18 may 2001 // long week rantage, dream store, Driven no *baka*
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oh, I am soooo ready for the weekend. it's been one hell of a week (or two, or so) ... starting with having to go to santa fe on monday *again* to set up the computer (laptop this time), all week dealing with the backlog of email from last friday and the weekend that didn't get checked (when we had the big opening and "web premiere" that generated a lot of email), plus the usual new acquisitions stuff and I don't know when i'm going to get through the returned invitations... *sigh* Not gonna kill Ken... not gonna kill 'im... not gonna kill 'im...
Mom gave me a gift certificate for a massage for my birthday - i'm going to try to use it soon... tomorrow if i can. :) hmm... need to lay off the caffeine a bit, too - don't need the chemically-induced jitters along with everything else stressing my body. Gotta try to remember to take the st. john's wort, that helps too.
Only 12 days till i'm off for a week to go to A-Kon!!! Yay! i don't think i'm going to be able to do any other costumes than the Merle one i already have, though. Maybe a subtle one of Priss from BGC 2040 since I already have the components, but i'm not going to get the Digi Charat hat done like I thought. :P which is unfortunate, since I tend to say "-nyo" a lot more than I say "Vaaan-samaaaa!" *grin* I am going to have my "hello dragonslayer" t-shirt, though. I'm thinking of selling stuff with that design through cafepress.com - anyone interested? (I, for one, want one of the cool big coffee mugs - Dad seems to have appropriated my kimiko one 'cause it's such a nice size)
There's been a recurring element in my dreams lately - a large anime-type store in Deming, of all places, in what i'd guess you'd call Farmers' Mall, where Showtime is (or used to be, in my dream). Deming. An anime store in Deming. I visit it when I go to visit Melanie and D.J. and Emily (that's all there is for me in Deming anymore ^_^). I think the anime store first started appearing about a month or two ago. Now, Melanie & Co. are going to be moving to Austin, TX ... and I'm sure there's gotta be a big anime store there (at least one)... so maybe my dreams were trying to tell me about this? *scritcha scritcha*
Driven review/rant/spoilerish...
I saw Driven last weekend for the sole purpose of being able to snark about it with Dad and Yuncle Tom - they were talking about how bad it was, and I just had to find out. They were right. Geh. There were about two redeeming scenes in the whole movie. The race through the Chicago streets was just damn cool, and so completely implausible that it was easy to invoke the suspension of disbelief and enjoy it for the fantasy it was. I laughed through the whole chase. :) The other redeeming scene was... um... well, maybe the race at the end, though I have some definite nitpicks about it. It was attempting to be too realistic to be able to let it go like the Chicago scene. And there was a really gorgeous explosion in one scene, which I still think would never really have happened the way it did. But as for the rest... the drama they tried to work into the plot was so forced, so stilted. None of the characters were really likeable, though the main kid, "Jimmy Bly", came closest - but it was more pity than affection for him. Burt Reynolds' team owner character was a complete asshole, pure and simple... and a stupid one at that. The... the way the characters react to their fortunes on the track - at the beginning, Brandenburg (the "established star" as opposed to Bly, the "up-and-coming rookie") has had 3 wins - 3 wins! - in the first 3 races of the season, then finished second (to the rookie) in the next two... and he thinks he's having a horrible season! That's a damn good start for a racing season in anyone else's book! What the hell is he complaining about?!? (many, many times during the course of this movie did I want to beat the crap out of one character or another with the baka hammer...) Mr. A$$hole Team Owner (I don't even remember the character's name, that's how highly I regarded him), at the end of the movie, is going to fire the prize rookie because he's not going to win the championship - after having a rookie season that any driver would kill for any year of their career! (*BAKA*) Sylvester Stallone's "grizzled veteran" Joe Tanto talks about needing to the race for the sheer joy of racing, but there's almost none of that feeling actually coming across in the film. (*BAKA*) And don't even get me started on the poor rookie's domineering brother - in any other film, he would be a freakin' stalker! (*BAKA BAKA BAKA*)
I can't help but compare any racing movie to Days of Thunder - sorry, I know there are older ones, but that's my reference point. DofT had likeable characters (my favorite actually isn't Tom Cruise's young hotshot, but Robert Duvall's fatherly crew chief), great lines, mostly true-to-reality racing scenes, and was a fun, enjoyable movie overall. I need to get it on DVD so I can skip to all my favorite scenes ("I want you to go back out there and hit the pace car." "What?!" "Hit. The pace. Car." "Why?!" "You hit damn near everything else on that track, I want you to be perfect!") *grin*. At the end of DofT, you have the feeling that "hey, NASCAR racing looks like fun, I bet I could do that!" At the end of Driven, you get the feeling that you want to avoid CART at all costs. It just doesn't look fun, which IMO is what racing is supposed to be.
Now, what would make a really awesome racing movie? Kevin Harvick's story this year. Proof positive that real life provides drama that fiction can never top. Wow.
recent alterations //
21 November 2002 // I'm not dead yet!
03 October 2002 // Snarling bitch to genki fangirl in 0.8 seconds flat! [i]
27 September 2002 // He's got butterfly wings, not feathery angel wings. Geez, people!
25 September 2002 // The Great Oekaki Contest Begins! [ai]
14 September 2002 // The obsessiveness continues...
