Tangential Tangent Conversations

[bleachededen]

Basically, I figure this is where we should come just to chat about whatever happens to be on our minds. As wilde and I found in the Avatars topic, we have a tendency to drag topics off topic, and this is the place where those dragged topics are welcomed and encouraged. Call it a "random thoughts" sort of place, but veering in the direction of having fun conversations with anyone who happens by.

I'll start us off but this by no means means we have to continue it for long:

It seems to me that there is at least one Pirates of the Caribbean movie on television every weekend, and if more than one is shown on the same network, no regard to sequence is applied. I also find that, for whatever strange cosmic reason, I always end up watching whichever one is on every time it is on, even though I own two of them and have seen each one enough times to speak along with them. I almost think I'm sick of them, but I still watch them every time they air. Like right now, for example.

What's that old saying about teaching old dogs new tricks?

[missyannlala]

This sounds familiar. Except for me, it's the Harry Potter movies. I never watch the one's I own..but I'll sit down for hours at a time, watching whichever comes on!

[bleachededen]

This sounds familiar. Except for me, it's the Harry Potter movies. I never watch the one's I own..but I'll sit down for hours at a time, watching whichever comes on!

I do the same with them, too!! I own all of them and know them well enough to quote them without even being in front of the television, and yet every time they are on TV, unless there is something I've never seen but have wanted to very badly, I have to watch them, even if they were on the day before! Same goes with Star Wars.

I'm a sucker for "old friends" when it comes to movies. I watch the same movies over and over and still laugh at all the jokes, still feel the same heartaches or heartwarmth. Movies, for me, are like books for the times when I don't have enough attention to give to a book. I refuse to read a book without being able to dedicate my full concentration to it, even if it's a book I've already read, but with movies I can space out a bit and still be watching without feeling like I've missed anything.

[Interbane]

Yeah, movies force feed you information, but with books you have to actively suck the information from the pages.

[bleachededen]

Yeah, movies force feed you information, but with books you have to actively suck the information from the pages.

Exactly. And I have some problems with concentration from time to time (thanks, mood swings and psych meds), so I can't always focus enough to get the information I want out of books. Thus, movies are an easier substitute.

I watched the movie Inkheart yesterday, based on the book by Cornelia Funke. Somehow I didn't find myself interested in the previews when it first came out, but I was very excited not to miss it when it came to HBO this past weekend. I found it to be very original and very beautiful, and definitely a story for book lovers, as it is about books and reading and stories coming to life. I'm looking into buying all three of the books in that trilogy, and am excited to see how well (or not) the movie captured the true feeling of the books. It does help that Cornelia Funke sent Brendan Fraser one of the finished books and a note saying that she based the character on him, and he then went on to portray that character. That kind of visionary magic warms my heart. Imagine writing a book with a specific person in mind as being the hero, and then seeing that exact person playing the hero in real life, on screen. It gives me goosebumps, because if the movie is any evidence of the beauty of the book, then I am in for a real treat once I actually get to read it.

[wilde]

Is it just me, or does the word "tangential" sound dirty?



I definitely love PotC. I have to be in the mood for them though. The only movies I can really watch over and over are the Star Wars movies (I'm a huge star wars nerd ) and any zombie movies.


Oh, and The Notebook gets me every time. Every time.

[bleachededen]

Is it just me, or does the word "tangential" sound dirty?



I definitely love PotC. I have to be in the mood for them though. The only movies I can really watch over and over are the Star Wars movies (I'm a huge star wars nerd ) and any zombie movies.


Oh, and The Notebook gets me every time. Every time.

Tangential doesn't sound dirty to me. Don't know what to tell you about that one.

I love zombie movies, but I have to make sure I don't watch them right before bedtime because I really do have nightmares. I have nightmares anyway (it's actually like a huge problem in my life), but if I watch anything zombie related before bed they get incorporated in and my brain makes zombies far scarier than any director, so in order to keep my sanity, I have to make sure I'm in the right mood/company/time of day to watch my favorite zombie films. I'm quite the odd bird, as Brits might say.

Not so keen on The Notebook. I haven't seen it but I also don't want to. I don't really like romantic movies, unless it's a subplot or part of something deeper. Movies most women swear by, I can't stand. But the same goes for guys. I've had many male friends/exes swear they cried at the end of Gladiator, but when a friend and I finally got around to watching it, we laughed. Literally. We then demanded our three hours back. I also hate 300 with equal passion. But I liked Troy, and anything Guy Ritchie directs.

As my boyfriend points out, where he is incredibly picky about music while I listen to an unimaginable wide variety (with certain favorites, of course), the reverse is true of movies. He likes movies of all genres, good and bad, and I am very critical of movies, even those I like, down to things like editing and screenwriting. Since movies are like the visual equivalent of books, I treat them with the same scrutiny, and so character development is almost as important to me as good overall style, whereas others can enjoy movies with static characters whose motives aren't clear because they aren't themselves. I need to be able to follow a character and feel for them/with them in order to believe anything that's being shown to me. I also have irrational dislike of certain actors and refuse to watch anything with them on basic principle. I'm not as snobby as this sounds, though, I swear.

[hmrush]

I am right along with you on the movie marathons on tv. I watch the LOTR ones everytime they are on...even though I own them, and read the books once a year, hahaha. I like to go back to some of the old favorites, it's comforting. I know that no matter what is going on in the real world, mine or the much larger one that Frodo always makes it back again, that Howard Roark will always love Dominique, that Catherine Barkely will always disappoint me as a character, etc. I like the idea of the characters and stories never changing, no matter how much I have. Books have ignited my life in such a way as I could not even describe, it's as if I owe them all a great big thank you, but wouldn't know how to put it into words if I could. Ah well, I am a sucker for my novels, they are like my children!!!

[bleachededen]

That's what keeps me going, too, hmrush. No matter what, Lyra prevails, Kivrin makes it back from the Middle Ages and escapes the Bubonic Plague she wasn't even supposed to see, and Door and Richard Mayhew find each other and defeat Islington. Even as I change, they stay the same, and even though they stay the same, they always have a relevant message to give me no matter how different I am now than when I first "met" them. Books =

[wilde]

Tan-gen-tial. Say it slowly; it sounds kind of dirty. Well, I suppose it's good it doesn't really come up in everyday conversation.


Okay, I absolutely hate romance movies and chick flicks, but I love The Notebook. It's probably the only romance-y movie I can watch without wanting to gag.