Zac Parsons

Tuesday Newsday has been a fun idea over the last several months.  Some of the stories struck a nerve (Roman Polanski, Jon and Kate), while others just struck a thud (Jasmine Fiore, Super Memory).  Either way, the discipline and rhythm of searching the news for topics to write about was a healthy one, often exposing me to stories and details that I would not have discovered otherwise.  I guess the same is true with many repetitive tasks when viewed in hindsight: even though it didn’t always “feel” like what I wanted to, I still grew in a way that I value now, because of it.

My wife and were doing one of those repetitive tasks last night…  Re-watching episodes of LOST.  (What were you thinking?)

Before starting that though, we saw that a new episode of “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” was in our queue.  Now, it’s is one of those irreverent shows that isn’t afraid to discuss touchy topics.  Some episode titles include: The Gang Exploits a Miracle, Charlie Gets Molested, Charlie Wants An Abortion, and Dee Is Dating a Retarded Person.  Not exactly dinner conversation topics in most households, but in the midst of the “shock”, there was some “awe”some moments of true humanity and hilarity.  (Did you see what I did there?  I kill me!)

Now into its fifth season, the show has added more episodes each year, and the quality of those episodes has waned considerably.  With most of the humor of last night’s show revolving around the destruction of property, poisoning rivals, and public urination, my wife reached her breaking point, saying: “I’m done watching this show, if you want to keep watching it, you can do it without me.”  While I’m not ready to give up on the show completely just yet (e.g. the last season of Scrubs was a renaissance of the brilliance that filled the first four seasons of that show), I think I understand why the show has sunk.

Instead of a creative force in the show that says: “We have something to say, let’s try to say it in our own way”, the situation morphed into: “Holy crap!  We have x number of shows to do this season, we have to say something!”  In a lot of ways, Tuesday Newsday has become like that for me.  To tweak the parental mantra about  mean-spirited talk: If I don’t have anything useful to say, then why am I saying anything at all?

If you will permit me another pop culture reference (we’re up to five right now), it reminds me of the 1994 movie, Airheads.  In the film, because they have taken a radio station hostage, a rock band becomes wildly famous and is even offered a record deal, because of the attention given to them.  The record company executive signs them without even listening to their music.  I don’t remember the exact context, but the lead singer Chazz, (Brendan Fraser) alludes to the record just being filled with the drummer Pip (Adam Sandler) farting on a snare drum.  Pip’s response: “I ain’t farting on no snare drum!” has stuck with me ever since, and pretty much sums up what any worthwhile endeavor can become if the circumstances around it cease to be conducive to it’s creative inception.

Even a beast of a sentence like the last one can sound pedantic if I’m just trying to say something in an interesting way, when I don’t have much to say at all.  (For another example of this, just re-read the previous sentence.  Seriously, who says “pedantic”?)

Just as Jemaine knew when it was business time, seeing that it was Wednesday, so I knew it was time to pontificate about some news item with sunrise each Tuesday.  I had created a machine that demanded me to have something to say, even if the content wasn’t inspired.  Let’s be honest… sometimes I was just farting on a snare drum.

Now, I feel more comfortable writing about things, when I actually have something to say.  There may be the occasional link-jacking where I just want to post something that really needs no commentary or introduction, but I don’t want to write just for the sake of writing.  If you are taking the time to read this, then I want to take the time to write something worth reading.

Interestingly enough, in the episode of LOST that we watched last night, the creator and star of “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia”, Rob McElhenney, made cameo appearance that my wife did not remember from the first time she watched the show.  ”Hey!  It’s Mac!” she said with a happy smile.  Apparently, the end of her relationship with the show didn’t leave her with hard feelings about everything related to that show.  I’ve gotta say… I love this woman.

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If you’ve never heard of the film “Powder Blue“, sadly you are not alone.  Released on DVD earlier this year, the final failed to live up to the hopes of the studio that produced it.  The following is a teaser trailer made up of scenes from the cut originally submitted by the director, Timothy Linh Bui:

Then, after being recut to a more “audience friendly” length of 106 minutes, this trailer was made to promote the film for its release on DVD:

Which trailer elicited a stronger desire to see more and watch the film (assuming either did)?  Once might say that the second trailer gives more details about the film, while the first one leaves much to the imagination like a box of LEGOs with no directions.  If you were intrigued by certain images from the first trailer, like the man in the Santa suit looking off of the edge of a building, or the man wearing the tiger mask in the tunnel, you will be disappointed to learn that that those scenes were removed completely from the final cut of the film.

If the images of Jessica Biel dancing as a stripper garner your attention, then you will be pleased to discover that those scenes were kept in the movie, and are extensive.  In fact, in many circles, this film is known as “the movie where Jessica Biel finally takes her top off”.  Like “Havoc” and “The Gift“, the presence of the female form from a formerly wholesome teenage actress, threatens to overshadow the aim and theme of the movie containing it.  While that is an interesting topic on its own, it is better to discuss the movie’s intended theme (in this reviewer’s opinion), namely:  loneliness.

The setting of the film is Los Angeles, in present day, in the week preceding Christmas.  Although it is one of the largest cities in the world, feelings of alienation and disconnection are common.  If it is true that our past experiences and thoughts work to create present reality, the four main characters carry those heavy burdens in their eyes.  The least well known actor of the four, Eddie Redmayne, just looks lonely.  Being a mortician and a puppeteer, his character, Qwerty, spends much of his time with people who cannot respond to (or hurt) him.

The other characters are isolated by the results of past behavior and either blame themselves, God, or both.  No matter who is to blame, without peers, or a healthy social system to give perspective to their experiences, their loneliness is perpetuated.  For Forrest Whitaker’s and Ray Liotta’s characters, it’s haunting to watch them struggle against their past, and continually find their present unchanged.  Jessica Biel’s portrayal of Rose Johnny is uneven, but was perhaps deliberately so to display some schizophrenic tendencies as a coping mechanism.

Overall, the movie succeeds in portraying loneliness in a vast sea of people, with no visual portrayals of crowds or masses of humanity included.  In an effort not to spoil too much of the movie, let’s just stop with saying that relationships are as vital to healthy human behavior as any moral code or doctrine for living.

In summary, the dedication of the directors, producers, and actors of this film deserved a better final product than the one that ultimately made it onto DVD this summer.  Not every story in this medium fits into a 90-110 minute window to maximize theatre screen turnover.  Character development was lost in an effort to translate emotion and experience with a type of cinema editing shorthand, and the viewer suffers slightly because of it.  All in all, the movie is definitely worth renting, and if a director’s cut is released, worth a closer look again.

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