Calliope
Sunday, July 24, 2005
Mmmmm...chocolate
Driven by both a passionate obsession for chocolate, and an equally potent fascination with Johnny Depp, I went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory this weekend. And it was absolutely wonderful! Tim Burton (Edward Scissorhands, Big Fish, etc) is a bit of a weird-o, and his movies are often strange and dark, but they usually have a truly enchanting quality about them. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is just that - enchanting. Burton's surrealist style is a bit of an "acquired taste", but this film - and especially the opening sequence - is so visually stimulating, it proves that Burton's crazy imagination was perfect for the task of recreating Dahl's book on film. The little boy who plays Charlie (who was also in Finding Neverland) is adorable! He's perfect for the part, and his sweetness rings sincere. The other children are hilarious caricatures, and provide most of the films comedy (it is HILARIOUS in parts!). Danny Elfman's score is also perfect - it's magical, but quirky, and a little electric/techno-ey too, but it works very well with the film. A.O. Scott describes Johnny Depp's Wonka as walking the fine line between whimsical and creepy, and I think that's a perfect description of his performance, which is true to Dahl's literary Wonka. It's a fabulous film - and you don't have to be a kid to like it.
Sunday, July 10, 2005
The Fourth of July in the Nation's Capital
First of all, an ode to the Capital City Police. They are probably the coolest force in the US. What fine specimans of American manhood. Not only are they young and pretty to look at, they're among the nicest people in positions of authority I've ever encountered. They're just SO NICE. And there's no good reason for it. Their occupation requires them to deal with tourists and terrorists on a daily basis, and I can think of no two groups of people that would more efficiently put me on a fast track to irritability and insanity. So, because of the job description and the authority they have, they could be real jerks. BUT THEY'RE NOT. I got more smiles and "have a nice holiday"'s going through the endless lines at security checkpoints than I could count (and it's not just because I was wearing a skirt, either). That has got to be the worst job in the entire world, yet they perform it with a smile. I even saw one of them bend over to pat a tiny little excuse for a dog on the head. I wished I had a camera. They're so cool!
The Fourth was fun. We went downtown for the parade which was...interesting. A lot of the expected rosy-cheeked, corn-fed farm kids in marching bands from Iowa and Texas, etc, but also a lot of random - or perhaps select? - ethnic groups represented. E.G.: A rather large Taiwanese contingent, as well as a large Vietnamese-American contingent (holding signs that say "We love freedom. Thank you, America." Gee, you don't think anyone's trying to draw parallels, do you?), as well as Falun Gong, this oppressed group from China. The politics of representation were quite interesting. We then retreated to the air-conditioned of our apartment for the heat of the afternoon, then ventured out again for the fireworks. It was cool to see the fireworks against the backdrop of the WASHINGTON MONUMENT, but the joy was short-lived, because the display was only about 20 minutes long. Boo. If Amherst, NY can put on a rip-roaring 45 minute fireworks display, what does that say about the performane of the NATIONAL CAPITAL??????? Boo. Well, it was exciting while it lasted. I still think it's really ironic (symbolic?) that we celebrate our independence by blowing stuff up...
The Italian Secretary
I just finished another fabulous book by one of my favorite authors, Caleb Carr (author of the Alienist): The Italian Secretary. The book was commissioned by the Arthur Conan Doyle estate, so it's a Sherlock Homes story, and I can think of no author better qualified to give that epic literary character a chance at another adventure. Carr's style and preferred genre of writing are very similar to Conan Doyle's own, and The Italian Secretary seamlessly fits in with the canon of Conan Doyle's other works. It's a fabulous, compelling page-turner, but with good writing and a lot of substance. It's definitly made my Top 15 list, possibly the Top 10. Carr is a PERFECT writer for Sherlock Homes stories.
Disney Redeems Itself?
It is just possible that, after such horrific failures/pathetic excuses for children's films as Home on the Range, National Treasure, The Pacifier, and Finding Nemo (I know, I'm the only one who hated it), Disney has finally found a project to redeem itself. This afternoon I saw War of the Worlds (more about that later), and there was an exceptionally long slew of coming attractions, which I never mind. As the first one began, I caught my breath at the very first line and my heart started pounding. I experienced chills throughout the rest of the preview. Ready? On December 9th, Disney will release The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. AAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! How excited am I?!?!?!? The trailer was PHENOMENAL! Some more research on the film, courtesy of IMDB.com, revealed more good news. The film appears to be a US/New Zealand co-prodution, directed by the same guy who directed Shrek (who, like Peter Jackson, hails from New Zealand himself), FILMED in New Zealand, which - after Lord of the Rings - has become the new hotspot for filming fanstasy-genre films (trust me - it's perfect! That country has this incredible "other-worldly" topography that makes it perfect for those types of films!). ALSO: WETA - the same New Zealand digital effects company that did LOTR - is doing the special effects. AND MORE Jim Broadbent - the really quirky looking guy who played Ziddler in Moulin Rouge - is playing the Professor. How cool, how cool. I am SO EXCITED! This movie looks fabulous. And the fact that it's title is "The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" indicates that they will make films of the other books in the series as well, if this film does well at the boxoffice.
Also, Peter Jackson's newest film, King Kong, also looks fabulous.
War of the Worlds was good. You know, your typical action/sci-fi summer pic. Tom Cruise is very good in it - I don't care what anybody says. Also, if he wants to act crazy and make a scene at every appearance on the day-time talk-show circuit about how infatuated he is with Katie Holmes - let him. Who cares. It's nice to see SOMEBODY excited about SOMETHING for once. At least he has a pulse. Anyway, back to the movie - awesome cinematography, and I don't mean for the special effects part. It's a VERY suspenseful film, and that owes a lot to the framing of each scene - which is the responsibility of the cinematogapher. Excellent. There's this one scene that reminds me SO much of the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park where the veloceraptors stalk the kids (that scene is still the most edge-of-your-seat scene I've ever seen in any film, but its counterpart in War of the Worlds comes close, probably because it's intentionally patterned after the one in JP.) The film ends a bit abruptly, and kind of reminds me of the BAIL-OUT Michael Crichton did at the end of his novel the Andromeda Strain, but one shouldn't expect too much of a summer blockbuster. It's a decent piece of entertainment.
... Hehe - my favorite line:
(*explosions and debris rock the mise-en-scene*)
- "Is this the terrorists?"
- "No, this came from somewhere else."
- "What, like Europe?"
- "NO. NOT LIKE EUROPE!"
..Ok, so maybe you have to be an EU geek to think that's funny...
Thursday, July 07, 2005
London Bombings
So, today was actually the day that I had planned to finally blog about the 4th of July and other elements of life here in DC, but as it turns out, there are more important things to write about. From someone who takes the metro to and from work everyday, today's bombings in London were particularly disconcerting. The attacks made me think of the terrorism class I took last semester, specifically one session where my prof was speculating that the next big terrorist attack would take place in London. He was right (about a great many things, in fact). My experience in that class, in addition to teaching me everything I know about terrorism, exposed me to the different reactions of various countries who fall victim to terrorist attacks. And, frankly, the Brits are among the best in dealing with threats, attacks, and recovery. Really, we as Americans could learn a lot from them. They understand that terrorism is, and will be for the forseeable future, a constant - and yes - INEVITABLE threat, and that it will not be solved by witch hunts, head rollings, finger pointings, and "how-could-this-happen-to-us" mentalities. Granted, the Brits have had more practice than us, going all the way back to the Blitz in WWII and continuing with IRA terrorism, whereas in the US it's a relatively new phenomenon. All the same, their resilience is admirable. I found this article in the London News Review, and I think it perfectly sums up the British attitude towards terrorism:
"A LETTER TO THE TERRORISTS, FROM LONDON
7 JULY 2005
What the fuck do you think you're doing?
This is London. We've dealt with your sort before. You don't try and pull this on us.
Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work.
All you've done is end some of our lives, and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? You don't get rewarded for this kind of crap.
And if, as your MO indicates, you're an al-Qaeda group, then you're out of your tiny minds.
Because if this is a message to Tony Blair, we've got news for you. We don't much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We'll deal with that ourselves. We're London, and we've got our own way of doing things, and it doesn't involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.
And that's because we're better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the pub.
So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city."
I love the Brits.
PS: I also love Tony Blair, even if the Brits don't...
