I went to a BBQ yesterday for a friends birthday party. There was lots of great food and people. It was like a microcosm of life in a country. So many different races and nationalities were represented. It was very cool. That’s one thing I admire about him and his wife, they are very diverse people.
While there I met an actor who went to Berkley. He was a very cool person. We had a nice little chat about school and it progressed into how we relate to pursuing our creations. He’s another person in a line of people that have been telling me about that drive and desire. He also told me that there is no way for me to ever stop. At this point I began to tell him of all the things I’ve sacraficed in this journey. His reply was – it will help me to appreciate things so much more when it pays off.
Afterwards I made a trip with another friend to see Saw III. 15 minutes into the movie I was debating why I had made that decision. I’m usually pretty into watching halloween type movies, but this one certainly is going beyond even what the first two were. The first had great tests of human willpower over situations. This is the guise of the third one, but there’s an element to it that is askew and it’s gone toward a direction that became just plain senseless. The story took a while to start which was part of the problem.
I assume that the franchise assumes you know how its all supposed to work, so it doesn’t start with the story. Which I think is a mistake. Even with knowing the general concept it fell apart here. Being gory for the sake of gore certainly is a goal for lots of horror movies – that’s where Saw set itself apart. There was a reason. That reason has now been lost at least for the first part of Saw III. Eventually about 2/3 of the way in it starts to pull together. Unfortunately the traps lose their appeal when you realize they mean nothing in this installment. Maybe they’ll redeem themselves in part IV. That’s right Saw IV coming one year from now.
It’s that senselessness I was watching in the movie that caused me a desire to just turn it off. But in a big theater the only way to do that is to walk out. Or just start to drown out your visual by thinking other things. That is the basis behind today’s Single of the Day. Signal to Noise is a recording term. It defines the quality you’ll get in your sound. However I’m making the connection that I’ll have to have a lot of good visual images to mask over the dreadful mindless deaths and how they happened.
The thing I love about Peter Gabriel is that he is a true visionary. It would be a huge compliment to be compared to his talent. What am I saying? I’ve actually received that compliment over stuff from Practical Insanity. Though I would never make that comparison, it was extremely flattering. I know from watching what he’s created, it’s certainly inspiring to me to help me want to create more.
The more signal I can create, the more I can drown out the noise, or in this case the movie that will allow me to overwrite or override the terrible things I’ve now seen. If you haven’t ever purchased a Peter Gabriel song, why? Do you not own any of his CD? Get thee to a story and change that now!
(** Disclaimer: If Peter’s label issues way more noise than signal to me, I shall be forced to reduce that noise by immediately dumping the audio. The post will remain to show that signal! **)