Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Announcement.
Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London is, in the worlds of Charles Barkley, "turrhable."
Sunday, June 27, 2010
I'm the Orange M&M bub.
There has to be a product tie-in here. The Orange M&M must have an advanced healing factor and they're going to graft the talking pretzel onto his bones, or if he doesn't... there's some terrible experiments going on at Mars Candy HQ.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Don't worry
Not sure what the context of this is yet, but was interesting.
World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
That Good Hair is a Cop Out...??? (groan)
Might as well start up some movie reviews again.
Good Hair
Chris Rock's documentary on what it means to have good hair for a black woman, and what he can tell his daughters about it as they grow up, is a good rental but felt too light. While it hints at, and at times it's obvious what Rock's opinions are, say about spending at least a thousand dollars on a weave, he tends to try to let other people make the points. It's the right way to go for a documentary, but part of Rock's popularity, and his skill, is pointed commentary, and you wish there was more of it here.
The whole film feels like an outline of a full documentary. He hits all the bullet points, and there's some real insight, but never enough information. To the point where I never felt he really answered the questions he set out to answer, or maybe I wanted to find out.
He visits a factory to find out how hair relaxer is made, but we never get much information on how much damage the chemicals in a relaxer can have for a woman over the course of her life. He visits India to find where most of the hair for weaves comes from, but we don't find out what the exporting means to the Indian people who essentially (It seems but wasn't clear) donate it to the temple. He talks to a lot of black women, some who leave their hair "natural" and many who go through the weave or chemical process, but and this is probably my biggest issue, I never really got was why? Why do we ascribe differences in hair style to job ability, to personality, why would someone put such a dangerous chemical in their hair, etc.
What the documentary did do was make it clear how big an issue hair is for black culture in America, and how that's probably unclear to most of us. As exemplified by a large portion of the film focusing on the Bronner Brother's hair competition, the only logical conclusion of including it, being it shows just how serious the business of hair can be.
Cop Out
The baggage of being an indie director comes to the forefront for Kevin Smith with all the reviews and expectations for Cop Out. Originally titled "A Couple of Dicks", the studio requested the change because you can't advertise that title during prime-time television, and this change came to signify all that was "wrong" with Smith taking on a "studio" film.
Ugh, he gets to do what he wants people. There is no contract where he has to keep making films that a niche audience loves to death, but never tries to go beyond the niche. I'm going to speculate the shit out of things now, so stay tuned.
I read that one reason Smith took the film was because it was the type of film his father would have gone to see, and that is enough for him to try it. I also think the chance to work on something with a wider release, with a more "conventional" plot, and something he didn't write, was probably appealing. Why not. While reading things about "Zach and Miri make a porno", I remember him saying it was the first time he was trying to not just film his conversations, but really try to choose shots/setups that visually would add to the film. I see working on Cop Out as an extension of this want to try more things. Working from something you didn't write is a challenge, and requires learning or at least modifying your skill-set. So even though its a studio cop film with a wacky buddy cop pairing, lets not go on the hunt because Smith betrayed some unspoken ideal.
Onto the actual film. It was ok, if uneven.
Good Hair
Chris Rock's documentary on what it means to have good hair for a black woman, and what he can tell his daughters about it as they grow up, is a good rental but felt too light. While it hints at, and at times it's obvious what Rock's opinions are, say about spending at least a thousand dollars on a weave, he tends to try to let other people make the points. It's the right way to go for a documentary, but part of Rock's popularity, and his skill, is pointed commentary, and you wish there was more of it here.
The whole film feels like an outline of a full documentary. He hits all the bullet points, and there's some real insight, but never enough information. To the point where I never felt he really answered the questions he set out to answer, or maybe I wanted to find out.
He visits a factory to find out how hair relaxer is made, but we never get much information on how much damage the chemicals in a relaxer can have for a woman over the course of her life. He visits India to find where most of the hair for weaves comes from, but we don't find out what the exporting means to the Indian people who essentially (It seems but wasn't clear) donate it to the temple. He talks to a lot of black women, some who leave their hair "natural" and many who go through the weave or chemical process, but and this is probably my biggest issue, I never really got was why? Why do we ascribe differences in hair style to job ability, to personality, why would someone put such a dangerous chemical in their hair, etc.
What the documentary did do was make it clear how big an issue hair is for black culture in America, and how that's probably unclear to most of us. As exemplified by a large portion of the film focusing on the Bronner Brother's hair competition, the only logical conclusion of including it, being it shows just how serious the business of hair can be.
Cop Out
The baggage of being an indie director comes to the forefront for Kevin Smith with all the reviews and expectations for Cop Out. Originally titled "A Couple of Dicks", the studio requested the change because you can't advertise that title during prime-time television, and this change came to signify all that was "wrong" with Smith taking on a "studio" film.
Ugh, he gets to do what he wants people. There is no contract where he has to keep making films that a niche audience loves to death, but never tries to go beyond the niche. I'm going to speculate the shit out of things now, so stay tuned.
I read that one reason Smith took the film was because it was the type of film his father would have gone to see, and that is enough for him to try it. I also think the chance to work on something with a wider release, with a more "conventional" plot, and something he didn't write, was probably appealing. Why not. While reading things about "Zach and Miri make a porno", I remember him saying it was the first time he was trying to not just film his conversations, but really try to choose shots/setups that visually would add to the film. I see working on Cop Out as an extension of this want to try more things. Working from something you didn't write is a challenge, and requires learning or at least modifying your skill-set. So even though its a studio cop film with a wacky buddy cop pairing, lets not go on the hunt because Smith betrayed some unspoken ideal.
Onto the actual film. It was ok, if uneven.
By popular demand...
At the request of the Anonymous commenter from the previous post:
Courtesy of the internet.
Courtesy of the internet.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
Conebone69
It is just late night TV, and I'm sure thousands of blog posts sprang up overnight. But I have to say that Conan went out right on tone. Some insanity, some seriousness, and genuine emotion. He made it clear how much he loved the job, and further separated himself in this whole mess from Leno and NBC executives.
I hope he gets on TV soon, and gets his show back. I hope he can get most of his staff working, and I hope Andy Richter will be there too (Their back and forth was really taking form the last month or so).
If nothing else, I would pay to see Conan doing remotes, because when he was interacting with real people, he was at his best.
I hope he gets on TV soon, and gets his show back. I hope he can get most of his staff working, and I hope Andy Richter will be there too (Their back and forth was really taking form the last month or so).
If nothing else, I would pay to see Conan doing remotes, because when he was interacting with real people, he was at his best.
Monday, January 04, 2010
On Sociopaths in reality.
"This guy's got to be a serial killer... with a face like that, there's no way he can't get a date. What's he hiding in his house that a girl comes back and sees, and starts making excuses to leave..."
- My brother Joe while stumbling across the newest iteration of the Bachelor on ABC.
- My brother Joe while stumbling across the newest iteration of the Bachelor on ABC.
Second Verse Same As The First
I could just re-post the same song....
Hello Blog, I've missed you. For reminding me of the times I manage to sound coherent and witty, while simultaneously making me paranoid and without confidence.
As part of the Blog cycle for unpopular personal blogs, this is the "I should post more here, I forgot this was here" post, that comes every 7-15 months.
Are any of you out there.
Hello Blog, I've missed you. For reminding me of the times I manage to sound coherent and witty, while simultaneously making me paranoid and without confidence.
As part of the Blog cycle for unpopular personal blogs, this is the "I should post more here, I forgot this was here" post, that comes every 7-15 months.
Are any of you out there.
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