| Stupid Art Meme |
[Jan. 6th, 2010|12:33 pm] |
I did one of these memes on deviant art. Here's the link to mine. Obviously, its showing me that I haven't improved much... and that I need to make more art. Oh well. |
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| 2009 Top 5 |
[Dec. 27th, 2009|02:13 am] |
1. Raekwon Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II
Amazingly rich production. Dark and crazy lyrics including gems like "our guns is chunky" and "the economy is down so you know there's gonna be a lot of homies in the town" Homies! And most of all Ghostface's desperate rhymes where he's rapping about swastikas on churches, AIDS, and rehab. He says "they found a two year old strangled to death with a 'love daddy' shirt on in a bag at the top of the steps." It's the ultimate Wu-Tang record where everything is pushed forward a notch to fit his post-911, post-Katrina despair. Bottomless despair. This was one of the best hip hop albums of the decade.
2. Hunger (Steve McQueen)
This is a film that looks at Bobby Sands and the 1981 IRA Hunger Strike. The film is deeply structural and methodically illustrates the various roles and processes in the business of incarcerating political prisoners (though they were not recognized as such). Job functions are explained in a series of vignettes that go by with no dialogue. Then there's this incredible scene in the middle where Bobby speaks to a priest in the prison who has come to try to dissuade him from the strike. What's so remarkable is that in the 20 minute conversation that unfolds - in a single static shot - you become more convinced in Sands' arguments and the necessity of the strike, despite the cost. The priests arguments are good ones, but Sands makes the better case. Then, the film makes you watch on in horror at the consequences. Unbelievable.
3. A Serious Man (Coen Brothers)
I was bewildered by it and couldn't stop thinking about it for a week or two after watching it. I wondered, was this a repudiation of their religion? Or something else entirely? There's some wiggle room for interpretation. Two things stood out for me, though. First, we are alone in the universe. That much is certain. Second, I like to think that Joel and Ethan are having fun 'playing god' on the character of Larry Gopnik. In an interview at TIFF they said something to the effect that the most amusing part of making the film was thinking of more horrible things to happen to Larry. Tradition is one thing but the closest thing to gods that we'll ever know are writers. And the Coens write like cruel gods who put their subjects through the harshest of trials. What fun!
4. 2666 by Roberto Bolaño
Technically this came out at the end of 2008 but hey, it's 900 pages long so let's let that slide. Last Christmas I got the box set edition which is split into 3 soft-cover volumes. The second of which is one of the most grim, violent, and disturbing thing I'd ever read. During the month that I read it I began to have bad dreams. I started to react angrily to things. Yet I forced myself through the pages on lunch breaks and late at night. The first and last volumes are both brilliant AND enjoyable. It relates a narrative that leaves edges open to digression. ( more under the cut )
5. The final Bush Legue show - Extermination Night
This was the first Extermination Night I'd ever been to. It's a great concept. We only learned the location of the show at around midnight. We got on our bikes, locked up, and hopped a fence. I didn't know the band's music but there were torches, people surrounding the band in a circle, and crazy (but nonviolent) energy that I hadn't seen in a show in years. And the cops never showed to bust it up.
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