This Is Not A (1 AM) Student Rant

This is just a frustrated blog to say that I am so brain-deep in paper correcting at a weekly interval that I don't have time to write anymore. I have half-finished concert/movie reviews for Nouvelle Vague, TV On The Radio and Fast Food Nation. Additionally, I haven't gotten the chance to even begin putting down my CMJ experience into words. I want to write, and yet I can't. And so I think...and think...

This sux. For those of you who think students have it easy, that student life way surpasses the 9-5 deal, then I would simply like to say:
a) being a grad student who works shoots down that theory
b) even if I didn't work, the stress of research/seminar preparation is enough to constantly be on one's mind. When most people pack up their desks and head on home for the evening/weekend, our work hangs on our brain like a tiny bat in a never ending slumber. Weekends? What are those? I don't know anymore!

Wow, talk about rant-y. That's what blogs are for, eh? Self-absorbed nannerings of computer addicts like me? Anyway, for anyone who's patient and still gives a damn, there are a lot of good bits on their way.

And now, back to work...

Teenagers from Mars, we do care; or, Fantasia's back in town

DJing for the festival was such a blast. Here are some of my top picks, if anyone still cares...

The Descent

Highly disturbing and gripping the whole way through. It's also refreshing to see a movie about smart, tough chicks battling it out. My only complaint would be that some of the ladies felt a little too much like stock characters (Juno, anyone?). However, the emotional resonance of the main character's psychological trauma paralleled with the notion of being trapped in a cave makes this horror movie stand out among the other junk.

A Bittersweet Life

Ah, one of the most debated movies at Fantasia (see Angelica's good summation of the film on CJLO's forum under "Favourites"). While I'm mildly annoyed by the Romantic pursuit of the idealized female plotline, the lead skillfully plays emotional depth and silent frustration -- making questionable motives and slight melodrama more palatable. After all is said and done, remains one of my favourite festival films this year.

DJ XL5's Zappin' Party Cavaclade

Not only the best collection of shorts I've ever seen, but the best movie-going experience I've had at Fantasia. It was a buffet of good-times -- you never knew what was coming up, and in the whole two-hour screening, there was just one lackluster short. Not bad. Highlights: the conflated movie trailers such as "Brokeback to the Future" and "Toy Story Requiem," the tampered-with horror trailers made to look like heart-felt films ("Shining," "Cabin Fever"), and much much more...

Edmond

Turning a play into a screenplay has never been an easy feat. You can either take major creative license and hope for the best (ie: Titus) or remain faithful to the script and completely flop (ie: Proof). Edmond manages to remain identifiable "drama," which in my opinion, works in its favour. It feels like a play, and if you're familiar with the genre, viewing Edmond won't be such an uncomfortable experience. Still, its style, birthed from "in-your-face" playwriting that was especially popular around the time of its inception, coupled with its retaliation against political correctness, may not be for everyone. If, however, you enjoy being psychologically stabbed every once in a while, then Edmond may be right up your alley...

Bon Cop/Bad Cop

The highlight of this experience was the fact that I saw the film's Canadian Premiere liquored up from the Fantasia cocktail with the awesome peeps from CJLO. Oh, and Patrick Huard was there in the flesh!!! :P All and all, a hilarious way to end the festival.

Postmodern Blues

Contemporary society has afforded us the wonderful opportunity to "get our word out there" and "say it if it feels right/good/necessary." Anyone with -- or with access to -- a computer can post journals of their daily thoughts and deeds for the world to see.

But this isn't a blog about contemporary society. Nor is it a critique of blogs themselves. I could write a metablog about blogs, but then I don't know what would upset me more -- the irony of it all, or the fact that irony has become such a cliché in and of itself.

So why am I blogging? I guess to display the dilemma we all find ourselves in. We deride certain behaviors/systems of life, only to find ourselves caught up in the circle. We hate commercialism and yet want every-colour-of-that-item-please. We scoff at superficiality but find ourselves obsessed with reality T.V. and tabloids. We value human interaction and warmth and yet here we are writing blogs...

We tell ourselves these are escapes, not traps. Does it boil down to the postmodern condition of the individual creating his/her own truth and the ever-popular line "it's all relative"? Is life so because we believe it is so?

[Ok, so this turned out out to be the blog I said it wouldn't be. How ironic. Forgive me???]