I take back some of what I wrote iin the last episode. Wow. Only the second episode and I've never seen anything so nuts. Two guys that were supposed to die and one stays alive. The entire episode is dedicated to the brutally comic situation of what to do with them, very untraditional for a prime time tv show.. I especially liked the guy eating the sandwich and the bike chain clinking behind him. "Oh you don't like the crust was a little overdone though, like they were trying too hard to be tarantino.".
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Breaking Bad Pilot
Way too obviously nonformualicly formualic tries to be insane and bad ass and crazy but really the plot is still too predictable and linear and smacks of basic cable. AMC has supposedly made HBO quality shows recently but I completely dont buy into the hype. This show follows in the footsteps of Sopranos and Sons of Anarchy in that we root for an antihero but I dont like the cheap shots and it lacks moral grey areas upon closer inspection. Holy shit he makes meth but well really we have to sympathize with him, he has lung cancer and his son has some sort of dsorder that makes him talk funny. It was a really cheesy scene when he chases away the bullies that make fun of his son, to get some cheap affection from the audience who are happy they got what they deserved. Thats as far from grey morality as it gets, thats a cheap black and white set up. I didn't like the "stoic native american" who provided comic relief when he didnt say anything. That reflects poorly both on native americans, and it was also blatantly stolen from the chief character in one flew over a cuckoos nest. I didn't like the stupidity of the plot, the meth dealer with a pitbull isn't the least bit convincing as someone tough, and what a dumb turn of events that they decide to kill him but he says wait ill show you my bad ass recipe and they go with him to check it out. This tries to be as morbidly absurd as the coen brothers but fails miserably, as they are masters and perfectionists and every detail is thought of. Finally the chemical knowledge was used either as comic relief (as in haha the dumbass doesn't get what the bright chemistry teacher is talking about) or as a plot twist a la macgyver (holy shit he killed them with a sneaky chemical reaction). I would love a show done in a style like the wire, where we get to be immersed in the world of chemical reactions and we could learn something about it in the process. And if we didn't get it we could look it up on wikipedia and be a smidgeon smarter. Instead the entire reaction is done with a stylistically sped up camera shot with hyper kinetic electronic music playing in the background.
The only thing I really did like about this show is how nimbly it flowed. It went nicely at its own pace and everything was interesting for the most part and I was really curious to see what would happen next. I enjoyed the world weary seamlessness that get Walter to get into such a dagnerous trade in such a radical shift (Job sucks, sons sick, no money, boss is a dick, students suck at my second job oh shit im diagnosed with lung cancer, over the top obnoxious dea agent brother in law shows him a meth lab bust, ok meth time). A lesser show wouldn't have pulled all of that off so effortlessly but the pilot episode at least was able to. Good enough to watch the rest of the season, and we'll see how slick the show gets from there. Fun, easy viewing, but nothing crazy scary or revolutionary.
6/10
The only thing I really did like about this show is how nimbly it flowed. It went nicely at its own pace and everything was interesting for the most part and I was really curious to see what would happen next. I enjoyed the world weary seamlessness that get Walter to get into such a dagnerous trade in such a radical shift (Job sucks, sons sick, no money, boss is a dick, students suck at my second job oh shit im diagnosed with lung cancer, over the top obnoxious dea agent brother in law shows him a meth lab bust, ok meth time). A lesser show wouldn't have pulled all of that off so effortlessly but the pilot episode at least was able to. Good enough to watch the rest of the season, and we'll see how slick the show gets from there. Fun, easy viewing, but nothing crazy scary or revolutionary.
6/10
Sunday, September 30, 2012
The Wire: Season Three Overview
I've never felt so ambivalent about a show before. On the one hand the Wire is a masterpiece in plot, character and dialogue. I'm watching it for the third time, know exactly what is going to happen, and I'm glued to the edge of my seat not the least bit bored. It is so layered and complex that I catch new things every time and have a stronger overall understanding of the nuances and strategies of all the different games being played, be they political, police, a combination of both, or much more deadly games on the street. I love that the Wire is so morally complex and gray, although sometimes I think the show tries a little too hard to make some characters morally complex. I can see the writers brainstorming and thinking, this character is too good, lets make him self centered or an adulterer, or this character is too evil, lets make him friendly, loyal, strong and in love with his pets. Which brings me to my main criticism of the Wire: It tries so damn hard to make a statement, that it completely loses sight of the big picture, instead focusing way too hard on the "cyclical nature of things". Season three finishes up with a montage that shows the streets the same way they were before Hamsterdam: Hoppers getting harassed by asshole low level cops in low level street rips, while Colvin stands around contemplatively looking at what is left of it. We are supposed to hate the Ultra conservative system that led to this, whether it was the uptight bosses that didn't have a clue or everyone too obsessed with their next reelection or being screwed over by the media to care about the bigger implications. David Simon is a hell of a storyteller has an incredible knack for how institutions work and operate, but he doesn't seem to be such a finely tuned sociologist, or at least he is so selective in the stories that he tells that he fails miserably at painting a complete picture.
Drug reform laws are not a new phenomenon and there has been a worldwide trend in changing them in the last two decades. Many European countries have relaxed the hell out of possession charges, decriminalizing both soft and hard drugs. Marijuana is now tolerated throughout Europe in a way that was unthought of even twenty years ago. In the U.S. individual states have made a mockery of federal drug laws by decriminalizing medical marijuana and letting anybody with as much as a headache or a bad mood receive a prescription for hydro strong enough for snoop or an Amsterdam coffeeshop. I am not saying that an experiment like Hamsterdam would be met with approval in a country as conservative as the U.S., but what I particularly don't like in the Wire is its fashionable pessimism. Who knows what drug laws will look like in twenty years? With globalization trends continuing as fast as they are, maybe some states will slowly start relaxing drug laws after seeing crime go down in European countries that are doing just that? David Simon realizes that work of art is much more "beautiful" and "revered" when it makes a grand gesture at how bad things are and how they will never change for the better. People can shake their heads and think how "raw" and "true". It is ironic that a show which goes out of its way to be morally ambiguous is so one sided when it comes to showing us the big picture of how things work.
Here is what I mean when I see that things are complex and are not simply getting better or worse. The crack epidemic subsided in the early nineties and the murder rate went way down. While that was happening, blacks who weren't involved in crime or the drug war (the vast majority) were moving out of black ghettos and getting better jobs in better neighborhoods. The empty houses in turn were being moved into by large waves of Latino immigrants who often started even worse gangs, but the crime rate still stayed down lower than it was in the late eighties. The nineties also saw a huge boom in education, and people of all races and social backgrounds went to college at an unprecedented rate. Then a meth epidemic came along but it hit small towns more than big cities. Then all of a sudden MDMA became the drug of choice for youths all over the country. Then that subsided and major drug cartels moved from Columbia to Mexico. There were now twice as many Mexicans in the U.S. as before so that made drug distribution a well planned process along both sides of the border. Then amidst a huge economic recession, Obama made history and offered national health care to all Americans. And now, despite the recession still happening, we are still expanding the information economy like never before, with high speed internet reaching the poorest and most remote neighborhoods. Change is not a new trend. After all, black people all started out as rural farm workers. Many then decided to learn trades and the Black working classes were born. World War 2 offered many opportunities for blacks to leave the south and offer skilled help with the war effort. Black neighborhoods got hit the hardest when the industrial economy shifted to a knowledge economy, but they are also catching up to the new playing field. The future is always uncertain, but as always it will bring all sorts of good and bad things with it. Trying to show just how "cyclical" things are is a gross oversimplification and a show this smart could try and tackle change more ambitiously.
This is why I didn't like the stevedores season two "death of the docks" season. For many children born into the working classes college is something almost everyone goes to, they don't follow in the footsteps of their parents and go out on the docks everyday hoping to get some hours in. They don't go to four year colleges and become rich, but they do get associate degrees at community colleges and end up with an income that many European professional would be envious of. Community college was mentioned one time in season 2 and only for a couple minutes. In other seasons the Wire made the point time and time again that many of the hoppers had never been outside the west side of Baltimore and hadn't heard of much else, even being surprised that Philadelphia has different radio stations from Baltimore. I bet many of the kids similar to the ones shown in the Wire are regular internet users and watch the history channel.
Drug reform laws are not a new phenomenon and there has been a worldwide trend in changing them in the last two decades. Many European countries have relaxed the hell out of possession charges, decriminalizing both soft and hard drugs. Marijuana is now tolerated throughout Europe in a way that was unthought of even twenty years ago. In the U.S. individual states have made a mockery of federal drug laws by decriminalizing medical marijuana and letting anybody with as much as a headache or a bad mood receive a prescription for hydro strong enough for snoop or an Amsterdam coffeeshop. I am not saying that an experiment like Hamsterdam would be met with approval in a country as conservative as the U.S., but what I particularly don't like in the Wire is its fashionable pessimism. Who knows what drug laws will look like in twenty years? With globalization trends continuing as fast as they are, maybe some states will slowly start relaxing drug laws after seeing crime go down in European countries that are doing just that? David Simon realizes that work of art is much more "beautiful" and "revered" when it makes a grand gesture at how bad things are and how they will never change for the better. People can shake their heads and think how "raw" and "true". It is ironic that a show which goes out of its way to be morally ambiguous is so one sided when it comes to showing us the big picture of how things work.
Here is what I mean when I see that things are complex and are not simply getting better or worse. The crack epidemic subsided in the early nineties and the murder rate went way down. While that was happening, blacks who weren't involved in crime or the drug war (the vast majority) were moving out of black ghettos and getting better jobs in better neighborhoods. The empty houses in turn were being moved into by large waves of Latino immigrants who often started even worse gangs, but the crime rate still stayed down lower than it was in the late eighties. The nineties also saw a huge boom in education, and people of all races and social backgrounds went to college at an unprecedented rate. Then a meth epidemic came along but it hit small towns more than big cities. Then all of a sudden MDMA became the drug of choice for youths all over the country. Then that subsided and major drug cartels moved from Columbia to Mexico. There were now twice as many Mexicans in the U.S. as before so that made drug distribution a well planned process along both sides of the border. Then amidst a huge economic recession, Obama made history and offered national health care to all Americans. And now, despite the recession still happening, we are still expanding the information economy like never before, with high speed internet reaching the poorest and most remote neighborhoods. Change is not a new trend. After all, black people all started out as rural farm workers. Many then decided to learn trades and the Black working classes were born. World War 2 offered many opportunities for blacks to leave the south and offer skilled help with the war effort. Black neighborhoods got hit the hardest when the industrial economy shifted to a knowledge economy, but they are also catching up to the new playing field. The future is always uncertain, but as always it will bring all sorts of good and bad things with it. Trying to show just how "cyclical" things are is a gross oversimplification and a show this smart could try and tackle change more ambitiously.
This is why I didn't like the stevedores season two "death of the docks" season. For many children born into the working classes college is something almost everyone goes to, they don't follow in the footsteps of their parents and go out on the docks everyday hoping to get some hours in. They don't go to four year colleges and become rich, but they do get associate degrees at community colleges and end up with an income that many European professional would be envious of. Community college was mentioned one time in season 2 and only for a couple minutes. In other seasons the Wire made the point time and time again that many of the hoppers had never been outside the west side of Baltimore and hadn't heard of much else, even being surprised that Philadelphia has different radio stations from Baltimore. I bet many of the kids similar to the ones shown in the Wire are regular internet users and watch the history channel.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
The Wire Season 3 Episode 3 and Episode 4: Hamsterdam
Pretentious pretentious pretentious good fucking god this is a horrible episode of an otherwise wonderful show. Episode 3 was incredibly adept at showing the ins and outs and backstabbing and slick political manoeuvrings and processes and the crazy tangled messy web of shit they put all over each other and leave behind as well as shitting on all their underlings in the process. This is what makes the series really shine and stand out, the sheer intelligence scheming and moral complexity of the characters is enough for one hell of a show. Add incredible acting, and the 35 years of hands on experience of life This was a half ass episode, a byproduct of a TV show creators "vision" getting the best of actual plotting, dialogue and character. Worse part of the episode is when Colvin takes everyone into the auditorium and says we're making changes and everyone boos him on the spot. That coupled with Herc and Carver rounding up hoppers and them being pissed that "its not supposed to work this way, we grind you fuck our shit up thats how it is" is supposed to beautifully artistically and pessimistically show us how resistant to change people are. That may be true in many cases, but for a show thats supposed to be a "documentary of the streets", the street thugs sure are contemplative and philosophical, talking about how things are supposed to be. They are in effect taking overeducated Ivy League Jewish screenwriters caressing the hell out of their liberal values and trying to make it authentic and give it street cred just because it is said by black people wearing baggy clothes using AUTHENTIC Baltimore slang. Half these kids look straight out of the suburbs, and I can just see them changing out of their starched khakis and pressed polo shirts, and into G rags, size 90 pants and XXXL white T-shirts. I bet the wardrobe team had a hard on for months because even the outfits were so authentic. Every last detail. It basically means the research they did to make it so authentic was go to a local shopping mall, go into a hip hop shop and buy the clothes. If you don't understand or share my frustration, watch a documentary on youtube called hood-to-hood. It is a true documentary of the streets, people talk about the real day to day hustle of the corners and it really sounds truly ghetto. You can barely understand what the fuck it is they are talking about even with subtitles because they a hustler flow thats half rap song and half incoherent street babble without much of a middle, end continuity or even a clause to most sentences. So if the cops picked up these real street kids they wouldnt be spewing out Shakespearean platitudes in Ebonics and contemplating the nature of change, they would either cuss out the cops for being cops and fucking with them or go to "Hamsterdam", check out if its bullshit and sling without thinking twice about it. Isn't "The Game" all about not looking back?
Sunday, September 23, 2012
The Wire Season 3 Episode 1
As much as I love the Wire, I don't think it deserves to be such an intellectual jerk off session. People that claim, "its so brilliant, its so realistic" don't see the obvious that its pretentious as hell and very over the top. All of the critics claim that it is "unique in not talking down to its viewers" don't see that it is basically childishly explaining how a cynical city works to naive and idealistic viewers. Way too much overstating for my taste. Some examples from this episode
- Daniels is shocked to hear that his wifes career has any impact on his own, that she has to watch "her moves" in and around city hall before they can even think about promoting him from major to lieutenant. As if a smart and ambitious forty something year old who played his cards well enough to make it to major was too naive to realize that "everything is connected", another theme that The Wire is brave enough to tackle but overstates the hell out of it a lot of the time
- Bunny Colvins speech to Deputy Rawls that you can't make bodies disappear, which is followed by Stan Valcheck looking incredulous and asking "what got into you". Bunny replies he doesn't care, he's almost retired anyway. Its as if this scene is not to show us a realistic slice of the Baltimore Police Dept but rather its as if Bunny is talking to the audience, explaining to us how things work. They had to justify him being so irrelevantly stupid, so they justified it with his retirement, and made sure it made a big impact on Rawls who is shown furious and resentful, as if he couldn't stand to be told the truth. Yet again concisely but pretentiously showing us that you don't mouth off to your superiors. A perfect type of scene for critics and intellectuals to get on their high horse and philosophize for hours about how "institutions trump individual thought or achievement"
- Cutty coming out of Prison and feeling so dazed and disoriented and eventually getting screwed over on a drug deal by a younger and shrewder criminal. Cutty comes out of Prison, gets a G-pack (1,000 vials of heroin) as a coming home present and tries to get a drug dealer he randomly sees on the street to sell it and split the profits with. He comes back later that night and wants his split, only to have a gun pulled on him and told to fuck off, the cops took the package. He gives a back in the day speech "a man had to have a police filing report number if he claims he lost his package to the police" and he get ridiculed. "We aint back in the day". The show here plays some tricks on us, pretending to be fiercely and tragically realistic when it is once again pretentious. It is basically telling us obviously people are going to be involved in the drug trade, lets be realistic. Obviously the only thing someone like Cutty has going for him is to sell the G-Pack he got so lets root for him, its not like getting a GED in prison or learning a trade is a realistic option. We're badasses and we've created a completely different show because we don't pussyfoot around with bullshit, we show it like it is. But since the show has to be tragically beautiful so the critics can have a circle jerk, the show has to make a statement, that even within drug dealing communities values have deteriorated, its every man for himself, no one has any pride or honor or anything. This is a theme that is found throughout the Wire and its complete bullshit. Its paranoia and hysteria, making people feel all uppity and deep because oh shit, today's kids are even worse. The truth is if you look at statistics, murder rates have gone down since Cutty got out of prison. Season Three was filmed in 2004 and according to the plot Cutty got released out of prison after 14 years. That would mean that he got locked up in 1990, or very near the very height of the crack epidemic, when murder rates were twice what they are now, family values were at an all time low, and crime was rampant and out of proportion. But that would make for shitty storytelling to show us that the merciless hardcore streets have gotten safer, chiller and more relaxed, we should instead demonize the hell out of everything so that we can sit back and ponder from our cushy beds while watching the Wire and think wow, the producers are true craftsmen, things will never change or get better.
- Daniels is shocked to hear that his wifes career has any impact on his own, that she has to watch "her moves" in and around city hall before they can even think about promoting him from major to lieutenant. As if a smart and ambitious forty something year old who played his cards well enough to make it to major was too naive to realize that "everything is connected", another theme that The Wire is brave enough to tackle but overstates the hell out of it a lot of the time
- Bunny Colvins speech to Deputy Rawls that you can't make bodies disappear, which is followed by Stan Valcheck looking incredulous and asking "what got into you". Bunny replies he doesn't care, he's almost retired anyway. Its as if this scene is not to show us a realistic slice of the Baltimore Police Dept but rather its as if Bunny is talking to the audience, explaining to us how things work. They had to justify him being so irrelevantly stupid, so they justified it with his retirement, and made sure it made a big impact on Rawls who is shown furious and resentful, as if he couldn't stand to be told the truth. Yet again concisely but pretentiously showing us that you don't mouth off to your superiors. A perfect type of scene for critics and intellectuals to get on their high horse and philosophize for hours about how "institutions trump individual thought or achievement"
- Cutty coming out of Prison and feeling so dazed and disoriented and eventually getting screwed over on a drug deal by a younger and shrewder criminal. Cutty comes out of Prison, gets a G-pack (1,000 vials of heroin) as a coming home present and tries to get a drug dealer he randomly sees on the street to sell it and split the profits with. He comes back later that night and wants his split, only to have a gun pulled on him and told to fuck off, the cops took the package. He gives a back in the day speech "a man had to have a police filing report number if he claims he lost his package to the police" and he get ridiculed. "We aint back in the day". The show here plays some tricks on us, pretending to be fiercely and tragically realistic when it is once again pretentious. It is basically telling us obviously people are going to be involved in the drug trade, lets be realistic. Obviously the only thing someone like Cutty has going for him is to sell the G-Pack he got so lets root for him, its not like getting a GED in prison or learning a trade is a realistic option. We're badasses and we've created a completely different show because we don't pussyfoot around with bullshit, we show it like it is. But since the show has to be tragically beautiful so the critics can have a circle jerk, the show has to make a statement, that even within drug dealing communities values have deteriorated, its every man for himself, no one has any pride or honor or anything. This is a theme that is found throughout the Wire and its complete bullshit. Its paranoia and hysteria, making people feel all uppity and deep because oh shit, today's kids are even worse. The truth is if you look at statistics, murder rates have gone down since Cutty got out of prison. Season Three was filmed in 2004 and according to the plot Cutty got released out of prison after 14 years. That would mean that he got locked up in 1990, or very near the very height of the crack epidemic, when murder rates were twice what they are now, family values were at an all time low, and crime was rampant and out of proportion. But that would make for shitty storytelling to show us that the merciless hardcore streets have gotten safer, chiller and more relaxed, we should instead demonize the hell out of everything so that we can sit back and ponder from our cushy beds while watching the Wire and think wow, the producers are true craftsmen, things will never change or get better.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Ted the Movie
What a retarded lame and unfunny movie. I completely don't understand why so many of my facebook friends actually hit the like button on its public profile. Or all the critics that have been ranting and raving about its "sweet and sentimental" brilliance. Even It's full of bad acting (and thats hard to screw up with so many good actors) and one dimensional characters. The Dictator was retarded especially for someone as brilliant as Sacha Baron Cohen but come to think of it it was genius compared to this. A lot of parralels between the two movies, come to think of it. Mila Kunis in Ted and Amy in the Dictator both I maybe got one light chuckle out of the entire movie and I don't remember where.
1/10
1/10
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Sons of Anarchy
Normally anything with this many convenient plot coincidences would seem insanely stupid contrived and cheesy but this series is so viscerally enticing, so well directed and acted and has such good dialogue that we don't care, we just sit there in awe and take in the bad assery and forgive any and all evil because the Sons are so cool.
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
TV: Homeland Season One Episode One
Seems like a cheesy premise at first: a US Marine gets captured and tortured by the Iraqis then they keep him alive for eight years before he gets discovered and saved by an American anti terrorist group. Half the plot focuses on him and the other half is about a mentally unstable but incredibly sharp female agent who thinks he deflected to the other side because there would be no reason for the Iraqis to keep him alive that many years. Everyone questions her sanity and she get called up on taking antipsychotics.
This all seems like too many convenient plot building sensational coincidences, but the acting directing and editing are so amazing that we don't pay any attention to that. The ambivalence of both characters is so great that we are on the edges of our seats the entire time wondering who is crazy
This all seems like too many convenient plot building sensational coincidences, but the acting directing and editing are so amazing that we don't pay any attention to that. The ambivalence of both characters is so great that we are on the edges of our seats the entire time wondering who is crazy
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Movie Review: 3 Iron
What a crazy fucked up bad ass movie.
Asian absurdity, morbidity, and deadpan minimalism come together to form an extremely dark and original vision. Asian movies don't seem to work too well when they're remade in western markets because their flow comes from what is left out and not said rather than what is stated directly. This movie takes that to an extreme where the two main characters don't talk at all and we have to play detectives to figure out the plot for ourselves. Anyone that talks at all in this movie comes off as a dork that states the obvious, catering to the Asian aesthetic of cool that is a great contribution to international arthouse cinema.
Asian absurdity, morbidity, and deadpan minimalism come together to form an extremely dark and original vision. Asian movies don't seem to work too well when they're remade in western markets because their flow comes from what is left out and not said rather than what is stated directly. This movie takes that to an extreme where the two main characters don't talk at all and we have to play detectives to figure out the plot for ourselves. Anyone that talks at all in this movie comes off as a dork that states the obvious, catering to the Asian aesthetic of cool that is a great contribution to international arthouse cinema.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Psychology of Humor
I love comedy and I'm about to have two psych degrees so what better book to read than about what makes us laugh and why? Commentary about Psychology of Humor: An Integrated Approach coming up as soon as I read the first couple of chapters.
Be'tipul Vs. In Treatment: Differences in Israeli and American Culture
Great Analysis! (I stumbled on your In Treatment/Be'tipul analysis on youtube but it won't let me post a long response)
I am particularly interested in what you had to say about how the two TV shows reflect cultural differences as I have a masters degree in cross cultural psychology, have Jewish roots and grew up in the United States with Polish parents but have moved to Poland six years ago. I recently discovered In Treatment and have really gotten into the show. Your analysis really made me think and I was hoping you might explore some areas in detail as I'm guessing you oversimplified some issues and left out some confounding variables for the sake of the audience.
I don't know a whole lot about Israeli society so feel free to correct me, but I am curious if Israeli society is in fact a melting pot as you put it. It seems to me that aside from first and second generation Russian immigrants, there is a very small Ashkenazi elite which is represented on Be'tipul and I'm curious if these feelings of closeness that you mention reflect Israeli culture or of those that feel that they belong to a privileged club. I would guess that in some ways Israeli society mirrors some South American cultures, where a very small European population controls large sectors of the economy and they are represented in the media. The U.S. is different is the respect that whites are still a majority of the population so it is not as difficult to throw in some other races for the sake of "diversity".
Where I disagreed most with your analysis were your direct generalizations about both cultures based solely on the TV shows. It is relevant that HBO is a multi million dollar TV empire and the fact that the female patient was younger more beautiful and coquettish in her character strategy makes her more attractive to the viewer and more likely to garner high ratings for HBO which is an expensive premium channel that can't afford to take as many risks. HBO could afford to hire a gorgeous and talented actress who was able to play the part perfectly. The same can be said about the therapists office I think the shows budget was the main issue. I was surprised when you said status wasn't as important in Israel. I heard an anecdote that Israeli men when sitting at a table at restaurants all simultaneously pull out their car keys wallets and cell phones and put them on the table, to prove to others they have money, transportation and contacts and that it is essentially one big pissing contest.
It would also be interesting if you could go into more detail regarding differences between general upper middle class American and Jewish American cultures, as it has been historically a stereotype and many Jewish American comedians talk about their families "kvetching", all yelling at once, and families being very close. Since analysis is historically Jewish and is currently dominated by Jews, and HBO is a Jewish production company to a large degree I am willing to bet there must be at least some cultural influence.
Once again thanks for uploading your video and keep em coming! Can't wait to read your response - Matt
I am particularly interested in what you had to say about how the two TV shows reflect cultural differences as I have a masters degree in cross cultural psychology, have Jewish roots and grew up in the United States with Polish parents but have moved to Poland six years ago. I recently discovered In Treatment and have really gotten into the show. Your analysis really made me think and I was hoping you might explore some areas in detail as I'm guessing you oversimplified some issues and left out some confounding variables for the sake of the audience.
I don't know a whole lot about Israeli society so feel free to correct me, but I am curious if Israeli society is in fact a melting pot as you put it. It seems to me that aside from first and second generation Russian immigrants, there is a very small Ashkenazi elite which is represented on Be'tipul and I'm curious if these feelings of closeness that you mention reflect Israeli culture or of those that feel that they belong to a privileged club. I would guess that in some ways Israeli society mirrors some South American cultures, where a very small European population controls large sectors of the economy and they are represented in the media. The U.S. is different is the respect that whites are still a majority of the population so it is not as difficult to throw in some other races for the sake of "diversity".
Where I disagreed most with your analysis were your direct generalizations about both cultures based solely on the TV shows. It is relevant that HBO is a multi million dollar TV empire and the fact that the female patient was younger more beautiful and coquettish in her character strategy makes her more attractive to the viewer and more likely to garner high ratings for HBO which is an expensive premium channel that can't afford to take as many risks. HBO could afford to hire a gorgeous and talented actress who was able to play the part perfectly. The same can be said about the therapists office I think the shows budget was the main issue. I was surprised when you said status wasn't as important in Israel. I heard an anecdote that Israeli men when sitting at a table at restaurants all simultaneously pull out their car keys wallets and cell phones and put them on the table, to prove to others they have money, transportation and contacts and that it is essentially one big pissing contest.
It would also be interesting if you could go into more detail regarding differences between general upper middle class American and Jewish American cultures, as it has been historically a stereotype and many Jewish American comedians talk about their families "kvetching", all yelling at once, and families being very close. Since analysis is historically Jewish and is currently dominated by Jews, and HBO is a Jewish production company to a large degree I am willing to bet there must be at least some cultural influence.
Once again thanks for uploading your video and keep em coming! Can't wait to read your response - Matt
Cultural Psychology and Eminems Sucess
I went back over some old school Eminem songs and they made me think how they differ from other rap songs. Back when Eminem sold god knows how many millions of records a lot of people stopped and asked themselves how he managed to achieve such incredible fame. What made Eminem stand out, (obviously aside from being white) is that he was provocative and vulgar enough to appeal to the gangsta rap crowd, but despite all his controversial content his cultural values were really in line with those of mainstream America. The branch of social psychology known as cultural psychology postulates that cultures differ among themselves on several dimensions some of which include individualism/collectivism, power distance, and masculinity/femininity. The dimension on which African American culture and mainstream European American culture differ the most is that of individualism versus collectivism. Individualist cultures tend to very focused on self reliance, This is also the biggest difference between the lyrical content in Eminem's work in contrast to old school Dre, Snoop, and other Gangsta Rap artists that he is known to collaborate with.
The Gangsta Rap genre transformed hip hop and the music scene in the early nineties, and kids all over America had that indescribable feeling of bad assery when putting on their original Dre, Snoop or Warren G debut albums. But despite the solid foundation and marketing of African-American "cool", white kids just had an incredibly hard time relating to black collectivist mentality. Look at any one of the original east coast or west coast gangsta rap videos, and they almost always show the entire neighborhood either partying their asses off or at a picnic. Even the grandparents and the little kids are there all eating chicken wings and enjoying life. Think of such texts as Biggies "my whole crew is loungin", Even though they market and portray themselves as uncanny bad ass gangsters, The gangster mentality in all of these songs basically says life in the ghetto is insanely hard, but we're not going to dwell on that, it made us the silky smooth hard asses we are today
Contrast this with Eminems albums which basically sound like we're witnessing a therapy session with him, he's unhappy his father left at a very early age, he's mad at his mother, he's debating whether or not the highs and lows of drug abuse are worth it, he's not sure whether or not. There is really intense focus on himself and his emotions, thoughts, relflections. We hear about the frustrating and bad sides of success and what is he, this poor nobody from a trailer park to make of all this. Boo-hoo, these millions are just not "me". Instead of labelling him a whiny pussy we call him brave for opening up and sharing his true emotions with us, like he's laying it all out there "raw". Furthermore we call this the introspective "side" of his persona, because he can be the bad ass and obnoxious yet lovobale slim shady when he wants to be, but the introspective, vunerable and mature marshall mathers when he's feeling deep and setnimental. Think of someone like eazy-e, who talks about who he hangs with and talking about the different shades and sides of their personality. They would be labelled crazy, selfish
Eminem on the other hand wants everyone to fuck off, yet we commend him for being true, when others would label him as self absorbed and selfish. He rarely mentions his band D-12 in any of his solo albums. (All of a sudden I've got ninety some cousins...hey its me) in Marshal Mathers and "All of a sudden I've got ninety some cousins" "Do me a favor and do not come and speak to me if I'm eating or feeding my daugther)
The whole concept of life choices, which are incredibly important to individualist ideologies don't really exist in black culture. Think of Eazy-e's lyric in real motherfuckin' G's "I never met an OG who ever did shit wrong" and "How could a nigga go so quick from wearing lipstick to smoking chronic at picnics" proclaiming that there are no two ways to go about being a gangster, and what we might call experimenting with his image or his lifestyle choices is just Dr. Dre being a poser and a bitch. A bitch will always remain a bitch in the ghetto, there is no upward mobility or choice in the matter. Eminem frets over every single last choice he makes, and the jist of his songs is yeah maybe I fucked up maybe I didn't, these were my choices. I lost my temper and hit a bitch but she deserved it. I smoked weed
Its this meta analysis of everything that makes him so popular. A lot of teenagers are growing up, seeing that everything isn't so clear cut. Eminem i Eminem feeds off of individuality, choice, and freedom of speech.
In White America Eminem sings "I met Dre....and I lit a fire up
Under his ass, helped him get back to the top, every fan black that I got, was probably his in
Exchange for every white fan that he's got". Eminem emphasizes both his and Dre's individuality,
The Gangsta Rap genre transformed hip hop and the music scene in the early nineties, and kids all over America had that indescribable feeling of bad assery when putting on their original Dre, Snoop or Warren G debut albums. But despite the solid foundation and marketing of African-American "cool", white kids just had an incredibly hard time relating to black collectivist mentality. Look at any one of the original east coast or west coast gangsta rap videos, and they almost always show the entire neighborhood either partying their asses off or at a picnic. Even the grandparents and the little kids are there all eating chicken wings and enjoying life. Think of such texts as Biggies "my whole crew is loungin", Even though they market and portray themselves as uncanny bad ass gangsters, The gangster mentality in all of these songs basically says life in the ghetto is insanely hard, but we're not going to dwell on that, it made us the silky smooth hard asses we are today
Contrast this with Eminems albums which basically sound like we're witnessing a therapy session with him, he's unhappy his father left at a very early age, he's mad at his mother, he's debating whether or not the highs and lows of drug abuse are worth it, he's not sure whether or not. There is really intense focus on himself and his emotions, thoughts, relflections. We hear about the frustrating and bad sides of success and what is he, this poor nobody from a trailer park to make of all this. Boo-hoo, these millions are just not "me". Instead of labelling him a whiny pussy we call him brave for opening up and sharing his true emotions with us, like he's laying it all out there "raw". Furthermore we call this the introspective "side" of his persona, because he can be the bad ass and obnoxious yet lovobale slim shady when he wants to be, but the introspective, vunerable and mature marshall mathers when he's feeling deep and setnimental. Think of someone like eazy-e, who talks about who he hangs with and talking about the different shades and sides of their personality. They would be labelled crazy, selfish
Eminem on the other hand wants everyone to fuck off, yet we commend him for being true, when others would label him as self absorbed and selfish. He rarely mentions his band D-12 in any of his solo albums. (All of a sudden I've got ninety some cousins...hey its me) in Marshal Mathers and "All of a sudden I've got ninety some cousins" "Do me a favor and do not come and speak to me if I'm eating or feeding my daugther)
The whole concept of life choices, which are incredibly important to individualist ideologies don't really exist in black culture. Think of Eazy-e's lyric in real motherfuckin' G's "I never met an OG who ever did shit wrong" and "How could a nigga go so quick from wearing lipstick to smoking chronic at picnics" proclaiming that there are no two ways to go about being a gangster, and what we might call experimenting with his image or his lifestyle choices is just Dr. Dre being a poser and a bitch. A bitch will always remain a bitch in the ghetto, there is no upward mobility or choice in the matter. Eminem frets over every single last choice he makes, and the jist of his songs is yeah maybe I fucked up maybe I didn't, these were my choices. I lost my temper and hit a bitch but she deserved it. I smoked weed
Its this meta analysis of everything that makes him so popular. A lot of teenagers are growing up, seeing that everything isn't so clear cut. Eminem i Eminem feeds off of individuality, choice, and freedom of speech.
In White America Eminem sings "I met Dre....and I lit a fire up
Under his ass, helped him get back to the top, every fan black that I got, was probably his in
Exchange for every white fan that he's got". Eminem emphasizes both his and Dre's individuality,
Movie Review: Paris Texas
I've watched about half an hour and I don't think I can stomach much more. Yet another non-formulaicly formulaic pretentious piece of shit. Cannes Film festival winner my ass. What a bunch of assholes at the Cannes film festival anyway. Why does "deep" these days mean slow in pace, annoying and full exterior shots of shithole towns. A bunch of people talk amongst themselves colloqially and monosyllabically. How deep. Especially when a bunch of asshole Europeans have their own vision of the American Dream which translates into they film people driving around in big cars eating hamburgers.
The jist of the beginning of the movie is a guy with a beard who walks around the middle of the Mojave desert. Oh and he has one of those diseases where he doesn't remember anything. Then in true Indie fashion he recconects with his son after being gone for a long time. Oh and his brothers wife is from France. She kisses everyone everywhere all the time because shes french. Connections abound! He has a perpetual contemplative stare. The director tries to be slick by showing everyones feet shifting around nervously under the table before cutting to them sitting around the table while having dinner. How creative.
I bet the people that made this movie has some sort of amazing "vision" about connecting worlds and thought there was really cute irony in a shithole town in Texas having the same name as arguably the culturally most sophisticated city in the world and thought that by weaving this contrast into the plot they would be deep. Anyway, back to the movie
A silent home movie when the crazy dudes son was a couple years younger coupled with a soft melodic soundtrack. How touching, beautiful, dramatic and contemplative. I bet thats what Roger Eberts review will say when I read it. This is really putting me to sleep.
The jist of the beginning of the movie is a guy with a beard who walks around the middle of the Mojave desert. Oh and he has one of those diseases where he doesn't remember anything. Then in true Indie fashion he recconects with his son after being gone for a long time. Oh and his brothers wife is from France. She kisses everyone everywhere all the time because shes french. Connections abound! He has a perpetual contemplative stare. The director tries to be slick by showing everyones feet shifting around nervously under the table before cutting to them sitting around the table while having dinner. How creative.
I bet the people that made this movie has some sort of amazing "vision" about connecting worlds and thought there was really cute irony in a shithole town in Texas having the same name as arguably the culturally most sophisticated city in the world and thought that by weaving this contrast into the plot they would be deep. Anyway, back to the movie
A silent home movie when the crazy dudes son was a couple years younger coupled with a soft melodic soundtrack. How touching, beautiful, dramatic and contemplative. I bet thats what Roger Eberts review will say when I read it. This is really putting me to sleep.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Audiobook Review: Adam Carollas Not Taco Bell Material
I have been a die hard Adam Carolla fan ever since I was randomly listening to my local Alternative station at ten P.M and I heard Loveline for the very first time.
Not Taco Bell material is not up to par in the Humor department.
Adam Carolla is extremely funny and makes it his signature brand of dark humor by as one critic put it "letting the wit kind of dribble out the side of his mouth" in a deadpan tone.
I wasn't clear who would get the two knives, wow I can't believe I hung out with these people
The stucco was hot enough on the side of the building to fry an egg (which by the way why would you want to do that, how desperate would you have to be, just get a fucking frying pan dude
Not Taco Bell material is not up to par in the Humor department.
Adam Carolla is extremely funny and makes it his signature brand of dark humor by as one critic put it "letting the wit kind of dribble out the side of his mouth" in a deadpan tone.
I wasn't clear who would get the two knives, wow I can't believe I hung out with these people
The stucco was hot enough on the side of the building to fry an egg (which by the way why would you want to do that, how desperate would you have to be, just get a fucking frying pan dude
Movie Review: Six Degrees of Separation
Really cool quirky interesting and fast paced, with tight editing and cool camera angles, especially for 1993. Very slick and refined performance for a young Will Smith, didn't know he had it in him. Great pastiche of the stuffy upper echelons of "sophisticated" NYC society. Just as intruiging as John Guarres other hit "Atlantic City". Even though it was about completely different mentalities, cities, social classes and activities there was a fascinating sort of unpredictability about it. Seem to me like this could have inspired what later became Roman Polanskis "Carnage".
Movie Review: Atlantic City
Wow. If more movies could be this intruiging and this brilliantly directed the first five minutes in. We get the sense that were thrown right in the action, with the camera twisting and turning and going around corners to make it seem shady, slick, seedy and chaotic, just like one would expect a gambling town to be. We immediately meet two sets of people, and their characters are immediately portrayed as they relate to other people. We meet a naive yet cunning scumbag conman who ran away with his wifes sisters and we see him take a package out of a phone booth. We immediately see that the package was meant for someone else, but he knew how to be at the right place at the right time. He emotionally uses and abuses his wife and verbally assaults her when he doesn't get his way, even though she is letting him and his wife spend the night at her place and The other couple we meet is an old woman that lays around in bed and demands a lot of an old "submissive" man, but it is later hinted at in conversation that.
By a strange turn of events the two couples become intertwined, and the movie becomes a juxtaposition of the old and the new.
Then it becomes an even crazier set of plot twists and turns. I especially loved this movie and it kept surprising me as it became more and more absurd with every minute. No bullshit soppy moralizing, just a lot of crazy things suddenly happening to two normal people in modern day Atlantic city, a woman from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan down and out on her luck and an old who gets bitched around by his missus and through a crazy turn of events runs into some money, then love, then trouble, and finally he gets delusional when he feels like a bad ass for killling two hoodlums, something he was never able to do in Atlantic Cities bootlegging glory days.
9/10
By a strange turn of events the two couples become intertwined, and the movie becomes a juxtaposition of the old and the new.
Then it becomes an even crazier set of plot twists and turns. I especially loved this movie and it kept surprising me as it became more and more absurd with every minute. No bullshit soppy moralizing, just a lot of crazy things suddenly happening to two normal people in modern day Atlantic city, a woman from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan down and out on her luck and an old who gets bitched around by his missus and through a crazy turn of events runs into some money, then love, then trouble, and finally he gets delusional when he feels like a bad ass for killling two hoodlums, something he was never able to do in Atlantic Cities bootlegging glory days.
9/10
Thursday, August 9, 2012
The Dictator
Holy shit Sacha Baron Cohen is a genius, I've been waiting in dire anticipation for this movie to come out for two years, thinking he would incorporate his off brand scathing satire to a topic that has been gripping the world recently, namely the Arab Spring and its aftermath.....
Holy shit was I let down...
Now I'm hanging out at a friends house where I'm forced to watch this movie for a second time...and to add insult to injury for some reason he's laughing his ass off.
To quote one of my favorite movie critics, this movie runs like one long stupid drawn out SNL skit. All sorts of retarded middle school level slapstick humor, extremely lame crude sexual and scatological jokes that normally Cohen pulls off amazingly, but here they just seemed infantile.
It's full of half ass one-liners, and thinly veiled racism, because we're technically laugh
What particularly pissed me off is Sacha Baron Cohen proclaiming "I'm not even Arab" even though he's an uppity aristocratic British Jew and the movie is full of references to Arab-Israeli relations, Waladeen played by Cohen even "recreates" the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre in a mock video game.
The only funny line in the movie was when Cohen says to an African coworker "Hey subsaharan, get me 50 child soldiers here by midnight" "I've picked up Yiddish, who picks up yiddish?' "I"m on my own spiritual journey like eat, pray, love.", and finally "are you having a boy, or an abortion."
What made The Ali G Show on HBO particularly funny was people were duped into thinking that the interviews were real and that Ali G, Bruno, and Borat were authentic characters. Cohen has an extremely quick and reflexive wit, and the art of playing dumb is not nearly as it seems, it takes a particularly bright person to play a funny stupid one. In an interview with Cohen I read that it was quite an elaborate setup, Cohen would pretend to be part of the crew that sets up the TV set, he would carry boxes and benches etc., and then "randomly" start talking to the celeb, who was duped to think that this was a "pre-interview"
Holy shit was I let down...
Now I'm hanging out at a friends house where I'm forced to watch this movie for a second time...and to add insult to injury for some reason he's laughing his ass off.
To quote one of my favorite movie critics, this movie runs like one long stupid drawn out SNL skit. All sorts of retarded middle school level slapstick humor, extremely lame crude sexual and scatological jokes that normally Cohen pulls off amazingly, but here they just seemed infantile.
It's full of half ass one-liners, and thinly veiled racism, because we're technically laugh
What particularly pissed me off is Sacha Baron Cohen proclaiming "I'm not even Arab" even though he's an uppity aristocratic British Jew and the movie is full of references to Arab-Israeli relations, Waladeen played by Cohen even "recreates" the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre in a mock video game.
The only funny line in the movie was when Cohen says to an African coworker "Hey subsaharan, get me 50 child soldiers here by midnight" "I've picked up Yiddish, who picks up yiddish?' "I"m on my own spiritual journey like eat, pray, love.", and finally "are you having a boy, or an abortion."
What made The Ali G Show on HBO particularly funny was people were duped into thinking that the interviews were real and that Ali G, Bruno, and Borat were authentic characters. Cohen has an extremely quick and reflexive wit, and the art of playing dumb is not nearly as it seems, it takes a particularly bright person to play a funny stupid one. In an interview with Cohen I read that it was quite an elaborate setup, Cohen would pretend to be part of the crew that sets up the TV set, he would carry boxes and benches etc., and then "randomly" start talking to the celeb, who was duped to think that this was a "pre-interview"
Monday, April 30, 2012
Movie Review: The Moon and Sixpence
Check out Ricky Raw's original review and post here.
"The Moon and Sixpence" had a lot of the blunt and unsubtle parallels with "Darling", although I feel that the latter movie was a hell of a lot better. Darling seemed to pull off its bluntness with a free flowing ease due to brilliant editing and directing, The Moon and Sixpence seemed a bit choppy and its transitions weren't very smooth. As if it wasn't dumbed down enough it also literally displays on screen read-out-loud text of what we just saw. I see too many problems with this movie which literally watches a like a rough draft. The Dutch artist was way too much of a pathetic caricature, the scenes in Tahiti were pointlessly goofy, our main hero somehow immediately transforms from a boring buffoon with no social skills into a cold and aloof bad ass as soon as he sprouts a beard but to name a few. I suspect I would understand the movie a lot better if I looked into the original novel as well as the biography of Paul Gaugin it might fill in the gaps for me because the movie paints an incomplete picture. A quick Wikipedia search shows that Gaugin spent some time with Dutch painter Van Gogh in France, and during this time Van Gogh infamously cut his ear off. Clearly this shows that the dynamics of their relationship and their characters were quite a bit different than Strickland and the Dutch artist in the film.
In his review, Ricky claims Strickland's character was a good depiction of clinical narcissism. I think however that Strickland came off as more of a selfish asshole than a true narcissist. I think he is more antisocial than narcissistic. He seems to be too much in his own world to expect much of other people. He lacks the enviousness, doesn't expect to be known for his brilliance and definitely isn't obsessed with admiration. I think the movie tries to portray him as a quasi-autistic genius, kind of like the movie "Amadeus" portrays Mozart. But unfortunately the movie is too simplistic to be a character study of a tortured genius, so it lightly touches upon Strickland's inner turmoil but doesn't really develop the theme very much. The scenes where we find out he has leprosy and forces his wife to burn his paintings allude to it but don't develop the theme much.
I also think there are quite a few modern day indies that portray the alpha/beta attraction dynamic just as well as the old movies without succumbing to politically correct pressures. A particularly good one comes to mind called "The Vicious Kind" with J.K. Simmons.
"The Moon and Sixpence" had a lot of the blunt and unsubtle parallels with "Darling", although I feel that the latter movie was a hell of a lot better. Darling seemed to pull off its bluntness with a free flowing ease due to brilliant editing and directing, The Moon and Sixpence seemed a bit choppy and its transitions weren't very smooth. As if it wasn't dumbed down enough it also literally displays on screen read-out-loud text of what we just saw. I see too many problems with this movie which literally watches a like a rough draft. The Dutch artist was way too much of a pathetic caricature, the scenes in Tahiti were pointlessly goofy, our main hero somehow immediately transforms from a boring buffoon with no social skills into a cold and aloof bad ass as soon as he sprouts a beard but to name a few. I suspect I would understand the movie a lot better if I looked into the original novel as well as the biography of Paul Gaugin it might fill in the gaps for me because the movie paints an incomplete picture. A quick Wikipedia search shows that Gaugin spent some time with Dutch painter Van Gogh in France, and during this time Van Gogh infamously cut his ear off. Clearly this shows that the dynamics of their relationship and their characters were quite a bit different than Strickland and the Dutch artist in the film.
In his review, Ricky claims Strickland's character was a good depiction of clinical narcissism. I think however that Strickland came off as more of a selfish asshole than a true narcissist. I think he is more antisocial than narcissistic. He seems to be too much in his own world to expect much of other people. He lacks the enviousness, doesn't expect to be known for his brilliance and definitely isn't obsessed with admiration. I think the movie tries to portray him as a quasi-autistic genius, kind of like the movie "Amadeus" portrays Mozart. But unfortunately the movie is too simplistic to be a character study of a tortured genius, so it lightly touches upon Strickland's inner turmoil but doesn't really develop the theme very much. The scenes where we find out he has leprosy and forces his wife to burn his paintings allude to it but don't develop the theme much.
I also think there are quite a few modern day indies that portray the alpha/beta attraction dynamic just as well as the old movies without succumbing to politically correct pressures. A particularly good one comes to mind called "The Vicious Kind" with J.K. Simmons.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Old School Loveline
I'm revisiting all of the old shows, made possible by Giovanni at lovelinetapes.com. He is doing such an amazing job that he is the only one that didn't get a cease and desist letter from westwood one entertainment. The site has over 2,000 old shows with Adam Carolla.
Adam Carolla was so surprised that "people would listen to an old show from 2001". This is the one and only time I don't buy into Adam Carollas common sense/judgement. Listening back now, the show is so sharp, fast paced, jam packed full of brilliant advice, wise commentary.
Adam Carolla was so surprised that "people would listen to an old show from 2001". This is the one and only time I don't buy into Adam Carollas common sense/judgement. Listening back now, the show is so sharp, fast paced, jam packed full of brilliant advice, wise commentary.
Monday, April 23, 2012
March of The Living
So my Jewish Canadian Unlce (twice removed), came by to Poland with his 17 year old Daughter. "March of the Living" is yet another one of these Jewish cultural Narcissistic programs in disguise, one of these why does everyone want to kill us when we are so amazing type fiascos. The basic premise is a group of insanely upbeat North American snotty and boorish teenage boys and their Jewish princess counterparts come to check out the "Polish death camps". They have an insanely busy schedule because they need to see every last death camp on Polish soil. They cry their eyes out for a whopping five minutes at each camp and that is when the majority of pictures are taken so that their loved ones back home that shelled out a couple grand for the trip see how important and nostalgic it is. After coming to the horrible filthy Eastern decrepid shithole that is Poland (Shocking that its not entirely the drunken industrial wasteland they imagined it to be, with Polar Bears scouring the streets), they finally take off for the sunny happy shiny beacon of hope that is Israel. As if Poland didn't already have enough negative stigma associated with it that the program literally makes it a point to label Poland as the "past" and Israel as the "future" of the Jewish Nation.
I was able to get a sneak peek of the part of the trip when I attended the Havdallah (ending of Shabbat) celebration in the main auditorium of Warsaw University. Me, my grandma, and 500 brats from all over the Jewish Anglosphere. It was a miracle that I was even able to attend considering how hermetically sealed off from Polish society the atendees were. No one was allowed to go anywhere on their own, cell phones were banned, everyone had a wristband and no one was even allowed Of course they try to make the trip somewhat politically correct in that bullshit insincere condescending and patronizing North American fashion. On the day before they left I got a sneak peak at the content behind the trip as I was allowed in with my Uncle and cousin 500 brats from the Jewish Anglo saxon World at Warsaw University. They showed a video of a Polish woman that hid Jews during the war and focused on how
Which brings me to my last point, who in the fuck do these Canadians think they are? I thought Canada focused a tad bit more on education, culture and well roundedness than America and prided itself as being closer to Europe both politically and culturally than its giant southern neighbor. After all, I simply naively thought that learning mandatory French and having such a large percentage of francophones in the country gave at least the very privilaged and well educated Jewish kids some perspective...I couldn't be further from the truth!
One teenage chick remarked with all the frustration she could muster, while walking by Polish people on the street, "Why aren't these people speaking ENGLISH". "I can't understand ANY of the people! They speak such a weird language!" Apparently a couple of people speaking Polish in Poland would be cool, she would reluctantly be willing to accept that it happens on occasion. Six or seven would be pushing it. But this? This was an outrage!
It was comical to see this large group of North American rednecks walking by on the most beautiful street in Warsaw, with gorgeous, feminine and extremely well dressed Polish women peppering every corner, contrasted with these hicks, all wearing their pathetically tacky loose jeans and hideous blue jackets made just for the trip.
A couple of snipppets of the brilliant and well thought out commentary some of the members chose to utter:
*"Oh my god, everyone is smoking here, ewwww", Smoking? No fucking way, in front of bars on the main bar street in town? I saw the exact same thing on Bloor street in Toronto.
*"Everyone here smells like alcohol" for fucks sake, you idiots, see above. Is it too much to ask of Canadian schools to teach students to put two and two together?
* "Oh my god that guy almost ran us over", uh no he didn't, this is Europe. Drivers will stop inches from your face but will not run you over. Only the US and Canada have such Pussy drivers that wait for every single last pedestrian to reluctantly walk by while insincerely grinning with their bleached teeth and waving you by.
*In response to a couple of drunken Soccer hooligans across the street that were yelling obscenities about a rival soccer team to no one in particular "Oh my god, what are they saying, is that about us? are they antisemitic?" I don't even know where to begin with this one. First of all you brainwashed cunt, a very small minority of Poles are antisemitic, and an even smaller minority care to actually yell about it on the street. Second of all, the world doesn't revolve around you. What the fuck do a group of hooligans care about some overblown group of tourists all wearing big stupid blue jackets? And third of all, how in the fuck do they even know your Jewish even if they cared? Think they're sitting up in that window getting smashed on Vodka with a finely tuned "Jew-Dar", and just happened to notice your black curly hair from fifty feet away? Did the guides at Aushwitz not explain this was fifty years ago?
I was able to get a sneak peek of the part of the trip when I attended the Havdallah (ending of Shabbat) celebration in the main auditorium of Warsaw University. Me, my grandma, and 500 brats from all over the Jewish Anglosphere. It was a miracle that I was even able to attend considering how hermetically sealed off from Polish society the atendees were. No one was allowed to go anywhere on their own, cell phones were banned, everyone had a wristband and no one was even allowed Of course they try to make the trip somewhat politically correct in that bullshit insincere condescending and patronizing North American fashion. On the day before they left I got a sneak peak at the content behind the trip as I was allowed in with my Uncle and cousin 500 brats from the Jewish Anglo saxon World at Warsaw University. They showed a video of a Polish woman that hid Jews during the war and focused on how
Which brings me to my last point, who in the fuck do these Canadians think they are? I thought Canada focused a tad bit more on education, culture and well roundedness than America and prided itself as being closer to Europe both politically and culturally than its giant southern neighbor. After all, I simply naively thought that learning mandatory French and having such a large percentage of francophones in the country gave at least the very privilaged and well educated Jewish kids some perspective...I couldn't be further from the truth!
One teenage chick remarked with all the frustration she could muster, while walking by Polish people on the street, "Why aren't these people speaking ENGLISH". "I can't understand ANY of the people! They speak such a weird language!" Apparently a couple of people speaking Polish in Poland would be cool, she would reluctantly be willing to accept that it happens on occasion. Six or seven would be pushing it. But this? This was an outrage!
It was comical to see this large group of North American rednecks walking by on the most beautiful street in Warsaw, with gorgeous, feminine and extremely well dressed Polish women peppering every corner, contrasted with these hicks, all wearing their pathetically tacky loose jeans and hideous blue jackets made just for the trip.
A couple of snipppets of the brilliant and well thought out commentary some of the members chose to utter:
*"Oh my god, everyone is smoking here, ewwww", Smoking? No fucking way, in front of bars on the main bar street in town? I saw the exact same thing on Bloor street in Toronto.
*"Everyone here smells like alcohol" for fucks sake, you idiots, see above. Is it too much to ask of Canadian schools to teach students to put two and two together?
* "Oh my god that guy almost ran us over", uh no he didn't, this is Europe. Drivers will stop inches from your face but will not run you over. Only the US and Canada have such Pussy drivers that wait for every single last pedestrian to reluctantly walk by while insincerely grinning with their bleached teeth and waving you by.
*In response to a couple of drunken Soccer hooligans across the street that were yelling obscenities about a rival soccer team to no one in particular "Oh my god, what are they saying, is that about us? are they antisemitic?" I don't even know where to begin with this one. First of all you brainwashed cunt, a very small minority of Poles are antisemitic, and an even smaller minority care to actually yell about it on the street. Second of all, the world doesn't revolve around you. What the fuck do a group of hooligans care about some overblown group of tourists all wearing big stupid blue jackets? And third of all, how in the fuck do they even know your Jewish even if they cared? Think they're sitting up in that window getting smashed on Vodka with a finely tuned "Jew-Dar", and just happened to notice your black curly hair from fifty feet away? Did the guides at Aushwitz not explain this was fifty years ago?
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Comedy Roasts
Here are a couple of my favorite creative insults taken from various roasts over the years:
RIP Greg Giraldo, he was one of the funniest
Greg Giraldo to Garey Busey: "Look at your teeth, they look like a row of Urinals"
Jeff Ross to Flava Flav: "How do we roast charcoal"
Anthony Jelesnik to Patrice O'neal: "Holy shit you're fat, you look like you deep fry your hands before you bite your fingernails"
Seth McFarlane to Donald Trump: "Its pronounced I am fucking delusional, not I am running for president"
Seth McFarlane to the Situation" "No need to Clap, he already has it"
Jeff Ross to Bob Saget: "Full house should have been called Blackjack, he started hitting on the Olsen Twins when they were eight and didn't stop until they were twenty one"
I it true he used to give Mary-Kate acting lessons? He would tell her, act like this never happened"
Greg Giraldo to Penn Jilette "With that greasy pony tail you look like a male stripper that swallowed a male stripper"
Greg Giraldo to Mario Cantone "You tiny little fairy you take a stepladder into a glory hole your mom must have been devastated when you came out of the cupboard"
ICE-T to Carrot Top: "Eyeliner to Muscles, looks like halfway through your sex change your doctor just said fuck it"
Seth McFarlane to Charlie Sheen "He's the reason a dick with cocaine on it is called a Sheenus"
Seth Mcfarlane to Donald Trump: "This guy has an ego: "When trump bangs a supermodel, he closes his eyes and imagines he's jerking off"
Jeff Ross to David Hasselhoff: "It's kind of ironic you played a lifeguard because every night you drown in your own sorrows"
Greg Giraldo to Hugh Heffner" "I've read every playboy since I was fifteen, not once did I see in turn-ons 'I want to fuck a 75 year old man' "
Greg Giraldo to Katt Williams: "Being a pimp ain't easy, especially when you gotta stand on phonebooks to smack a bitch"
Jeff Ross to Courtney Love: "Courtney Love you're like the girl next door, If you happened to live next door to a methadone clinic"
Jeff Ross to David Hasselhoff "Why do the Germans love you so much, maybe its because you've filled the entertainment void left by Anne Frank"
Greg Giraldo to David Hasselhoff "You are popular in Europe, you were even knighted by the queen of England, she dubbed you "Sir Osis of Liver"
Brad Garret to Joan Rivers "Joan has had her face on more red carpets than an Irish Lesbian"
Greg Giraldo to Kathy Griffith "Whats with all the plastic surgery, you've been stitched up thousands of times yet you're still so sad to look at, you're like the AIDS quilt"
Greg Giraldo to Larry the Cable Guy: "Larry fucked his first cousin when he was 16, and his last one about an hour ago"
Snoop on Lisa Lampanelli: "If you wanna fuck Lisa Doggystyle, all you gotta do is put a bowl of food on the floor"
Greg Giraldo to Ralphie May "You're like the population of India, you're loud, you're sweaty and you double in size every two months, you're the only guy that watches porn and comes when the guy delivers the pizza"
Jeff Ross
RIP Greg Giraldo, he was one of the funniest
Greg Giraldo to Garey Busey: "Look at your teeth, they look like a row of Urinals"
Jeff Ross to Flava Flav: "How do we roast charcoal"
Anthony Jelesnik to Patrice O'neal: "Holy shit you're fat, you look like you deep fry your hands before you bite your fingernails"
Seth McFarlane to Donald Trump: "Its pronounced I am fucking delusional, not I am running for president"
Seth McFarlane to the Situation" "No need to Clap, he already has it"
Jeff Ross to Bob Saget: "Full house should have been called Blackjack, he started hitting on the Olsen Twins when they were eight and didn't stop until they were twenty one"
I it true he used to give Mary-Kate acting lessons? He would tell her, act like this never happened"
Greg Giraldo to Penn Jilette "With that greasy pony tail you look like a male stripper that swallowed a male stripper"
Greg Giraldo to Mario Cantone "You tiny little fairy you take a stepladder into a glory hole your mom must have been devastated when you came out of the cupboard"
ICE-T to Carrot Top: "Eyeliner to Muscles, looks like halfway through your sex change your doctor just said fuck it"
Seth McFarlane to Charlie Sheen "He's the reason a dick with cocaine on it is called a Sheenus"
Seth Mcfarlane to Donald Trump: "This guy has an ego: "When trump bangs a supermodel, he closes his eyes and imagines he's jerking off"
Jeff Ross to David Hasselhoff: "It's kind of ironic you played a lifeguard because every night you drown in your own sorrows"
Greg Giraldo to Hugh Heffner" "I've read every playboy since I was fifteen, not once did I see in turn-ons 'I want to fuck a 75 year old man' "
Greg Giraldo to Katt Williams: "Being a pimp ain't easy, especially when you gotta stand on phonebooks to smack a bitch"
Jeff Ross to Courtney Love: "Courtney Love you're like the girl next door, If you happened to live next door to a methadone clinic"
Jeff Ross to David Hasselhoff "Why do the Germans love you so much, maybe its because you've filled the entertainment void left by Anne Frank"
Greg Giraldo to David Hasselhoff "You are popular in Europe, you were even knighted by the queen of England, she dubbed you "Sir Osis of Liver"
Brad Garret to Joan Rivers "Joan has had her face on more red carpets than an Irish Lesbian"
Greg Giraldo to Kathy Griffith "Whats with all the plastic surgery, you've been stitched up thousands of times yet you're still so sad to look at, you're like the AIDS quilt"
Greg Giraldo to Larry the Cable Guy: "Larry fucked his first cousin when he was 16, and his last one about an hour ago"
Snoop on Lisa Lampanelli: "If you wanna fuck Lisa Doggystyle, all you gotta do is put a bowl of food on the floor"
Greg Giraldo to Ralphie May "You're like the population of India, you're loud, you're sweaty and you double in size every two months, you're the only guy that watches porn and comes when the guy delivers the pizza"
Jeff Ross
Friday, March 16, 2012
Movie Review: Darling (1965)
This is my first serious post in a blog ever!
Thanks to the magic of stumbleupon, I came across a blog called The Rawness: Human Nature and Sexual Politics. www.therawness.com. I have never read a blog which almost exclusively had posts that interested the hell out of me. The author of the Blog, Ricky, is a genius at dissecting, analyzing and synthesizing pretty much all aspects of human behavior. They were so fascinating in fact that I posted lengthy comments on some of them. I was so inspired by his work that I decided to write my own blog. I've been a movie buff for quite some time and have wanted to review them. In his latest series post, Ricky discusses "emotional vampires". He recommends the classic movie Darling:
Thanks to the magic of stumbleupon, I came across a blog called The Rawness: Human Nature and Sexual Politics. www.therawness.com. I have never read a blog which almost exclusively had posts that interested the hell out of me. The author of the Blog, Ricky, is a genius at dissecting, analyzing and synthesizing pretty much all aspects of human behavior. They were so fascinating in fact that I posted lengthy comments on some of them. I was so inspired by his work that I decided to write my own blog. I've been a movie buff for quite some time and have wanted to review them. In his latest series post, Ricky discusses "emotional vampires". He recommends the classic movie Darling:
Darling (1965)
Directed by Jon Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy, A Kind of Loving)
I will have to check out more of Schlesingers work, he seems to have an incredible knack for realistically portraying profoundly disturbed characters and the rapport (or lack of it) that they have with their close ones, (Ratsos interaction with the Naive Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy is classic). I would like to view (but so far can’t seem to find any decent torrent) the film “A kind of Loving” which is his directorial debut and a “Kitchen Sink Drama”. Kitchen sink dramas were films about the ordinary lives of British folks often shot in regular homes hence the name. They were made in Britain right after the 1960 Suez canal crisis where Britain completely lost face with the whole world watching, so they are famous for portraying raw intense emotion and a healthy dose of cynicism. While England and especially its capitals culture and image changed very fast that by 1965 it was the cultural capital of the world, apparently this filmmakers intense style and vision hadn’t changed much and he applied it to this new reality of the vacuous Jet-Set crowd. I am guessing that many of these famous Kitchen Sink dramas contain a whole slew of conniving manipulators and emotional vampires, so it is worth checking them out.
While not a subtle director, take for example the symbolism of Diana winning at roulette and immediately changing lovers, the trapped fish in the aquarium and Diana “trapped” in her lifestyle and the contrast between the speech about equality and then a jump cut to black servants in ridiculous kitchy Victorian wigs. It all seems to work however because everything in the movie is so powerful and raw and the pacing and acting and cinematography and editing is superb. The frequent breaks in continuity where we have to figure out what happened in between encourage us to think about her complex psychological profile of both cold calculation and haphazard emotional spontaneity.
To digress completely and at the risk of being prolixy I was even a little taken aback during the scene where it is bluntly stated how much German photo enthusiasts would love Dianas “Aryan features”. I don’t exactly what Schlesinger was driving at, I am assuming that similarly to Fassbinder (who by the way is an undisputed master and pretty much all of his movies revolve around emotional vampires) he was poking fun at Germany and how even during times of intense social change with a new generation reaching adulthood during the Swinging Sixties, Germany changed little even from US govt. mandated “Denazification” programs which failed miserably, these old school values were just less open and hidden under a thin veneer of materialism during the German Economic Miracle. I could be reading too much into this, he was both British and a Jew that survived the horrors of the London Blitz so this could have been a purely visceral snarky remark. There could be something I don’t know however about the photography/fashion scene in Swinging London, and German involvement in it. I am curious how true the stereotype of Europeans not forgetting is, and what young British peoples thought of Germans were. After all, there was a ton of cultural interaction, the Beatles for example, first gained mass popularity on German soil.
With regards to analyzing the fine points of cluster B emotional disorders both you and Schlesinger are both ahead of the game. In the new DSM-V which comes out next year there will no longer be criteria for specific cluster B disorders but they will be classified according to what and how many symptoms of each disorder one has. That just goes to show once again that artists and people with a healthy dose of common sense and life smarts triumph over psychologists who want to neatly categorize everything.
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