Monday's Child Is In Your Face

[snurri]

Note to the young man on the train: (Yes, I called you "young man." I'm thirty-six, but I have the crankiness of a much older gentleman.) Dude, if I can hear your iPod over the train as if I was wearing your headphones, it's too fucking loud. Or your hearing is shot. In either case, you need to get your head checked.

I had kind of a crappy weekend, but it's over. It's not like my life is falling apart or anything; overall things are really good. But I do get kind of lonely sometimes. That's all I got. Let's not make a big thing out of it.

Something cool: Ricky Gervais meets Garry Shandling. I love both these guys. Parts one, two, three, four, five and six. (Yeah, it's long.) The person who put these up on YouTube says Shandling creates some awkwardness, but all I see is Shandling being Shandling, which is awesome. Overall the interview has some unexpected depths, and makes me realize how much I miss Shandling. (I first fell hard for his comedy when he guest-hosted "The Tonight Show" and shot off this zinger during the monologue: "The Meese Commission"--ah, for the days when Ed Meese was in the public eye--"has determined that there are [four-digit number] pornographic publications in the United States. Which is frustrating for me, because I can't figure out which three I'm not getting.") Why the hell isn't more of his stuff out on DVD? "The Garry Shandling Show" was sort of cultish, so I can see it being a harder sell, but "The Larry Sanders Show" is a no-brainer. I see they're putting out some sort of a DVD set with highlight episodes, but why not the whole thing? That man's a genius.

I saw "The Departed" on Friday during the old people showing (3:30). A few people walked out, which I don't get. Was it the violence they were not expecting, or the swearing? Have they ever heard of Scorsese? It was unexpectedly funny in parts, and really very good. Unbelievable cast. I used to really despise DiCaprio, but that guy can act. I haven't quite placed it in the hierarchy of Scorsese films, but it's up there--very tense, with some great visual metaphors about voyeurism/observation. I have to admit that the last shot almost ruined it, though. I can only guess that it was meant as a humorous touch, but in the context of the last scene it was off-key.

Speaking of the cinema, I see that Strange Horizons has a review of "Children of Men" up this week, and as much as I think it might be good to review a film for them that I didn't love, I'm glad it wasn't this one. I dislike the movie even more in retrospect, which makes no sense. I know there were things I liked about it as I was watching it--it's nice to look at, and Clive Owen was good--but overall I thought it was clunky, manipulative, and heavy-handed. I know some of the reasons I feel that way, but I can't pinpoint the reason for my overall loathing for the film, especially since so many folks have loved it. It can't just be my Julianne Moore hate. Did anyone else not like the film? Maybe I am just that cranky.

I've belatedly begun doing some research on the French Revolution, since the WIP is supposed to be in part riffing off it and I don't in fact know hardly anything about it. I picked up The Days of the French Revolution by Christopher Hibbert and so far it's great; very readable and evocative, with the sorts of details that make me realize there are things I've been glossing over. I'm going to want to read more of Hibbert's books after this.

I think I need a nap.

Comments

[ajjones.livejournal.com]

I liked Children of Men and also didn't. I'm fell in love with the PD James novel years ago, but despite that, the book has a very slow start, and in the film they skipped over that snore-fest. However, the film also skipped over what I thought was the real flavor of the book; the little details about how the infertility was affecting society. There was a great scene in the novel of women pushing dolls in baby carriages and a priest having a meltdown when a deer walked into the church (because animals were not affected and it was all going to be theirs soon enough), and we saw none of that.

[ludickid.livejournal.com]

I didn't like it either. I thought most of the acting was subpar, and while many of the scenes were extremely well-done, they were strung together by a series of extremely implausible connections, leaving the overall feel of a smarted-up chase movie without a spine to hold it together.

[veejane.livejournal.com]

You weren't the only one. Although my objections were more to the dents in my hat, due to falling anvils of heavy-handed symbolism; and as our old friend Angus Gordon liked to say, some stories just use anvils, and there's nothing you can do about it if you want to tell that story.

(I just don't like anvil-stories, most of the time.)

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

Ya know I liked the movie, but I am glad we share the Moore hate. I just don't like her and I don't even know why.

[jennreese.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I'll jump on the bandwagon of Moore hate.

[stephanieburgis.livejournal.com]

If you're reading up on the French revolution, you should definitely check out Lucy Moore's Liberty: the Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France as soon as it hits the bookshelves in the States (in May, I think) - I just read it and it was full of wonderful social history and also just bizarre trivia points that would make great background no matter what the gender of your characters...and also it's just lots of fun to read, which is a definite bonus.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_stranger_here/]

I like Julianne Moore fine, but I haven't seen the movie yet, though I'm sure I'll check it out eventually. I didn't like the P.D. James novel when I read it years ago, and I'm dubious about Clive Owen.

[ex-benpayne119.livejournal.com]

I found the first series of The Larry Sanders Show on dvd just before Christmas... mind you, that's in Australia, but surely if it's available here it's probably available in the US?

Shandling is indeed a funny man...

[giantsloth.livejournal.com]

I liked the movie quite a bit (it and Old Joy have been the best things I've seen lately) but I can also see how a slightly different me would've thought it clumsy and a real button-pusher. I don't harbor any inordinate Julianne Moore hate (that I can recall) but I did think her flat affect was the weakest thing in the movie.

French Revolution: I would recommend Simon Schama's Citizens if I had finished it, but I didn't.