LOU O' BEDLAM

Photo

Mon, 21 May 2012 20:07:17 -0700

Battleship (2012) I went in (drunk) expecting a silly movie with...

Sun, 20 May 2012 19:52:00 -0700

Battleship (2012)

I went in (drunk) expecting a silly movie with explosions.

I came out with a belly full of rage.

This feels like a movie written by executives and PR folk. ”Make sure you put this in there, and make sure there’s this other thing that’s good for the boys in Marketing!”

I’ll say this: Director Peter Berg? Bravo for doing such a splendid job copying Transformers. I didn’t think anyone could make as awful a movie in quite the same way, but you nailed it!

And I like Peter Berg. I love Very Bad Things, Friday Night Lights, his short-lived tv show Wonderland. Hell, even the Rundown was a treat. Kingdom? Decent, surprisingly decent!

But this? This is why people hate summer blockbusters. This is everything movie critics complain about. Hell this is what movie audiences complain about. There’s no soul to this movie. It’s a bunch of bland actors (and Rhianna) running around tossing worthless dialogue in-between well-rendered explosions.

They even went and got a stock blonde supermodel for the Love Interest. Let’s put it this way: the guy they hired to just have no legs and be miserable? The guy who delivers his lines like he fails Voight Kampff tests for fun? That guy did a better job than the Love Interest.

But let’s go deeper. From the Wikipedia entry:

Some elements from the Battleship board game were integrated into the film:

The alien ships’ missiles are shaped like the pegs from the board game and “sink” into the ship.
The alien force field corresponds to the barrier between the sides of the board version of the game.
The buoys form a grid similar to the board game’s layout.
The sailors use the hit or miss guessing method from the game.
The aliens have five ships to start with, just like the game.

Such attention to detail! Such attention to everything but making a good film by writing an interesting script and filling the movie with characters worth giving a fuck about.

Don’t get me started on their use of Naval veterans. Despicable.

This movie is despicable. This movie is created solely to make money. Not to entertain, or enlighten, not to educate or even distract. This is a giant business deal given celluloid flesh. A golem, with Hebrew writing on its forehead that roughly translates as “MAKE MONEY MACHINE”.

So, yeah, don’t see it, is what I’m saying. Please. SHOW THEM WE WILL NOT BE FOOLED. DO NOT LET MY TIME SACRIFICE BE IN VAIN.

Though…I DO want to play Battleship, now. Oh…OH, OH YOU BASTARDS.

Bill Murray & Wes Anderson (at Cannes) by Andrew H....

Fri, 18 May 2012 10:40:00 -0700

Bill Murray & Wes Anderson (at Cannes) by Andrew H. Walker(Getty Images)

What we have here are two different, excellent uses of fame.

Wes: I have achieved success and acclaim! I can wear expensive suits!

Bill: I have achieved success and acclaim. I CAN WEAR WHATEVER I WANT. I CAN HOLD HANDS WITH MY DIRECTOR. I CAN SHOW AFFECTION AND/OR SCORN AS I SEE FIT. I AM BEYOND THAT WHICH CONCERNS THE REST OF YOU, THAT WHICH PLAGUES YOUR DREAMS AND CONSUMES YOUR EVERY WAKING HOUR. TIME IS BUT A WINDOW. DEATH IS BUT A DOOR.

BILL MURRAY IS.

I actually exclaimed “oh shit” when I saw this link...

Fri, 18 May 2012 09:47:37 -0700

I actually exclaimed “oh shit” when I saw this link a few minutes ago.

This is now my favorite thing on the internet, because it addresses something that’s been rattling around in my thoughts for months.

How do we regain focus while surfing the web, how do we create a situation where we’re not inundated by more and more and more Stuff. Always new posts, always scrolling, clicking, always on to the next.

I read in Wired about the End of the Web some months back, how apps were taking over. Sounded like balderdash.

But now…I don’t know if I believe it, but I like it. I like going to a place and seeing a thing. Not a cascading waterfall of things that never ends, that asks me to look at something and then another something and then another something, whittling away at my concentration, at the time I spend with any one thing.

I want to look at one photo at a time, influenced not at all by the one above or the one below.

I want to read a single article without being distracted by something an algorithm think I might also enjoy.

I want the entire internet to operate in Zen Mode.

Bravo, Nieman Labs.

Walking backwards while she’s skating forwards....

Fri, 18 May 2012 07:47:00 -0700

Walking backwards while she’s skating forwards. Refocusing again and again as she’s closing the distance between us. Having a conversation. Trying not to be blinded by the sun behind her. Stepping carefully, so as not to trip. Missing my cameras that are currently in a small repair shop in Santa Monica (where they are being returned to their former glory), because I am seeing the shots I could take with them, and rue those shots that shall never exist. Radiating awareness of any movement behind me, hoping I can fake radar sense well enough to not get hit by a car coming around the corner. Watching for any patches of sun on her face, at which point I’ll stop taking shots long enough for the light to move again.

Neither of us are completely comfortable in the streets, it’s a gated neighborhood but I’ve never been there before and she’s rarely made such a spectacle of herself in and around her home. It creates a vague unease that makes of us co-conspirators. Makes things more fun for being awkward. Scared of freaking out the norms.

Enjoying freaking out the norms.

Which is to say, there’s enough going on. There’s no sense of treading old ground, no feeling that I’m taking the same shots of Jenny I’ve taken before. We’ve sidestepped that danger by both of us stepping just far enough away from our comfort zones. I get too settled in a shoot, I get lazy. But here there’s enough balls being juggled, keeps me focused, keeps me engaged, keeps me having a damn fine time.

Andre 3000 - Spread This is what I expected from the whole...

Thu, 17 May 2012 19:38:00 -0700

Andre 3000 - Spread

This is what I expected from the whole album, genre beyond description, clever and catchy and aurally humid.

I’m listening to The Love Below, skipping some tracks, replaying several, wondering where he is, hoping he’s listened to this album a lot since making it. He waited a year or two, then sat down and threw it on, saw where he’d gone too far, saw roads he avoided that he should’ve run down.

My dream is that he is working on something focused, transformational, his definitive statement.

My nightmare is that he is working on a sequel to Idlewilde.

Photo

Thu, 17 May 2012 14:01:28 -0700

Photo

Wed, 16 May 2012 07:17:04 -0700

Photo

Tue, 15 May 2012 10:00:39 -0700

Photo

Mon, 14 May 2012 08:23:00 -0700

Photo

Sat, 12 May 2012 20:40:08 -0700

Photo

Thu, 10 May 2012 18:46:56 -0700

Photo

Thu, 10 May 2012 16:58:44 -0700

Photo

Thu, 10 May 2012 09:02:46 -0700

Photo

Mon, 07 May 2012 19:25:52 -0700

life: Contrary to what some consumers, amateur photographers...

Mon, 07 May 2012 08:15:47 -0700

life:

Contrary to what some consumers, amateur photographers and even die-hard techies might assume, instant photography has been around a lot longer than the digital camera and the iPhone. In fact, it’s been around for more than six decades, ever since the scientist, visionary and Polaroid co-founder Edwin H. Land introduced his first “Land Camera” way back in 1947.

Here, on Edwin Land’s birthday (he was born May 7, 1909, in Bridgeport Conn.), and a full 40 years after the SX-70 was introduced, LIFE.com pays tribute to Land’s vision and his determination to, as he once put it, “provide an opportunity for creativity that other photography doesn’t allow.”

Also in the gallery are pictures made with the SX-70 by LIFE photographer Co Rentmeester, who experimented with the camera while shooting the cover story on Land for the October 27, 1972, issue of the magazine.

Photo

Fri, 04 May 2012 17:40:59 -0700

Photo

Wed, 02 May 2012 08:55:31 -0700

rollogrady: Advice on moving to Los Angeles - ByDerek...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:34:00 -0700

rollogrady:

Advice on moving to Los Angeles - ByDerek Sivers

2012-04-24

Someone moving to Los Angeles asked my advice. Here it is:

I lived in LA from 2002 to 2009 and loved it. There are a few things to understand:

It’s not really a city. Not long ago, it was just a bunch of small towns: Venice, Pasadena, Burbank, Encino, Beverly Hills - but then for tax reasons they drew a circle around about 30 small towns and decided to call it Los Angeles. So if you go just understanding it’s a bunch of adjacent towns, each quite different in character, and don’t go expecting a city, then it won’t be so frustrating. When someone says they hate LA, you have to ask, “Which neighborhood?” Because Santa Monica is not like Silverlake is not like Van Nuys is not like Hollywood, but they’re all inside that circle called LA. It’s completely de-centralized. (And “downtown” is just another neighborhood. Most people never go there.)

Americans are already quite individualist, but Los Angeles is the most individualist part of America. Because so many people are employed by the entertainment industry, most people are self-employed freelancers. They’re very focused on themselves. People talk about themselves a lot because they feel they have to, for survival, for self-promotion.Just as you can’t fault anyone in the world for doing something for survival, try not to fault them for being so self-promotional. Learn to lovingly listen like you’d listen to an 8-year-old who excitedly tells you about their train set for an hour.

You know you need a car, but you also need to use it to go exploring, the way you’d randomly choose to go on a walk in London to an area you don’t walk much, just turning down streets that interest you. Do this in your car, and stop and get out in different places that seem interesting. Most of the best parts of LA are on little side-streets you’d never run across. Avoid the highways and take the backroads, for this reason. (Get GPS so you can always do this fearlessly.) Find Little Tokyo, Topanga Canyon, Eagle Rock, etc.

Get into nature often. Go hiking up in the hills. Go hiking in Will Rogers State Park in Pacfic Palisades, the beach in Malibu. East to Palm Springs, etc. It’s all so close.

Every culture values different things. In some places, it’s your bloodline. In others, your university. In others, it’s where you live. In LA, it’s who you know. Since the entertainment industry is all about short-term projects, everyone survives by their next project, and these projects always come from a connection. So everyone is collecting contacts. (Again: it’s survival.) Friendships are pragmatic and often short. Don’t fault them for talking about who they know, the same way you wouldn’t fault someone from India asking about your family. Introducing people to each other, people who could potentially work together, is the most valuable thing you can do, as it raises your value and theirs. LA people want (NEED!) to have powerful well-connected friends, to survive and thrive.

Not just LA but California is the most optimistic place on earth. The side-effects of this can confuse outsiders. When you say, “Will you come to my event?” or, “Want to help with this project?” - they will almost always say yes, full of enthusiasm, and actually 100% sincere, fully intending to be there, to help, whatever. They honestly and optimistically think that they will be there and do it. They have the best of intentions. But when it actually comes to that time, and they’ve optimistically said “yes!” to a dozen other things too, or perhaps they’re just nestled in the comfort of their California home, then… well… they reluctantly “flake” - and won’t follow through. Don’t get bitter and write them off as fake, or backstabbers. Just understand that it’s a side-effect of sincere optimism, and adjust your expectations accordingly.

As with any place, if you really want to experience it, don’t just sneer and condemn it, dive in and live it like a local. (Everyone is from somewhere else anyway, so you’re just as local as they are, now.) Drive around the different neighborhoods. Be totally optimistic. Aim to meet as many people as possible, and get something out of your short-lived friendships. Introduce them to each other. Have lots and lots of lunches, and enjoy the conversations. Go to the beach and hike in the hills.

It may feel fake, but faking it is fine. (Kurt Vonnegut wrote, “You are whatever you pretend to be.”) If you throw yourself into it whole-heartedly for a while, you’ll learn something useful from it, and have it as a great life experience, as you go back to whatever culture feels a better fit for the real you.

I have never been much of a joiner. Never been one for associating with teams, or institutions. I claim Judaism when I feel like it, black when I feel like it, but deep down, I find myself self-identifying as either reductive.

I am not a fan of labeling myself.

But I am a Los Angeles native. I am more that than anything else, perhaps. I know this place better than I know anything, maybe. Better than I know myself.

And as such, fuck this list.

Not the people who wrote it, or the people who like it. I’ve no information on those people.

The list, though? Fuck it to death with bile-filled rage.

LA is not really a city, it’s a collection of towns.

Okay, sure. Either that, or it is a Different Kind of City from those you may be familiar with, but I’ve no real problem with this perspective.

“talk about themselves a lot because they feel they have to, for survival, for self-promotion”

Here is where my mouth fills with vomit. In the future, when writing about Los Angeles, I’d really appreciate it, as a life-long resident of Los Angeles, if you didn’t use a sentence like that, a sentence WHICH DESCRIBES A LARGE MAJORITY OF PEOPLE, not just LA residents, but people in general, to describe LA specifically. It comes off, well, beyond being ignorant and stereotypical, as quite stupid. It’s referring to those in the entertainment industry, but wow, that’s not LA. In fact, using this descriptor in regards to the totality of LA right after the paragraph where LA is described as many places sharing a common name, when, at best, it’s descriptive of a segment of the folks involved in the entertainment industry…the lack of self-awareness in this segment is disappointing, let’s just say that.

Avoid the highways and take the backroads.

This actually makes sense. This one’s fine. Although, “backroads” doesn’t really mean here what it means in other places. City streets, that’s more apt. We have freeways and city streets. Best to get the lingo down if you’re gonna live here.

In LA, it’s who you know.

Yeah…go fuck yourself. And I direct that at the article, not the writer. The writer is, I’m sure, a human being with feelings and the best of intentions and a mother who loves them very much. Mothers are awesome, and we all deserve love. Everyone except neo-nazis.

That said, once again, this has the smell of something that is perhaps apt if you’re in the entertainment industry. But as LA is, as both I and the article itself have stated, a multi-faceted thing, filled with far more than the stereotypes that new residents’ minds are filled to bursting with.

This is really just a reiteration of the “people talk about themselves…” point, which was also filled with donkey shit.

I feel like lots of swearing tonight.

“California is the most optimistic place on earth.”

Sigh. This is their attempt to explain Flaking. Flaking, which I have seen occur in many parts of this lovely and extremely fucked up country. California has not cornered the market on flaking. If you are worried about flaking, surround yourself with people who do what they say when they say. Or understand that, in many parts of the world/country/state/city, people cancel plans. Things do not go as intended. The center does not hold.

There’s more in this piece, but those are the big ones. Keep the advice about the roads, trash the rest. You want advice about living in LA, email me, we’ll kibbitz, I’ll lay it all out for you.

This here? This article has but a cursory understanding of the city, smells like it was typed up on an East Coast keyboard, and sounds like something written less to be helpful, and more to guard someone against wounds that, perhaps, the writer themselves received.

Also, talk shit about my city like this to my face, even if you couch it in “oh, this is just helpful stuff to know, LA is great, but yeah, it’s shallow and crowded and, yeah, pretty much everything folks in New York think about LA is true, but there’s a silver lining,” and I will gut you like a rainbow trout.

Well, first I will endeavor to learn how to gut fish, as I’m simple city folk and really haven’t the slightest idea how to do something like that. I really don’t cook all that much (ever), so…I mean, I’m sure I could figure it out, how hard can it be, right?

But seriously. Horrible things. Horrible things I will learn how to do so I can do them to you.

Photo

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:33:12 -0700