Saturday, November 12, 2005
Movies and Class
Last night I saw Mulholland Drive.
All I have to say about this movie is: What the heck was that?
That was bizarre. I have very little idea as to what was going on. David Lynch is one seriously weird dude. Good movie, but completely nonsensical during the second half.
I also saw Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. It was good, but probably my least favorite of Charlie Kaufman's movies. I guess just because it's so different from all his others. It's much more serious, and very dark. George Clooney did a good job for his directorial debut, though. It's a good movie, just slightly too serious and "mainstream" than what I was expecting from Kaufman. Not enough to analyze and make my head hurt, I guess.
Today, I slept until 1. Then I woke up and decided to see if I could register for classes. Supposedly, I'm not allowed to register until the 15th, and yet...what do you know, it let me. And all I have to say about that is: [expletive deleted]!
All my plans for this coming semester were flushed down the toilet...everything was taken. I don't even want to think about what it would have been like if I had waited until the 15th. Intro to Film, the class I wanted to take above all others this semester? Nope. Closed. There wasn't even a wait-list open. So now I'm gonna have to wait until my sophomore year to start taking film classes. Wonderful.
Intro to Elementary Chinese? Nope. They're only offering Elementary Chinese II, same as this semester, which makes no sense to me whatsoever. How can you get to part II if they don't offer part I?
Science with Labs? Nope. All the ones I'd be interested in taking were full. There's no way I'm going to take chemistry and physics - I'd rather wait in order to take courses that might actually be somewhat interesting (not to mention doable).
The only class I had planned on taking that I got into was E 115. That's a class for one hour of credit. Great.
I finally finished registering after an hour and a half. Let's just say I'm getting all of my social sciences out of the way in one semester. Plus one science (but not a lab one), that I almost didn't take but did once I realized Mason was taking it. And a religion class. No English. No film. No Chinese. No nothing I planned.
I'll post more details on my classes/schedule tomorrow. I'm still trying to get over my maniacal rage.
Anyways, after registering I went with Mason to Best Buy and bought a computer microphone. Why do I need a computer mic? Why is my built-in mic not sufficient? Because I'm going to be doing a significant amount of audio recording, that's why. What for, you ask? I'll tell you tomorrow. Bwahaha.
After that, I ate dinner and we watched Kinsey. Yeah. The one about the sex scientist. That Kinsey.
It was...interesting. Fascinating, actually. I didn't realize how little was known about human sexuality until the 30s and 40s when Kinsey showed up. It was all too taboo. Sex-ed classes consisted of lectures about how if you weren't abstinent you would get really weird diseases and deformities and die. Not discussions or lectures about actual sexual behaviour. Then this guy Kinsey shows up and decides to actually research it. Needless to say, it was extremely controversial. Here you have this guy going around and interviewing people about their sex histories in a time where you'd be looked at strangely if you even said the word "masturbation."
The movie provided an extremely interesting (and sometimes disturbing) look who this guy Kinsey actually was. He was basically the complete opposite of what society wanted - he was in your face, blunt, and extremely open and liberal. His methods consisted of anything from personal interviews to actually filming people having sex. According to the movie, sex really was nothing more than a scientific act for him. He experimented with homosexuality (I will never look at Liam Neeson or Peter Sarsgaard the same way again). He didn't care if his wife slept with other men, and even encouraged her to do so. It was all part of his research. There's one point in the movie when he is confronted with the idea that sex isn't just a scientific act. It's an emotional one. It can be a good thing, but it can also hurt. The movie really is a fascinating character study.
This movie was good. I liked it. However, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're prepared to sit through two hours of conversations and studies about sex. Because, basically, that's what it is. That's what Kinsey is famous for. He basically said, "Look! More people are having sex/oral sex/premarital sex/extramarital sex/masturbating than you think!" Some people will undoubtedly be offended because, basically, his reports took all the ideas about sexual morality and threw them down the toilet. He wasn't looking at sex from a moral perspective, he was looking at it from a scientific perspective. And from that perspective, sex is never wrong unless it hurts others. It is a natural biological act.
Anyways, yeah. That's it.
Quote of Da Moment:
"Sex is a risky game, because if you're not careful, it will cut you wide open."
--Kinsey
All I have to say about this movie is: What the heck was that?
That was bizarre. I have very little idea as to what was going on. David Lynch is one seriously weird dude. Good movie, but completely nonsensical during the second half.
I also saw Confessions of a Dangerous Mind. It was good, but probably my least favorite of Charlie Kaufman's movies. I guess just because it's so different from all his others. It's much more serious, and very dark. George Clooney did a good job for his directorial debut, though. It's a good movie, just slightly too serious and "mainstream" than what I was expecting from Kaufman. Not enough to analyze and make my head hurt, I guess.
Today, I slept until 1. Then I woke up and decided to see if I could register for classes. Supposedly, I'm not allowed to register until the 15th, and yet...what do you know, it let me. And all I have to say about that is: [expletive deleted]!
All my plans for this coming semester were flushed down the toilet...everything was taken. I don't even want to think about what it would have been like if I had waited until the 15th. Intro to Film, the class I wanted to take above all others this semester? Nope. Closed. There wasn't even a wait-list open. So now I'm gonna have to wait until my sophomore year to start taking film classes. Wonderful.
Intro to Elementary Chinese? Nope. They're only offering Elementary Chinese II, same as this semester, which makes no sense to me whatsoever. How can you get to part II if they don't offer part I?
Science with Labs? Nope. All the ones I'd be interested in taking were full. There's no way I'm going to take chemistry and physics - I'd rather wait in order to take courses that might actually be somewhat interesting (not to mention doable).
The only class I had planned on taking that I got into was E 115. That's a class for one hour of credit. Great.
I finally finished registering after an hour and a half. Let's just say I'm getting all of my social sciences out of the way in one semester. Plus one science (but not a lab one), that I almost didn't take but did once I realized Mason was taking it. And a religion class. No English. No film. No Chinese. No nothing I planned.
I'll post more details on my classes/schedule tomorrow. I'm still trying to get over my maniacal rage.
Anyways, after registering I went with Mason to Best Buy and bought a computer microphone. Why do I need a computer mic? Why is my built-in mic not sufficient? Because I'm going to be doing a significant amount of audio recording, that's why. What for, you ask? I'll tell you tomorrow. Bwahaha.
After that, I ate dinner and we watched Kinsey. Yeah. The one about the sex scientist. That Kinsey.
It was...interesting. Fascinating, actually. I didn't realize how little was known about human sexuality until the 30s and 40s when Kinsey showed up. It was all too taboo. Sex-ed classes consisted of lectures about how if you weren't abstinent you would get really weird diseases and deformities and die. Not discussions or lectures about actual sexual behaviour. Then this guy Kinsey shows up and decides to actually research it. Needless to say, it was extremely controversial. Here you have this guy going around and interviewing people about their sex histories in a time where you'd be looked at strangely if you even said the word "masturbation."
The movie provided an extremely interesting (and sometimes disturbing) look who this guy Kinsey actually was. He was basically the complete opposite of what society wanted - he was in your face, blunt, and extremely open and liberal. His methods consisted of anything from personal interviews to actually filming people having sex. According to the movie, sex really was nothing more than a scientific act for him. He experimented with homosexuality (I will never look at Liam Neeson or Peter Sarsgaard the same way again). He didn't care if his wife slept with other men, and even encouraged her to do so. It was all part of his research. There's one point in the movie when he is confronted with the idea that sex isn't just a scientific act. It's an emotional one. It can be a good thing, but it can also hurt. The movie really is a fascinating character study.
This movie was good. I liked it. However, I wouldn't recommend it unless you're prepared to sit through two hours of conversations and studies about sex. Because, basically, that's what it is. That's what Kinsey is famous for. He basically said, "Look! More people are having sex/oral sex/premarital sex/extramarital sex/masturbating than you think!" Some people will undoubtedly be offended because, basically, his reports took all the ideas about sexual morality and threw them down the toilet. He wasn't looking at sex from a moral perspective, he was looking at it from a scientific perspective. And from that perspective, sex is never wrong unless it hurts others. It is a natural biological act.
Anyways, yeah. That's it.
Quote of Da Moment:
"Sex is a risky game, because if you're not careful, it will cut you wide open."
--Kinsey
# posted by Andrew Johnson : 11/12/2005 11:35:00 PM 
