Best Picture race: The Social Network vs True Grit. In this scenario Social Network wins as The Coens won a couple years back for No Country. The Spolier? The King’s Speech. Result? Social Network’s backlash and lack of tear jerking moments pushes The King’s Speech over the line. Best Actor Continue Reading
Allen Lulu
Listening Post: Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy
Warren Zevon – Excitable Boy – 1978 The first side of Excitable Boy is an exercise in song craft, heartache, humor and brilliance. It can not be matched and probably hasn’t in it’s genre, except by Randy Newman, perhaps.The second side gets a bit funky, with “Night time in the Continue Reading
Listening Post: Warren Zevon – Warren Zevon
“Enjoy every sandwich”. Zevon and I have had the slightest relationship over the years. I love the songs I’ve heard and, even though Roland, Werewolves, Excitable Boy, etc, are amazing tunes, I never bothered to give any album more than a moment. Until now. Getting them on vinyl is easy Continue Reading
FlickWatch: Exit Through the Gift Shop (or I wanna make me some art)
Streamed via Netflix/Wii, we watched this documentary the other night. It’s one of the most exciting and interesting actual documentations I’ve seen in a while. See, there’s this guy, Thierry, who has OCD. He has a compulsive need to videotape EVERYTHING. But he doesn’t label or categorize because he’s sort Continue Reading
FlickWatch: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World & the current state of comedy.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about this movie. That it’s a real, geUwine comic book come to life. It is. But that don’t make it good.It’s annoying and difficult. I would stack it next to Kick Ass as the hyperbolic comic book movies of the year. Kick Ass, while Continue Reading
Reads
I used to love to read. Then I stopped because I didn’t have the time, I had kids, there was too much music to listen to and too much tv and movies to watch. And then there was working and writing and, well, life.Then I got a Kindle. And I Continue Reading
Listening Post: Guns N Roses
I think everyone had three albums in their collection in 1991. Nirvana’s Nevermind. Pearl Jam’s 10. And Appetite for Destruction. If you were like me, you also bought the Illusion twins but if you were reallllly like me, you never listened to any of those albums all the way through. Continue Reading
The state of the movie industry
Recently I was engaged in a minor conversation/debate regarding the decline in box office this holiday season. It could be looked at from many angles but everyone seems to point to internet thievery, piracy and a comparison to the music industry. Here’s what I think:Before we lay all the blame Continue Reading
Music Twenty-10
I didn’t sample nearly the amount of music I have in the past so a “best of” list wouldn’t be fair, truly. But there were some extraordinary spins, good listens and disappointments as well as a turkey or two. So here’s my 2010. My favorite spins of the year Steel Continue Reading
Listening Post: Sparks – Propaganda
Sparks – Propaganda – 1974 Like I said before. 1974. Crazy. Obviously if this and the previous Sparks album were put out 15 years later, on CD, they would have been one offering, as Propaganda plays like Kimono My House part 2. But more of the same is terrific if Continue Reading