i’m really digging this season of the sopranos so far. don’t read this if you’re waiting to watch it on tivo tonight, but the part where they had a tony, a gangster rapper and a lab scientist in a hospital room watching a boxing match and talking about schrodinger’s cat… man, that was priceless. spectacular writing.

in other written word news, i continue to somewhat enjoy/somewhat puzzle at chuck klosterman’s monthly column in spin, in which he discusses topics covered in bygone issues of spin (e.g. nirvana & grunge, smashing pumpkins & billy corrigan’s ego, or this month, nine inch nails & the rise of ‘industrial’ music). as someone who basically went through his teen years during the time during which the subjects of his reflections took place originally, i do get a nostalgic pleasure out of them, and he’s still very clever with references and wordplay. still, i can’t help feeling a little bad, because they almost paint a picture that he’s just slowly becoming washed up and irrelevant and stuck reminiscing about the prior decade because he’s not young enough to keep up with this one anymore — especially to the spin magazine readership which is supposedly looking for the latest in borderline-popular music. it’s equal parts depressing and amusing for someone like me who thinks he has a lot of talent to be wasting on almost-VH1 style flashback filler…

but that gets away from what i originally wanted to share, which is one of the moments in which he isn’t just getting starry-eyed over his unique take on why this or that 90’s phenomenon was never actually that cool. here he put down in a paragraph something i think is especially relevant in the race-to-obscurity world of pitchfork and an army of mp3 blogs that seem to hold all the power in indie music these days. (i figured it was okay to share a decent-sized chunk, since the march issue’s no long on newsstands and you can read the whole column on their site anyway…)

There are many people — in fact, you may be one of them — who devote much of their daily energy toward hearing about things first, even if those specific things don’t particularly matter. This has been exacerbated by technology; the degree to which a rock song is new has become nearly as important as how interesting it sounds, even though there’s no inherent advantage to hearing a song today as opposed to five weeks from now (when it will still sound exactly the same). I sometimes think it would be to my benefit if I never listened to any album until two years have passed since its release date. I suspect I would avoid a lot of crap whose only value is that most people haven’t heard it (yet).

haha, and that makes up for all the 90’s wankery you could possibly want to indulge in, chuck. bravo, bravo.

man, i have to say i am excited about 2006 right now. after what seemed like a down period in music, film, books, whatever — at least in terms of my experience of them, i hesitate to make sweeping generalizations for the rest of the world — i know that right now i’m feeling invigorated by all of them. i already went through a feast of moviegoing in the last few weeks, and i’ll get to a review of the latest and greatest of that set in a minute.

on top of that, i feel like, even if they aren’t all brand new, my ‘books to read’ list has blossomed by another handful of promising ones in just the last few days thanks mostly to powell’s and the bold type newsletter, and i can’t possibly read fast enough to keep up. then of course there are at least half a dozen albums, again, not all brand new, but recently galvanized as ‘must have’ through various interweb explorations, not the least of which is the new flaming lips album which comes out tuesday, and which is available for streaming in it entirety on their site right now. (excited!)… it seems much more soft bulletin in it’s oddness than the somewhat tamer yoshimi, which i am grateful for. you ought to go check it out. and on top of that, new stuff from the streets, the great b&s album… so yeah, i’m suddenly realizing i won’t have much spare time for a few months.

anyway, let’s finish out that glut of moviegoing…

brick – 5 stars

first off, you can only partially trust my opinion of this because as soon as i heard the word ‘noir’, i loved the idea of this movie without even seeing it. actually, i’ve been waiting to finally catch it since over a year ago when it played at sundance, and was so very very pleased to get passes to a sneak preview this week (for FREE, bitches. nyeah nyeah).

not to get all longwindedly analytical, but as a fan of bogey, chandler, et al, i mainly want to lay any fears you may have to rest at the idea of setting a noir crime flick in a high school setting. not only did it fall into a nice rhythm after the initial shock of hearing rapid-fire 40’s droll come out of the mouth of the kid from 3rd rock from the sun, but the trademark twisting and turning of a good detective novel were delivered on pretty successfully, even after a point when i thought it was going to let me down by being too obvious (they even fooled me, you see). there were all the key players in the form of the crime lord, the muscle, the authorities (the vice principal scene was classic, i tell ya!), and one hell of a femme fatale that has me thinking i really ought to be watching everwood. whew, she was smoldering.

i’d hate to spoil it for anyone by going on and on about it, even though i probably could for another several pages, but i’ll hold my tongue and just say if you’re any kind of a fan of the style, you really ought to check it out. the juxtaposition is totally captivating and entertaining and even at times bring in a few laughs when they give a wink to what they’re pulling off. don’t worry though, it’s not a farce, it’s a fully respectable gumshoe flick and destined to be a standout for the year, i think.

i had a strange feeling this morning that i’m running out of energy; like the whole concept of aging that i normally don’t care about at all was trying to make itself physically, undeniably felt so that i couldn’t pretend it was no big deal. i didn’t want to get out of bed and when i did, all i wanted to do was sit down. it was kinda scary for a few minutes until i remembered i just stayed up too late and hadn’t eaten very well the night before. and i should probably get some exercise, i’ve been pretty lazy lately.

tonight i plan to really buckle down on finishing a book i promised myself would be done by the end of the month. that only gives me a couple more nights, and it would be a shame to have to stay in friday night just to keep myself from calling me a liar. the main motivation is that there are so many OTHER books waiting in line to be read, i can’t be piddling around with this one for a whole month, that’s just ridiculous.

also, i saw on largehearted boy today (posted a while ago, but today is when i saw it) a link to another site’s 100 sci-fi books you need to read, and didn’t recognize a lot of them. which reminded me, i haven’t read a good classic sci-fi book in a while — maybe since i read dune in college? — and i’m long overdue, but i don’t even know which one to grab. i mean, i could always pick up yet another philip k dick story, but that just seems too easy, doesn’t it? if anyone has any suggestions let me know. in exchange, i’ll recommend a couple of my all-time favorites from that same list: neuromancer by william gibson, and cat’s cradle by kurt vonnegut. i mean, besides the obvious ones that everyone with a bookshelf has read, like 1984 and a brave new world. i’m leaning toward either clockwork orange or re-reading some hitchhikers guide, but please convince me to pick up something totally new. i’d be grateful.

there’s been a painful dearth of good movies out lately that weren’t serious oscar contenders (i.e., serious/dull/depressing dramatic films from late last year still being shown in hollywood theatres to bolster academy votes), and i’ve been dying to see some movies for ages. luckily, last weekend that came to a screeching halt with a two movie date in a row weekend, followed this weekend by another, and if i’m lucky a free screening of my most anticipated of the bunch on tuesday. but before i end up (hopefully) gushing about that one later this week, i’ll politely recommend you see any or all of the ones i’ve caught recently, in two sentences or less.

inside man – 3 stars

the problem with criminals and cops that are so cool and collected during the perfect heist, is that there ends up being so little opportunity for drama or tension. when everything goes off without a hitch, it’s slightly less fun to watch, even though it was still a cool robbery and a good movie, mostly because clive owen is a badass.

v for vendetta – 4 stars

the only reason this doesn’t get five stars — even though i liked it the best — is because as a film, it’s stuck between action classic (not enough action) and cool serpentine revolution drama (can’t imagine the twists are as powerful once you know them). but just because i reserve 5 stars for movies i’d watch again and again and don’t give half-points, doesn’t mean this movie wasn’t an exciting yet literate graphic novel adaptation i was proud to see pulled off, with the bonus goodness of ms. portman to boot.

thank you for smoking – 4 stars
some other reviews penalized this for not being hard-hitting enough when it could have made a stronger point, but i just saw it as an extremely successful comedy about a touchy subject. they may not have made a weighty social commentary but aaron eckhart’s character was excellently played and extremely funny, and the toes that are stepped on just make the jokes stronger.

i accomplished so much this weekend, it was really satisfying. for example, friday i think i ate a cheesesteak in around 4 minutes after missing lunch, then had my first irish car bomb that night for st. patricks day! or rather three. in about an hour. they were delicious. and i got rid of about 50 pesky bucks that were weighing me down by going out to an irish bar that night too, boy was that helpful!

more useful probalby was breaking my painfully long streak of having no good movies to go see, and doing it with a vengeance. saw v for vendetta and thank you for smoking on saturday and sunday respectively, which i will remark further on tomorrow perhaps.

most importantly though, we finally posted, reordered, and cleverly captioned our buenos aires photos, so you at least sort of know what we did and what it looked like. it kinda took forever but at least it’s done and we can put that whole ‘vacation’ mess behind us and get back to proper work, thank goodness.

oh, also we watched some of our friends run by us in the LA marathon on sunday. it was partly inspirational and partly guilt-inducinig, seeing as how we were sitting on a big couch eating potato chips in jen’s front yard while sweaty people crossed the 19-mile marker. does that make us jerks or just funny?

had a green bagel for breakfast and telling people i stole this shirt from a leprechaun. wish i had guinness not work right now

i partly didn’t want to post again until i could proudly display my vacation pictures and gush about all the fun we had in buenos aires, but it’s been so long since i wrote i got guilty. don’t worry, many many photos are coming soon, hopefully even tonight if all goes well.

but to do just a little bit of gushing at least: best vacation ever. so much good food, wine, walking, weather, dancing, sights, all-around fun, and it was SO cheap day-to-day. we had several spectacular dinners for less than maybe 40 american dollars total. that’s for two people, with a nice bottle of wine and a big steak. i more than recommend it; i practically demand you go there at some point.

and since this seems to be turning into a music blog lately — or just because that’s always a good thing to fall back on writing about, because even during the least-interesting of times such as the first week of work after vacation, at least i’m still listening to music — here is a very short review on an album i like.

belle and sebastian – the life pursuit – 4 stars

i never listened to this band because they seemed so wimpy, even after i actually saw them at coachella a couple years ago and thought they were great. i remember back then having my slightly-cooler-than-me roommate say something about how b&s were so great because they made “really sweet-sounding songs with really bitter lyrics”. so since this new album got such great press, and i figured it was about time to make a real decision on if i liked them or not, and “another sunny day” was unarguably fun, i went for it.

then hey, look at that, my roommate, the reviews, and the world at large that is quicker than i am was all pretty much right. this is a really good pop cd with catchy tunes and subversive lyrics to give it a kick, and yes, i have nothing else really original to say about it. it’s just good.

the best example and my favorite track off the album is probably dress up in you (pay day song!), because it sounds like a love song, but it’s so spiteful, i love it. don’t know if i’m so crazy about them i feel the need to pick up a whole back catalogue or anything, but you can’t fuck with this album. now i’m even sadder i didn’t act fast enough to get tickets to their show with the new pornographers next week; another case of me being slow on the uptake i guess. but, we live and we learn.

sorry i’ve been scarce lately… been getting ready for vacation. and now, tomorrow, i’m going on vacation, so it might be another week. what can you do?

here i come buenos aires. see you all very soon.

i think i’ve finally figured it out.

see, i’ve come to the point lately where i have no tolerance at all left for music that bores me. probably a combination of being jaded and overloaded with potential music to spend my time with, as a defensive filter against the hordes of music out there asking to be heard, i’ve simply lost any patience for music that isn’t immediately satisfying on some level.

the best music, for me, has the surface sheen to get me excited and like it upfront — cool hooky riffs, cool beats, catchy choruses, etc — and then gets better and better with further listening. neutral milk hotel is my best example for this; probably the richest album i own that ages like fine wine.

my revelation here is finally pinning down the difference between me, who is fairly into music, and other kinds of people who are WAY into music. not being specific to any individual here, but they are the kind of people who can love animal collective. or the fiery furnaces. or olivia tremor control. or in other genres, bland but lyrically-excellent hip hop tracks, or spectacularly-produced but essentially unmemorable electronic music. whereas i need something to grab me and pull me in, they enjoy diving headfirst right in there, and the deeper they can delve the better. they can get excited about stuff that i have to say, seems dull (common’s be), or just a bunch of noise (blood brothers, ugh), or even gratingly annoying (seriously, i hate the fiery furnaces), because there’s so much going on underneath to make it worth while.

maybe it makes me a worse ‘music appreciator’, but i’m just not like that. sometimes a single song can grab me and lead me into other, deeper waters that wouldn’t have tempted me on their own — say the rest of the tracks within an album with a good couple hits (i would have totally dismissed art brut if it weren’t for ’emily kane’ and ‘we formed a band’). but in the giant listening station that is the internet, if i sample a track or two of a new band and they don’t get to me quick, they’ve probably lost me unless the buzz gets so big i get sucked in against my will. and i’m okay with that, because there’s too much out there for me to have to spend lots of time dissecting things before i get to the point where i can enjoy it. i’m fine with the dissecting; i like it. it’s just that i would have had no time for soaking up aphex twin’s cacophany if they hadn’t expertly dropped those bell chimes into ‘girl/boy song’ to give me something to start with.

all this came to mind today because as many people claimed to love it, i just don’t give a shit about broken social scene’s latest album. i tried to listen to it a half-dozen times and i was so bored i either forgot i was listening to it or i turned it off. sorry! and that feist solo album sounds like a sleeping pill to me too. beautiful vocal melodies yawn yawn snooze.

hooooowever… they had to go and put out this b-side version of ‘mushaboom’, with a hook i don’t even need to hear to be interested in: ‘postal service remix’. neat trick, guys. real nice. i tracked it down, and it’s pretty good. not ‘such great heights’ good, but way more captivating to me than the original now that there’s some, you know, music in there. so do i reevaluate my whole position or just accept this as a fluke? should i fall for their dirty ploy and listen more to her whole sad, spare-sounding album? i don’t think so this time. now that i know my own weakness i’m more prepared to guard agaisnt it.

i am grateful, however, that there’s another track approaching postal serviceness in the world… when are they going to work on a new album, anyway? i just hope it’s before the next death cab album — another band that’s sure on the good/boring fence lately too.

oh yeah, i went there.

can’t believe i left off writing all week with so much fun going on to brag about. like how 11 dudes gathered for a massive poker night last friday with beers and cigars and i got 2nd place, taking home a massive 15 dollar cash prize. or the formal valentines house party saturday where i looked hoooootttt with my date and cut a rug while holding a classy red cup high in the air. or how we celebrated presidents day as it deserves to be celebrated; a barbeque and some beer pong. in case you were wondering, i have totally begun perfecting my ‘stroke’ and won like four games, including an intense one-on-one three cup cagematch (minus the cage).

the rest of the week has kinda paled in comparison so far but i did start a new victorian-era novel last night which might turn out to be cool or a total drag — i guess i’ll find out more once i make it past the editor’s introduction. why do i compulsively subject myself to those things as if they’re going to benefit my general intelligence instead of making me want to go to bed early?

by the way, i’ve been semi-into crossword puzzles lately — not in a daily sort of way, but in a mild LA weekly kind of way — and i thought it’d be cool to try to make my own for this little project i was working on at home last night. having spent easily 90 minutes with basically nothing to show for it, i have concluded that crossword puzzle creators are some sort of super-geniuses that must have huge, bulging foreheads in order to juggle all those possibilities. the only other explanations are that there’s a secret formula to doing it i just haven’t heard about, perhaps a computer program that just spits them out and leaves mere humans to write the witty clues, or they aren’t in fact done by humans at all, but some sort of evil robots.

needless to say i gave that up and went off to watch tv which takes seriously WAY less effort than trying to build an evil crossword-creating robot.