Etcetera
So yeah I really liked last night's opener of Dr Who. Catherine Tate certainly wasn't as annoying as I thought she would be and the main plot with the Apidozies (or whatever) was a lot more interesting than that hospital on the moon with the Jodoon (or however you spell it...) episode of last season and I think the Dr/Donna dynamic will be a nice pleasant change from what's come before (Love story, one way love story) That surprise at the end though. O. M. G. OOOOOOOOOOO. MMMMMMMMM. GGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!
On a completely different note, last night I also watched Into The Wild, which is a film based on the book based on this guy Christopher McCandless who, after graduation, ups and leaves to find more to life, to see if you don't actually need people or the 20th Century to be happy, so he goes on a journey to Alaska. It actually shocked me how good this film was, despite a moments in the middle where it was hammering the idea into your head that family's can do rubbish things to one another and that we don't need jobs or money (he gave the last remaining $24000 of his college fund to Oxfam America before making his trip) to make us happy. Towards the end when he comes across Ron an old guy who has no family or perhaps friends to speak of, the film became so much more important to me. Hal Holbrook was wonderful as the old man, who had found a friend in Chris, even asking to adopt him as Ron's the last of his family. Watching this fragile man live again was a joy to watch, but then Chris leaves him for his Alaska dream and that in a moment he's gone back to being alone again. That exact moment, where Chris exits the car and Ron is left there, tear running down his cheek, just felt like such a punch to the gut. The next scenes make for equally depressing viewing, though not at all in a bad way. Close to death, Chris writes in a book he has open on his table, "Happiness is only real when shared." I dunno, I couldn't stop my emotions getting the better of me at that point. That short line has stayed with me, I didn't really know what to expect when we sat to watch it, but I didn't expect to still be getting obsessed about it a day later. Strangely enough, it's directed by Sean Penn, and I kind of hate that guy.
Comic wise, I've been "accidentally" reading a shit load of comics about lesbians at the moment. Wet Moon 3 by Ross Campbell, Between The Sheets by Erica Sakurazawa and Skim by Mariko and Jillian Tamaki. The later actually making me realise how much more I have to learn regarding sequential illustration and narrative and I haven't felt like that about a comic for a long time. A stunning piece of graphic fiction, though short, never felt empty and it's the inviting narration of Skim that keeps the reader interested. She's a great character, the diary that makes up the narration of the book never feels forced and feels like it's written by a confused 16 year old girl who goes to an all girls school where she hates most of the people there. There's a line in the book that goes "Things that make me sad...Love. Things that make me happy...Love?" that made me text Anna at stupid o'clock in the morning telling her she must read (borrow) it. There's a preview here but you can google the rest.
And when I say "accidentally read", I don't mean I tripped over them and started reading them, it's just that the last 3 comics have all had lesbian characters or perhaps an aspect of female attraction in them and I wasn't expecting that to happen though I really enjoyed them. It's really nice to see well thought out and believable gay characters being written in comics (even if with Wet Moon and Skim, it's perhaps more to do with the main characters experimenting and being a bit lost in their own head and finding solace in another person who just happens to be female and the gay aspect is not really a huge part of the overall themes of Skim to be honest). Perhaps with Between The Sheets, it's different because it's a piece about obsession rather than love and the pacing suffers from bad Manga dialogue/wonky translation in places. Anyway, what's particularly nice about Wet Moon is the fact that they're gay and they act normal. There's no "Hey look we're gay and we're in a comic OMG" aspect to it, the characters could be kissing or even talking to a member of the opposite sex for all we know. Whereas in the Marvel book, Young Avengers or whatever it is, the two male gay characters can't even say I love you and have to resort to this. Wow, because THAT'S how people in love talk, gay or not. Sheeeeeeesh.
And finally, kidcrash are making some of the best post hardcore I've heard since At The Drive In. Their album was maybe a little too scene for my liking (what the fuck, it was still really good!) but the stuff on their Myspace at the moment is a lot better though it's mainly from vinyl editions which is useless for a record playerless bastard like me. Anyway, here's a video filmed in black and white, cause you know...b/w keeps it real, brah.
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burnt_jamb) wrote,
