| Things I am Absolutely LOVING Right Now |
[Feb. 24th, 2006|03:56 pm] |
Man, my life just seems full of things that I am really enjoying, emphasis on joy. I don't know what changed (probably me) but I'm just having a really good time, and these three things are contributing to it greatly:
Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends: Forget Adult Swim, it's overrated and it's hipness has gone to its head. The best shows on Cartoon Network are on before the kids go to bed, and this is one of them. Literally the new PowerPuff Girls, since Craig McCracken is behind them both. This was nailed home to me last night when watching the bowling episode and I'm just waiting for the Big Lebowski reference, and there it was, with the Dude, Donnie, and Walter all in the background waiting for blowling shoes. FUCKING BRILLIANT.
The premise of the show is that a (quite spry) little old lady Foster runs a foster home for imaginary friends whose people have out grown them. Hijinks ensue. The premise takes beautiful fruition in the characters, at the center of whom is Blue a malleable, protean, self-centered blue cylinder with arms and eyes who is like Night Court's Dan Fielding in Flash animation. The show is brilliant, witty, and highly underrated if you think it's just for kids.
Frantic Transmissions To and From Los Angeles: Anybody who knows me knows that I'm fascinated with Los Angeles, more and more as a literary and cinematic fiction, but the city, when toured with guides ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) goddessofmercy and howilearned continues to fascinate, especially the recent Masters of American Comics at the Hammer and the MOCA (If you hurry, you can still make it).
I was wary of this book initially. The Chronicle did a piece on its author (who wears "black from [plunging 56 year old] neck [line] to toe as a statement of her perpetual mourning for the state of the worldwears black for the state of the world." I think we should call her Jenny Cash, and then beat her to death with a guitar and plead with the judge to send us to Folsom to complete the poetry of the crime) proving that beauty can come from the strangest places, beginning with words "Trashing Los Angeles has always been a favorite sport for San Franciscans, but nobody does it as well, with such soul-cleansing passion, as the displaced Los Angeleno -- the relieved refugee from the alien nation down south," which immediately turned me off, since I know only too well that only those who can't, mock. But, upon wandering into Diesel (our local hip indie bookstore, not the over trendy clothing company) I picked up a copy of the book only to find that the prose was not as bad as I had imagined, and that Braverman doesn't trash Los Angeles, she in fact is intensely enamoured with it. It is her frame of reference and vocabulary. And if she paints Los Angeles harshly, well, it's a harsh city that has affected and infected Braverman with its aura.
The book is not good in the sense of architecture or good in the sense of a classic, rather it is good in the sense of Bruno Schulz, it's misshapen, a mediocre masterpiece (rather than a masterpiece of mediocrity) if you will (and if you won't I'm going to get my guitar and start calling you Jenny). The book is more poetry than it is prose, and therefore suffers for its miscategorization. Braverman wanders and loops back on herself, apparently taken with certain ideas that she feels deserve describing twice in a chaper, and uses certain phrases and words to excess; both calligraphy and lighthouses are victims of overuse.
But if you can get past all of that, and it's not as hard as you might think, she has something very beautiful to say about Los Angeles, and about the people that live there, even if the beautiful things she describes aren't the greatest endorsement of the city itself or the life that it forces you to lead.
Hypnotize/Mesmerize: I can't honestly say I always like SOAD. I knew they were around, and I had a couple of their songs on my iPod, but I wasn't a fan. But recently I'd been craving something a little bit harder than my music supplies had to offer and so I picked up Mezmerize, knowing that the clarity of System's music and lyrics, as well as the complexity and pleasant harmonies of their vocals appealed to me in a way that other rock bands, like Pantera, really never have. Man, it was a good choice. I now have both halves of their double album, and it was worth the purchase (although I bought them used, so I would always think twice about purchasing any CD new). The songs are hard hitting, but with a comoplexity and energy that turn them from grating to energizing. The radio friendly songs are a great bonus to otherwise solid rock music.
A. |
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| It's good to be in print. . . |
[Sep. 12th, 2005|01:57 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | reviews | ] |
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| | Son Volt.Straightaways | ] |
My reviews went up! Woohoo! And one of them even blinks. You can check them out at soundwavescinema.com or you can check them out separately. This is 'a sound of thunder,' and this is the thing about my folks.
Also of note this morning, Rotten Tomatoes fixed the link on my review, which was delighting. I feel very listened to today.
Adam |
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