Channel Surfing...

I often enjoy watching the Russian news channel Russia Today. The network has a surprisingly refreshing slant on world events, particularly those involving America. When big news stories occur, like the current financial crisis afflicting America, you get a fairly honest view of things. Free of the usual spin you get on other channels. Sometimes you just get weirdly aggressive newscasters saying weirdly aggressive things in strange exaggerated American accents. Plus the set designs and graphics make the channel look like a news station from some alternate universe. Some future that was never realized. Either way it makes for oddly enthralling viewing.

     I was flicking through channels a minute ago and pressed to read the information on a show called Hitler's Children on Discovery History. The synopsis read like this:

Seduction: Hitler moulded German children into an army which would fight in his name to conquer the world. Former participants tell of the unscrupulous methods of indoctrination.

Not being in the mood for such light hearted viewing I flicked on and put on Russia Today, the Russian news channel. They were listing off the days top news stories when a headline popped up quickly. I looked at it and  read Russia declares war on Jews. My eyes widened, then I saw that the words were superimposed over a photo of a great white shark and I realized it actually said Russia declares war on Jaws. I breathed an audible sigh of relief. For a very brief second I was pretty freaked out. You know, especially so soon after I read that Hitler's Children thing. It was a weird few minutes of television.
      That got weirder.
      A debate show called the Keiser Report started on Russia Today soon after. The host is a very intense guy who reminds me vaguely of Oliver Stone. His guest tonight was an American girl who still oddly put on a weirdly exaggerated American accent. She seemed very excited to be on the show. The overall feel of the show is a little bit community television. They started discussing the financial crisis in America and showed a clip of a journalist for the New York Times saying basically that if an alien invasion were imminent that the financial crisis would be solved in a few days. Which, yeah, is a weird argument to hear from a New York Times journalist. The host of the Keiser Report and the American girl then began discussing alien invasions and the financial crisis, and the fact that apparently all it will take to stimulate the American economy is an invasion of beings from outer space.
      For roughly twenty minutes it was like watching television in the twilight zone.

So I'm reading The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett and it's blowing my mind. It was written in 1932 and reads like it was written with a sharp knife. Hammett is recognized as one of the masters of hard-boiled detective fiction, and when I started reading The Thin Man I half expected it to be a bit heavy handed and cliched. But the writing is so precise. The story so well realized. It's set in New York City. I've been obsessed with old film noir movies set in New York for ages. Pictures like The Naked City and Blast of Silence. The cinematography is beautiful and fascinating. Hammett's book reads like those films, New York is a vital character, and you can almost smell the city. Taste the air. Feel the sidewalk under your feet. But the book, being a book and as such superior to films, offers you so much more. The interaction between the male and female characters is fascinating. I don't know, maybe I have just been incredibly naive to the hard-boiled detective novels of that era but The Thin Man is a very satisfying reading experience.

 I also just watched Super. The second film by James Gunn, the man responsible for the comic horror gem Slither. It's the latest in the relatively new genre of realistic superhero films. It has had many comparisons to Kick Ass, but I don't think the comparisons do either film much justice. They are very different viewing experiences. I don't want to say too much, I think Super should be seen fresh. It stars Rain Wilson from the American version of the Office and Ellen Page. And Ellen Page is a revelation. A awesomely mental revelation. It also stars Kevin Bacon, Liv Tyler and Nathan Fillion. If your into horror films I highly recommend Slither too. I watched it sort of by accident on tv, expecting nothing if I'm being honest, and I loved it. It is strange, funny, and wonderfully crazy.

Oh and I was checking out a link a friend forwarded to me the other day. It was to a pretty amazing website called How to be a retronaut. The link was to graduation pictures of famous people. It was really funny. But this one of the great George Clooney still weirds me out.