*sigh*
rest in peace Elliot Smith. :(
-E
Labels: pop and/or culture
This weekend was Heather's birthday and a group of us got together to celebrate. We started off at
>El Callejon
restaurant. Here are some pictures of those in attendance:
After dinner we headed over to the
Belly Up Tavern where we met up with Kelowna and Paul to see some live music. Most of us had never seen either of the bands performing, we just went on Paul's recommendation who said they were "fun".
Fun they were. Both bands were basically cover bands. Raw Kandy was a hair-rock cover band (belting out the likes of Bon Jovi and Poison) and Goldfish was a 70's funk and disco cover act. Both bands were a lot of fun. The lead singer of Goldfish was positively freakish....but in a good way. In that sorta way where I couldn't help but smile and laugh when I was watching him. He had big crazy eyes, and an enormous smile that managed to look forced and completely genuine all at the same time. He had three outfits during the course of the show.
1)
school-girl dress
2)
heavy-metal, jumpsuit
3)
FUBU hip-hop gear.
so nice work that guy.
The best part of the evening was that Heather really seemed to have a great time. She was really glad to be surrounded by her friends on her birthday.
Saturday I went for a nice long bike ride and spent some time with my Dad, and our family friend Craig Vittitoe. I met back up with Heather and my roomate that night to go see
Bubba Ho-Tep. BH was pretty good. It was a lot more serious than I was expecting and touched on some themes that have always been of particular interest to me. Bubba Ho-Tep is a monster movie that shows us that the only thing more terrifying than an ancient mummy who sucks souls out of your anus, is the prospect of growing old and being left forgotten and lonely in an nursing home.
Sunday Heather and I went back for more movies and saw
Mystic River. MR was also pretty good. It boasts an awesome cast and a compelling story. I had some problems with it but I probably shouldn't discuss it for those of you who haven't seen it.
Mystic River is basically a mystery story. Mystery stories seem like they would be especially challenging to tell because in a lot of ways you put yourself at odds with the audience. It's like a competition between the filmmaker and the film-goer. We in the seats are constantly trying to outsmart the writer and director by figuring out "whodunit", while the story-teller has to leave enough clues to keep us interested and guessing. Tell too much and the mystery is too easy, tell to little and the audience is probably likely to just get lost.
So it would seem the best way to tell a good mystery without making it too easy is to make sure the story is particularly engrossing. A viewer who is totally lost in the world is less likely to think outside the realm of the story and simply feed off what their given. If your not totally sucked in, I think it's too easy just to think "who's the most unlikely person that could have done this crime" and that person is most likely the bad guy.
So anyway...guess who the big jerk was that turned to his girlfriend half-way through the movie and said "you wanna know who the killer is?"
:)
-E
Labels: pop and/or culture
