What Is Techno Again?

Wow, this has been a long time coming. Unfortunately, there hasn’t been a lot of The Dark Knight news lately, but alas, I’ve got enough now to conjure up a post.

First up, The Gotham Times and its counterpart, The Ha Ha Ha Times have been updated to the second volume—whoohoo! As usual, The Ha Ha Ha Times is hilarious. Here’s a mash-up I made of some of my favorite quips from the issue (and thinking about it, that sort of thing would make an awesome wallpaper …):

I, too, hate when the gravy gets on my brownie.

And this … this is just great.

The hair is unstoppable.

After scanning the article, “Teen ‘News Junkie’ Creates Must-Read Gotham Web Site” on page two of The Gotham Times, I googled the phrase “Maiden Avenue Report,” the name of the website mentioned in the article. Sure enough, it’s a viral site. What is more, it contains links to two other viral sites: Citizens for Batman and DA candidate Dana Worthington’s political campaign website.

I Believe In Harvey Dent is also updated, and there’s a couple wallpapers on the site now, as well.

By the way, if you’re like me and have been wondering when the hell they’re going to release a pic of Two-Face … prepare for disappointment. This Harvey Dent/Two-Face spoiler is, well, frustrating, but it definitely explains why we haven’t seen any photos of Aaron Eckhart in crazy make-up. Now, excuse me while I go Drew Barrymore from Donnie Darko (highlight this space to see what I mean: “FUUUUUUUUCCK!”).

The Dentinator

DC also just released a new hardcover, deluxe edition of the Batman: The Killing Joke comic. Sweeet. And those Hot Topic TDK t-shirts are available here (a white I Believe in Harvey Dent), here (a white I Believe in Harvey Dent, Too), and here (a black Why So Serious?). Not as snazzy as the ones people got for the rallies (which are just plain awesome, front and back), but cool nonetheless. I’ll definitely pick one up to wear when I go see the movie in July.

GAH, what the hell is with me and t-shirts? Remember how I said I had could have snagged one of those cool rally tees because my sister lives in Columbus, Ohio, one of the Dentmobile hotspots? Well, my sister also introduced me to a radio station online called CD101 (which I listen to all the time now because it rocks) that’s in Columbus, too. This weekend they’re doing something they call a Select-a-Set, which is when you send in three songs you’d like to hear straight in a row; if you get picked, they’ll acknowledge you and give you a t-shirt. Well, I was lucky enough to actually have the radio on when they chose my songs: “Drama Queen” by The Switches, “Ready for the Floor” by Hot Chip, and “Take Out the Trash” by They Might Be Giants. I had wrote that I was from Pittsburgh in the email, and when the DJ finished playing my songs and mentioned that, I was like, “… Crap.”

Okay, it’s not like I didn’t realize that Columbus is about four hours away from where I live (I did). It’s just that, first of all, I didn’t really expect them to pick my songs and second, I thought it would just be cool to hear my songs on the air (which it was). So I emailed the DJ asking if my sister could pick up my shirt for me, and he wrote back saying that he sent my email to the station’s receptionist and that she’ll get back to me on Monday—it’s a weekend, after all, so it’s not normal business hours.

At any rate, I doubt they’re going to let someone other than the actual winner pick up the prize, especially when the rules I found on the site clearly say “no exceptions,” so this really sucks. Still, I’m hoping that receptionist is feeling merciful, considering the distance. And if she’s not (please let karma be good to her on Monday), I have thirty days to find a way to pick it up. School ends a couple days before the deadline, but still … eight hours for a t-shirt is seriously pushing it. Gorrammit!

“Respect my chain of command, GORRAMMIT!”

Heheh, I love Jayne.

Anyway, this is something I got way back in November:

I’m subscribed to a e-newsletter called Very Short List (VSL) which features a different book, video, music, movie, or whatever every weekday. The email on November 14, 2007, was very nerdish.

VSL // Holy ‘Crime and Punishment,’ Batman! We’re great literature!

It’s Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment meets Batman:

Struggling with right and wrong, haunted by the past, and brooding about the future, Batman was the prototypical troubled superhero - a strangely costumed vigilante with what one could call the heart of an obsessive Dostoyevsky character. Robert Sikoryak, an illustrator who’s drawn many New Yorker covers, has transformed that comparison from mere pop-culture observation into an unexpected work of art. His comic strip turns Crime and Punishment’s Raskolnikov into Batman, and renders his story in the visual style of mid-century comics.

Originally published in an anthology by the excellent graphic-novel/comic-book publisher Drawn and Quarterly, “Dostoyevsky Comics” is now available free in full-color scans on the Web. And while it’s a bit disconcerting at first to see the Caped Crusader whacking people with an ax, it works so well we’re hoping Sikoryak realizes the potential of The Brothers Karamazov as the Fantastic Four.

Kind of cool, huh?

Batman-On-Film posted MTV’s (awesome) video interviews with Christopher Nolan, Christian Bale, and Maggie Gyllenhaal and their individual takes on Heath Ledger’s death and TDK. And Superhero Hype! has more with Gyllenhaal. And finally, there’s an article on TDK by The Associated Press here.

Heh, one of my professors said something hilarious the other day that made me—being the comic book nerd that I am who has been tracking down The Dark Knight information obsessively—crack up. Now, taken out of context he sounds kind of evil, but he’s really funny and sarcastic and it made perfect sense in class, trust me. It went something like this: “… He’s not my favorite serial killer. I do have favorite serial killers. You know who my favorite is? John Wayne Gacy … He was a clown at kids parties, and he’d kill people and bury then in his back yard. He’s my favorite serial killer. But, see, serial killers aren’t just murderers, they have a certain flair to them. Like the Joker in Batman.”

Ahh, good times, good times.

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Hey, look, it’s Trent Reznor in a cape! Today’s Random Song is gothic and disturbingly kick ass: “The Perfect Drug” by Nine Inch Nails (see the lyrics).

I’m completely addicted to this song (and vid). The bad thing is, it’s not available on any Nine Inch Nails album unless you get the single “album,” which includes a couple different versions and is, like, seven bucks or something—which to me isn’t really worth it, especially when you could get a full NIN cd for about a couple bucks more (or used for the same price). Reznor made the song for the Lost Highway soundtrack. Anyway, buying an MP3 download is the best bet; just make sure you get the version you want. Oh, and by the way, the version of “The Perfect Drug” featured in the video above is only available on the Lost Highway cd, which I linked to above.

Gotta love NIN. They’re one of my favorite bands, and I love Trent Reznor, too. Here’s to you, Trent.

Édouard Manet’s The Absinthe Drinker
(Hey, that portrayal looks kind of familiar, wouldn’t you say?)

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So I finally got around to watching another Best Picture nominee of ‘07 (I’ve seen two others, Juno and No Country for Old Men): Michael Clayton, directed by Tony Gilroy.

The film was nominated for seven Oscars and Tilda Swinton, who plays Karen Crowder, won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; by all means, the movie is excellent and well-deserving of a nomination. It’s nicely done and definitely worth watching, and the film’s duration of two hours is certainly manageable. I mean, admit it, an even two hours is really not that bad for a drama movie like this.

Still, despite its good qualities (which I will elaborate on in a moment), I can see why it was defeated by No Country for Old Men. The trailers for Michael Clayton built up too much hype for the movie, making it seem fast-paced or heart-pounding (”I’ve got your heart racin’ now, don’t I?”)—it’s really not, although it does have its moments. It’s more … smart and steadily continuous, I guess you could say. Ironically, in retrospect, the previews for No Country seem to be Clayton’s polar opposite (no pun intended, as you will soon see) in that they were obscure enough not to promise too much and yet the movie blew me away. Despite demanding patience from the audience, it really did put me nervously on the edge of my seat—contradictory, perhaps, but I explained this in my review.

At any rate, it’s easy to get lost in the complexity of Clayton, a complexity which is derived from the indirect nature of the film: It’s one of those movies you have to pay close attention to in order to reap some of its deepest and fullest benefits, keep close tabs on the plot’s progression, and pick up the details that are not straightforwardly given, the latter meaning that things are often explained within the dialogue and the story’s unweaving themselves. Nonetheless, one can watch the entire movie and, whether or not he becomes confused about anything, can scrape away with the basic essentials of the movie that are enough to make it enjoyable; even if you might get the feeling there’s more than just that outer coating (I did) but can’t exactly put a finger on what, you still can acknowledge it as a good, clever, and satisfying film.

Michael Clayton, played by George Clooney

The film focuses on the endeavor to settle a six-year-old case, and throughout the course of the movie a cover-up is revealed, much to the attempted prevention of the people responsible. One important element of the film is the topic of the book Realm and Conquest that just keeps coming up, an occurrence not without purpose: How Clayton’s son, Henry, describes the events and people in the red book basically alludes to the conspiracy of the company U-North—everyone is “having the same dream … but they don’t know it,” but, as Arthur adds, it “is really happening.”

There are many interesting themes within the film, and a prominent one is identity. Throughout the movie, George Clooney’s character, Michael Clayton, is confronted in various ways with the subject of his own identity, from a cop pointing out that Michael’s got “everybody fooled but [himself]” to when Arthur simplistically asks him, “Then who are you?” but Michael fails to answer.

Perhaps more intriguing is the parallel that can be drawn between Tom Wilkinson’s character, Arthur Eden, a manic depressive and brilliant attorney for the same New York law firm where Clayton is employed as what he calls a “janitor”/“fixer,” and Clayton himself. Arthur obviously struggles with his own identity because he is afflicted with bipolar disorder, a mental illness that switches between highs and lows; finding brilliance and euphoric experiences in his disease during an episode, his first in eight years, he calls himself “Shiva, the god of death.”

What is even more interesting is that Clayton has a sort of mental illness himself, and it is ironic that while he pushes Arthur to get help during his episode and obsession with the case, he denies multiple times during the movie that he is still gambling, and there are several scenes that logically allude to a serious and damaging past addiction to which he clearly still suffers.

Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson)

At the end of the movie, however, once the conspiracy has been exposed and justice delivered, Clayton seems to come to terms with who he is, (re)discovering his identity. He has a heated conversation with Swinton’s character, Karen, at the end in which he describes himself in a definitive way, describing his own nature quite clearly. The conversation ends with Clayton saying, when prompted by the guard to state who he is, “I am Shiva, the god of death,” which is exactly how Arthur identified himself much earlier in the movie. I think that there can be multiple reasons or interpretations for why Michael says this. The statement itself acts as a piercing blow to Karen, confirming her guilt while simultaneously reminding her of Arthur, who was right about the case all along; thus it can also be an homage to the man whom everyone thought was just spewing meaningless gibberish, a product of his growing insanity. But, again, the line could also be a declaration of Clayton’s sense of self, a combination of a feeling of pride and satisfaction to deal justice again in a case that truly matters, to know he still “has it.” Indeed, before the screen turns to black, cuing the credits, a knowing smirk appears on Clayton’s lips.

Furthermore, a cool thing to note is the strong and lengthy presence of driving in the film, an action particularly exclusive to Michael. There is a scene where Michael stops his car and climbs a hill to take in the tranquility of his surroundings and three horses he watches in admiration, and that moment of peace is soon broken by a startling and violent contrast. In short, the horses connect with the repetition of Michael driving, and the reason is perhaps clarified at the end of the movie when, after having just solved the case, Michael calls a taxi and tells the owner to “just drive.” It seems that, like watching the horses and enjoying the beauty and silence atop the hill, driving is a way for Michael to clear his head and get his bearings, to process things and think—which possibly explains why after a minute’s ride (which is probably shown, by the way, to point this out) in the cab Michael finally smiles.

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… is on Fry’s ass. Comedy Central premiered Bender’s Big Score, a four-episode Futurama story arc, yesterday night. That was four straight hours (really one continuous episode) of Futurama goodness, baby, and God was it good to see new episodes of Futurama again. There will reportedly be at least nine more episodes in the future, hurray!

Since it just aired, I’ll try not to give too much of the awesomeness away besides what I said in this post’s title; in case you missed it, it’s already available on dvd. As you know, Matt Groening’s shows have a habit of making fun of the Fox network (as well as some other Fox shows have or still do), and as I noted with Firefly, with good reason. The first several minutes of BBS are, needless to say, a way of getting revenge against Fox. And holy shit, that revenge is served ice-freaking-cold. They severely and horrendously bash Fox to the point where it just seems bitter and murderous—but it’s still hilarious despite the initial shock, and then the show goes on peacefully. They did insert some (perhaps unconvincing) mercy, however, in response to their cruelty.

Also, one of the episodes featured a clue to a promotional website, I Love Bender, with tons of stuff, including a bunch of wallpaper (find more via the “Grab the Widget” button), which makes me happy. Coming soon: your head in a jar (similar to The Simpsons Movie’s promotional Simpsonize Me website, maybe?).

The four episodes are packed with cameos from all sorts of familiar characters, to the delight of fans like me. It’s definitely a nostalgic, but refreshing (there was always the fear that after so long, the endeavor to bring it back and resume the show might crash and burn—but it didn’t, whoohoo!), experience, and it really is just fun and enjoyable. The way it should be, Matt Groening-style.

Still as great as ever. I can’t wait to see what’s next.

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Happy Sweet Zombie Jesus Day, everyone!

Heh, technically I’m Catholic. Fun times. Well, I’ll see you in hell.

How dare you laugh.

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