Girl you are NOT all that!

Self-delusion seems to be particularly annoying. I was thinking about that because I'm considering doing some light remodeling to the house and I started thinking about that "let's add value to our house" mentality. That usually means, "let's impose our good taste on this structure" which is how houses end up with black toilets with gold fixtures (actual open house I saw) or how ranch houses end up trying to look like Italian villas (our house) with grape vine wallpaper and grape vine wire toilet paper holders. Everyone is so sure that their taste is so good and that what they're doing is a big improvement! Self-delusion. Like people who think all the crap in their garage is going to fetch big dollars on Ebay. I was thinking that in terms of houses, it might be better to remodel in terms of possibilities. In other words, through remodeling, suit your needs but also create opportunities for future expansion. Imply the possibilities to entice prospective buyers into thinking about what they can do with the house.

Anyway, I think that's what people find so annoying about the way I watch movies. I suspect that they think I'm delusional—that when I say I mostly analyze movies that I'm just not admitting that I really enjoy them. Actually, I think my movie design grid is helpful here because it shows what I'm enjoying in 90% of the films I see. Remember: genre (high concept) + modern filmmaking vocabulary + truth? That's mostly what I enjoy about films. Example: a movie like The Matrix would find its way into my "great film" list because it nails all three of those criteria. It is a high-concept film, has an interesting/artistic filmmaking vocabulary and is a textbook example of existentialism (the world is painful). And sure, there are things I can get emotionally involved in, but that's not the overriding interest to me. It's more like the way emotion shades the above three crteria. It's similar to music. If you come over to my house you may notice that I rarely have music on. There are lots of songs and music I like. But my listening is geared primarily toward analysis.

In a weird way, this comes back to my thinking about houses. I guess I like media products that imply opportunities. I can appreciate The Matrix for many reasons. But I also like the way it opens the door to future possibilities. As you remember, the working title for noise film was "anti-matrix." I like The Matrix not only for what it is, but how it enabled me to participate in extensions of its thinking. There's something rich and compelling about that.

*Ben and Erik, if you are wondering what happened to our Uzumaki discussion, it turned into this post. To others: Ben and Erik decided that one of the main reasons I liked Uzumaki was the Japanese school girls. Ben also thought I was delusional.