Music:
1. The other day while driving home I heard Synchronicity II by The Police on the radio. It's an outstanding song. I think Sting actually played the Hollywood Bowl a few months ago. I'm bummed I missed that concert. I wish someone would have invited us to go to it. Regardless, I hadn't heard this song in a long long time. Maybe not the best song ever, but it's got a fantastic chorus and for me it's a forgotten Sting/Police song. I didn't think I could ever have a better experience with that song than when I was driving in the car listening to it on my way home. That was until I went home and looked up the song on YouTube and came across the music video:
Sweet 80's fashion goodness, look at those streamers! Oh how I love dated fashion. Especially on rock stars. In one moment they are the coolest thing on the planet. They know it and everyone treats them as such. Ten years later they are often the brunt of all fashion jokes.
2. Julian Casablancas recently came out with an album. For those unfamiliar with the name, he's the lead singer of The Strokes. I'm a big Strokes fan. The Strokes haven't put out an album for about 5 years now. Since their last album a lot of the individual band members have been putting out solo albums. All of the solo albums have been good, but they have sounded a lot like, well, the Strokes. Which is always puzzling to me. Why bother putting out a solo album unless it's going to be something different than what you are doing with the band? Are they trying to prove they can replicate the band sound without the other members? What is Julian trying to prove with this solo album? That he can produce good music with a guitar player, a bassist and a drummer? Right. We already knew that. You established that when you made awesome albums with the Strokes. Unless they hate each other, why do on their own what they can do better as a group?
Same thing with Brandon Flowers. His new solo song is good, but again, it's pretty much the exact same stuff he was doing with the Killers. What is he trying to prove or accomplish by doing it on his own? Is he trying to send a message to the other band members that he can come up with trendy above average catchy songs with somewhat cliche lyrics on his own? Is he trying to prove to the audience he can do it on his own? I think the band members and all the fans already knew he was the Killers. We didn't need a solo album for him to prove it. Unless you are someone like Jack White where you are in a band with only one other person and you venture off to try other groups with more people that produce different sounds, I don't understand the point in the solo album that has the same sound as the group album.
Here's a link to one Julian song: 11th Dimension
Here's another: Out of the Blue
Here is the Brandon Flower's song:
3. Speaking of Jack White, I saw part of the Under the Great White Northern Lights documentary the other day. I hadn't ever seen it and I only saw a small portion. But I found it to be so great. I think because it confirmed in my head that Jack White is awesome. He's clearly doing music because it is what he absolutely loves. I pretty much already knew it, but in the clip I saw it showed them going around a playing at random bowling alleys or YMCA's or other random local free venues for small groups of people. It essentially showed that it's not just about the money, but also about the love of playing. Not that there is anything wrong with someone just doing it for the money. If someone told me they would pay me to write but I would have to shut down any free blogs that I had, I would instantly say good bye to all my readers here and take the money. I'm that easy. So I don't fault any musician or anyone for doing it because the money and the fame are good. But I think everyone admires and gravitates towards those people that do what they love and love it so much that just doing the activity is reward enough. Yet Jack White isn't like the musician playing the local YMCA in his socks and birkenstocks and telling you that he does it because he loves it. While that guy may love it, chances are he's mainly doing it because his music is crap and no one would ever pay to hear his music. Jack White could, and does have the fame and money. He could only play for sold-out arenas and only play when he's paid. Yet he played these other places for the fun and for the love of it all. Even if you don't like the White Stripes or any of the other "projects" Jack White has done, you have to at least admire him for his love of music and as a musician. I may be misreading the guy and he may be a total dirtbag. You can't entirely judge someone off of a clip in a biased documentary. But the actions seem sincere and it's a snapshot and something that few other musicians with his fame have done.
I couldn't find the exact clip I saw, but here is another clip that shows them playing random free shows throughout the town. So great.
Movies:
I didn't do a movie preview this year. But here are three movies I have seen this summer:
1. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. Apparently this movie came out a few years ago. When I told my film-major friend Dave that I had seen it and recommended it to him, he responded like I was the last one on the boat and that told me he saw the movie at its premier at Sundance a few years ago. It was a typical experience where you share something with one of your friends in their "expert" field of knowledge thinking that you might be ahead of them or have something to contribute to their field and they shoot you down as being behind or your info being irrelevant. He really wasn't that smug about it.
But the movie is outstanding. My friend let us borrow it and we came home and watched it. We were both tired and Nellie fell asleep before the opening credits finished but I was glued to the TV. Just a really good show. I know you have to sometimes be in a different mood to watch a documentary, but if you ever are, this one is worth watching.
2. Inception: I liked it. Quite a bit. Not more than the Dark Knight. Not that they are at all similar or related, but since they have the same director, people do compare them. I was just blown away by the idea. So simple on its face: dreams within a dream and being able to manipulate them; yet the movie was actually so complex as they took it to so many different levels and created such a fascinating and brilliant story. Really, I'm no comedian and not that great of a writer, so it's frustrating going to a movie and thinking that I could come up with better jokes or a better script or plot even though I don't have any training or experience. Sort of like how my Mom doesn't like going out to eat if she feels like she could make better food than the restaurant. She's a good cook, not a world class chef by any means, but who wants to pay for something when you could do it as good or better? Sure, sometimes you are tired and just want someone else to make the food just like sometimes you just want to turn off your brain at a movie. But if I'm going to pay the ridiculous movie prices and take the time to see the movie, then I expect it to be something better than what I could come up with in a podcast with Dave. Inception was by no means that type of movie. I could never come up with a story like Inception or conceive of presenting the idea the way they did in the movie. It made me think the whole time. Really, really good movie. Not the best movie of the summer though.
3. Toy Story 3: The crown jewel of the summer... and maybe the history of movies. Granted, I am very biased with the Toy Story franchise. I was blown away and absolutely loved the first one. It doesn't help that they are done by Pixar, the company that never mails it in and always makes each film perfect. So each Toy Story installment just got better and better. I'm not sure what I could say about this movie though. It's pure genius and absolutely fantastic. It was the first time that I cried since Nellie and I got married. I'm going to spoil the movie right here. It was at the end of the movie when Andy was going through the cardboard box and giving the toys to the little girl one by one that my eyes started to well up. I tried to suck back the tears by opening my eyes real big and taking a deep breath and blinking a lot. It sort of worked, but when Andy found Woody in the bottom of the box, I was a goner. I didn't know Woody was down there and when Andy saw him I couldn't keep the tears back. They were streaming down my face. I couldn't control it and I couldn't hide it. There was no point in fighting it. I just had to trust that it was too dark for most people to see me and hope that Nellie was crying more than I was. I don't think she was by the way. I don't know how she could have been, not with my constant stream of tears. Just gushing.But the movie is funny, incredibly clever and brilliant, unique, an excellent story where you can tell they put tons of thought and brainstorming into it, and just leaves you completely happy and satisfied at the end. It's amazing how they did it. For as sad and emotional as I was, I thoroughly enjoyed how it ended. I can't recommend the movie enough. I wish they would make a new installment every five years for the rest of my life. I wouldn't change a single thing in the movie. I just wish I was like Nellie and I could blame all the tears on being pregnant.
