The Friday Night Media Mixer

Every Friday night the boys at TMH get together for our Friday Night Media Mixer. It's basically a collaboration of what we each managed to scrape together during the previous week, but haven't been able to use yet. You know, it's everything that didn't really make sense on Monday, wasn't relevant on Tuesday, had been forgotten by Wednesday, was a vague memory on Thursday, yet was somehow powerful enough to work its way into the Friday segment. Okay!, if you noticed the posting date above, you've already realized we're late this week, but "The Mixer" will work its way into the Friday schedule from here on out!

Tonight's mixer is a break from the "real news" but still reminds us -- in one form or another -- of the weekly schedule as depicted by the calendar, film, the arts, and advertising...it's a veritable media smorgasbord, pulled together from the Internet by a few dedicated knuckle-heads who, with the idea of how to split an atom in mind, individually run the risk of information overload! But hey!, as The Stranger would say, "I done introduced it enough."

National Geographic posted an article naming Friday, December 12, as the night of the Biggest, Brightest Full Moon of 2008. The moon, in all of its glory, looked incredible. It's no wonder The Mixer took forever -- we were distracted!

In its first week of existence, TMH felt a certain immediacy in the air and eventually landed on YouTube. We just had to check out the unbelievable media mixer "mash-up" of all of the Coen brothers' films. Originally compiled by Paul Proulx from Hobnox, TMH discovered it at an incredibly cool blog entitled grow-a-brain.




What would the Friday Night Mixer be without seeing George Clooney, as Ulysses Everett McGill, lip-synching to The Soggy Bottom Boys' "Man of Constant Sorrow," Peter Stormare, as Gaear Grimsrud, demanding, "We stop at pancake's house!" (the look on Steve Buscemi's face is priceless!) and Tom Hanks as Professor G.H. Dorr in The Ladykillers not only seeing Grimsrud's pancake "wager," but apparently raising it by demanding, "We must have waffles, we must all have waffles...forthwith!"

But the kicker is the nerve of Woody Harrelson's unfortunate bit character, Carson Wells, in that hilarious (but deadly!) psychoanalytical discussion with No Country for Old Men madman Anton Chigurh (played by Javier Bardem).

Wells: "Do you have any idea...how crazy you are?"

Chigurh: "You mean the nature of this conversation?"

Wells: "I mean the nature of you."

It was disappointing to see Wells go out the way he did. We can never get enough of Harrelson but, like Pitt in "Burn After Reading," his un-doing is shocking and disappointing in an entirely appropriate that's-what-makes-the-Coens-so-great kinda way. They're never afraid to kill-off one of the major stars in their films. After all, there are others handy!

As is the case with Coen brother films and characters, it is "the gaze" which sells the story, demands complete understanding from the audience, and completes the twisting tale. The mash-up catches almost every character from the Coen filmography convincing us of the intense power of "the look." The list includes Turturro, Harrelson, Bardem, Grimsrud, Getz, McDormand, Newman, Byrne, Thornton, Bridges, Goodman and, finally, -- at the very end of "No Country..." -- Tess Harper and Tommy Lee Jones. And then?...well...and "Then I woke up..."

Jose Feliciano's soothing rendition of "Let's Find Each Other Tonight" is a great choice for the musical bed in the final minutes of Proulx's work, and proves that -- musically -- Feliciano never gets old. Here's a musical montage of Feliciano images for the true fan:



Javier Bardem's acting -- along with Josh Brolin's -- makes No Country... an outstanding film, and TMH has a serious beef with anyone who didn't like the ending. The Anton Chigurh character plays well against both Brolin and Harrelson because he's so damn unpredictable. Every action he takes is subject to chance, but he just keeps right on rolling, and you can never quite figure out what he's going to do next. With the exception of a few lucky souls, his psychotic behavior means big-time trouble for anyone that crosses his path. For example, the gas station attendant has the audacity to inquire about the weather!



"What business is it of yours...where I'm from?...Friend-O!" Chigurh's psychosis is directed and, in this one case, kept in-check by the 1958 quarter that's "...been traveling twenty-two years to get here, and now it's here..." and he's not kidding when he tells the old man "...you stand to win everything." But the wonderful thing about the "nature" of the conversation between Chigurh and the old man is that it, too, is a type of coin toss. Control between the two speakers goes back-and-forth from the old man to Chigurh, and back again like a table tennis match, or a coin flip. The Coen's masterfully control the scene by making its form fit its function, and the gas station conversation provides the reason for why Chigurh will later question Wells' meaning with regard to the "nature" of their conversation.

In what can only be described as hyperbolic disappointment, "Well done!," is Chigurh's response to the old man winning the toss, and the 1958 quarter itself. Cigurh assures the man that it is both his lucky coin, and only a coin...because that is what it has become now that Chigurh is no longer its possessor...the coin is the "luck" which symbolizes the old man's salvation. TMH loved the Coens' use of the "coin toss" as the determining factor and the ultimate predictor between life and death. Chigurh's loss is a reminder that The Grim Reaper himself must submit to luck, fate, and the directives of a coin toss.

Although the threat of violence in No Country... is fairly low-key, it is omnipresent; always bubbling just below the surface. Thematically, as well as philosophically, the entire scene reminds us that "...on a long enough time-line, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero" and both the scene and the fate of the gas station attendant juxtapose incredibly well with what happens to Raymond K. Hessel in David Fincher's Fight Club. In Fincher's film, however, it is the narrator (Ed Norton) and Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who represent the two sides of the coin. For more on Fincher you can visit sensesofcinema.



The Coen brother theme continued for much of Friday Night's Mixer, but TMH eventually latched onto Jeff Bridges, and couldn't let go. What can you say about a guy who has been so outstanding for so long, in so many films? Bridges is a TMH favorite (as are Tuturro, Harrelson, Clooney and Pitt). Anyone whose acting skill can so easily bring Jeffrey Lebowski to life, or should we say Time, is alright with us.

Which is to say we simply had to locate The Dude. Stephen Colbert aside, TMH's "spin" is that Bridges has a sick amount of talent. His website is good for a lot of laughs too, and made us feel like "Little Lebowski Urban Achievers."

Among the interesting things was an apropos quote from "The Teachings of Don Juan" by Carlos Castaneda:

"All paths are the same: they lead nowhere... They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush. In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths but I am not anywhere. My benefactor's question has meaning now. Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn't, it is of no use. Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn't. One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it. The other will make you curse your life. One makes you strong; the other weakens you."

Sounds a lot like the Dude searching for a replacement for his "micturated" rug, only without all of the Caucasian references. But not to worry, because in the time it took us to absorb Castaneda, there was another round of White Russians at-hand..."Hey!, careful man...there's a beverage here!"

On his website, Bridges also alludes to his participation in a new movie, and brings us back to the aforementioned Clooney. We found this:



Which was immediately followed by this:



The reference is to a 2004 Jon Ronson book entitled The Men Who Stare at Goats. It's a book that the staff at TMH has read, by the way, and which will be featured this month on our sister site -- The Literary Hammer.

Here's Ronson's book cover:



TMH expects big things because apparently the movie will be based largely upon the book, and the book is very "Duuuuuude" (albeit in a militaristic, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney sort of way. It describes efforts by the U.S. military to actually train a group of American soldiers to fight using the highly developed -- and highly dangerous! -- paranormal arts; including Chinese mind "techniques." These techniques include attempting to kill goats by staring at them in deep, zen-like meditation sessions with the express purpose of eventually being able to use these military tactics on human beings.

Other actors appearing in the film reportedly include Kevin Spacey of Keyser Soze fame, and Ewan McGregor. Nice kilt, Obi-Wan! However, Ewan McGregor should not to be confused with Clan MacGregor.

So, where exactly does George Clooney come into all of this? Well, TMH has learned that Clooney does, in fact, stare at goats.

Still need proof? Okay, here's last month's straight-forward offering from Cinemablend.com:

George Clooney Is A Hairy Goat-Starer
19 November 2008 9:34 AM, PST

"At 47, George Clooney might be too old to be a new recruit in the army... unless he uses the powers of his mind. That's the idea behind his bizarrely titled new movie Men Who Stare At Goats, about a division of the U.S. Army dedicated to using psychic powers to defeat the enemy. Based on some new set photos that surfaced over at Just Jared, focusing on your psychic abilities also requires not cutting your hair for a long time. We've seen Clooney's new mustache in paparazzi photos recently, but now he's got the shaggy hair to match-- a far, far cry from the cropped cut of the E.R. days. My bet is it's a wig, but hey, you never know. Of course, I know there are plenty of you who couldn't care less what George Clooney's hair looks like, so you're free to move along."

Ah...if it were only that easy! TMH just can't "move along" without first flashing back to the Coen "treatment" of Clooney's "hair jelly" and Ulysses Everett McGill's neurotic obsession with his hair and pomade in O Brother, Where Art Thou?



Remember, "it's a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart" and the "pleasing odor is half the point!"

TMH's "congregation" agreed to disagree on the FOP versus Dapper Dan debate, although before leaving the Coens behind we spied a couple more golden nuggets on the "geographical oddity" that is Jeff Bridges' website. They provided the inspiration for our last group of FNMM postings...so, "Come on in boys, the water's fine!"

There was this note:



Which brought to mind the Media Assassin, and made us wonder:



That reminded us of Africa, and we went to check The Daily Mail. Seriously, trying to be a pirate in the Twenty-First Century has about as much of a chance of success as this, courtesy of Melt Comics.

Suffice to say that Somali pirates don't have the best instincts. They would have had more success trying this:



The trick is counter-intuitive and goes against all of our instincts, just like The Monty Hall problem.

But despite fooling a bunch of mathematicians, the two-thirds answer to the problem is correct! Don't believe us? Okay, go and check it out for yourself, and then hurry back to The Mixer!...seriously, we'll wait... Right here's your PROOF!

The whole counter-intuitive angle brought to mind The Big Lebowski Phenomenon, and as The Friday Night Media Mixer came to an end, we were all reminded that, “It takes guys as simple as the Dude and Walter to make a story this complicated...and they'd really rather be bowling.”

And with that, it's time for us to "R* U* N* N* O* F* T"...We'll see you next week!

--TMH