*confetti*

[cleolinda]

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Particularly when it's stormy and 75 degrees outside and Sister Girl won't let me turn on the AC because, by some miracle worthy of Vatican investigation, she is cold. I'm frickin' dying in here, y'all.

Rollicking sendoff for 2005 in New Orleans.

AP: U.S. Teen Runs Off to Iraq by Himself. You gotta read this--the kid's naivete veers between hilarious and infuriating and then back again. Sample:

It was mid-afternoon Tuesday, after his second night in Baghdad, that he sought out editors at The Associated Press and announced he was in Iraq to do research and humanitarian work. AP staffers had never seen an unaccompanied teenage American walk into their war zone office. ("I would have been less surprised if little green men had walked in," said editor Patrick Quinn.)

Wearing a blue long-sleeve shirt in addition to his jeans and sneakers, Hassan appeared eager and outgoing but slightly sheepish about his situation.

The AP quickly called the U.S. embassy.

Embassy officials had been on the lookout for Hassan, at the request of his parents, who still weren't sure exactly where he was. One U.S. military officer said he was shocked the teen was still alive. The 101st Airborne lieutenant who picked him up from the hotel said it was the wildest story he'd ever heard.

I originally nabbed this a few days ago and didn't get to sort through my linkspam, but currently, I believe the kid has been returned to Florida. Aaaand speaking of angry parents...

Bank Robber Turned in by Sons Gets 40 Years.

Spicy Blogger Leaves Attorney's Office. This is one of the worst headlines ever. There is literally no part of it I understand. Every time I look at it, I keep having to go back and skim the article because the badness of the headline has made me forget what the hell they were talking about in the first place.

South Park episode "Bloody Mary" pulled due to Catholic complaint.

Huh. Turns out Barbies don't warp little girls' body images. Mostly because the girls themselves are too busy doing warped things already.

sigma7: "Two news-y bits that made me think of you: Narnia pulls out of WTO talks (do I believe that Forbes wouldn't peg this as fake? Yes, yes I do) and Coldplay's new CD comes with rules, more rules than baseball, apparently. But if you have 45 copies of it, you could trade 'em in for an iPod Shuffle...." Speaking of iPods...

Protect your ears: limit iPod use. What they really mean is, limit earbud use. I loathe earbuds, and use a small $10 pair of headphones instead. And keep the volume down. Because I like hearing things. Speaking of which...

iPod Replaced With Meat.

Heh. Remember that obsession I had earlier in the year (or was it even the year before?) with "Where the Wild Roses Grow"? Don't ask me why I decided to check and see what was new at Living Dead Dolls, but apparently they immortalized the Wild Kylie in plastic.

HOLY CRAP I LOVE THIS GUY. He has these awesome guides to all the historical/cultural references in the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen books, and the only thing wrong with his Fantastic Victoriana site is that it runs out of bandwidth too frequently. A book version does, therefore, solve that problem.

Movie stuff:

Tom Cruise has been voted the most irritating film star in the world.

V for Vendetta stills and promo shots.

Derek Jarman's Edward II, with Tilda Swinton as Isabella. Zomg. I think my worlds just collided.

A male reviewer explains why you, gents, should go see Pride and Prejudice.

Trailer for Inside Man. I totally forgot to mention this, but it ran in front of King Kong, and any trailer where Clive Owen basically commandeers the camera is okay by me.

I don't know how you guys feel about Hostel, but between the trailer I saw in front of Derailed and the constant bombardment of commercials during the Twilight Zone marathon this weekend, I kind of want to kill it with fire. And as someone who actually likes the movie Seven, I feel like I should explain myself. Here's the thing: with a movie like Seven, you're rooting for the cops to find the guy. Even with the uberviolent stuff like the Saw movies, you're rooting for the victims to escape in time. And even if you find yourself rooting for Jigsaw (as I'm sure some people will say they do), this genre of movie tends to present the plot in terms of, "Can the victim escape in time? Can the detective find the killer in time?" If you feel differently--and God knows I like a good villain myself--that's your thing, that's not the movie forcing that perspective on you.

So I'm in the theater and the Hostel trailer comes on and it's all like, THERE IS A PLACE WHERE YOU CAN FULFILL YOUR DARKEST DESIRES, and we just barely see really skeevy looking people hacking off a toe with hedge clippers and menacing screaming guys in their underwear with chainsaws and lots of shots of grimy torture tools. This is a trailer that identifies you with the killers rather than the victims and/or heroes, and it's just so blatantly pornographic about it that--and I am really not cool with the government doing this with libraries, but--you kind of want people who actually enjoy this movie to get put on an FBI watchlist. This isn't about gore--this is about pain, and getting off on it. Ew. (I should clarify that TV commercials have played the "What if it happened to you" card--i.e., the victim perspective--instead. They've also used the "Paramedics had to be called after viewers keeeeeled overrrr, OOGA BOOGA!" thing as well. Don't you see how hardcore this movie is? Sigh.)

So... now I've said my piece about that. Happy New Year?

Comments

[syneblue.livejournal.com]

Somehow, I'm forced to admire the Florida Kid. There's something kinda Endless Summer about the whole thing, and you have to give him credit for moxie.
Although if I was his mother, I would ground him until the end of time.

[fateorlate.livejournal.com]

I need that Living Dead Doll, like yesterday.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I kind of want Posey from Series 1, myself. Or maybe Siren from Series 5--I need my dolls to have eyes.

[theatershadow25.livejournal.com]

wow... that's a bit hot. A nicely chilled 15 degree's up here ^-^.
Not a big fan of Horror, so I'm with you on the whole killing Hostel.
Basically that kid either has balls or is insane. Personally, I'd rather spend a nice evening watching the news rather than risked being killed in the middle of it "40 U.S. hostages since the start of the war, 10 killed and 15 missing"
Not my idea of a fun time, but hey, what ever floats your boat.

[ladyvoldything.livejournal.com]

Nice icon. I'm glad I'm not the only grown-up type person in the world who watches Avatar.

[robyn-ma.livejournal.com]

From what I understand, the first half of Hostel is about these three homophobic, womanizing college guys who hear about this great place to get laid. They arrive at the titular hostel — which actually caters to psychotic rich people's desire to torture people — and the torment begins. In other words, I think the movie is more from the victims' point of view, but the advertising is selling the Xtremeness of it. Which, if your reaction is a typical one, may turn out to be a counterproductive marketing strategy.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had noticed that the Sci-Fi commercials were focused more on "What if it happened to you" and all that. Which is why I was careful to speak in terms of the trailer--I haven't seen the movie, after all. The commercials also pull out that old matinee chestnut about paramedics being called for viewers at preview screenings (what. ever). I think "Xtreme" is a good way to phrase what they're trying to sell here. Except that I feel like it's possible to go so far that the product stops being edgy and just goes straight into skeevy.

[allthelivesofme.livejournal.com]

Oh man. I saw part of an ad for Hostel, and I didn't really get that that perspective was the one being used-- I caught the last half of the ad, and saw the thing with the hedge clippers and the toe and just . . . no. I love and adore horror movies, but there are some things I cannot take.

The whole thing with blatantly identifying with the killer is one of them, and realistic kinds of violence is another. I've sat through Jason movies snickering with my friends at the utter dorkiness of them, but you get to that scene in Pet Sematary where the undead kid slices the guy's heel open, and I'm turning away from the TV shuddering.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

See, I understand people liking gore or slasher movies or whatever. I don't, because I'm squeamish, but I get the whole "horror movies are like roller coasters" theory, and there's something almost playful about the goriest ones. And great villains are awesome. This movie doesn't seem playful or cathartic; it just looks... dirty.

[andromeda-77.livejournal.com]

by some miracle worthy of Vatican investigation
'swhy I love you!

[crackpress.livejournal.com]

Dude, I feel exactly the same way about Hostel. I find it really disturbing.

PS - happy new year to you too!

[katla-asriel.livejournal.com]

you kind of want people who actually enjoy this movie to get put on an FBI watchlist

My brother is fourteen and he wants to see it. Not to mention my mother's boyfriend too.

Hmmm...

I should keep a closer eye on those two. They are obviously not right in the head.

[katla-asriel.livejournal.com]

Also?

Re: Tom Cruise...

He's annoying whenever he steps out to make appearances and all, but I can't help but like the guy in his movies.

(Maybe I'm biased. I adored him as Lestat in Interview with the Vampire, so go figure.)

[doomcrayon.livejournal.com]

So wait. Now I can fail at Coldplay? That makes me sad.

[sapphires13.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one that looked at that photo in the Barbie article of all the Barbies lined up and went "...MINIONS OF SATAN!"?

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Seven was the one where <<>>, right? If that's it, I agree with you-- nowhere did they suggest that killer was anything but evil, even if the movie did suggest that some of his points might have been partially valid. And you were definitely rooting for the cops. Maybe Tarantino thinks that by getting some people off on the violence, he'll make them question their own motives, but even so, he's contributing to the problem.

(Side note: the thing about the libraries proved to be a hoax. The kid 'fessed up when his prof confronted him.)

icons

[samthompson.livejournal.com]

So hey, I'm new to this blogging thing and was checking out your stuff - LUV IT! Anyway I completely love your icons - but am wondering if you have a central repository or sumfin? I thought about making a couple of my own (would love to have some underworld ones) but I don't want to steal your thang, that's just not cool!

Re: icons

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

You can always poke around http://photobucket.com/albums/v118/cleoicons/. I've told people, though, if they want to do Heroine Addict icons or whatever themselves, that's totally fine.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I understand what you mean about Hostel. I have nothing against horror movies, but their goal is supposed to be inspiring fear into the audience, not having them relate to the killer. A good villain is one thing, heck, I've got a soft spot for a really tortured, well written baddie because I'm into anime and fantasy and those genres are just FULL of them. The thing is though that I don't see some tragic back story showing up for the villains in Hostel or how they really went bad because of their lost love etc. It seems like you're supposed to sympathize with them only because they're killing people and that's just...disturbing. And even if the guys who wandered into the town are the crudest, most offensive people ever, that's still disturbing. Just like I was disturbed by the misogyny of Devil's Rejects. You can be as extreme as you want to be, but I still think there's a line that shouldn't be crossed.

And Inside Man just looks intriguing. Clive Owen seems to be the go to British guy for thrillers of late. Not that I'm complaining.

[theatre-angel.livejournal.com]

The thing about Hostel is that it caters to the extreme hardcore horror genre fans. Which is fine, for films like Seven (which I enjoyed, too) and Saw (which I did not, but a lot of other people did, so I'm sure it's fine). But Hostel, from what I've seen (some friends thought it would be cool to send me graphic clips and images from the film), is made purely in the fashion of a snuff film. Now the latter is ew because you know that people out there do this stuff and enjoy it. But I'd have to say that Hostel really takes the cake for disgusting filmmaking because it seems to take after a snuff film, thereby showing the public things that no one really needs to see in a cheap attempt to give us a horrific thrill. (And, in some cases, arouse us. And seriously, man? EW.) I honestly think it's the grossest (not to mention most bizarre) thing ever that people will pay to see this movie just for a couple of hours of people getting brutally tortured on screen. Dude, just say home and watch Family Guy reruns.

Okay, so now that I've been a total analytical bitch about Hostel...happy new year. :-)

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think the snuff film angle goes hand in hand with my problem with it, so I totally see what you're saying. Also: bad friends!

[astael.livejournal.com]

I always questioned the Barbie/body image thing. Lord knows all I did to mine was cut their hair and draw all over them and make them get it on with Ken. I didn't look to them as role models any more than I did my Popples or Colorforms.

I'm grateful I haven't seen any trailers for Hostel yet. Those kinds of movies don't do it for me in general, but lately it seems like they're getting worse, like there's a group of directors competing for a World's Most Squicky Film award.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

I think the first Saw kind of upped the ante somehow--Seven upped it ten years ago, and now there's kind of a fresh spate of Let's See How Nasty You Can Get out there. What worries me is what this shit's going to look like in 2015. I mean, it's not the decline of Western civ or anything, but you start to wonder.

[ter369.livejournal.com]

Derek Jarman's Edward II, with Tilda Swinton as Isabella.

That film is why I've been avoiding her work ever since. I'm so glad the fellow who plays Edward was great in Last of the Mohicans, so I don't have to avoid him.

*is Olde Skule and saw it in first release*

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Hee. I think we saw some Jarman in my film class back in the day, and... I never had the urge to see any more of it, let's just put it that way. (Really, though, she's pretty awesome in Orlando.)

[mouseykins1.livejournal.com]

The TV commercials for Hostel are even less informative. They just show these weird torture chambers and quick shots of dead things while the voice-over says, "Quentin Tarentino is the greatest. You should see this movie, because he produced it, and he is obviously amazing...WHY AREN'T YOU BUYING TICKETS YET?"
BTW, that South Park episode was so incredibly hilarious. It was very controversial, but man was it great.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

It's funny, because I've basically had Sci-Fi on for 48 hours straight now, so I've seen the Hostel commercials evolve from "What if it happened to you" to "People are saying this is TEH SCARIEST MOVIE EVAR" to "ZOMG WE HAD TO CALL THE PARAMEDICS BECAUSE THIS MOVIE KIIIIIIILLED PEOPLE!!"

That, and a ton of "Roger Ebert/Peter Travers/Whichever Critic says that King Kong is the best movie IN THE WORLD" commercials.

[ninepointfivemm.livejournal.com]

Wow, looks like Tarantino's really done it for Hostel. I don't like Tarantino. I think he's overrated. But now I think he has just totally and completely made me lose respect for him and his so-called "filmmaking." I love blood, guts, and gore with the best of them, but leave a little room to not squick us, will you?

[fateorlate.livejournal.com]

Tarintino himself did not write or direct it. He produced it.

[swallow-the-key.livejournal.com]

It's pretty unseasonably warm here in GA too. I just read today that you were from Birmingham. I've been there once...lol...to the Sloss Furnaces for a concert. I enjoyed it, the furnaces were really awesome.

[bacardibreezer7.livejournal.com]

I so agree with you about violent movies. There's enjoying a good horror flick, and then there's stuff that people get off on before they become serial killers.

And don't complain about the heat, luv! It was like 113 degrees in at least two states of Australia yesterday. :)

[mysticowl.livejournal.com]

You know, I could never figure out, was Where The Wild Roses Grow inspired by some true story or myth or book? I tried googling it, but not much luck.

And I can't wait for P&P to come out on DVD. I just got the 95 miniseries a few days ago, made sure to finally nab my copy of the book from my parents house, and now only need the movie to complete my collection. I guess I'll have to make do with clip of the sexy botched proposal moment.

[cleolinda.livejournal.com]

Here's what I was able to find:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_Ballads

Nick says the traditional song "The Willow Garden" was the song that inspired him to write "Where The Wild Roses Grow". It's a classic tale of a man courting a woman and killing her while they're out together.

Just thought you'd like this

[nerdoftheyear.livejournal.com]

I read a bunch of your movies in fifteen minutes and I can't remember if you were the one who suggested this or someone else, but I finally got bored enough to make it. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y4/raztazbedazzled/notes.gif Tada!

[outinthestorm.livejournal.com]

Just in case you missed this, Cleo, the newest "Childrin R Skary" flash has been released.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/katytowell/81272.html
If you could pimp this just a little, it would be fabulous! Thanks!

[chosenchick01.livejournal.com]

I'm a huge fan of horror, but I just have no desire to see anything by QT. Every. I've heard so many things about how graphic his films awlays are that it's forever turned me off of them.

I've only one trailer for Hostel (about ten times over I might add) and I really didn't want to see it at all--and whatever interest it did spark was quickly killed by QT's name. *shudder* Reading your recap of the trailer has made me want to burn it with fire as well; I'll definitely make sure to avoid that film.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

'Hostel' confuses me but with the amount of painkillers I took today, that's no suprise.

'Darkest desires'? A hostel is where slacker kids sleep while tooling around Europe on Daddy's AmEx. All I figured this move would be is someone offs some of the slacker kids and the 33 year old 'college student' shows her boobies.