Music Reviews

So Easy

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I started writing this in May 2005. I had much more of it written but I forgot to save and my browser crashed or I accidently opened a new site or something so I lost everything and then got discouraged about the whole post and stopped writing it…

Last summer when it was really hot out (probably sometime around July or August), I saw Röyksopp‘s album Melody A.M. in the used CD bin at, I would assume, my favorite music store: Everyday Music. I’ve known that I’ve wanted this album for years (yes, literally, years — the album came out in 2002), but for whatever reason I put off buying the album, assuming it would be another disappointing attempt to re-capture the magic of Air’s Moon Safari (which both Zero 7 and Air themselves have failed to do), so I never went out of my way to buy Melody A.M. For whatever reason, I changed my mind that day.

Wow, was I lucky.

Now, whenever I listen to the masterpiece that is Röyksopp’s debut album, I will be reminded of baths, late summer nights, humidity, and vanilla candles… ahh nostalgia for summers past.

Here is a track-by-track justification for why I think Melody A.M. is one of my favorite albums:

  1. “So Easy”
    A.k.a. “Who are you?” What do the lyrics “Who are you?” have to do with the title “So Easy”? Good question. Nonetheless, this is a pretty good opener for the album. The first ten seconds of the song turn from a distorted, warbling fuzz into the clunk-clunk-clunk of a bell or something that turns into the basic beat throughout the song. That clunk-clunk-clunk sound (okay, so I’m not a musician, obviously…) remains as constant during the song as the “Who are you?” minimanlist lyrics. Despite these reptitious elements, however, the song is punctuated with that strange warbling noise from the opening of the song and other random bleeps and noises. What I don’t like about this song is how toward the end there is a little voice recording (which is okay), but then the song turns into “Eple,” which is a great song, but I don’t like that seemless-track stuff.
  2. “Eple”
    This was the first Röyksopp song I heard. I think next to “Poor Leno,” it’s their most successful so far. There aren’t any lyrics to the song, so just image drifting through clouds or something trippy and happy. This is a total happy and relaxing song. Seriously, it reminds me of skipping or something like that.
  3. “Sparks”
    A woman named Anneli Drecker does the vocals for this song. She’s Norwegian (like Röyksopp themselves). In this song, her voice quivers — especially when she sings, “It’s those tiny little spots” and “It may rain or it may shine.” This is a sad love song about being alone. When I first heard it, this was probably one of my favorite songs on the album because it was so emotional. The production totally reminds me of a trip-hop song, what with the slow beats and loops.
  4. “In Space”
  5. “Poor Leno”
  6. “A Higher Place”
  7. “Röyksopp’s Night Out”
  8. “Remind Me”
  9. “She’s So”
  10. “40 Years Back/Come”
Mysterious Skin

Mysterious Gray Skin

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I started writing this in May 2005 as part of my ongoing reviews of the book Mysterious Skin. Unfortunately I never finished this review…

Just as a note: I’ve already finished the book. It’s absolutely amazing and has, literally, disturbed me quite a bit. Tonight I am seeing the film version, so I want to get these notes/thoughts about the book posted before I am influenced by the movie.

The “Blue” section ended with Neil starting prostitution and Brian’s dad leaving the family.

“Gray” picks up with Brian and his mother:

Since my father and Deborah [for San Fransisco] had left, I reasoned that Little River regarded my mother and I was weirdos (96).

Brian is listening to music like Kraftwerk and soon sees a newspaper article about a local woman who claims to have been abducted by UFOs and will shortly be appearing on a television program. He learns from the newspaper that the woman’s name is Avalyn, and he becomes determined to find her. When he sees a picture of her in the newspaper:

I could tell she know something remarkable, something etheral and profound. Beauty resided in that knowledge. I wanted it (99).

The newspaper article also mentions a sidebar titled: “Have aliens contacted you?” of particular interest to Brian: missing time, recurring nightmares, nosebleeds, fear of the dark, interest in UFOs — “sometimes to the point of obsession” (100). Given those criteria, Brian is even more convinced that UFOs visited him.

Brian’s mom is skeptical, but supportive. She watches the television show World of Mystery with him. When she sees Avalyn, she notes:

“She’s sort of homely,” my mother said. “She seems sad, as if no one’s ever loved her” (108).

Seeing Avalyn on the television show and thinking over the events depicted seemed to changed Brian’s life a little:

And the more I considered Avalyn, the more I considered my own life. The idea of abduction made perfect sense (111).

Brian concludes for sure that he was abducted that night after the Little League game and again that Haloween night when he blacked out and lost time.

I found it pretty touching that Brian had so much faith in his mother’s support. Even though it was pretty obvious she wasn’t really a believer in UFOs and whatnot, she cared about them because her son cared about them. Brian noticed this:

She would stay beside me until I solved it. Even if to solve meant to lose another block of time, to slip into the unknown world where I was certain they’d taken me before (113).

In the “Gray” section we also meet Eric Preston who, next to Wendy, is Neil’s best (and, well, only) friend. I love the first line Eric gives us:

Neil McCormick was turning me into a criminal, and I loved it (114).

That quote, I think, is a perfect example of the somewhat hypnotizing and charming power that Neil has over people.

Eric’s parents died in a car crash in California so he moves to Kansas to live with his grandparents. As an outsider, Eric gives us some perspective on how fucked up and boring things are in Hutchinson, Kansas:

School was over forever; crime seemed the only thing left to do (114).

In Modesto, I’d had a scattering of friends who shared the same interests in music and were queer like me. Here, I only had Neil (115).

He [Neil] told me I had guts for dressing like I did at such a backward high school (118).

Movies, Philosophy

Zizek! (take two)

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After seeing Zizek! in the theatre for a second time I had some additional thoughts I wanted to talk about, but I only got so far as writing the basic ideas down…

I watched Zizek! again last night (see my first post about Zizek! the movie) with Molly and Shannon. I gotta say that seeing it for a second time gave me a chance to pick up a few more points a bit more lucidly.

— universe and creation = mess
— love as a way to get through that mess
— philosophy as a heuremtic question
— zizek on that tv show

Movies

The Hostile Hostel

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I saw the movie Hostel and had a bunch of things to say about it. I actually loved the film and thought that, like Eli Roth’s first movie, Cabin Fever, there was quite a bit of dark, intelligent, psychological stuff going on…

SIFF 2006, Uncategorized

SIFF 2006 Stats

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I didn’t even finish compiling my SIFF Stats during 2006…

  • Total money spent on tickets:
    $133
  • Total money spent on SIFF membership (which is why I spent less money this year than last year):
    $100 (benefactor level)
  • Total time spent standing in line:
    15+5+10+10
  • Total movies seen:
    …
  • Languages:
    English, Icelandic, Afrikaans, Mandarin, Xhosa, French, Spanish
  • Documentaries:
    1+1+1+1+1
  • Movies about movies:
    1+
  • Movies about music:
    1+1
  • Times the director was in the audience:
    1+1
  • Total voting points given:
    5+4+2+4+3+2+5+5+5
    • Millennium

    Wait, Worry: The Time Is Near: Part Two

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    During October 2005 I was writing reviews of every episode in the third season of one of my favorite TV shows, Millennium. Of course, I didn’t finish…

    Alas, I finished watching Millennium a couple of weeks ago. The ending of the series is so unrewarding, that summarizing the second half of the season (see my review of the first half of Millennium season three) has been rather difficult. While there are some great episodes, I definitely felt empty at the end.

    My feelings at the end were rather contradictory. Part of me was like, “Oh god, what happened to the show! Why has it turned into such a mess now!” But at the same time, I was also like, “No! Why does this have to be the final season… I wish the show could keep going.” There is lots of speculation (including a virtual fourth season of fan fiction) about where the show would have gone. I, of course, thought that season two was the perfect and would have brought Glen Morgan and James Wong back on the series.

    Anyway, without further ado, here are my comments on the episodes in the last half of season two:

    Matryoshka — I felt like this episode perhaps had the potential to be really cool — how was the Millennium Group involved with the FBI back in the 1940s? But then turning the story into something about the atomic bomb and having one of the scientists involved pulling a Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde really makes it so unrealistic that the story loses something. Granted, Millennium (and pretty much every other television show I love) is “sci-fi” or whatever, but since it tried to incorporate itself in a historical event, it just felt lame.

    Forcing the End — I loved that this episode brought Juliet Landau, who plays one of my favorite characters, Drusilla, on Buffy, to Millennium. Unfortunately, her character her wasn’t quite as interesting as Dru — I wish she would stick to playing crazy vampires, but oh well. The episode itself is about a Jewish cult that believes that Landau’s baby is a messiah who will re-build the Third Temple in Jerusalem. Of course, the semi-apocalyptic and religious overtunes make this a more “classic” Millennium episode, but the story just isn’t very engaging.

    Saturn Dreaming of Mercury — This episode revolves around Frank’s daughter, Jordan, and her budding psychic abilities. I’ve been meaning to note that the actress who plays Jordan, Brittany Tiplady, is phenomonal as far as “children actors” go, but was waiting until this post to really highlight that fact. Ever since the first episode of Millennium, I’ve been in somewhat of awe of her. Watching her, you really cannot tell that she is “acting,” unlike most child actors. She is so convincing and natural. Sometimes I think that the crew fools her into thinking that everything is real and rather than telling her she’s an actress, they just make her think that Millennium is her real life and they are recording her or something — she is that good! As for “Saturn Dreaming of Mercury,” though, the episode itself is so-so. Jordan has trouble at school because she basically sees the devil in one of her neighbours/the father of a classmate. The episode ends very open-endedy (and even gives us a glimpse of Lucy Butler!!), but in a bad way. Nonetheless, I love the episode since it gives the character of Jordan a chance to shine.

    Darwin’s Eye — The best part of this episode is the song “Trimm Trabb” by the band Blur. The episode is about a young woman who has some sort of psychological issues. She is also super smart, or something. At the begining of the show, she escapes from prison and gets picked up by a cop who she ultimately wins over. The two of them seem to fall in love, but then she kills him after he “sees the palm tree” (literally: the shadow of a palm tree in the motel room she brings him too). The episode is rather confusing and I’m not sure what everything means at the end. There is definitely something going on with the palm trees and nuclear bomb testing, but I think the episode does a poor job of tying everything together.

    Bardo Thodol — Another weird and confusing episode that gets a little too sci-fi-ish for me. Frank Black investigates a crate of hands that, he later finds out, were artificially created and that the lab that created them also deals with stem cells, etc. etc. creating human clones. Hmm… sounds a little X-Files-like, eh? Added to that, though, is some sort of Buddhist/dying/spiritual reflection thing and Millennium Group evilness.

    Seven and One — What does “seven and one” refer to? Eight. Jordan turns eight in this episode. I love the Jordan-centric episodes, but really this one is about Frank Black and his past. Apparently when he was a kid he was being teased by some bullies and when his brother tried to stick up for him, his brother accidently caused a kid to drown. Ever since, Frank has been afraid of drowning. At the end of the episode, of course, Frank confronts a sort of ghost or something and has a freaky drowning hallucination. But it was just a hallucination. But it wasn’t shot like one, so we are lead to believe that something actually happened. Another so-so episode…

    Nostalgia — After a string of pretty lame episodes, “Nostalgia” lifted me up. Though, I must admit, this episode is totally a Twin Peaks rip-off. Through a recent murder, Frank and Emma end up investigating a young, blonde, flirtatious, self-destructive woman who died years ago. Hmm… Laura Palmer anyone?? This episode was pretty good, though. I loved how the “good cops” turned out to be sleezy womanizers.