Ah, the backlog. Whenever I become overwhelmed with how much I have to do, I turn to you. I pick one thing and run with it.
I've heard a lot of women say "I'm such a good multi-tasker", but not so many guys. Guys don’t admit to doing a lot of different things badly at once. They excel at doing one thing pretty goddamn mediocre, one lame attempt at a time.
That’s why, to me, the essence of the backlog is inherently male. It’s all things you’ve been meaning to do but never started. When you excel at multi tasking, you’ve started a lot of different projects and just left them in a really poor state. That’s not a backlog, that’s just half ass-ing it.
Take last night: I told my girlfriend I’d clean up the loft so company could stay. I instead started on a mix CD for her, and spent the better part of 45 minutes playing with tracks, play order, etc…
So when I finish, she catches me with this dear in the headlight look. I know I haven’t gotten to cleaning. I know she knows because the loft still looks like broken egg shells on dirt. Obviously I haven’t cleaned it up. Yet she asks anyway.
I might have just as well said it’s on my backlog.
Which is to say, “I remembered to think about it while I was doing this other thing.”
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Tuesday, October 06, 2009
Re: What horror movies I SAW
So what did I see? Hmmm... this is all I've got. I've posted trailers for some of them, but if you have any interest in seeing the movies I'd shy away. Trailers give away too much.
1) Best Horror Film - The Descent - Trailer -
A good horror film takes you to a place you don't want to go and shows you things you're not really in the mood to see. The Descent, a UK flick from 2006, starts with a woman losing her family and then works its way down -literally. Most of the action involves spelunking. There are some heavy themes, but it’s a nice change - they people don’t go crazy, they don’t break into rival factions, and they don’t split up to ‘investigate that noise’ one by one.
The focus of the movie is the main character and her attempts to recover. She’s trying to reconnect with her remaining friends. She’s hurting. She’s doing something she used to enjoy, but even that’s going wrong. It’s probably my favorite horror film because I care about these people.
2) Best Psychological Thriller - Bug
Ashely Judd is someone I often give crap to, so every once in a while -when I sober up - I remember how fearless she was in this film. Not every actress is willing to be photographed looking their worst, and it probably forgives her for every half baked movie she’s done. Michael Shannon, pre-Revolutionary Road, works wonders. He's a nobody, a drifter, a friend of her friend - but he's not creepy. They meet while partying and just stay up talking.
So they hang out again. They share secrets. They're people with problems, they're broken, but they connect. It's refreshing to see the front end of a meet-and-greet not cluttered with the obvious romance, or a thriller not about odd fetishes or privately stalking one another. There’s no twist ending. Everything builds.
You’ve really got to watch it in one sitting, uninterrupted. It start slow, but it needs to. That's how it goes when big things happen to normal people.
(pish-posh on that trailer, it keeps calling this film Horror)
3) Best Scary Soundtrack Score - Silent Hill / The Thing
I think an overly loud, pounding score takes away from what's scary. The new Friday the 13th remake had an amazing first twenty minutes. After the opening credits, it faltered. Every shock, scare, kill, and tease was punctuated by drums. It killed the suspense.
A good score should echo what’s on screen, and point out what I may not be seeing. If the killer’s running down a hall, then by all means use loud music. But until you break into a full on sprint, I want it to be a mystery about what’s going to happen. Both these scores have moments where nothing at all happens – I KNOW nothing is going to happen – and I still get scared.
The Thing (Theme)
4) Best Screen Slashing Villain – ‘The Masked Killer’ from Scream
Call me old fashion, but the ‘best’ screen slasher shouldn’t have supernatural powers. So that knocks my constant front runner Jason Vorhees off the list. He’s died and come back so many times it’s cheap, and it’s not fair to be pitted against a slasher unless you know they’re going to stay dead. Same goes for Freddy Krueger. He’s scary, but he’s not a slasher.
For me, it’s the first Scream movie. They lampoon an already tired genre, and it’s done well. The killer gives us creative deaths, playful dialogue, and gives us a proper mystery of whodunit proportions. Best of all, when it’s over the explanation is bullshit.
Slasher killers need to be crazy, and there’s no denying a proper lack of motivation in this one. Sure other films may offer better kills, but their killer is weighed down with motive: “Your forefathers killed my parents by kicking them off this land.” A slasher film killer should be the exact opposite of a well written character. It's technique alone that's appealing...
So that's all I got. How about you? Sound off below.
1) Best Horror Film - The Descent - Trailer -
A good horror film takes you to a place you don't want to go and shows you things you're not really in the mood to see. The Descent, a UK flick from 2006, starts with a woman losing her family and then works its way down -literally. Most of the action involves spelunking. There are some heavy themes, but it’s a nice change - they people don’t go crazy, they don’t break into rival factions, and they don’t split up to ‘investigate that noise’ one by one.
The focus of the movie is the main character and her attempts to recover. She’s trying to reconnect with her remaining friends. She’s hurting. She’s doing something she used to enjoy, but even that’s going wrong. It’s probably my favorite horror film because I care about these people.
2) Best Psychological Thriller - Bug
Ashely Judd is someone I often give crap to, so every once in a while -when I sober up - I remember how fearless she was in this film. Not every actress is willing to be photographed looking their worst, and it probably forgives her for every half baked movie she’s done. Michael Shannon, pre-Revolutionary Road, works wonders. He's a nobody, a drifter, a friend of her friend - but he's not creepy. They meet while partying and just stay up talking.
So they hang out again. They share secrets. They're people with problems, they're broken, but they connect. It's refreshing to see the front end of a meet-and-greet not cluttered with the obvious romance, or a thriller not about odd fetishes or privately stalking one another. There’s no twist ending. Everything builds.
You’ve really got to watch it in one sitting, uninterrupted. It start slow, but it needs to. That's how it goes when big things happen to normal people.
(pish-posh on that trailer, it keeps calling this film Horror)
3) Best Scary Soundtrack Score - Silent Hill / The Thing
I think an overly loud, pounding score takes away from what's scary. The new Friday the 13th remake had an amazing first twenty minutes. After the opening credits, it faltered. Every shock, scare, kill, and tease was punctuated by drums. It killed the suspense.
A good score should echo what’s on screen, and point out what I may not be seeing. If the killer’s running down a hall, then by all means use loud music. But until you break into a full on sprint, I want it to be a mystery about what’s going to happen. Both these scores have moments where nothing at all happens – I KNOW nothing is going to happen – and I still get scared.
The Thing (Theme)
4) Best Screen Slashing Villain – ‘The Masked Killer’ from Scream
Call me old fashion, but the ‘best’ screen slasher shouldn’t have supernatural powers. So that knocks my constant front runner Jason Vorhees off the list. He’s died and come back so many times it’s cheap, and it’s not fair to be pitted against a slasher unless you know they’re going to stay dead. Same goes for Freddy Krueger. He’s scary, but he’s not a slasher.
For me, it’s the first Scream movie. They lampoon an already tired genre, and it’s done well. The killer gives us creative deaths, playful dialogue, and gives us a proper mystery of whodunit proportions. Best of all, when it’s over the explanation is bullshit.
Slasher killers need to be crazy, and there’s no denying a proper lack of motivation in this one. Sure other films may offer better kills, but their killer is weighed down with motive: “Your forefathers killed my parents by kicking them off this land.” A slasher film killer should be the exact opposite of a well written character. It's technique alone that's appealing...
So that's all I got. How about you? Sound off below.