Category: Uncategorized
Hopper’s Excursion Into Philosophy
I was reading an article on early 20th Centurty artist Edward Hopper (1882-1967) in the Winter 2006 issue of American Artist Drawing. Hopper’s paintings make up some of the most iconic American images. The article talked about this painting saying: “In this image there appears to be no joy in either physical bliss or intellectual pursuits.” (Parks, 71)
“I believe that great painters, with their intellect as master, have attempted to force this unwilling medium of paint and canvas into a record of their emotions. I find any digression from this large aim leads me to boredom.” -Hopper
It struck me that this sort of intellectualization on emotions is also what fuels me creatively. And trying to craft the perfect scene depicting a gunfight in a church. I abide.
p.s. I just had angel food cake for the first time in my life and it’s Heavenly.
Return of the list
I read about this on FilmJunk, apparently Entertainment Weekly made this list of the best sci-fi movies made in the last 25 years. It has a few good ones and a few bad ones.
Frankly comparing a television show with a movie doesn’t work for me; as one develops over a longer period of time. A quick look at this list shows the variety of overriding genres that have sci-fi elements. Futurama is a comedy, Quantum Leap was a drama (very little sci-fi). Clone Wars (which is awesome!) is an action cartoon. I don’t know about The Matrix being the best sci-fi in the last 25 years (I’ve added my opinions in parentheses). I myself am partial to Bladerunner which deals with much of the same issues with AI, etc. but does so with a fantastic neo–noir complexity that trumps the freshmen level philosophy and visual effects of The Matrix. It should be noted that Edward James Olmos plays a critical role in both the number 2 and number 3 picks on the list, once again proving that EJO is freakin‘ awesome!
25. V: The Mini-series (in the 80’s there were great shows like V but then there was also crap like V, staring the Beastmaster himself Mark Singer)
24. Galaxy Quest (meh)
23. Doctor Who
22. Quantum Leap
21. Futurama
20. Star Wars: Clone Wars
19. Starship Troopers (whaaaa? the book was alright)
18. Heroes (we’ll see)
17. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
16. Total Recall
15. Firefly/Serenity
14. Children of Men (very good)
13. The Terminator/Terminator 2 (meh)
12. Back To The Future
11. Lost 
10. The Thing
9. Aliens (game over man but I think Alien is a better movie)
8. Star Trek: TNG (Christ this show was boring DS9 had a freakin‘ war that’s drama and action, this show was all rehash of the first series and boring diplomatic intrigue)
7. E.T.
6. Brazil (gotta love the natural blending of Kafkaesque and Pythonesque)
5. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (James Horner’s score rules)
4. The X-Files (it was great until it went on too long and got lame around season 7)
3. Blade Runner
2. Battlestar Galactica (this show is the only good thing Sci-fi Channel has done since they aired Akira and Robot Carnival in the early 90’s this list also lacks anime like Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell)
1. The Matrix
"Jack Ryan Republican"
What with all this talk about Fred Thompson as a possible candidate for president in 2008 I remembered that he was in The Hunt For Red October. This was Tom Clancy’s first book, the only one I read and it was pretty good; though I was only in 5th grade so I might have missed some of the finer points. Anywho Clancy’s main character Jack Ryan is the stalwart rugged individualist (the ideal of a Neo Con or so Neo Cons would imagine) who does the right thing, or something like that and so I figured I’d coin another term. And now I own it. So that means between there being “South Park Republicans” and “Log Cabin Republicans” and let’s face it, Libertarians the Right is actually pretty delineated (or maybe these are just terms to describe the same Hydra) Anyway I dub Fred a Jack Ryan Republican and if he gets serious about the race we’ll see what the hell that is.
Rough Customers
Grand Canyon 5 years ago
Robot on Robot Violence
“I watched in horror, only then did I realize that I will never understand what it is like to be a robot.”
Paradise Lost
Year Zero I’m almost too old for this crap.
So we have Guerilla marketing and cross marketing with websites and graphic novels and webisdoes and download the freakin’ podcast and . . . ah! I used to think that the world was going to end because stuff like Nine Inch Nails would never play as “Solid Gold Oldies”. As I get older and realize that there are only so many hours in a lifetime, I am finding that I am a fan of the oldies. By oldies I mean music organized into an album OR TV shows into programs on the tube OR films into 2 hour narratives that you can enjoy in full sans any kind of contextualization by hours of website surfing and code breaking. Perhaps all this complexity is a game for the young or the more selectively obsessed, which I used to be until it jumped this shark. I will hold out hope that I can enjoy the new Nine Inch Nails album without devoting more than the time it takes to listento the tracks. Art is supposed to have an element of interpretation, I just don’t know how well that will hold up if things are going to get this dense.
I’m Stuff v. 2.0
The more things change the more they stay the same.
Needs an antagonist and a more self actualized protagonist
SAMPLE OUTLINE WRITING FOR FILM SPRING 2007
Vehicle: 1 min short Title: HYPERVENTILATION
THE WORLD OF THE STORY
A fleet of starships of varying size and function are caravanning through space. They carry with them 17,000 refugees of varying social and political background who have lost their homes to an intergalactic territory grab. This fleet is occasionally attacked by space-pirates, who are fought off by a small militia/police group made up of ex-military and volunteers. The story focuses on one refugee, a musician, lying in a tiny bunk looking out an 8″ oval porthole watching a starfighter dogfight between raiding pirates and the militia.
THE CHARACTER
Julius Kaddo (27) – the man in the bunk, is scared. Being a musician he is essentially helpless in this circumstance. This is not the first time he has had to deal with a fear of raiders; he treats panic like a form of stage-freight. He rolls the brass mouthpiece of a trumpet in his hands intermittently placing it to his lips and blowing; it seems to soothe him as he watches this fight through the porthole.
ACT I
Julius sits up in his bunk writing on a musical staff with a nub of a pencil. His stomach growls and he smacks his lips acknowledging hunger pangs.
Inciting Incident:
A loud THUD occurs and the lights in the tiny room become a dim blue, a bright red flash shins through a tiny port hole in the ceiling of the room.
Progressive Complications:
Julius recoils into a fetal position in his bunk as the lights flicker and further THUDS occur.
ACT II
Explosions from the firefight occurring outside lighten Julius’ face, his eyes are frozen like a deer in headlights watching the beautiful but deadly dance of the fighters in the cold vastness of space.
Crisis:
Julius, his face sweaty from panicked convolutions begins to hyperventilate.
Crisis Continued:
His body begins to enter a more intense convulsion and his breathing becomes more labored, his vision becomes blurry.
ACT III
Climax:
About to lose consciousness he pulls himself to clarity his vision sharpens and in the dim light of his room he frantically scans for something. He sees the item shining on a small table next to his bunk. He lunges from his bunk and grabs the item falling back into his bunk.
Resolution:
He allows the item to roll around in his hand for a moment watching the space battle escalate. He places the item, the mouthpiece of a trumpet to his lips and blows through it, in so doing he controls and calms his hyperventilation. His breathing is normal as the final light from the battle ceases and the light in the room brightens.
THEME
The plot’s crisis/climax express the idea of how a civilian might be forced to deal with a military situation that is out of his control. Julius is a musician, as such he is not a fighter nor do his skills lie in tactical strategy or anything that might benefit the fleet in avoiding pirates. As such when the fleet comes under attack he is forced to face his helplessness and accept his mortality a thought which elicits panic. He has found that the best way for him to deal with this panic is to rely on that which he does know, his musical training. So like many horn players who practice blowing through mouthpieces to keep their lips and lungs in shape Julius does it to calm himself with something familiar.