Lost in a maze

The group came to an intersection.  Which way to go?  Matthew took the lead, stating “This must be the way!”  Noticing many familiar sights, Zack cautioned “We’ve already been this way,” to which Matthew replied, “Yes, but not in a while.” 

So, on Saturday the 18th I went and did something that I’ve not done since I was a very small child. . . I done got lost in a corn maze.

There were 9 of us, piled into 2 cars (each car comfortably held 4 people. . . I was in the one with 5,) off to the little town of Buckley, Washington to reclaim a little bit of our childhoods.  Of course, we could have done the obvious thing which would be to go through the haunted maze (which is more path than maze, really), but we decided we were gonna be old school. 

After standing in line for the better part of 20 minutes we all had our wristbands, our flashlights, and our sense of adventure still intact.  Even though we didn’t go to the haunted maze, the walk over was still rather scary as the path was littered with sharp, fist sized rocks that a person could trip over if they weren’t careful. 

Without getting too into the “guidelines” for this thing, it was divided into two parts, kind of like a golf course.  You follow a series of clues, 10 to be exact.  the first part of the maze, or the “warm up” section had 5 easy to find clues and the second half had 5 really fucking well hidden clues. 

The website said to allow 45 minutes to complete the maze.  We were in there for about two and a half hours.  There were serious discussions of a cannibalistic nature. . . mostly involving the various teenyboppers we kept running into.  By the time we were through most of us couldn’t move most of our limbs.

“Did we just take instructions from a kid in a raver necklace?”  

In retrospect it was a lot of fun.  Sure it went way too long and was way too cold. . . but man, what a bonding experience. 

-Z

UnAmerican Me

So after that big splash I made yesterday about the debate being all important and what not. . . I missed it.   Drinking arrangements were cancelled at the last minute, so I resigned to the idea of watching the debate at home.   Of course at some point between leaving work and getting home I came to the conclusion that I just wan’t sexy enough. . . so I took my payday earnings and went under the clippers.  

Although it was never my intention to use this blog as a forum for discussing my grooming habits I do find myself wanting to plug this particular business:

Borseno’s Barbershop is the shit.  And I don’t use that expression to describe anything so you know it must be good.  My hairstyle has always been fairly vanilla, but even so they always manage to do something, and I don’t even know what, to make it special.  The staff is extremely friendly and very talented.  So if you live in Seattle head on over to 50th and University and give them a try.

Blood Simple @ Central Cinema

Sadly there are few places in this country where one can go to the movies, have a pint of beer and have a waiter come bring you food. Luckily, in Seattle, we happen to have one of those places. This place is Central Cinema. Also it is one of Seattle’s few truly independant theaters, not part of any chain (as much as I love Landmark Theaters, they are hindered by their chainedness). As such it doesn’t get the new mainstream releases but instead divides it’s time between super low budget films and old movies. In this case I went to see the very first film by the notorious Coen Brothers. I am, of course, talking about Blood Simple.

Over the years the Coens have always had a reputation for snappy dialogue and visual flair. However this film bears more in common with their recent No Country for Old Men in that it is very subdued and somber. It has some humor, certainly more than No Country, but it is still very much in the realm of film noir.

I don’t want to ruin any of the mystery and intrigue for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but the plot centers around a jealous bar owner (Dan Hedaya) who hires a dective (M Emmett Walsh) to spy on his wife (Francis McDormand in her first role). Turns out she’s sleeping with one of the bartenders (John Getz). Having found this out he rehires the detective to murder the adulterous pair. . . and this hardly scratches the surface of what the plot is.

Walsh’s detective, Loren Visser, states in the opening monologue, “-down here, you’re on your own.” This very much sets up the method in which the story is told. Everybody has their own perception of what is going on and very much on different pages from one another. Jealousy, suspicion, and betrayal is what this story really boils down to.

As the first film from Joel and Ethan Coen, there are certainly some rough spots around the edges. Some of the shots don’t feel quite right, the editing has some choppy moments, and I’m not sure a lot of the sound came out to what they would have preferred. But don’t worry, this film will still kick your ass and take names.

The cinematography was done by Barry Sonnenfeld. Most people know Barry for his directing but where they should be looking at is his photography. As a Cinematographer he shot the early Coen films up through Miller’s Crossing as well as such films as Throw Momma From the Train, When Harry Met Sally, Misery, and Big. Sure, there were a few others but these are films that all had a strong visual sensibility and were all incredibly popular. Even though I love the work that the Coens have done with DP Roger Deakins, there’s no doubt that Sonnenfeld set the stage for the Coens’ visual style even to this day. As a director he gave us The Addams Family, Get Shorty, and Big Trouble. Those were okay but I don’t think that clears his name for Men in Black 1 & 2, RV, & Wild Wild West.

One amazing constant that has remained through all the Coen films is composer, Carter Burwell. I can’t say enough nice things about this guy, he was one of the composers that inspired me to begin writing music my own self. While many of his scores are very textural and rich this one is very stark. He relies on a minimal instrumentation, mostly centered around the piano. It has the sound of the unease and isolation these characters feel. Listen for yourself:

Not bad for a first-time composer (yes, this was his first film). Now let’s talk about the actors.

Francis McDormand as Abbey

“I ain’t done nothin’ funny.”

Okay, this woman rocks. Sure, this is not her defining role and really most of what she gets to do is act uneasy and sort of frightened. . . but she will have your applause at some point in this film.

John Getz as Ray

“If you point a gun at someone, you’d better make sure you shoot him, and if you shoot him you’d better make sure he’s dead, because if he isn’t then he’s gonna get up and try to kill you.”

Now this is sort of weird. John Getz gets the leading man role in this movie. As I was growing up I mostly grew up watching him play sleazeballs and dirtbags in such films as Curley Sue, Men at Work, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead, and even as recently as 2004 in A Day Without a Mexican. But, as I found out, this is because he’s a gifted character actors, and those folks that get to play the creeps even though they’re talented enough to be the lead.

Ray starts off as very calm, collected, and emotionally distant. Throughout the movie he begins to show the tension in his eyes. It’s an amazing transition to see on screen, especially when you assume that these scenes were likely not shot in order of one another.

Dan Hedaya as Julian

“You know… in Greece, they would cut off the head of the messenger that brought the bad news.”

Okay, you’ve all seen this guy. Whether it be in Joe Vs. the Volcano, Clueless, The Usual Suspects, or what seems to be about a trillion other titles, you’ve seen this guy. Usually guys who are pretty high strung and kind of mean. You’ve seen him lose his temper on screen, I’m sure. What I don’t think is as apparent as how good this guy is at taking all that anger and just bottling it. Julian’s jealousy and rage takes place under the skin. He seethes, but he’s probably the most subdued character in the whole movie.

Many actors could have portrayed him as a character you love to hate. Instead you just kind of feel bad for him. Well done, sir.

M. Emmett Walsh as Loren

“Well, if the price is right. . . I’ll do it.”

Okay, this is Walsh’s movie. He’s not the lead character, but this is his movie. He’s the man on the outside, the observer. He keeps the plot moving and has all the best lines (and one heck of an automobile ornament). He’s your typical amoral laid back texan detective character. You just can’t help but like this guy. I’m sort of amazed that he hasn’t appeared in more Coen Films (except for a bit part in Raising Arizona). Actually, let me just give you the opening to the film to explain what I mean:

Okay, so we know what I think of the film. . . but how was the experience?

Well never before have I been given a menu as soon as I paid for my ticket, sort of bizarre but that’s how it went. We were ushered into the screening room where we would wait for service. We had about 20 minutes before the film started during which was an endless stream of Betty Boop cartoons. No slideshow, no commercials, just Betty Boop cartoons. It was entertaining as hell, I must say. . . certainly gets a person in the mood to watch a dark film like Blood Simple.

While you can order a variety of things like pizza, salad, sandwiches, a hummus platter. . . yeah, the list goes on. But I wanted to stick with the classic: buttered popcorn. But along with that I had a Mac & Jack’s Amber. . . a MOTHERFUCKING GLASS OF BEER IN A MOVIE THEATER! HOLY SHIT! Okay, beer and movies at home you expect, and beer at restaurants. . . no, this was a fucking movie theater! I felt like Sam Jackson in Pulp Fiction; I went into a movie theater and ordered a beer, and I don’t mean like no paper cup I’m talking about a GLASS of beer.

Because this is an independant theater, they made it pretty clear from the getgo that they could do whatever the fuck they wanted. And what they wanted to do was play a ton of little short films before the movie. I liked the one about a mafia-esque organization forcibly breaking up bad relationships. Of course, this meant the movie didn’t really start for about 30 minutes after the starting time. Not the worst thing that could happen but when you’re drinking beer you gotta take a break after a while if you catch my meaning. Luckily they had thought of this ahead of time by way of having an INTERMISSION. Yeah, how often do you see a film with an intermission. Thank you, Central Cinema.

Oh yes, and when the credits stopped rolling, the brought up the house music just like any regular theater. But the difference was instead of playing some top forty bullshit the first track we got was Tom Waits singing Bad Liver and a Broken Heart!

Do evenings get better? Not often.

-Z

Science on Tap, an Inebriated Oddysey

The following event took place on Monday, September 29th. Due to reasons of laziness, exhaustion from the Findley posts + the debate, and lifey good times I have been putting off making postings of any kind.

There’s a very cool place on the internets known as meetup.com. The idea is people meetup up over similar interests and thus having a simultaneous experience of meeting new people and discovering activities you may not have known existed. This is one of them.

Up until now, I’ve never heard of Science on Tap. However once I read about it I was struck by the genius of having, essentially, a free lecture with a handful of inebriants to choose from. College, schmollege. I don’t know if they do these in other places in the world but the idea of getting buzzed while talking about science seems a very Seattle’y thing to do.

In this case the speaker was Phil Hurvitz and the topic was GPS. Now, I can’t say that I took a whole lot away from this specific lecture other than an interest in taking a thing we take for granted and having a serious discussion about how it works and how it’s evolved over a relatively short period of time. The thing that really interested me the most is observing the different ways people reacted. I’m more likely to think “well this guy knows what he’s talking about and I’ll try and absorb what I can,” but these people would actually get engaged and passionate and demand to know just exactly how this device can find a satellite in the first place. Interesting stuff.

Of course my table and I chose to get really into the casual atmosphere of the place, taking and laughing quietly amongst ourselves, though I’m assured we did get shushed at one point. I wouldn’t have ever known had the person not apologized afterward for said shushing. I will say that while the conversation was light we were discussing the subject at hand, no disrepect intended.

While this topic may not have been for me I absolutely love the concept of these talks and I will certainly be back for more. Hopefully with more to say. Hell, if I’m feeling very ambitious I’ll bring the laptop for note taking/immediate blogging.

-Z