Gif Crazy

I've gone gif crazy. I'll admit it. I'll probably post many more here soon, but here's one of my favorite, taken from someone's sig on the PWTorch wrestling forum. It's the coolest, because you can listen to music and watch them dance and more often than not, they follow the music extremely well.

On Carpenter

One of the really groovy thing I received for Christmas was JOHN CARPENTER, THE PRINCE OF DARKNESS, by Gilles Boulenger. I'd had great hopes for this book. I'm a big fan of many of Carpenter's movies and he's one of the people I'd pick in that "10 People That Most Intrigue Me" list I keep thinking about formulating as message board fodder. The book ended up being one big interview with Carpenter, moving through each movie chronologically and every now and then touching on an event that happened at that time. There are some starter biological and general methodology questions, too, but it's mostly about the movies and craft and themes.

The interview is at times enlightening and at times frustrating. There are way too many examples of Boulenger asking a fairly complex question such as,"Were you using the continuing encroachment of space to up the overall tension?" And Carpenter would answer with a meager, "Yeah." And not in a "That's obvious, let's move on" type way, but simply as "That is correct" with no additional insight. It was sloppy of Boulenger and made one feel the question as a whole was worthless.

One thing that stood out for me with Carpenter was just how many box office failures he's had. I didn't really realize that. It's pretty clear to me, from reading the interview and reflecting on his movies, that Carpenter just needs a small budget. He doesn't seem to have the vision to make his ideas translate to the screen in a way that justifies the budget. Not that he doesn't have a worthy vision, just that it doesn't translate onscreen in a way that will make enough money to recoup a lot of money.

The best gem I took from the book, so far, was his thoughts on his love of German expressionism vs. Russian montage. Not so much as the concepts themselves, but in terms of his films. It's something that is obvious in Halloween, even with not knowing the actual concept, but I appreciated it a lot when I watched The Thing for the first time this weekend. Letting the camera sit and framing the shot to let the suspense build, rather than doing multiple quick cuts. It's a double edged sword, I think, because it can build tension, but it can also make scenes drag a little. I think there's probably a happy medium. I've got ASSULT ON PRECINCT 13 ready to watch, again for the first time, and I'm looking forward to that.

The biggest disappointment I had with the book was not getting any more insight into Carpenter's use of religion in films. There are several mentions, but nothing that I thought fully explored why it is so prevalent in them.

All in all, it was probably worth $20 for a Carpenter fan, although a used copy at half the price and reasonable condition would be a steal. A great attraction to the book were the many pictures, including a middle section of color plates with pictures I thought were freshers than one might expect.

Christmas Booty

First of all, thanks for the thoughts over the holidays. More on that in my journal.

Second, man, I didn't realize how long it had really been since I'd updated these things.

Third, man, I can't believe how hard it's been for me to sit down and update these things, especially since I've got a lot to say and know what I want to start with.

Christmas booty. Christmas isn't about the gifts. I'll say it and say it and say it some more. But they are nice, aren't they? And I got a nice little stash. I thought I'd hit a few high spots over a handful of entries in the next week or so.

I got Chessmaster 9000, which is a solid chess program. One of the best available, in my opinion, especially for the price. I'd gotten interested in chess again after reading Tilson's blog entries about his chess club.

I quickly discovered I still suck at chess. I'm even worse, if that's possible. My problem is I just don't think far enough ahead. And I don't give my opponent enough credit when predicting his next move. Somehow I never factor in that he's not going to ignore what I'm obviously trying to do.

Anyway, it's something I'm determined to work on, if I can make the time. I'm spending way too much time on the computer nowadays, and that's without playing chess. I'm working through the kiddie school on Chessmaster 9000, and the chump players, at that. But it's a good move for me. About time I learned the game correctly. It's been somewhat rewarding, as I'm starting to think about moves with a little more depth. The chump players tend to end up doing something grossly incompetent, which kind of spoils the games, but I just move up a notch after each win. Soon I'll reach a level where there's more consistent skill, but still geared at my level. One day, I might be ready to challenge one of you over on Yahoo Games.