Californication Review; Home Sweet Home

There are SPOLIERS contained in all my Movie and TV Reviews. If you do not want to be let down by me ranting about my favorite shows or movies than perhaps you should go watch the episode or movie in question before proceeding past the point of no return.  

Californication has been a wild roller coaster of a show and I would like to have been doing episode by episode reviews for the first three seasons, but I did not have an outlet for them, but now dear reader I promise them weekly. I will begin with the third episode of the Fourth season titled; Home Sweet Home.

I think one of the most romantic images of a writer was shown during the last minute or so of this week’s episode. It was when Hank after losing (temporarily I hope) everything that is important to him retreats to the one thing that has always been good to him; the word.  

He is in a hotel room with a typewriter on one of those way-to-small tables, with a couple of bottles next to him, he puts a sheet of paper in the typewriter,  lights a cigarette and types FADE IN: , then as the credits begin to role he is furiously typing away at the keyboard. Writing again!

I do not know who this show is for really. But as a writer I find it to be written for us. All the images of the show, all the truths revealed, all the character interactions, and even all the drama is all focused on Hank’s struggle with the words, either written or spoken.  This speaks to my soul as a writer. I have been through various struggles with words myself and because of this I think writer’s can identify with the show more than most. But of course with everything going on in the show; the writing and plotting is good enough for everyone to find something they like in the show. 

Hank has had a secret for the whole first three seasons and now since it has come out he must seek redemption for sins. Not just the first episode sin of fucking Mia, but for all his sins. Becca explains it very well  in this episode. She says “What aren’t you sorry about…?” I believe this is going to be the question that plagues Hank for the rest of his life, if not at least the rest of this season.

I am very interested to see where the show goes next. Hank is now writing, working on another screenplay even, living in a hotel, trying to win back to anchors in a life Karen and Becca. I am already fiending for next week’s episode. I guess I will have to keep myself busy writing in this blog until then.

What is your favorite Californication moment? Your favorite Hank-ism?

The Future is Coming On: Part One

The lights are out, the keyboard glows an electric blue matching the color of the mouse, and the headphones fit so comfortably on my ears I do not realize they are there. The screen is filled with a nightmarish vision of a future in which nuclear war has occurred. The landscape before my eyes changes, the screen is no longer there, I enter this reality. A reality were I’m born and go through the process of growing up, choosing my station in life. Experience the reality of friendship, love, and betrayal.

Then something happened, something changed. My life was disrupted; I am alone in a wasteland I do not recognize. Feeling alienated I begin to explore, survive. Worried more about my next meal and having a mattress to sleep on than anything else in my life…

No, this is not just some Lovecraftian dream of the future of our world, it is Fallout 3. It has inspired a lot of my thinking and writing over the past couple of weeks.  

After playing for about 30 minutes or so I find myself in that world, 99% of my senses are focused in this virtual world. The experience is similar to what happens when you enter a trance state. The “real-world” ceased to exist for the mystic and the “virtual” or trance world becomes the dominate reality. 

Gaming has taken on a new life. It’s no longer the gaming of the 20^th century; it’s a new world now. And like when Columbus discovered the new world we are realizing many things; we are not alone in this discovery, there is more to this new world than we thought possible. This new world is what we make it. It can easily be formed into any image we desire.

I’m not just talking about sandbox style games such as Minecraft and Second Life. I’m talking about complex single player FPS games such as Fallout 3 or MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft or Eve Online.

We are judged as a culture in the 21^st century by our various forms of entertainment; movies, TV, video games, and even music. It’s all becoming much more “futuristic”, not to mention the portability and availability of media is our culture has grown exponentially in the past decade. 

No Maps for These Territories  

Science fiction always predicts the future and the world we live in now was predicted by the cyberpunk writers of the 80s and early 90s.

When William Gibson envisioned and described “cyberspace” I don’t think he envisioned it in its current state. The dominant paradigm in our society has shifted and it has shifted so quickly some people do not have the know how or ambition to keep up with it.

Truth is indeed stranger than fiction and as Gibson said, “keeps getting jacked up on us a fairly regular basis”. Not only are we writing our own future but it’s coming true before our eyes. We are no longer predicting the future; we are creating it. 

I hope to continue the ideas in this post as a series, but need to know from you dear reader; what would you like to hear me expand upon in the next post of this series? I am going to keep with the theme of the future and how is exploding into the present but that is a very broad subject. Unless you comment and give me some feedback I am going to to keep rambling about things that you may or may not want to read. So let me know and I will give you a mention in the next post or three.

127 Hours of Howl; a Review of James Franco’s Best movies of 2010

Not only is this my first movie review, actually movies review, but it is also the first post on this blog. It is the first glimpse of my near crazed mind. Even though right now I am not sure that anyone is listening so this may actually be an exercise in mental masturbation.

Howl--

One way I can tell if I like a movie is if I have to pause like 30 times to either write down a quote or contemplate the brilliant thinking of the writer or director.  Howl made me do both of those things. It is a movie not about the Beats or about Ginsberg really, even though those two things act as a backdrop or catalyst to the whole of the movie. But the movie instead focuses on the obscenity trail of the poem Howl written by Allen Ginsberg and published by City Lights Books in 1957. 

The movie offers a very good explanation of the writing of Howl and what Ginsberg was going through when he wrote various parts. It offers insights into parts of the poem that were not as clear before without a screen narrative to explain some of the events that shaped it. 

James Franco does a very good job portraying Ginsberg and I was also happily surprised by Jon Hamm’s appearance in the movie as the lawyer defending Howl. I think he is a wonderful actor and does a great job in this role.  The writing is top-notch you get a feel for both the trail,  a better understanding of Howl itself and the importance that it played in the lives of many. The animation scenes done by Eric Drooker are very well done and work very well in the movie. 

Whether you are a Beat fan, a Howl fan, or just a fan of good films this one is for you.

127 Hours--

James Franco is a good actor, but other than the Spider-Man movies I do not really remember him in anything else. Then suddenly in the same year he does not one, but two limited release films that are both outstanding; not only for their subject, their writing, but for his acting. 

Everyone who has even heard of this movie knows the basic story. 127 Hours is about this guy Aron Ralston who goes in the desert to explore caves and crevices then falls into one and his arm is pinned in between this huge boulder and the wall of the crevice. Then after being trapped this way for 127 hours and going through his own kind of psychological and physical hell, and finally cuts off his arm with a dull multi-tool blade to escape finally once again into the real world. 

Most of the movie is done either in flashback/flash forward, or with him talking to his camcorder. I was not sure if I would like this technique when I first heard about the movie but Danny Boyle pulls this one off brilliantly as always. Very enthralling and keeps you glued to the screen and the edge of your seat for almost the entire movie. 

As for the question everyone has asked “How is the scene where he cuts his arm off?” To answer it is not too gory although there is a little, because I mean after all he is cutting his arm off and with a very dull blade I may point out. But the blood, muscle, etc. were nothing compared to the sound effects when he had to cut the nerve. That was the part that really “hurt” the most from the audience point of view. This is the reason I also advise seeing this one in the movie theater for sure. 

I left the theater with two lessons learned from this movie. 1.) ALWAYS tell someone where you are going and 2.) ALWAYS have a very sharp knife with you when you travel.

In addition to these two films I also recommend “The Last Time I Committed Suicide” and “Beat” both excellent films covering two other iconic Beat authors and their work. Reviews to come.  I hope you have enjoyed my first movie reviews. I would like to do one a week at least. I will be not only reviewing new movies but also older movies too. Stay tuned for more and more!

MISSION STATEMENT or what I want to do with this blog!

I started this blog because over the years I have ranted on many blogs but have always felt… held back, or worried. Blogging is such a public platform I thought that my Work would offend people and this would somehow keep me from being “known”, whatever that means. 

This has caused me to commit the capital crime of writing; Not sharing my true feelings and my point of view with my readers. Let me make this clear, dear reader; that ends now! 

What defines a writer? All he has is his or her point of view. I want to share mine with you. What reality really looks like through my particular lens. 

This blog is going to appear to be random offerings of rants, photos, reviews, shared links, etc… But really it is a view inside my mind, my soul, my point of view as a writer and an artist. 

Here are a few things I am going to share with you guys and gals:

• Rants!!!!
• Reviews (Books/Movies/TV)
• Philosophical and Magick Thoughts and Experiments
• Photos of Beautiful Things (Women and Other)
• Further Elaborations on the definitions of both debauch and moral

My blogging goal for the New Year is to post at least five times a week. I am also starting Pro blogger "31 Days to Build a Better Blog” program in the next few weeks. 

The first month of this new blog should be an exciting one. I hope that you will follow my progress and let me know what you think, because without readers and comments a blogger is nothing. 

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