Corin said to me last night that there are some people who will never appreciate great art, because they’re not secure enough to expose themselves. “They would be forced to rewrite their souls,” he said. I think the same is true of artists. The artists we love are fearless, which doesn’t mean “without fear.” It just means they go on anyway.
Archive for the ‘Arts’ Category
Fearless
Friday, January 22nd, 2010Valentine’s and Dr. Horrible
Saturday, February 14th, 2009Oh, Valentine’s day. What the hell is that?
*****
Sharing an 8-bit tune I made from last year (which I was only able to convert to video today). This song is “So They Say” from the cult Internet show Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Big thanks to Jovan for furnishing the graphic!
Twilight
Sunday, December 28th, 2008
Finally saw Twilight in the theater today. It was… great! Totally deviant from what I’d been expecting. I’ve read excerpts from the book, and as someone who is allergic to too much sap and melodrama, it was pretty clear I would not be able to endure all that romancing about.
What the movie did good was try to get rid of all that cheese as much as it can – and I am very thankful for that! Although it still had to let through some of those (My personal brand of heroin? Really?), it was to a manageable bare minimum. I love that the romance was underplayed: the focus was on having a snappy story, and quite unexpectedly, very likeable characters.
And yet the love between Bella and Edward (main characters) was there, shown in glimpses along scenes, and in the actors’ faces. (Okay maybe just Kristen Stewart’s – her partner does not seem quite at par.) The more minute details of their affair are left as an exercise for the audience’s imaginations… or at least mine.
I also like the way vampires were portrayed, which was: like human beings! And why shouldn’t they act human-like, when they have been assimilating themselves into human society for the longest time? It is thankfully not like the HBO series True Blood where vampires were menacing weirdos with goth makeups. Not to say all vampires should be that way – it’s just refreshing to see something different for a change.
The third half developed into a sort-of chase, with Bad Guys and imminent danger and all that. I found it quite thrilling, and even THE fight sequence was very effective, in spite of being very brief. (Or perhaps, it is because of that briefness that it works.)
To summarize: Twilight was a fun movie to see. It very much reminds me of The Lost Boys, an old contemporary vampire film with a coming-of-age story and some humor thrown in. I love movies like that.
Hot Fuzz, and Being Bum
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008Having nothing to do for a month has started to take its toll. It’s quite amazing how having no daily purpose disrupts the psyche. It works wonders for the self-esteem – that is, in unforgivingly grabbing it by the collar, knocking it down, kicking it on the guts, and flattening it to the ground, and – just for fun – helping it back up again to its feet only to push it back onto a bottomless cliff.
I’m getting impatient. I got called for a part-time job for office IT guy, which isn’t exactly a challenge. But I think I’ll take it, just to add some mundaneity into my otherwise free-floating world. (Now I realize that life is harder when in sandbox mode – you have too many choices you end up getting crippled. The routine boringness of a day job solves that, helping you move around that preset framework, and actually enjoy life in the process.)
Now that I have all the time in the world, I try to do something creative, like make a new song, whatever. For some reason, inspiration comes really, really slow. I believe it is connected to my current self-deprecating feelings such as Useless and Terrible Waste of Space. But for what it’s worth, I will pursue. Sometimes you just have to keep poking on your muse until it stands up and says, “okay! okay! for godssakes and shut the hell up already!”
So I just go and watch stuff. TV shows… all favorites now on new seasons, plus exploring more potentially interesting ones. And watching movies. I just finished Hot Fuzz, made by the same team who did Shaun of the Dead. This time, the guys poke fun at Big Budget Hollywood movies, with Michael Bay flicks taking most of the brunt.
Most of the movie proceeds with only small traces of parody – such as the unusually frequent insertions of quick-cut montages and exaggerated sound effects and slow-motions – but otherwise goes through with its own voice. Thrown in is also a rather interesting murder mystery. But somewhere during the last third something happens, where it starts getting outrageous. From then on, moment by moment the absurdity of everything just keeps piling up, “homages” appear in increasing frequency, and just when you think it couldn’t get any more over-the-top, it actually does! And this happens some five times throughout!
The effect is absolutely hilarious. That whole stretch was quite a romp that is worth a review many times.
My Eraserheads Writeup
Sunday, August 31st, 2008A lot of my friends have written about the very much-anticipated Eraserheads reunion concert last night. The band was able to perform the first 15-song set, but was never able to come back for the second due to Ely Buendia needing to be rushed to the hospital. (Ely is fine now, I heard.)
I left a reply on my friend Paul’s own essay about the band, and ended up writing more than I intended. The following is basically just a copy-paste of that reply.
I think everyone is a fan of the E-heads, no exceptions – it’s just a matter of how big.
I’ve been lucky to have started out playing in a band at the same time the E-heads were just about making their first album. I got hold of lo-fi bootleg recordings of “Pare Ko”, “Tindahan ni Aling Nena”, etc. To me, they were the band that made popular the concept of Being-In-A-Band in the 90s.. To me, they (jump-) started the local rock scene that I now know today.
And allow me to relate this funny story I always tell my friends: I was in 2nd year high school and we watched the E-heads perform at some public school in Malabon (where i grew up). after the gig me and my bandmates had the chance to go backstage (in this case a classrom) to see the band and get autographs. Picture a bunch of prepubescent girls in close proximity of Hilary Duff or Avrile Lavigne and you have a good idea of our dispositions.
So I walk toward Buddy Zabala, he signs my whatever item I had (I think it was my handkerchief haha!), and I extend my hand to shake his. Unfortunately he missed this gesture and suffice to say failed to acknowledge it. I felt somewhat crushed and was embarrased as hell…
Ten years or so later, I shake hands with Buddy everytime we catch each other on gigs. He knows my name, we discuss bass guitars, gadgets and amplifier settings, and sample each other’s instruments.
If that’s not a fucking success story, then I don’t know what is!!!