Where The Wild Things Are: A Review

Where The Wild Things Are is a strange, beautiful beast. Like its characters, it is delicate, fuzzy, and stronger than it knows. It is difficult to categorize, altogether fascinating and demands your attention. Many films attempt to capture the childhood experience by stitching together syrupy scenes of children playing and riding their bikes, that ring false and generic. I can scarcely remember a film that encapsulated every child-like emotion so perfectly. Boys are not the self-sustaining bundles of joy that they are often caricatured as, nor are they as deranged as they can be portrayed (see:KIDS). Boys are sensitive and frustrated creatures, or at least I was. I vividly remember desperately trying to get attention, or wanting to tear my room apart and run away when I was sent to my room. I recall fleeting bursts of uninhibited fun followed by feelings of confusion and helplessness. The fact that Spike Jonze was able to expand a ten-sentence story into a feature-film while retaining and in some ways enhancing the heart of the source material is the highest compliment I can bestow upon him.

After being sent to his room for an outburst with his mother, Max runs away and finds himself transported to another world where he stumbles upon the Wild Things, an unruly group of giant furry beasts. Max is able become their king, but while he gains the attention and the power he desires, he quickly finds that being in charge isn't as easy as it sounds. He has fun with the Wild Things at first, running through the forest and having dirt clod fights, but these scenes also underscore the danger he is in. The Wild Things play too rough with each other and narrowly avoid hitting Max and crushing him in a pig-pile. It quickly becomes apparent that Max needs to establish some semblance of order. However, as a 9 year old boy he has no sense of tact or the feelings of others as he promises to keep out the sadness and plays favorites in the same breath. Familiar feelings of jealousy emerge within the ranks and Max is forced to reconcile these or quite literally, be eaten up.

Cinematographer Lance Acord does a great job in capturing the kinetic energy of Max and the Wild Things, following Max into tunnels and through the forest smoothly and effortlessly. Likewise, Karen O's voice is the perfect accompaniment as she careens from invigorating to sobering and back again. Finally, the voice acting is top-notch, the most notable of which being James Gandolfini as Carrol. He is the perfect voice for the petulant Wild Thing. Catherine O'hara is also fantastic as the sarcastic, jealous Judith. All of this comes together beautifully, but those who are hoping for a more traditional narrative may be disappointed. This is not Pixar. It is scary and frustrating, but above all, real.

Sweet Indie Band of the Week: Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros are a 10 piece LA folk-rock group which sound a bit like a hippie version of The Arcade Fire, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Their debut album Up From Below is filled with anthemic songs and a myriad of instruments, but never sounds overfilled or out of control like Broken Social Scene can. While a little cutesy in parts, it's hard not to be charmed by their enthusiasm. This is my favorite song off the record, entitled Janglin':

My Favorite Music Videos of the Decade (Top 12....ish)

Before I get started on my Favorite Tracks and Albums of the decade in the next few days, I wanted to aggregate a few of my favorite music videos into a post. Some of my favorite directors got their start in music videos. The best music videos are those that add to power of the song, rather than distract from it and are mesmerizing enough to transport you to another place for a couple of minutes. All of these videos fit those criteria perfectly. Unsurprisingly, a few of these songs will also find their way onto my favorite tracks of the Decade list, but I don't want to ruin the surprise. Here they are, in no particular order:

Let me know your favorites!

Kanye West - Can't Tell Me Nothin' (Zach Galifinakis/Will Oldham Version)


Kylie Minogue - Come Into My World


Justice- D.A.N.C.E.



Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice



LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends



Chemical Brothers - Star Guitar



Sigur Ros - Glosoli



Johnny Cash - Hurt



The White Stripes - Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground



Interpol - Evil



Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends



Gnarls Barkley - Who's Gonna Save My Soul?

Where will he get syrup in jail?

This afternoon, in a Manhattan Court House, Lil Wayne pled guilty to attempted gun possession stemming from a 2007 incident aboard his tour bus. Analysts expect him to receive a one-year prison sentence when he is sentenced in February.

This sucks. Mere days after I sung his praises he had to go and get himself incarcerated. Doesn't he have bodyguards to take the fall for this? Why does he even have a gun to begin with? Couldn't he have hid it in his dreadlocks? All these questions whipping through my brain, but the most important one is who will replace the incredible presence that Wayne leaves on nearly every Top 40 track. As I said earlier, every track that throws him a verse skyrockets up the charts. I know he has 3 records due in December and I'm sure he has enough recorded material to put out 5 records without leaving his cell, but for our sake, I hope he lives in the studio for the next 4 months.

Pop music got a lot more boring this afternoon.

Crappy Comcast Internet + Book Club = Weak Blog Post

More at 11.

Updated:

Great TBC meeting. Sorry Rob is such an anti-semite. I learned a lot about cup-size and war. Looking forward to the next book at the 20A.

Barnes and Noble releases Kindle-killer entitled "Nook"

Earlier today, Barnes and Noble Booksellers called a news conference to announce the release of their e-book reader, the Nook. Over 2 years in the making, Barnes and Noble hopes to entice consumers away from the Kindle, Amazon's e-book reader. The Nook offers several features that the Kindle does not, and does so at the same price, $259.

For starters, the Nook has 2 separate screens. A six inch e-ink display for displaying text, and a 3.5 inch touchscreen LCD screen below for navigation.

In addition to this, the Nook runs using Google's Android operating system and offers Wifi and 3g internet from AT&T. The Nook also allows you to share your e-books with friends and family for up to 2 weeks, something the Kindle does not. Rumor has it that Barnes and Noble will offer a steep discount for e-books (compared to a standard paper copy), and will allow access to free books via Google's Book Project. The Nook also boasts 2gb of memory and an expandable MicroSD card slot.

This is all well and good, if you are already on board with e-book readers. I'm not so sure yet. While having some competition (Sony recently released it's first e-book reader a few weeks ago) will certainly raise the playing field and push the technology further (and faster), I'm not sold completely on reading books digitally. I know the e-ink displays are said to be "just like paper" and that being able to have access to thousands of books in a single device is an attractive idea, but how many people really read multiple books at the same time? Furthermore, how many people read at all these days? Granted, I haven't used one and while I like to read, I may not be their target demographic, but still, e-readers have a ways to go before they start threatening my bookcase.

THE GREEN HORNET (2010)

Forgive the Wikipedia cut and paste:

The Green Hornet is a fictional masked crime fighter. Originally created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker for an American radio program in the 1930s, the character has appeared in other media as well, including film serials in the 1940s, a network television program in the 1960s, and multiple comic book series from the 1940s to the 1990s. Though various incarnations sometimes change details, in most incarnations the Green Hornet is Britt Reid, a newspaper publisher by day who by night goes out in his masked "Green Hornet" identity to fight crime as a vigilante, accompanied by his similarly masked Asian manservant Kato and driving a car, equipped with advanced technology, called "Black Beauty". The Green Hornet is often portrayed as possessing fair to above average hand-to-hand combat skills and is often armed with a gun that sprays knock-out gas (a sonic blast weapon called the "Hornet's Sting" was added to his arsenal for the TV series).


Fair to above-average hand to hand combat skills? A masked Asian manservant named Kato? A gun that sprays "knock-out gas"? Not only does this guy sound like the lamest superhero ever, he also steals Clark Kent's alter-ego and Batmans car?!? So why am I telling you this?!?! Because, despite all these black marks against it, this movie is being made, and with any luck, will be AWESOME. Why? Because of these three men:

The man above, is famed music video turned feature film Director Michel Gondry, director of the brilliant Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the criminally underrated Science of Sleep and Be Kind Rewind. He is directing this film.

This man is Seth Rogen. You may know him from every funny movie you've seen in the last 5 years (Superbad, Pineapple Express, Knocked Up, 40-Year-Old Virgin). He is playing the Green Hornet.

This is Christoph Waltz. If you recognize him, you know how awesome he is. If you don't, go see Inglorious Basterds and come back to me. He is playing the film's villain.

If that doesn't get you on board, maybe you should try and find the line for Transformers 6.

Unfortunately, the abysmal Cameron Diaz is playing the love interest, but I can live with that. The movie is currently filming for a release date of December 2010.

Start your countdown.

Das Racist - Pizza Hut and Taco Bell (Wallpaper Remix)

If you haven't heard this song, and I didn't play it for you 23425 times this weekend, then you are in for a royal treat. The premise of this song is simple. Two drunk people get separated and attempt to rendezvous at a Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell. The song features a confusing phone conversation, a saxophone solo, and probably fewer than 15 words. None of that matters, because it's f-ing catchy. Makes me want a pepperoni chalupa.

Advertising executives at Taco Bell or Pizza Hut are fools if they don't find a way to incorporate this into a commercial somehow.
 

Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension

Julian Casablancas (of The Strokes fame) is releasing his solo album Phrazes for the Young November 3rd and released this debut single a few weeks ago to tide fans over. As expected, it has a Strokesy feel, but trades most of the guitar riffs for a nifty synthesizer piece, making the whole thing sound like a piece of future disco, not that that's a bad thing. I can't wait. Listen below:

Sweet Indie Band of the Week: Bad Veins

Bad Veins are a two piece band hailing from Cincinnati, OH who have toured and recorded since 2006, but just released their debut self-titled LP this Summer. Equal parts The Killers and The Walkmen, but with a splash of the Strokes' Lo-fi vocals, Bad Veins pair fantastic hooks with powerful lyrics in neat 3-minute songs.

I don't have their entire album yet, but one song in particular that I love is entitled "Falling Tide" and is featured in the video below.

Bad Veins are currently on tour through October 29th, but sadly, don't come further North than Philadelphia. Check them out all the same:

Stream/Download Bon Iver's Last Show for "the forseeable future"

After a huge 2008 where he toured much of the US several times over (I know of 4 shows he had in the Boston area alone), Justin Vernon's Bon Iver project appears to be taking a well-deserved break from touring to regroup, according to their website.

Since releasing his fantastic For Emma, Forever Ago LP in the Spring of 2008 and solid follow-up EP entitled Blood Bank with Bon Iver, Vernon has dabbled in a side project entitled Volcano Choir and recorded a song for Twilight: New Moon in 2009 (both of which I've posted about in this blog) and maintained a breakneck touring schedule. Throughout this he has experienced a meteoric rise to Indie superstardom and mainstream success thanks to shows like Gossip Girl and Grey's Anatomy which showcase his songs. I saw him perform almost a year and a half ago at the Museum of Science auditorium, a tiny room which resembled a high school stage, and he blew everyone away. I am excited that he has enjoyed a small taste of the success that he deserves.

As I mentioned earlier, Bon Iver is taking some time off to regroup, but as a thank-you to fans, the last show of their tour is available to stream and download for free here.

If you've never heard of him/them, give it a shot. You won't be disappointed.

The Unhinged Genius of Lil Wayne

Lil Wayne is, as he describes himself, "the best rapper alive", and you would be hard pressed to find an informed person to argue otherwise. He has a instantly recognizable voice, a unparalleled delivery and a thesaurus for a brain. Lil Wayne's solo albums alone would be enough for him to enter the pantheon of hip-hops best lyricists, but it is his prolific mixtape and guest appearances that put him on another playing field entirely than the entire rap community.

A cursory glance on Wikipedia details no fewer than 6 projects that Lil Wayne is directly associated with, including a collaboration with his Young Money group, a group with T-Pain entitled T-Wayne and an R&B album tentatively entitled Luv Sawngz. This is in addition to the three albums he is due to release on December 15th and his appearance on every Drake, Gucci Mane, Jay-Z, Kanye West song to crack the Billboard Charts. In a word, Lil Wayne is a genius.

But what is it about Lil Wayne that makes him different than everyone else? He raps about the same things as everyone else, uses the same beats as other rappers, yet everything he does has a shine and an edge that makes everything else sound flat. As I said before, it boils down to three simple things: his voice, his "flow", and his brain.

Wayne delivers his lyrics in a hoarse constipated snarl, an instantly recognizable mumble that he punctuates with a cackle or a sound effect that fits seamlessly. Other rappers have unique voices (see Eminem, Tupac) but unlike these artists, Wayne never raises his voice or has their anger bubbling under the surface. Some may think this is a bad thing, but when I discuss his flow, you'll see why it works so perfectly.

Wayne's flow is the verbal equivalent to running on a tightrope. Every syllable he utters fits perfectly into the beat, yet still sounds unexpected. Any rapper can follow a simple rhyme scheme, but Wayne routinely layers multiple rhymes within a single line, and consistently delivers these lines at a breakneck pace, making it virtually impossible for someone to both process his lyrics and appreciate how deftly he dances on the beat. While his delivery sounds casual and lazy, the speed with which he rhymes and changes his cadence is remarkable and would leave other rappers breathless (believe me, I've tried to recite his verses and can never find a space to breathe).

Finally, Wayne's lyrics are what put him in another league entirely. Several rappers can boast a good flow, or a unique voice, but no one is more innovative when it comes to lyrics and meshes the entire package like Wayne. Even more impressive is the fact that he NEVER writes anything down. Every single thing he raps is completely off the cuff. His metaphors, his analogies, his wordplay, his rhymescheme, completely impeccable. Take his first verse off Let The Beat Build as example #1:

Straight off the block with it
Eagle street to be specific
I'm peepin at your people different
I'm pay my dues you keep the difference
I can see the end and the beginnning
So I'm not racing
I'm just sprinting
Cause I don't wanna finish
They diminish
I replenish
Scientific
I'm out this world hoe
I wear bright red like a girl toe
No homo, fingernails dirty
I've been counting dirty money since 12:30
 A-M,
Wave them 
if they sure take them 
right back and spray him amen,
I just do my wayne 
and everytime I do it I do my thing
Believe that like a true story
Rims big make the car look like it's two stories,
If I hop out - that be suicide
No back seats call that paralize
I don't have a spine I don't fantasize
I mastermind then go after mine
You see I handle mine I dismantle mine
I told her tool box, bitch it's hammertime

Wayne has probably 15 more lines of this stuff before he even gets to anything that resembles a chorus. Every song he writes is absolutely bursting at the seams with incredible wordplay. I don't know how he does it (maybe its the syrup), but like the greatest in any discipline, he makes it look easy.
Take his guest verse on Drake's mixtape over Jay-Z's Ignant Shit beat as example #2:

And I take probation
I don't want that T.I. and Vick vacation
Private plane, big location
Im going to the bank to make a big donation
Yeah, I don't stunt, I stunt hard
And if the food ain't on the stove I hunt for it
But in the meantime you can call me young Roy
Jones Jr. fighting the drugs and gun charge
So don't leave me unguarded
And I'm a cheese head, word to Vince Lombardi
Word to Marky Mark, leave a snitch Departed
All that blood like the red sea parted
My gun go crazy like it's retarded
Red light on it like it's recording
I ain't recording, I'm jus C-4ing
My currency foreign
We are in a league they aren't
Better dig in your pocket and pay homage
Better cover your eyes, your face falling
Watch the game from the side, I'm play calling
No, I didn't say that I'm flawless
But I, damn sure don't tarnish
My pistol got comments for your garments
I'm so high I can vomit on a comet



When Lil Wayne uses a beat, he outdoes the original, when he has a guest verse, he overshadows everyone, and when he puts out an album, it's an instant classic.

Several rappers are on the top of their game right now, namely Kanye West, but until Kanye can consistently put out jaw-dropping verses at the rate Lil Wayne is doing it (as has been doing it for 2 years now), Wayne cannot be touched.

Where The Wild Things Are: Doomed by the Hype?

What do you get when you mix a beloved children's book, a cult film/music video director (Spike Jonze of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) and a soundtrack by Indie darling Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs? Surely a recipe for something special, but also for something else:

deafening, suffocating hype.

Where the Wild Things Are was announced almost 3 years ago and has been attached to several directors, several scripts. Scenes have been reshot, release dates have been pushed back, even actors have been recast. Spike Jonze has had to fight tooth and nail for every frame of this film, and in the process, the buzz surrounding this film has reached a dizzying crescendo. Since the first trailer brilliantly used The Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" to the film stills showing the Wild Things in all their glory, every leaked detail of this film has only magnified the anticipation. Much like Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, which traced a similar creative trajectory, the premature crowning of a film of this nature can unravel everything before it even hits theatres.

Tarantino had the luxury of not needing to feel shackled to any source material, and was free to pour any idea he had into the script, whereas Jonze has to answer to those who will inevitably compare his vision to Sendak's original book. Too creative, and he's blasphemed a classic, too faithful to the book and he alienates fans of his own artistic vision. Adapting a book is a daunting task, especially one with only 48 pages but hundred of millions of fans who know nearly every word by heart. I have no doubt Mr. Jonze has grappled with all of this and has spent these years attempting to strike the perfect balance for this film. I can only hope that people will allow it to stand on its own merits.

Songs/Albums of the Decade

I'm in the process of compiling a Top 100 list of my favorite Songs and Albums of the decade and am finding it to be MASSIVE undertaking. Not only because of the difficulty in leaving out albums and songs that I love, but also in terms of applying a dedicated ranking system to each and attempting to summarize my thoughts on them succinctly. Is a song I rank 37 THAT much better than a song I rank 89? I know in this day and age of short attention spans (I am a main offender in this regard), it is easier to boil things down to a simple ranking than to throw up a disorganized list of things I like, but sometimes things just aren't that simple. With that off my chest, I hope to begin counting down my favorite songs of the decade later this week in 10 installments, followed by my favorite albums in a similar format. I also have plans to do a list of films, but that will come a bit later, as I have some catching up to do (see Top 10 Movies I Need to Be Before I Can Be A Film Snob).

Stay Tuned

(Note: albums pictured above will not necessarily appear on my list, I just found the picture on Google Image Search)

Is the Twilight 2 Soundtrack the First Horseman of the Hipster Apocalypse?

Hipsters have found themselves between a rock and a hard place in the weeks since the tracklisting for the new Twilight soundtrack appeared on the internet. A collective gasp erupted from most of Brooklyn and Pitchfork's headquarters when it became apparent that nearly all of their favorite artists are simultaneously selling out and offering NEW MATERIAL to the soundtrack for a teenage vampire blockbuster. If you don't believe me, the tracklisting is as follows:

01 Death Cab for Cutie: "Meet Me on the Equinox"
02 Band of Skulls: "Friends"
03 Thom Yorke: "Hearing Damage"
04 Lykke Li: "Possibility"
05 The Killers: "A White Demon Love Song"
06 Anya Marina: "Satellite Heart"
07 Muse: "I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)"
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent: "Rosyln"
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: "Done All Wrong"
10 Hurricane Bells: "Monsters"
11 Sea Wolf: "The Violet Hour"
12 OK Go: "Shooting the Moon"
13 Grizzly Bear: "Slow Life" [ft. Beach House's Victoria Legrand]
14 Editors: "No Sound But the Wind"
15 Alexandre Desplat: "New Moon (The Meadow)"


Marked in bold are artists whose work I enjoy. Some of the artists on this soundtrack are perfectly understandable. OK Go, go ahead and cash in, The Killers, fine, your new album sucked anyway. I can even understand Muse being hard up for money, but Thom Yorke!?!? Bon Iver!?!? @#$%ing Grizzly Bear?!?! Is it feasible that every indie band on Earth made a career suicide pact coinciding with Twilight 2? Maybe they all lost a bet and if things had gone differently we'd be seeing The Arcade Fire and Morrissey on the soundtrack instead. Whatever the case may be, something is awry in Hipsterland. 

Now that the rant is out of my system, I'll come clean. However incredulous I may sound, anything that squeezes new material out of these artists can't be all bad, right? RIGHT??? It's just that if I hear Thom Yorke singing while brooding teenage vampires hide from the sun, I'm probably going to lose my sense of right and wrong in the world.




I'm going to go lay in the fetal position and listen to Kid A. 






In the interest of full disclosure, I have not seen, read, or otherwise consumed any portion of the phenomenon that is Twilight.