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Archive for the ‘Film & TV’ Category

Laurence Sterne–The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1769)

Posted in 18th Century, A Cock and Bull Story, Digression, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Humiliation, Irish Writer, Laurence Sterne, Meta, Pearl Jam, Pregnancy, Smarty Pants, Steve Coogan, Unreliable narrator on May 7, 2009| Leave a Comment »

tristramshandy2SOUNDTRACK: PEARL JAM-Binaural (2000).

binauraBinaural bursts forth with the rampaging “Breakerfall” and “God’s Dice.”  The latter pauses only briefly for a chorus break.  They are followed by “Evacuation,” a song that sounds a bit off kilter in this studio version but which blasts off on the live version. It’s got a great shouty chorus too.

“Light Years” is another wonderfully singalongable PJ track. The verses are delicate and, while the choruses don’t build, they are still very catchy.  “Nothing as It Seems” is a haunting track that is dark and fantastic.  The opening guitar riff sounds like it’s coming from the middle of a desert, and the rest of the song is great and great sounding too.  “Thin Air” is another mid- tempo song that doesn’t wear out its welcome, and is fun to sing along to as well.

“Insignificance” is one of the great stop/start songs in PJ’s history. The staggered guitar work builds and stops, builds and stops and just gets better as it goes along.  “Of the Girl” is one of those moody pieces that on previous discs sounded kind of throwaway, and yet this song has enough interesting nooks in it that it never gets dull.  It doesn’t really ever bust out into big chorus, but the subtle changes are just as powerful.  “Grievance” is also fantastic. Another staggered type of song with powerful lyrics and rocking verses and choruses. And when played live, this song is a behemoth.

“Rival” is one of those weird little songs that PJ throws in.  An experiment that works more than some of t heir others.  Followed by “Sleight of Hand” one of their more impressive ballads.  Even though the chorus isn’t dramatically different, it’s still very powerful. “Parting Ways” is one of their best album enders in a long time. It’s another slow one, yet it doesn’t meander. There’s some nice guitar interplay that keeps the song interesting.

And then there’s “Soon Forget” a little number played on a ukulele.  For another band this would be a gimmick yet Eddie’s sincerity pulls it off quite nicely. There’s also a hidden track at the end (evidently called “Writer’s Block”) which is the sound of a typewriter typing.

This was the disc that got me back into Pearl Jam, and it really is a great album. Most of their first barrage of live discs came from this tour, which may explain why I like these songs so much (I heard them all about 70 times, right?), but it’s a great place to start for latter-day Pearl Jam.

[READ: April 2007] The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

I read this book a long time ago, in college, based on the recommendation of my friend Gene.  I really enjoyed it and found it quite funny.  Then, last year, I watched Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, which is sort of a film adaptation of Tristram Shandy.  A post about this movie could be just as long as the movie itself, but the short version is that the hilarious Steve Coogan is an actor in a production of the film of Tristram Shandy.  As they are filming Tristram Shandy, the camera follows Coogan, the actor, as his neuroses get the better of him in both his professional and personal life.  This Coogan stuff has absolutely nothing to do with the book, making the whole proceeding weird and wonderful. (more…)

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Periodical: Esquire

Posted in Authors, Barry Sonnenfeld, Books about music, Books about writers, Chuck Klosterman, Dudes, Esquire, Film & TV, Food, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Military, Music, Politicians, Religion, Sex, Short Story, Technology, Video Games, Violence on April 18, 2009| Leave a Comment »

esquireI don’t recall why I started getting Esquire. I think it was because I got some kind of discount magazine subscription card. And since Sarah gets lots of women’s magazines, I thought I’d try a men’s one.

I’ve been quite delighted with it since I subscribed. And one thing that I like about it is that I don’t feel compelled to read everything in it. I enjoy the letters, although my favorite part of the letters page is the “Context-free highlight from a letter we won’t be running” which always contains a random sentence or two from a letter. This sentence is always weird and it’s awesome to imagine what the rest of the letter contained. An example: “Our prime minister is pretty harmless, but he licks his lips a lot when he speaks.”

As the Man at His Best section starts, I enjoy “The Vocabulary” which defines the words they will introducing in the section. And of course this section has The Rules, a randomly selected number assigned to a rule that should be followed. Example: “Rule No. 815: Of the clocks in the house, the coffeemaker is the least likley to be accurate.”

This section also contains the usual line-up of media reviews: books, music, film and TV. These are all short and sometimes I agree and sometimes I don’t, and that’s fine. Usually the books and movies they like are too “butch” for my taste, and that’s a general note about the magazine that I’ll get to shortly.  But the music section tends to introduce me to stuff I don’t already know.

There’s also stuff about food and drink, and I always want to try the food advice, because it’s mostly about foods I try to make, but I never save the pages so I always forget the clever suggestions. (more…)

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Colm Tóibín–“The Color of Shadows” (New Yorker, April 13, 2009)

Posted in Colm Tóibín, Depeche Mode, Irish Writer, LGBTQ, Philip Glass, The Dead Milkmen, The Savages, The Smiths on April 17, 2009| Leave a Comment »

ny413SOUNDTRACK: DEPECHE MODE-Black Celebration (1986).

blackcelebrationSince the previous entry was all about The Smiths, I include Depeche Mode in this entry as the other big album that influenced my appreciation for college rock (or just British music, apparently).

My friend Garry, in addition to playing me The Smiths, also played me Black Celebration.  At the time I either didn’t like or didn’t know about Depeche Mode.  But I was really struck by this album.

DIGRESSION: It would only be years later that I would call them Daypatch Commode thanks to the Dead Milkmen!  Incidentally, “Instant Club Hit (You’ll Dance to Anything)” become something of a namechecking song to know go British bands back in college.  “You’ll dance to anything by…Book of Love… The Smiths…Public Image Limited…”

The thing that most impressed me about Black Celebration was the way the tracks…not necessarily melded together…but that they had all kinds of effects and things that sort of linked them.  It’s most noticeable on the first three tracks, or with the ticking clock that links “Stripped” to “Here in The House.”  It’s a little thing that adds a nice continuity to the disc, and was something I hadn’t really heard before.

But even beyond that, the sounds were totally new to me.  There’s all kinds of sound effects thrown in and experimentations that simply didn’t happen in the metal I enjoyed.  And the keyboards weren’t Top 40ish, they weren’t sounds that I didn’t like, they were just new.  There’s even moments that sound straight out of Phillip Glass.  The tracks were certainly downers, and yet there was something angelic about them.

Or maybe angelic’s not the right word…pretentious comes to mind.  There’s something so archly British about Dave Gahan’s singing voice on this disc…quite different from the heroin addict voice on Violater and later.

  “Black Celebration” has, at one point a cool whirling sound effects that plays with stereo in a way you wouldn’t expect from this kind of band.  And, as is Gore’s speciality, it is upbeat musically, yet clearly a downer lyrically.  “Fly on the Windscreen-Final” has the obviously unhappy lyric of “Death is everywhere” and yet again, musically it remains somewhat upbeat.  

Martin Gore also sings a lot on this disc, which helps to balance out the tone (even though at this stage he doesn’t sound radically different than Gahan). “A Question of Lust” is a delicate ballad, while “A Question of Time” shows the way of their more rocking songs later on.  The disc also features the fantastic “Stripped,” which has been covered like half a dozen times.  (Although DM’s is still the best version).

The disc also has a couple of short tracks (from under 2 minutes to just under 3 minutes).  These tracks seem somewhat less fleshed out than the rest of the disc, which may be why the disc isn’t as popular as their other ones (I just learned).  They act more like interstitials between songs rather than songs themselves.

Evidently the American release included “But Not Tonight” the one majorly upbeat track on the disc.  I’m not sure why it was excluded elsewhere (although it really doesn’t fit thematically), but it does add a happy note to a dark disc.

I’ve enjoyed Depeche Mode ever since, and has been quite pleasantly surprised by the rocking tone they have taken in the last few years.

[READ: April 9, 2009] “The Color of Shadows”

There was some interesting synchronicity in reading this story when I did as we had just watched The Savages a few nights before. The Savages stars Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Laura Linney as siblings whose father is placed in a nursing home, and how they deal with the emotional strain this causes.

“The Color of Shadows” concerns a man named Paul who is in the unfortunate position of having to put his Aunt in a nursing home.  And what made this story so good was that this main plot point was in no way the most moving part of the story. (more…)

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Art Spiegelman–Be A Nose (2009)

Posted in Art Spiegelman, Funny (strange), Gangsters, Graphic Novel, McSweeney's, Memoirs, Noir, Oddities, Roger Corman, The Flaming Lips on April 14, 2009| Leave a Comment »

noseSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-UFOs At the Zoo [DVD] (2007).

zooI’m not going to review the musical portion of the DVD per se…you can download the MP3s with the DVD, and I intend to give the music a good listen once I get it converted to CD.  So, this is a review of the movie itself (with comments about the music too, of course).

The movie is a concert film interspersed with interviews with Lips fans.  I’ve read that many people dislike the format of the film in which the band plays a few songs and then they cut away to the gushing fans.  In some ways, it is a bit annoying that you don’t get  the whole concert in one fell swoop.  But, you can always fast forward over the talky bits.  Someone suggested making that part a special feature, but would anyone watch it if they weren’t in it?  Well, maybe.  That said, with repeated watching, it’s probably not too much fun to hear the various punters say how much they love the Lips (although the behind the scenes parts stand up to repeated watching).

As for the rest of the set…the stage show is pretty amazing.  The set is designed to look like a UFO landing on stage which then turns into the lighting backdrop.  (And the behind the scenes on the construction of the UFO are funny and make it a little scary that people are actually inside of it. )

The concert is comprised mostly of “hits” from At War with the Mystics, Yoshimi and Bulletin.  Of course, they bust out “She Don’t Use Jelly” and the classic “Love Yer Brain (which sounds a lot better here than the on The Fearless Freaks).

What’s cool about the DVD is seeing how much fun Wayne and Steven seem to be having (Michael is always pretty stone-faced so it’s hard to know what he’s thinking).  Throughout the show, Wayne shoots rockets loaded with streamers and confetti out over the crowd in what seems cathartic and also lots of fun.  And if of course, it’s pretty amazing to watch Steven play all of the different instruments, seemingly at the same time.  When I saw the Lips they didn’t have a drummer, just a videotape of a drummer, so it’s nice to see the addition of Kliph on drums.

The only problem I had with the set, and I’ll be able to go into this more when I listen to the MP3s was that I found Wayne’s voice to be in pretty bad shape.  It seemed as if he was sick or had a sore throat.  I’ve always been amazed at Wayne’s voice, so i was surprised to hear it sounding less than wonderful.

One assumes he went on with the show even if he was sick because of the great opportunity to play an at home concert at the ampitheatre at the Oklahom Zoo.  My friend Abdallah, an Oklahoma native, says he has been to many concerts there and it’s a great venue.  So, if you’ll never get to see the Lips live, this is a decent substitute.

[READ: March 25, 2009] Be A Nose

This collection is a sampling of the sketch books that Spiegelman has been working on throughout his artistic life.  Struck by the usefulness of keeping a sketchbook, Spiegelman has attempted to do just that on several occasions.  Yet his notes indicate that he always fails to keep up with it.  Sometimes he just gives up, other times he decides it’s a waste of time.  This collection shows the three most complete sketchbooks that Spiegelman has ever kept. (more…)

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Terry Moore & Craig Rousseau–Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane 1-5 (2008)

Posted in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Craig Rousseau, Graphic Novel, Kevin Smith, Spider-Man, Strangers in Paradise, Terry Moore, The Flaming Lips, YA Books on April 13, 2009| Leave a Comment »

spidermanSOUNDTRACK: THE FLAMING LIPS-The Fearless Freaks 1986-2006 (2006).

freakThis is an assemblage of ten recordings from twenty years of The Flaming Lips.  It’s something of a soundtrack to the movie of the same name, but it’s more of a collection of rare and unavailable tracks.  Most of the tracks are live, and, since I’m not a big collector of unreleased works, they were all new to me.

Except of course that track 2 is “Free Radicals” which is from the then-soon-to-be-released At War with the Mystics.  The opening track, “Wayne’s Intro…Smoking a J with the Fearless Freaks” is a pretty instrumental with an introduction to the album by Wayne himself.  I’ve since found the instrumental online and it’s a really good listen (with the intro, it’s not something you’d want to listen to all that often, frankly).

The next track is “Enthusiasm for Life Defeats Existential Fear.”  According to Wayne’s intro it’s a very rare track and it fits quite nicely into the time period of its recording (2005).  It’s a bit more acoustic sounding than most of their work at this time, but it’s still really good.

The rest of the disc is live tracks from various shows throughout their career.  And the thing that is somewhat amazing is how noisy/sloppy/untechnical the band sounds compared to their post Zaireeka explorations of sonic landscapes. “With You…” dates back to 1986, when the Lips were a noisy bunch of punks.  “Whole Lotta Love/You Can’t Stop the Spring” comes from 1988 and is a ramshackle mess–well the Led Zep cover is a mess– intentionally so. In fact all of the songs from this era have a feeling of what Wayne desribeds as “Our playing is on the verge of overtaking itself.”  It’s sloppy, noisy, fast and pretty wonderful.

The disc also contains a cover of “Space Age Love Song” by A Flock of Seagulls.  It’s from that same time period and is hard to determine if it’s reverent or not.

“When You Smile” clocks in at 12 minutes, although really the song itself is about 5, with a 7 minute noise-fest afterward.  Meanwhile, “Sleeping on the Roof” comes from the Parking Lot Experiment in which about 50 people all play a tape from simultaneously.  This version is considerably longer than the version from The Soft Bulletin and it is far more profane.  The last several minutes consist of several people telling each other to Fuck Off.  It’s not really worth repeated listenings but it’s interesting for curiosity seekers.

The last track, from 2003, is “The Observer” also from Bulletin.  It’s quite a change from the rest of the disc, as the playing is crisp and the recording is quite clean.

The disc is meant for diehard fans of the band.  Casual listeners probably won’t enjoy this as much, and should just seek out the original albums.

[READ: April 8, 2009] Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane

Even though I’m a fan of comics, I’ve never really enjoyed the superhero vein of them.  But every once in a while a writer I like will jump into the fray and I will follow.

Kevin Smith did Green Arrow, a superhero I’d not even heard of, but I read his run of that one.  And now Terry Moore has done a limited run of the series Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.  I didn’t know anything about this series when I first heard he would be writing it.  I have since learned that there were 20 issues published in 2004-2005.  And this 5 issue mini-series may or may not have anything to do with the previous series (I’ll probably never investigate that).

But after that big super-hero welcome, this series has very little to do with suprheroes.  It’s more of a love story, or at least a frustrated love story. (more…)

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Tessa Hadley–“She’s the One” (New Yorker, March 23, 2009)

Posted in 21 Jump Street, Bon Jovi, Books about writers, Canadian Content, Dear Mr President, New Yorker, Pearl Jam, Ratt, Robbie Robertson, Short Story, Suicide, Tessa Hadley on April 5, 2009| Leave a Comment »

CV1_TNY_3_23_09_09.inddSOUNDTRACK: DEAR MR. PRESIDENT-Dear Mr President (1988).

dearSo, I mentioned these guys in a previous post about The Airborne Toxic Event.  I said maybe I’d listen to the disc again (it’s been at least ten, maybe fifteen years since I listened to it).  Sarah walked in and said it sounded like Bon Jovi, which may or may not be true.

The band is a weird amalgam of things.  They look like Ratt, almost exactly like Ratt, in fact.  And yet musically they are all over the place.  The opening, rather cool, track is “Hey Daddy Have You Ever Been Arrested?”  It starts slow with the singer’s weird, sort of whiney, but almost bitterly angry voice reciting some lines over bass.  A distorted guitar comes in and the chorus rocks out.  There”s some heavier stuff as the song ends, including a rocking solo.

What’s most notable about the song, and the disc though is the lyrics.  Certainly not the first or even the most “political” band, but for the supposed genre they are in, lyrically they are thoughtful if not thought provoking.  And, even with doses of humor, they’re a lot more than a sex drugs and rock n roll band.

But after that first track the album diversifies.  “Fate” is a ballad, with the singer’s hesitant voice opening the track.  “Love and Violence” sounds like a late 80s metal song, but with a twist: the singer’s voice is just off-kilter enough to keep it interesting.  Meanwhile “Where is the Love?” is positively funk-filled, with a slapping bass line and big horns.  And then there’s “Flesh & Blood” which has something of a smooth jazz trumpet solo as it winds down.  It also seems to get more mellow as the track progresses.  Keep a mental note about this song title.

As the disc continues, things get really weird: horns start featuring in the songs with more and more frequency.  And at one point there’s something of a disco vibe.  There’s even a song about wanting to dance like Fred Astaire. (full of sizzling keyboard blasts!).

“Reality” is  slow ballad with era-appropriate keyboard splashes in the chorus.  And “Fatal Desire” sounds not unlike a Pearl Jam track (except for the vocals of course). The last three tracks on the disc have their track number in red (the others are in white) which leads me to think that maybe they were bonus tracks?  They include an 8 minute song “Get It Together” that sounds like it could be a background soundtrack to a 80s show like 21 Jump Street, especially the atmospheric guitar washes.  This disc ends with a weird little 1 and a half minute thing called “Who Killed Santa Claus?”

Whats amazing is that even with the internet’s omnipotence, there is virtually no information about this album, or even the band, anywhere.  Nor what happened to them (I discovered that two of the members played on other bands’ records).  You can’t even find anything about their other band name.  For some reason, the powers that be didn’t like the name Dear Mr President, and they had to change the band’s name to Flesh & Blood.  They released the album as Dead White and Blue.  I’ve never actually seen that disc though.

But after some searching around, I found one article about the band.  It answers some questions, like about their name change.  And evidently I have one of the few copies of the original disc.  Huh.  And to think that I bought it on a whim back in college when I bought bands without knowing anything about them.

So, for all of your Dear Mr. President needs, check out this article.  There’s even two downloads, too!

[READ: March 27, 2009] “She’s the One”

This story is one of the few stories I’ve read that is about writing and writers in which the main character isn’t a writer.  Ally works at a writer’s workshop as the secretary.  She encounters all kinds of writers, but in this particular term, she encounters a Canadian woman with short, white hair named Hilda.  Hilda is in her late fifties, has lived a pretty full life, and since most of her faimily is in England, she has settled down there too.

Ally runs into Hilda at the supermarket and casually asks how her novel is going. Hilda is very guarded and quite rude, until a few minutes later when she apologizes and takes a keen interest in Ally and her life.  Ally, caught off guard, reveals a family secret that she never feels comfortable talking about.  And, she soon finds comfort in this off-putting stranger’s cozy cottage.

Ally also learns more details about Hilda’s novel, and her fascinating family story about a Canadian folk singer’s impact on all of their lives.

I really enjoyed this story both for its unconventional look at writers, and for its interesting dealing with family crises.  A very strong story.  Although I have a quibble.  Ally and her coworkers can only think of one Canadian folksinger: Robbie Robertson.  Now, I realize that I’m a Canuckophile and all but, come on.  At least include Neil Young in the list.

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Robert Coover-“White-Bread Jesus” (Harper’s, December 2008)

Posted in Black Sabbath, Demons, Eric Clapton, Harper's, Jethro Tull, John Lennon, Marianne Faithfull, Marriage Trouble, Religion, Robert Coover, Short Story, Taj Mahal, The Beatles, The Dirty Mac, The Kids Are Alright, The Rolling Stones, Tony Iommi, Unreliable narrator, Wikipedia on April 2, 2009| 1 Comment »

harpersdecSOUNDTRACK:  ROLLING STONES-Rock and Roll Circus [DVD] (1968).

stonesProbably the most interesting thing about this DVD was seeing Tony Iommi, future guitarist for Black Sabbath playing guitar for Jethro Tull!  Let me repeat: the guy who played “Iron Man” was playing on a song with a flute solo!

Okay, with that out of the way, I’ll talk about the DVD.

The idea behind this event was to promote music in a new way, and the idea of a circus makes sense, so why not.  Wikipedia gives a pretty lengthy explanation of the whole thing, so I won’t bother with all of the details.

Anyhow, I had heard about this DVD in context of The Who.  I had read that The Who totally blew away the Stones at this event (apparently Mick Jagger agreed, which is why this was not available until 1996). Much of the Who’s performance is available in The Kids Are Alright movie.

But now with this DVD available, we get to see all of the acts in the circus:

Jethro Tull-“Song for Jeffrey.” Evidently they mimed their performance, but it’s still Tony Iommi.

The Who-“A Quick One While He’s Away.” Just amazing.  Fantastic rollicking, amazing.  It’s a crazy song, and it’s so full of energy.  Yes, they blow everyone else off the stage.

Taj Mahal, a band I’m not familiar with, plays “Ain’t That a Lot of Love.”

Marianne Faithfull sings a surprisingly quiet rendition of “Something Better.”  Her trademark voice hasn’t quite developed yet.

The Dirty Mac, who are John Lennon (vocals & rhythm guitar), Keith Richards (bass),  Eric Clapton (lead guitar) & Mitch Mitchell (drums).  They perform the Beatles song “Yer Blues” and then a jam called “Whole Lotta Yoko” which features Yoko Ono doing what she does best…caterwauling for what seems like much longer than 4 and a half minutes).

Then the Rolling Stones come out.  The story is that they had been up playing for hours, and their set was finally recorded at 5AM.  Whether or not that’s true, the set is really lackluster.  I’m not a huge Stones fan, but I do love many of their songs.  In fact, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Sympathy for the Devil” are two of my all time favorite songs.  Sadly, the versions on this DVD are totally substandard, especially compared to the originals.  Even “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” a song that I don’t particularly love but which has a great opening riff sounds tired.  I don’t know if it’s the amps, the sound board, or if they’re just really tired, but the set just doesn’t have it.

So, yeah, there’s not much to see with this disc.  You do get Brian Jones jamming with the Stones.  And of course, “A Quick One” is great.  It’s also cool to see Tony Iommi, but since he’s not actually playing, it’s not that exciting.  And, in fairness, Mick Jagger is a very good host, and he keeps his spirits and excitement level up pretty high throughout the show, especially when goofing around with John Lennon and the fans.

As a curiosity, this DVD was okay…I actually enjoyed the talking bits in between songs rather than the songs themselves.

[READ: March 25, 2009] “White-Bread Jesus”

It has taken me a very long time to read this story.  I had been putting it off because it was kind of long.  Then I started it and put it aside, and then finally I read most of it but didn’t have a chance to finish it.  I found it again today under a pile of magazines and decided it was time to finish it up.  None of that reflects on the story, though, honestly.

I was very intrigued by the story right from the get-go.  In it, a preacher (Reverend Wesley Edwards) who is losing his faith, and really his mind, has something of a breakdown in church.  He begins a dialogue with Jesus in which Jesus admits that the Bible is nonsense, and that he, Wesley, is really a prophet. (more…)

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Periodical: Geek Monthly

Posted in Arcade Fire, Artists, Authors, Book Reviews, Corporate skewering, Fantasy, Film & TV, Food, Foreign Books, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Futurama, Geek Monthly, Graphic Novel, Magazines, Magic, Music, Smarty Pants, Technology, TiVo, Video Games, Work, Yuck! on April 1, 2009| Leave a Comment »

geek1I have a Periodicals page already, but I rarely look at it or update it.  So, over the next few months I’m going to mention a magazine that I subscribe to.  When I’m all caught up, I’ll remove that page.

I was inspired to do this when I got the latest Geek Monthly. I stumbled upon Geek magazine last year when I was gathering magazines for the library’s annual magazine survey.  I really enjoyed it and when I saw the next issue it was a Futurama feature, so naturally I had to subscribe right then and there.

And since then I have not been disappointed.

They have fun geek quotes from famous and non-famous people.  Some short articles about tech gadgets and new products. And an Ask Alienware category for high tech and gaming questions.

geek2They’ve also started a Green section (this latest one has a computer built into a cardboard CPU unit…very cool).

They also have a music section (six album reviews and an interview with a cool geeky person).  This latest issue has a great interview with Will Oldham & The Arcade Fire.

There’s obviously the interview with the cover person (Zach Braff & Nathan Fillion are recent cover stars).  Plus, there’s other film-related articles.  (An interview with Wallace Shawn and an inevitable piece on Battlestar Galactica).  There also usually an opinion piece about a film or TV topic, and sometimes a debate on a subject (Film Adaptations of Books).  There’s also a regular Rant from Mark Altman, and Secrets of a Lady Geek.

As you get near the back, you get film reviews (mostly sci fi & horror, but there’s also some comedies and documentaries), and DVD reviews.   And, of course book reviews (comics and otherwise).

And then you get one of my favorite sections: product reviews.  The Office Arsenal shows awesome gadgets that you can bring to work (sadly I don’t work in an environment where Nerf rockets and Super Soakers would be appreciated.)  But the best part has to be random reviews at the back of the magazine.  Things like: MyGlowKeys, or Van Dorn Gourmets Onion Dip and Bath Bomb, or the thing that’s been making me laugh for days: FX Neo: Hard Minty Eyedrops, which has the hilarious review: “Hard. Minty. Eyedrops.  I can’t think of two more terrible adjectives for something I’m supposed to stick in my eye.  Hot stabby eyedrops?  Grating infectious eyedrops?  Nope, can’t do it.” (more…)

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Joseph O’Neill-“The World of Cheese” (Harper’s, February 2009)

Posted in Airlines, Band of Horses, Chuck, Fleet Foxes, Harper's, Joseph O'Neill, Marriage Trouble, My Morning Jacket, Religion, Short Story on March 30, 2009| Leave a Comment »

harpersfebSOUNDTRACK: BAND OF HORSES-Cease to Begin (2008).

band-ofOur friends Eugenie and Jarret introduced us to Band of Horses.  We liked the first one so much we couldn’t wait for the release of this follow up.  And it doesn’t disappoint.

The songs are so poppy that it’s shocking to me that they’re not everywhere (of course, I have limited exposure to the world, so maybe they are).

A funny thing is that even though BOH will always be associated with our friends, the song “No One’s Gonna Love You” is now linked with an episode of Chuck (a great resource for music these days).  In a very romantic scene, they used this mostly romantic BOH song. It fit very well, and now the song makes me think of the show.

Cease to Begin isn’t very different from their debut, although overall it is stronger and more complex.  The vocals are a high tenor, something that has become somewhat fashionable lately, and there are times when it’s not always easy to immediately tell BOH apart from say Fleet Foxes or My Morning Jacket, but since I like all those bands that’s okay.

The songs vary through a small sonic palate, from rocking numbers to more subtle, shimmery tracks.  There’s even some humor in the disc, on “The General Specific.”  All the tracks are really good.  I’m very thankful to Eugenie and Jarett for introducing them to me.

[READ: March 26, 2009] “The World of Cheese”

This is a sad but tender story about Breda Morrissey and the strained relations between herself and her husband and herself and her son.  As the story opens, we learn that her son Patrick has called her persona non grata.  All of this stems from her grandson’s upcoming bris.  Clearly, the Morrissey clan is Irish.  But her son has married a Jewish woman, and with the impending birth of their son, the talk of circumcision has raised its head. (more…)

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Diane Williams–“Seven Stories” (Harper’s, March 2009)

Posted in 120 Minutes, Diane Williams, Eddie Trunk, Flash Fiction, Harper's, Matt Pinfield, Rush, That Metal Show, TiVo, Yngwie Malmsteen on March 19, 2009| Leave a Comment »

harpersmarch3SOUNDTRACK: THAT METAL SHOW (VH1 Classics) (2008-2009).

metalTiVo taped 120 Minutes on VH1 Classics as a suggested title (thanks TiVo), and while we were watching it, there was an ad for That Metal Show.  So, I made sure to record that as well.

The premise of the show is that three metalheads (Eddie Trunk, whose name sounded familiar–and it turns out he’s been a DJ for years in the New York area–and two comedians I’d never heard of: Jim Florentine and Don Jamieson) host a half hour talk show about heavy metal.  There were 7 shows last season and the new season has just started.

They had a brief marathon so I was able to watch a few of the last season’s episodes and the new one.  And my opinion is mixed.

I enjoyed the interview with Geddy and Alex from Rush, and I even enjoyed the Twisted Sister episode.  And yet, like with everything on VH1 there’s more fluff than substance there.  Eddie Trunk is a good host, and although he is also from New Jersey, he’s no Matt Pinfield when it comes to interviewing.  And the comedians are kind of funny in a meathead sort of way.  Because yes, even though there are ladies in the audience, the show is a guys show.

The set up is fairly straightforward–discussion of metal “news” which is often way out of date, the guests interview, “Stump the Trunk” in which 3-4 studio audience members (almost all decked in black leather) ask Eddie Trunk a question.  If he gets it right, nothing.  If he gets it wrong, they get a prize.  The last episode I watched I got two of the three questions right and was surprised that he missed one of the ones I knew).  Then there’s the Throwdown, in which a topic is discussed for two minutes: two that I remember were “Old vs New Metallica” and “Tawny Kitaen vs The chick from the Warrant’s Cherry Pie video” (See, it’s a guy show).

And so really what you get is a bunch of affable meatheads talking about music (just like high school–how serendipitous that Yngwie Malmsteen was a guest…bummed that I missed that one!)

I quickly tired of the comedians, and if the interviewees aren’t very interesting, the show is pretty much a wash.  I do enjoy the prize section (although their segment on “picking the hot chick to hold the Trunk of Junk or whatever it’s called was just foolish).  But TiVo will keep recording it and I’ll keeping skimming through.

It’s no Henry Rollins Show, let me tell you.

[READ: March 11, 2009] “Seven Stories”

This was indeed a collection of seven very short stories.  Most are a couple of paragraphs long.  I would consider this flash fiction except, well, I don’t think they really work as flash fiction.  In my experience, flash fiction is a complete cohesive story in a few paragraphs.  These were actually fairly convoluted and never really led anywhere.

In fact I would have not finished this work, except the whole thing was only two pages long.  The stories seem to tie together (there are a couple of stories where the names are the same), but I’m unclear how.  Characters are mentioned as if we know them, but they are never explained further.  I’m actually surprised it was published at all.

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