Toothless predators devour us.

"We went to the movies often. The screen would light up, and we'd feel a thrill. But Madeleline and I were usually disappointed. But Madeleline and I were usually disappointed. The images were dated and jumpy. Marilyn Monroe had aged badly. We felt sad. It wasn't the movie of our dreams. It wasn't that total film we carried inside ourselves. That film we would have liked to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, the film we wanted to live" -Masculin Feminin

*I hope to chop the broccoli on this entry in a more relaxed tone; less preachy, less pretentious, but we’ll see how I manage. I'll try to keep this post more Chef Boyardee rather than Foie gras. And here we go…

To watch a movie such as Predators blow away a movie like I Am Love at the box office, blows me away. Not because I would think such an "arty" movie would stand a chance out preforming an action movie, but rather because such an great arty movie would get completely stomped on by such an shitty action movie. I'm talk'n "MMA tap out" kinda beating. Very troubling indications for the art of film-making indeed!

I Am Love is such a daring and uncommon film, it really bums me out to see it get by-passed. I just wish movies such as these were not so out of range from the common film-goers catalog. I wish more adults treated the movies as also an art, and not just "entertainment". There's just so much more to explore with this media. I mean, imagine if painting were only entertainment, or sculpture there only to entertain.

Imagine if all our buildings look like fun and cool architecture. The Disney Music Hall looked like Goofy's Fun house, and not the complex it is. Were Notre Dame Cathedral not awed at, and instead people rather looked at track homes for inspiration. Cause really isn't Notre Dame a little gawdy? Gawdy and high maintenance! I mean really who's it trying to be, Kim Kardashian? And then it's so "dramatic", it's a fucking downer, it's just plain embarrassing. Lets not even get started on the written word; move over Shakespeare, make way for Stephen King! Preferably in a pop-up book format with an Mp3 embedded in it, you know, to read the book when you open it up. An audio pop-up book, now that would be fuckin cool!

Now I like Lady GaGaas much as the next person, but if your stereo was stuck on The Fame Monster, how fun would that be? I'd rather be stuck on stupid. Yes I know, I'm being just a tad dramatic, but you catching my drift? It takes music of all kinds to fulfill our many diverse moods.
 

It takes many kinds to break the mold, and push forward. Punk, Hip-Hop/Rap, was once unfashionable, was once dangerous, was once... dare I say: not trendy. They weren’t playing by the rules, and they were not playing it safe with beats you were use to, with messages for the masses. They were loaded locked and sights set, on it's intended individuals, speaking to those "in" on it. These art forms were not afraid to cuss, although they might not obtain radio play because of it. Integrity?

So why is it films are thought to be "good" if they have mass box-office pull. If it hits all the marks of the template that has been set, then it's a doozy. From a business stand point I get it, for sure; "it's all about the bucks baby!" But as an audience member, why would we give a shit? I mean really why do we care if it sold this many tickets or that many. And after all, the “Suits” are just puppets to the audience, for it’s ultimately the audience that decides.

Now I understand it's nice to be on the same page as everybody else. It's nice to be "hip" and up to date on what everyone is giddy about. You can talk about the movie you saw last night with your co-workers at lunch. It gives you a sense of camaraderie. It's fun to go to the movies with a group of people and make an event of it. There's a time and place for everything. You might not want to take a date to see Revolutionary Road, I get it, I really do, but movies are not just for group entertainment, they are so much more than that.

What happened to taking “risks”? Isn’t that a virtue anymore?

Now I'm not saying Predators is a shitty movie, and that movies like that shouldn't be made (that's in your own head). What I'm saying is don't we have better things to do? Don't we once in awhile want more? Are we that easy to please, and that indifferent?

As we move further into a new era (one that is changing quicker than a click), the future of cinema is yet to be decided. With the Internet and other new technologies evolving every day; 3-D movies/T.V., On Demand, Ipods, etc, who knows where films will eventually make their home, and who knows if the “Theater” experience will survive. But one thing is for sure: Content will always be decided by the audience! What the audience wants is what will get produced. What gets produced is a reflection of society, is a reflection of ourselves. After all in those audiences are artist bred; every filmmaker was once only a film-goer. We are the dream makers, so why be so boring and toothless. I say lets live it up, lets be grand, lets push the boundaries, who’s with coming with me?

Here’s to those filmmakers that aren’t afraid to make the films they want, even if that film doesn’t “speak” to masses.

But more than this, here’s to the audiences that have complexities, that have dimensions, and that are not afraid to stray into new territories, to break the mold, who gives a shit if your co-worker hasn't seen it. This is for all those individuals in the audience.

Eat your popcorn, enjoy your jujubes, but don’t fear something a little more “filling” once in awhile… something a little more than this:

and a lot more like this:

So try this next time you go to the movies: leave little Jimmy & Janie with the baby sitter, make a sharp turn away from your local megaplex, and go hit up the art house shack tucked away in a corner of your city. You might just be surprised. And for those of you that already do just that, well then to you I say: "Keep up the good fight".

*Update: All said and done there is hope! Inception is having a killer opening weekend. But Inception is the exception more often than not.

P.S. I love you Stephen King, but if that was all there was to read, that'd be pure Misery.

Furthermore, loved On Writing!!!

Out the gates with great expectations!The beginings of a blog.

 "What it is and where it stops, nobody knows" -Metric

Up and running out the gates, with a precise and clear destination, is just the foundation I believe is needed for this blog.

*Oh by the way "Hi", I'm Mark and this will be my blog, but if your reading this then I'm boring you with the introduction, you probably already know me, and if you know me, you know I'm not big on greetings, it's already understood.

Let's start with just getting this blog off and running. What is it's point, purpose, what is it's goal:

• -Happiness in art
• -To Inspire
• -To Motivate
• -Talk film
• -Film Education (to give and get)

Destination:

Do we really need all this mumbo jumbo? I mean didn't the Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu write; "A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants". Didn't Godard once famously quote "the cinema is not the station, the cinema is the train"? True, true indeed, yet one must have a destination to get the train going, otherwise there seems little purpose in wasting all that coal. It can all change later, because we don't have a "fixed" plan, we just have a plan, because to get started with a heave and a ho, we must feel there's somewhere to go.

And now, let's begin with  

Inspiration:

What it is and where it stops, nobody knows, only you.

But I'll help get you started. Make your destination G to the R to tha E.. blah blah, make it Great! Aim for somekind of grand somewheres. We'll begin, with Great Expectations… as we should. This is for the writers:

Ah-Hem!...

To all the writers far and wide. Believe in yourselves and write. Sounds simple hun? But when I say write I mean it. Write and believe in what you write. Think about this; The world has never seen you, you can rock our socks, but only if you give us your best. Oh, and by the way, this is not a blog to support mediocrity. I am not against it, it's just that I'm not interested in it, so if your looking for a pat on the back and a "hey it's just film", then let me tell you- "Hey it's only film, you'll do just fine"- ok now for the rest of us let's talk shop. Now that I got that out the way, let's get back to the task at hand, which is "how do we live up to such great expectations and not feel inadequate?"

When we watch movies, we all feel the connection, do you know what I mean? Each and every one of us, film geeks or average Joe plumbers,the cineaste, the critic, the popcorn munchers, and the teenage couples going to 3rd base in the back rows, we all have a favorite movie. A movie that... connects to us, explains us, or a flicker that can transport us to a world we wish we were apart of, or transport us into a person we wish we were or hope to be. It's a bond, and it's very deep. Unlike the typical come and go flickers, these ones, the ones we absolutely love, never get boring for us. They only get better, and more meaningful, like a favorite shirt or restaurant, the blanky you had as a baby, a woobie times two(x2). A woobie squared!

It's the connection, that hopefully brought you to the plate, cause make no mistake my acquittance, you are up to bat. Every time you step on a set, every time you talk shop, when you act and your like "it's just a webisode, it's no big deal", oh contraire mon friar, it is your moment. Every word you jot down on your script, is your mark, and it should be remarkable, cause you will be judged.

Remarkable?

Remarkable to you. You should be proud. I'm not saying you need to be perfect or great, because who and what is? What I'm saying is come on and make your momma proud, be all that you can be... in the army... or not, but at least be all you can be. Hit us with your best shot, come on, we can take it. Matter of fact we expect it of you, and you should to. But more so, don't you deserve it? You think we don't notice this shit? Oh come fucking on man! When we turn on the tube,surf the net, when we spend the actual time to sit down and flip pages, and especially when we pay to fill a seat in the theater, we notice what there is to notice.

Great expectations. They can be daunting. Pressure is not nice, and shouldn't it all be fun anyways, now "That's Entertainment"! Isn't it? Yes and No. Like the writer says- hun? ...what- which writer? take your pick, cause they almost all say "I hate writing, but love having written". Which is to say, your rewards will come if you are just deserved.

Think this: your in a great tradition, that is on the record. It's over a hundred years old, and great accomplishments were being achieved since the beginning. Don't believe me, throw on a "Brooksie"(that's Louise Brooks to you) flick, and tell me that, that hellcat wasn't making history. Now ask yourself this: What can I add? Can I make history? Well you can for the new century. See we are at the dawn of the twenty first century, such a clean slate, you should feel lucky. Cinema is changing on a daily basis. New cameras, cheaper and better come out every couple of months. Youtube and the ilk are overflowing with products. The internet is Cinema's future, and it's available to you. But it's all fast, cheap and out of control. Do this; just compare yourself to what this century has had to offer on the net. It's all poorly made and weak. Just now are webisodes getting some prime products out there. But there is a vast canyon dividing the blockbusters, and the lowly webisode. But rest assured my young brenchwarmers, the day will come the two shall meet, and somebodies gonna be there to lead the way, why not you? But you must take it by the horns. This is a great time to be a writer or director. There is more options then ever. But just look at all the poor content getting produced. I mean really lets change all that. How can you do that? Well, you can add "You" and we've never seen anything like "You" before... or since. 

"I'm big! It's the pictures that got small!" -Gloria Swanson, Sunset Boulevard

Words to go by.

Do your home work, do your studies, do your research, and write!

...yes write, right now.

Put your peddle to the metal grandma and make dust!

My Favorite MySpace post... and my most personal.

Godard had Karina, Antonioni had Vitti, Pabst had Brooks, I like to think I had "???"... Wednesday, June 13, 2007


I first encountered the flicker "Lost and Delirious" in Cincinnati. It was the rainy spring of myself induced exile. You see, I had enough of the yucka yuck of Los Angeles. I was extinguished, and uninspired, and for the 1st time in my life my love of film was dull, flat. But I was in love. Madly deeply in love with a gal. An ever encompassing, all engrossing, devouring kind of love. At twenty eight you think I was to old for that, but not I.

We meet on Hollywood and Highland one rainy night (it's true, I wouldn't lie to you my dear friend...only the facts!), now her... well she was from Europe, and she came to Lalaland to live out her dreams of singing. She had a really terrible childhood...really grim, and all that shit. My love of film excited her...and the fact that she was excited, excited me. We got excited a lot together (nod to Jay McInerney) ;) , but we were of a beaten generation, and I was attracted to her sad girl ways. And me, well I was twenty eight.. and I was two steps from twelve... less than zero. And she too, was in a situation as well... none too pretty. 

So we were some kind of modern day Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrel, a real today band of outsiders.

Skkkiipp ffffoorward and we were spent on Los Angeles, it just wasn't kind to us. So we made plans to skip town and head out east (or at least the edge of middle Ameriyucka). She wanted a house in the country, and I wanted some kind of a calm that my own life and childhood never provided me.

We decided to leave. 
Just like that we were in motion (we knew better than to just stay in place, that's for suckers). She went first by plane, I by car. So off I went.
First stop; Arizona to see the familia. 
Then head down south to Texas; see my uncle and cousins. 
Then up to Oklahoma, and trough the rest of middle Ameriyucka, 
Then - KaPlowee!

Were in Oh-hi-o,

We fight! - I get jealous. Decide to go live in New Yuck City.
I've always wanted to live there. 
So hop in the Jeep. Head up towards Pittsburgh (which by the way Pennsylvania is easily the prettiest state there is in this country). 
On trough New Jersey. Then Kazaam! 
I'm in the little island. Spend a little time there partying and meeting people, all the while, looking for a apartment. Only to be disappointed with the supposedly cool city.
 

Well let me tell you from first hand experience; New York is wack! 
Straight-up lame, just a bunch of lames walking around. I mean it's just rich people or rich kids going to school. All the real people are all B&T's (bridge and tunnel: people who take the bridge or tunnel to get into the city). They all live in New Jersey, or Queens or some other place. 

It's just like some Disney theme ride... nothing is left of it's former glory. The days of the 70's or 80's, when New York had true grit, when the rich and the poor lived there; Scorsese's New York is gone!  :( only TRL is left to replace 42nd st...

As the sunsets and I've had all my fill, I stand by the dock and look at the skyline with it's skyscrapers, and realize new york is dead.
I was too late to see it's glory days, now I'm just looking at a theme park, which interests me not. I stand proud in the New York skyline, proud to be a Angeleno! To come from a city that has it's poor and rich, side by side! A city that is angry and happy, fake and real, a city of true substance, I then realize I am from the Rome of our times: LOS ANGELES!

So pick up the receiver. Tone. Dial. Ring: "Hi I miss you", "I miss you too, "why don't you come back to Cincy?", "Yeah I think that's a good idea, I want to be with you in Cincy". 

So hop in the jeep. Back through Pennsylvania. Down Ohio, and stop just before I cross the border into Kenfucky. Live in car for a couple of weeks.  Sleep in me girlfriends, ex-boyfriends flower shop at nights. Showers at trucker stops by day, or at his gym (by which he nothing of, he thought she was there to get back with him).
I was just a shadow.

Find apartment, get job, and then the humid days of summer fade.

A autumn like you've never seen comes. You take long walks. Hangout with friends, and her and you have the best of times & the worst of times....and then...

Days of snow...

The snow fell throughout the town, at first just a mist, then just enough to make the streets muddy ...and then; one day I'am at the bar down the block, I'm having a drinky dink, thinka thinking about how the Bengals are gonna do really good this year. Game ends, me and my friends leave. It's about 2:30 am now.

I walk out, there are no cars about. The streets are plied with massive amounts of snow. Fresh snow. No one's walked on it yet. ....It's just like one big pillow. So fluffy, SO fresh. The moon is full, and the snow shines. It's unreal. These city eyes have never seen such a sight. It stings your smoggy eyes. You walk home and feel your in heaven.

Your the happiest in your life, you've ever been. The days of snow have begun. You and your girl have a dream like existence. Long walks in the crispy air, that chills the tips of your tippy toes, all the way up to the tip of your rosy nose. Bus rides trough the city looking out at the snow covered house's that don't resemble any style that you have back home. These house's are not Spanish style, or not cookie cut 50's suburban style. These are really old, and when I say really old, I mean way older than the 1920's. And the buses aren't crowded, windows all full of graffiti, these buses are empty and new, and feel like a home on wheels, nothing like the city back home.

We cuddle in cold evenings. Her watching Oprah Winfrey or the like, me on the computer. Us both happy! The heater blasting. Lovely days. 

New year comes, and it's spent baking brownies, watching a Morrissey concert DVD, no alcohol, no drugs, none of your common place antics. Then at 1:02 we go to bed. Grandma and Grandpa go nighty-night. 

You catch a glimpse of happiness, as if it's tangible and you happily tango with it. That happy couple you've always only seen... never known... is now you. At least you now know, what it feels like to be a happy couple. You relish in the transitory bliss.

For you know tomorrow will surely come, and with it your same old ways. Your stripes will show eventually, my fine feathered friend. 



















See the people that are from the snow hate it, they cant wait for it to go away, so when it does and the days are warm, they come out and party, and you being the cityboy that you are, you cant resist an invitation to hangout with friends and live it up! You know; "Paint the town red", and so you do.

Splashes of lipstick red.

You are back to fighting with each other now, it's a real love and heartbreak kind of deal now. You love your job, and have tons of friends there, so you always have something to do. So you do. Which doesn't conform to her country lifestyle that she wanted to live.

I thought when I moved to Cinti, I would be around a bunch of yokels kicking shit, but it's not like that. There's really cool people that are just like back home, except there's more trees, and no smog, no traffic, and they all say I have an accent, and I'm like whatever I talk normal, it's you guys that talk all country and shut. But other than that, it's a small city. Which in a way is kinda of cooler than a big city, cause you have your own space. Everywhere you go you run into friends.

But she wanted to move to Kentucky or the border of Indiana, where it's more country and your neighbors are a mile away.

You start to realize that you can take the boy out the city, but you cant take the city out the boy.  You know she hates this about you, and your so madly in love with her that you try to cover your spots... but they always show. So what do you do? Well you get jealous, cause you know there's all these country boys out here, that can give here just the life she's seeking, your sinking, but you try to keep the boat afloat.

 
So one rainy day, you walk to your local blockbuster video down the street. Past the really good sub-sandwich shop, that's next to the really excellent Chinese food joint. That's down from the vid store. God I use to rent videos all the time in Cincy, like five at a time. I'd watch them all in like two days and go back for more. 

So you do your normal routine, which is; go to the Foreign section, then the Drama, then New Releases, then back to Drama, then Foreign, then Comedy, then Drama. And on and on. I would like be in the store no less than like forty minutes, sometimes over an hour.

So on this day I cant find nothing, but there's this video that has always caught my eye. It has Piper Perabo from Coyote Ugly, which I liked, and the cover looks interesting. I always see this DVD (it's been like jumping out at me for like five months,) but I always pass it cause I've never heard of it, and I think it's probably some cheap stupid movie ( Cause I know everything that's good, and I would of heard of it.) 


But today you cannot find nothing to rent so you grab it, knowing your probably wasting your money. That you probably wont be able to watch a minute of it.

Back in the rain. Past the really excellent Chinese food joint. Past the really good sub shop. Back home. Throw it on. Start cooking some food (cause you love cooking food on rainy/snowy days, and today is one of those day). Your ex is living with her ex, and you feel hexed, you need nourishment. 

So the flicker starts and you start to realize... this movie needs attention. You sit down. Watch it.And you realize you love Paulie! You are Paulie! You understand her... and the scene were she tells Mouse what's up, you completely understand! ...and it breaks your heart.

 
Now try explaining that you saw a movie, that explained exactly the way your love felt. How desperate you are to hold on to a love you felt was leaving you. But that the movie was a lesbian flick, and you identified with one of the girls.

Sometimes people are just to shallow and they cant understand shit. But I showed this movie to everyone that would watch, and never say how I identified with Paulie.
 
I never told my ex neither, but now I watch that movie and it reminds me of Cincinnati and The Days of Snow.
 

Life... is so weird. So uncontrollable, quite unpredictable. A tad... un-tangible... and if you squeeze to tight, the things you want, they go quicker away.

It's a tricky business... holding on to love. But live and learn... and grow. For all the turmoil and effort, seemingly meaningless. Its really for the best. It's all in the game of growing up. So much learned from my days of snow, that I look back and see a stranger of the kid I was once before, and is no more. Kerouac and Wolfe said it better, but we all feel as much as their letters. I just transcribe my particular, love young fetter.

   P.S. It did not work out for me and mine. We split and it was none to pretty, but it remains a most meaning full event in my life.

Here's a rad fan vid of lost and delirious along to the kate bush's song "this women's work"