POLARITY 158
this entry brought to you by radiohead, "a punchup at a wedding"
THE GOOD
Hotel Rwanda Reviewing a movie like this is tricky because you want to recommend it wholeheartedly; the subject matter is something that absolutely everyone must know about. I would argue that Hotel Rwanda is a must-see movie that should be put in our national education system for high school students to see. The part that makes me conflicted is that the directing is pretty pedestrian. Indeed, the movie seems to have been shot with an extremely tight schedule and appears to me made for cable. Aside from a single stunning moment with the main character witnessing firsthand the aftermath of the atrocities next to a rive bank covered in fog, there is really nothing interesting done with the camera that make the movie, visually, stand out at all. Don Cheadle is excellent as always and oozes subtleties, and every single black performer here is a joy to watch and completely pulls you in -- unfortunately the same cannot be said for the more famous white performers, all who are ordinarilly excellent (Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix, Jean Reno) but here seem to have been cast an hour before shooting and have only had time to learn their lines but not get into character. The good news is that the barebones directing and occasional spotty acting do not ruin the impact of the movie, which is an emotional true-story about how one man saved 800 people from the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, despite the U.N. turning its back on the country. Even with it's problems it is powerful and moving. You must find out what was going on during this time in the world's history.
Trivial Pursuit cards Awesome idea: Head to used bookstores and look for used editions of any trivia game. Or hang out in the toy section and wait for the older versions of Trivial Pursuit to go clearance (this will happen just after Christmas). Buy it. Then throw away the board, because Trivial Pursuit is a boring game that is frustrating, no fun, and takes forever. But if you just go down every card reading them one by one, you'll get smarter. This is not only a goddamned fact, but it is also fun.
WE3, Vertigo Comics We met a guy at the local comic book store who was extremely hyped about this. "The idea sounds cheesy, I know" he said, before describing the hyper-violent book about three pets hooked into mini-mech suits as weapons who escape and havoc ensues. He was right, it did sound cheesy, but I am a fan of Grant Morrison, the writer, so I gave it a whirl. Firstly, the artwork by Frank Quietly is stunningly gorgeous. I'm going to go buy a comics magazine and if he is not listed as a top artist, I'll be appalled. I wasn't as impressed as the comic store employee, but the book put a lot of ideas in my head that got me thinking. The animals talk, for example, but they talk at a level you would expect a cat or a dog to speak if they could. "Good boy!" , "hungry", "protect human!" etc. And I found it fascinating. What if animals could talk, but only at their intelligence level?
Scarlett Johannson on the cover of Cosmo Cosmo, for some reason, always poses every cover model the exact same. I don't know why they insist on having a lack of personality from the get-go, but they sure are proud of their inoccousness. Anyway. So Scarlett is posed the same way every other model is... except she leaps off the page at you and she actually looks good, although not at her best. I think it is a testament to her beauty to be posed in the exact same way as all the other Cosmo models, and not looking her best, yet she still melts every other magazine model on the newstand.
Beyonce and Jay-Z At first I was annoyed with them, but then I decided., you know what? Good for them. We see paparazzi pictures of them together because they make no real secret of their relationship, yet they refuse to be public about it. I wish other celebrities did this.
THE BAD
Transmetropolitan Vertigo Comics, issues 1-3 I really, really hesitate to call this book "bad", but my description is going to be too spotty to call it "good". This book got a lot of hype back in 1997, and it quickly climbed onto my "must-read" list. But, after having read the first three issues, I come away dissappointed. The writing sems mean-spirited without the laughs I was hoping to back it up. The art was inconsistent. Still, there was a certain charm to reading nihilistic adventures of a gonzo journalist in the future, and I want to read more of them, but now... Not quite as enthusiastic.
Peter Jennings' death Who the hell saw THAT coming?
Car tires I worked all this overtime so I can make sure to go to see NIN, right? Well the frigging tires leaked and got so low we were refilling them daily. So we had to get new ones, and spent 460 on them because we had to use a payday loan for them. But I only made 175 of overtime. So now I can't pay the electricity. Which means no NIN again.
Pay adjustments So the company I work for is changing. Problem is, their pay period is different than MCI's. Long story short, our first pay check under the new company will be half. Although it makes sense why this is happening (basically it's the same reason when starting for a new company, you have to wait a week longer than everyone else to get paid.) That doesn't mean it doesn't fucking suck.
Aol and Netscape being billed on my account We ended up short on money last week, again. So we log onto our bank account, and what the hell? There's a charge for Netscape, 10 dollars, and a charge for AOL, 20 dollars! Worse, for some reason, they're are in my roommates name! The problem is, why would my roommate sign up for Netscape (who we weren't even aware was an ISP) or AOL, when we have high-speed internet? So we get these accounts cancelled, and the department responsible for handling this admits that this is a problem, thay they get people calling up and cancelling accounts that they never started. Neither would refund my money, but they both gave me a month for free! Which is great! Awesome! Wow!
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with love from CRS @ 5:15 PM
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
THE GOOD
Hotel Rwanda Reviewing a movie like this is tricky because you want to recommend it wholeheartedly; the subject matter is something that absolutely everyone must know about. I would argue that Hotel Rwanda is a must-see movie that should be put in our national education system for high school students to see. The part that makes me conflicted is that the directing is pretty pedestrian. Indeed, the movie seems to have been shot with an extremely tight schedule and appears to me made for cable. Aside from a single stunning moment with the main character witnessing firsthand the aftermath of the atrocities next to a rive bank covered in fog, there is really nothing interesting done with the camera that make the movie, visually, stand out at all. Don Cheadle is excellent as always and oozes subtleties, and every single black performer here is a joy to watch and completely pulls you in -- unfortunately the same cannot be said for the more famous white performers, all who are ordinarilly excellent (Nick Nolte, Joaquin Phoenix, Jean Reno) but here seem to have been cast an hour before shooting and have only had time to learn their lines but not get into character. The good news is that the barebones directing and occasional spotty acting do not ruin the impact of the movie, which is an emotional true-story about how one man saved 800 people from the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, despite the U.N. turning its back on the country. Even with it's problems it is powerful and moving. You must find out what was going on during this time in the world's history.
Trivial Pursuit cards Awesome idea: Head to used bookstores and look for used editions of any trivia game. Or hang out in the toy section and wait for the older versions of Trivial Pursuit to go clearance (this will happen just after Christmas). Buy it. Then throw away the board, because Trivial Pursuit is a boring game that is frustrating, no fun, and takes forever. But if you just go down every card reading them one by one, you'll get smarter. This is not only a goddamned fact, but it is also fun.
WE3, Vertigo Comics We met a guy at the local comic book store who was extremely hyped about this. "The idea sounds cheesy, I know" he said, before describing the hyper-violent book about three pets hooked into mini-mech suits as weapons who escape and havoc ensues. He was right, it did sound cheesy, but I am a fan of Grant Morrison, the writer, so I gave it a whirl. Firstly, the artwork by Frank Quietly is stunningly gorgeous. I'm going to go buy a comics magazine and if he is not listed as a top artist, I'll be appalled. I wasn't as impressed as the comic store employee, but the book put a lot of ideas in my head that got me thinking. The animals talk, for example, but they talk at a level you would expect a cat or a dog to speak if they could. "Good boy!" , "hungry", "protect human!" etc. And I found it fascinating. What if animals could talk, but only at their intelligence level?
Scarlett Johannson on the cover of Cosmo Cosmo, for some reason, always poses every cover model the exact same. I don't know why they insist on having a lack of personality from the get-go, but they sure are proud of their inoccousness. Anyway. So Scarlett is posed the same way every other model is... except she leaps off the page at you and she actually looks good, although not at her best. I think it is a testament to her beauty to be posed in the exact same way as all the other Cosmo models, and not looking her best, yet she still melts every other magazine model on the newstand.
Beyonce and Jay-Z At first I was annoyed with them, but then I decided., you know what? Good for them. We see paparazzi pictures of them together because they make no real secret of their relationship, yet they refuse to be public about it. I wish other celebrities did this.
THE BAD
Transmetropolitan Vertigo Comics, issues 1-3 I really, really hesitate to call this book "bad", but my description is going to be too spotty to call it "good". This book got a lot of hype back in 1997, and it quickly climbed onto my "must-read" list. But, after having read the first three issues, I come away dissappointed. The writing sems mean-spirited without the laughs I was hoping to back it up. The art was inconsistent. Still, there was a certain charm to reading nihilistic adventures of a gonzo journalist in the future, and I want to read more of them, but now... Not quite as enthusiastic.
Peter Jennings' death Who the hell saw THAT coming?
Car tires I worked all this overtime so I can make sure to go to see NIN, right? Well the frigging tires leaked and got so low we were refilling them daily. So we had to get new ones, and spent 460 on them because we had to use a payday loan for them. But I only made 175 of overtime. So now I can't pay the electricity. Which means no NIN again.
Pay adjustments So the company I work for is changing. Problem is, their pay period is different than MCI's. Long story short, our first pay check under the new company will be half. Although it makes sense why this is happening (basically it's the same reason when starting for a new company, you have to wait a week longer than everyone else to get paid.) That doesn't mean it doesn't fucking suck.
Aol and Netscape being billed on my account We ended up short on money last week, again. So we log onto our bank account, and what the hell? There's a charge for Netscape, 10 dollars, and a charge for AOL, 20 dollars! Worse, for some reason, they're are in my roommates name! The problem is, why would my roommate sign up for Netscape (who we weren't even aware was an ISP) or AOL, when we have high-speed internet? So we get these accounts cancelled, and the department responsible for handling this admits that this is a problem, thay they get people calling up and cancelling accounts that they never started. Neither would refund my money, but they both gave me a month for free! Which is great! Awesome! Wow!
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