10-17-2005
787) Run for Cover. Another Nicholas Ray western, but a far more conventional one. Except for Cagney, who routinely confuses "cowboy" with "Brooklyn tough guy," it's a pretty straight laced tale of redemption type western. I was into it.
788) Buchanan Rides Alone. Randolph Scott is one tough old sumbitch. I might just name my first born after him. Sure hope it isn't a girl.
789) Maria Full of Grace. Are you kidding me? I feel like I'm choking if I take anything bigger than an Advil! How in the hell do they swallow 60 to 70 of those things?! That's insane! So anyway, definitely one of the best I've seen this year. They struck all the right chords in the performances and direction. Like, you could totally feel the tension on the airplane and the fear and desperation during the trip and after everything goes awry. Excellent.
789 down, 211 to go.
- Seeing that 16 Horsepower's Album of the Week is American Beauty, I got to thinking about the Grateful Dead tonight. MWOAEG was a Dead Head and for several months made it her mission in life to convert me. Her reasoning was that since I liked other jam bands, I should like the Dead (and Phish, but since the Dead were more in line with my musical tastes she decided to go with the better odds). Never happened. I loved a few of their "western" songs like Me and My Uncle and Mexicali Blues, and there were a few albums that were a good compromise if she wanted to listen to the Dead while I was around, but for the most part I never could get on board with them. One night I was dead (haha!) asleep at her place and she kept waking me up to listen to Terrapin Station and Live/Dead and I think I actually stayed awake long enough for Turn on Your Lovelight and then fell back asleep. That was when she finally gave up and was pissed at me for weeks. She was such a bitch. Anyway, there were a few albums that I did enjoy. American Beauty is that one Dead album that most everyone can get on board with. I liked it well enough, and at times I've liked both Workingman's Dead and the live album Reckoning (they do a George Jones song, what else was I supposed to do?) and like a good 95% of the population of the entire world I own Skeletons from the Closet. The one album of theirs that I truly truly love though was her least favorite (actually, that pretty much sums up our entire relationship), Blues for Allah. I just pulled it out and I'm listening to it now, and I think I know why I liked it so much. I used to say it was because it was the "funkiest" of the Dead albums, but now I realize it's because it sounds like a Steely Dan record. Which makes me like it less, sort of. It's like how the only Bowie song I'm okay with I like because it sounds like a Queen song, and that just makes me dislike Bowie more. So now I feel kind of cheated. Oh well.
- 5 days 'til Tennessee. Here's your UT joke of the day:
Stephen Hawking decides one day that he's going to go to one of those speed dating events just to see what kind of people he might meet. He asks the first woman he is paired with her IQ and she responds "120." "Excellent," Hawking says, and strikes up a conversation about nuclear fission. After a minute, the next woman comes over and he asks her about her IQ. "110," she says, and they strike up a conversation about physics. After a minute, the next woman comes over and Hawking asks her IQ. "50," she responds, so Hawking asks, "How bout them Vols?"
788) Buchanan Rides Alone. Randolph Scott is one tough old sumbitch. I might just name my first born after him. Sure hope it isn't a girl.
789) Maria Full of Grace. Are you kidding me? I feel like I'm choking if I take anything bigger than an Advil! How in the hell do they swallow 60 to 70 of those things?! That's insane! So anyway, definitely one of the best I've seen this year. They struck all the right chords in the performances and direction. Like, you could totally feel the tension on the airplane and the fear and desperation during the trip and after everything goes awry. Excellent.
789 down, 211 to go.
- Seeing that 16 Horsepower's Album of the Week is American Beauty, I got to thinking about the Grateful Dead tonight. MWOAEG was a Dead Head and for several months made it her mission in life to convert me. Her reasoning was that since I liked other jam bands, I should like the Dead (and Phish, but since the Dead were more in line with my musical tastes she decided to go with the better odds). Never happened. I loved a few of their "western" songs like Me and My Uncle and Mexicali Blues, and there were a few albums that were a good compromise if she wanted to listen to the Dead while I was around, but for the most part I never could get on board with them. One night I was dead (haha!) asleep at her place and she kept waking me up to listen to Terrapin Station and Live/Dead and I think I actually stayed awake long enough for Turn on Your Lovelight and then fell back asleep. That was when she finally gave up and was pissed at me for weeks. She was such a bitch. Anyway, there were a few albums that I did enjoy. American Beauty is that one Dead album that most everyone can get on board with. I liked it well enough, and at times I've liked both Workingman's Dead and the live album Reckoning (they do a George Jones song, what else was I supposed to do?) and like a good 95% of the population of the entire world I own Skeletons from the Closet. The one album of theirs that I truly truly love though was her least favorite (actually, that pretty much sums up our entire relationship), Blues for Allah. I just pulled it out and I'm listening to it now, and I think I know why I liked it so much. I used to say it was because it was the "funkiest" of the Dead albums, but now I realize it's because it sounds like a Steely Dan record. Which makes me like it less, sort of. It's like how the only Bowie song I'm okay with I like because it sounds like a Queen song, and that just makes me dislike Bowie more. So now I feel kind of cheated. Oh well.
- 5 days 'til Tennessee. Here's your UT joke of the day:
Stephen Hawking decides one day that he's going to go to one of those speed dating events just to see what kind of people he might meet. He asks the first woman he is paired with her IQ and she responds "120." "Excellent," Hawking says, and strikes up a conversation about nuclear fission. After a minute, the next woman comes over and he asks her about her IQ. "110," she says, and they strike up a conversation about physics. After a minute, the next woman comes over and Hawking asks her IQ. "50," she responds, so Hawking asks, "How bout them Vols?"
posted by Todd Jones at 8:05 PM
3 Comments:
Maria Full of Grace was a heavy duty movie.
I'm an anomally amongst Dead fans in that I don't try to convert people into fans. I realize most of their material is too far out for most folks to dig on and that's cool with me. However, I do defend the handful of records they made that are accessible, of which American Beauty was one. I'm also an anomally amongst Dead fans in that I don't use drugs (and never did.)
I might have to listen to Reckoning now that you've mentioned it.
Mayday, I've never really gotten into the more glam/pop area of rock. Queen, T. Rex and Fleetwood Mac are about the only three that I will actively listen to, but anything else leaves me cold. It just doesn't sound like music a real live band would make. Bowie is fine, I don't hate him or anything, but the fact that the one song of his I like (two if you count Under Pressure) I only like because it sounds like someone else, and that makes me think less of his ability to make his own music and make it sound good. Does that make sense?
Aren't all musical tastes really about what is and what isn't someone's "thing?" I used to be really snobby about music, but after the past few years of coming to terms with my secret love of Alan Jackson I finally had to realize people like what they like and there's nothing wrong with it. Most any artist/band has something to recommend them and I can usually understand why someone would like them even if I don't.
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