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Jacob's Ladder - An impression of an impressive film

Jacob's Ladder is one of my all time favorite films. 

*This film was inspired by literature about death and the Tibetan book of the dead, but unlike 'Enter the Void' it doesn't beat you to death with that concept. 

*This is also the film that inspired the 'Silent Hill' video game series. 

It is so dark and relentless. The are light moments but they are only set up to let you down until the very end of the film when all the pieces come together. (If you're paying attention) 

Jacob's Ladder isn't structured, written or set up in any normal way. Some classify its a psychological horror (or drama) and others classify it as a strait up horror film. 

Hollywood was scared to death of this legendary and impressive script from Academy Award winning screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin. And no he didn't win an oscar for this one, he did for 'Ghost' (). Though if there was an oscar for ballsy screenwriting this would have won. (But it's a hard film to classify) However this film would not be the same without Adrian Lynne's brilliant sense of grounding the spiritualism in reality. Bruce's original script had more obvious symbolism. (which in a different film may have been interesting to see, but not as intriguing or disturbing I think) 

It's like National Lampoon's Vacation or The Game. It's sincerely one of those films where everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But unlike 'Vacation' (which is a comedy not a horror) and 'The Game' (which is punctuated at the end with a  'I think' brilliant punch-line) Jacob's Ladder is more relentlessly honest. It doesn't set itself up as an accident or even a prank you could bounce back from . . . . it sets up as either dream, hell, or insanity…which exploring the human condition is far more frightening.  Every little detail in this film is mulled over, even throw away lines like 'I called ever hospital in town' are designed to get under you're skin. "But he was just in the hospital, and in another, was it a dream, hallucination, maybe she just missed calling the one he was in…" you think. 

After all there are people who see things whose reality gets twisted whose dreams they see in daylight . . . severely mentally handicapped people (okay that's a blatant oversimplification and under-classification). And if you've ever met or spoken to one of these people you realize how real those delusions are. And as the film cascades into the spiritual idea of dreams, insanity, hallucinogenic drug flashbacks, vietnam, or the idea of heaven and hell, literal angels and demons…the real fear in this film is it could be real. No not real for the character but real for you someday. What if you started losing your mind, couldn't differentiate your dreams from reality…what if you are dead now? What happens when you die. And this film doesn't attempt to answer anything in any of the quick cuts or carefully planned sequences. 

1 Nightmare:

When I was a kid I used to have nightmares all the time…when I had nightmares of things I'd seen in movies 'Pennywise', 'Freddy Krueger', 'Jason Vorhees' ect I knew the rules from horror (being a fan) I could survive it and laugh about it when I woke up. 

But when the nightmares were so abstract blurred (like sequences in this movie) that I couldn't get a grasp on reality or get grounded what it was I was looking at, it was desperately more frightening, giving my imagination carte-blanche subconsciously to scare the living shit out of me. And using editing tricks and camera tricks, this film legitimately attempts to capture (slowing down sequences, speeding up sequences, but doing them so deftly that your eye or even your mind as someone who understands film tricks could barely detect the edits and tricks. It's so flawlessly executed. And the commitment of the actors, beauty of the cinematography (a lot of sequences are at magic hour, especially some really good vietnam helicopter photography) and the gorgeous score by Maruicce Jarre, yes that Maricce Jarre of Dr. Zhivago fame . 

1st nightmare. 

- The most frightened I have ever been from a dream is one time (dreaming) I was in a long bizarre corridor filled with junk, like the back room of not a thrift shop, but a thrift warehouse with bizarre gadgets and things from different eras strung about. In the center of this room there was a painting on an easel covered by a sheet. I walked over to the painting and pulled off the sheet and sitting there was a watercolor very dreamlike with blurred edges painting of an older couple sitting at a dinning room table eating breakfast screaming in each others faces with looks of pure hate and fear…it didn't make sense…the juxtaposition of the setting verse the strangeness of the looks on there faces left me shocked and I woke up in a cold sweat. I was about 13 at the time and still haven't forgot that image. Why, who painted this, what did it mean…did it have any meaning at all…was it just random. The couple looked like they were dying and letting out all the hate anyone could possibly feel from there lungs at one another…lost. Completely lost in nonsense. 

I woke up wondering how the fuck my subconscious cooked that up. You see I wasn't being chased by a monster…most nightmares are very tangible, monster try to kill you, you try to get away, or you have a disease or you're lost, real feelings you can relate too…but there is nothing like having a nightmare where you couldn't relate or even ground yourself in something that made sense. Jacob's Ladder has images that evoke that kind of random yet intriguing fear of 'losing it'. 

* * * Spoiler * * *

'If you're frightened of dying and holding on you'll see devil's tearing your life away. If you've made your peace, then the devil's are really angels freeing you from the earth'. - Louis - from "Jacob's Ladder" 

This film will have a different affect on ever audience member that views it. It is a spiritualist journey into hell that you take with you. 

There are a lot of great before they were famous's in this movie including Vhing Rhames, Jason Alexander, Macauliy Chulkin, and stand up comedian Lewis Black 

Albums

My Albums:

My 10 Favorite Albums . . . ish (Yes depending on my mood it could change but this is pretty solid) 

 …. But wait Crimson, Harvest, Thriller, Houses of the Holy, The White Album, The Black Album, The Blue Album, Punk in Drublic, The Cronic, Revolver, The Marshall Mathers LP, The Con, Blood on the Tracks, Blond on Blond, Sticky Fingers…where are these albums…well screw you. This is my damn list!! And all of the below albums have one thing in common…I LOVE them. 

No I don't like them and I can't just gleam one or two songs off them. I pretty much enjoy ever single track on them and enjoy them not as a list of singles but as a whole. These albums for me the whole makes up much, much more than the sum of their parts. 

"What's that . . . Goggly Gogo, Johnny Zhivago, Heaven Seventeen? What have you got at home to play your fuzzy warbles on, come with Uncle and hear all proper" ~ A Clockwork Orange 

Patterns, cadence, mood, theme, timing, structure, free-form, experimental, jazzy, pulsing, alive, and for me the most important thing an album should have ~ atmosphere. A sense that this music belongs in a unique world of its own design….humming inside your head  

: 4 Runners Up :

* The 59 Sound - The Gaslight Anthem

* Pretend You're Alive - Lovedrug

* Plans - Death Cab for Cutie 

* Keep Your Heart - The Loved Ones

The List:

10 The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails 

The Downward Spiral embodies my aggressive youth, thinking about sex and pain and life, but not in normal structures but in a bizarre cascade of unusual sounds and poetry. It's a perfect album for angst with such weight it pulses like petting a dangerous animal, you're not sure if the humming noise is a growl or a purr. This album bites back. It's raw, emotionally and visceral. 

9  Sing the Sorrow - AFI  

Sing the Sorrow has a unique place in my heart which I won't go into. It took me a little while to get this one; the structure of the album and the way Davy sings are like the musings of a manic-depressive writing passionate goth poetry with a  voice as sharp as a razor. But it's the underpinnings of the album, the echos, guitar themes, sound effects, and humming under currents, that glue this album down to perfection. Had it not had those it would just be an album of the week as appose to resonate those lyrical puzzles to last. 

8  Rumors - Fleetwood Mac 

Rumors. I've always known Fleetwood Mac's music, almost every song on this album is famous, perfect, and unique to their sound. There is no real way to describe Rumors. Second Hand News is paced and structured differently than Dreams, and Dreams is different than Gold Dust Woman but the passion that both Lindsay and Stevie put into the songs solidify this like the musings of a couple writing songs about their life but keeping them vague enough for the world. 

7  Dookie - Green Day 

Dookie. It's the first album I bought and it's never got old. It always reminds me of my youth and somehow my spirit and my rebellious presence in this world. 

6  Ok Computer - Radiohead 

Ok Computer. This album has rthymic pop like ballads and experimental "out their" songs, it's like the combination of my love of industrial and experimental rock with my guilty pleasure love for certain pop music songs. Ok Computer is a gem and simply put (if you dig this style) one of the best albums ever crafted. There is enough variety of sound in just one song the album as a whole feels like a feast for the ears. 

5  Throwing Copper - Live

Throwing Copper. For some reason this album reminds me of my Southern roots. Maybe it's because this album has such a subtle twang of the gospel sound and has such vague poetic power ballads like Lightning Crashes and I Alone that seem to punch you in the face when you hear them I can't help but always find pleasure in revisiting it like an old friend.  

4  Disintegration - The Cure 

Disentegration. Simply put is one of the best albums ever made! No hesitation. If you like The Cure and there knack for mixing songs with so many different styles and instruments in one it's like a sensory trip resending to the next beautifully atmospheric mountain climb of sound…yeah with songs like Last Dance and Fascination Street  this album is a unique experience…like a first kiss, but in your ears. 

3  Mixed Bag - Richie Havens 

Mixed Bag. This album is strait up lounge, blues, with a slight twang of jazz. Richie's style of singing, mixed with his unique spin on old songs is just what's in his name 'rich'. He adds a weight and richness to music with his broken down old black man's voice that is simply one of a kind. 

2  Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness - The Smashing Pumpkins 

Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness. This album is like a Vincent Van Gogh painting. It's a familiar setting, songs about the meaning of life, love songs, songs about aggression…but blurred, vague, and powerfully pin-holed in such a way  that it hits you . . . this song is yours. It was written just for you. It's your gift. There is so much diversity in just this one double-disc album with heavy songs like Zero and Scorched Earth and lighter songs like Stumbeline and Cupid De Locke that bands with careers spanning decades don't hit in their entire body of work, yet "The Smashing Pumpkins" nailed in one glorious album. 

1  Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division

Unknown Pleasures. This is my favorite album of all time. Why? I can't explain. I grew up on punk, first pop punk (Green Day) then actual punk (Buzzcocks and Sex Pistols) my adolescence needed some form of aggression (Escapism from my god-fearing church-going lifestyle I guess). Then I grew to love the wilder more experimental sounds of the new industrial and alternative sounds of bands like Nine Inch Nails and The Smashing Pumpkins that had a way of twisting songs either in the mix or with their particular way of using instruments and song structures that I fell in love with. Nine Inch Nails more like Industrial-Metal and Smashing Pumpkins, Alternative-Rock, not the normal sound in either of those two genres but a sound that fits somewhere in between and is far more experimental than the norm. Joy Division splits the difference between very simple punk music and very experimental sounds…basically the best of both worlds of the type of music in my youth. It's like a nostalgic gem to an era I was born 7 years after the release of this album yet still when I first heard the opening track 'Disorder' I exclaimed…baby where have you been all my life! And that was nearly 7 years ago that I pulled this album out of a bargain bin in a hippie coffee shop named Satori in Mobile, Alabama and have been in love with ever since. 

*Bonus* I recently discovered and album called "Wincing the Night Away" by The Shins which I really dig * 

Beyond the Black Review

Beyond the Black Rainbow ~ Review ~

Magnolia Pictures's sub-branch Magnet Releasing is known for picking out unique, bizarre, & sometimes risky films for their catalogue. This film is the most bizarre…no not the most bizarre film in the Magnet catalogue although that is true I think the most bizarre film I've actually sat through without cringing. 

 . . . . The movie started at 7:30 . . . . 

At the beginning of my evening I'd just got off work, went to McDonalds, grabbed a quick burger, hit up my apartment, got a shower, threw on my clothes, and headed toward the 'Silent Movie Theatre' here in Los Angeles for the screening. I dumbly forgot to check the Hollywood Bowl schedule and went up Cahuenga through to Highland Avenue. An absolute nightmare of slow moving traffic which eventually cleared after about 15mins. Then I reached the theatre and the lot for the theatre next to it was full…so I decided to street park with about 11 minutes until the film started. 

I parked and double checked my car, it was slightly crooked, but I thought I'd buy a ticket then run back to adjust it. "SOLD OUT!!!" (And with the final chance to see the director speak in front of the film, why not, some buzz had been building over this picture after all) There was a man scalping tickets, but I didn't have any cash, and there was a stand-bye waiting list, which I waited on.

And now the amazing part. I got in for free! A man had put two tickets on hold one for him and his friend who didn't show up . . . so he kindly offered me a ticket. God I do love this town sometimes. 

I missed the director speaking, I had to pee, and didn't want to miss the movie see. 

I sat in the back of the theatre in a fold-out chair, crowded & awkward, smelling like stale, stale, stale, popcorn, and the room slightly warmer because of the crowd with a cool breeze shooting behind me from the theatre door. 

I'm not going to attempt to describe the plot. Just watch the trailer…it's basically like that. A series of bizarre vignettes with a loose plot about a drugged up young girl trying to escape and being studied attached. 

In this theatre I felt like I truly was in a movie experience like being in the historic Elgin theatre in NY the first time they played Eraserhead. Would drugs enhance this movie experience? I have no idea. Werner Herzog said that we are truly starving for new images after seeing this film I think I'm sated for a while. It's truly like nothing I've ever seen in look, design, sound, editing, performance, and execution. It would be like if Cronenberg directed Altered States with a slower pace than expected and not as good as you would expect, yet still satisfying somehow. It's a film so slowly paced and bizarre that the little moments of realism or extremely over the top scenes stick out like gems amid the rest of the film. 

 This film feels like it was made in 1983 with the spirt of the 1970's experimental filmmaking. It's both a blessing and a curse for this one. 

On the thought provoking 'What the fuck was that' mulling in my brain ride home I decided that I liked it. 

And as weird as this film was in a crowded theatre I think only 4 people left in the middle of the film and once the credits rolled so did a loud and brilliant applause. 

This film is not for the normal crowd but the crowd thirsting for something not just different but so different it seems unrecognizable next to any other film. I could classify this as a CULT film, a MIDNIGHT MOVIE, or a SCI FI throwback film…but the only genre it belongs in is truly "Beyond the Black Rainbow" a genre of one. 

Although I can't think of a soul even my friends who like so called 'out there' films that I'd recommend it to without severe hesitation.  

I couldn't begin to describe this film if I had the world's most detailed thesaurus inked with blotter acid.

It made my list Top 21 WTF Films List ! ! ! 

Movies I'm looking forward to this year.

 'Prometheus' was a pretty big let down . . . though it was gorgeous and I thought worth my while at a cheap theatre for the visuals and some other moments I liked. If it was being compared to 'Alien' it would never live up to the expectations. Very few films are ever that good. It was filled with major plot holes and continuity problems. It was obvious the last half of the movie was being directed by a committee and not a vision...it wasn't a good film the painful effect happens when you drive home and you go 'hey wait a minute, what the f*ck was that all about'? But I thought the visuals and the first hour kept me entertained and intrigued. 

But here's my list of CAN'T F*CKING WAIT TIL THEY'RE RELEASED FILMS OF 2012 - I'm making this list because I assume it'll be slightly different than other people's lists. 

2012's already had some fantastically unexpected pictures come out. "The Hunger Games"  was a let down for me but I didn't hate it, I enjoyed it, I wanted more passion and more honesty in the film (because kids in shock do not behave like they are really playing cowboys and indians. It's a bit disingenuous) but had some great moments for me to want to revisit that film. "The Avengers" broke records and was (for comic fans) genuine popcorn flick gold. (Of course neither of these are transforming life changing pieces but few films are) 

"The Grey" & "Cabin in the Woods"  being the most notable films that surprised the hell out of me for how great they were and it'll take a lot of greatness to knock them off my Top 10 list for this coming year (which I hope they are that'll mean it's been a fantastic year)…last year was so weak I only made a Top 5 and regretted 1 I put on there that I wish I had a better film to replace it with. 

While "Avengers" was incredible fun. I already know it probably won't crack my Top 10 of this year unless some of these on my list are major let downs. But here are the films I'm either most curious about or most excited to see. 

Ted . . .  (Yeah I'm actually hopeful this one will be just a solid fun comedy) 

Beyond the Black Rainbow . . . 

Dredd . . . 

The Hobbit : An Unexpected Journey . . .  100%

On the Road . . . 

The Dark Knight Rises . . . 

. . .

other films like



and

  looks like great fun but I'm not exactly salivating. 

(This looks good too) 
Maybe it'll suck and maybe it'll be great but we get another "Silent Hill" movie baby.

There are big ones coming out like Les Miserables and The Great Gatsby but those I'll wait to hear if my friends liked them before I would think of checking them out. They could just be big epic messes. 

Songs for a Road Trip

These aren't songs about the road like,  "Turn the Page", "Truckin", "Friend of the Devil" or even "On the Road Again" . . . . now some of these songs are in fact about the road but that's not my criteria. The main thought was songs that have a particular kind of catchy almost poppy or unique speed and pacing to them to make the trek seem smoother, like you're driving to the tunes, now the last song on this mix is a slow song about the road but if you listen to it you'll know why I put it up and I cheat the criteria with 1 other song as well. The idea is you listen to this one on a long road trip and you'll get to 'Long Way' just as the sun sets and there are few cars on the road and your passenger is asleep and you get lost in the monotony and start to remember the little moments of your trip beautifully.   

1. Second Hand News - Fleetwood Mac 

2.  Dragon Force - Any song...it'll turn your road trip into a magical adventure through space and time, yeah

3. Out My Back Door - CCR 

4. Interzone - Joy Division 

5. I Wasn't Born To Follow - The Bryds 

6. Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen (Provided passengers sing it with you) 

7. Running Down a Dream - Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers 

8. 3/5 of a Mile in 10 seconds - Jefferson Airplane  (Surrealistic Pillow, probably my favorite album title ever) 

9. The Passenger - Iggy Pop and the Stooges 

10. Long Way - Antje Duvekot 

My favorite road trip film is 'Y Tu Mamma Tambien' (Yeah)  and am fixing to read "On the Road"    and am excited for the film based on it staring Sam Riley. Plus I love a good road trip and because of my job I drive a lot so I thought I'd do this mix. 

The Most Offensive thing I've ever written - or Daniel Krone's "The Real Meaning of Life"

WARNING THIS RANT IF WRITTEN CORRECTLY WILL OFFEND PEOPLE 

I'M NOT KIDDING . . . . 

= ^.^ =  < - - - Smiley kitten face

Fuck, cunt, muffins, weasel, old fish smell . . . . . okay so that non-sequator should clear this article from being read by anyone too squeamish. 

* All of my best friends are hippies, metal heads, beatniks, punks, and people on the fringes whose idea of a good weekend is getting loaded, seeing a show and possibly hooking up with a stranger.

I see nothing wrong with that. 

What is life if not to embrace the warm strange echos of irrationality that brood like legion in the back of your throat reminding you that years ago you were once an animal and not civilized. I dream of the day that every person on earth understands this…but I doubt such an orgasmic epiphany will come in any future generation I'll belong to. 

Super heros, social networks, books about sex - read by virgins, books about drugs - read by the sober, films about romance - made by people who've never dared to fall in love. Fuck this world; God, Gaia, the great turtle, the great elephant, the sun, the moon, the giant cosmic snake, Buddha, Jesus, and any other  deity that might offend anyone who uses such wordily teachings as a crutch to avoid true human experiences. 

Teenagers and about 10 years past are the greatest experiencers this world has ever seen. From 17 - 30 all you want to do is fuck, fight, fly, and dream . . . . and perhaps after that you settle down. 

If it wasn't for pussy and pot there would be no art - an overstatement for sure. We would all see this world through the same perceptions fluctuating subtly but not as drastically as would be for social evolution to legitimately occur. Our fiction inspires our reality our reality inspires our fiction . . . the world is influenced by the musings of dreamers who dare to dream and we gleam gold from their cold grasp and then ostracize them for being different. 

I praise the weirdos; secretly we all do. But I'll publicly do it in this somewhat unusual rant on the "Meaning of Life" the thing is…there is no such thing as "The Meaning of Life" the closest thing I've found with that title is a mediocre semi-phoned-in Monty Python movie. The idea of the "Meaning of Life" is as important as the "Meaning" of a Jackson Pollack painting. What does it mean to you ? 

Great sex, great food, great company, great stories, a good nights sleep, a sense of purpose, hope that someone will remember you, hope that someone will love you. Then you'll die, some earlier, some later, but sure enough you will. 

And if you spend your nights worrying if you should have made decisions diff erently rather than just making different ones in the future than you've truly learned nothing fixating on something so little that leaves you 'grounded' is ignoring the fact that you could fly Further without a ground attached to your blistered fucking human hide.  

I do not do hard drugs, just a beer, maybe a red wine, or something stronger if I'm adventurous. 

Woman are possible the hardest drug I've ever indulged in. 

And it's so difficult to get the ones you want to work & when they hit you don't even feel the high til years after they're gone. 

Chemicals inside a small sack of neurons insulated in some fat cells, run a structure made of meat and some substance. And most of us live in fear. For what, the inevitable, the unexpected, nothing, God?  Fuck that shit, I'd rather get loaded and see a show than wonder if the show will be any good or if the load will be too big to carry?  

I'd rather spend forever in hell knowing that during my life I touched some amazing people and perhaps the edge of that unexpected void of happiness that's impossibly to explain to someone who wasn't even there, than spend a lifetime in heaven regretting not experiencing the earth and it's people as I truly was meant to. 

The blunt truth is some nuero-chemical bond happened possibly in a glance at a distance between my mother and my father many many moons ago, they fell in love (you know 'love' noradrenaline, dopamine, epinephrine, and various other potent cocktails) ((Okay so I'm probably not accurate on the brain chemistry)) and had some sex and viola I was born some time later (almost dead and really tiny, but born none the less) I spent my youth in Alabama, eating legitimate good seafood, spending time with my wonderful family, and learning about Jesus and how many Egyptians God murdered (yeah kind of a lot of mixed messages for a kid to take in) but alas I learned. Dancing is bad, vampires are evil, and many other messages that don't make much sense in retrospect. But I do remember the sermon on the mount where Jesus did speak rather specifically about the evils of 'the mashed potato' and 'the twist'. 

And then I woke up. I woke up in the form of a woman, blond hair, nice figure, scared shitless by life, scarred violently by it, her mind somewhere between beauty and terror…you know…a teenage girl. 2 1/2 years of very strange adventures and nights lost mostly in eyes and thought. Then a goodbye kiss, there is no god without love, and there is no love without me…I don't exist, who am I?, why would god do this too me, I thought I'd figured out the world…we'd get married, raise kids…never happened. I was promised the American dream, but I'd ignored the the Human dream. Well the fuck that experience. I'm going to get loaded and go to as many shows as possible…and so I moved to the land of loads & shows LAS VEGAS…nah just fucking with you Los Angeles. And began my adventures which led me to such irrational thinking as I have today. 

I realized how fun the adventure of chasing & catching things is. I realized that atmosphere is more important than possessions and a good memory is more important than trying to have other people remember me. And arbitrary life promises aren't worth the pain of breaking them. 

Holding onto grudges, fear of looking stupid, jealousy, it's all just bullshit man. ALL OF IT. Love, live, run, dream, fight, die . . . that's what life is. 

I'd rather tell a joke that bombed and forget about it, than wonder what people will think of me if I did and not tell it at all. 

"Laugh and the world laughs with you . . . weep and you weep alone."

"It's the place where you lose yourself and the place where you find yourself"    

  * (If you read the fullness of my blog you'll see that my mind jumps sporadically from subject to subject, much like nightcrawler's teleportation, and I've probably tackled this type of rant before.) *

Every young generation discovers the rebels of its past.