Battle in Heaven

Battle in Heaven was the first film that made me examine the Rotten Tomatoes community. Watching it, I was astonished (!) that this film ever got made because:

  • Reygadas had to get “20” permits to shoot with the military unfurling the Mexican flag
  • He probably had to get another 10 to shoot at the Cathedral
  • He had to find very fat people who were comfortable having “sex” on camera
  • He had to find a hot girl who would have sex with a fat man on camera for “art’s sake.”

The film delivered all this with a classy Antonioni confidence of very thought-out long shots, great urban and rural scenery, and a genuinely focused character development.

After looking at the Rotten Tomatoes “critics,” all I can say it is mostly made up of the same sort of idiots who make up the wingnut blogosphere — if it’s not Ronald Reagan, it totally sucks.

Train Stations of the Coasts

When you’re a kid and you see a train station for the first time, it is usually the biggest room that didn’t have a circus or a movie going on that you have ever seen. Union Station in Los Angeles was my first train station and it still throws me for a loop.

Irvine’s commuter station has palm trees and pop music piped in. I was here after a nice Thanksgiving dinner with my nephew.

New York stations are pretty serious.

However, reading up on the renovation of the Coney Island station is pretty interesting. The roof can pretty much power the whole thing on a sunny day.

I’m blogging in my sisters’ old bathroom because the internet wire won’t reach into the bedroom anymore. Instead of waxing more poetic about train stations, I’ll hang out with my parents. 🙂

Saturday at the Beach

I’m not really at the beach but I’m close to it and hanging at a hookah/coffee bar plus it’s a great excuse to post this photo of my Dad’s which is probably circa 1956.

Here are some things on the shelves. They also have a walk-in humidor for cigars here.

Hookah tobacco is like incense for the lungs. Sometimes it’s only half-tobacco while the rest is dried fruit, honey or artificial flavorings.

You Need These Details

I watched a series of low-budget indie movies in which the details made the movie. In Bruges had a sweet hotel proprietor and a movie within the movie and the amazing city of Bruges; The Visitor featured the djembe drum as well as dastardly true-to-life detention system; Red Road‘s main plot device was the surveillance cameras which are never mentioned by the characters. I was going to go on about this but an old friend is IMing me…. crap.

You Blew Up Your Television

Find the matching set!

The gears of garbage trucks woke me up. On Tuesdays, my block is often blessed with the garbage truck followed by the recycling truck and they hold up traffic so with luck, we also get honks and yelling. It’s not much worse than being woken up by “The Takeaway” on WNYC. I’ll take that apartment across the street facing the courtyard with southern exposure now please. Thank you.

Heading to California for a week for Turkey Day with the family. I hope to have cheerier photos, however, I will also strive to make Orange County look as creepy as Manhattan at night.

Oh, those Swedes! Nina Ramsby has one of those voices that gets under your skin… well, my skin anyway. Say you’ve been sleeping with the pillow over your head because of garbage trucks outside and someone has to wake you up. It could be Nina, sure. Her melodies are beguiling while the lyrics sometimes border on the paranoid obsessive–which might be good or bad depending. Anyway, she’s got three major music projects: Salt, which was a grunge band in the vein of Nirvana from the 90s (I’m pretty sure I saw them open for a crappy band at Brownie’s in NYC); Grand Tone Music, who are a good deal mellower; and then Baxter, a drum-and-bass electronica outfit (not to be confused with American punk band Baxter). I like the latter the best but all three are worthwhile explorations. Lately, she’s been singing solo in Swedish and fiddling with experimental jazz and folk and other electronica.

A new Baxter is said to be ready any minute now.