Recent Media Consumption

30Dec2007 [weekly]

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The holidays have meant I've a little more time than usual to be consuming various media; highlights of the below were In The Mood For Love and I'm Not There; first up, what I've been watching:

• re-watched Kill Bill, Volumes 1 and 2; they really should be watched as a whole, but I prefer the first to the second; gets occasionally annoying when Tarantino gets too obvious — his arrogant-movie-nerd-thing gets horribly annoying in interviews, and it slipped through in times during the movies; I couldn't avoid the impressions that he really wants to be Bill, and that he has mummy issues; so flawed, but entertaining, and does have some gorgeous scenes — I love the Pai Mei stuff, so long as he's not talking (the stereotype is painful), and adored the fight with Lucy Liu in the snow
• re-watched Night Watch, in preparation for Day Watch (just hoping they hurry up and release it on DVD); have subsequently bought the book, the first in a trilogy, though don't expect to be actually reading it for a while (my "to-read" pile is ridiculously large)
• watched In The Mood For Love, which bears a striking amount in common with Wong Kar-Wai's later 2046, which I had previously enjoyed; an absolutely gorgeous film — the first act is really tightly cut, with barely a breath between scenes, and then it drops in these beautifully languid waltzes, complete with slow motion and music in 3/4; one of those foreign films that is so good it makes me despair at the state of English-speaking film
• watched I'm Not There, which restored my faith in said film; it took me half the film to really get into it — about when Cate Blanchett as Jude Quinn (as Bob Dylan) rocks up it gets really good — but loved the whole thing, and have decided I'm a fan of Todd Haynes; I now want to find the music they played in the film, but I'd prefer a "soundtrack" type thing (ie, in the mood of the film) to a Dylan best-of — it may be telling that the film didn't play Blowing In The Wind at all
• watched The Darjeeling Limited; it was preceded by the short film Hotel Chevalier, which I loved, and which showed Paris so had me emotionally before the film proper had begun; enjoyed Darjeeling but found the whole exotic-India thing a little discomforting, and am not sure the film actually did anything
• watched Dr Who, Season 1 (ie, the Christopher Eccleston season); having previously only seen parts of the very first and very last episodes — because they coincided with trips to England back in '05 — it was good to see the season as a whole; there are lots of interesting little story elements that take the whole season to play out, which I love as a storytelling method; there was a curious Manifest Destiny thing going on in there (the human race being disproportionately important to the rest of the universe); all told was entertaining, but couldn't get into it any more than as a diversion
• watched El Mariachi and Desperado; the first was awful — cheap, poorly acted, but I watched it in prelude to the next, which ended up something of a waste as Desperado's mariachi only bore similarities with El Mariachi; the second was entertaining, and at least had some better acting and didn't look like it was shot on weekends on a cheap video camera; both were annoyingly contrived when it came to good guys shooting straight while bad guys shot everything but their target, but that's the genre, so wasn't unexpected
• re-watched House of Flying Daggers; still a gorgeous film

I've also been reading, a lot, but haven't actually finished any books in a while; on that score, I'm:

• two-thirds through Yann Martel's The Life of Pi; this one sat in my to-read pile for a year before I picked it up, but have been pleasantly surprised; serious literature is something I really need to be in the mood for, so it's a little slow going, but it's a good read
• a third of the way through Hal Duncan's Ink; loving it, though my memory tells me I preferred Vellum at this point; not far enough in to really understand what's going on though, which is something else I need to be in the mood for
• half-way through Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Days of Rain; got boring a few weeks ago so I moved on to other books
• less than a quarter through China Miéville's Perdido Street Station; I love the mood of it, but it's heavy going, and when I read it I get the sense that Miéville sees the City as monstrous, which is really jarring; also put this down weeks ago
• just started Philip K Dick's The Divine Invasion, which isn't coming across as good as Valis, but is in the same league so I'll be hurrying through it soon
• (the last book I did finish was Lian Hearn's Heaven's Net Is Wide, which was mildly entertaining — I've read the other four "Otori" books, so it was an easy pick — and more importantly, was terribly easy to read)

And for those times when I can't actively consume media, the soundtrack to my life has recently been extended with:

• listening to Alicia Keys' As I Am, which I'm loving; more beautiful beats on the opening track and an eclectic mix of soul, motown and funk; the only track I don't really like is Teenage Love Affair because it's so plain, but the rest of the album I'll loop over and over