Indianapolis movie theaters

Indianapolis has the absolutely most boring film scene in the midwest. Considering that anybody who ventures into the film industry usually goes to the east coast or west coast, Indianapolis and pretty much any midwest city is left filmless. This situation causes the movie theaters we have to play mainstream crap. Now I mean crap as in most of the stuff that comes out of Hollywood nowadays sucks but certainly not all of it. Plenty of films that come out in the theaters are damn good. Nevertheless all we get are the flicks that are coming out of Hollywood. Now we do have one exception and that is the Keystone Art Cinema. That is the best theater in town. They play the mainstream stuff that comes out in all the other theaters but they also play the independent and less known stuff that the other theaters don't play. Even though those films don't come around enough. They also serve alcohol which every theater in the world should do. That's it, that's all we have. One theater that plays a couple of lesser known films every now and then.

It all makes sense because this is Indianapolis and all we have is Broadripple and the Colts to entertain us. Maybe this is just me but I would love to have a movie theater that plays all the classics and the movies that you have never heard of or haven't seen since the 70's. If I had the money and the resources I wouldn't hesitate to open a theater. This will probably never happen unless myself or somebody with the money and the passion starts it up but hopefully one day the people of Indianapolis will know more than whats at their local theater.

The Damn Bus System

The public bus system in Indianapolis needs to be renovated for sure. None of the buses really go east and west, they all go north south. If you want to go from 86th and Ditch over to Castleton you have to ride the bus all the way down to 52nd street or something then probably walk to Keystone then wait for that bus. That is absolutely ridiculous. The government needs to give just a few more dollars that I am sure they can afford to the bus system so they can make a few new routes and hire a few more drivers. I can see why they have not payed any attention to the bus system because everybody who works in Indianapolis drives. All the people who live in Carmel, Westfield and all those cities north of us can afford to drive an hour to work. As well as students who live in surrounding areas and the majority of the Indianapolis area, we all drive everywhere. So the only people who do ride the bus are those who can't afford to waste their gas everyday or don't have a car. These people are certainly a minority so to the government that doesn't matter, not as important. Just because we are a smaller city than Chicago doesn't mean we can't have a bus system just as good.

Bus VS. Car

I think one of the funniest things about IUPUI is how so many students have the money to drive to school every day. I do understand if you live way out of town and the only way to get here is to drive but even that is almost absurd. Gas is at ridiculous prices these days and there must be better forms of transportation. That is why I ride the bus. The city bus can save a person so much gas. You just have to be willing to get up and be at the bus stop on time. The pros for riding the bus outweighs the pros for driving any day of the week. You don't waste gas, less pollution, you have time to finish or do your homework and somebody else is driving so your not taking the risk of crashing your car. I do understand about driving though. Depending on where you live you can leave whenever you want and you don't have to worry about missing the bus. The bus can be a hassle but saving money just makes more sense. If students would pull their heads out of their asses, they could save the money their parents give them for gas and spend that on other stuff while they take the bus to school.

Liverpool

Liverpool Rummy is a card game that most people have never heard of. However if your last name is McCabe and you are related to me then you know how to play Liverpool. In many families playing specific card games is popular. Sometimes it's poker, bridge, hearts, golf, rummy, euchre, and hundreds of others. With my family it is Liverpool. If you know how to play basic rummy then you will probably learn Liverpool quickly. However it takes a couple games to learn. You have to memorize runs, groups, buys, how many buys you have, the wild card, how many hands there are and the specific hands. It is a lot to remember. The players usually throw down eighty cents at the beginning and attempt to win their money back and then some. I have been playing Liverpool since I was a little kid. I love playing it, we usually play it at my grandparents house and at family reunions. What is funny to me about the game is that it actually is kind of boring. You just go around over and over again waiting till you have a hand you can lay down then go out and win the hand. The most emotion usually comes at the end of the hand when somebody goes out and wins before another player has laid down there cards so they get stuck with all those points. That really sucks. Either way Liverpool is still one of the funnest games and maybe one day it will be known by more people.

Exploitable Elements

The exploitation film is something of greatness. It is gritty, sleazy, bloody, nudie, happy, druggy, funny, action packed, and low budget. The many genres are all you need to describe an exploitation flick: blaxploitation, sexploitation, dwarfsploitation, carsploitation, drugsploitation, nazisploitation, cannibals, nunsploitation, nudies, kung fu, zombies, revenge films, spaghetti westerns, women in prison films and many more. Wikipedia defines an exploitation film as: "a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter." Or there is one major theme the film is based upon, like 60's and 70's black culture, an evil dwarf, a girl who gets revenge on all the men that have horribly screwed her over her entire life (sometimes literally). These "B movies" were known for being low budget, cheesy and sleazy. From what I have seen which is not much these movies can be intense, cool, the fight scenes can be incredible (kung fu), and some of the funniest films I have ever scene. Don't get me wrong a good chunk of exploitation flicks were definitely cheesy and sleazy. The gore was unlike hollywood's rated R requirements and the sex didn't hold back as much as mainstream movies. That is what made these movies so cool, they held nothing back. They did what they wanted and that made them classics.

Another aspect of the exploitation film was the theaters they were played in. The B movie was usually seen at night, usually after midnight, and played in grindhouse theaters. These theaters were not your mom and dad's theaters. They probably played pornography as well as any genre from the exploitation film. The reason for the name "grindhouse" is because the theaters were known to play the films one after another or they kept grinding them out. Another reason for the name is because the theaters had previously been burlesque theaters where 'bump n' grind' dancing and striptease use to be on the bill. Exploitation films were also played in drive in movie theatres, mainly because the business was declining and the theater owners needed something that would attract customers so they started playing exploitation films.

Nowadays these theaters are all but vanished and probably only exist in the larger cities like New York, Chicago and LA. However, since the invention of DVD's there is a huge surge in the production of these films on DVD. Some even are special edition with box sets and things like that. So even though the theaters are gone we can still get the exploitation experience right in our own homes.

The Way of the Wu

If you have never heard of them the Wu Tang Clan is a very successful, influential hip hop group that emerged in the early 90's. They are from New York and were formed in Staten Island or Shaolin as they refer to it. Probably the hip-hop group with the most emcees, Wu Tang's members are: RZA, GZA, Ghostface Killah, U God, Inspectah Deck, Method Man, Raekwon The Chef, Masta Killa, Ol' Dirty Bastard and Cappadonna. Cappa was not an original member but joined in 2000.
The reason they are called Wu Tang Clan is because of their love and influence from kung fu flicks. Their first album "Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) was revolutionary in hip hop. As wikipedia said:

"Enter the Wu-Tang revolutionized hip hop and helped bring the East Coast back into the spotlight after Dr. Dre's G-funk had come to dominate the rap scene, in large part thanks to RZA's lean, gritty and very distinctive production style."
The name of the album came from one of the most famous kung fu flicks of all time, "Enter The 36 Chambers of Shaolin."

Their first album was a step off point for all the members of the group. Every single member has embarked on solo projects, some of which have been just as popular as "Enter the Wu Tang." RZA has produced the majority of the solo projects, has acted in feature films like American Gangster, and has created the soundtracks for films like Jim Jarmusch's "Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai" and Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill." Raekwon's first solo album "Only Built for Cuban Linx" is hailed as a classic and I think one of the best hip hop albums of all time. Ghostface Killah has come out with ten albums to date, the first two were two of the greatest hip-hop albums ever created. GZA's second solo album "Liquid Swords" is hailed as a classic. Ol' Dirty's first solo album "Return to the 36 Chambers" is one of the most famous Wu albums ever created. Method Man's first album "Tical" is a classic and he has also acted in many films and television shows. The Wu Tang Clan is one of the greatest and influential hip-hop acts of all time, they continue to come out with albums both group and solo and embark on other projects as well.

Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut is most definitely my favorite author of all time. It makes it even better that he is from Indianapolis, and writes about in every book I have read of his so far (I think, maybe not Breakfast of Champions but he probably did.) Although he writes many of his books about science fiction and is known as a science fiction writer many of his short stories and books are about war, love, and many other things. His black humor is like none other and very original.

I have to admit I have only read, Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, Mother Night, The Sirens of Titan, Welcome To The Monkey House, and Armageddon in Retrospective. The first three I read in ninth grade and certainly need to read again. When I read Slaughterhouse-Five I knew right then that it was my favorite book and will probably be for the rest of my life (the same thing happened when I watched Pulp Fiction.) However, The Sirens of Titan was a masterpiece so unbelievably amazing that I thought it could be number one, but that argument is for a later time.

The man and his writings could be legendary. His true story about being a POW in World War Two and his life outside of war are so interesting. No wonder he wrote about them, he should have, they made damn good stories; and gave kids like me more open minds and the ability to think greater than what we watch on television.

One Damn Good Trip

In the last week I have seen Devin the Dude, Method Man and Redman, Snoop Dogg, and Ghostface Killah. If you don't know, these are all very successful hip-hop artists. The first three were all in a one night show at The Vogue. Ghost came to The Bluebird in Bloomington on Sunday night. If you do not know, Method Man and Ghostface Killah are veteran members of the incredibly successful and celebrated hip hop group, Wu Tang Clan. I am not twenty one but one of my good friend's dad owns The Vogue and we got in for free. My friend and I who went to Bloomington to see Ghostface couldn't get into the club since it was twenty one and up. So we sulked and cursed the guy who wouldn't let us in. We walked around the club to the back to see if we could listen to the show at all. At the back door there were a couple guys standing around and they told us they knew how to get on the roof and had done it before. So we followed them and climbed the pipes over the barbed wire to the roof where we had a damn good view of the stage from a vent. To me and my friend seeing Ghostface was like seeing Chuck Berry or Bo Diddley back in the day. I probably listen to his music every day. What made the trip so damn good was the fact that we saw it for free and even got to say what up to Ghost before he got on the tour bus, and he played all the classics. It was certainly worth the trip even though we got back home at two in the morning and I had class at ten thirty the next day.

Psycho

Last night for the first time ever, I watched Psycho. Of course my entire life I had heard about Psycho and how it was probably Alfred Hitchcock's greatest or at least most popular thriller. I knew that it was good but I didn't realize how good. If I was a kid, lets say fourteen at the time Psycho came out in 1960 and saw it in theaters; I would have been scared out of my mind. I probably would have needed a new change of underwear. Even though I had already scene all the key scenes in the film, and new exactly what was going to happen already, it was still scary. The incredibly famous shower scene was put together so well, with the music and the angles. When the private investigator gets killed at the top of the stairs, when we find out Norman's mom had been dead for however many years, when we finally see Norman's dead mom and see Norman dressed up as his mom. The ending was so damn good, how the psychiatrist explains everything to us, about Norman and how his mother has taken over his mind. I never really care for the Academy Awards but there are certain times when they are probably very wrong. Even though Psycho wasn't nominated for Best Picture, Hitchcock should have won for Best Director. He lost to Billy Wilder for The Apartment, which had dominated that year anyway. That year the Academy messed up for sure because Psycho is a masterpiece and certainly one of if not the greatest thriller/horror film of all time.

TV zombies

TV has to be one of the biggest reasons for people not reading as much as they used to. It turns you into a zombie, and I watch just as much as everybody else so I'm a TV zombie as well. You sit there just staring at the screen, when something isn't on that you like you just stare and flip through channels and commercials. I think that the majority of what is on television is a bunch of crap. Most people probably think this as well. However for some reason, it is just too easy to sit on your comfortable couch and just stare at whatever is on. Shows, the news, commercials, whatever is on just sucks you in somehow. My generation and younger generations probably watch the most television. It is too easy to come home from school and say your going to watch the TV just for a bit, when it actually turns into maybe two or three hours. You sit and you stare and you don't think about anything else. A little TV a day is good but too much and we all become TV zombies.

Books

I sincerely think that everybody should try to read as many books as possible. It is remarkable and amazing the stories that people can think of. It seems like most of my friends and people I know don't read any books. I don't think there is an excuse for that. There is always time to read; when your in the bathroom, before going to sleep, riding the bus, when you are waiting for anything, doctor, dentist, waiting for class. Maybe people just don't like to read as much as they used to. I guess this is due to television, the internet and video games. But compared to the nonsense that is on the majority of TV nowadays, many written works are way better. Why sit and watch a bunch of idiots on MTV or VH1 when there are incredible stories from authors like Kurt Vonnegut, Chuck Palahniuk, Mario Puzo and a whole bunch more. (Those are just a few, I was only naming the authors who's books were right in front of me.) Reading is also very beneficial to one's brain. It expands your vocabulary, helps you to read better, and increases your knowledge on literature, and the stories are amazing. Even with all the new mediums that are taking over the world, people should try to embrace reading books as they did fifty or a hundred years ago.

The Basterd's Inspiration

I am sure that many of us have seen Inglorious Basterds. I think it is one of Quentin Tarantino's most brilliant and clever movies. Well they all are but this one is certainly one of the best. If you don't know Tarantino's films take huge inspiration from exploitation flicks of the 70's, kung fu flicks, spaghetti westerns, others and obviously war movies. The main story of Inglorious Basterds can be traced back to a couple of films. The original Inglorious Bastards which was somewhat similar and The Dirty Dozen just to name a couple. All three of these films have a group of renegade soldiers going undercover to terrorize the Nazi's in some way and all three are damn good. Here is the trailer for The Dirty Dozen.

Hurling

The past labor day weekend I played in the Hurling National Championships in Boston. Indy Hurling won the Junior C league Championship last year but we lost this year. I am sure none or very few of you know what Hurling is so watch this video. And look at indyhurling.com