Author: WillJang

Tumbling through my own thoughts – slowing to a crawl at certain times and speeding into a frenzy as slews of unending sentences spill forth through the tips of my fingers rhythmically tapping the key – it becomes very easy to forget where I was going with anything. There is never a strict agenda when I bring my thoughts to the page, or maybe not even in my head either. More often than not, a character as absurd as a man who drinks poison for a living is all I need to get me going. That would be some cool shit to write about for my next short story I say and my sprawling unconscious responds with, “fine, I’ll fill in the rest.”But being guided through the corridors of my mind by color coded fluorescent lights may be all in all a better strategy if I wish to extend my stories to anything longer than twenty pages. Wouldn’t? Shouldn’t? Naw…it couldn’t, I would never finish it cause I’d get bored halfway through. There is more excitement if I don’t know the ending either as I write the story.

Each scene needs to be important by itself. Come come no filler filler. But when I plan, I always find myself adding such elements. Such bombastic or often dull lulls of needless plot.
Sometimes you don’t want to buy that OJ with no pulp, sometimes you NEED that pulp. Ironically, I guess OJ with no pulp goes down smoother than the other variant. Revel! Revel! Cheap amusement has come!
Couch lounging relaxation to soothe the mind into a gentle haze of acceptance of whatever stream of information is being filtered into the tête. Cups of corn syrup and handfuls of salt, munching with ever-dry lips and watching with half-closed-lids, and an engine that is barely running, grumbles on to keep the top happy.
Outside, in the bay, the cargo ships sit in the polluted waters that spit out purple seashells for kids to collect and dogs to step on, awaiting the delivery of their presents from ashore, until then, their red noses sticking out of the water, their empty stomachs allow such buoyancy. Reveal to me your little red nose greedy vessel. Wait in the cold night till fate delivers you what you yearn. Then before the collared man wakes the next day, leave without a note, taking with you your earned riches, only to give it all away. Give and take, never keep anything, and see the new and old.

It is easier to move on when you do not linger. Deal with success and failure in the same way – quickly learn and move on. Otherwise, how can you improve? By sitting around on your successes or failures…all you do is spit out purple shit.

We all know that Hollywood sometimes doesn’t produce the most original films, however, watching this documentary takes it to a whole new level.

Alejandro Jodorowsky, known for his comics such as “The Incal”, is a man who assembled great artistic talents such as Moebius, Orson Welles, and Salvador Dali to create the cinematic version of Frank Herbert’s “Dune”. This group of artists, which he calls his “Spiritual Warriors”, was gathered almost on a dime. For the most part, it was Jodorowsky’s passion for the project that got them to commit – a passion that can be seen throughout the film making the fact that this movie was never made all the more saddening.

Quite possibly the most ridiculous element of this snubbing is the fact that multiple ideas from the concept work and storyboard of this unmade film were scattered across Hollywood, resurfacing in well-known projects such as Star Wars and Alien.

For instance, the training scene with Luke Skywalker is ripped off a panel from the storyboard of Jodorowsky’s Dune and the Xenomorph from Alien was created by one of the artists working beneath Jodorowsky.

The Dune project later was passed on to David Lynch, we all know how that went.

I wish someone would at least take all this work and make an animation at least. But for now, I am glad that Jodorowsky decided to take his creative genius over to the world of comic books.

 

The Golden Globes and the Critics Choice awards have both gone by and now the Oscars loom ahead. To no real surprise, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film “Inherent Vice” barely received any nominations snagging just two in the Oscars: costume design and adapted screenplay.

The reason that the lack of nominations for this film, to put it simply, is because it just isn’t a clinical “Oscar” film. Meaning, that it isn’t packaged nicely for the viewer to digest easily in one viewing so that they come out of the theatre saying, “Ya, I get it.”

I can understand that casual viewers wouldn’t even think about seeing this movie, but the polarized reviews by the critics was a little disappointing. Many of them bashed the film for being too boring or having no recognizable plot. But umm…that isn’t the point of the film? Matt Zoller Sietz, a writer for the late Roger Ebert’s movie review website, got it spot on. He recognized that the point of the movie isn’t about following the plot, because honestly, that is damn near impossible. Instead, you should just let yourself be washed over by the atmospheric paranoia of 70’s California that the film immerses you in. Know that this is a movie that gets better with multiple viewings.

Also, if you are familiar with Thomas Pynchon’s work (author of Gravity’s Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, and of course, Inherent Vice) then you will recognize that this movie is an incredibly faithful adaptation, and that the convoluted plot isn’t a sign that PTA is a bad director or writer. It’s just Pynchon man…

My best attempt to explain what I think the point of the film, is for me to point you in the direction of a song that is in it’s soundtrack. Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF6JMotbHYM

Amidst this world of hippy paranoia, the only thing that Doc Sportello (Joaquin Phoenix) is sure of, is that he still loves Shasta, and he hopes that she loves him too. But this is not meant to be. Of course I may be completely wrong. To steal Seitz’s final line from his review, “What were we talking about?”

Joaquin Phoenix is also another reason this may not be getting much favour from the Oscars (he publicly said that the Oscars were bullshit, but later apologized, however, lets be honest, old people don’t forget insults, although they may forget a lot more, like what a good movie is for instance).

But the entire cast is amazing, Joaquin Phoenix is basically in every scene, then we have Josh Brolin, Owen Wilson, Benicio Del Toro, Reese Witherspoon, Martin Short, and a newcomer Katherine Waterston. Every single one of these actors give wonderful performances.

If it isn’t obvious by this point, I absolutely loved this film. Arguably you could say I am somewhat biased, by saying that I love Paul Thomas Anderson’s work (The Master and There Will Be Blood are both amazing), but that isn’t true because I don’t love Punch Drunk Love that much, nor Magnolia. I still think The Master is my favourite out of his filmography, followed now by Inherent Vice (or maybe tied).

So watch this trailer, and go see it if you want. Remember, don’t try really hard to follow the plot, just enjoy the moment.

Oh, did I forget to mention? The movie is absolutely hilarious.

During this holiday season, as my family was heading back from Jirisan, a mountain in South Korea, I was listening to the audiobook of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (narrated by none other than Stephen Fry) in the car. Never before had I even considered listening to an audiobook, but it was a fairly long drive and I get carsick easily if I have my head bent over a book whilst in a moving vehicle.

Interestingly enough, I was at the part, where the massive computer named Deep Thought, revealed that the answer to life, the universe, and everything, is 42. I chuckled a little. Not saying British humour isn’t hilarious – because there were other parts of this novel that had me laughing considerably harder – but I suppose the joke hit me with a pang of bleakness. Nobody and nothing knows the secret of life dummy. You are chasing a fools errand.

But this emotional pitfall quickly resolved itself, for me anyways, because I swiftly recovered by remembering that life may very well be, incredibly, shitty if we knew the answer to such a question. And by that, I mean shitty all the time. It is a hunch. Nothing more really. I may very well be wrong. It may very well be the case that if we knew the answer to that non-question, we would live like gods.

Yet, isn’t it the fact that we have both the inability to resolve such dumbfounding queries whilst also having the ability to conceive of them in the first place, what makes us human?

And at that very moment, as I heard the passage in my earbuds, we were passing by exit number 42 on the highway.

What a coincidence I thought, and how appropriate that such a coincidence would happen whilst listening to a book that features an invention called the Infinite Improbability Drive.

It was then that I thought, it is when moments like these happen – moments of pure chance, amidst all the universal chaos, when the stars align to make something like this to happen – that I get this jovial feeling that everything will be ok. That not everything will go to shit. Well eventually, things do go to shit, but life offers you small victories from now till then. Just don’t panic.

This is how i feel.

This is how I want to feel.

The journey from point A to point B is challenging only based on my own self-imposed obstacles. And I know that I will eventually get over this hump of procrastination. But sometimes it doesn’t help to realize that I will never hit the point B that I imagine, because it is all in my head.

Then again, I guess what is important is that I get past the hump

One step at a time…one step at a time.

The early bird gets the worm. I am not the early bird. And there’s more than just worms out there.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving break.
Here is a link to an interesting Thanksgiving related series of photos so as to linger on a festive mentality for a bit longer before entering into the last days of classes.

Thanksgiving Special: How 10 Famous Artists Would Plate Thanksgiving Dinner