The personal and profound ideas that leap out of my brain.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Happy New Regina Spektor Album Day Everybody!
Here's your Ha-Ha moment for the day:
In criticizing Regina Spektor's new album, Far, for being essentially a caricature of Spektor's own "personality" (quotes added by the reviewer, not myself), Pitchfork.com becomes a perfect caricature of their own snarky, hipster "personality" (ok, that time it was me).
Seriously, this thing reads like a combination of the indignation from The Who's "My Generation," and the old affectation of the perpetually holier-than-thou, "Act your age, not your shoe size."
Meh, 1/2 way through reading their criticisms of it, I went out and bought it. They seem to hate all the things I love about Regina Spektor.
-UP - Most depressing animated movie of the year! Also, the bloodiest Pixar movie to date. The 3-D of this movie is pretty over-rated, and mostly used to give subtle depth to scenes which feature windows in the background. While it's nice to see filmmakers embracing subtlety in their work, a 3-D animated movie about a man who ties thousands of balloons to his house and makes the thing fly to a mythical island populated by talking dogs and giant birds isn't exactly subtle. Or at least you wouldn't think it would be. But this sucker is like Eddie Izzard's idea of British films: Lots of very fine acting, but the action is sort of folded in on itself. Also, I didn't expect the film to be death-centric. A friend commented that the film is more about loss than death, and I agree, but still. Tragic. What a downer. And this from a guy who likes depressing movies! I suppose maybe it's because it didn't say anything new about death/loss, only that we all eventually meet our end, and that's depressing.
-Monsters vs Aliens - And on the opposite end of the spectrum... I had such ridiculously low expectations for this movie, and I was so so so wrong about it. I don't even care that I'm about to ruin the best part of it for those who haven't seen it. Imagine the President of the USA (voiced by Stephen "Perfect Casting" Colbert) making the long slow walk up a set of Presidential stairs to meet with a giant alien robot. When he gets to the podium, this happens:
Along with a few handfuls of hilarious other moments ("Laaaaammmmmmeeee", "I want a real kitten hanging from a real tree!") this so far has been one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. And it's in recognizable 3D!
-The Decemberists - I have been listening to the band-geek's new album pretty heavily for the last little while, even going so far as to write a long-form review of the album which will eventually be played on Trent Radio (whenever I get around to applying for a show). For now I will say the following:
Most hardcore Decemberists album yet!
Funny how if you listen to the guest star's solo work, they don't really sound like they do on this record.
A rock opera seems to be the logical conclusion of the Decemberists canon, but where do they go from here?
None of these songs make sense out of context.
- The Dark Knight on TV,
I guess it was inevitable that this movie would be shown on cable, but what an unexpected and interesting promo for it!
I also encourage you to check this one out, if only for the first 6 seconds. Man, I miss Heath Ledger.
-Music in general.
I am in full-blown saturation mode. After finally discovering the wonderful piratey world of bit-torrents, I have a lot of new music. I'm trying to give everything its proper due, but I find I'm only listening to the popular songs, or the ones that jump out. So my current playlist looks something like this:
-I'm Confused - Handsome Furs -Won't Want for Love - The Decemberists -Inside a Boy - My Brightest Diamond -Elephants - Rachel Yamagata -Dull Life - Yeah Yeah Yeahs -Daniel - Bat for Lashes -Satellite Skin - Modest Mouse -Where is My Mind? - The Pixies -Satin in a Coffin (Modest Mouse cover) - Iron Horse
A quick word on that last one. Freaky. I never thought Modest Mouse could be covered because of Isaac Brock's inimitable insanity, but wow... This conjures up a whole new level of crazy: That casual, breezy villain who secretly has a stash of bodies buried under the porch which he is currently sitting on, plucking away at a banjo. Brrrr....
-Well, that's a pretty loose ramble about some stuff I've been checking out lately. Come back later for more, I'm sure. Or come get drunk with me and the loose structure won't matter.
Twilight director Catherine Hardwicke is set to revamp William Shakespeare by giving Hamlet a modern twist.
Her Lords of Dogtown star Emile Hirsch will lead the cast of the supernatural thriller, according to EW.com.
The project began life as an idea proposed by Hirsch and Hardwicke.
Reports suggest the new Hamlet will be set in a liberal arts college, where the lead character's late father was the president.
Hardwicke gives all the credit for the new film to Into The Wild star Hirsch: "I had never thought of it at all until Emile mentioned the idea. At first, I thought it was scary and crazy, and then we read it aloud and I knew how to do it."
And Hardwicke plans to use some of Shakespeare's original dialogue in her film: "You will understand everything without having a copy of Shakespeare for Dummies with you."
Oh god no.....
I should be happy that it's making Shakespeare more accessible for tweens, but... ew. I'm a little curious as to how badly they'll butcher "To Be or Not To Be."
