End All Be All

Hey there.

I'm gonna switch gears completely today. Instead of proselytizing about music, I thought I'd share a bit of a cinematic experience. A man can only write so much on one subject, after all. So strap in, kids - we're gonna look back at the nature of origins and rediscovering the forgotten.

I was listening to the latest installment of the Nerdist podcast yesterday, featuring the incredibly intelligent and funny Patton Oswalt. Over the course of the podcast, Hardwick and Oswalt's conversation turned to the incessant obsession with reboots and remakes in Hollywood and how frustrating it is now that the duration between iterations seems to be decreasing. For example - Spiderman 3 was barely out of the theaters before there was talk of rebooting the franchise and now Christopher Nolan has yet to film The Dark Knight Rises and the studios are setting up the rubric of a reboot. It's exasperating. What I took away from their discussion was the simple notion that I should appreciate the source material while I can, before it's mined for originality and thrown on the scrap heap due to obsolescence. One such example of the never-ending molestation by the Hollywood machine would be the Terminator franchise. 

To cut to the chase - I love this series, flaws and all, but when you get down to the heart of it the first two films were never that flawed. It wasn't until further iterations of the franchise came to pass that the quality began to dip. Even then, I had the pleasure of watching the Sarah Conner Chronicles on Netflix and by the end of the second season the show had really gotten to be quite good. Shame it was cancelled right as it grew the beard. After chewing my way through the show I thought to myself "I only watched those movies years ago, I ought to go back and see what the fuss was about now that I'm a little older". I was pretty young when the blockbuster Terminator 2 came out and I remember my parents hemming and hawing about me seeing it at a friend's house. Being the young science-fiction nerds we were, we watched the movie with rapt attention, then immediately went and rented the original Terminator, which had essentially made James Cameron into the name he is today. It was a fast and furious affair, a tense and terse movie that never strays too far from the premise, much to its merit. But I had no idea at the time, not even into my teens, the impact that medium and quality would have on a viewer's experience and interpretation. So much like my post on Akira and second viewings, I went back to the beginning and started working my way through the Terminator series Blu Rays to see if they had held up to the passage of time.

Man, do they.

I don't recall, exactly, the quality of the VHS on which I watched Terminator. I just know that A) it was probably at least five years old B) it was on a tiny TV and C) I hadn't actually set out to watch the movie in its entirety since then, so it had been, what, 15+ years? Watching it again, then, on the crisp, new transfer to Blu Ray after such a long time was revelatory. It was honestly like seeing the movie for the first time. The audio was crystal clear, the scope of the shots were impressive, even for a young director like Cameron was at the time. It was apparent, even now, decades later, that this was a fantastic concept for a movie and there wasn't an ounce of fat on it. The movie is a fast paced, relentless piece of work, taking place over the course of a scant 36 hours. Arnold Schwarzenegger is intimidating and believably robotic, Michael Beihn is passionate and desperate, a great fit for the role, and Linda Hamilton serves as a credible audience proxy. I was stunned, frankly, to see how great the movie looked in the present day despite what must have been a shoe-string budget. No surprise, then, that the movie spawned not only a long-running franchise but countless knock-offs as well. This was a smart, heavily science-fiction based action movie that made evil robots somehow believable to the movie-going public, something the imitators had trouble accomplishing.

Cameron ramped up the effects and scope of the movie for a sequel six years later, making Terminator 2 (at least at the time) one of the most expensive and impressive movies put to film. Unlike the first, however, I had seen this move countless times in the intervening years, including more than once in my college apartment on a rinky-dink little TV/VHS combo I had in my kitchen. I liked to watch a movie while I did the dishes - so sue me. Anyway, as I have stated before - a larger TV and clearer format make for a substantially different experience. I never got to see these movies in the theater. At home on a widescreen was as close as I was going to get, and it was still an eye opening experience. While I would have loved to experience the novel twist of playing off of the audience's expectations of the little guy being good and Arnold being bad, I still got a fresh perspective from the new format.  Once again, the movie had a renewed sense of weight and impact, the gun violence seeming more real and the details standing out just that much more. One of my favorite scenes in any movie is towards the back of this film, in which our protagonists break in to Cyberdine Research to change the future, bringing the entirety of the Los Angeles police force to the scene. The cold, desperate drama of the situation gives a heavy finality to the scenes as a young Edward Furlong replies to an insanely fit Linda Hamilton about how many cops are waiting outside. A beat, then his shaky reply: "Uh...all of 'em, I think." The sequel isn't quite as tight or novel, meandering away from the premise to examine what sentience is and how identity and self impact our actions. Predestination was more a theme of the first film but it still plays nicely in the sequel, albeit in more subtle manner.

I have to confess - I'm totally sold on this franchise. You can say what you want about diminishing returns and the less than stellar results of T3 and Terminator Salvation, but the Cameron continuity, namely the first two films and the TV series, are actually surprisingly intelligent and well done. The first two films are absolutely phenomenal, especially in the context of a fresh viewing with the latest technology. They're tight, intelligent movies that changed peoples perceptions of what science fiction could be. If you're at all curious what they're like and haven't seen them before, or just haven't seen them on Blu Ray, do yourself a favor and see what all the fuss was about - dude, it's killer robots. It's tops.

With A Bullet

Welcome, welcome.

Today's post is one of simple math. In short, I've written about Garbage a fair deal. I've also written a bit about the once-popular soundtrack to the 1996 version of Romeo + Juliet. So what we've got, then, is a look at Garage's excellent contribution to that same said album, '#1 Crush'. In fairness, after yesterday's lengthy ode to the superb Galaxy Farm, today's post will be a bit more abbreviated. But let's press on, shall we? 

As I said, the soundtrack to the film, while possesing more than its share of singles, was once quite popular. Unfortunately we've obviously moved on from the murky pop culture of the 90s into a distilled mess of reality TV and even more calculated pop music. Time was, once, when you could have a hit movie with a couple of teen hearthrob actors and a contemproary soundtrack of which seemingly everyone had a copy. That time is dead now. BUT! Way back then, when Friends was in its peak popularity and 'Lovefool' by The Cardigans was all over the radio, this was still happening. And yes, while 'Lovefool' was the ubiquitous single from the soundtrack, all Swedish ear-worms and pixie-singer charm, the stealth hit from that album was the ominous and dangerous Garbage single which also made (shamefully less significant) waves on modern radio. 

Titled '#1 Crush', the song is both sexy and disturbing, showing Shirley and the gang at their thumping and churning best. Starting with an almost embarrasingly sincere moan, the song is Garbage working soundly in their wheelhouse. It's all looping bass lines and a drum beat that would pass for radio-friendly disco if it weren't for the ominous music layered over it.  The verses feature Manson cooing "I would die for you, I would die for you, I've been dieing just to feel you by my side" as the bass swirls in a concentric circle. Manson's moaning here is almost without care, like she's simultaneously singing with abandon and no concern for the listener. The effect is both engaging, even if a bit jarring.

This whole song is a low affair, from the intonation to the actual notes and progressions. The notes are low on the scale, the tone is dark and eerie, the subject matter is bleak and disturbing, all of it in the best possible work of this band, whose members know a thing or two about making dark, moody music. For reals, give a listen to this song on a lonely nighttime drive and you've got some fantastic mood music; listen to it on a sunny, afternoon lunch break and you'll wonder who has Manson so enraptured. It's a fantastic slice of dangerous, sexy music that thumps and slides in all the right spots, to the point you'll wonder if the band is watching you through the windows. Just don't turn around...

Unwind/Rewind

Hey there.


Had a bachelor party last night. Had a bit too much fun. Spent the day nursing just a bit of a hangover. As such, there was little time for productivity. I promise there will be a better post tomorrow, but for tonight it'll be short and sweet.


Not everyone is into Netflix, be it whatever reason. I don't know why, its fantastic. But if its not cost stopping you and you still wanna see some great documentaries for free, head on over to FreeDocumentaries.org. They're a legit, free and excellent quality. The great site is an awesome resource for watching interesting docs when you don't want to shell out for a subscription to the big red behemoth. Don't get me wrong - I love Netflix but not everyone can be contractually bound to their services. We're in a recession, people! They host tons of docs on a variety of subjects with some big names making appearances, like the works of Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore. If you're in the mood for a movie and want to learn a bit without spending a bunch, do yourself a favor and head over to their site. If you really dig what they do, make a donation and help keep the cause going.

Like I said, just a short bit as I recuperate today. Tomorrow - back at it with a post that goes all the way back to the beginning of this blog! Stay tuned to find out!

Second Time Around

Well, well, well.

Can't keep a good site down, eh?

After some difficulties yesterday with servers and outages, my schedule is  back on. I had written yesterday's post well within the time limit and published it, only for Blogspot to short out on me. After many refreshes and head scratching, here we are back in business. Feels good. Additionally, since the post was written and published (but not updated to circumstances beyond my control) I'm going to count the streak as unbroken. Where does that leave me? Something like 133 days, straight, of fresh content? Right-o, let's keep the ball rolling, shall we?

I didn't get Akira the first time I saw it. 


This is not to say I couldn't follow the plot, although some spotty dubbing and a rinky-dink TV didn't help any. I mean, I got it and all. It just didn't click with me right away. What I hadn't realized, though, is that scene is just as important for the viewer as the director.

I had picked up the movie after seeing (and loving) Spirited Away. Wanting more anime to satisfy a burgeoning curiosity, I picked up the 1987 release on DVD shortly after seeing Spirited Away, assuming it's reputation as a landmark, touchstone film would guarantee a prized place among movies I owned and cherished. All I knew at that point was: it was anime, it was highly regarded, it was about a post-war Tokyo set in the future and there was a motorcycle. That pretty much summed up my a priori knowledge. I suppose it was only slightly racist, then. After an initial viewing I was left a bit befuddled and unsure of what I'd seen. I understood the nuts and bolts of the plot yet still was asking myself "What was all that about, then?" Like Homer awakening to the horrors of Poochy, I asked myself "At least I liked it, didn't' I?" 

I can say now, after subsequent viewings, that the answer is an emphatic yes. However, in contrast to my experience with Spirited Away (and countless other anime movies I have since consumed) I found that my personal scene for viewing the movie was a detriment to the process of taking in the movie. Whereas that experience was almost serendipitous in its ambience, this movie, I found, required intentional and deliberate scene setting in order to enjoy it.

As I said earlier, my initial viewing experience was not ideal, not just for this movie but for any. It was a sunny afternoon after my lectures were done for the day, I was in my college apartment and the TV I was using was probably no bigger than the monitor on which this is being read. Not exactly the best way to experience a movie known for it's distinct imagery and massive scope. Details were vague, characters started to become interchangeable and the impact of large set pieces and scenes was lost. Still, despite my unintentional scene, I enjoyed the movie and a few years later I decided to revisit it, really watch it again but under much more cinematic circumstances. 

My (impending) father-in-law is a man who approaches life with the attitude "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." This includes his approach to media consumption. So one day while visiting his house with my better half, I was afforded a span of time with which I would be able to view a movie on his massive TV in a private screening room. Despite this being just in advance of the proliferation of Blu-Ray, it was about as ideal a viewing experience as I could have asked for - a massive (like, 70-plus inch) TV, artificially darkened room with a great sound system and no disturbances whatsoever. My phone was off and I was isolated, seated, most likely, much to close to the TV.

It was revelatory.

My entire understanding of the movie had changed as a result - characters whose features and design seemed indistinct were suddenly illuminated. I found myself realizing "Oh, it's that guy!" whenever a small but recurring role popped up. Epic city-wide shots seemed more transporting and somehow 'real' than they had previously. The vital, dangerous energy of the action sequences and chase scenes was almost dizzying due to the perspectives and size of the screen. A plot whose players seemed at time non-descript suddenly was crystal clear (although this was obviously aided by a repeat viewing) and an ending that had been almost under whelming the first time around was now intense and unrelentingly powerful.  Basically watching the movie in my own personal theater completely changed the film for me - it went from a 'pretty okay' in my book to 'Holy Hannah, that was good'. Seeing it under those circumstances made me wonder how it's reputation had propelled from the theaters into viewer's homes, and how insane it must have been to see it in the first theatrical run. 

To be perfectly frank there is a lesson I've taken from this whole experience (other than give unusual art second chances). That lesson is that unless the circumstances are right, I shouldn't consume media via small screens unless I really need to. I'll absolutely watch something on my phone, say, on the bus or on a plane, but the ipad is such a step up over that. If I don't have to use the ipad, I won't - these devices allow me to make it portable but I don't use them as the only means of consumption. Basically I want every viewing experience to be as close to ideal as possible, at least on the first pass for a movie or show. If I went to bed early - sure, I'll watch a bit of a movie just for something novel, but I'd rather do it on a widescreen. 


Of course, I say all this with the admission that I won't follow my own advice.

TV Time

Well, well, well. Look at what we have here.

Another Friday afternoon. How nice.

Instead of haranguing you about some album you absolutely must listen to or complaining about Minnesota's Worst Spring, I thought I'd give a bit of advice in case your Friday night isn't as kind, weather wise, as mine is. If you're stuck inside or unable to go out and cause a ruckus why not unwind with one of the funniest shows to come from my home state? You see, kids, I was raised in the pre-millennial era, a heady time of unchecked cultural development that some are quick to dismiss as a painful, awkward time in the life of modern thinking. Many cringe when they think back to things that were popular at the time - Blossom, Milli Vanilli, Family Matters. It's okay, you don't have to feel bad, I was there too. I watched Captain Planet and American Gladiators. But while there were the shows about which we all have a wince and a laugh, there was one show I laughed at then and still do today.

Cable was a vast, untamed landscape that exposed my pre-adolescent mind to all sorts of things, from the dreary (or so I thought) PBS to the debauched (so I thought) MTV. A little fledgling network, though, laid the groundwork for the development of my sense of humor almost as much as The Simpsons did. Comedy Central was, at the time, just a random, insignificant channel on the spectrum. Instead of the force of nature it is today, back then it was a lot of British imports like Absolutely Fabulous and Whose Line Is It Anyway interspersed with stand-up specials and reruns of Dr. Katz. What stood out, though, what really hooked me, was a strange show that seemed to show a lot of bad science fiction. Like, the worst they could find. And they just bagged on it.

It was sublime. 

It was Mystery Science Theater 3000, hailing from my home state of Minnesota's cable access channel.

Joel, a sleepy maintenance man for Gizmonic Institute, had been kidnapped by his evil bosses Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank and shot into space to be a prisoner aboard the Satellite of Love. The extent of the experiments being performed on Joel amounted to being shown cheesy sci-fi movie as the terrible twosome monitored his mind. Joel, wanting some company if he had to endure such terrible films, ended up using the parts that control when the movies start and stop to construct some robot friends. Gypsy, Tom Servo and Crow all coexisted with Joel, providing his only emotional support as they sat through film after film of absolute schlock. That sound too absurd? Here, maybe it's more palatable as a theme song. 

Having no access to the burgeoning internet, I basically stumbled onto the show and was initially puzzled. What was this? Why the silhouettes on the bottom of the screen? Soon, though, I was in love. This show was genius! As the trio riffed on the movies and just made jokes over bad films, my sense of humor (and snark) came to form. Pithy, witty banter, all at the sake of someone's hard (but poorly executed) work. Awful science fiction movies from the 50s through the modern era, just piled up and mocked, along with the occasional short to pad out an hour. This is the show that made Manos, The Hands of Fate famous! While the movies were train-wreck affairs, the kind of stuff you just couldn't look away from, the shorts were my favorite - often they were the hopelessly dated and out of touch educational films from the 50s and 60s, the kind of stuff with a family of characters all referred to as "Mother", "Father", "Sister" and "Brother". I may not have gotten all the jokes, not even being in my teens at the time, but I was constantly in stitches, absorbing every wise-crack and non-sequiter.

 What makes these fond recollections even better for me is that they still hold up as hysterical. I had *ahem*...downloaded...a few in college and my friends and I watched them obsessively. Having found them on Netflix is even better, knowing there's no danger of viruses or bad files. There's an insane amount of content available and this way you don't have to shell out quite as much as if you bought the whole DVD collection. Even though the show ended years ago, two different factions of cast and crew have been continuing in the riffing tradition, skewering modern and classic selections. Check out the sites for Cinematic Titantic and Rifftrax to see what is available - you just download the track, sync it up with your TV and voila! New material! As I said, if you're trapped inside tonight check out the joys of skewering bad content. Hopefully you're as amused as I continue to be! 

Mind Digging In

Let's get weird, shall we?

I loved the movie Inception. No question about it - I recall with great joy the feeling of giddy befuddlement I had while sitting in the Lagoon theater, watching Dom Cobb and his band of thieves traipsing through the dreams of corporate heirs. It was director Christopher Nolan at his best, having constructed a twisting tale of espionage and international intrigue through a meta-referential script and some of the best (if underrated) actors of my generation. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy and Ellen Page all turned in superb performances that made an outlandish concept and serious nature surprisingly compatible. Yes, yes, Leonardo was great, we all know it. But the secret star of the movie? Hans Zimmer and his relentless score.

Much has been written about the use of sound in this movie. From the inspired move of creating the booming, throbbing action score from the 'kick' music 'Non, je ne regrette rien', sung by Edith Piaf, or the effect a continuous score has on the audience when it is suddenly removed from the scene, the score is omnipresent and ever-changing. It's no wonder the film entrances viewers the way it does - it manipulates them so deftly with the soundscape that they don't consciously register what's happening. I was completely enthralled by the movie and I didn't even see it in one of the Imax theaters like my friends. It was pretty crazy for a 2nd viewing on a Blu Ray player with some nice headphones and about a half of a bottle of Cab. As I've written before, I much prefer watching movies at home now, as compared to the theater experience. 

I loved the movie, not just for the story or the actors or the sounds, but for the whole feel of the thing. There's an intangible quality (duh) that I find so enchanting but elusive, something so mysterious about the not-quite-real worlds constructed by the architects and how they feel in my mind. I was naturally curious, then, when I saw that there was to be some sort of Inception App released for IOS devices. What would it be? Just some humdrum clips and pics? A couple games with poor production values? That's what was typically offered, I'd found. To my wonderment, what was released still entrances me to this day, over six months later.

The brain child of Michael Breidenbrücker, the app is a fascinating and clever use of the mic/headset combo for either iPhone or iPod. Essentially what happens is this: you plug in your headset, fire up the app and press a button to induce dreaming. The code in the app then takes the sounds of the world around you and warps them while playing them almost instantly into your earbuds along with snippets of the movie's score. On the surface it sounds like a fairly simple, if novel, use of a mic and headphones. As an experience, though, it can be amazingly transcendent.

Pedestrian tasks like riding an elevator down to the basement become surreal, otherworldly experiences. The whole world takes on a slightly ethereal quality and you become ever so slightly out of step with reality. When you boil it down to the essence it really is just a gimmick, a fun twist on sensory feedback, but the effect it has on daily life is astounding. On the right day you can create something epic out of boarding a bus or locking a door. It was winter here in Minnesota (big shock) when the app was released, and I had more than a few strange and amusing experiences walking home in the snow with Hans Zimmer's soundtrack playing along, the crunch of the snow beneath my feet becoming a series of endless, descending echoes. If you open up your mind it's fun to see what can happen. A little sense of wonder never hurt anyone. It's a bit of fun, just some harmless novelty for passing mundane tasks, but if your mind is open it can be crazy.

The way the sound and music augment reality in this app brings to light what is potentially a new wave in sound design and musical creation. There is a world of possibility here - I can picture artists making albums meant to be experienced, not just listened to. Or maybe video game designers bring the experience into the world around you. In the meantime, I have a small window into the other-worldy feeling one of my favorite movies in recent years created. Being able to crawl into it in just the slightest sense is such a fun, strange thing. Give a look see if you have a compatible piece of hardware. 

More Coasting

How did the weekend come to a close so quickly? Was it something I said? Oh well.


Time quickly got away from me this weekend and in my rush of obligations and time spent with family in another state, what would normally be in this space has yet to be written. Long story short - I'm exhausted and have nothing prepared. Sucks to have to cop to being caught with empty pockets, yet at the same time it was unquestionably worth it to spend time with my family and see my godson for once. He's adorable, in case you're wondering. Like, heart-stoppingly cute. But I digress.


In the interest of filling this space with something relevant and appropriate, I'll direct your attention to something I had hoped to touch base on last week. In the process of writing about 30 Seconds to Mars I was scrolling through my iTunes library and one of the things I wasn't able to incorporate into the post was the excellent video for the lead single on the follow up album to A Beautiful Lie, This Is War. The single, Kings & Queens, is an epic, sprawling track that features throngs of the band's fans singing part of the hook. The song is a bit of a growth for the band, showing their development and refinement of their sound as they matured in their songwriting process. This album further developed their articulate nature and 'Kings & Queens'  shows that refinement of style. The anthem-like choruses and crowd-aided wailing add a sense of grandiosity to the tune, while the verses and bridge are exercises in building and fostering energy and momentum. It's powerful, effective writing.

The clip for the song, titled 'The Ride', has members of the band as well as several bike-and-community focused groups staging a massive ride through downtown L.A., inter-cut with the band playing in the setting sun. It's a gorgeous, sweeping bit of film that serves the scope of the tune very well, even if it doesn't fall in sync with their previous videos which focused on storytelling and scene. Whereas other videos had the band shooting in the arctic circle or recreating the work of Stanley Kubric, this one is a bit more accessible. That doesn't diminish the impact, though. The scope of the organization and humanity they present in the film is fantastic and relate-able despite the costumes. Regardless of the shift in direction, do yourself a favor and check out the short film, it's a sight to behold and the song is terrific as well.

Again, my apologies for the truncated post today, but I will be returning with more content tomorrow. In the meantime check out this fantastic video and single by a band I can't say enough good about. They've always got something up their sleeve, so keep an ear to the ground. Hope you had a good weekend.

Look, I Was 12 - Okay?

It's the weekend. No Rebecca Black jokes, I promise.

In the ongoing interest of deeply personal and potentially embarrassing confessions, here's one that's bound to disappoint someone: I can't stand U2. There. I said it. Now, I should clarify I don't loathe them to the degree with which I detest Bon Jovi but it does run deep. Maybe it's not even U2, but what they've come to be in our shared pop culture lexicon - Bono with his stupid yellow sunglasses. I pretty much picture him posturing and mugging for the camera at all times. South Park hit the nail on the head. They weren't always like this, though. I do appreciate their early work when they had passion and something to prove - Sunday Bloody Sunday is fantastic, as is Where The Streets Have No Name. I guess it's somewhere right around the Popmart tour that I just lose the connection. There's justifiable egocentrism and then there's ego for ego's sake. When musicians begin meeting with heads of state we might have crossed a line. But really, this is coming across as far to damning. What the preamble is aiming to do is set up the fact that, while I am no big fan of the band, there is one particular song that not only is a massive guilty pleasure for me but seemingly a mere footnote in the band's canon. This brings us down the winding path of personal recollection, though, so strap in while I shovel the nostalgia out of the way to explain just why 'Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me' is such a fantastic song. 

As I've written about to an embarrassing degree, I was brought up in the heady days of the 90s before the propagation of the internet, when irony was just becoming a thing that Gen X-ers were beginning to wield as a self defense mechanism. What this meant for my adolescent self was that if it was in the main stream of pop culture, especially marketed to me, I was in. Hook, line and sinker. Maybe I was too young to know better. Sure, I can look back now and say Batman Forever was where the original run of the series began to go downhill, but as a young male with a predilection for comics and (lets be honest) anything Batman related, this was mega. Around this time I had just begun to explore the world of music and MTV, via the gospel of my older brother. To connect the dots in the most blatant manner, what we end up with here is the Batman Forever Soundtrack. Yeah. Like I said, embarrassing if honest confessions. But what's of particular curiousty to my own understanding of the world is how chicken-and-egg this soundtrack was for my musical tastes. It's a veritable slice of mise en scene for the mid 90s music scene. Look who made (inexplicable) contributions to the compilation: U2, Brandy, Method Man (lolwut?), Nick Cave (again, what?) The Offspring, Sunny Day Real Estate, The Flaming Lips, PJ Harvey and Seal. Now, how many of those artists do you think of and then say to yourself "Yeah, Batman would totally listen to that!" All of them, right? Me too. It's a like an anthropologist could dig this up in 100 years and say "Huh, what a mess of a pop culture they had. Must've been before advertisers really went nuts and homogenized and niche-marketed everything in Hollywood..." From glam rock to hip hop to punk to emo, all these genres are things I still cling to today. So I ask myself was this the reason or an indicator? Strange. 

I say all this with withering scorn and all the self-aggrandizing hindsight and yet I still love at most of those acts. In particular, though, is the U2 contribution. It's in that sweet spot where the band was just edging up to the line of ego-driven arena rock. To wit, the song is about, according to Bono himself, being a rock star in a massively popular band. Okay, while I can swallow that, it's still a fantastic song. The structure and layout of the song show a deft use of dynamics, as it opens with a buzzsaw riff that displays why The Edge is such a respected guitarist. Despite the name, he can create really unique sounds and scenes with his instrument. The verses are looping acoustic guitars accompanying Bono's crooning, and it's here where I can still see the appeal of the band. He has a fantastic voice and absolutely knows how to phrase his vocals. There are a series of solitary notes The Edge picks when the chorus begins that just set such a distinct tone that feels iconic. Bono wails the title to the track over some evocative chords and the song's cycle begins again. It's a little by the numbers but given the fact it was relegated to a sub-par popcorn movie soundtrack, I can forgive that. What I think hooks me is the tone and mood of the song. It's mysterious and glam rock at it's best. So why do I have such a schizophrenic view of it? I guess it would be that I can't admit to myself that I really like the song, yet can't stand the band. Everyone has one of those, I'm sure. For me, it's this.

I though perhaps it was the rose-tinted lenses of nostalgia tainting my appreciation for the song, but 99 cents later I listened to it and...it still holds up. The video is deliciously mid-90s cheese, all animated clips of the band playing interspersed with movie footage, but I would watch the Masters if I knew that Batman would start fighting with the Riddler on the 18th hole. Still, I find myself contesting my own appreciation of this fantastic song from a detested band. No one wants to confront the fact that all their assumptions and opinions may be wrong and that's what this song represents on some level. It suggests that maybe U2 is okay and I'm too harsh on them. This is certainly one of the most negative posts I've written and I think it stems from this cognitive dissonance. Regardless of my internal strife that derives from a near 20-year old song, you should listen to it, just to see what all my fuss is about. 

Film On The Surface

Hey cats.


100 posts. Has a nice round ring to it, huh? I think so, but maybe that's just our human nature to attach significance to even integers with zeros after them. Either way, I'm glad I've gotten this far and am so appreciative of the audience I have. Just knowing there's anyone out there reading about the awesome things I'm excited about makes me happy - that's the whole point, just to let other people know about some particular thing that is excellent but has little recognition nowadays. So, having hit a nice round, distant number (and once again feeling like crud after being crammed into an airplane twice in less than a week) I thought instead of simply taking a brief sabbatical I would compile some of the similarly themed posts for a few days. Nothing too long, just enough of a break to recharge my batteries and enable me to give you the best of my rambling brain. Today, then? Today we have the posts I've done about movies! Look at them:


Brick - see Joseph Gordon Levitt make his presence known in a great modern noir.
Monsters - a great indie film made for unbelievably little, very cool.
Cloverfield - why 'The Blair Witch Eats Manhattan' is actually pretty rad.
Fan Edits - In which I show my apologist leanings in favor of The Phantom Menace and the Matrix Sequels.
Spirited Away - one of my favorite movies, full of gorgeous, quiet moments.
The Matrix Trilogy - say what you want, but these were amazing to see on Blu Ray!
The Goonies - my secret love of Cyndi Lauper's black-sheep hit.
Moon - the most poignant, sorrowful and above all lovingly done sci-fi film of the last five years.
Mystery Team - the twisted take on Encyclopedia Brown/Hardy Boys starring Donald Glover.


Take a pass through these excellent movie-centric posts and get an idea for what to watch this weekend. I know you can find more than a couple of these online, ifyoucatchmydrift. I'm gonna go overdose on fruits and veggies. See you with another roundup tomorrow!

The Mystery of The Double Post

Alright kids, I promised a double post, so here we go!


I mentioned in my write up on Donald Glover and his musical endeavors that, in addition to his writing for 30 Rock and acting on Community, he also starred in the debut film from his comedy troupe Derrick Comedy. That movie, 2009's Mystery Team, is actually pretty darn funny and totally worth taking a look at if you're at all interested in the premise.

Directed by Dan Eckman and collaboratively written by Eckman, Glover, Derrick members D.C. Pierson and Dominic Dierks as well as Meggie McFadden, the movie is a hysterical take on the idea of Encyclopedia Brown/Nancy Drew type kid detectives and what happens as they grow up. In the movie Glover, Pierson and Dierks share top billing as the titular team, childhood detective heroes in their town who have since grown up yet haven't given up their business. While parents and the pressures of reality (graduating high school, attending college) bat at their subconscious, the team still spends their time solving mysteries for a dime apiece, like who stuck their finger in the pie on the window sill while still accepting payments in ice cream sandwiches. When a young girl in the neighborhood hires them to solve the mystery of who killed her parents the three detectives are forced to begin accepting their impending adulthood while investigating an actual crime. I have to confess, I think the concept is absolutely absurd and wonderful, and while the resulting film can be at times an uneven affair, it still is very funny and a great first outing for the comedy group.


The concept allows for a trio of incredibly naïve yet well-meaning characters, and the actors are all charmingly harmless as cases of arrested development. The team has their resident boy genius (Pierson), a master of disguises (Glover) and the strongest kid in town (Dierks, whose scrawny arms make it all the more absurd). The gang's reputation always precedes them, with even schoolyard hoods recognizing them before fleeing (the kid who ruined the pie: "Oh f#$%, it's the Mystery Team!" and he bolts from the swingset). SNL cast member Bobby Moynihan makes an appearance as a childhood friend/fan of the team, reminiscing about the adventures he missed out on while paying them in advance with the previously mentioned ice cream sandwiches. It's goofy stuff like this that I love - the premise for the movie allows for a very simple world view of better times in the past, which conflicts so well against the often unpleasant world around the main characters. There are other hey-it's-that-guy! moments with other NBC faces as well, like Parks & Rec's Aubrey Plaza, 30 Rock's John Lutz and Kevin Brown and The Office's Ellie Kemper. It's a wonder NBC didn't want to get involved in marketing the movie, considering how many of their actors are involved, but then again there's a fair amount of risque content to throw cold water on the idea. Oh well, their loss.

Mystery Team is a funny if at times unbalanced movie. The mystery does genuinely unfold but the humor starts to evaporate when the plot gets too serious about dolling out clues. Despite this, I found it to be genuinely entertaining and worth the look. It's available everywhere now, it seems - Netflix, On Demand, Dishnetwork. I would definitely encourage you to take a look if you've got a Friday night and you're into goofy comedies.

More Found Sounds

Afternoon, all.

How's the weekend finding you?

Instead of driveling on about another album I loved when I was a teenager I thought I'd spend today's post writing about an artist whose work deserves more widespread appreciation. I write of the musician Kenna. I discovered the joy that is Kenna's first album, 'New Sacred Cow', while watching MTV2 one night in 2002 or 2003, the specifics are a bit fuzzy. What I do recall vividly (aside from the instant dating of this piece by referring to MTV2 playing actual videos) is the nature of the video for the song 'Hell Bent'. The video is essentially a mash up of Kenna's excellent single with the heart-breaking short film 'More' by Marc Osborne that incorporates stop motion elements to tell a tale of devotion and aspiration. The result is a video of hope and sorrow, about a young...person...who finds himself lost in a miserable world of endless toil. By putting the essence of his passion and person into a project he innovates and changes the world, only to lose that special spark inside forever. It's a little Twilight Zone-ish and more than a bit heavy on message but it still broke my heart as an idealistic young person. To this day I still find it moving, and the original short 'More' is considered to be one of the best shorts ever created, ranking in the top ten shorts on IMDB. 

All of this served as an amazing introduction to Kenna's awesome album New Sacred Cow. Released in 2003, the album was critically adored but didn't see massive sales. It's really a shame that the album never took off in a big way because it really is a gorgeous, nuanced piece of work that shows just how talented and expressive Kenna can be. Due to label and management conflicts, the New Sacred Cow was delayed over two years before it was finally released, to which some have attributed the lackluster reception. Who could argue that artists can lose steam or buzz when going through two solid years of indeterminate delays? Regardless, the album was finally released in its complete form, to open arms in the right circles. The wider public, not so much, unfortunately. 

Personally, I love the album. I had it in the back of my mind for the intervening years of hearing 'Hell Bent' and actually being able to buy it. It was the winter of my sophomore year in college, the ever present night fall of St. Paul's winters weighing heavily on my psyche. This was just before the internet exploded with massive amounts of blogging and free-exchange of ideas (p2p, torrents) so I never was able to download it. I was at a Cheapo Records with my friend Jimmy (yeah, this was right as iTunes took off, too) and he held up a copy and said "You ever heard of...Kenna?" with hesitation. My head snapped up from the used racks. "Oh my God, are you kidding?" I asked with excitement. It was the only copy in the store. I wouldn't let Jimmy buy it - I insisted I had to have it and would rip him a copy when I got home (sorry Kenna!). We listened to it in his car on the way back to my apartment, engrossed in what we heard.

The album is a wonderful mix of electro, synth-heavy new wave and piano-and-drum beats. Some tracks, like the single 'Freetime', are quite dance-able and up beat. The new wave tones of 'Redman' are strange and haunting, but nonetheless catchy and hypnotic. The verses have a great stuttering, off kilter back beat the hooks your ear with its unusual rhythm. 'Hell Bent' is all somber keyboards and electro loops, with Kenna's soothing voice over the arrangements. Kenna's voice is really the driving force here, but it never gets too in-your-face or upfront about the presentation. The entire sound scape is what Kenna is really creating on this album instead of a musician simply trying to show off their chops. His voice is smooth, but has great range. The beautiful and brooding 'Man Fading' is a great example of the textures and layering Kenna creates, with his voice complimenting the music instead of leading it. 

New Sacred Cow is an album I not only listened to obsessively when I first bought it, but one that I keep coming back to in the following years. Some of the other posts and reviews I've written for this blog can give insight into my tastes - it should be no surprise this album fits so snugly into my wheelhouse. It's at different times smooth, funky, sorrowful and hopeful. The tones vary but the voice and mode stay the same. Kenna came right out of the gate with a phenomenal album that deserves much more love than it received. His follow up efforts, Make Sure They See My Face and his recent EPs Land 2 Air Chronicles and Songs for Flight, have brought more acclaim and steady buzz. Over the years his clout has grown, but near fast as it should have. Give him a listen and see what so many have been missing out on.

This Is Your Life

Okay, time's a factor today so I'm going to keep this brief.

I'm a sucker for soundtracks. While I could expound on the myriad reasons for this at great length it mostly stems from the "bleed-through" effect they have on my brain when I listen to them in daily life. The intentional discord that results from recontextualizing the familiar into novel situations gives me both a feeling of dynamic shift for the mundane and a sense of surreal comprehension for what is the normal sturm and drang of the in & out of the daily grind. Their was a long stretch after first seeing cult film Donnie Darko that I spent listening to the score whenever I was in the car - it made any errand feel much more interesting and bizarre with those syncopated strings bouncing in the background. Video games are no exception here, either - I've already written at great length of my love for the work of Akira Yamaoka. What I want to use today's short space for is to tell you just how good the soundtrack to Fight Club can be. Created by the Dust Brothers, long time production duo responsible for excellent, eclectic releases by The Beastie Boys and Beck (among others), the score serves as an exemplary example of both their style and skill as producers and musicians. 

While the film certainly merits the terabytes of data already written about it, analyzing themes of consumerism, modern masculinity and identity, I'll spare you my own surface-level examination. It's spectacular, to say the least, owing it's core genius to the source material - the novel by Chuck Pahlaniuk. Modern noir focusing on loss of self through consumerism. Heady stuff and a fantastic crew. Director David Fincher obviously was working full bore on making a great film and understood the impact a decent score could have. Not wanting to risk fracturing the movie with individual artists or risk a dull orchestral-arrangement, Fincher tapped the Dust Brothers in the hopes they would deliver something unique.  His risk paid off. The score, full of predatory drum loops and buzzing machine sounds, adds to the tone of destruction and discord that permeates the film. It's the sound of the narrator breaking down his structured world - the more rigid and ordered tracks are repeated throughout the score, each time breaking further down and becoming more disjointed. It feels like a matter of diminishing returns, in the best way possible. It's actually quite a nice little method of displaying the story structure via soundscape - the more unreliable the narrator becomes, the more the listener is aurally disoriented. Beeps and clicks, various electro sounds all hum along with the tunes, adding to the angry buzz of the film. 

It's really quite a gem, this soundtrack. If you enjoy this sort of thing it's definitely one to check out. I certainly can see how people would be put off by some of the abrasive sounds but in my experience it's not always ease of access that means good music. I love how the score creates a definite mood and can heighten whatever I'm doing, from riding the bus to typing today's column. Check it out, if you're into it. 

Totally Unrelated

Welcome back!


I figure if you're reading this you probably watched the Oscars. The Venn Diagram was most likely pretty close together on that. Maybe I'm being presumptuous, but who knows? Regardless, I'm in a movie mood. Makes sense, right? Either way it bears repeating: Moon is a fantastic movie. It deserved accolades in 2009 and absolutely warrants repeated viewing today. I mentioned it the other day when posting about Max Tannone's awesome soundtrack mash-up based on the idea.

Directed by Duncan Jones (or Zowie Bowie, if that helps) and starring the always-interesting Sam Rockwell, Moon is, as I have previously written, a sad and quiet film, full of poignant and melancholy moments. It's the lonely, heart-rending tale of Sam Bell, the sole Helium-3 miner on the surface of the moon, accompanied only by computer A.I. GERTY, voiced by Kevin Spacey. GERTY, by the way, is a wonderful companion piece to Sam, in a delicious homage to Kubrick's 2001. Sam is responsible for overseeing the operation on his lonely outpost in our near-future, manning the station all alone. 


Mostly alone.  


During a seemingly routine day, Sam ventures out into the lunar landscape to check on potential problems and stumbles across a wrecked vehicle. Like any sane person, Sam brings this mysterious stranger back to the station, where he makes a disturbing and disorienting discovery - it's him. Sam is faced with Sam. No answers, immediately. I was quite perplexed on my initial viewing of the movie - Sam is faced with himself and hardly seems to question the situation. What happens from there, though, is both wonderful and tragic. Working through the context with GERTY's assistance, Sam begins to piece together just what strange business is afoot on the lunar surface. I won't go any farther into the details, to save your own discovery of an amazingly intelligent piece of honest-to-goodness Science Fiction, more Bradbury than Transformers. These days it seems if you hear the term Sci-Fi it inevitably means huge robots fighting each other or some terrible, bottom of the barrel guilty-pleasure schlock. Moon, in contrast, is a breath of fresh air. It's so smart and subtle. You really have to see it in action to appreciate the understated beauty of the film. It received it's share of accolades upon its initial release and currently holds a 90% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, if that's any help.

Moon is fantastic in every sense of the word. It's touching and human, grounded and out of this world. It had a small theatrical release in 2009 with high praise, yet little wide-spread appeal. Since then it's gained steam and reputation from its excellent production and heart. I really do love this movie and feel that if you have any patience for science in your movies you really should give it a fair shake. Netflix, Redbox, Itunes - however you can, dig up this hidden gem and see what can happen on the surface of the moon that can move you. It's wonderful.

Vague Recollections

Hey, cats.


Really, really busy day.


Doing an intense, once in a long time home project and haven't been able to sit down and type all day. I haven't been able to do a proper column so to distract you I'll give a little Saturday night entertainment.


What you need to do if you're reading this is head over to Thatguywiththeglasses.com and check out The Nostalgia Critic. The entire site is a sprawling monument to the movies of the last twenty years, be they good or bad. The Nostalgia Critic is a ridiculously funny guy who basically riffs on these old movies and deconstructs them in a biting and absurd manner. While the site actually has numerous contributers and styles of video critiques, ranging from surly pirates to video game breakdowns of all sorts, it is the original flavor, the Nostalgia Critic, who really makes me howl. His bewildered and beleagured takes on many of the movies from my youth make me both wince and cock my head in the wistful manner utilized on so many TV shows. Just check out a list of the movies of which he alone has done segments:


Blank Check
Last Action Hero
Sidekicks
Ferngully
North
Moonwalker
Pagemaster
The Good Son
Twister
Space Jam
Howard The Duck
Surf Ninjas
3 Ninjas
The Wizard
Cartoon All Stars To The Rescue


Come on, look at that list. I'm sure you winced at one title at the very least. There are some awesomely bad movies in there. The Good Son! McCauly Culkin plays an evil kids! Do you remember that? It was amazingly bad! Blank Check - kid gets a million dollars, no one blinks at the occurance.  Seriously, if you're reading this you've got some time on available to watch him skewer some of these incredibly dated and weird movies. If you need entertainment tonight, or any night for that matter, check it out. Painfully funny.


Until tomorrow, I'll bid you adieu. I promise I will get a decent column up soon, I'm overdue now. See you Sunday!

Good Enough

Greetings, again. 

I've been distracted all day and just want to write a bit to get the cobwebs out and flex the mental muscle. No easy way around this, I need to write just for writing's sake today. An appropriately self indulgent and shameful endeavor for the subject. What could be so strange and unusual a concept as to warrant such honest self abuse? 

Cyndi Lauper, of course. 

The Goonies R' Good Enough, of course. 

I love The Goonies, the quintessential 80s adventure movie all about a group of misfit kids who, in a last ditch attempt to save their neighborhood, explore the caves under Astoria, OR and go looking for buried treasure. It's one of those films that benefits from the nostalgic tinge of rose colored lenses, but I still adore it despite, or perhaps even because of, its flaws. Today's article, though, is not so much about the movie itself but a bit of incidental/soundtrack music derived from it. 


In a scene early on in the movie, the kids are all moping around Mikey's house, lamenting the dreaded loss of homesteads, when they finally devise a plan to sneak out from under the watchful gaze of older brother Brandon, played by the awesome Josh Brolin. Really, it's worth rewatching this movie just to see Brolin as a youngster, all attitude and shorts-over-sweats machismo, it's really amusing. Anyway, the kids tie up Brand with his exercise equipment and make a break for it, hopping on bikes and careening down the Oregonian hillside. Playing on the TV in the background is Cyndi Lauper's amazing, cheesy tie-in single 'The Goonies R' Good Enough'. The song has been a black sheep hit of hers - according to interviews she hated the song and simply refused to do it, going so far as to not release it in any official capacity other than the soundtrack for over 10 years. Not until the mid 90s did it see a re-release on a compiled retrospective. 

I don't care if she hated it or how cheesy and weird it is, I absolutely adore the song. It may be just as much about the appearance of it, in media res, as it is for the songs qualities itself. Where it's spliced into the movie is a particularly satisfying chord change, right as it goes to the pre-chorus. The song has such build and tensions just from the chord progression, and when it quickly reaches the leaping and exuberant chorus its a moment of sublime 80s pop ensconced in a childhood favorite of mine. The titular Goonies are making their big break, running from home and heading off to adventure, bubbling pop music blaring along their escape. There is such a strong link in my mind between those sugary chords and the scenes in question that they are linked to the point of inseparability in my memories. Whenever I fire up the song on my headphones I still get that feeling of nostalgia or saudade in my mind, that almost tangible sense of longing and loss I wrote about in my article on (of all things) Norwegian Wood. It's honestly one of my earliest musical memories, only further embedded in my psyche by the fact that in the NES adaptation of the game there is a synthesized version of it that also got into my head.

This song is the definition of childhood guilty pleasure for me. It's such an early and ingrained memory, but even as I've grown up I still put it on every now and then. Okay, full confessional - it definitely makes appearances in some of my regular playlists, even if I do skip over it at times. While I may feel the self conscious pangs of sekrit joy at the sheer cheese on display I still go for it. At least once a year I'll watch the movie on DVD, or bust out the game on Nintendo just to remember, if only for a short time, what it felt like to be a kid. It's not so much about the song itself as it is recalling the feeling of being young and knowing there was music or a movie or a game that made you feel that special feeling in your chest of excitement and wanting to see/hear/play more. I guess part of it is that feeling contrasted with getting older - I try to recapture it like lightening in a bottle, even if I know it's impossible it's still a tantalizing and hard to resist temptation.


So what. 


Here's to guilty pleasures.