It's a rare beautiful day in Manchester and here I am inside drinking tea and waiting for my laundry to dry. It's been one of those weeks. It started with me making a mix cd for my sister and sending it to her. This should be a relatively simple task, except that when I make mixes I always go through all my music so I don't just have new stuff. This means filtering through over 21,800 songs in my iTunes to fit roughly 40 songs onto 2 cds. I love the beginning and end of this creative process, but it's that dirty middle part that nearly drives me to drinking.
Other notable achievements this week: I saw this guy at an open mic (I promise your day will be better if you watch the video). Speaking of Buster, I've been re-watching my Arrested Development DVDs and just finished season one. This week I also watched season two of The Wire and it's so good I would do the show no justice to casually praise it mid-paragraph (I'll dedicate a post to it in the future). I went to see stand-up. I saw Junior Boys live. I baked cookies. I watched the sun come up at 5 a.m. after watching game three of the NBA Finals, where amazing happens. I walked past Curry Mile to Platt Fields Park where The Streets will be performing tomorrow night as part of Mad Ferret festival and I will try to sneak in or at the very least listen to from a distance. I read "The Code of Honor of Rules for the Government of Principals and Seconds in Dueling", one of two books Tim lent me. I plan on reading the other, Nietzsche's "The Anti-Christ" tomorrow. Mark lent me his acoustic and I make sweet, sweet love to it at least three times a day...hang on. I've done alot of walking around and photographing graffiti, which along with making pancakes, has become my calling card here. I made some pancakes.
Yesterday, I went with my Finnish friend Matleena to see "The Hangover". The movie started with hilarious previews for "Bruno" and "Funny People". "Bruno" looks like "Borat: The Gay Sequel" which is okay with me. "Funny People" is an Judd Apatow joint. It pairs Adam Sandler and Seth Rogen, which looks awful on paper, but I expect to be pretty solid. Just Sandler's joke at the beginning does for me. Also it looks like Apatow is lending his wife, Leslie Mann, to the screen. I had a mad crush on her from "George of the Jungle" and you might remember her as the drunk party girl who ralfs all over the car in "The 40-Year Old Virgin". All I know is she definitely needs to be in more movies.
It seems that nowadays, for a comedy to be successful it needs to be like either one of these previewed movies. Sasha Baron Cohen will offend everyone in the audience by taking what is concieved to be acceptable to the extreme. On the other hand, Apatow's films work as "Bromantic Comedies"; heartfelt buddy movies that also happen to be funny. Ultimately, "The Hangover" tries to be both kinds of movies and fails; the gags are never taken too far outside the frat house and the relationship between the guys aren't strong enough for you to really care how it ends. This is a typical problem for director Todd Phillips, who also made "Old School", "Road Trip" and "Starsky and Hutch". They are all inconsistently funny films with little character development.
On the plus side, I will say that Zack Galifianakis steals the movie and roughly 90% of the laughs. I'd put money down that there won't be a better comedic performance this year (outside of "Bruno"). Ed Helms is cast to basically be Andy from "The Office". Bitchy, controlling fiance? Check. Sweater tied around his neck? Check. Singing a song? Check (it's short but hilarious). It looks as though he'll be like Micheal Cera, trapped in the one role he was meant to play for the rest of his life. I'm fine with that.
I've been listening to pretty much one record non-stop this week: Dirty Projectors "Bitte Orca". It's far out. I really like Dave Longstreth's guitar-playing. Instead of a lot of chords, he relies on single notes throughout. Also the female vocal arrangements on this album are incredible. It's no secret that Brooklyn right now is a factory for great music. I have a strong desire to move there right now and not-so-accidentally be a part of the next big thing. I've found that Manchester and Brooklyn have alot in common: strong independent music and arts scene and overlooked in terms of its neighbors (London, Liverpool, Manhattan). They are also perhaps best known for sports, with the old Brooklyn Dodgers and Manchester United.
On a final note, I've been trying to get this music video out of my head but it won't go away. I think my laundry is done.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment