OK, I’m behind because I’ve been busy and using the PVR heavily to watch shows when I can. Lost amidst all the discussion of a frankly fantastic Heros episode were the other big two. Battlestar Galactica and 24. So without further adieu off we go.
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I’ve created another podcast during my commute time, this one features singers with thick accents. (Which I should probably dedicate to Ronan, our resident Brit, since most of the bands are British.)
Featured songs:
New Model Army – “Bittersweet”
Billy Bragg – “The Short Answer”
The Decemberists – “The Legionaire’s Lament”
The Toy Dolls – “Fiery Jack”
Alisdair Roberts – “The Whole House is Singing”
Damian Dempsey – “Ghosts of Overdoses”
(I’ll get better at the editing eventually. Unfortunately, I can’t edit them while driving, and my time to spend on it at home is very limited!)
Actually, I don’t think I want to ask why you should listen to jazz. Better is, why should anybody make the effort to give jazz a try. I think ultimately there’s an aesthetic payoff–jazz is both fun and challenging, and the challenge makes the fun that much better–but there are other musical forms that are also challenging, other forms that are also fun, and even some that are both. So let me offer two contradictory reasons, plus a third for United States kulturbloggers. (more…)
Holy crap, people! (more…)
While watching the Oscars last night I noticed there was a lot of talk about all the good Hollywood can and does do, of their positive impact on the world. The implication is that they help us see things/each other in a more simpathetic light, that they expose us to the horrible things that are going on in the world, that through their insight they can bring positive change to the world.
This is nice and all but the problem with that is they won’t ever fess up to all the bad they do too. They’ll never admit their influence on how we view our bodies, how we view love/lust/sex, how we view violence, etc. They need to either admit they are influencial, both positive and negative, or that they exist for purely entertainment purposes and have no influence whatsoever.
I went to this show for Jackson, but was really happy I stayed for Willie.
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A new LOST episode is better than no new LOST episode. Right?
Spoilers concerning tonight’s episode and other stuff below the fold.
The Prestige is writer/director Christopher Nolan’s fourth major work. He burst onto the scene in 2000 with the amazing mind bender Memento and with each subsequent film he has seen his stock rise. 2005′s excellent and successful Batman Begins announced Nolan as a mainstream force to be reckoned with. The Prestige shares many elements in common with Nolan’s previous works, from the complex narrative structure, to the dark feel, to the psychologically maladjusted male protagonists and further demonstrates Nolan’s storytelling prowess. (more…)
This week’s Band Spotlight features a wonderful Swedish band, Loney, Dear.
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I go see a pretty wide variety of shows, but most are at small bars/indie clubs. I’ve seen shows with really quiet audiences, such as Low or Damien Rice (although the fans call out stuff between songs quite a bit). I’ve seen shows with incredibly wild, rowdy audiences, like most of the all ages shows I saw growing up as a teen in Seattle.
(Seattle was known for it’s crazy audiences. If you watch Pearl Jam’s video for “Evenflow,” that’s exactly how Seattle shows were. That wasn’t being put on for the camera.)
I think the funnest shows are the heavy metal shows. Specifically, the all ages metal shows. The kids go crazy. Stage diving, crowd surfing, moshing. The energy of it is just so fun.
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Tonight’s title refers to an unexpectedly good episode.
Radioactive Man, somewhere in the Nevada desert, is chatting up some fine fox on gtalk. Only….there’s no internet!! His correspondent knows what they did to Ted, and as Ted turns around she’s there: Hana Gitelman, who is a Penelope Cruz-Israeli cyberwarrior. She wants to team up with Ted to find HRG, and NUKE him. Cool. (more…)
OK, I was going to hold off until Tuesday to do a nice wrap up of several of this week’s shows. But what the heck. I kind of dug this episode even if I suspect many won’t. It was A Day in the Life and is one of the more individual episodes that doesn’t really move the plot much. I’ve been pretty critical of those since, as often as not, they fail. One of the reasons I think the first season was so successful was because the plot always was moving. There was that feeling of tension and hopelessness that was well captured. In the second season there were some very good more individual episodes but several that failed. The third season has largely been problematic with these episodes and sub-plots unrelated to the main story arch.
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What color do you associate with each number? Do you think any are universal? Write your answers and compare with others.
LOST has returned from its season 3 hiatus with two excellent consecutive episodes. Hopefully, the doubters have been quieted for now.
My apologies to those of you who visited yesterday looking for my LOST post. I took the night off and spent it with my valentine.
Spoilers from yesterday’s episode and more after the break.
I was busy and kept waiting for someone to put up a summary of my favorite shows. They got a few passing references in other posts but nothing dedicated to them. Maybe everyone is so taken with the ever worsening Heros that these other great shows don’t get much respect. Although I’ve still not seen Heros yet since a crazed gunman shot up SLC and pre-empted it. I downloaded it from iTunes but haven’t been able to watch it since my wife would kill me if I watched it without her. (Watching TV on computers isn’t nearly as good as watching on TV)
The only thing better than watching TV is snarking about it. Trust me on this one. And although I do consider myself a brown belt in snarkery, I kneel at the feet of the true masters, Tara “Wing Chun” Ariano and Sarah “Sars” Bunting of Television Without Pity. Consider their new book, Television Without Pity — 752 Things We Love to Hate (and Hate to Love) About TV, as the Chicken Soup for the Snarker’s Soul. (more…)
“The Brits” are the British Grammys (though the Mercury Music Prize is more coveted). Here’s who won last night and some songs from the British artistes: (more…)
I have given up.
I am no longer watching BSG. This after purchasing the DVD of the miniseries before most people had even heard of the show and having seen every episode until midway through this season. I have never watched Lost or Heroes. I haven’t watched 24 since the second season. My current favorite show is 30 Rock.
Why is this? (more…)
Here’s why I like this song: piano keys overlayed by industrial scuzz, cool drum machine, fuzzed-up bass-keyboard, great pop hook, grungy E-chord guitar.
Here’s why I feel guilty about it: NIN marks me as at least 30 (ack!); it’s MTV industrial — all the cool kids liked Front 242; going to a NIN concert in the 90′s was like stepping into goth hell (I do not, nor have I ever, painted my nails black); Trent Reznor’s filthy whispers are annoying.
Song is “Every day is exactly the same” (from With Teeth).
I decided to try my hand at a podcast. The editing is a rather rough; the length is a bit long; I sound like a total idiot. Enjoy!
Songs featured:
Alanis Morrissette – “Uninvited”
Converge – “Hell to Pay”
Secret Machines – “Daddy’s in the Doldrums”
Siouxsie and the Banshees – “Happy House”
Sinead O’Conner – “Troy”
Talk Talk – “Renee”
Mountain Goats – “The House That Dripped Blood”
Agents of Oblivion – “Big Black Backwards”
I could pretend that I’m kuhl and blah blah about Polyvinyl records, the regrouping of Absinthe Blind, indie-pop stargazing, and how this band’s “occasional invocation of pedal steel” offers “a bit more strum than glimmer,” but I’d be way beyond my blag line. No, I’ll fess up. I was just looking for a gig in Vienna, decided that touring bands from the US were a safer bet than some local Austro-pap, and was attracted by the 5 Euro tickets. So me and my chum Peter took in Headlights at Arena,* Vienna. Very cool. They’re touring odd places in the US in March and April and a offer nice evening of guitar hum and chirp.
*Not Arena as in Bon Jovi, but Arena as in filthy grunge pit on some nasty industrial estate.
You know you’re in for something good when the episode title has an exclamation point. Then again, maybe not! (more…)
I just want to say that I obsessively watch movie trailers online. As a result, I really, really want to watch 300, which has just about the coolest trailers ever. But what, might you ask, is my current #2? Um…Nancy Drew.
Michael Ausiello at TV Guide says that a series regular on Heroes will die this season, one of Peter, Claire, HRG, Mohinder, Niki/Jessica, Simone or Micah. Who should die? (more…)
I didn’t catch the whole thing, missed most of the last hour I think. I have it recorded and will probably watch it tonight.
Performances:
The Police: I just might pay $100 for a ticket if they do a reunion tour.
Gnarls Barkley: One of the few I didn’t get bored and fast foward through.
Christina Aguilera: This kind of thing should not be encouraged.
Mary J. Blige: See Christina Aguilera.
Beyonce: I love her but that was a horrible song.
Carrie Underwood doing the Eagles and Bob Mills: Loved it.
Whoever that other guy was doing the Eagles: Why not get Don Henley up there?
Shakira: I was so impressed with her being able to shake her hips like that AND sing that I actually stood up in my living room to try it. My husband was sure she was lip syncing. I’m not convinced.
New discoveries:
Corinne Bailey Rae. Have to check her out now.
Awards:
How could the Dixie Chicks be awarded for that horrible, stupid song, over and over? Something is wrong in the world.
Is the Grammys one of those shows where only the winners of awards are asked to perform? At least all the performances seemed live to me, rather than lip synced.
What’d I forget/miss?