I've lived in a city for about 9 years now, and as I have gotten older I have grown less tolerant of so many aspects of city life. Noise. Litter. The drunk guys in Central Square who are at best fighting, and at worst relieving themselves in public view. Inner city pressure. The list goes on. 

But as I gassed up this weekend in anticipation of my Memorial Day travels, it occurred to me that it was only the second time since March that I had put gas in my car. And considering the jaw dropping cost of filling up my tank, that's something to be very happy about. 

I guess I really haven't thought about how little I drive, at least in comparison to a lot of people. Before traveling this weekend I figured I would get my oil changed, and when I pulled into my local instant oil change the woman laughed at me- in three months since my last one I had driven a total of 700 miles. She told me to come back after a few thousand more. In comparison, when I spend 5 days in Texas for work and return the rental car, I've usually gone about 300 miles. I really don't know how those people are doing it. 

Today I came across this website which rates the walkability of your neighborhood, and my address scored me a 98. Not sure who gets 100, but I was happy with the result. Maybe the guy screaming at me on the way to the subway every day isn't so bad after all...

On and on and on...

Another day, another primary win for Hillary that will mean little to nothing in the long run. But she continues on as if this victory actually increases her viability, stumbling along until she either wises up and drops out in June, or fights her way to the convention in an effort to overrule the primary process through the superdelegates.

I say this not as a big Obama supporter- he's fine but I am generally underwhelmed by him as a candidate. I voted for him in the primary, which was a rare opportunity as a liberal in Massachusetts to vote for the losing candidate. But choosing between him and Hillary is like flipping a coin for me- I just want whoever is going to beat McCain. And I believe either one of them could do it so I wish they would just get on with it already. 

Anyway, this is a long way of saying that despite my apathy for Obama, I'm very impressed by his ability to mobilize people and generate excitement for his campaign. If he can keep creating scenes like this one from Sunday, I'll feel very good about November. 

The Rest of IFFB

Every year I have the highest hopes of spending an entire week getting through as many movies as possible at the Independent Film Festival, but realistically I end up somewhere around this year's total of three. So besides closing night, I headed over to the Somerville Theater on a Sunday for a double feature. I did this without much research except to see which two movies would work as a double feature, and got mixed results.

First up was Secrecy, a documentary about "the vast, invisible world of government secrecy". Obviously, much of this focuses on our current administration. I was mostly bored. Which isn't to say that it was a poorly made documentary- it was well put together and the directors did a very good job finding the right people to feature. But I find that a common problem with documentaries like this is that there is a bit of a "no shit!" factor here.

There is a real challenge in making documentaries concerning current events. While 10 years ago this may have been a great way to get an unknown story out to a wide audience, today there's a good chance that the subject has been covered in length already somewhere, probably on the internet. Of course there is a lot of crap on the internet, but in my opinion the most important and timely reporting of government craziness is coming through that medium. And as a result, documentaries like this (and also a lot of very well written books on similar topics) feel dated the minute they come out.

An exception to this would be the excellent Frontline doc "Bush's War", just due to the tremendous amount of information covered and the high level of the subjects interviewed. Then again, that was four and a half hours long and had the resources of PBS behind it. Anyway, Secrecy ended up taking the special grand jury prize at the festival.

Next up was Goliath, which I loved. The story is simple- a man is in the middle of a divorce from his wife, then loses his beloved cat, and spends the next 70 minutes slowly but surely losing his shit. I'm not familiar with the Zellner Bros. but they apparently are fairly well known for their shorts (this is their first full length). 

The movie moves slowly- the Zellners really seem to like setting up a camera and basically letting it roll while the characters participate in mundane activities. There is a 5 minute scene of two people signing their divorce papers (and nothing else) that was simultaneously one of the most boring but oddly funny things I have seen in a movie. But the long shots are punctuated by some very darkly hilarious stuff as our protagonist slowly falls apart (with some help from a power saw). Not a film for everyone but I'm definitely interested to see where these guys go.

Also, the trailer is excellent. 

People with a lot of time on their hands

I'm sure everyone has seen this already (I tend to catch on to such things late), but just in case, take a look. I have to say, the attention to detail is spot on, from the shot-by-shot re-enactment of The Royal Tenanbaums, right down to the double tracked singing. 

A few questions-

1. Will I ever be able to watch this very sad scene again without thinking of Kermit?

2. Will I ever be able to listen to this song again without hearing Kermit's voice?

3. Did I see Rolf in there?

Encounters at the End of the World

4/29/08

Coolidge Corner Theater

For about three years I worked as a volunteer ticket taker at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge. My shift was Wednesday nights for the early and late shows (usually two different films in a double feature) and I would always stay and watch at least the early show, regardless of what it was. Given the wide range of programming at the Brattle, this occasionally resulted in sitting through some seriously tedious stuff. Most of the time, though, but this forced movie watching exposed me to a comprehensive film history that I likely would never have encountered otherwise.

Two years ago the Brattle ran a Werner Herzog retrospective, and the first Wednesday was a double feature of Cobra Verde and My Best Fiend. At first viewing I didn't like Cobra Verde at all, but was fascinated by the complete insanity of Klaus Kinski. This was my first exposure to Kinski, and I couldn't get the scenes of him charging up a huge female African army out of my head. I was especially struck by the final scene of him crashing around in the surf, and while I wasn't interested enough to stay for the documentary that night, I decided to come back the next night for Aguirre, the Wrath of God. This film knocked me out. Kinski is more restrained but no less creepily intense, and the slow burn of the film had me completely hypnotized until the famous final scene of Kinski alone on his raft except for a bunch of monkeys, madly declaring himself the wrath of god. 

From that point on, I have been a bit obsessed with Herzog, and have slowly been making my way through all of his films, documentaries, documentaries about him, and documentaries about people who are far more obsessed with him. So I was very happy to see that the 2008 Independent Film Festival of Boston closing night film was his newest documentary, Encounters at the End of the World. 

At first glance this looks like any number of generic IMAX/Discovery Channel docs, but that perception changes almost immediately as Herzog and his cameraman land on Antartica. While the film meanders around from subject to subject, Herzog is most interested in the type of people who would abandon any semblance of normal life and move to what is basically the equivalent of a military base stuck in an almost endless void of ice.  As you would expect these are unusual people- among them, a woman who traveled across a continent in a sewer pipe, a man whose hands are evidence of royal Incan lineage, and a linguist who tends a greenhouse in a continent of dead languages. But he is far from exploitive- he takes a typically philosophical approach to each person in trying to find out what brought them there. Much of the rest of the film is free of dialogue and focuses on some amazing footage, both on land and underwater. 

There are so many things that stand out- lines of people with buckets on their heads trying to practice survival skills, the sadly hilarious penguin who loses his way and waddles off to his demise, divers swimming away untethered from their only exit hole in the ice, and most of all, the surreal underwater recordings of seals that I still can not believe was not made on some sort of electronic equipment. Besides all of this, of course, Herzog's narration (as much as I am obsessed with his films I am even more weirdly obsessed with his voice) hypnotically and humorously ties everything together. 

I suppose this won't be playing at any multiplexes but absolutely should be seen on the screen rather than on TV. 

Red Sox vs Blue Jays

5/1/08

Sox 0 Blue Jays 3

In Attendance: Trinidad, Chris

Clearly, I need to stop going to Red Sox games because they always seem to lose when I go. Since the beginning of the 2007 season they are 2-8 in games I have attended. This includes one of the worst games I have ever been to, an 11 inning 13-6 (figure that one out) loss in the playoffs last year. 

So after two nights of winning with two-out walk off hits, it is only typical that I was there to see them get shutout. Regardless, it's always fun to bring someone to Fenway for the first time, as I did with a visiting co-worker from Texas. Besides that this game was notable for only two reasons:

1. I got tickets from redsox.com only a few days before. I had always heard of people having luck getting tickets shortly before a game, but never managed to have it work out myself. But I checked the Sunday before the game and was able to snag excellent roof box seats, avoiding any potential craigslist/stubhub thievery.

2. This game had the weirdest ending I have ever seen. Bottom of the ninth with two outs, and Coco Crisp hit a pop fly that was caught and appeared to end the game. Everyone got up to leave, the scoreboard flashed the final score, and the "Goodnight Sweetheart" organ music started playing. We hit the restroom on the way out and heard cheering, but just figured that they flashed a losing Yankee score or something. But the cheering got louder. We take a look at the field, and the game is still going on with runners on first and third. Huh? Turns out a balk was called on Coco's pop out, and while we were waiting in line for the bathroom he followed up with a single. So we head back to our seats- tying run at the plate, potentially a third night in a row of heroics after being given a lifeline by the ump, and the place is going nuts. And Jed Lowrie strikes out looking to end the game. Like I said, I guess I need to stop going to Fenway. 

Excuses, excuses

When I decided to keep this blog going I figured I had to post at least twice per week to make it worth it- really not too lofty of a goal. But I'm close to two weeks out from my last post, so my apologies to my millions of readers. I have had a colleague from Texas in town for the week, which essentially means that my work day ends around 11 every night, after finishing whatever entertainment we had planned for the evening. But after a week of shmoozing and lunch/dinners out, it's great to have a cold and rainy Saturday (this is the last time i will be happy about such a thing by the way) to sleep in and catch up...