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We Had the Best Time At Your Party
Last Sunday I got to see one of my favorite bands Ween play an outdoor concert at the Crossroads venue outside of Grinder's. This was the first full show I've seen them play in about 3 or 4 years as I missed them the last time they came through Lawrence.
I had seen a couple short festival sets so it's not like their live material was completely foreign to me and a lot of their songs they have been playing for years anyhow. This wasn't the best show I've ever seen them put on but it was still a good time. The show ended a bit abruptly, I am used to their standard two encores but they only played one this time. Their last song morphed into the introduction from the new album "La Cucharacha" at which point Gene Ween left the stage and the rest of the band was left to try and figure out at what point they should finish the song. Rumor has it that they played for another two hours in a small warehouse behind the stage but it must have been a closed door event or something because I don't
Films Watched 2008 Part 2
| AFI Top 100 | ||
| Intolerance: Love's Struggle Throughout the Ages (1916) | 7 | Epic film about the repercussions of intolerance by D.W. Griffith. This film follows four plotlines; religious rivalry in ancient Babylon, the condemnation of Jesus, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, and the modern day morality police's destruction of a young couple. This film is groundbreaking in terms of production, content, and film techniques but the winding plots can make this one a bit hard to get through. It's considered a classic and Griffith's masterpiece but at the time of its release was mostly a failure. |
| Duck Soup (1933) | 9 | Classic Marx Brothers' film about dictator Rufus T. Firefly and his declaration of war with neighboring country Sylvania. It takes a lot to make me laugh and this film got me rolling. My favorite line was when Chico was on trial and Groucho tells him "I say we give him ten years at Leavenworth or eleven years at Twelveworth." The mirror gag and battle scenes make this one great. It's basically everything you love about Bugs Bunny only on film. |
| On the Waterfront (1954) | 9 | Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint star in this film about an ex-boxer's turmoil with standing up to his corrupt union bosses. This film is amazing visually in it's sad and dreary black and white but the acting is what makes this one a necessary viewing. |
Films Watched 2008 Part 1
| AFI Top 100 | ||
| Frankenstein (1931) | 9 | THE classic horror film |
| All About Eve (1950) | 9 | Bette Davis is fantastic as an aging starlet of the stage. A young Marilyn Monroe makes a short appearance. |
| An American in Paris (1951) | 5 | Gene Kelly as a painter in Paris. This film was just an excuse for song and dance. |
| Giant (1956) | 7 | Long film set in Texas spanning across many decades. This is James Dean's last role. |
| Ben-Hur (1959) | 8 | The chariot race is unbelievable. That's all you need to know to make this worth viewing. |
| Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) | 7 | A bi-racial engagement takes center stage in this one with Sidney Portier. |
| Nashville (1975) | 8 | Kansas City-native Robert Altman's drama about the Nashville country music scene during election time. Lots of characters to keep track of which I love. |
| Network (1976) | 9 | One of the best films you've never heard of. The setting is a TV network looking for ratings. Won 3 of 5 nominations for Best Acting. |
| Unforgiven (1992) | 7 | Clint Eastwood directed western starring himself and Morgan Freeman. |
Juno
I watched the movie Juno yesterday. I liked it but felt pretty strongly that it shouldn't win best film or anything (it didn't). Anyway, there is a scene where Jason Bateman's character is showing Juno his music collection and music equipment. He drops the bomb that he opened for the Melvins back in 1993 and that this was pretty much the high point of music. Later you see him play "Doll Parts" on guitar with her. Schwoo, I really hate moments like this in movies even when they are something I can so closely relate to. Yeah, I used to listen to The Melvins and Nirvana and even Hole but I get this sinking awkward feeling seeing it on screen, like I'm embarassed for that person or there is just something blatantly wrong with it as though it lacks conviction or something. Maybe I just didn't really believe Jason Bateman as this guy or maybe it's because I just think I know better. I get the feeling that this guy is me, or at least what Hollywood is trying to relate me to. Then the scene came on where he pops in The Carpenter's soundtrack with Sonic Youth's cover of "Superstar" and he relays to Juno that this is quite possibly one of the best covers ever done... and this most certainly was ME. I've specifically had this exact conversation on multiple occasions before. And now I figure out what is wrong... it's not the acting necessarily or bad writing even, it's that it gets so bad when a movie has to dumb down music knowledge to reach the average joe. This film might have been better off just leaving out all the music explanations (even though I did appreciate the "Superstar" reference). The book High Fidelity seemed to do a pretty good job of this, sometimes it just takes being elitist and poking fun at yourself for being the way that you are. BTW- whoever was in charge of putting all the Kimya Dawson and Moldy Peaches as the soundtrack for Juno, kudos to you, you could not have been more right on.
Video Power
Does anybody remember the early 90s show Video Power? I was at work today and was talking about video game theme music with a co-worker and suddenly remembered 
this gem of a show that I watched religiously as an 11-year old. The premise was pretty simple, make a game show with kids playing video games, we'll throw in a crazy host named Johnny Arcade, and at the and at the end we'll have the winner run through a maze of video games. This labyrinth was what kept me watching. The winning kid got a chance to run through walls and walls of all the hottest video games attaching them to velcro pads on their special suit and helmet. At the end, they'd slide through a tunnel and if they happened to uncover a special prize (I think it was a game that had a gold star under it or something), they would win a big grand prize like a Neo Geo or some other (at the time) elite gaming system. At left, is a picture of the slide.
Films Watched 2007 Part 3
Alright, here's the final list of films that I watched in 2007. I'm trying something different this time and adding my rating along with it (1-10 with 10 being my opinion of a great film). I'm not a fan of the Netflix 5 star system because it just doesn't seem to offer enough precision and I always have films that are a toss up between one star and another star. Here are my two other lists from this year, 2007 list 1 and 2007 list 2. I've added ratings for those as well. I watched roughly 175 films in 2007, a new personal record and one that I don't hope to break again anytime soon.
Films Watched 2007 Part 2
I've been pretty busy watching movies this year. Here's all the stuff I've watched since July. Here's a list of the stuff before that. I'd recommend most of these (with the exception of the comic book movie and a couple dumb comedies and horror films. Several of the AFI films were awfully tough to sit through as well. Since I first wrote this entry, I've updated my ratings of them (1-10).
4 Months Later
4 months later and my passport finally arrives. It was supposed to take 10-12 weeks. Now where should I go?
-ick!
Poradova
Check out my friend Sarah's band Poradova. She also has some audio samples up on her myspace page.
-ick!