essentialsaltes: (Default)
essentialsaltes ([personal profile] essentialsaltes) wrote2004-04-22 09:30 am
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A method to my meandering

Tuesday night was Mike Donahue's 45th birthday party. About a dozen of us showed up at Mike's usual choice for such things... the Acapulco's in Westwood. I have nothing against the place... indeed, I'm sure that's the place that Rebecca and I have eaten at most frequently, a record probably never to be eclipsed.
Anyway, I went for a jaunt around Westwood and the place continues to mutate. Sure, shops used to come and go all the time, but even reliable places like Tower Records are gone. I was trying to think what's still there that was there when I first came to UCLA back in the late Pleistocene. The list is not a long one. Fortunately, Diddy Riese is still there.

Seen some interesting movies recently. I liked The Eye quite a bit, though the story was the old body-parts-with-a-memory cliche. There's a three second shot, where something jumps out at you, that will scare the shit out of you.
May very much feels like a writer/director's first time out, which it is. I really like the first half of the movie, which sets up a character as a complete outsider & misfit. Then it devolves into an uninteresting horror story, where every event is telegraphed, inevitable and boring... except for the last three seconds, which are ridiculous and stupid.
Last night, we watched Dirty Pretty Things. Very good film, with an interesting (if probably unlikely) diverse mix of illegals from different countries all inhabiting the underworld of London: Nigerian, Turkish, Spanish, Russian, etc. Lots of interesting and beautiful accents/voices in the film. And a very unusual story, to say the least.

The thing that's most disturbing is that all three of these films have something to do with body parts. Weird.

Finally, I give you Blender Magazine's list of the 50 worst songs of all time. Basically, it's good for a laugh. Number 1, I find it hard to believe that 96% of the worst songs of ALL TIME were written during my lifetime. Number 2, anyone who puts "Sound of Silence" on the list of worst songs of all time has no credibility. Number 3, most of those songs aren't bad, they're just overplayed and shallow. Number 4, May will be delighted to know that "Your Body Is a Wonderland" clocks in as the 28th worst song of all time.

[identity profile] mersh.livejournal.com 2004-04-22 11:46 am (UTC)(link)
anyone who puts "the end" on a worst songs list really needs to have their head examined.

[identity profile] essentialsaltes.livejournal.com 2004-04-22 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
No question. Jim may have flaked out and gotten way too involved in his self-indulgent 'poetry' on some tracks, but "The End" is not one of them.

What, no Ween?

(Anonymous) 2004-04-22 12:20 pm (UTC)(link)
"Push Th'Little Daisies" isn't on that list. It probably should be.

It's fun to listen to in the way that it's fun to hit other people with super soakers.

-K-

Re: What, no Ween?

[identity profile] toren-atkinson.livejournal.com 2004-04-22 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh there are worse Ween songs than "Daisies" - and I should know because I'm a Ween fan.

[identity profile] mayxbo5.livejournal.com 2004-04-22 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I saw that in Blender when the studio received it the other day. If anything, "My Heart Will Go On" and that song should be switched. Even though I do hate that John Mayer song, I have to say that it really isn't that bad.

But "We Built This City" is pretty bad. I don't know if it's the worst. I didn't see enough R&B or Rap on there. Why didn't that Sean Paul song end up on there? Is that better than Celine Dion?

[identity profile] fourcorners.livejournal.com 2004-04-23 02:57 am (UTC)(link)
You didn't like May? Sure, it was telegraphed, but so offbeat, and the role played so strongly by Bettis, that I was engrossed, and slightly disturbed, even though I knew what was coming.

The Eye was fairly good. Hollywood, impressed by the box office success of The Ring, is doing an American version of the Eye, starring Tom Cruise, I believe.

If you liked the Eye, check out Inner Senses.

[identity profile] essentialsaltes.livejournal.com 2004-04-23 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I guess on the whole I'm ambivalent about May. I didn't hate it, didn't love it.