blogging update

so apparently minneapolis wi-fi is available a street over from where i live, but not on the street where i live. and it may take until summer for them to build a pole with a wireless router (or just outfit a currently existing pole with a wireless router). thus, my dreams of blogging more frequently may be dashed again for the time being, but i'll do what i can. i suppose i could just bring my laptop to a coffeehouse, get some tea, and mooch off of them but i refuse to be that guy. one, because that takes a lot of work. two, because this blog isn't that important to me. and three, because reasons looks best in threes.

i'll try to update occasionally but be aware my initial predictions are looking premature. booooooo USI Wireless and their partnership with the city of minneapolis. or as my grandmother says "poop on you."

CD Review: ERA VULGARIS

since the end of high school, my musical tastes began shifting away from hard rock toward rap and lighter indie rock. i still gave my rage against the machine and deftones albums plenty of burn but the hard rock afterward wasn't resonating with me. i would occasionally hear a song that seemed a little better or intriquing but, with my audio galaxy downloading days far behind me, i never felt like spending the twelve bucks to find out if an entire album was worthwhile.

one such song that exemplified this was "no one knows" by queens of the stone age. it contained a hooky guitar riff, shifts in tempo, a funky bass bridge, and amazing drumming (by nirvana and foo fighters alum dave grohl). it even had a fun music video.

that was it though. just a single song from a musical island until i bumped into some more queens of the stone age songs in the game rock band. each subsequent track i heard (and got to play) got the blood running with the same mixture of percussive forward force and clever guitar riff in a heavier environment than i had found with the franz ferdinands and the strokes of the world.

thanks to the minneapolis public library, i got my grubby paws on ERA VULGARIS. i noticed two songs from rock band ("3's & 7's" and "sick, sick, sick") as cuts i liked already and was pleased by the rest of the album. upbeat, but with enough tempo shifts to keep it interesting, qotsa (as i will refer to them henceforth) sublimate harder guitar effects into catchy songs. i don't know how to judge vocals apart from knowing whether they distract me from listening or not, and these do not. the two linked songs are fairly representative of the album as a whole save except for the great pace changer "make it wit chu." while the subject matter is puerile, the throwback funk influences add depth to an interesting album that might feel repititive otherwise.

after a whole album's worth, i still want to listen to more. thankfully, more is on the way. thanks again minneapolis public library!

Movie: SIDEWAYS

SIDEWAYS, directed by alexander payne, was the indie-sort-of-comedy darling at the oscars in 2005 sandwiched between the actually good indie-sort-of-comedy LOST IN TRANSLATION and the actually terrible indie-sort-of-comedy LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE.

everything i read about this movie prior to its release seemed like it would be something right up my alley. one of the director's previous films was ELECTION, a sharp, dark film i enjoyed highly. it starred paul giamatti, whom i had liked in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and MAN ON THE MOON. the subject prominently featured wine and friendship, two more great things in life. and yet, i never saw it. not in theaters nor on video. maybe i could just sense that i wasn't going to really like this film.

several aspects turned me off. i found paul giamatti's character grating. while he did give a strong performance for most of the film, the inevitable blow up/break down scene happened not once but twice and dragged the characterization closer to base caricature. his friend (portrayed by thomas haden church) was someone with whom i couldn't empathize. a man looking to cheat on his fiance as much as he can before marriage, he only sobs when his wallet and clothes have been stolen. he later goes through with the marriage anyway. the dynamic between the down-on-his-luck giamatti and girl crazy church played like a b movie SWINGERS replacing vegas with napa.

about a week removed from watching it, i can only recall a single scene i liked and for the direction alone. a drunk, bitter giamatti calls his ex-wife in the middle of a dinner date with friends. the camera stays in close focus on giamatti's head from a low angle, highlighting his own egoism and ugliness. the rare instance where the film accurately portrayed one of its characters.

Book: BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell

i'll be the first to admit that when it comes to pleasure reading, fiction is going to be my first choice. reading almost non-fiction exclusively in college, i have been trying to figure out what is just so "classic" regarding a lot of classic literature. even when i haven't loved the book, i've felt like i'm at least able to enter in the conversation and can make a judgement for myself rather than relying on others' opinions. still, the occasionally non-fiction book comes along that piques my interest. enter BLINK.

BLINK is an examination of our unconscious thought, typically in the first two seconds of an experience, that informs much of what we do. starting with a colorful incident regarding art forgery, Gladwell posits that our gut feelings and intuitions come from a justifiable well of knowledge and can be just as valid as our conscious thoughts. sometimes even better than our conscious thought. he goes onto back up this assertion and all the others he makes with anecdotal evidence and some references to research (it was annotated in the back but i didn't follow up on them. my gut feeling is that this Gladwell character is reputable).

i never suffered from a lack of interest throughout the book and the prose flows cleanly, but i couldn't get over the fact that i just didn't feel convinced by his argument. i wasn't able (or willing) to connect all the dots between, for instance, people moving into an autistic mind state due to overstimulation. i also felt some stories (see the entry on Kenna) failed to match the points he was trying to make.

regardless, BLINK made for an interesting enough read that i'm willing to try another Gladwell book next (OUTLIERS perhaps?). i'd even recommend it for the stories and anecdotes alone.

Movie: A Band Of Outsiders (Band A Parte)

in theory, the coming weeks should see a sharp uptick in posts which will directly correlate to the return of internet in my apartment. the minneapolis public wifi system is supposedly days away from going hot in my neighborhood and then i shall have the ability to post as frequently as i like, keeping the five people who read this up to date on the books i'm reading, movies i'm waiting, and music i'm hearing. because of generous friends, netflix, and the library, i'm knee deep in all of these things. my goal is to review one album and one movie per week and books whenever they are finished.

leading the way is A BAND OF OUTSIDERS, directed by jean-luc Godard in 1964 during the heart of the french new wave movement. i knew two things going in: it was supposedly a heist film and its influence was particularly strong on quentin tarantino (he even took the US title for his production company).

the plot touches on two friends, arthur and franz, who attempt to convince female student (and potential love interest) odile to aid them in stealing stolen money from her mother's companion. arthur and franz, while not serious students themselves, instead are well versed in pulp novels, b movies, and other US culture. the heist acts as a device to move the plot forward but the movie was more concerned with examining the relationships between arthur, franz, and odile.

all three are young, attractive, impulsive, and unsure. the film's aesthetic follows suit. the score is primarily upbeat jazz. the quick pace is established through quick cuts and overlaid dialogue. shots vary from deep focus close-ups of individual faces to handheld tracking shots done on location in paris. and like the characters who constantly reference pop culture, the film does too referencing other french films THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG and THE SOFT SKIN in addition to Chaplain classics THE IMMIGRANT and THE GOLD RUSH. it was easy to see how this comes down into tarantino's style.

while there was a lot to like, the film left me a little cold. i never got to a point where i cared about the relationships between the primary characters so, in spite of the intriguing techniques used to capture them, i found my attention waning instead of growing as the plot moved towards its climax. i liked this, but didn't connect with it enough to love it. both the contents and technique of the film are occupied with the younger generation finding their own way against tradition and the thrill found in both success and failure.

in this regard, it was a success and produced scenes of exhilarating whimsy. two struck me particularly. the first takes place at a cafe. after a conversation that goes nowhere, arthur suggests dancing. i'll admit i'm a sucker for coordinated dance, but it seemed to sum up the go-with-the-flow nature of the film and characters so well, coming completely out of the blue.

the second arrives at a time when the friends have time to kill before the heist is to take place. it is the three's response to hearing that an american from san francisco had visited the lourve in under 10 minutes.

these are what i'll remember.

CD Review: 808s & HEARTBREAK

as an early Christmas gift, Andrew and Lisa gave me two choice items which i really wanted: this book and the newest cd by kanye west, 808s & HEARTBREAK.

after being wowed by kanye's first album THE COLLEGE DROPOUT, i scrambled to purchase his second LATE REGISTRATION the day it released. it rivaled the first for his best album and had me sufficiently charged to seek out his treble, GRADUATION. i gave it several good, hard listens and it left me unimpressed. i gave it a middling mini-review at this very blog. if the album was any indication of where kanye was heading, my excitement levels would diminish further. a few of his singles/collaborations kept me interested ("us placers" and "american boy," respectively). then "love lockdown", the first single from the new album leaked, and kanye had gone the way of the auto-tone, aping t-pain and all the other followers in that strange trend.

no rapping, no soul samples, and kanye singing through a computer. not bad, but not particularly good either. word came that the album was going to be entirely this way. my intense desire for getting the new album the day it released disappeared and while the album still opened to fanfare and decent sales, i did not run out and buy it immediately (ok, browse out and buy it). i secretly hoped it would be an amazon mp3 deal of the day and i could pick it up for a couple bucks and mitigate the risk.

and yet, it was on my radar. i read some reviews which praised it for its different direction and bold honesty, marking it highly. rarely did they seem to mention the actual music and its quality. still, my curiosity was beginning to be piqued again. my innate desire to be a completist fanned the fire of want further and besides, the amount of joy those first two albums provided for me far outstripped the cost i paid for them. i decided to get the album. but then Andrew and Lisa did for me. problem solved.

the first listen was as background music. unable to focus on the lyrics, the sounds and moods of the album came across the easiest. sanitary, cold, electric, martial. the sounds themselves emotionless, made more antiseptic by kanye's auto-tuned croon. synthesizers and drums. it was definitely successful as a mood-setter but i still had my reservations.

the second listen was done very intently. with my eyes closed and focusing only on the music, a different side to the album emerged through the lyrical content and softer secondary sounds. broken up over his mother's death and a break-up with his longtime girlfriend, the stainless-steel synthesizers and auto-tune appeared more as an attempt to put feelings aside for fear of turning maudlin. the lyrics reveal this. in "welcome to heartbreak" he shows confusion about the "good life" he has pursued in the past at the expense of his family and meaningful relationships. "love lockdown" reveals anguish at his feelings getting trounced. my personal favorite "street lights" (which desperately needs to be mashed up with "flashing lights" from GRADUATION) exposes his uncertainty about the path he has taken thus far. humanizing sentiments indeed.

musically, softer flourishes are present in almost every song, particularly through the middle of the album. i entirely missed the gentle piano in "amazing" and strings in "street lights" the first time through, lending further complexity and a life-like touch beneath the gloomy mood of synthesizers and drum beats.

i've heard a lot of people mention they can't get over the fact that kanye isn't a very good singer. it's true; he's not, even with the auto-tune to hid some of hid deficiencies. nevertheless, it didn't bother me since he was able to convey his emotion through it and that goes a long way with me.

turns out i really liked this album. after repeated listenings with varying levels of attention, i'm still enjoying the exterior of repressed sadness and emotion with the subtle hints of it welling up underneath. in some ways, my mind has started to associate this album with beck's "sea change." both are stark departures in form brought on by personal hardship, yet both albums are laced with resolve that things, with time, will get better.

Concerts

now that i'm out of the woods on argentine posts, i've decided to flip up the chronology of posts a little bit to write about some more recent events. yes, i'll still likely post regarding my trip to norway and latvia as well as my experiences sponsoring lake harriet united methodist youth trips, but i wanted to hit a couple others.

one topic currently on my mind is music. as seen in my previous post, there has been lots of music purchasing/acquiring going on lately and i managed to follow suit by attending several concerts this summer. here is a quick rundown on some of the shows i've been to, what i generally thought of them, and anything else worthy of note.

devotchka at first ave: i had no plans to go to this concert until my friends Liz and Tyler had an extra ticket. i had not been particularly familiar with them but did a little research and found out they had done the soundtrack to the film "little miss sunshine" and had been touring in support of a recently released album. two opening acts - the first forgettable enough that i don't recall the name. the second, basia boulet, was a show stopper in her own right, playing mostly by herself but with a voice that got the sold out crowd really moving. Liz was so impressed she bought her cd although i think it was not as good as her live performance. devotchka came out with an interesting sound. guitar, tuba (or maybe it was a sousaphone...), and piano or drums or violin depending on the song. what seemed novel at first soon came to sound rote by the fifth or sixth song. however, to spice up their encore, devotchka brought out two girls who did cirque de soliel type of moves from large pieces of fabric hanging down from the ceiling. that was neat. the music itself, not as neat due to repetitiveness. but check out the album version of the song "transliterator." that is my favorite of theirs.

the rock opera "lacplesis" in some field in latvia: yeah, i saw a rock opera whose title translates to "bear slayer" in a field on latvia. not only that, but it was written in 1988 and this was the 20th anniversary of that first performance. while this all sounds perfectly ludicrous (and believe me, it was), there is actually a nice story that i'd like to share. the plot derives from a latvian folk tale and was one of the first expressions of a cultural identity and heritage allowed by the soviet leaders who typically suppressed all the local flavor. so this was a BIG deal at the time. for this commemorative performance, they brought back as much of the original cast as they could. this meant that the hero now had a pot belly, another had a receding hairline, etc. the original performance had been taped and that was sometimes projected on the large screens while the singers performed presently. this is some of the original. the night got kind of long, cold, and dewy, but i'm glad i had this experience although the 80s rock ballads drove me crazy.

gnarls barkley at the grandstand, state fair grounds: i really liked their first album st. elsewhere. got a chance to listen to the odd couple upon my return and found a different sound i also enjoyed. went with Andrew and Lisa. rain threatened. cloud cult, a minnesota act who was kind of getting big, opened. their music was hit and miss. the fact that they had two people painting pictures on stage was more interesting. gnarls barkley, though, was great. cee-lo came out in a legitimate cape and dangermouse tinkered at his piano-looking instrument like a mad scientist hunched over his latest button-heavy invention. highlights of the night: getting to sit for the majority of the concert, their cover of radiohead's "reckoner" (cee-lo hit it out of the park), and fireworks going off during the climax of their encore.

rage against the machine at the target center: a large part of my high school experience was set to the music of rage against the machine. i was thrilled and scared the first time i heard and saw the video for "bulls on parade." the music was electric, about something, and appeared to make people go absolutely crazy when heard live. however, as a scrawny high schooler who had never been to any concerts let alone a rage concert, i kept my distance. then they broke up and i thought my chance had passed. well, if the republican national convention spurred anything worthwhile for me personally it was the additional date rage added in the twin cities to play opposite their meeting. along with friends Micah and Ryan, my immediate fear for my body was relieved to find we were not in general admission (since at this point i am now a scrawny professional in my mid 20s). from the safety of the balcony i enjoyed living out one of my high school dreams. rage came out wearing orange jump suits and masks a la guantanamo bay and ripped into "bombtrack" to get the party started. what followed was an hour and a half of music to make your blood boil, head nod, and fist pump. the atmosphere was electric, heightened by the hundreds (seriously, hundreds) or riot police waiting outside in case the crowd was stoked into rioting, which happened when rage against the machine had played in los angeles during the 2000 democratic convention. i managed to leave the venue peaceably, get on my bus and head home. others did not.

a place to bury strangers at the triple rock social club: Liz and i decided we wanted to see live music. we both had always wanted to go to the triple rock whose location is only blocks away from augsburg and been passed many times. what we got was really really loud music. a place to bury strangers is in the vein of my bloody valentine and plays the loudest, most abrasive music i have heard live. using special guitar pedals and effects, it was just washes of jarring feedback. the next day i listened to an album track and could hear some of the musicality underneath but that was all lost in the live show. it was bad news when we looked around and realized we were the only ones without earplugs.

beck at the roy wilkins: i had seen beck perform one other time, while promoting sea change with the flaming lips, and it was a stellar show. this iteration suffered a bit from comparison, a bit from the venue, and a bit from the others near us at the show. while i think modern guilt is a fine album top to bottom, it doesn't have the over arching feel of sea change and the set list showed that. what we had was mostly a medley of hits off of his post-mellow gold albums. a couple b sides. a cover. when the vocals went out on a three song portion, it kind of seemed like he quit after that. apparently the acoustics in the place are notoriously poor and it seemed like he noticed it. the worst piece was some of the people around us in the crowd who insisted on moshing and crowd surfing. they were extremely drunk and annoying and took away from the overall enjoyment for several sets. however, beck and his (female) lead guitarist sang a beautiful duet of "lost cause" that made the show worthwhile for me.

beastie boys/ben harper/tenacious d at the roy wilkins: another high school wish fulfilment. although the beastie boys are now 45, 42, and 42 years of age, they still bring it. ostensibly for getting the vote out, the political posturing was kept to a minimum. they ran through the hits (sabotage, root down, no sleep til brooklyn, intergalactic), mix master mike was a demon on the turntables (even working in a snippet of swizz beats' "it's me snitches"), and i danced for their entire set. as odd as it might sound, however, i may have enjoyed tenacious d's opening set even more. sticking closer to their self-titled than to the movie soundtrack, the antics of kg and jack black were pitch perfect for getting the party started. jabbles' voice definitely holds up live and kyle gass plays the acoustic guitar as if he were a bald, pot bellied, middle aged man who had done nothing else with his previous 38 years of life. that is to say, he plays very well. highlight of the night: tie between tenacious d and ben harper covering queen and david bowie's "under pressure" and the anticipation of hearing the beastie boys famous introduction moments before they ran on stage. Ashley Tangen and i danced through the entire beastie boy's set. which served as a solid warm up for the next show.

girl talk at first ave: i feel like i came late to the game on this act, but i feel like it was just in time since he was coming to minneapolis. while he claims not to be a DJ, he mashes up just about everything from the pop landscape into something new and entirely danceable. Ashley brought along two friends who bought tickets at the door and we suffered through the opening acts. cx kidtronik was up first and had an undeniable fascination with butt cleavage, littering all the screens in first ave with crack hanging out from low riding jeans. and their music sucked. imagine noises from those guns that toggled through 8 electronic sounds when pulling the trigger mixed with indistinct grunts and heavy bass hits. the next act, a miserable punk act named the death set, only seemed better by virtue of their band logo being a three eyed cougar face instead of where poop comes from. however, Ashley and i did not let that deter us from our will to go crazy with dancing. we worked our way into the middle back of the floor and by the time he was on stage and the music had been going for a minute, we were center front. this was helped by the fact that security was pulling people onto stage to get the dance party aspect going everywhere. anticipating the sheer amount of sweat i would produce, i wore two sets of basketball shorts and a short sleeved polo with and undershirt and matching sweat bands for head and wrist. i completely sweat through both layers, rivaling the grossness i would breach on at camp dances, and it made for a chilly bus ride home as the lady with the coat refused to shut her window in spite of my teeth chattering. with a sold out crowd pulsing on all sides, the music and dancing swelled to points of transcendence in which i felt like i was beyond myself. simply amazing stuff. a thousand high points in that set, but extra-highlighted by the mix of m.i.a.'s beat to "paper planes" with jay z's verse from "can i get a..." also notable, dancing in the throng of people, turning around to see who bumped into my back and looking straight into the face of my friend Tyler Suter whom i did not know was going to be there, sweaty from dancing and smiling all the same like myself. Ashley took before and after the set pictures and with enough convincing I could be coaxed into posting them (assuming i get them from her).

it's been a good summer for concerts.