Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Curse of La Mancha

Well, thanks for the words regarding our film man. Maybe I'm hard on myself, and yeah, I think you pretty much nailed our flick's flaws. Still, you can't help but ponder. Oh well.

a good showOne of the little niceties that I’ve grown used to over the past few months has been watching Cowboy Bebop on Cartoon Network’s adult swim. Admittedly, Cowboy Bebop comes on very late, but I suffer from insomnia. Watching it feels like winding the night down with a good prime time show.
However, they recently stopped playing it at 1:00 in the morning on Cartoon Network. Now they play it on Saturdays, I think. Still, it bothers me to no end. I enjoyed being able to watch it nearly every night of the week. It’s by far my favorite Japanese Anime and quite possibly one of my favorite shows of all time. Quite simply, I’m going through Cowboy Bebop withdraws. So I think I’m going to end up buying the series collection on DVD. Sequentially of course, but I’d like to have it because of a few episodes in particular.


Speaking of Asian entertainment, I also wanted to mention that I enjoyed the film by Wong Kar Wai. I’d love to see some more of his work, particularly Fallen Angels. With regard to his films it’s also interesting to consider his work methods. I’m probably going to explain this incorrectly, but I think what Josh told me about his method is that “he gives his actors an overview of the story and the situations and then lets them act it out as they may". Regarding that, the results he gets from his actors is extraordinary. His films, for lack of a better comparison, seem to be the cinematic counterparts of a J.D. Salinger story.


Moving on to a few tidbits of musical news, you might find it fitting to know that Modest Mouse is currently filming their next music video for the single “Ocean Breathes Salty”. While there’s no real information given regarding the video aside from the single itself, Modest Mouse do plan to appear on Late Night with Conan O’Brian on the 21st. It’s presumed they’ll play Ocean Breathes Salty, although the crowd might riot if they don’t play "Float On". Of course they could always end up playing a non-single, like they did on Letterman with “Satin in a Coffin”.

Modest mouse will also be playing at the Celebrity Theater here in Phoenix on the 23rd. Unfortunately I won’t be able to see them as I’ll be on vacation in San Diego. Before I head over to San Diego though I’ll be with Gabe, Rebeckah and Alex at the two Braid shows in L.A. With all the good reports of their tour so far, I expect this to be not only a fun trip but also a fun set of shows.

And as always I’ll take along reading material for the trip. At Coachella I had Moby Dick and for The Casket Lottery I brought Sherlock Holmes and Earnest Hemmingway. This time I’ll be bringing Don Quixote. We toss around jokes about the Curse of La Mancha often enough that I’ve unavoidably become interested in La Mancha itself and the character behind the story, Don Quixote. When I thought upon what I should bring to read for this trip I ultimately decided that I might as well read the book itself. Who knows? Maybe Gilliam will never finish it. Maybe years from now I’ll set out to complete Brock H. Brown’s version of Don Quixote. (not really)

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