ANDREW WILSON

http://andandrewrew.blogspot.com/

turn on, tune in, rock out

richard linklater is the man. i re-watched SLACKER the oths night and (i was not just a totally impressionable teen when i loved it in high school) its a damn good film. natch the spieling LINK-dialogue hits me up right where i like a talky film and some of the film is very beautiful to look at (looking at you opening sequence...word up LINK-cameo) and long takes! damnski if this bub wasnt reppin that shit REAL hard on the debut. props are in order and i aint a bub to withold props deserved. watch this again, and sunrise/sunset, and dazed and confused, and school of rock and tell me if this mofo cant rock a pleasant thought-provo little piece o film in a variety o styles. what the F more do you want in popular cinema? some toolios like to hate because they say the films are just a litany of 'things richard linklater is interested in' and yes this is actually a valid criticism in as much as you can watch the films like this
BUT the ones ive mentioned anyway are consistantly engaging and always pique yo interest with a bittersweet or amusing truism posited casually. they look damn good (waking life could get in on this too but that one is understandably polarizing...i even had to come around on that one) and i axe you: what the hell is wrong with using your art as a personal outlet? from time to time link is less subtle than some but despite others' derision he proves more than distraction and sha-lalala his honesty is straight the F up and disarming? yeah, i think so. and damn if it aint inspirational to see someone just working out some hang-ups or thoughts or preoccupations through extensive dialogue. this is all that i aspire to filmically and though it may never happen and though it has never put a scrap of gold in MY pocket i say god bless it.

the laundromat i frequent always has old copies of a whack publication called The Watchtower hangin around. one time i picked one up because it said we may be living in the end times and crazy zealotry is amusing sometimes so... how many people pick this up for a laugh? how many are seriously worried? am i ever seriously worried that the END is near? sometimes i suppose but i dont know. what do you think about the end of the world? are there higher powers involved? and if so are they gonna show theyselves or just manipulate crazy factions of humans? do they do that? and if so, why? but why god, why? he had sex with my momma...WHY?!
it puts me in mind of this one time that i was riding the T to get some place or another and this kinda whack old woman was accosting everyone in sight about jesus and you know accepting him. that old song and dance. well most were just doin like i do in this sitch and trying to look really intent on just WAITING and not talking. then she happens upon a goup of brutal looking youths and one in particular whos smoking a butt (yeah, in the station! crazy fucker) they get to rappin and it goes on awhile and appears to be getting kind of heated and so i slide one headphone to the side and try to listen to both snappin and trappin and this, less entertainin, rappin. crazy woman reps JC, smokin dude laughs a lot and baits her to the extreme amusment of his peers. and i'm sick. neither is doing ANYTHING here and isnt this just so much of 'dialogue' in the public sphere. ive worked in the private sector, they expect results. well not waiting for the T, not singing or rappin in Harvard Sq, not passing out flyers/leaflets/whack publications. sometimes i try to pay attention to what folks are so fired up about, i want to respect passion even if i do not share it and maybe by attempting some understanding or attempting to slow or hold off the arrogant dismissal i hope to be a better human but it just gets so damn depressing when all you hear and all you see just circles in on itself and everybody gets harder and colder and more distanced. they seem to say nothng, they seem to go nowhere. look i know i dont do much and i know that i reiterate a real slack/iconoclast philosophy but only on a blog that my friends read and only to the people i care about and then i dont distance (i hope) because through social means weve gotten past dismissal. whatever you think you give it a chance and you respond not based on my accosting you with bad vibes but on a relative wealth of shared experience and sometimes, the best times, we get closer and then live better? vlad wormwood's a fuckin hippie. well yeah ok but so what, you already knew that.

have a son and a new brother at the same time and just say that it aint mine

again with the relating of mundane media events to those uninvolved:
TARKOVSKY
watched stalker and solaris at the harvard film archive recently and both were sick. i'm pleased/impressed with my patience for this lately because i recall slogging through solaris once in the past but that was on video when i was a youngter lad and open to the ready distraction of mocking and generally spieling through the silence with my brother and dave. i think i am still able to reduce my absorbtion of anything by these pleasant means but now i am also able to sit quietly and almost still and turn off my fucking cell phone (sorry thats such a bitchy, snob cliche but COME ON) and watch listen and think...a little. im mostly just surprised at how engaging i found these films this time around. i really did not at any point become restless and aware of the two hours 40 min of languid narrative. tarkovsky does cool things with sound design wherein highly stylized, echo-drenched diegesis intrudes but ever so briefly and you might not notice it if ya aint re-peepin or a fuckin film school graduate. boyeeeeeeee
far from that bullshit the dialogue in these pieces is economic (wicked in solaris) but useful and sometimes brilliant, i dare say. at times even subtley humorous, or for some downright hilarious. im not sure if im just kinda missing jokes but much of the audience was in stiches through stalker. my initial feeling is this is an uneasy reaction to obtuse concepts (though stalker seemed, to a very clear point, straightforward) or funny looking russian dudes. then i think i must be missing something. its true that i found moments of solaris more amusing than the first time i watched that so maybe i need to give it a day as it were. is my circuitous rambling coming across here? this is how i think the past few days... perhaps but then again i mean i think i no i mean ah yes... its nice to experience something that stays with you beyond the shrug, sigh and thought 'that was better suited to 25 television minutes'. but then im so culturally programmed into what deserves my attention. im sure i could spend just as much time and energy on the first 6 minutes of the tenacious D movie and get at a lot of the same stuff. isnt it energizing when art gives you a slightly humorous brush of something you know youve felt and want to better understand? and that you better understand it through identification. and that you better know yourself through the dead, the russian DEAD, the science fiction of 1972, the terror you can objectively smile at, MEAT LOAF! and like the moon the unremarkable, replaceable (and constantly rePLACEd) protagonist is in a full phase of reflected illumination. ha-cha!

saw a band last night called the seconds. brian chase (of yeah yeah yeahs) rocks the kit and do he ever. it was a very entertaining if brief set and i would consider picking up some used seconds material or stealing it online. it was funny to see chase in a setting sans karen o out front. he was much looser and talkative and extremely expressive in his playing. this is fun stuff to watch in a concert and fun to think about personalities and interpersonal relationships and how you comport yourself/LIVE through a rock band. im kinda into this shit... i think band dynamics are an excellent microcosm of living and it was enlightening to think about it in a more successful setting than for instance playing the bass between stronger personalities... or agreeing to cover the toadies etc. isnt it energizing when art...

in this vain(ha) i have not been doing anything with regards to making my own music or really anything at all that is expressive. its so easy to get caught in the mundane day to day of working and just living and so i should take some action before a nasty and ferociously unrelenting depression sets in. but vlad, whats wrong? oh nothing special ive just learned (as melodramatic as it sounds) to not trust my mindset too far. also even in the repetitive hum-drummery (de-dum de-dum) i can manage to find things to worry about and to obsess over and these turn to an abcess...in my MIND! example: do you do enough politically? do you give enough change to the homeless? is there ever enough? does anything only encourage a bad way of living? would i deny anyone, even unemployed, alcohol or cigarettes even if its ignoring greater problems and in fact contributing to a bad sitch? how many things do we gainfully employed and self-righteous motherfuckers do to indulge momentary happiness at the expense of the greater good? can you kill time without injuring eternity? am i, like it or not, turning into my father?
i wish i was mike watt. that dude seems to have things pretty well figured. actually i wish that i could speak to the disembodied voice of mike watt through prayer or something like it. but wait, you can, in your records. oh ok, everythings gonna be alright.

satelli-eeeeee-ite
satell-ITE

i found out i did NOT leave this year's model at home and listened to it today. No Action = best opening track of any album ever?