Thinking Chaos, Thinking Fences

22 October 2002

Henry has Sold Out! My brother's always been a big fan of Henry Rollins. I've always enjoyed his spoken-word work. He's a kind of 'stand-up poet' (thank you, slashdot) and Renaissance man. He's got his own publishing company, he's a musician, he acts, he's made completely of muscle despite being over forty. I saw him do a spoken word show and he talked non-stop for, like, two and a half hours. Suffice to say, he's hardcore. Unfortunately, he's recently agreed to become the host of a show on The Learning Channel called Full Metal Challenge. Sure, it's an expanded version of the seminal British show Scrapheap Challenge, but it's still a television presenter job. Henry, man, what are you doing? 11:24:58 PM    comment []

Powered by Sugar Those pesky scientists, always getting up to something clever. Apparently scientists in the UK are developing a battery that runs on food scraps. They claim to be able to run "a 40-watt bulb for eight hours on about 50 grams of sugar." Save your leftovers, people. When the oil runs out and the anarchy reigns, we'll use them to microwave the giant rats we catch. Just kidding about that last bit. Still, it's a brilliant idea. About the food scraps I mean.  11:20:04 PM    comment []

Reviewed Five Ways: All or Nothing Last weekend I saw Mike Leigh's new film, All or Nothing and that Bond-for-a-Pepsi-Generation stunt-fest XXX. The latter is not worth discussing (with the exception, perhaps, of the hotness that is Asia Argento), but here is the former reviewed five ways: Mike Leigh's films are hard to watch. They're populated by desperate, often unappealing characters stuck in tragically dull lives. When good things happen to them, we are relieved. When bad things happen to them, we are also relieved. 2) Timothy Spall and Mike Leigh go together like Toshiro Mifune and Akira Kurosawa. Spall's preternatural patheticness makes him the perfect fit for the sad, tiny worlds that Leigh constructs. Mike Leigh and his actors spend months shaping characters before he begins filming. So, it's not surprising that his films seem so natural. They're like watching a documentary, but entirely forgetting about the camera. There's a minor lesson for filmmakers in Mike Leigh's All of Nothing. Subplots--don't discard them like yesterday's undies. One of my few complaints about the film is that we become interested in secondary characters just as they are dispensed with. Sure, the main plot needs all the inertia it can get, but spare a little screen time to address (if not wrap up) the secondary plotlines. I remember watching Leigh's Secrets and Lies and just suffering through that lengthy, climactic emotional scene. I remembered that about two-thirds of the way through All or Nothing, and wasn't surprised to be shifting uneasily in my seat when a similar scene occurred. 11:16:39 PM    comment []