Friday, April 11, 2008

True love.

I am a Scorpio, and that could be to blame.

There's an aspect of my personality that some people describe as "passionate," "enthusiastic," "addictive," or "oddly thorough." My mother says I go through "phases." Most of my family and friends will vouch for my tendency to fall swiftly and completely in love with a person, place, or thing.

If I find an actor, television show, author, musician, hobby, or product that I love? Then I loooove him / her / it / them / those instances.

100%. The whole pie chart.

Once properly enthralled, I go back and find everything they ever did / wrote / believed / sang / participated in / existed as. I absorb it all, and congratulate myself on enjoying what I like to think of as a "full experience."

(I would like to state for the record that I don't mean "full experience" in a stalker-ish kind of way. More like a "How do you know that trivia without some sort of spiral-bound reference manual?" kind of way.)

I don’t love just anyone or anything. My standards are fairly high, if decipherable only to myself. I could fill pages and pages of this blog with things I like, but there are relatively few things that have me captivated. I am choosy—but when I find something that clicks, I am completely lost to it.

My infatuations, honest as they are, are not always sustainable. Sometimes I will be spellbound only briefly, and the flame will go out as quickly as it ignited. Other times I'm a lifer. I can't say why, or predict the condition. Sometimes a breakup might be my fault (I'm sorry, Sudoku. I still love you, but it's more of a friend-love, you know?), and sometimes it might not (Chris Carter, COME ON. We had a good thing with The X-Files for, like, eight solid years. WTF, man? This next movie better bring me flowers and open doors for me). Sometimes there's someone else (Conan, I know. You didn't ask for this. But Craig makes me feel different, and I needed a change). Sometimes I think I've fallen out of love, only to rediscover some feelings that never really went away, and they come roaring back with a comeback concert (Garth) or a summer visit (Hawaii).

It’s nice when other people love the things I love, but it's not required. I don't mind if my particular loves don't click with you, but in case they happen to do so, I'm always pleased to say, "You're welcome," or more often, "See?!"

So in that spirit, I'd like to share some of my loves with you today. The internets are very handy for that sort of thing. After much consideration, I've narrowed the scope of this entry to a few specific loves that are embodied by entertainers...who sort of accidentally all happen to be male.

Here is where my love lies right now.



1. Equal parts brilliant musician and pleasantly tweaked comedian: Tim Minchin.

The following is a list of things that immediately appeal to me about men, the possession of which will almost guarantee my full attention:
  • Intelligence
  • Humor
  • Musical ability
  • Eyeliner (Okay, not always.) (But seriously.)
  • Non-American accent, attributable to non-American origins
It was no surprise to me, then, that my initial discovery of Australian comic Tim Minchin resulted in a pleasant evening of YouTube viewing, wherein I watched pretty much every one of his musical acts. Help yourselves to a similar evening, but if you're short on time at this precise moment, feel free to start with this:

(Warning: Minchin's humor may not appeal to especially delicate viewers.)

(Mom.)

(By that token, the following video may be very slightly Not Safe For Work, depending on your colleagues.)

(Of course, I watched this with several of my coworkers AND my boss crowded around my computer, so, you know. Your mileage may vary.)




If you want to see more, I highly recommend "Rock 'N Roll Nerd," "Canvas Bags,"and "Peace Anthem for Palestine," among others. And while less overtly humorous, I think I may have found my life's song in the resonant "Not Perfect." Enjoy.



2. Disenfranchised geek hero of a pop-cult generation: Simon Pegg.

After one viewing of Shaun of the Dead, I was hooked. Of course I watched it several more times, just to be sure.

Most people are familiar with Pegg from 2004's Shaun or 2007's Hot Fuzz, and while these are both worthy headings on his resumé (Shaun is one of my favorite movies of all time), you would be remiss to miss the 1999-2001 British sitcom "Spaced," which helped launch the writing, acting, and directing styles of Pegg and Company—which includes the indispensable sidekick Nick Frost and writer/director Edgar Wright.

(You have my permission to skip the recent Run, Fat Boy, Run, because nobody should be subjected to a movie directed by David Schwimmer.)

If there's one success that Pegg, Frost, and Wright can claim, it's their unexpected rescue of the homage movie—something entirely different and more genuine than a "spoof" movie. They've somehow pulled off the trick of making intelligent, hilarious observations about a given genre like "zombie movie" or "big budget buddy cop action flick," while still honoring and admiring said genre and making a movie that stands on its own merits. Tricky.

Here's a now-classic scene from the beginning-ish of Shaun, for your enjoyment:



"The Batman soundtrack?"
"Throw it."



3. The greater works of British-Goof-Turned-American-Drama-Star: Hugh Laurie.

Like most Americans, I was first introduced to Hugh Laurie via "House," where I came to know him as an acerbic, bitingly funny doctor with a black hole of bedside manner. But since "House" and its star fell swiftly into the category of things I loooooove, I naturally looked into Laurie's past projects. You know, for the full experience.

His successful history as a British comedian provided a lot of new things for me to love, including but not limited to several seasons of Rowan Atkinson's "Blackadder" series, the whimsically enjoyable "Jeeves and Wooster" series, and a proliferation of off-the-wall sketches in the incomparable 80s sketch show, "A Bit of Fry & Laurie." Pleasantly, many of these projects also involved Laurie's friend and comedy partner, Stephen Fry, who himself isn't too far down my list of entertainers.

I had a lot of trouble trying to decide what video to put here. I narrowed the overwhelming choices down to two excerpts from ABoF&L, and couldn't go any farther. So you get them both:





You're welcome.



4. Impossibly gentle life-giving star of the enchanting "Pushing Daisies": Lee Pace.

Um, yeah. I have a crush.

This bullet point, however, is as much about the show "Pushing Daisies" (and its excellent supporting cast) as it is about its unreasonably adorable leading man. After a strike-truncated season, "Daisies" was sent into early hiatus. Thankfully, though some people find the over-styled sweetness of the show a bit too precious for their tastes, it found enough of an audience in its first nine episodes to be guaranteed a spot at the TV table next fall.

Pace plays a pie-maker (say that five times fast) named Ned who can bring dead things back to life with a single touch, and then send them back to death with a second touch. But if the dead thing stays alive for more than a minute, something else nearby will die to take its place. This is the most delightfully buoyant show about death I have ever seen.

"Daisies" isn't Pace's first acclaimed work. A friend of mine kindly lent me the DVDs of the short-lived (but fantastic) television series "Wonderfalls"—created by the same folks that make "Daisies"—about a cynical slacker chick working in a gift shop at Niagara Falls when God begins talking to her through the tchotchkes. Pace plays the sarcastic smart-ass brother.

In heavier fare, I haven't yet seen Pace's transgendered tour de force in Soldier's Girl, though it is in my queue. His recent role in Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day was fun, but he didn't have much to do (aside from trying out a British accent, because apparently he heard that's how I like it). A meatier role is on the horizon with a new collaboration from David Fincher and Spike Jonez (for reals!) directed by Tarsem Singh. Of course, Tarsem brought us the visually stunning but universally awful The Cell, so, hmmm. The new movie is called The Fall, and took four years and thousands of cast members to shoot. The trailer is here, and I...don't quite know what to make of it. Curiosity's peaked, I guess.

In the meantime, I'm loving Pace as the unassuming pie-maker, Ned, who giveth life and taketh away. Please enjoy the following scene from the pilot, when Ned brings back his childhood sweetheart, Chuck, and totally forgot his egg timer:



"That's not weird. It's symmetrical."



5. America's favorite crazy uncle: Christopher Walken.

According to IMDB, Christopher Walken has 110 acting credits, plus an additional 46 appearances as himself. He's hosted "Saturday Night Live" seven times, and probably has had more iconic sketches go down in history than any other non-alum host. The man will do anything, and he'll give it all the Walken he's got. That's what makes him fantastic.

Walken is so much a part of our zeitgeist that there's no need for me to go into a detailed account of his past work. He's got everything covered: Drama! Comedy! Horror! Indy! Blockbuster! Film! Television! Broadway! Music videos! Singing! Dancing! Accents! You could populate an entire city with Walkens in every single walk(en) of life, and he would not look out of place anywhere.

I've always been a fan; my friends will happily tell you all about that time in college when I turned Movie Night into a multi-night consecutive viewing of all three (at the time) Prophecy movies, mostly because of Walken's freaking awesome portrayal of the terrifying and hilarious Archangel Gabriel.

These days Walken tends more toward quirky comedy than drama, probably because he's become such a meta institution that everything he does is intrinsically funny.

In 2000, when Fatboy Slim released their Spike Jonez-directed music video for "Weapon of Choice," featuring a little Walken soft shoe, it was an instant classic. It was bizarre, unexpected, simple...and somehow exactly right. The video has topped countless "Best Music Video of All Time" lists, including those at MTV, VH1, and the BBC.

Most of you have seen it. Even so, who doesn't want to watch it again?



See?!

4 Comments:

At 9:54 AM , Blogger Examorata said...

Look, even more reasons to want NOT to be in the office today - stupid no sound on stupid work stupid computer. Stupid.

I see what you mean about this post. And why you got so wrapped up in it.

I haven't seen Soldier's Girl either. We should synchronize our queues!

Amusingly enough I have Hot Fuzz at home from Netflix right now.

 
At 3:09 PM , Blogger Unknown said...

I share much of this behavior. It explains about three quarters of what's on my Netflix list.

I read somewhere that Walken never turns down a part if it is offered to him/written for him. This explains so much about the movies you find him in.

And thanks for reminding me that I should watch the DVDs of Spaced a UK friend gave me several years ago. Have you seen Pegg's Doctor Who episode? He was soooo creepy.

--MIQ

 
At 11:10 PM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I found Tim Minchin's humor (or humour, if you prefer) and presentation to be similar to Hugh Laurie's, except with an X rating. Clever, though.

As a child (and still yet) you went through phases like a hot knife through butter. There was the dress phase, the denim phase, the baggy phase, the black phase, etc. I got dragged into the excitement of many of your phases. I watched X-files (the David Duchovney phase), Superman (the Dean Cain phase), Monk, Dead Zone, House, Pushing Daisies, Chuck, 24 (couldn't get into that one) and others. You are solely responsible for my purchase of TiVo. And let's not forget Garth, animation, buying furniture, cars and PC's. I love the way you pursue everything you want with a passion, no-holds-barred approach.

But eyeliner?

 
At 8:36 AM , Blogger Examorata said...

Oh look, I believe you've sold me on Tim Minchin completely.

It's the eyeliner. Always blame the eyeliner.

 

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home