Category: words mean things (Page 145 of 223)

It’s quite the cosmic coincidence that “Series 7” is finally out on DVD, and I saw it on the shelf just days after my diatribe against “The Chamber.” Series 7 is an unspeakably brilliant satire, not so much of reality TV (that already satirizes itself, thank you very much), but of the amusing-ourselves-to-death mentality that has permeated the culture.

How far are we away from a society that picks people through lottery to take part in a deathmatch contest on national TV? Way closer than we would like to admit.

Some of the most chilling footage in the movie is the commercial lead-in promos, which look and sound exactly like reality TV promos. Director Daniel Minahan was a producer of reality programs for Fox, and it shows on the screen.

I don’t think a lot of people saw this movie in the theaters, but it’s especially good on video anyway, since it’s about TV. Get the DVD, if you can, but watch this movie however you can get your hands on it. On the DVD, be sure to watch all the deleted scenes – there’s something that looks like the “lost” footage from the end of the film that adds a whole new disturbing edge to the entire experience. Highly, highly recommended.

Philips now says that people who make those stupid copy-protected CDs shouldn’t be able to use the “Compact Disc” logo, since they aren’t really CDs at all. This is encouraging – if people know beforehand that a CD is copy-protected, hopefully they won’t buy it.

The whole Napster thing sort of amazed me, because I believe people would be willing to pay a small amount for each song they downloaded legally, so the record companies and more importantly the artists could be compensated for their work. There are new pay services starting up, like RealOne and pressplay, but to me they seem needlessly complex, with special software and lots of limits. Just allow me to pay $1 or whatever for a downloaded file and be done with it.

With the demise of “Top Ten Blog,” I would love to start a popular and fun group blog. But I need some ideas. I think a group blog should have a strong concept behind it, an interesting focus and point of view. Any brainstorms out there?

Maybe they can use this on “The Chamber” contestants.

I’ve been thinking about Top Ten Blog lately. It’s finally happened – my last post was so long ago, it’s fallen off the main page. It was only about a month ago, but early on I was posting just about every day. And the page is now stuck on a baffling “workplace jokes” list. For the last couple of months I’ve been finding the list topics people post to be difficult to contribute to. I think Haidi (on weblog hiatus or I would link to her) is amazing and wonderful and her idea for TTB! was great. But it seems to be losing some steam.

What do you think?

Had two disturbing nightmares last night. In the first one, I was on a flight that was landing, and we were for some reason coasting in under a giant overpass. Then there was a little drop, like a turbulence bump. Then the plane just did a nosedive into the ground, and I could sort of see the front of the plane translucent as we plummeted to our deaths.

Ahem.

I woke up all disturbed and upset, but still managed to get back to sleep. Then I dreamed that I was on a huge double-decker bus with my brother Matt. He almost fell off the top of the bus because he was clowning around, so the bus driver stopped and pulled over to the side. But the bus was on the edge of some sort of bog, and before we could get off the bus, it had sunk into the bog with us on it.

This is all quite weird since I rarely remember my dreams, and when I do they are usually standard anxiety dreams – I’m in school and I can’t find my classroom, etc. These were disturbing. Not sure why I’m writing about this – maybe to get it out of my head.

We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.

“Everyone deserves happiness, even if it doesn’t last.”
-Aurora Greenway, The Evening Star

As a companion to “The Chamber” from yesterday, I just found out there’s a video game coming out for the Playstation2 called “State of Emergency,” where you control rioters killing and looting their way through a 3-D cityscape.

Here’s a snippet from a review of the unfinished game:
“Rocket launchers, flamethrowers, Uzis, shotguns, grenade launchers, and even dismembered body parts such as arms and heads are all available for use in destroying everything around you.”

I think it’s time we just junk this culture and start all over again.

Stumbled onto a new game show called “The Chamber” on Fox (of course). Sort of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire in Hell!”, the show asks contestants general knowledge questions while they are strapped into a torture chamber. They are either frozen with jets of cold water and ice, or roasted with flames and high winds. They are also shaken, rotated and shocked with electric stimulators.

Welcome to network TV, 2002.

“The Running Man” and “Series 7” can’t be far off. And as you might expect, I also saw a promo tonight on ABC for a similar show called “The Chair.”

Oh my sweet lord.

“All happy families resemble one another, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
-Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Finally saw “The Royal Tenenbaums” last night. While I was expecting a “Rushmore” (which remains one of my favorite movies of all time), what I got was something more complex. It starts off like a joke, a goof – everyone is so fantastically “eccentric.” You laugh, but you think, is this all there is? Then unexpectedly it starts to deepen, not exactly into tragedy, but into something that holds a mirror up to how complex and messy life can be.

The performances, especially by Gene Hackman and Gywneth Paltrow, are exceptional. I’ve never liked Paltrow particularly, but here her blank sad-sack expression (complete with thick black eyeliner) carries the weight of the world. And I would watch Hackman read the phone book. His Royal is an inspired concoction – just enough humanity and love to make you realize he’s not a total bastard.

Can’t wait for director Wes Anderson’s next one.