Reading and Watching
Reading and Watching
What am I reading you ask?
Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. An entertaining read on how the rock n' roll generation that emerged out of the 60's made some of the most influential movies of all time, and saved Hollywood. Great stuff. Passionate people. Some wanted to be artists. Some wanted to make money. Some just wanted to be assholes. But they all desperately wanted to make movies, and outside of the studio systems' bounds which had been set in place in Hollywood for decades.
Dennis Hopper? Crazy Drugged Up Mofo.
Warren Beatty? A bit of a prick.
George Lucas? Needs to be punched in the face. But at least back then he wanted to make an artistic statement.
When I moved about a month ago, I'd just started the book. In fact, it was one of the last things I'd packed. And then, when I got settled in over here in east TN, I couldn't find it. I got a little bent out of shape about it, and had almost convinced myself that somehow I'd left the book in the apartment.
But I found it in the front pocket of my bookbag. I've been reading on it, and am (if you will) enjoying the shit out of it (even if it seems I just talked badly about people in it...I'm nearly through. I enjoyed the Scorcese and William Friedkin sections most, so far).
As a note, I've rearranged my Netflix queue so that I can re-view many of the films that are written about in Biskind's book.
What am I watching, you ask?
Well....
The nice folks at Netflix sent the second series of The Office over the weekend. More great stuff, though I felt like the second season got tied up in the interpersonal relationships a bit more than the first. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and maybe it's just showing how much we the viewer become involved with the characters.
If there's a them to the second series, it's downward spiral.
Still, I recommend it for its comedy. The conversations between Gareth and Tim are comic gold. The conversation between Gareth and the tech support guy fixing his computer is even better. But the best laughs come when Gareth is pulled aside to give his own private confessional to the audience.
And but damn did I spend a lot of time embarrassed for David Brent....
What else did I watch?
I was off this afternoon, so I wandered to Chattanooga to catch Napoleon Dynamite. I'd heard a lot of good.
I liked it, but only so much. I'd give it three stars.
It's different, I'll give it that. And hella hard to promote, I'd reckon.
But it loses energy, to me, and at times it borders on the land of Bad SNL skit movie land. If you don't buy the character of Napoleon, the movies gonna be a long, waste of time for you.
The movie also reminded me a lot of a Carl Hiassen novel, in that EVERYBODY'S zany, or at least slanted off in their own direction from normal.
What am I reading you ask?
Peter Biskind's Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. An entertaining read on how the rock n' roll generation that emerged out of the 60's made some of the most influential movies of all time, and saved Hollywood. Great stuff. Passionate people. Some wanted to be artists. Some wanted to make money. Some just wanted to be assholes. But they all desperately wanted to make movies, and outside of the studio systems' bounds which had been set in place in Hollywood for decades.
Dennis Hopper? Crazy Drugged Up Mofo.
Warren Beatty? A bit of a prick.
George Lucas? Needs to be punched in the face. But at least back then he wanted to make an artistic statement.
When I moved about a month ago, I'd just started the book. In fact, it was one of the last things I'd packed. And then, when I got settled in over here in east TN, I couldn't find it. I got a little bent out of shape about it, and had almost convinced myself that somehow I'd left the book in the apartment.
But I found it in the front pocket of my bookbag. I've been reading on it, and am (if you will) enjoying the shit out of it (even if it seems I just talked badly about people in it...I'm nearly through. I enjoyed the Scorcese and William Friedkin sections most, so far).
As a note, I've rearranged my Netflix queue so that I can re-view many of the films that are written about in Biskind's book.
What am I watching, you ask?
Well....
The nice folks at Netflix sent the second series of The Office over the weekend. More great stuff, though I felt like the second season got tied up in the interpersonal relationships a bit more than the first. It's not necessarily a bad thing, and maybe it's just showing how much we the viewer become involved with the characters.
If there's a them to the second series, it's downward spiral.
Still, I recommend it for its comedy. The conversations between Gareth and Tim are comic gold. The conversation between Gareth and the tech support guy fixing his computer is even better. But the best laughs come when Gareth is pulled aside to give his own private confessional to the audience.
And but damn did I spend a lot of time embarrassed for David Brent....
What else did I watch?
I was off this afternoon, so I wandered to Chattanooga to catch Napoleon Dynamite. I'd heard a lot of good.
I liked it, but only so much. I'd give it three stars.
It's different, I'll give it that. And hella hard to promote, I'd reckon.
But it loses energy, to me, and at times it borders on the land of Bad SNL skit movie land. If you don't buy the character of Napoleon, the movies gonna be a long, waste of time for you.
The movie also reminded me a lot of a Carl Hiassen novel, in that EVERYBODY'S zany, or at least slanted off in their own direction from normal.
posted by Tommy at
19:36
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home