I'm reading Justinian's Flea right now, and it occurs to me that someone needs to make a Baz Luhrman/Romeo + Juliet/Knight's Tale movie that contrasts 6th-century Constantinople and the modern-day urban jungle.

To whit:

[On the subject of the public debates that were held in the city's Hippodrome:] "The most telling part of the entire dialogue, however, is that it was entirely conducted in a rigid metrical form with each call-and-response containing the same number of Greek syllables, and placing the stress on the penultimate or antepenultimate syllable for each line. That was apparently a commonplace occurrence in the Hippodrome demonstrates both the level of training and theological sophistication required for such poetic improvisation."

Sounds a bit like a rap battle, eh wot?



Then we've got the street gangs:

"By the time of Justin's accession, the Blues and Greens [the chariot-racing factions that were part sport franchise, part organized crime syndicates] each had shock troops, called Partisans, who resembled nothing so much as modern urban street gangs.... The Partisans wore color-coded uniforms consisting of short blue or green coats, in the style of the Huns, rather than the more modest Constantinopolitan tunics."

A bit like baggy trousers and do-rags, if you ask me.

The more things change...

It's Bow vs. Brooks in a battle to the death!

( Watch the videos, then YOU make the call! )

Poll #1281738 Silent Hotties Death Match
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 3

So who was hotter: Clara Bow or Louise Brooks?

The first stills are coming out. I've never been a huge Star Trek fan--in fact, it's only in the last few years that I've come to appreciate it at all--but I gotta say I'm loving Simon Pegg as Scotty.

( Read more... )

You know, I loved Michael Cera in Arrested Development. And Napoleon Dynamite was a revelation to me when it came out. But those are two great flavors that do not go great together, and if Cera doesn't stop making these precious, aggressively "indie" movies I don't know what I'll do.

My feelings about these sorts of movies (Juno, Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist (gag!), and even the inexplicably lauded Little Miss Sunshine) is best summed up with this brilliant little poster:

Time was, if there was a movement or belief that ran counter to "the establishment," it was simply repressed, usually with extreme brutality. The problem is that, over time, brutality has become increasingly passe. Nowadays it's positively condemned. It still goes on of course; it's just more, well, covert these days.

So now that you're no longer allowed to slowly unspool a dissident's intestines in front of cheering crowds, how do you go about undermining that which you find most threatening and abhorrent? By borrowing a page from the counterculture' own playbook, of course!

The counterculture and civil rights movements of the 1960s were the culmination of a long process that focused on subversion as a means to social change. This strategy paid off--a little too well, as it turned out. Starting with Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, the subverted became the subverters, and it's only been gaining steam since then.

First we had Bush running on a ticket of "compassion" in 2000; now McCain has undermined Obama's message by flat-out stealing his "change" agenda. And the most visible manifestation of this has been, of course, Sarah Palin.

I think the reason Palin has got so many lefties up in arms is because her subversion moves beyond simple politics. She is subverting feminism, arguably the most important social movement of the last quarter-century.

Rebecca Traister over at Salon.com has summed things up in one of the most keenly-observed articles I've read in a long time. I'm hard-pressed to extract good quotes; I really would just end up quoting the whole article. So if you're wondering why you're feeling sort of uneasy about Palin, or if you're wondering why others are and whether you should be as well, go give it a read. You won't regret it.

While I'm on the topic of subversion and feminism, I see Keira Knightly is in another god-damn historical movie! What in holy hell is up with her being the go-to girl for historical pieces? Because, frankly, the way she's built, whether it's due to anorexia or not, would have rendered her about as attractive to the pre-20th century male as, say, a 400-lb. woman would be to today's average Joe. Skinny was most definitely not "in." Ads selling weight gain formulas for women continued to appear well into the 20th century, in fact.

(What's especially hilarious about her latest role is that it's set in the late 18th-century, i.e. the era of cleavage spilling out of corsets. Folks, I have more cleavage than this woman. Check it out: http://www.aolcdn.com/pmms/productpagemovies/0f/06/2612003.)

And that's the main concern I have with Knightly being the historical model for women. I'm sure she's being cast because, let's face it, we always project our current beauty standards onto historical dramas. But this is more than having perfectly blow-dried hair in a 70s-era Western, or 50s-style makeup and hair in Spartacus. This is telling the audience that skeletally thin women have always been found attractive and desirable. Subversion strikes again!

My turn for a Dark Knight post, I suppose.

First, yes, it took us forever to see it. We had planned to go to the midnight premiere, but we're just too busy to engage in such frivolities right now I guess. And then trying to find a good three-hour window was next to impossible.

And simply trying to see a movie in SF can be a real ordeal. Which we think is fitting with the smug exclusivity of SF. But whatever. On to the review.

( Honestly, when you're dealing with a movie this good, it's hard not to throw your two cents in... )

Yes, that's an Ice Cube quote. Take it to tha bank, sucka!

Made it through the heat wave; Des insisted on taking me to the library and I hung out in the trashed, soon-to-be-renovated labyrinth, tapping away on my laptop and staying cool.

After Des got off work we went to grab dinner. I had done some Yelping in between working and discovered a little hole in the wall Mexican place in Daly City, just about 5 minutes away from campus. OMG it was sooooo good! I am still thinking about that burrito I had.

We talked on the way to dinner and through our meal about a certain underlying weirdness that has seemed to be creeping into our interactions lately. And I came to the conclusion that I'm actually dealing with a bit of depression. Which is odd, since I'm actually incredibly happy with my life right now, and where it's going. The long-term picture looks really rosy; it's just the short-term stuff, dealing with being a starving student/starving writer couple, trying to make our way in the world today (it takes everything ya got) that's been a bit draining, I suppose.

At any rate, it was really good to hash things out, and as usual we were able to do it in a non-drama, supportive manner. So I'm feeling better now, emotionally.

We went to Daiso after dinner and picked up some gew-gaws. I'm going to build some cheapo shelves to properly display our minis, and I found good shelf supports for that. We got some other miscellaneous crap; in celebration of my depression realization I bought a notebook that says "I hope everyday will be hapy!!" on the cover. Sweet.

We got home and the apartment was hot, but not too bad--having all the windows covered up kept things down to a bearable 89.5 degrees. The good news was that the cool air has started to move in now, so we set up our Vornado and let it go to town.

We watched some Professor Brothers, then both took a nap since we were planning to head out for a film festival presentation of Cthulhu. We met up with naman at the theater. Des got in on a press pass, since she'll be writing a professional review. La-dee-dah!

At any rate, don't let the low rating fool you--that's just a bunch of reactionary Lovecraft nerds who object to a movie with a main character who is "teh ghey". It's quite good. I gave it an 8/10. If you've seen Stuart Anderson's Dagon, I felt this was a much more faithful adaptation of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", even though it doesn't adhere to the plot as closely. I'll write a full-length review tomorrow (or maybe Monday--I have a lot of writing to finish up tomorrow...).

Oh, and I took a cab for the first time ever--our bus was due to arrive in 58 minutes when we got out of the movie, so I was all, "Fuck that noise" and hailed the first available cab that came by. We were home in less than 20 minutes. And now there's the smell of smoke in the air, like there was last night. Odd. Maybe cultists are performing ungodly Solstice rites in the shadowed glades of Golden Gate Park? I'll be sure to double-lock our door tonight...

So yeah, despite the heat and despite feeling pretty down, I actually had a really good day.

Des, Ashanta and I had a bit of a movie marathon last night, and we capped it off with a movie I hadn't watched in years: Better Off Dead. Neither of the ladies had seen (or even heard of) the movie, so I knew they were in for a treat, but even I had forgotten how insanely awesome that movie is.

First, it's full of good-looking 80s people, John Cusack first among them. Then we've got this scene, which has now become infamous in my mind, both for the fact that Ricky's dance left Des in stitches and that atomic_star has a huge crush on the singer of the band, who you may recognize as Dottie from Pee Wee's Big Adventure. She's credited as "Herself" in this movie, so I guess she was a bit of a songstress in real life.



The subject of the movie had come up over dinner earlier that evening when I made a joke about "Where's my two dollars?" that fell flat, and I had to explain its origin.



God I love this movie.

Des and I went to see the new Indiana Jones movie today. Sunday matinee at the Castro--so cool! The theater was about 2/3 full, which is the fullest I've ever seen the place. I overheard someone saying that they're opening the balcony for the evening shows. Damn.

One nice touch: the movie started straight away, as soon as the curtains parted. No half-hour of previews! Hooray!

( On to the review--OMG SPOILERZZZZ )

( No wait--wrong Crystal Skull! )

So I am also "anti-striking" against the whiny whiners who called for a "posting black-out" to protest the end of ad-free Basic accounts. I think it's folks like that, rather than any sort of corporate policies, that are driving people away from LJ. I can think of...at least three people off the top of my head who have either left or are seriously contemplating leaving LJ this year.

The people who call for strikes or bans or whatever remind me of the kids I went to high school with who would call for a "march on the principal's office" or a "walk out" to protest "unfair" administration decisions, like sticking our AP English class with an unpopular teacher or taking corn dogs off the menu or what have you.

Anyway, enough of all that. Tomorrow delicata77 and I will be flying out to Phoenix to visit my brother and niece, then driving on to Santa Fe the next day to spend a week with my parents.

I was born in Santa Fe and lived there for about half my pre-adult life. We relocated permanently back in '91, and I haven't been back for a visit since '99. Last fall my parents finally got out of L.A. (barely) and have been living it up back in New Mexico. So I'm very excited to get a chance to go back again and see the sights and taste the many flavors of the land of my birth. And I get to be a tour guide for Des, who has never been out that way--or that far from a major body of water, come to that.

It should be a lot of fun. The weather this time of year is a bit of a wildcard, but the immediate forecast is for decent temperatures and clear skies. But a few last flurries of snow are not unheard of around Easter. We'll see.

Since I won't be around to do my Monday Night Video Wrap Up, I'll post a few now. Basically, I'm selling off a bunch of CDs (check out my wares at Half.com!) and I got a question about whether a Teen Idols CD I had up for sale had any skips in it. So I dusted it off and gave it a listen last night. Well, hello 1999! Sheesh. Brought back a few memories, that's for sure. So then I went browsing on YouTube for other pop punk favorites from days of yore. And now I will share the bounty.

It was a lot of fun to revisit these old bands, especially in light of the commercialized joke that pop punk became after acts like New Found Glory, Good Charlotte, etc. broke big in the early 2000s. I forgot that pop punk was once much more about the "punk" with only a little flavoring of the "pop", instead of the other way around.

( I got a feeling you been damaged/Whoa-oh-oh-oh! )

So I just found out that HBO is doing a Grey Gardens movie.

It's set during the time that Little Edie was in NYC. Drew Barrymore is playing her. Jessica Lange is playing Big Edie.

( All I need is to find this Libra man! )

I don't know. Could be interesting.

For zombified: