2 January 2003
This is the end of the wildly text-oriented Winter Blog. It will now be hosted at Tripod's archives.
Check the Carleton site for a new blog.
I wonder how long I will be able to stand this title. I like it two minutes into the blog. I also wonder how long I will be able to stand the decorations around the text. We shall see.
2003 started out with me driving to Carleton with my stuff and my parents and without my winter jacket. Hopefully that will arrive in the next few days c/o my only St. Olaf acquaintance. the trip featured Pink Moon and Five Leaves Left, both by Nick Drake, The Boy with the Arab Strap by Belle and Sebastian, the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack (which was sung along to at the end of 2002) and American Beauty by the Grateful Dead. We stopped at Wal-Mart, where I got a 3-subject notebook and an electric toothbrush, and at Culver's, where I ate a sourdough melt, fries, some onion rings, some custard and drank a root beer. Upon arrival at Carleton I set up my room, ate dinner, checked mail and got my computer up and running. In Max's room I listened to the latest Badly Drawn Boy CD, a sampler from CMJ, his cousin's band (or someone he knows) and Pavement.
By the way, I have just finished the second disc of Pavement's newly released Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe; it is fantastic. The record itself, the first fourteen tracks, was fantastic and the rest of the stuff, 34 tracks both live and in the studio, are all also fantastic. At regular expensive-CD price, I got 48 tracks. Fantastic.
Today I have downloaded music from Max and from Gnucleus (No Use For A Name, The Streets, Stereolab) and some other stuff that I will mention if I ever deem it worthy. I bought my books and used the internet. It has been a good 25 hours. This term has a better outlook than last term except for the weather.
4 January 2003
I capped yesterday off by going to dinner and watching USC destroy Iowa and spending some time in Max's room.
I enjoy the new Badly Drawn Boy, albeit differently than the first.
Math and Computer Science classes went smoothly today; I have almost completed my homework for the weekend.
I listened to the new Sigur Ros (it has yet to impress me as much as Agaetis Byrjun) and something else by Stereolab that I enjoyed. I am nearing the end of A Year at the Movies, and will now proceed with a quotation:
"Men as a gender group love action movies and dopey comedies full of condom and poop jokes, and they want to sit in the 'sweet spot'. They spread out. They slump. They want their eyes filled with sound and motion because it will partially take their mind off sex for a short while."
Ohio State beat Miami 31-24 in double overtime, coming in 13 point underdogs, to win the Fiesta Bowl and, by extension, the national championship. it was indeed fulfilling to witness a team I have followed for many years (as long as I have been watching television) finally reach the highest level. Personally, I am of the opinion that providing an entertaining game, every week or day as the case may be, should be the goal of any sports team. Therefore, I sometimes get upset at good coaches and players being traded or let go simply because they can't "win the big one". It was, however, a very nice feeling as I watched the Buckeyes win their 14th game (the most ever by a division I-A football team). It was an amazing season and an incredible finish with some of the most effective defense I have ever seen, on both sides of the ball. Craig Krenzel, without any big numbers, may have been the most important quarterback in college football this year, and it was nice to see someone trustworthy at the helm.
I worked today for the first time this term. We were short a person and therefore didn't get all the bulk mail delivered. I closed everything up at 2.00pm.
I ate at the snackbar, where the computer was causing some confusion. Apparently Sodexho Marriott doesn't know what meal plan students have so they have to write everything down. At least I didn't have to pay cash for my meal.
After that I scanned pictures at the CMC and created a web page for them. It looks pretty good although there are one or two pictures that I don't have for some reason.
6 January 2003
Last night was mostly boring. I finished the book I was reading and I think I must have done something with the computer. I went to Cristina and Susannah's room for a while.
Today I went to brunch, watched an exciting football game between the Browns and Steelers (I also saw the 49ers beat the Giants before The Simpsons), and I worked with my computer. For some reason it had a disaster and didn't load anything when I started so I spent roughly seven hours today fixing it and getting everything back where it is supposed to go. I suppose everything is in its right place now.
Math and CS classes were fine today, as were work and lunch. Film History and Criticism was interesting but it is too bad that our evening screenings conflict with both Singers and Film Society. I finished my CS after Singers so tomorrow I have only to read two chapters for film class and do problems for Calculus. I also get to pick up my winter coat tomorrow at St. Olaf and, as a result, send a UPC to my parents.
9 January 2003
Tuesday, I got my winter coat, I read the first two chapters of The History of Narrative Film and sang.
Wednesday, I went to class, worked (where I learned that I will be paid to become a student driver), watched Birth of a Nation (which was largely a pain to sit through, although I admit that it was some good filmmaking for 1915).
Thursday, I need to mail a UPC. I also need to watch David Letterman because Interpol will provide the live entertainment at the end of the show.
11 January 2003
I watched David Letterman on Thursday and saw Chuck Barris but Interpol switched to Wednesday and I missed them.
I took a nap yesterday because I didn't feel well. I watched Magnolia and many music videos.
I learned how to drive today. I saw Panic. It was, though not great, very good in some ways.
13 January 2003
I am in Max's room. We are listening to Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots by The Flaming Lips for the second time tonight. Last night we listened to Southern Devils by Pimpadelic two times after watching Election.
Today I had Pancakes. I watched some of both football games and did my calculus homework at that time. I watched The Simpsons and wrote my CS program. I have now programmed in C++.
I went to all of my classes and to work and to Singers and to the library to watch a film on Oscar Micheaux and race movies and to the KRLX All-DJ meeting where I picked up an application:
Something Other Than Else
KRLX 88.1FM Northfield, Minnesota
Saving the world through rock'n'roll. One song at a time. On a toasted bun. With mustard. Honey mustard. And maybe accompanied by an iced tea, but not necessarily. Freshly brewed, in any case. Freshly brewed indeed.
Featuring: The Velvet Underground, Radiohead, Bob Dylan, Wilco
14 January 2003
I stayed up too late last night and as a result today will not be as great a day as previously envisioned.
15 January 2003
Today is the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.
I fell asleep in film class and in our screening today. I need to get enough sleep if I plan to watch a movie. I also attended Film Society's screening of Ratcatcher. It was powerful; I understood what the critics meant by 'lyrical'. At times the dismal environment surrounding the main character and his family is almost too much, but in the end the film, rather than overwhelming the viewer with sadness, it exposes the ability of children to soldier on through hard times.
The United States of America has gone mad.
'I believe there are people out there who buy Baker's books - the nerds of this world buy Baker.' - John Updike in the Guardian's review of A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker, with whom I have discussed urination strategies for public restrooms.
17 January 2003
I had a difficult time with my alarm clock this morning and woke up later than I'd've liked. There were no serious consequences other than the fact that I finished my homework at 12:26. Indeed, I worked at the Post Office, signed up for the Lakeville Movie Bus (I will see About Schmidt or maybe The 25th Hour), volunteered at The Clothes Closet for the first time (gathering loose hangers from among the clothes in the store), read a mass for a comps project, read at the library, did my calculus and read more film history. I also downloaded a lot of Sleater-Kinney, most of which I have listened to. It is now time to eat pizza.
I soldiered through both classes today. I even made it to Calculus on time, remembering that we start 10 minutes early on Friday. Mary Frances Berry gave a solid convo, our second in two weeks. I had my luncheon at Burton with Maxwell, Cristina and Anna. At the library, I read Film Comment, The Nation and Screen, which included a great analysis, by Jeffrey Sconce, of recent 'ironic' cinema, or 'nihilistic' cinema as its detractors have termed it. His examples included Ghost World, Magnolia and American Beauty. I checked out books by Pauline Kael and Douglas Coupland for enjoyment. I listened to Pinkerton after scanning pictures at the CMC. I went to dinner. I played darts, where I took the tie for high score with Geoff, at 126, two hair's breadths away from 166. I listened to Play by Moby and some of the New Order I downloaded. Now I am going to Lakeville.
18 January 2003
To pass the time before the film, I listened to Weezer's Blue Album, along with Pablo Honey, and read some of Douglas Coupland's Generation X. I sat about halfway back in the theater, a little to the right. Thankfully there were no ads for the theater or their concessions, although the previews and gobbledygook before the feature were plentiful.
About Schmidt
2002
Jack Nicholson
17 January 2003
Lakeville Theater
Jack Nicholson played a sad man, just retired from the Woodmen Insurance Company, recently widowed and preparing for his daughter's wedding, which he wants to stop. Through his travels in his RV (which he bought 50-50 with his wife at her request before she died) we understand more of the type of man he is. Much of the backstory and narration is provided through letters Nicholson writes to a child in Tanzania, named Ndugu, whom he sponsors through a relief agency he saw Angela Lansbury promote on TV. The correspondence provides a good ending as well.
The movie was amazing. Nicholson was incredible as the angry, lonely, afraid father who no longer fits into the world he used to know. He loses his bearings, reexamines his life and grows a little. It sounds almost corny, but it's done so well, with such direct honesty, that it never once even approaches sappy or pathetic. It is amazing in its own plain, realistic and straightforward fashion.
19 January 2003
The third floor behaved itself very nicely tonight.
I completed my list of songs for my radio show tonight. I then utilized it many times over the course of my radio show. It went fairly well, although there were kinks to work out after a two month layoff. I think by next show I should have everything under control. The DJs before and after me all seemed like nice people.
21 January 2003
I turned in some terrible assignments today and worked a lot otherwise. I watched Battleship Potemkin for film class.
Dennis Mahoney is my new hero and he should be yours as well. He has other followers too.
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
22 January 2003
"Wars, conflict, it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions a hero. Numbers sanctify." - Charlie Chaplin Monsieur Verdoux 1947
23 January 2003
"Kobe cows are massaged daily, causing the fat to mingle with the meat, and resulting in a burger of unsurpassed tenderness. They also drink beer. Beer and massages: it is not clear that any philosopher ever defined the good life more accurately than this. Apart from the getting killed part, obviously."
If you use Mozilla and you enjoy using the keyboard, memorize this page.
I have just implemented an image map.
Today I drove the postal van around for the second day in a row. Right now I think we are just doing it because it is cold but eventually the van will deliver all mail to distant locations. And I get to drive it when I am working. Hooray.
In singers, we spent much time on the soul-sucking french song. I am not kidding. If you could sing it and claim it is not soul-sucking, I simply wouldn't believe you.
24 January 2003
I am listening to Yo La Tengo and going to dinner. I took a nap in the library and it was horrific.
Dinner was less than exciting. Stay warm.
I just realized that it is summer in Australia. And it is Australia in Australia. I want to go to Australia.
25 January 2003
Terry Jones in the Observer.
26 January 2003
It is soon time for the Super Bowl and then time for too much work before Monday. Meanwhile, the Observer, in addition to Terry Jones, has this to enlighten you.
28 January 2003
I would like to thank Douglas Coupland for writing Generation X. It's not probably the best book I have ever read, but it is probably the most vital book I have ever read. It is a good sort of feeling to be able to open a book and see your own thoughts on a page, written by someone you have never met.
Cricket is a lot of geeky fun.
Curse your lack of vigilance; while you weren't watching, the world ended.
Look at big numbers and small websites.
I am now listening to Stereolab and it is time to write my screening report.
Huzzah! I was born on the same day as Buddha (Japanese), Kofi Annan, John Havlicek, Robin Wright Penn, porn stars "Montana" and "Heaven Leigh"; on the day that Pablo Picasso died.
I completed the screening report and sang for an hour and a half. Now I am going to do calculus and listen to even more Sleater-Kinney.
I have done calculus, in which I went the wrong way around a problem, only to find it took about 30% of the time I originally spent on it. Now I am listening to KRLX 88.1FM, a service of Carleton College.
29 January 2003
"War is good for the economy like cannibalism is nutritious." -George Bernard Shaw
31 January 2003
This is what happens when you leave your monitor on while not using the computer.
1 February 2003
It is February. It is also quite warm.
I awoke in the splendor of my single this morning and stumbled over to brunch and to work. There was a lot of mail, including an article in The Week about the humor value of Richard Nixon. I also gleaned an issue of The National Review, a somewhat frightening right-wing publication. I also worked on my CS project after getting my account fixed. It was not loading the desktop and doing a few other confusing things. Luckily a solution was found and I was on my way to maybe finishing a CS project before midnight on Sunday. Tonight is the Late Late Late Show on KRLX with myself and J Max W, it will be splendid.
2 February 2003
The radio show went fine except for a song with excess noise and one that I stopped in the middle. Now that I have finally woken up, and not very successfully at that, it is time to try to finish my homework before the end of the day.
4 February 2003
I have just traversed the entirety of Goodhue Hall in naught but a towel. I had knocked on the doors of seven RA's and was preparing to try Natalie Vance when she happened to be standing the kink on second floor. She saw that there was no master key on second. She then checked to see if there was one on fourth floor. Luckily there was. I am now fully clothed.
In other news, the record wishlist is now up to 60 and growing.
5 February 2003
I just spent a lot of time at the dining hall.
I hate Max's teeth.
We added Coco Supreme Mix to the machine in the dining hall.
Pitchfork has an update on Radiohead's new album, which may be coming out in June.
6 February 2003
If this stuff doesn't interest you, I don't want to know you.
Dennis Mahoney has a new feature at The Morning News.
I need to look over my calculus assignment again and study a lot for Data Structures. I may wait until tomorrow to make another mix CD for radio shows, of which I have two this weekend: 3.00 - 4.30 pm Saturday and 3.30 - 5.30 am Sunday. Saturday will be mostly random stuff from the studio and/or record library and Sunday will be my stuff.
The site is a little bit lighter with a splash page.
I used Bell MT for the heading and wanted to use it for everything, but I couldn't find the right size. I believe it lies around 10.7 pt fontsize but it went too quickly from unreadably small to brutishly large. Maybe I will have to try manipulating the space between the text sometime.
7 February 2003
I finished my last test and class. I don't have much to do and I don't want much to do. I will hopefully make my first trip to the Cave this term tonight.
8 February 2003
Last night I attended an ironing party, a jazz band concert, a show by 12 Rods at the cave, along with viewing many music videos and eating cookies. The ironing party was a success for me, as my pants were more rigid than either shirt Geoff attempted to rigidify. The jazz band concert was also good, especially for fifth week. 12 Rods had earplugs for the audience at the cave because they were too loud. I couldn't tell if it was genuine or pretentious, but I did use them. I enjoyed immensely Johnny Cash's video singing Trent Reznor's "Hurt". I also enjoyed the cookies.
Today I worked at the post office, then watched college basketball and played Addams Family pinball, of which I was just getting the hang when I lost my ninth and final ball. Maybe next time I am in Sayles-Hill with change or dollar bills I will have to return to it. I also substituted for Alice Gorel in the KRLX studio, playing a lot of stuff lying around in the studio with which I am not familiar. It was nearly all good, and I don't think there were any noticeable technical problems. Hopefully I will have the playlist up later.
9 February 2003
I woke up late today. I watched people play darts. Then I got out of bed. I don't have to do much today.
Yesterday I ate pizza, watched The New Guy (please don't do this to yourself) and hosted a radio show.
10 February 2003
The CD collection now includes mp3s [19 discs].
| |
11 February 2003
I have finished calculus and am ready to begin the short, short week. Singers are nearly ready for their public dress rehearsal on Thursday and concert on Friday. I have also listed my classes below. I was thinking how nice it would be to write a program to sign up for my classes for me.
12 February 2003
Last night I viewed Trainspotting. Tonight I will see De Sica's Bicycle Thieves as well as Show Me Love.
14 February 2003
MasturbateForPeace.com.
15 February 2003
The post office has nearly dug out from under the mountain of Valentine's Day-related mail. I figured out on the way home from the CMC that I can count to 19,622 with my fingers because I can use the base-3 system.
De La Soul will headline spring concert.
Tonight I will try to find all my playlists for the term in the studio. I will also play music.
17 February 2003
Not fit for radio.
I watched Ugetsu this evening at the library, and it was wonderful. I did calculus and some film reading and now it is time for more film reading.
I have perused many a website in my day, but I can't think of one more beautiful than Mediamonks.
19 February 2003
From the White Stripes mailing list:
"The White Stripes are proud to present their fourth album, Elephant, to the American public on April 1st."
"The Stripes pulled all the stops and made it a double LP for wider, deeper grooves that results in a better listening experience for you, the skeptical music consumer. There will also be six, count 'em, SIX (6!) different album covers. When arranged in a proper pattern, they tell you where to find the third sword in Zelda. Seriously."
20 February 2003
Tell me which film I should analyze for class: 1 or 2.
21 February 2003
More flowers for Algernon.
22 February 2003
After a 1-1 tie, I have decided to analyze Jean Renoir's La Régle du jeu (The Rules of the Game, 1939). Today, the post office treated its customers to a public reading of an ad in Rolling Stone about multiple orgasms for men and women. Appreciative doesn't even begin to describe the response. Today I will study calculus, possibly watch my film, interview for a KRLX board position and do a radio show.
23 February 2003
The New York Times is doing a series of articles on legendary rock & roll stars. if you enjoy popular music, you should read them.
It seems that I will be the compliance director as well as a programmer for KRLX for the next three terms:
Programming: Programming is responsible for scheduling radio shows, checking operating and programming logs for compliance with FCC regulations, organizing the evaluation of DJ performance during the term, and for the broadcast quality of what goes out over the KRLX airwaves. Questions about any of the above may be directed to one of the Programming Directors.
Hopefully this means that I won't have to do a pre-dawn radio show next term.
Now for calculus until dinner.
I also now have a lip curtain instead of a beard.
24 February 2003
This is the most important music review ever.
I have nearly dropped CS 127. All I need is an advisor signature and I will turn it in. Tomorrow I will get a paper authenticated for my portfolio (my review of Birth of a Nation).
It appears that spring term will be bookended by new CD releases by the White Stripes and Radiohead.
It also appears that Stephen Malkmus will be in the Twin Cities on May 25. Hopefully I can find a way to get there.
25 February 2003
Tentative KRLX program guide entry for next term:
Show title: Marauding by Moonlight (Rock)
Description: Waldo checked the mailbox to see if there was at least a word from Marsha. There was nothing but a circular from the Amalgamated Aluminum Company of America inquiring into his awning needs. At least they cared enough to write.
Bands: Belle and Sebastian, Bob Dylan, Pavement, Velvet Underground
There is a new splash page.
It looks I will get into my history and math classes but the PE and Media Studies classes are up for grabs.
Today I watched, and read an essay on, Breathless. I also completed the drop process for computer science.
26 February 2003
It looks as though I may still get into Capra & Wilder. We may have gotten into the students who don't have an introductory film course and therefore can't take it. That would be nice, because I want to take a Media Studies class, specifically that one. My other classes are also looking good but I won't be taking PE. There are approximately 141 registering before me. You may all quiver with anticipation for me, if you have a permission slip.
27 February 2003
CDUniverse.com will, as soon as they are available, send me:
- The Reputation: The Reputation
- Iron & Wine: The Creek Drank The Cradle
- The White Stripes: Elephant
I also hope to purchase Stephen Malkmus's new album on spring break somewhere.
Today I mentioned a mini-skirt policy, got hired for the summer at the post office and ate rice with my hands for dinner.
28 February 2003
Lucky duckies.
If you are extremely bored, read this.
1 March 2003
I need to change things around in the photo galleries. I will do that after I write a paper.
Whore of my testicles...
I saw Possession, which had some surprisingly awful dialogue. I went to Goodbye Blue Monday's and the Sayles-Hill student center where I played Hangman, quite well I might add.
Tomorrow will likely see work at the post office, a rough draft of my paper for film class, and most certainly the radio show.
I realize I need to fix some links in the archives; it will get done tomorrow.
2 March 2003
The playlist for last night is up. The mp3 will be up later. Read this.
3 March 2003
Impossibilities.
Canada Challenge.
"When in doubt, I whip it out." -Ted Nugent
The photos are indeed finished, with some code stolen from The Morning News.
The room is a bit cleaner. My face is a little more barren; I now have a mustache in place of the fuller lip curtain. The paper on Rules of the Game has been revised once. I no longer smell of nor feel orange juice on any part of my clothing or person. I am listening to Brian Eno. Check out the photos very soon for a new format. Except Cristina. She can't.
4 March 2003
"As a gesture, irony (whatever that term might mean) is not a passive retreat from politics but a semiotic intervention within politics. Irony is not an essentialized state of (apathetic) being, but a tool to be utilized towards any number of objectives. In its refusal of conventional terms of debate, irony can be a brutally honest rhetorical strategy. Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal" could, after all, reach certain political truths about poverty in his own historical moment in a more compelling manner than other forms of "earnest" speech. Similarly, the smirking irony of smart cinema may be able to tell us more about the more desperate aspects of our own cultural moment than condescending didacticism. Irony, in other words, should not be seen as a disengagement from belief, politics and commitment; rather, it is a strategic disengagement from a certain terrain of belief, politics and commitment. More precisely, it is a retreat from the moral map of the social formation that so often sits in judgement of such irony. When such irony reaches the point of nihilism, we should remember that nihilism itself is not so much a belief in nothing as a refusal to believe in someone else's something. Or, as a nameless bohemian in Richard Linklater's Slacker puts it, 'Withdrawing in disgust is not the same as apathy.'"
- Screen 43:4 Winter 2002 Jeffrey Sconce "Irony, Nihilism and the New American 'Smart' Film"
The intra-page links in the CD collection have been fixed.
5 March 2003
I have added a baseball to the splash page and a new gallery to the photo page.
6 March 2003
I have watched the last movie and done the last reading for Film History and Criticism. I have one more assignment for Calculus III. I sing once more in the Choral Concert tomorrow night in the Concert Hall at 8.00 pm. I attended my first KRLX board meeting this evening and tomorrow will learn even more about being a Compliance Director/Programmer. Saturday night I will do my last show of the term. It will probably not be recorded because the mp3s always skip and they take forever to edit and produce.
7 March 2003
The state of Iowa has 28 urban areas with more than 10,000 people.
My radio show went pretty well last night, even with the monstrous Lauren Garrison present. I stayed on for the next show (Fly Fishing with Rob Oden). It was interesting and the newspaper delivery guy stopped by.
Today I declined to attend Calculus and instead slept until it was time for Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the lounge. I then went to the record library where I learned how to do more as a compliance director for the station. I also checked out a few items.
8 March 2003
Tonight I attended the Accidentals concert (so so) and DVD Fest (quite good). I believe that is all.
I work at the post office only three more times this term. Today I received The Creek Drank The Cradle and The Reputation. Hopefully I will play something from each of them during the show tonight. I also received the review of my radio show on Friday. It was done by one Teague Lyons, whom I am replacing next year as Compliance Director. The review was quite good, mentioning only a few lapses in cueing the music, which was certainly better in most other shows. In academic news, I have nothing left to do but study, so I will hopefully do some today and plenty tomorrow. Friday is the big day with the Calculus test at 8.30 and the Film test at 3.30, hopefully.
9 March 2003
Amuse yourself. Ferry Halim has simple yet entertaining games and a beautiful overarching design.
The playlists are finished for this term as is the radio show. Last night was a very fun show with country records and dancing guests. I woke up an hour and a half ago. I am going to finish my Tecmo Super Bowl game and watch The Simpsons.
10 March 2003
Guided by Voices: "I Am A Scientist"
I am a lost soul
I shoot myself with rock & roll
The hole I dig is bottomless
but nothing else can set me free.
Unfit for print.
11 March 2003
The French will surely come to Washington's aid now.
I have borrowed Mary Star of the Sea by Zwan from the record library for spring break. I have also filled in for the 3.00-4.30pm time slot on KRLX.
Interestingly enough, my perusal of the vinyl LP's resulted in Columbia Country and Fiddle Fever being saved from the outgoing bin and Internationalists being thrown out.
I have determined what I will be listening to on spring break.
12 March 2003
This is why I listen to college radio.
13 March 2003
I have studied all of Calculus III. I am hopefully prepared for the test tomorrow. It has also become evident that the state of the moustache is strong.
Gadzooks.
14 March 2003
"A kiss without a moustache is like an egg without salt."
In a couple of decades, we may see a world where major international cities are within a few hours' commute of each other.
I am finished, but it is never over.
15 March 2003
I am ready to begin the trip of trips. It begins today with 300 miles. A very easy day by comparison. It may be a while til I rap at ya again, somewhat in the words of Jim Anchower. Here is a link to keep you entertained, and you can peruse this til the cows come home and you won't see one percent of it.
29 March 2003
I have returned and I now own every spot on the high score boards for Kickoff. More later.
7 April 2003
Programming KRLX is crazy crazy crazy. Hopefully a general accord of peace, prosperity and goodwill can be reached. 116 applications, 98 slots.
10 April 2003
The best part about this site is that people actually pay for subscriptions: internalmemos.com.
Programming is dying. Dotted lines are being signed and hopefully the station is going up soon. Even though it will be wildly boring to read, I can at least say that with all the time I've spent in the record library, I have heard and obtained many interesting things: Depeche Mode, Death Cab For Cutie, Blur, Old 97s, Linda Thompson, Beachwood Sparks, Royksopp, MC Paul Barman, Sondre Lerche, Robert Johnson, Johnny Cash, Ted Leo, Ben Kweller, Ween, Django Reinhardt, Geto Boys, cajun music, the McCoury Brothers, Dinosaur Jr, Joy Division, a sampler from Austin, Texas circa 1985. I've also noticed that the record library has an insane amount of Black Sabbath on vinyl, like 15 records. All 12". It seems to be an anomaly considering we have almost nothing by a lot of classic rockers.
I think I might have figured out how to get caught up with my homework by Sunday. That would be nice, since I am buried under a mountain and the mountain is stupid stuff I have to do.
I have participated in more email traffic in the last week than I did in the previous year. That is not an overstatement.
I have said enough.
12 April 2003
I have now pitted the Houston Oilers against the entirety of the NFL in Tecmo Super Bowl. Needless to say, I won all the games, some by a larger margin than others. I ate some pizza last night paid for by ResLife or some such department. Today I saw the first half of a vaudeville show (including the brilliant Trip to the Moon). I also spent time in the record library. My show went all right: the music was good but I was a little rusty from the monthlong layoff. Next week will be better. The bluegrass music was fantastic and the Geto Boys were reliably offensive and fun to listen to. KRLX has premiered the new frontpage, the rest of the site is sure to follow.
14 April 2003
I have been doing homework forever. I have reading left to do. I am probably going to fill in 3.00-4.30 am tonight because that slot is at the moment unfilled. The Mortician Belts PSA is far, far too popular.
15 April 2003
A helpful reminder: The list of words not allowed on the radio includes but is not limited to the seven dirty words, "Fuck," "Shit," "Asshole," "Motherfucker, "Cunt," "Cocksucker," and "Tits" and any combination thereof. Furthermore, words with double meanings, such as "Dick," and "Pussy," when used in a sexually explicit manner are forbidden over the air.
You're welcome.
16 April 2003
It would seem that I am on the air at KRLX for 3.75 hours per week at the moment. You will have to guess when. The CD collection has been mildly updated, as has the Record Wishlist. The front page has been purged.
20 April 2003
Abiword loads faster than a motherfucker, and faster than Microsoft Word. And the interface is essentially the same. I like it much better than OpenOffice.org's word processor as well.
I will be on the radio again 3.00-4.30 am tonight. It should be interesting.
21 April 2003
"In order to have a truly great night you have to have a horrible morning, for context. So I’d begin by waking up on the street in some exotic metropolis I’ve never been to before, and where I don’t know anyone, destitute, hungry and alone. Over the course of the day I’d be approached by some extremely attractive and interesting locals, who would invite me over to dine on the regional cuisine, which would turn out to be the best food I’ve ever tasted in my life. Towards evening, a little tipsy on the fruity elixir they’d refer to only as 'The National Beverage,’ they’d reveal themselves to be left-wing revolutionaries planning the overthrow of the US-backed puppet regime. Around 11 pm I’d be joining them in storming the presidential palace, thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I’m usually contemplating going to the Rainbo around this time.’ By 12:30, news of the people’s glorious victory would be spreading on the AP wires, causing a crisis within the imperialist power structure that would lead, by 1:48 am (‘Last call!’ at the Rainbo) to the world-wide collapse of western hegemony. Around 4:48 am I’d be crushed to death during the wild celebratory orgy in the imperial bedchamber, auto-erotically asphyxiating while Van Halen’s 1984 album blasted on the presidential stereo."
24 April 2003
From WilcoWorld.net:
Wilco: More Like the Moon EP
01 Camera
02 Handshake Drugs
03 Woodgrain
04 A Magazine Called Sunset
05 Bob Dylan's 49th Beard
06 More Like the Moon
25 April 2003
USA! USA!
I have acquired all six Tecmo games for Nintendo. Of the six only one looks like a dud [Tecmo World Wrestling]. I have also played what seem to be two new pinball games in upper Sayles. Rocky and Bullwinkle is insanely easy and the fishing game is insanely tough.
28 April 2003
The KRLX schedule is full once again. I also have a new AIM buddy icon, in case I ever surface again.
29 April 2003
The news show went reasonably well today, with many interesting items of note. I was preceded in excellence by Alice Gorel and Hans Wietzke, who provided some fine epileptic dancing in the studio, and succeeded not by Sarah Moody, as per usual, but by regular college policy violator Kevin Clair, who has been a prolific sublister this term, at least by my count of two. Those who answer the high call of the sublist are very near and dear to my heart because they are the reason I, as Compliance Director, don't have to show up to the studio every time someone doesn't want to do their show.
In addition to the news show, I toured my possible residence for this summer. Details will follow at a later date.
In exciting Tecmo Basketball news, I scored 40 points in the first half with Larry Johnson and the Hornets scored 70. I had to stop at the half, but last night I did manage to get over 100 points with the Bulls. Cherry-picking results in a huge number of points. I also today got Jordan vs Bird but had some difficulty with the controls.
I have also learned that the Peking Opera and Brian Eno are not related. This augments, I guess, my earlier knowledge that Another Green World by Brian Eno is amazing.
Drugs.
30 April 2003
Today I picked up a rather large painting from Science Fiction House which I won by calling their show on Friday night to tell them that in Star Wars, C3P0 claims the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid field are 3,720 to 1. It is too large to display anywhere in the room. We are looking into the situation.
In other news, Max and I have tickets to concerts by Wesley Willis and My Morning Jacket. We are also trying to get tickets to Wilco at the Walker Art Center, but they seem to be a little more difficult.
KRLX has an exciting new website.
1 May 2003
I have successfully merged Bob Dylan's and the White Stripes' versions of "Lovesick", and Audacity helped.
2 May 2003
Mid-term break has begun. If I'm lucky, I will only have one radio show this weekend between the hours of 10pm and 7am.
Black market, stock market.
I will be visiting the Walker Art Center to see Wilco and Fog after school lets out.
4 May 2003
I have seen De La Soul and it was good. I didn't attend last year's Spring Concert, but this year's didn't seem too rambunctious or debauched as these things go.
I also did a miniature Bandemonium tonight while filling in for absent DJs. I played Velvet Underground for 65 minutes. I even got a delightful call from someone who thanked me for doing so. Hooray for the pioneers of underground/alternative/indie rock music!
Death of the cassette.
My favorite album right now:
Keith Fullerton Whitman: Playthroughs
What a dick, and Terry Jones strikes again.
7 May 2003
The news show reached previously unfathomed heights of splendor today with the help of Alice Gorel, post office employee and local college radio magnate. Suffice it to say that we rocked our listeners without even having to resort to music. Booyah.
8 May 2003
The Love-cars rocked the Cave tonight even harder than my news show rocked last night, and they played an amazing indie-rock cover of Bjork's "Hyper-ballad". I am now the proud owner of their 1999 album I'm Friends With All Stars. The crowd was as enthusiastic as I've seen at the Cave for a while. That may have something to do with the fans who apparently came from Minneapolis, but not necessarily.
Here is a helpful hint: If you have added hot water to your cup of ramen noodles and need something to make sure the lid stays closed, do not use a plastic CD case. The case will become elliptical in shape due to the heat. Mine appears to have returned to it's normal dimensions.
In which the International Space Station is discussed and the Simpsons are referenced, by the Guardian nonetheless.
If you have the opportunity tomorrow to sign a petition to get KRLX proper funding, please do so.
10 May 2003
More than 300 people have signed the aforementioned petition. Tomorrow morning will bring the first of up to three appeals for KRLX to obtain the funding it needs to be a decent radio station. I also managed a pretty good radio show with one mistake that could only have been noticed by me. Maybe next term we will be streaming online for the whole world to hear. [Actually, this will occur near the end of Winter Term 2004.]
11 May 2003
I know, maybe the Iraqis can fill up on freedom this year, instead of food. I can only imagine what sort of "help" the Bush administration is going to provide. They'll probably be too busy attempting to find some weapons of mass destruction. Oh wait, the US has those, not Iraq, I forgot. In addition, the story about the lizard in the salad in Iowa City is almost frighteningly disgusting.
I attended my first concert at 7th Street Entry today in Minneapolis. Clair de Lune, the first band, was solid. I've heard Nirvana described as punk-metal; I guess if it were an entirely different mix of punk and metal, it might sound like this band. They were loud but not overbearing. I'd compare them to Trail of Dead with a lighter touch with appropriate bits of Metallica thrown in here and there.
The second band, The Shazzam, rocked us like it was 1977. Their sound was reminiscent of AC/DC, Kiss and Cheap Trick with punk speed and ferocity thrown in to the mix.
Wesley Willis headlined the event and was suitably bizarre. He took an eternity to get to the stage once announced and proceeded to sit at his keyboard for a while. He led off with hits like "Osama bin Laden" and "Jeffrey Dahmer". He also managed to play "Jesus is My Lord" and "Suck a Pig's Dirty Asshole" back to back. The highlight must have been "Cut the Mullet" only a short while after praising The Shazzam who violently disagree on that issue, as evidenced by two impressive haircuts showcased during their set.
Here is an interesting companion piece to the article about prison food I used for the news on Tuesday.
The White Stripes will be playing St Paul on July 3. Tickets become available this Saturday, May 17. Oh yes. I could make some sort of clever reference in addition, but I won't because I have style and sophistication.
13 May 2003
Tonight's newscast will feature a cricket update as requested.
14 May 2003
"KRLX's budget for next year, at over $5000, is the largest it's ever been."
And then there's this, which will be incredible.
I assume we've all heard bad commercial radio and/or read awful newspapers recently?
Room draw was a success; I will by myself next year live in Evans 101 sharing a bathroom with the lucky occupant of 103. I will share zero walls directly with another person which means that I should be able to play music at an appreciable volume at any time of day or night.
16 May 2003
This evening was rather interesting. I went to the Rueb with one Jack McGrath in search of a KRLX fan. We searched in vain and after discussing various matters for a while we decided to give up our search. A few steps from the door we ran into our patron, Tristan Cox, a young teacher at Northfield High School, accompanied by none other than ex-Moustache Club President and radio personality Hans Wietzke. We discussed KRLX, Hans's mom and other matters over complimentary wings and two pitchers of a malted beverage. Our search for a "mistake" pizza afterward in the Domino's dumpster was thoroughly fruitless and so we ordered one instead. We then adjourned to Central Park to consume the pie which we did in short order. Needless to say, good times were had by all.
I got to DJ last night from 3.30-4.30 am because the regular DJs decided to let me. How nice of them. It rained today if you didn't notice.
Pitchfork interview with the irascible Jim James.
18 May 2003
My Morning Jacket concert:
Today started off at the post office as Saturdays always do. After work I did laundry that needed desperately to be done. At that point we (Max & I) left for the Twin Cities. I managed to find parking so I could purchase a ticket to the White Stripes concert at a savings of eleven dollars over Ticketmaster. Eleven dollars. That's 30% off the Ticketmaster price. What a bunch of fuckwads.
After that we proceeded to park for twice the amount we paid last time (seven dollars today) because the honky-tonk son-of-a-bitch show or something was at the Target Center and all the cowboys within a 45-mile radius were required to show up. We finally worked our way to the Ascot Room in the Quest Club. The Quest Club thinks it is a good idea to have two shows playing simultaneously; I'm not sure about that. At any rate, it had some odd decor but nothing too distracting. The Detachment Kit, the opening act, was decent: sort of hardcore, very loud, some screaming, talented.
After a second round of idiotic background music, Jim James and My Morning Jacket took the stage. They had more hair than any band I have seen live. They were also possibly better than any band I have seen live. The intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus... bits of the songs were good, but the beautiful-yet-cathartically-noisy jams that came afterward were outstanding. They built to an absolutely blistering climax on almost every song and it never got old. After a keyboard-turned-drum solo to end the main set, Jim James played and sang three acoustic numbers and was rejoined by the rest of the band for "Phone Went West" as a finale.
James's reverberating voice was a great instrument itself; I agree that the sound and vocals lie somewhere between the Flaming Lips and Neil Young. The guitars had that terrific 70's power-pop-esque distortion and often a flavoring of country-rock. They also used delay and reverb to create an echoey, atmospheric sound that somehow worked with the very loud and crunchy guitars and the pounding drums. Though the acoustic songs were solid, I thought they might have been too much for what was a decently long set. Overall, however, it was one of the tightest and greatest live sets I have witnessed yet.
It is my greatest hope that someday soon my brain will feel under-utilized.
The Guardian has an impressive and wide-ranging number of stories in its three-part report on food.
Apparently there exists a man named Richard Blow (there is an article on Salon.com attributed to him). I think my life would be infinitely weirder and more interesting if my name was dick blow.
20 May 2003
Tuesday is news-day.
Sadly, I didn't discover this in time to broadcast it.
I discovered that the .aac (advanced audio codec) format utilized by the new apple music store is markedly more efficient and better-sounding than .mp3. I managed to download the new version of CDex and the codec itself, but even after a painfully slow ripping process, I realized I can't play the file, even with Quicktime. Hopefully I can somehow listen to this file to prove to myself how wonderful .aac is.
22 May 2003
The Pentagon's own inspector general recently admitted that the department could not account for more than a trillion dollars of past spending. A congressional investigation reported that inventory management in the army was so weak it had lost track of 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 missile launchers.
The Pentagon budget currently accounts for half of all the US government's discretionary expenditure, and is nearly twice the defence spending of the next 15 of the world's military powers combined.
23 May 2003
Tonight I have record libe hours, a concert (my last Singers-related activity, hooray) and a radio show. In addition, I need to get ready to leave tomorrow morning. Hopefully there will be anywhere from one to many exciting things to see and/or do and/or eat this weekend. It is a shame I have to do homework while at home, but it seems that I will have no time to study for my linear algebra test after I get back, unless I return early; but that would also be a moral defeat.
Dismemberment Plan will return to First Avenue 17 June. Tickets are available nowhere at the moment. Hopefully I can again avoid the convenient wiles of Ticketmaster and secure a place at the show for a reasonable cost. Apparently Travis Morrison does not feel as I do on the issue of media monopoly. This is not surprising.
"He was a thief and he was a disturbed man. If we learn anything from him, it's do not steal and don't be disturbed."
27 May 2003
Trip to Iowa:
Saturday morning I traveled to Iowa. I stopped on the way for pie and ice cream (1). I also looked for The Apartment for film class, but it was nowhere to be found. Pizza had just been picked up when I got home, so I partook. After playing catch for a while, I attended my brother's baccalaureate service where I filmed him introducing my dad as the speaker along with various other bits and pieces. From there we traveled to Bethel Mennonite church for my brother's graduation party. I walked around with a sign. I ate cake and ice cream (2) and pretzels. I played kickball in the basement with my cousins. We cleaned up and went home. I told my brother he could have five Burger King bucks for a present if he wanted. He declined them wisely. I also looked through eleven rolls of film recently developed from 8-12 years ago.
The next day featured church and lunch (no ice cream). It also featured commencement where my brother successfully obtained his diploma. The speeches were lackluster and there were the usual catcalls and whatnot during the presentation of the diplomas. It was short. After that I went to the park with my cousins where we played baseball and a little basketball. I then deposited a check into my oddly empty checking account (the matter is being looked into) and went to my great uncle and aunt's house where, with many relatives, we ate pizza and ice cream (3). I then attended the baccalaureate service for my high school, Iowa Mennonite School, where I saw a number of friends and acquaintances. I attended two graduation parties with Mr Mitchell Rowland, whose cost-efficient car has get-up-and-go but no interior lights. At one of the parties, I consumed a quantity of ice cream (4). After viewing a solid amount of Beavis and Butthead Do America I headed home.
For Memorial Day I got up late to a breakfast of sausages and sweet things. After playing Jet Moto with a cousin and taking pictures with the rest I left for graduation parties. On a side note, my car has basically dried itself out. I hit the first one late but in time to eat a sandwich and see a number of people I know. The second involved Joel Koerner and Kyle Yoder, the latter of whom will next year be attending Macalester College. There I also greeted Mr William Leichty by stealing and eating his cookies. There was no retribution. I ate ice cream (5) too. At the next party I met Mitch Rowland again and ate ice cream (6). At the fourth and final party, at which Willie Nelson was playing, I had various salted snacks and hot banana-and-pineapple topping for my bowl of, you guessed it, ice cream (7). I spoke to a teacher who had been at my school for senior year but she failed to recall me. I found that rather amusing. There were a high number of recognizable people there as well, and the weather was, just like the rest of the weekend, gorgeous, so I stayed and chatted for a long while. As I was leaving I said hello to Brian Rumsey, but the time had come for me to return to Carleton so the pleasantries were few.
It seems that after putting on 730 miles this weekend I have graduated a sibling, graduation-partied with approximately 20% of the IMS class of 2003, in addition to running into a high number of other distinguished students, alumni and faculty, obtained my golf clubs and shoes for the summer, watched most of a game of Slamball on TNN and an inordinate amount of Disney Channel programming, probably fucked up my second linear algebra mid-term, and eaten far, far too much ice cream. It was a fabulous and worthwhile time, but left me quite upset that I am still in school even though others have been out for more than four weeks.
The driving, by the way, was entirely uneventful.
Even though I generally disdain the listing of such things, I will state that I listened to, in the following order:
The Kills: Keep on Your Mean Side
Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The Smiths: The Queen is Dead
Schneider TM: Zoomer
Iron and Wine: The Creek Drank The Cradle
Pavement: Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Reduxe: Disc 1
Air: 10,000Hz Legend
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks: Pig Lib
Yo La Tengo: And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
Bob Dylan: Blonde on Blonde
Interpol: Turn on the Bright Lights
I hope the CD over-pricing lawsuit settlement doesn't bump me into a higher tax bracket. [I have yet to receive any of it.]
Finally, a review worthy of the subject:
Pedro The Lion: Winners Never Quit
Defining music by genre often entails the application of a prefix to the word "rock," like "indie-rock," "emo-rock," "stoner-rock," and so on. That sort of shorthand is an inevitable yet inherently dicey proposition, especially when you get into the realm of so-called "Christian rock," which brings to mind the likes of Stryper, yet could ultimately cover every act that's ever sung to, for, or about Jesus. It gets trickier the less explicit the reverence is: No review of, say, Soul-Junk (see also: "indie-rock") or Supertones (see also: "pop-ska") would be complete without mentioning Christianity--it's addressed explicitly in every song--but what about the acts who tend to leave it in the margins? Seattle's Pedro The Lion, which now consists solely of singer and multi-instrumentalist David Bazan, is frequently noted as a Christian act first and a musical act second, a generalization that does a disservice to Bazan's beautiful songs. References to God, morality, and self-denial are scattered throughout Pedro The Lion's gorgeous new eight-song mini-album, but Bazan is sharp enough to shroud them in morose ambiguity, shading them with minor keys and palpable melancholy. And, though "To Protect The Family Name" delves too far into dreariness, the rest of Winners Never Quit virtually sparkles with pop craftsmanship, from gently barren ballads ("Slow And Steady Wins The Race," "Bad Things To Such Good People") to more amped-up pop-rock songs like "A Mind Of Her Own" and the lovely "Simple Economics." In all, it's essential, regardless of whether you consider Bazan's Christianity a selling point or a red flag.
--Stephen Thompson at The Onion AV Club
Everybody loves Avril.
As far as I can tell, there is no way to get tickets to the Dismemberment Plan show in June even if it is currently scheduled to happen.
3 Jun 2003
The final news show of the year occurs today.
10 Jun 2003
I took my finals and moved into Goodhue 304/my car/the post office and talked to Mr Crackhouse. I went to a Yo La Tengo concert that I enjoyed although the opening band didn't do much for me. I have worked at the post office for a full day and haven't been to sleep for a long, long time.
14 Jun 2003
I worked at the post office. I read a book. I went to a concert. I watched TV. I'm going to move in.
15 Jun 2003
I have finally moved everything into Crack House. It is indeed a good feeling to not have my possessions running willy nilly around Northfield. I have also recently watched numerous episodes of the Simpsons from the first and second seasons and consumed a root beer float.
I have also received my first Netflix DVD for the summer: Happiness.
Use telnet to check your email because simple is beautiful.
I don't have an internet connection at place of residence, so I will be delighted when the library extends their hours from 5 pm to 9 pm enabling me to do oh so much more surfing of the web.
19 Jun 2003
It seems that KRLX will resurrect for the daylight hours from now through Saturday. It would also seem that I was, for the first time in a while, pleasantly surprised at my grades.
I may some day come up with something worth reading, but for now this is it.
21 Jun 2003
I am editing from a G4 and using what I believe to be the new server system used by ITS. I have perused many periodicals lately as well as viewing Happiness, Invasion of the Body Snatchers and, my favorite so far this summer, The Maltese Falcon. I have also done laundry and other various mindnumbing things; that is to say nothing of great importance. Reunion weekend provided me with various foodstuffs including ice cream, popcorn, donuts, cheese, crackers, muffins, pastries and yogurt as well as numerous things to drink. None of it was quite as good as the food we got to eat in the post office due to a misdelivered package though.
22 Jun 2003
I have achieved New Balance. I have also visited the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis where I saw The Ruling Class which turned out to be amazing. Not much has been accomplished today save that I have directed my future paychecks through the proper channels so I may get paid for my work in the post office.
Also, the Onion seems to be recycled this week but the articles are still good.
25 Jun 2003
Last night I saw Waking Life which I found to be interesting though odd and somewhat plotless. The animation was a little unsettling: absurd and quite realistic sort of at the same time. Today I visited the Northfield community pool with Alice Gorel where I attempted unsuccessfully to figure out diving. We also looked at some extreme sports on television and wandered around various college housing sites. Also, my CDRW drive was not opening or recognized by my computer yesterday and today is accepting discs but not reading them. This will most likely result in me ignoring it for long periods of time. [I get a new drive a week after school starts.] My Netflix movies are slow in arriving this week. I believe they are The Philadelphia Story, McCabe and Mrs Miller and Spartacus. I might not watch a movie today which will break my streak of some number of days, 5 or 6.
30 Jun 2003
Thursday evening I took in Owning Mahowny starring Philip Seymour Hoffman who is certainly one of my favorite actors. I found the motivations of the characters to be suspect if they existed at all and their development took a back seat to the inexorable plot but it was probably worth my time. Friday I drove home and not much else. Saturday I golfed with Mr William Leichty at Brown Deer Golf Course near Iowa City. The course was nice and we were awful. He also engaged me in a game of Warcraft III in which I killed off my players and then destroyed my buildings making sure to save my game so someone can experience the joy. I failed to achieve victory. Sunday I golfed with my brother and father and did poorly again. I also came back to Northfield in a Buick Lesabre because I have left the Escort GT in Iowa for repairs. I will most likely retrieve it in two weeks.
I also received a glut of mail today. A bank statement, credit card bill, three Netflix DVDs (one of which I'd previously reported as lost) and a Barsuk Records sampler CD. On their website I chose Fourth-class shipping because it was free. It turned out to actually be good old first class USPS service which meant that it got here very quickly considering I ordered it last Wednesday. Let's hear it for free shipping! And free Coke!
I went golfing again yesterday and did much better than on the weekend.
2 Jul 2003
Last night I saw Stone Reader and was quite taken in. It is the story of a man searching for the long-lost author of one of his favorite books. The documentary worked in a weird way, convincing the audience that this was an important quest, although the "story" was not really all that enticing. It was completely off-beat and very good.
"I don’t think fuck is the new damn," said Mr Karo. "I think it’s the new the."
"My best friend? At the age of 43? My credit card! ... My best friend is myself. I look after myself very, very well. I can rely on myself never to let myself down. I'm the last person I want to see at night and the first in the morning. I am endlessly fascinating - at eight o'clock at night, at midnight, I'm fascinated. It's a lifelong relationship and divorce will never come into it. That's why, as I say, I feel privileged." -Morrissey
It is monstrously depressing to imagine the number of exciting rock shows I would have attended by the end of this summer had I been, as they say, "of age". I must echo a sentiment I noted a few weeks ago on another blog: "I think the next time I see someone who's 21 I'm going to punch them in the face."
6 Jul 2003
It has been some while since I last accessed the internet. During the interim I attended the White Stripes concert at Roy Wilkins auditorium with Kevin Clair.
Friday I attended Rumors the current UNCO production, which I enjoyed. My only complaint was that it seemed very much like college kids playing thirtysomethings rather than truly authentic representations of the characters but it was a good show all the same. I also saw the official and unofficial fireworks shows Northfield had to offer.
Saturday I paid to see Finding Nemo at Lakeville. I had heard only good things about it and they were all true. Afterwards I decided, rather than leaving, to drop in on Charlie's Angels 2 because it was just starting. I felt either sorry for or shocked at the people who actually paid to see it. I had heard only bad things about it and they too were all true. In the evening I saw Spartacus, a Netflix selection and a Stanley Kubrick film. It was a huge and expensive epic and for the first two-thirds of the film reminded me of The Ten Commandments starring Charlton Heston. There were many more noticeable creative Kubrick touches toward the end though which i appreciated and which elevated the experience above that of just another movie. Finally I watched Spaceballs upstairs with a few other people. I noticed for the first time the parallels to Frank Capra's It Happened One Night with Clark Gable. I'd say that had almost as much influence on it as Star Wars.
Today I have come to the post office to do this very thing I am doing at the moment and later will attend To Have and Have Not at the Oak Street Cinema in Minneapolis. That is all.
The White Stripes concert:
To say that the White Stripes gave as much energy tonight as I've ever seen is actually an understatement due to its relativity; the White Stripes gave as much energy as was humanly possible. During the hour plus they played the main part of their set, they took perhaps 83 seconds to rest in total. Jack and Meg pounded out song after song after song stringing them together as if they were not separate pieces but one huge slab of feedback, distortion and soul.
The Whites shattered the relative quiet before the storm of their onslaught with "Little Room", an appropriate tune considering the huge success Elephant was on the charts, capturing for the first time a large portion of the mainstream rock market, along with the expected critical approval, at the time of its release. Some time during the first verse of "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground" Jack realized there was something not quite right with the guitar tuning. After a valiant attempt to fix it midsong he went directly over to the keyboard where he finished up. From what I gather in his interviews and liner notes, Jack is very concerned about directness, being real and being honest; this show gave no reason to believe the contrary. For 90 minutes, the White Stripes poured themselves into a majestically powerful sound outstripping groups twice and three times their size. The simple combination of guitar and drums seemed to fill the echoing auditorium to near bursting.
Meg's drumming was rock-solid, the perfect thundering base for the guitar histrionics taking place center stage. One of the loudest cheers of the night came in anticipation of her turn at the mic for "In the Cold, Cold Night" while Jack faced the rear wall as if to let Meg have the spotlight for a short while all to herself. That is not to say that she was ignored otherwise. To observe their synergy, their togetherness during any number of arbitrary tempo changes and improvisations was fantastic. It's clear that the Stripes have been either playing a lot lately because they were fantastically tight.
The highlights of the show, at least for me, were probably "Jolene", which I don't own but was glad to hear, and the Burt Bacharach cover from Elephant, "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself", which showcases both the innocence and the awesome power the White Stripes fuse so well.
As a frontman, Jack White is second to none. He wasn't in any way aloof, but the fact that he required almost no extraneous conversation to relate his excitement to the crowd was evident in every note he played. With his guitar and emotive voice, he held the audience absolutely rapt for the duration of the night. Indeed, at times when he was riffing next to Meg's drumset there was an almost palpable wave driving the performance, its power nearly unsettling.
Because of their execrable lack of talent, I am forced to mention the Whirlwind Heat, who opened. They seemed either to be imitating either the White Stripes minus the talent and songwriting ability and plus a lot of awful gyrating and idiocy, or perhaps three monkeys given musical instruments who didn't know what to do with them and, frankly, were none too pleased with having to try to play for a crowd. Luckily any remnants of the incredibly awful Heat were banished by the first chord of "Dead Leaves".
A lot of people complain about or at least poke fun at the White Stripes' limited color palette. The pervasive motif does however serve to enhance the simple and direct way in which the Stripes communicate their message of love, hope and goodwill through one of the most colossal sounds ever produced by a two-piece rock band.
7 Jul 2003
I went to Oak Street Cinema and saw To Have and Have Not which was great and couldn't pass up The Big Sleep for only an extra two dollars. I also decided to join the Minnesota Film Arts Society as a member at the student level which essentially will pay for itself over the course of the summer. I get free tickets, reduced price admission all the time and a t-shirt. Additionally, if it turns out I have to pay taxes, I am able to deduct 83% of my fee, so the government may subsidize my watching films. That would make me extremely happy. I only hope I can have transportation in the next year so I can abuse my privileges past September.
I must thank Kevin for linking to this article. Perhaps if everyone read it life would be that much easier. An excerpt follows:
How can I let the introvert in my life know that I support him and respect his choice?
First, recognize that it's not a choice. It's not a lifestyle. It's an orientation.
Second, when you see an introvert lost in thought, don't say "What's the matter?" or "Are you all right?"
Third, don't say anything else, either.
10 Jul 2003
I must say I'm still skeptical about when I'll finally be driving one but I am excited about the possibility. I want to be able to tell people that my car runs on borax.
Teague Lyons appeared in the lobby outside the post office today. He has since graduation been a victim of the jobless recovery; a sad, sad tale. I suggested he attempt to collect unemployment. I hope at some point to collect unemployment. I'm sure it will restore any faith I've lost in my government. My brother managed to find a job a month and a half into summer as a security guard. Luckily for him, he starts classes even later in the fall than I do.
Lest I forget amidst the hoopla of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, I am a registered member of the Green party.
I am wildly enthusiastic about The Postal Service's Give Up at the moment:
And I intercepted a sampler headed for KRLX which has a song from the new album Ladybug Transistor is putting out. Excitement.
14 Jul 2003
I went home this weekend to retrieve a Honda Civic. I also managed to donate blood while there. On the way back I stopped in at the Bijou Theater at the University of Iowa for Stroszek. I basically agree with Ebert's review. After the movie I redeemed my second free bottle of Coke in two weeks. Their contest has been benefitting me greatly.
Also, I currently have a brand new KRLX sticker in my pocket but am too lazy to scan it.
I have fulfilled my Columbia House agreement thusly:
The Clash: Essential Clash
Gram Parsons: GP/Grievous Angel
Willie Nelson: Greatest Hits and Some That Will Be
Television: Marquee Moon
My Bloody Valentine: Loveless
Joy Division: Substance
17 Jul 2003
The record wishlist has been revised ever so slightly and each selection has a link to either allmusic.com's page or a better review. I don't think much work will get done on the new record collection page during the summer and it may in the end get scrapped. Speaking of my computer, I attempted last night to physically disconnect the CDRW drive because it has been malfunctioning all summer. Before it was simply not working and blinking its light, but on Monday I had to repeatedly reboot the computer over the course of trying to watch Barry Lyndon, an excellent and beautiful Stanley Kubrick movie. I had no luck with disconnecting the drive using control panel options so I had to open the case and physically disconnect the drive from the daisy chain including the DVD drive and the motherboard. That seems to have worked though I haven't yet tried to watch another DVD. I somehow managed to collect at one time three Netflix movies an average of 206 minutes each. The Kubrick film was 184, Lawrence of Arabia is 204 minutes and Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is 228. I hope to manipulate my queue so as not to have this happen again. I enjoy long movies, but there are times when I don't necessarily feel like going home and sitting there for four hours. If I get really bored I may post my Netflix queue sometime. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. In other movie news, tonight I will visit the Riverview Theater for the first time to see Gangs of New York in what I believe to be the last theatrical showing available to me. I did the same last summer with the godawful Attack of the Clones. It deserves no response but even so still gets a shudder from me. I must hope Episode III turns out better. Tomorrow I will see In a Lonely Place at the Oak Street Cinema where I will receive a t-shirt and get in for free because of my newly obtained membership privileges. I used to think Humphrey Bogart was overrated but my appreciation for him has grown dramatically after seeing much more of his work. And that, as they say, is that.
18 Jul 2003
Last night I paid two American dollars to see Gangs of New York. This was especially cheap due to the abundant free residential parking nearby. In fact, the Riverview Theater is basically in the middle of miles of houses as far as I can tell. There is a coffeeshop nearby, which I patronized, and another tiny establishment or two across the street but it is something of an oddity in southeast Minneapolis. The Riverview itself was fascinating. It had the nicest lobby I've ever seen with comfortable seating and very nice restrooms. The theater itself is humongous, at least compared to what I am used to. It holds seven hundred people and felt incredibly spacious. The screen was huge though I sat far enough back that it felt normal. There was a natural echo due to the magnitude of the place but the sound was the most effective I've heard in awhile; I couldn't tell if that was due to the space or the sound system but it worked well either way.
The movie itself was a sort of sensory shock, though not due to the violence. Rather it was the amount of movement and activity that took me for a loop. Having just watched Kubrick's Barry Lyndon with its meticulously crafted, beautiful, well-balanced shots and stately pacing, this was a veritable sensory overload. Scorsese successfully created a place and a time period in this film, much like Kubrick, but this was a dirty, gritty, fast-paced city seething with people. In the Kubrick film, there was a sense, for many reasons, that each scene was isolated from the rest of the world, that Kubrick was making each part complete and whole in and of itself apart from the movie and the rest of the world. The Five Points is visibly a part of New York and there are constantly people moving in and out of the frame, with a lot of panning and tracking, of which Barry Lyndon contains almost none at all. Gangs of New York impressed me and nearly every element was well done but it somehow lacked the vital spark necessary to connect me with the characters. It was as if all the right elements had been collected but not mixed quite rightly. I could expound more but I don't feel like it at present.
Rent-a-negro.com
"The only Americans who find out about Idlewild are those who believe in record reviews or listen to college radio, and these days such people are less tastemakers for the masses than citizens in their own separate nation."
20 Jul 2003
Friday night I went to UNCO's production of Eleemosynary. It was a stark affair with little in the way of set or costume or anything else for that matter but the acting was terrific and more than enough to satisfy me. Saturday I saw Whale Rider at Lakeville and it was the best new movie I have seen in the theater for a long, long time, perhaps ever (that seems like an overstatement but I really haven't seen that many good new movies in the theater in my time). I recommend it unabashedly. It was simple and down-to-earth, beautiful and, yes, moving. Sadly I was a full 25% of the crowd in attendance. The ladies at the box office asked me what it was about because they'd never heard of it. It deserves much more publicity, but probably can't afford it. Perhaps people should be forced to think twice before they are allowed to pay to see Charlie's Angels 2, for example, and instead learn about the joys of this movie.
In other news, the Mooney Suzuki's Electric Sweat is a good record and a little odd since it combines Strokes-ish 70's New York retro atmosphere and attitude with rhythms and melodies that seem more appropriate to late 50's/early 60's rock and roll (in one instance "Love Potion No. 9" is very apparent) and soul music, which is a nice addition. I was in FYE browsing through the enormously overpriced CDs ($18-20) planning to not buy a single thing until I spotted the Buzzcocks' Singles Going Steady on sale for a mere $9.98, which you may have seen on my record wishlist. As with Whale Rider, I was almost overwhelmed at the quality-price ratio of this album compared with, say, almost anything in the billboard top 40 going for twice as much. And, appropriately enough, I got a money order from the Northfield post office and sent it to Sub Pop Records for the Postal Service EP, Such Great Heights, which includes Iron and Wine covering the Postal Service which just about made me wet myself with delight at the very thought. I await its arrival feverishly, although I'm afraid it might not come until after I leave for a week of vacation this Friday afternoon. I suppose it will just make me excited to return.
I managed to make it to the theater yesterday despite a parade being held in the street beside it. I went to the Hopkins sexplex (6 theaters, $2) to see The Quiet American which was good but nothing to get too worked up over. After that I paid a visit to Teague in Uptown. Among other things we played Mario Kart 64 and I was dismayed by my performance; it seems that a long time away from the game has dulled my once sharp skills. I also watched Lawrence of Arabia after I got home which was nearly four hours long. I enjoyed it but not as much as the week's epic highlight, Barry Lyndon. I would have liked to have seen both of them on much larger screens but my computer will have to suffice while I'm in college. I've also been noticing since listening to my new Clash compilation: how loud and ferocious and good they were, how odd and experimental and groundbreaking they became, and how amazing it is that they did it all in less than six years (except for Cut the Crap which doesn't even feature Mick Jones).
23 Jul 2003
Yesterday I moved into the other room in the basement. This room has four actual walls, such as they are, and an actual closet, such as it is. It also includes more carpet and actual drawers. I was also reminded last evening that if you do not own all of Nick Drake's albums, do yourself a favor and buy them. I'd say Pink Moon is my favorite due to its sparse instrumentation, though Five Leaves Left comes in a very close second. Bryter Later is also great, and I think the simple fact that I haven't listened to it as much may be the reason it's in third place. That should not deter you from purchasing all three of these wonderful, wonderful records. Making distinctions between them is like distinguishing between favorite flavors of ice cream: one must taste better than the other out of reason and logic but the difference in quality is microscopic.
Tonight I will venture out to see Spellbound on the recommendation of Teague and his roommate, Alex Starace. One of the major subjects of the film is an incoming freshman at Carleton, and that holds some sort of minor excitement in addition to it being a good documentary in the first place.
Also, this.
And some idiot just walked in the library computer lab talking loudly on cell phone. He is oblivious to the others in the room. How delightful.
And more recently someone else walked by and asked me where I'd gotten my copy of The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Wodehouse. I told him the Northfield Library and he seemed quite excited at the prospect of checking some such thing out despite the Gould Library's stock of fiction being mostly packed away inaccessible. Indeed there is much excitement in the library computer lab today.
This kid is in fifth grade. He is my new idol.
24 Jul 2003
I did manage to see Spellbound last night. During the trip I listened to a CMJ compilation CD I got from the post office. Today BMG was advertising the Drive-By Truckers' Decoration Day for free with purchase of something else on their website. They mistakenly charged me for shipping so I emailed them and hopefully we can work things out. Tonight I will do laundry and pack for my week at home.
Spellbound
Spellbound holds few surprises for the viewer; it states its intent immediately at the beginning. It is going to follow eight spelling prodigies to the finals at Washington DC. The first half of the film profiles each of the spellers in their home environments: on the Texas plains, rural Pennsylvania, beachside Orange County, California. The parents, who vary in their involvement with their spellers, are all involved to some extent and very excited for their children, an excitement both their own and vicariously channeled through their offspring. Once the main subjects have been introduced the film moves to the actual competition in DC where much of the drama and interest is supplied by the spellers at the microphone, as well as reactions by parents offstage and after each elimination. A young returnee, Georgie, is introduced, though he isn't even included in the final round; the main reason for his involvement seems to be his mantra, "Trust in Jesus," for what film about America could be complete without a little fundamentalism?
The director's style is very direct here: aside from a few long shots establishing location, the camera is focused on the subjects in a medium close up. The students and their varying reactions to and amount of preparation for the national spelling championship provide the obvious interest of the film, but the parents are perhaps more diverse, interesting and indicative of what each speller truly represents. Except for the wacky Jewish boy who can't sit still for more than five seconds at a time, the kids generally don't have much regional flair. The parents make it obvious where they come from and betray their sometimes extreme to the kids quite easily. The most touching is probably the couple who can't speak English but immigrated from Mexico so their children could get the education that is so aptly embodied in this contest. The parents from Pennsylvania are slightly wacky and one has to wonder whether that has caused the downcast taciturnity so obvious in their daughter that they seem to either ignore or just have gotten used to. Early on one of the children's teachers says that she always likes students from India because they are so hard-working. She is proved right by both Indian children in the film but the difference in the parents is night and day. Nulal Pura seems to work by herself a lot with parents who support her as needed. Neil Raiaka, on the other hand, is quoted to have been practicing upwards of 7000 words a day by his systematic, very driven father, who believes very firmly in hard work and the American dream. Interestingly, the quiet parents come out ahead in the end.
Perhaps Spellbound provides no summertime thrills or revelations about human nature, but as it sets out to do from the beginning, it ably chronicles a quirky slice of Americana quite well and shows us ourselves in the mirror, laughable and familiar all at once.
CMJ New Music Monthly: Volume 114
For "college music", CMJ certainly comes up with some intensely normal, even boring material for its monthly compilations. There is at least some variety here evident especially in the first track, "I Need More Love" from Robert Randolph & The Family Band, atypical of traditional college/indie rock as might be expected. Its funky guitar line is quickly joined by a driving dance beat with more instruments thrown into the mix at various points along the way, including most of what must be the family backing Robert and some high-pitched love-starved freak.
Next comes the obligatory nod to Liz Phair's new self-titled disaster. Overproduced loud guitars accompanied by Ms Phair singing through her inane and not even very interesting songs about how "psycho" she is, much less "extraordinary" seems out of place.
St Olaf's Spymob breaks the monotony with a constant driving piano rhythm that flows through the song at times accompanied by a similarly mobile guitar. Though it's no revelation, it is a nice little piece of college pop.
Elliott attempts to convince us he's creating a rich atmosphere with a staid little effects-laden guitar until it's time to rock out after the first verse and his plaintive tenor above the aforementioned guitar plus frequent wacky drum breaks leads us to believe that Elliott believes there's a lot more to this song than there really is.
Alert! Alert! Radiohead ripoff fast approaching. "Breathe In" from Palo Alto is perhaps the most egregious clone of The Bends not just recently but ever. This could be forgiven if the song had something, anything new to contribute but it ends up sounding like Yorke & co just got bored with "Planet Telex" and decided to spice things up by making it, well, boring. Avoid this at all costs. It's all there, right down to the exact timbre and expression in the lead singer. Ten years ago, maybe this would have been necessary, but probably not.
Madlib, from the depths of the Blue Note catalog, contributes an appropriate change of pace number, "Slim's Return". Grounded by a repeating bass figure frequently broken by slightly funky strings and a voice, assumedly Madlib's, providing extra sonic texture, the piece works combining a jazz tone to a sample-heavy hip hop song.
Drive-by Truckers blaze into town with "Sinkhole" with mean guitars and some of the most individualistic vocals on here. They seem the sort that might spit used tobacco juice on most of the rest of the compilation, muttering an obscenity, and ride off into the sunset. Well, at least the guitar would.
"Get Up" and get out of town. Bleu is coming with bland, vaguely self-important lyrics and a slightly angry guitar sound that goes nowhere. The song has no idea what it's about emotionally, though Bleu attempts to make it sound somewhat convincing. Better luck next time.
Switchfoot hits with some heavy riffing that, if you're into produced crunch, is actually quite spacious and roomy, giving the song room to resonate. "Meant To Live" sounds like an anthem for high school girls looking for that band with heart, but not too specifically nor creatively expressed. It's really not all that bad.
"The Move", from Michael Baynes, opens with acoustic guitar for that extra emotional resonance that it completely misses. In fact, it's such a godawful straightforward pop song that it's hard to care much one way or the other except that by this time you've already been overwhelmed with CMJ-endorsed mediocrity and you're not gonna take it anymore.
Memento seems to be just another nu-metal band killing us softly before they hit us up massive riffage-style. But wait, did he just mention Jesus' cousin . . . and the devil . . . and whores and wars . . . and hallelujah? What is this ill-begotten quasi-spiritual mishmash along with the weird new-age synth strings and a pretending to be sinister drum track. I'm slightly afraid and not entirely sure I shouldn't be. Creepy.
Luckily most of the albums real sucking has been done. Yes, "We Don't Care" may get slightly repetitive and seem slightly less than cerebral (the refrain "What the fuck?!" fails to lend any intellectual strength to the song) at least it has a mostly danceable beat so you could do something to alleviate possible attacks of boredom waiting for something interesting to happen.
Karsh Kale's "Liberation" NIN-meets-New Age vocals works surprisingly well. The building activity underneath adds to the mystery and by this point in the disc, that is, if you've actually made it this far, you're thankful for something that sounds vaguely original and well-conceived.
I downloaded "Sail On" for some reason. I have yet to figure out why. Chris Lee is entirely unthrilling throughout. His oddly soulful vocal stylings don't seem to portray anything other than mildly nonthreatening vibes. The title of his album, Cool Rock, sets just the right slightly corny, passe tone for the song.
The best track sits here, perilously near the end, as if CMJ wasn't quite sure it wanted to allow it on. Wildchild's rapping happens over such a spare atmosphere (a slim beat, constant quiet static and the occasional keyboard figure) that it seems odd others on this compilation couldn't simply put something this basic yet solid together.
"Anthems For A Seventeen Year-Old Girl" is Broken Social Scene's oddity, dominated by faded faint female vocals that are joined by banjo and guitar with various strings in the background and what could be bongos underneath. It's all pulled off amazing lightly for how clear each element is presented. Scene fills up its eight minutes much more satisfactorily than many of the bands on here can handle two.
Minus the Bear ends this affair with "Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!". It rocks, though I'm not sure it presents a real necessity to. In no way does it deserve a title as manic and hyped-up as it has, but its a nice little rock song that comes off as a little quirky due to a few bleeps here and other bloops there.
All in all, the only bands I must hear again are Wildchild and Drive-by Truckers though I'd probably go for Minus, Broken Social Scene, Madlib and Karsh Kale without much of a fight. Robert Randolph and Spymob would probably sneak in someday but if this is really the best "college music" has to offer this month, I'm rather disappointed.
4 Aug 2003
I went home for a while. I watched some movies, read some books, went to a Cubs game, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Ottumwa Public Golf Course.
I received, in the mail, the Postal Service EP Such Great Heights which features a B-side and one cover each by the Shins and Iron and Wine. In other news, I want to see My Morning Jacket when they return to the Ascot Room on 30 September. A lot. I'm worried that this show can't live up to my high expectations but maybe it can.
The Essex Green at The Quest is a possibility, as is Built to Spill at First Avenue. Then Death Cab For Cutie comes in October.
11 Aug 2003
Last week I watched Punch Drunk Love and liked it less than I wanted to. Adam Sandler playing it straight was not odd, but other touches in the movie seemed unnecessarily bizarre that didn't seem to fit with the earnest tone of the rest of the picture. It did have its moments though. Mash was as brilliant as I thought it would be from my preview of it last Thanksgiving. I enjoyed it a lot more than the other Robert Altman film I watched this summer, McCabe and Mrs Miller, a unique sort of western.
I ended up going home last weekend which made for the third weekend in a row I spent in Iowa. On the way home I reminded myself how good Pinkerton is, how good Source Tags and Codes is, and how much it owes to Sonic Youth, especially Daydream Nation. The Vanagon was filled with large speakers and amps and driven about town, specifically to the mall and an apartment complex downtown. Certain passengers rode backward with their feet out the windows. Sadly, no one took us up on our offers of a free ride. Then the transmission went out and we pushed it to a parking lot from which it could be towed later. On the way back to Northfield I was accompanied by the terrific post-punk/new wave of The Cure and Joy Division, greatest hits collections I'd not yet listened to. They were both terrific (Staring at the Sea and Substance, respectively). I've also been watching more Twin Peaks, care of Netflix, and it has continued to thrill me with its excellence.
The toilet of the future!
Today I am getting all my news from the Sydney Morning Herald. They provided me with this article and this delightful picture:
Last night I went to Electric Fetus to pick up Radiohead's Hail To The Thief, Fog's Ether Teeth and My Morning Jacket's At Dawn, which is so beautiful I want to go live inside of it. It Still Moves comes out in all its reverberating glory in September. I also went to Oak Street Cinema to see Une Femme Est Une Femme. I went to the gyro place next door and was quite happy with the results. And although I haven't yet actually seen him, it has been officially confirmed that Dan Edwards is now living in Lower Crack. Today I am reading The Hindu.
Une Femme Est Une Femme (A Woman Is A Woman)
Though not a backward "They don't make 'em like they used to" traditionalist, I do value and appreciate films of many eras. Specifically, I've been watching a lot of Humphrey Bogart films for the past few months and enjoy almost everything he does. One of the things I appreciate about films such as Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep is that they don't need to apologize for the period in which they were made. Birth of a Nation springs to mind as the greatest example of a masterpiece that has become so culturally dated as to detract from its value, and I therefore can only appreciate it to a certain extent. Bogart's dry wit and his presence are timeless and can be enjoyed by anyone, anytime with no explanation necessary.
Much the same could be said of A Woman Is A Woman. Frenetic, unique and full of energy, Godard's musical seems absolutely fresh 40 years on. Though Godard could be expected to be exceptional, A Woman establishes its own identity very quickly, with the soundtrack fading in and out on the spot relative to the dialogue and the position of the characters onscreen. The loud and upbeat music seems to have almost a life of its own, running willy-nilly throughout, though really Godard is putting it to use in unorthodox ways. This New Wave picture features the characters addressing the audience, alone and in pairs; camera techniques that shatter the laws of cinematography (at one point we assume the camera has taken Emile's point of view as Angela follows it around the room with her eyes and addresses it, yet Emile walks into the frame from the left, completely unsettling the viewer); and jokes such as Jean-Paul Belmondo mentioning that he is in a hurry because Breathless is being shown on television.
A Woman Is A Woman is the oddest and one of the best musicals I have ever seen. The songs are mainly sung in the cabaret, although a jukebox is featured prominently in one scene, even getting large amounts of screen time. The pacing is lightning-quick and never gets dragged down by the characters' emotional dilemmas, even though they are evident. I can't tell if it's a French sensibility or just Godard, but the way the characters interact is at the same time refreshingly realistic and at the same time completely off the wall. The biggest laugh in the movie comes when Angela and Emile are going to sleep, not on speaking terms, when one of them decides to get up, transport the lamp to the bookshelf and communicate through cover titles. Odd, yet almost plausible in the environs of the film. That a film can be so rule-breaking, so fresh and so real, from 40 years ago nonetheless, reminds me why I love the Oak Street Cinema.
12 Aug 2003
This is my new website because the only reason to have a website is to change it. Hopefully all the archives back to February 2002 will be organized and made to look more uniform. [Months later this, as you can see, has happened.]
I was reminded by Kevin's redesign that grey had gotten stale, as had the title. It was time to start over, because nothing is more beautiful than a blank slate. I'm thinking of confining the site to three main sections which consist only of a home page which will, after I get through the initial entries, have only the latest and, of course, greatest entry. The links will serve to increase traffic on sites I appreciate, and the archives to store past entries. I would like to keep entries in small, manageable chunks so if I post something I like and want to keep for the future and possibly alter, it can simply be referred to by its number, like the list of magazines. The entries are numbered as a courtesy to myself, since for the last while I have been posting willy nilly without any organizational system and as a result the archives are, while complete, somewhat bewildering.
If you don't have either the Rockwell or Verdana typefaces, you don't like the color orange, you are having browser-related issues and use Internet Explorer or an outdated version of Mozilla, you have a special place in your heart for Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle and/or Empire Records, you want to know why I have added capital letters and/or superfluous punctuation, you just can't comprehend something or other, you are offended by this list, or you didn't notice that the blue color on the links makes them seem to hover magically above the white print on the orange background, you are a useless fuck, go away. If, on the other hand, you have a link or something else helpful and welcome to contribute, submit it.
Today I woke up and went to the post office. I ate a cheese dog and a coney dog from Tiny's for lunch. I read The Source, Newsweek, Time, and U.S. News & World Report. Somebody got rid of the Economist, which upset me slightly because I had so enjoyed the first few pieces I'd read in this week's issue the day before.
Due to a lack of good reading material, I headed to the library where I checked out Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers by Ed Sikov, the author of the text used for my class on Billy Wilder this spring. I finished two chapters before four o'clock which brought me up to his early twenties. There was also a Wells Fargo man on some sort of fact finding mission relating to their ATM in the Sayles-Hill lobby. He asked about phone lines and where they were connected or something mysterious. He also looked up the number for the engineer, whoever that might have been. I assume his people are thinking of putting the machine online or something, but he supplied no such information and I demanded none.
At four I returned to the library for my ritualistic afternoon internet session. I perused my usual list of sites as well as The Sydney Morning Herald, my random unfamiliar newspaper of the day. I learned that Athens is straining under the burdensome preparations for next summer's Olympics, and that druids restored the spiritual balance to a roadway in Austria that played host to a few too many automobile accidents. Australia and the surrounding island nations are considering a European Union-like type of multi-national currency, which would likely be the Australian dollar. Also, the Solomon Islands are in the process of being taken over by Australia due to their collapse in recent months. Apparently the negotiations have taken a slight downturn, but it remains to be seen how things will turn out in the end.
After the library closed I made my way to the Parkway Theatre in southeast Minneapolis to see Chaos, a recent French film about women taking charge of their lives, though it's far more interesting and less smarmy than that sounds. The story begins with Paul and Hélène hurriedly driving to some evening engagement when a scantily clad woman runs toward them screaming. Paul locks the doors and the woman is beaten to within an inch of her life before their eyes. Paul's only concern is that he not get involved in this sordid business and hurries off to wash the car, removing any evidence that he witnessed the crime. Hélène becomes obsessed with the plight of this prostitute and aids and protects her until she has recovered. Meanwhile, Paul and Fabrice, both denigrated for their idiotic ambivalence toward their partners go through trials of their own. There are a number of twists and turns in the film involving the family of the prostitute and her eventual "relationships" with both Paul and Fabrice. It was all brilliantly executed and captured my attention as much as anything I've seen for a good long time. See it if you get the chance.
The following is a list of magazines I've read regularly in the post office this summer ranked in order of quality:
- The Nation. I like their politics and views better than pretty much any other publication on the list. The weekly I'm most likely to read cover to cover.
- The Onion. Always brilliant.
- Harper's. Insightful, though somewhat full of itself.
- The New Yorker. A nice smattering of everything.
- Times Literary Supplement. For some reason I enjoy reading their reviews of books I have no intention of actually reading.
- London Review of Books. See above.
- The Economist. If you can get past the condescending, somewhat negative tone, it's very comprehensive and well done.
- The New Republic. Interesting politics and a good arts & culture section.
- The Atlantic Monthly. Some interesting pieces and overlong articles.
- Spin. Reviews almost as bad as Rolling Stone. Better features, but still mostly pap.
- The Source. About hip hop, of which I know relatively little. Interesting but a little showy at times.
- Rolling Stone. Bland, useless reviews. Uninteresting music news. Reporting and features I'd rather get from a real newsmagazine.
- CMJ. Godawful eternally glowing reviews. Formulaic and repetitive.
- ESPN The Magazine. Better regular features than Sports Illustrated and much better, more modern design.
- Sports Illustrated. All the sports news I've read elsewhere.
- Newsweek. All the news I've read elsewhere. Scare tactics (terrorism, social malaise, you're a fat fucking worthless slob so get in on the latest fad diet/snake oil/idiot pop culture thing) used to up sales.
- Time. See above.
This is the line of demarcation below which no links are provided because I don't like the magazines. It's not just because I'm lazy.
- U.S. News & World Report. See above, add a Republican slant.
- Entertainment Weekly. Unintelligent.
- Movieline. Expensive tabloid.
- Weekly World News. Cheap tabloid. Pandering and awful.
- Maxim, Stuff, FHM. No.
17 Aug 2003
Thursday I went to Swimming Pool at the Uptown Theater. I enjoyed sitting in the balcony, but I didn't really enjoy the movie all that much. Although there was plenty of exciting skin to be seen, the story didn't intrigue as much as it wanted to. None of the characters did much for me in the way of creating empathy or even interest, they were just up there on the screen. It seemed as if some key element had been accidentally left on the cutting room floor because the suspense didn't really exist, i.e. I was not at all surprised nor even that interested in what happened. The ending tried to be sort of weird and, I think, creepy, but it just seemed irrelevant. I was kind of suspecting that might happen anyway, so I wasn't thoroughly disappointed.
Friday I saw The Real Inspector Hound at Arena Theater which I liked but I don't think as much as the rest of the audience did. Rather like with Swimming Pool, I understood that it was odd, in this case for critics to enter a play mid-performance, but it didn't strike me with the force it should have. It was well done, however, and I have nothing but the highest praise for the "actor" who spent the entire evening face down on the floor of the stage.
Due to a nap and a large quantity of coffee I'd consumed earlier that evening, I was unable to fall asleep and therefore watched, care of Netflix, Bergman's The Seventh Seal. I had vague recollections of watching it at a much younger age, though I can't figure out why and I certainly didn't get it at the time and I could only recall seeing the first few minutes anyway. I enjoyed the sound of spoken Swedish, and also because I could relate some of it to what was going on because it is a somewhat close relative of both German and English. It was surprisingly less morbid than it had a right to be, since the entire thing was about death. I mean, Death is a character, there is a burning at the stake, the Black Death is ravaging the countryside and almost all the dialogue relates in some way to, you guessed it, death. I enjoyed it, not as a morbidity-fascinated sort, but because of its intelligence and because of the honesty of the characters. It left me with a feeling both that I had enjoyed it and that, when I see it again, I will enjoy it all the more, which is a sure sign of a great film.
Saturday I went through my CDs that had been piling up in different places and sorted them all out. Now I have them in three sections: valuable, questionable and disposable. There is also a fourth category of discs that I don't currently have access to but will take a look at after I move to Evans. Thankfully I only had to add three or four to the disposable pile. Someday I will perhaps revise my all-time favorites, which I believe I posted some time but don't remember when. There may also be a summer retrospective, similar to the two-disc compilation I put together for the last schoolyear, which I still enjoy and appreciate; there are very few things I would change, if I could, and it still gives me perverse pleasure to know that I have a hidden track on a CD I made by myself, for myself. I also watched Heavenly Creatures, my first all-English-speaking movie in along while, Peter Jackson's film about two Kiwi girls with a somewhat peculiar relationship. The picture bounces along with a goodly amount of subjective and fantastic imagery, especially the clay people of the imaginary royal family Pauline and Juliet create for themselves. The attitude of the film, and especially the performance of Melanie Lynskey as Pauline, is just so likeable that I had to watch. Although notably younger, at least by age of the characters, the pair reminded me, at least in their portrayal as genuinely interesting teenage girls, of the "heroines" of Ghost World. Far from being some awful coming-of-age melodrama about the tragically romantic perils of adolescence, Heavenly Creatures is simply about two wild and crazy kids, itching for a way out of their restrictive schoolgirl lives, and their ultimately horrific plan to achieve it. Luckily for all involved, though this was Kate Winslet's debut film, it was in fact the much better Melanie Lynskey who carried the movie.
Tonight I will see one, perhaps two, Rainer Maria Fassbinder shows at Oak Street.
Oh yes, and I'm reading Lester Bangs' Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung and he is as fantastic as I'd heard.
18 Aug 2003
I didn't dislike Die Ehe der Maria Braun, but neither was I thrilled by it. I think, for the most part, this can be attributed to the fact that I believe I've discussed post-World War II Germany in almost half my classes over the past year. There is only so much discussion and literature one can take in a particular area before the brain starts to melt and the only response left is a dull sort of diffidence. This is the reason I think I cared about the movie less than I was meant to: I already know all about the treatment of German women after the war, what they went through physically, emotionally, spiritually, and what it must have done to them. The main focus of the story being on a woman whose husband of two days is "killed" in the war, only to find months later (or years, the passage of time in the film was very quick and very confusing) that he has returned. Sort of like with Swimming Pool it was the case that I didn't care for the characters, and therefore the lack of excitement provided by the other aspects of the film, e.g. setting, style of dialogue, cinematography, etc. did not suffice to entertain me. It wasn't bad, but I doubt I'll think about much again.
Then 90 and at the height of his powers...
19 Aug 2003
Today the Economist told me that there are 750,000 bloggers. Also, I finished Season I of Twin Peaks last night and now I must wait until I can get my hands on either the two-hour pilot or the second season. Either one will be exciting. And I was just filmed for my walking ability.
At college with the president(s)...
And just to inflame my anti-Dean passion all the more, which exists mainly because he is politically vague, he is apparently considering doing away with spending limits for himself:
"Howard Dean, who has proved surprisingly adept at raising campaign money, appears to be having second thoughts about his pledge to participate in the nation's program for publicly financing political campaigns.
"The former Vermont governor told the Associated Press that although he intends to keep his pledge, he is also still willing to consider opting out of the program. "Could we change our mind? Sure," Dean said.
"The program, designed to lessen the importance of campaign fundraising, provides federal dollars to qualified candidates who agree to spending limits. Earlier this year, Dean said his campaign would join the program.
"But he has since proved a prodigious fundraiser. And Democrats have long feared that participating in the program during their primary would put their candidate at a disadvantage, since President Bush is expected to opt out.
"Democrats fear their candidate could emerge from the primaries, as early as March, nearly penniless and unable to match the president's unrestricted campaign efforts for months -- until they receive their general election money later that summer, after their presidential nominating convention. It was that scenario that appears to have given Dean second thoughts.
"'I think public financing is a good thing. The question is what do you do with an opponent who can murder you for months,' Dean said."
- Washington Post
Since he already seems to be a McCain style pseudo-populist who rallies voters by disagreeing with the right people, with somewhat hazy liberal credentials, his sheepish disavowal of spending limits seems suspect, for leftists if not for his opponents. Certainly it would be nice to get rid of the current White House full of imperialist, obnoxious, disingenuous jerks, but replacing them with a group of pandering lightweights isn't going to do that much good once there is no figurehead to sneer at. If he can't even stick to his "principles" before the elections when everybody and his brother are full of wild-eyed promises, what would he do in office?
I was thinking about the concept of Audioslave today because their "Like A Stone" was on the radio in the post office and it somehow got into my head and wouldn't leave. I, like many rock fans I'm sure, was saddened at the break-ups of both Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine. Though either could at times get a little repetitive, boring, or just a little too MUCH, they both had excitingly loud, soothingly abrasive sounds and generally good and listenable songs and albums. I remember vividly the anticipation with which I read that Chris Cornell would be replacing Zack de la Rocha, and imagined what sort of beautiful merger this should have been. For at least two years there was inner turmoil, as well as trouble with the label, but they finally released the album and went on tour. I didn't really want to believe the reviews at the time of release because they all sounded so negative; but what I heard on the radio didn't do much to inspire confidence in me either. Which is to say that I didn't buy the album, but have heard a chunk of it and am not terribly impressed, especially with what theoretically could have been an amazingly loud and thrilling concoction. The whole affair strikes me as lacking the fire and freshness of either of the original bands, as if they are still taking some sort of break from really making the sort of music I'm sure most people expected. There really isn't a point to this except that Cornell does have a great voice for hard rock vocals, which I notice at times on "Like A Stone", and which was probably what attracted me to Soundgarden ("Burden In My Hand", "Blow Up The Outside World") at first back when I was thirteen or fourteen. Maybe something magical will appear next time.
Oh yes, and somehow spam protection completely failed on my Carleton account so I have received a total of 25 junk-mail messages today.
And I'm looking around on Ebay for audio electronics type things and it's exciting, but I think I'll wait until I've moved to an environment safer for electronics to actually purchase them.
I've been listening to a bunch of teenybopper radio recently. It is, indeed, rather awful, but not really that much more awful than repeatedly listening to Drive 105 or Cities 97 or some other sort of "alternative", which are really and truly awful after you've heard every song on their playlists and again, and again, and again. I've realized that I enjoy 50 Cent quite a bit, I've remembered how much I hate Nelly, and my disdain for mall punk has not really heightened so much as I simply realized that a pop group can't just be a pop group if it is to be marketed to adolescents, it must project an image, no matter how irrelevant or just plain wrong it seems in relation to the actual music. Good Charlotte provides a good example of this but what really got me thinking was Simple Plan's "Addicted". It has almost nothing to do with punk rock; that is with independence, the D.I.Y. aesthetic, or nonconformism. It's not even that loud or effective as a punk song. What it is, instead, is just what it strives to be: a nice little pop song with a hummable melody, even some harmony (though I haven't listened closely to it), and far more in common with lite power ballads than with, say, "Anarchy in the UK". If you aren't put off by the fact that it's not actually a punk song, they aren't actually punks, and there's nothing to gain from it that you can't get from any other decent tune on the dial, it's sort of a harmless little diversion. Which is not to say that I don't really wish that I could be listening to something GOOD when I'm at work for seven hours a day, rather than waiting for an hour to hear something that's not trash or debasing myself and sinking to the level of the DJs, whose voices I never ever want to hear again.
24 Aug 2003
So, you ask, what have I been doing lately? I probably don't really remember. I did read Nicholson Baker's Vox, Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick and Voltaire's Candide this week. I think that brings me to twelve or thirteen books I've read this summer, which doesn't seem like very many, but when I take into account the inordinate amount of movies I've watched and all the time I spend reading stuff on the Internet as well as magazines and newspapers, I think I'm doing all right. Although it should be a little boring I will post lists of movies and books I've consumed this summer and, of course, music I've purchased. Speaking of music, I definitely enjoyed Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica as well as The Marshall Mathers LP this week, both of which I've had sitting on my hard drive for a while but hadn't previously listened to closely. I've been meaning to listen to attempt more wholeheartedly get into Modest Mouse for awhile, since I know a number of people who already do so. Previously, I'd listened only to Building Something Out of Nothing and it struck me as too dissonant and crashing, especially because I'm very particular about lead singers and Isaac Brock's voice can grate a little, at times, but I did Antarctica may have turned me into a fan. Also, though I doubt the worth of the skits on Marshall Mathers, and "Kim" is such an assault that I don't really enjoy listening to it that much, it is otherwise fantastic. I was enamored with "Stan" when Eminem did it on Saturday Night Live and still like it, though it's probably not quite my favorite track. That honor probably belongs to "Kill You" although there are many others that come close. I prefer Eminem to pretty much all of his guest vocalists (I detest D12) and enjoy him most when he sounds angry but not homicidal, 8 Mile's "Lose Yourself" rather the aforementioned "Kim". Although the beats are worthwhile, I have to wonder how much Eminem controls them and how much Doctor Dre and others have to do with them, and realistically, he could probably rap over nothing and still be terrific. I also realized that I severely need to purchase SOME hip hop because, well, I enjoy it yet don't seem to actually own hardly any at all which is a situation that needs to be rectified. And finally, I remembered this week as I was looking at some admittedly pretty worthless punk-pop groups on allmusic.com that their star ratings are not actually ranks of quality but relative ratings within the genre and to other work by the same artist. That is probably the only way that I can imagine that IDM seems to get dumped on in their star system, yet Blink 182 gets terrific marks. Or something. And speaking of punk, which we technically weren't I have been enjoying The Clash and The Buzzcocks, but I think I need to sell Ramones Mania and get their first album because listening to thirty songs at a time, some of which I really dislike, is not the best way to get into a band.
In other news, I watched the Twins lose to the Royals 3-4 last night. Jose Lima got blasted, allowing three runs early and getting replaced in the fifth, which surprised me, but the Royals came back later on and MacDougal shut the Twins down in the ninth. I had been planning to get a $6 upper deck general admission ticket but I couldn't pass up a guy outside trying to get rid of a $21 seat; I took it for $15 and sat in the fourth row down the first base-line about 200 feet from home plate, a far cry from against the back of the upper deck in Wrigley earlier this year, with a restricted view. The guy did have a loud and annoying friend, but at least he wasn't a lunatic. It was a pretty good game, close most of the way, and fourth row for $15 is terrific.
Tuesday I watched The Godfather which, like Citizen Kane last year, I don't have much to say about. It was entertaining with no bad spots, the acting was very good, but it didn't do anything special for me. The circular touch with the son finally taking the father's place, closing with a scene very similar to the first, was nice, but I can't personally rank as one of my all-time favorites. Thursday I was going to see Northfork, but I got caught in traffic, so I saw The Secret Lives of Dentists instead. It was a domestic drama about a married pair of dentists whose marriage is falling apart. For much of the movie the entire family (three daughters as well as the husband and wife) have the flu and are vomiting everywhere. The puking is surprisingly well-done and not disgusting, just kind of quietly humorous and touching, maybe. Also, Denis Leary plays a disgruntled customer who becomes an imaginary, and hilarious, sidekick for David, the father and protagonist, as his family situation worsens. I enjoyed it, although for some reason, imdb.com shows a bizarre 5 out of 10 ranking; I think someone had it out for this film and got their friends to give it zero stars. Interestingly, 20% of the audience gave it a 10, over 60% of the audience gave it 8 or higher, and 70% of the audience gave it a 7 or higher, it got an arithmetic mean of 6.5 and a median of 8, yet it gets a mysterious "weighted average" of 5. Women seem to hate the film as well as minors. According to the IMDB, "Various filters are applied to the raw data in order to eliminate and reduce attempts at 'vote stuffing' by individuals more interested in changing the current rating of a movie than giving their true opinion of it," though it seems unthinkable to me that a critically well-received film such as this one could receive such a tremendously low rating. I mean, Charlie's Angels 2, the worst movie I've seen in a good long time, got a 5.4, with a lower mean and median. This all only serves to remind me how awful summer movies are in general. I even wanted to see a movie in the theater this weekend and could only find a very few I hadn't seen that didn't look either trashy or poorly done. Ah well, hooray for Netflix all the more, and the Northfield Public Library. I watched Le Diner de Cons last night and enjoyed it quite a bit. It got dangerously close to preciousness and moralizing at the end but steered clear. It actually reminded me more of TV sitcom than a feature film, possibly owing to the fact that most of the film takes place in a single apartment.
The Observer's Ed Vuillamy on America...
It seems that I was the victim of the notorious Sobig virus but the spam onslaught ended this weekend and my inbox is back to normal.
I forgot to say that my favorite moment in The Secret Lives of Dentists had to have been when Cat Power came in singing "I Found A Reason" from her Covers Record and, before that, the Velvet Underground's Loaded. I find that songs always strike me more powerfully when I hear them in films even if they don't seem to fit with the images on the screen or they're playing over the credits. I suppose it's a form of emotional synthesis, which would imply that instead of combining images to create a broader effect, the emotion of the film is combined with the tone of a song to create something even stronger in the listener.
And I listened to Recovering The Satellites last night, which got me to thinking that I believe that is the album I have owned and enjoyed the longest. In other words, of the CDs I still listen to on a regular basis, I don't think I owned any of them before the Counting Crows' second album, which I bought about six years ago, I think. It's a relatively complex album to listen to carefully on headphones with eight or nine different tracks generally going at the same time. Two or three guitars, one of them possibly acoustic, bass, drums, one or two of the following: keyboards, organ, piano or accordion, lead vocals and often some backup, along with the occasional mandolin and steel or pedal steel guitar. Although a few songs drag a bit, it holds up very well for me even at an hour. I don't feel that there is as much to like in This Desert Life, although it's still a good record. I've yet to discover anything but disdain for Hard Candy, but I need to listen to August and Everything After, which everyone claims is their best, but I think that may just be because it came first.
25 Aug 2003
I got license plates today which means I don't have to stop driving which is nice. Also, I watched Fellini's 8½ last night. About forty minutes in I was ready to shut it off and give up, but decided that since I didn't have anything better to do, I'd stick with it. I must say I was pleasantly rewarded. The black and white photography was gorgeous all the way, as great as the traditionally bad Italian lipsynching was not. Since it is a film about a director who can't decide what he wants to do with his next project, it includes a lot of restive nothingness and sometimes boring scenes of dialogue that add to the tone of the film, but not to the "plot", though that is to be ignored. Rather than plot, the movie builds up the director's relationships with other people, and his seeming failure at them, and as it nears the end, is able to comment on his lack of love for those around him, as well as on the film that is actually being produced. I found that by the end I felt that everything had worked together for the best and it turned into a cohesive (as far in that direction as this film is able to go) experience. My favorite attribute of the movie is its self-referential and self-mocking tone. That Fellini deals with doubts about his own selfishness and the value of the film within the film as he makes is as postmodern as it gets, which I, for one, enjoyed.
Last but certainly not least, 9 September becomes even huger with the release of not only the new My Morning Jacket, but also a new Iron & Wine EP! And apparently the new Guided by Voices album (not a 9 September release) is worth my while, at least according to Pitchfork! And then there's the Blue's Clues album!
27 Aug 2003
Today ESPN The Magazine talked about Bo Jackson's prowess on Tecmo Bowl and Tecmo Super Bowl for N.E.S. Apparently the claim was first made last year. They are right. According to the columnist whose name I can't remember and isn't mentioned on the internet, "Video Bo"'s prowess as a virtual athlete was unchallenged until Madden 2004's Michael Vick, though he still claims that Bo is the all-time champion. I agree. Tragically, I don't think Drew Hill got any mention, but then his team wasn't even in the first Tecmo Bowl. Kyle Willett, however, will attest vociferously to Drew Hill's unchallenged greatness as a video game receiver.
Last night I went to the Parkway Theater to see I Capture The Castle which Roger Ebert really liked, but I didn't think was so hot. It seemed to me formulaic and not very exciting or surprising or original. The characters were for the most part "types" without much inner development. Some of the actors were egregiously awful, especially the Americans. It was thrilling though when the film got off track and the image slowly moved to the side of the screen and then stopped and there was this sort of ring of film tinged blue on the right and bright orange on the left with blank white in the middle. It was very nice; I'd like to have a picture of the people in the theater sitting and looking at that.
28 Aug 2003
I finally got stuck on the Legend of Zelda because I can't figure out what the old man means by, "There is a secret in the tip of the nose." In other N.E.S. related news, I played some Bo Jackson-powered Tecmo Bowl recently. He gained 490 yards on 18 carries to score 9 touchdowns in regular Tecmo Bowl and scored 6 times with 271 yards on 13 carries in Tecmo Super Bowl. I'm not sure what went wrong in Tecmo Super Bowl, but at least I have already provided evidence that he can do better than that. Drew Hill racked up 441 yards with 6 touchdowns which was pretty good but I think he could break 500. I also photographed the first level of Super Mario Bros., but it's not on here and neither is the Zelda map. I think I might just wait until I get a network connection for my own computer to upload any more images.
I also got Hard Day's Night from the Northfield Public Library. It wasn't bad, but the twenty different extra interviews and things they include with the movie seems excessive for something that was such a tossed-off piece of fluff.
29 Aug 2003
I seem to really enjoy the intro to the Dashboard Confessional single from the new album. I don't mind the rest of the song either but seems to not quite live up to whatever the intro is promising. Spin came today and it was mostly worthless like always except for an OK record list by Tom Morello and a brilliant romantic advice section by Ween. The New Yorker had some very good letters to the ethicist along with a fascinating piece on the New York City water system. The story by Dave Eggers seems to be pretty good but I didn't have time to finish it. The last Harper's had a brilliant transcription of some guy messing with people looking for cybersex. I had a similar encounter last year which I very much enjoyed. It was, I think, in the guise of Clyde, who hasn't been heard from for a long time. He may have something to say after I finish the book I'm reading about the Norse gods but it's hard to say.
Also, KRLX received the new My Morning Jacket CD today which means that of course I opened it and commandeered it for the trip home this weekend. Tomorrow I may grill and watch Ohio State take on Washington. I'm not sure what Sunday and Monday portend.
1 Sep 2003
It's also a little weird to think of what sort of e-litter one leaves on the internet. I must have numerous email accounts, blogs and passwords to things I haven't considered for months or years. Some time I'm going to go through and read everything I can find that I have on the Internet, which, admittedly, is mostly stuff related to my Carleton website, but even that is now interesting because some of it is a year and a half old.
I was also thinking about how I am ready to do some more radio and that probably my favorite radio moment from last year was when I had to sub for somebody and decided to do an impromptu Velvet Underground bandemonium for well over an hour (with songs from many albums, not like playing If You're Feeling Sinister through in its entirety, which is what I believe I remember Mr Jackflaps attempting last year, though, in his defence, he was subbing at the time) and actually getting positive feedback, a welcome change from the general zero feedback. I do, however, enjoy the occasional negative feedback, like, for example, when I play something that I enjoy and know is good and someone else complains and I laugh and play something else by the same band again. That is always a good time.
The drive home was a musical tour de force. The Postal Service started things off with Give Up, which was odd because I tend to listen to that at night because it seems like something that asks to be listened to at night or at least when it's really cloudy. Then, rather than switching artists with each CD, I listened to My Morning Jacket's It Still Moves, then At Dawn. They are both terrific and the main difference between them seems to be that the new one has horns and the older one has crickets. I want to write a review of the new one (and buy it of course) but that will be done later. I also listened to Badly Drawn Boy's Hour of Bewilderbeast, which I haven't done in recent memory. I'd guess I probably listened to it close to the end of last year, but I can't say for certain. I am now able to fully appreciate it again after listening to it abusively Fall term. The last thing I listened to was Weezer's self-titled debut and, while slightly less fantastic than Pinkerton, it, too, is one of my favorite records. One interesting thing is that it sounds very good loud and doesn't grate like some do when amplified beyond normal levels. My brother agreed with me that one virtue of the album is that Rivers Cuomo provides very sing-along-able vocals, which isn't inherently positive, but it does allow one to get into the songs that much more. It was beautiful.
Saturday I went shopping for four hours with Brian "Iowa State Daily Online Editor" Rumsey, and I bought non-perishable food items, a coffeepot and speakers. We also looked at receivers, printers, cameras and CD-Rs, in addition to purchasing nearly seven gallons of canned drinks. We decided that since much of the food was junk food and that we also looked at electronics, our masculinity was not in question. The grill was a success, including the Hit cookies from Poland. We discovered a few other things in the process: that Aldi (the discount grocer) now sells laptops and thus the digital revolution is finally over, that 7.1 channel soundcards require a lot of computing power and are troublesome in general. Finally, we went to the Ped Mall where we saw many people, none of whom we knew. We were also assumed to be "from the South" probably due to our hats. I wore a Minnesota Twins homerun handkerchief and offered to trade for someone's pink sash that said, "Naughty Bachelorette" or something, but the deal fell through.
Most of the action occurred Saturday. In addition, I burned a copy of 50 Cent's Get Rich or Die Tryin' which I enjoyed, but his braggadocio gets tired after a while (reminding me of his ridiculous "I was shot nine times" marketing campaign), and though he claims that his "flow" is extraordinarily "hot", I don't believe him. Generally the singles and those strongly influenced by Dre's production were the best. I'm not quite sure whether or not I'd have been happy had I purchased it. I do know that I have failed to enjoy Television's Marquee Moon and My Bloody Valentine's Loveless recently. It is possible that I haven't gotten familiar enough with them yet, but especially Loveless bored me with what seemed to be overly repetitive song structures. Everything was laid on the table in the first two or three seconds and, though some of the sounds were interesting, after pounding out four to six minutes of unvarying sheets of distortion and spaced out incomprehensible vocals, then repeating eleven times, didn't really do much for me. It just seemed mindnumbing.
I also left my key to the post office and two superballs at home.
I think I'll buy a ticket to Built to Spill next time I'm at a record store in the Twin Cities.
3 Sep 2003
I am currently registered for the following classes:
- Religion 227 Liberation Theologies CMC 209 2,3C Frank Reilly
- Math 236 Mathematical Structures CMC 328 3A Deanna Haunsberger
- Math 265 Probability CMC 210 5A Robert Dobrow
- PE 125 Folk Dance Cowling 6C
- (Waitlist) Music 136 History of Rock 2A Theo Cateforis
I considered buying books for them today but decided against it since I wasn't absolutely sure about the class numbers. It doesn't look like there are any books for History of Rock, and I am waitlisted, but I think I'm about first on the waitlist. Although I would also enjoy Liberation Theologies, I would prefer the other and it might not get offered again before graduation. That and I don't want to take three classes in the CMC at one time; I think it might damage me somehow.
Tomorrow we are having a "slumber party" at the post office in which we open from seven to eight PM to accommodate all the desperate Pre-Frosh Trip participants. It is sure to be a wild time.
I'll most likely go see American Splendor tonight at the Uptown and attend the second Matrix at the Riverview sometime later this week. I'd like to see Thirteen and Lost in Translation as well.
Oral history of First Avenue...
4 Sep 2003
I have managed to get past Level 7 in Legend of Zelda but I can't for the life of me find Level 8. I will continue the search this weekend, if not this evening. I also played quite a game of MLB for NES Tuesday night (Royals vs Tigers) which I won 21-19 after an incredible comeback in the late innings. It will memorialized with pictures later.
Last night I went, as promised, to the Uptown to see American Splendor, which I really enjoyed. The juxtaposition of real people and their screen representations was remarkable and effective in cementing their quirks as reality and not just some invention of the filmmaker. I didn't really care to analyze this movie much because I was having such a good time just watching it. It did, however, make me think of something I really appreciate about movies and books and I suppose art in general is that one of its major benefits is that of connecting the viewer or reader or whatever back to the human race. When you can enjoy something in common with others, or, more effectively, recognize yourself in the characters, it somehow reflects to you your own humanity. For me at least, to see this brooding, negative, somewhat pathetic guy on screen having such a mediocre time of it was weirdly life-affirming. The characters were so devoid of traditional positive qualities (not that they weren't made sympathetic by certain techniques otherwise), especially for characters in films, that I couldn't help but love them. And the seats in the lower section of the Uptown are much better than those in the balcony. I also bought Blue Highway's Still Climbing Mountains which was especially nice because it was one of those things that I hadn't, previous to seeing it in the store, recalled that I'd wanted for months. So other than the awful noise coming from upstairs at all hours of the night that sounds like heavy furniture being shoved across hardwood floors, it was all good.
5 Sep 2003
I ate very well last night while manning the post office from seven until eight. Rice, salad, chicken, potatoes, a roll, potato salad, bread and three kinds of lunchmeat, as well as a free drink. In addition, I got paid, so it was a highly successful time. I failed to hook my CD player up to the sound system because they only had a mono plug-in and I couldn't decide whether to go right or left and, therefore, ignored it altogether.
Afterward I watched Roman Polanski's Chinatown which I enjoyed quite a bit. It's about thirty years old, but it's a noir-tribute period piece set in 1930's Los Angeles. Jack Nicholson plays the detective and Faye Dunaway his femme fatale (though the film sort of switches their roles since she is, in fact, the one destined to be killed). I also thought it was interesting that Polanski cast himself in the role of the guy who fucks up his star's nose with a knife, but I suppose that's better than, say, pedophilia. Anyway, the noir feel swirls in heavily in the end when the corrupt powers finally rear their ugly head and Nicholson is forced to be quiet about all he has discovered, forsaking his client/lover and her daughter as well, in order to save his neck. I thought it was interesting that Polanski, instead of just using darkness, actually focused on brown (dust, jackets, decor), though to exactly what effect I'm not sure. The pronunciation of the surname (Gittes)of Nicholson's character is interesting as well. Those who know him pronounce it GID-eez while he says GIT-iss and the arch villian, Noah Cross, played by John Huston in a sort of homage to himself since he was an original noir figure in the first place, calls him Mr "Gits". Huston's mispronunciation seems to be an intentional tool to exert his dominance by his disdain for particulars about a man as unimportant as the detective.
Nicholson's is a very complex character. One thing we notice is that, although every noir detective gets roughed up over the course of his investigation, Gittes gets far more than his share and seems to almost enjoy it, or at least uses it to some sort of twisted advantage, as when the orange farmer calls off his boys to ask Gittes a question and Nicholson starts right in again by taking a shot at one of his aggressors well below the belt. He also seems a little goofy, as when he reveals himself while taking incriminating photos and telling a mildly offensive joke without realizing a potential client, a lady nonetheless, is standing right behind him. Neither is he as sympathetic as PIs noir heroes such as Humphrey Bogart (The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon) or Fred MacMurray (Double Indemnity). For much of the beginning, Nicholson is almost expressionless and seems to be an emotional wall, impenetrable by the camera. Mostly he exhibits rage or a witty contempt, and though when he is nearly crushed by the corrupt figures in the end we feel something for him, his is a surprisingly neutral presence, as are most in the film. Another noir oddity was that Polanski set much of the film in a rural setting (Cross's villa, riverbeds, dams, orange groves) and although the film is certainly set in Los Angeles, it lacks the urban grime of most films noir. At any rate, Polanski's tribute by way of tweaking and subverting the conventions of the genre is a worthy companion to its earlier brethren.
6 Sep 2003
Well, well, well. On Friday I went to see The Matrix Reloaded at the Riverview and the popcorn was good and there were a lot of people there and the sound and the screen were big and exciting but the movie wasn't probably worth more than the two dollars I paid for it. Due to storytelling constraints, it lacked the spooky duality of the first movie, which thrived on the fact that we assumed the "real" world to be, in fact, real, but discovered slowly that it was a fantasy. The second has no such shock to offer, except that Neo, while he is "The One", does not end the "war" by arriving at "the source". This lacked much excitement since obviously nothing was going to be resolved in the second "act" of the trilogy. The romance between Neo and Trinity seemed forced and kind of stupid since it was possible for Neo to care for her without the sudden and awkward moments of passion that litter the film. Of course the inane ramblings of the various new and tiresome philosophically inclined characters droned on and on, adding nothing but incoherence to the plot and not really even being up to par with, say, the Jedi mysticism of George Lucas. The action scenes were enjoyable and well done, although it is somewhat hilarious when you realize that the highway in the road scene is filled with a total of approximately five different models of GM vehicles. Hopefully the last one doesn't suck as well. On a similar note, The Return of the King opens in three months and ten days and, barring monumental disaster, will not suck.
7 Sep 2003
Yesterday I went to CD Warehouse where I looked at but ultimately declined Blur's Parklife, Lou Reed's Transformer and New Order's Substance. I did, however, listen to another Lou Reed masterpiece, "Heroin", on Velvet Underground and Nico, and marveled at its wonderful atonality, sudden tempo changes and all around brutality. I think the best moment comes when Reed is listing all the awful things he's attempting to escape by shooting up ("All the politicians makin' crazy sounds/And everybody puttin' everybody else down/And all the dead bodies piled up in mounds.") and the insane feedback from the guitar is both that and the mad rush inside him and it's just gorgeous.
Afterward, I hit up Barnes and Noble in order to waste time and look at books and attempted to read part of Ann Coulter's new book for humor value, but failed to glean even that. More than anything I was just sad that somewhere people believe every word that she speaks/writes. I picked up Raymond Feist's Magician because I was looking through the science fiction section trying to decide what was terrible and what wasn't. I was contemplating the dominance of serial works in the genre of speculative fiction and that it stems from the fact that much of the work of speculative fiction lies in the realm of creating worlds and realities different from our own that need much explication and detail. Obviously, anyone who goes through the trouble of creating an alternate reality to tell a story deserves to return there again, but the preponderance of series of really, really long books with ridiculous numbers of titles seems to signal a desire to milk it for all it's worth. That does not, of course, diminish the entire genre. Speculative fiction can often be very successful for asking questions not often broached, or looking at possible consequences of current activity. Somewhat unrelatedly, while at home for Labor Day I discovered that I have far too much SF and fantasy at home relative to, you know, real literature and whatnot. This is mainly a problem because my brother claims he will only read what I have on my shelves and won't go to the library, even if I tell him what to get, because he enjoys being lazy and difficult like that. I think that is all I have to say on that broad and general topic, no firm conclusion is necessary.
I also looked at The 1,000 Greatest Movies Ever Made from The New York Times and may or may not consider getting it later, but the reviews of Chinatown and To Have and Have Not didn't seem very good, although they weren't necessarily wrong. The second review annoyed me a little bit more due to the fact that the critic, whose name I can't recall, employed the tactic of showing its similarities to a contemporary film (Casablanca) and thereby attempting to denigrate it. This isn't entirely worthless because, as we all know, getting run over by a bandwagon that has been jumped on by too many unoriginal artists is no fun. However, I feel it is also foolish to dismiss a film or an album or anything else because something similar has come out lately. That To Have and Have Not stands on its own goes without saying. Of course I recognized the parallels to Casablanca when I saw it: Bogart, the tropical and somewhat seedy locale, the resistance pleading for help. That was unimportant, though, because both of the films were so good anyway. This wasn't a case of Armageddon and Deep Impact, or Space Cowboys and Mission to Mars, these were both brilliant and entertaining films, both of which deserve a place among Hollywood classics. This is a fault that I often notice at Pitchfork as well. Sure, sometimes the same music gets made over and over, ad nauseam, and something must be said. Other times, however, in the case of Belle and Sebastian's second and third LPs, for example. Admittedly, If You're Feeling Sinister may be the better album (though Pitchfork doesn't actually review it, they do term it "a truly wonderful album"), but does the fact that their sound didn't change much ("parody themselves") between the two really merit a 0.8 for The Boy With The Arab Strap, which supposedly means the album "breaks new ground for terrible". Personally, coming to The Arab Strap first, I liked it quite a bit, then proceeded to purchase and enjoy Sinister as well. It didn't strike me upon hearing both that their sound was so weak and mediocre that it could really only sustain a single record and nothing more. As often happens, when a review focuses solely on the temporary frustrations of a critic and doesn't actually take into account the worth of a work of art, said critic will begin to look ridiculous as soon as the uproar he initially creates fades away.
All right, many words have already been written, but also yesterday I saw Thirteen in Edina, and at eight dollars, it was a bargain, especially when I consider the two dollars I threw away on The Matrix. The fact that it's based on real events and stars the co-screenwriter/ex-thirteen-year-old isn't even that important because the film itself is so real and so harrowing and so good. It was made using a handheld camera and looks slightly grainy with a lot of handheld-induced bobbing up and down and sideways that can be annoying but isn't, and adds a sort of documentary-esque feel. The dysfunction of the family works because they seem so close to working things out, yet the uncontrollable emotions of adolescence cause everything to come crashing down time and again. Interestingly, for much of the movie, the mother is portrayed, essentially, as an adolescent. She is referred to as the "fun older sister" and dresses the part. She also starts bouncing around when she learns that her boyfriend (I think, because there is also an ex-husband) is coming home from the halfway house. His arrival is a cause of great concern for Tracy, and may, in part, cause her to go as crazy as she does (cutting herself, stealing, drugs, sex, utterly failing school). He is, along with the slightly older brother, actually one of the more solid influences around, though neither is an angel. It seems like nearly everything is done right here, from the casting to the characters to the setting to the soundtrack to the teenage angst, but really, what did it for me the most was the end, where Tracy realizes the game is up and slowly, torturedly gives in to the arms of her mother, so damaged and confused herself, yet so caring. Aren't you ever just amazed and grateful for the unbelievably realistic and powerful illusion that is the motion picture?
By the way, if you are anywhere near as annoyed as I am about Imdb.com's ratings, take a look at this. Once again, this is an amazing, well-received movie that actually got really good ratings but their "system" just completely fucked it over. I'm starting to wonder whether it's specifically independent films that get this treatment or whether it's just as bizarre as it seems.
In addition, the New York Times is overflowing with words about Fall movies.
I hope it doesn't rain as is forecast on Friday, when I will move everything from Crack House to Evans. Soon thereafter, I will be adding an A/V receiver, a turntable and a new pair of headphones, since mine have probably seen enough wear and tear (I couldn't hear the right channel while watching Chinatown).
The state of disinformation and untruth. According to the Observer: Seven in 10 Americans continue to believe that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had a role in the 11 September 2001 attacks, even though the Bush administration and congressional investigators say they have no evidence of this.
8 Sep 2003
Soundless Music Stirs Up Ghosts.
I managed to find and conquer the eighth dungeon as well as destroy the Expos in MLB for NES. I furthered my quest for headphones and received a political T-shirt in the mail, though I couldn't access a picture of it. I watched Wild Strawberries, as well as a lengthy interview of Ingmar Bergman, and enjoyed the film, though slightly less than The Seventh Seal. I'll probably watch it with the commentary tonight. His interview, and the accompanying footage, convinced me that I want to find some bleak and forbidding island to live on. It seems like fun.
9 Sep 2003
From the Guardian: "I once asked Andrew Doniger, director of health in Rochester, New York state, how long people were supposed to wait [to have sex]. He said: 'We don't specify, we just say "wait".' I said: "What, you just take the time you want to have sex, add an unspecified amount of time, and then have sex? He said: "You're a pain in the ass, you know that?'"
11 Sep 2003
There was a lot of activity in the last hour at the post office today with all the packages being picked up and the sofas being delivered and the new students asking confusedly about their mailbox keys and other nonexistent things. It will probably be like that the rest of the week, which will end Saturday at two o'clock when I will find a television to watch the second half of Ohio State vs. NC State which may not even be a game if Ohio State brings whatever it was they brought last week to barely squeak by SDSU by three. I haven't yet figured out if I want to wash all my clothes while I move my stuff or what. I think I might just put it all in an enormous pile in Evans 101 and try to connect my computer to the network and not care about anything until Saturday evening. Speaking of the impending schoolyear, I purchased my books yesterday for Probability and Structures and Liberation Theologies. The Probability book was ninety-nine dollars new, and there weren't any used copies available. And I think my meal plan kicks in tomorrow, so no more wasting money on food or other ridiculous vanities.
Last night I played a lot of baseball (Bases Loaded, RBI, MLB) and did pretty well except that my nine run comeback in the top of the ninth, in RBI and subsequent bang-bang-bang bottom half of the inning was not enough as the Yankees walked off on a homerun in the tenth, sending the Red Sox home in shame. Also, Paste, in my current Jersey vs. Boston series in Bases Loaded is 0 for 5. This is unbelievable because he is the most dominant video baseball player I have ever witnessed. On a group of teams with late 80's stats, he is supposed to be hitting .467 with 60 home runs. That's like .550 and 100 home runs in today's inflated baseball numbers. He actually did reach base on an error because he hits the ball so incredibly hard that the shortstop's throw preceded the second-baseman at second base and thus the baseball rolled to the dugout. This guy is a monster who simply must explode. In other weird Nintendo baseball news, I have, while playing MLB, hit to the third base side where somehow the ball and its shadow diverge so the ball goes shooting off into the stands while the shadow bounces around in the yard. This results in foul balls or inside-the-park homeruns, but there is hardly anything more hilarious than watching the stubby infielders chase the shadow of a baseball that isn't even there.
This evening I will go, probably to Electric Fetus, to find the new EP by Iron & Wine and the new LP by My Morning Jacket and maybe the new Guided by Voices and/or maybe some used stuff or whatever. I might also see Devdas, which is showing at the Walker. Or Dirty Pretty Things. I hope Lost in Translation comes to Minnesota this weekend, but I don't know yet. Either way, I am now going to look for Ingmar Bergman's autobiography, The Magic Lantern.
I was going to post something yesterday and the day before but Novell was malfunctioning or something and I couldn't access any network drives. I think was going to say that Ingmar Bergman's films do, as mentioned in the interview I watched, seem theatrical, in that they are mostly staged in a few specific settings with static camera angles but that only makes sense because he spent so much time with theater work anyway and doesn't detract from them. I was also going to post contrasting reviews of Thirteen: good and bad. I think Andrew Sarris, who hated the movie, is actually quite ancient; though I don't know his age, I believe him to be a good deal older than Roger Ebert, who is no spring chicken himself. It is, at any rate, a good reminder to me that just because someone is a critic, even a respected one, doesn't mean he will always agree with other similarly respected critics. I was also going to post this, because the Detroit Tigers are coming to town next weekend and I'm going to see them with Brian "Vanagon Owner" Rumsey, even though Mike Maroth has already lost his twentieth game. If you don't have a nytimes.com Member ID, you're poop. In unrelated news, I bought the aforementioned headphones today, which are supposed to sound better than baby angels crying or something; I hope they do. I also heard on Radio K today, while driving around town in the postal van, that, as they are "real college radio", the listening experience they provide is akin to, "Getting a scalp massage from Lucifer." I think it would kind of suck to have the evening show for them since they have to keep scaling back hours to stay within their daylight restriction (a way of staying around as a cheap, non-profit station and not getting crushed by the FCC).
12 Sep 2003
Yesterday evening I traveled to Minneapolis where, after walking around for a good long time, I realized that, in fact, I had driven by Treehouse Records, my destination, in my search for a parking space which was slightly too far west. I'll just pretend that I had a wondrously fascinating time wandering the streets of Uptown. I had to go to Treehouse because Ira Kaplan namechecked them at the Yo La Tengo show, (incidentally, at least from what I saw that night, Rolling Stone should perhaps have included him in their 100 greatest guitarists sales booster, but there were many such omissions, and despite the fact that I believe David Fricke was involved [one of the few Rolling Stone contributors I genuinely respect], it was still just a tactic to sell more issues) and I doubt I'll be buying any more records before school starts on Monday and I am shackled to campus, generally speaking. I liked it better than Cheapo, because Cheapo feels like a warehouse or a barn, not somewhere I want to spend much time browsing in, and better than Electric Fetus, because that place is just too big. Treehouse was more carpeted and homey, while still stocked with my three sure bets. I decided not to purchase any vinyl until I get a turntable, though I did see some nicely priced items. I came home with Iron & Wine's The Sea & The Rhythm EP, Guided by Voices' Earthquake Glue, and My Morning Jacket's It Still Moves, as well as Soul Jazz Records' New York Noise compilation and Boards of Canada's Music Has The Right To Children. More on them later, when I am connected in my room.
I am on the Internet in my room and that means, despite all the razzmatazz on my floor, that I am fully moved in. There is the matter of the couch (the window, closet, bathroom, radiator and complimentary chair negate the possibility of placing a couch anywhere in the room unless it is vertical) and, as previously mentioned, the incredible pile of stuff everywhere but that will be triumphed over eventually.
Now I can download legal and illegal songs and watch videos and everything and stop living in such a musical deprivation tank, although the room in Crack House is about as close to a sensory deprivation tank you can get. Oh, the internet excites me so. That was the longest I've gone without internet access at "home" for at least six years. I'm not sure if I'll start in again with the instant messaging and the emoticons and the hey hey, because if I do I'll have to rescind my Luddite status, and I don't want to do that because being a Luddite is so much more enjoyable and cool than just being anti-communication. (Yes, you may argue, this sentence is a form of communication, but you're wrong.)
Yesterday I walked from the Library to the LDC in the pouring rain. There I learned that for the first time in the history of higher education, pre-term dinner was at Burton. So I walked from the LDC to Burton in the pouring rain. Afterwards I played some Nintendo baseball as well as mapping Super Mario Bros.
I also watched Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory with Kirk Douglas and was bowled over by how good it was. For some reason I was expecting something a little raw and unrefined but this was incredibly sharp and, shockingly for Kubrick, under an hour and a half. Though Kubrick did include his patented weird-angle close-ups and clever staging in the trenches and on the battlefields, the most powerful effect of the film came in the final scene. Three soldiers have just been executed on trumped up charges and it feels like the world is pretty much a shithole and we go to a group of rowdy men roaring as some sort of entertainer brings out a captured German girl and you just want to stop watching and completely give up hope for humanity because it is obvious that they are going to do horrible, horrible things to this innocent person, and the emcee directs her to sing a song, and we figure its going to be some cabaret number or something awful and equivalent to selling her body through music, but then she begins singing this bittersweet little song that all the soldiers know, and they completely shut up and eventually start singing and then crying. And the movie just ends, no resolution of the role of Kirk Douglas' character, no final justice done to the evil jerks in command of the French Army, she just sings her song and the soldiers weep and the credits roll. It was astonishingly moving. Of course you have to watch the whole thing, though, because it's all great.
Today I ate an enormous amount of sweet things at work and was just generally busy and then moved all my stuff to Evans. By the time I got to the refrigerator (the final item) I just about wanted to toss it on the street and lie down next to it and go to sleep, but I managed to confine all my belongings to the room and then sort of started putting things in order. I was going to take a shower once I finished, but I don't think I'll be able to tonight. I think maybe I'll clear a path and just sort of rustle up what I'll need for tomorrow and take a shower and attempt to listen to the Dismemberment Plan remix album thanks to the internet. Or remove Netware and hope my computer machine doesn't up and die on me.
13 Sep 2003
I cleaned up the pile of stuff in the middle of my room which consisted of a little bit of shuffling things about and putting them on shelves and then spending at least twice as much time going through all my CDs. I have 218 in my main collection at the moment, about half of which I legally own. I'd estimate that I have about 80 CDs I've purchased that I'm either keeping somewhere else or waiting to get rid of. Then there are the extra burned pieces of crap that I don't want and no one else wants and I just didn't throw away. The network is not allowing me to access my drives so although this should have appeared last night it is appearing tonight. The Streets' "Geezers Need Excitement" tipped me off to the fact that the resonant frequency of my room is B-flat slightly more than 3 octaves below middle C which I reckon to be about 29.135 Hz (27.5 Hz [A-natural]*1.059463). I think in Goodhue 309 it was the D above that which was found, I believe, in a song near the end of Led Zeppelin BBC Sessions, probably Disc Two. That will be all.
Wow, the network drive access provided for operating systems lower than 2000/NT/XP really sucks. It's even less appealing than Tripod (other than the ads, of course). At least it works now, as opposed to this afternoon. Speaking of this afternoon, I drove around in the Civic to find some place to see how fast it would go, and I got it to 100, which it approached at a slow rate, but I never got to use the place I wanted to, which was east of Northfield on a county road, with a few nice valleys. It was very nice today and there were just enough hills and trees and cloud shadows moving across the fields so that everything looked nice. After that I washed the car because it shouldn't have to sit under trees and get shat upon anymore. I also discovered that it is simply impossible to beat Highway 3 by going through Northfield. Stop signs and cross traffic slow you down no matter where you go. I need to buy a new CD burner.
15 Sep 2003
Upon being questioned, in the History of Rock, about the best movie I saw this summer, I realized that I was going to make a mindnumbingly ordered list of the movies I saw this summer, along with other things, but haven't yet. I might do that tonight or later. I also want to take all my archives and fix the links and remove or restore the pictures and put them all on one giant page because that would be insanely fun. Speaking of pictures, I am disappointed to announce that I accidentally got rid of the pictures I was going to use to document my incredibly comeback in MLB baseball, so I will have to wait until I do something else similarly amazing and attempt to provide lasting evidence.
I mentioned the History of Rock at the top and will again to say that I, along with everyone else who showed up today, got in. I think the waitlist was enormous, but only eight or nine extra showed up. It may be an even bigger sure thing, as far as enjoyment goes, than my film classes. The math classes were fine as well; I think Probability interests me more than Structures, but proofs aren't really anybody's idea of a great time. At least, I don't think so.
I am able to update like this only because internet access returned this evening after I returned from Anna's car which wouldn't start even with Summer and Susannah willing it on. Luckily I think I finally have a car that won't need worked on in the immediate future. It is stored in the Rec Center lot until the Built to Spill concert tomorrow and, of course, this weekend when the Tigers come to town. I really need to get a CD burner. And perhaps Windows XP. This network drive interface is really dumb. Fuck, it won't work again.
16 Sep 2003
Last night I watched Spirited Away and it was pretty good but I don't have anything much to say about it. The only thing it really made me think about was that I used to think of animation as being simplistic, but some part of the movie made me remember that it's not, not because of the work that goes into actually bringing the drawings to life, but that since most movies can be broken down into storyboard scenes anyway, animation should provide greater freedom and a wider range of possibilities when moving from simple mock-ups of the shots to actually playing them out in front of the camera.
I enjoyed Folk Dancing today as I hope I will for the next eighteen times this term. I also enjoy the fact that Cowling is pretty much right outside my door. (Random aside: The "good stuff" cups this year are nearly worthless. I think perhaps next year they'll just have a pencil with no lead and a coughdrop if their descent continues.)
I went to the Built to Spill show at First Avenue this evening and, even though I liked it, realized that, barring Wilco, where everybody talked all the way through and thereby ruined the experience, I've been to a string of amazingly terrific rock shows. Since May, My Morning Jacket, Yo La Tengo and The White Stripes. These were all incredible. So tonight I remembered that even if a concert isn't a transcendental experience, it can still be worth my while. The Delusions, who I made it in time to see, unlike The Solace Brothers, were very solid, and I considered picking up their record but then thought better of it since I like the Reputation's live show a lot better than their album and I figured I could find it later if I needed to. Built to Spill blazed out of the gates (Note: as I don't have any of their albums but Ancient Melodies of the Future, to which I've listened only a few times, I will not be naming the songs.) with four or five loud, crunchy songs with satisfying riffs and a small though effective amount of jamming and experimentation, which a live show must have in order to be worthwhile, otherwise you might as well be at home. I'm not sure if Doug Martsch and company always lack stage presence or if tonight was an exception, but that wasn't really one of their strong points, and that's OK. They played their cover of Velvet Underground's "Oh Sweet Nuthin" which I'd heard before when Teague played it on the radio the song before I went on the air one night. After that I felt like the air got let out a little bit, or the energy wasn't quite as high. When they broke into "Cortez the Killer" I was very excited and, upon further reflection, it made perfect sense. The guitars were spot-on and Doug Martsch sounds as much like Neil Young as anyone I've ever heard. I felt I should have recognized that earlier, because it makes so much sense now, but that will not bother me. Once they got to the third verse they went off on a tangent which satisfied for the first while, but seemed to deteriorate; specifically, there was one seemingly "wrong" note that Martsch kept hitting as if he really liked it, but I couldn't fit it in with the rest of what was going on. After completely exhausting the song, they broke into some reggae-style interplay and, I believe, returned briefly to something kind of related to "Cortez". At least it reminded me of how incredible Neil Young is and how, even though I attempted to not pay much attention to Rolling Stone's list of guitarists, how is Stephen Stills twice as high as Neil, I mean, what's the better rock song, "Cowgirl in the Sand" or "Love the One You're With"? Come on.
Oh look, it's the encore. Yes, Built to Spill played one of their own songs and also The Clash's "White Man In Hammersmith Palais", which I always confuse at first with "Rudie Can't Fail", but I figured it out near the end of the first verse. I think the audience in general was just confused and didn't seem to know the song at all, or they didn't like it, but they seemed to get into it, so it's my guess that they were just initially ignorant. It was a pretty solid version, though I don't think it added much to the original, but what are you going to do? It's the Clash. I was also reminded that last year I believe I was discussing who I would pay $50 to see and I reckon that to see the Clash at the height of their powers, I'd pay probably over $100. That figure could change since I'm really into the Clash right now, but I don't believe I would ever not pay at least $60 to see that. So anyway, the point is, tonight wasn't the rock show that's going to save the world, but it was fun, especially since I haven't been to one in two months, and it was better than homework.
I wonder if I'll be able to use this for History of Rock, and, if so, how many side comments I'll have to edit out.
17 Sep 2003
Today I cancelled Netflix because if I want to watch a movie while in school, I want to do it spontaneously and not pay $20 to have stuff sit around unwatched in my room while I toil through mountains of work. I'll probably get it again next summer because it's so easy and so worth it when I'm not busy.
Oh yeah, and I lost my fucking Structures book today, that was a lot of fun. Actually, I didn't lose it, I left it under my desk in CMC (fuck, I'm an idiot, I emailed professors with classes in 328, not 206, our new room asking them about the book) 206, I guess it was. That made it kind of hard to do homework of that sort tonight, so I finished my reading for Rock class and listened to seventeen songs and wrote about all of it and I will respond to Allen Bloom's disdain for rock music this weekend or maybe tomorrow. I really don't want to have to buy another book.
My headphones are scheduled to get here on Monday.
I did laundry.
I don't have much else to say except that the network hates to work, including letting me get email and update this thing and all because they decided to upgrade so I can't efficiently access anything from my computer anyway and it would be really nice to have my Structures book and, to make matters worse, Mooney Suzuki decided to team up with the Matrix, so barring an incredible twist of fate, their next album will be crap compared the really good garage-meets-Motown Electric Sweat. Hopefully we just have the most amazing KRLX board meeting ever tomorrow and then I just won't care.
18 Sep 2003
Hooray for small liberal arts colleges where people leave your stuff alone and you can find your Structures textbook right where you left it twenty-one and a half hours before.
Atoning for past mistakes, Pitchfork recognizes the sheer beauty and wonderfulness that is the new My Morning Jacket album even in its similarity to the rest of their work.
The following is the reflective essay I whipped up for my Carleton Writing Portfolio in not much more than an hour. According to the proofreader, my papers for class should be more like this. I'm not sure if that would work. See for yourself.
The Missing Link
Effective writing is the only barrier currently standing between me and mastery of the universe. From my years of primary, secondary and undergraduate education I have learned that the ability to communicate well through the written word is the greatest tool in existence (excepting that most unwholesome of educational goals, working-in-groups). Human sacrifices, contracts with big wigs in the netherworld and the channeling of dead spirits are no match for the simple power of a concise, expressive sentence or paragraph. In order to attain the position of might and glory that will, nay must one day ultimately be mine, I have chosen to complete the Writing Portfolio. In my case, it includes three sparkling jewels: a research paper for Introduction to Sociology, a film review for Film History and Criticism and an analysis of David Guterson's Snow Falling on Cedars for The Internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
In high school I discussed the related topics of censorship and the obscene for an English class aptly entitled Research. Through the composition of this paper I learned the techniques and strategies I would use two years later to research the effects of sport on the individual in American society. I once again utilized a number of resources from the library to support my thesis and its evil minions, the sub-points. By poring over statistical research and the opinions of experts I came to the stunning conclusion that sports, in differing ways and amounts, affects most members of modern American society. While this is perhaps not the most amazing or groundbreaking of ideas, it is nonetheless well-documented and discussed within the confines of the paper.
Around the same time I deemed it prudent to perform an analysis of Snow Falling on Cedars through the lens of its last sentence: "Accident ruled every corner of the universe except the chambers of the human heart." Through careful reading and subsequent examinations of the text I harvested the relevant situations and details to prove that the final sentence of the book rang true throughout every one of its pages. I condensed my observations to 1500 words that vibrate with intelligence, discernment and insight.
During the Winter term of 2003 I undertook a survey of the History of Film and its Criticism at the behest of Professor Carol Donelan. She made a similar request of all students enrolled in the class and we unanimously consented to do so. Early in our journey through a century of filmmaking we screened D.W. Griffith's dated and melodramatic yet visually impressive epic, Birth of A Nation. To that effect I expounded on the inventive techniques and brilliant composition of the film as well as its negative elements, namely the glorification of the history of the Ku Klux Klan. In my boundless wisdom I proclaimed that the film was a timeless classic despite its racially superior leanings.
If there are flaws and mistakes within these pages, that is only because the world is not yet ready for my grammatical and technical prowess to be fully committed to paper. Gentle reader, do not tremble at the collection of profound academic ecstasy that awaits you. Rather, embrace it and behold the joy and wonderment of this sampling of my part in the surpassing pleasure that is the experience of writing at Carleton.
19 Sep 2003
Here are the books, music and movies I consumed over the summer. For each I have provided an ordered (and recommended) list of the best of each and the rest are ordered alphabetically. The "rest" contains some very good stuff and some not very good stuff, so it's listing there is neither a recommendation or a caveat. I just decided I didn't want to rank absolutely everything.
Books.
- A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
- Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs
- Catch 22 by Joseph Heller
- A Box of Matches by Nicholson Baker
- Vox by Nicholson Baker
- Last Night A DJ Saved My Life by Bill Brewster and Frank Broughton
- Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
- The Orient Express by Graham Greene
- The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
- Songbook by Nick Hornby
- Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
- Candide by Voltaire
- God Bless You, Mr Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut
- Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut
- The Inimitable Jeeves by PG Wodehouse
New music.
- The Clash Essential Clash [2 CD]
- My Morning Jacket At Dawn
- Joy Division Substance
- Sonic Youth Daydream Nation
- The Mooney Suzuki Electric Sweat
- The Buzzcocks Singles Going Steady
- The Band Music From Big Pink
- Blue Highway Still Climbing Mountains
- Boards of Canada Music Has The Right To Children
- The Cure Staring At The Sea: The Singles
- Drive-by Truckers Decoration Day
- 50 Cent Get Rich or Die Tryin'
- Fog Ether Teeth
- Guided by Voices Earthquake Glue
- Iron & Wine The Sea & The Rhythm EP
- My Bloody Valentine Loveless
- My Morning Jacket It Still Moves
- Willie Nelson Greatest Hits and Some That Will Be
- Gram Parsons GP/Grievous Angel Double Album
- The Postal Service Such Great Heights EP (ft. The Shins, Iron and Wine)
- Radiohead Hail to the Thief
- Television Marquee Moon
- Various Artists Treats: Barsuk Records Sampler Vol 3
- Various Artists Soul Jazz Records' New York Noise
Old music.
- Postal Service Give Up
- Eminem The Marshall Mathers LP
- Modest Mouse The Moon and Antarctica
- Yo La Tengo And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
- Luna Penthouse
- The Streets Original Pirate Material
Movies.
- The Ruling Class
- Barry Lyndon
- The Seventh Seal
- Une Femme Est Une Femme
- To Have and Have Not
- American Splendor
- Heavenly Creatures
- Whale Rider
- Chaos
- Thirteen
- The Stone Reader
- Paths of Glory
- Spartacus
- The Maltese Falcon
- Finding Nemo
- Hard Eight
- The Caine Mutiny
- Chinatown
- Die Ehe der Maria Braun
- 81/2
- Gangs of New York
- The Godfather
- Happiness
- Hard Day's Night
- I Capture The Castle
- In A Lonely Place
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers
- Key Largo
- Lawrence of Arabia
- Le Diner de Cons
- The Matrix Reloaded
- McCabe and Mrs Miller
- Moby Dick
- Owning Mahowny
- The Philadelphia Story
- Punch Drunk Love
- The Quiet American
- Sabotage
- The Secret Lives of Dentists
- Seven Samurai
- Spellbound
- Spirited Away
- Stroszek
- Swimming Pool
- Waking Life
- Wild Strawberries
These are the worst movies I saw all summer and I must make it known.
- Charlie's Angels 2
- Empire Records
Also, here is my new record shopping list.
- Belle & Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress 7 October [Jeepster]
- Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism 7 October [Barsuk]
- The Strokes Room on Fire 21 October [RCA]
- Various Artists Wig in a Box 21 October [Off]
- Neil Young On the Beach 2003 (rereleased) [Warner]
- Spiritualized The Complete Works, Vol 1 2003 [Arista]
- The Books Thought for Food 2002 [Tomlab]
- Desaparecidos Read Music and Speak Spanish 2002 [Saddle Creek]
- Pedro the Lion Control 2002 [Jade Tree]
- Spoon Kill the Moonlight 2002 [Merge]
- Low Things We Lost in the Fire 2001 [Kranky]
- The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin 1999 [Warner]
- My Morning Jacket Tennessee Fire 1999 [Darla]
- Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music for Airports 1978 [EG]
22 Sep 2003
Wow, I haven't posted since Thursday. That is because the new web-access for network doesn't work for my account and so I haven't been able to post from home. So, let's see, Thursday not much happened. Friday I watched the worst baseball team in history and stayed up late. Saturday I bought a five disc Denon CD changer to go along with my new receiver and got the remote control to work for both. My $5/each speakers don't sound amazing, but they were probably worth the ten dollars I paid for them. I also saw much of St. Olaf's campus and learned that they have a student-run radio station, 93.1 FM or something, that I have never heard nor heard of. It wasn't on the air when I attempted to tune in later. I also looked at computers and shit, and bought a CD burner, some CD-Rs, and cables for the CD player. The CD burner, after hours of getting no response from the computer no matter how well the burner was hooked up, I decided that the device was most likely non-functional and, as such, will return it this evening to Best Buy in hopes of getting one that works. Sunday I did plenty of homework and watched Seinfeld and took part in the KRLX All-DJ meeting. Today I got my headphones and, since the volume on the computer was turned up, laid waste to the Windows lab before I could get them down to a manageable level. I could have gotten closed headphones to shut in the sound but these were so much more loved that I couldn't pass them up. They are really comfortable and the cord is nice and heavy and it has 1/8" and 1/4" adapters and all I've listened to so far is Death Cab for Cutie's "A New Year" from Transatlanticism provided by Insound.com. So then, we're up to date and it's only eight more days until My Morning Jacket rolls into town.
My account locked itself again, twice. There seems to be something very wrong. At least this time I got to keep my latest password, which is nice. I think only Mozilla and AOL Instant Messenger can be set to automatically use my password and I think I've taken care of both of those, so I can't figure out why I keep getting locked out. I don't think it even has anything to do with the web accessed network folders, although those are stupid anyway because they don't work. And this keyboard in the lab is unsatisfying.
24 Sep 2003
Yesterday I did a lot of homework and today maybe I will do some more so I don't have as much on Thursday. I also observed the Mariners exit from the pennant race. And I had some tasty mozzarella sticks at the post office care of Lauren Garrison. And I still haven't burned anything with my CDRW drive but I will once I have time for such things. I also acquired CMJ New Music Monthly CD which seems to be better than the other two I heard this summer. I hooked up my computer and my receiver so now I can listen to music simultaneously through headphones and two sets of speakers. Those headphones are beautiful. I only wish they were closed so I could listen louder in the library and other quiet spaces but they sound good at 10 on my portable CD player where sometimes I couldn't even hear everything I should have heard at 25 with my others, and to get a closed set with such good reproduction would, I believe, have cost me a ridiculous amount of money.
Tonight I will, by the good graces of Film Society, see Almodovar's Talk to Her, and I'm also excited to hear the new speakers (surround, finally) they've installed in Olin 149 to see if they are a noticeable improvement over the old ones.
It seems that by leaving out a quotation mark, I omitted the body of my page earlier today. You may now read it above.
Since then, I have read about girl groups from the 1960's as well as surf music. I have also determined that one of the problems related to my account has been AOL Instant Messenger. I had set AIM to check my mail and display a box when I got some, but since I'd been having problems this year, I deleted two, but apparently not all of my mailboxes in Preferences. So, AIM continued to check my Carleton account. However, it had an old password, so it would repeatedly check for mail with the erroneous password and thus lock my account. Because it wouldn't display an error message, I didn't know it was doing this, and was confused by my account locking up so often. Though this doesn't solve all my internet problems, it should at least let me access my email without petitioning the SCIC every time.
At the moment I'm in the Mac Lab for the first time in a while. I haven't been in here since they changed to OS X, and it is quite an improvement, especially the network folders which are actually displayed on the desktop now. I might actually start using the Macs more since they are inherently more aesthetically pleasing and might not impede access to my web site anymore.
I also went to Film Society's screening of Talk to Her as promised above. It intertwines the lives of two male protagonists. One (Benigno) is a socially retarded young man who took care of his mother for twenty years and soon after started to look after the comatose young woman he is currently attending to. In the same hospital ("El Bosque", or "The Forest" outside of which are the trees which Almodovar often features immediately after the passage of time) there is a wounded bullfighter, also in a coma, who had, for months before her accident, been close to the other protagonist (Marco), a nondescript man who works for El Pais. The men bond over the course of their shared time at the clinic, and therein lies the heart of the film. Benigno is a consummate care-giver, always talking to his "patient" and often massaging her with lotion to keep her looking like she would if she were still conscious. Marco is far less comfortable in his position of vigil-keeper, but less bizarre in his feelings toward his partner. There is an emotional give and take between the two throughout the slightly disturbing final act of the film, but it's all conveyed in a gentle and subdued manner, which I loved. The color was slightly restrained, along with the soundtrack and the background noise, and gave the film a contemplative feel. The images that resonate most, naturally, are those of Marco, deep in conflicted thought, allowing only a glimmer of his inner self through except in those moments when it emerges through tears; and of Benigno and his pathetically loving affection toward this woman who, before her accident, had hardly known him, and certainly not under the most friendly of circumstances. Both actors underplay well, as they should in this muted picture, but manage all the same to convey the film's emotion.
The speakers were very disappointing. Only the front two were functioning and, for some reason, sounded woefully underpowered or something as during loud passages (which were relatively pretty quiet) they kept buzzing. The film shone through however. The Stan Brakhage short, "Untitled (for Marilyn)", which showed before the feature, was, I though, well described on the DVD as a "thought process". It was a sort of stream of consciousness series of frames depicting mostly abstract painting-like images, interpolated with handwritten words and images of windows and perhaps the sea from overhead. As it was eleven minutes of silence, there were a few more extraneous noises than desired by the perhaps restless crowd, but it seemed, as a stream of consciousness sort of lamentation, reasonable enough.
25 Sep 2003
Marauding by Moonlight.
The notion is not a new one but this time it is a definite plan which we intend to carry out. We have worked it out carefully and are thrilled by the idea. Naturally we feel a trifle nervous, but the pleasure of anticipation is great. [From Heavenly Creatures.]
Sounds: Velvet Underground, The Clash, My Morning Jacket, Iron and Wine.
So I really sucked at Structures last night. I mean, I don't think I even started a single proof correctly without looking at the back, let alone finishing one. Today I performed much better and it seemed to make sense. Maybe it was Art Benjamin, mathemagician, and his aura of math-liness that helped, but I somehow doubt it. Speaking of the mathemagic show, it was entertaining and I suppose five homework points for free was nice, but I think it will account for a total of something like 0.25% of my final grade. I don't think that'll come in real handy but we'll see.
My shift at the post office was less error-ridden than Tuesday's. Afterward I took down the KRLX mail bin and saw the fruits of online application as well as the iMac in the studio which will be very nice. Cameron and I also discussed the pro's and con's of the state and projected future of the music business and the format in which their product is disseminated. We both lament the impending death of the album as art form, but aren't sure what should replace it, if it indeed must disappear. At any rate, KRLX and its board members/DJs/hangers on are doing our part to "keep it real", pardon the expression.
Now it's time to rock and roll and then, Saturday, the programming begins!
I just finished listening to girl groups and surf music. Dick Dale's "Misirlou" is such a brilliant whirlwind, it's almost scary. Everything just flies along and it has this sort of feeling like when the camera is twirling around in a movie and nothing can quite settle down. I sort of tired of all the reverb and the wall of sound Phil Spector was throwing at me, but then again, you have to respect a guy who can cram 22 musicians on a little pop track from 40 years ago.
I also explored classes for the rest of the year. Winter Term will most likely feature Statistics, the Media Studies class on television, and Religion in American Culture (or some such thing). If something doesn't work out I'd like to take Existentialism. Spring Term will bring along with it Advanced Algebra, Southern Literature and maybe Film Noir or Italian Neo-Realism. There are so many good classes Spring Term, though, it'll be tough to choose. And Badminton!
A.O. Scott just used the phrase "refreshingly mean-spirited" in my New York Times Movie Update email. He gets a gold star for the day for such a delightful conjunction of words.
26 Sep 2003
Today I took the Probability quiz which could have gone very well, only time will tell. After that I drove to the Clothes Closet, where they failed to be selling any pants I desired, although they did have some interesting buttons. A trip to Fine Groove Records yielded Neil Young's recently rereleased On The Beach, originally from 1974, as well as Spoon's Kill the Moonlight. I considered also purchasing Modest Mouse's The Moon and Antarctica or Agaetis Byrjun, by Sigur Ros, but decided I'd rather have the Spoon since I don't have a burned copy of that. I also saw Link Wray and Roy Orbison records there but I'm not sure which albums by them I want to own yet. At Ragstock I got a pair of "old man" pants, as they have been called, which was kind of tough because none of their pants seemed to have sizes on them, so I had to judge by sight, but these are the first pair I pulled off the rack, so it wasn't that hard after all I suppose. We ate at El Tequila for dinner and looked at housewares. Seinfeld #12 screened tonight, in which George slips his boss a mickey and Kramer takes revenge on the launderer. Now I'm going to clean up this filthy hole of a room, and perhaps find some lost space that it seems to lack. Also, my computer speakers were making odd noises earlier this evening for a while and music playback was bizarre, but they are better now. I think I might just use headphones if they completely explode, or I might move the $10 pair of speakers I have in the corner. At any rate, I'd like to get a turntable, but I don't really want to pay very much for one. And this Vanilla Creme Spritzer I'm drinking reminds me a lot of vanilla yogurt, much more than cream soda. It's not very good.
I want to buy this Mooney Suzuki poster from aestheticapparatus.com, but it's twenty damn dollars. There are so many bad posters for sale it's not even funny.
29 Sep 2003
I just completed eighteen hours of radio programming this weekend. That is a lot of radio. The station does seem to be up and working and everyone has showed up so far, but I'd bet within a while I'll have to go in. I might write more if it was not 3:18 am. I didn't even manage to finish all my assigned homework; I just let History of Rock slide. I've heard of up to eight people from Carleton so far who are going to My Morning Jacket, which is pretty good since I don't think Max and I saw anybody we recognized last time. I played seven MMJ songs on my show this evening. I'm not sure I'll ever play that many songs by one band again in one show. Unless I do a Bandemonium. Perhaps I'll do My Morning Jacket next term or something if I can get The Tennessee Fire and an EP or two. I'll go to bed now.
So it's come to this: updating from the record library at 5:10 am. I'm nearing the end of filling in for a DJ who couldn't handle the strain of his slot. Apparently he feels that I am somehow more available, having only spent 24 hours on radio in the past three days. What a motherfucker. The fact that I enjoy being on the radio only disguises the fact that I'm going to be really, really tired tomorrow. I about collapsed when I finally got home tonight at 12:30, and I thought I was going to do listening for History of Rock. I guess I'll have to try to do it tomorrow night with my ears buzzing. Anyway, I've played a lot of the new Outkast record as well as other stuff from the computer and other old hip-hop. I finally put on Ornette Coleman's Twins which, at least for the first five minutes or so, is just the most insane, rapid-fire horn playing I've ever heard. Nothing like free jazz in the morning. It seems like I should have something else to write, but that's not really the case. Mainly for the past three days I've worked at the radio station whenever I haven't been a) eating, b) sleeping, c) in the bathroom, d) working at the post office or e) doing homework, which I'm still slightly behind on but should be fine by Friday, I think. Man, what sort of idiot assumes that just because he doesn't feel like taking a late night slot he left open, someone else is going to want to take over for him. What a great way to blacklist yourself with the programmers. I think Rebecca said she might be able to come in next week. That's it. I'm tired. And hungry. Too bad nothing's open at 5:30 am.
I've finished the Probability homework for Friday, and the reading won't really help me until the assignment that's going to be due next Wednesday, so I don't think I'll finish it six days in advance. I can study for the quiz while not at Convo on Friday. Then I can study for the test this weekend, which shouldn't be that bad. I pretty much understand everything we've talked about, it's just a matter of sorting out what's what. History of Rock won't require me to do anything except review the 58 songs we've listened to so far so's I can figure out who's making the racket during the quiz on Friday. Structures has gotten easy, but I assume that's probably over. I'll do Friday's assignment tomorrow and Monday's assignment this weekend while I'm studying. That means that I'm essentially caught up on my homework, which will be nice because it's been a while.
And here's how the old record shopping list is looking these days. I think I'll pick up the Death Cab for Cutie album next week at First Avenue, barring disaster.
- Belle & Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress 7 October [Jeepster]
- Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism 7 October [Barsuk]
- The Strokes Room on Fire 21 October [RCA]
- Various Artists Wig in a Box 21 October [Off]
- Outkast Speakerboxx/The Love Below 2003 [Arista]
- Spiritualized The Complete Works, Vol 1 2003 [Arista]
- The Books Thought for Food 2002 [Tomlab]
- Desaparecidos Read Music and Speak Spanish 2002 [Saddle Creek]
- Pedro the Lion Control 2002 [Jade Tree]
- Low Things We Lost in the Fire 2001 [Kranky]
- The Flaming Lips The Soft Bulletin 1999 [Warner]
- My Morning Jacket Tennessee Fire 1999 [Darla]
- Brian Eno Ambient 1: Music for Airports 1978 [EG]
2 Oct 2003
Wow, the German show is playing German hip hop and they toss in well-pronounced American phases such as "represent" every once in a while. They also let us know what year it is, as many English hip hop MCs tend to do. I think the best part about foreign language hip hop is that you can play the hardcore stuff at any time of day because the FCC has nothing to say about swearing in another language.
Also, I bought my ticket today for Death Cab for Cutie, and got marked up 67%. I wish I'd picked up my ticket when I was in the Twin Cities sometime, perhaps at the Built to Spill show, but I didn't and I didn't feel like taking the chance that show would sell out. I still haven't discovered a good show to go to over Mid-Term Break, but maybe I will. I did discover, care of Pitchfork, that Pedro the Lion will be playing at the University of St Thomas, Saturday night eighth week (15 November). I really hope it doesn't turn out that I need some sort of student ID, because it was kind of sad when I missed his last tour. Tonight will bring the board meeting and some homework. I don't foresee any excitement in the immediate future. Other than maybe the Program Guide and getting a new schedule done for KRLX that includes all DJs and show titles.
And the updates have been flying fast and furiously of late, so check the Archives.
I swear the German hip hop group is saying "fuck", but I actually can't tell, because it might be German. Those lucky Germans.
Oh man, My Morning Jacket on The World Cafe on Friday. One of my favorite radio shows of all time and an amazing live band. I wish I lived in broadcast range. I suppose I'll have to try to be in my room at midnight for the late netcast. David Dye generally gets a lot more out of the performers than you get from shitty magazines anyway. And he always seems to know everything about every band that's on. I wish I were David Dye. Anyway, I also want to see Lost in Translation, Mystic River and, of course, School of Rock. Maybe I'll try to get to the Cities to see one of them this weekend. OK, I'm definitely going to Lakeville to see School of Rock, I'm just not sure which day. And "Just What I Needed" by The Cars just came on KRLX and that's a terrific song, if I do say so myself. The Cars put out some really godawful shit, but they also put out some really great songs, like the aforementioned monster hit and "You Might Think" and "Good Times Roll". How they managed to also produce such dreck as "Drive" and pretty much every other awful soft rock piece of shit crowding their albums, I'll never know. And then Ric Ocasek produced the first Weezer album.
Okay, so I need to shrink this record wishlist thing down a little bit. Because I think perhaps I should stop spending money for a while, at least unless I need something vitally. So:
- Belle & Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress 7 October [Jeepster]
- Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism 7 October [Barsuk]
- The Strokes Room on Fire 21 October [RCA]
- Various Artists Wig in a Box 21 October [Off]
And I will only buy these if they don't land in my lap in mp3 form. And I think I will ask for a turntable for Christmas to force my parents to search for one. Beyond that, I think I can live with nothing else until Christmas. Well, except for a few movies. And Death Cab for Cutie and Pedro the Lion. Yes, cheap is good. Well, somewhat cheap. I think there will be smoothies, but I am not quite sure.
And Moby posted a list of New Wave bands he considers worthy of rediscovery:
heaven 17
polyrock
the first 5 simple minds albums
the first 4 omd albums
the first 2 psychedelic furs albums
theater of hate
killing joke
the bush tetras
the first 3 echo & the bunnymen albums
the first 3 devo albums
the first 4 talking heads albums
daf (deutsche americanische freundschaft)
the feelies
the bongos
the chameleons
the wild swans
the first album by a certain ratio
I bet you want to know what I did today. Well, I did the 5:30 am radio show for starters. I also worked at the post office, read about Motown and Stax/Volt records and took a somewhat involuntary nap. After that I ate at Bill's.
5 Oct 2003
I watched The Rules of Attraction at SUMO. First of all, let me talk not about the movie, but about the execrable state of film screenings in Olin 149. I do enjoy the fact that they removed the rail that separated the front section from the rear section, especially because that creates two prime seats, so I don't have to worry about where I want to sit. However, there are some major faults. The sound is now worse. I count at least six speakers in the hall, and the front two are new. Either something is wrong with the wiring, or the speakers are fucked, because they tend to buzz at low levels, which would imply that they are underpowered or something weird. They also don't seem to lend themselves to understanding dialogue, which is somewhat important for watching movies. Oh, and the surround speakers don't even seem to be connected. So the sound sucks, sure, but what about the picture? Ten times worse. The projector and DVD player are not setup to fill the screen space available, which is a disappointment. This could be varied from event to event, allowing for both widescreen and traditional material. The projector is horribly under-setup. There is no correction for the change in elevation, so the bottom of the screen is noticeably larger than the top. There are also jagged edges at the edge of the frame, probably due to something with how the projector is set up. In addition to the geometry, the color on the projector is woeful. This is most noticeable when there are large white spaces on the screen, but if you've seen a film elsewhere, you can probably notice at slight, or major, difference in the color. Finally, I think the DVD player has essentially died. The blue flickering that occurs was formerly blamed on the projector. Tonight, however, it also started flickering orange, which led me to believe that there's something wrong with the connection from the DVD as far as the Red-Green-Blue color combination goes. That and tonight the DVD started getting artifacts (digital square-like effects that appear when the DVD player is too weak to handle the picture) pretty much everywhere toward the end of the movie, and eventually stopped. It seems to me that for a system that gets used six times a week by SUMO and twice a week by Film Society, in addition to whatever else goes on there, Carleton should be able to find the money to, one, upgrade to equipment that can reproduce a believable cinematic experience, and two, have a technician calibrate the system so the color's not fucked and the screen dimensions aren't awful and the sound isn't utterly worthless. I don't mind the nasty picture the projectors produce in the classrooms, but for Olin 149, they ought to make sure that everything works and is up to date.
Oh, and the movie. Well, I liked some parts. For instance, James van der Beek's vacant, handsome, drug-dealing imbecile was quite enjoyable at times. The film also effectively got the point across that we're all abused and we all abuse others, but the characters were a little too pathetic or arrogant or dumb, and as such I felt alienated from them (not too mention the too beautiful recreation of college life, even if it was tragic as well). The New Wave soundtrack was also better than most, but the film just took itself too seriously, especially noticeable in its pointless obsession with reverse-action sequences, in which everything plays out backwards. Supposedly this was to show us something about fate or destiny but it pretty much just wasted time and provided special effects. I felt like maybe there was a good movie waiting to be made here, about college students and how they treat themselves and others during their transition to adulthood, but instead it just made me loathe people all the more.
The Observer on the rather frightening Bush White House.
I've also been cleaning up the music on my hard drive. I deleted most of the random singles I had and collected the others into a folder. Some full albums I've saved because I know them, some because I've yet to listen to them. Most albums I am not familiar with I've gleaned the AMG Pick tracks and saved them to the singles folder before getting rid of the rest of the album. Hopefully this will make for a smoother transition when it comes time to reformat the old hard drive.
I feel very nice right now. I've taken two tests and two quizzes in the past two days of class, and as such, I have no math homework due until Friday; so there's only Rock reading and listening for tomorrow. Technically I probably don't need to do that either since I've listened to Revolver, Sgt Pepper's, and Pet Sounds many times each and read about them even more, but it should be enjoyable anyway. I've also just printed up a nice looking schedule for KRLX that will go both on the wall outside the studio and in the program guide which, I'm assuming, should be out by Wednesday or so, but don't come knocking down my door if you can't find one. This is beautiful, this is great, this is the least I've had to do in almost a month. And I get to send out warnings today to miscreants who don't sign logs or come to radio shows. Given my record on first tests in math classes at Carleton, I probably sucked it up a lot today on those exams, especially Structures, but that doesn't matter any more, because they're over, and since when was college about grades anyway? Ha ha ha, let's pretend I'm going to graduate.
That will be all for now except that, once again, Roger Ebert has a spot-on opinion of a film we've both seen. Well, it's spot-on according to me. And I'm the one who read it, so that's what counts. And I believe, since I was far too busy this weekend and was unable to leave Northfield, I will go see The School of Rock tonight. Perhaps you should email me if you somehow also have very little to do and would like to go.
7 Oct 2003
First things first, KRLX Program Guides are out and about so pick one up or else. And buy a sticker in Sayles tomorrow AND Thursday AND Friday. You can also look at the schedule here; it's much nicer than the one on the official KRLX site. Hopefully it will soon replace the one on the KRLX site. And there is a Blogumentary tomorrow at seven. I actually picked up an mp3 because of the Film Society email, where I linked to the film's site, where I linked to the Chuck Olsen's blog, where he'd posted an mp3 (Sloan "Gimme That")and now I'm listening to it, all due to the power of blogging. I wonder if that should be in the film, it's so postmodern.
I went to Apple Valley instead of Lakeville to see The School of Rock. The idiots in line were having a very hard time buying movie tickets, a process I hadn't previously considered to require much thought, but apparently they weren't quite up to the challenge. As such I waited around for the 10 o'clock show instead of the 9:30, so I entertained myself by playing perhaps the worst game of pinball I can remember. I also got to Auditorium #11 early, so I could hear the wretched music they were shilling over the speakers. Apparently Seal has a new album. If you care, I'm sorry. Actually I'd read that in Rolling Stone or something, but this was the first (and hopefully the last) time I'd heard it. And then an incredible number of trailers, some of which even came after the stuff that traditionally comes right before the movie, like the corporate advertisements and the warnings to turn off your electronics and not make noise. And I saw the infamous "Movies. They're worth it." propaganda piece. Yeah, I wanted to yell at the screen but I didn't. The place was kind of disgusting, as if it maybe hadn't been cleaned for a good, long time; I think I'll just go to Lakeville next time. The movie itself was good, though less ROCK-oriented and more about the story than perhaps I'd expected. Read what Ebert and Moby have to say, they're pretty much right. The stickers on Jack Black's van were pretty interesting. I spotted The Strokes and Godsmack. Actually, I spotted a lot of others, but I'm telling you, the overlap between their fanbases is not large. The sort-of-indie, hip crowd does not go for the violent, macho, headsplitting sort of mindnumbingly repetitive assault that Godsmack offers and vice versa. Was it the guy from Godsmack who said he hated "Fell In Love With A Girl" more than anything on earth? Yes, I think it was. See what I mean? And Rolling Stone. You know what they spent their 4-star ratings on? John Mayer and fucking Sting. Guess what got three stars? The new Outkast, My Morning Jacket, and pretty much everything else worth listening to. I'm going to be so happy when my subscription runs out.
I have a cold, and that is not very exciting. At least my sinuses have not yet fully exploded.
8 Oct 2003
Tonight I saw Blogumentary and was struck by how awkward it is to attempt to document an online phenomenon such as blogging through a medium as static and production-heavy as film. Even for relatively edit-free pieces, there is a somewhat lengthy process to put a project together, whereas with blogging, everything is instantaneous. I have been to a number of typepad.com sites and they all look very nice. I may have to take them up on their 30-day free trial, if not the actual service.
9 Oct 2003
Due to some clever telemarketing, I listened to The Swordsproject tonight at the Cave. The Cave, by the way, looks relatively shiny and new this year. The Swordsproject for the most part seemed well-intentioned but overambitious. There was a moment or two near the end where the blend of wailing guitar, keyboard and lively bass started to work for me, but it didn't really "do it" for me, in the end.
Also, I've been enjoying NES Open of late. It's slightly more detailed than the classic NES Golf, and it has multiple courses. The golf game I got for SNES isn't as good and the emulator likes to shut down when I want to run in something other than fullscreen, which sucks.
10 Oct 2003
I suppose since I am going to design this weblog, I had better have
some sort of post to situate everything around. And while I'm at it,
here's the New York Times review of the new Coen Brothers movie.
10 Oct 2003
Okay, the pretty pictures and links on the side are all well and
good, but this is an exercise in content, not prettiness. Well, it's
about prettiness too, but I suppose it's more exciting to hit a page
more than once due to regular updating rather than the arrangement of
the crap on the sides. So here we go.
This evening Kevin Jackflaps
and I attended the Death Cab For Cutie show at First Avenue. Well,
perhaps more importantly, we stopped off at Electric Fetus to purchase
Belle & Sebastian's Dear Catastrophe Waitress, which has
been called by some the pop record of the year. I haven't actually
listened to it yet since I've been ripping stuff from the KRLX Record
Library, but I will, and it will be fantastic. I also got Transatlanticism
at the show, and we listened to it on the way home but, of course,
another listen will be required to accurately gauge my opinion. That
means that I am only hotly anticipating two new releases right now: The
Strokes' Room on Fire and Off Records' Wig In A Box,
which I just tried to preorder but PayPal is less than functional and
so I was turned away. But I will persevere. And I will also not buy any
music costing more than eight dollars until late December.
We parked at the wrong end of the parking garage, which was
approximately eight miles away from our preferred entrance, but we
soldiered on. I got some sucky free tickets while Kevin got The Rapture
and I think Rebecca Light solicited a number of Shins tickets from the
ushers, or whatever the extremely funky employees of the First Avenue
club are called. So I don't think I was able to add any more shows to
my list for the rest of the term, which currently includes only Pedro
the Lion at the end of ninth week or something.
We stood sort of by the entrance and the bar in the back for what we
could catch of The Long Winters' set. It was all right, and included a
Madonna cover, apparently, but it was hard to get into from back there.
Death Cab For Cutie had no such excuse. They sounded too "polite" all
night. The atmosphere they create on their records, which is no small
part of their appeal, was largely lost to the sound system, which I
sadly noted on "A Movie Script Ending", my most beloved Death Cab song.
After I heard that, I started forming the opinion that they needed to
either rock out or they would suck. They did rock out, but only for
about five minutes total. Most of the time they seemed to be going
through the motions with stuff straight off the album, losing the charm
of their studio productions, while not adding much for the stage. I
liked pretty much anything new they played, but otherwise their set
lacked excitement or urgency. Perhaps I'm spoiled since I've just seen My Morning Jacket, but if I am, it's only elevated my sense of what a rock show can and should be, and this wasn't quite it.
10 Oct 2003
Okay, I don't know what I was thinking, but I signed up for the
Basic level of service for my trial period. That's dumb, it's free, why
not take advantage of everything I can get? I don't know if I'm willing
to pay fifteen dollars a month, but I might as well see what it could
get me.
10 Oct 2003
From the South: Take I-35E North to 11th Street exit. Follow
11th Street to the third stoplight which is Cedar Street. Turn right
onto Cedar. Follow Cedar for two blocks to Exchange Street. The
Fitzgerald Theater is located on Exchange between Wabasha and Cedar
streets.
Yes, folks, these are the directions to the Fitzgerald Theatre,
where, on Halloween, 31 October, 2003, Belle and Sebastian will be
playing. Upon seeing the announcement,
I was under the impression that perhaps Kevin had finally gone berserk
and convinced himself that there was going to be a show in the Twin
Cities no matter what reality told him. However, Ticketmaster informed
me otherwise. I'd have preferred to drive up and buy my ticket from the
box office, but I was worried they might sell out, so I went ahead and
paid the regular price along with the 40% markup. We had actually
discussed the possibility of a Minnesota show due to the order of the
dates already up, so I can't say it's a total shock, but certainly it
is a nice surprise. I listened to the new album today and I agree it
does seem like a change, at least from the Belle & Sebastian I'm
used to, but not in a bad way. I'd hesitate to call it the pop record
of the year, YET, but perhaps further listening will convince me.
In order to continue my online buying frenzy, I managed to successfully pre-order the aforementioned Wig In A Box
compilation. It comes out in 10 days, but I'm not sure when it will
actually arrive here. I didn't get an option to choose my shipping
method (it says post-paid), so hopefully it will be expedient.
10 Oct 2003
I was at the Cave for Heiruspecs. The Cave, however, quickly became
quite full of sweaty freshmen, and so I adjourned to my room where,
with the window open, I can hear the group at a not unsatisfying
volume, without having to be swarmed by rowdy college kids.
Also, I've just discovered this article in the New York Times:
The Alcoholic Republic has given way to the Republic of Fat, but
in both cases, before the clever marketing, before the change in
lifestyle, stands a veritable mountain of cheap grain. Until we somehow
deal with this surfeit of calories coming off the farm, it is unlikely
that even the most well-intentioned food companies or public-health
campaigns will have much success changing the way we eat.
I'm quite intrigued by Michael Pollan's position, especially since
it's one I haven't heard before. I recall, I think sometime last year,
seeing Adbusters attempt to
get the war on Big Fat (or Big Food) going. This seemed, at the same
time, to be both a more difficult and perhaps more vital court battle
than that which immediately preceded, the war on Big Tobacco.
The war on Big Fat is a difficult one, because it's tough to place
the blame. Does the blame really lie with the corporations, e.g.
McDonald's, Kraft, Nestle, for force-feeding Americans a steady diet of
needless empty calories? Or is it the fault of the American people
themselves? Is it anybody's fault, and is it a problem that can be
solved? I think Pollan's assumption comes at the problem (obesity and
its deleterious effects on American society) from a new and intriguing
angle, though one that comes with its own set of problems. I know
plenty of farmers who get by every year with the help of subsidies, and
that without them, the market would not allow for anything but the most
massive agribusiness corporations that can afford the slimmest possible
profit margins. I also know that subsidies indirectly hurt farmers in
poorer countries who have no access to the West because the
agricultural markets here are so well protected. This, like the
roboticization of so many simple tasks in factories and elsewhere,
seems to be a situation that will require a sea change in the economy
and the work force. Obviously we can't flood the market with food
nobody needs, so we need to shift farmers into more vital positions, as
we do with factory workers and anyone else whose job could be done
better by a drone. The effects of attaining this paradigm shift could
be tremendous: supplying people with newly created jobs, of what sort
it is uncertain, that would serve society efficiently, while at the
same time lessening the cost of excess goods on the market. What will
we do as a nation, especially with the current sad situation in the job
market, do to more accurately assign workers to tasks that are relevant
to today's society? This is ignoring the essential issue at hand
discussed by the article, that of the obesity "epidemic", but if Pollan
is right, it could be closely related. At any rate, it will be
interesting to see what finally will be done to solve the problem of
food and agriculture in this country and in the world at large.
Hopefully it will be positive.
11 Oct 2003
Holy crap, what an amazing blog!
Just seeing the heading in my web browser and knowing that somebody is
writing this blog, well, somehow it just does my heart good.
I'd also like to mention that Neil Young is my hero and the fact
that I can play music this loud in the middle of the night is a
glorious thing, and that is only one reason I love my private bathroom.
I'm not sure if I want to shorten the list I have at the right, but for
now I will at least add Decades. And since I seem to be getting
hits from random blogs, I feel it would only be fair for me to put up
the random list on my site as well.
11 Oct 2003
It is good every once in a while to return both to Bjornar B's site and especially his Marathon game.
My latest try yielded a time of 0:21, which is pretty good considering
it was my third try after a long layoff. You can also buy branded apparel, and I think that's pretty exciting.
13 Oct 2003
I don't actually have much to say myself right now about Radiohead that I haven't said before. But I do have a story about kids drawing in reaction to being forced to listen to Thom Yorke & co. It came from The Morning News, which is a daily source of exciting links for news and oddities such as this one.
14 Oct 2003
In this week's The Nation:
Big Pharma's favorite myths: Africa doesn't need cheap drugs, it
needs infrastructure (it needs both); brand name companies have already
slashed their prices to compete with generics (discounted brand
versions are still at least twice as expensive); weakening patents will
hurt corporate profits and destroy the incentive for new research
(Africa accounts for roughly 1 percent of the $400 billion
pharmaceutical industry's total sales).
Full Article.
This article makes me mad for a number of reasons.
One is that its a case of business trying to make money while not at
all realizing the cost. These aren't just sleazy tactics that might
hurt a competitor or deflate the portfolios of a few investors; denying
affordable access to life-saving drugs to those who need it is in no
way acceptable, at all. I can think of very few things more important
than doing what we in the West can to stop such an epidemic, not only
for humane reasons, but also because it's that much harder as a
developing nation to get anywhere when so many of your people are
stricken with a terminal and spreading disease.
Two is that it reminds me of one of the number of ways I despise the
Bush administration. Not only do they lie in order to get the country
to go to war, among other things, but they even have to lie about PR
initiatives. Sure, maybe they're a bunch of lying dirtbags, but $3
billion toward AIDS in Africa is a godsend no matter who it's from.
This, however, has turned out to be just another ploy by the White
House in which they announce some seemingly good-intentioned deed, only
to renege on it months later, obviously without a second press
conference to set the story straight. Had they not made the pledge in
the first place, I might not mind so much, but the fact that Bush went
out of his way to let us all imagine that he was actually going to make
the world a better place in some way, and then quietly pulled back,
makes it all the more despicable. There are probably relatively
ill-informed people who currently think highly, or at least not as
terribly, of this administration specifically because of this pledge,
much like people at first praised the misguided No Child Left Behind
act. It looks good at first, but those who take the time to examine the
details and the outcome eventually realize that it's just another scam.
Three is not actually in the article so much, but Bush's and the
Vatican's policy on birth control is just ridiculous. They have such
high-flown ideals about the "sanctity of life" and the evils of "family
planning", yet nowhere along with their vile rhetoric have I seen
anything about where these families, lacking access to normal birth
control methods or even condoms for crying out loud, are going to get
the money to fund the extra children that will result from the fact
that the US or the Catholic church won't support any form of aid that
would have helped them keep their families to a manageable size in the
first place. The illogic just astounds me. And I've heard some
conservatives tell me that, "God will provide," no matter how
irresponsible we are. I don't even have any reply for such an idiotic,
unreasonable and dangerous belief.
15 Oct 2003
Note the three new albums on the right. They are there thanks to
Colleen. What better way is there to start your day than with three CDs
in your mailbox? I can think of very few.
Also, I am wearing my Dennis Kucinich t-shirt today because I read a terrific piece yesterday on him in The Nation. I realize this is the second straight post on them, but I did mention this summer that they are my favorite magazine. Since they can't be expected to post every article they print online, here is a quote:
On the campaign trail, it sure looks like Kucinich's chief
"problem" is that when he talks, he means it. It does not take much
exposure to Dennis Kucinich to realize just how serious he really is.
He says things that could never even occur to a phony.
They go on to talk about his proposed Department of Peace among
other things. This was especially refreshing after hearing so much
about how Kucinich is a vanity candidate only pushing issues, and not
really interested in the race. This story doesn't necessarily convince
me that he's going to win, but that would be a pretty lame reason for
me to claim ideological sympathy with a candidate, especially this
early in the race. Since I need to go to class now, I will refrain from
expounding on the race for the Democratic presidential candidacy, but
don't worry, I will sometime soon.
Dennis Kucinich website.
18 Oct 2003
Well, I haven't posted in a while. I think I have many things to say, we'll see.
I have been playing more of the traditional Golf for NES instead of
NES Open. It's really quite fun for being almost twenty years old. I
played it often at my grandparents' house, and then later when I bought
a used Nintendo. My brother and I got to the point where we'd have to
reset it if it looked like we couldn't hit at least 18 under par. When
I hit that, I may post an image. So far, my best is a 12 under par 60.
Vimm's Lair: repository for classic Nintendo emulation.
I downloaded Mozilla 1.5. To my dismay, my theme needed to be upgraded, and I'd forgot which theme I used so I had to cast about on themes.mozdev.org
for a good while, even longer because everybody was downloading new
themes for their updated installations. I finally discovered that I am
in love with Pinball, which was thankfully updated. I can't stand to
look at anything else; they are all inferior, I tell you. I haven't
noticed any major changes in the browser or mail client, except
spellchecking, but if I do, I'll probably mention it/them.
I tried to download the Windows version of iTunes, which I'd been
very excited about, but it's only compatible with Windows 2000 or XP
and I'm stuck with ME until I decide to pay for the upgrade. I probably
will around Christmas, but until then I suppose I'll have to hold off.
Since reorganizing my mp3 collection, which I discussed at some point,
I haven't had as many issues with Winamp, so it's not as much of a
problem as it might have been.
On Thursday-related music notes, I received the Wig In A Box
compilation from Off Records, five days before official release. I was
kind of underwhelmed by the whole thing, mostly because the original
Hedwig soundtrack is so good, and John Cameron Mitchell is such a
singular performer, that any other band sounds like they're pretending.
If they ape the original completely, it's boring, and if they change
anything, it's sacrilegious. I enjoyed The Polyphonic Spree's version
of "Wig In A Box", but otherwise found the album to be less than
impressive.
I also watched Jesse Kriss do his electronic music thing at the Cave
on Thursday night. The audience was rather sparse, but I enjoyed the
performance quite a bit. I chose to write a new performance report for
History of Rock class on it, and that will be posted once I have
refined it. All I can say now is he used turntablist techniques,
PowerBook-provided beats and a little synthesizer to create some
exciting sounds.
Today I went to DJ Spooky's
talk about the history of digital media. It did get kind of long (I
wish he'd have performed more, but he did have a dance party coming up
later), but there were enjoyable parts, especially the remix of a Bush
speech which showed him owning up to all the allegations against his
administration. I think there is a link to it from the DJ Spooky
website. If not, it can be found here on fuckitall.com. It's the union.mov file.
I considered attending the dance party, but had a better offer to go
to the Twin Cities. We visited Cheapo records where I purchased the
four-disc Italo Disco Collection, which is basically a lot of
European dance music for ten dollars. I've gotten to the third disc,
and it's probably right about at what you'd expect four hours of music
to sound like for ten dollars. After walking around to stall for time,
we watched Lost In Translation at the Lagoon Theater, and it
was as good as advertised. Colleen had already seen it, so I assumed
we'd see something else, but luckily she liked it so much that she
consented to a second viewing. Bill Murray is amazing, as is Scarlett
Johansson. Apparently, some viewers have complained that it lacks plot,
and it does, but that's because plot is extraneous to the emotion it
communicates through the images and the gestures and the score, and
essentially every little thing that goes unsaid. It's a delicate and
careful romance, the likes of which Hollywood rarely provides, but it's
such a satisfying experience. I could describe scenes but I won't, I'll
just say that it's a movie that pays attention to details and to the
small things, and it succeeds wonderfully.
20 Oct 2003
Surprisingly, it's not summer solstice, but...today! I think today
is 19 October 2003, with a little of 20 October 2003. And since this is
my blog, I'm going to self-absorbedly tell you about it.
Because I fell asleep on my bed with my clothes on at 11:00 pm the
night before, I sort of woke up a little after four. I then proceeded
to undress and get back into bed, where I didn't actually go to sleep
before receiving a call at six o'clock to come in and do a radio show,
because the DJ didn't show up. So I did, until a quarter past seven,
when I returned to my room to await breakfast, which I went to for the
first time in recent memory. It was pretty good. So was brunch, which I
ate a few hours later with Colleen, who was saddened at the lack of
bacon, and with good reason. I managed to get my History of Rock
homework done, but no math.
At two, Geoff and Susannah and I left for the Twin Cities, where we
visited FleetFarm, Minnehaha Falls, and a Vietnamese restaurant, the
name of which I forget, but where I ate sugarcane shrimp on some sort
of very fine noodles with lots of sauce and it was tasty for under
seven dollars. And then we came back and I did my radio show and it was
good. And I will have a fine when I return my CD to the Music Listening
Room tomorrow a day late.
Then Colleen and I went to Goodbye Blue Mondays and raised our
caffeine levels. We also listened to a lot of music and decided that it
would be in our best interest to take in a matinee tomorrow at
Lakeville, specifically Intolerable Cruelty, since violence
is out for early in the day. We also determined the dining hall is too
stupid to have brunch on midterm break Monday, so we'll eat at Perkins.
If I manage to make some progress on math homework, it should be a
delightful day.
And holy crap, it's really late but I wanted to make a list of all
the albums I need to listen to over winter break so I can listen to
them only to increase my overall knowledge of my collection. I think I
will post it as a comment to this post, so it doesn't take up the whole
front page.
21 Oct 2003
Today we watched Intolerable Cruelty as was suggested in the last post. There were three retired-looking people filling out the rest of the theater.
In short, the Coen Brothers once again manage to make George Clooney
look like a genius. He is a perfect match for their snap-crackle
dialogue, and plays the lovable, fast-talking bullshitter better than
anybody in recent memory. Essentially here he reprises many of the
traits of his character in O Brother, Where Art Thou?: charming, believable yet untruthful, quickwitted and out to win his lady against all obstacles. Cruelty,
however, is set in the modern day, filled with divorce lawyers and
golddigging man-haters. Since it's a Coen Brothers production, the bit
parts are all brilliant, like Wheezy Joe, the failed assassin; Gus
Petch, the "ass-nailing" private detective; and Heinz, the Baron Krauss
von Espy, the froofy Swiss 'concierge'. There isn't really time to
think anywhere in the first half of the movie as Clooney talks everyone
else's ear off when rich spouses aren't philandering their money away.
Towards the end, the movie takes a thoughtful, seemingly sappy turn,
but that only sets up the brilliant final gag, in which Clooney appears
to finally get what's coming to him. It was clever, lightning quick,
and as good as expected from the Coens.
Just to remind myself, here is a list of their films that I've seen and loved:
Intolerable Cruelty (2003)
The Man Who Wasn't There (2002)
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
The Big Lebowski (1998)
Fargo (1996)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
This leaves me with their first four films to discover:
Barton Fink (1991)
Miller's Crossing (1990)
Raising Arizona (1987)
Blood Simple (1984)
And Bad Santa is coming out later this year.
21 Oct 2003
I bet you didn't realize what an incredible mp3 resource Epitonic.com is. But it is. I mean, they have an more high-quality, easy-to-access, legal mp3 downloads than I've ever seen in one place.
22 Oct 2003
So I was playing NES Golf this afternoon and I finally had a magical
round. I think I had two eagles, three pars and thirteen birdies, if I
remember correctly. I'm not sure I can top this score, so I might have
to start playing other games. Well, technically, given the right
conditions, I could envision a score as low 49, but that would depend a
lot on the wind.
23 Oct 2003
Hmm, I haven't posted in a while. Let's see if it's worth your while for me to post today.
I didn't really do anything Tuesday, I don't think. On Wednesday I
saw What Time Is It There? at Film Society with Colleen. It was
artfully constructed, and as such, provided well put together shots
(all static) and some good performances, but didn't choose to focus as
much on plot or story. It was what I expect out of Film Society, which
is not necessarily something that will delight me, but something I
wouldn't see otherwise, and something in which I can recognize the
craft or skill even if it wasn't the best thing I saw all year.
Afterward, we hung out for a while in my room. A long while. I
realized I haven't been staying up late very much this year, at least
in the presence of others, so that was a nice exception.
It appears that Friday will bring another movie, possibly Party Monster.
In other news, Pitchfork had a very good piece on Elliott Smith
after his death. Yes, they can sometimes be stuck-up and pretentious,
but they also in general care about music and, as evidenced here and
elsewhere, those who make it.
In the November issue of Wired magazine, Malcolm McLaren discusses soundchip music,
which he claims to be the music of the future. I suppose if Malcolm
McLaren, who helped manufacture the punk revolution with the Sex
Pistols, thus predicting and shaping the future, is telling me that
this is the future of music, perhaps I should listen. I and the New York Times
often wonder what will eventually rise up to take the place of rock,
which is generally being recycled, if in new and exciting ways. I
suppose this is as good a guess as any.
24 Oct 2003
The Guardian on America's attitude toward and position(s) on the environment.
24 Oct 2003
It seems that I've decided which class I'll be taking next term.
There will be Statistics and there will be Macroeconomics and there
will be Studies in Television. There will probably also be Squash or
Badminton, depending on how quickly those classes fill up. I will be
finished will all my liberal arts distribution credits so I won't have
to take any classes I don't want to take except for maybe a bad math
class here and there. And that's that.
25 Oct 2003
In case you weren't aware, there are good things to be doing when
you are supposed to be sleeping and bad things to be doing when you are
supposed to be asleep. Having ridiculous amounts of fun in delightful
company is a good thing that I would rather be doing than sleeping.
Doing a fucking radio show at 6:30 in the morning for some deadbeat
fucking bastard of a DJ is one of the bad things to be doing when you
are supposed to be sleeping. I was really enjoying not doing a radio
show this morning, until I heard the dreaded phone ring. I can't
believe I'm doing the 5:30-7:30 weekend slot for the fourth time this
term. I suppose it must be nice not to know the compliance director
because then apparently you don't feel bad about making him never ever
sleep. Damn dirty motherfuckers.
On the other hand, last night I saw Kill Bill, Vol. 1, and it
was incredibly violent. It was also incredibly fun. It is certainly a
film that will be etched into my memory for a long time to come. If I
weren't so tired maybe I would be able to write something lengthier and
coherent about it, but right now let's just say that filmed violence
has never been so fun or stylish or perfect and that I am excited for
Vol. 2.
27 Oct 2003
On Saturday night I went with Colleen and roommates Rebecca and Beth
to Buca di Beppo in Burnsville where we dined care of Colleen's
wonderful mother, who gave the meal as a birthday gift. I've not been
that full since, well, the last time I was really full, and it was all
so tasty. There were also rowdy adults and men with toilet paper stuck
to their shoes and there was also a lot of good food.
The Guardian has an article on this study, Sing a Song of Drug Use-Abuse.
Apparently drug use is no longer as highly touted in popular music as
it once was, and John Markert has the research to prove it.
I am slightly tired but since I stayed in bed for approximately
fifteen hours last night, I don't think it will be a major problem.
29 Oct 2003
Okay, so I really need to upgrade to Windows XP. I don't really want
to do so until the term is over, so I have time to back everything up
and don't have to worry about needing my computer immediately. I need
it because I can't access my network drives here at Carleton very well
or consistently without an operating system upgrade. Then I find out
that I can't download iTunes for Windows or buy music from Apple
because of my operating system. Today I went to Napster.com
to see about their new digital music service, and once again I was
turned away, only because of my OS. I think the purchase will certainly
be worthwhile, if it benefits me in all these various ways. Ideally I
wouldn't have to upgrade at all, but at least it will bring me new
available services.
30 Oct 2003
I don't want to be a math major for the next few days. I've sucked
it up on my last few problem sets in both Probability and Structures,
and they've accordingly taken longer than normal. Now I have to face
the weekend in which I'll have to study for both of them; I just hope I
can convince myself to keep studying for long enough to prepare for
both of them. My problems don't generally lie in the realm of not
knowing stuff, but in not caring enough to prepare adequately and to
make sure I know what I need to know. This seems to be my requisite one
time per term in which I actually expend a noticeable amount of energy
worrying about academics. It generally happens when it seems that I'm
not at all prepared for a test (or two tests) that will go a long way
in determining my grade for a required class. I don't like taking two
math classes at the same time because it means that I have two vital
classes that I have to care about and can't take pass/fail. At least
Colleen helped me to forget about all that school stuff for a while.
She is wonderful.
And tomorrow is the Belle & Sebastian concert which will
hopefully be wonderful as well. I hope to return with some form of
merchandise, though I can't say exactly what yet.
The term is quickly coming to an end.
31 Oct 2003
And just so's I don't forget, the Cavaliers will be playing on ESPN on Wednesday at seven o'clock.
31 Oct 2003
This article I read
in Wired about Amazon's new searchable database of books (content, not
just titles or descriptive information) made me very excited
about the role the internet could and should play in enhancing our
lives. Recently I'd been thinking about digital music retailers (Apple,
Napster, BuyMusic) who seem like they will soon come into their own as
a vital, if not THE vital, element in transmission of music from artist
to listener. Right now they are still quite limited and constricted in
their delivery systems both in terms of content and who can use their
services. I know I won't be able to very well at home because we lack
broadband internet access, and I can't currently because I don't have
the latest operating system. Most likely these things will smooth out
over the course of time, and it should become increasingly easy to get
your hands on a copy of whatever you want to listen to whenever you
want. Personally, I would love to see something like All Music Guide
get hooked up with a music e-tailer so that I could search on the site
for obscure albums by groups I know and love or search for new artists
in new genres. Even better would be the fact that you could utilize the
Guide's "Song Highlights" for individual artists, or their "Some
Important Songs" listing under style categories, which would be an
amazing way to introduce yourself to new music of all sorts; in essence
you could purchase any of an infinite number of greatest hits
compilations centered on any artist, style, label, or other musical
category.
Much as DVDs followed CDs, DVD-Rs followed CD-Rs, and DivX followed
MP3, it seems logical that online purchases of films and television
content should begin some time in the near future. Perhaps more
exciting here is the possibility of easy one-time viewing, or graded
rates of pay for different amounts of viewing, which is less important
to me, personally, for music which I rarely want to listen to only
once. For some films, I'd like to buy them online and have them in
digital format forever: classics, mindbogglingly good lesser known
films and perhaps legendary television events. There are also things
I'd like to be able to purchase just once: a somewhat humorous or
memorable version of an episode of a relatively good TV show, or a
movie to watch with friends just because it might be fun, or a
controversial yet not necessarily good new work. This could go a long
toward increasing the potential market for independent and obscure
films much like digital music selling could exponentially increase the
potential audience for tiny little indie bands who can't get sold
anywhere except in the most well-stocked independent record stores, who
themselves are probably being crushed forever by Best Buy et al. I
can't really think of many innovations I would appreciate more than
instant access to all of popular culture at a decent price at the click
of a mouse. I mean, yeah, there's money growing on trees and perhaps
teleportation and time travel, but as far as developments in the
visible future for a white middle-class Westerner like myself, I can
see no more pressing need than the opening of the vaults of
entertainment to digital and instantaneous consumption.
31 Oct 2003
I was just reading this Ebert review and was struck by these two paragraphs, which perhaps can include many parts of culture besides just films:
One of the tasks faced by serious filmgoers is to distinguish
good films in disreputable genres. It is insufferable to claim you
"never" see horror movies (or Westerns, musicals, war movies, teenage
romances or slasher pictures). You're presenting ignorance as taste.
The trick is to find the good ones. The French auteur critics did
a lot of helpful spadework, resurrecting genres and rehabilitating
reputations, but they were not always right -- and besides, you have to
feel it for yourself. If a film holds my attention, it is in one way or
another a good one. If it moves or delights me, it may be great. If I
am distracted by its conventions, obligatory scenes and carelessness or
lack of ambition, it deserves to be tossed back into the genre.
1 Nov 2003
Last night was the Belle and Sebastian concert at the Fitzgerald
Theater. I didn't really like the venue, I thought it felt too
restrictive and boring and stuck-up; not the sort of place to see a
rock show, even one like Belle and Sebastian. I enjoyed the openers,
The Hidden Cameras, but probably not enough to buy their album. There
were a lot of costumes in the crowd and onstage since it was, after
all, Halloween. I managed to get myself a green 'Step Into My Office,
Baby' t-shirt that I am now wearing.
It took me a little while to really get into the show, because it
felt at the beginning a little like they were just going through the
motions on their new stuff, but that didn't last long. The lights got
going and, unfortunately, the fans started yelling more and more, but
the momentum started building. I adored 'Stars of Track and Field',
'Judy and the Dream of Horses', and 'Sleep the Clock Around',
especially the last one because it's the first B&S song I can
recall liking. Things seemed to be going really well when they came
back out for the encore, but they only played one song, and it wasn't
all that climactic. It seemed like they could have played a lot more
given the enthusiasm of the crowd and their large number of memorable
songs, but we'll have to take what we can get. There were some new
songs I'd have liked to have heard, but they did still play a pretty
sizable number from Dear Catastrophe Waitress. I would have
paid extra money to hear 'If You're Feeling Sinister', but sadly it was
not to be. It was still very enjoyable and specifically Stuart Murdoch
& co. struck me as very congenial; they were the kind of band I was
happy to be entertained by and in the presence of. Also, if/when Stuart
Murdoch releases a solo album, it will be stunning. Just because.
I decided to be geeky today and list what Belle & Sebastian I
have and what I don't. I have 70 out of 97 songs I chose to list.
Mainly, I need the Lazy Line Painter Jane box set, and maybe Fold Your Hands Child You Walk Like A Peasant and the I'm Waking Up To Us and the This Is Just A Modern Rock Song singles, if I want to be a completist about these sorts of things.
1 Nov 2003
As a follow-up to the earlier post about the upcoming nationally
televised Cleveland Cavaliers game, I am not jumping on the LeBron
bandwagon. Since I was born and raised in northeast Ohio, I have
credibility as a Cavs fan, as well as an Indians fan, a Browns fan and
an Ohio State Buckeyes fan, for better or worse.
3 Nov 2003
I don't think there is much of a specific topic here.
Chuck Olsen was apparently at the Belle & Sebastian show on Halloween and managed to capture video of "Like Dylan In The Movies."
I have studied for math both too much and probably not enough this
weekend in preparation for two tests on Monday. Too much because my
brain feels like it might fall out of my head, and not enough because I
doubt that I'm well-prepared to take the tests. I still have to review
Calculus for my Probability test and probably work tomorrow after
lunch. I really hope to not ever have two math tests on the same day
ever again.
And The Simpson's Halloween Special was not that terrific, but hopefully that doesn't bode ill for the rest of the new season.
5 Nov 2003
So today's Making A Scene show is about Manchester and it's all
good, especially Magazine, who I've learned was formed by Howard Devoto
of the Buzzcocks. I think I might have to pick up their Where The Power Is compilation, if I ever run across it.
In other news, my Structures test seemed to go really well and I'm
actually enjoying the class quite a bit. Probability was not so good
and I'm going to have to study a lot for the final, but it's still
interesting. I'm thinking of comparing the Neil Young and the Flaming
Lips versions of "After The Gold Rush" for my final paper in History of
Rock, but I might also enjoy comparing the White Stripes cover of
"Jolene" with the Dolly Parton original, but I don't want to have to
buy Ultimate Dolly Parton. I'll probably take a closer look at what pair of songs I own at least half of, so I can decide if I want to acquire the other.
5 Nov 2003
Registration was a breeze this term since all my classes were open
and I had the synonym numbers for all of them waiting to be pasted into
the browser. My schedule goes like this:
Mathematics 275: Mathematical Statistics.
Economics 110: Principles of Macroeconomics.
Media Studies 227: Open The Box: Studies in Television.
PE 106: Intermediate Badminton.
I also went to the grocery store and am now well stocked for the rest of the term.
Tomorrow I'll do more rock'n'rolling and even some Structures and
it'll be a grand old time because it's like nine degrees outside. Or
maybe I'll just stay in all day and play NES Open.
7 Nov 2003
Colleen is wrong and I am right. This should come as no surprise.
8 Nov 2003
Last night circumstances conspired such that I saw Elf at
Lakeville. You'd assume with Jon Favreau directing and Will Ferrell
starring and even Bob Newhart making an appearance that it would have
something interesting to offer. But you'd pretty much be wrong. Because
it's the same Christmas movie that comes out every year in which an
unworldly and bubbly outsider comes to New York City to show its
inhabitants how to get in the spirit of the season. You've already seen
this movie fifty times, just under other names. It's got its Frank
Capra moments, from both the "Mister" films (Mr Deeds Goes to Town/Meet John Doe/Mr Smith Goes To Washington) and It's A Wonderful Life, and its Hudsucker Proxy moments and its Home Alone
moments. At times it seems like maybe it will be clever, especially
during the early scenes in the North Pole with the ridiculous camera
work they did to proportion Ferrell correctly to the elves, who must be
much smaller, along with the goofy outdoor scenes (an homage to
claymation Christmas classics like Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman).
But once the story moves to New York, the gags start to overwhelm you
with their boring sameness. There's the main character getting gored by
the wild animal gag, the inevitable snowball fight, the wacky culture
clash between the city dwellers and the igloo dweller, and of course
the hard-hearted father figure who turns out to be a real swell guy in
the end. Perhaps is this wasn't the tenth time I'd seen this formula on
screen, I'd have appreciated it, but it wasn't, so for your own sake,
go see something original.
9 Nov 2003
I watched one-and-a-half movies last night! Jackie Brown, which I'd rented Thursday night and started Friday night, and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer at the 3rd Annual Get Real
City Pages Documentary Film Festival. It's never a good idea to watch a
movie in two parts when it's meant to be watched in one, but Jackie Brown
didn't really suffer for it. It was obviously a Tarantino film because
of the violence and style thereof, the smart throwaway dialogue, the
Uma Thurman-type actress (Bridget Fonda), the LA setting and the
obsession with things that go on in cars. Toward the end we even got a
little non-linear storytelling sequence. Although I think Colleen was
right when she said that Pulp Fiction was still her favorite Tarantino film, this was certainly no slouch.
After that we headed up to the Oak Street Cinema
to watch the documentary. The thing I liked best about this film and
most low-budget documentaries, is how apparent the relationship between
filmmaker, film and subject becomes. This isn't some Hollywood
"invisible style" production in which you can't tell you're watching a
movie; the director often appears on screen and it becomes obvious
(painfully so, at times) that it can be difficult to work with subjects
in order to fit them into a film. This is most present when Nick
Broomfield, the director, is attempting to tell us what has happened to
Dr Legal, aka Steve, a Florida lawyer who was far out of his depth when
attempting to present a defense for Aileen Wuornos, the serial killer
mentioned in the title. He claims that Bloomfield's previous film, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer,
a precursor to this one, has ruined his career, and really doesn't want
to be on camera even though he needs to be. During Wuornos's trial the
director has to testify against Dr Legal and it seems a little sad to
be defaming this guy on screen, even if he did fail his client during
her trial. Broomfield also has to decide how best to showcase Wuornos,
who has been in prison for over a decade and whose mind is decaying.
Interviews inevitably turn sour as Wuornos starts to rant about cop
conspiracies and claims that she won't tell the truth about the murders
she committed, so Broomfield is forced to resort to recording her
offscreen unbeknownst to her so she will speak honestly (or so we
think) about the situation surrounding her killings. The viewer can
tell what a difficult film this must have been to make, but Broomfield
does an admirable job, and it really pays off for the viewer in the end.
9 Nov 2003
Although I do acquire new music with some frequency, I think the
list at right would be much more exciting if it held music that I'd
recently listened to and been excited about. So now it does.
9 Nov 2003
Wow, was the Simpsons' season premiere ever BAD. I think I laughed
twice and wished I hadn't both times. I suppose it's possible that the
writers are finally running out of ideas, after more than 300 episodes,
but I'd like to think not.
11 Nov 2003
Let's see how many playlists I can put up here from my radio show this term. Okay. They'll be in the Comments section.
12 Nov 2003
Tonight was the final Film Society event of the term, another
sponsored by the Digital Arts Festival. Information about the
collection of short films can be found at New Media Scotland's website; click on the appropriate link to find the page for Desktop Icons, because when I tried to link directly, it didn't work as well.
To begin, I think I should quote Ratchet Up on avant-garde films: Yes, they're uneven. Everything in the avant-garde is uneven. Get over it.
To be sure, Desktop Icons was not a slam-bang success from
start to finish, but it was worthwhile. It started off with a piece in
which the only visuals were differently-colored words on a black
background. The effect was produced by superimposing the visually
represented words over a series of telephone conversations.
Specifically, the words were, at choice moments, representative of what
the speaker was thinking, and not what he was saying. Granted, this
technique has been used and abused many times, but I found it effective
here, moreso because of the lack of imagery.
Next was a montage of black and white shots of quiet, suburban
America made to look like the fifties because of the idyllic quality of
the images as well as, of course, the lack of color. The filmmaker made
no attempt to hide new model vehicles (the footage was actually shot in
1991, I believe), but it was not an attempt to recreate the fifties,
but more to connect with a mood and a period of time. Which was
important, because the soundtrack consisted of clips from George Bush
and many others (some of other nationalities) talking and making
declarations about the Gulf War in Kuwait. The sound editing was vital
here, since the effects on the soundbites really added to their
haunting effect. In particular, the echo of the last phrase, "The war
is not yet over," or some such thing, really took hold as a color image
of the World Trade Center soon after being hit on 11 September faded
out to end the piece. Without being too heavyhanded or obvious, the
filmmaker managed to draw some great parallels between the current
tension between the US and the Middle East and the Cold War, hence the
visual connection between the 50s and the 90s. The sounds of war and
combat layered over the peaceful, sleepy images of residential America
were particularly effective.
There was also a musical piece about singing hoodlums from Germany
and an (I think) intentionally stylized piece showcasing a man and a
woman going on a picnic, with a voiceover from an older man with a
German accent which was very quirky and which worked for me mostly
because of the lilting background music, along with or in spite of the
oddball tone of the dialogue and images.
I don't think I took anything special away from the experience about
the new art of digital filmmaking, but I did enjoy many of the pieces,
and think some of them use the tools of film to make a good point, or
at least to communicate something about the human experience.
13 Nov 2003
When you either forget or don't have time to keep track of everything that goes on in the world during the week, the Economist's weekly politics newsletter really comes in handy. Register for free here.
15 Nov 2003
Last night The Shins played First Avenue, preceded not by The
Aislers Set, as advertised, but instead by The Soviettes, who were
chosen by First Avenue to replace The Aislers Set. This was
mind-boggling, since The Aislers Set play chamber pop, and The
Soviettes play punk. The result was a lot of fans who couldn't handle
the loud, raucous, noise, and were thus cheering lustfully only when
The Soviettes left the stage. It seemed to be more a case of
mismatching band and audience rather than a bad set, because I
thoroughly enjoyed every minute as they blazed through their songs at
about two minutes per number, and took no time to dilly dally in
between. I think they might have played "Catherine Says" to appease the
upset fans, but I couldn't really tell because if they did, it sounded
nothing like the original.
The Shins came on to great applause and a much fuller room than it
had previously been. They seemed to start off a little slow, and the
first song I can really recall getting into was "One by One All Day".
There were others as well, especially those inflected with more of a
country twang, which I've noticed I really enjoy live with pretty much
any band. I liked "So Says I" quite a bit as far as their new songs
went. The band didn't really strike me as charismatic or being able to
convince the audience that they were guys who would be fun to hang
around with. Not that this is vital, but it always does something for
the atmosphere, as I can recall at Belle & Sebastian and My Morning
Jacket. By the end of the night, I knew The Shins had played some good
songs, but they left me kind of cold, as if I'd heard it all before.
Also, I find it hard to listen to James Mercer because he thinks he's
Ray Davies, even though he's from New Mexico. As has happened before at First Avenue, I realized as I left that I liked the opener a lot more
than the main act, but since it was a free show, that was fine.
16 Nov 2003
Yesterday I ventured up to Macalester where I met Kyle. We sat
around for a while trying to wait out the opening acts but at eight
o'clock I decided it was time to go.
It wasn't immediately apparent where the BEC Auditorium was on the
St Thomas campus, but it wasn't that hard to find either. And I guess
because we showed up seventy-five minutes after the show started, we
didn't have to pay, which was nice. The first band we saw (and the
second overall) was Halo Effect, who was much more interesting than I'd
anticipated. They started out with a violin among their numbers and
sounded a little like Low or Sigur Ros, but the violin left after the
first number. They continued to play slowly building, thoughtful rock
music, which was nice, but the singer kind of sucked, because he wanted
to sing with aggression like he was in some sort of "alternative" band
with a lot of angst, when he should have just been trying to sound as
nice as possible. But they were definitely all right.
Shadow Box was next. They suck. They're essentially a bad ripoff of
early 90s alternative guitar rock, especially like a not-very-talented
band trying to play poorly written songs based on Pablo Honey.
The chatter between songs was also execrable. At some point I think the
singer claimed that he was angry that, "We're not being told the truth
about some stuff." Yeah! Way to stick it to the man. He also attempted
to tell the story of the genesis of one of their songs that went like,
"One day we were warming up in rehearsal, just playing some songs, and
the drummer started playing some beats. Then we just started jamming
and that's how we came up with this song." What a waste of time. But at
least the first opening act was good.
Pedro the Lion was on last and for that we moved up from our seats
about twelve rows back to stand up front near the stage, as some others
had begun to do. The band consisted of David Bazan and, from what I can
find on the Jade Tree website,
Trey Many on drums. There was also some sort of mechanism for producing
bass sounds, but I couldn't see it. Anyway, he played everything on an
electric guitar, which made for an interesting but differently good
version of "Slow and Steady Wins the Race". He played "Never Leave A
Job Half Done" from Winners Never Quit as well. I think he also
played "Of Minor Prophets and Their Prostitute Wives", "Big Trucks",
"When They Really Get To Know You They Will Run", "Criticism as
Inspiration", "Diamond Ring" and "Rapture". Some of them I don't
remember or didn't know. He finished off with "Backwoods Nation", which
I didn't realize was a protest song, but I guess it is now that I've
heard it. And as he faded out he threw in a sliver from Radiohead's
"2+2=5", the part about how you have not been paying attention, paying
attention, ... I think the best way to describe the performance was, as
Kyle put it, heartfelt. I got the same feeling from watching him play
as I did watching Ira Kaplan play guitar early this summer at the Yo La
Tengo show at First Avenue; a sense that he genuinely cared about the
sounds he was producing and was working hard to make sure everything
was the way it should be.
He also took questions, as I guess he is wont to do. He told me that his favorite album this year has been The Shins' Chutes Too Narrow.
He also said that a new EP should be coming out this spring and the
next full-length should be out next September. He played a number of
new songs, but I don't know what their titles might be. Afterwards, I
bought The Only Reason I Feel Secure and a shirt. It was a delightful performance and I'd have gladly paid many dollars to see it, but it was nice that it was free.
Afterward Kyle and I discussed this and that and I met a number of
Macalester freshmen. I also got a copy of Windows XP which I will have
to install as soon as I get home.
18 Nov 2003
I'm really enjoying the fact that it stopped raining and it's
relatively very warm outside right now. That makes walking to and from
the 3:30am radio show a lot better. So does taking a nice big evening
nap. I also really enjoy that I managed to get all the way through my
Structures take-home test, so tomorrow I'll just write it up nicely and
get it ready to turn in on Wednesday. After I work for another couple
hours on my History of Rock paper, it should be ready to revise briefly
tomorrow. And oh, there will definitely be some celebration in order
once that's out of the way (hint, hint).
After I finish my homework tomorrow, I will just have to study for
my two finals which will include reading some stuff for History of Rock
and reviewing terms and maybe listening to some music and then doing a
lot of problems for Probability so I'm ready to take that. And then
I'll clean my room and pack and go home and eat a lot and sleep a lot
and read a lot.
This is a monumentally boring post, but I feel a need to validate my
academic progress by seeing it written up on the internet. I'm sure
those in similar situations can understand.
And I have 83 stars in Super Mario 64! Again!
18 Nov 2003
I feel so much better now: Sendthemback.org
21 Nov 2003
Well, I am done with Structures, and I am essentially done with
History of Rock. Tomorrow morning at 8:30 I will fly through the final
exam and return the stupid CD that was in the wrong case and didn't
have the Randy Newman songs I wanted. I'd somehow managed to delete
"Sail Away" and "God's Song (That's Why I Love Mankind)" and was going
to put them back, but I decided to give up since I got the wrong CD and
the Listening Room was closed when I tried to return it and they're
stupid. History of Rock, however, is not stupid and fulfilled all my
expectations as far as being my best class at Carleton. I think I might
post a list of my classes at Carleton in order of enjoyment as a
comment to this here very post.
So, anyway, now I have to study for my Probability exam and do a
cursory clean-up of the bathroom and this room. I was going to see Wet Hot American Summer tomorrow night, but apparently the listing was incorrect and it's actually Scarface that's showing and I'm much less inclined to drive that far to see it at midnight.
I will also have to decide what to take home, which probably include
some clothes and my computer and all of its accessories and any other
little thing I might need. Oh, and I will stop at the library on the
way home to check out some books. I think I already have some ideas,
but if you have any suggestions as to what I should fill my head with
this December, you should leave a comment.
Once I get home, I will try to not do much. It will be great, just like it always is.
Also, I finished Super Mario 64 today.
Now I am waiting for the snow...
22 Nov 2003
Thanks to Kevin Jackflaps for linking me to Rolling Stone's newest list: The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
I wish my year-long subscription had started and ended a little later
so I wouldn't have to buy this at the store, but that's not terribly
important. This will be very helpful while I compile my exhaustive list
of albums I want to own, which is sitting between 150 and 200 right
now, just getting started. I may have more to say after looking at the
list a bit more.
24 Nov 2003
Here are more exciting lists! Pitchfork
is recompiling their Top 100 Albums of the 1990s. It's currently the
home page, and I'll update the link later. Insound.com has their 100
bestsellers of 2003 up here. And Amazon.com's Top 100 is getting old already. They have a customers' list too.
I think the comparison of the two Amazon.com lists probably says all
that needs to be said about the difference between critical and popular
lists. I mention this because Rolling Stone's latest list, as with most
of theirs, tilts toward the popular side, and thus I think it might
have been better entitled, "The 500 Best-Loved Albums" rather than "The
500 Greatest." Essentially, their list is based on quality but also how
well-known an album is and how broad its appeal is. Critics tend to
ignore the last two, though they tend to stay away from completely
alienating records on their top-10, -50, -100 lists. I could say more
about why I prefer the critics lists and not even because I think
people are dumb, but now I have to study more for Probability.
28 Nov 2003
I think The Virgin Suicides is a film I will watch again. I
say this partly because I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind experiencing it
again, but also because it presents itself as a film that deserves to
be seen more than once; it asks many more questions than it answers and
leaves a lot of territory open for further exploration.
Toward the end of the film, the narrator (Giovanni Ribisi) claims
that it doesn't matter that they (the sisters mentioned in the title)
were girls, along with other specifics. I have to wonder about that,
though, because whenever I see a film centered at least in part on
gender-specific roles, I have to wonder what I get out of it
differently from, you know, girls. I expect that most of the sympathy I
felt with the main group of characters was due to the adolescence I
recently emerged from, at least age-wise, and not any pre-existing
assumptions I had about teenage girls. Then again, during his
ruminations, the narrator says that he and his friends learned a lot
about girls from their observations of the Lisbon sisters, and in so
doing, he suggests that there is something peculiarly female about
their predicament. I also empathized much more with James Woods' father
than with Kathleen Turner's mother figure, but again that could have
more to do with their personalities than with their sex.
Apart from any possible gender elements, there were a number of
lasting images in this film. Obviously those of the girls after their
respective suicides were powerful, but maybe even more that of the
football field of the morning after, when Lux wakes up alone in her
homecoming dress, utterly ashamed and alone after what to her had
seemed like the greatest night of her life. That sequence, along with
the comments by the older Trip Fontaine, suggests so much about humans,
both male and female, that it would be impossible to resolve it all
within the confines of a movie, and thus presents itself as worthy of
repeated viewings, as something to ponder and to wonder at as much as
an experience to enjoy. Similarly, the girls huddled together in their
room, or the father talking to the plants at the high school; each
image suggests more about what might be going on beneath the skin as
the characters attempt to deal with tremendous tragedy they can't have
been properly equipped to deal with than could be said in words.
As in her second film, Lost In Translation, Sofia Coppola
focuses on emotional undercurrents and the overall tone rather than the
story itself, and it pays off. Good storytelling is always appreciated,
but the ability to translate emotion and a slice of the human
experience through images and looks on the faces of the actors on
screen is perhaps a more powerful use and probably a fuller realization
of cinema.
29 Nov 2003
I've discovered that I left my Windows XP CD in Northfield. This is
disappointing because I'd planned to install it over break, but it
doesn't seem to be a total loss. I mainly wanted it so I could buy
music online from Apple and/or Napster and so I could access my network
folders better, and also so I could use iTunes. I suppose I will just
make a backup copy of everything I have and get ready so when I return
to Carleton in January I can install it quickly and easily. I was sure
I had put in one of my CD cases or something, but I suppose it's just
sitting there on the shelf. I can still put in a new hard drive and
more RAM and that will be exciting. Ah well.
I think tonight I might try to go and see Master and Commander, Bad Santa, or maybe Mystic River,
since those are the movies playing in Iowa City right now that I would
enjoy. At the moment I have my CDs spread out all over my room, trying
to better organize them, as I do every once in a while. Carnage is playing 11-17 December at the Bijou at the University, and maybe I will see that as well.
30 Nov 2003
I watched Barbershop tonight, and it was funny. Yes, it had
"lessons" or "a message" which can get tiresome, but weren't here.
Cedric the Entertainer was outrageous, and a number of the other actors
played great roles. Ice Cube, as the struggling protagonist, wasn't all
that great, but then his part didn't lend itself to his humorous side,
which he's shown in Three Kings, for example.
I noticed that the colors in the barbershop, the central location in
the film, were very warm, enhanced by the lighting and the wood
paneling, and compared to the cold and drab street scenes, or even most
of the other interiors, the barbershop was imbued with a glow that
elevated it in its role as gathering place and community-strengthening
center.
The thing that stood out most to me about the film was the way it
played much more like television than a feature film. There are
probably reasons for this that I can't quite define, but I did notice
the way relationships were set up, and they worked more like those in
television, which are less intimate, at least on-screen, than those in
the movies. The large number of characters required that any specific
relationships be downplayed to a few lines and a few shots, and the
side roles were as important as that of the main character, Calvin (Ice
Cube), who disappears for a sizeable chunk of the second half of the
movie. Also, the way the action kept cutting to crazy guys entrapped in
an impossibly crazy situation (two bumbling would-be burglars who steal
an unwieldy ATM then can't extract any cash) reminded me of an episode
of an hour-long television series than a stand-alone movie, perhaps
because of the seeming irrelevance of it. All the elements of plot and
characterization fit together in the end, but it seemed less final, I
suppose, than most films do. Whereas television shows often cause the
viewer to feel as if they'd spent time in a community of people they
know the names of, movies tend to intimately introduce a few, if not
just one, characters who will experience a life-changing
transformation, or who will go on a journey, or get out of some serious
situation. I think that was probably the reason Barbershop felt
more like a television pilot than a movie: it introduced a whole
community of likable characters who could have been reused again and
again, whom I expected to come back with more zany and lovable antics
next week. This was obviously not a failing, because the movie was
funny and enjoyable, but it just struck me as odd.
---
Also, I've also noticed that the MP3s of Tigermilk that I'm listening to are disgraceful, so I guess I'll need to buy that sometime soon.
1 Dec 2003
I must admit that I got a lot out of watching the commentary on The 400 Blows.
The biggest point made, I think, was that Truffaut here is signaling a
move toward much more intimate, more personal filmmaking. I'd been
thinking recently about that as one of the main differences between
classic Hollywood and contemporary movies. In older films it's rare to
follow a single character around through his daily routine or through
all the parts of his life; that is, the actor plays a role, but not a
whole person. But here, the protagonist, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Leaud),
is seen waking up and getting ready, at school, running around Paris
with his friend day and night, and even in his bed, with the lights
off, listening to his parents fight. Not having seen every movie made
before 1959, I can't state absolutely that this was the first time this
sort of film was made, but it does seem different from many films of
the fifties and before.
Also interesting was the focus on the sea, which Antoine had never
seen, as both he and his mother mention at different points in the
movie. The apartment he shares with his mother and father is very tight
and the views of Paris are usually very vertical. The opening shot, or
sequence of shots, focuses on the Eiffel Tower, as viewed from the
streets of Paris. Whenever he goes outside, his movements are
constricted by the old houses and offices and stores. After he is
caught stealing a typewriter, he is even put in a cage at the police
station. It's obvious that he feels very constricted in his
environment, and perhaps that, along with his strained relationship
with his parents, is a clue to his misbehavior, which fills much of the
film. This narrow quality to most of the scenes makes an even greater
contrast when he is finally sent away to a place in the country where
he will be observed and then sent to an appropriate facility. Even here
he experiences retribution and cruel punishment, so he finally escapes
the guards and, in a sequence that lasts for quite a while, is seen
running, through the forest and along a road until he finally catches a
glimpse of the sea, and the camera slowly pans through the unending
view as Antoine makes his way to splash around in the water, bringing
us to the last shot in the movie, which is a freeze-frame. Truffaut,
once he freezes the shot, then zooms in on it, as if it were a
painting, which seems to remove the audience from the story and life of
the boy in which they've become so entwined.
The presentation was unsentimental, thankfully, and that lent it a
neorealistic feel, a sense that the camera was capturing naturally
occurring events and not creating a story of its own, and reminded me
that the New Wave directors, along with their appreciation for
Hollywood, were also indebted to the Italian neorealists.
2 Dec 2003
I just completed a mammoth transaction on Spun.com
in which I sold 51 CDs for 10 I wanted (including a double album). I
won't bother with all the CDs I got rid of, but here is a list of those
I acquired:
The Pixies: Doolittle
Guided by Voices: Bee Thousand
Minutemen: Double Nickels on the Dime
Kraftwerk: Trans-Europe Express
Wire: Pink Flag
Slint: Spiderland
Les Savy Fav: 3/5
The Boredoms: Super Ae
New Order: Best of New Order
Modest Mouse: Lonesome Crowded West
It might have been wiser for me to take the 50% cash offer, since I
am feeling somewhat poor right now, but how could I resist twice the
value in new and used music?
Tomorrow I will see the dentist and the library and a movie and Best Buy.
2 Dec 2003
I think maybe I'll move out of here and relocate here.
2 Dec 2003
In response to one of the most basic and useful letters they've probably ever received Pitchfork's Ryan Schreiber answered this question: If
you were to call yourself a follower of "indie" music (barring the
pretention, unclarity, whatever of the term itself) what do you think
would be five bands that you would essentially HAVE to be at least
remotely aware of?
- The Velvet Underground
- Pixies
- Sonic Youth
- My Bloody Valentine
- The Clash
---
- Talking Heads
- The Ramones
- Guided by Voices
- Pavement
There are nine instead of five, but that's just because there are so many important bands out there. And by the way, The Morning News once did a short interview with him (five questions, as they are wont to ask), but it sucks, so I'm not linking to it.
2 Dec 2003
The first thing I have to say about Mystic River is that it's
a punch straight to the gut. A movie hasn't hit me this hard for a very
long time. It's the sort of experience that causes you to walk around
in a daze for a while after leaving the darkness of the theatre. The
second thing I have to say about it is that it's the best movie I've
seen this year. Not far and away the best, because there have been good
movies, About Schmidt, Whale Rider, Chaos, American Splendor, Kill Bill Vol 1 and especially Lost in Translation were all very good, but none had quite the force or the weight of Mystic River.
I was afraid near the beginning that it would turn out to be a
mediocre experience. I'd heard complaints about Sean Penn, from mainly
one source who has been wrong before and had it noted on this website,
and since I could only recall seeing him in Fast Times At Ridgemont High and Dead Man Walking,
I wasn't sure what to expect. I also was a little wary of the
police-at-the-crime-scene-dealing-with-tough-guys-and-unstable-relatives
set-up that's been used by Law & Order and all of its ilk
on television, because that shit gets old fast. I don't care how dry
the wit or how wild and crazy the criminals are, you can only watch so
many formulaic crime dramas before you can't take it any more. Then
there were the old ladies talking because it was a matinee, but
luckily, Mystic River rose above all those things.
You may or may not have seen all the early Oscar nods toward Sean
Penn for this role, but they are all deserved. Especially from the
moment he mourns on the porch with Dave (Tim Robbins), Penn is
riveting. Every once in a while, an emotional storyline or scene might
get to me, but rarely can a single actor doing so little cause so
strong a reaction. And at times it's almost hard to tell whether
Robbins is not only just as good, but possibly even better than Penn,
especially as he struggles with his inner demons as his wife comes home
while he's watching a vampire flick on television. I don't even like
Kevin Bacon, for crying out loud, and he was good here. And Laura
Linney, when soothing her husband in their bedroom near the end, is
bone-chilling.
I will actually refrain from giving away plot details here as I
often don't do, but this movie is so good, that I couldn't bear to
spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it (which I assume is most
everybody). I can reveal what is generally told about the plot, which
is that Jimmy (Sean Penn), Sean (Kevin Bacon), and Dave were best
friends growing up in the same Boston neighborhood, when one day Dave
was kidnapped and tortured physically and emotionally for four days
before he returned home, after which their bond was apparently
weakened. They hardly see each other until, 25 years later, a murder
brings them back together. Bacon is an investigating officer, Robbins
is an unwell suspect, and Penn is a very concerned third party.
As has already been noted countless times, this is a violent Clint
Eastwood film, but one in the anti-violence tradition started by The Unforgiven.
Vigilante justice is meted out, as per usual for Eastwood, but it winds
up as the worst possible solution to the problem of solving the crime.
Nowhere does the film take the easy way out, instead it sacrifices main
characters, both morally and otherwise, and confronts the audience with
brutal, though not unnecessary, violence. The ending is a complex and
difficult one: it takes quite a while, but it's obvious as the climax
occurs that it's going to take a lot to resolve what has happened.
On a geekier level, I could give an example of how the film uses
visual images where lesser films would use dialogue, such as the scene
in which Robbins lights a cigarette and then lets it burn unsmoked for
minutes on end as his anxiety becomes apparent through the device. Or
the way Robbins, during the aforementioned "vampire" scene, gets
lighted from above to shadow his eyes and thus make him dangerous to
the viewer. I could also mention the fact that Clint Eastwood
apparently handled the music for the film, which seemed surprising, but
it was certainly handled well. Most notably, the scene in which Laura
Linney's character reassures her husband about his wrongdoings seems
like it could be a frightening political allegory, with Linney as the
Republican party or the neoconservatives reassuring the President, here
Sean Penn, that even though he's caused pain and suffering in his
"neighborhood", since it's for the protection of Americans, here Penn
and Linney's daughters, every measure is justified, no matter how
brutal. It becomes all the more powerful by the scene that immediately
follows in which we see we those directly affected by Penn's violence,
which just makes Laura Linney that much more terrifying. This would be
confusing, given Eastwood's own conservative politics, but it is
certainly an unrelenting and complex view of violence and its relation
to those around it. Go see this as soon as possible.
3 Dec 2003
Apparently Howard Dean is not entirely opposed to Bush as far as his policy on concealing information goes:
Mr Dean insisted he had nothing to hide, and that the sealing of such documents was routine.
His rivals in the primary campaign have pointed to a candid
remark to a Vermont radio station earlier this year, in which the
former doctor said: "We didn't want anything embarrassing appearing in
the papers at a critical time in any future endeavour."
What we don't want is to replace George W Bush with someone who's
going to perpetrate the same sort of offenses toward the American
people.
4 Dec 2003
I decided that I would think about school for a few hours of this
winter break. First I checked my grades, shocked to find out that I did
better in Probability than in Structures, and as I expected overall. I
also checked out classes I might take in the spring. I'll be taking a
statistics-related class for the third term in a row. I'll also take
either Italian Neo-Realism or Film Noir, as well as a third class that
could be, in descending order:
- Class, Power & Inequality in America
- International Relations & World Politics
- Latin American Politics
- Econometrics
- Empires of the Steppe
- Roman History
- Southern Literature
And topping it all off will be my final PE class, Advanced Golf,
which finally will fit into my schedule, after many futile attempts to
work around it.
I also sold fifteen discs to Secondspin.com
that Spun.com wouldn't take. Secondspin let me get the total sale price
back in cash (actually a check), and for a moment I considered that
might have been nice to do with my larger cache which I sold last
night, but I would've bought CDs over break anyway, and Spun had a
relatively good selection compared to any stores I might have gone to.
Last night care of Wired I finally figured out how to encode DivX files. Easydivx
tells you how. I haven't decided whether I want to do so or not, since
I don't feel the necessity of this, which would only allow me to keep a
version of any DVD that passes through my hands, as much as the ability
to rip and burn CDs.
And now that I've backed up everything on my hard drive, I might be able to upgrade to 80Gb, which will be exciting.
4 Dec 2003
So I finally backed up everything on my hard drive and installed the
new one. Let me just say what a mess of wires and cables it is inside
my computer. I hope I don't have to put in anything else before I take
something out. Anyway, I decided to put the new drive in another slot
so I got to keep all of my old files as they were, which means I didn't
really need to spend hours backing everything up. On top of that, some
of my CD-Rs have unreadable spots on them where several files can't be
copied back to the hard drive, which is annoying, but nothing necessary
has been lost . . . yet.
And I didn't really do anything else today.
4 Dec 2003
Evil spirits 1, Catholic church 0.
7 Dec 2003
You may have not seen this yet. It is a most intriguing, if somewhat
stomach-turning, case, and one that I'm glad is not being tried in the
United States, as I'm sure it would be chaos. The Australian has the best article I've seen.
I think since this post has gotten so many hits from Google, I
should add some more commentary. The whole story intrigues me,
especially the fact that there seems to be some sort of group of
cannibals out there somewhere, in Germany perhaps. It seems there would
have to be in order for Mr Meiwes to be able to post advertisements
asking for people willing to be eaten. I guess I could conceive of some
sort of desire to taste human flesh, since the spectrum of fetishes or
bizarre desires is nearly infinite, but the really weird part is that
such an activity requires a second party to be subjugated, killed and
eaten. The sense I get from this case is that, if indeed there are
cannibalism enthusiasts out there, they aren't the sort to take their
victims from the general populace, but from the segment that sees some
value in being eaten. I'd take this to be an extremely small portion of
the populace who want someone to help them end their lives, which would
in turn be a small part of those who want to end their lives, who
themselves are already a minority in a society. Granted, given a large
enough population any type of group will swell in numbers, but this is
pretty out there.
The main failing of Mr Meiwes, and cannibalism in general, seems to
me to be that it encourages others to end their lives sooner. If there
truly were to be a segment of the population both mentally competent
and prepared to end their lives and, along with any potential related
parties, unconcerned with the ultimate fate of their physical bodies,
then I suppose eating them wouldn't be a relatively harmful act.
However, in this and probably any case, a person would be inclined to
speed their demise to achieve the goal(?) of being eaten. So, if
cannibals could somehow access a cache of consumable human flesh, I
suppose they could go right ahead, but since they can't, since they
must create their own supply, then there must be a part of the process
that can't be justified apart from causing harm, in some sense, to
someone else. Thus if you are a humanist who determines the morality of
an action by its net effect on human lives, I don't think cannibalism
can be justified.
7 Dec 2003
Well, well, well. I have returned from the Iowa State University.
While there I saw approximately three basketball games. I watched Iowa
State handily defeat Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne and Idaho State. I also
watched parts of awful games that pitted Arkansas-Little Rock against
either IPFW or Idaho State.
I also saw Pirates of the Caribbean and The Scorpion King. I'm glad Pirates
was the one I paid for. Johnny Depp was outstanding and overall it was
a lot of fun. I had a hard time watching the part in which Capt. Jack
Sparrow (Depp), wearing handcuffs, manages to loop them around a rope
to slide down from a ship's mast because, since he obviously couldn't
remove the handcuffs, they closed a loop formed with his arms and body
into which the rope could not physically have been inserted since it
was tied to the mast, but otherwise it was great.
The Scorpion King had its moments, and The Rock's sidekick
was funny, but the soundtrack was heavy metal trying to sound like a
cinematic score which irked me and it seemed to mostly be a vehicle for
The Rock to beat people up.
Tomorrow I will get my eyes checked.
9 Dec 2003
Al Gore has just boosted Howard Dean by giving him his formal
endorsement for the 2004 election. I don't know what to think about
this. He doesn't seem like the obvious choice for Gore, as detailed in
the New York Times article.
I can't decide if this makes me feel better about Dean and the fact
that he might be the only way to get George W Bush out of office next
November, or whether this simply tarnishes Gore's previously
intelligent succession of moves after losing the 2000 election.
[By the way, when asked for a password, use the following: Username:
tmn_news; Password: tmn_news. I don't know specifically where The Morning News
has registered this identity, but it works at many news sources, which
is nice if you either haven't registered or forget your password.]
I watched Vertov's Man With A Movie Camera and was pleased.
It stood out to me as an impressive use of montage, of course, and even
more so since it's now nearly 75 years old. Sometimes I fail to "get"
what's so spectacular about silent films (The Birth Of A Nation,
for example), but this movie was exciting enough that I didn't want to
fall asleep. I think what impressed me the most was the way all the
different images and shots fit together to present a coherent, if
that's the word I want to use, vision of a day in the city of Odessa,
even though the material obviously took a long time to film.
I should be getting new lenses for my glasses some time this week, but I'm not sure when.
Tomorrow since I am going to Iowa City again to purchase RAM and to return library materials, I will be seeing a matinee. Since Bad Santa shows earliest at 5:15, I will be seeing Master and Commander, which I have not heard good things about from real people, but Roger Ebert, Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, AO Scott of the Times, and Scott Tobias of The Onion AV Club all extol its virtues, so I have to go decide for myself.
9 Dec 2003
David Brooks has finally put my thoughts on paper for me:
Dean is beyond categories like liberal and centrist because
he is beyond coherence. He'll make a string of outspoken comments over
a period of weeks — on "re-regulating" the economy or gay marriage —
but none of them have any relation to the others. When you actually try
to pin him down on a policy, you often find there is nothing there.
I don't feel the need to say much else because Brooks does such a
good job of explaining why some (many?) on the left are uneasy about
Howard Dean. Thanks to Teague for hooking me up with the New York Times
article.
10 Dec 2003
There was a lot of rain today as I drove around.
I saw Master and Commander, and though I wasn't enthralled, I
was impressed. There are few humorous moments and the action doesn't
seem to be meant to entertain the way it is in, say, The Matrix or The Lord of the Rings,
but I'd say it's still a film worth seeing. The director seemed to be
going less for a thrill-ride than a period piece, and I think he
succeeded. The shots of the ships and the sea and especially the
complexity of the ropes and the riggings were fantastic and
awe-inspiring. The battles were short, brutal and frightening, given
the destructiveness of cannons at a short range and the added element
of being helpless on the high seas. Paul Bettany, as the ship's
physician, is a terrific fish-out-of-water and there are a number of
interesting minor characters, not least the haunting Hollom (Lee
Ingleby). But mostly it's the experience of really being on the ocean,
in a ship, two hundred years ago that defines this movie.
Pirates of the Caribbean
was fun, and I've seen a number of movies involving the ocean before,
but never before have the joys and sorrows and fears of naval life been
thrust at me so convincingly. It may not have been the most fun I've
had in a theater, but it was something I'm glad I got to experience.
Also, it's somewhat funny that The Onion AV Club's Least Essential Albums list has links to buy all the albums.
10 Dec 2003
Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura deals with the
impermanence and fragility of romantic relationships. The first clue to
this is the ambiguous way the main character Anna reacts when she sees
her lover, Sandro, after they've been apart for a month. Apparently
this is not uncommon and it is beginning to get to Anna, so much so
that she can't decide whether she really wants to see him or not. They
go on a boating expedition they'd been planning anyway, and thus we see
even more evidence of failed relationships. Corrado has nothing but
contempt for the much younger Giulia, who will eventually cheat on him
openly with an even younger painter, one who paints only nudes. Anna
disappears and during the search that eventually encompasses numerous
towns along the coast, Claudia, Anna's close friend, and Sandro meet up
with an alchemist and his wife who, only together three months, are
already at each other's throats. Perhaps the most bizarre case of
romantic dysfunction is that of a gadabout "writer", whose claim to
fame seems to be her sex appeal, is apparently touring the surrounding
towns, and when Claudia and Sandro happen upon her, she is being
hounded by fifty thousand men in a sort of gender reversal of
Beatlemania.
The ultimate failed relationship, though, is that of Sandro and
Claudia, who go off together in search of Anna. Even while Anna is
still present on the boat, Sandro begins making advances on Claudia.
After Anna disappears, there is even less in his way. Though Claudia is
distraught and holds him off for a time, she eventually gives in, and
even seems to enjoy it for a moment or two, but it is of course too
good to be true, and after some ups and downs Claudia finally finds
Sandro in the arms of another woman, just days after they had gotten
together. The final shot in the movie, scored with a soundtrack of
doom, shows Claudia, apparently exhausted and defeated, comforting
Sandro, who somehow comes away even more upset than Claudia. As the
screen fades to black, we can see that they, as well as all of us, are
hopelessly chained to "love", that callous and untrustworthy master.
Personally, I can't entirely agree with Antonioni and his views on
the futility of romance, which are expressed in a number of his other
films (I've seen Red Desert). He also thinks that man is
becoming a new creature in relation to the dominance of the machines
he's created, but that isn't quite as obvious here.
Also, the Guardian has two good articles about the US and its "War on Terror" or whatever it's being called these days. The first is about the second botched attack in Afghanistan in the past week and the second is on the US's new policy on contracts for rebuilding Iraq.
13 Dec 2003
It is very cold and today I got new lenses for my glasses and have
gotten used to them completely. I watched the Cavaliers play a good
game and watched a very low-scoring college basketball game. Before
that, I watched Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Francois Truffaut plays a scientist who seems to specialize in
aliens or alternate means of communication or something. Richard
Dreyfuss plays a guy obsessed with aliens. And the aliens finally meet
the humans at the end of the movie.
Admittedly, 26 years after it was initially released, Close Encounters
isn't all that mind boggling. The whole movie is sort of obvious and if
you are really surprised, it's probably because you haven't been paying
that much attention. In fact, the most annoying part of the movie, for
me, was the portrayal of the women who were either terrified of the
aliens or refused to acknowledge their existence. It's made so obvious
that the aliens are harmless and fun that the terror they seem to
instill in the women is foolish and pathetic.
The real reason to see this movie, though, is to watch Richard
Dreyfuss completely lose his shit after his first encounter with the
UFOs. Initially he is just slightly fascinated with this mound shape
that seems to have some significance to him, but that's before he goes
nuts. One morning, the morning after his wife finds him in the shower
with all his clothes on muttering about how nothing makes sense, he
decides he has to build a full-scale model, or as close as he can get,
inside his house. He begins by tearing up all the plants in the
flowerbeds outside the windows and tosses them directly into the
kitchen by the window, over the dirty dishes. He then proceeds to begin
shoveling dirt in, and even gets his kids to start throwing bricks in.
His wife is almost completely enraged by this time, but when he tears
out the neighbor lady's chicken-wire and tosses that in, too, she
leaves, and he is alone, sitting on the street in his bathrobe, to the
shock of his neighbors. It doesn't really translate all that well into
text, but it's enough to salvage the film from any dated elements it
may have.
I attempted to figure out why, exactly, Spielberg decided to put
Truffaut in this film. Certainly, he knew of the director and had
probably enjoyed his work, but why did he feel the need to insert a
character whose lines would mostly either be subtitled or not
understood. I assumed it lent the whole affair an extra level of
secrecy and mystery. It could also have been a parallel between the
humans difficulty communicating with the space aliens and among
themselves as well. It was just something I pondered.
13 Dec 2003
Last night I watched two things. The first was a basketball game
which was kind of sad. The second was a movie which was also sort of
pathetic.
Cube was a cheap, "experimental" horror film with the
cheapest set design of all time. It consisted of a group of people
trapped inside this cube, all wearing the same cheap clothing. None of
them knew how they'd gotten there, and they didn't know how to get out,
and they all died, except for the autistic guy. In the beginning there
was a black guy, a woman doctor, an old convict, a nondescript guy in
his early thirties and a college math student. The cube consisted of a
26x26x26 block of 14'x14'x14' rooms, some of which had traps. The old
convict got killed by acid eating his face when he stepped into the
wrong cube. (Actually, the opening scene of the movie is some guy
standing in the middle of a cube and then getting sliced by this metal
grid and falling to pieces.) The woman doctor got killed when the
homicidal black guy dropped her out of an entryway at the edge of the
cube. The black guy killed the college math student after an attempt on
his life, and the nondescript thirtysomething locked the black guy in
between two moving cubes to kill him, shortly before curling up to die
next to the college math student as a result of severe head trauma
caused by the black guy. The autistic guy made it out alive.
The point of the movie seemed to be put forth somewhere in the
middle when they were all going nuts about how they weren't going to
get out of the cube alive, and the thirtysomething guy said that he'd
been contracted to build the outside of the cube, but that he didn't
know what it was for or what the inside was like. The woman doctor
thought it was a conspiracy controlled by the military-industrial
complex, the black guy thought it was some rich guy's idea of a joke,
but the thirtysomething guy knew that it was a result of people just
doing their jobs without asking questions, and then having something
horrible happen because nobody had thought to not do their part. Thus
the movie implied that we are all in some way responsible for the
atrocities faced by humanity. This was really poorly expressed,
however, and not at all convincing. The violence was irrelevant and the
dialogue wasn't even worth listening to, which was a shame because all
this movie was about was dialogue. Don't see this movie.
13 Dec 2003
The Guardian has this to say about nerds, geeks and The Lord of the Rings.
And you have heard that Peter Jackson wants to film The Hobbit, right?
15 Dec 2003
Dennis Kucinich has more good ideas.
The Guardian has a less-than-giddy opinion piece about the consequences of finding Saddam Hussein.
16 Dec 2003
The American Film Institute has released a top 10 for 2003
which was better than I thought it would, though I don't quite know why
I thought it would be bad. In fact, they share six movies with me on my
upcoming year-end movie which I made because lists are useful tools to
remember things. Also, I didn't realize that there had been a feature
film (Monster) released about the life of Aileen Wuornos, female serial killer, so I think I will have to see that.
Also, I watched Barton Fink today, lengthening the list of
Coen brothers movies I've seen. It was delightfully odd with an
appropriate cast (John's Turturro and Goodman, Steve Buscemi) and
bizarre twists and turns. I don't know that I feel like saying much
about it, because all I really want to do is give away the details, so
I just won't. There were a few things left unresolved. I can't write.
17 Dec 2003
Today I went to Iowa City once again. This time I visited the
library where I picked up movies and books. I also went to The Record
Collector where I purchased Chuck Berry's The Great Twenty-Eight
on vinyl since I believe I will be getting a turntable delivered on
Thursday or so. Also, while I was in the store, I was intrigued by the
music playing which turned out to be Do Make Say Think, specifically
their Winter Hymn Country Hymn Secret Hymn album, who are affiliated with Silver Mt Zion, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and others.
There was also a feature film involved, that being Bad Santa,
starring the one and only Billy Bob Thornton. I wasn't quite sure what
to think beforehand since the trailer I'd seen wasn't that good. I did
know that the Coen Bros. and Terry Zwigoff were involved, so I thought
that the trailer was probably just dumb.
Billy Bob Thornton was a lowdown, dirty, hard-drinking, swearing,
fornicating Santa Claus and he had a real live elf (sort of) for his
partner in crime. The main plot of the movie revolves around Thornton's
relationship with this unreal doofus of a kid, Thurman Merman, who
lives alone with his decrepit grandmother and who doesn't object when
Thornton decides to move in because he's afraid to go back to his
rented room. It's bizarre to see the scumbag Thornton plays interact
with the sweet and clueless Merman kid, but it works and gives the film
it's Christmastime heartwarming angle. There are a number of
unrealistic developments in the plot, but they all work within the
reality of the world in which the story takes place, and everything
works together wonderfully. It's dark and funny and worthwhile.
And I think there was an homage to Office Space. Near the beginning, Ajay Naidu, who played Samir in Office Space
gives Santa a mean look and then confronts him in the parking lot,
going crazy on him and, most importantly, calling him an "assclown", a
put-down popularized when Michael Bolton called the singer of the same
name a "no-talent assclown" in Office Space.
17 Dec 2003
Also, the New York Film Critics Circle has released their 2003 awards.
It is nice to see Peter Jackson and his gang get recognized for the
monumental achievement that is the Lord of the Rings trilogy. It's also
nice to see Secret Lives of Dentists get some recognition, it
was a really well-done film. I may have mentioned this after seeing the
second of them, but watching Hope Davis in both American Splendor and Secret Lives of Dentists is impressive considering the difference between the characters.
And, what the heck, I was going to try to make it look all nice or
something, but why bother? I'll applaud my 15 favorite movies from this
year here and now (14 whole entries and two half entries):
1. Mystic River
2. Lost in Translation
3. American Splendor
4. Kill Bill, Vol 1
5. Whale Rider
6. Intolerable Cruelty
7. Chaos
8. The Secret Lives of Dentists
9. The Stone Reader
10. Bad Santa
11. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
12. Finding Nemo
13. Thirteen
14. The School of Rock
---
Notable others:
- The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (I'll see it next Monday, if all goes well)
- Blogumentary (not finished yet but exciting to see a documentary about a phenomenon in which I am involved)
The Observer has its Singles and Albums of 2003 up. The Onion AV Club has produced their Best Albums of 2003.
And I've really been liking Ween lately. And I was delighted when I heard M Ward singing "Helicopter" today on KRUI.
18 Dec 2003
Guess what I did today? I watched another movie! Yes, that's right.
Sure, I also played Nintendo 64 sports games with my dad and ate some
food, I guess, and worked on collecting all my old internet stuff. But
that's not the point.
Today I watched Network, mainly because Netflix kept
pestering me to watch it by way of their Recommendations, so I checked
it out. And it was pretty good. Through the wrinkles I recognized
William Holden, who I saw in numerous films for my class on Billy
Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, Stalag 17, Sabrina). Faye Dunaway just looked anorexic, but provided an interesting reference to Bonnie and Clyde, which IMDb.com
fails to mention. I mean, if Faye Dunaway is watching a woman in a
beret with a big gun hold up a bank, that's pretty blatant. And she
was, so, yeah.
Anyway, the point of the movie was all about television (and
globalization I guess) and its dehumanizing effect on the lives of
those who watch it. See, the UBS network nightly news anchor slips in
the ratings, gets fired, goes berserk on the air, gets rehired as a
lunatic who rants about America. It's interesting that one of the first
things the news anchor says when he gets his own personal show is that
TV is full of crap and you shouldn't believe what it tells you. This is
a very good speech, but the irony, of course, is that it's delivered
over that same medium, so how is the audience to discern what he says
from what he says not to believe in?
The news anchor's best friend at the network, Max (Holden),
inexplicably falls in love with the woman whose idea it was to use the
lunatic news anchor, Howard Beale, as the basis for a new show. It's
inexplicable that he falls in love with her because she is utterly
uninteresting and cold, she even says so herself. The point, though, is
to contrast Max, who is a real person, with Diana, who is a fake person
molded by television who can't feel. On a related note, I was delighted
by the scene in which Max tells his wife that he is having an affair;
it was the most sensible depiction I've ever seen, and it didn't
feature the wife freaking out and having a breakdown, which so many
movies do. On another related note, Holden reminded me of Philip Baker
Hall in Magnolia.
Oh yeah, so eventually the corporation that owns UBS is going to
essentially get bought out by Saudi Arabians and Howard Beale gets
really mad about this and tells his TV audience to complain about it
and boss at the first corporations gets mad and forces Beale to tell
everybody that they are going to become "humanoid" beings subservient
to the interests of global business because nations and peoples have
been rendered irrelevant by multinational corporations. Perhaps the
connection was more concrete in the seventies, and admittedly
television is still used as an example of the American cultural
hegemony, but it kind of seemed like the writer was just trying to hit
as many targets as possible.
It was powerful, though, and people complaining about television and
the inhumanity of free-market radicalists are always welcome in my
view. I bet the whole terrifying speech about how the world belongs to
IBM and US Steel and whatever else must have been really great in 1976
when, I'm assuming, globalization was a slightly less popular topic
than it is today. Oh yeah, and everybody was mad about the Saudis
because they were raising oil prices. And there were some nice
juxtapositions of stupid, happy, brightly colored commercials with the
awful realities Beale was trying to portray.
And Pitchfork has started their year-end to-do with the year in review and a number of random lists.
18 Dec 2003
I just learned, while reading today's Canadian news briefs at the Guardian,
that the age of consent in Canada is 14. Not that this means I have any
plans or anything, just that I guess in Canada creepy old men with
young women are legally able to be even creepier than they are here in
the US.
You may weep openly about the loss of the 2003 Top 25 Albums on the
right side of the page. They should reappear soon, perhaps on my
Carleton website. You will be notified.
You may also weep openly about the new design. If you don't think
about vomit, I think you will be all right. Pretend it's the
yellow-green of early spring.
19 Dec 2003
I enjoy Peter Travers on movies just about as much as anybody. Here's his top ten for 2003.
Another note on the design: It is still in progress. I like the
layout and idea of a banner image at the top, but I don't necessarily
love the green color scheme. I decided that I really loved the big
splash of yellow-green at the top of kottke.org,
but it's a bit much for the whole page. The colors will be worked on to
find the most equitable solution for all concerned (mainly me, but you
too, a little bit anyway).
Tonight I ventured out to the Washington Public Library where I heard Dennis Kucinich
talk. He gave, I think, the eight minute speech he gives everywhere, in
addition to answering questions. I saw seven people I know there, which
was quite a few in my opinion. It was invigorating and I'm glad I was
able to get to see him, considering I'm in Iowa and I figured I'd get
the opportunity at some point this break. I found, perusing my
archives, that I'd voiced support for him online as early as late May
of 2003, and have yet to find another candidate who makes as much
sense. I also picked up a sign and a sticker. I already have a t-shirt.
19 Dec 2003
First of all, Pitchfork has released the second installment in their year-end round up.
Second of all, a certain party told me this evening that she found
much, or at least some, of Pitchfork's end-of-year hullaballoo
self-indulgent and/or self-important. I suppose this is as good a
reason as any to expound on my view of criticism and lists, both here
and in general. (Note: This, which turned out to be really long, is all
in response to a number of people I've talked to and gathered opinions
from on the subject, and not any one person in particular. It's just
something I feel strongly enough about to spend a lot of hot air on.)
As far as year end lists go, I find them to be a useful tool for a
number of reasons. For me it is a good way to reflect on the things
I've enjoyed in the past year and to summarize the good parts of the
large amount of time I've spent on things like movies and music. I am
interested in others' lists because they offer a different perspective.
Rather than looking to agree or disagree with their opinions, I find
myself most often looking for things I may have missed, both by choice
and by simple ignorance. For example, it is slightly annoying to see
what appears to be a badly chosen year-end list (Blender would be a
good example this year, given my set of likes and dislikes), but that
list is still valuable, especially in concert with other lists, in
displaying what the music-listening community enjoyed during the 2003
year. Whether or not you really think that British Sea Power or Outkast
or The Shins or anybody else really did make the album of the year, if
you see something pop up repeatedly during your year-ending
list-reading, it might be a sign that it's something of value and
something worth your time and money to pick up. In a sense, it's a
great form of collective criticism, and probably much more helpful than
sales figures. I produce such lists, and I hope others do, because I
want to let people know what I've enjoyed and what has made my life a
little bit better. To do otherwise would be selfish.
This leads us, me, whoever, to a discussion of self-indulgence
and/or -importance. Admittedly, the self is indulged in any
opinion-based writing. This is a vital part of the experience of
writing and of reading. When I read I am looking for what someone else
thinks or feels so, in other words, I am looking for someone else to
indulge themselves. The extent to which you indulge yourself is
probably important in determining whether your writing is truly selfish
or not. I think your intended audience is probably a factor as well.
For example, a person writing something to be read only by himself is
allowed to write anything at all. There is no room for complaint from
anyone else because the writing is not intended for them. A writer with
a small, select audience must consider the needs and wants of those
involved, but still probably has a lot of leeway in what he can write.
At the far end of the spectrum, we have something like the New York
Times, which as a national paper of record (of sorts) is responsible to
a LOT of people and thus must consider heavily anything they choose to
publish. As far as music goes, Rolling Stone is probably as good a
choice as any to play the role of the publication of note and
reputation. (Yes, they've done some awful things lately, but they've
been around forever.) Thus, they have an obligation to the popular
musically inclined community to provide sensible reviews and relevant
news, interviews and information. With so many accumulated years and
readers and accolades, they are now (or should be) duty-bound to their
constituency, as it were, to provide a level of coverage commensurate
with their status. (Though they often don't meet these standards, their
not the target here.)
Pitchfork, then, must recognize its readership in order to decide
what is and isn't fit to print. I have read, or at least glanced at,
awful proto-reviews filled with garbage, sometimes intentionally left
in unreadably rough form, that really did nothing to increase my
knowledge about the quality of a given album. I have also been
entertained and informed many times over. In my view, it should be
Pitchfork's responsibility, as a relatively major player in the
independent music world, to do what they can to increase the
appreciation of popular music, in most cases related to the independent
realm. If this means trashing albums they don't find to be worth their
weight in plastic, then so be it. If this means glorifying unheard of
and hard-to-find material, then that's what they must do. Essentially,
the site is there to tell the world about music that the staff enjoys,
hence their recent foray into hip-hop and more mainstream pop music
they deem worthy of note. Were they not to do this, it would be a
failing. As long as it doesn't mean sacrificing their commitment to
lesser known artists, it is a perfectly respectable extension of their
original focus on indie rock.
So, is their year-end wrap up self-indulgent or self-important? By
what I've already said, self-indulgence would be anything contrary to
their mission to increase the appreciation of independent and other pop
music. So, publishing a list of the hottest women on their block would
be self-indulgent. Publishing a list of their favorite brands of socks
would be self-indulgent. Publishing a list of the best dancehall
singles, box set liner notes, or extreme noise albums would not be
self-indulgent, since all would, theoretically, be connected to their
"prime directive".
Self-important? That would be to overstate their own importance.
That would be to overstep their bounds and discuss matters outside
their scope. Essentially, self-importance is a self-determining sort of
thing. If you can get people to call you self-important, doesn't that
make you important by other people's standards? If someone takes the
time to ridicule your opinions, yet comes back for more, that would
imply that they consider you important. That, I suppose, is the problem
I have with complaints of self-importance and self-indulgence. If you
truly find someone self-indulgent, if they seem to you to be irrelevant
or never on topic, don't read them! If you find someone to overstate
their own importance, and to weigh in on matters not in their grasp,
don't give them more credence by reading them. If Pitchfork weighs in
on matters related to pop music, that's great, and the more
far-reaching and authoritative they are, the better; that only makes
for more interesting and ultimately more satisfying reading, whether
it's right or not.
Understandably, if you know people who read some uninformed idiot's
weblog, and they talk about it, you can't ignore it, but if it relates
to their stated purpose and doesn't claim to have authority on matters
it doesn't, it is neither self-indulgent or self-important, probably
just incorrect. There is nothing wrong with being "incorrect" in
criticism. (This brings up the question of taste which I don't feel
like tagging on here.) The only sin in criticism is being dishonest. As
I said near the top, lists and criticism should be useful tools not for
telling what you can't listen to or read or view, but in helping you
discover what may or may not be worth your time. If you really think
that next Linkin Park album's gonna be the shit, save your $20 up and
go buy it when it comes out. If you enjoy it, great! If that's what
gets you your kicks, go right ahead. Criticism would warn you against
the lack of greater purpose behind the record, or lack of musical
innovation, or lack of interesting material, but it ultimately couldn't
stop you from buying it.
Criticism must be forceful in order to be relevant, but you can't
let it stop you from pursuing your own desires. I find criticism a
great help in discovering things that really make my time on this earth
more enjoyable, and that's pretty important, given that life is short,
so that's why uppity and negative and demeaning critics, as long as
they have a love for whatever it is they criticize, are vital. The
writers at Pitchfork every once in a while make it obvious that they
love music and spend a lot of time with it, so they are entitled to
praising and defaming albums as they see fit. This is not the same as
hitting your significant other, whom you love, but rather similar to
being honest with them about either important positive or negative
traits they exhibit. When enlisting the help of critics in looking for
things to spend my time and money on, all I can ask for is
well-informed, brutal honesty, whether it's agreed with or not.
19 Dec 2003
Sometimes, science bores me. Yeah, it's important, but as the Onion
reported last year in a groundbreaking story, science is really hard.
But sometimes it's just so fascinating that it's worth any jargon that
could possibly ensue. I personally think that discovering dark energy is one of those very topics.
Oh, and take time to read the mammoth post on criticism below, as
well as the Kucinich post below it, as they're all new this "evening".
20 Dec 2003
Last night I watched a successful basketball and saw a number of
people whom I know. After that we retired to the Rumsey household where
we watched Die Hard and the best TechTV blooper video ever.
I've also recently received a turntable and CDs from Spun.com, which
means I've boxed up CDs to send to Spun and to Secondspin.com.
I have been staying up later and later, and getting up later and
later. Tomorrow morning will be a rough return to schedule when we go
early to church to get a family picture taken for the directory.
I've been once again attempting to gather up all web content I've
previously created and am closer than I've ever been. I've condensed
all text-based updates to a single file, which is fairly large: 322 kb
currently, not including images. I have some more work to do, but I
think it will show up on my Carleton account soon enough. Unless we
leave for Ohio first, which will happen on Tuesday. I think this year I
will see the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, among other
things.
And Monday I hope to see the noon showing of Return of the King.
22 Dec 2003
The Nation has an article by Paul Krugman in their latest issue on decreasing class mobility in America.
A classic 1978 survey found that among adult men whose
fathers were in the bottom 25 percent of the population as ranked by
social and economic status, 23 percent had made it into the top 25
percent. In other words, during the first thirty years or so after
World War II, the American dream of upward mobility was a real
experience for many people...[There has recently been] a new survey of
today's adult men, which finds that this number has dropped to only 10
percent. That is, over the past generation upward mobility has fallen
drastically.
I'm not sure exactly how old I was before I heard that the issue of
class was even a possibility in the United States, but I'll bet I
wasn't very young. This isn't something that's widely taught or
discussed, at least not critically, other than spreading propaganda
about the American dream. That could be because people who fear it
might be a real issue would rather not think about it. It could also be
because most simply don't consider it; after all, this is the land of
opportunity, right? And if immigrants are still showing up at our door,
that means upward mobility must still be unlimited, no?
It's tough to look at the numbers Krugman, and every other "class
warrior", cites and deny the possibility of a class problem offhand.
Perhaps those who would deny a discrepancy between expected and real
opportunities consider their position in the status quo too precarious
to look squarely at it. Or maybe they'd rather not have those on a
lower rung complaining. There is, for example, this letter
[under "Wal-Mart mission: make lots of money"] printed in the Des
Moines Register to apparently absolve Wal-Mart of their treatment and
undercompensation of employees since they are a corporation. Whether
the author believes there should be but simply aren't rules against
such practices or whether he just thinks it's great that Wal-Mart
employees get the shaft and he's not one of them, his tone is
disconcerting. If the nation's economy is to be built on the backs of
the working poor, how can we be sure that those of us fortunate enough
to currently benefit from the class structure will continue to share in
the spoils and not get trodden underfoot sooner or later as well? The
corporation as a social entity guarantees nothing to the middle-class,
except perhaps to the investor, and even he is not safe as we've seen
with Enron, et al. This is an issue that seems to me will continue to
ignored and denied by most until it's too late and they've already been
ruined.
23 Dec 2003
The theater was full today for the 12:00 showing of Return of the King,
and looked to be much fuller for the next one, with a sizable line out
the door waiting to come in as we left. I sat in the front for the
first time in a while and it was OK. My neck and back survived and I
enjoyed watching the prehistoric giant animals and orcs and trolls and
the volcano at such a close range. There was a strange popping on the
sound which was weird. I assume there was some kind of warping on the
audio portion of the film, but I certainly can't say for sure.
All I know is that I'm glad the Lord of the Rings trilogy is now on
film in a beautiful, entertaining, and definitive version. There are detractors,
yes, but considering that at 9.5 hours the films are chock full of
storyline and basic necessities, I don't know if anyone would have been
able to handle much more, at least not outside the extended versions.
Admittedly, the movies concentrated more heavily on some aspects than
others, but you can't complain about an apple for not tasting like an
orange, if you really hate apples, then just don't eat them, but don't
complain when apple-lovers praise their favorite variety of apple. I
understand the argument against excessive special effects in most
films, because they tend to get substituted for character, story and
complexity, but here I never got the impression that the effects were
abused. Instead, I'd say that it's great that such massive computing
power was available to make the incredible imagery from the book come
alive more vividly.
Also, the Guardian today has two articles on the Middle East and the Bush administration's involvement therein. The first discusses wider implications of the invasion and continuing occupation of Iraq and the second questions selective debt relief. There are also items on excessive use of Christmas carols in Czechoslovakia and gas mileage restrictions on large SUVs, or the lack thereof.
AND, I'm leaving tomorrow for Ohio with my family, so we may see
updates periodically over the next week or we may not. You'll just have
to check back and see.
29 Dec 2003
I will admit to only having seen two episodes of Samurai Jack.
It is already, though, one of the few programs I'd immediately turn to
if I saw that it was on. It's kind of weird that such an interesting
and quirky animated show is even on television. The pacing is
wonderfully slow and smooth, the art is stylized and beautiful to look
at. There is precious little in the way of dialogue, but there aren't a
lot Bang! Zap! Pow! moments either. Jack is, of course, a samurai, and
he does defeat his share of foes, but it always seems weightier than
the average cartoon slaying. Best of all, the creators seem to just put
their imaginations directly to the screen without trying to think up
goofy gags to crowd the show. TV is full of shows so formulaic I find
it difficult to watch after a few times through, but thankfully this is
not one of them. It achieves some effect beyond what most would expect,
and that's always welcome. Hooray for Cartoon Network!