Killa Fo' Rilla

i'ma killa fo rilla dont mess w/ diss...

JTYWHTOAM: On The Waterfront

Sounds cliche, but they really don't make films like this anymore. A simple film, a film that seeks only to tell a story. Well, sure, there is a bit of a Christ-thing going on at the movie's end, where Terry (Brando) makes his final triumphant walk past the longshoremen, but it was certainly warranted. The story is carried not only on the strengths of its two leads: the shockingly good-looking Marlon Brando (think of him as the Ashton Kutcher of his day, but with talent) and the likewise beautiful Eva Marie Saint (OTWF was her debut role), but also on Elia Kazan's impeccable directing; throughout the film, I was in awe of the camera angles Kazan chose, angles that took a lot of guts. There were so many shots I just wanted to freeze, make a poster out of, frame, and put up on my wall, namely one shot of Brando's back as his walking down the alley with a gun in his right hand (you'll know the one I'm talking about). On The Waterfront tells the story of Terry, his brother Charly, and Terry's love interest Edie (Saint). Terry, who begins as a quintessential "D and D" (deaf and dumb) laborer, gets wrapped up in a murder setup by Friendly, the head of the crooked, criminal union. This incident begins him on the path to self-discovery, and with the help of Edie, a priest, and his brother, he begins to realize that loyalty to oneself should not be sacrificed for loyalty to the mob, the crowd, the majority. In one of Terry and Edie's first meetings, Terry insists that Edie should stop worrying about other people, and instead "look out for herself", a philosophy the pleasantly dumb, meathead Terry himself isn't truly following. Brando plays the role of the simple-minded-fool-finds-himself brilliantly. Of course the whole film is worth it just to watch Brando. He has a uniqueness in the way he delivers his lines. I can compare his uniqueness of style to Chris Walken's; that is their uniqueness, not the styles themselves, which are quite different. The big scene is all its cracked up to be: Terry, in the car with Charly, realizes how much of his life he's given to Friendly. He specifically remembers when he was still a prize fighter, and he threw a fight for Friendly, a fight that would have made him the number one contender for the championship title. If you don't know the line that follows, well... just watch the movie. Really, you don't need me to tell you to see this movie, but let me be one more voice crying from the darkness: they don't make films like this anymore.

Jack Tells You What He Thinks of a CD: Slanted & Enchanted Luxe & Reduxe

Rarely does music get any better then this. This is the ultimate version of Pavement's classic debut. Bonus features include two sessions of b-sides, a complete live show from London's Brixton Academy, and two, count 'em two sessions with the late great John Peel, 8 tracks which could have been released on a cd all their own well worth a fifteen dollar price tag. Slanted & Enchanted is the best album of the nineties, the album that showed kids what alternative music was capable of, and the band's sense of humor really makes the seriousness of their peers, i.e. Sonic Youth's acidwashed self important artsy Daydream Nation, seem not only unnecessary to creating beautiful art, but also ridiculous. Listen to the first two tracks and you are sold. Jack White and those guys from The Streaks (strokes, whatever) need to sit down at their desks and write a thank you letter. 10/10

Operation: Enduring Vacation

Severian's Wisdom, Part IV: Are The Dead Listening? Freaky!

"And what of the dead? I own that I thought of myself, at times, almost as dead. Are they not locked below ground in chambers smaller than mine was, in their millions of millions? There is no category of human activity in which the dead do not outnumber the living many times over. Most beautiful children are dead. Most soldiers, most cowards. The fairest women and the most learned men--all are dead. Their bodies repose in caskets, in sarcophagi, beneath arches of rude stone, everywhere under the earth. Their spirits haunt our minds, ears pressed to the bones of our foreheads. Who can say how intently they listen as we speak, or for what word?"
-Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch

Severian's Wisdom, Part III: Science and Power

"He was leaning against the wall now, and seemed to be speaking as much to some invisible prescence as to me. 'The past's sterile science led to nothing but the exhaustion of the planet and the destruction of its races. It was founded in the mere desire to exploit the gross energies and material substances of the universe, without regard to their attractions, antipathies, and eventual destinies. Look!' He thrust his hand into the beam of sunshine that was then issuing from my high, circular window. 'Here is light. You will say that it is not a living entity, but you miss the point that it is more, not less. Without occupying space, it fills the universe. It nourishes everything, yet itself feeds upon destruction. We claim to control it, but does it not perhaps cultivate us as a source of food? May it not be that all wood grows so that it can be set ablaze, and that men and women are born to kindle fires? Is it not possible that our claim to master light is as absurd as wheat's claiming to master us because we prepare the soil for it and attend its intercourse with Urth?"
-Gene Wolfe, The Citadel of the Autarch

Severian's Wisdom, Part II: Time & God

"Time itself is a thing, so it seems to me, that stands solidly like a fence of iron palings with its endless row of years; and we flow past like [the river] Gyoll, on our way to a sea from which we shall return only as rain."

"Yet there is another explanation: It may be that all those who seek to serve the Theophany, and perhaps even all those who allege to serve him, though they appear to us to differ so widely and indeed to wage a species of war upon one another, are yet linked, like the marionettes of the boy and the man of the wood that I once saw in a dream, and who, although they appeared to combat each other, were nevertheless under the control of an unseen individual who operated the strings of both."

"I did not believe in Oannes or fear him. But I knew, I thought, whence he came--I knew that there is an all-pervasive power in the universe of which every other is a shadow. I knew that in the last analysis of conception of that power was as laughable (and as serious) as Oannes. I knew that the Claw was his, and I felt it was only of the Claw that I knew that, only of the Claw among all the altars and vestments of the world. I had held it in my hand many times, I had lifted it above my head in the Vincula, I had touched the Autarch's uhlan with it, and the sick girl in the jacal in Thrax. I had possessed infinity, and I had wielded its power; I was no longer certain I could turn it over tamely to the Pelerines, if I ever found them, but I knew with certainty that I would not lose it tamely to anyone else."

-from Gene Wolfe's New Sun series, book three, "The Sword of the Lictor"

It's Fitness Made Simple!

Made For Real People!

Jack Tells You What He Thinks Of A Book: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susannah Clarke

It's the early Victorian Era in England, and two quite different gentlemen are about to bring magic back to where it all started. If you're not intrigued, do not read this book. To me, Strange & Norrell was an absolute delight. It's written in the same high Victorian prose that is associated with the period, complete with long tangents that lead nowhere, extensive footnotes that tell legends and stories barely connected to the story, and lots of long gentlemanly dialogue between Clarke's fictional English citizens. The book is separated into three parts, and a boxed set (which I am waiting to buy; I actually got this book from the library) containing each of these three books in separate volumes comes out in November. If you want to read an alt-fantasy book with an incredible magic system, and one that is masterfully written, with much character development, but little character attachment, and a perfect ending to boot, do yourself a favor: don't run, walk in a proper English fashion to your nearest book seller and pick up a copy today. Or just get on the internet. Whatever. I don't care. Don't even care if you read the stupid book. You're stupid.

Quote from Thrice's DVD

"There is no better time for people to hear that there is more substance than distraction, more than this pain you might feel now, more than this love you might feel now, and much more than just flashing lights and sound." -Nick Bogardus

Severian's Wisdom, Part I: Not By Sex Alone

"Women believe - or at least often pretend to believe - that all our tenderness for them springs from desire; that we love them when we have not for a time enjoyed them, and dismiss them when we are sated, or to express it more precisely, exhausted. There is no truth in this idea, though it may be made to appear true. When we are rigid with desire, we are apt to pretend a great tenderness in the hope of satisfying that desire; but at no other time are we in fact so liable to treat women brutally, and so unlikely to feel any deep emotion but one."

-from Gene Wolfe's epic New Sun series, book two, "The Claw of the Conciliator"

Built to Spill

"I confide in you almost everday / Even when you're not around" -Built to Spill, "Virginia Reel Around the Fountain"

Jack Tells You What He Thinks of a Movie

Move: "City of God"
Language: Portugese, subtitled




Wow. A buddy of mine told me to see this movie a long time ago, and finally I checked it out from the library. Put simply, it's one of the most engaging and rewarding movies I've seen in some time.

Set in a horrific slum outside Rio De Janeiro (sp?), the movie spans roughly... 20, 25 years, I think? Told from the perspective of a narrator who largely stays outside the action (though plays a pivotal role in this true story before its over with), the action is constant, the characters fully realized and engaging, the likable likable, the despicable... still kind've likable. The action climaxes to a fantastic finish - unexpected considering how quaint the beginning is. It is definitely a refrigerator movie - might take a while after the stimulation is over to realize how incredible it is.

I don't want to tell any of the plot, because the storytelling device is so fantastic. A series of flashbacks and various character sketches add up to a wonderful whole. Put this one on your list.

Edit: Benny is the coolest hood in the City of God

Molly Smalls, aka Biggie Molz, aka Malika, aka Small Dog