It all comes at once.
Jesse is here burning many mixes. He’s making a lot of They Might Be Giants compilations. I asked for a copy of one, and he told me to just listen to the albums because I have them all. So I will, starting with the beginning. (The Pink Album! Possibly my favorite.) This is not going to be like the time I stupidly decided to listen to all of my cds in alphabetical order, but it’ll jolt me from my recent pattern of listening to the last two-to-three cds I’ve purchased in a neverending loop. Most recently, those albums have included:
Vampire Weekend - Contra. I like this album a little too much for my own good. When I got it, I listened to it so much that I started to annoy myself. (I’d say, “Ok, you’ve listened to this a lot lately, let’s put something else in,” and then immediately I’d say, “no, this isn’t as good!” and put Contra back in.) I got over it after a while, but now that I know they're going to be on SNL I've been listening to it a lot again. I think every song is good, and the first one is the best so I’ve succumbed to repeating it more than is healthy.
Los Campesinos - Romance Is Boring. I’m always shocked by how long this album is when I listen to it. I think they could’ve done away with a couple of the songs, but others are as great as anything on We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed or Hold On Now, Youngster. I like singing along to “Straight In at 101” but I can only do it when I’m alone in the car because the lyrics make me blush.
Magnetic Fields - Realism. I listened to this a lot before the concert, but now I only really listen to “We Are Having a Hootenanny.”
OK Go - Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. (Dudes, you’re not British.) I wrote what I thought of the album on Jesse’s journal, but since then there has been a freaking great video that has an AMAZING part with spoons.
Coming Soon: Titus Andronicus, Gorillaz, Frightened Rabbit. Until then, all TMBG albums in a row.
And, while I’m at it, here’s what I thought of the movies I saw in February.
Edge of Darkness: B
In terms of daddy-revenge movies, I give this one the advantage over Taken. Taken was, in Bond terms, more of a blunt instrument, and Edge of Darkness has more going on below the surface. One problem, though, is that some things are going on a little too far below the surface, to the point where Ray Winstone's character, as awesome as it is, is still an enigma to me. But it feels like a Dashiell Hammett novel, and in some instances it sounds like one, too, so it's more entertaining than watching someone bust in and beat the living daylights out of a series of evil red-shirts like Liam Neeson does in Taken. Then again, I didn’t see any toddlers shout “Hooray!” at the end of this movie, like I did at the end of a 10 pm showing of Taken. But bad things happen to Danny Huston, so I’m thoroughly satisfied.
Frozen: B-
I tend to like these smaller, more grounded horror movies-the kind where you leave the theater and wonder what you would do in that situation. There were only a few times in this film where I thought that something just wasn't possible, and to me those kinds of things can be scarier. While the characters were kind of stock-two childhood buddies and one girlfriend involved in best friend/girlfriend tensions-this movie did make me glad that skiing is one of those suburban things that somehow totally passed me by. (Tennis, too-anyone gonna make a movie about the terrors of tennis elbow?)
The Wolfman: A-
Anthony Hopkins’s performance put this over the top for me. I loved his tiger-fur pimp jacket, his incredible sneer, and especially his pithy sayings, including calling the past “a wilderness of horrors” and saying that Emily Blunt’s character is “hot like the surface of the moon.” (Cold, Hopkins. The moon is cold.) The rest of it just proves once again that being a wolfman is no good for anybody (increased basketball skills and nards notwithstanding). I would watch a reel that was just Hopkins’s quotes from this edited so they’re strung together. Do you think that’ll be a DVD feature?
Valentine’s Day: D
The movie deserves a D, but I think the fact that I saw it on Valentine’s Day means that my life should get an F. Or, if we’re grading on a curve with everyone else in the audience, I should get an F+ because the girl next to me gasped at obvious plot points and cried at the end. Still, I bet I’ll go see New Year’s Eve when it inevitably comes out. (I just hope that Topher Grace is the holdover-but I bet we’re stuck with Eric Dane.)
Ghost Writer: B
It’s got all the Roman Polanski trademarks: Some kind of detective putting together the pieces of a mystery that goes way over his/her head, a la Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown. (And, if you loved Chintaown for its exaggerated Asian stereotypes, you’ll love Ghost Writer.) Still, this was a well done, suspenseful drama that kept me interested even when it became painfully apparent that Ewan McGregor’s character is a shite detective. (Stop telling people everything you know, Ghost Writer!) This is good because, like most women I know, I have complicated feelings about Roman Polanski. On one hand, I know it’d be better if I could divorce a person’s work from the person-rapist or not, I have to concede that Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown are great movies. (And other directors I admire are probably assholes, too, I just don’t know it.) On the other hand, Polanski’s reaction to his crimes-“c’mon, I’ve been a fugitive for so long, can’t this thing just go away?”-makes me so angry that I don’t want to play any part in his success as a filmmaker. So I go back and forth between these thoughts. It’s just a lot easier to deal with these thoughts if you’re contemplating going to see a satisfying movie like this one, as opposed to swallowing your anger to see something crappy like The Ninth Gate.
Shutter Island: B-
It’s funny how similar this is to Ghost Writer. Both movies involve naïve investigators uncovering conspiracies on islands of the coast of Massachusetts. Shutter Island is more beautiful than Ghost Writer-I love how there are lots of scenes where things are just fluttering away in the background. But Shutter Island also hangs on a narrative device that I’m personally tired of, and it definitely took away some of the enjoyment of watching Martin Scorsese play with the genre. I re-watched The Box around the same time I saw this, and they also had some resemblances to each other. Both were very cool-looking movies that fill every frame with dread. But again, in terms of story, I prefer The Box’s all-out craziness to Shutter Island’s more straightforward but underwhelming plot. I’d like to see Scorsese do another thriller/horror, even another period one, but with better material.
The Messenger: C+
I’m surprised at how much good press this is getting. Yes, Woody Harrelson is good in it, but he’s better in Zombieland. And yeah, Ben Foster and Samantha Morton are great, too, but neither of them did anything I haven’t seen multiple times already. (Most recently: Brothers. Best so far: Stop-Loss. I get it-coming home from the war is hard.) It’s another film that’s just not much more than a thorough examination of a specific situation. Interesting up to a point, but nothing new or Earth-shattering.
Cop Out: C-
Someone I went to high school with was in this movie. In the credits, he was listed as “Banger #2,” and he had a few lines of dialogue. Half of my enjoyment of the movie was based on looking for him and anticipating his lines. The rest-meh. Bruce Willis has an easy charm about him but he didn’t really seem to be putting in much effort, and Tracy Morgan’s craziness wasn’t shaped in such a way that it was actually funny. There are gags-like the one in all the commercials where Morgan is reciting all these movie lines and Willis is saying what movies they’re from-that make no objective sense. In that case, who is Willis talking to? No one. He’s just explaining the jokes. And if you need to explain them, you know you’re in trouble.
The Blind Side: D
Michael Oher certainly seems to have lead an interesting life, and I’m sure the book is interesting. But there’s really no movie here. At least, the movie is hanging out on the sidelines while a non-movie co-opts all of the action. Sandra Bullock’s character is tough and virtuous at the beginning of the movie, and every second of every scene is dedicated to making sure that you know it. There’s no conflict, introspection, or change. Bullock is probably going to get an Academy Award for her performance, but-as Lorraina said when we were leaving the theater-her part is so showy that it goes back to being something easy to play. It just doesn’t go very deep or try anything too hard. All in all, I prefer the angry, unmarketable Crash Bullock. (Or classic The Net Bullock.) Where are those action figures?
The Crazies: B+
I <3 Timothy Olyphant, now that I can tell the difference between him and Josh Duhamel after seeing A Perfect Getaway. Olyphant is fantastic in horror movies-hero, villain, it doesn’t matter which (and the fact that he’s handsome but looks like he has something creepy lurking underneath makes him kind of awesome at both). He’s especially good in this movie because he’s pitted against two enemies-some infected neighbors (“infected with WHAT?”) and the government agencies tasked with cleaning up the infection. That’s two different kinds of paranoia right there.
Vampire Weekend - Contra. I like this album a little too much for my own good. When I got it, I listened to it so much that I started to annoy myself. (I’d say, “Ok, you’ve listened to this a lot lately, let’s put something else in,” and then immediately I’d say, “no, this isn’t as good!” and put Contra back in.) I got over it after a while, but now that I know they're going to be on SNL I've been listening to it a lot again. I think every song is good, and the first one is the best so I’ve succumbed to repeating it more than is healthy.
Los Campesinos - Romance Is Boring. I’m always shocked by how long this album is when I listen to it. I think they could’ve done away with a couple of the songs, but others are as great as anything on We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed or Hold On Now, Youngster. I like singing along to “Straight In at 101” but I can only do it when I’m alone in the car because the lyrics make me blush.
Magnetic Fields - Realism. I listened to this a lot before the concert, but now I only really listen to “We Are Having a Hootenanny.”
OK Go - Of the Blue Colour of the Sky. (Dudes, you’re not British.) I wrote what I thought of the album on Jesse’s journal, but since then there has been a freaking great video that has an AMAZING part with spoons.
Coming Soon: Titus Andronicus, Gorillaz, Frightened Rabbit. Until then, all TMBG albums in a row.
And, while I’m at it, here’s what I thought of the movies I saw in February.
Edge of Darkness: B
In terms of daddy-revenge movies, I give this one the advantage over Taken. Taken was, in Bond terms, more of a blunt instrument, and Edge of Darkness has more going on below the surface. One problem, though, is that some things are going on a little too far below the surface, to the point where Ray Winstone's character, as awesome as it is, is still an enigma to me. But it feels like a Dashiell Hammett novel, and in some instances it sounds like one, too, so it's more entertaining than watching someone bust in and beat the living daylights out of a series of evil red-shirts like Liam Neeson does in Taken. Then again, I didn’t see any toddlers shout “Hooray!” at the end of this movie, like I did at the end of a 10 pm showing of Taken. But bad things happen to Danny Huston, so I’m thoroughly satisfied.
Frozen: B-
I tend to like these smaller, more grounded horror movies-the kind where you leave the theater and wonder what you would do in that situation. There were only a few times in this film where I thought that something just wasn't possible, and to me those kinds of things can be scarier. While the characters were kind of stock-two childhood buddies and one girlfriend involved in best friend/girlfriend tensions-this movie did make me glad that skiing is one of those suburban things that somehow totally passed me by. (Tennis, too-anyone gonna make a movie about the terrors of tennis elbow?)
The Wolfman: A-
Anthony Hopkins’s performance put this over the top for me. I loved his tiger-fur pimp jacket, his incredible sneer, and especially his pithy sayings, including calling the past “a wilderness of horrors” and saying that Emily Blunt’s character is “hot like the surface of the moon.” (Cold, Hopkins. The moon is cold.) The rest of it just proves once again that being a wolfman is no good for anybody (increased basketball skills and nards notwithstanding). I would watch a reel that was just Hopkins’s quotes from this edited so they’re strung together. Do you think that’ll be a DVD feature?
Valentine’s Day: D
The movie deserves a D, but I think the fact that I saw it on Valentine’s Day means that my life should get an F. Or, if we’re grading on a curve with everyone else in the audience, I should get an F+ because the girl next to me gasped at obvious plot points and cried at the end. Still, I bet I’ll go see New Year’s Eve when it inevitably comes out. (I just hope that Topher Grace is the holdover-but I bet we’re stuck with Eric Dane.)
Ghost Writer: B
It’s got all the Roman Polanski trademarks: Some kind of detective putting together the pieces of a mystery that goes way over his/her head, a la Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown. (And, if you loved Chintaown for its exaggerated Asian stereotypes, you’ll love Ghost Writer.) Still, this was a well done, suspenseful drama that kept me interested even when it became painfully apparent that Ewan McGregor’s character is a shite detective. (Stop telling people everything you know, Ghost Writer!) This is good because, like most women I know, I have complicated feelings about Roman Polanski. On one hand, I know it’d be better if I could divorce a person’s work from the person-rapist or not, I have to concede that Rosemary’s Baby and Chinatown are great movies. (And other directors I admire are probably assholes, too, I just don’t know it.) On the other hand, Polanski’s reaction to his crimes-“c’mon, I’ve been a fugitive for so long, can’t this thing just go away?”-makes me so angry that I don’t want to play any part in his success as a filmmaker. So I go back and forth between these thoughts. It’s just a lot easier to deal with these thoughts if you’re contemplating going to see a satisfying movie like this one, as opposed to swallowing your anger to see something crappy like The Ninth Gate.
Shutter Island: B-
It’s funny how similar this is to Ghost Writer. Both movies involve naïve investigators uncovering conspiracies on islands of the coast of Massachusetts. Shutter Island is more beautiful than Ghost Writer-I love how there are lots of scenes where things are just fluttering away in the background. But Shutter Island also hangs on a narrative device that I’m personally tired of, and it definitely took away some of the enjoyment of watching Martin Scorsese play with the genre. I re-watched The Box around the same time I saw this, and they also had some resemblances to each other. Both were very cool-looking movies that fill every frame with dread. But again, in terms of story, I prefer The Box’s all-out craziness to Shutter Island’s more straightforward but underwhelming plot. I’d like to see Scorsese do another thriller/horror, even another period one, but with better material.
The Messenger: C+
I’m surprised at how much good press this is getting. Yes, Woody Harrelson is good in it, but he’s better in Zombieland. And yeah, Ben Foster and Samantha Morton are great, too, but neither of them did anything I haven’t seen multiple times already. (Most recently: Brothers. Best so far: Stop-Loss. I get it-coming home from the war is hard.) It’s another film that’s just not much more than a thorough examination of a specific situation. Interesting up to a point, but nothing new or Earth-shattering.
Cop Out: C-
Someone I went to high school with was in this movie. In the credits, he was listed as “Banger #2,” and he had a few lines of dialogue. Half of my enjoyment of the movie was based on looking for him and anticipating his lines. The rest-meh. Bruce Willis has an easy charm about him but he didn’t really seem to be putting in much effort, and Tracy Morgan’s craziness wasn’t shaped in such a way that it was actually funny. There are gags-like the one in all the commercials where Morgan is reciting all these movie lines and Willis is saying what movies they’re from-that make no objective sense. In that case, who is Willis talking to? No one. He’s just explaining the jokes. And if you need to explain them, you know you’re in trouble.
The Blind Side: D
Michael Oher certainly seems to have lead an interesting life, and I’m sure the book is interesting. But there’s really no movie here. At least, the movie is hanging out on the sidelines while a non-movie co-opts all of the action. Sandra Bullock’s character is tough and virtuous at the beginning of the movie, and every second of every scene is dedicated to making sure that you know it. There’s no conflict, introspection, or change. Bullock is probably going to get an Academy Award for her performance, but-as Lorraina said when we were leaving the theater-her part is so showy that it goes back to being something easy to play. It just doesn’t go very deep or try anything too hard. All in all, I prefer the angry, unmarketable Crash Bullock. (Or classic The Net Bullock.) Where are those action figures?
The Crazies: B+
I <3 Timothy Olyphant, now that I can tell the difference between him and Josh Duhamel after seeing A Perfect Getaway. Olyphant is fantastic in horror movies-hero, villain, it doesn’t matter which (and the fact that he’s handsome but looks like he has something creepy lurking underneath makes him kind of awesome at both). He’s especially good in this movie because he’s pitted against two enemies-some infected neighbors (“infected with WHAT?”) and the government agencies tasked with cleaning up the infection. That’s two different kinds of paranoia right there.