Monday, January 14, 2008

Streaking Pt. 2


Rock Tree 10, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So I've been uploading more and more of my christmas light photos over at Flickr, and I'll keep doing it because I love these things. I've been a fan of long exposure motion shots for some time now, but this set of pictures from New York has really just been incredibly fun to sort through, and I took a TON!

Anyway, aside from my recent obsession with one particular collection of photos, I've also been working on reigning in some order in my life... organizing, sorting, throwing some things away... you know, the old routine. Everybody's always behind on that stuff, right? Ok, maybe not everybody.

In the middle of all of that I've found time to be blown away by two movies, one that I'm new to, and one that I saw awhile back and liked, but watched again twice in the last couple weeks and now love.

First, the new one, is Once. The film is getting some good press and rightfully so. I had heard about it and was curious, but moved it to the top of my Netflix queue after my friend who recently returned home from 6 years of active duty in the Navy highly recommended it. He said he stumbled across it on a plane and basically couldn't stop watching it. Based on his unexpected recommendation I went in expecting something fairly good, but even with high expectations was impressed by just what a beautifully well done movie it is. The music is excellent, and the story is sort of endearingly awkward in the right ways, and generally a lot of fun. I would highly recommend it.

Next is my recent obsession with Stranger than Fiction, a romantic comedy starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal (did I spell that right?), Emma Thompson, and Dustin Hoffman. I've got a short list of things I love about this film:
1. Maggie Gyllenhaal
2. The graphic design of Will Ferrell's character's world of obsessive calculation, counting, and analytical thinking. They created this whole system for taking those pieces of this character's inner workings and making them appear visually on screen. It's really very well done
3. Ok, so that was a short list, right? What? Should I have not numbered it since I really only had two items for the list?

Anyway, those are my capsule reviews for today.

This Week's Playlist:
"Kelen ati leen" by Orchestra Baobab off A Night at Club Baobab
"Whole Wide World" by Wreckless Eric off Greatest Stiffs
"Looselips" by Kimya Dawson off Remember That I Love You
"Two Left Feet" by the Halloways off So This is Great Britain?
"16 Military Wives" by the Decemberists off Picaresque
"Theologians" by Wilco off A Ghost is Born
"New Slang" by the Shins off Oh, Inverted World (Classic!!)
"Voodoo Lady by Ween off Chocolate and Cheese

2 comments:

Stamford Talk said...

I really love these light pics! I think it's funny that they're of Christmas lights; they scream computer at me. I suppose what lights up computers does relate to Xmas lights.
Thank you for the movie reviews and music suggestions! I will try to rent Once, as we don't do Netflix for some reason. I try to pretend like I don't want to sit in front of my TV, but really, I really really do.
I like Wilco, although they are a bit avant-garde for me... or maybe I mean un-melodious. Wilco, why do you do this to me... although I do appreciate how they are unpredictable!
I am obsessed with the Travelling Wilburys (1990) right now.

John said...

Ah, Netflix is a gift, but you're right, it does compound the easy tendency to fall into the sofa and just veg at the end of a day.

If you like Wilco but aren't a huge fan of their more experimental sounds, you should check out their new album, Sky Blue Sky. I actually kinda love their squeaks and hisses, so I was a bit alarmed by this, but the new songs are very clean and have a much more clean sounding sensibility. One review I read called it, "dad rock," a term I found pretty funny, but also apt.