Life is a State of Mind

I’ve just started watching Generation Kill on HBO (time delayed on my PVR). Right off it feels pretty much right; I was never a Marine, but I’ve worked with Marines, Army, and Navy when I was in the Air Force and people really talk and act this way. I am not very far into it, but it has promise.

Update: Now that is freaking surreal, one of the Marine snipers chants “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo” as he shoots an enemy RPG team, it happens about 45 minutes into the second episode.

Original, beautiful, riveting. You want to see this work of art on the big screen. Many thanks to shalmestere for tipping us off to the existence of the film. We made a night of it with Curry n Kabob (Indian) food, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, and then two hours of sitting in air-conditioned theatre to escape the heat and humidity. It is still beastly outside at 10:30pm! The frogs are singing.

We saw an asphaltisaurus in Herndon on the way home, a live one, busy going “Nom, nom, nom, nom” on the street. It’s eyes glowed and it would have been terrifying except that it was clearly a tame and trained one, with trainers in the street before it and behind. We had no time to fetch a camera, but there is a picture a dormant one in daylight:

I am kind of intrigued by the upcoming: Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Undead which should appeal to Sutragirl as a vampire story and appeals to me because I loved the original “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead” and the whole play within a play within a play thing (which reminds me of Being John Malkovich today).

The music seems interesting - even if the trailer looks like a typical T&A movie.

Hat tip to prehensile_wit for mentioning the forthcoming flick on her LJ.

Was not feeling well enough to go dancing tonight, and needed a night home with Erci anyway. We tried out the new Apple TV take 2 software and rented Stardust. It started playing about 50 seconds after we picked it and selected it. We enjoyed the movie, and the instant gratification was pretty cool.

Until this I had been a little disappointed in the take 2 version of our Apple TV, which I mostly got to watch internet content on my big screen. I can still watch internet content fine, but the additional layer of menus because of all the new options makes it a little tougher to get to my Terra and Rocketboom. I think it is worth it for effective video rental on demand. Video quality was very good, even in standard definition, and I liked the closed captioning which helped me with names of characters and quiet dialogue.

I finally broke down and bought the expensive original soundtrack and score to the movie Donnie Darko. I selected the British import version of the CDs because it has all the classical music and the ’80s pop that was remastered specifically for the movie and gave it such a haunting edge. The variation to Michael Andrews’ “Mad World” song is worth the expensive price of the double disc set all by itself. You can get “Mad World” elsewhere (Tears for Fears did the most popular version), but I like this version best of all.

If you are curious about it, you can hear the 30 second samples for free on iTunes Music Store (fire up iTunes, which is free for Mac and Windows, go to the iTunes Music Store, search for “Mad World”). Several versions come up, and they are all good (I have the Tears for Fears version on CD too). Something about the quieter, slower version by Gary Jules and Michael Andrews is the most hauntingly beautiful though… decide for yourself.

BTW; if you have not seen Donnie Darko the movie, and wrote it off (as I did) as another silly teen flick, give it a chance. It is mind-twisting Sci-Fi set inside an ’80s teen flick… awesome. Really twisted in much the same way Body Heat, Eternal Sunshine, Memento, Body Double, The Crying Game, and other films are. You might have to watch it three times to catch on to all the time loop paradoxes. Thank you very much to those friends who insisted I get by the silly teen reputation and watch this film (yes, it’s a film, not a movie). Oh yes, and it stars a very young and handsome Jake Gyllenhaal and has his super-sexy sister Maggie in a bit part as his sister too. Lots of eye-candy.

Last night Erci was finally in the mood for a film, so we sat down to watch Cidade de Deus (aka: City of God) which has been on our to be seen pile from Netflix for months (eeks; not enough time for movies!?). In a word: Wow!

Warning: this film is not for minors in any sense, ever. It is a graphic depiction of life and death in the “Cidade de Deus (City of God).. housing project built in the 1960’s that–in the early 80’s–became one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro.” (quote from IMDB’s plot summary). Excellent and thought provoking film, but also shocking violence and language.

One quote that kept floating back into my head afterwards, from the documentary that accompanies the film a police officer says: “we (the police) are the only state agency that sets foot in the favelas, the only agency with any presence at all there” - and that, if it is accurate, explains it all. If greater society does not value it’s poor, it’s youth, it’s people; those people will not value themselves. Where is society’s great equalizer: solid public education? The kids growing up in the favelas have no hope because their country does not even invest in them.

The reviewers on IMDB have done a much better job that I can of reviewing this awesome film, but I give it another endorsement and want people to think about the impact of walling themselves off from the poor and forgetting about them. As American’s jump into suburb-enclaves (burbclaves in the language of Neal Stephenson), and try to cut their tax burden by ignoring and cutting off programs for the poor; I wish they would at least think on the possible results of their own selfish actions. One possibility is the kind of violence we see in Cidade de Deus.

Yesterday Erci accompanied me over to Atelier de la Charrette to help Bob and Peter, Winterbadger, and Bryan test a game of “VSF: Actions at Parroom Station” before Bob goes to Historicon to expose more steam punk fans and miniatures gamers to the allure of the Martian landscape. We arrived a little bit late and had to run Japanese and Prussian units along with Bryan’s Americans against a rebellion in Parroom Station itself, where Peter and Winterbadger were running insurgent royals and the rebel mob of Martian city dwellers.

Losses were atrocious, but the Imperial Earthmen barely managed to regain control of the city. An early indicator of how rough the action would be was Winterbadger’s brilliantly concealed gun taking out my entire unit of Japanese regulars with a single shot in the first turn of the game!

Note to self, charging into insurgent cities in flying column formation is perhaps a little impetuous and rash… It was a lot of fun.

We learned to make a few tweaks to the game scenario I think, and it was a pretty game. We took lots of pictures so Bob could post them online at Parroom Station when he gets time.

If you like gaming with miniatures and steam punk, or just want to see more Parroom Station, try catching Bob at Historicon next weekend in Lancaster, PA, where an example game will be run. If you can’t make it to the convention, check out Parroom Station online.

All the Victorian SciFi action left us tired and hungry so we headed over to Herndon’s Worldgate for Charlie Chang’s yummy buffet & BBQ, then caught “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” with B&L. It was not as good as the first movie, but still lots of fun and a nice action-packed yarn. Stay through the closing credits if you go to see it, there is a silly surprise at the end.

Thanks goes to Alice Marshall for pointing out that Adam Curtis’s fascinating BBC documentary “The Power of Nightmares” is now available on google video.

This documentary was first broadcast on BBC Two in the Fall of 2004. Later, it was adapted to a single 2.5 hour film for the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. Now anyone can watch it on google video, and it is very much worth the effort.

This documentary will challenge you to think carefully about the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the parallel rise to power of the neo-conservatives in America. It brings to light the infiltration of the traditional Republican party by the neo-conservatives and their overthrow of Kissinger and other pragmatists like him.

It is three sessions at an hour each, so it takes a while to download. I opened the links in different windows, and let them download overnight and watched later.

I recommend watching with a notepad handy, this will really make you think and want to do more research for yourself.

Three one hour episodes are available: Part 1 - Baby It’s Cold Outside Part 2 - The Phantom Victory Part 3 - The Shadows in the Cave

I am pleasantly surprised that Aeon Flux turned out to be pretty good. Pleasant, fun, and fast; a decent adaptation with surprisingly good dialogue. Marton Csokas really shines as Trevor Goodchild, and both Charlize Theron (Aeon Flux) and Sophie Okonedo (Sithandra) are very watch-able throughout the flick. Plenty of eye-candy for the tight-fitting clothing fans, and just enough special effects and stunt work (ok, perhaps a little too much), but not overwhelming.

Erci’s one complaint is that it was not as dark as the MTV Anime series, and I’d have to agree. They may have put too much effort into trying to maintain the Anime feel to it (the colors lacked depth and subtlety in tones - just like a comic book, just like the MTV series). One thing I did not like about the MTV series - was how waif thin everyone was - and that mostly remains the same in the movie. The movie actually has a plot (something the series mostly didn’t) and perhaps a message about nature versus human control, maybe. The real gem is Mr. Csokas’ acting though - I know I have seen his face before but am having trouble placing it. Perhaps it was The Bourne Supremacy or The Fellowship of the Ring, though he was not a major character in either. Worth a matinee price.

This long Thanksgiving weekend has held both Erci and I house bound with colds, so we have been very domestic, cleaning, watching movies and shows off the Dishplayer, and catching up on kitty-play time with Bailey the cat and ferret chasing time with Leonardo.

Spanglish good clean fun. I have been wanting to catch this for ages, and it finally came up on HBO and got captured on the Displayer for viewing. I normally do not like Adam Sandler, but he managed another decent role here, and Paz Vega is amazing as Flor.

Brother Sun, Sister Moon looks to be beautiful, but our Netflix copy was scratched on arrival (that does not happen very often, only about three out of 60 discs so far), and it had to go back only partially viewed. It looks to be beautifully shot depiction of Francis of Assisi. though some of the costumes look a little anachronistic.

Rome (the HBO and BBC series) is really shaping up to be awesome. The physical settings, clothing, and material goods are 95% spot on dead accurate, which is astonishing for a mainstream production. I guess having so many great living history groups in England is really helping producers get this stuff right finally. There are some occasionally glaring anachronisms, but they are few and far between (stirrups!?). The show is making a point of graphically portraying a society with social morals very different from our own, and I love that about it. There have been scenes with full frontal male nudity, and scenes were servants and slaves of the great magnates of Rome stand by ready to serve their masters while their master have passionate intercourse. The raunchier side of Rome is show perhaps a bit too much, but I think they may be catering to a demand from their audience. I confess I was slow to warm up to this series because I saw it as bumping Carnivale off the air (grrr!) - but I have to confess Rome probably has much wider appeal.

24 was playing all day on Friday, and it is quite riveting, I was getting hooked by the end of the day. I totally missed this when it was in it’s first run, but wow the acting is great (though I saw several continuity and logic flaws that I’d probably have not noticed except for the all day marathon nature of my viewing them). Great stuff, I may have to find season two someday when I am home sick.

Donnie Darko - WOW! I cannot believe I missed this in on screen or even in the first rental runs of the DVDs. My SciFi buddies who saw it let me down by not making me go see this awesome causal time loop adventure. Stunning, beautiful, and artistic the way Dark City is, but far more intellectually engaging. If you have not see it, go rent Donnie Darko now. If you liked Being John Malkovich or Memento or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, you will like Donnie Darko too. Thanks very much Katrina for raving about Donnie Darko, I would not have seen it but for your recommendation.