And We Shall March

holding

JF: ... What do you do when you lose someone who sees something in you? How do you keep that alive in yourself once they’re gone, how do you take on their vision? Or
can you?

Swink: Josie did it by becoming Michael.

JF: Right, and I think that’s how you do it. You become that person. When they’re gone you keep them alive by becoming them in some way. It’s an expansion of self—it’s not that you’re dumping who you are, you’re adding something, you’re adding them. When my grandmother died, I started doing things I never would have done before because it made me feel close to her.

***

Grief itself is transformative. It is a process of disassembly. The bereaved must let go of the selves they were, as well as the loved ones they have lost. The dreams we have while grieving are an important part of that process.

“Our dreams have to do with how we internalize the people we love,” said Pamela McCarthy, director of counseling services at Smith College. “You learn to look within for the loved one and the particular function that person played in your life, such as caretaking or guidance in the case of a parent. This becomes part of a function that you can provide for yourself.”

Update (a couple of years later): Related.

TF Moolah Mostly Holding For My FYI

For the most part, tracking how much money a movie makes is of little interest to me because that has more to do with the Hollywood People swinging their dicks at each other than it does whether or not I enjoyed my Moviegoing Experience. Did everybody get paid? If the answer is "yes," that pretty much ends my interest on that end of things.

But the numbers that have been coming out for TF are (to me) astonishing, and when the person who understands this aspect of movie stuff far better than I comes back from his Exile, I need to send him to these links so he can read up and share thoughts.

Oh! If you're REALLY tired of hearing about Transformers, you probably should avoid the blog next week.

ONE (with select snippage)
Transformers is currently accounting for 81% of all weekly ticket sales (as of July 5 at 9:00 a.m. PT), and selling twice as many tickets on Fandango as 300 at the same point in the films' sales cycles.  In a recent online survey on Fandango, several thousand moviegoers responded with the top reasons they are seeing Transformers. The results
are as follows:
-- 75% were fans of the Transformers cartoons when they were kids;
-- 65% had played with the Transformers toys;
In addition, the Fandango survey results reveal that:
-- 73% of Transformers moviegoers on Fandango are male;
-- 70% are between 18 and 34;
-- 77% said that the summer movies they've seen have either met or
       exceeded their expectations;
-- 71% said they would like to visit locations where Transformers was
       filmed;
-- 92% said they would like to purchase a copy of the film when it comes
       out on DVD.

(that last data point is giggle-worthy, since around these parts w'ere already planning the dvd release party.)

TWO (the formatting is not my fault)
Box office gurus tell me that, after a record breaking Fourth Of July week opening, the DreamWorks battle of the bots should haul in $60 million this weekend for a 6 1/2-day cume of $150 million. That's 50% more gross receipts than Paramount anticipated, and 20% more than box office gurus predicted. That's also equivalent to the budget of the rock 'em, sock 'em movie without marketing costs. "Word has gotten out to the parents that it's OK to take the kids," a Paramount exec told me Friday. The studio just told me it believes Transformers's first 6 1/2 days of release positions it as one of the biggest non-sequel 7-day openings of all time, alongside Spider-Man 1, The Passion Of The Christ and Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone. Cinemascope gives Transformers an A with "under 18" and "18 to 24 years olds" giving it an A+. Biggest reason why moviegoers went to see it was "subject matter" (63%) and "type of movie" (35%). Other data have showed a strong nostalgia factor for Transformer toys and toons. Paramount also tells me preliminary exit polling shows that, among general audiences, Transformers is playing strongest with general audiences' older females (Moms) and through the roof with kids (90% of boys say they would definitely recommend) and parents (82% say they would definitely recommend). But the studio believes that what is making the big box office difference is not just African Americans flocking to see the film but especially Latino audiences.

Ghost Web

You know how there you are walking through the woods minding your own business, when all of a sudden you run face-first into a spiderweb you didn't see and you freak? Wanted that on this dress, a web that you could only see if the light hits it just right.

Going back to the proto, I doodled potential layouts in three colors (so that I would remember which was which). The red layout won. The black layout didn't get very far..something about putting a web right over the breast felt cliche.

And with that, off to the real cloth! Used a white pencil to draw the lines, then traced over that using a tight chain stitch in the Storm thread. I knew it would turn out great when, while stitching, I had trouble seeing the thread. In these two picts, My Lovely Assistant*** puts up with helping me try to capture the light for a direct and indirect shot.

Then off to the 24-hour drug dealer laundry for a third run through the washer, which erased all the guides, leaving only the near-invisible web loveliness.

*** All last week here's how My Lovely Assistant and I greeted each other daily:
Me: HOW MANY MORE DAYS?
Assistant: FIVE MORE DAYS!!!
Together: WOOOOOO!!
Guess what we were talking about?

Next time, Old Wives Tales!

Transformers Movie: Updating Bay/Herzog

Dunno about this new way of updating existing posts, but gonna continue to roll with it until I decide if it's effective. Have just emerged from the kitchen to add the new bit below to this post. And now we return to prepping for tomorrow's gathering.

Update (many, many hours later): The inbox tells me that clarification is needed. There's something more going on than both of these movies came out this week, so no, that's not enough of an explainer. Many several movies came out this week (or close to it), and the most obvious film to pair with Transformers would be Live Free or Die Hard, another film where part of the goal is to blow up as much shit as possible. (Did go to see that once I realized it wasn't opening on July 4th as I originally thought, and it was all right. The first and the third outings in that franchise still remain the highlights.) Unlike Bay, Herzog does not blow shit up as a matter of routine. He does some seriously weird, lovely and often moving arthouse work. Herzog may have done a movie about Nessie, but it's stretching credulity to imagine him ever doing something based on a line of toys. Where the New Yorker has never before given any of Bay's films the Deep Review Treatment, it quite often does so for Herzog's work. Yes, the review I'm talking about tries to bridge the two creators via the Irony Thing, but it's a weak linking. There is no reason for the New Yorker to review TF, let alone pair it with Herzog's latest. That's why I think it was odd and worth nothing (and apparently someone else thought it odd enough to wake me up and bring it to my attention. There WILL be retribution for that, by the way.)  Maybe the pairing was a way to compare along the spectrum? If you laid out Movie Types in a line and placed Bay and Herzog along it, one would be at the Roy end, the other would be hanging out at Biv. That's all I got right now, but pondering about this continues...

Transformers Movie: There Has Been A Disturbance In The Force

Why it is that A Certain Person insists on calling over and again at ungodly hours of the dawn until I break down and pick up the phone will ever be beyond me, but in this case it's justified. He wanted to know if I was as surprised as he was to see this. I hadn't seen it yet, but once I did and my foggy brain realized that it was located on the actual real site, my answer was ???!!!!????? In general the New Yorker doesn't pay attention to movies like this, and certainly not to Bay. Hitting the search function to see if memory lined up with fact, I found only two passing blips of Disapproval. But not only did they give TF the full treatment, they paired it with the new Herzog movie of all things!

And we ponder...what does this say about how the world is shifting? This means something. I can feel it. I just don't know what it means. I'd sleep on it, but I'm up, now.

Must say, I do love the illustration for the review...

Whoops! Forgot to add...one of the funniest picts I have ever seen can be found here. If that doesn't indicate a sense of humor, I dunno what does.

Update (many, many, many hours later): The inbox tells me that clarification is needed. There's something more going on than both of these movies came out this week, so no, that's not enough of an explainer. Many several movies came out this week (or close to it), and the most obvious film to pair with Transformers would be Live Free or Die Hard, another film where part of the goal is to blow up as much shit as possible. (Did go to see that once I realized it wasn't opening on July 4th as I originally thought, and it was all right. The first and the third outings in that franchise still remain the highlights.) Herzog does not blow shit up as a matter of routine. He does some seriously weird, lovely and often moving arthouse work. Where the New Yorker has never before given any of Bay's films the Deep Review Treatment, it quite often does so for Herzog's work. Yes, the review I'm talking about tries to bridge the two creators via the Irony Thing, but it's a weak one. There is no reason for the New Yorker to review TF, let alone pair it with Herzog's latest. That's why I think it was odd and worth nothing (and apparently someone else thought it odd enough to wake me up and bring it to my attention. There WILL be retribution for that, by the way.)  Maybe the pairing was a way to compare along the spectrum? If you laid out movie types in a line and placed Bay and Herzog along it, one would be at the Roy end, the other would be hanging out at Biv. That's all I got right now, but pondering continues...

Transformers Movie: Because Art Takes Many Forms, That's Why

Today you get only one Obsessive Transformers Link. I have tons more, but this is the one that matters.

"I see myself as an artist," he says with a distinct LA drawl. "Art is something that you create from nothing. I use a lot of very talented people, but it is art if you can get people to applaud or laugh in that theatre, so you're creating some sort of emotional response. Then you realise, hey, they're applauding for a truck! Do you know what I'm saying?"

Bay is referring to his new art film, Transformers, a live-action film based on the popular series of toys from the 1980s where various ordinary-looking vehicles turn - or "transform" - into giant warring robots. In the film the robots do battle on Earth. Some are here to protect the humans, others to destroy. There are explosions, fireballs, some fabulously photo-realistic digital effects.

These days I'm reduced to imagining the response.  The "boom issue" was one of our Years Long Never-Ending Arguments. For the record, I'm the one who was right.

Yup. Still Not Fair.

On the second page of the story linked above is an answer to the question we were wondering about around here last fall. It was a flat-out marketing deal after all! Get someone to cover the cars, that gives you more moolah to put into blowing shit up!

(meanwhile, "LA drawl"??? what?)

Transformers Movie: Countdown to SPAZZ

Despite the bumped-up release date we're sticking with the original plan of going on the 4th because we have jobs and everything. Also, we already have tickets for the 4th. Lining up schedules for the outing went fairly easy, which never happens. Probably it being a holiday helped.

This dispatch in the inbox from a fellow backgrounder was a hoot: How are you going to hold your composure in the theater??  You know they'll kick your ass out for being noisy at the Arclight!  hahaha

In the pic I'm walking around Optimus singing Holy, Holy, Holy/ Optimus all mighty/bringing the Autobots to to blow shit up! There were more verses but I can't remember them 'cause I made it up on the spot. A couple of crew guys you can't see are laughing their asses off. There was also a production assistant assigned to guard Optimus. When she first started working on the shoot she thought it was the coolest thing to be guarding Optimus. But as time went on she admitted to finding the thought of guarding a semi-truck for hours on end boring. Clearly she is not a fan. But since I am, she let me polish a little bit of Optimus' fender with the soft cloth and spritzer bottle sitting there on his step, which I don't think you can see clearly in this picture. I'm telling you, they kept that truck CLEAN. I've never seen a truck that shiny in my life.

Anywho, linkage!

Talk smack about Megatron, fanboy? MEGATRON WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND SET YOU STRAIGHT. Oh, all right. This exchange with Frank Welker is more sedate than I'm making it out to be, but it's still interesting.

The internet(s) say this is the theme song for the movie. You know, I'm liking it. It's got a retro light industrial feel that pushes the nostalgia buttons.  

Clip from the film that aired on the Tonight Show.

Funnier clip with guys, guns and Scorponok from who knows where this guy got it. Scroll down, and there's another clip with Barricade.

Pretty Rainbow Optimus has flames because Bay wanted him to have flames. Because flames are COOL. So THERE.

All the voices (including two blackitudes). But I think there's an error in this story. Cullen wasn't the voice of Kong for the remake, Andy Serkis was. Unless they're talking about the remake from the 70s? I don't know who did the giant monkey in that one. Also, I thought Keith David, another blackitude, was voicing Barricade, not Harnell but maybe things changed. (I highlight the black people, but from what I saw TF has a nice mix of ethnicities throughout in main characters, middle characters and background. There were a bunch of non-whites behind the camera, too, a couple of them in what seemed to be positions of authority, which was unusual to see and pleased me greatly. There was a black guy in the art department who kept going on and on about Black Panther while I was stuffing my face between takes.)  Still, I had no idea the voice of Optimus is also the voice of Eyeore! This makes me giggle.

Report and picts from the press junket in Korea.

A page of pictures, including one of Optimus standing in front of the Griffith Observatory! (To hedge, my consultants and I are 98% sure that's the Griffith. It looks like it. I bet Optimus didn't have to deal with the god awful shuttle system, though.)

Fabulously geeky detailed review of the Arcee doll. (Arcee is one of the female Transformers.) This is interesting because I didn't know there was an Arcee doll, what with her not being in the movie.  Maybe they're getting a jump on dolls for the next movies?

Somewhere I read a story from the visual effects guy talking about how Optimus alone has 10,000+ moving parts. But I forget where, so no linky.

And here's another poster I found on the internet(s). Not sure if it's a legit one, though...the people and Optimus look a little photo-shoppy to me. It's possible it's a fan-created poster. Still, it's kinda nifty.

But What It Really All Comes Down To Is The ! Transformers Movie !

The GIANT FUCKING ROBOTS ARE COMING t-shirts are now available! Charity not yet specified. They're a lot more boring than I thought they would be, and they're not available in female-fit. (But a while ago, the last time I was bitching about the of female-fit shirts out there, the Lord Of Fluffy Bunnies stepped up and explained in detail why organizations tend not to do female-fit shirts. One cannot deny the sense of what he said, especially looking at the numbers. Thus, I will forevermore stop bitching about how geeek outlets hardly ever make female-fit shirts.) On a payday to be named later I shall snag one and whip it through the 401-A. I'll probably add sequins! But chances are slim I'll get it done before the movie comes out because work on the Lovecraft dress and the Anansi dress needs to be finished by CCI..

The voice of Optimus speaks! I guess it would suck to have to audition for a part you originated. But Mr. Peter Cullen is a trooper and gossip from the trenches tells me he's a class act. THAT'S WHY HE'S OPTIMUS!!!

Press kit! Contest! Which I won't enter because I have enough junk in this house, but if you do, and if you do because you heard about the contest here first, and if you win, you are MORALLY OBLIGATED to hand over either the Barricade t-shirt or the Autobot magnet to ME. I'll decide which one I want later.

Mr. Potato Head Optimus! Totally getting that for the nephews.

Wrappping it up with the obligatory link to the movie website. Which has been updated but still remains annoying and a serious danger to all those on dial-up. Once I can get to a high-speed outlet, I'll check out the RoboVision feature and report back.

Transformers Trailer: The Reviews Are In!

The reviews were actually in a while ago, but I pushed this one back.

I think I just wet myself. - Dr. Bolt

I want to have relations, in the Biblical sense, with this trailer. - Somebody's Boy Toy

Okay, now which one is which, again? - Ms. Classy

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Giggles

Aren't you supposed to be working on your book? - Ms. I Don't Want A Codename For Your Stupid Blog

I couldn't watch because the goddamned flames on goddamned Optimus blinded me with rage! - Someone who does not yet have a codename.

Overall, I'd say the response is high!

According to the internet(s) this is the poster in Taiwan. Think I'll wander around and find posters from all the different regions.

This Is How You Make Perfectly Grown People With Jobs And Kids And Car Payments And Everything That Comes With Being Perfectly Grown People Flail About Like 13-Year-Old Boys

"Lo and behold the Transformers theatrical trailer."

Jesus. Christ. All. Mighty.

And yet, that James is not around for it is becoming an escalating emotional issue, if for no other reason than I won't be able to enjoy his Traditional Response to my favorite phrase -- I told you so.

It's going to be an interesting next few weeks.

Also, not fair.