A Couple Things: Jazz Survivors; The Wire; Steve Zissou

There should be another post, soon about my trip back to Buff. I saw old friends, experience the most depressing moment of my life and reached yet another epiphany about my stay here in Flroida. Until then, a couple quickies...

-- for all of you that expect the jazz tune every Friday. Accept my most sincere apologies for missing it last week. As soon as I touched down in Buff Thurs morning, I started doing the "back home" thing, where ur schedules fills up ridiculously fast. When I go home, I don't lounge, I recreate and associate. I woke up at 2pm Friday, because I got home at 7am. Ultimately, I screwed up last Friday and will have somethin in everyone's inbox by Friday late morning. And a good one too, since much of my jazz discography that got stolen out of my car in 2003 has returned, thanks to Vino's Case Logic and RealPlayer's CD ripper. I'll have a doozy for you. And I think we're ready to really start rolling. I'm takin off the kid gloves, chilrin.

-- NOBODY...I repeat, NOBODY, better say a friggin word to me about The Wire. That is my favorite show on television, has been for 6 years. And we've been waiting for close to two years for this new season. And with a whole new storyline...I'm giddy.

Problem is, I don't have On Demand. I have DirectTV. On Demand folks got the sneak preview Sept. 4. I have to wait till this Sunday. If I get one email or blog post about the show, I'm murdering the author. Please take me seriously on this one.

-- Yesterday, around 1am or so, I was loggin off of my computer and told my nigga Gee I was gettin ready to fall asleep to Two For the Money. That gambling movie with Pacino and McCoughnehy. I like doing that. I can watch ANY movie at night, as long as it doesn't include disturbing images or sinister plots that will give me -- a 6-year-old lil girl -- nightmares. Because, sadly, I get those. I'll get a nightmare even watching something ridiculous like Freddie. I can't shake it folks. Laugh, ridicule, do whatever -- it's just how it is.

But other than that, the bar I set for the movies I watch in my bed after 1 or 2 am is about as low as one can possibly go. Stupid frat-boy movie? I'll check it. Romantic comedy? Vince kinda has a thing for those anyways (keep it going, I invite it). Ridiculously bad movie with horrible acting and stupifying plots? Well, who doesnt dig those bad boys, right?

Well, Two For the Money ended up being not THAT bad. I could probably watch it during the day. It's just that, it had Pacino in it...so I was expecting to be amused at his antics in a "that's corny and over-the-top" way. But I didn't. The point is...I was till up when it went off at 2am.

My plan was to begin watching Cliffhanger. Which, we all know is horrible. But there was a 10 minute delay and clicked on The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou to pass time. I had seen it before and didn't mind peaking in on it again.

I ended up watching it straight thru, mystified at how I didn't think it was dumbfoundingly hilarious the first time I saw.

I actually rented the DVD last year, watched it twice. Then went thru the special features. Then watched the director's commentary ( I love that feature), where Wes Anderson is in that cafe in Village and you can hear the rumble of conversation and clinking coffee cups in the background. But when I returned it, I don't remember thinking, "I gotta kop this for my collection."

I'm not a huge Anderson fan, though I love Rushmore and Tennenbaums. But I generally like the feel of his flicks. But if I remember correctly, Zissou was the least acclaimed of them all (i think his movies tend to receive polar-opposite reactions, if I'm not mistaken). I remember being ab it cool on this one too. But for some reason, it was hitting me over the head like a ton of bricks last night.

William Dafoe was hilarious. And, though I'm not intimately familiar with his filmography, I always thought he played some type of villain or antagonist. I mean, look at his face. It looks like you could put his literal face on Mount Rushmore and no one would no that his face was flesh and not chisled granite. There's no comfort in that face. Its not the face of heroes, sensitivity or comedy. Yet, he cracked me up all night. I mean, Willy D was that dude. He played this childish and effeminate crew member that did things like slap people in the face -- opened handledly -- and whimper when he wasn't chosen for the A Team. It was a revelation, probably because I'm ignorant of his body of work. Still, though.

But, by far, the dude was Bill Murray.

One of my favorite films of the last 5 years was Lost in Translation. But not because Murray was essentially hilarious. He amused me in that movie, but i love it for other reasons. In this role as Steve Zissou (i think he's an oceanographer/explorer) Murray is the ISH. I just wanna give you a couple of my favorite lines...

"You really think its cool to hit the sauce, when u got a bun in the oven?" He asked a pregnant Cate Blanchett this question when she inexplicably spit out her gum and deebo'd his last swig of beer, which he called 'sauce'. Don't u love it when people call alchohol 'sauce'? And he said it in the most incredulous tone. That line killed me.

"What I really don't need is some wambat comin' on my boat trying to railroad me." Splendid. He confided this to Dafoe (I believe) speaking of Own Wilson, who played some rich dude who thought Zissou was his father and came on the mission with them. Murray liked Blanchett, but Blanchett felt Wilson. So Wilson was always stealing Murray's shine and Murray consistently got frustrated. Which spawned the above live. A couple questions: Who calls people wambats? And what dignified grown man really lets onto the frustration of another man railroading his efforts to get close to a woman that consistently plays him to the side? The line was marvelous.

"That slutbag played us like a cheap fiddle!" Zissou was really spiteful and juvenile. For instance, Jeff Goldblum played a sleek, semi-gay oceanographer/explorer named Hennessy. Goldblum, though, ended up pullin Zissou's exasperated wife (Angelica Huston) for a moment..and you know how Goldblum is, really smarmy. Anyways, a little later, Murray has a convo with Huston and said something to the effect of "You know, I wouldnt mind Hennessy if he wasn't such a queer bag." And that was just so spiteful, in a Tony Soprano, homophobic kinda way.

Well, Zissou did that with Blanchett's character too. I believe he consistently refered to her as a bull-dyke. He'd say things like, "You know, I'd kinda dig Winslett if she wasn't such a bull-dyke." Even though he was overtly attracted to her, attempting to kiss her multiple times.

The slutbag comment killed me because he said it in front of Wilson, whom he knew had fallen for her. Fact is, Zissou was jealous, thought he had reason to demean Blanchett and -- at the same time -- get spit in Wilson's face...so he did it. Called her "slutbag" (how is that not hilarious)...but tried to soften it by attempting to get Wilson to believe she was duplicitous. But "played us like a fiddle?" Come on. That's precious.

One other line murdered me (many others just slayed me), this time by Goldblum. He had figured oput that his massive ship was ransacked (it was the Zissou camp). So he had this command for his crew.

"Load up the elephan gun with buckshots. Let's hunt these suckers down."

I'm spent.