Clarity

The few brief minutes when I work on photographs are some of the most exquisitely focused I can think of (more than painting, which makes me feel like a child, or writing, which trucks in persistent frustration).

This week: tuning in more silver, black and grey.

X.

It kills me that I wasn’t familiar with X until my 50s. They seem just as hard-charged now as they ever did.

Cool.

Oh Well…(Threads)

This section of the site was meant to replace my previous time on social media (hence the name), but since discovering Threads a month or so back, I’ve ramped up to my old ways of spending way too much time there, which is frustrating. Hello, addictive behaviors.

So here are some pics to fill the gap between Letterboxd links…

Aliens & Predators, Ranked

With ROMULUS out (which I have not seen yet, btw), I was thinking about which franchise - Alien or Predator - has been more satisfying. It’s a pretty close call for my tastes.

S - ALIEN is the masterpiece of the bunch. That’s pretty much a globally-held bit of cinema ranking, yes? Well, that’s my take anyway…so don’t come ‘round here with your ALIEN naysaying.

A - PREDATOR, ALIENS, and PREY are all exceedingly good.

B - PREDATOR 2 and PREDATORS are solid, consistent actioners that I would happily watch again, while ALIEN 3 is the second most intriguing take on these formulas (after PREY), even if flawed and not a favorite. I find it drab and the CG awful, but I get it.

C - These are mostly very flawed films, despite varying degrees of likability. I love the cast/characters and many of the scenarios within ALIEN RESURRECTION, while the finale is disappointing and it still, like ALIEN 3, doesn’t feel like there’s much of a point beyond sequel revenue. The first ALIEN VS PREDATOR film is actually great fun, if a bit watered down and cardboard thin…but I dig the cast, and there are some great moments throughout. Similarly, THE PREDATOR has a fun set of characters and some good action, but suffers from a very “fan-service”-y plot (that need to tie elements together in a neat bow) and a lot of wasted potential with its human characters.

Then there are PROMETHEUS and ALIEN COVENANT, which are lovingly-crafted films with solid casts. But they both suffer from a modernization that feels all wrong: the very premise of explaining origins (or creating lousy ones) is one thing, and the films convey a slick, often cruel and gruesome approach, and both just feel like Bad Choices.

D - Then we have AVP REQUIEM, which - while watchable - is a miserable and mean-spirited film. It conveys no sense of fun, no intrigue, and no hope. It is a losing bet, and the worst of the bunch regardless of your extraterrestrial favor.

Coded En Masse: The Stewart Lee Content Provider Scenario

If Stewart Lee wrote a joke about the difference between a zucchini and a post-Brexit courgette, I'm inclined to believe the punchline would have something to do with the VAT, but Stewart Lee chooses not to.

I have just finished most of Content Provider, the fourth program I purchased from the lovely folks at The Media Garage, but the only one that did not work. I tried the DVD and got the legalese and production company logo, but it froze up immediately. I tried it multiple times, using the controls to circumvent the logo and go straight to menus, but to no avail. Living as I do, I have no other devices that would play a disc of any format. So I wrote to the Garage team and explained the situation, hoping I could return the disc and get a refund, but they insisted on sending me a replacement, a second disc, in the hopes that the first one was defective somehow, though none of us considered that, perhaps, the way that particular program was coded en masse would be the main issue here. I received the second disc, and like the first, it stopped after the legalese and the production logo. I could not circumvent the logo and go straight to menus. And I wrote again asking if I could return the discs, as I now felt doubly uncomfortable at having received two discs for the cost of one, and yet as a consumer felt doubly uncomfortable at having paid for something that did not function as promised, even once. The Garage team told me I didn’t need to return the discs, but instead to perhaps find a friend I could give them to, an imaginary friend who might have more and/or better devices upon which the disc would successfully play. I appreciate their kindness and speedy responses, but this is an answer that will not work, as I have no friends. Only ex-wives, family members who wouldn't sufficiently appreciate Stewart Lee’s humor, and co-workers I will never again loan DVDs to, as the last time I did this my copy of McDonagh’s The Guard went into some nebulous black hole, never to be seen again in this reality, or at least, the reality of my apartment.

I have since watched most of Content Provider on YouTube, in brief, easily segmented portions. I quite liked the show and am very pleased that I discovered Lee’s work earlier this year. It has been an absolute joy, even when I do not grasp certain societal, cultural, political, or cartographical references. But, having never lived in or studied the United Kingdom, I can’t say that this is not unrealistic. My knowledge of the United Kingdon comes largely from films, and of those, largely from crime scenarios. So I know a great deal about Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins and where their adversaries’ bodies are buried. But general handy knowledge, no.

So, if you were in the market for a copy of Stewart Lee’s Content Provider, message me and we can probably come to an arrangement. I can accommodate two of you.

THE LAST OF SHEILA Comments

Clinton Greene is a bastard. His wife is killed by a hit-and-run driver after a drunken blowout at a party. A year later a small circle of “friends” gather, at Clinton’s request, to spend a week on his yacht and play games. They all know that “games” with Clinton are usually at their expense. And it doesn’t take long for the man’s venom to ease out, in small, petty shots and more lingering, painful ways. Soon there are accidents, and then an apparent murder. The guests are all related to moviemaking in some fashion, and all harbor secrets.

I watched The Last of Sheila again last night, not even for the purpose of writing down thoughts, but just to let it wash over me again when I was having trouble deciding what to do with my evening. And these many decades later, the film’s charms have not lessened. It is one of those films I saw too young, then grew up and realized what the hell was actually being discussed.

But the most intriguing element to me - and it strikes me every single time when that credit rolls past - is that the film was written by Anthony Perkins & Stephen Sondheim:

So It Goes: Alien

No, I haven’t seen Romulus yet. I have read an awful lot about it, and a lot of opinions.

My hope is that the next Alien film will start with Ripley waking from her cryo-chamber on the Sulaco as it approaches Earth's primary orbital station. She looks in the mirror and realizes she has aged, resulting in Weaver muttering “well, fuck.” Cut to a station engineer and an on-call physician alternately explaining how the cryo-chamber malfunctioned on the trip home, causing her to very slowly age while in stasis. One of the side effects were the wild dreams she had about her lives and deaths on various worlds, the aliens, etc...and when she mentions them, the doctor and tech blanche, and she asks why. They explain, Earth was overrun by the xenomorphs years before, and what's left of mankind is safe aboard various stations circling the planet.

I mean, that’s all I’ve got so far…

R.I.P. Gena Rowlands

“We don't take the time to be vulnerable with each other” -JC