• Conspicuous Consumption. Brief reviews of what we've been seeing, reading, and listening to. With apologies to Thorstein Veblen.
  
  
• Print. Books, magazines, newspapers, comics, graphic design -- whatever's on paper.
  
  
• Screen. Entertainment on screens big and small -- movies, television, video games.
  
  
• Sounds. It's music to our ears. Mostly.
  
  
• Stage. Theater, dance, and all that.
  
  

Bloody. Gorgeous. 4 stars.

Julie Delpy as Woody Allen? Sure, why not. 3 stars.

Ripping good yarn, well told. Plus: circus! A book to borrow.

The feel-good Charlie's-Angels-spoof indie lesbian-Romeo-and-Juliet film of 2004! 3 stars. Hat tip to Anvil & Sprocket's review which convinced me to Netflix this.

Alain Robbe-Grillet is dead at 85. Read the détails or the details. Can I award Ishpoints to the best comment making reference to the destruction of narrative chronology?

"Well, that was the gayest Hitchcock I've ever seen." 3.5 stars. Half a star for the line "He was a Harvard undergraduate. That might make it justifiable homicide."

This week's Family Movie Night selection was mine, and while Lucas shamelessly rips off every fantasy / sword'n'sorcery movie ever (and a few of his own), it still holds up after 20 years. And the boys liked it, although they were concerned for the welfare of the baby-who-must-be-saved. 3 stars.

We've instituted Family Movie Night in our house every weekend, with the rules being 1) No Movies We've All Seen Before, and 2) Everybody Gets A Turn To Pick. This was the first grownup choice (Debbie's) and a big hit with all of us. Miyazaki, marvelous. 4 stars.

There's probably a German word for the deep sense of unease one gets from these dreamlike stories. But I don't know what it is. Definitely one for the Curious Bookshelf.

You only think you saw this movie in 1985. 3.5 stars but probably only if you're a guy.

I recently re-read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy -- which the second time around is philosophically more interesting, but story-wise less so. In the ending acknowledgments Pullman cites three works: Paradise Lost, the works of William Blake, and On the Marionette Theatre by Heinrich von Kleist. So I went and found it. It's clear why it was an influence on Pullman, and there's a scene with Lyra and Iorek from the first book that's lifted from part of this essay.

I've decided, after watching three seasons of Lost, that the designers have deliberately screwed up the kerning in the title sequence, in order to subtly increase our sense of unease:

It's the only explanation. More on the typography of Lost.

Oh, and speaking of the Lost title sequence, this spoof is pretty funny.

I can't remember where I read a reference to a Balthus tie knot, but after some searching I found Thomas Fink and Yong Mao, two physicists who figured out every conceivable way to tie to tie. And they wrote a book. More here. Get it for your geek who hates to wear ties but must on occasion.

It's good to go back to Middle Earth. But tragedy -- and I mean tragedy with a capital classical T, not in the modern sense of "something sad or unfortunate" -- is a hard read. Interesting to read at the same time as the Icelandic sagas, lots of parallels.

Vs.

Journey "Separate ways" from patsevc on Vimeo.

Play them both at once for extra cheese. Via Waxy.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.

I don't know why this makes me happy, it just does. I didn't even see the White Castle movie. Maybe the fact that this looks like a major motion picture which is absurdist and political. Actually, best not to think about it too much.

I was pretty fearful that they would eviscerate one of my favorite books. This film adaptation wasn't bad, but it's not great either. It does look good. But mostly it just made me want to re-read the book. 3 stars.

Basically delivers on its fairy-tale-in-New-York promise. And a funny holiday movie to boot, which is hard to pull off without schmaltziness (or worse, unfuniness). 3.5 stars.

A bit tweeny for the boys, but basically delivers on its fairy-tale-in-New-York promise. Amy Adams really makes the movie. 3 stars.

There's always the discussion about the worst Christmas song (my money is still on "Dominick the Donkey"), but what is the worst song ever?

Well, here it is, the worst song -- or rather, the most unwanted song, as determined by the polling artsters (or arty pollsters?) Komar & Melamid. The folks at MeFi love it, though. Maybe you will too.

There I am on TV in Boston, hawking DonorsChoose.org! MyFox Boston | DonorsChoose.Org Helps Needy Classrooms

Thanks, Fox News in Boston!

Speed Racer: The Movie. Chances that the Wachowski Siblings screw this up? Oh, pretty high, given what they did to V for Vendetta. But Christina Ricci as Trixie? That could work.

Check out the Mikiphone, "probably the smallest gramophone ever placed on the market, folded up to the size of a large pocket watch or a small cheese case."

More pictures here. Check out the Gipsy too.

Apparently all Japanese films made before 1953 are in the public domain. Which means that one of my all time favorites, Kurosawa's Ikiru, is available online. But please, download a decent-sized version. Watching a Kurosawa film at 320 x 240 pixels is like looking at a postcard of a Bierstadt.

OK, so I'll throw it half a star for special effects, and another half star for "best use of the subtitles as a visual element in the film." Why don't movies do that more often? Or ever? Anyway, back to the film, it's mainly senseless bombast. I felt like I was watching "Highlander," but in Russian, with better special effects, and vampires, but without Sean Connery, and not as good. 2 stars.