mama, i'm coming home.

christmas is over, and that means the end of my christmas blog. i'm gonna try to spend more time on this blog this year. i will at least start posting my picks for best movies and records of 2008 soon.

best of 08

We are at the end of 2008, and i still need to see Slum Dog Millionaire & The Wrestler. After seeing Milk & Frost/Nixon, and a bunch of other contestants, The Dark Knight still stays strong. It's only film that could dethrone Wall-E. The Fact That there are 2 mainstream films is insane!

More updates o follow after christmas!

some men are baptists, some men are catholics; my father was an oldsmobile man

i will be over here for the next two months.

......

christmas is coming......

Late Great

i'm out of hibernation today because of the passing of Paul Newman. sometimes people hear of an actor or director passing away and think it's sad, but have really never seen any of their work. just as in the passing of Bergman & Antonioni, i am asking you to rent a Newman film. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid seems like a great place to start, but i always tell people about the film HUD. after John Cassavetes's A Woman Under the Influence ,HUD has the greatest man and woman struggle dynamic along with two of the greatest and most powerful performances in the history of cinema. please check out HUD. you will see why the loss of Newman is the end of a very important chapter in film. he will be missed and will never be replaceable.

the imposters

in the early 1960's, two men were doing something so fresh and funny that it makes me laugh out loud even today. setting out to do "street pranks", mal sharpe & jim coyle hit the streets of san francisco for some on-the-street interviews for a local radio station. what seems now days like a very unfunny and played out thing to do works perfectly for coyle & sharpe. these are real interviews with real people on the streets back before anyone expected these kinds of jokes. they have a great improve ability that reminds me of christopher guest and company at times.

enjoy this famous one known as "the druggist"



am i just old fashioned, or is that funny?
wait.... don't tell me.

more music more music more music

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

the second half of 2008 is gonna have to produce something really special to stop this album from my number one spot of the year. rolling stone magazine compared these guys to the likes of the beach boys, band of horses, animal collective, and crosby, stills & nash. that really sounds about right. my first listen was such a great experience. lot's of interesting flavors of brian wilson's pet sounds and smile. beautiful harmonies, and a wonderful array of instruments.

this very young band hails from seattle, and you can hear the call of the great pacific northwest with song titles such as blue ridge mountains, ragged wood and meadowlarks.

here is their performance of blue ridge mountains on letterman:


this is the most musically exciting album of the year so far. i can't wait to see these guys live. fleet foxes & my morning jacket? that would be a fantastic tour.

essential tracks:
White Winter Hymnal
Quiet Houses
He Doesn't Know Why
Blue Ridge Mountains
Oliver James

here is their video for white winter hymnal:

best records of 2008 (so far) Part 2

The Ting Tings - We Started Nothing

having one of your songs in an itunes commercial has got to be one of the biggest breaks for a band now days. that was when i first heard the ting tings and their song "shut up and let me go". thinking it may just be some poppy teenage girl, i never moved on to check them out. then i heard the song "fruit machine" on a podcast and decided to give the record a listen. yes it's very poppy. yes it's all very catchy, but it's so good. this duo is a reverse white stripes with the guy on drums and the girl on guitar and vocals. while the album sounds great i have yet to see how they come across as a live act. way more music going on here besides drums and one guitar, but i have yet to experience that.

choosing a song and video was tough on this one cuz it's full of great stuff, so here are three videos for you to enjoy. you decide what the best one is.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8AH7yYQpro

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StP-yIQeT2o&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF5wvycotuo





start with these tracks:
great dj
we walk
fruit machine shut up and let me go
that's not my name

where i want to be

best records of 2008 (so far)

2008 is half over, and what am i loving right now? this begins my list of my favorite records
so far from 2008 (in no particular order).




Estelle - Shine

at first glances you wouldn't believe that i would dig this record, and neither did i. 99% of the music my wife hands me ain't my bag. this however was something very different. what should have been this summers biggest hit machine has stayed relatively quiet. my only guess is that this but beautifully crafted and soulful album has more substance musically and in style than most of it's contemporaries.

this has a big 60's sound which is a likable trend as in duffy's record "rockferry". but it's not a complete throwback. it's still very much a 2008 sounding record. yeah, this is a strange recommendation from me, and it's the only one like it on this list, but check it out guys.

start with these tracks:
pretty please (love me) (featuring cee-lo of gnarls barkley)
more than friends
american boy (featuring kanye west)





Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

before these guys take over the world (well at least the hipster world), let me just say that i was into vampire weekend way before all their recent and well deserved attention. nothing makes me happier than to hear fantastic new bands get recognized. vampire weekend's self titled debut has been all the buzz around indie stations & hangouts lately. if you do not own this record than pause this blog right now and run out to your local... just go to itunes and get it.

these ivy league kids are the furthest thing from what seems would be cool, but their beautiful, simple, paul simon, african sound is all that i am listing to right now ( and i consider myself way cool).

i have told you to go get the record & i'm not going to do a review of this. just go get it. don't believe me? go to itunes and sample oxford comma, bryn & cape cod kwassa kwassa. you will see what i am talking about.

enjoy these two amazing videos. a-punk may be my favorite new video.







that was my review from earlier this year. the buzz seems to have settled down, but i think it's still a great record. i look forward very much to their next offering.

heroes & villains

something i never thought could be so fun was given to me on my 28th birthday. guitar hero, no matter how stupid it looks, no matter how stupid you look while playing, is hellamazing. i just made up a word? anyway, it's the perfect way to use up your precious and import evenings, weekends, or every waking hour. and then, you lay your head down and drift into a dreamland of red green yellow blue orange blue orange red green red blue..........

sunday night, 12:00 am, mi casa.......

.....i'm bringing it back....again.....for the second time

sometimes i get busy for a few months at a time. i know you miss me, so i'm coming back.

for your health

sploitation nation

lets open up the old film snob's dictionary for another lesson.

todays word is: ~sploitation

Alt.-xploitation. useful suffix that imputes a sense of scuzziness to whatever topic it is attached to, resulting in an alluringly disreputable subgenre. derived from the words blaxsploitation, which itself combined the words black and exploitation to describe the early-seventies boom of black-character films that featured rampant drug-dealing, crime-fighting and outrageous 'fros. i rate babette's feast ahead of tampopo in the food-sploitation stakes.

don't hate!

top 5 guilty pleasure films

5. mean girls - come on guys, It's hilarious, touching & incrediblly well written. (don't hate!)

4. father of the bride (1991) - I'm sorry, but I love franck eggelhoffer!!!

3. weekend at bernie's - should I feel guilty, or is it good? you tell me.

2. rocky IV - i love every montage, every song, every speech, everything about this film! the cold war was never so hot.

1. empire records - i just love it. I want to work there. I want to be friends with them!

the boys i love

oh, i'm way hip to that!

before these guys take over the world (well at least the hipster world), let me just say that i was into vampire weekend way before all their recent and well deserved attention. nothing makes me happier than to hear fantastic new bands get recognized. vampire weekend's self titled debut has been all the buzz around indie stations & hangouts lately. if you do not own this record than pause this blog right now and run out to your local... just go to itunes and get it.

these ivy league kids are the furthest thing from what seems would be cool, but their beautiful, simple, paul simon, african sound is all that i am listing to right now ( and i consider myself way cool).

i have told you to go get the record & i'm not going to do a review of this. just go get it. don't believe me? go to itunes and sample oxford comma, bryn & cape cod kwassa kwassa. you will see what i am talking about.

enjoy these two amazing videos. a-punk may be my favorite new video.

a learning process

and now for a look into the film snob's dictionary.

today's word is: Movieness

stock hack-crit term used, like a more fun version of postmodern, to denote a director's or viewer's hyperawareness of filmic conventions and techniques. watching kill bill's gory, kinetic fight scenes, you can sense tarantino exulting in the sheer movieness of moviemaking.

this has been a look into the film snob's dictionary. join us again for another word that will never make you feel smarter, but always a bit more pretentious.

top 5 so and so

i love top five lists so much. so much that i will be posting many of them from now on. todays is top 5 movies about music.

5. a hard day's night (1964) - obviously the songs are amazing, but this is one of the most fun films you could ever see.

4. high fidelity (2000) - frears & company perfectly capture the spirit of the book. made the whole top 5 list process even more relevant.

3. this is spinal tap (1984) - what more should be said? fantastic music and possible the funnest movies of all time.

2. nashville (1975) - an epic sprawling masterpiece. one of altman's finest achievements.

1. almost famous (2000) - i know a lot of people who dismiss this film, but it's one of my favorites. it truly captures the spirit of the era.

do you....ozu?

not very long ago i did an ozu marathon: a story of floating weeds (1934), late spring (1949), early summer (1951), tokyo story (1953), floating weeds (1959 which was a remake of a story of floating weeds), and good morning (1959). watching a film by yasujiro ozu is like being invited into a japanese home, and siting and watching life unfold. the common thread to all of ozu's films is the importance of family. every film is about family, and even though he is always the optimist, ozu is able to retell theses stories without an once of cliche or manipulation.



though he was a contemporary of kurosawa, ozu films were completely his own.
show me one frame of ozu's work, and I can tell you it's him. there is absolutely no camera movement. no dolly, no pans, no tilts, and yet his composition of each shot keeps you eyes glued to the screen. a story of floating weeds is a beautiful contemplative silent film. takeshi sakomoto plays the leader of a traveling theater group, who returns to the town he grew up in. it's a story of reconnecting with your youth, and realizing the truth in the old saying; once you leave home, you can never go back.


criterion's eclipse line just released a set of 3 of ozu's silent comedies. can't wait to get my hands on those.

i drink your milkshake?

i know i have been the worst blogger in the history of worst bloggers! i should have posted my top 10 of 2007 before the end of the year. i should have posted before the oscars! anyway, i am gonna do it now. i had an amazing oscar party, and i will post more about that later, but first things first.

here is where you come into play. did you see any of the nominated films? what did you think. 2007 to me has been the best year of films in a very long time. no country for old men is deserving of all the attention, and there will be blood gave daniel day lewis the chance to rival brando and de niro in their prime. more detail on those later.

for now here is my top 10 of 2007:

1. No Country For Old Men
2. There Will Be Blood
3. Once
4. Ratatouille
5. Atonement
6. The Diving Bell & The Butterfly
7. The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
8. Into The Wild
9. Grindhouse
10. Away From Her

more on these later. for now enjoy cinema at it's finest:

almost here

i am watching the diving bell and the butterfly tomorrow. it's the last thing i need to watch before i post my top 10 of 2007 and my oscar picks. stay tuned.

grapes and such

living in hollywood, i have the luxury of visiting fantastic theaters. from the arclight with it's famous cinerama dome, to the el capitan, chinese theater, and the egyptian.






i frequent all of these, and look forward to visiting some of the others around me. if you diligently read my blog (not that it's much to keep up with), you know that i recently went to the egyptian to watch the grapes of wrath.

the egyptian was built in 1922 as a 2000 seat theater and though it was shut down and finally renovated to 616 seats, it is still beautiful and continues to show important films.





now on to the film. john ford is one of my favorite directors. incredibly prolific, he directed over one hundred films from 1917-1966. probably his most famous and arguably his best, the grapes of wrath was a treat to see on the big screen. i had seen the film several times before, but never like this. i was also stoked to be able show it to my wife who had never seen it.

based on the famous steinbeck novel, and as most of us know it takes place during the depression in the dust bowl of oklahoma. henry fonda played tom joad, recently released from prison, returns home to find that his family has abandoned their home. he learns that everyone has been ordered off their land and they are now all refugees. the promise of jobs sends them to california. making the long journey with 10 people in the most dilapidated truck you can imagine.



watching this film proves my point that movies are always a different experience depending where it is seen. sitting in that theater knowing that it was once shown there in it's original run was such a wonderful feeling. one of the big differences is the impact of how tragic the film was. films from that ere have certain style of acting that some audience have trouble with, and even though i don't see them in that way, grapes or wrath seems to cut through any of that. it's a period of american history that hasn't been explored very much on film, and without being to preachy it really touches you and leaves you meditating on what you saw for the next few days. or maybe that's just me. all i'm saying is that theater got dusty a few times if you know what i mean.

grapes of wrath is a must see, and hopefully you will explore more of ford's films.

not to keep posting videos but.....

so excited!!!

happy v-day?

Don't send a lame eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

and the winner is....

the oscars will be here in a few weeks (i know it's not 1975, but i like the poster). it's the most exciting time of the year for me besides christmas. let's call it my super bowl. i'm throwing my annual oscar party, and this year looks to be the best year of all. i'll keep you posted on all the party details. all i'm saying is that the menu is not only gonna be delicious, but should also win some award for best named items. more on that later and i will start posting my top ten films of 2007 this week.

being the massive nerd i am, podcasts are a very important part of my daily schedule. filmspotting is one of my favorite, and i am always active on their message boards. check it out: www.filmspotting.net/boards

us listeners decided to have our own awards. we all created special categories and nominated the films and people. i can only imagine the respect i am loosing as you are reading this post so i am going to post my choices for the 2008 filmspots:

Best Picture
No Country For Old Men

Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Cate Blanchett, I'm Not There

Best Ensemble Cast
No Country for Old Men

Best Original Screenplay
Brad Bird, Ratatouille

Best Adapted Screenplay
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

Best Editing
Sally Menke, Ethan Maniquis, & Robert Rodriguez, Grindhouse

Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Best Non-English Language Film
The Lives of Others

Best Documentary
No End in Sight

Best Animated Film
Ratatouille

Best Score
Jonny Greenwood, There Will Be Blood
Best Soundtrack
Once

Best Costumes
Patricia Norris, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Best Art Direction
Gary Freeman, Stephen Morahan, & Denis Schnegg, Sunshine

Best Sound Editing
Craig Berkey, No Country for Old Men

Best Makeup
Nana Fischer & Peter Owen, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Visual Effects
Richard Conway, Sunshine

Kick-Ass Scene
Bathhouse Fight, Eastern Promises

Best Trailer
Cloverfield

Best Villain
Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), No Country for Old Men

Surprising Performance
Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Surprising Film
The Namesake

Best Line
"I drink your milkshake! I drink it up! … I’m finished." (There Will Be Blood)

Worst Film
Epic Movie

Debut or Breakthrough Feature
Josh Brolin (Performer), Grindhouse & No Country for Old Men

i will let you know who comes out on top!

i am america (and so can you!)

welcome to my first oh, i'm hip to that! post. this is where i talk about what films i'm watching, what records i'm listening to, and what books i'm reading. feel free to watch, hear, and read along!


in this politically charged time of year, i decided to give mr. colbert's book a read. i am a fan of the daily show....oh....i saw steve carell on the 20th century fox lot today! very cool, but i digress. anywho, colbert sets the tone of his book from the title alone. written in three parts, this book is a total satirical commentary on modern american issues. part one is titled my american childhood. steve covers everything from a child's thoughts on old people to the family pet: "all dogs go to heaven? sorry, kids/ it's only the dogs who've accepted jesus christ."

part two is my american adolescence. sex & dating, higher education and hollywood get the spotlight here. part three, my american maturity, deals with the media, class war: now some people might say it's callous not giving food stamps to poor people. they would say it's just another example of class warfare. well, there is no class war in this country. the upper class has such a tactical advantage that if the lower class makes a sudden move we'll have a class massacre.", and race: remember: while skin and race are often synonymous, skin cleansing is good, race cleansing is bad.

consistently funny, i am america (and so can you!) is a easy read, and one of those books that is fun to keep around just to read the quotes.

so that's the book in a nutshell (a very small nutshell). my final thought? i'm hip, it's hip, and oh, i'm hip to that!

roy scheider 1932-2008

roy scheider from such films as jaws, french connection, and klute has passed away today. let's remember him in this tribute video. don't watch if you haven't seen jaws! if you haven't seen jaws, don't read my blog anymore.


here is a look at tomorrow's post:

steppin' out

on my way out the door to the egyptian theater with the old lady to catch a john ford double feature. the grapes of wrath & tobbaco road. look for my "oh, i'm hip to that!". i will be discussing what i'm reading, what i'm listening to, and what i'm watching!

in rainbows

one month later, we finally get to my number one album of 2007. not to be extremely boring & predictable, but radiohead have consistently produced my yearly favorite records. with their latest effort, in rainbows, they have once again succeeded. first listen and i was surprised how non-electric the album sounded. with lots of guitar and lots of real drums, in rainbows sounds and feels like a wonderful sample of each of their previous albums. there is no fat on this album. every song is great. from the frantic opener "15 step" to the bleak final track "videotape", in rainbows is a mature and fine tuned masterpiece. thom york has never sounded better, and his lyrics are decipherable & actually poignant. never ceasing to amaze me radiohead continue to prove that they are not only one of the best bands around, but also one of the only important.

oh, i'm hip to that!

new feature to the blog! it's a quick up date on things i am exploring. very exciting? you are going to love/like it.

the sadness

1-18-08

from the beginning of it's promotion, cloverfield has been shrouded in secrecy. now that it's out, go see it before you hear too much about it. it's probably the most realistic "monster" film ever made. not an ounce of cheese. I've already said too much. i will post more thoughts after the film has been out a bit longer. go see cloverfield now!

what a difference a week makes

well, i'm back again. this has been a wonderful week at my new job, but at the same time, very busy. 13 & 15 hour work days don't put me in the mood for blogging. nevertheless, here i am on this long and wonderful weekend. the job is fantastic, and i am getting to work very closely with brian henson everyday. i will finally post my number one album of 2007 this weekend, and i am almost ready to start my top films of 2007. I will also be posting little thoughts and such things here and there, so enjoy!

a happy day for me

here is my new place of business.

mikey 101

i have a new job! more to come soon.

23

23 sent blonde redhead from a band i liked, to one of my favorite current bands. the track 23 opens the album, and sets the tone for what is a much more accessible record, but i feel like it's also their smartest. there isn't a bad song on the record, but dr. strangeluv, the dress and spring and by summer fall, are easily some of 2007 best. out of the very few live shows i went to in 2007, i enjoyed blonde redhead twice. both were fantastic, and made me see the album in a whole new light. the airy vocals of kazu, the strange and beautiful guitar tones of amedeo, and the complex, yet steady rhythms of simone make 23 sonic crack to me, and i couldn't imagine a better record this year.....until.......

hiatus

i have been getting into the grove of the new year, but i will finish up my top albums tonight!