Some Music/Road Trip Supplies

I'm getting ready to head off on a brief out-of-town adventure and, among other things, I'm planning what I need to bring along by way of music. I'm on a music kick lately, stocking up on some of my favorites, and thought I'd share a little.

I've filled in my Flogging Molly collection and now am up to date on all their albums (save the live one because I'm not much of a live album fan). No particular favorites here, I'm really partial to all of them.

I've got two Dropkick Murphy albums now (would've been three without the robbery) and between them, I find myself liking The Warrior's Code best.

As part of a trial for one of those music subscription-y things, I've acquired Reckless Kelly's The Day which brings my count for them up to two albums. I love their sound and their lead singer's voice. I need to work on developing my Reckless Kelly presence in my CD collection.

Also as part of the trial, I nabbed Cowboy Mouth's Voodoo Shoppe, Uh-Oh, and It Means Escape. They're a beautiful, crazy band who I had never even known existed until a friend lent me one of their albums. I have been listening to these CDs in my car for four days solid.

I still need to get Big Kenny's Live a Little and I'm hoping I can find a copy in time at the music store in town. The guy's a little odd, but in a beautiful way.

There's all this talk about the impact of things like internet radio on CD sales and I've got to say that for me at least, Pandora has been a big influence on my recent CD shopping spree. I have these bands I like, but hearing them on Pandora reminds me of how much I like them and how much I'd like to have them in my music collection.

Anyhow, if any of those bands I mentioned are completely foreign to you, click on the link and listen to some of the Amazon sample clips and/or check them out on one of the various internet radio sites. They're cool, you'll like 'em :)

Sunday Marathon

Yesterday I decided to take advantage of the Instant Viewing option on Netflix so I could enjoy some much-needed vegetation. It was brilliant:


Beastmaster. This one was by and large crap, but I knew it would be and watched it for unintentional humor more than anything else. I like the bit where the girlie goes from wearing a full-length white dress to a set of barely-concealing-anything rags with no explanation in between. My favorite character - Seth, played by John Amos. Everybody else was almost overwhelmingly uninteresting. Funny for that, though, as I said.


Escape From New York. You've just gotta love dystopian sci-fi. Again, with a dose of silly, but redeeming for having writing and characters that are actually interesting. I figured it was about time I saw this one, and now I have. My favorites - Kurt Russell, the weird-hairdo freak, and the poetry of having Manhattan be one big penal colony.


Cat Ballou. I'm in a western mood, and this one's a spoof besides. Sometimes these types of movies just don't pull it off, however, this isn't one of those. The writing was clever, the gags quite funny, and all of the actors did a brilliant job. I laughed quite a bit. However much I liked it at first, I liked it infinitely more as soon as the character Jed (played by Dwayne Hickman) is introduced and drunkenly slurs, "Ma'am, I apologize for my disgusting condition and I assure you I will not inflict myself on you any further," then proceeds to continue talking. Perhaps I have a new nickname for all of the overly-friendlies at the bar.


Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. This one was easily the best out of the bunch. Made in '54, some of the writing is interesting for the sake of how it reflects the time. Brilliant for the use of choreography and the dancing impressed and entertained me in a way West Side Story's never managed. Here's the jist, if you don't know - Set in Oregon in 1850, it starts when backwoodsman Adam goes to town to pick up supplies, and a wife. He propositions Milly, who accepts and goes back home to find out that she's suddenly got six brothers-in-law as well as a new husband. It's a pretty basic story about the civilizing effect of women on men, and with a lot of comical pay-offs. My favorites - the barn-raising, Adam, Milly, the costumes/hair (and the way they set off the Pontipee brothers from the townsfolk), the brothers dancing with each other, and anything else that's in the movie 'cause I'm just that enamored with it. Go watch this one immediately.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Dennis Quaid in Tights! Well, Not Quite.

Movie Review: Flight of the Phoenix ('04 version).

Here's how this one goes: I saw the previews way back when, thought I ought to see it, mostly forgot about it, then Netflixed it. One of these days I'll learn that if I'm reading a description of the movie, think it sounds kinda dumb, it most likely will be.

Still, I thought. Dennis Quaid. Giovanni Ribisi. Right? Yeah... So, apparently none of the writers have ever watched one of those episodes of Man Vs. Wild where Bear is off in the desert. Nor have they paid much attention to any of those websites that tell you all these creative ways of not dying in the desert. (The imdb "goofs" bit is fun reading, by the way)

Here's the jist: Dennis Quiad comes to close down an oil rig, which makes Miranda Otto mad. He and his co-pilot load up all the gear and workers on the plane, then hit a sandstorm and crash on the way to Bejing. Up until that point, I was invested. Then it all got silly. By way of a for instance: they never account for the evening temperature drop in a desert and the scenes where the crew is working at night also show the crew in light t-shirts and sweaty. Uh huh. Nomads wander by on the other side of the dune, Dennis Quaid says they're most likely bad news, but why not go make sure? Uh huh. Then, they finally get the plane rebuilt and everybody stands around on the ground while Dennis Quaid gets it started, then they all climb on. Uh huh. What was the point of that?

There was a moment or two where Giovanni Ribisi did cool stuff, but he was not enough to save the crappy writing. Alas.

Now, though, I'm curious to see the original. Since I can do the Instant Viewing thing a la Netflix, I may have to check it out this weekend and compare. Supposedly, the original is actually good.

Entertainment News: Holy Crap!

Heath Ledger's dead! I'm not much of a celebrity gossip gal, but damn, that's news. Apparently, it looks like an O.D./suicide. I haven't been so surprised by a headline in quite some time. I'm pissed. I am (was?) a Heath fan, and here he's done something incredibly stupid. I mean, seriously, what the hell? Bastard.

The Angel Not-Quite-Marathon-But-Close

Doyle: Protect and serve. It's entirely my bag.

Over a month ago I preordered the super-duper, entire series, box-set of Angel. Last week, it came in the mail. Since then I've been too busy to do an outright marathon, but I've been able to go through about a disc a night and I'm nearing the end of Season One. Man, I'd forgotten how good it is and just how much they make fun of Angel/David Boreanaz. It goes kind of like this: Let's find a really good looking lead actor, then make fun of the way he looks, and his character in general, every chance we get. I'm entertained.

I think that's one of the reasons I love Joss so much. He creates these larger-than-life characters, but knocks them down to earth constantly to keep them from getting totally unbelievable, even if the character is a vampire.

Now I'm at the point where Doyle's dead, Wesley's arrived, and we just had some closure between Angel and Buffy. I keep trying to remember when the new characters make their appearance, and I'm already eager for Spike to move over (though, alas, that's very far off). Everything's better with Spike. In any event, I've got lots of hours to go yet and Thanksgiving break is just around the corner.

I'm back to the bar tomorrow (after enjoying last night off) and it could be ugly. I've got a sore throat going on and added a bit of a cough to it just in time to do happy hour by myself tomorrow and have the floor all night by myself Saturday. Hoorah for hoarse waitresses! As long as my voice doesn't go entirely, it should be all right. Painful, but all right.

Movies, Lots of Movies

I've been neglecting movie/TV reviews lately. Whups. Here's a quick run-down of what I've watched lately:

Platoon: One of the great, everybody's gotta watch it, movies. Right? Like Apocalypse Now it's all about the big bad Vietnam, and it has a Sheen in it. Blah, blah, war sucks, hey look it's Willem Defoe being a good guy (what the heck?!), hey it's Dr. Cox - I mean John C. McGinley, where was Johnny Depp?, blah, blah, war sucks. Gotcha. Why is it that these epitome of Vietnam movies just don't cut it with me? Give me We Were Soldiers over either of these any day.

Room With A View: Yeah, I get that her life is boring, but why did the movie have to be too?

Empire of the Sun: Look, it's Christian Bale before his face sunk in on his skull! He looks so much better with a bit of baby fat. Yeesh. Granted, the movie is still a bit too in love with itself, and despite John Malkovich, I could have passed.

And now, for a couple I actually liked:

High Anxiety: When you think Mel Brooks, chances are you think Spaceballs, History of the World Part I, Young Frankenstein, or maybe The Producers, or Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Chances are, you don't immediately think of this one. That's okay, this isn't his best. Still, at that, it's worth the time to watch it. Though sadly lacking Gene Wilder, this one does have Madeline Kahn, so it balances. This movie's got standard Brooks' fare, slapstick, bad puns, and general hi-jinks and a gag at the end that few aside from Brooks could pull off.

Eddie Izzard: Unrepeatable: This one's funny the second go 'round, though I think it oughtn't be your first Eddie adventure. I'd recommend Definite Article or Dress to Kill for that one. Still, there's plenty of good stuff in here about laundry, being a "T.V.," Star Trek, and cats with drills. He's a funny, funny man in makeup.

Oh Gimme a Break: Ladder 49

Chief Kennedy: People are always asking me how is it that firefighters run into a burning building when everyone else is running out. Courage is the answer

Movie Review: Ladder 49. Right. Now you don't have to watch the movie, 'cause that's the whole thing.

I thought this movie might be worth watching 'cause of Joaquin Phoenix. I generally like him and the movies he's in. However, this one is so blatant and hero-worshippy that it's just too much. I like firefighters, respect what they do, heck one of the owners at the bar is a firefighter, a captain, even. However, these characters are all way too perfect and the whole set up of the movie is transparent and maybe it gets better, but I'm not making myself watch any more just to find out. Bah. Skip this one, I'd say.

Go watch some Dexter or Scrubs instead.

Water

Movie Review: Water. Set in 1930's India, this film addresses the status of widows at the time. There's a lot of interesting social commentary, though not a lot of emotion from the characters. Even when there's a death, the actors remain stoic. I struggled with that, but in the end the story came to a potent climax and I was sold on the film. I like it. The plot makes me think of how I want to write stories that do what this movie did. Anything I wish I could write gets my vote as something that should be watched. Go check it out.

Sex Changes, Outlaws, and Murderers

Good movies sometimes run in streaks, and I've been on one lately. Here are the latest, though, I admit my reviews may not be quite as coherent as I usually try for. Hey, it's one o'clock in the morning, cut me some slack.

Orlando: When I read the description of this one, I thought it sounded like it might be interesting. It also sounded like it might be too slow and overly artsy. But, hey, with Netflix's new instant viewing feature, there was no committment whatsoever, so no harm in trying. A bit slow, yes. A bit artsy, yes. There are some scenes which are quite surreal, not even counting the one where Lord Orlando becomes Lady Orlando. A handful of times Tilda Swinton looks directly at the camera in a way that could've been hokey, but they manage to pull it off to great effect. They're these moments of her saying, "Okay, you're with me now, right?" when things get odd. I also am impressed by the premise of immortality as a result of royal decree. That's one I hadn't heard of before. Kudos to Virginia Woolf. Definitely an interesting story. Luckily, Billy Zane's part is very small. Dunno what exactly it is, but he just looks overly strange to me, to the point of distracting. Bonus: Queen Elizabeth being played by a man.

3:10 to Yuma: I've been looking forward to this one for a while now, ever since I saw that it not only was a neat looking western, but it also featured Russell Crowe. Then Ebert & Roeper actually liked it, too. I was totally set up to be let down, but it didn't happen. Christian Bale does a good job as a rancher down on his luck who takes the job of escorting the outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe) to meet the train featured in the title. Crowe does a fantastic job as said outlaw. A lot of westerns tend to glamorize the outlaws, they're really good guys, they just rob banks/trains - I mean, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is one of the prime examples. However, in this one, Russell Crowe plays a genuinely ruthless, manipulative, merciless killer. Well, except it's not quite so cut and dry. This flick is one of my favorite Crowe performances ever, the ways he plays with the character impressed me to no end, and I don't know if anyone else could have pulled off the ending so well. Man, he was at the top of his game. Even if you're not a fan of westerns, this is a great movie to see for pure character value. Bonus: an appearance by Alan Tudyk as the doctor.

Perfume: Story of a Murderer: It says right in the title what you're getting yourself into, so it's no surprise that Ben Whishaw's character turns out to be a serial killer. What is a surprise is how well the film makers create sympathy/empathy for him despite the fact. Yes, he's killing people, but... Great acting jobs all round, and Dustin Hoffman and Alan Rickman make appearances as supporting characters. I heard there was a twist ending, and I kept trying to figure out what, but still ended up surprised. Not all that common, so they get extra points for that. Also wonderfully done was the twisted, macabre humor that snuck in here and there, and the visual experience itself. Talk about using shadows to their fullest extent, seeing Whishaw's face slowly emerge into the light is a truly creepy experience. It's not the fasted moving film, nor the most action packed, but for story and character development, it's among one of the top movies I've seen lately.

Stardust in Hardcover

Book Review: Stardust by Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess. I'm not a big purchaser of books, unlike most of the big readers I know (for some, walking into a bookshop is like me walking into a beadshop). However, I decided that I ought to own Stardust. So, I bought it Monday and finished it this morning. Very fun. Now the hard part is comparing the movie and book. In many ways, they're very different.

By way of for-instance: The movie has a lot more action and a totally different climax and ending. The tones of the two are also different as the book has more classical fairy tale and the movie has more adventure. The strange thing is, even though they're the same story, I have a hard time thinking of them as such, though I like both quite a bit. Well, since I've already talked about the movie, here's the scoop on the book:

Stardust has a strong Victorian feel and a wide cast of human or not human characters, like the odd hairy "man." The journey Tristran takes is months, rather than days, long and I like the book's timeline better. Unfortunately, the interlude with the sky-sailors is much briefer and the captain is a much less colorful character. Magic is much more pronounced and the ending is a lot more fun (no cheese here). Though I'm not a huge fan of the illustration style, it grew on me as I went along.

If I could have the best of both worlds, I'd add the movie and book together. However, since I cannot, I can enjoy the best parts of each on their own. Well worth a read (or a purchase).

Stardust

Tristan: Excuse me, have you seen a falling star anywhere? We're in a crater, this must be where it fell.
Yvaine: Yeah, this is where I fell.

Movie Review: Stardust. I've been looking forward to this movie for such a long time that I was a bit worried I was going to be disappointed given that my expectations were so high and that Claire Danes was a lead. Little did I know, I needn't have worried.

On Friday I went to the first showing and plopped myself down to watch. Wow. Neil compares the movie to The Princess Bride, which is a good place to start. After all, there are pirates, a blonde chic and magic. However, there's also a fallen star, evil witches and a bit of cross-dressing thrown in for flavor. There's tons of humor, plenty of action, a decent love story, and a wonderful leading man, Charlie Cox. Add in Michelle Pfeiffer as a witch and Robert DeNiro as a sky pirate and viola! Great story telling, excellent script, fun costumes and settings, and one of the most creative sword fights I've ever seen at the end. This is one of the few movies I may have to see twice in the theater. I know that when it's on DVD, it'll be added to my sparse collection. Go see it. Now. Seriously.

Are You Ready?

In case you can't read the bottom bit, it says August 10th. That's this Friday, people. We're talking the day after tomorrow.

Windtalkers

"...here indeed is one of the worst war movies of all time.

Quite why it should've been so is mystifying, for in the subject of the Navajo code talkers there's a genuinely interesting story: how they were recruited, the dilemmas they faced in signing up to war, the problems of integration, the heroism they showed and the regrettable secrecy that for so long obscured the nature of their contribution. . . in the hands of half-way proficient moviemakers, the code talkers' tale would've made for first class cinema.

Instead we get 129 tedious minutes of pyrotechnic mayhem"
-IMDB Reviewer, Critical Eye UK http://imdb.com/user/ur0877809/comments-index?start=0&count=69&summary=off&order=alpha

Well, other than repeat what this reviewer has already said (which I agree with wholeheartedly) I'll just add that I started skipping scenes toward the beginning of the movie - and wish I had started even earlier. While it has a few not-so-bad moments, there are a great many more lame, melodramatic, or just plain dumb-assed ones. Oi.

The one high point - a few minutes of screen time for Bride and Prejudice alum, Martin Henderson.

Sometimes a Bear is Just a Bear

Timothy Treadwell: Oh my gosh! The bear has left me her poop! It's her crap! It was just in her butt and it's still warm! This is a gift...
-Grizzly Man

I just watched this documentary last night and I have to say it's pretty good. Also impressive in how it shows the very unbalanced mental state of Treadwell. Not that Herzog purposely sets out to do so, in fact, he gives Treadwell a lot of credit. However, the simple facts of the footage show a very disturbed guy.

Treadwell was delusional at the very least - anyone with an ounce of common sense knows that wild animals are just that. Yet, in footage he shot of himself he gives these big speeches about how much he loves the bears in a they're-my-best-friends kind of way. Creepy. Add to that his profanity laden rants against the forest service, his paranoid comments about who's out to get him, his lack of concern about habituating wild animals to humans, and that he took personal offense at the harsher side of nature, and you get a guy who proclaims to love nature, yet doesn't understand it. Nuts, I tell ya. I strongly recommend this documentary to anyone who's got an interest in either psychology or ecology, or those who just have morbig curiosity.

Let me just interject here that I spent about six years volunteering at a raptor rehab. center. I want to make it very explicit that wild animals are not your friends, and wild predators even less so. The only time animals "get along" with humans is when they've been habituated to them, in the case of birds, it's called imprinting and it's an irreversible mental process wherein a bird believes they are human.

We had an imprinted barn owl who's an excellent case-in-point. He was so firmly imprinted that he made courtship gestures toward humans (especially blond gals), fell asleep during presentations, and attacked another barn owl who was once put in the same cage. What's the big deal about falling asleep? A wild raptor will never fully relax in the presence of humans because it looks at us and sees larger predators. That Skyler wasn't worried was a bad sign. Imprints are permanent residents. Unlike birds who've been physically injured, but then heal, imprinting can never undone.

Wild animals are wild animals and even people who know what they're doing (I'm not including Treadwell here) can get hurt. Peggy, who was the Raptor Center biologist, has a severed nerve in her left hand and a thumb that doesn't work quite right because she didn't pay as much attention as she should have. She was doing a presentation with a great horned owl (non-imprint) and let the crowd get a little too close. The bird tightened its grip on her fist and ran its talons right through the glove, her hand, and out the opposite side of the glove. Peggy didn't even notice until someone told her she was bleeding.

While I was at the R.C. I was never hurt by a bird (though I did get bitten by a feeder rat). Part of this was the training I recieved, more was luck. After all, I often did the exact same thing Keith did when one day he was holding a bald eagle and the eagle turned its head and bit Keith's lip. Keith had to get stitches. Predators are built to kill, and even though we take precautions, we're never completely safe.

Treadwell didn't give the bears the respect they deserved as predators. While the loss of human life is sad, I can't feel particularly upset about his death. It's like feeling sorry for the guy who comes to the bar every night and drives home drunk, saying "I know how to handle my liquor," then one night smashes into a tree.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for protecting these bears and other wild animals. I just draw the line at making them my "buddies."

New Moon's Arms

"I don't know; maybe this was on the sand already, and something else fell on my head." Bare Bear winked her one glass eye at me. So long I hadn't seen her. "A leaf from out a sea grape tree, something like that. Right, Bare Bear?" I hugged Lucky Bare Bear to my chest. I grinned at Hector. "She get small over the years, or I get big." She still fit in her old place, up against my breastbone.


Book Review: The New Moon’s Arms, by Nalo Hopkinson. Of all the novels I’ve read, this one falls much closer to the bottom of the list than the top. I'd call it mediocre, in fact. Don’t get me wrong, the idea is neat and swimming in myth (pun intended). I dig her whole take on selkies, and the way she integrates Caribbean folklore. However, I don’t dig the way she brings up characters and/or plot elements and continually lets them fall by. I just now realize that she was probably trying to cram too much into one novel. Either that or, as she was writing, she forgot what she’d already written and forgot about the various things she brought up earlier but never did anything/much with. The weird thing is, she’s an award-winning writer, and this is her fourth novel. Oi. Well, more power to her, I guess. This book wasn’t quite bad enough to set aside, but I’ve definitely seen better storytelling. I wonder if she was getting lazy by the time she got to this one.

Wyatt

Movie Review: Wyatt Earp. After watching, and thoroughly enjoying, Tombstone, I thought I'd check out the competition. Tombstone came out way ahead. Wyatt Earp meanders through his whole damn life and makes sure to leave nothing out, for better or worse - I'd argue the latter. Where Tombstone benefits from taking liberties with facts to create a more compelling movie, Wyatt Earp loses sight of the story and gets bogged down in history.

A Book for the Morbidly Curious

Book Review: Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach. Jenny told me to read this book, and I, ever obedient to Jenny's will, went to the library and got it. All-in-all, I read it in a day and found lots of interesting information - though an episode on Nip/Tuck had already shed light on the use of cadaveric heads for practicing plastic surgery. While she doesn't shy away from grisly practices, and gives overviews of things many people probably didn't really want to know (like how the brain of a decomposing body will literally ooze out of the ears), she also colors the chapters with a touch of humor and some neat historical points. A very interesting, and fun, read which makes me think I'd like to be composted when I die.

My New Hero

"I always consider Salma [Hayek] for my projects, even for male roles."
-Robert Rodriguez

Excellent news. Wal-Mart (a.k.a. Devil-Mart according to my friend Julia) is currently carrying a box set of the Mexico trilogy for $15 and change. Whoo-hoo! Guess what's now sitting on my bookshelf?

El Mariachi is damn funny, especially with the commentary. A $7,000 movie where $6,400 was spent on the film itself and getting it developed. To the best of my knowledge, not a single one of the actors were paid and Carlos Gallardo, the Mariachi himself, actually paid money into the film (he was also co-producer).

Desperado switches up leads, putting in Antonio Banderas for Gallardo, though the latter makes a cameo. This movie makes me love Banderas even more than I ever did before, and that was a considerable amount. His facial expressions alone are enough to make me thrilled he's in the movie. Bonus points for Danny Trejo.

Once Upon A Time In Mexico is one I haven't seen for a while, thanks to end-of-the-semester chaos, I've yet to pull it out of my nifty box set yet. However, the combination of Rodriguez' film making, Antonio Banderas and Johnny Depp totally blew me away the first go-'round and now that I have the back story of the other two movies, I'm certain that my second time watching it will prove even more fun than the first.

Okay, so maybe I'd have to say that From Dusk 'Til Dawn sucked the big fat hairy one, but nobody's perfect, right? The best part is that Rodriguez has already, apparently, lined up not only Sin City 2, but also Sin City 3. I can hardly wait.

Let's Go Fishing

Jack Lucas: I don't mean to be flippant or to enrage you or anything, but you're a psychotic man.
Parry: I know.
Jack Lucas: A very nice psychotic man.
Parry: Thank you.

Movie Review. The Fisher King. After watching The Big Lebowski I was a bit wary to venture into another Jeff Bridges movie, but I'm definitely glad I did. Bridges plays a Howard Stern-ish radio DJ whose words urge a listener to shoot nearly a dozen bar patrons and then himself. Years later, a now-pathetic Bridges happens upon the husband of a woman who died in the shooting and who is now a mentally troubled homelss man, played by Robin Williams. Great acting, and I love the incorporation of mythology into the modern story. Awesome stuff all 'round, and I absolutely recommend it. You'll never think of nudity and Central park in the same way again...

Parry: Come on. Free up the little guy. Let him flap in the breeze.

Heroes

"My father spent his life chasing after this insanity. Now I'm wasting mine trying to prove he was sane."

-Mohinder Suresh, Heroes Season One

TV Review: Heroes. When this series first came out on TV, I wanted to watch it so badly. However, having a Monday evening class clashed with when it was shown. Poor me. Now I'm catching up, and I have to say, I'm glad I waited until I had a chance to watch the episodes in order. Hoorah. Great stuff. I love the characters, especially Mohinder and Hiro. The episodes are laid out so well, and the season arc is wonderfully structured. One of those shows where you finish an episode, then have to watch the next so you can see what they do with the cliffhanger. Nice.