Vid Rec!! Dogma!

So, a long time ago (at least a decade in cyber-years) I was listening to some gospel-type music with just_eunice cause that is just the kinda gals we are, all pure in the heart of Jesus (except for where one of us is an atheist and the other insists on continous blasphemy - other than that, and possibly because of, we are totally pure in the eyes of Buddy Christ. He's your buddy!) and one of the songs was "Ezekial Saw Da Wheel" and Eunice expressed and interest in that song and then I said "Oh no! I need that back! I also need "Science of Silence" back. OMG they are related!" and Eunice, because she is just naturally giving and used to my frequent insane eruptions in chat, just said "Cool" and started grooving on another song.

Then she said the magic words to me that that song, (the songvid I am about to link you to ), is totally about "Dogma."

Poor Eunice never should have said such a thing to me. Cause I have hounded and cajoled and bargained and pleaded and I even kept a Mountie in a closet with a bucket (Angel fans will get this reference - the rest of you, don't look at me like that. He actually liked it) in order to get this vid made. Threats were made. And not just idle ones. When I want a vid, I damned well want a fucking vid!

And this one dances! And there is Buddy Christ (again - HE IS YOUR BUDDY) and Alan Rickman has WINGS (as he SHOULD) and FISH! and there is redemption and forgiveness and a QUEST FOR ETERNAL SALVATION! And Jay and Silent Bob and SKEEBALL!!

So go and for Buddy Christ's sake, if you download this vid, please leave a comment to let the vidder know.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/just_eunice/144915.html

(no subject)

You know, I believe the New Orleans Police Department when they say that they are really better now than they used to be - much improved, if only because when I lived there the cops were robbing banks and murdering drug dealers for cash. Beating an unarmed sixty-four year old man to a bloody pulp is an improvement, of sorts, if you really want to compare.

The beating, however; has nothing to do with exhaustion or stress or Post-Katrina-shock or any of that. This is exactly how they roll and it was merely business as usual. On the bright side, if they are just now reaching the civil-rights violatin'/corruption level of, say, a late 80's LAPD? They have really improved. Kudos.

(no subject)

Best. Thread. Ever.

Movie Review: Elizabethtown

So okay - a few things you really need to know going in:

1. The movie pretty much had me at the title. Growing up, with my name, just down the Interstate from a place called Elizabethtown - of course I am gonna feel a kinship with the place. Name and place your movie's primary setting after/in this place? I'm already touched.

2. I have a Cameron Crowe weakness. I try to be strong - I do! I do not typically like romantic comedies. I watched "Jerry Maquire" with drdawn solely to mock! And mock we did right up to the moment we both went "Awwwwwww" and started getting estrogen-y. I think there is just something about him, I mean he is married to that chick from "Heart" and he is obviously just a big ole sentimental geek and I think I'd actually like him in real life - so there is that. Deep down inside I am a great big ole girl and so is Cameron Crowe and he helps me get in touch with that.

3. Numbers 1 and 2, notwithstanding, I have an extreme sensitivity to typical portrayal of the rural South, that was worsed by the 2004 Presidential Election. Trust me, there is still so much anger, frustration and dispair locked up tight inside, that anything can inspire a senseless rant.

I did not want to see City Mouse meets Country Mouse. Thankfully, I didn't. Crowe won me over by lovingly shooting and getting the foilbles of a narrow little area of Kentucky - namely the stretch from Louisville to Elizabethtown - because in this movie? They were as much a character as anything and he absolutely captured the charm and quirkyness of both. Actually - they look too good. It seems he went for the E-town of twenty years ago (probably because in the movie E-town was played by Versailles) and the Louisville of ten years ago and I am willing to go with that.

The Kentucky characters were all really well drawn and respected (especially the old men from Bardstown!) and Paula Deen (yes Momma - that Paula Deen) turned in the best performance of the film as Aunt Dora. I don't care if she was playing herself: I KNOW that woman. I am related to that woman. I attended church with that woman. I have been swatted on the behind and sent to the corner by that woman. That is the woman that would give me a cookie so I would stop crying after I was stung by a wasp. She was real.

Likewise, Cousin Jessie, brilliantly played by Paul Schneider. I've dated him, I've counseled him, I've held his hair when he pukes and I've been his best friend. I *know* this guy and it was really nice to see a movie that concentrates on the dreamer and heartfilled aspect of this character and not the loutishness.

You know you are watching the film with a Kentucky audience when the camera pans across a funeral home the crowd quietly starts muttering "Oh, Clark's!" or "We used them for Tim's mother" or "Oh, that is a nice one" and "That isn't in Hardin County" and various other stuff. You want to get this audience stirred up, bring on the death and preparations beyond. I have thoughts but they belong on a private post. Suffice it to say, the only way I am ever going to get my wishes followed on what to do with my body in the event of my death, is to outlive my family. Good thing I am just as stubborn and obstinate as anyone else. Defying my mother! Yay! A reason to live!

Another thing that got the crowd up in arms was the use of Louisville area landmarks to depict the drive to E-town. People were turning around and pointing at the screen going "Why is he on 64???" "He shouldn't be passing downtown!" (and also? UofL got booed. What do you expect - this is Lexington, but still - not too often are you in an audience that boos a sign) annnnd eventually our nonpatience was rewarded by an incredibly funny joke if you have ever been in a car in Kentucky. Oh actually there were two jokes about that. No wait - three. It was funny to me.

The romantic comedy aspect of it was meh - but hey - this is probably the least annoying Kirsten Dunst has been since "Interview with a Vampire" so there is that. Not to say she isn't annoying, but annoying in a strangely chipper East Tennessee girl way. Even if she did mangle the accent. Seriously, she needs to quit harshing the "i" - I know Nashvillians stress it, but ease up a bit, Dunst. It is a softly strident "i" and no girl from Tennessee says "route" as "root." It does not happen.

Accents were a problem with the leads, as almost two hours of Orlando Bloom attempting an American accent is only slightly less painful than two hours of Kevin Costner attempting an English one. I really wish Crowe had perhaps cut a few songs from the score in favor of investing that money toward a dialect coach.

Of course, if he had done that then there would have been no purpose of the film. Really, in the end, this movie is an ode to music and America and wide open spaces and road-trips and how deep down in your soul you really want and need to reclaim the redemptive and cathartic power of "Free Bird".

That makes me kinda love it.