Heart on a Stick
Very Close to, if not actually in, the CD player:
seen/heard ° listen ° available 10-28-08
seen/heard ° listen ° buy
seen/heard ° listen ° buy
Bubblegum Pop
posted 08/07/2006
Saw The Descent this weekend, and am rather glad I did. I really responded to how it embraced its B-movieness. It chugs along without hiding behind this-is-just-a-movie irony. It’s earnest and businesslike, and though some directorial finesse would have been nice on occasion, the concept and execution are good enough to pull you through.The plot – six female weekend warrior types go spelunking in an unexplored cave... and something’s down there – is barely dressed up with anything beyond of-the-moment conflict. There are two leads – hero and bitch, the latter more interesting and consistent than the former; the rest are there as meat, but aren’t really treated as such: Though everyone’s fit and trim (as lean as the exposition, which doesn’t try to explain the group’s mix of Yanks and Brits... or much else) they aren’t all siliconed out and otherwise dolled up.
The movie starts by suggesting Deliverance, and the first half or so is ruled by the natural mechanics of caving and (a la Blair Witch) the natural fear of the unseen. There’s an over-reliance on annoying boo-scares, there’s some cheap logic loopholes, there’s an awful ending (for which you can make legit logical excuses... but they’re still excuses). The second half is a lot of fun, both enjoyably ridiculous and scary, convincing. There’s very little digital hoodoo, and though there’s plenty of gorey gloop it doesn’t feel sadistic. Though Descent is serious and dark, it’s also dynamic and fun in a way Hollywood movies just aren’t.
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The girl sitting behind me in the theater thought the movie was called Decent.
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Finally finished dragging myself through Doug Coupland’s jPod; it was almost entirely awful. Coupland’s supposed to be good for one decent book every five years or so and, after the rimjob Cory Doctorow gave him, I thought this was going to be one of those. It isn’t. It’s cartoonish but unfunny. It’s flat, empty, useless. It was bad enough to make me afraid to re-read Generation X, of which I have fond memories, for fear that it, too, was this bad. Come to think of it, the only thing I took from Microserfs was the image of people shoving individually-wrapped slices of American cheese under a locked door.
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I saw no music, this weekend. I might not see any, this week. So there. If you want pics from Lollapalooza, Chromewaves has a pretty sharp Flickr set. Modern Age (who’s working overtime to shove this square peg into our lovely round lexicon) did The Warped Tour. Eats Dirt did this week’s McCarren Pool Party.
Because music’s all about photography. It’s like you’re there.
MisShapes? At the Warped Tour?
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Whoa. Someone go give HappyNews.com a hug.
(original)
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Speaking of, Crazy Melrose Place Guy posted a response of sorts. To clarify: We’re not watching him watching television. We’re watching him stare intently at nothing while he’s listening to television. Makes all the difference in the world.
Anyway, I think this is his most brilliantly creepy Melrose re-enactment yet.
Everyone enjoys a delicious beverage.
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If you’re ever really bored – and c’mon, you’re here, aren’t you? – and want to amuse/depress yourself, go lurk at the Elbo.ws Forum. There you can watch music bloggers ask such life-altering questions as, “How much of my soul can I sell for a free box of candy bars?” If you’ve ever suspected that people who choose to write about music are, fundamentally, unable to communicate, that link’s all the proof you’ll ever need.
This weekend, a rep from a label jumped in to fondle the bollocks of the couple dozen bloggers who congregate there and started two separate threads that got everyone’s pubes in a tangle. Unstoppable Force v. Immovable Object ain’t got nothing on Corporate Condescension v. Self-Righteous Indignation.
“How dare you invite me to your office in Midtown?!” Fucking hilarious.
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Speaking of authorial excellence, could there be a better way to end this Wikipedia entry?
“In 1983, Gordon was convicted of murdering his mother and was sentenced to 16 years to life in prison. He currently spends most of his time at Atascadero State Hospital.”
...where he enjoys hobbies such as racquetball, needlepoint and not-killing people.
Jim Gordon was a renowned drummer, but is probably most famous for composing the gorgeous second half of Derek & the Dominos’ “Layla;” when Eric Clapton excised Gordon’s portion of the song for his platinum-selling Unplugged album, the drummer went nuts over the missing royalties and took a machete to his mum.
Parts of that last paragraph are completely not true.
I bring all this up only to introduce this awesome Dictators song from their 2001 “comeback” record. It’s great Monday music and pretty much sums up everything I’ve been talking about, here. No, really, it does:
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One final, totally unrelated thing: The new Nina Gordon (no relation - see?) record, Bleeding Heart Graffiti, is streaming over at AOL... and it’s horrid. Even worse than the last one. There’s a song called “The Crickets Sound Like Sleigh Bells.” And it’s the best song on the record. Because it’s the shortest.
Nina, did someone deprogram the rock right out of you? You were in Veruca Fucking Salt. My grandmother would find this new shit boring, and she’s dead.
Doug Coupland music-blogged her to death. In a cave.
YES? YOU THERE IN THE BACK? (2)
1. mjrc left...
08/08/2006 11:39 am
two things. first, do you plan on seeing little miss sunshine? i want to
see it but it's not playing out here in the fringes of civilization.
second, i think you might be spending too much time watching ol' mark and
that's why you're not getting out to any shows. cut back, man, before it's
too late!
2. J____ left...
08/08/2006 2:13 pm :: http://heartonastick.blog-city.com/
No, no plans for LMS. Comedies that parade their quirks around really
aren't my cup of tea.