PotD #5 - Life in the Woods + The West Spake Beckoning

Life in the Woods + The West Spake Beckoning

P. H. Madore, 2007

Video Spotlight: The Ledge

 

Video Spotlight: Gutless

 

Kevin Smith and "Soundtrack Movies"

In the 90s, soundtrack movies were king. There’s a clear distinction between soundtrack movies and movies with a soundtrack. Movies with a soundtrack are built around big names. They climb the charts to scream “Look at me!” at the top of their lungs and draw in millions of dollars in vinyl sales. That’s not a bad thing, and the music can be brilliant, but the market has become oversaturated. Soundtrack movies, which have become something of a novelty in the 21^st century, build a world around what we hear and how that relates to the film’s characters. They lend themselves to stories about growing up and finding your place in the world. No one understands this better than Kevin Smith.

Bad Moves: Wearing Out the Refrain (2024)

 

Since they burst onto the D.C. power-pop scene in 2015, Bad Moves has been vocal about their beliefs. Lyrics tackle topics ranging from religion to climate change and media over-consumption, and although Wearing Out the Refrain, the band’s third studio album, is sweeter than the rest of their punk-afflicted discography, it packs the same punch. Complex verses mix with unwavering instrumentals to create songs you can listen to again and again.

Note: I made a lyrics page! In the future I hope to expand it to other artists I have trouble finding online. Wearing Out the Refrain is work in progress because I'm transcribing it by hand. Bare with me.

steal thy glory, steal thy name

A lot has been going on, if you couldn't tell by the lack of new blog posts. The first Bruins preseason game is in a week. My birthday is three days away. All my plans for the future might be for not. These things are related. What better way to commemorate it all than to wax poetic about a multi-million dollar industry that will always have influence over me, no matter what I do?

Referencedale in Review: Season 7

 

Favorite Movie: Dirty Dancing (1987)

Favorite Episode: Stag (7x16)

Most Relevant: Don't Worry Darling (7x01 + 2022)

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We all new it was coming--welcome to the end. I don't want to get overly sappy because this is a CW show, but it undeniably changed my life and was there through some really rough patches. The quality of Season 7 doesn't negate that impact.

PotD #4 - Transcript of Psych Ward Guard #3 (Erasure Poem in Which I Am the White Space)

Transcript of Psych Ward Guard #3 (Erasure Poem in Which I Am the White Space)

Elena Ramirez-Gorski, 2021

a novice's guide to touch

This past winter (or was it two winters ago?), there would be days where I felt like I was about to burst out of my skin. Sure, I'm never able to watch a movie without burning through my five free lives on Candy Crush, or stopping halfway through to peruse Instagram Reels, but I pride myself on being able to start something and stick to it. On my good days, I can watch paint dry with a smile on my face.

Good days seemed impossible. Somewhere in the middle of everything, I managed to convince myself that I felt that way because I needed to go to a rock show. To a certain extent, that was true. I never went, but the knowledge that I could, that the problem was hypothetically fixable now that it was identified, was enough to tide me over while I shook myself to sleep. My mistake was not asking why. Why would a concert fix me? Did I need to get out of the house? Fresh stimuli? Sort of. The only thing I knew was that as soon as I entered the mosh pit, I would be able to let go.

why did "spaceman" work when nothing else did?

Note: This post deals heavily with suicidal thoughts and ideation. While I don't feel that way now, I did. It gets better. Maybe not easier, but you become better equipped to deal with it. You recognize the beauty in the mundane. Just hold on a little longer.

Whenever I try to stitch together the quilt of memories that makes up my early teenage years, I realize too late that I've run out of thread. I can hold individual panels in my hands, but I don't know where they belong, what colors and patterns are supposed to surround them. They float, loose in the corners of my mind. I remember "Spaceman" being my first iTunes purchase, listening to it on repeat in the back of my dad's truck during a road trip in fifth grade, but no, that can't be right. Things didn't get bad until middle school. Right?

The First and Only Time I'll Talk About a Modern Superhero Movie: Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)

 

 

For reasons that continue to elude me, my mother is obsessed with Deadpool. This woman hates gratuitous violence, crass language, and sitting still, but when it comes to Ryan Reynolds, who cares! I don't particularly care for superhero movies--aside from the Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, who do you take me for--but she and my brother had been looking forward to this for the past year, so I prepared myself for two hours I would never get back and joined them at the theater.

 

Note: SPOILERS AHEAD! Seriously. The whole thing is spoiled. If you care about this movie at all, watch it (you'll have a good time even if you don't love it) and read this as soon as you get home. As long as you don't forget about me :)

I'm the Only One Allowed to Talk About Chasing Amy

We all know that I'm a Letterboxd warrior. Whenever I watch a movie, I write my quippy two line review--or multi-paragraph stream of consciousness, if I'm feeling crazy--and check out what other people have to say. Sometimes I feel justified in my opinions, but other times I'm left baffled at the differences between us.

I'll be honest, I didn't "get" Chasing Amy (1997) the first time I watched it. I had seen Dogma (1999) a few months prior, heard that there was another Kevin Smith movie starring Ben Affleck, and jumped in head first. That's where I went wrong. Kevin Smith is a weird case where you have to have already seen all of his films (or all of the ones that matter) to truly understand and appreciate them. Of course I didn't like the movie because I hadn't seen Clerks (1994) and Mallrats (1995). All of his works exude a scrappyness that can be hard to look past, but by becoming familiar with the world he's created, you can see the trees through the forest.

A Deep Dive Into Clerks (1994)'s Special Features

 

If I love anything, then I fucking love DVDs. I love the snick of a case opening, the way they pile up on every available surface, and (of course) the bonus materials that are rarely found online. That said, some DVDs are better than others, like my 2 disc edition of The Social Network (2010) or any of the Jackass movies. How does the 1999 Miramax Collector's Series DVD of Clerks hold up?

 

Note: This is a review of the special features, not the film itself. Clerks is a flawed, yet comfortable look into an everyman's life, and it was a major part of the 90s indie movement. Because of that, it's hard to objectively rate it. Just kidding. / ★★★★

the death of the listicle from the inside out

Writing mini diary entries for the movies I watch each week seemed like a great idea. "Movie Reviewer" is a career path that I'll probably have to consider at some point, and I watch a lot of fucking movies, so shouldn't I get the practice in? I certainly have more to say than these official publication hacks who write a three sentence blurb and call it a day. Well, that's what I thought until the effort I would have to put in began to look endless.

complete buff catalogue

 

What do you do when you find yourself in the midst of a one man war to preserve media that no one really cares about? Apparently you spend hours, probably in the double digits, compiling a list of every feature film shown in the Boston Underground Film Festival's 25 year history. The Wayback Machine was a huge help, but some years were preserved better than others. Watch them all and maybe you'll learn something! I've learned that I miss the Most Effectively Offensive award.  

 

The Complete Boston Underground Film Festival on Letterboxd

Video Spotlight: Bull in the Heather

 

Referencedale in Review: Season 6

 

Favorite Movie: American Psycho: The Musical (2016)

Favorite Episode: The Jughead Paradox (6x05)

Most Relevant: American Psychos/American Psycho: The Musical (6x17 + 2016)

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Every choice is innovative, but original storylines means there's less of a need for movie references. Referencedale is dying a slow and painful death, but that means less work for me with only four companion films for this season. Here, here!

Week of Movies: 6/23-6/29

 

Sunday 6/23: In the Fog (2012)

Every time I go to the theater to watch foreign arthouse films, I ask myself why I always choose to watch "big" movies--summer blockbusters, comedies with star-studded casts--on the small screen. Here's your answer: I need to. Watching this on my laptop at 1pm blocked me from forming any meaningful opinions until I gave up 40 minutes in and resorted to reading reviews online. It doesn't help that it's not popular, so no one has really analyzed it, but maybe that's me being angry that I haven't been spoon-fed my own opinions. I had more fun thinking about it than watching it, yet I don't think I can really say I watched it. All I can say is that yes, it is crazy to carry around your dying friend and betrayer, and yes, I would do the same. / ★★★

Review: Someone's Utopia by Joe Hall

Tell Me What You Don't Remember

Someone's Utopia by Joe Hall

The hardest part about critiquing poetry is understanding its purpose. More than any other art form, poetry is born out of a need to bend, break, or ignore the rules altogether, so whether a poem is poorly written or very well written in a way you can't identify is objective. I know what I think of Joe Hall's fourth poetry anthology, but I'll present it to you both ways.

PotD #3 - The Circle of Addiction

The Circle of Addiction

Joe Hall, 2018

Week of Movies: 6/16-6/22

 

Sunday 6/16: Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

You know how I spent Saturday dumping all my DVDs on the floor to sort them by year? Well I decided to do that with my CDs too. In the depths of my Firefox windows, Ginger Snaps Back had been waiting for too long, so I finally pulled the trigger and watched it in the middle of my organizing mania.

    I rarely watch sequels of movies I like because of the likely chance they'll be bad. Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed (2004) is an anomaly. It may be less of a movie, but its self-confidence and lack of exposition makes it a lot more fun. Ginger Snaps Back decided that actually, the first movie didn't have enough exposition, and pull an Evil Dead 2 if Raimi hadn't learned anything in his six year reprieve. The action is boring because it's interspersed with so much filler. The charm of the first two is that you feel for everyone on screen, even if they objectively kind of suck; here, you don't even feel for the sisters. I'd say the writers need to go back to the drawing board, but that's what gave us this lukewarm straight-to-DVD shitfest to begin with. Let dead dogs (ha) lie. / ★★½

PotD #2: The Fake Tears of Shirley Temple

The Fake Tears of Shirley Temple

Patricia Lockwood, 2014

new page update

It's been a while! Well, maybe it doesn't look like it, if I finally get off my ass and backdate a couple Referencedale in Review posts, but for me I haven't touched this thing since maybe March. Where were we?

Week of Movies: 6/9-6/15

 

Sunday 6/9: Drylongso (1998)

When I got home from my week long vacation with friends, I was wiped. Shit needed to be unpacked, laundry needed to be folded, and I needed to lie on the floor for an undetermined amount of time. It felt natural to grab a DVD from the stack I picked up at the library and hit play. Now, as someone writing about film, I probably shouldn't be telling you this, but I have a bad habit of not paying attention. I'll throw something on for background noise and not retain any of it! Drylongso may have been one of these cases, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.

     Movies about the creative process are always a slam dunk. Drylongso tells the story of Pica's creative process—she loves photography, but struggles to fit in with her mentor and peers and their belief that "good" art must be made a certain way. She wants to capture the humanity she sees around her every day. It highlights all the good parts of the 90s independent movement, from the bright colors to the stilted, yet painfully earnest line deliveries. That's what kept me watching despite missing (pretty vital) parts of the plot: every actor had that look in their eyes. It was more than fiction, and that's what good cheap casting needs. My laundry got folded, and my mind got something to chew on, so I'd say it was a successful day. / ★★★★

Video Spotlight: Road to Nowhere

 

Referencedale in Review: Season 5

 

Favorite Movie: Strange Bedfellows (1965)

Favorite Episode: Citizen Lodge (5x12)

Most Relevant: Citizen Lodge/Citizen Kane (5x12 + 1941)

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For the past year or two, I've repeatedly claimed that s5 was my favorite season of Riverdale. I might have been wrong. While it takes the show in great new directions, a lot of the episodes fall flat because they don't know what to do with Hiram now that the protagonists are on (almost) level ground. The movies are also a lot duller, which doesn't sound like what you want out of this blog post, but it's what you're going to get. Get comfortable or get lost.

Referencedale in Review: Season 4

  

Favorite Movie: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

Favorite Episode: Wicked Little Town (4x17)

Most Relevant: Wicked Little Town/Hedwig and the Angry Inch (4x17 + 2001)

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Welcome to Hedwig Sweep. Season 4 marks the start of the writers relying more on original titles than movie references, and while that makes me a little sad, it's a testament to the strength of their ideas and means I get to do less work! Wahoo! Let's dig in; I promise this time my post is short and sweet (at least as much as it can be).

Referencedale in Review: Season 3

 

Favorite Movie: The Raid (2011)

Favorite Episode: The Great Escape (3x05)

Most Relevant: No Exit/In Camera (3x09 + 1964)

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Here we are again for what is quickly becoming the only thing on my blog. While s3 is miles better than s2 (my second favorite after s5), the movies were much less inspired, so. Prepare yourself.

one of us speaks only truths

What's the point if there are no fruits of our labor? Even now, I'm writing a blog post. This doesn't matter. I claim it's revolutionary to make art without expecting others to see it, and electronics dilute that. They turn steal your creativity and motivation to turn into something mechanical, but you can't do anything to stop it because every aspect of your existence relies on them.

I'm listening to music from my hard drive. Is that revolutionary? I have CDs, but I spend more time collecting them, or building shelves to store them, than playing them. Is the act of survival revolutionary? It feels like it. I don't want to be the head of a movement, but it looks like I don't have any other choice when it comes to living.

I'M ALIVE!

PotD #1: And So Long, I've Had You Fame

And So Long, I've Had You Fame

Lucie Brock-Broido, 1988