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xylemicarious
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Name: Starts with 'H,'
Country: Moldova
Metro: Chisinau
Gender: Male
Interests: A.C. Newman, Animal Collective, Annie, Apples in Stereo, Architecture in Helsinki, The Beatles, Belle & Sebastian, Blonde Redhead, Broken Social Scene, Castanets, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Decemberists, Deerhoof, Devendra Banhart, The Fiery Furnaces, Franz Ferdinand, The Go! Team, Iron & Wine, anything Jason Molina touches, Johnny Cash, The Magnetic Fields, The Microphones, The Mountain Goats, Neil Young, Neutral Milk Hotel, The New Pornographers, Of Montreal, Olivia Tremor Control, Pavement, Pink Floyd, Pixies, The Shins, Sigur Ros, The Smiths, Sonic Youth, Sufjan Stevens, The Unicorns, The Velvet Underground, The Walkmen, Wolf Parade, Xiu Xiu, Yo La Tengo
Expertise: Lacking expertises.
Occupation: Fake cheese maker.
Industry: Foods.
Message: message me
AIM:  Xylemicarious
Member Since:
11/1/2003
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| ...Are fucking amazing. I wrote a giant ass journal about it on last.fm.
The important bits:
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| So, since I was sad about Kurt Vonnegut dying I picked up a copy of Breafast of Champions. Apparently not one of his better book, he didn't even rate it very highly himself, but I loved it. Total classic Vonnegut, dark, dry, hilarious and random as all hell. Plus, Vonnegut himself plays a role in the story as the creator of all of the characters. It's pretty awesome stuff.
I'm pretty sad he died, but I still think it's not the worst thing to have ever happened or anything; he was old, he had a good life (Most people don't write loads of awesome books and become famous in their own time), and he didn't seem too happy in this world anyway. He will be missed though.
But yeah, not having AP Lit has really given me some time to read stuff I actually want to read. I was bored of Kingdom Hearts 2 so I went and bought A dirty Job by Christopher Moore. I'm about a third of the way through and loving it. It's very Woody Allen/Terry Pratchett/Douglas Adams-esque and is ridiculously hilarious. I deifnitely need to check out more of his stuff.
And since I haven't talked about music in a while, and I just got an album that relates to books, I shall bring that up. The Tragic Treasury by The Gothic Archies. It's an album based on A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket. It's pretty dman cool as well, as expected from Stephin Merritt, the man who brought you The Magnetic Fields. But yeah, I like the idea of the album and it has some pretty fricking awesome songs. Some of them are better than others, but whatever
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| Well, I'm about a week late on this one, but still, better late than never, right? Anyway, Grindhouse. AMAZING. I have to say that my expectations for this movie were ridiculously high, so high that I was worried that the movie would fall insanely flat. WRONG. It blew any crazy expectations I had out of the water. It's certianly at least as good as Children of Men; they both gave me similar reactions, although in almost entirely opposite ways (Children of Men gave the ache of inner sadness and angst, Grindhouse made me laugh so hard that I cramped up).
So, why is it so damn good? First off, it's the most hilarious movie I have seen since I first watched Dr. Strangelove, which is saying something. Everything from the missing reels to the bad film to the fucking go-go dancer with a machine gun leg was fucking hilarious. Honestly, people who didn't laugh during this movie SUCK. Yeah, you SUCK. Admittedly, it's insanely violent, but that's why it's so funny. Zombies being chopped up by helicopter blades is funny shit, just admit it.
Still, Planet Terror was better. Death Proof was too slow, even though I like how the slowness in the beginning made the ending so much better. Also, while Planet Terror really LOOKS like a crappy celluloid film feel form the 70's, Death Proof just doesn't. Any weird film crackles that were added later are few and far between and looked very out of place. Also, Death Proof just felt like Pulp Fiction, maybe not in terms of plot, but certinaly in terms of style. Robert Rodriguez isn't nailed down by his style, which in the end makes him insanely more versatile. Still, I liked Death Proof a lot too. and the fake trailers were genius. I still think my favorite was Werewolf Women of the S.S. with Nicholas Cage as Fu Manchu though. That one had me close to rolling in the aisles.
So if you think you should wait for it to come out on DVD- DON'T!
And if you think it will be stupid- DON'T!
P.S.: Andrew Bird rocks my socks.
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| I saw Black Snake Moan yesterday, which I thought was quite good. Not amazing, but good. Actualyl, one of the parts of the movie that was really good was the soundtrack. Awesome blues for the entire thing. It was pretty rad. But yeah, I liked it. It dragged a bit, but no so much that it was annoying. Also of note was that during this movie we got kicked out of the theatre because there was a fire scare. apparently some popcorn caught on fire or something. We came back later after we got some coffee and watched the rest. That was fun.
After that, we came back to my place and watched Babel. Which was really very good. Mrs. Clark was smoking crack or something, because it definitely wasn't heavy handed with its message. I've seen movies that were, and this one wasn't. The direction was awesome, and it had some really amazing performances. I've decided Rinko Kikuchi should have gotten best supporting actress, because she was awesome. I think most of my favorite parts of the movie were hers. The direction for some of the scenes were aweosme, as expected from the guy who did 21 Grams (Another movie everybody should go see). So, I really liked it.
Then we watched Pi. Which was really weird. Unsurprising, since Darren Aronofsky is quite experimental. Ultra high contrast black and white 8mm with a bunch of weird ass shit going on. But still awesome, since it's Aronofsky. God, I love that guy. He's defnitely a total weirdo though. This movie was quite lynchian, with unexplained weirdness, and lots of creepy shit going down.
That's it for movies I guess. On an unrelated note, some of the B-sides for The Crane Wife are better than some of the songs on the actual album.
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| Yeah, it's that time of year again. Time for good old Harpy to harp on the decisions he thought were bogus (That's 'stupid bullshit' for all you young folk out there) and to wordily espouse the decisions he thought admirable. Anyway, here's my list.
first off, I need to talk about children of Men. It should have won every award. It was only nominated for 3. that made me angry. It didn't win any. That REALLY made me angry. The point is, I'm only going to talk about the ones that were nominated. Because Children of Men was the best movie of the decade and should have won every award I am about to mention. Except, of course, the ones it's not eligible for (It's not a documentary or in a foreign language).
Best documentary
Winner: An Inconvenient Truth
Who should've won: An Inconvenient Truth
I also really enjoyed Deliver Us From Evil and Jesus Camp, but ultimately, this one was more important, even if it DID basically make out with Al Gore. Sloppily. It wasn't really tasteful. Should've been given an R for brown nosing throughout. But the power point is quite interesting.
Best foreign language film
Winner: The Lives of Others
Who should've won: Pan's Labyrinth
Honestly, there are people more pissed off about this than I am. I hear The Lives of Others is really good. I'm more or less just saying Pan's Labyrinth because it's the one I saw. It was good, but not as mind numbingly brilliant as some seem to think. It was good, but just normal good; I've seen many movies as good. I will say that it managed to pull of the whole magical realism aspect with not too much effort; I usually hate magical realism, but Pan's did it quite nicely.
Best Animated Film
Winner: Happy Feet
Who should've won: Monster House
This isn't going to a praise of Monster House, although I liked it quite a bit. But honestly, HAPPY FEET??? Another fucking movie about talking penguins, great. Honestly, I couldn't give less of a shit. God, fucking penguins. If they make another one, I might just have to choke a bitch.
Best visual effects
Winner: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Who should've won: Superman
Just because it was a better movie? I thought the visual effects were impressive in both, but superman had some really insanely realistic human faces, which was pretty cool. I don't know, I don't really care much either way.
Best makeup
Winner: Pan's Labyrinth
Who should've won: Pan's Labyrinth
Totally pzwned the competition here. Honestly.
Best original song
Winner: Melissa Etheridge- I Need to Wake Up
Who should've won: Melissa Etheridge- I Need to Wake Up
Take that Dreamgirls! Having 3 out of the 5 slots isn't everything. Yay for underdogs.
Best original score
Winner: Babel (Gustavo Santaolalla)
Who should've won: Notes on a Scandal (Philip Glass) or Pan's Labyrinth (Javier Navarrete)
Come on guys, Gustavo already won one. The Pan's score is awesome and catchy. Who doesn't have the theme stuck in there head right now? How about now that I mentioned it? Yeah, that's right. And Philip Glass... What can you say about him except that he's amazing beyond words?
Best costume design
Winner: Marie Antoinette
Who should've won: Marie Antoinette
This was a really good movie, despite stupid critics' opinions, and it had really amazing costumes. Extravagant and crazy, and pretty impressive. Glad this one won, I wasn't exactly expecting it to.
Best art direction
Winner: Pan's Labyrinth
Who should've won: Pan's Labyrinth
The only one that comes close is The Prestige, but this one was just a bit more impressive. All the crazy magical realism stuff makes for some cool arty sets and such. Prestige is still a better movie though. I understand why they nominated it, for sure; the light bulbs in the field... Awesome stuff, that.
Best editing
Winner: The Departed
Who should've won: Children of Men
COME ON. How, I ask, was The Departed's editing any better than Children of Men's? Children of Men had noticeably good editing, which is rare. It helped make the movie as good and as insanely intense as it was. God damn it academy, stop shafting amazing movies.
Best cinematography
Winner: Pan's Labyrinth
Who should've won: Children of Men
Tree wipes WON??? Ahhhhh!!!! Honestly, I love Pan's, but it has no right to win this. It has nice cinematography, but it's not even in the same league as the others on the list. Still, even out of the four that are much better than Pan's, Children of Men is the clear winner. Holy fuck, I can't over emphasize how good that movie is. It's one of the very few movies that really affected me. Damn you academy!! Damn you!!!
Best adapted screenplay
Winner: The Departed
Who should've won: Children of Men
Come on, you know why. Departed=great. Children of Men=Life Changing. Two guesses which one has the better script.
Best original screenplay
Winner: Little Miss Sunshine
Who should've won: Little Miss Sunshine
Funniest movie of the year. Very very glad that it got this. Who else would it have gone to? Honestly.
Best director
Winner: Martin Scorcese for The Departed
Who should've won: Martin Scorcese for The Departed
This is one that is long over due for him. The Departed wasn't the best movie ever, but he's definitely the best director out of this year's bunch. But, uh, Alfonso Cuaron should've won. I mean, come on.
Best supporting actress
Winner: Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls
Who should've won: Abigail Breslin for Little Miss Sunshine
No real stand outs this year, but come on. Abigail is sooooooo cute. And she'd probably be the youngest person to get it. Which would've been sweet. Plus, this movie needed way more love than it got. Little Miss Sunshine is the shit.
Best supporting actor
Winner: Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine
Who should've won: Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine
Who the hell thought Eddie Murphy was going to win? He sucks ass. Alan Arkin, on the other hand, is awesome. He gave an amazingly funny movie its funniest moments. He deserved this one sooooo bad. It didn't surprise me at all that he won.
Best actress
Winner: Helen Mirren for The Queen
Who should've won: Helen Mirren for The Queen
Nobody who I'm drooling over, so I'm down with this lady. I hear she was good, I'll trust the critics for once.
Best actor
Winner: Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland
Who should've won: Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland
This guy ROCKS. So hard. Although I would've been down with Ryan Gosling as well.
Best Picture
Winner: The Departed
Who should've won: Little Miss Sunshine
This is a bit hard to say, since I'm really glad that Scorcese is finally getting his due. But honestly, I liked Little Miss Sunshine more. Didn't expect it to win, and since I knew it wouldn't I was hoping Departed would win out of the rest. But still Little Miss Sunshine>The Departed. I love you Scorcese, but Departed wasn't your best movie, and this decision was entirely political. Oh well, it could've been worse.
So, in conclusion, I'm happy with most of the decisions, but Children of Men didn't get half of the respect it deserved. At the least, it should've won everything it was entered in. No joke, it's one of my favorite films I have ever seen. It's ridiculous how good that movie is.
Also, Pan's Labyrinth grabbed some things it shouldn't have gotten and lost some it should have. It wasn't totally shafted, which is good, but WHY WHY WHY did it win cinematography. The academy works in mysterious ways, I suppose.
Departed was really good, and Scorcese deserved the best director award, but it was not the best picture of the year. I almost respect that the academy is making up for shafting him for all these years, but I'd rather that they had just given these awards to Taxi Driver or something. Because that movie deserved an award; The Departed, not so much.
Cheers.
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