Beautiful Bridges Beards

I just woke from this dream in which I was ostensibly listening to one of my own songs, but what was actually playing was the French pop hit “Bonnie and Clyde”. Listening to it, I could only think, “Wow. I really need to sing more clearly. I can’t even understand what I’m saying.”

On the subject of garbled vocals, I recently had the pleasure of watching a wonderfully coifed Jeff Bridges make some unique choices in his performance in “Seventh Son”. He’s played around with a variety of heavily stylised accents in recent years, but this one has to be the most bizarre. After ages of delivering lines in variations of The Dude’s iconic manner, I think that he’s just trying to get through the maximum number of voices before he’s done.

Bonus Question!

Best thing I noticed as I logged into my Squarespace account to post this? 

Jeff Bridges is actually featured in Squarespace's advertising, which met my eyes with some additional Bridges loveliness as I entered this very site.

Big Guns and Little Girls

I saw the new “Terminator” trailer at the cinema a few days ago.

There’s a franchise with some thematic focus on symmetry. You know? Time loops and that. What I was reminded of from this advertisement seemed to offer its own kind of symmetry.

You know that guy Cable? Temporally displaced avatar of Nineties comics? Big gun, cybernetic arm, and a matching eye? At the very least, those last aspects could easily be linked to the fact that he was created at the apex of “Terminator” popularity, and few would argue that Arnold’s implacable cyborg wasn’t some kind of influence on Cable’s conception. Rob Liefeld, his designer, wasn’t exactly shy about that sort of thing.

The character eventually grew beyond his relatively simplistic origins, and one of his most significant stories in recent years involved his adventures through time with a young girl he protected and trained to survive in apocalyptic conditions.

And now that seems to basically be what’s being done by Cable’s inspiration, the Terminator. Symmetry!

And the film that my viewing of this advertisement preceded was “Hot Tub Time Machine 2”. So. You know. Extra time travel stuff in that whole mix. And that was pretty good too.

Bonus Question!

Best time machine? A DeLorean inside a TARDIS with the Time Gem in the back seat. It's the turducken of time travel!

Jeffrey Dean Deadshot

I first fell into “Secret Six” a few years ago, and that wonderful Gail Simone series was almost definitely my strongest connection to the DC universe before the New 52. This happened to be during the same summer in which “The Losers” came out in theatres, which probably reinforced my fondness for the idea that Jeffrey Dean Morgan would make a great Deadshot if a film ever got made.

For his ostensibly heterosexual life mate, Catman, I might have gone for Owen Wilson, but that’s beside the point. Beside the point . . . In bed!

But I think that Gail Simone actually went on to say that that implication was part of the plan.

So. That’s alright.

At the time, I didn’t really have any concept about Deadshot’s most famous team, the Suicide Squad, a group to which the Six served as a sort of spiritual successor in some ways.

But now they’re getting a movie, and Will Smith is Deasdshot. That didn’t really seem like a bother, for the likelihood of getting the one guy you imagined in a role is pretty low anyway. Thus, Smith basically seemed to be on the level of everyone who’s not Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Whatever. I’ll probably like it. I think that the performance I want to see most in that film is Jared Leto in the Joker role. I’m not too familiar with that guy, but I’m curious about what his eccentric talent can bring to the character. He might also be the only other one in the cast I remember. Unless Oprah is actually being brought in to play Amanda Waller? Big, strong, black woman who gets ahead by sheer force of being what she is? Clearly.

But then I saw this poster.

It’s not a film I was ever going to see, but I’ll be damned even further if that doesn’t look like a good Floyd Lawton.

Bonus Question!

Who's Floyd Lawton? Oh. Right. He's Deadshot. I could have explained that. But that's what context's for!

Fraud and Fulgor

Take from me my thunder!

Rob me of my roar.

Strip me of my sinew

And lift away my lore.

Imitate my ire.

No sham will be the same.

Forgeries of fire

Shall fade against my flame.

None can match my mettle.

No fake could face my force.

Cries against my clamor

Are fated to be hoarse.

Dim before my candour,

Deception soon will show.

Frail affronts now falter,

And falseness falls below.

Between Galaxies Far and Near

Douglas Adams’s“Hitchhiker’s Guide” saga has always had a secure place in my heart since a childhood road trip during which my father insisted on putting on the original radio series in the car. When I first heard the idea, it sounded terrible. I think that I only really took notice of the first part of the title, inadvertently ignoring the more fantastical “Galaxy” aspect, which meant that I only expected to be distracted by some monotonous tourist handbook as I focused on Boba Fett’s continuing adventures in the “Star Wars” novels I was reading. Incidentally, those were probably my favourites in that line, but that’s irrelevant in all sorts of ways.

When the “Guide” started playing anyway, I was drawn in immediately, and subsequent years would bring additional enjoyment in the form of literary and cinematic adaptations.

When the “Artemis Fowl” guy came out with an extra book in the series with the blessing of the original author’s widow, aiming to end the story on the lighter note that Adams had considered before his demise, I was vaguely aware, but I didn’t give it much thought. However, I finally decided to give it a try a few days ago, and it was a solid read. On the whole, I probably derived more personal enjoyment from it than I did from the last two entries that Douglas penned, and I got more from its approach to mythological themes than I did from what Adams put forth in the Dirk Gently sequel. Sequels? If you count "The Salmon of Doubt". Whatever. That first Gently book and the early “Guide” works still hold a lofty space in my mind, but this new entry does a brilliant job of filling in that gap between those adored stories and the later, slightly less inspiring ones. None of this has been said with an eye towards objectivity or an appraisal of the latest novel’s worthiness of canonic status, but the pleasure I mention is pure, and that’s what felt meaningful in the moment.

Bonus Question!

Most doubtful salmon?

Loki. That guy's ability to work a salmon disguise was very dubious. He was much more convincing as a female horse, though. 

Pepper Again

For some reason, I don’t think that I’d actually seen a single episode of “Pepper Ann” since Toronto’s big summer blackout interrupted one I was watching a decade ago. Recently, I decided to give the show another try and start it from the beginning. I did so, and the first entry in the series turned out to be the one that had been prematurely halted by that distant summer’s electrical troubles. Resolution at last.

Bonus Question!

Best peppers? Red Hot Chili.

Belated Viewing

“The Interview” was something that had been looking good for a while, but I’d been feeling patient enough to await its delayed theatrical release without any certain knowledge of its arrival. But apparently it had already started playing without my knowledge at a nearby cinema I don’t frequent so often. In truth, I’m glad for this ignorance, for it would have otherwise replaced “Nightcrawler” in filling the cinematic drought I felt in the previous week, and I probably wouldn’t have gotten around to seeing that film at all.

But this week brought me to Rogen and Franco’s comedy, and it satisfied my expectations well. I will say that the movie made the dictator look somewhat more dashing than his counterpart in the real world. He carries himself with a robust handsomeness that almost seems to take from the tradition of Stalin. Nice bit of casting.

Bonus Question!

Most dashing dictator? 

Doom!

Blooming With Lou

I ran into another of those situations wherein the dearth of especially suitable films for me prompted a chance on one I probably would have missed otherwise.

I think that I might have initially thought that “Nightcrawler” had some basis in the story of Richard Ramirez or something during the first 17 seconds I saw of the advertisement whenever that happened, but there was a later point at which I did give the picture some consideration. I didn’t doubt its wit, but I thought that its execution could hew too closely to “American Psycho” for my liking. Instead, what I got was much closer to my first vague impression of “American Psycho”, which was based on nothing beyond a high school peer’s unique interpretation of Bateman’s climactic phone call to his lawyer. Quite separate from Christian Bale’s tearful catharsis, my acquaintance delivered the speech with a jaunty irreverence, which led me to imagine the film with a greater emphasis on madcap quirkiness. “Nightcrawler” actually seemed to deliver on that in its way. If Abed Nadir had to take the place of Patrick Bateman, the result would probably be something like this protagonist. Actually, the result would probably be something I’d watch by itself. What’s that guy doing now? Maybe that can be his next project if “Community” doesn’t manage to come back.

Bonus Question!

Patrick Bateman versus Patrick Star?

I feel as though Patrick's ability to breathe underwater would have its advantages.

Confused Justifications

For some reason, whenever I hear someone mention the movie “Labor Day”, I think of “Draft Day”. Generally, the image that comes to my mind is that of the poster. Usually, it’s one from a bus stop advertisement. I think that it’s the one on the south side of College at Yonge.

In its incidental way, this week brought information that almost does something to justify that confusion. In a way. Very small way. Almost. Not really. But . . . Still.

Apparently, Ivan Reitman directed one, and his son directed the other. I forget the specifics. I don't know whether the son directed the bus stop one or the other one. And I don't remember the son's name now. Such information is now gone from my mind. I did try to do a bit of further research, but all I remember from that is the fact that the films' respective lengths are within a minute of each other. I’m not sure that I’d even be able to argue that that does anything to bolster the meagre justification I posited for my confusion, but there it is.

And . . . You know. They basically came out in the same year. There’s that. But there always was.

Bonus Question!

Best cinematic day? I suppose that "Groundhog Day" is the standard choice, but I'm still holding out for a full production of "Leap Dave Williams".

Time at Least

Before the final ember tires

Within the hearth’s inviting fires,

There’s time at least for joyous feast

Among the songs of ageless choirs.

The sanctum of the season’s hollow

Wherein no sullen storm may follow

Allows at last a ripe repast

And lets the livened laughter wallow.

As darkling skies descend to glower

About the tips of tinsel bower,

Embrace the taste of wishes placed

Upon the fringe of festive hour.

Hobbitseseses

I just saw “The Hobbit”. Third one. Final one. Final? For now. Sure. Maybe it's a dubious sort of finality.

Anyway.

It’s the second one I’ve seen at that advanced frame rate. That was never particularly irksome, though it didn’t do much to earn my favour either. When I saw it in “Desolation of Smaug”, it was slightly reminiscent of a soap opera. The experience was slightly better in “Five Armies”. It was more like a play. The kind of play people would make if they didn’t have to worry about certain things . . . Things like . . . Well. You know. Reality. Reality would probably be one of the things about which these people would not have to worry in order to make such plays. That’s how they get made. Budgetary concerns might also be dispensed with, though one may suppose that those could fall under the broader category of reality anyway. In any case, I’d imagine that most plays are put on at a cost below that of the elven king’s cloak. It’s the type of thing that does a decent job of rising to the hyperbolic praise that modern fantasy authors often reserve for the raiment of the race.

The fact that the feel of the stage crept through in parts was somewhat resonant to me, for my elementary school’s drama department decided to base its annual production on “The Hobbit” when “Fellowship of the Ring” was first coming to theatres. My part was pretty small, but my friend gave a performance in the Gollum role that was splendid and entirely separate from that of the films. That’s probably most of what I remember.

I do appreciate the splitting of the book. I cherish some of these annual releases. Perhaps these Tolkien ones top that list. It builds in a kind of tradition. If I had to think of a salient point of excitement about the new “Star Wars” plan, that might be it. A new cinematic entry per year? I could slip into that quite easily. And it’s being moved to winter from the old spring schedule. Fill up that empty Tolkien slot.

Will that slot remain empty? Who can say? If the question of a “Silmarillion” adaptation had been posed two decades ago, all sorts of objections could have been effortlessly raised against it. Now, the most obvious one would probably point to the fact that Peter Jackson basically did a fair bit of the job within this trilogy already.

Well, there are rights issues too. Whatever. The silver screen shall bear more orcs eventually. It’ll be great.

Bonus Question!

Best cloak? Levitation.

Prophet of Israel Versus the 13th Disciple

I was somewhat excited for “Exodus: Gods and Kings”. Now, I don’t really see much in the way of movie commercials, which means that this excitement basically came from the title and a few posters in cinema lobbies. I noticed that it was coming out during this week, and that was when I discovered what it was actually about. I think that I’d envisioned some sort of mythological deal, but my interest waned when it turned out to be some Moses thing. That’s fine, but I’m just feeling inclined to stick to “Prince of Egypt” for that business. Along with everything else, it has Jeff Goldblum.

I think that I’ll go and see “Top Five” instead.

Bonus Question!

Best Five? Alive.

An Encumbrance of Cumberbatch

I just went out to see “Penguins of Madagascar” recently. It’s a movie. It may be based around a television show? A television show based on another movie. The former had the same title, and the latter’s is just missing the first two words. I don’t know. The show might actually be largely irrelevant in all of this.

But all of this is largely irrelevant.

Listen. Maybe I write about truth. That truth doesn’t necessarily have to pertain to anything particular.

Anyway, I was walking around shortly before I went off to the cinema, and I was listening to a podcast in which the hosts’ discussion happened to come around to Benedict Cumberbatch. The man has a central role in this film, though that was never mentioned in the podcast. The crux of the Cumberbatch talk was the revelation of his inability to say the word “penguins” in any sort of traditional manner after he narrated a documentary about the apparently flightless birds.

The protean peculiarities in his pronunciation bore themselves out in the animated feature I saw too. Furthermore, I noticed that the teammates of his character were voiced in ways that made them say “penguins” in even stranger ways. A deliberate attempt at disguise? I don’t know. Incidentally, there are multiple instances in which the diction of the Cumberbatch character is called into question by one of the penguins, but it’s never about that specific word. Or related ones. But the penguin that engages in these quibbles is a bit of a Shatner analogue. Such arguments fit in with that persona already. On that note, there’s a bit in the climax that feels like a rendition of that sacrifice scene from “Wrath of Khan”. Or the spiritual remake with Cumberbatch. In favour of the former, the Shatner analogue is the one on the outside. But it follows the latter in resolving the ensuing sickness by the end of the film instead of making an entirely separate movie about the resurrection of the martyr. That sickness also involved the growth of a new hand that came with a glove that perfectly matched the animal's distinctive tuxedo colouring.

So . . . Connections. They abound.

Oh. And that also seemed to be the day on which the confirmation of Benedict’s starring role in the Doctor Strange movie was made. I noticed that when I saw a picture of him on the IMDb page for “Penguins of Madagascar”. That picture made me comprehend the propriety of the choice more thoroughly. That’s helped further by the fact that he’s someone who transcends character acting by being an actor who also happens to be a great character. Like that thing with the penguin pronunciation! That sort of transcendence seems to follow in the tradition of Vincent Price, and there generally seems to be a fair amount of Vincent Price in the mien of Doctor Strange. If they’re not going straight to Johnny Depp for the role, Benedict makes an equal kind of sense.

Bonus Question!

Best flightless bird?

The Big one.

News of Performance and Percussion

Happy to announce the induction of Hot Apollo's newest drummer, Samuel Rossetto! It's a pretty great drummer name.

At this point, it seems as though his first show with us will take place on the 31st of January at The Paddock. That's at 178 Bathurst, people! By Queen!

Bonus Question!

"Animal Farm" versus Animal Collective?

The musicians team up with Snowball and the gang to end Napoleon's reign. The band marks the ensuing celebration with a new psychedelic arrangement of Old Major's "Beasts of England".

Another Podcast. Equally Hot. Poutine Might Be Hot Too.

Between writing that last entry about the podcast at the beginning of the weekend and posting it at the end, I ran into some friends who happened to bring up the subject. I’d mentioned the idea to them in the past, and one had become increasingly interested in getting involved. Hence, we decided to record some short clips while we had time. Something more substantial could come from this. It remains to be seen!

And yes. It was recorded at a restaurant.

It wasn't a poutine restaurant, though. It was a sushi place.

Incidentally, the Podcast tab now exists. It also links to a place where you can download this stuff at your leisure. And that place is at http://jaymesbuckman.podbean.com. Cheers!

Bonus Question!

Best fry topping? Coconut shavings.

The Hot Apodcast!

Continuing on the subject of imminent Marvel video releases, the “Guardians of the Galaxy” disc is coming out soon. I mention this because it reminded me of something I did and forgot a few months ago.

For a while, I’ve been intermittently flirting with the idea of recording a casual kind of podcast. The Hot Apodcast! The name’s almost enough for motivation alone. But I was alone! I couldn’t think of anyone with the time and inclination to co-host.

Over the summer, I resumed relations with an old friend I hadn’t seen in a bit of a while, which reminded me that there was in fact a person in my life who possessed even more free time than I did. If that’s possible?

Anyway, we decided to give it a shot because we have long, rambling talks anyway, and we chose to use the topic of movies for a starting point because that tends to be a recurrent element in our discussions.

After he stepped in to provide a bit of percussion for me at an acoustic show I was doing downtown, we realised that we had time to race up to his neighbourhood and catch a late screening of “Guardians of the Galaxy”.
The discussion that followed launched our podcast, which I’m now remembering to upload. Here it is!

Bonus Question!

Star-Lord versus Sun King?

Obviously, Louis XIV had panache, but I think that Peter Quill has the weaponry to walk away with most of the wins here.

JFK: The F Stands for "Future"

On the whole, I think that “Days of Future Past” was my favourite superhero movie of the summer. The year? It’s hard to say. The whole X-Men thing was always my favourite comic book property. It was really what originally drew me in. I can admit to a bit of bias here. If I had to take that out of it, I might give it to “Guardians”. I did like the fact that the “X-Men” film series finally got a prominently comedic character. Iceman and Nightcrawler were always creditable jesters in the comics, but that seemed to be downplayed with their cinematic counterparts. At least Quicksilver got a bit of that charm here.

Anyway, all of this basically just comes to mind because of this whole viral marketing thing that’s going on to promote the home release of the film. Specifically, I noticed that a lot of it is focused on the idea of a mutant Kennedy family, which is a decent conceit as fictive Kennedy conspiracies go. However, I did like the bit of romantic ambiguity in the phrase Magneto used to bring up the whole idea in the movie: “He was one of us”. Obviously, that’s intended to imply that Erik believes the guy to be a mutant, but it works on other levels even without that. Because the real Kennedy was a man like Erik and Charles too.

A dreamer.

A proponent of unity.

That kind of dude.

Bonus Question!

Jackie O versus Karen O?

Draw. Then they team up to record an amazing cover of "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat".

The Hour After Autumn

In the hour after autumn,

There’s an old, unsteady glow.

It enshrouds the fallen season

Till the winds of winter blow.

There’s a moment in the gloaming

As the sighs of summer cease

When the weather wends its roaming

Through a slight and sombre peace.

Though the cracks are surely showing

In the frailty of the heat

As the calls of cold are growing,

There’s no haste in its retreat.

Till hibernal chills awaken

And the flights of frost arrive,

Ancient ardour shan’t be shaken.

Still the strains of sun survive.

At Least Put Your Hair Back On

My eye was recently caught by some random Facebook link to a ranking of the scariest and most disturbing music videos. The reason for this catching was the fact that the link’s image was a picture of the first thing that would have come to my mind at the mention of the subject: that skinless Robbie Williams from the “Rock DJ” video.

MuchMusic was a favourite channel choice for my brother in the era of that song, and thus I was exposed to its programming with a bit of frequency. An air of revulsion quickly developed whenever Williams' dancing wight came on the screen. Any opinions I might have formed on the actual tune were aborted by the acute unease the scenes incited deep within me.

But the sight of the track atop this random list pushed me to flip the song on for a moment in the absence of its gratuitous visual accompaniment. Coming at it clear from this remove, I derived legitimate pleasure from it. It’s now on my phone. I shan’t make plans to return to the video.

Bonus Question!

Honourable mention?

That "Where's Your Head At" video crept into my mind a little while after I first saw it and delayed sleep by a decent chunk of an hour.

Seasonal Spirits

For various reasons, this is the first Thanksgiving of which I’ve partaken in several years, and I think that I’ve finally found an aspect of the festival that’s uniquely appealing to me.

Generally, I enjoy the thematic spirit that pervades the wider world whenever the horizon allows a glimpse of an upcoming holiday.

"November's here? Frost those windows!"

However, the fact that Thanksgiving, which is already limited to a handful of places around the world, varies its timing so wildly between those locations means that the heady inundations of ostentatious cheer that surround the arrival of more broadly observed events are relatively scarce for this one. This seems to give it a rare sense of intimacy in a way. In the absence of constant reminders for this revelry, it feels more like something that’s celebrated on private, personal terms. I’m not supposing that this affords any inherent superiority, but the tonal difference it gives is somewhat refreshing. 

The comparative lack of promotion for Thanksgiving also carries the benefit of making Halloween the dominant focus of the entire season, which means that the durational difference between the world’s observance of that celebration and mine is only around 10 months.

Update on 2014-10-12 02:09 by Jaymes Buckman

Bonus Question?

Battle of holiday egg products! Cream eggs versus eggnog!

In light of their realisation of the sheer madness of restricting the sale of a prized treat to a mere fraction of the year, I'm giving this one to the Cadbury team. Because Easter can start in winter now.