godzilla, alice and alias
May. 17th, 2004 07:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chelseagirlGodzilla: the uncut original Japanese version. Much cooler than you might think. Certainly much cooler than I thought. So yesterday afternoon I get a call asking what I was doing that night. Hmm, I thought, someone wanting to hang out, which is very cool, because I totally spaced on finding someone to go see Los Mas Valientes with at the Nuyorican Poets' Cafe. (Friend's band, going alone not an option because that part of the East Village is heavily weighted with Kim the tragic dead boyfriend memories.)
Instead, J. wanted me to go see Godzilla at Film Forum with her. For those of you who know New York: Godzilla. Film Forum. Non sequitur. Except it really kinda wasn't. This was the original Japanese version, subtitled. Okay, the special effects were very very bad, like when it was clearly a toy car being overturned. But there was something almost Kurosawa-like about it.
You see, neither J. nor I had ever *seen* Godzilla. So it wasn't until afterwards, when we were reading the reviews posted in the lobby that we learned that what Americans (and Brits, as M. later confirmed) have heretofore seen is a truncated version, minus forty minutes of character development and frequent references to the H-bomb and etc., and with twenty minutes of Raymond Burr grafted in. Heaven forbid anyone should make us feel bad about, you know, dropping an atomic bomb or anything.
Check this one out if they do it on dvd. Which they should. 'Cause I only want to see the other version (which I am now curious about) if I know I can watch this one again to get rid of the bad taste in my mouth.
Went geeky bookshopping, first at Shakespeare & Co. downtown, then at the ever-amazing Labyrinth in Morningside Heights. Couple of books on Homer, which should help counteract *Troy*. ;-) But also, someone wrote the book I was inspired to write during the Alice class. Alas, it came out too late to help with the course, or to prevent me from making the early notes to write something that would have been nearly the same. But it'll be useful next time. At least the Dean said would I be interested in doing it again, and you can imagine what the answer was. It's by Will Brooker, and it's called *Alice's Adventures: Lewis Carroll in Popular Culture* and it's about everything: the films, the illustrations, American McGee's Alice, Alice fandom, biographies of Carroll and the paedophilia myth, etc. Plus, I'm beginning to see enough gaps and lacuna that I might still be able to manage my own book, if it's more a collection of essays on Carroll and my own essays on a few of these topics.
Alias. I've never really gotten into this show, though I gave it a good try this fall, at least until Sopranos intervened in the same timeslot. It's just, since La Femme Nikita, Buffy, and the Avengers are some of my favorite shows, you'd think Alias would be right up my alley, yes? Kickass agent chick with great outfits? F. just kindly loaned me her first season DVDs, and from watching the first few, it looks like part of the problem is that it's so sequential I've simply missed too much. Certainly the intricate plot arcs are a lot more impressive than the sometimes mangled continuity on LFN. Now if only I can warm up to Jennifer Garner.
Instead, J. wanted me to go see Godzilla at Film Forum with her. For those of you who know New York: Godzilla. Film Forum. Non sequitur. Except it really kinda wasn't. This was the original Japanese version, subtitled. Okay, the special effects were very very bad, like when it was clearly a toy car being overturned. But there was something almost Kurosawa-like about it.
You see, neither J. nor I had ever *seen* Godzilla. So it wasn't until afterwards, when we were reading the reviews posted in the lobby that we learned that what Americans (and Brits, as M. later confirmed) have heretofore seen is a truncated version, minus forty minutes of character development and frequent references to the H-bomb and etc., and with twenty minutes of Raymond Burr grafted in. Heaven forbid anyone should make us feel bad about, you know, dropping an atomic bomb or anything.
Check this one out if they do it on dvd. Which they should. 'Cause I only want to see the other version (which I am now curious about) if I know I can watch this one again to get rid of the bad taste in my mouth.
Went geeky bookshopping, first at Shakespeare & Co. downtown, then at the ever-amazing Labyrinth in Morningside Heights. Couple of books on Homer, which should help counteract *Troy*. ;-) But also, someone wrote the book I was inspired to write during the Alice class. Alas, it came out too late to help with the course, or to prevent me from making the early notes to write something that would have been nearly the same. But it'll be useful next time. At least the Dean said would I be interested in doing it again, and you can imagine what the answer was. It's by Will Brooker, and it's called *Alice's Adventures: Lewis Carroll in Popular Culture* and it's about everything: the films, the illustrations, American McGee's Alice, Alice fandom, biographies of Carroll and the paedophilia myth, etc. Plus, I'm beginning to see enough gaps and lacuna that I might still be able to manage my own book, if it's more a collection of essays on Carroll and my own essays on a few of these topics.
Alias. I've never really gotten into this show, though I gave it a good try this fall, at least until Sopranos intervened in the same timeslot. It's just, since La Femme Nikita, Buffy, and the Avengers are some of my favorite shows, you'd think Alias would be right up my alley, yes? Kickass agent chick with great outfits? F. just kindly loaned me her first season DVDs, and from watching the first few, it looks like part of the problem is that it's so sequential I've simply missed too much. Certainly the intricate plot arcs are a lot more impressive than the sometimes mangled continuity on LFN. Now if only I can warm up to Jennifer Garner.
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no subject
Date: 2004-05-17 06:58 pm (UTC)"Godzilla" may be a monster movie, but it's most definitely a Japanese monster movie.
no subject
Date: 2004-05-19 09:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-18 05:48 am (UTC)Or failing that, warm up to some Evil Jailbait in the person of Sark. I wish I still had my icon of him . . . "Like a Fluffy Bunny of Evil."
no subject
Date: 2004-05-19 09:19 am (UTC)But when I was watching this fall (before lots of interruptions for sports events and awards shows, and then the Sopranos intervened), definitely liking Sark. Villains who talk like my husband are kind of a hobby. ;-)
We have a saying around our place. "He's English, of course he's got to be evil." They mainly come in two subspecies: Posh English Evil Dude, or Working Class Londoner English Evil Dude.
not everyone's cup of tea
Date: 2004-05-18 01:27 pm (UTC)Re: not everyone's cup of tea
Date: 2004-05-19 08:54 am (UTC)I'm definitely getting intrigued. I don't really like *her* yet, but that may well change. Now M's got his days off and that may be a drag because if we start watching them together then I can't watch them w/o him. So I probably have to wait 'til he's at work again.
I'm actually impressed that the show is such a hit. Usually shows that make you pay such close attention to a story arc have more of a cable-audience size appeal, not a network.
Hello there
Date: 2004-05-18 10:02 pm (UTC)Have a good night :)
Re: Hello there
Date: 2004-05-19 09:01 am (UTC)I'd be delighted if you added me and will certainly do the same.
Re: Hello there
Date: 2004-05-19 09:24 am (UTC)That or that farmer has some really good moonshine....
*goes back to check*
no subject
Date: 2004-05-19 10:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-20 05:54 am (UTC)