Two Lovers

There is a type of movie that automatically reels me in as a art film viewer...the type of small-budget subdued film featuring an actor who's usually in much bigger roles but is playing some sort of detached loser stuck in some awkward, often romantic, situation. I'm talking about movies like John C. Reilly's Cyrus, Ben Stiller's Greenberg, and Paul Giamatti's Win Win...in all three cases, I got super-excited to go see them in the theatre, only to find them less amazing than I had hoped/imagined, given only the trailer to go on.

Well, such is the case with Joaquin Phoenix's Two Lovers, where he plays a suicidal thirty-something Jewish adult living with his parents and working at his Dad's laundry when he ends up dating a modest Jewish girl his parents kinda force upon him despite having a big crush on his non-Jewish neighbor (played by Gwyneth Paltrow), who's kinda a train-wreck. So in effect, the whole film's about him trying to balance both "relationships", but in his detached, non-player kind of way. It's not a bad setup for a film, and there's a surprise or two in the film, but overall, it just didn't move me. The acting was solid, but it just didn't manage to speak to me in the way that films like Lost In Translation or Stranger Than Fiction did, which have been the golden standard for a good indie film ever since I first saw them. Oh well, better luck next time!

In a Rut but Getting Out!

I've slowly been sinking into a bit of a motivational rut over the past couple months, and I'm writing here both to get it off my chest and to hopefully motivate myself to push harder to get out of it! I think it all started once I started keeping an exact account of all my spending and comparing it to my income, which was kinda depressing. The natural response to that was to try to find more clients, but my old method of posting flyers in the neighborhoods surrounding my parents' house in the suburbs late at night (since I drive along the left curb to get better access to the mailboxes) doesn't really work here in the city, and it doesn't really make a lot of sense to spend the night at my parents' just so I can do that. Then there was my taxes, which kind burnt me out on work record-keeping (which I still do but still have more busy work to catch up with).

Then there's my non work-related stuff, especially the band's difficulty in finding a drummer/guitarist (depending on which we're looking for at the moment), which has continued to stagnate our growth, and I've responded by getting less motivated to keep writing new material (despite really wanting to). I've also been delaying on writing my newest batch of HiFi Magazine articles, partly due to some miscommunication between me and the editor, but also simply because it takes A LOT of time to write something that may or may not be getting off the ground. Hell, I'm barely gonna catch up with my own blog for the month, but at least I've gotten motivated about that as of late.

Add to all this the stress of my dad's surgery and his apparently-slow recovery, and you get a bad combination for getting stuck. That said, I'm starting to turn things around, as I'm getting tired of this state of things and want to do something about it. I've returned to doing my financial analysis (via lots of saved receipts) and blogging, and I have an interview for more teaching later on this week. Next up is pushing harder to advertise for Summer teaching, doing the HiFi reviews, writing band stuff (despite not having a full line-up), working on synthesizer patches, doing my mc chris mixes, and perhaps even working out again! With the temporary loss of clients due to the Summer break, now's a perfect time to start kicking myself into gear. Wish me luck! Feeling optimistic!

Video Game Reunion

Video Game Reunion Channel
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My latest internet diversion is the surprisingly-good live-action mockumentary entitled Video Game Reunion, which in its 15 short episodes tells the story of all of the "actors" from the most-beloved Nintendo games reuniting (after 20 some-odd years of growing older) for a panel discussion at this year's "E4" video gaming conference, complete with lots of relationship drama, sex and drugs references, cussing, and (of course) inside jokes. Mario's gotten even fatter, Luigi's still suffering from a No.2 complex, Princess Peach is a raging trainwreck who is now divorced from Mario despite having a daughter together, Bowser is a bad-ass asshole, Mega Man's a teen sensation, Link and Zelda are having relationship issues, and Samus is still trying to prove that she's way cooler (and hotter) than her childhood rival Peach.

Anyway, while it would have been nice to be able to watch the whole thing in one big go (amounting to a total run-time of roughly two hours), you can definitely watch it episode-by-episode from the VGR website. I thoroughly enjoyed the series once I realized it wasn't just a big joke, and I have to admit that the ending was actually kinda moving (in a sappy way). What's more, they've been calling this set of 15 episodes "Season 1", and they left the last episode with a bit of a loose end, so hopefully we'll be seeing a Season 2 sometime in the near future. Definitely check this out if you grew up with an NES and like juvenile adult humor. =)

Bubblegum Octopus/Yatagarasu @ Couch Couch

If you've been following me at least since Fall of 2009, you might recognize this combination of strange band names, as they are two one-man-band ChipTune groups that like to travel together on more-or-less eastern-half-of-the-States tours. In fact, you might remember that both acts ended up staying at my parents' house back in 2009, as Chris Monica (Yatagarasu) is one of my best friends of all time, and seeing as I hadn't seen him in years and they needed a place to stay, it all worked out pretty well.

Well, that was a year and a half ago, but I was definitely keeping an eye out for the guys to return to the ATL, and considering it was their split EP that I ended up using to introduce Suzi to ChipTune (beginning what is now a fond love for the genre on her behalf), it made sense to take her to go meet the guys and see their show, despite being on a Wednesday night (when she typically can't go out too late due to work the next day).

The gig this time around was at a semi-converted apartment space called Couch Couch (despite not having any couches...), which sat above a Jamaican jerk restaurant within walking distance of my condo. The venue was basically just a labor of love thing, and as such, it was very strangely-decorated, so much so that this is half the reason Suzi remembers the evening so positively (the other half, of course, being the music). We missed the first couple Bubblegum Octopus songs (which is a shame, as he's awesome), but we caught enough of it to make us happy. Chris' Yatagarasu show was really tight too, though it seemed like the sound system wasn't able to handle the barrage of awesome sound he was pumping through the speakers, so the mix wasn't ideal and was distorting a bit more than perhaps Chris had intended? So, hopefully next time the guys will get to perform in a a more spec-ed out venue with the kind of system their music deserves to be heard through.

Ultimately for me, the two best parts of the night were catching up with Chris and Matt (though I didn't get nearly enough quality time with either, especially Chris), and knowing that Suzi absolutely loved going out that night (I would assume it was probably one of her favorite shows I've taken her to thus far). Anyway, thanks to Chris and Matt for putting on another great and memorable show, and please know I'll always be there to support you when you roll through town!

Tank Girl

Sometimes having access to a bunch of arbitrarily-available movies on streaming Netflix ISN'T a good thing, even when you think you're about to watch a cult classic. Such was the case with 1995's movie adaptation of the popular British comic book Tank Girl, set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland with all the usual players: somewhat wacky survivors, the corrupt military men with power, and the mysterious militant guerrillas who end up helping out. The role of Tank Girl herself was played by Lori Petty who somehow is also the same person who played Kit in A League Of Their Own, despite looking like a huge Gwen Stefani rip-off (or possibly her inspiration?) in her wacky post-apocalyptic desert garb in Tank Girl. Another surprising role was Naomi Watts in what has to be her ugliest role ever...either she hadn't yet come into her own looks-wise or she actually didn't look so hot back in the day...not sure which.

Anyway, the story is retarded, the script is retarded, the cinematography is retarded (though clearly Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World took this as inspiration...), and the acting is retarded (except perhaps with Tank Girl herself, who is still really annoying), but the real clincher here is the HORRIBLE idea that is "the Rippers", the aforementioned mysterious guerrillas in this take on the genre. See, the Rippers are initially presented as these scary killing machines no one knows anything about, but it turns out that they're actually half-adorable genetically-engineered human-kangaroo mixes trained by the military as spec ops troops. In the end, they end up looking WAY more like a cross between the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and dogs, and despite Ice-T's dubiously-positive inclusion in their ranks, the Rippers have to be one of the worst realizations of a comic book idea EVER.

Bottom line, this movie sucks hard, and I can't believe I was ever under the impression that it's a cult classic. In fact, it's one of only a handful of movies that I hated so bad that I was seriously considering stopping mid-viewing, just to spare myself the torture. Ugh.

Lupe Fiasco - Lasers

This set of review albums for HiFi Magazine was much more representative of what I would actually end up choosing to listen to, as I actually had a hand in picking most of the albums this time around. So, despite The Strokes' recent album Angles being a letdown, virtually everything else on the list was pretty solid. Enter Lupe Fiasco with his highly-panned new album, Lasers. For one reason or the other, I always kinda thought of Lupe as a sort of poor-man's Kanye, so I've always kept an eye on his new material to see if it would resonate with me.

In the end, I think pretty highly of Lasers, and I have a hard time understanding why the critics hate it so much. Sure, the album went through some legal issues and ended up being thrown together a bit more haphazardly than Lupe would have preferred, but the whole album really does sound like it belongs together with its strong emphasis on trancey synths and pop hooks. And sure, the lyrics are often a tad shallow, but then you get tracks like "All Black Everything" and "State Run Radio", which have a pretty tangible socio-political message to them. Even the questionable sampling of Modest Mouse's "Float On" for "The Show Goes On" manages to be pretty hard to get out of your head, despite my initial reservations. So, while the album isn't perfect, it's easily one of my favorite albums of 2011 thus far, and I would certainly recommend just ignoring the critics and judging the album for yourself...

Highlights: "Letting Go"/"The Show Goes On"/"All Black Everything"
Rating: 4/5

My Best Friend's Girl

Every once in a blue moon, I find myself at my parents' house for a stretch, and having nothing better to do, I'll start watching TV. Well, for whatever reason one of these days, I decided to watch a movie on-demand instead, and that movie was Dane Cook's My Best Friend's Girl, a typical romantic comedy of the aimed-at-guys variety (read "immature"). I liked Dane Cook enough to entertain the idea of starting the film just to see how it was, but I ended up liking it enough (though not a ton) to warrant finishing it on a subsequent visit to my parents' house.

Ultimately, the movie's nothing special...it's cute and immature, as you'd expect. Dane Cook's alright, and Kate Hudson played the exact same role she plays in every movie. Alec Baldwin's unexpectedly-lewd character was perhaps the highlight, but even still, there really isn't much reason to check this film out. As such, I find it amazing that so many movies just like this are made every year, but I guess the cost of production must end up being significantly less than the box office, or else these sorts of movies wouldn't even exist, right?

New Albums (Q1 2011)

Well Q1 of 2011 has long come and gone, so I figure it's about time to wrap up the albums I listened to in my weekly driving regimen. I make this distinction because I've also listened to a handful of albums for my HiFi Magazine reviews that I decided weren't enough to my liking to feature as my CD of the week but that I did spend plenty of time with. As such, they won't be listed here, but perhaps I'll return to talk about them at the end of the year? We'll see. In the meantime, here's Q1 2011:

01. Uffie - Sex Dreams And Denim Jeans (1/5)
02. My Chemical Romance - Danger Days [subtitle omitted] (1/5)
03. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (3/5)
04. Jason Mraz - We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (3/5)
05. Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns (5/5)
06. Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid (2/5)
07. Gregory Pepper & His Problems - With Trumpets Flaring (4/5)
08. B.o.B - The Adventures of Bobby Ray (3/5)
09. Cee-Lo Green - The Lady Killer (5/5)
10. Adele - 21 (3/5)
11. Freelance Whales - Weathervanes (3/5)
12. The Strokes - Angles (1/5)

As is quickly becoming the case this year, Q1 was a pretty middling three months for music: while I was able to spread the scores out pretty fairly, even the fours and fives were kinda low fours and fives, and there were way too many twos and threes. As always, I reserve the right to go back and change these scores as the year develops, trying to keep my year's worth of listening balanced, but in any case, I would be surprised if I ended up walking away with Q1 being much more favorable than it is here, unless of course the rest of the year is even worse!

The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus

Having been a big fan of Heath Ledger's work in The Dark Knight, I thought it only fitting that I eventually check out his last role, playing an enigmatic agent of change in the world of The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus. Now, since Heath ended up dying mid-production, his role had to be completed by a trio of famous actors who could bear some sort of resemblance to him (Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell), all in addition to an already interesting cast including Christopher Plummer, Tom Waits, and The Social Network's Andrew Garfield. While it might seem a bit strange to have Ledger's role filled by three other people, it actually worked really well in this particular case, as Heath managed to film enough of his scenes in the non-Imaginarium real-world that the other three actors could represent different mental projections of his personality whilst in the dream world itself.

Anyway, while the film wasn't amazing, I do look back on it fondly. Tom Waits was particularly great (as always), the fill-in actors were all solid, and of course it was nice seeing Ledger again. It's really too bad he didn't get too many opportunities to do some nice artsier work...this film is certainly more so than most of his earlier roles, but not as much as The Dark Knight or Brokeback Mountain. Check it out if the premise sounds interesting, but I wouldn't expect a classic.

FM Tutorial on YouTube...

I'm a huge YouTube surfer, and as such, sometimes I end up making some very unexpected discoveries. A lot of times I end up using YouTube to help me learn about new synthesizers, or in this case, types of synthesis that I'm not too familiar with. The standard type of analog synthesis is called subtractive synthesis, but other types exist...things like additive synthesis, granular synthesis, and wavetable synthesis, none of which I really know too much about. But bigger than any of these alternatives to subtractive synthesis is FM (frequency modulation) synthesis, which has come to be known as the most confusing form for its method of having different high-frequency sine waves modulate others with somewhat unpredictable/illogical results. Even still, the legendary Yamaha DX-7 (the first really popular FM synthesizer) was super-influential, so I figured it would be good to look the technique up on YouTube to learn the basics behind it...

So you can imagine my surprise when, after clicking on this link to a tutorial, the screen flashed the name of one of my grad school colleagues, Rafael Hernandez, as the man behind a whole series of tutorials on the Max/MSP-like Pure Data music programming software! I mean, I knew Rafael was doing particularly well as a teacher at California State's East Bay campus, but I had no idea he had the kind of YouTube presence he has (he's posted TONS of videos!) or that I would end up finding his work by randomly searching YouTube for synth info. Crazy! Rafael and I worked together on a piece of his back when I was working on my Master's program, an art music song cycle featuring my digital turntables live along with an otherwise fairly atypical ensemble. Anyway, we haven't been in touch in quite awhile, but we always got along well back in the day, so I was certainly pleasantly surprised to have him narrating instructions on how to work PD...think I might go ahead and watch all of the episodes, mainly because he's such a good teacher! Small world!

RIP: "Macho Man" Randy Savage

If you haven't heard, wrestling legend "Macho Man" Randy Savage died of a heart attack the other day, and though he hasn't really been active in the wrestling world for quite awhile, I'm still particularly saddened by his passing, as he was one of my favorite wrestlers growing up and was certainly one of the best wrestlers of all time (despite many news outlets asserting that he was loved primarily for his fancy outfits, famous saying, and Slim Jim commercials). To this day, wrestling fans still consider his Intercontinental Belt-losing match with Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat at the historic WrestleMania III one of the greatest matches of all time... Sure, his career didn't leave quite the impression that some of the other big legends' did, but if you were watching wrestling back when Macho was big, you can't really argue with his place in the industry's history.

Anyway, I found this article on Yahoo with the sad and somewhat surprising revelation that over a quarter of the performers from WrestleMania VII have already died, Macho Man being one of them. Most fans are aware that wrestling is one of those forms of entertainment where the participants often die young, but 25% still manages to be a little shocking, especially considering the average age upon death of the wrestlers listed was 43... Well, in memory of Macho (and the great May 21st End of the World), I've included the silly picture above, found on a jokey site with the caption reading: "Picture explains why Rapture didn't happen." It continues: "This artist's rendition of yesterday's events reveals that The Macho Man's untimely death was extremely timely after all. We can only hope that somewhere, Hulk Hogan is preparing for 2012."

You'll be missed, Macho. And Hogan, though your wrestling skills were highly overrated, please don't seriously go die in 2012. The Mayans aren't worth it, Brother!

Yip Deceiver / Grandchildren @ 529

Sometimes I end up going out for a show specifically to see one band but end up having a much stronger experience with another...in fact, it's often in this manner that I end up discovering the new bands I'll end up following, so although the original inspiration for catching the show is a little bit of a letdown, it all works out in the end.

Such was the case when I went to check out San Fran's Sugar & Gold at 529 for their second visit to the ATL since I've become aware of them (which itself was also an accidental discovery something like a year and a half ago). I loved the band when I first saw them, but it seemed like something was kinda off this time around, as if they were in a weird place emotionally and/or didn't really want to be there, so while it wasn't a stellar show, I'm not going to write them off yet, as it might have simply been a bad night for the group.

The flip side of this is that I discovered two bands that I probably would have been otherwise unaware of, or at least wouldn't have discovered quite as quickly. The opening band was Philly's Grandchildren, an eclectic and raw percussion-heavy sextet where nearly every member switched off playing at least one other member's instrument, to the point where it wasn't really clear who was "supposed" to play what. While seeing them live was definitely cool, listening to their three tracks on MySpace just now took it way further...definitely check their stuff out if you like your rock a bit experimental. In fact, I just added their album to my WishList without hesitation, and that doesn't happen often...

Next up was the newish Of Montreal breakout group Yip Deceiver, whose performance of their infectiously-dancey electro-pop was pretty much the most professional offering I've ever seen at the tiny 529, and perhaps even at bigger venues like The Earl and Drunken Unicorn, so much so that it almost felt like I had won free tickets to see a special radio-sponsored performance of a much larger group at an intimate venue. This said, the group will very likely have a hard time stepping out from the shadow of their parent band, often sounding like a dancier, more-mainstream version of Of Montreal, but then again, that's not necessarily such a bad thing either. Definitely looking forward to hearing their full-length album when it drops.

So, while Sugar & Gold didn't quite live up to the high standard they set for themselves with their last awesome show in town, the evening was more than made up for by their opening acts, both of whom I will be keeping an eye on for the foreseeable future. Here's hoping that I can catch S&G again, but with their live show turned back up to 10. =)

The Best Love Story Ever Told @ Dad's Garage

I've been to numerous nights of improv at Dad's Garage, all of varying quality, but easily the best one I've ever seen was the last show in a two-person (plus singing narrator duo) series called "The Best Love Story Ever Told." The basic premise was that improvisers Amber Nash and Tom Rittenhouse would gather a few basic ideas from the audience and then build a 90 minute show out of it, sticking to a sort of epic tale of an unlikely couple falling in love. Presumably, the show was quite different every night, but I have to imagine that certain basic plot-progressing devices were used throughout the course of the series.

It's been a minute since the show, but I seem to remember Amber's character being a small-town taxidermist looking for something more and Tom's being a guy who never shaved his beard and had therefore become quite reclusive. I forget all the little plot points that developed through the evening, but I have to say that it all worked really well, was really funny, and actually left me a tad surprised that the show had been improvised, despite seeing both of these improvisers before and loving what they typically bring to the table. Great stuff. Here's hoping that the next show at Dad's Garage can manage to live up to the high bar set here.

Oh, and the pic above was taken in the men's bathroom at the venue...comic book nerds like me should get it, but for the rest of you, it's probably not worth explaining. =)

The Strokes - Angles

One of my favorite albums last year was Julian Casablancas' (the lead singer of The Strokes) solo album Phrazes for the Young, so you can imagine that I was excited to hear that the band would be releasing their first new album in five years, presumably (judging from the cover art and the sound of some of the singles) with an ear towards the very 80's-influenced work Casablancas was doing on his solo release, albeit with most of the synths being replaced by snappy guitar-work.

Well, I hate to admit that I was left pretty cold about the new album overall. It's not that the songs suck or that any tracks are particularly skip-worthy, but all the same, none of them really managed to capture my imagination or leave a lasting impression. Case in point: I'm not even sure if I could really sing along with any of the lyrics, as none of them stuck with me and the melodies carrying them were only kinda so-so. Yeah, the notes and tones all reflect the sound Casablancas was going for on his solo album, but somehow this time around they just doesn't manage to coalesce into anything bigger than the sum of the parts.

As such, Angles really seems like it could have been a B-sides release for Phrazes for the Young, and after a five-year hiatus, I would expect more of the indie rock darlings. But whatever...I'll cross my fingers that Casablancas' next solo album holds up to the first, proving that he didn't just get lucky...

Highlights: "Under Cover of Darkness"/"Games"/"Metabolism"
Rating: 1/5

Spangler Leaving

You've heard me talk about our band's drummer Spangler a lot over the past few months, as his presence in our band has been one of the chief elements pushing us forward. Not only has he filled the drummer spot in-and-of-itself, but his enthusiasm, creativity with parts, availability, good gear, knowledge of more-complicated music via classical training, great place to offer for rehearsals, and friendship in general made him the kind of big asset I really needed to get the band going again...

So you can imagine how deflated I was to find out that a couple months ago Spangler signed a super-binding multi-year contract with the US Army Band, set to start in late July, a decision which although good for him professionally most certainly meant the eventual end to his participation with our band. Fortunately, we got enough time with him to make some steps forward, but once I heard the news, I lost a lot of the wind in my sails.

That's not to say I haven't been looking for other options for band members, continuing vocal lessons, and keeping Max up-to-snuff with his keys parts, but it just wasn't the same knowing you've got limited time with someone who really contributes to the group. Technically Spangler doesn't leave until mid-July, but I just found out that he's moving out of his Atlanta home (with Adam & Sandra of The Orkids) in a week or so, and although he'll still be in the Atlanta exurbs (living with his dad until Army time), he'll probably be too far away to really justify making him come into town on a regular basis, especially considering we won't have a great place to rehearse unless we look into renting a rehearsal space (more on that later too).

Oh well. I do wish Spangler the best and have really enjoyed working with him musically over these past few months and getting to know him as a good friend in town...I just hope the band will be able to snap back to a functioning membership sooner than later so we can really get things rolling...

Ridiculous Gaga Commercial

I have NO IDEA why this commercial exists, but it's ridiculous and kinda amazing. I guess there's this Facebook game called FarmVille and for whatever crazy reason, they've decided to get Lady Gaga involved? Fill me in if you know what this is all about. Oh, and just for the record, my first impressions of the new Gaga material aren't so promising, so perhaps my interest in her work is going to wane really soon? I believe the album comes out next week, so I'll be sure to pick it up if my first impressions were wrong...

Pat @ Riot Update

Back to some studio updates. There isn't too much to say about each session individually, so I'm going to bunch the next four sessions into one post, even though it takes the other three sessions out of chronological order...

I last left you with a session featuring the revisiting of Pat Benatar for the first time in roughly a year, mainly focused on getting Jeremy's guitar parts all sorted out. Once that was done, we were in the clear to start hammering down some mixing, but though the session I'm writing about here was when we started the process, it takes awhile to get a solid mix in, so in between we recorded aux percussion for the track and recut my vocals before coming back to the mix in our most recent session. Ever since then, Erich's been working on details at home on his computer (more on that shift in later?).

As far as aux percussion is concerned, we ended up going fairly light (just tambourine and some triangle) this time around, as Pat is a way simpler track than BP and we didn't want to clutter it up too much. Then for the vocals, we decided to recut everything but the big sing-songy chorus, since it had been over a year since I did any vocal work on the track, and presumably my singing has improved with lessons since then. We didn't recut the big chorus vox because we're still using Emily (our female band member who is questionably still interested in the group)'s background part, which I more-or-less synced to at the time, and my part sounds good enough to keep.

The big stressor about redoing the vocals is that I've since decided to downtune a few of our songs (including Pat) to make my high vocals a little easier on me, but this track was recorded in the original higher key, so though I did spend some serious time warming up to the higher modulated key at the end of the song for this session, Erich felt I could get a significantly better tone by singing a lower part, so I came up with a substitute quasi-harmony part in a few minutes and ended up cutting that instead. The original line wasn't entirely thrown away though: we ended up having me do a falsetto recording of the first three (i.e. most memorable) notes from the old line and laying it on top of the new one with the hopes that the ear would still pick up on it and not feel like too much was missing.

Anyway, the new vocal line actually sounds pretty great, but it probably wouldn't have made sense earlier in the song, so I'm glad it worked out like this. Also, the rest of the new vox recordings are definitely an improvement over the originals from last year, and the aux perc and mixing sound pretty solid. Overall, we're VERY close to having Pat done for realz! Can't wait!

Johnny Mnemonic

Continuing my theme of futuristic Sci-Fi films I've been leaning towards on streaming Netflix is 1995's Johnny Mnemonic, one of my favorite semi-guilty-pleasures growing up. The film is kinda like The Matrix-lite for Keanu Reeves, especially with regards to all the futuristic technology and him being hunted down at every turn. Unlike The Matrix though, this film has a noticeably campy edge to it, featuring the likes of Henry Rollins and Ice T in somewhat silly roles and a story that can't really be taken 100% seriously. Still, the movie's fun enough, and it's interesting to see 1995's ideas of what future communications technology will be. For instance, Johnny ends up putting a supposedly unimaginable 160GB of data into his head, but as anyone who's the slightest bit tech-savvy now knows, we've far surpassed that amount in most computers, and even the biggest iPod has EXACTLY that amount of memory at this point in time.

Anyway, check it out if you're into Sci-Fi, but otherwise, it's probably immensely skip-able, as it's really just guilty-pleasure fare...

Switching to Progressive

Right before my Geico car insurance policy was set to renew for my mid-year term, I decided to finally switch car insurance providers, as Geico had raised prices on me quite a bit over the past few years, especially since I moved into the city, thereby changing my address from a presumably safer suburban setting to an urban one that's more accident-prone. So, after looking at a handful of options, I ended up settling with Progressive, as their price was roughly $30 lower per month than what I was paying with Geico.

Technically, Geico could have gotten my rate lower, but not without making me take an online defensive driving course (which would cost me $20 or so but end up saving me in the end). Progressive didn't need anything like this to get their rate as low as it is, so I went with them, and naturally I'm as happy as you can be with a service I pay way too much for relative to how much I actually need it...in my adult life, I don't think I've EVER needed to use my auto insurance, especially not for anything significant, but whatever... The bottom line is that I'm saving just short of $350 a year, and that sort of tangible difference is all I need to make me feel happy about the switch.

I'm Still Here

Having witnessed, like everyone else, the apparent downward spiral of Joaquin Phoenix's career in the media, I was relatively excited to see all this documented in his recent film I'm Still Here, even if there was a chance it might have been faked. Turns out that though the whole thing was a scam, arguably to make a point about how the media and fans treat celebrities when they're down and out, the film probably would have been better if it were real, as they didn't really do that great a job of either entertaining us or making a point with their fake story. Sure, they had the entire world to fool and probably let very few people know this was all a hoax, but the same could probably be said for Borat, and that was still pretty good.

In fact, I'm Still Here was so hard to watch that I was seriously considering not finishing it, something I almost never let myself do, on principle. Sure, the ending was A LITTLE better than the rest of the film, but nothing could really justify the making of this film in my mind, and I'm not surprised it did very poorly in the box office. It also seemed a little distasteful to have Joaquin doing lots of drugs in the film, as his brother River Phoenix infamously died of a drug overdose himself....

Oh well...just skip this one and let's hope Joaquin returns to the great acting he was known for prior to this fiasco.

Dad in Hospital Again

This week's been a bit rough on me, as I had some atypical stuff going on professionally as well as trying to support my dad through his second serious visit to the hospital in the past couple of years. If you don't know, my dad has been dealing with various types of slow-growing cancer over the past ten years or so, and while the doctors have been fairly successful at curbing the growth, Dad's shown a few really significant side-effects to his treatment that have seemed to hurt him almost as much (if not more) than the cancer, at least as far as we can tell. The last time he was in the hospital was for a really bad stomach ulcer and gallbladder removal, a procedure which took a lot out of him at the time and scared us all quite a bit, so you can imagine we were a bit worried when we heard he was going to have to go back in for more stomach-related surgery this week...

While I'm not going to go into the details of my dad's condition here in this public forum, I will say that it turned out that this time around it was only(?) a hernia, one that was much less of an ordeal removing and which therefore allowed Dad to bounce back much faster. That said, they also discovered part of the problem to be a tumor nearby, so he's going to have to meet up with his oncologist and surgeon to discuss what options he has for addressing this, but at least he's in much better health (five days in) than he was last time. We even thought he might be able to go home after only three days in the hospital, but they ended up needing five to help him gradually build up his health and to get him unplugged and all.

Overall, I'm not the type of person to worry about stuff like this before it's clear that it's a huge problem, but I would be lying if I said that being in the hospital didn't upset me (though I love supporting Dad) and that the whole thing didn't at least affect me somewhere deep down in my subconscious. So, it's been a tough week, but I'm thankful it wasn't any tougher, and I'm looking forward to spending lots more quality time with Dad during and after his full recovery. =)

Freelance Whales - Weathervanes

Nearly done with the CDs from Q1 now. Freelance Whales is a group out of Queens that mixes the electronic sound-world and lullaby-style vocals of a group like The Postal Service with hints of acoustic folk music, including instruments like banjos and harmoniums, ultimately offering a unique sound that's unfortunately only held back on this album by a few too many slower/lackluster tunes. That said, the singles listed below are all pretty fantastic, and as such, I'm eagerly awaiting what their second album might end up sounding like. In fact, the group has even caught on enough that "Generator 1st Floor" has been featured in a Starbucks commercial and the song "Hannah" has been arranged for the PS22 Chorus I previously wrote about.

In the end, though I gave the group a mid-range score, I would totally be down to see them live, and regardless, I definitely applaud them for their hybridization of two genres I wouldn't have been expecting. Nice work.

Highlights: "Generator 1st Floor"/"Location"/"We Could Be Friends"
Rating: 3/5

Crosswords

I haven't talked much recently about the stupid little things I do to pass my time while listening to new music (which in the past has included things like computer pinball and solitaire, Minesweeper, and of course Rubik's Cubes), but the obsession of the season, ending perhaps a month or so ago, was doing crosswords, both on paper and online. The obsession started with me realizing how much fun they were to do with Suzi on our frequent vacation flights, which then resulted in our buying matching PennyPress crossword books for us to do against one another. Naturally though, I couldn't resist doing a crossword here or there at home, and eventually it became a time-sucking obsession.

This said, it wasn't until I got online for crosswords that I eventually put my foot down on the matter, as the now-infinite stream of puzzles, most of which took up considerable time for me (being not too wizardly at them), started sucking me in more than I enjoyed. Still, I ended up doing almost every puzzle in the book Suzi and I bought, so that certainly didn't go to waste. So now I've returned to my Rubik's Cubes, with the primary difference between the two distractions being that the cubes are significantly less straining and cerebral for me now that I've been doing them for so long, whereas crosswords tend to only leave me a bit mentally exhausted.

Oh well. Farewell short crossword obsession. Maybe you'll return one day, but at least it was good while it lasted...

The Fifth Element

If asked, I would probably say I've seen most of the important Sci-Fi fims that came out during my lifetime, so you might be surprised to hear that I only recently got around to watching French director Luc Besson's The Fifth Element in its entirety. I had caught scattered clips on TV over the years, but it was definitely nice to sit down and watch it from beginning to end.

If you haven't seen it, the film is set in a futuristic version of Earth where the peril of mankind rests on a small group of people trying to find the "fifth element" before a destructive alien entity comes to destroy the world. While this may sound relatively predictable, what sets the film apart is its quirky and goofy style and presentation mostly evident in the creative character design (just take a look at either Chris Tucker or Gary Oldman's parts) and its bright, crisp, and colorful visual style that almost smacks a bit of the comic book realm without relying too much on that genre.

Overall, while The Fifth Element isn't quite mind-blowing, it's still striking and memorable, and should probably be considered one of the best Sci-Fi films of the past 15 years or so.

2nd Athens Trip w/Suzi

Back in mid-March, Suzi and I decided to take a Saturday one-nighter up to Athens for our second time, even though we made our decision to head up there later on in the day, leaving us time for little more than dinner, some bar-hopping, and breakfast the next morning since I had to be back to teach Sunday afternoon. Ultimately, though there is a thing or two to do in Athens other than eating and drinking (things like touring the campus, doing some shopping around downtown, doing the Terrapin Brewery Tour, and walking around the Botanical Gardens), Athens really is at its best when you're just relaxing, soaking up the college atmosphere of a night on the town.

That said, our trip unintentionally landed on one of the two weekends surrounding UGA's Spring Break, and as such, the town was definitely a little quieter than usual. Still, we managed to have a lovely meal at Copper Creek (one of my favorite restaurants in town, which I thought had closed, no less), and we hit up Cutter's, The Mad Hatter, and Barcode before partaking in the near-obligatory after-drinking run to The Grill for a late-night bite. The next morning we had breakfast at Mama's Boy and walked around what we presumed to be the famous train trestle from one of R.E.M.'s big albums back in the day, wrapping up our short (less than 24 hours) but fulfilling one-nighter.

Overall, though nothing exceptional happened on the trip, it was still the sort of quintessentially fun trip to Athens that I like taking every now-and-again, and as such, I would be totally happy doing just that with Suzi many more times in the not-too-distant future.

Up

When it comes to Pixar films, I'm generally a pretty big fan, especially concerning The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and above all, Wall-E, but for one reason or the other, I had a hard time mustering up the desire to actually check out 2009's Up. That was, until I saw it was on streaming Netflix and checked it out with Suzi.

The verdict: Up is largely overrated, especially compared with the nearly flawless Wall-E, but it's certainly not bad. Everyone kept talking about how sad the film was, largely pointing at the film's sentimental intro, but apart from this scene, nothing really moved or spoke to me, and then the characters and plot were largely forgettable. Perhaps, as is often the case, I let the hype build up in my mind for far too long before actually seeing the film, but then again, I waited a long time to finally see Wall-E and ended up absolutely loving it. Oh well. Let's just hope Pixar keeps making new IPs instead of jumping on the sequel train, as they seemed to have done recently...

Updated 2010 Album Ratings

I recently wrote (or rather, rambled) about my views on ranking the numerous albums I listen to in a given year, including the acknowledgment that I often go back and change some of the ratings I initially gave out to specific albums, largely because my impression of the album has changed over the course of a few months or so. I attribute part of this to the fact that my listening regimen during the five weeks I'm actively listening to any given album is a tad too strict, which could easily lead me to detest an album more than is fair due to forced overexposure (that said, while I suppose this could go the other way too, it doesn't seem quite as likely, logically-speaking).

Anyway, earlier this year I made a point to use any leftover free time from my weekly listening-while-driving regimen to systematically go back and listen to each of my 48 albums from 2010, and though this took me some time, I recently finished the task, in the process reevaluating any albums necessary. Here are the results, having updated my previous blog posts:

New Albums (Q1 2010)
New Albums (Q2 2010)
New Albums (Q3 2010)
New Albums (Q4 2010)

Overall, the changes in opinion were all fairly minor, with less than 30% of the albums having their scores altered, and even then, only by plus or minus a point each. As I mentioned in my recent album-rating post, I aimed to and succeeded at spreading the five ratings as evenly as possible amongst the 48 albums, with 1/5's and 3/5's receiving only slightly less than the three remaining tiers. And to support my argument above that I tend to like albums more once I get the chance to experience them outside of my typical listening regimen, the quantity of albums that ended up getting higher scores was roughly double that of those whose scores were docked.

Overall, I was fairly happy with 2010's CD listening and feel that in many ways it was an improvement over that of the previous year (despite not having quite as many stand-out 5/5's). Thus far, 2011 is looking very mid-heavy, but perhaps it'll balance out more as time goes on...

Waiting For Superman

While I'm starting to get more into non-preachy/fun documentaries these days, my buddy Andy really wanted to watch the acclaimed serious documentary Waiting For Superman on the American education system, so we checked it out a little before he left for Barcelona for the Summer. In addition to exposing the major flaws in our education system and offering some ideas as to the roots of the problems and some solutions for fixing them, a large part of the film focuses on the current lottery system for families whose kids are stuck in shitty schools and who want to send them to a charter, magnet, or otherwise independent school, the demand being much higher than the available slots in the student body.

Anyway, the film was really good, affecting, and well-produced/shot, but like most preachy documentaries, it leaves you feeling like shit and hating our hypocritical country. On one hand, we're WAY better off than tons of 3rd-world countries, but on the other, we often like to claim that we're the best country in the world, but we don't offer the advantages of living in such a place to everyone, especially when it concerns racial divides (most of which were caused by slavery and its wake, at least initially). So, I DO recommend seeing this film, but not if you want to have an enjoyable experience. If you really care about education and fairness though, you really owe it to yourself to hear what these filmmakers have to say.