Recently in Media Category

I finally broke down and checked out the "The Darjeeling Limited". After my trip to India I knew I had to see it. The movie was fantastically beautiful. Although it wasn't the India I visited and the story wasn't mine I recognized myself in the movie in quite a few places.

Wow, there are so many worlds I know so little about. The science fiction folk singing world was hitherto fore unknown to me.

I've always enjoyed Bruce Springsteen's quieter darker albums. These include the seminal "Nebraska" and "The Ghost of Tom Joad". Perhaps "enjoyed" is the wrong word. Some of the songs on these albums are dark & foreboding and some are downright depressing. Maybe it's cathartic for me, maybe I'm just relieved that the police aren't after me and I'm not on death row.

Naturally I picked up his latest album, "Devils and Dust", a couple of weeks ago. Like the other albums I mentioned it's pretty dark. You won't find loud rocker anthems like "Born in the U.S.A." What you find is powerfully poetic lyrically driven ballads without a lot of happy endings. For example, check out the chorus from the title track.

We've got God on my side
I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust

You've probably heard the album mentioned on the news as Starbucks won't carry it due to a song about prostitution called "Reno". It's an uncomfortable song to listen to, no doubt about it. At the same time it conveys a kind of lonely sadness that has few rivals. Reminds me a little of "Leaving Las Vegas" with Nicholas Cage. Odd to hear a song as graphic as this one paired with Jesus Was an Only Son and Leah later on the same album.

In the end, "Nebraska" is still my favorite Springsteen album, but there are some great songs on "Devils & Dust" which will stay on my playlist for a long time. My favorites include "The Hitter", "Black Cowboys", "All I'm Thinkin' About" & "Matamoros Banks. I liked "Devils & Dust", but I'm prone to like depressing music so what do I know?

P.S. Thanks to Gretchen's pointer, I found a segment with Mr. Springsteen on NPR. It includes some background on the songs as well as some streaming songs. Most interestingly was the fact that "Devils & Dust" was written from the point of view of a checkpoint gaurd in Iraq. Thanks Gretchen.

Speaking of Nebraska, 89.3 has been playing a song by a local group called Halloween, Alaska. They have an awesome cover of "State Trooper" by Bruce Springsteen. You can even stream the whole song from their website if you click on "music" and have something that will play Shoutcast streams. They are playing Friday, June 10th Cedar Cultural Center. I think I'll be there.

I just heard The Shins are playing First Avenue tomorrow. I was totally unaware of this until just this moment.

In more disappointing news it appears the show is sold out.

If any of my loyal readers have tickets and want to take me to the show, please leave a comment. The person writing the funniest comment gets to take me. As a thank you gift, I'll create a very special blog post just for you.

Current song stuck in my head.

Occasionally when one checks voice mails you'll get an accidental message where you a cell phone in someone's pocket or purse calls a number accidentally. I find these little accidental messages fascinating. I always listen to the end, curious to see if I can piece together who it was or where they were.

Tonight the message included a long clip from "I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight" by Cutting Crew, circa mid eighties. Hearing that music from high school brought me instantly back to the eighties. Whoever you were that called me, thanks.

A few months ago MPR purchased a small college radio station which played classical music.

People were nonplussed and more than a few people were irate as it meant less choice for people who like classical music.

In the last year or so I had gotten rather attached to the alternative classical station, mainly because there were fewer gruesome reports of Iraq casualties for my children to ask about. "Daddy what is an Improvised Explosive Device?"

Then MPR surprised me with the announcement that the new format for the station would be sort of adult, eclectic, alternative, contemporary music station. When I heard about this I was both happy and irritated. I had pretty much given up on commercial music stations as I was irritated by their short playlists and constant commercial interruptions so I was thrilled that someone might play some interesting music with fewer interruptions. At the same time I was irritated by the fact the MPR news station had broadcast numerous digs at how bland and bad commercial music radio had become. It's like they were priming us for their entry into the market. By profiling certain non-traditional Adult Album Alternative stations they were creating a little astroturfing campaign that would lead people to their station. I hate feeling like a sheep. Baaahhh.

So now the station is up and running. You can catch a stream if you like. It's pretty good. I admit it's a treat to listen to interesting music I've never heard before, broadcast without commercials.

This new station has already helped me in my continuous search for my feminine side, which manifests itself by my love for girlish music. My newest find is Rilo Kiley. Here are a few quotes from lyrics on the album, "More Adventurous".

I know I'm alone if I'm with or without you
but just bein' around you offers me another form of relief
When the lonliness leads to bad dreams
and the bad dreams lead me to callin' you
and I call you and say "C'MERE!"

And it's bad news
Baby I'm bad news
I'm just bad news, bad news, bad news

And it's bad news
Baby it's bad news
It's just bad news, bad news, bad news

Any chimp can play human for a day.
Use his opposable thumbs to iron his uniform
and run for office on election day
fancy himself a real decision maker
and deploy more troops than salt shakers.

I am sitting in my living room tonight surfing, while I watch The Daily Show, with Jon Stewart. I love this show. I haven't enjoyed a late night comedy show this much since the early, quirky days of Letterman. There was a great visual gag tonight about how the Bush administration can and does justify anything be recalling 9/11.

When this show is good, it's the funniest thing on any screen, TV or movie.

This post is in response to "Kinni" who commented on my review of the latest Bridget Jones's movie.

"Kinni" asks the following question.

So why did I stay to see the end of this really horrible movie? (Why do I almost always read a dreadful book all the way to the end? I've tackled this topic once before, but perhaps I didn't delve deep enough into it.)

Here are some reasons why I stayed in the theater for this horrible movie.

I didn't have anything else to do. I am only counting the things I had an actual opportunity to do and felt sufficiently motivated to actually consider. At that moment it was either a movie or a nap. A movie seemed like it might be a more entertaintaining option.

I was thinking of you, the blog audience. I knew you would appreciate my insights later. No sacrifice is too great, no movie too horrible, if only I can blog about it later.

I didn't really think the movie could get much worse. So since I knew it was bad, and it probably wasn't going to get any better, as least my hopes aren't going to be dashed.

I paid the money. I had invested $4.75 in seeing this movie, by golly I was going to get everything the movie had to offer me. Unfortunately, it was only a nickels worth of entertainment in the end.

It's possible that the movie could have redeemed itself by the end. You always have to posess hope; it might have gotten better by the end, it was mathematically possible.

Early in the movie I started thinking about what the movie meant in terms of exploring the notion of "human awkwardness". While the plot, the script, the acting were all sub-par, there were some interesting ideas contained in the movie. Unfortunately, it was only 15 minutes or so of good ideas.

Staying until the end is a funny notion. I have often described to people the difference between the feeling of investing in a stock long or for the long term and buying or selling options. When you go long on a stock, you can always fool yourself that it will come back someday. You can convince yourself that short of bankruptcy and delisting, someday you be back "in the money" again.

This isn't the case when buying and selling options. Once you hit the date where the option contract expires, there is no fooling yourself. Either you made money, or you lost money. When you are "in the money" on an options position, I find myself very conservative about additional risk. It's more like a case of "I made my money, now let's get out while the getting is good."

Shorting stocks feels similar too, because you have to imagine paying out money if the stock price is going up and you have buy the stock back when you are out of the money. In shorting, you actually have to actively managed being wrong. If you don't , with nearly infinite downside, you could theoretically bankrupt yourself. You're not going to do that, but you can think about it that way. (I've heard shorting described as unleashing "infinite risk" upon oneself. I have never yet seen a stock proceed to infinity. Until the day arrives when a stock reaches an infinite price, I suggest that the risk is high, and you have to have the time to pay attention to your short positions.)

Isn't a significant part of life all about hope? Someday we all hope that life will get better. Almost all of us stay to the end, hoping it will get better. I for one plan on staying in my seat until the last credit rolls and the staff starts to clean out the theater.

I really want to see the movie now.