Checking In
Okay, so college has officially started, which is my excuse for the huge prolonged absence here at the blog. Because of said moving in to college, I haven’t really had the time/financial means to see any new films, although plans to do so are certainly in the works. I guess I could add some miscellaneous reviews for kicks. I also plan to do a music oriented blog eventually (after all it does say musical musings in the title…). So I guess I just wanted to say hi to anyone (or no one) who reads this. Oh and I also intend to start a series called “Great Movie Moments” or something like that that features what I consider to be.. great… movie… moments… which I guess I’ll have to define more clearly when the time comes.. eventually. hA. So what have I been up to?
Well I guess I’ve been taking in all of the sights and sounds here at the University of California, which is just so intelectually alive and culturally pronounced. As predicted it is better than high school in every way (they serve Soda here! God forbid…), and I’ve recently noticed how college does for education what field work does for an anthropologist. You can’t truly expand your horizons and your intelectual vitality in the confines of high school. You have to live away to truly experience mental stimulation. Just as an anthropologist must live among a culture to learn about them; books alone simply won’t do.
Brokeback Mountain
So the university has been hyping a visit by film director Ang Lee and his producer James Schamus next spring with a series of seminars and discussions about his work. I was fortunate enough to attend one of these about Lee’s magnum opus Brokeback Mountain; and particularly, how it’s sense of sexuality served as a primal awakening for the American viewing public. It was led by a film professor here who also happens to be the preeminent scholar of pornography in the country (I didn’t even know such a study existed). She’s written books with titles like “Screening Sex” and “Hard Core.” She was predictably quite enthusiastic about the discussion. Needless to say, it was an enlightening seminar that you probably wouldn’t be able to experience anywhere else…
There was also an early screening of the film adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Choke, complete with a Q&A session with screenwriter/director Clark Gregg. I waited in line but, due to the evils of overbooking, was unable to get a seat, which was extremely annoying. There were at least 100 people in line who were not able to get in. Overbooking is evil. Hopefully there will be more opportunities like this…
Sarah Palin - youtube her interview with Charlie Rose and judge for yourself.
Oooh let’s have a politics tangent. Living in Berkeley, I’ve noticed that politics are a huge part of life, and as a first time voter I feel more envolved than ever in the political scene. One thing I’ve noticed that slightly worries me is the general Berkeley consensus that John Mccain has absolutely no chance at winning the election this year. However recent polls have shown that the race is frighteningly close, if not a dead heat. I think many people here have become disillusioned with Berkeley’s diehard liberalism to the point where they underestimate the other party. Mccain’s choice of Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate initially struck me as a very wise if not transparently sinister political maneuver. I still think it was probably the best choice he could have made to help his chances, but I’ve also realized how terrible Sarah Palin is as a candidate. I don’t really think I need to make an arguement about her credentials, or lack thereof, or her other non-presidential attributes, as the internet is loaded with them. All I can say is, if Mccain/Palin do win in November, it will be extremeley interesting to see what Berkeley is like the next day. I don’t know if I’d want to leave my room, but it would be interesting none the less.
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Okay so how about some random mini miscellaneous reviews for fun? Eh? whaddyasay?
- EYES WIDE SHUT – (1999 – R) 
Dir:Stanley Kubrick; Star:Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman
Stanley Kubrick’s final film is a stunning examination of human sexual desire and a scathing yet subtle social commentary. Many viewers and critics panned the film because of its overtly sexual tones, but most of these people were victims of the movie’s shock value; unable to look at sexuality as the vehicle for a message. All of Kubrick’s hallmarks are here in top form, from the ironic sense of humor evident in the use of the camera instead of the dialogue, to the strikingly surreal cinematography bathing the whole picture in an utterly eerie sense intrigue. The cult mansion scene is so meticulously crafted and creepily rendered that it gives me shivers just to write about it. It also features one of the best final lines in movie history. On the whole this is a movie unlike any other that seems to transcend a sense of time or place; instead settling somewhere in the commonest reaches of the mind, which fits its greater message perfectly.
November 2, 2008 at 11:10 am
=( everyone in sacramento is voting prop 8. Suburbia sucks.