Hostel

I saw the movie Hostel last week with my buddy Dave. If your wondering why, my only answer is that I suppose I possess a deviant trait that encourages my 3rd party participation in grotesque/shocking behaviors...and Dave is the only one I thought would share in this recidivism. We used to joke about torture contraptions and painful processes that would be conducted upon the most aberrent of criminals...Of course these "experiments" were always imagined in casual conversation: over eggs at 3am, bike rides or road trips - and always conceived in a "white lab-coat, bespectacled, beyond the plexi-glass wall sort of setting"...as if something important were taking place. This was all for our own dark amusement of course, so we figured this movie would be an articulated version of these inside jokes.

It was certainly articulated. But in a gritty, euro-medieval, blood-dried-in-the-cracks-of-stone sort of way. It was very disturbing.

While travelling across Europe, two Americans end up in a Slovakian hostel reported to have the most beautiful, eager young women in Europe. The hostel turns out to be a sort of "specimen" holding pen for an organization that offers an "opportunity" (to any one who can afford it) for its' sadistic customers to torture/kill their subjects in any fashion they please. Most of them choose "personal" techniques ...power tools, hand tools, cutting, twisting, prying, mind games etc...

What makes the movie disturbing is not the gore-this has unfortunately become ubiquitous in movie culture-it's the way it's filmed and the way it's set up. The film is gritty and dark, often viewed from the victim's point of view, with things often just out of focus or implied. And the setting of a not-so-prosperous central-european city is very eerie. Adding to the creep value is the fact that many of the central characters are set up by sexy, young, beautiful women who are getting paid for their snaring prowess. Thinking how I was in my early 20s, it's pretty easy to imagine getting tricked with pretty girls, booze and partying only to get carved up like a Chritmas ham.

Anyway, Dave and were both pretty disturbed (in a satisfied sort of way...) afterwards. Both of us pretty speechless, just kind of reiterating what we saw and then going home. As a film, it has it's flaws, but as an idea it's an effective premise for a horror story.

Anyway, dreams were strange that night.

Heavy Metal Roots

I've been revisiting some music that was very influential on me in my "youth". While much of this music doesn't hold up too well (I'm thinking of some of the 80s metal bands that I liked), some of it sounds better to me now. During a recent binge, I bought a digitally remastered "Rage for Order" by Queensryche. I was very much into this music back in the mid to late 80s. As far as metal goes, this record is really a waypoint. Incorporating a lot of (then) current music technology (i.e. samplers, drum programming, and sequencing) the record has a very terminator-like view of the future: Machines taking over, public and political chaos, remorse for culture lost, and prophet-like crys for change.

The things I liked about the music back then was the great production, the adventurous, creative song-writing which succeeds without becoming too self-indulgent and boring..and of course the great guitar-playing. I really wasn't that interested in lyrics, seeing them mostly as a vehicle for melody. Listening to this record 20 years later, all of these things hold up well. In addition, the lyrics are still interesting.

Check out this verse and chorus from "Chemical Youth":


LEAD ME- the leftist cry as the right subsides

HEAR ME- the media mouth is open wide

SAVE ME- success is our hunger we need to feed

FREE ME- we will not lose to their anarchy!

We are your leaders-
we are rebellion!
aural supremists

we are rebellion!
we are future!

It's also interesting how much the aesthetic of rock singing has changed. Back then, operatic-like singing (particularly tenor range) was all the rage...pun intended. For the last 15 yrs or so, the trend in male rock vocals has been lower-pitched voices with a much more limited vocal range and more emphasis on grit. There are obvious exceptions. I'm thinking here of Jeff Buckley and jónsi of Sigur Ros....tenors for sure.

Anyway, as much as I love Rage for Order, the way the band looked during this phase of their career is unforgivable. Shameless posers! Even for all of my bad, cheesy fashion choices, I remember thinking they looked ridiculous. Good Lord!

Bad Time Management

I've been amazingly slothful in keeping up with this blog. The holiday season always forces me into hibernation, anti-social behavior and inertia. It's certainly not for lack of subject matter. I've been actively ruminating on a number of topics ranging from local/regional development issues, music and art, movie reviews and political observations.

Meanwhile, I start back to teaching this week. This semester I'll be there four days a week. I'm always conflicted about teaching. On one hand, I enjoy meeting a new batch of students, setting up the semester's ideals and getting into a more structural schedule. On the other hand, I hate getting up early in the morning(class starts at 8am on Tuesday and Thursday), sitting in my steel egg for 45 minutes(each way), road wrastling with a bunch of other cranky highway slaves, and basically not being able to do as much other work (i.e. making music, getting more involved in helping my town become a better place, fixing my house and having political polemics with my friends:)

Anyway, I'm not really complaining. I have more time than most folks, and I spend most of it doing things I enjoy. But driving all over N.E. Ohio for the most mundane of activities like work, shopping, errands etc... seems like such a waste of time. I'd rather sit on a train or streetcar where I could be productive. I think it's too much to ask of most folks to have to operate heavy machinery for a large part of their day. People work hard. They get tired. Inevitably, concentration drifts, tempers flare, and critters unpredictably(at least it seems that way to us)dart out in front of our vehicles to scare the hell out of us. Trying to juggle putting on makeup, shaving, talking on our damn cell phones, tweaking knobs on our audio devices, pounding coffee(this activity should be savored) and slobbering down some cheap, inferior, irresponsibly prepared ration just seems unfair and frankly, to be a flawed way of life. I mean, people get paid a lot of money to operate machinery. Why should we have to do it? Driving should be reserved for those moments of leisure, like traveling, or for those situations when transporting heavy/bulky goods prohibit carrying them long distances. Much more on this later...