More tests August 31, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Blogging , add a commentNow I am really up to no good, I mean besides associating with that godless anarchist Jeremiah. (You must read his most recent post and the associated links) I am going to test advertising on this blog. I understand with the amount of traffic I get here, I might be able to buy a first class postage stamp once a month, but this is my place to experiment. In a few weeks you will see a new site that I am helping to delevop.
Stay tuned lurkers, it’s just for you.
Minstrel August 29, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Come Again?, Music , 2 commentsAbout three times a week there is man singing and playing his guitar at the Davis Square T station. I believe he is from a former French colony in Africa, because he always sings in French. I’ll have to admit he has a special little song that almost always brings a tear to me eye. He plays it every time I see him too. I don’t know it’s name, but the opening lines go like this.
“I saw my former plumber doing cartwheels in the lake, with her dog upon her head. I found this so inspiring that I went home and ate my car three times.”
I’m pretty sure I’ve got the lyrics right, although my French is not what it used to be. I may be wrong about eating the car three times, but I’m sure I’ve got the rest correct. He keeps repeating mangez, and that means eat, but maybe he means it took three tries to swallow the car. I know it would take me a couple of attempts to get my car down, but like I said, my French is rusty. These subtle and earnest lyrics are especially enhanced by his sublimely screeching and asymmetrical playing style. It is a performance everyone should witness.
And you should hear his covers of “Tiny Dancer” and
“Sheena is a Punk Rocker.” 
Video Test Page August 28, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Blogging , 5 commentsHi,
I’ve been wanting to learn Flash Video and how to implement it into my blog. Below is a version that I think works. The commercial is a test spot that my friend Max, Produced and Directed. This is a version that I edited.
Let me know if it works.
Thanks,
Mark
You might need to update your Flash player to get this to work. Click the link below.
Flash Update CenterP.S. The Plug-in and info that helped me to get this video to work is at Roel Meurders website. on his WP-FV page.
Ripley’s Game August 23, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movies, Rant , add a commentLiliana Cavani directed The Night Porter, which is just weird and bizarre enough to make me think about watching anything thing else she directed. Porter is a twisted S&M tale of a Nazi concentration camp survivor, a yummy Charlotte Rampling, and her former tormentor/SS Officer, Dirk Bogarde after they accidentally meet again in a hotel in Austria. It’s sick film, but somehow compelling too. (I know Linda Mulvey has me figured) So when Steph recommended Ripley’s Game and I found out Cavani Directed it and that John Malkovich was the star, I thought I couldn’t go wrong. Well, I guess that’s what I get for thinking.
It had all of the ingredients of a good film, Malkovich, Ray Winstone, the character and story of Tom Ripley novels, locations (Italy and Germany) and the Director. That should work right? It just didn’t. It had all of the effervescence of Wednesday night movie on Lifetime. It only lacked Meredith Baxter Birney or Mariska Hargitay.
Technically it was a very pedestrian film, the blocking and lighting were average at best. The Acting? Malkovich and Winstone were great, but the rest for the cast, bland and average, really flat. And the Anti-Antagonist (or is it the Polar-Protagonist?) Ripley’s foil, Dougray Scott, was just terrible. Maybe having to act against JM just overwhelmed him.
So why am I writing about it? Initially it was to give Steph a hard time, but that changed. I did a little research into the film and was shocked to see that some critics liked it. Roger Ebert even called it a Great Film. The only thing I can figure is the Chemo-therapy is affecting his brain. Another Reviewer/Idiot, Walter Chaw said, “Veteran cinematographer Alfio Contini shoots the Padua and Vicenza locations with a sun-kissed Roman warmth offsetting the chill wafting from Malkovich’s Ripley.” I wondered if he saw the same film I saw. The best thing I could say about the lighting is that it was even.
And chill wafting from JM is another problem. JM does a great job of delivering his cold blooded lines, but I think he was the wrong actor for the part. He has played to many evil parts, embodied too many villains to play the role convincingly now. Maybe back in his Dangerous Liaisons days he could have pulled it off, but not today. I am no big fan of Matt Damon, but his typical vacant acting style, perfectly captured the sangfroid of Tom Ripley, in The Talented Mr. Ripley. JM is great, but he has too much baggage for this film.
In the end Cavani failed. She was the Director, so it’s her fault. I’ve read there was tension on the set, that she even walked off for a while and JM took over the helm. That doesn’t matter, it’s still her fault. And if I ever catch the Editor Jon Harris, we’re gonna have a talk.
Things overheard on a Saturday August 20, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Come Again?, Movies , 1 comment so farThings I overheard or saw today. I could try and edit it into some story, but….
___________________________________________________________________
In the Harvard Coop, a bookstore in Harvard Square.
A sort of Cali girl says, “This is like a great place. It’s like, it’s like a big book bookstore.”
Her friend, “No Jenn, it is a big bookstore.”
……………………………………………………………………….
In the local video store today they were playing Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore. A 70’s classic directed by Martin Scorsese, that stars Ellen Burstyn, one of my favorite actors. I asked the tattooed and pierced boy behind the counter, who picked this oldie. He said he did and then he added, “ She’s such a great actress. I loved her in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Me, “She wasn’t in Cuckoos’ Nest, that was Louise Fletcher.”
He, “That wasn’t Ellen Burstyn,?”
Me, “Nope Louise Fletcher.”
He, “But I loved her in that.”
Me, “Well you loved Louise Fletcher.”
He, “Are you sure?”
Me, “You can trust me on this one.”
He, “Well! She sure was good in Requiem for a Dream.”
Me, “Louse Fletcher?”
He, “Yes.”
Me, “ That was Ellen Burstyn.”
He, “It was?”
Me, “Yes.”
He, “I’m confused.”
Me, “Yes, I know.”
……………………………………………………………………….
In line beside me at CVS, an older man happily spoons away at what looks like some very chocolate ice cream, from a Ben and Jerry’s cup. He seems very happy and he’s even making nummy sounds as he shovels the mixture into his mouth, then he loudly farts. He says, “Oops!” And quickly exits the store.
What Republicans see in the NYT August 19, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Come Again? , add a commentThis link is a hoot!
http://rightwingnytimes.cf.huffingtonpost.com/
Thanks Tom Waits August 18, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Music , add a commentI hope that I don’t fall in love with you
- Tom Waits
Well I hope that I don’t fall in love with you
‘Cause falling in love just makes me blue,
Well the music plays and you display your heart for me to see,
I had a beer and now I hear you calling out for me
And I hope that I don’t fall in love with you.
Well the room is crowded, people everywhere
And I wonder, should I offer you a chair?
Well if you sit down with this old clown, take that frown and break it,
Before the evening’s gone away, I think that we could make it,
And I hope that I don’t fall in love with you.
Well the night does funny things inside a man
These old tom-cat feelings you don’t understand,
Well I turn around to look at you, you light a cigarette,
I wish I had the guts to bum one, but we’ve never met,
And I hope that I don’t fall in love with you.
I can see that you are lonesome just like me,
And it being late, you’d like some some company,
Well I turn around to look at you, and you look back at me,
The guy you’re with has up and split, the chair next to you’s free,
And I hope that you don’t fall in love with me.
Now it’s closing time, the music’s fading out
Last call for drinks, I’ll have another stout.
Well I turn around to look at you, you’re nowhere to be found,
I search the place for your lost face, guess I’ll have another round
And I think that I just fell in love with you.
And you call yourself a Christian August 16, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Come Again? , add a commentMovies, Movies, Movies August 15, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movies, Rant , add a commentLast night’s post was really delayed a few days. I waited to give Steph a chance to see Munich. So tonight I’m going to catch up. Why I feel like I should be reviewing movies, is beyond me. But here I go, with the three films I’ve just seen.
Walk the Line, is just another false Freudian, Post-Modern, Psychobabble, Bio-Pic. It had a decent cast, with decent acting, an OK supporting cast (they looked like the characters they were playing, but it ended there); it was well shot, and of course the music was dead on fantastic. I think Reese Witherspoon won an Academy Award because June Carter Cash was patient. The film should have ended at Folsom Prison. Don’t start with the fucking saw, if you ain’t gonna end with the fucking saw. I did cry, however.
A History of Violence. Well… a great cast, but Canadians shouldn’t try to do Indiana. There isn’t a Sheriff in all of Hoosierdom that would wear a hat like that. I really want to like Cronenberg, for many reasons, but he hasn’t made a good film since The Dead Zone. Of course Viggo Mortensen is always brooding and hot, and I might kill for Maria Bello. Raa, Raa, Siss, Boom, Baa!
I really liked Good Night, and Good Luck. Every High School Civics class should have to watch it. It was a good 93 minutes. It would have been a great 63 minutes. Keep up the good work George!
Trilogy of Terror August 13, 2006
Posted by Mark in : Movies, Rant , add a commentIn the last week I’ve seen three films that have a lot in common, The Constant Gardener, Syriana and last night I watched Munich. I can’t say I loved Munich.
All three films have a great deal in common. The subject matter of course, the effects of post colonialism, the twisting plots, murder death and mayhem. Also many of the characters have a nagging fear that while they are working for a cause, they are missing the truth. It’s practically an epidemic in Munich. Each film plays with time too. In Syriana, Director Stephen Gaghan, does a great job of using parallel action, of moving the cascading story into it’s inevitable climax. While he used the same technique in Traffic, and I suppose one could say he should be more original, I thought the trick worked better in Syriana.
In The Constant Gardener, Fernando Meirellesa uses a sort of objective, flashback technique that is very effective. And except for the Hollywood ending, I thought the film seemed reminiscent of the ’70’s conspiracy thrillers, like The Parallax View, The Conversation, or Three Days of the Condor. The cast was great and Ralph Fiennes finally redeemed himself in my eyes, I didn’t think that was possible, (see Red Dragon).
Munich….. Munich, Munich, Munich, what can I say? I just didn’t get it. I mean I got it, but I felt gypped. I invested a great deal of time, and thought it was going somewhere. I think it was repetitive and slow. Yes it showed the futility of an “Eye for an eye,” mentality especially when used by a government, but I got that pretty early in the film. “For this, I spent two and half hours?” The cast was great, and I often think that actors in Spielberg films are flat. They weren’t in this, I’ll give him that. And Ciarán Hinds, was amazing.
The climax, or false climax, or forced climax, was off putting to me. It was juvenile. The protagonists ultimate realization of the hollowness of his actions is realized during sex. That’s about number four on the list of film school clichés, The Conjugal Climax. In the end, I think it was the end that pissed me off, and made me write this. I knew where Spielberg was going the minute, I saw the opening frames of the last scene. I knew is going to be the last scene and knew where it was going to end. I groaned out loud. I think it was cheap and easy to end the film with a skyline shot of Manhattan, with the WTC in the background. It’s pretty easy to foreshadow an event four years after it happens.
