A shot on a goal was a felt experience. With
each effort, the crowd audibly drew in its breath,
and then, after another athletic save, exhaled with
equal exaggeration. […]
     And then the game — having succeeded in
apprehending me so — played with me as it played
with everyone else. It teased and manipulated and
encouraged and frustrated. It had engendered this
heightened feeling and, equally, the expectation
that it would be satisfied: that there would be
gratification — or not. That the team would
score — or be scored against. That there would be
victory — or defeat. Climax — or dissapointment.
Release.

 - Bill Buford, Among the Thugs

Watching movies involves our entire bodies. When we watch we sit a certain way or with certain people, eat candy or do drugs, and all of that changes the movie. But movies also physically change us. A scary movie makes our hearts beat fast and a quiet movie calms us down. Exercise videos can literally re-shape people’s bodies. I watch The Royal Tennenbaums just to make myself cry.

It’s even possible to have sex with a movie.

Let’s say a straight man is masturbating to a movie. Suddenly the movie cuts to a close-up of a penis. Maybe the shot turns him off or maybe it excites him more than he’d expect. This is different (more fun?) than masturbating to a fantasy. The man’s arousal isn’t entirely up to him. It’s being negotiated.

Or consider the famous night-vision scene in One Night in P_ris. As P_ris H_lton screws Rick Sal_mon, her eyes never leave the video monitor that’s off-screen-left of the camera. Par_s places herself in the shot so as to block R_ck’s body almost entirely. That’s because she isn’t interested in him — he’s just a prop she’s using to fuck the movie.

I give these examples to demonstrate the wide range of ways that movies can be experienced physically. Further along the continuum is the guy eating popcorn at a multiplex, sweaty-gross-awesomeness warming his face. Further down still is me sleeping through a movie (one of my favorite ways to watch and way underrated, btw).

The point is to be aware of all possible methods, physical and mental, of watching movies and to understand how these methods shape a movie’s meaning. Then we can make more conscious & creative watching choices. And from there, movies might get a lot more interesting.

L
Creative Miswatching 1
Creative Miswatching 2
Creative Miswatching 3

Like everyone should, WHFR’s takin’ it easy for August and my CDs and mixer are in storage anywayz. So no radio shows this month.

But, DAMN — Les Rallizes DeNudes are so amazing. I can’t keep listening to their delicate, hypnotic and overwhelmingly awesome music without sharing…

MPFrees (right click to download):
記憶は遠い
Les Bulles de Savon
Night of the Assassins - Our first movie-party (TWO YEARS AGO next week) was named after this song.

If nothing else, PLEEEZ click this link. Sexy isn’t even the word.

OK,
L