You are currently browsing all entries tagged with 'inception'

What are some fantasy/fictional worlds that you like?  

  • May 7, 2012 9:50 pm

And what are some intriguing societies that you may not like, but find very interesting?

I love fairy tales.  I don’t actually want to live inside one, though, since they seem a little superficial and there are probably a bazillion mosquitos wandering the woods.

Re: societies, I’m interested in Kowloon Walled City (in Hong Kong, demolished in 1993-94).  According to a 1987 survey, 33,000 people populated 6.5 square acres (.01 square miles).  This translates to a population density of 3,249,000 people per square mile.  WHAT????

Residents living in lower floors of the city received no sunlight.

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Is it still possible to be original?

  • January 14, 2012 12:00 am

At first glance, this question seems rhetorical, with any answer serving only as a gauge of the responder’s cynicism.

“What a movie! I’ve seen the mistaken identity story in a thousand ones before!” “Did you see last night’s episode? It totally ripped off an episode of that show from a couple years back, where they tried to return the gift but couldn’t!”

But think about it: any given artform has been around for years – decades or even centuries. There may indeed be a vast number of combinations of concepts, colors, and notes, but logic seems to dictate that however vast that number might be, it is still finite.

Recently, I found a stunning similarity between the score for The Dark Knight and the score for a 1983 film called Edith et Marcel. Judging from everyone’s reaction to that video I made, people seemed to be split into two camps.  Read more...

FLOUNDERING FILM FLUNKEE must resist the Blu-Ray collector sets!

  • November 17, 2011 12:00 am

Part of being a filmmaker is loving films. Part of being American is being a consumer whore. From the overlap of these two demographics come most of the sales of DVD/Blu-Ray collector’s sets.

I am, of course, part of that most unlucky of overlaps and for those like me, resisting the siren call of totally unnecessary things is a Herculean task.  Read more...

Japanese Girl Explains the Movies For You

  • July 30, 2011 11:52 am

Mika is a Japanese girl. She likes to explain the plots to some of Hollywood’s biggest movies in a way that’s completely understandable (in case you were confused by what happened in Titanic or Spiderman) and…well, unique. So check them out and have a great weekend.

TITANIC:

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High Fructose Corn Syrup and the Guilty Food Pleasures.

  • July 21, 2011 12:00 am

Yes, this is the second time this week I’m talking about food.  I’ve got food on the brain and it’s bad, folks – real bad.

To continue my thoughts from last time, the more health conscious I’ve become, the more miserable my taste buds get.  I don’t want to say I’m miserable ’cause yeah – I do feel pretty good.  Best shape of my life.

But that doesn’t mean there are days when I just wanna shove a bunch of junk in my mouth ’cause you only live once.

One of the things I’ve struggled to cut out of my diet is high fructose corn syrup.  That shit is everywhere.

Some people say it’s real awful for you then others say those people are blowing it out of proportion.  I think it’s safe to say it’s probably not gonna do you any favors down the road so yeah.

Anyway, stuff like ketchup – I totally prefer the no high fructose corn syrup version.  I’m there to taste the tomatoes, not some weird additive’s effect on them.  So tastewise and healthwise, this is a win-win.  Read more...

What I Learned on YOMYOMF This Year – 2010-2011

  • July 9, 2011 12:00 am

What I Learned on YOMYOMF This Year is a capsule of the year’s blogs with sarcastic commentary from Yours Truly (that’s me!).  If you’ve been busy and missed out on a couple of our daily gems, this is a perfect way to catch up.

This is a special edition because this will be the last What I Learned on YOMYOMF here on, well, YOMYOMF.  I’ve had lots of good memories – the handcuffs, the sulfuric acid, the anonymous letters – but now’s not the time to talk about personal matters.  In its place, there will be a new column that even I (Jerome) don’t know yet, but I imagine Simon has an inkling.

Enjoy this last year-encompassing recap.  And don’t worry: I don’t talk about Inception.

Much.

OUTDOORS WHILE ASIAN: PACK-OREXIA:

“PACK-OREXIA.  A disorder that makes me weigh every single piece of backpacking equipment I own.”

And here I was thinking that regular physical activity keeps the mind healthy – thank goodness for being lazy!  I love you, chair and ass indent.

FIRST MEMORY:

“Before I knew it, I ran towards the fence and started to do what I thought the older kids did to get to the other side.  Because it was my first time climbing a fence, the sensation was just plain strange (kinda like putting on a condom for the very first time).”

Isn’t putting on a condom kind of a strange sensation every time?  Just me?  Alright then.  Read more...

Hiking is really, truly hard.

  • July 7, 2011 12:00 am

Humans were meant to scale the largest mountains and dive down into the deepest seas.  I guess this means I am not human.

I actually got high enough to take this picture.

Growing up, I was never really one for “physical activity.”  Books, movies, and video games were my bread and butter, along with anything else that is part and parcel of a sedentary childhood.  Most of my exercise probably came from constantly rearranging my collection of games into alphabetical order after each new purchase.

Yes, it was pathetic.  But I never really made much of an effort to change it.  Biking, hiking, swimming – these recreational activities weren’t synonymous for fun as a four-year-old and they weren’t added into fun’s thesaurus entry even up until about a year and a half ago.

That’s when I made my “End of Act 1″ decision.

It takes nothing less than other people to get me to engage in these vigorous pastimes.  So finally, after however many years I’d been alive at that point, I suggested instead of waiting to be asked.

“We should all go hiking,” I said to my imaginary friends.  Read more...

COMMUNITY QUESTION: Do you leer?

  • June 23, 2011 12:00 am

Ladies and gentlemen:

We are becoming a culture of obviousness.  Gone are the days of subtlety, of subtext, of reading between the lines.

Yes, I sound like an old man, but didn’t I just preface this article with the phrase “Ladies and gentlemen”?  I’m really not hiding anything.

Admittedly, yes – I may be looking at the past with rose-coloured glasses, inferences built upon notions derived from popular entertainment.  However, I’m still willing to bet my second-born illegitimate child that our predecessors on the whole were not so blatant.

But before you jump to conclusions, I’d like to say that I, for one, am glad we are giving the guillotine to understatement.

So this week I ask you all:

Look, this is a broad subject – I should know – so I’ll hone in one on particular niche of creeper-dom: looking at people you’re attracted to.  Read more...

I Fell Face First into My Trash Can.

  • June 16, 2011 12:00 am

Sometimes in life, there are moments when the inconsequential nature of our existence is rubbed right in our faces.  This past weekend, that metaphor was taken to its logical extreme and made very, very literal.

It was a slow Saturday, see?  And so I decided to while away the time with some writing.

Me writing is actually a pretty depressing sight: it’s me lean in an office chair in front of a computer, clad only in my boxers, hair totally disheveled.  I look like a really low-level vagrant.

Writing is a pretty introspective process for me, so I usually lock myself in my room with supplies I’ve brought in beforehand.  Said supplies usually include a couple bottles of water and a pack of gum to keep my mouth busy.  This way, I can’t make excuses to leave the room and stop writing.

You don’t wanna know how I deal with peeing.

 Read more...

WHAT I LEARNED ON YOMYOMF THIS WEEK – JUNE 4 – 10, 2011

  • June 11, 2011 12:00 am

What I Learned on YOMYOMF This Week is a capsule of the week’s blogs with sarcastic commentary from Yours Truly (that’s me!).  If you’ve been busy and missed out on a couple of our daily gems, this is a perfect way to catch up.

But seriously – what was more important than reading YOMYOMF?

This week, YOMYOMF’s got blind Asian women; bigoted Smurfs; and great, non-sexual advice for new graduates.

You really can’t get that anywhere else.

SAF SEEKING… CHARM SCHOOL:

““I think that it must be you.” He smiles into my eyes.

Oh no! He’s flirting with me! I’m terrible at flirting! Okay, so he’s only 23 and I could have given birth to him if I had been even remotely sexually active in high school (I wasn’t) so he’s harmless and nothing’s going to happen but STILL!”

I thought the younger the mark, the better the prize, right?  Or is that just with hunting animals?

Man, there’s a lot I need to learn.

R.I.P. MY INTEREST IN VIDEO GAMES.:

In which I describe how my video game fixation died with L.A. Noire.  Read more...

COMMUNITY QUESTION: Do you know your movie theater etiquette?

  • June 9, 2011 12:00 am

Moviegoing, for me, is the closest thing I’ve got to ceremony in my life.  In my habits here, I am very predictable.

I always show up about thirty minutes before showtime – twenty at the latest – to make sure I get a seat in the middle of the middle of the theater, generally the aural sweet spot of the space.

I buy a box of Red Vines to get through over the course of the movie.

And, of course, I store the ticket stub in my wallet to add to my bulging collection in there.

If filmmaking is a religion, the movie theater is my church and so with it comes, fittingly, certain expectations of conduct.

Let’s start with the obvious thing to bitch about: talking.  So many people are in agreement with this that most, if not all, theaters have a sort of PSA about it prior to the movie starting.  You know the one I’m talking about.

It’s the one with the cheesy graphics asking you politely to “refrain from talking.”  Haha – everyone knows you don’t get anything by asking politely.

Anyway, yeah – no shit.  Moviegoers aren’t spending two hours in the dark to hear you talk; there are more beautiful and important people up on screen to pay attention to.  And if s/he is so important to you, why did you bring your baby to the theater when s/he’s probably scared of the dark?  Read more...

I’m Glad I Have a Penis.

  • June 2, 2011 12:00 am

That’s not to say the revelation just dawned on me.  Although, to be fair, you do take things for granted when they’re around all the time, like your genitals.

Fate rolled the dice on those a long time ago and unless you’ve got a lot of money and a good doctor, that equipment’s what you’ve got for the rest of your life.  Much like the various classes in a role-playing game, each gender’s got pros and cons.

Now what qualities may be considered as positive or negative is largely a subjective matter.  Largely.

I think everyone from both genders can agree that women unequivocally got the shorter (or nonexistent) end of the stick when it comes to urination.

Generally speaking, I imagine it’s not so bad, aside from the whole “having to sit” bit.  In private residences such as one’s home, I can’t see how it would be that big a deal, especially since there wouldn’t be many people at your house – again, generally speaking.

However, as a frequenter of public water closets, I have witnessed many a time the phenomenon known as “THE LINE TO THE WOMEN’S RESTROOM.”  Read more...