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

Classic

I just got back from a week in Ocean City, MD, and as much I enjoyed the week of napping on the sand, I was glad to make it home for last night’s MLS match between New York and LA. It turned out to be the kind of game that MLS’s head honchos had to be drooling over when they signed David Beckham: more than 66,000 showed up at Giants Stadium and were treated to nine total goals in a 5-4 New York victory (conveniently in a game between the teams from the two biggest TV markets in the nation). Beckham played the entire game and set up three of LA’s four goals, but LA continued their streak of generosity, bringing in the fans at someone else’s stadium, but then graciously allowing the home team to win. New York took full advantage, using the opportunity to show off their own offensive star power, getting a pair of goals each from Juan Pablo Angel (a less-heralded import than Becks who’s been making a big impact on the field this year) and Jozy Altidore (the latest US wünderkind who turned heads at the recent Under-20 World Cup), as well as a world-class strike from Clint Mathis. As a DC fan, I would have been happy to see these two teams grind each other down to a painful and exhausting tie, but as an MLS fan, this was a fantastic game to watch. Check out highlights here.

Stargazing

46,ooo+ fans showed up at RFK tonight to see some dude named David Beckham finally start earning his paycheck. Shrugging off the distraction of the rays of golden light and choirs of angels that instantly appeared once Beckham and The World’s Most Expensive Ankle touched the pitch, Luciano Emilio managed to score his 11th goal in his last 10 games, and DC United played a solid match to earn the win. Good times.

Coming into this game, United was averaging 17,720 fans a game. So if 5,000 or even (dare we dream) 10,000 of those extra 29,000 fans from tonight decide they liked what they saw and come back for more DC games, this whole Becks experiment may actually be worth something after all.

Best moment of the night: DC’s very vocal and tuneful supporters group the Screaming Eagles had this message for Beckham. Given the amount of prominent display that it got on ESPN2’s cameras tonight, whoever came up with that banner should never have to pay for their own drink in DC again. Hi-larious.

Solid As A Rock

Rush at Red Rocks. At this stage in their career, most bands are either long-retired or playing greatest hits shows in Branson. Rush is one of those rare groups who have managed to continue to record decent new music—nothing earth-shattering, but certainly not embarrassing in terms of their legacy—while still managing to play enough hits to please their fans. Having long ago moved beyond the necessity of an opening band, Rush hit the stage right at 8:00 and played two sets totalling more than 3 hours. The set list was evenly split between the well-known crowd pleasers (Tom Sawyer, Freewill), the new stuff (I don’t know any song names, but it doesn’t really matter as they all sound the same anyway), and most enjoyably for me, some really deep tracks that they dug out for the hardcores (A Passage to Bangkok, Witch Hunt, 4 of the 6 tracks from Permanent Waves). Unfortunately, as great a venue as Red Rocks is, last night the wind was blowing hard and playing havoc with the PA system, but despite some dodgy sound, the show was entertaining, and the people-watching was fantastic (think tons of drunken redneck metal fans mixed with a thousand dorky guys in their 40s air-drumming along with Neil Peart’s solo). It wasn’t the best show I’ve ever seen, but for a bunch of guys getting closer to 60 than they’d probably care to admit, it rocked pretty hard.

Limelight
Digital Man
Entre Nous
Mission
Freewill
The Main Monkey Business
The Larger Bowl
Secret Touch
Circumstances
Between The Wheels
Dreamline

Intermission

Far Cry
Workin' Them Angels
Armor And Sword
Spindrift
The Way The Wind Blows
Subdivisions
Natural Science
Witch Hunt
Malignant Narcissism > Drum Solo
Hope
Summertime Blues
The Spirit Of Radio
Tom Sawyer

Encore
One Little Victory
A Passage to Bangkok
YYZ

F’ed Up

1. Fire Exit… Mitch Hedberg
2. First Try… Tracy Chapman
3. Fingers Of Love… Crowded House
4. Fortress Around Your Heart… Sting
5. Forget About It… Alison Krauss
6. Fire Island, AK… The Long Winters
7. Fake… The Frames
8. Florida Silver Springs… The Impossible Shapes
9. Forty Mile Town… Eric Johnson
10. Fans… Kings of Leon
11. Fake Palindromes… Andrew Bird
12. Four Winds… Bright Eyes
13. Fall On Every Whim… Longwave
14. Flowermound… Collin Herring
15. Four-Eyed Girl… Rhett Miller
16. Friends of P… The Rentals
17. Finest Role… The Samples
18. For What It’s Worth… The Cardigans
19. Fake Empire… The National
20. Find The River… R.E.M.
21. Forever Young… Youth Group

Moviemaking

1. Casino Royale. I watched this DVD again the other night, and my original review holds up pretty well. I was struck again by the grittiness of the film as compared to previous Bond flicks, and also by the fact that even though I knew it was coming, that torture scene still made me cringe.

2. The Good German. Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney have had some pretty interesting collaborations, and while they haven’t all been successful, there’s usually at least something worth taking away from the movie. In the case of The Good German, they attempted to recreate the post-war noir films of the 40’s, with pretty amazing results. The lighting, the camera angles, the use of stock footage, even the dialogue and the way it was delivered were spot on. There were times that I had to remind myself I was watching a modern movie. Clooney and Cate Blanchett were particularly good, but it was a little tough to imagine Tobey Maguire as an asshole who beat his girlfriend (he’s just too nice to have a dark side). The plot was decent, but it was really the achievement in filmmaking that kept me interested in this one.

3. The Simpsons Movie. So, here’s where I stand on the Simpsons. I’m not a regular watcher, and haven’t been for quite some time. I can’t quote chapter and verse like some people I know, but over 19 years, I’ve come to realize that the strength of the show lies in its supporting characters. All the personalities around Springfield add layer upon layer of humor to the show, and as the show has gone on longer and longer, these characters have gotten more and more play. After all, there only so many times you can tell the same stories about Bart, Lisa, Homer, Marge, and even Maggie. So it was a bit of a surprise that the secondary characters remained so, well... secondary in the movie, especially when it came to which characters had relatively big roles (Comic Book Guy, Cletus), which had surprisingly small ones (Mr. Burns), and which had none at all (where were Principal Skinner, Snake, and Sideshow Bob?). But the writers were able to make a sharply funny movie by focusing on the core Simpsons family and keeping the story tight. They could have easily gone off on plenty of tangents along the way, but by keeping the secondary characters in the background, it made me appreciate them that much more when they did pop up on screen. Aside from that, the movie was typical Simpsons—sharp, witty social commentary wrapped around a basic story of Homer doing something idiotic with dire consequences and then redeeming himself (only this time he had 3 times as much time as usual to get things right). The audience at yesterday’s matinee was laughing out loud for most of the movie. Plus, the animation was super-crisp and looked really good. Based on the credits, I would hope so, because it looked like they had more than 1,000 animators working on that thing. I have to admit, I was skeptical when this movie was first announced. I figured they were 10 years too late with this one. But the movie proved me wrong, and I’m happy to admit it. After all this time, The Simpsons have still got it. Cowabunga, dude.

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.

And In The End...

Well, that’s that. I finished around 2:30 last night, and due to my extreme grogginess, I decided to give it a little time to sink in. Overall, I thought it was a fairly satisfying ending. Rowling was never going to be able to please everyone, and while I did have two big problems with the book, I thought she managed to do the series justice.

First, due to the necessity of following Harry’s storyline, there’s a lot of important action that happens “offscreen”. Because of this, I felt like a lot of the work Rowling had done developing some secondary characters in the past couple of books was wasted. By the time these characters appear in Deathly Hallows, there’s not much left for them to do except make brief cameos in the final battle, and what they do contribute mostly feels rushed and forced. Actually, that‘s the same problem the last couple of movies have had. I guess it was just a matter of trying to fit everything into one book without making it 1200 pages long (not that most readers, me included, would have minded).

Second, the body count is pretty high in this book, and while some of the deaths were surprises, others had been obviously coming since book 4 or 5. The problem is, the more characters died, the less their deaths impacted me as a reader. I understand Rowling’s need to show the severity of the situation, but eventually I lost any sense of shock or surprise when someone else was killed, and by the end, I was simply keeping a mental list of the dead. Also, Rowling knew her readers would be expecting deaths, and she had a bit a fun with fakeouts involving major characters throughout the book (including a big one near the end). Unfortunately, this only ended up adding to the lessened impact when characters actually did die.

On the other hand, Rowling was trying to end an epic series that has a large (and largely young) fan base, so while I may not have agreed with all of her choices, I understand the necessity for many of them. I don’t envy her that task. But most of all, I appreciate the fact that she actually gave us an ending and didn’t go all David Chase on us. I’m not sure I could have handled the final Harry Potter book cutting off in the middle of a sentence.

Hey Now, You’re An All-Star

Sweet Jesus, did I really just quote Smash Mouth? Someone please shoot me now.

So, exciting evening at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, where I attended the MLS All-Star Game. The All-Stars took on Celtic FC of Scotland and won 2-0 on goals by Juan Pablo Angel and Juan Toja, or as I like to refer to them, the Two Juans (say it out loud, it’s funnier). The game itself was fairly lackluster. What was more exciting for me was that I was granted my first-ever media credentials, which let me watch the game from the press box (view: very nice; food: so-so; swag: rockin’) and meet some soccer media types and even a celeb or two. Over the course of the night, I chatted with Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated, Allen Hopkins of ESPN, Charles Boehm (who covers DC United for MLSNet.com), and Carlos Machado of Fox Soccer Channel, listened in on an Alexi Lalas interview from 2 feet away, shook hands with Bob Bradley, had a man who I’m 99% sure was Garth Brooks accidentally end up in a photo I was taking, and was within 50 yards of David “Jesus Reincarnated” Beckham!!! (I grant him the coveted three exclamation points due to the insane amount of teenage squealing that followed him wherever he went. Seriously, the only comparison is those early Beatles trips to the U.S.)

Now, most of those names I listed won’t mean much to non-soccer fans, but as a wise friend of mine said earlier, they’re stars to me, and it meant a lot to me that the ones I talked to were so friendly and very cool about me wandering around the press box looking a bit awed and starstruck. Plus, these guys will all be great to know down the line someday when I become art director of the breakout American soccer magazine.

Potter-y

I moved recently, so pop culture has been very secondary, what with all my books in boxes, movies packed away, and Netflix on hold. Luckily I had the foresight to keep my Harry Potter close at hand. Unless you’re one of those “living under a rock” types, you may have heard something about this week’s double-shot release of the movie of Order of the Phoenix (currently riding the momentum of a rather exceptional box-office weekend) and the seventh and final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. To get ready, I’ve re-read all 6 books and re-watched all 4 DVDs over the past two weeks, and it’s both interesting and somewhat humorous to see the way the books and the actors have developed along the way. I caught a matinee of OotP yesterday, and it’s definitely the darkest movie of the series. I thought it was pretty well done considering how much they had to cut down the book and cram what was left into a little over 2 hours, and it was an excellent way to whet my appetite for book 7 (which I’m assuming is exactly what the Potter Merchandising Empire was hoping for when they set these release dates). Suffice it to say, Pottermania is in full effect at apartamento del Leister, and it will stay that way until sometime in the wee hours of Sunday morning when I finish reading, assuming UPS brings me Deathly Hallows on Saturday as promised by Amazon.

Perhaps you’re saying to yourself, “Wow. Dedicating your Saturday night to the new Harry Potter book. How very pre-teen of you.” And you’d be right. But when it comes down to it, I’d rather give up one Saturday night reading than spend the next week with my fingers in my ears going “Lalalalalala” every time someone mentions Harry Potter. Priorities, people. Priorities. And you wonder why I’m still single.