Warning: Not the Horror film the previews make it out to be

Shutter Island instead falls in the realm of psychothriller. I'm betting that the horror previews are at least part of the reason it took the #1 box office spot, as my gent and I wanted a good horror flick. I did find it a pleasant surprise, however. Quite as good/building from the highnote of The Departed in terms of actor's growth and being a drama that makes you think. And the cinematography kept you invested in the surreal moments. I know it was digital filtering, but the colors were so much more real during the dream sequences than any I've seen recently. Definitely recommended.

A belated appraisal of several things:

Monday, I finished Shop Class as Soulcraft. Impressive. I haven't read a book with such a challenging vocabulary in at least five years. I didn't understand at lease six sentences in two hundred pages of intense philosophical dispensation merely because I was unfamiliar with several words therein, nor any derivatives of the same family tree of words. A few other sentences made little sense because I was trying to grasp the larger philosophic argument. As inspiring as The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged, but nonfiction. As my own experience [namely going for a B.F.A. that essentially taught me how to build fake houses for fake people] demonstrated, Crawford elucidated: Those with great intellectual capacity find validation in the physical expression of a problem solved. A person can't be a mechanic, or a carpenter, or a welder, or a plumber, or for that matter a lumberjack, without possessing the kinds of problem solving skills that can only be learned by physically interacting with one's medium and having a high quantitative intelligence. I think Seth Godin's Linchpin will be a good follow-up. Shall let you know after I've read it. Shop Class is definitely on the list of books that offer life changing insights into my humanity.

Tuesday, I read Stayin' Alive: Armed and Female in an Unsafe World. I do put myself firmly in the "everyone should carry a gun and know how to use it and after the first ten years, violent crime would be literally nonexistent" camp, but Paxton Quigley goes a bit too far. Make my bedroom into a Panic Room indeed. I need not be paranoid, which is the feeling I get from her style. Though she tries to sound empowering, it comes across as "If you're female, people view you as an easy target and you WILL be attacked". Not my cup of feminist tea. I am interested in pursuing the tactical shooting competition thingies. And getting my concealed weapons permit. But golly. Your neo-feminist tripe marketed by a picture of yourself, wearing a powersuit, smiling demonically, holding a semi-auto just makes me want to puke. Or else shove a toothbrush down my throat so I can puke. Not recommended.

Tuesday I also watched The Departed. Wow. It almost ended like it was European. The good guys died! For a movie with Matt Damon, Leo Di'Crapio, and Jack Nicholson, it was intense. It was gritty. It was hard to watch. And, it was Art. I felt for these guys, and normally I just laugh at them for failing at acting.