Thursday, June 28, 2012

Movie Review: Primer

Primer is a science fiction film that was made on a shoestring budget. There is a ton of hype about the plot's complexity. And I really hate to make this comparison, but it has that post modernistic feel to it like Pynchon. Also, I wasn't the slightest bit surprised that its director / main star / writer, Shane Carruth, has a degree in mathematics. It's plot and narrative have overwhelmed so many viewers to the point where they believe anyone who claims to understand it is either a liar or a genius. I'm neither. And its complexity really comes from one dimension of story telling: A place I'm very comfortable with.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Music Review: Linkin Park - Living Things

The new Linkin Park is so good! J/K It's the same lame, homogenized crap that has been formulated for mass consumption. And the soulless victims of commercial thought programming are already heralding Living Things as Linkin Park's return to something and stuff. Anyways, iTunes has it streaming for free, for now, if you want a good laugh at 30-somethings performing tween wave / wiener rock.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Why 80s Cartoons Weren't Crap


Wired has an article on how crappy the 80s cartoons loved were. The article in question can be found right (here), but I don't think it's really important to read it because it's fairly generic and doesn't really go into any nuance of why our shows were bad. It just boils down to this: the 80s cartoons sucked because, and today's cartoons are better! Just look at Netflix if you don't believe me.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Top 10 Episodes of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone (New and Old)

With the release of Prometheus, which I haven't seen, a lot of blogs are talking about cerebral science fiction. And for me, nothing has done this better than television. When I looked into making a top list of intelligence sci-fi movies, I was left pretty disappointed with it. I know everyone has their favorites like Donny Darko, but their have been episodes of Star Trek much deeper than that. And for me, few movies really fall into the science fiction genre clearly and are truly thought provoking. But a short list of films I've seen would include Contact, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. 

Also, before anyone jumps on me, I've taken film classes and have pretty much seen every highly praised, artsy / classic science fiction film, like Brazil, Metropolis, and Akira. But none of the story telling has ever affected me as much as the writers of The Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits. So without further ado, here is my top 10 list in no particular order.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Feminism vs Game of Thrones

This is the type of feminist that makes everyone hate feminism. It's on the same level as the Christian who lashes out at Harry Potter for having magic, or the scientific skeptic who can't enjoy Star Trek because the central plot revolves around humanoid type aliens and panspermia being the root of life on Earth and similar planets. But in this case, I'm not even convinced she sat down and watched enough of Game of Thrones to write a proper review — as evident from the marginalization of Daenerys Targaryen, which involved plot points that didn't even fucking happen. Go figure.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

Understanding Twin Peaks

It shouldn't come as a surprise that I'm a huge Lynch fan. And while Twin Peaks was celebrated for being amazing, it was also marred by TV executives. But even so, David Lynch and Mark Frost have left us with many loose ends and questions. And there is a lot of richness still to the show for people still interested, all these years later.