Urban Arson

I just got a new camera called the Canon HF S100

Here a few things I’ve shot while out and about in Los Angeles.

These clips are HD resolution so they might take a bit longer to load.

The amazing thing about this camera is it’s only the size of a soda can and it records to SD cards instead of tape at 24p full HD resolution. It’s amazing!

Check it out here!

The horror genre has been circling the drain for years. The only reason any of its water remains in the film sink is the hair ball of teen culture which continually refreshed to stop up the pipe. Just knowing that M(usic)TV doesn’t show music videos anymore is all the explanation I need to understand why bad horror movies continue to get made and do well in the theater. 

In a world where putting your face in your palm is an every day occurrence I present, My Bloody Valentine 3D.

Over the last few years films shot using 3D camera systems have been gaining traction. Sadly many of them featured a gimmicky technology which utilized red-blue glasses (I’m looking at you Spy Kids…). 3D is the wave of the future and films like My Bloody Valentine 3D will aid in its mainstream acceptance, preparing the film viewing world for James Cameron’s 3D masterpiece, Avatar.

My Bloody Valentine 3D is a bad remake of a bad 1980’s slasher flick called My Bloody Valentine.  Now “bad” and slasher movie usually go hand in hand. If you walk into a movie like this expecting “The Shawshank Redemption” you’re a moron, if you walk in knowing that you’ll get a movie full of darkly lit sets and cliche deaths using an impractical weapon you can have a good experience. I enjoyed the movie enough to not to walk out and got some good ideas of how to make 3D work for non-gimmick movies. It made me laugh and jump at the proper times; I got to waste a couple of hours of my life and eat at Fuddrucker’s.

The story is awful, the plot is tired and its twist is only surpassed in stupidity by an M. Night Shyamalan film. For it’s technical importance and tongue in cheek horror presentation I give My Bloody Valentine 3D 2.5/5 Stars.

In 1966 Truman Capote wrote his quintessential work, In Cold Blood, a non-fiction narrative about the brutal murder of a  wealthy Kansas family, the Clutters. Capote spent 4 years researching the vicious killings before he even wrote a single word. The story is told from an objective perspective, following the killers Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith before, during, and after their barbaric mass murder. It’s a beautifully dark tale told with the expertise of a master author. Capote held me in a state of suspense the entire time, giving subtle clues to the savage violence that was certain to take place.

It’s vicious and raw, often showing both the lightest and darkest of human emotions within the span of a few sentences. He eventually reveals the soul of each of the characters. Slowly peeling back their varied and layered personalities to reveal the simplistic clockwork which makes them tick. The strangest thing about the book is the mock Stockholm syndrome I experienced; rooting for the killers, understanding them despite their illogical inhumanity. But once you see them for the downtrodden losers they are there isn’t much to admire, respect, or applaud. I simply felt that death was the only answer for them; whether by their own hands or the hands of another. These men had to die for their actions.

This is an incredibly powerful book, deserving of its reverent praise. Truman Capote is one of the great American authors and I look forward to reading and reviewing his other works.

5/5 Stars

After the writers strike of 2008 cut so many shows short , one show in particular stood out in my mind as not getting a fair shake (well two, I’m lookin’ at you Jericho). Scrubs was on the brink of cancellation on NBC when ABC, whose parent company Disney produces the show, stepped up to take its head off the proverbial chopping block.

Scrubs is a comedy about life in a hospital and has been going strong for 7 seasons. I’ve seen every episode and loved them all but even an über-fan like me can admit that some of the storylines began to get a bit stale. It might have been the fact that the writers knew that they only had a few episodes to tie off all the loose ends before they were cancelled and forced to leave fans in the dark. But the last 2 or 3 seasons haven’t had the spark that made Scrubs special.

I was skeptical about this 8th season and the show airing on ABC but after the 2 episodes from last night, I’m a believer. It was as funny and clever as ever. Glynn Turman’s guest appearance, as a patient with only hours to live, in the second episode “My Last Words”, was one of the most heart wrenching things I’ve seen on network TV. Watching JD and Turk talk a man through his last night on Earth was Emmy worthy.

Introduction of new cast members with strong personalities and comical yet powerful story lines have gotten this season off to a great start. It was wonderful to see the gang together again. Hopefully they ride out this wonderful start to an incredible finish to one of my favorite shows..

Ayn Rand’s magnum opus Atlas Shrugged is the greatest book I could ever hope to read. Published in 1957 Atlas Shrugged highlights the lives of several very successful men and women of industry who attempt to justify logical ideas to the illogical maniacs who have overrun the world. These maniacs are also in high positions of power and enforce socialist laws and regulations which allow mediocrity to hold sway and eventually lead to the destruction of Western Civilization. 

This book is over a thousand pages long with extremely small print. It’s pretty overwhelming when you start but after the first chapter you’ll get sucked in and the pages will quickly melt away until you meet the back cover longing for more. 

I could make the argument that this is the most important book ever written. It preaches the ideal of Objectivism an ideology whose simple creed states:

“I swear, by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”

This is the most beautiful ideal that a person could hope to hold. If you constantly strive to better your own life instead of waiting for a handout from others how can you be stopped? Ideals such as this are what push humanity forward, forcing exploration into uncharted areas of our universe, allowing for new discoveries which will make life better for mankind as a whole. The constant nagging restrictions which governments impose on the people who are under their control stagnate creativity. They have tied the hands of millions of dreamers whose hope was to push the human race forward faster than any man who had come before him. But instead they were exiled, jailed, and murdered for their ideas.

In whose hands would you entrust your life? Men such as Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs whose minds have made them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams and advanced the world 1000 fold with the invention of the personal computer. Or a tenured college professor of Philosophy who preaches to his knowledge hungry students that there are no answers and that nothing matters because his evil, cannibalistic mind lacks the capacity to do anything but tear down all things good in the world. If his ability to find fault in everything and inability to provide an answer for anything is being taught to millions of college students a year; how much longer can we last?

Self-made men have built and shaped this world in their own image, competing with one another to be the wealthiest and most influential. Their “selfish” competition is a boon for humanity because of its tendency to create new technologies which make life better. Had I never read this book I would have never understood what made them tick, and now that I have I can never go back. I must strive to be one of them, giving my all and expecting it in return.

After reading this review, pick up the book and read a little every night, or better yet get the audiobook version (which is 60 hours long). Watching these honorable men struggle to break the evil chains of ignorance, mediocrity, and lethargy will enrage you to the point of change. You will want to be better for your own sake first and for the sake of advancement second.

READ THIS BOOK!

Who is John Galt?

5/5 Stars

***Spoiler Warning***

Last night I saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button an incredibly epic film I’d put one level below Forrest Gump. I loved it, I saw it as a triumph of so many things both tangible and intangible. It was one of the best movies David Fincher has ever made, and featured some of the best visual effects in the history of film. Which I consider to be its greatest triumph because of its significance for pushing the art form forward by adding tools to the palette of all filmmakers. I give the movie 4 out of 5 stars. Here was the only head scratcher I found.

Above is a picture of Benjamin Button when he was first born. He looks like a baby in size and shape but has the features of an old man on the brink of death. Now taking into consideration the complete ridiculousness of this notion wouldn’t his logical end be that of a Giant Baby (or Fetus)? 

Instead he turns into:

A normal little baby with dementia. But I woke up this morning and conceded my point. The drama of seeing Daisy (Cate Blanchett’s incredible character) rocking her infant lover to sleep was as masterful as it get. Well played Mr. Fincher.

Original Air Date: December 4th, 2008

After much coercion Jack Donaghey convinces Liz Lemon to go to her 20th High School Reunion. In a flashback Liz remembers High School as a time when everyone made fun of her for not being popular. Once they arrive Jack takes the name tag of a popular classmate and Liz decides to stand up to the jerks who bullied her. Everything goes horribly wrong, as Jack and Liz are forced to flee the reunion.

This episode was awesome. You get to see more “young Liz Lemon” which is always an awkward treat, and Jack finally gets the high school experience that long ago passed him by. The build up was nice and it climaxed and concluded in one swift blow. 

The 3rd season has been great thus far and this episode didn’t disappoint.

Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette

In order to understand why this album is so important to me you have to know a bit about my upbringing. I grew up in my father’s very strict Christian household and wasn’t allowed to listen to anything but Christian music. I had a little AM/FM radio and listened to the pop station (96.7 KHFI for all you Austin cats) in bed at night so I could appear to be in the “know” with my elementary school friends. It was ridiculous.

Its 1995 and I’m 10 years old. My maternal grandmother, is dying a slow death from cancer in her Houston apartment. I was her first grandchild, we shared the same birthday and thus had a special bond. She had family from all over the world there to see her through the final days. She lay jaundiced and thin on the living room couch as we sat around her trying to make her as comfortable as possible, the disease slowly taking her away from us, away from me.

So it was at this sad and somber time that my mother and I were in a Barnes and Noble browsing through the music section. Out of the blue I spotted it. Jagged Little Pill, an album that none of my friends or cousins had. Its maroons, indigos and turquoises stared back at me tauntingly. I had to have it. I begged my mom to get it, she complied and this became my first of many cassette tapes. She also got me a tape player and a 24 pack of batteries at Sam’s Club and I was in business, I was in love. She was my first real “crush”, Alanis. For a long time after this I would see her face everywhere and in every woman I met. I used to think she was what Eve must have looked like. Whatever, don’t laugh too hard I was 10. An interesting sidebar, I was pleasantly surprised to see her cast as God in Kevin Smith’s Dogma. If Eve was the made in God’s image then she might have looked like God from Dogma. Thus my 10 year old theory had a bit of confirmation from someone else I greatly admired.

This album showed me how to feel in bad situations; that it was ok to be angry and let it show. It gave words to the inexplicable pain that was coming from my first big loss. After a while I moved over to some of her more optimistic songs, I’d sit in my room for hours listening to Side B “Head Over Feet” over and over again. To this day this song is in my Top 10 list. I don’t know why, call me a hopeless romantic or a girl or gay but this song is incredible. From the first time I heard it, love was all I wanted in life, it still is. I want someone to feel about me as I do about them. Love is all you need to quote the prophet John Lennon.

Every song on this album is killer. They’re packed with angst and disappointment, contrasting loss with boundless happiness. I was talking with my friend about influential music and she said this was her first cassette too. I’ve met so many people who remember where and when they first got it. It’s just that striking.

30 Million copies worldwide and still counting. I know this was her third studio album but it was the first to be released internationally so it counts as an Incredible Debut.

Tina Fey was the head writer at Saturday Night Live when she pitched an idea for a show that would become 30 Rock. It’s a comedy about the goings-on behind the scenes of a sketch comedy show. Tina Fey plays Liz Lemon, a late 30’s unmarried “den mother” to an almost slapstick cast of actors, writers, pages, and executives. She’s so great, I don’t know why she didn’t get into acting sooner. 

This show also made me fall in love with Alec Baldwin all over again. He plays Jack Donaghy, Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming at GE. He’s a suave and debonair man who’s self esteem tends to fall as quickly as it rises. He’s so incredible, there is one episode in the second season where he imitates Tracy Jordan’s entire family in a psycho therapy session. He did Red Fox, Aunt Jemima and Tracy’s white step-father switching between each of them in a conversation. To say the man is talented would be an understatement. He deserves his Emmy, an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Tony for this show. He’s incredible.

Tracy Morgan is an SNL alum as well. He plays Tracy Jordan (what an imaginative name) a nutty ego maniac and star of the fake “show within a show”. He’s supposed to be a cross between Martin Lawrence, Chris Tucker, and every other ridiculous actor who’s run down a crowded street butt naked while they were drunk and high. He’s so crazy! 

The rest of the cast is so well put together! Ugh. I can’t explain them any better. Just watch it already!

Tina Fey created one of my favorite shows ever. It’s so well written it sometimes makes me scoff, my mouth just sits agape at the genius of some of the jokes. 

I know this review is all over the place but a show like this is just so hard to nail down and put into words. The critics have given it rave reviews. It has won 9 Emmys and 2 Golden Globes. What more do you need to hear about this show to start tuning in? I’d suggest that you get Seasons 1 and 2 on DVD or watch them online at a site like hulu.com so that you can get current. Once you’re in you’ll be craving this show with just as much anticipation as an episode of Grey’s Anatomy or The Office (US).

30 Rock is incredible and will go down in history as one of the greatest shows of all time.

Some People Have Real Problems by Sia

I’m blown away! Who the hell is this person? Why does she talk like Crocodile Dundee and sing like an angel? Why can’t answer any of the questions in my own review?

All I can say is she’s from Australia and she’s incredible and awesome and great and astounding and I could continue this run-on sentence all day.

There is a song on this album which, in itself, completely changed my perspective on music. “Soon We’ll Be Found” is one of the most beautiful things I’ve EVER heard. I can’t explain it, I can’t back up my opinion, I’m not a musician. My brain just said:

“Aaron this is genius, it’s beautiful, it’s poetic, it’s human. You only get to hear it for the first time once. Take this opportunity to learn a lesson from it.”

- My Brain

The main lesson learned was never judge an album by its cover. You see an Australian woman staring off into the middle distance with marker all over her face, a plastic ring and the title “Some People Have Real Problems” written in MS Paint. Once you think about it its so damn clever! Ugh. I don’t have much else to say but buy this album. Listen to it on iTunes and Youtube to make up your own opinion. She’s Great!

Do yourself a favor and watch this video it will brighten your day!