--Insert Clever Title Here--
May. 16th, 2002 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sun_set_bravelyLast night I found that the SciFi channel is replaying the miniseries "The Stand," and I can't stop watching it. Last night was the third episode and tonight is the final one. I forgot how closely I watched this when it was first broadcast. I watched and taped every episode of this, freshman year of high school. I also forgot how horrible some of the acting was in this show. (Okay, most of it. But Gary Sinise is just so damn cute.)
Despite the strange acting choices and cheesy lines and superfluous shots of dead and rotting bodies, this show has influenced my visions of the end of the world significantly (along with "Empire of the Sun"... thanks, Ann, for introducing that to me). Having never lived through such chaos before, when I saw those towers fall, my thoughts flew to these movies and I thought, "I should get cash now. I should boil my water. I should pack one suitcase." Paranoid and over-reactive, yes, but vivid nonetheless.
What images from books, movies, television, or photography have stuck with you over the years?
Despite the strange acting choices and cheesy lines and superfluous shots of dead and rotting bodies, this show has influenced my visions of the end of the world significantly (along with "Empire of the Sun"... thanks, Ann, for introducing that to me). Having never lived through such chaos before, when I saw those towers fall, my thoughts flew to these movies and I thought, "I should get cash now. I should boil my water. I should pack one suitcase." Paranoid and over-reactive, yes, but vivid nonetheless.
What images from books, movies, television, or photography have stuck with you over the years?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2002-05-16 11:58 pm (UTC)books:the scene from fight club where he pulls a gun on the convenience store clerk and tells him he could either die or go be a vet. it was the best scene in the book and done great in the movie..(definitely felt i could use that kind of motivation to get on with my career..)
TV- watching Challenger (already in flight) doing its rotational spin. thinking that was cool. then proceeded to walk to cafeteria . minutes later we heard the news, and just shocked about what i saw and realized what happened after i walked away
-tianemen square, went the guy walked up to the tank.
-hearing that Kurt Cobain shot himself. (twas at the Record Rack shopping with ario.....)
More
Date: 2002-05-17 07:47 am (UTC)Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns: the bit where Will Tweedy sneaks up on his friend, who's in the middle of a huge yawn, and throws a cow patty right in his friend's MOUTH... it's only a four sentence bit but that has stayed with me... yuck.
Fountainhead, Ayn Rand: Dominique on the open elevator at the very end, passing the skyline to see Howard Roark.
Empire of the Sun, J.G. Ballard: After the camp's liberation and the American food drops, Jim tries to eat a canister of Spam but likens it to dead flesh in his mouth. Also where he spits the pus/blood/saliva from his mouth into a small body of water, and the little fish-parasite things swim up and start eating it. And this is an autobiographical book. Damn.
Movies:
All of the Princess Bride, Neverending Story, Secret of N.I.M.H., Empire of the Sun, The Last Unicorn (especially the bit where Molly Grue sees the Unicorn for the first time and starts crying angrily, saying, "How dare you come to me now!")
Visual Arts:
Christina's World, Andrew Wyeth
That photo of Georgia O'Keeffe's nude torso against a light mountainscape, Alfred Stieglitz
Little Dancer of 14 Years, Edgar Degas
M-O-O-N. That spells...
Date: 2002-05-17 09:05 pm (UTC)I also had no idea that Empire Of The Sun was autobiographical. Pretty obvious, I'm sure, but I never made the connection. Wow. No wonder Ballard wrote such gloomy, despondent stories. Very industrial, though. (Rivethead culture embraces J.G. Ballard, William S. Burroughs, and Dostoevsky's Notes From Underground as required reading material. And 1984 is, of course, a must. Not that you asked...)
Another lengthy list...
Date: 2002-05-17 10:59 pm (UTC)Whew. How much space have you got? =)
Trying to concentrate strictly on visuals...
~~~~~~~~~~
MOVIES:
- Jacob's Ladder. Adrian Lyne's vision of hell in the movie is the best cinematic interpretation of such a place as I've ever seen. Just thinking of the grimy hospital tiles and failing fluorescent lights makes me shudder. Plus when that tusk or whatever it is comes out of Elizabeth Peña's mouth, plus the shivering, fast-frame demons...what an amazingly frightening plethora of imagery.
- Gates Of Heaven. Errol Morris's little-seen documentary of pet cemetaries in California is one of the greatest movies ever made--so many stories to tell, with so few words. There's a slow montage of various headstones people have erected to their pets, and there's a shot of a very simple one that has written on it, "He saved my life." I simply lost it at that shot...God, I'm crying now!
- Being There. Likewise, the final shot of Chance The Gardener taking his walk made me break down in tears for some reason. Maybe because I realized who he really was? Or who I'd like him to be?
- 2001. The final space voyage. Those alien landscapes. That was the first time I literally had an out-of-body experience with a film. And I was on no drugs, naysayers--I've never watched a movie on drugs. That final, dialogue-free twenty minutes looks like...raw imagination, to me. Raw possibility.
- Joe Vs. The Volcano. The factory. "Home Of The Rectal Probe." This IS what bureaucracy looks like!
- Almost Famous. When Penny Lane asks, "What kind of beer?" And much earlier, when she's "introduced" to Russell Hammond, looks away, cries, and laughs.
- High Fidelity. When Rob throws down his lighter in the pouring rain after breaking up with Charlie and screams. Total heartbreaking truth.
- Gizmo! An utterly obscure collection of documentary footage of people's failed vehicular inventions from the 1900's on, the sheer ludicrousness of these devices makes it possibly the funniest set of images I've ever seen.
Plus various visual displays, too many to list here, from Tron, Eyes Wide Shut, The Blair Witch Project, Habit, Waking Life, Citizen Kane, Delicatessen, and Hellraiser 2. And anything by David Fincher or Terry Gilliam, of course.
~~~~~~~~~
PHOTOGRAPHY/VISUAL ART:
- Scott Mutter, Untitled (Escalator)
- René Magritte, The Unexpected Answer, Le Therapeute.
- Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol, Ten Punching Bags.
- Georgia O'Keeffe, Blue And Green Music.
Plus numerous works of Hieronymous Bosch, Robert Rauschenberg, I.M. Pei, Salvador Dali, M.C. Escher, and H.R. Giger. Anyone with initials in their names, I guess.
Don't forget the books
Date: 2002-05-17 11:00 pm (UTC)BOOKS:
- William S. Burroughs, Cities Of The Red Night: Talking about Dr. Pierson, an overworked doctor with a discrete heroin addiction: "He disliked children, adolescents, and small animals. The word 'cute' did not exist in his emotional vocabulary. His temper was always evil when he ran over like this, but after he'd had his shot, he could be nice. In a dead, fishy way."
- Harlan Ellison, "The Man Who Rowed Columbus Ashore": A tale about a man given free reign to roam throughout space and time, beautifully phrased and utterly free. In the book Slippage.
- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest: The lone descriptive phrase "skull-clutchingly bad" was itself so visual that I've permanently incorporated it into my own vocabulary. And there's 1000 more pages where that came from!
- Mark Z. Danielewski, House Of Leaves: The most visual book I've ever read, both literally and figuratively, it spawned a brief obsession in me. Have a sample:
"First, he reads a few lines by match light and then as the heat bites his fingertips he applies the flame to the page. Here then is one end: a final act of reading, a final act of consumption. And as the fire rapidly devours the paper, Navidson's eyes frantically sweep down over the text, keeping just ahead of the necessary immolation, until as he reaches the last few words, flames lick around his hands, ash peels off into the surrounding emptiness, and then as the fire retreats, dimming, its light suddenly spent, the book is gone leaving nothing behind but invisible traces already dismantled in the dark."
Aaargh, too many others to write about...
Sorry for the length. You should have known that when you asked the question, I was going to answer it... ;)