I was in the mood for a movie last night, so I sto…
I was in the mood for a movie last night, so I stopped off at the Estrogen Mall on my way home from work and bought a ticket to see Solaris. I thought, hey, George Cloony, spaceships, wierd planet, sci-fi…how bad can it be?
Answer: Jaysus. I can’t remember the last time I’ve walked out on a movie after laying down good money to see it. I was the only one in the theater; I even tried to take a nap, but after an hour of watching George tip-toeing around a space station designed to look like the inside of a Mac computer inhabited by people with a strong fear of that little crust that develops on ketchup caps, I couldn’t take it anymore. I walked out and told the attendent they could turn off the projector, as no-one was watching the film any more. I should have waited the extra hour and gone to see The Core instead. I went and rented Simone, which is not a great movie itself (he’s still useing 5.25 floppies?), but it seemed a good sight better after watching an hour of Solaris. It made me realize that, no matter how deeply symbolic you feel your film is going to be, all of that means precisely bollocks when it comes to the actual entertainment of other people. Whenever you feel I’m getting too philosophical about the artsy nuances of film, just bring up Solaris; that should cure me instantly.
There’s a nifty picture of my friend Azuma in today’s Taipei Times. In the picture he’s performing a “force push” maneuver while surrounded by battle droids who are remarkably indifferent to his presence. Perhaps they’re asking him where he got those cool shades. Dean and I are planning to see Azuma and others at the event tomorrow afternoon, as I said before, and we’ll be seeing Azuma again that night at the Urban Nomad screening of Alphadogah. If last year’s event is anything to go by, a couple of people might look up from their conversations and watch it for a couple of seconds or until they realize how silly it is, whichever comes first.
I’ll be looking for thugs, myself. No, not for dating, although I’m not averse to the idea. I’m actually looking to fill about four roles in Episode IV of Lady X, an older Chinese man, a head thug and two mini-thugs. I’d get Sho and Little P to play the mini-thugs if I thought I could depend on either of them to show up. But we’ll see if I can’t find some connections at the festival.
I was going to go location-scouting again this afternoon but a surprise pop translation job has kept me in the office far longer than I’d planned. I did get a call from a radio station in Tainan of all places, requesting a phone interview next Wednesday. Odd. There’s supposed to be a review of the damn book in a prominent Chinese literary journal out today; we’ll see if that makes any kind of prominent Chinese literary splash in the prominent Chinese literary pond.
Speaking of splashes, does anyone know why streakers are all white? Is is genetic? Or cultural? There’s a master’s thesis in there somewhere, I’m sure of it.
It’s coming up on this site’s second birthday -well, it’s third if you count the original one. I really should do something, but I can’t figure out what. Any suggestions?
