Terrible Tuesday Review Blitz Frenzy!

Let's buzz through and catch up on some stuff, eh? We'll keep it brief, 'cuz you don't read the longwinded stuff anyway. Want to know more? Comment for me, and I'll elaborate! or is it elabo-nate! Yeah, no. It's not.

an album review
Inland by Jars of Clay

The short: excellent. Get it. The third best Jars of Clay album (following the eponymous debut and Who We Are Instead), which means it's still better than the best album by most bands.

The slightly longer: Jars of Clay, in my opinion, has released three excellent albums and two good albums (The Long Fall Back Home and The Eleventh Hour), and I haven't even paid attention to Good Monsters. The only dud is If I Left the Zoo, which is, honestly, an awful awful terrible horrible very bad no good album. I'll forgive one mistake. How many other bands do i think put out five good albums? Not many. Starflyer 59, U2, Weezer, the White Stripes. Silversun Pickups are on that path, but they've only got 3 out. What does that mean, though? I'm impressed.

They evolve with each album, and they continue their recent trend of channeling the best of 80's pop music without cheesing out too much. Best tracks: Inland and Stay Awake, with lots of other good tunes.

a movie review
Every Movie with Jason Statham

Really, they're all the same movie. You always know exactly what you're going to get. And what you get is awesome.

That being said, i think Mel Gibson was better as the character Parker than Jason Statham. Payback is a highly under-rated movie.

a movie review
Blue Like Jazz

Love the book, love the author, was worried the movie would be bad because if you've read the book you know it's not easily movie-able.

Surprisingly, it's a good movie! Great, no, but good. Enjoyable. True to the spirit of the book without being heavy-handed. Could inspire some good discussions. Although the actor playing Don was trying to hard to be Toby Maguire.

A restaurant review
Sauced in Livermore, CA

All I knew was that it featured BBQ and whiskey. I like both of those things. I've been itching to try this place literally since it opened.

It was a lot more upscale than i anticipated, but I should have known that on account of it being smack dab in the middle of downtown Livermore. They had a band playing rock classics, bluegrass style. It was packed, but it was also a fundraiser night for some cancer charity or something.

The whiskey selection was huge. I ordered an Old Fashion with Maker's Mark 46. It was served in a glass jar, and it was good.

I ordered a combo with burnt ends and sliced brisket, with bbq beans and sour apple coleslaw as sides. The beans were good, the slaw was more tangy than creamy. It was fine, but I prefer either more sharp vinegar or classic creaminess. Personal preference. The BBQ itself was California good. That means if you're from California, you'd think it was great. I found it hilarious that they put a disclaimer in the menu about the smoke ring on the meat (from the smoking process). Compared to Kansas City bbq, it was average. Enjoyable, but it wasn't twice as good as Dickie's BBQ, which cost half as much.

Their sauces were good. I especially liked their spicy sauce. Unlike most places, it was actually spicy. I applaud that.

Go there for the atmosphere and the drink menu and the experience, you'll enjoy the food. If you just want california good bbq, you may as well go to Dickie's (which I do love).

My dinner company at Sauced was quality, too.

Clever name, though, right?

a weather review
California rain


it rained today. In California. we're supposed to complain about this, because it's only supposed to happen when it doesn't get me wet. But I am excited that things will finally start turning green soon.

Reflections of the Way Things Used to Be

I used to keep a blog (before anyone knew what a blog was) on early social networking sight Livejournal. It's been over 5 years since I put anything on it, but it's fascinating to look back at who I used to be. I quit writing in Livejournal about the time my life began a massive make-over, so it's quite fascinating to look back at the me-that-used-to-be (be careful, he had a lot of issues back then).

Here's an entry i wrote soon after my roommate and close friend Harold Rosas (the Gopher Boy) passed away...

I feel very much as if my apartment should be haunted, or something of the such. I mean, it's not. in fact it's a lot of quiet, and a lot bigger than it used to be, or so it seems.

There's still a fair bit of stuff to go through, most of it to be thrown away or moved or something or other. Some stuff to be dumped off at Half Price Books or rasputins. I dunno. I know what i have to do, more or less, and i even know where i probably should, but actually getting to it is somewhat more troublesome it seems.

The last time i saw Harold, he was getting out of his car. i road [sic] past him on my bike, heading home to my apartment. I was in a hurry to go meet up with everyone to see [The Simpsons Movie], but I left the door open to our apartment so he wouldn't have to shuffle his load of carry-ons to open the door. I was putting up my bike and stuff, and i kept waiting for him, and he wasn't coming. After a few minutes and finishing up my stuff, i was going back to my room to change so i closed the door. I looked out the front window to see if he was coming, but i noticed that his car was gone, he had actually been packing up to leave for wherever rather than coming home.

If i was a writer--which i guess i am--and I was writing this scene for a novel, I would have used it as foreshadowing, leaving the door open for him to come home, and him leaving instead.

Hmmm.

I guess you could say i'm handling everything ok. i mean, i don't know how you're supposed to handle things like this so i'm not exacctly sure i'm qualified to say if i'm handling it well or not. *shrug* Mostly i just think i have a lot more room than i used to.

This is one of the most surreal scenes of my entire life, so much so that I find it hard to believe it really happened like that. But it did. I left the door open, and waited, but he never came home. And that line that I finished the post with, "Mostly I just think I have a lot more room than I used to." I believe that may be one of the best, most real, lines I've ever put down on paper. It seems so simple, so blase, but it was so much how I felt at that moment. Metaphors like that aren't supposed to happen in real life.

Mad Scientists Log, Project 86

I'm going to try to cram two reviews and a forecast of future posts into this here thing-a-ma-bob.

A concert review

Project 86, Petaluma, CA, November 2, 2013 (with A Hero to Fall, Arrhythmia, and Mirrors)

 

I road-tripped up north to Petaluma with Jesse to catch the reclusive Project 86. It's been many years since we've gone out to see Project, whom we've seen multiple times at the Pound in SF but for reasons unknown have avoided the immediate Bay Area in recent years.

I'm genrally pro-Project 86, but I would hardly consider myself a die-hard fan. I love their second album, Drawing Black Lines, and I've enjoyed the other songs that I've heard, but that was like 5 albums ago. I only keep up with them in a way that's peripheral, at best.

All that said, I've seen them play live something like 3 or 4 times, and never had a poor outing.

this was no exception.

The show was in some dingy, graffiti-ridden theatre that at one time was home to legitimate art, but seems to have been relegated to poor-man punk bands of late. Exactly the sort of place you want to see a metal band play. There was no bar--prime example of an abandoned property a mega-church bought or rented for their "reach-the-youth-group-with-metal-punk-band-ministry." I'm okay with that.

The three opening bands were local North Bay/Santa Rosa metal bands, and seemed to have their followings from the youth groups they probably graduated from. All were full of talented musicians with a solid understanding of playing together and playing for a crowd. Arrhythmia, especially, seemed to have a good connection with the crowd.

I expected to think each one of them would suck, but I walked away from each one saying, "That was a lot better than I expected. Well done, kids, well done." I say kids, because all of the band members were teen/early 20-somethings, babies practically. We shouldn't forget that I'm old and remember when Michael Jackson was cool when Thriller came out.

And then Project came on, and I immediately understood the difference between the amateurs and the professionals. Project is an accomplished band, and they've been signed on major labels and done mega-tours, but at this stage in their career you can hardly say they're selling out arenas.

They played along with track music, and it was seamless, but  they were leaps and bounds ahead of the opening three bands. Their energy was more focused, and the quality of their songwriting was noticeably better. Lead singer and foundation of the band Andrew Schaub roamed the stage like a wild animal, and poured everything he had into the show (even though there were less than 100 people in the room). As his wide-eyes passed over the audience, it felt to me like he was looking directly at me, personally. Only one other singer has been able to do that--Shirley Manson from Garbage. The man is an incredible live performer, and intelligent commentator.

I had been worried I wouldn't recognize any of their songs, but they played through the "greatest hits" of their catalog, and I recognized more than enough songs to get excited, including my personal favorite "Stein's Theme."

Long story short, they rocked and I got home and immediately bought their newest album Wait for the Siren from Amazon.

Project 86 has earned my respect, and I will profess admiration for them their music, and their live performances for years go come.

a movie review

The Counselor

I wanted to see the Counselor because it was written by Cormac McCarthy, one of my favorite authors, was directed by a respected filmmaker, and stared several actors I love. Cormac McCarthy is best known for his novels, including Blood Meridian (an Evening of Redness in the West), No Country for Old Men, and The Road (the later two of which were made into quality movies; the former is considered one of the best novels written in the modern era). (Mikey Gee, that last link is to the Onion AV Club!)

The Counselor was McCarthy's first screenplay, kind of. Produced screenplay at least.

Long story short, you can skip the movie. it's not that good. it's a clear example of a novelist writing in an unfamiliar medium. He doesn't understand how to let the visual media tell the story, and ends up trying to talk to much. The characters are long-winded and talk ad naseum, trying to sound deep and profound. It certainly isn't, or doesn't come across as such. And you don't really care for (m)any of the characters.

Caveat: there is a time where this would be an excellent movie to watch. If you are studying film making, or screenwriting, you should watch this movie. it's a brilliant case study in unrestrained writing from an unskilled screenwriter. As what not to do. It's even better if you team it up with No Country for Old Men, bot the movie and the book.

Want an interesting discussion? Watch No Country for Old Men, read the novel, and then watch the Counselor. No Country for Old Men was originally conceived as a screenplay, but then completed in novel form. After the novel was written, a screenwriter made it into a movie. Both came from the mind and talent of McCarthy, who is an excellent writer. But when adapted by a writer familiar with the medium, we end up with a phenomenal movie and an excellent novel. But when McCarthy is left to write the screenplay without an editor/critiquer who has the balls to tell him it won't work, you end up with a bloated, over-winded movie that tries way to hard to be good and simply fails.

a notice of upcoming posts, in no particular order.
reviews of Alton Brown's live tour (Inevitable Edible Tour), Jars of Clay's Inland album, and my Giant Defy Composite Carbon 1 bicycle
Discussions on weight-loss topics, why Eureka may be the best show that was on TV, and why I love Edgar Rice Burroughs.

On the Contrary, Gravity is Foremost on my Mind

One can hardly begin talking about Gravity without recalling the charming scene from the beginning of Star Trek V: the Awful Star Trek With Spock's Brother (I don't think that's its official name, but it should be)...




 It may have been a terrible movie (Star Trek: the Motion Picture, worse or better than Star Trek V: the Final Frontier, ready, set, GO IN COMMENTS) but it had some wonderfully quotable moments as well.

Now that that is out of the way, we're going to talk about Gravity. You'll notice the capital "g," which means we're talking about a proper noun instead of the more generic gravity-with-a-little-g, you know, the sort of thing that trips us. So, yes, that means we're talking about the movie.

Well, I'm not actually going to talk a whole lot about the movie, but the wonderful lessons the filmmakers and TV writers and penny-dreadful, pulp writers in Hollywood and beyond should take from the movie.

So, let's get the prerequisite rating and such out of the way. If you don't know what this movie is, there's probably a rock somewhere you call your house, but I'll humor you with a brief recount: it's a scientifiction/disaster story that takes place on a space shuttle mission and stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney (and only the two of them). Directed and written by Alfonso Cuarón (perhaps best known for the wonderful Children of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien, one of the better films to come out of Mexico in recent years)(and Great Expectations, one of my brother & sister's favorite movies)

I loved it. Really, I did. Nearly everything about it. And this is from a self-admitted notoriously harsh critic. Probably the best movie I've seen this year, and I don't anticipate anything bumping it from that spot (yes, even a Hobbit or Book Thief).

• I thought the actors did a wonderful job, neither under- nor over-acting. George Clooney gets by on being charming George Clooney, but really that's what we like him for. Sandra Bullock is likeable and relatable, but realistically so. She felt more like an everyday person than the hero of a big-budget summer blockbuster film. Which is good. 
• The story was beautifully paced, building and releasing tension (and you know how much I love that) at just the right times so that you don't get too worn or burned out. But it still kept you on your seat.
• The effects were beautiful (and one of the few movies that benefited from 3-D), and supported the story rather than distracting from it.
• The music and sound FX wonderfully enhance without detracting from everything else.
• The writing was crisp and, well, normal. Sandra B's lines were like normal people talked! Well, maybe not as much George Clooney, but by golly he's GEORGE CLOONEY he's charming enough he can get away with it.
• Suspension of Disbelief was maintained completely from start to finish. Sure, there have been some nitpicks by people wanting to bitch and moan, but everything served the story, built on the themes of the movie, and did not appear implausible or distracting.

If i were to star-rate it, which I"m generally not prone to do except that people like to see that sort of thing, I would give it 4 out of 5 stars. Which is especially impressive because that's really as high of a rating as you can receive without being The Princess Bride or Back to the Future (the two perfect movies).

I actually spent more time on the movie than I intended. But now onto the other stuff, the stuff I really wanted to mention.

I hope that the producers and directors and actors and (most importantly) writers notice this movie. Why? Because it is such a wonderful example of how a small story can be powerful. You don't have to threaten the world, or blow up a city, or build the biggest robot spaceship ever to make a good story. Good stories are powerful; good stories are about people, people like you and I caught in tremendous circumstances. It's okay to focus on the tremendous people rather than the outlandish circumstances.

It's no secret that Hollywood has become enamored with style over substance lately, and maybe lately is a generous assessment. We, as a movie-going, ticket-buying demographic, shoulder our fair share of the blame for this. Every time we go to the movies, or rent from Redbox we are voting for the type of movie we want to see Hollywood produce, and those are the only votes that the motion picture studios listen to.

We're Americans, we're the richest, most affluent society that has every existed on planet Earth, and we like this big and loud and outlandish. That's okay, and there's a place for that.

It's okay to be quiet, to be close, personal. There's room to wait, to breathe.

To catch our breath. To suffocate, slowly.

In the battle of epic motion pictures, there's only so many cities and planets and populations you can blow up. The Star Trek reboot destroyed Vulcan in it's first movie! Superman and the Avengers leveled city block after city block to save the world from mass destruction in their first movies. Where else do you go? How can you keep getting bigger and bigger? There's only so many times you can threaten the fate of the (fictional) world (nobody cares about because they have no connection with it) before we don't care anymore. We've seen that special effect already.

Superman's greatest battles are not with massively over-powered supervillains, but rather the little choices he has to make every single day to do the right thing, the hard thing, when it would be so easy for him to rule over the earth with an iron fist if he chose. No one could stop him. But he chooses, every single day, to be something less than he is so that the rest of us can be something more than we are.

I applaud Iron Man 3 in this regard. It was hardly a perfect movie, but it worked very hard to stop the cycle of one-upsmanship. It didn't try to be bigger than The Avengers, or even Iron Man 2. It narrowed the focus back to the character, and let us see weakness and dealing with that weakness.

So go out, and vote with your wallets. It's okay to chose style sometimes, but try to chose substance just as often. It will strengthen all of the stories.We don't want the scales to tip too far in one direction or the other. We need that balance, because that's where we'll find the next movie like The Matrix, a beautiful blend of style and substance. But The Matrix is a post for another day.