Del Toro

The mad genius Guillermo Del Toro is at it again. After the awesome success of Pan's Labyrinth, he's gained enough respect to move ahead with his next project: Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Doug Jones, who played The Faun and the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth, will be reprising his role as Abe Sapien, and will also take on the (heavily prostheticated) roles of two characters named The Chamberlain and The Angel of Death. Coooooool. Rumors are that the story will focus on Hellboy facing down Baba Yaga, as she rallies mythological forces in a bid to destroy the world. Or something. It doesn't really matter. The point is, it will involve Ron Pearlman donning red makeup and dishing out pain to all manner of villainy. I saw him recently in The City of Lost Children, and he was cool in that too. Del Toro is awesome. How can you not like a guy who's dream job is making a movie of Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness? I ask you! :)

Six Words

Wired Magazine had a challenge, where famous people tried to write a story in six words. Great idea for a writing exercise, and quite amusing.

Bella

The recent winner of the Toronto Film Festival, Bella, was played in our commons last week, introduced by the director and star, Eduardo Verastegui. It's one of the best movies I've seen this year; great acting, directing, music etc., but was really surprising was the movie's emphatically pro-life theme. Apparently, Verastegui was a mexican superstar before he had a radical conversion and decided to found his own film company where he could make genuinely Catholic movies. However, there's narry a trace of religion in the movie, and not even a hint of the condescention or mushy warm feelings so typical in "religious" movies. There are no tirades against abortion, nor condemnation. What's driven home so forcefully is the pain that results from taking life, no matter what stage it's at. The pregnant woman is portrayed with real compassion, with an understanding that her choices are terrible, and that she wants to have a child when she'll be able to raise it. This is the sort of movie we need more of: character driven works of art that contain real truth, not sentimental, preachy flicks about Why Abortion is Bad. **** (out of 4) Release Date: August 14th - GO SEE IT. For Trailers and more info go Here. Also: Chicago Sun-Times article.

agendas, agendas...

So the other day I was watching Star Trek The Next Generation and actually found myself unable to foresee how a particular episode would end. (amazing, I know) There was a conflict of liberal agendas and to the end I was unsure who would prevail, Cultural Identity Man or Make Love Not War Man. After a lot of tension and dialogue, Cultural Identity Man won. I was almost surprised; I had thought that nothing was more important living in peace with the rest of the universe, but turns out that if your heritage involves war and bloodshed...can't stop you from embracing it because THERE ARE NO MORAL ABSOLUTES in the 24th century. It's terrible. I am led to suspect that the intrepid captain and crew of the Starship Enterprise would accede to the traditional needs of Muslim terrorists to wreak havoc and kill infidels. After all, we can't understand all cultures, but apparently we have to "respect" them and let them wend their merry way through history. Ah... I think I would prefer to hang out with Hernando Cortes rather than Jean-Luc Picard (I know Picard doesn't exist, give me a break for my hypothetical situtation) because quite honestly I would rather wipe a civilization that was into human sacrifice, not try to understand it.

Philosophy Class

I had Philosophy Class with Mr. Paietta today, which got out at 11. All I really remember was him explaining how Renaissance magicians were constantly searching for the Adamite language, so that they could control creation through the use of "real" names. Not exactly sure how we got there from the Posterior Analytics.

Nirvana

Nirvana is a state you reach when you've been involved with a Russian piece of art for too long. You become so absorbed in the experience that you forget that there is anything else to be watching or doing. It's inescapable and inevitable.

This has happened to me twice. The first time I was watching Andrei Rublev with my family. Within the bubble of our den, immobile in our respective seats, we huddled for what seemed like eons, watching the enigmatic monk (among other people) flit to and fro on the screen, accomplishing something...I was never quite sure what. After the first couple of hours, I couldn't seem to remember life before Andrei Rublev and was almost confused as to what might happen to me after the film ceased. My life, or so it seemed, had always centered around this black and white and totally (okay, I'm not a movie critic, I just didn't get it. I was also a few years younger) random movie. As soon as it ended, the spell was broken and I was left with the memory of a very strange few hours.

It's kind of happening again with War and Peace. I am 800 pages into it, and am obsessed with it. I find myself drifting towards it at all hours of the day, causing consternation when I realize that I haven't quite reached the stage where I can drop school for any allotted amount of time. It's sucking me in, making me wonder if there is any other book besides this massive amount of bound together paper and ink. I'm also beginning to wonder if Tolstoy had an outline or was always winging it. It all depends if it ends the way I want it to or not. If Natasha marries Pierre I will throw a fit. If she gets back together with Andrew/Andrei, the book will have my blessing. Not that it needs it, but just so my faithful readers know what's up.

Gladiator Games

Here at Peter and Paul dorm, when we're in the mood for a bit of fun, we put on togas, pick up weapons, and beat each other senseless. Huzzah!

Below...Stephen Sims vs. Blaise Blane!! (right-click, then "save as")

Part the First

Part the Second