June 05, 2002
Cheesy preacher music
NPR has disappeared. So this morning I've listened to Swindoll and Jeremiah instead of Diane Rehm. David Jeremiah is on Focus on the Family, also...double-dose of him today. He's talking about living with cancer. People today don't die from cancer as much as they used to maybe, but people live with cancer as Dr. Contreras tells us.
Wow, 6 hours later and I finally remembered what I intended to write this morning: Why is it radio preachers have cheesy theme music that sounds like it was composed for 70s TV?
Still trying to make this thing substantive. Still failing at it.
Posted by denise at 12:02 PM ~ Sundries
Needs substance
How's this for substantive?
Literature as escapism or entertainment is not necessarily a bad thing. Art speaks to that unquantifiable part of us - our soul & spirit - can make us happy when we're sad or vice versa. It can change our thinking - change our lives.
No, huh?
Posted by denise at 01:44 PM ~ Sundries
Hanukah
I usually listen to NPR in the morning and KCBI in the afternoon. It's all good, right, except for one guy, Woodrow Kroll, who's kind of religious and old school. I usually just tune him out. I suppose I could change the station, but he's on a half-hour between 2 programs I like and I just don't feel like bothering... Anyway, yesterday, he's talking about John 13 and the Feast of Dedication. The Feast of Dedication is Chanukah. For some reason I never thought about Jesus celebrating Chanukah. But of course he did. I wonder what presents he got.
Posted by denise at 02:26 PM ~ Sundries
Fight Club Review
I know! How about a nice movie review?
Here's my review of Fight Club from a couple of years ago. Raw unrefined verbiage straight from my brain!
Fight ClubThe answer to corporate disillusionment and the feminization of the American male: the establishment of bare-knuckle boxing clubs. The clubs grow into an army of mischief-makers who's final stunt is the destruction of several credit card company buildings. "If the debt record is destroyed, we all return to zero." If you want to destroy the debt record, PAY YOUR DEBTS! There's a concept.
This movie rates high on the storytelling scale; vivid cinematography, production design, well-directed and well-acted.
I've been disillusioned with Brad Pitt since the self-important Legends of the Fall. He plays a freaky tough guy; the only sort of part he's really believable in.
Fight Club is the story of one man's descent into madness. This movie details what can happen when a person becomes extremely self-absorbed.
Ed Norton's character (who remains un-named throughout the movie) tries to find purpose in his life; suffers insomnia. His insensitive shrink suggests visiting people in more pain than he is. He decides to visit several support groups and becomes addicted. They offer a temporary cathartic relief for him. He's able to sleep and function finally, but when he discovers Marla Singer (Helena Bonham Carter) doing the same thing, his escape from real life is foiled.
His life is further changed when on a flight home, he meets Tyler Durban, a purveyor of designer soap who also knows a great deal about homemade explosives. When he gets to the airport Norton is detained when his suitcase is found vibrating. That problem resolved, he makes his way home only to find that his condo has exploded. Hmmm... He decides to call Durban for a place to crash. Durban's house is a ramshackle dump on the edge of town. After a leisurely beer, they naturally engage in a bare-knuckle fight and after a few more nights of fighting, several other men join in the fun. Let's hear it for male "bonding."
Durban's other job besides making soap with human fat he gets from liposuction clinics is as a projectionist where he enjoys splicing a couple of frames of porn into family films. There were at least two instances in this movie where something actually seemed spliced in. What it was, who knows. Or perhaps I hallucinated them.
In short this movie is too violent and delivers a cowardly message.
Ouch! That's painful prose, people!
Yeah, I know...Brad Pitt's character was actually named Tyler Durden. So sue me.
Posted by denise at 04:04 PM ~ Movies
June 19, 2002
Star Wars
Perhaps Lucas needs to make a Episode 3.5?