A pile of empty cardboard boxes fill up a corner of my room, looking like the Tower Of Babel's flimsy, pansy cousin. Come June 1st, I'm off to different digs in a different part of town. Right now, I'm feeling the same mix of high anxiety and excitement I always feel when I'm about to pull up roots and resettle somewhere else. I think of the things I'll miss even though I shouldn't miss them (like the drunken hollering and near-brawls that happen every night outside the Danny's Car Wash; nothing adds a nice ambiance to an evening quite like a shrieking howl of "BITCH, GET IN THE FUCKING CAR", or the ceremonial I'm-REALLY-going-to-the-cops-tonight-I'm-so-serious threats being shouted by Danny employees at their lovely, sophisticated clientele... oh, how I shall sincerely miss all that sound and fury). I also think of the things I won't miss (like the sounds of my room-mate and his girlfriend loudly fucking in their room, or my room-mate's infuriating habit of playing Metallica and Crazy Frog all day long). And then I'll think of the things I will mourn (that a friend I've known for nearly a decade, i.e. my room-mate, is moving to Detroit), and the things I still wish I could have in a month from now (an apartment as big as the one I am in now, which is really quite spacious, and really close to where I work). All in all, though, I'm still glad I'll be moving. Plus: I'm getting a car! I will finally have mobility again!
So aside from packing and working and finishing Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" (outstanding book, combining two things that are high on my kicks-major-ass list: Jews and Raymond Chandler), the highlight of my week was the mindmelting double feature I've put myself through. Last night, I watched Alejandro Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain" for the first time, and then followed that up this evening with "The Forbidden Zone".
THIS is my brain after watching these two movies:
The Holy Mountain: makes Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel look like Boy Scouts. The first half hour of the film was just one giant unceasing mindfuck, one relentless barrage of what-the-fuck-was-that after another. Frogs dressed up as conquistadors and Aztecs, flayed lambs on bayonets, a warehouse full of Jesus mannequins, freaky Tibetan monk chanting on the soundtrack (sounding more insectile than human), deformed midgets with Tarot cards tied to their backs, shit-crazed alchemists, pelicans, baby hippos lounging about in indoor pools for no reason, giant Tarot cards, psychedelic shotguns, a Sanctuary Of One Thousand Testicles... ah Jesus, just thinking about this movie makes the ground spin around my feet. And the beauty of it is, in spite of the demented imagery, there is a coherent structure to it all, and it is a gorgeous looking film. Its.just.so.strange. Check out the film's trailer for yourself:
The Forbidden Zone: I had been meaning to see this film for awhile, after reading a very interesting post about it courtesy of Lemonkid. In its own way, Zone is every bit as batshit crazy as Mountain, but whereas Mountain is an occult-art-flick that is trying to be Meaningful and shit, Zone is just an hour+ burst of pure anarchy. Its the closest a live action film has come to mimicking the crazy energy of an old cartoon (a la Fleischer + The Looney Tunes). The film is full of bizarre musical numbers and sounds, the characters talk with exaggerated voices that would be PERFECT voice acting for a cartoon, the sets are surreal looking and cheap looking and totally fabulous, the actors and the film itself moving with the frantic energy of a Wiley E. Coyote short. This is the kind of film that's got "De plane, de plane!" guy from Fantasy Island as a king, frog-headed butlers running around humping people, flying heads, Danny Elfman as Satan, a main female character with a french accent named Frenchy, shootouts in a class room, and a really impressive mix of animation into certain key sequences (oddly enough, the live action sections of the film feel far more cartoonlike than the animation itself). The film even has the audacity/poor taste to use broad racial stereotypes (characters in blackface, absurdly Jewish Jews prone to saying "oy vey! oy vey! oy vey!") and makes it feel like its just another part of the old school cartoon ape-ing (right alongside to the cartoonish over the top violence in certain segments as well as all the sexual stuff, which seems like what would happen if R. Crumb wrote the script for a Disney film). A really fun, totally mad film. The perfect cherry on top of the "Holy Mountain" Holy Shit sundae.
The Forbidden Zone trailer:
I feel crazy good right now. Now I'm off to get some reading done before I tuck in for the evening.
So aside from packing and working and finishing Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policeman's Union" (outstanding book, combining two things that are high on my kicks-major-ass list: Jews and Raymond Chandler), the highlight of my week was the mindmelting double feature I've put myself through. Last night, I watched Alejandro Jodorowsky's "The Holy Mountain" for the first time, and then followed that up this evening with "The Forbidden Zone".
THIS is my brain after watching these two movies:
The Holy Mountain: makes Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel look like Boy Scouts. The first half hour of the film was just one giant unceasing mindfuck, one relentless barrage of what-the-fuck-was-that after another. Frogs dressed up as conquistadors and Aztecs, flayed lambs on bayonets, a warehouse full of Jesus mannequins, freaky Tibetan monk chanting on the soundtrack (sounding more insectile than human), deformed midgets with Tarot cards tied to their backs, shit-crazed alchemists, pelicans, baby hippos lounging about in indoor pools for no reason, giant Tarot cards, psychedelic shotguns, a Sanctuary Of One Thousand Testicles... ah Jesus, just thinking about this movie makes the ground spin around my feet. And the beauty of it is, in spite of the demented imagery, there is a coherent structure to it all, and it is a gorgeous looking film. Its.just.so.strange. Check out the film's trailer for yourself:
The Forbidden Zone: I had been meaning to see this film for awhile, after reading a very interesting post about it courtesy of Lemonkid. In its own way, Zone is every bit as batshit crazy as Mountain, but whereas Mountain is an occult-art-flick that is trying to be Meaningful and shit, Zone is just an hour+ burst of pure anarchy. Its the closest a live action film has come to mimicking the crazy energy of an old cartoon (a la Fleischer + The Looney Tunes). The film is full of bizarre musical numbers and sounds, the characters talk with exaggerated voices that would be PERFECT voice acting for a cartoon, the sets are surreal looking and cheap looking and totally fabulous, the actors and the film itself moving with the frantic energy of a Wiley E. Coyote short. This is the kind of film that's got "De plane, de plane!" guy from Fantasy Island as a king, frog-headed butlers running around humping people, flying heads, Danny Elfman as Satan, a main female character with a french accent named Frenchy, shootouts in a class room, and a really impressive mix of animation into certain key sequences (oddly enough, the live action sections of the film feel far more cartoonlike than the animation itself). The film even has the audacity/poor taste to use broad racial stereotypes (characters in blackface, absurdly Jewish Jews prone to saying "oy vey! oy vey! oy vey!") and makes it feel like its just another part of the old school cartoon ape-ing (right alongside to the cartoonish over the top violence in certain segments as well as all the sexual stuff, which seems like what would happen if R. Crumb wrote the script for a Disney film). A really fun, totally mad film. The perfect cherry on top of the "Holy Mountain" Holy Shit sundae.
The Forbidden Zone trailer:
I feel crazy good right now. Now I'm off to get some reading done before I tuck in for the evening.
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
waldo_jeffers:
Watch Svankmajer's Faust or Alice. They are both amazing!!
waldo_jeffers:
Talking of fried eggs, I've just remembered a recipe I was fond of prior to becoming a vegan. You get an egg and mix the yolk and the white together. Then you douse / soak bits of bread in the egg. Next you fry the bits of bread. The resulting 'eggy bread' is very tasty indeed and can been eaten as a savoury dish or even as a sweet dish (you can spread jam on it). Have you ever tried that?