I feel strangely lightheaded. I have a weed hangover. I don't know how you stoners do it. I watched that movie In Good Company and if it is possible for the Shins to cheapen themselves any more than they did in Garden State then they did it in this movie. This movie is such test-marketed focus-grouped crap and it's really poorly directed. It's a clear rip-off of Cameron Crowe's style. Considering how shitty his movies usually are, that's pretty pathetic. I included those links to imdb because the message boards are always entertaining and this one where they discuss the "this song will change your life" scene from Garden State is classic.
Does anybody know the details of the Alkali Flats show on saturday? I might want to go to that. The Flats are fun to watch.
UA theater in the Arden Fair Mall is continuing on its trajectory of becoming the Birdcage Theater of the 2000s by showing one old movie every thursday at 10:00. Tonight it's the Shining. I want to go but I'm eating with a big party at Mason's tonight. If I restrain my wine intake (which would be a financially wise choice) I may be able to drive there.
I like this old movie thing.
ReplyDeleteBTW the line "dining with a large party at Mason's tonight" Is cracking me up.
perhaps the implied classiness.
-Natalie
Oh yeah, I guess that does sound funny. I put that because I'm excited that I'll get to try a wide array of dishes due to the fact that there are six of us going. So I knew that in my head but didn't make it into the blog.
ReplyDeletedamn, i could spend all day reading that thread on imdb. i almost spit my tea on the computer screen when someone corrected that dude's mispelling of lynyrd skynyrd.
ReplyDeleteYou're right. That is probably why Malcolm McDowell (the Rupert Murdoch-esque character) chose to go uncredited.-ez
ReplyDeleteI was curious, so I looked this stuff up. Thought I'd share it with you:
ReplyDelete28,293-31,900 civilians in Iraq killed
2242 american military killed
16549 american military wounded
203 coalition troops killed
-michele
I like Cameron Crowe movies!!!
ReplyDeleteI like Say Anything and Fast Times at Ridgemont High (classic), but you can't tell me you like Elizabethtown (didn't see it) and Vanilla Sky (wish I hadn't seen it)
ReplyDeleteYeah, "In Good Company" was like Crowe Lite. In fairness, I didn't think it was the be-all-end-all of humanity (although it had about 17 Iron and Wine songs too many on the soundtrack and was so low-key as to be instantly forgotten 20 seconds into the closing credits -- wait; what were we talking about again?), but it wasn't necessarily time well spent. Crowe made some a coupla sharp films some time back. But I'm starting to think he may have to stick to directing trailers.
ReplyDeleteThe Onion pretty much nailed it with thier "Cameron Crowe To Release Only Soundtracks" article.
ReplyDeletemiller
Vanilla Sky was a piece of shit. However, Elizabeth town was 2/3 a piece of shit and 1/3 really fukcing funny. He got all the southern stuff right and all the romance stuff totally wrong.
ReplyDeleteI sure wish I'd spellchecked that.
ReplyDeleteI thought Fast Times was Amy Heckerling.
ReplyDelete-Connie
Michele,
ReplyDeleteToo sad for words.
-Connie
oh yeah, crowe just wrote it, so he's not responsible for any classics in my opinion. Like I said I haven't seen Elizabethtown but the trailers and ads were so barfy I don't think I probably will.
ReplyDeleteConnie,
ReplyDeleteyeah, I know. It's just wierd, since it's been 3 years now the Iraq war is part of our daily life. But 3 years of war can kill off 30,000 civilians pretty easily I guess. And that's a lot of wounded American soldiers, especially since "wounded" means missing limbs.
-michele
Good catch on the Heckerling, Connie. Remember the great Spanish-subtitled print of "Fast Times" in the halcyon days of Minor midnight movies? Even though the subtitles themselves were of dubious accuracy?
ReplyDeleteI passed on "Elizabethtown" -- I do seem to recall Slate's film critic made a comment that he went into such a state of stupefying boredom that he could hear the sound of the film traveling through the projector overhead. That told me all I needed to really know.
> I was curious, so I looked this stuff
ReplyDelete> up. Thought I'd share it with you:
>
> 28,293-31,900 civilians in Iraq killed
>
> 2242 american military killed
>
> 16549 american military wounded
>
> 203 coalition troops killed
>
> -michele
To put the figure of 31,900 civilians killed in three years into perspective: The British killed 250,000 civilians in ONE SINGLE NIGHT during their bomb run on Dresden, Germany. Contemporary society doesn't seem to be able to stomach wholesale slaugher the way we used to in the olde days...
War is hell, and all that.
Mr. Thomas Malthus
--Thomas Malthus
Those numbers look pretty high compared to what I've read. (Especially for a single day as opposed to the full assault on Dresden which went over several days). Anyway, no fair to blame the brits for all of it... the USAAF (GO USA!) had a strong hand as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWdresden.htm
I think a "normal" war is different. When we get involved in something that makes no sense to most people, it's different.
ReplyDeleteWe showed 'em in Granada though!
Dude, a "normal war"????????? Fuck that. War is not normal. I don't care if it is a GIANT part of our history (and by "our" I don't just mean American, I mean human), it still is not normal. -ez
ReplyDeleteYea, the high Dresden figure above is one of the higher ones bantered about. These Dresden figures often depend on your source--not only do you have to account for the city's original inhabitants you also have to add the large number of Eastern European refugees (just pass'n thru) killed whilst fleeing the advancing Russkies. Anyway, I've seen estimates for Dresden that range from 20,204 (the official German count) up to the 250,000 quoted above.
ReplyDeleteThe tactic that destroyed Dresden was more of a Brit thing as they were into night time carpet bombing. The USAAF (USA! USA! USA!) just did the clean up bombing. The USAAF did kill 250,000 to 270,00 in their firebombing of Tokyo though.
But anyway, the main point was to illustrate how much smaller our death tolls have become in our puny contempory "wars". There were many battles and campaigns during WWII that had taken tens of thousands of lives (and HIGHER) in a blink of an eye--the 31K Iraqi dead in three years pales in comparison.
Mr. Thomas Malthus
> Dude, a "normal war"????????? Fuck
ReplyDelete> that. War is not normal. I don't care
> if it is a GIANT part of our history
> (and by "our" I don't just mean
> American, I mean human), it still is
> not normal. -ez
War IS normal, you tree hugging granola eat'r.
More war! More pestilence! More disasters! More Soylent Green factories!
Mr. Thomas Malthus
Hell, even monkeys have wars. A chimp, our closest living relative, have wars all the friggin' time. If it's good enough for a chimp, it's damn well good enough for you, ez.
ReplyDeleteYea...take that, you Damn, Dirty ez!
ReplyDeleteMr. Thomas Malthus
okay, i guess "normal" and natural" are the same word. i forgot. and, yes, if it's good enough for a monkey, it's good enough for me. although i thought we came from monkeys i didn't realize we were monkeys still. i sure hope monkeys eat granola and hug trees. because i sure do.
ReplyDeletei am sorry but the fact that i refuse to accept that as humans we cannot transcend war, does not make me a hippy, unless of course "hippie" means "romantic". i am really glad to know that a bunch (or is it one anonymous person) of warmongers have enough time to read this blog....shouldnt you be busy colonizing some part of thre world? if it is good enough for bush, it's good enough for you?
emily
Okay, I have to go drink now. i am super depressed from all this WAR talk. i don't care about the size of a war---war is war. and it sucks. and i think there are others who agree with me that , while it may be a part of our history, that does not make it okay. -ez
ReplyDeletep.s. i am scared of you, mr. thomas malthus.
> i am sorry but the fact that i refuse
ReplyDelete> to accept that as humans we cannot
> transcend war, does not make me a
> hippy
Ummm...YES it does make you a hippie.
> unless of course "hippie" means "romantic"
That's the worse kind of hippie. If you're talk'n the MC5 variety of hippie, then that's very different.
Mr. Thomas Malthus
> Okay, I have to go drink now. i am
ReplyDelete> super depressed from all this WAR
> talk.
Ok, my sincere apologies to the person who posts as ez/emily.
I did not mean to depress you with all this bantering of death tolls and all. Nothing wrong with a little drinky drink to cure what ails ya.
Mr. Thomas Malthus
Emily,
ReplyDeleteJust because I know some history about war (and monkeys!) doesn't make me a warmonger. Humans didn't just come from monkeys, we're still primates. Homo sapiens have MORE hair than chimps, only it isn't as dark.
I don't think humans will transcend war. We've already lost our gamble on natural selection (it's only a matter of time), so don't worry about the small stuff. Just enjoy life and read blogs about Sacramento restaurants and bands.
There's a really good quote about this in The Happiness of the Katakuris. You should netflix it.
I'm not a God-fearing man like Mr. Thomas Malthus, either.
Welll actually, the Thur at 10 thing was at Sac Inn. It was my idea to do it back when I was in (lower) management there. Let's not talk about how no one ever showed up - so it failed miserably, ok? Unless Birdcage "stole" the idea sometime much later, and I never knew about it...
ReplyDeleteThanks, mr. i -know -alot -about -history, but i don't have netflix. oh, and emily is my real name... do you have one? or do just prefer to be clever ?
ReplyDeleteyour peace-loving hippie,
emily
No, I have netflix, and you, my peace loving acquaintance, should get it. Or ask someone you know to netflix The Happiness of the Katakuris.
ReplyDeleteShould I call myself Emmy? Is that okay?
> I'm not a God-fearing man like Mr. Thomas Malthus, either.
ReplyDeleteanonymous,
The God-fearing Mr. Malthus is an entirely different person--he is the ye olde bizarro world Mr. Malthus. I am typing from the 23rd Century thru a whale blubber powered gonkulator.
Your misanthropic man of leisure,
Mr. Malthus
For the dude who didn't think 30,000 was enough dead people, it's been brought to my attention that the figure I originally posted is the most conservative number (from Iraq Body Count based on reported deaths in western newspapers only) and thus the most frequently quoted number. Epidemiologists have published several studies based on statistical methods (most notably in the Lancet), which put the number closer to between 100,000-150,000.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.zmag.org/lancet.pdf
http://timlambert.org/category/lancetiraq/
http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3352814
-michele
P.S. And I agree with Emily, that 30,000 is never going to seem like a low number, even against Dresden figures.
Smitty, quit being such a lil' dickens! Go eat some granola and hug a tree. I promise you'll feel better.
ReplyDelete-Connie
It's hard for me to resist erasing all those fake name and anonymous comments (now that I think I have figured out how to do it), but I guess I might as well leave it up. The dumb comments are always the ones that are unsigned!
ReplyDelete