Do you have a big but?
Turn this up loud (because the audio on it sucks, but the profound wisdom contained is worthwhile).
P.S. - Pee Wee’s Big Adventure: Great movie or the Greatest movie?
P.P.S. - Happy Festivus! (aww… flashback).
Songs To Play at my Funeral #8
Check out the latest footage for Nickolas Rossi’s film, Songs To Play At My Funeral. As always with these, it’s a rough draft, but the important thing here is that it features another cover of mine (Wonderwall, recorded in 2003).
Songs To Play At My Funeral
So it appears I’m going to be on a soundtrack to an upcoming indie film, ‘Songs to Play at my Funeral’ by Nickolas Rossi. From what I can tell, it’s sort of a This-American-Life-esque exploration of breakups, love and loss. It looks pretty interesting. I’m excited to see it in its entirety, regardless of my soundtrack inclusion. He’s got a bunch of clips up on his Youtube channel if you should wish to check it out.
Here’s a rough clip he just put together for me (featuring my cover of ‘Waiting For a Superman‘) to give me a sense of what he’s going for. He gave me permission to blog about it but insists it is a “very rough draft!” And I insist the same of the music! I’ll be recording a better version soon, though, so don’t worry your pretty little head.
I’ve also promised him some originals, which is great, because it’s exactly the push I need to get over this stupid artistic paralysis I’ve been experiencing. From the sounds of the soundtrack so far, my diddies will be in very good company, so I can hardly pass up the priviledge. Anyway, stay tuned.
What I Thought of ‘The Secret’
I posted this review awhile back on an older blog I had going under a fake (well, my middle) name. I retired that blog in favor of this one, but I’ve decided to re-post this particular piece here, because well, my Mom has asked for my complete, honest, uncensored opinion, and because I’m sick to f***ing death of the praise this film continues to receive. I’m not saying the following review represents any kind of balanced perspective, or that there aren’t some good things to be said about it, or that I’m not an asshole. This just represents my initial reaction after watching… “The Secret.”
It begins:
One of my presents this past Christmas was a DVD of a film called “The Secret.” It had been on my list of things to see for some time prior, so I was grateful, and excited to see it. I’d heard good things.
Sadly, it fell quite short of my expectations. In fact, I had a hard time getting through it at all. It was more difficult to get through than “What the Bleep“, which I also found incredibly disappointing. Still, not nearly as much so as this.
For the most part, I don’t have qualms with the main idea “The Secret” is selling, and that’s part of the problem. I believe the ‘Law of Attraction’ as put forth originally (in those words) by Esther Hicks, but taken up by many others (and, of course, not really a new idea), is a valid concept worth talking about. What I don’t think is that it’s the only concept worth talking about or the only ‘law’ governing our lives. The speakers in the film however, (or rather, more likely the film’s editors) seem to think so. Why else would they call it ‘The’ Secret? But because of such an overemphasized, and yet superficial, focus on this one principle, they failed to do the principle itself any justice.
I felt like I was being forced to watch a neverending infomercial for this one isolated idea - that you attract, or manifest, what you focus on. And I’m not exaggerating when I compare it to an infomercial here.
…”The Secret!” had all of the following:
- A panel of ‘experts’ selling the idea in an oversimplified fashion, and making allusions to “research” without giving any actual references for those of us who like to look into things for ourselves. In other words, dumbing things down to an insulting degree.
- Lame background graphics swirling around behind “The Teachers” as they spoke.
- A serious lack of any substantive information or explanations to back up the things being said.
- Going in circles, harping on the same basic point over and over without going into any further depth or expanding outward from the one concept.
- Fairly hokey reenactments of stories as they were recounted by the “teachers.”
- Turning everything into oversimplified cliches and new-agey slogans which scrolled across the screen and were repeated in whispering voice-overs. (This annoyed me to no end).
- Most of the interviews came off very stiff, contrived and over-edited.
- Most of the speakers were not persuasive at all, and were irritating to me. (only exceptions: Fred Alan Wolf, because he’s adorable, and James Arthur Ray, because he seems reasonably sane and doesn’t speak to you like you’re a 4-year-old).
Now, I tend to get hung up on presentation more than perhaps I should, but this film’s presentation was so off-putting to the entire rational, critical side of my brain that I couldn’t focus on the substance, what little substance there was to focus on. I could recognize the validity of what they were saying, to a point, but only: a) within the context of a much larger body of ideas, of which the ‘Law of Attraction’ is just one part, and b) only because I already had a pre-existing understanding of the idea, based on a whole background of underlying philosophy and experience, which they didn’t even begin to touch on for the benefit of people unfamiliar with such concepts.
If they just wanted to preach to the choir, well, they didn’t even do a very good job of that, but that’s the best I could grant them. I tried to view it from the point of view of someone who isn’t already familiar with the framework of ideas on which the makers of “The Secret” were basing their informercial - sorry - documentary, and from that vantage point, I was just fighting the urge to turn it off the whole damn time. Well, I was fighting that urge regardless, but if I really was just a normal person watching it, not someone actually interested in how these sorts of ideas are being represented in the media, I wouldn’t have lasted 10 minutes.
I hate to be so harsh, but the thing is, I want to be glad this area of thought is being brought more into the mainstream and having more accessible films made about it, but when it just ends up being another pathetic, new-age fluff piece that invites ridicule, that isn’t going to open any new eyes (certainly not in any real, helpful sense) and basically amounts to self-parody, it really pisses me off.
People making these films, with the best of intentions or not, need to realize, first of all, that the whole infomercial-like format is bad - very very bad. It cheapens the ideas (or, idea, singular, in this case) being put forth to the point where the only ones who can take it seriously are people who are either completely noncritical in their thinking (though, I mean hey, why should the Peter Popoffs and Bob Larsons be getting all that action; it’s a lucrative market)… or, people who’ve already accepted the concept on their own, by studying related ideas through other means. If that’s all you’re going to accomplish, what have you accomplished? (Oh right… $$$)…
If you actually care about educating people about a body of ideas that has worked for you - as opposed to just providing a new, shiny bandwagon for the blind-faith-prone to hop onto - the people needing to be convinced need to actually be convinced. Intelligent people want information and expect a certain level of credibility before they’ll even let their intellectual guard down to new ideas, especially ideas that seem a little ‘out there’ nomatter how you spin them. You need to address the obvious, inevitable questions that are going to arise. You don’t need to appeal to the impenetrably cynical assholes whose minds are closed off and solidified beyond all hope, but you don’t have to pander to the lowest common denominator of complete non-skepticism either. You could at least be taking generally rational, thinking, questioning folk into proper account.
Otherwise, you’re asking for reviews like this.
I end this now.
Thank you for letting me get that off my chest, and hopefully I’ve saved you an hour and a half or so of your life from being wasted on a crappy film. If you’ve already seen the film, I hope I didn’t offend you too much.. but I mean, come on.
PS: Happy Friday the 13th! :)
H.P. Lovecraft’s ‘The Other Gods’ Restored
I’ve just encountered an INTRIGUING FILM TRAILER via YouTube. Has anyone seen this film? It’s apparently been in some film festivals. From what I gather, it’s a restoration of an old sillouhette animation, care of Subterranea Entertainment. According to this post on their site, the full film will be viewable soon, but that post is from October, 2006. So I’ve asked them what they mean by ’soon’ and will update you when I know.
Of course, I haven’t exactly done much digging-around work, since I just found it five minutes ago and this is a completely spontaneous, just-as-I-was-heading-for-bed post, so for all I know it’s already available and I’m just missing it. Anyhoo, here are parts of the film’s description:
“A prophet who longed to look upon his deities. A daunting journey to a mountain peak. A confrontation with gods too powerful to name.
This is the story that inspired Peter Rhodes, who worked as a filmmaker and artist during the 1920s…”The Other Gods” has undergone an extensive restoration and is currently being screened at select film festivals throughout the world.
Rhodes’ films were created using silhouette animation, a technique perfectly suited to depict Lovecraft’s mythic Dreamland stories…Rhodes was especially influenced through his relationships with occultist Aleister Crowley and writer H.P. Lovecraft, but it was personal tragedy that moved him to produce “The Other Gods,” his most powerful film.”
And I’m going to bed now. Just thought I’d share. The soundtrack of the film, by the way, is by a fellow named Keith Handy. If that’s his work I’m hearing on the trailer, then so far, I like.
Night night.
(This topic has SO been updated, here.)