Archive for the ‘Movies’ Category
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
We performed three shows in a week and by the third show i hated all of our songs. As i type this i am humming some of our songs in my head to see if i like them and i dont really like them which is ironic because i wrote them. Is that irony? The difficulty i am having with this group is that i have no idea what our sound is supposed to be. It was easy with the Joiner Inners. It should all sound sort of like Guided by Voices or Superchunk or Pavement or Sebadoh or Chavez if we were feeling saucy. I dont know what this new stuff is supposed to sound like. I dont know what i want it to sound like. I really just want the songs to be good and i dont know if any but one of them are. there is a chance i am being to hard on myself and i can accept that. it just really bothers me that none of these songs are clubbing me in the throat with goodness the way the Buildup did and the way You and Yours and Combination of Things did. The old Three Way Duel stuff grew on me and i think all of the Joiner Inner stuff i great, even the stuff that is terrible i think it is all fantastic. I dont know about the Twas Windmills. Oh and if anyone has not yet heard my sure fire cure for a pulled muscle in your back then here you go, you can give your thanks at a later date: 12-15 advil in a 3 hour period, 3 beers (I drank 2 Harpoon Summers and a Michelob but feel free to experiment with whatever you like), play an outdoor festival show and then wheel your amp back to your car two blocks away. Next day when you wake up, no more back pain.
Posted in Movies | No Comments »
Saturday, June 7th, 2008
This gas thing is starting to freak me out a little bit. Its not that I really mind all that much paying 4.30 for gas but its the way that it has been presented us. It feels like only one in a combination of shades that have been systematically lifted off of the way we had been living for several years. Yes there was a war in Iraq but it never effected us adversely, unless you had a loved one over there, but for the most of us it never came that close to effecting us on any kind of personal level. But then the housing crisis came and the economy slowed down, and the government sent us $600 for free in the hopes that we wouldnt freak out when the gas prices hit 4 bucks and a lot of this was due to the amount of money that we have been ceaselessly pumping into the war. It seems like one thing after another after another is starting to go wrong or not wrong precisely but backwards. It isnt the end of the world but I am starting to see that at some point there will be one. Global warming and record amounts of tropical storms, hurricanes and floods. and on top of that we have to live with David Cook as our American Idol!!! Its all just starting to get to me i guess.-> The new Spiritualized album is pretty good, its a grower. The new Weezer album is very bad.-> I liked Indiana Jones 4 but Shia Lebouf was sort of a mistake and the scene where he swings on vines with a bunch of monkeys is perhaps the worst scene in the history of cinema.->Celtics in 6-> Im writing this on a Mac and for whatever reason it doesnt register when i make a new paragraph.-> I havent read a good book in a while any suggestions?-> and finally good work to the Democrats for finally getting their act together and picking a candidate however in my current state of mind I dont have very high hopes for November. I think America likes crazy people and John McCain might be the craziest. Imagine if he makes Mitt Romney his running mate? they would spend all of their time smiling insanely at each other reminiscing about what it was like when they both believed totally different things than they do now and comparing the taste of the Republican teet!
Posted in Books, Movies, Politics, Sports, music, whatever | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
My thoughts are all over the place today…
The new Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds record came out today. Its called Dig Lazarus Dig!!! Its not a concept record but several of the songs revolve around the premise of God raising Lazarus from the grave against his will, only to find himself a homeless junky tooling around the streets of New York City. It is amazing in every way.
There Will be Blood came out today on DVD. I find it highly amusing that this movie and the Nick Cave record came out on the same day. they are both superior works of art that try their hardest to be unlovable and difficult but are ultimately better for it. The whole point of the ending to There Will be Blood is that Daniel is finally satisfied and it is so perfect that it comes at the expense of leaving critics and the audience unsatisfied. Personally, I cannot wait to see it again.
Everyone called out today except for me and two other people and it feels like the end of the world. The phone will not stop ringing and nobody wants anything that i can actually give them. they all want some kind of magical special treatment that they dont deserve and are not entitled to and it is my great privilege to give them this news. I have been screamed at today, swore at, called useless and i might be mistaken but i pretty sure i was challenged to a fight. I would love to fight that guy today, its just too bad he is in another state. if he happens to read this i will be taking my break around 3, im in Connecticut, if you have the ability to get here by 3 i am going to rip your head off.
Mike and the mad Dog yesterday were debating whether or not Dick Vitale deserved to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame. They were both leaning towards answering the question No, but neither of them seemed willing to come out and say it. I will say that they are wrong. he totally deserves to be in the hall of fame soley because no one, NO ONE, loves basketball more than Dickie V and for that reason alone he should be in the hall of fame. He has been on Mike and Mike (the ESPN morning guys) every morning since Friday and he has ended every conversation in tears thanking everyone under the sun for giving him the opportunity to do what he does and for putting him in the hall of fame. Its all about the love of the game.
I think one thing the war has done for us is re-written the definition of the word ’success.’ before the word success meant ” the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors.” our new definition probably reads something like this, “The semi-favorable but ultimately the same persistence down an inevitable road to failure.” I think its clear that our government has no real interest in stopping this war, pulling our troops out , or even acknowledging that the only way their surge can be deemed a success is that it put more of our soldiers in a position to die. So according to the new definition the surge/ war in iraq is a success. Hopefully, George, John, and their minions of death wont re-write the definition of victory to mean “The death toll in Iraq has reached 140,00 today.”
Posted in Movies, Politics, Sports, music, whatever | No Comments »
Monday, March 17th, 2008
i posted two new links to sites that i dig on a regular basis. they are both for people who write for the Chicago Sun Time a pretty good national rag, Jim DeRogatis and Roger Ebert. Jim writes a music and entertainment blog and he hates Juno so he can be my friend. He was responsible for this book Milk It that i was into a few years ago. he’s a pretty good writer and most importantly he hates Juno.
Roger Ebert is a great writer and he loves Juno which makes no sense to me. The two were actually engaged in a blog feud of sorts over whether or not Juno is good. Juno is not good, but that is not the issue. Roger Ebert is the standard bearer for all movie reviewers and his writing, im not to concerned with the TV show, has informed my knowledge of film since i discovered him while doing research for a paper on the Accidental Toursit for my film as literature class when i was a senior in high school. as i recall my teacher was unfamiliar with the Ebert and i ended up just cutting and pasting most of his review into my essay. I believe i got an A on that paper and i would be lying if i told you i was sorry.
anyway, Ebert is the best. if you have nothing to do and want an extended history lesson on film, scroll through his reviews of “The Great Movies.” They are full of information on the period during which the movie was made, personal recollections, always my favorite, and things you never thought you needed to know about movies like Vengeance Is Mine, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, and Blade Runner, all three of which he wrote about recently.
Ebert has only been writing sporadically since he has been sick so his editor Jim Emerson does a lot of the writing. Jim is different. For an example look up his review of ‘Donnie Darko.’ I just thought the movie was about a ridiculous kid who yells at Patrick Swayze and sees a big black anti-climactic bunny everywhere before being inexplicably crushed to death by a jet engine but Jim has different take. After reading it maybe you also can find the clues to Donnies hidden desire to have sex with his sister that Jim says propels the whole movie. Just so you know i did watch it again and i couldnt find it.
Love me some Tears for Fears though.
Posted in Movies, whatever | No Comments »
Monday, February 25th, 2008
I sat through the entire ceremony last night, including the nauseating Enchanted songs, and i feel pretty good about how the whole thing went down. I liked most of the nominated films and performers so i was rooting for everyone unless you were associated with Juno. Good Work everyone!
Moving on…
One of the things i’ll be doing, when there is nothing else i really feel like writing about is commenting on my list of Top 15 Favorite albums of all-time. This is a pretty eclectic list but not frustratingly so. My taste tends to swing in a specific direction so there wont be any gangsta rap or bone head county music on here. I will unveil my list one record at a time and hopefully if you havent heard this particular record you will get yourself a taste. So, entry #1 (in no particular order, unranked, im just going to list them as they were when i originally jotted them down) belongs to:
Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Blood and Chocolate
The last album he did with the Attractions until All This Useless Beauty is also the best Attractions record since Armed Forcesand where that record may not have been made by a group of guys that loved or even liked each other they at least had momentum on their side and obviously cruised through that record like a rock and roll knife cutting melted butter. Not only that but the songs on Armed Forces could have been carry overs from This Years Model making that exact period Elvis’ most successful in marrying his two favorite things, hating people and writing the catchiest melodies since the Beatles were holding your hand and taxing the pennies on your eyes. Those records were easy. When the first song on Blood and Chocolate, the title track, kicks in with its bare E chord you can imagine him struggling somewhat to come-up with a decent guitar line before finally deciding to just bang on one chord for 4 minutes loathing the thoughts running through his head making it impossible to concentrate. the whole record stinks of this kind of anger and frustration. His band, the best backing band in the history of rock, this is arguable im sure but in that argument im taking the Attractions, was freaking breaking up, mainly because he hated his bass player and the cherry on top of the already too cherry laden sundae is he gets divorced. These songs specifically, Home is Anywhere you Hang your Head, I Want You, Battered Old Bird, and Crimes of Paris, sound like they were wrenched out of Elvis against there will, thrown on a recording console and stapled and nailed down with pneumatic air guns. Is there any other reason for Home is Anywhere you Hang Your Head to be so slow and his vocal performance so mannered and so off key on occasion? doesn’t it sound like the songs are fighting their own existence? In Battered Old Bird they use a reverse tape loop to lead into the bridge and kiss my grits if it doesnt sound like the record has finally decided it just cant take it anymore and come hell or high water its going back to the dark pool it had been swimming in inside Elvis’ head. Fortunately, it didnt and we have this amazing record to listen to. This is the first Elvis record I ever bought. at the time those Rhino reissues were a big deal (it has since be reissued again by Hipp-o but unless i finally wear out my copy I will be avoiding spending another couple hundred of dollars replacing records that need not be replaced) and i made sure i bought each one the day it came out. I poured over Elvis’ newly composed liner notes watched him get fat and bearded, weird and then back to normal, ive heard him be great and not so great all within the space of track 1,2, and 3 on the same record, but this record front to back is fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. I think in away, it ruined my life. Anyone that knows me knows that i have a slightly cynical side to myself. Am I totally blaming Elvis? No but did he and this record play a major part, i have to believe that they did. Its the record where you can hear Elvis loose his faith in marriage, his band and himself, and when something like thats going down, even the jauntiest acoustic coffee shop pop tune, like Crimes of Paris, is going to sound like you are singing through a smirk while poking people in the eyes with the head of your guitar. Fantastic!
Posted in Movies, music | 1 Comment »
Saturday, February 23rd, 2008
Today i will be picking my winners for the Oscars. A lot of people try to pick who will win, I’m going to pick who i believe should win. so, without further delay lets pick some freaking Oscars!
Best Picture
There Will Be Blood
Best Actor
Daniel Day Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Best Actress
Laura Linney - The Savages
Best Supporting Actor
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild
Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - I’m Not There
Best Director
Joel and Ethan Coen - No Country for Old Men
Now for the films that are inexplicably under represented or not represented at all:
Zodiac
Into the Wild
Christian Bale and Steve Zahn in Rescue Dawn
Frank Langella in Starting Out in the Evening
Eddie Vedder’s soundtrack for the Into the Wild
Johnny Greenwood’s score for There will Be Blood
There Will Be Blood is by far the years best movie and Daniel-Day Lewis gives probably the best performance by any actor in over a decade. he is even better in this than he was in Gangs of New York. I have always been a big Laura Linney fan so if shes nominated for an Oscar I’m going to support her. I’m giving my supporting actor to Hal Holbrook because he was incredible in Into the Wild and Into the Wild got totally screwed this year. Maybe it was because it came out to early and no one remembers it, maybe people are put off by its earnestness. either way it got royally snubbed. I hate the word snub. Cate Blanchett is the only thing worth seeing in I’m Not There, which was by far the years most disappointing movie. I am a huge Dylan fan and i kept waiting for it to let me love it but only when Cate Blanchett’s Dylan was on the screen could you really see the potential within. Finally, The Coen Bros get my vote for directing No Country for Old Men because it would not have worked if it had been directed by any other director much like There Will be Blood wouldn’t have worked if Plainview was played by anyone else but Daniel Day Lewis.
I’m actually pretty pumped for tomorrow. Keep on chooglin’.
Posted in Movies | 2 Comments »
