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The late hours of 2005 are not so far from Quest for Fire
I made fire
I made lot of noise
I cheer after noise
There's nothing about doing it on such a massive scale
that has anything to do with good luck ... apart from its
potential for harm, this "tradition" is just dumb
In many ways, this was an interesting year in music. Although the distinction had faded over the years with the rise of Nirvana, Pearl Jam, etc. in the mid-90s bringing the alternative to the mainstream, this year again it seems that there is music for the masses and indie music
This year probably made the death of big music as we know it inevitable ... but that aside
Well, I did a mid-year assessment of my year in music, here are the tracks that I really liked this past calendar year (as I did not buy too many albums this year)
Artists of the Year
Rilo Kiley and Arcade Fire
Best Artists: Under the Radar
Every Move a Picture
Wolf Parade
Songs of the Year
Does He Love You? by Rilo Kiley
Wake Up by Arcade Fire
Crooked Teeth by Death Cab for Cutie
Other Songs of Note
Because No One Gives a Shirt, You are Missing ...
Eres by Cafe Tacuba
Two Really Beautiful Songs ... make it Three
Blue Eyes by Cary Brothers
Eve, the Apple of my Eye by Bell X1
Friends by Ryan Adams & the Cardinals
Inspirational Modern Rock
Disappear by Denison Marrs
Old is New Agayne
Hey Now What You Doing? by New Order
Precious by Depeche Mode
Two Pieces of Excellent Piano Pop ... actually Three
Landed and Time by Ben Folds
Look At What You've Done by Jet
If I programmed 101.9, I'd Play This
Paralyzed by Bob Mould
... And This
Current Bending by Frausdots
... And This, Too
Love's A Game by The Magic Numbers
Fleetwood Mac Admiration Society
No Right Angles by Ben Lee
If You Like Hall and Oates ... this is pretty close
Greatest Mistake by Handsome Boy Modeling School (w/ Jamie Cullum and John Oates)
In a Big Country, the Next Generation
It Ended on a Oily Stage by British Sea Power
Oh ... sooo much better than Jack J
Bullet and a Target by Citizen Cope
Something Very Sinister about How Good These Songs are
Fix You by Coldplay
Wires by Athlete
Retro Sounding Music coming to a Q movie near You
There is an End by The Greenhornes (with Holly GoLightly)
Return to Relevance of the 60s Divas
Let Me Kiss You by Nancy Sinatra
The Last Song by Marianne Faithful
Son of Lennon ... Julianesque
Over My Shoulder by I am Kloot
Thank You by The Redwalls
Another Satisfied Graduate of the School of Roger
Hide and Seek by Imogen Heap
And this is the part of the show, where we danse
By The Time I Get to Venus by The Juan MacLean
Tribulations by LCD Soundsystem
The Killers: Year 2
Jenny Was a Friend of Mine
Midnight Show
The Best in Nu-Folk
Undertaker and Fuel for Fire by M. Ward
New Zeppelin
The Widow by Mars Volta
Token Steve Morrissey Song
The First of the Gang to Die by Morrissey
When Old is New
Out of Control by She Wants Revenge
Sweet Troubled Soul by Stellastar
... and a Tom Waits song to send you off
I Hope That I Don't Fall In Love With You by Tom Waits
I cannot remember the last time that I watched something with regularity on TV. If I were to think really hard about it, it may have been NipTuck last year ... and of course, I still watch new SouthParks even though that it pretty hit and miss lately
What we have been doing over the past couple of years is watching a ton of TV on DVD. So here's TV ... err, on DVD for the year from our perspective.
Although we were late jumping on the bandwagon, FX's cop drama, The Shield, is really well done ... as I may have written before, I am not even in the remotest sense a CSI or LawNOrder person, so I would be the last person that a cop drama appeals to ... this one is not your father's cop drama, it's more of a drama with cops ... in other words, it's not really about the crime situations as much as it is about the moral choices of the people on the show. Seasons 1 and 2 were quite excellent, it started to dance with the sharks in 3 ... but supposedly S4 is really great (it came out last week in a big box)
In terms of the other loyal boxes that we watch, Alias and 24 ... what to say. Well, we watched through S3 for Alias, which was a very controversial season for most viewers ... almost like the Alias Load/Reload, to make a comparison. I didn't really think it was that bad, but I can see how some people got attached for the relationships between Syd and her pals (Felicity-ish from the creator of Fel, JJ Abrams). Well, I have a set of S4 collecting dust ... should be interesting to see what he did, when it was very apparent more of his focus lately has been on LOST and Mission Impossible 3
In terms of 24, Season 3 was kind of just okay ... I'm not saying it's dancing with the sharks. It was just that it looked like they were really running out of ideas in terms of how many perils could they throw at the good guys ... and the lazy lazy way in which they quickly resolved problems, I mean, it was like crash TV ... the situation would be very serious, and like clockwork 10 minutes later, it was solved so easily that it was like well what was the big deal about that ... it's almost like let's watch the puppets dance, okay let's try something else. I watched some of S4 live on Fox, and it seemed like they got back on track for the early part of S4, I have the set to watch to see how it all turned out
What to say about my former favorite show, NipTuck ... hooboy, after a spectacular first season, we watched the second season on TV weekly ... and this year, wow talk about jump the shark, especially with the Carver reveal ... and just losing focus that the show is really about the relationship between the two doctors
We dabbled a bit with The 4400, the USA series that is kind of a mix between the XMen and the XFiles ... the first season again was very solid, the second started to lose its way about midway through the season ... not sure if it will be back next year, again this one kind of lost sight of its winning formula that it was more about the people than the powers
Now, we are waist deep in season 3 of the OC ... and it is pretty hard to stick with it after last season's let's throw bologna at the wall approach. It always worries me when people start talking about a 90210-type legacy and they are only in season 2. Maybe that is the great theme of the year, there is a reason why people watch your show ... it is your formula. And though I acknowledge that formula can get tiresome if you have no more creative ideas several seasons down the road ... I don't get these guys that really shake it up for no reason ... and then later realize what it should be, and it feels so put on when you try to push formula stories among the broken pieces of continuity
Lots to still catch up on including the new Battlestar Galactica ... the neverending saga of watching stuff in my DVD pile
As I drove up to my house yesterday afternoon, I saw something that really bothered me. Why it did bother me, I'm not really sure ... I guess I just had a feeling of impending doom.
After the two incidents in recent years, one where a girl shot herself in the eye with fireworks ... and another where a girl got shrapneled by fireworks ... well, I guess reasonable people would think you would let your 9 year old "supervise" two preschool age kids in playing fireworks ... and no these weren't sparklers or pop drops. Well, that doesn't seem to trouble my neighbors, so although I would hate to see that happen to them ... don't be surprised if that leads the news this weekend
On a related note, I cannot think of the last time I saw a police car patrol my neighborhood, either ... your local government at work, tax you more, give you less service ... and you will like it.
Also related to impending doom, sometimes your gut instincts are right about a person. When you know someone really parties hard, and has not developed age appropriate maturity ... even when they are my age ... when you know someone basically is an alcoholic ... and you know that they would still race (because they still need to prove they have no fear) ... well, it's not a good mix ... insecurity can lead to death
As I was cleaning up the cars for mochi this week ...
I saw my neighbors starting to throw firecrackers into the street ... now, I must be some kind of wet blanket because I do not know what compels people to need to light SINGLE firecrackers ... 5 days before the big annual nee-Beirut blast
You go buy them today, then all of a sudden ... gee, I FEEL AN URGE to play them ... one by one ... and have 4932 left over for Saturday
I really don't get it ... at all
War is over if you want it
The world is better for JC being born
I'm not sure 25 years later the world is better with JLen dead
I was surprised to see how many DVD movies we watched this year ... and not surprisingly a great deal of them were not really worth seeing in the theatre
So without further preliminary comments and ado
DVD of the year, and this one is relatively new
Sin City: Recut Extended Unrated
Often times I get the feeling that extras are just that ... EXTRA ... afterthoughts ... largely unedited, pointless this and that, that would be more likely to put you to sleep than catch your interest ... I mean, most of the time there are other things you should be doing than watching extras on DVD
The extended takes don't really add too much to the story ... I can understand why they were cut out, a lot of them were transition scenes to put characters where they should be ... there's a ton of interesting Frank Miller commentary, including a interactive city map with scenes and characters where FM provides his thoughts about this that and the other thing related to each scene
There's also great Q stuff and RobRod stuff ... an amazing movie, PLUS an amazing DVD with goodies that are actually worth spending time with
Overrated
Sideways ... the Lord may know why critics like movies such as this, though I may never understand
Way Underrated
Shaun of the Dead ... my goodness this movie is funny on so many levels, as a satire of the zombie movie genre, a commentary on 80s pop culture, the witty use of flashbacks ... just a fun movie to watch
Surprised I Dug It So Much
Napoleon Dynamite ... this one is interesting because it is an indie movie, and it is hokey and satirical as hell ... but it never is more than what it is, an awkward comedy with the most awkward characters outside of ... hmm, perhaps a Rob Zombie movie, maybe?
Visually Amazing
Hero ... it may have been a very predictable Chinese period kungfu/royal court flick, but a big WOW on the visuals ... the use of color, movement, composition ... sheesh, this one is really one of the new standards
That's about it, that's about all I have for the DVDs we saw this year
As is the theme for the year, we really didn't see that many movies this year.
I've been flip-flopping as to whether I thought Crash or Sin City was the movie of the year for me. Crash is a brilliant dramatic film about prejudice and modern life in LA. Sin City is a real moldbreaker for digital films, and the one comic book movie that is a 99% representation of comics through film media, rather than a film being about comic book subject matter. As I still haven't decided either way, I guess I will go with co-movies of the year.
Here are the best of the limited movies we saw this year:
Crash A+
Sin City A+
Revenge of the Sith B+
Narnia B+
Batman Begins B
On the flip side, the worst movie we saw this year was Flightplan, truly epic in its stink
You know it's a slow news day when one of the news items is ... U2 in negotiations with the Stadium, yes the gang that can't shoot straight about field turf, alcohol sales ... and still wants to repair the Homage to Rust ... but that's beside the point, the news was that negotiations were going well for a two show stand April 8th and 9th ... and if I remember correctly this will be the first time since they played here with Oingo Boingo in '82 at the NBC during the "October" tour
Ironically, we didn't see too many shows this year ... though it was a pretty busy show year overall for the town ... what with the nosties coming in full force, the Eagles, Jrny, Crue
I've never really thought about what that would be, I think we only went to two shows total this year. In hindsight, I haven't changed my opinion about the Norah show ... it was okay, solid, and eerily reminiscent of listening to her CDs ... it wasn't an adventure in improvisation, I think it would be foolish to have thought it would be
The show of the year (out of two LOL) was the Jason Mraz show ... and the more I think about it, the more I become irritated about how much time was spent by others on the bill. Definitely one of the better shows that I have seen in recent memory
Well, none of the shows we saw this year were particularly new or hot ... and when I think about it, we really didn't see too many shows or concerts this year at all
So our list comes from our 9th island trip ...
I was sad to hear of it, but the Queen musical ended its run at the Paris Vegas at the end of the last month. This is my show of the year, there is movement afoot to take it around as a touring show around the country. Perhaps it will make it out here eventually. I was amazed how moved I was by this show, I think it was because I was finally hearing and seeing a live performance and interpretation of all their songs, which are so near and dear to my heart. Just amazing.
We saw the long-running Blue Man Group show at the Luxor, and although it was quite good, it didn't really measure up with the Complex Rock tour show we saw in LA two years ago, which was really once in a lifetime experience. But, if you have never seen the BMG, it's quite the spectacle of sound, lights, music, comedy ... it's great stuff. go see it when you make the pilgrimage
The last show, and I do have heartburn about this one, is the Eau show ... yes that O. Never have so few paid so much ... and for what? Perhaps, I am fortunate not to live in the country of its originator, because I would never be entertained LOL. Is it a total spectacle? yes, absolutely ... will you see some amazing sh? yes you totally will ... so what the hell is my problem? I still wonder that until today Cirque du Soleil
This movie really reminded me how time flies. It seems like only yesterday (well, more like 20+ years) when I had seen an animated version of the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and that had spurred on my interest to read all of the books in the Narnia Chronicles by CSL
And yes, completely spoilage-free, just some overall impressions are within
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe REVIEW: B+
It had been so many years since I read the book, much like LOTR, that I saw it pretty much blank slate with no preconceptions other than to know the plot in really broadbrush form.
I have to say that the movie really works as a nice, compact version of a very elaborate tale (that requires a ton of imagination to render when you read it, much less view it). There was not much clockwatching on my part, the story flows pretty well after a clunky WWII start to place the characters where they need to be. Actually towards the end, I began to watch the clock a bit as I wondered how they would wrap it all up in two hours and change.
I know that some had a hard time with the movie because of the inevitable comparisons to LOTR. Actually, I was pretty surprised at myself that I did not really draw such comparisons, and I think it was because of the effective use of scope in the movie. In LOTR, there's a great sense of vastness, distance, etc. ... and ultimately had more time (one hour more, to explore subplots and minor characters). Narnia is directed from a very managed perspective ... almost as if it captured that elusive sense of what is a child's dream or imagination like, boundless yet in a manageable way (like someone had put a glass over the world) ... so the focus from the four kids perspective is perfectly fine. And, does it suck you into its world? I thought it did a good job of that
In general, I thought the performances were quite good. The only nitpick I had with it was the at-times painfully obvious Qui-Gonization of Aslan -- it really was nails on the chalkboard to me, and the only thing that really distracted me from the ride I was on. Tilda Swinton does a real good job as the White Witch ... there were some points where I did wonder briefly whether she was trying to go for evil or psycho, but that's neither here nor there, really
And I can't really comment in depth about whether the movie captured the novel well ... it has been nearly 25 years after all, since I read it. All I can say is that key moments in the story that I can remember were well done, much as I poorly remember them. I was afraid that due to time constraints in the end that certain things would come off forced or rushed ... but I don't know whether to credit the editing, or the simple elegance of how they handled the key moment of the story, it really did work and was quite emotional
I found it interesting that in the run up last week that a lot of media, right wing talk, and pop mags were really focusing in on whether this was like a POTC but with animals and kids. I would have to say that no, it is not. However, I think that if you wanted to view it from the perspective of a Christian believer, it is there for you to take in ... and have your own personal and emotional reaction to it.
I say this, because the movie resonated with me during certain points at a gut level. But if the question is, is it overtly Christian in tone ... no, I don't think that it is, but it is based on noble human principles that are present in its theology. The bottom line is that it is entertaining, and if the viewer finds spirit in it, then I think that's probably based on their own personal interpretation and experience with the movie.
Visually, it is not as epic as LOTR, but for most of the movie it does not try to be. There are a few points where the green screen effect is really obvious like a 1960s Frankie and Annette surf and beach movie. I guess to illustrate my earlier point about scope, in LOTR environments are very important to give context to where on the journey things are ... in this case, it was there and was used as a minor plot device, but pretty much the background remained the background.
For the action scenes, again the camera was pretty much pulled in tight, with a few large shots interspersed. It was almost counter to the LOTR style, particularly in ROTK. So I guess what I am saying here is that the final battle did not feel as epic to me. However given the focus of the movie as a whole, I can understand why it was cut together that way ... and I must say that it is coherent and supports the story, so I'm not really quibbling with it as much as to think through what I thought about it. And the action is very A-Team, mostly bloodless and without dire consequence.
And lastly, I know that everyone looks at Disney and thinks, hey I can bring my kids to it, no problem. Well, there were more than a handful of under-8s in the audience ... and they didn't take some of it too well. The WW and the wolves are pretty scary, and the death of Aslan is pretty heavy with disturbing imagery (even for me) ... and of course there are other points in the movie which might go by the boards for everyone but the very young
For what it was and for the limited time frame they used, I felt that Narnia was very entertaining ... not perfect by any means, but a very credible and solid effort ... our evaluation: B+
Well, I suppose after teasing it a while ago, it's about time that I finally talk about the band that I have been abuzz about for a handful of months. I actually thought that I was going to write something up with the recent set of reviews
Then I thought, you know what? I possibly could be getting tired of this one ... but somehow today, I fell in love with it all over again, so let me write a bit about TMN and their eponymous album
The Magic Numbers - The Magic Numbers REVIEW: A
I first got turned on to TMN by the song, Forever Lost ... I don't really remember where it was that I heard it first. I mean, it could have been my endless iTs fishing expeditions, or I could have been listening to WOXY or KCRW at work or something ... or maybe the OC. But when I first heard that song, I was like, damn, that is the kind of music that I was looking for
No, not sisters and brothers music ... or the widespread use of the melodica, although admittedly both would be true... but very good songwriting, great understanding of vocal harmonies, and just great basic pop in the vein of 60s style pop, R&B with some rockabilly (think early young Elvis-ishness), country elements and soul/disco beats
I think that one of the interesting things about TMN is the sound of their singer/guitar player Romeo ... it sounds kind of like Yusef Islam/Cat Stevens, but his voice can really tell a story and that is something that I really can appreciate. It's so awesome how he uses his vocal tones, loud and soft, and other styles to really get across the stories of the songs
I guess that's one of the cooler aspects of this album, a lot of stories to be told ... and I cannot think of too many albums where I go, yeah the songs are traditional in the sense that they tell a story, convey a mood, as well as entertain
And about entertaining, the songs on the album are deceptively simple in that you can get your ears around them quite easily, but just when you think you have patterned them out, there will be this great breakdown that you never expected ... one notable one is the rockabilly of "Long Legs" which flips from high lonesome country to rockabilly into a great soulful R&B/disco breakdown
I don't know really what else to say, as you all know, I've been really hooked on their live performance at MBE, available on KCRW either in RA audio or video. So many different styles speckled into it, it's almost a shame that only college radio, public radio, and no one else besides the musically snobby have picked up on it ... because it totally could be huge among just about anyone.
The song that I really love right now is "Love's a Game" ... it just has that traditional 60s R&B style which I have always loved, putting down great pop to a simple blues hook. There are so many great songs here, and none have that feel of filler ... so yes indeed, this is one you can play through all the way because there is such a great variety to it
If you want to wade into TMN, I would recommend "Forever Lost", "Love's a Game", then try on "Love Me Like You", "I See You, See Me", and "Don't Give Up the Fight" ... or I suppose you could just DL the performance from MBE and give it a test drive. If you like it, welcome to the bandwagon, you're probably going to love this album
We think this one is probably the best debut we heard this year ... and definitely worthy of an A
Well, I've been doing the last.fm thing for a while, and using the radio player to find new music.
I heard about this other site, based on the Music Genome Project, where you put in an artist that you like and then it generates musically similar music that you might find interesting, likable, whatever
So check it out, fascinated me for a little bit ... another cool way to find music that you might like, click here to be redirected.