super indie.

This has been a pretty eventful weekend I would say. Or I guess not really eventful... I did a lot of random thinking: some of it while sober, some of it not, and not all of it coherent, but it'll all probably end up on this blog somehow seeing as how I don't use Xanga anymore and isiyu.sc4sex.com went down this is pretty much my exclusive blog now.

This doesn't necessarily have to do with HD directly but it has to do with films and our passion for it so I guess it applies (also it's here for the reason i mentioned because i don't have another blog to post this on.) I'm so tired of mainstream movies. I was all excited this year because I was so sure Sam Rami would kill with Spiderman 3 and Shrek 3 has such good pedigree. Hell I even thought Pirates 3 could've made up for the second movie. But after this summer, the best movie I saw was one that I had to forgive a fundamental flaw to really say I liked it, and I can't even remember Ocean's 13 came out this year without looking at Yahoo! Movies. I can't say I have a bitter aftertaste after this forgettable Summer of movies, there's just no taste there. I have a blank pallet and I've been waiting for something good.

Don Hertzfedlt is weired, and the films he and Mike Judge picked for the Animation Show 1 and 2 doubly so. This wasn't 'new' in the sense that I wasn't aware it existed, more so the opportunity to watch these DVDs did not cross my path until now. As I was watching some of these shorts and trying to understand them, it occurred to me that these films had more authenticity, more justification for its existence than most anything I've seen in months. Some of the movies in this collection are just weired for the sake of being weired, but some are arresting in the ways it seems to understand human essence and the directness with which it expresses these truths in such a short period of time. So I got to thinking, animated shorts, feature length movies... the point of all film is to tell stories, compelling stories, stories that have something to say about "the human condition" (I'm not really sure what I mean by human condition, but Wikipedia might). I don't think movies should be judged on picture quality, or cinematography, or special effects, or even acting. Those are all important to buttress the film, but they're just extensions to the barest essence of story; whose purpose I am asserting is to show something basic to being human. (Or they can just be fucking weired ala Hertzfeldt) I like movies that make me feel something, creeped out, happy, depressed, emo, even just weired. If I feel the same way after a film, as before it started I think the movie failed. I guess what I'm saying is, fancy picture quality, HDi, BD-J, and 1.3 Firmware is nice and shit, but at the heart of it all I still need some genuine content that moves me. (Sunshine on Blu-ray Jan 8th 2008) And that's something Sony and Toshiba/Microsoft can't fix on their own.

Lets AIM chat about this:



PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALBIE! YAY! you have exclusive rights to fulfilling my alcohol needs. (until next week, when Alex and you will split those rights 70/30, until he goes to Australia whereupon priority rights will revert back to you for the first seven months of 2008)