Monthly Archives: September 2009
Concert Review: Grand Archives
Supergenius note: a couple of friends of mine were able to attend this concert, much to my jealous regret. Here is their review.
I have a hard time getting pumped seeing bands perform new music live. When I go to see Counting Crows, I want to see “Mr Jones.” When I go to Grand Archives, I want to see “Torn Blue Foam Couch.” Grand Archives was hesitant to cater to my hopes and expectations. This being a CD release party, they were pretty set on playing stuff from their new album, “Keep In Mind Frankenstein.” It’s definitely a departure from their first, self-titled disc. Read the rest of this entry
The Edge must be the real Highlander
Ok, The Edge used to look like the old guy in U2. I just saw U2 perform on Saturday Night Live. Nearly thirty years after the band appeared on the scene The Edge looks exactly the same and the rest of the band looks thirty years older. He now looks like the young guy in the band. You would think an immortal would choose a less high profile career, no? Surely other immortals are out for his head at this point.
U2 360 in NYC
Half of you will probably say I’m a Johnny-come-lately when it comes to U2 fandom, half will call me an old-timer. I’m a member of the “Third Round” of U2 fans, the ones who came of age and discovered U2 during the Achtung Baby years (as opposed to the First Round Boy through Unforgettable Fire fans, or the Second Round Joshua Tree fans).
The days of great U2 albums might be long gone, but I still shell out money to see the band play whenever they come to town. I saw them just a few hours ago at Giants Stadium (in the hideous freeway junction known as East Rutherford, NJ), and I have to say, while it’s been years since the band has made any relevant, interesting music, they’re still playing relevant music every night.
Rearrangements
I’m a sucker for mashups. In fact, almost any rearrangement of a song makes me happy if it is cleverly done. I found one recently that had me thinking of rearrangements of rock/pop songs into country. We’re more used to this going in the other direction, thanks to Taylor Swift, Faith Hill, and Shania Twain. Country is seen as a fringier market, I suppose, so it makes sense to make country songs sound poppier. However, I was cruising youtube looking for songs by one of my favorite “bluegrass” bands, Nickel Creek, and I found the following:
Movie Review: Love Happens
I “couldn’t” attend this one, so my pal J. Stapley went instead. Below are his findings.
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Review: Love Happens
First, let us state a cinematographic truth: Seattle is a good place to find hot chicks if your wife dies. Read the rest of this entry
Come on Kanye — the VMA’s were bad enough
but THIS is going way too far!
(Ahh the never-ending awesomeness of the interwebs)
The Various TV Show Thread
So this is an open thread for TV for this week, last week, and upcoming. I’ve been so busy I’ve not watched a lot of TV of late. But I have a few musings.
First, anyone watch Leno? I haven’t yet, but then the only part of the old Tonight Show I could stand was the opening monologue. His sketches always seemed horrible to me (except for stealing Carson’s bit about funny advertisements). I can’t imagine liking this show and despite what Time says, I think it’ll flop within a month.
But then I’m hardly the target audience, so who is to say? I will say that I think TV is collapsing and needs to find a new business model. Hulu is inventive, but I can’t play it on my TV.
Movie Review: 9
9 is a small film, about burlap puppet creatures struggling to survive against the machines that caused mankind’s apocalypse. I say it is a small film because the puppets are little and because the movie itself is very brief (88 minutes). Despite its brevity, however, the movie shows some good thematic depth and some visually amazing sequences. While not for children, 9 shows genuine creativity is still possible within the dystopian genre. Read the rest of this entry
A camera in the Nano
Really, Steve? That’s it? No netbook, no touchpad…. just converting the nano into a smaller, music-playing version of the Flip?
The magic is slipping away.
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