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okay, i have never before written a “book review pre-post”…i.e. i have not yet finished the book Consider The Lobster by David Foster Wallace…but i have to say something…
there is one problem with Consider The Lobster…i am just not smart enough to read it. i am enjoying it immensely, and i’m actually learning (a lot actually), which is great, however i feel quite sure that if i finish it i will never write another word again (blog or otherwise). Consider The Lobster is having the opposite effect on me that reading Soon I Will Be Invincible had. after reading SIWBI, i felt almost invincible, i felt sure my book could be published, i felt sure that i was not a hack, because other bigger hacks were out there getting book deals (in bidding wars!) and movie deals and second book deals…oy. however, when i read Wallace i am convinced that i am the greatest of hacks and that it would physcially hurt Mr. Wallace’s eyes to read just one of my horrible mistake ridden evil disgusting sentences.
i guess this is what comes from aiming too high. of wanting to be in the company of people you admire instead of people you revile. to be the best most amazing fish in a barrel of crappy lame limpish fish or to be the crappiest lamest limpiest fish in the barrel of brilliant amazing fish. oh me. what to do, what to do?
suggestions?
fyi – in addition to making up words like “limpish” and my new favorite “limpiest” i also greatly overuse the word brilliant. in some later post i’ll tally up how many times i’ve used it in this fairly new blog. i think the number will likely be astounding…in an embarrasing way…
in honor of the renewal of big love for a third season and the impossibly intense episode from last night (7/30/07) i decided to write a little about this big show. sorry for the pun.
i am a HUGE Big Love fan. i fully believe it to be one of the best shows on television now, and possibly ever (competing in the drama category for that title would be The West Wing, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under…i’m sure there are more). i recently got into a pseudo debate with co-workers who aren’t watching it and apparently gave up on it early in season one. i can understand why it doesn’t appeal to everyone, but we did get into a little mini-argue-rant thing because they are huge fans of Entourage. i watch Entourage as well, and i enjoy it, but there is just not a lot there and it is certainly not comparable to Big Love…if you want to compare it to something compare it to the brilliant Flight of the Conchords (which is totally kicking Entourage’s ass in the comedy department if you ask me – which you didn’t). everything on Entourage is neatly summed up in a quick little half hour and if there is ever any conflict in an episode it rarely lasts more than the single episode’s twenty eight minutes. and when i say conflict i mean things like not getting laid, or potentially missing out on a blowjob or rimjob, or losing a 5k bet about who can sleep with a woman without emotional attachment in one day, or a character’s son maybe not making it into some posh private school (which is scarily the most “moral” and least ridiculous of the “conflicts”), or heaven forbid a million dollar movie hangs in the balance (for about five minutes). listen, i’m not trying to whine about the show. it’s good, it’s fun. but it’s the fluff i watch on demand AFTER i watch Big Love so that i can go to sleep peacefully without worrying about my Big Love characters.
here’s what is so great about Big Love. the characters are not only beautifully played by a really talented crew (i’ve never liked Bill Paxton more in my life) but they are also beautifully developed, all interesting and different and realistic in terms of how a family functions. as far as the story goes, for anyone who doesn’t already know, it is about a polygamist man and his three wives and many (7?) children all living next to each other in three houses (whose backyards kind of neatly combine together) in Sandy Utah. i consider myself a feminist. you would think i would hate any show where a man not only so arrogantly has three wives, but more arrogantly thinks he is man enough to be enough for three women, but what is so brilliant about this show, is that i DO believe it. it is so well written and thoughtful that i find myself empathizing with these characters in a way i would not have thought possible, and much to my surprise, in a recent episode, even considering how advanced their family is in some ways to my restricted and shockingly conservative thinking. let me explain. in a recent episode Margene’s (Ginnifer Goodwin) mother Virginia (played nicely by Bonnie Bedelia) visits and discovers that her daughter is a polygamist. The episode is fraught with tension and eventually Virginia (an out of work waitress from Nevada) gets drunk and makes a pass at Bill (the husband) and then confesses to Margene that she has it really good and that she should never let another wife (a fourth – which has been much discussed this season) come in, because that wife will likely be new and younger and possibly more attractive. Virginia goes on to tell her daughter that she is in the “cat bird seat”…and you can see that the mother really believes it. Margene obviously does not believe it, she just believes she is in a loving relationship with four people, but you can see the confusion in her eyes when her mother says this and you can even see some doubt creep in, but you hope for her sake, and the sake of her family, that she can continue to hold on to the reality, which is that though the relationship is fraught with problems (like ANY relationship) it is essentially good, and about love and compassion and family and not about anything depraved or creepy, as most people, myself included, would assume polygamy to be. my concern durning this episode was that i found myself relating to Virgina and not to Margene. here i’m thinking to myself, “Margene – listen to your out of work miserable drunk failure of a mother, because she knows what she’s talking about – you’re the young pretty new one right now, don’t give that away!” obviously, i’m nuts. it honestly gave me pause to realize that i was relating to Virginia, rather than Margene, and let me tell you, i’ve been thinking about it ever since. when a television show makes you think about it for weeks on end and really more importantly, think about yourself, i think it’s doing something pretty impressive.
also of note, is the fact that i lived in Utah from the age of 13 until 17, and again for a year when i was 20. My family still lives there and so i go back frequently, including this coming weekend for my younger brother’s wedding. i find the show to be pretty damn accurate. i was not good friends with anyone that lived in a polygamist household, so i don’t know how realistic Bill/Barb/Nikki/Margene and their children are, i like to think it’s very realisitc, but i just don’t know. however, the things i do know about Utah and about Mormons and about Polygamy are pretty dead on accurate in this show, which is pretty impressive, because it’s a complicated pot.
this is a damn fine show and i’m proud of HBO for renewing it, and i’m proud of such amazing actors (that could easily be doing something easier and possibly “bigger”) for sticking with it, i like to think the show’s brilliance is what keeps them coming back. it is definitely what will keep me coming back.
HBO has finally SLIGHTLY redeemed itself for not only cancelling Carnivale, but for pretending that “the show naturally wrapped up” – it practically ended on a cliffhanger…i have not been pleased with them for a long time. i’m glad they’ve given me reason to be pleased with them again.
okay, i know i should get shit for not having ever been to Penn Station after living in New York for 2 years (and three months) however, after having been there this morning at 6am, i have to say, “what the fuck?” there is no reason to go to this crap hole on purpose unless you cannot avoid it. as my co-worker Jason would say, “it is Craptastic!” perhaps i have been pampered too much by my frequent trips to Grand Central Station, but having now seen the other option, why would i ever go back to Penn unless i had a gun to my head? in fact, when we have something as well, GRAND as Grand Central, it is insulting to also have something like Penn Station. first of all, the shit, as far as i can tell is not air-conditioned…and in 6am 90 degree august New York humid ass heat, that is unenjoyable to say the least. second, the layout/organization is ridiculous…the signage is third-rate at best and i, a pretty efficient and sufficient new yorker that gets around the city just fine had to ask for directions, which i never do…i pity the poor tourists from well, anywhere really. third, the line is tremendous. having never been there before and not knowing exactly what i was getting into i arrived quite early for my train, but no fewer than six people in front of me missed their trains while standing in the massive queue to get a ticket, or to pick one up. i realize now i could have used the kiosk probably to get my ticket, but initially only saw kiosks that were out of order with signs that looked written by six year olds (how classy and modern). a giant fan was cooling the giant queue line and let me tell you that was REALLY working (read: intense sarcasm). fourth, once you have your ticket you have to stand like an idiot with a crowd of other idiots staring at a giant updating screen like it is a god, waiting for your train to be posted so you know what gate you are going to, then when you (and everyone else) sees what gate you belong at there is a massive disorganized run, which is borderline dangerous if you’re going to a popular destination. there is no getting a coffee and settling in with a book to wait for your train, there aren’t even really any chairs, well not where i was. fifth, they should have a warning sign about the bathrooms, or perhaps they just shouldn’t have bathrooms…not only were they disgusting and scary and crowded (at 6 am no less) but i saw the biggest fucking cockroach i have seen since moving to new york hanging out casually in one of the bathrooms…so advanced was this mutant cockroach, i think it asked me if i could spare a square. here’s the good news…the train itself was lovely. a nice scenic little trip, not crowded and insanely comfortable, especially when compared with flying coach these days…which i can’t even get into and i will be having to do in six days…oy!…curse my long ass legs and round ass (we won’t get into how big or small…we’re just going with round).
so in the final analysis…
train travel? yea!
Amtrak? undecided
Penn Station? burn it to the ground
a great thanks to all of you that read my post about Anis last week and voted for him on famecast. thanks to you even if you didn’t read my post, but voted anyway. Anis has made it to the top 5…as it should be. so if you helped out, now is the time to pat yourselves on the back…
you think this is a crazy post title, but really it is the least crazy at all. this post is for book #22 on my quest to 52 books this year, and that book is:
Eeeee Eee Eeee by Tao Lin. Fiction.
I was hugely disappointed by this book, perhaps just because my hopes were up so high in the first place. i’d read some great things about it and some writers (and publications) that i enjoy were really endorsing his writing as pretty much the future of writing, so i assumed it would be right up my alley. and it should be, because the themes Lin is dealing with, are so present in my own life right now that i cannot even articulate it, however i guess i just didn’t “get it”. i hate to sound like some stupid cliff notes reading kind of moron, but whatever it was Lin was going for with the bizarre dolphins and moose and bears and “Eeeee Eee Eeee’s” all over the place, i just didn’t freaking get it. he is a beautiful writer and i would love to see what he could do with a more “straight” narrative, but here i just felt a bit lost and let down. the book is largely stream of conciousness writing from the perspectives of a couple different characters, but there is no story arc to speak of and no real direction for the book overall (forgetting for a second the truly bizarre elements – that i totally WANTED to love – like cars full of bears and dolphins curled up in corners) the book was still difficult to get through and far too “avant garde” for my tastes. i mean i want to be the girl who likes avante garde things, i really do, and i think sometimes i am, certainly more than the average bear (no pun intended), however i find these days what really interests me is character development and beautiful writing, best paired with an interesting and thought provoking narrative – i want to fall in love with characters and be moved by them, whether in books or films, and i desperately wanted to fall in love with Lin’s characters, but i couldn’t even come close. i also found myself very much wishing that Lin was going to send some knowledge my way, because he was talking about issues so dear to my current heart (i.e. happiness and the ridiculousness of searching for it and the added ridiculousness of not knowing if it even exists, either in the world, or for you personally) but i just never got the information, if it was there. maybe i was looking for too much in it, maybe a combination of my expectations and my desire to have someone impart great knowledge to me is actually keeping me from getting his likely very simple message…it certainly could be. i suspect i’ll give this another try in a couple years and see if i “get it”, but for now it is 2.5 stars for having all that beautiful writing and all those brilliant ideas that went nowhere.
of note: lately i seem to stand alone on book reviews. i think usually i’m pretty in line with the masses (the good ones of course) but everyone on earth has seemed to love Eeeee Eee Eeee and also Soon I Will Be Invincible. sigh. maybe i’ll get back on track soon.
i just saw Sunshine (directed by Danny Boyle) on Friday as it is in limited release in New York this week.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/sunshine/
you can view the trailer above. i was going to link to the official site, but there appear to be spoilers on there as far as i’m concerned, so i’d avoid it and go with the trailer above.
this movie is amazing. it was pretty much a 5 star movie throughout, although the ending let me down a bit and i’m leaning towards ultimately giving it 4/4.5 stars (which is problematic because i also saw Knocked Up this weekend – finally – and thought it was really funny – i.e. 4 stars – and while it was very good – it was just not remotely the same as watching the epic-ness of Sunshine – this also reinforces my boyfriend’s theory that you have to think about movies within their categories when rating them – i.e. drama and comedy are rated differently because there are different expecations, goals, etc.).
anyway, this is not a post about Knocked Up, which was great, it is a post about Sunshine, which was amazing (it is also apparently a post about Cillian Murphy’s eyes). the epic beauty of Boyle’s movie is just completely engaging. the characters, seven astronauts on a mission to “save the world” by delivering a bomb (the payload) into the sun that is dying, in order to create a star within a star, are beautifully sketched and all the performances are fine and even and well tempered enough not to take away from the larger picture of the film, which as i said, is just epic. Boyle is a master craftsman and i have really been a fan of his recent work (28 Days Later remains one of my favorite films of all time), not to say that his earlier work isn’t good (Trainspotting was genius and The Beach was underrated) but his collaborative work with Alex Garland the writer of both 28 Days Later and Sunshine, is what really works for me i think. just like what i responded to in 28 Days Later, Sunshine has all my favorite elements kind of perfectly assembled and executed – Man v. Man, Man v. Nature, and Man v. Himself. Sunshine has some of the most beautiful and horrifying juxtapositions working within it as well, to be so close to the sun as to constantly be worried about burning up, but also to be in space, which is fatally cold; to be trapped inside a small spaceship (no matter how huge a spaceship is, after 16 months on it and with years still to go to MAYBE get home, it has got to feel small and confining) and to be also trapped in the unimaginable vastness that is space…well these are weighty issues all around…and all beautifully handled here. so on to Cillian Murphy’s eyes, first of all, Murphy is just incredibly talented, and never more so than when working with Danny Boyle (although i have yet to see The Wind That Shakes The Barley – which i’ve heard is unbelievably good), regardless of Murphy’s talent though, he was particularly a good choice by Boyle for this film because of those insnaely unreal baby blue eyes. in the close quarters of the spaceship and the even closer quarters of a spacesuit or a trapped airlock, wherever, those eyes deliver for every second of insane close up. those eyes were just one in a series of really smart choices Boyle made.
here’s my last thought on this before i move on to what i should be doing today. Sunshine is exactly what a hollywood big budget film should be if the world (and specifically hollywood) was on the right track. this film was smart and beautiful, it was full of action and drama and special effects (that all the kiddies so love) and yet it didn’t talk down to the audience, it didn’t try to wedge in a romance where it didn’t belong, and the ending, while there is hope, is realistic, rather than tied up with a neat little unrealistic bow and delivered to the pandering masses so that they wouldn’t have to feel bad or think about anything when they left the theater. THIS is what hollywood big budget films should be, this is exactly it. ah, wishful thinking, how i love thee…
i think by now everyone knows about “the list” – you know that list of five people that you’re allowed to sleep with if the opportunity arises, without destroying your “great monogamous relationship”? my boyfriend and i have had many (too many) conversations about our respective “lists”, which always turn into arguments if not full blown fights, what do you expect when you put Lindsay Lohan on your list (him, not me). blech! anyway, i never enjoyed much making my “list” because i found i was always more interested in the character an actor was playing than the actual actors themselves. for example: mark wahlberg…he could be a complete dick in real life and despite his obvious hotness i might not actually want to sleep with him, however, his character Tommy Corn in I Heart Huckabees? wild horses could not stop me from wanting THAT guy if we crossed paths (if he even existed – a minor point to my mind). so all this difficulty in trying to construct my “list” got me thinking about what my REAL dream list would be…i mean we’re talking fantasy here so why not go all the way?
so this brings us to my fetish for good guys…i’m not talking bad boys that are REALLY good guys deep down…i’m talking about dyed in the wool boy scouts. honorable hero types, they don’t have to be perfect, but they have to be good and they have to do things (even if they’re bad things) for heroic reasons. for me, bad guys are overrated, i’m just more into the quintessential modern day good guy and so the following is my list of the top ten (with three honorable mentions) good guy movie characaters over the past twenty years…
honorable mention: Boogie Night’s Buck Swope as portrayed by Don Cheadle (1997). Cheadle loses points here for most of the time being forced into bad 70’s (and 80’s) get ups and/or his character’s odd love of cowboy gear, but i am just so desperate for him to get his dream, to get out of porn and into his own electronic’s store. i just want to take care of him and help him get his damn store! when he falls for Jessie St. Vincent (Melora Walters) you just want him to get out all the more. he loves her so purely, especially considering they’re still both in porn…
honorable mention: The Station Agent’s Joe Oramas as portrayed by Bobby Cannavale (2003). it doesn’t hurt that Cannavale is extremely easy on the eyes, he only loses points for being a bit whiney and clingy, but so cute and sweet and honest and good that who would mind such a clingy little bit of goodness? the station agent is a great film, largely because of incredibly strong performances. Cannavale has you silently begging for Fin to be kind to Joe and when he finally lets him in it is so worth it.
honorable mention: The Departed’s William ‘Billy’ Costigan Jr. as portrayed by Leonardo Dicaprio (2006). Dicaprio could have soared to the top of this list if only he’d been given more screen time (which i don’t even wish for because the movie is brilliantly handled as is). Dicaprio’s Billy is heartbreaking. a good guy just trying to catch a break and get out of some horrible circumstances. i’m sure an argument could be made that he is the “bad guy with good guy deep down” but since all his bad guy ruse is forced upon him i believe him to be good on the surface and good to the bone, so good that he’ll embrace a horrible violent lifestyle and sacrifice himself and his happiness, all to do good. plus he is incredibly easy on the eyes here, which really doesn’t hurt. at all.
10. Swinger’s Mike ‘Mikey’ Peters as portrayed by Jon Favreau (1996). Favreau scores points here for looking incredibly gorgeous in a wife beater and holding his own next to Vaughn in the hotness category, while still being the good guy. i adore Vaughn (and wish he played more straight good guys so maybe he’d be on this list, but he’s too funny for that i suppose) but what woman on earth wouldn’t be more happy going home with Mikey than ‘T’ in this movie. Vaughn is that guy and that one night stand that you always regret a little bit and Mikey is that guy that you fell in love with that one time and who completely pined for you when it was over (as it should be). he slips a few places for being a bit TOO whiney for a girl we all know isn’t good enough for him, but he’s still oh so good at number 10. go Mikey go.
9. The Power of One’s P.K./Rainmaker as portrayed by Stephen Dorff (1992). Dorff kind of bothers me, he’s generally pretty cute, but i always have this feeling in his films that he’s just kind of an arrogant prick. an exception is his performance in this film, which seems genuine without being too over the top. the character is an absolute hero character, you are given no reason not to empathize with P.K. from first frame to last (and then they make him hot as well), but Dorff does a great job of inhabiting P.K. as a good guy that just doesn’t really believe the hype about himself. i fell in love when i first saw this as a teenager and when i catch it on cable now i can’t generally tear myself away, mostly because i still feel a bit in love with P.K., even if his girlfriend gets kind of brutally killed as a result of his actions (she wasn’t really worthy of him anyway).
8. Se7en’s Detective David Mills as portrayed by Brad Pitt (1995). Pitt nails this performance of a cocky not so smart hero cop in a crappy little world (pretty much not unlike the real one we all exist in). i’m a firm believer that Pitt is an excellent actor (12 Monkey’s, Spy Game, Babel, Se7en, Fight Club, Snatch, Sleepers – all solid) that gets a raw deal because he is so unbelievably attractive. he is at his most attractive (to me) here, playing the boyscout that kinda wishes he was a bad boy. you could make the bad boy argument here as well, but i stand by the idea that this is not a bad boy performance, just a cocky cop that is really trying to do the right thing. ultimately as we all know, he fails, but it is his great love that leads to his demise so i can’t judge him too harshly. i did mention he’s brutally hot, right?
7. Casualties Of War’s PFC Eriksson as portrayed by Michael J. Fox (1989). this performance kills me everytime. it was one of the first movies i ever cried my eyes out for like a little baby and its still true today if i pop in the dvd. Fox’s portrayal as Eriksson is heartbreaking. he’s young and beautiful in this, but it is really his amazing heart and character that shows through and makes him one of the quintessential modern good guys on film. if you haven’t seen this film i would highly recommend it, though it is not for the faint of heart, there is a brutal rape and a lot of other violence (it is about the Vietnam War), but Fox’s performance throughout reminds you that with all that evil in the world there has got to be some good hiding out, just waiting to overcome.
6. I Heart Huckabees’ Tommy Corn as portrayed by Mark Wahlberg (2004). Wahlberg steals the whole damn show in a movie full of people that could steal shows. he is absolutely the shining star of this film as a fireman (hello hero!) that loses his way after 9/11 when he realizes how much more there is to life and how difficult (impossible) it will be for him to save it. he has an existential crisis based on his newfound knowledge that tears his life and family apart. i have to mention that his crisis is un-good-guy in that it causes him to leave his family, but you can’t really hold it against him, an existential crisis is hard to ignore. so cute riding his bike all around town to save the earth, more like him and we’re golden.
5. Children Of Men’s Theo Faron as portrayed by Clive Owen (2006). okay let’s just start with the simple fact that Owen in almost any role can for me make this list and he likely makes my “actor top 5 list” regardless of characters, he is just talented and beautiful and tall and with the accent, forget it, i’m gone. pair that with the fact that he plays somber hero Theo in this film with beautiful understated glory. Theo has been handed a horrible deal in this film but every action he takes from start to finish is nothing but heroic. i was totally in love when i saw this and remain so today. *sigh* oh Clive…i mean Theo…
4. Zodiac’s Robert Graysmith as portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal (2007). there is only one reason that Gyllenhall’s Graysmith is not number one on this list (because i was in love like maybe never before when i walked out of this film) and that is because i am forced to admit that his goodness and his obsession overran his life in such a way that he ultimately abandons any life outside of it, i.e. his children and wife suffer. however, he is the definition of boyscout, and is adorable in an unaware way for the entire film. i remain in love, despite his possibly “not good’ obsession. i mean just look at him in this picture?! how are you not in love already? the hands in the pockets and sheepish look…? i can’t take it!
3. Pieces of April’s Bobby as portrayed by Derek Luke (2003). if you are me, you spent most of Pieces of April (a pretty good film) worrying about Bobby…what was going to happen to him, is he going to be okay, is this film going to take some horrible turn and tear him away from me…i mean…April? i worried because he is amazing, he is the perfect guy, and since he is the perfect guy he likely cannot even exist on film and will be torn away from us. fortunately Pieces is not an overly sadistic film and there is plenty of misery to go around without doing something to Bobby, and so he survives the film unscathed and remains the perfect boyfriend, for all of us to fantasize about…
2. This is a tie…i know, i know, it’s a cop out, but it is the same actor in two different roles, which is the rationalization i’m sticking to. Sign’s Merrill Hess as portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix (2002) and The Village’s Lucius Hunt as portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix (2004). i don’t mean to imply that these characters are too similar, just that they are equally heroic and beautiful (both inside and blissfully out). Merrill doesn’t get as much screen time as Lucius and delivers in a more subtle way but there is nothing sexier than when he talks about being “pretty strong and pretty fast” and there is nothing sexier than giving up your life to help your older brother raise his children after his wife dies and he loses all faith. i mean that is the definition of good guy. and also of hot. Lucius is so old fashioned as to want to protect his entire village and most of all his blind girlfriend but he is also progressive enough to get himself stabbed halfway through and let his blind lady love heroine save him and the village instead. Lucius is the most noble of characters, brought to life beautifully by Phoenix and Shyamalan.
1. 28 Days Later’s Jim as portrayed by Cillian Murphy (2002). there are many reasons why Jim is number one on this list, the first of which is the fact that unlike Phoenix and Owen, both of who i have unnaturally large crushes on, i don’t have a thing for Murphy, but i very much have a HUGE thing for Jim. Murphy’s portrayal of Jim is honest and beautiful and so real. just a regular and believeable good guy who had hero written all over him all his life, but just didn’t know it until circumstances demanded it. i think we all hope we are Jim deep down, few of us likely are. Jim does a complete 180 in the film, becoming a monster by the end, in order to protect those he loves. he crosses the line into animal rage to save the women he has come to value as family and ultimately he retains his humanity despite the extreme measures to which he is driven. i loved Jim from the beginning, and it didn’t hurt when he came out of the bathroom with his hair all shaved off, hello…hotness…oh yes, i think you’ve arrived.
so that’s just one girl’s opinion, the 10 (okay 14) modern day good guys that get me going…
everyone in the world already seems to know about viceland…but in case there are a few out there waiting to discover it (especially the do’s and don’ts section) then i’m here to open your eyes:
http://www.viceland.com/int/dd.php?id=956&country=us
i would say this is a superficial/negative post because vice can be so negative, but it’s negative in a way that makes us all better people, so i’m putting this in the positive category. plus the laughs i get out of it have to equal a positive…even if they are mean spirited laughs…i’m still counting it!
i’m trying to offset superficial and/or negative posts i make with positive “deep” posts. so here is my world healing post to offset yesterday’s negative one. expect something nice and superficial and hopefully fun tomorrow (not to imply that today’s post is not fun).
my amazing friend keegan is involved with an incredible community project in minneapolis called Juxtaposition Arts. here is a link, if you’re in the area (or even if you’re not) it never hurts to get involved.
http://www.juxtaposition.org/programs/programarchive.html
also, i have been dying to get involved in this program run by McSweeney’s, but am too busy being selfish with my time and trying to get my faltering “real career” on track. if you’re less selfish (or more available than i am) you should check this out, they always need volunteers:
Mcsweeney’s has chapters in new york, los angeles, chicago, seattle, michigan, boston, and valencia (san francisco), so perhaps there is one near you.
okay, it is so great that i am opening my blog with this. i cannot think of a more positive or inspiring thing then to open things up with a post about Anis, the fact that i am shamelessly plugging him should be ignored. i’ve been holding onto a book review i recently wrote because i didn’t want such a negative post to be the first thing i launched out there into the universe, so it is fitting that instead it should be about Anis…onto shameless plug:
Anis is competing on famecast (stage 9) for the slam poetry finals. it is down to the top 10 and voting for the top 5 finalists ends tomorrow at noon (wednesday 7/18/07). there are some really talented slam poets in the top 10 right now, one in particular i really think has a great piece posted, but with not disrespect intended to any of those fine artists, Anis blows them out of the water. Anis has a quality and style and a perspective and opinion that just sings. the world opens up when you really listen to what Anis has to say and it seems like the whole world can just be a better place than it is right now. more important than that, listening to Anis makes ME want to be a better person…a better artist…just better.
i once said that ‘Anis is the catalyst for every artist’. this was my best and most accurate statement in life thus far (seriously). there is something about Anis that when you come into contact with him and with his work, you just want to go out and conquer the world in the name of all things good, possibly while riding a pony. okay, maybe that last bit is just me.
so let Anis inspire you today…register at famecast…it takes only two minutes…and then listen to his new piece “Here Am I” and vote for Anis. tomorrow (wednesday 7/18/o7) is the last day to vote, so don’t drag your damn feet!
last i checked, with the votes he has he will not make it to the top 5 – he needs to make it to the top 5 – there is no way this is even a legitimate competition if he doesn’t make the top 5 – so let’s make it happen.
if you have already voted in a previous round it is even easier to vote again, because you don’t have to re-register – just log-in and vote.
here is a link directly to the slamp poetry stage (stage 9):
http://famecast.com/contest/centerstage.php?stage_id=15&round_id=93
here is a link for registration and voting:
http://famecast.com/registerfan.php
thanks everyone, you won’t regret it!
