WEIRDLAND: Living in a box

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Living in a box

"Juke Box Blues" Love Song

Artist: Reese Witherspoon
Song: Jukebox Blues

"I walked into a honkey tonkey just the other day
I droped a nickle in the juke box just to hear it play
I didnt have no tune in mind, I didnt wait to choose
Just droped a nickle in the slot and I played the juke box blues

Theres a guy in there with an old tin horn
And a feller on an old banjo, and the man of the fiddle
He wasn't no slouch he could really drag that bow
Well, the man on the fiddle he must have got tired
I didnt hear him say, 'cause he cut loose on the steel guitar
And the juke box ran away
And I've herd something going strong
It must have been a drum
It gave that song a solid beat
Boy it was goin' some

I walked into a honkey tonkey just the other day
I droped a nickle in the juke box just to hear it play
I didnt have no tune in mind, I didnt wait to choose
Just droped a nickle in the slot and I played the juke box blues

I've played alot of juke boxes, most everyone in town
That's the first tune I've ever heard
That can make one night surround
Play the juke box blues, such a rythum I've never heard
I danced out both of my shoes"

"Walk the Line" soundtrack

"Norma and Arthur Lewis, a suburban couple with a young child, receive a simple wooden box as a gift, which bears fatal and irrevocable consequences. A mysterious stranger, delivers the message that the box promises to bestow upon its owner $1 million with the press of a button. But, pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewhere in the world; someone they don't know. With just 24 hours to have the box in their possession, Norma and Arthur find themselves in the cross-hairs of a startling moral dilemma and must face the true nature of their humanity".

Source: www.imdb.com Filmmaker Richard Kelly prides himself on thinking so far outside the box that major chunks of the Internet are devoted to deconstructing his intentionally murky movies. His desire to bewilder has earned him a certified cult classic (2001's Donnie Darko) and an unmitigated flop (2007's Southland Tales), but no direct hit.For his third big-screen feat, the 32-year-old USC film-school grad is not only thinking inside the box. He is actually making The Box, complete with his first major studio (Warner Bros.) and an A-list star (Cameron Diaz) on board.God bless Cameron Diaz. The second she signed on, our lives changed in a great way", Kelly says on location at NASA's Langley Research Center. Wrapping up the film's final week, he spent a long day shooting inside a cavernous wind tunnel and atop a gantry, a 240-foot-high erector-set-style structure once used to train Apollo astronauts.

Unlike his previous efforts, the sci-fi-tinged thriller is a breeze to summarize. Its plot hook is inspired by a 1986 Twilight Zone episode that haunted Kelly as a kid: A couple (Diaz and James Marsden) open their door to find a box containing a button. If they push it, they will receive $1 million. The catch? Someone they don't know will die."We made Donnie Darko when we were 25, so obviously that has an innocence about it," he says of his unnerving high-school fable made with producer pal Sean McKittrick. The political satire Southland Tales, on DVD March 18, "is punk rock and rebellious. We love that about it." Still, the film was barely in theaters, grossing only $273,420 on a nearly $18 million budget. "There is no place for small movies to catch fire," he says. "We got with Warner Bros. as a means of survival."

He is ready to go commercial. "With The Box, I hope to make a more mainstream popcorn film."

Of course, nothing is ever quite that simple in a Richard Kelly film. Richard Matheson's original 1970 short story, Button, Button, is just a jumping-off point for the $30 million morality tale. Embellishments include '70s kitsch, teleporting and the 1976 Viking mission to Mars.

"We don't feel like we are watering ourselves down," Kelly assures.

The man who delivers the title container? Masterfully creepy Frank Langella. "Richard is in a league of his own," the veteran actor says. "He has sort of an extraterrestrial creature running around in his head. That is what Steven Spielberg was like as a young boy". Source: www.usatoday.com

"I watched 'The Prestige' on a little box that can show moving pictures on a bright screen, the same little box that I am now using to display the words I am typing, words that I can effortlessly move around by pushing a button and spinning a ball. It is powered by alternating current. Alternating current was developed by Nikola Tesla".The duplication machine in 'The Prestige' is miraculous, yes. But it is really no more impressive than any of the miracles Tesla did bring about. We now take those for granted, so the story invents a new one, one by which we will be appropriately awed, the way we should be awed every time we turn on the radio".

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