musings

July’s 90 Tracks:

• My Life in Rooms by Barzin
  Featuring Tony Dekker from Great Lakes Swimmers, this is a moody, ethereal masterpiece. If Mazzy Star had had a male singer, they’d have recorded this album.

• Krush by DJ Krush
  What you typically get from Japan’s DJ Krush is funky, loungy, (mostly) instrumental hip-hop. A few of the tracks on this album (his second, but the first release to ship in North America) have guest vocals, but it’s largely what you’d expect from DJ Krush. Krush is solid, but the high points (for me anyway) are the short tracks that splice the longer stuff together – think of them as martini lounge versions of Chemlab’s sutures.

• The Flowers of Hell by The Flowers of Hell
  I saw The Flowers of Hell when they opened for My Bloody Valentine in Toronto. I’d missed their introduction, so what I saw was a huge band, doing orchestral arrangements in the vein of Spiritualized. I had to troll for concert reviews to find out who they were. Glad I found ‘em, ‘cuz the album’s amazing.

• Wavering Radiant by Isis
  I first heard Isis and Pelican at the same time, so I always associate the two. Fairly or not, I think of Isis as Pelican with vocals – equally heavy, equally capable of (as AllMusic’s William Ruhlmann puts it) dark majesty, but with vocals. Another solid effort.

• The Warmth Inside You by Mark Van Hoen
  Mark Van Hoen is probably best known for his ambient project Locust (not to be confused with speed metal band The Locust). This solo album from 2004 shares a lot in common with Locust, but isn’t quite as danceable, nor quite as space-filled, but it is more experimental and daring. I’m digging it. The sweet vocal samples do wonders for me.

• Autoimmune by Meat Beat Manifesto
  Maybe the best thing Jack Dangers has done in a decade. Drawing inspiration from experimental, techno, dub, hip-hop, even industrial, this is one towering monster of an album. Highly recommended.

• Double-Crosser by Seabound
  Dancey, catchy synthpop. If you like VNV Nation, early Apoptygma Berzerk, or Wolfsheim, this’ll be right up your alley.

• Spiders, Aether & Rain (The finest works of…) by Trance to the Sun
  Trance to the Sun were one of my favourite darkwave bands of the 90s. I saw them play with Toronto’s long-defunct Thrive and Lycia more years ago than I care to recall. This compilation distills what made them awesome, and why I still miss them.

• The Natural Order of Things by Trespassers William
  I don’t even listen to Trespassers William albums before downloading them anymore. Gorgeous melodies topped with Anna-Lynne Williams’ exquisite voice are a guaranteed sell for me. Having remains my favourite album from Trespassers William, but this all-too-short EP runs a close second.

I went out on Boxing Day to take advantage of the excess inventory fire-sale prices and realized that I no longer knew all of the movies I owned, so I wound up not buying stuff in case I already had it and realized I’d acquired enough media that it was impossible to keep it all in my head. So I bought Delicious Library 2, because it will scan UPC symbols using the built-in webcam on my MacBook and download all the important info about what I’ve just scanned – covers, metadata, even current value. I’ve been slowly but surely cataloguing my media, starting with movies and games. I’ve managed to get all of my PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and PS3 games catalogued, as well as all my Blu-Ray discs and most of my DVDs. A really neat feature of DL2 is the ability to publish the collection to the web – you can see my in-progress catalogue at the library link in the sidebar. If you’ve got a Mac, I highly recommend Delicious Library 2 – it’s fast and easy and has a million useful features.

I still have to add my PS1, Saturn, Dreamcast, GBA, PSP and NDS games, and the rest of my DVDs. And then the monumental task of my CDs and books. Even with DL2, it’s a daunting task.

Let The Right One In is a masterpiece of film. A tale of loneliness and alienation told through the vehicle of the vampire movie. It’s smart, sweet, and yes, it’s actually heartwarming. Bet you never thought anyone would say THAT about a horror movie. Given that it’s now November, I’m going to call it the best movie of the year. Watch it now, while you can, before it gets lost under the weight of its forthcoming American remake.

Short film starring A Life Aquatic’s Seu George in which a film buff claims to have broken Quentin Tarantino’s code. Brilliant.

Absolutely everyone should watch The Shock Doctrine, a short film by author Naomi Klein and Children of Men director Alfonso Cuarón. The film is an accompaniment to Ms Klein’s new book of the same title and it’s a deeply moving work. I’ve just watched it twice and it’s horrifying and edifying and has left me thoroughly shaken. With little exception, we live our lives so blissfully unaware of the horrors our governments perpetrate on the world and the range of their effect. I’m thankful for work like this which peels the filters off our eyes and shows us what truly shapes our world. Take the time, watch the movie – it’s just six minutes, but maybe you’ll learn something that’ll change your world.

I’d been looking forward to seeing Children of Men since James first pointed me at the trailer. I finally managed to get out to a theatre to see it, and I was thoroughly impressed. I’m having trouble articulating why it was so brilliant – all I can really say is that I was engrossed from the beginning to the end. I didn’t even feel the time go by. This is the kind of movie that will haunt you. I don’t think I can say anything more eloquent about the film than Keith Phipps, in his Onion A.V. Club review when he describes the film as “... a heartbreaking, bullet-strewn valentine to what keeps us human”. Highly recommended.

I saw The Departed, Martin Scorsese’s remake of Infernal Affairs, tonight and it’s a great film – definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen this year. A great plot, filled with twists and turns (but, as Cy put it, they spoon-feed you the twists and turns so you’re never lost; mind you, I could have done with less spoon-feeding at times it felt like I was watching a thriller for the ADD set), and strong perfomances by all. Jack Nicholson is as strong as I’ve ever seen him, and DiCaprio and Damon give excellent performances as well. Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg, though they play side characters, steal every scene they’re in – between the two of them they’ve got the funniest lines in the movie.

I’ve not seen Infernal Affairs, despite many recommendations, but I’ve been told that it’s superior to the remake, so my interest is definitely piqued.

... more like J-Crunk. Tigarah kicks all kinds of ass. If there’s any justice in the world, this girl is going to be huge.

To quote an old friend, “Weak sauce.” Ratner’s a hack. The writing and dialogue suck. The Last Stand? I certainly hope so.

I rented The Constant Gardener today, and it’s excellent. Clocking in at 2 hours, it’s a long and somewhat slowly paced film, but it’s never boring. The film juggles romance, suspense and sociopolitical commentary deftly, and is particularly successful at the latter. In a nutshell, the movie exposes the corruption in western government and big pharm, and how the two collaborate to exploit the third world. I found the film desperately sad, but I think it’s worth seeing. Ralph Fiennes won the BAFTA for Best Actor, and Rachel Weisz won both the BAFTA for Best Actress and the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. I hold little stock in the Oscars, but both of them deserved the awards. Strong, moving performances by both main characters, a horrifying and sad story, and absolutely beautiful cinematography (shot in Nairobi, Kenya) make this one of my favourite movies of the year.