You know, I never take time to just get on here and just... like... talk about stuff. I have a lot of blogging friends who focus their blogs on all aspects of their lives, not just the junk they buy in the course of a month.
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I know. It's shocking.
But stay with me. |
I thought I'd give it a try. But... if I'm not going to be blogging about the crap I've bought and brought home from Goodwill... or Mardens... or Dream Catcher Antiques... or some other store... I thought I'd take a post to talk about some of the stuff I've been doing, some of the stuff I watched/read/listened to in August, etc. I think I might try to make it an-end-or-maybe-the-beginning-of-every-month kind of thing from now on.
So here goes. Don't expect content any deeper than "Guess what I bought!" by any means.
I've just finished reading
Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman. It's a collection of essays on pop-culture, and some of them border on enlightening. It's been slow going for a number of reasons. I don't get as much time to sit down with a book as I used to for one. But for another, I have a hard time buying Klosterman's tone in many of his essays. In so many of his pieces he derides egotistical hipster high-brows for poo-pooing on certain subcultures... but it really just comes off as a hipster (who considers himself above the other hipsters) pointing at a bunch of hipsters and going: "Don't you just
hate those guys?" BUT I did especially like the essays he wrote on The Sims, Pamela Anderson, Breakfast Cereal, Serial Killers, Saved By the Bell, and I especially love the parallels he draws between The Empire Strikes Back and Reality Bites (He postulates that they are essentially the same film).
I finally got around to watching Paolo Sorrentino's "This Must Be the Place". It stars Sean Penn as Cheyenne, an aging emo rocker who I imagine MUST be modeled after Robert Smith. I really, really like almost everything about this film. It has the road-trip element that so many of my favorite films do, and also the outsider/misfit as protagonist that covers the rest of my favorite films. I think my main complaint about the film has to be that Penn's portrayal of Cheyenne occasionally just seems impossibly unreal. He completely OWNS the character, but it's so hard to imagine this flesh-and-blood Muppet of a man existing and interacting with other human beings. It's obvious he's supposed to resemble the aforementioned Smith, but elements of another aging rocker: drug-addled, wife-dependent Ozzy Osborne bleeds in there as well. It's a coming of age journey story for men with Peter Pan syndrome, and it uses a Nazi war criminal angle to get there. So much emphasis is put on Cheyenne and his interacting with the world that the Nazi angle didn't feel especially important. It was more an ends to a means that could have been almost anything else as long as it got the ball rolling. Overall I really liked the film though. I liked the pacing and the character development, and the little vignettes that get us from point A to point B. I'll be watching it again sometime in the future for sure.
In other news, my daughter is obsessed with doing make-up FX work. She's been watching SyFy's Face-Off with her grandmother since last year sometime, and now she's been experimenting on herself. I've been doing all I can to encourage her. Above you can see a number of her experiments. I hope she sticks with it because she has a lot of natural talent and she's just starting out at 13. I could see her making a career of this. She'll randomly poke her head into my Geek Cave and look at me with one eye (because the other one is apparently torn from its socket) and ask me to take some pictures for her. She's having fun and she's being geeky and I couldn't be more proud.
Finally, I've been listening to a handful of podcasts lately, and I wanted to highlight a handful that I've been enjoying.
The Nerd Lunch Podcast just recently hit its 100th episode. They're a trio of guys, CT, Pax, and Jeeg who discuss everything in the interest of "nerds" although in my opinion, I really think it's more of a "geek" show than a "nerd" one. They cover topics ranging from fast food, movies, comics, classic geek books, and "other" stuff. It's the "other" stuff where the magic happens... like deciding who the "Expendables" of other movie genres would be. Or what foods you'd choose if your replicators on the Enterprise were broken and you could only have 10 choices for the next several decades. The thing I love most about this podcast is the pseudo-professionalism balanced with fun... meaning, the guys have a great time but take their topics seriously. They don't meander off topic the way a lot of pod-casts do, and while the occasional swear can be heard, for the most part the guys treat their listeners with respect. While I have no problems with profanity when I'm disciplining my kids*, I hate foul-mouthed podcasts that just wander all over the map when what I really want to hear about is what horror movie icons are going to bite it first during a zombie apocalypse.
Stuck in the 80's is a podcast that I just recently discovered. Like as in I've only heard about 3 episodes. But I'm hooked already! they mainly talk about 80's music that I can see, with a healthy smattering of 80's films mixed in. These guys were a little bit older during the 80's than I was... but it's all still pretty relevant stuff to me. And like the Nerd Lunch podcast above, these guys stay on topic and have fun while taking their topics seriously.
The Thrift Store Movie Score is another podcast I discovered recently. It's... interesting. There's none of the polish you see in the above two podcasts. The hosts Justin and Christine tend to be a bit... distracted from time to time, but they have a certain kind of goofy charm. They mostly talk about goofy VHS films they've found in thrift stores. They go into great depths analyzing the plots of the films they've watched, and pull in pop-culture references from their own past experiences. Again, it's not super polished, so a lot of times it feels like the hosts have done zero or less preparations to discuss some of their films and they ramble on at times about details I can't even begin to fathom the reasoning behind... but honestly, it works. Justin and Christine are a bit younger than I am so again there's some gaps between what they're nostalgic for and what I would be. But the podcasts are fun and still manage to bring back some memories. I especially liked the podcast about the Elijah Wood film "North" and another film "Motorama" I'd never heard of.
The Cult Film Club podcast is one I actually discovered through
Shezcrafti. It is the podcast that inevitably led me to discovering the Nerd Lunch podcast. Jaime Hood teams up once a month with
Shawn Robare and
Paxton Holley (the same "Pax" from Nerd Lunch above) to discuss a cool cult movie. But they don't just "discuss" a movie. They discuss their favorite parts, they discuss the terrible acting. They discuss where they have seen the actors in the cast before and since. They also recast the movie with their own casting choices. In other words it's not just some dry analysis of old weird movies you've never heard of... it's FUN with weird old movies you've never heard of. It's like those bizarrely in-depth discussions you used to get into with your friends at like... 3 o'clock in the morning about the Mortal Kombat movie.
It was nice catching up with you guys, but that's it for me tonight! I'll be back soon with more Geeky Goodwill Goodness! Until then, Happy Hunting!
*Maybe I'm kidding... maybe not.**
** I am.
I like this. I think you should definitely make it a monthly feature. BTW, your daughter is awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks very much! I'm extremely proud of her! And thanks for the support of catching up with me more in the future! I'll be sure to bore everyone with the trivial details of my life coming up soon!
DeleteSounds like you and I are kind of on the same page. I'd love to use my blog as a means of channeling the madness that enters my eyes and rattles around in my brain with declarations about the stuff I've seen or read or watched in between projects. The problem is that the blog is technically a tool of my business, so I'd best let my work be the method by which I communicate with my perspective on the rest of the world and limit my recommendations to brief posts on Twitter or Pinterest.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I am intrigued by this "Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs" book you mentioned. As a mass consumer of pop culture it sounds like something right up my alley.
Speaking of which, if you're shilling out podcasts, I think I'll suggest one of my own. My favorite as of late has been "Film Sack", ( http://filmsack.com/ ) A roundtable discussion of four nerds who review movies that are either "old, odd or obscure", ranging from genre classics, mainstream blockbusters, forgotten favorites, to so-bad-its good garbage. Theres a lot of talk about tropes, comparisons to other films and plenty of wisecracks.
Ahhh... thank you! I'll check it out for sure. I've been SEARCHING for good podcasts. I've found a LOT of really terrible ones that I won't openly rake over the coals here... but man do you have to go digging to find the really good ones. There's a couple I'm saving to talk about in October as well that I found recently and really enjoy.
DeleteAs for my blog... I already feel like I'm free advertising for Goodwill most of the time (I'm shocked they haven't called me out on messing with their branding) and I kind of want to... not move away from that necessarily... but expand on it so there's as much "Geek" as "Goodwill" on here. So I feel like if I want to review stuff from time to time, I have the freedom to do so. I get what you're saying about the purpose of your blog... but as an artist it seems like limiting the ways you allow yourself to express... yourself is counter-productive. Maybe you should start a little side-project blog for just those types of posts? A sister site if you will. I know Matt over at Dinosaur Dracula started a second site, a Tumblr site called Mummy Shark, where he posts the many smaller thoughts and random images that he doesn't want to focus on long-form on his main site. Something similar but different might work for you, even if it just sits there most of the time, not really expressing much except that movie you watched a few months back.
WHICH IS EXACTLY WHY YOU DID THAT ALREADY. Heh. I feel like an idiot now.
DeleteIf you're looking for more podcasts, another that I really enjoy is "Talkin' Toons with Rob Paulsen", were Rob Paulsen (the voice of the original Raphael and current Donatello on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Pinky of Pinky and The Brain among other roles) shares stories about his 20 plus years in the animation industry and interviews a number of his peers and contemporaries. Its great if you're at all interested in acting, comedy or cartoons. Rob has a very uplifting personality that makes each episode a joy to listen.
DeleteI'll second Rob Paulsen's podcast. It's one of my faves!
DeleteAlso, your daughter is ASTOUNDING at this makeup thing. She's got a talent her that should be nurtured for sure.
ReplyDeleteI thank you on her behalf! She's got an incredible eye for photography too. She's just sort of starting to really discover all these new artistic talents that she's excited about. She is one of the most infuriating teenagers I have ever dealt with in my life... but she's also starting to come into her own and I'm excited for her.
DeleteI love that your daughter is interested in make-up F/X effects and stuff. That is so unbelievably cool! And so much talent already! That is really cool, and I love that she watches Face-Off with her grandmother. That is just so cool.
ReplyDeleteI love the Nerd Lunch podcast, those guys are so funny. I really like podcasts, but I always get behind. I also like the ones that you have talked about, I've never heard of Thrift Store Movie Score, but they sound like a fun podcast. I liked reading all this, very fun! Enjoy the rest of your day.
Thanks Miss M! My daughter is an odd duck to be sure, and I can't imagine why. ;)
DeleteI am so happy that she's found something she 1) loves so much 2) is genuinely good at and 3) could plausibly make a career out of if she really chose to pursue it.
I'd like to second [third? fourth? fifth?] the sentiment in how awesome it is that your daughter is pursuing make-up effects. I've always appreciated practical effects, whether cosmetic or otherwise, more than anything CGI, so it's nice to see the younger generation embracing 'em.
ReplyDeleteAnd I totally get what you're saying about Klosterman. I haven't read Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs in a long time, but I remember the short-piece about his visiting a Pop Music Conference being a little wanking and self-indulgent. Making himself out to be the cool guy there and shitting on basically everyone else, distancing himself from his peers with an air of superiority.
If you haven't already read it, I would definitely recommend his book, Killing Yourself to Live. He road-trips across the country, visiting various sites where rock/pop "legends", from Buddy Holly to Kurt Cobain, tragically died.
Actually, that music conference piece was just the last straw. I finished the rest of the book after that but I had a really hard time respecting any of what I was reading after that point.
DeleteI'll try the book you recommend, but probably only if I happen across it secondhand. I didn't HATE Klosterman, and in fact I really did find some of the points he made really funny... but I just had such a hard time getting past that attitude. Killing Yourself to Live sounds like EXACTLY my kind of book though...
And thanks for the kind words about the kid... I too genuinely love a good practical effect over a computer generated one (even though they keep making advancements that I don't HATE... there's just something more visceral about practical effects being solid, 3-dimensional constructions that exist in the same space as the actors that just can't be reproduced) and I'm thrilled that she sees it as an art form and possible career choice.
Love it! Where is your daughter learning these makeup effects? Online tutorials or a class? She's got a definite knack for it. I'm trying to sow an appreciation towards puppetry into my girls, hoping they will bring back classic Henson style puppetry one day... hey, we could be livin vicariously through cheerleading (maybe more acceptable for me than you).
ReplyDeleteThis was a fun post, Geek! And I've been staring at that movie on Netflix over and over for that one reason. That it makes me think of Robert Smith (swoon) Early 80's Smith, not any Smith after 89'.
She's been harvesting from youtube heavily for sure, and I also gave her one of my books on theatrical make-up design to reference from.
DeleteThe fact that Henson Workshops seems to have all but abandoned the old ways of doing crazy-cool movies like Labyrinth and Dark Crystal for computer "puppetry" like they did in Mirrormask drives me insane. I liked Mirrormask a lot... (not sure if you've seen it, but it was written by one of my all-time favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, and co-written/plotted/designed by one of my all-time favorite artists, Dave McKean...) but the fact that it was done almost entirely as a CGI exercise with nary a puppet in sight... made me deeply sad.
"It's like those bizarrely in-depth discussions you used to get into with your friends at like... 3 o'clock in the morning about the Mortal Kombat movie."
DeleteThat's easily the best testimonial we've ever gotten. Bless your little heart.
Awwwww.... shucks. (drags toe of shoe in the dirt while looking down shyly)
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