And the fact that it gets OE worked up into such a frenzy of childishness makes me love it even more.

What's it about? Well, it's about all sorts of things, and I'm sure it's about different things for different viewers. But it doesn't need to be about anything. This:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0c/%27Magenta%2C_Black%2C_Green_on_Orange%27%2C_oil_on_canvas_painting_by_Mark_Rothko%2C_1947%2C_Museum_of_Modern_Art.jpg

isn't about anything, but that doesn't mean it isn't interesting, or even "important." If you want to, you can just think of Eyes Wide Shut as the most well-shot soft porn flick that's ever been made. As far as I'm concerned, there's much more to it than that, but OE clearly wants a flamewar and I'm not gonna give it to him.

None of this is to say that I found it to be any sort of earth-shattering artistic revelation. I've only watched it a few times, and the thing I like about it most has little to do with Kubrick. This is where I first heard Ligeti's "Musica Ricercata" (that's what that piano music was ... and it gets much better than the section that was in the movie).

When I first heard Bitches Brew as a kid, I dismissed it as a sellout record, as the beginning of the end of Miles Davis the "artist." I was naive. Now I try not to be judgmental. If I'm interested in something, I'm interested in it, if I'm not, I'm not. If it came from someone I respect, then it's probably my problem, not his.

Fuck a latte. I drink my espresso straight.