Robert Musgrave, Owen and Luke Wilson in Bottle Rocket

When I was studying film I remember Bottle Rocket was the first movie that made filmmaking seem tangible.  I could tell these guys were just like me from the story they told and the way they told it.  Wes Anderson and the Wilsons not only brought their chatty slacker melo-drama to life but it looked beautiful too. This was one I had to have letterboxed on laser disc before the dvd revolution came along.

The music in Bottle Rocket was just as memorable as the jumpsuits, plucky and upbeat like the sun rising over the Texas farms in the background.  Mark Mothersbaugh layed down the Spanish sounding and jazzy pieces while the Stones cap off the final “action” scene with 2000 Man; but my favorite cue is the non-diegetic to diegetic trick with the Promclaimers “It’s Over and Done With” after Dignan and Anthony fall out cutting to Inez upset and killing the music by powering down the boom box.

Here’s a gem I found on youtube that I want to share with Mark Mothersbaugh breaking down his scoring career from the beginning and why he took to Wes Anderson’s love of filmmaking; from Bottle Rocket through the Life Aquatic.  He discusses in detail that Wes didn’t like any low bass tones in the score which becomes a running theme through the first 3 movies.  Lots of acoustic guitars, sleigh bells, shakers and flutes but you won’t hear a trombone until Royal Tenenbaum’s family hit the screen.

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This is a subject that I’m hearing more and more about. I was too young to be aware of it in the late 70s or 80s but I do remember the stir that Kate Moss and ‘Heroin Chic’ caused in the 90s. In the late 90s and early 2000s, the trend swung back (as trends do) to curves – Jennifer Lopez, for example – but in truth, thin has always been in. Often, beauty buys what money can’t – admiration, leeway and popularity – and has done since the dawn of time. I want to look closer at the impact of these images and attempt to discover, in my own small way, why society handles them so very badly. The mediums of movies, TV, magazines and comic books are constantly under pressure to explain themselves, even as we continue to feed the machine. But why pass the buck? If there’s no demand, then there’s no supply.

Taking comics – or graphic novels if you prefer but, let’s be honest, they’re comics – these drawings of superwomen are exaggerated fantasies. There’s nothing demeaning or wrong about that. It’s actually quite complimentary to my gender. Yes, the outfits are skimpy and figure hugging but these women are like modern day Sheela na Gigs; breasts proudly on display, with firm buttocks, rounded child-bearing hips and lean, muscular arms and legs. Do I actually look like any of these females? Ummm, no, not really but I identify with the power that this physical form represents. When I hear criticism of the way women are represented in comics, I tend to think two things:

1 – I don’t hear these people moan about the fact that few women look like Botticelli’s Venus, or Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with the Pearl Earring, or other paintings of beautiful women.

People tend to get excited when a naked chick comes out of her shell

2 – I also don’t know a lot of guys whose physique looks like this:

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The Movie Bitch – we love to hate them but is there anything that we can derive more pleasure from than watching a particularly gifted Bitch wreak havoc? From a safe distance, of course, you don’t want to get caught up in their wake. Or, maybe you do cos you like that sort of thing. These characters know they’re going to hell, so they’re going to enjoy the ride on the way down and they’ll take as many with them as possible. Some are sly, some are loud and proud about it but all of them know better. It wouldn’t be as much fun otherwise. As someone wrote on a birthday card to me – ‘Good girls go to heaven, bad girls go everywhere’ – and I am a tame, mousey goody-goody that helps old ladies across the road compared to these chicks – these women would eat me alive. These babes go to 11 on the Bitch-o-Meter. (However, there are actually only 10, so I just made that one bitchier and made that the last one.)

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St. Patrick’s Day (And, if you choose to abbreviate it; it’s NOT ‘Patty’s Day’- it’s ‘Paddy’s Day’. Patrick is a dude’s name, dummy.)  A day where everyone is Irish, mostly for the beer. That’s some impressive PR job, Mr. Whoever-Popularized-This-Day.  Just think…St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated by the entire world. Japan and China may take over the planet with technology, the USA with McDonald’s and pop-culture, and India, just with their huge population alone but it takes a culture that stumped even Sigmund Freud (He famously said the Irish were the only people who could not be psychoanalyzed) to convince the whole planet, pretty much, to take part in their national holiday and to my knowledge, Ireland is the only country that can boast that claim to fame. Go on, ya good thing! *Now we’re sucking diesel! Here are some film suggestions for in between the ‘top of the morning’ toasts and the vomiting of green beer –

• *To Suck Diesel – Irish slang; descriptive verb – in which one party is pleased with the performance of another party, where the advantage and/or benefit is accessible for many. EG, “did you see O’Neill score that goal? Now we’re sucking diesel!” (Has little or nothing to do with the ingestion of petroleum by-products.)

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Music video has been a pop culture mainstay since some young guy at Viacom thought launching a 24-hour video channel was a top idea. They’ve evolved into mini-movies, musician’s diaries, confessionals and introduced the world to some of the most creative people making films today. Some might say the the genre has gotten stale – (Yes, Mr. Rapper, I see you have your bitches and hos, along with your souped-up Caddy and that yer trousers don’t fit and you’re acting very naughty in a nightclub. Now do a vid without those things – at a petting zoo or driving a bookmobile or something) – but there will always be someone waiting in the wings with fresh ideas (I want to do a Beastie Boys vid-as-Western, myself) Here’s a list of ones I think make the obvious statement that greater things were going to happen to these people (most of them anyway). Please to enjoy:

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After a fun conversation with my buddy Sam, here’s my list of Movie and TV Boyfriends that I have loved (So it’s technically a Top 20; I have too many boyfriends to squash them into one list). It’s at random, boys, so don’t fight. I love you all equally!

MOVIES:

1.Han Solo – ‘Star Wars Trilogy’ – It was a tough choice between Han and Indy but since ‘Star Wars’ was my first introduction to the male phenomenon that is Harrison Ford, I’ll go Solo (Haha! My, aren’t we having fun already?) There’s a difference between a ‘Bad Boy’ and a ‘Rascal’ and Solo is the latter. A rascal that I used to dream would call ME ‘Your Worship’ and ‘Your Highness’ in a deliciously sarcastic way. He helps defend the rebellion, keeps that hunk of junk in the sky and always has time for a good old flirt. Like so–
Han Solo: You like me because I’m a scoundrel. There aren’t enough scoundrels in your life.
Princess Leia: I happen to like nice men.
Han Solo: I’m a nice man.
Princess Leia: No, you’re not.

Cue big smooch and a jealous sigh from me.

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