Reviewing: Red

To review a color. That's the end of that sentence. Sorry. A fun form of rhetoric I have come to know well. Now, Red is a great color. One of the top colors ever. It can symbolize love, rage, anger, another variant of strong passion type feeling, or anything an artist says it symbolizes. Red is the first color of a rainbow and kids associate it with apples and wagons. Apples and Wagons! Sign someone up... for that... for those apples and wagons. Now the strength of red is that it is a primary color- which means it gives birth to orange and purple. And oranges and purples. I can go on divulging about the off shoots of red (personal favorite: maroon), but red is what it simply is- not blue and not yellow. Sure it looks menacing when paired with black-- but what doesn't. The unerlying theme here is that it is a color, and with color everything is personal. Except skin color. So I'm not changing anyone's opinions about colors here. But I will say this- we can all do better than just red.

Boxer Brief Interviews with Hideous Mentions

A lesson on how to add credibility to your romantic sitcom demeanor

Movies based on books is a great idea. However, the idea totally outweighs the execution. Usually, the movie ends up being a validating point to a book's longevity. "Well, they made a movie out of it, so it must be good, right?" I can't answer that for you. Now I was fortunate (aka cool and hip) to read this book before the project went underway (not that cool- this is a very popular book, and deservedly so, deservedly so to his death), so I enter the viewing of this movie with nothing but trepidation in my heart. Why? Because the book is off the bonkers in structure and is mainly long section after section of story. And it has what Michael Scott called Big Bird directing. Thats not fair to John Krasinski, sorry. Johnny Krass (what he'll be called from now until it gets old) decided to attach director to his name and craft a seemingly impossible movie out of a book of interviews. So the money question--- was it worth it? I got to say- not bad, Johnny Krass, not bad. JK gets it across fairly quickly that this isn't the book at all, but more a homage to the book, as you can tell he really dug his source material. How can you tell? Well, one he made a movie about it (but that telling was based on relief of the hope he dug his source material) and more importantly, the actors and their detail and pathos they show with each interview. Great casting choices, and great directing. I don't know how much Johnny Krass got into each actor, but fuck if I care because there was some sheer hilarity and moments of honesty that made me wish that JK didn't even have to connect the story and rather just do a shoddy job jumping from interview to interview. No, but he tried. It works though. Julianne Nicholson comes off as, I wanna say, teasing... but that works out in the end. I should say some of the better acting in the movie, but there really was a lot so I'll let my bias show here: Will Forte can just show up and its magic, Bobby Cannavale has never disappointed me, Chris Meloni probably hurt somebody he was so on his game, Josh Charles got his chameleon on, and round of applause for Joey Slotnick and Dominic Cooper. But Johnny Krass saves himself for last, and really can't shake the stigma of Halpert. Even saying the word rape and bitch just felt... boogaloo. Also Ben Gibbard is in the movie because it seemed cool I guess. 'Brief Interviews..' is a challenging movie at points, what with time lapse techniques these days, but when I got lost at least I had 2 threads to go off on: my own experiences of degradation, and a source material that clearly is the star of this movie.

Taking President's Day Off

Whatever you are supposed to do on President's Day- say the word President, watch for a special scroll at the bottom of CNN, buy a commemorative Disney pin with either Abe Lincoln Goofy or Franklin Pierce Mickey, actually be a president if you are one- most of America knows it as a three day weekend and are therefore thankful America comes up with stupid enough holidays to take the day off. Taking a day off, in America, means actually taking a day and exploiting others who aren't as fortunate to close work on bank holidays and hopefully seeing your mailman in jeans. But with time off comes guilt and with that guilt comes the burden of going back to work and within that going back to work is a thankfulness to get a day off. So there is a circle created that makes everything seem less important, which I think hurts the president's the most. But what do I know? I smoked pot the entire day, which actually turned into future blog entries, current blog entry, and remembering that I should be working. And I think that's what taking a day off in the midst of a busy January right after Martin Luther King Jr day during NBA all star weekend and Valentines and a start of an Olympiad while other struggles in my life abound is all about--- remembering that I should be doing something. You got me again, America.

Reviewin': a review about a review about a review about a review

The picture by now! Get it? I do. The review yesterday came from the heart. So did the day before that which that addressed in the review yesterday. But there are different ends to different hearts. There is a space between those two ends where you should slide yourself into and hammer your shoes in with comical nails and sound effects. A review is what you think about something in a voice your comfortable saying something in. That is what we were trying to achieve here. To learn something about yourself. While part of you can be proud, part of you can be disappointed and other parts can think what they will what those parts think. There is no rule on how to think, therefore there is really no rule on how to review, other than to simply review. You went over this- it wasn't deep, you went over that- it tried to be deep. That's what it was then. I can say that because I can review that. It's simple and it shed's its meta-coat. The balance of voice can do that. If you would like to know my personal struggle, it was within being nice, being reasonable, wanting to be mean, and not caring. There is something to take out of each of those. I'm just writing it down so to not forget to take something from each of those. I am capable of experiencing more than one emotion at a time. Because not allowing myself to grow into other feelings and thoughts, isn't growing up. And goodness knows I have some growing up to do. And Gladys knows I have some throwing up to poo. It's called diarrhea and I've been taking Kirkland Signature's Loperamide Hydrochloride which is really a name I wish I made up. To find such stagnant nature in medical terminology as to create a fake name believed to be real is a goal considered set. But I digress. Reviewing a review about a review about etc. for however long I did it was an exercise in where can I go with something that challenging, the result wasn't that far. The high road taken would've been dissecting each review line by line, and then doing that again so that the review you are dissecting line by line is a review you dissected line by line. But you're not as good as Fire Joe Morgan. At least you know you want to be as good as them. At least you know when to stop? Eh sure.

Reviewing: Yesterday's Post on the review of the other day's post which in turn was a review of that post itself

The purpose of meaning or Meaning of the purpose. That line and what it divides should never be clear to me. Because that's just a fluffy way of starting my review to being able to get away with saying things are fluffy when that doesn't describe anything. Is this a parody of myself? Is that a rhetorical question? In reviewing the reviews of the reviews, I say I am lacking a voice. To find that voice and to make it consistent seems to be a strategy to make the whole process of these, mind the intention, dumb reviews work. But no, it is myself. Don't back down from yourself, myself. You're great, me. I'm proud of I. You just needed to say that. Sure it was a ploy, but hey you got a day's worth of entry out of it. And even though you seemed worried- it was a job well done review! You actually reviewed something there and you didn't even have to re-read it which you should always do to check for errors in continuity in continuity and grammar. Faking being professional will take you a lot of places, and sure addressing the issue of confidence doesn't make it go away, it just doesn't make it pretend anymore. So now that you have real issues, welcome to the real world. There is a lot more uses for towels and you should be thankful they come in so many sizes. Except beach towels. Those are gimmicks. The trick there is to find a worthwhile beach. Which those don't exist. It's all sand and making sure the person you're staring at doesn't know you're staring at them and references to TV Show episodes where they themselves go to the beach (rugrats HOLLA). Now, be a sport, go fetch me some 'life worth living', I got a good feeling about you yet, me.