Metric Terminal 5 NYC May16, 2010

Metric rocked the house in at Terminal 5 in New York City. The sold out was filled by the usual hipsters, indie rock fans and feminists with their girlfriends. Metric is a band comprising of a strong rhythm section and charismatic female lead singer and a mediocre guitarist. The sound was mixed to highlight vocals and drummers. The band focused more on recent material but also threw in plenty of old favorites.

The venue was quite comfortable with is a great air conditioning unit which felt like you are watching an old door show, and a very clear sound system.

Metric featured a light show which was unexpected but the strobe light was annoying to painful.

They played for about an hour and a half. It was a Sunday night after all

Oceans (2010)

Disney’s Oceans isn’t the best nature documentary I have seen but it is worth a look. It is mostly a dark blue and gray visual sensation. There are a lot of waves and it is easy to become sea sick.

Unlike most ocean documentary where dolphins take up most of the time and ham up the screen, the one focus’ on some less well known sea creatures.

For better or worse, they barely mention the effects of climate change and pollution. Although, it is good to not feel lectured and powerless about it, there is not an appreciation given to effects on oceans’ wildlife. Growing up in South California, you spend a significant amount of time by the ocean. The power of the ocean and the sites of its many birds and mammals are ubiquitous themes. It is not hard to see the pollution or the dead seals on the beach that arrive every hour. This would be my biggest criticism of the film.

On the bright side, there is the best underwater photography ever filmed. Why this was not in 3D is my question. It looks great! Despite that it lacked structure and seemed long. It is didn’t have the usual story telling of Disney nature paradigm. This is good or bad depending on your opinion. I found it somewhat refreshing then I missed it.

If you are going to see this, see it on the biggest screen possible and sit near the front.

Lend me a tenor (Broadway 2010)

Lend me a tenor is a fun irrelevant farce with a great cast playing on Broadway right now. It stars Tony Shalhoub, Anthony LaPagia, and The Hangover’s Justin Bartha. It is directed by Stanley Tucci.

Despite being fun, it is good but not great. It tries to be Marx Brothers/Neil Simon play without the brilliantly witty dialogue and the subtle drama. Many of the jokes are hackneyed and the plot is far too predictable for someone that such matters usually doesn’t bother much.

Although stage direction is great, the actors do a lot with their space and play with audience’s sense of spatial intuition; the play itself leaves much to be desired.

It is basically an English, as in England, comedy written in the 1980’s trying to be a Jewish-American comedy from the 1930’s. The stereotypes are right but the insights and sole’s are all wrong.

Mostly the plays survives on the presence of Tony Shalhoub and the funny facial expressions of Justin Bartha, the rest is often a lot of sex jokes.

I would not recommend paying a lot of money to see this.

Kick-Ass (2010)

Disturbing and completely unoriginal, yet thoroughly entertaining is Kick Ass. This movie, in Tarantino style, copies the first Spiderman movie almost shot for shot and set design for set design.

It is part of the realism genre of comics; like this could really happen without radioactive spiders and such, but Kick Ass fails miserably at this. The main character, Kick Ass, is beat up pretty bad and suffer nerve damage giving him a greater capacity for pain. So, basically, it is the same plot line as The Simpson’s where Homer becomes a boxer.

This is a movie that is NOT for kids, but every kid will want to see. The characters practically live in a kid universe, except when they have damage adults.

Still, the highly stylized violence, which is patterned after The Watchmen, gets disturbing when you a grown man beating up on an unconscious ten-year-old girl.

The last bit of violence is pattern after the Nick Cage, who is batman like father figure in the film, film The Rock. I think that might be an homage or something.

There the usual teenage romance, but much like Harry Potter you just go with it. There is a funny bit where Kick Ass gets the girl because she thinks he’s gay. Feel that tolerance!

Overall, I am not sure. Comic book fans will see it and like it, because it is so familiar. I am not sure about everyone else. I liked it.

Jersey Shore Season Two Plot Lines

Dear MTV,

I have to admit I am not biggest fan of the Jersey Shore even though I love the show. None of my T-shirt professes a fist pump logo. I will probably never GTL and I am only a quarter Italian. Still, this is what I would like to see on the Jersey Shore season two.

I think it would good to start off the show with good ole Pregnancy scare. Sammy Sweatheart thinks she’s pregnant. They have to get a test, may be a few. The house is worried. The show writes itself.

For the second episode, the whole cast is invited to WASPY country club affair. All of them have to dress up in proper clothes but they find a way to Guido it up.

There should be an effort to reform them. So they should have some battles with the Italian-American organizations that rebuff them. For a little more drama, include an old Italian priest comes to talk to them. They have to respect him as he hits them with his old world ideas.

They should also have baby sit small children who really get on their nerves. In the end, the kids should be little guidos.

Another episode could center on the entire Jersey shore being out of hair gel. What will they do?

As a final episode, it would be cool to have the season end with a big brawl with Irish stereotypes.

As an after thought, either Mike or Snookie should go on the ‘Apprentice’ and Paula D should go on DWTS.

The XX (2009)

Probable the best chill release of last year, The XX, they cut it slow-core. I think if you grew up on The Cure, well so did these guys. They bring a post-goth/slow-core feel with beguilingly happy lyrics and great retro references like a VCR. There are even love songs on this one. Not girlfriend in coma lyrics or love song played on radio stations with the words “Power” or “Hot” in them, but love songs for girls wearing black makeup.

I like the electro-pop sound mixed with real instruments like a Zero 7 release. The songs are short and have an art show aspect to them, and the same time can really assuage the recovering melancholic.

Must Download
Crystallized
Islands

If you have no idea who The XX are, you may already have heard them. Remember back back in the day when Moby put his album PLAY on every commercial, TV show, etcetera for exposure (U2 is doing it ad nauseam , “Blackberry , really guys?”), well The XX are no different. Maybe you are big Apolo Ohno fan, then you might recognize “Intro” from an Olympic commercial. There are other examples that I choose not to get into.

This English band has been well received across the pond, they seem to be unnoticed here from sea to shinning sea, which is a shame, because it is good download.

Date Night (2010)

Good cast, bad movie. Date Night misses the mark. It is a good movie to watch on TBS, maybe before Conan.

I like Tina Fey and Steve Carell they make a good comic team, but do they have be in a movie with a stupid script? It was like being sick and watching some bad TV show from 70’s or 80’s. There were plot lines tapped from ‘Scarecrow and Mrs. King.’

We have suburban couples that live a dull life with their two kids. Their friends are getting a divorce. Oh no, how will they take it? I sure hope the audience hasn’t seen a Woody Allen movie. They try to live it up in New York City. It goes OK until they get caught up in a criminal syndicate. Corrupt cops chase them and Marky Mark is the only one who can help them out without his shirt on. Oh there are uncomfortable situations that come up when his hot Israeli girlfriend comes down almost naked and asks if Tina and Steve are going to join them for sex.

The couple fights for most of the movie. It’s annoying. Not funny!

There are some respites of humor. Anytime Carell and Fey are allowed to let loose, you see how good the movie have been if they could have just cut loose. The blooper real at the end of the film was some of the funniest moment and that is when the movie has already ended.

My favorite part of a small scene with James Franco and Mila Kunis playing a thief and stripper being held at gun point by Fay and Carell; hopefully that will be on utube sometime soon.

In summary, wait for cable.

Gomez Live: Volume 1 (2010)

Gomez Live: Volume 1 is a digital download available on the band’s website. You get 15 live songs from their live show for the price of an average download. The quality is pretty good. They’re no drunken conversations drowning out the music and you don’t have to try to hear the music over the ambience of the crowd. You can hear the instruments pretty good and the vocals are strong. So, what I am saying is that it is not a crappy live download.

It captures the Gomez live sounds. I find there live show to be like U2’s, meaning that it is far superior to the album. I saw this show twice, once in Toronto and then in New York.

As much as like this download, it is not for everyone. It is not one of those live albums that is a thinly veiled greatest hits i.e. any live album from The Rolling Stones. There are some deep cuts and it excludes many of their hits. I would have really liked a live version of “Pieces of me” from their last studio release. This is also not their complete live set. It is abridged.

For the Gomez fan, this is a must have. I have always thought of Gomez as being the closest one is going to get to seeing The Beatles live. I say that, because they have three lead singers with different styles plus great harmonies. The band takes turns on who has the leading vocal from song to song.

Well, I think this is great release. I do like live recordings if you haven’t figured that one out yet.

Ghost Writer (2010)

Ghost Writer is by far the best movie out this year. It is also best political thriller in the past tens years. It has three things going for it: great script, great cast, and great director.

The story goes that a ghostwriter from the world of popular biographies is chose to replace a recently deceased Ghostwriter ghosting an autobiography of a former British Prime Minister, i.e. Tony Blair. Our hero has to go a remote eastern seaboard resort like Block Island, RI. where the Prime Minster is staying with wife and staff.

As our hero assumes his role scandal breaks out and he finds evidence hidden by the former ghostwriter showing inconsistencies and probably inappropriate relationships with the Prime Minister. The new ghostwriter the murky trail into a dark dark path. There are plot twists and murders. He becomes very close to the Prime Ministers wife and then the Prime Minister political enemy.

Ghost Writer stars Ewan McGregor is his best role in a very very long time. The supporting team includes Olivia Williams, Timothy Hutton, Pierce Brosnan and Kim Cattrall. It is first class class that works very well.

The Director is legendary and controversial director Roman Polanski. The movie has a 1970’s look to it. It reminded me most of ‘Three Days of the Condor’ (1975).

The movie is quite long but worth it. It is highly recommended.

Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)

My first guilty pleasure of the year, I thoroughly enjoyed Hot Tub Time Machine, a title that truly describes this movie. It’s like ‘Old School’ meets ‘The Hangover.’

I really like that this movie plot is so stupid that they don’t even try to hide that fact. All the characters easily accept that a hot tub can take them back to 1986. The movie dedicates less than two minutes to an explanation of time travel with the only credentials being that it is from a guy from writes ‘Star Gate’ fan fiction.

The movie plays on popular 80’s movies such as ‘Back to the Future’, ‘Red Dawn’, and any stupid movie that takes place in a ski resort.

The movie starts with three friends who are down on their luck. One tries to kill himself with a mix of whiskey, auto fumes, and a Motley Crue power ballad.

The three plus one ( the nephew of the John Cusack character) take a trip to a ski resort that they used to go to in their prime only to discover it is now a first class dump. Somehow, it really doesn’t matter, they have a working hot tub. They party. They get stupid. They end up in 1986. Don’t ask.

Now they in 1986 as they the ages there were at in 1986. The audience sees them in there 40’s but everyone sees them as teenagers. Only through mirror do we see them in there youth.

As in any time travel movie they can’t do anything that didn’t in the past lest irrevocably change the future. Chaos theory, what not!

I know what you’re thinking. Didn’t we see this plot in an episode of ‘Family Guy?’ Of course, we did. It worked there and it works here.

There are minor roles for Crispin Glover, George McFly in ‘Back to the future,’ and Chevy Chase. In true 80’s teen spirit there are copious amounts of drugs and brief nudity. They do a good job of picking music you may not have heard since 1986, such INXS’s ‘What you need’ and Poison; anything from them.

It is more than fair to stay that Rob Corddry and Craig Robinson carry the film.

I enjoyed this movie from beginning to end.

Beageface

She's out of my league (2010)

March isn’t the best times for movies. She’s out of my league was so bad. Although better than The Runaways, this one was simply flat, a type of boring.

Ok, Premise: loser guy gets a hot girl. Moral of the story is hotness is in the eye of the beholder and often a state of mind.

Now, we have these films in the past and liked them. Why is this one different?

It has a horrible supporting cast. Our hero played by Jay Baruchel, graduate from almost all Judd Apatow productions since ‘Undeclared,’ has no one to play off of. All the other characters are so blah and the situations aren’t all that interesting. He can’t play the lovable loser when every one is an even more content loser, he comes off as the alpha-male. The girl, Alice Eve, who looks a perfect Scandinavian beauty, has no personality. Alice is actually British, but most likely a descendant of the Viking invasions.

There is a Hall and Oates tribute band in the film, which makes me think there might be Hall and Oates renaissance, which is a little scary.

Krysten Ritter was the bitchy friend of the hot girl, but somehow I didn’t buy it. She seems too nice to be believable in that role. Was Cathy Griffin not available?

To be fair there were a few chuckles here and there but this one should be missed.

The Runaways (2010)

It’s hard to believe that movies can still be this bad. The Runaways shows bad film-making, bad acting, and a bad script. They even made very good-looking girls look really ugly: Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart.

The premise of the story, if you can call it that, is the true story of an all girl rock band, The Runaways, from the late 70’s that makes it then self-destructs. It could have been an interesting movie as some of the girls became known in the 80’s: Joan Jett, Lita Ford, and Micki Steele of the Bangles. Instead it is poorly focused on the lead singer Cherie Currie, whose memoir the movie was based on.

The movie focuses on the starting of the band with Joan Jett. In a clichéd feminist moment she rocks out when her guitar instructs her that as a girl she can only play lame music. There is an almost ten minutes seen of Dakota Fanning lip singing to a David Bowie song. Lets skip the uneven formation of the band which is includes fictional characters. Why are there fictional characters in this? Where there legal issues?

The audience gets a rock n’ roll for Dummies seminar from Michael Shannon playing record producer Kim Fowley. It is one of the few times the movie has any energy.

The rest of the movie, which characterizes their rise and fall, is a just drug hazed lesbian orgy that goes on forever.

It might be early, but this could possible be the worst movie of the year.

Broken Bells (2010)

I love this download. I can’t stop listening to it. I am big Danger Mouse fan and so/so James Mercer’s band the Shins fan. Demon Days, produced by Danger Mouse, I think is the best release of 2000 – 2009. Broken Bells has that Danger Mouse sound, which I would describe as centering on a clean recording of each instrument. It reminds me more of a classical or jazz recording than a pop or rock recording.

The songs were written both by Mercer and D. Mouse. For Mercer’s part, his voice has more gravitas than his work with The Shins. The sound has a depth wrapped in an indie pop song. I think it’s brilliant!

Must Download:

The High Road
Vaporize
You’re Heads On Fire
October.

I would suggest the whole thing, even though last two songs sound like mediocre songs from a New Wave 80’s band.

The first song, ‘The High Road’, which was also the first single and digital download from the website last year, is a haunting rhythmic ballad and beautifully transitions to their second single, ‘Vaporize’ it speeds up a little and dips into great melodic and thoughtful lyrics into an electric bridge. The next tune, ‘Your Heads on Fire’ is neo-sixties pop ballad in the sprit of the great British band ‘Manic Street Preachers’. Next, ‘The Ghost Inside’, Mercer has a late 70’s falsetto and it almost has a ‘Hall and Oates’ feel to it. ‘Sailing to nowhere’ is punctuated with Beatles sound trick and great strings. I guess you should just listen to the whole thing.

I was surprised and pleased to that this recording debuted at number 7 on the Billboard charts.

I realize that is album speaks to me in that the sound is like some of stuff I like from the 90s, but is different enough to make it interesting. Of course the sound engineering was never as good in the 90’s as it is here. The year is young but this might be the best release of the year.

Contra - Vampire Weekend (2010)

It started to be good year musically with the sophomore release from Vampire Weekend. Contra is an upbeat and intelligent outing for our Columbia University graduates. In true Ivy League fashion there are esoteric and outrageously privileged lifestyle references.

The Paul Simon, Graceland, sound is still there but less. It reminds me of a 60’s surfer band mixed with an Afro-Reggie sound.

Must Download:
Cousins
Taxi Cab

Although, the whole album is good, which more than I can for their first release, ‘Cousins’ and ‘Taxi Cab’ deserve a special attention. ‘Cousins’ is explodes in your ear, It’s fast and they throw a lot at you. It is no surprise that it is the first single, especially of all the tracks on Contra this one most sounds most like ‘A Punk’. ‘Taxi Cab’ is a slow melodic tune, much like a lullaby. I find myself humming the gentle melody while walking the streets of New York City.

Honorable mentions are Horchata and I think Ur A Contra both are sweat and seem to depict a romance set somewhere in Greenwhich, Ct. To throw you a negative ‘A Diplomats Son’, is a tune I have to skip every time it comes up. It sucks on so many levels.

I think the best thing about Vampire Weekend is their youthfulness. We seem to be attracted to music made by young adults; most songs on the radio from young people. I was listening to a somewhat recent Paul McCartney song. I thought it was just as good as some of his Beatle work, but it wasn’t because he just didn’t sound right. There was something hopeful, youthful and something else; Vampire Weekend has that here.