harveybirdman

I am interested in frontiers (some times this is synonymous with extremes, some times not) of thinking, belief, and at times behavior. Many things on TV shows,in movies and books can be entertaining and/or provocative to watch/read but that does not mean I want them to actually occur or that I would like to participate. And when someone's line is further along than another person's, it seems quite a leap to extrapolate that that person has no line at all.

Long ago on one of my birthdays I decided I was going to go bungee jumping. I thought it was possible, not necessarily likely, that doing this might help me with my fear of heights. And confronting this fear in such a direct way was the only reason I went through with it. The fee covered two falls. After the first fall my entire face was numb and I had for the first time ever first-hand experience of what it feels like for your legs to turn to jelly. My friend and one of the operators had to bully and cajole me back on to the crane to do my second fall. The experience was absolutely terrifying, I did not enjoy myself even a little, I will never do it again, and I don't believe it diminished my fear of heights at all. But it did stay with me as an example of me being willing to face at least some things that truly frighten me. I have a memory seared into me through adrenaline of standing up to face the fear and just that. No expectations of conquering that fear or even weakening its grip, just a little bravery and will to simply face it. Sometimes that gives me just a little more faith in myself in the face of anything else out there.

I appreciate your blog posting. These are ideas I try to remind myself of again and again and you have helped me with that today. I have worked in mental health for a while now, primarily higher acuity inpatient care. Something I learned long ago was that, even when dealing with people who have massive amounts of paranoia and distrust that may or may not be coupled with psychosis or mania, etc., you can move mountains by simply staying mindful of being honest, respectful, having humility and empathy, and keeping your word. (And having a whole lot of patience helps to deal with the times things don't quite work out.) On days where we are woefully understaffed or the day is simply awful for whatever reason, we would have a ward meeting to explain what is going on and asking for people to try to be patient and work with us. I have been amazed again and again at how people will come together to help. People that have been antagonistic or isolative would step up to help a peer or help staff with issues. Does it work every time? Absolutely not. Are there still people who will be opportunistic and predatory with these circumstances? Certainly. But I continue to see enough of the other happen that I try to remember some of these examples when the jaded harveybirdman begins to hold sway yet again. And it helps to remember some of these times when I find my first impressions being so negative or turning away before even allowing enough time for any real impression at all.

I miss out out with a lot of horror movies. 1) I'm not a straight man. Could we have less titties in these things? Please? Now full frontal male nudity for days would be just fine. Am I a hypocrite? Fuckin' A…maybe I just like the company. 2) I am one of those sick souls who actually thrives, nay, insists on good writing, on a substantial story. (Unless, of course, we are talking creature features and then I am willing to negotiate my standards or perhaps throw them under the bus altogether.) Why does horror so often have to wallow in the lowest common denominator? I love Phil Hartman's usual line in "Newsradio" whenever he is trying to argue the profundity of something when really he just wants something for himself: "It speaks to the human condition!" Well horror does speak to the human condition. It speaks to base instincts, to the boundaries of our culture, our norms. It takes us to the very edge of the safety of the camp's fire light and dares to step into the darkness beyond. It can strip away all of our comforting notions of what is real, what is safe, what we are. This is what draws me to horror and fantasy and science fiction as genres-let us redraw the entire map of reality. This activity can expand our notions of what is, what could be. Stepping outside can broaden our perspective even if afterwards we step back to where we were originally. And every once in awhile someone comes along who actually takes my hand and draws me out to the edge, who shows me the shadows- not merely pointing to them from the safety of the fire's glow. What brought all of this on, you ask? These thoughts are not brand new for me but most recently reignited by the movie The Human Centipede (First Sequence). I have been fascinated about the plot for weeks since I first heard about it and I saw the movie a couple days ago. [note: spoiler alert-and I am not speaking of your appetite here] It involves a surgeon who was known for separating siamese twins. He wanted to take separate entities and join them to reverse the process and make a conjoined creature. So he kidnaps three people and surgically joins them mouth to anus to form a human chain, a centipede as it were. He creates triplets conjoined by their digestive tract. This disturbs me. It also makes me want to stand up and applaud and let us address that. I could not get the imagery, the concept out of my head. That is horror. I want you to make my skin crawl, make me doubt my kinship with humanity, take me further and show me a brand new frontier. I have felt some shame in the past for enjoying a disturbing movie (e.g. "In a Glass Cage") but I think the pushing of boundaries is the salient point here. So the concept for this movie was magical for me but the execution… I am reminded of something my friend told me about showing your ass in public. If you are going to do it then go all the way. You don't just let it peek out a little. Some wonderfully imaginative and dark soul (talking of you here, Mr. Six) came up with this concept and created this movie. And I thought it was well done and a good horror movie and so much better than much of what I see in the genre. But I found myself thinking of things that could easily be done to fully explore this dark corner. For example, I want to see the full "expression" of the digestive tract connection for this centipede. Isn't that merely exploring the underlying premise for the actual horror of this scenario? Granted, a few minutes after I was thinking: is Anyone going to administer a laxative so we can get a money shot here?(I am classy) The idea was raised in the movie-but it was never acted on. I want to see you go all the way. Jorg Buttgereit's movies have disturbed me in the past. And don't get me wrong- the implied, the unshown can take us further and linger longer within us than the graphic. That was the sublime beauty of H.P. Lovecraft's creations. But we are not exactly inundated with subtlety here with The Human Centipede, are we? You are on my radar and in my mind now, Mr. Six. Thank you. Take me further next time.

While I love Harrison Ford I certainly agree with the post that Liam Neeson would have been better casting in this.