Wednesday, January 28, 2009

podcasts + top gear

Namedrop ho!
TWiT since like episode 4,
Diggnation back when it was new,
Geekdrome back then,
TRS since... fairly early on,
1UP's plethora not nearly long enough,
Indiefeed indie pop off & on,
Just Good Music a rare treat,
Hospital quite the interesting venture,
Scene Unseen for a long while,
Filmspotting for not nearly long enough,
NPR when I have time left over,
etc.

Gotta love those free little snippets of people's lives, common interests spiced with exotic adventures, conversations captured in capsules fired across the tubes to your iTunes, or music you wouldn't have gone & listened to any other way. A endless flow of suggestion and opinion and discovery. Makes me want to pitch in to the fray *sigh* if only I had a magazine, website, or extended cable tv network to get a loyal fan base with beforehand... Wonder what this lil blog can accomplish with my insistent prodding...


===intermission===



Now call me a bloody anglophile *brushing salt & vinegar potato crisp crumbs off of shirt*, but i'm a bit of a Top Gear addict right now ^^. If anyone has yet to experience the current iteration of the UK auto themed variety/chat/? show, I implore you check it the heck out. Car porn for teh masses. The hosts (who I think are just lucky bastard journalists, not necessarily grease covered engineers?), who are full of snarky british laughs & bubbling chemistry, get to review all the latest supercars, along with the more ordinary and sometimes weird. They also adventure the globe competing in challenges put forth by the truly sadistic unseen "producers." A celebrity (many of whom us yanks won't recognize, though they had mark wahlberg that one time!) is then put behind the wheel of a "reasonably priced car" (my car - the Cheverolet Lacetti aka Suzuki Reno/Forenza aka many other things) to see how they fare on a racetrack. The slick production values of the car reviews which kick off each episode dance across my big, flash monitor & roar through my new Logitech Z4 2.1 speakers. As if I needed another reason to envy those with BBC America in their homes...
The pilot of a US version (starring Adam Carolla and almost Alex Albrecht!) & was funded by NBC, but has since been canned & is now seeking cable distribution I think. It seems an Australian version has just begun so I may check that one out. Recommended for anyone who likes visceral experience, technical impressario, and Monty Python? Great common audience! Great shipping rates on Amazon UK too!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

netflix barrage 001 - a series

I was going to post this on my old Myspace blog, but I figured this would be a good chance to start something new. Hopefully my scribin chops will improve w/ practice? Here's to rum and good times...

Laura (my <333) got a 3-at-a-time netflix account! So that means I'll be watchin 3 long awaited classics every week (& prlly more often before long ^^) & this seemed like a good excuse to bust out the blog.

Sixteen Candles (1984)
Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, and an unrecognizably young & dorky John Cusack round out the cast of this John Hughes high school fable. Amazing that we watched this one first, totally randomly, since its the first of his many movies in this vein. It is definitely composed of corny moment after corny moment, set to the perfect cliche song for each situation. It succedes in capturing the surreality of high school, and pushes it over the top. Ringwald's character in particular is slightly unlikable: I mean everyone forgot her sweet sixteen, but all she does is pout & whine & survive til the next day where she gets everything she wanted? Of course I can much more relate to AMH's geek, who's awkwardness & desperation is turned up to 11, but he still manages to earn some sympathy w/ some honest dialogues. He gets what he wants too (in a way?) but instead through persistence, fearlessness, and ofcourseluck. Long Duk Dong is a bit of a sore thumb - more offensive even than Breakfast at Tiffany's Mr. Yunioshi - he just talks mildly funnily to the awkward strains of koto, & the shot lingers for a moment or cuts to the family mouths agape as if you're laughing wildly - bleah. I look forward to more developed outings such as Pretty in Pink & Say Anything for my future 80s education, already having seen Breakfast Club.


Taxi Driver (1976)
A young De Niro and Scorcese must have shocked audiences in the 70s with this gritty portrayal of pre-Giuliani NYC - scum and violence are one with the neon-lit shiny streets, observed with disdain in the taxi driver's rear view mirror. Its an impressive tale of descent, though Travis Bickle's pretty lowly from the outset. Not everything works out, but not everything goes crazy south either, maintaining a realistic balance, but the outcomes to some scenes I think would've been more impactful if the consequences had been more dire - say, if the movie ended immediately after the climactic shootout. The way the camera slowly examined & left the scene & craned out over the street I thought the movie Was over. I wonder if it would've been too risky to not tie up all the loose ends like the closing scenes try to do. Also what if he had followed through at that campaign rally? Flinching up & running away was not how I expected that to turn out. The film features very interesting apperances by Peter Boyle, Harvey Keitel, a spritely Jodie Foster, and the director.


Psycho (1960) SPOILER WARNING
In this film adventure I'm also getting my Hitchcock education, having... never... seen... any of his stuff... shame on me!
This film had a lot to live up to, and save a slow going opening (it is 50 years old), I'd say it succeedes. Janet Leigh's facial expression alone at times was a visual feast, if her motives were somewhat questionable. Photography must have been intimately planned down to every detail, & the pacing keeps your interest. The psychological implications saved for the end are simply fascinating, great payoff. Truly the "master of suspense." North by Northwest, Vertigo, Rear Window, and more coming soon!