August 06, 2005
Aint you seen my movies!!??!
What I did on my summer vacation...
Nothing, actually. I had to work....alot, but I did manage to see a few movies, read the latest Harry Potter and fulfill my live music destiny by seeing Method Man at Street Scene. We can start there...
San Diego's Street Scene is traditionally held among the streets in downtown San Diego. This year they decided to have a more typical festival setup in the parking lot at Qualcomm Stadium (home of the Chargers and where I was not able to score tickets to the Cowboys game).
Lowlights: In a cruel twist of fate, The Killers and White Stripes were scheduled within a half hour of each other, and so I thought, I can catch a few White Stripes songs then hightail it over to The Killers right?. Of course, I spent 40 agonizing minutes waiting for Jack and Meg to come out before I had to bail. My rationale was that I've seen the White Stripes before, but needless to say I was very upset.
The parking lot setup was nice, and from what I hear much easier to navigate than the streets of downtown, but it's not very conducive to sitting down when the ol' legs get tired.
It's not necessarily a lowlight, but where I used to be somewhat interested in all the "different" types of people that show up at concerts, the stereotypes are now slowly starting to emerge. There's the Aging Swaying Hippies, complete with tie-dyed shirts and fanny packs. The Abercrombie Frat Boys, complete with too much beer, and a total disregard for the music being played (usually accompanied by the Hollister Girlfriend, skimpily dressed and more concerned with being seen than anything going on onstage). The Stoners, too stoned to realize that there is music being played. The Straight From Work Guys, like me, who are totally overdressed. The Screaming Too-Young Girls who seem to have no idea who's playing, but are really really enthusiastic about it. The Concerned Parent, usually there to helplessly chaperone the Screaming Young Girls. The Earnest Geek, who doesn't move, keeps his arms folded and is extremely annoyed at the antics of the aforementioned groups, yes, this used to be me.
Highlights: As mentioned above, the concert circle is complete as Method Man was kind enough to make an appearance. I saw Meth seven years ago on the Hard Knock Life tour (the T-shirt from which I proudly wore), then saw the rest of Wu-Tang in Austin in 2002. Meth was conspicuously absent from that show, but I feel redeemed after his show last saturday. He is still the baddest motherfucker on the planet...Johnny Johnny Blaze ain't a damn thing changed...not a damn thing.
Other highlights: Though I had to miss the White Stripes, the Killers were pretty awesome live. 30,000 people chanting, "I got soul, but I'm not a soldier" can make anyone feel sufficiently inspired.
The diversity of the acts was also very cool. Saturday, I got to see Dashboard Confessional then make a quick turnaround to Method Man (the best part of a DC show? watching the jumbo screen when they do the crowd panning shots, all the little girls in full rapture is funny, but the guys in full rapture who then suddenly realize they're on the big screen then try to play it off like they're just there for their girlfriends, that absolutely kills me). Anyway, I got to tap into my own swooning 16 year old, but then immediately shrug it off and get thugged out for Method Man. I love it.
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I saw quite a few movies this summer, most of the blockbusters and a couple of comedies, but there are two I highly, highly recommend.
First, Batman Begins is as good if not better than the other great comic book movies, Spider-man One and Two and X-Men 2 (I would add The Crow to this list, but I didn't even know that was a comic book until much later). Besides wiping away the horrid memories of the last two Batman movies, director Christopher Nolan fills in the gaps that even Tim Burton left in the first two installments. Nolan and the terrific cast led by Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne manage to make an intelligent, emotionally engrossing and entertaining movie all at once. I don't want to gush too much (read the reviews on IMDB for that) but I will say that for the first time I realized why there have been so many different interpretations of Batman over the years. There is plenty of psychological depth and darkness to mine from, but it's really, really easy to slip into campiness. For example, in the scene where Bruce is flying back to Gotham with Alfred, and he is very earnestly germinating the whole Batman concept for the first time, it hit me that I'm watching a movie about a grown man who dresses up like a bat to fight crime. That sort of explains the 60s TV show and the two Joel Shumacher movies. Without a true committment to portraying who Bruce Wayne really is, all you've got left is a costume action-comedy. So kudos to Nolan and Bale for showing us the light.
Also, make sure you go see Crash . The performances are amazing from top to bottom, especially Matt Dillon, Larenz Tate, Terence Howard and even my man Ludacris. The movie might come off as slightly obvious and contrived to some (yes, people can be both good and bad, we get it), but without a doubt it will make you think about prejudices, how small our world is, and how difficult it is to find our place in it. In the same vein as some of Spike Lee's best, writer/director Paul Haggis doesn't give us any easy answers or conclusions to all the racial issues he brings up, but shows us that hey, sometimes, shit happens. And it's not always so simple to assign blame and exact justice. We're all at fault in some ways. But, in the end, despite tragedy and heartbreak, and despite what our instincts might tell us, change for the better is possible.
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Lastly, Book 6 in the Harry Potter saga was ultimately disappointing. Books 4 and 5 were so well written, straddling the line between the growing darkness of the story line and the lighthearted teenage subplots, it was probably inevitable that number six would be something of a let down. I immediately likened Book 6 (and probably Book 7) to the the Star Wars movies, where Episodes 1, 2 and 3 were sub par films, but necessary to fill out and complete the story. From there I started to prepare an entire list of similarities and differences, pros and cons between the two sagas, trying to decide which one is better and will eventually be more influential, but of course something that ambitious deserves its own post.
So stay tuned...same Bat time, same Bat channel (sorry couldn't resist).
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Check out the quote in paragraph five. Godspeed Lindsay, Godspeed.
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"Leave the gun, take the canoles."
---Clemenza