As Emperor Of The United States and Protector of Mexico, I, Joshua A Norton, do solemnly swear to use my powers for the greater good of the land. My first action as Imperial Majesty will be to declare all alcoholic beverages as the property of His Imperial Majesty, and to order a battle station to be built over San Francisco Bay with planet-destroying capabilities.
I've been having a pretty good weekend so far. Work has been pretty good, aside from having to deal with the usual gaggle of cheap fucks and dumb fucks that come into our store (I still can't believe the large number of people I've encountered while working at a bookstore that have absolutely no idea what the words "fiction" and "nonfiction" mean).
Friday Night: went back to the Tempe Cinema on Guadalupe & McClintock to attend another One Night Cinema event. The people who organize/sponsor this event should be canonized, considering the kinds of films they've been able to get into our cinephile-hostile environment. After watching Charles Burnett's astounding "Killer Of Sheep" at Tempe Cinemas, I've been making a point of trying to attend as many future One Night events as possible. The film they screened on Friday, "Day Night Day Night" was just fantastic. The film's premise: following around a young girl, who is mentally and physically preparing to kill herself in a suicide bomber attack on Times Square. What makes this film work so well is the tremendous amount of tension it gets out of its story. You know from the get-go that the girl is a terroist, and rather than try and demonize her, the film just depicts her as humanely as possible, which is what it makes it deeply uncomfortable. You get to see her ordering egg rolls, bashfully asking her co-conspirators (clad in ski masks) to join in her in eating her last pizza because she doesn't like to eat alone, taking a bath waiting for the bombmakers to arrive (this scene in particular is really unnerving, because they make the sound of her scrubbing her skin with soap sound incredibly loud and harsh, like two stones grinding together). There's no music in the film, just a very astute use of sound effects to create literally nail-biting suspense (another scene ups the volume on the click of a car turning signal, making it sound like the ticking of a bomb). Its an extraordinary film, shot on a cheap budget, but it looks...
Friday Night: went back to the Tempe Cinema on Guadalupe & McClintock to attend another One Night Cinema event. The people who organize/sponsor this event should be canonized, considering the kinds of films they've been able to get into our cinephile-hostile environment. After watching Charles Burnett's astounding "Killer Of Sheep" at Tempe Cinemas, I've been making a point of trying to attend as many future One Night events as possible. The film they screened on Friday, "Day Night Day Night" was just fantastic. The film's premise: following around a young girl, who is mentally and physically preparing to kill herself in a suicide bomber attack on Times Square. What makes this film work so well is the tremendous amount of tension it gets out of its story. You know from the get-go that the girl is a terroist, and rather than try and demonize her, the film just depicts her as humanely as possible, which is what it makes it deeply uncomfortable. You get to see her ordering egg rolls, bashfully asking her co-conspirators (clad in ski masks) to join in her in eating her last pizza because she doesn't like to eat alone, taking a bath waiting for the bombmakers to arrive (this scene in particular is really unnerving, because they make the sound of her scrubbing her skin with soap sound incredibly loud and harsh, like two stones grinding together). There's no music in the film, just a very astute use of sound effects to create literally nail-biting suspense (another scene ups the volume on the click of a car turning signal, making it sound like the ticking of a bomb). Its an extraordinary film, shot on a cheap budget, but it looks...
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