I hate today.
I hate a lot of days but I REALLY hate today.
To avoid trouble I'll spare you the details but to sum things up I was in a car accident AGAIN. It wasn't my fault but I didn't handle the situation well so now I'm in worse than before.
My life sucks.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Kansas International Film Festival
I've been spending the weekend in front of a screen. A movie screen at the Glenwood Arts Theater for the 2006 Kansas International Film Festival. So far I've seen eight films not counting 20 plus shorts and I'm going to give a quick rundown of what I've seen. Here we go in order of viewing:
DAY ONE
Sandstorm: Set in China, it is a hazy examination of a police officer trapped in a massive sandstorm with his wife and his guilt over his actions in the brutal persecution of the peaceful Falun Dai (or Falun Gong) movement. While it does a good job of showing the cruelty of the police, this film seems to be Falun Gong propaganda. There's nothing wrong with that since we're talking about a nice bunch of people who were punished for promoting peace in a nation that thrives on military fervor--sound familiar?--however, I do not need to be convinced to believe Falun Gong is hao. I am convinced that the film had alterior motives and I didn't appreciate that.
Night of the Living Dead: Wow! It was my first time seeing it and I got to see it on a big screen. How great is that? And director George Romero was there too with his collaborator Tom Savini! Just having the opportunity to see these two in person was nice but it helps that the film was interesting too, if not that great.
You already know what the movie is about. If you don't you need to go and download a free and legal copy of the film for yourself. I knew that the film had a black hero but it was still amazing to see it on the screen knowing that it was a film produced by white people back in 1968. He actually hits a white woman (not his finest moment) and fights with white people, killing one. This is far more impressive than the zombie stuff.
The movie is old and was done on a low budget with inexperienced people and it shows but for all of its glaring flaws there are moments where everything working against it works for it, creating moments that feel uncomfortably real or become quite frightening without relying of gore. It's a must-see, at least because of its acclaim in the film world.
BachelorMan: I met the director of the film while getting tickets and told him I would go and see it. Big mistake. The movie isn't absolute trash as the acting is actually quite good (Missi Pyle shines in a role many more popular actresses wouldn't have put effort into and David DeLuise is charismatic as BachelorMan himself) but the script in not only juvenile but often doesn't make any sense. Things happen because the formula demands them to happen, not because they make any sense. Some scenes were obvious candidates for cutting but somehow still ended up in the film to suggest things that never happen. This is a "guy" film that most mature, real guys would be offended by.
DAY TWO
Sentenced Home: In 1996 a law was passed that forced every non-citizen American convicted of a felony to be deported, even if they had already served jail time. The law provides no appeals process and, with our post 9/11 world, it seems unlikely that there will be any chance of this law being changed to take into account those who have changed their lived around and/or have never been to the countries they are being deported to. In this film the subjects are Cambodian citizens brought over to America to escape Pol Pot back in the 70s. Some of them don't even remember their home countries but because of their crimes they are being forced back there.
Not all of the subjects are sympathetic but the unfairness of their plight is well stated. It's also impressive that the one voice in the film supporting the deportations (or at least the one that represents the deporters) makes a good arguement in favor of the law. That said, it still shows families being torn apart and young men being tossed from the opportunities and advantages of America and back into the poverty of Cambodia all because of crimes for which they thought they had already payed the penalty.
The Hole Story: A mockumentary about the director's quest to solve the mystery of a hole that forms on the frozen surface of a lake in Minnesota despite freezing temperatures. His exploration, however, is sidetracked by reality.
While the story is nice and clever, it isn't all that interesting. The hero who is the real-life director of the film comes across not as a loveable loser but a big loser who might be loveable. Parts of the film seem a little farfetched and it just isn't that entertaining. Everyone else liked it but I wasn't impressed.
IFCKC Horror Film Competition: Lots of horror shorts. So many were entered because of Romero and Savini's judging of the films that they had an overflow day on Thursday night. That resulted in the two winning films being shown BEFORE the festival and leaving many people not knowing this until that night. A good display of bad organization. Also, during the films I did get to see, one had technical difficulty and was skipped over to the insult, in my opinion, of the filmmaker who worked hard to make his or her film.
Most of what I saw wasn't very good and I probably shouldn't have expected much but one film I noticed was Female Intuition. It was the only film that felt like something I had never seen before (or, more accurately, hadn't seen a million times before.) In it a girl goes to the doctor because she feels her sixth sense of danger is telling her she has a chronic illness. Turns out she's not the one with the problem. At least she's not the only one... The production values were high quality and the story was told well. Some of the other films seemed sloppy or had vague stories (including some "experimental" films that hopefully stay experiments) but Female Intuition stayed logical, functional, and fun.
Creepshow: Another Romero scarefest, this time with Steven King's help to create five short tales of terror. Romero himself says that the film is more funny than scary and this is true. Although it has gory moments the real focus is on the jokes.
The best story featured Stephen King himself (he's not a bad actor) playing a country bumpkin who encounters a meteor that unleashes a green weed that grows on and over everything. While the other stories are tradition fare of monsters, this one is a tale of torture from beyond and its frightening--and funny--to watch Stephen wrestle with the bizzare plants.
DAY THREE
This Film is Not Yet Rated: Best film of the festival so far. The director was kind enough to submit this film as a sneak peak showing prior to its official October run. Despite showing in a small theater it is still impressive that they actually had to turn people away from the screening. They actually had to set up folding chairs to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend.
None of us were disappointed as the film is a funny but angering look at the MPAA movie rating process. A system that, as you might already know, sees sex and pleasure as more vile than violence. It is amazing to learn what the now not-so-secret screening board thinks constitutes an NC-17 rating. Female pleasure is essentially offensive to them. Bloodless violence is not. Gay sex is far more offensive than straight sex even when the latter is more explicit. Little moments that make a film feel real are the moments that the MPAA (and studios by association) want removed to get that precious R.
It was pretty disgusting but the film has a bemused tone seeing as this is not nearly as important a subject as war or disease or the-idiots-in-office. The real amusement, however, comes from the director hiring a private eye to find out the identities of the MPAA ratings board. A group that is supposedly made up of the parents of young children and teens turns out to be full of people who have adult children and at least one member who might not have any kids at all! What effect the revealation of the board will have is yet to be seen (I doubt much will change since many of thsoe who most need to hear this message won't even hear about This Film is Not Yet Rated.) but one can hope that, someday, a new rating system will be put in place that at sees violence as more offensive than sex and that considers the artistic integrity of a film.
Drakmar: A documentary that started as a look at a charismatic teenage geek which turned into something more. Colin Taylor is (or, rather, was) a 14-year-old with a passion for Halo, Dungeons and Dragons, and live action role playing with real steel fighting (how cool and weird is that?) The documentary details his quest to move up in the ranks of the LARP realm but it gets a positive sidetracking through Colin's brother Corwin who asks the filmmakers to help him find their absent birth-father.
It's great to see a film that looks at geek-culture through a positive lens even though the weirder and sillier aspects of Colin and his friends still show. Better yet, the movie was made on 200 dollards cash. 200 dollars not only gave two filmmakers their shot at the big time but they also changed the lives of two people for the better. Money is so amazing when used the right way. And as for Colin himself, I think he'll be a geek hero for years to come. I know a lot of kids across America will see or hear about this film and say "Hey! That's me! Someone made a movie about me!"
WHAT'S NEXT?
I only have eight more showing to go. Only one film stands out as a must see: American Stag made by local filmmaker Ben Meade who is also a chairperson of the festival. Stag looks at 50s and 60s porno films (hooray porn!) It shows on Wednesday evening so, if you can, come on down and get a look at it (but for the intellectual value, not the porn you perv.)
DAY ONE
Sandstorm: Set in China, it is a hazy examination of a police officer trapped in a massive sandstorm with his wife and his guilt over his actions in the brutal persecution of the peaceful Falun Dai (or Falun Gong) movement. While it does a good job of showing the cruelty of the police, this film seems to be Falun Gong propaganda. There's nothing wrong with that since we're talking about a nice bunch of people who were punished for promoting peace in a nation that thrives on military fervor--sound familiar?--however, I do not need to be convinced to believe Falun Gong is hao. I am convinced that the film had alterior motives and I didn't appreciate that.
Night of the Living Dead: Wow! It was my first time seeing it and I got to see it on a big screen. How great is that? And director George Romero was there too with his collaborator Tom Savini! Just having the opportunity to see these two in person was nice but it helps that the film was interesting too, if not that great.
You already know what the movie is about. If you don't you need to go and download a free and legal copy of the film for yourself. I knew that the film had a black hero but it was still amazing to see it on the screen knowing that it was a film produced by white people back in 1968. He actually hits a white woman (not his finest moment) and fights with white people, killing one. This is far more impressive than the zombie stuff.
The movie is old and was done on a low budget with inexperienced people and it shows but for all of its glaring flaws there are moments where everything working against it works for it, creating moments that feel uncomfortably real or become quite frightening without relying of gore. It's a must-see, at least because of its acclaim in the film world.
BachelorMan: I met the director of the film while getting tickets and told him I would go and see it. Big mistake. The movie isn't absolute trash as the acting is actually quite good (Missi Pyle shines in a role many more popular actresses wouldn't have put effort into and David DeLuise is charismatic as BachelorMan himself) but the script in not only juvenile but often doesn't make any sense. Things happen because the formula demands them to happen, not because they make any sense. Some scenes were obvious candidates for cutting but somehow still ended up in the film to suggest things that never happen. This is a "guy" film that most mature, real guys would be offended by.
DAY TWO
Sentenced Home: In 1996 a law was passed that forced every non-citizen American convicted of a felony to be deported, even if they had already served jail time. The law provides no appeals process and, with our post 9/11 world, it seems unlikely that there will be any chance of this law being changed to take into account those who have changed their lived around and/or have never been to the countries they are being deported to. In this film the subjects are Cambodian citizens brought over to America to escape Pol Pot back in the 70s. Some of them don't even remember their home countries but because of their crimes they are being forced back there.
Not all of the subjects are sympathetic but the unfairness of their plight is well stated. It's also impressive that the one voice in the film supporting the deportations (or at least the one that represents the deporters) makes a good arguement in favor of the law. That said, it still shows families being torn apart and young men being tossed from the opportunities and advantages of America and back into the poverty of Cambodia all because of crimes for which they thought they had already payed the penalty.
The Hole Story: A mockumentary about the director's quest to solve the mystery of a hole that forms on the frozen surface of a lake in Minnesota despite freezing temperatures. His exploration, however, is sidetracked by reality.
While the story is nice and clever, it isn't all that interesting. The hero who is the real-life director of the film comes across not as a loveable loser but a big loser who might be loveable. Parts of the film seem a little farfetched and it just isn't that entertaining. Everyone else liked it but I wasn't impressed.
IFCKC Horror Film Competition: Lots of horror shorts. So many were entered because of Romero and Savini's judging of the films that they had an overflow day on Thursday night. That resulted in the two winning films being shown BEFORE the festival and leaving many people not knowing this until that night. A good display of bad organization. Also, during the films I did get to see, one had technical difficulty and was skipped over to the insult, in my opinion, of the filmmaker who worked hard to make his or her film.
Most of what I saw wasn't very good and I probably shouldn't have expected much but one film I noticed was Female Intuition. It was the only film that felt like something I had never seen before (or, more accurately, hadn't seen a million times before.) In it a girl goes to the doctor because she feels her sixth sense of danger is telling her she has a chronic illness. Turns out she's not the one with the problem. At least she's not the only one... The production values were high quality and the story was told well. Some of the other films seemed sloppy or had vague stories (including some "experimental" films that hopefully stay experiments) but Female Intuition stayed logical, functional, and fun.
Creepshow: Another Romero scarefest, this time with Steven King's help to create five short tales of terror. Romero himself says that the film is more funny than scary and this is true. Although it has gory moments the real focus is on the jokes.
The best story featured Stephen King himself (he's not a bad actor) playing a country bumpkin who encounters a meteor that unleashes a green weed that grows on and over everything. While the other stories are tradition fare of monsters, this one is a tale of torture from beyond and its frightening--and funny--to watch Stephen wrestle with the bizzare plants.
DAY THREE
This Film is Not Yet Rated: Best film of the festival so far. The director was kind enough to submit this film as a sneak peak showing prior to its official October run. Despite showing in a small theater it is still impressive that they actually had to turn people away from the screening. They actually had to set up folding chairs to accommodate everyone who wanted to attend.
None of us were disappointed as the film is a funny but angering look at the MPAA movie rating process. A system that, as you might already know, sees sex and pleasure as more vile than violence. It is amazing to learn what the now not-so-secret screening board thinks constitutes an NC-17 rating. Female pleasure is essentially offensive to them. Bloodless violence is not. Gay sex is far more offensive than straight sex even when the latter is more explicit. Little moments that make a film feel real are the moments that the MPAA (and studios by association) want removed to get that precious R.
It was pretty disgusting but the film has a bemused tone seeing as this is not nearly as important a subject as war or disease or the-idiots-in-office. The real amusement, however, comes from the director hiring a private eye to find out the identities of the MPAA ratings board. A group that is supposedly made up of the parents of young children and teens turns out to be full of people who have adult children and at least one member who might not have any kids at all! What effect the revealation of the board will have is yet to be seen (I doubt much will change since many of thsoe who most need to hear this message won't even hear about This Film is Not Yet Rated.) but one can hope that, someday, a new rating system will be put in place that at sees violence as more offensive than sex and that considers the artistic integrity of a film.
Drakmar: A documentary that started as a look at a charismatic teenage geek which turned into something more. Colin Taylor is (or, rather, was) a 14-year-old with a passion for Halo, Dungeons and Dragons, and live action role playing with real steel fighting (how cool and weird is that?) The documentary details his quest to move up in the ranks of the LARP realm but it gets a positive sidetracking through Colin's brother Corwin who asks the filmmakers to help him find their absent birth-father.
It's great to see a film that looks at geek-culture through a positive lens even though the weirder and sillier aspects of Colin and his friends still show. Better yet, the movie was made on 200 dollards cash. 200 dollars not only gave two filmmakers their shot at the big time but they also changed the lives of two people for the better. Money is so amazing when used the right way. And as for Colin himself, I think he'll be a geek hero for years to come. I know a lot of kids across America will see or hear about this film and say "Hey! That's me! Someone made a movie about me!"
WHAT'S NEXT?
I only have eight more showing to go. Only one film stands out as a must see: American Stag made by local filmmaker Ben Meade who is also a chairperson of the festival. Stag looks at 50s and 60s porno films (hooray porn!) It shows on Wednesday evening so, if you can, come on down and get a look at it (but for the intellectual value, not the porn you perv.)
Thursday, September 14, 2006
The Lord of the Wrong
Neil Gaiman, master of all media (but not video games, at least not yet) has alerted his fanbase to a magical place of absolute horror. The Shire housing development in Bend, Oregon promises to slowly turn into one of the largest sustained areas of concentrated geekery outside of Silicon Valley. By the looks of it this could slide from severe geekery into sheer dorkdom. I'm overdosing on nerdiness just by thinking about this place.
Sure, it looks nice and uses green building methods and is located in one of the most liberal places on the planet but isn't their such a thing as too much?
And should they build this in New Zealand? It's a lot prettier over there.
Check the title for the link.
Sure, it looks nice and uses green building methods and is located in one of the most liberal places on the planet but isn't their such a thing as too much?
And should they build this in New Zealand? It's a lot prettier over there.
Check the title for the link.
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Muse - Time is Running Out
I've been hearing this song in the September ads for Turner Classic Movies (some of the best ads ever. Always hip and sexy and very incongruous to most of their films which makes them PERFECT.) Today I thought to myself "Gee, that sounds like that Muse band that I'm enamored with."
A quickie look up of one lyric proved me right. Indeed, this is another full on blast of musicality from Muse.
You wanna know why I like them? Because they sound like a Japanese rock band but not only do they sing in English (of course) but their lyrics actually make sense and don't sound silly. There's another band that comes close to this feeling for me, Linkin Park, but their lyrics never seem to work even though their songs are great music-wise.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Muse - Knights of Cydonia
I'm sorry that most of my posts lately are just music videos but, aside for selfishly building a list of favorite sounds outside of the YouTube favorites system, I like sharing good music.
96.5 The Buzz, former home of Lazlo, current home of some other DJ who sucks, is having a "shuffle weekend" and they just happened to play this song. I've been hearing a buzz about Muse but never checked them out before.
I think I've just become a devotee.
The video is silly but just listen to the song. It's epic and that's a feeling most bands don't bother attempting anymore which is why a lot of music today doesn't last longer than it's airplay. Muse wants to take us somewhere. I wanna go!
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