Summer Art Spree

  As pretentious as it might sound, I don't think it's enough to CREATE art, you've got to share it. Even if it's a short story or a diary entry you're embarrassed of. A doodle in your notebook or a gem of a quote you thought of. Not enough to make magic, you've got to put it to use.

  In a way, I think that's why I love quotes. They're little snippets of art and wisdom usually summed up in a sentence or two. This helps in the remembering. Unless you're me, with chalk on a sidewalk, and can't recall one good quote to save your life. If you're me, you'll remember the quotes as soon as you get home and the chalk is out of your hands and the sidewalk resting miles away.

  Quotes are like slices of an elaborate wedding cake: easy to hand out and always delicious. But the masterpiece from which the quote was born is the entirety of the cake: layered, gorgeous, and intricate.

  I'm never seen anyone over the age of 35 writing on a sidewalk with chalk and I hope that changes soon. More people need to share art. Lend your friend an album, a book, watch movies with them, share quotes and stories and then write them on the sidewalk for all to see.

  We live in a world of roughly 7 Billion people. For world peace to even be fathomable, we've got to not only BE happy, we've got to share it with our neighbors.

The Amazing Spider-Man (Review)

This is how a Spider-Man film was meant to be. The casting is perfect and the director, Marc Webb (who also directed 500 Days of Summer), could not be more spot-on in Spidey's High-School-Nerd-Turned-Superhero tale. Seriously, I am giddy for this film to exist and can not wait for everyone to watch it.

  Take it as my opinion- reviews are, after all, not much more -but as an avid comic reader and someone who has never left the Spider-Man fan bandwagon, even when The Avengers and Batman where so much more popular, I I know my stuff. And so does this film. It's not perfect, but it's pretty, emotionally sound, and best of all: funny.

  My main problem with the original trilogy- starring Tobey Maguire, James Franco and Kristen Dunst -cemented in that not only did the actors not LOOK like High School students, they didn't really ACT like them either. The Amazing Spider-Man fixes that problem from the get go. Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone- who still look too old to be in High School, but I'll excuse that -behave just like any teenagers would. When he first gets his powers, Peter has WAY too much fun covering criminals in artificial webbing, cracking witty one-liners all the way. Gwen and Peter seem like the couple everyone in High School wants to be, and their mushy-gushy glances into each other's eyes are highly believable. Not surprisingly, Andrew and Emma are a real-life couple. Good for them. When the film ends their relationship is as much a dynamic duo as any superhero team and no one misses Mary Jane, because Gwen was the original, and she's the main reason Spidey loves being Spidey. This film has that on lock.

   What it DOESN'T have on lock is the villain. My favorite Spider-Man film before this one was Spider-Man 2 (2004), where Alfred Molina portrayed Doctor Octopus. MJ and Peter were out of High School so I could buy them as people, Aunt May was given depth, and Doc Ock was a family man before he was a villain. That's a very important aspect to the Spidey story: Family is everything. Peter lost his parents, and later his Uncle, and in the end, taking care of people is all he really wants to do. So it helps when the Villain is someone more than just a MONSTER out for his own gain, but a troubled soul like Peter. In this film Lizard never gets the detail that we got with Doc Ock. Yes, they give us a back-story as to his relation with Peter's Father and his whole Arm Trauma, but it doesn't really matter because we KNOW he's the Villain and we couldn't care less how Gwen and Spidey handle him.

  Which is a shame because that's where this film shines above the Tobey Maguire-Sam Raimi trilogy: There's detail. More emphasis on human relation, less emphasis on Comic Book Special Effects. And Spider-Man is funny! Why he wasn't funny in the Tobey films is beyond me. Spidey's a teenager with superpowers, of course he's going to be cocky, and show offy, and pull out one-liners. That's what I love about this film. It gets Spider-Man.

   It premieres next Tuesday, July 3rd or Midnight-Monday for all you Teenagers who love Midnight Premieres. Go watch it, you owe it to Spidey.

  Worth Your Time and Money?: Yes. As funny and fun as The Avengers, with maybe not as MANY actors and thrills, but just enough to make it the best Spider-Man film yet. 

We Do This For Fun

    As much as we try to kid ourselves, saying we love Melville and Godard and Bergman, we didn't start loving Films because they are dark, or haunting, or provocative. 
    We got into them because they are fun.

The Good Films of 2011

Good movies in 2011: 

Drive Angry 
Drive 
Tyrannosaur 
Thor 
The King's Speech 
Hanna 
Fast Five 
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo 
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 
Hugo 
50/50 
The Iron Lady 
Rango 
Bridesmaids 
Hobo With A Shotgun 
The Tree of Life 
X-Men: First Class 
Rise of the Planet of the Apes 
Attack the Block 
Super 8 
The Muppets 
The Artist 
Shame 
Fright Night 
Don't Be Afraid of the Dark 
Moneyball 
The Skin I Live In 
Young Adult 
Captain America 
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol 

Summer Reading or The Best Sort of Discipline

     I just finished reading Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens.

Read it. It's fantastic and magical.

   One of my favorite bits about Summer is how it affords you time to do anything you'd like to. Sleep, read, eat a ton, sleep more, catch up on movies and television programs.
 
   But you can't just do it all Flotsam and Jetsam. The rewarding bit is when you tell yourself you'll work out every day, or read 4 books a month, and you ACTUALLY DO IT! That's when Summer is at its best, in my opinion. Doing the things you WANT to, and actually holding yourself to it.

Shame or Ineffable Pangs of Desire

   I saw this film with my Father, and while I had expected awkward tension (this film was basically hyped by the internet as "LOTS OF SEX SCENES AND MICHAEL FASSBENER'S PENIS: THE FILM"), the mutual viewing resulted in great inner dialogue with myself.

  My father didn't like the film, acknowledging the performances and cinematography as great, but said the "plot had no point" and I found that very sad. Excuse me while I try to work out exactly why that is in just one blog post.

  If you don't already know, the film features Michael Fassbender in the role of a sex addict. In my adolescents I've met plenty horny teenagers and read Judy Blume often, but it wasn't until I delved into Bret Easton Ellis, Jeffrey Eugenides, Chuck Palahniuk, and Jay McInerney that the subject of Sexual Obsession really dawned on me. There existed people who weren't only interested or amused by sex, as my classmates were, but were practically consumed by it. I didn't know these people, but they fascinated me.

  So when I heard that Steve McQueen (a director who is blazing a prominent path in Film) was teaming up with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan to create a film on the subject to say I was giddy would not be an exaggeration.


  The magic comes from the same seed as "Requiem for a Dream", "Lost in Translation", and "Blue Valentine". These films are concerned with showing sex or drugs or HUMAN EMOTION or maybe all three and they plan on doing it honestly. Isn't that wonderful? 


  Sometimes you just want something deeper than standard Hollywood popcorn fair. 


  What that means is no quick cuts, no snappy one liners, and a camera that maybe doesn't move much. A quiet soundtrack. Films that play like recollections of life, rather than fantasies of the imagination. There IS a point to the plot, and it rests in the emotions and ambitions of the siblings, in the feelings they can't express and wish they could. 


  But enough of that. Watch if for yourself, and get back to me. 

AM I Doing Summer Right? or What It Feels Like To Never Go To Parties

   A few years ago, as a High School freshman, I made a huge mistake. I started telling my parents everything. Ever since then, I have CONTINUED to be honest and open on what I'm thinking or feeling or doing, and I can't help but feel like this was a very poor decision on my part.

   Now, my only reference for ways of dealing with parents are television, movies, books, and my friends. None of which have been helpful. TV, Film, Lit., all of those contain conflicting views and opinions and would be silly for me to base myself off of anyway. My friends take the polar opposite of an approach to parents, when compared to me. They don't tell them ANYTHING.

  Wait wait, what does this have to do with doing summer right? Well I'm 17 and I've never gotten drunk or high and it seems to me that those are two things very crucial to teenage summers.

  But I could never just GO to a party, come back, and lie to my parents. I mean, I could, but I would suck at it.

  Oh wellllllllll.

Also!

    "The Strokes- Is This It?" reminds me of Junior High crushes.

I don't know why.

The Way Summer Should Be or Why I Write This Blog

   Those two things in the title may not seem related but they most definitely are.
   1) I have never once felt like I did summer "right". I have always felt like I royally sucked at summer-ing it up.
   2) I never feel like I'm "writing" right, either. My writing sounds like my talking and I can't decipher if that's a good thing or a crutch or WHAT.
   So anyway, here I am writing a blog that no one reads.
   HELLO, NO ONE, HOW ARE YOU TODAY?

   And No one will respond.

   But this Summer I've decided to not CARE. I'm not itching to go out with friends, nor am I planting myself in my bed. I just AM. Whatever comes to mind, I do. And well, that's my writing. I'm not subscribing to rules anymore, I just AM.
  I started this Blog as a way to write reviews and organize my thoughts on Film, but I might as well use it to write ANYTHING and organize my thoughts on EVERYTHING.

  I'm really into capitalized letters today, huh?

  If you read this Blog I would like to talk to you. Leave me a comment. Email me. Whatevs. I'm not lonely, but neither are you. Both of us crave stimulation. If we didn't , we wouldn't be on blogspot.

  There's this mixtape that's a mashup of Neutral Milk Hotel and hip-hop, it's called In My G4 Over The Sea. I put it on my boombox, took the boombox outside, then played Soccer with my little brother for and hour.

   This is Summer. This is writing. Pedants can suck it.