I’ve lost it completely. Movies suck.

There are some things movie makers (and TV show makers) could do to make it easier for me to suspend my disbelief, like:
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In the comments to my previous post Ivan complained that I was comparing two movies with only superficial similarities.  Well I have an even worse comparison:

Evan Almighty is a very poor remake of Field of Dreams.   As SG would say:

Discuss.

Picture

No Country for Old Men

There Will be Blood

Atonement

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

American Gangster

Dark Horse: Gone, Baby, Gone (more…)

Mild spoilers follow. This probably won’t be a worthwhile discussion if you haven’t seen movies. Actually, it might not be worthwhile at all…

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Rock Band.

 I am Stony,  legendary rock drummer.  Hear my fans roar.  My band: Fall With The Herd.  We will rock your face off.

Q: Can this really be classified as a “video game” if I have tendonitis from banging the skins? 

A: This is so much more than a video game.

In reverse order.

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I don’t know exactly what this says about me, but the end of this movie trailer had me rolling.

And that’s coming from a Burton fan.

It’s also my favorite movie musical. That’s not coming from a fan of movie musicals. I mean, I like Westside Story, Singin’ in the Rain (minus that ridiculous “Gotta Dance” sequence), and Chicago OK but Sweeny Todd is awesome. (more…)

Here are my five reasons for being grateful this holiday season:

5. Radiohead restoring my faith in grassroots capitalism by exposing the hollowness of bands and record labels who use single, catchy tracks to push entire albums of mostly crap and then try to sue their fans for stealing them.

4. Brett Favre, for proving me right in my arguments with family members: he is a superior quarterback to Steve Young (in the sports category Honorable Mentions go to Boston area sports — go Celtics! — and Jeff Van Gundy’s brilliantly honest color-commentary for ABC/ESPN).

3. Twin Peaks — The Definitive Gold Box Edition, DVD. Finally, the original Pilot Episode, and Seasons 1 and 2 in one place. Can I get a hallelujah, Diane?

2. HBO, On Demand: The Wire, Season 4. HBO is running season 4 of perhaps television’s greatest dramatic series all December — a splendid Christmas present for those who need a re-up before the 5th and final season begins in January.

1. Well adapted books. Beginning in early 2007 with the wide theater release of the Alfonso Cuaron’s magnificent Children of Men and culminating with the Coen Brothers’ triumphal return to cinematic greatness (two stories that explored the relationship between narrative, violence, and human meaning), the film industry has graced moviegoers with a steady output of well-made, entertaining films based upon books, fiction and non-fiction alike. Examples include Zodiac; Gone, Baby, Gone; Kiterunner; There Will be Blood; Atonement; and Charlie Wilson’s War. With Yann Martel’s The Life of Pi and William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition in the cinematic offings, one hopes that the standard will hold.

Christmas Wish List:

A peaceful end to the writer’s strike.

A Lost season 4 that lives up to its promise.

An end to 24.

A less-than-4-year hiatus before Radiohead’s next album.

A wardrobe malfunction at the 2008 Superbowl to distract us from the steady decline in the quality of the commercials.

Advanced screening passes to The Dark Night.

On earth peace, good will toward men.

Yours Truly,
Cinnamon J. Scudworth

OK, you’ve all seen them again. What’s the best animated Christmas shows? The only one I haven’t seen this year is the Charlie Brown Christmas, which bugs me. I think CBS had the rights and they put it on a couple of weeks ago. I missed it and they’ve never rebroadcast it.

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Here’s my top 5, based purely on objective and unassailable criteria:

5: Arcade Fire/LCD Soundsystem
4: Gomez
3: Mute Math 
2: Interpol/Shout Out Louds
1: Fall Out Boy/The Academy Is…/+44

This was a difficult list because all of these shows were fantastic.  But FOB and friends deserve the top spot because of the bands they toured with, the quality of the show, and let’s face it: they rock.

 Your thoughts?

Interesting NYTs bit on the writers’ strike. Apparently David Letterman is negotiating individually with the writer’s union and plans on being back on the air in January. John Stewart is talking about the same. The union is going to try and make it so everyone negotiates individually.
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Awhile back, Jen posted asking for advice on how to represent her love for music as a tattoo. She got her music tattoo last week, and asked I that post an update (she doesn’t have time right now).

So here it is:

I think it may be one of the coolest tattoos I’ve ever seen.
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This year cannot be allowed to expire until we mark the 20th anniversary of the release of one of the great albums of the last century. 

It’s one of those signposts in the landscape of modern pop culture that only seems to loom larger the further you get from it.  It now seems incomprehensible that Rolling Stone placed this album only second on its list of the best albums of 1987 (although readers picked it #1), but it was then third on its 1990 list of the Best Albums of the 80s (behind Purple Rain #2 and London Calling #1), and #26 on its 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time. 

Was it really 20 years ago?

I was between my junior and senior years of college, standing in a music store in Taipei, Taiwan on my day off from teaching English to endless classes of extremely well behaved Chinese children.  Mindlessly browsing through the racks for something new to stick in my yellow Sony Walkman Sport (remember?),  I picked up a new cassette from U2,  a band I had come to love through repeat listenings of The Unforgettable Fire and Under a Blood Red Sky.  I had heard next to nothing about this new album.  I bought it, put it in, went on my way, and didn’t take that tape out again for a very long time.  I listened to it while walking to work every day, between teaching classes, while walking back to my tiny apartment, while on public transportation, while writing in my journal, while falling asleep.  If I could have listened to it in the shower, I would have.  It became part of my subconscious.  What I heard was a revelation.  It was unflinchingly both political and religious, it was about war and drug addicton, missing children, obsessive love, deserted landscapes, death and faith.  I loved every single song.  I still do.

Where were you? 

Films I have never seen: (more…)

Please bear with us as we deal with some technical difficulties with our template. KB content is fresh and lively, as ever.

May I suggest that you all participate in the Sprint/NBC “Create Your Hero” contest? It ends soon. M80 and NBC/Sprint contacted us to offer information and materials about it, and while it may be just another cross-marketing campaign, it’s something creative to do on a Friday while Kulturblog is down. Click here for more details.

It takes more than sound bites and quirky dialogue to make a successful indie movie. It also takes more than inserting a pregnant teen into the script to make for a poignant movie. But JUNO succeeds as an amazingly heartfelt and entertaining film because it contains both real poignancy and a whip-smart script, and transcends its genre at the same time. (more…)

If you go to see Alvin and the Chipmunks, you probably know what you’re getting yourself into. It’s a pretty thin premise, after all: Dave Seville (Jason Lee) and a chipper trio of woodland rodents—Alvin, Simon and Theodore, naturally—record catchy pop tunes whilst hijinks and hilarity ensues. The aim of this, the latest version of a franchise that’s mined these shallows for the past 50 years, is to present the basic origin story to an audience that probably has no idea what happens when you play a record at the wrong speed, assuming they’d even recognize a record player if they saw one. It’s also typical nostalgia-mongering aimed at parents who might be willing to take a chance on something they enjoyed as a kid. The good news here is that, due mostly to a pretty good cast and some excellent character design, the movie isn’t half bad, and may just be the best choice among the slim options of available kids’ fare this holiday season.

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1. David Lynch
2. Stephen Spielberg
3. Michael Moore
4. Harry Knowles
5. and this guy.

65/35

Because this is fact and not up for debate I’m considering turning the comments off. Though I guess I’ll leave them on for those who want to chime in and agree with me.

Liveblogging the possible season finale. Previously, not a lot happened, except that Joanna Cassidy went waaaaay downhill. (more…)

So as we were decorating the tree today my wife and I were talking about what Christmas traditions were our favorite. (Burnt out lights and hyperactive overly excited kids definitely weren’t in the top 10)
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