Music For Your Tape Recorder

I know. You don't need to tell me. Suffice to say I've not been motivated to write much this year and when it came to putting my playlist together it's apparent I haven't listened to that much music either. You can imagine I was dissuaded from bothering with that in mind when I realised I'd only left a few hours of 2014 to write it up. Here I am, though, two weeks later in what is my 10th year of blogging with a sense of obligation to drive myself to produce something. It may not be a long list this year (the shortest duration in the nine years I've done this), but there is plenty I want to get off my chest regarding some releases.

Blow Yr Mind / "Heroes"

Promo poster, 2014

When I reviewed Under the Skin in March I said that much as I bought into the idea that Scarlett Johansson is a sex symbol, I wouldn't see a film with her simply on that basis. Case in point - I haven't seen any of her Marvel appearances as the Black Widow, because the omnipresent comic book films do nothing for me. I nearly passed on seeing Batman Begins in 2005 for that reason. Lucy genuinely interested me because it looked like a strong female-led action film from noted director Luc Besson. I love Besson's The Fifth Element and I increasingly like Ms. Johansson's work (perhaps save for the Israel controversy). Indeed, I've been having something of a Scarlett year and Lucy made three after watching Don Jon, and intend to continue with Her at some point. So it was that I decided to repeat my little day out in March with a strong sense of déjà vu. Not only was I riding the train to see another 'ScarJo' (urgh) film at Cineworld, I was also in a new pair of Doc Martens - replacing the pair I broke-in seeing Under The Skin. I also didn't have a date again, so that's too many coincidences.

Spoilers, duh

Cold Earth / Семена Мёртвых

No spare fuel for cremation.

No spare fuel for bulldozers.

Wasteful of manpower to dig pits by hand.

Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851, Emanuel Leutze

It is a decade since The Day After Tomorrow was released. Not the exact date (May 28th), since I've remastered the art of missing deadlines and got beaten to the subject. It's not a seminal film, nor ground-breaking in narrative or special effects; it is, however, the last Roland Emmerich film I enjoyed. Emmerich is something of a fetishist for destruction having made many many films about disasters - most famously and well-received Independence Day, and most infamously and less well-received Godzilla. Then there was 2012 for which I presented many criticisms a year and a half ago, primarily that is was built on a non-premise and the idea that it was somehow sci-fi. Emmerich was originally going to step away from the disaster genre but unfortunately went back on his word because he believed it was too good a concept to pass-up. See my criticisms for why I honestly have no idea how those words could reflect what sets '2012' in motion. However, let's get back to discussing The Day After Tomorrow (herein TDAT).

Human Flesh is Porky Meat (Hee Hee Hee Hee)

Under The Skin, US poster, 2014

I'm not one for hype. I'm not one for opening day screenings. And I'm on holiday, so I'm not really one for getting out of bed. Despite that, I've been waiting several months now for the release of Under The Skin. The Guardian has until recently been choked (non-erotically) with articles about Lars Von Trier's magnus trollus Nymphomaniac to the expense of every other film. With that finally out of the way I saw the low-key promotion for Under The Skin begin in the run-up to a March 14th general release. Still, why so interested? Well, my interest was piqued over two years ago when I heard parts of the film were being shot in the area. And, most obviously and honestly, it's Scarlett Johansson. Not that I would see any old tripe just cause she's in it. Undeniably, though, she is a sex symbol - and I don't say that often. I once got into a minor brawl with a friend at the age of thirteen when I dared to suggest Britney Spears was unattractive. I was engaged in a daydream two weeks ago about meeting Scarlett on set via certain connections, although I realised my connection didn't extend over that boundary line. Ahem. Nonetheless, I've always been into sci-fi cinema beyond the space-opera of Star Wars and what little I'd heard of the premise intrigued me.

Spoilers for Under The Skin inbound after several paragraphs of travelogue twaddle.

Music For Your Tape Recorder

This year started slowly as Lone's Galaxy Garden was still in hard rotation - or whatever technical phrase applies in the iTunes era. In the latter half of last year it suppressed everything else and continued to do so into the first half of 2013. 'Dream Girl/Sky Surfer' overtook 'Roygbiv' as my most listened song and is now beyond five hundred plays. Last time I checked I was listening to it twice a day on average, though I've slowed down a lot since it passed that mark. The rest of the album isn't far behind. Lone released a standalone single in June which you can see only six places into the list, giving you an idea of how little anything else caught my ear. It's a slightly shorter annual list than usual and probably more padded than I'd prefer, but that doesn't mean that there's little to talk about.

Police and Thieves

GTA San Andreas, promo artwork, 2004

It would be hard not to notice the landing of a new instalment of Grand Theft Auto if only because the media becomes saturated with moral panic articles on each launch. Not that this bothers Rockstar or Take 2 Interactive who make millions either way. As they say, any publicity is good publicity and it all feeds into the hype. However, in this day and age of aggressive promotion of entertainment products in which the first act of the script of an upcoming episode of an animated show is read by the voice artists at Comic-con and blockbuster films have almost year long mysterious viral marketing campaigns to engage fans, sometimes the meal is overcooked (see Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, et al). The first trailer for GTA V was released way back in November 2011 - almost two years before release - and since then we've been drip fed screenshots and cryptic twitter feeds with the expectation that the pressure will have risen so much that people will necessarily cream their pants the moment they so much as touch their copy. It might sound like I'm setting up for a scathing review. That is not the case - let's just not pretend this is the perfect game. Spoilers follow.

The Stars Our Destination

Star Trek Into Darkness poster

Hard to believe it's just gone ten years since Star Trek: Nemesis was released. 2002 was expected to be a great year for sci-fi: The Matrix sequels, a Red Dwarf film, a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film, and the aforementioned Star Trek X. In the end only Nemesis made it out that year alongside the equally poor Die Another Day. Shatner's diabolical Final Frontier narrowly avoided being responsible for the death of the Trek film franchise in 1989 - sadly the responsibility for achieving just that thirteen years later fell on The Next Generation cast. Interesting it should happen in December 2002 at the exact time Die Another Day was doing the same for Bond. As with my Skyfall review, discussing Star Trek into Darkness requires discussing my experiences with Trek. Be warned, it's going to take a few thousand words before I get to the review...

The Exposition Song (Early Days)

Part One of Two.

Buffy Summers, 20th Century Fox

Sometimes you're just born at the right time, and sometimes not - like that quote I seem to cite too often about being too old for the sexual revolution. For me, it was more a case of international broadcasting rights delaying the UK terrestrial première of Buffy The Vampire Slayer just long enough to be relevant. Hard to believe it's fourteen years since Buffy débuted on BBC2 on December 30th 1998, when the US was already midway through Season 3. Yet, if it had been just two years earlier I don't think it would have resonated with me. It would be reasonable to assume age would have no bearing on the enjoyment of a fantasy-action show about a blonde Californian girl slaying vampires, but the subtext of the entire show was about being a teenager going through high school and I was in my first year of secondary school. Some people watched it for neither the pretext nor the subtext, but just to see Sarah Michelle Gellar. I didn't, because that's what Cruel Intentions was for. I actually missed the first two episodes, however after seeing the third episode on the 13th of January it became a religious part of my Wednesday nights. Sometimes I pity the teenagers today living in a world of abstinent, sparkling vampires that don't believe in sex before marriage. The great thing about inexpensive and compact home video (anything since VHS tape) is that a large part of the history of broadcast entertainment is available to the modern viewer. So someone please tie them down and break out the Buffy boxset.

Martinis, Girls, and Guns

SIS (MI6) Building, radim99, 2007

It seems these days that blockbusters don't just sink or swim anymore, but get stuck in a critical limbo. This year alone there have been three films that come to mind that have had mixed reception: (the pretentious and insubstantial) Prometheus, The Dark Knight Rises, and most recently Skyfall. I cannot discuss the new Bond film without first covering a little bit of (personal) history of the series. A little bit, or maybe seven hundred words...

Running Blind Through Killing Fields, Bred To Kill Them All

First Person Shooter, rimblas, 2009

As revealed at the end of my long-simmering rant against Sony, I unexpectedly recently received a PlayStation 3 as a birthday present. The bundled game was Resistance 3. I'm not one for First Person Shooters. I never experienced the revelation of Wolfenstein 3D because it would never work on my old computer; and I never actually bothered to play the second coming of the FPS, Half Life, despite having purchased it. The last shooter to grace my shelf was Rising Sun eight years ago - the poor quality of which (save for a few interesting moments) pretty much killed any enthusiasm I had off the back of the success of Frontline. Only a particular subgenre of the FPS has ever really appealed to me - the tactical shooter.

When You Walk Through Me

I wanted to see Source Code last week in the cinema but I was ill and I was becoming desperate to avoid spoilers so I viewed it by other means (you know the means I mean). Make note that I will of course pre-order the DVD because I liked the film and wish to ensure more like it get made.

'Inception meets Groundhog Day'. I hate these descriptions that paint everything as a mashup of two existing works. That's not to say that there aren't similarities to other works, which I'll address in the spoiler section, but these comparisons used to market films to preconfigured audiences make little sense under any kind of scrutiny.

The Times They Are...

The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular, 1995

...a-becoming quite different. One of the advantages of a long running television series is having the time to fully explore and develop the characters. One of the disadvantages of a popular long running television series is that it always passes its peak. Actually, that's a subjective call on my part and that of vocal fans. Objectively, a long running show changes.

The generally agreed point at which The Simpsons faltered lies between Seasons 9 and 10 (roughly 1998). By that measure the show, now in its twenty-second season, has been poorly-written for over half its existence. The common argument against criticism of the latter seasons is that viewers have become overly-familiar with the early episodes through heavy syndication/repeats. As the "bad" now outnumber the golden age ones, that can no longer be true. They can still put out what are good episodes, but they're thin on the ground. The decline must be borne from a change within the writing staff as it is the tone of the episodes that together define the series. In particular, certain writers may not have been familiar with the tone or the show at all.

Overdose Delusion

Screenshot from Inception, 2010

I said I'd write up an analysis of Inception after another viewing and I've now seen it thrice - twice on the big screen, and once on the small screen *cough*. I've already pre-ordered it. Here I've tried to reign in my branching interpretations...

Dreams Never End

I really hate it when films are described as a cross between two renowned films. The cover of R-Point features a quote from 'Front Magazine': "Blair Witch meets Full Metal Jacket" - not even close. Inception has been summarised as The Matrix meets Ocean's Eleven.

(Deeper Underground) I Get Nervous in the New York City Streets

9/11, marc_buehler/NBC, 2001

Yeah, again. After publishing my analysis of Cloverfield last month, I continued thinking about the film's relation to September 11th. What I have written below is really pushing the limits of the narrative as I highly doubt the producers, being American, are communicating the message that I think could be extracted from it.

»Spoilers Throughout«

In my previous analysis I argued Clover (the titular monster) was a personification of 9/11 and as such, the instigator of the character drama. The origins, motivations, and purpose of Clover are ultimately unknown. The only clue is the brief shot of an object strike the ocean in the final scene before the credits (the promotional material offers a scant back-story). Despite Rob's camcorder perfectly capturing that brief glimpse, Rob and Liz are entirely unaware of it. When Clover starts wrecking New York, no-one understands what is going-on nor why it is happening.

(Deeper Underground) But I Got To Go Much Deeper

»Spoilers From The Outset«

B0000609, ghackettny, 2001

Looking for something to watch on Sunday night, I put on Cloverfield again. Last year I wrote a short review after first seeing it, in which I thought it was underrated. As I was munching through a packet of crisps the Brooklyn Bridge collapses killing Jason and many unknown others. People are screaming names and fleeing in abject terror, and I suddenly felt uncomfortable. Indeed, some reviews criticised it as September 11th pornography - making entertainment out of tragedy as the horror genre does with fear. In my mini review I saw it as a contemporary framing of the monster/disaster movie genre but lacking depth or social commentary. That unease prompted me to question whether it really was without merit, leading me to watch it yet again on Thursday.

Prior to 2001, the most destructive act of terrorism in the US was the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 - as referenced in the opening scenes of The X-Files Movie (1998). That incident is well known but largely restricted to that city in terms of impact. September 11th, on the other hand, was a game-changer, broadcast live as it unfolded - its effects on American culture are profound and long-lasting. Before it, the American public was only familiar with terrorism on the evening news. It had never struck home on such a large scale. With the thousands of people who died on that day, how could Hollywood ever make a disaster movie again? To make a popcorn disaster movie with a massive body count would be grossly insensitive.

Somebody Up There Likes You

Frakk em all!, Don Solo, 2009

As someone raised on Star Trek I've been reluctant to leave the comfort of the Roddenberry universe. Perhaps because Trek is the oldest standard for serious (by 60s standards) sci-fi television, all other shows come across as re-costumed copies. I was too young to see The Next Generation during its original run, but BBC2's tea-time repeats in the 90s made me a fan. When Deep Space Nine was imported I was probably too young to appreciate its breaking of the Trek mould - war, questionable ethics, the Federation losing for once. I preferred Voyager at this point but as it went on I became convinced Star Trek was losing steam. Voyager in particular was either repeating itself or TNG or pulling a deus ex machina every time they walked into the Borg. Despite that, the Doctor was and still is a great character, but his story arcs with Seven of Nine (and her own character development) would have been so much better if Seven wasn't visually the epitome of fan service.

William's Last Words

Journal for Plague Lovers cover art

In the age before my disposable income, a visit to the local record shop involved lengthy deliberation on which CD I really wanted to justify handing over a massive £10 of pocket money. The problem here was that the price of a CD limited how much you could purchase from decades of musical output. This is why it took so long for me to acquire The Holy Bible (henceforth THB). As a recent newcomer to the Manic Street Preachers, I set out with the money from my 13th birthday to buy their then previous album, Everything Must Go (hf. EMG), only to encounter THB in every shop. At the time I was uninterested and largely unaware of its legendary status - my first encounter with it was actually the title chiselled into a table in the school's music department. Naturally when I tried to find THB, all I could find was EMG - which I eventually got for my 16th.

Deeper Underground

When South Park parodied Cloverfield last October, I put it on my very long list of films to see. So seven months and a hundred films later...

A View To A Kill

My current dearth of activity is largely due to my linguistics project - just when it's near completion, it goes diachronic. A third holiday this year would boost the number of posts, but that's unlikely. Alternatively, I could go to the cinema more frequently.

In preserving "tradition", the Padre and I went to see Casino Royale. This tradition of seeing the new Bond film only stretches back to 31/12/99 when myself, the Padre, and my brother (2 unrelated people at the back were the only other viewers) saw The World is Not Enough. The Padre and I then saw Die Another Day on my birthday 4 years ago. DAD was the worst since Roger Moore's tenure, a recognition of the imaginary threat from Vin Diesel's zZz, and a poor end to the Brosnan era.