|
|
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
| |
1:49 pm - poem about the lost cosmonauts
|
Memories of Lost Cosmonauts
In a small russian village,
on the outskirts of vladivostock,
an old woman stares at the night sky
thinking
wow, there's a lot of junk in space
though she can only see the slowly fading stars
she knows that the sky is littered with
dead satellites
castaway bolts from a thousand spaceships
and somewhere
two skeletons in a capsule
holding eachother tightly
circling the globe perpetually
waiting to fall into the atmosphere
and burn dust to dust
She was there at the launch
clandestinely
she had known the girl in college
and had lusted after and slept with the boy
one dark and quiet winter's night
however, now she stood anonymously
almost a mile away, after bribing the guard
nobody was supposed to know about this launch
the sky had become a funeral pyre for many a cosmonaut
all forgotten,
though their parents, friends and lovers still wept
and as she watched the rocket launching,
and then disappearing,
she turned away and went home to listen to the radio
Hours she waited
Two days then slowly passed
but no word
the secret police showed up on her doorstep
confiscating and burning the small keepsakes she had
love letters, jewelry, that empty tin of caviar
they all shared, laughing,
on the night the power went out
now there was nothing left
but her memories
and memories fade
Every night she still stands there
looking at the stars
hoping for new constellations
but none appear
because nobody, not even space itself
remembers the lost cosmonauts
|
|
(4 comments | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
| |
12:53 pm - the most insufferable book of all time
|
Out of morbid curiosity/boredom yesterday, I started reading a book my sister had given me for christmas, but that I had never cracked open. The reason? It was written by sycophantic egomaniac James Lipton, and was about his life experiences and his experiences hosting that sickeningly obnoxious show "Inside the Actor's Studio." The title? Inside Inside. I feel like I must quote some of it now, just to give you an idea of how painful it is.
"I made myself a promise that I would not begin this book with the first-person singular pronoun I.....and I've already broken that promise four times, five if you count the pronoun myself, which the Oxford American Dictionary defines as "corresponding to I and me. An unpromising sign. I made that pledge because, if I realize my design, this book won't be about me as much as it will be about a vibrant troop of other people who have quickened the most exciting adventures of my life, which will, if fortune smiles, be the subject of these pages."
"Okay, I sighed, "may as well get it over." I picked up the phone."Hello, Theron."
"Mr. Lipton," he said, "I have two words for you."
"I know," I said. "The second one is you."
"That's right," Theron said, "and the first one is Thank."
"And since I'd learned over the years that the first and last moments of any creative presentation are usually what the public remembers, I was faced finally with a creative dilemma: With that incomparable cast, how, and with whom, should the evening end?"
"I invited some American friends who were in Paris at the moment, and on the appointed night, what looked to me to be le tout Paris showed up. There was a liberal sprinkling of counts and countesses, and at the vortex of the affair, standing head and shoulders over the other guests, Nina's father, Ambassador Guillame Georges-Picot, inexplicably dressed as if for a diplomatic reception, standing tall and ramrod straight with a polite smile on his face and a champagne glass held delicately between thumb and forefinger, as the poules circled him with undisguised curiosity."
"Yes sir, it was perfect." Then, not believing my ears, I heard myself say, "That's a wrap, Mr. President."
"Look," I said, "let's face it. When this goes on the air, it's going to wreck your reputation. After what you've given us tonight, you're going to come off like a pussycat."
And a dedicated artist. And one of the many generous heroes of the story I am privileged to tell."
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, June 21st, 2008
| |
2:40 am - FUCKING BIRDS
|
|
JESUS FUCKING CHRIST ITS ALMOST 3 IN THE MORNING AND THERE ARE FUCKING BIRDS THAT ARE NOT OWLS CHIRPING THEIR FUCKING HEADS OFF OUTSIDE. WHAT IS THIS SPRING? FUCK YOU CHIRP PATROL!
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, June 17th, 2008
| |
2:09 am - bizarre dvd cover of the week
|
|
| Friday, June 6th, 2008
| |
1:50 pm - thoughts on Temple of Doom/Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
|
Sorry I haven't been posting much lately, but, not much has been happening in the world of Tim. I'm working for the frameline film fest for most of june, still living in the Presidio, and not really any other exciting news. However, I was roused out of my inactive posting shell to, of course, write a didactic, overly long, and overly snobbish, contrarian, and analytical film reading. About Indiana Jones, too.
Now, I don't really have much to say about Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, other than that while I actually enjoyed it right after seeing it, it drops in my estimation the more and more I think about it. I actually didn't have any problems with some of the sillier stuff in the movie, like the extradimensional origins of the Crystal Skulls, or Indiana Jones surviving an atomic blast by hiding in a fridge, because, it's supposed to be a ludicrous pulpy adventure. What I did have a problem with, though, was the hideous cinematography. Maybe I'm just extra-finicky about these things, but Janusz Kaminski did his usual overlit, horribly exposed thing, where everyone looks like they are standing on the surface of the sun. Which actually worked for both AI and Minority Report, but feels all wrong for Indiana Jones. Also, though the movie had a nicely fast pace, it really seemed to lack any feeling of urgency or danger, and I got tired of the skull being used as such an obvious deus ex machina that gets them out of any danger. Aside from that, Shia was not bad, I didn't mind Marion's character, though I wish she was a bit more pissed off and less mindlessly happy.
Speaking of lurid pulp adventures, I recently rewatched "Temple of Doom", and while I can understand why it offended/annoyed so many people, I found it to be the most exciting and intense of all the Indiana Jones films, and certainly the most audacious, starting from the surreal and nonsensical opening musical number, where Kate Capshaw dissapears into a glowing cave on back of the stage, only to find herself in this sort of vast fantasy cavern where a bubsy berkeley dance number is being performed to an audience of nobody. Anything goes, indeed! After this, we are thrust into continual nonstop adventure, starting with an improbable but exciting raft ride, continuing to a spooky deserted village, and ending up in a creepy fantasy palace complete with a gross-out buffet and a giant sacrificial room beneath it. Indy, willie, and Short Round are then subjected to numerous horrors including heart removal, child slavery, and whipping, until they finally escape via minecart and then suspension bridge. Kate Capshaw's character is incredibly obnoxious, Short Round verges on racist, and the whole thing is about as racially enlightened or aware as a cheesy 30's serial, which is part of the point but which makes the movie at some times painful.
However, I enjoyed the nightmarish stream of consciousness pacing, the well-directed action sequences, and the overall creepy fantasy tone. Upon reflection, I actually like this movie much better than "the Last Crusade", which was fun but also seemed tame and deballsed next to this movie and raiders of the lost ark. Spielberg lost something when he decided to become a "respectable filmmaker" after this movie's poor reception, and while there are wonderful glimmers of his nasty former self, such as the first half of War of the Worlds, and some of the weirder bits of AI, he's mostly mellowed out and wants everything to be sanitized and happy. I keep hoping he'll pull out of this, but while he's somewhat matured and refined his craft, there's something his films have been lacking ever since he's mellowed with old age.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
| |
6:35 pm - according to my subconscious
|
|
the things I am most afraid of are short asian women in swimsuits and swimcaps obsessively gripping tightly to my mom, forcing me to fight them off, and meaningless stints at community college chemistry programs that I drop out of.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, April 12th, 2008
| |
6:59 pm - on a lighter note!
|
|
| Wednesday, April 9th, 2008
| |
10:13 pm - the death of my grandmother
|
For those who don't know, my grandmother Marian, on my dad's side, died early last week. It was very sad, but it was also sort of a relief, as at least she went relatively quickly and painlessly from old age, instead of being felled by a freak accident or some form of horribly degenerative cancer, as happened to all my other grandparents. However, she was 88 when she passed, meaning that over the years she had been slowly losing more and more of her mental capacity and independence.
She still had some of the former spark she did before, but in ways had become a shadow of who she was before. Before this all went down, she was a vibrant, active old woman, one who was flexible in her opinions, very sharp, and an experienced world traveler, going to far-off destinations like France, Africa, and China. Her life until recently was one that I aspired to in old age. Most people, as they get older, become more and more stagnant and set in their ways, growing older but not still growing, but not Marian. Even as she started to lose some of her brain's capacity she was still eternally optimistic and held onto whatever independence and self-reliance she could.
In a way, I am almost glad she went when she did, in that while she was slowly falling apart in ways, at least she went without any pain, before things could get worser for her than it did. In a weird way it was also a relief, to not have her impending death on the back of my mind as I have for the past two years, as I knew she wasn't long for this world. After it happened though, it was like an emotional pressure valve got twisted, bringing out all these emotions which i had been saving for this very moment, and which are still slowly spilling out and that I don't really know what to do with. I went to her funeral today and also went to a reception afterwards, where I met many of the people she'd affected as a friend, people who I had never met before. It was kind of heartening, but also very overwhelming, as was having a short early dinner with my family afterwards. All I really want to do now is sleep for a long time, after which hopefully I'll start to feel better. Also, there's another service on sunday for just the family, a scattering of her ashes around angel island, at which I will say a few words. I'm still trying to put into words what she's meant to me, but god, this all really hurts, and I need some time to take some space for myself, and let myself feel whatever it is I need to feel.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
| |
3:43 pm - august rush!
|
I am an edgy rock musician!
I am a concert cellist! Let's fuck in a PG way!
I'm pregnant!
oh no!
raaar I don't want my daughter having a baby, so I'll smuggle it to an orphanage and tell her it miscarried!
I hear music everywhere! I wanna go to New York to find my parents!
hah I see you have great musical talent potential, I'm gonna make you and a bunch of other kids busk for me! and keep you all in an abandoned theatre!
You are so hot!! uhhh I mean talented! I shall call you August Rush, for no real reason.
wow, I have a child and he is alive, I must go to New York! Also, I must play music again!
oh no it's the po-po! run freddie run!
I'm going to hide in this church and listen to inspiring gospel music, and learn chords so I can go to julliard!
thank you precious black child for teaching me music!
I'm gonna be just like him and conduct a symphony in the park!
no wait, I'm gonna take you back with me!
hey kid, you look familiar, almost like....my son who I don't know exists! Maybe I should go to that concert...in the park later!
I'm also playing the same concert as August, hope he hears this music and finds me!
yay, I escaped evil Robin Williams and am now conducting my own symphony!
now we are together, and our precious august is on stage now! yay! the end!
that was such a sweet movie! I don't understand why all the critics hated it! They just don't like genius children, like my children, or poor little Freddie Highmore!
|
|
(3 comments | comment on this)
|
| Friday, March 14th, 2008
| |
9:23 pm - reasons people liked me in middle school
|
I went to this very progressive hippie 5 grade through middle school, and being all lovey and touchy feely everyone got a list of reasons why they were awesome, which were compiled by all the other students, at the end of 8th grade. I don't remember enough to know who wrote each comment, as they were anonymous, but it's interesting to see what people liked about me then and see how much/little my personality has changed. I guess most people thought I was funny, which I guess I can be, but I never ended up a standup comedian or anything. And I still am rather different. But then again, who isn't?
To Tim from your 8th Grade Classmates
Gateway School
June 14th. 1995
thank you for..
all your contributions and great ideas.
providing me with all your funny jokes. stay funny.
not being serious. it was a good example for others.
being different.
being my best of best.
being original and not doing what everyone else does.
all your jokes, you are a neat person to be around.
being the only person in class who really shows yourself and is not caught up in how others see you.
adding comedy to our class.
your jokes, without them the year would have been very different. You can and do make everyone laugh.
being yourself and always having a joke to tell.
being your own person and doing what you want. I admire the way you do not change yourself just to fit in.
being my friend.
being so funny, you always have great jokes.
being my friend. I enjoy talking to you.
your insane sense of humor and great energy.
adding a special touch to our class this year.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Tuesday, March 4th, 2008
| |
6:01 pm - hilarious movie tragedies
|
HAHAHAHAHAHA
god am I a cruel-hearted bastard. Man did Haley joel die like the little bitch he is in this movie. It's good that we have little white boys to get stabbed and remind us of the preciousness of life, and paying it forward. Also, Kevin Spacey had one of the worst post-oscar career downfalls since Cuba Gooding Jr.
Also,
IS THAT MY DAUGHTER IN THERE?
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Monday, February 25th, 2008
| |
11:15 pm - yet more movie goodness to foist on you
|
So apparently the guy who did The Cell(that crazy jennifer lopez movie about going inside serial killers' minds) directed this incredible-looking movie called "The Fall" that is only now getting a theatrical release, coming this april. Probably a limited release, I assume, but it looks amazing. Looks sorta like "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" meets all the good parts of "Hero" with none of the totalitarian government propaganda. Maybe with a bit of Pan's Labyrinth in there too. Enough gabbing, look at the trailer.
I'm excited to see this, it's so nice to see something so completely new and beautiful. I like how bright and colorful it is.
|
|
(2 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, February 18th, 2008
| |
5:52 pm - Where the Wild Things Are test clip
|
So, for the past two years or so Spike Jonze has been working on a movie adaptation of "Where The Wild Things Are", with a script written by Dave Eggers. Originally, it was supposed to come out this fall, but it got pushed back to fine tune the effects, but hopefully not make it less weird. An early clip testing out the Wild Things suit, and also the general look of the movie, just appeared online. Though this is a test clip, and not in the finished film, I've heard it gives a good idea of the look and tone of the project. And, I like it. It's refreshing to see someone take risks with a children's fantasy film, not sticking to super expensive cg everywhere, overbearing music, and "wonder" sprinkled everywhere. This feels like a kid's actual dream, and I also like that the Wild Thing, though of course very early, is a combination of giant suit and computer animation for the head. (you have to click on the icon thingy for the movie to play)
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Monday, February 11th, 2008
| |
2:34 pm - beginnings of a story
|
I just wrote the opening of a new short story I've been working on called "the other woman". Here's the opening paragraph, so far.
It had been going on for more than a year. Anna's sister, Grace, chalked it up to menopause. Her two children, Julie and Ben, blamed it on their dad's increasing inattentiveness. As for dear old dad himself, Fred, he didn't even notice anything amiss at all. That was because Anna didn't want to let on that she knew of his secret mistress, in hopes of catching him red-handed.According to Anna, the secret mistress, named Jenna, was 5'11, with blonde hair, blue eyes, and gigantic breasts. She tramped about town in her pink cadillac convertible, wearing stiletto heels the same slutty red as her carefully manicured nails. How a 50-year old, bespectacled, balding actuary had managed to attract such a hot tomato was beyond Anna, but it probably meant she wanted to break up the family and steal her childrens' college funds to buy even more fast cars and trashy shoes.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Sunday, February 10th, 2008
| |
1:47 pm - shashi's party last night
|
Hair show(being a 2004 movie starring Mo'nique, is off the hook. I wish I could find some pictures of the ending, which has AMAZING HAIR SETPIECES, like two girls with braids forming the golden gate bridge, hair from space with a hoop and lightbulb in it, egyptian hair, mermaid hair, and weird blackface lion hair.
I really should have gotten that boy's number though.
sigh.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Monday, February 4th, 2008
| |
9:33 pm - Conversion
|
Because I spend too much time on the internet, I decided to write a short story featuring two youtubers, the egotistical, muscled Goronchev, and his chubby admirer Bigal2K6. For a bit of context, feel free to watch these two videos to get an idea of who these people are, though of course the story is a bit of comical speculative conjecture.
This is goronchev:
And this is BigAl talking about how much he loves G's videos:
Conversion
Albert Lewis, also known by the youtube moniker "Bigal2K6", nervously awaited flight 147 from LA at the Detroit City airport, hoping that no iterant minorities would notice and hassle him. Goronchev, youtube superstar, was leaving LA behind forever, and needed a place to crash until he got settled elsewhere. Big Al, hearing of Goronchev's plight, quickly cleared out a space in his garage, making sure to dust off the sofabed, put his unused weights in plain sight, and as a final touch, thoughtfully spread out a few issues of Maxim on the folding table. His parents were out of town for two months on a christian marriage retreat, so he had the whole place to himself. He also had spent many hours carefully working on an itinerary of things to do in Mount Clemens with Goronchev, creating a carefully crafted Excel spreadsheet on his sputtering Dell pc.
( continued past the cut.. )
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Saturday, January 26th, 2008
| |
9:14 pm - music video I worked on
|
For the past few weeks I've been editing together a music video for local act "the Grace Woods Trio", taking (somewhat low-res)clips of fans/family/friends blowing bubbles and juxtaposing it with the lead singer singing. It was an interesting project, tho I wish I had shot it and that it was in a better resolution, but I think it works pretty well.
|
|
(1 comment | comment on this)
|
| Sunday, January 13th, 2008
| |
10:09 pm - 2007 film wrapup
|
best picture: There Will Be Blood, with The Assassination of Jesse James coming in a close second. Both dark character studies of the american dream, and how the quest for fame, money and power corrupt the soul. One a dizzying spiral into madness, the other an elegaic meditation on the end of the west and the death of a legend. See them both. god am I pretentious.
best actor: Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will be Blood, tied with Casey Affleck in ....Jesse James. Confirming the fact that Gangs of New York really just needed to be a Bill the Butcher movie, Daniel-Day Lewis' Daniel Plainview is an amoral, nasty psychopath, but a human one. He's a horrible person, but compelling to watch all the same. As for Casey Affleck, his snivelling, cowardly Robert Ford is sad, intriguing and ultimately tragic.
best supporting actor: Paul Dano in There Will be Blood. A charlatan preacher who you'll love to hate.
best actress/supporting actress: this was a really lousy year for female roles, and I missed a few movies that supposedly had good ones in them, so, I'm going to give a default win to Cate Blanchett for "I'm Not There". She plays Bob Dylan but doesn't play him at the same time. It's uncanny.
best cinematography: Assassination of Jesse James. Gorgeous.
best score: Johnny Greenwood for There Will be Blood. An unnerving, hermannesque score that dominates the picture.
best editing/script: not sure, really.
best hideously expensive mainstream movie: Harry Potter 5. For once in a Harry Potter adaptation, the script actually made sense, and it moved quickly without seeming choppy.
worst hideously expensive mainstream movie: Pirates 3. Painful, overlong, full of obnoxious exposition and so many double crosses that by the end, you don't fucking care.
best source of unintentional camp: Red. Blue. Good. Evil. Lohan. I know who killed me.
movies that I wish I had seen but haven't: Margot at the Wedding, because I love Noah Baumbach, Time(new movie from the guy behind 3-Iron), Youth Without Youth because I want to see what Francis Ford Coppola is up to, Elizabeth 2:the elizabethening, because it looks incredibly campy and funny, and Walk Hard, because biopics need a good kick in the ass.
movies that I guess might be good but that I don't have much interest in: Juno, because there is only so much quirk I can stand, Spiderman 3, because it probably has the same horrible sequel problems as Pirates 3, Gone Baby Gone, because I find macho lowerclass bahston people annoying, a bunch of depressing documentaries about Iraq, and La Vie En Rose because I don't trust biopics anymore.
edit: I will probably see Juno when it hits video, it's just so overhyped right now that I'm kinda sick of it.
|
|
(7 comments | comment on this)
|
| Monday, January 7th, 2008
| |
10:09 pm - Michel Gondry!!!
|
I saw Michel Gondry give a talk about his latest movie, Be Kind Rewind, at the apple store tonight. Even though I couldn't completely hear him due to his thick accent and the fact that the store was incredibly crowded, it was still an interesting talk. He showed some clips from Be Kind, which looks very funny, and also showed a homemade trailer for the film. It consisted of action figures, michel gondry in multiple roles, and even lower-budget special effects than the films they make in Be Kind. He was funny, mysterious and...very french. Mos Def also made a surprise appearance, tho he seemed kinda shy and not as enthusiastic as I thought he'd be about working with Michel Gondry. No word on new projects or anything, tho.
|
|
(comment on this)
|
| Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
| |
4:39 pm - miss community college 1990
|
|
|
|
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1){kind=small}
bavariankumquat's journal
