Totally Crappy Movies

I keep hearing how the movie industry is down for like the one thousandth straight month or whatever. And I keep wondering to myself, do they realize what absolute crap they're putting out? Take this summer, Batman Begins and (maybe) Star Wars were the only big Hollywood movies that were worth my time. Stuff like The Island, Stealth, Fantasic Four, etc. look just terrible. Don't even get me started on the Dukes of Hazzard. Whoever came up with the idea to make that should be shot. That goes for Tim Burton, too.

At the same time, lots of great movies are being unrecognized. March of the Penguins has gotten a lot of press but its box office sales are actually relatively low. My favorite movie of the summer, Me and You and Everyone We Know, has gotten almost no attention. Same with other favorites like Crash and Hustle & Flow. Junebug and Broken Flowers just came out recently. I'm anxious to see both of them, but I doubt either of them will get much recognition.

Speaking of good movies, I watched two classics this weekend. Laura from 1944 and 12 Angry Men from 1957. Laura was good, but 12 Angry Men was just brilliant. There was a total of maybe 3 or 4 sets in that movie, and 90% of the movie was set in one of them. I've never seen such a simple setting generate so many emotional peaks and valleys. Very unique movie and definitely worth anyone's time.

Currently listening to: 65daysofstatic - ``The Fall Of Math''

Rush 2112 x 2 = 4224

I just found out that, for the first time ever, I've bought an album that I already owned. This past weekend, I picked up Rush's 2112 at Amoeba. It was an used cheap copy so I thought what the hell. But now, checking my database, I apparently already own a copy of that. No wonder when listening to the album in the car, I had a suspicious feeling that I had heard it before. At the time, I just figured that I heard it at a friend's house or something since it's a pretty popular album.

I've only done this once before and that was intentional. I had ordered a copy of Frodus' album online and saw it that same day at a local store. I didn't feel like waiting and bought it at the store. Such a waste. I've also bought albums that record labels have already sent me for review. But I was too lazy to open their packages to realize that. That's happened quite a few time actually.

What I really need is access to my music database at the store (and also quick access to Amazon prices!). I suppose I could've used my phone to search it online, but that would have been painfully slow. O well. I have a feeling this won't be the last time.

Movie Watching

I finally finished the last of the Trois couleurs last night. The last movie was Rouge. Bleu is still my favorite out of the three, but Rouge is pretty close to the top. The cinematography, colors, sounds, stories in all these movies are just flat out amazing. After finishing Rouge, I feel like I have to re-watch the entire trilogy again in order to understand everything. Even though the actual events and stories of the three aren't really connected, the messages behind them are. There are also commentary on the DVDs; perhaps one day I'll listen to those as well.

I didn't discover Kieslowski until recently with A Short Film About Killing. He has quickly become one of my favorite directors.

Speaking of movies, I bought the two-disc of Unforgiven last week. Haven't gotten through all the extras yet but that has to be the 6th or 7th time I've seen the movie. Still great every time. Also bought and watched the director's cut of Blade Runner. Still debating on whether Deckard was a replicant or not, but I'm leaning towards human now. Wished that DVD had some commentary or something. I also watched Solondz's Welcome to the Dollhouse. Good flick but I still like Happiness better. More recent movies, I saw Crash last week. I can definitely see why a lot of people have that as the best movie of 2005 so far.

Next up is Hidden Blade. It's directed by the same guy who did Twilight Samurai. Gonna be hard to top that.

Your Skull is Red

So I got to see Team Sleep for the first time ever last night. Was it worth the 5-year wait? Definitely. Although I think the band has yet to reach their potential. I wonder if Chino will continue to do Team Sleep or go back to the Deftones for another full-length. I'll be satisified as long as he does something. Before that, I also saw Zao and Darkest Hour. Zao is not really Zao in my eyes without Jesse. Darkest Hour was good though. I really like their new album. Next up, I got The Mars Volta next week, Pelican and Red Sparowes the week after. Koufax is also playing here soon; I didn't even know they were still around. Apparently they got a new full-length. Out of all those bands, I'm probably most excited about Red Sparowes. Their full-length is in my top 10 if not higher of 2005.

Alex was in town the past few days so we did a bunch of crap. Went to Six Flags Magic Mountain on Sunday with some other people. It had a couple of cool rides. The Extreme or whatever it was called was probably the best. Then hung out at Santa Monica, Venice Beach, and Malibu. Saw a shark, couple of seals, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Also did the Paramount Studio tour yesterday. I didn't see anyone famous at the studio but I did see Richard Kind walking on Venice Beach. Fox was shooting some TV show there; I wonder if he was in that.

O yea, I also broke the 900 mark on my CD collection size. I think the 900th purchase was the new Bold discography. Good CD.

Currently listening to: Tears for Fears - "Greatest Hits"

Hipcast

Podcasting seems to be the hippest thing around these days. All the kids are jockin' it, as they say. Ever since Apple's iTunes put in official support, all the major media outlets are jumping on the Podcasting wagon. Combined with all the independent ones, I think iTunes lists over 3,000 of them.

Well, now you can add 2 more to the list. They are hosted by 2 of the regulars on my website's message board. One is done by Steve and the other is by Derek. You can subscribe to the RSS feeds at:

Steve: http://faustiancreations.com/stevespodcast/rss.xml
Derek: http://www.instrife.com/podcasts/derek/rss.xml

I even made a guest appearance tonight on Steve's #3 podcast. Check them out for some damn fine music.

La Marche de l'empereur

I went to see March of the Penguins today. There's just been so much hype about this movie; couldn't avoid seeing it basically. I saw a preview for it a while ago and was expecting some awesome visuals. Unfortunately, the best visuals were all shown in that preview and the rest were just so-so. Very good looking but did not blow me away. Surprisingly, the tale of the movie did. A little shy on actual facts but nonetheless very emotional. Highly recommended.

I've also updated the gallery with a bunch of stuff. Check it out.

Join the Hoopla

So, a lot has been going on lately. I finished assembling my computer. It's nothing new; I just changed the case, CPU heatsink, and fans. It is now totally silent (with the fans turned down to 7v). You can check it out, along with pictures of some near-by state parks, in the new gallery. I'll probably be adding lots of older pictures into the gallery soon.

I saw Bane last week with Evergreen Terrace. So-so performance but it was still fun. The Rilo Kiley show I saw a while ago was probably the best so far this summer. Bright Eyes was good, too. And also Dredg and Circa Survive. Some Girls and Cattle Decapitation are playing here in the next couple of weeks. I haven't seen either of those bands so I'm pretty excited about that.

I saw this pretty neat movie last week called Me and You and Everyone We Know. It's typical indie stuff but I still enjoyed it. Also watched Izoand Kikoku. Both Miike films but they both sorta sucked.

Currently listening to: Darkest Hour - ``Undoing Ruin''. This is some awesome metal. Check it out!

A Onelinedrawing is When You ...

I've been attending some concerts while I'm in the LA area. So far, they've all been at the Chain Reaction in Anaheim. A bit of a drive from here (~50 miles); yesterday, it took two hours during rush hour. But it was definitely worth it to see Jonah Matranga perform solo. Recently, I've lost touch with a lot of his music. But last night's show definitely brought back memories of highschool when I listened to Far almost constantly. He also played some classic Onelinedrawing stuff. I also really liked one of the openers, Monsters Are Waiting. Got an EP from them and listened to it nonstop today in my car.

I also saw Cult of Luna, Comeback Kid, Terror, Modern Life Is War, and some others at the Chain. Probably was most excited about Modern Life Is War; never seen them before, but I love their first album. Cult of Luna was also very good; apparently this was their first US tour (they're from Sweden).

In the next few weeks, I'll be seeing Bright Eyes, The Faint, Rilo Kiley, and ... Bane! I think Carry On is also playing their last shows in July with Champion somewhere. Maybe I'll goto that, too.

So Close to Hating Apple

So the other day I finally set aside some time to upgrade to Tiger on my Powerbook. I backed up all my personal stuff first. When it came to the iTunes folder, I figured I should be able to just download them again. So I promptly skipped it.

Fast forward to a day later when I tried to get all my iTunes purchases. After reading some tech support articles, it turns out that I can only download them once! Panic sets in. After checking through my order history, I had over $400 worth of purchases on there! I quickly sent an email to the iTunes people only to receive a canned answer that made me feel really, really mad. So I sent another email. This time, some wonderful support person was able to let me download them all again. Hooray! Long story short, backup your iTunes purchases.

Saw Star Wars last Thursday at Arclight Hollywood. Pretty good movie; although I felt the story was pretty shallow. But I guess there really isn't much freedom anyway since the ending is fixed.

I've been getting myself familiarized with the Valley. It's actually quite simple since everything is on a grid. In the mean time, here's a picture of my drive to work.

I've been noticing that in almost all my outdoor pictures (such as the one you see above), the sky is totally washed out. In reality, it was pretty blue. But this should be fixed once I get my polarizing filter.

Trek Across America

.. half of it, at least. This week, I'm making my journey from Central Illinois to Southern California. I'm gonna be interning this summer in Malibu, CA. Today I drove from Denver, CO to Cedar City, UT. Compared to the flat landscapes of Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska; I-70 and I-15 have some amazing scenery. Check out these two pictures I took on the way.

[Colorado]
[Colorado]

Driving playlist: new Weezer (it sorta sucks!), Team Sleep, new NIN (it's ok...), audiobook of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, new Xiu Xiu (meh), new Ulver (pretty good), and much much more!