I seem to be posting more and more in my hate blog now. I hate it really, becasue I feel that I'm hiding somethings that I should talk about but afraid of the consequences. the fact is I feel more sad that the fact this blog was my expressive side of anything and everything personal about me, but like reality I made this blog a facade to show to people whereas my true feelings and thoughts lie elsewhere. i feel sort of pathetic that I have to hide somethings that people don't give a shit about...but hehehehehheheheheHAHHAHAHAH that's half the fun there as well.

Reflecting on.....the Nineties

I never remembered much of the 80's really. My friend Rob does, and he says he has a lot of pop culture information and information in general on what happened in the 80's but me personally I do not. The fact being, I can relate more to the 90's where I was more concious of my surroundings than the 80's where I was still a child.

It's just recently that I read a business magazine that used the term "the 90's" that we are well into the smack dab middle of the 2000 and that the 90's were last decade. And when I look to define it, it is somewhat hard. So much shit has gone through it, in terms of music, movies, comedy, tragedy etc. For music I felt it was apparently a pretty good decade only to be followed up with the inevitiable teeny bop era burn out near the end. Why did this come about? Economics baby. i mean fuck teens had money to spend and comps wanted it and the teeny bop era fed that craving.

I felt that the alternative music era was a great revival of rock in general and no matter how shitty some of the bands were, it was definately better than most of the shit that is coming out now (but thanks to bands like Coldplay and Sam Roberts, it makes me believe in music once again). i dont' remember many movies, because they've became more a part of me to associate with than a part of a decade to associate with.

Life in general was tulmultious and simple until the internet and now all this shit occupys my time. When i get back to school internet is out of my life doods, at least in my home. We all saw a war on TV and a changing of the guard for classic 80's shows to go into other shows. We saw a surge of new TV channels and made me think how could I live without those extra channels? But most importantly I remember that life was Ok I'll just shut the fuck up now.

Song Review of the Day

Sister Awake by The Tea Party

To tell the truth, this is really the first real song that I listended from TTP. I quite often gotten attatched the visuals that were in the music video because they were so archaic and almost border on the occult. Much like something out of a Hellraiser movie, but with David Lynch stylings.

Sister Awake was one of the band's staples of their live sets, if anything it's a must. From the Edges of Twilight (EoT) album it's basically one of the songs that stood out supremely, both as a single but more of as an anthem for TTP at the time of their release. If any song were to encompass what type of music TTP played, it would be this song. However due to the more melodic and electronic albums after their EoT release, I feel that it's no longer a way to properly bundle all of TTP's music into this one song.

However I digress. The matter being is that if I were to describe this song in one word...it would be epic. It's pretty massive for an average song clocking in over 6 minutes, it has a small intro comprising of a, what I would imagine, 12 string guitar and a wind/piano instrument of some sort. It eventually goes through a small instrumental bridge/solo with banging drums of Middle Eastern origin before leading into the bulk of the song.

The composition is great thereafter. A blend of Middle Eastern instruments and rock that leaves a smoky feeling in your mind, almost like a trudging through the depths of your psyche. The lyrics touch on religion and just the plain human condition, and unlike my previous review of Temptation this song is truly smart and lyrically sound.

Martin's voice really keeps a steady pace here, there's no drastic range changes in his vocals aside from the gentle step by step rise in intensity from the beginning to end. To tell the truth, the song could be percieved as slow, especially when I sing it to myself, but when you have so much going on in this song, that is a luxary you can afford.

The live potential differs from concert to concert. Recently Martin has adapted for a more agressive approach, no longer really "hissing" "Sister" in the music, but opted for a more loud bellow. This was greatly welcomed since it provided a balance of being more active in the concert setting. However it was even more recently that Martin decided to bellow out the second and third verse as opposed to his more gentle tone in earlier sessions. It's probably a wise choice in general to appeal more to the rock fans, but not to me since it then loses it's original appeal.

Personally I've been pretty much attatched to the Muchmusic's "Intimate and Interactve with TTP" as a peak for most of their songs they played there. It was a small setting for which they can play more to the original incarnation on CD with a beautiful guitar solo in the latter more rocking part. But it highly depends if they decided to go through with more rustic instruments or more electronic ones.

Sister Awake is a song that TTP can play with. Martin now seems to ad-lib a few things to "Awake the Sisters of the crowd" now, which
is good for him to come out of his proverbial shell.

The plus part is when he really does have fun, during the middle part where the guitar solo would usually be he might belt out a small cover of a song. Songs ranges from a guitar rendering of Paint it Black to Bowie's Heros, to even a few words from their other song Pulse. MM's Sand Job 2000 rendition was really really good on the part of playing Heros although poppy, very well done.

So personally aside from the fairly lack of originality now in playing the song I give Sister Awake

4.9/5.0 stars.

Daredevil Review

It's shit. I seriously gasped on how horrible the first fight scene tween Elektra and Bennifer was. Shit shit shit shit.

Pirates of the Carribean

It's The shit. Everything Daredevil was bad at, Pirates of the Carribean is great at. Johnny Depp rocks and Bennifer can suck horse cock and die.

Seabiscuit Review

Meh...it was good but no means great. The tearful scene in the beginning was tear jerking and the sound was beautiful, but what was great was the scenary.

Bringing down the House

Eugene Levy saying: You all got me twisted up in the game is good enough for renting..but not admission or admitting that you liked it.

Hulk Review *SPOILERS*

I’ve never really been a Hulk fan. Like many other people, the Hulk always seemed to be this comic book character that existed with not much thought given to him often. I mean for the actual character development of the Hulk, it seemed often quite a moot point since it all laid with Bruce Banner who’s “normalness” seemed boring. But with Hulk’s one track mind to “smash puny humans” with his great green might (and purple pants) that also seemed just as boring….after he fucked up a few cars that is.

The thing is with the Hulk, it’s often never about the “Hulk” per se. If anything what makes the Hulk interesting is very much like this foil to villains and characters; how things interact around with the Hulk. Granted the Hulk is a character upon himself, but his is so much more than that. He’s a product of a science project gone awry; an bundle of emotional nerves; a living traumatic experience and most of all a force of nature. I’ve been with the Hulk off and on, through his Mr. Fixit era, the “Hulkbuster” era, the “Maestro” era, the smart green era and now the very well done “Fugitive on the Run” era which pushes the envelope of story with like 99% Banner and 1% Hulk.

To outright start off, I didn’t like the actual movie. Almost nothing stirred me on an emotional level or a spiritual level except perhaps Gen. Ross’s exacting moustache. But the movie did stir me on an analytical level, experience level and a respect level. That is why I think this movie is very well the best “Comic Book” movie ever (The Matrix used to be, but now I categorize is as the best “Live Action Comic Book” Movie ever.)

Ok to start off right from the get go:

Comic paneling: A lot of people complained about this, but I thought it was perfect both as a time saving measure and as something else I’ll discuss later. I often see movies and comics as fairly similar mediums, especially in the way they present a visual story through extreme angles and shots. The thing is, I wondered what made ‘The Hulk” more of a comic than a film, and at first I thought it was because of the angles, how more “extreme” they were. But referring to the Matrix, that really isn’t the case since both mediums can use extreme angles. But what brought what made this movie more like a comic was memory and imagination.

Like films comics have different angles to tell the story and often share the same sense of “flow” when different scenes and angles are shot. However unlike movies, this “flow” isn’t in real-time, it’s merely implied; with our imagination filling in of what happened in between the panels. In most cases we have this residual memory of the last panel, sort of a starting point we use as a reference to go into transition to the next panel.

As these panels show up in the movie, I feel they instill that same type of residual memory, and effectively translating the comic book reading experience to celluloid.

What I also find interesting is that often on comic book pages is how sometimes a panel sticks to you, like a panel that sets the tone of the page. So when we see pictures that should have already pass time-wise, but instead stays constant while another panel goes on to other future actions, the movie sets the tone (without endless cutting back and forth) of the scene. This feature also maximizes the potential story telling and content while minimizing time and complexity. Brilliant.

Scenary: It was well used, especially the desert. I think that was especially well done because it really did emphasize the magnitude of how powerful and versatile the Hulk is. It also plays on the tagline of it being "freedom" and boucing around with the Hulk you realise that it is truly amazing on how "free" it could be. The "jokes" that were played out in the desert I think were great and subtle, just the comedy that I love and appreciate as opposed to comedy for comedy's sake.

The characters:

I would have to say that Gen. Ross is perhaps the best and complex character in the entire film. He’s not this rip-roaring person just shouting out orders to kill the Hulk, but really displays what Gen. Ross faces in the comics. It’s hard to say what character Sam Elliot is playing because in truth, it’s not about the fact that he’s “following” orders. As we can see, there is a deep rooted hate with the Banner line, which gives motivation for Ross to kill the Hulk as opposed to helping it. However I love how he rarely shows that anger, or any emotion for that matter.

The thing is Ross was being played as a person bound by duty but does not necessarily appreciate it. He seems mechanical in addressing problems but sincere at the same time. If anything I see Ross as this person who has his motivations, but more technical than militarily.

Betty Ross: I find a very interesting character because they explore with the idea that it’s not because banner turns into the Hulk that she cannot be with him, but what causes banner to turn into the hulk that she can’t be with him. Much like her dream was more of a premonition that in a time of emotional need, a time where she didn’t need to be alone that Banner might be caring, but in the end might cause more emotional damage and heartache than good which is oft the case in the Hulk Comics. I find it funny that it was the ultimate “bad relationship” when Betty said “Please give him a chance to calm down”.

Nick Nolte: My God it’s one of the best performances Nick Nolte has ever performed. Fuck man, the best thing is, he’s not even Nick Nolte in the film. His grey weathered old mad character was as spot on as Richard Harris with Dumbledore and Ian McKellan as Gandlaf. To tell the truth, this character was more dark and menancing as I ever say Nick Nolte. It’s very much like Keifer’s performance off of Dark city. Near the end it was amazing on how John Woo decided to tap into a bit of Shakespearean acting, with an almost monologue-esque performance by Nolte.

The machine that had both Banners was the stage and the darkness was perfect because it made it more “comic like” due to how the pure darkness and with only the light on the Banners made them appear on the black background clearly like many comics often do….even with a subtle outline.

Bruce banner: I think it was pretty dead on as this person who is pretty much devoid of emotion save for what he does. He truly does act as a person who has nothing of his past hidden by trauma and just has his work to deal. I swear that I saw a gleam of hope in his eyes at the end when everything came full circle and he learned of his past, like this certain amount of acceptance of not what he is, but relief of knowing what happened.

I don’t often hand out perfect scores, but in this case for being such a perfectly executed film (although it lacked in stirring me storywise) I gratefully award The Hulk

5/5 stars.

Takashi and Takeshi = Kickass Japanese film.

http://aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=15821

Dangerous wishes

Sometimes I wish I was obsessive. There seems to some sort of neat little artistic area in the world of obssession. A certain dedication to one aspect of life or mannerism where it just leaves it to be the amuesment of others and such. The thing is, after much reading, the facination with nutty people has started to grasp onto me. Granted the idea is still glossed with that "appeal" through the internet medium, a comfort zone purely for the fact I'm not in the same room with the person, it still intrigues me. A delve into obssesive compulsion for my own pleasure seems something suiting of me, yet still even a line I wouldn't cross.