… songs that came out when you were in 4th grade are now featured on Vh1 Classic.
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At the doctor’s one day:
Woman: Doctor, will you please take a look at my husband?
Doctor: What seems to be the problem?
Husband: Aw, it’s nothing; I have had this annoying headache for a couple of years now. Do you think you can do something to make it go away?
Doctor: Sure.
Doc whips out shotgun; blows the wife away.
…
Doctor: Better?
Husband: Much.
“Are you studying for an exam, or something?”
He looked up from his book and found himself staring at the most beautiful pair of hazel eyes he’d seen.
Sitting across from him in the train bogey, her face radiated an innocence he’d never seen in another human being before. She was Venus, Helen, Juliet; she was all of them, and yet, so much more. Her face seemed more than likely to launch a thousand ships, to sink a thousand more, to cause accidents on crowded highways; why, the very wind seemed to mellow as if it were too scared to touch something so beautiful and so perfect. She was elegant in ways that the romantics of an age gone past had never dreamed. Her hair, so soft, so pure, acting as a frame to the most beautiful painting ever imagined. Her features were so delicate, and yet, seemed the work of a hundred master artisans who’d slaved night and day for their entire lives, to ensure that everything, from the rise of her brow to the tip of her nose, from the lobe of her ears to her chin, oh, her chin! He felt a need to wrench his eyes out of his head because nothing he could ever lay his eyes on again would be the same! Nature, in all her many wondrous ways, had created this creature in front of him, and everything else in the world would only pale in comparison, no, not pale, act as a reminder of how unfitting a world it is! To house such beauty in the midst of such vile squalor (for what else could this world, or any world, be, when compared to such a heavenly jewel?) was the vilest sin, the cruelest act! Oh, how he longed to hide her from the world, and create a shrine to her, filled with happiness and mirth, so that this beautiful soul would never know the sorrow of man!
She smiled.
It was like all the clouds had parted, and the Gods themselves had strewn pearls across the sky. He knew he had to talk to her, had to make her his.
He got up and went over.
…
She smiled.
How many had she been through before this? Who knows? Who cares?! They were all the same, with just one thing on their mind. And by the time she got done with them, they’d all beg, just like this one would. She could do things that few people could fathom, let alone do. This one would be just like the others. Strong at first, weak at the end.
“May I join you?” he asked.
She looked up. She could see the love in his eyes. Oh, yes, this will be fun. And the master; he’ll be so happy with this one! All juicy and tender. Positively ripe for the plucking.
And there will be blood, oh yes, there will.
How utterly delicious.
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Hal Holbrook, William Hurt, Vince Vaughn
Director: Sean Penn
There’s something about this story that will appeal to any young man on the threshold of adulthood. Standing there, between a life without responsibility and a life chock-full with it, he inevitably finds himself thinking about what he could do and what he should do. This is a tale of one such man - done with high school, all set to move on to Harvard Law, everything seemingly going smoothly, he suddenly decides to cut loose and realize where he stands.
Sean Penn directs this fascinating movie based on Christopher McCandless’s life. Christopher, or Alexander Supertramp, as he decides to call himself, took a walk on and in the wild side, with disastrous consequences. Partly narrated by his sister, and partly by himself through his journals, McCandless undertakes a quest to live by truth - absolute, unforgiving truth. Armed with advice and support from friends he’s made along the way, all of whom try to steer our wayward hero home and fail, and a couple of ideals extolled by Thoreau, McCandless’s decides to abandon society to itself, to not join the rat-race, and above all, to be free. His obsession with the mendacity of society (Ah, the foul stench of mendacity - words immortalized by Tennessee Williams in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that could easily fit in this tale) and its obsession, in turn, with money, leads him on a roller-coaster of a journey across the continent with nothing but what he can carry on his back. His purpose - to live out in the Alaskan wilderness on his own and pit himself against mother nature in a deadly battle of survival.
For a first-time director, Penn handles the camera with an ease akin to Clint Eastwood (perhaps the latter made a strong impression on him during Mystic River?). He pulls no punches - we see the glory that McCandless’s strives for, we see the bitter struggle he goes through, we empathise, we sympathise. Above all else, we are torn between cheering him on and begging him to return home, to realize that society is not all bad, that there are still things worth living for, worth bearing with, and worth fighting for. A powerhouse soundtrack by Eddie Vedder (of Pearl Jam fame) accentuates every shot and every scene. The melancholy tone seems to echo not only what McCandless feels, but also what we do. Sterling supporting turns by Holbrook and Vaughn not only enhance the reality of the experience, but serve as a strong backdrop for Hirsch’s naïveté to shine through, making his portrayal of McCandless flawless and natural. We believe him to be McCandless so completely that when we are finally shown the real Christopher McCandless, it jars us slightly - we almost feel cheated that what we’ve seen and been through is the story of one man, and not the man himself.
Despite everything that happens, we are still left in awe of McCandless and his strength to hold to his lofty ideals. The destructive spiral he slips into is forgivable, as it is the only path we can imagine for one striving to be pure. If this reviewer had to pick a few words that he would want you to take away with you, it would be these:
Watch this movie. Take a walk. Breathe deep.
And repeat.
Why do so many people believe in mixing their hot beverages? I mean, most people here at my new office have tea in the morning, coffee in the afternoon. At my old office, people used to have coffee in the morning, then tea in the afternoon. Don’t people find the conflicting tastes weird?
Morrison ne’er said truer words than ‘people are strange’.
I’ve gone back to not sleeping much. Then again, I never really stopped. I need to fix my lifestyle. I think I’m too TV- and internet-addicted. Which is why, when I try and crash early nowadays, my system screams “NO!!! I want my MTV!”
(Incidentally, random trivia: Did you know that Sting doing the backing vocals for “Money for Nothing” was *not* a boost to Sting’s career? It was, in fact, a boost to Dire Straits! Especially since Sting parodied The Police’s “Don’t Stand So Close To Me”, he helped make Money For Nothing a hit! Apparently, The Police was already a big band by then, whereas Dire Straits were an okay band. Huh. Who knew?!)
…
Just checked my Hotmail (or rather, Windows Live Hotmail) after ages - it’s nice to know that LucileoSandovalfgcv680 and the others have missed me *so* much.
Rorschach ink blots are used to identify and understand the personality of a person. In essence, the test is simple enough: you have an ink blot, that forms a pattern of some kind, and you see what you want to see. The theory is that what you want to see says a lot about who you are.
(Note: This is, of course, over-simplified. There’s actually a lot more to it, and there is a specific set of blots that is used. Apparently, I’m hoping that a little knowledge is *not* a dangerous thing 
)
It makes sense, I suppose. Your sub-conscious perceives the pattern and your brain processes it in a particular way; in a way that is familiar to how you think, and in doing so, reveal how you work, without really intending to. There’s a logical simplicity to it that appeals to me.
The thing is, with these tests, it’s not so much what exactly you say, so much as what you’re implying. That implication is inevitably judged by the tester -and therein lies the rub. The subjectivity of it gives rise to a lot of controversy about how effective the tests are.
Everything is subjective; there is no such thing as an “objective opinion”.
…
Growing older causes so many issues.
It used to be so nice to be young - one could carry a nice, happy, reckless, devil-may-care attitude and get away with it. Your confidence was nigh unshakeable. There was no question of falling and hurting yourself; you were infallible (the pun was completely incidental, I swear.). Suddenly, you grow up, and, just as suddenly, you start worrying about consequences, and what-ifs.
It’s not a nice feeling.
But the worst is, you realise that who you are, the individuality of “you”, is not very important anymore. There aren’t really any “special” people. We’re all similar, and our differences are rarely appreciated. Suddenly, it matters to fit into a pattern, to “fit in”. The recklessness of youth may be fodder for many a conversation over coffee, but it doesn’t work like it used to. It’s frowned upon, along with everything else you used to do without thinking. You need to be one of ‘them’ to get along; you need to be one of ‘them’ to be liked; you need to be one of ‘them’ to be loved.
…
Have you ever noticed how much harder it gets to meet new people you get along with, after a certain age?
I wouldn’t say it’s hard to meet people, especially now, with the internet bringing everybody closer together, whether they like it or not. It’s just harder to find that crowd, that group, that person, even, who you can just hang out with, and connect with. Why is that? Especially considering the fact that those people do exist, and you’ve probably met them already, and some of them are also your best friends. Why is it so hard to find others like that? In fact, I think it’s harder to find close friends than to find lovers; at least when you’re looking for a partner, you’re willing to invest so much more time and effort. When you’re just looking for a friendly face, and someone to hang out with, the will to invest much time is just *that* much weaker.
…
I recently had a discussion with my mother about graphic novels. She felt I made too much hype about novels with “questionable content”. Eh? Beg your pardon? What “questionable content”? Apparently, my mother felt that “graphic novels” referred to novels of, um, a “graphic nature”.
(That is, heavy on the sex and violence.)
(No, she doesn’t really have the highest opinion of me.)
(No, that was not what I “really meant”.)
See, that’s what I like about semantics - there’s *always* a good laugh in there, if you’re patient enough.
Starring: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell
Director: Andrew Dominik
I’ve got to admit - I was more than surprised. A western in this era of cinema, and especially one by a director I’d never heard of, did *not* make my heart “flutter with anticipation”. In fact, I half-expected this movie to be merely a launch for Brad Pitt to try and win an Oscar; not much else really seemed to be in this movie. Of course, that opinion was adopted purely on the fact that the title sounds like a joke, Brad Pitt was in it, and the director was a nobody (I pretend to be a movie-snob whenever possible 
). I hadn’t seen any trailers, hadn’t read any reviews, and didn’t know anybody who’d heard of the movie; it wasn’t until later that I realised this movie was an Oscar nominee. But even then, it was in the categories of cinematography and supporting actor, which didn’t excite me enough to go and find out what all the hoo-hah was.
So, when I tell you that this movie absolutely floored me, you can imagine my surprise! As is obvious to even the most stupid, this movie is about Jesse James - legendary outlaw and unusual anti-hero from the good ol’ days of the “Wild West”. But to merely describe it like that is to do it an insult; this is more than about Jesse James - it’s about Robert Ford, his brother, the James gang, the aura of the West, and the need for a reckless society to make mountains out of men.
The movie centers on Jesse James (Brad Pitt) at the fag end of his outlaw career. The old gang has broken up, and all that’s left is a motley crew, one of whom is Charley Ford (Sam Rockwell), a bumbling crook, who, like everybody else in the gang (with the possible exception of Frank, Jesse’s eldest brother) basks in Jesse’s shadow, and is happy to be the legend’s flunky. Jesse James has already established himself as an icon, an image that has been glorified in a series of dime-novels. Robert Ford (Casey Affleck) is Charley’s kid brother and Jesse’s biggest fan; his worship of the man borders on obsession, having never really outgrown worshiping this hero of his youth (At one point, Robert narrates how he used to have a list of things that he and James had in common - including the fact that they were the youngest of three brothers, and that the second children of both families had 6-letter names!). Robert, only 19, begs to be a part of the gang, and, despite his innocence and foolhardiness, is taken under James’s wing for reasons unknown to anybody save James.
From the start, we know the outcome of this tale (it’s in the damn title, after all!) and we can’t help get the feeling that Jesse James does too; his relationship with Robert is curious and strained, yet their fates seem unfathomably intertwined. We see James as a ruthless outlaw, a seemingly semi-crazed lunatic, with severe bouts of depression, and also as the loving family man, with an almost primal instinct for danger. He never takes off his guns, and is rumoured to be impossible to sneak up on. There is a tension in him that you don’t see, but can feel - maybe it comes from being an outlaw and having to run, maybe it’s from living under an alias, maybe it’s just the guilt of his conscience. Whatever the reason, he seems a man resigned to his fate, and one who seems to have recognised his executioner before the latter has even realised it. Perfectly balancing this monolith of a man is Robert Ford - a kid who wants to grow up quickly and can’t decide if he wants to *be* Jesse James, or be *like* Jesse James (A question James puts to him soon after they first meet.). Having forever lived with being the baby, he wants to prove himself to everybody; and eventually, he realises that the only way for him to do it is to take out the legend - be The man who killed Jesse James.
The beauty of this movie is not so much in the tale - there are no surprises, no serious plot twists, nothing that would make you leap out of your seat - as it is in the telling. The cinematography is beyond words - every shot, every scene , every aspect communicates something about the men, and the world they live in. This is a hard land, and these are hard men. Pitt does a fabulous job - his Jesse James seems etched from stone, untouchable and austere. But the real surprise is Affleck! While most people remember him from his small role in the Ocean’s 11 trilogy, I recently had a chance to see him in Gone Baby Gone (also a *fantastic* movie!), directed by brother Ben Affleck, and he showed that he was no slouch in the acting department. That image is only reinforced in this movie. Although I was initially surprised that he was nominated for the Best Supporting Oscar, having watched this movie, he completely deserves it. Affleck’s Robert Ford as a man struggling with who he is, and who he becomes, and he portrays him with a suitable amount of subtlety and edginess. Even the score and the narrative do a brilliant job of helping the audience focus on the finer nuances of the characters’, um, characters?
All in all, I couldn’t find a single thing wrong with the movie; and considering that it’s almost three hours long, that’s pretty impressive.
For further info: The Assassination… at IMDb.com
Starring: Michael Caine, Jude Law
Director: Kenneth Branagh
I’ve always firmly believed that if a script, or more specifically, the dialogue, is good, the movie can never be *that* bad. A good script can keep the audience’s interest alive, even if all other aspects of the movie fail. Well-placed witticisms and statements that subtly tease the viewer to delve beneath the surface and truly connect with the characters and their frame of mind can inevitably make the difference between a good movie and a bad one.
Sleuth not only delivers on all these fronts, instantly making it a very watch-able movie, but also goes the proverbial distance - with powerhouse acting by Caine and Law, incredible sets, and Branagh’s classy direction, you’d be hard-pressed to find *anything* wrong with the movie.
Loosely based on the Anthony Shaffer play, Sleuth pits the very famous crime-writer Anthony Wyke (Caine) against the young, brash actor, Milo Tindle (Law). Tindle has come to Wyke’s paranoia-induced (I’m pretty sure that’s a fair extrapolation, what with the staggering number of surveillance cameras he seems to have peppered all over his estate) technological fortress to ask for a divorce; Tindle has run off with Wyke’s wife, and they want to get married as soon as possible. Wyke seemingly takes it in his stride, and does Tindle one better - he proposes that Tindle steal his precious jewels and sell them, while Wyke reaps the insurance money. The reason: He wants to make sure that his wife doesn’t come back to him, and so wants to ensure that this out-of-work actor can accommodate her extravagant lifestyle.
The opening scene sets the standard for the rest of the movie - an almost aerial view of the characters’ cars, with Wyke remarking “Mine’s bigger than yours”. What follows is an intense battle of wits in a claustrophobic arena; an intellectual cage-match, if you will, that the actors (and the characters they portray) seem to play with each other with effortless ease. With plot-twists and intense acting, Sleuth borders on the realm of a psychological thriller, forever keeping you on the edge of your seat, straining your ears to listen to every word so as not to miss a single syllable, a single nuance. The haunting score adds to the eerie atmosphere, getting darker as the game gets more serious. Branagh, as with his other movies, shows a mastery rarely seen, but never forgotten. The effortless way he tells the tale through a mixture of close-ups and surveillance photography creates a distance and a sense of scale that matches the actors and the ambiguous characters they’ve created. This is a visual masterpiece, perfectly complemented by a wonderful script.
Note: From other reviews I’ve heard/read, don’t expect to see a remake of the 1972 film. This is not The Omen; Branagh’s direction and Harold Pinter’s screenplay have created a movie that *very* loosely follows the same story. The only common points would probably be Michael Caine (Caine had earlier portrayed Tindle in the 1972 film), the basic outline, and the end.
(Or so I’ve heard. I haven’t seen the ‘72 film myself, so I can’t really compare.)
For further info: Sleuth at IMDb.com
Social transparency, #1
I wonder if society could really handle absolute transparency. In every regard, in every situation. Not just knowledge of the work behind-the-scene, but also knowledge of what everybody was really thinking. What would happen if we ceased to be fake? Refrained from acting on a need to be “acceptable”? Desisted from putting up the facades that are such an integral part of our lifestyle now? Would society be able to take it?
This effectively sprung from my complaint that offices are a farce; everyone pretends to care and to actually give a damn where the brand is going and what the company is doing, and really, almost nobody ever cares. Seriously. In any work-place, the prime objective has always been to put the company first - to think of what we can do to make it better, to push ourselves to new limits to make the company succeed. We work endless hours, with little hope of a satisfying reward. We sweat and toil, we break our backs, we scale new heights, all with the over-riding aim of “brand development” or “company success”.
Why?
Honestly. I haven’t met over a handful of people who truly believed in their company and would be willing to sacrifice everything for the nameless faces in the boardroom. At every job, your boss will always expect you to come up with ideas, will always expect you to think of the brand and the company, will always expect you to stay in office as long as possible, with only the company’s benefit in mind. And yet, how many of these people can honestly say they would *not* shift companies to a rival or to other fields on *any* given condition? Isn’t that what true loyalty is? Sticking with something, no matter what? Why should I be expected to give up all my free time to work more hours for a company, with no reward? How do I benefit? Sure, maybe a year later, I’ll get an increment. But is that enough? In the end, aren’t all our services really up for the highest bidder? For many, the deciding factor is money; but for a few others, it may be something else - better environment, better superiors, better equipment, etc. The point is, we all have a price.
Keeping that in mind, why are we expected to be *willing* to do all these things? One of my seniors here recently wanted to know why my colleague had left. His contention was that he didn’t have a family or any relatives visiting - why, then, is he in such a hurry? How stupid is *that*! Why on Earth would anyone stick around in the office, “just because”? He doesn’t have any work left, and so, what, instead of going home to some kind of life, he’s expected to just sit here and *wait*? And I used to get that at my old job, too. What the f*ck?
(Ironically enough, I got the same treatment the other day. Just because I’m a bachelor living on his own, for some reason, I’m expected to adopt the office as a second home. The shitheads.)
…. to be continued.