One of us needs to find this...

This comedy came highly recommended by David Gordon Green and pretty much every other person who'd been there with us in N.C. back in April...and I feel it is high time we all see it!

Anybody with me?

what i decided to do

it was a tough decision but i opted for the biirdie/ mike andrews show. i would have loved to see david bazan, but i'm not letting myself think about that. instead, i am thinking about how nice it is to discover a new band and see someone whose music i love so much. the quiet storm is a decent venue; i certainly like the atmosphere, i'll almost always pick a cofee shop over a bar.



biirdie had the lovely male and female vocal thing happening with some awesome group vocals on most of the songs. their music was happy and fun. and the girl vocalist was adorable!



mike andrews played with biirdie so we got to hear a bit of him before his set. while i didn't love the music he played as much as his soundtrack work (donnie darko, me and you and everyone we know, freaks and geeks), he is obviously a talented musician. one of my favorite things about seeing musicians play live is when it is apparent that they are passionate about their music. mike andrews (and all the other musicians that played) were so obviously passionate about the music they played, so while i may not have instantly dug his style, i really appreciated that. i also feel that his music is the type that will grow on me. and at some point, i need to write post about my extreme love for the me and you and everyone we know soundtrack. beautiful stuff.

since i didn't see david bazan, i can't say i made "the right choice," but i was pleased with my choice, so i can't complain too much that two great shows were on the same night.

Respect the cock...

This is a great film. Probably my second favorite P.T. Anderson film behind Punch Drunk Love. But just by a hair. The cast is killer in this movie and the story is powerful. Two things I want to talk about: the Christian theme and how it's overdone.

So the movie has this theme of forgiveness and grace. It's pretty undeniable. And I like that. The characters are either messed up because of their parents, or they are regretful for what they have done to their kids. And the 'kids', at least by the end of the movie, seem like they are going to be ok. So, there's the grace. I think the frogs falling from the sky, and the impossibility of that, are a symbol of these parents and the awful things they've done. You think how or why does this awful stuff happen (a father leaving his 14 year old son to take care of his dying mother; another father molests his daughter and cheats on his wife - his daughter becomes a cocaine fiend, etc) . It should be just as impossible as, say, frogs falling from the sky. But it happens all the time and we are used to it. That's one idea. The other is that the frogs stand for grace and divine intervention. After the frog thing happens the screwed up characters (Frank T Mackie, Claudia, Whiz Kid Donnie Smith) get a second chance. I don't know if second chance is the right phrase. They definitely seem like they are on a new path in their lives. A positive one.

So all of that is very good to me. I like that theme. It feels realistic. I mean the frog stuff. Ha. But seriously, it's a brave theme for a director. Of course, it doesn't feel Christian. Like I wouldnt expect to see it played on a sunday morning in church. Maybe a Tuesday. But it is. The entire movie is swimming in a pool of Judeo-Christian motifs. "And the book says we may be done with the past but the past is not done with us." That's very Old Testament. And the frogs-divine-intervention thing is Christian. So it's really the Bible. That's what it is.

Ok, my second topic: how this theme is overdone. The more I watch it the more I notice how important it was that for Anderson that the audience got the message. But, holy crap, give us some credit. If getting the point across was so important to Anderson, why didn't someone tell him that at least an hour could have been shaved off without touching the theme? I do love the movie, but honestly. For example, the opening is entirely unnecessary. The whole lesson on coincidence and fate. And how many times did the line "The past may be done with us..." need to be in the movie? Twice tops. I guess I don't like movies where the point is driven home so forcefully. I want things to be left open a little. I want some mystery and subtlety.

I think that Anderson was maybe writing this movie for himself. I just get that feeling. And he wanted to believe in second chance and forgiveness and grace. Which is not bad. Not at all. I desperately want to believe in grace and divine intervention. But most of the time everything feels neutral and stale. But there's two types of reality, the one perceived and the one hoped for. Magnolia fits right in the middle.

One more thing. Magnolia contains one of the most powerful lines. William H. Macy, playing Donnie Smith, says, "I really do have love to give; I just don't know where to put it." You could cut that line with a knife, it's so thick with meaning and importance. Honestly, for me, that sums up the entire human race. There I said it. Ok, I should probably take that back.

The person you need is:

Please feel free to ask mike ninehouser about this lady.

She is the star of a delightful movie.

tonight i watched one of the greatest adventure movies of our time:
Real Genius.
although, it could have done without the added hour (it felt like) dumb as ending. i honestly couldn't (didn't want to?) follow it. something about a laser...
otherwise, an amusing and almost brilliant film.
my apologies to the 80's for not having viewed it sooner.
oh! and ps. i thought she was adorable.

i'm uploading magnapop to my computer and i have the urge to watch this...

i'm slightly embarressed...but only slightly.

i remember seeing this with my best friend leah at the theater that used to be next to be in the mall parking lot. at the time i was in eighth grade and it a movie couldn't be much better if it had drew barrymore and chris o'donnell in it.

now i am a bit more embarressed.

and i used to own it, and possibly still do.

i hope that i do.

perhaps i should have a little more shame.

seriously...

i don't know what to do....


mike andrews @ the quiet storm

































david bazan @ club cafe

A very happy 23rd. birthday to the comic genius, Joel. He has stared in such films as Zoom and Lomax's Revenge and is currently filming Konie's Hedge. Joel is also an accomplished musician, screenwriter, producer, and babysitter. Let's hear it!

GOB on "Sex & the City"!!!

+

Yes, my friends, it's true. I'm sorry to be the one to have to inform you guys of this, but while I've been continuing along on my marathon tour of "Sex & the City", I came across none other than Will Arnett on Season 2, episode 12. He plays this creepy guy who picks up Miranda (the manly, red-headed one) and only wants to have sex with her in public places. He *really* gets off when his elderly mom & dad walk in on them having sex in his room. Awesome.

dilemminy snickets

so we don't get a lot of great bands to come through pittsburgh hence my dilemma on saturday. three amazing shows. occurring at the same time.

1) David Bazan.

2)Mr Toad

3) His Wet Sprocket

new m ward goodness!

i just got my first taste of m ward's new album, post-war, on this lovely music blog. the song is wonderful.


august 22nd seems very far away.








beth and i are still kicking ourselves for not seeing him when he was playing at cmu. biggest mistake of my life, i think.

Ebert and Roeper's thumbs don't lie. I thought it was a good flick. I loved the way it was shot. That was the main thing. For its genre, it's also a good story. Remember, I said 'for its genre'. So, see it if you want your summer to go to hell. I'm so glad mine did.

Not a movie, book or band...but it *is* a Recommendation.

I couldn't find a picture, but they make this in MANGO scent!!! I know that fruity laundry may sound weird to some, but I also know most of you kids like mangos, so I thought, 'what the hey?' I am washing clothes with it at this exact moment and I love it!

The Amalgamation Polka by Stephen Wright

So. This book opens with a scene, never explained, of bearded "ladies" dancing in a field and singing. It progresses to a burning house and on to more really visceral and terrifying stuff. And not in a way that has the author being calculatedly avant-garde, like, "oooh, I'm going to open up my Civil War era novel with crossdressers."

That's the most impressive part of the novel. It doesn't. explain. anything. It's written as though we have just lived through the Civil War and are very familiar with the events. It's stunning and refreshing and treats the reader like (s)he has a brain. Along with this, the book is structured into episodes. They're not chapters, really. And it has a plot arc, but the story isn't primarily concerned with plot. In other words, here we have a historical novel about the son of two abolitionists who joins the union army, but actually it's none of those things. Not at the core. And that's why it's the best book that I've read in a while. One that wasn't just entertaining, but was engrossing.




Unlike The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard, another book set in a war but not directly about a war, a book that I read the whole way through, and wanted to read the whole way through, despite the fact that I couldn't stop wondering why the characters were talking like characters in a novel, and despite the fact that it was a creepy love story between a 33 year old man (I thought he was, like 45, through most of it, though) and a 17 year old girl.

However, I have read a novel involving incest (The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy), and I believed it and enjoyed it. Which says more about the quality of the writing than my interests, really!

What Ms. Hazzard does have going for her is a great cover design for her book. It's better than Stephen Wrights. Sorry, Chip Kidd.

today this kid at work told me he likes jam bands.
today i (via this blog) will tell you i do not like jam bands.
that is all.

"Bride & Prejudice" by Gurinder Chadha

This one stars my favorite Bollywood actress:

Miss Aishwarya Rai (in the middle)

Not to be confused with Pride & Prejudice, kids! Though actually, it's exactly the same story, just with Hindi-filmi flair! (Deal with it, Mike.) I am referring of course to the song & dance routines, the replacement of actual love scenes with women-in-saris-drenched-with-water, the over-the-top acting, the bright and elaborate costumes and sets, etc., etc.

Now, I am definately a fan of most things Bollywood and just Indian in general, however, even I have to say that some parts of this film were just too much to stomach! 2 major things come to mind:

1) Ok, the songs in Hindi films work *because* they are IN HINDI!!! Songs are one of the primary vehicles in traditional Indian story-telling and even religious instruction! This tradition has made it's way into the Hindi film industry and Indians (and some Americans such as myself) absolutely love it! But it goes without saying that the meaning that is *so clear* to them in their own language and sing-song style is COMPLETELY lost in the translation...hence our endless hours of amusement during our Friday nite meals @ India Garden. ("You've stolen my heart under various pretexts", or something like that...) So when I saw that Gurinder Chadha thought it would be a good idea to have a Bollywood-style market place song & dance number with ENGLISH lyrics (rather than in Hindi with our beloved English subtitles), I wanted to absolutely die. It just did not work AT ALL and it made me feel very awkward--which takes an awful lot in my case. (I am referring to the "Marriage Has Come to Town" song from early in the movie.)


2) Now this 2nd one is going to be more difficult to explain, but I will try my best. It also has to do with language and translation problems. Ok, when speakers of *any* other language (so I'm not just picking on Indians here) try to use English slang, it often just does not work. In "Bride & Prejudice's" case, I was having a very hard time figuring out whether the use (or misuse rather) of such words as "killing" for example (as a slang for cool--like Lalita's sister's "killing" outfit--I have heard "killer" but NEVER "killing") were intentional and meant to be funny, or whether no one on the set was entirely sure if this was right or wrong and therefore said nothing. I wish I could remember more instances of this, but Brad Frank and I both picked up on it several times with several different words & phrases. Now if it *was* intentional, then bravo! Cause she really nailed a hysterical cross-cultural faux pas in that case!

Now for some positives...because of the Indian tradition of arranged marriages, as well as the ever-present caste system, not only in modern-day India, but still very much alive in Indian-Great Britain and Indian-America today as well, the jump from Jane Austen's time to today went off without a hitch! It was entirely believable and really worked.

Second, I enjoyed the acting and loved the diversity of the cast! (Naveen Andrews is in this film...he's my buddy from "The English Patient", but most know him from his role on "Lost".)

But this next guy completely made the movie for me!!! Meet Nitin Ganatra:

aka Mr. Kohli Sahib...wowwww

This guy had some of the worst/best lines ever!! My favorite was, "You know, actually, I prefer American Hip-Hop, but as Gloria Estefan says, 'The rhythm is going to get you', so, bring it on!" UGGGGHHHHHHH. Why GLORIA ESTEFAN??!!! hahaha But, I totally loved it!

This guy is everything there is to love about awful.

And now, just for fun, a bit of trivia: Gurinder Chadha was also the writer/director for 2002's "Bend it like Beckham" which featured none other than Keira Knightley--who also just so happened to star in the other recent adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice! "Beckham" was actually the first movie I ever saw Keira Knightley in...I liked her, but hated her hair.

I will now leave you with one more fabulous quote...this one is referring to Indian dancing, and I will dedicate it to Jason & Emily. Enjoy!

"It looks like you just screw in a lightbulb with one hand and you pet the dog with the other...will you teach me?" ~The Darcy character to Ash Rai's Lalita

lost by hans-ulrich treichel

lost is an alternatly funny and sad little book. it is about a german family who lost their oldest son when they were fleeing the russians during the second world war. the story is told by their younger son, who never met his brother, but lives in his shadow.

this passage is about a remodeling the father has done to their home.

"The windows were changed from casements to ones that tilted, and they never got frost flowers on them anymore...The house that had once been my childhood labyrinth, with long corridors, deep built cupboards, and unexpected stair landings, behind which more corridors stretched away, leading to other connecting doors and landings. It gave me pleasure to roam through the house, just as it gave me pleasure to go see and see the attic crisscrossed with and wooden braces-my magic forest, but also my place of terror. The attic must have once served as a storeroom and warehouse, because there was a trapdoor set into the floor...When I opened the trapdoor, I could see into a room I'd never been into, and which appeared to have no other entrance...I woulld have given anything to know if there was a door to the room, but i didn't dare ask my parents....The rebuilding took away my childhood labyrinth, straightened it out, gutted it, let the light in. The corners, nooks, long passageways, had disappeared along with the built-in cupboards, connecting doors, and unexpected stair landings. Naturally, the trapdoor went too, and with it, the only entry to the hidden room. Yet curiously the area under the trapdoor was the same size after the reconstruction that it had been before. Not one square meter had been gained, and I was convinced the room still existed..."

there is also a very funny section about the biannual event of getting a pig's head, but i'll spare you the details of that.


very good short read. highly recommended.

I finally watched this magical film. Now I wish I'd never
seen it so I could watch it again for the first time.

And The Award for Most-Impressive Whistler Goes To...

...This fine, young spectre of a man right here.

Random thoughts from our most-recent excursion to the Point are as follows:

-'Twas an all-around fine performance

-I was confused by the large hippy crowd he drew, but in no way does that mean I minded them

-Multi-taskin' like a damn fool!

-Mike Nine--you missed out, dude!

+Andrew Bird and Mason Jennings were absolutely lovely live performers.

That's all I have to say about that.

Unrecommendation: For the WHOLE WIDE WORLD (and I hope they will listen!)

I know that this is not even out yet, but just seeing the *preview* for this tonite made me want to post an 'unrecommendation'! Not that anyone who visits this site would ever even consider seeing such an awful mess of a movie, so I'm just using this page to say to you guys, "AWFUL".

"A TAIL of two KITTIES"??????

(as if this wouldn't be bad enough *without* such a title!)

Let's all agree together: "Why?" and "Uggghhh."