Hustle & Flow

[Ugh my muse has forsaken me this morning - at least as far as my novel is concerned. The last few paragraphs just don't work somehow. Course the difficulty is I'm trying to recreate something that was stolen from me or rather happened to be in something that was stolen so as a result got lost, which is always hard. To prevent a reoccurrence, backed everything I've written over the past few weeks up on CD again. Bloody hard backing things up on CD (if you don't do it right, the CD will tell it's read only and you can't update and you have to get a new one), I miss zip drives. Canticle for Leibowitz - had a nice little chapter on losing one's art, which was oddly comforting. ]

Last night watched the flick Hustle and Flow directed by Craig Brewer and produced by John Singleton. It was the film that oscar winning song - "It's Hard Out There For A Pimp" originated from. And after seeing the movie, the song has a completely different resonance. The lyrics, which are about trying to make it by doing stuff you hate, with a dream in your head and the loss of that dream to circumstance. It's another instance of something not being quite what it seems.

Hustle and Flow may be one of the best films I've seen in a while. I considered saying about the music world or making music, but that would be limiting it.
( Movie review of Hustle & Flow, contains vague spoilers throughout. Read at your own risk. )

X-Men III - The Last Stand Review

Saw X-Men III today. Should preface this by stating that prior to 2001, I was obsessed with the X-men and had collected most, if not all the comics. I was particularly enamored of the Jean/Scott story - encapsulated in the Dark Phoenix Saga then later X-Factor and finally their marriage and Scott's death at the hands of Apocalypse. I got over it and my interest transfered itself to BTVS, and eventually I became more interested in retrospect with the other characters, such as Wolverine, Hank McCoy, Magneto, Rogue, and Storm. So the first two movies emphasis on Wolverine and Magneto over Scott and Jean did not bug me, their story while in the background, still held a resonance similar to the comics I adored. The last movie, not so much. If anything the last movie takes a sharp left turn from the Scott/Jean story, and while I normally don't care if the adaptation differs greatly from the original, as long as it adds something new, this one I felt lacked something.

( X-Men III - review, vague spoilers. )

If you do go? Stay past the final credits, one of the best moments happens then.