Thursday, May 20
My wife and I saw Mean Girls today. Damn, that's a good film. I'm a big Tina Fey fan, which is why I went to see it in the first place, but now I'm equally a Lindsay Lohan fan. She plays an incredibly complex character struggling through her first experience in school (after being home schooled in Africa by her anthropologist parents). The movie's take on high school is dead on: it's like the animal kingdom, except that backstabbing replaces (barely) bloodlust. This is, easily, the smartest film about high school since Heathers. And it's a better film than Heathers, too, since in the end the characters figure out ways to resolve their problems with words rather than death and dismemberment. Well, okay, someone gets hit by a bus, but at least she recovers, and it's not really the point of the end, anyways. The point of the film--the moral, if you will--is that girls spend too much time being mean to each other, and it makes everyone miserable, so quit with the cliques and just be friends.
If there's a problem with the movie, it's that the guy characters are pretty one-dimensional (save Lohan's love interest, who seems marginally interesting, and the gay guy, who the girls see as one of their own anyways). I guess the film could have been more interesting if they'd thrown in a few "mean boys" as well, to point out that high school's a trauma for everyone. Still, this is a movie about mean girls, so the lack of mean boys isn't really a problem.
So check it out! It's a fun film, and it's a welcome relief considering the abhorrent shit that is masquerading for movies this year!
If there's a problem with the movie, it's that the guy characters are pretty one-dimensional (save Lohan's love interest, who seems marginally interesting, and the gay guy, who the girls see as one of their own anyways). I guess the film could have been more interesting if they'd thrown in a few "mean boys" as well, to point out that high school's a trauma for everyone. Still, this is a movie about mean girls, so the lack of mean boys isn't really a problem.
So check it out! It's a fun film, and it's a welcome relief considering the abhorrent shit that is masquerading for movies this year!
Sunday, May 9
Congratulations to Thomas Köner for winning first prize in the Prix Ars Electronica competition for 2004. His work, Banlieue du Vide, "deals with surveillance and emptiness. During the winter of 2003-4, Thomas Köner collected approximately 3,000 images recorded by surveillance cameras and made freely available in the Internet. All of these images show empty, snow-covered streets by night. Köner then added an accompanying soundtrack of colorless ambient noise and traffic sounds that represent memory. The only noticeable movement in these images framed within a setting of monumental background sound effects is that of the changing structures of the snow on the streets." Sounds interesting! Other winners included AGF, Janek Schaefer/audiOh! Room, Leafcutter John, and Fennesz. This is a big-time competition, so even getting honorable mention is considered quite a tribute. So well done to all!
Saturday, May 1
I was checking out someone's blog and noticed this interesting "chain letter" thingy. The rules are these:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Normally, I don't bother with chain letters, but I like books, and I had two right in front of me, so what the hell?
The first book is Runyard Kipling's Kim, which I'm planning to teach in a class this summer. I went to page 23 and found the fifth sentence. It's a doozy:
Not bad, eh? The other one is Finnegans Wake, Joyce's ultra mind fuck (and, in case you're wondering, I HAVE read this--twice). Here's the fifth sentence:
Which do YOU think is better?
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
Normally, I don't bother with chain letters, but I like books, and I had two right in front of me, so what the hell?
The first book is Runyard Kipling's Kim, which I'm planning to teach in a class this summer. I went to page 23 and found the fifth sentence. It's a doozy:
He called for a new light-ball to his hookah, and considered the case.
Not bad, eh? The other one is Finnegans Wake, Joyce's ultra mind fuck (and, in case you're wondering, I HAVE read this--twice). Here's the fifth sentence:
And that was the first peace of illiterative porthery in all the flamend floody flatuous world.
Which do YOU think is better?
