This looks like it could be the next classic teen flick; it’s based on a novel by C.D. Payne, which is already a classic from what I hear. Check out both, I know I will.
Chris
Category Archives: Films
Random Thought Of the Day…
As we waltz our fat asses into another decade, I’m struck by the thought of how memorable or unmemorable not only this decade, but the previous decade has been. It’s a sad commentary when the first things that come to my mind are all classic mass hysteria: Columbine, 9/11, the Swine Flu Epidemic, etc. When we look back on the 90s and 00s I hope we are not simply remembering tragedies, facebook, and Kanye’s interruption at the Mtv awards. Fortunately, the underground (and to an extent the overground in the 90s) have given us some of the best Rock and Roll ever. But, still our generation seems to lack the cultural significance that previous generations championed. Just the other day, I was watching the Wedding Singer, which was released in 1997, but was set in 1985. I thought to myself, why hasn’t there been a movie released in this decade that takes place in the 90s? It’s really peculiar when you look at how quickly other decades got their due: American Graffiti was released in 1973 and set in 1962 (only 11 year difference) and Dazed and Confused was released in 1993 and takes place in 1976 (17 years). So, what does that say about our culture in the past 20 years or so? Is it so monotonous that it is not worthy of an era capturing film? Oh well, perhaps the next decade will be radical and/or there will be a feature film set in the 90s/00s as worthy as its nostalgic predecessors.
Chris
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Chris
My Christmas Must Sees
Films (in no particular order):
1) It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
2) A Christmas Carol (in any of it’s versions, specifically 1951. I usually attend the play, as I will be in two weeks. One of the few plays I enjoy seeing)
3) A Christmas Story (1983)
4) Home Alone (1990)
5) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989)
6) The Santa Claus (1994)
7) Edward Scissorhands (1990) (okay, so only towards the end of the film this is applicable, but for me it gets me in the mood)
8) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) (I suppose this is more apropos for Halloween)
9) Bad Santa (2003)
10) Die Hard (1988)
Tv:
1) The Simpsons- Most of their Christmas specials are worthy, but specifically, “Simpsons Roasting On An Open Fire” (1989)
2) South Park- Same deal as above, but especially “Mr. Hankey the Christmas Poo” (1997)
3) Family Guy- “A Very Special Family Guy Freakin’ Christmas” (2001)
4) At least one Johnny Cash Special
5) Dr.Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1964)
6) Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964)
7) Frosty The Snowman (1969)
8) It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas (2009)- Potentially Must See because the show is great, but I have not yet seen this special
9) A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)
10) SNL- various skits
Reading:
A Christmas Carol By:Charles Dickens (1843)
A Story A Day Till Christmas Various Authors (1985)
The Catcher in the Rye By: J.D. Salinger (1951)
I usually end up viewing only half of these! But, either way, I have a lot of work to do and I recommend others to watch/ read them too. I would recommend music, but that will take too long. I’ll save it for another day. To kick things off, here’s Adam Sandler in a classic SNL skit. It’s too bad that Youtube doesn’t have the actual video, oh well.
Chris
Chri$tmas
I love Christmas, plain and simple. It’s my favorite holiday. No, not for the sharing of joy, and spirit, not for celebrating some dude’s birthday (can’t remember the guy’s name), and certainly not for seeing some fat fuck lodge his holly, jolly ass in my chimney. No, rather, I adore all the little doo das that are packaged with this season. At first glance, y’all that know me, must be screaming to yourselves, “WTF?! WHAT HAS THIS WORLD COME TO?!” But, don’t bash your pathetic, worthless skulls through your computer screens, just yet. It’s not like I’m hawking Dr. Pepper *cough Mr. NWA. Mr. Dr. Dre. Gangsta* Anyway, I think if one carefully plucks out the good, the bad, and the ugly, you can still maintain some politico aficionado dignity. So, yeah I’m mostly anti-consumerism and anti-corporate, but I must say I have an affinity for the GOOD Christmas specials, films, songs, decorations, traditions, etc. that make Christmas Christmas, that is the commercialized Chri$tmas, not that guy’s birthday, whoever he was… So, like everything else in life, I have mastered the task of weeding out the bad and especially the ugly and preserving the good ( a must see Christmas list will appear as a future post). To wrap up (no pun intended lol) this little, somewhat aimless, rant, I’d like to mention that a major beef of mine about Christmas is the way it’s pushed on consumers sooo early. I for one, do not begin my Christmas splurge until the day after Thanksgiving, in which Christmas With Johnny Cash rocks into heavy rotation until the Twenty-Fifth of December. Anything before this is wayyyy too early. Satan’s little helpers market Christmas the day after Halloween, if not before then. Thanksgiving is merely a break between the jamming of Christmas down your throat, squirting out red and green blood under the mistletoe.
Chris
CD Review: Remember That I Love You
Artist: Kimya Dawson
Full Title: Remember That I Love You
Label: K Records
Year: 2006
1) Tire Swing*- 10.0- One of my top ten favorite songs of all time! Very powerful for such a simple song. The guitar is merely a few plinks on a guitar, really just background sounds to Kimya’s ever endearing vocals. The lyrics provide great images of riding back and forth on a tire swing and forgeting “everything that had ever hurt our feelings.” I listen to this song almost every day and I never get sick of it, either I am crazy or it’s that catchy; I think it’s both.
2) My Mom- 9.7- Not quite as uplifting as the premier track, but certainly shares it’s catchiness. There’s a nice little bell sound, perhaps it’s a xylephone? I have no clue, but I dig it. Once again passionate vocals from Kimya. Lyrically this number describes, wait for it… Kimya’s mom and her state of health: dying in a hospital bed, “and there’s something in her blood, and there’s something in her leg, and there’s something in her brain.” You really feel for her and her genuine concern for her ailing mother. She naively commands ghosts to stop haunting her mom, so she can get strong; this is sad and humuorous all at once, a microcosm of Kimya’s discography (at least what I have heard).
3) Loose Lips*- 9.5- A cool protest song of sorts. “Fuck Bush and Fuck this war.” I can picture peaceful anarchsits screaming this song in the streets and dancing around burning flags, trying to persuade bystanders to join them. And when the cops come, they simply will start up again and “pretend nothing ever happened” as the song proclaims. It’s a moldy peachy version of an early Against Me! track I suppose. A fantastic sing along, to say the least. The “dupe” (or doop) thing tickles my fancy quite a bit.
4) Caving In- 9.3- The theme of her mom’s deteriating health arises again amongst other scattering thoughts. There’s a cool eastern guitar (probably not, but sounds sorta like it) in this track. This is sound, but not as good as the three that preceeded it.
5) Better Weather-9.3- Catchy as most of her tracks. In terms of music, for Kimya, as I have said before and she, herself as claimed, it’s all about the vocals. Most of the music is the same, not to say she doesn’t have range. In this tune, she delves into fatherhood, specifically her brother, who is now successfully raising his child. Uplifting :)
6) Underground-9.3- I think of 1960s radicals when I hear this song lol. One of the funniest lines appears in this song: “So, I tattoo instructions on my ass that say don’t ever put this body in a casket.” Kills me every time. She stresses that she DOES NOT want to live underground and who does?
7) I Like Giants*- 9.1-Nice and simple and catchy, like the others. I don’t have too much to say about this track. It’s a solid recording. I will note though, that there seems to be more going on then just guitar, or it’s better guitar playing? I don’t know. That xylephone (?) is back too lol.
8) The Competition- 9.2- Postive track about being special and saying “fuck you, I’m awesome, I don’t care what you think.” At some points, you feel sorry for the, young, poor, Ms. Dawson. Like, when people used to call her “fat” and told her that “she was better off dead.” Assholes. Well, it motivated her to make great music, so she proved them wrong. Yippie!
9) France- 8.9- Decent track, but nothing really stands out here to me. Though, I adore the lines, “David put that seven inch on…” “he said silly ass bitch that’s my favorite song.” David, you showed that silly ass bitch! Since, you got your song.
10) I Miss You- 9.1- An extremely brief, but really catchy tune!
11) 12/26*- 9.4- One of the sadder tracks about a massive earthquake in Indonesia on December 26. 2004. She then delves into the Iraq War and how it’s impossible to understand what these victims go through: losing their families, homes, etc. “A tragedy is a tragedy, no matter where it happens.”
12) My Rollercoaster*- 9.5- A superb finale about the ups and downs of this wacky world. Another fabulous sing along, well towards the end anyway, when abunch of folks sing the chorous and it gets real silly, but that’s the point. Just every day folks making music with their friends. Which brings me to my next point, where she incorporates lyrics from other famous songs like Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” and ” Metalica’s “One.”
Overall, I highly recommend this “Outsider” album. I always appreciate ass kicking alternatives to traditional pop music. Remember that I LOVE YA!!! ;)
* appeared in the terrifc film Juno (2007)
Chris
Film Review: Paranormal Activity
Full Title: Paranormal Activity
Year: 2007 (just reaching mainstream theaters now)
Director: Oren Peli (debut)
Genre: Horror/Thriller
Length: 86 minutes
IMDb Rating: 7.2/10
My Rating: B
Here’s Why:
This is a solid movie, not quite as frightening as the over hyped media it’s received, but still worth watching. Basically, the premise is a young couple buys a spooky house suffering from a classic case of a haunting: whsipers, loud noises, objects moving on their own, such as a door closing randomly, amongst other unexplainable phenomema. So, the husband purchases a digital camera to document this “paranormal activity,” and thus you have your movie. The entire film is little house disturbances every night that keep building and building up becoming more and more unsettling until the jaw dropping (to an extent) finale. The movie is fairly slow and is pretty much a build up to the last ten minutes, much like old school horror flicks, a tactic rarely executed in modern horror cinema. Another tactic effectively employed by the director was the documentary style in which the movie is shot, giving the audience the impression they are viewing raw footage of actual events. The entire movie is the footage captured on the characters’ camera and it all takes place at their home, making the viewer feel as confined and claustraphobic as them.
Chris
I Am Busy…
I hate making these posts, but I use it more as a heads up for upcoming posts that I have not forgot about; it helps me remember to do them. I have some homework to attend to today and other duties. Yesterday I was out nearly all day. I have concert, cd, and film reviews on the way, and I’m sure others too. So stick around!
Yeah, I know some of my sentences ended in prepositions, but I DON’T GIVE A FUCK! (look out for the King Khan & BBQ Show concert review part II to Glen’s exciting review of their first Mass concert this week.)
Chris
Film Review: Zombieland
Full Title: Zombieland
Year: 2009
Director: Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, and Bill Murray
Running Time: 88 minutes
Rating: R
IMDb Rating: 8.2 ( #182 in the top 250)
My Rating: A- 9.0
Here’s Why:
Killing zombies, discovering new loved ones, and enjoying the simple things in life like a delicious twinkie! Who could ask for more? In a world run by the undead, what are you going to do anyway? Right? In this action packed Horror/Comedy flick, we learn how to survive a zombie world invasion and the seemingly harder task of creating a new family with the only humans left. This is being placed on my list for best of 2009. Don’t worry it is not knocking (500) Days of Summer or Inglourious Basterds out of their well desreved ranks. But, I strongly recommend everyone to journey to your local cinema and see this. The film masterfully keeps its viewers in suspense with humor, romance, and drama. I especially dug the narrator’s rules for surviving a zombie invasion. There were over thirty and if you wanted to live then you best follow them. Some included cardio, have to run fast from those bastards, the double tap: after shooting a zombie, shoot it again to make sure it’s dead, always checking the backseat, amongst others. Overall, this was a fun movie and a particularly great experience fore me because I saw it with a very lovely lady ;).
Chris
Sittin On My Ass, Be Creative Tomorrow…
I rarely do this and this is more of a reminder for myself, but I am using this post to let y’all know of two future entries I will be publishing. 1) Bo Burnham- Comedy Show Review. 2) Zombieland- Film Review. Almost 3) Australian Pink Floyd, but nooooo I had work and missed it! The world can be a cruel place sometimes… Anyway, you may be asking why are you not posting these reviews now? Well, frankly my deer I don’t give a dayemmm aka I’m too tired after work (actually not that bad, tho tiring) papers, and lack of sleep and I’d rather watch the second half of Malcolm X accompanied by some mouth watering chicken fingers and waffle fries. See you soon.
Chris
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 