films enjoyed recently: wilbur wants to kill himself & palindromes

albums enjoyed recently: new buffalo - last beautiful day, rhythm & sound - see mi yah, wrens - meadowlands, safety scissors - tainted lunch, donna regina - slow killer.

who wants to go skiing some weekend in december? i've been cross-country skiing once and never downhill, so i'd be on the bunny slopes.

what's in your greencine / netflix / movies-to-be-watched queue?

me:

Before Sunrise
Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself
L.I.E. (which was returned to tacoma A WEEK AGO and is still listed as not received yet)
The Happiness of the Katakuris
Rear Window
Ghost World
In the Bedroom
Blue
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
House of Sand and Fog
Malena
Outfoxed: Murdoch's War on Journalism

independence air had no inflight movies.. but they did have portable media players you could rent. the first movie i watched was birth which totally sucked. the script was completely nonsensical, the plot filled with a million holes that rendered it unwatchable. the camerawork itself was pretty, though, so i scrolled through it for awhile hoping it would get better. it continued sucking. doesn't nicole kidman get offered more interesting things than this?

next i tried the incredibles. this script at least wasn't dumb, but i hated it all the same. i can see how it would be successful.. the adult commentary would entertain one population segment.. the kids would like the action. the philosophical commentary itself, though, was repulsive. the whole thing is a cleverly written piece of conservative propaganda, touching on nearly every republican point of argument. there's the commentary about malpractice lawyers (the guy who sues because he's saved while trying to commit suicide), the criticism of the supposed persecution of the "elite" and celebration of the "mediocre", cynicism about the educational system (which is warranted, but not the aspects which are presented), comments about how "evil" is out to "destroy marriage", a city that appears to be nyc yet has one black guy living in it, and rampant sexist crap throughout. it's like the worst parts of a crappy sitcom rolled into the worst parts of a superhero story. how people could show this crap to their kids and then talk in the next breath about the media warping their minds is beyond me.

i'm spending today organizing the films i want to see at the seattle international film festival which starts on thursday. in past years, i sometimes volunteered at the festival.. but since my schedule is so insane, this year i'll just be an attendee.

i love the new site design. they created a tool where you can plan out everything you want to see and it makes a calendar for you. however, the one thing they *didn't* have was a way to send other people a link to the calendar.. similar to amazon wishlists. i emailed them this morning suggesting that they add it for future years. i got an email back just now saying "thanks.. we've now added that feature." nice turnaround!

so anyone who is interested in joining me, reply to this with an email and i'll forward you the schedule of ones i want to see. :D

i am stealing and reposting from arielmeadow - free screenings of "it's all gone pete tong", a film about a club dj losing his hearing. they're happening in various places around the country (atlanta, boston, chicago, detroit, san diego, dc, portland among others). the imdb reviews indicate that people who aren't into dj'ing/dj culture stil seemed to enjoy it.

palindromes is playing this weekend at the harvard exit.

one of the imdb comments says: "compared to this, happiness was a crowd-pleasing knockabout comedy" and "this is probably solondz' bleakest movie to date". that's the kinda endorsement that gets me interested.

imdb also claims solondz spent his life savings on the film because there wasn't one studio willing to back it.

and on friday night, octave one! the post just says vaguely 'static factory' so i'm assuming that means the lower level.

i puked a lot this morning. but when i asked to go home from work, my manager was suspicious. i know he thought i just wanted to enjoy the sunny weather and start the party early on a friday.

i find it unthinkable to be off work and not do anything, though. so i called my mom and told her to come see the wild parrots of telegraph hill with me. this film was designed for my mom.. she's an animal freak who owns a bunch of birds. apparently it's a true story about this homeless street musician (originally from seattle, but now lives in sf) who has a flock of parrots who follow him around. it's not really my kind of movie.. i'd prefer to be watching the flaming lips documentary or born into brothels or oldboy... but i know she'll like it.

the stranger told me they were printing my letter about orpheum this week. i haven't picked up an issue yet to see if it actually made it into the paper or just online.

someone asked what i thought about irreversible. i just finished watching it. unlike every other imdb review, i had no strong reaction to the violence/rape. there's only one film i've ever seen which had a rape scene that actually disturbed me, and that was boys don't cry. i had to close my eyes briefly during that one.

some parts of irreversible felt realistic, esp. the house party. yet i still had difficulty connecting with the characters. the nauseating camera movements took place during every scene but the rape scene.. yet that's the place where i feel they would've been most appropriate and effective. i was bemused by the pair of turntables in her apartment - who was the dj? the soundtrack was good though.

my plans for the weekend include assembling ikea furniture, working on a website for a food bank, watching fresh and irreversible, not seeing marques wyatt because marques apparently had a death in his family.. and no kissing at all. :(

i just rejoined netflix (tho i still haven't cancelled my greencine membership). they now have a friends list to share recommendations! if you use netflix too, add me to your list! the email address i use is kim4netflix*at*seattletechno.com.

most of the movies that other people describe as disturbing, troubling, depressing, etc. provoke little reaction in me. i can't say that visitor q completely succeeded. however, it definitely surpasses all the other films i've seen which have been described as "fucked up".

i tried to watch it at work but in the first minute discovered that i wouldn't be able to get away with that ;) from there on out i decided i was a fan.

last night r. & i stayed up 'til 5 watching the hunting of the president and supersize me and drinking wine. when i get smashed, i can't sleep. i wrapped my toes around the aluminum bars of my bed, trying hopelessly to stop the world from spinning. i finally passed out only to awaken at 9 feeling like shit. so i got up and started listing my record collection in discogs. it takes forever but it's an oddly calming process. it's also educational - i didn't realize i had two copies of paperclip people - the climax (although they're slightly different versions, so i'll justify it that way.)

when she woke up i attempted to cook breakfast. you can tell when i am cooking because the smoke detector begins shrieking and wailing. the hashbrowns ended up a dark brown yet still not fully cooked. i dumped garlic and chili powder and pepper all over them and it seemed to help. the vegetarian bacon was black, limp, and oily. i made coffee but i was out of sugar. i decided to try splenda instead but since no spoon was handy i dumped in an unmeasured amount and the coffee was murdered by nasty chemical sweetener-flavor. only the scrambled eggs with feta turned out well, but r. doesn't eat eggs. i held the sides of my head, feeling terrible with my hangover and my crap-cooking-guilt. luckily she isn't a picky eater and didn't notice. she isn't picky in general. i appreciate that about her character, and it probably makes being friends with me a lot more enjoyable. :P


why do these shoes by marc newson have to be nikes? they're so wonderful but i just can't justify wearing nikes. hopefully he'll start designing shoes for somebody less reprehensible.

i'm about halfway through watching l'avventura.

i like the cynical dialogue.

i'm enthralled with these bathing caps. man i want one. ebay doesn't have any that resemble them.

r. riding a camel in morocco. *sniff*


i would much rather be riding around on camels than sitting in this cubicle.


at lunch i watched triumph of the will for my media persuasion class. a pity that all that gorgeous cinematography was wasted on such dark ends.

interesting site stating that netflix will deliberately delay shipping your movies based on how many movies you rent per month. it's old news (2003) but it's the first time i'd read it. another netflix user keeps a journal which seems to indicate that this practice is still occurring today. yuck. makes me glad i have greencine 'cause at least they have a non-deliberate reason for their longer shipping time.

i'm testing blockbuster's dvd service because i traded cosmicserpent one of his free ipod offers for one of my free flatscreen offers. shipping was fast.. only a day. seems to be coming from seattle. i wonder if they engage in similar deliberate delays if you're an actual member, though. i don't plan on keeping it, but i do think it's cool that they give you 2 free in-store rentals a month with the membership.

dvd rental review is a cool site that rates all the online dvd rental services on various factors. seattle also has a local version, mercurydvd. they do both netflix-like service and a dvd delivery service that's more like kozmo where they drive the dvd's over to your house if you're too tired/drunk/whatever to go to the video store. they also have adult titles.

i am slowly attempting to download movies via bittorrent (or bitcomet, to be specific).

i really want to download maestro, a documentary about larry levan, frankie knuckles, the early history of house music/clubbing/etc. but apparently it hasn't been released on dvd yet. it's been playing around europe, japan, canada, etc. since 2003 but it doesn't start showing in seattle until december.

i liked the magnetic fields show. it was worth the ticket, even though ticketmaster put me in the seat that was literally the farthest away from the stage in the entire venue. that's what i get for waiting to buy my ticket.

afterward i went to see nonstatic play @ jai thai. i tried some jello shots for the first time and found them disgusting. i'm not a huge jello fan to begin with, so i'm sure that didn't help.

the promoter who was s'posed to supply free tickets for the derrick carter/garth show didn't come through, and i wasn't about to pay $25 for mark naficy's club (or anyone's club, for that matter). i'd misplaced my ticket to seacompression and ended up staying in and watching my own private idaho instead.

even though i was sick and needed sleep, i still felt disturbed that i wasn't doing anything halloween-y. i have a great fear of becoming 'old'. i associate the following things with being old: not continuously learning, not changing (appearance, location, what i eat, etc.), not travelling, becoming overly cynical, becoming apathetic/stagnant, not having real friendships, not being social regularly, not going out on holidays that i like. not all older people are 'old'. quite a few people my age or younger are 'old' in my mind.

i liked henry & june. the imdb critics say that it's one nonstop softcore pornfest, but i disagreed. maria de medeiros-as-anais came off as actually caring about her lovers beyond just experimentation.

the past few nights have been filled with terrible nightmares. in one, earth attacked 37 other planets in a takeover attempt. our destruction was imminent. i worry that this is a prophetic dream about bush getting re-elected.

tomorrow night at chop suey (via the stranger):
Election Night Party (DRINKING & DEMOCRACY) Tonight's the night we learn the fate of the free world. I don't know about you, but I need a drink--and I don't want to drink alone. So The Stranger's Department of Homeland Security is hosting a free party at Chop Suey where we will eat, drink, and pound the shit out of a George W. Bush piñata while watching the election results on big-screen TVs. Returns should start coming in from those all-important East Coast swing states around 5:30 p.m., so doors open early. Join us to either (a) drown your sorrows or (b) celebrate our victories. Monorail recall chumps are NOT invited. (Chop Suey, 1325 E Madison St, 324-6628, 5 pm, 21+, free.) DAN SAVAGE

damn, resfest kicks ass this year. i'm very excited that i'm coincidentally going to be in sf at the same time because it's skipping seattle :( other cities next in the tour are london, austin, LA, portland, dc, chicago, melbourne, etc..

a few of the films:

shynola rarities - '... a body of work that includes pieces for UNKLE, Quannum, Radiohead, Steve Malkmus, Lambchop, Junior Senior, Queens of the Stone Age, Blur, and The Rapture'

warp vision - various stuff with lfo, plaid, jamie lidell, squarepusher, etc.

cinema electronica - faultline, kid606, bonobo, madvillain, bogdan raczynski, pepe deluxe, etc

videos that rock - tv on the radio, jason forrest, badly drawn boy, beta band, franz ferdinand, mum, shins, modest mouse

full program guide