My blog took more drugs than Seth Putnam and is currently in a coma. I've created another more accessible and far more likable venture:

mzamza.tumblr.com

follow it to freedom.

When you fall asleep tonight, I'm gonna fart in your face.

Cough-e. Like an ailing Wall-E.

Anyhoozle,

Haven't quite updated in some time. But I figure before I go to class I should give a little update and tell you all about my first movie theatre experience in the UK.

Last night I was invited to dinner and a movie by some of my new Scandinavian friends, most of whom I met at a house party off campus. Good bunch. I'm glad to have made acquaintance with the Europeans over the Brits over the Americans. They consider me their "Nice American" friend, which is a pretty good title have I suppose. I usually come awarded with this award when drunk, but that's ok, because their being hhhonest!

We went to see "Edge of Darkness." Not my first choice, but neither was "Wolf-Man" which was their second choice. But who was I to be fussy? I wanted the experience, and I got it. OK, if the movie were a little better, the experience would've been more well matched, but who cares. More on the movie later.

Walking into the theatre, I realized something that I liked better already: ASSIGNED SEATS! Great idea! You get there on time, you get the seats you deserve. No running around, no little kids switching. You go with a group, you're allotted seats somewhat close together. It's more anything goes in Britain, but somehow they take their movie theatre experience more seriously. Which is how it should be. Movies ALWAYS should be taken as seriously as a play or performance piece. Even if the movie sucks, there are always bad live performances to match.

One thing that HASN'T changed, however, is the amount of commercials and previews presented before the movie begins. The one plus side to that though is that the commercials are somewhat interesting, not the stupid ones made exclusively for the movie theatre. I also saw the best car crash and drinking commercials there. What I like about British advertising is that they don't play it safe; if they want to scare you, they are gonna fucking scare the shit out of you. The car crash commercial shows not only what happens inside the car, but also inside your body. You see an animation of ribs cracking, then internal bleeding, etc. Unfortunately you wouldn't see that on american screens. Then they follow it with a drinking ad, which shows incidents influenced by drinking, including screaming and fighting matches and the aftermath of sexual abuse. Again, why play it safe? Why candy coat it? I think America is so afraid of showing things as they are they have to make it so that when it actually happens the way it happens, people are surprised at the time of the act, which, in my opinion, isn't always the right time to be surprised. Sometimes, for morality's sake, you need to be surprised at the time of the action, but it's also good to be prepared. You don't want to get hit by car and expect hearts, four leaf clovers, balloons and rainbows to come out of your mouth while Dreamstreet plays in your ears.

Plus, nobody's talking/texting during the movie???????? WTF

I can't describe how the experience, in itself, of seeing trailers of movies that came out in America months before when you were there playing for the first time in a UK theatre. For the first time I saw a trailer for From Paris With Love, and I'm sure nobody in the UK's complaining about how long they had to wait for that. Lovely Bones? It feels like that movie came out years ago. Guess it was only a month. Still though.

I was asked that night whether I was going to the Forum (the school's club) or not. I said I was going to the movies. I don't think I find it odd that I'd rather see a movie than go to the club. That's not to say I dislike the club (it can prove beneficial) but movies are more adhesive; you get drunk at the club and you don't remember much. It's fun, but the next morning you continue. Sometimes you'll see a movie you come to hate, but when you choose to go the movie of your choosing it sticks with you. And you remember it better. A lot of nights I've been spending at the LRC watching movies that no one else seems to take out but me. It's like I got my own temporary collection. I also got to say, I fucking LOVE the selection of movies they have here at the Learning Resource Center. Since my discovery of it, I've been watching a film a day. I aim to watch all of the Woody Allen movies they have here (of which they have a lot), as well as the ones I had been meaning to watch back at home but have swept under the mat. Tomorrow I'll be watching McCabe and Mrs. Miller, which I had been meaning to watch for a long time but never got a round to see. I'm not sure why, especially when the star is this guy… on the left. Just wanna make sure nobody's confused



Right? Right? Right.

This evening I watched Donnie Darko, and I like it a lot better than I did the first time. Still don't exactly maybe probably don't understand all of it, but it's a breath of fresh air after you've seen his other projects. Seriously, why do people insist on giving him money. If he made personal films instead of stupid film essays and Twilight Zone ripoffs, he'd probably have more devoted fans. On the plus side, it's gotten me to get into pleasure reading again. For the past couple weeks, I've been seriously hating reading, almost to the point where I wonder why I even bother with English. All I've been reading is Daniel Defoe, Charles Dickens, and Samuel Richardson. It's not as though they're bad books, I just don't give a shit about it. I want to read Greene, Mamet, and Vonnegut. It's stuff like that reassures my interest in literature. Who knows. Maybe I'll like the older stuff again. Right now though that shit bores the fuck out of me.

Anyway. I like where I am with my movies. I like having the LRC's television by myself. I like that I'm taking the kind of film class where you watch awesomely provocative films like Near Dark, The Idiots, and Man Bites Dog. Sometimes I wish it were my major, but I'm just glad I can take as many classes as I want to on the subject, and that I am allowed the possibility to be with people who take it as seriously as it should.

Dublin this weekend. Yarp!

foggyyy

Long long while since my last update. This would be my FIRST update since arriving in the UK. Although I have not seen all I have wanted to see yet, I gotta tell you,

I LOVE IT HERE

Everything from the UK versions of the American brands, to the nightlife on campus and off, to the SMOKING KILLS labels on cigarette packets (yeah I've been picking up on the local vocal as well loll) to the this and the that and the whathaveyou.

I like the Englands.

I was at this wonderful market in Cambridge the other day and was very much tempted to purchase a few vinyls (notably Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska) … I figure it might be worth it to ship them out in case I ever come across there again.



Now here's the sad story. I bought a glass bowl - and a pretty decent looking one at that. Red, black, mostly white. I bought it with a lighter for 8 pounds total. After a full day of circulating the town, I finally get to meet up with the rest of my group. Excited about the discovery, I pulled it out to show somebody only to find several pieces of it at the bottom of the bag. I have no idea when it happened, but somehow I broke my brand new bowl.

As upset as I am, maybe I'm just not supposed to spend money on that kinda shit. Lesson learned I guess. I mean its probably for the best considering I'm probably not gonna be able to bring it back to the colonies.

Speaking of Cambridge, I just discovered the greatest street performer ever. Not greatest in terms of talent, but damn… what a show.



His name: The Sonic Modulator. He had a blanket out with a sign that said "Change for Broken Spaceship" and was selling CDs for 10 quid. A little too much of a price to pay, I think, for a performance (an even better one at that) you can just easily get for free.

Even though I would LOVE to have the Sonic Modulator on my top artists on Last.fm. Then Hipster Runoff would blog about him. Then Pitchfork. Then the rest is history.

I've got high hopes for this trip. We'll talk about London in a bit! Hopefully it won't take as long as this one.

worst dvd art 001

Netflix It: ‘Eyes Wide Shut’

Christmas time is here with happiness and cheer. So what would the holiday season be without some holiday themed movies? I know I personally can’t let a Christmas go by without watching A Christmas Story or Elf once or twice (maybe even the first Lethal Weapon). It should go without saying that these films are already holiday staples, so you really don’t need me to tell you to watch these aforementioned classics.



If you’re like me, you like to shake traditions up a bit, which is why this week I’m recommending Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut (based upon Arthur Shnitzler’s novella Dream Story). I can’t quite call it a Christmas movie, considering how the holiday is merely a backdrop for the rest of the film. Considering how the strengths and weaknesses of the family bond are the main themes of the film, it only makes sense that a family-oriented holiday season would be used as the time and setting. Thanks to its slow, dreamlike pace and sexually explicit imagery, Eyes Wide Shut becomes Stanley Kubrick’s twisted version of A Christmas Carol: a man who takes his life for granted is visited throughout the night by incidents that could either change his life for better or for worse.

It may seem like centuries ago, but once upon a time, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were once husband and wife. In Eyes Wide Shut they play Bill and Alice Harford, a wealthy and seemingly blissful married couple living in New York City. They have a beautiful daughter and a luxurious home, not to mention a few skeletons in their closet, as many couples do (though most would refrain from admitting so). Upon learning of his wife’s near-affair with another man, Bill is sent on a long, bizarre string of events that run the risk of jeopardizing everything he holds dear. It’s one sex-laced incident after another, and by the end of it all, Bill (as well as the audience) is completely overwhelmed.




Kubrick wants us to acknowledge that even the most picture-perfect marriages are filled with as much strain and hardship as any other marriage. All of Kubrick’s films have an understanding of what sorts of actions people are capable of carrying out in their lives, whether good or evil, and how we are constantly being tempted. I don’t think any of Kubrick’s films capture that issue more universally than Eyes Wide Shut, because marital temptations and complications are faced by couples around the world every single day.

Fair warning: Eyes Wide Shut contains a lot of eye-popping erotic imagery. In fact, it was so sexual in nature that the famous orgy scene had to be digitally altered before the final cut was released. At first glance, it would seem as though the portrayal of nudity in the film is gratuitous, but Kubrick wants the nudity to surprise us and stick in our minds. It’s his way of showing the constant temptation around us, even if its something so base and natural. Nudity is often treated as shocking and perverse, but Kubrick moralizes it and treats it in a realistic manner.

Eyes Wide Shut was made after an absence from the spotlight that lasted over a decade. Kubrick stepped behind the camera one final time to create one of the most polarizing films in his catalog. It’s a difficult film, and even after seeing it a few times I don’t know exactly how to look at it. While I don’t think it’s his best film, it’s definitely one of his most gripping and surreal selections, and it will surely satisfy the most devoted Kubrick fanatic. If you haven’t seen The Shining, 2001: A Space Odyssey or Dr. Strangelove, I suggest you watch those before venturing into this one. Kubrick was a filmmaker whose work will never be matched by any other director, which makes him an artist through and through.

Happy holidays!

Isabel Samaras

A “Cussin'” Good Time: Fantastic Mr. Fox Delivers On Its Name

(reprinted from The Recorder)

Boy, what a treat. I don't think I've ever seen, or will ever see, another animated film quite like Fantastic Mr. Fox. Oh sure, there are films it can easily be compared to (Chicken Run, Shrek, Wallace and Gromit), but Fox makes no effort to imitate. It's a film in a class all of its own, and it deserves a special place in the world of animated cinema. Many kudos indeed to Wes Anderson (you probably know him as the guy in the kick-ass American Express commercial that doesn't feature Marty Scorsese) who, while stepping out of his element, sticks to his guns and produces another fine piece of work. Even though it is not his finest film, it is probably his most ambitious work to date, and further proof that he is one of the most original artists of the cinematic craft working today.

Having said that, it must be noted that the only thing that separates this film from others in Wes Anderson's catalogue is the animation itself. Without the animation, it's your typical Anderson fare: the dark and witty humor, out-of-the-element acting, the Anderson regulars (their faces aren't seen, but you will recognize the voices right off the bat), and an overall separation from realism. Even for an animated feature, Fantastic Mr. Fox belongs in the same sort of alternate universe all of his other films belong in, only this time there are anthropomorphic animals. Whether or not that means there will be talking animals in Anderson's future films, I'm not sure. What I can say is that even though this world can only exist in an animated universe, it's not far off from the bizarre worlds Anderson has already created in other films. Anyone who's seen his other films would know (hint hint to those who haven't seen any of Anderson's films already).

The leader of the skulk is the eponymous Mr. Fox, voiced by Mr. George Clooney. In short, Mr. Fox is the Danny Ocean of animated anthropomorphic animals. He's a fox with a sharp tongue and even sharper teeth. Without falter, he zips through off-limits territory in a sequence that will remind many viewers of a Super Nintendo game circa 1990 (this is one movie whose spin-off game I probably would buy, and I HATE video games). At his side is the sweet but distraught Mrs. Fox, voiced by Meryl Streep (no adjective needed). Their relationship is one of the more genuine points of the film, and the emotions felt and words uttered between the two are without sugar-coating. Other standouts are Anderson regular Bill Murray as a badger/lawyer (a redundant description, may I say), and Willem Dafoe as the brawling and shot-calling Rat. Between Fantastic Mr. Fox and the equally cheery Antichrist, Dafoe seems to have well met his quota for movies with foxes in it for the next 20 years.

Self-awareness is what makes this movie a joy. Not many children's movies dissect themselves the way Fantastic Mr Fox does; even though these animals dress in human clothing, they are fully aware of their animal instincts and identities. Arguments often turn into snarling matches, and meals are eaten furiously. They appear to be human, but these animals are far from domesticated.

Allow me for a moment to address the animation itself. In a time where computer animation and CGI rule the world, it's remarkably refreshing to see stop-motion animation still being employed. The interesting thing about the stop motion animation in the case of Fantastic Mr. Fox, however, is that it's not slick. The bristles on Mr. Fox's hair move as if there were a fan constantly blowing every which way. But for a film whose sets and characters are entirely hand-made, it's pretty impressive. The little details did not get in the way; I was having way too much fun watching Mr. Fox poison a dog via blueberry. Animal poisoning has never been this much fun. What's even more impressive are the individual shots – the film looks like a Wes Anderson film. It's like he shrunk himself and a Steadicam down to figurine height before shooting. Quick cutting is key for effective animated comedy, certainly, but this film is more like a documentary of a diorama come to a life. And a good one, at that.

No Wes Anderson film is complete without a solid soundtrack, and Fantastic Mr. Fox certainly delivers in that department; with tunes by the Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Nancy Adams (from Disney's Robin Hood... think about that for a second), and stop-motion superstar Burl Ives, Anderson once again creates an aural experience that is perfectly complementary with the mood and visuals. The most notable difference between Fox and Anderson's other films is the absence of Mark Mothersbaugh as producer of the original score, but this is not to say that Alexandre Desplat does a worse job than Mothersbaugh could ever do. The music made the film whole, and it made me want to rush out and immediately buy the album as soon as I left the theatre. And of course, what's a great animated movie without a musical sequence? Jarvis Cocker (portraying “Petey” in the film) has a terrific scene that is interrupted by a disturbance that almost deconstructs the idea of impromptu singing in film (see further posts for link to soundtrack)

Whackbat. Let's talk about it. This is a sport which was not in the original book, but who cares? The obvious inspiration for this sport (Anderson has confirmed this) is cricket, which, like all other sports, contains rules that seem completely ludicrous, but rules are rules. You don't question them, you just do it. Even though whackbat may seem silly (which it is), it doesn't make it more or less silly than many of the other sports that are played (curling? Seriously?). Hell, people are so afraid of baseballs and tennis balls, they may as well already be on fire. As far as fictional sports go, Fantastic Mr. Fox has Harry Potter beat.

If you haven't noticed by now, Fantastic Mr. Fox is not your typical animated feature. Fox is definitely not strictly kids' fare: some of them may be frightened by some of the imagery and dialogue, but animation has been scaring kids since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Hopefully kids will see it at a young age and enjoy it, then they'll watch it in a few years and get more of the jokes. That's what happened to me in the case of films like Aladdin and Who Framed Roger Rabbit – if you got stuff that will keep kids and adults alike smiling throughout, you've got a solid hit. Kids will enjoy the cute animals and whacky situations, and adults will dig the sly-as-a-fox humor and vocal performances. When I say it's an “adult” animated film, I don't mean it in the same why as films like Heavy Metal and Fritz the Cat; basically, it's not fan-boy-porn. It's an incredibly well-rounded adventure that will keep your heart smiling and your mind optimistic. In an era that is pessimistic about the progression of cinematic creativity, Fantastic Mr. Fox keeps me believing.

Fantastic Mr. Fox - Soundtrack (2009)

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=f9777ea5be10d6cfe5c3dee5769931ec5dd35144048cd3c7a7b01fe6e4055ae3

track listing from wikipedia

1.	"American Empirical Pictures"	Alexandre Desplat	0:15
2.	"The Ballad of Davy Crockett" (from Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier)	The Wellingtons	1:40
3.	"Mr. Fox in the Fields"	Alexandre Desplat	1:03
4.	"Heroes and Villains"	The Beach Boys	3:37
5.	"Fooba Wooba John"	Burl Ives	1:07
6.	"Boggis, Bunce, and Bean"	Alexandre Desplat	0:51
7.	"Jimmy Squirrel and Co."	Alexandre Desplat	0:46
8.	"Love"	Nancy Adams	1:49
9.	"Buckeye Jim"	Burl Ives	1:19
10.	"High-speed French Train"	Alexandre Desplat	1:26
11.	"Whack-bat Majorette"	Alexandre Desplat	2:57
12.	"The Grey Goose"	Burl Ives	2:49
13.	"Bean's Secret Cider Cellar"	Alexandre Desplat	2:07
14.	"Une Petite Île" (from Two English Girls)	Georges Delerue	1:36
15.	"Street Fighting Man"	The Rolling Stones	3:15
16.	"Fantastic Mr Fox AKA Petey's Song"	Jarvis Cocker	1:21
17.	"Night and Day"	Art Tatum	1:28
18.	"Kristofferson's theme"	Alexandre Desplat	1:36
19.	"Just Another Dead Rat in a Garbage Pail (behind a Chinese Restaurant)"	Alexandre Desplat	2:34
20.	"Le Grand Choral" (from Day for Night)	Georges Delerue	2:24
21.	"Great Harrowsford Square"	Alexandre Desplat	3:21
22.	"Stunt Expo 2004"	Alexandre Desplat	2:28
23.	"Canis Lupus"	Alexandre Desplat	1:16
24.	"Ol' Man River"	The Beach Boys	1:18
25.	"Let Her Dance"	The Bobby Fuller Four	2:32

BAD DAY