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greygirlbeastToday is mine and Spooky's 6th anniversary. And we both forgot until this ayem, when I remembered. We met, face to face, while I was MCing Convergence 5 in New Orleans in 1999 (ah, goth love), and thereafter we began spending a lot of time together. But we didn't really hook up until this date in 2002. That's the date from which we count the anniversary. We have no especial plans, having forgotten that today is our anniversary. But we might think of something. We shall see.
Oh, and Hubero lost a tooth last night. Which is a relief. Siamese are prone to pre-mature tooth loss, and he's had an upper incisor dangling by a thread for days, making him cranky. Spooky didn't want me to pull it, and I didn't want to pay a vet to do it. Fortunately, it has taken care of itself.
As predicted, no writing yesterday, and, as predicted, we went to see Wall-E (my first Rhode Island theatre movie, by the way). We went down to Warwick, knowing that the Providence Place Mall would be infested with surly teens who make bad, noisy audiences. We were able to make the 12:10 pm matinée, and discovered that movies are actually a dollar cheaper per ticket in Warwick than Atlanta, which surprised me. Anyway, my thoughts on the film, behind the cut, for SPOILERS:
So, the first thing I want to say is that I will not argue about the relative merits of this film with anyone. I'm looking at you, in particular,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
robyn_ma and scarletboi. Indeed, I'm tempted to turn off comments to this post. Here's my thing. Yes, Wall-E is a fun movie. It's a good movie. But, despite my expectations (based largely on reactions on my friend's list), it is not a perfect film, not even a perfcet Pixar film. That was Ratatouille. Yes, I adored Wall-E and Eve. Yes, they were very sweet. And their love story is quite wonderful, no arguments there. The film is visually, technically astounding. The opening scenes, with Wall-E alone on Earth, then with Eve's arrival — all that is superb. No arguments there. But, for Spooky and I both, the movie suffers a great deal as soon as Wall-E arrives at the Axiom. Two things go awry here. First, the film has one of the flabbiest, most unfocused middles of any film I have recently seen (and could have been 45 minutes shorter, I say). It just...races about, willy nilly, there in the middle. Secondly —— and this is, for us, the greater problem —— the human characters are physically repugnant and in no way entertaining nor the least bit (I hesitate to use the word, but) sympathetic. Great pink grubs, giant babies, the product of 700 years of Wal-Mart (okay, B&L) and fast food. And it's not just that I dislike humans to start with. Hell, almost every book and movie I like (we're talking thousands, I suppose) manages to make me care about, or at least be interested in the fate of, human characters. But...these mass-produced giant baby people with their piggy little toes? No. Ew. The film recovers some of its power towards the end, once Eve and Wall-E are back on Earth, but the damage has been done. I say it would have been a far better and more interesting film if the robots had left the Axiom and the humans, and gone back to tend the recovering planet, perhaps with an eye towards one day bringing the humans home. Maybe. After they'd been physically rehabilitated and taught pizza does not grow on trees. Instead, we're left with this thing that's meant to be a cautionary tale (don't fuck up the planet), but is, rather, a cop out (go ahead, fuck up the planet; your technology will save you in the end). Oh, and I did love that Sigourney Weaver was the voice of the Axiom's mainframe. And that Wall-E's start-up sound was the Apple chime. The stuff with Hello Dolly, loved it. There are, in truth, a thousand things to love about the film, but, as a whole, it falls flat. Ratatouille was a tough act to follow, and the folks at Pixar should have known that. Now, I understand, the film is wildly popular. It may even win Pixar another Oscar or three. So, this is just me, and my personal kvetching. The film has already proven itself a hit. So, if you love it, there is absolutely no need here to defend it. Just feel sorry for me, that I'm such a jaded old fuck or whatever. I very much dislike having to say that I find fault with a movie (especially after paying $15 to see it), but there you go. I give it 8 stars out of 10.
Very, very windy today. 20 to 30 mph. But it's helping to cool what threatened to be a very hot day. It's presently 84F, with an expected high of 85. Only 78 in the house. Dr. Munõz has not been rolled into my office, even.
Not much else to yesterday. After the movie, we stopped at Newbury Comics and picked up the latest from VNV Nation (Judgement) and Lisa Gerrard (The Silver Tree). The former is very, very good, but the latter is sublime. I was very well behaved and did not buy the Movie Maniacs Bram Stoker's Dracula action figures, even though I've been wishing someone would do them since 1992. Even though they were priced ridiculously cheap at $10. I am not buying more action figures, as I've no place to keep many of the ones I now own. Back home, I began reading the next chapter of the Triassic book. We hung some more pictures. We watched The Devil's Rejects for the fifth time. And then, late, I had some very excellent Second Life rp in Toxia (thank you Omega, Cerdwin, Joah, Bellatrix, Abigel, and Larissa). The godthing that Nareth died to grant entry into the world — call it Labyrinth, Eris Discordia, Paradox, Contradiction, Azathoth — was claimed by the Omega Institute and taken from the Pit and the company of the Shadows to the library, where it has been given sanctuary while the OI tries to figure out what's to be done with it and whether or not Nareth can be resurrected. But, the atomic structure of its insufficient body is decaying, burning out, and it knows that fate dictates the Lady Omega will slay it.blu_muse took some nice screencaps, which you may see here. Click on them for larger versions. This is certainly one of the best storylines I've been a part of in SL, and it makes me long for the dear, imploded Dune sim. So does Lisa Gerrard.
Okay. The platypus declares I've said enough, so it's back to the salt mines with me.
Oh, and Hubero lost a tooth last night. Which is a relief. Siamese are prone to pre-mature tooth loss, and he's had an upper incisor dangling by a thread for days, making him cranky. Spooky didn't want me to pull it, and I didn't want to pay a vet to do it. Fortunately, it has taken care of itself.
As predicted, no writing yesterday, and, as predicted, we went to see Wall-E (my first Rhode Island theatre movie, by the way). We went down to Warwick, knowing that the Providence Place Mall would be infested with surly teens who make bad, noisy audiences. We were able to make the 12:10 pm matinée, and discovered that movies are actually a dollar cheaper per ticket in Warwick than Atlanta, which surprised me. Anyway, my thoughts on the film, behind the cut, for SPOILERS:
So, the first thing I want to say is that I will not argue about the relative merits of this film with anyone. I'm looking at you, in particular,
robyn_ma and scarletboi. Indeed, I'm tempted to turn off comments to this post. Here's my thing. Yes, Wall-E is a fun movie. It's a good movie. But, despite my expectations (based largely on reactions on my friend's list), it is not a perfect film, not even a perfcet Pixar film. That was Ratatouille. Yes, I adored Wall-E and Eve. Yes, they were very sweet. And their love story is quite wonderful, no arguments there. The film is visually, technically astounding. The opening scenes, with Wall-E alone on Earth, then with Eve's arrival — all that is superb. No arguments there. But, for Spooky and I both, the movie suffers a great deal as soon as Wall-E arrives at the Axiom. Two things go awry here. First, the film has one of the flabbiest, most unfocused middles of any film I have recently seen (and could have been 45 minutes shorter, I say). It just...races about, willy nilly, there in the middle. Secondly —— and this is, for us, the greater problem —— the human characters are physically repugnant and in no way entertaining nor the least bit (I hesitate to use the word, but) sympathetic. Great pink grubs, giant babies, the product of 700 years of Wal-Mart (okay, B&L) and fast food. And it's not just that I dislike humans to start with. Hell, almost every book and movie I like (we're talking thousands, I suppose) manages to make me care about, or at least be interested in the fate of, human characters. But...these mass-produced giant baby people with their piggy little toes? No. Ew. The film recovers some of its power towards the end, once Eve and Wall-E are back on Earth, but the damage has been done. I say it would have been a far better and more interesting film if the robots had left the Axiom and the humans, and gone back to tend the recovering planet, perhaps with an eye towards one day bringing the humans home. Maybe. After they'd been physically rehabilitated and taught pizza does not grow on trees. Instead, we're left with this thing that's meant to be a cautionary tale (don't fuck up the planet), but is, rather, a cop out (go ahead, fuck up the planet; your technology will save you in the end). Oh, and I did love that Sigourney Weaver was the voice of the Axiom's mainframe. And that Wall-E's start-up sound was the Apple chime. The stuff with Hello Dolly, loved it. There are, in truth, a thousand things to love about the film, but, as a whole, it falls flat. Ratatouille was a tough act to follow, and the folks at Pixar should have known that. Now, I understand, the film is wildly popular. It may even win Pixar another Oscar or three. So, this is just me, and my personal kvetching. The film has already proven itself a hit. So, if you love it, there is absolutely no need here to defend it. Just feel sorry for me, that I'm such a jaded old fuck or whatever. I very much dislike having to say that I find fault with a movie (especially after paying $15 to see it), but there you go. I give it 8 stars out of 10.Very, very windy today. 20 to 30 mph. But it's helping to cool what threatened to be a very hot day. It's presently 84F, with an expected high of 85. Only 78 in the house. Dr. Munõz has not been rolled into my office, even.
Not much else to yesterday. After the movie, we stopped at Newbury Comics and picked up the latest from VNV Nation (Judgement) and Lisa Gerrard (The Silver Tree). The former is very, very good, but the latter is sublime. I was very well behaved and did not buy the Movie Maniacs Bram Stoker's Dracula action figures, even though I've been wishing someone would do them since 1992. Even though they were priced ridiculously cheap at $10. I am not buying more action figures, as I've no place to keep many of the ones I now own. Back home, I began reading the next chapter of the Triassic book. We hung some more pictures. We watched The Devil's Rejects for the fifth time. And then, late, I had some very excellent Second Life rp in Toxia (thank you Omega, Cerdwin, Joah, Bellatrix, Abigel, and Larissa). The godthing that Nareth died to grant entry into the world — call it Labyrinth, Eris Discordia, Paradox, Contradiction, Azathoth — was claimed by the Omega Institute and taken from the Pit and the company of the Shadows to the library, where it has been given sanctuary while the OI tries to figure out what's to be done with it and whether or not Nareth can be resurrected. But, the atomic structure of its insufficient body is decaying, burning out, and it knows that fate dictates the Lady Omega will slay it.
blu_muse took some nice screencaps, which you may see here. Click on them for larger versions. This is certainly one of the best storylines I've been a part of in SL, and it makes me long for the dear, imploded Dune sim. So does Lisa Gerrard.Okay. The platypus declares I've said enough, so it's back to the salt mines with me.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 04:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 04:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 04:39 pm (UTC)Sorry about "disappearing" last night...I crashed and figured it was as good a place as any to stop for the night. Cer's a bit lost and loopy and wandering the streets stuck between different realities. However, it was good to be back and will indeed tempt me to do more.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 04:50 pm (UTC)Spooky too shy to say hello to you and I dragged her across the dance floor. I think we sat on the stage at your feet, if I recall...
Yep.
Sorry about "disappearing" last night...I crashed and figured it was as good a place as any to stop for the night. Cer's a bit lost and loopy and wandering the streets stuck between different realities.
Good call.
However, it was good to be back and will indeed tempt me to do more.
Yes, please! Labyrinth needs you!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 06:41 pm (UTC)Happy anniversary, Caitlin and Kathryn.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 04:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 04:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 04:58 pm (UTC)It seems to be about hope, and faith in one's ability to improve oneself and one's world. In short, it's very much an Obama-era film.
Offered not in argument but in clarification of my own take on it. I respect yours.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 05:00 pm (UTC)I will say only that, to me, the message was that deviation from the path is always possible. Whether it's being a flabby fuck in thrall to consumerism, or being a lonely trash-compacting robot, or being a robot fixated solely on the directive, or fucking up the planet. You see the 'deviate from the path' thread everywhere in the film, most obviously in M-O, the little cleaning robot that has to literally break from the path in order to clean up after WALL•E.
Interesting. Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 10:53 pm (UTC)Since we're not arguing over the film's relative merits, one other thing I took away from the film was its actual distrust of technology. Technology was supposed to save us within five years after we ruined the planet; instead all the WALL•Es broke down except one, and 700 years later there are still towers of trash. Meanwhile, the computers programmed by the government/corporation have kept humans bloated and acquiescent for seven centuries. The captain, once awakened to the Matrix he's been living in, literally has to wrestle control away from the autopilot. In a way it's a fable about what has happened since the Industrial Revolution, and in a way it's as dark as anything in The Matrix or William Burroughs. The cutesy-wootsy love story is the candy on the surface. At the end, we're to understand that the humans have gone back to square one, not only learning to nurture the planet but also eager to learn how. The surfeit of enforced, genetically prolonged laziness and incuriosity has produced boredom and hunger for change.
One question, though: aside from the friendly cockroach, where are all the animals? Extinct, presumably, which is another reason to resent the supposedly superior race that allowed the planet to get to this point. How are humans to begin again without the complex biological and environmental interaction made possible by other species? The movie has made me write sequels in my head (perhaps there's another big spaceship acting as a massive zoo for the animals?) without actually wanting a sequel.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 05:27 pm (UTC)...Labyrinth, Eris Discordia, Paradox, Contradiction, Azathoth...
I'm awfully surprised at how anthro this chaotic personification has manifested. Or maybe that's just the limit to how my monkey can process its presence.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 06:30 pm (UTC)Not yet.
Or any other medical care providers?
Yes.
And did you eat your spinach?
Yep.
I'm awfully surprised at how anthro this chaotic personification has manifested. Or maybe that's just the limit to how my monkey can process its presence.
Well, basically, the way this has been played, she was summoned and imprisoned in this form, which has all but stripped her of her power and essential Nature. So, yes, this is the formless given form, the infinite made finite. This is what happens when a crazy woman is allowed to summon an Outer God (and has no actual reason for having done so, other than innate obsession).
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 05:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 06:32 pm (UTC)I recommend checking out Cinema World at Lincoln Mall. Free parking. Good Prices and less ads before the movies. :)
Thanks. I'll have a look.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 05:57 pm (UTC)Dunno, but I think an evening with good food, conversation and snuggling sounds like a great way to celebrate your six years together.
And congratulations to Hubero not needing to have help ridding himself of the pesky tooth. Will the tooth-fairy be visiting him tonight?
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 06:33 pm (UTC)And congratulations to Hubero not needing to have help ridding himself of the pesky tooth. Will the tooth-fairy be visiting him tonight?
Possibly.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 06:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 06:39 pm (UTC)Frankly, I agree with you about the Wall*E movie.
Possible minor spoilers ahead.....don't read any futher.
To be blunt, I disliked it when we got to the humans and I felt misled by the trailers on what to expect. I was upset paying $7 each (matinee prices) for this movie. I didn't feel entertained. Maybe lectured and depressed, but that is it.
I agree with the message of taking care of the planet, but for a "family" film, it lacked a lot. Hell, it was depressing in my opinion and not at all realistic with the humans being able to do what happens at the end (physically). It just lacked and the kids I saw it with were bored through most of it and asked to leave twice. Would do better for me as a movie rental. Going by the state of the movie theater I saw it in, it sure didn't leave a message of clean up after yourself either with adults going by the state of the place at the end of the movie. I felt bad for throwing my cup in a trash can, much less looking at my "neighbors" throwing stuff in the floor and leaving it.
I still don't get why the majority of the critics are saying it is the best movie all year. Most of the families I have known who seen it this last weekend agree that it lacked and the story was weak. Oh well, different strokes for differet folks.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 06:42 pm (UTC)Refused to read your full review of Wall-E, as I hope to see it this weekend, but was happy to skip to the end and see the 8/10 rating. Considering all the hype, I was starting to wonder if my expectations were getting too high, and now it's looking like it's safe to have a high bar (though not a bar of perfection). I totally can't wait to see it.
Out of curiosity, did you simply notice a lack of dangling tooth? Or did you find the fallen one? I don't know why, but I think fallen cats teeth are too cool for words - probably because you don't usually see them.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 06:52 pm (UTC)Out of curiosity, did you simply notice a lack of dangling tooth? Or did you find the fallen one?
No, we haven't found the missing tooth. He may have swallowed it. But we are looking.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 07:04 pm (UTC)He's such a fastidious freak that if he noticed it fall out, he probably ate it anyway.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 06:45 pm (UTC)Sixth
Date: 2008-07-03 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 07:33 pm (UTC)Number Six
Date: 2008-07-03 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 08:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 10:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-03 11:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 01:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 04:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 08:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 10:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 04:09 pm (UTC)I liked the anti-consumerism mentality of the Axiom section of the movie(though it comes across as kind of funny, considering all the Apple references - EVE was even designed by Jon Ive, the designer of the iMac and the iPod - and the insane amount of Wall-E merchandise there is), and I took the big pink grubs as a commentary on the state of obesity in the world today.
I also loved the little vignettes during the credits that showed how man and robot worked together to recover the planet. The impressionist painting of Wall-E and EVE was adorable.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 04:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-04 05:26 pm (UTC)1. If the humans just floated around in their chairs all day and were so hypnotized by the screens in front of their faces that they weren't even looking at each other when they spoke, were did the babies come from?
2. If you're pressed up against the wall of a spaceship that's rolled over onto its side and 300+ lb people are piling up on top of you, you're going to be squashed or at least suffocated.
Overall, while the beginning was beautiful and engaging, the rest of the film just fueled my misanthropic tendencies.