30 Years Ago Today

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 10:41:02 AM

30 years ago, I was a freshman in high school. on Monday morning December 9th, 1980my clock radio clicked on and I heard for the first time, “Our fife together is so precious together, We have grown - we have grown” It was the first lines to “(Just Like) Starting Over,” the first single from Double Fantasy John Lennon first album of new material in five years.

My older brothers and sisters had left a pile of Beatles' 45's as a testament to their appreciation to the lads from Liverpool. There had always been the idea of John, Paul, George and Ringo in our house. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was one of the first albums I bought (along with Joe Walsh's But Seriously Folks). Taking it home and listening to it put flesh and blood to that idea that I had known the Beatles all my life.

At age fifteen, John Lennon was only a former Beatle to me, I knew almost nothing of his work after the Beatles broke up.  On December 9, 1980, my joy at learning that John Lennon was still making music turned to sadness and horror as the details of his murder by a mentally ill young man became known. Stalked, hunted, and shot in the lobby his home, The Dakota, in New York City the previous night, Lennon's murder was irony at its cruelest to the excitement he sang about in that first single.

A nurse and I were talkng yesterday about him; she wondered where he would be if hje hadn't died.  I was thinking that world would be a better, less scary place if he were still with us. I thought of some of the things he had said:  "Imagine there's no countries,   Nothing to kill or die for,"  "Give peace a chance,"  "There's nothing you can make that can't be made, No one you can save that can't be saved, Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you in time- It's easy..."

All we need is love.

Thursday, December 9, 2010 05:31:32 PM

Enter the Void

Thursday, December 2, 2010 08:29 PM

Not being able to sleep can make me crazier than I already am.  I used to feel trapped by my  thoughts, imprisoned in my head.  And there be monsters in there.  Watching movies has been helpful at escaping, and writing has been even more effective.    Recently, I found myself thinking, “What better film to view in the predawn morning than Gaspar Noe's latest film, Enter the Void?"  I had been hearing about this movie that seemed to be more of a psychedelic journey than anything else for over a year and had been looking forward to watching it.

To say the movie is visually stunning is an understatement-it is amazingly trippy. Tokyo turns into a neon glowing fantasy world.  The line between what was shot with camera and what was computer generated graphics is so thin that the viewer is constantly off guard, trying to keep up with the sifting and changing scenery.

Oscar's hallucination

The story is told from the point of view of Oscar, a young American living in Tokyo with Linda, his sister. For most of the movie, the camera acts as his eyes, complete with blinking. He spends most of the film under the influence of powerful hallucinogens.  The sequence where he smokes DMT, a powerful hallucinogen,  is beautiful and eerie . The colors, shapes and lights swirl hypnotically, creating a constantly changing womb like galaxy.

Oscar needs to pull himself back when the phone rings, leaving little, dancing sparkles flitting about his periphery. That brought back some memories! After watching something transform into something new, then having to focus, there would often be little remainders of the dancing transformations, tendrils of light rising off the corners of a mouth, concentric lines like the age rings of a tree around their faces, still objects come to life as they breathed, growing and shrinking.  Colors would be brighter and the air would filled with glowing embers. A good computer generated approximation is the Electric Sheep Screensaver.

Oscar goes into the night

The night turns into a
 glowing, fantasy land

As Oscar and his friend, Alex go out later that night, Alex explains what happens to the soul after death, according to the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The dead rise up like ghosts and can see and hear what goes on in this plane of existence, but are unable to interact with it. Then they relive their lives, and can either move on the a higher level, or if they are too attached to move on, they stay here watching until eventually being reincarnated.

Alex's summation is useful for the viewer in understanding what happens in the rest of the movie. Oscar and the viewer go on that journey; we both look down on his memories and the present, stirred together in a confusing mixture. Oscar watches how his friends and sister struggle with the impact of his death from his ceiling vantage point, passing through walls and across the night sky. Occasionally he floats down, closely observing their lives. Sometimes what he witnesses is real, sometimes surreal. At one point, his soul travels through a Love Motel and observes the couples having sex. Phallic shaped glow sticks replace men's penises, and white, ectoplasmic smoke drifts out of the women's genitals.

In a memory, Oscar and Linda walk
through an already psychedelic Tokyo night

Always bewildering and maze like, Enter the Void is occasionally difficult watch. Linda spends so much of the film in hysterics that I found myself rooting for the sleeping pills when she attempted suicide.

Sometimes the best thing to be said about a movie is the illusion of motion, produced by a rapidly projected series of still images and that is certainly true with Enter the Void. I found myself completely immersed by the artistry and beauty as Oscar's night passed.  The last time I experienced anything as stunning was watching a sunset from a mountain top in Vermont; the colors became so intense they made their own sounds, filling the air around with light and music until the sun disappeared below the horizon, leaving me to find my way home in the dark.

Sunday, December 5, 2010 08:33 PM

HP 5

Thursday, December 2, 2010 12:00 PM

NB: The film version of the seventh and final Harry Potter book,  Harry Potter and the Something something, part one,  has opened and I feel duty bound to watch  it.   In preparation for the final film chapters of the Harry Potter Saga, I will watch the six previous films and write about the experience.  There will beSPOILERS !
The fifth Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix doesn't make too many big changes in the wizarding world.  Voldemort's power continues to grow, the students at Hogwarts arre divided between loyalty to Dumbledore and aleigence to Voldemort.  

Bellatrix Lestrange

Female characters are often under=developed in the Hrary Potter films.  Despite being Harry's companion since the beginning, Hermione Granger is a mystery. And aside from casting an occasional spell or helping brew a potion, she mostly rolls her eyes and “harrumph-ing” at her male companions. She was born of two muggle parents and respected for her intelligence, 

Even arch villain, Bellatrix Lestrange is given little to do except kill Sirius in the final battle.

A major exception is Dolores Umbridge, the new Defense Against the Dark Arts instructor From the Ministry of Magic. Her public face is a sweet, elementary school teacher in pink. In private, she twitches and quivers with secret passions and ambitions. Stephan King called her “ greatest make-believe villain to come along since Hannibal Lecter....” 

Shortly after arriving at Hogwarts she begins to insinuate herself into it administration, eventually replacing Dumbledore as headmaster and turning the school into a totalitarian state, with her installed as chief despot.

Once installed as headmistress, she rules the staff and students of Hogwarts with an iron fist, using her position with the Ministry of Magic to bully and coerce staff and her powers as a witch to subject the students to painful tortures and illegal drugs for interrogation.ses.

She is last seen being dragged off into the woods by a herd of angry centaurs. I hope to see more of this conniving, unconscionable villain. Things are much more interesting when she is around.

Saturday, December 4, 2010 03:00 PM

Insomniac Theater Presents Previews of Coming Attractions

Saturday, December 4, 2010, 6:06 AM

I've been awake for over 24 hours, the longest I've been conscious without special circumstances such as intense pain or intense pleasure. I know my heart is racing without using instruments to check it, my breathing is shallow and my skin is layered in a thin rime of cold perspiration. It is still full dark and I try to convince myself that there is no movement out there beyond the range of the porch lights.

I am at my weakest now, and I clutch my talisman, praying that dawn will come and bring salvation to me for one more day.

In the meantime, I will continue to work on my future posts; the one on Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void is nearly done.  The Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix  one has to be finished soon because I watched  Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince  last night so I need to organize my thoughts on that film before I can see the latest HP film.

Then there are the ones from New Orleans,  Salt v. Machete, if I can read my hand written notes, and the personal one about the going through airport security in a wheel chair.

The dogs are barking, something is approaching the perimeter; where is Commander Adams?

Harry Potter and the fall from Grace

Monday, November 29, 2010, 11:16am

NB: The film version of the seventh and final Harry Potter book,  Harry Potter and the Something something, part one,  has opened and I feel duty bound to watch  it.   In preparation for the final film chapters of the Harry Potter Saga, I will watch the six previous films and write about the experience.  There will be SPOILERS !

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, (2005, directed by Mike Newell) , the fourth installment of the Harry Potter franchise, is the darkest so far in the series. Several references to Biblical stories and characters add gravity to the story allowing comparison between events in the wizarding world and mankind's fall and pursuit of grace.

The muggle world doesn't make more than a cameo appearance, beginning with Harry already in the wizarding world. He f irst appears, waking up fr om a troubling dream, in the home of his magical, adoptive family, the Weasleys.

Like his twin from the Bible, Voldemort
brings evil to the wizarding world

Harry's dreams show Voldemort 's efforts to regain his power. Like a messianic figure , Voldemort wants to return to flesh and lead his followers to victory, bringing his apocalypse.Once reborn, his countenance resembles a large snake head.

Lord Voldemort's minions, known as Death Eaters, bear the Dark Mark. The Dark Mark closely resembles the Mark of Cain, placed on Cain by God for murdering Able, his brother. The Mark of Cain served two purposes; to signal Cain's cursed status and as a warning that no one could kill him, he was God's alone.

The senseless killing of Hogwarts student, Cedric Diggery at the film's climax, mirrors the first post-lapsarian sin of murder. By unwittingly helping resurrect Voldemort, Harry has brought about the fall of the peaceful wizarding world. When he brings Cedric's body back to Hogwarts, yelling that Voldemort had fully returned, he is announcing the fall of the wizarding world from its graceful state. The evil he sought to escape in the muggle world and had fought so hard to prevent in the wizarding world has been unleashed.

Ron, Harry, and Hermione ponder their future

Rule 34 picture

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire ends with Harry and his friends preparing themselves mentally for the new, darker world that is being born.