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ALSO. You can use this space to re-ask me questions you asked me before that I failed to answer because I was too busy (but now might not be). That is often the reason I fail to get back to people, and on a blog, after a few days, the comments thread dies and I just kind of forget about it. Let's use this space to fix that, because it does need to be fixed; I look like a jackass sometimes, leaving people hanging. I will TRY to respond to any questions here.
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13 comments:
Since I have two children, the majority of the TV time is dedicated to children's programming. One of the trailers on the new Jungle Book DVD is for a movie called Enchanted, where a cartoon prince/princess/animal sidekick/witch are transported to "our" world. That alone seems rife with meta-fictional delight. What I'm hoping for is this: from the trailer, every time someone starts to sing, they're cut off somehow. This would be absolutely priceless as a running gag as well as a comment on how silly straight-ahead musicals can be (no chance for suspension of disbelief.)
It's sooo sad that I've been waiting since Sunday for Free Form Comment Day to throw this baby up.
That "please don't sing" gag appeared in the first Shreck, unfortunately. I did actually have a slight interest in Enchanted, however, if only because I love James Marsden -- of Ally McBeal, Superman, and X-Men fame.
there's an interesting article this week on the n+1 site about "pervert's guide" :
http://nplusonemag.com/
"Gender politics aside, in an era when the notion of a viable public intellectual has faded even faster than the notion of a viable public sphere, Fiennes and Zizek have stepped forward to provide the age with precisely what it demands: a mediated public intellectual who speaks to an inevitably mediated public sphere. It’s a potentially reinvigorating aesthetic development for criticism and theory, but it could also prove catastrophic."
I have not had a chance to read the article yet, but bring on the catastrophe I say.
Since I'm living the expat life, I'm relying on news and various academics for information on the impact of the writers' strike. Since you made mention of it already, I'd like to get your two cents.
What's your take on the whole situation? How has the day-to-day flow of televisual texts changed?
Actually I have not really been keeping up with the whole thing. But Sara likes to freak me out by telling me that Lost will only be 8 episodes or will not be coming back. So that is basically all I know about it. Does anyone else want to weigh in or give us some useful links?
I do not have time to look at this now but Neil found a LOST thing for us
I was actually just about to post that link here. (For whatever reason, it slipped my mind to do that right away.)
Am I the only academic-y person who can't stand Lost? At conferences, I almost feel left out, but I can't bring myself to be interested in (and not hypercritical of) it.
If anyone else is interested, sitcom writer Ken Levine has been writing about the strike on his blog. Yesterday's post was in the form of a Simpsons script. There's also this post on Jason Mittell's blog.
The Enchanted movie is freakin' funny. So unexpected, not like the commercial. Saw it for free months ago in Regal on 66th. Please watch it, take your kids (borrow someone's kid) and see it.
Jen -- maybe in a comment to a future post you can let us know why you don't like it. I myself am always up for a good debate.
Anon: thanks!
Enchanted: My wife really wants to see it, so I'll probably end up going. It doesn't look terrible, but I think it's weird how postmodern and self-referential kids' movies are getting lately. I used to love that sort of thing, but I think I might be getting tired of it. I guess I prefer it to have a point, like in Morrison's Animal Man, rather than just for the sake of jokes, like in Shrek.
Writers' strike: the consequences of this haven't really caught up to regular TV shows yet, but talk shows are already in reruns. I'm going to be jonesing for some Daily Show and Colbert Report soon. But I don't think it's really a tragedy or anything; we go all summer without new shows, right? Writers deserve to not get screwed, so I'm with them.
Geoff,
I was out of town all weekend so I couldn't meet your challenge for Free-Form comments at High Noon.
Damn it! Now I look like a coward.
Sucks! I do want to see you tear apart "Sky High" sometime, though; that sounds like fun.
You're right about "Unbreakable," though. It doesn't have a lot of humor (although I do remember some funny bits -- Bruce Willis' deadpan reaction to his seemingly lack of a limit on how much weight he can lift; the comicbook store owner's reaction to Samuel Jackson crashing around his store).
But the lack of excess is a strength of the film, I think, precisely because it is so counterintuitive. But I see your point. It would probably be more accurate for me to say that "Unbreakable"/"Mystery Men" is my favorite superhero film, because I see them both as two ends of the spectrum. "Unbreakable" is, to me, the perfect superhero-origin film. (Superhero origins are often sparse rather than excessive, and dark rather than fun.)
"Mystery Men" meanwhile is the perfect and ultimate full-on superhero-universe movie. Just a big old mish-mash of aesthetics existing in one universe, superheroes everywhere, a team of characters with no real unifying theme other than that they are all on a team together. And they fight all the time, and there is sexual tension, and a lot of jokes and violence, etc.
If I had the power to do so, I would declare "Unbreakable" and "Mystery Men" to officially take place in the same universe, except that "Unbreakable" takes place 50 years earlier.
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