Young Blood

1. Let’s talk a little bit about Facebook, and/ or any other online social media you’d like to apply this to: my Facebook page is not a magical realm of free speech and considered debate.  It (as well as, obviously, my blog.  Hey, you want a blog too, you can get one!) is a place where I put the stuff that I already think.  Sometimes, that stuff is “I like Triscuits”, but other times it might be “We need stricter gun control in this country, because guns and people kill people.”  Those are my opinions, and I didn’t get them from numbskulls like you, I got them from the world, and my observations of it.  Now, you are of course more than free to have your own opinions, and even ones that are different than mine, but these people that seem to think that everything needs debated all the time, and that you need to listen to all sides of a debate! are mistaken for a few reasons.  Yes, debate is healthy and necessary, but I don’t spend all my time online, nor do my opinions get formed or forged there.  By the time I’ve “statused” an opinion, I’ve read about, watched something about it, talked to a human being in person about it, observed something about it, etc.  I communicate things via social networks that I already think.  Now, you may ask, what’s wrong with even more debate?  And my answer to you is, nothing is wrong with more debate, but not Facebook debate.  Facebook debate sucks.  Nobody is ever swayed by anything said online, it makes me hate you, it reveals your lack of grasp of the English language, it wastes my time, and makes people who like each other say things they regret.  Just don’t bother.  And then, the topper, is when since it is after all MY Facebook page, I delete the contrary comments so as to avoid the debate, the person notices I’ve deleted the comments and wants to get all high-and-mighty as though I am oppressing their free speech or quashing some important, vital public discourse.  Listen Chachi, this aint Meet the Press, you aren’t the Op-Ed page, and Facebook isn’t housed in the National Archive. Step off my status, Anthony Scalia, I already know what the fuck I think.

2.  I just saw “Gravity” in the movie theater.  This was a fantastic experience.  Now, don’t get me wrong, this isn’t about to become my “favorite” movie, but it is very unlike anything else I’ve ever seen in a movie theater.  It is an experience.  I don’t want to oversell it here, but listen, this thing has GOT to be seen on a big screen, in 3D, if you want to grasp what the whole point of the endeavor is.  Do it.  Go.  Soon.

3.  As you may know, for many years, I was a very vocal opponent of professional sports.  I thought they are a nuisance distraction from what is generally important in the world.  I thought the energy and attention that followers of sports devote to them was a drain on other places they could be placing that attention, such as government and world affairs, the fine arts, the world of science, and the great story of human history.  Guess what?  I still absolutely think that is true.  There isn’t really any getting around it: professional sports are, by-and-large, a great waste of time by otherwise fantastic cultures.  It’s just that at some point a few years ago, I made a conscious decision to drink the Kool-Aid.  I now follow sports like a 70s housewife followed soap operas; all-too aware of their impotence in the world, but completely invested regardless.  And it is through that lens and with those caveats that I now say this: why the fuck do some of you people make a conscious decision to have “your” team be a team that is nowhere near you?  Like someone from Pennsylvania, with no connection to Colorado, being a Denver Broncos fan (hey! We have two pretty neat football teams in our very own state!) or someone from California being a Green Bay Packers fan (again…THREE serviceable teams in that particular state).  Now, I hear what you’re out there saying: But Seth, didn’t you just say that sports were essentially meaningless?  Didn’t you compare them to soap operas?  If so, isn’t my choice to follow the Vancouver Canucks just like preferring “General Hospital” over “One Life to Live”?  Well, that’s a pretty good point, but you’re wrong.  One of the few socially relevant and culturally significant facets sports do afford us is the ability to help define our regional cultures, bring us temporarily and intensely together as citizens of a common area, form loose bonds out of otherwise unrelated people, and energize regions and cities with not only economic growth and civic pride, but a kind of localized patriotism which, even though it arises from games that in reality mean nothing, it serves to define us as people from a certain place, with a certain history and tradition.  Once you have bought into this artificial but nonetheless powerful facade, you become part of the tapestry of the history of a place and culture.  And you want to go and just…like some team colors?  For a team that is from a place you’ve never been, and which you know next-to-nothing about??? That is NOT like choosing one soap opera over another, it’s like watching static on a screen while “Gone With the Wind” is on the other channel.  Put some meaning into your meaningless sport, I don’t care how long you’ve “liked” the Yankees.

4.  My buddy Kyle knows a girl who is in a band called The Colourist, and it turns out, they might actually be on the cusp of being a legit famous band!  (how do we know they are going to be famous? You have seen them in a commercial! This commercial!) They are currently on tour opening for a band called The Naked and Famous, which is a band that is currently enjoying a fair amount of stardom, at least on the “indie rock” scene.  Anyway, Kyle, knowing my penchant for concert-going and thinking one or both bands might be down my alley, asked his friend who is in The Colourist (her name is Maya) if she could put me on the guest list for their upcoming show in Philly at the Trocadero, and she did!  So tomorrow night, I get to go see a rock show for free! Yay!  Now, I have not been able to really familiarize myself all that much with the material of either band, but the listening I have done, I like but don’t love.  Both bands do make, generally, the kind of music I like, but they seem to draw a bit more from pop influences than usually suits my taste, but again, I haven’t listened too much.  But I certainly like them enough to go see them play!  Thanks again for the hookup, Kyle!

Here are the songs I have liked most so far from The Colourist as well as The Naked and Famous:

O is the One that is Real

The dual concert of two of my favorite bands, Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket, is in two days, and even though I have exactly zero friends who are fans of both these bands (I know a few people who *kinda like* each one but no superfans), I have to get a few things out into the public sphere here.  I’ve been following both band’s setlists on this tour (here are Band of Horses’ and here are My Morning Jacket’s), and both bands are mixing up their setlists more than any band I’ve ever seen short of Pearl Jam, and I dare say that if they had PJ’s depth of catalogue, it would be even more extensive than Pearl Jam.  Band of Horses (BoH) and My Morning Jacket (MMJ) are mixing up their openers and closers a lot more than Pearl Jam ever has.

So, although my so-called friend Kyle once mercilessly mocked me in a blog entry of his for making entries like this, I feel compelled to put my wish list for both bands here, as well as my predictions for what will open and close each band’s sets.  Even though none of you are fans, if I am right or I get my wishlists, at least I can point back to this and say I did it!  And if I don’t, nobody will care, so it’s really win-win for me.

Band of Horses

Opener prediction:  Am I a Good Man
Closer prediction:  The Funeral

Top 3 wishlist:
–Evening Kitchen
–Compliments
–No One’s Gonna Love You More Than I Do

My Morning Jacket

–Opener prediction:  War Begun
–Closer prediction:  Steam Engine

Top 3 wishlist:

–O is the One that is Real
–Steam Engine (anywhere in the setlist will do)
–It’s About Twilight Now

And here is a sweet video of MMJ playing “Dancefloors” at Red Rocks a little over a week ago:

I will come to your house and I will be Vicky, alright.

Last night, I called my friend Kyle to try to help him with a phone problem he was having.  The first call unexpectedly went to voicemail, and I thought I’d leave him an interesting one.  Using something like a cartoonish gangster 50s-era Brooklyn accent, I went on a long, stream-of-consciousness tirade that made almost no sense.  I’m certain it wasn’t comedy gold—perhaps just a little interesting.  But it got funny when Kyle e-mailed me a little later saying that Google Voice had transcribed the message, or at least, what it THOUGHT it had heard.  I suppose the program was confused by the accent and the speed at which I spoke.  The transcription is below.  It is amazing just HOW wrong it is.  I said almost none of these words.  (interestingly, I didn’t even say the names it uses!  I think the only name I said was Frank).  The only words I recognize as having used are Frank, Pickles, Key, and Meet.  Thanks, Google Voice, for a great laugh!

Bill, Wayne Anderson. Here there buddy there, but I’m lying Towers guy. They’re, weighing fishermen. Frank this a number that is exactly the other day and I was walking around the world of Pickles and i was like in the building another. The because of the been fickle. Look, I don’t know from the close. What I’m trying to sell used. I don’t have the key it in the comment tonight. Alright, I can meet today without the key. You know I don’t know where you live. I don’t know what I mean. I don’t know what the story. I don’t know whether golf balls well, but I don’t know if you knew and I. If you wanna. I had to go out to the possibly work with Chef and you wanted to add. I will come to your house and I will be Vicky, alright, do a complete and clear one alright. Bye bye.

 

Here’s my buddy Kyle’s top ten movies of 2011 list.  Click or…I don’t know.  Something bad will happen to you.  Ever seen “The Monkey’s Paw”?  Yeah, bad shit like that.

Believe it or not!

1.  I almost forgot to mention, about my recent trip home:  I had more fun riding around aimlessly in a car with my momma for two hours than I would have had on a round-the-world cruise.  Pure bliss. 

2.  I stopped for dinner at this small town of Zelienople for dinner yesterday.  I Facebook’d and Tweeted it just because I thought it was a cool town name and a rather adorable tiny, town-that-time-forgot kinda place.  And of course 6 of my FB friends replied that they knew the town, and it led me eventually to IMDB and finding out that it was one of the filming locations of the original “Night of the Living Dead” (and a few other movies)…kinda crazy!  Now I’ll have to go back sometime on purpose to sightsee the filming locations!

3.  I love this line from a song by The Band:  “Life is a carnival, believe it or not.”  Ha!  That shit is funny.

4.  I am very annoyed that my buddy Kyle mentioned Tim Allen’s ubiquitous voice-over presence in a blog entry before I could.  I’ve been bitching about it IRL for months!

5.  Just about every day lately, I am reminded of this great line from one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most famous short stoires, “Harrison Bergeron”, which is set in the year 2081:  “April, for instance, still drove people crazy by not quite being spring-time.”  Good to know this was a problem in the fifties, when the story was written, and will continue to plague folks well into the 2080s.

In an effort to make the “You Would Not Survive a Vacation Like This” blog post a little shorter, I did not include the photos that I took in the countryside around my dad’s house in Newville.  So now here some of them are:

 

 

 

Kyle knocks one out of the park…

My homeslice Kyle just made and posted this HILARIOUS video.  He’s a true talent.  Watch and pass it on to your bretheren, let’s make it a YouTube sensation!

(as a reminder, don’t watch this using Internet Explorer; yes, even WordPress now knows there’s a problem with IE and YouTube playing via embedding.  Any other browser seems to be fine, though)

The blog post where I mention everyone I know who already has an existing “tag” on my blog, so I can tag them again and insert a useful or ridiculous link to them.

1.  Oh hi, billhanna.  I see you ‘liked’ goatees on Facebook yesterday.  Our adversarial relationship about facial hair will continue to the grave.  THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE!

  2.  Anyone who knows Tasha, check out the link, she just got a radical new haircut!  I love it!

3.  I have quite few friends who are talented musicians—one of them is the great Bootney Lee (real name Ryan Straub).  I double-dare you to click on the link and check his music out.

4.  Guess who I’m going to see next month, as the three of us meet up in central New York for a Hey Rosetta! show???  Well that would be none other than my life-long buddies Paul and Davey!  (he’s Chris Davey, but we call him Davey).  This is going to be exceptional as it’s been a few years since we were together, all 3 of us.  And did I mention it’s a Hey Rosetta show???  I still haven’t seen them live–the shows I was supposed to go to awhile back had to be skipped because life is like that.  I am uber pumped for this!

5.  It has been way too long since I tagged my friend Amanda.  I mean that just like it sounds, too. 

6.  You know who rules?  My mom!  She just quit smoking!!! Raise the roof!

7.  I’m still tickled pink about the Doctor Strange drinking glass that Tony Magni gave me as a going away present when I moved to Erie.  Thanks Tony! 

8.  My friend Denise has a very under-appreciated photo blog.  Click to link to check it out!!!  She’s way talented!

9.  The lovely Sarah P. has just had a baby! Huzzah!  She doesn’t have any sort of online presence so I’ve linked to a picture of Big Ben, which is in England, which is where I met her!

10.  My dad is one cool mofo.  What’s my evidence?  Every single day I become more and more like him, and I am most definitely one cool mofo.  Dad, we are some cool dudes!

11.  I tag Ron all  the damn time, I aint saying anything about him!

12.  Big days for my buddy Burke, who has just started going back to school while also remaining a steadfast David Hasselhoff fan.  Kudos, wanker!

13.  I could probably talk about Mary all day, but I’m pretty sure she’d friend-disown me.  She dislikes scrutiny.

14.  My dear, dear friend Michael (that’s a lady named Michael) sent me the most lovely letter in the mail yesterday.  She sure is a freaking great friend!!  It was quite touching, it brought a tear to my eye.  Everyone should have a friend like Michael!

15.  California buddy Kyle is finally off the unemployment and working at a bank!!! Yay Kyle!  Now:  no more excuses for sneaking into movies, you heathen!

16.  My freaking cool-as-shit sister just got a job working at a law firm!  What what!  Dellingers can do anything!!!  Click the link to read her badass blog!

17.  Also in the world of talented musician friends of mine:  Duane, who records under the name DreamlandNoise.  Click the link for just a small sampling of his superb “space funk”.

18.  What to say about my girl Cory? She recently moved back to central PA, like, RIGHT after I left it.  *frown face*  She’s just the shiznit in every way, and is quite a talented artist.  I’ve linked to some of her art but you might not be able to see it if you’re not FB friends with her.  Which would be your loss.

Blog of a Thousand Links (or: The One Where I Announce Kyle and I are Engaged)

First of all, I didn’t proofread this entry, and I’m not going to, so there!

A week or so ago, my buddy Kyle and I agreed to send each other a mix disc and then write a blog on the specific songs on each other’s disc.  Kyle sent me a mix disc with a bunch of his favorite artists on it, and I sent him a mix of Hey Rosetta! songs—you know, that band I won’t shut up about and which  the most attractive woman I’ve ever dated says makes me a “hipster” (I’m just playing around Kiwi, my feelings weren’t hurt).

Kyle wrote his blog about the Hey Rosetta disc yesterday, and you can read that here.   I implore you to read it; Kyle is a very entertaining blogger, and I hear he’s hilarious when he takes Ritalin rectally. 

So anyway, I’ll now review what I thought of the songs on Kyle’s mix disc, track-for-track, and I shall pull no punches.  I may savage a few of these, but at the same time, please know that anything I say I liked, I quite genuinely did.  First off, I’ll just show you the track listing:

1.  Elton John, “Funeral For a Friend/ Love Lies Bleeding”
2.  Stevie Wonder, “All Day Sucker”
3.  X Posed, “Point of No Return”
4.  Parliament, “Night of the Thumpasaurus People”
5.  Lady Gaga, “Speechless”
6.  Tom Waits, “Falling Down”
7.  Stevie Wonder, “Blame it on the Sun”
8.  Meat Loaf, “You Took the Words Right Out of my Mouth”
9.  Elton John, “Roy Rogers”
10.  My Brightest Diamond, “From the Top of the World”

 

1.  Elton John, “Funeral For a Friend/ Love Lies Bleeding”

So this is one of those 2 song dealies where one bleeds into the other and they are both one track (but not like a suite–they are clearly seperate songs) and boy howdy, Kyle picked a great way to open this disc!  “Funeral”, especially, is very much my type of music.  It’s instrumental, and very much a combination of rock and classical music, and very foreboding and dark and ominous.  This is very close to the sub-genre of rock I like very much, Post Rock.  I did not know Mr. John had anything like this.  I love it, but I doubt there’s more of it.  “Love Lies Bleeding” I found to be an above-average Elton John song but it lacks enough drama or cajones to be following on the heels of “Funeral for a Friend”.  Although, it has given me a deeper appreciation of the Fuel song “Hemorrhage (in My Hands)”, which I like very much and I now see directly references this song.  (sidenote:  Fuel are noted Elton John fans.  Never heard their cover of “Daniel”?  Please do.)

2.  Stevie Wonder, “All Day Sucker”

OK people, listen here, this song rules.  And I was not prepared for that.  I’ve never even thought for a split second about paying any attention to Stevie Wonder. Now, I must say, the reason I like this as much as I do is because it is very close to being a “rock” song.  It’s got crunchy guitars and a rock-and-roll growl to it, as well as a certain swagger in the lyrics.  It is, at the very least, rock-centric funk, and I like it’s balls.  Listen to the 30 second preview of the song here.

3.  X posed, “Point of No Return”

This is actually a pretty famous 80s tune.  It’s one of those songs that gets in your head and is really catchy and fun, but definitely not my thing.  I’d say what it lacks, for me, is any even minor attempt at lyrical substance.  I know this is a point where Kyle and I’s tastes begins to differ, but if there are words in a song, I want at least a little meat on them.  It can even be, like, buffalo wings amount of meat (for instance, I still like The Bloodhound Gang) but there’s gotta be more than a few phrases thrown around for repetition’s sake.  If you don’t have anything to say, make an instrumental!  And good God, it is at least a full minute too long!

4.  Parliament, “Night of the Thumpasaurus People”

Now this is good shit.  While I’m no total stranger to Parliament (when I was a young man I once bought George Clinton’s solo album Smell My Finger and used the songs off that album as the soundtrack to my now legendary film “Kiteman”.  Since then I’ve always been quite curious about what came before that in Clinton’s career), I must say I was a total newbie to this song, and I love it!!!!  It is classic dirty, swinging funk with almost no words, but the chanted nonsense refrain will worm it’s way into your brain and lodge itself in there until you hit the “repeat” button on your stereo.  If you are a person who is alive you will want to watch this YouTube video.

5.  Lady Gaga, “Speechless”

I quite honestly continue to have no idea what to think about Lady Gaga.  Once performers begin referencing culture, and the fame they themselves attain, and start doing things like spectacle for specatacle’s sake or dressing funny, I frankly have no idea what’s going on.  Is the music good or do we just think it’s good?  Is this person interestng or do we just think they’re interesting (and that, in turn, makes them interesting)?  Does it matter that she wore something bizarre (and if it didn’t matter, why’d she do it?)?  I am not bothered by any of this, and do not “hate” on her like many others do, but I sort of throw my hands up about it because it hurts my head and I don’t really care about it all.  Every song I’ve heard of hers isn’t bad at all, but it doesn’t knock my socks off either.  This song, “Speechless”, is an OK song, but I can’t say as I can hear it my head right now, either.  Her image and what she’s trying to do, culturally, naturally remind us all of early Madonna, but I’m not hearing a “Like a Virgin” or “Like a Prayer” sort of scorcher coming from Gaga.  “Speechless” needs something like a tempo change or big, classic hook to shoot it into the rarefied air she seems to be reaching for.

6.  Tom Waits, “Falling Down”

I already have Kyle to thank for introducing me to Tom Waits in the first place and he’s quickly becoming one of my favorite artists.  And “Falling Down” is one of my new favorites.  Haunting, visceral, yet plain and straight-forward, this is the sort of song that can compliment any mood while also turning that mood into a mini-cry fest. (I’m not gay)

7.  Stevie Wonder, “Blame it On the Sun”

I wasn’t as thrilled with this one as I was with the other Stevie song, but I do dig the lyrics and the arrangement; it was just a tad sleepy for me.  I think if kept at the same tempo but added an acoustic guitar to the mix, I’d be much happier (what IS that stringed instrument that’s in ther already?  A harp?)

8.  Meat Loaf, “You Took the Words Right Out of My Mouth”

Sorry dude.  I just really don’t like Meat Loaf, and this song is no exception.  His songs are jokes that think they’re serious, and trifles that think they’re epics.  I mean, the lyrics to this song–which you can tell Mr. Loaf takes quite seriously–read like the poem of an 8th grade girl.  Sure, there’s a couple neat tricks, but nothing that qualifies for inclusion in the canon with great songwriters.  And then this cutesy line about her taking the words out of his mouth “while you were kissing me”—I mean what is this, Motown?  Is this a song by The Platters? And you can tell he thinks it’s clever because he sings it 35 times.  I call shenanigans.  And musically it just sounds like another Meat Loaf tune.  (sorry dude, I told you I hate Meat Loaf!)

9.  Elton John, “Roy Rogers”

Now here is a great song!!!  Just good, classic, mid-tempo thoughtful and intelligent rock.  It’s getting better the more I hear it and I think I may end up claiming it as one of my favorite songs if I keep liking it this much more very day.  Thank you Kyle for introducing me to it!!!  I’d say more but it’s kinda amazing.  Read the lyrics here and hear it here.   You will not regret doing these things!

10.  My Brightest Diamond, “From the Top of the World”

This is a great song and I suspect this band is great, too.  I’m almost ashamed I didn’t already know about them.  Right down my alley.  It’s got that dark, Indie-rock sound I’ve found so favorable in bands like The Walkmen, Islands, The National, among others, except My Brightest Diamond boasts a female vocalist, which is rare in this particular sub-genre and which I like very much.  Watch the official video.  I’ll definitely be looking more into them Kyle!  Thanks for introducing me to them as well as quite a few other great things on this disc, as well as cementing my belief that Meat Loaf is a total fucking hack!  Until next time everyone, peace in the Middle East!

Seth’s Favorites of 2009: Movies

Other favorites of 2009:

Documentaries
Music
Concerts
Magazines
Poetry
Television

Well, it is finally time to announce my favorite movies of 2009.  I have to do it today, because the Oscar nominations get announced tomorrow and I don’t want to be affected by that.

There are alot of movies I wish I’d gotten to see before making this list.  They include:  “Crazy Heart”, “A Single Man”, “The Last Station”, “The Messenger” and “The Lovely Bones”, among others.  Even without having seen those, I still was unable to narrow my list down to 10 (I don’t know how those real critics do it!)—and remember, this is without any documentaries!

Stay tuned after the list for a brief list of I don’t understand why everyone loved these movies movies, as well as a run-down of every movie I saw in theaters this year.  Without further ado, my list:

15.  Lymelife

A nice melding of Ang Lee’s “The Ice Storm” and David Green’s “Snow Angels”, it would be easy to dismiss “Lymelife” as just another tart exploration of the American Dream gone bad.  And that’s what it is, but I really am a sucker for this sub-genre.

14.  Sunshine Cleaning

Three cheers for great roles for women, please!  Funny, heartbreaking, multi-faceted, important roles for women!

13.  Precious

I’ll tell ya, you gotta work really hard to make me identify with an obese, inner-city illiterate black girl.  But “Precious” manages it.  Quite a few times throughout the movie, I thought to myself–I’ve been there.  Quite an accomplishment considering, in the literal sense, I’d been nowhere near there at all.  Major kudos for using the micro to show the macro.

12.  An Education

A lot of attention is being heaped on Carey Mulligan’s performance—and it IS great—but being mostly ignored is Peter Sarsgaard, who has the ungratifying role of the conflicted rogue.  Unexpectedly, I ended up feeling as bad for him as I did for Mulligan.  Here’s a good Sarsgaard clip.  Watch how he acts with his face:

11.  Up in the Air

George Clooney.  Jason Reitman.  Jason Bateman.  Sam Eliot.  Zack Galifinakis.  Vera Farmiga.  Danny McBride.  Anna Kendrick.  OK?

10.  In the Loop

Read my full length review.

9.  Away We Go

It would be possible to watch “Away We Go” and think that nothing much happens.  And, to an extent, you’d be right.  It’s a quiet little movie about the simple complexities of a romance—and part of the fun of watching it quietly unfold is the knowledge that the people behind the film are not who you’d have expected to make “Away We Go” (Sam Mendes and Dave Eggers), and that makes it all the more surprising in it’s simplicity.

8.  Inglourious Basterds

Tarantino.  Nazis.  Fake history.  Long dialogue patches followed by bursts of action and violence.  Tasty.

7.  Drag me to Hell

I know, I know—not exactly typical year-end best-of list  material.  But I can’t remember the last time I saw a horror movie that so perfectly balanced it’s tone, and knew precisely what it wanted to be.  And the final scene—and the look on Justin Long’s face—won’t be leaving me any time soon.  Harrowing, yet slightly…funny.  (on purpose)

6.  The Road

I read the book.  I loved it.  Then Mary read the book and hated it (for stylistic purposes, not plot).  She convinced me.  Now the book annoys me, too.  But I still had great affection for the plot (plus Nick Cave  did the soundtrack!), so I still eagerly attended the film.  And it is amazing.  Visually, aurally, emotionally, performancely.  (<—haha)  A tender, sweeping mini-epic.  Watch some clips.

5.  A Serious Man

The Coen brothers’ latest effort had me on unsure footing for most of the film.  Was this good?  What was this about?  Was this a rejected episode of Freaks and Geeks? Then, the final two sequences (about 4 minutes of film) happened, the credits rolled, and I was left, jaw agape, until the theater lights came up.  Those two sequences retroactively inform the entire film preceeding it in a way that is the indie drama equivalent to the twist ending of The Sixth Sense. Spellbinding.

4.  The Hurt Locker

Read my full-length review.

3.  Goodbye Solo

As far as I’m concerned, this is the overlooked movie of the year.  No one famous is attached to it, and not much happens—though what does happen, I really shouldn’t say.  The main conceit of the film is, of itself, a considerable spoiler (and yes, this film has a release date in 2008, but it didn’t commercially release until 2009).  If I were a member of the Academy (why aren’t I?), Red West and Souleymane Sy Savane would both be up for Best Actor awards.  I implore you to watch it if the opportunity ever presents itself.

2.  (500) Days of Summer

I avoided this one for quite some time.  I thought it looked like Garden State but even quirkier (note:  I like Garden State).  When I finally Netflixed it after it’s DVD release, I was blown away.  This is pretty much the ultimate “relationship” movie. It’s not cynical, but it is realistic; Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson, this is not.  And yet, it is a romantic comedy, just not for idiots.  I felt, in turns, uplifted, dispirited, entertained, joyous, reassured, and knowing.  It’s still an idealized version of a real romance, which is a lot better than an unreal version of an idealized romance.  Once of the first movies I felt compelled to buy on BluRay at full price.

1.  Where the Wild Things Are

Pretty much a game-changer for me.  Now definitely my favorite movie, period.  I really didn’t know movies could be like this, could affect me like this, could be so many different things all at the same time.  It’s a polarizing movie—lots of people feel just like me, while an equal amount are just kinda like…”Meh.”  Of course, it’s got to be that way.  Nothing can hit everyone the same way (and thank goodness, or the world would have stopped the week WtWA was released, for I was a damned mess.) Also, please note that novelist Dave Eggers also wrote this screenplay (in addition to “Away We Go”), so he’d damn well better get recognized for something at this year’s Oscars. Watch the clip:

I Don’t Understand Why Everyone Loved These Movies

1.  District 9—seriously, what are you guys watching?  This movie is baaaad. It even has a serious—SERIOUS and GLARING—problem with it’s narrative style (switches from first to third person).  And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Bad.

2.  Avatar—it’s not horrible, but then again, it’s really nothing special.  The story is a mish-mash rehash of countless other movies (I could predict the plot without trying, and it hit it’s action beats so predictably, 10 people got up to pee at the same time in the theater I was in), the special effects really aren’t that great, and all the alien-language subtitles are in puke yellow Papyrus font.

3.  Julie and Julia—everyone is just loving the shit out of Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Julia Childs, but I found it so impressionist and comical I took the DVD out after 45 minutes.

Movies I Saw in the Theater

My buddy Kyle has been doing this thing for the past few years where he keeps track of every movie he sees in the theater, what the date was, where he saw it, and whether he give sit a thumb up or a thumb down.  See Kyle’s 2009 theater movies here.  This is another exercise like my 100 Favorite Bands where, you’re right—you have no compelling reason to care about this list, but I, naturally, find it quite compelling, and if you are a heavy theater-goer as I am, I think you’d find doing this quite interesting (and I’d love to read yours next year!)  It’s interesting to see the trends (time periods where I favored certain theaters), and you ‘ll even see I go through times when I like to go see movies I know will be bad.  Sometimes, I just like being in a movie theater!!  These are just for calendar year 2009, so some of my above 15 Favorite movies, which I saw in early 2010, won’t see light of day until next year’s list.  In a few instances, I forgot to record the date, so I left it blank rather than hazard a guess.  Here it is:

1.  Slumdog Millionaire, Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
2.  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
3.  Happy-Go-Lucky, Carlisle Independent, thumbs down
4.  Valkyrie, Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
5.  Defiance, Carlisle Regal, thumbs…eh…down, if I have to make a decision
5. Let the Right One In, (1/28), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
6.  Milk, (2/1),   Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
7.  Frost/Nixon, (2/1), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
8.  The Reader, (2/2), Harrisburg Midtown, thumbs up
9.  The Wrestler, (2/8) Harrisburg Regal (Hoyts), thumbs up
10.  Friday the 13th (2009 version), (2/16), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down
11.  The International, (2/26), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
12.  Watchmen, Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
13.  Wolverine, Colonial Park 4, thumbs up
14.  Star Trek, (5/12), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
15.  Terminator Salvation, (5/28), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
16.  Forbidden Lie$, (5/28), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
17.  Night at the Museum 2, (6/1), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
18.  Drag me to Hell, (6/4), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
19.  Land of the Lost, (6/14), Colonial Park 4, thumbs down
20.  Bruno, (6/24), Colonial Park 4, thumbs down initially, recently changed to thumbs up
21.  Year One, (7/20), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
22.  Public Enemies, (7/27), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
23.  Funny People, (8/13), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs down
24.  GI Joe, (8/16), Carlisle Regal, thumbs waaay down
25.  Inglourious Basterds, (8/24), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
26.  The Hurt Locker, (9/17), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
27.  Zombieland, (10/3), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
28.  Il Divo, (10/4), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
29.  In the Loop, (10/10), Carlisle Independent, thumbs up
30.  Surrogates, (10/13), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
31.  Where the Wild Things Are, (10/19), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
32.  Where the Wild Things Are, (10/20), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
33.  Capitalism: A Love Story, (10/25), Harrisburg Midtown, thumbs up
34.  Where the Wild Things Are, (10/26), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
35.  The Stepfather, (10/26), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down
36.  Where the Wild Things Are, (10/28), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
37.  Paranormal Activity, (10/28), Carlisle Regal, thumbs up
38.  The Fourth Kind, (11/9), Flagship Cinemas Mechanicsburg, thumbs down
39.  The Box, (11/9), Flagship Cinemas Mechanicsburg, thumbs down
40.  A Serious Man, (11/10), Harrisburg Midtown, thumbs up
41.  Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, (11/13), Cinema Center of Camp Hill, thumbs up
42.  Old Dogs, (12/8), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down
43.  Invictus, (12/19), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down
44.  The Road, (12/24), Harrisburg Regal (Hoyts), thumbs up
45.  Avatar (12/25), Carlisle Regal, thumbs down

Blogging the Night Away

Last night, my friend Kyle got drunk on rum, watched movies, and fucked around on the internet, blogging his thoughts on what he was seeing/doing.  It looked like marvelous self-indulgent fun, so of course I’m doing it now! (except I’ll be drinking generic diet Dr. Pepper and various coffee products instead of rum!)

Tonight is a “Seth-time” night–I shut out the outside world and treat my apartment and everything in it like an amusement park.  It’s not very often I get to fully enjoy all this crap I’ve got in here!  Most of you will not be the least bit interested by this blog post, so I apologize in advance, but it’s gonna be fun for me, so take a flying leap!  Also, I’ll be editing it throughout the night and adding to it, so check back!

7:30pm: I’m halfway through “Citizen Ruth”, the first movie by Alexander Payne (of “Election”, “About Schmidt” and “Sideways” fame).  Kyle himself chose this movie for me by randomly picking a number (237) and then I counted to that number in my personal DVD collection.  “Citizen Ruth” is a dark comedy about the hilarious issues of abortion, addiction, the religious right, and moral certitude.  I know, hilarious, right?!  But it IS, somehow, and also very, very issue oriented.  I haven’t watched it for probably a year, and am now reminded of why I bought it.  As a rule, I very much dislike Laura Dern (what with her association with David Lynch), but in “Citizen Ruth”, Dern does an AMAZING job portraying this very tortured woman (she’s addicted to huffing paint) who’s had 4 kids taken from her and is being pressured to abort her current fetus, when she becomes a national poster woman for anti-abortion…and then the poster woman for choice…and back and forth and back and forth, all the while Dern continues to skirt the line between intense emotion and light-heartedness…as much as I dislike her, she deserved an Oscar nom for this.

Here’s a scene from the movie that perfectly illustrates how it is played both tragic and comic simultaneously:

7:45pm: Cracking open the first Diet Dr. Thunder (wal-mart brand) of the night.  I really do love this shit.  I don’t buy it for economic reasons.  I actually prefer it to the real deal now.  I have cans tonight, but I usually have 2 liters.  Wal-Mart was actually OUT of the 2 liters last night!

7:47pm: Ruth Stoops (Laura Dern) who is about to enter an abortion clinic but is waiting for some protesters to leave, just said “I wish I could take a dump.”

8:02pm: Just took the trash out.  Why do I always insist in doing this in just my socks, when I know full well that the stone parking lot hurts my feet?  I’ve always had very sensitive feet.

8:04pm: Just cracked open the newest Time magazine.  What is this stuff about New Jersey residents protesting Gaddafi?  This seems weird.  I’m gonna get to the bottom of this.

8:07pm: The anti-abortion woman who is attempting to win Ruth to their position just accused Ruth of being addicted to “smelling drugs”.

8:12pm: Perusing the latest TV Guide (that’s right, I get TV Guide) to see if I want to put on the TV or another movie after “Citizen Ruth” is over.  PBS’s History Detectives is looking pretty good.  Anyone ever seen that show?  It’s sooooooo intriguing!  But that is really the only thing coming on a 9:00 that seems worth my time.

8:14pm: Oh man!!!  Burt Reynolds makes his hilarious entry into “Citizen Ruth”!  Gotta love this character!

8:35pm: Just read about this curious phenomenon in Time:  Putpockets.

8:36pm: Flirting on Facebook.

8:54pm: Eating a can of Hormel chili.  Interesting story about me and chili:  about 2 years ago, my friend Mary and I were eating at the restaurant Chili’s.  I was very, very hungry, and was talking about having an appetizer of some kind, at which point Mary says I might as well have some chili, since I always eat chili.  I was astounded!  Sure, I’ve eaten chili in my life, but I’ve never been a chili “fan”, or, as far as I can remember, ever eaten chili in front of Mary before that moment.  I protested, but she insisted that I always ate chili.  Well, wouldn’t you know it, almost immediately after that night, I DID become a big fan of chili, and now I usually have one or two cans in my apartment at all times.  This, of course, always looks to Mary as though she were right all along!  I can in no way convince her that I was not a chili fan before that night!  Also: on my second can of Diet Dr. Thunder.

9:00pm: I’ve opted to watch History Detectives.

9:13pm: That chili was delish!!  And this episode of History Detectives is boring!  (enough WWII already, History Detectives!).  I’m going to step out of the apartment briefly to take some pictures of Carlisle at night.

10:00pm: Back from taking pictures.  Didn’t get a lot of good shots, but I should have: it’s “big trash day”, when people can put couches and refrigerators and all kinds of big stuff out on the sidewalk to be taken away.  However, my limited-ability camera made capturing anything great very difficult.  here are my favorites:

10:16pm: It is apparently impossible to not have these words snake around the pictures.  No matter how hard I try, they won’t simply appear BELOW the pictures.  Consider that my rant for the evening.  Now:  I’m well aware of how this sounds, but I’m now going to put on my vinyl copy of Godspeed You Black Emperor’s album Yanqui U.X.O., light some incense, and read some poetry.  This is going to rule.  Looks like the poet of the night is…Robert Creeley, who rules. Also, when the song “Motherfucker=Redeemer” plays, I am going to play air guitar on a golf club (which I guess is actually golf club guitar) during the 10-minute crescendo.

10:27pm: Texting Joni, who just sprained her wrist.

10:34pm: Internet and cable TV go down, not changing my plans at all, but preventing me from keeping you all updated for a second!

10:44pm: Play air guitar on a golf club, as promised, during the crescendo to “Motherfucker=Redeemer”.  If you have a spare 20 minutes and some patience, you can listen to the song here.  But that is only part one of the song.

11:25pm: Am astounded by one of these Creeley poems I must have always missed:

The Answer
by Robert Creeley

Will we speak to each other
making the grass bend as if
a wind were before us, will our

way be graceful, as
substantial as the movement
of something moving so gently.

We break things in pieces like
walls we break ourselves into
hearing them fall just to hear it.

11:33pm: Making a marshamallow latte.  There’s no actual marshmallows involved; I have marshmallow Torani syrup.  It’s just like a caramel latte except it tastes like marshmallow.  It’s fantastic!  And it sucks typing marshmallow that many times!  Also, smoking another one of these cigars I bought for the birth of Paul’s daughter…uh-oh.  Am I starting to like cigars?

11:48pm: Texting Sarah about music, and still texting Joni, but now about waffles.  Putting Radiohead’s Kid A on the turntable.  This is one of my only vinyls where I can notice the difference in sound quality on the vinyl.

Midnight: Holy shit, “National Anthem” on Kid A is making me move!  Currently dancing around my living room, singing into a golf club…keep moving the needle back again and again…this song has got me stuck in it’s groove!

12:20am: I’ve made a commitment to essentially stage a fake concert here in my living room to the entire Kid A album.  I’m getting sweaty and this latte isn’t helping!  “Idioteque” is blowing my mind and it’s getting difficult to not make the record skip!

12:54: Marshmallow latte #2.  I might not go to bed tonight.  Been awhile since I saw a sunrise…hmmmm…???  I’m gonna let Pandora radio play my Post-Rock station and read some of the Stephen King book I started today, Lisey’s Story.

1:10am: I’ve tried starting this King book a few times now over the last six months, and I just cannot get into it.  Is it, perhaps, that this is the one millionth book King has written about a writer?  This is feeling a bit worn to me.  Plus, the last King book I read before this one, Duma Key (which was about a PAINTER!) felt exactly like this book at the beginning; it seems I’m reading the same book twice–and Duma Key was barely scary at all!  I’m afraid to let myself spend that long (these are loooooong books) on a non-scary, mediocre book again.  But I shall try.  Back to the book!

1:35am: Am totally ambushed by a MySpace Instant Message (that’s right, I was on MySpace!) by one of my friends who insists they have a hilarious YouTube video to show me.  I relent, and they are right, it is hilarious!  See for yourself:

1:38am: E-mailing back and forth with Joni trying to decide on what her new hairstyle will be…I vote for number 1 or number 4.  I think number 1 will be especially amazing on her…it fits her face perfectly.  Do you think I can utilize every single one of my existing blog tags in this single entry?  Probably not, but the tags are getting ridiculous!

1:45am: I just gave Kyle and opportunity to select my next movie for me through the random number system again, but he dropped the ball and signed off Facebook, and Mary jumped at the chance.  She chose number 267 (weird, since earlier Kyle chose 237), and that movie is “Dragonslayer”!  Badass.  This is an old-school movie about…well…killing dragons, back when special effects were still mainly stop-motion and models.  But that doesn’t take away from this movie at all.  It is still VERY creepy in places.  This is another one I haven’t seen in a long time.  Makes me remember my childhood.  For some reason it seems I watched this alot when I was little.  I remember it influencing my “play”…it really sparked my imagination!

1:54am: Bowl of Boo Berry cereal and a diet Dr. Thunder.

2:13am: Between Mary and Kyle, I am having my ass Facebooked off!  Also wondering whatever happened to Peter MacNicol’s film career?  He’s the bomb in “Dragonslayer”, and then he was in…”Sophie’s Choice”, I believe?…I suppose he’s had some success in TV though.  Oh man, MacNicol is entering the dragon’s cave for the first time…this is so tense!

2:50am: Oh man I forgot about this little monster that jumps out of the hole in the cave!  It scared the crap out of me!  It’s a fierce baby dragon!

2:55am: All the lights out and some incense going for the big fight scene.  I might pee my pants!

3:02am: OMG there’s that fucking dragon.  That fucking dragon is popping up right behind Peter MacNicol…you can see it’s reflection in the pool of water.  Now you can see the steam from it’s breath!  This dragon ain’t nothing to fuck with!

3:23am: So ends “Dragonslayer”…so glad Mary picked that one!  And it seems that now just about everyone is asleep…and yet I am wide awake, perhaps owing to my marshmallow lattes.  I’m going to go cut my hair.

3:37am: Mid-cut:

3:45am: Haircut complete.  That’s right, I can give myself a haircut in under ten minutes!  Finished haircut:

Yes, it's true, I look like ass here. I blame it on my overhead flourescent light.

3:55am: Next up, I’m going to rock out a little bit more…I had so much fun earlier jumping around my living room!  This time, it’s gonna be Modest Mouse’s We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Then after that, it’s been decided (by Kyle again, by random number) that I’ll be watching the film “Matchstick Men.”  OK…let the Modest Mouse begin!

4:32am: Nobody can sing like Isaac Brock, lead singer of Modest Mouse.  Now, I’m not saying he’s a good singer–far from it.  In fact, most of the time, he barely sings at all.  It’s more a an in-key snarl.  But nobody else does it. Alot of the time, he actually laughs the words.  he laugh-sings words!  WTF?  It’s amazing and crazy.  Totally sweaty from jumping around my living room pretending to be Isaac Brock.

4:44am: I have elected to skip “Matchstick Men”, as “Needful Things” is on Starz, and I’ve not seen it before.  Also, I have elected to watch this movie while laying down in an attempt to sleep eventually, even though I am not tired yet, and I don’t have to be up for anything tomorrow, now seems as good a time as any to hit the reset button, although I’ll probably become engrossed in the movie and be up until 6 anyway.  I hope somebody out there got some form of entertainment out of the endless blog.  Good night.

Some Sort of Contest Thing Which Must Be Some Kind of Honor

My buddy Joel, who writes a tremendous and wonderfully creative blog over at Write. Click. Cook. Listen, recently nominated me for some sort of blog award which, after I looked into it, seems to not really be an award, but some dude’s way of getting alot of people to look at his blog.  Regardless of it’s legitimacy, I’m honored that Joel chose to nominate me, as Joel is a very smart man and his blog is the bee’s knees.

However, since I have chosen to acknowledge the award, I am obligated to follow it’s somewhat strange rule of nominating five more people (which would seem to defeat the purpose to generating only the best nominations, and instead create a theoretically never-ending loop of diminishing returns).  Luckily, I know some people with incredible blogs, so they, too, should be pseudo-honored, and I am happy to do so.

1.  My sister Adrienne has a great blog, Yada Yada Yada, wherein she explores the humorous, poignant, and irreverent aspects of her home and family life, along with concise observations from everyday existence.

2.  My California-based internet homeslice Kyle dashes off some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever read over at Power Fantastic Blogs.  Ranging in topic from the life of a chronically jilted, love-lorn man, to self-assured political commentary, to opinionated film and media comment, Kyle is right down my alley, and is a better writer than he admits to himself.

3.  Jersey/Philly-based Angela‘s blog, Deus ex Machina, chronicles her experience in art school as well as some of her more obsessive interests, from evolution to memes to feedback loops.  This one’s a thinker, but wholly accessible.

4. Newly transplanted to NEW YORK CITY!, Teri writes about media and culture–and how they interact–at her almost-academic but entirely fun blog questioning…

5. April (still blogging at MySpace, so I’m not sure if everyone can see it) writes intensely personal entries which contain insight into not only her life, but everyone’s lives.  Her honesty and openness provide great jumping-off points for pondering issues about oneself.

All my nominess, if you are interested in participating in this almost-contest, see the rules here.

Shameless Plug

My friend Kyle posted his movies seen off the “1,001 Movies You Must See before You Die” over at his Power Fantastic Blogs.  Check it out.  Also, just check out the blog, he’s hilarious!