Michael Moore's Slacker Uprising

Michael Moore's new movie has been released today. It has been made available to watch or download for free, the first full-length feature film of the kind, on www.slackeruprising.com. Here's the statement by Mr. Moore:

"I'm giving you my blanket permission to not only download it, but also to email it, burn it, and share it with anyone and everyone (in the U.S. and Canada only). I want you to use 'Slacker Uprising' in any way you see fit to help with the election or to do the work that you do in your community. You can show my film in your local theater, your high school classroom, your college auditorium, your church, union hall or community center. You can have your friends and neighbors over to the house for a viewing. You can broadcast it on TV, on cable access, on regular channels or on the web. It's completely free -- I don't want to see a dime from this. And if you want, you can charge admission or ask for a donation if it's to raise money for a candidate, a voter drive, or for any non-profit or educational purpose. In other words -- it's yours!"

I just finished watching it. It's about Moore's 2004 Slacker Uprising Tour during which he spoke at 62 key cities during the 2004 presidential campaign and tried to rally people to get out and vote. Sounds boring? It's not. There is plenty of comedy and music to liven it up. At many appearances Moore gave out Ramen noodles and clean underwear to any 'slacker' who registered and pledged to vote in the Nov. 2nd, 2004 election, and there are appearances by many familiar faces: Eddie Vedder, Joan Baez, Roseanne Barr, Tom Morello, R.E.M., and others, singing songs, and giving their opinion.

This movie is well worth the watch. It nearly brought tears to my eyes many times, and not because it is sad or depressing, but because of the compassion, love for humankind, and sincere desire for change that Moore and many of the everyday people who are interviewed show.

Take some time and watch this movie. For those of you who have preconceived notions about Michael Moore and what he is about, put those aside for an hour and a half and watch this movie, before judging. Say what you will about Moore (he most certainly is fat), he is fighting the good fight: for peace, for compassion, for justice, and for true democracy.

And, oh yeah, vote.

Kings of Leon: Only by the Night

So, Kings of Leon are releasing their fourth album on September 23rd.

Reading many Itunes reviews of the new singles "Crawl" and "Sex on Fire," as well as past reviews of the other three albums, I noticed that there seem to be two opposing camps in regards to how the Kings' albums have been received. The first are the people who absolutely loved Youth and Young Manhood, the first album, loved Aha Shake Heartbreak, the second, and then began to wonder if something terrible wasn't happening to one of their favorite bands on the third album, Because of the Times. These are the folks that will be ready to throw Only By the Night out the window of a moving vehicle about half way through.

The opposing side thinks that Kings of Leon are only getting better with each album. It is no surprise that this side is the majority, as the albums are progressively getting more commercial-friendly and M.O.R. (That's Middle Of the Road to non-Blur fans.)

I don't have to tell you that I subscribe to the former.

It turns out that Because of the Times was the bad omen it seemed to be. Only by the Night is more of the same. The music is monotonous. The lyrics are lacking in creativity. The amazing voice is the only sign that this is even the same band who formerly sang inventive songs about drugs, transvestites, and murder. Is this the same guy who once decried 'California waiting?' Now he sings trite lines about loosening his tie.

I don't want to be too hard though. It's hard to say what I would think of this album had I never heard of Kings of Leon before. I doubt it would take over my life the way Youth and Young Manhood did. I'm sure many people will like this album, and it does have its moments, so definitely check it out if you have the time. It's decent straight forward rock, if you don't pay too much attention to the lyrics. Don't expect anything too cutting edge though, they want to be arena rockers, and creativity never went far for that.

Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls

Well, when the internet starts working in my apartment properly I will post a picture of the cover of this 1842 Russian novel I just finished: Dead Souls, by Nikolai Gogol. . . alright, there.

The story is not as morbid as the title may lead one to believe. It is about a man, Chichikov, who is travelling across the Russian countryside trying to convince a variety of landowners to sell him their 'dead souls.' Serfdom was common practice in Russia until they were emancipated in 1861. The Russian equivalent of the word 'souls' was commonly used to designate serfs that were tied to the land. It's like, "Hey, how many souls does so-and-so have on his farm?" Chichikov's idea, an illegal one, is to attempt to buy up the serfs that have died within the past year who have not been taken off the census list. He hopes to buy them cheaply, really buying nothing but the written deed, and to mortgage them for a profit. Smart guy.

Really the focus of the novel is the variety of Russian landholders that Chichikov meets as he tries to carry out this plan, each one seems to personify a different vice. You have the lazy one, the cheat, the greedy one, the glutton, and so on; it is a satire on many different types of folk.

It's worth the read, about 400 pages. It's a classic in Russia. Gogol influenced many later writers, Dostoevsky especially. His style is enjoyable, different from your normal straight forward storytelling. It feels loose and lively. If you aren't interested in reading something so lengthy, I would recommend reading a few of Gogol's short stories. Some of the best known are: Diary of a Madman, The Nose, and The Overcoat. These are quite entertaining and can be read easily in one sitting. In The Nose, a man wakes one morning to discover a human nose in a loaf of bread. Why? He doesn't know. Another man suddenly discovers his own nose is missing. Why? Not sure. A talking nose appears at one point and explains it all. Ghosts, witches, a talking nose, all make for a fun ride/read. If you only have time for one though, check out The Overcoat. I won't give too much away, but it's well worth your time. A poor guy wants a new overcoat. Coats are important in Russia. Something happens to him. It's only thirty pages. You must have time for that. Read it, let me know what you think.

The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw, one hundred pages in this edition, is Henry James' best known novella. Ostensibly a ghost story, it tells the tale of a governess sent to a house to take care of two children. After being at the house for a few days she begins to see dead people that she believes are communicating with the children. It's pretty straight forward with a decent twist at the end. Check it out if you please.

I liked this story, but, having never read anything else by James, I was more impressed with James' unique style of prose. I look forward to reading another of his works. His most well known novels are: The Portrait of a Lady, The Ambassadors, and The Wings of the Dove. He wrote many though.

His brother, William James, was also a famous intellectual. He was a well known American philosopher and psychologist who taught on a wide variety of subjects, from anatomy to philosophy and psychology, at Harvard, beginning in 1873. One of William's most widely acclaimed works is The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study of Human Nature, a psychological look at the various ways that people approach and are affected by religion. It is listed as No. 2 on the Modern Library's critics list of the top 100 nonfiction books of the 20th Century, so, if you are in the mood for some nonfiction and are interested in taking a deeper look at religion, check this book out also.

The Idiot

Completed in 1868, The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky, is a novel about a "positively beautiful individual." This is what Dostoevsky set out to create in the character of Prince Myshkin, an idiot, so-called because he is such an innocent and kind person that he plays the fool within this Russian society full of liars, drunks, cheats, and murderers.

Myshkin, like Dostoevsky himself, is epileptic. His epileptic fits are preceded by moments of enlightenment/clarity, in which Myshkin is ultra-receptive to the beauty of the world. In Prince Myshkin, it has been said, Dostoevsky was trying to create a new "Russian Christ." In this Russian society, obsessed with money and murder, Myshkin stands out. He is routinely lied to, tricked, and taken advantage of. One of the themes of the novel is this: how can this perfectly good human being operate within such a corrupted society?

Although the main character is a modern day saint, Dostoevsky still packs the novel with all varieties of riff-raff, his speciality. Some of the best scenes in the book involve Rogozhin, Myshkin's foil. This character represents the opposite of Myshkin, evil. He hides under dark staircases to watch people pass. He sneaks into people's rooms, sits in the dark, stares at them while they are in bed, says not a word, and slinks out again.

The novel begins with Myshkin meeting Rogozhin on a train and ends with Myshkin and Rogozhin together again for one of the most jaw-dropping endings to a novel I have yet to read. Check it out. There are many wonderful scenes. It's well worth your time.

One Day as a Lion

Zach de la Rocha is back and, yes, still pissed off. Who could blame him though? One Day as a Lion is a five song EP. The band consists of De la and the former drummer for Mars Volta. It's pretty good, sounds a lot like Rage Against the Machine. If your a fan, I bet you will like it. And that's all I have to say about that.

Notes from Underground

The first of a few Dostoevsky novels that I will be talking about is Notes from Underground, 1864. If you have never read a book written by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the famous Russian writer, consider your life incomplete. Thanks in large part to the works of Dostoevsky, Russia can boast to have produced some of the world's greatest works of fiction. The two biggest names being: Tolstoy (War and Peace, Anna Karenina), and Dostoevsky, our topic of conversation.

Dostoevsky's novels are dark, stygian; no sunshine and lollipops here. This is a large part of what makes them so enjoyable. The characters all suffer from flaws, desires, disturbed thoughts, and dark secrets, some much darker than others. The unnamed narrator of Notes from Underground is no exception. This character is a man who has found it hard to participate normally in society, and who now spends a majority of his time in self-sequesterment, underground.

The novella (short novel, the book is only 130 pages, all the more reason to pick it up) is divided into two sections. The first section consists of the narrator's half-crazy, half-genius ramblings (there is pleasure in a toothache) about life, his life, the way people tend to look at life, and the errors he sees in the way people live and look at life. Some claim this to be the first "existentialist" novel. What does that mean? It's a way of looking at the world. Here's the American Heritage Dictionary's definition:

Existentialism - n. A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe, regards human existence as unexplainable, and stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's acts

Makes sense. In the second section of the novella the narrator describes a few experiences that have strengthened his distaste for society. He tries to assert himself by planning to walk past an officer who had previously offended him, and to not give way at all when passing him. I'm sure you know what it feels like to be the one who moves out of the way first when someone is walking past you in close quarters, demasculating maybe. The narrator decides he is not going to move this time; he is not going to be the one to submit. He dwells on this and plans, attempts, fails, and tries again. As you can see, this character is not a nice person, and is definately neurotic. The way he explains himself, though, you can not help but empathize. The other events in the second section are him, with his old highschool buddies, whom he now hates, and who all feel basically the same way about him, and him befriending/tormenting a prostitute. These are more developed than the first, but you will have to read it yourself to find out what happens. It's good.

Hopefully this has piqued your interest in this short novel. It is a quick read and pays off ten to twenty-fold. You will want to reread it for the rest of your life.

More Dostoevsky to come. . .

Labor Day

O.K., I'm back, after the protracted Labor Day weekend. It was a good one, spent having fun, playing Wii, watching Flight of the Conchords for the fortieth time, playing more Wii, playing Apples to Apples, eating copious amounts of Mexican food, watching Spartacus and Chinatown, reading The Idiot, a little drinking, and basically just having fun with my wife, my sister, and my brother-in-law.
The theme album for the weekend was most definately the new Fleet Foxes album. It has now taken over all my listening time. I really liked this album right off the bat when I got it a month or more ago, but I hadn't fully absorbed it until now; now I love it and listen to it everyday. It has fantastic harmonies, melodies, voices, sounds like a modern day CSNY, a little bit. The album has a very rustic, pastoral sound; you can hear the beards throughout. It sounds like the outdoors, grass, trees, rivers, nature, you know, I'm sure you remember it from when you were little. The Renaissance painting, Netherlandish Proverbs, 1559, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder graces the cover and does a good job of representing the album's feel. Do yourself a favor and listen to it. So far one of the best albums of the year; one of my favorites of all time.

More Roman Quotes

Seneca, born around 8 B.C., is shown here in this Italian painting from 1684, dying. He was ordered by the Roman emperor Nero to kill himself. Seneca died a slow death; he bled himself. This is what is happening in this painting: Seneca is speaking his last words of wisdom as the blood is slowly draining from the open veins in his legs and arms. Notice the vessel under his leg collecting the blood, and the scribes writing down this famous philosopher's last words. This was a long slow death: after the bleeding didn't seem to be working, Seneca attempted to die by poisoning himself, this didn't work either. He eventually died after placing himself in a hot pool of water in order to open the veins and help encourage the flow of blood. It is written that he finally died from the steam off the water.

You can tell by the look on Seneca's face that he is not a philosopher to be worried much by his imminent death. He appears to be more concerned with getting his point across. Seneca died according to his own stoic philosophy, which taught controlling your emotions. Look into it if you are interested. In the meantime here's a few Senecan quotes:

"All art is but imitation of nature."
"It is a rough road that leads to the heights of greatness."

Everyone knows that, but pay special attention to these:

"A great fortune is a great slavery."
"It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor."

And my favorite:

"It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing."

True, right?

Sir Thomas More's Utopia

Sir Thomas More finished writing Utopia in 1516, nearly 500 years ago. The word utopia derives its origin from this work. A utopia is an ideal society, and this is what More attempts to describe: an imagined perfect society.

This is another short but pithy read that I would highly recommend. Be warned: it's a depressing return trip from Utopia back to today's society. Here's some of my favorite parts:

"For instance, the Utopians fail to understand why anyone should be so fascinated by the dull gleam of a tiny bit of stone, when he has all the stars in the sky to look at - or how anyone can be silly enough to think himself better than other people, because his clothes are made of finer woollen thread than theirs. After all, those fine clothes were once worn by a sheep, and they never turned it into anything better than a sheep."

"But what puzzles and disgusts the Utopians even more is the idiotic way some people have of practically worshipping a rich man, not because they owe him money or are otherwise in his power, but simply because he's rich - although they know perfectly well that he's far too mean to let a single penny come their way, so long as he's alive to stop it."

"And now, what about those people who accumulate superfluous wealth, for no better purpose than to enjoy looking at it? Is their pleasure a real one, or merely a form of delusion?"

"What, they ask, is the good of a treaty? Aren't all human beings natural allies already? And if a person's prepared to ignore a fundamental bond like that, is he likely to pay much attention to a mere form of words?"

"For, according to the Utopians, it's quite unjust for anyone to be bound by a legal code which is too long for an ordinary person to read right through, or too difficult for him to understand."

"They think no one should be regarded as an enemy who hasn't done you any harm. Human nature constitutes a treaty in itself, and human beings are far more effectively united by kindness than by contracts, by feelings than by words."

"Finally, let me tell you about their religious ideas. There are several different religions on the island, and indeed in each town. . .However, the vast majority take the much more sensible view that there is a single divine power, unknown, eternal, infinite, inexplicable, and quite beyond the grasp of the human mind, diffused throughout this universe of ours, not as a physical substance, but as an active force."

"Nobody owns anything, but everyone is rich - for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?"

"In fact, when I consider any social system that prevails in the modern world, I can't, so help me God, see it as anything but a conspiracy of the rich to advance their own interests under the pretext of organizing society. They think up all sorts of tricks and dodges, first for keeping safe their ill-gotten gains, and then for exploiting the poor by buying their labour as cheaply as possible."

Wow!! Sound familiar? 500 years ago was not that long ago really.

Sorry for any typos. Oh yeah, and The Shins mention Sir Thomas More on the song "So Says I" on the Chutes Too Narrow album. Here's the line:

"Cause this is nothing like we'd ever dreamt/Tell Sir Thomas More we got another failed attempt/Cause if it makes them money they might just give you life this time"

It's a good song, Utopia is a great piece of writing, check 'em out. . .The two of you who might read this.

Olympic Volleyball

is fun to watch. Beach or Indoor. . . don't matter much to me. It should be a professional sport. . .it is, I know. . .you know what I mean though. It should be on TV more, right? Like 'the big 4' sports. I'm sure everyone can name them. F/B/B/H. Yes, hockey. I mean there's got to be some other stuff going on that they could show. . .instead of hockey, or the other three for that matter. Other sports. . .that you aren't even aware of existing until the Olympics roll around. They don't sell, I guess. Well, of course that's the reason, but come on. . .something different occasionaly would be nice.

I mean seriously, they spike the hell out of the ball nearly every play. Play or whatever it's called. . .run. . .I don't know, doesn't matter. The spike in volleyball is something cool that you can kind of look forward to seeing when you watch sports. . .and it happens nearly every play. It's like the homerun in baseball, the slamdunk in basketball, or the showboat in football.

To me, watching sports is more about the specific game being played right at the moment, not about becoming obsessed with one team or one player, tracking the stats, making up inane comparisons and what-if scenarios involving both. Who cares? Half of it comes down to chance anyway. I like sports. . .don't get me wrong. . .but for what they are. If you are playing the sport, I can see how you could become obsessed with it, but if you have nothing at all to do with it. . .calm down about it. 'Your team lost. . .oh well. . .it's not about winning or losing, it's about how you play the game, right? So, since you had nothing to do with either, don't fret. . .just watch it. . .or don't. . .either way.

Read below.

Albert Camus' The Stranger

The Stranger by Albert Camus, published in 1942, is also a very short novel. To anyone who has not read this book, I would highly recommend it. Albert Camus is famous for only a few works, all of which are worth your time. He has: The Plague, The Fall, The Stranger, and a collection of short stories called Exile and the Kingdom. He also wrote a couple of well known essays: The Rebel, and The Myth of Sisyphus. These have all been translated, mind you; Camus wrote in French. . .because he was French, born in Algeria though, where the novel is set.

I would recommend all three of these novels, as well as the collection of short stories. None of the four books are very long. The Stranger is about a man who really has a problem finding any kind of meaning in life. Camus' philosophy, though, personified by Meursault, is coldly comforting. Read it and you will know what I mean. Honestly, this book takes about 2-3 hours to read, total. . .if that. In the mean time here is a funny little story from within the novel:

"One day, when inspecting my straw mattress, I found a bit of newspaper stuck to its underside. The paper was yellow with age, almost transparent, but I could still make out the letter print. It was the story of a crime. The first part was missing, but I gathered that its scene was some village in Czechoslovakia. One of the villagers had left his home to try his luck abroad. After twenty-five years, having made a fortune, he returned to his country with his wife and child. Meanwhile his mother and sister had been running a small hotel in the village where he was born. He decided to give them a surprise and, leaving his wife and child in another inn, he went to stay at his mother's place, booking a room under an assumed name. His mother and sister completely failed to recognize him. At dinner that evening he showed them a large sum of money he had on him, and in the course of the night they slaughtered him with a hammer. After taking the money they flung the body into the river. Next morning his wife came and, without thinking, betrayed the guest's identity. His mother hanged herself. His sister threw herself into a well. I must have read that story thousands of times. In one way it sounded most unlikely; in another, it was plausible enough. Anyhow, to my mind, the man was asking for trouble; one shouldn't play fool tricks of that sort."

Animal Farm

George Orwell's Animal Farm was written during World War II. It is really short, about 130 pages in my edition. The story is one of an animal uprising at a farm. It is symbolic of the Communist uprising in Russia. Nearly each animal has a counterpart from real-life. Napoleon the pig = Stalin. Snowball the pig = Trotsky. Neighbor farmer No. 1 = Hitler. And so forth. Get the whole list on Wikipedia if you decide to read the book.

On Animal Farm, the animals decide to revolt and to create a communal system on the farm. The pigs are put in charge. Just read it. It's so short. It's a good rundown on what happened in Russia, and why, supposedly, Communism can not work.

Recent Reading, Part Three: Herman Melville's Typee

Herman Melville's first book, Typee, is a story about adventure on the Polynesian islands. It's only about 250 pages. Read it if you liked Moby Dick. If you haven't read Moby Dick this book could serve as a good introduction to Melville's style. Depending on your vocabulary you may want to have a dictionary handy. Melville writes flamboyantly. To me, it's fun to read.

After the adventure of reaching the natives ends, the book is mainly about the lifestyle of the Polynesian cannibals. Here's a quote describing one aspect:

"There were none of those thousand sources of irritation that the ingenuity of civilized man has created to mar his own felicity. There were no forclosures of mortgages, no protested notes, no bills payable, no debts of honor in Typee; no unreasonable tailors and shoemakers, perversely bent on being paid; no duns of any description; no assault and battery attorneys, to foment discord, backing their clients up to a quarrel, and then knocking their heads together; no poor relations, everlastingly occupying the spare bed-chamber, and diminishing the elbow room at the family table; no destitute widows with their children starving on the cold charities of the world; no beggars; no debtors' prisons; no proud and hard-hearted nabobs in Typee; or to sum up all in one word--no Money! "That root of all evil" was not to be found in the valley.

In this secluded abode of happiness there were no cross old women, no cruel step-dames, no withered spinsters, no love-sick maidens, no sour old bachelors, no inattentive husbands, no melancholy young men, no blubbering youngsters, and no squalling brats. All was mirth, fun, and high good humor. Blue devils, hypochondria, and doleful dumps, went and hid themselves among the nooks and crannies of the rocks"

Ah, to be a "savage"

The Shins: Wincing the Night Away

is one of the best albums I have ever heard. . .really. Maybe I am behind everyone else on realizing this; I just started listening to it a month or so ago. It took me a little while to really get into it, aside from Phantom Limb, the first single, but now that I have, I love it. Its all I have been listening to lately. I can't get enough. Great lyrics, greater melodies, awesome drumming. Seriously, get it, listen to it three or four times, and you will love it too. Maybe you already do. Was there a better album last year? I since have gotten the previous two Shins' albums. They are good, but this album blows them away. Listen to it and let me know what you think.

Recent Reading, Part Two: Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf

Written in German and published in 1927, Hermann Hesse's tenth novel, not a biography of the lukewarm band that brought us such classic rock radio hits as 'Born To Be Wild' and 'Magic Carpet Ride,' is decent. It's only 250 pages. It's about a guy who envisions himself as having a psyche that is divided in two. One side can cope in society and the other side, the wolfish side, can not deal with the world and longs to commit suicide. Throughout the novel, the boundaries of fantasy are routinely crossed, especially the ending, the most entertaining part of the book, in which Harry 'Steppenwolf' Haller is described as being in a 'Magic Theater' where he can step through any of thousands of various doors and live out various scenarios. These include a shoot-em-up war scene and an encounter with a chessman who explains life as being chess pieces that are forever being rearranged. By the way, Steppenwolf is a German word that means 'coyote,' literally 'wolf of the steppes.' Some words in English related:

lycanthropy (noun): 1. a delusion in which one imagines oneself to be a wolf or other wild animal.
2. the supposed or fabled assumption of the appearance of a wolf by a human being.

lupine (adjective): pertaining to or resembling the wolf; wolflife; wolfish

Not a bad book, however, if you are going to read something written by Hermann Hesse, I would definately recommend reading Siddhartha first. This seemed to me to be the better book, and it's even shorter. It's a book about the main character, Siddharta's, quest for enlightment. Siddhartha was the birth name of Buddha (so Wikipedia tells me), and the novel is set in 6th Century B.C. India. Whether or not Siddhartha is supposed to be Buddha himself in the novel, I don't know. Buddhist philosophy, however, still abounds.

It's a very good book. Thom Yorke likes it and used it for inspiration on at least a couple of songs on the Amnesiac album, most plainly heard in the lyrics to 'Pyramid Song.' So all you Radiohead fans out there, check it out. Quick read, read it in one sitting, beside a river, honestly. It gives you a good feeling. You'll thank me later.

Recent Reading, Part One: Ivan Turgenev's Fathers and Sons

Sometimes, in order to help stanch the boredom that may consume you when you set out to tackle a novel, it helps to read more than one book at a time. Read for a certain amount of time, or a certain number of pages in one book, then before you die of boredom, switch to something else. It is an easy way to refresh your straining attention span. Then, before you know it you will not only have read one book, but a couple, or a few, or twenty.

Recently I have been reading three novels, reading fifty pages in one, then the next, then the third, then back to the first for the next fifty. These novels range from 200-250 pages each, so I was hoping to be done in five days, reading fifty in each every day. I don't always get to all three, so it has taken a couple weeks, but I feel fairly satisfied if I get through at least fifty in at least one. The three novels:
Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev
Typee by Hermann Melville
Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

I know what you are thinking. . .two guys named Herman. This was not intentional and did not occur to me until after I began. Interesting comparison can ensue when doing this.

So, the first one I have finished, also the shortest (200 pages in my copy) was Fathers and Sons, a Russian novel, translated, written around 1862. It is a well known Russian novel; some even consider it one of the first of the genre, along with Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, one of the next on my list.

It was good. I would recommend it as a good introduction to Russian lit. It's mainly about the generational divide between the characters in the novel, and how they deal with the nihilistic beliefs of one of the main characters, Bazarov, who is representative of an incipient way of thinking in Russia. Check it out, if you are so inclined. It's a quick read.
incipient (adjective): beginning to exist or appear; in an initial stage: an incipient cold.

By the way, I just caught the Hold Steady on Letterman while typing this. Find a way to hear their new album. Good stuff.

Part Two: Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf, coming soon.

Felice Brothers

Waterspider. If you can find this song in mp3 format, let me know.


There's a time to give 'em hell
and a time to wish 'em well.

T.S. Eliot

I know asking someone, 'What are some of your favorite poems?' is about the equivalent of asking, 'What's your CB handle?' or 'How many 8-track cassettes do you have?' Poetry is dead, I know. It used to be big, when information could only be passed by word of mouth or writing. Now people can record themselves, so all the poets sing. No exceptions....just kidding. I'm sure there are a lot of exceptions, but let's face it: poetry is boring. It can be anyhow. Sometimes it can be pretty cool though. For instance, this poem by T.S. Eliot.

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Kind of like a song. This poem is like the Stairway to Heaven or Bohemain Rhapsody of poetry. I mean it changes its style and form numerous times. It's got the whole 'In the room the women come and go/Talking of Michelanglelo' part. Kind of like a chorus. Some of it sound familiar? The Crash Test Dummies song 'Afternoons and Coffee Spoons' quotes it a little and mentions T.S. Eliot. The best known lines are probably either the very beginning or the little ditty: 'Do I dare to eat a peach?' Not to be confused with the Nicolas Cage line from Face/Off: 'I could eat a peach all day.'

Guitar

You know what song is really fun to play? Black Star by Radiohead. It's what I've been strumming lately when I pick up the guitar. The intro isn't too hard if you know how the song goes. In the verse, through the first four chords, you can just leave your pinky and third finger down on the B and E strings respectively, then it's a sweet Em chord, check it out. Good song. You probably already know how to play it. If not, enjoy.

The Shins -- Coming Soon

In the meantime read below.

Quotes of the Day/Word of the Day

Alright, who doesn't love some words of wisdom from 2000 years ago...literally...probably more like 2050 years ago?

Publilius Syrus is the name. Catamites were his game. Actually I don't know if that's true, but it leads me to the word of the day.

cat·a·mite (noun): a boy or youth who is in a sexual relationship with a man.

No shame though, this was a fairly common arrangement in old Rome...other areas of the Ancient world as well...Japan for instance. Once again, I don't know how Publilius went about things, but I think you will agree, he was a handsome devil.

Whatever he did, however many catamites he may or may not have had, fawning over him, bowing to his every whim, rubbing sensual oils all over his body, he wrote a lot of maxims. Oils and maxims were big back then. Here's a couple to ruminate on:

maxim (noun): a short, concise truism.

Translated from the Latin:

"It is only the ignorant who despise education."

"How happy the life unembarrassed by the cares of business!"

Old Boy

Oh-Dae-Su (pictured) one day discovers himself being held captive in a small, slightly furnished room. He has a TV, a bed, a shower, but has no idea why he is being held, or for how long he is fated to reside there. Fifteen years pass before he is released. Why? Once again, he doesn't know. We eventually find out.

This is a South Korean revenge flick; it won some awards in 2004, and was highly acclaimed by Quentin Tarantino (you will see why). Disturbed minds will love this movie. It has one of the most shocking endings I have seen in a movie for a long time, maybe ever. Cool music, cool cinematography. Do yourself a favor and move this movie to the top of your Netflix queue. Be prepared: it's overdubbed in English, no pesky subtitles.

And don't watch with family.

The Machinist

The Machinst (2004) is a movie with Christian Bale (Batman) acting as the lead character, Trevor Reznick, who has failed to sleep a wink in over a year. Why has he not died from this? No one has ever directly died from insonmia. There are people with chronic insomnia living today who have not slept in years.

From Wikipedia:
"Chronic insomnia lasts for years at a time. It can be caused by another disorder, or it can be a primary disorder. Its effects can vary according to its causes. They might include sleepiness, muscular fatigue, hallucinations, and/or mental fatigue; but people with chronic insomnia often show increased alertness. Some people that live with this disorder see things as though they were happening in slow motion, whereas moving objects seem to blend together."

You may recall other such movies that have dealt with insomnia and its hallucinatory effects, i.e. Fight Club, and you will certainly notice similarities between the two. This is not a bad thing. The perspicacious watcher will also notice many similarities between the plot line and the plotlines (plotline can be written with a space or without, by the way) of a few works by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Those alluded to being: The Brothers Karamosov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and the novella The Double, in which a character begins seeing and interacting with a human manifestation of his own less desirable qualities. Once again, Fight Club uses this same motif.

Reznick is seen reading a copy of The Idiot at one point early in the movie, and the words Crime and Punishment are seen in the background at one point as well, so the deliberate association with Dostoevsky is palpable. Although there is no time to describe the genius of these books of Fyodor's, I will suffice it to say that they are worth your time, more so than this movie.

This movie was really good though, even without all the literary allusions. I wouldn't think of ruining the ending for you, but it all ties together fairly neatly at the end, unlike another movie that I recently watched that I would also highly recommend, but which doesn't tie up so nicely, Barton Fink, a Coen brothers movie from a few years back, John Turturro, John Goodman. It was good, man, but I am still trying to figure out what happened.

Anyway, Trevor Reznick, Trent Reznor, whoever this character is, can't sleep, starts to hallucinate, and the plot thickening ensues. It's a dark movie: the Dostoevsky, the Trent Reznor reference, the music, and the thing that I have thus far failed to mention. Christian Bale lost so much weight for this movie (he wanted to lose more, but the producers feared for his health) that he literally looks like a walking skeleton. And you thought Tom Hanks was dedicated to his craft when he gained/lost all that weight for Castaway; Christian Bale, in The Machinist, makes Tom Hanks look like the laziest hack in Hollywood, and makes Hanks' skinny character from Castaway look like Dom DeLuise, check it out if you have the time.