07.28.07
Once
Go see this movie! It is a beautiful portrait of two musicians, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, playing "guy" and "girl", meeting and making music together. The film is simply shot on a relatively small budget ($150,000) and feels honest and true as a result. The music is absolutely haunting. Check out their Myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/theswellseason) to hear what I mean. Amazing.
Takka Takka
My good friend Rene recently joined this excellent band and played their first show together last week at The Mercury Lounge. I was there with my trusty Zoom H4 to record the music. I am a bootlegger... Illegal, maybe, but ultimately it can do nothing but help the band in my opinion. I grew up devouring Phish bootlegs and gave that band thousands (yes!) of my dollars. Obviously this recording can not recreate the experience of seeing the show live and while they can't possibly sell any more tickets to this show, there will be plenty more to sell in the future. If you listen and enjoy this music, I hope you will want to see a show for yourself. This show features two new guitarists and an extra percussionist sitting in from The National (see June blog). I hope you enjoy it.
07.19.07
Frost/Nixon
In this Broadway drama, politics and entertainment are appropriately mixed in the story of a British talk show host's interviews with a recently resigned President Nixon, forcing him to come clean and apologize for his actions in the Watergate scandal. It is a thrilling account of the confrontation and plays out more like a sport than a drama, with David Frost scoring a victory for the American people in the final round of their epic tete a tete. The acting is superb and the story is compelling; the stakes were high for both participants and only one of these ambitious souls would go on to thrive in the limelight, while the other was destined to languish for eternity in "the wilderness".
07.17.07
Summer!
Two great consecutive weekends for me: The Land and The Cape. The Land was a gathering of friends in Warwick, NY for the weekend to play in the woods and party down. Alaina and I also celebrated our second anniversary on the spot we were wed. Cape Cod, specifically Osterville, is a Taylor family enclave and provided a wonderful opportunity to see some members from all branches of our tree. Family and Friends: Sharing Our Love.
Harry Potter Dies!
Alaina, the Potter scholar, and I went to see "The Order of The Phoenix" last night and loved it. Definitely the best of the first five movies, it sets the scene well for Saturday's arrival of the final book. (total pre-sale book orders: 12 million). Has the franchise really come to an end, or will the world's appetite for more Potter (total books in print: 325 million) be satisfied by J.K. Rowling? I look forward to reading the "Deathly Hallows" conclusion soon... But if you can't wait, it has already been leaked on-line.
Brief Interviews With Hideous Mormons
I recently finished "Brief Interviews With Hideous Men" by David Foster Wallace, and I'm not sure I've ever seen the English language used as extensively as in this book, a collection of short stories, often written as one-sided conversations with men of questionable morals, but while the charactors are unsavory, the writing is regal; a three-page, one-sentence footnote typifies the author's appetite for dense descriptions. John Krasinski (see June Blog) has recently completed directing this movie and I anxiously await the results, supposedly out sometime in the Fall.
I am in the middle of Jon Krakauer's "Under the Banner of Heaven" and find it's Mormon subject matter fascinating. The book depicts the rise of the world's fastest growing religion and its brief and violent past. From Joseph Smith's discovery and translation of The Golden Bible through the introduction of polygamy and up to the abduction and forced marriage of 14 year-old Elizabeth Smart, Krakauer traces this religion's roots and questions man's spiritual nature. It centers on the murder of a woman and her infant daughter in 1984 by unrepentant brothers convinced they were doing God's work. Creepy and shocking, it is a worthy successor to Krakauer's first two books,"Into The Wild" and "Into Thin Air".
07.04.07
Independence Day
Happy Birthday USA and Dad. What better way to celebrate than stuffing your face with 66 Hotdogs in 12 minutes? The Coney Island Nathan's Hotdog Eating Championship was held today and America has a new champion and world record holder: Joey Chestnut defeated six-time defending champ Takeru Kobayashi and brought the title home where it belongs. (Japan has hotdogs?) The contest itself is, in my opinion, more brutal than any other sport; watching people shove hotdogs down their throat is a sickening display of our physical limitations, and yet it became impossible to turn away as the final seconds ticked off the clock in a dead heat between the two that may have been declared a tie had Kobayashi not suffered a "reversal". He barfed. On himself and probably the first few rows of fans. Totally gross.
Have a happy holiday and don't blow your hand off.