http://www.gallowmere.com/ en Copyright 2010 Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:59:42 -0400 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss In my life, I am like Billy Pilgrim from Slaughterhouse Five; I'm unstuck in time. And right now I'm back somewhere in the mid-90s. A child approaching the double digits, a Canadian living in America, already weird, so feel like a space alien. I'm home from school, and what's this I see on TV? Two brothers with the same name planting landmines on people's lawns and disguising themselves as lawn inspectors to con people into getting them to remove the mines from their lawn so that the little brother could buy a jetpack. A superhero who might just be a madman who lives a a port-o-john, helping the boy out with a paper route and throwing the paper's so hard they almost go through people's chests. The same superhero later becoming a bowler using a ball that has a hamster in it that he communicates with telepathically. A crossing guard who can make people physically incapable of moving forward by holding up his sign. This is all in one episode The Adventures of Pete and Pete. It instantly becomes one of my favourite shows. It's about two redheaded brothers named Pete Wrigley living in the fictional town of Wellsville in "The Sideburn State". Big Pete is a slightly dorky teenager who deals with sinister teachers such as a psychotic wood shop teacher who attaches different parts to his prosthetic hand (he lost the real one in an accident), and with the typical problems of growing up, figuring out if he wants to date his best friend Ellen, and dealing with his nemesis Endless Mike, a bully who has been in high school forever. Little Pete is who makes the show for me. He's a weirdo and a rebel who wears flannel hats, clothes too big for him, and has a different way of looking at things. He uses his own cuss words like "Blow hole" and constantly tells people to bite his neck hair. He often goes on surreal adventures, such as beating up the ocean, travelling back in time by crossing states during daylight savings hours, and befriending the elusive man who inspects underwear before packaging them. Their father is pretty much Homer Simpson. He's fat, bald, mediocre at everything, and can be idiotic though well meaning. Their mother is a quirky character who has a steel plate in her head which is featured as a character on the show and is able to receive radio transmissions from around the world. It has a very quirky and surreal sense of humour which I don't normally see in children's shows, hell, on TV altogether. Children's shows tend to be loud and silly, and deal with asshole kids who are unpopular but who would sell out their friends for any chance they could to be popular. The Adventures of Pete and Pete has a sense of humour sort of like what can be found in Get A Life (which I might review later) or The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, though maybe not as outrageous. What makes it work was that though it is so ridiculous, it's played straight. As outrageous as the things are that happen, and as bizarre as the characters are, nobody ever seems to be winking at the screen, or being outwardly jocular in tone. It also had a fairly decent production value. It has a feel which is organic, and kind of cinematic. That's to say, it doesn't seem like it was just shot on a sound stage like the children's shows which will show in the 2000s like Hannah Montana and iCarly. And it has some interesting stylistic choices, especially episodes like "Tool and Die", "Halloweenies", and "Pinned!" (an episode where people actually get murdered, and murdered in ridiculous ways). While I personally have no heart, the show has some heart too it. Not at all saccharine, but its way of showing the close but sometimes wavering bond between the Petes who are year apart in age is very compelling. They're best friends, but Big Pete often has to deal with teenage bullshit and Little Pete has to deal with the oppression of being a kid. They also often give serious dimension to people you'd never expect, like the weird superhero, a crossing guard who never goes home, and the solitary Ice Cream truck driver whose head is a giant scoop of ice cream. The musical choices are also pretty interesting. It doesn't go for music which was popular for the time, and it doesn't go for having the hippest playlist. The music mostly matches the quirkiness of the show. Such as the instrumentals of music from Stephen Merritt. The theme song "Hey Sandy" being played by grunge band Polaris on the Wrigley's lawn perfectly encapsulates the '90s. The show itself is the '90s; fuzzy, sophisticated but not high tech, slightly innocent but a lot of strange things under the surface. Not too many people I know even know of this show. I don't think it ever came on in Canada, but season 1 and 2 are on DVD. Paramount put season 3 on hold, but I have ehrm... taped versions of that one. I give this show '95/'90s See everyone in hell!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/08/#000091 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/08/#000091 Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:59:42 -0400 Happiness, and the over-the-top violence, sexual kinkiness, surrealism, and barmy horror of Takashi Miike's films of the late 90s and early noughts, you know, before he decided to become a jobber. The first movie of his I saw, Suicide Circle, got under my skin before I could realize it. And when I watched Strange Circus, I had to get back to it a year after watching the first 10 minutes of it because it had already gotten under my skin. Though of course, when I did watch it, it went in a completely different direction than I had imagined... then a million different more after that. That was the film where I started to feel the love. I've gone on to watch as many movies of his as I can find. Two weeks ago, I sat down to watch one of his latest releases, Love Exposure, and my mind's still smoking and wobbling around like hot rubber. This movie is a four hour long romance/black comedy/action/coming-of-age/religious satire, not particularly in that order, though at times, all of these things at once. Love Exposure is novelistic in scale with its wide and wild plot which really allows the story to breathe. Its protagonist Yu Tsunoda is a young man whose mother dies only after telling him that the girl he should fall in love with should have the traits of virgin Mary. After becoming a widower, his father Tetsu, a devout catholic, becomes a priest. He is dedicated to his job, and adheres to his duties until a troubled woman literally barges into his life. They have a love affair in a house they rent far away from the church. The relationship goes to shit quicker than relationships usually do, and it sends Tetsu off the rails. His sermons become harsh and accusatory, and he squeezes confessions out of his son. Yu eventually commits transgressions which become increasingly more sinful to win his father's attention. This eventually leads him to getting caught up with a band of troublemakers who get into fights and shoplift. From there, it leads to him getting upskirt photos of girls, flipping and rolling around like a ninja and taking snapshots of their panties. His father reacts extremely negatively to this, causing Yu to take even more pictures. His pastime eventually leads to him making a bet with one of his friends to see who can take the best upskirt photo. He loses, and has to dress up as a woman and kiss a girl while speaking in an effeminate voice. So dressed up as a woman named Ms. Scorpion, he sees a girl about to be attacked by a gang of thugs. He intervenes, kisses her, sees traits of Virgin Mary in her, and gets his first erection. The girl is Yoko, and it later turns out that this girl is the step daughter of Koike, the woman who had an affair with his father. To complicate things, his father falls back in love with Koike after she chases him down and knocks his car into a lake. Yoko is in love with the woman Yu was dressed up as, but has no interest in Yu himself. Complicating things even further is a creepy girl named Saori who has a profoundly fucked up past. She has been keeping a close eye on Yu, and eventually wedges herself into the relationship, saying that she is actually Ms. Scorpion. This is only the first hour and a half of the movie, and from this point on, it only gets weirder... Having spoiled enough, I will just say that it leads to a genre hopping journey which involves a sinister cult, shady porn dealers, sex, seppuku, blood baths, and a whole lot more. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and it has easily done for me what Taxidermia, Ex-Drummer, and Synecdoche, New York did for me last year in being the most wild and refreshing movies which pulled my intestines out of my navel and smacked me with them. The plot is weird, original, sprawling and unpredictable. The acting is over-the-top. The humour is absurd beyond belief, yet it has real heart (and various other body parts) to it. It had a decent soundtrack. I will always hear the second movement of Beethoven's seventh symphony anytime I think of this movie. The J-Pop wasn't too bad either. I think a couple songs did annoy me. As for the cinematography, it was decently shot. There weren't any awe-inspiring shots, however, and I'm not too wild about it being shot digitally, and everything does look a little bright and colourful, but it doesn't really contradict the movie's tone. Also, a part involving a penis amputation sort of had its impact dampened by the fact that the penis was blurred out. I understand it's a legal issue as to why genitals both male and female can't be shown in their films, but it's a little disconcerting. And I find the law stupid. If it's necessary for the theme, or subject matter, parts shouldn't be blurred out for the sake of a stupid law. Not that I personally need or desire to see full frontal nudity in every movie I see. Heaven knows I felt pretty sick after seeing Shortbus, but that might have to do with the movie being total trash. I'm doing it... I'm going off topic big time. But anyway, Love Exposure: Brilliant movie. I like movies which are a little messy and loose, and as long as they're not too much so. That's what this movie was, and that's why I found it to be perfect. 10/10 See everyone in hell!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/08/#000089 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/08/#000089 Thu, 05 Aug 2010 23:08:24 -0400 5/10]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/07/#000088 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/07/#000088 Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:50:18 -0400 I don't know where I am. If somebody can find me, please rescue me. There will be a cash reward. Oh wait, here I am! Alive and well. I'll go through a few updates as I dust off the dirt and branches I'd been buried in. 1) I moved into my own private padded cell. In this cell, nobody can hear my screams, and better yet, the screams of my victims. 2) I got accepted into that Multimedia program at [Miskatonic University]. I'll be taking courses in graphic design, digital video, and animation. There are other courses later on that I would like to take like Digital Rhetoric, and the course on videogames taught by [Dr. Macintosh], who I've had before. My degree will be a combined Honours in Multimedia and English. I am well aware that a bachelor's degree is less useful than tissue paper, which is why I am not getting that one alone. But my hopes are that the program will help me be a better writer, and more analytical reader. Though I am wary of the fact that getting too analytical can suck the fun right out of any medium. I fall somewhere in between, I guess. 3) I've been sneaking in as much as I can for [The Noxious Novel]. I haven't gotten much done because my schedule had been hectic over the last month, but the realm of Gallowmere is slowly coming back into order. Or whatever order this world can be in. So there's that. Soon, once I get my workstation in my cell set up, I will recommence doing my daily doodles. Until then... See everyone in hell! http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/06/#000087 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/06/#000087 Fri, 25 Jun 2010 10:40:37 -0400 "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time." What the Zuck? Count me out. That was a while ago, but the news only hit me recently. That was enough for me to finally go on Google (a company which ironically has its wacky ideas on how to treat privacy) and find out how to close it down for good. I found this link. That was over a week ago, and now I have to wait another week for it to finally be gone. I still have to wonder how gone it will really be, but I'll just have to keep my eyes open. I don't count this as a victory against Big Brother. Obviously there's so much out there about me and of me that they could make a digital clone of me, and nobody would know any different. But this is a small step into the caves. Until then... See everyone in hell, and not on Facebook!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/05/#000086 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/05/#000086 Tue, 18 May 2010 22:23:21 -0400 I don't know what I was doing with the cog and eye in the sky and the cloud eyebrows which could be perceived as giant floating turds. But I was just fucking around. Anyway... See everyone in hell!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/04/#000085 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/04/#000085 Fri, 16 Apr 2010 21:12:33 -0400 I'll definitely pick some stuff up soon enough. I have also ordered Preston Blair's Learn to Animate Cartoons Step by Step, to help with drawing in a cartoony style. Realism doesn't interest me. Plus I could learn to animate for who knows what reason. It's definitely not anything I can do anything with on say TV considering most animation, especially Canadian consists of stiff vector characters with smug looks on their faces standing around and taking two steps every-so-often (See 6Teen, Max and Ruby). But the more things I can do, the better. See everyone in hell!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/04/#000084 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/04/#000084 Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:01:14 -0400 So classes have come to an end at [Miskatonic] University. I'm still recuperating from spending 36 hours finishing off a few final assignments. One which I presented right away in [Dr. Cossack]'s class. It was a mini-site with a gritty restaurant theme. It illustrated how Comte De Lautremont's Maldoror perfectly blended elements of surrealism and black humour to create a literary nightmare. She was impressed enough to give me an A+. Imagine how high my mark would have been if I started it earlier. That's out of the way, and I have a few exams. Then I will be free again to work on [The Noxious Novel] once again. My mind has been fertile with ideas. I have been gaining more and more interest in exploring my creativity through venues such as drawing and graphic design. I don't claim to be a pro at either, but I've got potential. The digital spirit of former coworker [Ophelia Leichenbestatter] advised that I do a drawing a day to sharpen my drawing skills, and I think I'm going to go ahead with that. I think I will post whatever I draw on here, no matter how pointless or horrendous . Even if it's a squiggly line. I will draw something... as a matter of fact, hang on... There: I don't know where I'll be going with all of this stuff. It could only amount to a hobby. That's just fine. My main focus is still storytelling. I already have to get a publisher for [The Obscure Opus] and finish off [The Noxious Novel] before the end of the year. I have also been toying with the nonfiction work [Cyanide For The Soul]. That one is a couple years down the line, but I plan on working on that as soon as these two buggers are finally out of my way. Anyway, I think I'll go off and do something productive now. See everyone in hell! ]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/04/#000083 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/04/#000083 Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:03:26 -0400 Maldoror was a beautiful piece of ugliness, but I haven't really read anything since. Every time I submerge myself in something dark, disturbing, depressing, and bizarre, I feel like it may be the last thing that will ever do that to me. Not that having my mind violated is the most important thing, a good heart blackening laugh from a solid black comedy is just as good. Putting my mind into a taffy puller with something intensely surreal is always a pleasure. And an intellectually stimulating anything always makes a monocle grow out of my eye. I'm still working on [The Noxious Novel] which I hadn't for a while because I started flirting with the idea of submerging myself back into [The Obscure Opus]. Increasingly as I walked, ate, lied in bed, sat in crowds, my mind would drift back into the world of those characters. They would speak to me and say, "You know I would have much more dimension to me if you just blank, blank, blanked." They would sit beside me on the bus and whisper, "Remember the scene where blank, blank, blank? Wouldn't it be stronger if you added blank, blank, blank and made blank, blank and blank, blank?" A little devil who looked like me but wore darker attire, and the evillest of evil grins would tickle my eardrum with his forked tongue as he whispered, "Your prose is bland. Who do you think you are? Dan Brown? It's a book, not a screenplay, take some bold steps, make it ergodic literature, why not?" Ultimately, I went back to it for two weeks before deciding to toss it back into the vault. I had an emissary put up an ad in [Miskatonik] University's [Literary Lane]. A cheap ad with little tabs to tear off the bottom, as if I'm selling an old microwave. Somebody did indeed tear one off. But the devil never contacted me. I sat by my phone and kept checking my email, but nothing. I was left hanging. The 12 foot candle I had sitting at the table melted into a blob in the shape of a broken heart. My spaghetti went cold, gained blocks of ice, and hopped into a Michelina's box. If necessary, I will hire another emissary to stand in [Literary Lane] and wait for people to pass by, then harass them into taking a tab, getting their phone numbers and addresses, and staying on their cases to contact me. I find people edit books much better when under duress. In the meantime, [The Noxious Novel] is really becoming more than I hoped it would be. I thought that it would essentially be Gallows-Lite, but I've bled as much of myself into it as I have with [The Obscure Opus]. Maybe not as much in quantity, but the same quality for sure. It's supposed to be a young adult novel, but I'm not sure why this one is and [The Obscure Opus] isn't. [The Obscure Opus] does feature sex, sometimes extreme sex, and I guess there are themes which more explicitly attack religion, politics, and culture. It is also more complexly written, and a character with a toilet mouth and ridiculous views could be taken out of context by younger readers. But that's giving younger readers too little credit. I've had customers who are little girls that fully embraced Geek Love and read Jane Austen (even if her books put me to sleep), and grown women who genuinely believe Twilight is the best book ever written. At the end of the day, it's the reader. Siiidtraaaacked... Anyway, this book will be dark, funny, surreal, and unconventional. I do think that the judges for the contest I'll be submitting it to will have the gumption to at least not think that it's too offensive. I read a book that they published earlier, Going Bovine, and that book was pretty vulgar and surprisingly surreal. The protagonist was a shithead though. It will definitely be done in time for its submission. That's about it for now. So... See everyone in hell!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/03/#000082 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/03/#000082 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:02:40 -0400 Happiness. The first time around, I enjoyed it for how black its black humour was. It's a suburban satire along the lines of Little Children and American Beauty, but relentlessly darker. Not too many comedies involve suicide, pedophilia, fantasies of rape, and sheer misery. I decided to watch it again on the weekend, and since then, I have been jovially melancholy. I'm in a mood where I want to laugh about how much I think life is a farce. I get in these fits at least once a year. Last year, it lead me to the brilliant works of ugliness and sorrow Taxidermia, Ex-Drummer, and Synecdoche, NY. Those were all movies though, I would like to find another book to make me feel angry, sad, or violated. I didn't have access to the Gallowmere private library, earlier, so I couldn't satisfy my urge when I wanted to. When I returned to my abode, I decided that I needed something which would help me keep track of what I have, and give me remote access to a list of my books. Something other than an actual physical handwritten list, of course. And thus, with a few keystrokes, I found Goodreads.com. It's a site where you can catalog books you have and designate them to lists of read, to-read, currently reading, and other custom categories. It is apparently going for a bit of a social network thing as well. I haven't used it much, and am only a little more than halfway with adding my books to it. I've done all the fiction I currently possess, but I haven't added any of my nonfiction books to it. As well, I plan on going through and reviewing or at least rating the books that I have already read. My profile can be checked out here. As for now, I may have found something which can fuck me up, Comte de Lautreamont's Maldoror. I confess I don't know much about it other than that it is a surreal poem about an unabashedly evil person/being who hates everybody and everything. I'm smiling already. See everyone in hell!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/02/#000080 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/02/#000080 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 16:25:01 -0400 Mass Effect 2 of which I'll say is a lot more polished than its predecessor, has a totally immersible universe, and excised problems I had with its predecessor such as a turgid menu, and boring rover missions (replaced by a 1/5th less boring planet scanner), and of course, I'm enough of a narcissist to have his fancy tickled by the fact that I got to import my custom character from part 1 (made to look like yours truly). Canada produces some mediocre books, movies, TV shows, but they seem to get videogames right. Go figure. Anyway, I'm here to say that I'm still planning on putting this site through a complete overhaul. I hadn't done much because I upgraded to Windows 7 Professional at the beginning of the year, and lost my FTP information for this site. I had it all on the sync software for the Palm One I had in the mid 00s. The actual PDA is history, but I had all of my important information on it... I thought I backed it up, but only the dates on the schedule survived. I let out a good "OH FUCK" and then pulled out a shrug-n-procrastinate combo. But finally, I decided to go and figure out how to retrieve it all. I got it back, and now I'm going to fiddle with a couple things or two to do this site. I will probably see what I can do next week since I'll be getting some time off. We'll see what happens. See everyone in hell!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/02/#000079 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/02/#000079 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 02:45:13 -0400 Synecdoche, NY last summer, I have been inspired to put getting behind a camera on my bucket list. I know, obviously ambitious, possibly even a pipe dream. Especially considering that at the moment, I can't even get a book published. The way I see it though, is that I'm still young enough to be picking umbilical cord chunks out of my teeth, so why not go balls out now before life catches up with me? Going balls out could possibly result in a smashed testicle or a torn scrotum sack, sure, but the pay off could be well worth the risk. I know my limits, I can't save the world, cure cancer, fix a car, heat a house with a block of ice, change a diaper, or be a shoulder to cry on. I make stupid little mistakes all the time, and I would probably lose my head if it wasn't attached to my body. But what I think I can do best, and with comfort is tell a story. So, as long as a shelf of books don't drop on my head at work and give me brain damage, there will always be that to get me where I want to. And on that note... See everyone in hell (I promise a lot sooner next time)!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/01/#000078 http://www.gallowmere.com/2010/01/#000078 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:00:45 -0400 Disclaimer: This review contains allusions to moments which are spoilers but that are not spoilers themselves. Doing such a thing refrains from revealing major plot points, but may provide vague hints to what happens. This is done in many reviews, but most reviewers tend not to have the courtesy to warn readers.] I'm not a big fan of television, but there's a handful of shows I still watch, even if most of the shows I watch have to be... obtained. One of those shows is Dexter. I found out about it around three years ago while roaming the aisles of [Pages] and harassing customers. I saw a picture of Michael C. Hall who I knew as the homosexual mortician David Fisher from Six Feet Under with his head being propped up by a dead hand and thought it was some weird spin off book. Then I looked further to see the title Darkly Dreaming Dexter and was charmed enough by the title to look at the description. The words "darkly comic" jumped out at me, and I liked the premise enough. It is about a likable blood spatter analyst who kills his spare time by killing people who kill people. A quasi-moral serial killer. Then I saw "Now a series on Showtime!" on the back and decided to make a point to check it out. So after that shift, I made an effort to... gain access to the 10 or so episodes which had already aired. It took two episodes for me to get into it, and the rest is history. I really like the show because of its titular character. Next to the protagonists of Murakami novels, Dexter is one of the few fictional characters I can relate to. Like me, he's emotionally empty but pretends to be more charming and likable than he is. He is also a detached introvert who is at his best during his time alone to work on his craft. He is also immensely secretive, though he at least has better reasons to be. And while we don't have the same hobbies, who wouldn't want to play chop suey with the scum of society? It's a well done show, but one that isn't without its flaws. Each season brings something new to the table, but obviously, there are certain similar things to expect in each one. It's entertaining, and the stories are well told, but it's not without its plot holes, but that's fine, it's entertainment. Anybody who thinks of this as a slice of life needs to open a window and get some air. Season one is still the most perfect, and surpasses the book it was based on. It was about a serial killer whose MO is slightly similar to Dexter's but he leaves the bodies out in the open, and bloodless. Eventually, the killer begins leaving hints in Dexter's apartment and at crime scenes which speak to him alone. It was great. It created a formula and got everything in it just right: Dexter's introspection (which I can never have enough of), Dexter's hunts, revelations of his past, Dexter befriending a serial killer/homicidal maniac who he relates to, learns to be more human from and then winds up being disappointed by. And of course, also the mystery, plot twists, and melodramatic side plots involving the other characters of the show. While not a puzzler, it was the most cerebral season of the show. Rating: 9/10 Season two, I don't think I will ever watch again. It's my least favourite season of the show. It is still a cut above most television programming, but I was irritated with the direction it went in. It was a direct continuation of the first season. And from this point on, none of the seasons follow the books (which isn't a bad thing). It starts with Dexter feeling off his game, being pursued by a rival cop, telling his girlfriend Rita that he is "an addict" to cast off suspicions of what he really is, and an investigation is lead by FBI agent Frank Lundy after the bodies Dexter disposed of are discovered. It had all of the ingredients of the first season, but the poorly measured balance of quantities affected the quality. There was too much melodrama and personal bullshit. There is nothing wrong with personal drama, and I would rather have the characters have some form of depth rather than just act as tools for solving the cases. But they cranked it up a few notches too high, and it became more of a soap opera than anything else. Dexter and his girlfriend Rita's character also jumped the shark a bit from what they were like in the last season. Especially Rita though, who all of a sudden became a nag. It also had a few plot twists which I found to be a bit contrived. Especially ones involving initial perceptions of Dexter's adopted father, Harry. And the main premise seemed to be trying too hard to hook people. Not that that's a bad thing, at all, but it did set into motion one of the major problems I had with the fourth season, this desire for the writers to keep viewers going "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!" The explosive finale more than made up for it, and is probably the only episode I'd look at again if I decide to watch anything from that season. Rating: 5.5/10 Season three got the formula right again, and even toyed around with it a bit. It involved Dexter befriending a DA whose brother he killed spontaneously. There was also a side mystery about a serial killer who skins victims. He was the most uninteresting serial killer for the show so far. As I said, it got the elements of the formula just right, as Dexter would say, "It followed the code." I enjoyed the bizarre bromance between Dexter and Miguel, the DA. The series doesn't have that much black humour in it, though it is present, but I have to say, that season got it down the best. Their relationship reminded me of the one between Henry and Otis in Henry:Portrait of a Serial Killer, though not as disturbing, and maybe not as funny. Excellent season overall, and the most well done next to the first. Rating: 8.5/10 Season four has been the most thrilling, and had the most intriguing moments, but was a bit of a mixed bag. I enjoyed it, but it could have been six episodes shorter. It involved Dexter adjusting to married life with Rita, who becomes even more of a nag than ever in this season. Special agent Lundy returns to chase down The Trinity Killer played by John Lithgow, who has been my favourite actor ever since I saw Raising Cain on TV when I was 8. As usual, Dexter befriends him (sort of), and learns a few thing from him. Honestly, all I liked if not loved about this season was Dexter's pursuit of Trinity. This one involves some of the worst side plots such as Dexter's family life, Debra wondering if she wants to rekindle the (over-written) flame she had with Lundy in season two, and a love affair between the two senior detectives Laguerta and Batista. Their love affair was the most brutal thing about the series. Yes, more brutal than any murder Dexter or Trinity could pull off. There was no reason for it whatsoever, their personal lives in earlier seasons were seldom delved into, except for season 3 which Laguerta's sort of had an integral role. Their romance does absolutely nothing to advance the plot or create any tension. If their scenes (which there are plenty of) were removed, nothing would be lost. The only side character who they did next to nothing with, and hardly ever do anything with is Vincent Masuka. He's one of the only side characters I kind of like. He's just the comic relief, and almost every line out of him is a smart-ass remark or a perverted joke. What's even funnier than Masuka's character is American media's lack of interest in Asian males. They can't catch a break. At least Asian women get to play the exotic romantic interests for the dashing white heroes of their movies and TV shows. But I guess anyone who wants to see Asian males as leads who are not geeks or martial arts experts can always watch Asian movies and dramas. My friend [Lotus Kai] swoons over those guys. a bunch of effeminate dandies. I think the problem is that when things are about minorities, they have to be about what it's like to be the minority, rather than a character being a character. And that writer's don't know what direction to go in with Asian American characters other than the usual stereotypes. They don't really explore the stereotypes with Masuka, and that leaves him with even less to do. That leads me to the race-baiter who put up a video on Youtube ranting about the moral turpitude of the show and its viewers and asked if people would like the show if Dexter was black. My first thoughts were, "What a pointless question? You can ask an infinite amount of other whatif questions for any movie or TV show? What if Dexter were a hermaphrodite?" I don't think it would make much of a difference, so long as Dexter acted the exact same way and lived the exact same life. But if all of a sudden it were, Dexter the black serial killer and a good portion of the show dwelled on what it's like to be a black serial killer, then it would be a different experience. Though I admit, it could make an interesting black-black comedy if done by the right director. It's a premise that could work also, if the show didn't have a thriller element. If it were exclusively about the mundane duties of him balancing his personal life with serial killing, then fine. Michael C. Hall's character David Fisher in Six Feet Under did have to deal from time to time with the implications of being a gay mortician dating a black man. It wasn't entirely what the show was about, but it was an element, and it worked, but Six Feet Under was a different kind of show, a family drama. Me and my tangents, I was doing pretty good too, until then... Back to Dexter. While the premise for the fourth season was good, the writers seemed to have a hard time doing much with it. The first five episodes, Dexter avoids the Trinity case like a plague until something happens halfway through the season for him to gain a personal interest. Then the episodes are spent with Dexter stalling because he wants to hang out with another serial killer for a while and learn a few tips on pretending to be human. Then when he decides he's ready, his plans are constantly thwarted. I didn't mind all of the cock-teasing of the second half of the season, however, because a lot is revealed about the Trinity Killer's warped psyche which I quite liked. However, the last two episodes together could have been wrapped up in a half hour. Episode 11 was an exercise in fiddling around for 45 minutes to finally reach its titular climax. And now, after watching last night's finale I have to say, the episode was sort of inert, but I can't say anticlimactic. The episode was much like the season and spent a lot of time on filler until it lead to its climax. I found it to be satisfying, though they could have spent a lot more time and sadistic glee on it after all of that wasted time in the episode. The episode had a twist which I only mention because they had been hyping for about a month. It is something that I figured out would happen only because they wouldn't stop pumping up how shocking the final moment would be. I ranted about this in an earlier post, but I will say it again, if you want to "blow the top off" of people's heads as they kept saying the ending would do, then they shouldn't have announced that there was going to be a twist. It's like telling somebody that you're throwing them a surprise party. Again, an overall good season, and I look forward to the fifth which I hope will be the final season, and which I hope doesn't figure the solution will be for Dexter to go to jail or die. And I also hope they won't hype up any twists.There are a lot of sensationalistic "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!" moments in this season. I think they relied too much on it, but, from a commercial point of view, I understand why. Shockers, and cliffhangers are an easy way to keep the conversation going. Ironically, the "big twist" ending didn't impact me that much and I'm not saying "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!". I know it's probably wrong, but, I sort of like what happened, at least the consequences and that it sort of fits. Still, the use of it, and its impact was pretty underwhelming and it seemed really forced. It would have been more surprising if they didn't use a pretty similar "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!" twist earlier in the season. Rating: 7.8/10 I wish that the show could be more twisted and less twisty. What I mean is that it could take weirder routes, not necessarily like the third book which had ancient gods and spirits, but go for weirder ideas. Have more characters who are unconventional than just Dexter and the guest serial killer friend. And have more twisted sorts of relationships. An example of what I mean by twisted as opposed to twisty is the ending of Hannibal which had Hannibal and Clarice, the detective pursuing him wind up becoming lovers and eating the brains of a corrupt agent from the justice department. Something like that is not really a moment which makes viewers say, "OH SHIT, WHAT IS EVERYBODY GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS NOW?!", but a moment which makes viewers say, "WHAT THE FUCK?! DID THEY REALLY JUST DO THAT? HOW DID THEY EVEN COME UP WITH THAT ONE?" The show, while it has dark subject matter, is kind of safe and is very accessible, which of course, it has to be. I'm sure it will continue to go in the direction that this season went in, especially since the ratings are apparently way up. But, just saying, it would be a lot better if it were a little more bizarre. See everyone in hell!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2009/12/#000077 http://www.gallowmere.com/2009/12/#000077 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:16:48 -0400 Twilight books. I was surprised to find out about it as I found myself shelving it the other day at [Pages]. I asked my boss [Amber Danielewski] if I could remove the plastic wrap of one to see what it was like in there. I wanted to see what made it worth 42 Canadian smackeroos. The answer: nothing. The entire book is a series of one sided note cards centred in the pages. Now obviously, I understand the significance of Nabokov, and literary critics tend to barely contain their hard-ons over such memorabilia, I don't see the point of their publication. Not even a rough draft. Just a basic schematic. I'm as it stands, a nobody at this time, but even now, I would be mortified if any of any preliminary material for my work were made public. They are ideas which tend to make only enough sense to the writer to be used as a springboard for the first draft, and are subject to change. What bothers me so much about it? I mean, on the other hand, I have read many works published posthumously, such as the work of Franz Kafka, who, like Nabokov said he wanted his work destroyed, and 2666 by Roberto Bolano, who intended for his work to be published beyond his life. And last month, I was doing cartwheels over the fact that a book of Kurt Vonnegut's unpublished short stories were released. The difference is that they were actually in the form of prose rather than just notes. Prose is a format more ready for public perusal. To bring it back to having a spouse and children, they're not the only villains. It can be anyone, anyone who you trust to leave your work with. But in most cases, who else would people trust more to handle their intellectual remains? Given I a piano doesn't drop on my head, or some other spontaneous death blindsides me, I will make sure that if I feel my death impending, I'll shred, burn, and delete anything I have in the works that I don't want seen in the public eye. See everyone in hell!]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2009/11/#000076 http://www.gallowmere.com/2009/11/#000076 Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:06:25 -0400 A mountain load of books came in to [Pages] on Tuesday. Towards the final hour, second in command [Veronica Oxford] pulled out a book, she said, "You like this author, right?" I looked and recognized it was a Vonnegut book. His books all have a new style to their cover designs. When I was introduced to him, his books all had covers with giant Vs which alternated in colour depending on the novel, and a small square in the top with an image pertaining to the story. The new design has his crude illustrations, and as well, alternate in colour. So, mind-numbing details aside, what I am saying is that I thought it was just one of his older books with a new cover. But then I looked at the title, and also saw that it was a hardcover and realized that it was all new. It's titled Look At The Birdie. It's a collection of unpublished short stories. Needless to say, I'll have to pick this up soon enough. I wonder if bits of the last novel he may or may not have been working on will be in it. I'll find out soon enough. See everyone in hell! (Except for Kurt Vonnegut who is up in heaven now.)]]> http://www.gallowmere.com/2009/10/#000075 http://www.gallowmere.com/2009/10/#000075 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:17:30 -0400