POLARITY 194
this entry brought to you by the yeah yeah yeahs, "honeybear"
THE GOOD
Everything is Illuminated The movie starts off with a stranger-in-a-strange-place type setup, with obsessive-compulsive, nerdy Johnathon Safran Foer (Elijah Wood), a Jew, going to the Ukraine to find a woman who helped his grandfather during World War II. His transportation on this tour through the Ukraine is Alex, a Ukrainian kid who loves American hip-hop and thinks Negroes are "premium people", and his grandfather, an old man who thinks he is blind but is not. Despite the colorful Ukrainians, the oddest character is Johnathon himself. Although there is a culture clash (Johnathon informs Alex he really shouldn't call blacks "negroes"), for the most part you fully understand why his tour guides think he is strange. The movie starts off positively bouncing with quirk, but smoothly and with subtlety turns into a deep, beautiful tale of finding oneself, or "illumination" as Alex puts it. First-time director Liev Shrieber controls the story deftly and with aplomb; the cinematography is gorgeous and some of 2005's best. The real shining star of the movie is Eugene Hutz, who plays Alex with funny, yet moving naivety-- watch his quiet, understated reaction to a death late in the movie and wonder how this could possibly be his first acting performance.
Fiery Furnaces, Gallowsbird's Bark When you were young, there used to be two weird kids that lived down the block. You never really saw their parents-- sure, you knew they had parents, because sometimes when yours were bringing you home late from a night at Grandma's house you'd see a car in their driveway. They were a brother and sister. They didn't much care for interaction with other children, and would play mostly alone by themselves. When you did try to play with them they seemed uninviting, eyeing you with suspicion. And the one thing you couldn't shake the feeling of, other than their general weirdness, is that they seemed to speak to one another in their own language, almost telepathic. Those two kids probably grew up to play in an indie rock group together like Eleanor and Matt Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, who play nearly impenetrably weird, experimental, childish pop music that's half rock, half noise, half silliness. Yet Eleanor, who does most of the singing (Matt, the head songwriter, sings one song here) sings with such urgent honesty you wonder if their music isn't what's crazy, it's the whole world that's crazy.
The Chechen Terrorist Story in the June issue of Esquire On September 1st, 2004, terrorists took hostage a school filled mostly with elementary school aged children and mothers, wiring a primitive network of bombs overheard, executing the majority of the men, who were seen as expendable. A few days later, after a grossly uncoordinated rescue effort from Russia, more than 300 were dead, and over 700 injured. Esquire's articles are consistently incredible, but this is one of the best pieces of non-fiction I've ever read. It is harrowing, it is gut wrenching, it is horrifying. If you see the Esquire with Tom Hanks on the cover, and you care about reading about human perseverance, please pick this up. I don't know what the Pulitzer people consider when they pick the winners, but I feel like this is award-winning material.
Coachella bootlegs I successfully found bootlegs for all the bands I saw that Sunday. They sound great and I got them within moments of searching for them. I remember just a short six years ago getting bootlegs was waaaaaay more trouble than it was worth, because you'd have to go on swapping forums, wait for the forgetful bastard who had what you were looking for to mail the stupid thing, and then it sounded like shit!
Dance, Monkeys, Dance I saw this a little while ago, and I thought you might like it: a poignant, funny social commentary. Give it a click.
THE BAD
PS3 price I've been anti-Sony for quite some time, and I have been anticipating the PS3 with a furrowed brow. And then they dropped the bomb that I knew was coming, yet that didn't stop the sting. The PS3 will come in two price points: 500 for one with a 20 gig hard drive, and 600 dollars for the 60 gig hard drive setup. Keep in mind, both the PS1 and PS2 launched at 300, and the Xbox 360, the most expensive mainstream console, costs 400. To make matters worse, none of the games look better than 360 games, and many of the confirmed launch games look worse! So for all the things you could blow 600 bucks on, like a down payment on a car, on launch day you could instead wait in line to buy a system that doesn't even look as good as a system that came out 1 year prior and costs 200 less, the Xbox 360. Either the system needs to come way the fuck down in price (it supports blu-ray, a technology that hasn't come out yet, which is more than likely what's making it so expensive-- but does anyone really give a shit about blu-ray?), or the games need to start looking orgasmic real fucking soon.
Practikilts I saw this advertisement in a magazine with several disaffected Gen-Y kids standing around looking utterly humorless, and they were wearing skirts. The main Gen-Y kid, a pouting, disenfranchised, emo-goth boy with a buttoned down black shirt wore a camo skirt. A goateed metalhead leaning on a motorcycle wore a black leather one. And a more active kid, chugging a sports drink, wore a denim one. The logo is a black gothic-looking dragon, and the text, in a menacing font, says, "It's not a skirt... It's an attitude!" I'm completely dumbstruck. There's no sarcastic comment in the world that I could use to point out and/or emphasize the absurdity.
Daft Punk A quick perusal of the Coachella message boards will reveal two bands that split people down the middle for the definition of "earth shattering": Tool and Daft Punk. I don't get the obsession with Daft Punk. Every time I hear them I'm absolutely amazed at how much I absolutely hate them.
The heat I don't really know why, but this year the heat's totally taken me by surprise. As if I've never lived in Phoenix before or something. I walk outside at work to get lunch and I'm like "When the fuck did it get this fucking hot?" Is it always like this in May?
Yahoo.com's new look It looks way too sterile and cold, and doesn't seem nearly as friendly as the old design. Thumbs down.
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with love from CRS @ 8:44 PM
Monday, May 22, 2006
THE GOOD
Everything is Illuminated The movie starts off with a stranger-in-a-strange-place type setup, with obsessive-compulsive, nerdy Johnathon Safran Foer (Elijah Wood), a Jew, going to the Ukraine to find a woman who helped his grandfather during World War II. His transportation on this tour through the Ukraine is Alex, a Ukrainian kid who loves American hip-hop and thinks Negroes are "premium people", and his grandfather, an old man who thinks he is blind but is not. Despite the colorful Ukrainians, the oddest character is Johnathon himself. Although there is a culture clash (Johnathon informs Alex he really shouldn't call blacks "negroes"), for the most part you fully understand why his tour guides think he is strange. The movie starts off positively bouncing with quirk, but smoothly and with subtlety turns into a deep, beautiful tale of finding oneself, or "illumination" as Alex puts it. First-time director Liev Shrieber controls the story deftly and with aplomb; the cinematography is gorgeous and some of 2005's best. The real shining star of the movie is Eugene Hutz, who plays Alex with funny, yet moving naivety-- watch his quiet, understated reaction to a death late in the movie and wonder how this could possibly be his first acting performance.
Fiery Furnaces, Gallowsbird's Bark When you were young, there used to be two weird kids that lived down the block. You never really saw their parents-- sure, you knew they had parents, because sometimes when yours were bringing you home late from a night at Grandma's house you'd see a car in their driveway. They were a brother and sister. They didn't much care for interaction with other children, and would play mostly alone by themselves. When you did try to play with them they seemed uninviting, eyeing you with suspicion. And the one thing you couldn't shake the feeling of, other than their general weirdness, is that they seemed to speak to one another in their own language, almost telepathic. Those two kids probably grew up to play in an indie rock group together like Eleanor and Matt Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, who play nearly impenetrably weird, experimental, childish pop music that's half rock, half noise, half silliness. Yet Eleanor, who does most of the singing (Matt, the head songwriter, sings one song here) sings with such urgent honesty you wonder if their music isn't what's crazy, it's the whole world that's crazy.
The Chechen Terrorist Story in the June issue of Esquire On September 1st, 2004, terrorists took hostage a school filled mostly with elementary school aged children and mothers, wiring a primitive network of bombs overheard, executing the majority of the men, who were seen as expendable. A few days later, after a grossly uncoordinated rescue effort from Russia, more than 300 were dead, and over 700 injured. Esquire's articles are consistently incredible, but this is one of the best pieces of non-fiction I've ever read. It is harrowing, it is gut wrenching, it is horrifying. If you see the Esquire with Tom Hanks on the cover, and you care about reading about human perseverance, please pick this up. I don't know what the Pulitzer people consider when they pick the winners, but I feel like this is award-winning material.
Coachella bootlegs I successfully found bootlegs for all the bands I saw that Sunday. They sound great and I got them within moments of searching for them. I remember just a short six years ago getting bootlegs was waaaaaay more trouble than it was worth, because you'd have to go on swapping forums, wait for the forgetful bastard who had what you were looking for to mail the stupid thing, and then it sounded like shit!
Dance, Monkeys, Dance I saw this a little while ago, and I thought you might like it: a poignant, funny social commentary. Give it a click.
THE BAD
PS3 price I've been anti-Sony for quite some time, and I have been anticipating the PS3 with a furrowed brow. And then they dropped the bomb that I knew was coming, yet that didn't stop the sting. The PS3 will come in two price points: 500 for one with a 20 gig hard drive, and 600 dollars for the 60 gig hard drive setup. Keep in mind, both the PS1 and PS2 launched at 300, and the Xbox 360, the most expensive mainstream console, costs 400. To make matters worse, none of the games look better than 360 games, and many of the confirmed launch games look worse! So for all the things you could blow 600 bucks on, like a down payment on a car, on launch day you could instead wait in line to buy a system that doesn't even look as good as a system that came out 1 year prior and costs 200 less, the Xbox 360. Either the system needs to come way the fuck down in price (it supports blu-ray, a technology that hasn't come out yet, which is more than likely what's making it so expensive-- but does anyone really give a shit about blu-ray?), or the games need to start looking orgasmic real fucking soon.
Practikilts I saw this advertisement in a magazine with several disaffected Gen-Y kids standing around looking utterly humorless, and they were wearing skirts. The main Gen-Y kid, a pouting, disenfranchised, emo-goth boy with a buttoned down black shirt wore a camo skirt. A goateed metalhead leaning on a motorcycle wore a black leather one. And a more active kid, chugging a sports drink, wore a denim one. The logo is a black gothic-looking dragon, and the text, in a menacing font, says, "It's not a skirt... It's an attitude!" I'm completely dumbstruck. There's no sarcastic comment in the world that I could use to point out and/or emphasize the absurdity.
Daft Punk A quick perusal of the Coachella message boards will reveal two bands that split people down the middle for the definition of "earth shattering": Tool and Daft Punk. I don't get the obsession with Daft Punk. Every time I hear them I'm absolutely amazed at how much I absolutely hate them.
The heat I don't really know why, but this year the heat's totally taken me by surprise. As if I've never lived in Phoenix before or something. I walk outside at work to get lunch and I'm like "When the fuck did it get this fucking hot?" Is it always like this in May?
Yahoo.com's new look It looks way too sterile and cold, and doesn't seem nearly as friendly as the old design. Thumbs down.
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