So I don't really have that much to talk about. Not for today, anyway. I mean, it was rather humorous how nobody was around after 11:30 this morning (gee, I wonder why), and I could talk to you about dancing stuff, but dancing wasn't really anything special; it's a normal week. As always, I can always describe to you a normal day of square dancing, but I wouldn't even know where to begin. (Hey, I am an amateur. Don't let the four-month archive fool you; I'm just as much an amateur blogger as I was my first day. I may be experienced, but I'm not talented at this sort of thing.)
The only real thing I can think of for today is something I realized on the drive home, part of my psychology, but it's mainly pertinent to the game of mafia, where I noted a parallel in the trait as a little quirk of mine. So while I could talk about it on here, I just don't think I'd be able to make it an effective blog post, because it'd go into the layers upon layers of my play there. Sure, the trait could exist elsewhere (I did note it, after all, during driving, so there are other places it could also be), but right now, the only one I can really think of is mafia, thus, I'm going to revive my thread there for a short musing. (I wouldn't call it a proper ramble--it'd probably be a couple of long paragraph's worth, in other words, the length of this blog up to this point. We'll have to see, come time to actually write it.)
What I CAN do, though, is talk about yesterday's movie night. The first film we watched was Birdman. Loosely speaking, I'd say it was a drama. Now, mind you. When I say drama, usually that has a very negative connotation, be it book, show, or movie. (My dad's even worse that way, but nobody in my family is fond of it.) Typically, my view on drama is that we've got plenty enough in our own lives; we don't need to see a film focused around it. (Unlike my dad, though, I don't mind drama spliced into a book/show/movie that has focus elsewhere. For instance, my dad thought The Incredibles had too much drama in the beginning, which to me is a facepalmingly stupid opinion to hold.)
I also generally just...don't care about the people in the dramas. Like horror, you're supposed to. Like in horror films, you're supposed to feel emotions when they undergo troubles. In horror, it's fear; in drama, sadness. Yet with most drama...I just go "meh". It's poorly done. You can even often tell just by the ads. "Yep. Stupid drama. Not worth my time." And be pretty dang accurate. The actors don't impress me. The plots don't draw me in. Nothing hooks me. They're boring...at best.
...Except Birdman wasn't. Birdman was brilliantly executed. It was absolutely enthralling. I was near-positive I'd be multitasking throughout the whole film, but I wasn't; I watched it almost entirely start to finish. For just a start? All the actors in it were actually acting. Like, not halfhearted acting. Not cheesy over the top acting. Not being-themselves 'acting'. (Well, there might be one case, but if so, it was intentional.) They were actually acting, you could feel them. The dialog was brilliantly written. The minute details were clever. The film was just...amazing, and the style (which made it look as if it was one continuous roll of film) was a neat touch.
Dramas generally aren't my thing, just like horror's generally not my thing. But this movie? Birdman? Oh, it most certainly was. The film was also rather meta, when viewed in the whole, given the premise about it is about acting and whatnot. The demons in the main character's head were also pretty dang realistic, too--watch that film to know what I'm talking about, and then you'll understand when I say that in my head, I have three voices: mine, an internal "good" voice that I banter with and exchange stuff with and who is generally my better elements, and a "bad" voice who tells me in rather blunt, harsh matter-of-fact 'you suck' style speech the truth. (Or sometimes, 'truth', as my good side will then point out.) I've argued with him just like the main character did, and while he is sometimes wrong, sadly, he is often right about me, because he either is--or when not, points out--all my flaws.
And the movie? Portrays that PERFECTLY. (Just minus the "good" third voice. For that, you can generally assume characters around the main character sort-of fill in that role, something that I obviously don't have the luxury of.)
Soyeah, even if dramas aren't typically your thing, I'd highly recommend watching it anyway, because it's a solid film. And I mean actual solid film, not "cash cow, made-to-please-critics" solid like most dramas. It's just...good. And I would watch it again. In fact, the more I think of the film, the more I want to. Not many films evoke that type of feeling.
We did watch another film, a Japanese flick, and at the end, we rather appropriately decided to deem it a "Japanese version of a Monty Python sketch". I unfortunately don't remember the title of the film (it had 'Hell' as the last word and was worded as a question, I believe "Why don't" or "How about" being the start, yet I can't remember the all-important middle), but the basic description of the plot (in the same vein as Search for the Holy Grail is Arthur searching for the holy grail, in that this is rather loose) is that a group of japanese yakuza decide to make a film.
Like Monty Python, the humor is specialized to the culture it comes from, but has plenty of enjoyable moments for even those coming outside of the culture--and more than just humor. There's smart writing and decision-making and whatnot in the film, showing some great skill in creating a good movie. Among its best traits is, obviously, that it is also (albeit in just about the most different way possible, given its bizzarity) extremely meta.
So the general consensus was that it was weird, but still very, very good.
Good night, especially for a writer, former-actor (I loved to act back around middle-school, but stopped taking official acting classes when my favorite acting teacher departed the school), troper, and general moviegoer.
The only real thing I can think of for today is something I realized on the drive home, part of my psychology, but it's mainly pertinent to the game of mafia, where I noted a parallel in the trait as a little quirk of mine. So while I could talk about it on here, I just don't think I'd be able to make it an effective blog post, because it'd go into the layers upon layers of my play there. Sure, the trait could exist elsewhere (I did note it, after all, during driving, so there are other places it could also be), but right now, the only one I can really think of is mafia, thus, I'm going to revive my thread there for a short musing. (I wouldn't call it a proper ramble--it'd probably be a couple of long paragraph's worth, in other words, the length of this blog up to this point. We'll have to see, come time to actually write it.)
What I CAN do, though, is talk about yesterday's movie night. The first film we watched was Birdman. Loosely speaking, I'd say it was a drama. Now, mind you. When I say drama, usually that has a very negative connotation, be it book, show, or movie. (My dad's even worse that way, but nobody in my family is fond of it.) Typically, my view on drama is that we've got plenty enough in our own lives; we don't need to see a film focused around it. (Unlike my dad, though, I don't mind drama spliced into a book/show/movie that has focus elsewhere. For instance, my dad thought The Incredibles had too much drama in the beginning, which to me is a facepalmingly stupid opinion to hold.)
I also generally just...don't care about the people in the dramas. Like horror, you're supposed to. Like in horror films, you're supposed to feel emotions when they undergo troubles. In horror, it's fear; in drama, sadness. Yet with most drama...I just go "meh". It's poorly done. You can even often tell just by the ads. "Yep. Stupid drama. Not worth my time." And be pretty dang accurate. The actors don't impress me. The plots don't draw me in. Nothing hooks me. They're boring...at best.
...Except Birdman wasn't. Birdman was brilliantly executed. It was absolutely enthralling. I was near-positive I'd be multitasking throughout the whole film, but I wasn't; I watched it almost entirely start to finish. For just a start? All the actors in it were actually acting. Like, not halfhearted acting. Not cheesy over the top acting. Not being-themselves 'acting'. (Well, there might be one case, but if so, it was intentional.) They were actually acting, you could feel them. The dialog was brilliantly written. The minute details were clever. The film was just...amazing, and the style (which made it look as if it was one continuous roll of film) was a neat touch.
Dramas generally aren't my thing, just like horror's generally not my thing. But this movie? Birdman? Oh, it most certainly was. The film was also rather meta, when viewed in the whole, given the premise about it is about acting and whatnot. The demons in the main character's head were also pretty dang realistic, too--watch that film to know what I'm talking about, and then you'll understand when I say that in my head, I have three voices: mine, an internal "good" voice that I banter with and exchange stuff with and who is generally my better elements, and a "bad" voice who tells me in rather blunt, harsh matter-of-fact 'you suck' style speech the truth. (Or sometimes, 'truth', as my good side will then point out.) I've argued with him just like the main character did, and while he is sometimes wrong, sadly, he is often right about me, because he either is--or when not, points out--all my flaws.
And the movie? Portrays that PERFECTLY. (Just minus the "good" third voice. For that, you can generally assume characters around the main character sort-of fill in that role, something that I obviously don't have the luxury of.)
Soyeah, even if dramas aren't typically your thing, I'd highly recommend watching it anyway, because it's a solid film. And I mean actual solid film, not "cash cow, made-to-please-critics" solid like most dramas. It's just...good. And I would watch it again. In fact, the more I think of the film, the more I want to. Not many films evoke that type of feeling.
We did watch another film, a Japanese flick, and at the end, we rather appropriately decided to deem it a "Japanese version of a Monty Python sketch". I unfortunately don't remember the title of the film (it had 'Hell' as the last word and was worded as a question, I believe "Why don't" or "How about" being the start, yet I can't remember the all-important middle), but the basic description of the plot (in the same vein as Search for the Holy Grail is Arthur searching for the holy grail, in that this is rather loose) is that a group of japanese yakuza decide to make a film.
Like Monty Python, the humor is specialized to the culture it comes from, but has plenty of enjoyable moments for even those coming outside of the culture--and more than just humor. There's smart writing and decision-making and whatnot in the film, showing some great skill in creating a good movie. Among its best traits is, obviously, that it is also (albeit in just about the most different way possible, given its bizzarity) extremely meta.
So the general consensus was that it was weird, but still very, very good.
Good night, especially for a writer, former-actor (I loved to act back around middle-school, but stopped taking official acting classes when my favorite acting teacher departed the school), troper, and general moviegoer.
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