Blondie: Chris Stein
News about Chris Stein, guitarist and songwriter for the rock band Blondie.

Posted by Chris Stein at 3/25/2005 11:59:00 PM

so i am grimly awaiting the first onslaught of 9-11 films from hollywood... i think that recent travolta hero firefighter movie was sort of testing the waters... be prepared as soon as enough time goes by so that the films arent lumped in with the 9-11 hats t-shirts and commemorative belt buckles made out of genuine steel from the trade center theres gonna be a ton of em... what better combination of hollywood sentimentality combined with a great national disaster... this is better than the one about the volcano in los angeles, or 'earthquake' etc etc so expect the story covered from every possible angle; from the terrorists to the firemen to the working people, add an orgy of special effects CGI explosions, the p.o.v of people jumping from the 60th floor etc if hollywood had any taste or dignity they'd leave it alone completely... by the way i dont suppose that many are aware that we were living right down the block from the whole event when it happened and for me the horror of it was matched by the fucking circus that quickly surrounded the event/area... every day seeing hordes of story hungry newscasters camped out bored and half asleep sitting around drinking coffee and then coming to life in front of the cameras where they were filled with false emotion etc etc... the tourist trade that sprung up was equally bizzare, people with cameras around their necks would stop me and ask where "ground zero" was... well i digress, in a similar vein i've been watching the michael jackson trial mostly cause theres nothing else on regular tv that i can stand and it really does appear that there is a lot of vindictiveness in the whole case regardless of what the poor guy was up to, another circus 'wow' he had seventeen hundred pictures of naked chicks on his computer, c'mon i'll bet half the men in america who own computers etc etc and 'wow!' a whole briefcase filled with sex mags... gimmie a fucking break and that film i'd raved about "OLD BOY" has gotten a US release, at least the best asian films are being picked up here picture is "fake new york in las vegas"

Posted by Chris Stein at 3/16/2005 11:59:00 PM

my latest thinking is that in twenty years or so when we are taken over by chinese/asian corporate/state entities we will all be alot better off... as i understand it the chinese economy is booming and if we keep depleting our funds on expsenive and pointless military initiatives... well its probably already too late to do anything about it, i dont pretend to understand the economics of the situation too specifically but it seems we are already deep in national debt to china/japan check http://202.221.217.59/print/news/nn12-2004/nn20041228d2.htm which discusses japanese and chinese funding of US deficit anyhow to me coming at it from a cultural artistic point of view i think we would be so much better off with more asian influence now yesterday i went to see constantine which was like fair to crummy depending on what your expectations of it mine being low, but before that i watched a korean film at home that i'd picked up in the airport at hong kong, "OLD BOY" is just a remarkable piece of filmmaking directed by Park Chanwook, i dont think it ever had a US release, then a few days before that i watched Wan Kar Wai's "2046" which is slow but also amazing... it would be one thing if all there was in the way of films was the crap churned out by hollywood but with just fantastic films coming out of various foreign markets it just is all the more pathetic... but how much of all this is due to what is happening in our society is due to the rigidity, crazy censorships that are being instituted, etc... yeah etc etc anyway do check out 'old boy' its no doubt available online, 2046 is very beautiful, but is purely a romance, warning for action fans picture is DH in bangkok/asia is calling

Posted by Chris Stein at 3/08/2005 11:59:00 PM