Fantastic

I just started watching the second season of I’m On Setanta Sports, a brilliant puppet show starring Jose Mourinho that reminds me a lot of Genesis’ video for “Land of Confusion” back in the late 80’s. Honestly, you’re only going to find this funny if you’ve followed English football in the past 5 years, but Rooney and Sven leave me laughing hysterically every time.

Little Wing

This was one of the easier Alphabet mixes. Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” is one of my favorite songs, and since I own more than 20 versions of the song, it was just a matter of picking the best ones and fitting them on a CD.

1. The Jimi Hendrix Experience
2. Derek And The Dominos
3. Gil Evans & The Gil Evans Orchestra
4. Sting
5. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
6. Skid Row
7. The Corrs
8. Pearl Jam
9. Vitamin String Quartet
10. Jenn Adams
11. Concrete Blonde
12. South Austin Jug Band
13. Tak Matsumoto
14. Mark Selby
15. Eric Steckel Band

Falling Down

New Oasis. Noel singing lead. My day has been officially made.

Just Browsing

This is why I love the interwebs. I found this photoblog, Delineated.com, while clicking links on my Last.fm profile. Turns out one of my neighbors (meaning, she has a very similar playlist to mine) my friend's friends is a photographer in Toronto. The blog seems to be more miscellaneous stuff, but she also has a site of terrific concert shots, and I really dig both. After all, it’s not everyday I run across a photographer who likes to shoot old hotel signs and Bonnaroo.

Photo © Carrie Musgrave

Nick & Nora’s Infinite Playlist

This is high on my must-see list for the fall (in theaters October 3rd). Michael Cera rocks, and I feel strangely protective of the kid. Maybe it’s because whatever he’s in, I tend to feel his character’s pain and find myself wanting to impart some big brotherly advice to help him through the awkward spots. Not sure what I’d do with the whole “George Michael’s in love with his cousin” thing, though. That’s just weird.

And on a totally unrelated note, why does it seem like romantic comedies always get released in the fall? Is that a particularly romantic time of year? Why wouldn’t there be a bigger surge around, say, Valentine’s Day?

Love Letters

Think you know your movie posters? Well, so did I, until I took this humbling quiz offered up by Empire Online. The idea is to identify the movie based on 1 letter of the title from the movie’s poster. To give you an idea of how hard it is, I’d consider myself to have a better-than-average knowledge of movies and fonts, and I got 16 of 46. Frustrating, but it also made me want a second quiz. Soon.

"Just as modern as any city in the Federated States of Amerigo"

For anybody looking for a insider’s tour of the city before the DNC hits, welcome to Denver, y’all.

Fantastic.

Link from The Denver Egotist.

Dark Shadows

I went back to see The Dark Knight again yesterday, this time on the IMAX screen, and I also watched Batman Begins, mostly just for comparison’s sake. What’s amazing is, for all the hype and critical praise that was heaped on Begins for its dark and gritty take on the Caped Crusader, that movie has nothing on Dark Knight when it comes to (pardon the pun) darkness. Aside from Liam Neeson and Cillian Murphy’s villains in the first movie being completely outshined by Heath Ledger’s electric take on the Joker, Dark Knight is a literally darker movie. One of the first things that jumped out at me was the difference in the color palette of the two movies. Batman Begins, which seemed so raw and ominous when it was released, now looks comparatively bright, shiny, and colorful when held up against its sequel. Until the final battle scene, much of Begins takes place in the light, whereas Dark Knight is just the reverse, with the majority of the movie taking place in dark offices, back rooms, alleyways and underground streets. Even the outdoor daylight scenes all seem to take place on gloomy, cloudy days. Knowing how much thought Christopher Nolan puts into his movies, I’m going with the assumption that this is intentional — that the darkness is meant to show just how bad things are in Gotham, lending weight to Harvey Dent’s statement that things are always darkest before the dawn, but also mirroring Bruce Wayne’s acceptance of Batman’s place as an anti-hero who must remain a shadowy figure to achieve his true purpose.

Intentional or not, the visual tone of the film is just one more reason why The Dark Knight is now one of my favorite movies of all time. It lost absolutely nothing on a second viewing, and I’d go see it a third time in the theater given half an excuse. Usually, the second time I see a movie is when I catch lines I may not have caught the first time and notice more flaws, but I was just as absorbed in the story as the first time I saw it. A couple things I did notice: the soundtrack is pretty incredible, mainly because it fits the action so well that I barely noticed it except to think, “That’s cool”, and Heath Ledger was even more impressive and creepy the second time around. He was mesmerizing in every scene, and if he doesn’t at least get nominated for an Oscar, it will be a crime.

And finally, this was my first IMAX experience with a Hollywood movie, and for me, it didn’t add much except to make the screen a lot bigger. Maybe it was the angle at which we were sitting (off to the right), but it was tough to see what was happening in a lot of the darker scenes... of which, as I said, there were plenty. On the other hand, it was worth the extra $5 per ticket not to have to watch commercials before the movie. Until the show started, all we got was a blank screen and the Dark Knight soundtrack playing quietly over the speakers. It actually allowed people in the audience to talk to each other, which was nice since the theater started filling up 40-45 minutes before the show (yes, a 12:20 pm screening was still sold out a full two weeks after the movie’s release). Once the lights went down, it was two previews and then straight into the movie. That in itself is enough to get me back to an IMAX show in the future.

Fall Music Preview

Lots of potentially great new music coming out this fall. Here’s a list of what I’m looking forward to (I’ll continue to update as I find more info):

8.19
The Verve, Forth
The reunited Manchester outfit’s first album since 1997’s Urban Hymns. They’ve been playing new songs on tour this summer, and early buzz is good. Even if Forth is only half the record Hymns is, that would still make it a quality reunion album.

8.26
Matthew Sweet, Sunshine Lies
I’ve heard a couple tracks on his MySpace page, and I can’t tell if they're rough mixes, or if his production is that raw. His last few albums have been hit or miss for me, so I’m hoping this one will be more along the lines of In Reverse or Kimi Ga Suki, and not another Living Things.

9.12
[UPDATE] Metallica, Death Magnetic
I can’t decide about this one. It’s hard for me to get excited about a new Metallica album since their last few have sucked so hard, but the word is that they’ve returned to their roots for this one, tapping into some ...And Justice For All-type riffs. That sounds good... after all, Justice is the album that made me love these guys in the first place, but then again, it’s hard to forget how bad St. Anger was. I think I’ll give this one a listen before I drop any cash on it.

9.23
Kings of Leon, Only By the Night
Their last one, Because of the Times, was such an amazing leap forward, I’m interested to see if this is more of the same, or if these four Southern boys keep pushing their sound.
[UPDATE] If the first single (now playing on their MySpace page) is indicative of the whole album, I’d say they haven’t strayed too far from Because of the Times. I’m good with that.

Mogwai, The Hawk is Howling
Same here. I liked Mr. Beast a lot, and Mogwai’s the type of band that sticks with what works. Fine by me.

9.30
Ben Folds, Way to Normal
On the other hand, we have Ben Folds, coming off the underwhelming Songs For Silverman. I’m hoping he can get back to the fun of Rockin’ the Suburbs on this one.

10.07
Margot and the Nuclear So & Sos, Animal! & Not Animal! (2 separate releases)
No idea what to expect here, although I do know the excellent “Broad Ripple is Burning” will be on one of these.

Oasis, Dig Out Your Soul
It might suck, but I’ll still play the shit out of it. Easily worth it for the two or three Noel-sung songs that are sure to appear, like [UPDATE] the newly-released “Falling Down”. I'll buy it on the strength of that song alone.

11.18
U2, No Line on the Horizon
Early word is that U2 are “very, very pleased” with this one. Bono is happy, and just in time for the holidays. Looks like we’re in for 7 years of peace and prosperity the world over.

(Most of these dates come from Metacritic.com)