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

ROTFLMAO

Knocked Up. Judd Apatow is The Man. I love his TV shows and 40-Year-Old Virgin was surprisingly funny, so I had set the bar pretty high for this movie, but I wasn’t expecting to be in pain from laughing non-stop for the last two hours. Literally, every scene is just as funny as the one before it, broken up with just enough pauses to let the audience catch their breath. Seth Rogen, Katherine Heigl and Paul Rudd are all fantastic, but as with all Apatow projects, the supporting players steal scenes every chance they get. The best part is, it’s not a one-joke movie. There’s something for everybody here, and the humor is varied enough to carry the entire film—some jokes are raunchy, some sweet, some self-deprecating (Rogen and his roommates have some particularly good running commentary about what sex-starved geeks they are). It’s nice to see a mainstream movie every once in a while that doesn’t insult my intelligence. Plus, the cast list reads like a reunion of previous Apatow collaborators. If you’ve ever seen Freaks & Geeks, Undeclared, or 40-Year-Old Virgin, you’ll recognize pretty much everyone in Knocked Up. Without a doubt, the funniest movie I’ve seen since... well, since 40-Year-Old Virgin. If you haven’t gotten around to seeing Knocked Up yet, cancel your plans for the weekend and head for the theater. It’s worth the trip.