'78 [China Forbes]
Drive [Crystal Method]
Ghost Games [Apes]
The Last Tycoon [Peter Moren]
Saturdays = Youth [M83]
Original Hits [Sylvester]
And my current obssession: Black Moth Super Rainbow. The music lured me in, but this video set the hook.
Tonight, the IFC cable channel rebroadcast The Bridge, an astonishing, heartbreaking, and brutally honest documentary about people who committed suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. The filmmakers secretly staked out the bridge throughout 2004 with multiple cameras, and ended up actually photographing 19 of the 24 people who took their lives by going over the railing. This shockingly unshocking footing is interspersed with interviews with loved ones, and stunning shots of the bridge itself.
But it's much more than that. This movie exists in a place almost beyond documentation, possessing the same weird combination of empathy and detachment seen in Gus Van Sandt's fictional Elephant.
Some have claimed the film is exploitive, but I think they're missing the point: The only way to approach the topic of suicide is with clear eyes and the understanding that you'll never understand it. That is, the more you see, the less you know. And that's the point where The Bridge stops being a movie and becomes something else entirely.
Or as one interviewee says:
I don't have any answers. Just a bunch of observations....
From Josh Levin's review of Meet the Spartans in Slate:
Friedberg and Seltzer do not practice the same craft as P.T. Anderson, David Cronenberg, Michael Bay, Kevin Costner, the Zucker Brothers, the Wayans Brothers, Uwe Boll, any dad who takes shaky home movies on a camping trip, or a bear who turns on a video camera by accident while trying to eat it.I have to disagree. Three minutes of the inside of a bear's disgestive system might be worse than Meet the Spartans. But worse than one of Michael Bay's craptastic blockbusters? Doubt it.
New year resolutions have always seemed a little weird to me--like kissing under mistletoe. I mean, why wait for that specific situation? On the other hand, I'm a very plan-y person. Even buying new blue jeans requires thoughtful consideration and a checklist. Why not take advantage of a cultural imperative to indulge in my own personal obsessions?
So here it is. My resolution for 2008. Late, but not out of date.
Have fun.
Simple and to the point, as all goals should be. I should be able to remember this. And if you're reading this, and you know me, and you see that I'm not having fun on purpose, you have my permission to slap-fight me.
While in Turkey, the husband and tried to take advantage of every opportunity for fun and adventure. For example, we woke up at 4 AM to take a hot air balloon ride over the desolate moonscape of Cappadocia. The baskets were packed tight with chilly tourists. The balloons flew over 2,000 over the rocky terrain. And yet, the ride was still not as scary as the standard Turkish truckstop buffet.
Duh.
(Forgive the crummy resolution and color timing. I took these shots using my digital camera and put it together with MS Movie Magic. Oh, the music is "Dungeoneering" by Tim Hecker. He's awesome!)
