hey man- slow down !

this reminds me of the radiohead song the tourist.

let’s all slow down. there is so much to see in life that you won’t see in your blurred trail.

 

pac-man!

sorry i haven’t posted in a few days. but in the mean time, this is awesome. i already have a moleskine, but if i see this i might have to get it…

AWESOME!

 

offskies

so i know i haven’t been posting recently, but in all honesty my life has been less than inspiring right now..i am off to berlin tomorrow morning so hopefully i will have some things worth writing about when i get back

in the meantime, apologies for my lack of existence x

 

what really happens in inception?

if you are like me, and saw inception the day it came out, having been ‘gasming over the trailers that have been floating around the last year, odds are you will have eventually been very confused about the film. only a person of beastly intelligence can say that fully understands this film, because so much is left open to speculation. like this !

spoilers

so the film ends, and cobb finally reunites with his children, all seems to be well, until the final shot. here we see cobb’s totem spinning, before it wobbles for a SPLIT second, and the film goes to black and the credits. this obviously creates massive doubts about the film

i am of the belief that the ENTIRE film is a dream of cobb’s, and i will explain why. first of all is the start of the story; it beings suddenly, with no reference for what happens before. this is much like the dream state, how cobb explains to ariadne how when we are dreaming, we have no idea how we got there. things always begin in media res, and this is exactly how the film starts.

secondly the world portrayed in inception seems very unreal. a prime example of this is the chase seen in mombasa, which ends with cobb running down an alleyway that seemingly seems to be shrinking. this is reflective of the seemingly impossible situations dreams seem to present us with. this theme is not isolated to here. the entire world seems to be like living in a film- cobb’s life is one of adventure, being chased around the world like james bond. as mal suggests, there is something very dreamy about this- it is as if cobb is living his own fantasy.

thirdly in terms of plot, it all feels too convenient, almost too easy. the architect from the start of the film fails to convince saito that he is in a dream, so is disposed of, so cobb finds an architect, ariadne, who is not only better than the first, but accepts the fantastical world that cobb places in front of her straight away, and grasps the tasks and skills required also. the same is true for the chemist in the film (i can’t remember his name). cobb needs a drug that is tailor made to the very specific requirements needed for this particular mission, which is seemingly impossible to create….until suddenly a chemist pops up with the EXACT chemical required for the mission. the ending of the film highlights this too; with michael cain’s character conveniently is at the airport to pick cobb up from the airport, before he sees his children, who appear exactly as in the flashbacks.

this last point leads nicely into what i believe is a very clever use of dream in cinema. the film itself is a parody of the summer action film we have come to know, films in which everything slots into place nicely in order to provide action, with the story being a mere device to forward the action. everything slots into place in cobb’s world, which i believe is a dream, highlighting the unrealistic nature of the situations in the film, and too of the situations of your typical summer action film. this is typical of the type of movie christopher nolan makes, shown as with memento. in an interview over that film, he is quoted as saying:

“people refer to memento having a non-linear structure, but it does have a very linear structure, more so than most conventional film…it’s totally linear, it’s just reversed essentially…if you look at conventional films, it’s actually,  the sense of time in conventional films is very distorted, i’m just doing it for a particular reason, so it draws attention to that fact”

in other words, he is using a conventional cinematic tool for a greater effect.

the journey we go through is a nice parallel to the journey the cobbs went through. they lived happily in this dream world together, which for us is a film, before they have to leave; cobb plants a seed of doubt in her mind that the world around her isn’t real, much in the same way that nolan plants a seed of doubt as to whether the world in the film is in fact a dream world or not, when we reach the end of the film.

at the end of the day, i believe inception is about a man fighting to deal with the guilt in the ‘loss’ of his wife. before he talks to mal at the end, he cannot see the faces of his children, which i believe to be a symbol of the guilt he feels for killing her, or so he believes. when at the end he can see their faces again, this is a sign that he has come to terms with his wife’s ‘death’ and so he can get on with his life. personally, i am fairly convinced that his wife did not die, and in fact is in the ‘real world’ but there is no real proof for this, only speculation. if cobb’s world is a dream, then odds are she is still alive

if you made it this far (i know this is a very wordy post), i hope you enjoyed the film as much as me. any counter theories, or other points you would like to raise, please do !

 

what i’ve been reading; imperial bedrooms

so after five years of no new releases from bret easton-ellis, we get imperial bedrooms, the sequel to his 1985 book less than zero, which turned a few heads for it’s nihilistic and bleak portrayal of sunny la. and yes, it’s also the inspiration for the bloc party song, song for clay.

let me get this out of the way first; even if this does not end up being my favourite book ever, or on my top ten books i would take to a desert island, i am going to admit that imperial bedrooms has one of the cleverest intros to a book i have ever read. for a while now, it has been known that the first line of the book is ‘they made a movie about us’, but what this leads into is a bizarre and ingenius set up for the book. a long story short; this sequel combines the original less than zero novel with the strange film adaptation, with both existing in the world of imperial bedrooms. when the characters from the book watch the film portrayal of less than zero, it is interesting to see their reactions. julian’s reaction is one of the most moving bits of the entire book.

the characters have not changed much in the twenty five years since less than zero; they have just grown older. one could argue they are the same apathetic and decadent bunch we had in the first book. clay is the same apathetic guy from less than zero, julian is the same confusing mess of a man, rip is as twisted as ever (i keep seeing in reviews that people think this guy is hilarious. really?), and blair….blair doesn’t really appear in this book. i have to admit i was disappointed with the lack of blair, as her and clay’s story formed the back bone of less than zero; her and clay are the only two characters who show disgust at the snuff film. what is more confusing is that trent and blair are together. this is trent, the same man who has sex with a drugged up twelve year old in the first book, is partnered with blair who is one of the more moral characters. what? there are also several new characters…mainly young actresses that cause trouble. that is all i’m going to say !

in terms of plot, this book mirrors less than zero; clay returning to la and as such, being a type of outsider to the chaos that is los angeles. from there on, the plot gets confusing. i’m not sure if it’s the fact i rushed the book in my excitement, or if the plot is genuinely confusing, but i had a hard time keeping track of what was going on by the end. by the end of the book, however, clay is almost a different person we see to his portray in less than zero, displaying patrick bateman levels of sadism and violence. again, this confused me.

overall, while i have said many negative things about this book, i enjoyed it. it felt like a fitting conclusion of less than zero, and justified it’s own existence; a snap shot look at what disaffected youth looks like twenty five years on. and if east0n-ellis was going to do a sequel to any of his books, it had to be this one. i just can’t picture american psycho 2.

 

apologies !

just want to leave a message for my (rather small) readership. i am still alive, and i’m sorry i haven’t posted anything in ever, having a bit of a busy time at the moment and haven’t had much chance to write.

on a plus point, imperial bedrooms by bret easton-ellis is finally out and you should all read it. i am staring my copy now with glee and drooling. will post a review soon !

alex x

 

ten songs for summer

just killing time before my exam, here are some songs to make your summer awesome. these aren’t new songs, they’re just awesome songs…in my opinion !

1. not going home – faithless

2. sealion – feist (nina simone cover i think?)

3. omen- prodigy

4. chime- orbital

5. all my friends – lcd soundsystem (bit depressing, but it’s a very very good song)

6. strobe (club edit) – deadmau5

7. girls and boys – blur

8. hit the road jack- ray charles

9. water from the vine leaf- william orbit

10. house of cards – radiohead

 

lost

so it’s been a week since the finale of lost, and since then i have been adjusting to life after lost. it is a dull place, but full of happy memories, and now i’m waiting to latch onto some new television show now that both lost and battlestar galactica have ended. i should warn you that there are spoilers!

i have noticed that a lot of people were not happy with the conclusion to six years of their dedication, and while i was initially sceptical about how they ended it, i have to admit, after much thought, that i was happy with how it ended. it rounded things up nicely, and while, yes it was a ‘happy ending’, this pleased me. while it could have been grittier, i genuinely felt warm and fuzzy inside when i saw the character’s ending up with the people the way they wanted. when you consider all the death and tragedy that happened over the six series, it was nice to see them get what they wanted. sawyer and juliet were together, charlie and claire also, both couples that couldn’t be together due to the deaths the series has seen. and jack’s father appearing was amazing, for some reason sent chills down my spine.

i’ve noticed also many people misinterpreted the ending. no they were not dead the entire time. let me explain; the original island timeline happened- that actually happened. the ‘flash-sideways’ timeline, where oceanic 815 did not crash was a form of purgatory and did not happen in reality as such. in the final episode, lost suggests a philosophy where the people you share the greatest moments of your life, are the ones you go to heaven with, when you are all ready to move on. the flash-sideways timeline is a waiting room, and takes place on a metaphysical plain of existence. in the final scene, they are waiting for jack, and then move on. it does not correspond to the regular time line of the show; it could be taking place decades after the events on the island; ben and hurley are seen discussing their time on the island, and helping eachother run in, so clearly some time has passed since this and the last events on the actual island.

and to the people complaining about the questions that weren’t answered; did you really expect them to answer everything? and on a more important note, would it be as fun if they had answered everything? a mystery is no longer nearly as alluring once you explain it fully, leaving a bit of mystery to it makes it much more enjoyable to watch. the same is true of battlestar galactica- originally i was kicking myself at the finale, but having re-watched the entire series, it was a fitting end, and there was actually a lot of mysteries they explained really early on in it’s run, but we didn’t realise.

what were you thoughts on the lost finale? and is there really a perfect to end any t.v. show, espesially one as loved as lost?

 

procrastinate

as i have had exams and revision to be doing, and have therefore not been doing this and procrastinating (while somehow not posting anything on here..) i thought i would post a nice list of things that help you put off those ever approaching monoliths of education.

tidy. this is the first stage for most people; ‘my working area has to be clean, so that i may work productively in it’

nope, you’re lying to us- you want to put off the work. admit it.

eat. as i’ve already said on 1000 awesome things, right now i am justifying all the of the bad things i am eating by saying that they are contributing to my ultimate success in my exams, and in passing my first year. with the pass mark only being 40%, should i fail this, i suspect i will eat more bad food. although this time, i will have no excuse; i’ll just be eating my feelings.

shop. since the revision period started, i have found myself on websites such as amazon, play and waterstones looking up all the books i don’t really need, but really want, working out the pricing, comparing the prices on various sites, and at the end of all this, deciding not to get them anyways. these books include mexico city blues by jk, and flowers of evil baudelaire. but maybe if i pass it’ll be a celebration present…

read. it’s amazing how when it comes to study leave, no-one is prepared to read ANYTHING related to their course. and as this article is showing, is the fact we’ll do nearly anything to get away from said reading. we do, however, have an amazing capacity for finding other stuff to read. or maybe this is just me. but since study leave started, i have found the time to read a few books i haven’t had chance to in recent months; the age of reason being one, while now i’m reading the unbearable lightness of being. even more ironic is the fact both of those books, while awesome, are soul draining and depressing. especially the latter.

i am pleased to announce though that my flat mate has found the time to read three out of the four twilight books. yes.

facebook. this website will be the end of my, honestly. the concept is so simple; you upload photos, keep in contact with old friends, have it to keep in touch with friends you have now. so how, from this simple idea, do we get the life sapping, time wasting mess of a website it is now. it doesn’t even work half the time; yet i’m sat there staring at it like i’m taking part in the ludivico technique. facebook is a cheap, easy and accessible lobotomy.

wikipedia. see above.

lists. what i am going to revise, and when. what i am going to do after exams. how much money, on average, am i saving buy revising and not going out drinking. how much extra money will i have at the end of exams as a result, and how much will i have been paid by then. what can i buy with this money. books i want to buy after exams.

yes, i like to play mind games with myself.

buy. the time i have spent in my local and enormous tesco has become ridiculous. i keep doing small shops, instead of my normal, massive weekly ones by telling myself that i need an excuse to get out of the house during revision, and this seems like a good a way as any. this is a sad insight into my life.

write. anything, on anything. so far, this includes a plan for a book i plan to write (we’ll see!), a few emails to friends i haven’t seen or heard from in forever, a revision timetable, which soon got turned into a sketch of a cowboy, and ideas for blogging

i’m going to leave that here, though i still have exams coming up so odds are, this will get updated.

 

bret easton-ellis!

i don’t know about you, but i’m quite excited for bret easton-ellis’ new book; imperial bedrooms. it comes out this month in the states, i think, and in july in the uk (so importing a copy..). in the mean time, here is an interview with the legend;

enjoy!