Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Sound of my Voice
'Sound of my Voice' - "A journalist and his girlfriend get pulled in while they investigate a cult whose leader claims to be from the future". Directed by Zal Batmanglij
This is a very Southern California "indie" film and nicely done, a fairly mellow film that leads to a really good moment (if not a classic 'climax'). It doesn't have anywhere near the sheer quantity of action or emotion that define contemporary American movies, but it does have an interesting story, decent acting, zero special effects, and a handful of ideas. It did leave me with the feeling that things don't have to be 'great' all the time. It seems that in this superlative-infested era if something is not deemed 'great' it's therefore shit. One thing I liked about this movie is that it was just good and that's okay.
You can't really talk much about the details of the movie without wandering into spoiler territory. Spoilers follow here.
The main guy's transition from investigator to believer was not really believable and I'm not sure it was necessary, but the writers felt it was. The ambivalent ending is rare in that you think you can have it both ways - yes, she's a criminal gang leader and yes, she's from the future. Yes, they're training a cadre of true believers to use in some big score and yes, they're preparing them for the coming civil war. Of course, as the movie says early on, "no one's from the future". They have some sophisticated spying capabilities which explains everything, except why Klaus is not wanted by the Feds but Maggie is.
This is a very Southern California "indie" film and nicely done, a fairly mellow film that leads to a really good moment (if not a classic 'climax'). It doesn't have anywhere near the sheer quantity of action or emotion that define contemporary American movies, but it does have an interesting story, decent acting, zero special effects, and a handful of ideas. It did leave me with the feeling that things don't have to be 'great' all the time. It seems that in this superlative-infested era if something is not deemed 'great' it's therefore shit. One thing I liked about this movie is that it was just good and that's okay.
You can't really talk much about the details of the movie without wandering into spoiler territory. Spoilers follow here.
The main guy's transition from investigator to believer was not really believable and I'm not sure it was necessary, but the writers felt it was. The ambivalent ending is rare in that you think you can have it both ways - yes, she's a criminal gang leader and yes, she's from the future. Yes, they're training a cadre of true believers to use in some big score and yes, they're preparing them for the coming civil war. Of course, as the movie says early on, "no one's from the future". They have some sophisticated spying capabilities which explains everything, except why Klaus is not wanted by the Feds but Maggie is.
Labels:
movies
Monday, May 14, 2012
just a thought or two
Things don't have to be great. They really don't. Movies, books,songs,art and so on. It's okay if they're just good. But no. In this superlative infested culture, anything not "great " is shit.
Thought two. It seems that child sexual abuse is the sewer towards which all modern American drama flows.
Thought two. It seems that child sexual abuse is the sewer towards which all modern American drama flows.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Humpty Dumpty
'When _I_ use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less
Impossible Things
Alice laughed. 'There's no use trying,' she said: 'one CAN'T believe impossible things.'
'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why,
sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.
Through the looking glass
The Job Application, by Robert Walser
I am a poor, young, unemployed person in the business field, my name is Wenzel, I am seeking a suitable position, and I take the liberty of asking you, nicely and politely, if perhaps in your airy, bright, amiable rooms such a position might be free. I know that your good firm is large, proud, old, and rich, thus I may yield to the pleasing supposition that a nice, easy, pretty little place would be available, into which, as into a kind of warm cubbyhole, I can slip. I am excellently suited, you should know, to occupy just such a modest haven, for my nature is altogether delicate, and I am essentially a quiet, polite, and dreamy child, who is made to feel cheerful by people thinking of him that he does not ask for much, and allowing him to take possession of a very, very small patch of existence, where he can be useful in his own way and thus feel at ease. A quiet, sweet, small place in the shade has always been the tender substance of all my dreams, and if now the illusions I have about you grow so intense as to make me hope that my dream, young and old, might be transformed into delicious, vivid reality, then you have, in me, the most zealous and most loyal servitor, who will take it as a matter of conscience to discharge precisely and punctually all his duties. Large and difficult tasks I cannot perform, and obligations of a far-ranging sort are too strenuous for my mind. I am not particularly clever, and first and foremost I do not like to strain my intelligence overmuch. I am a dreamer rather than a thinker, a zero rather than a force, dim rather than sharp. Assuredly there exists in your extensive institution, which I imagine to be overflowing with main and subsidiary functions and offices, work of the kind that one can do as in a dream? —I am, to put it frankly, a Chinese; that is to say, a person who deems everything small and modest to be beautiful and pleasing, and to whom all that is big and exacting is fearsome and horrid. I know only the need to feel at my ease, so that each day I can thank God for life’s boon, with all its blessings. The passion to go far in the world is unknown to me. Africa with its deserts is to me not more foreign. Well, so now you know what sort of a person I am. —I write, as you see, a graceful and fluent hand, and you need not imagine me to be entirely without intelligence. My mind is clear, but it refuses to grasp things that are many, or too many by far, shunning them. I am sincere and honest, and I am aware that this signifies precious little in the world in which we live, so I shall be waiting, esteemed gentlemen, to see what it will be your pleasure to reply to your respectful servant, positively drowning in obedience.
Labels:
literature
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
Snapdragon Fly
"Look on the branch above your head,' said the Gnat, 'and there you'll find a snap-dragon-fly. Its body is made of plum-pudding, its wings of holly-leaves, and its head is a raisin burning in brandy"
Through the Looking Glass
Friday, May 04, 2012
Humanoid Central - Free This Weekend
I decided to publish Humanoid Central on KDP Select, meaning it won't be available through Smashwords or Feedbooks for free until August 4th. This is just an experiment, for the heck of it. It's not like the world is clamoring for any more of my little books for free anyway. Heck, it's only 99 cents if you can't wait - but it's free this weekend on Kindle (KDP Select Promotion Days)
Labels:
cover art
Thursday, May 03, 2012
The Humanoid Central Team Building Scientific Experiment
Welcome to The Humanoid Central Team Building Scientific Experiment. Whether you are human, android or hologram, and whether in fact you know what exactly you are, your help is needed. The fate of a fictional future is at stake!
Assumed: You have read the story 'Humanoid Central' and are prepared to participate in determining how it should end. Please answer the two poll questions below
Is Merry's intuition about the ear correct or incorrect?
What happens next?
Wednesday, May 02, 2012
Tiddlywink Reviews
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