just in case you were wondering... and a list

Iron Man = awesome. Yet another sign that the summer has arrived. Bring on the Crystal Skull:



Top 5 comic book hero movies (outside of Iron Man):

1. Superman II
2. Batman
3. Batman Begins
4. Spider Man 2
5. X-Men United

Top 5 worst comic book movies ever made:

1. Catwoman
2. Punisher
3. Batman and Robin
4. Ghost Rider
5. The Shadow

We were talking about how there are no good comic book heroine movies, probably because the genre faces the same issue that the WNBA deals with: trying to gain credibility while avoiding over-objectification. Good luck, Wonder Woman. Really, every female character outside of costume dramas deals with this.

Hurry up summer!

awesome

This picture is without a doubt the best thing I've seen in the past 72 hours. Courtesy of Jalopnik. Its power to render me speechless is impressive. It's also impossible to caption.

Starting Romeo and Juliet with the Squirrely Freshmen (TM), so went to Best Buy to pick up Baz Luhrmann's loved/hated/pooped on version with L.DiCaprio. Those are widely unavailable, as evidenced by its absence in new copies at Best Buy and Amazon. Oh well. It wasn't a fruitless trip, however, since I picked up the 1968 version of R+J and... Cloverfield. The nauseous shakiness is much more manageable on a small screen. Was tempted by Juno, but I'll wait for the price to drop a little.

I will now go crawl in a hole and wait for the year to end. Planning on going to California once the school year ends. Maybe up to Washington to staff a retreat. Still deciding.

detritus

This looks awesome. Say hello to Persepolis:



I want to go read the graphic novels this is based on. Speaking of which, Time has released their top 10 graphic novels for 2007.

It was a long and arduous day at the office (late starts are always like that), so I needed to veg out once I got home. Like, checking out my fantasy football team, which has managed to finish 2nd in my league, having the advantage of being chosen by a computer, and not by me. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know about fantasy sports. Sweet Lady Autopick grabbed me Tony Romo, although that's offset by also picking Johnsons, Larry and Rudi.

I've been tempted to play Football Manager 2008, but I've held off, waiting for the weekend. I've just downloaded the demo, so it only lets me play a season up to January, which, all things considering, is probably healthier for me.

thousand words

but all of them sum up to "Crap, he looks really OLD."

See more here and here.

I AM... SPARTA! I mean, BEOWULF!

Took in Beowulf last night, which is pretty much only worth seeing if you're going on the IMAX 3D, otherwise, there's not enough to keep you interested, even a "digitally enhanced" Angelina Jolie. Speaking of which, there were way too many little kids to be watching a movie with so much nakedness (real and implied). I'm all for making literature exciting, but... I don't need to see butts. Don't even get me started about the painstaking detail that must be delivered to make Beowulf's butt look realistic and believable. What is the conversation that has to happen? "Hey, I need you to tape these golf balls onto your heiny so we can get some motion capture. Ok, now run away from me!"

Entertaining as it is, I would have liked it more if it played more to the "indestructible monster angle" and less of the court intrigue. The animation is still very good, to the point where you forget that it's animated, until you get to a movement where they really haven't quite got the rendering right, like whenever a character rides a horse.

Max and I were talking about what other old stories could be taken as fodder for future movies (related to but different from the "What 80s cartoons should they turn into movies next?" conversation), and this was the short list:

• Jason and the Argonauts
• Perseus and Medusa (that being said, Clash of the Titans is in the works as a remake)
• Theseus and the Minotaur
• Hercules (although this could be crippled by the TV show and Disney cartoon)
• St. George killing the Dragon
• Custer's Last Stand (I'm sure this would be borderline offensive because of its historical inaccuracy and the lionizing of Custer, but they did make The Alamo)
• The Hobbit (obvious)

happy birthday jill

If anyone can give me a better understanding of the last 20 minutes of No Country for Old Men, I'd be very appreciative. Avoids a lot of cliche traps to provide some uniquely chilling moments. The very highest praise that a movie can earn is that it still has people thinking days after seeing it, and that's the case here. Something about morality, the inevitability of death, numbness, and ... a whole lot of something else. Hmm. I might have to go see it again.

Jill, #1 is "Song for Clay (Disappear Here)" by Bloc Party (4:49).
#2 is "The Heinrich Maneuver" by Interpol (3:28).

american gangstars

My favorite NFL highlight over the weekend:


Took in the much ballyhooed American Gangster on Saturday. I was hoping for something awesome along the lines of Heat, another cops and robbers story with two high voltage names sparring in the plotline until the final showdown. Both have much respect for Denzel and Russell Crowe for their ability to be captivating even if the rest of the movie stinks (i.e. Deja Vu).

I still think it's worth seeing, but there was something that stopped AG short of great, to just merely good. I read some review that said the filmmakers seemed a little too in love with the bad guy, played by Denzel. It's one thing to be intrigued by the heart of darkness in the villain, but I think my sense of justice wants somebody that evil to get some sort of comeuppance by the end, otherwise it feels like the evil is too glamorized.

But, I didn't like Heat, either, until after multiple viewings. AG is still worth watching, if you're into it. I think I might have enjoyed Gone Baby Gone or The Darjeeling Limited, more.

Top 5 Denzel movies I like better than AG:

1. Inside Man
2. Training Day
3. Crimson Tide
4. Malcolm X
5. Remember the Titans

glaring omission: The Hurricane. Never got around to this one. Boxing doesn't interest me. That whole slew of boxing movies just passed me by without a ripple.

Top 5 Russell Crowe movies I like more than AG:

1. L.A. Confidential
2. 3:10 to Yuma
3. Master and Commander
4. Gladiator
5. A Beautiful Mind

glaring omission: The Insider. Never got around to it, sorry. I think I'm more in the mood to watch it now than when it first came out. Political intrigue is more interesting to me now.

cinematique

Didn't get to see Jesse James yet, but indulged in some quality movie time with the boringly-named but awesomely directed Michael Clayton:



I realize when I watch movies like this, that I have a tendency of getting sucked in completely by the story, so I lose my third-person position of objectivity to analyze the story. Which left me thinking, "wait, so is he in the clear with his law firm?" when I left the theater. But, whatever. Some hard-earned self-reward at the end of a long day. I've found that a good way to get through the week (aside from lots of prayer and abandoning the outcome to God) is to have little rewards on the weekend. Like, friends coming in from out of town in the next few weekends, or movies, or watching football. Even though I'm tired, just catching up on sleep isn't enough to rejuvenate me; I need something for my mind to chew on that's not work-related.

plotting out the madness

One of the OCD things I do when I have too many things jumbled in my mind is to make lists. It doesn't even help me organize, it just smooths my nerves. Here goes:

I keep finding mechanical flaws in my setter as she delivers the ball. She's slow with her hands prior to the ball arriving, which means she rushes and ends up "flicking" at the ball instead of making a steady, even push with both. Her feet are off-balance when she sets, also, so that she's often on one foot when she delivers, which throws off the timing. I don't want to overload her mind with too much information, but she needs to make a consistent set about 90% of the time.

Why are the Puritans so dreadful to read about? *I* even fall asleep trying to grasp it. Jonathan Edwards is fun, though. You don't really read anything close to "angry" in public school literature anymore.

On the end of the American Lit pool that I like to wade in is Edgar Allan Poe, and "The Cask of Amontillado," which my frosh get to read this week. Unless they tell me that they've read it before. I tell them, too bad, you haven't read it with me. Muhahaha. Bricks and mortar, anybody?

I can hear my mother grinding vegetables and fruits into the juicer upstairs, which takes me back to a childhood full of mornings with carrot juice, because, well... I don't why. They told me to drink it, so I did. The grinding juicer sound still heebs me out, as does vegetable juice in general, which my V8 drinking coworkers take advantage of.

I'm in a rut with music and movies. The last few purchases have been up and down (Feist? Up. Interpol? Down.), and the impending Kanye/50 sales peeing contest is unappealing. Somebody rescue me. A Place to Bury Strangers? The National? Liars? C'mon guys. Thankfully, two fave actors open this coming week, so... I've got weekend plans. Woo!

on the runway

Been waiting around for, well, a lot of things. My brother to come home (that was yesterday, and he's all good). My teaching schedule. The last of our summer programs in Toronto (we'll drive up this weekend). The end of the summer, sadly. The beginning of the girls' volleyball season (I'm coaching?!).

But in the midst of the waiting, with a Cow living at our house, we checked out the Simpsons movie, which was still worth the non-stadium-seating, extra cheapo theater rate of $4.50.



Can't wait til Bourne Ultimatum this weekend. Woop!

emptying the notebook

I am stealing this quote from a baseball blog I read (and highly recommend) which stole it from an interview with author Philip Roth. Roth was speaking about the need for the modern reader to read books in some weird, alternative way (I blame the 21st century), as in, "what do these characters' names really MEAN?" Or "what does this tell me about the AUTHOR?" Mr. Roth says:

"It’s like baseball. Suppose you and I went up to the ballpark together and there's a guy next to us with his kid. And (the father) was saying, 'Now, what I want you to do is watch the scoreboard. Stop watching the field. Just watch what happens when the numbers change on the scoreboard. Isn't that great? Now do you see what just happened there? Did you see what happened? Why did that happen?'

"And you say, 'That guy is crazy.' But the kid imbibes it and he goes home and he's asked: 'How was the game?' And he says, 'Great! The scoreboard changed thirty-two times and Daddy said last game it changed only fourteen times and the home team last time changed more times than the other team. It was really great! We had hot dogs and we stood up at one point to stretch and we went home.'

"Is that politicizing the game? Is that theorizing the baseball game? No. It's not having the foggiest idea what baseball is."

True that, dawg.

Ambiguously Masculine Moment (TM): Durty and I, sitting on his couch, watching, laughing, ENJOYING "The Devil Wears Prada" on a slow Sunday night on TV. "This is great. I watched this with my sister. You should see the rest of it," says he. Hmm.

let me sing you a waltz

Just watched the very delightful "Paris Je T'aime." It's not as cheesy or "chick-flick" as one might expect. In my DVD collection, it'd be under "joie de vivre."



One of the taglines for the movie is "18 different stories by 18 of the most celebrated directors." Ok. How is Wes Craven one of those?

"i'm not leaving without Bumblebee"

Amidst all the hilariously bad dialogue and indifference to things like "scripts," the Transformers movie was a good time, totally worth $10 in the middle of the summer.

"Optimus Prime gets Prostate Cancer"



Top 10 fav Transformers (I mean the old-school ones, not the crappy permutations)

1. Optimus Prime
2. Soundwave
3. Grimlock
4. Devastator
5. Megatron
6. Prowl
7. Sunstreaker
8. Sideswipe
9. Brawn
   
10. Laserbeak

Top 10 cartoons from our childhood that will be made into movies (according to me, Moose, and Young Patrick):

1. He-Man (no, we're forgetting the Dolph Lundgren version ever existed)
2. Robotech
3. JEM (truly outrageous)
4. M.A.S.K. - you forgot about it? Well, it was vehicles that turned into... other vehicles. With guns attached.
   
   
5. Thundercats (obvious)
   
6. She-Ra, if they showed it right after He-Man, like they did in real life. She-Ra's pretty much like the WNBA, the bastardized, more boring counterpart to a more popular product.
   
7. GI Joe. Oh yeah.
8. Centurions - we couldn't remember if this was really a cartoon, or just a toy.
   
9. C.O.P.S. - what's with acronyms that aren't really acronyms?
   
10. Captain Power - only if we get to shoot at the screen with those infrared toy guns.
    

cowboys

Nothing quites makes praying feel more efficacious than when someone is dying. You tend to pay more attention to words that you normally gloss over.

Saw the new trailer for "3:10 to Yuma" a cowboy flick with Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.



Which looks just as good, if not better, than Crowe's other cowboy movie, the lesser known but surprisingly watchable "The Quick and the Dead" (1995).



My top 10 cowboy movies of all time? Cowboy movies seem to have died off, for the time being.

1. The Magnificent Seven - You can't really lose with Yul Brynner, can you?
2. Tombstone - James hated it when I kept saying every quote every time we watched this.
3. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - with the seminal cowboy soundtrack of all time.
4. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
5. Pale Rider
6. Unforgiven
7. High Plains Drifter
8. The Outlaw Josey Wales - I'm more of a Clint Eastwood guy than a John Wayne guy.
9. Rio Bravo
10. Shane

The last "cowboy" movie of note is "Brokeback Mountain," which I think is indicative of the genre being a little stale. Really hasn't been very many, let alone good, cowboy movies lately. "The Missing?" "Open Range?" "Shanghai Noon?" The nice thing about "3:10" is that it looks like it'll stay within the boundaries of the genre, namely, dudes with funny hats, six shooters, mustaches, horses, whiskey.

i need something to do

... because Mass and praying the liturgy of the hours, does not take all day. Still waiting on assignments from school as to what I'll be teaching next year, which spells out having a lot of free time on my hands. I'll admit, I've wasted a bit catching up on my crappy baseball team (on which I will not spend any of the money I don't have), going to the library to nap, sleeping in all the rooms of the house again because my room still feels too weird, burning DVDs of the photos we took on the tour (3+ GBs worth), and watching youtube vids of Premier League soccer, which just ended. To those of you who don't know, meet Dimitar Berbatov:



Anyway. I think I need to chew some more on the nubs of the little writing assignments I left off. The Poker story. The Project. Maybe a travelogue of what we did for 4 months, for posterity's sake. Or maybe I'll put it off and go watch the next installment of Sequel Summer, which allegedly has been getting better reviews than some of the previous installments:

keeping a promise to caroline

...because I said that I would mention the folk artist that I ran into down in Ponchatoula.

Let me back up.

First, a few friends and I had been told about this hermitish folk artist, a painter, who happened to live in the same town we were staying, by someone who caught us admiring some of the art that was hanging up on the wall.

His name is Bill Hemmerling, and he's quite a treat to talk to. He was nice enough to chat with us for about an hour and a half, show us around his studio, talk about God, life, and art (to me, which I will forever remember and appreciate. He encouraged me to write as much as possible, and to find that place in myself to be original, because there's no point in being somebody else telling somebody else's story. Thanks Bill).

His painting have something soulful and beautiful, a fullness that isn't necessarily apparent from the surface. Some people, I hear, dislike the faceless quality of the figures (almost always of black people) that he paints, but he says he has them remain faceless because he wants to represent a kind of universality. The universality being the dignity, the grace, and the beauty of people, especially black people.


He has a series of paintings with the same figure, called "Sweet Olive." She is long, lean, and graceful, and Bill says he paints her that way because growing up, he saw that black people had always been represented in negative ways, so he wanted to paint them in a way that was beautiful, in some sort of classical way.

Bill himself is very gentle, calm, childlike. Despite his humble appearance, he is articulate, sympathetic, aware of the world. His publicist handles the sales, freeing him to paint and live his solitary lifestyle. He paints, feeds his dog and his cat, meets with people who like his paintings, hanging in the back gallery of a furniture store. Who knew you could find this stuff in a small town in Louisiana?

I almost, rashly, put some money down on one of his originals, which would definitely have put me in some kind of ridiculous financial hole, but... it sure felt like it'd be worth it, before I came to my senses. Maybe, just maybe, I can have one of those hanging on my wall one day, now that it looks like I'll be able to support myself.

Also, Blades of Glory? Totally ridiculous.

flags + letters

Last week, saw Flags of Our Fathers in the second run theater nearby (can't beat $2 for a movie), then saw its (not sequel) companion? Counterpart? in Letters from Iwo Jima yesterday.

I don't remember an instance where two movies that came out in a very short space of time showed two sides of the same event, so that, and the war stuff, got my attention. Neither of the films is really pro-American or pro-Japanese (or anti-, either). Like most poignant war films, the point was more about the universal suffering that goes on regardless of political or ethnic affiliations in armed conflicts, including the moral ambiguity, the homesickness, the red tape that can rears its head at the most inopportune times, and the camaraderie. The treatment never felt sentimental, or pretentious, or unnecessarily glorifying of the hero ethic. It hit the emotional notes just right.

Flags of Our Fathers:


Letters from Iwo Jima:


Taking Sunday for the west coast, warm weather, the ocean, and getting ready for retreats. Here we go.

treasure

This sucks, I thought. Got to the theater late from dinner, so there weren't very many seats available except for front and right-under-the-screen center. I was staring down the barrel of creaky neck and movie motion sickness right off the bat. Plus, in the trailer, director Alfonso Cuaron is heralded for being the director of Y Tu Mama Tambien and, ahem, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Say what you want, but that's not something I put on my resume when trying to sell a movie about a Macchiavellian future.

For all of the relentless bleak outlook on the future, Children of Men still celebrates and values that which is most precious: life. It does it in a way that isn't necessarily predictable or overly sentimental, but still, without a doubt, shows what is most important, and I don't have to traverse some iffy moral territory to agree with that. And I didn't puke from all the handheld shots.

things i learned over the weekend

In teacher school, being a "lifelong learner" was always emphasized as something necessary to maintain a positive attitude toward the industry and students (although at the same time, it was an unwritten rule that this sort of canned answer was not very welcome in interviews).

So, in the interest of continuing education at the school of life, here is what was on the curriculum over the weekend:

Caroline collects her toenails when they fall off. To answer your questions, yes, it's happened more than once, and yes, it happened right in front of me. And yes, she will drive to come and pick it up if you just "happen" to find it on the floor, you know, just in passing.

Trying to think of gifts for under-2 yr olds is not easy. I mean, sooner or later, I will run out of books from my childhood to get for my goddaughter. Mike Mulligan and your Steam Shovel, you're up next.

Stranger Than Fiction is well worth two hours out of my life, and I will probably sacrifice two more hours at some point to it again. Just on a gut reaction level, I haven't watched a film in a long time where I felt I could relate to so many of the characters. Harold, because, well everyone is lonely at some point. Karen, because I have similar writing-induced neuroses. Professor Hilbert, because I would love to be that kind of oddly scholarly sage. And of course, the whole thing is about writing a book and how it's so strangely yet uniquely tied to sacrificing a part of your life (which is the way writers see it, usually).

movie time over the holiday time

One of my coworkers was telling me about the habit she and her husband have gotten into on Saturday mornings, which is to go and see a matinee show at the Barrington AMC. Ever since that conversation, I've gone from seeing one movie over the summer to seeing four in the last month.

The Departed is a great mobster movie, and the main thing from it, aside from Jack Nicholson's ridiculous performance, is whether Matt Damon and Leonardo DiCaprio are becoming Scorsese's new DeNiro and Pacino. This is further underscored, probably unintentionally, in Damon's next film, The Good Shepherd, which includes DeNiro. Which is funny, because I had a hard time remembering Damon in any of his characters, aside from being the non-descript, nice white guy, the only time he broke the mold being Will Hunting.

Borat can be summed up in one sentence: "My mustache still smells like your testes." I was surprised that it actually had some semblance of a coherent storyline, and creatively skewered Baptists, frat boys, and southerners.

The next day I parked myself to see Casino Royale, which I was really hoping would be good, because the Bond franchise has been treading water, mostly due to crappy scripts. I didn't mind Pierce Brosnan, but Daniel Craig has a physical violence to him that makes up for any lack of social polish. There was some spy stuff, there was a twisty plot, and the Bond trademarks at the right moments with the right touch. Highly entertaining. The poker scenes are totally ludicrous, however.

Just got back from watching Deja Vu. Denzel makes it a lot more believable than it should be, with all the time shifting hocus pocus, and I don't buy the love story, but heck it's Denzel, and if it's ok with him, then it's ok with the audience.

On the docket for the weekend: football, grading, shopping, Stranger than Fiction, The Prestige.