Cam Bert

I feel like I'm cheating on George, my true Beatle love

Thank you Cameron. I do have two more in in mind for backup and depending on what people say I am more than willing to change. I hope not to because according to Letterboxd nobody has seen the one I want to do, or at least haven't marked it watched if they have. I'm pretty sure CakeBug has seen it though. Also, I just realised that I believe all three of my pick's were Paul songs weren't they?

I'm using that "Can I Stream it?" site and it says it's not available for streaming on Netflix and things like that but for digital rental it did come up on Amazon. I'm still considering my options, but is $2.99 reasonable to most? Shh... don't spoil it! (I am secretly fascinated with that movie though) As for underrated you're the Beatles expert so not sure if these count but I don't think they ever make it onto Best of's but I've always liked Blackbird and I've Just Seen a Face. Also, I'm slightly bias because it is one of my favourite's but Maxwell's Silver Hammer I think gets credit for being weird but you have to appreciate the mind wormy-ness of the lyrics and tune.

Well, now to enter lurk mode. See you all in two weeks!

We're still early into the picks so you might want to hold off on that coke. The pick I wanted to make might have been as controversial but it doesn't look to be streaming and not sure if I want to make people pay for it.

No offense to any of the best actor nominees but I really think Colin Farrell was robbed for not being nominated for The Lobster. The whole movie I wish was nominated more at the Oscars. I agree 100%.

This is hard.... I have three movies I want to say... I'll just pick the most straight forward Song is easier:

Did anybody else think that Max being a taxi driver at the end of the film was a nod to Taxi Driver? I mean he's not originally from New York so it's not like he has a great understanding of the streets and roads of New York. Was this a common things for Vietnam vets to get work as taxi drivers?

Well it's a basic three step process. 1. Are you in a position of authority? If you're a supervisor or boss and someone under you gives you some chances are they are out of obligation. Not always true though. 2. Are they homemade? If yes probably not obligation. Homemade means a greater degree of thought and caring. However not everybody has free time to make chocolate. 3. The packaging and brand. If it's a something they put together or a famous brand like Godiva, it's probably out of real caring.

Now I'm starting to wish Turn Off the Dark was available to do for my choice. '"Why? Because he can," Taymor said. "Because he is woven out of the imagination and now can return in nightmares and daydreams. But who created these super villains? At first we don't know or care."' To me it seems like you should hire her to do the art direction and maybe leave the story and writing to other people.

All my knowledge of the show came from You Talking U2 To Me, that episode of Comedy Bang Bang and what my friends said but this is my first time seeing any of it. All I can say is it's very U2 sounding and it's good to see that all that puppetry studying was put to good use. Also that's Electro, Carnage, Swarm, The Lizard and Kraven but who is that bladed woman suppose to be? Also why Swarm? That's a very odd choice.

Hey CakeBug I have a few Julie Taymor questions for you if you don't mind. 1. Given your love of the Shakespeare, adaptations, and Julie Taymor I would very much love to hear your thoughts on "Titus" 2. Did you ever see a production of Turn Off the Dark on broadway? I know two people that have. One is a big theater person and loathed it, and other has no real theater knowledge and loved it for the sheer spectacle of it all.

That's right! She like hugs him and he's trying to push her off. I forgot all about her that's what a non-entity she was.

While I would not put it past them to do something like this, I think the reason for the English girlfriend is so they can do all those shots at the beginning with Lucy and her boyfriend match up to him with his girlfriend. Also that reminds me of my biggest HDTGM moment of the movie. Right before that song he draws her pictures on that abandoned building and a cop from the second story yells at them. Why is the cop on the second floor of an abandoned building? Also, where do they go to get away from him? Why into that building.

Aren't we all the Jason of our group?

I just saw you posted about Suicide Squad on Letterboxd and it remains me of this. The thing about jukebox musicals is they are kinda just a soundtrack with a story around it. What's the worst way to make a soundtrack? Look at Suicide Squad. Find a song with a line that matches what's happening on screen. They're in New Orleans? House of the Rising Sun! Crazy woman? Super Freak! Don't even use the whole song, just the part that is relevant to the story at that moment. That's other thing I found odd how many songs where sung for just a few verses and then dropped. It just feels incomplete.

Hmmm... I can think of a few traditional musicals in which that is not the case. For example "Guys and Dolls" comes to mind. The first sung musical number is "Fugue for Tinhorns" which is Benny Southstreet, Nicely Nicely and one other guy singing about a horse race. However, this is preceded by the overture which is a medley of the songs, and a sequence which establishes the world and certain themes. However, I agree with completely about the purpose of the first song. Which reminds me we get him sitting on the beach with Helter Skelter playing at the beginning over cut with footage of the protest scene towards the end of the film. Him on the beach is also suppose to be from him at the end of the film, but what if, and stay with me here, this is a Jacob's Ladder scenario?

My junior high school operated on what was called the "Copernican block system" or something like that. Basically the school year was broken into four quarters and you spent the entire morning, roughly two and a half hours, doing one topic for that quarter and the afternoon doing the same but with a different subject. So if your first term was say math and English you spent two and half months just studying those two things and then were done with them until the next school year. It was very weird.

I will say this though I did enjoy some of the music numbers. If you isolate some of them from the main story, visually they were great and I would watch it just as a great music video. Some of the performances of the songs were good too. Then you have a numbers like "I Want You" and "Happiness is a Warm Gun" which work great visually and with the film. Eddie Izzard was great and an excellent example of talk singing. I give Julie Taymor incredible respect for some interesting and striking visuals, I just wish she spend some of that time and effort of crafting a good story to go with them or integrating them better.

I didn't review this on Letterboxd because I was waiting to vent about it hear, but I think even at two stars I was maybe generous. When I watch anything I try really hard not to use my phone or go on the internet while it's on. I struggled with this movie. I had to take two breaks while watching it because it just wasn't holding my interest at all and I think that has a lot to do with the overall story and how Julie Taymor chose to handle it especially the beginning. Before I go on, I know a few of the things will be repeating what Cameron, Fister and TomSpanks have already said so I apologize. First this movie could have used a major major rewrite just to draw focus more on the core story. It seemed that they added every idea they had but didn't remove anything, which just bloated and over muddled the main story, which at it's core I felt was good. I mean if I read the premise "A young English boy comes to America to find his long lost father, but instead finds true love as it's tested by the turbulent 60s" I would be interested. However, I had a hard time connecting to the Jude and Lucy story because they just left it to go down other avenues and stories that either went nowhere or didn't add to the over all narrative. This problem I think is especially event with the character of Prudence. Now she is a lovely woman with a great voice who sings one of the best songs in the movie, however think about where her character comes in. We are meeting the two leads at the beginning and inter cutting between them, juxtaposing their lives. Then we cut to Prudence singing her love song to the cheerleader and running away. Based on this I assumed she was going to be a main character. It seems weird to go from establishing the main story and characters to this song just on the strength of the song and singer regardless of how it effects the flow of the story. She doesn't even show up for another half and hour or so, and when she does is a very minor character. The character of Sadie I would argue is more important to the story but doesn't get any sort of background scene like Jojo or Prudence. Also her story is so meaningless to everything. You have what could an interesting story of this girl struggling with her sexuality but this gets a bit muddled as she admits to sleeping with the guy across the street, Jude and Max. We don't even get a pay of to her story because we just see her after she leaves and she's very glibly like "Oh yea, I'm with this girl now." This combined with the on the noise use of "Dear Prudence" I think serve as a clear illustration of the problems with this film I feel. That being time devoted to characters with no impact on the story for the sake of using more songs. Also, there are a lot of things which I'm not sure if I'm face blind too or what but I had a hard time following. I thought Prudence's crush was Evan Rachel Woods, I had to go back to see if it was her or just another blond high school girl. On a side note, if it was Lucy, and Prudence had to live with them as Lucy was falling in love with Jude while Prudence is still secretly in love with Lucy would have been more interesting. Also I didn't know that kid was Jojo's brother and he was with his mom. I thought it was his son and that was his wife with him. I thought their one other roommate/friend was the revolutionary Paco as well. Just characters show up and aren't introduced or explained until much too late. I freely admit I maybe wasn't paying as much attention as I should have. Here's what I would have liked and or wanted. Eliminate the characters of Jojo and Prudence all together. You can keep Sadie but I would have been okay with her being cut as well. You can even take some of their songs and repurpose them with the main characters. When Jude starts falling for Lucy he sings "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" to demonstrate how he's falling for her. Or "Come Together" to establish Paco more as a potential love rival for Lucy. Just focus on Jude, Lucy, and Max. Flesh out that story more. More of how in love they were, and decide if it was jealousy and paranoia with Paco or her over dedication to the anti-war efforts that drove them apart. Just things like that to tighten and enhance the core story and characters.

Sorry all, I've been away for the weekend and just getting to catch up now. Before I get into my thoughts about this movie I just want to say that in Japan Valentine's is very weird. It's a day for women to gift to men. There is a separate day on March 14th called White Day in which the men return the favour. However, if you did not receive anything you can't just gift a girl you like, so there is no real chance for men to make romantic confessions. Another problem is the rise of giri-choco or obligation chocolates in which you feel like you have to give something to your male boss or supervisor even though you don't want to and maybe don't even like them.

Further proof for you case.

Now I mentioned this a week or so when the newsletter came out but this movie isn't out here yet. It will actually come out the day of the next minisode meaning that I will hear all about this movie before being able to see it. So I have a question for you good folks of the forums whom I call friends, is this movie worth seeing in theaters? Or should I just listen to the episode and wait for it to come on video which from the sounds may be sooner than later.

This is how much Airborne is still in my head. At the beginning when Paul mentioned plants I thought "Oh boy, they're going to talk about the botanical garden some more!" Then when it didn't get mentioned I was confused. I relistened to this whole episode twice more figuring that I missed something. It was then and only then that I realized that plants was in reference to the Hope Line comment about plants and nothing to do with Airborne's botanical garden scene.