2009/09/04

Confessions of a Crap Artist: A Punctual Failure

When I was in high school, I was an awful student. I do not mean that I was the rowdy, back-talking, antagonistic teen who threw erasers or batteries at teachers and stole homework from other students, etc. No, it was far simpler than that, I was just inattentive and genuinely disinterested in school. Unique? No. I was one of the many who felt exactly the same way about high school during the most unsure years of our lives.



To make matters worst, I was also very punctual. I held a nearly immaculate attendance and rarely was ever late to class. In class, however, I'd space. I'd travel in my mind and every 45 minutes of a period would be a vague hallucination, a mirage at my peripheral while I'd spend my daydreams on more relative matters such as, girls I had constant crushes on, what I'd do with superpowers, and becoming the best hip-hop lyricist before reaching eighteen years of age. I didn't cut class regularly until senior year (you'd think that'd be the year I start sharpening my act) and even then not as often as others, who, starting far earlier than myself had by that point dropped out or only made monthly appearances maybe out of boredom.



No, I'd appear every day to class to attend my failure. I was there for every step of the decline. I didn't care for homework or well prepared studying, eventually I didn't even feel embarrassed for not caring, I'd stare teachers in their disappointed faces a bit proudly and say, "no, I didn't do the assignment." What a stupid kid. It would've been nice to have been interested. Most of the teachers that really taught me anything were around for my elementary and middle school years but by the time of high school I was of the idea, 12 years of schooling is a bit much. Needless to say the thought of college horrified me, the idea of even more school after all this high school business is finally over. In fact after 4.5 years of high school (you didn't really think I graduated on time did you?) the only thing I was grateful for were a few friends, fewer free lunches, and my handwriting, which I stole from U.S. History's Mr. Garabidi, and that was in night school.


The ironic thing is, everything they taught in school that didn't interest me, I later read about or learned on my own through books, films, music and people; and so, I was fascinated by history, math, science, and literature at one point or another but all these points follow one another, only after high school.


It still amazes me that I sat in class day after day, writing rhymes or sketching while the teacher mumbled a lesson in the background. I'd be there for the only reason that I had nowhere else to go, nothing better to do. Retrospectively, its not something I'm too proud of. I should've had somewhere else to go, something else to do. If school was a waste I should've left it instead of wasting my time failing classes. Since then and possibly also because of "then" I have developed a hatred for time wasted. Yet I can't help to think that I'm starting to feel these current days are waste. I feel like I'm sitting through my current present life daydreaming while a lesson is being mumbled in the background and I'm punctual as fuck, I'm there for every second of the blasted thing yet I'm failing but I won't leave, I won't cut or skip out, I just sit there disinterested, inattentive and passing the time.

September Make It Happen



If I could request one thing from the media

this month, what, what, what ever shall it be?


Whiteout. A film to be released Sept. 11, 2009. Starring Kate Beckinsale as a U.S. Marshall investigating a murder in Antarctica (yea, murders happen there too). Based on a graphic novel written by Greg Rucka and penciled by Steve Lieber. To be clear, it was written wonderfully by Rucka and penciled marvelously by Lieber. The graphic novel has no color, its in black and white, with maybe more white than black (reminder, it takes place in Antarctica).


Now, my request is that this film's trailer is exposed as a hoax and that the real film is not this thawed out tragedy of an adaptation. My request, is that the real Whiteout film is in fact in black and white, shot in the widest format of film, does not star Kate Beckinsale as Carrie Stetko (if Carrie looked like Kate Beckinsale she'd probably go into acting not federal law enforcement).


2009/09/03

Farewell Atlantis


Here Comes The Flood

by Peter Gabriel

from the album Peter Gabriel (Car)

released 25-February, 1977


when the night shows

the signal glows on radios

all the strange things

they come and go, as early warnings

stranded starfish have no place to hide

still waiting for the swollen easter tide

there's no point in direction

we cannot even choose a side


i took the old track

the hollow shoulder, across the water

on the tall cliffs

they were getting older,

sons and daughters

the jaded underworld was riding high

waves of steel hurled metal at the sky

and as the nail sunk in the cloud

the rain was warm and soaked the crowd


lord, here comes the flood

we'll say goodbye to flesh and blood

if again the seas are silent in any still alive

it'll be those who gave their island

to survive

drink up dreamers, you're running dry


when the flood calls

you have no home, you have no walls

in the thunder clash

you're a thousand minds, within a flash

don't be afraid to cry at what you see

the actors gone, there's only you and me

and if we break before the dawn,

they'll use up what we used to be


lord, here comes the flood

we'll say goodbye to flesh and blood

if again the seas are silent in any still alive

it'll be those who gave the island

to survive

drink up dreamers, you're running dry

2009/09/01

In Bloom


Between the last two nights, I have watched 5 films that to some degree, starred Claire Bloom. From naive, communist librarian to intriguing vaporous lesbian (marvelously downplayed), loyal nurse and brave wife, a proud citizen and meticulously manipulative widow. Lady Bloom knows range and from how deep a depth to dive and what is more, how much to exhibit, how much to reserve.


The Spy Who Came In From the Cold -

(1965) Directed by Martin Ritt

Starring Richard Burton, Claire Bloom,

and Oskar Werner


Due to its title and an overdramatized trailer, I half-expected a comedy. Richard Burton as a british Derek Flint, super spy, who through a sexy sixties soundtrack tangles and disentangles himself across a varied amount of perils. He'd have encounters with beautiful femme fatales whom are used by Burton as much as he is used by them, of which the cat's claw would be Claire Bloom. Burton would address the audience like a King Richard III and keep us most informed of his thorough english cunning.


Shame on me, I should've known better.


What I got in the stead of my ridiculous expectation was a subtle, intelligent story and film about disinformation espionage.



The Haunting - (1963) Directed by Robert Wise

Starring Julie Harris, Claire Bloom,

Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn


The Haunting is the first classic horror film I've seen. Besides being frightening, it was richly textured. The furniture design, wallpaper, architecture, lighting and shadows made for such a thickly dense environment through which, most of the film moves, as a fish through ocean. One is easily lost in the background, the house itself seems an actor.


The sounds in this film are certainly eerie and director, Wise, has a great way of turning the quiet respites after each haunting into the truly scary moments on screen. A shot of a wall, silent, after it had just been banged on, chilled me to worst degrees than the sudden face of one of the characters jumping onto the screen after a build up of tension. A scene where Julie Harris' Eleanor walked away from the other characters while she voiced-over her thoughts of dejection as the background and all in it, are swallowed by darkness, this scene gave me goosebumps.


I'm not into horror films, mostly because they have a tendency to just throw sudden images on screen mixed with loud sound effects, which effectively scares me but does nothing for me during the rest of the film. The Haunting had very little of this. It was also a psychological thriller that became creepier through the increasing tension of atmosphere and tone. The camera worked well in adding to the element of discomfort, lots of angles and the spiral staircase scene was magnificently shot.



80,000 Suspects - (1963) Directed by Val Guest

Starring Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson

Yolande Donlan, and Cyril Cusack


About an outbreak of smallpox in a town and what is done to contain the contamination. Documentary style 60's film. It reminds me of Albert Camus' The Plague for obvious reasons. I enjoyed both. Though the film didn't have a sense of solidarity and the situation didn't seem as grave as Camus' novel, however this is unfair of me as the film isn't an adaptation of The Plague but rather a novel by Trevor Dudley-Smith.



Alexander the Great - (1956) Directed by Robert Rossen

Starring Richard Burton, Fredric March, Claire Bloom


How possible is it for me to watch a film starring Richard Burton and keep myself from trying to impersonate that thunderous voice of his after the film ends? Well today I needed a nap after watching Alexander the Great. Not that the film exhausted me, not at all, I was merely tired from being awakened too early. This film feels like a prequel to Cleopatra, here Burton is the ever ambitious Alexander the Great instead of the ever ambitious and jealous Mark Anthony. I almost wish this film were longer. One would expect two and a half hours should be good enough; but still I felt much was left out to deny an impression upon me, as to why Alexander was so Great.



The Outrage - (1964) Directed by Martin Ritt

Starring Paul Newman, Laurence Harvey,

Claire Bloom, Edward G. Robinson,

and William Shatner


Screenplay by Akira Kurasawa or some portion of it. Claire Bloom in a southern belle accent and appearance. Also directed by Martin Ritt. Paul Newman as a mexican bandido (he's good in the accent but the spanish words sound like they're spoken by a gringo sometimes). I want to own this film. It gives me an idea that any ill deed perceived is only viewed from it surfacing apex, the submerged portion is what inspired and drove the deed, all its factors and intentions. No one can truly, morally judge only the apex.

These Venes Really Love Soap!




YES!!! The girl at the end is a maniac. I'm starting to like the 80s.

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