Went to see Oliver Stone's 'W.' tonight. It wasn't nearly up to par for Oliver Stone, unusually linear and quite simply shot and put together. There was some talk that it was a bit of a rush job to have it finished before the election, and there is certainly some evidence for that. It lacked any of the pizazz you'd expect, but was however quite interesting for those behind-the-scenes war room cabinet meetings. Kind of strangely stale and flat compared to, for example, The West Wing (which I've never watched properly), but it was interesting to see those characters that caused so much shit and disaster for the world-at-large to be represented on the big screen. Some dodgy vocal performances (okay Thandie Newton looked uncannily like Condoleezza Rice, but what's the deal with her voice?!) threatened to turn the whole thing into the pantomime, and while its quite sympathetic to Bush, it felt like it really simplified everything too much. I refuse to believe he didn't have many more people as well as Carl Rove telling him exactly how and why he was corrupting the US - his thoughts could not possibly have been as noble as 'doing the job'. The father/son thing was done better in Alexander. Also, I kind of think Josh Brolin through no fault of his own just doesn't look dumb enough. He has too much charisma to play a convincing moron, though his efforts are pretty good. It was always something I found fascinating about Bush, just the look in his eyes bely a deeper stupidity. In fact, you can nearly see the rabbit in there working the controls. W. isn't exactly ground-shaking Hollywood fare (this from the same man who gave us the momumental epic Any Given Sunday), but more of an interesting companion piece to a thoroughly enjoyable election season. Oh yes and a disasterous White House administration.
It was also funny how Stone and writer Stanley Weiser managed to fit in all the classic Bushisms over the course of the movie, sometimes painfully so. (Though you may miss the 'misunderestimated' one). Of course, this is why we love him.
Training it to Dublin, just not arsed to drive this time, roll on Iarnrod Eireann! Did The Irish Times crossword in about 20 min apart from the one clue ["Of spherical, with flattened top and bottom" 6 letters, do you know it?] and was pretty chuffed with myself. I don't time myself or anything, and I'm not sure if that's good, but I was surprised to get so much done having only started it after Kildare. A quick stroll around town, the obligatory look into Music Maker and Tower Records, a pint in the Shebeen Chic, then Enchiladas and Margaritas in Acapulco on George's Street - yum! I was more or less keeping my mouth shut when people asked me about the London gig before we saw them in Vicar St, didn't want to pre-empt or spoil anything around the dodgy banter talk. Apparently it wasn't an issue for my mates anyway. In fairness, how could it ever be, playing to a Dublin crowd in Vicar St? They were even better than Shepherds Bush in my opinion, and Robin Pecknold going solo unplugged was pretty cool. Ironically, I feel have to take responsibility for some of the strange but funny 'Obama being part Enya' talk. I was talking to Robin outside before the gig and we were chatting about London's gig, and I mentioned that they were talking quite a lot of politics. I then pointed out that Barack Obama has family in Moneygall. In fact I think I may have edged closer to claiming that he was Irish. They ran with it onstage, and it turned out being pretty funny, but I couldn't help feeling that I may have added fuel to the strange banter fire. No-one else really seemed too perturbed by it, so that was good. All in all their music is amazing, and I would go to see them live again. It's strange to say, but they could probably do with taking themselves a little bit more seriously, I think their live shows would be all the more special with a bit of drama rather than chitchat. That said, twice in one week and still hooked. www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes [Of spherical, with flattened top and bottom - Oblate]
I stayed up as late as I could, saw McCain's concession speech, and somehow dozed off for Obama's victory speech, but the result was in. I think it's fecking great anyway. Was fairly nauseated by some of the early early election coverage, but of course I got quite into it. I watched all the debates, including the VP debate with that fucking clown Sarah Palin, and I really do believe Obama/Biden was a much better ticket.
Did you see the fancy-ass touch screen that CNN had to analyse some of the 'data'? And the dude from Black Eyed Peas being interviewed via Hologram?! Fucking hell Minority Report here we go. It was like "Look at us, first; kick ass futuristic touch screen and hologram 3D imaging, next; elect black president." It'll be self-drying jackets and hoverboards before we know it. point of order - I remember clearly in 6th class ca. 1993 everyone was talking about how hoverboards were real and the only reason we hadn't seen them because a 'parents group' in the States had banned them. I remember I was the only kid in my class who knew that story was bullshit and they couldn't possibly exist, and I was ridiculed for my wisdom. Oh what a tortured childhood I had.
- So, where were you when Barack Obama was elected the first Black President of the USA? - I was baked on Demery's sofa-bed in London
It's probably the best of the 'Where were you when X happened?' moments in my lifetime so far, the other two being Lady Di's death (yeah I know) and 9/11. Though I do remember seeing the first tower fall, in a crowd watching SkyNews in the window of a stockbrokers on Dawson St. Then the student bar in UCD waiting for World War III to start. I'll take Obama anyday.
Went to see Oliver Stone's 'W.' tonight. It wasn't nearly up to par for Oliver Stone, unusually linear and quite simply shot and put together. There was some talk that it was a bit of a rush job to have it finished before the election, and there is certainly some evidence for that. It lacked any of the pizazz you'd expect, but was however quite interesting for those behind-the-scenes war room cabinet meetings. Kind of strangely stale and flat compared to, for example, The West Wing (which I've never watched properly), but it was interesting to see those characters that caused so much shit and disaster for the world-at-large to be represented on the big screen.
W. isn't exactly ground-shaking Hollywood fare (this from the same man who gave us the momumental epic Any Given Sunday), but more of an interesting companion piece to a thoroughly enjoyable election season. Oh yes and a disasterous White House administration.
