Monday, November 24, 2008

Moratorium, Ben Johnson, Kinski, Star Trek, Tony Jaa

Pretty quick weekend passed by.

Friday I went and ate some dinner with my friends Brad and his wife Catherine. It was really good food. During the course of the conversation I discovered that Brad started to write a book after his first year at College. He spent 2 months in his treehouse in the process. The book is called Moratorium and is about 200 pages done. My new goal in life is to harass him enough until he lets me read that thing. I can't think about anything else unfortuneatly. I just keep wondering what in the world this book could be about and how it could be so important to write that he took 2 months out of his life to do it. He says he doesnt have time to finish it yet, so it will go unpublished until he finishes Dental School in 5 years or so. That is too long to wait. So Brad, if your reading this, I will never let up until I get a copy of the beginning of the book. I will make your life miserable trying to get it. I will go to Cokeville and get it off your computer. I will succeed. What could his twisted mind have thought up as a narrative? I will let you know about any progress in this area.

After eating with them I went with my friend Clint to go see the Whysound show. It was pretty entertaining. I was not a big fan of the first two bands, but Ben Johnson was great. I am not even really a fan of that genre, but those guys put on a fantastic show and could really play. They have a CD on itunes called Make it Bloom which is pretty good. Special props to their keyboard/trumpet/backup vocalist. That guy was the man!


So Saturday was pretty chill, I had to work at Village Inn until late though. Ran some errands and what not. Also did a bit of study. Oh and I watched this awesome film by Werner Herzog about Klaus Kinski. It was called "My best Friend". It basically chronicles the five German films they made together, (which are all awesome by the way) and talks about the crazy relationship they had. Kinski had this acting method in which he would try to stress the entire crew out...to the point of a nervous break down, and that would supposedly induce amazing performances from everybody, including himself. If he could rile himself up and become enough of a raving egomaniac, supposedly that drove his performances to new heights. Werner realized this and as difficult as it was to work with Kinski, he figured it was worth it for the performances that were created when the two of them teamed up. Out of all the directors, only Herzog really understood what was happening and was willing to put up with it, but it about drove him insane. At one point they both had plans to kill each other that they were going to enact. Werner even threatened to shoot him in the back if he tried to leave the set one day. And he claims that he was dead serious about it at the time. Everything about Werner seems larger than life, he really lives a different way than the majority of people. This documentary was a good intro to his madness. It also made me want to buy the Klaus Kinski autobiography. Would be entertaining. So study up...check it out.


The new Star Trek is coming out soon. I never watched the Shatner ones. But I enjoyed The next Generation, that was an entertaining program. I'm not a trekkie, but I think Patrick Stewart is just cool. So I dont know what to expect with the JJ. Abrahms remake. I will say that I liked what he did with Mission Impossible 3, but am not the biggest fan of Cloverfeild or the T.V. Show. The other thing is that this clip from its "base" material leaves me hoping they will do an updated version for the movie. This is one of the top 10 fight scenes I have ever scene. Talk about an adrenaline rush!!!!


Ok to make up for having to watch the worst fight scene of all time, here is one of the best. This is Tony Jaa in the Protector. He is insane. But although he is good, the fact that this was all done in one shot is amazing. The camera never cuts away. So this whole long process had to be just perfectly done. This one is not for the faint of heart...there is alot of throwing people around, but no blood.


Later.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You get Brad's book...and then pass it on to me!! I am SOOO curious now too!!! :) 5 years?! that's way too long to wait!?! sheesh!

CRoW said...

Hey, thanks for telling me about your blog... I had to hear about it from Russell. Anywhoo..enjoying what I'm seeing... and for the record the new Star Trek is going to rock.