Monthly Archives: January 2016

belle de jour (1967)

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belle de jour

i thought i had seen the Luis Buñuel classic, but when i saw it was on Hulu Plus the other day and watched it i realized i’d only seen photos of it and clips.

it’s a fascinating film starring the ridiculously beautiful Catherine Deneuve as a woman who is unfulfilled sexually in her marriage SO DECIDES TO BE A HOOKER.

or does she? the film does things that in the College of Creative Studies they taught us never to do: explain away everything as a dream.

there are scenes that happen and we realize they were just fantasies. and as the film moves along we never know whats real and whats a dream. even until the end.

Bunuel said even he didnt know what was real.

is that art or an easy way out?

we at school were taught that its the wrong path. that it’s lazy to work that way. that you should know and at some point your audience should know otherwise you’re just playing with their head for no good cause.

in the end i couldnt keep my eyes off Deneuve and i was glued to every step in her walk through being a prostitute because it was super interesting.

but im glad film didnt follow this path.

three stars

one of my new years resolutions is that every week imma see a classic movie i aint never seen before, last week was love in the afternoon and before that it was imitation of life.

do you know i love you? i do.

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jimi

i also love movies. and music. and sitting all weekend in my bed doing jack.

but starting next week imma catch up on all the Oscar nominated films that i havent seen yet.

heres my gameplan

tuesday – Room

wednesday – The Martian

thursday – The Revenant

friday – Trumbo

saturday – The Big Short (in the day)
saturday – nominated Animated Shorts (at night)

wish me luck

today is martin luther king day

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Martin Luther King Jr.

one of Americas greatest heroes.

a hero not just because of the words he said or the achievements he accomplished,

but how he did it.

he didn’t take anyone hostage, he didn’t gather dudes with rifles to occupy federal land, and he didn’t kill anyone in the name of any cause.

in fact he didn’t threaten anyone with violence. ever.

just the opposite: he spoke from a place of love.

love was his secret weapon, but it wasn’t a weapon at all, it was an adhesive.

love is what unified his message, his dream, and his goal with the hearts of others.

mlkwhen he was jailed, he didn’t fight, when he was punched, he didn’t punch back, when others around him were struck, he didn’t strike back.

it was the gutsiest, most punk rock move he could teach: take it.

love them for they know not what they they’re doing.

forgive them because they’re actually helping move this thing along.

it’s painful for me to see elements of this country have such a hard time accepting our first black president, because it shows me how much modern racism exists.

shrouded simply in politics, but it’s straight up ignorance and fear.

but dr. king’s ideals hold true just as much now as it did then: take it.

absorb it with love.

unite with peace.

live the example of where we want to go.

be punk rock

by being the opposite of the ignorant.

so learn.

speak so that others get it.

and come from a place of kindness.

we might not ever achieve a smidge of what mlk did individually, but if we simply walk along that path

together, we’ll get there,

love in the afternoon (1957)

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love in the afternoon

one of the great things about being a man in america is no matter how old we get we can still fool around with babes in their 20s.

that, to me, is the theme of the gary cooper + audrey hepburn + billy wilder romcom

do i buy it? do i think that audrey has daddy issues when her papa is maurice chevalier?

no. it is not established why shes into the cavorting, forgetful, bland cooper.

gary cooper and audrey hepburnthe only other love in her life has no game, but cooper does? he’s got so much money he’s able to pay a quartet of gypsies to perform live music anywhere he wishes, but audrey doesnt seem impressed by material objects

except for that fur

and that hat

if anything i think shes attracted to his style. it is carefree and simple. and stylish.

because when you’re a handsome man with money, no matter your age, life is a parade of women of all sorts

why wouldnt you soak it all in?

which is where the gunman comes in. the only interesting part of the film to me. most of it is damn audrey’s gorge or damn coop got old.

but as the nra says: when theres a gun – theres always fun.

there werent enough guns is the problem. not enough stumbling blocks.

youre telling me fine as audrey is, theres no other men knocking on her door? theres no other husbands trying to get at coop?

theres no other songs those gypsies can play???

there were some moments of LOLs and decent lines, but for the most part i was all what a waste of talent.

two stars

one of my new years resolutions is that every week imma see a classic movie i aint never seen before, last week was imitation of life.

as you know i rarely have dreams

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Taylor Swift but last night i did.

and the guest star was Taylor Swift, who my mom does not like AT ALL.

and we were talking and i had lots of questions and because i keep it real i told her that when i first heard “Shake It Off” i hated it and couldnt understand what was going on in her life that she felt like she had to make that song

and her face scrunched up

and i told her, it reminded me of the first time i visited LA. the year was 1984. i was here for the Rose Bowl to see Illinois play UCLA and – i’ll never forget – i was in the parking lot at the little outdoor mall in Marina Del Rey. they used to have an arcade there. now it’s a movie theater.

and i was in the parking lot and the dj said, “and now get ready because we have something here that you wont believe, but it’s true, it’s the new song from Van Halen. you have to believe me that it’s really them, because this sounds like nothing youve ever heard before”

and they played “Jump” and at first i was all, what the hell is wrong with eddie that he thinks he needs to put synthesizers in Van Halen of all things. and it was weird and poppy and it turned out to be their biggest hit of all. just like Shake it Off became your biggest hit of all.

and taylor unscrunched her face and smiled and said some stuff that i couldnt hear BECAUSE DREAMS ARE RETARDED.

and when i woke up i thought to myself, holy crap, taylor swift is going to do a surprise set at Coachella this year!

thats what this dream “means”. thats why Coachella hired Calvin Harris. that’s why they dont care if Guns n Roses turns out to be terrible like they were when they opened for the Stones way back when at the Coliseum. taylor swift is gonna full on do a little show and of course it will be a surprise because if they booked her for realsies everyone would take shit about Coachella, but if she just la la la oh hi im here, whats this a mic, whats this my guitar? oh hi. heres a little song you might know

and they do Shake it Off in the desert and then Bad Blood and all her mfing squad shows up and struts around

and then Slash struts around

it will be the biggest thing of all.

weekend one only, naturally.

and the only thing that could ruin this great plan is if i actually get tickets for weekend one, so to preserve this, i will just stay at home so all the kids can have their minds blown. youre welcome. ps f dreams.

todays national hat day, so i wore a hat to work

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national hat dayive been wearing a Cubs hat since i was a lad.

when i was in high school id walk down the hall and people would pass me by and say

cubs suck
cubs suck
oh god the cubs suck
cubs lost yesterday
cubs suck
cubs rule!
cubs suck

in college i would wear it and people would say omg are you from chicago? and id say the burbs – represent! and we’d talk about the cubs or chicago or where they were from or whathaveyou.

but nowadays i wear my hat and dudes mostly say your team is great or your team is doing great or things of that nature.

today i was at a Panerra Bread and i saw a dude with a black Cubs hat with a white C on it and i said, nice hat.

he didnt notice my blue Cubs hat (Post Season edition) and said, are you from Chicago?

i spun my hat around and he was all ooooooh hi!!!

he told me that most people make fun of him i said, i dont know anything about that.

the good news about the Cubs getting ready to win the world series is this year im ready for it. i have all the hats i need. now i need one that says world champs. or greatest team of the 21st century. or f you white sox on the side.

or this ones for you, harry

it will be a very special day. i’ll probably cry and propose marriage to the first girl i see. we’ll probably make out right there in the street.

there will be humping. who knows. consummation. fluids of all sorts.

a child will be conceived. one that will be called

champion.

or pion for short.

and she will rule us all.

the LA Times asks an interesting question on their front page today

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la times front pageand of course when you ask one good question it usually leads to more good questions.

and since their question was about diversity, let’s keep asking questions.

first off, of all the writers on the front page of the LA Times this morning, how many are not white? how many are not white in that lead story?

of all the people who edited those stories, as in their bosses, how many are not white?

is the news editor white? is the person in charge of entertainment white? is the photo editor white? what percentage of the masthead is white?

and since the examples used in their story really centers about the lack of african-americans, something near and dear to my heart, let’s keep asking questions down that path: how many african-american editors are there at my favorite local paper?

how many african-american editors-in-chiefs have there been there? how many african-american entertainment editors have there been (digital and/or print?) how many african-american publishers have there been?

how many african-american blog editors have there been? how did they do?

are these unfair questions about a paper that serves an incredibly diverse city? do they matter at all in context of this dramatic front page story? about film? (speaking of: how many black film critics has the times employed?)

the great thing about good questions is there’s never a lack of them. how many black opinion editors has the times hired? how many black sports editors have they had in their 100+ year history? how many black ad sales vps have there been? we could even ask: of the people who run the parking garage – how many at the very top are black? would our guesses be correct with all of these questions?

trust me, i am thrilled that questions about diversity are asked in 2016, especially when it concerns african americans,

but at what point am i allowed to say to my bffs in the press: pot, kettle?

at what point can someone say, doctor heal thyself?

is it bad form to quote matthew 7:5 which teaches “first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”?

im sure the LA Times, just like Hollywood, knows that progress can often take a long time to achieve

but some industries,

and companies,

and entities,

are easier to turn around than others.

the question is, why haven’t those easy ones changed quickly either

especially after they’ve taken the log out of their own eye?

those are the questions i can’t wait for them to ask

and answer.

the starmen, theyre just like us

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bowie

one of the unexpectedly great parts of working at the times when i did was getting to work with sooo many talented writers and editors.

one of the coolest was the very laid back dean kuipers, who i knew had previously worked at spin, my favorite magazine, but it wasn’t until tonight that i learned that he worked at Raygun, which for a while was the coolest mag in the world.

naturally dean had befriended David Bowie back in the day and the pair were working on an avant garde movie(?!?!) when this fascinating exchange happened, dean writes in today’s times:

On the second day of working together, with no one else in the room, Bowie took a long look at me and said, “Dean, do you think my work is still relevant?”

My heart broke. He worried that his surreal vision was too obscure, his many personae too fragmented. I reassured him that when your art is one of the root references of the present, you are always relevant.

“I wonder,” he said, unconvinced.

so yes, even david bowie, the man we are all remembering fondly, and missing, and fawning over

had real self doubts about the one thing he had been doing beautifully his whole life.

im so grateful dean wrote about this today.

i made it

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goldwyn theater

this morning was noms. i got to sleep around 10:30pm last night. woke up at 3:13am!!!! took a quick shower and hit the road.

very proud of myself because i do NOT get to sleep early on command.

but one thing led to another and boom i was asleep.

once i was on the streets of Hollywood, it was a dream.

not a car in sight!

so i cranked the Metallica and shot this little snapchat for yr ass

there was so little traffic that i just took Sunset all the way down to Doheny which is usually a suckers move cuz you’ll get stuck at La Brea and then Crescent Heights  and then for surely along the Strip.

but when no ones there you can pass the Rainbow, see that all of the sweet flowers are still out for Lemmy

realize that one can still turn around, and take a picture and be on time for work

lemmy tribute

so there you go Motörheads.

got to the garage there was a security guard in front of it, which is odd.

i rolled down my window and said, xbi

and he stepped aside.

parked in the best spot in the whole place

that i took a picture because that never happens

best parking space

got to the office and totally forgot that we give all the press delicious breakfast

(in my mind the breakfast is for me)

and took a picture of them because every other day that i arrive that room is empty

the press

got my breakfast, did my job, high fived ppl after we didnt screw anything up

and as i was driving home a huge wave of fatigue hit me

even though i had slept well the night before i was pooped.

so i got home and took a nice nap with the kittens

and was very happy that JJL, the screenwriters of Straight Outta Compton, and Mad Max got nominated.

one thing ive learned from being around and studying the history of the Oscars: theres always surprises.