You Can’t Text Message Breakup…

Not relevant to anything going on with me, but I thought it was pretty funny, and Margaret Cho makes an appearance! Found via Phillyist/Gothamist.

We will return after these brief announcements…

Daily posting will resume after I’m settled on the East Coast, in a week or so.

The Good Thief vs Bob le Flambeur

You know it’s bad when a DVD starts skipping and it’s a relief to be let off watching the rest of the film. That was my experience with Bob le Flambeur, the 50’s French film remade as The Good Thief in 2002. I like black and white*, I don’t mind subtitles, and I really like films about gambling, heists, and noir – but as my roommate says, “They (French New Wave) can make anything boring.” I don’t even think seeing it in a theater would help this film. The acting is forced, the editing clumsy, the camerawork pedestrian. While some of those flaws are conceits French New Wave would go on to explore, I just don’t think they work here.

Conversely, The Good Theif, the remake with Nick Nolte, has always stood out in my mind as a great film. I’ve seen it twice (in the theater and on video), and while both were years ago, I still think of the film fondly and plan to watch it again soon. Nick Nolte reminds you why you like three-time-losers; the whole film simmers with desperation that becomes it’s own pleasing immersive aesthetic. Being an addictive personality (although I’ve managed to avoid drugs and booze), I enjoy seeing one played onscreen with such accuracy, and in a way that teases out qualities that get you rooting for good old Bob.

*I recently saw The 400 Blows, and kept wondering why it didn’t strike me as deeply as everyone else I’ve heard talk about it. Then I imagined it projected on the big screen, and could see what a sensual pleasure it would be. There something about black and white film that DVD can’t capture which makes some films a treat. Relish your repertory theaters – and support your local ones.

lolcats vs Laugh-Out-Loud Cats

It seems that from 1912-1913, Aloysius “Gorilla” Koford, an ancestor of cartoonist ApeLad wrote and drew a newspaper cartoon called Laugh-Out-Loud Cats. It’s funny and great, and makes me nostalgic for the great days of newspaper cartoons before they shrunk the cartoon pages and brought on the onslaught of crap we have now.

The Laugh-Out-Loud Cats were obviously ahead of their time by almost 100 years, as they predict (and some might say outwit) the LOLcats phenomenon currently infesting every corner of ‘teh internets‘. Indeed, if the cartoon were, say, a contemporary outgrowth of LOLcats, I’d be happy the trend has spawned something greater than itself.

My other blog.

I’m trying to keep this blog outward-focused, so I’m posting more personal things to my livejournal. Go there if you’re interested in more personal thoughts, and I’d be interested if anyone has comments about that sort of separation, or anything I’ve written either place. The Livejournal isn’t updated nearly as often as this blog, but I just put up a long post about why I’m not sad to leave the Bay Area, art school people and why I’ve realized I’m not one, and other things I’ve come to conclusions about.