End of Year Stress, BloodRayne and such like.

Well it’s the end of the year and we’re all feelin’ it. There are some big changes at work here in my firm that will take place on 1/2/07 which is adding to the natural end of year “my god we haven’t met our quota” b.s. that infects all corporations as their year comes to an end.

I’m not going to go too much into the details cause well it isn’t right to do so suffice to say it is involving a transfer of power and that is never a smooth thing, even with the best will in the world and, alas, the wills here are not the best in the world.

So the tension here is pretty thick and the stress makes it worse and people are snapping at folks because of things other than what is going on. It’s a pretty depressing place these days. Really if I want to deal with a place were tensions seethe and things are not spoken of but you know things are going wrong and there is that huge dead elephant in the living room that nobody speaks of, I’ll just cast my memory back to my childhood.

Again not going to go into details cause well that’s other people’s lives let’s just say I always know where the damage was done and know why I can feel the way I do.

That said – I started this morning listening to Ministry – perversely I find their combination of sped up Sabbath riffs, churning Industrial noise, and as bleak a world view as you can get – sample lines: “I don’t believe in happy endings” “they live without hope” “Never trust a Junky” to be strangely calming. They put me in an odd place where I find the void just something that is there and is just no big deal and I view my hopes, desires and dreams indeed existence with a kind of bemused contempt. I’m not saying its good but that’s what it does. Sometimes I need to detach.

Thinking about it I am going to rewatch Destroy All Monsters this weekend – I think Captain Dickweed needs a serious examination – he totally annoyed the hell out of me – was a colossal jerk and for some strange reason is the hero of the film and as such I want a bit of payback.

Yes A wonderful life is a nice film but the last time I watched it I kept wanting George to once, just once, to stop being such an enabling milquetoast putz and tell who ever the hell it was that was trying to get him to put his life on the back burner (again) to just to stop looking to him to be the god damn town saint. All the people in his life took shameless advantage of the fact that George was going to be there to pick up whatever mess they made of their lives. That George did not smash Uncle Billy’s skull with a ball pean hammer when found out Uncle Billy had screwed up (and does anybody here think that this was the first time for ol’ Uncle Billy? Jesus.) is simply beyond me.

And looking at the film from a religious angle – since we are presented with the given of an omnipotent god (or blinking star), we are forced to conclude that every dream and desire that George Bailey ever had in his life was thwarted, crushed or destroyed to the point where George is ready to kill himself, simply so one of his angels will have a chance to earn his wings. Really nice fellow this god person.

Woke up with a song in my head but by the time I was able to find a pen and paper the whole thing had vanished. I hate when that happens. It might not have been any good but then again it might have. Now we won’t know for a while, these things have a way of popping up again over time.

I see that Bloodrayne has made several lists of the worst movies of the year. Not too surprised here but while incoherent, filled with hey look shiny thing special effects that added nothing to the story, wooden acting and heaps o’heaps of buckets of blood I have to say it doesn’t rank among the worst that I’ve ever seen – then again I am a professional – what I call bad would probably make a mainline critic tear his eyes out with those little plastic spoons that they give you at the movies when you buy ice cream.

BloodRayne does earn bonus points for the Director challenging anybody for that wrote nasty things about the film to a boxing match and that the two female leads are having an affair.

I think the stupidest idea for a movie this year was remaking the Poseidon Adventure. I mean come oooonnnnnn. Better to film the musical someone did of it than remake the movie. I really thing there has to be someone in a studio whose job it is, is to say “is this really a good idea?” and “so who is going to buy tickets for this” – yes you can do art films but this isn’t art kids – this was done to make money. Which it didn’t. It ranks up there in stupid with the shot for shot remake of Psycho a few years back. That was painful watching the critics for some reason not call the director stupid for doing this (at least before the film came out – after that he was fair game).

For some reason I feel bad that there hasn’t been a man in an ape costume movie since Congo (1995)– which was a bomb and explains why there hasn’t been any man in ape costume movies since. Not counting Planet of the Apes which is different. It’s a weird emotion to have but there you go.

The president is pretending to have a meeting this weekend on Iraq. Since everybody’s who’s going to be at the meeting already thinks the same way as he does – what’s the damn point of this?

Rice: You’re great
Cheney: Wonderful
Harris: You’re always right
W: Say more.
Clerk (to aide standing at the door): How long as this been going on?
Aide: Three hours now.
Clerk: Any sign of letting up?
Aide: Not yet – I’ll let you know.
Rice: We can win in Iraq
Cheney: Let’s bomb Iran
Harris: You’re so good.
W: We Make boom boom! we win
Aide (takes flask out of pocket hands it to clerk) here.
Clerk: What?
Aide: It’s gonna be a while and I’ll be damned if I’m going to listen to this circle jerk sober – I’d suggest the same to you.
Clerk: Thanks.

Well – soon some resolutions – Like not smashing in skulls with a ball pean hammer- that I think I’ll be able to keep.

Image: Dina Rigg again - yes I'm a little obsessed. Back off it's been a rough day.