Funeral Parade of Roses
dir. Toshio Matsumoto
1969

Toshio Matsumoto's Funeral Parade of Roses is a gender-bending retelling of a classic Greek myth mixed with psychedelic meta-filmic metaphor.

Matsumoto occasionally breaks the fourth wall and disrupts the already nonlinear narative to interview the actors about their on-camera and real-world roles as drag queens and druggies.

I'd bet money that Stanley Kubrick saw this film while he was developing A Clockwork Orange because the use of frantic cheesy music over sped-up action is just too perfect to be coincidental.

Even after 35+ years, Funeral Parade of Roses is still avant-garde and very shocking. It will forever be etched into my memory as "the film with a rose sticking out of the butt of a man in a bare-assed lineup."

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Current Music: Mer de Noms by A Perfect Circle

Lost
Season One

I'm a bit allegic to hype, so when the hype machine kicked into high gear in the weeks before the series premiere of Lost, I'd pretty much decided that I'd avoid the show at all costs. I'd change the channel or the radio station whenever I saw or heard promotion for the show throughout the first season.

After the season finale, however, my friends started asking me if I saw it. They all told me how great the show is and how they couldn't wait for the next season. Now I don't believe hype, but I do believe my friends, so I figured I've give the show a chance if the opportunity arose.

Then, on Tuesday, Sam brought home the Season One DVDs that her boss lent her. We popped in the first disc over dinner and I was immediately hooked.

A day later, just a few minutes ago, I finished the entire first season and all I can say is "WOW!"

The show is so well written. Among the amazing writers is Paul Dini, who is the story editor for the series and co-writer of episode seven, "The Moth" (one of my favorites). As far as I can tell, Lost marks the live-action debut of Paul Dini, who has made a career of writing for animated TV shows, dating all the way back to Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids and including some of my all-time favorite animated shows like Tiny Toon Adventures and Batman: The Animated Series.

The best part about holding out to watch Lost until now is that I only have to wait a week for Season Two to start (Wednesday Sept. 21, 2005).

4 8 15 16 23 42

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Currently listening to: Forty Licks by The Rolling Stones

The Simpsons
Season Six

Season Six features some of my all time favorite episodes of the The Simpsons:

Bart of Darkness
Itchy And Scratchy Land
Tree House of Horror V
Homer the Great
Homie the Clown
Bart vs. Australia
Two Dozen and One Greyhounds
Who Shot Mr. Burns? (Part 1)

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Current Mood: :]
Currently listening to: I Am The Messiah by MC Honky

My Sassy Girl
엽기적인 그녀
dir. Jae-young Kwak
2001

I'm not really a fan of romantic comedies, but My Sassy Girl is as hilarious as it is cute.

Speaking of cute, Ji-hyun Jun is adorable as the hot-headed easily-intoxicated alpha-female title character.

[watched with Sam, Lisa DelVillar, Angela & Randy]

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Current Mood: :wave:
Currently listening to: Rubber Factory by The Black Keys

Batman: The Animated Series
Volume One

I used to watch Batman: The Animated Series everyday after school while doing my 8th Grade Algebra homework. It became such a ritual that my brain now associates Math with Batman and vice versa. I can't even do simple math problems without Danny Elfman's Batman Theme getting stuck in my head.

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Currently listening to: Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes by TV on the Radio

My Neighbors The Yamadas
ホーホケキョとなりの山田くん
(Houhokekyo Tonari no Yamada-kun)
dir. Isao Takahata

On Friday night Régis Camargo, Donna Segal and Matt Flynn came over to watch Mind Game. Tonight James Suhr joined the same group at my place to watch My Neighbors The Yamadas.

I first saw a downloaded version of My Neighbors The Yamadas several years ago and I was blown away by how such simple animation could be so emotional expressive.

Then I saw it on the big screen last year along with several other films directed by Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Pom Poko and Only Yesterday) as part of an academic symposium on "Animation and the Contemporary Japanese Imagination" sponsored by Studio Ghibli and USC's Annenberg Center for Communication. Those were two amazing days last year. I got to ask Takahata a question during the Q&A session, hear him give a lecture on Japanese scrolls, and I got Takahata's autograph on my Grave of the Fireflies DVD.

And these last two nights have also been amazing. Sam is in Las Vegas this weekend so it was great to hang out with my Animation friends, having dinner and watching anime. Maybe it'll become a regular thing.

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Currently listening to: Phrenology by The Roots

Da Ali G Show
Season One

Booyakasha!!!

Season One of the American version of Da Ali G Show is hilarious (though Season Two is even funnier)

Sacha Baron Cohen is such a great chameleon that if he wasn't so freakishly tall * and his characters weren't so well, freakish, he'd be able to interact we the same people in rapid succession as Ali G, Borat and Brüno without anyone realizing that they are all really the same person.

At least that's what I used to think. After listening to the audio commentary on the first episode of Season One I discovered that part of the reason his transformation into each character is so complete is that he doesn't use wigs or fake mustaches or anything. Cohen pretty much lives (at least in appearance) as each character for long periods of time as they shoot all the segments featuring that character. Then production stops until he can grow the necessary hair / facial hair combo before they can resume shooting again as the new character. I've personally had Ali G's goatee and Brüno's faux-hawk, but I can't image walking around with Borat's fro and mustache.

* OK Cohen's not that freakishly tall... he's the same height as me: 6'3"

Other ALI G posts:
Da Ali G Show - Season Two
Ali G Indahouse

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Current Mood: D
Currently listening to: Simple Things by Zero 7

Complete Denis Leary

No Cure For Cancer

It's debatable whether or not Denis Leary straight-up stole Bill Hicks' pissed-off, chain-smoking on-stage persona, but it's very hard to deny that Denis Leary at least "borrowed" many of Bill Hicks' routines. A casual comparison between Bill Hicks debut concert film Sane Man (1989) and Denis Leary's debut concert film No Cure for Cancer (1992) reveals striking similarities, including jokes about John Lennon, Jim Fixx, cigarettes and drugs. In fact, both films end with the comics pantomiming death.

Now I'm not going to go so far as to call Denis Leary a "thief." I happen to like Leary a lot. But I love Bill Hicks even more. Hicks' comedy is much closer to social commentary than Leary's.

Still, Leary is undeniably funny. He has plenty of his own hilarious material and he took the "asshole" persona to another level.

Sealab 2021 is so poorly animated that, as an animator, I'm supposed to hate it. But it's so goddamn funny that I love it.

For me, good writing trumps bad production values everytime. The writing in Season Three isn't nearly as funny as the previous seasons, but it's still hilarious.

There's a great special feature on the DVD called "Stormy Waters: Pundit" where Sealab's resident retard breaks character and gives highly insightful commentary on American politics.

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Currently listening to: Son by Jeff Hanson

Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex

攻殻機動隊 STAND ALONE COMPLEX 1st GIG

Yet another kick-ass anime series that I downloaded first, and then waited patiently to buy each (Special Edition) volume of the DVDs as they were slowly released every few months, rewatching the episodes over and over until the end.

This is how I've built up my anime DVD Collection over the years.