POLARITY 162
this entry brought to you by nine inch nails, "home"
I, Robot When I saw trailers for I, Robot, I said to myself, wow, that is going to be a great movie to rent. I'm going to enjoy the hell out of renting that. Upon the initial few minutes, I was skeptical about my enthusiasm. Yes, we get it. Will Smith's character doesn't trust robots, and everybody else thinks he's crazy because he doesn't. We don't really need to be so beat over the head with it. But as the movie unfolds, it turns out to be a rather faithful interpretation of the ideas "suggested" by (as the credits call it) Asimov's novels, complete with some surprisingly profound philosophy that never bogs down like the Matrix movies. And speaking of The Matrix, we know those movies changed the way action movies were done with the whole bullet-time thing, but do we really need it in every movie? Anyway, with that aside, I, Robot is a really fun, electric movie that you expect to have to turn your brain off to enjoy, but, refreshingly, you don't have to at all.
Spoon, Gimme Fiction In an alternate reality, John Lennon was born in the mid-1970's, so he missed out on the whole hippy-rebel thing. And he still did drugs, but a lot less of them. And The Beatles still did their thing and changed the world, only John Lennon wasn't a member, because he wasn't born yet. And John Lennon had a cousin named Britt Daniels. And Britt Daniels, in our world, went on to front a band called Spoon.
Amazon.com's recommended list A few years ago, when I was still getting used to Amazon.com, I'd noticed that it always wanted to recommend stuff to me. I ignored it. Usually recommendations from companies who want you to buy stuff don't actually know what they're talking about. I thought the recommendations would be made off of pre-determined lists, like everything else (at the time). Most places are like, "Oh, you like Nine Inch Nails? May we recommend Drowning Pool? The kids like the Hard Rock, don't they?" They just take the band you like and look at whatever list they have it on, then recommend the most popular band that is also on their list. And there's usually only 5 lists. You know, "Country/Adult Contemporary", "Pop/Rock", "Hard Rock/ Metal", "Hip-hop" and "Latin". But when I clicked on recommendations from Amazon... holy cow! It knows who I am! Like a lot of sites do nowadays (but Amazon did first), it tracks what you seem to be interested in, and compares that to people who seemed to like the same things, and recommends other stuff they liked. It's really cool logging in to Amazon (which I do at least once a week, usually for research purposes-- I use Amazon as a research tool far more often than I use it to buy stuff, though I love using it to buy stuff) and being greeted by recommendations I absolutely am grateful for. It's as close to having a friend-in-the-know with on line shopping that you can get. I spend way too much time tweaking my recommendations list to get better recommendations for things I know I'll never buy but didn't know I would be interested in. Way too much time.
The Office Season 1 DVD By now, The Office isn't a secret. The DVDs are very popular, and there's even an American version on NBC that I initially had no interest in seeing because these remakes of BBC comedies have been no good, but once I found out it starrted Steve Carrell, have really wanted to see. Anyway, so you've heard of the original I'm sure, and yes, it's frigging brilliant. It's amazing how sleazebag, please-everyone-while-still-only-looking-after-himself boss David Brent turns into more of a sleazebag with every episode. Absolutely irresistible.
THE BAD
The Darkness, Permission to Land Don't get me wrong. I loved The Darkness, and when you throw on "Black Shuck" or "Get Your Hands Off My Woman", it's hard not to sway your body and shred some air guitar, or sing in impossible falsetto (or all three, like I do). Initially, they come off as hilarious, then when you get further into the album, they're surprisingly serious, then totally fucking rocking. Problem is they turn after three or four listens from totally rocking to "novelty". Kind of like how actual, non-tongue-in-cheek hair metal in 80's, Permission to Land got kind of old. Still, you bet your ass I'm going to listen to their follow-up.
The new Superman's suit I don't know what's Warner's obsession with making Supes younger. If a young person doesn't think Superman is cool, I really don't think his age is going to make him want to see his movie more. But anyway, that's cool. What annoys me is that belt buckle. First they don't have the Bat insignia prominent enough on Batman, then Superman's symbol is too prominent by having it twice. Sorry. Just a fanboy nitpicking. Otherwise, this movie looks like it's going to be fucking awesome.
SexyAnorexic.com I once found a website called anorexicbeauty or something like that, and it was pretty quickly apparent that it was a joke. I was relieved. Well, it turns out that there is an actual anorexic appreciation site, and it's not a joke, and it's really, really disturbing. I warn you: clicking on this site may induce vomitting.
Hip-hop albums Why do hip-hop records have to be so goddamn long? Even when you take away all the useless skits, most hip-hop records are still 17-18 tracks long, and still average over an hour in length. I don't understand the hip-hop tendency to over-indulge. I have yet to hear a hip-hop album where I couldn't remove at least five songs and made it better for it.
Martha Stewart's stint in jail Did I mention it was bullshit? I didn't? Well, it was bullshit.
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with love from CRS @ 12:20 PM
Monday, September 26, 2005
I, Robot When I saw trailers for I, Robot, I said to myself, wow, that is going to be a great movie to rent. I'm going to enjoy the hell out of renting that. Upon the initial few minutes, I was skeptical about my enthusiasm. Yes, we get it. Will Smith's character doesn't trust robots, and everybody else thinks he's crazy because he doesn't. We don't really need to be so beat over the head with it. But as the movie unfolds, it turns out to be a rather faithful interpretation of the ideas "suggested" by (as the credits call it) Asimov's novels, complete with some surprisingly profound philosophy that never bogs down like the Matrix movies. And speaking of The Matrix, we know those movies changed the way action movies were done with the whole bullet-time thing, but do we really need it in every movie? Anyway, with that aside, I, Robot is a really fun, electric movie that you expect to have to turn your brain off to enjoy, but, refreshingly, you don't have to at all.
Spoon, Gimme Fiction In an alternate reality, John Lennon was born in the mid-1970's, so he missed out on the whole hippy-rebel thing. And he still did drugs, but a lot less of them. And The Beatles still did their thing and changed the world, only John Lennon wasn't a member, because he wasn't born yet. And John Lennon had a cousin named Britt Daniels. And Britt Daniels, in our world, went on to front a band called Spoon.
Amazon.com's recommended list A few years ago, when I was still getting used to Amazon.com, I'd noticed that it always wanted to recommend stuff to me. I ignored it. Usually recommendations from companies who want you to buy stuff don't actually know what they're talking about. I thought the recommendations would be made off of pre-determined lists, like everything else (at the time). Most places are like, "Oh, you like Nine Inch Nails? May we recommend Drowning Pool? The kids like the Hard Rock, don't they?" They just take the band you like and look at whatever list they have it on, then recommend the most popular band that is also on their list. And there's usually only 5 lists. You know, "Country/Adult Contemporary", "Pop/Rock", "Hard Rock/ Metal", "Hip-hop" and "Latin". But when I clicked on recommendations from Amazon... holy cow! It knows who I am! Like a lot of sites do nowadays (but Amazon did first), it tracks what you seem to be interested in, and compares that to people who seemed to like the same things, and recommends other stuff they liked. It's really cool logging in to Amazon (which I do at least once a week, usually for research purposes-- I use Amazon as a research tool far more often than I use it to buy stuff, though I love using it to buy stuff) and being greeted by recommendations I absolutely am grateful for. It's as close to having a friend-in-the-know with on line shopping that you can get. I spend way too much time tweaking my recommendations list to get better recommendations for things I know I'll never buy but didn't know I would be interested in. Way too much time.
The Office Season 1 DVD By now, The Office isn't a secret. The DVDs are very popular, and there's even an American version on NBC that I initially had no interest in seeing because these remakes of BBC comedies have been no good, but once I found out it starrted Steve Carrell, have really wanted to see. Anyway, so you've heard of the original I'm sure, and yes, it's frigging brilliant. It's amazing how sleazebag, please-everyone-while-still-only-looking-after-himself boss David Brent turns into more of a sleazebag with every episode. Absolutely irresistible.
THE BAD
The Darkness, Permission to Land Don't get me wrong. I loved The Darkness, and when you throw on "Black Shuck" or "Get Your Hands Off My Woman", it's hard not to sway your body and shred some air guitar, or sing in impossible falsetto (or all three, like I do). Initially, they come off as hilarious, then when you get further into the album, they're surprisingly serious, then totally fucking rocking. Problem is they turn after three or four listens from totally rocking to "novelty". Kind of like how actual, non-tongue-in-cheek hair metal in 80's, Permission to Land got kind of old. Still, you bet your ass I'm going to listen to their follow-up.
The new Superman's suit I don't know what's Warner's obsession with making Supes younger. If a young person doesn't think Superman is cool, I really don't think his age is going to make him want to see his movie more. But anyway, that's cool. What annoys me is that belt buckle. First they don't have the Bat insignia prominent enough on Batman, then Superman's symbol is too prominent by having it twice. Sorry. Just a fanboy nitpicking. Otherwise, this movie looks like it's going to be fucking awesome.
SexyAnorexic.com I once found a website called anorexicbeauty or something like that, and it was pretty quickly apparent that it was a joke. I was relieved. Well, it turns out that there is an actual anorexic appreciation site, and it's not a joke, and it's really, really disturbing. I warn you: clicking on this site may induce vomitting.
Hip-hop albums Why do hip-hop records have to be so goddamn long? Even when you take away all the useless skits, most hip-hop records are still 17-18 tracks long, and still average over an hour in length. I don't understand the hip-hop tendency to over-indulge. I have yet to hear a hip-hop album where I couldn't remove at least five songs and made it better for it.
Martha Stewart's stint in jail Did I mention it was bullshit? I didn't? Well, it was bullshit.
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