Ted Leo 6/23 at 9:30

dial up
2nd ave 11 am
me & mia
where have all the rude boys gone
the high party
loyal to my sorrowful country (I think, and I might have missed a song in the middle here)
counting down the hours
little dawn
heart problems
parallel or together
timorous me
hearts of oak
shake the sheets
-----
my vien ilin
6 months in a leaky boat
suspect device

70 mins. It was a great show, but not as long as I would have wanted. He spent a lot of time tuning and then asking the crowd whether he was in tune or not. Leading to some heckling which he said was original, but I forgot what it was. He was pretty funny though.

Openers Mary Timony and Radio 4 were blah. Mary Timony was boring, while Radio 4 lost cool points by being too Franz Ferdinand-ish and having Keyboard Guy doing the head shake while playing two keyboards in an L-shape. That made up for Congo-Cowbell Guy. Too bad for CCG.

The Girl in the Cafe & Monster

The Girl in the Cafe (with the little accent that I won't bother recreating) was a heartwarming romantic comedy about the starvation of thousands of innocent African children. Plus it had both Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald, who looks just as good naked as she did ten years ago. And written by Richard Curtis, who seems to think that one person can guilt the G8 into actually caring for the poor. I thought that other than that little bit of liberal fantasy, it was funny and honest. Not so sure about the cards at the end though. Then again, I am a liberal and I do want the G8 to do something for starvation, so I hope this does help guilt them a little. I love that HBO would make a film like this. And you can't hate a movie that knows how to use a great Sigur Rós song.

Monster was bleh. Woo! Charlize Theron made herself ugly! She's a great actress! Woo! Now, I'll take my head out of my ass, unlike those damn Oscar voters. She was ok, but it was not exactly a great performance. I would have given it to Naomi Watts (and her pointy nipples, which were commented upon loudly by the old guy sitting in front of me at the theater when I saw 21 Grams, a great movie). Hell, I would have given it to Keisha Castle-Hughes who was amazing in Whale Rider. Or maybe I would have frickin' nominated and given the Oscar to Scarlett Johansson. Monster is just another "misunderstood serial-killer" movie where a "pretty" actress made herself ugly (note no quotes, because she was really ugly in the movie). I do think it's weird that Bruce Dern was in the movie after seeing him much younger in Family Plot. Didn't recognize him.

Family Plot & I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

Apparently, the IMDB fixed the problem that caused me to have a couple of extra blank movies in my list. I think I still have one, but I'm too lazy to check on that. Anyway, the two movies since the last entry.

Family Plot was so light it could have fluffed itself. I did get the idea that Hitchcock wanted it to be a goof, but the lightweightedness didn't work well. Oh well. At least I've seen it so I don't have to think it could have some redeeming qualities. And the artificiality of the in-car sequences being obviously shot on blue screen really pulled me out of the movie.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead just goes to show that Clive Owen is so damn cool. Damn, he'd make a great Bond. Damn, why couldn't they have a non-gadget-based, hard-ass Bond with Clive? I guess that would be too good. A nasty, mean-spirited little movie. I love nasty, mean-spirited little movies.

The Happiness of the Katakuris & King of Comedy

I don't think I can imagine a crazier film than The Happiness of the Katakuris. Zombies, musical, badly choreographed dancing, a sumo wrestler killing the small girl he's having sex with by having a heart attack and smothering her, a con-man who says he's Queen Elizabeth's nephew and both a US Navy pilot and in the Royal Navy, crazy clamation to avoid some gore, the music video and extreme zooms when they see the first body, the great-grandfather who hits flying birds with logs... well, I think I could go on for a bit longer. Miike is a crazy person. I'd complain about the singing, except I can't tell whether it's bad singing or if it's a Japanese thing. I don't know how anyone could make a more insane film. I've seen worse films, I've seen films that make less sense, I've seen films that are just collections of vignettes with no relation to anything, but this one just doesn't even bother.

King of Comedy is a pretty darn good comedy from Stephen Chow. Better than his other pre-Shaolin Soccer movies. It's also touching. Plus, it has a great Killer spoof, and the Jackie Chan cameo is funny, and the Quentin homage character was a nice, understated touch. Plus, Cecilia Cheung is hot as hell. I thought it was a great movie until the ending scene which just was strange. Pringles? I like them a lot, but that just didn't really follow from anything else. And what the hell was with the naked small boy in so many scenes? I have to wonder what that kid is going to think about his role when he gets older. But how can you hate a movie that has a scene like the one between Cecilia and Stephen by the tree in the courtyard?

Ivanka????

I will write up the movies since the last entry tomorrow probably, but I just wanted to mention that I said tonight, "Imperial Teen in a freaking Audi commercial?" Yeah, Ivanka is in the new Audi 3 commercial. Weird as hell.

On Dangerous Ground, Lenny, & A Place in the Sun

On Dangerous Ground is just like every other movie where the hero falls for a blind girl. Well, except for The Killer, because there isn't an insane amount of violence or plans for surgery. Didn't entirely hold my interest, but it was different for a film noir to end up with lots of snow and bright scenes. Not enough movies now understand that you can have a dark movie without the movie being so dark you can't see anything. Too bad the movie just seemed to meander. Doesn't change my opinion of Nick Ray as someone with a couple good movies but nothing too special.

Lenny was interesting and funny. I think I'd seen at least part of it before. Didn't remember much except for impressions of Dustin Hoffman doing the routines. Didn't remember all the nudity, which could mean I saw a censored version on TV, but that really would be strange, considering it's all about being obscene, and would render the trial scenes almost incoherent. Didn't realize that it was a Bob Fosse film, but I saw his touch throughout.

A Place in the Sun was just depressing. I think I used to get it confused with some other movie. I didn't even know it was based on An American Tragedy until after I saw it. I unfortunately have too many movies where I don't know why I need to see them until after I've seen them. Well, besides the obvious one that I needed to see it because of Montgomery Clift. Who was good, as was Shelley Winters, but Elizabeth Taylor didn't do much besides be attractive. I kept getting the feeling that this could all be solved by a simple abortion or good use of birth control. Did sort of send the message that having pre-marital sex will lead to death. And whenever there was a plan to go get married, I just kept thinking that abortion was just hidden. The scene with the doctor had that come really close to being explicit, but I can't imagine what the various censorship boards would have done to the movie that mentioned abortion.

The Little Foxes, They Live by Night, In a Lonely Place, & The Ninth Gate

The Little Foxes was somewhat disappointing, but it's mainly because I keep forgetting just how much I don't care for Bette Davis. She's horrendous in Jezebel. She's slightly better in this. I mainly wanted to see it for Teresa Wright. Who is a favorite of mine. Not just for Shadow of a Doubt, but also for The Best Years of Our Lives. Anyway, she was good in it, as was Herbert Marshall, but I kept thinking that the plot was too Hollywoodized, too censored. There has to be more in it. Plus, it's a terribly racist movie. Too many Stepin Fetchits. Not as bad as Jezebel, but not far off. Ugh.

They Live by Night was good, but not great, with a strong lead performance from Farley Granger, something I didn't really expect. Knowing when it was made, I knew exactly what was going to happen, but it still kept some suspense. Cathy O'Donnell was ok, but most of the rest of the cast was just eh.

In a Lonely Place was another movie that should have been made about twenty years later so that there wouldn't have been the silly other guy in it. I wanted more angst. Still, for the time, very dark. This is the fourth Nicholas Ray film I've seen, and while he has talent, he's far from the great director that James Harvey portrays him as in Movie Love in the Fifties. Oh well.

The Ninth Gate was one of the few Polanski's I hadn't seen. Pretty good. Sort of reminds me of The DaVinci Code with good dialogue and talent, plus a reasonably realistic plot. Plus, this has both Lena Olin and Johnny Depp. Two of the most attractive and talented actors currently around. Damn shame Lena doesn't do more Alias. She needs much more work. And Johnny Depp is great. You'd think that people would not have forgotten just how talented this guy was before Pirates of the Caribbean. He can make anything better. Emmanuelle Seigner still can't act. Too bad she's being boned by Roman. She was ok in Frantic. Terrible in both Bitter Moon and this.

I wish this week would end

Well, after two straight 14+ hour days, and another one looming, all I can add is this:
My contributions to the quote board at work:

Yes, I want to marry Jeb Bush and have all of his babies.
-after saying something not terrible about Jeb Bush and getting called on it

So then you could say "All praise be to the Ayatollah" and then, you know, become Iranian, or something.
-after another coworker questioned how she could not be a citizen.

Shoot the Piano Player, Head of State, & 50 First Dates

Shoot the Piano Player.
Well, I gotta love any movie that messes with the conventions of the famous L-shaped sheet. As for why I watched two Truffaut films in a row, well, I didn't realize that Fahrenheit 451 was going to be on TCM. I preferred this to that, but it isn't as good as The 400 Blows or Jules & Jim. Still a good movie, but Godard's Breathless and Band of Outsiders dealt with the petty criminals in Paris better.

Head of State.
The only thing that made me laugh were the fake campaign commercials, which were funny in their ridiculousness. Because the rest of the movie had me literally saying "Who the hell thought this was funny?" alternating with "Who thought this would make a movie?" Ugh. Terrible movie.

50 First Dates.
I seriously want to beat the crap out of whomever keeps giving Rob Schneider a job. Take him and Sean Astin's steroid user out of the movie and you have a sweet, funny movie. Put them in and you have a sweet, funny movie that has two completely annoying and non-redeeming characters in it. Plus, the soundtrack was interesting. Occasionally, Adam Sandler is capable of making a good movie. Too bad he frequently forgets that and makes utter crap.

Yes, I love having HBO, TCM, and Showtime. Why do you ask?

Fahrenheit 451

Movie 2635.

I can't really remember the details of the book well enough to say how closely the movie follows it, but it seemed fairly close. I'd make a terrible book person. The firepole probably wasn't quite the same. That was silly. I also pictured something even more nondescript as his house. Pretty much plain white walls.

The movie was clearly a mistake. It never really became anything other than an excuse for namedropping and very stilted acting (admittedly, some of it was because of Truffaut's dialogue, and we can't really blame him as he learned that he should stick to writing in French). Both of which are a point of the book as well, but that doesn't really mean that a movie should be made of it.

Speaking of which, there's a remake of it. Sometimes just looking for a movie on the IMDB is enough to make you depressed. How, exactly, do you improve on a novel with one idea? As important as most sci-fi can be, and as interesting, it's a rare story that has more than one "ooh, that's an interesting idea" story thread in it. This was stretched out.

Gay Pride!

So I had talked with my brother about how today is this big gay pride parade here in DC, and I figured I'd go out and watch it. Especially since it was going to be going on around 20 feet from my apartment. But I had to wait for the cable guy to come and rewire some things so that I could watch TV and be on the internet whenever I want. Meaning... pretty much every time I'm in my apartment.

Anyway, the guy came over an hour later than the four hour time window. Which is the second time this has happened in the two times that I've had Comcast come by to work here. At least I get the $20 off my next bill. So I won't be gouged quite as much.

But I did get to catch most of the parade. Which was wild. You never realize just how conservative of a city Cincinnati is until you go to a gay pride parade in a different city. I certainly hadn't seen so many transvestites (or transexuals... I'm not really sure which they were...) before in my life. And I'd only seen big rigs full of hot latino men in speedos and hotpants on tv before. That was an interesting experience. Also, I'd just like, for once, to have women check me out like the gay men here do. Damnit.

Anyway, I now know what Hollaback Girl sounds like, as I heard the most stereotypically fey voice scream out "Oh my god, that's Hollaback Girl!" I certainly wouldn't have recognized that. I did pick out the Gloria Estefan and The Weather Girls. And feel silly for knowing the name of the one-hit wonder.

The best part of the parade was the people watching. Gay people just make much more interesting people.

Why blog?

So why did I start blogging again? Didn't I learn from the last time that I wouldn't actually be able to write about anything once I couldn't discuss what I did all day? Well, working on [redacted] all day does limit my ability to write about what I do.

Well, I had a brief conversation, wherein someone asked me if I had a blog. I think they don't exist anymore. Well, I know one doesn't, the other seems to have gone, but I don't need to figure out where it went. I do have the entire archives of both of them on my computer. And if I had written something important, I could have had a good novel. Well, a long novel. Certainly it isn't that good. There are some great stories in it, some of which I might end up editing and posting here. Depending on how much I feel like making myself look like an idiot. Most of my stories do that.

Anyway, since I had stopped in August, it's been around 10 months since I last had a blog. Before that, it had been over three years of blogging. And I didn't even bother to put up a message saying that I was gonna stop. I just stopped completely. Leaves me a lot more time to write sentences that don't have important parts like nouns.

iTunes meme

How many total songs?
10478--25 days, 19 hours, and a little more. I wish that iTunes allowed for a total time format of days, hours, minutes, seconds. Maybe that's asking for too much. Or maybe I'm just a big dork.

Sort by Song Title - first and last?
'Round Springfield - Simpsons, Songs in the Key of Springfield
Zürich Is Stained - Pavement, Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Deluxe

Sort by Time - first and last?
Bonus Track - Ani DiFranco, Not a Pretty Girl
Symphony 3 - Beethoven, BBC Philharmonic

Sort by Album - first and last?
! - Dismemberment Plan
Zen Arcade - Hüsker Dü

Top Five Played Songs:
The District Sleeps Alone - Postal Service
I Turn My Camera On - Spoon
(I Want You) More Than Ever - Clientele
Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone? - Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
Art Class (Song for Yayoi Kusama) - Superchunk

Ten Last Played
Ex-Spectator - Fugazi, The Argument
So Convinced - Superchunk, Random Live Tracks
Beyond Belief - Elvis Costello, Imperial Bedroom
Judy Is a Punk - Ramones, All the Stuff (& More) Vol. 1
The Golden Age - Beck, Sea Change
Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed, Different Times - Lou Reed in the '70s
Sweet Little Sixteen - Beatles, Live at the BBC
Maggie's Farm - Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home
Head Held High - Velvet Underground, Loaded
Wave of Mutilation - Pixies, Live 2004-04-13

Find "sex," how many songs show up? 55, due to Sex Pistols & Confusion Is Sex (by title is 26, with four versions of You Sexy Thing (all by Yo La Tengo) winning)
Find "death," how many songs show up? 69 (heh), due to Death to the Pixies (by title is 30, with Death & Destruction by Weezer winning with 3 version)
Find "love," how many songs show up? 484 (by title is 312, with Love Will Tear Us Apart beating (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding? 7-5)