FOT Forum
The Best Show on WFMU => Mike And His Ilk. => Topic started by: B_Buster on November 06, 2009, 05:35:24 PM
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This will be where I post about stuff I really like. First up: Marilynne Robinson's novel, Housekeeping.
This has is it all, people: family tragedy (twice!), family dsyfunction, social awkwardness, loneliness, transience, hoarding (!), and the writing is fantastic!
There's also a movie version which I saw in the 80s when it came out (I was a big Bill Forsyth fan at the time--whatever happened to him? Local Hero is an all-time favorite), but I don't remember much about it. I will be checking it out again soon if it's still available.
Next up: Gilead and Home. I like to read authors in chunks.
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Haven't read the book, but I saw the movie based on it a couple of years ago, pretty good, strange ending.
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the writing is fantastic!
That is an understatement.
In my top five books i've ever read.
Did you mention it has trains too, Buster?
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No. I didn't want to offend the anti-spoiler crowd, fonpr. But if it will entice a few more people: there's a spectacular train wreck.
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the writing is fantastic!
That is an understatement.
In my top five books i've ever read.
Did you mention it has trains too, Buster?
I second or third or whatever this - both book and movie.
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In my top five books i've ever read.
What are the other four?
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There's also a movie version which I saw in the 80s when it came out (I was a big Bill Forsyth fan at the time--whatever happened to him? Local Hero is an all-time favorite), but I don't remember much about it. I will be checking it out again soon if it's still available.
I think they filmed this in Oregon and Christine Lahti stars in it. she's so good in it too.
RE Local Hero - one of my fave Burt Lancaster performances. I can still make my mom lose her shit just by going:
"H A P P E R I S A M O T H E R F U "
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In my top five books i've ever read.
What are the other four?
One Hundred Years Of Solitude
The Trial
are two of them.
I need time to consider the last two.
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Housekeeping is indeed fantastic, but man oh man, Gilead really moved me, and I'm dead inside (some days)!
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Housekeeping is indeed fantastic, but man oh man, Gilead really moved me, and I'm dead inside (some days)!
I really need to read Gilead and Home. I have copies of both, I just haven't gotten to them yet.
Who was the dude who was reading The Remainder, and have you finished it yet?
also, has anyone read Fraction of the Whole round here?
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Whenever leaves blow into my house in autumn, I think of Housekeeping.
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Whenever leaves blow into my house in autumn, I think of Housekeeping.
Me too!
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RE Pop 1280 (an awesome, disturbing book) ... have you seen Coup de Torchon?
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RE Pop 1280 (an awesome, disturbing book) ... have you seen Coup de Torchon?
Yes. Loved it.
This week's picks: Jim Thompson's Pop. 1280, Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death, and Coup de Torchon.
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Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death
I second that this is essential reading.
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Mike have you seen "Old Boy" or the Korean "Breathless" ("Shitfly" in Korean)? Both harrowingly violent, but Old Boy is more twisted and has cooler cinematography.
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I saw Old Boy. I thought it was silly.
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My off-topic, (non-)contribution to this thread: have you ever read any Breece D'J Pancake?
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No, Lyle. What do you recommend?
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I'd offer up this (http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/82oct/pancake.htm) or this (http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/77dec/pancake.htm) as an introduction
his entire body of work is sold in a single scrawny paperback so there's not much direction to set
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In my top five books i've ever read.
What are the other four?
One Hundred Years Of Solitude
The Trial
are two of them.
I need time to consider the last two.
Have you had enough time? People are waiting, fonpr.
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In my top five books i've ever read.
What are the other four?
One Hundred Years Of Solitude
The Trial
are two of them.
I need time to consider the last two.
Have you had enough time? People are waiting, fonpr.
I did think of one more. Status Anxiety by Alain de Button.
I just got a new copy and was planning on rereading it. What I remember: If you don't want to go religious to be free you gotta go bohemian. At least that's what I got out of it.
What number is that?
I started City of Fear and Hollywood destroyed itself again (2012) and I'm still on the first chapter. Prescient.
p.s. Neil Young nailed it in Revolution Blues.
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I enjoyed Closely Watched Trains so much I watched it twice this weekend. Check it out!
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I'm watching I Love You, Alice B. Toklas. It's not bad.
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I enjoyed Closely Watched Trains so much I watched it twice this weekend. Check it out!
One of my all-time favorites.
That director released a film in 2008, I Served The King Of England, that was adapted from another novel by the same author who wrote Closely Watched Trains. It's worth checking out if you liked Closely Watched Trains. It's kind of a neat companion piece - a young Czech kid whose only ambition is to live easy gets caught up in WWII, but it takes the story a lot further. It's still as breezy and funny as CWT, though. They're fun to compare.
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Will do, Pat. Did you get the sense while watching Closely Watched Trains that David Lynch was deeply influenced by it? I did.
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You know, that never ocurred to me till you just mentioned it, but that's an interesting take on it. I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I watch it.
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I watched Closely Watched Trains this Christmas on the Net Flix and concur that it's great. It was much funnier and more endearing than I expected. Feels very fresh today.
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This will be where I post about stuff I really like. First up: Marilynne Robinson's novel, Housekeeping.
This has is it all, people: family tragedy (twice!), family dsyfunction, social awkwardness, loneliness, transience, hoarding (!), and the writing is fantastic!
There's also a movie version which I saw in the 80s when it came out (I was a big Bill Forsyth fan at the time--whatever happened to him? Local Hero is an all-time favorite), but I don't remember much about it. I will be checking it out again soon if it's still available.
Next up: Gilead and Home. I like to read authors in chunks.
Sounds like Fried Greens Tomatoes are there any immigrants in it?
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Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death
I second that this is essential reading.
Thirded. We are all gods with anuses.
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Ernest Becker's The Denial of Death
I second that this is essential reading.
Thirded. We are all gods with anuses.
I'm reading it again. This is my favorite Ernest Becker quote: "And yet this, after all, is the quintessential meaning of anality: it is the protest of all of man's cultural contivances as anal magic to prove that of all animals he alone leads a charmed life because of the splendor of what he can imagine and fashion, what he can symbolically spin out of his anus."
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I really enjoyed The Phenix City Story. It's a semi-documentary noir about a corrupt city in Alabama. Great stuff! And still shocking 55 years later.
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I'm re-reading The Sot Weed Factor right now. I think everyone here would like it a lot. Especially Mike and Fredericks.
It's a huge sprawling conspiracy satire about a gigantic dork set in colonial times.
Check it out
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I'm re-reading The Sot Weed Factor right now. I think everyone here would like it a lot. Especially Mike and Fredericks.
It's a huge sprawling conspiracy satire about a gigantic dork set in colonial times.
Check it out
Whoa!
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I've had the Sot Weed Factor on my bookshelf for a couple decades now. One of these days...
Right now I'm reading Final Cut by Stephen Bach about the Heaven's Gate fiasco. Then I'm going to read The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon about the Bonfire of the Vanities fiasco. I'm into fiascos these days. Maybe because I'm living in one.
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Right now I'm reading Final Cut by Stephen Bach about the Heaven's Gate fiasco.
I seriously thought of the other Heaven's Gate as I was reading this post, since I could see them also falling into your field of interest, and the Final Cut title had a very different meaning until I realized my mistake.
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Surprisingly, Wes, I have no interest at all in those other Heaven's Gaters. Compared to Jim Jones, that weird nerd was a piker.
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I've had the Sot Weed Factor on my bookshelf for a couple decades now. One of these days...
Right now I'm reading Final Cut by Stephen Bach about the Heaven's Gate fiasco. Then I'm going to read The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon about the Bonfire of the Vanities fiasco. I'm into fiascos these days. Maybe because I'm living in one.
I fucking LOVE books about movie failures for some reason. In addition to the above I also loved Hit & Run about Peters & Guber. Those guys are failures more in a cultural sense rather than a financial sense.
PS Not only Barth but Gaddis as well for me. I have learned though. I have kept only one novel by those guys. If the spirit moves me, I'll read the one I've held onto, but I'm drowning in books enough as it is. I'm actually about ready to donate a fuckload of them to Housing Works.
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I loved The Emporer's Naked Army Marches On! What a surprise, huh?
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Yeah, it's great, isn't it? What a guy, that guy.
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a fuckload
What's That?
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a fuckload
What's That?
One quarter of a pallet.
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Failed movie books are great, and I also love several books about music that I can't stand, particularly the 60s-70s So Cal scene. Any book mentioning the D.Geffen/Asylum Records stable, or CSN&Y and their ilk is going to be juicy. I'm also looking forward to checking out ..And Party Every Day: The Casablanca Records Story. But for sordid, ultra-sleazy Hollywood behavior, John Phillips's Papa John is the one to beat.
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PS Mike, I'm sure you already know about Fiasco, which dedicates a chapter to each of those movies along with Ishtar, Popeye, Paint Your Wagon et al...
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I'm re-reading The Sot Weed Factor right now. I think everyone here would like it a lot. Especially Mike and Fredericks.
It's a huge sprawling conspiracy satire about a gigantic dork set in colonial times.
Check it out
I should try it again; I tried about 12-15 years ago and couldn't get to page 100.
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Mike, we've all heard how Tom felt about "The Wet and Wild Whites of West Virginia." Would you care to present an opposing view here?
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Mike, we've all heard how Tom felt about "The Wet and Wild Whites of West Virginia." Would you care to present an opposing view here?
We had to pause it at one of the tree illustrations so we could get the geneology straight. What a beautiful family tree it is!
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Mike, we've all heard how Tom felt about "The Wet and Wild Whites of West Virginia." Would you care to present an opposing view here?
We had to pause it at one of the tree illustrations so we could get the geneology straight. What a beautiful family tree it is!
Bearing prunish fruit.
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Mike, we've all heard how Tom felt about "The Wet and Wild Whites of West Virginia." Would you care to present an opposing view here?
Easily the best movie I've seen in the last 5 years.
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My favorite scene was easily the post-delivery one in the hospital. Incredible.
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Mike, have you seen Attack The Gas Station? I highly recommend it.
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I have not. I will keep an eye out.
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Anyone seen Dogtooth? Weird and disturbing and occasionally funny (particularly the dance scene). Fans of David Lynch will probably like it. Check it out!
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Anyone seen Dogtooth? Weird and disturbing and occasionally funny (particularly the dance scene). Fans of David Lynch will probably like it. Check it out!
I watched it recently. I thought it was more disturbing than funny, but I thought it was a weirdly clever idea for a film. The dance scene did make me laugh out loud, but I think that was the only part that did. Maybe if I watched it again it would be more comical without the initial shock.
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Anyone seen Dogtooth? Weird and disturbing and occasionally funny (particularly the dance scene). Fans of David Lynch will probably like it. Check it out!
I watched it recently. I thought it was more disturbing than funny, but I thought it was a weirdly clever idea for a film. The dance scene did make me laugh out loud, but I think that was the only part that did. Maybe if I watched it again it would be more comical without the initial shock.
I just watched it and thought it was pretty great. I also agree it was more disturbing than funny. The moment for me when it became a comedy was when he starts beating people with vhs tapes and then delivers bad insults. I wonder if Philly Boy Roy also beats people with Rocky vhs tapes?
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I liked Dogtooth but also felt like it wasn't nearly as deep as the filmmaker thinks it is.
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I just finished Dogtooth. I found it more gripping than 127 Hours. Only paused it once, and that because I had to let a cat in (I take those kinds of risks) and didn't want to miss a subtitle. Of course, it reminded me of a Dogme 95 film. Also, perhaps oddly, 120 Days of Sodom, because it is so stylized and formal and cool while depicting some pretty disturbing events.
I especially liked that it managed to be in some ways very sweet. And, as far as the cat scene goes, I've seen way worse.
You must be happy sad, Mike.*
*I mistakenly thought Dogtooth had won the best foreign film Oscar.
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as far as the cat scene goes, I've seen way worse.
I don't doubt that's true, but as an utterly prostrate cat worshiper, I don't think I can stand even a scene of which it could be said "I've seen worse."
There is no dramatic justification for even implying the human sufferizing of cats, ever.
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as far as the cat scene goes, I've seen way worse.
I don't doubt that's true, but as an utterly prostrate cat worshiper, I don't think I can stand even a scene of which it could be said "I've seen worse."
There is no dramatic justification for even implying the human sufferizing of cats, ever.
Listen, I know you love animals and all, this is a fucking movie. No actual cat got hurt. If it did, I'd be protesting with you. But as it stands, this is fiction. And if you watch the movie, there is a reason why the cat gets it.
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You must hate Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
as far as the cat scene goes, I've seen way worse.
I don't doubt that's true, but as an utterly prostrate cat worshiper, I don't think I can stand even a scene of which it could be said "I've seen worse."
There is no dramatic justification for even implying the human sufferizing of cats, ever.
You must hate Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
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Oh, and Drag Me to Hell!
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Sarah: Never seen either of those.
Woodandiron: You may have noticed I said "even implying." I'll stand by that. There is no dramatic justification for it. If you want to make the human character out to be an inhumane psychopathic shitheel, there are other ways.
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Sarah: Never seen either of those.
Woodandiron: You may have noticed I said "even implying." I'll stand by that. There is no dramatic justification for it. If you want to make the human character out to be an inhumane psychopathic shitheel, there are other ways.
And I'm just saying we can detest the actual thing without going so far as to detest fictional representations of the thing. Dogtooth can never be confused as to condone harming cats.
I mean, how many movies have you seen where a person has been killed? Should we stop making those movies as well?
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And I'm just saying we can detest the actual thing without going so far as to detest fictional representations of the thing.
I agree that this is possible. It just isn't for me.
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I wish I hadn't been aware there was some cat-directed violence before I watched the movie. I was a little tense waiting for it and, from the comments here, was expecting something really horrible. It turned out to be quite discreet, and, since it involved a fucked-up boy doing a fucked-up thing because of the fucked-up things that had been/were being done to him, there was nothing frivolous or exploitative about it.
Do we think poor eldest daughter asphyxiates in the end, by the way?
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Do we think poor eldest daughter asphyxiates in the end, by the way?
Yeh I think that's the case. She gets so close to finding out about the real world but fails.
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I wish I hadn't been aware there was some cat-directed violence before I watched the movie. I was a little tense waiting for it and, from the comments here, was expecting something really horrible. It turned out to be quite discreet, and, since it involved a fucked-up boy doing a fucked-up thing because of the fucked-up things that had been/were being done to him, there was nothing frivolous or exploitative about it.
Do we think poor eldest daughter asphyxiates in the end, by the way?
probably.
I was waiting for the moment when she would get out and run off but in a way i think it's better that they never saw the real world, they're already way to fucked up to enter society
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Wow. What a bunch of pessimists! I don't think you can say for sure that the elder suffocates. I mean, are trunks of cars completely airtight? I don't think so. On the other hand, if she's locked in, she could become dehydrated or starve to death.
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I figured the idling engine would pump carbon monoxide into the trunk, so even if it isn't air-tight, poor Bruce is a goner.
Which reminds me, was the security guard a goner, too? Since she was the snake in the garden, I suppose I shouldn't care.
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Again, hard to say. She did take a severe blow to the head with an unusual blunt instrument (spoilers!), though. Speaking of which:
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jerseycity/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1298964321108170.xml&coll=3 (http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/jerseycity/index.ssf?/base/news-11/1298964321108170.xml&coll=3)
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She did take a severe blow to the head . . .
Two!