Where Have I Been?
Saturday was the LSAT, and after that I got sick, and then I was having an unusually busy week at work, and then I got even sicker, until today when I threw in the towel and took the day off from work. This would be my second absence in less than 3 months on the job! What a gem I am.
A lot to catch up on, so I'll get right to it:
1. I had this thought yesterday: since I've been out of school I've become a bigger dork. It's paradoxical, because grad school is for the dorkest of the dorks, and yet. I feel I've been having a harder time keeping up conversations, both with strangers (this happens quite a bit on public transportation) and with old friends. Maybe it's because everyone is in my life/age group is getting dorkier; I've definitely had that impression before. But the difference now is that I can't carry the burden of conversation, whereas before I didn't mind it so much because I felt I had a lot more I wanted to say.
2. Dr. Steve-O - Steve-O is back on the air! This time it's like a Jackass-version of Fear Factor: he makes a bunch of "wussy" guys face their phobias, like bees, public speaking, and meat (?). It has more of the human interest to it, because it's about normal people, but it also has that consequence of making Steve-O look even more like a cokehead than his already did. When he was surrounded by the other Jackass cokeheads, he didn't stick out so much, but on this show, when you see him slicing his tongue with a piece of broken glass (as he does on a promo to an upcoming episode), it really hits home how much of a weirdo he is.
3. Rock of Love with Bret Michaels - I wanted Heather to win, because she was hands down the alpha female of the house, but of course she never had a chance. Why would Bret Michaels bang a 32-year-old when he can bang a 23-year-old? It's simple math. Even so, he's a huge fool, and it's no wonder he's still single. You'd think by the time you reach 45, you'd be smart enough to know that the only excitement you can hold for a 23-year-old is the thrill of the competition. You should know that what a 23-year-old wants, you can't give. She'll leave him as soon as her own fame starts taking off, or once she realizes, outside the pressures of the competition, that she really doesn't want him. Heather, sure, also had a bit of a phony love for Bret that had to do with fame, but I think she would have stayed true to him just because she's kind of washed up herself. He would have been a kind of hero to her, rescuing her from the depths of stripping. There's a love story for you.
4. Which reminds me of the Wedding Date, starring Debra Messing. I saw this a while ago, but wasn't really inspired to make commentary at the time. It started out well enough, but then spun into this really implausible "huh?..." Girl must face her ex-fiance at her sister's wedding. Girl hires Boy to be her date to make said ex jealous. Boy is the perfect package: good-looking, charming, considerate, perfectly tactful, because he's a professional. Boy and Girl sort of bond. Boy and Girl have falling out. Girl realizes she's in love with Boy. Boy says, I'd rather be fighting with you than making love to anyone else.
What?? WHY? The movie fails to explain what possible charm Girl could have had that would have made this date different from all the other business-as-usual dates. I think they were relying on the shallow Pretty Woman assumption that a hooker/escort has no chance against falling in love with a john. But Pretty Woman really was about a hooker who was searching for a different self, whereas the Wedding Date was about a guy who already had it all; he was getting his doctorate at Brown in comparative literature, and he was just moonlighting as an escort on the side. Was he really having such a hard time at finding Ms. Right that he would weaken while on the job?
5. Blades of Glory - What is it about Will Ferrell movies that shouts out, during the opening credits, even before Will Farrell makes an appearance, that you're about to see a Will Ferrell movie? This time it was Napolean Dynamite's character, as a child, skating figure eights and executing the double sow-cow.
6. Night of the Living Dead - The original zombie movie! It was a little slow. They spend about 15 minutes arguing whether they should hide out in the cellar or stay above ground. The production values are also a little funny: the zombies just looked like regular people.
It reminded me of that academic point I made about a year ago, when my Aristophanes class was reading the Frogs, and we were studying Bakhtin's observations about the Carnival, while I was watching TCM's documentary on the history of zombies in film. Bakhtin says that the Carnival is the collective ENJOYMENT of ritual license; my instinct says that the Carnival, like chaos or license itself, is a scary experience (clowns), and that the enjoyment lies in that very fear. Night of the Living Dead made me think some more about the relationship between fun and fear. It seems to be the case that the exact same elements contribute the experience of both. Specifically, there are two points in the movie that I thought worked even better as a joke than they do as horror.
First is when Barbara stops being catatonic. She spends most of the movie in a state of shock, and everyone else in the movie has to take care of her. Then she has a transformation when she sees the other woman about to get devoured by the zombies breaking down the door. In a moment similar to Kirsten Dunst in Spiderman 2, when with grim determination she resolves to stop being such a goddamn useless damsel in distress, and picks up a metal beam to whack Doc Oc while he's not looking - a moment that is meant to be funny - Barbara finally snaps out of it and rushes to help the woman hold up the door. I really expected this to be the turning point in the movie. After all, Barbara was the first character we saw and sympathized with, and I thought not only would she stay alive, but she would also learn something (feminist) from her zombie experience. But the movie defied all my expectations: Barbara rescues the woman, but gets devoured by the zombies herself. This is what her bravery amounts to! It was both hilarious and horrifying.
The second such surprise is the way Ben dies. He is the lone survivor after the night's attack. He's holed up in the cellar, where he had to dispatch the couple that got killed by their zombie daughter. Morning comes and the rescue team with their dogs finds this enclave of zombies. Ben thinks it's going to be over. Cautiously he makes his way out of the cellar, and sees dead zombies at his feet. From a distance, a member of the rescue team...shoots him in the head! He was mistaken for a zombie, after everything he'd been through, and the closing credits roll over images of him getting cremated in a pile of zombies.
A lot to catch up on, so I'll get right to it:
1. I had this thought yesterday: since I've been out of school I've become a bigger dork. It's paradoxical, because grad school is for the dorkest of the dorks, and yet. I feel I've been having a harder time keeping up conversations, both with strangers (this happens quite a bit on public transportation) and with old friends. Maybe it's because everyone is in my life/age group is getting dorkier; I've definitely had that impression before. But the difference now is that I can't carry the burden of conversation, whereas before I didn't mind it so much because I felt I had a lot more I wanted to say.
2. Dr. Steve-O - Steve-O is back on the air! This time it's like a Jackass-version of Fear Factor: he makes a bunch of "wussy" guys face their phobias, like bees, public speaking, and meat (?). It has more of the human interest to it, because it's about normal people, but it also has that consequence of making Steve-O look even more like a cokehead than his already did. When he was surrounded by the other Jackass cokeheads, he didn't stick out so much, but on this show, when you see him slicing his tongue with a piece of broken glass (as he does on a promo to an upcoming episode), it really hits home how much of a weirdo he is.
3. Rock of Love with Bret Michaels - I wanted Heather to win, because she was hands down the alpha female of the house, but of course she never had a chance. Why would Bret Michaels bang a 32-year-old when he can bang a 23-year-old? It's simple math. Even so, he's a huge fool, and it's no wonder he's still single. You'd think by the time you reach 45, you'd be smart enough to know that the only excitement you can hold for a 23-year-old is the thrill of the competition. You should know that what a 23-year-old wants, you can't give. She'll leave him as soon as her own fame starts taking off, or once she realizes, outside the pressures of the competition, that she really doesn't want him. Heather, sure, also had a bit of a phony love for Bret that had to do with fame, but I think she would have stayed true to him just because she's kind of washed up herself. He would have been a kind of hero to her, rescuing her from the depths of stripping. There's a love story for you.
4. Which reminds me of the Wedding Date, starring Debra Messing. I saw this a while ago, but wasn't really inspired to make commentary at the time. It started out well enough, but then spun into this really implausible "huh?..." Girl must face her ex-fiance at her sister's wedding. Girl hires Boy to be her date to make said ex jealous. Boy is the perfect package: good-looking, charming, considerate, perfectly tactful, because he's a professional. Boy and Girl sort of bond. Boy and Girl have falling out. Girl realizes she's in love with Boy. Boy says, I'd rather be fighting with you than making love to anyone else.
What?? WHY? The movie fails to explain what possible charm Girl could have had that would have made this date different from all the other business-as-usual dates. I think they were relying on the shallow Pretty Woman assumption that a hooker/escort has no chance against falling in love with a john. But Pretty Woman really was about a hooker who was searching for a different self, whereas the Wedding Date was about a guy who already had it all; he was getting his doctorate at Brown in comparative literature, and he was just moonlighting as an escort on the side. Was he really having such a hard time at finding Ms. Right that he would weaken while on the job?
5. Blades of Glory - What is it about Will Ferrell movies that shouts out, during the opening credits, even before Will Farrell makes an appearance, that you're about to see a Will Ferrell movie? This time it was Napolean Dynamite's character, as a child, skating figure eights and executing the double sow-cow.
6. Night of the Living Dead - The original zombie movie! It was a little slow. They spend about 15 minutes arguing whether they should hide out in the cellar or stay above ground. The production values are also a little funny: the zombies just looked like regular people.
It reminded me of that academic point I made about a year ago, when my Aristophanes class was reading the Frogs, and we were studying Bakhtin's observations about the Carnival, while I was watching TCM's documentary on the history of zombies in film. Bakhtin says that the Carnival is the collective ENJOYMENT of ritual license; my instinct says that the Carnival, like chaos or license itself, is a scary experience (clowns), and that the enjoyment lies in that very fear. Night of the Living Dead made me think some more about the relationship between fun and fear. It seems to be the case that the exact same elements contribute the experience of both. Specifically, there are two points in the movie that I thought worked even better as a joke than they do as horror.
First is when Barbara stops being catatonic. She spends most of the movie in a state of shock, and everyone else in the movie has to take care of her. Then she has a transformation when she sees the other woman about to get devoured by the zombies breaking down the door. In a moment similar to Kirsten Dunst in Spiderman 2, when with grim determination she resolves to stop being such a goddamn useless damsel in distress, and picks up a metal beam to whack Doc Oc while he's not looking - a moment that is meant to be funny - Barbara finally snaps out of it and rushes to help the woman hold up the door. I really expected this to be the turning point in the movie. After all, Barbara was the first character we saw and sympathized with, and I thought not only would she stay alive, but she would also learn something (feminist) from her zombie experience. But the movie defied all my expectations: Barbara rescues the woman, but gets devoured by the zombies herself. This is what her bravery amounts to! It was both hilarious and horrifying.
The second such surprise is the way Ben dies. He is the lone survivor after the night's attack. He's holed up in the cellar, where he had to dispatch the couple that got killed by their zombie daughter. Morning comes and the rescue team with their dogs finds this enclave of zombies. Ben thinks it's going to be over. Cautiously he makes his way out of the cellar, and sees dead zombies at his feet. From a distance, a member of the rescue team...shoots him in the head! He was mistaken for a zombie, after everything he'd been through, and the closing credits roll over images of him getting cremated in a pile of zombies.
posted by Rex at 3:05 PM
3 Comments:
First: hope you feel better!
Second: Ah ha hah! Of course if a gigolo were getting his degree anywhere, it would be at Brown!
Third: Yeah, Debra Messing's character in that movie was too much of a mess for a got-it-together guy to go for. I'm thinking that most of his other johns (janes?) treat him like shit (or well, like a hooker) and so when Debra Messing was desperate enough to turn to her hooker for friendship, he felt somewhat respected in a sick way, and he felt bad for her, and then confused sympathy for love. I mean, see how this turns out in a few months, when the insanely insecure Debra Messing character starts asking Nick (?is it?) how many women he's banged for cash.
Here's a thought: maybe Debra Messing was Nick's first woman jane. I hear that when you're a dude trying to make it in the sex trade you have to be willing to swing both ways. That doesn't really explain why Nick understands women so perfectly, but it might explain why Debra Messing started to look so good.
yeah, Brown kids would probably pride themselves on swinging both ways. "Hey, I'm too cool to judge!" but then, if Debra Messing were Nick's first Jane, he'd be like, damn, STFU, you whiny nag!
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