Love Quote of the day, 12/29/2009

Clarity of mind means clarity of passion, too; this is why a great and clear mind loves ardently and sees distinctly what it loves.

~Blaise Pascal

For those who've wondered....

Just what movies make me tick.....this is an extension of my 'genius list':


Ok, so now I would like to share with you all my list of the top 100 films of all time, inspired by the AFI's 100 Greatest films of all time! Granted some horror films made the cut but still I think these films have merit and there are some on this list that will make one go WTF?! Well, there's a reason for that. There are some films that I firmly believe didn't get a fair shake, either in the way the film was marketed and distributed, or by the critics. Like these films or hate them, they have made their place in cinematic history and they should be noted. There are films on this list that are outside of the mainstream. That's precisely the point of my book: to bring these films out and make others aware of them and show what makes these fillms special and worthy of having a look. Some of these won't be for everyone. Hell, even I've seen stuff I wish to this day I shouldn't have. But whether I liked it or not, isn't the point: I can say with honesty that I saw it and gave it the chance it deserved (or not, in AUGUST UNDERGROUND MORDUM'S case. Trust me when I say that I really wish I can 'un-see' this one. In point of fact, I had to watch this one intoxicated but even then it was hard to take. I'll give this one a good trashing, don't worry!). Anyway, on to the list:

1. Shogun Assassin (Cool doesn't even begin to cover it!)
2. Casablanca
3. Christiane F.
4. Irreversible
5. Santa Sangre
6. The Virgin Spring
7. Der Todesking
8. The Tin Drum
9. Last House on the Left
10. In A Glass Cage
11. Suspiria
12. Sound of Music (I can feel invisible objects being thrown at me for this one. I don't care. Everyone needs a guilty pleasure once in a while )
13. Dressed to Kill (DePalma)
14. Scanners
15. Cannibal Ferox (Umberto Lenzi cannibal classic. This is lighter in tone that the Ruggero Deodato classic but still a classic in it's own right, if you can stomach it)
16. House of Wax (the Vincent Price version not the assenine junk with Paris Hilton)
17. Videodrome (a David Cronenberg classic with Deborah Harry. Very cool flick!)
18. Vertigo (It doesn't get any better than Hitchcock)
19. Blood and Black Lace (Bava)
20. The Beyond (Fulci zombie masterpiece)
21. Psycho (the Hitchcock original)
22. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the Tobe Hopper masterpiece not the remade slop)
23. Pi
24. Phenomena (Argento)
25. Venus In Furs (Franco)
26. Repulsion (Polanski; not many would know he directed anything else other than ROSEMARY'S BABY. Shame because this b&w beauty is a must)
27. Tess (another beautiful Polanski classic with a 17 year old Natassia Kinski in the titular role)
28. Cannibal Holocaust (this is one of those WTF?! moments, but if you can stomach this chunk-blower, it's a classic of the Italian cannibal horror sub-genre. Cannibal Ferox is considerably 'lighter' in vein)
29. West Side Story (what's not to like here?)
30. The Usual Suspects
31. The Wicker Man (the original, not the remade abortion)
32. The Sweet Hereafter (this one introduced me to the wonderous beauty of Atom Egoyan. This one is by far his best.)
33. Apocalypse Now (w/out the 'Redux' version added gunk)
34. Reservoir Dogs
35. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
36. War of the Worlds (original)
37. The Pit and the Pendulum (Vincent Prince)
38. Pulp Fiction
39. Rabid
40. Akira
41. Dead Ringers
42. Platoon
43. M*A*S*H
44. Seul Contre Tous (aka I Stand Alone)
45. The Trial (Orson Welles)
46. The Godfather
47. Lawrence of Arabia
48. Fahrenheit 451 (Saw this in grade school once and loved it. This one has always stayed with me as any good cinema should.)
49. Jaws
50. Star Wars
51. Halloween (the original and one and only)
52. The Bridge Over the River Kwai
53. The Wizard of Oz
54. American History X
55. Chinatown
56. Notorious
57. Straw Dogs
58. Doctor Zhivago
59. Love and Death (Woody Allen)
60. Aftermath
61. King Kong (original)
62. A Streetcar Named Desire
63. A Clockwork Orange
64. The Breakfast Club
65. The Birds
66. Taxi Driver
67. North By Northwest
68. Amadeus
69. Tootsie
70. Raiders of the Lost Ark
71. The Manchurian Candidate (original)
72. The Silence of the Lambs
73. Manhunter
74. Rear Window
75. The French Connection
76. Frankenstein (the original Boris Karloff classic)
77. Day of the Woman (aka I Spit on Your Grave, another one of those WTF?!)
78. Blade Runner
79. Ben Hur
80. Alien
81. Das Boot (The Boat)
82. Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson)
83. Night of the Living Dead (original; Romero)
84. Rape of Love
85. Starman
86. Carrie
87. The Thing (John Carpenter)
88. Nightmare (aka Nightmares in a Damaged Brain)
89. Dawn of the Dead (original Romero masterpiece)
90. Phantom of the Paradise
91. Cinema Paradiso
92. Los Sin Nombre (The Nameless)
93. Quadrophenia
94. From the Life of the Marionettes (Ingmar Bergman)
95. Requiem For a Dream
96. Koyaanisqatsi
97. M
98. Patton
99. A Christmas Story
100. The Green Mile

There's simply too many to mention..

Current project thingies...film reviews and such

It would appear that it has been a while since I've done anything remotely film related in some time. Well, I have been watching stuff, I just hadn't gotten around to writing about any of it. And unlike this girly pictured above, I can't keep quiet anymore. So, here is a list of the reviews that I have pending and will present here once they're done. As some of my friends know, I've just completed my first novel (Yeah, me!), and am in the process of editing that monstrosity (page length: approx. 1,200). Plus, I have a couple of stories in the works (one may be adapted into a script...with the emphasis on MAYBE). So, watching and writing about films have taken a back seat.  There are plenty of genre films to write about, films outside the genre-box as well, and some (dare I say) theatrical films that were sort of noteworthy (but not much...shhh, don't tell anyone). So here is a teaser list of reviews to be posted:


1) THE VISITOR (my first experience with gay porn, first feature I bought and I LOVED IT! More to come on this later)


2) THE DRIFTER (second gay porn feature I saw/bought...gorgeous film)


3) ANTICHRIST  (an odd piece but fits right in with everything else here...still trying to wrap my head around this one....as in WHAT THE FUCK!)


4) BEATRICE CENCI (A very rare film by Lucio Fulci, before he did his zombie films which are now considered to be classics of the genre, he did a little bit of everything. In his early career he did a period piece, that has some elements of the giallo thrown in. This film would later serve as the precursor of everything this director would do later.)


5) SHELTER (a wonderful indie drama that came recommended to me by one of my fellow bloggers.)


6) BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN


7) SHANK


8) IN A GLASS CAGE (revisited this one recently. This one is a masterwork that titters on the edge between exploitation and art house. This film plays a wonderful homage to Hitchcock in the director's use of lighting and camera angles. More later.)


9) WINGS OF DESIRE (I couldn't fully appreciate the artistry of THE VISITOR without checking out the film which served as Tony DiMarco's inspiration for his film) 


10) TAKEN (a great action film and definitely one of the best I've seen this year.


11) WATCHMEN (this long-awaited film adaptation of the graphic novel definitely goes on my list as the best of 2009. And yes, it HAS earned a place on my 'genius list')


12) BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR (Another porn but this one had got to be the greatest sex film ever made. And it had Marilyn Chambers...please, porn with her didn't get any better than this. I know what all of you are thinking.."Geez, this woman watches a lot of porn. What is she, some sort of perv?"  Whatever.)


That's all I have for now. Keep watching.

Love Quote of the day

Today, I begin to understand what love must be, if it exists. When we are parted, we each feel the lack of the other half of ourselves. We are incomplete like a book in two volumes of which the first has been lost. That is what I imagine love to be: incompleteness in absence.


 (author unknown)

2010 XBiz Awards have been announced!

XBIZ Announces Finalist Nominees for 2010 XBIZ Awards

The list of finalist nominees for the 2010 XBIZ Awards, the adult entertainment industry’s biggest business awards show, have been announced.

And my favorite studio, Raging Stallions was nominated for best gay production company.
Their films, The Visitor and Focus/Refocus have been nominated for best film of the year. Also David Taylor and Logan McCree have been nominated for best performer of the year! YES, YES, YEEESSSS!!!! :-) Steve Cruz got a nominated for Best Director. Awesome! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that my guys make good! YIPPEE!

Love Quote of the day

"Love is a sign from the heavens that you are here for a reason." ~J. Ghetto

I loved this! One of my friends on Facebook posted this link as his status. It was flippping hysterical! Unfortunately, the poor author of this article got about 400 pages into Twilight before he gave it up. I quit that book after 50-80 pages (can't remember any more). The book was total crap, if the writing wasn't a good enough indication. The article and the link are below. Enjoy! I know I did!:

From the Oatmeal:

How Twilight Works

A few weeks ago I had the miserable experience of reading Twilight. A friend bought it for me and I took it with me to read on a long flight from Seattle to Houston. I knew it was going to be crappy, but I thought it would be a guilty pleasure kind of crappy - where you know it's bad but you still get enjoyment out of it. I actually managed to power through around 400 pages until I gave up and started reading Sky Mall. I've been seeing Twilight everywhere lately, especially with Vampire Teens II New Moon's release, so I thought I'd break down why chicks go apeshit for it.

First off, the author creates a main character which is an empty shell. Her appearance isn't described in detail; that way, any female can slip into it and easily fantasize about being this person. I read 400 pages of that book and barely had any idea of what the main character looked like; as far as I was concerned she was a giant Lego brick. Appearance aside, her personality is portrayed as insecure, fumbling, and awkward - a combination anyone who ever went through puberty can relate to. By creating this "empty shell," the character becomes less of a person and more of something a female reader can put on and wear. Because I forgot her name (I think it was Barbara or Brando or something like that), I'm going to refer to her as "Pants" from here on out.

So after a few chapters of listening to Pants whine about high school, sucking at volleyball, and being the center of attention, the second major character is introduced. Imagine everything women want in a man, then exaggerate it by ten thousand - and you've got Edward Cullen. The level of detail that the author goes into while describing Edward's appearance is remarkable. At one point while reading I started counting the number of times the author used the expression "Edward's perfect face," and it was far into the double digits. The author excruciatingly details his muscular pecs, clothing, hair, eye color - even his goddamn breath (I'm not joking).

Edward intensely listens to everything Pants has to say, even if she's bitching about she had diarrhea on Christmas or her preferred method for cutting a sandwich in half. As far as the reader is concerned, Edward cares about nothing in the world more than Pants. What the author has done is created a perfect male figure - a pale Greek statue which the reader can worship and in turn be worshipped by.

So what about men that like Twilight?
If you're male and you like Twilight, you're gay. I don't mean that in the derogatory sense, I mean it in the "you want to put your testicles against another man's testicles while gripping handfuls of chesthair" kind of way.

And the movie?
The movie is just the same uninspired crap shat out onto a film reel. If you like the taste of horse manure on your bologna sandwiches, you're probably gonna like it on your birthday cake as well. The same principle applies with Twilight.

Beyond that, it's just a romance novel with the occasional vampire teen drama bullshit peppered here and there. It doesn't really break any new ground in the realm of vampire fiction, other than portraying vampires as a family of uncomfortable retards who prance around the woods eating deer and bunny rabbits. There's lots of nervous lip-biting, tender kisses between Pants and Edward, and lengthy descriptions of every feature of Edward's body. Pants is a static character who never really progresses beyond being an insecure vampire fangirl who obsesses over Edward. Whether her character grows beyond that is unknown to me, I'd stopped reading by then and shifted my attention to an electric butt-massaging chair in Sky Mall.

http://theoatmeal.com/story/twilight

The thing that makes this article such a hoot: the illustrations. Check them out at the above link.

Okay, want to know my whole take on this: in the first paragraph of this article pretty much sums up my thoughts. The author gave up reading Twilight after 400 pages. Damn, I wasn't nearly as generous with my time. I gave up after only reading about 50-80 pages of this garbage. My problem with the book was explained in the first paragraph of this and that was: the author creates a static, non-descript main character, an empty soul-less being. The reader hasn't a clue what she looks like. Because she is so non-descript, the reader can treat her as pretty much a ready-to-wear character. The reader, namely a pubescent girl or young adult, can 'wear' this character and become her. I never liked that concept. Even if I'm telling the story from a main character's point of view, I want to give a picture to the audience of what my character is like, and I want her to be as dissimilar from me as I can get her. When I'm writing her, or reading her, I want to be able to 'be' her, at least for a little while. The reader knows somewhat her personality. The author of Twilight does none of that. Bella is pretty much a matchbook stick-figure and nothing more.

When I'm reading a story in this genre, I want these characters to jump out of the page, to be larger than life. I want to have the feeling that I know these people or more importantly, want to know them. If I'm going to invest time in reading about them, they better well be interesting, have better lives than mine, and want to be them if I could. To me, that's what reading, and in a larger sense writing is all about.

~BY

Ever had one of those days....

Except I can't figure out which one I was. The beginning of the week, I thought I was the cat kicking the shit out of the dog. But that was only Monday and Tuesday! The rest of the week I felt more like the dog, getting my ass beat. Well, all things being equal and every dog must eventually have its day, mine may be right around the corner.

YIPEEE!!! Well, the semester is winding down and I'm looking forward to playing catch-up. I've got a ton of reading to do. I have my NOOK on the way and I have to finish editing my first novel. This was where I learned that writing is actual work. I miss the play of writing so I'm outlining a couple of stories in the gay erotica genre as well the second book of my paranormal series. Things are starting to heat up for Tatiana and Co. :-)