MAC at Random :: Mario's Blog 2006

Entries will be marked by area of interest: programming; my music; my writing and original film work as it (slowly) happens; my personal life; the world at large.
email me to comment on an entry (you know which part to edit out of your subject line)
Click for all comments in 2005

12/25/06 Best and Beast of '06

First of all, thanks for following the link at DVDTalk.com !
Schoolin' the Movies! :: All the movies I could make it to this year, in order of my preference, rated Scholastically. Additional comments follow the list.

A+ Honor Roll
Movie of the Year: Thank You For Smoking
Last King of Scotland
The Departed
A
Darwin's Nightmare
The 3 Burials of Melqiades Estrada
A-
V For Vendetta
B+
Volver
A Scanner Darkly
Xexili: Mountain Patrol
B
Street Fight
Why We Fight
The War Tapes
Puzzlehead
The Amateurs
B-
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for etc etc
Wordplay
The Da Vinci Code
An Inconvenient Truth
C+
Lady in The Water
D-
Dunce Cap: Don't Come Knocking

There are no movies graded F. A night at a shitty movie is better than a good night at my job. Besides, life is too short....
Scorsese made his best movie since "Taxi Driver". Awesome! Wim Wenders made his worst movie-not awesome. Docs and politically charged movies continued to kick up a storm, as I've noted below. Some of them were more interesting for social relevance than for real entertainment, though our current climate of social change-upheaval?- is producing a fine new generation of star filmmakers, such as the one at the top of my heap.
If I had an Academy card, which I don't, here's how I'd vote:
Best lead acting-Forrest Whittaker in "The Last King of Scotland"-not the first Idi Amin, but without question the definitive one. Tommy Lee Jones in "3 Burials of Melqiades Estrada"-bilingual, intense and so heartfelt. His work with the director is-oh, never mind. And sorry, but Sacha Cohen in "Borat" is an astounding comedy/improv talent, risking severe beatings and humiliation for every last laugh, even if a little of his Andy Kaufman-influenced gonzo humor goes a long way.
Best support-Sam Elliott in "Thank You for Smoking". Fairuza Balk, the only good thing to come out of "Don't Come Knocking". Gillian Anderson in "The Last King of Scotland", just because I love her being back! My blog, my standards. And "Marky" Mark Wahlberg making a total transformation to harder-than-a-teenaged-dick Boston detective in "The Departed".
And here are my fave theatrical revivals of the year. In Fairfield County, CT, not quite up to the sophistication of having Jodorowsky or "Kwaidan" at the local arthouses, but still:
2001: A Space Oddysey :: A++++++++ Greatest Movie Ever for me, hosted by Keir Dullea in New Haven!
Fight Club :: A+
Army of Shadows :: A+ why was this never once shown in America?
His Girl Friday :: A
THX:1138 :: A- remember when George Lucas made movies that challenged and disturbed audiences? I didn't either, until I saw this.
Bed and Board :: A-
Monty Python and the Holy Grail :: A -- How did they do those extra seconds of footage?
All apologies to "Dave Chapelle's Block Party", "Jesus Is Magic" by Sarah Silverman, "American Dreamz", "IdleWild", "Lucky Number Slevin", "Fast Food Nation", "Death of a President", the Leonard Cohen doc and all the movies I just didn't have time to see this year. And all the "Snakes on a Plane" fans too! It's why we build movie theaters in our houses now, to never miss a movie ever again. Hope springs eternal for Spike Lee's magnificent "When The Levees Broke", or Don Cheadle playing my dad's friend Miles Davis, or even more DVDs coming out this year. And me and my friends have some good ideas for movies too....
Previous Movies Entry

10/28/06 uploading over the weekend :: A note about Chiller Theatre, Secaucus 2006

I write to you at rest in my hotel from another year's Chiller mania, wondering when the hell I'm gonna watch all my new DVDs, and preparing for a night at the Axis Halloween bash-best in New Jersey? We'll see. Anyway, here's a favorite link from their pages about one of their biggest fans. I remember seeing Johnny Ramone in line at one of the fests, just another fan digging through the heaving shelves of memorabilia and hanging out with the assorted freaks who find each other here every year. I haven't listened to rock music for awhile, and definitely not punk....but I admit that the happiness and lust for life that was in every song they ever hammered out-well, it would keep me going some days. I feel like I've grown older with Chiller, and as I see people dragging their spouses and whole families here, generations of movie buffs and fans like me keeping the spirit alive, I know I'm not alone. Knowing all those guys are dead, well, it does make me feel as old as I am. Long live Chiller!
And don't forget these guys, who I'm sad I missed this year. Hey Steve! Looking forward to the new issue and DVDs too.

PS - it's been slow with the blogging and web updates, because I just moved out of my mother's house after 7 years. Finally my own man! You know, I can't express my gratitude towards my family and their endless patience with me :) but I love my winter home, and I'm looking forward to lots of quiet nights of writing, making music, enjoying movies and making new friends. Maybe soon I'll have a social or strictly personal page here (I'm single, hint hint available women) but do expect news about music gigs in the winter, and info about production on a short film or two. More to come (like my Best and Beast of '06!)
Next Movies Entry
Previous Movies Entry

10/4/06 :: Report from CT Film Fest

Ah yes, another series of completely undiscovered and energetic filmmaking, for those who can stomach the pretentious dipwicks who flock to them (if I meet one more putz at these screenings mutter about going to LA to 'get into the biz', I'm going to go insane-what, NYC doesn't provide enough opportunities for you?). Some people here are actually nice, like some folks who are screening shorts at the Criterion on Saturday. You also have another night to see a film by another nice fella, Jim Bai, called Puzzlehead. Set in a near pseudo apocalyptic future, its about a shut in genius who builds a robot (that looks exactly like himself) that quickly tires of serving his masters every need. Rather intriguing and rife with layers, if laden with plot holes that belie Bai's tiny budget, Puzzlehead (yeah go ahead and Vivisimo it) recalls classics Eraserhead (duh) and Fight Club, though mr Bai said in Q& A he was having the most legal troubles with Spielberg's A.I.! Check it or another bizarre feature at a venue in the area.

9/22/06 :: The Real McCoy, with Pharaoh Sanders, Live at the Blue Note

It's not too late to check the reunion of some legendary players from John Coltrane's golden era lineups. Jazz doesn't get more old school than this, with some flights of whimsy that speak to the big heart of great music, hardly just jazz. What a treat following Dr John's exciting performance in downtown Stamford-he'll be playing the Blue Note soon. Oops, I just saw him for free....

9/10/06 :: The Good, the Bad, and the Dummy

Three items on this day of 9/11: Fall Nerd Activities, the war on journalism, and religious fanatics gone Wild!

The New Haven and Director's View Film Festivals seem to have gone kaput, or maybe they just merged into the Connecticut Film Festival. We'll be looking at that soon. And I already saw Halloween decorations up, which means this event is happening soon-buy your tickets now! But even better, tickets may still be available for the once in a lifetime tour of the Frank Zappa Family Band. I'm praying it wont be a Vegas dilution of the genius' music and worldview, although maybe I'm too cynical to believe it would naturally survive any Boomer marketing, packaging and nostalgia based bullshit. We will see.

China and Saudi Arabia aren't the only regions where freedom of speech is not government policy. Zimbabwe, of all places-heh-is on the warpath against those who dare to question authority. Whew! Thank goodness persecution of the media could never happen here! Not in the US of A! On 9/11!
Oh shit.....

And check the BoingBoing link above for my favorite stupid Internet story-the Flying Spaghetti Monster, deity of an anarchist/dadaist non-cult (dogma spoof?) in the tradition of the SubGenius. Needless to say, it has attracted the ire of fanatic, humorless, angry Jesus crispies like the responder in the link, who I think is related to the Jesus Marine asshole. This is the Information Age?

7/17/06 :: myMeetup

I've been attending the NYC Script Writers Group represented by meetup.com on a monthly basis for over a year now. It's been my outlet to find peers who understand what I do, not unlike the open mics for my music, and are always educational even when it hurts to find out how much I suck. Hosting my own group, The Fairfield County edition of the Screenwriters Meetup, is more of the same except more awkward. I learned that a. of every 92+ people who say IN WRITING they want the Screenwriters Group to exist, two will actually attend. b. Even the smallest gatherings require planning, which I can be good at if I remember to do it. And most importantly c. Selling a story/written piece verbally is the thing I suck most at. How can I sell appliances, home entertainment systems and antivirus software all day but I can't sell what truly matters to me? Why is the technique, the approach and the close any different? Well, if I do it again or merge with another more active group in the area, I want to make pitching-selling my art-a priority. I may post registered loglines here, or in the Writer section of this website, very soon.

7/17/06 :: The Amateurs, w Joe Pantoliano live in CT

Because "Joey Pants" asked me to....hey I love mr pantoliano, but I don't normally use the blog for movie reviews. Well, a little. Anyway, the comedy "The Aristocrats-er the Amateurs" got a preview at, where else, the Avon. Jeff Bridges stars as a smalltown fella who rallies his neighbors and friends to make a porno movie; Joe Pantoliano is the shmuck called simply Some Idiot, who becomes the writer-director. Really funny most of the time, with just the right mix of dirty, mean and warm/fuzzy. It did drag on a bit with WAY too much narration and exposition, apparently to make the "Adaptation" guys head explode. Anyway, the audience got a treat as mr Pantoliano answered questions about the movie, his career and the movie biz in general. He also discussed how the Sundance organization screwed the movie out of distribution, and urged everyone to blog about the movie. Well, here you are....
previous Movies entry

6/20/06 :: Being Girly for Freedom against Theocracy

Hey will this get me to the blog A-List? It's just that I'm real proud of this article, which profiles several Saudi and Arab women who are speaking out, or just chatting, in blogs. Of course, the male pecking order (why do you think they call it peck-ing? Anyway-)is outraged and determine to stop them, and having a lot less success than the Chinese. They dont have the leverage to bribe Google, Microsoft et al to help them stamp out websites they dont like, and that is a simply wonderful thing. Plus I like exotic and expressive women. There, I said it.
All enlightened brains Click here for information about circumventing national and other censorship on the net, and for lots more about science, social engineering and inventive thought!

6/11/06 :: the New Cultural Revolution

Can a movie change the world? Or a Book, or CD? I've always wondered about that. As "The DaVinci Code" and "An Inconvenient Truth" draw almost as much flack as ticket buyers, I have to think that a tide is about to crest in our culture-and a few powerful people who have a lot to lose from it want to crush it.
"DaVinci" has of course, via a stylish if unoriginal Hitchcockian espionage thriller, shook up public perception about the most important man in Western Culture, Jesus of Nazareth. Is it such a radical idea that he was an enlightened, heroic, and perfectly mortal MAN? Has no one figured out the Bible has had hundreds of editors-called popes, kings, scholars and rabbis? I am not in any way religious, but I am intrigued about the news that Judas, and even Mary Magedalene-among many others-may have written gospels and you can buy 'em at Amazon.com! Why are these major players in the story written out? Some of these popes were born a few centuries too early-they would have been naturals in Hollywood.
Likewise "Inconvenient" says nothing that hasn't been in books for years, but suddenly popular culture is buzzing. Is global warming a threat? Disregarding the scientific arguments for right now, I think people in general want to believe. Like religion, where people find a sick comfort in apocalyptic redemption, people hope that the destructive effects of pollution will wreck the inefficient, backward, soul crushing societal systems all around us and enact a fresh start. I've written here about the benefits of bicycling, but really-if you live with a long, or mountainous, or snowy commute, what kind of answer is bike commuting? Who takes a bus in the rain or extreme heat or cold of, say, New England to an office job (the point of which is to be able to afford stuff like, er, a car)? Now here's a logical math problem for y'all-
According to the movie's official flyer, a car produces a pound of carbon dioxide per mile, or a ton every 2000 miles. Also, a tree consumes that ton over it's lifetime, which can be 100 years or more. They recommend you plant a tree-for every 2000 miles you drive? Check your speedometer-how many trees have you created food for? Don't forget the cars you may have driven to death. Should I be harvesting acorns at my next rural trail outing? Are you seeing how silly this piece of advice is?
My point, as I get banned from my next job for expressing opinions on my own website, is that culture has never been just about entertainment. "Passion of the Christ" helped bring about the born-again majority cult(ure) we have to currently live in. "A Clockwork Orange" and "Taxi Driver" created violence in their wake (and the roots of punk rock culture) that frightened even their creators. I know this all recalls how people used to talk in the sixties. Maybe it's time we got up and made another Cultural Revolution before religion or pollution or our own appliances gets the better of us?
Previous Social Engineering entry

6/2/06 :: New Look for the Site _ Arts and Ideas NH

The front of my website has a new look, with a cleaner modernist layout, fast easy access to my different areas, and less plugins to mess with any non-compliant visitors. Well, of course you need Flash and Javascript-everyone does! You just have options depending on your security comfort zone. Do you like it? Still need to check in Firefox and Opera and Safari andandand....
Now is the time to visit New Haven for the annual Arts & Ideas Fest. Reports to come, especially for the Sunday Bike Tours and Classical showcases. See you there.

5/3/06 (updated 5/4):: Tribeca Film Festival '06,

Attended Thursday April 27th and Monday May Day. What I could catch:
Day 1
The Play, by Pelin Esmer: a spirited and very fun doc, filmed in remote Turkey about peasant women who agree to participate in an original stage play about their lives. Under the watchful eye of a local playwright and director, they pour their hearts out on stage, coming clean about generations of abuse by Muslim sexism and rural poverty, and flower as people and women unexpectedly. And yes, diva attitudes do sprout in the small-town production as the whole community quickly rallies around their production. Think "Waiting for Guffman" as a true-life feminist piece. Served with a short, the glorified home movie "I'm Charlie Chaplin".
My highlights from the shorts program Private Property: "Interview" by Boyoung Lee is a piece about the horrors of job interviewing, including heatwave induced hallucinations and a fun dish of cold revenge! "Obreras Saliendo de la Fabrica", or Women Workers Leaving the Factory, is a documentary-style, dialogue-free slice of life in and around a mill in Santiago, Chile. Beautifully done and very heartfelt. "Dilemma" by Boris Conen of Holland, portrays a jogger who falls into a time-warp where he has to take control over a fatal truck crash. The question he is left to answer: Fatal to who? And speaking of death, "Dead End Job" portrays an obituary writer who takes her job home one too many times-actually, Carl Hiaasen wrote about such a situation in "Basket Case". Still, a lovable and funny piece. Q 'n A afterwards by DEJ director Samantha Green; Domenica Cameron-Scorsese (friend of yours, maestro Marty?) director of the slight and obtuse "Spanish Boots"; and Luke Hutton, director of "Shelter" which played like a Reader's Digest version of "Crash".
Next! My highlights from the shorts program Something for Nothing: "Hayelet Bodeda (The Substitute)" by Talya Lavie, and "Recalled" by Michael Connors, about life and death in respectively Israeli and USA militaries. "The Projectionist", by Elaine Lu, is an improbable-and therefore, probably true-stunning and disturbing look at a rural Maoist gathering in 60s China, and what happens when a stressful week gets the best of a traveling projectionist. And "After June" by Mike Civille, is a look at three seemingly normal guys moving a couch out of a friends apartment, and the facade of normalcy subtly being exposed by nastier truths. Q 'n A afterwards by Lavie, Connors, Lu, Malona Voigt (of the dramatic piece "Chicxulub")and Austin Andrews, director of the wacky Aussie piece "Kite Circuit".
Day 2
(Dis)Location by the Sea, featuring two half hour pieces. Ken Kobland documents an idyllic Italian seaside world in "Ideas of Order in Cinque Terre". And Bill Morrison assembles beautiful footage of floods and rogue icebergs from the 1920s, setting them to the apocalyptic sounds of Trio Medieval in "The Highwater Trilogy".
At the Museum of Jewish History, right in full view of Mademoiselle Liberty, a restored print of Rossellini's "The Flowers of St Francis" was preceded by my favorite piece of the event, "My Dad is 100 Years Old". Daughter Isabella reunited with Guy Maddin (her director on "The Saddest Music in the World", who personally introduced the piece), wrote the 17 minute script, and plays herself, her mama Ingrid Bergman (a stunning resemblance!), and her father's peers and rivals: David O Selznick, Charlie Chaplin, Fellini and Alfred Hitchcock! Most bizarrely of all, Roberto Rossellini is seen throughout the movie as a talking pot belly and throbbing brain-per Isabella's memory of playing on said chub as a little girl, and of his tumultuous creative spells which would give him migraines. Mr Maddin's dreamy visual swirl throughout evokes, well, "Blue Velvet", while using clips of "Open City" to powerful effect. Isabella laments at one point that her father's films are fading from culture's memory...and sadly, the feature that follows does little to excite fervor in this viewer for a revival. Rossellini's no-frills style of filmmaking has influenced everyone from Bergman to Jarmusch to the Dogme 95 guys, but the paisano next door cast (actual monks, apparently) left me frustrated. It just became tiring to try and read the opaque faces of the cast. And Francis and his band of jolly religious fanatics, for me, were more than a little hard to relate to. Keep trying, Isabella. Maybe a Criterion DVD of "Open City" would help?
And last but far from least, Animation New York! Who doesn't love the animation shorts? Every one was a hit, so just to pick a few: "Backbrace" animates collaged photos and art to tell the tale of the author's humiliating bout with scoliosis as a teen. "Bathtime at Clerkenwell" is basically a music video for The Real Tuesday Weld, painted in stark monochromes but overflowing with mischevious birds that run amok in some flats in London to a digitally juiced up swing beat. "She She She She's a Bombshell" is a very cool piece involving a spontaneous rant by an obnoxious, slightly horny teen at the expense of his friends. My favorite piece, "Sita" by Nina Paley recounts a tale of unrequieted love from the Bhagavad Gita, but instead of the usual sitars and tablas (at least until the end credits), its set to Bessie Smith's lusty epic "Moanin' Low"! "Bar Fight" by Karacas and Warbrick is a white trash brawl juiced up to galactic extremes of gore and violence, and "Life in Transition" by John Dilworth is an exquisitely drawn psychedelic nightmare. The show's organizer was animation legend Bill Plympton, who debuted his latest "Guide Dog", a typically frenetic, evocatively drawn and just hilarious tale of the world's least competent-and most enthusiastic-guide dog. Love it! Q 'n A revealed by a show of hands just a few other animators, but I felt in good company last night anyway.
Stuff I regret I missed: "Kill Gil Vol 1", another Rossellini family epic, features brother Gil who was left wheelchair bound after a rare illness, and his spontaneity and joie de vivre from the confines of his chair. What a cool family! Also, "The TV Set" stars David Duchovny of my fave 90s show "The X-Files", playing-natch-a hapless TV writer! Sounds awful close to home from here. And finally this event, which already got the Hero rating from www.fark.com. Certainly Mr Soderbergh is going right off the A-list for daring to insinuate movie stars are overpaid, budgets are out of control(why are CEOs and lawyers, who generally work much harder for fewer millions, always the source of evil in the world but not Hollywood's elite?) and advertising has no place in a theater, but his business plan for Hollywood could only be good for America's last industry. I like the idea of more support for movie theaters, which means better opportunities for small movies to play large (public) screens outside of huge cities.
The event is not over yet, so visit the festival website if you feel motivated to visit the city and check out one of the pieces here. Or feel free to websearch any name or title and visit their websites, watch their short pieces, leave feedback and encouragement. As for me, I'm exhausted. When's the next festival start?
next Movies entry
previous Movies entry

3/23/06 :: A Progressive guide to Web searching

Just a quick one about something that's been bothering me lately. Google, Yahoo and Microsoft: The online axis of evil and their Fifth columnist, absolutely cowardly and despicable rolling over act for the government of China. Bill Gates deserves points for initially showing no remorse and no shame for his allowing China to police and censor the internet and jail anyone with a dissenting opinion-he is now doing what he does best which is ride popular opinion to glory and more money. Google meanwhile, whining that they only follow orders and comply with international laws, deserves some scorn in my book after reading the Time article in February. Their campus in sunny, stupid California where gourmet lunches, massages and pets in the office are de rigeur for every employee - and the Redmond Microsoft campus is apparently no different - reminded me of the royal palaces of the corrupt Tsarist or French governments, with the new effete royals scooting around on Segways instead of white ponies. And in America, our royals are appointed instead of born into royalty-I hate to honor the old ruses about 'hard work' and 'dedication'. Know any really successful people who are hard working and faithful? Lucky or criminal is more to the point in my experience.
Anyway, here's some resources for getting around the internet that haven't been taken over by greedy billionaires and the ruling class just yet:
Vivisimo! Some things that are cool about this search engine: it does all the big engines simultaneously (Open Directory, MSN, Lycos, Yahoo etc), plus it has the ultracool Clustering style that splits your search up by subject. EX you search Oracle, and it categorizes Greek Mythology, Database Technology, on and on. They used to have a right-click search function like Google, don't think it works anymore. Find the link to Clusty for searching pics, job sites, blogs, shopping etc etc.
Avant Browser is a web browser that offers searches based on the web page you're on. How bad is that?! And the popup, ad and script blockers whup IE and even Firefox.
Looking for work? Indeed saves massive amounts of time searching Monster, Dice, CareerBuilder, the JobBank and many local jobsites simultaneously, and by area and recent jobs.
Next Social Engineering entry

3/23/06 :: My demo CD is available now!

The shows page on my site will have the mp3s for online listening. And have I mentioned I'm available for gigs? Like this one here, which I may or may not be accepted for. I only hope and wish for a chance to be heard, so show the support.
Mario's Music homepage
previous Mario's Music entry

3/7/06 :: New and Old

I am starting recording in my new studio, hoping to have a demo of 4 or 5 jazzy pieces out to cafes, street fests and whoever all across the tri-state. I would like to get my Shows page to actually read something after all these years. If you are interested in a copy of the disc, contact me please.
Regarding my last entry, it seems even I underestimated the downhill divas. And I love this woman! Oh well, spring is almost on us, which means time for more triathletic activities.
next Mario's Music entry

2/24/06 :: Winter Competitions

First the Super Bowl, now the Olympics. Also, every awards fantasy/circle jerk from the Grammys to the climactic Oscars. The cabin fever of winter seems to bring forth alpha urges, or just plain rage, in all of us. I admit though, I enjoy it. Especially the Olympics, which has brought my life to a standstill for almost two weeks now. Some things I have learned this winter:
* The right nominees never, ever win; the most popular do. At least we will always have the Fifth Nominee-you know, the one that's there just to lose. Like Palestine in the Summer Olympics. And the competition for even that is tight. Cronenberg, at least the Fifth Nominee for directing? "The Aristocrats" or "Grizzly Man" for documentary? Right, when owls vote.
* Snowboarding isn't so bad after all. When your boots fit. Curling, however, is the stupidest sport ever played.
* Skiing, like triathlons, bowling and sex, while a rush to participate in, is not a rush to watch on TV (excepting the Divas of Downhill, aka women's ski Team USA. I never saw athletes have so much fun losing). Also, 420 while great for creative juices, is bad for your athletic game. Right, Bode?
* If you want a gorgeous woman, be a dancer. Or maybe an ice dancer. Unless you're Italian. (Well, we don't need that much help anyway ;) )
* and one rule of life that has been clearly gleaned this winter: When the commercials are more interesting than the program, it's time to change the channel.