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...

We've Shared This Thought For Some Considerable Time

Corner Reflector, 2007

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of renaming the blog. A good candidate came to me this afternoon. The current name lacks the effect I thought it had nearly 4 years ago - it's far too vague and doesn't communicate anything in particular. Rebrandings can alienate your audience. I got rid of the visitor counter on the site a good while ago, so I'm unaware if I have one. The last thing I would want to do is have everyone update their bookmarks. This is your chance to speak up if you're there.

That said, this blog is split between essays (the humanities, science) and diary excerpts (girls, vignettes, other girls). One seeks an audience and the other is merely on public display. I'm just uploading my mind bits at a time. As for the character of Herr Niemand, to begin with he's not what you'd call human. I'm still developing him and his story, but I may coerce him into making some more appearances. I'll continue to chip away at the half-dozen drafts that remain, and since I've made my way through several dozen films in the past months I may share my opinions on a select few.

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Seen and Not Seen

Home Sewing is Killing Fashion, Bo Peterson, 2006

I've become completely sick of Hollywood. Perhaps the odd classic blinded us to the fact that everything else was always shit? It seems 90% of films since around 1980 have been remakes, or "reimaginings". I'm alright with that if it improves upon the original - case in point, The Thing. But what seems ever more apparent is a churn of films from the past quarter-century being refilmed. Refilmed with the intention of milking everyone again. Name a Japanese or Korean horror film, a Hong Kong action film, any successful foreign film; and you'll find either part or all of it has been ground into a recent Hollywood production. Let The Right One In has a Hollywood remake in production before it even has a full release. Why?

I Wanted to Rub the Human Face in its Own Vomit

Fall of the Damned into Hell

The de rigueur moral outrage is predictable and contemptible. I ask, why is it we send people to prison? People out there consciously debase justice to revenge. Driven by tabloids with their head-on-pike photoshopped front page graphics. Vanguard of morality, continued on page 3 with tits. The eternal shreiking victims are never able to accept that anyone can reform. Did he paint a picture of the rape scene? They will never accept anything less than the death penalty because they cannot reform themselves. An eye for an eye, and still they'll be calling for a second hanging for a one-man murder.

In Scotland this hysteria typically results in yet another outcry against the 'not proven' verdict. Their motivation for its removal has nothing to do with fixing the legal system, but everything to do with gaining closure - regardless of who it's exacted on. Abandon your pretensions of morality. You're really not much better than they are. In the end, there will only be the guilty verdict.

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