TV - "True Blood" - Season 4, Episode 7 & 8 - "Cold Grey Light of Dawn" and "Spellbound"
Friday, Aug. 19
TV - "True Blood" - Season 4, Episode 6 - "I Wish I Was the Moon"
Podcast - "WTF with Marc Maron" - Jimmy Shubert
Thursday, Aug. 18
TV - "Louie" - Season 2, Episode 10 - "Halloween/Ellie"
TV - "True Blood" - Season 4, Episode 4 & 5 - "I'm Alive and On Fire" and "Me and the Devil"
Wednesday, Aug. 17
Movie - "Sucker Punch" (2011) - I, admittedly, only watched half of this two-hour movie. And I really don't like to weigh in on something I haven't seen start-to-finish. But I find it unlikely that the second sixty minutes could do anything to reverse the pretty crappy effect of the first sixty. It's just one long wank by a guy with great visual sense, precious little intelligence and apparently no idea how revealing his aesthetic is of the overall weirdness of his brain.
Zack Snyder also isn't aware how transparent his manipulations are -- not since Mary Pickford led a gang of orphans through an alligator-infested swamp in 1926's "Sparrows" has a such a small waif suffered so much in exchange for our empathy. But Snyder queers the deal by taking his downtrodden heroine and fetishizing the holy shit out of her. Not for nothing is she named "Baby Doll" and for every fat, sweaty, eats-with-his-mouth-open would-be rapist she encounters (and it's a lot) there's an equal number of shots of her full, quivering, heavily-glossed lips; her false eyelashes; and her neon cream skin. She's a damsel not just in distress, but also in pigtails, a sailor skirt, stockings and heels.
Also, the fantasy-within-a-fantasy-within-a-fantasy narrative is really just an excuse to play by no storytelling rules at all. Follow me if you can -- she's an orphan who dreams she lives in a brothel and her hooker persona dreams she's a fantasy warrior, but the fact that the movie opens on a theater stage (an admittedly cool effect) means there's a good chance none of any of it is supposed to be for real.
Tuesday, Aug. 16
Music - The artist's name is Gas (actually Wolfgang Voight) and the album is "Nah und fern" and it is my musical obsession of the past week. When you want music to write to and you don't want things like melody or lyrics getting the way of your think-stuff, this is the road to take. Like an Eno soundscape with a lot more texture.
Monday, Aug. 15
TV - "Breaking Bad" - Season 4, Episode 5 - "Shotgun" - As we approach the halfway point of (what we know now is) the penultimate chapter, this is by far my least favorite season of the series' run. I really wasn't as wowed by the critics were by the season premiere, and each subsequent episode has felt sluggish and anti-climactic. I'm hoping they're just building momentum for the second half.
Also, Gustavo Fring -- fried chicken magnate, methamphetamine kingpin, Volvo owner -- was so much more compelling and enigmatic when we knew so much less about him. Further, I seriously doubt he would've taken the risks that could've come from violently pitting employees against each other in public for such a vague reward.
TV - "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - Season 8, Episode 6 - "The Hero"
TV - "Childrens Hospital" - Season 3, Episode 11 - "The Night Shift" - A prime example of one of the most unexpectedly hilarious shows on TV. The standard 11-minute running time doesn't hurt, either.
Sunday, Aug. 14
Movie - "Run Man Run" (1968) - Early morning matinee. Had great potential -- I was particularly charmed when our hero, Cuchino, steals a 20 peso coin, uses it to win a beat, then -- just as it appears he's about to steal more -- secretly repays the stolen money from his winnings.
The basic plot is, essentially, what if Tuco from "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" found out about the location of the hidden gold and went to go get it himself. But the story meanders in and out of the lines, the cast becomes too crowded, motivations become questionable and it's soon difficult to understand who's fighting for what.
Podcast - "Tom Rhodes Radio" - Doug Stanhope
Podcast - "The Indoor Kids" - Episode 4 - Todd Levin
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