| Eisner/Miller, movies, other shit |
[Mar. 16th, 2006|05:25 pm] |
Yesterday I had a dream that I was riding around on several buses, and I stopped at a station that turned into a big empty grey house where my ex-girlfriend was living. We were lying around in her small-as-hell bed for a while and I just felt HAPPY. Not doing shit, just lying there with a girl. Then her room turned into my room and we were kicking it in bed and everything was the bee's knees. It felt perfectly euphoric.
Then I woke up feeling like PURE SHIT. I was disillusioned and depressed, and there really wasn't a rational reason for being so. It was just one of those really terrible mornings. So after much melodramatic internal struggle I peeled myself from bed and went out all day.
At the bookstore I came across the greatest book, Eisner/Miller, a compilation of discussions between Will Eisner and Frank Miller. Despite the fact that their fields are in comics, a lot of what they talk about applies to other creative subjects (like mine), or to any artist trying to make a living. Excerpts:
Eisner: "The problem that you set for yourself creates the innovation."
Eisner: "...no one who tells you, 'Hey, this is one of the great works of your life. This is a great idea, you're going to make a big change in this world.' You gotta believe it. You have to believe in what you're doing. You have to believe in yourself, and you have to be willing to take the risk."
Miller: "People with small egos can't do this kind of stuff. It requires not just an idea, but a confidence in yourself that the idea is worth pursuing."
Eisner: "Technique is secondary. Technique comes as a result of how you do what you do."
Miller: "If there ever was a theme song for the business end of the industry, it's 'We can't do that, we didn't do that yesterday!'"
Eisner: "'We never did that before! No one ever does that! It's not done!'"
Eisner: "Hollywood is an environment wherein you're measured and judged by how much money you have. That's one of the problems with our society. People are too often measured by the amount of money they have."
Miller: "Somewhere down the road, the notion of pandering became a virtue. It's sanctified in Hollywood!"
Eisner: "Rejection is very much a part of this business. One of the reasons artists make deals they're sorry for later is fear of rejection. Another part of this is the willingness to do something, even unrequited action, but you say you're gonna do it because you believe you're right." "I believed there were things I wanted to say, wanted to do yet, that I needed to get done. I didn't necessarily think it would be fun, I felt this was something that needed to be done to satisfy my own sensibilities."
Great book. I still felt depressed today and took hours to get going, so I'm going to try my best to rise out of this funk. Not good times.
-16 Blocks was a great movie. Totally worth it. Mos Def did an excellent job, and Bruce Willis was as reliable as a Bruce Willis cop could be. I still have to see Block Party because I am Michel Gondry fan #2.
-The trailer for Basic Instinct 2 was the most HILARIOUS shit I'd ever seen. Sharon Stone looking like baked wrinkled leather trying to do the monotone breathy voice and seductive postures. DON'T WORK NO MORE. Severe Bomb written all over it.
-Heaven Is A Place On Earth should've never, EVER been done instrumentally with a keyboard and recorder. Worst elevator music in history.
-Jon Heder is on the Quip It box. Terrible idea. The Benchwarmers trailer also looked like total garbage, the kind of unoriginal pandering shit that makes my face hurt. OH HE GOT HIT IN THE HEAD BY A BAT, LORD GOD SO HILARIOUS >:|
-Naming a Chinese restaurant: make a combination of Golden, Lucky, China, King, Wok, Panda, Garden, Dragon, Szechuan, Buffet, Hunan, Great Wall, Palace, Villa, and/or any one-syllable Chinese name (Wah, Wong, etc).
-Since chicken nuggets are made into any shape these days, I wonder how well they would sell shaped as human genitals. It would probably sell really well because it's a crass and terrible idea and great for parties and drunk people with camera phones. |
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sleepy
depressed
