Christmas comes early to Rick Town

This has been rumoredin the past, but this tvsquad post is something like the third mention of Twin Peaks season two coming to DVD finally in Spring 2007.

Time to make cherry pie.

It is difficult to watch, which was the point... I think

Re-embracing the weird that Los Angeles offers from time to time, Jen and I went to see Crispin Glover perform last night. Oh my, the guy who played George McFly has decided to remain outside the Hollywood mainstream.

First, he did a reading from several books that he has published. This was more of a spoken word performance, complete with slideshow of photos and illustrations from the books. Like everything else this night, it is hard to describe. Each book (i.e. a guide on rat catching for boarding schools) seemed to be old found materials that were edited and reimagined by Glover to tell disjointed stream of consciousness stories. This was the enjoyable performance.

Next, Glover did a screening of his film "What is it?" To call this challenging experimental cinema is an understatement. Acting credits like "Dueling Demi-God Auteur and The young man's inner psyche", for example. I had heard about how the cast was almost entirely people with down syndrome playing characters without that affliction, which was as disorienting as was intended. I was also prepared for nazi Shirley Temple as mother figure. What was unexpectedly jarring: the naked woman in a monkey mask giving a handjob to a man with cerebral palsy lounging in a clam shell and the near constant salt burning of snails.

There was a question and answer session afterwards. Glover would ramble for at least 5 minutes per question, but this seemed to preemptively answer other questions at the same time that he must get all the time at other screenings. This put the film in some context, as he explained that one intention was to explore various concepts that the corporate film industry shuns because they wouldn't be profitable. It also took 9 and a half years to complete.

As Jen pointed out this morning, it is not a good sign that you need a Q&A to help justify why people should not walk out on your film. Some people did, of course. Yet, there is certain art that tries to push as many buttons as possible. That we were still discussing it the next day means that it succeeded on some level.

I think we'll skip the sequel he is debuting at Sundance next month, though. "It's Fine. Everything is Fine" was described in the Q&A as an exploration of the sexuality denied the actor with cerebral palsy while locked away in a nursing home. One handjob was enough.

MTV drops the bomb

The always outstanding group Faithless has a new album out, filled with their usual genre-blending yumminess. Seriously, Maxy Jazz is absolutely the best rapper I've ever heard.

They're even more political on this album than in the past somehow... obviously pissed at the world that the next generations are currently inheriting, especially now that Sister Bliss has done the procreating.

Of course, leave it to MTV to ban some of the best protest music of the last few years. The video for their first single, Bombs, is plenty violent as it juxtaposes war footage with clueless folks and kids playing back home. I hope it was the violence and not the anti-war message that got the thumbs down.

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Another perennial catch-up post

My goodness. I've managed to not speak up here for a while again. Here's some highlights of the past weeks.

Since I was already going to be in New Jersey for Thanksgiving, I dragged Jen into the boonies of Connecticut for my 15th high school reunion. This wasn't as much a train wreck as I expected. I chatted with a few folks that I remembered from marching band, ate alright food, and listened to the worst DJ in this sector of the Milky Way. His constant lite jazz muszaky torture is really the best story of the night, as a bunch of people that I would have liked to see (and with whom I could have maintained more conversation) were absent. Maybe I'll see them in another 15.

I joined a group tailgating all day in the Rose Bowl parking lot this past weekend for the UCLA/USC football game. Good times and good food. I think we kicked all 3 kegs, too. These are my kind of people, too, as the "worst" keg was Stella Artois.

Finally, my birthday today apparently coincides with the Annual Day of the Ninja. I'm not sure how my inner pirate feels about this.