#5

So I'm listening to the Live 365 Noir soundtrack feed again.

Last night around 1:30am I finished my 5th straight time through Noir.

I've been a bit sluggish all day. I'm halfheartedly getting some cleaning done around the house since I'm having friends up here to the lake for a bit of BBQ on Sunday. I'm a bit tired, but I had no luck taking a nap.

I'm almost ready to begin an episode-by-episode analysis of the series -- a deconstruction just like I used to do back in my film-school days. I'm not sure if doing that will actually help alleviate my obsession with the show, or exacerbate it. At any rate, it will kick off what I originally intended with this site: analyzing all of the movies in my library. After being in the creativity-stifling corporate world for so long, I need to rediscover the reasons why I went to film school in the first place. I've been thinking about that more over these past 3 weeks than I have in the past 8 years.

Has a "girls-with-guns" cartoon prematurely triggered a mid-life crisis? I think when I get to be 72 I won't find that notion all that amusing. :)

What passes for TV these days...

Last night was my "I actually watch TV" night.

The Simpson's and King Of The Hill are exceptions to my "never watch the Fox Network" rule.

I caught the Soprano's on its very first episode, and have watched every single one since. It's kept me on HBO, and since I've gotten it in hi-def, it's all the better.

A bonus is that HBO added another hi-def gem: Deadwood. A lot of cussin' and mud and chilling brutality, but I swear (heh) that it's absolutely brilliant.

And after a night with both of them, it takes me at least 24 hours before I stop muttering "f*ing c*sucker" under my breath every so often...

Beyond those, I rarely watch TV, at least network programming. PBS will usually come up with something watchable, but if it's not a movie or some hi-def eye-candy I haven't seen yet, I'll usually gravitate to Newsworld International, or one of the three C-Spans. Especially C-Span 2 when BookTV is on. Great stuff, that BookTV.

The Daily Show is usually on my "always watch" list, but I've burned out on politics for the time being, so I'm avoiding it for a little while. I wish I could say that going to bed earlier is helping me sleep better...

Stereolab

Well, thankfully I didn't go for Marathon #5 today. I really needed to get some work done around the house.

And my favorite "get work done around the house" music is from Stereolab. I think it's also my favorite "chillin' by the lake", "driving long distance", and "trying to be productive at work" music.

I think I have almost every CD, but I'm not as I'm not normally as obsessive about stuff like I've been with Noir, so I haven't really looked to closely at the discography on their official site to make sure I didn't miss anything. I also don't really read the forum. And I missed out on the one day recently that they played a gig over in Toronto. I could have made that one, but I wasn't paying attention.

Still, this is probably my favorite group, and I've been listening to them for about 8 years. Odd how I don't know much more about them than that...

Marathon #4

I first caught Noir when I got into the HDTV game; INHD was showing what they called The Anime Network, and their one representative program was Noir.

In Hi-Def. 5.1 sound. Heh.

It usually showed at various timeslots and I was rarely able to catch it, though it was definitely eye-candy I wanted to see. Still, catching random episodes, I wasn't quite catching on to the plot. I'm not all that big an anime fan, and haven't seen much of anything in the last ten years outside of Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. But Kirika's brooding gunplay was very captivating, and the pair were definitely attractive. (...a good screencap site to take a peek. Spoilers, of course!)

Then I caught about three of them in a row, starting with the 2nd act of Intoccoble. You know, the one with the "Kiss of Death". Only in the dub, she doesn't say "Kiss of Death", and not seeing the 1st act, well... Let's just say the "yuri bait*" succeeded in snaring me in the trap. ;)

(* I didn't even know WTF that meant until a couple of weeks ago when my obsession with the show let to extensive Google sessions. And I probably still don't know WTF it really means...)

Anyway, just as I was hooked, they (INHD) exiled the show to 4:30AM!! Yikes! Admittedly, it was more like it's original Japanese timeslot for West Coasters, but for me, disaster! I have a day job; a close proximity to a real life. And record HD? No HD DVR yet, and Firewire + DVHS would run $500 plus waiting forever for Time-Warner to swap the cable box.

So I picked up the whole DVD set. The box, the t-shirt, the whole thing. I paid a little extra shipping to make sure it would show up for the weekend. It did, on Saturday. I was oddly estatic. An odd, excited anticipation. Not a normal thing for me.

This was exactly two weeks ago.

That evening I started at the beginning. I was drinking a bit of Chinaco Anjeo (okay, more than a bit), so I wound up taking a break at the Uncle Claude episode, then finished it up on Sunday.

Whoa.

Like I said, I'm not much into modern anime, and I haven't done marathons like that since college. But Noir owned me that weekend. Then that whole week as I started it again with the subtitles. I had to actually go to work, so I only did a few at a time. Friday night I started a 3rd run, which I finished Saturday. Last week.

Today I've started run #4. I've just finished a dinner break and I'm about to start disc 6. I figure I'll watch 6 & 7 twice before going to bed tonight.

And maybe, just maybe, I'll go for run #5 tomorrow.

Hello, my name is Bill, and I'm a Noir-o-holic.

8 1/2 (1963)

Well, I've settled on a look that will do for now. I'm going to catch the last little bit of sunset, and then fire up the home theater for a little refresher on this pentultimate Fellini classic.

This film is the basis for my own never-can-finish-it attempt, "Fellini 8.5". There's a number of themes throughout that reflect some of my own deeper issues, and I always see something new every time I watch it.

Plus, I want a change of pace from watching the Noir series over and over again. Time for that tomorrow!

Listening to the Noir soundtrack on Live365

While I'm getting underway and monkeying with the template, that's what I have in the background. They're looping randomly (with soundbytes from the show) until June 30th.

More about my obsession with this show later.