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Archive for the ‘Film & TV’ Category

Periodical: Entertainment Weekly

Posted in Book Reviews, Books about music, Books about writers, Britney Spears, Children's Books, Entertainment Weekly, Film & TV, Graphic Novel, Music, Stephen King on August 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

ew2I’ve been reading Entertainment Weekly for years and years.  I think I subscribed back in like 1993 or so.  And I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with it.  I’ve canceled my subscription on a number of occasions, mostly because I believed that it didn’t cover enough of the indie stuff I enjoyed (which is still largely true).  But then I’d see an issue and realize that it is a fun magazine to flip through, so I’d re-subscribe.

Over the years, EW has morphed more and more.  And each change to the magazine makes me like it less.  And now in its current iteration, which happened about a year ago, I feel that they have removed all pretense to being a “smart” publication.  Although, at least they stopped including the bold line of text which presumably highlighted the best line of a review.  Evidently they thought we couldn’t ewread the entire half-a-column-length of an article.  But they removed that, and it’s back to simple reviews.

I’ve always been sort of iffy about their rating system (A through F).  It’s a simple guide, so it’s easy to see quickly whether they liked it or not, but as in school, it seems hard to pinpoint exactly what the difference is between say an A- and a B+.  But hey, that’s their thing, so it’s okay.

And as a sort of all-purpose guide to entertainment, it’s pretty useful.

The new design has largely changed the order of things in the magazine.  And so The Must List which used to be a small thing in the middle now opens the magazine as a full page extravaganza (highlighting in a nutshell what is wrong with this latest incarnation of the magazine–something that used to fill up a page at most is now a two page spread with bigger pictures!) (more…)

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Clash of the Gods (The History Channel, 2009)

Posted in Adventure, Bible, Clash of the Gods, Death, Demons, End of the World, Fables, Gods, History, Homer, Marillion, Natural Disasters, NPR/PRI/PBS, Religion, Sex, Supernatural, Universities, Violence, War, Wikipedia on August 12, 2009| 21 Comments »

[WATCHED: August-October 2009] Clash of the Gods

clash

[UPDATE: October 26, 2009]

I have now finished the entire series.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I learned from it.  (Not that I considered myself an expert, but you never know what you’ll get from TV series). The biggest surprise was how much this series filled in the gaps of things I half knew, or things that I didn’t know were missing from my knowledge.  Can’t ask for more than that!

I’m still a little confused by the inclusion of Tolkien, but that’s okay, it was a good episode nonetheless.

General negatives: I never did get used to the egregiously repetitive imagery (if I never see Zeus pulling off his hood again, I’ll be thrilled).  I also got rather tired of that crazy howling wind/scream noise that they used as some kind of dramatic effect.  But hey, that’s okay.

The actors and the CGI and all that was fine.  They had to include some kind of footage or else it would just be people talking to us, right?  I wonder where they got the actors?  The women were all quite beautiful. The men were less handsome than I would have expected (but then the male gods were all old, right?).  How did they cast these episodes, I wonder?  Okay Zeus: can you sit in that throne?  Good.  Can you remove your hood? Good. Athena: Can you stare smoldering at the camera?  Good.  I wonder how people tried out for the part of “soul writhing in hell” or whatever it was.

I’m not sure if the “that was the myth, but how does it relate to reality” part was supposed to be the real draw of the show.  Some of it was interesting, some of it was weird, and some of it was just stretching plausibility.  There’s been a lot if discussions below in the comments about the emphasis on Christianity throughout the series.  From a historical point of view I thought it was interesting.  Although there were time when I wasn’t entirely convinced.

It was the professors who really impressed me.  They were consistently informative, and clearly enjoyed what they were talking about.  There were one or two who I would NEVER have wanted in class (their voices were rather sharp) but there were also a few that I would have signed up for multiple times, no question. So thanks to them for doing the show (I know, it was a real drag for them to get out of the classroom and do TV, right).

I’m still trying to find more information about the people involved, but it is cleverly hidden (as is everything else about the show).  What is it with The History Channel’s website?  This is the only professor who I’ve found with a blog: Wormtalk and Slugspeak.  And he tells some interesting details about doing the show.  As for the rest, well, you’ll have to watch the episode and write down their names, apparently.

I’ll give a special shout out to the professor at Rutgers, since she’s just down the street, but i don’t remember her name.

[UPDATE: October 26, 2009]

See bottom for comments on final two episodes that i watched: Thor and Medusa (which I missed the first time around).

[UPDATE: October 15, 2009]

See bottom for comments about Beowulf and Tolkien.  (I haven’t watched Thor yet).

[UPDATE: September 28, 2009]

See bottom for comments about the Odyssey episodes.

[UPDATE: September 21, 2009]

I’ve been getting a number of hits here with people looking for the Clash of the Gods narrator.  So, his name is Stan Bernard.  He was also the narrator for Zero Hour and MonsterQuest as well as a few other things.  I’ve not seen anything else he’s done.

[UPDATE: September 2, 2009]

See bottom for reviews of 2 more episodes]

[WATCHED: August-October 2009]

I don’t normally review TV shows.  There’s just too much to keep up with.  But I’m making an exception in this case.

I had heard about this show on a public radio program.  The host was talking to some of the guys who were involved in making it, and it sounded fantastic. (I regret that I don’t know which host or even which radio station, I was driving a rental car and just happened upon the program, I think his name was John, which, frankly doesn’t help at all).

I love Greek mythology, and so did the host of the radio show.  When he said that the series was designed not only for people who are new to the mythology but that it would also give deeper information for those who were familiar with the stories, I has to check it out.

Two episodes have aired so far, Zeus and Hercules.  And the radio announcer was right.  The episodes are good.  They give the general story of the myth and then throw in some uncommon details.  But, perhaps most interestingly, they also include ways in which recent archaeological digs have uncovered information that shows the reality behind the stories.  And, even more interestingly, they discuss how some of the myths not only correspond very well to actual historical events, but also correspond to events from the Bible and other cultures’ mythologies.  So, Noah’s flood, is recounted in Greek mythology as a Zeus destroying the world.  And both are based on what is believed to be a real event in which a volcano erupted and flooded most of the Middle East.  The parallels are uncanny.

The stories (narrated by a frankly uninspired narrator) are interspersed with my favorite part: faculty from various universities (and Scientific American magazine) give their historical insight into the myths.  And they’re all pretty excited about what they’re talking about (and each has his or her own quirky mannerism which is fun to look for–and they were all apparently told to wear black, otherwise it is an amazing sartorial coincidence).

The absolute worst part of the series (and I fear it will continue through all  of the shows since it was in Zeus and Hercules) is the absolutely horrid “reenactment” footage.  It’s bad enough that the footage is kind of lame (even if the blue contacts do “pop” on screen as they said they would in the radio interview).  But they reuse the same footage over and over again in the same episode–heck in the same segments of the same episode.  It is maddening.  Are they really telling us that they couldn’t have had Zeus do something other than sit down heavily on his rocky throne?  (I think they showed that particular scene 6, maybe 7 times).  I realize that if the actor isn’t actually going to speak, there’s not a lot he can do, but come on, show us something else! (more…)

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Neal Pollack–The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature (2000)

Posted in Adventure, Airlines, Books about writers, Death, Demons, Dip-in Books, Drinking, Drugs, Essays, Eyes Wide Shut, Funny (ha ha), Henry Louis Gates, James Joyce, LGBTQ, McSweeney's, Neal Pollack, Oprah, Racism, Sex, Smarty Pants, Sonic Youth, Threats, Toni Morrison, Violence on August 3, 2009| 1 Comment »

nealSOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Made in USA (1986 released in 1995).

usaThe liner notes explain a lot of what was behind this disc.  The then largely unknown Sonic Youth was asked to score a cool indie film, which later became a less cool more mainstream film and ultimately went straight to video.

The CD is mostly background music, but it is notable for how mainstream it sounds (for Sonic Youth in the mid-80s) and for how bad it sounds–like it was recorded in a can.

It’s mostly completely listenable soundtrack mood music.  It’s nothing to rush out and buy, especially if you like the noisier SY stuff, but, and this is something of a shock, its sounds quite nice, almost ambient at times.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, it’s worth noting that “Secret Girl” from EVOL appears in a slightly different form (twice actually).

[READ: July 29, 2009] The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature

This is the first book published by McSweeney’s Books.  And it is indeed handsome, with a nice yellow ribbon for marking your page.

And so, who is Neal Pollack?  Well, as you all know, Neal Pollack is the greatest living writer today.  He has been writing for decades and has written some of the most important books, and the most important articles that anyone has ever read. His book on life as an African America has not only impressed Oprah, but it has inspired Toni Morrison and Henry Louis Gates.

And, as you can see from the back of the book, everyone from Hunter S. Thompson to Normal Mailer sings his praises. (more…)

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Periodical: Wired

Posted in "Weird Al" Yankovic, Consumerism, Danger Mouse, Dark Night of the Soul, David Lynch, Esquire, Funky Web Sites, Guillermo del Toro, Hive, Oddities, Outer Space, Sci-fi, Slaughterhouse Five, Sparklehorse, Stephen Colbert, Technology, The Future, The Hobbit, Tiny Masters of Today, Video Games, Wired on July 26, 2009| Leave a Comment »

wiredMany many years ago (1995), while I was in Boston, I bought my first copy of Wired magazine (how could I forget the absurd cover to the right (yes, there IS a picture there) [And I’m very impressed that you can easily link to all of their back issues, just as I did with the link above].  I’m not sure how long it had been in print , but I think it was still young and buzzworthy. [Research shows that this was its 3rd year].  I remember thinking the magazine was very difficult to read.  Literally.  Text ran across pages, the colors were all wild.  The ads blurred completely with the content (by design).  And it was very “techie.”  I don’t remember if I subscribed exactly then, but I did subscribe eventually.  And then I stopped (sometime in 1999).

Recently I got an offer to re-subscribe, for a dollar an issue.  (This is where my idea that I will cancel a magazine once I stop getting a dollar’s worth from it).  I wasn’t sure if I should subscribe, but I figured what the hell.

Not a resounding chorus of cheers for this publication, huh?

Well, since I’ve subscribed I have been pleasantly surprised by the magazine.  And interestingly, the cover story almost never interests me.  In fact, and my brother in law Tim first pointed this out: the cover stories and the big articles take themselves very seriously.  Everything is always The Future Of This.  The New That.  Don’t Be Left Behind!  It’s over the top in its wanting you to take them seriously. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 5] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Big Books, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Consumerism, Corner Gas, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Death, Digression, Dreams, Drinking, Drugs, End of the World, Eschaton, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, Neurotics, Postmoderism, Rick Mercer, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, Technology, Tennis, The Future, The Kids in the Hall, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, Toilets, Violence, Work, Yuck! on July 24, 2009| 6 Comments »

in hereSOUNDTRACK: THE TRAGICALLY HIP-We Are the Same (2009).

Itragically hip first heard of The Hip when I saw their video for “Nautical Disaster.” This is back in the day when I first got Canada’s MuchMusic on my Brighton, MA cable system, and when I actually watched Music channels. Anyhow, the song was intense and very cool and it built to a great climax, and I was totally hooked.

I got their back catalog and continued to get their new releases.  Since then they’ve released some really good songs, and some pretty good discs.  It almost feels like since their live disc they decided to switch from intense songwriting to more simple, straightforward rock. This is a little disappointing to fans of their intense stuff, and yet if you accept the change in style, the music is quite solid.

So this disc seems to be shooting for an even broader, more commercial appeal.  And, in the first half, at least, they emphasize a more folksy/country feel.  All of this should make me flee from the disc, and I think longtime fans are pretty disappointed by it.  And yet, I can’t get over how much I like it. There’s something slightly off about the Tragically Hip that keeps them from being overtly commercial.  So that even when they release a disc like this, which is quite mellow in places, it still sounds alternative.  Maybe it’s Gord Downie’s voice, maybe it’s something in the melodies; whatever it is, it keeps this disc from being blah.

The final track, Country Day” seems to sum up the overall feel of the disc: meandering country roads.  And “Queen of the Furrows” is about farming.  The opening few songs have a Neil Young folkish feel, since “Morning Moon” and “Honey Please” have big catchy choruses with folky verses

“Coffee Girl” actually reminds me of a serious Barenaked Ladies type song, which is disconcerting coming from the Hip, but could possibly become a hit (it’s probably their most overtly commercial song I can think of since “My Music at Work”).  Actually, I take that back, one of the final tracks on the disc, “Love is  a Curse” sounds like it’s their last ditch attempt to have a big hit in the States.  And if they were a more well known (or on a bigger label) it would be a huge hit.  It rocks pretty hard and screams radio friendly.

The Hip of old do surface on two songs though: “Now the Struggle Has a Name” is one of those great sounding Hip songs:  as you’re singing along to the swelling chorus you wonder why they aren’t huge down here, and then you realize the song is 6 minutes long and will never get on the radio.   There’s also a 9 minute song, and the good news is that it doesn’t get boring (no mean feat).

The second half of the disc has more loud guitars.  The cool riff of “The Exact Feeling” is pretty great.  While “Frozen in My Tracks” is probably the weirdest track on the disc, with a very cool, off-sounding chorus.

So yeah, the disc has horns and strings and is maybe a little too polished and produced.  But the songwriting is still stellar.  I’m sure that if I had heard these songs now without knowing the Hip, I wouldn’t be all that impressed.  Maybe as I get older I’m less critical, or maybe I’m just happy to mellow out a bit more.

[READ: Week of July 20] Infinite Jest (to page 367)

Even though last week I said I would keep to the Spoiler Line Page, I am breaking the promise already.  I just couldn’t stand the thought of leaving a passage unfinished, so I just continued to the section break of Gately’s A.A. meeting.

When I first read IJ way back in 1996 I, like most Americans, didn’t really think too much about Canada.  I liked a lot of Canadian music and The Kids in the Hall were awesome, but beyond that I was pretty oblivious to our neighbors to the north.  Since then, I have become something of a Canuckophile.  I did Curling for two years and have visited up North a number of times.  We even had a Canadian satellite dish where we watched most of our TV (like Corner Gas and The Rick Mercer Report) until that moderately legal company was sued out of business.  Now I subscribe to The Walrus which keeps me well informed. Anyhow, this is all to say that I have a greater understanding of Quebec separatists and the state of US border relations.  This makes this whole Marathe-Steeply section more interesting to me this time around.  I sort of went from Hal (apolitical) to a quarter of the way to Avril in my understanding.

But before we get to that, lets get into the book and learn about Orin. (more…)

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Kurt Vonnegut–Slaughterhouse Five or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty Dance with Death (1969)

Posted in Death, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), History, Kurt Vonnegut, Marriage (Happy), Military, Nazis, Prison, Record Labels, Sex, Slaughterhouse Five, Smarty Pants, Sonic Youth, War on July 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

s5SOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Bad Moon Rising (1985).

Abadmoonnother Sonic Youth record, another record label.  Bad Moon Rising is a pretty big leap from Confusion is Sex, in that there are actual songs.  Well, that’s not fair, what I mean is that the songs have structure like proper songs do. In fact, “Death Valley ’69” (with vocals by Lydia Lunch) is quite catchy!

Indeed, the band doesn’t shy away from catchy at all.  The opening track, “Intro” is a pretty one-minute guitar piece.  And it’s followed by “Brave Men Run (In My Family)” a catchy (!) song sung by Kim.  The third track “Society is a Hole” returns to the stark tracks of yore, with Thurston’s despairing vocals, but it introduces guitar harmonics, a key SY staple in songs to come.

And if you like ” I Love Her All the Time,” and who doesn’t, check out this footage from a 1991 concert (complete with Thurston using drumsticks on his guitar).

Despite these signs of lightening up, there are some pretty heavy sounds on this disc.  “I’m Insane” and “Justice is Might” sounds kind of like you might think they would based on their titles.

The band has definitely gotten control over the noise they want to make; it doesn’t seem to be enveloping them, (like it envelopes the listener), it’s more at their beck and call.  We’re not quite to the levels that prime SY will sound, but it’s pretty darn close.

And songs from the attached Flower EP are okay, but “Flower” is especially good. It has a cool “Love the power of women” spoken piece from Kim that foreshadows some of her really fantastic songs to come.

And just to be difficult, they end the disc with the one-minute “Echo Canyon” which is just as it sounds,an echoic noisefest.

[READ: July 16, 2009] Slaughterhouse Five.

What is worse?  Reading a book and not remembering a single thing about it, or not reading a book but convincing yourself that you have?  I am stuck with this dilemma as I realize that one of the two options applies to me and Slaughterhouse Five.

I was certain that I read Slaughterhouse Five.  In fact, I was certain that I knew exactly when I read it (my junior year of college on Super Bowl Sunday, when I blew off the Super Bowl party to read the book).  I realize now that it must have been some other book (but what could it have been?) as I had no recollection of Slaughterhouse Five.  At all.  Even though the cover of my mass market paperback  (which I can’t find online anywhere) was completely familiar and there’s even a dog eared page or two.  Huh.

The first thing I want to say about the book is, having read all of the novels that Vonnegut wrote before S5 was a real boon to reading it because so many of the characters from the other books appear in this one!  More on that in a moment.

The book is also about the air attack that obliterated Dresden, Germany.

Amazingly, and this is common knowledge after you read the book, Vonnegut was in Dresden at the time of the air attack.  (more…)

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Wallace Shawn–“Is Sex Interesting?” (Harper’s, August 2009)

Posted in Essays, Funny (ha ha), Harper's, My Dinner with Andre, Romance, Sex, Smarty Pants, Sonic Youth, Swans, The Princess Bride, Toy Story, Wallace Shawn on July 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

harpersaugSOUNDTRACK: SONIC YOUTH-Confusion is Sex (1983).

confusionOn the Sonic Death album, a collection of live recordings from 1981-83, Thurston mentions that they are touring with the Swans, a New York City doom and gloom band of thunderous proportions.  [This was before the Swans put out their first album, an incredibly slow, bass heavy bombastic disc of nihilism.  I can only imagine how raw they were BEFORE that one.]  Anyhow, that explains somewhat why this disc sounds like it does…if they were a part of a scene with the Swans, then their music would naturally be all about notes, not necessarily music.

There’s a lot of slow, brooding pieces on this disc.  The bass is heavy and rather ponderous, and the vocals are pretty scary.  Although the inclusion of “I Wanna Be Your Dog” is an interesting cover choice.  The guitars are angular and quite harsh.  “Confusion is Next” is a stark song sung by Thurston and “Making the Nature Scene” is a similarly stark song sung by Kim.  These two tracks show that the disc is not all one style.  But the overall theme is consistent all the way through.

Later on, Sonic Youth would sound angry but it was often directed at something.  On this one they just sound angry.  Confusion is Sex is an interesting stepping stone to some really amazing Sonic Youth discs that will appear shortly. You can tell that they’re in there somewhere!

The remastered disc adds the Kill YR Idols EP which is more of the same.  But the live recording of “Shaking Hell” just goes to show how freaking scary a SY show must have been back then.  It also confirms anyone’s suspicion that the scariest member of the band was definitely Kim Gordon!

[READ: July 18, 2009] “Is Sex Interesting?”

Wallace Shawn is best known for a lot of things.  He was the “Inconceivable” guy in The Princess Bride, he is the voice of Rex in the Toy Story films, and he is the star and writer of My Dinner with Andre (among many other things).

I enjoyed My Dinner with Andre, both reading and watching it, and I rather enjoy reading what Wallace Shawn has to write.  So, I was pretty excited to read this which comes from a collection of essays called Writing About Sex.

vazziniI can’t help but hear his voice when I read his words, which makes it sound even funnier.

He writes that he is a sixty-four year-old man, and people seem to think that he is too old to be writing about sex (which he has been doing since he was 14).   And yet he (still)  thinks that sex is interesting to write about.  And he wonders why. (more…)

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Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen Adventures (Issues 1-5)

Posted in Adventure, Canadian Music, Fantasy, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, Jim Massey, John Layman, Military, Outer Space, Robbi Rodriguez, Rush, Sci-fi, Scott Chantler, Sex, Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report, Tom Peyer, Violence, Wikipedia on July 21, 2009| Leave a Comment »

tekSOUNDTRACK: RUSH-Retrospective 3 (2009).

retro 3This disc filled a hole that the public had been really clamoring for: a collection of the most popular songs by Rush from the 1990s until today.  [cue crickets chirping]. Okay so this period isn’t exactly the best selling Rush era, and many people probably didn’t even know that they were still around (they weren’t for a while, but then they came back with an amazing vengeance).

Back in the 1980s I was a huge Rush fan. They were hands down my favorite band. I don’t like them any less than I used to, I just like a lot of other bands more now.  And yet this era of Rush’s music has some of my favorite of their songs, and they’re pretty much all here.

Disc One is a selection of tracks and Disc Two is a DVD of all of their videos. Perhaps the most interesting thing to me is that if you compare the videos track list to the audio tracklist, they don’t jibe as much as you might think.  This leads me to believe that the band doesn’t think that their original singles were the best songs from the discs (and I agree, I think the track listing of the CD is much stronger than that of the videos).

Presto is one of my favorite discs of this era, as are their two most recent releases Vapor Trails and Snakes and Arrows.  Test for Echo, on the other hand is one of my least favorite discs of theirs.  The last time I listened to it I thought it was pretty terrible (and yet I am very surprised to see how well liked it is by Rush fans in general).  Nevertheless, all of these discs are well represented here.

And speaking of their videos, I have to say that Rush has some of the w(and every one was directed by someone different it seems) they’re just terrible.  They always seem to have a “plot” of some sort, yet it is elliptical and lacking in specifics.  It frequently involves a teenaged boy, often shirtless, in some kind of peril.  The only parts I like are the band scenes, because it’s fun to see a) Alex’s hair b) Geddy’s hair and c) Neil’s scowl.

One of the major selling points of this disc is that the two tracks from Vapor Trails are remixed.  Anyone who knows Rush knows that their releases are definitive.  You don’t get remixes or even B-sides out of this band.  So for them to release a different version of these songs is pretty amazing.  I wonder what’s up with that.  Research suggests that the band was never happy with the quality of Vapor Trails, and there are rumblings that they’d like to remix the whole disc.  I hope they do, as these sound great.

But the real selling point is the bonus video: a live interview/recording from The Colbert Report.  As I mention below, I simply don’t watch the Report as often as I ought, so I had no idea the band was even on.  I wish that Colbert had let them speak a little bit more, even if the fawning and funny questions are really great and show what a sense of humor the band has (as does the “cheering fans” that Alex has on his board).  And “Tom Sawyer” (which, I get as it’s their hugest song, but really they had to play a song that’s 27 years old?) sounds great.  And they clearly have fun with it.

If you’re on the fence about getting this disc, those two items should convince you to pick it up.

[READ: June 30, 2009] Tek Jansen

I enjoy the Colbert Report.  Quite a lot.  And yet, I don’t watch it very often.  I find the idea of committing to a daily show (like The Daily Show) is just impractical.  And so, even though Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are queued up on my TiVo, I rarely have the time to watch them.

And so, it was news to me that Colbert had the character of Tek Jansen on his show. I heard about this series via Oni (who publishes it, and all good comics).  I also just learned, (thanks Wikipedia) that there are animated shorts of this character which I must track down.  In fact, heck, for the hilarious background of the origin of this comic, just read this. (more…)

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David Foster Wallace–[Week 3] Infinite Jest (1996)

Posted in Allstonians, Big Books, Books about writers, Boredom, Boston, MA, Canadian Content, Consumerism, Corporate skewering, David Foster Wallace, Drinking, Drugs, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Infinite Summer, James Joyce, Morrissey, Pearl Jam, Postmoderism, Prison, R.E.M., Racism, Religion, Russell Brand, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Suicide, The Smiths, WYYY 109 FM: The Largest Whole Prime on the FM Band on July 10, 2009| 2 Comments »

jesySOUNDTRACK: MORRISSEY-Years of Refusal (2009).

years ofI’ve been a fan of The Smiths for years.  And I think that Morrissey’s debut, Viva Hate, is on par with much of the Smiths’ catalogue.  Over the years his output has been mixed, but with Years of Refusal he comes fighting back with a really solid disc.  The disc is so good that if one had no idea of who he was, one could easily get into it with no preconceived notions of Morrissey, The Smiths or any of that glorious past.

From the start, the disc rocks out. That’s right, Morrissey totally rocks, with a real attitude.  “Something is Squeezing My Skull,” in addition to being quite funny, has one of Moz’s most loudly sung choruses in like, forever.  The martial beat of “Mama Lay Softly on the Riverbed” showcases Moz’s “political” songwriting without ever losing its catchiness.  “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris” is a pretty classic Morrissey song, complete with a simple picking guitar riff.

“All You Need Is Me” has some great squeaky guitars and recalls Morrissey’s own “I Don’t Mind If You Forget Me”), while “When Last I Spoke to Carol” has a Mexican feel, which is different for him.  And “That’s How People Grow Up,” the single, has one of those classic Morrissey lines in which he subverts expectations with a left-field word choice: “So yes there are things worse in life than never being someone’s sweetie.”

The end of the album is full of longer songs which tends to skew the rollicking feel of the disc. (In the first 8 songs only 3 are over 3 minutes while the last 4 songs are each over 4 minutes).  Nevertheless, “It’s Not Your Birthday Anymore” is a wonderfully caustic song and the album closer, “I’m OK By Myself” is just fantastic, and I find myself singing “I don’t need you, or your morality” because they way he sings it gets stuck in my head for days.

There’s also a bonus disc which includes an interview with Russel Brand which is very funny indeed.

Welcome back Morrissey.  Well done, sir.

[READ: Week of July 6, 2009]  Infinite Jest (to page 227).

While looking for this cover of Infinite Jest (the one that I most associate with the book even though I never owned a copy with this cover), I noticed that Powell’s Books is selling a first edition hardcover copy of IJ for $450. The copy that I am currently reading is also a first edition hardcover.  If anyone wants to send me like $400 for it, just let me know!

On my Week Two post, I had a comment that criticized me for giving out spoilers.  While I disagree, I will preface this and future posts by saying that I will certainly be discussing what has happened in the week’s read (including footnotes endnotes and future footnotes endnotes if they are referred to in current footnotes endnotes), I will not intentionally reveal any spoilers.

On to Week 3 of Infinite Summer.  And at this point I not only feel good about the book, I feel somewhat refreshed. This whole week’s worth of reading has been fairly easy and often very funny.  We’re past the initial shock that you’re running a marathon, and are into that 3rd or 4th mile where you just start to feel good and enjoy the scenery.  I also hate to admit this, but I really want to peek ahead into the next week’s reading.  But no, I am going to pace myself!

I also have a question for faithful readers who are actually trying to map the location of the book.  I lived in Brighton, MA, very close to Boston College as well as in a location nearer to Allston, MA.  I have a vague sense of exactly where Enfield is supposed to be located, but if anyone has used the details in the book to map out where Enfield would be, do pass it along (someone has probably created a Google Map for it, but I haven’t actually checked).

This week’s reading had a lot of lengthy sections that focused on one person/issue for multiple pages which is either great or terrible depending on how you like this book broken up.  And TA DA!  The Chronology is spelled out very clearly! (more…)

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Paul Debraski–“Miracle Memory” (rejected by The Believer, June 2009)

Posted in Canadian Music, Demons, Empires of Tin, Fugazi, Godspeed You Black Emperor, History, Hockey, Jem Cohen, Miracle, Paul Debraski, Red Dawn, Russia, Short Story, Silver Mt. Zion, The Believer, Threats, Vic Chesnutt, War on July 8, 2009| Leave a Comment »

The Believer occasionally publishes first person narratives.  They’re usually relatively short but are insightful and poignant.  After reading one particular story the events described below converged in my head.  When I wrote this piece I had originally called it “Piece for The Believer” because well, that’s who it was written for.  I’m not upset that they rejected it, but I’m also not going to submit it anywhere else because I can’t think of any place else where it would fit. So, it might as well go somewhere!  [This is a slightly modified version]

[WRITTEN: April 2009] “Miracle Memory”

Recently my work had a staff training day.  It was yet another of those in-house services in which they pay people to create acronyms for success, and to encourage us all to read Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff.  This particular training was about Teamwork (always capitalized).  The meeting proceeded apace, finding clever ways to say the same thing for five hours, until she told us that after lunch we would be treated to some clips from a movie that we would find inspiring in its look at teamwork.

When lunch was finished, she unveiled the movie: Miracle.  According to IMDB, Miracle is

The inspiring story of the team that transcended its sport and united a nation with a new feeling of hope. Based on the true story of one of the greatest moments in sports history, the tale captures a time and place where differences could be settled by games and a cold war could be put on ice. In 1980, the United States Ice Hockey team’s coach, Herb Brooks, took a ragtag squad of college kids up against the legendary juggernaut from the Soviet Union at the Olympic Games. Despite the long odds, Team USA carried the pride of a nation yearning from a distraction from world events. With the world watching the team rose to the occasion, prompting broadcaster Al Michaels’ now famous question, to the millions viewing at home: Do you believe in miracles? Yes!”

And of course, what better display of teamwork could there be than an underdog team winning a gold medal?

I instantly bristled upon hearing that this was our movie.  One of my strongest non-family related memories is of watching the U.S. Olympic team skating to victory over the U.S.S.R. in the 1980 Olympics.  I didn’t watch the whole game (I didn’t become a fan of hockey until the late 1990s), but I tuned in during the third period right around when Mike Eruzione scored the go-ahead goal. (more…)

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