A recent re-discovery of mine has been that of a parodic experimental deathcore band named, as you'd probably have gathered from the title, Arsonists Get All The Girls. Instantly their name implies a tongue-in-cheek mentality, which is precisely what AGATG deliver. Get standard run-of-the-mill deathcore and deck it out with as many zany, wacky, near-progressive elements to take it as over the top as possible, and you have an accurate description of their sound. The band has apparently made the effort to state their somewhat joke-band status; they don't take themselves seriously, and don't expect to take them seriously. Despite existing for what appears to be the laughs, they create some quality, fun, unpredictable music, and I've hardly been able to get enough. Seriously, that's why there's 4 videos. They're actually different, original and catchy enough to merit 4 videos. Check it out.I bet Arsonists Get All The Girls get all the girls
A recent re-discovery of mine has been that of a parodic experimental deathcore band named, as you'd probably have gathered from the title, Arsonists Get All The Girls. Instantly their name implies a tongue-in-cheek mentality, which is precisely what AGATG deliver. Get standard run-of-the-mill deathcore and deck it out with as many zany, wacky, near-progressive elements to take it as over the top as possible, and you have an accurate description of their sound. The band has apparently made the effort to state their somewhat joke-band status; they don't take themselves seriously, and don't expect to take them seriously. Despite existing for what appears to be the laughs, they create some quality, fun, unpredictable music, and I've hardly been able to get enough. Seriously, that's why there's 4 videos. They're actually different, original and catchy enough to merit 4 videos. Check it out.
School's out... FOREVER
Blog's been a little dead (what's new?), and it's because at the beginning of the month I was wrapping up all my schoolwork that was due in and I've since been enjoying a "holiday holiday". That is, the last 2 weeks or so have been spent plugged into the PS3, the computer, the TV or whatever else I can plug myself into, slobbing around and generally avoiding all work possible. High school's finished, and for the first time in 13 years I get to have a holiday where I don't have to worry about next year because there will never be school again. Ever. Sure, there's university, but that hardly counts.
Even whilst I'm on holiday, however, there's still some degree of responsibility. After my "holiday holiday" it's on to learning how to drive, cleaning up around the house, putting finishing touches on a client's website and pulling out the visual diary to do some sketches in preparation for next year. For those who hadn't heard, I've been accepted into AUT's Bachelor of Design course, more specifically Graphic Design, and more specifically I think I may take the path of illustration. It's been years since I drew anything so I'm going to try get in some practice, but it sure beats the oft-boring typographic style (we learn the basics, and that's enough for me) or wrestling with CSS in web design.
I'm impressed with the work I've done, despite often being absent due to work experience or illness and losing a USB stick containing a couple week's solid work, as far as I know I've still obtained NCEA lvl 3 and University Entrance, and was accepted into a course outright without having to attend an interview. I'm not the kind of person to hold a high opinion of themselves, or any quantity of self-esteem at all really, so this all has been a nice surprise and is helping to eliminate some of the intimidation of facing a degree.
Tash & I get our party faces on!
Even whilst I'm on holiday, however, there's still some degree of responsibility. After my "holiday holiday" it's on to learning how to drive, cleaning up around the house, putting finishing touches on a client's website and pulling out the visual diary to do some sketches in preparation for next year. For those who hadn't heard, I've been accepted into AUT's Bachelor of Design course, more specifically Graphic Design, and more specifically I think I may take the path of illustration. It's been years since I drew anything so I'm going to try get in some practice, but it sure beats the oft-boring typographic style (we learn the basics, and that's enough for me) or wrestling with CSS in web design.
My final poster for Art Design. I didn't like it.
I'm impressed with the work I've done, despite often being absent due to work experience or illness and losing a USB stick containing a couple week's solid work, as far as I know I've still obtained NCEA lvl 3 and University Entrance, and was accepted into a course outright without having to attend an interview. I'm not the kind of person to hold a high opinion of themselves, or any quantity of self-esteem at all really, so this all has been a nice surprise and is helping to eliminate some of the intimidation of facing a degree.
Photo of menu in use. I liked it.
Not just a club about fighting...
I recently wrote this film review for my English through Film class. It does sound a bit waffley because, well, I was waffling. It was obviously passable enough to get a high mark, and I figured there haven't been many reviews on this blog so I may as well post in that area. It's a bit of a late, lazy post for this month but you'll get over it.
If you're anything like me, you'll approach Fight Club with all the wrong ideas and assumptions. If you're anything like me, you'll have heard the various stories on the news over the last 10 years; all the youths caught beating each other, citing the film as the main influence for their actions. It was even advertised simply as a film about underground boxing, helping reinforce an undesirable reputation for the film. If you're anything like me, you'll approach Fight Club expecting a film, as the name and reputation suggest, about men slugging it out against each other - a festival of mindless violence, possibly littered with vague themes of masculinity. And if you're anything like me, after watching it, Fight Club will blow your mind wide open.
I will tell you now, Fight Club is not just a club about fighting, and your ideas and assumptions couldn't possibly be more wrong. The film is an intricately-written tale serving as a satirical commentary of modern western society. Due to the nature by which it was advertised, it was not received as well as hoped (or as well as it should have), as it was marketed towards the wrong audience. The testosterone-fuelled, violence-glorifying males the majority of the audience consisted of could not dive beyond the (unexpectedly minimal, given the title) fighting; to absorb the film's message or interpret it correctly. And those who would have enjoyed interpreting the intellectual elements, were otherwise deterred by this bad advertising.
Fight Club is many things. Action, drama, black comedy… people debate its genre, but what it essentially boils down to is a psychological thriller, following the life of a narrator (Edward Norton) who though remains nameless in the film, comes to be known as Jack. His painfully plain life begins taking the most unpredictable of turns. First insomnia, then support groups, the arrival of a despised Marla Fisher (Helena Bonham Carter), and finally meeting carefree soap salesman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) on a business trip.
The film is an interpretation of Fight Club, a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk, who claims the movie is actually an improvement over his work. Interpreting novels into films is risky business. It was made riskier by the raw, uncensored nature of the book and the project nearly didn't take off. The story is original, complex and unconventional, and as such demanded high performance from its actors, and they all performed superbly. Norton (American History X, The Incredible Hulk) captures perfectly the jaded nature of his character and contrasts it well with his shift into “enlightenment”. Pitt (Se7en, Ocean's Eleven) convincingly plays Tyler, down to the tiniest details of his persuasive, dominant nature and questionable sanity; he absorbs the audience with such power it feels as though he's directing his speeches right into your mind. Jack describes Marla as “the scratch on the roof of your mouth”, and Bonham Carter (Sweeney Todd, Harry Potter) certainly manages to generate similar loathing & despise in the viewer.
Fight Club is dark, as dark and depressing as modern life comes. Once you become engrossed in the brooding overtone it establishes, the violence it contains becomes almost tame (though still horrific). This dank atmosphere is established through the film's stunning, artistically-crafted cinematography. Not a single shot seems out of place. When the film needs to be dark, drab, gritty or even smoggy through the sunlight of the city, it is exactly that. No attempts were made to clean up the grain-like texture of the footage post-production, and some measures were taken to dirty its appearance. The result is a film that manages to feel consistently dark and dismal.
The thing with Fight Club is that to most first-time viewers its totally overwhelming; it takes a broad swing at western society and the corporations, striking at so many aspects of the lives of its victims, that alongside the complex plot and incredible twist, it becomes a bit much to take in all at once. The film essentially deals with consumerism, and its effect on masculinity. Jack has been raised by this society, a society that markets to males such as himself what being a man is about, and to pursue completion through material possessions. Tyler appears in the story as a prophet of sorts, to show Jack life without material possessions, without a white-collar job and without completion. Tyler's philosophy; self-improvement is for the weak, whilst self-destruction is the true path to enlightenment, is essentially what sparks the creation of the fight club. A place for men dissatisfied with the life marketed to them by the corporations and the media to release, to vent. An extreme form of psychiatric treatment, a cathartic experience like none other. The emphasis of the fight club is not to cause harm to somebody else, it is to feel harm and pain yourself. The emphasis is to feel, in a society that jades.
It is here where Fight Club becomes misunderstood. Rather than appreciate the messages it portrays, its artistic treatment and well-written story, it seems many are under the impression it simply glorifies violence - both those who have seen it and those who haven't. The film is not about fighting for fighting's sake; it dives beyond, and explores the reasons behind it. Don't get me wrong, by no means do I believe Fight Club is an all's-well, smiles-and-sunshine positive film. But at the same time, not much of it seems exaggerated. People are assaulted. People suffer illnesses. People die. Fight Club does not create a fictional world so much as expose the darker side of our own. And that is precisely the director's purpose; to stop the audience, open their eyes and make them think. To get them to take a look around at the things that surround them every day and to realise how insignificant they are made by the corporations, brands and media industries they have grown to become so heavily reliant upon.
If you're anything like me, you'll approach Fight Club with all the wrong ideas and assumptions. If you're anything like me, you'll have heard the various stories on the news over the last 10 years; all the youths caught beating each other, citing the film as the main influence for their actions. It was even advertised simply as a film about underground boxing, helping reinforce an undesirable reputation for the film. If you're anything like me, you'll approach Fight Club expecting a film, as the name and reputation suggest, about men slugging it out against each other - a festival of mindless violence, possibly littered with vague themes of masculinity. And if you're anything like me, after watching it, Fight Club will blow your mind wide open.I will tell you now, Fight Club is not just a club about fighting, and your ideas and assumptions couldn't possibly be more wrong. The film is an intricately-written tale serving as a satirical commentary of modern western society. Due to the nature by which it was advertised, it was not received as well as hoped (or as well as it should have), as it was marketed towards the wrong audience. The testosterone-fuelled, violence-glorifying males the majority of the audience consisted of could not dive beyond the (unexpectedly minimal, given the title) fighting; to absorb the film's message or interpret it correctly. And those who would have enjoyed interpreting the intellectual elements, were otherwise deterred by this bad advertising.
Fight Club is many things. Action, drama, black comedy… people debate its genre, but what it essentially boils down to is a psychological thriller, following the life of a narrator (Edward Norton) who though remains nameless in the film, comes to be known as Jack. His painfully plain life begins taking the most unpredictable of turns. First insomnia, then support groups, the arrival of a despised Marla Fisher (Helena Bonham Carter), and finally meeting carefree soap salesman Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) on a business trip.
The film is an interpretation of Fight Club, a novel written by Chuck Palahniuk, who claims the movie is actually an improvement over his work. Interpreting novels into films is risky business. It was made riskier by the raw, uncensored nature of the book and the project nearly didn't take off. The story is original, complex and unconventional, and as such demanded high performance from its actors, and they all performed superbly. Norton (American History X, The Incredible Hulk) captures perfectly the jaded nature of his character and contrasts it well with his shift into “enlightenment”. Pitt (Se7en, Ocean's Eleven) convincingly plays Tyler, down to the tiniest details of his persuasive, dominant nature and questionable sanity; he absorbs the audience with such power it feels as though he's directing his speeches right into your mind. Jack describes Marla as “the scratch on the roof of your mouth”, and Bonham Carter (Sweeney Todd, Harry Potter) certainly manages to generate similar loathing & despise in the viewer.
Fight Club is dark, as dark and depressing as modern life comes. Once you become engrossed in the brooding overtone it establishes, the violence it contains becomes almost tame (though still horrific). This dank atmosphere is established through the film's stunning, artistically-crafted cinematography. Not a single shot seems out of place. When the film needs to be dark, drab, gritty or even smoggy through the sunlight of the city, it is exactly that. No attempts were made to clean up the grain-like texture of the footage post-production, and some measures were taken to dirty its appearance. The result is a film that manages to feel consistently dark and dismal.
The thing with Fight Club is that to most first-time viewers its totally overwhelming; it takes a broad swing at western society and the corporations, striking at so many aspects of the lives of its victims, that alongside the complex plot and incredible twist, it becomes a bit much to take in all at once. The film essentially deals with consumerism, and its effect on masculinity. Jack has been raised by this society, a society that markets to males such as himself what being a man is about, and to pursue completion through material possessions. Tyler appears in the story as a prophet of sorts, to show Jack life without material possessions, without a white-collar job and without completion. Tyler's philosophy; self-improvement is for the weak, whilst self-destruction is the true path to enlightenment, is essentially what sparks the creation of the fight club. A place for men dissatisfied with the life marketed to them by the corporations and the media to release, to vent. An extreme form of psychiatric treatment, a cathartic experience like none other. The emphasis of the fight club is not to cause harm to somebody else, it is to feel harm and pain yourself. The emphasis is to feel, in a society that jades.
It is here where Fight Club becomes misunderstood. Rather than appreciate the messages it portrays, its artistic treatment and well-written story, it seems many are under the impression it simply glorifies violence - both those who have seen it and those who haven't. The film is not about fighting for fighting's sake; it dives beyond, and explores the reasons behind it. Don't get me wrong, by no means do I believe Fight Club is an all's-well, smiles-and-sunshine positive film. But at the same time, not much of it seems exaggerated. People are assaulted. People suffer illnesses. People die. Fight Club does not create a fictional world so much as expose the darker side of our own. And that is precisely the director's purpose; to stop the audience, open their eyes and make them think. To get them to take a look around at the things that surround them every day and to realise how insignificant they are made by the corporations, brands and media industries they have grown to become so heavily reliant upon.
