What on Earth is happening to me? Two weekends in a row and I've actually been busy? Poor Mango. Despite my best efforts to play with him a little bit each day, I feel that he's becoming a widow to something that under normal circumstances might actually resemble a social life.
This was my four day weekend and I actually spent a lot of it out of the house.
On Wednesday, I went to go get my tickets for Cowboy Mouth. I got 4 comped tickets out of it. Apparently the girl at the ticket booth wanted me out of the way so the hot guy in front of me could continue to hit on her. For the rest of the day and the next until just before the show I was trying to get rid of the extras, to no avail. By 5:00 Thursday evening, I was pretty much convinced that I wasn't going. I honestly was feeling like the kid who needed his parents to tie a slab of meat around his neck to get the pets to play with him. Then, I saw that a friend of mine, Stacy, got comped tickets as well, and she too was completely fruitless in getting rid of her tickets as well. So much for the "wanting to get me out of the way" theory.
In any event, it was a Cowboy Mouth show. Of course it was freaking stellar. I lost my voice after the first two songs and was pretty much just croaking after that. For those of you who don't know, Cowboy Mouth is a rock band from New Orleans that is pretty much constantly on tour, like 200 days out of the year. Their drummer, Fred LeBlanc, is also their lead singer, and his kit is right up front and center. Fred does not allow any emotion from the crowd other than raw unadulterated exuberance. The man knows how to work a room and Thursday night was no exception. I've been to shows where it's obvious that the band really doesn't want to be there. Every time I've seen Cowboy Mouth, it's exactly the opposite. It's so obvious that they're all having a blast that you can't help but enjoy yourself. They're a 4 piece Tenacious D that rocks 8 times as hard.
Thursday night I was wearing shorts. Friday I was in flannel pajama pants. I needed the day to recoup, and with the weather being what it was, I decided to make chili instead of the cottage pie I was considering. I don't know why, but I always fail to put enough meat in my chili and always go overboard on the vegetables. It's still good though. I went to bed early (for me) so that I could be on a day shift for the Werewolf game Saturday.
Game was okay, and I got home around 5:00 wondering what I was going to do. Every time we had game in the afternoon before, it was because of my schedule, namely because I had to be at work that evening. I was completely unused to getting home from an afternoon game and I didn't know what to do with myself. Lo and behold, I get a text from someone I've not seen or heard from in well over a year asking me if I wanted to hang out at Trinity Hall. Being that it's Trinity Hall, and how even a fake Irish pub is still pretty cool, I took her up on the offer.
It was good catching up, and the cider was flowing, but who should I run into there but Sloane Gunman of Assassination City. Small world, eh? Apparently there were a few of skaters over at the Lakewood Bar and Grill and I was invited to come. I'm not going to lie, I really wanted to go. I don't think it has anything to do with my dropping one set of friends for another, newer set of friends; I just think it's an age thing. I'm more comfortable and get along better with people who are closer to my own age or older than me. But, I didn't go as I see Ass City ladies on a fairly regular basis. Instead, Sam and I cut out of there and went to see Zombieland.
Woody Harrellson was great, and there were parts that were absolutely riotous, but ultimately, I felt it fell flat. Maybe it was becuase I was subconsciously comparing hi, to Shaun of the Dead, but I just really really did not like the lead character. Throughout most of the movie, I was hoping he'd get eaten and it'd just be Woody Harrellson kicking zombie ass for 90 minutes.
A couple more things.
Wednesday, December 9th at the Granada Theater, Less Than Jake. Be there. Go go Florida ska.
Off topic: I can now discern Mango's, "I'm not feeling so good and am about to throw up" meows. While being able to discern those meows is a good thing, his throwing up is not. Fortunately, I've been able to wrangle him onto some area with linoleum instead of having him urp on the carpet.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Cochese Reviews Old Ass Movies: The Seventh Seal
Given that my Netflix queue is chock full of movies that came out before I was born and given that I'm just seeing many of these for the first time because of being raised on crap '80s movies, I'm going to assume that there are a number of people my age and younger who may be in a similar situation. So, as a service to the public and totally not as a means of attention whoring, I thought I'd take notes and write reviews of these movies. I'm not by any means professional in pretty much anything I do, so I wouldn't expect it here. That said, I will have more to say than, "Worst. Movie. Ever." or "Hated it!" if I don't like a movie. I'm nothing if not a verbose son of a bitch.
Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal is one of those movies you see parodied or referenced an awful lot. The movie takes place in Sweden, with Antonius Block, a knight, and Jöns, his squire, returning home from the Crusades. We find the two on a beach when the Knight (played by Max von Sydow) is approached by the hooded and robed Death. The Knight challenges Death to a game of chess, and so long as he can ward off Death, he can remain alive to get his affairs in order, and if he happens to win, he gets to live, apparently forever.
During his journey back to his castle, he meets an assortment of characters, from a troupe of actors to a blacksmith and his wife to a girl that is to be burned as a witch. All of these characters help Antonius along on a metaphysical journey as he and Jöns make their way to Chez Block.
When Antonius and Jöns arrive at his castle, with the blacksmith, the blacksmith's wife, and Jöns's wife/housekeeper (that he picked up along the way) in tow, there's a last supper served by Antonius's wife before Death comes for all of them, as Antonius had recently lost his chess match. The movie ends with the moon-touched juggler, Jof, seeing Death leading everyone else in a sort of dance on the hillside.
As I've said, there are a number of movies and television shows that have made reference or parodied this. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey comes immediately to mind, as they challenge Death to games such as Battleship and Twister. Interestingly enough, Metalocalypse also comes to mind, particularly with Toki Wartooth's father, who looks very much like Death from The Seventh Seal, the only exception being that Toki's father also sometimes wears a sort of Amish-looking hat. Oh, and how could I forget? This reminds me of every single college student film project ever, not necessarily in content, but in style. I guess it just shows how influential the movie was that it's so oft copied.
There's a ton of symbolism and existentialist philosophy in the movie. Jöns seems to be the person in control through much of the movie. Jöns seems unconcerned with the nature of God and often laughs as he remarks that he needs no one but himself to give his life meaning, though at other times he chooses to believe that life is just a big joke and we are the butt of it. Think The Comedian from Watchmen. Contrast this with Antonius, who is filled with angst over his lack of knowledge of the nature of God and the meaning of his life. For the uninitiated, these are some pretty heavy duty existential and absurdist concepts at work here.
As for minor stuff? Holy crap is Max von Sydow young in this movie! He's so thin, so young, so blond! Having seen him only as old characters such as Brewmeister Smith and Ming the Merciless, it's just so weird seeing him 20-30 years younger. I could hardly recognize him.
Oh, and interesting movie tie. In the movie Strange Brew, the name of the brewery where all the mind control experiments take place is Elsinore Brewery. In The Seventh Seal, the acting troupe was initially heading to the town of Elsinore. Max von Sydow was in both movies. Of course, I'm sure there are people smarter than me who will recognize the link between The Seventh Seal and Hamlet, what with Hamlet taking place in Elsinore and the characters of both Jöns and Hamlet's gravedigger having similar absurdist attitudes toward life and death.
My next old ass movie that's coming to me will be High Society, so hopefully there won't be all this philosophical crap that I love but no one else does. No, in the case of High Society, you should expect a lot of unfavorable comparisons to The Philadelphia Story.
Ingmar Bergman's The Seventh Seal is one of those movies you see parodied or referenced an awful lot. The movie takes place in Sweden, with Antonius Block, a knight, and Jöns, his squire, returning home from the Crusades. We find the two on a beach when the Knight (played by Max von Sydow) is approached by the hooded and robed Death. The Knight challenges Death to a game of chess, and so long as he can ward off Death, he can remain alive to get his affairs in order, and if he happens to win, he gets to live, apparently forever.
During his journey back to his castle, he meets an assortment of characters, from a troupe of actors to a blacksmith and his wife to a girl that is to be burned as a witch. All of these characters help Antonius along on a metaphysical journey as he and Jöns make their way to Chez Block.
When Antonius and Jöns arrive at his castle, with the blacksmith, the blacksmith's wife, and Jöns's wife/housekeeper (that he picked up along the way) in tow, there's a last supper served by Antonius's wife before Death comes for all of them, as Antonius had recently lost his chess match. The movie ends with the moon-touched juggler, Jof, seeing Death leading everyone else in a sort of dance on the hillside.
As I've said, there are a number of movies and television shows that have made reference or parodied this. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey comes immediately to mind, as they challenge Death to games such as Battleship and Twister. Interestingly enough, Metalocalypse also comes to mind, particularly with Toki Wartooth's father, who looks very much like Death from The Seventh Seal, the only exception being that Toki's father also sometimes wears a sort of Amish-looking hat. Oh, and how could I forget? This reminds me of every single college student film project ever, not necessarily in content, but in style. I guess it just shows how influential the movie was that it's so oft copied.
There's a ton of symbolism and existentialist philosophy in the movie. Jöns seems to be the person in control through much of the movie. Jöns seems unconcerned with the nature of God and often laughs as he remarks that he needs no one but himself to give his life meaning, though at other times he chooses to believe that life is just a big joke and we are the butt of it. Think The Comedian from Watchmen. Contrast this with Antonius, who is filled with angst over his lack of knowledge of the nature of God and the meaning of his life. For the uninitiated, these are some pretty heavy duty existential and absurdist concepts at work here.
As for minor stuff? Holy crap is Max von Sydow young in this movie! He's so thin, so young, so blond! Having seen him only as old characters such as Brewmeister Smith and Ming the Merciless, it's just so weird seeing him 20-30 years younger. I could hardly recognize him.
Oh, and interesting movie tie. In the movie Strange Brew, the name of the brewery where all the mind control experiments take place is Elsinore Brewery. In The Seventh Seal, the acting troupe was initially heading to the town of Elsinore. Max von Sydow was in both movies. Of course, I'm sure there are people smarter than me who will recognize the link between The Seventh Seal and Hamlet, what with Hamlet taking place in Elsinore and the characters of both Jöns and Hamlet's gravedigger having similar absurdist attitudes toward life and death.
My next old ass movie that's coming to me will be High Society, so hopefully there won't be all this philosophical crap that I love but no one else does. No, in the case of High Society, you should expect a lot of unfavorable comparisons to The Philadelphia Story.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Introducing Cochese?
I just got back from the premiere of Whip It at the Magnolia with Assassination City Roller Derby (I keep spelling that out because it's easier for those people who do "Who's talking about AC Derby recently?" searches) and I'm too wound up to go to sleep. Don't worry, I'll get to the review soon enough.
I headed there straight after training at White Rock Lake because I'd have been pushing it had I gone all the way home then all the way back uptown during rush hour. I got there and hung out with the skaters before the movie. It was pretty dead at first, but it started picking up closer to the show time. After the movie and in the lobby was really where I had the best time. I even stayed at the derby table through the second showing and afterwards with Tenille, Trigger and Ripper. I really wasn't planning on that, but it was totally worth it. I just like hanging out with people closer to my own age who have similar interests. I'd say the average age is somewhere in the late 20s or early 30s. It's awesome being a part of a group where you're not older than everyone else by like a decade.
Good news, everyone! I was dubbed with an Official Derby Name. I am now Cochese. It came about when one of the moviegoers was talking to Trigger Mortis and she was introducing herself, and as she turned to me, she wasn't quite able to accurately describe who I was and what I was doing there. I suggested "AC Derby fan numéro uno" which I'll admit is a bit presumptuous of me. That apparently wasn't good enough for Trigger because she insisted I pick out a Derby Name and use that to introduce myself. I was a bit taken aback at the honor, I'll admit, and Cochese was the first thing I came up with. Had I more time, I may have come up with something more clever, but what can you do? You don't say, "I'll get back to you on that" when you're offered a Derby name, you give yourself a freaking name. Mind you, Cochese isn't bad at all, and considering I'm facebook.com/cochese, it's not unwanted. There is, however, a Coach Ise for the Rubber City Roller Girls, so some modifications may have to be made. Of course, he's named after the Apache warrior Cochise, whereas I'm named after the fake character from the fake '70s cop show Sabotage, so there may not be a problem.
I do feel that now that I'm Named, I should be doing more to support the league other than typical fan stuff. Things like recording stats, timing penalties, keeping track of fouls, typical NSO (non-skating official) stuff. Hell, if I get good at that, I could go full-on zebra.
Oh, and apparently my blog post about my first AC Derby bout made it to Smack the Ripper, which would ordinarily be pretty awesome, but I kind of said some things about her mom...
...
...
...It's just that her mom's very religious and I was feeling sorta awkward when she started in on how the Masons are a cult and about when I wouldn't confirm with her my love of Jesus. Hey, Ripper was cool with it, and I can completely understand. My parents do, say, and think some things that I personally find to be kinda nutty. They're just real far away so I don't have to deal with it most of the time.
Okay, so for the review of the movie. I'm not going to lie to you, I enjoyed the hell out of Whip It, but I realize that I'm totally biased. I really liked Ellen Page and Daniel Stern and the father-daughter relationship their characters had in the movie. Oh, and Zoë-freaking Bell was in it as Bloody Holly! Chances are you have no idea who I'm talking about, but I bet you've seen her work. She's an amazing stuntwoman who was Lucy Lawless' double in Xena, Uma Thurman's double in the Kill Bill movies, and she played herself in Death Proof. I was also particularly fond of the ending. As for the skating? Hooray for hip checks, though I wish I'd seen more booty blocks.
As far as gripes? They're really no more than the same sorts of realism gripes I have when watching a submarine movie (a freaking DOG on a sub, really?) For example, there were more elbows flying than at a Macho Man Randy Savage match. That'd never happen. Oh, and when Ellen Page's character finds out that one of her team mates is a mother, she acts all shocked. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say it's the reaction of a naïve character, but really? Moms that are derby girls aren't in any conceivable way considered a rarity; it's actually pretty common.
Overall, I'd recommend this movie pretty highly. True, it's pretty easy to play Spot the Trope, but it's fun and it's funny, and it's got a lot of strong women kicking ass.
I headed there straight after training at White Rock Lake because I'd have been pushing it had I gone all the way home then all the way back uptown during rush hour. I got there and hung out with the skaters before the movie. It was pretty dead at first, but it started picking up closer to the show time. After the movie and in the lobby was really where I had the best time. I even stayed at the derby table through the second showing and afterwards with Tenille, Trigger and Ripper. I really wasn't planning on that, but it was totally worth it. I just like hanging out with people closer to my own age who have similar interests. I'd say the average age is somewhere in the late 20s or early 30s. It's awesome being a part of a group where you're not older than everyone else by like a decade.
Good news, everyone! I was dubbed with an Official Derby Name. I am now Cochese. It came about when one of the moviegoers was talking to Trigger Mortis and she was introducing herself, and as she turned to me, she wasn't quite able to accurately describe who I was and what I was doing there. I suggested "AC Derby fan numéro uno" which I'll admit is a bit presumptuous of me. That apparently wasn't good enough for Trigger because she insisted I pick out a Derby Name and use that to introduce myself. I was a bit taken aback at the honor, I'll admit, and Cochese was the first thing I came up with. Had I more time, I may have come up with something more clever, but what can you do? You don't say, "I'll get back to you on that" when you're offered a Derby name, you give yourself a freaking name. Mind you, Cochese isn't bad at all, and considering I'm facebook.com/cochese, it's not unwanted. There is, however, a Coach Ise for the Rubber City Roller Girls, so some modifications may have to be made. Of course, he's named after the Apache warrior Cochise, whereas I'm named after the fake character from the fake '70s cop show Sabotage, so there may not be a problem.
I do feel that now that I'm Named, I should be doing more to support the league other than typical fan stuff. Things like recording stats, timing penalties, keeping track of fouls, typical NSO (non-skating official) stuff. Hell, if I get good at that, I could go full-on zebra.
Oh, and apparently my blog post about my first AC Derby bout made it to Smack the Ripper, which would ordinarily be pretty awesome, but I kind of said some things about her mom...
...
...
...It's just that her mom's very religious and I was feeling sorta awkward when she started in on how the Masons are a cult and about when I wouldn't confirm with her my love of Jesus. Hey, Ripper was cool with it, and I can completely understand. My parents do, say, and think some things that I personally find to be kinda nutty. They're just real far away so I don't have to deal with it most of the time.
Okay, so for the review of the movie. I'm not going to lie to you, I enjoyed the hell out of Whip It, but I realize that I'm totally biased. I really liked Ellen Page and Daniel Stern and the father-daughter relationship their characters had in the movie. Oh, and Zoë-freaking Bell was in it as Bloody Holly! Chances are you have no idea who I'm talking about, but I bet you've seen her work. She's an amazing stuntwoman who was Lucy Lawless' double in Xena, Uma Thurman's double in the Kill Bill movies, and she played herself in Death Proof. I was also particularly fond of the ending. As for the skating? Hooray for hip checks, though I wish I'd seen more booty blocks.
As far as gripes? They're really no more than the same sorts of realism gripes I have when watching a submarine movie (a freaking DOG on a sub, really?) For example, there were more elbows flying than at a Macho Man Randy Savage match. That'd never happen. Oh, and when Ellen Page's character finds out that one of her team mates is a mother, she acts all shocked. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt and say it's the reaction of a naïve character, but really? Moms that are derby girls aren't in any conceivable way considered a rarity; it's actually pretty common.
Overall, I'd recommend this movie pretty highly. True, it's pretty easy to play Spot the Trope, but it's fun and it's funny, and it's got a lot of strong women kicking ass.
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