Last weekend was a complete write off. I felt like shit since Friday afternoon and spent most of the weekend in the fetal position on the couch wondering why I take my health for granted and lamenting every minute that I did not feel well. However, in between being a pussy and feeling sorry for myself I did get some quality TV time with a pirated streaming site.
Having a ton of time to burn and a near endless library of movies gave me the ability to attend to one of my secret vices, shitty movies. I love them, sometimes even more than great movies. There is something about seeing something that sucks and ripping it apart. It is like that “friend” everyone has who is the butt of all the group’s jokes (wait… you don’t have a friend like that in your group? You wouldn’t treat any of your friends that way, right? I hate to break it to you in blog form, but YOU are that “friend”). Shitty movies are a great way to laugh at someone’s hard work and wonder why they ever wasted their time and creative energy on a monumental peice of shit. Continue reading The Monday Rotation: Wickerman →
Today’s selection for The Monday Rotation holds a special place in my music catalog as it is my reading/thinking/writing/chilling go-to music. “Explosions in the Sky” is an instrumental rock band from Texas that I discovered 5-6 years ago. Yes, instrumental rock, no vocals, which is a major turn-off to many people but as pure music it is as good as any symphony. Their songs build and ebb, musically smoldering, all the while reaching towards the inevitable crashing musical climax.
They happened to be in Sydney this weekend playing at the Metro and they didn’t disappoint. Their sound is precise and the concert was more like an opera than a rock concert. It is definitely not for everyone but take a listen and let me know what you think. Here they are… enjoy.
While I was searching for Radiohead tickets a few years ago I stumbled onto a video made by a die-hard fan looking for tickets to a Thom York show in San Francisco. This couple apparently traveled all the way to Tokyo years earlier just to see Radiohead play. It is obviously an amateur production but I have always really liked this video and it made me like the song even more. It also was one of the reasons that pushed me over the edge and made me finally buy a ticket to visit Japan, something I had wanted to do for a long time. Continue reading The Monday Rotation: Weird Fishes →
When I read a book I tend to pick up on the themes from that book in other pieces of art or media. This occurred recently with “The Picture of Dorian Gray” which is about a dashing young aristocrat (Dorian Gray) from 1800′s England who has a portrait of himself painted that has supernatural powers. After a bit of time with the painting he realizes that it ages and bears the effects of his lavish and unhealthy lifestyle, not his physical body. He stays he rich, good looking bachelor while the painting wrinkles and decays through the course of his life. He does what I would do in that scenario and parties his ass off while slaying the local ladies with his aging wit and nubile good looks. In the process he turns into a real bastard, causing the suicide of an ex-lover, becoming an opium addict, murdering one of his friends with little sense of remorse except how all of the events effect him (living the high life and fucking everything that moves I can understand but these other three I may have some reservations about).
The book is obviously well written and Oscar Wilde must have been an interesting cat because some of the lines form the book are so insightful even to someone living in 2011. Most of the interesting dialog is spoken by Lord Henry, one of Dorian’s older admirers, who is the devil on Dorian’s shoulder, equipping him with the rhetoric that allows him to act out in the way that he does with self-moralizing impunity. Throughout the novel Lord Henry delivers some spectacular one-liners like:
Men marry because they are tired: women marry because they are curious, both are disappointed.
or
The reason we all like to think so well of others is that we are all afraid for ourselves. The basis of optimism is sheer terror.
Fucking brilliant, and he keeps them coming throughout the novel. A lot of what Lord Henry said and what Dorian does was probably considered deviant and horrible based on the public standards of 1800′s England. Many of the book reviews of the time refer to “The Picture of Dorian Gray” as “poisonous” and that it contained “moral and spiritual putrification”. The critics could not see past the aberrant behaviours of the characters to see the larger themes that the book contains. This well crafted, thoughtful novel was simply tossed aside by many due to the content that could potentially be seen as off-putting or amoral.
This brings me back to the point that I brought up at the outset of the post of coincidentally seeing recurring themes in other forms of media. As I was reading this novel I stumbled across “Irreversible” on my Netflix cue and decided to check it out. This movie has a reputation for being pretty rough (rough, as-in a couple hundred people walked out of its screening at Cannes). It is a French film shot “Memento-style” (the movie starts at the end and moves backwards in segments).
Ho-ly-shit, it certainly lives up to its billing. The first few minutes contain a vomit inducing camera spin and a certain sound frequency that is known to make people nauseous (I read about this after I watched the movie). The director, Gaspar Noe, literally is attempting to make the viewer physically sick. It is for good reason though as the characters are in a world of shit. The first 20 minute segment of the movie (the end of the movie chronologically) is set in a hardcore gay club and climaxes with one of the main characters bashing another guy’s head in with a fire extinguisher. “Irreversible” slowly pulls itself out of the terrifying abyss of its “ending” to reveal the characters motivations as well as some interesting perspectives on relationships, sex and life choices in general is it works backwards.
As the movie progressed the viewer starts to understand what is driving the characters and eventually has a happy “ending” (the beginning chronologically). There are parts of the movie that are literally difficult to sit through (yes, there is a scene more disturbing that the start of the movie – I won’t spoil it though, in case you want to check it out, which I highly recommend if you are not squeamish). I finished it, and I was glad I did, because I really witnessed a piece of art. Even after the movie was over I thought about it and came back to one of the movie’s opening lines, spoken by a broken, half-naked, old French man: “Time destroys all things.” Irreversible has a similar theme to “The Picture of Dorian Gray” as well as a disguted response from the critics.
I went on rotten tomatoes and saw the reviews much of which were positive, and anyone that had a negative review talks about the brutal content and fails to mention the artistry of the director or the compelling storyline. I find it very unfortunate that many things in our society get dismissed out of hand for being different or challenging prevailing viewpoints. “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and “Irreversible” are just two examples of this occurring, but it happens all the time. The critics of the time failed to recognize a great piece of art when Oscar Wilde published his novel in 1891 and many people today miss amazing contributions to literature, music and film solely from the idea that art can be “poisonous”. Art itself is nothing but a vehicle to elicit a response from its audience, I think that some of the readers and viewers are unhappy with their own response so they castigate the art itself, rather than turning the mirror on themselves and understanding why they are reacting the way that they do.
A great shot from "Irreversible"... what happens directly after this shot may not be suitable for all viewers...
Great tunes: CHECK, a bunch of chicks: CHECK, free booze: CHECK and a cool venue: CHECK. I went to a bumping warehouse party on Friday with a couple of friends. It was in a random building near downtown Sydney that they is being demolished today. I didn’t know who was putting it on or what it was for, I was just there, and was happy to be drinking free booze and meeting a bunch of new people. That didn’t last long though. No matter how good a party is there is always someone in the group that wants to go somewhere else for whatever reason. For them, the unknown is always better than the known. I never want to leave a party that is a solid “8″ to potentially go to a party that may be a “9″ or “10″. The odds just aren’t good.
Unfortunately, we left and went to the other party. I knew we were making a bad decision, but I took off with the rest of the crew hoping for the best. On the way to the party it was revealed that we were going to a 70′s party… GAME OVER. At that point I knew we were on a death mission. We stayed at the 70′s party for 15 minutes before we bailed and went to the bar down the road all still wondering why we left the shindig at the warehouse. Moral of the story: Stay where the free booze, good music and lovely ladies are… no exceptions.
Anyways, in honor of good party music and staying with an “8″ I present to you “Girl Talk” which will get even the shittiest party started… enjoy.
There is so much bullshit out there. New bands, movies, books, porn, and youtube clips are thrown at me from the minute I get up every morning. The majority of which are total crap. I am always interested in knowing about new music, movies or just media in general that I have missed or classic stuff that I may have passed up in its time. There is so much garbage floating around that it is always nice to have friends who may know more about a certain genre or medium fill me in on the latest cool shit or lost gems that happened to pass me by. That is the inspiration for the Monday Rotation, the start of every week will be a post dedicated to some movie, band or Internet meme that I love. Continue reading The Monday Rotation: Real Estate →
As much as I am always complaining about my job and the soulsucking activities contained therein I am in no hurry to leave the company where I am working because the prison of my job allows me the freedom in my life. I know that what I do is worthless. I know that I achieve no amount of personal accomplishment from doing my job well. In sales being sucessful means getting more money, but it also means not getting hassled. Not being micromanaged is sometimes more valuable than making money. The little amount of satisfaction I get from closing business is derived simply from allowing me to have the power to do what I want with impunity. When I am above my quota I am unimpeachable. No one can fuck with me. My sales achievement year-to-date is the only real way that management can gauge my job proficiency. When I am above my quota then everything I am doing is correct, if I am under my quota then everything I am doing is wrong. There is no in between.
In addition to the freedom from management that success at work entails it also means more money. Many people equate money with things, but to me money is freedom. More money means I can do what I want when I want. There is a delicate balancing act though. It is a inverse relationship: the more responsibility and pressure that is realized at work the less that the income translates into freedom. I feel bad for people who make a shitload of money doing something that they are not emotionally invested in that takes all of their time and stress. They are incredibly rich and incredibly depressed. Money is no longer freedom if you can’t do what you want with it. Continue reading White People Problems →
Politicians should have to wear stickers or buttons denoting their largest campaign contributors. I would prefer to have lobbying completely abolished, but I am not naive enough to think that would ever happen. Having a politician covered in logos as if he were a NASCAR driver would at least help people cut through the bullshit far more easily. When a senator is at a press conference talking about how we need to ease environmental regulations and he has a big Exxon logo on his chest it makes things a bit clearer for the average voter to see where that politician’s allegiances lie.
Media
I watched a football game live (4:30AM Sydney time) and it was the first time I had really seen American commercials in a long time. After not seeing advertisements in so long I noticed that every other commercial was either about 1 – How wives are annoying shrews to be lied to and avoided at all times 2 – Husbands are lecherous scumbags who could care less about their wives, are assholes to their friends and secretly hate their children. 3 – Children are either ultra-cute, bastions of love and grace or prickly little consumerist bastards depending on the product being sold. Every single commercial that is constantly being rammed down everyon’e throats is in direct opposition to the family values that America prides itself on.
It really speaks to the dualism of American life that has really been made evident to me since I have moved here. There is a huge gulf in America between what is said and what is really meant that is much less so in Australia. The announced and inferred messages of media, politicians, and sports are much more homogeneous in Australia. Companies, politicians and athletes will say one thing and intend another in the US and the public seems to be able to process both realities even if they are in opposition. People priding themselves on strong family values on one hand and identifying with the scumbag husbands and jaded mothers is really more unique to American culture than I ever thought. Continue reading Randomness V →
I was so busy when I had first moved to Australia that I didn’t have time to write about my adventures of when I first arrived here (I know you are on the edge of your seat wondering what happened). This is my attempt to right what once was wrong (kind of like a crappy version of Quantum Leap) and fill you in on the details of my arrival and first few weeks in Sydney. I am going to write about it a little differently though, it will be less bloggy and more like a personal narrative broken up into a few parts. Then at the end I will combine the parts and put it into the short story section of the blog. So without further ado:
I am a professional sleeper. I can sleep anywhere at any time, just give me a 15 minute heads-up and I could pass out in the middle of a noisy bar or the night before an important meeting. My mind can be cleared and my senses dulled at a moment’s notice to accommodate a long trip or the need to get away from life and just cease to exist in my brain for a while.
That is why after climbing aboard, taxiing, lifting off and flying for an hour I was perplexed. I was awake. I don’t think I have ever been awake at this point in a flight. This was not just any flight for me though. This was a flight to Australia for which I had no return ticket. I was leaving Southern California and not planning to come back for a long time. I sat there with my eyes closed trying to force myself to sleep thinking of the last few weeks before I left the country. The goodbye drinks, the farewell dinners, the moving preparations and all of the friends and family that I was leaving on another continent. My thoughts shifted from the things I was leaving behind to the new world that I was entering. I was nervous and there was no chance I would ever get to sleep. Why would I leave a place that I know so well and risk an easy, laid back lifestyle just to move to another country? That was my last thought until I woke up 13 hours later for breakfast. I may not be a professional sleeper but I am definitely a top seeded amateur. Continue reading Take that, Rewind it back (Part 1) →
When I first moved to Sydney I could not tell the difference between a English accent and an Australian accent. Since then I have become a bit better at telling them apart and it has mostly to do with the way an “o” is pronounced when it is at the end of a word. They elongate it somehow by adding an “r” sound. It is almost impossible for me to do without sounding retarded but they seem to pull it off. It is especially conspicuous when the word “no” turning into “no (rrrrr)”. It has taken a while for me to get used to and every time they say it I notice it and the pronunciation throws me off a bit.
So that brings me to the title of this post – I went to Costco (rrrrr) last weekend. I received a text from one of my American buddies on Saturday: “Costco – you wanna go?” I did not need anything from Costco nor do I have any place to put an 8 gallon drum of olive oil in my apartment but I wasn’t doing anything and I was curious about something so American transplanted to Sydney. If they could not even say Costco correctly, how could they possibly run the store? I needed to check it out, if only as a social observation activity (I love me some people watching). Anyways, he and his girlfriend picked me up from my house and we took off. A trip that should have taken 20 minutes turned into a 90 minute road trip in bumper to bumper traffic. I had no idea that you could set a GPS system to route you through every congested piece of Australian roadway but apparently we did. My lanky ass was in the back seat performing some sweet yoga contortions trying to get comfortable, to no avail. At last I saw the shining beacon of the Costco sign and thought my backseat pain was over. I was wrong.
Thus began the odyssey of finding parking in a woefully small lot filled with Asians behind the wheel and pushing around carts (deadly combination). It was beyond brutal. Inside our car there was complaining… and swearing… and racism… until we finally found a spot – 20 minutes later. I was spent already and I knew that I would never come back to Costco. Frankly, I didn’t even want to go in, then I saw a 350lb woman with her cart full of assorted artery clogging foods and a 90 pack of toilet paper and I knew that I needed to forge ahead. Continue reading Costco (rrrrrr) →
