(A Look at the Week Ahead #9) 15 October 2012

Ok, applied for unemployment and an Oregon Trail Card.  Tomorrow I'm going by the dentist and setting up an appointment.  I need to get in touch with Jim about possibly borrowing some grocery money until my unemployment kicks in, and probably go and sign my exit papers on Friday.
Lots of reading and writing.  That's all for now.


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Rumination (Saturday Life #9) 13 October 2012

Well, well, well.  Today is regroup.  JP #2 isn't happening.  Time to watch a little college football (non-Ducks) and just see where the day takes me.

I have been thinking about the Olivia situation a lot.  It's hard to believe we've been broken up for 6 years.  February - October of 2006.  I moved here in July of 2005.  I've lived in Eugene for over 7 years.  It's been a long time coming to be back on my game, and be back on it like never before.

Listening to all kinds of music and watching all kinds of movies, as always.

More on all of this later :)

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A Denial (Friday Life #5) 12 October 2012

I have a keyboard (maybe 2?) again!

I'm about to head to trivia with my peeps.  Should be fun.  I'm thirsty and hungry!!

I'm listening to the new Converge.  It's very good.  It flows, it's a bit different from most Converge albums in that sense, and I really appreciate it.  I'm interested to find out about my unemployment and how that's going to work.  I need to apply for food stamps on Monday as well.  Going to take a few week vacation at least, focus on living, getting caught up on my manageable bills, and jogging, playing basketball, etc.  Looking forward to it.


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Location:E 35th Pl,Eugene,United States

Oh Charlton (Film #7) 9 October 2012

Ben-Hur, Wyler, 1959, 6/10
I'm working my way through Ben-Hur, the William Wyler epic from 1959 that is all of 212 minutes.  I have to say that the music is pretty damn classic.  Miklos Rosza knows what he is doing, and there can be no doubt about that.  Overture opens on Michaelangelo's Creation of Adam (just their hands) and once the nativity scene is through, we get a more distanced view where you can see the cherubim and the figures of God and Adam much more fully.

To believe in a Christian god is tenuous.  The exact origin of the religious impulse is impossible to know, it seems, but if Christianity has been with use for about 2,012 years, it would be safe to say that we've practiced religion or its proto- form for at least 100, 000 (Blombos cave is 80,000 years old, for instance).  Another interesting red herring is the idea that Messala says to Sextus that god isn't in every man, only one man.  Obviously meaning the emperor, this implies that their society worships the emperor as a god and that conditions were worse for the everyman.  The subtle capitalist message here is humorous.  They then discuss how to "fight an idea," and Messala embodies Joseph Goebbels, Henry Ford, etc. in his answer: "With another idea."  Welcome to the information age.


The Last Films I've Seen
1. Lemmy, Olliver and Orshoski, 2010, 8/10.
Well, what can be said about the godfather of speed metal? He's a bit of a hoarder, he still drinks and does drugs like a crazy sob, but he has integrity and seems like a genuinely good soul. Highly recommended.
2. How to Steal a Million, Wyler, 1966, 6.2/10.
Audrey Hepburn. Peter O'toole. Recipe for success, right? Sort of. No real moral, message, or directorial flair. Video quality was ho-hum. Worth seeing.
3. River of Grass, Reichardt, 1994. Actually haven't finished this yet.
4. Dexter, Season 7, Episode 1, 2012, 10.0.
Not sure how they do it. Dead in the water, only to rise on the tides of Neptune. Or something. Seriously fucking brilliant, and more than makes up for the turd of episode 2.
5. The Avengers, Wheedon, 2012, 7.2/10.
The fanboys cum dumpster. Umm good but nothing revelatory. See below.
6. The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan, 9.4/10. Revelatory. See above. Terrorism, nuclear war, evil, good, human nature, pain, redemption, environment vs. genes, love, betrayal, consumerism, schadenfreude, and more. So much better than the dark night returns. Nolan taps into it in his piece de resistance.

Mense (Weekend Review #5) 14 October 2012

I wonder, when was the last time I played basketball? Certainly not for quite a while. It's nice for sure, although I am definitely dying.
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Location:E 15th Ave,Eugene,United States

Jp2 (A Look at the Weekend #7) 11 October 2012

Hmm. Lost my job and couldn't feel better. Seems a bit strange that I feel this good but once I got suspended a part of me knew I couldn't go back.

Let the job hunt begin!!

But first...

Let the relaxation and projects begin!!

Good times. Trivia night Friday, bad hat Saturday, and brunch with Jim Sunday. Get my resume in order, get a keyboard, and get some scrumptious groceries.

Invent a Bunbury, do a lot of reading, and screw my head on even better.

"Few are the giants of soul who actually feel that the human race is their family circle." -Freya Stark


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Location:Hilyard St,Eugene,United States

All Alone is All We Are (Music #9) 10 October 2012

Today I am going to write about an album that changed my life:
Nirvana: Unplugged.

Between this album and a high school friend, Dave, I came out of my shell. Granted, I was trapped within it, writhing because of such a sudden awakening, but without them both, who knows what horrors lay ahead?

That sounds so dramatic, but I am a sensitive person raised in a horribly insensitive world. It's even worse in small town America.

I had recently met Dave and we went to his house after a Lumberjack football game and he took a shower while I picked up his acoustic guitar and was strumming away.
(Brief guitar-playing history: I come from a musical family. I'd played viola since fifth-grade, I have recordings of my brother and I goofing around on my dad's guitar at the ripe age of 2. My brother, dad, mom, grandma, aunt, and stepdad all play. I knew relatively little about the technical aspects of what I was doing and the only song I knew was "house of the rising son," but for some reason I had been playing quite a bit lately)

Anyway, Dave saw I was curious, wrote out a few tab sheets, and I was on my way. This was the first album that I delved into. I haven't revisited it in its entirety in quite sometime, so here we go. "About a girl," "come as you are," "Jesus edoesn't want me for a sunbeam," "the man who sold the world," and "pennyroyal tea" have relatively low emotional resonance for me (tracks 1-5, respectively), but track 6 is when we start getting somewhere.

"Dumb" and "Polly" were both huge inspirations for learning chord changes quickly. So darkly beautiful and I have Dave to thank for introducing me to this stuff. My brother wouldn't have ever listened to this, so I quickly connected with my step-brother stylistically, and he was quick to introduce me to modest mouse, foo fighters, camper Von Beethoven, built to spill, and various other northwest, post-grunge bands. I couldn't stop listening to alice in chains and tool for the next three years, however, so a lot of his guidance was lost on me (sorry Alan).

It was strange listening to a band a couple of years after the impetus and person most directly responsible for their sound/aesthetic has committed suicide. It all brought a lot of rage, sadness, impotence, despair, fear, love, and many other things to the fore. I briefly flirted with suicide. It's laughable now.

After a few more songs with little emotional ties, the holy trifecta starts. Meat puppets' "lake of fire," my favorite nirvana song ("all apologies"), and leadbelly's "where did you sleep last night" round out the album. The sheer emotion of the final track is as epic as any iron maiden or old Metallica solo.
References
Music
- Unplugged, Nirvana, 1994.
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Location:Fox Hollow Rd,Eugene,United States

Back to work?? (A Look at the Weekend #7)

I have a few more things to do to get ready, and I should be back on track.  Reading Andrew Weil's The Marriage of the Sun and Moon and it's a damn fine book so far.  Most of his stuff is.

Had a really good chat with my buddy Ben about all of the music I have been listening to and how I'm really motivated to get back in the game.

Ducks play UW (currently ranked #23), no Bad Hat though :(

We Witness, We Suffer (Music #8)

Today I'm going to write about an album that changed my life:
The Sufferer and the Witness.

Rise Against has a long history with me.  First introduced to them by a current bandmate in around 2001 or '02, I simply liked their name.  At the time, I'd been playing guitar and singing for a metal/hardcore band for a bit, and though in retrospect it wasn't much, I had been overwhelmed, being introduced to more music then I could possibly ever assimilate.

Sitting here now in this fine 2012, with 10 years of acquaintance to their music/politics/ideas, and having seen them twice, along with a slough of bands from pretty much any genre you could imagine, things seem a lot different.  It could be the Bridgeport Witch Hunt that I'm drinking, or the fact that this album is currently blasting on my record player (yes, record player), but this is a critically under-appreciated band.  The one pitchfork review trounces them.  This is their major label debut though, so I can sort of understand.  Sort of.  Marc Hogan's writing here is sloppy and lacking much humor, however, despite his finest efforts otherwise.

I first heard Revolutions Per Minute upon release and was immediately drawn to the album.  I had a bit of a musical renaissance after playing in a ska band and a 'nu metal' type band, landing smack dab with some musicians who were into the misfits, black flag, minor threat, and many other real bands that I still listen to.  Anyway, this musical renaissance was brought on by bands like Opeth, In Flames, Thrice, Thursday, Strike Anywhere, Propagandhi, Coheed and Cambria, A Wilhelm Scream, friends in Countdown to Life, Death by Stereo, Boysetsfire, etc.  I was pretty heavy into jogging at the time, and I can't count how many times I was running to RPM.

Their next album was just a year later (they were blowing up fast), a major label release which was a step backward in my opinion.  I listened to it quite a lot still, but I was in major transition.  I had moved to Eugene to start school at the University of Oregon and our band, after having been together for 4 years or so, finally had to give up the ghost.  I lost track of a lot of music at that point.

"Down beyond those city streets through gutters filled with black debris..."  Starts the album.  Though released in 2006, I doubt I got into this album until early 2007, sometime after my rough breakup with Olivia.  To be honest, I think I listen to this album more now than I did in the oughts.

The lyrics are nice and socially conscious.  I think it's probably musically the most solid all-around Rise Against album.

"Deep inside these burning buildings voices die to be heard, years we spent teaching a lesson we ourselves have never learned," from Prayer of the Refugee.


References
Film

Literature/Websites
-Activism on band website
-Band Website here
-Review of "Siren Song of the Counter Culture" at Pitchfork
-Rise Against Youtube channel
-Sputnik Rise Against

Music
Rise Against Discography (Listed in chronological order)
-The Unraveling, Rise Against, 2001
-Revolutions Per Minute, Rise Against, 2003
-Siren Song of the Counter Culture, Rise Against, 2004
-The Sufferer and the Witness, Rise Against, 2006
-Appeal To Reason, Rise Against, 2008
-Endgame, Rise Against, 2011

Valhalla Rising (Film #6) 2 October 2012

Valhalla Rising, Refn, 2009, 7.7/10

"In the beginning there was
only man and nature

Men came bearing crosses
and drove the heathen

To the fringes of the earth"

So begins Valhalla Rising.
"I will lead this beast on a chain of flowers" - from "(A Shimmering Radiance) Diadem of 12 Stars"
Part I: Wrath.
One-Eye reaches the crest of a hill and sees a man bowed over a recent battlefield, smoke rising, a cross erected on a knoll at the edge of the scene.  He looks like Blondie, with the poncho draped over his shoulder.  He doesn't talk, not unlike the Vincenzoni character in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. He just won his freedom by finding an arrowhead in a stream and massacring those who had recently taken him as thrall, despite being "Christian."  They'd planned on trading him from one chieftain to the other.  Their plans failed.  Finally the violence he is capable of inflicting - which seems like the reason for his movement - is enacted.

Interspersed through these simple beginnings are lengthy shots of the hills of Scotland, beautiful beyond words.  Despite all of its flaws, the movie evokes the seething chaos of a society in transition better than most.

Part II: Silent Warrior.
"The world would be happier if men had the same capacity to be silent that they have to speak."

The scenes here are brutal.  We have the clashing of nomadic hunter gathers and "more civilized" Norsemen, though some have argued that this nomadic hunter gatherer (pre-Christian Norseman has more honor than his captors).  Dark grey clouds are salutary, the themes and characters put them to shame.  Human nature laid more bare than we are used to seeing.

As the pair - the boy who fed One-Eye has followed him cautiously, no longer having family - come over the hillock the crusaders ask if he is from the clans, and his partner, Are the boy,  answers, "no."  They have a cache of topless women off to the side.  Captives?  How Christian was that?  We see a pile of burning bodies, another element of pre-Christian Norsemen mixing with "God's own soldiers."

"Do you think he'll come back?" asks one Christian to the other: "If it's God's will," answers the other.

Part III: Men of God.
"We must be alert to the deeply ingrained capacity for murder that lurks inside us all." Buss, The Murderer Next Door

He has come back, like Jesus risen from the dead after three days.  Refn gives us no timescale, however.  The famous viking longship is boarded, the Christians, along with One-Eye and Are, are sailing to Jerusalem.  The boat ride is intensely quiet, heavily shrouded in fog.  There is attempted theft, murder, suspicion, schadenfreude, and a health dose of the absurd.  It's hard to understand, because nobody is rowing in the boat and nothing changes as they go along, until finally they arrive at...

Part IV: The Holy Land
North america, as most critics seem to agree, probably Newfoundland.  The trees and bushes don't differ much from our own back yard, here in Oregon.  The men spread out to search their new found land.  The camera work and scenery is beautiful.  They happen upon a Native American burial ground, which is speculated to be Beothuk.  They are clearly nowhere near Jerusalem, as they had planned to be.

They continue to bicker and suspect one another, clearly frustrated that they're in the wrong place and spent so much time and misery getting there.  They suspect one another, especially the most obvious outsider of the group, One-Eye.  Two of the elders discuss their plans as fog rolls in.  Fog plays a big part here, as everything is obscured.  Not only is the group lost, but perhaps we as viewers are meant to be as well.  Refn seems to be saying, it doesn't matter where they are, this was a fact of life for everyone at this time.  One man leaves the group and his sword behind, and goes wandering.

One of their men is hit with an arrow while they are exploring the waterways.

Part V: Hell
The elders hold the stone arrow point and marvel at it's lack of sophistication.  "Not iron."  They pass around a ceramic jug with a hallucinatory brew (probably fly agaric tea) used to prepare vikings for battle.  While One-Eye builds a cairn, perhaps for their recently fallen comrade, others pray, and one assails another (the one who we thought was dead) and roughly sodomizes him.  It seems he is left for dead.  The wandering member of the group is back now, covered in mud and scrawled runes.  They begin to exhibit mass frustration and quite a few of them die.  "Only men of faith deserve the riches of my new Jerusalem."

Part VI: Sacrifice
The leaders discuss the new Jerusalem.  The madman and the murderer.  We don't see what happens to the madman, but the leader is finally taken down with three arrows to the back.  Are and One-Eye continue on, a couple of stragglers behind them as well.  Finally they leave the other two behind and are making their way through the environment.  Beautiful shots of glades and lakes, as the two cross large river rock and foggy valleys.  The end is violent, but nowhere near as shocking as most of the violence in the film.

Issues with dress are there.  The movie is slow, it's odd at times, and it's flawed.  One-Eye has these bizarre visions, or is it the director?  Is it another way for us to see his future actions?  He's bathed in red light, and maybe it is just the blood of violence that has followed mankind since our days as protozoa.  Life feeds on life?  They all frustratingly speak English.  It would have been far more interesting if they'd all have spoken their native tongue, but most likely whichever tongue that is is a largely dead language.

References
Film
-The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Leone, 1966
-Valhalla Rising, Refn, 2009

Literature/Websites
-A Brief note on Fly Agaric used by Vikings here
-Beothuk natives @ Wikipedia
-The Murderer Next Door, Buss, 2006
-TIFF: 'Valhalla Rising Delivers Authentic Viking Experience, available here
-Valhalla Rising @ Wikipedia
-Valhalla Rising Review from here
-Viking raids

Music
-Diadem of 12 Stars, Wolves in the Throne Room, 2006

The Last Films I've seen
1. Double Indemnity, Wilder, 1944, 8.0/10.0
I've seen this movie 3 times now, and finally for the first time on a decent print.  I must say, it gets better each time I see it.  I've not read anything by Ernest Hemingway, except for excerpts from his writings, and his name is synonymous with economy in my mind, and that's what I think of when I think of Billy Wilder.  Double Indemnity is a film noir packed tightly into the economy of a Hemingway novel.
2. "Are you...?", Dexter, Season 7, Episode 1, 10/10
Quite possibly the best episode of one of my favorite television shows.  A show that casts a moral grey area (for some?), certainly makes me wonder.  If you knew someone was killing bad people, picking them off one by one, would you say anything about it?  How would you react?  What if you found out it was someone you were really close to?
3.  The Piano, Campion, 1995, 9.4/10.0
Brilliant tell that weaves folklore, murder, love, indigenous people vs. settlers, and many other things together to relate a tail that is almost unbelievable at times.  The way it concludes leaves no doubt of its gravitas, however.

(A Look at the Week #8) 1 October 2012

So it's October 1st.  October.  A new month.
Writing an essay on Nicolas Wending Refn's Valhall rising Tuesday, and I'm not sure which album I'll be reviewing Wednesday.  No real plans for the rest of the week.  Keep growing, keep writing.

Here are some of the things I have laid out for the week.
-Monday is soup and sandwich day, and I'm having grilled cheese and ham.  Small Side Salad.
-Tuesday is brenner.  We're going with waffles, bacon, and raspberries.
-Wednesday is Spanish night, so we're having broccoli, chicken, and pasta with Spanish spices like here
-Thursday is Italian night, and we're keeping with the broccoli/chicken/pasta theme by doing chicken, broccoli, and alfredo sauce from here.  Chicken alfredo!
-Moving on, Friday will be pizza and beer, and probably a salad.
-And finally, to end with our week, we'll have some form of rice/chicken/broccoli or perhaps dinner at Bad Hat's.

Sunday, as always, is open.

Work/Film/Music/Life (A Look at the Week Ahead #9)

Might go see Ted tomorrow night.  I'm a bit meh about it.  Similar feelings about Family Guy.  It's kinda funny, and has laugh out loud moments, but not enough to really get into it.  The animation is terrible too, completely unartistic.

I'm going to keep watching movies and try and turn out quality reviews, along with album reviews.