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October 13, 2003

How to Use Up Time

So, I haven't been blogging much even since getting my login fixed... and here's a brief summary of why, given as reviews of my various distractions...

Kill Bill vol 1 - Caught this on opening night with Julia, Lou, and Pat, and got exactly what I was expecting going in. Oh, perhaps not the sharp diolague Quentin Tarantino is known for, but I knew that was unlikely given the type of film he was making here. This is a film created out of QT's love of action cinema, assembled out of bits and pieces of other films, combined with a deft touch and occasional winks toward the audience. The whole film changes flavor several times, as it moves from 70's American action movies (esp. the "blaxploitation" sort), makes a brief stop-off at the ultra-low-budget splatter work of Hershal Gordon Lewis, then jumps boldly into Japanese anime and samurai films, with all the exagerated fountains of blood those demand. The fight scenes have good flow and development (which is what this summer's Matrix sequel lacked) and the plot, even though told out of order, is quite easy to follow (unlike the incoherent Once Upon A Time In Mexico). The performances are caricatures, but that's what they should be for this sort of film. QT's usual talent with music shines through, with music that seems on the surface to be completely out of place crafted to fit perfectly into scenes. I'll be back on 2/20 for vol 2 (though, like others, I'd've been happier with just one movie). If you're a Feng Shui player like I am, you'll need to see this one... It steals from all the right places, and the result is a great new source for additional theft.

Bubba Ho-Tep - Had to travel to NYC to catch this one, but it was worth the 5 hour drive and the 40 minute parking hunt. Wow! Made on the cheap with only two real name actors (Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis), this film tells us of two elderly men in an East Texas retirement home. Once claims to be Elvis (he traded places with an impersonator to escape the pressures of fame), the other President John F. Kennedy (the CIA dyed him black so no one would believe his death was faked). Strange things start to happen, and these two find it's because a mummy is devouring the souls of the home's residents, and so it's up to them to save the day. Despite the ludicrous set-up and a bit of R-rated material (particularly involving Elvis's physical condition), this is a film done with surprising gentleness and respect for its two main characters, filmed as if everything they believe is true... even if it probably isn't. The original short story by Joe R. Lansdale (which could be found here if it wasn't out of print) is followed with unusual loyalty, and the low-end production values don't get in the way at all. This is a film far better than it has any right to be, and deserves better distribution than it has gotten. Go to it if you have the chance!

Eddie Izzard Circle (DVD/CD) - Eddie's 2000 tour, which I saw in Boston, has been released in both video and audio formats. Both are the same NYC show, and the supplements on the DVD reveal that it was a problem-plagued night, with severe sound issues. Perhaps that is why the audience is a bit removed and Eddie's flow a bit jumpier than usual. Still, some of the material is quite good (God explaining the origins of the dinosaurs, Darth Vader ordering lunch in the Death Star canteen), and even the weaker bits are still regularly laugh-worthy.

Eddie Izzard Sexxie (NYC) - Now this was much more Eddie, in my opinion. The venue (City Center) is large, but Jeanne and I had seats in the front row of the top balcony, so once we got over the vertigo, we had a great view. Eddie gave us an evening with a wide range of material, moving from how much fun it can be to have breasts to the aspirations of ditch-dwellers, veering through the Trojan War and the discovery of fire, letting us know how hard it can be to travel with a passport identifying you as being from Yemen in the post-911 world, and asking just what it was that happened on November 9th anyway. That he could get away with 911 jokes (albeit fairly mild ones) in NYC shows how well he can read and capture an audience. He didn't get much into the history and religion material that filled Dress to Kill and Circle, though the same sensibility filled this show. I'm looking forward to seeing how different it will be in Boston on 10/25...

Alias (Season One DVD set) - I didn't watch this show originally, except for the two part Quentin Tarantino guest appearance about halfway through this season, but I kept hearing good things about it. And those things were VERY much deserved. This is quite a show, with some very nice action spy style missions (particularly for a TV budget) and some even better behind-the-scenes cross and double-cross goings-on. It's a dense show, with lots of complicated backstory, but it's worth the time and the DVD sets (the 2nd season comes out on December) make catching up quite possible.

Neverwhere (BBC TV, DVD set) - Gaiman wrote it, and as with almost everything he has done, I loved the book, which was written after this series was made. Low BBC production values fail to quite manage the wonder of this series, which imagines a fantastic world running in parallel to the London Underground and peopled with beings who take their name from the stops (from the Black Friars to the Angel Islington). The production is quite well done for its obvious budget and time constraints, and the strength and creativity of the story manage through. Highly recommended.

Two Plays for Voices (CD) - Gaiman translates two of his short stories to audio plays, the Sci Fi channel and Seeing Ear Theater get Bebe Neuwirth and Brian Dennehy to star, and the result is an astonishing two hours. Snow Glass Apples gives us a perspective on a familiar tale Walt Disney would not approve of. Murder Mysteries offers us the tale of the first murder investigation. Both are imaginative, bold, and creative. Both are performed and produced beautifully. And aren't I lucky to have a two hour drive that I make quite regularly?

Monstrous Regiment - The newest Discworld book from Terry Pratchett, and still going on quite strong. Well, perhaps not as strongly as the last few (The Wee Free Men, Night Watch and The Last Hero were all spectacularly good), but still very enjoyable. We follow Polly, a strong-willed and clever girl who decides she needs to join the army in order to find and rescue her brother. So, she cuts her hair, tries to manage walking and spitting properly, and gets some critical advice on using socks to create the necessary illusion. From there, it's on to join a unit made up of the last few folk left to recruit as her land struggles with admitting the war is lost. Not a good first book, as it features many other Discworld characters (from The Truth and the numerous Guards books) and many jokes that work only because they were set up in previous books. But certainly not a dud, and some very interesting new ideas to keep the Discworld fresh, including a god who's gotten so old and faded that his commandments are starting to read like crank letters to the local paper.

Quicksilver - The first book of Neil Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, which threatens to be 3000 pages when it's all done. This book is nearly 1000 on its own, but reads along at a brisk pace and keeps you wanting more. Connected more than a little to the spectacular Cryptonomicon, this book is set (mostly) in the mid to late 1600s and deals with the scientific, social, and political revolutions of that era, as observed by the Waterhouses and Shaftoes of this earlier era. Newton and Liebniz create calculus while we watch (and, as he managed to make modular arithmatic and cryptanalysis approachable in Cryptonomicon, Stephenson manages to summarize the essential nature and usefulness of this discovery so anyone can follow it), the crowns of Europe strugle for dominance while we watch, and more than a few surprises are slipped in. There are a few anacronisms (some quite humorous, others annoying), a few odd affectations (particularly in spelling certain words... why fancied should be phant'sied while other words that have changed since the 17th century are unaffected I don't know... and I don't think ninnyhammer was ever spelled "ninehammer"), and a very incomplete tale... But I'm very much looking forward to the next ~1000 pages (The Confusion) come April!

Illium - Another opening chapter that left me hanging. Dan Simmons is back to his science fiction roots after a period writing crime fiction, and Illium is as dense and intreguing as Hyperion, plus adds tons of Trojan War material. I'm a real sucker for Homeric material (far moreso than I am a fan of the Caucer and Yates material that inspired Hyperion), and this is as good a work with that source as I've seen, keeping me happy even where it tries to be revisionist. Take a re-staged Trojan War being watched by nanotechnology-empowered "gods", add a post-technological Eloi-like population left behind on Earth, mix in two literature-obsessed robots designed to explore Jovian space, and sprinkle with inexplicable (at least so far) references to Shakespear's The Tempest, mix together in frequently unexpected ways and add a cliffhanger that promises even cooler stuff to come and you've got Illium. I expect more than a year until it picks up again with Olympos, and I'm not going to manage it well.

Yeah... I've kept busy.

Posted by ghoul at October 13, 2003 03:43 PM

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At least you haven't spent half the weekend deleting comment spam....

Posted by: Tim Hall at October 13, 2003 04:09 PM

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