Art, Music, & Film: January 2005 Archives

From a friend concerning a movie I have yet to see advertisements for--nevertheless, sometihng for everyone to be aware of:

I don't know about you, but in my neck of the woods we're being inundated with radio (and although I haven't seen any, probably TV) ads for Million Dollar Baby, a Oscar-nominated movie, directed by Clint Eastwood, about a 30-something woman who wants to be a boxer. The trailer and most of the movie reviews make it sound like a female version of Rocky, but it's not, at least not entirely. As I found out yesterday in a column by Debbie Schlussel, the movie has a right to die agenda, an agenda that is being kept well-hidden by its promoters and reviewers. And a column that I found today by Tony Medley made it clear that it's blatantly anti-Catholic in other ways as well.

So I'm passing this information on to you and others so that you're aware of the latent propaganda. At least in the case of Fahrenheit 9/11 you knew what you were getting yourself in for before you paid for the tickets. I'm very disturbed by the fact that this movie seems hell-bent on manipulating people into accepting euthanasia.

My most sincere thanks to the contributor.

What a silly, albeit engaging and sometimes interesting, piece of hokum this is. I suppose those more knowledgable in film and semiotics have already combed through the frames finding symbol upon symbol and constructing much (á la The Matrix) in the way of religious message and intent from this preposterous and stilted little vignette.

You all may have seen it already--people live in a village deep in the woods apparently some time in the 1800s judging by what's available to them. The woods are filled with creepy red-cloaked beasts that no one in the village has had the courage to stand up to even though they had to come through those self-same woods to establish this village. One of the villagers is attacked and needs medicines from "The Towns" and so an intrepid blind woman is sent out to brave the woods and bring back the medicine.

There's a whole series of things about the colors red and yellow and white, banners and pennants and all sort of rigamarole concerning certain rituals of the townspeople. There are some spooky moments. But largely there are people speaking in a highly ornate and contrived version of English, occasionally sounding utterly ludicrous.

The odd thing about it was that while all of this was true, I did enjoy the film. The director makes a beautiful film and some lasting images even when he is off-target (as he has been in at least two of his four films. Of the first I can say nothing having never seen it.) He tries so hard and his films are so bristling with symbolism and fraught with intended meanings its hard not to admire the effort even when it falls flat.

So, whether you pay attention to the symbols or not, dive into the alternative meanings or not. This is an enjoyable, fun film and worth your time.

Via Verbum Ipsum

Listen to Pi

Mixolydian Mode

Given that it is a very straightforward rendering, it might be improved by simply allowing repeated numbers to lengthen the duration of a note to get more of a sense of rhythm and variation. But an interesting exercise.

Wretched science, wretched excess, wretched Hollywood preaching, wretched plot, wretched characters.

But still and all it was nice to see Los Angeles utterly blown away by super-ultra-gigantic melding tornadic vortices.

Stupid beyond words--showing us how global warming triggers an ice age (Huh?) is six weeks or less.

Not up to the sheer comedic stupidity of that greatest of all idiotic science films Dante's Peak but still, there's enough bad science and bad preaching to provide a few good belly laughs. Somehow, I suspect that wasn't what the filmakers were aiming for, but this one will rate very highly in my hall of shame.