(Amanda)
I'm still netflix-slogging my way through Gilmore Girls. I'd heard that it sorta lost people towards the end and, dammit, it's loosing me. I'm gonna stick with it ~ I have 1 1/2 seasons left (6 and 7), and I obviously want to see what happens with all the characters, and I still get excited when I get new disks, and I still get excited when they reference Super Furry Animals or Buffy, BUT ...
I DON'T LIKE RORY. And I think the show assumes that you like Rory. She's turned into a mega-bitch. I think I'm suffering the Ugly Betty syndrome. I watched Ugly Betty for most of the first season and, dammit, even though I grew to like some of the sub-characters and plots, I just hated hated hated Betty. And it made it really hard to watch, knowing the the show liked her.
Also ~ Gilmore Girls is too wrapped up in rich people for me. It's just not fun to watch lots of wealth if there's no normal people to counter it all. For a while there were the rich grandparents and a bunch of normal people. But the show keeps veering towards the wealthy AND Rory is obnoxious AND I still support the show and think it's GOOD, but I'll be excited when I'm finished with it and I can move onto season two of Big Love ~ a freakin' brilliant show with no flaws that need forgiving.

(Amanda)
I was sick most of the week and spent a solid three days in bed. For whatever reason, I ended up watching a bunch of movies I've owned for a long time, have been excited about from the beginning, but have never watched. I rarely actually watch full-length movies, and having so many hours to kill while barely moving made this a prime movie-watching health event. Why I finally felt the need to watch these movies I've been putting off (often because I'm so excited about them I never feel like the moment is perfect enough) ~ well, who knows. Here's a list, though I might be forgetting some ...

Elephant
This Film is Not Yet Rated
Z Channel ~ A Magnificent Obsession
The Secret Lives of Dentists
Brick

Elephant
I had been strongly warned that this movie was incredibly disturbing, so I suppose I went into it with a purposefully blackened heart. It was definitely disturbing, and it did make me cry (though, to be fair, so did that great VW bug commercial of 2002), but I found it much easier to take than I expected. AND ~ wowzers, what an amazing film! Gus Van Sant, director of many famous flicks, managed to entirely surprise me with some enchanting creativity. This film is basically about a school shooting, Columbine-style. Most of the film ~ well, all of the film, is made up of extremely long tracking shots of students going about their mundane days. We follow, maybe, a dozen characters through long, surprisingly low key, shots as they wind their way through the halls, darkrooms, playing fields, cafeteria, and on and on ~ having brief or long interactions with their friends and classmates. Does that sound boring? Because it's absolutely not. I often find extreme realism to be the most fascinating TV or movie material (hmmm, that's why the first season of Friday Night Lights is so good I can hardly handle it). For filmmakers to capture something that is truly realistic and familiar ~ that's apparently rare enough that when you really see realism, it's goosebump-inducing.
Anyway ~ Elephant ~ a truly unique and spectacular movie.

I'll keep the rest of these short...

This Film is Not Yet Rated
A very great documentary about the messed up movie ratings system. Really entertaining, funny, interesting, and maddening. Good combo, no?

Z Channel ~ A Magnificent Obsession
Another fantastic documentary. Anyone interested in film should absolutely watch this. It's about the obsessive programmer for an 80's LA cable channel. Aside from the Murder/Suicide/Mental illness drama, this movie is just filled with Love-For-Good-Filmness. It makes any film buff even more excited to be what they are. And what are we? Film buffs! Embrace it! Watch this movie, people!

The Secret Lives of Dentists
This was given to me by a friend (and by friend, of course, I mean a middle aged gay meth-head from Connecticut I met once and bonded with instantly) ~ I mainly watched it so I could say I'd watched it. It was quite good, though it's kind of one of those random very-indie dramas that doesn't seem entirely necessary. But, no, it's really good. Filled with essential indie actors. Interesting look at a family going through things. That sort of movie. But, again, very high quality. And enjoyable.

Brick
That strapping young chap from 3rd Rock from the Sun, Joseph Gordon-Levitt(?), is in a lot of fantastic movies these days. Pretty much reliably fantastic, a movie with this guy in it. Brick was on lots of critics 'Best of 200?' lists and, man, what a curious film. It takes place in a modern high school, but it's a straight up film noir. Like, with this fast pulpy talk, the standard characters, all that. It's really pretty spectacular! Imagine Shakespeare dialogue dumped into a SoCal High School setting. Kinda like that, but, you know, the Noir version.

And ... post!

(Amanda)
Magnet's top 20 albums of 2007:
#20-#4 : stuff.

#3 ~ Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Yes. It's FANTASTIC.
#2 ~ New Pornographers Challenger
Yes. It's FANTASTIC.

#1 ~ WEEN ~ LA CUCARACHA
That's right, Peter Eash-Scott. Ween. Best of the year. Music snobs agree. I REALLY want to include the entire pro-Ween-a-thon right here, but I will resist. Here's a random bit that I much liked : 'We must ponder the Ween essence : the uniquely brown elements (outlandish genre exercises, eye-popping instrumental virtuosity, crude-yet-undeniable humor) that set each new, twisted piece of work apart from those before it.' and 'La Cucaracha's crowning achievement is the sexy soul of closer "Your Party," which immerses the listener in a resplendent world of tri-color pastas, succulent carved meats, candy and spices. You can almost feel the shag carpet under your feet and the hash coursing through your lungs as Gene sings, "We had the best time at your party/ The wife and I thank you very much"...'
I include that last bit because 'Your Party' is freakin' awesome and hilarious and this little spiel captures the ridiculousness of it all.

(Debby)

DUDE! Amanda! Guess what DVD was at the video store the other day? DARK CITY! Man, it’s been so long! William Hurt playing the accordion! Rufus Sewell not being very convinced about the movie he’s in! Kiefer Sutherland channelling Peter Lore! Is awesome. And what with fancy DVD technology, there are added extras…including…a full length movie commentary by ROGER EBERT! I can see why you like him so much – it’s just very interesting to listen to his commentary, what with him picking up on themes and talking about editing styles, genres of film, past movies, etc. Are you going to watch Dark City in your science fiction class?

(Debby) I was sick for a week

Once in high school when I was sick for a week I read Cancer Ward, a Solzhenitsyn book that was totally over my head I’m sure, and succeeded in completely wrapping me up in a blanket of Sickness and Paranoia, despite not having cancer or being a Soviet bureaucrat. This time around I read science fiction & Proust. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

Dune – Frank Herbert - Yep, Dune. Done read it. Interesting if one is interested in geography and political ecology, since it all hinges on the idea that a people’s physical environment shapes their culture and religion. Hence, desert planet Arrakis leads to people with a tightly controlled society revolving around very tight conservation of water, a tight hold on the grievances in their history, and very good fighting skills.

So it was good. I can’t say I enjoyed it, but that probably has more to do with the timing – I was reading it in between bouts of throwing up and having very convincing visions of how Graca Machel and I could save Kenya (all I remember is that it involved my thighs, but not in a sexual way).

I would like Dune less if this was the only kind of science fiction out there – if Ursula LeGuin and Madeleine L’Engle weren’t in my universe, I think I would get a lot more annoyed with books like Dune. Dune is not particularly sexist; it’s just very, very male.

Ilium – Dan Simmons

Yeah, is okay, but not nearly as good as the Hyperion/Endymion series. But overall it was an enjoyable sickbed read. I liked when the organic robots talked about reading Proust.

Swann in Love – Marcel Proust

At some point in Combray, Proust talks about the invalid in the depth of the nights, seeing a glimmer of light under the door and having hope lift within him, believing that dawn has come and that night is over, only to have the servant with his candle pass by the door, leaving him in back in the dark, dreadful night. I thought about that a lot the night of the onsight of my illness, and it was comforting to think that I was experiencing a universal misery. (now I can’t find the passage, so apologies if I’m remembering it wrong)

Well, after making a big ol’ deal about how great Proust is, I’m a bit tired of him. The second part of the first book of Volume One, Swann in Love, charts Swann’s fall into love and then the tortures of jealousy, etc. I think we can say that it rather exhaustively explores sexual jealousy, with a comic tone, but nonetheless, I ran out of enthusiasm for the subject about a third of the way before Swann did.

But I’m still excited for the next section – let’s see where it goes and whether it delves into something other aspect of human life. For now, this library book is overdue so I need to return it before checking it out again.

(Debby)
I still think I read more novels than you watch movies, Amanda. You probably watch more TV than I read periodicals and newspapers (is that a fair comparison? Movies=novels; TV=periodicals and serial novels? Probably, in these days of TV shows on DVD, that is not fair. But what is a better comparison?)
And speaking of movies, I think I've seen Forbidden Planet. Isn't Leslie Nielson (is that how it is spelled? Canadian? Naked Gun movies?) the captain in it? I saw it back in the heady days when I stayed with my brother and his family, and they got the Science Fiction channel. Not much bad to say about the Science Fiction channel...except for all the bad science fiction, and weren't they somehow responsible for Dune 2000?
Speaking of which, I started Dune, the book, again. I read/skimmed the first three books of the very, very long Dune series a long time ago (college? high school?), and it didn't do anything for me. But of course i love Dune the movie. And the problem with loving Dune the movie is that for whatever reason it sure does seem like the only other people in the world who love Dune the movie are people who love Dune the book, and then they tend to say things like "Dune 2000 was more faithful to the novel," which may be true, but totally bypasses the point that the only purpose Dune 2000 serves is to highlight how awesome the original Dune movie is.
Anyways, I'm giving the books a try again because my friend John, who I highly respect and who was willing to watch the extended version of the original Dune with me (while Julia alternately slept on the couch and was miserable. Sorry, again, Julia) and who did, in fact, say that Dune 2000 was more faithful but at least was willing to agree with me that it was lifeless and insipid, John recommends the Dune books.

But I have to admit, I have been side-tracked by Proust again. Checked the first volume of In Search of Lost Time out of the library again (No, I hadn't finished it last time. Got through Combray, which is possibly the most beautiful piece of writing ever, and was all satiated (is that the word? filled up?)). So now I'm on Swann in Love, also great, although I think I liked Combray more.
Hold on, I need to get up on a soapbox.

People....PROUST IS NOT INACCESSIBLE OR HIGHLY ACADEMIC - at least, not the english translation i'm reading - IT IS JUST SIMPLY GORGEOUS AND YOU WILL WANT TO WRAP YOURSELF UP IN IT.

There. Now I've made my point(s).
Recap:
- What are the proper print counterparts to movies & TV? I'm not sure
- Forbidden Planet was highly entertaining
- Dune 2000 was terrible, and not even entertainingly terrible, and I apologize to everyone who I cajolled into watching it (or at least parts of it) in the year 2001 (I think you were still in Scotland, Amanda, so you escaped seeing the one kid from Part of 5 play the 'evil' Feyid Harkonnen.)
- Proust: why was I always intimidated? Are you? Don't be! Is all good.

(Debby)
Here are some books I read in December (lots of plane rides) but didn't get around to writing about.

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Is awesome. The book’s cover is full of praises by prominent people, in which the book is described as ‘hilarious’ and ‘comic’, etc. I don’t know about that. But it is a really great story, told really perfectly.

The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins – Eh. I didn’t finish it. Somehow a let down, coming right after The Moonstone, which is totally and utterly awesome. Sometimes a book written in the 1800s totally rocks the 1800s and surprises me with 'modern' sensibilities and has a great sense of humor not like the 1900s or the 2000s. And then sometimes a book written in the 1800s is just kind of boring and wrapped up in its own sensibilties.

Underground – Haruki Murakami – The first non-fiction book I’ve read by Murakami. About the underground sarin gas attacks in Japan. Highly recommended.

The Body (short stories) – Hanif Kureishi – The problem is that I read this right after The Moonstone, and I felt strongly afterwards that I was better off sticking with pre-modern life lit. But to be fair, short stories always put me in a weird head space. And short stories that are extremely good at conveying a sense of modern alienation makes that weird head space even more uncomfortable. Kureishi wrote the screenplay for My Beautiful Launderette and wrote the play Borderlines, and did lots more stuff, but those are the only two I know anything about.

The White Castle – Orhan Pamuk – I’m pretty sure I didn’t get this book. The whole East/West interaction and self/other whatevering. But it was still awesome. I do like a book that I don’t get but still like to read. Anyways, it was Pamuk. He just writes so well. Turkey! I wanna go.

The Stone Virgins – Yvonne Vera - A tragic, beautiful book, following 2 sisters during liberation and in the post-independence chaos of Zimbabwe. Utterly compelling, utterly devastating.

I started a Dorothy L Parker book (which I had bought at full price! FULL PRICE!) and then left it on the plane to Lisbon. Sigh. It was good, as always.

(Amanda)
Just watched a Gilmore Girls. Usually the score is so twee I can hardly stomach it ('la la la, la la la la la'), but this episode was the inevitable Spring-Break-in-Florida entry which inspired some actual soundtracking. Beyond the actual Shins (yay) in concert followed by a New Pornographers (YAY!!!) song, the opening to the 'check out these crazy kids, ain't nobody tellin' them what to do and, golly, they're going batshit insane!' scene featured an entire Ween song! WEEN, debby, WEEN!!!
On, and I also finished up with my watching of the This American Life TV show. Every episode brings me to tears (just like the radio show) ~ what a bundle of perfection. Even if I wasn't painfully in love with Ira Glass, I'd STILL be punched in the gut with each show's spectacularity.

(Amanda)
Yo Debby. How dare you claim you read more than I watch. I promise you there's No Way.
Last night was the second new episode of Lost this season. The show has taken some crazy-ass turns and I'm loving it. I watch with an enthusiastic group of 9 ~ up until last week our Lost-viewings were catching up on the first three seasons and I was already ahead of them all. It's GREAT fun watching new ones with a group ~ being stunned together, trying to process the insanity together.
Lost = flawless/genius storytelling. I just deleted a long rant that is better summed up by that last sentence.
And ... post!

(Amanda)
Yup, we will be watching Blade Runner in April. I'm embarrassed to say I've never really seen it ~ aside from that one time in Scottdale ~ but I was cutting out New Yorker pictures and that certainly can't count as a viewing.
Last night we saw Forbidden Planet, a great '56 flick that was all revolutionary-like with its character design (Robby the Robot, an iconic sci-fi lad who showed up in many future shows and films), excellent sets, and the first-ever entirely electronic score. It was also the introduction of the theremin to film. I love me some theremin.

Debby, leave me alone. I'm also not convinced that I can handle the 'aren't small town folk quirky!?!?!' of Gilmore Girls. DESPITE that, it's a great show, but because of that, it will never be a great show. There you go, that last sentence will be my print-legacy someday.

I just got started on a genuinely-fantastic-in-every-way show, Big Love. It's yet another perfect HBO show ~ this one's about a polygamous family. It's got a killer cast (Bill Paxton, Chloe Sevigny, Jeanne Tripplehorn, a couple of the Veronica Mars [wooh!] kids), a completely fascinating scenario, great characters, perfectly executed.

I have to go write a short paper for my horror class. I'm gonna try to impress my very British professor with a mind-blowingly brilliant 2-3 pages on the transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London. This is the first step in my very clever scheme that will, hopefully, result in him being on my committee. A Brit horror expert ~ yes, please.

(Debby)

Books to Movies and Back Again

Bad Book to Great Movie

As mentioned earlier, probably the worst book to be made into a truly great movie would be The Children of Men.

Great Book to Great Movie

Holes – by Louis Sachar. Man, that book is the bomb-diggity. And the movie? They just do it so right.

A Movie I Always Loved and a Book I Never Could Find

Hey Amanda, are you going to watch Bladerunner in your science fiction film class? Bladerunner. My favorite my-asthma-has-gotten-bad-and-i-need-to-breathe-on-the-nebulizer movie. I have watched Bladerunner in a slightly oxygen-starved state so many times, and it was always good. I’ve also watched it since my asthma is better controlled, and I still love it. When I went to Bangkok, my first time in Asia, all I could think as I walked down the street that first day was THIS LOOKS LIKE THE SET OF BLADERUNNER! BANGKOK IS THE FUTURE! I can’t believe I’m in Bangkok and all I can relate it to is Bladerunner. OH MAN, THIS TOTALLY LOOKS LIKE BLADERUNNER!!!

I knew that the movie was based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, a pulp science fiction author. I looked for that book for over a decade. Along the way, I found a few collections of short stories – they were really, really disturbing.

Did I say that he was a really, really good pulp science fiction author? He was. He churned out amazing visions of the future – he created new realities and then explored all the aspects of mundane life within them. He created internally consistent universes. Oh, yes, that’s right – internally consistent universes.

So, there I was, in the Heathrow Airport, on my way back from the States to Kenya, feeling fairly exhausted and sorry for myself, and I finally found it – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – for way too much money, and in sterling pounds, too. I bought it, and I read it, and it was awesome. More awesome than Bladerunner. That’s right – more awesome than Bladerunner. The plot is more awesomer, the world is more fascinatingly messed up, the characters are…awesome.. I don’t…I don’t even know what else to say.