Pop Culture: March 2008 Archives

I had no idea there was a new R.E.M. record.  I'm pretty excited.  I can't say I was a huge fan of their last few albums but there were a couple of songs on them that I did play over and over again - I hope this one is a little more consistent.

(edit: it is, and it's consistently loud and fast and ultimately over in 35 minutes.  It's not bad, but I've always preferred the beauty of their ballads and the softer songs they've been experimenting with more recently.)

Although it didn't really poke fun at its (sports/romantic-comedy) genre like Pegg's previous movies had, I still enjoyed the movie simply for Simon's overacting and goofy faces.  The plot was obvious after the opening ten minutes of the film but the eccentric cast of characters made it a joy to watch, not to mention both girls in the movie are gorgeous (who in the world is India de Beaufort anyway?).

"For the last 11 miles, he's been running on a severely sprained ankle! Dennis, how do you feel?!"
"HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I FEEL??!"
"Ladies and gentlemen! What an inspiration!"

Ah, while we're here, forgot I rewatched this on Wednesday also after someone at work claimed their friend "lives their life by it". While I still maintain that it's a story of hope and the realization that love isn't effortless but ultimately worthwhile even if we are prone to making the same mistakes over and over, the characters are so horribly tragic that it's hardly a movie to take life cues from.  It also crossed my mind whether this girl who claims, "I apply my personality in a paste," and her relationship with a quiet but "nice" boy was similar to anyone we knew, but the Moores haven't seen this movie.

Clementine : Joel, I'm not a concept. Too many guys think I'm a concept or I complete them or I'm going to make them alive, but I'm just a fucked up girl who is looking for my own peace of mind. Don't assign me yours.
Joel : I remember that speech really well.
Clementine : I had you pegged, didn't I?
Joel : You had the whole human race pegged.
Clementine : Probably.
Joel : I still thought you were going to save me. Even after that.

Joel: [in the house on the beach] I really should go! I've gotta catch my ride.
Clementine: So go.
Joel: I did. I thought maybe you were a nut... but you were exciting.
Clementine: I wish you had stayed.
Joel: I wish I had stayed to. NOW I wish I had stayed. I wish I had done a lot of things. I wish I had... I wish I had stayed. I do.
Clementine: Well I came back downstairs and you were gone!
Joel: I walked out, I walked out the door!
Clementine: Why?
Joel: I don't know. I felt like I was a scared little kid, I was like... it was above my head, I don't know.
Clementine: You were scared?
Joel: Yeah. I thought you knew that about me. I ran back to the bonfire, trying to outrun my humiliation.
Clementine: Was it something I said?
Joel: Yeah, you said "so go." With such disdain, you know?
Clementine: Oh, I'm sorry.
Joel: It's okay.
[Walking Out]
Clementine: Joely? What if you stayed this time?
Joel: I walked out the door. There's no memory left.
Clementine: Come back and make up a good-bye at least. Let's pretend we had one.
[Joel comes back]
Clementine: Bye Joel.
Joel: I love you...

Joel : Wait.
Clementine : Why?
Joel : I don't know. Just wait... for a while.
Joel : I don't see anything I don't like about you.
Clementine : But you will! But you will, and I'll get bored with you and feel trapped, because that's what happens with me.
Joel : Okay.
Clementine : Okay.
Joel : Okay.

Just noting that I read it this weekend after my cousin suggested it way back.  It was a quick read and I enjoyed it though sometimes it's tough to stick around and root for a weak character with little virtue (other than his constant self-acknowledgment of this flaw) until he inevitably finds redemption in the final few chapters.

"She said, 'I'm so afraid.' And I said, 'Why?,' and she said, 'Because I'm so profoundly happy, Dr. Rasul.  Happiness like this is frightening.'  I asked her why and she said, 'They only let you be this happy if they're preparing to take something from you.'" (p.262)

"Zendagi migzara, Afgahns like to say: Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end, kamyab, nah-kam, crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis." (p.376)

I had a conversation with the coworker about how after listening to the recent Boyz II Men album of Motown hits, he realized he much prefers older music and how true songsmiths don't exist any longer (although he was careful to state his love for contemporary artists like Amy Winehouse and John Legend) since radio pop nowadays can't evoke the same kinds of feelings that songs did back when he was a child, the kinds of songs that can reveal new emotions to you that you had never experienced, and so forth.  I countered that this isn't surprising if one were to only listen to watered-down Top 40 hits, but that the simplicity of music publishing means that not only do we have access to a lot more music now than ever before (even if this also results in a larger amount of garbage).  We have specific genres and cross-over mashups that cater to every single niche one can imagine, even including artists like Stephin Merritt who are probably better known as lyricists than a vocal or live performer.  Coincidentally, I told him, he had even brought this up in the week of SXSW, one of the single largest music festivals in the world, and just happens to showcase international music talent that all have their own large followings but we've most likely never heard of, even in passing, unless it was from a friend's personal recommendation or from some indie rag.  The point being, radio won't find you the music you enjoy, particularly if you take music as seriously as he does - it'll only feed you what they believe the masses want to hear.

So on that note, I signed into last.fm today on a whim just to see how their social music networking and recommendation system performs.  I asked Hube to sign up too, if only to see how his pattern of j-pop crossed with 70's Americana might influence the system.  So far, I'm confused why it immediately grabbed my iTunes playlist from work, where the bulk of the songs are from my Alex Ross de-DRM'ing project over Christmas, but has neglected my playlist from home.  Still, I guess "overall results" will eventually normalize in time with the random mess of songs that are constantly playing at home.  Tonight, I'm just skimming through and listening to everything I haven't bothered with in months/years and catching up on new releases I've missed from bands I've enjoyed.  As Penny put it, "if you ever get lonely, you just go to the record store and visit all your friends..."

(find me here)

For $9.95, picked up a (now-defunct, yes yes yes) HD-DVD copy of Lost in Translation from Amazon.  It's become one of my favourite movies even if I find it personally devastating for several reasons.

None of which I want to talk about.

I remember the first thought I had about this movie was "I hope it isn't loosely tied together by random Oasis songs" followed closely by "I hope the soundtrack isn't horrible."  Romantic comedy named for an album, thus giving away its attempt at a musical core right on the cover?  I was just hoping it'd be roughly as good as About a Boy and maybe I won't feel like I wasted the time to (download) it.  Then the movie began with Reynolds walking down the street to Everyday People and, much as I enjoy the song, I began to worry since the triteness was already over the top and we weren't even through the opening credits.  As it turns out, though, the movie is clever and the soundtrack is actually fairly fantastic even if some of these songs are jarring when listened to adjacently.

All in all, the movie was clever.  Not particularly recommendable but it's fairly sincere where a chick flick is concerned.  As the daughter in the film puts it, it's a "love story mystery" with three stereotypical interests: the homely girl-next-door/childhood crush, the wise and world-weary city-girl and the wild, flighty, spontaneous girl with the heart of gold.  You can also expect all the usual love-story clichés where repeated poor timing where soul-baring revelations are concerned just drives the story around in circles from girl to girl, killing time when you've already figured out how the movie will end by the halfway mark.  Seriously, doesn't the boy always end up with the girl that convinces him to "oh, why not just practice your proposal with me?"  (edit: my colleague did point out that this did not come to pass in My Best Friend's Wedding.)

Still, the cast was pretty enough that it was easy watch, with Elizabeth Banks, Rachel Weisz and Isla Fisher as the objects of Ryan Reynolds' desire.  Other than the cringe-worthy overly-talkative moments where it drifts dangerously close to a bad Kevin Smith wannabe-romantic scene and the characters deem it worthwhile to explain everything obvious around them, it wasn't bad.  Ultimately, between Judd Apatow's comedies and Ryan Reynolds as a better-looking and better-acting Ben Affleck, I feel pretty awful for Kevin Smith who can't love watching all these movies that he wishes he had made (or were talented enough to make).  We'll see where hiring all the same talent gets him.

Going back and adding (good/bad) movies I watched, just to be complete.  I'll comment on them later if I feel like it.  For now, let's just say that if you're running from a ghost that has resulted in three of your closest friends leaping from high places, how about not running to the rooftop?

On second thought, I'm pretty sure I won't make any more comments about this movie.  (Most) horror movies are almost impossible to discuss since their only purpose is to provide some sort of visceral reaction towards the shocking images on screen.  In that sense, Shutter had its moments but it's really nothing to talk about.  My mind (nervously) processes the images quick enough that even while I'm spooked, I'm laughing at how ridiculous the image is on screen because, oh golly, how crazy and creepy is it that an undead ghoul is stealing my blankets from the foot of the bed!?

Still, it was fun.  Horror films are good once in a while, and foreign ones are definitely better than the hack and slash films we're used to.

Having always been a Nintendo fanboy (being an 80's video game fan pretty much requires you to love Nintendo, after all), I've always been worried that a time will come where they will be rendered entirely irrelevant by its competitors.  Its third-party support is non-existent by this point, its console games have long since reinvented the console into a mini-game/party-game system save for Zelda, which feels increasingly dated and rehashed with each successive version, and Mario, which somehow manages to reinvent its entire genre with each release (though, to be entirely honest, platforming is basically a dead genre altogether).  Yet, Nintendo stays ever successful reinventing its hardware much like its Mario franchise, by releasing the same old technology with different ways to play it.  Touch the DS!  Waggle your Wii!  Buy our product and we'll re-release the same old games you've always enjoyed!

Fortunately/unfortunately, Brawl proves to be the same old SSB game with barely a new coat of paint over its decade-old fighting system.  It now provides more characters, bonuses and useless single-player content than ever before but at heart, it's the same fighter that feels sluggish compared to the many other games that have spent shorter generations reinventing its combat system (take, for example, Team Ninja, which does nothing but perfect the 3d-fighter and lock-on system and builds multiple games around it).  Brawl does none of this, and just gives you what it's always promised.

With 35 playable characters across the Ninty universe (and more), a fanboy can't help but love this game.  I just wish I enjoyed it a little bit more.

(Friend Code: 0387-8489-2872)

The Raveonettes - Lust, Lust, Lust is a fine, fine album to listen to when running on the treadmill, especially where the first half of the album is concerned.  I'm not entirely sure what puts me in the mood for nondescript warbling over fuzzed-out guitars but everything from Hallucinations through Blush is gorgeous when feedback and distortion are all you want to sink into (and it certainly beats out the signal-to-nonsense ratio on the latest Magnetic Fields album).

That being said, I came back to my desk and popped in MBV instead.