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Jan. 14th, 2005 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexsarllBy the end of yesterday, as some of the evidence online may suggest, I was feeling utterly anhedonic. Suspecting that nothing would fill the emptiness I adopted my usual policy for such moods - ensure you don't spend any money not having fun, and ensure you don't take anyone else down with you. Nonetheless, I was at something of a loose end what to do with the evening, knowing that I would inevitably take against whatever book I tried to read or film I tried to watch.
It turns out that for all my grand melancholic posturings, the gnawing emptiness was soon allayed with Sainsbury's Tomato & Three Bean Soup*. Self-dramatisation there, marvellous.
So having established that I was indeed still capable of enjoyment, I finished the Love & Rockets collection Blood of Palomar. Much darker than any of Gilbert's previous contributions, especially at its denouement, where the death and intimations of apocalypse are centred around the Twin Towers. I believe this was first published in 1988. This makes at least the third WTC/Armageddon precursor I've seen in comics. The sad thing is that even when this parallel does manage a passable approximation of a supervillain, he's still not a patch on Despero or Galvatron.
(On which note, Newsnight had some bods weilding pictures of Ayatollah Sistani last night and I initially thought it was Khomeini. Is it racist to think that all Ayatollahs look the same?)
I also watched Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. For some reason I'd been expecting a bit of a disappointment, but I was clearly misinformed. It would be hard for a film starring John Cusack and Kevin Spacey to fail, and this doesn't; Jude Law as a white trash Bosie is an added bonus. The air of Deep South gentility pushed that little bit further into insanity is brilliantly maintained, and I'm always a sucker for films based on true stories which mess around with that status. As in 24 Hour Party People, some characters play themselves while others play someone else. The more of this sort of stuff we get, the sooner the boundaries between fact and fiction will collapse completely. I also thought the moral ambiguity was very well-handled; having both sides in a trial perjured could come across as a little trite, but here it's handled more with weary resignation than cliches of outrage and redemption. Similarly, the approach to homophobia is interesting; Cusack's character is outraged that Spacey may well end up hanging for his sexuality, and clearly finds it distasteful that the defence is obliged to play to the jury's prejudices, harness them, rather than defy them. However, he's distinctly freaked out by transvestite attentions himself. More worryingly, there are no gay kisses in the film itself, even at the one point where the camera has to make an effort not to show it. Hmmm.
[Poll #418297]
(I shall almost certainly be at Drinkme, but am less sure about the other two. I feel much less ill, but am still not exactly firing on all cylinders, so distant realms may not be reached. On top of which, much as I love Alexander's Festival Hall, the NotArt Club is one of my absolute least favourite venues)
*This is not a paid endorsement - it's just really nice soup. But if anyone from Sainsbury's happens to be reading this and feels like sending me a crate of the stuff, I'll be sure to mention it more often. The same goes for the manufacturers of other products I use, in particular applewood smoked cheddar, Walkers Max Salt & Vinegar and Booze TM.
It turns out that for all my grand melancholic posturings, the gnawing emptiness was soon allayed with Sainsbury's Tomato & Three Bean Soup*. Self-dramatisation there, marvellous.
So having established that I was indeed still capable of enjoyment, I finished the Love & Rockets collection Blood of Palomar. Much darker than any of Gilbert's previous contributions, especially at its denouement, where the death and intimations of apocalypse are centred around the Twin Towers. I believe this was first published in 1988. This makes at least the third WTC/Armageddon precursor I've seen in comics. The sad thing is that even when this parallel does manage a passable approximation of a supervillain, he's still not a patch on Despero or Galvatron.
(On which note, Newsnight had some bods weilding pictures of Ayatollah Sistani last night and I initially thought it was Khomeini. Is it racist to think that all Ayatollahs look the same?)
I also watched Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. For some reason I'd been expecting a bit of a disappointment, but I was clearly misinformed. It would be hard for a film starring John Cusack and Kevin Spacey to fail, and this doesn't; Jude Law as a white trash Bosie is an added bonus. The air of Deep South gentility pushed that little bit further into insanity is brilliantly maintained, and I'm always a sucker for films based on true stories which mess around with that status. As in 24 Hour Party People, some characters play themselves while others play someone else. The more of this sort of stuff we get, the sooner the boundaries between fact and fiction will collapse completely. I also thought the moral ambiguity was very well-handled; having both sides in a trial perjured could come across as a little trite, but here it's handled more with weary resignation than cliches of outrage and redemption. Similarly, the approach to homophobia is interesting; Cusack's character is outraged that Spacey may well end up hanging for his sexuality, and clearly finds it distasteful that the defence is obliged to play to the jury's prejudices, harness them, rather than defy them. However, he's distinctly freaked out by transvestite attentions himself. More worryingly, there are no gay kisses in the film itself, even at the one point where the camera has to make an effort not to show it. Hmmm.
[Poll #418297]
(I shall almost certainly be at Drinkme, but am less sure about the other two. I feel much less ill, but am still not exactly firing on all cylinders, so distant realms may not be reached. On top of which, much as I love Alexander's Festival Hall, the NotArt Club is one of my absolute least favourite venues)
*This is not a paid endorsement - it's just really nice soup. But if anyone from Sainsbury's happens to be reading this and feels like sending me a crate of the stuff, I'll be sure to mention it more often. The same goes for the manufacturers of other products I use, in particular applewood smoked cheddar, Walkers Max Salt & Vinegar and Booze TM.
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9/11 Comic precursors
Date: 2005-01-14 12:51 pm (UTC)Re: 9/11 Comic precursors
Date: 2005-01-14 12:53 pm (UTC)Re: 9/11 Comic precursors
Date: 2005-01-14 12:57 pm (UTC)Re: 9/11 Comic precursors
Date: 2005-01-14 01:00 pm (UTC)Re: 9/11 Comic precursors
Date: 2005-01-14 01:00 pm (UTC)Re: 9/11 Comic precursors
Date: 2005-01-14 01:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 12:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 12:54 pm (UTC)Anyway, how come you only noticed this now? I've been whining about it since Tuesday!
no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 12:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 01:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-14 06:28 pm (UTC):)
Hope you feel completely recovered soon!
no subject
Date: 2005-01-17 10:51 am (UTC)