the dark knight

i liked the dark night, upon reflection. but while it was actually happening, when i was actually in the theater, there were a number of moments where "action" was occurring, but it just wasn't "interesting." i like the stories of commissioner gordon, how he got to be where he was, two face, and so on. the joker. and it is made a bit more strange, upon reflection, knowing that heath ledger died after the filming of this movie. it's a hard movie to watch in some ways, but all in all i think i got my money's worth. as to the allegation that it is a "dark" movie, well, it is supposedly violent, but not really over the top. i say supposedly because a movie can portray violence without the feeling of actual violence being involved. so yes as an illusion it is "dark" whatever that means, but only as an illusion. you get used to it fairly quickly and i don't think it's as "dark" as people say it is.

songs from the heart

you think you want to buy more music. but after a certain point, you have most if not all of the music you need for the current time. is this new music that you want to buy---- does it come from the heart? or is it mental games, far from emotion? is it simply a quest for something new in music? and how soon does the "new" become the "old?" my point: think twice before wasting yet more money, but still, you gotta live sometimes. you gotta live a little sometimes. it's OK to spend money sometimes.

normal

i tried to watch a film called normal, a canadian based film, with some good actors and actresses in it, but after a certain period of time i just decided to give it up. all involved tried very hard, but i just could not summon within me the desire to finish watching the film. in the film there was a lot of emotion expressed, a lot of angst and heartache, and anger, and after a time i had had enough.

the beatles white album

i'm getting once again into the genius of the beatles white album. about half the songs i don't listen to very often, but the other half are genius, amazing. i was inspired to go in this direction by garrison keilor today singing "i will" which i found out once again is on the white album. i tend to forget something like that if i ignore an album for a while, but then i get back to what i love. there are certain stereolab albums that i love as much as this album, including the cobra one. the truth is that there is love in these songs by the beatles. sometimes they love their audience enough to tell the truth in the form of an artistic work, though later they backpedal and cover up their tracks and deny whatever they were trying to say in the lyrics and music. on the one hand all interpretation is subjective, on the other hand we have social conventions about how to interpret something. objective vs. purely subjective. but then, how many people are there? if you say 6 billion people, i will hit you three times with a silly stick.

gus van sant's film, paranoid park

even though i didn't realize it when i was watching it, when it was over, i realized i love paranoid park as a film, as a window into these characters. the central issue is: what if you have something to confess to someone else, yet if you confess it to anyone at all, the consequences will be negative? without revealing too much about the plot or the ending of the movie, i will simply say that this is a dream like movie, with a lot of shots of people skateboarding. it reminds me of surfing, images of surfers riding waves. so....... good movie. i would highly recommend this film. it has to do with a murder investigation which brings teenagers into contact with a police detective.