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Glorious

Trailer(s) of the Day: Bad Brains Doc and Gomorrah

Untitled Bad Brains Documentary(2009)

Not much to say there. Saw it on LineOut today.

Gomorrah (2008)
Apparently a pretty amazing mob flick. Based on a non-fiction book about the modern day mafia in Naples, Italy. The author has been under police protection ever since the book was released in fear of being murdered by the mob...sweet. Trailer was too large to fit in the blog so check it out here. Supposed to get a limited release date sometime in Feb. Check out the Wiki and the films official website for more details.

Gran Torino (2008)

I think so many reviewers and people I've talked to completely missed the mark on this movie. Too many people have dwelled on the comedy of it, and have called it a revenge flick, or Oscar bait. All of which are respectfully flat out wrong assessments. This is easily my favorite movie of 2008.

Yes, there was comedy, but it was sporadic, and well done when it was actually supposed to executed. Too many immature idiots are seeing this movie and giggling at every racial slur Clint mumbles as if he was uttering "penis" and "vagina" in their 7th grade health class. Either that or they are for what ever reason overly offended by it due to our cultures sometimes absurd devotion to political correctness. Unfortunately though, these points, are just a few of the many things baring them from actually getting the damn point of the movie.

I really feel this movie addressed age, and the relationship between the parents of baby boomers, and the grandchildren, quite incredibly well, and with complete accuracy. It reminded me so much of the dynamic I've seen with a lot of my relatives and their relationship with my grandparents over the years, and how they have treated my grandparents, and how it really is sometimes downright disgusting. This is what ultimately made me choke up a bit at the end of the movie, not the physical act of what transpires, but the consequences of it.

Sure crotchety old men like old Walt are racist old bastards half the time, but they are products of their god damn environment, not that that is supposed to be a validating statement for their actions, but the way they are treated (and used), sometimes is just incredibly fucked and undeserved.

The dynamic between Walt and his neighbors really made me think about his life attitude like looking at a different foreign (in all senses of the word, not just ethnicity wise) culture. A narrow minded individual could call their customs and ways of life barbaric, absurd, or just downright weird, and in the film (and similar life experiences) Walt way of life is essentially the same damn thing.

But, what should we do when we come across something foreign to us? Well, the intelligent ones amongst us fucking learn from it...we don't follow their ways but see the value in them, and are fascinated by ways unlike our own and how we've progresed. Next time you bitch about your pissed off old pop or father, think about what you could learn from them, not that they are just bickering. The fact is their time is almost up, and before long well all lose our damn link with the past. It's a sad fact that all too many of us overlook and will ultimately regret when we are old and withered.

The message of this movie is one that I really think I have rarely seen presented so well, and in a way that actually made me critically think about it. It wasn't some over-indulgent, grandiose melodrama about life and death that was supposed to touch my heart (I'm looking at you Benjamin Button). It was a tale that beat me bluntly over the side of the head with it's veracity and devotion to challenging its viewers.

People who don't want to see the message in Gran Torino can easily neglect it, and oddly that's what I admire about Eastwood's filmmaking. He ain't going to hold your god damn hand, rather he expects you to firmly shake it, and respect, trust and embrace the man and the mind on the other end.

Reason #815 Why the LOST Season 5 Premiere Slayed: Sayid's Booby Trapped Dishwasher

Sayid is still, and always has been pretty much the best part of the damn show. Not to mention that last night's episode pretty much revealed 80% of the mysteries brought up on the show for the last 4 seasons. After watching the show from Day 1, and always defending the writers and producers, having faith that they knew what they were doing and where they were going with things (no matter how random they seemed) I can finally heartily laugh in the ridiculous faces of all you impatient naysayers who thought otherwise. Best show on television, period. No fucking questions asked, blew the BSG premiere out of the water.

Then there's reason #816: Hurley throws Hot Pocket at Ben.....



Priceless.

Anyone Want to Go to Atlanta on Feb 28?

Because this lineup blows my damn mind. Mastodon, Neurosis, High on Fire, Torche, Harvey Milk, Boris, Rwake, Wolves in the Throne Room, Baroness, Kylsea and more...all at the same god damn show?! And its fucking free??? The gods have truly aligned.

2008 In Music

This is an abbreviated version of my Favorites of 2008. For the full list go to my MySpace blog here. These are the three albums I felt passionate enough to write about, and they are in all honesty a couple of my favorite albums of the last few years.

3) King Khan & The Shrines - The Supreme Genius of King Khan and The Shrines

You will not find a more eclectic, rousing, dirty electric, and insanely catchy album released in the last year, not to mention a more batshit insane front man. "Supreme Genius" is a compilation album of sorts combining tracks from What Is?!?! with a bunch of stuff from Kahn's catalog, and it a experience for you ears to behold. Some label it "garage rock" but to me it's more like the bastard love child of Little Richard, The Rolling Stones, Eric Budron and War, [Cracked Out] James Brown, and 60's Psychedelia. Like my next entry it's really a labor of love that embraces all the insane amounts of fun and excitement that can come from playing straight up rock and roll. This is a band i'm ashamed of not listening to earlier.

2) The Moondoggies - Don't Be a Stranger

I read a review a while back that put it best, "this is the kind of country music that would of existed a long time ago if Garth Brooks never came into existence." That said, I don't think I've heard an album that is such a joyous celebration of the resounding fun and energy that music can bring into our lives in a long time. The Moondoggies are a band that when hearing their music makes me, for the first time in a while, pretty damn optimistic about where music is headed in the next few years. Bands like the Fleet Foxes and Grand Archives have got a lot of attention in the last year or so for kick starting this sort of hearkening back to "real" country / folk / roots music, but The Moondoggies affliction for conjuring up tunes that are more akin to the likes the The Byrd's, The Band, The Allman Brothers Band, Neil Young and The Flying Burrito Brothers style of high energy foot stomping Country Rock is more my cup of tea. Listening to this album really makes me feel like music is coming full circle, this is music being made by people my same age, who apparently grew up listening to the same stuff my parents had me listening to, and its really awesome to see them take those influences and make something new of it. Not to mention these are some of the coolest and friendliest musicians I have meet in a long ass time, coming from such a pretentious Seattle music scene, it's good to know that there are some people out there who are just having fun with what they are doing, and doing a damn good job at it.

1) The Walkmen - You & Me

It's usually pretty difficult for me to pick a resounding number one album of the year for me, but this year You & Me takes the cake. It's not that all the other albums on my list aren't great, there just really wasn't another album that struck a chord with me quite like this one. This album is really the bands return to form. It's a more mature, sparse and swaggering version of 2001's Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone, an album which is amongst my all time favorites. You & Me is the perfect album for all moods, (my favorite being the sitting at home drunk by myself self-loathing variety) it leads and directs you through its different movements and textures pretty much flawlessly through Leithauser's painful crooning vocals, and the bands incredible tight musicianship. I think my favorite part about this band is that they everything you'd expect, nothing more and nothing less. They know the style of music they play, and they stick to it, and develop it, and layer it, they don't stray to far from their original formula and lose track, cause their is absolutely no reason for them too. I really think they are one of the single best American bands of the 2000's, their no bullshit rock takes you back to a time when music could be appreciated more for its sparse craft and beauty and not it's unnecessary flair.

Not a Man of the Cloth but...

I kind of enjoyed the playful language of the benediction at today's inauguration:

Rev. Joseph Lowery: 'Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get in back, when brown can stick around... when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. That all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen. Say Amen'...

That said, what a damn fine day. One of the few I've ever been able to say I'm proud to be living in this country.