Episode VI
June 2007 – Summer
Hello All;
I hope you are all doing well. Me? Peachy. Summer is finally here, or close, depending on when you read this. In any case, the season of heat and baseball is finally here.
I am going through some tough situations right now so please excuse the “lightness” of this month’s edition. Some things you just don’t see coming and you have to deal with it. I have my hands tied in every way imaginable and yet I still try to fight on. So, let’s get this edition started, okay?:
:[ “Strawberry Quick” a new form of sweetened meth that is made to look like pink sugar. It is being pushed to children. So keep an eye out. In some states, children as young as eleven are being caught using it. Now, I have a question:
Who the fuck would do something like this?
:[ I think “casting dispersions” will be my new phrase for a while. I have heard it before. But it basically means, “Distributing distributing”. So, if you ever heard someone use this, they; don’t know what it means, and; are trying to sound smarter, or; both.
:[ The Big Lebowski & Brick: DVD Reviews – I chose to review these two together because by chance I checked them out of the library together and after viewing the both of them was surprised at how Chandler-esque they both are. Both are detective stories of a sort, but each is unique as to what sort of story they are.
The Big Lebowski is a comedy from the Coen Brothers and probably one of their best works. Jeff Bridges is excellent as the Dude, or His Dudeness, or Duderino. As he looks for compensation for a soiled rug, he is dragged into the machinations other’s motives while trying to make the semifinals of the bowling league. Funny as hell and still so after all these years.
Brick by all contrast is a mash up of suspense thriller, detective procedural, and high school drama, nicely crafted by Rian Johnson. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, of Third Rock from the Sun Fame is excellent as the driven teen looking to help his ex who calls him for help. Dark, with crisp dialogue and intricate fresco of scenes. It is good to see Lucas Haas (The little Amish boy in Witness) in a quasi-grown up role as Pin.
What I like about the both of these movies are the similarities. Again, they are Chandler-esque in structure and nature as a detective seeks answers against unknown forces and everything is tied up at the end and life goes on. The Big Lebowski and Brick would make a great double bill at any home screening. Check them out.
:[ Warlords looks very interesting. So far it appears to be a period war movie with Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro of “House of Flying Daggers” and Jet Li. Here is a clip: (Which I hope works for you.) Looks frenetic and cool. Isn’t that what counts?
:[ Back in Wyoming my sister bought her daughter a Playstation 2. It is used but in good condition. She also made the mistake of buy a Star Wars Battlefront game with it. Now, I am addicted to PS2. My brother brought his SOCOM: Navy SEALS 2 game and that is much fun. We shall see if the WB Household acquires one soon.
:[ On the Lot: Premiered May 22nd without yours truly. Oh well. I did make it into the second round with my short video ‘No One Ever Sees Indians”. But, they picked their 50 and the show goes on without the genius of Ernest M. Whiteman III. At least now, I can show you the video because I could not talk to anyone about it for some reason. But since I was not picked that is null and void. Enjoy!
:[ Downer’s Grove by Michael Hornburg – The author of “Bongwater” follows up his slacker novel with a story about an alienated teen on the cusp of graduating high school with no definitive future plans beyond making it through the day to bed, a horny friend, a wacky family life (Her mom gets more sex than she does wacky), and an improbable romance with a mysterious race car driver all set in one of Chicago’s western suburbs.
He writes many chapters as if he has a cool or wacky phrase in his head and sets up an entire situation around it to lead up to the point where the character thinks or says that phrase. It feels as if Hornburg does that a lot throughout the book.
It was interesting to read what this girl goes through. But I felt a lot of authenticity was lost because the author was never a seventeen year old girl. But it is fiction by the way and we tend to forgive fiction writers and historians for their inaccuracies. Interesting read nonetheless and I was never bored with it.
:[ Cool movies rediscovered – DVD Re-reviews: Hero & Le Samouraï:
I happened to pop in the Asian DVD to Hero the other day and surprised to find what a great movie it is. It is lush in color and full of drama and action unmatched in recent cinema. The noble idea that a killer chooses to stop killing as a contribution to the general peace is something that has been lost in translation. Many US audience felt that it sort of pushed the endorsement of tyranny to enforce peace, which is a nationalistic attitude which lost the Zen aspirations of Zhang Yimou’s script and idea.
The Asian DVD offers a better translation of the Mandarin language and the “Our Country” of the US release was originally “All Under Heaven” giving greater scope to the cause of ending violence to achieve world peace. And how does one do that? By the power of individual choice, simply choosing to not kill. Which can be a show of strength also.
Zhang Yimou’s Hero is still one of my all-time favorites.
I bought Le Samouraï on DVD in 2006 but never had the opportunity to screen it all the way through. I own the Criterion Collection disc and after watching many of the extras, like my experience with Seven Samurai, I was compelled to watch it again recently. It is just a super cool movie. I really enjoyed it. I had mostly watched it before I got the DVD whenever it screened at the Music Box Theater. Which, for some reason, only screened it at midnight. But it was not until I watched it again that I really saw the coolness of it.
Alan Delon as Jeff Costello is one of the great killers in cinema. I was fascinated by the chase of Costello this time around. The movie itself is light on gun action but that is never the point of the movie. We are simply following Costello to his death. His choice to follow the contracts to their conclusion makes him like the fetish-ized samurai of our fantasies. His nobility comes through in his death after a life of killing. Very cool movie.
:[ Update on Three Kingdoms. Jiang Wei has emerged as the leading general of the Riverlands. He was a student and friend of Kongming and shares his desire to defeat the Northern Wei and the usurped throne occupied by the Cao clan. Which itself is now under the control of Sima Zhou who has dispelled all of Jiang Wei’s efforts at war so far.
The Southland finds itself in turmoil as the Sun Clan fights amongst itself for the throne. Sun Chen emerges as the Prime Minister gathering power while continually usurping the throne with emperors that are subject to him.
It looks like the Southland is weakening and the Sima Clan is poised to take throne of the Northern Wei. Deng Ai emerges as the general to beat for the Northren Wei. His battles with Jiang Wei make up the heart of the closing chapters.
So, the end draws near. I do find myself more interested now since I realized that the Sima Clan will be the clan to unite the three kingdoms not the Sun Clan as I mistakenly read before. The abridged versions are pretty unclear on this as they concentrate on Liu Bei and Kongming’s stories. I also do not want the book to end as it has been a long a great ride into this period of Chinese history.
I am actually writing a screenplay based on this but updating it into a teen drama about Chinese adoptees living in Skokie. I’ll write more next time on how it all ends.
UPDATE: I have finally finish the fourth volume and the story entire. The Clan Sima usurps the Cao Throne establishing the Kingdom of Jin and the Kingdom of Wei and the Cao Clan is no more. The Kingdom of Shu under the Liu Clan has fallen to idleness and is easily invaded and defeated. Han general Jiang Wei is forced to surrender to the Jin, but his failed plan to avenge the Han/Shu costs him his life.
Once the Riverlands (Han/Shu) is subsumed, the Jin set sights on the Southland and the Kingdom of Wu under the Sun clan. The Sun clan puts up a weak defense but eventually abdicates to the Jin, thus uniting the Three Kingdoms once again.
I really enjoyed this book. My choice to read all three interpretations back to back to back is something I truly recommend to lovers of literature. I cannot wait to find the right time to pick up another version and read it again.
:[ I have started reading “Letters of J.J.R. Tolkien” again. I bought an uncorrected proof a few summers back at a yard sale. I started it but other things got in the way. Now that I have the time, I will try to make it through this time. Pretty fascinating look into the life of Tolkein as he went through war, life and writing. Neat book.
:[ Watching the old Popeye cartoons on DVD, I had to ask; is Olive Oyl really worth it?
June 2007 – Summer
Hello All;
I hope you are all doing well. Me? Peachy. Summer is finally here, or close, depending on when you read this. In any case, the season of heat and baseball is finally here.
I am going through some tough situations right now so please excuse the “lightness” of this month’s edition. Some things you just don’t see coming and you have to deal with it. I have my hands tied in every way imaginable and yet I still try to fight on. So, let’s get this edition started, okay?:
:[ “Strawberry Quick” a new form of sweetened meth that is made to look like pink sugar. It is being pushed to children. So keep an eye out. In some states, children as young as eleven are being caught using it. Now, I have a question:
Who the fuck would do something like this?
:[ I think “casting dispersions” will be my new phrase for a while. I have heard it before. But it basically means, “Distributing distributing”. So, if you ever heard someone use this, they; don’t know what it means, and; are trying to sound smarter, or; both.
:[ The Big Lebowski & Brick: DVD Reviews – I chose to review these two together because by chance I checked them out of the library together and after viewing the both of them was surprised at how Chandler-esque they both are. Both are detective stories of a sort, but each is unique as to what sort of story they are.
The Big Lebowski is a comedy from the Coen Brothers and probably one of their best works. Jeff Bridges is excellent as the Dude, or His Dudeness, or Duderino. As he looks for compensation for a soiled rug, he is dragged into the machinations other’s motives while trying to make the semifinals of the bowling league. Funny as hell and still so after all these years.
Brick by all contrast is a mash up of suspense thriller, detective procedural, and high school drama, nicely crafted by Rian Johnson. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, of Third Rock from the Sun Fame is excellent as the driven teen looking to help his ex who calls him for help. Dark, with crisp dialogue and intricate fresco of scenes. It is good to see Lucas Haas (The little Amish boy in Witness) in a quasi-grown up role as Pin.
What I like about the both of these movies are the similarities. Again, they are Chandler-esque in structure and nature as a detective seeks answers against unknown forces and everything is tied up at the end and life goes on. The Big Lebowski and Brick would make a great double bill at any home screening. Check them out.
:[ Warlords looks very interesting. So far it appears to be a period war movie with Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro of “House of Flying Daggers” and Jet Li. Here is a clip: (Which I hope works for you.) Looks frenetic and cool. Isn’t that what counts?
:[ Back in Wyoming my sister bought her daughter a Playstation 2. It is used but in good condition. She also made the mistake of buy a Star Wars Battlefront game with it. Now, I am addicted to PS2. My brother brought his SOCOM: Navy SEALS 2 game and that is much fun. We shall see if the WB Household acquires one soon.
:[ On the Lot: Premiered May 22nd without yours truly. Oh well. I did make it into the second round with my short video ‘No One Ever Sees Indians”. But, they picked their 50 and the show goes on without the genius of Ernest M. Whiteman III. At least now, I can show you the video because I could not talk to anyone about it for some reason. But since I was not picked that is null and void. Enjoy!
:[ Downer’s Grove by Michael Hornburg – The author of “Bongwater” follows up his slacker novel with a story about an alienated teen on the cusp of graduating high school with no definitive future plans beyond making it through the day to bed, a horny friend, a wacky family life (Her mom gets more sex than she does wacky), and an improbable romance with a mysterious race car driver all set in one of Chicago’s western suburbs.
He writes many chapters as if he has a cool or wacky phrase in his head and sets up an entire situation around it to lead up to the point where the character thinks or says that phrase. It feels as if Hornburg does that a lot throughout the book.
It was interesting to read what this girl goes through. But I felt a lot of authenticity was lost because the author was never a seventeen year old girl. But it is fiction by the way and we tend to forgive fiction writers and historians for their inaccuracies. Interesting read nonetheless and I was never bored with it.
:[ Cool movies rediscovered – DVD Re-reviews: Hero & Le Samouraï:
I happened to pop in the Asian DVD to Hero the other day and surprised to find what a great movie it is. It is lush in color and full of drama and action unmatched in recent cinema. The noble idea that a killer chooses to stop killing as a contribution to the general peace is something that has been lost in translation. Many US audience felt that it sort of pushed the endorsement of tyranny to enforce peace, which is a nationalistic attitude which lost the Zen aspirations of Zhang Yimou’s script and idea.
The Asian DVD offers a better translation of the Mandarin language and the “Our Country” of the US release was originally “All Under Heaven” giving greater scope to the cause of ending violence to achieve world peace. And how does one do that? By the power of individual choice, simply choosing to not kill. Which can be a show of strength also.
Zhang Yimou’s Hero is still one of my all-time favorites.
I bought Le Samouraï on DVD in 2006 but never had the opportunity to screen it all the way through. I own the Criterion Collection disc and after watching many of the extras, like my experience with Seven Samurai, I was compelled to watch it again recently. It is just a super cool movie. I really enjoyed it. I had mostly watched it before I got the DVD whenever it screened at the Music Box Theater. Which, for some reason, only screened it at midnight. But it was not until I watched it again that I really saw the coolness of it.
Alan Delon as Jeff Costello is one of the great killers in cinema. I was fascinated by the chase of Costello this time around. The movie itself is light on gun action but that is never the point of the movie. We are simply following Costello to his death. His choice to follow the contracts to their conclusion makes him like the fetish-ized samurai of our fantasies. His nobility comes through in his death after a life of killing. Very cool movie.
:[ Update on Three Kingdoms. Jiang Wei has emerged as the leading general of the Riverlands. He was a student and friend of Kongming and shares his desire to defeat the Northern Wei and the usurped throne occupied by the Cao clan. Which itself is now under the control of Sima Zhou who has dispelled all of Jiang Wei’s efforts at war so far.
The Southland finds itself in turmoil as the Sun Clan fights amongst itself for the throne. Sun Chen emerges as the Prime Minister gathering power while continually usurping the throne with emperors that are subject to him.
It looks like the Southland is weakening and the Sima Clan is poised to take throne of the Northern Wei. Deng Ai emerges as the general to beat for the Northren Wei. His battles with Jiang Wei make up the heart of the closing chapters.
So, the end draws near. I do find myself more interested now since I realized that the Sima Clan will be the clan to unite the three kingdoms not the Sun Clan as I mistakenly read before. The abridged versions are pretty unclear on this as they concentrate on Liu Bei and Kongming’s stories. I also do not want the book to end as it has been a long a great ride into this period of Chinese history.
I am actually writing a screenplay based on this but updating it into a teen drama about Chinese adoptees living in Skokie. I’ll write more next time on how it all ends.
UPDATE: I have finally finish the fourth volume and the story entire. The Clan Sima usurps the Cao Throne establishing the Kingdom of Jin and the Kingdom of Wei and the Cao Clan is no more. The Kingdom of Shu under the Liu Clan has fallen to idleness and is easily invaded and defeated. Han general Jiang Wei is forced to surrender to the Jin, but his failed plan to avenge the Han/Shu costs him his life.
Once the Riverlands (Han/Shu) is subsumed, the Jin set sights on the Southland and the Kingdom of Wu under the Sun clan. The Sun clan puts up a weak defense but eventually abdicates to the Jin, thus uniting the Three Kingdoms once again.
I really enjoyed this book. My choice to read all three interpretations back to back to back is something I truly recommend to lovers of literature. I cannot wait to find the right time to pick up another version and read it again.
:[ I have started reading “Letters of J.J.R. Tolkien” again. I bought an uncorrected proof a few summers back at a yard sale. I started it but other things got in the way. Now that I have the time, I will try to make it through this time. Pretty fascinating look into the life of Tolkein as he went through war, life and writing. Neat book.
:[ Watching the old Popeye cartoons on DVD, I had to ask; is Olive Oyl really worth it?
That will do it for this month. Apologies for this month’s being so media-centric. I have nothing but time to read and watch DVDs. Other very pressing problems keep me distracted, so once again, I beg forgiveness.
Check out the Presidential Campaign page for the latest on my candidacy. Remember vote for me in November 2008! Again, let me know what you think and leave a comment or two. Pleeeeeeeeeeese.
Check out the Presidential Campaign page for the latest on my candidacy. Remember vote for me in November 2008! Again, let me know what you think and leave a comment or two. Pleeeeeeeeeeese.
Until Next Time; “How swift thy sword.”
