What does it say about me that I enjoy watching the dead feast on the flesh of the living? Am I one sick puppy because I love zombie movies? Probably, but I do have an intellectual justification for my twisted fascination.
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Or, A Stoner Rocker Goes to An Indie Show.
Actually, I’ve been to several shows the last few weekends, so I thought I’d share some of the experiences. First, a couple weekends ago I went to see Ted Leo on Friday, and then went out to Palm Springs to catch some bands out there on Saturday night. Then last weekend, I went to see some doom/stoner bands. Of all the shows, the experience of seeing indie rocker Ted Leo was the most unusual for me.
I thought we should have a post dedicated to discussing the Oscars. What are your thoughts?
Another plug for my project from last year, Mormoniana has received another beautiful review, in Sunday’s Salt Lake Tribune, which can be found here.
As I’ve been surfing the web, reading my favorite music sources, and listening to the radio, I’ve been struck by how much great music is coming out in March. I thought I’d share the ones to which I’m most looking forward. Feel free to heckle, praise, or mention others you’re excited about. My top five, in the order they’ll be released, are:
I was flattered last Sunday when I was asked to speak at a career night organized by the youth leaders of my church. But I have no idea what to tell these kids?
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If you find yourself in front of a computer screen this weekend, may I suggest that you take in the excellent BMW Films? Clive Owen stars in a series of amazing shorts by famous directors, including John Frankenheimer and John Woo. It’s old news (season 1 is up, as well as three from season 2), but they are great to watch. Have a good weekend!
Thought we’d give ourselves a little ol’ poll…
The only thing I knew about Constantine
before I entered the theater was what the previews had shown me: it’s a
religious horror/thriller with Keanu Reeves. But that’s all I needed to
convince me to give the theater my five dollars. Frankly, I kinda like Keanu
Reevesâ€â€the Matrix trilogy,
the Bill & Ted films, and
Speed make up for the Sweet Novembers of his resume.
Plus, it’s relatively rare for Hollywood to release a big budget film with overt supernaturally religious themes. Being
a religion geek, I eat it up.
I’ve been pulling together ideas to include in my thesis and one of my writers suggested an idea that she likened to a (writing) technique used in Sex and the City. Mildly embarrassed, I admit that I know this technique (because I occasionally watch the show on TBS).
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You may know that I am a big fan of Gmail. I think that its interface is the future of email and it’s head and shoulders above everything else. It’s all because of flat architecture. Let me explain what I mean, and if you’re still interested, I have a ton of invites.
You know how when you get a new album and it’s so awesome, you just want everyone you know to hear it? Well, here’s what I want you to hear.
The Chemical Brothers are the number one name in electronic music, hands-down (though other bands, such as Air, Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx vie for the title). They had smash hits with their 1999 release Surrender, which gave us songs like "Music:Response" and an excellent Michel Gondry-directed video for "Let Forever Be." Now The Brothers (who aren’t really brothers) have given us their latest effort, Push the Button.
It’s really pretty good.
The late 90’s were heady days for computer geeks. Technology was changing rapidly and noticeably. Remember when the Pentium processor came out? Talk about smokin’ fast – you could actually get 166 MHz or more out of some of those things! In those days, hard drives broke the gigabyte barrier, you could tell the difference between 8 MB and 16 MB of RAM, and your video card actually made a difference in what your Windows desktop looked like (instead of made the difference between getting 65 and 75 frames per second playing Doom III).
Dallin’s post on holiday disasters reminded me of a true holiday disaster. Yes, Virginia, it does get worse than PHANTOM MENACE. There is an episode of Star Wars so awful that even someone as smart as John H could never hope to redeem it–THE STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL–a piece of TV so bad that George Lucas has attempted to buy and destroy all the master tapes in order to ensure it never is seen by human eyes again.
One summer, while driving my sister to school at Arizona State University, me and my family stopped at various national parks as part of our vacation. At Mesa Verde, our impatience with one other grew so out of control that my older sister and little brother locked everyone out of the car for a good half hour, my Dad took off by himself on foot and my mother broke down and cried.
You tell me! My take: good, but not the best of the year.
For some reason, I have no pride online. I’m willing to admit to being a geek here, but not in the outside, reserve-some-personal-decorum, world. But that means ya’ll are lucky…you get some true confessions, and here’s mine: I’m a closet Battlestar Galactica fan.
I spent last Saturday morning wandering through Central Park enjoying Christo and Jeanne Claude’s The Gates. What with all the ink that has already been spilt in praising, criticizing, and assessing this project, I’ll refrain from saying too much and will instead gather some resources for those that are interested in commentary. I will report that Cirila and I were absolutely enchanted, as much of the (disproportionately European) crowd seemed to be. As the fabric was unfurled, gate by gate, the throngs cheered and grinned. If nothing else, it was a "happening," as they used to say — ambitious, provocative, and unashamedly modern. Everyone had a camera, and we were no exception. I’ve posted some of our snapshots below.
Recently a surplus of excellent Canadian pop and rock music has been streaming across the border like an Arctic cold front. Perhaps Steve brought it with him. I haven’t quite done my research on the matter, but from bits and pieces I have read about the Canadian music "scene", our neighbors to the north seem to invest more in recognizing and developing real talent than we do here where talent plays understudy to style.
In the spirit of today’s fake holiday, I present to you the most romantic way to express your true feelings to your loved one (much more heartfelt than posting a blog expressing those feelings).
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I was pretty much born a dweeb – doomed from the start, I dare say. I found a picture of myself wearing a Star Wars t-shirt when I was a year old. Looks like I can thank Mom and Dad for not kissing a girl till I was 16.
I watched Star Wars constantly as a kid. First it was the tapes made from HBO, waaaaay back when. Then it was the Ewok adventure movies. Then they released Star Wars on VHS, three or four times. Wore ‘em all out. Dweeb, I tell you.
M. Night Shyamalan’s spectacular feature debut The Sixth Sense established him as a dyanmic new force in the world of supernatural thrillers. His follow-up efforts Unbreakable and Signs showed that he had staying power, that his creative energies were sufficient to enable him to single-handedly define an entirely new subgenre of a well-established category of film.
Shyamalan’s most recent offering The Village demonstrates how successful he has been in establishing the genre associated with him. The Village manages to be generic in the worst sense of the word, following all of the conventions without adding anything new.
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I’ve added to the radio.blog a couple of my favorite comedians, plus some lovely Spinners and the Five Stairsteps.
Feel free to post your favorite comedian quotes for our enjoyment.
"Probably the toughest time in anyone’s life…is when you have to murder a loved one because they’re the devil." - Emo Philips