Labels: ebooks, kindle, sony reader
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: 2009 Tony Award Nominations DATE: 5/05/2009 11:33:00 AM ----- BODY: Should have hopped on this one sooner, but I had to finish some backing tracks for rehearsal today. In the least surprising Tony nomination ceremony in quite a few years, Billy Elliot comes out on top. Expect Elton John to pick up his second Tony (previously winning for Aida) for actually composing a real, honest to goodness, traditional styled Broadway score. Choreography, sound design, scenic design, and director seem like foregone conclusions as well.Do not count on the trifecta of Billy's to win Best Actor. The "count all three as one" decision by the Tony committee was not without controversy as each child plays the part very different from the others. While Billy Elliot is the obvious choice to win the big prize, do not count out Next to Normal. Next to Normal is the "serious/adult/different" show of the season and a total wildcard for one reason: it was eligible for the other NYC theater awards last year. The committees that considered looking at Next to Normal again only wanted to look at the new actor in the show and ignore the heavily revised book and score. What started as a show with mixed to poor reviews has transformed into a critical darling. The serious subject matter and innovative staging, combined with three stunning performances and the latest release of the nominees but not so late they didn't get to see it, makes it the dark horse candidate for the win. I'd be willing to place my money on Allison Janey winning Lead Actress in a musical solely because the Tony voters didn't warm up to West Side Story. Rock of Ages? Shrek? Seat fillers. Maybe some technicals for Shrek. Rock of Ages has an outside shot at sound design because of the style of music. Otherwise, better luck next show, creators, cast, and designers. At this point, it's fairly safe to say that Hair will win Revival. West Side Story received mixed reviews and the cast is (apparently) consistently making mistakes on stage. Guys and Dolls received a big old "Why?" response from critics and audience alike. Pal Joey never really took off as expected. The reviews were good, but the Tonys favor shows that are still running at the time of nominations/final voting, and its the only closed entry in the category. I think West Side Story will win for Featured Actress because Karen Olivio is phenomenal in the show. They clearly like her considering she's 2/3 on nominations (Brooklyn who? I saw the show twice and could not tell you what part she played). Guys and Dolls might have a shot for lighting if the voters really go for well done, super-flashy design. Otherwise, Hair might get Director (it's considered the show of the season because Billy Elliot opened so early by comparison), sound design (rock show with well loved score), costumes, and Featured Actor. Possible category spoilers? If the [Title of Show] love is there, they might be able to win in Best Book. It's a show that received great reviews but just wasn't earning enough money for a long run. A later opening could only have meant more nominations. Irving Berlin's White Christmas cannot be ruled out as a possibility in Choreography, as the many, many tap numbers were spectacular; I'd still say Billy Elliot is the clear winner here. As for the plays: I'm not convinced that Angela Lansbury will win here. The Tonys loved her start in musicals, evident by going 4/4 on Actress (as in lead, not featured) wins, but hasn't faired as well in straight plays. Blithe Spirit is quite popular right now, but the support among voters just didn't surface. It happens. I'm split on Best Play. God of Carnage has the leg-up with the Pulitzer win, but 33 Variations is very popular. I'm leaning towards the latter, but reserve the right to change my mind when the date looms closer. I'm clueless on Revival. Waiting for Godot is safely out, as people still just don't get the show. If Goodman, with his glowing reviews, managed to get in, I'd consider it a safer bet; he didn't. Mary Stuart is more likely to win Actress than Play, though enthusiasm for the two leads could spill over here. I don't even know enough of the other two to say. My guess? The Norman Conquests win, just because they had to make a decision on how to count the production: 1 or 3 plays. Liza's a lock for Special Event. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Zombies Are a Boy's Best Friend, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Zombie Apocalypse DATE: 5/01/2009 07:39:00 AM ----- BODY: Thank you for your patience and understanding over this extended absence from my blogging duties. Many wonderful things have happened in the interim, including the expansion of the high school drama club's scholarship fund, the rebirth of the parent run Drama Boosters organization, and the introduction of a truly wonderful theater professional into the school system. While the current teacher will not be continuing with the program in the fall, the changes she has implemented have revolutionized the program. She will also be helping me out by throwing my name and skills out at her contacts such that I may wind up with music direction/production management jobs that actually pay me in a timely fashion. And I was finally paid. And they didn't steal money this year for the football field refurbishment fund and other bullshit charges. (Update while typing: they won't pay me the 500 dollars I've received for 6 six years for running the school's Shakespeare festival. I will not be doing that again next year) Onto the blogging. Until I have the time to do the massive upgrade and service change I was planning to do last month (see previous post), I'll be going with a looser format on the blog. Broad sweeping topics will be covered based on my interest at the time. Understand that the subjects will still be connected to film, literature, and other forms of media, so its not like I'll begin ranting about public policy or which star had what brand of tampon hanging from which orifice. Zombies Are a Boy's Best Friend, or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace the Zombie Apocalypse My friends, the signs all pointed to this news. Clearly, zombies are taking over the world. I should have heeded the wise warning of ZombieForecast and prepared. Even before that, I clearly received signs of the zombie apocalypse. For example, when I met Max Brooks at a convention, his cryptic message in my copy of The Zombie Survival Guide (everything lines up so nicely, doesn't it) should have clued me in three years ago:
Now the evidence is everywhere.
Have you heard about the undead civil rights movement in California? It's already been fictionalized by an S.G. Browne in what is being marketed as a novel: Breathers: A Zombie's Lament. To mitigate the sting of the cohabitation and segregation of the living dead in our society, some marketing genius decided to claim it's a "humor" novel. Sure, the "Andy Warner" character has a dry wit. That does not mean we are dealing with a humorous text. The book is quite serious in its approach. It might be safe to call it a dry dramedy with pitch black comedic flourishes. I was captivated by this heartfelt narrative that clearly works at anthropomorphizing the living dead to create pathos. Obviously, the living dead have no brain function and cannot safely live with their families after reanimation.
I'll be doing a more thorough write-up of this text on Something Printed over the weekend. I highly recommend reading this book as a way of understanding just how serious a threat the glamorization of zombies really is. Zombies do not recall their previous lives. They are driven by an insatiable hunger for living flesh and nothing else.
A more important text to examine for proper preparation would be Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, repurposed by Seth Grahame-Smith to demonstrate the true nature of Austen's classic satire. Some have complained that the narrative does not benefit at all from the inclusion of realistic attacks from the living dead. A scan of Amazon indicates a sense of chaos created by the mere thought of sullying the good work of Jane Austen with lowbrow zombie humor.
To that I say: open your eyes. Austen clearly understood the threat of supernatural forces. She brilliantly captured a conspiracy to cover up a nasty house haunting in Northanger Abbey, so feared by her publisher that he held off on releasing the book for 13 years.
While I have not had the opportunity to read Grahame-Smith's restorative text, I have it on good authority that the historical accounts of undead dispensation are quite accurate. The Bennet sisters understand how to destroy their assailants and protect the community at large from danger. I have heard from a trusted source that these zombies scenes become a bit repetitive, but the book is still worth reading.
Of course, if you wish to stick to the standard zombie preparation texts, you cannot go wrong with investing in Max Brooks' powerhouse duo.
The Zombie Survival Guide is the resource to turn to if you suspect an undead uprising. Max Brooks carefully chronicles all of the zombie-specific survival information you will need when the dead walk among us. If you do not already have the text from the original printings, I recommend the new paperback addition. It features an invaluable resource in cards describing the highlights of the book. Do not use the cards as a cliff notes: they are merely meant to help you when you have to go on foot to restart civilization.
Some will mistake The Zombie Survival Guide for humor. Brooks did take on a satirical tone to mock lesser survivalist texts, down to crude illustrations and excessive detail. However, for your money, you cannot beat the treasure trove of information presented in this text. Do not fall for the imitators: stick with this one, the true original.
The important addendum to this resource is World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. If we do not learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat it. Fortunately for us, Brooks had to turn to mainstream publishers to release his real accounts of the zombie uprising from all around the world. If nothing else, this text should lead to the realization that The Zombie Survival Guide is an incredible resource. The survivors thrived because they knew the rules. Too bad your local library probably files this one under humor.
This is not the book to be reading at night unless you want to go without sleep. Through interviews, Brooks captures the real voices of these different people. The accounts never become repetitive as each survivor has a distinct voice and story. The result is at times horrifying, a times heart-wrenching, and at times uplifting. We can survive if we just keep our cool and use our juicy meaty brains.
I feel much better now. I know I have in my possession enough material to begin preparations for the oncoming assault. If nothing else, I know I can enjoy the books as fiction when trying to distract my mind from the incessant moans of the living dead.
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AUTHOR: Trent Sketch
TITLE: Announcements
DATE: 4/29/2009 08:19:00 AM
-----
BODY:
For those getting annoying messages for me on Twitter, some minor closure:
1) Still playing phone tag with a music/dance school's owner who just does not like to pick up the phone to talk to potential employees. I'm very close to tossing in the towel there.
2) Still waiting on my paycheck from the music direction job. Here's the latest issue: they decided I can't be paid through the Drama Club after they forced the issue last year. So now I have to be paid through a stipend approved by the Board of Ed. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that I'm being lied to every step of the way. I've been given 5 "You'll be paid by" dates so far and all have passed. They can't keep their excuses straight. And they're taking away part of my pay because elements of my job that were approved last year for this year weren't approved by existing BoE stipend descriptions.
3) A new Drama teacher has been hired for the school, and I made sure everyone knew about it before they got to school today. I expect chaos and rage when I go to run rehearsals I'm not being paid for today.
4) Because I haven't been paid, some big changes have completely fallen through. I was going to upgrade to a shiny new service/server and really push this dog and pony show into something entertaining and easily accessed, but that's not happening. It was part of why I took such a huge break from the blog. I even started designing the site under a few different free trials to determine which service to move to and that's obviously not happening now. Even if (big if) I receive a phone call tomorrow to pick up my check, that leaves me no time to do it. Thanks to all the time I put into my job (that I'm not being paid for), I now have 40+ pages of papers due in the next week and a half for my classes. You might cry procrastination, to which I retort that three of these four papers were assigned last week.
5) Blog will continue again on Friday, as promised, in a highly modified format. I think you'll appreciate the changes.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go write up a presentation for tomorrow on a paper about Jean Toomer that isn't due until Monday. Don't ask.Labels: announcement
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Announcements DATE: 3/23/2009 11:25:00 PM ----- BODY: First, thank you all for your patience. I believe one of my students put it best when she said "this was the longest week of our lives." Losing such a strong, creative, caring woman who dedicated her life to the betterment of young adults through the arts is a tragedy. I'm proud to say these students banded together and pulled off a very difficult period comedy with performances that started four days after we were informed of the circumstances surrounding the loss of our director. The cast and crew held strong against the overwhelming pressure of the administration to postpone or cancel the show, as well as every action they took to eradicate the theater of the teacher's memory, and made sure they gave everything they had in each performance. Is eradicate too strong a verb? No. And I will leave it at this: everything that belonged to the teacher is now locked up in the school safe with all of two people having permission to sort through it for paperwork and checks related to field trips and performances. We lost another teacher less than a month ago and all her educational belongings are still in her classroom. Confusing? Just a little bit. All of this said, I have been asked by the department head to help transition the new drama teacher into the school system and will be acting as many positions over the next few weeks to ensure the students still have an opportunity to perform in their Shakespeare festival, International Thespian Society induction ceremony, and May showcase/fundraiser. It appears that my job in the school system is secure because this educator came to my defense and explained to the administration exactly what I have been doing and how much time I've dedicated to them. With this in mind, I have to announce an extended break from this blog. I will not be able to post on a regular basis again until May at the earliest. I apologize for the forthcoming disappearance, but there is no other way to make sure everything gets done for these kids. They deserve it. Thank you.Labels: announcement
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: No Post Today or Next Week DATE: 3/14/2009 10:51:00 AM ----- BODY: Last night, my friend, my mentor, my director, Jo Anne Fox, passed away. It has come as a complete shock to everyone who knows her and her loss will not be an easy one to overcome. Please respect my needs in not posting today or next week as we will all be busy making sure the show will be the best it can be in her honor. Thank you for your understanding.Labels: announcement, no entry
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Miranda July: Part 2 DATE: 3/12/2009 04:55:00 AM ----- BODY: So, some lighting company apparently decided it would be oodles of fun to screw over a high school theater program. I mentioned previously how we were ordering 50 new lights and a lighting designer to set up cues for "a great rock show." Well, the jerk decided that he didn't want the job, stopped answering phone calls, e-mails, letter, and faxes, and tried to steal a ton of money from us. Thoughtful, no? Now we have the following options: spotlight, low light, medium light, high light, gels. It's depressing. Miranda July: Part 2 One of the more interesting aspects of Miranda July's short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You is the marketing campaign. She set up a website that captured the essence of the book. It had pictures of her handwriting on appliances. The photos change size and shape depending on your web browser. What's with the short jerky sentences? It's my "just woke up" attempt to capture July's style. It would probably be easier just to point out that her prose has a distinct rhythm comprised of much smaller sentences than I'm used to. Obviously, this is my own fault, as I tend to gravitate toward books written by people who died a long time ago. But people who died a long time ago normally don't have four cover colors so that you can coordinate your paperback to your outfit. Miranda July is very thoughtful like that. Chip Kidd, eat your heart out. Apparently Blogger does not appreciate color coordination. Boo on Blogger. What else could you possibly expect to happen when a visual/performance artist writes a book? Traditional design? Stories that consistently last longer than four-five pages? Subject matter so rooted in everyday life that it becomes monotonous? None of those apply to this collection. We'll finish off the week with a formal write-up on Saturday.Labels: miranda july, no one belongs here more than you
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: All Watchmened Out and No Place to Go DATE: 3/07/2009 08:17:00 PM ----- BODY: I got burned out by that midnight screening any my own over-analysis of it. As such, the pirate comic shall stand at this: if you don't want to read it, it won't ruin the book for you. If you do read it, and pay attention to what is happening, everything should come into focus. See ya Tuesday.Labels: announcement
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Watchmen: Part II DATE: 3/06/2009 12:20:00 PM ----- BODY: It is with great pain and a heavy heart I present to you the following review of Watchmen. I will not spoil any of the massive plot changes (many, many changes) and I will not even account for them in the review. If I wanted to be a jerk, my review could be "Just read the book instead." But I'm not a jerk. Watchmen: Part II Watchmen is a roller coaster ride of a film. While such imagery would normally be used to get your hopes up, it is the context that is most important to the description. It is not an exciting roller coaster, an entertaining roller coaster, or even a chuckle-worthy roller coaster. No. The roller coaster element is one of great highs and devastating lows, as I cannot recall any film in recent memory that suffered from such inconsistent quality from scene to scene. Did you know Watchmen was about the value of love and Maury Povich levels of "Who the baby-daddy?" Because that's what the majority of the film is. We are constantly berated with the issues in a way that makes me wonder who thought making a few cosmetic changes to My Super-Ex Girlfriend was a good idea. The acting in the film is inconsistent. Unsurprisingly, Jackie Earle Haley is fantastic as Rorschach. His voice is like gravel, and his physical presence alone is enough to send chills down your spine as he breaks and enters anything and anyone to get what he wants. Jeffrey Dean Morgan does solid work as The Comedian in a rather limited role. His scenes are memorable and darkly funny, relying on a smirk and a trigger finger to give the ultimate punchline. Patrick Wilson does the best he can with Nite Owl II. Since so much of the film focuses on the relationship between Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II, he mostly has to do his best Cyclops as told by X-Men films impression in a more knock-off than expected Batsuit. Malin Akerman starts off strong as Silk Spectre II, but appears to have been told by director Zack Snyder to play the character as an emotionally unstable frigid and bitter woman. At times, it seems like she really has no idea what film she is in. Considering the focus of the film is on her issues of identity, abandonment, and struggle for love, Akerman lacks the charisma and emotionally vulnerability to really make us care. Billy Crudup was screwed over royally. Whoever decided Dr. Manhattan should be recorded entirely through really over-processed voice overs made a big mistake. An exceptionally talented actor comes off as a total amateur when even the sound mixing doesn't match where Dr. Manhattan is appearing on screen. And then there's Matthew Goode as Ozymandias. To say that he ruins the film is only a slight exaggeration. It's not his fault that Zack Snyder clearly showed certain actions that were part of a new twist ending in the first five minutes of film that paint the character in an entirely different light. Though I have trouble blaming Snyder for totally flat line reading, a face that never moves, and body language that doesn't change. And what about Zack Snyder's directorial vision? It's sad that at times I thought I was watching 300. It's even sadder that every fight scene with Silk Spectre II felt like South Park's parody of 300, in particular the scene where Mrs. Garrison has to make coffee. There's a time and a place for slow down techniques in cinema, and that time and place is not every single scene in every single comic book film. Just because the man is a director who focuses so heavily on visuals does not mean that he is a "visionary director." All of this aside, there are two massive, lumbering issues in Watchmen that never disappear throughout the bloated 2.5+ hour run time. One: The narrative does not make sense. I've read the book three times at this point, and I could not make heads or tales of entire series of scenes that had nothing to do with each other. The editing and screenplay pounded heavily on Silk Spectre II's identity issues to the point that multiple camera angles were used during any mention of this conflict and the screenplay repeated dialogue in completely different scenes. I am not referring to flashback scenes reused throughout the film. I am referring to entirely different scenes that have nothing to do with each other, with completely different characters on screen speaking the exact lines of dialogue someone else said three scenes before; that was after someone else said them five minutes before and another person said them six scenes before that. The balance between the concurrent plot lines never levels out and the new twist ending is comprised of nine different endings. The film would be twenty minutes shorter if Snyder cut the film after the first conclusive ending. The extra endings do not add anything to clarify what just happened, why it happened, or how it possibly makes sense. They are just there solely to please the fanboys who want every aspect of the comic to appear on screen. Two: The soundtrack and score are grossly inappropriate for the film. Every sequence ends with a loud, blaring, pre-1985 pop tune that is meant to mark the end of an issue. Too bad the songs are played too loud, for too long, and barely have anything at all to do with what happened before or what will happen next. Even worse is the derivative Batman scoring lifted with little alteration from Danny Elfman's 1989 work. Do we need uplifting action music every time Nite Owl II does anything hero-like on screen? I doubt it. My honest recommendation is to avoid this film. Overall, it just falls flat. The quality is inconsistent and the whole film feels off kilter. I'm not convinced yet that Watchmen is unfilmable; I just believe the wrong team was put together to bring it to life.Labels: watchmen
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Watchmen: Part 2: Coming Tomorrow DATE: 3/05/2009 09:29:00 AM ----- BODY: I am booked solid today from 2AM to 3AM tomorrow with no more than 5 minutes of downtime in any given period. I will be doing two posts tomorrow: one on the pirate comic in Watchmen, the other on the film. There will be another post on Saturday. Sorry for the inconvenienceLabels: announcement
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: New Topic: Watchmen by Alan Moore, David Gibbons, John Higgins DATE: 3/03/2009 10:31:00 AM ----- BODY: As promised, Watchmen madness week. I will be seeing a midnight screening (dear God, it's 2.5+ hours of comic action, not counting three supplementary DVDs? What is this, Ulysses?) and may toss up an actual review for once on Friday; Saturday would be a closer look at the film. New Topic: Watchmen by Alan Moore (writer), David Gibbons (artist), John Higgins (colorist): Part 1 Who's watching the Watchmen? Alan Moore won't. That's for certain. According to Moore in a feature from Entertainment Weekly (really worth reading), "I shan't be going to see it. My book is a comic book. Not a movie, not a novel. A comic book. It's been made in a certain way, and designed to be read a certain way: in an armchair, nice and cozy next to a fire, with a steaming cup of coffee." I can't say I blame him, either. Watchmen is a book that requires a high level of attention to detail. You might be tempted to rush past the issue ending print narratives of memoirs, scientific research, or comic book criticism, but doing so will hurt your understanding of the book later. Moore is planting seeds throughout the entirety of the graphic novel that blossom into a disturbed ending that must be read to be believed. You want to talk about the grittiness of the Nolan Batman films, or the self-effacing humor of Iron Man and claim they are some of the greatest superhero films ever made? Thank Moore for that contribution to the genre. Watchmen is a costumed hero story. Do not confuse it for a superhero story. The terms are not interchangeable in a world where Richard Nixon is serving his third term as president after mercilessly winning the Vietnam War, characters like Nite Owl (I and II), Silk Spectre (I and II), Rorschach, and The Comedian have no superhuman abilities. They trained hard to fight crime for different reasons and wore disguises to conceal their everyday identity. Think more Batman, less Superman. Only Dr. Manhattan has a grandiose origin tale, and even then he's presented as so distant and removed from humanity its hard to root for him. Ozymandias possesses super intelligence, but no other abnormal ability. There has been a lot of criticism amplified louder and louder about Watchmen leading into the film's release. Professional film critics are pretty clearly siding on the side of "this film ruins superheros" because they did not read the graphic novel. Others are criticizing the very medium, claiming graphic novels have no merit and should not be celebrated; they're just comic books, right? These are mostly the same people who went nuts for the Persepolis film and books. My conclusion? Graphic novels are ok so long as they aren't about superheroes. Is this is a fair assessment of an entire medium? I don't think it is. If a graphic novel includes violence, it's suddenly vulgar and has no merit. If a graphic novel has costumed heroes, it's suddenly just a comic book and beneath a good number of readers. And, heaven forbid, if a graphic novel shows signs of intelligence and social commentary, than it's offensive, for critics will not see the forest through the trees and pounce on the tiniest detail to rant about. I've been there, people. I like my books thick, dry, and heavy. The illustrations I'm most comfortable with have no more detail than the almost-caricatures that appear in a good Dickens edition. I like to create the image in my head, and relish in discussions that go into just what the author was trying to do because no two people will probably read the exact same text the exact same way. Then I read Watchmen. It took me longer to read than most 400+ page novels because I wanted to absorb all the details. What did that sign say behind Rorschach's head? Why are we watching a TV and not the live action? Who is watching the characters in the panel and how can they just stand there and not do anything? The visuals and text are intrinsically connected, enhancing a story that probably couldn't have been told as just a novel. Which, in Moore's own words, was the point, "I didn't design [Watchmen] to show off the similarities between cinema and comics, which are there, but in my opinion are fairly unremarkable. It was designed to show off the things that comics could do that cinema and literature couldn't." So what is my point? Like any work of literature, try reading it before you judge it. It's perfectly valid not to like a book; however, I question the validity of claiming its bad because its a graphic novel and was not read by the person in question. Open your mind, open your wallet, and give the book a read.Labels: alan moore, david gibbons, dr manhattan, graphic novel, john higgins, nite owl, ozymandias, rorschach, silk spectre, the comedian, watchmen
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn: Part 4 DATE: 2/28/2009 09:25:00 PM ----- BODY: I just learned that Preditors and Editors, an invaluable resource for writers, composers, game designers, and artists everywhere, is facing a bit of legal trouble. They aren't divulging a lot of details about the pending litigation, but I think it's safe to guess that one of the businesses they've called out for being a complete con is filing some suit against them. The site is asking for donations for their legal fund, and I hope you would consider donating a few dollars to help their cause. In their own words:Unfortunately, there are those who do not like P&E or its editor because we give out information that they would prefer remain hidden from writers. Usually, they slink away, but not this time. P&E is being sued and we are asking for donations to mount a legal defense in court. Please click on the link below and give if you can to help protect P&E so it can continue to defend writers as it has for the past eleven years.I hope everything works out for the best. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn: Part 4 Even after this post, I'm sure I will be unsatisfied with my treatment of the novel. There's so much to discuss, and the absolute last thing I want to do on a blog is get so bogged down in minutia no one ever comes back. This just inspires me to work on a much greater project based in the novel sooner than I anticipated. More so than the unique subject matter or the dark humor, Geek Love is a novel about storytelling. A father tells stories to his children about their development into a family of genetically enhanced freaks; a sideshow attraction tells his fans whatever they want to hear to create a quick growing cult willing to follow his command to free themselves of their useless appendages to be greater people; and the neglected, least appreciated child of the family recounts the entire experience in a series of journals for her daughter so she is not ashamed of her life. The book can be enjoyed without looking into this interesting narrative technique, though I feel studying the storytelling aspect has only enhanced my appreciation of the novel. The earliest element you'll encounter is Al Binewski's family stories. I've already quoted the opening chapter in Tuesday's post. Al seems to live in the past, part of what he considered the heyday of sideshows. He met his wife, Crystal Lil, when she stepped in as the geek, singing opera before biting the heads off of chickens. They developed a relationship based around admiration for the sideshow and agreed to create a family that would continue on the proud tradition. The current physical state of Crystal Lil - old beyond her years, fragile, rapidly deteriorating - is almost entirely ignored by Al in favor of recounting tales of her youthful beauty and excitement at the prospect of one beautifully gifted child after another being born thanks to science. He even repeats elements of the same stories throughout, as if his reality will shatter if his stories go untold. This gift of storytelling and manipulation of history is easily passed on to his son, Arty. Arty's act is based in the water, as his fins let him perform tricks others cannot. His act becomes the biggest pull of the family freakshow, with people following their routes to be closer to Arty. Arty is not foolish. He knows his power and he intends to take full advantage of it. That's why he founds Arturism, a cult for his followers. He weaves elaborate stories of a higher state of being obtained by following his lifestyle. His gift with words and allure is so strong people are willing to undergo a lengthy and painful initiation process to be like him. They trust him so much they will give up everything, their jobs, their families, even their mobility and self reliance, to follow his word. Which is a problem Oly has to deal with. Oly was only born with a hump. She's otherwise perfectly normal. She serves as the narrator to the entire novel and has a problem speaking up. Her stories are delivered as written words, intended for her very own daughter. The problem is she didn't want her daughter raised with the stigma of the Binewski family. She gave up her daughter and never spoke to her. Her journaling of the freakshow and her adult life is intended to convince her daughter to be proud of her unique condition. What Oly seems to lack for in volume, she makes up for with sincerity. Geek Love is a very powerful novel. It's not the kind of book you can read and brush off when you're finished. Perhaps you'll be disgusted by the entire book and have trouble sleeping that night. Perhaps you'll be haunted by the dark humor and wordplay. Or perhaps you'll be struck by the emotional resonance of Oly, and connect with her honesty and bravery in a way that will leave you begging for more. Anyway you read it, you will probably be left with a very strong reaction to Geek Love.
Labels: geek love, katherine dunn
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, Part 3 DATE: 2/28/2009 02:12:00 PM ----- BODY: One more part coming tonight. Hopefully I'm finally getting over whatever's been making me so ill/exhausted/migrainy these past 2+ weeks and can soon function normally in society again. Hopefully. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, Part 3 I find it hard to imagine that sideshow based entertainment like Geek Love could exist without one of the most controversial and career destroying films of all time. Freaks is Tod Browning's opus. Tod Browning could have become one of the most successful directors of all time. There is no denying he was a prolific director in the early days of Hollywood: 58 films in 17 years is nothing to sneeze at. That's roughly 3 1/2 films a year on average, though he did direct less films each year. He directed 62 films in total before giving up 7 years after Freaks. His most famous work would have to be Dracula, starring Bela Lugosi. I wish I could find a clip of one of the more atmospheric elements of the film, but this does the job nicely. Browning was not afraid to leave the camera on a performer. Look how long the cuts are between Van Helsing and Dracula in that clip, how much space is left for genuine reaction and character development, how effective the twitch of a lip or tilt of a face was when given enough time to sink in. It still gives me chills after so many viewings. The release of Freaks a year later in 1932 was a long time coming. Tod Browning pushed MGM Studios to purchase the rights to a short story called "Spurs" by Tod Robbins years before. The story concerns a little person falling in love with a bareback rider at the circus, only to be targeted by the rider and her real lover when they discover he has received a large inheritance. The plans fall asunder when the rider insults the little person on their wedding night, claiming she can carry him from one side of France to the other on her shoulders, humiliating her new husband. As revenge, he forces the rider to carry him on her shoulders a distance equal to the width of France. It's a disturbing concept that forms the loose basis of Browning's film. Freaks has been experiencing a sort of renaissance in film culture. What was once disregarded as pure exploitation is now appreciated in three very different lights. One, for the skill with which Browning made the film and speculation as to how much better his original cut of the film had to be. Two, as well crafted historical documentation of many famed sideshow performers. Three, as a very effective horror film. All three ideas are a validation of Browning's skill, and truly point out the loss created by his retirement in 1939. I'll leave you with the most famous scene of the film, for now: the wedding night:Labels: dracula, freaks, geek love, katherine dunn, tod browning
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn: Part 2 DATE: 2/26/2009 12:46:00 PM ----- BODY: I will go full circle back into a closer text based analysis on Saturday as I feel Tuesday glossed over far too many issues. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn: Part 2 Geek Love could not exist without the strange and disturbing world of the freak show. Assuming the rough definition of an exhibition of oddities or rarities, we can safely say the earliest documented case of a freak show comes from the 1630s, where Lazarus Colloredo toured throughout Italy displaying his parasitic twin brother Joannes Baptiste. An etching follows:
Peter I the Great of Russia should perhaps be credited with the earliest instance of a more familiar incarnation of the freak show in the 18th Century. He collected human oddities at Russia's first museum, the Kuntskammer. This marked the known introduction of the variety element of the freak show. The collection did not travel as we would imagine freak shows do.
Popularity of the freak show did not really gain popularity in the United States until the 1840's. This was after famous "Siamese" twins Chang and Eng were exhibited in America. After a documented telling by J.G. Milligan, P.T. Barnum began touring his "human curiosities" throughout the world. Tom Thumb was the first, though he was by no means the last. The Wild Men of Borneo and Zip the Pinhead soon followed, and the Barnum museum would list 13 known "human curiosities."
So called "dime museums" quickly followed Barnum's lead in providing "edutainment" through freak shows. Aimed at the lower class, wild stories were invented for countless acts like Zip the Pinhead as a false front to exhibit "human curiosities," soon "freaks," for shock and amusement. The first Philadelphia World's Fair even exhibited wild Australian Children and a fat lady as part of its festivities.
In 1880, Coney Island started its first freak show. Soon, a person could hold a lucrative career recruiting freaks for various shows, real or created.
By the end of the 19th Century, scientists began theorizing and investigating actual reasons for the existence of these "human curiosities." One of the earliest theories proposed that freaks were one off anomalies pulled from the early evolutionary stages of man. Scientific American, in 1908, published an article decrying the exhibition of freaks. And by the 1940s, the view that these shows were taking advantage of people with real medical conditions began to take over, slowly putting an end to the traditional freak show.
While various performers have attempted to revive the traditional freak show, the acts have been met with strong opposition. An exhibition of fetuses in jars was shut down by the police; other people with medical deformities were barred from certain venues and could not rely on their physical condition to earn income.
By the 2000's, a new style of freak show had developed. Self made freaks, like Enigma - a man covered in jigsaw puzzle tattoos and other body modification procedures, began touring with a more extreme variety of acts. These sometimes include suspensions - hanging from hooks through various parts of the body - and other surreal and awe inducing acts. Some of the performers, like Black Scorpion, actual have the same medical conditions as earlier freak show performers, and use these venues as a way to comment on the past and current treatment of like people.
Now that we have a solid foundation of the history of freak shows, we can continue on with a closer look at Geek Love and other freak show related media on Saturday.Labels: freak show, geek love, katherine dunn
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: New Theme: Geek Love by Katherine Dunn DATE: 2/24/2009 08:51:00 AM ----- BODY: While I've anticipated writing about Geek Love for quite a long time, I'm upset at the circumstances surrounding its discussion. It's all my fault. I kept telling myself "I have time to finish Watchmen. The film doesn't come out till March." Then I said, "I can finish it the week before the film and write about it." Then I realized, "Oh crap. Everyone is going to write about Watchmen next week. Better stay up to finish it." And then I just woke up realizing I fell asleep plowing through it last night. Meaning my Watchmen week is happening the week of the film, rather than the week before. At least I can discuss the film that Saturday, as I'll be seeing the film opening day with my brother. And possibly opening night with friends if it isn't awful. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, Part 1 I'll come right out and say it: Geek Love might be my favorite novel of all time. It's certainly in the top 3, with Hard Times by Dickens and The Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber. Take my personal taste for what it's worth. I like offbeat literature and I'm not afraid to say it. Novels don't get much stranger than Katherine Dunn's masterful Geek Love. Following the life of Oly, a genetically engineered albino hunchback considered too normal by her side show family, Dunn unfolds a story oozing with dark humor and genuine shocks. I think an excerpt better establishes the tone:"When your mama was the geek, my dreamlets," Papa would say, "she made the nipping off of noggins such a crystal mystery that the hens themselves yearned toward her, waltzing around her, hypnotized with longing. 'Spread your lips, sweet Lil,' they'd cluck, 'and show us your choppers!'"Fear not the spoilers, as this is the opening paragraph of the novel. That's tame compared to almost everything that follows. Like descriptions of "Crystal" Lil's current medical state after being treated with various drugs and chemicals during pregnancy to build a family side show. Or Oly's brother Arty, who attempts to form a cult celebrating his fins and flippers. Or Ella and Iphy, conjoined twins and piano experts. Or little "Chick," who was cursed by being born with no physical deformities. Or even the twisted plots of the father, Al Binewski, who wants nothing more than to make the sideshow a profitable family affair. I'm linking to a series of quotations from Katherine Dunn to finish this post. While not everything is applicable to Geek Love, you should gain a pretty good understanding of her style and interests expressed in her books. This week will have some interesting turns, and possibly multiple posts on Saturday to better mine the territory connected to Geek Love.
Labels: geek love, katherine dunn
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Still Sick, Mina Loy over, Twittering Oscars DATE: 2/22/2009 03:24:00 PM ----- BODY: Still very sick. Going back to bed. Might wind up at doctor tomorrow. As such, I have to bid a sad farewell to my Mina Loy topic. I'm starting a new topic on Tuesday but will certainly find a way to showcase some of the topics researched for the Loy week at another time. Finally, I have an alarm set for 7:00. I will be attempting to Twitter the Oscars, so long as I don't pass out or get a migraine. Should be interesting.Labels: announcement, oscars, twitter
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Sick DATE: 2/21/2009 06:31:00 PM ----- BODY: Very, very sick right now. Hurts to look at computer screen. If I feel better tomorrow, I will post something more substantive. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Mina Loy: Part 2 DATE: 2/19/2009 10:02:00 PM ----- BODY: Sorry this is coming 14 hours later than usual. I had a 10 page paper due today, written in two installments: 4:30-7:45 AM, and 11:30-1:45 PM. Fill 8:00-11:15 and 2:00-5:30 with class, then 5:35-9:45 with rehearsal and there you have it. That and the proselytizing for votes. Have you voted for Horror 101 yet using that nifty banner over on the right? I'll still be up half the night catching up on this kind of thing. Due to time constraints, I will be doing the Saturday topic today and saving the big bang of explosive prose for Saturday. Mina Loy: Part 2 I already introduced you to the Jesus on Clothesline mixed media piece Mina Loy did. Stunning, yes? That was much later in her career, though the influence of Futurism is still apparent. I really like Futurist art, especially when it straddles multiple styles. Take, for example, this gorgeous Cubo-Futurist hybrid:
Or what of this lovely example of early Italian Futurism from Severini:
And you can't forget Futurist film, the earliest of which comes from Anton Bragaglia:
I'm cutting it short, people. Apologies all around. I need sleep.Labels: bragaglia, futirism, malevich, mina loy, severini
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Huge Favor to Ask DATE: 2/18/2009 09:34:00 AM ----- BODY: Hey guys. I have a really, really big favor to ask of you. The book I'm in, Horror 101: The A-List of Horror Films and Monster Movies, Vol. 1 ,was nominated for Best Book of 2008 at the Rondo Awards. This is a pretty big deal for me and my 77 fellow contributors and we would really appreciate your vote. Just go to the Rondo Awards page, copy and past any of the many categories you have interest in, and e-mail your selections to taraco@aol.com . You have to include your real name at the bottom, otherwise the vote doesn't count. Wouldn't it be nice to say you kind of sort of know an award winning author? Even better, wouldn't you like to really reward a man who has worked non-stop for almost three years pulling this project together? Aaron Christensen is really a stand up guy and this recognition would mean the world to him.Labels: announcement, horror 101
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: New Topic: Mina Loy DATE: 2/17/2009 08:01:00 AM ----- BODY: I don't think I've unclenched my teeth since Thursday night. I'm so stressed out from those nasty parents, my voice is suffering and I'm coming down with something. That is the absolute worse case scenario a month from production, especially since I finally have been given rehearsal time to push the students through the proper performance style for the music. Apparently, the choreographer (who is voluntarily retiring, but not till after this show is finished) has convinced the director that this is a dance show above everything else and he needs all the rehearsal time. I wasn't aware that a mostly sung through musical with 10 leads was actually meant to be performed like Movin' Out. New Topic: Mina Loy, Part 1 I don't think it's a secret that Modernism is probably my favorite style of literature. I could make a case for Realism or Pre-Victorian Gothic, but that evidence is far more limited when I find myself voluntarily picking up tome after tome of Modernist literature. I mean, I'm currently taking my fourth course with a strong connection to Modernism (1: freshman honors seminar tracing how literature shifted from Realism to Modernism and beyond, focusing on Modernist drama; 2: a history course that focused on Modernist design style and taught by a professor who appreciated my external research on appropriately connected literature; 3: a seminar on James Joyce mostly focusing on Ulysses; 4: my current seminar on Modernism which sadly is mostly focusing on poetry and skipping actual Modernist prose (Heart of Darkness? only approached from modern race criticism? give me a break)). Plus, there are always new discoveries and classifications in the period that take a while to be accepted or classified. One of my favorite recent discoveries is Mina Loy. There are a few ways you might have heard of her before: she had a brief, passionate relationship with Futurist leader Fillipo Marinetti upon moving to Italy, only to leave him and the group because of their connection to Fascism; she was a close friend to Gertrude Stein and a regular in the salon community; and is still well respected within the art community for her mixed media work:
What I've grown to love of her is her poetry. While she was alive, her contemporaries - including Stein, Pound, Eliot, and Marinetti - praised her poetry and fully embraced her as a writer. And then, nothing. Cursory research is indicating the main resurgence of Loy's poetry started picking up momentum in 1998, over 30 years after her death.
Perhaps the most remarkable element of her poetry is the use of space. Woolfe had her semi-colon, Dickinson had her dash, and Loy had_____her_____space. Unlike the wretched example just provided, Loy's use of space actually facilitates the meaning of the poem. It's as easy to swallow as a well placed coma. Take, for example, this openning of her poem "The Effectual Marriage, or The Insipid Narrative of Gina and Miovanni" (1917):
Even a space isn't just a space, as the length of space varies throughout the poem. This poem was written about her relationship with Futurist Giovanni Papini, another man she left because of Fascism. The door image is pulled throughout the entire poem, as she hypothesizes that Gina can never fully connect with Miovanni as they are on two separate planes of existence. Not because of gender, but because of life concerns; Gina keeps the house in order and serves his every need, while Miovanni is living in outer space figuring out concepts she'll never understand.
The spaces work to expand meaning. The space after the names indicates that no one quite understands why the relationship works. The space after "They knew" indicates a confidence that otherwise might not be as sincere. And the spaces between the last two lines of the excerpt are supposed to pull the reader into an almost hypnotic state, pulling them into the relationship they might fail to otherwise get.
Loy wrote a good bit of lengthy poetry considering all of her other interests. She wrote, for example, a poem on James Joyce's Ulysses, with eighteen stanzas connected to her interpretation of the mythological influence of the Odyssey in each of the eighteen chapters. She also wrote a manifesto on Futurism, another manifesto on a lesser known post-Futurist group, a gorgeous essay on her friendship with and admiration of Gertrude Stein, and a very informative essay on what was considered Modernist poetry while she stayed in Europe.
Eventually, Loy grew frustrated with the European scene and left for America, where she participated in theatrical works for many years before focusing her attention on mixed media art. Mina Loy is one of the rare artists who was very good in many fields, and whose influence and recognition might suffer because her output in any given field isn't as expansive as her contemporaries.
The discussion should take an interesting turn on Thursday.Labels: fillipo marinetti, futurism, gertrude stein, gina and miovanni, giovanni papini, james joyce, mina loy, modernism
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: The 2009 Grammys: Part 3 DATE: 2/14/2009 07:00:00 AM ----- BODY: I mentioned in December how an obnoxious pair of parents was trying to bully the public education system into changing the rules for their daughter in an extracurricular activity because she is a senior. Guess what? They won. Now a girl has been removed from a part a month before the show because the family knew enough people in the board of ed to toss in the suggestion that, with 1.8 million to cut from the budget, Drama was expendable. Of course, they'll now go back on those rumblings and point out how maybe the varsity sports team doesn't need, say, 4 new uniforms per student each year. And the oh so popular cut the music programs. Apparently, the school system thinks instrumental, vocal, and orchestral performance are luxuries, and all students actually need is music appreciation. I could rant for a while, and I won't. My job is safe, and even safer now that the awful choreographer has been forced into early retirement by the principal and replaced. Safest of all is the drama teacher's desire to ensure she has a source of income coming in just in case by starting a for profit community theater group. So, yay? Students don't have performing arts anymore but at least I keep my job? I'll end on this: does the school need to spend a half a million dollars on two robotics teams? Or provide free room and board to cheerleaders traveling to competition when music students always had to pay out of pocket? I think there are clear budget cuts (like, why is the superintendent earning $600,000+ a year or why do three Pre-k through 2nd grade schools need vice principals, deans of discipline, and 8+ member secretarial pools?) The 2009 Grammys: Part 3: There are some categories that seem very strange to be honoring. For example: why is there a category honoring promotional material that often results in record labels really losing a lot more money than they should on an artist? I'm speaking, of course, of Best Short Form Music Video. Although it might be nice to think in more idealistic tones, the fact is that music videos are roughly 4 minute commercials to sell records. They really don't earn money for television stations, and attempts to commercialize the medium (do you remember Music Video Singles? or what about iTunes downloadable videos?) have not been particularly successful. If commercial success didn't include such a strong need for televised advertising, there wouldn't be nearly as many flashy, over the top, bloated, lumbering, monstrous music videos produced. These were the nominees for Best Short Form Music Video: Erykah Badu - "Honey" - Honestly, I thought this was the clear winner. It's the most innovative and interesting of the nominees, and arguably the most polished presentation: Gnarls Barkley - "Who's Gonna Save My Soul" - This is also an interesting video, but the production of it overshadows the song by quite a bit. Let's be honest: way too gore-intensive for non-horror awards: Jack White and Alicia Keys - "Another Way to Die" - It's a James Bond song with a slick video; in other words, it's an honor to be nominated: Radiohead - "House of Cards" - Another cool, strong, weird video from Radiohead: Which leaves us with the winner, the video that leaves me with a wtf reaction to the Grammys this year: Weezer - Pork and Beans - Oh look, they copied Internet memes. How...special? Precious? Really, really irritating to see creative theft be rewarded over four nominees who had different ideas?: I'm leaving it there. Still really upset about those awful parents. Not even joking: I almost quit the show. I was closer to physically attacking the father, and closest to telling him what I really thought of his daughter's "incredible" "talent". And I'm not an angry person. It takes a lot to work me up. New topic on Tuesday. See you then.Labels: alicia keys, drama, erykah badu, gnarls barkley, grammys, jack white, music video, Radiohead, weezer
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: The 2009 Grammys, Part 2 DATE: 2/12/2009 06:20:00 AM ----- BODY: Special thanks to the mucky-mucks at Pajiba for giving me third place in the Best Alternative Zombie Titles contest; I guess I'll have to buy my own copy of The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, aka Let Sleeping Corpses Lie. Here was the bizarre entry:3. Oklahoma Outbreak! by Robert From the twisted minds that brought you Carousel - a musical of spousal abuse and pedophilia - and South Pacific - the greatest racist war musical ever created, comes the next iteration of terror: Oklahoma Outbreak! In a sunny farm town, on a sunny farm day, where the corn grows as high as an elephant’s eye, a simple way of life is about to die. The long standing feud between the farmers and the cowhands has reached a tentative peace over a basket lunch gone terrible. A deranged cowhand named Curly thought he could eliminate the farmers from the Oklahoma territory by poisoning the water system. What he didn’t count on was the ancient In’jun burial ground down by the old swimmin’ hole. Now Judd, cowboy Curly, and Laurey - the lady torn between them - must band together to fight off the vengeful wave of In’jun savages bent on scalping heads and scooping brains. Featuring unforgettable hits like “Surrey with a Scope On Top,” “(I’m Just a’ In’jun who) Cain’t Say No to Brains,” and “Out of the Grave/Head Shot Ballet,” Oklahoma Outbreak! is good ol’ fashioned fun for all ages.The 2009 Grammys, Part 2 Today, I will be discussing that phenomenon that happens almost every year. That puzzling circumstance that can make heads spins and record labels cry. To put it plainly: one best new artist nominee, showered in loads of nominations, goes home completely empty handed. This year, that nominee was Jazmine Sullivan. So what happened? A cynic would just say she clearly wasn't the best in any nominated category. A realist would say she didn't receive enough votes. It really is one of the stranger cases in recent memory. Take, for example, India.Arie. She lost most of her categories to Alicia Keyes. Fine. Two artists with a strong R&B aesthetic battled it out and one was named clearly superior. Cool. That was direct competition. But with Jazmine Sullivan, she didn't have internal competition from other Best New Artist nominees. She rarely hit the same competition going from category to category. For those who don't know, Sullivan was nominated for Best New Artist (lost to Adele), best Contemporary R&B Album (lost to Mary J Blige), Best Traditional R&B Performance (lost to Al Green/Anthony Hamilton), and Best R&B Song (lost to Ne-Yo et. al). And for those who don't even know who Jazmine Sullivan is, here is her lead-off single (I'd say debut, but this is her second go at the industry, and thank goodness persistence paid off), Bust Your Windows (scroll to about 0:45 for the song) Very nice voice, interesting interpretation style, and demonstrates a strong knowlede of and appreciation for music throughout the album. So what went wrong? With Jazmine Sullivan, for once, the artist was just nominated in tough categories. With the exception of Best New Artist, she was only nominated in categories with a ton of heavy hitters. Best Contemporary R&B album put her up against an Album of the Year nominee and a previous winner. Best R&B Song tends to go to the biggest R&B single of the eligibility period, and that was not Sullivan's Bust Your Windows. What this particular set of nominations indicates is a strong respect from the R&B branch of NARAS. Being nominated in both traditional and contemporary categories acknowledges the diversity and strength of her style, while sneaking in categories loaded with industry veterans shows the potential for a very strong career. Jazmine Sullivan is one to watch out for. This may not have been the most surprising series of losses throughout the night, but it was unexpected for me. Saturday ends the Grammy Round-Up with a look at some of the stranger categories voted on by NARAS>
Labels: best new artist, bust your windows, grammys, jazmine sullivan
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: The 2009 Grammy Awards: Part 1 DATE: 2/10/2009 08:45:00 AM ----- BODY: I realized when I was listening to the Grammys, talking on the phone, and writing online that I should have just Twittered the Grammys. It would have made my life a lot easier. Now I feel like I have to discuss them, and the new format allows me the freedom to do so. Believe me, the Academy Awards will be Twittered live; otherwise, I'll spend a week going "But Sally Hawkins gave the best performance of the year" and no one wants that. The 2009 Grammy Awards: Part 1 It all started with a mediocre performance of a mediocre song by a band capable of doing much better: Thankfully, the show did pick up to a certain extent. The conclusion hasn't been this inevitable since O Brother, Where Art Thou? won every possible Grammy, seemingly including categories it wasn't nominated in. The Plant/Krauss album was inevitable. It's what NARAS eats up: strong collaboration by/rebirth of established artists that otherwise might not work together. It worked for (in recent history) Santana (Supernatural), Steely Dan (Two Against Nature), Allison Krauss et. al (O Brother soundtrack), Ray Charles et. al (Genius Loves Company), The Dixie Chicks (Taking the Long Way), and Herbie Hancock (River: The Joni Letters). That isn't to say that these winners were undeserving; they put out solid albums worthy of recognition. It's just most bloggers and message board users aren't always familiar with all of the nominees. They see their favorite album nominated and go, "Clearly, it's the only right choice." But that's not how it works. Here are representative singles from each of the nominated albums in Album of the Year: Coldplay, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends" Lil Wayne, "Tha Carter III" my sincerest apologies, I only just noticed a very unwelcome surprise caused by those pants; still, it best represents the approach of the album Ne-yo, "Year of the Gentleman" Robert Plant and Allison Krauss, "Raising Sand" Radiohead, "In Rainbows" So those are the nominees. In broad sweeping generalizations: Rock, Hip-Hop, Contemporary R&B, Country, Alternative. If the Grammy award was handed out for innovation, the only clear choice would have been Radiohead. Not because their music was anything particularly new, but because they actually pushed the medium of distribution and showed a new, potentially viable way for independent/less known artists to get their music out. For those unaware, Radiohead offered In Rainbows as a digital download; it cost however much you wanted it to cost. No pricing scheme, no bloated, out of control download rates, no strings attached. If you thought it was worth $5, you got it for $5. That was brilliant marketing. For me personally, I never really got into Radiohead. I understand the skill behind the music, but from a personal aesthetic standpoint: I don't like falsetto. Thom Yorke uses falsetto a lot. He has a perfectly nice falsetto, great even. I just can only listen to falsetto so long. The album In Rainbows is very strong, has a nice flow, and clearly had a lot of support to be nominated as an alternative album in this category. If the Grammy Award was handed out for diversity, Lil Wayne was the clear choice. His rhyme scheme mashes together seemingly incongruent images into sensible descriptions that stick with you. His cadence/flow is nice and controlled, as hard or as soft as he needs to be. He has club anthems, love songs, boasts, and just plain fun music. However, let's be honest with ourselves: This man put out a single about being licked like a lollipop. Sure, it won Best Rap Song, but that kind of music probably turned a lot of voters away. For those unaware, voters are considered experts by NARAS in particular fields. A hip-hop producer would be invited to vote in hip-hop categories; they can only submit nominations in specific fields, as well as record/album/song/best new artist; they can only vote in their field (actually, in less areas of their field) and record/album/song/best new artist. So Lil Wayne clearly went over well in the Rap categories, but not so much in the general categories where everyone, from New Age to Hawaiian music, is allowed to vote. If the Grammy was handed out for the most commercial album, we'd have a two horse race. In this corner, the gentleman himself: Ne-Yo. He released commercially viable singles with cross-over appeal between urban and contemporary hit radio stations. His sales were strong, and the album was very polished. This style of R&B is safer to the voters, as it can also be viewed as pop music. And in this corner, Mr. Paltrow et. al: Coldplay. The music industry has a hard on for Coldplay. Everyone I know that works in it goes on and on at every opportunity that Coldplay is the future of Rock. Coldplay is the only new band that could sell out arenas and eventually do a never-ending, sold out, "Last Tour Ever". They make "real" rock music and clearly appeal to a wide audience. Believe it or not, Coldplay is considered completely commercial by the industry. They sell records, they sell albums, and they sell seats. They bring in awards and they bring in good reviews. The music isn't even important anymore when discussing Coldplay, only the dollar signs. That is a huge shame; fortunately, their music is meritorious and Viva la Vida offered the only real challenge to Raising Sand. That leaves us with what should have been the obvious choice for everyone complaining. Plant and Krauss put out a country record with mainstream, adult contemporary appeal. Did you know there are 8 country awards at the Grammys? Have you ever noticed that there is always at least one country act nominated for Best New Artist? Have you ever noticed how there's almost always a country act in the race for Album of the Year? Have you noticed how that country album tends to win if it was made by an established artist? Then where's the surprise? Listen, I'm not the biggest fan of country music. I like The Carter Family, Dolly Parton, The Judds, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, and Nickel Creek. I've enjoyed the crossover songs from a few other acts. I listened to the Plant/Krauss album and was very much impressed. The songwriting is strong and the vocal arrangements are interesting. The album works as a cohesive whole. Oh yeah, and it's not a straight up country album. It's laced with rock/folk elements, jazz tones, bluesy vocals, and electronic manipulation. It's absolutely a collaboration between two very different artists. And it works. It's very nice. I'm cool with people who genuinely think another album deserved to win; I would personally give it to Lil Wayne (picking from their nominees; very different if I picked my top 5 from the eligibility period), but that's just me. What I can't stand is the "ZOMGZ! Taht album is teh suck! (I never heard it, but I know) it's bad (because they beat "x"). Fucking Grammys are completely out of touch with music. PHaildogSZ!" I'm not saying NARAS is completely in tune with what America likes; I am saying that NARAS is comprised of people who control the industry, work in the industry, and perform for the industry. If they don't understand the commercial music industry, who does?Labels: Album of the Year, Allison Krauss, coldplay, grammys, lil wayne, Ne-yo, Radiohead, Robert Plant, U2
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood, Part 3 DATE: 2/07/2009 11:15:00 AM ----- BODY: I have been given a reprieve on stepping up to play lead piano in the pit for the show I'm working on. The issue was pushed even after I calmly explained to the director that for the amount of time I have to dedicate to arrangements and teaching, there was no way in one month I could play the entire score well enough for the production. Now I've been told to take private lessons to do it next year since the director has no intentions of rehiring a double-booking piano player. The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood, Part 3 Atwood's influence can be seen in many other projects. Most obviously, novels like Surfacing and Lady Oracle feature a similar detachment from the primary characters, exaggerated rhetoric, and dry layered writing capable of eliciting a laugh at seemingly inopportune times. Another obvious area of influence comes from her own work in reclaiming the literature of Canada and bringing it out into the greater public sphere. CanLit exists, to a certain extent, due to the earlier successes of Atwood and her Canadian contemporaries in prose and poetry. Similar styles of writing, detachment from characters, unusual subject matter, heightened sensibilities, etc., can be seen in a wide variety of prose, including one of my favorite novels of all time, Geek Love by Katherine Dunn. Advertising gags and commentary similar to The Edible Woman can be seen in novels like The Learners by Chip Kidd. While the works that followed Atwood's debut novel may be coincidentally connected, the success of The Edible Woman certainly influenced the literary landscape. One of the more unique areas Atwood's novel may have influenced is the approach to detachment in film. A film like In My Skin, about a woman who is so obsessed with her career and doing everything right that she loses the connection to herself and changes her life forever thanks to a cut on her leg, might not exist without the character arc presented in The Edible Woman. And, as a final disturbing example of Atwood's influence through The Edible Woman: Atwood fans have been known to hold parties where they reenact the penultimate scene of The Edible Woman as a centerpiece to their celebration. Visit again on Tuesday for a new topic. And try your hand at The Edible Woman. It's a fun, quick read. On a final note, here is the closest Margaret Atwood has ever come to extensively investigating a sport, ala Joyce Carol Oates' On Boxing. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood: Part 2 DATE: 2/05/2009 11:32:00 AM ----- BODY: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood: Part 2 There's so many ways to explore the lead up to the creation of The Edible Woman I'm almost lost. Do I go into Atwood's resolve to create a successful novel set in Canada in an effort to prove the critics wrong? What about the references to advertising campaigns and marketing techniques and how they evolved? There even a strong eye of design in the novel, intentionally describing colors that clash outdated styles with cutting edge design for the 1960s to create a sense of unbalance. But no. I believe I will go into the names after one indulgent diversion. At one point in the novel, Marian is convinced to dress in a sexier way, with much makeup and a bright red dress. Her fiancé, Peter, questions why she would even consider it and hints that she looks completely ridiculous. Jezebel, anyone? Only in this case, the Jezebel character, Julie (here Marian) is obsessed with doing everything the right way, and the Preston character (here Peter) has full control over everything. The embarrassment over the decision and the mocking display of the get-up is reversed from an emotional standpoint and really pushes the gender rhetoric further. Onto the names. Atwood intentionally picked names for the novel that evoked certain ideas. Marian, for example, might make you think of Maid Marian, or perhaps even Marian the Librarian. It's a meek and mild association, a proper woman who does everything right and wouldn't dare stick a toe out of line. They are wooed and caught by men that don't initially seem to be perfect matches based on differences. Atwood preys on this idea throughout the novel, starting at the moment of the happily ever after and slowly destroying it. What of a character like Ainsley? Is it a coincidence that a traditionally male name was given to the female character who decides the problem with families is the existence of a father? The woman who decides to prey on a pedophile to become impregnated and be a single mother? Probably not. The fact that the origins are Old English may have had something to do with it as well, since Marian and Ainsley are roommates in the novel. A trickier name to decipher a historical context for is Clara. Most likely, this is one of the play on word names that occurs throughout the novel, placing the mother of two with a third on the way as a source of clarity. Judging from the census information on Clara, it would have been a very prevalent name at the time, adding in the possibility of Clara being chosen to signify the wife and mother route as the normal way of life. More fun can be had with the names of the men, and intentionally so. Why else would a man named Fisher be called "Fish" and considered a good catch in the novel? Atwood is playing with associations to push her purpose to the forefront without beating the reader over the head with needless explanation. Take Duncan, for example. Duncan is a depressed graduate student obsessed with death. He's ghostly pale and rail thin. Aside from Duncan being a strange name for a strange character, it happens to be the name of the murdered king in Macbeth. Marian is almost haunted by the presence of this strange student who claims to know, in jest or in truth, exactly what she is going through and what she plans to do at all times. Peter, Marian's perfect fiancé, is probably a reference to Saint Peter. He's strong, grounded, and willing to guide Marian to every decision she needs to make. He's her key to a higher quality of life than she currently lives, and he guards that possibility by taking control of the wedding plans. Another distinct aspect of the character seems to connect with Peter and the Wolf, in that Peter's hunting instincts and experience are brought out by other characters; he's almost guiding others to prey on Marian's weakness without even realizing it. I'm short on time, so I'll have to end it here. Please return on Saturday to see what bizarre and wonderful work Atwood's The Edible Woman has influenced in various ways.Labels: ainsley, clara, duncan, edible woman, fisher, jezebel, margaret atwood, marian, peter
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Weekly Theme: The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood DATE: 2/03/2009 08:36:00 AM ----- BODY: This will be the only mention of it on the blog, but I have to put it out there. RuPaul's Drag Race is one of the better reality shows to come around in a long time. Part Top Model, part Project Runway, and a whole lot of campy fun. You know the production staff gets the joke because the contestants and RuPaul are given exaggerated soft filter lighting (pink, at that) every time they appear in drag. Plus, Santino of PR fame is a panel judge, and RuPaul is doing her best Tyra (and out Tyra-ing her). You can watch the first episode at the Logo website. The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood: Part 1 The first thing to realize when approaching Margaret Atwood is her intentions. Nothing is done by accident. Down to the color of a pair of gloves or the placement of a photo on a desk, everything is intentional. While no author can control the reaction of the public to their work, Atwood does everything within her power to steer a reader in the right direction. The Edible Woman is a dry, quirky novel concerning Marian. Marian lives in a large, unnamed Canadian city in the mid 1960s. She works in market research, literally sandwiched on the second floor between the lower level male employees and the upper level male executives. She lives her life in a responsible, dependable way. Everyone can trust Marian as Marian will never do anything unexpected or inappropriate, like get pregnant and lose her job or burn down the upstairs apartment she lives in. Everything changes when her boyfriend Peter proposes to her. She's stuck. Worst of all, she begins to humanize her food, placing herself in the role of the consumed and finding herself unable to eat. This is just the initial thrust of the main character's story. There's also Ainsley, who has decided she will trick a man into impregnating her so she can be a single mother. There's Duncan, who is a depressed, cynical grad student who might finish one sentence of a long overdue paper each day because he's afraid of not writing something new and worthwhile. There's Clara, who is about to give birth to her third child in a rather short period of time, wondering how it could have happened when she and her husband were so careful. The supporting cast is where the novel really shines. Atwood took many risks with her debut novel. There's a reason it sat in publishing limbo until she won the Governor General's Literary Award for Poetry (think Pulitzer, only in Canada): it's out there. The characters are all gross exaggerations of gender stereotypes. The symbols and motifs blur between reality and fantasy. And I can't imagine how the ending could be more polarizing. It's possible to read The Edible Woman and just enjoy the language. It's clever. It's funny. It's a quick read. You could also read it slowly, attempting to dissect how she evolved every image from the first chapter of the novel until the final page. I was discussing this book recently and didn't even realize after two reads that hunting was such a strong symbol in the book; now I can't turn a page without seeing it. How else does the book work? It's a Mad Men world, and Atwood showcases what choices women had during that time period (ok, S3's time period, as the show is supposed to jump 3 years every new season). It offers glimpses into the less known market research aspect of advertising, most likely pulled from Atwood's own stint working at such a business (important note: Atwood does not write about herself; that's her claim and she's sticking to it). And it also shows just how talented Atwood is. This does not read like a debut novel. It's complex and wonderfully imaginative, and still holds up 40 years later as a great book. Thursday I will be examining different media that may have helped build up to the creation of The Edible Woman (not that they necessarily influenced Atwood, but began to push print, audible, and visual media in this direction); Saturday will be the modern connections.Labels: advertising, edible woman, mad men, margaret atwood
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Day 3: Repo! The Genetic Opera DATE: 1/31/2009 08:32:00 AM ----- BODY: A choreographer, who recently had open heart surgery, attempted to goad me into a fight at a rehearsal last night because a student put a chair in the wrong place on stage. He succeeded in getting my friend, who was working with me on staging the ballads, to quit the show. This can't be a normal theater situation, right? Wouldn't a mouthy, fight-picking choreographer not be invited back to work every show? On the plus side, a professional lighting designer was brought in to insure the students in the lighting booth aren't practicing their cues on a paying audience. 50 new lights are being hung in addition to what we have already; fancy lighting for, as the designer said, "a really spectacular rock show." Repo! The Genetic Opera: Day 3 For this last portion of the investigation of Repo! The Genetic Opera, I thought it would be interesting to examine the look of the film. It is, after all, a major source of the criticism against the film. Some that saw it in theaters thought the stock was awful because some scenes were blurred while others weren't; the lighting and color design also shifted between different tones of the same families. To put it another way, all the colors in a column are the same color; the tone is the only difference:
I can understand confusion when the film starts with the first row of red, then jumps to the fifth row of red, then switches back the first row and lightens slowly to the third row throughout the scene.
The best way of understanding the visual scheme of Repo! is to imagine it's a comic book film; not in the Spiderman or Iron Man sense, but in the 300 or Sin City sense. Repo! is all about visual storytelling to enhance musical storytelling. There's a reason an apartment building before a gore scene...
has a very different look than a scene with zydrate junkies in an alley...
Perhaps one of the strongest examples of this color storytelling is found in the work of Dario Argento. Known for the beautiful cinematography in his brutal gialli films, Argento consistently changes the expected reaction to a scene with the use of color. Many of the cues in Repo! seem influenced by the look of Suspiria, particularly the saturated hues before the big scare/jump scenes:
Notice how the colors, when taken out of context, look unrealistic. No hallway, especially in a dance school, would be lit red from wall to wall; that stained glass window would neither produce that much light at night nor diffuse into that particular gradient color pattern. But that's not the point. Argento created a vision of a nightmare.
Repo! director Bousman does the same in his film. The purpose in Repo! is to break off the dark side of GeneCo's organ loans (repomen, graverobbers, zydrate junkies) from the public image (Blind Mag, clean suits, dramatic lighting) from the true face of the company (gray areas everywhere, confrontations, manipulation). The distinction threw people off, for certain, but there's a reason for the shifting look.
Some other unique characteristics? Much of the transitions are accomplished through an animated comic book style, similar to the back story sequence of O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill Vol. 1. The film also mashes great practical set design with computer processing to really make the most of a limited budget. And I would be remiss to ignore the excellent practical effects, oozing in blood and style that punctuate some of the most entertaining sequences of the film. Repo! works exceptionally well as a horror film because of this commitment to a distinct, purposeful visual style.
And that will end the discussion of Repo! The Genetic Opera. Return on Tuesday for a new weekly topic and please enjoy Zydrate Anatomy:
Labels: color, dario argento, Darren Lynn Bousman, kill bill, Repo The Genetic Opera, suspiria
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Repo! The Genetic Opera: Part 2: Cast Contributions DATE: 1/29/2009 05:45:00 AM ----- BODY: So who else took the online Jeopardy test? I did it last night (was not going to skip a class on Margaret Atwood for a ten minute game show testplication) and wound up skipping 10 of 50 questions. Though I'm confident of the answers I did put down (and mad that a few of those skips were because the author of a book escaped me until the last second), methinks I won't be receiving any call for an interview. The final night of testing is tonight for the West Coast crowd at 8pm Pacific. Repo! The Genetic Opera: Part 2: Cast Contributions Repo! The Genetic Opera is a rather strange film. A not too distant future is rife with massive organ failures, leading to the rise of GeneCo's unscrupulous lending contracts; fail to pay up and they will collect what they gave you. And it's a musical. So what kind of cast can you possibly pull together for a low budget horror musical about organ harvesting? A very strange one, but not for the reasons you would think. You would expect an actor like Bill Moseley to be drawn to this sort of project. This is a man who has made a career out of appearing in bizarre horror films and standing out, for better or worse. Moseley has talent for this sort of material, but he needs the right director to bring out the best. Right now, he is probably best known for his collaborations with Rob Zombie as the sadistic backwoods maniac Otis Driftwood from House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. Appropriately creepy, Moseley provided a perfectly twisted backbone to the hyperactivity of House of 1000 Corpses and barren surroundings of The Devil's Rejects. He brings this sadistic streak with him for a vicious character in Repo!, though the results aren't as effective. His physical business when not singing is far stronger than his vocal abilities, though that is part of the role; why should ungrateful, uncouth, worthless grown children clearly incapable of running the family business be masterful singers in a musical? Another unsurprising choice was Paris Hilton. Vitriol or not, Paris's more popular film work has been in mediocre horror films Nine Lives and House of Wax (2005). This is partly because the films were marketed to show she died horribly violent deaths. This Razzie nominated performance is probably only Razzie nominated because she is Paris Hilton (the same way Lohan's competent work in the mediocre I Know Who Killed Me won her Razzie gold for being Lohan). She's perfectly competent in every way as Amber Sweet, especially since this grown child is completely self-absorbed and believes her vocal prowess is far greater than it actually is. Plus, more horrific circumstances are tossed at her than in those other two horror entries combined. She gets the second best effects sequence for a major character in the film. Beyond these two, some of the choices seem puzzling at first. The third grown child is played by Nivek Ogre, who is the lead singer of a band called Sick Puppy. This casting choice works out well partly by virtue of the character: he participates in a form of elective surgery where the entire face can be removed and replaced by another using large hooks installed in the head. It's as disturbing as it sounds, and means all Ogre has to do is sing beautifully; he does. So who else is important to the film? Let's see. We have a Spy Kid, Giles, Gino Barberini, the composer/writer of the film, and Sarah Brightman. Brightman and Paul Sorvino are up to the task vocally in the film. Clean, operatic performances abound when they open their mouths, lending a sense of authenticity to the proceedings. Anthony Head does his best to balance out a tricky dual role, though at times his voice seems to lack the variety to pull it off. The biggest surprise is Alexa Vega. Her singing is fine for the role, though her nuanced work as a teenager struggling to break free by any means possible brings back memories of Evan Rachel Wood's breakout role in Thirteen. The strange balancing act of Repo! The Genetic Opera is how many vocal pairings there are throughout the film. Brightman and Sorvino; Vega and Head; Vega and Zdunich; Vega and Brightman; Brightman and Head; Hilton, Vega, and Zdunich; Hilton, Moseley, and Ogre; Moseley and Ogre; Vega and Sorvino; Head and Sorvino. Then there are the implied pairings, such as Hilton and Brightman or Vega and Hilton/Moseley/Ogre. Combine that with the need for various styles of performance, from opera to prog rock, and you begin to realize how tricky casting this film had to be. The end result is certainly worth the struggle, as even in its weaker moments, it would be hard to imagine a different casting combination for the film.Labels: alexa vega, anthony head, bill moseley, nivek ogre, paris hilton, paul sorvino, Repo The Genetic Opera, sarah brightman
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Relaunch: Topic: Repo! The Genetic Opera DATE: 1/27/2009 08:23:00 AM ----- BODY: Congratulations! You have arrived at the relaunch of Sketch-y Details. Exciting changes have already been implemented, with more poised on the horizon waiting for just the right moment to charge into the coding. For one thing, I figured out how to make the font size larger, which means even I can read my own blog now if I choose. New color scheme and layout, as well. I've also reintroduced Adsense; feel free to ignore it. Now, the significant change: it's a brave new blog format. While I was at no shortage for books, films, and miscellanea to recommend, I just didn't enjoy working on the blog anymore. It was a grueling, restrictive format that locked me down in a specific way and limited the topics I could even discuss within a specific category (writing only). The change: weekly connected topics. What does this mean? Every week, I will research and prepare a broad reaching investigation of a topic that interests me. For example, let's say the weekly topic was Scanners. Does this mean three posts discussing the movie itself? No. Since art is not created in a vacuum, why should I expect this blog to do the same. While Scanners would be the cornerstone of the discussion, the posts might be more concerned with literature that influenced the creation of the film (I see the Lovecraft mythos conceit of monsters all around us and we can't see as a major influence), or perhaps historical events that are connected (government sponsored psychic research being the obvious one). Maybe I'll use it as a segue to discuss Stephen Lack (the polarizing star of the film) and how his artistic output and philosophy influenced the film. Or perhaps look into the work of the special effects artists who created the memorable design and effects for the film. And what has Scanners influenced? Who steals from the Cronenberg playbook in music? Or literature? Or art? Or television? It goes on and on. That's the game plan. The first topic is Repo! The Genetic Opera. What kind of person decides a horror musical about organ harvesting in a not too distant future is a great idea? Better yet, who could actually spend the time to turn such a strange concept into something worthwhile? Terrence Zdunich and Darren Smith collaborated to bring Repo! alive as a stageplay. They composed a very inventive score that teeters between opera, musical, and various genres of rock/alternative music. The result is called an opera, a classification I take issue with. Investigating the website for the initial stageplay, it's clear from clips of "Zydrate Anatomy" and "Chromaggia" that at one point this was legitimately an opera based around rock music. The songs follow classic rules of theory and balance out in expected ways within the context of opera. While I can't be certain, it seems to me that perhaps in an attempt to open up the material to a wider audience, the score was changed in significant ways to tone down some of the more subtle opera elements and shift the music towards the more traditional musical an American audience would better understand. I'm aware that at some sites, my claim that Repo! the film was a musical, not an opera, was considered a personal attack against its fans; however, I find it insulting that my argument was met with the reaction that musical theater has no merit and therefore I hated the film. I think the score is the greatest strength of the film, and short of sitting at my desk-side stage piano and transcribing the score note for note from the film to better classify it, I'm willing to leave it at this: Repo! the film is closer to the German singspiel (the midway transition between the height of formal opera and the early stage musical, normally filled with romance or comedy - Repo! has both, sung through and intended for a wide audience; yes, it's widely regarded as a style of opera, but that does not mean A) every singspiel is an opera in a classical sense and B) that everyone who has studied theory and examined representative scores agrees with this wide regard) than it is to a classical opera, and that's a good thing. So, two men brought Repo! to life, then, right? Wrong. While Terrence Zdunich and Darren Smith composed the show and wrote the book, there was one other man who had a significant impact on the early development of the show: Darren Lynn Bousman. That means that the man who directed the Saw sequels for years was the natural choice to direct the film adaptation because he directed the first ever stage production of Repo!. Bousman was a perfect match for the film even if he didn't previously work on the show because Repo! is all about the look of the film. He knows how to frame a shot, how to do creative editing that advances the story, and how to pull a consistent style of performance from a large cast. So what can you expect when you buy (or rent, cheapskates) Repo! The Genetic Opera? It's hard to describe, so why not end with one of the most visually compelling moments in the film? Chase the Morning has singing spokesperson Blind Mag visiting with young Shilo, a girl so ill she cannot safely leave her house without breathing equipment. It seems Blind Mag might have a purpose for visiting with Shilo before her last performance at a Genetic Opera: CHASE THE MORNINGLabels: announcement, Darren Lynn Bousman, Darren Smith, Repo The Genetic Opera, Terrence Zdunich
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: A Miscellaneous Announcement DATE: 1/22/2009 06:11:00 PM ----- BODY: Today is a day that will live in infamy. Someone drank the crazy juice over at Pajiba and named me the Eloquent Eloquence winner for the week. The post in question is a response to this, NSFW...uh...artistic creation involving unicorns, my formerly favorite mythical beast.(But our number one. Oh, our number one.) 1. I no longer wish for a real life unicorn. I no longer dream of brushing its mane and feeding it sugar cubes before riding into the sunset as its iridescent horn glowed rainbows even in the faintest light. Now I know the shocking truth: unicorns are filthy whores with over sized genitalia. There’s now a hole in my life not even a unicorn could fill. — Robert —- Unicorgy. Delightful.A cleverly worded sex joke won it for me. Much love to the site for permitting such smut to be unearthed from my twisted little mind. My sincerest apologies to the many confused Pajibites who don't get it. It's ok: I'm dry to a fault in my humor. I'll post a shot of the t-shirt when it arrives.
Labels: announcement
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Under Construction DATE: 1/20/2009 08:00:00 PM ----- BODY: Massive format changes coming next week. Same principle, different delivery vehicle. Please to enjoy this classic Margaret Atwood interview as penance for so many lost entires.Labels: announcement
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Gran Torino (2008) DATE: 1/15/2009 09:30:00 PM ----- BODY: It's that time of the year, folks. When I fall down at every opportunity and destroy all of my good clothing due to ice. I've been topped this time: my uncle, a mailman of many years, fell on a patch of ice and shattered his wrist. It only took the hospital 9 days to schedule his surgery. Film Rec: Gran Torino As far as I'm concerned, Gran Torino is the best American film of 2008. Say what you will about the supporting cast or Eastwood himself. I've heard it already and probably worse than you can imagine. I've been called a racist, an idiot, and Joe Six-pack for declaring it my top film. And I'm fine with that. If loving a film with a screenplay this strong is wrong, I don't want to be right. You might now Gran Torino as that film where Clint Eastwood shoots off racist remarks and yells at people to get off his lawn. And, if that's all you think it is, you are mistaken. Gran Torino is a moving study of a man, Walt, living in a world that no longer understands him. He's a grandfather who everyone believes is incapable of caring for himself due to his age. He's the last white person in his now ethnically diverse neighborhood. And he's a Korean War veteran who is haunted by demons of a much more personal nature. So, yes, he does yell at people to get off his lawn. It just happens to be the most powerful scene in a film this year and is edited in such a way for the trailer it almost seems absurd. Take into consideration that he is threatening a gang that tried to steal his car in an initiation ritual and are threatening to kill him for objecting to the act. Now add in how this gang is comprised of lost Hmong youth who would rather kill their own kind than let another young man have a chance at a decent future. Toss in the references to gang warfare with other cultural groups that are trying to wipe each other off the map. And end on the notion that this man is trying to protect the country he fought for and is more devoted to than his own family. Now: does "Get off my lawn" seem as ridiculous as it did before? And that's just the beginning of the film. Eastwood slowly ratchets up the tension through his character's relationship with the new parish priest, attempting to get fulfill Walt's wife's last wish of bringing Walt back to the church. Or Walt's family's disregard for anything that doesn't result in more money brought to their lives. Or Walt helping to build up a weak young man into someone capable of surviving in society. All of this would easily tilt to melodrama if Eastwood didn't make it a comedy. The situation is absurd not because that is the reality, but because Walt views his life this way. This a man who would rather sit on his deck with a cooler full of beer each day and not speak to anyone. His new neighbors and growing cultural community force him to break free from this by finally showing Walt some respect. When the film finally shifts to the drama you would expect from an Eastwood film, it's all the more powerful for taking the longer route. There are moments that could have been milked that are casually picked up and put back down like a photograph on a shelf. And there are incidental moments that are constantly pushed to the forefront to shift the dynamics in the film. There are some people who will never admit they like this film, and that's fine, too. For some, it's because Million Dollar Baby was so successful. Others just don't like older film styles. And still others will hate it because they refuse to admit they could enjoy a straightforward film without a big twist or Hollywood flash. Fine. I just recommend that people give this one a chance. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth by Adrienne Rich DATE: 1/13/2009 10:18:00 PM ----- BODY: I really am planning something special for the missed Midnight Rec. I just need a bit more time. How bout them Golden Globes, huh? Lots of unexpected treats, right? Woo? Book Rec: Telephone Ringing in the Labyrinth by Adrienne Rich Substitute this title for your favorite Rich collection if you don't care for this one. All of them are better than most, anyway. If you've been to college, you've probably encountered Aunt Jennifer's Tigers. You know, the very depressing poem about the woman weighed down by a dull marriage that will drag her down into a grave, so she does needlecraft tigers to be truly free? There's a lot more to Adrienne Rich than that anthology standard, that's for sure. What sets Telephone Ringing... apart from some of her other collections is the approach to the material. This collection is based more in possibility. It's not dealing in anger or outrage, just life. The poetry is mostly paired down to short lines and evolving imagery. In a way, it's quite similar to her earlier poems in form. The big difference is how open they are. While the ideas are certainly contained in a logical way, they don't feel restrained. There's depth to the poetry, but it's more readily accessible than, say, the bubbling intensity of Living in Sin. You don't have to wonder if something is happening with the milkman because everything is out in the open. If you haven't experienced a Rich collection, you'd be in for a treat with this one. The paperback is coming out in May if you want to hold out for a lower price tag, but I say it's completely worth it even at the 23.85+tax list price on the hardcover.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: I'm Exhausted DATE: 1/10/2009 08:04:00 PM ----- BODY: The theater teacher development day went as planned. I was completely humiliated in three workshops. Just a very tiring day. It swung from open dialogue lecture/seminar environments last year to running around the room mooing like a cow physically demanding (with no warning as to intensity beforehand) set-ups this year. The school I work for won an award at the theater night for having the best stage crew. Well deserved. They did a 30 second set change switching a full dressed formal early 20th century sitting room to the stark interior of Dracula's castle flawlessly, not to mention the bat wirework and effects controlled from the wings. There were plenty of surprises at the awards and for the most part the sponsoring university really seemed to spread the recognition around and get great prizes. Most of the acting winners, for example, are getting an audition and coaching session with a major agent in the NYC/Philly area as well as free tickets to big time theaters in NJ. There's room for improvement and the entire staff took the whole evening as a learning experience. Midnight Rec: I'm Exhausted I have to back out of a formal recommendation today. I've barely slept for days and really just cannot think of anything. I'll make it up to you guys, I swear.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: The Company of Wolves DATE: 1/08/2009 08:03:00 PM ----- BODY: Tomorrow I get to pretend to be a full fledged teacher for a professional development day. I get to take workshops on teaching rock scores to theater students, a free lunch, a networking session, and admittance to the high school theater awards being announced by someone from One Tree Hill. This is the sad day where maybe thirty of the real teachers come up and ask me if I can music direct for their show and I have to turn them down because ever school that would want me does their musical within three weeks of each other and I'm already comitted to a different program. Film Rec: The Company of Wolves Is The Company of Wolves a perfect film? Absolutely not. There are quite a few clunkers in the cast that bring it down. Does that impact the strength of Neil Jordan's screenplay? No. Not in the least bit. Adapting Angela Carter's story of the same name from her fairy tale inspired collection The Bloody Chamber, Neil Jordan creates one of the most unique spins on fairy tales I've ever witnessed. The present day story is a briefly visited framing device to introduce us to the imagination of Rosaleen (Sarah Patterson), a young girl obsessed with escaping by any means necessary. She dreams of living another life, far from her posh mansion, in the days of fairy tales. Within this dream world, her cruel sister was just killed by wolves. Her grandmother (Angela Lansbury in the performance of the film) begins to dispense helpful device about handling questionable men whose eyebrows meet while finishing up a beautiful red cape for her darling granddaughter Rosaleen. As the film progresses, the line between Rosaleen's dream and her grandmother's fairy tales continually blurs, leading to extraordinary circumstances no one wants to believe. So, The Company of Wolves is based in Little Red Riding Hood. But that alone is not the strength of the film. There are certain events that have to occur because of this device, but it doesn't stop brief lovely allusions to The Boy Who Cried Wolf, Hansel and Gretel, and other classic fairy tales. The film is not as straight forward as the fairy tales it pulls from. It is a dark, brooding examination of sexual maturation, family dynamics, and the truth behind folk tales. There are moments of pure fantasy that are nothing short of brilliant. For example, while the wolf/man connection is established early, the transformation rules are inventive. Not only can a man become a wolf. A wolf can become a man, or a woman, or a child. It's not a simple matter of curse or infection. The town denies their existence, and chooses to ignore incidents that should open their eyes. The curiosity of Rosaleen is constantly placed at odds with the shroud of innocence protecting the town. She wants to venture down the path alone and dares to ask the heretical question "Why couldn't she save herself?" The true achievement of the screenplay is the advancement of the plot through the fairy tale interludes. Seeing a boy be tricked into becoming a wolf may seem like a showcase for effects; it's actually a sleight of hand to shift the film into more dangerous territory. The innocence of the town frays with each tale, revealing a darker truth that only Rosaleen can understand. The ending of the film is incredible, as the predictable Red Riding Hood elements are met, subverted, and reinvented to present a far more powerful message in fairy tale, dream world, and reality. If you haven't seen The Company of Wolves, understand that this is a strange film. It's the symbolic colors of Argento mixed with the Grotesque of Browning, the narrative experiments of Lynch, and the open presentations of Cronenberg. It is everything you could expect and nothing you could be prepared for. The film may not be superb, but the writing is.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due DATE: 1/06/2009 10:04:00 PM ----- BODY: Tomorrow, some people may feel deja vu if they check on the Something Printed blog as I'll be writing on the same book tomorrow for Cannonball Read. It will be a different article, and I'll try to focus on different aspects of the text. Book Rec: My Soul to Keep by Tananarive Due If I had a nickel for every second coming/Jesus-connected mystery/suspense/thriller novel, I'd probably be able to upgrade my Netflix plan, at the very least. It's hard to find a novel in this vein that does something particularly different. Leave it to weird fiction enthusiast Tananarive Due to really push the boundaries. In a strange way, My Soul to Keep might have more in common with vampire and Gothic fiction than it does with the aforementioned shallow pool of fiction. It does concern an immortal, currently named David, living with his mortal wife Jessica and daughter Kira in Florida. The ritual that made him immortal involved a small supply of Christ's blood used by a powerful man to allow him to gain knowledge no other man should have. The Garden of Eden parallel is intentional, though the morality of disobedience is not. Due places an atheist immortal in love with a devout Christian woman that considers her husband's belief structure as his only weakness. Jessica believes that God has a greater purpose for her relationship with her husband and hopes above all else that his salvation is the goal. As a smart counterpoint, Due constantly has David wondering why his wife could believe in what he considers a ridiculous notion, for if God were real then the suffering he witnessed would not exist and he and his group would never have been able to grab immortality. It's a tiny struggle that blossoms into a very strained undertone in their relationship. It enhances the text and makes the fanciful elements seem more realistic. The writing is exquisite. I've long considered myself a fan of Due's short fiction. It frequently makes appearances in Best of the Year compilations and never fails to impress. She writes about strange subject matter in a beautiful and believable way, but sometimes seems a bit esoteric in her choices. Due clearly knows what she's doing. It's just her short texts take a lot of digging to get to the tightly coiled purpose. When given free reign over a longer piece, like My Soul to Keep, Due blew away every expectation I had of her. She wrote a bizarre, suspenseful, at times terrifying story that also felt more realistic and better executed than many equally acclaimed works of literary fiction. I cannot recommend this novel strongly enough. Borrow it from your library if you either never read it before or haven't read it since it came out. I know I'll be revisiting this as soon as I finish the Cannonball Read challenge.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Mirror's Edge DATE: 1/03/2009 02:10:00 PM ----- BODY: Christmas gifts: Enabling Robert to review items he can't afford at a particular moment at no cost for years. Wonderful. Midnight Rec: Mirror's Edge I'm a sucker for a good platforming game. I'll just go back again and again to the same ones to have fun with a bit of a challenge. Mirror's Edge is a new type of platforming game with a much steeper learning curve than the classics I grew up with. So, the writing? Not spectacular, to be honest. It's a standard dystopia from utopia, wrongfully accused, action/thriller story. The innovation is in the mechanics, which are executed brilliantly. Apparently, my understanding is free running is considered a sport by some? Where people literally run through a city, jumping off buildings and climbing on things they shouldn't? Like in the promos? Watch in HD to actually see anything, unfortunately: Turns out in the future, couriers working outside the regulations of the government use free running to deliver messages and investigate things. And, naturally, you play a free runner. So, the platforming element? Very freeform. You have objectives (red objects show you where to go, but are difficult to spot at times), but no clear direction. You're not Superman, so you can't jump to a higher building across a street, but you might make it by swinging on a drainpipe or catching the bottom end of a fire escape. It's innovative, and only kind of annoying when people start shooting at you. And only annoying because it's a distraction from the free running mechanic. If you like beautiful platforming games, give it a go on the XBOX360 or PS3. I really haven't stopped playing since I got it, rare for me with newer games.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) DATE: 1/01/2009 09:07:00 PM ----- BODY: 1st: Happy New Year. 2nd: Wow, I almost forgot about posting today. 3rd: Did anyone else catch whoever was hosting the New Year's countdown on MTV not know how to count backwards from 10? Brilliant. Switched back to Cooper/Griffen for the rest after "9...10...9...7..." Film Rec: Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) The writing process can be an interesting thing. Perhaps the most unique approach to continually receive recognition is Mike Leigh's. He develops the project around the actors he has working, allowing improvisation and experimentation to define where the film will go. He might have a basic premise in mind (like Vera Drake), but not always that defined. Happy-Go-Lucky is a wonderful comedy film that people will have problems with because nothing happens. That's a gross over-simplification, but its the second most common complaint I see lobbied about. The most common? The lead character is so annoying there can be no merit in what Sally Hawkins or Mike Leigh accomplished. Such short sighted views are discouraging. There's the obvious reaction that they just don't get the film, but that's not fair. It's clear the people making these complaints actually understood what happened. It's just Happy-Go-Lucky falls into a nebulous region between character study and indie film styles that causes confusion. To elucidate: Poppy is impossibly optimistic. Bicycle stolen? Must be a good day for a walk. Tanked off her ass? At least she's having a good time. Horrendous hangover? At least she had fun the night before. Poppy also never learned to drive, and finally decides to get her permit and take driving lessons with her polar opposite: Scott, a pessimist. They clash during the lessons, but nothing comes of it. Poppy is too kind and friendly to address the issues, and Scott is too cruel not to mock Poppy's attitude. Throughout the film, Poppy is placed in quirky situations that let Hawkins shine. Flamenco dancing (conflict of angry passion and light happiness) and trampolining are just the tip of the iceberg. Some have gone so far as to compare this to Amelie, but that's a horrible misconception. Amelie is romantic and fanciful; Happy-Go-Lucky just is. The shifts in character perspective and plot development are very subtle, though they do exist. As Poppy interacts with more people, her true character becomes clearer. The viewer is meant to be put off by her at first because she comes across as a space cadet. She's clearly not normal and she certainly can't be insightful. How much she changes relies on individual interpretation. I think she's a completely different person by the end, though others disagree. Happy-Go-Lucky is absolutely worth a watch to see Mike Leigh once again present a slice of life outside the norm. Everything and nothing is different from what we experience on a daily basis. We wake up, we go to work, we run our errands, we come home, and we go to bed. So does Poppy. It's just her errands might include a flirtatious trip to the chiropractor or a pun filled study session for a driving test. It's hilarious and feels real. That is the achievement of this film. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Print Sketchies DATE: 12/30/2008 07:35:00 PM ----- BODY: Not a formal post at all. Not even as formal as the other Sketchy's. My book rec is to actually go out and read something new. I rather enjoyed Wild Nights by Joyce Carol Oates and 2666 by Roberto Balano, but I admittedly like strange fiction. The final Sketchy is a call to action, people. Don't let the print industry die off. Go out and by a book, or a magazine, or even a newspaper. Every little bit helps. Thank you. I'm off my high horse for the first Film Rec of 2009 on Thursday. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Sketchies: Miscellaneous DATE: 12/27/2008 05:22:00 PM ----- BODY: Great apologies must be delivered to all, as I forgot the most important award on Thursday. Breakout Performance went to Jess Weixler for Teeth. I strongly recommend you sit through it to see this girl rock it. The first 10 minutes are kind of rough, then it settles in and works very well. She's stunning in a very bizarre horror film. Miscellanous It's not as formalized. Some favorite new items from the year outside of print and visuals: Cakewrecks The Stoop by Little Jackie 1989, remix of Adele's album 19, by Mick Boogie and friends LittleBigPlanet for PS3 Personal Trainer: Cooking for Nintendo DS eeePC by Asus And some old favorites that delivered the goods this year: Pajiba Nintendo Wii Sony Digital Reader Stay tuned for the final day, Print, on TuesdayLabels: Midnight Rec, sketchies
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: The Sketchies: Visual Division DATE: 12/25/2008 04:35:00 PM ----- BODY: Our first award is for outstanding achievement in comedy, not British: Runner-up: Hamlet 2 A sequel to Hamlet that actually works on literal and symbolic levels with an excellent score and a fearless cast willing to commit to absurdity? Almost enough to win in my book. Winner: Forgetting Sarah Marshall I never really liked the Apatow comedies, to be honest. And this, to me, was far better. The screenplay was predictable, but strong anyway, and the cast sold it like nothing else. I haven't laughed this hard at a film since South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut Our second award is outstanding achievement in a comedy film, British: Runner Up: Rock'N'Rolla Dark comedies are still comedies, people. This Guy Ritchie film proves that he actually is a talented director when in his comfort zone: British gangster films. The fast paced dialogue, physical comedy, and Thandie Newton sex-kittenness make this a must see. Winner: Happy-Go-Lucky I'm an unapologetic Mike Leigh fan. Happy Go Lucky may be annoying to people who have never experienced an eternal optimist like Polly, but those that know a Polly will probably love this film. It's just a lot of fun. It's dry and over the top, built on wordplay and physicality, and really put a smile on my face. It's enjoyable. What more can you ask for in a smart person British comedy? Our Third Award goes to the best performance by a female actor in any role: Runner Up: Betty Buckley in The Happening The Happening may be a total disaster of a film, but Betty Buckley makes the most of the juiciest role in the entire film. Portraying the religious zealot who is the only woman seemingly oblivious to the killer plantlife, her wickedly judgmental eye never quite balances with her polite and proper manners. Which is the point. The film is worth watching just to see Betty Buckley destroy every other actor on screen with real acting. Runner Up: Mila Kunis in Forgetting Sarah Marshall What can I say? Should Mila Kunis be the new go to girl for romantic comedies? A pretty, talented actor who seems attainable because she can be sexy, violent, joyous, or just one of the guys? I sure as hell hope not, as she's much better than that. Here's hoping that Forgetting Sarah Marshall is just the tip of the iceberg in potentially mainstream roles. She deserves it. Runner Up: Liv Tyler in The Strangers A realistically frightened, disenchanted, heartbroken, subtle, nuanced performance in a modern American horror film? It's not a joke. She's damn near flawless in a taut, dry home invasion film. Heartbreaking performance, really. She sells the openning broken romance scenes so well that you actually care about what happens to her. Liv Tyler's another actress that I hope gets even better material to work with soon. Winner: Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky What's that? An excellent lead performance in a Mike Leigh film from an actress normally seen in supporting roles? Poppy is excellent. This is such a hard role to play because optimism is hard to fake. If it's too happy, it looks fake. If it's not happy enough, the action seems unjustified. If the eyes are too wide, it looks like a mentally handicapped person who doesn't understand life. If they eyes don't sparkle, it's like a death march. Sally Hawkins is Poppy, in the same way Helen Mirren was Queen Elizabeth II or Hilary Swank was Brandon Teena. Our Fourth Award goes to the best performance by a male actor in any role: Runner Up: Justin Long in Zack and Miri Make a Porno It's hard to play a campy gay man and not seem ridiculous. It's even harder to play the same role when it's intended to be completely absurd and not make it offensive. Congratulations, Macbook, you hit it just right as a gay porn star in one scene of Zack and Miri Make a Porno Runner Up: Gerard Butler in Rock'N'Rolla Holy crap! I didn't know 300 could act. Or dance. Or be that damn charming. It's simple material that he elevates greater than anyone else in the film. Plus he's hillarious. Runner Up: Ralph Fiennes in The Duchess Imagine, if you will, Ralph Fiennes being darker, drier, and more upsetting than he was as Voldemort. Now place that in a period epic where he actually rapes his wife to get a male heir. Now imagine you can't take your eyes off of the screen whenever he appears. I can only hope the random Golden Globe nomination he received holds through for the Oscar, cause I don't see any living competition that could keep him from the stage on the big night. Winner: Clint Eastwood in Grand Torino I like old timey films. I like broad theatrical-styled acting. And I like a man who knows how to write just the right character for his abilities and play it well. Say whatever you want, of the films I've seen this year, Clint Eastwood easily gives the best performance. Yes, better than Heath Ledger or Sean Penn. Much better. Our final award in visual goes to the best television show not continue production past 2008: Runner Up: Pushing Daisies Winner: Moral Oral Tune in Saturday for the grabbag, or Miscellaneous, awards. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: The Sketchies Begin Thursday: Book Rec: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens DATE: 12/23/2008 05:35:00 PM ----- BODY: As a result of the annual Trent Sketch Awards for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Pleasing Trent Sketch, otherwise known as the Sketchies, there will be no book rec today. Well, there is one: A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (full text). I'm just not doing a big write up on it. It's a great little story that can be used as a gateway novel to the harder Dickens material. The imagery is haunting (appropriate, yet a cop out descriptor, I'm aware), and the overall result is a heartwarming, uplifting, kind of disturbing tale of Christmas joy just in time to deck your halls and toss another log on the fire. And you thought the St. Nicholas mythology of him stealing naughty children in a coal sack was evil; try showing a man his grave site early on Christmas Day to make him cough up the charity to the less fortunate. Dickens had quite a twisted perspective for a man now known for his extensive commitment to the Realist style. So Thursday is for Visual Achievement; Saturday is for Miscellaneous; and we ring in the new year on Tuesday with Print. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Bio-Zombie (1998) DATE: 12/20/2008 03:13:00 PM ----- BODY: While the economy is falling apart, my user-generated content sites are actually opting to pay out for articles now. Something seems fishy that, say, Helium is paying per article at the end of the month, but I'm not questioning it. It means I can resubscribe to Netflix and Rhapsody and fill my car up with gas every other week, so I'm happy. If I increase the output (easy enough to do), I can probably start going to the movies every week again, as well. And save up for computer repairs and music supplies. So, yeah. It means I find crazy foreign films like Bio-Zombie and get to write all about them here. Midnight Rec: Bio-Zombie (1998) Tell me: do you like horror comedies? Do you get a rush of excitement from Shaun of the Dead? Obsess over the nuance of social commentary in Dawn of the Dead? Laugh way too hard at the Elvira films? Then have I got a Hong Kong export for you. Bio-Zombie is a dark slapstick schlock-fest from Hong Kong. It takes place in a mall, and features chemically created zombies (technically from a soft drink). There's literally buckets of blood and shtick that hasn't been filmed since Abbott and Costello hung up their hats and stopped encountering Universal monsters. The screenplay is over the top. The two main girls are named Jelly and Rolls; the two lead guys Woody and Bee, though I imagine the reference may be Woody and Buzz (as in Toy Story). That would match up with some of the evident American pop culture obsessions in the film. In fact, the film, though ridiculous, reflects the issues of Hong Kong identity, as the culture shown in the film is influenced by Japan, China, Britain, and America in a bizarre amalgam of trends and ideas. They eat sushi while speaking Cantonese, ducking police officers not carrying guns (but the security guards do) and wondering whether or not to go watch Titanic. It has elements of the western and the gangster film, as well as Manzai. Manzai is basically Japanese buddy comedy, with a straight man and a funny man. It's fast banter and slapstick, with plenty of whacks to the head and pulled faces. With all of the over the top humor, the darker dramatic heft slowly creeps in unnoticed and starts to overtake the picture. The ending of the film actually feels like a punch to the face. It seems like it comes out of nowhere at first. Then you realize it's been set up since the first five minutes of the film and had to go that way. Bio-Zombie is readily available from Netflix and is worth the ninety minutes to watch it. Give it a try if you want to see horror from Hong Kong not based in jump scares and symbolic hauntings. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Fight Club (1999) DATE: 12/18/2008 09:58:00 PM ----- BODY: I was short on ideas today, I'm not going to lie. My brother convinced me to rewatch the following, and the result rounds up to "good enough." Film Rec: Fight Club (1999) There are many things I wish I could say in this post. For example: I wish I could comment on the adaptation of Palahniuk's novel. I can't. Most of the library's in my county refuse to stock the book, and the two towns that do have it are perpetually checked out; to expand, it's not exactly on my must read list, either. I also wish I could praise the writing a lot more than I can. I consider Fight Club 3/4's of an amazingly well written, imaginative film with an ending so confusing I still can't entirely wrap my brain around it on the fourth or fifth viewing. Still, 3/4's is better than most violent American films, so the recommendation stands. And even with my issues with the lack of clarity near the end of the film (and don't think I don't get the main issues at hand about identity and this master plan: I do; it's just all revealed in a massive lint ball of confusion that falls apart faster than newspaper in a torrential downpour), the only thing I can think of that might improve the film is more Helena Bonham Carter. Those reasons aren't just selfish: she's the character that shows something is very wrong with the situation, and her extended absences may fit the character type but don't particularly benefit the story arc. Jim Uhls managed to make a very strange (assuming other Palahniuk novels are written in similar ways with similar artistic ambition) novel and turned it into a very compelling, if intentionally scattered, film. The issues that would normally bother me, like Pitt's character being a bit flat or an over reliance on voice over work, don't. Let's take those examples further. Pitt's character has to be flat, albeit a very dynamic performance through flat material. He is the product of stripping every element of individuality out of a man and leaving the raw essence of human sensory desire: he wants to feel anything, but doesn't want to be attached to it. He's an exaggerated male stereotype that works to contrast against Norton and meld with Carter. Or the voice over work. How much do we actually know about Norton's character? Only what he tells us in voice over: his thoughts. He gains our trust as a reliable narrator, but admits failings with his insomnia and narcolepsy that work to set up the main conflicts and reveals later in the film. In a smart decision, much of the dialogue and descriptive voice over narrative is very low key to contrast against the much grander and stranger events actually occurring in the film. We gloss through a series of self-help groups with major issues for comedic effect, giving us insight into two of the three major characters who take pleasure or relief in other's suffering. Yet we'll slow down and itemize every single item in an apartment, or linger over a car wreck, the more mundane elements of life emphasized to throw the viewer out of their comfort zone. Is it a strange, confused film? Yes. And intentionally so. If you haven't seen it, and can handle violence (like a certain actor turned lead singer (rather than the singer turned actor who also appears in the film) being punched in the face again and again and again and again and again and once more for good measure until he's a bloody pulp) and dark humor, it's probably a decent match. If nothing else, watch for Carter's magnificent crazy-lady hair and constant stumbles.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut by Jhonen Vasquez DATE: 12/16/2008 08:52:00 PM ----- BODY: Classes officially done for the semester. Rejoice. Book Rec: Johnny the Homicidal Maniac: Director's Cut by Jhonen Vasquez I'm betraying my number one Internet safety rule (do not discuss Jhonen's comics lest you be googled), but I feel up to the challenge tonight. After all, I'm praising his work here because of the strength of writing. It should be obvious by now I enjoy horror. It should be equally obvious I enjoy: Modernism, philosophy, character portraits, distinctive art styles, and art for the sake of art. Now toss that all into the black ink filled blender of Jhonen Vasquez's twisted brain, sprinkle liberally with violence, and you get Johnny the Homicidal Maniac. For the uninitiated: Johnny is a homicidal maniac. He kills people because he can. These revenge fantasies are over the top and darkly humorous. He meditates on the meaning of life (there is none), his continued existence (why why why), and the destructive power of sleep (casts doubt on reality for the lines blur too easily). He speaks to inanimate and imaginary objects, and believes one wall in his home must be kept wet with blood lest the being on the other side breaks free and destroys us all. He also enjoys tacos, classical music, and drawing his own stick figure comic. There are those who will claim there is no merit in Vasquez's work because of the violence and absurdity. I counter that these dark sequences are designed (aside from Jhonen's explanation of his use of violence to address personal demons and the necessity of fiction to vent our collective frustration and anger to prevent real life crimes like the murders illustrated in Johnny) to reflect on a much darker aspect of humanity we don't admit nearly enough. If it does not affect us personally, it's not our problem. Johnny can go around killing hordes of people at a taco stand, yet no one can recognize him because it didn't involve them. Impalement behind the school yard? At least it wasn't me. War in another country? Not my problem. More so than that, Jhonen created a very memorable world based in absurdity and expressionist-like black and white art. For example, Johnny's t-shirt changes its message to reflect the thoughts of the character, even if those thoughts are pure nonsense. The labyrinth of underground torture chambers is filled with ironic punishments for viewing oneself as the only worthwhile being in the universe. This self-centered mindset is the basis of almost every murder in the Johnny collection, even if the crime is as petty as bumping into Johnny and not saying anything. Is Johnny the Homicidal Maniac right for everyone to read? Of course not. Neither is Maus by Art Spiegelman (some people just won't get the animal imagery and will refuse to look past the Polish people portrayed as pigs to understand the point of the book) or Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (some will undoubtedly hate it because it presents one political ideology in a major conflict over another). In fact, the entire graphic novel genre (Johnny is stretching it with that; they were comics compiled into a book, but Vasquez did edit out some of the filler to make the story a more cohesive whole) is highly polarizing, as some can't get past their belief that comics and cartoons are only for children and any adult who reads them is an idiot. If you can handle some ultraviolence, give Johnny a try. Otherwise, please to enjoy Maus or Persepolis or Watchmen or Sandman or any other graphic novel that tries to be more than just one type of literature. They really can have merit when done well.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Cake Wrecks DATE: 12/13/2008 02:45:00 PM ----- BODY: Greetings from the frozen mountains of southern NY State. I just finished decorating my brother's yard, though there was only so much I could do to salvage his atrocious lighting job. It's far too cold for me to be out there stealing someone's ladder to make them hang straight and parallel to each other, not to mention attach something so the windows aren't lit like this: _ U Catch my drift? If there was a blog about holiday decorating disasters, I would nominate his yard and set the intervention date by when it inevitably was blogged on. Midnight Rec: Cake Wrecks For all seven people in the US who don't know this site already, this goes out to you. Cake Wrecks is an incredibly funny blog on a topic that should be a total disaster. Who wants to read about really, really awful professional cakes? All doubt disappears once you begin to read the commentary from blogger Jen. Her dry, witty commentary makes a daily visit to the site not only a treat, but a necessity. I can't fault a blogger for having a cause. I'm trying to be less vocal on my blogs about my anti-Sandra Lee campaign and my pro-Tyra Banks insanity policy. I don't even go into my desire for a 24 hour Janice Dickinson highlights channel for eternal viewing pleasure. Jen, however, is not afraid to name her nemesis: the dreaded CCC: Cupcake Cakes. She hates 'em. Don't believe me? Fine. Here's the openning to her wonderful manifesto against these monstrosities:I've recently been accused of hatin' on the cupcake cakes. Alright, you got me: I guess I can't hide the truth any longer, and it's time for me to come clean. [sigh] Ok, here goes: Hi, my name is Jen, and I hate cupcake cakes. Why? 'Cuz they're ugly.I'll toss in so covered in icing I'd get a migraine from standing in the same room as one. Not all great writing needs to be serious. Cakewrecks is comedy pulled from tragedy. And anyone can submit. Birthday cake got you down? Wedding cake delivered collapsed like nothing was wrong? Or someone else thought it was a good idea to eat a naked baby/naked pregnant lady/dog? Shoot her an e-mail with the photo attached, but follow the guidelines. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: In Bruges (2008) DATE: 12/12/2008 08:57:00 PM ----- BODY: Thank you for your patience. I am finally finished with discussing Ulysses, and feel like this:
(sorry, I couldn't find an embeddable video, please follow this link and watch from 2:10 to 2:30 to see the relevant segment)
Actually, I believe this may be a more accurate representation. Just replace "Atlas Shrugged" with "Ulysses".
Though I could never give up books. I'm hopped up on typeset like a crackwhore down to her last rock.
I was also very, very tempted to just post this as my film rec, since it is far superior to any film I could think of recommending today:
But that would be cheating, and my doctor side did state I was responsible for submitting all incomplete posts by today.
Film Rec: In Bruges (2008)
There are two very good reasons why In Bruges came out of nowhere and received so many Golden Globe nominations: 1) How many other comedy/musical films released this year were even halfway good?; 2) It's an incredibly imaginative, well thought out screenplay brought to life by just the right cast.
My fingers hurt from the marathon of typing still (crybaby), so I'll present a clip to prove my point:
Smart? Dry? Dark? Oddly funny? Messed up? You betcha. Watchy watchy.
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AUTHOR: Trent Sketch
TITLE: Gone Circe, or the Madness of a Literature Student
DATE: 12/10/2008 09:38:00 PM
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BODY:
From the desk of Robert's shattered sense of time and reason:
Please excuse Robert from his blogging duties tomorrow, Thursday, 11 December 2008. He will not have slept all night due to procrastination brought about by fear of not finishing:
--8-10 pp paper on Ulysses
--4-5 pp paper on The Tell-Tale Heart
--3-5 pp paper comparing Macbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra
--2 pp discussing an important aspect of The Tempest that would have been detailed had Robert not fallen under fifty pounds of recording/performing equipment and missed class
--A fourth close reading of The Tempest to ensure a quick, sane, and logical analysis as a final in class assignment based off of critical work provided on site
--5 papers detailing relevant out of class experiential learning that technically isn't supposed to be graded by will drop grades in three courses by one full letter if not produced
--4 papers reacting to dreadful film adaptations of Richard III, King Lear, Merchant of Venice (truthfully, not that bad), Macbeth
--The last two chapters of Ulysses for the inevitable quiz asking what the significance of the color of the garment described by Stephen in chapter 17 means in relation to Buck Mulligan or two equally ridiculous questions
without the assistance of caffeine, as he will still be running a two hour rehearsal for high school students involved in a musical. These students mean well, but cannot reconcile that the notes played on the piano are the notes they will sing. As such, Robert, a high tenor, winds up singing everything from Soprano to Bass in the style required for the show, lest they imitate his weak, dog whistle of a falsetto or awkward teenage boy singing quietly in the back row for the required art credit barely there bass.
Robert may safely return to blogging on Friday, 12 December 2008. He is responsible for making up all missed assignments and will do so as soon as humanly possible.
Thank you for your patience.
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AUTHOR: Trent Sketch
TITLE: Book Rec: Paradise Lost by John Milton
DATE: 12/09/2008 09:15:00 PM
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BODY:
To lighten the mood, how about a little joke?
Why did the student leer?
Because the professor decided, without telling a soul, that he would not accept the ten page King Lear paper until the day of the final after reminding everyone in an e-mail this morning that the papers were due today.
Jackass.
Book Rec: Paradise Lost by John Milton
Let me get these few issues out of the way first. Yes, from a modern perspective, this is sexist. It also happens to be racist and contain many digs against Catholicism. Milton doesn't even get all his facts straight about the Bible in his interpretation of Genesis. And yes, I know that this is technically an epic poem, but it's over 200 pages in a Norton anthology, and most editions aren't published on tissue paper in size ten font. Happy now?
You don't read Paradise Lost for an accurate representation of anything. I'd argue its questionable to read it even to gain an understanding of one man's interpretation of the Bible, let alone a Protestant viewpoint on the Restoration and disorder in England. You read paradise lost for some of the most beautiful blank verse poetry ever composed in the English language.
Throughout the twelve books, Milton subverts the epic poem. Technically, it's a secondary epic (I find that an appropriate term, since the primary epics are the works that created the epic poems, you know: The Odyssey, The Illiad, even Beowulf, and 1650's ain't exactly ancient Greece). Meaning, to a certain extent, it will change the form of the epic. A secondary epic was initially written, where a primary epic was based in oral tradition. So there are inherent differences.
Milton goes beyond that. It's not uncommon for the actual hero to appear later in the poem. But in a twelve book epic, Adam and Eve don't appear until Book 9. We follow Satan and his minions until that point. While we are meant to view him as the antagonist, the majority of the poem is dedicated to his scheme to destroy God's new creation. So the character we are meant to hate is the character we wind up knowing the most about.
Another aspect: Adam and Eve, in Judeo-Christian belief, obviously impacted an entire society by biting the apple. It got man kicked out of the Garden of Eden. But, Adam and Eve are the only humans to appear in the poem. The tradition is for one hero's actions to be reflected by their society; a triumph in a war means a growth in society, etc. But Adam and Eve's fall from grace, in Paradise Lost, only directly impacts Adam and Eve. They are true epic heros with nothing to reflect because they are society.
Now add on how Milton was the first to tackle an epic poem based in the Bible. Don't forget that his focus is Satan, the furthest removed of all of God's creations. Throw in the last minute appearance of Adam and Eve, told mostly through Satan. And finally, tack on that happy ending where Jesus shows up to tell Adam and Eve their mistake is really a blessing because God will eventually send him to redeem humanity of their error.
And then there's the actual composition. Gorgeous blank verse with beautiful imagery and interesting progression of thought. Milton borrowed heavily from the form of the Bible without necessarily fully ingesting the content.
Are you going to go screaming to the nearest bookstore and buy yourself Paradise Lost by John Milton? Probably not. Is it a poem that should be read outside of a college classroom? I believe so. It seems to have that reputation of "You have to read this," but for good reason. The writing is esquisite.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Give the Grammys Another Try DATE: 12/06/2008 08:04:00 PM ----- BODY: Midnight Rec: Give the Grammys Another Try I hear your frustration. There are too many categories you just don't care about. The nominees are awful and make no sense. You haven't heard the album and can only assume it's awful. It looks like NARAS has been taking these issues to heart. Compared to prior years, this list is streamlined, for better or worse. There is now only one award for Rock Vocal Performance, so good luck seeing a woman nominated ever again (same with the sad removal of the Female Rap Performance category two years ago). Some of the Country categories got the axe as well, and there are less categories devoted to package design and production. The nominees always seem strange at first because there is so much music released every year. Let's analyze Best New Artist, for example. Duffy was a give in. Her label has been pushing her for BNA on the strength of Mercy alone. It's a fine catchy tune with an interesting voice performing it in a unique way. She's a throwback act on the cusp of being progressive. Being so cute doesn't hurt, either. Adele wasn't viewed as a give in for one simple reason: she's not a waif. If I had a nickel for every blog, message board, article, video, and rant on the street where I noticed someone call her a cow, I could probably afford any graduate school in the country and still have enough left over for a year of living in NYC in a decent apartment. She is why this category exists: provide recognition to an emerging artist who might otherwise go on ignored AND has the potential to have a long and successful career. One listen to her debut album should be enough to silence any hater. She's not a belter: she's a soulful soprano, an oddity in the music industry today. She has writing chops and knows how to sell the emotion behind the song. But she's not a throwback, and she's certainly not derivative. Yes, I myself have said the labels were setting Duffy and Adele into competition solely to have a back-up for when Wineho croaks, and her success may have helped them receive deals; however, both are very different musicians from Winehouse. So far, we have a pop act, and a folk/soul act. Next is Jazmine Sullivan, the act that I was shocked to see nominated. This is the first time in years that an urban act with limited mainstream/crossover appeal was nominated. Bust Your Windows is hip-hop's answer to Before He Cheats, featuring a beat pulled straight from Carmen and sultry vocals that would make any guy risk their car to be with Jazmine Sullivan. Then, she's capable of pulling off traditional R&B, urban alternative, and modern straight R&B. Everyone in the world of hip-hop is clamoring to work with her for a damn good reason: she's actually talented, vocally and in performance. So that makes pop, folk/soul, and R&B. Which leads us to Lady Antebellum, about the best new country artist I've heard since Brad Paisley. It's a modern country trio with two guys and a girl (just like Nickel Creek, only more mainstream and less newgrass). Charles Kelley, the male vocalist, has the whiskey tinged tones and deep bass voice that make the fans swoon, and he actually has the vocal skills and training to keep it up without losing everything. Hillary Scott, female vocalist, is an equally talented belter capable of anything from sugar to sass even within a single line of the song. Their harmonies are as close to perfection as contemporary music gets, and their lyrics are thoughtful and heartfelt. Pop, folk/soul, R&B, Country. That leaves the token Rock act. Or, barring that, The Jonas Brothers. I'm not saying NARAS is perfect. Every year an act that has been around for quite some time gets nominated. Last year it was Feist. The year before that, Imogen Heap. Previous old timers were David Gray, Susan Tedeschi, and, yes, Lauryn Hill. It bothers me to a certain extent, but not as much as you would think. Yes, this is the third (ugh) Jonas Brothers album. But look at what happened this past year. SOS received Top 40 play for a few months, followed by Burnin' Up. Their concert film was released and did well at the box office. They began to secure televised performance opportunities on non-Disney channels. And their new album sold very well. While they aren't the newest nominees, they most certainly are the most commercial, and that's another guarantee in this category. So, five acts from five completely different genres of music get nominated, and people are pissed that their artist didn't get in. My favorite group is the Perry fans who are outraged she wasn't nominated for Best New Artist. Hello? She very well may win Best Female Pop Vocal performance, because how well known the songs are impacts that category almost more than any other. Maybe Pink could beat her. Maybe. The Grammys are about recognizing the best across all fields of music as determined by the industry that produces it. Are they political in their manueverings? No more than the Oscars, and certainly less than the Golden Globes. Are there acts that will get nominated no matter what? Yes. And for the most part, they earned it. The Grammys do not deserve the poor reputation they have. Every few years, one artist will sweep the awards. Most of the time, they split every possible way you can imagine. Someone who loses Best New Artist will beat the winner for Pop Album or Record/Song of the year. Last year's biggest loser winds up picking up the top prize and nothing else. If anything, they are too fair in genuinely evaluating the nominations and picking the best nominee in each category as an isolated division. Too bad people just assume if they haven't heard the act, they aren't any good. I'm not suggesting you watch the Grammys if you don't want to. I'm just suggesting you think carefully before you start bashing the awards ceremony. If film can have two televised awards ceremonies by the industry encompassing the entire industry, then surely music, with far more releases in broader categories that are even harder to compare collectively than film, deserves one.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Capote (2005) DATE: 12/04/2008 09:41:00 PM ----- BODY: The Grammy nominations were announced yesterday. I will get into them more on Saturday, but I'll tease with this: I was completely blindsided. W?T?F? just happened to the nominations? National Board of Review announced its film winners today, and that list makes me happy. It indicates the race is far more interesting than anticipated and that Clint Eastwood might once again sneak in and grab away the glory ala Million Dollar Baby with Grand Torino. I'm allowed to gloat, since I've said it for months and people have literally laughed in my face (or lol'd at my screen; close enough). Film Rec: Capote (2005) I think anyone who has paid any attention at all to my blogs over the years has come to the realization that I have a strange taste in films. I see the near-inherent value and ignored skill behind horror films. I gravitate towards epic foreign films about a family coming together for dinner one night that last 3+ hours. I seek out strange documentaries just for the thrill of being able to discuss a random topic at the next hipster-filled party I attend; someone needs to put those NYC too-cool-to-nerd peeps in their place. It might as well be an actual nerd. But I'm not foolish, either. There is something to be said about executing a far simpler film concept flawlessly. A well done biopic, for example, can easily outshine even the most ambitious period drama or laser sighted indie quirk in a given year. For me, that case has never been clearer than with Capote. Capote is just one in a long history of films screwed over during awards season because all of the attention went to the main performer in the film. It's not a traditional biopic, since it only covers a brief period of time in the life of Truman Capote. If anything, it's a magnificent adaptation of what is arguably still the greatest true crime book (In Cold Blood by way of Gerald Clarke's book Capote) ever penned in the English language. From the moment Capote leaves his lavish big city lifestyle to meet with the accused murderer of a Kansas family behind bars, you know Dan Futterman and Gerald Clarke have created something honest. Capote isn't presented in a flattering, Vaseline smeared lens like many other recent subjects of biopics. No. He is portrayed as a man simply out to get himself further ahead than he already is. He will create a new genre of literature (the much maligned by literary agents "Non-Fiction Novel") or he will do it. There is no alternative. Which is where the simplicity kicks into high gear. Capote is portrayed as befriending the murderer, almost loving him in a relationship that could never be reciprocated. Better still is his friendship with Harper Lee, using her a sounding board for his concerns and a release mechanism for stress. As Capote becomes more and more involved in the case, you can watch the hints that the veneer is cracking and something will change forever. The conclusion is inevitable, as the book is so widely known and the facts so well documented that any viewer with the remotest sense of Truman Capote knows what will happen. Yet the journey still works. You are transported to the moment by the screenplay, because the screenplay recreated the period, characters, and style so well it's mind boggling. If anything, perhaps the film is too subtle, as many do view it just as a showcase for Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and to a lesser extent Catherine Keener. The final reel is absolutely heartbreaking because it feels real. Yes, part of it must be attributed to the performances; Hoffman is darn near perfect as Capote. But Toby Jones turns in almost as strong of a performance in 2006's Infamous (also based on a biography of Truman Capote with emphasis on the In Cold Blood case) and that film doesn't work nearly as well. The fact is: Hoffman, Keener, the cast, the crew, the director, everyone involved in Capote could not have done as well as they did without that screenplay. It's a masterwork of subtlety and simplicity. It follows every rule yet stands unique. It's practically perfect in every way. I cannot stress enough my recommendation of Capote. I would honestly say buy it if you have any interest at all in the man or In Cold Blood. Rent it otherwise, though I have a feeling you may be inclined to purchase it once you finish watching it for the third time. To me, it was undeniably the best film of 2005.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: DATE: 12/02/2008 09:31:00 AM ----- BODY: Three things: 1) I can't believe I forgot to mention they picked the winners in the 2008 MicroHorror Story Contest. Congratulations to Gail Sosinsky Wickman, Lori Titus, and Oonah V Joslin for their excellent stories. My entry was induced by a marathon session of Faustus discussion/awful film adaptation watching courtesy of a professor who last week decided the funny way to cancel a 6:00 pm class the day before the school closed for Thanksgiving was to write on the board "Go Home You Turkeys." Which would be a good name for a short story, so something came from it. My entry: Physics. Maybe it would have been better for the contest if I actually wrote about the theme of monsters. Or did I? 2) Horror Board Book Club Thread is up for Salem's Lot. No, I haven't participated yet. I haven't even finished the book yet. I only have 250+ pages to go after reading it for a month. Ugh. If you have read it, please consider contributing. 3) You know the hardest thing about this blog? Keeping track of what I recommended already. I'm afraid to mention certain books and films because I lost track when the Mac crashed over the summer. There are some that I know for sure I've recommended, but they stay on my over desk shelf anyway because that's the A-Squad of books I really like. The B-Squad is in the closet, and the C-F squad are in storage throughout three houses. The G-Squad is posted on PaperBackSwap. And that's not even including texts purchased for academic purposes. Book Rec: Everything's Eventual by Stephen King Part of me really wanted to get away from horror this week. I do read other styles. Many other styles that together comprise most of my reading patterns. But when I'm struggling to think of a topic, I'd rather dig into the horror well and write something great rather than browse through the library stack and pick that one. The reason I want to discuss Everything's Eventual is bigger than that. I feel like a lot of people I discuss books with believe I hate Stephen King. Sure, I may have, in moments of passion, tossed out terms like "hack" or "literary prostitute," but I'm a fan of hyperbole and absurdity. I exaggerate to prove points when subtlety falls on deaf ears (or blind eyes, more aptly). I mean, Pajiba did post my scathing, very bitter, arguably bitchy review of Blaze as part of the Cannonball Read series. I was shocked by how much it looked like I hated Stephen King. But that's not true at all. I like Stephen King. I think he's talented. Some of his earlier works rank among my favorite novels in various categories. His non-fiction is always well edited with nice style and good pacing, and his short fiction rarely disappoints me. The King I don't like is the bloated, lumbering, slowed down to a crawl because he must capture every single detail of a scene instead of advancing the plot or characters King. I also don't care for the XTREME King, where all that detail is shifted to gore and violence. It's why I refuse to pick up Pet Semetary again. But this post is not about what I don't like. It's about my favorite collection of King stories and arguably one of the better short story collections of the last decade. Everything's Eventual has an underlying theme, from design to the actual content of the stories: chance. The table of contents opens up with his method for choosing the order of stories: 14 stories, 14 cards in a suit (13 in the suit plus a joker), 14 stories placed at random depending on what order the cards were drawn. Is it Stephen King's wit alone that made this decision? Or was he attempting to prove a certain point about the collection before you read page one? I think the truth lies somewhere in between. There are three stories I just do not like in the collection: "Autopsy Room Four" is a dragged out sex gag about a man mistakenly placed on the autopsy table after a freak accident; "The Little Sisters of Eluria" is connected to the Dark Tower series, moves like molasses, and made no sense to me since I'm genuinely afraid to try reading those books; "1408" starts out promising but sinks its teeth into the over the top gore/shock King I don't like. All three of these really turned me off because of personal preferences. I don't (as a rule) like reading about life saving erections, the Dark Tower series, or over the top schlock put in for shock value. All of that said, that leaves 11 stories I really enjoyed. "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away" is the true standout of the collection, combining dark humor with a very desperate situation that rings far truer than it should. A traveling salesman collects inscriptions from bathroom walls, including "All That You Love Will Be Carried Away." He's depressed. He's alone. And he will kill himself tonight unless he receives a sign of hope. It's stunning prose, edited down to the bare essentials without losing a strong sense of style and scenic concern. In fifteen pages, you know this man. That's an achievement. "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French" is another great story in a completely different style. King is riffing on a particularly theory of Hell: that you are forced to relive the same event over and over without any possible way to change the outcome. It's a surrealist nightmare and exactly what I look for in a dream story. "Luckey Quarter" is perhaps the most heart wrenching story of all in the collection. A Carson City hotel employee relies on the tips she receives from turndown service to provide the medical necessities for her children. One man leaves her a luckey quarter and she is furious. She tosses it into a machine and wins. And then wins again. And then wins again. But isn't happy about it. Her obligations in life are so crushing she can't even take joy in catching a break for once. Luckey becomes a mantra in the story, constantly repeated as if it might break a curse or change her life. While writing this paragraph, I had to reread the story because I was hooked again after the first sentence. If you're a fan of short fiction at all, I recommend borrowing a copy of Everything's Eventual from your local library. King's writing style isn't for everyone, and someone that loves most of this collection might hate another. He does offer a wide variety here and you'll surely find one story you enjoy.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Over the Top Christmas Displays DATE: 11/29/2008 09:35:00 PM ----- BODY: No, this has nothing to do with writing. Yes, it is almost too good to be true. I will, however, attempt to imbue the post with significant literary style to justify its existence. Midnight Rec: Over the Top Christmas Displays Today, I worked non-stop from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM putting together Christmas displays. One was for my father, one was for my grandmother. I have painted his damn wood cut-outs for over a month till my fingers ached and did not want to uncurl. He wanted Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol for the front lawn, pictured here:
Pretty nice, right? If a bit excessive? Yeah. What you don't see are the 12+ light up moving Christmas animals, the dancing Santa Clause, the Frosty the Snowman, and the clashing Christmas lights (flickering snowflakes + red bulbs + icicles = profit?) mere inches from the left of the frame. Tacky, no?
And my grandmother wanted her LED lights on the awning, her giant second hand Christmas lights on the roof (not placed yet: I don't do ladders taller than five feet, thank you), and her nativity set (new outdoor outlet going in next week to accommodate). I decided to use some nice metallic and glitter shatterproof Christmas ornaments to match the mostly retro feel of the soon to be completed display, here.
Intentionally kitschy? You betcha. Done with a wink and a nod to my family's unnatural desire to wear anything with glitter, sequins, and rhinestones? Absolutely. Wait until I add the wire Christmas trees lit from underneath to really make those suckers pop at night.
But these pale in comparison to the subject at hand. No, there are people who catch a sickness I call overkilldecoratingitisosis. Sadly, this disease is not recognized by the latest edition of the DSM, but I hope one day to increase awareness of this growing mental health condition. These are the people who think syncing Christmas Carols to every single lighted object available at Home Depot, KMart, WalMart, Target, and Michaels is a good thing.
Take, for example, this tragic case.
Christmas Lights Crazy Frog Jingle Bells
It almost makes you want to cry, if you weren't too busy laughing at the excess. This creator is so embarrassed by his addiction that he has disabled embedding through YouTube to protect his identity.
We really must stop mocking these poor fools. There behavior being encouraged has led to commercial units for synchronized lights being available for under $200 at Home Depots, KMarts, and other mass retailers nationwide.
We must end this condition now. Please, if you must search for "Christmas Lights Music" on YouTube, do so to educate yourself. Personal experience is important, so I do recommend a quiet, leisurely drive by of your neighborhood Christmas displays, trying to define the line between cute/overkill. Be sympathetic to these poor souls, as they do have the best intentions in mind. They love the holidays so much they want to share the joy with everyone. Unfortunately, just like a freshman going to their first boozefest on campus, they don't know how to control themselves.
Please, join the fight to end overkilldecoratingitisosis. Carefully plan out your lawn decorations and exercise caution in design. Otherwise, you may one day wind up on DIY Network claiming more is always better in Christmas decorations, as your yard is overtaken by 12 foot tall wooden soldiers and elves stirring cookie batter.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Young Frankenstein DATE: 11/27/2008 10:53:00 AM ----- BODY: Bonjour tout le monde! Heureux d'action de grâces! Mon ordinateur a traversé apparemment la chaîne et osé dans France pour les vacances, en passant par NJ. Remercie Verizon! Which should roughly translate to: Hello everyone! Happy Thanksgiving! My computer has apparently crossed the channel and ventured into France for the holidays, by way of NJ. Thanks Verizon! In more important news: Chiller is playing Rocky Horror Picture Show nonstop until 10:00 tonight. Now that's getting in the holiday spirit. Film Rec: Young Frankenstein A mini theme developing for the week with Frankenstein related moments? A mere coincidence, I'm afraid. I caught this film for probably the 50th time last night and couldn't stop laughing and crying. Laughing because it's so great, crying because the musical is closing on January 4th and was never even given a fair chance by the critics. If you can afford it, give it a shot. It's fun, it's funny, and it's really true to the spirit of the film. Young Frankenstein, for those who don't know, was one of two Academy Award nominated Mel Brooks films released starring Gene Wilder in 1973, the other being Blazing Saddles. It concerns the grandson of Dr. Frankenstein being drawn into the reanimation work of his predecessor once invited to take over the family mansion in Transylvania. What's so great about the writing in a film that really is a whole lot of slapstick? Much. The genius of the film is in the manipulation of the source material. While the premise would indicate that the story is not the same, the entire structure of the story is pulled from the pages of the book and the Universal film. Take, for example, this clip: Yes, the material is broad. Every sentence is basically punctuated with a wink, a nudge, and a rim shot. Yes, much of it relies on physical presence and the quality of the performance. But what truly gets me about the film overall is how slowly these gags come about. Mel Brooks manages to build suspense towards the build up of jokes in a horror comedy, emphasis on the comedy. And not just suspense, Hitchcock suspense. In a previous scene we learned that Igor did bring home an abnormal brain, but Frankenstein does not. We know the bomb is about to go off before the characters do. Are we scared because of the suspense? No. But the payoff works in laughter the same way a traditional horror film would elicit a jump or scream. Brooks subverts the horror genre to prey on our expectations and create comedy at truly horrifying subject matter. I suggest you watch it. If not for what I wrote, than for Madeline Kahn and Cloris Leachman. And Gene Wilder. And the rest of the cast.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley DATE: 11/25/2008 04:51:00 PM ----- BODY: Apparently, my world tour now takes my computer to the UK, as youtube is now displayed as uk.youtube.com. Neat. I always wanted to visit the birthplace of Charles Dickens and William Shakespeare. Too bad I still haven't even left the state of NJ in over a month. Typos may exist, as I can't even run a spell check through Blogger now. [b]Book Rec: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley[/b] I'm a fan of the epistollary novel. The concept appeals to me. What better way is there to gain insight into a character, events, and relationships while silencing the "I refuse to read first person narrative" naysayers? There isn't any. What Mary Shelley achieved in her debut novel written as a teenager is nothing short of extraodinary. Alleged issues of outside editing and rewrites aside, Shelley managed to capture the darker side of human ambition. The issues discussed in Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus, are still relevant today. From the opening lines describing a fateful sea journey to the latter confrontations between Frankenstein and the monster, the novel is extremely accessible and dripping with mood. No detail is left untouched, and no aspect of the human condition with even the slightest relevance to the plot is left uncovered. She even has a grotesque, and I'm a sucker for the grotesque in pre-20th Century literature. If you think you know Frankenstein from watching the Universal film, you are woefully misinformed. I can't imagine a library not having a copy of this novel, nor a bookstore that does not have some edition for under six dollars. You won't regret it.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Check Your Prescription Medication DATE: 11/22/2008 08:52:00 PM ----- BODY: No, it's not a horror film or short lived TV series. It's a serious suggestion. I just switched to a new doctor who was appalled that I had been placed, at eight years old, on a prescription allergy medication with a laundry list of side effects. The side effects were never disclosed to my family, and the bottle only listed the warning that it may cause drowsyness. While my new doctor can't guarantee that the allergy medication is the cause of many medical issues I have, he said the conditions for some of the following may drastically improve by going off the medicine: depression, anxiety, mood swings, uncontrolled weight gain, isomnia, blurred vision, dizzyness, muscle spasms, and migraines, among others. Which does add up. My weight didn't really start to go up until I was put on the allergy medication. Same with the trouble sleeping, the migraines, the depression, the anxiety, the mood swings, and vision problems. The muscle spasms and dizzyness were added to the side effects list with the new formula (still not listed on the packaging) and began appearing when I was forced by my insurance company to switch over. More damning evidence of a connection? When I first moved to NYC for school, I went off of the allergy medication since the city had so little plant life where I was living. I lost forty pounds in six months without really changing my lifestyle too much. I wasn't depressed, or anxious. I didn't require a new prescription for my contacts/glasses at my next eye exam, etc. When I went back on the medication because I had to spend more time in NJ as a sophomore, my weight started to go back up, I was depressed again, wound up in the emergency room a few times because of anxiety attacks, and my contact/glasses prescription needed a huge correction at the next exam. I didn't even think of a connection between the medication and these changes because they only side effect I was ever informed of was drowsiness. Ironically, that was never a problem for me. The new doctor really does expect to see a pretty significant change before I see him again near the end of December. We're testing out some natural alternatives for the allergies that are working all right. I'm not quite into the swing of it yet. It's a bit more complicated than one pill every day. So, my midnight rec is this: ask questions of your doctor before allowing him or her to recommend a prescription medication for you or a loved one. Read up on the potential issues with the medication and speak to your doctor if you think something might be up. Otherwise, you might not know until fifteen years later when for years no one could figure out the cause of the problems you were having.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: The Birds DATE: 11/20/2008 09:13:00 PM ----- BODY: Wow. My computer really must be on a vacation. I'm back in Germany again by way of NJ after a brief stint in China also by way of NJ. Now, I know I haven't left the country, and I doubt the computer is logging in frequent flier miles. Keep it classy, Verizon. Film Rec: The Birds There is a major caveat to this recommendation. I feel it is a disservice to the material this Hitchcock classic is based on to not read Dame Daphne du Maurier's masterful novella before and after watching the film. Hitchcock made a wonderful film based off the premise, but it pales in comparison to the darkly suggestive narritive penned by du Maurier. I know I recommend a lot of horror films, or films with a horror sensibility to them. It is a reflection of my interest in cinema, but also of the intention of this blog. It's a blog about writing. In my opinion, the hardest type of film to write is a horror film. Fear is such a personal thing that finding mass appeal with quality writing is almost impossible. People constantly scrutinize the genre for its flimsy material or cheap tactics, but I see it very differently. The Birds is a perfect example to disprove the widely held beliefs of horror. Intelligent, darkly humorous, and violent, the fim never seems gratuitous. The mystery driving the film - why are the birds attacking? - is not answered to let the mind wander. Hitchcock gives the viewer free reign to see the film however they choose, except for one detail: birds are attacking humans. You can hate the Hitchcock blonde and love the school teacher. You could dislike every character but the woman at the diner preaching the Bible. It does not matter. The film has something for everyone to relate to, even if that something is just the fear of losing control. The dramatic arc of the film is near flawless. With so many major action sequences: the gas pump, the school yard, the house attack, among others, it never becomes predictable. Since we don't necessarily learn why the birds are attacking, we don't know how, where, and when they will attack. The characters don't know anymore than the audience, which is key for accepting an us versus them mentality in horror. For those who argue that the effects are dated an Michael Bay really needs to remake the film, I honestly suggest you watch the film again. Those birds look real. There is no way CGI bird could look better unless they made it an animated film. Please watch it. The film doesn't bite, I promise.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: DATE: 11/18/2008 11:17:00 AM ----- BODY: Good news, everyone. My Blaze review from my Cannonball Read site was just republised on Pajiba. Godtopus be praised! Now to put everyone to sleep. Book Rec: Modern Critical Interpretations: James Joyce's A Portrait of the Atist as a Young Man, edited by Harold Bloom I won't mince words here. I hate A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. I think Stephen Dedalus is undeniably one of the most irritating and unlikable characters ever created in the history of the English language. There's a reason why I am not including a post on that book on the blog: it's technically sound writing (I love the actual writing in the book) wasted on, to me, a completely worthless subject. Oh look, Stephen hates school. Stephen loves school. Stephen hates church. Stephen loves church. Stephen hates church again. Stephen writes a poem. Hooray? But that is not the subject of this post. The subject is a wonderful compendium of critical essays on Portrait pulled together by Harold Bloom. At first I thought: I must be too critical. Surely no one else feels the same way about Stephen as I do. Then I read this book while working on my Portrait paper. It was a revelation. The essays cover a wide variety of topics within the novel that basically boil down to the following truth: Stephen is supposed to be that insufferable because he is a young artist. I can't argue with that. Doesn't make me like the book more, but at least I'm not totally off base here. The most interesting essay is Suzette Henke, basically desribing Stephen's constant moral flipping as a way to recocile the Mary/whore complex. She suggests he tries to fill void within his personality swings by turning a whore into Mary and vice versa throughout the book. I'm not doing it justice. I just thought it was a very interesting and surprisingly readable (which was the point) selection of Joycian criticism that works to open up the book to other possibilities. Am I recommending you go run out and buy this? No. Borrow it from the library, even? Not unless you really have a desire to wade through Portrait again (or for the first time). Then it's the perfect side dish. And if all the html tags are messed up, I apologize. Blogger looks very strange on my screen right now.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Poultyrgeist; Night of the Chicken Dead DATE: 11/15/2008 08:04:00 AM ----- BODY: I apologize again about Thursday. I still don't feel particularly well, but at least I don't think I'm getting a migraine any longer. I hate casting. Midnight Rec: Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead The film is not for everyone. For better or worse, this is a Troma production. All I can say is that when I saw it, I really enjoyed myself. What's not to like about a musical horror film concerning a fast food chain building their latest franchise on an ancient Indian burial ground that turns customers into chicken monsters bent on revenge? The film does have all the nudity and violence and disgusting sight gags you would expect from Troma, but in a way it is addressing a more significant issue than usual, and it does it well. There's a reasons some reviewers are calling it one of the weightier, well thought out, politically minded zombie films since Romero's Dawn of the Dead. I'd link you to the clean trailer, but Youtube has that flagged as adult content, as well. For good reasons, if you ask me.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec Cancelled for the Day DATE: 11/13/2008 08:16:00 AM ----- BODY: My sincerest apologies for bailing out today. I've been overwhelmed with casting, questions, and death threats pertaining to the show I'm vocal directing. I'm this close to a migraine and still have to write papers on Henry James and Measure for Measure V. Merchant of Venice. The computer screen is making me dizzy. I'll make up for it somehow. Someday. Somewhere. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: History in the Making by Kyle Ward DATE: 11/11/2008 08:37:00 AM ----- BODY: So who is a fan of The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood? Cause I am. Later today, or maybe tomorrow, I'll be officially relaunching my design/art/craft business blog, Secret Linings. Basically, I'm going to focus on different areas of craft and design. There will be tutorials (eventually video tutorials), tips, links/suppliers of interest, shop announcements, and sneak peaks at upcoming merchandise. So look out for my sample Great Literature Series bag today or tomorrow. And no, I'm not selling merchandise based on a book still copyrighted. Onward, then. Book Rec: History in the Making by Kyle Ward I'm not picky when it comes to non-fiction books. I just want something insightful and well-written with an interesting concept approached in a new way. History in the Making is my kind of non-fiction book. Sure, the history of education has been covered before; so has the tendency of countries (America in particular) to rewrite history so past actions are viewed as more palatable. What Kyle Ward does to make his book stand out is actually use the text. It's like a literary approach to history, and I like it. The book follows the history of text books in the United States, from olden days when Native Americans were called noble savages (in the more progressive texts; others preferred demons, cannibals, or animals) to modern times. The book is broken down by event, with analysis of how the rhetoric of education evolved. It's nothing if not fascinating. It's also shocking at times. We would like to believe that a modern audience is somehow better than our ancestors, but some of the entries from even thirty years ago were almost as strange as claiming (as some of the texts used to) that slaves were mentally incapable of living their own lives and giving them work and housing kept them alive. Of course, the lasting impression of the book is a clear one: what will our education system look like ten, twenty, fifty years down the line? Will we be wincing at how we cover the Cuban Missile Crisis? Or Pearl Harbor? Or even Colonial America? Who can say? It's a great book to get your mind going. Try it if you want a taste of a different kind of history book or have an interest in the history of education.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: The Oblongs DATE: 11/08/2008 08:53:00 AM ----- BODY: Let's get straight to it. Midnight Rec: The Oblongs I'm a sucker for a family sitcom that plays by all the rules. It's why I can watch that episode of The Nanny where Fran gets cast as Juliet because the producer wants the show to flop over forty times and still laugh at it. It's also how I made it through Life with Fran and Reba. The Oblongs is an animated family sitcom that simultaneously obeys and subverts every single rule of the sitcom to the point that I doubt most people realized what they were watching anymore. I mean, just look at them.
The father has no limbs; the oldest sons are conjoined twins; the daughter has a giant tumor sticking out of her head; the middle child is a sociopath on more meds than half of Hollywood; the cat is a chain smoker; and the mother is a chain smoking alchie with no hair left on her head (yes, sadly, that lovely quaff is a wig). And yes, they do live in a toxic valley, hence the deformities.
Based on the characters introduced in the illustrated book Creepy Susie and 13 Other Tragic Tales for Children by Angus Oblong, The Oblongs only lasted one season on television. But what a season it was.
Take, for example, my personal favorite episode of the series: Milo Interrupted. Milo, the aforementioned sociopath, discovers his obese, crass, crude friend Helga (pictured below for reference) is living by herself. Her parents went on vacation and never came back. Meanwhile, a nasty racist spinster is pushing her own parenting agenda on the residents of the Valley, and wishes to meet with Mr. and Mrs. Fugly about their daughter, Helga. Milo tries to keep the secret, but can't take Helga's unwelcome sexual advances any longer. To make matters worse, Milo's father is convinced he's doing illegal drugs because of the spinster's parenting guide. The spinster is pulled in to find the missing Milo, guns ablazing, and Helga is arrested on charges of kidnapping; she will be tried as an adult due to her weight. The spinster steps in with the bail to raise Helga as her own daughter, teaching her valuable skills like proselytizing and hate mongering. In the end, at the custody trial, Milo reveals he has found Helga's parents, who survived a horrible transportation accident by resorting to cannibalism. They present Helga with a necklace made of human teeth and declare she looks good enough to eat.
Does it sound ridiculous? It is. But look at the values racist spinsters, hop heads, and cannibalism taught: family is the most important aspect of life; friends should always be there to help you; and if you shrink down life to thirty minute installments, everything turns out all right.
But don't take my word for it. Watch the episode for yourself.
Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Children of Men (2006) DATE: 11/06/2008 07:57:00 AM ----- BODY: I'd just like to point out that the IMDB horror board has picked it's new title for the book club. It was Stephen King month, and the users selected Salem's Lot. I urge anyone to participate if they can get through the book, as the Something Wicked This Way Comes discussion was very lonely. I fear the club will fade away into the growing pile of failed IMDB horror board projects and that makes me sad. And a happy, problem-free, president elect announced by strong margin week to you, too. Film Rec: Children of Men We are so close to hitting Oscar gold this year I can almost taste it. I'm struggling to remember a good film that fits the premise of the site without pushing the "writing" definition so far it becomes unrecognizable. This, gladly, is not one of those cases. Post-apocalyptic movies: are they completely played out? Bound to a critical "meh" like Blindness because we've seen it all before yet struggle to reconcile something different in storytelling style? I'd say no. The purpose of these dystopian (or however you wish to refer to them) films is to comment on society. In exaggerating the social ill to catastrophic levels, the artist attempts to demonstrate how imperative that issue is. Children of Men hints at a lot of broad sweeping themes that perhaps make it a bit more palatable: war, environmental destruction, poverty, discrimination, etc. The key to understanding the film's premise - a man must escort the only pregnant woman in the world to a safe haven after years where no woman was capable of giving birth - is the journey. All of these great issues are a misdirection to the true message of the film: our actions now will prevent our progeny from living in any way that connects to the positive elements of society today. So, does it express this clearly? Yes. In the last scene of the film, which I will not spoil because it's done so well. The message is defined throughout with the destruction of the main characters who try to change the world. What else works about the film? Well, the action sequences are so brilliantly planned they have to make an impact on the viewer. The intricate infrastructure is refreshing. It also prevents the film from being predictable in the least bit. Expectations are constantly flipped or dropped completely and you are left with a story that makes perfect sense in the world created. Children of Men is a film that actually becomes better on repeated viewings. If you haven't seen it in a while, or not at all, I suggest giving it a try. It really is well done.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: How to Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen DATE: 11/04/2008 07:04:00 AM ----- BODY: It's Election Day, people. Get out there and vote. Whether it's for Obama, or McCain, or McKinney, or any of the other various independent parties, the most important thing is to express your preference. The second important suggestion is to not be bullied into expressing who you support if you don't want to. It's OK if you don't have a sign on your lawn or a sticker on your car. Everything is going to be OK. And just remember: we (hopefully) will have a brand new president elect tonight. Barring any unfortunate counting issues. Enough politics. On to Snoopy boy.* Book Rec: How to Be Alone by Jonathan Franzen There are some who swear by David Sedaris for their go-to contemporary non-fiction reference. Indeed, his work is very polished and entertaining, and sells exceptionally well. While I've had friends who go nuts over the latest David Sedaris column in The New Yorker, I can only think of a handful of essayists who do the same for me. Jonathan Franzen is the most well known of those writers. I'm on my third copy of his excellent collection How to Be Alone. What helps Franzen stand out to me is his willingness to edit his work. The note on my current 2003 edition expresses that "Earlier versions of most of these essays first appeared [elsewhere]...the essay "Scavenging" has bee modified." Instead of just compiling his work like others do into a collection, Franzen understands that something can always be improved. The stand out to me is his infamous "Harper's Essay," in which he basically states the novel is dead and nothing can save it (or is it?). It's dark, it's bitter, and it's passionate. Does it make a whole lot of sense? Maybe not. But it sure is well written. Well, in his highly edited revision entitled "Why Bother?" it is, which is good enough for me. Franzen is capable of digging deep into his psyche and expressing highly complex thoughts through beautiful imagery that still leaves me in awe. There are a wide variety of subjects touched on in this book, from Alzheimer's to pornography and everything in between. It really has something for everyone. Give it a try, won't you? *I very well may be going insane. I get that people didn't really like the "Moe'N'A Lisa" episode of The Simpsons, where Lisa helps Moe become an overnight sensation in the world of poetry. But why can't I find the full transcript of the fight scene between guest stars Jonathan Franzen and Michael Chabon. Am I making up the Snoopy boy insult hurled by Chabon at Franzen? Or am I mixing it up with a sight gag I know exists where Franzen smashes a portrait of Snoopy over Chabon's head? Either way, the reference fits, as it plays off Franzen's incredible essay The Comfort Zone, discussing how he used to read Peanuts comics as a child while his father and older brother fought. It might be his most well known work besides The Corrections.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Quick Updates DATE: 11/01/2008 04:25:00 PM ----- BODY: 1) I forgot to mention I have a new piece of flash fiction up at MicroHorror: Physics. Dare you to figure out how it relates to the contest theme of Creatures. 2) So Craftster really hates me, and that's because I'm a man who doesn't qualify as angsty emo eye candy. They grouped all the contest entries together and I'm the only one without votes. Therefore, I will be launching two new projects by the end of the year. One is a blog dedicated to men who craft, though ironically, I'll have to poll Craftster to get the interest going for submissions. The other is a social network for crafting, done through Ning. That is all. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: A Plea and a Midnight Rec DATE: 11/01/2008 08:38:00 AM ----- BODY: Some of you are aware already, but I really am asking for some help if you an spare the time. Basically, I'm entered in the Craftster Haunted Yard contest, but since I'm male, I might as well have decorated my yard with pornography and a giant penis since my kind isn't welcome there unless I were tall, thin, and flashed my abs and smile while displaying my new project. So, three months of work and a prize donation go down the drain as people who put out store bought decorations or just traced and painted video game characters are actually capable of receiving a reply or pat on the back while I am not. I do the decorations for myself, but I'm pretty much done with Craftster once the voting is done. I could knit the Constitution at 100x scale, tattered edges and all, and receive maybe one reply, while someone does a poor cross stitch of the same project that looks like someone signed an x on a dirty handkerchief and make the front page. So here's the plea. Look at the decoration I put up. If you have an account, consider voting for me, or at the very least, replying to my thread. If you don't have an account, I would greatly appreciate it if you even considered registering to do the same. Considering I'm one of two people that actually made my decorations (the only one to come up with the designs on my own, mind you), it would make sense for this web site to recognize what I achieved with green materials. I mean, two entries took their entire projects from last year's special Halloween edition of Make magazine. I can't be the only one who noticed. Sorry to come off as petty and bitter. It hasn't been a good week. Midnight Rec: Only Revolutions by Mark Z. Danielwski Only Revolutions is a contemporary Modernist novel told through poetry and a historical timeline. Only the novel is read front to back and back to front. It tells to perspectives of the same story. It has color, font change, and size changes throughout. To me, it makes absolutely no sense but in the best way possible. It's just nice to be reminded once in a while that masters like Woolf and Joyce didn't push the boundaries of literature as far as it can go for nothing.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Ginger Snaps (2000) DATE: 10/30/2008 08:33:00 AM ----- BODY: I want to keep it seasonal, at least through Saturday, so yes it's a horror film that might be of questionable quality. I hate myself for covering Little Girl...already. You know, an actual horror film of great quality where all the action occurs because of a not so chance meeting on Halloween? And then I realized Ginger Snaps has never been covered on this blog. Bless those kooky Canadians and their cursed horror films. Film Rec: Ginger Snaps Imagine, if you will, a horror film not targeted at men. Like, at all.* A horror film that really takes the entire concept from a natural occurrence in women.**/*** Ginger Snaps is a werewolf movie unlike any other you've experienced. To be blunt: lycanthropy is equated with sexual awakening, specifically a teenage girl's first menstrual cycle. The blood draws the attention of a nearby werewolf who pounces, strikes, but does not kill Ginger. Now Ginger is having brand new feelings that she doesn't understand, and only has until the next full moon, Halloween night, to save herself with the help of her sister and a local marijuana farmer. Bizarre? Yes. Hilarious? At times. Beautifully written from a very different and rarely heard voice in horror films? Bingo. What Karen Walton and John Fawcett create through a werewolf lens is one of the more authentic modern takes on teenage life. Ginger and Brigitte have to deal with the an assault of influences: their female peers hate them for being different, their male peers want to deflower them to brag about taking something so precious from the two girls unaffected by their advances, their teachers constantly misinterpret their creative assignments as attacks on the school, and their parents try too hard to be best friends with them. Sure, Ginger and Brigitte take an "us vs. the world" mentality, which does impact their friendships, academic performance, and parental interactions, but it feels real. The biggest achievement of Walton and Fawcett is to make a werewolf film not about the werewolf at all. Everything is about temptation - sex, drugs, alcohol, violence, crime - but on a scale that seems appropriate and realistic for high school students. They aren't trying to score cocaine; a few puffs of marijuana make them feel so cool and rebellious. They aren't having take your hoops off and put Vaseline on your face brawls in the hallway; they hit each other a little extra hard while playing field hockey. They play practical jokes on each other. They have morbid in-jokes that really are as horrifying as they seem, and that's the main reason they like them. I haven't even gone into how natural the bond is between the two sisters, how heartbreaking the character arc of the mother is, the dark humour brought on with a wink to the horror audience that is capable of bringing appeal to a male audience, or even how accurately the film plays by lycanthropy rules while also breaking every single one. Rent it tonight and watch it tomorrow with the two sequels. It's better than watching another Freddy/Jason film or an awful remake. *No, those awful remakes, reimaginings, and derivative films overflowing with CW/WB has beens and never was's don't count. Those intentionally put actresses that look like jail bait in skimpy wet costumes to get the guys in the theater. **Not pregnancy. If I see one more half-baked abortion/psychopathic killer pairing in theaters I'll tear the screen down. ***Bizarre weddings don't count here either. That's an excuse to cover a virgin (always, always a white dress in those films regardless of how big a slut the character is) in blood.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Double Book Rec: The Aspern Papers, A Good H.P. Lovecraft Collection DATE: 10/28/2008 09:44:00 AM ----- BODY: As promised, Book Rec: The Aspern Papers by Henry James Do I feel The Aspern Papers is Henry James best work? No. I much prefer The Turn of the Screw for that title. However, what Aspern provides is a beautifully written tale of deceit and obsession that still rings true in our modern media-obsessed society. Simply put: an unnamed narrator is attempting to acquire the love letters sent by poet Jeffrey Aspern to Juliana Borderou, a woman near death residing in a decaying Venician home with her daughter, Miss Tina. By lodging with the mother and daughter, the narrator hopes to gain their trust and acquire the letters for his own academic windfall. No one has ever gotten in touch with someone who interacted so closely with Jeffrey Aspern; Miss Juliana is the Holy Grail of Aspern scholars. Just look at the prose about obsession:I had made a point of spending as much time as possible in the garden, to justify the picture I had originally given of my horticultural passion. And I not only spent time, but (hang it! as I said) spent precious money. As soon as I had got my rooms arranged and could give the question proper thought I surveyed the place with a clever expert and made terms for having it put in order...I would batter the old woman with lilies - I would bombard their citadel with roses...Gorgeous. And disturbing, too. All for some crusty old letters that may or may not exist. The beauty of the story is in the manipulation. Everyone is plotting and scheming against everyone else, to the point that no one knows who is controlling the situation any longer. It's worth a shot, though it's not as readily available as most of his other works. The Dover Thrift addition is riddle with unedited copy errors from the second printing, where the only correction was changing "Miss Titi" to "Miss Tina." I recommend finding another edition that may not loko liek tihs randomnly thruoghout the manumanuscript. Book Rec: A Good H.P. Lovecraft Anthology Really, any edition that is actually his work will do. But you must be careful: far too many publishers try to squeeze out extra income by labelling a collection something like "Dreams of Beyond: The Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft" where maybe two of the stories were actually written by him. What Lovecraft provides in every story is pure psychological terror. You are given a glimpse into an unstable mind being pushed over the edge. And that's just perfect for Halloween. While an unpopular opinion, my personal favorite story of his is Beyond the Wall of Sleep. It's science fiction and fantasy and horror all rolled up into one tight, possibly unfinished ball that will stick with you. I'm also close to positive that this is, in fact, the inspiration for Exorcist II: The Heretic, which uses a similar mind joining device to gaze into a crumbling mind and travel great distances without every physically leaving the room. Really, any edition will do. I wish I could remember the publisher, but a few local Borders have a beautiful, massive complete collection of all of his prose that has to stand on the top shelf because it's too big for the regular shelves. It was also available for under 20 dollars. Thank goodness for mostly public domain works and affordable editions.
Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: DATE: 10/25/2008 01:28:00 PM ----- BODY: First things first: I think I'm being cyber stalked, but in a good way. I have followers on my blogs now. Woo. Or woo? I don't quite know what that means. Yeah, I can create a private wiki from scratch to organize my Nano planning but don't quite get all the concepts behind Blogger, the Mad Libs of blog creation. Midnight Rec: Playbill.com Is this a selfish recommendation spurred by closing announcements I read first for a certain show that I can only say "Good riddance" to? Partly. But not entirely. Playbill.com is the place to go for theater news. The writers are excellent and the news expansive in nature. You want to know the suspected reasons why a little play not quite in the West End (London) shut down after two weeks versus the scheduled five week run? Or a survey with a more interesting interview subject than the mainstream theater actors? Or what about user questions answered by industry professionals about how this whole crazy Broadway system works? Playbill.com has it all. Yes, some prefer Broadway.com, and I go there as well. I was turned off by that site when they switched to casual video reviews from excellent professional written reviews. Their Tony coverage has gone downhill, too. Playbill is where you go for the news that actually matters told with a lot of style.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: But Not Technically, blah blah blah DATE: 10/23/2008 10:38:00 PM ----- BODY: OK, technically this should be a Midnight Rec. Also technically, the fucking high school I work with should be able to foot the bill to get the high school play's programs run off at the same print shop that does 5000+ football programs every year that never even get passed out at games because they forget. I'm not exaggerating on the number. I've seen the invoice. Film Rec: Cigarette Burns Cigarette Burns is arguably the single greatest film John Carpenter has ever made. And that's because two up and coming horror writers penned a fantastic script about a killer film. And no, it doesn't really kill people. It's not cursed, either. It's completely different from any film you've seen recently. An eccentric millionaire who collects the rarest of rare film memorabilia wants the final piece of his banned cinema puzzle: a film that only played at one festival. The ensuing bloodbath was enough to have the film confiscated by the police and destroyed. But he knows a copy still exists. So his freelance detective has to travel all over the world, interviewing people who are progressively closer to having witnessed the whole film for themselves. A horror film about finding a film? How can that be scary? It's not. It's utterly disturbing, terrifying, and haunting. It's smart. It's funny. It's bloody. It's gorey. It's subtle. It's excessive. It's even a little blasphemous. It's everything that can but shouldn't be combined in a horror film put to good use. If you don't want to call it a horror film, then say it's a thriller. Call it a high stakes noir romance if it makes you feel better. It's worth watching. Believe it. FYI: It's technically a short film that's also an episode of the TV series Masters of Horror. Those are arguably films collected under a TV banner, but I'm iffy on the Made for TV's mixing with the cinema releases. This is the exception that proves the rule.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Google, Bad; Job, Worse; Idiocy, Eternal DATE: 10/21/2008 08:28:00 PM ----- BODY: Google erased my post again. Fuckers. No post tonight as my job is falling apart thanks to people who refuse to take responsibility for their own stupidity. The book rec would have been The Aspern Papers by Henry James. I will write about that and one more next Tuesday. Hope your life goes better than mine. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy DATE: 10/18/2008 08:34:00 PM ----- BODY: Hey, did you know it was Saturday today? I sure as hell didn't. Hence the late post. Apologies of the most sincere variety are due. Midnight Rec: The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy What happens when a twisted cartoonist gets to make a show about an evil girl, a stupid boy, and their contractually bound friend forever the Grim Reaper? About the best animated series that may or may not still be in production, that's what. It's funny. It's filled with references to mythology, religion, and ancient cultures. And it's very, very dark. Plus, it has killer musical sequences. Like one of my favorite pop songs, Brains. I really wanted to include a clip of the pageant episode, where Mandy smiling destroys the known universe (after a somber death march of a Somewhere Over the Rainbow, complete with flying baloon, checkered dress, and cute dog), but it's only available grainy and in Spanish. Matilda? Give me a break. Check the show out if you don't already watch it. Guaranteed to provide a tiny bit of awesome in every watch.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: The Duchess (2008) DATE: 10/16/2008 11:23:00 AM ----- BODY: I have a love/hate relationship with excellent film reviews. On the one hand, they are an absolute pleasure to read. Case in point: Ranylt Richildis' masterful review of The Duchess at Pajiba. The prose is excellent, the opinions thoughtful, and the critical analysis relevant. If more writers would approach reviews so thoughtfully, then general film criticism would be a far more wonderful place. The hate? That inevitably, I would be writing MY review, article, or blog post AFTER such a masterful review. A review published on a site I often use to generate traffic for my own projects. In order words: what chance do I have to live up to it. I don't. Thank goodness this site is about the writing. Film Rec: The Duchess (2008) Hey film fans! Do you enjoy smart, well written, historical cozies produced by the BBC? Then look no further than The Duchess for all of your never show a single thing happen on screen because that might be scandalous and we must maintain our integrity filmmaking.* The Duchess is adapted from Amanda Foreman's well reviewed biography Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. I can't speak for it myself for I have not read it yet. It describes the life of a young woman married off to the Duke of Devonshire for the sole purpose of producing a male heir. Foreman's book apparently goes into great detail about Georgiana's drinking, gambling, and promiscuity, which is not the point of The Duchess. What the three-man team of screenwriters do with The Duchess is tell a story about the continuation of power and the balance between men and women. Georginia says early in the film that the only way women can express themselves is through their clothing, and answer the Duke approves of. Georginia pushes the limits of her power, eventually speaking for the benefit of her political party and using her fame to get her candidates elected to office. But The Duchess isn't really concerned with that, either. It's the domestic struggle of the wealthy. It's not new ground at all, though the writing is top notch. The confrontations between Georgiana and the Duke are very realistic. The whole film is surprisingly realistic for a period costume drama. There is no initial shock to get over about the elaborate garb, for the material, style, and design of the costuming feels like real clothing. The castle is decorated to within an inch of its life, but it doesn't seem gratuitious. All of this is added in to enhance the subtlety of the screenplay; the competition would be too great if the film relied on the excess of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antionette, as an example. While many are quick to point out how Georgiana's inproper behavior is glossed over, I do not believe this is true at all. There are many incidents in the film where a simple joke or comment points to the deeper problems in Georgiana's life. Perhaps even a greater illustration of her alcoholism and gambling is how she is rarely seen in the film without a glass or chips in her hand surrounded by men. When these issues come to the forefront, it's devastating. Honestly, I recommend seeing The Duchess if you like period films. This is one of the better ones for this historical period in recent years. The performances are all very good, the score marvelous to listen to, and some of the scenes will rip your heart out of your chest and make you reevaluate how powerful a simple twitch of a hand can be. *I view this as a marvelous method that never ceases to amaze me with its creative approach.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Smirk, Sneer, and Scream by Mark Clark DATE: 10/14/2008 09:08:00 AM ----- BODY: I know most people don't have occassion to write or read about horror films, academically, professionally, or purely for entertainment. For those people, I apologize for the following recommendation. Book Rec: Smirk, Sneer, and Scream: Great Acting in Horror Cinema by Mark Clark Let's get the obvious out of the way right now. This book is WAY overpriced. Borrow it from a library if you read it at all. The price is disgusting for a 257 page book even with the excellent content and construction. Fifty bucks? No thank you. I don't even own a copy. Now to the meat of it. This should be your first source for any information on performances in horror films. Actors are given more coverage than actresses, though the chapter on actresses contains some of the most passionate writing in the book. Mark Clark goes through a who's who of horror film performers, from the popular to the obscure. In discussing what makes a certain performer or performance so influential, Clark diagnoses our reaction to horror films. Why do we recoil at the site of Lon Chaney, Jr. but feel attracted to Barbara Steele? Especially considering the awful dubbing in some of the only available copies of Barbara Steele films? Why do we relate to a survivor girl (represented in this book only by Jamie Lee Curtis, but what an article) and a serial killer at the same time? What makes us keep coming back to horror? And what constitutes good acting in horror? He discusses much more than that. This book is incredible, yet incredibly overpriced. I almost feel bad recommending it for true fans because you'll undoubtedly have to use interlibrary loan or your local college (which will also receive it from a bigger school) to even feel a single page of it. But it's worth hunting down for fans and research. If it were even twenty dollars less I would recommend the purchase.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Etsy DATE: 10/11/2008 08:47:00 AM ----- BODY: Midnight Rec: Etsy What is an Etsy, you ask? Etsy is the best online commerce site for handmade goodies. Crafts, clothing, design, art, functional, decorative, and downright bizarre, Etsy has it all. So who actually makes the items on Etsy? The small business owners. These are real people listing their merchandise online through Etsy. They set the price, they set the shipping, they create the listing, they promote it till its sold. Etsy takes a small cut of the sale price and channels that back into constantly evolving features. Say you need a gift for someone, and you know their favorite color is aquamarine. If you shop by the "Colors" link, you scroll over various colored bubbles until you find what you are looking for. Click it. Now you have polaroids of every item listed on the website that is cataloged by that shade as a predominant color. Or what about timeliness? You only want the freshest item? Time Machine (and Time Machine 2) list everything from newest to oldest. Every single item on the website. Is it the most functional search? Of course not. It's the equivalent of browsing through a department store, which is why Etsy is so great. Etsy really is about the sellers, not the site. The site is designed to bring attention to every seller if they take the time to learn its quirks. I have an Etsy that I barely make sales on. Why? Because I do custom work. I list merchandise in a field I'm hitting particularly hard (right now, ceramics), showcase a variety of techniques, then wait for the "OMG I love that gargoyle. Too bad you don't have a castle." so I can respond "I've got more castles to paint than you can handle. We don't even have to go through Etsy if you don't want." Of course, I always do appreciate a sale through the site, too. Especially when I paid for a Showcase slot in the drop down Ceramics and Pottery section. And so ends another mystery of where Trent Sketch gets money.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: The Queen (2006) DATE: 10/09/2008 11:50:00 AM ----- BODY: I know it's an unpopular opinion to really love The Queen, but I can't help myself. A major reason for that is the masterful screenplay. Film Rec: The Queen (2006) Most people look at The Queen for Mirren's performance. I say that's a noble reason, but should not be the primary reason. Sadly, I feel her well-deserved Oscar will overshadow the accomplishments of screenwriter Peter Morgan for as long as the film is viewed. Peter Morgan's screenplay isn't about the wordplay. Yes, it's clever, dry, and amusing in a right proper British fashion. That's a given. In fact, I'd go so far as to say if a British film about royalty doesn't give that impression straight off, it's most likely not a good film at all. What Morgan does is create scenarios to constantly develop the character of The Queen. The strongest example is the deer/hunting scene. Yes, cinematography made it glorious. But Morgan was the one who wrote of The Queen's entire dilemma and character matching a wild deer that she lets go. Couple that with her loyal corgies looking up to her no matter what, and in one shot you define the entire plot of The Queen. Honestly, I feel The Queen is undoubtedly the strongest film released in 2006 and, if anything, wasn't acknowledged enough during awards season. Give it a try; I bet you'll like it.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Grendel by John Gardner DATE: 10/07/2008 09:08:00 AM ----- BODY: I understand many people don't like epic poems as a genre, all right? I've had to read Beowulf enough throughout my education to watch as all of one, maybe two (I'm shocked there are possibly four people really into it this semester in one class) people who don't try to fall asleep, text, doodle, or bitch about how bad it is. I get it. The language can be off-putting and its a lot of celebration for so few action sequences. Book Rec: Grendel by John Gardner Sadly, I've also seen how little interest people have in this wonderful novel, as well. It does tend to go over better than Beowulf (maybe 4-5 people interested per class), but not by much. Judging by what John Gardner is dealing with - broad strokes: existentialism, nihilism (and this winds up in the YA section of my library? I need to have a good talk with the new wave of librarians about their incessant reshelving and dumping of the full Dickens collection for three copies of A Christmas Carol and one of A Tale of Two Cities) - this should be even less accessible than Beowulf. It's not. For those out of the loop, Grendel is Beowulf told from the perspective of Grendel, the misunderstood spawn of Cain. He's not born a monster: he's made one. The Danes refuse to be friends with him and try to kill him on sight. So, he opts to destroy them before they can destroy him. Beowulf arrives and is, to be blunt, a douchebag (so much for being about the writing, people). I'm not even a fan of the character in the poem (I read it for the writing, thank you), and Gardner, being so knowledgeable about medieval literature, justifiably makes him obnoxious, aggressive, and full of himself. Even the Dragon (best character in the novel) and Unferth (what a wimp) are expanded to play important roles. Gardner's writing is excellent. Period. Done. I shouldn't have to say more, but I will. He refuses to cast the world of Grendel in the good and evil mode of the unknown poet of Beowulf. Every character comes across as flawed at times, admirable at others. It feels real, and no matter what my 11th grade English teacher said, is not an attempt to claim all people are inherently good or inherently evil, leaving no room for middle ground. Gardner thrives in the gray and casts it beautifully to the page. I'd say, if you like the idea of the Gregory Maguire novels, you might like this. It depends on how well you love Beowulf for that audience. If you hate Beowulf but like good novels, this is probably a better fit.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Hulu.com DATE: 10/04/2008 11:17:00 PM ----- BODY: Wow. It's Saturday? I wonder what took up my time today? Creative pursuits, perhaps? Getting new merchandise up in my store? Trying to stop myself from being embarassed by Pajiba for not finishing a single book for the Cannonball Read challenge yet? Enough pimping. Let's get to it. Midnight Rec: Hulu.com Is this perhaps a cop-out recommendation? Who doesn't know about Hulu by now? That many people, huh? Wow. Never mind. Hulu is a brilliant money making scheme. Acquire the digital rights to broadcast active and inactive television series, new and old films, and clips of everything in between without charging the user a dime. How do they make money? Forced ad views. Each episode will have a specific ad or series of ads that you must watch while streaming. If you skip over the grey dot, you will still see the ad. It's a 30 second ad that will pop up maybe 6 times over the course of an hour long program. Deal with it. And that's only for the most expensive programs. Most are less than that. The quality is excellent, and they quickly post important events like the Vice Presidential debate. You were on of the 70+million people who watched it live, right? They'll be unstopable once they get the rights to air trainwreck series you hate to love to watch, like Top Model or I Love [Famewhore/Hasbeen/Neverwas]. But those are small issues. Who can complain when you can watch full episodes of Firefly or Dilbert? PS: Here's the debate. Get to watching if you didn't: -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Universal Horror (1998) DATE: 10/02/2008 01:58:00 PM ----- BODY: OK, technically it's a TV movie, but I'll let it slide this time and punish myself later. Film Rec: Universal Horror (1998) Riddle me this, readers: do you know how hard it is to make an interesting talking head documentary about film? Do you? It's archival film footage and the old people who were young when it was shot. That's a challenge. Universal Horror pulls it off. The made for TV documentary presents an expansive history of the first wave of Universal Monster Movies leading into WWII. Instead of just rolling the highlights of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man, they go into the history of the directors. Who influenced them? What films did they steal from? How did Universal fuck them over? Same with the actors, as well. Apparently, in 1997/6/8/when this was shot, many of the leading ladies of these classics were still alive, providing a welcome insider perspective to the habits of your Lon Chaney Jr.-s and Bela Lugosi-s. What Universal Horror does is present a story about the history of film in a way that feels like a story. There are twists and turns, colossal successes and unexpected disasters, and side plots of who hated who and who did what to which person and why did Bela not got this part but a total unknown did (poor Bela, always the bridesmaid, never the bride until Tim Burton made a biopic on Ed Wood). They even go into some of the lesser known properties, like The Black Cat and the Spanish-language Dracula shot at night on the same set as the English Dracula. Chiller TV is probably playing this sucker all month. Give it a try if you can. I know I learned a lot and had fun learning. That's the sign of a well crafted documentary.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber DATE: 9/30/2008 09:30:00 AM ----- BODY: Forgive me if this blog suddenly turns into a Gothic treasure trove through December. I think I've mentioned NaNoWriMo before. My first attempt at completing the challenge will be a modern Gothic novel. While I feel myself to be quite familiar with the Gothic aesthetic (especially the Victorian Gothic and Gothic Parody), I want to do as much research into the style and conventions as possible so that I can attempt to faithfully update them for 2008. Book Rec: Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber For all the horror films I talk about on this blog, you think I would get excited more often about horror fiction. After all, many of the films I love are based on the popular horror stories of that time. But it doesn't happen. All too often, I find myself wondering why some of the more popular horror novels are all tell the story, show the gore. No subtlety, little character development, just boring people thrown into horrifying situations to show some twisted idea of the author. Not with Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber. Like all of my favorite horror novels, Fritz Leiber is a firm believer in providing only the slightest hints possible to what is really happening in the novel. If you guess one thing that's going to happen, you probably missed seven things also hinted at in the text. As the reader, you don't know what is going to happen until the characters know, an even greater achievement as the novel has survived for over sixty years and is still very chilling. Fair warning for the uninitiated: this was written in 1943 and some of the racial and gender rhetoric is dated to say the least. The story? A professor at a college discovers his wife has been practicing witchcraft for years in an effort to ensure his success. He convinces her to burn every magical possession she has and give up her silly superstitious nonsense. As his wife begins to flourish without the weight of the superstitions over her head, the husband begins to unravel as paranoid thoughts creep into his head. Could his wife have been correct in stating she wasn't the only faculty wife practicing for the benefit of their husband? If the story sounds familiar, it very well may be. The novel has been adapted for the screen three times: Weird Women, Night of the Eagle (Burn, Witch, Burn), and Witches' Brew (Which Witch is Which). This particular storyline is arguably an original notion by Fritz Leiber. Meaning, he was the first to tell this particular tale in the same way Jane Austen was the first (in Pride and Prejudice) to have two would be lovers meet and hate each other (the basis of many romantic comedies). Aside from the craft in plotting, the language is beautiful and clever. "He felt like he fell in love with her for the hundredth first time." Makes your heart melt, doesn't it? Give it a try if you can find a copy.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: 50th Post Spectacular! Midnight Recs Galore DATE: 9/27/2008 07:12:00 AM ----- BODY: Welcome to the 50th Post Spectacular! But that's not all. It's your host's 23rd Birthday. In honor of this momentous occasion, I would like to take the time to bring attention to my favorite websites. It's the best of the best if you will. Midnight Rec: A Few Of My Favorite Sites Let's start at the very beginning. Pajiba - Their tagline "Scathing Reviews for Bitchy People" is accurate. Even with the greatest of films and media content they review and address, they aren't afraid to point out the flaws and do it with wit and intelligence. The site layout has been changing as the community expanded and the new subject areas are much appreciated. You visit for the reviews. You stay for the community. Craftster - What happen when a bunch of crafty people, not satisfied with simply sticking to existing how-to's, go out and form their own web community? Craftster happens. There are people doing things you never imagined possible with ordinary and extraordinary craft supplies. Every scale, every purpose, every style is mined and discussed for the advancement of craftwork. Penny Arcade - And now something for the nerds. This web comic provides over the top commentary on the state of the gaming industry shown through the twisted eyes of characters Gabe and Tycho. The comic has the potential to appeal to all fans of games because, though the style is consistent, the approach to humor can be as crude or sophisticated as the subject requires. Project Gutenberg - When a site says "free" anything, I'm skeptical. Many seem to push the boundaries of intellectual property rights law. Not Project Gutenberg. They provide free access to public domain works transcribed by users. It's a wonderful resource for looking into some of the classics of literature for research or leisure without spending a fortune for works that are out of print or continually reprinted just to turn a profit. Viddler - I'm not going to lie here. I think YouTube, while undeniably the most expansive, is the worst of the online video sites. The layout is confusing and the compression settings can make watchable videos (available on other sites for this reason) come across poorly. Plus the technology really hasn't advanced. Enter Viddler. Viddler is what YouTube should have been from the start. You can create working links sequenced to specific parts of a video. You can opt to have a small logo appear on all of your videos linking to another website. Facts can come up without having to manipulate the video footage to put them in. And user comments can be set to specific time-points in the video, coming up while the video is playing. Whether you opt for a personal or commercial (oh yes, its ppc/ad sharing) account, Viddler is the way to go for great looking personal videos. Please to enjoy five of my favorite sites.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: I Got Nothing...err...Jackie Brown DATE: 9/25/2008 08:05:00 AM ----- BODY: Sorry. I'll fix it tomorrow when A) I'm sane again; B) I got this awful letter paper monkey off my shoulders; C) I return dead broke from Atlantic City. I'll make up for it, I swears. Beside, the 50th Post Spectacular! is my birthday, so you know I'm going to bust out all the tricks. Or spiral into a dizzying depression about how old I am (which is ridiculous, since I'm only turning 23, but that's past halfway to 25, which is a slippery slope to 30...). Either way, expect fireworks Saturday. Film Rec: Jackie Brown OK, I get it. Plenty of people just don't like this film. They think it's too slow. They think nothing of interest happens. They think it's just Quentin Tarantino masturbating behind the camera for two and a half hours. I get it. It's not for everyone. To me? It's the closest QT has ever come to producing a perfect film. The intersecting character dramas seem organic rather than forced, a huge pitfall of the common person embroiled in criminal/police procedure film. The dialogue is clever, but not so clever you're focusing on what was written rather than which character was saying it and why. Is it because the film's adapted from a novel? Perhaps. I can't speak for certain because I haven't read the book yet. What I do know is that a solid story is told on screen with a lot of style that had to be defined in the writing stage. It's so strange that of all the Tarantino films, this is the one I choose as my favorite. It doesn't have over the top camp (Pulp Fiction - look me in the eyes and tell me that dance sequence, or the burger sequence, or even Kathy Griffin doing her best Charlie Chaplin comedy walk isn't campy), or disturbing violence (Reservoir Dogs), or buckets of blood (Kill Bill Vol. 1), or sweeping multi-dimensional character arcs and non-traditional storytelling (Kill Bill Vol. 2), or even throwback exploit tactics and dialogue so dense you need a chainsaw to hack through it (Death Proof). No. It's a well told heist film. It's an interesting drama of total strangers working together to achieve a set goal while other try the same thing. It's entertaining and engaging without indulging in any gratuitous excess. Watch it if you haven't. It's a good story with interesting characters that still reads as fresh and different over ten years later.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Black Maria Poems Produced & Directed by Kevin Young DATE: 9/23/2008 07:46:00 AM ----- BODY: Book Rec: Black Maria Poems Produced & Directed by Kevin Young If the peekaboo bullet hole in the dust cover doesn't give you a clear indication of the concept behind this poetry collection, the "Produced & Directed by" subtitle should:
Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: NaNoWriMo DATE: 9/20/2008 11:11:00 AM ----- BODY: You sometimes hear rumblings of a mysterious wind people fear will topple over slush piles and send manuscripts flying into an abyss with no chance of escape. While agents attempt on various blogs to assure would-be writers that this is not the case, the idea still persists because of something truly wonderful. Midnight Rec: NaNoWriMo Hi, friend. Are you like me? Afraid that you'll never write anything longer than a short story? Scared that you can't possibly sustain a work for long enough to ever really be published? Well have I got a remedy for you. NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary in November, when thousands of would be novelists agree to reach 50,000 words of writing in just one month. Through an online community willing to kick each other in the butts with a sense of cooperative competition, people go beyond the expectations of the event and wind up with complete first drafts of novels. Are they publishable yet? Probably not, as the rules state it must be new writing. Notes can be prepared, outlines drafted, characters sketched, but the writing must be new. This will be my first year participating. I've begun researching different aspects of the story that should be able to sustain 50,000+ words, easily, even though its mainly based on one character's unusual predicament. Will I wind up with a novel when I'm finished? I hope so, though knowing my editing habits, I'll be lucky to survive with a novella once I finish tearing it apart. And that's ok. It's the literary Mt. Everest: write a novel in a month. It seems impossible, but all boils down to one thing: 1667 words a day. That's it. I probably write that between all my different online venues every day anyway. The site will be shutting off new user registration and clearing out the forums starting tomorrow, but will reopen October 1, ready to accept any new challengers for the crown. I'll be there. Will you?Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Memento DATE: 9/18/2008 10:46:00 AM ----- BODY: So, so sick. I'm ever so ill. And there are three suspects: my father, who took off from work on Monday, my brother, who has been complaining ever since someone threw up on him in NYC, and my eye doctor, who couldn't stop coughing in my general direction yesterday. Which one did it? I have no clue. I just know that breathing is a chore and my throat feels like a brillo pad caught in a drain pipe. Film Rec: Memento How do you make a mystery film even more thrilling and confusing? By telling the story completely out of order and actually making it work. How can you tell it works as a story? By watching the DVD cut where everything is put in chronological order under special features. It's hard enough to create a good mystery film, even harder when it's not based on a crime being committed. Try then maintaining the suspense and intrigue while chopping the story up and serving it out of order. Then, make sure its cohesive and all adds up in the end without revealing anything too soon. A short entry, for sure, but a relevant one. Memento is all about the writing. Watch it.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Rites of Spring by Modris Eksteins DATE: 9/16/2008 09:24:00 AM ----- BODY: Book Rec: Rites of Spring by Modris Eksteins Surely there is no shortage of books about the events leading to World War I and, in turn, World War II. I know I had to acquire nine such texts for a class on Modernism last semester. I figure, if you have to choose one of these books to keep on your shelf and you're not a historian/researcher, it might as well be one that's a joy to read. Rites of Spring by Modris Eksteins is just as concerned with style as it is about the facts, providing both in as an enjoyable a fashion as a book that delves into war and genocide can be. The book opens with The Rites of Spring by Stravinski, introducing all the major players that brought them to life. Eksteins doesn't just stop at the simple facts (he choreographed, he danced the lead, she claimed their was a riot), he goes into historical references to the gossip of the time (he's sleeping with him, his wife left him when he went wacky). These diversions are so ingrained in the style of the text (and heavily referenced as well) that they don't act as distractions. The approach to the material remains consistent throughout the book even if the style shifts in appropriate ways to deal with the more somber topics. I know historians would disagree (this became a major debate with my historian/professor last semester), but I would say if I had to recommend one book that covers the basics of pre-War/WWI/interwar/WWII/fall of Hitler, it would be Rites of Spring by Modris Eksteins. This book is informative and a pleasure to read.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Sleep DATE: 9/13/2008 08:11:00 AM ----- BODY: Midnight Rec: Sleep Sleep has to be one of the most undervalued resources in American society. Who needs sleep when they can go party all night long? Or watch a marathon of the lesser films in the Leprechaun series? Or after reading a particularly horrifying book? Or discovering a new topic so compelling they just have to wiki and Google it all night long? Frankly, I never developed a taste for sleep until very recently. Sleep was a forced upon attraction, the equivalent of having to pay a toll to be alive. It distracted me from my work and many times prevented me from completing it at all. And you know bosses/instructors/clients don't accept "But I had to sleep last night as an excuse." Sleep can be a midnight rec, for certain. It's relaxing. It's energizing. It's inspirational if you can remember your cracked out dreams come morning time. If I don't just sit there in a haze trying to figure out why the giant rolling pin was chasing me on the steam ship in a galaxy far far away, I make a note of any pertinent details on a big dry erase board next to my desk; eventually, I work my way down the list, trying to interpret what "BelLywohoper" or "Rewds_" could actually mean. When I figure that out, I wind up with a story. Which explains how messed up my writing is. The sleep rec stands, just ignore that whole write what you dream thing, myself included. Otherwise, I'll eventually wind up with a board filled with notes about Tyra Banks cutting me again and again and again.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec: Kung Fu Hustle DATE: 9/11/2008 07:34:00 AM ----- BODY: Has anyone heard of an eye doctor asking a patient to test out two new brands of contacts by wearing one brand in one eye and a different in the other? Just seems a bit odd to me, though I'll still try it out. I will not be pleased if this somehow messes with my tiny text reading ability as I have a three hour class devoted entirely to Joyce's Dubliners tonight and I really don't want to have to walk out with a screaming migraine or inability to read small text. Film Rec: Kung Fu Hustle What happens when the Chinese kung fu movie is reinterpreted to reflect the typically Western (specifically US) reaction to them? How about when this comedic interpretation is amplified with cartoon violence and over the top powers that would seem ridiculous in anime fan fiction? You wind up with Kung Fu Hustle, written and directed by Stephen Chow. It's funny. If you view it for nothing else, understand that you will see an amusing comedy with some great fight sequences. Are the characters the most developed ever? No. But that's part of the point and style of writing. Its paying tribute to and mocking the conventions of the kung fu film. So one dimensional characters - like a gay tailor, a mute girl, a bumbling accomplice, an evil mob boss - make sense. Though the expectations of these characters are flipped in unexpected ways. Chow makes seemingly flat characters empathetic so that we are laughing at (always at) and, at times, with them. The plot is handled well. There are clues strewn throughout revealing who is really who and what the purpose is. For example, there's a good reason Chow has the landlord shoved out the window by his wife after a fight. Actually, two good reasons that both change the story in pretty significant ways. While the film is an over the top comedy, the screenplay is layered in a way to allow more unusual plot points to come across naturally, though the screen is filled with Looney Tunes graphics and wire work. Try it. You'll like it. It's fun and surprisingly well made, especially considering the massive amount of wire work and CGI that feels real given the context.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: Battle Royale by Koushun Takami DATE: 9/09/2008 07:11:00 AM ----- BODY: Two quick announcements to begin. 1) To help further clarify the distinguishing line of this site, good writing, I've launched a new blog project: This Horror Life. The stated goal is to foster and improve intelligent discourse surrounding horror. The other purpose is to distinguish my typical writing style for this kind of analysis from what is actually read at the IMDB boards. God bless the Horror board, I enjoy being there, but longer posts with big words just don't cut it 96+% of the time there. So far, I've tackled the site's mission, why I dislike the phrase "literary horror", a call to arms to acknowledge the role of music in horror films, and the perfection and struggle of the horror short story. Please to enjoy.Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: DATE: 9/06/2008 08:10:00 AM ----- BODY: First, a quick and (to me) exciting announcement: I'm launching a new blog project. This Horror Life is an interactive blog dedicated to advancing intelligent discourse of horror. Currently planned are news, reviews, editorials, and retrospectives, though interviews, contests, and can be added depending on the level of participation. I'm looking to make the site what the horror fan wants, and the only way to do that is to hear from you, the fan. Post comments on the blog about what you'd like to see. Send e-mails. Tell you friends. Have suggestions for films to discuss? A hot news tip on upcoming horror? Reports about horror events? Let me now at This Horror Life. Apologies in advance for the ad layout, I have ZERO control over their formatting. But, with success on that blog (which is a potential revenue stream), I could eventually begin to offer payment for content or as prizes in contests. That all depends on how interactive the lofty project actually becomes. Midnight Rec: The Pillowman by Martin McDonagh The Pillowman is one of the funniest and most disturbing plays I've ever come in contact with. It's dark humor related to children being killed, and it's handled perfectly. In the not too distant dystopian future, a writer is being held in prison under suspicion that his short stories, featuring violent actions taken out against children, may actually be scripts for a series of murders being committed. Murders the police believe he committed. The small cast and tiny setting is only limited by the imagination of the stories told within the play. This play clearly isn't a must read for everybody. It's extremely upsetting in content and dives further and further into a dark world far more disturbing than the writer's short stories could ever be. It's as much an examination of an author's motivation for approaching particular subjects as it is an investigation into the narrative methods that can be used to solve a crime. Meaning, when no concrete evidence exists, how are suspects determined and why is the investigation prolonged? For the sake of justice? Or personal gain? McDonagh's greatest strength as a playwright is his ability to create natural feeling dialogue in the face of unusual circumstances, thereby presenting the most unthinkable concept in a more accessible manner.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Film Rec Later today (much later): Hamlet 2 DATE: 9/04/2008 12:42:00 PM ----- BODY: As it is the first day of classes, I will be posting my film rec later. I will give you a hint. It's both technically a sequel and not a sequel, and it bombed miserably in the box office. Mean spirited comedies with allusions to a certain classic playwright for the win. Film Rec: Hamlet 2 Ladies and Gentleman, we have a new front runner for the Sketchies. Move over The Strangers, Hamlet 2 just raped you in the face*. If you've seen the trailer, you think you know the film: a drama teacher writes a sequel to Hamlet to save the school; it just happens to be the most offensive play in the history of the world. And you would be wrong. The genius of Hamlet 2 is the multi-layered tribute to the Bard's play, wherin all the major players in the school's universe are characters from Hamlet. IE: Coogan is Hamlet, the principal is the new king, Elizabeth Shue is Ophelia (or is Amy Poehler more Ophelia..., Keener's got to be Gertrude, for sure), the school film critic is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, etc., etc., etc. Then, when the musical begins, it stays extremely true to the Shakespeare and is actually an uplifting tale about the power of Christ and redemption. Is Rock Me Sexy Jesus still blasphemous? Yes, but not as bad as the 15 seconds in the trailer makes it seem. Honestly, the DVD will come out, what, tomorrow?, to make up for the lackluster box office (Wednesday nationwide release and it STILL didn't crack the top 10? yikes!). See it for Elizabeth Shue being incredible as Elizabeth Shue. See it for the mean-spirited drunken antics of Katherine Keener, or the Hamlet styled mopyness of Steve Coogan, or the spot on entertainment lawyer (and I know some entertainment lawyers) of Amy Poehler. See it for the music, the magic, the drug abuse. Just see it. It's smart, it's funny, and probably will not be effective for you if you embody the stereotypical viewing habits of the flyover states. *please note that such offensive comments are not my own original ideas; Raped in the Face is the openning song of the musical within the film Hamlet 2; please assume any further offensive remarks are a loving homage to its comedic brilliance.Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Book Rec: My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates DATE: 9/02/2008 06:26:00 AM ----- BODY: I warned you it was coming. Book Rec: My Sister, My Love by Joyce Carol Oates I very easily could make my entire post one quotation from the novel and tell you to read it:She is what I would be. If God had loved me instead.That would be most unfair, of course. Though it does nicely encapsulate the majority of the 562 page faux-memoir of Skyler Rampike, brother of child figure skating prodigy "Bliss" Rampike. Replace "Rampike" with "Ramsey" and "figure skating" with "beauty pageant" and you'll know what the novel is really about. Based on the infamous murder of Jon Benet Ramsey, My Sister, My Love is a challenging work of fiction told from a surprisingly unique perspective considering how close it seems on paper to prior narrators of Oates's novels. Stop me if you've read this one before: a mentally unbalanced man with a disastrous childhood has an unnatural obsession with something harmful to him, so he retells the story of how he got where he in mixed first and third person narration. Toss in self-referential asides to the reader about how the "memoir" would be if it were actually a novel by a renowned author and ample footnotes that also shift perspective from what's happening on the page around it, and you have a very vague idea of what to expect. Plus page long sentences at times seemingly devoid of proper punctuation for artistic effect. I do need to clarify one point: this is not a fictionalization of the Ramsey case. The event was used as a jumping off point to create a wholly fictional world that feels very real. Perhaps the reason I had to pace myself so much on this novel was the subject of the novel. As someone who grew up in the performing arts, I've seen plenty of children pushed way too hard way too soon who crash and burn in inglorious ways. I've also been pushed into training I did not feel comfortable in under adults' misguided intention of helping me. Which leaves me at 22, almost 23 years old, deathly afraid of seeking private lessons in anything related to music or drama. Watching all of this told from the perspective of one child pushed so hard he became crippled for life speaking of another child whose fame resulted in her death is devastating. It can be darkly funny at times, but I'd say the default setting is emotional ruination. The narrator is disturbed and he seemingly cares so much about the truth that he doesn't care at all how people will perceive it. It's effective. As hard as it was to make it all the way through, I wanted to read more. If I had been better prepared for how far Oates went with the concept, I probably could have gone through all 500+ pages in a single day and dived back in for me. I'd say give it a try. If nothing else, at least sneak a peak inside the cover at your local bookstore and take a few paragraphs out for a test read. You might be surprised by how much you appreciate it.
Labels: book rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: 6 Films to Keep You Awake (DVD) DATE: 8/30/2008 08:59:00 AM ----- BODY: As a quick update, I figured out the s p a c i n g issue. Ctrl+ Shift + Spacebar switches the language input, but confirms the change by s p l i t t i n g the text before shifting to a plethora of options in character based languages (I recognize the Japanese and Korean characters, but that's all I can identify for certain). So that's that. I knew it had to be a keystroke issue. Also FYI: the IMDB Horror Board Book Club picked it's second title: Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. So, if your library's like mine, head over to your YA section and pick up an extremely disturbing novel that probably should be shelved with adult books. It's a very fast read and the discussion works better with more participants. Onwards and Upwards: Midnight Rec: 6 Films to Keep You Awake (DVD) I apologize for linking to Best Buy's description, but the IMDB link is impossible to navigate. 6 Films to Keep You Awake was a 2006 television series on Spain similar to Masters of Horror. 6 directors worked on 6 separate horror films to air in a 6 episode series on TV. Unlike Masters of Horror, these films are long enough that, instead of airing on TV, they could have seen a commercial theatrical release. The main reason for the rec is actually related to Best Buy. They currently have the 3 Disc set for only 19.99+tax. That's a good deal. Each of the six films is very different from every other film in the series, so there genuinely is something for everyone. If you like foreign horror, and embrace the Spanish horror revival (battling it out with the French horror revival for the new source of all things remade in US horror - sorry Japan, the creepy haired ghosts adaptations of every film aren't selling tickets like they used to), give it a shot.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Update Later Today DATE: 8/28/2008 08:43:00 AM ----- BODY: Due to nutty professors constantly changing out which books are required for courses in Shakespeare (and my own laziness in obtaining the materials for a class on James Joyce), I will be venturing into miles and miles of bookstores in NYC today. Which also means taking in a film, visiting some record stores, and picking up some kind of fancy sandwich on fresh baked bread, all before taking my customary walk past every Broadway marquee to see who is playing what where when and guess why and how they got the part. Update later today. And no horror film this time, I swears. What a successful adventure in NYC. Aside from the required texts (Aspern Papers/James, Ulysses/Joyce, Portrait.../Joyce, Anthony and Cleopatra/Shakespeare), I also scored copies of Blonde by Oates and V. by Pynchon for my own collection. Which makes me feel better about the mild panic attack yesterday when I woke up and saw that my bookshelf disappeared and I had but two shelves left (redid the entire room, condensing collection to two shelves on my second hand computer desk, the rest of the books are all listed on PBS, sorted, and filed away in boxes in the closet). The shelves are full again, which makes me happy. Film Rec: Network (1976) It's not a horror film, though the content is more disturbing than most Hollywood horrors could aspire to be. It's from the 70's, though it feels extremely fresh and relevant in a pop culture society where the new breed of stars are characters like Tiffany "New York" Pollard and has been musicians looking for their new baby mama on VH1. It's also inevitable that I finally reach a discussion of this film, yet own no copy for myself and cannot rent it in my local stores. Network is significant among film aficionados for numerous reasons. It marks the first (and only) posthumous Oscar win (Peter Finch for Best Actor), Faye Dunaway's only Oscar win (Best Actress), one of the shortest performances on screen to ever win the Oscar (one scene wonder Beatrice Straight for Supporting Actress), and one of the most memorable and referenced scenes in the history of cinema ("I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!"). There's also surprising bits of dark humor and extreme characters that don't quite cut it in most mainstream films. Take, for example, one of my personal favorite character introduction scenes in the history of the performing arts:Diana Christensen: Hi. I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey of the imperialist ruling circles. Laureen Hobbs: I'm Laureen Hobbs, a badass commie nigger. Diana Christensen: Sounds like the basis of a firm friendship.What Network manages to do that makes it such an excellent example of writing is cast it's net extremely wide over film styles with a laser sharp focus plot wise. There's the character driven plot of Howard Beale's demise, the satire of the American network television industry, the workplace battle between everyone at the network, and even speculative drama on what could happen if television didn't stop going for extreme ratings events. Perhaps the single greatest achievement in the writing of the film is the opening preamble, that discloses the entire plot of the film without ruining its impact:
Narrator: This story is about Howard Beale, the acclaimed news anchorman on UBS T.V. In this time, however, he was a mandarin of television with a HUT rating of 16 and a 28 audience share. In 1969, however, his fortunes began to decline. He fell to a 22 share. The following year, his wife died, and he was left a childless widower with an 8 rating and a 12 share. He became morose and isolated, started to drink heavily, and on September 22, 1975, he was fired, effective in two weeks. The news was broken to him by Max Schumacher, who was the president of the news division at UBS. The two old friends got properly pissed.Honestly, if any of this sounds appealing at all and you haven't seen Network, please do. If this doesn't sound appealing at all, understand that I haven't even begun to dig into the meat of the film and would require an entire month's worth of daily posts at least this length to do it justice; therefore, I recommend seeing the film. If you have seen the film, why not revisit it? I know I will.
Labels: film rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: The Coma by Alex Garland DATE: 8/26/2008 08:22:00 AM ----- BODY: To me, the division within the Tuesday and Thursday posts is needless. I'll start reorganizing the blog and updating the archives to indicate the change. The Coma by Alex Garland A man wakes up from a coma to be in a life he knows nothing about. Aside from being completely lost, he's become prone to periods of blackouts where he has no recollection of what he's done or how he got where he went. The Coma isn't a novel for everyone. It's very much about executing a bizarre concept rather than producing prose that will appeal to a large audience. The narrow focus is successful, for the mystery and fear produced by the man's unfortunate situation demands attention. Perhaps the best way to describe the book is to detail one of the most powerful scenes. The man is trying to force himself to wake up, convinced he must still be in the coma. He wakes up into a world of darkness, in which he can't move, can't breathe, and can't cry for help. The darkness envelopes him, causing him to panic. Could this actually be his reality? Or is it another symptom of his confusing situation? If that sounds compelling, I'd recommend giving the novel a try. If it sounds too strange or boring, then I'd recommend passing on the book. -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Blogger Ate My Post AgaIn + Midnight Rec: Winky DATE: 8/23/2008 08:15:00 AM ----- BODY: So, that blank post Thursday? That said it had a story? Was eaten by Blogger. I'll just post the IMDB crib notes version instead, which is deceptively long. As some of you may be aware from my prior blog, my grandfather died in May. My family is still attempting to fix up the house for my grandmother after many years of neglect. I managed to unearth two huge drawers full of photographs, artwork, and news clippings about my great uncle. Turns out my family wasn't exaggerating when they said he used to work in Hollywood. He was an artist and set designer. There were countless, documented photographs of him with his best friend Gene Autry and not quite as close friend Jackie Gleason. There were shots of him at the Emmy Awards, on sets of John Wayne films he painted, even a candid shot of John F. Kennedy at a press conference recorded for the TV station he worked for. There was also original concept art work for different shows and films, portraiture of radio/TV/print personalities he worked with, and one of a kind comics he drew on every envelope he ever mailed my grandfather. I'm completely blown away by this discovery. Even more so by the new fact I learned about him: he accomplished all of this with one arm. He lost his left arm in WWII during gun fire in Germany and was turned down by all but one company for his design work. That company, Kool Radio, became Kool TV, became his connection to all the major stars he befriended who helped open doors for him in Hollywood. Which in turn set him up for the rest of his life doing freelance design work out of Arizona, including much promotional material for Sun City, AZ. Now comes the difficult task of organizing, analyzing, and quantifying all these discoveries to put his story to paper and see where it leads. Midnight Rec: Winkie by Clifford Chase Have you met my new friend Winkie? Winkie is the favorite toy every child has growing up. Perhaps s/he was a teddy bear, or an action figure. Maybe a board game or model car. Whatever s/he is, s/he might be a danger to society if s/he ever gets her/his wish for life. Winkie is a very strange concept for a novel that only works due to execution. A teddy bear is facing serious criminal charges, most noticeably the accusation that he is a mad bomber living in a backwoods cabin. A sentient teddy bear that tugs at your heartstrings in an attempt to discuss some of the failings of the US legal system? Bring it on. Give it a shot if you care to. If the idea of a teddy bear who comes to life dealing with prison life and court proceedings sounds good to you, you've: A) already read the book; B) loved the X-Files/Millenium/Buffy/some supernatural tinged proceedings how; or C) should at least give this one a try.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: No Rec Today: Story DATE: 8/21/2008 05:02:00 PM ----- BODY: -------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Will Edit with Post Later Today DATE: 8/19/2008 08:03:00 AM ----- BODY: Atlantic City, last minute trips so much fun. Trent Sketch will be broke. If you must know, I'm rec'ing a specific edition of The Mystery of Edwin Drood that contains the most convincing ending added to the halfway finished final serialized novel by Charles Dickens. Though honestly, I'm only rec'ing that because I've had people get mad at me before for recommending they only read the Dickens chapters. Sorry for the short post. The Mystery of Edwin Drood is perhaps the most accessible of Dickens longer fiction for the unitiated. The core of what he wrote appears to be a straight forward murder mystery, attempting to identify who killed Edwin Drood. Of course, in true Dickens style, the real purpose is in the details. Unfortunately, also in true Dickens style, the novel was serialized over a long period of time, and he wrote each new section by itself rather than one whole book at once. Meaning when he died, he left no notes and revealed very little detail to anyone on what the Mystery of Edwin Drood actually was. The only surviving clue is a letter to his associate basically proposing a mystery novel where the answer is clear and the mystery is actual misdirection into a more human drama about a murderer coming to terms with his actions. I'm not going to recommend the specific edition. Pick up Drood when you have some down time and give the Dickens chapters a try. If you like those, try the other authors concluding chapters. Some are better than others, though there are certainly versions for every taste.Labels: DEAR rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: The Stoop by Little Jackie DATE: 8/16/2008 02:37:00 PM ----- BODY: Let's get to it. Midnight Rec: The Stoop by Little Jackie Considering how quickly an artist can obtain the it girl factor in the modern record industry based on one song (Katie Perry and Estelle, as two examples), I'm baffled by the response to Little Jackie. Sure, VH1 picked up on the new(ly reincarnated) R&B/pop duo, going so far as to use the lead off single The World Should Revolve Around Me as the theme song to the new reality series New York Goes to Hollywood. The reviews have been solid, too. So why are Estelle's and Katie Perry's getting all the play with catchy pop tracks and Little Jackie can't get no mainstream lovin on the second go around? Providing an intelligent, personal, critical, danceable, sing-a-long-able album is no easy feat. Little Jackie does it with gusto. It feels true. Imani Coppola's vocals are pure mainstream R&B, with a sweet smooth soprano containing a bit of edge and a surprisingly darkn tone. Her diction is the biggest selling point for the music. Every single word is crystal clear on the first listen, refreshing for a songwriter. The beats, produced by DJ Adam Pallin (the other half of Little Jackie), are perfect. The rules of Brooklyn are outlined in a tongue in cheek way in title track The Stoop. Clever turns of phrase and false boastfulness sell the single The World Should Revolve Around Me. Her hardships in life are painstakingly outlined in plain language on closing track Go Hard or Go Home. She even has a track indicting Winehouse for her poor behavior and drug addiction, pointing out how any other artist could step up and steal her role. She begs Winehouse to wake up and step up to the plate. Which is crucial at this moment, considering the huge campaigns for fellow London soul singers Duffy and Adele, as well as a gigantic US launch for Estelle singing and rapping on similar topics. The sole weak point of the album is Black Barbie, another critical track about the US entertainment industry's constant attempts to brush aside the unlawful, immoral behavior of the Hiltons and Ritchies and Lohans (and I guess now Leboufs). It feels weak after Go Hard or Go Home. Maybe if the placement was different on the album it wouldn't feel as weak, but the product stands with its track listing and this was the only mistake in programming. It's an excellent album. Try it. You'll probably like it. And I answered my own question: smart music doesn't sell. Get it while you can, people.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: The Strangest Box Office Rec Yet: Crossed Out DATE: 8/14/2008 08:56:00 AM ----- BODY: I know I keep picking horror films. It's not intentional, I swear. And I know from e-mails that people will contest these choices I make. The following will not help my cause going against those assertions in the least bit. Box Office Rec: Crossed Out, a short segment from the anthology horror film Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror What good can come from an awful B-Movie featuring not just one rapper (two to be exact), but a former professional wrestler as well? One of the most entertaining short films I've ever seen, filled with surprising depth and interesting plot twists for a segment coming from this kind of film. Posie is a street kid. Her parents died in a murder suicide when she was a child and she only has a roof over her head due to the charity of the local church that is wearing thin. The pastor has agreed to board Posie under the condition she paint a large mural for the church. Posie is more concerned with tagging gang territory with her loving spray of flowery reds and pinks to ID her abilities. A confrontation with a gang overtagging her ID leads to an unusual encounter with a strange homeless man who gives her a tattoo and a power. She can bring life to the streets if she uses it right. But, with life comes death, and her powers can determine who lives and who dies with a single "x" of paint. What Tim Sullivan and Jacob Hair put to the page is nothing short of beauty. The back story is handled gracefully, with even the most disturbing acts of gang induced violence coming across like a street art masterpiece worthy of international acclaim. Posie's obsession with art is forever crossed with gang warfare by her father's simplified explanation that her mother's blood is "just like [her] finger paints." While the interim period between her parent's death and her encounter with the gang is never fully explained, it becomes clear in her interactions with others that she has fallen into the cycle of violence, using her words as weapons when her art could help foster peace. The transformation sequence is undoubtedly one of the best in recent memory, as expectations are flipped from what seems like an unwelcome sexual advance to a rebirth for the troubled Posie. Cryptically given her charge by the homeless man in the form of a silver tattoo from her knuckles to her elbow, Posie is skeptical of the claims. She's more obsessed with the quality of the ink than the power that may flow through her. The realization of power comes through her one shot at peace: the church. The first gang member she crosses out on the street winds up dead, and she only finds out when the pastor informs her that a grieving couple were his parents. When reminded of the opportunity to turn the other cheek and take advantage of an artist's true ally, a blank canvas, she runs the other way. The remainder of the story is told in a haunting montage of Posie's tagging and grieving parents leaving the parish. Perhaps the greatest achievement of the writing is how unexpected the ending is. Everything seems to be leading to an inevitable conclusion, and it does reach it, but in a beautiful, unexpected way. I'm not trying to claim Hood of Horror is a good film. Not in the least bit. The ideas are interesting but the execution, sans Crossed Out and the origin story, is severely laking. Fortunately, for the price of a DVD rental on Netflix, you, my dear reader, can use the power of DVD to watch only the first two portions of the film - an animated introduction to Snoop Dogg's character and the short Crossed Out. It does get gory, but the skill of the camera paints an even deeper meaning into the segment that goes beyond the writing. If Crossed Out were produced as a short, it would surely have won awards at film festivals for the writing, leading performance, direction, and production. It's innovative and intelligent, which is why the rest of Hood of Horror is such a let down.Labels: Box Office rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Contemporary Rec: Danger on Peaks by Gary Snyder DATE: 8/12/2008 07:20:00 AM ----- BODY: I'll quit trying to beat around the bush. Barring any sudden decline in quality in the latter portion of the novel, I will be writing about "My Sister, My Love" by Joyce Carol Oates. The book is far more difficult to read than I expected because of the tone and subject matter. It's aggressive and upsetting but so wonderfully written I don't want to stop reading. I just need more breaks from the book than I've ever required before. I can't even guarantee I'll be finished by next week, to be honest. Contemporary Rec: Danger on Peaks by Gary Snyder Yes. A poetry collection. Click away now if you must. I can wait. --- Gary Snyder's 2004 collection Danger on Peaks is one of the most beautiful poetry collections I've ever experienced. The integration of the natural world with the emotional world is masterful, to say the least. The biggest draw of the collection is the series of poems about Snyder's experience as a ranger/guide near Mt. St. Helens when the atomic bombs were dropped during WWII. The rest of the collection follows in an effort to reconcile the natural world with the material world, with Snyder returning to the natural world for answers even when it seems there can't be one. The difficulty of the collection is Snyder's distinctive style. There are moments in the collection that read like modernist prose - lengthy paragraphs of short sentences, with no separation between dialogue and exposition. These passages contain many significant poetic elements that don't appear elsewhere in the book. Likewise, the clearly (visually) poetic segments can be comprised of grammatically proper sentences with every form of punctuation imaginable. Snyder flips visual expectations to get at a deeper meaning. Give the collection a try if you like poetry and haven't already.Labels: contemporary rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Illbleed DATE: 8/09/2008 05:18:00 PM ----- BODY: Oh video games, how often the most promising starts betray the audience. Whether it be an epic new style of gaming or a platformer that seems made by rote no matter how many new features are added, the story tends to fall straight into the mundane. Some genres almost invariably fall on their faces, like fighting games, when developers' emphasis shifts to writing. Midnight Rec: Illbleed For those that recognize the title, it can't be a surprise that I would recommend a game on the biggest failed system launch of recent memory: the Sega Dreamcast. It also shouldn't be a surprise that I'd also consider it my personal favorite video game console of all time. The Dreamcast saw the release of many experimental game titles, such as Samba de Amigo and Typing of the Dead, that managed to outlive the console that never produced enough units to meet demand and, unfortunately, did not grasp the novelty raves of the Nintendo Wii to last that long. But this isn't about the Dreamcast. This is about one of the most bizarre, engaging survival horror games ever released, a little known gem that revolutionized the mechanics of many that followed: Illbleed. Illbleed was about horror films. Or at least a celebration of horror films on the surface. Players controlled first one, then up to five high school students attempting to survive the intense scares and threats of the world's preeminent horror theme park. Based on the best of the best B-Movies (featuring homicidal maniacs and deranged freaks, naturally), players had to uncover the mystery behind each horror film to defeat the enemy and move onto the next attraction of the extreme haunted house. Sounds pretty average for survival horror, right? And the content itself was old for horror films. All part of the grander illusion masterfully woven into the metagame of Illbleed. You see, Illbleed did have a damage meter. You actually lost a lot of blood and, unsurprisingly, refilled the health meter with medical supplies, blood transfusions included. And there were weapons picked up throughout the environment. Illbleed also had five other meters that made the gameplay, even at its most frustrating, absolutely compelling. Sight, hearing, scent, sixth sense, and horror. The first four would ping off automatically when the character approached a potential shock, allowing the player to avoid or defuse the trick with the fifth sense - horror. The horror meter relied on the character's adrenaline level, causing damage that could only truly be healed by medical supplies. The horror meter had to be used to defuse specific traps that would otherwise scare the character to death, but the use of the horror meter could lead to death at the hands of the park. The skillful balance between these five senses was the biggest strength of Illbleed, and why the series' demise was such a tragedy. Shortly after the release of the game, the CEO of the company Crazy Games died. He was the biggest champion of the series and his enthusiasm allowed for early development of a sequel for the Xbox. Unfortunately, without his support in a merger, most of the developers working on the project left, the budget was slashed, and Illbleed 2 fell to the wayside. Big if's: if you have a working Dreamcast, if you find this game, if you like survival horror, if you like challenging games, give this one a try. I'm linking, rather than embedding, a video of gameplay from the first stage: Homerun of Death. 1) it's pretty disturbing; 2) I'm not pleased with the quality; and 3) it doesn't make much sense out of the context of the story. It does show off how the mechanics worked and the style of scares the game used. So here's the video.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Box Office Rec: The Red Shoes DATE: 8/07/2008 06:50:00 AM ----- BODY: Oh translators, how you curse a film for US distribution before it's even viewed in the country. Perhaps not calling a film The Red Shoes when, in fact, the color is oversaturated to a brilliant magenta in every scene would mean people wouldn't be against the film due to title discrepancy alone. Recall that Box Office Rec has been revised to the last 5 years due to the regular glut of quality films over the summer movie-going season. Box Office Rec: The Red Shoes (Bunhongsin) I'll admit that I really enjoy foreign horror films, especially localized interpretations of ghost stories. The 2005 Korean film The Red Shoes falls somewhere between the Japanese Tomie series anguished spirit and the grizzly deaths of a Dario Argento giallo. In other words, right up my alley. An Optometrist takes her daughter and leaves her husband to open up her own clinic and get a fresh start at life. Her one vice in life is an insatiable appetite for shoes, advanced to the point that she has her own department store-like display system in the middle of her new tiny apartment. When she encounters a one of a kind pair of bright red suede heels on the subway, she has to have them. Unfortunately, so does every other woman who sees them. It turns out these shoes have a certain power over men and women alike, and the key lies in the identity of an unknown model (even unknown to the ad agency) seen modeling the exact shoes in a nationwide advertising campaign. Did this girl meet the same fate as those who dare to wear the shoes? Or something far worse than a vanity induced death? How hard can it be to get an accurate description of a film's actual story on a DVD case? Apparently impossible, judging by the entire foreign film section (excuse me, now it's called "Special Interest") at Blockbuster. No wonder horror fans haven't seen this well acted, well written, gorgeous horror film that puts a new spin on a very overplayed plot style. Ringu certainly gave horror a swift kick in the pants, but unfortunately resulted in many copycat films. Which is why an Asian ghost story with deaths like The Red Shoes goes ignored. A pervasive sense of dread fills every frame of the film, as the shoes quickly make their power known. The dialogue goes from highly realistic everyday interactions into darn-near satirical commentary on fashion (more sophisticated versions of: Woman- Don't my red shoes and tight clothes make me sexually attractive to all men? Man - Do me. Do me now. I can't resist your tight designer dress and killer red heels!; or, even worse, small scale reenactments of The Running of the Brides, only between a young girl, her mother, and an older friend, wrestling on the floor over who deserves to wear the titular red heels). The story hit me right. The characters were mostly intelligent, though the ghastly presence was smarter in its tricks. What could have been extremely sexist and offensive comes across as sleek, modern, and scary, just like a good horror film should. Horror is supposed to cast a light on society's ills in a terrifying way in the same manner a fairy tale exaggerates the trappings of life to teach a lesson. So few horror attempt to do that anymore, and even fewer succeed. The Red Shoes does.Labels: Box Office rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: DEAR Rec: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane by Laird Koenig DATE: 8/05/2008 07:13:00 AM ----- BODY: If only my camp job ended a week sooner, I would surely be recommending a far greater book than this one. As it stands, that novel will have to wait for next week. DEAR Rec: The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane A fair warning: for once, I'd recommend watching the film before reading the novel. There are considerable differences between the two, though the questionable content of the story is easier to stomach when viewed on screen with all the performances and gorgeous color palette to distract and enhance the experience. The questionable story? A 13 year old girl lives with her never seen father at the house at the end of the lane. The real estate agent, her alleged pedophile son, and all their money seem bent on eliminating any happiness the father and daughter may have. It's made very clear very soon, with her smoking of fancy French cigarettes and never ending supply of signed copies of her father's poetry book, that the girl is covering for his absence, but to what extent? To what length will this 13 year old go to protect her privacy and way of life? The writing isn't anything spectacular, to be honest. The descriptions are plain, the vocabulary simple, the perspective even faulty at times. The novel does have very natural sounding dialogue and does capture the feeling of isolation and yearning for human contact inherent in life, but especially pervasive in teenage years. When the action does pick up to something genuinely worthwhile, it's intense. The murders, the mystery, the cat and mouse game between the girl and the pedophile are all great highlights of the story. Yet again I rec a book not in print. Your library will probably have the book. Netflix and Blockbuster have the DVD. At least give the film a shot for one of the most commanding leading performances ever captured on screen given by a teenage Jodi Foster.Labels: DEAR rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Second Star to the Right by Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Arkestra DATE: 8/02/2008 08:50:00 PM ----- BODY: Whoa. Super late posting today. I totally lost track of time today working on a booth game for the camp's carnival on Tuesday. It's like Plinko, only the board is a 40x60 1/8" black foam core sheet with neon painted popsicle sticks on the sides, neon colored golf tees acting as bumpers, and a sign identifying the game as "The Asteroid Belt", complete with Milky Way fabric and lots of glitter. Foam golf balls (sadly not neon) complete the design. Over the top? Wouldn't have it any other way. Midnight Rec: Second Star to the Right - an album by Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Arkestra God bless Rhapsody. Sure, the songs sometimes skip when loaded onto an mp3 player if they are just from a To Go subscription, but it means I can listen to wacky stuff like Second Star to the Right without immediately committing to a purchase. If you haven't experienced the unique jazz stylings of Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Arkestra, this is as good an introduction as any. There's no real easy way to sink into a musician who truly believes he is an alien named Sun Ra. Using the Disney catalog as a jumping off point, Sun Ra slices, chews, swallows, digests, throws up, cleans up, and tosses away the familiar songs to bring a brand new vision to the beloved classics. The first instance of the gargly vocals of the Arkestra and Ra himself is startling. Disney is usually sung with clean voices that don't intimidate in the least. Not on this album. He might as well be shooting nails at your head and threatening to cauterize any wounds with a heat seeking missile. Mixed with the traditional jazz instruments played loose and furious yields a mind altering mix reminiscent of childhood trips to the cinema viewed through the lens of...well...another species. Pardon the pun: The album is out of this world. I mean, they do a 10 minute version of I'm Wishing from Snow White and turn it into a slow groove that seems like a cut track from the Aristocats. Try it out if you get the chance.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Catalog Rec: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? DATE: 7/31/2008 02:21:00 PM ----- BODY: It's a cop out, ladies and gentleman. My brain is shot after putting out fires all day long at a talent show for grades 2-5. So, I'm stealing from my book for the entry. Catalog Rec: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane "One of the most significant yet ignored aspects of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane is the original score by Frank De Vol. The core essence of the music is Baby Jane's trademark song, "I've Written a Letter to Daddy." While the song itself appears in its original form more than once in the film, every aspect of the score is either a continuation or a variation of this number. Each character in the film has [their] own theme music that defines [their] personality. "Blanche, the former Hollywood star, is accompanied by rich orchestrations of strings and winds to create the highly emotional, evocative style of melodrama based on the basic key and arrangement of "Letter." As her situation becomes more desperate, the transitions become more erratic, the tempo increases, and the style matches the isolation she feels in her own home. "Baby Jane, slowly losing her grip on reality, is marked with highly percussive, heavy, sharp, repetitive patterns of demented vaudevillian vamping [that's a mouthful right there]. Every time she mimics Blanche or inflects a new torture upon her sister, the music swells up to a chilling crescendo of mental distress. "Finally, playing off Victor Buono's sheer size and presence, De Vol creates a bumbling, bouncing comedic anthem tagging pianist Flagg with a natural naivety surrounding his involvement with the Hudson sisters. "As the characters become more involved with each other, the score combines the three distinct themes and trademark song to create a disturbing, penetrating sense of unease. While traditional orchestral scoring is used to supplement onscreen events, De Vol composed music that truly helped create a pyschologocially disturbing film, with traces of the songs ingrained in the collective psyche of the viewers." So there you have it. Watch the film.Labels: Catalog rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: DEAr/Contemporary Ｒｅｃ：Ｂｅｓｔ Ｎｅｗ Ｈｏｒｒｏｒ ｅｄ． ｂｙ Ｓｔｅｐｈｅｎ Jones DATE: 7/29/2008 07:55:00 AM ----- BODY: Quick entry today and apologies for the brevity. DEAR/Contemporary Rec: Best New Horror ed. by Stephen Jones If there is one annual literary event that never fails to entertain me, it's the release of the yearly horror short story anthology Best New Horror, edited by Stephen Jones. This collection includes some of the old staples every year: Tannith Ｌｅｅ， Ｓｔｅｐｈｅｎ Ｋｉｎｇ， Ｒａｍｓｅｙ Ｃａｍｐｂｅｌｌ， Ｎｅｉｌ Ｇａｉｍａｎ， ｂｕｔ ａｌｓｏ ｉｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｅｓ ｎｅｗｅｒ ｏｒ ｍｏｒｅ ｒｅｇｉｏｎａｌｉｚｅｄ ａｕｔｈｏｒｓ ｔｏ ａ ｂｒｏａｄｅｒ ｉｎｔｅｒｎａｔｉｏｎａｌ ａｕｄｉｅｎｃｅ． Ｔｈｅ ｃｏｌｌｅｃｔｉｏｎ ｔｒｕｌｙ ｈａｓ ｓｏｍｅｔｈｉｎｇ ｆｏｒ ｅｖｅｒｙ ｈｏｒｒｏｒ ｆａｎ． Ｔｈｅｒｅ ｗｉｌｌ ｂｅ ｖｉｏｌｅｎｃｅ ｉｎ ｓｏｍｅ； ｓｕｓｐｅｎｓｅ ｉｎ ｏｔｈｅｒｓ； ｖａｍｐｉｒｅｓ； ｇｈｏｓｔｓ； ｗｅｒｅｗｏｌｖｅｓ； ｎｅｗ ｂｅａｓｔｓ； ｍｕｒｄｅｒｅｒｓ； psychics； ｆａｉｒｉｅｓ； ａｎｙｔｈｉｎｇ ａｎｄ ｅｖｅｒｙｔｈｉｎｇ ｙｏｕ ｃａｎ ｉｍａｇｉｎｅ． Ｔｈｅ ｓｔｏｒｉｅｓ ａｒｅ ｓｅｔ ａｌｌ ｏｖｅｒ ｔｈｅ ｋｎｏｗｎ ａｎｄ ｕｎｋｎｏｗｎ ｗｏｒｌｄ． Ａｎｄ ｔｈｅ ｓｔｏｒｉｅｓ ａｒｅ ａｓ ｄｉｆｆｅｒｅｎｔ ａｎｄ ｄｉｓｔｉｎｃｔ ａｓ ｔｈｅ ａｕｔｈｏｒｓ ａｒｅ ｎｕｍｅｒｏｕｓ． b e s t n e w h o r r o r e d i t e d b y s t e p h e n j o n e s Ａｎｙ ｅｄｉｔｉｏｎ ｉｓ ａ ｇｏｏｄ ｂｕｙ， ｔｈｏｕｇｈ ｔｈｅ ｄｉｖｅｒｓｉｔｙ ｉｓ ａｌｓｏ ｉｔｓ ｏｎｅ ｗｅａｋｎｅｓｓ． Ｄｅｐｅｎｄｉｎｇ ｏｎ Ｊｏｎｅｓ’ ｇｏａｌ ｔｈａｔ ｙｅａｒ， ｙｏｕ ｍｉｇｈｔ ｈａｖｅ ｙｏｕｒ ｆａｖｏｒｉｔｅ ｈｏｒｒｏｒ ｐｒｏｍｉｎｅｎｔｌｙ ｄｉｓｐｌａｙｅｄ ｏｒ ｈｉｄｄｅｎ ｉｎ ｏｎｅ ｏｒ ｔｗｏ ｓｌｉｇｈｔ ｅｎｔｒｉｅｓ．Labels: ＤＥＡＲ ｒｅｃ， Ｃｏｎｔｅｍｐｏｒａｒｙ Ｒｅｃ
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Double Feature: Midnight Recs DATE: 7/26/2008 09:40:00 AM ----- BODY: The new computer is wonderful, though I'm still adjusting to some of the stranger Linux commands (what the heck causes the t e x t t o a u t o m a t i c a l l y s p r e a d o u t l i k e t h i s ? and in a different font than I'm working in?) Two recs for today, cause I can't pick just the one. Midnight (Mini) Rec: X-Files: I Want To Believe Yes, it's been critically panned. And that's because people didn't have realistic expectations. It's not an extension of the overlaying conspiracy story from the TV series; it's a monster of the week extended to feature length. The twists are genuinely unpredictable (I didn't realize the ending until one scene before the final twist was revealed), though there are plenty of clues scattered throughout to get the mind moving. Sure, the argument of faith versus science is the same as it always was in the series, and even with the acknowledge few year absence, Mulder and Scully fall into the same exact roles. And yes, the show has done psychics. And disappearances. And interactions with God. And even more of the plot than I'm willing to reveal. To that I say: so what? The film works if you realize what you're watching. It's fan service, and better than most fan service tends to be (it's no Serenity, but it's certainly not as unbearable as the Sex in the City movie). Midnight Rec: Passing Strange soundtrack You might remember that really out there rock performance at the Tony Awards? The one that resulted in the front part of the audience reaction being a collective wtf? This one right here? Yeah. That show was Passing Strange. It's incredible. Mostly because the music is so good. The complete show (more or less, I'm not going back anytime soon to sit there with a stopwatch and count any cuts) is presented on the live release. Stew's storytelling musical sounds as good as it can outside of the theater. This blog is about the writing, so let's get to it. The rhymes are great: natural, and unforced. It's also very emotive without being sappy. And not just a sad song or a happy song; these songs run the gamut of emotion within a song. There's sex, there's drugs, there's racism, there's rage, and it feels right. A lesser writer would have made a mess of all Stew covers over the course of the show. The Tony win was right: Stew wrote an incredible book for this show. The album does it justice, though nothing can top the live experience. And there was no chance it would last a long time. I'm shocked it went as long as it did.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: With Trepidation: Box Office Rec: The Dark Knight DATE: 7/24/2008 03:06:00 PM ----- BODY: The new computer came yesterday. So far, so good. I just need to adjust to the tighter keyboard configuration and it will work out very well indeed. Nice clean Linux interface with Firefox already installed as the default web browser. Understand that today's post is as late as it is not because of computer issues, but because of my own reluctance to discuss the following film. It's a recommendation, but not as strong as previous entries. Be warned: there will be flip flopping and some harsh words about the film. Box Office Rec: The Dark Knight My first bone of contention with the film is all of the hype surrounding Heath Ledger's performance. He's very good in the film. I can't deny that. I just think he got screwed over by very flat characterization. The Joker's a crazy anarchist. That's well established in the DC universe. I get it. He has no motivation other than to destroy society. And he does it with a permanent smile on his face. That's not an excuse to write a one-dimensional character that works the same way in every scene. He has a big unexpected entrance that gets a laugh. Then he tries to charm the other characters on screen and use a little logic. Then he messes with their minds. Then he fakes them out with the threat of an attack. Then he strikes. That's every appearance on screen without exception. None. The Joker's character arc is actually a circle, and a poorly drawn one at that. Which is why Heath Ledger's performance is that much more admirable. At least he tries to bring something different to every scene, even if every scene is the equivalent of a Batman Madlibs. I wish in the most sincere way possible that Jonathan and Christopher Nolan could express mental illness in broader strokes than the following equation: mania + violence = mental instability = The Joker. Now it sounds like I didn't enjoy the film at all. I did. The action sequences were very well plotted and the Harvey Dent story was phenomenal. I almost wish so much emphasis hadn't been put on the Joker so there could have been more exploration of Dent trying to take down all the organized crime in Gotham City. The dog, cat, mouse, and cheese game between Dent, Gordon, Batman, and the mob was wonderfully entertaining. So were the glimpses into the fine line between Wayne Enterprises, the man, and the Batman. The references to Bruce Wayne's wealth being used to acquire information for his night work was handled perfectly. Then watching the interactions with Dent, Gordon, and Rachel Dawes cooperating with Wayne Enterprises when only one knows the truth of Batman was as close as a superhero movie could ever get to a quiet drama of manners and society. I know people are applauding Nolan's direction, and a lot of the film is great. But there are things that make me question what he was thinking at all. For example, Maggie Gylenhaal is a powerhouse actress capable of fine nuance and making awful characters seem human. Whatever Nolan told her to do with Rachel Dawes made the character insufferable. I was hoping that every scene she had was her last because the Dawes came across as awkward and almost not real. Nolan might as well have pulled the split personality card ala Identity and claimed nothing in the Batman universe ever really happened with how poorly Dawes and other supporting characters came across. I know I'm being critical, but that's the problem with so much hype. There's going to be a let down eventually. Much like recent crowd pleasers Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, inevitably, The Dark Knight will grow to be resented for its success over other films that don't receive a huge press junket. Many of the people who claim it to be the best film ever made will be the most vocal critics when awards season starts up. They will be the ones to cry "J'accuse! It is only a superhero movie!" I recommend seeing it for yourself. It's far more of a movie than any superhero movie that came before, if that makes any sense. It's bigger than the crime fighting. It's a complete picture. Love it, like it, or hate it, at least Nolan realized he was making a film, not a comic book. The mediums often cross, but rarely meet in a way that does justice to both. The Dark Knight finally shows a proper match.Labels: Box Office rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: DEAR Rec: Hell House DATE: 7/22/2008 07:10:00 AM ----- BODY: New computer arrives Thursday, in time for the Midnight Rec on Saturday. DEAR Rec: Hell House by Richard Matheson First, a quick note on why I read this book. The IMDB horror board is attempting to start up a sort-of monthly book club through the site. The first selection was Hell House. The discussion begins on 25 July. Exact details are here. We'd be glad to have more participants than have already signed up. "I'd rather die than leave." Hell House is one of those novels that people familiar with the genre know of, but may know more about the film adaptation (The Legend of Hell House adapted by Matheson himself) than the actual book. Even more people are probably familiar with the similar novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (released about 20 years earlier), which ostensibly functions in the same way. And even more people probably know those film adaptations (both called The Haunting, one in 1963 and one in 1999). All of this is truly a shame. What Matheson accomplishes on the page is truly admirable. By 1971, even the gothic haunted house film was becoming passe, let alone the gothic-styled novel, a favorite form of authors in the 19th century. He tips his hat to the history of the haunting novel while innovating the format with the extreme content that was becoming more common place in modern horror films. Take, for example, the simple action of lighting a candle that went out. Matheson manipulates the language in the same way Hell House manipulates its visitors: "He declined his candle to relight hers." It feels old fashioned, almost like a lost turn of phrase from the height of the house in the 1910's/20's. The phrase also flows naturally in the text, as the house slowly wraps the new tenants in the present time, the 1970's, under its control. Sure, there are sloppy moments that don't work as well: "Standing, she walked across the rug." It's great he specified that she didn't sit and walk across the rug. Still, I'd rather see an author experiment with too much description done in artful ways than receive too few details. For every clunker like that, there's something truly beautiful: "Now he was emotionally crippled, a latter-day Samson, self-shorn of might." If I have one complaint about the novel, it's my own fault for knowing too much horror writing that came afterwards. The final twist of the ending comes across as predictable today, old hat, passe. I can't fault Matheson for it - he lays out everything you need to know to buy the shifts without throwing in too many extras. There are red herrings, dead ends, and seemingly dropped plot points that pop up at the least expected times. A modern reader might have difficulty reconciling the ending. Acquire a copy however you can. I know my local library didn't have a single novel by Matheson, though other libraries in the county did. It also appears the most recent edition of the book came out in 1999, though there's a new illustrated adaptation. I can't speak for how they handle the material at all. Try to find a copy, but be warned - the content is at times very graphic, both in violence and in sexuality. This is not a kind, gentle ghost story. It's one that kicks you in the teeth after providing you with a free cleaning at the dentist's office.Labels: DEAR rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Updates & Midnight Rec: Hellboy II DATE: 7/19/2008 07:02:00 AM ----- BODY: Update: Macgate 2008: Screw it. I ordered the new Asus eeepc yesterday instead of fixing it right away. By Thursday, I'll be working off of Linux until the time I see fit to schedule an appointment (seriously? with no one in the store?) for a repair. And by repair, I mean they were willing to say that they have to reinstall everything. So, in concept, I'll have two new computers for the fall semester, what with all the upgrades they're going to force on me. Midnight Rec: Hellboy II: The Golden Army I've written it before, and I'm sure I'll have to write it again: someone had to write this thing. God bless them for the effort. There are fight scenes in this film that probably filled ten+ pages of screenplay because of everything involved. And no, I doubt massive fights taking place in rotating gears or over NYC streets with gigantic fantasy creatures were choreographed on the spot by a stunt fighter. If you're a fan of Hellboy and haven't seen it, I'm very disappointed in you. Can't the Dark Knight wait a couple days? Is Mamma Mia drawing you in that badly? Can you only buy one movie ticket a month and are waiting for X-Files: I Want to Believe? Ok, the last one's a valid answer. If you're not a fan of Hellboy and haven't seen it, don't be afraid. Sure, the film will ellude you at times with questions popping up like: How does the fish guy gain the ability to breathe outside of water by putting on a pair of contacts? There are even bigger logic questions than this but they are pretty major spoilers. They also make less sense. If you can look past big jumps of logic (even for a superhero movie, though not quite as big as Hancock's bizarre plot twist), it's an enjoyable fantasy film. Yes, a fantasy film. As in: an ancient war between magical creatures and humans resulted in the development of a golden army with no remorse and no mercy. The truce made them dormant, though the son of the king wishes to resurrect the force and reclaim the Earth as magical domain. Now that's a solid fantasy plot right there. Throw in bizarre creatures (like hungry tooth fairies), love stories, campy humor, and twins ala I Know Who Killed Me (that they are connected in thought and pain, not strippers) and you have a good time at the movies. Darn pretty, too. If you liked Pan's Labyrinth or del Toro's less known work (if the latter applies, I'm disappointed that you haven't seen this film), give it a shot. I think it's worth it. And no, you don't need to see the first one to understand the second. It couldn't hurt, though.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Computer Issues & Catalog Rec: Matilda DATE: 7/17/2008 07:48:00 PM ----- BODY: Sorry this post is coming in, oh, about 12 hours late. My Mac died. Even after reinstalling the OS and following all the tech support instructions, it won't start up. Thankfully, I noticed some major problems yesterday and backed everything up onto my external hard drive. Unfortunately, it does mean that I lost some in development website data, a short film I was working on, and some of my best music software. Then, this would have been up sooner, but I pulled my calf going up the stairs to my room to fix my computer and no one in my house was responding to my calls (both vocal and cellular) for some assistance. After three hours on the floor, I crawled down the stairs head first, wrapped my leg, and hobbled out to buy supplies for the camp's talent show in two weeks. Catalog Rec: Matilda I'm very much against adapting popular literature without care. What makes the print work so well rarely translates to the screen in a way that reflects the cause of success. Matilda is one of the exceptions in children's literature adapted for film. Nicholas Kazan and Robin Swicord managed to capture the feel of the book without sticking 100% to what's on the page. The result was a film that acts as a perfect compliment to Roald Dahl's beloved book. All the major highlights are there: the hammer throw, the chocolate cake, the newt in the pitcher, even Miss Honey's cottage. Indeed, just following the major events of the film could have resulted in a palatable experience, bland without staying power. The real strength of the film's writing comes in the new material. Matilda's family, in the book, is developed solely as the opposition that causes Matilda's mental development. The film adds much more. Harry and Zinnia Wormwood come alive on screen with the new details. Perhaps the best example is emphasizing Zinnia's bingo addiction and desire to not be caught up with matter's of family. The added focus on the government agents staking out Harry, resulting in growing paranoia, is strong as well. I think you can never go wrong with Matilda to kill some time. It will surely put a smile on your face and make you long for the simple pencil sketches of Dahl's book.Labels: Catalog rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Announcements and DEAR Rec: Daisy Miller by Henry James DATE: 7/15/2008 06:36:00 AM ----- BODY: 1. I'm moving things around here a little bit. The Box Office Rec is too limiting, so I'm putting the same condition as the Contemporary Rec - last five years. 2. I strongly encourage you to join up with the website PaperBackSwap. Basically, you list 10 books in your collection you no longer want. This gives you two credits. Each credit is good for a free book listed by anyone else on the site. If someone wants one of your books, you pay for shipping (USPS media mail or first class) and earn another credit. At this point, I'm getting all of my textbooks for the upcoming semester for cheap. Either view it as free books or $2.50/book, that's cheap. There are quality conditions in place to ensure the books sent out are in good condition. If they're not, the person doesn't receive a credit. SwapaDVD is the sister site for DVDs. There's a CD one as well, though I question the legality of that system with the ease of copying CDs on most computers. 3. Thank you for your kind words and thoughts over the past week. My family appreciated it very much. Onto the meat of the matter. DEAR Rec: Daisy Miller by Henry James Some would argue that Daisy Miller is Henry James' most well known and renowned work. If not that, then certainly The Portrait of a Lady or The Turn of the Screw (though that might be better known because of film adaptations). Whatever the reason, the acclaim is justified. I'll keep it short and simple today. Is it a comedy of manners? A sharp take on social status? A reflection of still standing prejudices amongst Americans and Europeans? Yes. Yes it is. In just under 70 pages, James covers a significant amount of ground with great style and wit by focusing on impressions, not facts, of all that's mentioned in the book. You can spare the hour or so it takes to read this. It's always worth a read. Outside of some reference books I'm always clawing away at, Daisy Miller is perhaps the most read book in my collection. I don't think you could ever go wrong with it.Labels: announcement, DEAR rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Regretfully, No Entries this Week DATE: 7/07/2008 11:38:00 AM ----- BODY: I don't want to go into too much detail about it. There will be no entries this week on Sketch-y Details. My 25 year old cousin was found dead in his apartment. It came as a total shock to everyone and is a great loss to the family. Thank you for your understanding.Labels: no entry
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: The Twilight Zone DATE: 7/05/2008 07:51:00 AM ----- BODY: What can I say? These Sci-Fi marathons always get to me. Midnight Rec: The Twilight Zone What can be said about such an iconic series? Honestly, not that much. I think most people recognize the strength of the series. So I'll just recommend a few of my favorite episodes that sometimes don't receive their due. Nick of Time - This is my personal favorite episode of any run of The Twilight Zone. A young couple's car breaks down in a small town. They discover a small fortune telling machine in the local diner that's answers are more accurate than they ever thought possible. When people think of Shatner and The Twilight Zone, they think of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. Nick of Time is his other Twilight Zone episode, and I think his performance as a stranded superstitious man is far more effective than his paranoid high-flying routine. Plus, the fortune telling machine is a much more realistic looking device than the gremlin on the wing (not that the modified ape costume isn't scary). Long Distance Call - This is just a very clever teleplay. A grandmother on her death bed presents her beloved grandson with a toy telephone she promises will always connect the two together. After her death, the boy begins to act in strange ways, always talking on the toy telephone as if his grandmother really could hear. It's a slow burn episode, building up to a very emotional climax that focuses on everyday relations in face of supernatural occurrences. Once Upon a Time & Cavender is Coming - I'm grouping these two together, even though they are very different episodes. Respectively starring Buster Keaton and Carol Burnett, these are two of the comedic episodes of the series that tend to go ignored. There's no scares, no strong sci-fi or fantasy rhetoric, and predictable twists. That's also not the point of the episodes. They exist as excellent showcases of two smart, physical comedy performers within the context of a show of the fantastic. Keaton travels from the silent world of the 1890s to the hustle and bustle of the 1960s with a time travel device. Burnett is a clumsy woman that can't keep a job who receives the unwanted assistance of a bumbling angel in training. The episodes are hilarious and still feel like The Twilight Zone. Jess-Belle - This is one of the almost-dreaded hour long episodes. The problem was the formula that worked so well in thirty minute episodes couldn't always sustain an hour long drama. That's why this particular episode works. Love potions were old hat by this time in The Twilight Zone, as were wish catastrophes and towns turning on people. By layering the three together, the Jess-Belle episode brings enough material from a distinct enough perspective to last an hour and still be compelling. So there are five episodes that tend to go unnoticed in the face of the constant replays of To Serve Man and Living Doll.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Catalog Rec: Dancer in the Dark DATE: 7/03/2008 06:48:00 AM ----- BODY: There's more to writing than just the words on the page. Catalog Rec: Dancer in the Dark Let's get the obvious out of the way: yes, this film is depressing. Yes, von Trier created a rather manipulative screenplay that seems to take pleasure in human suffering. Yes, many of the events in the film are unlikely to have occurred in real life. Those aren't the point of this post. Dancer in the Dark is a musical steeped in a stark reality, where one woman's hopes and dreams are only truly expressed through the songs she imagines around her. This is the strength of the writing in the film. Bjork's music is the star of the show. She knows how to write just the right song for just the right occasion. Take my favorite song from the film, Cvalda, for example: The mundane sounds of the machines in a factory become the song in Selma's mind. Her obsession with musicals is so strong in the face of her rapidly deteriorating eyesight that she sees the musical without sight. In the full scene, you already hear all the work noise long before the song starts. Everything is established before the song even begins. Then there are the lyrics. Selma is trying to make it through her shift any way possible, so she turns the sounds she hears into a big showtune. Her replication of the clatter and crash becomes the chorus. Then, her conversations from earlier in the film about musicals become the content in her mind. Does Catherine Deneuve's character really burst into song, affirming Selma's musical obsession? No. But in Selma's mind, the fantasy continues, for anything can happen in a musical. Every song is based in the reality of the situation, grounding the music that shouldn't match the grave situations being depicted. Bjork (and regular writing partner Mark Bell, uncredited, with Lars von Trier, also uncredited) wrote a fantastic score for a musical, then fit it all into a high stakes drama that didn't need music. It's breathtaking at its best. Dancer in the Dark isn't for everyone. I know this. As much as I loved the film on a first viewing, it was so emotionally draining I struggled to watch it again. I'm much more likely to skip through and watch the original music scenes than sit for the two+ hour running time for the drama surrounding it. It's a rental if your interested. If you're really taken by it, consider the purchase, but rent if first if you haven't seen it. I can say that it would be a safe bet to purchase Bjork's music for the film Selmasongs.Labels: Catalog rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: It Got Even Stranger: Contemporary Rec: World War Z by Max Brooks DATE: 7/01/2008 05:24:00 PM ----- BODY: It gets stranger and stranger dealing with [some web sites]. Sometimes, you contact customer service to find out why [some major project] was treated like [something bad], and receive a not so positive response for such a simple question. You then mention it on your blog as a heads up to other people who might have the same problem happen, then find out that [some web sites] use search engines to [some form of tracking] anyone who says [something negative] about [some websites]. If you read the post earlier, you know what I mean. It's an inconvenience to receive e-mails from [some web site]'s [some employee] because you dared to question logic. My idea of fun? Not deleting and redoing posts because [some web site] suddenly cares about [someone's feedback]. Let's just say: not working with [some web site] anymore. So the next project is removing [some content] from [some website] so there isn't even the temptation to mention [some website] in the blog. Let's say: if I ever wound up needing [some unpaid college laborers], I wouldn't waste everyone's time and efforts having [some unpaid college laborers] search for any comments about [some web site]. Confusing? Yes. Yes it is. And awfully petty, too. Contemporary Rec: World War Z by Max Brooks If an alternate history/science fiction/horror novel is so convincingly written as a chronicle of a war that never existed that it winds up in non-fiction sections of some libraries, it had to do something well, right? Right. That's the case with World War Z by Max Brooks. Yes. The Max Brooks who wrote the checkout counter impulse-buy-zone favorite The Zombie Survival Guide. Yes, the very same book that many of my friends have purchased for me without handing over a gift receipt. That dog-eared book on the end of the book shelf signed by the man himself at a horror convention. That Max Brooks. How do you take an almost absurd camp-fest and give it a sequel without repeating yourself? By tapping into your college degree in history and writing what could be the most insightful account of the zombie war, aka World War Z, ever known to man. Naturally. Following an unspecified ten year period of history, Brooks travels around the globe to interview survivors of the zombie conflict. The results are printed in World War Z. And they feel real. But they're not. It's hard to describe it in terms of fiction. It is. If you've read the Survival Guide, you'll recognize many of the techniques (successful and lethal) that the survivors speak of. But it's not a comedic novel. It's drama. And it's good. I've come to the conclusion that I really can't do justice to this book. I can only urge you to visit your library or local bookstore and read the first few pages. It only gets better from there. There's a recent paperback edition that costs a lot less, but the text is comparatively tiny. It might be worth it to go with the hardcover. I don't think my eyes would have held up long enough to get through the paperback.Labels: contemporary rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: The Keeper by Sarah Langan DATE: 6/28/2008 08:41:00 AM ----- BODY: Talk about real life horrors. My new job starts up Monday and I do not feel prepared to teach music, drama, and dance to over 300 children, age pre-k to fifth grade. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad if I didn't have to engage them with theme weeks such as "Patriotic" or "Color Olympics". And yes, I'm supposed to match the music to the theme week. The pay's very good, so I can't really complain. Midnight Rec: The Keeper by Sarah Langan Yes, a book can be a Midnight Rec. Sarah Langan seems on course to be the next big horror writer. The kind of writer who fills an entire rack of books at the bookstore (like Koontz, King, Hamilton, etc...well, that's it, actually). That's not necessarily a bad thing, either. The Keeper is a Midnight Rec because it feels so familiar in content. The big thing in horror right now is an unknown force, normally representing a great human failing, beginning to eat away at a small town as the human element boils over without control. It's a struggle sometimes to read the new authors trying to fit that mold. Not with Langan's debut. Her writing is excellent. It's very descriptive without sacrificing the pace of the narrative. She lets you know everything important about these small town people without stalling. If you learn that someone is self-conscious about their weight, you better believe it will pay off later on. The Keeper and Langan herself have been favorably compared to Stephen King. Please don't hold that against her (if you aren't inclined to like King writing as King). It really is meant as a compliment. They mean she created a strong horror/suspense novel driven by characters forced to act against something they can't possibly control. Langan tackles a gigantic situation that grows out like a wild bush. There's a strong root that grounds the story while everything else goes haywire and flies off in different directions. It's controlled chaos. Even though it grows everywhere, it's still a branch of the root. Perhaps the most admirable quality of the novel is the characters. For the most part, these are awful people. You shouldn't want to read about them. Some of the things they do should make you put the book down. But Langan managed to make these characters human. Sure, one character's a total drunk at the expense of his reputation, work, and relations, but he's the only person willing to help the young woman the town has given up on. And all of these traits fit into the narrative. The Keeper is a quick read, even though it tops out past 300 pages. There is only one edition available, as her two available novels were released as mass market paperbacks. I was surprised my library carried both books, considering how they normally handle horror. It might be worth borrowing before buying, though seven dollars isn't all that much to be scared while admiring strong prose.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: This Time, It's Personal: Catalog Rec: The Savages DATE: 6/25/2008 09:55:00 PM ----- BODY: I really need to regulate my pre-bed thoughts better. Now I'm wide awake at 12:13 in the morning because I started replaying The Strangers and the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre in my head. Lovely. First, a momentary diversion. Clive Barker fans of the world, unite! His new film, Midnight Meat Train (yes, based on the story from his Books of Blood collection), is being jerked around by Lionsgate due to a changing of the guard. Basically, the new head of distribution is getting rid of any projects he had no say in as fast and quietly as possible. Midnight Meat Train is a victim of this. What was supposed to be a massive nationwide push in October is now a one week, 100 theater run in August. If you care to support Clive Barker’s output, he recommends sending a nice e-mail to Joe Drake - jdrake@lionsgate.com Diversion over. Catalog Rec: The Savages (2007) I briefly mentioned The Savages on my previous blog. This great drama/comedy from writer/director Tamara Jenkins struck a huge nerve with me due to timing in my personal life. And that coincidence made me appreciate the film all the more. Siblings John and Wendy Savage are forced to uproot their lives and careers in NYC to care for their father, suffering the ravages of Alzheimer's. Some of the events in the film would seem, at the very least, unbelievable to people who never saw a loved one suffer from the condition. Could a person really fall so far as to write a nasty message in feces on a bathroom wall or be incapable of keeping their pants up on an airplane? Yes. Yes they can. And it’s painful. What Tamara Jenkins does is create a film that feels so personal, so intimate, it verges on voyeurism. Wisely, she handles it with a healthy dose of dry humor. Drier than the sand in the retirement community of Sun City, AZ. She captures resentment, confusion, anger, despair, and acceptance in a way I’ve never experienced before in film. Here’s an example of how close she followed real life: Wendy Savage (the Oscar nominated Laura Linney in a tremendous performance) is told by a worker in the rest home that her father’s feet are the key to understanding his health. Since they weren’t swollen or discolored, his body was still doing all right, even if his mind failed. I’ll go for simplicity: my grandfather died within three days of his feet swelling up and changing color. His mind was long gone but his body fought on. One of the nurses at one of his earlier hospital stays even pointed out the same fact to us. All the drama of picking the right home, all the guilt, all the red tape and theft and downright abuse felt true. It hurt. And I appreciate Jenkins’ honesty. That isn’t to say the film is flawless. The last thirty minutes or so started to feel very tired to me, though whether it was the direction or the writing (well, I don’t question one incident that had me groaning, that was all writing) I can’t be certain. What started off with such a great and unique perspective on aging and mental stability (of all the Savages) started to rely on independent film cliches that possibly could have been avoided all together. It’s worth watching at least once. You might even love it. At the least, I think you can respect the writing. The DVD is sparse when it comes to features, but the film looks gorgeous on the small screen. And honest. So very honest.Labels: Catalog rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: A. Long Time Coming. DEAR rec. V by Thomas Pynchon DATE: 6/23/2008 11:54:00 PM ----- BODY: It’s technically Tuesday, though only 12:00AMish in NJ. I know I’m sleeping in tomorrow (like, 11:00AM sleeping in, not 8:15) and don’t want to keep anyone waiting. DEAR Rec: V. by Thomas Pynchon I really wanted to write this review last week, though I thought it unfair to examine the book without finishing it completely. That, and the whole car drama. The delay was worth it. It’s an almost-embarrassing admission that I never read a sentence of Pynchon’s prose before this month. I only say almost because how many 22 year olds actively seek out Thomas Pynchon for leisure reading? Still, the important part is that I got to him, and I was not disappointed. What can be said about a writer that is not afraid to challenge the reader? One who makes you want to go to the dictionary to find out what those words mean that you’ve never seen or heard before? A writer who can make something as, let’s face it, disgusting as a bunch of sailors sucking on fake breasts attached to kegs in a bar seem beautiful? Not much that can come close to the artistry necessary to achieve such dedication, that's for certain. Pynchon can write, and his debut novel from 1963 still holds up as a great piece of American literature. V. is technically a character (or characters) in the book, though the period implies a greater motivation than just a name abbreviation. What about “Chapter 3: In which Stencil, a quick-change artist, does eight impersonations”? Perhaps V. also stands for vantage point, as his writing, in one chapter alone, provides eight distinct perspectives that add up to a narrative about a woman named Victoria within the greater narrative about the mysterious V.. Each chapter in the novel switches perspectives as well, which isn’t easy to do at all. The characters remain distinct and engaging in lovely third person prose. I could probably dedicate an entire blog that would last for a long time to Pynchon’s writing in V.. I’d never do it justice. Read it. Love it. And if you’re fortunate enough to borrow an original edition from your library, embrace the series of rental cards inevitably fastened to the back cover with a never ending rank of inked dates from 1963 on. For the smell alone it's worth it. Nothing beats that long loved smell of library books. Well, maybe the smell of a fresh picked book by a favorite author on release day at your local bookstore. Mmm...Joyce Carol Oates short fiction collection...Labels: DEAR rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Midnight Rec: Bender's Big Score DATE: 6/21/2008 08:22:00 AM ----- BODY: Let's get right to it: Midnight Rec: Futurama - Bender's Big Score For those who don't know, Futurama was the critically acclaimed Fox whipping boy long before the network decided to mess with King of the Hill's chronology and air time every week. The show followed Fry, a slacker delivery boy, who is cryogenically frozen by accident at the turn of the millennium for 1000 years. He becomes a delivery boy for a space delivery crew, befriending a foul mouthed robot, a one-eyed mutant, and other colorful riffs on science-fiction. The series won may awards during its four year run, including three Primetime Emmy's. Bender's Big Score is the first of four planned direct to DVD Futurama movies. It delivers everything a fan could want of the series. The writing has always been top notch on this series, and the first DVD movie continues the legacy in three major ways: science-fiction parody, backstory expanded within the main narrative, and emotional heft. First, Futurama pays tribute to science fiction while mercilessly mocking it. The story of Bender's Big Score is the discovery of a binary code by an alien race that permits paradox correcting time travel. This formula is confirmed by Bubblegum Tate and the other members of the Harlem Globetrotters (their own species of super-genius basketball players from another planet, of course). So of course the crew uses this as an excuse to completely disrupt all logical history under the guise that the binary code will automatically correct it. Science fiction and time travel go hand in hand, though paradoxes normally create the problems. Bender's Big Score eliminates that concern (using real math formulas with an added variable) but hinges much of the plot on the possibility that one way the code corrects paradoxes is to destroy the universe. Second, Futurama became a more complex series every season, and the writers actually intended it that way. One event in Fry's time may seem very simple at first, but is actually a much planned scheme involving many forces coming together to make the future what it is tomorrow. Bender's Big Score takes it further than I ever thought possible. That fateful pizza delivery to the cryogenic lab, once thought to be the work of a pet-sized race of geniuses, now involves multiple versions of Fry and his robot friend Bender. It's an elaborate cat and mouse game that permits much unexplored terrain (what happened to Fry's family, his job, his friends, etc.) within the narrative itself. It's not a flashback because the characters involved in the new story are the same characters in the future segments. It's a layered narrative that works because the writers obsess over detail. The commentary track reveals they had time cards and a giant map to make sure every event played out without destroying what was established in the series. Third, Futurama was never afraid to explore surprisingly mature themes for an animated series. Comedy and tragedy never seemed so close (well, except for Shakespeare's Winter's Tale, where it switches halfway through with a bear crossing the stage). An absurd plot about a holographic space opera can become a heart wrenching declaration of love and devotion (strong enough to formally close the series on TV). The writers didn't shy away from upsetting content because it made the story better. In Bender's Big Score, Fry is still trying to pursue the one-eyed woman he loves, Leela. But another man enters the picture. Fry can't possibly compete, no matter how hard he tries. He loves and respects Leela enough not to confront her, but still does everything in his power to try and stop the burgeoning romance. This all happening at the same time as a story about a robot repeatedly going back in time to steal the most valuable artifacts ever created in history for a race of disgusting nude aliens taking over the world through spam mail. So, yeah. It's layered. And the emotional impact is never sacrificed for a gag. The whole series is more or less very good, though this rec is for Bender's Big Score. The DVD should be dropping more in price since the second DVD movie, The Beast with a Billion Backs, is coming out Tuesday. Bender's Big Score is worth every penny and more for series fans. For the unfamiliar viewer, you might want to catch a few episodes first (airing in syndication on Comedy Central).Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Catalog Rec: The Fly (1986) DATE: 6/19/2008 09:03:00 AM ----- BODY: Post is a little later than usual due to a casting emergency that has since been quelled. Last minute change of plans always need a close evaluation. AFI aired a special called 10 Top 10, where they picked their top 10 films in different genres. The lists are interesting because of the films they picked, though I rarely agreed with their choices (Alien instead of Aliens in Sci-Fi, for example). Also strange are their genre choices. Gangster, Sports, and War are listed as genres, while Musical, Comedy, and Horror are left off. The list did give me some ideas of films to revisit or watch for the first time. When did my site turn into a low-rent Writer's Almanac? Catalog Rec: The Fly (1986) Remakes are hard. The fans cry for blood upon announcement and the studios rarely manage to exceed expectations and produce a high quality product. Even more puzzling are the decisions to remake films that weren't that noteworthy to begin with. The Fly is one of the rare remakes that outshines the original, does justice to the print source material, and explores new territory in exciting ways. This may seem a puzzling choice for a rec based on writing. Isn't the true beauty and skill of The Fly in the visual effects? Or Cronenberg's direction? Or Goldblum and Davis' wonderful performances? To a certain extent, absolutely. Why The Fly is noteworthy for writing is the skill in adaptation. Pogue and Cronenberg took a solid sci-fi short story by George Langelaan and gave it heart. The transformation sequence remains expanded like the 1958 Fly (which, itself, is a pretty good sci-fi flick, though nothing too special), though it's reinvented to encompass all aspects of human character. The sci-fi aspects were well established: a man experiments with teleportation only to fall to the merciless hand of hubris and be changed into a monster. What isn't so well defined is the romance. The relationship between the scientist and the reporter is believable and grounds the film in an unwavering reality. She isn't so blindly in love that she ignores his changes to live happily ever after. No. She fights back. She questions him. She tries to find out what went wrong and why he's changing. His psychological transformation is even more interesting. Simply put: ideal genius to dirtbag boyfriend. He becomes self-absorbed with his work and changes. He neglects the needs of himself and others. The Fly (1986) is my favorite Cronenberg film and the screenplay goes a long way in establishing that. It's a beautiful romance, a thought provoking science-fiction feature, and a disgusting monster movie all crammed together into one cohesive unit. There's a wonderful 2-Disc Release available for only 15 dollars at Amazon. It's well worth a purchase if you consider yourself a Cronenberg fan, a science-fiction fan, or a horror fan. Otherwise, you might consider renting it first to see if it hits you right.Labels: Catalog rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Apologies for a Copout and DEAR Rec: Rosemary's Baby DATE: 6/17/2008 10:01:00 AM ----- BODY: Sorry for the late posting. Maybe this photo will explain:
No? What about a close-up?
How about the whole crime scene?
My '89 Mustang popped out of gear in the driveway while I was climbing out. The door and car hit me six or seven times and almost ran me over when I fell. The giant gouged out dirt hole is where the door got the resistance to smash me over and over again. The car then rolled across the street into the neighbors driveway. The only thing that stopped their car from being destroyed was that small bump of dirt in the third picture.
The door hinge is destroyed and the front left body of the car has popped out of joint. I'm in pain (24 hours later on extra strength tylenol) from my left shoulder to my right ankle. Thankfully, the car is supposed to be fixed later this afternoon. No word yet on when my body won't feel like I'm Bruce Willis in Unbreakable - inconceivably beaten up with no significant injuries, not even a scratch on me, when smaller men probably would have been hurt pretty badly.
Update:
Here's the repaired car:
The door does open and close, so no climbing through the window or passenger side for me.
So excuse the recycling from an older article I wrote when Ira Levin died.
DEAR Rec: Rosemary's Baby
Available in eighty gazillion editions, with or without Mia Farrow on the cover. And just think: in a few years, Renee Zelwigger (or someone else totally wrong for the character) will be on the cover in anticipation of Michael Bay's remake....err...re-adaptation. Not that Roman Polanski left anything in the book on the cutting room floor when he edited the film, dialogue included.Labels: DEAR rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Introducing Midnight Recs DATE: 6/14/2008 08:52:00 AM ----- BODY: Midnight Recs: entertainment items worthy of attention that can go ignored because the writing, content, or genre is deemed unworthy of praise due to tradition. In honor of tomorrow's Tony Awards (woo!, go Passing Strange!): Midnight Rec: Cubby Bernstein: Tony Campaign Manager Basically, Xanadu - a campy, over the top musical based on the campy, over the top film - managed to land Tony nominations against all odds. There are always rumblings about campaigns (for example, Avenue Q promised a national tour and regional productions within a year of winning, which allegedly got them some extra votes leading to wins it might not have otherwise received, allegedly). Xanadu actually did one. Meet Cubby Bernstein. He's a wunderkind who never grows up, and is responsible for over 60 Tony winning campaigns (including Camelot). He also speaks Yiddish and talks with a hard New York accent. The producers of Xanadu beg him to run the campaign for their show. Cue viral videos. Through personality corrections, schmooze training, and the joy of cupcakes, Cubby Bernstein manages to teach the cast of Xanadu the true meaning of the Tony Awards in 7 (technically 8) viral videos. It's campy, it's over the top, and it has Patti Lupone doing her Momma Rose in the first half of the finale. Loads of theater cameos by big names and funny situations. All of the videos (including bonus content) are on the official Cubby Bernstein website. Videos in reverse order. Watch the Tonys tomorrow at 8PM on CBS. It's looks like the ceremony will be something special this year, what with all the nominated musicals allowed to perform since they are all running still, plus bonuses like the original cast of Rent performing with the current cast in honor of the show's long run and influence on contemporary theater (their reasoning, not mine). Just watch.Labels: Midnight Rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Catalog Rec: Dumbo DATE: 6/12/2008 08:20:00 AM ----- BODY: I'm trying for variety on this blog. If I didn't, the first four months would probably all be obscure foreign language horror films not very easy to find in the US. It's merely a coincidence that both Catalog Recs are from the 1940's. Catalog Rec: Dumbo (1941) Say what you will about some of the characters in the film (the crows are tricky to discuss), Dumbo became one of Disney's most popular and successful animated films. Bonus trivia: Dumbo was supposed to be on the cover of Time Magazine in December 1941 for being the highest grossing film of the year, but was bumped at the last minute due to the bombing at Pearl Harbor. The film is a sweetly told fairy tale about the power of family, friendship, and overcoming adversity. The story itself is a creative idea written in a layered way to appeal to a wide age span. Young children will enjoy the story about an elephant that learns to fly, while more mature viewers can appreciate the sincerity of the characters (particularly Mrs. Jumbo's character arc) and the subtle wordplay in the lyrics. The film manages to capture a darker side of the circus industry without intimidation. Except for those Pink Elephants on Parade. That's just disturbing. Very clever, but disturbing. See for yourself: Someone had to write that. That's an achievement in itself. I have to recommend revisiting Dumbo if you get a chance. It's surprisingly sophisticated for a 62 minute animated film about a flying elephant. Plus the music is great. I only have it on VHS, though you can probably find the Big Top Edition at most stores still. It will probably be a few years before Disney pulls out all the stops and does a great 2-Disc edition with this film.Labels: Catalog rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Announcement and Contemporary Rec DATE: 6/10/2008 08:08:00 AM ----- BODY: The announcement is a simple one: Three posts a week. Saturday night is for what I'm calling Midnight recs. Basically, genre fun. Books and movies that may otherwise go ignored that are good for a fun, campy Saturday night. Back to the regularly scheduled blogging. Contemporary Rec: The Raw-Shark Texts by Steven Hall Good writing trumps all, including gimmicks. The book opens with a man waking up not knowing anything about his life. He finds a letter that seems to indicate that he's not the first person to fall into his particular identity. His psychiatrist believes he has a rare dissociative disorder, but the packages and letters from the previous body resident don't agree. A strange concept that only gets stranger with each subsequent page. What Steven Hall did was take this bizarre idea and make it work. The characters are engaging, which kept me reading when I started to get lost in the details (they all add up in the end, don't worry about that). The mystery is parsed out in small bits throughout the novel. My mind jumped at every possible clue and tried to decipher the code. Rarely was I correct. Rarely was I wrong. Nothing is quite as it seems at any point in the book, and nothing is left with a concrete answer. Steven Hall captured the confusion of modern communications with a unique narrative that goes from suspense to comedy to romance to mystery to horror and back again throughout. The climax of the book scared me. A lot. Which surprised me, since the climax was what stopped me from picking up the book when it was first released. There's word art in the book that seems cheesy, almost gimmicky, unless you actually read it. Then it feels real. I picked up a handsome edition recently from the Barnes and Noble remainders/returns table for five or six dollars, and it's gorgeous. I've still seen the US hardcover release in stores, though your better bet is the new paperback edition. Your local library should have the book as well. Read it.Labels: announcement, contemporary rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Warning: Horror Alert: The Strangers DATE: 6/05/2008 07:49:00 AM ----- BODY: There are people who will see this blog and think I’m out of my damn mind for even mentioning this film on a site about writing. To that I say: horror needs loving, too. Box Office Rec: The Strangers This is easily one of the best written slasher films I’ve ever seen. It’s right up there with The Demon (1979) and the original The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. And yes, it’s technically a remake. No, that doesn’t mean it has to suck (see Chronenberg’s The Fly, located under the chapter titled: How to Reinvent the Wheel without Changing the Shape, Size, or Color). What’s so great about the writing? Three things: developed characters, well paced story line, and reinvention of genre conventions. First things first: OMG there are actual characters with believable back stories played by competent actors that grow and change throughout the film based on challenges they face and lessons they learn. That’s special for any horror film. Bonus points for bringing empathy out for dialogue that quickly evolved to “Oh no there’s a killer why are you doing this why wah wah wah”. Not literally, but that’s the gist of spoken words once you get past the great build-up surrounding a really awkward sort-of breakup. Bonus bonus points of course for making a really awkward sort-of breakup come across as real and believable. No clever quips or acts of God to provide just the right thing to say. It felt real because the characters were written that way. Second: Well paced story line. A lot of it was the masterful editing and timing, true. But someone had to put all the “masked killer is seen in window by audience but not poor Liv Tyler” to the page, and that my friends is the writer’s job. It was perfect Hitchcock suspense: we see the bomb set to go off any minute but the people on screen are still stirring their coffee at the diner. When done properly, in a story line that justifies these events, it creates unbearable suspense. Third, and most important: breaking and providing genre conventions. To complete the list, all that was needed was a slut being murdered for having sex, a cat jumping out of a closet with a loud music cue, and a dark and stormy night. But they worked. There was even a really cheesy “based on a true story” message, with deep announcer voice narration, that should have ruined the film but worked. Why? The old writing adage: show, don’t tell. We don’t hear exactly why the couple would be having problems (No “As you know Bob, my boyfriend is sleeping with my best friend” conversations here), it’s shown. You see it in the way the girl stares at the bath tub or the guy eats ice cream. It’s implied. It’s subtle. It’s stylish. It works. It goes even further. A well-versed horror fan knows that x is going to happen (let’s say the cat’s going to jump out of the closet). The hallway is suddenly dark. Girl walks down asking if anyone’s there without saying a word (it’s in her body language, how she steps into this room and not that room, touches this picture but not that door knob). Maybe it’s her boyfriend come back home, she thinks, but the audience knows it can’t be him. She creeps closer and closer, and you know the door is going to pop open and the cat jumps out to scare everyone, but she goes to look at the dirty whiskey glass. She pours herself a drink then leans over to charge her cell phone. She walks back to the bedroom. She brushes her hair. She sits down on the bed and sighs. And then the cat pops out anyway. Did the character jump, scream, then scold the kitty for being naughty? No. She barely even registers the change. And then 18 other cats appear on screen and make me throw up from the tension and almost leave the theater. The Strangers is worth your ticket money. Get popcorn and a caffeine free drink. You might regret that delicious iced latte that made you jittery before the previews even began and only made your body work harder to feel the suspense in the film. When the Sketchy’s (obviously my personal awards ceremony) are announced in January, expect mention of The Strangers in screenplay and leading actress at the very least.Labels: Box Office rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Last Double Rec for a While: The Cheese Monkeys and The Learners DATE: 6/03/2008 06:53:00 AM ----- BODY: I'd prefer to spread out the recs more, but these two have to be viewed as a couple. DEAR rec: The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd This novel, in 2004 (late on the uptake, I know), snapped me back into the world of contemporary fiction. I had literally grown disgusted with all of the recs people tossed at me, since they were always more of the same thing that I didn't like the first time. The Cheese Monkeys was different. Very different. Concerning an anonymous (known only as Happy)'s first year at a state school studying art, Chip Kidd created one of the most believable artist communities I've ever seen captured in literature. I didn't personally know anyone quite like the characters, but I knew their types from theater and how they couldn't just be defined as one dimensional characters. I was also a little too familiar with the unconventional approach teacher with crazy assignments. The beauty of Kidd's first novel is how he managed to simultaneously crank up the absurdity level and boost the character development in an "Isn't art wacky?" novel. It works. It's funny. It's touching. It's downright confusing because, like visual art, Kidd refused to stand next to his work and say "This really means this." A new edition was released by Harper Perrenial in anticipation of Kidd's second novel. It features a great passage all about Maybelle that was cut from the original printing of the novel since everyone involved (allegedly) thought the book should have been 300 pages of the Winter Sorbeck show. Whereas if I had to choose one weak point of the book, it would be how Happy's memories of his first year at school are so defined by one class. Get the new edition, read it through. The new passage is an addendum at the back of the novel, specifying where it goes in the story Contemporary Rec: The Learners by Chip Kidd I'm not going to lie. I was shocked that Chip Kidd wrote a sequel to The Cheese Monkeys. I even refused to buy it on sight in the bookstore like I swore I would for any subsequent Kidd novel on principle. Why mess with a modern classic? I'll admit that I'm an idiot. The book is fantastic. Even better than The Cheese Monkeys on writing alone. The Learners is a very different beast. If you thought The Cheese Monkeys used dark humor, then The Learners can only be called outer space humor: dry and darker than anything you've ever imagined. It's much more serious, surrounding Happy's decision to apply for a job with the very same advertising firm his professor Winter Sorbeck worked at. The novel works. The characters are great, and the subtle nods to advertising techniques and famous campaigns are never overbearing. It's a coming of age novel without steeping in cliche. It's the physical continuation of Happy's story after college, though the point is to show how Happy grew. And with growth comes genuine emotion. Get the tissues ready, you're probably going to need them. Fair warning. I can't do it justice. Read it. It's hard to find in some of the larger chains right now, though the online presence is still strong. Surprisingly, my local library had a copy of this but still refuses to pick up The Cheese Monkeys. If you're not sold, your library would probably have the hard cover The Learners as well.Labels: contemporary rec, DEAR rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: How to Handle Film DATE: 5/29/2008 08:29:00 AM ----- BODY: I do want to discuss film on the blog. And here's the simplest way to stay on topic: 1. Discussion of screenplay of a new film. Meaning, how's the writing? Does the plot hold up? Do I learn enough about the characters? Is the dialogue any good? 2. Recs. Catalog recs are on DVD/home video. Box Office recs are currently in theaters. 3. Reviews. As in, my own well written reviews linked off the site. Easy peasy, right? So let's bring out the first recs of the new blog. The first Box Office rec is: Forgetting Sarah Marshall I can't think of a better new(ish) film to launch these recs with. The screenplay is close to perfection. Everything is built upon what came before and key details are reflexive in clever ways. As in, you hit the climax and suddenly everything established before comes back to whack you upside the head and help you understand the importance of it. And not in a knock you out of the film and lose interest kind of way. The characters are well defined and interesting (including the smaller parts) and the story is engaging. Not to mention the strong dialogue and effective use of flashback. And the first Catalog rec is: Cat People (1942) It's one of my favorite films of all time. It's one of the most subtle monster/transformation films you could ever see. It has great dialogue that establishes the situation without being overtly scary. The plot creeps along, slowly establishing a sense of dread that grows straight through the end of the film. If you have any interest in writing horror, watching horror, or building suspense, Cat People should not be missed. It's currently available on a double disc DVD release with Curse of the Cat People, the sequel that has almost nothing to do with the first film but everything to do with good fantasy writing. First film post of the new blog. I'm kind of digging it.Labels: Box Office rec, Catalog rec
-------- AUTHOR: Trent Sketch TITLE: Reset Button + Recs DATE: 5/27/2008 09:24:00 PM ----- BODY: Blank slate and welcome back. I go by Trent Sketch online. Separating the online world from professional aspirations is my game. This blog is dedicated to the wonderful world of writing. From great books and reviews to my own original work, a wide range of topics will be discussed with all the tact and grace you'd expect from past go-arounds with me. Please to enjoy the first contemporary rec (let's say it falls within the last five years for that): Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill An aging metal star orders more than he bargained for when his morbid curiosity leads him to purchase a ghost on a third-rate eBay knock off. Featuring strong first person narration and more twists than your average writer could pull off and not fail miserably, Heart-Shaped Box is the kind of horror/suspense/thriller (all three? I believe so, yes) hybrid that you can't put down. And you wouldn't want to, either. Savor it from your local library or dish out the cheddar for the mass market paperback edition at your favorite book vendor. Since it's such a special post, I'll even throw in the first DEAR rec (older than five years and totally worth your time, judging by the bold assertion that you should Drop Everything and Read): Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates What can I say that the Bram Stoker Award for Best Horror Novel (1995) didn't? And if you are completely clueless, the Bram Stoker Awards are presented by the Horror Writers Association every year for achievement in horror writing. Think of them as the horror equivalent of the Oscars, though with significantly fewer full page ads in the NYTimes and Variety. Ok, I can say this. This is one of the scariest novels I have ever read. The voice of the narrator refuses to leave my head. The idea of a mentally unbalanced man with dangerous fantasies surrounding unethical surgery to create a homosexual sex zombie (hence the title) is enough to give the bravest among us nightmares. Oates' masterful prose is merely the icing on the cake. Plus, it's a very, very quick read with large text well worth the two or so hours it takes to plow through. It's also broken into short chapters to make spaced out reading easier. In a tangentially related aside, it looks like my plan to not attend this year's Fangoria Weekend of Horrors in scenic Secaucus, NJ has been foiled by the announcement of rising novelist (and two time BSA winner) Sarah Langan as a speaker. I hope she and JT Petty JT Petty (who wrote the truly messed up short story "Grape Fruit Spoons" that still haunts my dreams when I least expect it...or maybe you know him for his young reader suspense series Clemency Pogue) are speaking on the same day for I'd hate to have to choose between the two for I know who will win. New contact trumps a second visit to an old favorite. There you have it. The first post of the new blog from your friend Trent Sketch. Don't be a stranger. E-mail's on the side and comments are more than welcome.Labels: contemporary rec, DEAR rec
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