I think Kurosawa does not deserve to be all lumped in with westerns. Just because he stole a lot of their best moves -- it's a stealy world, the movie world. And the western stole plenty back over the years.

(Sadly, they did not steal back the whole thing with Toshiro Mifune in really short shorts and knees socks, because, really, there is a dearth of bare male thighs in most classic westerns, don't you think? Some of the spear-fighting might have been nice as well.)

I've read a lot about how wonderful Deadwood is, and I'm sure it is, but there are some thing I have trouble getting past, and uncouthness for uncouthness's sake is one of those things.

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and uncouthness for uncouthness's sake is one of those things.

It is not there for its own sake. As in Shakespeare, Joss or Tom Waits, the language is specific and world-building in its own right. It embeds meaning through its metaphors and it is a world where cocks get pickled in cunt brine. This is, of course, the language of comedy, the language of human fleshy mess - the shit cock piss world - and to turn that to darker ends is very artful.

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My mom once confused Kurosawa with Kiri Te Kanawa.

I think Kurosawa does not deserve to be all lumped in with westerns

I don't understand what you mean by "deserve." Are genre classifications somehow insulting?

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Wow, Hec, that was clever. Not that I'm surprised or anything, but it was pithy and stuff, too.

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Kurosawa disappears in the expanse of westerns, of which many many. In the expanse of Japanese auterist western-inspirations, he kinda stands out. Fish, pond size, you know.

Hec, you see, what you write above? People tried that with me, with Deadwood, and, yeah, no. I'm sure it's my loss, but, sure sounds like uncouthness for uncouthness's sake to me.

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No, I think that's Nip/Tuck. Which I also watch now and then, but I don't think Surgeon Hottie licking cocaine off a model's navel is supposed to say very much, thematically.(He has a pretty mouth, though. Amazing teeth.) I think it's different with Deadwood even if it still makes me like "oh, dear lord," a lot.

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but it was pithy and stuff, too.

I'm full of pith.

sure sounds like uncouthness for uncouthness's sake to me.

Damned Yankee. Nutalina, I can't believe you're so immune to the poetry of the profane. By god, I think Lee Ermey's rants in Full Metal Jacket are the greatest spoken word poetry ever caught on film.

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My mom once confused Kurosawa with Kiri Te Kanawa.

Heh. Very disappointed now that they won't work together. Did Kurosawa do anything for that Aria movie of opera videos?

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Well, you know, I could have said that. With many more words. It is interesting, contrasting, say, language in the Simonverse,with Deadwood-speak.(Have you watched any "Wire" yet?, most gallant Hecubus?) They both create words with dialogue(much of dirty) But with very different approaches. Like the iconic scene where two murder po-lice can sum up a whole scene with just:
"Fuck."
"Motherfucker."
Of course, that owes something to the brilliant deliveries of Wendell Pierce and Domenic West, whom I think are one of the greatest teams ever...The Western District Abbott and Costello or something. They say everything you'd want to say at a time like that, using only those words(Because Terry McClarney told DS once that homicide detectives will form a language out of just that.)

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I saw Brokeback Mountain last night. I didn't know it was possible to show both anger and heartbreak using only the flesh that joins the base of your nose to your cheek but then Linda Cardinelli, somehow, managed it. It was like something you'd train in Tibet to do.

Also, I kinda love Anna Faris' career path. It's like her true love is gross-out comedy but she has bills to pay so, y'know, she takes smaller rolls in tender, independent movies.

Hated 6 Feet Under (but was sometimes unable to stop watching it)

Of all the HBO shows I've sampled, Six Feet Under was my favourite. I thought the schematism of The Sopranos and Deadwood stifled the kind of richness that appears to come about, but usually doesn't come about, by being schematic. Six Feet Under just seemed to wander on that richness by accident.

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