Writing and Stuff by Anthony Chatfield

As a Seattle born native and lifelong fan of Ken Griffey Jr, it always makes me smile to see the man having a little fun with the game (and the fans in this case). It seems of late that he’s been more or less a rock of futile boredom, going through the motions in Cincinati, which after his goofy, kid-like years in Seattle is just sad.

Apparently, Griffey was dealing with a particularly rousing Dodgers fan, whose heckling (all in good fun of course) was lighting up the stands, so much in fact that Griffey took notice and stopped by in the sixth to have a word with him.

Well, by the 2nd inning he was looking right at me giving me the looks. When he walks in from the 6th inning he decided he had enough and came over to talk some smack. He called me some fat references which was hilarious and then he told me I couldnt touch the threads on his jock…

I then told him to show me what he’s got, that he talks a big game and then I told him to limp back to the dugout where he belongs and I even said some things about his Mom. I told him I might be fat, but I could still play center field:) It was an incredible exchange to say the least. After the 6th inning he walks out and stops to talk to me holding a brown paper bag in his hand. He motions to throw it to me and I told him no, I know that trick. He laughs and says catch it, so I put up my hands and he tosses it over. He wouldn’t leave until I opened it and when I finally did, the whole place erupted with laughter. Griffey throws me his jock…

I can’t wait until June, when Griffey comes back to Seattle. Here’s hoping he gets the greeting he well deserves.

Observations and Thoughts

Every year around the same time we sit back and start to watch as the film industry ramps up its biggest summer offerings, throwing over budget sequel after over budget sequel at us in an attempt to snag all our hard earned dollars (in a single movie if possible). It’s a sequence that begs the question – what exactly are we doing?

I don’t want to start complaining and tearing apart the film industry yet one more time. I’ve done that a lot of late. No, what I’m thinking is that the industry born of its own self-aware, glitzy appeal to the masses has forgotten that film is technically, on a basic level, considered art. And art is not something entirely devoted to making money. Unfortunately, something else has occurred in recent years that makes it nearly impossible for art to garner the respect and admiration it once did – the blight that is technology.

When society evolved in the 19^th century, so too did everything humanity knew as art and culture. Instead of the commonly held belief that we were not good enough to enjoy the fruits of artistic endeavors as common folk, mass production and printing created pop culture and everyone was allowed to sit and enjoy the next great Dickens or Austen novel.

Which of these is not like the others? (hint: it’s a lot better)

Not that I want to compare Dickens or Austen to Fantastic Four 2. The point is that when people everywhere were given a chance to access the art of the day, the division between high and low are grew much larger than it had ever been. Instead of the shallow gap between classical music and popular literature, there was the stark contrast of painted galleries and radio programs, or James Joyce and Raymond Chandler.

When technology makes it easy to reach out and share your work with everyone, the prospect of making vast sums of money arises as well. The problem with money though is that most people are willing to sell every whim of their artistic integrity for the right payday.

By my calculations, Hollywood finished selling off its artistic integrity in the 1950s and has been flirting with the prospect of bringing it back on a part time basis ever since. When the blockbuster season was minted in the 1970s, at least half of the year was thrown over to the cheesy Hollywood fluff that we’re all witness too today. The biggest problem with that fluff is that it makes for great sequels and as 2007 is demonstrating, there are no longer any new ideas to be had.

Instead, Hollywood bundles up all of the films that manage to slip through the radar and actually be quite good and pushes them into the same two or three months of limited release at the end of the year so as to look good come Oscar season. For anyone living outside of New York and Los Angeles it’s nearly impossible to find these films and when they do finally spread and appear in other theaters, the deadest months of the year are upon us and no one goes to see them.

I’m not breaking new ground by stating that Hollywood is over-commercialized. It’s not a secret, and as long as we keep frequenting the sequels and remakes and doling out $151 million in three days to see the third (and most mediocre) Spiderman film, they’ll keep making them. It’s just how big business works.

No, my point is not that Hollywood sucks, but that Hollywood seemingly cannot make the changes it wants to anymore. People are content with the formula that they’ve been cast into and despite some actually interesting moves in tinsel town of late, the films that people see are still quite awful. As with any war, there has been something of an influx of intelligent political films in recent years, all of them Oscar worthy, and all them largely ignored at the box office. There have been numerous biopics and stories of woes and horrible historical happenings in Africa, which despite their amazing breadth and story telling strength are being ignored. There has been an influx of incredibly well made film from the Spanish speaking world and Europe, all of it largely ignored.

Instead, movies like Wildhogs is able to take the top spot at the box office (with a substantial draw) for two weeks in a row. It’s not entirely the fault of corporate executives when people just plain have bad taste. And so, the summer movie season is essentially the equivalent of the Louvre for those people, getting occasionally well written, returns from familiar characters and interesting new storylines.

Recycling characters that were massively successful in the past (regardless of how well written they were) is incredibly successful because there is immediate recognition and appeal. Now, if only Hollywood would throw at least one or two new ideas our way. Even during the years when Batman Forever and Wild Wild West were being touted as major summertime releases, there were occasionally new, fresh ideas like Jurassic Park or Independence Day. Those films are not necessarily any more intelligent, but they’re surely more unique and less tired. We’ve seen what happens when a franchise is milked too far, as with Spiderman or the early Batmans. A little bit of careful writing wouldn’t hurt either.

Media Reviews, Observations and Thoughts

For anyone that didn’t see it, Stephen Colbert did a riveting Korean Music Video on tonight’s show. Thanks to the Viacom embargo on their shows being on You Tube, I cannot share it with you, but if you can catch a Colbert rerun tomorrow night, check it out. If you’ve ever seen anything from Korean RnB singers, this is absolutely hilarious. Otherwise, it’s still damn funny with Stephen Colbert, singing in Korean.

Cool Stuff, Media Reviews

So, the Seattle International Film Festival schedule was released today and though I don’t yet have the much needed Stranger insert schedule, I did mosey my way over to the website with my girlfriend and start perusing the vast sum of new and amazing filmms that I will be spending my days with in the coming weeks. There were a lot of the same old stuff; America releasing bad movies and shorts, France throwing a whole lot of romantic what not out (including an intriguing Lady Chatterly adaptation that I might be interested in) and only 8 total films between China and Hong Kong. I haven’t finalized my “must see” list yet, but will probably have one by next week when I have my print edition sitting in front of me. All you Seattlites, I’ll see you there.

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It’s been a few months since my last playlist was posted, but there are a few good new albums out right now that deserve some attention (and a few mainstream albums I’ll admit to listening to):

Peter, Bjorn, and John – Writer’s Block

Arctic Monkeys – Favorite Worst Nightmare

Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer

I’ll pass off some reviews in the future for these great new albums. They’re more or less on repeat right now on the old iPod along with the guilty pleasure that is Linkin Park and their iffy new album.

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I saw this on Digg earlier this evening and thought it was fun. Check it out:

We at DoubleViking consider Han Solo to be the apex of all that is manly. He’s our number one role model, he’s a badass in his own right, and his sarcastic, roguish presence helped make the original trilogy vastly superior to the crappy prequels. He’s so cool, in fact, that we have to suggest you model your life around him – or, at the very least, use some of his quotes in everyday conversation. So, without further ado, here are the fifteen best Han Solo quotes (and when to say them), ranked in order of importance.

Read the list over at Double Viking and try to whip up those quotes in casual conversation. It’s be fun…and confusing for your friends.

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In news that probably has millions of World of Warcraft fans snorting in happiness that there is yet one more pretty little piece of plastic with their graphics on it, Blizzard and Visa have announced a World of Warcraft Visa card. The new Visa card is emblazoned with images from everyone’s favorite online rpg, and is probably my favorite online gaming tie-in since Everquest offered a way to order pizza online from within the game. Here’s to useless wastes of plastic and meaningless credit card debt. Woot.

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I didn’t get any posts for the April prompt, nor did I really get around to writing my own post, so honestly I don’t hold it against anyone. It was a relatively lame cue anyways, so who can blame the prompt. No, I didn’t take it seriously enough, so now I feel like I should come up with something good that doesn’t rely on lame holidays in the here and now. Anyways, here’s the prompt for May which I don’t necessarily expect anyone else to pick up, but I will definitely give a shot before next week is out:

Pick any member of your family or life and slap them into one of the following genres; Detective Noir, Deep Space Science Fiction, or Victorian Romance. Now pick two other characters (real life or not) from the other two genres and mix it up. Do whatever you want from there. Make a poem, a story, a long essay; do whatever you want, just make it a mash-up of genre fiction (or non).

Enjoy.

Freelance Lifestyle, My Fiction

So, I just returned from the all important, late-ish night, sold-out screening of Spiderman 3 and thought I’d throw some of my impressions out before I sleep on them and get too lazy to write them down. For whatever reason, it’s these big time films that get me riled up to share my opinion, if only because of all that hype and the fact that so many people have now watched it and will soon watch it, and should know how good it is (or is not).

That said, how was the mighty Spidey in his third big screen outing? You may have read the mixed reviews so far, and I’m not going to offer anything better myself. I enjoyed it, to a point, but at the same time I felt myself picking bits and pieces of it apart before the film even ended and the trip out of the theater and then home was a four way needling, with my friends, of the film’s writers, actors, and intriguing direction choices.

Let’s put it this way; in the first two films I was generally engrossed. I loved the way Raimi made his superhero powerful and yet real, with human drama as Stan Lee intended. He created drama, intrigue, and epic battles that all fit together lovingly in the same way peanut butter so wonderfully compliments jelly. Those films were incredible and I was sufficiently shocked. Unfortunately, the third film did not so fully suspend my disbelief and encapsulate me in the story. Rather, I spent a good half of the film thinking “why is that character even there?” and “stop crying already…didn’t that character already disappear…why is he back?”

The memory-retention of these characters is apparently about as long as it takes to knock each other across the room and apologize. It’s a plot brimming with lost memories, near death experiences, and unnecessary melodrama for the sake of melodrama. What made the series so good in the first two films – a real sense of emotional urgency – almost sinks the third film by going much too far.

Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman was almost entirely unnecessary to the plot, reminding me ever so slightly of the villain happy fanboy pandering the Batman writers fell into with Batman Forever. Don’t think I’m comparing a Spiderman film to that horrendous clunker; Spiderman is at least still entertaining, but somewhere along the way the writers got a case of the “we have this plot device that needs an instigator….let’s throw another villain at it” bug. The Venom symbiote was much more interesting and a great plot device, but unfortunately did not receive its due, serving only the purpose of illuminating Peter’s “darker” side.

There’s a scene where Spiderman is being given a key to the city for saving the police chief’s daughter (a vapid and almost unnecessary Gwen Stacey) and the entire city is alight with Spiderman-Mania. The cheese oozes through the scene and all I was reminded of was the hoopla seen on television, in restaurants and on billboards everywhere now in simple preparation for the film – the Spiderman media blitz. It’s all unnecessary.

Before you think I’m intent to shred the newest comic book fan’s wet dream into a million little pieces, let me say that the film still looked incredible. With a film budget off the charts and innovative fight scenes around every corner, this is still an entertaining film. Bruce Campbell makes an appearance in one of his most entertaining cameos yet and J. Jonah Jameson is bigger, louder, and funnier than ever. The same wry wit that made the first two films so great is still there. Every fight scene in this film is incredible to watch, and often the writers threw in a bit of humor and sly wit to keep the audience smirking.

In the end, the success of this franchise might have been the one thing that kept it from flourishing in part three. Instead of sticking to the roots, fleshing out two or three key relationships and having a good time, Spiderman 3 throws countless wrenches into countless gears seemingly just to see what happens. Characters arise that have no purpose right alongside other characters that are interesting but underdeveloped due to overcrowding. Slash a third of the film’s weighty cast, tone down the melodrama cheese factor and get Spidey back to what Spidey does best, and this would have been the coup de grace of the franchise. As it stands, it’s just a plain old big budget summer movie – good for a thrill, but lacking that timelessness that built Spiderman up over the last 5 years.

Media Reviews

Jon Stewart is some kind of incredible genius; I saw this posted at Transbuddha, a cool little clip of him on Bill Moyer’s show on PBS. Check it out at the PBS website here.

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