(no subject)
After getting back from being in LA for the weekend for billythebrick's wedding thing, I was sent back out Wednesday to prepare for a colleagues departure. Korean barbeque = really fucking awesome. We made sure to take a token Korean to talk to them and everything. Also my first time drinking 'Soju' or whatever, which is like Korean vodka (ie, it's half as strong and made from rice or something). You can smoke everywhere in K-Town. Leave it to the Asians. Ashtrays are usually napkins with ice on them to maintain plausible deniability. Drinking in bars around Koreatown and Hollywood reminded me of just how goddamned expensive LA is. That is...really fucking expensive. It's its only drawback. Dad's coming out from Hawaii in June also which means I have to buy a couch.
On the plane I read Insanely Great, a history of Apple and how they make the best products and everyone who doesn't like them either doesn't know anything or is a jealous bitch. Unfortunately it was written just before the iPod explosion, so it's in need of updating.
Sketches of Frank Gehry - Sydney Pollock just follows Gehry around with a camera for a while and talks to him about the creative process, shows him at work tinkering with paper to make buildings and such, and showed the real (unacknowledged) star behind his work, the hundred thousand dollar plus computer program that uses a laser pen thing to take coordinates from a model and make fully 3-d drawings ready for the engineer so they don't have to do the geometry for all his twisty shit. Nothing too exhilarating otherwise. Them driving around LA or talking at his office. Some nice shots of the usual suspects like Bilbao, Disney Hall, some of his LA houses. We do find out that he changed his name from Goldberg to Gehry because his ex-wife made him.
Water -- Deepha Metha's continuation of her 'elements series', or as I like to call it, the 'women in India are totally fucked over' series. This one is about how widows get the shaft by being shuffled off to ashram's as young as seven so that the families don't have to support them. There they can be shunned, or maybe forced into prostitution if they're young enough. Gandhi is a kind of peripheral player, as it's set in the 1920's or '30's, which is interesting, because there is a lot of controversy over his stance on the caste system, and Mehta has a kind of implicit critique of the caste system in the character of the father as well.
In any case, the movie had to filmed in secret, and Mehta is one of the few people taking real artistic risks (like, the risk of being killed by some crazy fundamentalist Hindu and of their set being burned down), so people should see her movies.
Point Blank - the movie that Mel Gibson remade as Payback, except with Lee Marvin as the badass. Mel's was really faithful to the original, so there's not much one doesn't know going in. Mostly the point is watching Lee Marvin being a badass.
Tokyo Story -- there's nothing to be said about Ozu, really, since everyone already worships him. Not as sad as I expected.
Charade - the movie wasn't that great, but Audrey had plucked her eyebrows or something at this point and it really put her in the pantheon of top 5 hot movie women ever. Grace Kelly in Rear Window is still undisputed heavyweight champion of movie hotties, with Claudia Cardinale in 8 1/2 still in second. Audrey here might be 3.
Blue Velvet - 837 times better than that steaming pile Mulholland Drive. Lynch actually has a recognizable story line, recognizable themes, and no unnecessary dwarves or midgets or whatever. Conventional wisdom is that it's about the corruption underneath American life, much like The Godfather is supposed to be about in some way. I think Blue Velvet works better if you take as a more personal exploration of the crazy knuckle dragging psychopath that we all have and sometimes flirt with, and is only kept in check by society. I suppose the ending could be read as a critique -- oh we've gone back to our safe suburban world and let's just shut out the fact of the Franks of the world out there. But I say, 'yes, let's. no need to dwell on the depressing is there?'
Shame - I really didn't like this movie very much. Bergman letting us know that war is in fact hell, even for people not fighting it. Unfortunately I was bored.
On the plane I read Insanely Great, a history of Apple and how they make the best products and everyone who doesn't like them either doesn't know anything or is a jealous bitch. Unfortunately it was written just before the iPod explosion, so it's in need of updating.
Sketches of Frank Gehry - Sydney Pollock just follows Gehry around with a camera for a while and talks to him about the creative process, shows him at work tinkering with paper to make buildings and such, and showed the real (unacknowledged) star behind his work, the hundred thousand dollar plus computer program that uses a laser pen thing to take coordinates from a model and make fully 3-d drawings ready for the engineer so they don't have to do the geometry for all his twisty shit. Nothing too exhilarating otherwise. Them driving around LA or talking at his office. Some nice shots of the usual suspects like Bilbao, Disney Hall, some of his LA houses. We do find out that he changed his name from Goldberg to Gehry because his ex-wife made him.
Water -- Deepha Metha's continuation of her 'elements series', or as I like to call it, the 'women in India are totally fucked over' series. This one is about how widows get the shaft by being shuffled off to ashram's as young as seven so that the families don't have to support them. There they can be shunned, or maybe forced into prostitution if they're young enough. Gandhi is a kind of peripheral player, as it's set in the 1920's or '30's, which is interesting, because there is a lot of controversy over his stance on the caste system, and Mehta has a kind of implicit critique of the caste system in the character of the father as well.
In any case, the movie had to filmed in secret, and Mehta is one of the few people taking real artistic risks (like, the risk of being killed by some crazy fundamentalist Hindu and of their set being burned down), so people should see her movies.
Point Blank - the movie that Mel Gibson remade as Payback, except with Lee Marvin as the badass. Mel's was really faithful to the original, so there's not much one doesn't know going in. Mostly the point is watching Lee Marvin being a badass.
Tokyo Story -- there's nothing to be said about Ozu, really, since everyone already worships him. Not as sad as I expected.
Charade - the movie wasn't that great, but Audrey had plucked her eyebrows or something at this point and it really put her in the pantheon of top 5 hot movie women ever. Grace Kelly in Rear Window is still undisputed heavyweight champion of movie hotties, with Claudia Cardinale in 8 1/2 still in second. Audrey here might be 3.
Blue Velvet - 837 times better than that steaming pile Mulholland Drive. Lynch actually has a recognizable story line, recognizable themes, and no unnecessary dwarves or midgets or whatever. Conventional wisdom is that it's about the corruption underneath American life, much like The Godfather is supposed to be about in some way. I think Blue Velvet works better if you take as a more personal exploration of the crazy knuckle dragging psychopath that we all have and sometimes flirt with, and is only kept in check by society. I suppose the ending could be read as a critique -- oh we've gone back to our safe suburban world and let's just shut out the fact of the Franks of the world out there. But I say, 'yes, let's. no need to dwell on the depressing is there?'
Shame - I really didn't like this movie very much. Bergman letting us know that war is in fact hell, even for people not fighting it. Unfortunately I was bored.