tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68061512024-03-05T09:15:11.646-05:00Hermitosis"All the myriads of eternity/ All the wisdom & joy of life/ Roll like a sea around him/ Except what his little orbs/ Of sight by degrees unfold."Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.comBlogger234125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-66897493048569053152009-07-29T11:28:00.005-04:002009-07-29T12:50:32.998-04:00Movies For Hot Weather<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">E</span></span>very year when the days become intolerably muggy and miserable I get irrational movie cravings. You'd think I'd want to kick back with something chilly and soothing, but it's quite the opposite. My brain craves fever dreams, it wants to <span style="font-style: italic;"></span>bog down in sweltering incoherence and spin its wheels giddily. Suffering through the longest, hottest entertainments during the summer months is its own form of escapism -- it makes it easier to meld with a movie and project yourself into it, and the stain it leaves on your psyche lingers a lot longer. Here are a few of the movies that will help push you over the edge into delirium. Turn off your AC, press a glass of something cold to your forehead, and prepare to lose your mind in luxury.<br /><br />First of all there's <span style="font-style: italic;">Night of the Iguana</span>, adapted from Tennessee Williams' play and starring Ava Gardner, Richard Burton, and the incomparable Deborah Kerr. Most of the movie takes place at an isolated Mexican beach resort where the characters all take turns healing and destroying each other. Here's the trailer:<br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ntAGj7uNZ_A&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ntAGj7uNZ_A&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></center><br /><br />I've posted about Robert Altman's <span style="font-style: italic;">Three Women</span> before. Watching Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall grapple for dominance in the middle of the Californian never gets old for me. Over time (and the movie is over two hours long, so there is a lot of it) camp humor gives way to existential dread amidst the most blinding '70s decor you've ever seen. The lugubrious soundtrack will pin you down and gradually drain your will to live -- but you cannot look away. Here are the first ten minutes:<br /><br /><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iQPnxmVJMrY&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iQPnxmVJMrY&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /><br />This is a real firecracker. You don't have to have seen David Lynch's <span style="font-style: italic;">Twin Peaks</span> TV series to appreciate his cinematic prequel <span style="font-style: italic;">Fire Walk With Me</span> as one of his strangest and most emotionally charged films -- the movie shouldn't work, but for some reason it just does. Lynch gives you all the necessary info on a need-to-know basis as you tour the crime-scenes, roadhouses, and psychotic episodes of small-town America. If Sheryl Lee's sultry/horrified performance doesn't flip some sort of hidden switch in your amygdala, then you might not be human. Here's the trailer:<br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Uw8dd0ODhuE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Uw8dd0ODhuE&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></center><br /><br />Here's another Altman treat. This one goes down smoother than <span style="font-style: italic;">3 Women</span>, but it has about 25 more characters to keep track of and over a dozen musical numbers, so this is long-haul entertainment at its finest. I couldn't find a clip that does <span style="font-style: italic;">Nashville </span>justice, so here's a montage set to one of the movie's songs. Give it a chance and it will become one of those movies you quote at least once a week.<br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/m3wi0GUqF-U&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/m3wi0GUqF-U&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></center>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-2570098463373001952009-07-25T15:30:00.002-04:002009-07-25T15:54:04.172-04:00Wallpaper Dream<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span></span>n last night's dream I was on vacation visiting my mom. She took me with her to visit an elderly female relative whom I'd never met before, warning me that the old woman had never really recovered from the loss of her husband years ago, and that she could be rather crazy and unpleasant.<br /><br />At the old woman's house, things went about like you'd expect -- she asked bizarre questions and acted outraged when the answers didn't meet her expectations. At one point she accidentally broke a coffee mug and then demanded that I pay to have it replaced. Irritated, I refused, pointing out that she'd broken it herself. My mom was ashamed of my manners, but the old woman seemed pleased by my reaction and suddenly took an interest in me. She asked if I wanted to come outside with her and see her garden, the one she'd been working on since her husband died. I let her lead me outdoors.<br /><br />What I saw when she opened the back door awed and terrified me. Every inch of the outdoors had been covered over with wallpaper -- the lawn, the trees, as far as the eye could see, all wrapped in different colors and patterns. Astounded at the depth of her grief and madness, I burst into spontaneous tears and began weeping profusely. She laughed at my reaction. I whirled around, looking for a place she'd missed, but even the flowerbeds were papered over. I could see hints of dark earth in the cracks between sheets of paper. The outside of her house was covered too.<br /><br />My mother rushed outside to see what the commotion was, but she couldn't figure out why I was crying. I tried to explain, but I realized with horror that she couldn't even <span style="font-style: italic;">see </span>the wallpaper, that it wasn't really even there -- the old woman had actually just passed her own vision over to me somehow, infecting me with her madness, which I had been so impatient with earlier. My mind contorted, unable to comprehend itself.<br /><br />Then I woke up. I lay there, relieved -- until suddenly I realized I could hear music playing in the living room! It was 5 AM, why would music be playing? I ran to my computer to check it out, and this is what had been underscoring my dream:<br /><br /><center><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/pQy-cgUYA6g&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/pQy-cgUYA6g&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object></center><br />Nothing had been playing when I went to bed. I think it's possible that one of the cats jumped up on my desk and trampled my keyboard, somehow triggering the "play" button; otherwise I have no idea. I'm sure that the music had something to do with the potency of the dream, though. It gets pretty intense right around the 3:00 mark, which must have been while I was still asleep. Tex always refers to this movement as "music to drink poison to", I should have known I'd eventually fall victim to it.Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-72283060704904691152009-04-06T17:26:00.015-04:002011-09-13T17:34:08.101-04:00SUNDAY, MAY 3RD - UNDER ST. MARKS<object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/_LxE1_Brfu0&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/_LxE1_Brfu0&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Horse Trade Theater Group presents</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);"><span style="font-size:180%;">The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone:<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Montreux, 1976</span><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">@ UNDER St. Marks</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">94 St. Marks Place, btw 1st Ave and Avenue A</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">L train to 1st Ave, F/V to 2nd Ave, N, R, W train to 8th St, 6 train to Astor Pl.</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sunday, May 3rd @ 9:00 PM </span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Just $7 </span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span>D</span></span>ecades before <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">Britney Spears</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">Amy Winehouse</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">Cat Power</span>, or <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">Fiona Apple</span> ever left crowds shaking their heads in concern, there was the legendary<span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 153);"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">Nina Simone</span>. On July 3rd 1976, Simone stepped onto the stage of the <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">Montreux Jazz Festival</span> after a two-year hiatus in Africa. Belligerent and disoriented -- and almost certainly under the influence of illicit substances -- Simone gave the Swiss audience a startlingly vulnerable musical set, liberally spiced with bizarre musings, flubbed lyrics, fits of temper, and querulous shout-outs to her dear (but sadly, absent) friend <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">David Bowie</span>. This filmed performance has become a secret sensation on DVD, but only when experienced with an audience (preferably, a drinking audience) can it be fully appreciated as a goldmine of comedy, tragedy, and musical talent.<br /><br />This two-hour video showcase is a bipolar evening of music, laughter, and indoctrination into the ever-growing cult of Nina, including bonus clips, trivia, games, and special tribute performances by beloved MeatPacking District restaurauteur <a href="http://restaurantflorent.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Florent Morellet</span> </a>and Joe's Pub cabaret idol <a href="http://shellsshow.com/"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Michelle "Shells" Hoffman</span></a>. Curated by hosts <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">Tom Blunt</span> (<a href="http://arcanalogue.com/">Arcanalogue</a>, <a href="http://hermitosis/">Hermitosis</a>) and <span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">Chris Kelly</span> (recently seen in Black Henna Productions' <span style="font-style: italic;">Torch Song Trilogy</span>).Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-12592938920014272812009-03-19T18:14:00.005-04:002009-03-19T18:25:39.599-04:00"There's nothing worse, I'm telling you..."<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">C</span></span>ongratulations, HBO, you've officially locked down the market for big-budget Lifetime-esque movies-of-the-week that will only be enjoyed by bored stay-at-home moms and gays with an unquenchable thirst for camp tragedy.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbEKDFaoOffbycOBBrZTDGuqahN6Wx3jaPUCqGVi0GbV_RBrEnTPivpLbv7Bidino7qJmWtIxfNsFUXVtUGdDTIsmN4L-nuQuOMfSRIMq7JFU22Fsxd9TFLRn_5zVEY6pZqfQa/s1600-h/greygardens.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 268px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbEKDFaoOffbycOBBrZTDGuqahN6Wx3jaPUCqGVi0GbV_RBrEnTPivpLbv7Bidino7qJmWtIxfNsFUXVtUGdDTIsmN4L-nuQuOMfSRIMq7JFU22Fsxd9TFLRn_5zVEY6pZqfQa/s400/greygardens.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5315026275807349266" border="0" /></a><br /><center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tW5ryhrzYC4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tW5ryhrzYC4&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></center>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-44581394081566917152009-02-26T13:09:00.004-05:002009-02-26T13:12:08.273-05:00Actors Needed - "Julius Caesar" on the Ides of March, Live From Central Park!<div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/tlg/1051541379.html"><span style="font-style: italic;">Click here for details</span><br /></a></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/tlg/1051541379.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 368px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi72dMw0ijEsBVZGzswo0YIb-DVfrxtIJzNLgAiUKs6beie__8NWVRDhTS-_t_yfDof8xBznO3DKouXvRlOIp_XKg-ZGFhkcV5-CBqpjD3sK0MUz25HfzfrhTND-ZABv5cPjQMD/s400/New+Caesar+Flier.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5307170078731385538" border="0" /></a>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-64536035629625807932009-02-25T21:24:00.006-05:002009-02-25T22:33:23.406-05:00Greetings, Haunted Late-Night Googlers Of The World!<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">N</span></span>othing makes me feel more cozily connected to the world's freaks and strangers than my web-traffic doohickey that logs all the Google searches which lead people to this site. Thanks to the wide range of subjects I've discussed with my many interviewees and contributers, I pop up --rather misleadingly, I'm ashamed to admit -- in all kinds of searches related to things that most people probably shouldn't look at during work hours.<br /><br />Here's a collection of these search keywords from this last <span style="font-style: italic;">week</span>. I omitted repeats, of which there were many -- especially when it came to "castration fantasy" and "asphyxiation video." As is, this list is a nice little poem channeled from the world's brainstem, composed of nuggets that for the most part you should NOT Google yourself under unless you're feeling pretty adventurous:<br /><br />"Big taranchula eating people parking lot"<br /><br />"3d fantasy castration"<br /><br />"Bloody valentine 3d vulva"<br /><br />"Scholarly articles on Zombies"<br /><br />"Spongebob fan club phone number"<br /><br />"Judi dench + stroke the others arm"<br /><br />"Plastic bag asphyxiation video"<br /><br />"Really gross hairy spiders"<br /><br />"Love my oral surgeon"<br /><br />"Grab ankles horror movie"<br /><br />"African slaves overboard children become water creatures"<br /><br />"Slavery through hypnosis"<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span></span>'d like to imagine each Googler as a maniac, outfitted in threadbare underpants and slurping corn chowder out of a plastic doll-head, desperately killing time until the next twitching, sweaty bout of slumber. Or worse, a thirteen-year-old with his dad's credit card hoping to score some badly faked snuff-porn before his 9PM bedtime, just like at the end of <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_hGBYCJlFg"><span style="font-style: italic;">Demonlover</span></a>. (OMG <span style="font-style: italic;">Demonlover</span>!!)<br /><br />But as a writer who constantly finds himself Googling really sketchy, antisocial-sounding phrases nearly every day as a matter of occupational necessity, I know better (my own browser history reveals particularly damning searches such as "pound puppies cartoon"). I'm sure "slavery through hypnosis" guy (or gal. I sort of hope it's a gal...) is actually just a lot like me! And I hope that next time they're looking for "deathmask lizard erotica" -- for some sort of doctorate thesis of great cultural relevance, no doubt -- that they'll stick around for a while, read a few interviews, say howdy. I sure do enjoy seeing new faces around here.<br /><br />MMMM, chowder.Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-53040181279285152162009-02-24T20:15:00.005-05:002009-02-24T20:25:28.146-05:00Arcanalogue: New Cycle of Cards Underway!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://arcanalogue.com/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 346px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGaktwc5LjEyUJO0BdsYwyejUJWlOxJanxwQLpokhNoYu2ZNRS6e8T_-TLezoTPBrnrqPrJXNQrXw54pBSdP9RGZmAt2qh8Z3XlT2k7DUQjHbHiPnq1bYptYCSTGOkUL8Lu1_8/s400/The+Devil+2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5306537672206563602" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">M</span></span>aybe you haven't noticed, but it's been a little dead around here! I've been taking a break from posting to hermitosis so that I can get my Tarot site, <a href="http://arcanalogue.com/">Arcanalogue</a>, up and running once more; in December I finished a full cycle of 78 cards, and after a short break on <span style="font-style: italic;">that </span>front I'm already ankle-deep in a brand new cycle.<br /><br />Everything's a little bit different over there; the cards have a new look, the <a href="http://arcanalogue.blogspot.com/#random">"Draw One Card"</a> feature has been rolled out, there's a <a href="http://arcanalogue.blogspot.com/2007/05/beyond-tarot-for-dummies.html">blogroll </a>on my resources page, and perhaps best of all, I started a new sideblog on the <a href="http://consultarcanalogue.blogspot.com/">Readings/Events</a> page where I can post about upcoming events, notes from readings, and answers to questions about the Tarot that I get from people all over the place.<br /><br />Don't be sad, things will pick up again over here at hermitosis eventually. In the meantime I'm going great guns over on Arcanalogue and you should visit me there. Draw one card, it'll make you feel better!Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-22319263034919686522009-02-02T12:42:00.002-05:002009-02-02T12:45:27.243-05:00Seen Between Fingers - The Final Chapter...?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/02/seen-between-fingers-final-chapter-or.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 0px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxtM0Ciky_LRe59dZbEoWWLoehL1gmDdGCmZrqfc11QQ3xHzA9-GrUTgUIRm-Fxz6wMpomxUXSFnqD80h9bM87y_Z0ugN4TJtuh6y6C0opIfq0NQB5fkAOXPyXpmVorqf-3VV/s400/chrisgrumpy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235724623900310738" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">n this regular feature, wimp and noted horror non-enthusiast <a href="http://chriskelly.livejournal.com/">Chris Kelly</a> has reported back with his first-impressions of memorable scary movies. Having given the original </span><span>My Bloody Valentine <span style="font-style: italic;">a whirl</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">, it seemed appropriate for him to give the 3-D remake a go. </span><span style="font-style: italic;">What a trooper!</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />This will be the last installment of SEEN BETWEEN FINGERS for the time being. Chris has been a good sport, but I fear that if I don't give him time to rehabilitate and re-sensitize, he could wind up brandishing a pick-axe himself. Thanks to those of you who have expressed your enjoyment of this feature, perhaps we'll revisit it in the future.<br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/02/seen-between-fingers-final-chapter-or.html"><span style="font-size:130%;">WEEK 14 : <span style="font-style: italic;">My Bloody Valentine 3-D</span></span></a></div><span id="fullpost"><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">M</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">y Bloody Valentine 3-D</span> is, first and foremost, the least memorable film ever screened for an audience. Honestly, I would have written this review sooner, but I am continually forgetting that I actually saw the movie. It flew from my mind within minutes of leaving the theater. Despite occasionally excessive gore and intermittently interesting forays into the third dimension, it was by and large a waste of time for all involved.<br /><br />Not that an effort wasn't made -- the film's opening goes out of its way to outdo its predecessor. Harry Warden, formerly just a ghost story, gets one hell of a prologue. Probably still bristling at the notion that nine gory minutes had been removed from the source material, the filmmakers pack the first nine minutes of their remake with the pick-axiest, eye-gougingest, head-shovelingest footage you have ever seen. Take that, MPAA. It was actually an interesting way to begin the story: without context or background, it was suddenly unclear who the main characters were. I had no formulaic plot devices to cling to: anyone could be the star, and anyone could be the next victim.<br /><br />We then jump ten years into the future. This had potential to be a smart choice; the Valentine's Day Massacre is no longer a distant memory for our leads, but a formative trauma from their teenage years. Unfortunately, no one really signed onto this project to do any of that pesky acting, so we're treated to several open-mouthed gawks from the pouty heroines and brooding, flexy stares from the attractive-ish man-heros. We're also repeatedly told that mining is important to this town. (People have trouble articulating how, though, as no one under the age of sixty seems to be actually working in or around the mine.)<br /><br />Just when all the talking and explaining and emoting are starting to wear you down, the movie remembers how to have a good time. Let me tell you, I might not recall 75 percent of what went down on that screen, but I will never unsee the three-dimensional projection of a naked, gun-toting blonde in porn heels parading her shaved vulva across a motel parking lot. Where 1981 viewers had to content themselves with a flash of bra, the new generation can use their depth perception to gauge just how fake those bouncing boobies might be. By the time the murderer has dangled an electrocuted midget from the ceiling, I was prepared to give this movie a second chance. I mean, at least we're trying something different, right?<br /><br />Wrong. It's all routine from here, kids. Sure, the murders are gross. But though I had to close my eyes a couple times, the noteworthy fact is that I kept them open for most of it. Even with the benefit of three dimensions and an ever-loosening set of standards for acceptable on-screen violence, this one couldn't convince me (me!) to look away while people were beheaded and eviscerated for sport. There were also some decent attempts at plot twists, but the love triangle (square?) was kind of hokey and overdone, and in the end, do I really care who they're all sleeping with or which bland, biceped studlet did the actual killing?<br /><br />I guess everyone did their best. The goal, to make the same mediocre movie with more red ooze, was more than achieved. Body parts jumped right off the screen, and that bespectacled dwarf practically chased her dog right into my lap. There was actual sex and constant, punishing death. People said words with ostensible meaning. A body was found in a dryer and a girl was tormented with coveralls, just like the last time OMG!!! But why does any of that matter if I found myself browsing a bookstore thirty minutes later, honestly unable to recall what I had done with my afternoon?*<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">*Full disclosure: I checked my shower for three days to see if the miner was there.</span><br /></blockquote></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-80180570089739246862009-01-21T10:08:00.014-05:002009-01-21T11:10:15.858-05:00INTERVIEW - Lars Horntveth Releases Kaleidoscopic Album That Lynch Would Love<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/interview-lars-horntveth-releases.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 219px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiK9rDIO_y9YrXvKGpDLDMYft8KaWEhEZom0g_tCKM6zIo_37ZAat-3pCt3J49A8giUtENzgLrka5iv-sCTykn08Q0EWT1RfQoDxGRWn84JfM1kmfQ6GUfF8Mk7Xt-LSQk5sJmG/s400/lars.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293764226684246354" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">T</span></span>he Norwegian ensemble <a href="http://www.jagajazzist.com/">Jaga Jazzist</a> has been a platform for many side projects, but Lars Horntveth has really raised the stakes with his new album, joining forces with the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra to produce a 36-minute single track that invites the listener to take an uninterrupted journey across an imaginative sonic landscape (though passages of it are available to preview <a href="http://www.myspace.com/larshorntveth">here</a>). Here's my chat with Horntveth about some of the intentions and influences that made <span style="font-style: italic;">Kaleidoscopic </span>possible...<center><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/interview-lars-horntveth-releases.html"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/hermitosis/INTERVIEWBUTTON.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a></center><span id="fullpost"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: Continuity is a battleground issue in both music and film. Some filmmakers, such as David Lynch, disapprove of films being broken up into chapters on DVD, trying to make it more difficult for the viewer to disrupt the continuity of films. Meanwhile, the music industry is rapidly struggling to adapt to a world where listeners buy singles, not albums. Does <span style="font-style: italic;">Kaleidoscopic</span>'s structure comment on these sorts of issues?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LH:</span> Yes, absolutely. The decision not to cut the album up in tracks was very thought through. It's not that I want to be difficult, but I think Kaleidoscopic has to be listened to from start to finish. There is just too much music released these days and so much of it just don't get the attention it deserves. I just like the idea that you sit down, relax and listen to music. Also that you make time for the music to work. Not all albums are made so you can “understand it” on the first listen. I love albums that take time to understand or like cause they are often those I listen to for many years. So I wanted to make an album like that.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: I read that you count Joanna Newsom among your influences. Can you describe Newsom's impact on <span style="font-style: italic;">Kaleidoscopic</span>?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LH:</span> Joanna Newsom´s <span style="font-style: italic;">Ys</span> was on of the main reasons I wanted to have just on composition on the album. There are 5 tracks on <span style="font-style: italic;">Ys</span>, but they are very long. I think for a pop/alternative singer like Newsom, it's a very brave decision to do that. I guess there were some fans that fell off, but she most certainly got some new, very dedicated ones. Musically, one of my all time favorite composers, Van Dyke Parks, has arranged the orchestra on the album and Jim O'Rourke mixed it. That's inspiration enough for me.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: What does the new Jaga Jazzist work you're rehearsing sound like to you after working on your own music for so long?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LH:</span> Actually, the new Jaga album is already recorded. We are mixing it in February 2009. I think we have managed to combine more complex elements in the music this time. More progressive stuff, harder to play, but still catchy I think. While <span style="font-style: italic;">What We Must</span> was a more straight going, indie rock/shoegazer influenced album, this one is very detailed and “written out.” It´s influenced by Steve Reich, Rick Wakeman, Dungen, Spirit, Fela Kuti, King Crimson, MGMT, Air etc. Hehe, I think it's too early for me to say what this album actually sounds like...<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: How do you know when a musical idea you've had is something for Jaga Jazzist or something for you to work on solo?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LH: </span>That's is actually not a problem for me. First of all, I have three main projects that I work with; Jaga, The National Bank and my solo stuff. There are so many people involved in these bands, so we have to plan our time very far ahead. So it just gets very natural what to do. We took a break with Jaga for almost 3 years, in that time it was natural for me to do something on my own. Another aspect is that with Jaga, I write for nine people I have known almost all my life, not nine professional musicians. In my solo works I work with classically trained musicians who just play what's on the written sheet. So the processes are very different from each other, democracy versus dictatorship.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: You set out to make this album without knowing what the outcome would be. Is that an experiment you'd like to repeat for future albums?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">LH:</span> I think that the idea of writing chronologically was very interesting and challenging. The main thing was to keep focus on what would be the right curve of the album. Not to make it too intense, but also not too quiet. I think that it could work to do something like this again. Anyway, I like concept albums, so I'll probably have some kind of dogma thing going on next time as well.<br /></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-33267792955403682552009-01-20T15:59:00.003-05:002009-01-20T16:06:04.345-05:00VERSUS POLL - Desroy All Bridezillas!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://polls.amctv.com//chart/data/1502-round-1-match-1.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 385px; height: 227px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-GrfS9IRyLQcBkMpy_kntD47E1RtjdyQqSlOs0kCpMbhzC7tT582jC0YdwBujDkysON4KvYTON4MNwcuV3-HYY9C-YMPYXq-IZuLWHTinEEGiXhQYQuvUgKc0qIrQmz1F1vOH/s400/tournament_brides.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293483981822409202" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">O</span></span>bnoxious and downright villainous bridesmaids, here is what you have to look forward to! <a href="http://polls.amctv.com//chart/data/1502-round-1-match-1.html">Click here to help decide which of these 16 uncouth damsels has the worst etiquette...</a>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-45696753588561788972009-01-19T11:15:00.008-05:002009-02-02T12:47:02.085-05:00Guest Post at Trailers Undone - Coming Attractions, Yet To Come<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.trailersundone.com/2009/01/coming-attractions-yet-to-come/"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 385px; height: 170px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoUeddCIDFbuxXMe5tCI1mDBDtNmE_oIzfYoVNjTTuYfQA9OZpq3-WRLTlEp8YgImqoWnOnbtfkifwIyFeQujYuPwaKYaLNmGeArSWdV2s12l3jRQ8NbzPQpC3P584oRLxhPfk/s400/dark-knight-trailer-bootleg.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5293039702668817506" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span></span> was invited to write a guest article for the site <a href="http://www.trailersundone.com/">Trailers Undone</a>, a great blog about movie trailers by a fellow MeFite. Here's my bit about <a href="http://www.trailersundone.com/2009/01/coming-attractions-yet-to-come/">the phenomenon of bootleged previews</a> that have inflamed the internet, popping up all over to let us know which trailers we're not cool enough to have seen in person, with links to the "leaked" trailers for <span style="font-style: italic;">Tron</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Star Trek</span>, and<span style="font-style: italic;"> The Wolf Man</span> (for which I am personally wetting myself in anticipation). Did I miss any good ones? I'd love some links in the comments over there...Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-75537124271452122722009-01-16T14:30:00.005-05:002009-01-16T14:54:21.761-05:00MicroHorror Featured Pick - "I Am Done! Or, The Last Entry of J. P. Lawson"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/microhorror-featured-pick-i-am-done-or.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjltCcqj7r54DsWquLX_hXmuZmgZgSfTMOhce5hr4QSPfYqU2SiYT_fLflBN7dFHpMoxpTRgUc_wNuikZzzH7_2NAbAtB5qkm6ZVXdbuspo856K81N6HP1SVGT-Qv8IkhEK_ueI/s400/microhorrortitle2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242318872477912578" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">T</span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">his is the 14th story from <a href="http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror/">MicroHorror</a> that I've featured -- a mere microcosm of the site's cyclopean compilation of 666-words-or-less fiction. </span><span style="font-style: italic;">This entry by Seth Furman reminds me of Chris Van Allsburg's </span><a href="http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/harrisburdick/inspired_by_burdick.html"><span>The Mysteries of Harris Burdick</span></a><span style="font-style: italic;">, a book whose images are leaping-off points for bizarre tales; as you read over the entries and begin mentally filling in the blanks, you wind up considering all sorts of dreadful things...</span><br /><center style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/microhorror-featured-pick-i-am-done-or.html">"I Am Done! Or, The Last Entry of J. P. Lawson"<br />by Seth Furman<br /></a></span></center><span id="fullpost"><br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/hermitosis/microhorrortitle2.jpg" alt="Microhorror" border="0" /></a></center><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >O</span>ctober 31, 1962<br /><br />And so this will be my last entry. I am tired. Years it seems. Years. For years I have diligently kept this journal and now I am tired. They have beaten me at every turn but I have finally figured it out. Without my words they are nothing. Without my thoughts they are undone. They enter my mind through my musings and once inside are free to play. I will host their games no more. I am finished. I have won!<br /><br />November 1, 1962<br /><br />And so this will be my last entry. I am tired. Years it seems. Years. For years I have diligently kept this journal and now I am tired. They have beaten me at every turn but I have finally figured it out. Without my words they are nothing. Without my thoughts they are undone. They enter my mind through my musings and once inside are free to play. I will host their games no more. I am finished. I have won!<br /><br />November 2, 1962<br /><br />And so this will be my last entry. I am tired. Years it seems. Years. For years I have diligently kept this journal and now I am tired. They have beaten me at every turn but I have finally figured it out. Without my words they are nothing. Without my thoughts they are undone. They enter my mind through my musings and once inside are free to play. I will host their games no more. I am finished. I have won!<br /><br />November 3, 1962<br /><br />And so this will be my last entry. I am tired. Years it seems. Years. For years I have diligently kept this journal and now I am tired. They have beaten me at every turn but I have finally figured it out. Without my words they are nothing. Without my thoughts they are undone. They enter my mind through my musings and once inside are free to play. I will host their games no more. I am finished. I have won!<br /><br />November 4, 1962<br /><br />And so this will be my last entry. I am tired. Years it seems. Years. For years I have diligently kept this journal and now I am tired. They have beaten me at every turn but I have finally figured it out. Without my words they are nothing. Without my thoughts they are undone. They enter my mind through my musings and once inside are free to play. I will host their games no more. I am finished. I have won!<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span id="fullpost">Copyright: © 2008 Seth Furman</span><br /></div><span id="fullpost"><br /></span><span id="fullpost"><br /></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-11390795899278604692009-01-14T11:32:00.010-05:002009-01-14T11:51:07.659-05:00Seen Between Fingers - Chris Kelly Wooed By Original Bloody Valentine<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/seen-between-fingers-chris-kelly-wooed.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 0px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxtM0Ciky_LRe59dZbEoWWLoehL1gmDdGCmZrqfc11QQ3xHzA9-GrUTgUIRm-Fxz6wMpomxUXSFnqD80h9bM87y_Z0ugN4TJtuh6y6C0opIfq0NQB5fkAOXPyXpmVorqf-3VV/s400/chrisgrumpy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235724623900310738" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">n this regular feature, wimp and noted horror non-enthusiast <a href="http://chriskelly.livejournal.com/">Chris Kelly</a> reports back with his first-impressions of memorable scary movies. (He's also starring in a NYC revival of <a href="http://www.blackhennaproductions.com/page3">Torch Song Trilogy</a> that opens next week, if you care to see him in his natural habitat.)</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> In anticipation of </span><span>My Bloody Valentine 3D</span><span style="font-style: italic;">, which I hope to inflict on him next week, I decided that a look back at the original slasher classic was in order</span><span style="font-style: italic;">. Surprise -- I think he liked it!</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/seen-between-fingers-chris-kelly-wooed.html"><span style="font-size:130%;">WEEK 13 : <span style="font-style: italic;">My Bloody Valentine (1981)</span></span></a><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/seen-between-fingers-chris-kelly-wooed.html"></a></div><span id="fullpost"><blockquote><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">M</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">y Bloody Valentine</span> was released less than a year after <span style="font-style: italic;">Friday the 13th</span>, so while it is tempting to view it as just another slasher flick, it’s important to put the work in context. The many tropes that have since emerged (the teenagers murdered as punishment for intercourse, the faceless killer driven by childhood trauma, the disposable blonde in the first ten minutes) were fresher at the time. I’m having trouble seeing the piece as anything other than the continuation of a trend, but I’ll do my best to focus on the aspects that are better than, or different from, other selections from the youth-mauling genre.<br /><br />Let’s start with the setting, which is bleak as fuck. This is a town in which the most romantic scene takes place on a cold, gray, windy outcropping littered with scrub grass. The best view for miles, the place where you bring your lady to win back her affection, has a view of what is probably a sewage treatment plant or other industrial blemish. Though we never see the inside of a local home, their exteriors suggest that they are little more than storage units. If you ever call <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.pods.com%E2%80%9D">PODS</a> to move your belongings, consider what it might be like to forgo the relocation process and simply pack yourself into that sad metal rectangle. Perhaps this squalid hamlet’s depressing surface is what has driven the population to perform all sex acts underground; we are, after all, shown three instances of (or at least attempts at) subterranean copulation, without the faintest hint that one might pursue such an activity in, say, a bed in someone’s “house.”<br /><br />The oppressive awfulness of daily life in a mining town does a great deal to temper the impact of the film’s many deaths. These are people who could not possibly care less. Consider the first victim, a woman whose only joy in life is to leave the listless Laundromat she runs to festoon the town with streamers in a futile attempt to erase the memory of a series of grisly deaths. If her entire life will be one long dryer cycle anyway, is she not better off dead? Look at this motley collection of mulletted, doughy, chinless halfwits. Working filthy jobs, drinking cheap beer, butting their interchangeable personalities against each other in some rudimentary attempt at conversation—it’s tough at times to say whether this is murder or mercy.<br /><br />Which is not to say that there aren’t genuinely scary moments. Sure, the opener seems clichéd now, but I bet at the time, audiences were stunned when the titillation was interrupted by the total boner-killer of a pick-axe piercing through the heart (and, just to drive the point home, the heart-shaped tattoo) of the village’s most buxom inhabitant. And what about that scene with the mining coveralls descending from the ceiling? That shit was bananas. I expected gore, but I didn’t expect the mounting pressure and disorientation of that poor, piggy girl’s scramble for safety amidst flaccid replicas of her assailant. Good show!<br /><br />Actually, while we’re on the topic of gore, now is a good time to mention the fact that this movie comes to us pre-sanitized. Nine awful minutes were famously excised by the MPAA. For a lightweight like me, this comes as welcome respite, but chances are that most of you are desperate for whatever craven splatters and slices you can get. In that case, we’re both in luck: I managed to squeeze this review in while the footage is still unavailable, and you can all treat yourselves to an extra-gross Valentine’s Day when LionsGate releases an uncut DVD next month (that is, if Wikipedia is to be believed, which it is sometimes not). I’m sure I’d have less jokes to make and more pants to wet if I had seen the original version in all its viscera-encrusted glory.<br /><br />As it stands, this movie was a really fun guilty pleasure for me. It was occasionally intense, but mostly just hilarious. This is the kind of stupendous train wreck in which the lead stud’s Canadian accent makes him sound like a gay high schooler trying to hide his lisp and the only female to actually have sex looks like she’s maybe a dude. I encourage you all to invite your friends over for popcorn to watch this while playing “Who Dies Next?” or offering your own <span style="font-style: italic;">MST3K </span>commentary. You won’t be disappointed.<br /></blockquote></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-51271213578031581912009-01-13T12:48:00.010-05:002009-01-13T13:27:19.239-05:00INTERVIEW - My Bloody Valentine 3D Director Patrick Lussier Keeps It In The Family<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://blogs.amctv.com/horror-hacker/2009/01/patrick-lussier-interview.php"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 125px; height: 216px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhviCp9X5Wl6jIo62EDtpAm9n-GEmQD7nuHeTv17Hk_Qqi2GsNozfJ6V-cf152S6yBIySlg50Oh17xPmweBrU3abTtwdeiNbtrxHs4Z2iY6U4ppkvzUMN4eoU8NjR6f0c8hme5Z/s400/bloodyvalentine4a.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290841988950314674" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">C</span></span>onsidering how much of last year he spent hunched over in a dank cave shooting a slasher movie, editor-turned-director Patrick Lussier seemed incredibly chipper as we spoke about the upcoming <a href="http://mybloodyvalentinein3d.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">My Bloody Valentine 3D</span></a>, the first horror movie to play around with the brand-new 3D technology we've all been hearing about (since none of us actually saw<span style="font-style: italic;"> Journey to the Center of the Earth</span>). You can read <a href="http://blogs.amctv.com/horror-hacker/2009/01/patrick-lussier-interview.php">the first half of my interview at AMC</a>, and the rest is right here. Watch your head -- <span style="font-style: italic;">MBV3D </span>opens Friday!<br /><center><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/interview-my-bloody-valentine-3d.html"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/hermitosis/INTERVIEWBUTTON.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a></center><span id="fullpost"><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: People always say that the version of movie we end up seeing is formed by the editor, not the director. In the age of digital media, is that more true or less true?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PL:</span> I think it's always been true... So much of the movie that you make is built in editing; you have so much control over what it can become and the shape of the performances, and I think that's always been the case. Digital technology affords you the ability to shoot more in less time, which means there's more emphasis on editing because there are more possibilities -- but the more you have to sift through, the harder it can be to find those kernels of gold to create the best movie possible.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: As a director, do you think you'll always edit your own films?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PL:</span> Probably, but I like to edit with somebody so I have a fresh eye as well. I'll definitely shoot something with a specific way in mind, and someone else can come in and may show it to you in a way you hadn't expected. It's important to have a creative partner, there can be some great surprises.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: 3D is really taking off. Do you think other audience immersion techniques on their way in too?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PL:</span> Surely, if you go to theme parks, they've been explored and exploited for years now. As for 3D, having seen it a few times from the audience, you see the amazing reaction people have to it, and how participatory it is. It's a genuinely pleasurable experience just viewing the technology, before you even consider the content. 3D feels like it has potential to really catch on; the more theaters that can add it, the more viable it's going to become, to the point where you could have two or three 3D movies in release at the same time -- that will be how you know when it has really arrived. Even now with this film you can sense that people are having that theme-park sort of experience, which makes it a really fun date movie. That kind of scary-fun, not like a torture-porn movie or anything. We wanted it to be a fun throwback to those great '80s slasher films, with really advanced technology, and that's what it is.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: Looking at your cast, particularly the younger ones, it's impressive how many film credits they seem to be racking up lately. Did you find them to be a particularly ambitious group?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PL:</span> The cast we had was amazing. They were all so enthusiastic about the project and their characters and the story and bringing their absolute A-game every day on set, never taking their foot off the accelerator during the 18 hours a day that we were shooting, and in incredibly exhausting conditions. This is Megan Boone's first film, and she was so in tune with the character and film, and had such boundless enthusiasm. She brought an unbelievable amount of terror to her role. Myself and the DP would watch her during her big scenes, and we couldn’t believe how riled up they were getting and how terrified they were, it almost became impossible to say "Cut!" because you were on the edge of your seat just watching them as they were performing.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: Are there any 3D movies from your youth that you remember with any fondness?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PL: </span>I remember seeing a few of them, like Jaws 3D, and Spacehunter, and kind of going, "Eh…" The technology at that time was a little clumsy. It was a noble attempt but they didn't have the technology to make 3D such an incredibly immersive, high-quality experience.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: You've worked with your son, Devin Lessier, multiple times over the years, including <span style="font-style: italic;">MBV3D</span>. can you tell me about the working relationship you two have?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">PL: </span>Since the time he was two I've been training him to work in editing rooms, and he's kind of grown up in the environment. A few years ago he decided that he wanted to pursue a career in editing, and when he was 15 he started working for us on <span style="font-style: italic;">Red Eye</span> as our post-production PA, and then he did some work for us in <span style="font-style: italic;">Cursed</span>, and did a great job. He's so technology-savvy, way more than I am, having had a computer since he was a child. He has such a natural understanding of systems and databases and how things work and how to find things and how to move and make things. He became an invaluable asset almost immediately. And to get to work with him and watch his career blossom -- he was the apprentice for <span style="font-style: italic;">The Eye</span> and was First Assistant Editor on <span style="font-style: italic;">Quarantine </span>with the Dowdle brothers. It was incredible to have him on Valentine, to know you had someone who would always shoot you straight. He's incredibly smart -- of course, you know he's my son, so what else am I going to say? But to get to work with him fills me with nothing but pride.<br /><br /></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-33669901667664967702009-01-13T10:30:00.013-05:002009-01-13T11:17:00.241-05:00Beware The Azalea Trail Maids And Their Hypnotic Parasols Of Slavery<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/1/12/63040/6873"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 380px; height: 260px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho1HwtcVXsxazLvdDn8OrcUzdB_LxgH4WS0-SPTlCzOh8HSwQuYGLMvsHMg9mcHj5z4yKmb-sFUT7sqfmMn-ELcZgSReNW_yDq0PCrcrmB3QsPFqExIqUaeYB09ohRmFCNiwQz/s400/trailmaids.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290801289756177618" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">D</span></span>oes this image fill you with righteous indignation? According to the Alabama NAACP, it should. The <a href="http://www.johnstrange.com/edm310summer07/hinds/history.html">Azalea Trail Maids</a> began promenading in 1929 in an effort to get people to plant azaleas along the streets of Mobile, AL, but apparently some think their floofy costumes are a throwback to the days of slavery and are <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/1/12/63040/6873">trying to get them banned</a> from walking in Barack Obama's inaugural procession. I'm acutely sensitive to issues of discrimination and oppression and think the NAACP is usually an incredibly useful organization, but I don't think anyone ever felt oppressed by a hoop-skirt except the people who've had to wear them.<br /><br />Considering the fact that the White House and the Capitol building were <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/white-house-and-capitol-built-by-5amonth-slaves-707601.html">built by slaves</a>, and that the inauguration event will be kept civil by policemen on horseback and others leading trained attack-dogs, going after the Trail Maids for dressing like <a href="http://punchthekeys.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/lhcrews.jpg">Aunt Pittypat</a> is pretty fucking harsh. If you'd like to contact the Washington DC branch of the NAACP and urge them to make a statement appealing to reason, here's the information:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">Phone: <strong>(202) 463-2940</strong><br /> Fax: <strong>(202) 463-2953</strong><br /> Email: <strong><a href="mailto:washingtonbureau@naacpnet.org">washingtonbureau@naacpnet.org</a></strong><br /></div>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-39450601443109679592009-01-12T09:59:00.007-05:002009-01-12T11:43:48.174-05:00INTERVIEW - Ladies And Gentleman, The President Of The American Tarantula Society<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/ladies-and-gentleman-president-of.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 0px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 234px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7OcSqZ5vSv9XeBQvPMAnACxBCuej0OPIXAvII_s8sv3R82pEEgmY8lfHtRhsoHO5B6jHu-s2r64pQxnvjHgUtx9Ej5iL_V-zPWOrelDIzhmIZlgrwf8NOByiVKImzO-DKsz4/s400/tarantula-hands1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290440001800807522" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">W</span></span>hen it comes to appreciating the unique charms of the world's largest spiders, you can't beat the <a href="http://atshq.org/index.shtml">American Tarantula Society</a> for education and advocacy. Last week I spoke to Wade Harrell (the Society's president) all about the ATS and the objects of their affection -- if you've ever wondered how to send a tarantula in the mail, or how to store a hundred of them in your home, then this is definitely an interview you aren't likely to forget!<br /><center><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/ladies-and-gentleman-president-of.html"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/hermitosis/INTERVIEWBUTTON.jpg" alt="Photobucket" border="0" /></a></center><span id="fullpost"><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: So, do you live somewhere where there are a lot of tarantulas?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>No, I actually live in Richmond, VA. There are no tarantulas here; in the US, tarantulas live west of the Mississippi River.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: How did you get involved in the ATS?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH:</span> I found out about the ATS from an ad in a magazine. It was probably '96 or so; I was keeping a lot of exotic pets, mostly reptiles, and I'd started getting into things like tarantulas and scorpions, and had a few of those. I became a member, and then I became a contributor, and then I started going to their conferences. Eventually I got involved with their board of directors. With that kind of group, if you sit there long enough, they'll eventually put you in a leadership position. <span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: How would you characterize the people involved in the ATS?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>It's all kinds of people. It's kind of like that with the exotic pets scene in general, which is a good mixture -- everyone from bikers and goth teenagers to computer geeks, families with kids, and scientists. Tarantulas aren't related to reptiles at all, but as to the people that like them, it's kind of an offshoot of the reptile hobby; most of the reptile events have people selling tarantulas there. The ATS holds our own annual conferences, pretty much the only yearly event that's devoted to tarantula enthusiasts solely -- though we do talk about scorpions and other arachnids as well.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: What work and/or honors come along with being the President of the ATS?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH:</span> When I first started I was writing articles for the magazine and stuff like that; when you get to the higher levels, a lot of it is administrative. The good parts involve trying to figure out what you want to <span style="font-style: italic;">do </span>with a society like this. When the ATS started, there was no network for people at all, because there was no internet yet. Now people obviously get most of their information from participating in various web forums, so figuring out what the role of a society is in this new environment is very exciting. The direction we need to go in is more educational, and try to foster an appreciation for not just tarantulas and other arachnids, but nature in general. They're not just bugs in a box; we want people to think about the context in which they live their natural life.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: It's quite an impressive and unusual-sounding title you have. Do you get to invoke it often?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>Only when I'm trying to do something for the organization. Like if I'm trying to get someone to contribute materials -- we have a quarterly magazine, and I'm always trying to get people to write for it, so I tell them I'm the President of the American Tarantula Society, and once they stop laughing…<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: How do the hobbyist and scientific contingents interact?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH:</span> One of the things we try to do is try and bring the scientific community and the hobbyist individuals closer together. I'd say our membership is probably 85% amateur enthusiasts and 15% people engaged in some kind of scientific work, and of those there are only a handful that work specifically with tarantulas. Unfortunately there's no money in tarantulas, they have no economic importance, aside from the people selling them for pet trade. There is some venom research going on with them. But mostly there's not much incentive to work with tarantulas right now. Hopefully there can become more interest as scientists realize how many people really do care about it.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: On your </span><a style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);" href="http://atshq.org/articles/found.html">"So You Found A Tarantula..."</a><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);"> page, there are instructions for shipping tarantulas to ATS for research purposes. Do people really send them to you?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>Well, the person who receives them Brent Hendrixson, a researcher who's active with us and contributes to our magazine. I'm not sure how many he gets a year, but it's a fair number. We try to promote what he's doing because he's doing a lot of DNA work and taxonomic work -- Even though tarantulas are large, seemingly conspicuous spiders, they're actually very poorly studied, so we're not even close to knowing even how many species are living in the United States. That's what he's trying to work on.<br /><br />But I do personally receive tarantulas in the mail, and I've sent them in the mail. It's kind of a nail-biting proposition at times, because you want them to be okay... Tarantulas are surprisingly delicate animals. They can't really survive any impacts, so you have to really pack them -- in fact, you pretty much have to immobilize them. You put them inside a plastic cup and pack paper towels around them and tape it up, and then in turn have <span style="font-style: italic;">that </span>immobilized inside a Styrofoam box so it's insulated, and then you send it express overnight. That's pretty much the standard method, but it depends… some carriers won't take them, and some will. Some will <span style="font-style: italic;">tell </span>you that they won't, but they really will.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: You mean postal carriers?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>Yeah, it turns out the Post Office will carry live tarantulas. Periodically their policies change -- sometimes they say no live creatures at all, sometimes they'll say spiders are okay but you can't ship scorpions. There are some very strange, inconsistent rules; you can ship lizards, but not snakes or turtles. All the carriers are that way, so you have to stay on top of what the current regulations are. There's no specific law against it, it's just the policies of the shipper.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: Is that the kind of thing the ATS might lobby against, if laws or policies changed?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>We would try to be involved in that. We're not a huge organization, it's not like we have attorneys on staff that we can just send out to take care of things, so the most we could do is write letters and try to explain that there's a right way and a wrong way to do these things. It's usually nothing that singles out tarantulas specifically, mostly just blanket regulations covering all exotic pets.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: Are there any creatures out there that fill you with the same dread that most people usually reserve for large hairy spiders?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>Not really. Flies are really gross, and some of the maggot-oriented things I've witnessed in my years of working with animals were pretty disgusting. Most of the animals that bother me are the ones you'd have a pretty good reason to be bothered by -- parasites, and things like that. I'm not a big fan of mites and ticks. Just like other animals, tarantulas have mites that bother them, and getting rid of them can be a major problem. But in terms of just being creepy, there's nothing really.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: Are there any tarantula-themed movies that you really enjoy?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>Of course there's the classic <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048696/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Tarantula</span></a>, which is kind of a silly one. But I like the earlier scenes in that movie, where the effects are done using an actual tarantula. The dog-sized tarantula in a laboratory cage is a very cool image -- they've got other animals too, like a giant rabbit, but of course it's tarantula that escapes. The movie also has an uncredited role, Clint Eastwood is actually in it as the jet pilot who napalms the tarantula.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051570/"><span style="font-style: italic;">Earth Versus the Spider</span></a> is a really funny one, even lower budget than <span style="font-style: italic;">Tarantula</span>, but they use an actual tarantula for almost all the shots in that movie. They never say explain why there's a giant tarantula, which is one of my favorite things about it. It's just there in the middle of the desert eating people for some reason.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: I noted that </span><a style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);" href="http://tarantula.com/">Tarantula.com</a><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);"> is taken by some kind of media company, and they're really not doing much with it at the moment. Would you ever consider a campaign to make them surrender the name, in the name of science?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH:</span> That's kind of an interesting idea! [laughs] But I think that the word "tarantula" is pretty common in popular culture. And there's actually a lot of debate within the tarantula hobbyist groups over whether you should really call these spiders tarantulas or not to begin with... The original spiders that were called tarantulas were actually these kinds of wolf spiders that lived in Southern Italy; they became very famous because it was believed that they were dangerous to people, even though they weren't. And when people were describing these huge spiders from South America and other places, they started calling those tarantulas too. So now the name applies to all the large hairy spiders included in the group <span style="font-style: italic;">Theraphosidae</span>, which is the family that tarantulas occupy today, and all those wolf spiders are in a totally different family.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: Is there a name that these people have proposed to be used instead?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>That's another thing people like to debate! Of course some scientific types say that we should reject common names altogether, and just call them <span style="font-style: italic;">Theraphosidae</span>. In Africa they're often called baboon spiders, mainly because somebody thought their legs looked like baboon fingers when they're in a burrow with their legs sticking out of the hole. In South America they're often called bird spiders, because certain kinds can kill birds, though it occurs only rarely. In Asia there are some called earth tigers or tiger spiders, as many of them are striped, and they're often very aggressive when they're disturbed. So, there are a lot of names already out there.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: Do you happen to own any tarantulas now?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH:</span> Oh yes! I've probably got… oh, a hundred right now. A lot of them are babies -- I breed them sometimes -- so they're small, about a quarter inch across. My largest one now is about 8 inches across.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: I can only imagine that this takes up a lot of space… Do they have their own separate enclosures?</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH: </span>Yes, they have to have their own cages. They don't have huge brains… they will eat each other. To a tarantula, another tarantula is just another big bug to eat. The good news is that they don't require a lot of space as individuals. The small babies live in pill vials, you know, little 3-4 oz. containers, so that's pretty easy. When they get larger, a 5-10 gallon aquarium is more than enough space for most.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: That seems astonishing to me, because I have three cats, and if I wake up in the middle of the night and the house is on fire, how am I going to get three cats out of the house? I can only imagine what you'd do with <span style="font-style: italic;">a hundred tarantulas</span>.</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">..</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH:</span> That would be tough... It's usually a good idea if you have a lot of these kinds of pets to let somebody know. There are a lot of notification things you can do; through pet stores you can purchase actual labels for all your doors that say "Please rescue my pets." Obviously, as I have a whole bunch, that would be a challenge.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 255, 153);">TB: If you had a sticker that said "Firemen: Please rescue my <span style="font-style: italic;">hundred tarantulas</span>," it would probably good for keeping out burglars too.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">WH:</span> [Laughs] Yes, it probably would.<br /><br /></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-5792070113005028722009-01-10T17:07:00.010-05:002009-01-10T17:49:18.096-05:00January's The Best Time Of Year To Be Alone Again (Naturally)<span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span></span>s there anything better than a really depressing song in the darkest days of January? I'm terribly partial to Gilbert O'Sullivan's 1972 hit Alone Again (Naturally), which he sings so matter-of-factly that one wonders whether men in white coats were waiting for him just offstage. Here it is, with lyrics added for maximum downward spiraling:<br /><center><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/iCZGqcMZ6Jw&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iCZGqcMZ6Jw&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object></center><br />He's not alone -- countless others have covered the song to let you know just how terribly they ache inside, and how badly they want to throw themselves off of a tower. As a tribute to seasonal depression everywhere, I'd like to present the very best and worst versions the world has to offer...<br /><br /><center style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/januarys-best-time-of-year-to-be-alone.html">Click Here (Naturally)</a></span></center><span id="fullpost"><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">N</span></span>ina Simone, that champion song-stealer and frequently hazy ad-libber, trumped O'Sullivan pretty soundly when she unveiled her starkly autobiographical rewrite:<br /><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">"I remember this afternoon<br />When my sister came into the room<br />She refused to say how my father was<br />But I knew he'd be dying soon.<br />And I was oh so glad, and it was oh so sad<br />That I realized that I despised this man I once called father.<br />In his hanging on, with fingers clutching<br />His body now just eighty-eight pounds<br />Blinded eyes still searching<br />For some distant dream that had faded away at the seams.<br />Dying alone, naturally..."</blockquote><br />And so forth. However, while her version's on iTunes, there's no video, so we'll have to set her aside for the moment in favor of more faithfully documented covers, like Shirley Bassey's. The ultimate drama queen, she definitely takes more than she gives during her 7 minutes at the bottom of the heap -- Bassey's wringing the life-giving essence out of every syllable, leaving the viewer with the dried-up husk:<br /><br /><center><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ASn8DtM6ny8&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ASn8DtM6ny8&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object></center><br /><br />If it's rock-bottom inertia you're after, no one can dethrone Cass Elliot. A year and a half before her untimely death, Elliot presses her face against a rain-streaked windowpane, wearing dark garments of penitence and listlessly drifting through the song like she's on pills. The thunderous applause at the end as she finishes and slumps in her chair is heartbreaking:<br /><br /><center><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/u3BGY6w9A9I&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/u3BGY6w9A9I&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object></center><br /><br />This dubious club mix is pretty hard to love, until the moment when the pipe-organ starts booming, right as he sings about getting left at the altar. The video is shit, but I've got to hand it to this guy for creating a moment of sick irony that's worthy of a really awesome black comedy:<br /><br /><center><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/L4icqu5tZBg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/L4icqu5tZBg&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object></center><br /><br />Sungha Jung's videos have been around a while now and the cuteness is wearing off rapidly, but there's something about the sight of a child nodding out over this song that makes me worry whether he'll make it to adulthood. Some people are too sensitive for this world...<br /><br /><center><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WFo3NI9re00&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WFo3NI9re00&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object></center><br /><br />Which brings us up against that near-transparent membrane between official covers and the ad-hoc karaoke attempts that people love putting up on YouTube for some reason. This fellow and his neck-brace is a clear challenger to O'Sullivan's monopoly on grief:<br /><br /><center><object width="320" height="265"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/33E4oB_gC-w&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/33E4oB_gC-w&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="320" height="265"></embed></object></center><br /></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-48051872956022429782009-01-08T11:14:00.022-05:002009-01-08T12:08:52.266-05:00Seen Between Fingers - Don't Quit Your Day Job, Dracula!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/seen-between-fingers-dont-quit-your-day.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 0px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxtM0Ciky_LRe59dZbEoWWLoehL1gmDdGCmZrqfc11QQ3xHzA9-GrUTgUIRm-Fxz6wMpomxUXSFnqD80h9bM87y_Z0ugN4TJtuh6y6C0opIfq0NQB5fkAOXPyXpmVorqf-3VV/s400/chrisgrumpy.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5235724623900310738" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">n this regular feature, wimp and noted horror non-enthusiast <a href="http://chriskelly.livejournal.com/">Chris Kelly</a> reports back with his first-impressions of memorable scary movies (he's also one of the judges of my <a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/january-guest-interview-contest.html">January Interview Contest</a>).</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> Chris always seems susceptible to atmosphere and storytelling, so when I found out he'd never seen 1992's </span><span>Dracula </span><span style="font-style: italic;">remake, it was a no-brainer to assign it. Unfortunately the movie itself is sort of a no-brainer -- it hasn't aged nearly as well as one might hope...</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/seen-between-fingers-dont-quit-your-day.html"><span style="font-size:130%;">WEEK 12 : <span style="font-style: italic;">Bram Stoker's Dracula</span></span></a><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/seen-between-fingers-dont-quit-your-day.html"><br /></a></div><span id="fullpost"><br /><blockquote><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">W</span></span>hat confounds me about <span style="font-style: italic;">Bram Stoker's Dracula</span> is how primed I was to enjoy it. The sight of Gary Oldman decked out in wrinkles and kabuki robes while licking a razor is forever seared in my mind as a new and invigorating take on an icon whose image had remained unquestioned for decades. The film holds a considerable reputation and has left a legacy of visual references and parodies. It was so prevalent in the '90s that I owned and regularly listened to the CD soundtrack even though I had never seen the movie itself. I was sure that a piece with such a strong reputation would bring quite a bit to the table. How, then, could it have run so far adrift from my expectations?<br /><br />A number of hugely enticing and creative elements come together in this work. It's a credit to the costumer that the old man wrapped in gold fabric with Mickey Mouse ears for hair has become an accepted vision of our favorite vampire. The boldness of that redesign is practically equivalent to dressing Santa in a pin-striped suit, <span style="font-style: italic;">[Editor's note: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=camMiqtt19I">see Palm Centro's accursed take on St. Nick here</a>]</span> and the fact that it seems justified is almost miraculous. The movie also sounds scary; from the swelling trumpets during the opening battle to the operatic soprano that precedes Mina’s first (we assume) taste of bestiality, it’s still clear that someone has created an ideal score to which to lose your mind slowly. The dialogue and acting aren't all bad, empirically speaking, and yet so much goes wrong.<br /><br />According to <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103874/">IMDB</a>, the script was initially envisioned as a made-for-TV movie. It helps to cling to this idea as you watch the madness unfold. I think Francis Ford Coppola might have had the word “theatrical” in mind for his direction, but “hokey” might be a more fitting description. The vivid colors! The cycles and repetitions! The bloody blood! Remember high school English class, when you had to find the symbolism in <span style="font-style: italic;">The Scarlet Letter</span>? That’s what this feels like. I know camp when I see it, and I definitely watched a couple hours of it here.<br /><br />With the exception of Keanu Reeves, Coppola assembled a pretty capable cast, only to have them take turns gnawing the scenery to bits. Anthony Hopkins commits the worst sins in this regard, using an accent as absurd and erratic as his line delivery. Winona Ryder was never the strongest performer in the world, and her presence simultaneously shouts “Hey, it's the '90s!” and “Wow, am I ever uncomfortable!” Gary Oldman gets a little more leeway by the nature of his role, and thus comes out relatively unscathed. Under that much make-up, you pretty much have to give the same performance whether you're playing an undead bat-count or Edna Turnblad. In hindsight, the unkindest hand is unfortunately dealt to Sadie Frost, whose “And introducing...” credit only serves to illustrate how few people in Hollywood wanted to meet her. This girl banged a latex wolf on a concrete casting couch and still barely ever managed more silver screen credits than costar Tom Waits. (Speaking of which: <span style="font-style: italic;">Tom Waits?</span>)<br /><br />The uniform lack of subtlety employed by all involved is supremely distracting. Almost every choice made in or about the movie raised immediate questions. Why has Winona Ryder worn six dresses in the exact same shade of mint green? Why are Dracula's eyes superimposed on fucking everything? The landscape is so red -- is his castle on Mars? Has no one thought to make Sadie Frost a dress capable of restraining both her breasts at the same time? Does she really wear that slutty red nightgown to bed even when she's on the verge of death? Has the "loose wolf"subplot really existed entirely so we can watch the lead characters pet it for a while? No, seriously, <span style="font-style: italic;">Tom Waits?</span> Is anything scary going to happen? Am I watching TBS right now?<br /><br />I couldn't help but feel as though the whole fiasco was being run by my high school theater teacher. Each atmospheric element that could have been creepy if the audience was trusted to notice it on their own was instead turned up to eleven and thrust in our faces. Sure, it's a nice touch that Dracula's shadow doesn't always line up with his motions perfectly, but after ten minutes of watching the actor and his projected image polka around each other, it gets a little tiresome. Similarly, it's enough (too much, really) that Winona Ryder plays dual roles: we don't need constant dissolves between her two characters. More and more, I got the impression that the production team thought I was pretty stupid. And that's the thing: if you have to tell me I'm frightened, then I'm not really frightened.<br /><br />When the credits began to roll, I was left largely confused. I can't for the life of me figure out why we collectively remember <span style="font-style: italic;">Dracula</span> so fondly. What was it about the previous decade that allowed us to believe that we enjoyed this film? I kept waiting for the big awesome thing that would make me want to keep watching. In the end, it was a big win for Eiko Ishioka, who snagged herself an Oscar by turning the onscreen fiasco into a runway for her evocative fashions. Without her visionary stylings, I find it hard to believe that we'd still be talking about this movie today.<br /><br /></blockquote></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-51996793260551946572009-01-03T12:21:00.006-05:002009-01-03T12:45:51.983-05:00MicroHorror Featured Pick - "The Magician's Dilemma"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/microhorror-featured-pick-magicians.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjltCcqj7r54DsWquLX_hXmuZmgZgSfTMOhce5hr4QSPfYqU2SiYT_fLflBN7dFHpMoxpTRgUc_wNuikZzzH7_2NAbAtB5qkm6ZVXdbuspo856K81N6HP1SVGT-Qv8IkhEK_ueI/s400/microhorrortitle2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242318872477912578" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">N</span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">ormally <a href="http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror/">MicroHorror's</a> creator, Nathan Rosen, gives me full sway in my decision of which story from his 1000+ collection to feature here, so I was a little alarmed this week when he intervened, demanding that one particular story from the myriad 2008 Halloween contest entries be selected. Though taken aback by his insistence, I have no choice but to capitulate if I want to stay in his good graces -- so here's my own little story,</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> submitted to the 2008 Halloween contest whose winners were reprinted here over the last few weeks...</span><br /><center style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2009/01/microhorror-featured-pick-magicians.html">"The Magician's Dilemma"<br />by Tom Blunt</a></span></center><span id="fullpost"><br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/hermitosis/microhorrortitle2.jpg" alt="Microhorror" border="0" /></a></center><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >I</span> have two rabbits in my act, always two. One of them is named Clover and enjoys ravaging lettuce leaves off of a saucer near my feet while I prepare my own meager dinner. The other one never lives long enough to earn a name; it is placed within an “enchanted” golden box before a rapt audience, and crushed quickly and painlessly when the force of my entire upper body descends on it. I present its pathetic, ruined body and blood-dewed fur to the crowd, and then after a series of flourishes inspired by mystics of the Orient, the creature suddenly revives entirely -- or rather, patient Clover has emerged from my secret sleeve, and the wet baggage of her double has taken residence there, its blood cooling as it soaks through the lining and tattoos my underthings with damp roses. Clover takes a bow, to thunderous applause; we both dine well on show nights.<br /><br />Two rabbits, two cages. But last night there was a terrific clamor on the stairs as I stood in my room perfecting my technique in the mirror; a false alarm, a large chamber pot (and not the tiny maid carrying it) had tumbled and emptied its contents onto the landing. When I returned to my room a moment later, two pairs of identical eyes greeted me from the floor. Two blank curious faces, interchangeable in their beauty and innocence, one of them destined to share my pillow, the other to bleed in my pocket and swim in my stew.<br /><br />Tonight, in the wings, I watch the red-faced man with the poodle act as he guides his pups through candy-colored hoops. The audience coos; deep down, they know how often a dog must be whipped to learn those tricks -- but aren’t our lives made so much richer by these splendid flashes of magic? I understand their desperate laughter as I brood over the stowed creature nestled close to my body; it feels like an alien thing to me, a malignant cuckoo’s egg. Opening the box beside me, I reach in with one hand to fondle its cargo, begging silently for a spark of recognition as I caress its anonymous features in the darkness. <span style="font-style: italic;">Clover?</span><br /><br />“You’re on,” hisses the pock-marked stagehand. The moment the spotlight smites my eyes and the stamping crowd booms, I feel a sudden stiff, frightened kick against my inner thigh, then another. But it is too late! Small claws dig into my flesh as I clamber through the routine, sweatily producing a long-stemmed rose from a woman’s décolletage and turning a decanter of milk into sour wine. I can’t stop now, the audience already knows what the golden box is for; it’s what they came for. With trembling hands I remove the lid and lift Clover high for their appraisal. I straighten myself to my full height and steel myself for the grand finale.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span id="fullpost">Copyright: © 2008 Tom Blunt</span><br /></div><span id="fullpost"><br /></span><span id="fullpost"><br /></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-21144058262568388772009-01-02T13:43:00.007-05:002009-01-02T13:56:04.224-05:00VERSUS POLL - Movie Wrestler Smackdown<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://polls.amctv.com//chart/data/1488-round-1-match-1.html"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 380px; height: 181px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi50lfWVtzqY-xZMryS1MiloXdOlclgA3OhajUoHLZfk6y0a5SNFdlMSQwrfD_hiqQev9hFWjcqWaZKs98INOULymbibiW_jIt3q5l__VRcvjUp20-1mYeOBkVyCKdztV3gES3N/s400/tournament-wrestlers-blog.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5286769068168661938" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">I</span></span>'m currently in the middle of composing a bunch of fun tournament polls for AMC, the kind of thing where various movie characters are pitted against each other in an imaginary competition for some sort of epic title. In honor of Darren Aronofsky's <span style="font-style: italic;">The Wrestler</span>, here's a bunch of Hollywood types who have, for one reason or another, entered the ring. <a href="http://polls.amctv.com//chart/data/1488-round-1-match-1.html">Click here to vote for a winner...</a>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-56184268495403191202008-12-31T16:29:00.013-05:002008-12-31T17:07:48.889-05:00UPDATE - Tiffany Stalker Drops In On Milano<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2008/09/exclusive-interview-in-new-film-by-sean.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 0px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19sMJ5dzcmGLdN1Hh1ptFJOnMyXdKbcHRORl9qMRqbTkhn9Mkd_L8_G57Ak71GADmB8M-2EeDjS4jlsecCxpivkTxrzRU0a9P8QcD_Q8p1tdKsmyUBk6ULvkQF9RAoTsdlzvQ/s400/Tiffany-I_Think_We're_Alone_Now-12in.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5247465711120210898" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">R</span></span>emember Jeff Turner, one of the two (!!!) Tiffany stalkers profiled in the new documentary <a href="http://ithinkwerealonenow.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">I Think We're Alone Now</span></a>? Turns out he has a thing for Alyssa Milano as well, and the actress recently filed a restraining order against him after he dropped by her home unexpectedly. Clips from the doc wound up in an <a href="http://www.accesshollywood.com/access-investigates-celebrity-stalkers_video_872021">Access Hollywood piece</a> about celebrity stalkers.<br /><br />Today director Sean Donnelly (whom I <a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2008/09/exclusive-interview-in-new-film-by-sean.html">interviewed about the film</a> in September) and his crew have released a video in which Turner shares his own perspective on the Alyssa kerfuffle. While it's unsettling that he doesn't seem to think he's done anything wrong, I think he ultimately seems harmless -- but then, I wouldn't want him scuttling around in <span style="font-style: italic;">my </span>backyard either:<br /><br /><center><object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eEOC34JXgls&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eEOC34JXgls&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object></center>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-13869360718965743152008-12-30T10:49:00.004-05:002008-12-30T11:10:56.293-05:00Update - Power Hour With Sloane Crosley<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/letting-the-chips-fall/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0kxQ5beo7BbPT05j1loRDQ09dCsjG8PSghgLmvC2KCgsS7GxeI-464ybtoVziW5zSDjtAoCCDs7IYYOSh3fBX1rUhbruAaFDcVFVdfk8V1RhLIGVC89o3LuPepb8AN0YK-iXS/s200/Sloane+cropped.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5194713358665160098" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >S</span>loane Crosley popped up here months ago to answer <a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2008/04/few-sincerely-jolting-moments-with.html">questions about horror movies</a>, and since then I've read and thoroughly enjoyed her book of essays, <a href="http://sloanecrosley.com/"><span style="font-style: italic;">I Was Told There'd Be Cake</span></a>. It was fun to open the Times this morning and see her personal history of alcohol consumption right there on<a href="http://proof.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/letting-the-chips-fall/"> the front page</a>. -- cheers to Sloane, I shall raise an 11 AM highball glass to her health and good fortune. (Except I'm coming down with a cold, so it's full of hot lemon-water...)Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-9537188312398871462008-12-29T09:11:00.008-05:002008-12-29T09:32:09.121-05:00MicroHorror Featured Pick - "The Final Chapter"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2008/12/microhorror-featured-pick-final-chapter.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjltCcqj7r54DsWquLX_hXmuZmgZgSfTMOhce5hr4QSPfYqU2SiYT_fLflBN7dFHpMoxpTRgUc_wNuikZzzH7_2NAbAtB5qkm6ZVXdbuspo856K81N6HP1SVGT-Qv8IkhEK_ueI/s400/microhorrortitle2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5242318872477912578" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">H</span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;">ere's the last of <a href="http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror/">MicroHorror's</a> three winners from the 2008 Halloween contest -- coincidentally authored by <a href="http://www.oonahs.blogspot.com/">Oonah V. Joslin</a>, the <a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2008/08/microhorror-pick-of-week.html">very first</a> MicroHorror author I featured on this site. May her</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">vision of a possible future serve as a very special New Year's greeting to all our dear readers...</span><br /><center style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2008/12/microhorror-featured-pick-final-chapter.html">"The Final Chapter"<br />by Oonah V. Joslin</a></span></center><span id="fullpost"><br /><br /><center><a href="http://www.microhorror.com/microhorror/" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v306/hermitosis/microhorrortitle2.jpg" alt="Microhorror" border="0" /></a></center><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >I</span>n the depths of the oceanic valleys there still was heat and light.<br /><br />The heat came from fissures in the Earth’s crust, ever spewing forth lava and bubbling plumes of smoky gaseous fume that tunneled upwards through the long cold night of stilly waters.<br /><br />The light emanated from creatures that few had ever seen and none had encountered; creatures which lived by their own light and feared no darkness. Electric flashes in the blackness heralded a shoal of swimming LEDs. Sudden white, a whiplash here; darting blue, a flash there; vermillion–changing–pink, a streak at the edge of perception. Neon, yellow, green, darting hither and thither beneath the Great Pacific Gyre.<br /><br />The Sun that had once blazed no longer ruled the sky. It penetrated dimly mother-of-pearl clouds. Slowly it had carried on its work of photo-degradation upon the surface of the polymers left swirling on the waters and the corpses left strewn upon the land, but it was weak now. No fish surfaced to taste its rays and no animal basked in its radiating glow. The Earth lay under a dead blanket of thickened atmosphere, sick with poisons and all infertile.<br /><br />***<br /><br />Then came the day; that day that was bound to come, when the creatures that lay beneath rose from their ocean beds, close enough to the dark belly of the great petrochemical soup to taste its potential. Vast coils of plastic-coated wires, holographic interfaces, computer circuitry, components still intact within their plastic cases and yet sufficiently exposed for exploitation by those who could jolt them to life. The beings from the deep made their home there among those unnatural weeds and scales, among the flotsam of man’s legacy to Earth.<br /><br />Gradually they built around them bodies, of indescribable intricacy and size, activated by elements from a trillion different machines and protected by a slurry of polymers, acetates and vinyls. Their glistening bodies shone as they took form and rose clear of their surroundings and they were given life, not from above but from below, from electric ocean depths that man had barely known and from his technological imaginings.<br /><br />One by one, brand new creatures lurched onto empty continents to seek out the fills they knew must exist there. They towered over the landscape, striding a hundred meters at a time. They ventured forth upon the land of their creators and saw the devastation mankind had wrought. And the Techno-polymorphs saw that it was good.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span id="fullpost">Copyright: © 2008 Oonah V. Joslin</span><br /></div><span id="fullpost"><br /></span><span id="fullpost"><br /></span>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-87255037109031869352008-12-28T19:29:00.000-05:002008-12-29T09:25:06.197-05:00Deadly Fungi Product Reviews<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/garden.html"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 129px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEWKjZR_I2-dLP3JX-L5hygZEKgkUFWjVVni0PdlJEkkd0Ss4_V8EnNH2spT4YThhENett7h0clJx7nX6IfH__EQJ_DOQId3Tsn1vDCbP4sCicTDw3Oepkhr8JDmMycZzf0YC0/s400/destro.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284262587711630098" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">L</span></span>ately I keep running across this saying: "There are old mushroom hunters, and there are bold mushroom hunters, but there are no old, bold mushroom hunters." Rather than take this to heart, I've been flirting with mycological destruction lately thanks to two excellent finds.<br /><br />I've been sampling perfumes like a fiend ever since BPAL started running an ad on my site. It's a little ridiculous -- I work from home and rarely leave the house at all, but I still want to try out all these fragrances on people; as I dig through bottles in search of a blend that will knock the socks off of the cashier at the corner deli, I have to wonder if I've become elderly before my time.<br /><br />This month I took a gamble on a blend called "<a href="http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/garden.html">Destroying Angel</a>," named for the fatally toxic <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destroying_angel"><span style="font-style: italic;">Amanita</span></a> mushrooms that looks pretty much identical to plenty of other harmlessly edible fungi; less than half a cap can outright kill you, and since symptoms may not occur for up to a day, early treatment is rarely an option. While BPAL's description of the fragrance ("Papery white notes evoke the grace of this fungi, grounded by thin, crisp soil") didn't sound like something I'd normally wear, my curiosity got the better of me. To my surprise, it turned out to be one of the most beautifully wearable blends I've sampled so far -- rich, earthy, and tempting. And while my friends tend to be merely tolerant of my constant demands to "smell this and tell me what you think," this one inspired a lot of double-takes (the good kind).<br /><br />Speaking of murderous fungi, I came to an abrupt halt in my local organic store the other day when I caught sight of "<a href="http://vermontmushrooms.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5&products_id=2">Cranberry Cordyceps Tea</a>." What??? The term "cordyceps" has been burned into my brain ever since I saw that chilling segment on Planet Earth where all those insects go terminally insane and grow deadly <span style="font-style: italic;">Alien</span>-esque fungus stalks out of their heads. Now in drink form! <a href="http://www.vermontmushrooms.com/index.html">Vermont Mushrooms'</a> site describes the product as: "An invigorating combination of organic cordyceps with Vermont maple syrup and Vermont cranberry juice. Cordyceps has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to increase vitality, build endurance and strengthen the spirit." It looks vaguely like a Snapple.<br /><br />So, I went ahead and bought a bottle, but I'm not brave enough to drink it yet -- this is probably a sign of how lacking I am in vitality, endurance, and spirit. Is there any way out of this vicious cycle that doesn't involve drinking a tasty parasite? Watch this and tell me if you think I should drink it:<br /><center><object width="425" height="264"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/RuopJYLBvrI&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/RuopJYLBvrI&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="264"></embed></object></center>Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6806151.post-88536170135970514512008-12-26T12:15:00.009-05:002008-12-28T19:58:23.919-05:00Update - Mothertongue Composer Nico Muhly Scores New Stephen Daldry Film<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://nicomuhly.com/news/2008/reader/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 120px; height: 218px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi22mw1FKHx-FQ_78pgt25QFVXQfS40dJmbrAL79R1CtBSGPjXvzInn3_FVhLS6JutGyYZmsXuiYZJ5FJNwXpwjTMAX3Y5p5TpwuRMckDeaJNXLodoqMi6xzDQykpoufyj4SUmr/s400/Mothertongue_27729t.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284150621002470946" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >A</span> while back I <a href="http://hermitosis.blogspot.com/2008/05/nico-muhly-has-tongue-for-your-ear.html">interviewed Nico Muhly</a> about horror movies and his score for the creeptacular 2007 film <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIWjPPfUe8Y"><span style="font-style: italic;">Joshua</span></a>; additionally, Muhly's album <span style="font-style: italic;">Mothertongue </span>was one of my favorite albums of 2008. I just glanced at his blog and realized that <a href="http://nicomuhly.com/news/2008/reader/">he composed the score</a> for Stephen Daldry's new movie <span style="font-style: italic;">The Reader</span>, which stars Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. I've been really curious about this movie... has anyone seen it yet who would care to report?<br /><br />All of Muhly's albums -- <span style="font-style: italic;">Mothertongue</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Speaks Volumes</span>, <span style="font-style: italic;">Joshua</span>, and <span style="font-style: italic;">The Reader</span> -- are available on iTunes. I like to imagine that in some parallel universe, we're good friends who occasionally take each other out for brunch at some forgotten joint in an unfashionable Manhattan neighborhood where there's no one else dining who's younger than 65.Tomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16518598485259084736noreply@blogger.com3