music, movies and some ass-kicking goodness
If you read the EU Constitution, you'd reject it too.
In other, less banal news, Batman Begins, Thirty Days, Stephen Malkamus and Guinness are all awesome.
Michael and I went to see 'Batman Begins' wednesday afternoon. It is in my opinion the best Batman movie ever made. It is the best movie I have seen in theaters this year, barely beating out 'Sin City' on my scale. Those two films also remain the only two I have enjoyed thus far. Star Wars and the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy were huge disappointments for me.
Batman Begins left me with only two minor complaints, one was a major continuity error in the story line, and the other was the similarity to one of the plot lines to the first Batman movie. Neither of these were deal breakers for me, and I doubt anyone else will notice them. Christian Bale growls at the shady and unsavory members of the underworld exactly as I always imagined Batman does in the comic book. The Scarecrow's straight-laced exterior was lined with a perfect balance of detached sociopathy and poorly hidden malice as his alter ego that his transformation is not only believable, but successfully creepy. The gadgets and weaponry Bruce Wayne affords himself are far more believable than rubber suits with molded surfer nipples could ever have been, an in comparison even the original Batman seems terribly hokey to me now.
I intend to see at least once more in theaters, I recommend that you do the same.
Wednesday night brought with it beer, pizza, and Thirty Days, a new reality show from Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me). The first episode featured Spurlock and his fiance Alex leaving New York city for Ohio and thirty days on minimum wage. They rent an apartment, get low paying jobs and try to make ends meet. I had a few complaints about this experiment, the first being that Heisenberg applied uberly. I guarantee you the presence of a camera crews was the only reason a landlord in a seedy neighborhood would agree to delay payment of a deposit, and the cameras most certainly had an influence on local business' willingness to higher the Spurlock's within an hour of applying. Later in the show, Morgan gets an convenient ache in his wrist after one day of landscaping, and this allows us to segue into the healthcare situation in America. He need not have done this, however, because fiance Alex endured a bladder infection the next day (which was far more realistic than Morgan's phantom pains). Still later, after meeting a 23 year old co-worker with four children (who did not actually state that his children lived with him), Morgan decided it would be fun to alter the experiment by inviting his niece and nephew to stay with him for a few days and see if he an Alex could afford them on minimum wage.
All in all, the experiment did not seem well thought out, and while I enjoyed it in terms of entertainment, because Morgan an Alex are nothing if not charismatic, the end product did not raise any truly compelling questions that are not already raised every day, and Spurlock did not offer any potential solution to the problems he encountered except to challenge us at home to try harder to live in someone else's shoes. I would only say to Morgan that many of us have tough shoes of our own to fill.
Last night, after a late lunch at Red Robin where I tossed back a few Guinness, Michael and I headed downtown to the Crystal Ballroom to see Stephen Malkamus and the Jicks. The two openers, Mary Wainwright and some death metal band were both mediocre, the death metal band more than Mary. They were essentially loud drums, loud electric bass and guitar with a frontman deepthroating the mic. Nothing special there, except the mic kept going out, but the dude kept pushing it into his mouth anyway, which was hilarious (for me). Mary Wainwright reminded me of the solo girl singer-guitarist that I avoid, such as Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco an Melissa Etheridge. Give me Dropkick Murphys, Black Sabbath, the Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, anything but that self-indulgent crap. The only time she sounded good was when the backup band featured prominently, which wasn't often. She has potential if she can lay off the solo acoustic sappy songs. She did have an interesting voice which reminded me of a cross between the Sundays and Splendid. Stephen Malkamus was brilliant, though the few intermittent jam sessions did get a bit tedious. They zoomed through their planned set, and took requests from the audience. Their rendition of the Pixies' Debaser was awesome, and really got the otherwise relatively passive crowd jumping.
Now I just have to work out the logistic of getting to the Warped Tour in Deer Island, so I can see Dropkick Murphys.
In other, less banal news, Batman Begins, Thirty Days, Stephen Malkamus and Guinness are all awesome.
Michael and I went to see 'Batman Begins' wednesday afternoon. It is in my opinion the best Batman movie ever made. It is the best movie I have seen in theaters this year, barely beating out 'Sin City' on my scale. Those two films also remain the only two I have enjoyed thus far. Star Wars and the Hitchhiker's guide to the Galaxy were huge disappointments for me.
Batman Begins left me with only two minor complaints, one was a major continuity error in the story line, and the other was the similarity to one of the plot lines to the first Batman movie. Neither of these were deal breakers for me, and I doubt anyone else will notice them. Christian Bale growls at the shady and unsavory members of the underworld exactly as I always imagined Batman does in the comic book. The Scarecrow's straight-laced exterior was lined with a perfect balance of detached sociopathy and poorly hidden malice as his alter ego that his transformation is not only believable, but successfully creepy. The gadgets and weaponry Bruce Wayne affords himself are far more believable than rubber suits with molded surfer nipples could ever have been, an in comparison even the original Batman seems terribly hokey to me now.
I intend to see at least once more in theaters, I recommend that you do the same.
Wednesday night brought with it beer, pizza, and Thirty Days, a new reality show from Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me). The first episode featured Spurlock and his fiance Alex leaving New York city for Ohio and thirty days on minimum wage. They rent an apartment, get low paying jobs and try to make ends meet. I had a few complaints about this experiment, the first being that Heisenberg applied uberly. I guarantee you the presence of a camera crews was the only reason a landlord in a seedy neighborhood would agree to delay payment of a deposit, and the cameras most certainly had an influence on local business' willingness to higher the Spurlock's within an hour of applying. Later in the show, Morgan gets an convenient ache in his wrist after one day of landscaping, and this allows us to segue into the healthcare situation in America. He need not have done this, however, because fiance Alex endured a bladder infection the next day (which was far more realistic than Morgan's phantom pains). Still later, after meeting a 23 year old co-worker with four children (who did not actually state that his children lived with him), Morgan decided it would be fun to alter the experiment by inviting his niece and nephew to stay with him for a few days and see if he an Alex could afford them on minimum wage.
All in all, the experiment did not seem well thought out, and while I enjoyed it in terms of entertainment, because Morgan an Alex are nothing if not charismatic, the end product did not raise any truly compelling questions that are not already raised every day, and Spurlock did not offer any potential solution to the problems he encountered except to challenge us at home to try harder to live in someone else's shoes. I would only say to Morgan that many of us have tough shoes of our own to fill.
Last night, after a late lunch at Red Robin where I tossed back a few Guinness, Michael and I headed downtown to the Crystal Ballroom to see Stephen Malkamus and the Jicks. The two openers, Mary Wainwright and some death metal band were both mediocre, the death metal band more than Mary. They were essentially loud drums, loud electric bass and guitar with a frontman deepthroating the mic. Nothing special there, except the mic kept going out, but the dude kept pushing it into his mouth anyway, which was hilarious (for me). Mary Wainwright reminded me of the solo girl singer-guitarist that I avoid, such as Tori Amos, Ani DiFranco an Melissa Etheridge. Give me Dropkick Murphys, Black Sabbath, the Beastie Boys, Rage Against the Machine, anything but that self-indulgent crap. The only time she sounded good was when the backup band featured prominently, which wasn't often. She has potential if she can lay off the solo acoustic sappy songs. She did have an interesting voice which reminded me of a cross between the Sundays and Splendid. Stephen Malkamus was brilliant, though the few intermittent jam sessions did get a bit tedious. They zoomed through their planned set, and took requests from the audience. Their rendition of the Pixies' Debaser was awesome, and really got the otherwise relatively passive crowd jumping.
Now I just have to work out the logistic of getting to the Warped Tour in Deer Island, so I can see Dropkick Murphys.
posted by Aubrey at 5:59 PM
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