I watched Quantum of Solace last night. As much as I like Daniel Craig, this may be the worst Bond film ever. First of all the plot is almost indecipherable...very much dependent on knowing too many details from the last one. If you are going to be a sequel and can't succinctly recap the info a viewer needs to know from the previous film in less than five or ten minutes to be able to enjoy the film, then don't do a sequel, do a film that is complete in itself and don't carry over crap from the last one that has no dramatic impact. Characters appear and disappear so fast without much development or establishment, we don't really know who they are or why we should have any feeling about them at all. But worst of all the action, scenes are so choppy and kinetic that you cannot get any sense of perspective or know where you are or who just shot at who or who threw what punched or who jumped down from where. An example: the film opens with Bond in a black car being chased by villains in a black car. The cutting is so quick, the cars have not been established, I couldn't tell who was who half the time. So much of action throughout the film is in quick cuts and close-ups or such obivous CGI that you get no sense of spectacle at all anymore. And that was what was so great about the fights and chases and stunts in a Bond movie, there was a sense of spectacle and amazement and, it didn't happen at such a frenetic pace, that you could absorb it, take it all in, and enjoy. You could revel in the details. Not anymore. It's assaultive and just wears me out.
Quote from: TCB on June 28, 2009, 12:44:36 PMQuote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 10:40:13 AMQuote from: elmore3003 on June 28, 2009, 09:02:58 AMQuote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 08:52:00 AMI will head out soon to PrideFest.I've seen enough Pride Marches/Parades (and been part of them as well). I don't need to stand on 5th Avenue and 16th Street to watch this one. I'll see my friend at PrideFest, come home, work on the two presentations and take a nap (I woke up at 5am). We will be seeing a friend tonight. He is taking classes at HB and there is a "singing performance"I think nearly the first 20 years of my life in New York were spent marching in the parade with the NYC Gay Men's Chorus. My memories are the great support from the crowds, the excitement of being in the event, and the claustrophobia on Christopher Street at the end. I also remember standing in the sun waiting for the Chorus or the cabaret group I worked with to sing at the rally after the parade. I given my time and energy and now I don't mind passing up the event.Exactly. I watched or walked for almost 20 of the 30 years I've been here. I'll let the others take over.I don't know how it is in New York, but in my little corner of the globe; they don't want gays my age to participate in Pride at all. The old queens seem to be an embarrassment to the young, proud, openly gay male. They think of us as the silly old men who hid in our closets afraid to tell the world who we were. They seem to forget that we were also the old queens who fought the police harrassment and the college-jock gaybashers; just for the right to have a beer with our own, in the privacy of a quiet bar.I stopped attending Seattle and Tacoma Pride years ago.Perhaps it was the chaps-only attire you wore, TCB . There comes a time when the buttcheeks don't look as spiffy as they did when a person is in his 30s.
Quote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 10:40:13 AMQuote from: elmore3003 on June 28, 2009, 09:02:58 AMQuote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 08:52:00 AMI will head out soon to PrideFest.I've seen enough Pride Marches/Parades (and been part of them as well). I don't need to stand on 5th Avenue and 16th Street to watch this one. I'll see my friend at PrideFest, come home, work on the two presentations and take a nap (I woke up at 5am). We will be seeing a friend tonight. He is taking classes at HB and there is a "singing performance"I think nearly the first 20 years of my life in New York were spent marching in the parade with the NYC Gay Men's Chorus. My memories are the great support from the crowds, the excitement of being in the event, and the claustrophobia on Christopher Street at the end. I also remember standing in the sun waiting for the Chorus or the cabaret group I worked with to sing at the rally after the parade. I given my time and energy and now I don't mind passing up the event.Exactly. I watched or walked for almost 20 of the 30 years I've been here. I'll let the others take over.I don't know how it is in New York, but in my little corner of the globe; they don't want gays my age to participate in Pride at all. The old queens seem to be an embarrassment to the young, proud, openly gay male. They think of us as the silly old men who hid in our closets afraid to tell the world who we were. They seem to forget that we were also the old queens who fought the police harrassment and the college-jock gaybashers; just for the right to have a beer with our own, in the privacy of a quiet bar.I stopped attending Seattle and Tacoma Pride years ago.
Quote from: elmore3003 on June 28, 2009, 09:02:58 AMQuote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 08:52:00 AMI will head out soon to PrideFest.I've seen enough Pride Marches/Parades (and been part of them as well). I don't need to stand on 5th Avenue and 16th Street to watch this one. I'll see my friend at PrideFest, come home, work on the two presentations and take a nap (I woke up at 5am). We will be seeing a friend tonight. He is taking classes at HB and there is a "singing performance"I think nearly the first 20 years of my life in New York were spent marching in the parade with the NYC Gay Men's Chorus. My memories are the great support from the crowds, the excitement of being in the event, and the claustrophobia on Christopher Street at the end. I also remember standing in the sun waiting for the Chorus or the cabaret group I worked with to sing at the rally after the parade. I given my time and energy and now I don't mind passing up the event.Exactly. I watched or walked for almost 20 of the 30 years I've been here. I'll let the others take over.
Quote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 08:52:00 AMI will head out soon to PrideFest.I've seen enough Pride Marches/Parades (and been part of them as well). I don't need to stand on 5th Avenue and 16th Street to watch this one. I'll see my friend at PrideFest, come home, work on the two presentations and take a nap (I woke up at 5am). We will be seeing a friend tonight. He is taking classes at HB and there is a "singing performance"I think nearly the first 20 years of my life in New York were spent marching in the parade with the NYC Gay Men's Chorus. My memories are the great support from the crowds, the excitement of being in the event, and the claustrophobia on Christopher Street at the end. I also remember standing in the sun waiting for the Chorus or the cabaret group I worked with to sing at the rally after the parade. I given my time and energy and now I don't mind passing up the event.
I will head out soon to PrideFest.I've seen enough Pride Marches/Parades (and been part of them as well). I don't need to stand on 5th Avenue and 16th Street to watch this one. I'll see my friend at PrideFest, come home, work on the two presentations and take a nap (I woke up at 5am). We will be seeing a friend tonight. He is taking classes at HB and there is a "singing performance"
The wind has shifted today os that it is now blowing from the north. So, in addition to the crowds from the Taste of Tacoma, I have the smell of the food and the music from the concert stage.
Quote from: Ron Pulliam on June 28, 2009, 12:54:54 PMQuote from: TCB on June 28, 2009, 12:44:36 PMQuote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 10:40:13 AMQuote from: elmore3003 on June 28, 2009, 09:02:58 AMQuote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 08:52:00 AMI will head out soon to PrideFest.I've seen enough Pride Marches/Parades (and been part of them as well). I don't need to stand on 5th Avenue and 16th Street to watch this one. I'll see my friend at PrideFest, come home, work on the two presentations and take a nap (I woke up at 5am). We will be seeing a friend tonight. He is taking classes at HB and there is a "singing performance"I think nearly the first 20 years of my life in New York were spent marching in the parade with the NYC Gay Men's Chorus. My memories are the great support from the crowds, the excitement of being in the event, and the claustrophobia on Christopher Street at the end. I also remember standing in the sun waiting for the Chorus or the cabaret group I worked with to sing at the rally after the parade. I given my time and energy and now I don't mind passing up the event.Exactly. I watched or walked for almost 20 of the 30 years I've been here. I'll let the others take over.I don't know how it is in New York, but in my little corner of the globe; they don't want gays my age to participate in Pride at all. The old queens seem to be an embarrassment to the young, proud, openly gay male. They think of us as the silly old men who hid in our closets afraid to tell the world who we were. They seem to forget that we were also the old queens who fought the police harrassment and the college-jock gaybashers; just for the right to have a beer with our own, in the privacy of a quiet bar.I stopped attending Seattle and Tacoma Pride years ago.Perhaps it was the chaps-only attire you wore, TCB . There comes a time when the buttcheeks don't look as spiffy as they did when a person is in his 30s.Is this the voice of an embarrassed, or embare-assed, reality?
Quote from: Ron Pulliam on June 28, 2009, 12:54:54 PMQuote from: TCB on June 28, 2009, 12:44:36 PMQuote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 10:40:13 AMQuote from: elmore3003 on June 28, 2009, 09:02:58 AMQuote from: Ben on June 28, 2009, 08:52:00 AMI will head out soon to PrideFest.I've seen enough Pride Marches/Parades (and been part of them as well). I don't need to stand on 5th Avenue and 16th Street to watch this one. I'll see my friend at PrideFest, come home, work on the two presentations and take a nap (I woke up at 5am). We will be seeing a friend tonight. He is taking classes at HB and there is a "singing performance"I think nearly the first 20 years of my life in New York were spent marching in the parade with the NYC Gay Men's Chorus. My memories are the great support from the crowds, the excitement of being in the event, and the claustrophobia on Christopher Street at the end. I also remember standing in the sun waiting for the Chorus or the cabaret group I worked with to sing at the rally after the parade. I given my time and energy and now I don't mind passing up the event.Exactly. I watched or walked for almost 20 of the 30 years I've been here. I'll let the others take over.I don't know how it is in New York, but in my little corner of the globe; they don't want gays my age to participate in Pride at all. The old queens seem to be an embarrassment to the young, proud, openly gay male. They think of us as the silly old men who hid in our closets afraid to tell the world who we were. They seem to forget that we were also the old queens who fought the police harrassment and the college-jock gaybashers; just for the right to have a beer with our own, in the privacy of a quiet bar.I stopped attending Seattle and Tacoma Pride years ago.Perhaps it was the chaps-only attire you wore, TCB . There comes a time when the buttcheeks don't look as spiffy as they did when a person is in his 30s.Ron, I stopped wearing the chaps years ago. I prefer the leather jock and the platform shoes.
DR TCB, such a shame there isn't more respect for the older generation. In this case there really should be.
I just ride up at the front with the Dykes on Bikes.
Yes, the new radio show is up and running - it's fun, so give it a listen.
Quote from: Jane on June 28, 2009, 12:54:55 PMDR TCB, such a shame there isn't more respect for the older generation. In this case there really should be.It is amazing, even to me, how far we have come in 40 years. I first went to a gay bar in 1969, before Stonewall and I still remember being warned by others that the police in town were taking down the license numbers of all the cars parked by the bar.
I wonder if they have time to change my tires
Quote from: Charles Pogue on June 28, 2009, 08:19:31 AMI watched Quantum of Solace last night. As much as I like Daniel Craig, this may be the worst Bond film ever. First of all the plot is almost indecipherable...very much dependent on knowing too many details from the last one. If you are going to be a sequel and can't succinctly recap the info a viewer needs to know from the previous film in less than five or ten minutes to be able to enjoy the film, then don't do a sequel, do a film that is complete in itself and don't carry over crap from the last one that has no dramatic impact. Characters appear and disappear so fast without much development or establishment, we don't really know who they are or why we should have any feeling about them at all. But worst of all the action, scenes are so choppy and kinetic that you cannot get any sense of perspective or know where you are or who just shot at who or who threw what punched or who jumped down from where. An example: the film opens with Bond in a black car being chased by villains in a black car. The cutting is so quick, the cars have not been established, I couldn't tell who was who half the time. So much of action throughout the film is in quick cuts and close-ups or such obivous CGI that you get no sense of spectacle at all anymore. And that was what was so great about the fights and chases and stunts in a Bond movie, there was a sense of spectacle and amazement and, it didn't happen at such a frenetic pace, that you could absorb it, take it all in, and enjoy. You could revel in the details. Not anymore. It's assaultive and just wears me out.And yet....it was well-reviewed and made a fortune. Go know!
Quote from: bk on June 28, 2009, 01:06:08 PM Yes, the new radio show is up and running - it's fun, so give it a listen. And bk does a mean Carol Channing impression!!!