Get Used To It …
Posted on May 19, 2004 at 3:05 pm | No Comments
They’re here. And they’re getting hitched.
I’m pretty damn proud of my adopted state at the moment. Three days of same-sex marriages here in Massachusetts, and hey, all you nay-sayers, guess what? Everything’s ok. Nothing in your life is different. Your “marriage” is still safe. No one’s getting smitten (or even smote) by a wrathful god. I’ve been reading and seeing story after story of happy couples hitting courthouses, heartwarming pieces that get me every time.
To our embarrassment of a governor, Mitt “Mittler” Romney, I say keep up the negativity. Your intolerance will hopefully shorten your attempt at a lengthy political career.
Speaking of tolerance… one thing I’ve noticed about myself, as I keep hearing the good news and vicariously enjoying this monumental week: My own tolerance for the anti-marriage protesters has sunk to near-record lows. In the face of all these overwhelmingly positive vibes, how can these people stomach themselves? What could possibly prompt them to stand out on the street and voice their hatred of this newfound equality? I know, I know. Rhetorical question. But I’ve come from considering these fools “misguided” all the way over to “pure evil personified“. Then again, Bush & Co. have caused me to view their supporters as not just having “poor judgement”, but having “serious character flaws”. Polarization still sweepin’ the nation.
I’m not what you would call a “Harry Potter fan”. Blame my delayed reading of book one on it’s uber-hyping, and blame my disappointment with it on same. Mostly, though, it sorta chapped my ass that Harry was a near rip-off of the Neil Gaiman-created character Tim Hunter from The Books of Magic. Created in 1990 (7 years before the Potter phenom began), Tim is (in Gaiman’s words) “a small dark-haired boy with big round spectacles — a 12-year-old English boy — who has the potential to be the most powerful wizard in the world and has a little barn owl.” Seems the resemblance doesn’t bother Gaiman, but as a longtime fan it bugged me a bit. Still, I gave Sorcerer’s Stone a try, and did my best to enjoy the two films. I’m even looking forward to the third, moreso due to the director than the source material, though.
I’m far more excited (and frankly, surprised) to learn this week that a Books of Magic movie is now in the planning stages. A directing duo has been named, and Gaiman’s even on board as an executive producer. His involvement has my hopes spiraling high.
On a similar note, the first pics from Robert Rodriguez’s adaptation of Frank Miller’s Sin City comics have appeared in all their green-screened sterility. Hopes are high on this one, too, thanks to Miller’s co-directing credit. (although super-freak Brittany Murphy’s involvement scares the bejeebus outta me). I can only cross my fingers that the digitally rendered backgrounds end up being sufficiently Miller-esque. Hell, just have him illustrate ’em, that’d work.
Last weekend’s lucky graduates at William & Mary College were treated to a commencement address from Mr. Jon Stewart. And lucky us, we get to read it here.
Going to have to get my hands on the June issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Seems author Dennis Lehane has a short story in there called “Until Gwen“. I’ll take whatever I can get until his next novel appears.
Unsurprisingly, Michael Moore’s documentary (though some would not label it such) Farenheit 911 has caused quite a stir at Cannes. Reviews range from ‘an over-the-top propaganda piece’ to ‘subdued and effective’. Me, I lean towards trusting Ebert’s write-up. While my one-time total admiration of M.M. has faded a bit, I’m even more eager to see this now.
Speaking of Mr. Moore, Neal Pollack needles him nicely. Aw, snap!
Hey, Bostonians: In case you hadn’t heard, we’re losing a landmark in less than two short weeks. The Avenue Victor Hugo bookshop on Newbury St. is sadly closing it’s doors for good at the end of this month. Do yourself (and your shelf) a favor and stop in for the clearance sale. Right now the books are 75% off (!), so bring a backpack and fill ‘er up. Or at least give a farewell ear-scratch to Blue Bart, the window kitty.
Apropos of nothing, this site is fairly fascinating. Everything you wanted to know about booked passenger travel on cargo freighters, something that had never even occured to me to do. Not that I would now that I know, but still.
The next Grand Theft Auto game, subtled San Andreas, now has a website (refresh the page for more new artwork). According to Rockstar, it’ll be out in October. I s’pose I should try to finish Vice City by then.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time over the past few years checking in at writer/artist (& former fellow Essex Junctionite) Brian Wood’s delphi messageboard, finding out what he & his are up to creatively, reading up on the random political news he posts, occasionally chatting about good music. Well, seems his delphi-days are done, which is actually good news for those of us that check his personal site daily… looks like the spare net-time might be spent doing more frequent updates over there. Silver lining.
On that note, visiting Brian’s site brought this to my attention: Guitar rock star Ted Leo is in the studio with his band The Pharmacists, laying down tracks for their next album, so Ted’s been posting little updates on their progress at his site. He even promised a couple of demos sometime soon, once a little glitch gets figured out. Can’t wait for that action.
A little related tease: I dusted off a recorded Chisel (Ted’s old band) set on videotape, dumped the audio to my computer, and am getting ready to post it here in the next few days. Great stuff, including some unrecorded songs and a Jam cover. Sound quality isn’t stellar, but way more than listenable. Stay tuned.
In the meantime, check out a preview track from Colin Clary’s upcoming album with his backing band, The Magogs, at the North of January label site. It’s a little pop ditty called “The Shape of This Town”. Hand claps and super-sweet backing vocals are included. The album’s out on June 7th.
This is awesome. They’re talkin’ about Amie’s workplace. But I already knew I married a “hottie”. And yeah, she’s pretty cool, too.
A Whole Lotta Catching Up…
Posted on May 14, 2004 at 2:49 pm | No Comments
Yeah, I’m still around. Been chained to my desk all week, buried in work, no spare time to post. Trying to tolerate being stuck inside while it’s full-on-spring just outside the glass. Since I’m escaping soon, I’m allowing myself a little break to play catch-up before the blog-dust gets too deep and the weekend makes it deeper. Between off-site training last week, and this week’s flurry of jobby madness, posting feels like a minor chore, but the longer I wait, the more it’ll nag at me, so here goes…
The 50 Foot Wave show on Wednesday night was waaay better than I expected it to be… not that I figured it would suck at all, but I certainly didn’t think I’d be quite as blown away as I was.
What a thrill it is to see Kristin Hersh fronting such a powerful all-out rock trio, letting loose with cathartic words and crackling guitar lines while the murky-jerky rhythms propel the songs along. I was glad to hear last year that fellow Throwing-Muse Bernard Georges was sticking with Kristin in L’~, ‘cuz that’s a guy that we just need to keep playing bass. He’s so great that it’d be a shame if he wasn’t. And drummer Rob Ahlers. What a revelation. I knew the guy was solid, but until you see him do his thing for thirteen songs straight, you don’t know just how good he is.
The entire band was so tight, so propulsive, and they’ve got such a fully developed identity right out of the gate. They know exactly what they want to be, exactly what they already are, and they just run with it. 50 Foot Wave may be a new band, but the years they’ve played individually comes through without making songs that sound dated at all. They’re staking out their own new little patch of punk rock land, planting a flag down, and building high. Can’t wait to hear the next bunch of recordings.
Some more of my pictures from their set can be found here, and you can go here for a nice write-up of the show at Boston.com.
I kinda dug openers The Fontaine Toups, but I’ve always liked frontwoman Fontaine’s songwriting, both in Versus and Containe. She’s kicked the rock up a notch in this new band, but the songs were slightly samey, and occasionally a little loose. That said, I’m psyched to hear some recorded versions. Hopefully their drummer is a little more, um, “subtle” in the studio, ‘cuz I thought he was bangin’ the skins a tad too hard for the rest of the band. Total cymbal overload and the occasional unintentional speed-up threatened the set, but maybe it was just my drumming-self who noticed that. Could be, could be.
Be still my Bedhead-loving heart. The New Year’s second album is coming soon, tracks are leaking out, and I’m swooning already. My goodness, the Kadane Bros. & Co. can release no wrong to my ears… they’ve crafted what promises to be the perfect extension of their Bedhead days. The sadness I felt at Bedhead’s breakup has completely disappeared… the first album defeated it, this new one’s gonna bury it. All I’ve got left is gratitude that these guys are still making music.
The upcoming record is called The End is Near, and their official site has an mp3 for the song Disease. You can also check out Insound for track two, Sinking Ship.
Bizarro! We’re finally getting the first season of Sealab 2021 on DVD. Yes, I’m so happy it’s like a koala bear crapped a rainbow in my brain. July 11th brings pure comedy gold, and a must-own disc. As Stinky Pete sez… “Ah cha-cha-cha-cha… delicious.”
High up on the TiVo season pass list is The Screen Savers on Tech TV. An hour of tech-type news, stories, and tips every weekday, broadcasted live at 7pm eastern from San Francisco. For those who hadn’t heard (or didn’t care), corporate giant Comcast (owners of videogame-centric channel G4) inhaled and swallowed the Tech TV network a number of months back. Only time would tell how the ‘merger’ would pan out, and at first the worst occured: Lots of layoffs at Tech TV. Appears they’re closing up the San Fran offices and headquartering in L.A. The TechTV-related messageboards were flooded with viewers and well-wishers, while some freaked out fans even launched a little boycott petition.
Contract ‘renegotiations’ (aka “give us back your old stock options or else”) have already cost us TSS co-host Leo Laporte (further talks led to his reappearance on soon-to-be-cancelled Call for Help, but he’s been relegated to brief taped segments on TSS), but the latest word is we won’t lose The Screen Savers entirely. According to the newly christened G4TechTV website, the combined network will keep much of TechTV’s programming, which is great news.
From the site, the shows they’re sticking with include Fresh Gear, Invent This, Nerd Nation, The Screen Savers, and X-Play from Tech TV, along with Arena, Electric Playground, Icons, Players, and Pulse from G4.
The official broadcast-blending day is May 28th, and for us Screen Savers junkies, hopes remain high that things won’t change too much. There’s really nowhere else to get this kind of stuff on TV. We’ll see if Comcast either messes with what already works, or gives them the resources to get even better. Hopefully we’ll still get our daily doses of Patrick, Kevin, Sarah, Yoshi, and yes, even fast-talkin’ Foo.
And someone had better damn well keep Jessica Corbin on television, so I can keep totally crushing on her from afar.
Wait, what? You mean you haven’t yet experienced the wonder that is Tyson the Skateboarding Bulldog? Well, then get with it!
Imagine an alternate world in which the TV netjerks were forced to cancel every reality show except the best one. Ok, can you picture it? Well, then everyone would be watching The Amazing Race. Season five kicks off on July 6th, and I’ll be front and center. Now if only that imagined world existed.
Whoa, the new full trailer for Pixar’s upcoming superhero movie, The Incredibles, is now online. Consider me super-excited.
I’ve seen a bunch of movies over the past few weeks, most of ’em fortunately free. Between winding up on some movie mailing list, winning mouse-clicky contests, and snagging passes during my downtown lunch-break, Amie and I end up seeing a free screening probably once a week. In the past couple we’ve checked out Mean Girls, Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee & Cigarettes, and earlier this week …
… Troy, which was just plain terrible. Painfully bad. A total Trojan bore. Speaking as someone with a slight fixation on the Age of Bronze, even I couldn’t get into it. It was a boring, bloated, unintentionally hilarious “interpretation” of the events leading up to the Greek’s attack on the city of Troy. Ok, so Helen was there, the costumes looked pretty good, and there was a big wooden horse. And they messed it up.
It was essentially a two-and-a-half hour ego-stroke for Mr. Pitt, and an over-the-top glare-a-thon for the rest of the (mostly) male cast. Hear me yell! See me scowl! Rrraaarrggh! Orlando Bloom looked completely lost during the entire thing. Ok, you know that one super-cheesy moment in the first Lord of the Rings, when ‘Lando-as-Legolas steps up on a mountain top and sort of swings his head slowly, thoughtfully, to the side, and you think to yourself “Uh, oh… can this guy act?”. Well, imagine a whole movie of that. Ouch.
The only two actors to escape relatively unscathed, at least acting-wise, were Eric Bana and Sean Bean. They hung in there, but for the rest of the cast, it was all just so much bellowing. Poor, poor Brian Cox… he’s a great actor, but it seemed as if he was told to play a comedy sketch parody of a king. Talk about chewing up the scenery. And I swear, it looked like Peter O’Toole’s bug-eyes were going to pop right out of his head! Then there was the music… Holy Zeus, what an over-the-top mess. It’s like someone couldn’t afford Lisa Gerrard, so they found a sub-par knock-off and commanded her to “sing like this!” for a couple hours. Brutal.
If you see it, answer me this: How in the hell did everyone see so well from such crazy-long distances? Seriously, no binoculars, no looking glasses… but fight details were picked up onlookers from so far away. I’m nitpicking a little, but come on. Silly script. Can you tell this movie offended me? Amie even bailed out at the halfway point… left me solo in the theater because she couldn’t tolerate one more minute. The only reason I stayed was to find out if the whole thing was that bad. Well, it was.
The only pro: A couple of the fight scenes were pretty thrilling, but hardly enough to carry the film. Apparantly they thought a couple peeks at the v-line of Pitt’s naked upper-pelvis would distract us from the cheezy dialogue. Sorry, no dice.
I was more excited to be sitting right near Kevin Kline at the screening than any single moment during Troy. If he’d been with his wife, Phoebe Cates, I may very well have freaked right out. Afterwards, when he passed me in the lobby, I didn’t have the nerve to thank him for the absolute brilliance of Otto. Ah well, guy deserves his attempt at anonymity.
You couldn’t name a movie that’s any more different from Troy than Jim Jarmusch’s upcoming Coffee & Cigarettes. A collection of 11 thematically-linked black & white conversations over the course of 90 minutes. I’m a long-time Jarmusch fan, and though it’s hard to say I loved this one, I did like some of the bits a whole lot.
My faves ended up being the vignettes with musicians essentially doing riffs on themselves… Tom Waits meets Iggy Pop in a bar, Wu Tang’s RZA & GZA get served by Bill Murray (ok, not a musician, but there’s the karaoke), Jack & Meg white get electric. Also really enjoyed Alfred Molina vs. Steve Coogan, old Italian guy vs. old Italian guy, and Cate Blanchett vs. herself. Jarmusch fans are gonna eat this up… mainstream America? Not so much. I heard a lot of post-film grumbling from the free-screening crowd. Ingrates.
Let’s see, what else was there… ah, Mean Girls. It was alright, I s’pose. Nothing special, nothing that stuck with me (hell, it was a two weeks ago and I can hardly remember it). Reminded me of an SNL sketch that went on a little too long and didn’t quite no how to end itself. The ha-ha started strong, but definitely faded after awhile. I’m a Tina Fey-follower, and while there were some inspired moments, it’s too bad that even she had to resort to a token fart joke. Is anyone else fairly freaked out that Claudia from Party of Five got so old so fast? Yikes.
One movie I happily paid to see was Saved! at the Boston Independent Film Fest. A little poke at the Christian-high-school crowd that I enjoyed the hell out of. A poster with the words “co-starring Macauley Culkin” and “Mandy Moore” on it doesn’t bode well, but a little “starring Jena Malone”, “Patrick Fugit”, “Martin Donovan”, and “produced by Michael Stipe” is much more promising. Surprisingly, nearly all the performances rocked me. Instead of blowing the plot, I’ll just recommend it highly… I went in cold and was well-rewarded.
Trivial film-related fact: In one scene, wheelchair-bound Culkin reads a comic book as he sits in the back of the family van. And it’s got a glowing yellow cross on the black back cover. Sure looked like an issue of The Authority to me. Nice attention to detail there, prop people.
The new Magnetic Fields is yet another work of pure pop genius. Mr. Merritt & company have done it again… and my spring soundtrack just got even better.
I’ll end this post on a slightly sappy note (if you’re not cat-friendly, bail out quick!) …
The world lost one super-cute cat this week, as little old Tunner’s long life came to an end. She lived 18 happy and purr-filled years with my friend Hollis, recently moving from Boston to Cali when Hollis headed west. I met Tun-Tun back when Amie & Hollis were roomies, and instantly took to her… she was just one of the most well-adjusted cats you’d ever come across.
baby tunner in 1986
Read Hollis’ touching reflection on Tun’s life here, at her mom’s website. Song long to ya, Tunner. Give Jan & Pumpkin a little nuzzle for me, willya?