Buddha's Rhubarb Of Opinions On Media

Ink ... very odd indie kinda sci-fi/fantasy something or other. highly stylized, possibly edited on a laptop, but if you can get past the awkward WTF first 15 minutes or so it starts getting coherent and the various stories become obviously linked. One of those movies that were I in a different mood I may have turned off, but am glad I didn't.  Basically there's a dreamlands story running parallel to an increasingly tragic real life story about a high powered executive who ignores his family and has to learn a lesson the hard alt.timeline way. The villains are uber creepy, the heroes... a bit too second matrix rave people looking,and the rock video editing is somewhat overdone,  but all in all an ok ride. Night Of The Comet ... very fun slightly post apocalyptic movie, with far less zombie action than you'd think based on the cover of the box. But even so, an interesting tale of 80's psychology, and mall grown teens. Has Chakotay in an early role. Forbidden Pla

My Annual Top Ten movies list of movies most people missed on DVD in 2010 (I noticed on IMDB that most of these flicks are not as highly rated as they should be on IMDB... feh my taste is never in dispute in my mind which really is all that matters :p ) (oh and yes I've reviewed, linked most of these before, but not in a top ten As always my top ten includes a few movies that maybe were in theatres last year, but on DVD this year. I work in a video store so that’s how I catalogue things, by the dvd release. The Headless Woman Directed by Lucretia Martel whose previous two films “Holy Girl” & “La Cienaga” (aka The Swamp) are also genius. She has the most unflinching camera in use today, in many ways. She captures that decadent banality of the class system better than anyone since Bunuel, in my opinion. Headless Woman continues along similar themes, but is less concerned with narrative than the earlier two. She’s stretching with this one, and I’m salivating to see what

A Colt is My Passport Familiar point of view for a Japanese noir, the hitman as protagonist. This one is good but not great. It's all a bit too low key as it tries hard to straddle that edge between comedy and noir. A truly funny noir is hard to find. This one makes a fair effort, but the actors limit themselves to deadpan. You need Japanese women to be crying more, or it doesn't seem realistic imho. :p) and it falls a bit short of being as cool as it's title. Somehow the story moves quickly, but the actors don't. Special Michael Rapaport, everyone's favourite red headed stepchild, plays a schlub traffic enforcement officer who hangs out at a local comic book store. He signs up for a clinical trial of some prozac-y (it's vague what they are testing) pill, but it has the unexpected side effect of making him think he's gained superpowers. he hasn't. Things get funny before they get sad, so it's all good. Great low low budget fare, well scripted,

Some more old reviews from my forum. again My opinons may have changed slightly since watching these movies, and maybe they haven't. Walk On The Wild Side by Ed Dmytryk. based on the Algren book of the same name. starring the ever noirtastic Laurence Harvey, Babs Stanwyck, and a young (and most amazingly assed) Jane Fonda as Kitty Twist. Fun, fast paced tale of doomed love. Just like in real life nobody gets any. though they have lots of drama queen fun trying. titles have kitties, and great "hep" music. well crafted fun. Wolverine . Didn't suck nearly as bad as I thought it would. the ending was an anti ending(and one of the most ludicrous set pieces in cinema history), but prequels often can't figure out how to end properly, so I wasn't expecting much. I'm glad there was less Gambit in it than the ads led me to believe. Most contrived annoying X-man ever imho. The Blob was cool. Deadpool will be back obviously. Hopefully in a comedy. A good examp

 Newsflash: Not only do I watch too many movies, and too much TV, I also still read far too many comic books. If you are interested... here are a few ongoing titles that I'm currently loving. Comics that are Hot Right Now according to Buddha . - Alan Moore's Neonomicon Holy Crap! The first comic to actually really creep me out in a long long time. Cthulu fans jump on board if you haven't already. - Irredeemable Has taken a very big & interesting left turn after becoming kind of predictable for a few issues. Nice. -Incorruptible Sister comic to Irredeemable, and a better comic actually with the best anti-hero in a long time anywhere in comics:" Max Damage and his sidekick: Jailbait! really consistent storytelling and cheek going on here. - Batman & Robin Morrison has been having an awesome run with Grayson-Bats and grandson to Ras al Ghul Damian as Robin. I just hope it keeps pace as Batman has become Tony Stark, a situation I'm leery o

here are a few more. I wrote them just after seeing each movie. My opinions may have evolved slightly since then, after reflection, discussion... but I won't do new reviews until (or If) I watch the movies again. Inglorious Basterds   By “Q” Small quibble:  I would have liked a bit more Dirty Dozen-ness with all the actual Basterds. Only the nazis got any character development really.. It was quite enjoyable other than that. The dialogue was great and It's worth paying theatre prices to see it on the big screen. The opening act was surprising and awesomely done. Roman Polanski: Wanted/Desired. A Polish lawyer finds out he's actually an assassin who can read fortunes in looms... later, he dresses like a girl and throws himself out a window. Ok not really. Actually a very well done doc on Polanski, mostly about the rape case, but also there's a lot of good stuff about his early days in Hollywood/London. The people who are the most interesting and believable in the

Not so Random edition. Two quick reviews of two films I've watched this weekend. (vaguely related, both new to DVD this Tuesday) I’m Still Here . Dir By Casey Affleck. Joaquin Phoenix forgets to wash or comb his hair for a year or two, also he pretends he’d rather be a drug addled hipster in denial about the numerous Bromances in his life, all the while pretending to be some sort of Vanilla Ice wannabe. Weirdly this works really well as a film somehow. Either it’s almost real or Phoenix, Affleck and their entourage are better actors than I had imagined.  Clever, but in the end it’s still a mockumentary, a form I’m so tired of. Exit Through The Gift Shop ,  by Banksy  Is really a documentary, and a well thought out doc at that. It follows an OCD (Oh Cei Dei?) Frenchman as he films the entire street art movement, improbably himself ending up one of the most financially successful street artists in the world (AKA Mr. Brainwash) Banksy & and Shepherd Fairey are uniron

Today's edition. I have a lot so I'll do em in bunches til I get current with my watching. The Girl Who Played With Fire . Like Die Hard except slow, plodding, with a Swedish Goth Lesbian Hacker instead of Bruce Willis. :p Ok not really, but I did find it a bit slow going compared to the first movie. Well done, but not spectacular in anyway. I feel like when the third one comes out on DVD I'll watch them all in a marathon and enjoy them more than I do singly. It seems like a series. Perrier's Bounty. Poorly named movie that's actually worth a boo. Fairly funny angry young Irishman (dreamy Cillian Murphy) owes 1000 Euros to a loan shark (Brendan Gleeson) who send his gayest thugs after him for some bone breaking interest. Jim Broadbent pops up as Cillian's Da, who thinks he's dying (oh those weepy Irish :leprechaun: ) and proceeds to help out his son in his own strange ways. All of this is casually narrated (in what seems more like a commentary tra

here are some random and very glib, in general, reviews of recent movies That I've seen. I write these on a forum I chat on, and have always meant to copy them over. As I get better at doing the blogging, I'll have more media than just the reviews and imdb links. I'm starting slowly with the "content". Casino Royale 1968 Dir by John Huston, and some studio hacks. Not nearly as horrible a movie (not great mind you by any stretch) as I had been led to believe. David Niven and Peter Sellers are quite spot on. It lags and sags as if there were too many cooks in the kitchen, and that's exactly it's problem. The story could easily have been truncated and perhaps even a bit more slapstick and it would be an "In Like Flynn/Austin Powers" level of Bond spoof. But alas, it is not. Lots on hot girls in bikinis and minis though, including the oh so young "Jacky" Bisset. Antichrist - By Lars Von Trier - synopsis: Lars Von Trier throws

It was a dark and stormy morning, actually it is a dark and stormy morning. Which means it’s either November, December or January in Vancouver. At least it isn’t a snowstorm you say? I’d rather that than the current pissing down of rain pounding on my windows like hungry zombies smelling my caffeine filled brain. It’s very difficult to keep up with this blog for some reason. Well the reason is my laziness, and or insecurity in my own opinions. My plan was/is to write perhaps cogently about all the media I consume. My diet in this regard is even worse than my eating/health habits. I watch an inordinate amount of TV and movies. I read a mess of comic books, novels, and even the odd smattering of someone else’s poetry. My feeling lately is that much of this consumption goes by without any real introspection, or critical thinking on my part. Can I rectify this? Maybe, but maybe not as easily as I’d initially imagined. It’s hard to know where to start. There is definitely a drive I have

Okay so I’ve already slacked off a bit on my updating this blog. Sigh… but I have been busy with various distractions: playing 2 different versions of D&D, a 3.5 game and a 2.0 game. Both were fun and well distracting from my getting stuff done. I did over the week however sell all 10 of the copies of my book that I ordered from blurb.com. I have 15 more on the way (at a nice discount from a coupon) and I’m actually ahead a few dollars at this point in the exercise. How many poets can say that? Anyways I haven’t really spent the week doing much in the way of critical thinking, other than self flagellation over my crappy diet lately. I’ve been far too soft on the snack front, over the halloween period. Though my pumpkin pie consumption this season is way way down from last year. That’s something.  I did come up with this glib ranking of Terry Gilliam Movies: the Gilliam Scale I use is generally as such, with whimsical variation occasionally depending on my mood. 1. Brazil! (a

My latest Video poem: Imagine Sailor, Man. 

 Continuing my meandering through my personal bugaboos... I'm not going to go into a big thing here re-investigating my gender dysphoria, something that still holds me back self image wise, but more so now because of my history of dealing/not dealing with it, than my current state of mind or being. All I will say is that It's one of my core issues of regret and shame, that holds me back if not on a conscious level, definitely as an undermining force in regards to my confidence with meeting someone I might be interested in dating. As well, it's a distraction from "the work" (the work being writing, publishing, making videos, whatever creative enterprises I am involved in.) I often feel like I spend an inordinate amount of time making negative reasons why I can't do the things I'd like to be doing, and my "history" or baggage as it were in this area is the easiest place to go for me. Where I think I am dealing in a positive light with all th

"The Event"... (Finishing my tale of fear and why that emotion has led me to self-publishing again.) The day started like any other Saturday in my life at the time. I woke up with a headache, and a continuation of the sniffles/cough I'd had for like 6 weeks. I downed some antihistamines, and found that I'd run out of coffee, so I threw on my scarf, jacket and toque and started trudging through the freshly fallen snow to a local greasy spoon where I often went (and still go much less often) for Ukrainian sausage & eggs. As I was walking down the street, I noticed my nose running, and when I looked at my scarf, there were drops of blood. "Weird" I said aloud, thinking that I hadn't had a nosebleed in a hell of a long time, possibly never as an adult as I could recall. I had been taking a lot of antihistamines to fight of this cold that wouldn't go away. So I ran back home holding my scarf to my nose, and eventually got the bleeding stopped (t

My Book is up and ready for order... 12 bucks a pop.

Sort of... I want to write something about fear. As it's the emotion/state of being that dominates my life in a quieter way than it does some people. I don't mean the Capital "F" Fear mongering by the mainstream media, government etc, as it only affects me peripherally vis a vie my abhoration (to coin an odd but cool sounding word) of those institutions. My fears are pretty simple. Mostly it comes down to a fear of failure and that old bugaboo that haunts a great many people: that people will find out you aren't worthy of whatever attention they have been paying to you, or the attention you want from them. It's a hard thing to define as I guess everyone has some degree of feeling like a faker in life no matter how confident you project yourself. I have been writing/creating art pretty much my whole life. I have a certain inborn facility for it. What I don't have is discipline. I have quite a bit of education, but I've never ever tried very hard at any

Well, I managed to de-frustrate myself with the Blurb.com "Booksmart" tool. (Which is more of an adjective in this case than a noun - "tool") Do not take them up on the "just import your "word docs" into it and it'll all be good. It won't. i had to cut and paste each page separately (not each piece, but each page. Sheesh. I think they make all their money on photo books etc. the forums were filled with people talking about hardcovers and expensive costs, but if you go softcover it's very reasonably priced. i;ll be able to retail for 12 bucks (There's shipping and taxes if you buy online, but not everyone can get a copy from me directly) or at least that's my plan. More on this hopefully including a link on this blog to my blurb page with how to buy. you might get one before me. I plan to order some on the weekend. Just a small order to start with. Then once I sell a few, turn that money over into more copies. no TV No Movies in th

Well, I've been plugging away trying to get my book to be formatted properly with Blurb.com's "booksmart" editor. There are no default poetry book settings it seems. The text flow thing keeps readjusting itself in ways I don't want. I will have to, I figured out last night, I think: import each piece separately perhaps. (or maybe do it up in word and save as a pdf and then import it. the margins may work better) All their "help" stuff is on videos, I'd much rather read a few lines of FAQ than sit through videos to see if they solve my issue. I do however like how easy it was to make a spanking nice cover. I have that part all figured out. Given myself the next week (til payday) to figure out the formatting. The little chapbook I was going to publish is now an actual book of poetry at 80+ pages. I think I will also then apply for an ISBN number through the Gubmint.(sic) Then I can bring it to bookstores maybe? I am getting antsy that and having a lot

looking for the right fit for doing a Print On Demand thing has led me to sign up on www.blurb.com they have (cross platform even) a nice little imposition editor that you can download for free to get your document to fit their specs. You can use your own cover images etc.... and the price is competitive. So I'm re-editing for the next week or so, taking out some weaker pieces and actually bulking the book up a bit with some poems I think share more of a tone, though not content. There's a real melange of themes and ideas, which if you know me is pretty much how I roll. :p Seriously, I do prefer that kind of book, maybe a few loosely connected poems, or a really long poem or two, but mostly different topics, styles almost every page. It reflects who I am as a writer more. I'm sure I will do more singly themed books in the future as I'm already planning a future chapbook of my Arthurian Cycle. I think that one though will also be a bit of a photo book as well. But more

Another update. I'm planning on publishing a chapbook that includes a series of poems I wrote based on a suite of classical music, some random Haiku, the first third of my very own Arthurian Cycle, and at least one biblically inspired (if heretical) inspired piece. It just might be called "A Cure For Mirrors".... Tentative title from one of the poems. Figuring out the how to finance on my very limited budget is what I've been concentrating on all morning. It looks at first glance that my idea of doing Print On Demand is a no go, mostly because of the prohibitive pricing, and distro options (most bookstores pretend these kinds of books don't exist) and lack of being able to do the book exactly how I want to. I looked into a local "Espresso Book Publishing Machine over at Oscar's Books on Granville. Too steep again, they've raised their prices since my initial inquiry in the summer, also my chapbook is too short for many of these options. I do also pla

Okay so I'm going to start updating this blog with the odd rant, essay, story, poem, short film, and/or the usual goofy links from the Internets that I run across in my daily surfing excursions. Sometimes these rants etc may be of a personal TMI kind of thing, sometimes they may be quirky half assed opinions on things happening in the world, or reviews, opinions slightly less than half assed film, TV, music & pop culture reviews/rants etc. Whatever it is though that I'm regurgitating on here, I hope will be regularly done, actually. I need to develop more discipline in my artistic endeavors. Eventually I'd like to be filing one "Report" daily, whether it's a new poem, movie review, intellectually bereft, but impassioned screed on some topic I only vaguely understand, or something else. I think I'll start with a poem, one that I wrote fairly recently and thus is likely unfinished, as I tend to keep editing poems forever, like Walt W