Pay not attention to the man...

I'm not really sposed to be here, but I have a ton of writing to do today and might as well stretch the proverbial neurons...

Just some instant hits on Oz:

James Franco was predictably awesome and perfectly cast - the fact that he can't quite escape that wink-and-nod with the audience that lets us know he's in on the joke of all this fakery that acting/celebrity/media cultism is...well, since Richard Pryor is dead, then there's nobody better to play the lost anti-hero.

Mr. Fuzzykins felt - rightly, I think - that Oz as a horny scoundrel (with the vim and vigor to at least metaphorically frak all the females on-screen) took it a little over the top...I mean, this is no deep-character-development kind of a film, but still. He's already a narcissistic child, no need to make him a dog, too.

Really, though? Three powerful, politically intelligent women fall for the same dude-who-just-happens-to-be-there?

We all take the one who shows up, I guess.

And one thing I really liked about Franco/Oscar/TGAPOz was that once he found himself at a moment of choice, he decided to show up. In a way, it doesn't matter that his motivations are selfish, because everyone prays to a false god, whether it's gold or beauty or love or whatever. It's actions that matter to others.

At least Rachel Weisz/Evanora/Wicked Witch of the East knew what was really going on: why waste your time mourning for/waiting for a king, when the throne is right there? Take it!

But what does it say that women have to get evil to get the throne? Because wanting power is more corrupting to women than to men? What's even funnier is that, minus this whole argument about a king, these three women have been capably running Oz since the king died...why not just divide Oz into three states and have a three-witch ruling council?!

I kind of love Mila Kunis...she over-enunciates certain consonants in a way I find utterly endearing. But, Mila/Theodora/Wicked Witch of the West, what's with this whole "I turned green and evil because the man I wanted was into somebody else"? Can I get one woman onscreen to represent the thousands of us who - when we get dumped, especially for someone else - get mad, and then get the frak over it! Move on! Don't waste your life on hatred, girl!

At least in Wicked she's born that way. Which actually makes me love that book even more in retrospect...too bad McGuire just spun it out into a stupid gimmick.

One last thing: all three women in this movie have really round, childlike faces. Even the mature-and-stern Weisz is cast from the same plump-cheeks-and-wide-eyes mold. And Franco looks puffy and bloated from too many munchies. What with the peculiarities of CGI acting and enhancement, these cartoony faces make for an oddly anime take on a stereotypically Western myth.

I might go see this again - 3D IMAX is better from the back of the theater. I left feeling like the moisture had been sucked from my brain...thanks third row.

off to see the Wizard

Girl Rising!

Today is the premier of Girl Rising!, a documentary about the work of 10x10, an organization empowering girls around the world through education and opportunity.

I feel an immense sense of excitement and satisfaction when I see other people doing things in the world that I wish had the time, skills, energy, and compunction to do, especially when said effort is so completely aligned with my own thinking and intentions. It's a real GO TEAM! kind of sensation, because we're all trying to get to the same place, in our different ways. And the more of us there are, the faster and more conscientiously we'll get there.

Action is awesome.



(Thank god I can't see it today...way, way too much inspired weeping for a cold and not-so-snowy Thursday.)

SPOM: Ride to Inwood, Sail the Isle, Flamenco

Latest NYC activity recommendations from mom, who lives in DC but keeps a far more interesting social calendar than me and Mr. Fuzzykins:

A bike ride to Inwood to check out the very weird, very industrial, very gentrifying Columbia U sports complex.

And a sail around the Manhattan island, which I am actually super excited about. Where else can you see the epoch changes in our relationship to water? I'm already shopping for an adequately matronly sunhat.

You know where we'll be Friday nights (in our fantasies)! Because post-30-and-giving-a-shit I'm so exhausted by Friday night that our plans are more often chinese and netflix. But eventually we'll get motivated...

(If you recognize these images, thanks @NYTimes via @CathSatterlee)

An argument for F2F IRL, from Jack White

This month's missive from Third Man Records:

A Message from Jack White, Record Store Day 2013 Ambassador  (watch the accompanying video here) Years ago someone told me that 1,200 high school kids were given a survey. A question was posed to them: Have you ever been to a stand-alone record shop? The number of kids that answered "yes" was... zero. Zero? How could that be possible? Then I got realistic and thought to myself, "Can you blame them?" How can record shops (or any shop for that matter) compete with Netflix, TiVo, video games that take months to complete, cable, texting, the Internet, etc. etc? Getting out of your chair at home to experience something in the real world has started to become a rare occurrence, and to a lot of people, an unnecessary one. Why go to a bookstore and get a real book? You can just download it. Why talk to other human beings, discuss different authors, writing styles and influences? Just click your mouse. Well here's what they'll someday learn if they have a soul; there's no romance in a mouse click. There's no beauty in sitting for hours playing video games (anyone proud of that stop reading now and post your opinion in the nearest forum). The screen of an iPhone is convenient, but it’s no comparison to a 70mm showing of a film in a gorgeous theater. The Internet is two-dimensional…helpful and entertaining, but no replacement for face-to-face interaction with a human being. But we all know all of that, right? Well, do we? Maybe we know all that, but so what? Let's wake each other up. The world hasn't stopped moving. Out there, people are still talking to each other face-to-face, exchanging ideas and turning each other on. Art houses are showing films, people are drinking coffee and telling tall tales, women and men are confusing each other and record stores are selling discs full of soul that you haven’t felt yet. So why do we choose to hide in our caves and settle for replication? We know better. We should at least. We need to re-educate ourselves about human interaction and the difference between downloading a track on a computer and talking to other people in person and getting turned onto music that you can hold in your hands and share with others. The size, shape, smell, texture and sound of a vinyl record; how do you explain to that teenager who doesn't know that it's a more beautiful musical experience than a mouse click? You get up off your ass, you grab them by the arm and you take them there. You put the record in their hands. You make them drop the needle on the platter. Then they'll know. Let's wake each other up. As Record Store Day Ambassador of 2013 I’m proud to help in any way I can to invigorate whoever will listen with the idea that there is beauty and romance in the act of visiting a record shop and getting turned on to something new that could change the way they look at the world, other people, art, and ultimately, themselves. Let's wake each other up. - Jack White III

lunar activism