I should tell you, I should tell you

Ok. I am a huge nerd. Seriously. I know this comes as no great shock to any of you who know me, but I actually cannot believe that I am about to type the following entry. Especially since I just finished lamenting to Shaya that my online presence (a/k/a my frienster testimonials) is humiliating to me as almost everyone refers to me as a big old musical theater dork (a definition I'd prefer to rethink and one that hasn't actually been accurate for more than 5 years). But, that said, I happened to be trolling around on the iTunes music store and noticed that the official film soundtrack to Rent was released today. Now I don't really have 17 bucks to spend on a CD that (before my CD robbery of 2000) I basically already owned, played the shit out of, and memorized, but I did give the samples a listen.

The first thing I noticed was that Rosario Dawson sounds GOOD. And the second thing I noticed was that the "new" song, clearly added here for Academy Award consideration (since only ORIGINAL songs are eligible), is fucking terrible and doesn't sound like it belongs. But the third and most important thing I realized is that I still really fucking love those songs and I can't wait for the movie's November release and even though I don't have the 17 bucks, nor do I want to spend it, I really want that CD. Yeah, I'm a huge nerd.

Staying home can't be that bad for me

Yeah so CMJ passed and I saw not one frickin' show. Instead I worked til after midnight every night for like a two week stretch. (I shouldn't complain, at least I'll be able to pay October's rent!) But without all of the show reviews that I intended to run in this space (Excepter, Fruit Bats, Devendra Banhart etc....) I don't have much to write about. But I'm feeling particularly motivated to write--especially now that even ADAMis back to regularly updating. (Welcome back, dude, I've missed you!)

So I can tell you about the best recent gift that I recieved (unsolicited, no less!), which was a Bob Geldoff record from Carrie that I promptly hung up next to my bed so his scruffy, beardy, well-intentioned face is the first thing I see when I get up every morning. And I can tell you about the most surprisingly great new CD I recieved, which would be the new Silver Jews album (Tanglewood Numbers) that actually rocks. (I mean, I like Silver Jews but this album really uses Malkmus' guitar skills and uptempp song writing to excellent effect. Almost none of the songs are sllllooooooow and quiet, like usual.) Plus, as always, David Berman's fantastical lyrical skills make for some excellent song titles (Example: "How Can I Love You If You Won't Lie Down" and "Getting Back Into Getting Back Into You.") . I'm not sure of the album's release date, but be sure to look for it in October. I can also tell you how much I'm loving this pre-fall weather. The air isn't fetid or humid and I can actually wear sleeves. This whole change happened in like one day about three days ago, but the pessimist in me is frightened that before it becomes actual, lovely fall, we're gonna get another round of shitty 90 degree days that put me in a pissy mood. I can also tell you how happy I am now that the second season of Arrested Development has started. I am seriously sad that the Bluth family aren't real people. Now I totally get why crazy soap opera fans can't distinguish between the actors and the characters--because I totally hope to meet and befriend George Michael in real life and I feel like Tobias Funke (how do you make an umlaut in Blogger?) could get over his never-nude status if he could just meet me. (Seriously, does anyone else find it disturbing that he is like my ideal man? Cuz I thought I was over needing to date men that were ambigiously gay?) The second season's DVD comes out in two weeks. So, you know, anyone who wants to get mentioned on here as buying me the best present ever (supplanting even the Geldof record), you know what to buy!

The other thing I've been musing on recently is overloving/overplaying songs. I read this one day when I was bored and trapped at work until the wee hours of the morning and it really got me to think about what makes a song a keeper and what it takes for a song to withstand being listened to over and over again on repeat for a month (because that is how I digest new songs/albums/bands: with obsessive overplay). And it's true, there are some songs I'm so tired of. They come up on my iPod and I reflexively skip past them. And sometimes I'll find myself trying to mete out listens of newly found, much loved songs. Like, if I play it too much, I'm going to get bored and it isn't going to have the same effect anymore. (I've been trying to only play the new Blood on the Wall album sporadically, so as not to wear it out, but I still want to listen to it all the time!) The author of that McSweeneys piece is right: Allison does stand up to repeated listens. I'm always excited by it and it always has an effect on me. In fact, I'm still discovering things about it that move me or engage me. I think Elvis Costello (at least through "Spike") has always been particularly good at that. But I feel like I'm burnt out (finally) on the songs from Rilo Kiley's "More Adventurous." Fear not, that just means that it is now their "Take Offs and Landings" that is in heavy rotation (especially the track "Picture of Success"). But I am kinda sad that "Does He Love You" or "Portions for Foxes" doesn't have the same immediate power to move me to tears that they once did. Also, I think my overexposure to M.I.A. with that recent Honda commercial has now rendered her album grating to me. My iPod has been having a secret love affair with "Purple Rain" and insists on playing it every time I turn it on in shuffle. But now everytime it plays, I get filled with dread that this time I'm not going to be thrilled to hear it or this time it won't give me butterflies in my stomach. Which is weird becuase the song is like 20 years old and I've been listening to it for about that long, but I really don't want it to lose its power. Got any suggestions, short of not allowing yourself to listen to your favorite songs repeatedly, for how to keep the magic alive?

If they follow you, don't look back like Dylan in the movies

So....Toronto was great--hectic, but great. I got to see my godfather and my aunt and my grandparents (who, surprisingly, were pleasant and didn't ask why I'm not yet married) and every movie I saw was better than the one before it. I crammed in two movies a day (starting at nine a.m.!! Dude, I was getting up earlier to wait in line for movies than I do to go to work!) as well seeing all of our friends and family and Jon (who happened to be up north on a shoot--and THANK GOD for him, I hadn't seen someone under 50 in like 4 days!). So a brief movie recap:

1)First I saw "Sarah Silverman: Jesus in Magic," which was fucking hilarious. She was there and seemed genuinely touched that her raunchy, funny little movie sold out some huge theater at nine am. (because, she said, "comedy works so well in the morning!") The only thing funnier than this actual movie was when my mother drunkenly repeated one of the jokes ("I was licking jelly off my boyfriend's penis the other day and I thought--omigod, I'm becoming my mother!") to my grandma at dinner and I was so shocked that tea came out of my nose.

2) Then I went to the world premier of "Thank You for Smoking," which is a satire of the lobbying and tobacco industries. It was quite funny and a well done first feature from Ivan Reitman's (of "Ghostbusters" fame) son. The whole cast was there (Aaron Echhart, William H. Macy, etc) including Adam Brody, who basically just has a cameo in the film. But my favorite part of seeing this movie was that after I saw Seth Cohen walk the red carpet and enthusiastically pointed him out to my dad, Irv came back from the washroom and goes, "Is that guy you like the dark haired kid in a red striped sweater?" I told him he was. "He peed next to me at the urinal. I was standing there and he walked up to me and peed next to me." I told Irv that though it isn't proper mensroom ettiquette that he shoulda peeked. That was definitely the funniest celeb sighting we had all week.

3) The next morning I saw "Mrs. Henderson Presents." It is one of those charming British movies that stars Judi Dench and is set during WWII and is full of hillarious Brit wit. It's about a rich widow who decides to buy a theater for a vaudeville show, which starts displaying naked girls in tableau in the shows.

4)Then "Capote" was in the afternoon. If Phillip Seymour Hoffman doesn't win an Oscar for this film, there is no justice at the Academy. This might be the best movie I saw. The filmmakes did a smart thing for a biopic: they picked one small six year segment of Truman's life (instead of trying to tell his whole story). It was the story of "In Cold Blood" and it made me think about the responsibilities and priviliges and difficulties of journalism. This one was also a world premier so I got to see PSH up close and personal, as well as Catherine Keener, who gave real grounding to her portrayl of Harper Lee.

5) The next morning I was up at the crack of dawn to see "Shopgirl," based on the Steve Martin novella, which might just be my favorite movie from the festival. Having just finished the novella, I can honestly say that, for the first time ever, I prefered the movie to the book. The casting was spot on (Jason Schwartzman as Jeremy was a stroke of casting genuis). All of the grownups that I saw this with weren't as enthusiastic as I was (which I chalk up to their either being bitterly divorced or married since they were zygotes), but that is because they can't recognize what a feat of moviemaking it is to see REAL relationships portrayed onscreen. I mean this wasn't about cutesy rom-com couplings. I actually recognized moments from my life in Claire Danes' two flawed relationships. After it ended my dad looked at me incredulously and goes, "Are you crying?" Yes, tears were streaming down my cheeks, but how could they not? It is sad when you can look at relationships from the outside and see how people are hurting each other or unable to give of themselves to each other. It is real. So real in fact, that the director told us during the Q&A, that Steve Martin would get teary as he watched him set up shots because the movie and book are so autobiographical.

6) That night's film was "Stoned," the story of Brian Jones from the Rolling Stones by first time director Stephen Wooley (who is Neil Jordan's producing partner). I quite liked this film, especially the retro-filming tecniques that really made it seem like 1967. The Q&A with the director filled me with rage as people asked retarded questions and spoke just to hear themselves speak. And then one person made a comment comparing Brian Jones to Kurt Cobain and I thought I was going to vomit. Especially because the audience of mostly middle aged people were all shocked to note that Kurt and Brian and Morrisson and Janis and Jimi all died at 27 and this started another rediculous conversation about how weird that was. "Dude!" I wanted to yell, "have none of you ever been in a cheezy head shop and seen those TOO YOUNG TO DIE t-shirts and posters!?" Ugh, the film geek crowd is even worse than the music geek crowd. (PS: not that I got to spend any time with "my people" at CMJ this year because, once I got back from Toronto, I worked until after midnight every night during the festival. BOO!! There were some shows I really wanted to see--like Excepter and Blood on the Wall.)

7) The last movie I saw was the new adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice," which was everything you would think: Romantic, pretty to look at, funny, girly.... And Keira Knightly made quite a good Lizzy. There wasn't anything surprising about the picture, but it was great nonetheless.There is just something about Jane Austin for me (I've been going through a phase). Her female protaganists are always independent or cynical or feel like they will never get married and they always find their perfect mate. It's hopeful in a way that modern lovestories rarely are.

I think that's it. I'm not sure I feel kinda brainwashed by the week I spent away in conjunction with the horror week of work that I returned to. The best part of last week was that JEN WAS IN TOWN!!! And, though I'm loathe to admit that we will never be able to lure her back to New York now that she has a great job and an amazing house and a pop star as a roommate, it was at least nice to see her and visit the old haunts (Motor City, MisShapes). Shaya has the drunken pictures on her blog to prove it.

On a totally separate note....I'd like to make a plea for the Four Tet remix of Sia's "Breathe Me" (a/k/a the song that made me convulse with tears during the Six Feet Under finale). It removes the cheezy Lilith Fair vibe of the song and adds a funky, almost-Latin bassline. It's truly great!

A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

Everytime there is some catastrophic event in the news, I find it very hard to blog. I don't have anything original or helpful to say and I feel powerless. Whatever I could say about the poor people of the Gulf Coast and the embarassing government response and the inherent racism involved and the Bush administration's policies that led directly to this terrible tragedy isn't going to help anyone and I'm not the most qualified person to do so. All I can say is that I've spent the past week either being overwhelmed with sadness and anger or feeling guilty that I'm going on about my regular life and not feeling anger and sadness every minute of every day for the people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

So it feels a little hollow and ridiculous to blog about the usual bullshit that I write about, but since I have no commentary to add to the din here in the blogosphere, I will do just that. Though, if you are interested in reading more about the hurricane and how the damage is a direct result of the policies of the Bush White House, check out this article. It made me so mad when I read it at the office on Thursday, that I could barely work!

So.....I don't quite know the proper segue, but here is the other stuff that's been on my mind this week:

1) I am so excited for the season premier of Arrested Development on the 19th! I've been rationing out the episodes on my season one DVD, which I just finished watching this afternoon (because I have an article to write, so I clearly needed to procrastinate!). The best part of the DVD is listening to the audio commentary by the cast. They all seem to really like each other and they had all of these inside jokes and favorite parts and it really made me miss being in a cast. I mean, my "acting muscles" have all attrophied and the thought of auditioning in front of people now terrifies me (when it used to excite me), but I do miss the comeraderie of it. It's certainly NOT like a newsroom. But I must say, I don't think that I would feel this jealous if it weren't the cast of AD--I mean who wouldn't want to have inside jokes with Jessica Walter or David Cross. It was exceptionally cute when Portia outted the girl who plays her daughter by admitting that in the pilot when she kisses "George Michael" that was her first kiss ever!

2) The Kanye crush grows every day. He is on the cover of Blender, looking dapper in a full white suit. FOXY! You know how much I love Kanye? So much that I even really like the track "Heard 'Em Say" even though it features my nemesis, Adam Levine from Maroon 5.

3) I realized that I love copy editors. I was always kind of freaked out by them because they are so detail-oriented and obsessed with punctuation and they can be short or mean because they are so focused. But at work the nicest people (the ones who've made an attempt to be friendly) are the copy editors. And I kind of admire their strict precision. (As anyone who reads this blog can attest, I am lazy and careless with my grammar!) Plus this week, which was kinda a doozy at work, I got the nicest compliment ever from the copy department. One girl told me that I reminded her of "that girl from Sleater-Kinney" and then the whole department was like, "Oh yeah, you totally look like her." Now, there was some confusion as to WHICH girl from Sleater-Kinnney I look like (Carrie or Corin--though Shaya says it must be Corin and weirdly the only resemblance I see is that I have Janet's haircute!) it doesn't really matter because either way it's a huge compliment. No one has ever told me I look like a celebrity. Whenever we play that, "which famous person do you most resemble game," I always have to say, "No one."

4) Last night I was at Palais Royale and I learned how to play darts. Carrie was surprised that after a year of living in England and spending all my time getting wasted in pubs with cute guys with accents that I never learned. Let's just say I don't have the best hand-eye coordination. But, surprisingly, I wasn't that bad. I mean, Carrie won, but it wasn't an embarassing defeat and almost all of my darts landed on the board. The key is that I have no aim, so whatever I'm aiming for I won't hit. That way, I just aim for something NEXT to what I want to hit and my dart'll go there every time. I can't wait to play again! I hope this will redeem my poor pub game skills (I suck at pool, I don't like video games--the only machine I'm good at working in a bar, is the jukebox!).

5) I learned this week that, though it is time consuming, it is totally worth it to upload all of your box set CDS (for example the "Peel Slowly and See" set by the Velvet Underground) to your computer and onto your iPod. You'll be happy when you're on the subway and you don't want to hear, say, "Galang" for the 500th time, that you can listen to alternate live takes of "All Tomorrow's Parties."

Well, as of Thursday I'm off to the Toronto film fest, so this will probably be the last post for like the next 10 days or so. Try not to have to much fun without me.