Even though I don’t want to set up any expectations, the first one reminded me of what might happen if Per Petterson took a stab at the vampire genre.  I watched Let the Right One In and that’s the thought that kept running through my head.  The vampire story is almost secondary, and I’m interested if you guys would describe the primary theme in the same way I would.  There is still quite a bit of blood, but the movie doesn’t contain any of your typical “shocks” that Hollywood seems so fond of.  Thank goodness this isn’t Hollywood.

The other movie is Moon, which I can’t really even describe to you without giving things away.  Let’s just say, it has to do with the moon.

Anyone up for discussing these if you’ve seen them?  Or watching, then discussing?

The title says it all.  What are your favorites from the 2000’s?

Peter and the Wolf

Avatar Trailer.

Peters may remember a friend of mine by the name of Jason Neulander, then Artistic Director of Salvage Vanguard Theater.  For the last decade or so he has been working on-again-off-again on The Intergalactic Nemesis.   It started as a radio show, then live performance, then comic book, and now live performance/comic book/online serial?

The Intergalactic Nemesis is obviously pulpy but I think you all will find it interesting.  And I think that more meaningful work could be (and probably has been) done in this cross media format.  Anyway I’m looking forward to the live performance.

Check it out if you have time.

Watch and discuss.

I did miss Voldemort as Voldemort (and Ralph Fiennes’ incarnation of him), and the movie is rushed (though not nearly so much as the last one), but overall it produced the eerie feeling I was hoping for, given the dark lake sequence where Harry must feed Dumbledore the weakening potion, the lake’s undead beings, and then the rush to the end and Dumbledore’s death. But it wasn’t so eerie or dark that you couldn’t enjoy the adventure of it, which was perhaps some of the problem with the movie of The Order of the Phoenix.

I thought the great addition was Jim Broadbent as Slughorn, and the memory sequences with the younger and teenaged Tom Riddle (I wish these could have been lingered on). I wanted more of the Order involved throughout, and I wanted more Snape in the movie, but I take those wantings more to be sign that I liked what was there.

The third movie remains clearly the best in the series, and given that I didn’t think the seventh book was as strong and Warner Bros.’ decision to make it into two installments, I am assuming that will remain the case. Still, I admit I enjoyed getting back into the Harry Potter world more than I thought I would.

Ned, thanks for telling me about your thoughts on Persepolis and Sweetland.  I had heard about Persepolis (and have been meaning to check out the graphic novel it’s based on), but hadn’t heard anything about Sweetland.  It’s amazing to me the sheer amount of great movies that fly under the radar nowadays.  Quantity of Hollywood drowns the quality?

Speaking of quality, Steph and I watched The Diving Bell and the Butterfly a week ago.  In Steph’s words, we “couldn’t look away” from Julian Schnabel’s direction, along with Janusz Kaminski’s gorgeous cinematography.  A gorgeous movie that is wonderfully sad, effecting, and surprisingly human…surprising in the fact that I’ve gotten used to the lack of human-”ness” in FX-laden movies. It takes the all of the glory and the shame in human existence and creates a portrait that lacks the usual Hollywood gloss, but has more character packed into it than all the summer blockbuster movies combined.

Maybe my surprise has to do with my tendency towards escapism in my movie choice.   It’s a little embarrassing to admit … but I feel as if I’ve gone soft and taken an easy route post-college.  I’ve only recently started to feel as if I need some more meat in my diet of cultural intake.  I just don’t find myself thinking critically as much anymore.  I think once I finished college, I was weary of the over-analytical stance I took towards most art and literature and abandoned it for the most part.  I think I’m ready for a homecoming.

One of the most amazing components about this film, (Steph and I spoke about this afterwards, in length) it allows the viewer to assume Jean-Dominique Bauby’s persepctive in the first third of the movie.  It’s almost as if we were sharing the same Diving Bell with Bauby, and later too, the Butterfly.  I think we’re still carrying a bit of the butterfly with us. 

Has anyone else seen the film?  I’d be curious as to thoughts and reactions from the rest of our group….

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Jen and I will be at her parents’ home for a couple of days over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, then will be enjoying some restful days here in Minneapolis. We have a good few inches of snow on the ground, and it’s expected to snow tomorrow an inch or two. So no need for dreaming of a white Christmas in these parts. 

OUT STEALING HORSES by Per Petterson is #33 on this week’s New York Times Bestsellers list. Amazing for such an introspective, literary work of translation. Funnily enough the book is just ahead of WAR AND PEACE. So take that, Tolstoy!

Any thoughts on the past year? Predictions for the new one? Anyone care to share some of their favorite books, albums, gallery exhibits, songs, movies, etc. of 2007? 

Here’s to what’s ahead… 

It seems like there’s been a sad chain of obituaries on the blog lately.  I’m a little hesitant in the midst of those to post something so frivolous, but it’s an exciting frivolous.  At least, I can’t help but get a little giddy about these two news items today. 

Click the links below to visit Tob’s excitement:

http://www.indianajones.com/site/index.html
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/ironman/

I recently read an article which talked about Rowling’s insistence that the themes and narrative arcs in the story are the product of a deeply felt Christianity. I felt that that was evident with this story more than the other stories that have made it to screen, for sure, but perhaps that is due to the escalting nature of the stories and good and evil. Her books, of course, took a beating from the right in this country, and I am amazed that Rowling managed to keep her Christianity basically a secret for all that time she was lambasted. She is quoted in the article as saying she felt that to state that Christianity undergirded the books was to give away the ending. In some ways I feel guilty for not having read the rest of the series (I thought at the time I finished the third book, years ago, that this series was never going to end and I wasn’t interested in reading the same thing over and over. I also read the first three books of the Series of Unfortunate Events). I do, as Shotts suggested, hope to enjoy them with my children some day, along with the Tolkien books and many others. Eliot has been learning some words with flash cards.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the film (which wouldn’t have been new to any of you readers of the series) was HP’s discovery of his father’s teasing and bullying of Snape. It is jolting and changing, that moment when you realize your parents are not right about everything and perhaps downright wrong about some things. I also read the NY Times article and found it interesting that Hitchens complains about the HP series’ avoidance of Christianity and then encourages readers to “graduate” to the Pullman trilogy.

There was an advertisement for the Golden Compass at the beginning of the film for which New Line cinema appears to have pulled out all the stops. I would strongly urge that anyone who plans to go see the movie (which I assume is all of the Hollow Men) should first read the entire trilogy, not necessarily as a recommendation from me, but because my guess from the preview is that they have toned down much of the philisophical content. And you certainly won’t get the Milton and biblical literary references from the film. It might make good discussion material; since in the very first scene of the book, Pullman deliberately decided to have a girl coming OUT of a wardrobe.

This may be a funny way to end this post, switching topics, but I’m curious as to how the HM would respond to this quote by Wright from the Moral Animal…

“Friends engage in mutual inflation. Being a person’s true friend means endorsing the untruths he holds dearest…it may be that the hallmark of the strongest, longest friendships is the depth of the shared bias; the best friends are the ones who see each other least clearly.”

I would just like to announce to all of you that Indiana Jones is officially underway with Speilberg at the helm and Ford, Connery, and Cate Blanchett along for the ride.

Video after the break.

Oh, and…first. 

Video

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKuA3iee4-c[/youtube]

Though there are more scenes of graphic violence than I would have liked I highly recommend this movie. I didn’t see a better movie in 2006 and I don’t expect to see a better movie in 2007. I’m looking forward to Netflixing Guillermo del Toro’s other work as well.

01 Cloud Cult | “Chemicals Collide”
02 Cloud Cult | “Outside of Your Skin”

03 Malajube | “La Monogamie”
04 Malajube | “Montreal – 40 degre Celcuis”

Malajube’s Videos are a delight…check after the jump for a couple of YouTube goodness.

05 The One AM Radio | “In the Time We’ve Got”
06 The One AM Radio | “Flicker”
07 The One AM Radio | “The Greatest of Ease”
08 The One AM Radio | “Ninety-Nine, One Hundred (Live)”

09 Au Revoir Simone | “Backyards of Our Neighbors”
10 Au Revoir Simone | “Hurricanes”

The Arcade Fire is coming out with a new album — they’re one of the bands I’ve liked (and put tracks from Funeral on “All the Money That Money Buys last year).

11 The Arcade Fire | “Black Mirror”

And now for a few random uncoupled smatterings:

12 Of Montreal | “Gronlandic Edit”
13 !!! | “Myth Takes”
14 Laylights | “Sparrows”

The last one reminds me of The Editors…good night all!

[youtube]UHwSk8bFS4M[/youtube]

[youtube]2t6zmTDzSRk[/youtube]

I have recently been thinking in systems theories, particularly as they partain to groups like ours. How closely does life imitate art, I ponder. In a system, each part of that system serves a function and hopefully the whole of the system is able to obtain homeostasis, that is to say, a conistancy in functioning. Our group, I would contend has been consistent over time to a degree, and has righted itself here and there over the years. So, when TV shows, movies, and theater is written, one wonders how much of what they are trying to capture could be represented in our little group. What I would suggest is that this may occur more than we think.

An interesting little experiment we might do here is to have each person consider the cast of a few shows and movies and submit them to me. Feel free to add shows, or movies we might all have some degree of familiarity with. What I would be interested in is:

1) how we see ourselves; what roles we envision ourselves in
2) how others see us
3) how well those match.

This may give us some clues as to some of the roles we fulfill with in the structure of our group. Some obvious shows: Star Trek (original and next generation), Lost, U2 (not a written cast, but a group whose members function as a system), Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, M*A*S*H*, the Office. Maybe we want to choose 2 or three to get started. Suggestions? Send them to me this week, and I will tally and report on them next Monday. I am also open to any suggestions on how to better this experiment.

The next line of business is not related with any intention to the first. I would submit that we all look at taking 5 minutes and filling out a Myers-Briggs test. Human Metrics has one that has a number of questions which should provide some validity to the project. This is strictly for fun only, and does not have any problematic mental health implications. This is a test used primarily by psychologists and is a fun way to compare what the test says about personality traits so we might compare how that measures up with observation of self and others. Really not much more than a conversation peice which may give everyone a little insight about themselves and how they function and work, what strengths they might have. I would be interested to get feedback on how whether or not everyone feels the tool is accurate or inaccurate and why. There are several of these on line, and they are not the actual test, but my experience has been that they are fairly predictive in capturing the flavor of the test. This one is a little longer than the others which should help create more validity. There are no right answers just how you feel. being honest with yourself and not playing to the bias that you feel the questionare is seeking is most likely to result in the most accurate tabulations. I took it and will take it again after I post to see if my result is consistent again. I was an INTJ.

Here is one more if you get bored or want to compare your result to another test.

I am looking forward to hearing what you guys find out. By the way, Happy New Year to all.

But, this leads me to ask: any “tops” of 2006 you’d like to share and comment on here?

Here are a few, from me:

Top novel: Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson (actually out in the U.S. from Graywolf Press in 2007).

Top poetry collection: Averno by Louise Gluck

Top movie: The Prestige

Top documentary: An Inconvenient Truth

Top song: “Hamburg Song” by Keane

Top political event: Democrats regaining Congress in November elections. Rumsfeld “resigns” shortly thereafter.

Top global events: Lack of global resolve over Darfur, Sudan. Continued unavailability of clean water to millions.

Top Minnesota event: The state sends first Islamic member of Congress to Washington in November election.

Top celebrity: Bono

So, looking ahead now, here are a few thoughts and resolutions from me.

In 2007, I expect:

• to see Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, John McCain, and Rudy Guliani in the spotlight for the Presidential elections of 2008, as they all announce their candidacies. (I’m already surprised to see John Edwards announce his candidacy, and so early.)
• a withdrawl plan from Iraq.
• peacekeeping efforts deployed to Darfur, through a renewed United Nations.
• the biggest seller in books, by far, to be the new and final Harry Potter.
• the biggest movie, in terms of blockbuster status, to be the new Harry Potter movie.
• to be exhausted by Harry Potter by this time next year.
• additional evidence for global warming.
• one of us to announce a child on the way.

Some of my personal resolutions include:

• to eat vegetarian as much as possible, with only occasional fish when eating out.
• to eat less, eat more healthy foods, drink less alcohol, and drink more water daily.
• to exercise at the Y at least 12 times each month.
• to post and comment regularly on the Hollow Men site, including a weekly literary/poetry feature.
• to work to organize our house better.
• to begin more sustained writing.
• to be in better touch with family and friends.

–Shotts