Fever

I haven't posted anything on here in awhile. Truth be told, I'm forcing myself to post right now, but I think the reasons are interesting so let's get to that.

The last thing I wrote, about the Mono album, was written when I wasn't exactly sane. I was sitting in my journalism class with a fever of 102 degrees. One of our assignments is to write a blog with at least five posts. Lucky for me, I already have a blog and can just keep adding to this. So, I'm siting in class trying to figure out how I'm going to remain alive for fifty minutes, and I typed that rambling post about Mono's album. Don't get me wrong, the album is fantastic and I encourage everyone to listen to it.

Here's what I'm getting at. I'm trying to not make this blog about myself, but in thee situations I kinda have to admit why I disappear. This time, it's because I have some horrendous illness that wants to kill me. Six weeks ago (yes 6 weeks) I got sick. Some, 'changing-of-the-seasons' cold. It was a nuisance, but I started to recover in a week. Then it came back. I laughed at my misfortune and waited for the cold to pass. Again, it seemed like things were getting better and I had a few days of fine health. Then i came back again and I started getting pissed. I'm poor so going to the doctor wasn't an option. I sat in a haze of medication until the illness passed. It was getting on a month, but again I recovered.

Then my throat swelled shut and I came down with a fever. The best part of that was the whole thing happened while I was on campus. I went to school feeling kinda funny, but I figured I didn't sleep enough. German goes by and I head to journalism. At this point, I'm barely cognizant. I write that post about Mono, leave class, and pass out in a chair. I went home and spent the better part of a week failing to eat oatmeal and wondering when death would arrive.

The swelling decreased and I had a few days of decent health. I really thought the demon in me had given up. Then my throat swelled up again, but I didn't get a fever. I finally went to a doctor about the whole thing. He said something about tonsillitis from hell.

I'm typing this in the computer lab at school. My throat is still halfway to being swollen shut. I'm on a pill cocktail of antibiotics, corticosteroids, and codeine. In an hour and a half I half a meeting with my journalism professor where he will grade this blog. (Hi, Dr. D). The results of my blood work will come in today. Oddly enough, my doctor said I might have mono. There's some humor in that, but I'm too ill to see it.

So, that's why I've been out of the loop lately. You can tell I'm sick when I use trite phrases like out of the loop. Here's hoping that I won't die in the computer lab.

Mono: Hymn to the Immortal Wind

I've been writing this blog for some time, and have yet to write anything about music. It's just been movies thus far. So, I've decided to share with you what I consider to be the best album I've listened to in a long time. The somewhat humorous thing is that the music has no lyrics. Of all the things I pick, I pick an album without words to dissect.

Mono is a Japanese post-rock band. If you're not familiar with post-rock the best way to describe it is melodic guitar riffs leading to an epic crescendo leaving you in awe at how music could be so good. Yes, I am a fan of post-rock. It is probably my favorite form of music.

Mono's album is, to me, the epitome of what post-rock should be. The tracks are slightly subdued, but they have a soothing quality to them. I listen to this album while walking around my campus, and it always makes me feel calm and composed. If I have a test and I pop this album on, everything seems to get focused. I could fail the test and not care.

It's really difficult to describe this band. The best thing to do is listen to the album. I don't ever hear one instrument dominate a track. Instead, all of the parts come together to form one whole composition. We all need a bit of epic music in our lives, and Mono does more than fit the bill. Check em' out.

What The Hell

Hey, how's it going. I shouldn't be posting this because it's utterly irrelevant to what I post about. But it justifies something so, what the hell?

Shutter Island (spoilers abound)

I went to see this film with a sense of apprehension. I am a fan of Scorsese, but it appeared that the critics were calling this film sub-par. When I left the theater I let out a sigh of relief. Critics were still idiots.

Shutter Island is about one man, Teddy Daniels. He is a U.S. Marshall sent to the mental asylum, Shutter Island, to find out what happened to a patient that escaped. Of course, that brief snippet doesn’t come close to the movie’s actual plot or intent.

The best way to describe this film is by saying it convinces you to believe an unreliable narrator. From the first shot of the island and the repeated soundtrack, the film becomes ominous. Something bad is happening on this island, and we want to be the ones to watch Teddy uncover it. The movie plays into so many myths we hold true. The evil psychologists that perform mental experiments. Our distrust for the system. The belief that one man is right against thousands. Scorsese takes these ideas and instills them in our heads.

We see Teddy as the lone hero fighting the system and trying to bring justice where it is due. We are convinced that he is the hero. By focusing almost every shot on DiCaprio, he becomes the only character we can relate to. Sure, Kingsley and Ruffalo give fine performances, but they are in the background. Our hero is Teddy. We want to see him rise above the odds and defeat the evil psychiatrists of shutter island. To cement this feeling, Scorsese presents him as a man ravaged by war and lamenting the loss of his wife. We can relate to this story. It’s almost cliché. It’s almost like some delusional person made this hero story up because they can’t face their own problems…

Yea, we got duped. Teddy made it all up, and we went along for the ride. In truth, he’s just a man who cannot face his problems, and chooses delusion over reality. The whole movie was a role play that the psychiatrists set up trying to bring Teddy out of his delusion and back into the world. So convincing was the setup that I was sitting in the theater believing that a woman lived on the side of a cliff eating food out of cans.

There was a point early in the film where I thought, “He’s probably just a patient.” I was right, but the narrative was strong enough that I questioned this prediction and abandoned it. I believed Teddy. I wanted him to be right. The unreliable narrative is so strong that the audience will not break out of Teddy’s delusion until he is forced to. As Kingsley explains why Teddy is wrong we are still with him, denying the accusations and believing that Kingsley is a liar. The moment Teddy breaks out of delusion we are shown the truth, and only then do we know it is delusion.

The idea of, “He was the patient all along,” is not a new concept. In fact, it is almost trite at this point. The force behind this film is not the twist. It is the force of the narrative and the beauty of the film.

Novels in Three Lines

Being a professional writing major, I get some weird assignments. One of these was actually interesting, so I thought I'd share. Felix Feneon, a man with too much time on his hands, wrote a book in which he wrote novels in three lines. If you google "Novels in three lines," you can look at it. Our assignment was to write fifteen of our own. Below are the ones I chose to write. It's an interesting style and somewhat of an outlet for bad puns. Also, excuse some of the woeful writing. It was a school assignment after all.

Upon hearing of his wife’s pregnancy, Daniel Corrice took to the streets rejoicing. His neighbor, Andy Gustern, promptly shot him in the chest.

A frustrated young writer was found dead in his apartment. He hung himself
and left a note the police said was, “too marked with revisions to decipher.”

Before dying, the famed romance novelist Eric Stevanovich turned to his wife and said, “You were always a bitch.”

On the 4th of June, 5 men fought and killed 6 attackers. 7 days later they ate them. Only one German man refused the feast, simply saying, “nein.”

George turned to his wife and said, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.” Later that evening he ate a horse.

A man named That was arrested yesterday for having sex with his wife, Ridiculous, in public. It took the police some time to figure out the situation as their witness would only say, “That is fucking Ridiculous.”

Two men got into an argument over which could break into the zoo and wrestle a tiger. They are both dead.

In a small town outside of New York, a couple spawned controversy over the naming of their newborn, Big Smith. His middle name being Mistake.

Ulrich Herran of Switzerland, who kept a vow of silence for eighteen years, spoke today. He opened his mouth, lifted from his seat, farted, and with a pained expression said, “Safety.”

A woman by the name of Gertrude Hemlein was found yesterday with three goats down by the old lumber yard. When asked what she was doing she replied by skinning one of the goats.

The beautiful Egyptian mau kitten ran through the living room in a blur of passion. The children watched it devour the mouse, horrified.

At three p.m. on the afternoon of February the 22nd absolutely nothing happened.

Through a lack of wit and deficiency with vocabulary, the 13th of 15th three line novels ended abruptly.

An obese woman named Gina had not left her apartment for over two years. As she tried to leave, she realized she could not fit through the door. Tearfully, she unwrapped a Tastycake.

After telling a group of middle schoolers to write haikus, Felix Feneon had enough material to write his book, “Novels in Three Lines.”

A Serious Man

I won’t lie; I’m a huge fan of the Cohen brothers. No Country for Old Men combined the eloquence of Cormac McCarthy with the directorial genius of the Cohens. I think that movie is almost flawless. Now, their newest film, A Serious Man, has been unleashed. I’ve seen this move twice now. My first viewing was during its theatrical run. When I left the theater I was amazed that the Cohens got away with making the film. I just re-watched the film on DVD, and I must say that it is a fine example of twisting the natural story arc.

The plot is simple. Larry Gopnik is a math professor. He lives at home with his wife, two children, and eccentric brother. As the film unfolds, Larry’s marriage dissolves, his brother’s insanity leaks out, and his life spirals out of control. Many reviewers called this film a modern retelling of the story of Job. That is an undeniable statement. We watch Larry lose grip of every aspect in his life. At school, a young Korean student puts his job at risk. At home he is losing his wife and his family. We watch all of this and wait. During the first half of the film many will be waiting for that moment of redemption when the character rises above his circumstance and gives us that good feeling in our stomach. After the halfway point we realize that Larry’s life is too complicated and there is no quick fix. Once this settles in, we stop thinking about how it will end and focus on the characters.

The strength of this film lies in the characters. The Cohens are masters of rounded characters. In this film, I cannot think of a single person that was flat. Fred Melamed portrays Sy Ableman, the man stealing Larry’s wife. I could feel the sleaze oozing out of my screen whenever he was around. His tone of voice and subtle gestures make him one of the most interesting characters in the film. Larry’s neighbors consist of a pot smoking woman whose husband is often away on travel and a father who seems to hate Larry because he’s Jewish. Both of these characters left a lasting impression. It would be a waste to try and relay the complexities the Cohens have put into this film with words. The best thing to do is watch the film closely and see those subtleties.

What the Cohens have done is create an elaborate fable. We watch a man’s life spiral down without hope of redemption. He doesn’t give up hope or become indignant; he simply cannot understand why these things are happening. The Cohens throw away the story arc in favor of the situation. We aren’t waiting for a climax, we want to watch Larry and the various characters perform. We want to know how his world works and why an innocent man could fall to tragedy. The hardships he faces are not extraordinary. They are the things we all face: problems at work, problems at home, bad advice, etc.. When finally we see some hope in Larry’s life, we are reminded that we cannot escape from God if he has it out for us.

Why? Why not?

I'm starting this blog to supplement my other one. I write about the obscure history of Allentown Pennsylvania when I have time. I just started the other blog, and my articles are taking a ton of time to write. Trying to actually research something instead of pasting links to news stories and write my opinion is difficult. I've decided to start this blog to keep myself writing and online. Also, I happen to have a passion for what I plan on writing about. I should probably tell you what that is.

This blog will be dedicated to the discussion of film and literature in as many mediums as I see fit. It'll cover most of the aspects of my life. I'm a writing major and I find myself continually reading books or watching movies. Afterward, my mind has a thousand ideas I forget. I'm going to use this blog to discuss different aspects of film and literature that occur to me through pieces. Sometimes it might come off as a review other times I'll discuss style and technique. Sounds thrilling right? I'll be updating this blog regularly because I watch about five films a week and try to plow through four or five novels a month. I hope you enjoy.

Also, if you don't know what my blog's name means I'd google it. History is fun too.