Culture Makes Me Feel Things

I know we don’t post on here anymore but I have a lot of half-written things from the last...

jrnny — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 12:59:31 -0500

I know we don’t post on here anymore but I have a lot of half-written things from the last four months about movie violence and Silver Linings Playbook and Sufjan Christmas music and if you close your eyes real tight you can probably read them all in their finished versions.

The Dark Knight Makes Me Rise

postbromanticism — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 10:58:28 -0400

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS PLEASE DON’T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE DARK KNIGHT RISES PLEASE DON’T I’M GOING TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT IT DON’T LET ME SPOIL IT FOR YOU PLEASE <3 <3 <3

Hi I’m Alex and culture makes me feel things, too! Between ages 4 and 10 I dressed up like Batman all day every day. And if Roberta said I couldn’t bring my cape to Olive Garden, the napkins sufficed. Still, wearing the cape and screaming I’M BATMAN at the waiters and waitresses felt appropriate. Since then, I’ve stopped frequenting Olive Garden (nothing against those breadsticks) and I only wear my cape when it seems ironic enough to be funny. But Batman hasn’t left me.

I was young and silly enough to buy all the Batman Forever and Batman and Robin action figures, placemats, and horribly uncomfortable bed linen, either because those movies and I shared a similar 8 year-old maturity level, or because batnipples caused irrevocable sexual confusion. Either way, our love affair sustained.

Then Batman Begins came out and it was as if Batman and I shared a sort of right of passage as boys to men. It was released in the same year as my Bar Mitzvah, after all. I wasn’t quite ready to understand what that movie meant to me until this past Friday when I saw The Dark Knight Rises and started to cry. No, I didn’t cry when Alfred cried, and no, I didn’t cry at Bruce Wayne’s faux-funeral. I cried at that last image of Batman’s face, the moment before the nuke goes off, the moment I knew would be, for the sake of the myth that has been oh so brilliantly sculpted by Nolan, the last time I see Batman, no matter if (and when) I watch that movie four hundred more times.

But how the hell did Christopher Nolan make me feel like that would be the last time I ever see Batman, my childhood idol, my constant friend, the only man who (as of yet) has been able to make me shiver and smile all at once? I think the answer is more than personal; it’s sort of logical. What Christopher Nolan has given us, the fans of Batman since we were old enough to read Robin’s holy exclamations, is a total and finished myth. He has established a real hero in an unreal world, stirred that hero to his core, destroyed that hero physically, and built him up again to save us from evil, sacrificed him for the sake of his own fulfillment, and somehow still managed to let him live, all while constantly asking us why and how. He’s given us genre fiction and literary fiction in one beautifully expensive package, the sort you can munch your tear-stained popcorn along to, and that’s a rare thing.

I really do respect other critics’ opinions of this movie; in fact, I think there are flaws, and perhaps it’s the most fitting homage to Heath Ledger that the third film suffers without him. But what is so inarguable to me, what is so excruciatingly clear, is that Christopher Nolan has given us, the fans of Batman, the most satisfying reasons how he exists and why he’ll never die.

Batman may always be the man who never leaves me, and I’m so happy with that. I welcome all coming incarnations of the dark knight because, whether we realize it yet or not, his stories are just as important as Hercules’. But what we may never see again is a story as satisfying and conclusive as Nolan’s, so I thank him for respecting my geekery, my childhood obsession, and my favorite modern myth.

Update on (Partial) Summertime Cultural Intake By Jenny On Wisdom-Tooth-Extraction Drugs

jrnny — Tue, 17 Jul 2012 00:54:00 -0400

Hi this is Jenny. I wanted to do a general, Chelly-style update on what I am spending my summer on, culture-wise because I am not a should’ve-already-seen-this-movie-watching robot.

Via Netflix:

I began the summer by finishing The IT Crowd, which I liked a lot aside the from distracting/detracting laugh track.
And then I went through Snuff Box in one day— a six-episode sketch comedy series featuring IT Crowd’s Matt Berry and his American friend Rich Fulcher working as a hangman and a hangman’s assistant, respectively. Some sketches are revisited each episode—like Matt yelling “Fuck you!” at ladies with boyfriends and six unique reimaginings of the series’s awesome theme song—and then some are more singular while still self-referential for the series. Snuff Box also comes with a lot of time travel and whiskey and pleasure (pronounced plaizzzyurrrre) and a lot of arbitrary unsyncing of voices in a way that makes me just uncomfortable enough to be tv-happy.
Workaholics is probably my favorite new (for me) television I have found (been introduced to). It’s cool to see a workplace comedy that does not feel stale or overworked, and I like the characters so much. Also like: the slightly ‘off’ cultural references, i.e. Blake’s interest in getting a Claudograph (Jean Claude Van Damme’s autograph), Ders’s “I saw Tony Shaloub at the airport, didn’t even mention Monk—just winked”, the entire gang’s interest in meeting All That’s Lori Beth Denberg
I’m on episode 3 of Friday Night Lights , and although I am not always as eager to watch it as some other shows, I like how it introduces emotional investment in its characters and Texas town right from the start. Also like: those beautiful sweeping shots of beautiful Dillon, TX, and those Explosions in the Sky songs they play during those parts.
The In-Betweeners , which I am not sure how I feel about but often it is pretty funny. It’s also got this guy (not Jon Hamm)!
Fruits Basket is the first anime I have ever watched that is not Totally Spies and I am so into it/ have watched seven episodes today with ice ace-bandaged to my face like I am some sort of mumps patient. I am super impressed with the show, and it is really funny while also educational about the Chinese zodiac, so, like.

On Real-Life Television:
After finishing up with Mad Men and Girls (wait, that was this summer?), I’ve since been watching…

Comedy Bang Bang, which is my other favorite (actually) new (to television) show this summer. I like it because of my like for every single guest that is on the show (also obviously host Scott Aukerman and bandleader Reggie Watts). I especially like watching Aukerman try to pin down what kind of comedy they do on their show (“random?” “off-kilter?”) and also every moment where it turns into something that is not a late-night talk show anymore.
Louie, which is self-explanatory because the show itself is one of my favorite things, the kind of comedy that I solemnly stare at until my dad comes in and asks “Why aren’t you laughing, it’s supposed to be funny” and then I just let my eyes get big and shake my head slowly and say “No, it is much more than that”, but also if that is not enough for you then understand how Louis CK is revolutionizing standup special recordings and ticket sales and is actually just the best person.
Workaholics — again! because season 3 is on Comedy Central right now.
Breaking Bad!!!!!! Which is again self-explanatory!! Or like if it’s not.. Also it came back yesterday!! MAgnEts, bitch!!!!

And then also Books exist and I read them:

I got to page 250 of James Joyce’s Ulysses before realizing that I could probably dedicate my time to something I liked better and maybe one day / maybe not really ever :(
David Boring was the first thing I read post-Ulysses and it was perfect, which is what I have come to expect from Daniel Clowes so yes.
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, which also was in that comfort zone called ‘Books by my Favorite Authors,’ but sometimes that is okay when your favorite authors are the best. Also being nice is nice, as are volunteer fire departments, and do I spy Kilgore Trout because yes.
Catch-22 is also long and I am very slow at reading it, but I love it and just about every idea that comes out of it in many ways that are different from all my other bookloves, and I am excited to continue reading until I have finished. Related: Now I get what a Catch-22 is!
Finally, I have been reading Chris Hardwick’s ‘self-help for nerds’ book The Nerdist Way as a sometimes-break from Catch-22. It is Hardwick-admittedly corny, but also something I like because of my interest in Nerdist podcasts, redefining the word “nerd” for a new generation, and trying to organize things, take for example this list of cultural intake.

I Could Be Your Friend-LOST Episodes 9/10

anattractiveweird — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 12:39:15 -0400

This week on Lost, I watched Solitary and Raised By Another! I’m really excited because I feel like I’m finally making headway on this show and also I’m getting into some stuff that I remember from seeing a season one summary show before the second season premiered. Also I’m almost halfway through the first season. ^_^

Solitary

Of course after I write in a post that I don’t like Sayid, the next episode is about him. Initially I was annoyed by this BUT I actually ended up liking this episode a lot!

Sayid’s flash backs were interesting and it was cool I guess to find out who that chick was but y’all I am so tired of these torture scenes! Also I found it very exciting that we get to meet another person on the island AND it’s the french chick AND she’s bat ish crazy! Also this is the first time we hear about “the others,” NEATO.

Hurley is officially the sweetest person ever! And the whole golfing bit was adorable. But maybe someone should pay more attention to Walt???

Finally, the Ethan guy is scary and he reminds me of Ethan from Buffy AKA probably a bad guy and also another bad guy from Buffy (more specifically like the crazy priest played by Nathan Fillion).

Raised By Another

This episode opens with a really scary nightmare with Claire, and the whole episode is about her and her unborn child. In the flashbacks she visits a psychic who tells her that only she can raise the child, even though she wants to give it up for adoption. Eventually the psychic convinces her to keep it, only to tell her that actually there is a couple in LA who wants the baby and she should fly there BUT it has to be on a specific flight (very specifically this one). (Suspicious much)? Leading Charlie and Claire to believe that the psychic knew about the flight crashing all along and this was his way of getting her to raise the baby.

This is one of my favorite episodes so far. Locke in the nightmare is super ominous and I really appreciate that in someone. The episode also dealt with the idea of fate AKA Claire is SUPPOSED to be on this island and/or Divine Intervention??? Also her creepy nightmares reminded me of The Stand which as you know I recently read because the pregnant girl in that (Fran) has nightmares about Evil harming her child.

In other news, Sayid made it back to camp (le sigh), and told Jack about how “We are not alone.”

Which brings us to: Hurley’s Census. I remember this plot twist from the season one wrap up show thing and I’ve been looking forward to getting to it in real time and now it’s finally here HOORAY. I’m not surprised that Ethan is Not Of This Group.

In conclusion, I really appreciate Claire asking the original prospective adoptive parents if they could sing Catch a Falling Star to the baby because that’s also in *Princess Diaries* and Love Actually.

PS When I went looking for that Princess Diaries video there was a Lost spoiler as a top comment IS NOTHING SACRED!?

I Should Have Already Seen this Movie: #6- MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO

jrnny — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 10:54:26 -0400

Why I should have already seen Totoro:

One of my best friends is very into Asian culture and she inspires me to be ~*totemo kawaii!!*~ but then HOW CAN I BE without having seen this
Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are things (entities?) that I consider to be important, and yet when there was a showcase of 35mm Studio Ghibli reprints/etc at IFC like two months ago I did not see a single film, and so when the same showcase came to Gene Siskel I really wanted to see something.
Totoro stuffed animals
And also not just stuffed animals, pop culture’s general recognition of Totoro, see for example South Park, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Toy Story 3, This Adventure Time Picture I Always See On Tumblr…

THE PREMISE:

Two young girls and their dad move into a supposedly haunted house, the younger girl finds a magical troll, and her sister and dad are very encouraging and want to meet him. Meanwhile their mom is sick in the hospital and it rains sometimes.

MY FEELINGS:

Besides wanting to be Satsuki because she has short hair and a really cute outfit and makes bentos really well (SEE EVERYTHING I JUST MENTIONED IN THIS PIC), I liked the rest of the movie as well.

I get that all of Miyazaki’s movies require suspension of disbelief—the world is not actually personified lamp posts and fishes don’t eat ham—but I couldn’t tell if the dad’s belief in the supernatural was a component of the movie’s fantastical elements or if other cultures just believe in ghosts and trolls more than us. Or if he was just being a dad and therefore pretending to listen to and believe his children. Whichever reason it is, he lets his four-year-old daughter Mei spend time in some hidden part of the forest with a troll who is actually kind of terrifying.

I was struck by how scary the movie could be. Maybe it’s because I was mostly familiar with Totoro as an adorable stuffed animal, but his growls and groans were frightening. Without that sense of fear the movie would have been a little lacking though anyways. I welcomed that fear with open arms the same way that Mei welcomes Totoro. On my unwritten list of stories that I like I always include “ones that make me sad but are still comforting” and Totoro comes pretty close to this with “ones that scare me a little but are still comforting”.

Technically, I don’t think Totoro ever actually does anything cute in this movie, he mostly just mysteriously shows up places—and yeah, okay, I guess the umbrella thing is super adorable. And I guess being driven by Catbus is just about the cutest passive verb phrase you can participate in *cue ridiculous Catbus sound effect*. I was glad to see this movie though and expand upon my understanding of/appreciation for a stuffed animal that does not belong to me.

Now if only they would make a movie explaining what toys did when we are not looking, we’d be set.

Distracted-What I've Been Watching on Netflix #2

anattractiveweird — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 10:15:01 -0400

OMG I’M SO SORRY TO NEGLECT THIS BLOG FOREVER.

I’ve been watching a lot of stuff on Netflix and ***real TV*** now that I’m back at home and also I’ve been reading some!

On Netflix:

Sister Wives-the first two seasons. I know what you’re thinking. Judge me all you want. I deserve it, but I also really like this show!

Battlestar Galactica: RLW and I started watching this and we just finished episode 8 of the first season. This show is totally living up to all the hype I’ve heard about it!

The Stand: I’m about halfway through this three part miniseries based on the Stephen King novel (I read it right when I got back to WA-so good). It has Rob Lowe and I am in love with him.

On TV:

Amish Out of Order: guys this is a National Geographic show so it is seriously legitimate reality TV. I’ve learned a lot about the ex-amish community and I’ve really enjoyed it (shout out to Little Blue for recommending it).

Legend of Korra: I’ve actually been watching this online but guys it is SO good. I have a lot of feelings about this show so maybe stay tuned for a season wrap up???

Bunheads: I was pretty on the fence about watching this before it premiered, but it really has ended up being a lovely summer show. I love all the relationships and it has a sweetness that seems to be missing from television lately.

And of course Teen Mom, Pretty Little Liars, and all the other usuals.

As far as reading goes, like I mentioned earlier, I’ve read The Stand which was fantastic! I also enjoyed Moloka’i which is a book about leprosy and I really like things about leprosy. And I just started Infinite Jest.

I'm Tied to a Tree in a Jungle of Mystery

anattractiveweird — Thu, 05 Jul 2012 15:14:00 -0400

This is me being embarrassed by my inexcusable lack of writing/posting for the last three months or so. BUT GUESS WHAT. I’m watching Lost again. So what we have here is a Lost post which will soon be followed by a post outlining other stuff I’ve been watching!

This time on Chelly’s Lost Adventure, I watched The Moth and Confidence Man.

The Moth

So the survivors are divided into their two camps, some on the beach and some by the caves. In this episode Locke gives Charlie the ol’ drug speech and tells him that he can ask for his drugs three times. The first two times, Locke will refuse to give them to him, but on the third time, if Charlie really wants them, he can have them. Charlie asks for them twice but then silly Jack gets trapped in a collapsed cave (whoops guess they aren’t so safe) (also when you google ‘Lost Jack in Cave’ this comes up) and Charlie ends up going in to rescue him.

We learn a lot about Charlie in this episode and boy, does he have lumps on the inside! He asks for his drugs a THIRD time but then it’s okay cause he’s all sweaty and throws his drugs in the fire. I am very enticed by his relationship with his brother and the whole band situation. Also in general I just really feel for Charlie.

Oh also there is some ish going on with Sayid and the transmitter and he gets hit in the head at the end of the episode.

Confidence Man

In this episode Sawyer is accused of hoarding Shannon’s asthma medication, Sayid attempts to torture the information out of him and eventually Sawyer agrees to tell Kate where he hid the medicine, as long as she kisses him. **Um I’m just saying that Kate’s hesitation about this is ridiculous-have you seen Sawyer?!** So she does and COME TO FIND OUT Sawyer doesn’t have the asthma medicine.

Meanwhile, in the caves, Sun crushes some plants together (Eucalyptus) and rubs it on Shannon and it helps!

In the flashbacks we learn that Sawyer was a con man and in present day we learn that his family was destroyed by a con man named Sawyer and Sawyer assumed that man’s name (Sawyer isn’t Sawyer).

I really like Sawyer but this episode was hard to watch because I really don’t like con men (who does, amirite) and also the torture seen featured my biggest fear ever AKA stuff being shoved under fingernails. Also Sayid tells Kate he is going to leave and map out the island, I hope this is true because he is driving me crazy! And finally, my love for Hurley grows more and more with each episode.

I Should Have Already Seen this Movie: #5- Dazed And Confused

jrnny — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:38:00 -0400

Sometimes I forget I wrote 75% of a blog post and then I spend a weekend on the west coast listening to Oldies Radio in Chelly’s car and then I remember to finish my blog post.

Why I should have already seen Dazed and Confused:

In a situation similar to my Fight Club situation, I know Matthew McConaughey as the male lead in The Wedding Planner (brown M&Ms! …or something) (and now Uncle Sam! or something), and therefore am not really into it when he shows up in Eastbound And Down because I’m like “What’s this Prettyface doing here”
In a situation similar to the above situation, I’m embarrassed that out of all Richard Linklater’s films, I have only seen School of Rock (*celloooo you have a [girl who played the] bass [went to high school with me for like a year lol]), and am highlighting the mental note I have to watch Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly
From the Wikipedia “Legacy” section: Entertainment Weekly ranked DaC #17 on “Top 50 Cult Films” and #6 on “Cult 25: The Essential Left-Field Movie Hits Since ‘83”. Quentin Tarantino included it in his top 12 films on a Sight & Sound poll.
I cut together my understanding of being young in the 1970’s from that one picture of my mom with long, straight hair in her Cat Stevens shirt combined with movies like Dazed and Confused, so, like, this is me learning lessons.

THE PREMISE:

It’s the first night of summer and the new high school seniors want to beat up the new freshmen, but also hang out with them if they are cool! Also Pink doesn’t want to sign a stupid contract, because he wants to be able to do drugs.

MY FEELINGS:

There are only three things I can ever remember my mom turning off as we were watching them together. The first is an episode of classic Adam West Batman, which she thought was ridiculous and begged me to switch it to The Simpsons. The second is the pilot of Weeds, which we got from Blockbuster together and watched half of before she decided she didn’t want me watching anymore. The third is Dazed and Confused, which my brother and I were watching on television when Mom came in, saw Parker Posey yelling “Bitches!”/”Sluts!” at a bunch of girls sucking on pacifiers, and asked if this was really appropriate for him to be showing me.

So maybe some of that assumed “inappropriateness” had stuck around when I went to see Dazed and Confused with Caitlin the other day (It was second in a double feature with Wet Hot American Summer! A fantastic, slightly more satisfactory pairing than the Zombieland/Shaun of the Dead double feature we saw last month.) The hazing stuff still freaked me out—and luckily not something I have ever experienced because I was a 2000’s Catholic high school-that-was-far-from-my-house teenager.

After the hazing parts, though, I got pretty into the movie. It had a pretty sick ensemble cast that clearly all contributed to the movie (I’m looking at you, Mark from RENT), featured an awesome ~~character~~ ~~haircut~~ guy that is Matthew McConaughey, conveyed a very “slice of life” story that is not very easy for me to make comments about it because I want to be like honestly just watch it but that is not how blogging works. A lot of what I’ve read about this film comments on how it is a pop culture anthropology lesson, and although I know it is life-to-a-T for many grown-ups (and life-to-a-junior-not-completely-but-sorta-t for suburban kids my age), for me Dazed and Confused was a window into a situation unfamiliar to me, with reflections of familiarity coming through at the I-don’t-know-where-this-metaphor-is-going. I came, I saw, I learned, I hung out in a place with air conditioning for four hours (it is so HOT outside, y’know? because SUMMER), I got to watch the movie with not too many interruptions besides everyone’s “Woot”s when Matthew McConaughey entered the picture, I got MM and Bradley Cooper confused for at least a couple hot seconds because anything goes at summertime double features guys!

Other things I liked: when everyone listened to “Low Rider” and Caitlin leaned over to whisper something about George Lopez in my ear, the way that MM says he likes redheads, the fact that I pseudo-‘get’ this movie now and wouldn’t have at the beginning of high school (even thought this movie is about the beginning of high school!) so maybe it is for the best that Mom stopped me from watching it back then, the fact that BAM I just made the end of this post sorta touching and cute so I am done, FIN

I Should Have Already Seen this Movie: #4- NETWORK

jrnny — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 14:14:00 -0400

Returning from an absence of blogging because summer is for watching movies that I have not seen before, like today I watched Network (on the Netflix)!!!!

Why I should have already seen Network:

Things Dad said as he walked intermittently through the living room where I was watching (all very accurate): This is one of the best movies ever made, Put a computer and a newer-looking telephone on the desk and this movie could have been made yesterday, This movie was made before cable television so before any of this crap was a real thing.
But seriously, this movie addresses a whole lot of things that didn’t exist yet—things that later turned up in real life in the form of Jerry Springer, Long Island Medium, and a million other programs—which is incredible and terrifying and incredibly terrifying
I live in New York, which is not the same as 70’s New York, so I build a lot of my understanding of 70’s New York based on what I see in dramas like Taxi Driver and also Woody Allen movies
This year especially I have finally begun to understand networks and ratings
“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore”—aka the Network rant—is important in society (or at least the hallways of society that I frequent), in Aaron Sorkin’s programming (hey, Newsroom premieres tonight!) and also on jumbotrons at sporting events. Also in conversations with Dad.

THE PREMISE:

In the midst of the 1976 economic recession and ratings decline, soon-to-be-retired news anchor Howard Beale rants inappropriately on the air, which horrifies everyone until a jump in ratings inspires the network to take advantage of his insanity by giving him his own show specifically for apocalyptic rants. Which works until he takes it too far.

MY FEELINGS:

As (probably) per usual, Dad was right. I went into this movie with medium-high expectations (medium only because I was sleepy, and this movie’s kinda long), and I was intensely satisfied.

One thing I found interesting was the experience of watching a movie where you are familiar with just one part. Every instance that Beale was on the air, I was expecting to see “the Network rant”, but instead got little bits leading up to a bigger moment. When THE rant actually happened, I… cried. The context of the whole movie combined with the intensity of the moment (watching people scream out their windows is intense!) produced wells of tears in my eyeball pockets and I tried not to look at my dad because I was embarassed. Shortly after this scene, you see the same kinds of people who were just yelling out their windows moved to the studio audience, screaming the same “I’m mad as hell” but with completely vacant looks on their faces. Moments like this made Network awesomely funny while also heartrending and upsetting—I think I’m just describing satire. I think Network is one of the best, most on-the-nose satires I’ve ever seen.

At first I felt like head-of-Programming Diana’s romance with fired-head-of-News Max was kind of out of place, but then it yielded some of the funniest parts of the movie. In one scene, Diana talks about programming throughout the entirety of her and Max having sex, finishing as she lays her head on his chest, whispering “What about a homosexual soap opera—Dykes…” Her pseudo-robotic I-cannot-love-I-can-only-program-television made me laugh while also making me nervous about my ability to connect to humankind. Which was okay because everyone knows THE BEST LAUGHS ARE NERVOUS LAUGHS.

Diana also pitches and implements the Mao-Tse Sung Hour, a docudrama series following a radical terrorist group called the Ecumenical Liberation Army (based on the real-life Symbionese Liberation Army that operated in the 70’s) which ends up being one of the most upsetting and hilarious (upsettingly hilarious? I’m just gonna keep doing this with adjectives) subplots in the movie. Once again, I think I’m just describing the concept of satire, but moments like the afro’d Communist lady telling terrorist leader Ahmed Khan “They gonna make a TV Star outta you, just like Archie Bunker! You gonna be a household word” and twenty minutes later Khan and other terrorists sitting in a circle with network executives as they read through contracts—I liked these parts because they made me laugh so hard, despite having a serious aesthetic—not just deadpan, almost a step further than deadpan.

Any complaints I had with the movie—that Diana and Max’s romance was unnecessary, or that I couldn’t see how the terrorist reality series fit in with the main plot—were put to rest by the end of the movie as I once again found my eyes pouring out pails of water. I really liked Network.

I Should Have Already Seen this Movie: #3- FIGHT CLUB

jrnny — Thu, 24 May 2012 23:31:00 -0400

Hi, how are you I haven’t talked to y’all in so lo—GUYS I WATCHED FIGHT CLUB FOR THE 1ST TIME/ LIKE TWO WEEKS AGO/ THIS IS SOMETHING.

Why I should have already seen Fight Club:

I am almost not a teenager anymore so why haven’t I seen it already?
When I say that I haven’t seen Fight Club, a lot of people tell me that they want to watch me watch it so they can see my initial reaction.
To me Edward Norton = The Illusionist/ the guy who I never saw play the Hulk, and Brad Pitt = a bunch of sort of silly roles / that one lady’s fiancé, and Helena Bonham Carter = mismatched shoes. I know that to everyone else these actors are “badass” or “absurdly talented” or “etc.” and have long felt out of this loop.
ALL of the references and ALL of the Tumblr posts and ALL of life.
But actually things that reference Fight Club: WoW, Neopets, things that are neither WoW nor Neopets
I have no reference point on Chuck Palahniuk at all despite the fact that I know he is important and I know that a movie is not the best way to familiarize yourself with a book-writer but still (but still)
I like the Pixies

THE PREMISE:

A nameless blue-collar guy discovers a cure for his insomnia through physical violence and starts an underground Fight Club with a stranger. (Hijinx ensue!)

MY FEELINGS:

As a whole, I liked the movie. Somewhere in the middle of it, I decided that this must be the edgier Shawshank Redemption* or something. Which is to say I can’t imagine anyone straight-up saying they dislike Fight Club. It seems that everyone I’ve met—everyone who watched it with me, talked to me about it before I watched, or listened to me talk about it after I watched—either likes the movie a whole lot or thinks it’s a pretty okay thing. Which is interesting—I get that it was a controversial movie in 1999 and that there are some messed up situations of kids trying to emulate the movie. Also, it’s about an underground Fight Club.

I think a lot of why people like it has to do with the acting. Brad Pitt was good but I found his outfits distracting, Helena Bonham Carter was obvs intense, and Ed Norton was soo good and I really like Ed Norton now and yeah that’s it.

SPOILERS AHEAD, I guess… as I watched the movie, I came up with my idea of the movie’s “moral”. And then two weeks happened, and I forgot what that moral I came up with was—I think it was something vague, like “Don’t be boring, and let out your anger/ God doesn’t really love you“—I didn’t completely get it at the time. But I mention this because at the point halfway through the movie when I noticed the narrator was just repeating a lot of things that Tyler said and I asked if Tyler was just part of the narrator’s imagination and Beth and Ray just pretended to ignore me even though I was pretty correct, I wondered what becomes of the moral (or “theme” as regular adults probably call it). I think it just stays the same but is just amplified, because it is not the narrator’s acquaintance giving him life lessons but rather it is himself. On a personal level, though, I wasn’t sure that the theme was something I was into (because I want to be a special snowflake, gosh darn it!) and so I kind of molded it like playdoh according to my own needs, made it into a “Express yourself [through violence?]!” lesson, but moreso a “Consume [sometimes violent] pop culture” lesson.

Idk. I’m glad I watched it.

*Now I am imagining that maybe Morgan Freeman is just a figment of Tim Robbins’ imagination and he really escapes from jail all on his own and I don’t remember how that movie ends but do they play the Pixies at the end of it?

PS:

As a final note, if nothing else, this.

WE FEEL THINGS

anattractiveweird — Sat, 19 May 2012 22:47:00 -0400

Yesterday news broke about Dan Harmon being replaced as show runner on Community. Before this post starts, I quickly want to rehash one of the reasons this blarg exists. CMMFT was conceived to alleviate a problem that both Jrnny and I have; we suck at talking about our feelings in relation to film and television. So sometimes this blog is about reviewing things. Sometimes it is about news, and sometimes it is about our feelings. This post is about our feelings.

JRNNY HERE: I tweeted something @DanHarmon when I heard, told him that Community “made me love television”. While tweeting is probably not the most valid form of emotion-sharing, I try to mean what I say. Other shows made me like television—Community made me love it. Over the course of three years, Community became more than just a show for my eyeballs to watch. It became—feel free to murder me for saying this— a COMMUNITY. I watch the show with people talk about the show with people go on the internet and see what a ton of people are saying/GIF-ing/spurting out of their mouth-holes in regards to this thing that Dan Harmon created and showran.

Community has a singular and unique voice that I became so attached to that I actively searched out ways to learn about this voice (a man they call “Dan Harmon”)—via his twitter, his tumblr, podcasts where he talked about video games… True/possibly embarrassing progression of events—I listened to a podcast where Dan Harmon talked about Skyrim and Arkham City, realized that maybe video games are a legitimate part of pop culture, took an art-history-survey-ish class called Games 101, actually know/care about games a lot now. In the upcoming semesters I intend to take more television and games courses, and I am planning on including them in the concentration I am building at my goofy school— so kind of #TYDH, #THANKYOUALOT.

Obvious question is obvious: What will become of Community A.D. (“After Dan”) (that phrase is (c)Chelly). The answer is also fairly obvious—I have no idea. A show that a small community loved an insanely large amount got picked up for a truncated fourth season and moved to an inconvenient timeslot, and also lost two of its producers, the only remaining writer from season one, and its ~~creator~~ ~~original showrunner~~ soul? Things will happen. Results are unknown. Life will ~~maybe~~ go on. Haters gonna hate.

But what will become of what Dan Harmon created? No, not the television series, the (once again, feel free to murder) COMMUNITY. I suppose that If Community’s community’s minds are a collective Dreamatorium, #sixseasonsandamovie is something that exists in that space. In our alternate timeline, it’s not even that seasons continue being made and they put out a movie. It’s moreso just that this community that has been established continues to talk and to create and appreciate. I am astonished and pleased by what a television show managed to make me feel, and the community that formed around people who also felt things. I am thankful for this.

And hopefully Dan Harmon finds good work and can share it with us, and hopefully/maybe Season 4 won’t be shit.

——
ALSO guys stay tuned because this situation gives Chelly some feelings too / She’ll share them soon.

Distracted-What I'm Watching on Netflix Instead of Lost

anattractiveweird — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 15:00:30 -0400

Guys, gals, kittens, it’s Chelsea here. As you know, I’m supposed to watch two episodes of Lost every week. As you also know, I am really terrible at that. Mostly because whenever I log onto Netflix I get super distracted by all the other things I wanna watch. So I decided to start a series of posts (for real this time) about what other Netflix things are distracting me.

The Killing-a delightful show about a murdered girl and the many people involved in the attempt to solve the mystery behind her untimely demise. The show has been compared to Twin Peaks, yes it takes place in Washington, no it’s not weird enough.
Melancholia-This is a super recent addition to Netflix. I haven’t finished it yet. Also here is a picture of Kirsten Dunst with electricity fingers.
Bob’s Burgers-a surprisingly funny animated comedy that has a lot of fantastic voices included Kristen Schaal.
Angry Beavers-FLASHBACK. So happy they put this on instant watch. It still holds up.
The Dark Ages-an interesting History Channel special about the Dark Ages. Even more interesting is how low their budget must have been for the reenactments. Truly funny.
Dogtooth-Weird, with totally unsexy incest, but still an excellent movie that I HIGHLY recommend. Very weird, very beautiful to look at.

That’s all for now. Keep me Distracted! Send your suggestions! What are you watching on Netflix this week?

Do you know that I have my own flag?

jrnny — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:57:06 -0400

I am not a political-minded person. No matter how many times I try to make myself one by making NPR my browser’s homepage and forcing myself to play Sporcle World (is this related?) and pretending that my familiarity with Barack Obama’s hometown neighborhood means something, I am not a political-minded person.

Yet Veep is something I enjoy. Ditto for Armando Iannucci’s previous venture, In The Loop. Double ditto Three Kings and triple ditto for those political guys Aaron Sorkin makes.

The way I see it (duh, this is my blog post), there are four different kinds of Things, politico-cultural-wise:

1. Things that don’t have to do with politics (or at least not outright). Think Community, Adventure Time … Also: Most other Things.

2. Things that do have to do with politics and teach me as they entertain me. Think The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. (I’ve learned more about political campaigns and elections from Indecision than I have from… I don’t know, news sources.)

3. Things that have to do with politics and don’t teach me and therefore don’t entertain me. I still can’t read Doonesbury because they never explain what is happening and I am so confused and it’s early in the morning so I’m just gonna read Cathy (jk/too soon/RIP/ACK)

4. Things that have to do with politics yet don’t require a knowledge of the current political climate. ***THIS IS WHAT I’M GOING TO TALK ABOUT IN THIS POST

A brief history of my experience with this genre/ what I know about it:

In 2009 I saw Armando Iannucci’s In The Loop, which depicts backlash that follows the UK Prime Minister saying some stupid shit (AND it’s on Instant Stream Netflix!). In a movie that is all about the errors of communication, every line is written perfectly. The film is based on Iannucci’s television series The Thick of It, which I personally have never seen but it is my sister’s favorite thing and also it’s premiering Series 3 April 28th on BBC America, I don’t have that channel but maybe you do, okay anyways. Both the movie and the series feature a character named Malcolm Tucker, a political spin doctor (no, not that kind) and the smartest vulgar character I’ve ever encountered, all “lubricated horse cock” and “Come the fuck in or fuck the fuck off” and “Shut it, Love Actually” and “fuckety bye”. Other characters talk, too, sometimes, and they say things besides obscenities. Although the film is about politics, specifically relationships between the PM’s office in Britain and the American consulate/Congress/other things I am only very vaguely familiar with, it’s something I still understand and love. The movie focuses on dialogue so much that it is a dream come true for someone who just likes watching people talk (Me. I like this). It doesn’t matter that they are in a political office except for the fact that talking is an important part of politics so this is a good setting for watching people talk.

The plot of the Veep pilotis kind of like In the Loop— Vice President of the United States Selina Meyer (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) has to deal with (1) a misunderstood tweet that has offended the plastics industry, (2) the backlash that comes after publicly calling her tweet-monkey a “retard”, and (3) the repercussions that follow her chief of staff’s accidental signing of a condolence card with the wrong name. All three instances have more to do with public relations and internal communication errors than anything else. There is no getting mad at the right wing or the left wing or red or blue or even mentioning the president besides a passing remark of “Oh, has the president called” “No”. The only issue I have so far is that every character seems to be as smart and sarcastic as Malcolm Tucker, throwing around words like “fucktard” (yay HBO!) in ways that I don’t actually find offensive/etc. It seems unlikely that there would be so many snarky witty terrible people within the executive branch of government, but maybe that’s what politicians are like. I wouldn’t know because I don’t necessarily “get” politics.

SPEAKING OF “GETTING” POLITICS (not really, I just don’t know how to transition), something else coming to HBO real soon is Aaron Sorkin’s Newsroom, which I also don’t relate to right away because I don’t watch a lot of political news. Yet Aaron Sorkin draws me in for the same reason that Armando Iannucci does, and that reason is dialogue. Chelly showed me a link to what is possibly the script for the pilot of Newsroom (if it is not, it is really good at pretending!), but I couldn’t even get through a page because I am so excited and because even the descriptions in the script are dripping with ughhhhhSorkin. I can tell the show—despite being about a newscaster taking issue with the state of the news and media and politics and a bunch of alarming points of view—is something I will be able to enjoy for reasons completely separate from said alarming points of view. I will like it because I like watching people talk. I like banter. Chelly was telling me that maybe some of these politicalish shows don’t take sides or require a lot of political knowledge because they are made for Middle America, but I don’t think that’s the case, especially not for shows on HBO. These shows are meant for people who like shows. Which works for me, because I like shows.

I Strung Him Up In a Tree, I Don't Know, Is That a Friend?

michellenelson — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:57:00 -0400

Hey team. It’s Michrllr. Jrnny’s sister. How’s it going? Are you doing OK? Do you guys watch Justified? Is that too many questions? I was just out in the world (at a sporting event) when my friend’s father- an older gentleman, nearing his seventies, asked “Do you watch Justified?” This man has a PHD. He is a principal at a prestigious school in Illinois, his teaching concentration is in chemistry and maths. He is sixty something years old. He fucking loves Justified.

But he hasn’t seen season 3.

Have you guys seen season three? I have. Do you want to talk about that? Let’s, seeing as I’m controlling this conversation.

The reason I bring up my friend’s father is because I was having a conversation with a friend about Justified, and he felt that season 3 was a big step down- he was losing interest because Raylan wasn’t shooting people up. Which, to me sounded ridiculous. No Country For Old Men did this too, but Justified, being told in a recurring format and all, got to do it much more subtly: as the law ages, as men grow older and crime turns over into new men’s hands, things get out of control. My friend’s father had only seen up to season two and he was enchanted. Maybe enchanted isn’t the right word- he likes the show for the characters, the way they think, their version of law and logic. Which I appreciate, but I also just like crime stories. A lot.

Overall, season three was good. I liked it quite a bit more than season two, but I do think it was stretched a little thin. Could’ve done it in ten hours instead of thirteen. But I liked the way they’ve set up for season four- Raylan came to Harlan a brash, confident man. He has his problems, but he was in a good place. As he exits season 3, he’s calmer than he was, but it’s not a calm of inner peace. His father is going to jail after trying to shoot what he thought was Raylan. Wynona’s expecting his baby, but is Raylan going to be around? I mean, is he still going to be alive? How many people were trying to kill him this season? Four? Nobody’s come after him so specifically before this. Boyd is free, with a path to the head of Harlan crime wide open ahead of him, so Raylan’s troubles have been exponentially multiplied.

Raylan and the other marshals spent a lot of time this season running behind the criminals: that episode where they just chase Dewey Crow around town for 20 minutes? Thematically on point, much? Not to mention worthy for the “He took my kidneys, not my dick” line. It was easy, in season 2, you knew who to watch, where to go. Mags centralized the whole criminal element. This time though, Quarrels and Duffy live in a fucking mobile home, no one, except Limehouse, ever knows where anybody is. Quarrels spends the second half of the season running around, high out of his mind, generally losing his shit, and an awful lot of time is spent tracking him down, losing him, then tracking him down again.

With all the double crossing and alliance shifting that goes on in this season, it’s easy to lose track of who’s on your team. Raylan can’t see the fugitive in the elevator, Art doesn’t know he’s got the marshal killer in his custody, Boyd doesn’t know about Johnny, Limehouse didn’t know what Errol was going to be such a fucking meddling disappointment- it’s Limehouse’s job to sit and to know- “Us knowing is the business of this Holler”- is a direct quote to Errol, but somehow it still slips him by. You would think that part of running a capable crime ring is knowing who to trust, but in all the violence and with all the talk of the Bennett millions, the character’s attentions are focused elsewhere. I mean, HOLY SHIT, GUYS. Were the other seasons this violent? The body count is ridiculous. And once you have things to hide (like dead bodies or the secrets of who made a body dead in the first place) the people around you have the leverage to bend and break as they get involved in violent situations. It also, of course, can bond people more tightly together, like with Arlo and Boyd: “I think he saw a man in a hat pointing a gun at Boyd” (Boy, the more I think about the end of that episode, the more I am impressed with it).

Community was a theme central to season 2- I’m convinced the only reason Boyd got back into the drug running business, after he disavowed it and found Jesus in season 1, is because he tried to play straight and do right, but then he saw Black Pipe come in and what they were capable of, and what they did. He saw Mags fail to keep them out, and what Boyd wants, above all else, is the power to protect Harlan. Boyd Crowder’s always been an ideological center for the show (my notes say “The Jeff Winger of Kentucky”)- the way he stirs the town hall debate up, making Sherriff Napier look like an outsider is one of Walton Goggins’ best moments of an already impressive season for Boyd.

The Detroit Thug Quarrels, in his unhinged sadistic existence (the fucking bedroom where he ties up young boys? GOOD LORD, team), is better at this game than Boyd, he’s had more practice, but his failure to get footing inside Harlan just illustrates the incestual nature of the county. If you’re not from here, you don’t belong here. But community gets warped in season 3 because there are dozens of communities in Harlan. Neo-Nazis, black, poor, middle class, miners, druggies, politicians…and as Limehouse, in both his undermining of other character’s plans and his own existence suggests, not all of these communities need or want the same things. It’s no longer “big corporation versus the small town business runner and people.” Quarrels’s group is loose and ever changing- he shifts alliances faster than he can think, he has no loyalty, he increasingly has no friends, the outfit wants to kill him, and he lashes out, even if at the end all he wants to do is go home. Boyd’s crew is small, but it’s comprised of his family- a cousin, his girl, and his adopted father. But in the absence of Mags, who’s memory was dragged through the season by her only living blood relative, the splinter groups are forming even within the communities, within these families.

The scene, late in the season, where Boyd sits Arlo down and has him take his pills- “right in front of me, so I can see you”- is touching, honestly. My notes for that moment read “I know he’s not really, but Boyd Crowder is a good goddamn man.” And with him becoming more and more the ‘sliding doors’ version of Raylan, Boyd’s co-opting of Ava and Arlo is especially painful, and it moves Raylan into interesting territory as he prepares to put down some roots in Kentucky and become a father himself. Where does he go? What is his community? Just because he’s from Harlan, doesn’t mean he fits there, and that can only spell more trouble in his future.

I hope for season four we pick back up on everyone who’s alive. It’s probably not going to go down easy that Arlo killed Devil, considering he didn’t. I wonder if the repercussions of shooting a officer will play out or if that’ll get dropped. I hope the Sheriff who was in the Crowder pocket comes back, I imagine there’s gold waiting in that story line. Limehouse ought to stick around, since Johnny never got his wish fulfilled, but we’ll see. I did really like the way season two folded so nicely into this season, with old, unsolved plot threads carrying well into the late episodes and new plot threads.

I Should Have Already Seen this Movie: #2- HEATHERS

jrnny — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:17:00 -0400

Hi. It’s been over a month since I (Jrnny) watched Clerks for the first time and wrote about it and immediately felt really worldly or something. So it seemed about time to watch another movie. Moreover, Beth and I didn’t want to do homework so we watched the 1988 Winona Ryder-Christian Slater vehicle Heathers. So here you have it, because you’ve (possibly? nahhh probs not) been waiting eagerly for it: “I Should Have Already Seen This Movie” Part Deux (2).

Why I should have already seen Heathers:

I’m a girl
I went to high school
Teen Eighties movies are “my jam” (or something)
Gilmore Girls used to be my favorite television show, and although I learned what Heathers was from the little “Your Guide to Gilmore-isms book” that came with the DVD, it was still a little confusing
This movie is often q uoted in pop culture.
I like Winona Ryder, partially because of her acting, but mostly because this website chronicling her hairstyles over the years used to pop up every time I did pre-haircut internet research.

THE PREMISE:

Veronica is in her high school’s popular clique called the HEATHERS (hey, that’s the movie title!), and she feels pretty terrible about herself until she and bad-boy JD start killing all the popular kids off and pretending it’s suicide.

MY FEELINGS:

Two things I noticed right away about Heathers that affected my viewing experience:

1. This movie is of a completely different breed from the John Hughes/John Cusack movies I have long championed. These movies taught me that being an outcast is cool, that people from different social circles can develop friendships, and that sometimes the heroine ends up with the douchey rich guy even though Ducky was right there so I don’t even understand what that was about. Heathers is one of the only Eighties teen movies I’ve seen that focuses on a popular kid. Granted, it’s a popular kid disappointed with her school’s social system who works her way down the ladder and turns into an outcast, but this trajectory is opposite of the rags-to-riches / weird-to-popular trajectories I have accepted as the norm.

2. I accept these high school stories despite the fact that I did not have a terrible high school experience. At my high school I didn’t really notice any cliques, but maybe that’s because I was so busy with theater/art club/insert-other-nerdy-activities-here/oh also French club. The terrifying cliques in Heathers are not completely foreign to me because I have seen television/books/movies/the news all of my life. Pop culture has made me understand high school cliques. It’s kind of like how I’ve never been to Australia but I still assume it exists and that there are marsupials there because people keep talking about it and using it as a setting for their stories.

Anyways, Heathers! Heathers is pretty heavy with symbolism— especially colors. Kind of like Pierrot Le Fou (also about a couple running from the law/ethics, also features bombs strapped to a main character, but is in French, and not about high school). Colors include red for Heather Chandler/whoever holds the power after her death, green for Heather Duke/the envious one, yellow for Heather McNamara/the cowardly one. Veronica wears blue—even at funerals—which sets her apart from the Heathers and also the rest of the school. When they play croquet, all of the Heathers and Veronica play with equipment that corresponds to their outfits, probably to symbolize the hyper-structured aspects of bourgeois life (“Great pâté, Mom, but I gotta motor…”) Veronica’s friend Betty who she gave up to be with the Heathers does NOT coordinate her croquet ball and hammer with her outfit, but her ball is orange—the perfect complement for Veronica’s blue. Also their names are Betty Finn and Veronica Sawyer—a double best-friends reference to both the Archie Comics and Mark Twain. Other stuff like Westerberg High School being named after Replacements frontman/ total rebel-guy Paul Westerberg. Also The Bell Jar, and Moby Dick. Pretty much I thought this was gonna be a campy-ish movie about a girl killing the mean girls, but actually it’s all probably an allegory. I just don’t know for what.

Which leads me to this: is the movie meant to be “real”/”for serious,” like We Need to Talk About Kevin, or is it meant to be a total joke? Or is it meant to just confuse me, like Donnie Darko? It’s hard to tell. I haven’t seen Bully yet, but I know that clique-based hierarchies in schools have the potential to be very dangerous and destructive. Although my high school experience wasn’t very catty, toward the end of middle school there was some really terrible violence among some kids. While Heathers didn’t scare me in the same way that We Need to Talk About Kevin did, it made me think about some weird stuff. In conclusion, when I’m a parent no one is allowed around boys with earrings, LOLJK.

But actually: Is the movie supposed to be symbolism, or a statement about how the kids’ generation has ruined society? The use of “Que Sera Sera” was cool/confused me/maybe has ruined that song for me because now it will forever be saying that sometimes you meet a boy and he manipulates you into killing your terrible friends, and so maybe everyone is terrible but “whatever will be, will be”. Or essentially: youth culture is destructive!! ”Que sera sera!” ” :/ “

Sidenote: According to IMDB/Lady Brth, the original screenplay ended with—(*SpOiLeR*) instead of Veronica watching JD blow up and then grabbing Heather’s red bow, putting it on, and asking that chubby girl to watch a movie with her sometime—Veronica shooting JD, blowing herself up with his dynamite, and then attending weird dead prom in Heaven, where everyone gets along just as JD had fortold, and everyone drinks that blue drainer liquid as punch and takes their prom pictures with tipped cows, and a million other morbid things. I wish this was the ending and that’s all I have to say.

Something David Simon said hurt my feelings

jrnny — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:18:00 -0400

In conversation with the NYTimes yesterday David Simon, aka the creator of the Wire—oh wait, maybe don’t use Those Words around him anymore—expressed his “amused contempt” and indifference towards people who think his show is cool:

The number of people blogging television online — it’s ridiculous. They don’t know what we’re building. And by the way, that’s true for the people who say we’re great. They don’t know. It doesn’t matter whether they love it or they hate it. It doesn’t mean anything until there’s a beginning, middle and an end. If you want television to be a serious storytelling medium, you’re up against a lot of human dynamic that is arrayed against you. Not the least of which are people who arrived to “The Wire” late, planted their feet, and want to explain to everybody why it’s so cool. Glad to hear it. But you weren’t paying attention. You got led there at the end and generally speaking, you’re asserting for the wrong things.

I haven’t been writing blog posts lately. I’m still shy about posting stuff sometimes, because are my thoughts worthy to be looked upon by other eyes? Am I just saying the same things everyone else says? Am I in some way “ruining” the story created by people I admire? These questions have stopped me from writing about the most recent Mad Mens and I have also struggled with Community. CULTURE MAKES ME FEEL ~~THINGS~~ NERVOUS.

My point is this: I lack confidence in myself as a Blogger, but Bloggers in general are important. I say that because I read the AV Club and The Vulture and stuff that Chelsea writes and stuff that my friends and family write. And what they write matters. Their opinions encourage me to have opinions of my own. They make me think about TV even when I am not sitting in front of a box, and I appreciate the medium as something more than just a distraction from school and homework. The Internet is what elevated television as an art form for me. Never before had I read so many pieces of criticism on a tv show, and it’s not like I go out and purchase books of essays on television (I just read sections of them on Amazon—oh wait that’s the internet too… like blogging, but only slightly different).

Simon’s opinion hurt because I know there are people who actually care about the fans. When I saw Damon Lindelof (a creator of LOST) talk at the NYTVF this past fall (also this guy wrote an article on it that I just found on the internet), he had a much more positive attitude about the Internet’s effect on television:

But the interaction of the Internet and our genuine desire to hear what the fans were saying and make ourselves accessible to the fans was absolutely essential to the show’s success. I am absolutely convinced that we probably would not have made it to season three or season four at the most if the Internet didn’t exist.

I am currently in the middle of my second run of LOST so that is why it is on my mind, and I just want to say everyone I watch it with appreciates the show’s presence on the Internet (Lostpedia, etc). I learn things from blogs about LOST, and I learn things from friends who learned things from blogs about LOST. For every blogger who writes some stupid comment about a show, there is at least one other blogger writing something worthwhile—an opinion, an insight, or a bit of knowledge that might help another fan learn and appreciate an art form.

In this interview with Digital Spy, Dan Harmon (creator of Community) also expresses his desire to satisfy the Internet:

I observe that stuff and the way people are consuming it, because I’m a nerd too and I love to obsess about my favorite TV shows.

Harmon has also expressed the novelty of this second half of the third season, which due to its recent hiatus was produced entirely in a vacuum, without any input from the fans. Television is made to be watched—it is made for the viewers, and they are part of the art form.

Both of these guys I admire because they created something people obsess over and they accept it. They don’t complain when fans make videos and encyclopedia entries for things that don’t actually exist and Peanuts mashups. Last year I read (a lot of) Roland Barthes and he says that the THE AUTHOR IS DEAD —once you have created something, it is no longer yours and therefore is open to interpretation. David Simon created The Wire, but it is now its own entity that is going to get critiqued and going to be appreciated. People are going to say Omar is cool, and that’s not something to get upset about. Moreover, his bitterness directed at people for having “arrived late” seems childish. I came to LOST only last year, but I can still have intelligent conversations about it and appreciate it. Has Damon Lindelof insulted me the way Simon has? NO(t that I know of)! Someone striving to make honest art should be happy that anyone appreciates the show at all. He told a serious story and I don’t see why it matters that many people enjoyed it later, what matters is that anyone enjoyed it at all.

Barthes’ separation of the creator from his work is good for one other reason—the hurt I feel from David Simon’s statement doesn’t have to affect my interest in the show. I can go on respecting the show and accepting everyone in the world’s insistence that it is this decade’s #1 Everything and I will probably still watch it at some point. That is, if I’m not arriving too late.

I CAN STOP ANYTIME I WANT.

anattractiveweird — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 10:31:54 -0400

Hey everyone I’m about to paint a picture with some words so please join me on this adventure.

It’s 9PM on a Friday, you are at home either because you weren’t invited to any parties or because you have a crippling social anxiety, I’ll let you choose your own adventure on that one. Anyway, you power up your laptop, the apple shaped light on the back of it illuminating your poorly lit apartment/dorm room/house, revealing the piles of take out boxes and dirty laundry. The internet is already open to Netflix.

You say you’re only going to watch one episode. The next thing you know its 5AM, and you’ve watched three seasons of Friday Night Lights, or Lost, or Parenthood, or anything for that matter. We’ve all been there. It’s the most socially acceptable form of bingeing. There is no shame in announcing to a group of people that you watched an entire series in three nights, in fact, its a matter of pride. “You did it in a week? If you don’t shower and prepare all meals beforehand like me, you can do it in a day and a half.” We are all guilty of it. I know I am, but listen, I don’t know if it is actually that great. Don’t worry, I have reasons, and I’m sure everyone will disagree with me, but let me explain.

Binge watching television has made shows less enjoyable for me. EXAMPLE TIME.

Veronica Mars:

About halfway through the first season I tired of the whole Duncan plot-line and his silly face, and started fast-forwarding through every scene he was in. When you watch a show on schedule, once a week on TV, this does not happen. You do not have this ability. Netflix is like having superpowers-WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY.

UK Skins:

You know how much I can tell you about this show? Nothing. I know the kid from About a Boy is in it. That’s all. Because I literally remember nothing about it. I watched the first season in one night, fast forwarded through most of it, including when any character besides a hot guy was on screen. When people ask if I watch Skins, I don’t even say yes, EVEN THOUGH I’VE SEEN THE ENTIRE FIRST SEASON.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Now this is hands down in my top 2 favorite shows of all time. But even having the option to choose which episodes to watch caused me to skip half of a season. I still haven’t seen it. I don’t know if this is a more a comment on Netflix or my lack of self control, but I’m just saying my viewing experience would have been different if I had watched it on-air.

Seriously I could go on but I know you’re getting the pattern here. I’ve read some articles advocating the binge but I think it’s a battle between instant gratification and long-term satisfaction. You can watch all of a series in one night but I don’t know that you should. Most shows start to come apart at the seams that way. Except for Twin Peaks. You can watch Twin Peaks however you want, just watch it.

Dan Harmon Poops: Not That it Helps, But:

jrnny — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 18:39:37 -0400

Dan Harmon Poops: Not That it Helps, But::

danharmon:

I’m really not supposed to be commenting on the situation, which I think is great advice, because anything I say will extend the story’s life and cause more fans discomfort. But as a guy who blogs or tweets every time he wipes his butt, hugs his cat or hurts his girlfriend, it’s conspicuously…

Eat Fresh?

anattractiveweird — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:44:26 -0400

Chelly here. First of all, I want to apologize for my absence. I fell into the space between my bed and my wall and slipped into an alternate dimension where Twin Peaks never happens and everyone has to watch the defunct TV shows that result from that “Win Your Own Cooking Show” contest on the food network.

I really Britta’d the last couple of weeks, but I’m back! And so is Community’s weirdness. This week’s episode, Digital Exploration of Interior Design managed to be both wonderfully bizarre and achieve the highest ratings for NBC that night. But I don’t want to talk about ratings right now (shocker I know), this episode cut deep for me and not just because of the Troy and Abed stuff.

The Britta/Subway story line was spot on. I was excited for Britta to have a fairly big story for herself. I also felt like it made her characer more like-able. Yes she always Brittas stuff but bad stuff happens to her too-in this case the guy she falls in love with is a corporate-humanoid. I don’t know she just seemed kinda sweet in this episode.

The Jeff and Annie C story was great because it didn’t feel like a fluffy c story. For me this episode was really about the characters and we get a lot of both who Jeff and Annie are. Also this produced one of the best lines of the episode, “Put it in a letter Jane Austen!”

Now for the Troy and Abed stuff-or as it’s been called Troybed. I know this sounds crazy but what I really want is for this season to end with Troy and Abed still mad at each other. I don’t mean in a cliff-hanger sort of way, but just that this break in their friendship follows a realistic path that carries into the fourth season. The subtle things that are happening in their friendship are the most painful to watch ones. Like in an earlier episode when Abed tells Troy he wants to play by himself for a while, or in this episode when Abed tells Troy, “I never said you couldn’t do anything.” It’s like “I never said you had to change,” it’s just that Troy cares about Abed so much that he wants to.

Finally, I want to address this Chevy Chase/Dan Harmon situation. Actually more than address the situation I want to address the media’s coverage of it. I think it is fairly well publicized that they do not get along, but after this recent voicemail thing, I read an article over at xfinity/comcast which ended with the following:

This battle just seems too vicious for these two to ever come together and work together again effectively. Moreover, it’s not as if Chase’s character of Pierce is vital to the show. He can be replaced easily.

What? I’ve read a couple other articles this guy, Adam Buckman, has written about Community and I get the feeling that he doesn’t like the show very much to begin with. I don’t know and please correct me if I’m wrong on that. But Chevy had some of the best bits in this episode and was really spot on. Furthermore I feel like to call him easily replaceable goes against the point of the show-which has worked very hard to establish that all study group members are important. It also seemed like Buckman was implying that they could just put another older comedian in there and call it good. I just really have a hard time with this relaxed look at the show as a whole, and I guess in a way I find it almost offensive or disrespectful to the viewers/show as an entity. His character is a major part of the show. Sorry about this rant-I’m done now.

What do you think about the episode?

And this whole Chevy/Dan Harmon thing?

I (Jenny) am justifying not having written anything about the return of Mad Men because Betty and...

jrnny — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:14:43 -0400

I (Jenny) am justifying not having written anything about the return of Mad Men because Betty and Henry are not back yet and everyone knows that the Francises are the REAL Mad Men. SO PERHAPS NEXT WEEK. In the meantime, Zou Bisou Bisou, etc.