Words

This is really cool. I made a word cloud on Wordle based on the most frequently-used words in my posts. According to this, I like soccer and negative modifiers, and I have a bit of a potty mouth.

Nothing like a little holiday spirit to kick off the shopping season.

Are you fucking kidding me?

I hope they throw the book at not only the people who trampled this guy, but everybody who walked past him as he lay there dying. Merry fucking Christmas.

The Roundup

Things I’ve been into lately:

The Apple Juice Kid, Miles Remixed. I like when DJ’s hook up classic jazz: the Verve Remixed series being the most high-profile example. This album sticks entirely to the works of Miles Davis, but still comes off as a diverse mix. Great stuff, and best of all, available as a free download.

Dead Confederate, Wrecking Ball. This Athens, GA-based band has created the perfect marriage of Southern classic rock, Neil Young-influenced grunge and Brit rock.

Matthew Sweet, Sunshine Lies. Definitely nowhere near as consistent as some of his great albums from the 90’s, but he can still turn the most innocuous song into a work of jangly, toe-tapping beauty. I bought the deluxe edition from iTunes (for an extra $3, you get 6 extra songs), and it was well worth it — the bonus tracks are some of my favorite songs.

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Harmless and cute, but funny — good date movie. I think Michael Cera’s ability to play the awkward indie kid is still second-to-none, but he’s starting to seem a bit like a one-trick pony. One more movie like this, and the backlash will be in full effect.

The Venture Bros. Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim has accounted for quite a bit of my TV watching in recent years (Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, The Brak Show, Sealab 2021), but nothing comes close to The Venture Bros. What started out as a simple Johnny Quest spoof has become a smart, wickedly funny action-adventure story with as many pop culture references crammed into each episode as humanly possible. With the first two seasons on DVD and Season 3 currently in reruns on CN, I’ve been watching at least an episode a day for the past month or so, and I still want more. Bring on Season 4.

“Lost” anticipation. Is it 2009 yet?

Culinary Delights

And now for something completely different...

By no means would I ever consider myself resembling anything close to a chef. My kitchen is pretty much just a storage area that’s seldom used for anything more difficult than opening a new box of cereal. But every once in a while, I get the urge to eat something that hasn’t been handed to me through the window of my car, and that usually means it’s time to throw down on the grill.

Tonight was one of those nights. I had a good cut of boneless sirloin (Laura’s Lean Beef from Super Target—don’t knock it) that I marinated overnight in a mixture of Worcestershire sauce, cracked black pepper, and Simply Organic Spicy Steak Seasoning. Once I fired up the grill, I started sauteing some chopped onion and baby bella mushrooms in olive oil and a touch of the Worcestershire, just enough to give everything a hint of flavor. I threw the steak on the grill at medium heat, flipped it a couple times, covered it with the onion and mushrooms, added a glass of red wine (I prefer something more flavorful with steak—tonight was a 2004 Tinto da Anfora, a surprisingly well-rounded, full-bodied Portuguese red*, considering the price I paid for it), and voila! I’m stuffed and happy.

Thus ends what will probably be my first and last post about food, at least until the day Taco Bell and Pizza Hut join forces to create the Ultimate Deep Dish Spicy Chicken Supreme Burrizza. What a glorious day that will be...

*OK, full disclosure: I totally cheated and looked up reviews of this wine online. I buy all my wine on an aesthetic basis, meaning my design snobbery will not allow me to buy anything with an ugly label.

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.

Misc.

It’s been a while since I last posted, and to be honest, I’ve been debating whether to give up on the blog entirely. I haven’t made up my mind yet, but I think for now, I’ll just continue to post when the mood strikes, and not worry about how long it takes me to come back to it. After all, it’s not like the internet is going anywhere.

For now, here’s a few things I’ve been enjoying lately:

• Gentlemen of the Road, Michael Chabon — An instant classic of an adventure novel, written in the vein of Sir Walter Scott or Robert E. Howard. I started and finished it on the plane ride home for Thanksgiving. Thoroughly enjoyable read.
• Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson — Eerily prescient cyberpunk novel that influenced everything from The Matrix to Heroes. Also a great read.
• The World Without Us, Alan Weisman — A well-researched and interesting look at what would happen to the Earth if humanity suddenly disappeared. Unfortunately, our legacy would mostly consist of all the plastic garbage we’d leave behind.
• the audio/video page on Andrew Bird’s bowloffire.com — All kinds of cool live stuff and remixes.
• Jerusalem, Steve Earle — The more Steve Earle I listen to, the more he becomes one of my favorite artists. I just recently downloaded this anti-war album he released in 2002, and sadly, the themes are still way too current.
• classic Christmas music — From Charlie Brown to the Chairman of the Board, they just don’t make ’em like they used to.
• Automatic For the People, R.E.M. — 15 years later, this is still an incredible album. “Sweetness Follows” has popped up in my playlists several times lately, and it especially crushed me with its greatness.
• The Jungle Book 40th Anniversary Platinum Edition — This was one of my favorite movies as a kid, so I Netflixed it this weekend. Disney did an incredible job with the remastering. The movie looks gorgeous, and I was happy to discover that I still knew the words to all the songs. My neighbors, on the other hand... probably not as happy.
• the performances of Scarlett Johannson — I never thought I was much of a fan, until I realized recently that she starred in six of the top ten movies in my Netflix queue. In the past few weeks, I’ve watched Scoop, Girl With A Pearl Earring, Match Point, and Lost in Translation, and I have to say, there’s something indefinably sexy about her that I find kind of mesmerizing. I’m having trouble deciding whether it’s her voice, her lips, or most likely, some combination of the two. Plus, she does voices on Robot Chicken, so she’s got serious nerd points. And hey, Woody Allen seems to love her. (Then again, he also loved his adopted daughter who was half his age, so maybe old Woody’s not exactly the best measuring stick.)
• the Iron Man preview — Robert Downey Jr. was the perfect choice for Tony Stark, and I love that Jon Favreau refuses to overuse CGI. If the movie is half as good as the preview, I’ll be happy.

Get Older

I can’t decide which bothers me more—the fact that I was in Bed Bath & Beyond for more than 5 minutes this morning, or the fact the in-store music system was playing Feist’s song “1,2,3,4” (recently made famous by an iPod Nano commercial). I doubt anyone would ever consider Feist edgy or controversial, but the realization that music I would pay for and download is now apparently acceptable for older ladies doing their Saturday morning shopping is a little sobering.

For a lot of years now, I’ve felt like I’ve been pretty plugged in to current pop culture trends, but as I prepare to enter my final year in the coveted (by advertisers, anyway) 18-34 age demographic, I’ve realized that my need to be on the cutting edge is starting to fade away. At this point, I’d usually rather listen to music by artists I know I enjoy than someone I feel like I should listen to because everybody’s buzzing about them. That’s certainly not to say that I’m giving up on new music—just that I’m a lot less concerned about being the first one to discover it. That’s why I let some of those music blogs in that list over on the right do the legwork for me. I mean, it’s totally possible that Animal Collective and The Besnard Lakes are the dopest shit to happen to music since LL Cool J’s momma told him to knock us out, and maybe by this time next year, I’ll even believe that. But in the meantime, I’ll be just fine with the latest Neil Young, thanks. Speaking of getting older...

I guess what it comes down to is that I’ve passed the point of needing to constantly search for new and better music. I finished shaping my tastes. I know what I like, and I’m OK sticking with it. Even if that means I end up humming along with a bunch of grandmothers to the Feist song in Bed Bath & Beyond.

Overrated

Thinking back over the past few weeks, there seems to be a theme to the pop culture I’ve absorbed: too much hype. The most pleasant experiences were the things I wasn't expecting anything from.

Slan, A.E. Van Vogt. Apparently, this novel is an important part of the sci-fi explosion of the mid-20th century. Maybe so, but maybe readers had lower standards back then, too. Yikes. Thankfully, the genre has progressed quite a bit since those days. While the alienated-mutant-on-the-run-from-human-authorities theme was pretty familiar (having been repurposed many times since, most noticeably as the basis for the entire X-Men mythology), the writing was so stiff and stilted that I barely made it through the book.

Little Children. Why did the critics love this so much? It was creepy and disturbing, the narrator was jarring and disruptive, and there wasn’t much likeable about any of the characters. Guess that’s reviewer-code for “edgy” and “gritty performances”. Well, the Oscars can have this one.

National Treasure. Nicolas Cage in a Jerry Bruckheimer production. Two guys that are emblematic of everything wrong with Hollywood. Of course they’re making a sequel. It was good to shut my brain off for a couple hours, I guess, but that’s definitely all I got out of this.

American Dreamz. This spoof of reality singing shows one was actually decent, although there were probably some inside jokes I missed because I’ve never watched American Idol. Given that tradeoff, however, I was happy to miss some of the humor. And seriously, why does Chris Klein keep getting roles?

Blades of Glory. Will Arnett gets the funniest line of the year: “Not only did we embarrass Marky Mark, we let down the Funky Bunch.” The movie was stupid and silly, but sometimes stupid and silly is all you need. Besides, who cares if the movie was any good? Jenna Fischer in lingerie! If I wasn’t on Team Pam before (which I was), I sure as hell am now. Yowza.

Superbad. Not as funny as all the hype, but still good for a lot of laughs. Michael Cera (of Arrested Development fame) is going to be hurting when he grows out of being able to play the awkward teenager, but for now, he’s got that role locked down. And of course, Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow continue their hot streak.

And speaking of those two, September 25 is now looking like the most geektastic day of the year, and Apatow and Rogen are involved. Not only is Halo 3 finding its way into the hands of millions of gamer geeks that day, but Knocked Up hits on DVD. Something tells me Seth Rogen may be celebrating by playing a little Halo himself. (And by something, I mean the fact that I played an online game of Halo 2 with someone I’m 99% sure was him recently.) On the other hand, he’s a big Hollywood star, so he’ll probably celebrate with coke and hookers. Hookers who play Halo. Or something like that. That’s what I would do, anyway.

Wilco at the Fillmore Auditorium. And now we get to the pleasant surprise. I’ve always had a hot and cold relationship with Wilco’s music, but I saw them in Columbus, OH about 8 years ago on a double bill with Matthew Sweet. I was there for Matthew, but I remember Wilco putting on a pretty solid show. So I knew they were capable performers, but no memories from that Columbus show could have prepared me for the show they put on Saturday night. The lineup of the band has changed somewhat over the years, and they seemed a lot more willing to rock out, putting two and three guitars to work on songs that are definitely more mellow on the albums. Plus, not only is new lead guitarist Nels Cline an amazing player, smoothly handling a wide range of styles from Neil Youngish to Brian Mayesque, he’s got the showmanship thing down, too. I had a great time, so much so that I finally gave in, went home and hit iTunes to fill in the gaps of my Wilco collection. And now I know I’ll enjoy it all.

Summer Reading (and Watching and Listening)

In between naps and bodysurfing, I cranked through a lot of stuff at the beach:

Books:
Back in the USSA, Kim Newman and Eugene Byrne. An interesting idea that held my attention for 3/4 of the book, then lost me at the end. This book is a series of short stories that tie together at the end, but the overarching idea is flipping the script of the Cold War: At the end of World War I, Russia peacefully becomes a democratic monarchy in the British vein, while the US is taken over by a Socialist Revolution. The stories largely imagine how well-known Americans and Russians’ lives would have differed, but like many of Newman’s books, fictional characters appear in this world as well (i.e frequent humorous appearances by Jake and Elwood from The Blues Brothers).

The Children of Hurin, J.R.R. Tolkien. A “history tale” from Tolkien’s early days. Having previously read two incomplete versions of this story in The Silmarillion and Unfinished Tales, I was prepared for the fact that this wasn’t going to be The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings, but it was nice to read a complete and polished version. Being a Tolkien geek and a completist, I always like to fill in the backstory gaps.

The Devil’s Teeth, Susan Casey. In retrospect, maybe not the the best book to read right before a beach visit, but I had just finished watching Discovery’s Shark Week and wanted more scary fishes. Casey documents her time chasing Great White sharks through treacherous waters off a remote and dangerous group of islands 30 miles west of San Francisco. Non-fiction, but it reads like a good novel. I highly recommend this one.

Lisey’s Story, Stephen King. King just keeps getting better with age. Ever since I read The Green Mile and Bag of Bones, I’ve been convinced that in 50 years, King will be as much a part of the average American Lit class curriculum as Faulkner, Vonnegut and Salinger. Lisey’s Story did nothing to change my mind. King’s ability to interject the supernatural into everyday life just gets better with age.

DVDs:
Summer of Sam. I bailed on this movie after half an hour, but I can’t decide whether it was because of John Leguizamo (who I mostly can’t stand) or if it was just plain bad. Spike Lee is usually pretty hit or miss with me, but I find it hard to reconcile the fact that the guy who made this stinker also made a masterpiece like The 25th Hour.

Undeclared. Another Judd Apatow project, this series was on Fox for the blink of an eye back in 2001. Featuring pretty much everybody from Apatow’s previous series, Freaks & Geeks, Undeclared also has great guest spots from some turn of the century comedy royalty: Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Amy Poehler, and of course, a young Seth Rogen (P.S. I can’t wait to see Superbad), as well as guest directors like Jon Favreau and Jay Chandrasekhar (of Super Troopers fame). Although it’s still unpolished here, that same trademark Apatow sweet/raunchy back and forth is peppered throughout the series. Definitely worth the rental if you like any of Apatow’s other work.

The Host. This Korean monster movie is a perfect example of why sometimes it’s better to just let a movie be a movie and not have to be an “event.” If The Host was made in the US, it would have probably ended up being some giant summer tentpole, and all the whole focus of the movie would have been the overly CGI monster and giant battle scenes. Instead, the monster is mostly shown in brief glimpses, and the movie stays focused on one family’s attempt to rescue a young girl who has been captured by the monster. It’s not often that I’d call a monster movie “sweet”, but that’s exactly what The Host is.

Music:
All good, for different reasons that I’m too tired to write about right now.
Stars, In Our Bedroom After the War
Galactic, From the Corner to the Block
Ted Leo / Pharmacists, Hearts of Oak
Foamfoot, Live at the Troubador 1-8-94
Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds, Live at Radio City
Editors, An End Has a Start

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.

Holiday Road

With an extra day off, I had planned a big post to catch up on all the stuff that’s been occupying my free time lately, but instead I spent the weekend watching the Rapids beat LA in front of a sellout crowd, getting drunk, suffering a bad hangover, and best of all... working. Needless to say, I’m a little worn out from this long weekend, so no pretty pictures this time, just a list. I’m sure you’ll all survive.

MOVIES
Just one, an oldie but goodie: Fistful of Dollars. I had never seen this groundbreaking Western from beginning to end, but spending all day on the couch yesterday gave me a chance to explore the free movie list in the OnDemand menu. When I saw they had a remastered widescreen version of Fistful, I couldn’t pass it up. The movie itself was decent, although I thought both Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa’s samurai masterpiece that inspired FOD) and Last Man Standing (a remake of FOD starring Bruce Willis set during Prohibition) were both a little better in providing motivation for the main character. On the other hand, Clint Eastwood was pretty bad-ass as the laconic but deadly gunslinger, but I kept getting distracted by Ennio Morricone’s eccentric spaghetti western score.

BOOKS
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke. Another re-read I pulled from my shelves recently. Here’s my original review. I didn’t get quite as caught up in the story this time, but that was partly because I was conciously reading slowly to appreciate the richness of the language. Clarke does some amazing things with her words, and more than once, I found myself longing for a return to the days of a more formal approach to the English language. There are some amazingly haunting passages in what is at times a dark and mysterious book, and the payoff was just as good the second time around. UPDATE: Happily, I’ve just discovered that Clarke has a collection of short stories, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, that take place in or are related to the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and that she is also at work on a sequel of sorts that follow some of the lesser characters from the novel. Looks like I’ll be making a trip to the bookstore tomorrow.

COMICS
The Losers: Complete Series. A gripping and epic international espionage story about an Army Special Forces unit that goes “ghost” after the government tries to kill them. Since everyone thinks they’re dead, they are able to work under the radar to unravel the twisted threads leading back to the mysterious man with CIA ties who set them up. Kinda like the A-Team, only people actually die, and they don’t build some kind of crazy tank thing at the end of every issue. For a story told in comic book form, it was heavily cinematic (both in scope and in the way artist Jock made use of the frames), so it was no surprise to me to find out that a movie is in the works.

The Walking Dead, Vol. 6. More great post-apocalyptic zombie stuff. This story gets crazier and and life just keeps getting harder for the rag-tag band of survivors, much like I would assume the world would be if it was overrun with shuffling brain-chompers.

Spike: Asylum. Buffy’s second-favorite vampire gets tricked into entering an asylum where they claim to be able to “cure” vampires and demons. Predictably, this is not the case, and Spike meets some other wrongly-imprisoned peeps and helps them get free, smashing a lot of stuff in the process. Good solid fun.

Star Wars: Legacy, Vol. 1. It’s 120 years after Return of the Jedi. The Empire has rebuilt itself and formed an alliance with a new order of Sith, who promptly betray the Imperials and take over the galaxy. Now the remains of the Empire, the Republic, and a new order of Jedi (including Luke Skywalker’s grandson, who has a rather rocky relationship with his Jedi heritage) must band together to fight the Dark Side once more. (Hey, I should write cover blurbs.)

MUSIC
Dinosaur Jr., Beyond. Awesome comeback album from the original lineup. J Mascis is a god.
Travis, The Boy with No Name. More mellow Brit rock, less politics than the last album. All good.
Bright Eyes, Cassadaga. Folky, rootsy, kinda mediocre.
Stars, Do You Trust Your Friends? Remixes and cover versions of Stars’ Set Yourself on Fire album, all created by (as the title implies) their friends in other bands.
Explosions in the Sky, How Strange, Innocence. More back catalog post-rock instrumentals from this Texas group.
William Parker & Hamid Drake, Piercing the Veil. Jazzy bass and percussion, with a slightly African slant. Maybe a little esoteric for my tastes. Dad, I’m sending this one your way.
Rush, Snakes & Arrows. Decent, but nowhere near their classic work. It might be time for these guys to coast on their greatest hits.
Adult Swim, Warm & Scratchy. A free mix from the Adult Swim website featuring bands like TV on the Radio and Asobi Seksu. One more reason to love Cartoon Network.

Infrequent Flyer

Between my ever-crazy work schedule, my new commitment to working out (for the moment, anyway), and a long weekend in Minneapolis, I haven’t had much time to post lately. I’ve also been watching a lot of The Wire: Season One, so my movie-viewing has been curtailed. On top of that, I’ve been trying to read more instead of vegetating in front of the Idiot Box so much. As a result, lots of books and my usual eMusic haul, and not much else this week:


The Ruins, Scott Smith. A taut thriller by the author of A Simple Plan (great movie) about some kids vacationing in Mexico post-college who take a day trip into the jungle that goes horribly wrong. Bad idea. Moral of the story: Unless you’re Indiana Jones, stay on the beach and enjoy your margaritas.


Starship Troopers, Robert A. Heinlein. In my constant search for good books to read, I came across this list of the top 100 Sci-Fi books of all time, so I’ve decided to read the 81 books I haven’t yet gotten around to. I started with Heinlein’s rather controversial novel about a cadet training for Earth’s infantry 500 years in the future (#5 on the list). Forget the terrible movie that resulted from this book. I thought it was a decent read once I got past Heinlein’s facism-lite ideas about how society ought to be run.


Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke. #1 on the top 100 list, this novel from the ’50’s imagines the arrival of aliens on Earth who bring about a utopia of peace and prosperity, but at the cost of any semblance of creativity from a human race with nothing left to struggle for. Clarke’s frightening anticipation of the increase in TV viewing and the increasing apathy of humanity in the 21st century is uncanny, and made me rethink how much time I spend absorbing rather than creating.


Children of Men. The one movie I did watch over the past two weeks also happens to be based on another sci-fi novel, P.D. James’ story of a dystopian future where humanity has become sterile, and the youngest person on Earth is 18 years old. Riots have overtaken every country on the planet except Britain, where Clive Owen gets caught in a power play between the government, rebels, and refugees. Director Alfonso Cuarón does a great job of setting the tone with the cinematography and color palette, giving the movie a gritty feel that accentuates the story and makes it all the more powerful when it reaches its climax. And the movie’s echoes of the Iraq War certainly didn’t hurt.


Steve Earle, The Revolution Starts… Now. I’ve never owned any Steve Earle, but I’ve been listening to his stuff for years, ever since the first time I heard “Copperhead Road”. Revolution showcases the more mellow side of his recent stuff, but it still contains some powerful songs. My personal favorite is “I Thought You Should Know,” a ballad in which Earle warns his new lover that if she’s planning on breaking his heart, she may as well leave now, because someone else already beat her to it.

Plus, I figured it was about time to give Earle a little love since I’ve been enjoying his minor role on The Wire.


Sloan, One Chord to Another. Another band that I’ve listened to for awhile, Sloan has been making great power pop for years, but is one of those foreign bands (in this case, Canadian) who have never been able to match their international success here in the States. Sad, because they are worth a listen, but most Americans have probably never heard of them.


Godspeed You! Black Emperor, f#a# infinity. GY!BE was one of the earliest post-rock bands, influencing lots of music I’ve been listening to lately, like Explosions in the Sky and Mogwai. With a nearly orchestral-sized lineup (3 guitars, 2 basses, drums, keyboards, various strings, and some cleverly placed samples of dialogue), the band created amazing soundscapes in epic-length compositions. This album is three songs long, with the shortest track clocking in around 16 and a half minutes. Sadly, they haven’t recorded anything since 2000, but they left behind some amazing music.


Elvis Perkins, Ash Wednesday. I saw Perkins open for My Morning Jacket in January, and I was impressed by his stage presence. His album is a bit of a downer, but in a good way. In some ways, it reminds me of Damien Rice’s O, another stripped-down, low-key album of hauntingly beautiful songs. I think it’s going to take me some time to get into Ash Wednesday, but the songs I’ve heard so far have been a good start.

The Week in Review

Since the daily post thing just isn’t happening anymore, I’m going to shoot for a regular wrap-up of all my entertainment for the previous week. Here it is:
I Am Legend, Richard Matheson. The best “vampire plague brings about the end of the world” novel ever written, not to mention an inspiration for some of the biggest names in horror —including Stephen King. I wanted to revisit this book before the upcoming movie with Will Smith sullies its good name.
Fountains of Wayne, Traffic and Weather. A somewhat disappointing fourth album from one of my favorite bands. The whole album feels like a retread of the lamest songs from their previous albums. Uninspired, and nowhere near as catchy as their last disc.
Kings of Leon, Because of the Times. On the other hand, this album is a big leap forward for these southern rockers. Clearly, their recent stints opening for bands like U2 and the Rolling Stones has brought them some new maturity, and it shows here in a rich and well-crafted third effort.
DC United at Colorado Rapids. The bad: My dad and I stood in the sub-freezing temps and blowing snow to watch United lose. The good: 16,000+ other people showed up too, and went home happy (if slightly frostbitten) after seeing the hometown team open their spanking new stadium in style. Despite its horrible name, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park is a fantastic venue, and I’m looking forward to going back. The Rapids looked good, and I’ll have no problem supporting them when they’re not playing DC.
HBO’s Sunday lineup: The Sopranos and Entourage. Completely justifying the extra $8 a month on my cable bill.

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.

Knowledge is Power

5 Things You Don’t Know About Me. Apparently there’s this game of blog tag (aka “a meme”—whatever that means) going around the internet (check out the results of a Google search), where folks in the blogosphere are compelling each other to list 5 things people may not know about you. Well, my friend Jenny tagged me, but given that most of you who read this thing know me pretty well, this may be a stretch. But I’m game, so I’ll give it a shot.

1. My family came very close to moving to Australia when I was in middle school. So close, in fact, that my friends threw a fantastic surprise going-away party for me which I enjoyed immensely, and never felt guilty about enjoying it when we didn’t end up moving.
2. I had the idea for the movie Reign of Fire 5 or 6 years before it was made, even down to specific details like mining activity waking up the dragons. And no, I don’t have any proof. If I did, I would have sued those bastards a long time ago.
3. If I was good enough to make it drawing comic books, I’d give up a limb to work on Spider-Man or Conan.
4. I’ve been to Atlantic City plenty of times, and gambled in casinos in several other states, but I’ve never been to Vegas.
5. Despite my position as arbiter of musical taste for many of my friends, I get an extreme amount of guilty pleasure from cheesy late-90’s girl rock: Avril Lavigne, Michelle Branch, The Corrs...

Tag. You’re it.

The Running Man

Running from Camera. It's a very simple concept. Set a camera on a 2-second timer, then run as far away from it as possible before it takes the shot. Simple, goofy, yet brilliant and endlessly amusing. I love it.

The New Year

After a long and relaxing holiday break, 2007 is finally here. And much like little Happy up there (of Rudolph's Shiny New Year fame, you heathens), I feel like it arrived awkwardly and not entirely comfortable with itself. Hopefully, that won't last long, and this year will quickly learn to straighten up and fly right. It would be nice to turn on the news and hear something good, as opposed to the doom and gloom of the past few years. For now, though, my biggest concern is going back to work after nearly two weeks off. Blech.

Lots of post-Christmas pop culture stuff to wade through, but I'm too tired from rearranging my bedroom today. New year, new room... er, or something like that. Here's some links:

WATCH
The Good Shepherd
Little Miss Sunshine

READ
An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Ivan Brunetti (ed.)

LISTEN
Songs for Christmas, Sufjan Stevens
The Information, Beck
Wolfmother, Wolfmother

Snow Day

Sweet. (Those are lounge chairs buried under all that powder.) We've gotten at least 12 inches in the past 9 hours, and we're supposed to get 10-12 more through tomorrow. It's bad enough that the Governor has declared a disaster emergency. I'm really glad I'm not traveling for Christmas vacation today or tomorrow.

WATCH
Spider-Man 2

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