I Want To Eat Your Artichoke Heart
OK, so I'm now procrasturbating when I'm supposed to be typing up my Thom Yorke review. OK, technically I'm supposed to be *working* but who can be bothered with that on a Friday? (hunh hunh)
Went for burritos and a massive bitch session with Catty last night, which was well needed on both sides. There is something cathartic about getting it all out, having a huge rant, both of us going "Argh! Cnuts!" and then taking a deep breath and walking away feeling nice and happy and relaxed.
Got home and there was an excited phone call from YMOF, who had just seen Pirates Of The Carribean 2, and wanted to burble excitedly about how it was the Greatest! Film! Evah! No, really, it is. It's just a rip-roaring rollercoaster of excitement from one end to the other with giant ship-eating Kraken and Cthulhu and sword fights! Lots of sword fights! On top of ruined chapels on top of cliffs (come on, just throw Slash's piano in there for good measure)! On top of rolling waterwheels bouncing off said cliff! Come on! How can you not like that? If you don't like this movie, You Hate Fun, official.
Which takes me back to that conversation I had with Galia at The Lex's party, where she was complaining about modern Hollywood films being nothing but Spectacle. And Spectacle, somehow, is supposedly inherently Alienating. Now I know this argument comes from somewhere else (Guy Debord? I confess, I've never actually got more than a few paragraphs into him without being too annoyed by him) and is more complicated than that. I mean, yes and no. I'm against Culture that is simply there for consumerism, that is owned by corporations, non-participatory and passive.
But I think that human beings are inherently more clever than that, more adaptable. Spectacle on the level of POTC isn't necessarily alienating. It's escapism, but what's wrong with a bit of escapism? Most of the people I know and talk to seem to use things like this as a springboard for their own fantasies, their own creativity. But this isn't going to be another defense of Fan Fiction as modern Folk Culture. Honest.
I'm just trying really hard to come up with another meaning for Thom Yorke's metaphors which makes said title song be about theoretical physics or something, and *not* cunilingus.
posted by Masonic Boom | 10:42 am
5 Comments:
I would the lack of imagination behind most Hollywood films means they not a BIG ENOUGH spectacle! When filmmakers are truly inspired, the results are often spectacular in the best possible way. I'd cite the work of Terry Gilliam as a good example. I agree that people are smart and adaptable, and that they know imagination and inventiveness when they see it, hence the success of Pirates Of The Caribbean AND Harry Potter AND Lord Of The Rings (I'm talking about the films here rather than their literary sources).
Also, very little in culture is empty of meaning. The most banal movie, novel, comic or song can contain a vast amount of information about the culture from which it sprung. It might not be particularly edifying or enjoyable, but it's all there.
So fuck yeah, gimme awe-inspiring visions! Cthulhu and pirates! Huge UFOs! Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion! Also, I fail to understand how people who are deeply engaged with fashion and contemporary art can honestly complain about spectacle. But maybe I'm just dumb.
I'd like to make clear that the conversation about Pirates was interactive, not me ranting on at your answering machine as it appears.
(just because I'm really inarticulate on answering machines, not because the film isn't rant-and-rave-worthy)
I agree with Mess's rant, and I'd also like to point out that everything is about cunnilingus; it's what seperates us from the lower primates. Among other things, maybe, but there you are.
I would have thought it was obvious that it was not a one-sided rant on an ansaphone as I don't have an ansaphone! Maybe I should have said "got home and had a conversation..." but then people would have thought you were hanging out in my house, not on the other end of a phone, as you were.
I just like the idea of Thom Yorke having a song about cunnilingus. OK, I just like using the words "Thom Yorke" and "cunnilingus" in the same sentance because I'm sad like that.
I may have actually succeeded in getting the words "Thom Yorke" and "cunnilingus" into my next Plan B review if some subeditor doesn't take against the concept! (please be amenable to Thom Yorke cunnilingus, Plan B subeds! take out any 40 words but those three!)
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