G'out of here

Been to the doctors' over the past few days giving blood and getting x-rays and trying to find out what's wrong with my horribly swollen foot.

Is it gout?

Is it fractured?

Do you have any idea?


Shit. Thankfully these meds are making the swelling go away, and also doping me up something fierce.

The new Ryan Adams CD, Easy Tiger, is really good. If you're a fan of Ryan Adams, you know what you're getting in this package--country-influenced rock that is often hit-or-miss. Thankfully, Tiger follows the almost-all-hits 2005 triple punch of Cold Roses/Jacksonville City Nights/29, and this seems to be similarly even. I'd rate this album as probably my second favorite of Adams' solo-oeuvre, right behind his debut album, Heartbreaker. I find that I don't have an awful lot to say about the disc, but if you aren't moved by the album's standout song, "The Sun Also Sets" (or by the rocker "Halloweenhead"), you're a heartless beast.

The other night I watched a movie called Reincarnation. Well, actually, it's a Japanese movie called Rinne, but it's translated into "Reincarnation," and I'm an American capitalist pig that doesn't think everything is better in its original language. Rinne is about a young actress who is cast in a film about a real-life murder spree. She begins seeing the murders take place, and in turn begins to suspect that she is one of the victims reincarnate.

The film was directed by Takashi Shimizu, who directed the original Japanese films upon which The Grudge films were based. Since I started working at a movie theater almost seven years ago, I haven't seen an awful lot of movies like that. Turns out that the main audience of such films--intended or not--is giggling twelve-year-old girls, which greatly decreases from my enjoyment of such things. I now regret never having seen any of those movies.

This film is really creepy. I hate movies that generally think "jumping" is the same as "being scared." This movie has a few of those moments, but it's more unsettling, allowing the situation and the atmosphere to give you actual heebies and genuine jeebies. Without ruining the film, the end has several possible meanings, and it will leave you thinking about it for an hour or two after you're done watching--which may be the highest accomplishment a movie can attain. I love fighting robots as much as the next red-blooded American, but I can't imagine many people came out of Transformers pondering its deeper meaning.

Rinne was originally released in America as part of the "After Dark Horror Fest," also called '8 Films To Die For." If the films are all of this quality, I'll probably try to catch some more on DVD.