canyoubemorespecific

Hi.


Not much going on today. Still raining....

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First I would like to thank my stalkers that have fessed up to stalking. It's not easy and I know that so I appreciate your honesty and your stalking abilities. xoxo

AND some of you more alert devotees may have noticed I changed my page! Maybe now those pesky links will stay where they belong.

Soooo NETFLIX is still being SUPER lame. They just sent me an email saying they received only the sleeve of movie and they want me to send the movie with my name and a blood sample...little do they know I already sent the fucking movie (before I sent the sleeve). You would think they would have a system in place for dummies like me...it just goes to show (ref: Brazil) if there's a kink in the system, all hell breaks loose - Tuttle....

I did get/watch a couple new movies tho...namely:

Freaks and Geeks Season 1, Disc 1

and

Storytelling

Freaks and Geeks is okay, I don't really relate to the guilt factor of the protagonist girl, but I do like some of the dynamics (ie. the James Dean character's girlfriend and the stoner guy). I don't know what to think at this point, it's not great, the episodes are hit or miss...some lines are excellent and the you're gay because you like Coldplay guy from the 40 year old virgin is in it!...but overall it's too complacent, not edgy enough....maybe it's because I don't watch regular TV...

Storytelling is fucked up. Todd Solondz is a maniac and a genius writer. His earlier film, Happiness is one of my faves, but Storytelling looses it a little and actually becomes slightly boring at times...the tension isn't there like in Happiness or (even earlier) Welcome to the Dollhouse. It's set in two parts, and the latter (non-fiction) definitely was developed more and could have stood on its own w.out the beginning. Solondz definitely plays with a lot in this movie, what it means to create a shocking scene, the narcissism of writing and creating, the oddness of American values, but overall it just doesn't work. It's not compelling ENOUGH....

Also Selma Blair is interesting to look at (especially when her slight (pale) physique is juxtaposed to the larger (dark) physique of her writing teacher), but as far as acting goes, she's a black hole...much like Julia Roberts in Closer except there's no Natalie Portman to even her out.

This is a great quote from the "Onion" review of Storytelling. It somehow encompasses the "confidence" (for lack of a better word. ps: I ain't no writer) or "fuck you" attitude of kids these days...

"It would be tempting to call Storytelling a narrow and simplistic examination of the creative process, if only Solondz weren't so quick to agree. " - metacritic.com


Yea, well if you don't like it, I meant for you not too!

It's sort of like being a fundamentalist Christian. If you don't believe, then you must not understand....

OKAY, what else, what else...

I think I want to move to Europe. I think Europeans have it right when it comes to all there is in life:

1. FOOD

2. ART

3. SEX


They're more controlled, there's more tradition, but its ingrained...not like here where we've just been making shit up... Our pious individualization, especially when it comes to art (and SEX and FOOD!) has really crippled us. We're twisted and perverted and we really don't get it. America makes being an artist painful as opposed to using pain to create art... (see cool Belgian gallery here http://www.galeriejanmot.com/index.html)

PUTTING THE SMACK DOWN ON P-TOWN

I recently read an article about a Portland based organization called Red76 (red76.com) in an Artforum, a magazine most non-successful artists hate. There is a rebuttal on the portlandart.net page (of equal if not more lameness to Artforum).

The rebuttal basically outs the writer (Matthew Stadler) about being "wrong" about Red76 and essentially all social/community art projects. Portlandart.net is defending that Red76 as real art, while Stadler states that because of its inherent structure, it's a social endeavor, it's half-assed, and it's not (personal, individual, tortured soul) art. The problem is that it's almost impossible to find art that isn't void of the Citizen Kane modernist ideal. Essentially anything goes (these days), but to maintain exclusivity $$, magazines like Artforum often accuse community art projects of being NOT art. The irony here is that Red76 is trying to simplify things by being coy...which, as we all know, actually complicates things. No one is really being honest. The most elitist art is the often most conceptual, the more layers of elusive confusion you add, the more you are trying to hide. It's the illusion of simplicity, but in a complicated way. Sort of like people who write their dissertations on Paris Hilton or most of the people at Reed College...(a contradiction wrapped in bullshit)...

HOWEVER, hand stitching a vagina (or penis for that matter) on a flour sack does not art make. I think I'm finally contradicting myself with my commentary on commentary.....comments?

In closing, the part in portlandart.net's rebuttal that cracks me up the most is when they refer to the http://www.red76.com/protestsongkaraoke.html Red76's protest song karaoke as a political statement. If anything, it's creating a non-serious environment that only begets apathy. Essentially, these people could not function without each other, it's co-dependent art! They need to agree and even look alike or eat the same foods....it's not really interesting....not really conducive to making compelling art......right? But now I'm contradicting myself again by insinuating that we should be more individualist..maybe it's not about extremes Alicia...maybe it's not that complicated! or simple? or black and white...

BUT...maybe...possibly...they want me to think that!

.......I've officially confused my self...and I have to work now so I can make money to buy gas for my van.

JUST REMEMBER:

Peace out.

-Alicia