So Benji and I went to a car dealership yesterday to look at Hyundai Sonatas, the vehicle I'm most likely to replace my 92,000-mile Accord with. Unsurprisingly, a salesman accosts us in the lot. Despite knowing a good deal about this car, I play dumb, and I ask him what the differences are between the GL and the GLS models of the Sonata. Now. There's about a dozen differences between the two models, including fog lights, aluminum-alloy wheels, steering wheel audio controls, a upgraded trip computer, etc. (The GLS also comes standard with automatic, while the GL comes standard with, um, standard.) The salesman thinks for a moment and says, "Well, there's really not that much difference between the two...except that the GLS has a standard V6 engine." Which it does not, it has an optional V6 engine. So not only did this salesman not know any of the legitimate differences, he made up a fake one. Someone please explain how a person can be hired to sell cars without knowing anything about the cars he or she is selling.
--- Dave Chappelle's Block Party (Michel Gondry, 2006): B+
Seriously considered skipping this one, since (a) I don't know Dave Chappelle from Dave Coulier, (b) I wasn't sure how the Gondry magic was going to be interjected into what sounded like a straightforward concert documentary, and (c) of the musical acts in the film, I like exactly one (Erykah Badu). Shame on me for distrusting Michel: DCBP is less of a concert film than it is another chance for Gondry to play with what our memory does with moments out of time, the same idea he ran with in Eternal Sunshine and his video for "Let Forever Be." Not a single musical performance is shown in its entirety: there's breakaways to rehearsals for the performance; or Chappelle and others watching the performance on a monitor and commenting on it; or flashbacks to the beginning of idea, where -- in a cross between Andy Kaufman and Willy Wonka -- Chappelle is giving away free tickets to this Brooklyn performance to people in his Ohio hometown, then busing them in to New York; or a cut to Chappelle on the roof, just taking in the whole ambiance. It's how one's memory is likely to remember a great day -- not chronologically, but in a series of perfect moments linked thematically. I never thought I'd give a B+ to a concert film where I didn't particularly like the music...
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
