Time’s Up

Les autres soirées de poche.

Elizabeth Gaskell

“I imagine that a few of the gentlefolks of Cranford were poor, and had some difficulty in making both ends meet; but they were like the Spartans, and concealed their smart under a smiling face. We none of us spoke of money, because that subject savoured of commerce and trade, and though some might be poor, we were all aristocratic. The Cranfordians had that kindly espirit de corps which made them overlook all deficiencies in success when some among them tried to conceal their poverty. When Mrs Forrester, for instance, gave a party in her baby-house of a dwelling, and the little maiden disturbed the ladies on the sofa by a request that she might get the tea-tray out from underneath, everyone took this novel proceeding as the most natural thing in the world, and talked on about household forms and ceremonies as if we all believed that our hostess had a regular servants’ hall, second table, with housekeeper and steward, instead of the one little charity-school maiden, whose short ruddy arms could never have been strong enough to carry the tray upstairs, if she had not been assisted in private by her mistress, who now sat in state, pretending not to know what cakes were sent up, though she knew, and we knew, and she knew that we knew, and we knew that she knew that we knew, she had been busy all the morning making tea-bread and sponge-cakes.”

These gentlemen are the cream of youtube. Enjoy this choice sample, and when you are done with it, kindly make your way to their channel page (bottom) and view the rest of their work.

Balloon Shop Youtube Channel

]]> http://rarefaunasounds.wordpress.com/2009/09/11/balloon-shop/feed/ 0 rarefaunasounds Balloon Shop http://rarefaunasounds.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/appearances/ http://rarefaunasounds.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/appearances/#comments Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:52:08 +0000 rarefaunasounds http://rarefaunasounds.wordpress.com/?p=73 ]]> I do well in school

so I can appear smart

I appear smart

so I go to college

I go to college

so I can appear qualified

I appear qualified

I feel worthless

They're gonna give you something you can't take off.

I’m not one to hide the fact that I think Tarantino’s films are highly overrated. But if you go into one expecting what you’re going to get; expecting the kind of stuff that draws the masses to his films, you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The advertising campaign for Basterds wasn’t afraid to tell it like it is: a completely historically inaccurate, gruesomely and gratuitously violent gore-fest, and proud of it. Which it should be! However if you are expecting the kind of artistic violence depicted in the Kill Bill films, and have a weak stomach, don’t go. Here they were going for pure realism and shock factor. It was actually very funny as well. Pitt’s delivery and lines as Aldo the Apache are unforgettably awesome, although it doesn’t do any justice to quote them in plain text. Christoph Waltz was a delightfully hateable and unrelenting villain as Col. Hans Landa, and his best actor win at Cannes was well-deserved indeed.

Tarantino has once again chosen to tell a story in chapter format, which seemed to have a few drawbacks: while it was interesting to have different characters introduced in their own parallel exploits, it took from the movie as a whole. Instead of a coherent, seamlessly integrated narrative, what we have is a chopped up pile of individually cool stories. The only thing I think this format was good for was the suspense caused by the independent plots that Shosanna and the OSS had for the movie premiere. I would have wanted to see more of the Basterds just doing their thing.

Inglorious Basterds IMDB

this kind of friendship never really pans out

Generally the more realistic a film is, the more I enjoy it. One thing I love about a good alien movie is that you can’t sit there and criticize how fake something is, because you have to submit to the fact that you have absolutely no ability to even fathom the kinds of things an advanced extraterrestrial life form would be able to do. The only unrealistic thing about it is that if aliens landed in South Africa, the U.S. would be all over it like shit on rice.

So yeah, see it.

District 9 IMDB

I sincerely apologize for this.

So Bored (Wavves)

Me – vocals, guitar, drums (beating on my laptop with my hands)

Alright first I just have to say, that if you are a movie person, go see them the proper way. Cinemark sucks. It was necessity that brought me to Arclight Cinemas at 6360 Sunset Blvd. this Saturday; Paper Heart is for now a limited release in LA and New York. Although I live in Los Angeles most of the year, it was my first moviegoing experience there, and it was life-changing. Well, it was pretty awesome: when you purchase the tickets, you are prompted to choose your seats on a touch screen. Believe me when I say that those 12 dollar tickets were worth it, too. Before the film, an usher greets the audience with important information such as runtime, emergency exits, etc., and assures you that he and his team of ushers will be monitoring the picture and sound quality to be sure that it meets the theater’s high standards. And oh, did it ever meet those standards. If there had been explosions in Paper Heart, I probably would have had an accident.

But it didn’t have explosions (ok yeah there was one explosion, but you get what I meant), instead it was just a really fun, quirky (remember?) movie that really feels, well, real. Unlike other fake docs, or “mockumentaries,” Paper Heart takes a different approach and completely challenges your judgment of what is real and what is acting. I honestly can’t decide whether I think some of the funniest scenes were completely ad-libbed, or scripted down to the syllable. I’m glad that I didn’t really go in search of any press regarding the movie before I saw it, because I felt the film’s full effect. Sorry about all those effs. If anything gives it away, it’s the fact that Jake Johnson plays the director, Nicholas Jasenovec, which is the name of the actual director. An example of how far it goes to convince you: there is one scene where Michael and Charlyne go out and buy weird accordion/keyboard instruments, and you see them messing around with them together on a bed, and the next music you hear is an original recording by Michael Cera and Charlyne Yi using weird accordion/keyboard instruments. And don’t even let me get started talking about how cool and symbolic the title is.

Paper Heart on IMDB

Boys Don’t Cry (The Cure)

Jason- drums

Jake- guitar, vocals

Andy- bass

Extinction (The Soft Pack)

Jason- drums

Jake- rhythm guitar

Andy- bass, lead guitar, vocals

Grinding Halt (The Cure)

Jason- drums

Jake- guitar, vocals

Andy- bass

12_51 (The Strokes)

Jason- drums, handclaps

Jake- guitar, vocals, handclaps

Andy- guitar, bass, handclaps

F Yeah Fest: Sept. 5th 2009 at the Los Angeles Historic State Park.

Aside from the blatant redundancy of its new name, FYF Fest, this year’s lineup looks pretty good. Black Lips, Tim & Eric, No Age, Mika Miko, Wavves and The Strange Boys are some names that caught my interest. The 20 dollar ticket price is pretty cool too. I look forward to attending.

F Yeah, website!

Denzel stole the show. Those glasses are badass too.

Saw it today at the crappy movies for one dollar. Worth it. There was a lot of action and violence- gun shooting and (unnecessary) car crashes. Also very suspenseful and even emotional at times, thanks to Denzel’s character. Travolta was a better bad guy fit than I expected, and did some great cussing in the film. But the music did suck.

The Taking of Pelham 123 on IMDB

This album definitely sounds more full, like a “band”. I loved the more stripped-down sound of the previous two albums as well as the chaotic distorted freak-outs (which need to be heard and seen live to be fully appreciated), but Time To Die finds a more produced, less noisy but also less bare aesthetic. Things that make The Dodos The Dodos are absolutely still here; the sparse yet satisfying horn arrangements, echo-laden shouts prominent in Beware of the Maniacs (see the “Go!” in “Longform”). One major difference is that Logan’s percussion stands out much less, which I think takes too much attention away from his rhythmic complexities.

Some of my favorite moments of the album include the chorus of “Fables,” the chime hits starting at the 51 second mark of “This is a Business”, the following lyric from “A Time to Die”: “I hear a voice- am I following in your footsteps? I clear the noise with the following of your footsteps” and the subsequent delivery of “Oh I recall all the promises that you emptied” which more than deserves its four repetitions.

Give this one a few listens before you take your stance on it. While quite different, it’s still the Dodos we love.

Listen to the whole album here.

Soon I will have an embedded media player so I don’t have to link to other sites, but it turns out setting up plugins in WordPress using Filezilla is the most difficult and frustrating thing ever.

Edit: Apparently I will never be able to have embedded audio because WordPress doesn’t let you import plugins at all. Maybe I will try youtube videos whenever available.

Right exactly now I’m thinking I might also write about movies from time to time, for example:

See Funny People. Apatow proves that he can make a serious film, which in no way means it wasn’t still the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

Tomorrow I’ll continue figuring this site out and also share a few thoughts on The Dodos’ new release, Time To Die, which is all I have been listening to in preparation for their upcoming free show at the Getty museum in Los Angeles.