“A Palant?r is a dangerous tool Saruman, you never know who may be WATCHING”

Hey guess what? I just finished the preliminary design of my new blog and it is online as you may have guess from the link! Now, there is still a great deal to be done with it, but for the time being you can look at it and see how it looks. It is rather sparse at the moment, I’m hoping to get good pictures for the links on the sidebar, a la Justin’s Expression blog. I’m totally redesigning my homepage as well and will have new drivel to show you guys. In the meantime I’m porting my archives IN THEIR ENTIRETY from blogspot to my new blog. So, be forewarned that the archives are as they have always been, unchanged. Don’t go reading them unless you want to be regaled with crazy stories of Joel’s life documented online since October 2002.

Perhaps one more post will show up here before I abandon the infernal seeing stone.

Adios!

Shrebardaboga Bugg

Like that? I like the way it sounds rolling off of my tongue. It is my spiritual war cry.

But no seriously, I have been up to lots lately and have neglected to blog much about it, since of course I’m no longer on Spring Break. Even though it is spring this morning I woke up and found it to be a wonderful 19 degrees faranheit and I wanted to lay down in my bed and not go anywhere… well okay that is every morning almost.

I managed to catch a super mega late screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a film whose title is lifted from a quote by Alexander Pope. From the get go you can tell that Charlie Kaufman is an avid reader. He peppers his script with such well-crafted dialogue and references, you know that he must be a book worm. Aside from the solidly creative writing of this film, there is the pandemonium of rapid fire mesmerizingly edited camera work and direction of Michel Gondry. After watching Human Nature I have concluded that Gondry must have been bored or uninspired when he directed that features, because Eternal Sunshine is eighty million times more insanely creative. Jim Carrey is always entertaining, and for a change he takes on a meek role, one that is more dramatic and perhaps more true to the real life character of Jim than any other role he has had thus far. Kate Winslet is kind of weird and scary at first, but really cool by the end of the film. All of the supporting cast does a solid job, with Mark Ruffalo and Elijah Wood being my favorites. Though the worldview of the film leaves much to be desired morally and spiritually, the idea of opening up and being self-sacrificial… the message that love isn’t one big glossy Hollywood paradise forever and really has its tough excrusiatingly painful moments it well conveyed. So here is an example where fidelity seems to have a tangible value, where two people hit it off and then fall out totally but still can say to each other that they are happy together, and that they can forgive. That is a little slice of real love; that is a good message.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
lead acting: 8/10
supporting acting: 7/10
story: 9/10
directing: 8/10
production design/value: 8/10
overall score: 8.0

Also I managed to see The Salton Sea, directed by big man D.J. Caruso and starring big man Val Kilmer. But the real ‘big man’ credit of this flick goes out to Vincent D’Onofrio, for his sweaty, fat, wheezing, drawling performance as Pooh Bear. As Justin pointed out, it is quite a transformation to see this guy who has played Orson Welles in Ed Wood, a futuristic detective in Imposter, a lawyer on Law and Order:CI, a alien bug wearing a human skin in Men In Black, and a reverend in The Dangerous Lives of Alter Boys. Kilmer as always is enjoyable and Peter Sarsgaard is also in this film, which is really cool. I want to see Shattered Glass really badly now, it comes out very very soon I believe.

The Salton Sea
lead acting: 8/10
supporting acting: 7/10
story: 8/10
directing: 8/10
production design/value: 8/10
overall score: 7.8