Two Movies

Just wanted to mention two more movies we watched recently through Netflix.

"Dan In Real Life" - This really wasn't what I was expecting. I thought it was going to be more about Steve Carrell's character's home life and getting back into the dating scene, but it ended up being one of those family-get-together-for-the-holidays movies where the perfect family reunites at some unrealistically scenic, vintage house and plays football, has crossword competitions, does aerobics, and even puts on a family talent show complete with a stage. What family does this? It was like watching a 90min J Crew ad. Steve Carrell's comic timing was toned down, and Dane Cooke was typically annoying. Who really likes Dane Cooke anyway? Why he's famous is beyond comprehension. This movie was too much in the vein of "Home For The Holidays", "The Family Stone", "Bed Of Roses", and even a little bit of "Wedding Crashers" and "Meet The Parents" though nowhere near as funny.

"In The Realms Of The Unreal" - This was a bizarre documentary about Henry Darger, a Chicago janitor, who, for most of his 81 year life, prolifically wrote and painted and painstakingly created a fantasy world about 7 heroic sisters, all in the privacy of a room he rented from a couple. His hundreds of paintings are very elaborate in detail, with some being as large as 12 feet in length, and feature scenes from his writings. I personally thought they had a very early-Disney quality about them not unlike "Fantasia", "Bambi", or "Snow White". The novel he wrote (same title as the movie) is over 15,000 pages, the single longest non-fiction work ever written. Director Jessica Yu brilliantly pieces together animated sequences along with interviews of the few people that new this very, very quiet reclusive self-taught man. It was a very intriguing look into somebody's very private world, and some may interpret Darger as having some manner of psychosexual disorder or severe issues left over from his childhood. Yu does not steer you to any particular conclusions, leaving the viewer to take it all in at face value. Highly recommended if you liked "The Devil and Daniel Johnston".

More Old Friends

This weekend was not bad. Got some yoga and running in and met some friends out at Culhane's Irish Pub on Friday night, then an old friend from high school at the same place last night. Work is frighteningly slow, so I'm considering my other options right now, all of which include moving away from this area in some manner - i.e. looking outside of Jacksonville for another practice to get into or rejoining the military. Everything is completely up in the air. I was pretty depressed about it for a few weeks, but somehow I'm starting to feel optimistic again. I realize the economy goes in waves, so at some point it has to get better. I was really kicking myself, though, for getting off active duty last December. I got up and walked away from what I had in Japan to move here. I was absolutely happy in Japan (outside of work; and even work wasn't that terrible) and probably could have finished out my career there bouncing back and forth between Yokosuka and Okinawa since most dental officers do NOT want to take those billets in Japan. Don't ask me why! They have no idea what kind of opportunity for travel they're missing out on. But I screwed up thinking the grass is always greener somewhere else - in my case I thought the grass was greener in private practice, which it isn't necessarily. So now it's time to regroup and plan. I know I bad-mouth Jacksonville and the South in general a lot, but we now have a pretty good group of friends here which will only make leaving harder. Time will tell.

Supergrass Makes Me Happy

Not sure why, but I love a good rockumentary. Case in point, whenever I feel a little melancholy I throw on my copy of "Supergrass Is 10" into the DVD player. It covers their inception as a band, the production of their first four albums, interviews with all the band members, producers, etc., footage of live shows/tv performances, and footage from their multiple international performances. Sounds dull, but it's really, really well-made and makes me all warm and fuzzy, especially when I see their tour footage from Japan. They are just an incredible band and it never ceases to amaze how little they have been promoted in the U.S. Why is that? I just hope they carry on making fantastic, original music. I did enjoy "Road To Rouen", though it was a little slow at points, and I have yet to be inspired by "Diamond Hoo Ha", though I really haven't given it a chance. I rarely like an album right off the bat. Typically, I'll see it or buy it and leave it alone, then months, maybe years later, something will snap in my head and all becomes lucid about how great an album or band it is. This happened to me with Belle and Sebastian. I had quasi-paid attention to them around 2001-03, and then I saw them live in Tokyo in June 2006. Then about 6 months after that, the aural floodgates opened and I couldn't get enough of them! I'm all OC like that. I'm typically into a band when the rest of the world is not.

Oh well. That's enough blathering from me. I think now I'll go watch "LOUD quiet LOUD", the rockumentary about the 2004 reunion of the Pixies.

This Is How I Feel

This is "No Alarms" by Radiohead. I just watched their 1997-98 tour video "Meeting People Is Easy" and was reminded how much I love this song (as well as the entire album "OK Computer").

Be Kind Rewind

We watched one of the most original recent movies the other night - "Be Kind Rewind". I'm not going to give away the whole plot, but in a nutshell Jack Black and Mos Def, after accidentally erasing all the tapes in the video store they work at, recreate a whole slough of famous blockbuster movies. And they do it in a way that is so ridiculously simple, that it's genius. The movie was directed by Michel Gondry, who, if you're familiar with his stuff, uses almost sinfully simple techniques to create cinematic illusion and effects. He's done a handful of some of my most favorite movies, including "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "Human Nature", "The Science Of Sleep" (which was kind of a dud), as well as a host of videos with Bjork, Beck, Lenny Kravitz, and others. In "Be Kind Rewind", the remade movies are called "Sweded" movies, which was Jack Black's attempt to explain the high price and long wait for movies (i.e. the movies had to be imported from Sweden). It sounds ridiculous, but the cheesy remakes are hilarious! Below are the original movie trailer, Michel Gondry's "sweded" movie trailer, and a cool Beck video for "Cellphone's Dead". Enjoy!

Election 2008

So right now I'm watching the election results with baited breath. This is the first election that I've paid so much attention to. I'm sooooo wanting Obama to take this thing and put it in his back pocket!! It's funny because I really do respect McCain for what he went through as a POW, but I just absolutely do not want his party to continue their reign of ignorance and bullying anymore. My wife just came to the epiphany today that should something happen to him, then Caribou Barbie takes the con - uuuuh... yeah, scary stuff! I try to stay out of political discussions at work. Our little office is basically a family business, and if they knew my political predilections they would probably fire me (which may not be all that of a bad thing as I am now seriously considering going back on active duty). Something else I've come to realize is that many of the people I grew up with now consider themselves diehard republicans. When did this happen, and how come I didn't get the memo?? These were people that were more liberal than Jerry Garcia when we were growing up and now all of sudden they've become the moral majority - self-righteous, overly-religulated automatons! Maybe I didn't do enough as a true friend to prevent this from happening. Maybe kids have something to do with it. Seems like once people start having kids they start turning "red". I took a turn towards the dark side during my residency over 5 years ago, but then realized the error of my ways. After being stationed overseas and talking to plenty of foreign people, I've come to the realization that the U.S. may or may not need McCain, but the world definitely needs Obama. Godspeed, Obama-chan!