I’m glad to see that mcc posted today too. We were doing so well, and then we all sort of fell off the earth. Well, it’s that time of year, and I know that everyone’s been pretty insanely busy. I myself worked 12 hours on Thursday. I’m not saying that to brag… I’m lazy and readily admit it. I’m just saying, if *I’m* pulling that shit, you know there’s a lot going down. The others are undoubtedly under much more than I. Anyway, hopefully we’ll all get back on track.

For my part, I just got back from seeing The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. As usual, I don’t have a great deal to say, but I’ll offer my summary for any of you who value my judgement as pertains to film. I was a bit anxious about it, to be honest… the books are among my very favorites. I was given a boxed set of the whole series by my mother when I was pretty young (the loss of which I continue to regret deeply) and have enjoyed the stories many times since. So, as with any story in which you have a personal investment, it’s natural to worry if a film will capture it. On top of that, it was a Disney production, and that’s enough to jeopardize any movie project. As it turns out, though, I really quite liked it, and I don’t think that’s just because I had low expectations. There were a few missteps, like, I didn’t really feel all the voices fit quite right with the animals (Liam Neeson as Aslan, Rupert Everett as Fox, and the dude I don’t know who did Maugrim), and there were a few unnecessary silly jokes. Pretty much all the rest was quite good… they were very reasonably faithful to the book, Tilda Swinton was an inspired, nay, a *perfect* choice for Jadis and I found the kids quite charming, even when the acting wasn’t at it’s best. The CG was quite excellent, and what subtle imperfections I saw were more than made up for by the effort that clearly went into Aslan. Even my with jaded outlook as to the use of CG (thanks to George F’ing Lucas), I was really quite impressed. Ironically, it was ILM who did it, so maybe the problem with those Star Wars movies wasn’t the CG but the shitty dialog and uninspired acting, afterall. So, anyway, I can recommend for all but the most obsessive of the “You must follow the book exactly” crowd. Check it out.

The personal quest to which I referred is nothing as grandiose as bringing salvation to an enslaved world of magic, or even delivering a ring to a volcano. Mine was a simple task, but one which has nonetheless been a long time in progress. I had been searching for the perfect glass for drinking Scotch Whiskey. As much as I love consuming the stuff, I wanted to perfect the experience to the greatest possible extent. So I did my research. I found that many knowledgeable connoisseurs use cognac, sherry or brandy glasses (these being curved enough to contain the fumes and capture the nose), that the straight sided highballs are the result of that bastard concoction “scotch and soda”, and that the traditional quaich is generally regarded as truly inferior vessel. I added to this my own opinions, namely, Scotch Whiskey is a bold drink, and an intensely powerful spirit. Thus, despite the fact that it’s complexity is wine-like, stemware meant for milder fare simply feels wrong. Stemware is a maintenance hassle as well, being generally fragile and prone to degenerating rapidly into an incomplete set. That would leave the currently trendy stemless wine glasses, but these are still somewhat thin and fragile, not to mention overlarge for scotch. Perhaps it’s a holdover from my days of drinking out of improper tumblers and highballs, but I nonetheless want my glass of Scotch to have some heft. It must feel good and solid in my hand, not fragile and delicate. In the end then, the glass for which I have been searching is one which is heavy and somewhat thick of wall, smallish, say between 6 and 12 ounces, has no stem, and is yet curved sufficiently to offer a nose. This is not a common glass, and yet, finally, I have found it at, of all places, Bloomingdales, which g suggested checking out, almost on a whim. I think these are meant for juice or something, but they meet all the criteria, and didn’t cost any more than decent stemware. We have tested them now on multiple occasions and agree that the choice was well made. The only fault they have, if any, is that their size limits the surface area, but we think that’s possibly a feature, actually… Scotch doesn’t seem to benefit from oxygenation the way wine does, and the accumulated evaporated fumes seem plentiful enough. So, at last, the glass :

Just got back from The Ice Harvest. I’m still sorting through my feelings, but once I do, I’ll re-read the pajiba review and no doubt find them in approximate synchrony. To the extent, however, that the mood of such a film is relevant, I think it delivered. The very last scene left kind of a 9V battery taste however. That is to say, it seemed somewhat wrong. I haven’t changed my mind about existentialism, regardless… I still want to reject it because it’s bullshit, but am nonetheless strangely drawn to the works. Maybe I’m just a masochist.

When I left the theater, things felt a little strange. Out of phase or something. It felt more like 5 am on a Thursday than 2 am on Sunday (which is, of course, still Saturday night, even in the south). The air had that eerie still quality that seems utterly omnipresent around dawn, and the low clouds were reflecting back so much city light, I could have driven without headlights. Anyway, kind of a strange night, I guess. It’s been a unique few days, actually… but I’ll leave off for now.

First of all, let me say this : I fucking hate movie reviewers. Even when I agree with them, I want to kick them in the grill. I generally read them and then wonder why I bothered, because I *had* been perfectly happy with life beforehand.

With that as a backdrop, imagine my astonishment to find an online movie review that didn’t cause any freeing of my hate, or even any mild displeasure. In fact, I was laughing… the review was funny! Funny and spot on accurate. Do y’all selves a favor, head over to pajiba.com and read some shit. They’re not paying me to say that, because no one reads this blog and anyway, I wouldn’t even take money to pimp, say, Ebert or Roper or any of those mass market fucks. I seriously enjoy their reviews.

Ok, moving on. James and Nick and I saw Waiting and laughed our skulls off. Nick has the most food service experience in the past and claims that, with the exception of the food desecration part, it was completely true to reality. I can recommend it for anyone who still laughs when people say “package”, regardless of context. It’s that kinda flick.

I took some time before talking about this next one, because I wanted the opportunity to see it twice, and to let my feelings gel somewhat. Serenity is a movie I waited a really long time for. I wasn’t what you’d call a Browncoat, in the sense that I don’t get into little web niches very much. That being said, I signed the petitions when I saw them, and I tell absolutely fucking everyone how awesome Firefly was. I still have a corner of myself dedicated to the hope that the show can somehow, someday, be resurrected.

As far as the film goes, truthfully, the pajiba.com review pretty much gets it exactly right, so I don’t have a lot left to say. My rant above was not prompted by this review specifically, but it is what prompted me to finally give the linkup, after a few months of reading them.

At any rate, let me sum up the foremost of my feelings below.

1. Fuck Fox. My brain won’t even let me conceive a reasonable explanation for cancelling Firefly. It’s actually painful to contemplate that it’s gone. A TV show, for christ’s sake. But it’s more than that, really… it was a *fucking great* TV show. The characters were 3 dimensional and interesting, the story was fabulous, the writing was quick and sharp, the acting was superb and you could just *feel* how much the cast enjoyed playing those roles. I feel like I got stabbed in the ribcage, and it still fucking aches. Serenity let me spend a little longer in a world I honestly love, which is enough, even if it feels bittersweet.

2. Again, the characters simply exuded a sense of veracity, of legitimacy, seldom seen anywhere, on any size screen. The reason the fans of Firefly are so vocal is because the characters were so real that you feel connected to them. I mean, I really like Scrubs, but I could give a fuck about what happens to the characters in the end. Not so here. I know many people who’ve spent some real time with the show got choked up at moments in this movie, and I totally feel that.

3. There is still hope for a resurrection of the show. As long as the actors and writers still want to do it, it can happen. A lot of folks were depressed that the action in the film smashed any hope for a new show. I have read not one forum dedicated to the show or the movie, but I can think of at least 3 possible ways to move forward, and that’s not even trying. Also, I’m kind of an idiot, so without question there’s a freaking ton of things I’m not considering.

But it doesn’t matter anyway. I’m confident that Joss Whedon could make it happen pretty much regardless. And I *really* want it to happen. If I was a billionaire, I’d fund it myself and take a loss if necessary. More realistically, I’d pay for cable again just to watch this one show.

Here’s hoping.

m brought to our attention the following potentially-outstanding idea: Christopher Walken for President. just think, during the debates, he could say to the other party: “You talkin’ to me all wrong, it’s the wrong tone. You talk to me like that again, and I’ll stab you in the face with a soldering iron.” T-shirts available here, here, and elsewhere on cafepress but i want one that says “more cowbell” on the back.

While the serious situation with Mike continues, I thought I might post something on another topic altogther. Altercation directed me to the following interesting post that succinctly brings together a point that we have been discussing for some time, namely that consolidation and the race to the bottom in content across the media has driven a large number of Americans to alternatives, thus continuing the financial pain inflicted on the media companies:

But the internet allows for an viable alternative to come into use: Blogs. Poof! There go your readers. For Radio, its the rise of iPods and Satellites. Poof! There go your listeners. Print media is deep into the effect. Hollywood is only starting to feel it, as is TV. (Haven’t figured out about books, as we produce so many unique titles each year).

Bottom line: Any content industry that finds itself dramtically reducing variety or quality or both, is an industry heading for long term trouble — especially if the internet can be used to easily and cheaply find an adequate or superior substitute.

Go to The Big Picture and read the whole thing. Very interesting stuff. Good blog– may have to go on the blogroll.

..that Chow Yun-Fat never wasted his fabulous acting skills and reputation on some amateurish action film with Seann William Scott. I’m also glad that Seann William Scott, for his part, decided to stick to vulgar slapstick comedy, which he’s great at, instead of trying new areas in which he had no skills to speak of. Finally, I’m most pleased that no such movie ever would have made it onto my Netflix queue. The fact that my third movie never arrived this week must have been a misunderstanding. But Netflix are good guys so I’m just gonna let it drop.

Just caught this film on it’s second run, down at the midtown art cinema. I liked it quite a lot. It was fantastic, and beautiful, with all the brilliant use of color and imagery I had expected. Story wise, it wasn’t remarkably original, but the tensions between characters were made very real. All in all, 3 of 4 stars. Should find its way into the DVD collection eventually.

The only downside was not part of the movie, but was the dumb bastards who couldn’t keep their traps shut. “Saw that coming…” Oh really? Well aren’t we a fucking detective… I’m sure the rest of the theater is as impressed with your masterful deductive skills as I am, asshole. Or how about the, “Oh, now it’s winter!” comment. Jesus, people, there’s this thing, called imagery, which you may have heard of? It’s, like, pretty common. These are the same people were indignant about the flying scenes in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It’s not that I’m worried about missing dialog or any such thing… but I feel like when you’re out at a theater there should be a little more decorum. I don’t have the same response to TV shows or DVD’s, for the most part, so maybe I’m being inconsistent, but whatever. Chattering in a theater when there’s a real movie playing is like wearing sneakers to the opera.