I have nothing else to do and my room's a mess, even though by the next summer it usually ends up looking pretty identical to the way it was before I cleaned it, but hey, just imagine how bad it would be if I didn't clean it every summer. Yeah, so I call it 'Summer Cleaning' (as opposed to 'Spring Cleaning;' I know, it took me a really long time to come up with that).

Anyways, so I've been looking through old stuff (I don't remember all of us looking so young when we were 5th graders!), including my old English binder from Mr. B.'s class and I actually liked most of what I wrote in that class. So, I thought it would be fun to start posting some of my old pieces (as long as I'm not writing anything new anyways and I need something to keep this blog going, besides part of the point of my blog is to post my writing) in my new series cleverly titled, 'Remember This!' So, I'll be taking old pieces I've written, posting them on here, writing what Mr. B. had to say about the piece (if I wrote it for his class), and then what I have to say about it, one year later (because some of them have parts that just don't work at all, and I'll be the first to admit it, but have something I like in there - that's usually the case with my writing, as opposed to my movies, because even if there's something I didn't do quite well, there's also something that I can find I liked, or why else would I have wrote it, and captures some idea I'm interested in, which you'll find is what most of these pieces are. God dammit it, I hate how discursive these blogs are. I don't mind talking like this, but I hate writing like it). Also, most of these pieces will be within the last two years (because yeah, I'm not posting the stuff I used to write in 4th grade - wow).

Phew - got that all out of the way. Anyways, posted below is the first piece I'll be starting the series with. I thought I'd start the series off on a high note and this is one of my more acclaimed pieces from last year and it spawned one of my trademark characters, so yeah. You may remember it as the story we had to write which took place within 6 seconds. I actually just realized that I don't have a title for this one. Should I call it my 6 second piece, or I guess 'Isaac McKillin'' would be a more appropriate title, so I'll use that. And here it is:

'Isaac McKillin''

by

Marc Hansen

Only five more seconds, I think to myself.

Only five more seconds until he takes off my blindfold and I can see where he has taken me. Him. Isaac McKillin’.

“One...” He whispers.

I wonder where he’s taken me. I can’t see anything with this blindfold on. For some reason I have a feeling I’m in an alley. I don’t know why he would take me to an alley, if he’s planning on torturing me, but it just feels like something I would see in the movies. I don’t know. Maybe he’s not going to torture me. Oh, come on! Of course he’s going to torture me. He kidnapped me, blindfolded me, drove me in his car somewhere, probably in the middle of nowhere, and now I’m down on my knees. Besides, it’s Isaac McKillin’. No one messes with Isaac McKillin’. Could it get any worse?

“Two...” He counts down.

How did this happen to me? How in earth did I get into this god awful trouble? I think about how I had gotten here. So that’s how. I guess it’s reasonable. I deserve whatever’s coming to me, which I would feel a lot better about if I wasn’t me right now. This is gonna be bad. It is Isaac McKillin’. The infamous Isaac McKillin’.

“Three...”

I wish I was a baby. I wish I could start all over. Try it again. Redo. I wish I was just a baby again. I wish that my father and my mother could create me all over again, on some other afternoon, one where they hadn’t been so angry at each other. Maybe then I wouldn’t have been such a screw-up. I wish that I could once again be growing from a fetus into an actual human being, inside my mother’s womb, with eight more months to go. Maybe I wouldn’t have been such a screw-up if she hadn’t been drinking. I wish, that for one more time, my mother could have her water break, take the bus to the hospital, push, scream, cry, have contractions, tell my father to stop watching the game in the waiting room, get overemotional, and finally push my tiny, slimy, wonderful baby body out of her body. I think that’s the way it went. Too bad I don’t remember what actually happened that day. I was so young, naive, innocent, childish. I didn’t know what I had coming in for me. Maybe if I was born differently I wouldn’t be here now. But I am here.

“Four...” One more second. Almost there. Why does it feel like these five seconds are taking forever? How much can really even happen in five seconds? A lifetime. Maybe our whole lives just take place in five seconds? Over before you know it. How do we not know that our complete lives just go by like that in a flash? Five seconds. Time is only relative, you know. It doesn’t even mean a thing. Just a way of keeping track. Just numbers. One, two, three, four, five. Five seconds could be forever. Seconds, hours, lifetimes just depend on your scale. Time is relative. Maybe I wouldn’t be such a screw-up if my life was longer.

“Five...” The words come out as I suddenly feel the cold, black, hard, metal end of a gun touch the tiny shaved hairs on the back of my head.

“Oh god,” I cry, like a baby. I guess he’s not going to torture me after all. Now I know why they call him Isaac McKillin’.

In the sixth second he takes off my blindfold and before I know it, it’s all over too soon. Like that. In a flash. 1 second. I never even get to see where he’s taken me. He just takes off the blindfold and pulls the trigger. Isaac McKillin’. The bullet enters my brain. I wish I could just give it another go-around. I promise I wouldn’t make the same mistakes. Really, I do. But it’s too late. It’s over. It’s all over. I see a flash and blue butterflies fill any last sight I have. I don’t even live long enough to write about a seventh second. All thanks to Isaac McKillin’. As if one more second was all I needed. One second could last a lifetime, you know. I’m repeating myself. That’s what dying people do. Repeat themselves. That’s me. If it wasn’t for Isaac McKillin’ I could have had one more second. One more lifetime. But I don’t. The bullet enters my brain. All noise stops. All smell dies. All sight is gone. No more feeling. Where did the taste go? Wait, how am I still narrating? I’m dead!

Play dead, Brian, play dead.

What Mr. B. said: 'Nicely done - weird + dark, but also it somehow makes a lot of sense + works well.' He also said 'great ending' and really liked the blue butterflies imagery, as well as the entire baby paragraph.

What I have to say: Well, I actually don't really have anything bad to say about this piece. I really like it and am pretty proud of it. Reading it again is kind of a 'Wow, I can't believe I did that. That was good.' experience and I don't have any regrets. Every detail works towards the benefit of the story. I like how I exclude how he actually gets there, the fact that I did a play on Isaac's name (that was pretty creative - and another reason why some of these pieces only make sense for our class, I mean this does regardless, but it's a nice, added touch), the style in which I wrote the piece, the narrator's thoughts, and the ending as well. I also really like the last three 'big' paragraphs a lot. I can't believe I wrote that, because I like it more than I should. It's weird, because I don't think I really knew what I was doing the entire time, but it ended up working out for the best. Anyways, next time, I'll choose a piece where I can be more critical and I haven't decided if this is gonna be like a weekly segment or if I'll just post them whenever I feel like it.

Your thoughts?

Bonnaroo Schedule

Alright, so my sister graduates from high school today (can you believe it?!), and I thought I'd share her graduation present (which I also get to enjoy and participate in) with you. I originally neglected to bring this up because I thought it made me sound spoiled or rich, and I really hate that, but the truth is you travel a lot, tickets are only a couple hundred dollars, it's a passion of mine, and a lot of people would hate doing this (but those who would love, would really love it). So, where is this magical gift to - a sex sauna? No, but you would think that, Alison. Actually, it's to a music festival in Manchester, Tennessee called Bonnaroo. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's like a modern day Woodstock (that happens every year...), but it's on a farm and it's the largest music festival in North America. So, yeah, I'm pretty excited, and not that I would want to gloat, but to not spread my enthusiasm would diminish it of its value. So, that's pretty much what I've been focused on for the past week and the schedule came out last weekend, so since then I've been working on coming up with a schedule that can fit everyone's desires (my mom and our friend Morgan is going too). So I wanted to share the schedule I've been working on. Here it is:

THURSDAY: (we don't do much this day, because it's the first day, so it takes a long time to get into the festival and the concerts don't start until four. So, besides the three concerts we see that day, we'll pretty much be cruising around, looking around the place, and maybe listening to some bands we haven't heard of).

7:30 p.m. - 8:15 - Miike Snow (This Tent)

10:00 p.m. - 11:00 - The Temper Trap (That Tent)

11:30 p.m. - 12:45 - The xx (That Tent - yes those are the names of the tents)

FRIDAY: (this day is PACKED, though - it's gonna be pretty awesome)

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 - Trombone Shorty (Which Stage)

1:00 p.m. - 2:00 - Tokyo Police Club (The Other Tent)

2:30 p.m. - 3:30 - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros (The Other Tent)

4:00 p.m. - 5:15 - Dr. Dog (The Other Tent)

5:00 p.m. - 6:15 - She & Him (This Tent - I haven't decided which I love more enough to miss 15 minutes of the other)

6:15 p.m. - 6:45 - OK Go (The Other Tent)

6:45 p.m. - 7:45 - Tenacious D (What Stage)

7:45 p.m. - 8:15 - Tori Amos (This Tent)

8:15 p.m. - 8:30 - Steve Martin (That Tent)

8:30 p.m. - 9:30 - Michael Franti & Spearhead (Which Stage)

9:30 p.m. - 11:30 - Kings of Leon (What Stage) (And I'm assuming we'll miss some of either Michael Franti or Kings of Leon to find time to have dinner)

12:00 a.m. - 1:30 - Daryl Hall & Chromeo (The Other Tent)

12:00 a.m. - 1:30 - The Black Keys (That Tent)

12:00 a.m. - 2:00 - The Flaming Lips (Which Stage - not sure how we're gonna divide the three of these up yet, either)

2:00 a.m. - 2:30 - Galactic (The Other Tent)

2:30 a.m. - 4:00 - LCD Soundsystem (This Tent)

SATURDAY:

1:00 p.m. - 2:30 - Conan O'Brien (Comedy Theater)

2:00 p.m. - 2:45 - Brandi Carlile (That Tent - just my mom and sis for this one, Morgan and I are gonna stay in Conan O'Brien)

2:45 p.m. - 4:00 - Norah Jones (Which Stage)

4:00 p.m. - 5:00 - either Beatles Rock Band Experience or Jeffrey Ross Roasts Bonnaroo (Lunar Stage and Comedy Theater, respectively - we've got an hour to kill, so we'll check in on each and decide which we like better)

5:00 p.m. - 6:15 - Mumford & Sons (That Tent)

6:15 p.m. - 7:00 - The Dead Weather (What Stage)

7:00 p.m. - 8:30 - Weezer (Which Stage)

8:30 p.m. - 10:30 - Stevie Wonder (What Stage - he plays till 10:30, but I doubt we'll stay for the whole thing)

SUNDAY:

12:00 p.m. - 1:00 - Ingrid Michaelson (The Other Tent)

1:15 p.m. - 2:15 - Calexico (Which Stage)

3:00 p.m. - 4:15 - Regina Spektor (Which Stage)

4:15 p.m. - 4:30 - Against Me! (This Tent)

5:00 p.m. - 6:15 - Dropkick Murphys (This Tent)

6:30 p.m - 7:00 - Blues Traveler (Sonic Stage)

And we end the night with:

7:15 p.m. - 8:45 - Phoenix (Which Stage)

MONDAY:

Depart.

Phew. It's gonna be a long weekend, with not much showering or cleanliness, and consisting mostly of watching concerts literally all day (one day up until 4 in the morning!) - like I said, a lot of people wouldn't like this trip - but it's going to be well worth it and an incredible experience. I love my life.