Check out this short film called Copy Goes Here. I think you’ll enjoy it.
December 30, 2005
December 29, 2005
Two other trees.
I watched It’s a Wonderful Internet just now. And was not terribly impressed. Too much effort spent on production values and not enough on product. But it reminded me of something new I noticed while watching It’s a Wonderful Life again this year. When George looks for his car during the Clarence-induced hallucination sequence, the owner of the “oldest tree in Pottersville” thinks George “must mean two other trees.” Let me repeat that: he says, “you must mean two other trees.” Is this merely a slip? Or have I stumbled upon a clue about the nature of Clarence’s black magick, similar to Primer‘s handwriting quandry?
Incidentally, you should read Gary Kamiya’s very entertaining comparison of Pottersville and Bedford Falls before your holiday season ends.
December 27, 2005
Another new song.
Two of the three songs released yesterday sound like shit in terms of the way in which they were recorded. Hopefully on “G. Love and Special Sauce of Arabia Blues” we’ve lived up to our usual standards. Or at least lived up to the standards we set during our San Francisco sessions.
December 26, 2005
New songs.
As promised, there are now three new Monkey Throw Feces songs for your listening displeasure: “Lord Byron,” “Fire,” and “Newborn Found by a Carnivorous Duck.”
Too much.
I inbibed way too much alcohol, of varying types and qualities, yesterday. And, as a result, I am extremely ill. Other than to vomit, I have only been out of bed for a total of two hours thus far. Oops.
December 24, 2005
Christmas.
In honor of the season, I listened to a copy of “Suzy Snowflake” three times while spinning around. Well, the room was spinning, at any rate. Mike Doughty, I love you.
Expect at least two new Monkey Throw Feces songs as a Christmas present sometime tomorrow. Jor-El and I are still trying to put the finishing touches on.
Oh. Any Merry Christmas.
December 23, 2005
Travel, part two.
Deb and I arrived in New Jersey…well, Pennsylvania first…on Wednesday. It was a lovely flight, apart from the whole typical air travel experience thing.
We spent a couple of days in Manalapan at Deb’s mother’s house. Saw Kong, which was overlong but enjoyable yesterday. Took in the Christmas decorations on neighborhood lawns (including the absurdly tacky inflatable giant snow globes, and the daytime deflation process, which made it appear there was plastic littering the yards). Learned to play Phase Ten. And finished the fifth Harry Potter for the third time.
Today we watched Holiday Inn, before driving to my parents’ house in Flemington. Took in the lack of Christmas decorations on neighborhood lawns. Played Hearts. And blew off Molino et al. for a nice quiet evening with the ‘rents. Maybe next week, suckers.
December 21, 2005
Travel.
Deb and I drove up to Spokane yesterday to spend the night in a hotel. Partly because our flight leaves about two hours from now–I’m writing this using Spokane’s helpful but overregulated free downtown WiFi–and partly because the hotel lets us leave my car here for the two week included with the price of the room. Which is about the same as the cost of parking at the airport. Everybody wins.
Not really. Yesterday, it warmed up on the Palouse and the Spokane Valley enough so that instead of the freezing fog, bitter cold, and residual packed-snow-turned-ice, we were treated to rain. Lovely. Only thing was, it wasn’t consistent rain. Which meant that all the weeks old road gunk was just loose enough from the roadway to cover my windshield, but not loose enough to come off my windshield. And me with the washer pump broken. So it was a fun time trying to see; we ended up blindly stopping several times to douse the thing with some extra fluid from the trunk. Which in many ways made matters worse. My apologies to anyone who had to deal with me yesterday evening between the hours of 4 PM and 10 PM. I really shouldn’t have gone for Indian and Christmas gift shopping in that condition.
Anyway…must shower and be off. Taxi’ll be here in half an hour.
December 20, 2005
10 Best Movies of 2005?
Rolling Stone, in its latest issue, published an article called “King Clooney and the 10 Best Movies of 2005.” And, because I have been otherwise occupied for much of the past year, I have seen only three of their eleven entries. Those are: The Constant Gardener, A History of Violence, and Crash. And only one of them is even in my “recommended” column, let alone all three creeping into the top ten. I am not even certain I have seen ten movies released in 2005, but I still wouldn’t place A History of Violence and Crash in it. The former is an over-slow, predictible, and rather unsatisfying piece, deserving of two, maybe two-and-a-half stars (out of four) tops. The latter is a mess of a movie in the tradition of Robert Altman, pulled off with somewhat more success in the emotional department, and a great deal less success in the cohesion and significance departments. Crash deserves two stars, tops. Take that, bandwagoneer Peter Travers.
The column was also accompanied by what Mr. Travers described as the “100 Worst Movies of 2005.” Of which, I have only seen two. But I must say, neither of those two–Madagascar and Sahara–were nearly bad enough to dump at the bottom. Indeed, both were, to the extent such things can be compared, about on par with both A History of Violence and Crash.
And, finally, in the margins Mr. Travers praised Me and You and Everyone We Know (which was more bizarre than good), Sin City (which would have made it into my top ten), and a trio of animated films: Corpse Bride, Wallace & Gromit, and Howl’s Moving Castle, which were mistakenly listed bottom up.
Monk, Coltrane, Carnegie Hall.
Can someone explain to me how it is that Blue Note got the rights to release the recently unearthed “Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall” recording? I am listening to it right now, and it is beautiful. But I’ll be damned if I’m going to shell out cash if I can obtain it for free on the level.