Seattle – yadadarcyyada

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED

Posted on May 13, 2014February 19, 2019 by D. Parker

Safety Not Guaranteed is one of the best quirky indie films few people have seen. Cleverly demonstrates that you don’t have to spend millions on a movie for it to be entertaining.

In 1997, Senior editor/writer Jon Silveria wrote a joke ad as filler in the Backwoods Home magazine. It became an internet sensation and inspired this 2012 film in which a writer and two interns go to a small town to answer the ad. The story they get isn’t the one they expected. Is it ever?

I guess we’re all looking for something. But what we’re looking for or what we find isn’t always what we need. And sometimes when we stop looking we find exactly what we need or just what we want, at least in that time.

At the risk of spoilers I’ll just say this movie reminds you life is too short not to enjoy some serious goofiness. And remember, some dreams may fade in time and scope, but replaced by others, at least that’s the hope.

The cast includes: Aubrey Plaza (Parks & Recreation, Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, 30 Rock, etc.), Mark Duplass (The Mindy Project, Zero Dark Thirty, etc.) and Jake Johnson who I will always think of as Nick from New Girl (also in Neighbors, The Lego Movie and next year’s Jurassic World), Mary Lyn Rajskub (24, 24:Live Another Day, 2 Broke Girls, etc.), Karan Soni (1600 Penn, Touch, The Neighbors, etc.), Kristen Bell (Veronica Mars, Deadwood, Heroes, Frozen, Fanboys, etc.) and more.

The thing I enjoy most about indie films is they take chances big budget films aren’t going to even think of, like bravely trying to give this a Hal Ashby feel by shooting the whole film with a Sony F3 camera using old Panavision lenses. Does it work? You decide.

The most important factor in this film…would you answer the ad?

And if so, where in time (or should I say when) would you go and why?

Music

tHE LiFE aNd LIfE Of KurT CObAiN

Posted on April 5, 2014April 5, 2019 by D. Parker

I was in my 20s when Kurt Cobain died. At the time of his death I was a music critic, for want of a better term.
I met Cobain. While interesting, it didn’t change my life nor his. He seemed sweet. Messed-up. Like a little boy, even though we were around the same age. Too sweet to be in the music industry.
I still enjoy Nirvana for what they were, I don’t try to figure them out. People constantly philosophized and misinterpreted their message. Still do. The media and public hounded Cobain. These and other demons rode him hard. Unstable to begin with, massive success was the final nail in his coffin.
Some people say Cobain was the voice of a generation, some say he was a mixed-up young man who didn’t really know what he wanted. I’d say he was a bit of both.
Cobain mentioned to a few people over the years he was thinking of suicide. When he was young he even said he wanted to die like Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix died of a drug overdose. Cobain also mentioned he wanted to die before he got old. Several members of his family committed suicide.
Cobain left or was taken from his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain.
Cobain was a strong opponent of sexism, racism, and homophobia. He grew increasingly offended by the alleged ‘fans’ he felt were posers jumping on a bandwagon. Well, duh silly, how many hours of people’s lives are spent doing what’s popular instead of what they like? Music, movies, TV, hobbies, friends, games, clothes, etc.
While I understand the frustration, forcing people to do stuff they don’t want is as just wrong as them doing stuff they don’t want to do. We all make choices.
Music that challenges the mainstream is easily neutralized by the music industry – they sign them. Make them popular. If for some reason they can’t be controlled or changed, then sales figures do the work for them. Problem solved either way. In Utero was a stunning album yet sales were low. People only wanted Smells Like Teen Spirit. Grunge was no different. It died young, like Cobain.
I wonder, without drugs, mood swings, chronic illness, revising his history, etc. what Cobain would have become? Then again, without those things he wouldn’t have been what he was. That’s why trying to find meanings in his lyrics or art is pointless. He didn’t know what he was or saying most of the time, how could anyone else? Maybe just enjoy what you enjoy and don’t pick it apart…who knows what you’ll find? Teen Spirit was a deodorant that smelled to cover other smells.
Cobain wanted the world to be a different place and since it wasn’t changing, he left.