Dance the night away!

exactly 2 months til my bday (also shared with Davy Crockett and Sean Penn)

I went to see "Batman Begins" last night with Zach after we hung out in Maura's back yard with Matt Holmes, Katie and Maura. I got to hear about the book Matt wrote about carnie life (an allegory he said), which is fiction, but after he wrote it, he actually lived in Australia and traveled with a carnival! He has one of those lives on par with Quentin Tarantino or William S. Burroughs...he's always doing something interesting or quirky or eccentric that make the best stories, but then you realize that's his life! On the way to drop him off, Matt was talking about the contrast between working as a fisherman in Alaska and his current job, fixing railroad cars in a totally unionized atmosphere. If you spit on a railroad worker or talk shit to him, he wouldn't do anything at that moment; he'd wait for a union meeting and then talk about it there. If you spit on a fisherman, Matt said, he'd "cut your balls off." Yikes! Makes sense, though, the isolation and severe sense of autonomy that comes with that lifestyle. I can't wait to read his book about carnies since he needs another pair of eyes before he sends it off to publishers. I hope he still lets me read it since I was throwing around some pretty heavy comments about Hemingway in the car, and both Zach and Matt were like, we like Hemingway. Whatevs, I do too, in a way, on paper. Some of his stuff, probably "A Moveable Feast" and not bc I just read it when I was in Paris but bc it actually is Hemingway; it's his memoir of the life and social scene and poverty and writing circles in Paris. It's not some unnamed narrator or "simple" character who seems to be a voicepiece for Hemingway anyway...I dislike some of his fiction bc on top of dissecting character, you have to de-onionize the prose layer by layer to get at his actual meaning. "AMF" is still meaningful, but seemingly a little more genuine bc it's written in retrospect and he's not being so goddamn pretentious.

Whoa. Anyway...good thing I didn't start talking about Fitzgerald in relation to Hemingway. Another day, another post, I guess. So Zach and I headed to the Quarry and we were already ten minutes late for the movie, but when we got in the theater, we still got to see three previews! I understand that's how movie theaters make a large profit, but the previews are getting a little excessive. I never thought I'd say that, maybe I should be more specific: I love trailers for new movies, but I get annoyed with fandango.com guy and those talking paperbag commercials. Enough! I get that at home on tv, jerk advertisers. "Batman Begins" was...simply amazing. I'm completely re-energized with the Batman franchise (I don't even think I saw the last one with nippleplates and Batgirl, etc.) and on the subject of things I never thought I'd say: I just might prefer Christian Bale to Micheal Keaton. !! Though they both play Batman/Bruce Wayne at different points in their lives, so I think both of them are great. Kilmer? Clooney? A joke store. I was way into "Memento" (not so much "Insomnia" though) when it came out, so I knew Christopher Nolan would exceed expectations. Plus, Gotham city is this weird combo of Chicago+English countryside+London slums or South African shantytowns...very futuristic-looking, almost like "The Fifth Element" or "Bladerunner." I was not expecting that. Plus with Gotham having many Chicago landmarks (bridges over Chicago River, lower Wacker, Tribune tower, among many others), I kept getting excited that Batman was redeeming our city! Crazy, I know, but I love those parts in movies when it's a sequence of people coming together to clean up an old junkyard (and in one day, turn it in to a beautiful thriving garden!), set to a song that's usually featured on the soundtrack--I always feel like humanity is justified and everything in the world is right. Even if it's in a movie about drugs, like in "Blow" when Johnny Depp and that enormous guy from "Boy Meets World" and "American History X" first start their drug transportation, I think it's set to the song "black betty." Love it. Actually, I thought it was strange how much of this "Batman" centered around the dangerous effects of hallucinogens...so much so, that at one point in the movie, Batman is trying to save the whole city from a bad trip. Now I know those kids who are like, whoa did you see "Spirited Away" (or insert any movie here) while you were high? Dude, so much more came out--I swear the director was stoned when he made it. Sometimes I see movies when I'm stoned and remember nothing; like when I went to see "I heart Huckabees" with my parents. I barely remembered I saw it, and Maura had to remind me. But other times I'll see movies stoned and I can't stop making bizarre connections and being in love with film as a genre and then wanting to be a movie critic or screenplay writer. "Batman" was specifically about drugs, but I could just imagine being at a party and hearing some fuck-up in the corner turn to his friend and say, "Dude, did you see the new Batman? It's totally about tripping! And like kids and shit are on acid!" Bottomline, this isn't as gothic as Tim Burton's Gotham...which I thought I preferred, but Christopher Nolan put an interesting stamp on the Batman story. I read that he and screenwriter did so much research into Batman (comics, movies, cartoons, etc.) that they essentially holed up in a New York apartment with stacks of books and became huge comic book nerds. I'm glad, bc I thought the screenplay was brilliant, the over-arching themes, the connections to earlier and later Batman/Bruce Wayne...even the Batman calling card he gives to Commissioner Gordon. There's two more with Christian Bale, and I'm obsessed with this cast (especially Michael Caine as Alfred).

Okay, well, that was fun. Now I can't wait to see the last installment in George Romero's zombie movies that comes out on June 24. I think. Also, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Also, "Layer Cake." I could keep going I guess; I can't believe this was the first movie I've seen in the theater in two or three months. I'm kind of nervous to see Romero..I was way creeped out by the Scarecrow in "Batman." I was even scared of the Scarecrow when he was in the cartoon. I think it dates back to an early "Tales from the Crypt" episode I saw over at the Faydash's house one summer (maybe 8, 9 years old?) that had Patricia Arquette as this somewhat mentally disturbed girl who is held prisoner on this farm (and nearly raped by the farmer; the wife didn't like her bc the farmer was attracted to Patricia Arquette and she made her life a living hell), but she has this bizarro relationship with the scarecrow out in the fields. She called him her "man" and the whole time, you're like, is he real? is he not? What the fuck, Cryptkeeper? What does this tale mean? Me and Maureen watched so many episodes of that show (we used to love the intro, and to imitate the cackle he does at the end when the coffin opens), the majority of which we knew were scary but didn't totally understand. I loved that the Cryptkeeper always told the worst corny jokes at the beginning, like if it was about a ventriloquist he would say, "You'll really lose your head over the ending of this tale!" Or some shitty pun like that my dad would make up. Maybe zombies will be easier to watch?

I'm thinking of having a house party tonight, but not sure if there's any interest. I might be going to Schaumburg for a barbie/GI joe party, but want to have people over too. Dilemma!

posted by SES @ 6:12 PM