Category: Uncategorized

i didn’t even get to mention in my get up kids reverie that recover played a really solid set and i continue to think they’re underrated. when the new cd comes out this summer hopefully more people will see it my way. their new song ‘simple’ is choice. but moving on…

the get up kids show sunday night made me realize how bands are like girls. you’ll come across thousands in your life, and a lot of them you’ll never even really hear, just pass by. maybe a few hundred you’ll have meaningful interactions with, but only a few dozen will have a real impact on your life.

i’d say the get up kids are to me today a lot like the girlfriend i had in college when i started listening to them is to me today too. something i loved fiercely at one point, and will always have a tender spot for, but something that i’ll never feel as excited about again. i’ll prefer to remember the best memories i have of them instead of expecting anything in the future to be quite as good, even though i’ll always be nice to them, think of them fondly, and consider them great in my book.

see, the get up kids and i are just friends now. i realize there are only going to be a handful of bands i ever come across that i could possibly love for the rest of my life, and although we did have an amazing relationship, it just wasn’t meant to be with us. sure, it could have worked out if the time was right, but we can’t control the when and the how, just be grateful for what we had together while we had it.

don’t get me wrong, it was really nice to see them again, the night together really just cemented what i already knew — that we’re just not the same people we used to be. but you know what, that’s okay. they were still one of the good ones; one of the ones that i shared a special part of my life with. one of the serious, enduring relationships that i have to admit helped formed who i am. for that, i’ll always have a place in my heart for them. it’s important though to realize when it’s time to move on.

besides, they’re getting fat anyway.

must apologize for the hiatus. the days have been spent working pretty hard, meaning a bit less time for writing. and the nights have been spent steadily falling for the special lady more and more, interspersed with nights trying to spend time with the friends i may have been neglecting while wanting to spend all my free time with the girl. have to make a point to try to combine the two more often and make everyone a little more involved.

so i started the trend this weekend and everyone had a good time — friday night we stopped by a few party spots and got to enjoy the company of friends and drinks. then saturday we joined mike and dan and others for a picnic where we got to enjoy the company of friends and frisbees. i think the whole girl + friends + fun formula may be my new favorite recipe for weekends. not that just she and i don’t have enough fun alone; even things like going grocery shopping or watching carrie last night have a bit more laughter and excitement with someone that cool to accompany me. needless to say then, being non-single now is working out fantastically.

tonight i’m off to see the get up kids and recover. let’s see if the old favorite of my early college years can still hold up, shall we? i heard guilt show was pretty decent at least. and i do love recover to death either way, so i’m excited. i’ll let you know how it goes.

excellent weekend — screener thursday, half-day friday, road trip to san fran to see dom and drink, then back sunday night early enough to see my lady. all great, except having slept on the floor and being bleary in the monday morning fog.

eternal sunshine of the spotless mind – 5 stars

i was oh so lucky enough to get free screener passes to see this thursday (thanks jen!), but i didn’t get a chance to write about it friday and scoop everyone who doesn’t have such cool friends. now all the hip kids have probably seen it already, but the important thing is that if you haven’t you DO. as soon as you can. as far as films go, this is the complete package. i’d love to go on and on about it, but i don’t want to spoil it for anyone. maybe when i inevitably go to see it a second time in a few weeks, i’ll let go the floodgates. but you had better have seen it by then or you’re only hurting yourself.

starsky & hutch – 2 stars

it’s weird. i love the cast, i know they’re all comedically talented, but maybe the remake/spoof aspect just didn’t offer up enough opportunity. they had a cool look down with the moustaches and costumes and all that, and i wasn’t bored at any point, it was enjoyable at least — the film as a whole just seemed uneventful. cool ass car though. and i’ll still go to see the next stiller/wilson quasi-sexually-ambiguous duo comedy all the same, as well as insist that vince vaughn can consistently make boring dialogue really funny.

over this weekend i have learned a few new things and relearned a few old ones. for example, terminator 2 is definitely NOT as good an action movie as die hard — that i am more sure of than ever. additionally, i miss too many shots at pool for it to be very fun, but certainly do enjoy four dollar pints. the lighting and leather booths at formosa cafe go perfectly with a single drink and a beautiful girl, more so when they’re playing death cab for cutie in the background. i love buying new books more than most things i ever do. and one of the only things better is having someone wonderful with you for two straight days and not getting tired of them at all, even once, even for a minute.

we are lucky to live in the top corner of our apartment building. although this means we have a slightly skewed floor plan, the benefits are having windows on two sides instead of just one, and the lack of neighbors. the whole southern side borders a hallway, the eastern and northern side border no one, and only my roommate’s bedroom is directly touching the neighbor’s room (he’s only complained once so far). plus we never hear anyone’s footsteps above us. so for the most part, making noise is not really of any concern to me and i would go so far as to say doesn’t cross my mind at all while i’m kicking out the jams in my room.

then last week i finally figured out the name of that white stripes song i kept hearing on indie 103 — ‘ball and biscuit’. i couldn’t believe that it took a radio station to introduce me to a song i liked this much. where were you with that tip, indie rock blogger world? oh right, i guess i should have just bought the cd like everyone said to 8 months ago. in fact i probably would have if i had heard this sooner, but it’s way too 2003 to buy now; i’d look like some guy who’s buying cd’s the radio station told him to. how tacky.

but back to the point. once i finally pinned down the song, i started listening to it like ten times a day because those solos are crazy and it’s like seven minutes of rock and suddenly i started to wonder. can whoever lives beneath me hear my music? having never pinpointed which resident is our neighbor below, i only picture some helpless timid guy living down there, who normally can’t complain about my impeccable music tastes which range gracefully from mellow indie pop to more aggressive rock with enough hip hop and electronic music mixed in to keep things fresh. then one day he hears this great song coming muffled down through the ceiling. but then he hears it a dozen more times over the weekend, and it doesn’t stop there. and while i keep turning it up louder to squeeze every last drop of squealing rock and roll energy from this great song, this poor guy passive-aggressivly imagines figuring out which car in the garage is mine so he can accidentally scrape the shit out of it with the new filing cabinet he’s unloading when no one’s around. so should i maybe try to temper the rotation on this one?

yeah, sorry about that, guy, but this air guitar isn’t going to play itself, now is it.

[now hearing this: actually, something else. i haven’t downloaded that tune to my imac here yet, so i only play it at home — when i can unapologetically crank it up.]

a pair of things that delighted me this morning included driving to work and waking up.

driving to work, because as i made a left turn i was cut off by someone making a right turn against his right of way probably just a few feet in front of me. however, since he was driving a shiny silver sports car and wearing a black leather jacket, a black skull cap and black sunglasses — it wasn’t sunny, by the way — i almost automatically assumed he was making a getaway. instead of getting upset, i silently hoped his evasion was successful and praised myself for being the type to respect such adventures.

prior to that, waking up, because once i sat up in bed i noticed i had a definite and noticeable ear print on my left shoulder, which has to be one of the most endearing post-sleepover details i’ve picked out in my lifetime. just the sort of thing you need to get going on a wednesday morning — not to say that the company alone wouldn’t have done the trick. it would seem that every time we’re about to part ways, something little like that sticks in my head and by the time i’m out the door i’m already looking forward to next time.

with a start like that, how can the day not turn out great?

i woke up like a shot this morning. none of that bleary-eyed nonsense, none of those monday morning blues, clutching my pillow thinking the alarm clock must harbor a deep-rooted hatred for me. it was fantastic. mornings like this always surprise me, while renewing my hope that having a work week isn’t so bad after all.

from what i can tell, this sort of morning results from a few favorable conditions. one: the weather. it went from winter to spring over the weekend. i know winter is a joke here, but losing that morning chill makes a world of difference being able to jump out from under the covers at 7:30. two: the weekend. it doesn’t take a thrill ride to make it a good couple days; in fact, the far and away highlight wasn’t at all getting to see one of my favorite bands (we actually missed the first few songs of the already brief hey mercedes set because of the drive to pomona, and then left early since it was a crappy bill overall). nor did the rest of the weekend spent mostly reading and lounging make much of a story. when it comes down to it though, a lazy and leisurely saturday morning in the sunshine with my girl is enough to last for days. sleeping in, getting breakfast at 1 in the afternoon — it may not sound like much, but i’m sure it helps how she just knocks me out every time i see her.

now if only that made it as easy to wait til the end of the day as it did to hop up for the start of it, i’d be right as rain.

[now hearing this: the mountain goats. i could not possibly listen to we shall all be healed any more times in a day than i have in the past week, trust me.]

the passion of the christ – 2 stars

i wish i’d had the chance to write this a couple days earlier when it was hotter news, but there’s still a chance i can save some people from seeing this movie over the coming weekend, so maybe it’s not too late.

that’s right, the passion receives a hearty ‘don’t bother’ rating from this site at least. i know that most people feel like they have to just to have their own opinion on the hype and debate surrounding it, and that’s what got me into the theatre. the experience that followed was a fairly brutal (although not as unrelentingly violent as other reviews had prepared me for) but ultimately uninspiring, entirely literal depiction of the story i already knew. aside from a few visual additions like the satan character moving through the crowds, and some exceedingly brief flashback scenes, all you get is the filmed version of the stations of the cross.

the problem with the passion then is that there’s not enough to work with; it shows you what the bible and the church have already told you. maybe this works spiritual wonders for those who already put so much stock into the harsh events they believe to have happened, but for someone outside the faith the film still lacks on the side of moving or fascinating the viewer. i would definitely say this was an affirmation for the believers, not at all a transformation for the rest.

my big problem with the film is that it doesn’t have an argument, really. gibson should have spent more (or any, really) time on the message jesus preached during his life, and culminated in him sacrificing his life for that message. i think that story arc would have given me more of a ‘love thy neighbor’ hope in the universe — despite my sturdy atheism — if it had at least come together as a strong, emotional film. as is though, my only big reaction after having seen it is sadness at the fact that humans actually did those things to eachother as punishment, and the suspicion that mel really just wanted to show the true believers how much jesus must have loved them if he suffered such a hideous death on their behalf. a nice lesson for the christians, i suppose, but not such a strong cinematic work to the more objective. frankly, i think i’d rather go to church.

excellent b-celebrity sighting yesterday while running an errand over in westwood — the guy who played the bad guy in films as varied as robocop and disney’s blank check! one of those guys you instantly recognize but could never remember by name in a million years. but hey, he was on twin peaks, so the guy’s alright by me.