Les Aimes Premiere, Rent Later

Given a true option, I will always choose comrades over personal comfort.

Case in point;

I would rather spent a month of rent towards a meal prepared by an amicable chef over a lease.

Connection is more fundamental to ones own being than such a simple luxury than a domicile.

In 30 days, the one night entertained by the company of comrades, and fed by the competence of a co-soul is more valuable, to me, than a place to call my own. This is not altruism. This is the value of community. There will always be a couch or a floor or a gutter or a Y to crash at... a night of sublime and privilege to be a recipient of another's will and skill of passion will always trump my personal comfort.

Simple things like wages, money or a place to crash are a dime a dozen...

to afford the sublime of mutual appreciation, the gourmand speaking here, is paramount.

If I had to trade a bed vs. affording a friend's services dictated by whomever they are employed by...

I choose friends.

Thus I call upon Orwell's "Down & Out in London & Paris."

I will survive the slings and arrow of the circuit, for a true gourmand.

"It is amazing how one can exist without the necessities of life as long as one has access to its luxuries."
to poorly paraphrase "Pitch Black."

On that note, I would cross the pond for a good meal - and as a guy, the possibility of a lay, but that is a distant secondary.

I know where my priorities lay.

If in my power, I will easily put comfort aside for the sake of an others' need.

I feel that, through my history, this is weird...

...but why?

I just don't get how connection is secondary to contentment.

They are one in the same right?

Right?

I would much rather put my own lack of resources in jeopardy for the sake of another and their company than to struggle and starve alone...

Mind you this is by no means altruism as I feel I gain more through these moments than anyone else...

So what is it?

I need people more than they need me?

Je ne sais bobkat....

...but if ever the call comes down the line,

I will steal cars,

hold up an Exxon,

or just whatever.

Its not me that is so sacred,

it's honest humanity.

Skipping the pond is a bit of a leap,

haven't been/ had to yet...

but its not beyond reach,

nor conception...

...but i hold nothing back.

That isn't a New Year's res by any means...

...it's just how i roll...


Happy Happy.

Pigmy Glitter Giraffes & One-Dimensional Time Tigers

Apparently there is a "season" for animal prints in the fashion industry.

By my quickest calculations this seems to be the autumn. I wonder if that has any socio-historical correlation with the traditional agrarian post-harvest months of the "hunting season..."

Is why the all-black outfits are so popular in the winter months have something to do with the color spectrum, i.e. the sunlight will create more heat for someone wearing all black through a greater absorption of light waves?....

Can the same be said for wearing white long-sleeves and pants in summer as it would reflect more light, less it be absorbed by skin, or exposed to water leaching dessert winds?

Do the colors of spring reflect upon our natural kinship and love nature by way of imitating the emergence of leaf and flower buds?

Some things in the world of garb grab and hold slightly to these little strings of common sense... but little else does...
... especially in these post-industrial days...

Speaking of fashion, remember suffrage? Yeah, that worked.

Ever worn 6" heels, a leather mini, corset, and a studded choker?

Ever seen a Paris, London or NYC fashion show?

Do these women subject themselves to such confines...


...because it's comfortable?
...because it's affordable?
...because it's liberating?
...because it hurts so good?
...because it makes them feel,
 a greater sense of self-worth?
...because it's for each other's enjoyment?
...or is it for someone else,
but not so much anyone in particular?

I cannot complain...
to the extent that there is
a science of desire fueling,
in large part,
all this otherwise obvious insanity...

If one would take into consideration the $'s
(by the way that is the "dollar" sign, not a money sign - thus the "'s" 
- even though in this day dollar and money sorta mean the same thing in the world of finance) 
spent per annum in the combined industries of fashion;

• Modeling - the print ads, billboards, tv spots...
• Modeling, itself - the women (and men), the run-way shows, the press, the designer names, the Oscar/Emmy/ award-show red carpets...
• Accessories - handbags, belts, wraps, hats, etc.
• Lingerie - bras, panties, boi-shorts, garters, corsets, etc.
• Make-up - lipstick, concealer, creams, mascara, blush, eyeshadow, etc.
• Jewelry - 'nuf said.
• The diet/ exercise industry... 
• And the clothing itself - much like cars, the ones at the show & the ones at the stores, & the stuff Bjork wears... (I love her, but the Swan thing was too much) 

All that money, time, beauty and talent...

For what? This?...

"Desire me. Just don't look at me! I'm not a sex object, I just dress and paint myself like one. Money is't important to me, but I won't even consider a second glance unless it looks as if you can afford all these material things that I require so that I can costume the part of the thing that I've been told you desire a.k.a. the thing I don't want to be!!!!!!"

No wonder we spend so much money on drugs and "mental health."

So much for values.
So much for the person on the inside.
So, so much for being liberated from the confines of a male dominated society....

Both men and women (to different degrees) are victims of this suicidal ideology... Simply, men are conditioned to believe this is the life they should want/ will make them happy, & women are conditioned to believe this will get them the life that want/ will make them happy... men are doomed as so few women are 5'11' 120 lbs, and will stay 24 for all time... and women are doomed as so few women are 5'11' 120 lbs, and will stay 24 for all time...

and it is spreading...

think of the children!...

Leave it at the door; better yet, don't ever attempt to serenade a whore.

People are such ridiculous creatures, at least the most of them anyway.

For the longest time, I had hoped that the pathetic phenomena of prioritizing personal appearance over everything else was just a folly of youth.

As I am sure at one point in time or another
we have all championed
our own self image
in the face of criticism,
but shouldn't the process
of "growing-up"
a.k.a. maturing
include, near its core,
a striving to reconcile
who we think we are as a person,
with who we actually are
according to our actions,
as well as with
who we dream to be?

Alas, I may expect too much.

It seems that whether it is in a personal, professional, or political realm,
it is the image (or mirage)
one creates of one's self,
for ones self,
in the desperate hope that others will see the same image,
that many individuals choose to endorse,
over and in opposition to everything else.

The ultimate failure is when the individual (or constructor) will cling to their own self-image over what others tell them they really appear as.
And when this desperation
-to cling to ones own perception of what they think they appear to others as-
continues to exist,
in the face of not just the testimony of the people that can actually see the real appearance of said individual,
but in addition to quotes of said individual,
as well as examples of that individual's behavior
-which clearly contradict this self-image-
that will make the grossest fool of each of us all.

Take into consideration a person who would vehemently describe themselves as a "good person."
(as  I illustrated in another post, "good" is a purely subjective and ultimately meaningless term - so without even starting to explain you can already see the hilariously sad, buffoonish contradiction sprouting here) 
Since "good" is already a word that really only means anything to the person saying it,
it would seem a fairly ignorant and dismissive way to attempt to describe oneself to anyone else...

This is the kind of malarky commonplace among corrupt politicians.

To be frank, 

the whole idea of constructing a self-image 

in regards to how others view oneself 

is rather oxymoronic. 

Shouldn't the image one has of oneself,

in regards to how one appears to others,

be constructed from testimony,

as opposed to self-generated fantasy?

So it follows then,

that flattery

is the most damning 

of all forms of lies?

...

Wouldn't we all be better off

with compassionate & critical honesty?

This no matter how poorly conceived or constructed,
that self image is necessary for the early phases of
(childhood) psychological development.
Remember your early teens?
All that traumatic exploration of social norms,
groups and gender rolls?..

The traditional american middle & high schools are,
if little else,
institutions of social conditioning.
Social cliques, and the growing complications of
managing interpersonal relationships
are necessary to struggle though
in order to escape
slavery to them.
That is if one ever longs to leave
that mental state in the first place...

LINK TO LARGER IMAGE

The only hope of integrating
the who you want to seen as,
the actual who other people see,
and the who you want to be...

... is to adopt a universal honesty.
That includes being able to recognize those
who have little personal integrity and aptly
judge their words & opinions accordingly.

Which is not to say, dismiss any dissenting
or poorly explained, or self-contradicting,
commentary flung like feces in your face...
but ask why, of all parties involved...
you very well may learn a little about
everyone involved, including yourself...

So, what's your New Year's resolution?

Cheers.

the cycle and the hammer - a poem of sorts

The spattered torrent of specked winter wind bit as a haggard hound. A howl echoed between dimensions of physicality and feeling, while tombstone trucks lay lining the street like covered corpses at a crime scene. And an icy silence filled the gaps between gusts that would make the soulful moan of a midnight morgue cause eardrums to rupture and run. 

Heat from a cigarette's smoke curled through loosely clutched fingers, while a wresting weight held hopelessly hanging in the other hand recalled the gravity of the situation. And a leaded heart sank the soul lower into the depths of the darkness. Just enough reflected silver light from the sliver of the moon made barely visible the tracks that led to the current stance. But the question still lingered, "How had it come to this?"

Was there ever a time that is was easy to play along with the game that had no rules? Or for always had hurting been so hard? Had all these years of endless contest in which there could be no victor chipped away so relentlessly that there was nothing left but shards of obsidian to comprise this endless black sea? At that thought, a tide of those razor waves swept over again, grinding all pebbles of remorse back to the dust from which their original stones were conceived. 

Wingbeats of snow fluttered more thickly against the face clinging to whatever foothold it could find, clouding that dark vision until it became ghostly blur. If there could be such a lightness of nothing, that would embody the truly sublime.

a plea for concise wording

Huge pet peeve. Meaningless words.

Nothing boils my blood more than the misuse of words. If you misuse words, not only do you fail to make whatever point it was you were attempting to illustrate in the first place but you run the risk of unintentionally propagating two other dangerously insidious follies.

First, you will possibly confuse those of limited mind whom may hear your message but fail to comprehend its intended meaning as you have poorly chosen your vocabulary and thus the inherent ambiguity of some of those words lead to a detrimental interpretation.

Second, you are reinforcing the ambiguity of certain words via sloppy use or the lack of pertinent qualifiers such as adverbs that might otherwise erase any room for misinterpretation.

But what, you may ask, are examples of these ambiguous terms....?

Good, bad, & a lot are the classic examples any English teacher will hopefully point out as they are totally dependent on two things; according to which/ whose point of view? and in comparison to what? A kid in early grade school may say that having his lunch stolen from him once a month by the class bully is both "bad" and it seems to happen to him "a lot" in comparison to how many times that bully's lunch is from him. Now, if you are the prison bitch and your lunch is stolen only once a month instead of every day, and there is no associated shanking or unwelcome penetration, then that's fairly "good." So, good, bad, and a lot are fairly useless words without better ones to support them... and if a word needs that much help to provide a clear meaning, then its fairly useless altogether.

Two others I find abhorrent are "crazy" and "drugs." What in the world do either of these mean anymore? They serve a purpose due to their ambiguity by which you can use a person's preconceived notions against them to make them the fool... but what is crazy? according to who? When it is said, "That was fucking crazy! Did you see that?" vs. "Oh, that guy who shot up all those innocents was really crazy, he should be medicated." Is that not two different crazies? What about the "drug addict" vs. "the drug store?" are they not both drugs?
Crazy is relative to the accuser as drugs are to the taker.

So when you say something, choose your words carefully, otherwise you run some serious risks, and may raise some rather awkward questions... 

Pink snow buffalos of absurdity, and gods

It's cold out there.  Not the temperature silly, although depending on where you're at it could be...

Well, it's pink. And it's in Buffalo... New York... which get's lot's of snow...

Nah, what I meant was in a more eternal scope.

No, think about it... For example, there is a bunch of talk by many concerning a higher power like a god and it's love or compassion or whatever. First off, this is very escapist and second it is beyond ridiculous.

Let's set up a comparison of scale to illustrate how absurd this is.

Squirrels.

I like squirrels, so let's use one of them. A human's idea of a god with feelings, it reasonably comparable to a squirrel in the park regarding the wino seated upon bench, and the bread crumbs he throws, as appearing as whatever a squirrel's diminished capacity for "feelings" like love might be.

O.k. let's pull this apart, now. Disregarding the dimensional shift that separates man from a god, the gap between a man's and a god's consciousness could be understood by comparing the gap in a squirrel's consciousness to that of some of the human race's most brilliant minds...

A squirrel cannot even conceive the vastness of the human experience, and could only demean it's existence by attempting to describe it in its own limited vocabulary of how it understands the world in which it lives...

...Kind of like ascribing human attributes such as love, or will, or vengeance, or compassion to a force akin to a god.

A god "cares" as much about you as you do for a squirrel.

So for the love of god, stop with this biblical nonsense! Think about what these people are saying and how contradictory it is...

So if you feel compelled to buy into an argument that you should or shouldn't do something simply because of what a god may or may not "want" of you...

Remember the wino on the park bench and the squirrels that surround him.

Goddamn Hippies

Those goddamn left-wingnut hippies are almost as bad as their loathed polar opposite the uber-"conservative" right. Although I fear the conservatives (what are they conserving anyway? All I can come up with is thought) more than the hippies, they are both guilty of the same intellectual treason.

That treason I speak of is that the hard-line stance each takes concerning their cause is so blind that more often than not, it seems, such a stance both isolates anyone from outside said position to remain locked out, and to make matters worse, these positions are further isolating in that they can often deny many forms of practical resolution to the "problems" that each stance seeks to solve...

Cases in point:

Vegan-ism. This shit is just retarded. There is nothing healthy about a protein deficient diet. Stuffing yourself with soy or beans & rice with every meal leaves little room in your regiment for vitamins... besides don't plants have "souls" too? Isn't eating the fetuses for fruiting bushes & trees paramount to practicing 2nd trimester abortions for the purpose of hors d'oeuvres (consider the word root of oeuvre, lol)? And if all that isn't enough... look in the mirror and smile... now start at your central incisors (front two teeth) and count two back... holy shit! Cuspids! WTF are those for? oh yeah, MEAT. Dear vegans, you are not saving anything except yourself - from a healthy, natural and well balanced diet.

Next...

Climate change in regard to fossil fuels. I don't even know where to begin on this one. It's such a huge and complicated problem that anyone who champions anything close to a unilateral option is too stupid for words. The two most significant factors but by no means the only ones, in my opinion, are the two you rarely hear about. First, the extra 5.5 billion people that showed up in the past 100 years. Did we discover two extra planet Earths to feed all these people? Or did the Green Revolution backfire completely in regards to it's intended use? We weren't supposed to make more people, we were supposed to feed all the starving ones we already had, back in the 70's...
Second, this overpopulation is in combination with the culture of waste the developed western societies are advertising (quite successfully) to the rest of the world under the guise of capitalism. Do you have any idea how much totally useable shit is just thrown out into landfills because it's dirty and unattractive to refill the plastic jug, or because it's no longer shiny, or because something NEW-er is now for sale? Or all those food wrappers and containers... Think about all the trees and barrels of oil and such that are disposed of because the can of beverage is empty or the take-out meal has been consumed...  The smaller issues like renewable energy, recycling, carbon footprints and other laughable shit like that are so secondary in that the overall effect of successfully tackling any one of those issues would be almost nil in the grand scheme of the overall problem.

Anyone still remember the three R's? Let me give you a hint, Recycle is the last one as it is the least effective...

In the middle is a good one but still not the best. It's Re-Use...

Brain burning yet? What is the most effective way to save yourself time, energy and money? AND save the Ocean?.. and the cute little creatures?.. and the rain forests?..

Reduce! Reduce use... reduce people... reduce "green house gasses" that lead to Global Climate Destabilization (not "global warming" or "climate change", as these are pre-existing natural cycles so when you misuse scientific terminology you just sound like a dunce; i.e. it's NOT global warming, stupid)... 

...Anyway...

Yet another example of of those goddamn hippies making reasonable solutions into galactically moronic death-spirals no one in their right mind would knowingly commit to...  


The "Occupy ______" movements. From reading statements and talking to members, it is clear that they agree that the 1% with the highest consolidation of wealth are "bad,"but there it little cohesion beyond that, especially when it comes to any form of solution. There also seems to be some confusion amongst the whole concerning history...
...Historically, it's always been that way. That's the nature of money, it's consolidated at the top. Anyone familiar with the distribution of wealth when it came to the rule of kings, tzars, popes, pharaohs etc. The pitiful masses are too divided, scatter brained & short-sighted to manage that much economic power... Consider most powerball lottery winners; most of them are broke as dirt within just a few years of winning those millions. If you aren't conditioned through your entire life, or through a ruthless study and labor of acquiring and building a fortune; odds are you won't have the skill set to manage more than a few paychecks at a time. The 1% earned that money by fleecing and manipulating it from the near thoughtless whimsey of the masses. So let them keep it.


Just to make this clear; who were the idiots that thought there was even such thing as a 0% interest loan to buy? Don't you know what a loan is? So, blame the housing bubble (and subsequent collapse) on your own inability to understand how money works.
If no one was dumb enough to think that there is such thing as a free loan to buy, there never would have been a housing bubble to make worthless credit default swap ponzi scheme investments in,  thus no economic collapse... so before you blame someone else for the situation you find yourself in, you'd better be damn sure your shit really does smell like roses first. See, the 1% is actually entitled to all that worthless money as you peons gave it to them willingly in the first place...


... the list could go on, but I think you are starting to get the point.

the big, hard, throbbing... bargain

A lessoned learned. When you are worried every day about how you will house and feed you and yours, you don't have the capacity to concern yourself with what may happen years from now.

If you live day to day, paycheck to paycheck you don't have the luxury of concern for the future of the biggest issue facing all of humanity; the environment and how to sustain these huge concepts like the health of the world's rain forests, or the world ocean - there is only one, the P, A, I, A, & S are all connected so they really aren't individuals...

My point being, choose one. You can't have both.

Either vacuum every resource you can as fast as you can in order to change the daily reality that 70% of the people on this planet are worried about having food TODAY, and every day following it....

OR

Reduce the need for food. Cull the hungry hoard.

Yup. Super fucked up and an impossible reality to face with any sort of "feeling."

But what would you rather. Just tomorrow, or tomorrow AND twenty years from now?

Which life system of this planet is not in serious peril within the next ten years? Seriously. NAME ONE!

Oh, sigh. You can't with a straight face, can you?

Funny thing about life, it's all interdependent. Loose one, you'll loose 'em all.

So. Kill everything, saving our own species to whittle itself away until we are the last species standing...

...or exercise a harsh but necessary level of self control in order to save it all?

Do you walk from the table with a few chips still in hand or bet the farm on a losing game?

Eden or the Sahara?

Neither has too many people, but which sounds like a better place to eek out a life?

Pick.

No. Really. "12 Monkeys"  or "Mad Max?"

it's late. i'll post the math tomorrow. 

holidaze

One down. Two to go. Yeah holidaze.
Clique for the musica fantastico: MUSICA or if you can't stand that one, MUSICA 2 
... it is the holidaze after all...

Personally, I could give a crap either way concerning this season in general. The stigma, pressure and fervor I could do without, but for the most part I like spending the time with most of my family eating, drinking, and usually the conversation. For example; had a nice meal earlier, swilling fermented grape products, and discussing among other things conditioned behaviors/ responses of americans in light of the various shootings of late slowly morphing to the question of what the future may hold for us and which will be the most imminent; massive climate shifts, augmented realities, or the wane of the concept of money...

Gift giving I don't mind, receiving them is tough for me. I usually don't want anything, and half the stuff I am given I tend to moan at the thought of having to "deal" with. I generally just want supplies -art stuff, culinary equipment or the money to buy whatever, later. Books are nice, but I am a deplorable reader. I love art, but rarely have anywhere to put it, other than in storage. Clothes are quite functional, but I have too much already as I still have a fair amount from over 10 years ago.

I like giving gifts and making people smile, but I never know what to get people as I mull over what people may need or would be able to make use of, rather than just buy dad a tie or some other tacky thing. Sigh... that, and I am almost always broke... but that is over with now. So nice.

Yet there is still so far to go.

Kind of dreading the birthday in a few. Another day of forced smiling. I always feel as if there is something I SHOULD do. These past couple years I just get kinda drunk early just so I won't have to face myself for the rest of the day, then slur my way through a fancy dinner so I can go home feeling alone in the universe no matter who is sleeping in my bed with me. That and it's always cold. I hate the cold. I hate not being able to enjoy being outside, even if its just a chair in a yard.

I think this year I might try being a selfish, vindictive prick more than, as I am often told, usual. Hmmm. I'll have to dig out a dark suit I suppose, and iron a crimson shirt, get a haircut before the day arrives... Sleep through as much of the morning as possible, ignore as many phone calls as I choose, then go somewhere posh and suck on a manhattan or two and graze on pretty little plates of skillfully prepared produce and baby animals ground or grilled swimming in rich sauces all served on fancy flatware and all under art deco or candle light while I wax poor poetic positions as I visually peel away the painted on appearance of the little black dress on everyone I deem physically deserving of wearing one, and eye-fuck each of them while I fork away at a few bites of something akin to a death by chocolate. Then home and to bed and the inky sleep to come, while a heartbreaker of a film flickers a few feet from my face.
Yeah.
This year we do the dance like only a good little Turgenev-ian nihilist of this day and age could.

And will neither apologize, nor feel in the slightest way that I should.

...but wait! We're not done.

MORE GREAT MUSIC: MUSICA 3

There is still the new year to ring in. SHIT!

I suppose I should look forward to it this year, as 2012 cannot end soon enough... but there is this ritual of celebration that always winds up so depraved... Dancing deftly to polka with a father's mistress at 14,  or perhaps wandering around a seaside town clutching a bottle of bubbly like a medicinal millennium club, or tripping balls trying to find my way out of the French Quarter dragging an equally drugged dancer to each new car we thought might be a cab, or sobbing into a phone to some poor thing that made the mistake of trying to love confessing all the horrors I imagined I might become, then there was the year of setting small fires at the edge of the desert just to see if the world could really burn, and there is always watching couples and strangers in double vision desperately trying to kiss their fears away under the blur of top hats and confetti...

I wonder what joys this new year may hold...

It's a new beginning for us all to continue our same old ways.

Oh the holidaze.

My movie list; 17 of my favorites.

Film is so awesome. One of my favorite things ever… The chance to get lost in a world of pictures, words, sound, music and light… all for the sake of feeling something- beauty, fear, love, sadness, rage… Some of my favorite movies are interpretations of really great books. So this is where some of my favorites stem from… however, there are several that were strictly screenplays.

Anywho… in no particular order here is a list.

Easy Rider.
Possibly one of the greater explanations of what real freedom is by a very stoned Jack Nicholas.  Also, the story of the epic soundtrack is hilarious… The makers of the film just picked some cool sounding songs for the sake of argument before it was pitched to Crosby Stills & Nash who then said there really couldn't see doing any better than what was there, so that soundtrack stuck.







Event Horizon.
Just great super spooky move with space and science and lots of hell references. Time travel and demential musings are also a favorite subject matter of mine. The lines "What is the shortest distance from one point to another?" "A straight line?" "Wrong. Zero. You fold space." illustrate a great concept.

Donnie Darko.
More time-y wime-y fun. Great soundtrack, again. Ohhh, young love.











Contact.
More space-y wace-y goodness. Based on a screenplay that turned into book by Carl Sagan. A great Jody Foster flick… Also offering an all too poignant point that government will ultimately hold the human race at arms length from its next phase of development...







Fight Club.
Not Chuck's best book, but one hell of a great movie. Desperate coping mechanisms we never so much fun nor so productive! And the sexiness of the whole thing really rings true with the taste of the book… It really is one of the best sex scenes on film. And the Dust Brothers did a wonderful job of providing the tunes.






Speaking of super sexy…

Closer.
This is one of my cry into a bottle of chardonnay films. Oh, the brutality of love. And some fine acting. And a very very fine Natalie Portman… the little girl from the Professional is all growed up.








Naturally,

Leon: The Professional. 
If you don't know Luc Besson films this one will sell you. A stunning Gary Oldman (one of the best actors ever- he makes any film good) A cleaner (hit man), an orphaned girl (a young Natalie) and a truly psychotic drugged-out cop… what could go wrong?








Traffic (or if you have a whole day, the much more compelling Traffik)
Want to get a good look at that War on Drugs? Go here. No one is spared.










Brazil
Terry Gilliam's inspired and fantastic interpretation of "1984." And a great song. Government working at its administrative best. Everyone should change their last names to something unmistakable… you'll thank me in 10 years.








12 Monkeys
Another great dystopian Terry Gilliam film. Inspired by the short "La Jete," with great visuals and two concepts at its heart that could fuel an entire doctorate in ethics… saving the planet at the cost of humanity as we know it & using those we have deemed inhumane for the purpose of experimental exploration…






Ghost in the Shell.
One of the most engaging Mangas I know. A great thinker on the nature of consciousness as well as a visually stunning film. 










Se7en
A great Christmas flick, considering it examines sin in contemporary America… And I'll go out on a limb and side with John Doe when it comes to who's innocent…









Requiem for a Dream
One of the harder movies to watch ever made… but you can't look away!Everyone but the Author of the book says it is a film about addiction, wrong. It's a film about LOVE. And if you want to read some  heartbreaking novels look no further… Hubert Selby Jr. scary good.







Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas. 
Another Terry Gilliam film, and again great book. Wonderful acting by Depp and del Toro… the American Dream was never so clearly realized and the monologues are so well done. It probably helped that Depp lived in Hunter's basement for roughly a year to prep for the film… it shows. And one could argue that without this experience Jack Sparrow never would have been.






and saving a few of the best for last…

Leaving Las Vegas
Cheers! Here's to finding love at the end of the line.
… also a really great soundtrack…









Blade Runner
Stunning. Just Stunning. The plot is wonky compared to the book, but still great. 









Apocalypse Now Redux
Based on my bible, The Heart of Darkness. You have to watch the Redux and not the '79 original. The storyline is all mangled in the '79 version and the picture is so much cleaner. This is three and a quarter hours of filmmaking GOLD. The documentary is also a great companion.








So, if you find yourself in need of some relaxing this week, may I make a suggestion?