My Own Prison

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas Rating:

Pi Rating:

and 3.1624837485....

MST 3000 Rating:

Another round up of a few movies watched recently, all three having a mutual theme of imprisonment to various degrees. After watching these very dissimilar films, it seems the greatest prison...is...wait for it...your own mind! And there lies your greatest freedom. Or greatest downfall. Take your pick.

The Boy In The Striped Pajamas (2008)

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A moving film about a sheltered German boy who is the son of the commander over a Jewish prison camp in WWII. Told from the boy's point of view, the film has a unique take on the holocaust through the eyes of a German innocent. He has a great deal of curiosity and empathy which leads him to strike up a friendship with a Jewish boy inside the camp. At first thinking the prisoners are farmers, the boy slowly begins to feel something is amiss but can't put his finger on it. That's because his perception of their reality is clouded by propaganda proclaiming the camps are a wonderful place and hatred against the Jewish race. The effects of constant propaganda is explored on both a personal and societal level in the movie, illustrating the pain and destruction to people's lives that resulted.

Pi (1998)

Directed by the skillful Darron Aronofsky, this grainy black and white film takes a fairly ludicrous concept and manages to make it a white knuckle ride. It follows a mathematician determined to find the equation that gives structure to the universe. He's convinced he can find this secret by finding a formula that can predict the stock market, using a battery of computers and stimulants to stay on edge searching for the formula. One day, his computer spits out a formula that the math guy originally thinks is an error. He becomes increasingly paranoid in his pursuit of the magic formula and possibly what he thinks in an error may be the answer. And what's more, various cults may be after him chasing this formula. Frantic direction, stark black and white photography and whiplash editing generate intensity with power. A man imprisoned by his own obsession with math.

Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1995)

One of my favorite shows of the early 90's, MST took movie theater audience sarcasm and elevated it to an art form. The movie is really just like an extended episode of the regular tv show as this time they take on This Island Earth with humorous results. While the jokes don't capture their ability to its fullest, they reel off a series of one liners taking off from the movie dialogue in a way that would make any Rocky Horror Picture Show fan proud. What does this have to do with imprisonment? The conceit of the story is a man and two robots are forced by a mad scientist to watch bad movies, the scientist hopes to find the one film that is so bad it will drive everyone insane so he can rule the world.

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So you can face imprisonment with ignorance, obsession or humor. If you're looking for freedom, well, these movies aren't very optimistic in that department. Just for kicks, below is a compilation of some of MST3K's greatest riffage including scenes from a movie whose advertisement scared me as a child, Laserblast. As for imprisonment remember, they can take our lives but they cannot take...OUR FREEDOM!

An Expose' On Expose'

High Exposure - Expose (l-r) Jeanette Jurado, Gioia Bruno and Ann Curless

I was going to post about the mid-80's prog classic Emerson Lake and Powell, but that will have to wait until another day after a fateful trip to an insanely overpriced Japanese restaurant led to today's subject. While shelling out dough for food that was of decent quality that cost twice the normal amount (presumably because we were in affluent Napa), the restaurant provided "authentic" Japanese atmosphere by playing dance jams from the Reagan presidency. One, "Diamond Girl", we recognized but couldn't place so we looked it up online that evening. This put me into an 80's Freestyle fervor which takes me to a place nobody wants me to go to...so I'm going there anyway.

1. Come Go With Me

In the late 80's I tried to live the life of a normal single guy, which included going to dance clubs with friends to try to meet girls. This was in spite of a serious handicap - I can't dance worth a lick. Taser victims getting shot with several volts of electricity dance with more rhythm than me. Fortunately, I figured out that the dance floor was so crowded that all I had to do was plant my feet and shift weight from side to side while moving my arms to try to fit in. Well, not really, I don't think I impressed a single person with my dancing.

Anyway, while in these sweaty clubs getting my groove on and trying to drink enough to screw up the courage to ask a girl to dance some of the music actually stuck in my head. Stuff like The Communards "Don't Leave Me This Way" or The Cover Girls "Because Of You" became known to me and my favorite was this song from Expose. Sorry, Expose'. I liked the synth pattern, the way it goes from this suspended rhythm to a Latin style jumpiness then a descending fall. "Come Go With Me" became the unit's first Top 10 hit.

2. Let Me Be The One

At one point I recall seeing or reading an interview in which it was said Gioia (I think it's pronounced Joy) Bruno was to be the main singer of this vocal trio. Which was odd because it was Jeanette Jurado who sang the majority of the hits. Bruno had a strong raspy sort of voice while Jurado had a smooth, youthful yearning. "Let Me Be The One" and the next album's "Tell Me Why" were Bruno's time in the spotlight and both were hits. It has a slower sultrier groove than most of their material. In that same interview it was revealed that Bruno later had vocal problems that led to her leaving Expose'. She was replaced by the cynically monikered Kelly Moneymaker (since she's still named that it may actually be her real name) by the third album. True to her name, Moneymaker later married a soap opera star. That sounds harsh, she's probably a really nice person. Nothing gets in the way of my jokes! Nothing!!!

3. Exposed To Love

Expose' was a group that came up through the club scene and like a lot of all girl dance bands of the time they were masterminded by a producer. In this case, that was Lewis A. Martinee'. Known to some but not widely publicized was that this was the second version of Expose', the original trio consisting of Sandee', Ale' and Laurie Miller. This was the trio that sang on the early club hits, the original versions of "Point Of No Return" and this track. "Exposed To Love" features the first set of girls in action. According to Wikipedia, this lineup dissolved shortly before the recording of Exposure for personal and professional reasons. Is it me or does the singing on this track seem a little more Latin accented? Probably me. One of those great "what if" scenarios, like "what if the original Expose recorded Exposure? Would it have been as big a hit? Would they have dropped the Apollonia 6 get ups by then?". Important questions pondered by...no one. No one but me. Hey, did Martinee' steal that synth bit from Madonna's "Lucky Star" or what? (the version in the link above is a live take that doesn't seem to have the synth riff).

4. Seasons Change

Seasons change. People change. The $1.00 machine makes change. I change my underwear daily. Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes. Exposure's fourth single was this gem of 80's pop balladry, Jurado again takes the lead on a beautiful wistful ballad about longing. Maybe Expose's best known song, "Seasons Change" has all the melodrama of a teenage girl on 90210, Dawson's Creek or whatever infernal show kids watch these days. In any case, it totally works. Totally.

5. Extra Extra

Martinee' continues to beat that Expose' metaphor to death with winning results, here the hook "Extra Extra / Read all about it / Read all about my love" kills. Ann Curless gets a shot at the front microphone and proves herself an able performer. Billy Bush hears the song and says to himself "Yes! I've found my calling."

6. Point Of No Return

Not to be confused with Nu Shooz "Point Of No Return". Or Kansas "Point Of Know Return". Or Bridget Fonda's movie Point Of No Return. Or the original Expose's own "Point Of No Return" that was a significant club hit leading to the agreement with Arista to make a full record. The biggest and baddest of Expose's dance cuts, "Point Of No Return" kicks off with that urgent synth bit and doesn't look back. The hamfisted sexual innuendo and insistent beat shoot the track into overdrive ("You're taking meeeee...to the point of no return. Uh-uhhhh uhh"). I went to the second annual Summerjam concert in Concord with the express interest in seeing Expose'. Unfortunately we got there a little late, arriving for the final song which was this one. Before starting the song, Jurado exclaimed "We're taking you to the point of no return!". To which a guy in the audience yelled "Noooooo! You b*tch!". Too funny.

7. Love Is Our Destiny

Curless returns to lead vocals for "Destiny", too bad we're in the second half of the tape where things get a lot more generic. I barely remember this one.

8. I Know You Know

...And I know you know, because if you knew that I knew what I know then we both would know that what you don't know can hurt you if you had known. More filler, the riddle me this Batman approach to the chorus is the only memorable thing about it.

9. You're The One I Need

The huge fall off in quality continues, it's like after track 6 the record nosedives into an oblivion of cabbage patch glory. The third rent-a-beat pop dance track in a row, I remember Jurado's voice sounding a little thin on the chorus of this one and that's about it. Though in terms of nostalgia, this and "Extra Extra" brings back memories of driving on the sun splashed California highways and freeways in the heat of Summer while staying with my aunt. A sort of Baywatch vibe she lived across the street from a cliff overlooking a beach.

10. December

Finally a decent song! Whew, thought the second side of the tape was going to be all misery. Well, this is misery of an intentional sort as Giona Bruno takes on this moody ballad. Effectively haunted and tortured, Exposure ends unexpectedly with it's only downer song. Great stuff.

Expose' Exposure takes me back to a time of sunny days, disco nights and acid washed jeans. They also kicked off an avalanche of similar sounding groups like Sweet Sensation, Seduction, Company B and any other group of girls in biker shorts harmonizing while doing the running man. While they would later be known mainly for Dianne Warren ballads with Riddler titles like "Your Baby Never Looked Good In Blue" or "I'll Never Get Over You (Getting Over Me)" for a brief shining moment in 1987 they had their finger on the dance pulse of America. Gimmie a beat!

Don't...Wait, Do - No Don't Feed The Animal

Jane stop this crazy thing!

One Christmas in the 90's my wife and I were given the gift of digital life, life in the form of Tamagachi (probably misspelled but oh well). The novelty of that year, we carried these things around on our keychains or whatnot. Like a real animal, it demanded food and play on a constant basis. Now, I have a real dog which I love but still I gave this LCD critter some time. Just not enough time. This thing kept yapping and chirping or whatever sound it made and was never satisfied with the amount of play I gave it. In the end it kept dying, which was depressing.

The thing seriously needed an off switch. Or maybe it had one and I didn't figure it out. Anyway, instead of being a fun distraction Tamagachi was more like an unwanted litmus test for parenting skills I suppose. Which I guess you fail automatically because anything you're raising shouldn't be carried in your pocket next to your keys. It made me feel like the MCP in Tron, here I was torturing this electronic creature trapped in a malfunctioning Casio watch. So I threw it in my desk and never looked at it again except for its eventual trip to the garbage can.

Who the hell made up a toy like this? Unless you have the free time and dedication needed to keep this critter happy it guilt tripped you like no tomorrow. I tell you I have neither, for a creature that ran on lithium it sure was unhappy all the time. I don't think it even told time. I'm sure there are people who had a good time with this picachu looking creature, I'm just not one of them. Picachu, I don't choose you.