Citizen of 2009

October 5th through October 10th, 2009

2009-10-10T13:21:00.000-07:00

MUSIC

New Q-Tip video! Continues the smooth, sweet excellence of his project. This is the one for you if you didn't catch all those old-school namechecks in his album.

The Knife's work on their Darwin opera is... rad? Chilling in a beautiful way.

The characteristically level-headed folks at TMT discusses the quasi-revelation/obvious fact that Radiohead's still going to be releasing full-lengths. I guess the best irony is how the same news sources lapping up those rumors constantly mock other artists for their phony retirements.

I, for one, am really glad that Los Campesinos! are putting out new content. From seeing their epic live shows and meeting them after, they really are genuinely great people who just love playing music.

FILM

AICN's own Herc got to geek out a bit with Abrams. Details about Nimoy in Trek 2 and Fringe within.

Duncan Jones is upbeat about financing difficulties surrounding his new effort, Mute. Feels like this guy is the next big thing in the sci-fi world, unless your definition of "next big thing" is the same-old, same-old ballooning budget of an obese James Cameron production. Which isn't to say I won't end up seeing (and probably loving) Avatar, just that maybe gloss and prettiness do not a revolution make.

Marlon Wayans may be - and SHOULD be, in my opinion - Pryor.

Big times for Terry Gilliam! The trailer for his Imaginarium is impeccable and fun, and he may finally be making his Quixote film!

WEIRD

Glenn Beck faked his e-mail from Muse. Glenn? Nobody gives a crap.

Somebody brilliant took the special fx out of the 2012 clips shown online. Uhm... yeah, it's bad.

WORLD

Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize. The reaction of our country has served, for me, not to challenge the value of the Nobel prize, but to challenge the insularity of our national dialog. While we focus on minute issues and whether it's alright to call a rapper an asshole and is his health care bill going to be socialist, the rest of the world is looking at the broader scale of his real actions and has rewarded him for his work. Isn't it funny how conservatives get to scorn him both for losing European support (the Olympics) and for gaining European support? It suggests a disheartening opportunism lurking within our political system.

On the flipside, Israel's foreign minister is evidently approaching peace with Palestinians with nauseating cynicism. "Live with it"? Tell that to the people your nation is slaughtering for their property, you arrogant jackass.

PERSONAL

Busy times! Trying to keep up with culture has taken a backseat to my personal endeavors. It's always tricky, trying to be aware of the world while working on things highly personal. We'll see how well I can balance!

August 28th through October 4th: Epic Entry

2009-10-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

I've been gathering links for ages without properly posting them. Here goes.

MUSIC

Oh Kings of Convenience, how I needed and missed you. And the same goes for you, too, Sondre!

Kanye's Swift interrupting tactics have been deemed press-worthy, because the theater of entertainment news loves simple stories. Jay-Z defended him. So much saturation that I saw this headline and thought "why did Venezuela have a summit just to criticize Kanye West?"

Jay-Z has been in the press a lot (just as planned, I'm sure) including highly publicized comments about indie rock and an appearance on Oprah and a huge press-event concert.

Epic rap track is epic.

Los Campesinos! are swinging back into prolific activity.

Mr. Magic, hip-hop DJ of the oldschool variety, has passed.

Wavves and Black Lips got into a fight.

Lil Wayne got friendly with Weezer. This kind of thing has become the norm.

Lyrics websites are being targeted for copyright infringement.

Muse (wisely) asked professional jackass Glenn Beck to retract his praise of the band.

Rock City keep releasing rad mixtapes. Don Cannon is obnoxious though.

Summertunes was released. Chiptune greats abound!

Is anybody having as much fun as Basement Jaxx are these days?

FILM

Good short films deserve to be seen.

Henry Gibson has died.

The old Polanski wounds have all reopened after the director's apprehension in France. Celebrities have weighed in. My take? The man committed a terrible crime and deserves to be punished for it.

Disney acquired Marvel.

Antichrist looks terrifying and crucial.

Paranormal Activity has been pretty brilliantly hyped.

AICN has exciting news about both Thor and the Facebook movie. Also, Woo's Red Cliff is finally coming stateside.

Fascinating-looking movie, and fascinating that "Hurt Locker-style" has become a thing.

Up In The Air looks fantastic, as do The Revenant and Metropia.

The Cove may have helped alleviate dolphin killings.

/Film loved Parnassus.

A filmmaker who chronicled El Salvador's gangs was shot dead.

A visually stunning Confucius biopic is coming soon.

Harmony Korine's latest sets a new standard for weird.

With all the hubbub about New Moon's soundtrack, it's notable that Jonah Hex is getting soundtracked by metalheads Mastodon.

I received an odd satisfaction, seeing Rob Zombie punished for making stupid, pretentious movies.

WEIRD

Facebook played a strangely significant role in a recent jealousy-fueled UK murder.

Russel Crowe was mean to a journalist. Flashback much?

New movie with The Rock looks impossibly braindead.

WORLD

Iran draws closer to nuclear capabilities.

U.S. unemployment soars.

Obama's recent speech to public school students caused a furor.

Ashcroft can be sued.

The scale of gorilla poaching is horrifying.

Interesting Net Neutrality laws were passed.

The last man to see Hitler alive recounts the experience.

PERSONAL

All I know is that I'm tired.

August 25th and 26th, 2009

2009-08-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

MUSIC

Some people would have you believe that Fuck Buttons sound like an angry Dan Deacon. Backwards. Dan Deacon sounds like a happy Fuck Buttons. Anyway, the new Fuck Buttons song is awesome and the video is perfect. Apparently Stereogum thinks their new album is "too polite." Please indie world let's not lose our heads; their name is FUCK BUTTONS.

So wow, I wasn't too into the new Massive Attack at first to be honest, but that goofy riff eventually just takes over you, like some subliminal message saying "we are all going to die" until you kinda believe it but still want to bob your head to it.

Crookers and Fever Ray sounds like an awkward mix, (I'd rather have Cudi and Fever Ray!) but it's basically just Crookers being friggin' Crookers with a few samples from Fever Ray to justify strapping it to the upcoming Fever Ray release. Not really complaining.

So... many... leaks! Jigga's latest is a prickly little thing, kinda slides along. The battle of Venus versus Mars, of course, ends in sex. (Duh!) And holy shit, Drake ft. Eminem and Weezy and Kanye. Any reason Em didn't go this hard on his latest release? And yeah, you can be sure I'm catching that Jay-Z show on my DVR.

I hadn't even heard of Weird Tapes a month ago, and now he is everywhere at all times.

FILM

Avatar is really going crazy. Midnight tickets are available four months in advance? A goofy-ass lawsuit? Sigourney Weaver is involved or something?

Emile Hirsch's play at Hamlet will go for scares. Honestly, it sounds pretty cool.

Wall Street II looks fantastic.

AICN readers dislike Halloween II.

Black Dynamite is coming to theaters! People are going to expect a romp and end up squirming in their seats. It will be a surreal movie-going experience.

WEIRD

Cool Lost poster is cool.

McG's authorial stamp: boobs.

WORLD

Ted Kennedy is dead.

Wikipedia is set to launch substantial revisions to page controls, according to the BBC. Also via the BBC, Karzai's lead is widening.

PERSONAL

Ahhh school!

August 24th, 2009

2009-08-24T08:49:00.000-07:00

RSS feeds make my life a little easier. But ONLY a little.

MUSIC

Hov is leaking so much material.

FILM

Oh no... /Film, I love you guys, but your musical analysis is on a lower plane than your film analysis. Saying Karen O's new song sounds like Arcade Fire and the Flaming Lips is... an interesting choice. To be frank, I kind of think the song (a soundtrack piece for Where The Wild Things Are) sucks. It's not just that I think Karen O is Siouxsie Sioux-Lite and all that, I just don't think it's a good song. It's kinda cringe-worthy to be frank. But oh well, maybe it's a grower? /Wrists.

It's really disconcerting to hear how the beloved Weinstein brothers pissed all over somebody's indie film.

Bioshock is moving ahead with a new director in tow.

Avatar Day reactions buzzing around.

Van Sant has a new film in his pipeline.

Inception's got a trailer! And it looks ace.

WEIRD

Nuthin'!

WORLD

According to the BBC, a new treatment could reduce the severity of MS symptoms. Also via BBC, some more analysis on the release of the Lockerbie bomber.

August 23rd, 2009: What the hell?

2009-08-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

How the hell did all of these days go by? It's really kind of disgusting that a week and a half slipped away without me noticing.

I don't have time to trawl through the dead of summer. Suffice it to say, health care is starving, some good music (that I can finally buy again) is on the horizion, and Avatar's trailer is causing a shitstorm. I urgently need to see Thirst, Inglourious Basterds, and District 9.

Regular posting is renewed tomorrow.

August 12th, 2009

2009-08-12T11:10:00.000-07:00

Slow news day.

MUSIC

Uh... the Verve broke up again? No site had anything that caught my interest today. I dunno, Natalie Imbruglia has a new song so that'll be on the radio. Or hey, here you go, maybe this is a Radiohead leak. Nobody's actually sure.

FILM

There's gonna be an Atlanta doc. And Astro Boy could be cute. Uhh...

WEIRD

Harrison Ford: Family Man.

WORLD

The health care "protests" have exploded.

PERSONAL

Seriously though, everybody, if I'm starting to blog daily, you've gotta be givin' me more than this. Alright?

2009 FILMS SEEN: 23
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 981
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, hoping Kendall's name can be cleared!

August 11th, 2009

2009-08-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

Wow, a blog entry about a single day! This has become the rarest of things for me, like stumbling upon a legendary Pokemon in the wild. Even more rare. Like, I caught it with a normal Pokeball on the first throw after dealing no damage. And it was level 99 but somehow obeyed my orders before my first gym badge. Okay, now I'm just fantasizing.

MUSIC

I had never heard of Naomi Shelton, but TMT set me straight!

Hoooooly shit, MikeWaxx and Nero are friggin' younger than me, whaaaaat? Also from illRoots, yet another dope mixtape.

Almighty Defenders (Black Lips + King Khan + BBQ) sound kind of like what would happen if a novelty 50s/60s revival band got really bored and decided to up the weird by about ten notches. In other words, they sound awesome.

This is one of the weirder music videos I've seen in... ever. Memory Weird Cassetes Tapes something something something.

FILM

"World Cinema" is an absolutely fantastic short via the Coen brothers circa 2007.

The Red Dawn remake is, uh, rollin' along...

The battle over Kick-Ass begins!

WEIRD

Dane Cook acting like a dick? Naaaahhhhh way!

WORLD

Oh god

PERSONAL

Had a lot of folks over today! We watched soap operas.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 23
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 979
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, hoping Kendall's name can be cleared!

July 7th through August 10th, 2009 [Complete!]

2009-07-28T23:24:00.000-07:00

[8/10 Re-Update] Done!

[8/10 Update] STILL still tryin'!

[8/4 Update] Still tryin'!

Keeping a blog about pop culture is like any chore. You're too lazy to do it, so you let it slip a day, and the next day it's even longer and more tiresome a task, so you let it slip and slip until... well, until a whole damn month passes.

And it doesn't help that I don't have the money to see the films or buy the albums I blog about. But that'll change soon, with any luck.

Here it goes.

MUSIC

Here comes trouble!

Holy shit... they captured Pirate Bay. It's a depressing day for all of us. Had you ever been to the Pirate Bay's "Legal" section? This is... augh. Tragedy.

The Heath Ledger-directed anti-whaling Modest Mouse video is not without its rough edges but is genuinely chilling, and I will stand behind any and all earnest animal rights statements.

Also, Drake's hard knocks (and I include the somewhat meh video as one of those knocks) keep on rolling. His recent leg injury and collapse can't be helping this stress.

Animal Collective is running this shit.

Sondre Lerche continues to be what I like about being alive.

New Kings on October 20th! Good day!

Everybody got in a fuss about the first new Muse single, which I didn't think was bad but was definitely not worth the epic puzzle/game nonsense required for a listen. It's as polemic as Bellamy has always been, and why are people surprised that the new direction is Queen-ish? Anyway, the second new single is kinda better anyway but still waaaaay overstays its welcome.

I'm kinda letting myself get really excited about The Big Pink's upcoming. Accuse single "Dominos" of being Time To Pretend Part II all you want, but there's a warm fullness to their sound that rounds out the catchiness. Also, have you heard "Velvet"? I mean, really? People are (rightfully) praising the Antlers for aiming high, so let's at least share some of that. Ya dig?

I'm really late to this Basement Jaxx party going on, but holy god damn it is a good party. What with Royksopp tearing shit up earlier and still promising another release, it is a good year to like dancing.

Oh TMT, I like the way you think.

The new Raekwon is wiiiiild.

Please Billy Corgan, please let me like you again.

M83 got kinda violent for no good reason. Guys... you're not Morrissey.

Weezer's new songs are only a few degrees separate from the vibe they used to go for, but those few degrees make a shit ton of difference.

Interpol's Paul Banks is pulling a Sasha Fierce.

Goddamn, I thought Drake was going to run away with my "favorite rapper of the year" award, but I just can't get over how ballsy TreaZon has been. He's referenced Dragonball Z, Sailor Moon, and I think Naruto, all in the last few months' worth of tracks. Referencing middle-school anime obsessions in your online leaks? Dude's letting it all hang out.

The indie world is stepping forward to support Chris Knox - including Jeff Mangum!

The new Raveonettes is actually really good.

Also, as far as finding a mixtape to succeed Drake's in terms of addictive listenability, lately the strongest contender has been Nero's new release. He can't work the 90stalgia angle forever, and that's one of the strongest selling points here, but I'm definitely getting used to his flow.

My crush on Bat For Lashes is goin' strong.

David Byrne is to U2 as Jarvis Cocker was to Michael Jackson (but evidently is no longer).

Big Sean needs some work, especially when it comes to swagger, but he's got the whole silky flow, addictive hook business locked down. Oh, and Kanye's hanging out back there or something. This and Day n' Nite as a double-feature? No-brainer. Other illRoots treats include Hova's new single, Cudi's new whatever-it-is-he-releases, and a guy named Gooz.

FILM

John Hughes is dead. Please don't underestimate the significance of those words.

Avatar is getting some wild hype. I have to admit that it's starting to grab me. They definitely owned Comic-Con, and with all the high profile stuff at Comic-Con, for an original plot to take the cake is saying something.

New York, I Love You looks fun.

Harmony Korine's next film is finished.

One of the best things about Austin is the Drafthouse, and, well, case in point.

Bad movies get sequels.

Lots of /Film Comic-Con blurbs. Where The Wild Things Are was dazzling. District 9 is apparently some kind of new religion. Kick-Ass surprised everybody with a gutpunch. Christmas Carol is going to scare you? Alice in Wonderland looks really fun. Secret Ninja Assassin screenings confirmed that the movie will feature blood. (Surprise!) Oh, and Tron Legacy is the movie I have been waiting for all these years.

Spielberg wants to stick some Elites.

Linklater is on his grind. Meanwhile, Duncan Jones is doing well.

Fantastic Mr. Fox doesn't have a great trailer, but I'm not nearly as displeased as everybody else seems to be. Flat, maybe. But not godawful.

I trust /Film, so I look forward to hearing more about Simple Machines.

Langella's joining the new Wall Street. This movie could end up pleasantly surprising me.

Definitely looking forward to Big Fan.

New Moon featuring music from Bon Iver and (gasp!) Thom Yorke? Now hear me out - what if Twilight was kinda the Pablo Honey of the film series? What if New Moon ends up being a The Bends, or even an OK Computer!? Yeah, probably not. Sigh. Oh, and Daft Punk are doing the new Tron, which makes a crapload more sense.

WEIRD

Minneapolis hates music or something. Honestly, as much as I feel for venues that'll buckle without 18+ hybrid shows, I've been offered beers at shows pretty much since I've been going to shows, and I can see the logic behind the potential laws. It's not a clean cut issue, and going all "up in arms" and pulling a Bill O'Reilly-esque "you're declaring war on Christmas!" rantfest is not going to solve an issue that requires a genuine compromise.

Lady Gaga is now confirmed to be a woman. Phew?

WORLD

I don't even know where to begin. Health care change is stuck in the mud and I doubt that any reform will pass. The real unemployment rate (the one including those who've ceased looking for work) is projected at 16.3 percent, which is beyond what I could have imagined. Typhoons pelt Asia while domestic pundits laugh off the global warming crisis. Is this the decline of U.S. dominance globally? What will that mean for my future, and the future of my friends and family? I don't have any other real facts to post in this section, just a large number of questions.

PERSONAL

The "world" section could get transplanted here.

Other things in my life seem normal. I'm working pretty hard to pull a short film together. I'm trying to stay productive. Oh, and the two bands I really want to get into: Sleater-Kinney and A Tribe Called Quest.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 23
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 969
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, chilling out at the apartment..

June 18th through July 6th, 2009 [COMPLETE]

2009-06-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

[Final Edit] Damn it, I DECLARE THIS POST COMPLETE! [/Final Edit]

God, what a monster 2009 is. I get busy for a few days and it becomes insurmountable to catch up without spending hours and hours. Time to get back up to speed.

Phew. So much is happening all the time.

MUSIC

Only one thing can top out this section... Michael Jackson is dead.

Kamaal the Abstract is getting released, at last! But as the universe seems to work by karma, Vibe magazine has gone under.

Drake's video got released, and I'm sorta disappointed. Video's like 90% boob shots. Well, we'll let him just keep working and see what he does next.

Oh ho ho! Pitchfork don't care for the new Moby album? When has THAT ever happened before, huh? It always amuses me. Anyway, everybody else thinks it's great.

Mew is one of my favorite music outfits, so it should come as a surprise to nobody that their free MP3, "Repeaterbeater," is basically all I'm listening to.

Jigga's at war.

TMT sobers us with the good-and-bad vinyl sales news. Medium of kings... sounds distinguished.

Jens Lekman caught swine flu, and seems pretty okay.

Damn you, Dirty Projectors, and your tantalizingly good music video! When I get money again, I may just buy thirty copies of your album. Friggin' recession.

Idolator has a cool way of finding new music, and evidently it works.

Poor Crystal Castles. First they get in trouble for something as inconsequential as stealing people's music and calling it their own, and now when they throw equipment at security, they get restrained? It's so unfair! When will the hard knocks stop?

But I'll admit. As much as I loathe Crystal Castles, all of my loathing today goes towards the abomination of Millionaires. No words. Just... no words.

Let's round this out with a good-feelings chaser. Remember that awesome Conan performance with Jamie Foxx and Drake? Now you can have a nice, clean MP3 of the remix, courtesy of illRoots. Also making guest appearances, Kanye and Dream. This is one of the most addictive tracks of 2009.

FILM

Bit of a disaster over at /Film, but they handled it respectfully. It's their integrity in handling these situations - how receptive they are to reader criticism - that elevates them. That, and how they are willing to write potentially unpopular articles about mega-popular films. Oh, and they have kind words for Bruno.

But on the topic of the debacle that is Transformers 2's racism, I was going to "see it anyway," but you know what? Harry at AICN made a pretty passionate case, and while I don't even close to agree with all of his logic (from his anti-PC outlook to bandying about the word "retarded" like he was twelve) I agree that paying to see the movie, especially outside of opening weekend (i.e., helping to give the movie "legs") is not something I intend to do. So fuck it, it'll come out on television someday, and I'll yawn THEN instead. Word up, Knowles.

I'm not sold on Megan Fox, but count me in to see Jennifer's Body anyway.

I'm not usually impressed by viral marketing, but what they're doing for Funny People is damned brilliant. Warning - the link autoplays, and is NSFW off the bat. Also on the subject of funny people, Gervais has a new movie that will make us all pee laughing.

I'm curious about Buried. But not too curious.

The Box looks solid. Pull through, Richard Kelly!

Duncan Jones' new feature is well worth getting excited about, especially after his stellar freshman performance, Moon.

Not gonna lie, Deadgirl looks like a crappy Make-Out With Violence. I'm not saying ripoff because they've both been in underground development for ages, I'm just saying the premise is similar, Make-Out With Violence is exceptional, and Deadgirl looks like crap.

WEIRD

A dead body was found at Bonnaroo.

The Weather Channel says goodbye to smooth jazz and hello to Smiths b-sides.

Brad Pitt + Sumo Wrestler + Department of Eagles = Japanese Commercial.

The Terminator is REAL.

Perez Hilton got punched in the face. I'm honestly surprised that it took this long.

WORLD

Damn it, PETA... just when I was starting to be cool with you, too.

Other that, the situation in Iran is the big issue on my mind.

PERSONAL

I'm living in a new place, I'm without the cash to buy CDs, I'm working on more projects than I care to think about, and god damn if it isn't hard keeping up with popular culture. How's this for my closest summary: The king of pop has died under the reign of a newly (and conveniently) sympathetic media buzz, as the same people who danced on his publicity grave squeeze their eyes as tight as possible to make tears. Meanwhile, revolution rages in Iran, war continues to evolve in Iraq, and there's still a recession, still an environmental crisis, still animal rights abuses the world over, and damn it, still people fighting for something better.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 18
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 942
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, overworked with all this video editing.

June 16th and 17th, 2009

2009-06-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

MUSIC

Biggest news by far? The Very Best have finally announced an album! I've been waiting for this announcement since their mixtape dropped. Gonna be awesome!

Mos Def's new album is also somehow a t-shirt. Hey man. It's 2009.

Discodust is back! I hadn't checked enough to realize they were even gone, but they're back. And sure, I downloaded some of the Marina and the Diamonds tracks, but... my problem is, this is appealing and a fun listen, but aside from the solid remixes it's ground Spektor covered already, ages ago, which makes it incredible non-essential listening. Seriously Discodust, more cascading epic synths, please!

DiS seems arbitrarily skeptical and confused about a really rad project, deaf people using sign language to perform Joy Division. Seriously DiS, what's with the mindset you're spouting?

I enjoy this Tu Phace mp3.

FILM

Bruno is becoming a bit of a big old cultural moment. Also from /Film, Trek 2 inklings and a glimpse at some Aronofsky news.

There's a domestic trailer for Thirst! Definitely hyping the gross-out and horror elements. Oh, bottomlines...

WEIRD

DOUBLE TREE! It is what it sounds like.

WORLD

The Iran situation grows more and more complicated.

PERSONAL

So, this recession... right?

I wasn't even giving it much thought two months ago. Now I'm in Austin, trying to find a job, with a tight budget, and that's become the biggest impact on my culture at this point... I can't really afford to be going to the Drafthouse or buying new CDs 'til I get a job. But I have some good albums to be listening to from the year thus far, and hey, summer blockbusters have never been my exhileration. Maybe the enduring themes of this year won't be about media, but about everything else in my life? Who knows.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 18
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: A ways over 900 with a few albums to import
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, tired of Google maps and the Capital Metro bus planner page.

June 15th, 2009, and a little bit from the week prior

2009-06-15T19:37:00.000-07:00

Ah god let's do this thing.

MUSIC

Last time I was in my local record store for my two CDs, I thought of grabbing Mos Def's new one and the new Dirty Projectors one as well, but figured I'd wait to see what critics said before shelling out cash. (I hadn't had internet in a while) Well, egg on my face.

Anyway. It's been really hard to keep up with all this stuff because my new internet is a little on the slow side, but I managed to squeeze a few gems via illRoots through my bandwidth. Notably, Fabolous has dropped a cool new track. I had to search a little for the new Cudi single, Mr. Solo Dolo, but yeah, it was worth it. Oh, and Drake is having a big year; teaming with Jamie Foxx and getting his video shot by Kanye? Damn. But the biggest news? NEW JAY-Z, and he's at war with autotune, ringtones, and maybe also singalongs. Damn jigga, where's the love?

Blur are doing things again!

Micachu's new mixtape kind of scares me. That's a good thing. It also features perhaps the most unexpected Ne-Yo cover in maybe ever.

I am jonesing for the new BLK JKS album, pretty hardcore.

The new Animal Collective video is pretty odd... surprise! God I'm glad I saw them live. What an experience!

Charles Hamilton is just getting into a bigger and bigger mess, all the time.

FILM

Sad truths about George Lucas, damn.

Live-action Akira is dead. Mixed feelings there, because the movie woulda been wildly inferior, but could have brought attention to the fantastic original. Also at AICN, they love Moon (duh!) and hate on Eddie Murphy. (huh?)

Shutter Island looks really, really good. Kinda wanna see Creation too. And I am going to cry for the entire time The Time Traveller's Wife is being projected on the screen, I just know it.

I really need to see The Hangover before I see The Hangover 2.

Food Inc., looks pretty vital.

WEIRD

The Jonas Brothers roped Common into this travesty.

WORLD

The big news of the week is the scandal surrounding Iran's allegedly rigged elections.

PERSONAL

I'm enjoying the new apartment, but my refrigerator is disturbingly clear.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 18
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: A ways over 900 with a few albums to import
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, relaxing in the new room, annoyed that it didn't get to go on the plane earlier this summer.

April and May, 2009: While I was out...

2009-05-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

POST COMPLETE!

Well, it's not perfect. But it's as good as it'll be. And I need to catch back up.

Okay, so I left off... April 12th? Really? Dear god. I've missed goddamn pirates and pig diseases... are you kidding me? Okay, 2009, let's get back up to speed.

MUSIC: REVIEWS

I've bought a bunch of albums since mid-April. Quick reviews:

DOOM, Born Like This: Don't get me wrong, there's quality on this album. But from one of the most awkwardly homophobic songs of 2009 ("Batty Boyz") to the flimsy duration (the 40-odd minutes feel like a ten), half of which is basically samples of old cartoons... The good moments here (and there are some) are buried very, very deep. Maybe I just don't get it.

Junior Boys, Begone Dull Care: I don't know why basically no reviewers have called this album what it is. It's a straight-up soul seduction album. It's smooth, achingly romantic, and backed with a vaguely slutty kick. These aren't selling points exactly, but they're reference points handled deftly by Junior Boys; the production is almost neurotically detailed, and by combing some appealing and catchy first-listen highlights with some satisfying nuances that reward repeated listens, the album's a formidable one-two punch.

Bat For Lashes, Two Suns: "Daniel" sucked me into the Bat For Lashes goth-pop musical whirlpool, and I really love it here. It's not all as immediately addictive as "Daniel," but everything is thoughtfully textured and intricately gorgeous. This is an album that's really worth spending time with.

Micachu, Jewellery: This album knocked me flat. The track I'd already heard ("Calculator") was a little weird, sure, but it's really the most straightforward pop song Micachu provides. The bizarre, arch compositions here are really refreshing and invigorating, and the tricks don't grow old; you find yourself singing along to some mildly questionable lyrics, which is really kind of cool.

Camera Obscura, My Maudlin Career: Maybe I'm in the wrong state of mind, but after three tracks of the exact same sounds repeated ad infinatum, this got pretty grating. Which isn't to say it's bad; it's actually a really solid album. It's just something that rubs me the wrong way, for whatever reason. Maybe this will change.

Wavves, Wavvves: I really dig this album. I mean, sure, it's about 50% solid songcraft and 50% noodling, but the noodling is oddly pleasurable and the solid songcraft really connects.

The Thermals, Now We Can See: This album is probably the most accessible thing I've purchased, musically, in 2009. The chords are strong, the vocals are at the top of the mix, the hooks are catchy... a lot of fun.

I also bought Dan Deacon's album; initial reactions include "HOLY SHIT WHAT" and "WAIT WOAH AWESOME" but I'm going to give it more time before I say anything definite.

Okay, so that's where I've put my musical dollars. I've also been listening to TreaZon's mixtape, Drake's mixtape, the soundtrack to Make-Out With Violence (still my favorite film of 2009, somebody please distribute this so I can share it with friends?) and a lot of chiptunes. But now, on to some musical news...

MUSIC: NEWS

These are arranged in order of significance, and/or awesomeness.

Cuban Linx II is coming out for real! Radiohead is recording a new album! Kudi is finally releasing an album! This is all such great news, but music is on the karma payment plan, so... oh. The Lucksmiths broke up. Damn.

Muse named their new album.

My sister turned me on to Idolator, and I'm digging it. They, like me, think the new Mew song is rad. Maybe a little too angular and maybe a little confusingly mixed, sure, but when it takes off it has a wicked groove. Which got me on a Mew kick, and damn, that voice is one of the best things on the planet Earth.

Drake's coming out with a video for one of my favorite tracks off So Far Gone, "Best I Ever Had." Those orchestra hits in the beginning are like cocaine. Ear cocaine. My ears are high as shit. Anyway, the video's going to be about the ladies.

Also vindicating its absurdly high playcount, "Make Her Say" (formerly "I Poke Her Face") is Cudi's next single. Good call. For fun, check out the illroots comments; evidently, if your song leaked over a month ago and you're waiting for more than a month to release your album, you are a fool.

Oh, and R. City is fresh. Find that tape.

I'm going to announce it here, once and for all: Coldplay ripped off MY song! (Shh, it doesn't matter that they clearly didn't, jump onboard!)

M.I.A. is all up in the news.

All Camel did was use popular indie musicians, against their will, to sell addictive death sticks. Now the poor guys are getting sued to hell.

Sufjan Stevens wrote a simple one-off song about Sofia Coppola years ago. And it's still kick-ass.

It's kind of weird to say there's a new J Dilla album coming out, but it's weird in the raddest possible way.

So I was okay with Asher Roth at first, because a lot of respectable folks endorsed him, and I was down for some lazy, goof-off hip hop. But uh... nah. No. No way.

Swine flu reared its ugly, fictional head and prevented a rad tour from going down.

David Letterman became an indie venue somehow. Honestly, this is just an excuse to post a Bat For Lashes video, and to feed my raging, out-of-control crush on Natasha Khan.

Grizzly Bear's new video is like an uncanny alley manifesto. Watch at your own risk.

Flaming Lips vs. Arcade Fire... ish.

Crystal Castles were involved in another controversial catastrophe. Surprise! (Note: There's a lot of loathing in the chiptune community directed towards Crystal Castles. I side with the chiptune musicians, considering, y'know, Crystal Castles plagiarized them in "practice" songs and stuff.)

Okay, that's not the most diverse set of blogs, but I think I covered everything major. Phew, it's time for some film stuff.

FILM REVIEWS

Star Trek
I saw this movie three times total; once in a preview IMAX screening hosted by Harry Knowles, then on opening night at the Drafthouse, and then with my father. I loved it each time. I'm a fan of pretty much anything Abrams touches these days, and he really balanced everything so well in Trek that you forget how sensitive a property it is, and how intense that burden of pop culture is. There are a lot of genuinely breathtaking moments, and there's a lot of fun hijinx to throw wrenches in the way of the Enterprise. The actors are well cast, the story is self-contained enough to be fun but has enough room to breathe... Honestly, even while watching movies I love, I often end up wondering eventually when they're going to end, and it's a feat when I'm wrapped up enough in the brisk pacing not to notice that two hours have gone by. It's just... really good.

Up
I cried, and I am not ashamed of myself for it. The opening sequence covers a lot of ground in that very Pixar way, that say-a-lot-with-a-little precision that makes their films universal. And lately, it's been utilized to cover more treacherous ground than childhood fantasy, which is impressive. This particular outing, though, really hits home. It's mature in its sensibilities; we are spending a good deal of time with an elderly man and his confrontations with nostalgia and death. But there's jokes too. It works. And Up makes its point: dreams are vital, but letting go of them when the time is right, that's vital too. I mean, people, this is a movie distributed by Disney; challenging the power of dreams even slightly is a big deal. End of the day, the movie is poignant, beautiful, and solidly accessible. It's the kind of movie I want to raise my kids on when I've got some of my own.

FILM NEWS

Same order as before... all things in order of badassness.

Cannes went down! Lars Von Trier freaked people out. Tarantino divided everybody's opinions. The best news of all? Chan Wook-Park made a huge bloody splash with Thirst (duh!) and now the movie has been picked up for release at the end of this July! Awesome!

District 9 looks incredible.

I'm very hesitant to jump onboard for Avatar. Lots of cool stuff coming out in a slow trickle, sure, but the marketing suggests that this film is the big new incredible thing and that's always cause for a little suspicion.

This micro-short Last Day Dream is fantastic. Give it some of your time!

Duncan Jones, who blew me away with Moon, is getting a new project underway about WWII.

My skepticism of Thor keeps getting peeled back. I love Hiddleston from Wallander (which really deserves your attention as well) and the casting is solid so far. Damn you, Branagh! Getting my hopes up!

I'm very excited for The Road, but this trailer seems to mishandle the themes I understand the movie to deal with. In a similar vein, The Book of Eli looks pretty solid too.

Mr. Nobody looks pretty great.

Nine wasn't even on my radar, but now I'm really intrigued.

Emile Hirsch and some other people are working on a Hamlet adaptation.

Robot Chicken writer tackles one of the most sacred films of all time... Short Circuit.

Stretch Armstrong really is happening, unfortunately.

NEWS

Oh god we are all so screwed ahhhhhhh

WEIRD

The Hipster Grifter is our new folk hero? Are you goddamn kidding me?

Billy Corgan falls further down a Citizen Kane-style black hole of self-involved misery.

Charles Hamilton got punched in the face.

Gooby is frightening. And maybe also is Satan. But the bigger story here is that this is the ultimate lesson in how to make bad trailers.

Nobody - NOBODY - messes with Dolph Lundgren.

Publicity stunts aside, my favorite part of this MTV controversy is Quinto's bemusement.

Andy Samberg is known for odd and awesome cameos, but a JJ Abrams keyboard solo? I feel like it's too early for Christmas...

Elderly people don't like new music. That's not a surprise. They run a vlog about it. That's a glorious, hilarious surprise. Also vlogging about indie music, Brian Williams and Russ Feingold. Honestly? Real talk? They both pull it off.

The drummer from the Shins runs a taco cart now.

PERSONAL

Okay, I've been inconsistent at blogging. But it's not like I've been experiencing so much 2009, so much culture, and stowing it away in hiding. The truth is, my life went through a series of big reshuffles and I frankly didn't have time to consume much more culture than Scrubs reruns and the Stewart/Colbert block. (Neither of which I am knocking, both of which I love) I went from finals week to crashing at my family house in San Antonio to lots of transit to living in a new apartment in Austin, all within about a month.

But I'm back.

Tonight, I sleep.

2009-05-22T21:17:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, I ride again.

Want a comeback?

2009-05-11T06:45:00.000-07:00

It's coming.

Massive post sometime after a week. I've still been following this damn year, and I've still got some things to say.

If you're wondering where I've been, go to college, enroll in film classes, and see how the last month of YOUR first year treats you.

As for this week...

2009-04-19T00:24:00.000-07:00

Got some ground to cover, but it may have to wait. School has me busy to the 1000th degree, and I am working out a technical error (my Firefox won't ctrl+save files anymore) so I may need to procrastinate updating a little more.

One thing to note: Anybody else find it a little ironically accurate that Pitchfork named decade-old Radiohead albums as their "Best New Music"?

April 12th, 2009

2009-04-12T22:04:00.001-07:00

This blog post courtesy of the road between San Antonio and Austin, with special thanks to patient, automotively inclined fathers.

Peter Bjorn and John, Living Thing
Am I the only one on board for calling Peter Bjorn & John this generation's Dream Academy? Yeah, that's a weird assertion, I'm aware. I may be the only person who's even thought about Dream Academy in 2009. (Well, except maybe [frontman]) But think about it: very catchy singles deceive fans into disappointment on LPs where weird artistic leanings mask a core melodicism.
Okay, I was born in 1990, so maybe that was just MY experience with Dream Academy. And maybe it's just the accents. But it seems like the same experience we're all getting duped into with PB&J. Their singles are all catchy and melodic, but the albums are thornier, rougher, and dare I say more confusing. Honestly? I wish every band working in popular music was pulling the same trick.
Teaser bits "Nothing to Worry About" and "Lay It Down" were weird, sure - a fact emphasized in the surreal videos for the respective tracks. But they're nowhere near the heights of odd achieved on the album, some of which work perfectly (the smokey organ solo in "Stay This Way") and some of which fall a little short. (The title track seems like a grower, but remains eternally undercooked)
But even the shortcomings are refreshing, because paradoxically, they fall short by setting the sights too high. Post-"Young Folks," PB&J could have cruised along as sweet pop confectioners, or maybe even survived vampirically on licensing from their big hit, like more than a few one-hit-weirdos. (What a poignant observation, given Mix-A-Lot's square-butt McDonalds travesty) Indeed, the path ahead for this trio held no inherent challenges, so the fact that they've put out an album this challenging, unabashedly weird, truly surprising and simultaneously listenable, well, it's something we should all be impressed by.

Röyksopp, Junior
I won't lie: I've already missed two Röyksopp boats. Both of their LPs escaped my high school musicscape. Hence, I'm not coming into this review with the same degree of critical baggage - no questioning of whether [second LP] was a disappointing turn after [first LP]. No fretting about which vocalists do or don't appear. I've got a pretty clean slate, and you know what? I like what I hear.
Powerhouse single "The Girl And The Robot," which justifies the price of admission all its own, is the tale of the shittiest boyfriend ever, belted out over churning electro beats with aching honesty by Robyn, who really steps up to the plate on this one. That will be what draws most people in here, and while some of the rest of the album borders on electrofiller - I'm looking at you, "Silver Cruiser" - there are plenty of highlights. "Royksopp Forever" (where's the umlaut, boys?) skids along on dub beats until its strings reach a fever, at which point a pitch shift takes it all to the next level. Speaking of fevers, Karin Dreijer is a fantastic presence on record, where her patented dark sense of mystery is free to do basically what it did in The Knife - flourish - but with a glossier production to back it up. Lykke Li takes a different tack, getting a bit lost inside the Röyksopp beats rather than taking charge; supplementing instead of dominating.
With vocal skills this good, it's already a strong purchase, but Röyksopp isn't just a duo with good taste in female voice talent. Their beats slide, skip, and pound; their melodies arch and dip into territories at turns glitzy and tragic. Maybe Discodust has just been converting me, but this is solid, solid work. It's a great, addictive little package. Expect the playcount to get disconcertingly astronomical; be wary of your other MP3s getting jealous.

Editorial

To tweet or not to - oh fuck it.
Anyway.
This hubbub over Twitter's value doesn't seem to want to die down. People are still digging in their heels, claiming it's reductive, or foolish, or promotes less thought, or whatever the complaint of the week is. You'd think that after it played a key role in, you know, that election thing we had a few months ago, people would be a little easier on the little guy.
Well, not really a little guy, I guess. Twitter is pretty ubiquitous at this point; it seems like ages past when I was confused by the odd little box popping up alongside my favorite webcomics; now I'm pretty sure everyone from the Dalai Lama to Dick Cheney has participated in "follow fridays," tweeted about their weekend plans, started following a meme account, and rued the technical bumps and glitches along the way.
Everybody except me, that is. That's right: I've just now got one. I wasn't anti-twitter or anything, I just never took the time to start following people and set the whole enterprise up. I've got to say, I like it so far. I follow Aziz Anzari - who wouldn't, after his great Observe and Report Chik-Fil-A quote? And I follow Rob Corddry, whose comedy links and parental insights are oddly rewarding. And I follow the New York Times and Democracy Now, and I follow some friends too, just to keep up with whatever's up.
Like I said, I was never anti-Twitter. I don't understand this backlash against networking. Many of my friends have disavowed Facebook; my roommate even deleted his account. His reasons? "Facebook is inaccurate." He says the profile information on his account was all misleading. I asked him why he didn't just change it. Cue debate.
It's the same with Twitter. Critics say it's all pointless minutia, but it's only pointless if you can't utilize the tech. To wear out a tired cliche, garbage in, garbage out. Twitter is brief, sure, but brevity and idiocy hardly go hand in hand. If a Twitter account you follow just spews pointless trivia, you can, y'know, unfollow it.
It seems like this far out of the 1800's we ought to have figured out the simple lesson: technology isn't inherently anything. Twitter's not inherently trivia, Facebook isn't inherently inaccurate, the internet isn't inherently for pornography and piracy, etc. It's how you use technology that counts, and if you loathe the way it's used, well, you could always do it better yourself.
Oh well, I won't get too pissed. If I need to vent, I can just tweet about this later.

April 6th through 11th, 2009

2009-04-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

It's pretty difficult to keep up with a year, I'm discovering. I'm already so far behind on so many rad albums and films! Sheesh.

MUSIC

Surprise of the month: Pitchfork gave DOOM an eight. Get your umbrellas; it will be raining fire and sulfur soon; Pitchfork (well, Breihan at least) has been more than unkind to the former MF in the past; it's safe to say we have an apocalypse in our forecast.

Also on Pitchfork, Health's super-rad track got nice words, the Justice-U2 lovechild/hellspawn got suitably kicked in the teeth, they praise the superfun Micachu and the Shapes track, and on the superb new Bat For Lashes single, they make the predictable - but damn accurate - Kate Bush comparison. They also did a sweet little Cobain post. Their linked Paul Anka cover is useful for fans of things that don't make sense and for those who still couldn't figure out the lyrics to "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Oh, and their St. Vincent video gets me all pumped for her upcoming LP.

TMT has sight gags galore. They also report on TicketsNow getting into some deep shit.

DiS has released a playlist of their favorite 40 songs of 09 so far. Maybe I should do something like that? Anyway, a worthy list. They also report on Radiohead vs. the RIAA and adore the promising Horrors.

Been away from Discodust longer than normal. The actual Delphic song is pretty cool, though I'm less wowed by the remix. They hype some rad and worthy Golden Filter remixes. Their CRJ tracks are vintage glory. Oh, and the FM Attack tracks are gorgeous!

FILM

First off, get this while it's there: The Water, a short by BSS's Kevin Drew, starring the ever-wonderful Cillian Murphy. The pacing is *ahem* glacial, but it's lovely nonetheless.

Moon has a trailer! One of my favorites from SXSW, and of the year so far, this trailer should excite moviegoers for this deserving flick.

/Film did my busy work for me while I was out. Highlights working backwards: Scott Pilgrim video blog, stepping up to the plate to defend the kickass Observe and Report, low-budget indie inspiration Hunter Prey's new trailer, and just to make me nervous, a Shadow of the Colossus film. That video game is one of my all-time favorites; screwing up the movie will possibly lead to gray hairs.

Lil Wayne has disappointingly filed an injunction against the documentary about his life.

AICN has a delightful Brothers Bloom trailer, some unkind words for dungheap Dragonball, and a badass new Public Enemies trailer.

WEIRD

Fever Ray on ABC via Pitchfork. It just feels so wrong.

Spike Jonze has a new film coming out. Also, starring Rogen and Samberg, a new Fast/Furious movie.

WORLD

Too much. I'll catch up on this soon.

PERSONAL

I'm in San Antonio suffering a surprise sore throat; time for the hospital tomorrow, whee. Editorial and reviews tomorrow.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 649 + two albums I refuse to first-listen while sore-throated
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, hanging out on my old desk.

Just so you know

2009-04-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

There's a reason I've been silent. Several, really - quizzes, exams, essays, film projects, and the occasional hour of sleep. On the weekend I'll try and wrap up the week.

God I love the Röyksopp and PB&J albums.

April 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 2009

2009-04-05T11:47:00.000-07:00

Man, college doesn't want me to have a blog. Don't even try and hide it, college: essays, projects, film work. You don't care for this blogging enterprise, do you?

Well, too bad for you. Because these last five news days were hella slow, and leant me plenty of room to catch up. (Sigh...)

MUSIC

Pitchfork wins some points for showing The Antlers some love; they're probably going to be on my iTunes soon. The Dougall song hits me in all the right ways, too.

TMT points out that so far, 2009 has been a year without platinum records.

Rich Boy is superdramatic. Also on Fader, the new Trey Songz video is probably the most 2009 thing I've seen all year. Oh, and I really enjoy the new Horrors video; don't be put off by the useless intro: the aesthetic reaches closer to some sort of arthouse snuff film than an "ironic" music video.

God I love illRoots. Kid Cudi ft. Kanye West and Common, CDQ, and damn... damn.

FILM

/Film really brought it while I was out! Working backwards: Vanity fair indulges our collective crush on Tarantino's new project, Inglourious Basterds. Michelle Rodriguez spoils three films at once, including Avatar. Jackie Earle Haley is going to be Freddy Kruger! The trailer for Brüno looks really funny. Also trailering up, The Hangover. There are lots of details concerning casting for Nolan's new film, Inception, and one of my favorite actors - Cillian Murphy - is in talks to join! Magnolia is still being condescending about the Let The Right One In subtitle debacle.

Beware light, light spoilers, but AICN has some audience reactions to Brüno, and they all love it.

IFC rounds up some reviews. Sugar looks GREAT; I hope it arrives here. Apparently, Song of Sparrows is a visual stunner. Same goes for Tulpan. People really dig Adventureland as a coming-of-ager, not a laugh-fest.

WEIRD

Cleverness alert: via BoingBoing, Homer's Odyssey as written on twitter.

Russ Feingold likes Bon Iver.

New Lonely Island video!

WORLD

Democracy Now interiews Tim DeChristopher, a Utah student who posed as a bidder to disrupt an auction selling off land to be drilled for oil. DeChristopher is being charged with two felonies.

They also interview the ever-insightful Noam Chomsky.

SATURDAY EDITORIAL

I checked the Billboard Top 40 today. I don't check it regularly, and in fact, this may have been the first time I've ever checked it; it's not a personal habit. But it was interesting; Flo Rida was at number one, the All-American Rejects at two, and good for them, but damn if I've even mentioned them on this blog before - a blog doing its damnedest to keep up with the year of 2009.
I was making a mix for a friend of 90's music, which is basically a monthly occurrence on this laptop. But this time around I was giving a critical eye to what I put in - Third Eye Blind, Blind Melon, TLC, Alanis Morisette, y'know, those instant nostalgia pieces. But, well, this is hard to phrase: my generation, we were in elementary school through most of the 90s, and our access to "less popular" music was drastically limited. So our 90stalgia is not the 90stalgia of people who liked music in the 1990s, but of people who were learning to color and spell.
That's a challenge for me to wrap my head around, but I'm sure I'm not elucidating this feeling very clearly at all. Let me go for a metaphor. You grow up in City X, from birth until the age of thirteen. City X is, in your memory, the shiniest and nicest place on the planet, where everything is rad. Then at thirteen, you move to City Y, and with a more discerning eye, you note City Y's nuances, oddities, and quirks. But then, when you turn eighteen and take a vacation week in City X, you realize that your memories there were totally backwards and bizarre, which in turn changes the way you feel about City Y.
For me, this decade is defined by acts like Arcade Fire, The Knife, Devendra Banhart, The Decemberists, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Animal Collective, etc. But in ten years, a generation will hear "Dirty Little Secret" or "Shorty Got Low" on the radio and shout, "ahh, that's so 00's!" And me, I'll just feel confused, because both songs are fun, but ancillary to my experiences with the decade.
I guess this realization has challenged a notion of collective experience I have, the notion of a unified pop culture experiencing specific cultural signposts. But maybe decades are composed of separate, distinct subcultures? Or maybe even the smallest groupings are just to help us simplify a hopelessly complicated web of networks, opinions, and experiences.
Or maybe this decade is unique among previous others, specifically in terms of how it can be categorized and remembered? That's a dangerous conceit, and will be far more legitimate if I venture it with half a century's distance, but it's possible. Maybe the rise of the internet, the death of futurism as a unifying concern, and our mutual dissatisfaction with universality has actually given rise to a different intake procedure for media. Or maybe I just know too much about too many fractured subgroups, and I don't have the right perspective to characterize my era.
But that's why, in desperation I visited the Top 40. I thought it might be a refuge, but it was odd. Flo Rida and All-American Rejects hanging out at the top, Pink and Spears lingering in the middle, Kanye West's controversial and very-2008 single somehow grasping on at ten. This is not the top forty I know; these songs don't sound like 2009 to me. But I guess they do, and forever will, to the people who're memorizing their multiplication tables in their attic with the radio on, before they go turn on the Playstation. Wait, no, I guess the Wii?
Man... the 00's.

Week in literal review makes no sense, because this week was a slow news week.

REVIEWS

The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love
Let's get this out there, right off the bat: this is not a new direction for Meloy's rambling band of rastabouts. They've been laying the groundwork for an album like this (that is to say, a sprawling prog-rock opera about shapeshifters and forest queens) since they started plucking strings. Their albums always feature massive narrative set pieces, like pissed-off mariners or wives with feathery secrets. Meloy has simply taken this aesthetic to its most extreme, or rather, purest form. And damn it, on record, it works.
The narrative is better than some possibly confused reviewers (cough) have given it credit for. It's a love story with twists and turns, interesting supporting characters (a raging river included) and a fitting, honest ending. Sonically, it's also really solid; the band uses a blender aesthetic, shifting tones and genres to suit the story's needs. The forest queen is pissed? Lay on the sharp, rocking riffs. A couple recalls a lovely night together? Accordions, strummed country acoustics, and soft vocals. Ghosts are getting their revenge? Children's choir and jarring, percussive strings. People, this is what we call having a wide range.
There's been much ado in reviews about whether or not individual songs stand up. First of all, I'd ask why this matters - what happened, critics, to your desperate concerns about the death of the album artist? It sounds like you're holding the hammer to the coffin's nail on this one. But second, although the songs definitely fit most neatly into their album context, they mostly work like any Decemberists song ever has - self contained scenes with elaborate language, refreshing instrumentation and dramatic sweep. Nothing has truly changed; it's just an evolution.
The album has plenty of badass moments (a particularly fatal agreement with a river, comeuppance for infanticide) and plenty of sonic highlights (any moment belted out by the forest queen, a particular harpsichord melody, and a lovely little interlude) that make it a fantastic piece of music and a high point for the band.

Jeremy Jay, Slow Dance
I can't strictly call this album a grower, but I can ask you to get through your first listen patiently, then go through it again to have a blast. Because the first time through the album, I'll admit, I was thoroughly underwhelmed. It all seemed like a pretentious wreck. But listening a second time, with expectations calibrated, I actually found it really solid.
Take my personal favorite track on Slow Dance, "Gallop." The first time around, it felt simple and forgettable, but the second time around, I picked up a hell of a lot more depth: the way the echoing finger snaps create a deep space within the song, the jangling guitar's faux-drama - it's fun. Titular "Slow Dance" seemed boringly overwrought at first, but now it seems charmingly earnest.
This isn't to say it's a perfect album. The sparse instrumentation sets a specific vibe, but specificity and quality don't always go hand in hand here, and although every song has redeeming elements, there's nothing here to demand that vital second listen, except maybe stellar closer "Where Could We Go Tonight?" Why it's buried at the end, I will never understand. And yeah, sometimes we veer off into the land of the pretentious; Jeremy Jay tends to repeat single words multiple times before shouting "yeah!" on, well, most of the tracks here, and the trick loses its smirking appeal when it becomes too obvious.
But there's emotion and quality on Slow Dance, and if you can make it the end, then run through it all again, it's safe to say you'll be rewarded.

PERSONAL

I have been watching way too much All My Children for my own good. Damn it, David Hayward, you are fucking EVERYBODY'S shit up!

Oh, and try and avoid Röyksopp's "The Girl and The Robot" single, because if you listen to it once, you will end up listening to it literally one hundred times without stopping. Damn you, Robyn!

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 639
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, getting all emotional.

April 1st, 2037

2009-04-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

MUSIC

Pitchfork, oh how ye have fallen. Today they interview the last living members of Los Campesinos!, in a conversation mostly dealing with their mid-20s transition into a blues/folk style. They also have a free day's worth of music, including three new LPs by the newest band to sign to Young Money, an indie pop act from France called Sun Sun Bubble.

Discodust has uploaded a week's worth of music today, most if which is silence-core. It's a genre worth getting into; there's a particular piece of silence (Kimdritz's "Isoscope Majesty") that is really invigorating, possibly a breakout track for the genre.

HipHopDX is still covering hip hop for some reason, despite most established hip hop bands and labels switching over to the metal genre. Speaking of which, Jadakiss's new album "Dragonfire Axemen" (due sometime in the next hour) is supposedly a tribute to Weezy's classic and revered transition from rap to rock. What a great work that was!

FILM

Wes Anderson's political thriller, The Presidential Ark, premieres on Youtube tonight. Starring seasoned vet and skilled thespian Zac Efron, it supposedly reimagines the events directly following President X3R28's powering-on. Soundtrack by the talented Fred Durst.

McG's new nostalgia picture, 2015 is Snopes! is set for a release mid-tomorrow. Look for a cameo by infamously neurotic method actress Miley Cirus, playing herself immediately before marrying Johnny Depp.

Slumdog Millionaire XII comes out on Myspace Video in a few minutes. Reputedly the best in the series since Slumdog Millionaire VIII, this return to form deals with some the epic serial's less prominent characters, like Douglas, who infamously assassinated Lord Xexthon midway through the love-it-or-hate-it departure Slumdog Millionaire X: X is for Xtermination.

WEIRD

It turns out, cloning still isn't perfect: ten percent of all clones fail to attain standard immortality. Bizarre!

WORLD

No news.

PERSONAL

Oh man, I think I took the wrong Emotion today; I've been kind of melancholy. Oh well. I'll take a different Emotion in the morning.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 29828372372
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 2093290389292872387236273y632
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Internal, sitting comfortably in my cortex.

March 31st, 2009

2009-03-31T19:32:00.000-07:00

MUSIC

I'm going to go ahead and dedicate the opening of this section to my sister:

Negative! Why always so negative, Pitchfork? If you've got problems, why don't you go solve them? I mean, I haven't bought the album yet, so maybe their criticisms come from a reasonable place, but when your criticism of "Lay It Down" is that the song's lyrics are a different tone than its music, you're dangerously close to Rolling Stone levels of not getting it.

They also inexplicably gave a really good song they seem to like a six out of ten. I do like their DD/MM/YYYY stream, to be fair. And they totally redeem themselves with word of a FREE Del album.

Fader loves Esau as much as I do.

Later on Fader, The Kiss My Ass mixtape didn't due much for me, but these new tracks are really solid. Also via Fader, woah, new Atlas Sound for free. Didn't see that coming. Mark this under distinctly pleasant "tuesdays are great for music" surprises.

Asher Roth seems really rad.

Discodust is back, and not a moment too soon. They accurately peg the Annie remix they're freeloading as swoon-worthy. Le sigh indeed.

FILM

/Film tries to convince you to see the Hannah Montana movie.

Lots of hip-hop biopics comin' soon. Hopefully they'll be better than Notorious.

Star Trek XII info if that's your thing.

Apatow slasher? Sounds... I don't know how that sounds.

WEIRD

Andre 3k is the new Speed Racer.

iTunes has awesomely put a silent song up as a featured download. First time the iTunes store has ever been awesome, really.

WORLD

Conflicker is spooky.

PERSONAL

GAhh itchy hair

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 603
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, scratching.

March 30th, 2009

2009-03-30T13:04:00.000-07:00

MUSIC

Kanye + Jonze + Wayne = Expectations.

Okkervil River helps kids. Damn my city kicks ass. Speaking of, Pitchfork has reservations about their new B-Side but I think it kicks a lot of ass. They do give Wave Machines deserved love.

Asher Roth seems like a really chill dude.

Over on DiS, Lipster continues to dissappoint me entirely. Sure, they give Dent May some deserved credit (the critical bashing he's received baffles me) but they go all lukewarm on Fever Ray and then play some bullshit this-high-art-is-below-us facetious smirk on Antony, which yeah, that's an easy way to draw my ire. They seem desperate to be elitist, and it's not an appealing pose.

Fader brings us a huge treat courtesy Sin Fang Bous. For the record, Fader, I still make mix cds.

FILM

Early buzz is, Wes Anderson's Fantastic Mr. Fox is rad.

OMG Scott Pilgrim pictures!

Simon Pegg discusses the final installment in his Blood and Ice Cream trilogy. (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World's End)

WEIRD

The Cool Kids are the world's only cool kids, or at least, are trying to prove the aforementioned assertion in a court of law.

Courtney Love sucks.

The excessive fan-worshipping of the Joker has officially gone way too far.

WORLD

Via Reuters, Spain may open a probe on the policies of six Bush administration officials, specifically pertaining to Guantanamo Bay.

PERSONAL

The busy days just keep on comin'.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 601
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, bouncing.

Friday-Saturday-Sunday All-in-One Bonanza Extravaganza Spectacular

2009-03-29T18:08:00.001-07:00

Okay, first we've got:

FRIDAY
(Slowest News Day of 2009)

MUSIC

A Gorillaz doc comes out soon, which Pitchfork calls unwatchable for whatever reason. Looks lo-fi to be sure, but fun. Oh well, their CFCF review is pretty dead-on. I'm excited for more CFCF to drop.

New Weezy mixtape, new OJ Da Juiceman video... illroots knows how I do. G5 Clive's mixtape is also pretty kickass.

FILM

I'd officially love to see $9.99.

WEIRD

Dear Nicholas Cage: You look like a buffoon.

WORLD

The number of chronically hungry people has topped one billion.

The situation in Mexico is terrifying.

SATURDAY EDITORIAL

I'm in a bad period of life to be concerned about the apocalypse.
And sure, all signs are pointing to crisis (which seems, evidently, to be normal) but I just don't feel it. And I'm thankful for that, but also a little confused. Mexican drug cartels, environmental disaster, the possible collapse of our economy, yeah, it's all scary. But here, Wheatsville just opened its new extension, my film career looks bright, my apartment is on the horizon: I'm planning for the future despite all this angst and anxiety.
Am I on the right track? Is it good to avoid the terrified hype, or am I living in a dream world that's set up to collapse? I honestly can't be sure anymore. It's the oddest form of schizophrenia and I'm having trouble adapting.
Anyway, I guess I'll just keep moving forward. There's no use in getting swept up in doomcasting and frightened mentality. I'm just hoping things don't all blow up.

SUNDAY: MARCH IN REVIEW

Odd month to review.

Most Interesting, Music:

Anamanaguchi's new album is available entirely for free.

Most Interesting, Film:

SXSW went down, and was awesome.

Weirdest:

Water is on fire.

Biggest World Event:

With Clinton's trip to Mexico, the drug war against cartels is receiving lots of national attention.

Best Song:

Anamanaguchi, "Mermaid"

Best Film:

Make-Out with Violence

Reviews

First off, apologies for just how damn long it's been since I've reviewed anything at all.

Anamanaguchi, Dawn Metropolis
It's hard for me to review this in a "fair" way. You and I aren't going to see eye to eye on this album, that's for sure, unless "you" have been rabidly devouring chip music since halfway through high school. It's a genre that many are unfamiliar with, and it forces me to divide this review in half.
For chip music afficionados: This is exactly what you wanted from Anamanaguchi. It's as compositionally strong as anything they've ever done, it's orgasmically devoid of all the current hipster-electronica fashions plaguing some recent chiptunes releases, and ultimately it's just really good chip. Some have argued that it's inferior to Power Supply, but that's really not true - not to criticize Power Supply, but it's a niche album, where Dawn Metropolis maintains the sound and vibe but with enough variance in structure and style to land broader appeal. Wouldn't THAT be something?
For the chiptune-uninitiated: This is a solid, fun album from a band that's been developing their sound for quite a while. It's really fast-paced and really sunshiney (well, for the most part) which might throw you off at first - songs may sound too similar on first listen, but as you notice the nuances and changes, you'll find more and more rewarding depth. Standout closer "Mermaid" may be where you want to start, honestly: it's sort of a prog-rock epic if prog-rock epics happened in Gameboy games.

PERSONAL

Man, it has been a rollercoaster month. In like a lion, out like a lamb, right? I friggin' hope so, at least.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 601
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, bouncing.

Another day,

2009-03-28T21:04:00.001-07:00

another postponement. (scholarships and essays, argh)

Friday post

2009-03-27T23:06:00.000-07:00

will be combined with Saturday post.

btw Hazards of Love is awesome

March 25th, 2009 / March 26th, 2009

2009-03-26T17:06:00.000-07:00

Two days worth, but fortunately very, very slow ones: let's do this.

MUSIC:

Los Campesinos! are blogging the creation of their new album. It is now on my blogs-to-read-daily list.

Blender is deadish.

DiS gives one last impassioned defense of Radiohead-as-guitar-band, which ends up sort of being "hey we didn't know better."

Fader just had to go and inflame my crush on Keri Hilson. WTF is Ne-Yo doing, though?

FILM:

The new Where The Wild Things Are trailer is out and it's everywhere; find it and love it.

Ang Lee's got a Woodstock movie coming out.

There's huge unanimous praise for Goodbye Solo, which I ruefully missed and want to see soon.

WEIRD:

British people hate teenagers.

WORLD:

The U.S. and Israel are being accused of bombing Sudan for tactical reasons related to the conflict with Palestine.

PERSONAL:

Dude, I have missed chiptunes. So good to get back to 8bit pop.

Fun fact of the day: bitter almonds turn your blood into CYANIDE. Look it up.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 542
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, sipping on plant milk.

ESSAYS

2009-03-25T14:50:00.000-07:00

Blog postponed due to ESSAYS BEING DUE

Ahhhhhhh college

Will include Wednesday in the Thursday post

'cos you guys know I'm good for it

March 24th, 2009

2009-03-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

MUSIC:

I don't understand the track ratings at Pitchfork, at all, but the "6" rating they give to Passion Pit's new song at least fits their (unlinkable) review of the song. Hey, though, it's a fun tune. Also, the Pitchfork folks spent time talking about tattoos today.

Over on DiS, Lipster's all up on the week in singles. Dananananaykroyd's song kind of does nothing for me, and they seem pretty intent on proving how above Animal Collective they are, so that's two big strikes.

The audiovisual piece feels kind of like a fan video, but I won't look Fader's freeloadhorse of CFCF in the mouth. Oh, and they've got a couple of lonely stoners doing their live thing.

Not that Drake's mixtape was getting old, but this new TreaZon stuff is the same delectable mix of nerdy, spacey and smooth.

FILM:

Before you go out and nab the Let The Right One In DVD (which normally I'd recommend you do ASAP) read this cautionary message about the new subtitling job. It really is pretty ghastly.

Miyazaki's new film is coming stateside.

Via IFC's blogs, critics were pretty fair to my favorite film of the year so far and offer some interesting thoughts on the interesting doc Objectified.

WEIRD:

I read "mumblecore parody," I thought to myself "too early." I saw a mumblecore parody, and I thought "right on time."

Sing and dance erratically inside a french McDonalds and your ass is going to jail.

WORLD:

The New York Times reports on increasing tension along the U.S.-Mexico border.

PERSONAL:

Scripts to revise, rough drafts to perfect, essays to finish, and possibly a film to produce. Jesus.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 542
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, taking it easy.

March 23rd, 2009

2009-03-23T13:21:00.000-07:00

It's good to be back.

MUSIC

Pitchfork doesn't like Hazards of Love. :( Maybe they're just pissy about the false Stone Roses rumors?

TMT reports on Billy Corgan's maniacal master plan. Crisis: Solo career faltering. Solution: Reform Smashing Pumpkins, kick out all non-Corgan members, co-opt "Smashing Pumpkins" name for solo career. Chamberlin, you beautiful fool! You're playing right into his schemes!

HipHopDX has the details on Kanye's SXSW-crashing antics. Oh yeah, and a Lupe Fiasco album that isn't fake british anime rock.

FILM

If you care at all about independent film, you should care about distribution for the seven-years-to-make Raiders of the Lost Ark remake.

Sit through the advertisement, ignore the shitty puns, and devour these awesome Where the Wild Things Are stills. God this looks great.

Via RT, Warner Bros. is doing some awesome shit and opening their vaults in what is for some reason being metaphorically compared to a pizzeria. Basically, order an old unreleased film, and they make you the DVD. This is the sort of inexplicably and unmistakably rad thing that makes me like film studios.

WEIRD

Welcome to 2009! Our water is on fire.

Rick Ross is evidently at his best when being a vaguely facetious hypocrite.

WORLD

Does money even matter anymore?

The New York Times reports on Mexican drug cartel violence spilling over the border.

The BBC reports on modest results from an environmental plan to spur algae growth by putting iron into the ocean.

PERSONAL

Well, break time is over. I have personal projects to get done, and the age-old ticking bomb (everybody will leave for summer!) is back. Damn you, time.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 528
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, rocking out to Anamanaguchi.

MARCH: WHAT I MISSED

2009-03-16T15:34:00.000-07:00

[UPDATE: Life just keeps throwing curveballs. I got a rough cold the other day and it kinda knocked me out of commission. But now, post is complete!]

Wow... wow. So yeah, my laptop died for some very stupid reasons. (Noodle spill) But it is back now, so it's time to reboot this blog as well.

For the record, if you live in Austin and have any computer trouble, Happy Mac is 100% the place to go.

Alright. I've missed so much of 2009, just in these two weeks! I've got a lot of ground to cover, and all of it during SXSW. Okay, let's get this started.

REVIEWS IN BRIEF:

UPDATE: THE NEW ANAMANAGUCHI ALBUM IS FANTASTIC!

Watchmen was really, really good. There's a lot of criticism about it - a LOT of criticism - especially leveled at length, accuracy in adaptation, and soundtrack. The movie doesn't feel long, the soundtrack FITS (sorry they left out [your favorite obscure band] but this is a movie about peering underneath massive pop culture icons, and that had to be represented musically as well) and as for adaptation, yeah, there's the big changes (for the better? oops not supposed to admit that) but overall I'm not sure what more you goddamn wanted. It's damn well acted and damn well made, and the hip kids will call it mainstream without understanding how fresh and unconventional the narrative is.

Phew.

Also quality: Two Lovers. It's a straightforward drama that's just done very well. Technology plays an interesting role. God, Joaquin, come back to us!

Dark Was The Night is the best possible compilation to match the musicscape of this year. Two good and doomed-to-be-underrated album to pick up: the new stuff by Say Hi and Gun Outfit. Both albums are quality and involving.

MUSIC:

Wow, here goes nothing.

Anamanaguchi released their album. You can listen to the entire thing for free. I strongly recommend giving it a listen; it's incredible chip glory.

I'll start with Pitchfork. Damn guys, way to redesign your entire page while I was out. Their album reviews continued pouring out. They loved the new Wavves album. They gave props to the Bell Orchestre album, suggesting that the group doesn't belong to the easy Montreal baroque-pop classification. More props for Extra Golden. The Mirah album sounds quality. They compare Marissa Nadler's album to Antony, so I now HAVE to buy it. I'd never heard of Cymbals Eat Guitars, but they, too, are now a necessity. Naturally, Pitchfork loved the Dan Deacon album. They seem to like Swan Lake's effort, although they reserve some criticisms. And they were actually a little hard on the Lotus Plaza album, I'll need to see if that's deserved. Oh, and they give Fever Ray the love she deserves.

The way Pitchfork is doing its track reviews is going to take some getting used to, but it's more logical; they're doing three a day now. (All the better for me - less to sort through!) They also seem to be offering up fewer free downloads. (Commense tears!) But I'll highlight tracks they're streaming that I really enjoy. Working backwards: The Wavves track is excellent, super washed-out shouting, and makes me excited for the album. The new and hella-catchy Junior Boys track suggests rad new things from that upcoming album. And speaking of getting pumped for new albums, damn, the Dan Deacon track is epic. Speaking of epic, the Röyksopp/Robyn collab they're streaming is one of the most addictive tracks of the year, and the new Bat for Lashes single reminds me of Fever Ray in all the right ways.

On to Fader! I'll work backwards again. I already adored the previous Fabolous track, so no surprise that this new one being freeloaded rubs me the right way too. They're also freeloading an immensely danceable remix of a Juan Maclean track. Next, (earlier?) things slow down with some Kurt Vile courtesy of RCRD LBL. Their Chip tha Rapper freeload is fun.

Okay, time for Drowned in Sound. Hey, you guys redesigned too! Damn, at least Fader stayed the same. They like Fever Ray, they like the Bat for Lashes album, they like the new Jeffrey Lewis, and they identify oddly with the new Gallows.

Tiny Mixtapes didn't change their format. Victory! They sort of had a midlife crisis over, but liked, Fever Ray. They've got me all intrigued about Baja. They praise the new Bell Orchestre.

Discodust really surprised me! They normally have legit stuff, but while I was out, they kicked it up by a few hundred notches! The Maethelvin track is dreamy and gorgeous. Same goes triple for Daroc. Jesus, I really, really like Daroc. And if you still need to keep your dance party going, check out the new Numero# track. They like Parallels, and now, I do too; sort of a violent revival of 80s pop, but I'll take it. Speaking of the 80s, Tesla Boy nails the sound; very fun listen. And holy shit, holy shit, they label the Peacefire remix as an epic masterpiece, which made me skeptical, but holy shit!

HipHopDX has no redesigns either, phew, and they really dig Brother Ali's new album. They also give Dashah and K'naan some love.

Okay, that's music. Next up is big, though...

FILM

And first up:

Edward's SXSW Write-Up!

I'd love to gush about the fantastic panels I attended (Richard Linklater and Todd Haynes discussed Imitation of Life right in front of me!) but I will highlight some micro-reviews of the ten films I saw. (Not counting Eggshells, a screening of a "lost" Hooper film)

I Love You, Man
This is the era of the bromantic comedy, and "I Love You, Man" is right on time. The gags range from intellectual/theoretical funny (dealing with bromance) to the just absurd funny. The audience reacted strongly; this is a clever crowd-pleaser and it's a shitload of fun. Rudd and Segel are pitch-perfect, and although 75% of the movie is just Rudd failing to be cool, that doesn't really get old. The movie also delivers running gags in spades. Good stuff.

Creative Nonfiction
Well...
I will congratulate the filmmaker for her brave attitude, being nude on camera and honest in her introspection. But the quality, on all fronts, is just so low. The story is trite and rehashed and bland, and the style's been done. Nothing pulled me in. But I like the filmmaker and I hope she keeps at it.

Objectified
Man, I kinda wish I had seen Helvetica first. But this doc was solid. A little dry, sure, but a good balance of information and quirk, and hella thorough to boot. It's smart enough - sharp enough - to be required viewing for the general public, and the production values are also nice here.

Moon
FANTASTIC!
My only complaint: there's a huge twist sprung a mere twenty minutes in, so I cant tell anybody why this film is so great. But Rockwell is perfect. What a daring role! Mansell's score is haunting, especially during the "secret room" scene. And the gorgeous aesthetic they squeezed from traditional methods and a tiny budget... its inspiring. Ultimately, the film's smart, raw, and hits a universally affecting chord. Damn fine feature.

Alexander the Last
The ending strikes a weird chord (pie in face, perhaps?) but I liked it a lot. It's a spry, thorough, honest, and charismatic picture. Swanberg is a master of his genre, and it's evidently because of solid output like this.

Artois the Goat
Definitely fun, definitely funny, and very wel shot. I love locally grown cinema, and this is a TEXAS flick. (Dig the Wheatsville scene!) Most of the comedy comes in visual punchlines, and they're done well. On the whole, it's a bit uneven and lags a few times, but it's still entertaining.

Overbrook Brothers
Disclaimer: I saw this film from the very front row, neck craned and screen awkwardly wide, so my complaints should be taken with a grain of salt. But aside from a few brazenly goofy set pieces and a few interesting quirks, there's little here, and the emotional aspect of the movie is way undercooked.

Me and Orson Welles
Aesthetically, the picture did little for me; it's an era I'm ambivalent towards. But the casting is solid - the actor playing Welles is pitch-perfect - and Linklater keeps the movie sharp and clever. It's an interesting perspective on Welles with a rewarding play-within-a-play and a tight narrative undercurrent.

Observe and Report
Wow.
It was uneven and uncomfortable but it had moments of blissful comic genius. All of the movie's ready-made quoatables land in exactly the right places. ("Why would I blow up Chik-Fil-A? Chik-Fil-A is fucking delicious!") And the last five minutes, I mean, rarely does a film make my jaw drop, and this one did. Were the emotional scenes hollow, painfully necessary stepping stones for the plot? Yeah. But it's rad, quotable, outrageous fun nonetheless. I didn't think I'd want to see it again, but when it hits theatres, I will probably rethink that notion.

Make-out With Violence
You could easily dissect the elements of this film. There's Rushmore here, there's Donnie Darko, there's magical realism, there's Hughes teen melodrama. And the use of music as a crutch by young filmmakers gets frustrating.
But I straight-up loved this movie. It's sweet, it's sad, it's oddly funny, and it's got genuine emotion that comes from a very real place. It gets a little incomprehensible as it winds to a close, sure, but as a work of suburban tragedy-fantasy, that's really not a drawback. And although there really aren't many moments without music pounding in the background, the soundtrack kicks ass. So I will tell my friends about this movie, and I will champion it throughout the year.
Note: The website has both a good trailer and a free EP with five of the film's kickass songs. Check it.

Okay, now, other film news.

Where the Wild Things Are has a poster. And it is good. It is the reason I'm going to end up seeing Monsters vs. Aliens.

IFC's blogs have a staggering amount of content. The reviews of I Love You, Man seem unfairly mixed. The critics enjoyed Duplicity but with a few reservations. They had fun during The Great Buck Howard, mostly because of Malkovich. Hunger wowed just about everybody. Same with Observe and Report. IFC makes me feel guilty for missing Pontypool.

Oh /Film, how I've missed thee! Too much content to summarize, so I'll just mention highlights. Their Year One trailer is fun. They snipe Sorority Row the way it deserves to be sniped. And they know how much I miss Colbert, so they've even given me a Colbert/Gaiman snippet! They even talk Tolkien. And I'm a HUGE Park Chan-Wook fan, so I am grateful to /Film for their Thirst trailer, which (sans English) seems to be a vampire film... sweet.

WEIRD

One of the Transformers will walk with a cane.

If you needed a shoestring-budget norse epic backed by weepy melodramatic metal, well, today is your day. From "Heathen Films," no less!

Kill Bill, volumes one and two, in one take and one minute.

WORLD

Obama's FCC chief is pro-Net Neutrality.

I don't need a link for this because it's everywhere: AIG is getting its ass kicked for massive, unjustified bonuses, and damn it, it deserves it.

PERSONAL

As you can guess, March has been a wild and crazy month for me. As they say, it was in like a lion: early on, I idiotically spilled noodles on my laptop, and nearly lost 'im entirely. Luckily, he proved resilient; two weeks and a few days later, he was back in action.

The loss of laptop threw me for one hell of a loop; it made me realize how vital the internet is for survival in the modern American paradigm. It's crucial for finances, education, culture, entertainment... damn. So it's good to have it back. Once again, shout out to Happy Mac - true local business, and they fixed my laptop quickly while walking me through the details in a way I could understand.

SXSW was excellent and worth the financial input, even though it was sliced in half by this rough cold.

Oh, and a personal note: I've pre-leased an excellent little single apartment, and I'm very, very excited.

I'm taking the weekend off because there's enough editorial and week-in-review to spare in here. On Monday, the blog returns to its normal form.

Rock on.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 15
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 509
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, smelling like noodles but glad to be back.

HUhbuiashbua

2009-02-27T11:40:00.000-08:00

[This is as much as I finished before my drunken roommate demanded my presence on his escapades. I will update/complete this action tomorrow]

Missed the blog yesterday for various reasons; time to make up for that.

MUSIC:

Kanye's VH1 Storytellers airs tomorrow. It's going to be the best one ever.

I am in love with this Hauschka video! It's phenomenally orchestrated and exceptionally animated!

Tinted Windows could have just named themselves The Cheap Smashing Hanson Experience for funsies, in my opinion. Oh, and they make powerpop. Also strikingly gorgeous: the new Big Pink video.

RCRD LBL pulls its weight. The Other Girls is only streaming, but it's worth a listen. The Megaphonic Thrift sounds fantastic from these two tracks. Say Hi (formerly Say Hi To Your Mom) has a great MP3 on the site. It seems that his new album Oohs and Ahhs is releasing the same day as The Antlers release their album. Whose album will get purchased that album day? (Only one slot is open; Anamanaguchi's album is getting bought no matter WHAT else is released) Guess we'll have to wait and see.

FILM:

WEIRD:

This section has been lacking lately. Not like the world isn't still weird. So because I love you all so much, it's time to go through some BoingBoing archives.

Oh, and aside from BoingBoing, there's a great little video on /Film. Too much Short Circuit 2 footage, but stick through 'til the end.

Poster Boy kind of = my hero now.

WORLD:

February 25th, 2009

2009-02-25T14:59:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

Good day on Pitchfork. The new Cursive track is much fun. The DM Stith video is absolutely gorgeous. The Kanye live video, from his upcoming Storytellers show, kicks ass.

RCRD LBL's claim to "exclusivity" on their downloads of Paper may be highly dubious (a quick google search reveals the tracks available for download from several other blogs a week ago) but don't let that discourage you from seizing these kinda-2008-but-just-recently-topical gems.

Also on RCRD LBL, Hype Williams sound like what I think going to hell would sound like, and Rone's little electro popping sounds are very comfortable to slip into.

Hunstville just kind of feels intense at this point.

Kanye shares a bit of Kid Cudi.

FILM:

Via /Film, this (oldish?) awesome now-required-reading Vast Public Indifference blog tackles the gender issues in Pixar movies.

It's just an interview with Watchmen's science consultant, but I will take what I can get at this point. And predictably, Zack Snyder is gonna be one busy dude.

Samuel L. Jackson is going to be Nick Fury nine times. Rejoice!

WEIRD:

Kanye and Transformers do the advertising-dirty.

Via BoingBoing, a different kind of crayon art.

WORLD:

The New York Times reports that several states are considering an end to the death penalty for financial reasons. They also report on violent clashes in Somalia that have been claiming numerous lives.

PERSONAL:

Unexpected: one of the albums of 2008 getting the most play on my iTunes is 808s. Hmm.

I woke up feeling pretty nauseous, and it wrought havoc on my day. Here's hoping that tomorrow I'm feeling well enough to do all the crap I need to do.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 4
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 439
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, addicted to cocaine.

February 24th, 2009

2009-02-24T14:09:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

Slumberland is on a roll; the free single from Bricolage is some seriously fun stuff. They wisely draw on the "Since U Been Gone" spelling style to boot.

Wow... I'll let Pitchfork handle the backstory behind Staff Benda Bilili. The music is damn good to boot. Also on Pitchfork, a rad new video from Depeche Mode with a great sense of sick suspense. Apparently though, because it has a car in it, it is ripping off "Karma Police."

The Fader's freeload of Sonido del Principe is probably the straight-up coolest track I've heard all year so far. The Fader nails it: it's sweaty, danceable, gothic bliss. Young neo-neo-noir upstarts, if you're out there: take your inspiration from this track, please. I want to see a film that earns a soundtrack like this.

Discodust brings the goods. Epic german-ish house from Fakebeat, and the Marina and the Diamonds MP3 is what will be stuck in my head for the rest of the damn year. (Doesn't hurt that she's hella crushworthy) So yeah, blend of baroque and ecstasy tablets: just what I expect from Discodust.

FILM:

So far, everybody likes Watchmen a lot. Anecdote: [Warning: I try and avoid spoilers, but if you're good at inference and haven't read the graphic novel, skip this] I told my friend that of the entire film, I had one expectation. There's a line spoken by Rorschach near the end of the graphic novel. To avoid spoilers but clue in fans, I'll say that it's spoken to Dr. Manhattan right before something crucial happens. For me personally, that's the defining moment of the graphic novel - the moment that haunts me, brings tears to my eyes, the moment that elevates Watchmen from great to essential. As long as they do that moment justice, I don't care WHAT Snyder does to the rest of the picture. Well, that friend went to an advance screening, and he's assured me, wide grin on his face, that they did it right. That's all I need to get excited for this film.

Yeah... yeah, I just reread the ending out of necessity, and cried a little.

Yeah.

Anyway.

If you like films based on board games, it's time to get excited. Ish? I already know a few diehard fans of the original live-action Clue, and I don't know if the film will benefit from overly complicated and vague revisionist mythos.

God, the slow trickle of adorable/fun casting reveals from Scott Pilgrim is one of my favorite things about 2009 so far, no exaggeration.

Make no mistake: I don't give a damn about the Dragonball movie. (True fans of japanese animation are all holding out for the Blu-Realistic Akira restoration) No, I'm posting this story for one of its comments, a very strong contender for best non sequitr comment of 2009: "The second picture down looks like he just got slapped in the face with a fish..." Bravo, SR. Bravo.

I need to read more film blogs. With IFC scaled down and AICN frequently tangential, I wind up mostly posting my favorite /Film stories. Not nearly broad enough. RottenTomatoes doesn't help, because they're basically in the same predicament as I am.

WEIRD:

Paste explains all the ways Kenny has died. Prepare to giggle, if you think being run over by the Fonz's motorcycle is giggle-worthy.

WORLD:

The New York Times reports on Obama's promise to rebuild.

PERSONAL:

Try inserting Madea into other movie titles. My friends and I have been hooked on it for days; we call it Madeafest. Examples: Full Madea Jacket, No Country For Old Madea, He's Just Not That Into Madea.

Keeping myself busy is where it's at. Gotta learn from hip hop and apply the rap ethic to my films; gotta work hard and put the hours in. Drake said it best: "I'm not perfect, but I work hard and I deserve it."

Also, Chamillionaire is one hell of a grower.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 4
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 431
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, addicted to bandwidth.

February 23rd, 2009

2009-02-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

As has probably been noticed, there was no content over the weekend; no week in review or editorial. There's enough non-2009 stuff I'm writing essays about that I just don't have the time to analyze my week right now. I will try and do something special at the end of the month.

MUSIC:

The new Pheonix MP3 surprises me with its rhythm, which I like. It's also a shit-fun dance bit.

Vampire Weekend + Miike Snow evidently = massive giddy fun.

Once again, The Lipster provides DiS with a singles rundown. They're spot on with Lissy Trullie, and the Glasvegas video is ace, but I'm not so in love with the new Yeah Yeah Yeahs single.

If you aren't up on the whole Last.fm debacle, an unsourced article was claiming that Last.fm gave all its info to the RIAA. Apparently, the article was a sham, and not only is Last.fm innocent, it's handling the whole thing pretty well.

Pavement = back together? Lost Beatles tape = surface? Dying now = acceptable?

Fader says this best: "Jamaican Government Bans Jamaican Music on Jamaican Radio (Basically)"

FILM:

Slumdog won big, y'all.

AICN has a new Watchmen clip. Cue feverish debate.

If you missed the Oscars, don't stress. /Film hooks you up with the Pineapple Express bit and some of the good speeches, significant in that order. I would recommend youtubing both wins for Milk. They're both very special.

Agora looks fun.

WEIRD:

Oh Seacrest, when haven't you been a piece of crap? Also from /Film, David Lynch is great.

WORLD:

The BBC reports on North Korea's plans to launch a satellite.

PERSONAL:

Today has been a really good day! I got pretty minimal sleep last night, but I felt pretty good all day; now I just need to know enough not to attempt repeating the trick.

Oh, and I'm upping the .5 of a film to a film, because I read Soderbergh saying it was standalone.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 4
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 426
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, enjoying all the movie title puns.

February 18th through February 20th, 2009

2009-02-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

Okay people, we've got some ground to cover.

MUSIC:

HOLY SHIT, I'll bump down my N.A.S.A. rant for this: Anamanaguchi, my absolute favorite 8bit group, got coverage on Pitchfork, and has a proper LP coming soon - like, a couple of goddamn weeks soon! The best news? The song kicks serious ass. If you don't buy their EP/T-shirt bundle, you, sir or madam, are a fool.

Okay, time to come down from the high and tackle the low:

Pitchfork is equal parts music webzine and twisting-knife-in-gut, so I'm not particularly surprised at their abysmally low score for N.A.S.A.'s Spirit of Apollo album. Honestly, the review and score seem at odds; records have suffered far sharper textual barbs and come out in the 3.0-4.5 range, and I'm not a big fan of using a score to stir controversy - if your review isn't valuable enough on its own to warrant the internet's attention, people will know it, and your exaggerated score comes off as cheap and exploitative. Well, reviewer Tom Breihan seems like kind of a prick anyway, albeit an honest one. A fun Ryan Dombal speculative-silliness chaser should do you just fine.

Or you could just take solace in some of Pitchfork's free MP3s. Swan Lake's MP3 is definitely quality, pointing to a really good album. Then, the Friendly Fires/Air France pairing here seems destined to be one of my favorite songs of the year, without hesitation - a sparse, oscillating take on a brilliantly executed pop song? Come on, what more do you need? Oh, if it's an anthem you need, Ladytron/Great Northern will hook you up.

Speaking of MP3s, RCRD LBL has been quite industrious. A rad kudoro-via-Hot-Chip MP3, and their Sholi track is really quite good as well. But clear and away, the best tracks on the site are by The Antlers (I was sucked in by the Vanderslice comparison) and sweet lord, this is good. Album comes out March 3rd... Great Album Day #2, anybody?

That kickass dance video was evidently just a prelude to a badass week on Fader. The Trey Songz track glistens with sheen and bright melodies. Then, they look on as "My President is Black" gets nerdily and awesome-ly dissected.

Leonard Cohen is touring. Hot damn!

Don't know who to link to here, because this was very word-of-mouth, what-am-I-missing-out-on websurfing (I guess RapReviews namechecked it, my search may've started there) but I just found out about Drake's "So Far Gone" mixtape and it's really solid. Spacey production, gooey vocals, a restrained aesthetic, and those shiny names after the abbreviated 'ft.' I mean, when you're with Young Money, I guess you're kinda blessed in more ways than one, yeah?

Rufus Wainwright is a fun person to follow.

TMT reports on a band paying you to download their album; the ploy, as my beloved mixtape lovers point out, is about 3% as clever and meaningful as it sounds.

New St. Vincent album! You can start swooning now.

Hanson / Smashing Pumpkins is no longer just the weirdest mashup on your iTunes bootleg playlist; there's kind of a band with members from both now.

FILM:

I really, really like Edgar Wright.

The Funny People trailer looks somewhat promising, although that could just be my massive man-crush on Schwartzman talking.

I want a Metal Gear Solid movie, and if Watchmen does well, it may friggin' happen!

Also on Collider, a convenient list of all those Watchmen clips floating about. I'll hold my judgement.

Inglorious Basterds posters? Yes, please!

WEIRD:

Demetri Martin knows his palindromes.

The Wrestler's steroid dude got arrested because he had steroids. They're taking this "harmonic performance" thing way too far.

WORLD:

The New York Times reports on the role the U.S. is playing in Pakistan's internal crisis; specifically, our covert attacks on militant rebels.

The BBC reports on Secretary Clinton's attempts deepen relations with China.

PERSONAL:

It has been a wild week. This semester is far more demanding, creative, and messy than the last; in short, it's far more fun.

Wendy and Lucy tomorrow/today! At last!

2009 FILMS SEEN: 2.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 402
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, exhausted from so much blogging.

February 17th, 2009

2009-02-17T17:42:00.000-08:00

No reviews yet. That takes a lot of time, you see.

Wow, I missed less than I thought. Still, there's some good stuff here!

MUSIC:

Pitchfork has a good rundown on the up-to-date details of the Pirate Bay's trial. Also on Pitchfork, a new Kanye video, a great track by Deradoorian of the Dirty Projectors, a stream off the forthcoming Decemberists rock opera, and an intriguing video for Fever Ray.

Fader's freeload of "This Ain't" is some quotable stuff! If that's not enough ain't for you, Jeezy will freeload you up. Oh, and Gui Boratto's bit is, well, aptly tired.

Kanye keeps whetting my gaping appetite for new Mos Def.

FILM:

New Watchmen clips. Honestly, the soundtrack isn't quite clicking for me, but everything else looks pretty good. AICN says it's awesome, though!

The Johnny Quest movie will suck.

Akira is being restored to incredible hi-def! If you have a Blu-Ray player, this is a must-purchase.

IFC makes me really want to see Pink.

WEIRD:

When The Fray covers an electro-pop single by one of the era's premiere hip hop musicians, it does not go in the music section. It goes in the weird section. (scroll down a ways)

Colbert knows his spiritual shit.

Perfect in every way faux-trailer mixes F13 with Aronofsky and finds amazing results.

100 days. 100 dances. 'Nuff said.

WORLD:

The New York Times reports a shartp increase in civilian deaths in Afghanistan during 2008.

PERSONAL:

I am juggling quite a bit of activity right now. It's rough, but manageable.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 2.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 375
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, overheating with busy-ness.

Update

2009-02-15T21:08:00.000-08:00

Hate to be sketch, but I will review the week tomorrow. In the last half hour, everything has fallen to shit. (Lost my debit card, bought the wrong Tylenol which I can't take and it's too late to go back for it, still have that god damned German essay to write, etc.)

See you then.

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE:

Today I realized I have a quiz tomorrow. I will do the best I can here guys, and I will remember to never, ever take 15 hours again.

February 15th, 2009: Saturday Editorial

2009-02-14T23:15:00.000-08:00

Let's get straight to the editorial!

EDITORIAL:

I feel that if older generations are going to grasp the mentality of young, politically active people my age, there's so much they've got to take into account, and not small among those factors is this overriding fact: we grew up politically while under the jurisdiction of the Bush administration.
That means a few things. Most obviously and most crucially, we're less offended by government corruption than we probably ought to be. As far back as we can really recall, that's just how it's done. We know it's bad, sure, but we already hated Bush (see: 1000 lame "Bushism" collections, partisanship) and if you have a bad President, that's the sort of stuff he does. Torturing people with neither justification nor accountability is just one bullet on a list of bad stuff including mispronunciation and rudeness.
I'm obviously exaggerating (although probably less than you're assuming) but it's a frightening phenomenon when deception is seen as the proper order. It's that kind of tacit acceptance that feeds into the bizarre ideology that the government, any government, is some institution from which we are alienated. That's a baffling ideology. It's a flawed system, but there are countless ways to access the power structures that dominate us, which, in the great scheme of history, is an exciting political development. The government ought to be taken for what it really is: a group of citizens who we've appointed to set down rules as we see fit.
I guess it's just startling that so many people assume the government is hopelessly broken, when they've yet to make a single phone call to their representatives.
Going back to my earlier train of thought: For those older folk who don't grasp why Obama is so appealing to our generation's politically active youth, it has a lot to do with the contrast. We're just now old enough to vote, and our votes already made an impact, and now we feel that our President is accessible to us. It's like we lucked out; we not only got the right to vote and get the hell out of high school, but we suddenly have a government we can really work with.
Is that really so sudden? If we had really, genuinely tried to change things through and with government institutions, would we have been shut down? I'm not sure. But if a hero-myth constructed around an intelligent and sincere man is what we need to wake ourselves up and get to work, I'll take it.

PERSONAL:

Blargh agh augh, I am coughing a lot.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 2.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 359
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, annoyed about being coughed upon..

February 13th, 2009

2009-02-13T11:51:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

Yep, DiS is dating Emmy.

Good day on Pitchfork! I've been repeating the Japandroids MP3 on a loop for a while now, so it's really, really good to hear that their debut album is coming soon. Here We Go Magic has a rad little video to fit their rad little song. There's a fun Papercuts MP3. (Feel free to ignore the vaguely interesting discussion tacked on) There's a Titus Andronicus mini-doc of sorts, and Jesus, this band is watchable as hell, so give the doc at least a few minutes. Cymbals Eat Guitars have a compellingly good MP3... maybe I will purchase their album? Oh, and the Extra Golden track is ace.

February is Dilla Month. I'm cool with that if you guys are too.

I'm not posting this in the Weird section because it oughtn't be taken humorously: Chris Brown is, according to his Facebook, super innocent because we'll "start to see her true colors." ...You hospitalized your girlfriend, dude. No excuses.

RCRD LBL interviewed Hegarty! What a great excuse to listen to the album again...

There were a few more goodies on RCRD LBL. The Fitz track is ace, very neo-soul in a good way. Oh, and for anybody who loves The Very Best as much as I do, seeing a Radioclit mix of anything (in this case, Architecture in Helsinki) is very important.

FILM:

The Tales of the Black Freighter trailer is out. (Tales of the Black Freighter = Watchmen's comic-within-a-comic) As I predicted, it looks like shit. Notice the ominous MTV-exclusivity. For some reason, Harry Knowles likes it.

But I'm not full of hate for AICN, because although Capone likes The Pig (the Academy-nominated short I detested) he's pretty much dead-on in his rundown of the program. And he's dead-on about seeing it - if the Academy-nominated shorts program is running in your city (Austinites: That's you!) then you owe it to yourself to see it. It's so rare to see shorts screened these days; with shorts of this spectacular calibur, it's a no-brainer.

Anyway, if you need to wash that Black Freighter taste from your mouth, there's new Watchmen material. And yeah, unmasked Rorschach is pitch-perfect.

Michael Bay is at it again. New handycam-style Transformers trailer; get it while it exists.

Yeah... and... well, there's no way to say this that's funnier than the story itself: They're making a Stretch Armstrong movie.

Jesus? Jesus, if you're real, please, use your magic powers and let Schwartzmann be in Scott Pilgrim!

Speaking of films I am desperate to see, doesn't Gomorrah just kick ass?

WEIRD:

Man... I got nothin'. I guess Charles Hamilton's got me covered?

WORLD:

The New York times reports that the stimulus package will rein in Wall Street pay.

PERSONAL:

A lot of mixtapes to listen to. Jada's new stuff, Chamillionaire's mixtape finally arrived, and Hamilton's just dropped. So far they're all pretty rad.

I saw The International this evening! Definitely worth the long bus ride; I won't spoil Sunday's review, but all I need to say is that (despite cosmetic differences) this fits snugly in Tykwer's ouvre.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 2.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 359
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, pooped out.

February 12th, 2009

2009-02-12T15:41:00.000-08:00

I can barely even call this a news day in the first place. At the head of this here, I'm going to pimp out Kiva. It's a rad service where you supply microloans to developing nations. It's almost always profitable, albeit slightly, and it helps people develop their businesses... it's good stuff. Feel good, get money. C'mon!

MUSIC:

Not too impressed on RCRD LBL today, although the East Hundred MP3 is really quality.

New Estelle! Ever since seeing her live, I've been madly in love. Doesn't disappoint. Kanye's blog offers lots of other goodies; there's Jada's new mixtape (the link is all messed up, here's the accurate one), there's new Busta Rhymes... Thank heavens for Kanye's blog.

Because aside from that and the good King Khan news, that's pretty much it. It has been a slow, slow music day.

FILM:

SXSW has some new additions in the form of 500 Days of Summer and Treevenge.

Is it just me, or is the Scott Pilgrim casting very wonderful?

If you care enough about G.I. Joe to go all Transformers-hype and analyze the action figures, I have a link for you. Everybody else, well, the link's still for you, since you can scoff freely at the whole "toys as trailers" phenomenon.

WEIRD:

Everybody's talking about this Pheonix/Letterman thing. It's as uncomfortable as an episode of the British Office, but it's, like, real an' stuff. UPDATE: Link may not work; CBS is trying desperately to pull it, but just look around and clips are easy to find. If he has a crazy-man beard, you're in the right place.

There's a promotional "old-school" Watchmen video game.

Starship child-protectors?

WORLD:

The New York Times reports that Pakistan is backtracking on its connection to the Mumbai attacks.

PERSONAL:

Today was a peculiar mix of great and bad. I slept in a bit, too exhausted for work, and when I woke up, a ray of sun was basically caressing me. It was wonderful. And the weather here in Austin- Divine! T-shirt weather again at last. Throw in some candid conversations with rad professors and a great episode of Lost, and it explains why I was able to bounce back from the SXSW rejection e-mail. I'm not angry; it's not personal.

Jada's new mixtape is pretty raw, in the good way, not gonna lie.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 324
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, comfortable.

February 11th, 2009

2009-02-11T14:21:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

Have fun getting used to this: Santogold is now Santigold.

I missed a crapload of other content over on Pitchfork during my impromptu day off. Working backwards Memento-style, there's a blissful acoustic version of Take On Me, another reason to get into Jeremy Jay, an addictive swooning and syncopated bit from Charles Hamilton, hardcore Palmtree Family melancholy and hardcore Sufjan Stevens-blessed joy, some psychotic neurotic rambling from Cage, and possibly best of all, a seriously wonderful anthemic bit from The Thermals.

There's the usual assortment of gemstones and garbage on RCRD LBL. The really good stuff? For starters, I can't get enough of this Boy in Static track. (Not too in love with the remix, though) The Shadow Dancer stuff is pretty rad. So is the Pterodactyl stuff. Of the Demo Days feature, I recommend Jason Brooks and the Uptown Sound, and Action Painters.

Coathangers want you to stop stomping around.

FILM:

Nolan's got a new, not-Batman project. It's called Inception and has me excited.

New Inglourious Basterds trailer out. If you don't know, it's the next Tarantino film. Cannot describe the awesome. See it for yourself.

Goodbye Solo looks very sweet and thoughtful.

Spielberg wants to make his Lincoln biopic by December. Color me intrigued!

The new Nightmare on Elm Street will not come out this year.

Greta Gerwig is going all non-mumblecore on our asses.

WEIRD:

If you make the peanuts, you'd better fuckin' eat those peanuts.

I feel like this is the best thing I've ever seen.

Sweet lord, this post inspires me to dream of a Kanye/Radiohead collab. (Kanyediohead?)

WORLD:

The New York Times reports on the newly agreed upon stimulus plan.

PERSONAL:

I love this city. Austin's a fantastic place. Just putting that out there.

Anyway, things have been a little hectic, a little busy, but I've been taking it on piece by piece and managing just fine. Anyway, busy with film work- that's my future, right?

If you're wondering why my iTunes count went up so slightly, despite the shit-ton of MP3s I linked to today, it's because a few songs I downloaded (but didn't like enough to post here) were lurking on my 2009 playlist, so I hunted them down and deleted them. That is all.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 303
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, swampy.

February 9.5th, 2009

2009-02-10T21:06:00.000-08:00

Too much shit went down to get into. Suffice it to say, I need a night off. I will update two days' worth tomorrow, plus a surprise bonus feature.

February 9th, 2009

2009-02-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

One hell of a slow news day.

MUSIC:

The new Camera Obscura MP3 that's been floating around hits me in all the right indie pop ways: a piano that sounds like it's in a room the size of a mansion, vocals that sound like they're sung through a wall of sugar, and an ornate little melody/rhythm set.

The Boy Least Likely To has an adorable little track streaming on Pitchfork. Also on Pitchfork, a deliciously baroque morsel of live Beirut and some good ol' Lonely Island fun. Oh, and if you missed the Grammys, they've got the hookup, plus some goofy superlatives.

Is DiS, like, dating Emmy the Great?

The Grammys were pretty much what you expected.

FILM:

On the Austin front, Wendy and Lucy is screening at the Drafthouse! Hard to describe just how excited I am for this.

Oh /Film, you always hook me up with a Watchmen fix.

WEIRD:

Chris Brown is in some deep shit.

WORLD:

The BBC reports on the new Bolivian constitution.

A suicide bomber in Sri Lanka killed 28, the New York Times reports.

PERSONAL:

Remember how my room was frigid? Yeah, now it's stale and warm. Thanks, Jester West!

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 298
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, muggy.

February 6th, 2009 / February 8th, 2009: The Week in Literal Review

2009-02-08T18:05:00.000-08:00

Here's that Friday action, plus a few weekend developments.

MUSIC:

On RCRD LBL, a little atmospheric angst from DJ Hell (far less intense than it sounds).

Fader's also got some fun freeloads. Miss Banks can kick a pretty rad verse, she's refreshingly rude, and rapping over Ladytron is pretty excellent regardless. Then, I usually won't bring up non-2009 music on this blog, but when it's brilliant proto-punk left unjustly unreleased, and the freeload comes with news of a forthcoming release, you set the rules aside.

Hey Morrissey please play at my birthday party?

The video for PB&J's "Nothing to Worry About" somehow out-weirds their current train of brilliant weirdness. I literally cannot estimate what's next for them.

This Kanye blog post brings us one step closer to the incredible Kanye/Passion Pit collaboration I always hear in my dreams.

FILM:

Incredible films sound incredible.

/Film saw, and enjoyed, a portion of Up!. They saw, and didn't enjoy, Push. They also report on some disconcerting trends that point to a less meaningful Academy Awards recommendation.

AICN gives Chocolate a hearty endorsement. And Capone gives The Class some love! Word, man!

Christian Bale apologized. Can we please move on now? Y'know, to cinema an' stuff?

Dreamworks and Universal are breaking up.

Oh sweet Jesus, let the Inglourious Basterds trailer rumor be true!

Oh Watchmen details, you know how to please me.

Observe and Report gets all redbandy.

WEIRD:

I'm not the biggest fan of Fox, but their Abba-covers-for-Putin story is undeniably premium weird.

Weezy seems to be taking up a permanent residence in the Weird section. He does deliver a mean top ten.

WORLD:

As Democracy Now reports, Obama has signed the long-awaited child health insurance program that taxes cigarettes, and under his executive order, the last Gitmo trial was shut down.

Now, it's time to review some week.

Most Interesting, Music:

Pitchfork de-snobs a bit, giving Viva la Vida some love and sticking up for bands with visible influences.

Most Interesting, Film:

I really can't not give it to the Bale fiasco.

Weirdest:

It was a weird week, but Badu takes the friggin' cake with her birth-twittering antics.

Biggest World Event:

The violence in Sri Lanka warrants the world's attention.

Reviews

Franz Ferdinand, Tonight
Much ado about the archduke! I feel like the buzz here is, on both ends, unwarranted. The people heralding Tonight as a masterpiece are getting far too excited, and the people slamming it as a misstep could be accused of the same. If you take off the rose-colored headphones and respect their debut and sophomore albums as what they really are, Tonight reveals itself as a great album by a consistent outfit.
Franz Ferdinand are at their best when they're at their least pompous (a trait which made You Could Have It So Much Better a problem-listen for me) and they keep their proselitizing to the minimums present on their debut - they keep a few "Jacqueline"-style jabs at masculinity (See: "No You Girls Never Know") and a few "Auf Achse"-style melodramatic rushes (See: "Live Alone") and the requisite "holy shit, they're allowed to do that?" moment. (See: the electronic breakdown madness of "Lucid Dreams")
This is not going to be the album of the year. This is not Earth-shattering. What it is, though, is solid, quality music. Maybe it isn't going to define your days like their debut did, back in 2004 when it blindsided you from out of nowhere. But this release is, if a little less tight, made of the same stuff, and deserves the same respect. Franz Ferdinand are always at their best when bending strong melodies through sharp, arch song structures, and in this regard, Tonight doesn't disappoint.

Matt & Kim, Grand
I read, in some sort of interview or other, that this duo spent what they considered an inordinate amount of time on the album, and that they were awarded perhaps too much freedom. Under these conditions, a band tends to have a great opportunity of finding their identity, and we can be glad about what they keep from before - sunny bliss - but even more excited about what their new sound suggests - a kean sense of lyrical introspection.
That introspection may not reveal anything shocking - you get the anthemic hipster chanting of "Don't Slow Down" and the bare emotion in "Spare Change" - but it suits the music perfectly, and the two components gel into perfect proportion.
This is perfect music for mornings, frankly. It's the perfect music to get up, get moving, and get on with a productive day. In some ways, this association limits the album's range. Unlike broader albums, this is a record for a very particular state of mind, which hinders it's turnability. But since when is specificity bad? And anyway, if you've got the blues, just pick up Hegarty or Fever Ray (or hell, the blues?) to do the work for you.
Overall, it's a solid effort that takes a band pointed purely towards freakout-dance giddiness and suggests a more insightful exploration of the sun.

Personal

It's been a hell of a week. I've caught up on sleep this weekend, and I'm ready for another hell of a week.

I'm watching the Grammys at my sister's friend's apartment. There've been ups, downs, and a few WTFs. The rap pack was pretty premium.

SXSW... hit me up, guys.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 297
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, jittering with anticipation.

Saturday Post, sort of downgraded

2009-02-07T21:45:00.000-08:00

I know I keep denying you guys the Friday action, but I am at the home of my friend Ayla, and I do not want to clutter her bookmarks with my absurd number of music blogs. I will mention, however, that the new Pains of Being Pure at Heart album (first Pains of Being Pure at Heart album?) is rad as fuck. Ignore the messy faux-controversy; influences are influences, good music is good music, and bottomline, the album's worth the money and time.

Editorial

As promised, it's time for my Imitation of Life editorial. If you had told me, as I walked out of the mandatory class screening, that I would be thinking for more than ten minutes about the film, I would have responded in utter disbelief. When the credits rolled, I felt robbed. I had heard 'masterpiece,' 'subversive,' and 'brilliant' thrown around, but I had just watched - to the best of my knowledge - a sordid, drawn-out soap opera.
Then I read the assigned essays. Read about Sirk's opinions, read about the context, read about all the little details I'd missed, or rather, not enough to notice. Suddenly, I was seeing a wholly different picture. Structurally, this flick was friggin' impenetrable. Sure, for a good long while, it's just the hackneyed narrative of a woman sacrificing it all to make it big in show business, etc. etc., the standard genre fantasy through which millions could vicariously live. But that which, at the time, felt an awkward diversion (the Sarah Jane subplot) is actually a brilliant narrative-collapsing stab at the genre in which he was working.
If that sounds kind of complicated, it is. Let me sum up the film for you thus: Lora, young white single mother, wants to be an actress. Annie, a black woman, moves in with Lora to become a nanny for Lora's daughter, Suzie. Annie brings along her daughter, Sarah Jane, who is strikingly light-skinned and wishes she was white. For a good long while, the movie follows Lora's predictable trajectory: she falls in love, sacrifices that love and her family for her career, and then, once at the top, realizes she misses what she's left behind. Like I said, hackneyed.
Meanwhile, though, Sarah Jane grows into a teenaged rebel, despising her mother, hiding her black heritage, fleeing from city to city and working seedy showgirl jobs. Only at her mother's death does she return home, weeping and repenting for her lies.
The subversion, then, lies in the peculiar mirror image the movie forms, a mirror with which Sirk freely plays. Both Lora and Sarah Jane perform the titular imitation, but while Lora's career is one of classy success, Sarah Jane is relegated to the slums, performing in night clubs, forced by ethnicity into seclusion. Ultimately, though, Sarah Jane's real performance - her role as a white woman - is a great success: when she runs to her mother's casket, nobody believes Sarah Jane. Nobody believes she's black.
So yeah, structurally, impenetrable. It's a genius sort of back-and-forth. But it's easy - painfully, painfully easy - to miss. The dialogue is wretched. It's the sort of dialogue that comes off as wooden by design. And the pacing, well, we won't get into that. At the time, perhaps these were just forgiveable tropes, but in 2009, they make the movie almost impossible to appreciate.
So how do we react to this movie? Simply relenting with our "respect" seems insufficient for a movie this devilishly subversive, but time has not been kind here, and without the proper context, its subtleties are lost entirely.
I guess, then, a lament is proper. To the film scholars, and to aspiring filmmakers, it will live on as an inspirational achievement, but to those who lack the time to spend appreciating such buried treasures, it's lost entirely. And that's something truly worth being upset about.

PERSONAL:

I am a super busy hero.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: ???
Current Computer Situation: Ayla's PC.

Heads Up

2009-02-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

No post today; I'm going to see the Academy-nominated shorts screened on South Lamar. If I post before I go, I will miss a big part of the day's entertainment news, and if I post after, well, I'll turn into a sleepless, witless zombie. I'll incorporate Friday news into the Saturday post.

February 5th, 2009

2009-02-05T08:21:00.001-08:00

MUSIC:

RCRD LBL has some good stuff today! The Telekenesis song is one of my favorite singles of 2009 so far, especially for a band I've never heard of 'til now. It's sunny, fresh, and quick.

I was going to post this Couric/Weezy interview in the Weird section, but Lil Wayne has some interesting things to say that outweigh Couric's sheer weirdness.

Young Chris embraces the technology of the era and leaves a spot on his track open for whoever wants to spit.

Also on Fader, a slick new Big Boi freeload and a sweet Julie Doiron gem.

The Mos Def on Kanye's blog kind of, well, defines "swagger" in the best way possible.

Pitchfork sticks up for Of Montreal.

The eternally rad TMT reports on the Performance Rights Act.

FILM:

SXSW watch is in full effect. Best Worst Movie has a trailer that goes on way too long, (and which, according to in-the-know-friend Brett, is older than stone henge) but it still looks funny. Plus, Drafthouse love? Hell yeah.

Another Dragonball trailer, another bitter dissappointment. It gets a point for ending on a screamed "Kamehameha!" which puts it at, well, one point. Oh, and new content for this shit movie too; I guess these movies are friends now? I could see it.

In an alternate universe, Fincher made a badass Spiderman film.

WEIRD:

Slash brings us a hilarious Lost tribute video. Spoilers galore, but fans of the show, trust me- this is funny stuff.

50, Boss, stop your hating! Oh dear, The Game has even stepped in.

IFC has a fun feature on the conversion of non-fiction books to fiction flicks.

WORLD:

Sri Lanka's government continues to refuse a truce, the New York Times reports; according to Democracy Now, Sri Lanka's last functioning hospital has closed.

PERSONAL:

Babysitting is some hard shit, guys. I babysat the two little kids again, the sons of a lady who works at the department. Last time was just an hour and a half; this time was three full hours, and lucrative though it was (it is nice to have thirty-six dollars in your pocket) it was some exhausting stuff. Rewarding, though - kids are the coolest G's, for real.

I find myself warming to "Blame It" on the level of its peculiar endurance on my playlists.

Still in the running for SXSW. If I don't make it, beware: this blog might go through a week of posts consisting of stream-of-consciousness ranting and Leonard Cohen lyrics that are about my life, man.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 269
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, a little bit anxious.

February 4th, 2009

2009-02-04T08:47:00.001-08:00

MUSIC:

The new Speech Debelle on Pitchfork is equal parts catchy and smart; check it out. Also on Pitchfork, a sweet song and a nice video from Cut Off Your Hands. Oh, and the Gospel Gossip track kicks major ass.

Over on RCRD LBL, there's the rad opener from Iran's much-anticipated forthcoming, some holy-shit-time-to-download-this-album quality MP3s from the Phantom Band (you can buy their album digitally here, I recommend doing so immediately), more of those delicious Lemonade remixes, . Of their Demo feature, the music I see fit to download is the stuff by... well, by all of them. It's all really good shit. (Especially Lesser Panda - can you guys just release the Cure's next few records, please?) Damn it, RCRD LBL, this is too many songs to digest in one day! Spread this quality out!

I was joking before, but at the rate Kanye is leaking these tracks, I really might have the entire N.A.S.A. album by the time it drops. Also on Kanye's blog, support for Ma Dukes (J Dilla's mother).

I really respect Pitchfork on this one, sort of the anti-NME: they give Viva La Vida the respect it deserves, and they aren't all smiles and handjobs over Doherty.

FILM:

S. Darko is going straight to DVD. The movie gods do exist!

I'm not sure if this qualifies as film news, but my all-time favorite MST3k episode, Soultaker, is coming to DVD!

Fun new Watchmen viral bit.

So much SXSW analysis! Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo looks really friggin' good.

WEIRD:

The Lonely Island are on a boat. So is T-Pain, evidently.

Rick Ross isn't bad at retaliating, he's just a minimalist, I guess. Seriously, is he trying to look like a moron?

WORLD:

As the New York Times reports, Obama is calling for an executive pay cap.

The Times Online reports on UN accusations that Hamas is stealing supplies. The Times also reports on Obama's efforts towards nonproliferation with Russia.

The BBC reports on the softening of a clause of the U.S. stimulus package that entails buying American.

PERSONAL:

If news is a little scant today, it's due to some other projects; I'll pick up the slack tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, I'll be doing some babysitting! Exciting, a little nerve-wracking but exciting.

Speaking of nerve-wracking, my SXSW short doc is still in the running, so I am on the edge of my seat. This has got me terrified.

Oh, and that album by the Shadow Band? Incredible. Really, truly fantastic. Worth a purchase.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 265
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, a little bit warm.

February 3rd, 2009

2009-02-03T13:47:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

In my Jazz Appreciation class, we've been covering a lot of the roots - pre-Blues, field holler, that. So to hear that a band was inspired by the collections of Alan Lomax definitely catches my attention. It doesn't hurt that Bruce Peninsula's call-and-response intensity really works. Stream it on Pitchfork, then buy the MP3s.

Also on Pitchfork, a cool Black Dice MP3. After that, well, delicate indie pop is my greatest weakness, and Jean on Jean exploits me like I'm a Miss America contestant.

Today on RCRD LBL, a surging and wild song from Mi Ami, a splattering of electro courtesy remixes of Lemonade, and some very pretty Swedish stuff by Gustaf Spetz.

Holy crap, I had never heard of Felix Cartal before, but Discodust makes me want to accept him as my new god. It's tempting to say this is a Justice knockoff, but that's misguided; it's got the same obvious root in Daft Punk but it takes it in a whole 'nother direction; noise is used less as perverse melody and more as repetitious, building chaos. I'll gladly take either.

FILM:

/Film has a cool Annie Leibovitz photoset.

They also have a shitload of SXSW trailers on the pipeline! It's time for me to get pumped. So far, there's the expected loaded-ensemble mumblecore flick, Sorry, Thanks, which looks amusing. Breaking Upwards looks nice too, a little Garden-State-y, which is a-ok.

Carpenter's on something new!

WEIRD:

Apparently this is the Drama edition of the Weird section.

Damage control? Check. Phoned-in T-Shirt? Check. Weird youtube video? Check. (By the Mae Shi? Really?) Sigh... I guess we're doing this now, huh. Keep your eyes peeled for the SNL sketch, the belated puns, and the people who still care about this in any capacity a week from today - those people being the Waldos of this situation. Oh, and people who don't understand what a film set is actually like, having only watched blooper reels? Check. (To be fair... after a few listens, the Mae Shi track is really clever. I admit, I downloaded the MP3)

Oh, and speaking of drama, 50 and Ross are still at it.

Not to be outdone, the writers are striking back with the actors and the rappers (no, not you, Joaquin Pheonix) with author drama of their own: Stephen King doesn't like the author of Twilight. Drama month, anybody? It will be a lonely Valentine's Day for the entertainment industry.

WORLD:

The New York Times reports that Obama intends to enable diplomacy with Iran while tightening sanctions. Obama is also, according to the BBC, making efforts to revise his cabinet selections.

Also from the BBC, Sri Lanka's president has gone on the record claiming that the conflict with the Tamil Tigers will be over within days.

PERSONAL:

I've been doing a lot of thinking about the Sirk film we watched for class, Imitation of Life. After reading more about it, and thinking about it outside the context of an auditorium of jeering students, I'm coming to, well... adore it. The dialogue, the pacing, both are terrible, but embedded in there is kind of a pre-mumblecore refutation of everything mumblecore is about. I dunno... expect this to be my Saturday editorial.

Otherwise, it's busy time for me. Lots of class work to juggle.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 226
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, a little bit warm.

February 2nd, 2009

2009-02-02T08:38:00.000-08:00

Weirder Weird section than normal... weird.

MUSIC:

You know those moments when you realize a big screw-up you've made? Picture me today, whapping my forehead when I discovered RCRD LBL and wondered why I hadn't found it earlier. I'll be mentioning it daily hereafter. Today on RCRD LBL, a deliciously melodramatic bit from Blitz the Ambassador and a cute nature-infused bit by Twi the Humble Feather (available for purchase here).

New Raekwon! Ft. Ghostface and Method Man! Return to classic form! Nothing else need be said!

The new Lotus Plaza MP3 on Pitchfork (Lotus Plaza = guitarist from Deerhunter) is lush, gorgeous, and roughly organic.

Sweet Jesus, Weezy really never will quit. In his case, that's not a bad thing at all. Oh, and don't feel guilty for deleting opener "Prom Queen" from his mixtape - that's what we're all doing. But put "Filet Mignon" on repeat - it easily wins the Sex-Craziest Song of the Decade award. ("I wish I could f**k every girl in the world!" Wayne repeats ad infinatum)

Also on Fader, some fun Wale tracks.

The Lipster via DiS have their singles feature up. They really like the Miike Snow remix, and I'm inclined to agree. They write off the Constantines single, which I find a little stupid. They also get quite pissy about a charming Coldplay video. They do give Yuill's track proper love, at least.

It's a good day to be an Austin citizen: The Decemberists will play their new album in full at SXSW.

The 50/Boss feud continues. Kemp's claims that Rick Ross rents his jewelry, that's actually pretty hard-hitting stuff.

Discodust has some gorgeous tracks by Classixx. Really thick, dreamy stuff. Cross-genre appeal; just download it.

FILM:

I hate the Superbowl ad craze with passion, but I do love /Film.

Speaking of their coverage, the trailer for The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle adds substance to the echoings of "this movie was weird" and elevates it to must-see status in my book.

Gossip is fun: Christian Bale pissed off on the Terminator set.

Breathe a sigh of relief: there will be no Watchmen sequels.

At last, the next incredible American film is on the horizon.

WEIRD:

Time warp? East German flat found completely unmodified.

Erykah Badu Twittered the birth of her child. No words... no words.

This live-action kid-getting-scared gif is just old-school, hypnotizing, bizarre-as-fuck weird.

Lil Wayne continues to be interviewed by some unexpected people.

WORLD:

Obama will not put an end to extraordinary rendition. There's also a lot of buzz about Obama's administrative selections; the New York Times provides a harsh but reasonable analysis of the problem.

The same Red Cross hospital in Sri Lanka shelled by the Tamil Tigers has been shelled again.

PERSONAL:

It was a pretty good day. I feel like I got a lot of things done. One thing to note - I loathed Imitation of Life. Maybe I'm missing something, but right now, I just plain loathe it. Also, holy hot damn, I have a lot of food right now.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 218
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, academic.

February 1st, 2009: The Month in Literal Review

2009-02-01T11:49:00.000-08:00

January In Literal Review

Most Interesting, Music:

Fader's hyper-victorious My President Is Black freeload.

Most Interesting, Film:

The Watchmen legal saga found resolution.

Weirdest:

AICN interviewed accidental superstar Soulja Boy.

Biggest World Event:

Obama was inaugurated as the President of the United States.

Best Song:

Animal Collective, "My Girls"

Best Film:

The Wrestler

Reviews

Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
I fully understand the hesitation when approaching an album that's hyped as hard as this one. There are a lot of expectations to deal with, which has the tendency of ruining an experience. (See: My thoughts on Che so far)
This, however, is the real deal. This is an album worth getting very excited about.
The MP3s floating around are good - damn good - but they are amplified a thousandfold in their context within the album. Brothersport becomes a shaking, pulsing, breathing climactic burst; My Girls becomes a glistening, pounding gateway. If there was any question about album-based musicians surviving the digital era, consider that shit answered.
MPP is a critic's dream, not only in terms of quality, but because it's so rife with details to mention. The album is a veritable treasure trove of constant surprises. Take the buried grower "Taste," which has a wide array of smart little details: the heartbeat percussion, or the subtle use of an instrument which is about to explode on Lion in a Coma, etc. Oh, and I'll go on record with my theory that "Guys Eyes" is AC's spazzed out and horny as hell take on "God Only Knows." Listen again, and you'll hear what I'm talking about.
As Animal Collective have mentioned in interviews, this is the first album made with a sense of their history as a band, and it shows. MPP departs in all sorts of key ways, sonically and thematically, but it anchors itself, too; "Bluish" opens with a washed out guitar that seems plucked from Feels, and "No More Runnin" feels like "Cuckoo Cuckoo" with the tension all drained out.
There's enough content here for a thousand or more adjectives. I won't praise the album's genius, because that job has been handled by countless other critics; instead, I'll take a stab at sketching a roadmap for the intrigued fence-sitters. It's everything wild and free about Animal Collective, while paradoxically far more natural-sounding while being far more grounded in the electronic. And it's a hell of a joy ride.

Antony and the Johnsons, The Crying Light
We settle for a lot of silliness when it comes to male vocalists. We accept vaguely decent performances on such a regular basis that when a truly powerful male voice comes around, it tends to catch us off guard. And really, "caught off guard" is everybody's first reaction to Antony Hegarty; his surreal warble, his lilting power, these alien turns take some getting used to.
It's worth it. On The Crying Light, Antony has synthesized an incredible amount of emotion and introspection, channeling it through relatively straightforward compositions which act as guides through the intense emotional realm Antony occupies.
Song to song, there's nothing you'll want to skip. "Epilepsy is Dancing" softly and sweetly describes something excruciating, a duality far from unintentional. "Kiss My Name" frolics where the titular track whispers, and little more can be said about "Another World," a sincere and arresting work of intimate introspection. Of course, there's tour de force "Daylight and the Sun," which ruptures and careens and melts in a way befitting of Antony's countless nature metaphors.
If you let it into your heart, The Crying Light will wreak havoc, knocking you down and then lifting you back up, on new terms. It's an album almost too painful to withstand, but too gorgeous to look away from.

Personal:

It's been a strange weekend. Lots of delirious stuff, lots of confused walking, and sadly, not as much productivity as I'd hoped. I took a bus tonight that went through very strange and unjustifiably familiar territory. I feel a little bit upside down.

I've got a lot of work to do in this next half hour.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 195
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, confused.

January 30th, 2009 / January 31st: Saturday Edition

2009-01-31T17:35:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

Pill's new mixtape is bursting at the seams with talent. He touches on some great beats (he really tears it up with one of my favorite backing tracks, the one from "I Got 5 On It") and he kicks some really strong verses. This is one of my weekly albums, so I'll be listening to it more and have a more thorough write-up a week from tomorrow.

I'm a few days late to the game on this one, but the Free Yr Radio compilation on Insound has a few nice treats wrapped in a feel-good charity cause. Naturally, Dan Deacon's bit is hella fun and frantic, and as Pitchfork noted, it's worth the price of admission just to access some new No Age.

With news of a freeloadin' remix of Q-Tip's rad "Renaissance," I was just looking forward to hearing Q-Tip on my 2009 shuffled playlist; it was just a bonus (albeit a fantastic one) that the guest verses are top-notch. Also worth your bandwidth, they're freeloading a painfully gorgeous cover via CFCF, a few good tracks from Busy Signal, and an incredible track by Francis and the Lights.

You'll want to listen to them in that order, because finally, Discodust has updated with a truly rad track, (plus blog drama! Read those fiery comments!) and Francis and the Lights funnels peculiarly well into their Moon Unit MP3.

Kanye's blog has yet another N.A.S.A. track. At this rate, I'll have the whole album before it drops. Verdict: throw this one in the "love it" pile.

Pitchfork summed up the YACHT drama.

FILM:

Year One looks like a lot of fun, as does Up, and Super Bowl exposure will likely hurt neither. GI Joe looks like crap though.

Black Freighter stills! And... uh... they don't look legit. I can't overstate how upset I am.

Movies the IFC blog makes me really want to see:
The Missing Person
The Class
And, especially, Medicine for Melancholy

Movies I want to see despite what IFC's aggregate reviews had to say:
Still want to see The Carter, despite the countless critics who are using it as a platform to suggest that Weezy is a fad.
Want to see Adam, because I tend to go the complete opposite of anything the AV Club has to say.

WEIRD:

This detail-hunt gets excruciating, but it's a cool use of youtube.

WORLD:

Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay legislation.

A massive strike is underway in France.

At a panel discussion with Israeli president Shimon Peres, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan walked off the stage in fury. BBC News tracks some of the fallout, and googling has brought me to the thorough coverage from Taiwan News.

EDITORIAL:

I used to belong completely to the "live in the moment" camp. Throughout high school, I dreamed of getting to college, when I would (theoretically) be able to just live for the day instead of constructing futures doomed not to pass. After all, I'd mention, John Lennon said it himself: "Life is what happens while you're making other plans."
Truth be told, I don't think I was listening to Lennon the right way, because living only for the moment sucks.
I'm not saying you shouldn't seize the day, because you should, and I'm not saying you should assume your dreams will go off without a hitch, because they won't, but it's crucial to have some sort of future plan.
See, when you don't have any idea of where to go next, life becomes peculiarly fatalistic. Since you're not really counting on being anywhere or doing anything in five years, or even five days, you have this feeling that the moment you're in is the end all be all. That's cool enough when the moment is staring into beautiful eyes or dancing in a field, but what about waking up with a throbbing headache or being bored on the couch? Simply put, much like any relationship, The Moment loses its glamour as soon as you start living for it.
For the first few months of college, I tried - really, really tried - to live for the moment. Sometimes it was fun, but I missed dreaming and planning, and I missed the results of a great and well-conceived plan. I really can't stress how much I missed the results: I'd wake up and realize I was out of food, I'd come home to a filthy room, I'd be frantically cranking out an essay that, given time to think, could have been special. I hate to overdose on t-shirt ready catch phrases, but living for today ends up sucking tomorrow.
Now, I honestly enjoy planning. I'm planning for an apartment, for a career, for who I want to be in ten years. Maybe all of that will work, and maybe it won't. But while there's still truth to Lennon's assertion, I'll turn instead to another quote, one from my favorite film of 2008: "You gotta give 'em hope."

PERSONAL:

Los Campesinos! last night at the Parish was one of my favorite shows ever, and a great way to start the year in shows. Openers Titus Andronicus were thoroughly invigorating, and Los Campesinos! were incredible. Oh, and there was crowd surfing. A lot of crowd surfing. Gareth (frontman of Los Campesinos!) even descended into the audience, grasped my friend Jara by the head, and sang to him, on Jara's favorite song no less. (Picture pending) They were all great guys, as was Howard, the down-on-his-luck man we met at the bus stop.

The downside is, after such an energetic and late night, I am feeling well under the weather, hoping it's just exhaustion and not a cold. I skipped album day today for the sake of staying home, napping, and recovering. Oh, and I skipped an incredible concert tonight that... I don't even want to name the band. But I knew I needed to rest.

Side Note: How the hell did "Blame It" grow on me so much?

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 170
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, a little bit confrontational.

Explanation

2009-01-31T12:52:00.000-08:00

Friday post was canceled for two reasons. First, I went to a Los Campesinos show at the Parish and it blew my mind... plus kept me out of my dorm until 3:00 AM. Second, reading through the music/news blogs, there wasn't enough to really fill a post... slow news day. So I'll be combining the Friday post and the Saturday editorial this evening.

See you then.

January 29th, 2009

2009-01-29T21:23:00.000-08:00

Jesus! Slowest news day all year so far!

MUSIC:

I was reading today's relatively uninteresting music news, grumbling a bit, when this little beauty came along: new Animal Collective song. And predictably, it's phenomenal.

Besides that, though, today just had the clinically unfunny NME staff.

FILM:

New Tykwer flick that isn't The International! By the way, now that I know Tykwer did The International, it's become a must-see.

That Arrested Development movie is for sure happening.

Hey everybody, no need to worry; Ghost Rider is getting a sequel after all! God, the world can seem pretty broken sometimes.

WEIRD:

I've got nothin'. Sincerely.

WORLD:

As Democracy Now reports, Israel will keep the Gaza border closed until their kidnapped soldier is returned.

Obama's attempts to ease relations with Iran have, thus far, yielded mixed results.

PERSONAL:

Shitty news day it may have been, today was still a good one. Given, it was at least 80% feverish anticipation of the Lost episode I download. But I spent time with friends, crystallized plans, spent time with the homeless, resolved a paycheck issue... not perfect, maybe, but damn near, and the crowning jewel of this Music Week of the Year candidate's mundane school segment.

I mean, when you discover that your dorm's grocer now stocks vegan ice cream, nothing - not even the white powder on your bagel that makes you look like a coke addict - is going to get you down.

Holy shit, Tim Hecker's Sea of Pulses has a bass? Headphones are so rad.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 132
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, rockin' out.

January 28th, 2009

2009-01-28T17:07:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

Holy sweet Jesus fuck, I really like the Jeremey Jay that Fader is freeloading. If only, y'know, the download actually worked. (Functioning download is here for now) Gonna buy this album for sure though.

Also via Fader, I don't really know what this is, but I know it sounds incredible. Oh, and the Pill freeload is hella rad, so I'll be getting that mixtape when it drops. If it's this quality, I'll be hyping the hell out of this.

The Dark Was the Night compilation already sounds great (Byrne-featuring Dirty Projectors opener "Knotty Pine" is one of my favorite songs of 2009 so far) and now their Myspace, which has been streaming tracks all nice and sequentially, drops a rad-ass Grizzly Bear/Feist delight. Dark and intricate, like it damn well should be.

Pitchfork rallies the indie-rock troops with tales of Billboard success. Also, their free Real Estate MP3 is, well, worth getting excited about. It's good stuff.

Ahahahahahahahahahahahaha, MTV doesn't want to admit that it likes Lil Wayne's leaks! This is so adorable. It's like watching a kid who got into the cookie jar; he's done something very wrong, but he's trying so hard to avoid it that it's almost endearing. Something tells me that upon the release of Rebirth, I'll be weeping and gnashing my teeth while I listen to Tha Carter III and wonder where it all went wrong.

Speaking of Weezy's leaks, new theory: these backing tracks are pretty uninspired/derivative, right? Well, has anybody wondered if... What I mean is... Could Weezy be using Songsmith?

Also on Kanye's blog, a N.A.S.A. track. These are pretty love it or hate it for me. This one? I love it. I feel like this is from some bizarre Parappa sequel starring Ghostface. Is it weird to be namechecking a mid-90s arcade game? Well, compare the production values on this MP3 and that game, then draw your own conclusions on how large my sleep deficit is.

FILM:

Sucker for teacher dramas that I am, I would probably have seen The Class anyway, but Paste's hearty approval makes it all the more exciting. They also endorse Che... I need to see it again, soon, and as one piece. Read some interviews first.

New Watchmen still. This movie definitely has us all by the shorthairs.

WWZ concept art looks gory.

Wolverine reshoot photos have been snagged, if you're really that obsessed with a decent-looking superhero flick.

This article should have gotten me all intrigued about the pilot, but in fact, it just makes me want to see Akira again. Be careful with your mildly unrelated images, /Film!

Ahh, a new Coraline trailer. If things sort out properly, I'll be seeing this at the Lamar Drafthouse premiere.

WEIRD:

The Joaquin Pheonix saga continues. Joaquin, please keep this in mind: just because you know what you're doing is idiotic doesn't make it less idiotic to do.

WORLD:

The House passed its massive stimulus plan.

Israel retaliated to the death of an Israeli soldier today.

Big Business got caught plotting against unions. I strongly suggest skimming the MP3 of the phone call; it's chilling stuff. At the very least, check this list of highlights with corresponding audio clips.

PERSONAL:

The aforementioned sleep deficit is no joke; it's something I'm taking seriously this time around. I've even taken a nap, which, for the record, yielded an absurdly cool movie-dream starring Shia LaBeouf as a blind action hero battling a conspiracy.

Otherwise, I'm just excited for pretty much everything that's coming up. It's a good time!

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 129
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, ready to go into sleep mode.

January 27th, 2009

2009-01-27T21:27:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

Kanye's blog has Bon Iver covering Feist live . I'll be straight with you: it's so cold and shitty everywhere on this globe that you really, really need this warm and snugglable song right now. Fireplace optional.

The last Black Lips single really did nothing for me, but this new one is really pretty good. Maybe a little too throw-backy, but pretty good.

DiS writes up ATP. ...OMG?

New Jay-Z leak! Is it from the new album? I like it enough to hope it is. It sounds like Jigga scoring a teen melodrama from the eighties. Lyrically, it's not his best, but it's still stellar. It's streaming here, but yeah, if you want to download it, you guys can find it.

The producers behind Weezy's new single felt pretty much exactly the same as we did. Okay, comment here: Is Weezy versatile enough to pull off something like this? Yes. Tha Carter III was the most diverse album (well, most diverse good album) of 2008. But this isn't rock. This is pop-punk-emo, and nobody makes pop-punk-emo good. And even if he could, if this track is any indication, he isn't.

Even though Hussle samples Kris Kross, watching the video, he sounds oddly fresh.

Also on Fader, Gun Outfit has a concise and old-school indie rock track bein' freeloaded. If you don't have time to listen to it, you are in too much of a hurry.

FILM:

The Sci Fi Wire has a reasonable look at TDK's snub.

/Film has got me all excited over Mr. Nobody. Props to the film for abiding by the Leto rule. (In every Leto role, something terrible happens to him. Here, he is the only person who will ever die. Rule: satisfied. Cinema is hungry for Jared Leto's blood!) Oh, and The Damned United looks good.

If you make the same joke for three films, doesn't it stop being funny? God I hope I am wrong about this.

IFC's Indie Eye writes up the Weezy doc.

WEIRD:

You know what needs to be a musical? Michael Jackson's Thriller.

WORLD:

Our new envoy to the U.N. sounds, well, really great.

A U.N. hospital in Sri Lanka was shelled, killing many U.N. workers.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed by a Palestinian bomb on the border.

PERSONAL:

Today was really, really cold. Also, wet and muggy. It was a good day to own a hoodie, 'sall I'm saying. Also, I was exhausted enough to take a nap, which yielded a weird-ass dream about Shia LaBeouf in a conspiracy theory movie.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 123
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, worried for the first time about underheating.

January 26th, 2009

2009-01-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

TMT makes the new Dälek album out to be pretty great; I think I'll check it out.

Pitchfork has a new, albeit lo-lo-lo-lo-fi, Wrens track.

Lil Wayne's Prom Queen single off his upcoming rock album is leaking everywhere. Spoiler alert: It's really awful.

Just the pick-me-up I needed: new Asobi Seksu video.

Paste interviews PB&J.

YV's new track is a shitload of fun. Also on Fader, a track whose context makes it tragic.

Kanye's blog had a lot of treats over the weekend. That drama-licious Rick Ross track is up. After seeing The Wrestler and thinking about its application to some rap, I feel like Ross is doing 50 a favor. Also, a new N.A.S.A. video!

FILM:

Rotten Tomatoes has a clip from the phenomenal-looking mafia flick Gomorrah.

Gears of War trilogy? Sounds rad! By the Underworld dude? Too bad.

Hilary Duff will star in a Bonnie and Clyde reimagining? Worst idea ever, indeed.

Tintin casting is out of the bag.

/Film also makes me drool over Gilliam's Zero Theorem.

WEIRD:

Black lips were in some big shit, but are now totally okay.

A fantastic side-scroller Zelda. Damn you, indie gaming, and your lack of Mac love!

Thorough album analyses are delicious.

WORLD:

Bolivia has a new, leftist constitution.

The BBC is refusing to air an appeal for Gaza aid in order to maintain "impartiality." The public is responding with outrage.

PERSONAL:

It's been a long, busy, and exhausting day. Also, I am evidently the only guy who finds Hustle and Flow to be a bad film.

Lots of work, so not much to say right now.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 119
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, tired period.

January 25th, 2009: The Week in Literal Review

2009-01-25T20:19:00.000-08:00

Most Interesting, Music:

Fader's hyper-victorious My President Is Black freeload.

Most Interesting, Film:

The Canadian film board put its entire vault online.

Weirdest:

This week was tough! I loved the moonshine coffee and the Songsmith antics, but I've got to give it to an Austin homegrown treasure, Beastmaster Jr. Go ahead, watch it again. You've earned it.

Biggest World Event:

Obama was inaugurated as President; he began, shortly thereafter, to kick some ass.

Reviews

No reviews this week. I wait a week to review albums, and I saw Che, sure, but I need to see part two before I can review it, and I'm so muddled on part one of the film that I feel I need to see it once more anyway. (I think that knowing what to expect and where it is going will yield greater appreciation)

But if you're looking for an initial reaction, it's hesitantly confused disappointment.

Personal:

Today was very relaxing. I woke up at noon, I studied for a while... nothing major, just some sleep, studying, and dinner with my sister. Oh, and listening to two incredible albums.

Official Fact: Antony has the ability to make me cry.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 114
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, tired of my boring notes. Computers have no love for jazz.

January 24th, 2009: Saturday Edition #2

2009-01-24T21:45:00.000-08:00

Ah, the weekend: when entertainment news decides to nap. That's why on Saturdays, I use a different format. I mention the few entertainment news pieces worth mentioning, and then I write an editorial about what I'm preoccupied with. Sundays are my Week in Literal Review days, when I review music and movies.

INTERESTING NEWS:

If you mess with Noel Gallagher, you are going to go to prison.

Rogen's Green Hornet may be dead.

Sundance Award results have been posted!

IMPORTANT NEWS:

Schools in Gaza have reopened.

EDITORIAL:

Sometimes I think that the new elitism is the art of appearing "down to earth." Don't get me wrong, I think true casual simplicity is rad and all, but it feels like there's a culture of feigned stupidity developing in response to intellectualism.
For instance, if you listen to complex, textural music with discord and jarring rhythm, people will write you off: "You're just a music snob." But this seems backwards to me. The nature of snobbery is to listen to/enjoy only a small canon of elite things; cutting out all experimental music sets up just such a canon.
I'm probably not making myself clear. I guess I feel like the old-school connotation of elitism, as it applies to the arts, is utterly worthless. That old-school connotation observed elite tendencies amongst the avant garde, which were accurate, but the contemporary avant garde are far from arrogant. No Age, at their own personal forefront of noise music, are friendly and accessible. The same seems to go for a lot of today's experimental groups; hell, when I met Fuck Buttons, they were grinning sincerely, shaking hands, and helping to sell their own merch. Is that behavior typical amongst the "everyman" top-40 bands that play to gargantuan stadiums and desperately avoid encounters with fans?
As it is with music, so it is with the rest of the arts. When you react less-than-favorably to crowd-pleasing cotton candy cinema, most people immediately snub you. And in visual art, if you have a philosophical or metaphorical idea behind your work, it's best to keep your lips sealed lest you seem pretentious. (God forbid!)
Bottomline is, when you start completely shutting out or writing off creative output on superficial grounds, you're acting in a snobbish way. Hence, if you listen exclusively to the mainstream, you're acting in a snobbish way.
It's the cult of the wannabe dillettante, and although I should probably be concerned or upset, I'm too busy revelling in the delicious irony of an elitist mob wearing thousand dollar sweatpants.

PERSONAL:

What a great Album Day! I'll let you know in advance: my review for Merriweather Post Pavilion will just be gushy praise. (I haven't tackled the Crying Light yet; I need to work this bliss out of my system first) I sat in the back of the Exposition, the bus I take home from 6th and Lamar (the best spot in Austin: Whole Foods + Waterloo Records) and sitting in the back for the first time in a while, I forgot how fast that bus feels. Feeling so fast, listening to the glorious electronic rushes in MPP, god, it is a moment I'll keep with me for a long time.

On the other hand, Che part one (from last night) was a decidedly mixed affair; I'll cover this more tomorrow.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1.5
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 104
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, nice and room-temperature.

January 23rd, 2009

2009-01-23T15:24:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

First DiS got me all excited about Marissa Nadler way back on the 14th, and now Pitchfork makes good on the goods with a free MP3. It's laid back and fantastic. And damn, Chris Coady? TVotR and Gang Gang Dance and Yeah Yeah Yeahs Chris Coady? Stars are aligning.

DiS makes a compelling case for why every person should see Of Montreal live before they die. (Scroll to the bottom for video) And JESUS, The Invisible sound rad.

All this Animal Collective at the Bowery coverage (here and here) is making me all the more excited about the tickets I snagged for their June Stubb's show here in Austin.

Coldplay are recording again + Eno.

Via Kanye's blog, a rad-ass video of Q-Tip on Conan.

Holy crap, that Lil Wayne rock album is actually happening.

FILM:

We can all take a deep breath, guys; Sommers didn't make Sienna Miller wear rubber breasts. Also, shitty "abreast" slays any vague sense of legitimacy.

Judging by how bad the game's plot was while I idly watched my roommate play it, Lost Planet will be godawful.

Speaking of godawful, Mutant Chronicles has a trailer at last. Watch as Malkovich deftly phones it in.

I blogged a while back on screens from the japanese HP trailer. Do you not like static images? Then get excited - here's the actual trailer via AICN. Fun fact: AICN accidentally embedded a 500 Days of Summer trailer, so I direct-linked you up.

Wow... what an awful film news day.

WEIRD:

Slash is upset because his house isn't big enough to party in. Too bad he can't sue the world for not giving a damn!

Oh, and Kanye West is not bisexual.

WORLD:

Obama has been doing various awesome things.

The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 1,400.

PERSONAL:

Today went relatively well for me. I nabbed some AC tickets, I got all my work done, and now I'm going to see Che, "part one," a.k.a. the film industry should release entire films as their directors intended. (The screening is soon; that's why this is going up so early)

I can't tell you how excited I am for tomorrow's album day. Merriweather Post Pavilion, and, The Crying Light. I might cry.

Scratch that. I will cry.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 92
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, nice and room-temperature.

January 22nd, 2009

2009-01-22T16:21:00.001-08:00

MUSIC:

Franz Ferdinand are streaming their album. Impressions forthcoming.

Not only is Paste's Lovefest column a fantastic idea, but they kick it off with a quick little Antony Hegarty paragraph? My birthday came half a year early, apparently.

Big day for album covers via Pitchfork. If you liked the Rake's Song single art, you should be satisfied with the cover for the Decemberists album. If you like living in the matrix, you should be satisfied with the cover for the PB&J album. Oh, and if you like Colbert, this is for you.

DiS namechecked this truly obscure but rad-sounding group, Urgent Talk.

MTV's got a nice sprinkling of info on Jay-Z's forthcoming.

TMT plays the industry watch-dog once again, calling out Sony's drastic layoffs.

FILM:

First Pheonix goes all jiggy on our asses, and now 50 Cent has a film studio. Prediction: Neither trans-media effort will be even vaguely memorable. Just when I was kind of enjoying 5o's verse on Crack a Bottle, too...

Fun little Sundance write-up.

Oh, and no Sundance is complete unless two key elements are on screens AND in seats: drama and violence.

Collider has some Dead Snow trailers and clips. Not sure how I feel about this one... I'll put it in the could-be-fun category, but this could really go either way, since it looks pointlessly, stupidly grotesque from what I've seen.

I'm curious about the Lil Wayne doc.

RT interviews Van Sant and Dustin Lance Black. Holy shit, Dustin Lance Black is from San Antonio? My hometown just got cooler. Y'know, having raised the writer of the best picture of 2008. Oops, I said it out loud.

This should practically go in the weird section. Word is, Dakota Fanning's gonna be in the new Twilight as, I shit you not, a "seductive young Italian vampire." Uh... what?

My Chemical Romance song in Watchmen? Do not want!

I need a Coraline chaser to that for sure. What a great new trailer.

Weird-ass Sundance film with a weird-ass premise. Sounds perfect.

The National Film Board of Canada has put its full vault online!

WEIRD:

This kind-of-Weezer-knockoff straddles the line between hilarious and nightmarish.

Hell yeah, Roc Boys in the high school tonight.

The co-inventor of spandex-clad crusaders of justice has fetishes? No!

WORLD:

Caroline Kennedy withdrew from the Senate, so, things went a bit nuts.

Sorry, yeah, here's the New York Times article. I guess I'm just really excited that Obama is making good on his promise to close Gitmo.

PERSONAL:

Personal filmmaking epiphanes, the Lost premiere at last, two incredible albums to look forward to on Saturday, Che at the Drafthouse tomorrow... This has been a good day. I served as babysitter for one of the professors I've worked with at the department; a six year old and a four year old, both boys, and me realizing that being a parent someday is going to be difficult. But don't think I'm talking trash, the kids were rad; they were very involved with excavating around the Burdine building.

Oh, and that Lost premiere? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah I dropped the f-bomb aloud no fewer than ten times.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 86
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, no longer cold!

January 21st, 2009

2009-01-21T15:00:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

Say what you want about Pitchfork being snobbish pricks or whatever- when they have a good target, it's solid gold. (I'm still waiting for a return to "we-rate-your-album-with-monkey-piss" form, though) In addition, they've got a ton of Animal Collective goodies. Yum! Oh, and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are taking a break.

DiS interviews Fanfarlo. The little youtube bits sound fantastic; I'm excited about this one. Also, the Joy Formidable sound so rad that I've pre-ordered their album outright. And BLK JKS! What a day to be DiS.

Fader's freeloading some OJ Da Juiceman.

Fun shit over on Disco Dust! Their Phantoms track is groovy, and same goes for the Treasure Fingers remixes.

FILM:

Slash has on the scoop on a very well-done bit of Watchmen promotional material.

AICN has some rumblings on the live-action Bebop.

WEIRD:

Spectacle begets spectacle; the First Lady's hair stylist is getting a reality television show. Worth it because, well, I can call her the First Lady now.

Kanye, uh, really wants ripped jeans. He also predicts the future.

WORLD:

I'll keep it simple: the New York Times has an outstanding write-up of Obama's first day.

PERSONAL:

Slightly busy day. Scratch that... ridiculously busy. Classes, walking around everywhere, going to Wheatsville... what an odd day. Oh, and people are working on the thermostat at last!

But I need sleep, so that bit will suffice.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 84
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, still cold. But not for long?

January 20th, 2009

2009-01-20T15:23:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

Pitchfork's got the new video for Antony and the Johnsons. Antony's voice is stunning, and the video is comparably lush and dense in the best way. God, I can't wait to buy this album.

In that vein, TMT has an incredible write-up of Antony's new album. January is shaping up to be a phenomenal month for haunting vocal performances.

DiS has a fun write-up of Eurosonic.

For those of you inclined to celebrate, which should be goddamn all of you, Jigga's remix of My President is Black is freeloadin' over on Fader.

HipHopDX has the exclusive hook-up with a free download of Junclassic's new EP. I'm really digging it. It takes a while to grow on you: at first, it just sounds messy and incomplete, but as the tracks roll by, you adjust to Junclassic's slightly neurotic style... and it's rad.

FILM:

Please, please, please let this Seth Rogen-as-Jesus clone project get off the ground.

Japanese trailers reward enterprising fans yet again, as this screencap site will prove. First Watchmen, now this HP goodness; oh global market, how I love thee.

I desperately want to see Medicine for Melancholy. Also, Cold Souls looks great.

It's not really film news, but I want an excuse to watch Epilepsy is Dancing again.

WEIRD:

I am more than proud that the people of Austin produced this magnum opus, Beastmaster Jr.

NME, uh, got it flat wrong? According to them, Aer Obama's video was released by Daft Punk. That's not true. As I've heard it, the video is by Green Dot Films, no real association to the robotic dudes. If I'm wrong, call me on it, but uh, research helps, guys.

WORLD:

It's absurd to report this as though somebody might not know, but this morning, Obama was sworn in. I found his inauguration speech refreshingly direct and felt, for the first time in my time as a politically-aware citizen, included. BBC covers some of the new-media undertones.

The New York Times reports on the rippling tension out of Gaza, in this case, in France.

The Austin Chronicle has some updates/recaps on the Brandon Darby situation.

PERSONAL:

Today went very well. Almost without a hitch. No stride yet, of course, but that will come, and my lingering stress will (hopefully) vanish. I'm sort of viewing this year as three acts: my spring semester, summer, and my fall semester.

I've pretty literally been looping that Antony track over and over for a few hours. I'm definitely excited for the album.

Oh, and for what it's worth, I feel like I'm getting the hang of this blogging business.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 79
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, still cold.

January 19th, 2009

2009-01-19T06:43:00.000-08:00

MUSIC:

A new U2 track is streaming. It sounds kind of vapid and poorly conceived to me.

DiS has some nice treats. The Lanterns on the Lake MP3 is very sweet and delicate, and the Friendly Fires video is addictive as hell. Don't forget the singles feature, which links to a download of the mega-catchy We Are ENFANT TERRIBLE single, bashes the Franz Ferdinand single for goofy reasons, and clues me in to a rad-ass single by Tinchy Stryder. I totally missed the boat on the grime movement... damn!

Kanye West hooks us up with some new Feist. Sort of new, anyway: it's a cover. You probably heard it on that athletics commercial. Ben Gibbard shows up too!

The frustrating thing about Lily Allen's self-indulgent interview with NME is that the points she's making about women in the industry are valid, and deserve to be made by people with character and insight. I don't think she's a "puppet," but I do find her tabloid-baiting antics grating and tiresome.

Jeezy's surprise inaugural guest: Jay-Z.

Pitchfork's got an insightful interview with Animal Collective. Also on Pitchfork, a stream of a track by Grizzly Bear that is gorgeous enough to incite weeping. Oh, and if you're like me, PB&J's "Lay it Down" has been looping on your iTunes since it was released. If you're feeling like switching it up a little, but you can't get the song out of your head, try this weirder-than-weird remix by the Golden Filter.

FILM:

Remember that viral Watchmen site I mentioned? Well, now it has content! It's just a few Minutemen-era "snapshots" but it's worth keeping an eye on.

There's a Mapplethorpe biopic in the works. You heard me. This has the potential to be trash or gold, so let's all hold our breath in unison.

Do you smell the fresh cent of money, perhaps tinged with the sensation of cold? You've smelled correctly: the first sale of Sundance has been made! And in case you were waiting with bated breath, don't fear: Black Dynamite got picked up.

Speaking of Sundance, here's a list of the films from the festival that interest me the most:
Humpday
An Education
You Won't Miss Me
Push
500 Days of Summer
The Greatest
Brief Interviews With Hideous Men

WEIRD:

Songsmith is a Microsoft program that takes vocal tracks and puts music behind them. Youtube users have been loading in a capella tracks from famous songs. Pitchfork reports on the hilarious results.

People will pay a lot of money to see Madonna naked, apparently.

Mark is right; this sounds gross and dangerous. However, when the Caffeine Prohibition arrives, moonshine caffeine will be a godsend for neurotic everywhere.

WORLD:

The New York Times gives a thoughtful run-down of the aftermath of the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Fortunately, Russia and Ukraine have resolved their oil dispute. This, however, comes on the heels of news of yet another assassination in Russia.

On this day, you've probably been seeing and hearing lots of MLK speeches. I'd ask you to try and really evaluate each of them, even if you did so five years ago, or a year ago, or a week ago. The MLK speech that always strikes me is his final, almost prophetic, speech.

PERSONAL:

School's tomorrow. I'm still living in a frigid dorm, but hey, at least I'm getting used to it. Tomorrow, I tackle my classes. I also return to work. It's a big day, and my nerves are in a bundle. In my mind, I'm just waiting until the weekend, when I can go to Waterloo for Animal Collective and maybe Antony and the Johnsons.

Anyway, it's been a nice day. My roommate is back, which is great for my disposition. I read in the lawn by the tower, just some old Gaiman to get lost in. I went downtown to see The Wrestler again, but I felt a little distracted. I wish I had no work in the morning, so I could've stayed at the Drafthouse to see American Pop, but so it goes.

Hopefully the day will help with my nerves.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 65
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, adjusting to the temperature.

January 17th, 2009 / January 18th, 2009: Editorial / Week In Literal Review

2009-01-18T19:05:00.001-08:00

I'll go ahead and warn you: my editorial for the night is very political. I know this turns most people off, and this won't be the norm by any stretch; most of my editorials will cover a broader range. But with the inauguration on everybody's mind, my own included, I had a few very political things to say.

Anyway, if you're not in the mood, you can go ahead and skip down to my normal Week in Literal Review feature.

EDITORIAL:

We stand at a crucial transition in our nation's history. One era of U.S. politics is coming to its rightful end- I say rightful because its failure has almost reached the point of objective historical truth. I'd like to say I knew it all along, but following party lines and spin in a highly polarized society doesn't constitute having a personal opinion; it was only in the past few years that I developed real opposition.

During this change in administration, looking past the obvious changes (there are many) and past the obvious things that will remain the same (there are many) leads us to question other, more fundamental differences between 2001 and 2009. One of these differences is, to me, striking: our nation has suddenly, miraculously, started seeing gray again.

Notice the rhetoric of our outgoing President during these final days, as reported by Democracy Now: "America must maintain our moral clarity. I have often spoken to you about good and evil. And this has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere." Scoff or cheer, pick your poison, but this pretty much captures the typical U.S. citizen's mindset during this administration. The world was all about black and white, clear moral superiority and clear moral inferiority.

At least, that was the world we wanted to see. But Abu Ghraib put a dent in our sense of ethical impregnability, as did allegations of waterboarding and other torture in various prison institutions run under the radar by our government. There was no need to worry, though; our President washed the fears away: "America does not torture."

I speak facetiously there, of course; most of us took that response to the scandal as a joke, an absurd reductivist approach. Then again, what happened to our attention span on the torture issue? It seems like our compassion waned significantly as torture fell from "headline" status. We don't have to worry about it, we can use that age-old excuse of the contemporary middle class: "there are just too many issues, we can't care about all of them at once."

Along, then, comes Obama's attorney-general designate, Holder, who doesn't shy away from the issue: Waterboarding, he says, is torture. There it is, laid plain in the arena of public discourse. The New York Times covered the aftermath; the constant frustration Holder faces is that his definition will force us to "look back," whereas Obama wants to look to the future.

So if we're not supposed to look back, what can we do to excise our communal demons, the ethical dilemmas that we'd like to get rid of before the new administration? Well, a nice proxy should do the trick. Enter Israel, who (tellingly) compare their recently-ceased invasion of Gaza proudly to U.S. tactics in Iraq. Steven Erlanger's article for the New York Times plays into this handy metaphor: aside from the obvious mistake (not quoting or referencing the Palestinian opinion of anything) he conveniently talks about the nature of guerilla warfare and its relationship to war crimes with barely a mention of Iraq.

This Israel situation is the best thing that could have happened to our national conscience. It's like asking for advice in a sitcom: "Hey, uh, I have this friend, Israel, and he, well, he invaded another nation and killed an inordinate number of civilians." It's a perfect way to talk about legal implications without, well, implicating ourselves.

I'll drop the smart-ass tone here. How dare we? How dare we talk about "not looking back?" What we're shielding from our eyes isn't some intangible error out of centuries past; we are ignoring people who are alive now, people we have hurt very, very recently. We are so excited about moving ahead that we're letting the casualties of our apathy fall helplessly by the wayside. I'll ask it again: how dare we?

Interesting footnote: in the aforementioned article, Israel's logic seemed strikingly familiar. A government official states plainly: "Not to target civilians, not to target U.N. people, not to target medical staff. All this is very clear in Israeli military doctrine.” It's part of the doctrine. Israel does not do that. I guess that's the end of the story- no gray area needed.

THE WEEK IN LITERAL REVIEW:

Most Interesting, Music:

Tough call this week, but one item gets the definite edge. New Decemberists MP3.

Most Interesting, Film:

Ten Sundance shorts for free (yes, free) via iTunes.

Weirdest:

AICN interviewed accidental superstar Soulja Boy.

Biggest World Event:

A ceasefire was forged in Gaza.

Reviews

Fever Ray, Fever Ray
Fever Ray's new album caught me by surprise in more ways than one. First, I was prepared for a March release, so to have the album mid-January definitely caught me off my guard. Second, though I was passingly familiar with a few tracks by The Knife, from which Karin Dreijer Andersson (who is Fever Ray) hails, I had never really looked far into that catalogue. Loading the album up, I was a little confused and hesitant, and in a way, I feel like that's how Andersson would have preferred it.
This is a daunting album. It is moody, arch, and grippingly sincere in a way that will remind some of Björk, but it's got a dark, primitive edge that wouldn't feel out of place on an old Einstürzende Neubauten record. Don't let these references fill in all of the blanks, though; Andersson has a perspective and style that is all her own.
Those who've listened to The Knife will find a lot of this to be familiar territory: thoroughly distorted vocals, sinister and stripped-down electronic beats, they're all here. But these tracks lack some of the poppy, energetic pacing, replacing it with more foreign and intricate beats that drive the songs in a distinct way.
Many of these songs are about monsters, not in the Hollywood sense, but the Steinbeck sense: a character with some fundamentally different perception that makes them totally alien to the world at large. People are capsules of energy, or live between walls, or exist forever. Andersson admits, whether in character or not, that she hates how others desire her love, explaining that she'd be far more content to work among plants. The album envelops you in waves of isolation, the feeling of being hopelessly separate from what is normal and familiar. On "Seven," Andersson darkly comments on the rituals of conformity: a box of light and sound which, if unopened, will make you very alone.
While the layers of instrumentation are perfect companions to the album's tone, the most potent instrument on Fever Ray is Andersson's voice. When thickened and deepened through means artificial, it can be remarkably bizarre and evocative, but her pure, unfiltered voice is the album's strongest weapon, an intimate and unsettling wail that bends and cracks and rises back up to inhuman tones. On "Triangle Walks" and "I'm Not Done" she laces her voice with a malicious determination; on "Now's The Only Time I Know" or "Seven" it takes on an air of desperate, wistful tragedy. Every unforgettable moment on this album is made so because of Andersson's vocal talent. On "Dry and Dusty's lone unfiltered stanza, the delivery of "Work as I've been told/In return, I get money" is crushing. Lyrics, too, bury themselves in your psyche: on "I'm Not Done", the imagery in a simple question ("do you laugh while screaming?") is hard to forget.
In fact, Andersson's voice is so crucial to the album that the one vocal cameo, by Cecilia Nordlund, is - when isolated - gorgeous, but feels here somewhat out of place and wrong. The arrangement on the album is lush and smart, but the haunting element that will keep drawing me in, time and time again, is Andersson's signature singing. It's what elevates this album from interesting audio distraction to a very unique sort of brilliance.

Personal:

Still cold as hell in my dorm. Nobody has come to fix the thermostat. I'm stressed about money, in addition to my irrational fear that I will somehow be unable to attend my classes this semester. I shouldn't complain too much; I got to hang out with some friends, I wrote what they consider to be a reasonably funny sketch, and I got to eat at the divine Mellow Mushroom. I guess there's something oddly comforting in worrying about the future, though; last semester's carefree carpe diem left me in the lurch, feeling sort of fatalistic.

Tomorrow, I attempt to wake up on my weekday schedule. Let's see if I can pull it off!

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 61
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, pissy about the temperature.

Quick Update

2009-01-17T22:33:00.000-08:00

Will compensate for lack of editorial tomorrow. Still frigid in here, and maintenance haven't even come by the room, despite my RA calling them directly to ask for help. Guys next door won't shut the fuck up. This semester is going to be great.

January 16th, 2009

2009-01-16T18:27:00.000-08:00

Earlier than usual tonight! Hopefully this will become the norm.

MUSIC:

TMT offers a refreshingly witty response to Lyor Cohen's discussion of Apple's new iTunes pricing.

DiS has some controversial thoughts on how to save the music industry. Frankly, their "block torrent sites" idea deserves the controversy it garnered: it's very stupid.

Too many puns to choose from, so I'll state it plainly: Boy George is going to prison.

Various Lil Wayne news from NME.

Joaquin Pheonix is rapping now - badly. Let's hope this debacle is short-lived. (For another rap music/film geek collision, see: the Weird section)

There's a new video for Q-Tips' "Manwomanboogie" off last year's divine release, The Renaissance. The original video got inexplicably pulled real quick; catch this lower-quality one while it's still around.

Immortal Technique continues to care about the planet; he and M-1 are headlining a Gaza Relief show.

NME basks in the glow of Bloc Party vs. The Killers drama.

Pitchfork's got an MP3 of "Rich Doors" by New Villagers, and, appropriately, it's a rich, fully realized track with great percussion and delicate vocal work.

FILM:

Ten free Sundance shorts available on iTunes! DOWNLOAD THEM. I had the pleasure of seeing I Live in the Woods on a big screen, and it is as glorious as it is brutally cruel.

If you're as excited for Coraline as I am, you'll appreciate this alphabetical poster set.

/Film has some clips from bizarre Cera-featuring meta-flick Paper Heart. From these clips, it looks really great.

Blame it on the years I spent as a debater, but this doc about Zizek's opinions on cinema looks incredible to me.

WEIRD:

I have no idea what this is, but it's shit like this that keeps me reading Kanye's blog. Worth clicking through to the high-quality on youtube.

I am a young adult with tastes in experimental film and independent music, and I care deeply about politics and human rights, but this is still the coolest thing I have ever seen in my life and I am not ashamed. (You'll have to skip the bright pink advertisement to glimpse this glory)

AICN interviewed accidental superstar Soulja Boy because his publicist asked them to. This is one of the weirdest colliding-worlds events in recent history.
Things Soulja Boy believes: he can "change the game" with the animation techniques from Who Framed Roger Rabbit, 50 Cent is the best rapper, the music industry is in trouble because Nas said hip hop was dead, somebody will someday make a Notorious-style Soulja Boy biopic.
Things AICN commenters believe: if you know what De La Soul is you are a hip hop expert, you are smarter if you say you are old, it is funny to elongate the word "you," and weirdest of all, that Soulja Boy is somehow the emissary of all black people in the world. (Hence, "who are you interviewing next, Maya Angelou?")
The only person who doesn't come off as an asshole is Beaks, the interviewer. What an odd debacle. I mean, I loathe Soulja Boy, but I doubt the AICN comment crowd would have been more favorable to Weezy or Del or Tech, and that's what really distresses me.

WORLD:

The Israeli invasion of Gaza continues; Palestinian casualties number at least 1,100. Fortunately, as the BBC reports, the Israeli cabinet seems close to declaring a ceasefire. Steven Erlanger of the New York Times poses some interesting questions about the ethics of guerilla warfare.

Democracy Now reports that the family of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi is concerned for his safety. Muntadhar al-Zaidi was the journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush during a recent press conference. I'm trying to find articles on this situation, but since the incident, despite mysteries surrounding his detainment, Muntadhar al-Zaidi has barely been mentioned by the international press.

The BBC has some insight into the way technology (in this case, Twitter) affects the media, in this case, coverage of the incident on the Hudson.

Sri Lankan newspaper editor Lasantha Wickramatunga has been assassinated; he was a notable critic of the government's war on Tamil rebels.

PERSONAL:

My dorm remains frigid. I filed a work request, but it has yet to be answered; my RA, after declaring that my room was indeed very cold, promised that he'd get workers up to my hall if the problem persisted. Fellow hallmates remarked on the crisis, stating, "yeah, it's really cold." The frigid temperature may or may not be slowly driving me insane. More on this later. For now, it's time to suit up for sleep. I left my comforter in San Antonio, and my one sheet does little to defend against the cold, so this is my plan:

-Two pairs of pajama pants
-Two pairs of socks
-T-shirt, overshirt, hoodie
-??? pairs of underwear

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 61
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, cold as hell.

January 15th, 2009

2009-01-15T23:29:00.001-08:00

A little late tonight; explanation in the Personal section.

MUSIC:

Everybody (even Paste!) is buzzing about the free Decemberists mp3 from their upcoming, ahem, rock opera. And you know what? If this track is any indication, Meloy is going to pull it off. In the context of this song, and the narrative sweep of "The Mariner's Revenge Song" or "The Bagman's Gambit," this rock opera makes perfect sense; it's suddenly confusing why this wasn't an obvious development.

As mentioned, Gorillaz recently previewed some demos over the radio; NME writes up some info and Pitchfork has streams of the demos.

DiS likes the Blood Bank EP.

HipHopDX has officially put Platinum Pied Pipers on my to-buy list. Stream this now, it's only slept on if you guys are sleeping.

Continental Divide's "Golden Throat" is crunchy, jagged, and rewarding. Juelz Santana's new track, on the other hand, comes off equal parts smooth and braindead.

FILM:

Watchmen settlement at last! I'm still pissed at Fox, of course, for bleeding a legitimate project for its own cynical profit.

Keanu confirmed for live-action Bebop.

/Film has some nice 500 Days of Summer clips.

Also, some clips from Moon. I'll be honest... this film looks awful. What a terrible waste of a good premise. At least it will fuel some "Har har Moon is made of cheese har har" review titles.

The Lennon biopic, Nowhere Boy, is establishing its cast. If you're like me, right now you're asking: "what Lennon biopic?"

IFC points me to Jerichow, which looks fantastic.

Philip Seymour Hoffman is directing a feature!

WEIRD:

Laserdisc is finally dying. My high school physics teacher is going to be really bummed.

Speaking of physics, ice is ridiculously fun.

WORLD:

The Israeli invasion continues; Israel is targeting hospitals and media buildings. According to UNRWA officials, Israel is using the experimental "white phosphorus" weapon.

As the New York Times reports, the gas dispute in East Europe continues. Evidently, the issue is a bureaucratic one, with the Ukrainian company refusing to transport the Russian company's gas into Europe until the Ukrainian company has its own rates cemented.

PERSONAL:

After a relatively stress-free packing job today, my father drove me back to campus. If I have any advice for yet-to-be college freshmen, this is that advice: the words "I'll just clean the dorm after break" are fatal. My floor is filthy, the refrigerator looks diseased inside, and I spent no fewer than three hours just cleaning this damned thing up. Atrocious! At least I got to eat at Veggie Heaven earlier. Oh Protein 2000, how I've missed you.

I am apprehensive, hoping to hit my stride sometime in the near future. Oh, and for the record, it is just above 60 in the dorm right now, despite the thermometer being set at 80. I'm talking to the RA tomorrow to get this fixed.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 59
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, back on the laboriously (temporarily? [cynically]) clean desk of my frigid dorm room in Austin.

January 14th, 2009

2009-01-14T22:27:00.000-08:00

Lots of news today. Can we try spreading this evenly, guys?

MUSIC:

It was a good day to read Pitchfork. A few good MP3s... First, Parallelogram by Deastro is fun, quick, and quirky. Then, I've been waiting for new Asobi Seksu for quite some time, and Pitchfork hooked me up at last. It's just as lush and swoon-worthy as I was hoping. Also, remember that deliciously weird PB&J video? Pitchfork's got the hook-up to a free download of the track. Between this and Nothing to Worry About, the new PB&J album is shaping up to be one of my favorites of the whole goddamn year.

Also, Pitchfork brings us three cool videos: Rex the Dog's new video is the most fun video ever, although Fol Chen doesn't give up without a fight. The new Beirut video is straight-up gorgeous.

City of God's Son is a fascinating undertaking. Basically, Kenzo Digital is taking verses from rap music and recontextualizing them into his own narrative. I'll be giving it a full listen and review soon.

If you're jonesing for straight-up dance music, NME's got a free download of Joakim's remix of Cut Copy's Hearts On Fire. They accurately describe it as a slow- burner, but it's worth it.

Fader's got a track off the perfect-by-way-of-absurdity Afro Samurai: The Resurrection. It's RZA, Kool G Rap, Ghostface Killah, and Tash Mahogany. It's got the dramatic sweep of the old-school kung fu flicks, which is, in this isolated instance, a really good thing.

Fader's also got new Mos Def, and it's really damn good. Classy, minimal, and Mos Def is at lightspeed.

DiS' review of Little Hells puts it firmly on my music-to-watch list. Oh, and they scored an interview with Animal Collective.

With all this buzz about who is performing where for the inauguration, Paste's got a guide that, y'know, makes sense and is chronological, rather than "the order of when the news broke."

FILM:

If film geeks you know are outraged about the foreign language list for the Academy Awards, /Film can explain the situation. Basically: Let The Right One In and Gomorra are out of the running.

According to AICN, two films with big potential are in the works: A new adaptation of East of Eden, and a Steve McQueen biopic.

The FCC didn't like it when Aronofsky gave Rourke the bird.

The very NSFW Informers trailer (from the guy who wrote the original American Psycho novel, if that's any indication) looks really good, although I suspect the 80's music of playing a big role in its appeal. But hey... Rourke!

Pushing Daisies might pull a Firefly and get a plot-ending film. This sounds great to me; I had the pleasure of attending a small lecture given by the art directors of the show, and it's a show that had a lot of heart.

Call me a dork, but I will listen to anything Wim Wenders has to say.

WEIRD:

If you know me, you know my affinity for chip music. That's why this NES Dark Knight trailer made me weep, longing for such a game to actually exist. Speaking of chip music, what the hell is up with Anamanaguchi's new album?

Via Paste, the biggest music list ever.

Landmark on Kanye's blog: his favorite post ever, and it's, uh, a lego girl.

WORLD:

The crisis in Gaza continues; the Palestinian death toll has passed 1,000. The invasion is rendering aid groups helpless. As the New York Times reports, Egypt claims to be making progress in efforts to forge a truce.

Confirmations for Obama's cabinet are underway. Clinton, in her confirmation, suggested that she would not negotiate with Hamas.

PERSONAL:

This is my last night in San Antonio for a while. I'm peculiarly nervous about heading back to Austin for college, but I think that will melt into excitement once I'm there.

I'll admit it: I'm a Lost fan, and watching the "enhanced" (interrupted) season four finale, I'm realizing that I'll have to hook up cable in my dorm, at least temporarily. Speaking of television, the new Scrubs episodes were really, really good. Really balanced. I was impressed.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 50
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, on the desk of my old room, relaxing before the journey back to Austin.

January 13th, 2009

2009-01-13T22:53:00.001-08:00

Slowest news day of the year so far, by a longshot.

MUSIC:

Pitchfork's got the link to a new Franz Ferdinand track, from their forthcoming album. It's got the same trashy, slutty bounce from the Ulysses MP3, but sans the vague sense of mystery.

Morrissey is talking about quitting music. He does sound tired, but hopefully this is just NME blowing things out of proportion. Anyway, I can't imagine Morrissey running out of things to say.

Well, looks like I'll be watching the Grammys this year after all.

FILM:

Samuel L. Jackson may not be playing Nick Fury.

Two members of hilarious sketch comedy team Whitest Kids U' Know have been working on a first feature, and, well, it looks underwhelming. Maybe it's just the trailer, but this looks short on laughs. It just doesn't seem to have the vicious bite of their sketch work. Well, we'll see.

IFC's film blog rounds up the lukewarm response to Notorious.

WEIRD:

Jell-O Clown is satan.

WORLD:

Al Jazeera has released its footage from Gaza. This is crucial; the international media has largely been denied entry.

PERSONAL:

I spent a lot of day hanging out with friends; I watched Elephant with one friend, then Bottle Rocket with a few others. As much as I enjoy this relaxation, though, I'm looking forward to heading back to Austin. I'm craving an Alamo Drafthouse fix.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 43
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, on the desk of my old room, exhausted from travelling to a friend's house and performing Build-a-Mix duties.

January 12th, 2009

2009-01-12T21:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a weird and generally poorly-reported day. Thankfully, there's such a thing as BoingBoing.

MUSIC:

Pitchfork says you can get the new Fever Ray album tomorrow. (Fever Ray = one half of The Knife) But they didn't say how it would be released. This led me to try and find where it would be released, and uh, Pitchfork? Rabid already has it up for sale. Full review pending; if it weren't for Animal Collective I'd suspect this as being clear and away the album of the month - this is moody, evocative, smart, glorious stuff. Those vocals can really chill, moreso than the voice of any other working musician, I'd wager.

Bouncing back, Pitchfork gains serious points for the news that new Gorillaz songs are appearing, then loses them all over again by referring to Murdoc as an ape. You guys are having an off day, huh? At least they hooked me up with some sorely needed new Morrissey.

Pet Shop Boys to release a new album. Marr? Owen Pallett? This sounds badass.

If you need to dance today, and you'd like your dance complete with bizarre interjections by the utterly irreplaceable Lil John, Fader will hook you up.

The people you would expect to actually care about Biggie actually care about Biggie. MTV's take on respecting Biggie: you only love him if you pay the film's patrons, like MTV: "Don't disrespect the icon's memory by seeing the bootleg — go to the box office if you want to see the film." Classy.

Oh, and lest I forget to mention, Drowned in Sound is back from what felt like a decade-long vacation! In case you were wondering, they like Merriweather Post Pavilion.

FILM:

If you missed the Golden Globes, /Film will hook you up with the best acceptance speeches. Also, the folks at /Film discovered crack cocaine today.

AICN is on a roll lately. They've got exclusive Adventureland footage and a great interview with an actor in Soderbergh's Che.

I'm absolutely desperate to see Waltz With Bashir. NYT got a great, insightful interview with Folman.

Judging by MTV's braindead speculation on the minutia of comments by David Goyer and Aaron Eckhart, it's time for the internet to freak out about the Dark Knight sequel.

A little late on this one, but Egoyan's working on a new picture!

WEIRD:

BoingBoing is weird as hell today. Highlights:

How to hallucinate with a radio and a ping-pong ball, via BoingBoing. A lot of these are activities for two... best date ever?

Also via BoingBoing, Megaman versus Everybody. Oh Auntie Pixelante, you appeal to the DIY-gamer in all of us. Well, maybe not ALL of us.

To round it all out, pictures of weird diseases and stuff, yeah!

Unfortunately, BoingBoing is bested by TMT, which already wins the prize for best headline of '09. Oh, Jackson. You and your bizarre, cartoonish, grotesque antics!

WORLD:

Democracy Now reports the Palestinian death toll at 900; Israel now admits that no rockets were launched from the bombed UN school being used as a civilian shelter; Israel was aiming at a different target.

Also, Blagojevich was impeached.

PERSONAL:

Today was nice and relaxing. I did give Fever Ray's album a thorough listen. It's so beautiful!

Unrelated, but something I definitely didn't expect: 50 Cent's verse on Crack a Bottle is becoming my favorite on the track. How the hell did that happen?

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 38
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, on the desk of my old room due once more to fears of overheating.

January 11th, 2009: The Week in Literal Review

2009-01-11T19:50:00.000-08:00

Most Interesting, Music:

TMT's vinyl upheaval story.

Most Interesting, Film:

The Watchmen situation seems resolved.

Weirdest:

Thor prevented a robbery.

Biggest World Event:

Israel's invasion of Gaza leads to tragic civilian casualties.

Reviews

The Wrestler (SPOILERS)
Against the backdrop of several minimal, natural films (Ballast; Wendy and Lucy) Aronofsky is a very unlikely director to have gone in a similar direction. His films are notable for being hyper-stylized: Requiem for a Dream is notable for some very experimental cuts and techniques, and The Fountain's multi-tiered plot is far from a straightforward narrative.
The Wrestler, then, seems a complete departure. Shots are organic and raw. The camera bumps and jostles as characters speak over each other, muttering and hesitating and speaking more like they belong in a documentary. Long single-take sequences enhance the atmosphere of stark realism. Where Aronofsky is infamous for rigging his cameras to actors to stay on their faces as they walk, this time the camera is behind leading-man Rourke, which, in a way, tells us far more.
And where Rourke is concerned, there's not an accolade he doesn't deserve for this incredible performance. "Raw" is the word of the hour here; he is conflicted, pained, and it shows. He's weary and weak, trying to live a life that is brutally unforgiving to the weary and the weak.
Tomei's performance is equally rough and real, serving as an odd feminizing mirror to the protagonist. The only performance that gave me pause was Evan Rachel Wood, who felt too much like an actor; I felt like her approach didn't fit the film's atmosphere. Given, she really doesn't get more than twenty seconds of calm in the entire picture.
On the substantive, rather than technical, level, this is a very interesting film. What can we draw from Randy "The Ram"? His rejection of the real world is the stuff that tragedies are made of; usually, a film scorns this type of man, but The Wrestler seems to vindicate its titular character. He does one thing, and he lives to do it, and he dies doing it. Nothing else matters to him, and he throws it all away for that. No matter how much we want to reject him, something in us feels like he's made the right decision.
On the technical, rather than substantive, level, the film is incredible. There are fewer enormous gestures, fewer radical techniques, but the film is no less affecting for the omission. Subtle builds, minimal techniques, all of it develops an incredibly compelling momentum that stings us and makes us cringe while it demands our attention. It's definitely not to be missed.

Personal:

Transit again today, back to San Antonio. It's nice to be back home. I laughed until I literally cried watching Psych outtakes. Inferences: Gus is actually hilarious, Shawn is actually quite professional, Lassiter is a very weird man, and the entire cast hates doing Red Robin promos. (Shawn: "What do they have at Red Robin? You know what I haven't had in a while..." and the rest is history)

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 24
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, on my lap in a chair by the front door of my house, because I didn't want to bring this whole mess upstairs again just yet, though I know I will have to.

January 10th, 2009: Saturday Edition #1

2009-01-10T21:50:00.000-08:00

Ah, the weekend: when entertainment news decides to nap. That's why on Saturdays, I use a different format. I mention the few entertainment news pieces worth mentioning, and then I write an editorial about what I'm preoccupied with. Sundays are my Week in Literal Review days, when I review music and movies.

INTERESTING NEWS:

A few songs on Kanye's blog today. There's a Jadakiss track that isn't too memorable, there's a Mos Def live morsel that's fun, and there's new Weezy/Pharrell that sounds like it lives in a wind tunnel, but hey, Weezy's verses are fun.

Oh, and fractal teddy bears.
(Edited to add link, because that would be helpful. Can you tell that I hardly know what I'm doing?)

IMPORTANT NEWS:

Diplomatic attempts to end the Israel/Gaza situation are faltering.

This article is terribly written, to the point that I think it is deliberately confusing and misleading, but the point seems to be that Israel wanted to raid Iranian nuclear facilities, and the U.S. rejected the offer because it already had plans to do the same.

The Europe/Russia gas crisis is en route to a solution. This seems like a very important sign of things to come.

This is a pretty levelheaded look at Obama's stimulus plan.

A startling (and potentially inflammatory, but vital) look at one Arab perspective on Israel's recent actions.

This is a reasonable analysis of the Panetta situation.

EDITORIAL:

2009 has definitely hit the ground running, if not exploding; there are upheavals going on in all sectors. Obama's on the verge of taking office, vinyl sales are exploding, the international community is in an uproar about the Israeli invasion of Gaza... it's a lot of stuff to be changing, really drastically changing.
But then I wonder: is all of this optimistic discussion of now being the exciting time, of history getting ready to change- is all of it a big understatement? It seems like we're standing on the threshold of the end of industrial society. Our fuels are dwindling, and when they're gone, every facet of society is going to face unexpected, startling changes. We have the exceptional ability as a species to willfully avoid the frightening observations, but the observations suggest a radical transition on an unprecedented scale.
We crave change, but by change, we mean the changes we expect. What about all the surprises? I really wonder if we're ready to face them.
But then, that's never stopped this crazy planet before.

PERSONAL:

I spent most of today chilling out; I slept past noon. I did see The Wrestler with my mother and her husband. I'll write a review tomorrow; for now, I'll just note my distinct approval. I really like the Angelika theatre, but a lot of the people attending were infuriating. Frontrunners: The guy who faked an injury to get a better seat, people who only knew how to descend the stairs VERY LOUDLY, a woman squeezing by my seat who was intent on explaining to me that she wouldn't leave for the restroom after this one last time, and of course, the lady leaving the theatre who said, "all that blood and stuff, they just didn't need that, it was gross."

At least now I've been to the Texas Theatre Trifecta: the Bijou in San Antonio, the Drafthouse in Austin, and the Angelika in Dallas. Hell yeah.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 1
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 24
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, on my lap in the guest room in Dallas.

January 9th, 2009

2009-01-09T21:38:00.000-08:00

Busy day.

MUSIC:

Two great songs over on Pitchfork. "Anchors Dropped" by Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band has a fun riff, a nice loud/soft thing going on, and is a nice, simple track. Then, "Young Hearts Spark Fire" by Japandroids sounds kind of like what the Cure would sound like if they were still good. This is to say, the vocals plead and careen, the guitars soar, and the drums don't let up.

And via Pitchfork, the new Office album is free, and Pitchfork says they broke up but their blog doesn't give that impression. I hope Pitchfork is wrong because the album is hella fun; it's got all the earmarks of a grower.

Led Zeppelin is no more. The news came a tragic 29 years late.

FILM:

Watchmen out-of-court settlement suddenly appears on the horizon... YES.

Lil' Kim disapproves of Notorious. This is not a surprise, but it does raise some issues worth considering.

First six minutes of Valkyrie available.

Personal note: a shitty-looking film features a plot device strikingly similar to one I use in a screenplay I've been working on for quite some time now. Please, please don't let this movie get big.

WEIRD:

Your cake wants to kill you.

WORLD:

As the death toll in Gaza rises, relief organizations are pulling out due to allegations that Israeli forces are firing upon them. The UN Security Council is calling for a ceasefire; the one vote that wasn't for was an abstaining vote from the U.S.

The murder of unarmed father Oscar Grant by Oakland police started out a small-scale atrocity but has exploded into violent protests and arrests.

PERSONAL:

I spent the day at my mother's work; she teaches freshmen at a Dallas public high school. It was a bit of a Twilight Zone experience as far as being back in a high school, but it was cool to see my mother's teaching style.

We also went to Spiral Diner, a vegan diner here in Dallas with an incarnation in Fort Worth. Delicious vegan food, an enthusiastic waiter on a skateboard, and a music selection that ranged from Radiohead to the Smiths to... Erasure?

The way I said that, it sounds like I don't love Erasure.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 0
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 21
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, on my lap in the guest room in Dallas.

January 8th, 2009

2009-01-08T20:31:00.001-08:00

I'm up in Dallas. My internet here is sketchy, so it will be a bumpy couple of days as far as this blog is concerned. Quick but important note: /Film is now malware-free, for certain, so start obsessively reading it again.

MUSIC:

Bon Iver's new EP is streaming on myspace. It sounds delicate and gorgeous, and oughtn't disappoint the numerous fans.

TMT's got another great article, this time a nice explanation of what all this iTunes store hubbub is about. It's worth a read if you, y'know, use the internet ever.

Pitchfork's got an incredible MP3 for free download; it's called "Against the Day" by a group called Land of Kush. It's a little imposing and hectic at first, but around 1:30 the pace explodes and the song takes on a firm direction, and from there, it's golden. This is incredible, sweeping, dramatic stuff; it's all I've been listening to, on repeat.

Dre is upset about his new track leaking. I'll find it once my net is speedy again. R. Kelly, if I may make a suggestion: you'll want to avoid songs about bodily functions after, uh, you know, peeing on people.

FILM:

Two trailers came out today, neither of which will load on my internet right now. So with nothing to comment, here's Fighting and the remake of Last House on the Left.

A few Watchmen-related happenings today. A new viral marketing site is up, and one of the producers just wrote a fantastic and well-argued open letter about this legal Fox debacle.

WEIRD:

Spiderman met Obama.

The Curious Case of Kanye West, according to Kanye West.

WORLD:

According to Democracy Now, the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 700, 219 of which are children. Israel's army is privately retracting the claim that Hamas fired out of the UN-run school it recently attacked. An EU and (ostensibly) U.S. backed ceasefire proposal out of Egypt has drawn global attention.

For those interested, the Obama inauguration is being shown for free via HBO.

PERSONAL:

Most of today was spent in transit; I left San Antonio around half past three and arrived at my mother's house in Dallas around nine. It was a long trip, but not unpleasant by any stretch. Note to self: Vegan cookie dough = greatest invention by human beings.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 0
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 8
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, on my lap in the guest room at my mother's house in Dallas, angry about the odd internet connection.

January 7th, 2009

2009-01-07T22:44:00.000-08:00

Heads up: /Film's site seems to have been malware-jacked. This may be very temporary, but proceed with caution.

MUSIC:

New Peter Bjorn & John song, "Nothing to Worry About," courtesy of Kanye West's blog, because the world isn't weird enough. In keeping with their recent "Lay it Down" video (NSFW), the track is big, beat-heavy, slightly malicious and peculiarly raw. Oh, and Kanye likes the chorus.

TMT has an informative and concise article about some interesting trends in 2008's music sales. Notably, vinyl sales almost doubled and the same tiny group of songs is selling repeatedly through digital venues.

FILM:

New Slammin' Salmon trailer! It's a red-band, of course. Parts of it seem uncomfortable, but I laughed out loud a few glorious times - in other words, this movie looks likely to replicate my Super Troopers experience.

RottenTomatoes has an interesting BSG-inspired (advertiser-funded?) write-up of smart science fiction films. It's mostly the predictable canon, but the inclusion of Solaris, a true gem, makes the list worth it.

Continuing their string of hype, MTV has a clip from Notorious. To be honest, the acting looks a little bit forced, and the writing is trying too hard by a longshot... this clip has got me nervous, but maybe context is all I need.

WEIRD:

If neither "Nothing to Worry About" nor its premiere on Kanye's blog are weird enough for you, you're pretty much impossible to confuse. Well, here's this: on my iTunes, "Nothing to Worry About" is followed by a real why-did-I-download-this masterpiece, Starship's "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now." Imagine how that transition feels.

WORLD:

The situation in Gaza is amplifying with no discernible end in sight.

Desperate Haitians have been denied protection by the United States.

...but things are doing fine for Burris!

PERSONAL:

I caught some new episodes of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report today, and the experience was thoroughly rejuvenating, far more than I predict my roommate's "cleansing" process will be. Starving yourself seems to be generally misguided.

I went out to eat with some friends I haven't seen much since I left for college; we all wound up playing a few intense games of Clue. Both times, I guessed incorrectly at the center of the board; it was a heartbreaking experience.

The two songs I'm listening to most are collaboration-overdosed N.A.S.A.'s "Gifted" and that streaming Animal Collective song. It's like getting two samples of a larger and more delicious dish. I really don't mind.

2009 FILMS SEEN: 0
2009 SONGS ON MY ITUNES: 6
Current Computer Situation: MacBook Pro, comfortable on my desk in the old room.