Saturday, September 5, 2009

"Recuerdo"

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
It was bare and bright, and smelled like a stable—
But we looked into a fire, we leaned across a table,
We lay on a hill-top underneath the moon;
And the whistles kept blowing, and the dawn came soon.

We were very tired, we were very merry—
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry;
And you ate an apple, and I ate a pear,
From a dozen of each we had bought somewhere;
And the sky went wan, and the wind came cold,
And the sun rose dripping, a bucketful of gold.

We were very tired, we were very merry,
We had gone back and forth all night on the ferry.
We hailed 'Good morrow, mother!' to a shawl-covered head,
And bought a morning paper, which neither of us read;
And she wept, 'God bless you!' for the apples and pears,
And we gave her all our money but our subway fares.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay

Thursday, September 3, 2009

First Fig

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!

-Edna St. Vincent Millay 1920

plate hate

I can't even hate on this 1 it's too ridiculous/awesome because the fine print reads "Stop Heart Disease."
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Inglourious Basterds Review



Inglourious Basterds is a return to form for Tarantino, in which I mean he has constructed beautiful and elaborate dialogue for his actors to deliver that allow the audience to know they're watching a motion picture and not just a movie. The brilliance of Tarantino is that he always transports the audience to a time and place that they've heard of before, but have never truly imagined with such vividness (Jack Rabbit Slims in Pulp Fiction; a not so safe-house in Reservoir Dogs, etc.)
Every performance is bold and daring, but none more so than Christoph Waltz's portrayal of Colonel Hans Landa more commonly known as "The Jew Hunter." Come winter, this man will most likely be nominated for a Golden Globe (& hopefully an Oscar.) While all the other characters create and contribute to a tableau of absurd, incredibly well executed entertainment, that only Quentin could pull off. For example, Eli Roth plays the foreboding and baseball bat toting "Bear Jew," that takes such delight in bashing Nazi's you find yourself in awe of his ability (& find wondering if he'd be as good with an actual ball.) While the undenibaly gorgeous Diane Kruger finally gets to do some reall acting by playing fictional German movie star Bridget von Hammersmark, who happens to be a double agent. But it's Mélanie Laurent who shines as the real femme fatale & the quintessentially cool french girl (cigarette, trench coat et all) with a BIG secret to hide from the Nazis & is all to familiar with Colonel Landa's notoriety...oh yeah and some guy named Brad Pitt is in it too & quite good as well.
Basterds is brash, bold, brutally funny and I highly recommend it.

My rating: 9.6/10

Side note: I loved that when Tarantino was on Letterman he said that
Sergio Leone was one of his favorite directors, and anyone who's seen Kill Bill is well aware those flicks were one giant homage to the "spaghetti western." Though I really loved that he said he was inspired by Leone and just replaced all the cowboy iconography with Nazi iconography. As a WWII (European Campaign) junkie hearing that made me drool, so I can say that I was undeniably biased in writing this review and knew before the movie even started I'd be giving it a 9 or higher. I have to confess though that Michael Fassbender really pushed the rating over the edge, and I only wish that there had been more of that gorgeous man in the movie. Oh yeah and Til Schweiger is too badass for words he just needs to be witnessed.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

trailer trash - Big Fan

Comedian Patton Oswalt takes a dramatic turn as the star of Big Fan. This indie, that's the directorial debut from Robert D. Siegel (writer of The Wrestler) is garnering rave reviews and definitely has an intriguing premise.



Monday, August 31, 2009

Mr. Holland meets Mr. Wang

I came across this video some time ago but forgot to post it. I'm a great admirer of the work both of these men do, so it was cool to see 2 of the most talked about boys in fashion hanging out.

here's another video of the boys visiting Alexander's favorite New York haunts...