The Week in Yeah is Emerald Miasma's weekly round-up of the good, the bad, and the incomprehensible of pop culture, the world at large, and life in general, as seen by me.
Breaking Bad returned yesterday for the back half of its final season, and errrbody's freaking the fuck out about it. The show has become the most important thing for white people to talk about since that one Jason Mraz album. I am willfully behind on the show because I don't think its nearly as world-beating as everyone else does. Its a solid show and its good to see Bob Odenkirk doing things, but that show relies on a Magonlia-esque fuckton of coincidences to get to where it needs to go. That Season 2 finale? Fuck Off. For a show that prides itself in gritty realism, it sure drops the ball HARD sometimes. Also, the venerable duo of Tom Scharpling and Mike Lisk pointed out that Walt and Jesse have the relationship of Moe and Curly about 70% of the time, minus the head-bonking. I'll watch it eventually, but not before I get caught up on the giant stack of movies I haven't watched that taunts me every day.
-
I have been re-watching Deadwood. Goddammit I love Deadwood. You should watch Deadwood, that is if you're MAN ENOUGH TO HANDLE DEADWOOD. Deadwood isn't for the faint of heart. Its an onslaught of dense, overly poetic, intensely vile dialogue interspersed with scenes of extreme violence, dirty, oft-malformed characters and DRINKING. There's so much goddamn drinking in Deadwood that it would kill the entire staff of Sterling Cooper in a matter of hours. Its also one of the last shows without an anti-hero lead that I can remember. Seth Bullock, while fiery in temperament, is a truly just man that suffers often for the greater good of the camp. I know that the anti-hero ideal is a reactionary movement brought on by writers wanting to show shades of gray in today's world, which seems to be composed of nothing but. I guess I kind of miss the balance of having an honorable hero though, because there's really none of them left on TV. Also, Al Swerengen. The show has Al Swerengen. That's enough right there.
-
-
Its become increasingly harder for an older movie to sneak up on me and knock me the fuck over.
I've seen a lot of the classics of 'midnight' cinema, and I feel like I know the rest at least by reputation. Of course, this can be difficult when the movie in question has been buried away in secrecy for over two decades with no real wide release. That's where Miami Connection was since 1988, forgotten with no distribution. But recently the folks in charge over at the famed Alamo Drafthouse not only began screening the film at their theatres, but released the film on Blu-Ray. Thank God for that, because my life would be significantly worse without this movie in it. Florida is in chaos (well, more chaos than usual) in the late 80's. Miami's drug trade is under siege from a biker backed cadre of ninjas that can easily dispatch even the most well-armed thugs. Yeah, think about that. A BIKER/NINJA SUPERGANG. Who could possibly stop them? You guessed it, Frank Stallone. No, wait, no. Its a Tae-Kwon-Do themed band called Dragon Sound. Sure, why the fuck not? They're to clean up the streets with Tae-Kwon-Do, rock and the power of friendship, and do it while enduring the rigors of life at The University of Central Florida. For a movie that gets ripped for being incompetent and cheesy, this film does an excellent job at portraying the various cultures of late 80's Florida. The movie is a beautiful assortment of Korean, Biker, Fat Redneck, and Gay culture, and while I'm pretty sure the Gay aspect of this movie was not intended, it certainly shines through. This isn't camp though. Far from it. The film is dense with action, which is done incredibly well. The dialogue is silly, but its strangely endearing. Its one of the least cynical action movies of its time. The central message of the film is that if you believe in yourself and you believe in your friends, then you can do anything. Even take down a massive drug ring ran by bikers and ninjas.
-
-
I watched Spring Breakers as well, and damn its good. Harmony Korine replaced fluorescent lighting for dayglo and neon and cast Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens instead of Chole Sevigny? Yeah, I'm on board. James Franco as Riff Raff is just icing. Its worth it just to see Franco's "Look at My Shit!" monologue. I hope someday that it ends up along side "Measure for Measure" in famous acting monologues.
-
Before Wilson Yip directed Ip Man, perhaps the most well-regarded kung-fu movie of the 2000s, he directed Biozombie. I've wanted to see this for some time now, and it was not god awful to my surprise. In a chemical weapons demo gone bad, a man flees from a monstrous zombie only to be hit by two dudes that work at a mall's bootleg DVD stand. Fearing they killed him, the two load him into their trunk, but not before making him drink the soda he was carrying to try and revive him. Unfortunately, it wasn't soda, but rather the reanimation agent from the test disguised as a soda can. They drive back to the mall, and then... CHAOS! Its pretty solid for an Asian zombie movie, which are almost all fucking unwatchable, with the noted exceptions of Wild Zero (RAD!) and Stacy (FUCKED!). Well worth a watch.
-
Finally, I also watched House (or Hausu) on Criterion Blu-Ray. Psycho-sexual Horror-drama as done by Hanna-Barbara? Yeah, I'm down. I was down years before you asked the question.
-
MUSIC! Lots of music to recommend this week. I've mostly been listening to 2013 releases, and its shaping up to be a pretty great year in music. First off, CZARFACE. 7L & Esoteric teamed up with Inspectah Deck for some comic book mischief. Dope, obviously. The new Robedoor 'Primal Sphere' is definitely the most accessible of his releases, and is also one of his best. Now, when I say accessible, I mean that it has coherent drumming to accompany the intense drone. Its similar to 'Bermuda Drain' by Prurient in that it seems to mark a new, incredible chapter in Robedoor's discography. 'Total Nite' by Merchandise is a great gothic release of swirling dark energy. Kind of half way between Soft Kill and Clockcleaner. Pretty solid. Finally, Boris' 'Praparat' is something like the 25th release by these guys. Its bound to be relegated into the same category as their Dronevil/Vein/Thing That Solomon Overlooked releases, which is to say soon forgotten, but totally awesome.
-
-
I have been re-watching Deadwood. Goddammit I love Deadwood. You should watch Deadwood, that is if you're MAN ENOUGH TO HANDLE DEADWOOD. Deadwood isn't for the faint of heart. Its an onslaught of dense, overly poetic, intensely vile dialogue interspersed with scenes of extreme violence, dirty, oft-malformed characters and DRINKING. There's so much goddamn drinking in Deadwood that it would kill the entire staff of Sterling Cooper in a matter of hours. Its also one of the last shows without an anti-hero lead that I can remember. Seth Bullock, while fiery in temperament, is a truly just man that suffers often for the greater good of the camp. I know that the anti-hero ideal is a reactionary movement brought on by writers wanting to show shades of gray in today's world, which seems to be composed of nothing but. I guess I kind of miss the balance of having an honorable hero though, because there's really none of them left on TV. Also, Al Swerengen. The show has Al Swerengen. That's enough right there.
-
-
Its become increasingly harder for an older movie to sneak up on me and knock me the fuck over.
I've seen a lot of the classics of 'midnight' cinema, and I feel like I know the rest at least by reputation. Of course, this can be difficult when the movie in question has been buried away in secrecy for over two decades with no real wide release. That's where Miami Connection was since 1988, forgotten with no distribution. But recently the folks in charge over at the famed Alamo Drafthouse not only began screening the film at their theatres, but released the film on Blu-Ray. Thank God for that, because my life would be significantly worse without this movie in it. Florida is in chaos (well, more chaos than usual) in the late 80's. Miami's drug trade is under siege from a biker backed cadre of ninjas that can easily dispatch even the most well-armed thugs. Yeah, think about that. A BIKER/NINJA SUPERGANG. Who could possibly stop them? You guessed it, Frank Stallone. No, wait, no. Its a Tae-Kwon-Do themed band called Dragon Sound. Sure, why the fuck not? They're to clean up the streets with Tae-Kwon-Do, rock and the power of friendship, and do it while enduring the rigors of life at The University of Central Florida. For a movie that gets ripped for being incompetent and cheesy, this film does an excellent job at portraying the various cultures of late 80's Florida. The movie is a beautiful assortment of Korean, Biker, Fat Redneck, and Gay culture, and while I'm pretty sure the Gay aspect of this movie was not intended, it certainly shines through. This isn't camp though. Far from it. The film is dense with action, which is done incredibly well. The dialogue is silly, but its strangely endearing. Its one of the least cynical action movies of its time. The central message of the film is that if you believe in yourself and you believe in your friends, then you can do anything. Even take down a massive drug ring ran by bikers and ninjas.
-
-
I watched Spring Breakers as well, and damn its good. Harmony Korine replaced fluorescent lighting for dayglo and neon and cast Selena Gomez and Vanessa Hudgens instead of Chole Sevigny? Yeah, I'm on board. James Franco as Riff Raff is just icing. Its worth it just to see Franco's "Look at My Shit!" monologue. I hope someday that it ends up along side "Measure for Measure" in famous acting monologues.
-
Before Wilson Yip directed Ip Man, perhaps the most well-regarded kung-fu movie of the 2000s, he directed Biozombie. I've wanted to see this for some time now, and it was not god awful to my surprise. In a chemical weapons demo gone bad, a man flees from a monstrous zombie only to be hit by two dudes that work at a mall's bootleg DVD stand. Fearing they killed him, the two load him into their trunk, but not before making him drink the soda he was carrying to try and revive him. Unfortunately, it wasn't soda, but rather the reanimation agent from the test disguised as a soda can. They drive back to the mall, and then... CHAOS! Its pretty solid for an Asian zombie movie, which are almost all fucking unwatchable, with the noted exceptions of Wild Zero (RAD!) and Stacy (FUCKED!). Well worth a watch.
-
Finally, I also watched House (or Hausu) on Criterion Blu-Ray. Psycho-sexual Horror-drama as done by Hanna-Barbara? Yeah, I'm down. I was down years before you asked the question.
-
MUSIC! Lots of music to recommend this week. I've mostly been listening to 2013 releases, and its shaping up to be a pretty great year in music. First off, CZARFACE. 7L & Esoteric teamed up with Inspectah Deck for some comic book mischief. Dope, obviously. The new Robedoor 'Primal Sphere' is definitely the most accessible of his releases, and is also one of his best. Now, when I say accessible, I mean that it has coherent drumming to accompany the intense drone. Its similar to 'Bermuda Drain' by Prurient in that it seems to mark a new, incredible chapter in Robedoor's discography. 'Total Nite' by Merchandise is a great gothic release of swirling dark energy. Kind of half way between Soft Kill and Clockcleaner. Pretty solid. Finally, Boris' 'Praparat' is something like the 25th release by these guys. Its bound to be relegated into the same category as their Dronevil/Vein/Thing That Solomon Overlooked releases, which is to say soon forgotten, but totally awesome.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment