Island Getaway

As much as I love Lost, I’m still not totally sold on this final season. Where last season’s time travel storyline went too far into the sci-fi realm for a lot of viewers, this season feels a little too dumbed-down to me. All the creepy, mysterious fun has disappeared from the show, partly because we’re finally getting the answers we’ve all been demanding (prompting one of the little voices in my head to remind me to be careful what I wish for), and partly because this season seems to be yet another confusing reinvention of the format. To me, the writing is really suffering as a result of the departure of Brian K. Vaughn, but maybe I’m biased. I do love me some Y: The Last Man. I really wanted to be blown away by this season, and so far, it’s just not happening. Or maybe it’s just that I’m just sad that the show is ending and I’m preparing myself to be disappointed by the final episode. Either way, I guess I’m still watching.

That said, I still enjoy Lost-related media, and this is an extremely cool idea. An illustrator named Michael Myers (no relation to the comedian or the mass murderer of Halloween fame) did some Saturday morning cartoon-style drawings of the Losties for a made-up Lost: The Animated Series. I like it, although I couldn’t help wondering what they’d have to change Sawyer’s signature “Son of a bitch!” line to for the kiddies.

Illustrations by Michael Myers.

Latrocious videe-i-e-i-e-i-o

Apparently, the music video isn’t completely dead. Here’s a couple good ones I’ve spotted lately.



Lots to love here from Company of Thieves. Jangly indie pop that takes me back to my college days, Genevieve Schatz belting out the chorus like Björk fronting R.E.M., and a video homage to the opening sequence of Rushmore put this one on my radar. Good stuff. Link from /Film.



Andrew Bird is a genius, plain and simple. I saw him for the third time last Thursday at the Ogden Theater. It’s amazing to watch one guy play guitar, violin, xylophone, whistle and sing all in the course of one song, and do it all incredibly well. You can’t quite get the full effect in this live video for “Fitz & Dizzyspells,” from his latest album, Noble Beast, but the addition of the marching band makes up for it. Link from Stereogum.



And in case you don’t get the reference in the title, Three Times One Minus One’s gonna make it a'ight...

Pop Tart

It seems a little strange, but my favorite new music at the moment is Lily Allen’s “It’s Not Me, It’s You”. Girly pop isn’t exactly my usual genre of choice, but Allen isn’t exactly Hannah Montana either. Instead of the usual overproduced fluff from the latest American Idol cast-off, Allen’s new album is full of frank discussions of sex and relationship drama, set to some pretty catchy beats—a little spicier than your average fare. Listen to the lyrics of “The Fear” (here performed live on Jay Leno), and you’ll discover she’s actually skewering the tabloids (who have been pretty brutal to her in Britain) and the whole crop of celebutants they worship/stalk. It’s nice to know somebody can still do pop music with a bite.

Monthly Fees

The Soup sums up why I didn't buy a new iPhone. I mean, I love Apple and all, but I also like money. Until AT&T’s iPhone monopoly is over, I’m all good with Verizon and one of these.

Thanks to The Original Winger for the link.

Good to Be Kings

One of the first things I did after I bought my new TV and added the HD channels to my cable package was to set my DVR to record Austin City Limits. ACL has always had this legendary reputation, but it’s always been sort of a mystery to me. Despite the fact that some of my favorite artists have done incredible shows, I never remembered to watch it unless I happened to pass an episode while flipping channels. But thanks to my DVR, now I can see every new episode, and this season has definitely been worth it. For many years, ACL focused mainly on country and blues, giving the nod to local Austin acts whenever possible. But recently, they’ve begun to change their focus, booking younger and hipper indie bands. So far this year, I’ve seen sets from Wilco, Arcade Fire, Bloc Party, Explosions in the Sky, Paolo Nutini, and Ghostland Observatory. But the best so far was the band pictured above, Kings of Leon, who in just a few songs reminded me what an amazing live band they are.

I’ve seen the Kings live twice—a couple of years ago in Indianapolis at a small club, and last summer here at Red Rocks as part of the Monolith Festival—and both times, they’ve been fantastic. The Kings are pretty unassuming onstage. They don’t go for a lot a lot of banter or big fancy light shows; they just get up and play their songs (and play them well). Their music is a perfect blend of indie and Southern rock (think the Strokes meet Skynyrd), and it lends itself very well to a live show. When I saw them in Indy, they were there because they had a night off from a 3-night stint opening for U2 in Chicago and wanted to play somewhere that wasn’t a cavernous arena. They had the crowd of 500 rocking, and they sounded great, but I’m willing to bet their music sounded just as good in the United Center. It certainly sounded good at Red Rocks, where in my opinion, they were the highlight of the festival. If you’ve never heard their stuff, their ACL performance is a great place to start. PBS tends to rerun episodes fairly frequently, so check your local listings... or just set your DVR.

Other stuff I’ve been into lately:
There Will Be Blood. I had some issues with the story itself (I thought it was a little choppy and unfocused), but the combo of Daniel Day-Lewis and the score by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood made this movie an incredibly intense experience.

Lost: Season 3. This season seemed a lot better when taken in a just couple of chunks, rather than spread out over seven months. I’m definitely looking forward to the new episodes, even if we’re only getting 8 of them.

GarageBand. I’m not a DJ, but I play one at home.

Salem’s Lot, Stephen King. The first time I read this book, I was 13 years old and it scared me so bad, I wouldn’t go down in the basement by myself for a month afterwards. It wasn’t quite as scary this time, but then again, I don’t live in a big house in the woods anymore with the wind blowing tree branches against my window all night. Even so, it’s still a terrific read, and it made me remember why I got so into King in the first place.

In Rainbows, Radiohead. Still amazing every time I listen to it. I’m just as excited by it as I was when I wrote this.

What A Year For A New Year

As a whole, I can’t say I’m sorry to see 2007 go. But at least it ended well. I had no problems traveling around the holidays, got to spend some quality time with the fam, slept a lot, ate a lot, and got some great Christmas presents. In fact, I’m using the biggest one to create this post. (Thanks, Mom and Dad and Christmas bonus check!)

As for the media/entertainment-type stuff, I’d say I did all right:

Raising Sand, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
El Corazón and Washington Square Serenade, Steve Earle
3D, Casey Driessen
The Song Remains The Same [Remastered and Expanded], Led Zeppelin
The Terror, Dan Simmons
The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century, Alex Ross
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: The Black Dossier, Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill
Lost: Season 3

Not too shabby. I also saw The Golden Compass while I was home, which was OK, but not amazing. I think I suffered from having read the book, because I sent the whole time comparing and not just watching the movie. As is usually the case, the book is better.

Odds and Ends

1. There’s a trailer up for the new Wes Anderson movie, and not a moment too soon. I think I’ve had my fill of sequels and car commercials masquerading as movies based on toy commercials masquerading as cartoons. More original and quirky, please.

2. I’ve currently got major nerd love for The Venture Bros. DVDs. The show is part of Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup, and intelligently spoofs old shows like Johnny Quest and the Hardy Boys while working in as many geektastic sci-fi and fantasy references as possible. It’s also got a great retro visual look that I love. Entertainment Weekly recently gave the show some love in their EW 100 issue. Definitely worth checking out.

3. David Beckham finally made his debut in a Los Angeles Galaxy uniform. No confirmation on whether he actually walked on water after the game. I feel no need to add to what’s already been written, but hopefully now the focus can go back to the soccer. There were some great MLS games this weekend that were completely overshadowed by ESPN’s over-the-top Becksturbation.

Second Chances

After all the uproar over the way The Sopranos series finale ended, I decided to give it a little time before I talked about it. I’ll admit, I called bullshit when it ended. Maybe I wanted closure, but whatever it was, that abrupt cutoff rubbed me the wrong way. (And for that matter, so do all the reviewers who have referred to it as a “fade to black.” There was no fade, people. If it had faded, nobody would have been saying that they thought their cable cut out.) But, not wanting to be hasty, I let my thoughts stew for a few days, and tonight I rewatched the episode, and I felt better. While the ambiguous ending still bothers me, I was more comfortable with it this time around. No matter what theory you subscribe to (the black screen signifies Tony’s death, or the whole episode was Tony’s dream and the black screen was him waking up, or Tony lives, but all the suspicious characters in the restaurant were there to signify the paranoia he has to live with for the rest of his life), the final scene was a masterful piece of filmmaking. Sure, there were some ragged cuts, but as a whole, it was a strong episode. And really, any viewers who endured all the long delays between seasons and tangential plotlines that never went anywhere shouldn’t be surprised that they ended up with the TV equivalent of blue balls. I can live with all that.

My biggest problem with the finale is what David Chase has done to the Sopranos’ legacy. The word genius it being attached to his name an awful lot in reviews of the finale. But here’s the problem with that: Leaving the ending up to the viewer’s imagination is not the mark of genius—it’s a cop out, plain and simple. Why else would Chase have fled to France to escape the blowback? Honestly, I think all these people conferring genius status on Chase are just as disappointed as the rest of us, and I don’t care how many wild theories and allusions to existentialist European cinema they throw around to cover it up. Maybe some of those things are true, but I highly doubt it. Ultimately, what we’re left with is this: The Sopranos changed the game when it came to what TV could be. It should go down in history as an incredibly complex and cinematic show which, coupled with some bravura performances from the cast (Edie Falco in particular), raised the bar for everybody else in the television industry. Instead, all people are going to remember is a caricature: Lots of violence, a gimmick ending, and a Journey song. And that’s what really disappoints me.

A long time ago (well, 30 years, anyway) in a galaxy far, far away...

WARNING—This post has a higher-than-normal amount of nerd content. Not for the faint of heart.

As you may have heard, it’s the 30th Anniversary of the theatrical release of the original Star Wars—back when it was an unsullied masterpiece, not the bastardized version Lucas pushes on everybody these days. Apparently, there was a big celebration in L.A. this weekend. Lots of geeks in costumes and so forth (see above)—sounds like a lot of fun. Anyway, the anniversary has provided an opportunity for all kinds of random media outlets to jump on the bandwagon—I mean, a History Channel special? Seriously?

But there is one special treatment that has me excited. Robot Chicken is one of the shows in Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim lineup. It’s the brainchild of Seth Green (you may remember him as Scott Evil in the Austin Powers movies) and one of his buddies. Basically, the show skewers the nerdier aspects of pop-culture through short sketches using stop-motion action figures. Sounds weird, I know, but trust me—it’s ridiculously funny. I love the show, not least because they’re usually making fun of a lot of my favorite things and using toys I played with as a kid to do it. Clever. Anyway, Robot Chicken is doing a Star Wars special in honor of the anniversary, bringing their trademark humor to bear on George’s epic universe. It premieres on June 17th, and they’ve got a trailer posted on the website. Hi-freakin’-larious. I can’t wait.

Gone to the Movies

Here’s what’s been keeping my eyeballs stimulated lately:
The Last King of Scotland. Decent. To be honest, outside of Pan’s Labyrinth, I wasn’t too impressed with any of the Oscar-nominated movies I saw this year, and this was no exception. Forest Whitaker was pretty good as Idi Amin, but I think it’s criminal that James McAvoy gets no play on the DVD cover. He probably had more screen time than Whitaker, and in my opinion, was just as strong in terms of acting.
Spider-Man 3. Boo. As a comic reader and life-long Spidey fan, it hurts me to say that. But this movie was guilty of trying way too hard. One too many villains and two too many plotlines, at the expense of character development. Instead of throwing Sandman in there solely to have 3 scenes to show off the neat tricks CGI can do these days, how about spending a little more time developing the tension between Peter and Mary Jane so that I might actually care whether they stay together or not? And that dance scene? Please. The Venom suit is supposed to turn Peter into a badass, not a gay man stuck in the disco age. What is this, Spider-Man or A Chorus Line? This movie’s lack of quality is sad, but not entirely unexpected. One need look only as far as the X-Men trilogy and the Batman movies of the 90’s to know that the 3rd movie of a comic book franchise is where it all goes wrong. Unfortunately, Spidey 3 is hauling in wagons full of money, so Hollywood will take that as validation to make more crap.
Smokin’ Aces. Speaking of lack of character development... I couldn’t believe so many decent actors (Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Andy Garcia, and even my old pal Affleck) ended up in this glorified music video until I saw that it was directed by Joe Carnahan, who also directed the fantastic Narc. Based on the strength of that film, I’m not surprised so many actors wanted to work with him. But now I can’t understand how Carnahan went from Narc to this mindless muddled shoot-’em-up. A bunch of hired killers are trying to kill Jeremy Piven, who’s holed up in a Lake Tahoe penthouse with a bunch of coke and hookers. (Based on what I’ve heard of the life of Piven, doesn’t sound like much of a stretch.) Something about testifying against the Mob, yada yada, now shoot things up. Obviously, the writers didn’t care much beyond that, so neither did I.
Shaun of the Dead. Lest you think I’m going to trash everything I’ve watched lately, here’s a movie I really liked. It had a bit of everything—comedy, romance, zombies, and British accents. What else do you need? I know this was intended to be a send-up of zombie movies, but it works on so many levels, it goes well beyond simple satire. Like all good movies, it’s built around a solid story. Beyond that, everything else is gravy. Oh, and in between all that other stuff I mentioned, they still managed to get me to care about Shaun and his friends. How about that? Maybe Hollywood can take a lesson from the Brits in the lost art of character development. Now I really want to see Hot Fuzz.
The Wire: The Complete Second Season. I know this doesn’t really fit with the title of my post, but The Wire has been more entertaining to me lately than 90% of the movies I’ve watched in the past 6 months. I was warned that season 2 starts off a little slowly, but I’m still fascinated by the way the show’s writers manage to tie so many disparate threads together into one cohesive whole. I haven’t been this absorbed by a show since the first two seasons of Lost.

Spring Cleaning

The windows are open, the sun is shining, and it’s time to clean out the clutter. In that spirit, here’s a bunch of stuff I’ve been meaning to review but just haven’t gotten around to:
iConcertCal. This plugin for iTunes has become one of my favorite technological advances of recent months. Install this puppy, enter the city where you live, and it will look at all the artists in your iTunes library and tell you when any of them are playing nearby. Unlike some other concert calendar plugins I’ve tried, this one actually covers all the major (and nearly all the minor) venues in Denver and Boulder. It’s also a timesaver, since I don’t have to go through and manually enter artists I’m interested in, and I no longer have to constantly browse multiple websites in search of shows to see. In the two days since I downloaded iConcertCal, it’s already led me to upcoming shows by Bloc Party and Rush (at Red Rocks!). Sweet.
The Wire: Season One. It’s taken me a while, but I finally started listening to everyone and their brother who have been telling me how amazing this HBO series is. You were right, OK? It’s a great show, and it’s eating up all my free time lately. I hope you’re happy.
Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Johnny Marr (formerly of The Smiths and The The) climbs on board for the latest (and poppiest) Modest Mouse album, and the result is a rollicking rock album that makes me want to dance every time I listen.
Citizen Kane. I picked this special edition up at Costco for the criminally low price of $8.99. It had been a long time since I had last seen this movie (universally accepted as one of the greatest films ever made), and this crisp restoration gave me a new appreciation for it. At first glance, the movie seems to be full of clichés (lighting, storytelling, camera moves), until you realize that in 1941, nobody else was doing this stuff. At the time, Orson Welles’ masterpiece was incredibly groundbreaking, and set the template for decades to come. (Apparently, the making-of documentary on the second disc is pretty good too, but I haven’t gotten around to watching that yet.)
Conan, Volumes 1 and 2, Dark Horse Comics. When I was a little kid, my dad used to tell me stories about Conan to put me to bed. I’m not sure what his source material was, but as far as I can remember, they always followed the same basic pattern (Conan comes to a village, a beautiful woman/village leader asks for his help from the monster/bandits/tyrant threatening the village, Conan defeats them, gets his reward, and continues on his way), and that since I was 4 or 5 years old at the time, they were about as G-rated as a Conan story can get. But thanks to Dad’s stories, interest in the barbarian’s adventures always stuck with me, and I’ve continued to read and watch Conan’s various incarnations through the years, mostly with differing levels of disappointment. So when I saw that Dark Horse was going begin adapting Robert E. Howard’s original stories in comic book form, I was a little skeptical. After all, Marvel Comics’s ongoing series in the 70’s and 80’s left a lot to be desired. But Kurt Busiek and Cary Nord have done a masterful job with this current incarnation, and have treated Conan rather faithfully to Howard’s original vision: A thief and a warrior, a lover of wine and women, at heart a bit of a country boy often confused by civilization, but never afraid to let his sword do the talking. More than any other version since Howard’s original stories, this series is truest to the spirit of Conan, and the gorgeous art only helps to make it an enjoyable read.
Hellboy: Blood & Iron. I’ve said before that Guillermo del Toro’s Hellboy is one of the most underrated comic book movies ever made. Thankfully, a sequel is in the works, but until then, I’m happy to watch the latest in a series of animated movies from Cartoon Network starring the voices of nearly all the actors from the live action movie. For a “cartoon,” this movie (featuring a host of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and the goddess of death), is pretty damn creepy.
It’s Superman!, Tom de Haven. A reimagining of the Superman origin myth, set against the backdrop of 1930’s America (no “Metropolis” here, only real cities and cameos from plenty of historical figures). I’m not sure I agree with all of de Haven’s characterizations (Clark Kent as a intellectually “simple” farmboy?), but it was an interesting revisionist take on how Clark, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor came together for the first time.

S.P.Q.R.

Rome, Season Two. Lavish, decadent, and bloody could describe both HBO’s series and the empire it was based on, as ultimately, those characteristics led to the downfall of both. Sadly, tonight HBO aired the final episode in the all-too-brief run of Rome, ending it after only two seasons. The writers had planned out a story arc over three seasons, but were told at the beginning of this year that due to low ratings and high production values, there would be no third season. This meant that the episodes in season two often felt rushed, covering months or even years at a time as Titus Pullo and Lucius Vorenus (above) led us through Octavian’s vanquishing of Brutus, Cassius, Antony and Cleopatra on his way to becoming Caesar.

Despite the time crunch, Rome was far more entertaining than 95% of what’s on TV, and I’m sorry to see it go. But the people have spoken, and apparently more of them would rather watch Dancing With the Stars than a history lesson dressed up with battles and orgies. Heathen savages, the lot of them. Gauls, most likely.

Reboot

One of the blogs I've been reading lately is Obsessive Consumption, one woman's quest to track all of her purchases and through that, comment on our culture of consumerism. Each day, she posts an item that she purchased (either with a photo or a very cool sketchy line drawing). Lately, I've been trying to think of ways that my blog can better reflect its theme (that being how I spend my leisure time), and Obsessive Consumption's format has given me inspiration. So, from now on, each of my posts (hopefully daily) will deal with at least one thing I did that day during my free time. For example:

Rome: The Complete First Season. For the last couple of nights, I've been watching this immensely enjoyable HBO show (and really, are there any HBO shows that aren't?). Since it’s about to return with new episodes, I wanted to get caught up before the second season begins. I love that the show is historically accurate (at least by Hollywood standards), yet still interesting dramatically. Turns out sex, politics, and war makes for good TV. But who knew all Romans had British accents?

Hey You. Yes You.

Every year, Time picks their Person of the Year (formerly known as Man of the Year until they got beat down by the PC Police) who has had a major impact on the world over the past 12 months, and this year, they totally copped out. This is a half-assed attempt to address the fact that ordinary average citizens are contributing more and more to the global conciousness through blogs, MySpace pages, and photo and video-sharing (on sites like YouTube, which anyone with a tiny level of awareness will recognize on the screen of the iMac on Time's cover).

Personally, I'm not sure how much the majority of bloggers and YouTubers are contributing to the greater good of the world (seriously, how many more people do we need talking about music and movies?), but all this "user-generated content" has opened a lot of doors to a lot of good music and funny videos that were previously tough to find before we could all just email them to each other. Once again, the Internet has leapt forward by providing us with more ways to waste time.

On the other hand, some things are worth the time. Here are two particularly funny videos I've come across recently. The second one is most definitely NSFW.
The Scrubs/Charlie Brown Christmas mashup (Thanks to Cynthia for this one)
Saturday Night Live's Special Christmas box

READ
All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy

Eye Candy

I haven't figured out yet whether this is incredibly cool or incredibly nerdy (especially since the two things are often the same in my mind). Jim at Krazydad created the image above by arranging old science fiction magazine and novel covers chronologically and by hue. Here's his explanation of the piece. The best part is, it only took him a day to do. Thanks to Wired for the link.

Speaking of nerdy, here's my design nerd kicking in. After posting about my love of posters, I've been spending more l time looking at different designs on the web, and I discovered that AIGA Atlanta and Neenah Paper have commissioned some of the biggest names in design to each create a poster for a different punctuation mark. The posters will be auctioned off, with the money going to benefit a guy named Scott Hamilton, a designer in the ATL who suffered a stroke, losing the ability to do most of the things we take for granted, like walk, read, write, use his hands and verbalize his thoughts. Pretty frightening, especially since he was only 42. So not only were these pieces created for a good cause, but the majority of these are inspired works. My favorites? Michael Beirut's "Semi-Colin", Chip Kidd's "My-Hyphenated-Life", and Stefan Sagmeister and Matthias Ernstberger's take on the apostrophe, "Happiness is a warm bang bang, shoot, shoot". I guess being a smart-ass can translate into creativity sometimes. Plus, looking at this work has inspired me to take on a freelance project to design a poster of my own. More on that when I can show you a finished piece.

In other news, I've decided to stop fighting nature and grow a mustache. Of course, I'm sure I'll change my mind tomorrow morning and shave it off before work. But for one weekend, I joined the ranks of such facial-hair celebs as Burt Reynolds, Tom Selleck, Edward James Olmos, and Jason Lee. OK, I'm kidding. I just didn't shave this weekend. Seriously, though, I would totally grow a mustache if Mustaches for Kids would start a Denver chapter.

And finally, since I mentioned Edward James Olmos, I have to talk about my new favorite show, Battlestar Galactica. I finally finished the first two seasons on DVD and I'm now working my way through the current season on my DVR. Yes, it's based on that über-cheesy show from the 70's. But other than the basic premise and the names of the characters, the two shows don't have a whole lot in common. The new one is superbly acted with a pretty impressive cast, and everything about it is based on real science (for instance, no lasers—the guns shoot bullets). But what I like best about this new version is, at its core, it's a drama that just happens to be set in space. Within the framework of the remnants of humanity on the run from the Cylons, the show has dealt with topics like abortion, genocide, terrorism and suicide bombings, imprisoning "enemy combatants", the politics of war, and other hot-button political issues. Not gonna much of get that from Star Trek.

WATCH
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5: Disc Two
Battlestar Battlestar Galactica Season 2.5: Disc Three
Rock the Bells

READ
World War Z, Max Brooks
Four Plays by George Bernard Shaw

LISTEN
The Best of What's Around, Vol. 1, Dave Matthews Band
The Crane Wife, The Decemberists
And the Glass Handed Kites, Mew
Colorblind, Robert Randolph & the Family Band
Deadringer, RJD2
Chrome Children, Stones Throw artists

The Fresh Air Cure

Here's why I'm liking Denver: After moving into a new apartment with my brother two weeks ago, I've spent most of my time outside of work unpacking and rearranging, but I'm not complaining. Being in a place with my own stuff again feels so good. We got hooked up with digital cable this week, so on Friday night we ended up watching the entire third season of Entourage on HBO On Demand. Even after three seasons, that's still a quality show, and probably my current favorite. After vegging on the couch all night on friday, we needed to get out, so last night Doug and I checked out Andrew Bird's show at the Bluebird Theater. I didn't think his set had quite the same energy as his performance at Bonnaroo, but he was still entertaining. And today, for a little exercise, we hopped in the car with a few friends and drove to Eldorado Canyon near Boulder, where we did a 3+ mile hike on a trail that rose nearly 1,000 feet. Not only was it good exercise on a gorgeous day, but it made me feel pretty good about Denver and all the options I have for my free time. If I want to be lazy and watch a bunch of TV, I can always do that. If I want to go see live music, the option's there. And if I want to get out and do something outdoorsy, obviously no shortage of places to do that too, all within easy reach. And after a few weeks of moving boxes, rearranging furniture, and finding spots for all my magazines, a little fresh air was just the thing I needed.

IMAGES
The Illusionist
Entourage: The Complete Second Season
Entourage: The Complete Third Season

WORDS
A People's History of the American Revolution, Ray Raphael

SOUNDS
Andrew Bird/Dosh/Cass McCombs, The Bluebird Theater

Little Shots of Happiness

Every once in a while, a series of commercials comes along that I get inordinately attached to. I get a stupid little rush of excitement every time I see one, and no matter how many times I see them, they never fail to make me laugh. Right now, it's Apple that's responsible for my 30-second fixes. I don't whether it's because I'm a life-long Mac user (our first family computer was an Apple IIc that my Dad bought in the late 70's), or just because I find these ads to be unfairly clever at the expense of some computer-geek stereotypes, but I can't get enough of them. I can't escape them either. Thanks to the juggernaut that is Apple's marketing department, whether I'm watching TV or on the internet, there's the Mac and the PC. Also, I love that the guy who plays the Mac is the same kid who got nailed with a wrench by Patches O'Houlihan.

Other things making me happy these days?

Pearl Jam, "Wishlist". After digging out my CDs during the move, I'm having a bit of PJ renaissance these days, and their greatest hits discs have been in heavy rotation as I drive around Denver. "Wishlist" is a track I had almost entirely forgotten, but now I can't get enough of. "I wish I was a messenger and all the news was good / I wish I was the full moon shining off a Camaro's hood." Cheesy goodness.

Neil Finn and Friends, 7 Worlds Collide: Live at the St. James. Another gem I dug out. The former Crowded House frontman gathered a bunch of guest stars (including members of Radiohead, the Smiths, and Pearl Jam) for a series of concerts in New Zealand. I don't even know that many of the songs, but this disc makes me wish I had been at the show. And really, what more can you ask for from a live album?

Anything by Mark Twain. I've been there before. When I was young, I had an illustrated version of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and when we read the grown-up version in high school, it was one of the only books I've been forced to read in my life that I truly enjoyed. I've read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and I own a collection of Twain's best quotes. But the mark of a great writer is, no matter many times you read their stuff, you always come back for more. Thanks to a few visits to the nearby Tattered Cover bookstore, I've stocked up and plunged deeper into Samuel Clemens' oeuvre. I just finished re-reading Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, and am now about to start A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. On deck: Life on the Mississippi and Innocents Abroad. If nothing else, Twain's words are helping pass the time in my crap-ass sublet.

Things not making me happy?

My crap-ass sublet. The sooner I find a permanent place to live, the better.

The logo for World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Ew. It's the biggest sporting event in the world. You'd think maybe they could spring for a graphic designer with a few years of training.

A First Time for Everything

Sometimes you try new things for the hell of it, and sometimes necessity forces you into it. Thanks to the quirks of my DVR programming, I managed to miss the season finale of The Office, leading me to download my first TV show from iTunes. It took me a little while to get into The Office. The laughs tend to come from pretty uncomfortable places, and I usually hate comedy that makes me squirm. But after a short adjustment period, I've found the humor, and now I don't miss a show. But it's not just the funny that keeps me coming back. I get serious guilty pleasure (and those of you who know me well will understand this) from rooting for Jim and Pam, and the $1.99 fee for the episode was worth it to see what happened with their big cliffhanger. I know. It's just TV. Guess I'm just a hopeless romantic after all.

IMAGES
Mission Impossible III

Make Mine Music

Lots of exciting music news today, as there's some stuff I'm really looking forward to coming up this summer.

First, Sufjan Stevens is releasing a companion piece to last year's amazing Illinois on July 25. Entitled The Avalanche, the set compiles outtakes, alternate versions, and music "rooted in" songs from Illinois. Stevens' label, Asthmatic Kitty, and Billboard have more info.

Next, one of my favorite power poppers, Matthew Sweet, has teamed up with Susanna Hoffs (formerly of the Bangles) to record a covers album of 60's pop, Under the Covers Vol 1. You can hear samples of the album streaming on their website, and I have to say, it sounds pretty good, if perhaps rather faithful to the original versions. Aside from that minor gripe, their voices sound great together and they covered a couple of my favorite songs (The Beatles "And Your Bird Can Sing" and Neil Young's "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere"), so I'll definitely be picking this up when it drops on April 18. Rolling Stone talked to the duo for the scoop.

And finally, some small amount of news continues to trickle out about the new Radiohead album, which as far as I can find still doesn't have a release date, although they are touring this summer. Canada's Chart Attack cribs notes from NME, calling the new stuff "terrifying". What's more terrifying to me, though, is Thom Yorke's bloggish ramblings on the official Radiohead site. Whew. Abbatoir noises, indeed.

In non-music news, I've always thought Sportscenter's commercials were pretty genius, but this new one takes the cake (course, I'm a big Crocodile Hunter fan from way back, so maybe I'm biased). Unfortunately, this clip cuts off about a second early, but that doesn't stop me from laughing every time I watch it.

WORDS
The Know-It-All, A.J. Jacobs

The Hours

My weekend pretty much went down like this: Drink way too many Newcastle, Killian's and black-and-tans on Friday night, spend Saturday and Sunday letting my body recover. But I had a choice in how to rehab. Take in the fresh air? And deal with 80,000 drunk Hoosiers and overhyped pop stars mixed with severe weather damage that could have killed me? No thanks. Lay on the couch? Why, it was only the best seat in the house for fifteen-and-a-half hours of soccer over two days. Guess which choice I made?

Saturday
Noon—2 pm: DVR recording of Wednesday's Champions League match between Inter Milan and Villareal, ESPN. Milan 2-1. Great game. Almost every time an Italian side and a Spanish side get together, it's a joy to watch. Maybe they should combine the two leagues.
2 pm—4 pm: Newcastle-Tottenham, FSC. Newcastle 3-1. A scrap in the rain. Typical English spring weather. And what is going on with Tottenham these days? Can you say nosedive?
4 pm—6 pm: Dallas-Chicago, ABC. Dallas 3-2. Great first half by Chicago, but a terrific fight back by Dallas. Game winner to hometown Dallas boy Kenny Cooper on his debut. The quality of this match is pretty high. Looks more like midseason than the first game of the year, at least until Dallas makes some subs in the 2nd half and the wind goes out of Chicago's sails. Chad Barrett's opener for Chicago makes the third game in a row that a goal was created by an attacker shooting at an angle across the face of the goal and the keeper was unable to hold on, allowing an opposing forward to tap in. Barrett's goal is almost a mirror image of Diego Forlan's tally for Villareal.

Break for dinner and a nap. Sweet, sweet sleep.

8 pm—10 pm: Bonanza! Flip back and forth between the Final Four and Birmingham-Chelsea, FSC. 0-0. Also have streaming video of Kansas City-Columbus running on my computer. KC 3-1. Only drawback is that this year, MLS has docked their viewer in a pop-up window, so I can't blow it up to full screen and watch from across the room like I did last year. Compensate by cranking the sound up so that I'll know when something exciting happens. Basketball gets boring pretty quickly, so I focus my attention on the soccer games. Kansas City looks good. Chelsea looks bad. Well, bad for Chelsea, anyway. They could still destroy most of the other teams I'm watching.
10 pm—11pm: Fox Sports World Report, FSC. Canadian highlight show. I get 30 great minutes of English, Spanish, German, and French highlights from throughout the day, and then they inexplicably start the same highlights over again at 10:30. Weird. Barcelona-Real Madrid looked like a decent game. (Sarcasm, people. Sarcasm.)
11 pm—1 am: Los Angeles-New England, ESPN2. New England 1-0. A rematch of MLS Cup 2005 ends up the other way around, with the visitors coming out on top. Clint Dempsey scores a nice goal and comes up with a rather disappointing celebration. LA looks drained. Not surprising, considering the emotions of the night: prior to kickoff, they received their championship rings and honored their late GM, Doug Hamilton, who died recently. But excuses aside, this game is sloppy, and looks a lot like the first game of the season.

Sunday
11:30 am—Noon: Schalke-Hamburg, FSC. Had this on in the background while I ate and got dressed. Not much to see.

Venture out into the world for groceries. Bright light, bright light!

4 pm—5 pm: Paris St. Germain-Bordeaux, FSC. PSG 3-1. I only see the second half, so I miss all the goals. Boo. PSG is either really good, or Bordeaux is really bad. Lots of Brazilians play in France.
5 pm—7 pm: Back to double duty. Arsenal-Aston Villa, FSC. Arsenal 5-0. DC United-New York Red Bulls, mlsnet.com. 2-2. As Arsenal demolishes Villa in the background, I'm mostly focused on DC-NY. NY goes up 2-0 early on a Youri Djorkaeff free kick and a horrid display by United's defense that gifts Edson Buddle a goal, but United hit back in the second half. Alecko Eskandarian and his fancy new headgear (see above) come back from a long concussion-induced injury layoff to score his first goal since MLS Cup 2004, a superb volley from 7 yards, and a few minutes later Facundo Erpen fires a wormburner that gets a fortunate deflection. I wish United could have kept the mo' going and gotten the winner, but I'm happy to see them claw their way back.
7 pm—7:15 pm: Tried to watch Houston-Colorado on my computer, but my eyes had had enough, so I decided to give them a rest. At least until next weekend.

Tony Quinn/Wireimage.com