#Eduardo Pluto
Trey Parker and Matt Stone Are Important
Trey Parker and Matt Stone have never really been beholden to anyone or anything except themselves, even while working for one of the largest conglomerates in the world, Viacom. They just do their own thing as much as possible, but that doesn’t seem to be enough for them. It’s gotten to the point where they like themselves so much that they want to work only with themselves. Now, the creators of South Park have taken their self-love to next level by announcing that they’ve created a new, more autonomous platform to do whatever they want, satirize whatever they choose, in their important service to man and madness. More after the jump.
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THE GANG OMEGA’S PICKS OF 2012: Eduardo Pluto Rambles on Another Year
Not trying to be insipid about this, but as I recollect the past year in my life, 2012 wasn’t very earth-shattering for me. It more or less amounted to another 366 days with some minor flourishes thrown in to keep it interesting (leap years are always cool, though). Several non-decisions on my part, no doubt, contributed to this, since I didn’t go out of my way to change it up too much, but things mainly worked out in a rather predicable fashion regardless. This subtle development, of course, has its own positives and negatives, neither of which is worth complaining about to any great extent because things were OK to begin with. And, similarly, since life is all about taking the good with the bad, when neither of which occurs to any major degree, the only thing to do is to take it as a slight lull in life’s symphony, artfully set to enhance its ambience when needed (as it will). I am sure, as time goes on and I keep on keepin’ on, moments from this past year will swell back up from the background and take on more significance until these mere moments become momentous. So seen this way, my new year isn’t merely about completing what’s left unfinished, but discovering what I didn’t even know was there—as I obviously don’t right now—because I couldn’t see that these moments will indeed be integral once they fit in perfectly with my forthcoming experiences. And that, my friends, is what I hope 2013 has in store for me: not simply making the future vibrant, but making the past more memorable when my dotted life connects. We shall see how it works out. Time, as it can only do, will tell.
The Titanic Shot
(Gentlemen of this Omega-Level circle: Before we count down to the inevitable ball-dropping that lies ahead of all our lives, let us first be resolved to kick off the new year the right way: by not letting the new year kick us down where it really counts, because when after all is said and done, and this beloved touchstone of yours truly is beheld and registered, we will assuredly have the drop on fate if we each hold dear to what is most true about ourselves.)
Every man has been there before: toppled over in anguish, made nauseous from a strange throbbing tinged by an existential crisis over his safety in this chaotic world. Left prostrate, the man can’t make any sense of it, his groans the primordial questions to the universe: Why does this have to hurt? Why do I have to suffer so much for something so absurd? And as the pain gradually fades away and the man tries to move on, the questions remain unanswered, the memory lodged in the back of his mind to feel out another day. It’s one of life’s greatest mysteries for mankind—getting hit in the nuts.
Terrence Malick’s To The Wonder Scores a Lovely Trailer
Terrence Malick is perhaps the most unique American filmmaker working today. Meticulous yet wandering, his work is instantly identifiable. A brief clip or even a shot from any one his movies screams “Malick”–a surefire sign of an artist doing his own thing and doing it damn well. And the trailer for his newest film To The Wonder is no exception. It is utterly gorgeous. Check it out after the jump.
New Star Trek Into Darkness Trailer Teases Fans Some More
Just about a week ago, we got the first real look at the new Star Trek joint. As per usual, everyone on these internets went crazy for the fresh glimpse at the JJ Abrams’ film, dissecting and analyzing and investigating and doing any other word that means looking really deeply into everything about it. Understandably, of course. It’s pretty exciting stuff. And the teaser that dropped today is no different. Check it out after the jump.
Take Five in Honor of Dave Brubeck
Dave Brubeck, influential jazz musician, passed away today at 91. An artist known for experimenting with time signatures, Brubeck created his own signature contribution to jazz with the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out, an album that soared to number 2 on the pop charts, making it one of the best-selling works in the genre. And, in this case, for very good reason too: The album is fantastic. It’s filled with memorable and lively compositions that most people, regardless of their propensity for jazz, have heard before. And no Brubeck tune is more intricately woven into the fabric of jazz and our culture than “Take Five,” a work that simply exudes cool (and was composed by the rad saxophonist Paul Desmond). So do yourself a favor: hit the jump, sit back, and take five in the man’s honor. Not only do you deserve it, but Brubeck does as well.
South Park Does Dr. Seuss
I may be a little late on this one, but I need to raise awareness of some of the great stuff in the newest episode of South Park, “A Scause for Applause,” particularly its excellent satire aimed squarely at our culture of getting behind causes–as long as our displays for approval (be they in the form of t-shirts, bracelets or bumper stickers) take front and center to actually working for the cause itself. It is a clean, sugar-coated way of going about activism today. And what better way to drive this point home than to use a Dr. Seuss-esque swindler to peddle it all in striking color and rhyme. Take a gander after the jump, and give OL traffic a bump.
The Hobbit Has a New, Aptly Bucolic Poster
Confession time: I consider myself a fan of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Shocking, I know, but it is just a wonderful trifecta of blockbuster filmmaking, made by an undeniably talented director (though his talents have been a bit dormant lately), cast, and crew, with all the tools and TLC necessary to bring to life an entirely new world for the big screen. And nothing illustrates this successful combination better than the series’ view of life in the Shire. It is nothing short of a pastoral wonderland, a terrific image of happiness and security before our dear hobbit friends must go on a dangerous adventure far away from it. The whole series, literally and figuratively, begins with the Shire, and the farther the characters go, the better the Shire looks to them (and the movies look to us, since it gives the audience a solid foundation). And, damnit, the more time goes on without new sights of the Shire, the more I long to go back there again as well. Luckily, Peter Jackson just wrapped up filming The Hobbit and, judging by this new poster, it doesn’t appear that he is skimping on the idealized Shire. Take a gander after the jump.
Strange Moments in Solid Movies: Better Off Dead Burger
Better Off Dead is one of the best high school comedies about the absurdity of adolescence. It presents a myriad of predicaments that could conceivably mire a typical student’s well-being–mental, familiar, financial, social, and sexual, just to name a few–and runs wild with them all for the express purpose of laying waste to the insecurities and hang-ups that concern most people during this weird time in life. Every romantic hiccup is exaggerated to disastrous dimensions; every apparent shortcoming is tantamount to total deficiency. In turn, most of these problems that might trouble a young person are revealed to be completely laughable when they are properly framed for bizarre effect: anything this ridiculous and cartoonish should not be taken seriously, and issues even remotely similar to them should, as a result, become less world-crushing. When it can’t get any worse, it can only get better, and Better Off Dead is leaps and bounds funnier than many other comedies because it’s more than willing to go to some humiliating and hilarious lows before its protagonist ascends the proverbial mountain in the end.
Strange Moments in Solid Movies: The Trial By Atomic Bomb
Orson Welles’ The Trial is one of the great cinematic examples of style over substance, a work whose striking aesthetic overshadows many narrative considerations for the viewing audience. Although such a description is typically applied detrimentally, this film’s particular want of substance is precisely modulated. An adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel, The Trial exhibits the logic of dreams/nightmares more than the logical mechanics of traditional storytelling; so what is shown will inherently trump anything that is explained (or explainable). In turn, navigating its dilapidated world of unusual (camera) angles, ominous surroundings, and haunting silhouettes, the audience yearns for clarity, just like protagonist Joseph K (Anthony Perkins) does. And just as The Trial is not a conventional story, the story contains no conventional trial, wherein an actualized attainability of justice is unworkable and idealistic notions like “nothing but the truth” are broken down to nothingness.
