Archive for June 2005
Kinder, gentler traitors
June 23, 2005, 2:24 pm
I watched Falcon and the Snowman last night, based on a true story of a bright young man and his idiot friend, who manage to become a big deal in spy circles by selling secrets to the Russians. The DVD booklet says the director chose to focus on their human qualities rather than comment on the politics, but I’m telling you there was a bit of comment. Timothy Hutton’s character decides to sell to the Russians not for money, but as a protest, after finding out that the CIA was apparently influencing foreign elections. An odd form of protest and by odd, I mean stupid. But the movie actually has a scene where the idiot friend (played by Sean Penn) suggests in a non-idiot fashion that they could give the story to the press. Hutton replies that it wouldn’t work, that it would just be surpressed.
It seems like there’s been a theme running through the last 40 years of American history.
And David Bowie recorded the title song, This Is Not America. I can’t see any subtext there.
I give the movie a “good” and the Bowie track a “cool”, which is why I’m sharing it.
—castewar | no comments
(posted in the General category)
Summer is officially here
June 22, 2005, 12:47 amAnd I’m dreaming of drive-ins. I’m not much of a car culture guy, but I love drive-ins. I’d say a half of all the movies I saw as a kid were at the long closed King’s Cross Drive-in (I think that’s what it was called - it was at King’s Cross after all) and I’d say most of the movies I saw as a kid, that I actually remember attending were at the drive-in.
Last time I was back on the island, I got to see Pirates of the Carribean and Finding Nemo at the Brackley Beach Drive-in. Awesome.
That’s the Google Maps view. It’s a nice theater; surrounded by trees, it’s sheltered from the wind, and there’s a nice lawn in front of the screen where you can picnic (if you’re not into sitting in the car.)
There’s a new drive-in just opened in Langley. I’ve got to go.
Who’s with me? We can see War of the Worlds - it seems somehow appropriate.
—castewar | 1 comment
(posted in the General category)
Fighting crime, trying to save the world…
June 20, 2005, 12:50 pm
—castewar | no comments
(posted in the General category)
MJ, Capote, Samantha, and zombies
June 17, 2005, 11:48 am
I’ll start with the zombies. With Land of the Dead opening next week, I’m doing the Romero(esque) marathon Saturday evening. In keeping the illusion that all these movies are happening in roughly the same timeframe, I’m not watching all the originals, rather the updates.
Night of the Living Dead - Tom Savini’s 1990 remake
Dawn of the Dead - Last year’s remake, which is a fine movie, no matter what anyone says.
Day of the Dead - The only Romero original in the line-up.
And if time allows, maybe some Fulci or Shaun of the Dead.
RSVP if you’d like to gorge on zombies.
And now onto other things;
(more…)
—castewar | 3 comments
(posted in the General category)
Vive le Vitalic
June 9, 2005, 2:55 pm
I was one of the people in North America to own Daft Punk’s Homework - not because I was I was some sort of trend setter, but because a review copy arrived at the office and it was given to me, as I listened to “that kind of music.” I will say that I know what I like and Homework is in my top 10 albums list.
When they followed up with Discovery, I bought it and I liked it, though it took some replay for all the tracks to grow on me. Then Human After All came out and I like some of it, but the rest is kinda the same old, same old - and worse yet for anything in the electronica genre, repetative.
Since Homework, I’d wandered the lengths of French pop electronica, finding occasional respite in stuff by Cassius, Basement Jaxx, etc. The last couple of years worth of Electroclash provided some good stuff, but I thought that was about it for the orphans of the Disco wars.
Then I tripped (not out, but over) Vitalic. So far, I’m liking it. Strangely, the fusion heavy lead single, My Friend Dario, while a hilarious video and full of rock (French dance mavens love their rock as much as they love their disco - it’s cute), not my favorite. Possibly because I don’t like songs where people talk over them rather than sing, unless it’s Blondie or Lou Reed.
—castewar | no comments
(posted in the General category)
Starburst Theme designed by Claire
powered by WordPress 2.5.1 | valid XHTML and CSS
